22nd Jun 2013

IPT IO N SC R SU B

SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

SHAABAN 13, 1434 AH

No: 15847

5Lebanese8Shiites48 fear Guard kills Jewish man in Jerusalem over ‘Allahu Akbar’

150 Fils

Zain Kuwait celebrates 30 wonderful years

Heat beat Spurs to win second title in a row

expulsion from Gulf Qatar deports 18 over Hezbollah row

DUBAI: Lebanese Shiites working in the Gulf fear indiscriminate deportations by authorities in the Sunni-ruled monarchies infuriated by Hezbollah’s military support for the Syrian regime against rebels. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) recently warned that it will take measures against members of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah in the region. It said it could hit their “residency permits, and financial and commercial transactions”. Following the warning, 18 Lebanese were expelled from Qatar, a Lebanese government source told AFP on Thursday.

Despite assurances that the measures will target Hezbollah only, many Shiites who have lived and worked in the Gulf for many years fear the punishment might hit across the board, based on their religious affiliation, even if they disagreed with Hezbollah. Other non-Shiite groups, even Christians, who could be associated with the group also fear they could be targeted. An estimated 360,000 Lebanese work in the Gulf, according to Lebanese daily An-Nahar, transferring some $4 billion annually back to the country, which has a population of just 4.1 million.

Besides the 18 deported from Qatar, Lebanese media reports have talked of “dozens” of the country’s citizens forced to leave the gas-rich Gulf state. And the Lebanese community in Saudi Arabia said at least 10 people, not all Shiite, have been targeted. Lebanon’s embassies in the Gulf have begun to investigate reports of deportations, media reports on Thursday said. Ali, a Lebanese Shiite living in Qatar, describes himself as secular, but is worried that the measures will target people with no links to Hezbollah. “As a Shiite, I came here because of the bad situation in my country. I ran away because Hezbollah is holding a grip on my community,” he said. He added that Gulf states might be justified in being wary of some people, but hoped that this fear would not affect others. “Not all Shiites are Hezbollah supporters,” Ali said.

A staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, Hezbollah has backed him since protests erupted in March 2011. But it openly declared its involvement in the war against the mainly Sunni rebels last month, and spearheaded a 17-day assault to recapture the insurgent stronghold of Qusair near the border with Lebanon. The GCC, which backs the rebels, warned it might add Hezbollah to its list of terrorist groups, and, in an unprecedented statement said it will target its members living in the region.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said last week that his movement did not have members in the area. “There are no Hezbollah members in the Gulf,” he said, insisting that his Iran-bankrolled party is “willing to bear the consequences of the decision” to intervene in Syria. “Does that mean that he will pay me the equivalent of the income I earn here if I get deported?” asked one UAE-based Shiite expat who rejects Hezbollah involvement in Syria.

The criteria used by the Gulf states to identify someone as a member of Hezbollah have caused concern among Shiites living in the region. Such fears hit hardest when people apply to renew their residency permits. “The residency permits of dozens of Lebanese were not renewed” even before the GCC’s latest move, a Lebanese official in Beirut said on condition of anonymity. “We shall not spare any effort to convince the GCC to reverse its decision,” the official said. — AFP

Max 45º Min 30º

CAIRO: Egyptian Islamist groups led by the ruling Muslim Brotherhood take part in a demonstration yesterday to mark the upcoming one year anniversary since President Mohamed Morsi (portrait) was elected. — AFP

Huge crowd rallies for Morsi CAIRO: Tens of thousands of Islamist supporters of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi gathered in Cairo after Friday prayers to show support for the elected head of state before protests that his opponents hope can force him from office. Crowds converged on a mosque in the suburb of Nasr City, many waving the national flag, some carrying pictures of the bearded president, in what is intended to demonstrate the Islamists’ strength of numbers ahead of the opposition rallies set for June 30, the first anniversary of Morsi’s inauguration. “Yes to respecting the will of the people!” read some banners. “There are people seeking a coup against the lawful order,” said demonstrator Gaber Nader, 22, his head protected from the burning sun by a green banner from Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, the movement whose organisational strength has won it successive elections since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak in 2011. “Dr Morsi won in free and fair elections like in any state in the world,” Nader said, shrugging off concerns among the less well organised opposition that the Brotherhood is aiming for a monopoly of power and to install Islamic rule and social order. “Secular parties are eating the democracy God gave them.”

Morsi’s opponents say they have gathered about 15 million signatures - more than the 13 million votes that elected Morsi a year ago - on a petition calling on him to step down; they say new elections could end the paralysing polarisation of society, though no obvious leader has emerged to build consensus. Morsi’s opponents have attracted support from many Egyptians who are less politically engaged but exasperated by economic stagnation under the Islamists.

Supporters of the Brotherhood feel their electoral success is under siege from unelected institutions and vested interests rooted in the Mubarak era, when their party was banned. Reflecting this,

some in yesterday’s crowd - mostly men, with a few heavily veiled women - chanted for “A purge of the judiciary!” and “A purge of the media!” There was no trouble evident in Cairo, where people packed streets for hundreds of metres around the rallying point at the mosque; there were scuffles in Alexandria when Morsi supporters and opponents faced off briefly in Egypt’s second city.

In Cairo, Brotherhood members armed with green staves said they were ready to protect demonstrators from “thugs”. “The other side will take this as an excuse for anarchy,” said one man on guard, 26-year-old preacher Amr Hamam, pointing to dozens of injuries in scuffles across Egypt in the past week.

Yesterday’s rally was held close to the spot where Islamists gunned down Mubarak’s predecessor Anwar Sadat in 1981. The Brotherhood had by that time renounced violence but suffered in a crackdown after Sadat died, as did hardliners from al-Gamaa alIslamiya, which was involved in the assassination. Unable, or unwilling, to draw more liberal figures into his administration, and losing the full support of the conservative Salafi Islamist Nour party, Morsi has turned to more radical groups for backing - notably to Gamaa al-Islamiya, one of whose members he made governor of the tourist town of Luxor this week. Yesterday, dozens of Gamaa al-Islamiya supporters joined the rally for Morsi. Waving their party banner, men chanted their demand for the imposition of Islamic law and rejection of “liberal violence”: “The people want God’s law,” they repeated. One woman, in black veil and green Islamic headband, said she feared the removal of Morsi would return Egypt to the army rule under which her son was tortured: “They destroyed his mind,” Zeinab Abdullah, 54, said. Such fears among Islamists have led some to warn of civil war if the generals who oversaw the transition from Mubarak to elections move against Morsi. — Reuters

LOCAL SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

KUWAIT: Officials at the Mahboula market during the raid.

45 arrested in Mahboula market raid

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: Ahmadi governorate security officials carried out an inspection campaign in a crowded marketplace in Al-Mahboula area where vegetables, textiles, perfumes, electrical goods, fish, military uniforms and

subsidized food items were sold. The campaign was carried out at the direct instructions of Acting Security Director Ahmadi governorate Brig Maatooq Al-Aslawi and under the supervision of the Operations Director Lt Colonel Faleh Al-Hatteeli AlDawsari and Patrols Department head

Major Salman Al-Mutairi.

Fifteen policemen in sports attire entered the market first to ensure that the vendors were in the market. They signaled their colleagues waiting outside to enter the market. Then, ten policemen entered the market and arrested 45 people includ-

Hunt for citizen who tried to shoot sister Asian found hanging in Fahaheel flat KUWAIT: Police are looking to arrest a man who faces attempted murder charges pressed by a family member recently. Police had rushed to a house in Abdullah AlMubarak Thursday where a Kuwaiti woman reported that her brother pointed a gun at her during a family dispute. Police found the woman hiding inside one of the rooms in the house while it appeared that her brother had escaped before they arrived. The woman accompanied officers to the area’s police station and filed a case.

Suspicious deals An immigration department employee was summoned for questioning regarding a case involving a man who denies knowing anything about people who came to Kuwait on his sponsorship as shown in his file.

The Kuwaiti man had reportedly headed to an immigration department to carry out a transaction, before being notified that several family visa transactions were finalized in recent months on his file.

After the case was reported, immigration detectives summoned an employee whose name was registered in the database as the one who finalized the transactions that the Kuwaiti man claims knowing nothing about. The employee denied knowledge of the details of the suspicious transactions, saying

that he cannot remember the details of hundreds of transactions he finalizes every day.

Investigations are ongoing.

body was taken to the forensic department after criminal investigators examined the scene. A case was field for investigations.

Forgery A serviceman and a Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor employee were sent to the Public Prosecution for questioning on forgery charges pressed against them following cooperative society election Wednesday night. Police had responded to an emergency call reporting a fight at an election committee office at the Farwaniya Co-op Society board elections.

They found out that the fight was between representatives of two candidates and an MSAL employee who was there to supervise the elections. The representatives told police that the MSAL employee allowed a Ministry of Defense serviceman to vote using the civil ID of another person. Servicemen and police officers are not allowed to vote under Kuwait’s elections laws.

A case was filed for investigations.

Officer held for mugging A police officer was arrested after he was busted trying to mug a cleaning worker at the Miseelah Road. Mubarak Al-Kabeer patrol officers were on a mission Thursday morning when they spotted a person physically assaulting a cleaning worker. They went in pursuit of the suspect after he attempted to escape. He was eventually forced to stop after which police identified him as a police officer. The man was referred to the proper authorities for further action. (Watan)

Suicide A man was found dead inside a building under construction Thursday in an apparent suicide case. Police and paramedics rushed to the scene in Fahaheel after the incident was reported, and found the Asian man hanging dead in the apartment building’s staircase. The

Kidnappers nabbed Abu Halifah detectives managed to arrest two male suspects accused of mugging a person they kidnapped in the area. The Filipino national had told police earlier that the suspects kidnapped him from a street in the area and later released him after physically assaulting him and stealing his money. One of the suspects was located at an apartment in the area and gave the address of his accomplice following his arrest. The suspect admitted his crime after his victim identified him in an identification parade. The two were taken to the proper authorities for further action.

ing 35 vendors who were engaged in trading without proper licenses or identification papers.

They were sent to authorities concerned for further action. The municipality confiscated the clothing and vegetables that were on sale.

Gen Ali devises plan to curb driving licenses KUWAIT: Assistant Undersecretary for Traffic Affairs Lt General Abdul Fattah Al-Ali is considering a way to put a limit to playing around the ministerial decision that allows certain sectors to obtain driving licenses.

Sources said that out of the choices on the table which could be applied after the approval of First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Ahmad Al-Hmoud is to limit signing authority for learning licenses to the Assistant Undersecretary and not to traffic directors in all governorates or service centers.

The sources said that this choice came after checking on some files for whom learning permits were issued and violations to the ministerial decree were discovered that limited the regulation for giving driving license to those with KD 400 salary, a university degree and two years residency in Kuwait.

The sources said that all applications will be submitted to Al-Ali’s office and will be checked and only those applications which meet the conditions will be given for signature and applications which do not meet the conditions will be rejected and no expat who does not meet the conditions need to apply. The sources said that after the approval of the Deputy Prime Minister on this suggestion, signature on learning permits will be limited to the Assistant Undersecretary Abdul Fattah Al-Ali.

Two officers held for raping Filipina

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: Two special task force officers were arrested with one accomplice yesterday on charges of raping a woman after breaking into her apartment on Thursday. The Filipina woman told Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh police station officers following the incident that four persons including two dressed in police uniform stormed their way into her apartment in the area while she was alone. She added that three of them raped her while the fourth secured the place, after which they all escaped. According to sources familiar with the investigations, police arrested two Kuwaiti officers and one Egyptian accomplice who admitted that they assaulted the victim.

Meanwhile, the police identified the fourth suspect, an Egyptian man, and are still trying to locate him.

LOCAL SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

Mid-Ramadan poll may help avoid legal issues Good turnout seen as boycott call fizzles away KUWAIT: The government chose to hold the upcoming elections during the middle of Ramadan as an insurance policy to avoid legal troubles in case voting took place past the sixty-day period after the parliament’s dissolution, a local daily reported yesterday.

After the Constitutional Court dissolved the parliament following the crucial ruling last Sunday, speculations went rampant on the date to hold the next elections only a couple of weeks before the start of the holy month.

If elections were to be held after the post-Ramadan Eid Al-Fitr holiday, Kuwait would have risked having very poor turnout as many Kuwaitis would gear up to spend the summer vacation abroad after the holy month. Holding the elections during Ramadan guarantees that most Kuwaitis would be here to cast their vote as most of them traditionally prefer to spend the holy month in their home country. Moreover, the constitution states that elections must be held within a sixty days after the parliament is dissolved. Holding elections on July 25 helps the country avoid turmoil in case the constitutionality of elections held in September or October as previously suggested were to be challenged.

“Following Sunday’s verdict, the government had in mind that an emergency decree to postpone the elections date has become under high risk of being found unconstitutional if challenged”, said cabinet sources who spoke to Al-Qabas on the condition of anonymity. According to the same report, the decree to call citizens to head to the ballots is expected to be made tomorrow (Sunday) or maximum

by Tuesday. Opposition politicians

already announced their plans to boycott the elections for the second straight time after doing the same last December. That month saw the first elections held as per the single-vote system decreed by HH the Amir six weeks beforehand, a system that was upheld by the Constitutional Court last Sunday.

The opposition argues that any amendment to the electoral law made outside the parliament ‘takes away the people’s authority’ in determining the course of electing their parliamentary representatives.

While the government says that the new system is in line with voting systems used in democracies around the world, the opposition argue that it hurts candidates’ chances to form alliances which prospered during the work of the four-votes-per-voter system. The Constitutional Court said in its ruling Sunday that the single-vote system “allows the minority to be represented in the parliament”, “frees voters from candidates’ pressure”, while it confirms that the decree was necessary to “serve the national interest” by addressing a subject “that pertains with risking the unity and social fabric of the nation”.

Despite opposition calls, the National Democratic Alliance which is the main umbrella for liberal groups in Kuwait announced honoring the court’s ruling, paving the way for the National Action Bloc members to run again for parliament. The return of liberals, coupled with the highly expected return of tribal candidates who also boycotted the past elections, is expected to help achieve positive turnout in the upcoming elections even with top oppositionists reiterating their boycott plans.

Meanwhile, a member of the opposi-

tion in the parliament elected February 2012 and dissolved four months later announced contesting in the upcoming elections. Riyadh Al-Adasani, who had boycotted last December’s polls, said that his decision comes to “honor the court’s ruling and the state of law” and added that the best option remaining to amend the electoral system “is from the parliament”. Also on Thursday, member of the opposition which controlled majority seats in the February 2012 parliament Badr Al-Dahoum reiterated his position to boycott the upcoming elections, even without waiting the position of his Awazem tribe whose chiefs are set to announce their plans following a meeting this week.

Former MP Yousuf Al-Zalzalah said in the meantime that the upcoming elections are likely to feature “unprecedented participation” after the National Democratic Alliances and several Salafist politicians announced participation. He added that the turnouts are not likely to be affected by the decision of the Islamic Constitutional Movement and the liberal Kuwait Democratic Forum to boycott the elections. In other news, AlQabas daily reported that chairman of the Fatwa and Legislation Department Faisal Al-Sarwaai is expected to resign “after being given the choice between that or being dismissed”. Sources familiar with the subject indicated that the government approached Al-Saraawi with these choices after going under pressure to hold accountable senior advisors for errors based on which the Constitutional Court dissolved the parliament. Al-Saraawi reportedly refused to be a ‘scapegoat’ in this case, yet faces no other choice but to resign in order to avoid dismissal. —Al-Qabas & Al-Rai

Italian PM to visit Kuwait

Xi Yuhua with Abdul Wahab Al-Sager. —KUNA

Kuwaiti diplomats praised for promoting enterprise TOKYO: A Chinese official has praised efforts of the Kuwaiti diplomatic mission here for promoting Kuwait’s investment potentials and policies for boosting enterprise.

Deputy Director General of the Department of Foreign Affairs in Donnguan City, Xi Yuhua, welcomed the holding of promotional activities by the Kuwaiti Consulate General, such as organization of conventions to publicize investment opportunities in Kuwait and the Gulf country latest investment policies. Xi, who was speaking at a banquet held on June 18, addressed the Kuwaiti Consul General, Abdul Wahab Al-Sager, promising to give all possible aid to the Kuwaiti mission in this respect. —KUNA

ROME: Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta on Thursday affirmed his plan to visit Kuwait and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members this fall following a tour of the Palestinian territories in early July. The planned trip, his first in the Arab region since he took office early last month, will show that Italy attaches great importance to the relations with the Arab countries and the latest developments in the region.

The relations with the Arab countries, notably in the economic field are traditionally a top priority for the Italian policy and his government in particular, Letta said. He made the comments durEnrico Letta ing a meeting with the ‘Associazione Stampa Estera in Italia’ (Foreign Press Association (FPA) here.

The selection of Emma Bonino, a veteran politician and former MEP who is familiar with the Arabic Language and culture, as a foreign minister signals the desire of the incumbent government to further strengthen the Italian-Arab ties, he pointed out. On his meeting with the FPA, Letta said it aims to set forth the guidelines of the Italian foreign policy and the stance on the southern shore of the Mediterranean. —KUNA

Kuwait: US report on human trafficking ‘exaggerated’ KUWAIT: Kuwait gives high priority to human rights affairs in accordance with its religious beliefs which are based on tolerance and human rights, as well as its constantly evolving human rights laws that prohibit human trafficking. This was stated by a senior Foreign Ministry official in response to a recent United States Department of State Report which lists the Gulf state among countries that make no significant effort to meet minimum standards of compliance set by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, a 2000 law that allows for the prevention and prosecution of human trafficking.

“Reports suggesting that inhuman practices are present in Kuwait often contain a lot of exaggeration”, said Director of the Follow-up and Coordination Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Khalid Al-Maghames. He further told Al-Anba daily on Thursday that the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor is working on abolishing the sponsorship system for labor forces, and that in response to criticisms mentioned in the US report about the system subjecting employees to forced labor.

A report last week suggested that the Public Labor Authority, a state body that replaces the sponsorship system in handling all matters pertaining with private sector employees including recruitment of expatriate labor forces and managing their relationship with their employers, is set to be established in the very near future. The news, which provided no exact date for setting up the authority, came shortly after the parliament passed a bill to establish it, and that three years after the enforcement of the private sector’s labor law in 2010. (See Page 4)

LOCAL SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

Kuwait, a destination for forced labor: US report State placed in Tier 3 for seventh year in a row KUWAIT: The 2013 US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report released Wednesday lists Kuwait in Tier 3 with countries like China, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Saudi Arabia. The details: Kuwait is a destination country for men and women who are subjected to forced labor and, to a lesser degree, forced prostitution.

Men and women migrate from India, Egypt, Bangladesh, Syria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Nepal, Iran, Jordan, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Iraq to work in Kuwait, mainly in the domestic service, construction, and sanitation sectors. Although most of these migrants enter Kuwait voluntarily, upon arrival their sponsors and labor agents subject some migrants to conditions of forced labor, including nonpayment of wages, long working hours without rest, deprivation of food, threats, physical or sexual abuse, and restrictions on movement, such as confinement to the workplace and the withholding of passports. While Kuwait requires a standard contract for domestic workers delineating some basic rights, many workers report work conditions that are substantially different from those described in the contract; some workers never see the contract at all. According to the Kuwaiti government, between September 2011 to April 2012 the Filipino and Ethiopian domestic worker population increased dramatically, accounting for 86 percent of the total increase in Kuwait’s domestic worker population over the same period. Many of the migrant workers arriving for work in Kuwait have paid exorbitant fees to recruiters in their home countries or are coerced into paying labor broker fees in Kuwait that, by Kuwaiti law, should be paid by the employer-a practice that makes workers highly vulnerable to forced labor, including debt bondage, once in Kuwait. The media reported that Kuwaiti employers brought unskilled workers into Kuwait on “commercial” visas without providing them with work permits; this left workers unprotected under labor regulations and vulnerable to abuse, including conditions of forced labor. Kuwait’s sponsorship law restricts workers’ movements and penalizes them for “running away” from abusive workplaces; as a result, domestic workers are particularly vulnerable to forced labor inside private homes. In addition, media sources report that runaway domestic workers fall prey to forced prostitution by agents or criminals who exploit their illegal status.

The Government of Kuwait does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making sufficient efforts to do so. Although the government enacted an anti-trafficking law in March 2013, the government did not demonstrate significant efforts to prosecute and convict trafficking offenders using previously existing laws. There was no lead national antitrafficking coordinating body, and the government did not systematically monitor its antitrafficking efforts. The government’s victim protection measures remained weak, particularly due to the lack of proactive victim identification and referral procedures and contin-

ued reliance on the sponsorship system, which inherently punishes, rather than protects, trafficking victims for immigration violations. The government continued to operate a temporary shelter for runaway female domestic workers, though it offered no shelter for male victims of trafficking. The government also did not fulfill other commitments made since 2007, such as enacting a law to provide domestic workers with the same rights as other workers and opening a large-capacity permanent shelter for victims of trafficking. The government similarly continued to make insufficient efforts to prevent trafficking during the reporting period. For these reasons, Kuwait is placed on Tier 3 for a seventh consecutive year.

Recommendations for Kuwait Implement the 2013 anti-trafficking law by investigating and prosecuting trafficking offenses, and convicting and punishing offenders-particularly sponsors-who subject domestic workers to involuntary servitude; enact and enforce the draft domestic workers bill to provide domestic workers with the same rights as other workers; establish procedures to proactively identify all victims of human trafficking, especially among the female domestic worker population; open the large-scale shelter for all trafficking victims and provide relevant training to shelter staff; amend the sponsorship law to protect foreign workers, including domestic workers, from abuse; enforce existing laws against sponsors and employers who illegally hold migrant workers’ passports; provide additional antitrafficking training to law enforcement and judicial officials; and significantly increase efforts to prevent trafficking.

Prosecution The government made limited anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts during the reporting period. It enacted comprehensive antitrafficking legislation in March 2013. The government failed to prosecute and convict trafficking offenders using previously existing laws. Kuwait prohibits all forms of trafficking through its new anti-trafficking law. The new law prescribes penalties ranging from 15 years’ to life imprisonment; these penalties are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with penalties prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape. Before February 2013, the government could have prosecuted and punished many trafficking offenses under the Kuwaiti criminal code, but there was little evidence it did so. For example, the criminal code prohibits some forms of transnational slavery in Article 185, which prescribes a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment. In addition, Law 16/1960 criminalizes forced labor or exploitation, while maltreatment that leads to death is considered first-degree murder.

Article 201, which prohibits forced prostitution, prescribes a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment if the victim is an adult and seven years’ if the victim is under the age of 18. These prescribed penalties also are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with

those prescribed for other serious offenses.

During the reporting period, the government did not report any arrests, prosecutions, convictions, or sentences of traffickers for either forced labor or sex trafficking. Although the withholding of workers’ passports is prohibited under Kuwaiti law, this practice remains common among sponsors and employers of foreign workers, and the government demonstrated no genuine efforts to enforce this prohibition. Almost none of the domestic workers who took refuge in their home-country embassy shelters had passports in their possession. The government remained reluctant to prosecute Kuwaiti citizens for trafficking offenses. When Kuwaiti nationals were investigated for trafficking offenses, they tended to receive less scrutiny than foreigners.

Kuwaiti law enforcement generally treated cases of forced labor as administrative labor infractions, for which punishment was limited to assessing fines, shutting down employment firms, issuing orders for employers to return withheld passports, or requiring employers to pay back-wages. The government did not conduct anti-trafficking trainings for government officials during the reporting period.

Protection During the year, the government made inadequate efforts to protect victims of trafficking. Victims of trafficking were frequently arrested, detained, and deported. Despite several years of this Report’s recommending the government develop and implement formal procedures for the proactive identification of trafficking victims among vulnerable populations, such as foreign domestic workers and women in prostitution, it did not do so; nor did it develop and implement a referral mechanism to provide adequate protection services to victims. The 2013 anti-trafficking legislation did not provide protection from prosecution for victims who fled abusive employers.

Furthermore, Kuwait’s migrant sponsorship law effectively dissuades foreign workers from reporting abuses committed by their employers to government authorities. Workers who left their employer’s residences without permission faced criminal and financial penalties of up to six months’ imprisonment, the equivalent of over approximately $2,000 in fines, and deportation, even if they were fleeing from an abusive sponsor. The threat of these consequences discouraged workers from appealing to police or other government authorities for protection and from obtaining adequate legal redress for their exploitation.

Nonetheless, some foreign victims of trafficking received monetary settlements from their employers; however, the government did not bring trafficking-related charges against such employers. Moreover, victims were not offered legal aid by the government.

Anecdotally, NGO sources reported that in this reporting period, police conducted raids on 2,000 migrant workers and detained them in a deportation center where some languished for as long as six months. There was no indication that police implemented measures to identify trafficking victims among this popula-

tion or provide protective services to migrants who may have experienced conditions of human trafficking. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor (MOSAL) continued to operate a short-term shelter for runaway domestic workers with a maximum capacity of 40; however, the shelter detained victims involuntarily until their legal or immigration cases were resolved. The government continued to fail to report the number of trafficking victims assisted at this shelter during the reporting period.

It is unclear whether victims of forced prostitution could access this temporary shelter, and there continued to be no shelter or other protective services afforded for male victims of trafficking. In 2007, the government announced it would open a high-capacity shelter for runaway domestic workers; this shelter was still not operational at the end of the reporting period. Many domestic workers continued to seek assistance at their embassies in Kuwait; some source-country embassies reported that 450-600 domestic workers ran away from their employers each month. The government provided some source countries with funds to pay for the repatriation of some runaway domestic workers sheltered at their embassies in Kuwait. The government did not provide funding to domestic NGOs or international organizations that provide direct services to trafficking victims. The government did not encourage victims of trafficking to assist in the investigation and prosecution of trafficking cases, and it did not offer foreign trafficking victims legal alternatives to their removal to countries in which they may face hardship or retribution.

Prevention The government made no discernible progress in preventing trafficking in persons during the reporting period. The government does not have a national coordinating body responsible for anti-trafficking efforts and the government did not conduct anti-trafficking public awareness campaigns. Source-country embassies reported the Kuwaiti government failed to investigate, penalize, or blacklist a company for its reported labor violations, including withholding workers’ passports and unsanitary working conditions. The National Assembly voted on the first of two required readings in favor of legislation to create a General Authority for Manpower, as required by the 2010 Private Sector Labor Law. The draft legislation, which was not enacted at the end of the reporting period, would mark a significant step forward in replacing the current sponsorship system. In January 2013, the media reported that police investigated alleged complicity of government officials within MOSAL for illegally selling visas under the sponsorship system; the investigation was ongoing at the end of the reporting period.

As in previous years, the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs made a nationwide effort to reduce overseas child sex tourism by requiring some Sunni mosques to deliver Friday sermons on the danger of sex abroad and Islam’s strict teachings against improper sexual relations.

LOCAL SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

Zain Kuwait celebrates 30 wonderful years Telecom leader offers free calls, looks back at its achievements KUWAIT: Zain Kuwait, the leading telecommunications company in the country, celebrates its 30th anniversary today as the first mobile telecommunications company in the Middle East and Africa. Proudly placing Kuwait on the world telecom map through its historic achievements over the years, Zain has never overlooked its social and national obligations playing a key role in driving a knowledge-based society and in the enhancement of the Kuwaiti identity.

To celebrate this special day, and as a token of genuine respect and gratitude to its customers for their loyalty during the past 30 years, Zain is offering free calls within the Zain family the biggest family in Kuwait - all day today (Saturday 22).

Since its establishment on 22 June 1983 by Amiri Decree, Zain formed a Kuwaiti shareholding company with KD 25 million capitalization.

Ever since, Zain’s main objective has been to provide the highest quality telecom services to its customers, which in the beginning comprised mainly of pager devices, wireless communications and faxes as well as supporting the community through various socially responsible and sustainable programs.

In 1986, Zain officially launched its commercial services, heralding the establishment of what would become a regional and cross-continental telecom giant, playing a key role in stimulating the Kuwaiti economy and placing the country on the world telecom map.

Later in 1986, Zain successfully introduced Extended Total Access Communications System (ETACS) technology in Kuwait, the first deployment of such a technology in the Middle East.

Like other Kuwaiti institutions, Zain faced a crisis during the invasion in 1990, and following the period of liberation, the company quickly resumed its deployment of telecommunications services, culminating in the launch of GSM services in 1994.

The telecom industry was revolutionized by the introduction of GSM which had a positive and profound impact on Zain. In 1999 another player entered the telecom sector, driving Zain to further its Zain’s performance and customer offerings.

In 2001, a privatized Zain embarked on a program of international expansion, and in 2002

Logo of the 30th anniversary

MTC’s old logo

Zain Chairman Asaad Al-Banwan ●

●

●

●

Free calls for all Zain customers calling another Zain number in Kuwait on Saturday (June 22) Placing Kuwait on the world telecom map, the company never overlooked its social and national obligations and looks to the future with renewed optimism and enthusiasm Zain’s commitment to its customer base to always be the most innovative and the best quality operator has never wavered Zain remains a key pillar in driving a knowledge-based society and in playing an important role in the enhancement of the Kuwaiti identity

introduced its famous “3x3x3” expansion strategy, which would catapult it from a local operator with a customer base of 600 hundred thousand to a multi-national company that, at one point, served over 72 million across 23 country markets spread across the Middle East and Africa.

In 2002, Zain entered a partnership agreement with Vodafone, and within two years, had entered and commenced mobile operations in Jordan, Bahrain, Iraq, and Lebanon.

In 2005 the company entered the African continent through the acquisition of Celtel’s 13 mobile operations in Sub-Saharan Africa for $3.4 billion, covering 30 percent of the geographic area of Africa. It soon spread its footprint to a total of 16 countries in Africa as the company expanded to Nigeria (Africa’s largest market), Madagascar and Ghana. In February 2006 the company acquired the remaining 61 percent stake in Sudan and in 2007, Zain was successful in winning the third mobile license in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the region’s largest economy.

In 2007, Zain (previously then known as MTC) decided to undertake a complete rebranding exercise, to go hand in hand with its expansion policy and to unify the operations it had acquired, which would see all its subsidiary

operating companies adopt the single Zain brand.

Zain quickly established itself as one of the

MTC’s old building

most significant and highly reputable brands in the telecom industry, and according to a report published in 2012 by Brand Finance Global 500, an annual ranking of the most valuable brands in the world, Zain’s brand was worth approximately $1.34 billion in 2012. In May 2013, Zain was voted the top Arab brand across all industries through an online survey conducted by the Munich based Arab Society for Intellectual Property.

By 2010, Zain’s Board of Directors had taken the strategic decision to focus on its highly cash generative Middle East and North Africa operations, investing in new growth opportunities in these markets. This decision led to the sale of 100 percent of Zain Africa to Bharti Airtel in June 2010 for $10.7 billion.

In the aftermath and given the significant value created by this deal, Zain’s Chairman Asaad Al Banwan commented at the time: “This is one of the most historical deals ever made with one of the largest telecom operators in the world, and there is no doubt that its acquisition of Zain Africa highlights the great value that we have succeeded in adding to the business in Africa and in turn to our shareholders over the years.” Upon the completion of the Zain Africa deal, Zain received numerous awards from renowned entities including “The Telecom Deal of the Year” award from TMT Finance Middle East; a premier regional telecom conference organizer.

Over the years, Zain received numerous awards and recognitions from prestigious establishments for matters ranging from the best mobile operator across the MENA region, for the launch of the world’s first borderless roaming platform ‘One Network’ and for its mobile money services to name a few.

In alignment with its expansion and corporate strategy, Zain was one of the first technology companies to introduce 3G services in 2004, providing its customers faster internet access.

The company’s appetite for innovation has remained strong and the operator has launched of high-speed 4G LTE networks in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain.

As a result of Zain’s success story, prestigious educational institutes such as Harvard and Oxford are using it as a case study for their MBA programs.

For the past three decades Zain has positioned itself as a company that goes above and beyond to achieve maximum customer satisfaction and at the same time supporting the community through countless socially responsible and sustainable programs. These values remain firmly in place today as the company strives to reinforce our vision to create “A Wonderful World”.

SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

Syrian rebels receive ‘game-changing’ arms

9

Erdogan hits campaign trail, slams protesters

11

Bodies in Ganges as monsoon toll mounts

14

Demonstrators wave their country’s national flag on Paulista Avenue where crowds gathered to celebrate the reversal of a fare hike on public transportation in Sao Paulo Thursday. (Inset) Military police fire tear gas at protestors during an anti-government demonstration in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday. —AP

No letup in Brazil protests One protester killed as more than a million march RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff called for an emergency cabinet meeting Friday, one day after a protester was killed and an estimated 1.25 million people rallied nationwide demanding better public services. The mass demonstrations, which have sometimes turned violent, are taking place as football-mad Brazil is hosting teams from around the world for the Confederations Cup, a dry run for next year’s World Cup tournament. Many Brazilians are angry over the expensive preparations for the World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Several of the demonstrations have been held outside stadiums, and a mammoth march is scheduled for June 30 to Rio’s iconic Maracana stadium on the day of the Confederations Cup final. In Rio, riot police fired tear gas and rubber bullets, then charged a large crowd of protesters after a smaller group hurled rocks at the officers. One demonstrator stood his ground and challenged police while thousands fled in panic.

“No violence!” he cried, just as he received a blast of rubber bullets in his chest. “If you want to be safe, don’t come to Rio de Janeiro, don’t come to the World Cub, because if you do you’ll be helping this government that shoots at us,” said Rodrigo Neves, 20, one of the protesters.

The mounting pressure on Rousseff’s government in the face Brazil’s biggest street protests in 20 years prompted her to also cancel a trip to Japan planned for next week. More than 1.25 million people marched

Thursday in more than 100 cities across this country of 194 million people, according to police and experts quoted by the local media. The marches began as a protest two weeks ago against a raise in bus fares, but quickly expanded into a wider call for an end to corruption in the world’s seventh largest economy, a call fueled by resentment over the $15 billion cost of hosting the Confederations Cup and the World Cup. The movement has no political hue and no clearly identified leadership. The announcement Wednesday that the controversial fare hikes would be canceled in Rio and Sao Paulo, Brazil’s two most populous cities, did nothing to placate the protesters. Some 300,000 protesters marched to City Hall in Rio de Janeiro to vent their anger. In Brasilia, where 30,000 people protested, one group broke through the police barrier surrounding Brazil’s foreign ministry and hurled home-made firebombs at the building. At least 35 people were wounded, three seriously, as law enforcement struggled to keep the crowd at bay, police said.

The first fatality of the protest was an 18 year-old man who was struck by a car while he protested in the southeastern city of Ribeirao Preto, police said. Most of the protesters are middle-class, educated youths marching to express their outrage at the high cost of living and the poor quality of public services. Demonstrators also set ablaze a vehicle owned by the SBT television station many protesters believe the mainstream media is downplaying the size and intensity of the protests.

Mobs even hurled stones at vehicles driven by members of FIFA, football’s governing body, in northeastern Salvador, where 20,000 people protested just two kilometers from a stadium where a Confederations Cup game was being played. Riot police battled the crowd by using tear gas, rubber bullets and pepper spray. In Sao Paulo, an estimated 110,000 people flooded the main Paulista Avenue to celebrate the fare rollback and keep the pressure on Rousseff’s leftist government to increase social spending. “Victory, this is just the beginning,” one huge banner read.

“Miracles happen when people unite,” another read, while several protesters called for Rousseff, Sao Paulo State Governor Geraldo Alckmin and Sao Paulo Mayor Fernando Haddad to be impeached.

The protest was largely peaceful except for clashes between a group of leftists marching behind their red banners and a majority of demonstrators who objected to the presence of political parties. “This is a social movement, not a political movement. This has nothing to do with ideology,” 28-year-old protester Maria Vidal told AFP. “We don’t want parties in the demonstration.” Protesters say they want higher funding for education, health and housing. They are also railing against what they view as rampant corruption within the political class. Social media networks have been key to the organization of the mass protests, with demonstrators using the slogan “It’s more than just 20 cents” - a reference to the bus fare hikes - to rally people to their cause. —AFP

I N T E R N AT I O N A L SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

Kerry’s trip starts with tough issues WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State John Kerry begins an overseas trip plunging into two thorny foreign policy problems facing the Obama administration: unrelenting bloodshed in Syria and efforts to talk to the Taleban and find a political resolution to the war in Afghanistan. Midway through his twoweek trip to at least seven countries, Kerry also will try to make progress on an elusive peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians and will visit India, the world’s biggest democracy and a rising power often viewed as a counterweight to China. He ends his trip attending a Southeast Asia security conference in Brunei.

Kerry lands today in Doha, Qatar, where representatives of 11 nations in the so-called Friends of Syria group will discuss how to coordinate military and other aid to rebels trying to oust Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and “change the balance” on the ground, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said yesterday. Earlier this month, President Barack Obama announced that in addition to nonlethal aid, the United States would begin sending arms and ammunition to the rebels, who are engaged in a tough fight against Assad’s better-equipped air and ground forces.

That announcement came after Assad’s military dealt the rebels serious setbacks and a US intelligence assessment claimed the regime had used chemical weapons - a “red line” for the Obama administration.

On Thursday, Kerry went to Capitol Hill to brief members of Congress on the two-year civil war that has claimed an estimated 93,000 lives. The meeting in Doha also aims to gain momentum for starting peace talks in Geneva to end the crisis. Obama’s deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, said that as long as there’s a conflict, there remains a need to find a framework for a dialogue because ultimately the Syrian opposition and some parts of the government are going to have to find a political solution.

Geneva is the only framework that exists right now. “We are trying to find a way for the Russians to play some type of constructive role and to stay engaged in the process,” Rhodes said, referring to Moscow’s continued support of Assad’s government.

Kerry arrives in Qatar ahead of planned US talks with representatives of the Taliban at a new political office they opened this week in Doha. The secretary himself was not expected to meet with the Taleban, but other US officials are to sit down with

members of the militant group in coming days. The discussions would be the first US-Taleban talks in nearly 1 1/2 years. The way the Taleban unveiled their new political office, however, angered Afghan President Hamid Karzai. At a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday, the Taleban hoisted their flag and a banner emblazoned with “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.” That was the name the Taleban used when they were in power more than a decade ago and made it appear that the office was an embassy and rival to the Afghan government.

The US said it was disappointed with the rollout, which the administration believes was a Taleban game of oneupmanship. In response, Karzai halted negotiations with the US on a bilateral security agreement governing America’s future military footprint in his country and said he would not send members of his peace council to Doha to talk with Taleban representatives. Kerry called Karzai twice this week to allay his concerns. The diplomatic rift temporarily delayed James Dobbins, the US special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, from leaving for Doha, but State Department officials say he will hold talks with the Taleban there in coming days.

It’s unclear if Afghan officials will be talk-

ing with the Taliban in Doha following the group’s discussions with the Americans.

In India, Kerry will be giving a policy speech and meeting with officials to discuss economic, trade, energy, climate change, education and security and counterterrorism issues. It will be his first visit to India as secretary of state. Talks in New Delhi also are to address India’s cooperation with Pakistan’s new prime minister, Nawaz Sharif. Pakistan and India are nuclear-armed archrivals, but while they have fought three major wars since their partition in 1947, they have taken steps to improve relations in recent years.

Kerry also is to hold meetings with officials in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan and Israel. In Saudi Arabia, senior State Department officials told reporters in a pre-trip briefing that Kerry would talk about how the US can address concerns over extremists inside Syria, the intervention of foreign fighters from Iran and from Hezbollah. US officials estimate that 5,000 Hezbollah members are fighting alongside Assad’s regime, while thousands of Sunni foreign fighters are also believed to be in Syria - including members of Jabhat al-Nusra, an Al-Qaeda affiliate that is believed to be among the most effective rebel factions. —AP

Guard kills Jewish man in Jerusalem Israeli shot dead for shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ JERUSALEM: An Israeli security guard shot dead a Jewish visitor at Jerusalem’s Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray, yesterday, apparently mistaking him for a Palestinian militant. Public radio said that police were seeking to have the guard remanded in custody. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that he was being taken in front of a magistrate, but had no further details. “There was a Jewish guy, an Israeli guy, who was in the bathroom area,” Rosenfeld told AFP. “He for some reason shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’,” Rosenfeld said. “A security guard drew his weapon and fired several shots at the suspect... He died from his wounds a few moments ago.”

An acquaintance told army radio that the man was a volunteer at a nearby soup kitchen run by the Hassidic Chabad movement. “He’s a regular here, wellknown,” David Dahan said. “He’s on his own here, his parents are in France.” Rosenfeld could not immediately confirm reports that the man held both French and Israeli citizenship. The shooting took place shortly before 8 am (0500 GMT) as the plaza in front of the Wall filled with worshippers for morning prayers ahead of the start of the Jewish Sabbath at sundown.

The site was closed to the public for more than two hours afterwards.

Paramedic Zeevi Hessed told news website NRG

JERUSALEM: Israeli emergency personnel take a body from the scene of a shooting at the plaza of the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s old city yesterday. —AP

that his team rushed to the scene as reports of a shooting came in. “When we reached the place, we saw him lying at the Western Wall plaza,” he said. “He had been shot in several parts of his body... Sadly there was nothing we could do but declare him dead.” Rosenfeld said that an investigation had been opened into the shooting. Public radio quoted the private security guard as telling police investigators that he thought the man, 46, was pulling something from his pocket as he shouted, and was about to attack him. It said that police found nothing suspicious on the man’s person.

Privately-owned Channel 10 TV said the dead man was believed to be mentally disturbed. It cited witnesses as saying that the guard fired between seven and 10 bullets, that the fire was unjustified, and that the man appeared to be a harmless eccentric.

Rosenfeld said the circumstances were still unclear.

“We’re looking into the background: why the security officer opened fire and what the motives were of the guy, the 46-year-old - it’s very strange behaviour.”

The Western Wall’s rabbi, Shmuel Rabinovitch, told the Ynet news site: “Regardless of the circumstances, such a case is a terrible tragedy.” Ynet quoted witnesses it did not identify as saying that the guard did not fire warning shots or attempt to disable the man but shot directly at his chest. The site is venerated by Jews as the last remnant of the wall supporting the Second Temple, which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. Above it is the compound housing the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam. Known to Jews as the Temple Mount, the compound is a deeply sensitive location where clashes frequently break out between Palestinian worshippers and Israeli forces. Jews are not allowed to pray inside the Al-Aqsa mosque compound. —AFP

Qatar convicts ruling family member over fire DOHA: A member of Qatar’s ruling family was among five people sentenced to prison by a court in the Gulf Arab state for negligence over a fire at a shopping mall that killed 19 people, most of them children in a nursery, the Gulf Times reported yesterday.

The blaze started due to faulty electrical wiring in Doha’s Villagio Mall and quickly spread to the Gympanzee nursery, which had no emergency fire exit. Among those killed were 13 children, two firefighters and four teachers. The victims were from France, Spain, South Africa, New Zealand, the Philippines, Japan and Benin, among other countries.

A government investigation found the mall had broken a raft of safety laws and that its staff had failed to respond when the fire broke out on May 28, 20102. Gympanzee’s co-owners, Sheikh Ali bin Jassim Al-Thani, a member of the ruling family and Qatar’s ambassador to Belgium, and his wife Iman Al-Kuwari, the daughter of the culture minister, were sentenced on Thursday to a maximum of six years in prison.

Villaggio’s chairman and the mall manager also received six-year jail sentences and a government official who awarded Gympanzee its licence was sentenced to five years in jail, the Gulf Times said. All those sentenced are still free pending an appeal.

Two other defendants, the mall’s assistant manager and its head of security, were cleared of all charges, the report said. Court staff were unavailable to confirm the sentence. —Reuters

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

Govt crisis looms as Abbas to meet PM

Rami Hamdallah

RAMALLAH: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas yesterday weighed his response to a resignation offer from independent prime minister Rami Hamdallah that has thrown the West Bank-based government into disarray just two weeks after it took the oath.

Hamdallah presented his resignation on Thursday, only two weeks after taking office, in the latest crisis for the Palestinian Authority, as government sources and media say he wants to quit over a power struggle. Abbas was due to meet Hamdallah at the president’s headquarters in Ramallah and he will “try to convince him to withdraw his resignation,” an official close to the prime minister told AFP on condition of anonymity.

On Thursday night a delegation dispatched

by Abbas travelled to Hamdallah’s home in Tulkarem, in the northern West Bank, to try to persuade him to go back on his decision, but failed. Hamdallah has been incensed by a decision by Abbas to appoint two deputy premiers in the government formed on June 6, after the resignation of former prime minister Salam Fayyad, a Western-backed economist who quit after a spat with the Palestinian president.

Hamdallah was “upset over his treatment by his two deputy prime ministers, Ziad Abu Amr and Mohammed Mustafa, and their

Spain raids Qaeda ring sending fighters to Syria MADRID: Spanish security forces yesterday broke up an Al-Qaeda-linked network in north Africa suspected of sending fighters to Syria, arresting eight people in early morning raids. Police launched operations against the network in Ceuta, a Spanish territory in north Africa. “We have broken up a network responsible for sending combatants to Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist groups operating in Syria,” the Spanish interior ministry said in a statement.

The network, operating in Ceuta and the neighbouring Moroccan town of Fnideq, sent dozens of Islamist militants - some minors - to Syria, the ministry said.

“Some of them would have carried out suicide attacks while others would have been incorporated into training camps prior to carrying out armed action,” the government said. “This network, based in Ceuta and Fnideq, carried out fundraising, indoctrination, and organising and financing travel, in contact with other terrorists and following the guidelines of the Al-Qaeda terrorist organisation.” Security forces confirmed that several “jihadists” were waiting to travel from Spain to Syria, it said.

Spain’s police had investigated the network since 2009 and the military-linked Civil Guard since 2011 before they joined forces early this year. The eight suspects faced charges of belonging to a terrorist organisation, the government said. A National Court judge supervising the investigation had issued search warrants that were being executed on Friday, it said. European Union governments are showing growing alarm over the potential security threat posed by the hundreds of young Europeans believed to be fighting alongside rebels in Syria. While dozens of would-be jihadist fighters have left for theatres such as Afghanistan or Pakistan in the past, Europe is facing a larger problem with Syria which is easier and cheaper to reach. A recent report by King’s College London has said up to 600 people from 14 European countries, including Austria, Britain, Germany, Spain and Sweden had taken part in the Syria conflict since it began in March 2011. Rebel forces in Syria have asked friendly nations for anti-tank and anti-air missiles to fight back after an onslaught by government forces which have retaken key areas of the country.

Foreign Ministers of the “Friends of Syria” group will meet in Doha today to discuss military help and a proposed peace meeting between President Bashar AlAssad’s regime and the opposition to end the 27-month conflict. —AFP

attempts to gain powers not assigned to them,” the official said. “Mustafa was authorised by Abbas to sign all economic agreements, particularly those with the World Bank, without the consent of Hamdallah,” he said.

Hamdallah objected saying these were prime ministerial powers, the official added.

Mustafa, who heads the Palestine Investment Fund and was handed the role of economic adviser, was initially tipped as a possible successor to Fayyad. Mustafa, not Hamdallah, gave the first news conference after the new 25-member cabinet held its first meeting on June 11, raising a few eyebrows. A government source, meanwhile, told AFP that initial cabinet meetings were plagued with bickering over trivial issues such as who was allowed to sit in which seat, and whether people could smoke or not. Commentators viewed Hamdallah’s resignation as inevitable.

Abdel Majid Sweilam, a Palestinian political analyst, said Hamdallah had “not looked forward to being prime minister. He accepted the position only on a temporary basis, proved by the fact he didn’t resign from his job as head of Al-Najah University in Nablus.” Hamdallah “cannot be an effective prime minister in light of the encroachment on his powers - two deputies to him were appointed directly by

the president,” said Sweilam. Pan-Arab newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi said “Hamdallah wants to be a prime minister in fact, and to have the final say on prime ministerial issues, but the Palestinian Authority wants him to be just a puppet. “The clash was inevitable and the resignation assured.” it said. “What pushed Hamdallah to go was interference and overstepping (of authority) by Mustafa,” the newspaper added. Hamdallah, an independent considered close to Abbas’ ruling Fatah faction who was also secretary general of the Central Election Commission, pledged after his nomination to follow a similar path to Fayyad and said he would leave the government lineup largely unchanged. He made clear he would quickly step aside in the summer after the planned formation of a government of national unity comprising Fatah and its Islamist rival, Hamas. Fayyad resigned midApril after months of difficult relations with Abbas which culminated over the resignation of finance minister Nabil Qassis, which the premier accepted but the president did not.

Fayyad was widely respected by the international community for building a sound institutional framework for the Palestinian Authority, and his resignation sparked concern over who would take up his mantle. —AFP

Syrian rebels receive ‘game-changing’ arms Troops try to oust fighters from Damascus district DAMASCUS: Syria’s rebels have received new types of weapons that could “change the course of the battle,” a rebel spokesman said yesterday, as troops tried to oust opposition fighters from a Damascus district. The announcement came a day before a meeting in the Qatari capital Doha of the Friends of Syria, a group of nations that back the uprising against President Bashar AlAssad. “We’ve received quantities of new types of weapons, including some that we asked for and that we believe will change the course of the battle on the ground,” Free Syrian Army spokesman Louay Muqdad told AFP. “We have begun distributing them on the front lines; they will be in the hands of professional officers and FSA fighters,” added Muqdad, a media and political coordination for the rebel FSA. He said the Friends of Syria meeting was expected to officially announce tomorrow its members would send weapons to the rebels. Muqdad declined to specify what weapons had been received or when they had arrived, but added that a new shipment was expected in the coming days. He sad rebels had asked for “deterrent weapons,” meaning “anti-aircraft weapons, anti-tank weapons, as well as ammunition.”

The apparent influx of weapons comes after the United States said it would provide rebel forces with “military support,” although it has declined to outline what that might entail. “The weapons will be used for one objective, which is to fight the regime of (President) Bashar Al-Assad,” Muqdad insisted. “They will be collected after the fall of the regime, we have made this commitment to the friends and brother-

HOMS: Rebel fighters pray in this central city on June 17. — AFP ly countries” that supplied them, he said.

On Thursday, Muqdad said rebels needed short-range ground-to-air missiles, surface-to-air missiles known as MANPADS, anti-tank missiles, mortars and ammunition.

The Friends of Syria talks in Qatar yesterday will be attended by ministers from Britain, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United States. They are expected to discuss military help and other aid for rebels as government forces press their campaign against the insurgents. Muqdad said the opposition was expecting “a clear and official announcement by the countries participating (in Doha) on the arming of the

FSA.” “That’s what we are hoping for; that’s what we are waiting for.” US Secretary of State John Kerry left for Qatar yesterday, with a US official describing the gathering as important for “energising” the opposition National Coalition. On the ground, troops shelled the Damascus neighbourhood of Qabun, as their bid to drive rebels from the district entered a third day, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. “Regime troops renewed shelling this morning of the Qabun neighbourhood and fierce clashes were underway between soldiers and rebels on the outskirts of the area,” the group said. “Regime forces are hitting the area with mortar rounds, tanks and heavy artillery.” —AFP

I N T E R N AT I O N A L SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

Putin backs amnesty for white collar crime SAINT PETERSBURG, Russia: President Vladimir Putin on Friday urged lawmakers to pass a newlydrafted bill that would grant an amnesty to whitecollar criminals, in a bid to improve Russia’s frigid

business climate. In a keynote address to the Saint Petersburg Economic Forum, Putin also unveiled a $13.7-billion stimulus package designed to help Russia spend its way out of an economic slump

ST PETERSBURG: German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin attend a news conference at the economic forum yesterday. —AP

that threatens to reach recession by the end of the year. Winning applause from the international business leaders packed into the hall, Putin said that the amnesty was necessary to improve people’s trust in how the government works.

But human rights leaders expressed concern that the measure was too limited because it would not cover some of the biggest critics of Putin who have been jailed for disputed businesses crimes. “Work on the draft bill on an amnesty has been completed by the business community and deputies of the State Duma. I can agree with this draft, and I ask the State Duma to review it and support it,” said Putin. “I expect that this will be done quickly, before the summer recess,” which starts July 5, he added.

Putin said the new law would cover only those who committed business-related crimes for the first time and not be applied to repeat offenders. The announcement suggests that the measure would not touch Russia’s jailed former oil tycoon and repeated Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky - now in prison serving his second consecutive sentence for white collar crimes he disputes.

Khodorkovsky’s attorney Vadim Klyuvgant said the bill backed by Putin was so weak that it

looked like the government was only trying to score public relations points instead of actually changing the legislation. “There are many things that happen today that are done for little more than appearance,” Klyuvgant told the Interfax news agency. “If this is being done for appearance, it should not be called an amnesty,” Klyuvgant said. Khodorkovsky was convicted for a second time on charges related to how he used his Yukos oil company empire in Dec 2010 and is not due to be released until 2014.

Putin’s announcement comes as something of a surprise because he had said as recently as April that the proposed amnesty legislation was too broad and still in need of a lot of work. The amnesty has been heavily backed by Russia’s business community as well as human rights figures who argue that bureaucrats use complex laws to hound entrepreneurs and jail those who refuse to pay heavy bribes. Putin said the legislation “will help strengthen citizens’ trust in state institutions. And this can only happen when there is respect to private property and business.” He stressed however that the law should not cover heavy offenders such as those who engage in so called “raids” on their competitors with the illegal help of law enforcement agencies. —AFP

Greek leftist party bolts coalition over TV row Samaras says ready to govern without party ATHENS: Greece’s coalition government lost its smallest partner yesterday after emergency talks failed to break a deadlock caused by the dramatic closure of state broadcaster ERT last week.

But fears of early elections dissipated after the coalition’s second largest partner, the socialists, said earlier they would continue to support the year-old government. Antonis Manitakis, the outgoing minister of administrative reform, confirmed that the moderate Democratic Left party was abandoning the conservative-led administration of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.

“Following the party’s decision to withdraw from the government and withdraw its ministers I will table my resignation to the prime minister,” Manitakis told reporters after a marathon party meeting. The Athens stock exchange, which had opened with a 2.6-percent drop, accelerated its fall to 3.3 percent on the news as the opposition charged the debt-strapped government had been weakened. The pullout

means that in addition to Manitakis, the minister of justice and deputy ministers for health and education need to be replaced.

Socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos had earlier taken a swipe at the moderate leftists for abandoning the government. “It is clear that when we share a responsibility, we all share alike,” Venizelos said after the late-night government talks. “You can’t pick and choose,” Venizelos said. Late on Thursday, Democratic Left leader Fotis Kouvelis said he had disagreed with conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’ handling of ERT’s closure. “We disagree with actions that offend legality,” Kouvelis had said after last-ditch talks with Samaras and Venizelos.

Samaras, who was just one year into his fouryear term, has pledged to fight on to enact unpopular austerity reforms demanded by Greece’s international creditors. “No one wants elections right now. Today we have marked one

ATHENS: Leader of the Democratic Left party Fotis Kouvelis waits for a meeting with his party’s lawmakers yesterday. —AP

year as government and we will do our full (fouryear) term,” Samaras said in a televised address after failing to win over Kouvelis. The pullout of Democratic Left, which has 14 deputies in the 300-seat parliament, leaves the conservatives and socialists with a combined strength of 153 MPs, just enough to keep control of the chamber.

The two allies are also hoping to draw support from a group of another 14 independent MPs -most of whom were once part of their own parties - to push further reforms through parliament. Samaras said that he also hoped for the continued support of Democratic Left even outside the government “but we will move forward either way,” he added. “The government comes out weakened from this situation, caused by Samaras’ extreme and undemocratic decisions on ERT,” said Dimitris Papadimoulis, parliament spokesman for the main opposition party Syriza.

Thursday’s meeting of the coalition partners was the third effort this week to break the political deadlock over the state broadcaster. Samaras angered his coalition partners more than a week ago when he unilaterally shut down ERT, which he wants to turn into a smaller broadcaster and cut what he considers waste. Concerned over the latest political developments, the European Union called on the country’s leaders to act responsibly. The shutdown has taken ERT’s five TV channels and 24 radio stations off the air and will result in the loss of nearly 2,700 jobs.

Greece is under pressure by its EU-IMF lenders to axe 4,000 civil servant posts by the end of the year, as part of its massive euro 240billion ($318 billion) bailout. But on Thursday, the International Monetary Fund denied it had recommended the broadcaster’s shutdown.

Samaras has rejected calls to reinstate ERT in its previous form: he says it cost euro 300 million a year for an overall viewer rating of four percent, less than half that of its private competitors.

Samaras has offered to compensate ERT’s employees and to create a new broadcaster with less than half the workforce. —AFP

KIEV: Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych (left) and German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle shake hands prior to a meeting yesterday. —AFP

Germany offers to treat Tymoshenko KIEV: Germany said yesterday it was discussing with Ukraine an offer to treat jailed ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko for her health problems in Berlin, in a bid to end a row over her imprisonment which is holding up Kiev’s EU ambitions. Analysts said if the opposition leader is sent to Germany for treatment it would remove one of the biggest obstacles towards agreeing the first step on Ukraine’s path to EU membership.

“The German offer of medical treatment for Mrs Tymoshenko in Berlin remains in place. I emphasised this,” Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told reporters after meeting Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in Kiev. “We will work together towards a good solution. Time will tell if this is possible. But it is important news that we are working on this and will continue to work on this,” he added.

The seven-year jail term handed to Tymoshenko on abuse of power charges in 2011 has severely harmed Ukraine’s relations with the European Union and is holding up the signing of an Association Agreement with the bloc. Ukraine has set its sights on joining the European Union and such an agreement would be a first formal step on the road to membership. “Ukraine is a country which wants and should orientate itself to the European Union. This is in our mutual interest,” said Westerwelle. Tymoshenko has insisted her imprisonment was ordered by Yanukovych in a bid to eliminate a dangerous opponent from political life ahead of 2015 presidential polls. Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Penta think tank, said after Westerwelle’s comments that the chances of Tymoshenko being sent to Germany for treatment were “very high”. “It seems that the negotiations are now coming to an end and have gone to a high level. I think there will be a result in one or two months,” Fesenko told AFP. “It is not an easy decision for Yanukovych. But I think the decision will be at the end of August or start of September,” he said. —AFP

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

W Africa new theatre in US war on drugs DAKAR: US President Barack Obama begins his African tour in Senegal next week in the heart of a region becoming a focus for federal agents prosecuting the US war on the international drugs trade.

Investigators from the DEA, America’s antinarcotics agency, have made a series of high-profile and dramatic arrests in West Africa as part of a widening probe of African drug lords as well as armed rebels in South America. Derek Maltz, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Special Operations Division that targets global drug crime, described trafficking in the region as a “plague” as he announced charges against suspected smugglers from Nigeria and Ghana on June 3.

“These criminal groups and their facilitators pose a direct threat to the safety and security of innocent Americans,” he said. “Together with our law enforcement partners, DEA is dismantling illicit drug networks in western Africa and around the world, and putting the criminals who operate them behind bars where they belong.” The suspects were arrested on May 9 in New York and all three were charged with heroin trafficking.

According to their indictment,

Ghanaian Solomon Adelaquaye and Nigerians Frank Muodum and Celestine Ofor Orjinweke “conspired to import heroin into the United States” with a Colombian, Samuel Antonio PinedoRueda, who was arrested on May 16 in his home country and is awaiting extradition.

“These alleged narco-traffickers assumed they had secured safe passage for their heroin from west Africa to the United States by paying off an airport insider but, unbeknownst to them, the people on the other side of their transaction were law enforcement insiders working for the DEA,” Manhattan Attorney Preet Bharara said.

It was also undercover DEA agents who were behind the dramatic arrest in April of Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto, a US-designated international drug “kingpin” and former head of the Guinea-Bissau navy, near the west African island nation of Cape Verde. The DEA arrested the officer and several alleged accomplices in “international waters”, according to the Americans, while two Colombians suspected of having been involved were arrested shortly after in their country.

A widening plot involving Guinea-

Teacher jailed for abduction, sex with pupil LONDON: A British teacher was yesterday sentenced to five years and six months in jail for having sex with a 15year-old pupil and running off with her to France, sparking an international manhunt. Jeremy Forrest, a married 30year-old maths teacher, was convicted on Thursday of abducting the girl, and yesterday pleaded guilty to five further counts of sexual activity with a child. He was not originally charged with sex offences for legal reasons linked to his extradition from France, but he admitted the new charges when they were put to him at Lewes Crown Court in southeast England.

Judge Michael Lawson, sentencing Forrest to four and a half years for the charges of sexual activity with a child and one year for the abduction charge, told him his behaviour had inflicted great damage. He said: “Your behaviour in this period has been motivated by self-interest and has hurt and damaged many people - her family, your family, staff and pupils at the school and respect for teachJeremy Forrest ers everywhere. It has damaged you too but that was something you were prepared to risk. You now have to pay that price.”

The judge added: “It was your duty as a teacher to stop her infatuation, not to fuel it. Your research into what might happen to you if you were caught is proof of the deliberate nature of your behaviour.” When Forrest was convicted of abduction on Thursday after a two-week trial, he had told the girl “I love you” as he was led from the court. The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, burst into tears and told him: “I’m sorry.”

The British press reported yesterday that the girl, who is now 16, has vowed to wait for Forrest to serve his sentence so they can resume their relationship. Prosecutors had labelled him a paedophile who had groomed a vulnerable girl, first kissing her when she was 14.

They said he “grossly abused” the trust placed in him as her teacher. The court heard that Forrest, a keen musician, confessed to the girl that he was unhappy in his marriage and poured out his feelings in angst-ridden Twitter messages. —AFP

Bissau came to public notice on April 18, when the United States charged the African nation’s coup leader with drug trafficking and seeking to sell arms to Colombian insurgents. Former army chief Antonio Indjai, the nation’s top military leader, was accused of four counts of conspiring to sell surface-to-air missiles to FARC rebels to shoot down US patrol helicopters and of seeking to import huge amounts of cocaine into the US. Guinea-Bissau, a country of just 1.5 million people, has suffered chronic instability since independence from Portugal in 1974 due to conflict between the army and state. Drug traffickers have turned the state, sandwiched between Senegal and Guinea where the African continent extends the farthest west toward South America, into a transit point for the cocaine trade. But murky relationships exist between politicians, security and defence officials and traffickers across the region, according to the World Drug Report published in February by the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The report accuses Guinea, Mauritania and Gambia of being main players in the drugs trade. It also points the finger at

Mali, seen for years as a weak link in the fight against drugs and the scene of the spectacular “drug-plane” affair in November 2009, when a Boeing 727 carrying cocaine from Venezuela landed in the remote northeastern region of Gao, according to the UNODC. Coming in on a makeshift runway, it unloaded its cargo and was then destroyed and left as a burnt-out wreck in the desert.

“Between 2005 and 2007, a series of more than 20 major seizures were made in the west African region, involving thousands of kilograms of cocaine,” the UNODC said in a report on the cocaine trade through the region. “Most of the seizures were made at sea, but some involved private aircraft or caches detected on land.” But “major seizures” are becoming rare in west Africa, according to the report, which said that “in 2009, a single seizure of 160 kg was made”. “The countries of the sub-region have neither the resources nor the capacity to deal with this phenomenon” of drug trafficking, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a report published at the end of December taking stock of the activities of UNOWA, the UN office in the region. — AFP

Erdogan hits campaign trail, slams protesters Germany, Turkey summon ambassadors KAYSERI, Turkey: Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan addressed thousands of cheering supporters in the conservative stronghold of Kayseri yesterday, appealing to grassroots followers after weeks of often violent protest against him and his government. A sea of flags filled the main square of this industrial city in Anatolia’s pious heartland. A giant portrait of Erdogan hung from the ramparts of the ancient castle alongside that of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the revered founder of modern Turkey. The rally was held to urge voters to back his ruling AK Party before municipal polls next March, but the blunt-talking 59-year-old harangued opponents and cast three weeks of widespread unrest as a story of “us” against “them”.

The protests have underlined divisions in Turkish society between religious conservatives who form the bedrock of Erdogan’s support, and more liberal Turks who have swelled the numbers of peaceful demonstrators. “They say they are educated, they are artists, they are the rich, they know everything, they understand it all,” he said from on stage, against a backdrop of the snow-capped Mount Erciyes some 25 km south of the city. “They think their vote is not equal to the votes of Ahmet or Mehmet or the shepherd in Kayseri. They have enjoyed their whiskies on the banks of the Bosphorus,” he added, eliciting boos from many in a crowd of more than 15,000.

Erdogan also targeted the “Standing Man”, a protester whose lone, silent vigil on Istanbul’s Taksim Square earlier this week inspired thousands across Turkey to copy him and help relieve tensions after fierce clashes between demonstrators and police.

“What they know best is how to stand still themselves and make others stand still.

ANKARA: Members of Turkish leftist groups demonstrate yesterday outside the courthouse in Ankara, demanding the release of all detainees. — AFP They have stopped us everywhere, they made us stand in pharmacies, university gates, gas, sugar and bread queues.”

Erdogan, who holds similar rallies over the weekend in Samsun on the Black Sea coast and the eastern city of Erzurum, sees himself as a champion of democratic reform and has been riled by protests against his perceived authoritarianism. “My master, it’s been 10 years since you arrived.

You have transformed Turkey,” read a banner. Cities like Kayseri, one of the “Anatolian Tigers” whose small industries have flourished under a decade of AK Party rule, have been spared the sort of clashes concentrated in Istanbul, the capital Ankara and the nearby city of Eskisehir. Here, Erdogan has widespread support. “We have voted for him for the past three elections and I can’t think of anyone else to vote for at the next

one as well,” said Tuba Ikiz, a 27-year-old shopkeeper wearing a headscarf. Erdogan, who won his third consecutive election in 2011 with 50 percent support, has enacted democratic reforms, including curbing powers of an army that toppled four governments in four decades and pursuing an end to 30 years of Kurdish rebellion. But he brooks little dissent. Hundreds of military officers have been jailed on charges of plotting a coup against Erdogan; others, including academics, journalists and politicians, face trial on similar accusations. Among the large section of Turkey’s 76 million people who do not back him, Erdogan is viewed as increasingly authoritarian and too quick to meddle in their private lives. Recent restrictions on the sale of alcohol have fuelled their suspicions that he has a creeping Islamist agenda. —Reuters

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

Outrage in Bolivia after girl raped in jail LA PAZ: The case of a 12-year-old girl who is pregnant after being raped for years by her father and others in a La Paz prison has sparked outrage in Bolivia over the practice of letting children live in jails. According to government figures, about 1,500 young children and adolescents live in Bolivian prisons with their convict relatives - a situation critics say is ripe for the kind of abuse suffered by the young girl.

Children of inmates often are forced to live with them in prison because they have no other relatives, or because both parents are in jail. “The girl is two months’ pregnant,” said the country’s prisons director Ramiro Llanos.

The child has told authorities she was repeatedly raped by her father,

uncle and godfather since she was eight years old, Llanos told local media Wednesday. The case is now in the hands of child protection officials, who have offered the girl psychological counseling. University professor and political analyst Carlos Cordero said the girl’s situation was in part the result of the “miserable conditions and neglect of the inmates”.

The San Pedro prison in La Paz, where 500 children live with their parents and where the incident took place, is infamous because several years ago, visitors were able to easily buy cocaine as police turned a blind eye. The minors share living space with violent criminals - murderers, rapists, gang members and drug dealers. They witness the rampant use of

alcohol and drugs, as well as the bloody fights that frequently erupt.

“It is traumatic to live in a place like this,” said Stefano Toricini, a volunteer for an Italian non-governmental organization who has provided counseling to children at San Pedro for the past decade. “The kids live in a state of constant psychological pressure, and the culture of violence that pervades prisons is not for children.” Llanos who spent part of his childhood living in a jail with his father, a political prisoner of the country’s military dictatorship in the 1960s - called on police to “stop being so corrupt and stop allowing children in prisons,” in comments to the Pagina Siete newspaper. For Yolanda Herrera, president of the independent Human Rights Assembly,

Mt Etna, Rajasthan forts among new heritage sites UNESCO mulling other sites at meeting PHNOM PENH: Italy’s Mount Etna, the Hill Forts of Rajasthan and the Namib Sand Sea were among the natural wonders and cultural jewels granted World Heritage status by UNESCO at its annual meeting yesterday. Other entrants into the coveted list include the Mountains of the Pamirs in Tajikistan and China’s Tianshan range, in a move hailed by conservationists.

“From vast deserts in Namibia and Mexico to high mountain ranges in China and Tajikistan and a volcano in Italy, the new World Heritage Sites are a celebration of the beauty of nature and our joint commitment to conserve it for generations to come,” said Tim Badman of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The tallest active volcano on the European continent at 3,300 m, Mount Etna has been written about for 2,700 years and has “one of the world’s longest documented records of historical volcanism”, according to UNESCO. The volcano, in the east of Sicily, is one of the most-studied in the world and “continues to influence volcanology, geophysics and other earth science disciplines”, UNESCO said. “Mount Etna’s notoriety, scientific importance, and cultural and educational value are of global significance.”

Situated near Catania, Sicily’s second city, the volcano, which is some 200 km in circumference, was created by a series of eruptions beneath the sea off the ancient coastline of Sicily some 500,000 years ago. There are still periodic eruptions at the central crater.

Lava flows down the sides of the volcano have sometimes threatened villages, which are built up to around 800 m. Catania city has been hit several times during eruptions, including being almost completely destroyed by one of the largest recorded eruptions in 1669, after which it was rebuilt in the Baroque style. The Italian delegate

SICILY: A file photo taken on Jan 6, 2012 shows lava spewing from a crater of Mount Etna volcano on this Italian island. — AFP to the UNESCO meeting told the committee members that they were “moved and touched” by the decision to recognise the volcano’s importance.

According to local legend, on Etna there is a sweet chestnut tree said to have once sheltered hundreds of horsemen during a storm. The Kingdom of Sicily issued an act of “public protection” for the tree in 1745 - one of the world’s first recorded environmental protection actions.

UNESCO also inscribed the Namib Sand Sea, “the world’s only coastal desert that includes extensive dune fields influenced by fog”, to the World Heritage list. “It is an outstanding example of the scenic, geomorphological, ecological and evolutionary consequences of wind-driven processes interacting with geology and biology,” UNESCO said, highlighting the richness of flora and fauna in the desert area in Namibia. The six hill forts in the

northwestern India were hailed as “the most authentic, best conserved and most representative sites of Rajput military architecture of Rajasthan region.” Other sites that won World Heritage status yesterday included the El Pinacate and Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve in Mexico thanks to their “dramatic combination of desert landforms, comprising both volcanic and dune systems as dominant features”. The “highly diverse mosaic” of habitats in a “seemingly inhospitable” desert is home to more than 540 species of plants, 44 mammals, more than 200 species of birds and over 40 reptiles. UNESCO also inscribed 16 wooden tserkvas (churches) in the Carpathian mountains of Poland and Ukraine, saying they were “outstanding examples of the once widespread Orthodox ecclesiastical timber building tradition in the Slavic countries that survives to this day.” —AFP

“the problem is not that children are inside prisons - the problem is that there are no state policies for the protection of children.” Bolivia’s police chief, General Alberto Aracena, said: “As a human being, I cannot imagine that children are made to live in prisons, because I can see that they are exposed to all sorts of dangers and risks.” With the support of Congress, police have said they will carry out a census of the children living in prisons and give officers special training to deal with the situation, Aracena said.

Prisons in Bolivia are the second most crowded in the region, after those in El Salvador. They are designed to house 3,740 prisoners, but there are 13,840 inmates, according to the Organization of American States. — AFP

All-female jury selected in Trayvon case SANFORD, Florida: A six-member, all-female jury was selected on Thursday to decide the fate of George Zimmerman, who shot and killed unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in a case that grabbed the US media spotlight in 2012. Soon after the unusual panel was chosen, Seminole County Circuit Judge Debra Nelson, who is presiding over the high-profile case, said opening statements would get under way on Monday. That will mark the formal kickoff of the trial after two weeks of jury selection and other issues in Nelson’s courtroom, which has been filled to overflowing with reporters, lawyers and spectators.

Five of the six women on the jury panel, selected from a pool of 40 potential jurors, were white and the sixth appeared to be Hispanic. The jurors, backed by four alternates, will decide whether Zimmerman, 29, should be convicted as charged with second-degree murder and face up to life in prison for the killing that sparked a national debate about race, guns and equal justice before the law. Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty, contending he acted in self-defense during a confrontation with the 17-year-old Martin in a gated community in this central Florida town.

At the time of the Martin killing, Zimmerman, a light-skinned Hispanic, was the self-appointed neighborhood watch captain in the Retreat at Twins Lakes community in Sanford. He killed Martin with a single shot from a 9mm handgun. The case triggered widespread protests because police initially declined to arrest Zimmerman on the grounds he acted in self-defense.

Zimmerman, who walked free for 44 days after the killing, was arrested after a national outcry from both ordinary citizens, celebrities and top civil rights leaders. A special prosecutor was appointed to take over from local law enforcement when it lost credibility.

Florida’s gun and self-defense laws will be a central focus of the trial and Zimmerman’s lead defense attorney, Mark O’Mara, said repeatedly as he wrapped up questioning as part of the voir dire process early on Thursday that the state had the burden to prove that Zimmerman had not acted in self-defense.

“They (the prosecution) have to disprove that it was selfdefense,” he said. Judge Nelson drove home the same point in her instruction on “justifiable use of deadly force” during the final phase of jury selection.

She also made a pointed reference to Florida’s so-called “Stand Your Ground” law, under which the use of lethal force is deemed lawful if an individual fears grievous bodily injury or death in a confrontation with an assailant. “The danger facing the defendant need not to have been actual,” Nelson told potential jurors. “However, to justify the use of deadly force, the appearance of danger must have been so real that a reasonably cautious and prudent person under the same circumstances would have believed that the danger could be avoided only through the use of that force. —Reuters

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

10 dead in latest Mumbai building collapse MUMBAI: An apartment block collapsed in Mumbai’s outskirts yesterday, killing at least 10 people in the latest deadly incident to fuel concerns about the quality of construction in the booming Indian city.

Rescue workers were using hand-held wire cutters and excavators to search through the rubble for survivors after the building

on Mumbai’s outskirts collapsed while many of its residents were sleeping, officials said. “There have been 10 deaths, five adults and five children,” said K P Raghuvanshi, police commissioner of Thane district, where the incident occurred.

Thane police said 14 others more suffered minor injuries.

MUMBAL, India: Family members wait for news of their relatives at the site of a residential building collapse on the outskirts of Mumbai yesterday. — AFP

Taleban guerrillas welcome Qatar office but fight on KANDAHAR: Taleban guerrillas yesterday hailed the rebels’ new office in Qatar as evidence of their success on the battlefield but vowed to fight on until all US forces leave Afghanistan. The opening of the office in Qatar was seen as a first step towards a peace deal as the US-led NATO combat mission ends next year, but a furious Kabul accused the rebels of posing as a government-in-exile. Talk of a meeting between US and Taleban officials has been put on hold, and the US has stressed the office must not be treated as an embassy for the hardliners who were ousted from power in 2001.

“We welcome the opening of the Taleban office in Qatar, and we are happy about it,” Mullah Ehsanullah, a local Taleban fighter in the Zherai district of the southern province of Kandahar, told AFP by telephone. “With the establishment of this office, we want to hold talks with the international community like an independent and sovereign state. “We are reaching our goals in defeating the US, now we want to free our country from occupation. We want to build our country on our own.”

When the office opened on Tuesday, it used the title of the rebels’ 1996-2001 government, the “Islamic Emirate Of Afghanistan”, and flew the white Taleban flag - a provocative symbol of oppression to many Afghans. Afghanistan’s envoy to the United Nations, Zahir Tanin, on Thursday described the opening as “theatrical”, which he said contravened an agreement on how the occasion would be managed. Mursaleen, a Taleban fighter in the Ghaziabad district of eastern Kunar province, told AFP: “We have fought hard for our country to save it from the occupiers. When our demands are met, we will sit down at the negotiating table.” Another Taleban fighter in Kandahar in the south, who declined to be named, said that they had fought against the Soviets in the 1980s and against the US since 2001 for an “autonomous Afghanistan under an Islamic government”. — AFP

Among those killed were a two-monthold girl and a seven-year-old boy, said Sandeep Malvi, spokesman for the Thane municipal corporation. Police said an investigation was under way into the cause of what was the third building collapse in recent months in the Mumbai area, including one in April that killed 74 people.

The collapses have highlighted widespread shoddy construction standards in India, where a huge demand for housing and pervasive corruption often result in cost-cutting and a lack of safety inspections. “The pace of urbanisation in India’s large cities is unmanageable,” said Anurag Mathur, a senior executive at property consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle India.

“Sometimes the codes of construction, building safety and upgrades are either not followed or not carried out regularly,” he told AFP. Police said 20 people had been rescued from under the debris yesterday, while local reports said the three-storey building, built in 1979, was home to nine families.

The spokesman, Malvi, said monsoon rains may have triggered the collapse but “we can’t say that’s the only reason”.

The incident happened about 35 km from the centre of the financial capital, close to the scene of the apartment block that collapsed in April, which was one of

the worst such incidents in decades. Two builders and seven others were arrested in connection with the collapse of the unauthorised and partly finished building. Many of the victims were poor daily wage earners and their families, who were living with them at the site.

Just last week, part of a five-storey apartment block in central Mumbai caved in and killed 10 people. The accident was blamed on alleged illegal alterations to the structure, exacerbated by heavy monsoon rains.

The high cost of property in Mumbai and surrounding areas pushes many low-paid families, especially newly arrived migrants from other parts of India, into often illegal and poorly constructed homes.

Shekar Reddy, president of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India, said civic authorities have a duty to pull up builders who may have violated norms. The latest collapse “is a sign of a system failure and such incidents will go on,” he said. India’s urban housing shortage was estimated at nearly 19 million households in 2012, and in Mumbai the situation is so dire that more than half of the city’s residents live in slums. In another of the worst recent Indian cases, 69 people were killed and more than 80 injured by a building collapse in the capital New Delhi in 2010. — AFP

Suicide attack kills 15 at Pak Shiite mosque Provincial lawmaker killed in Karachi PESHAWAR: A suicide attack yesteday killed 15 people and wounded more than 25 others at a Shiite Muslim mosque and religious seminary on the edge of Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar, officials said. The bomber struck in the largely Shiite area of Gulshan Colony on the outskirts of the city, which abuts Taleban and Al-Qaeda-linked strongholds in the northwestern tribal belt on the Afghan border. The attack came just days after US officials said they hoped to open peace talks with Afghan Taleban in Doha, capital of the Gulf state of Qatar.

“It was a suicide attack in which 15 people were killed and more than 25 others were wounded,” senior police official Shafi Ullah told AFP at the scene. “The suicide bomber, who was on foot, first opened fire at police guards who were deployed outside the mosque, then entered the prayer hall where he blew himself up amid worshippers just before the start of prayers,” he added. The force of the blast punched holes in the walls and roof of the prayer hall, the floor of which was littered with bloodied pieces of human flesh, dead bodies, Islamic books and prayer caps, an AFP reporter said.

Prayer leader Aamir Shakiri said he was just about to join the worshippers when he heard gun shots, followed by a “deafening blast”. “Thick mosque

PESHAWAR: A man inspects a dead victim lying on the ground following a suicide attack on a Shiite mosque yesterday. — AFP engulfed the entire mosque and it was difficult to see anything but I was able to see dead bodies and injured people shouting for help,” he said.

Police official Imran Shahid told AFP that at least three suicide bombers had originally intended to carry out the attack. “Two of them fled while one of their accomplices managed to enter the prayer hall and blow himself up,” he said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but attacks waged by Sunni Muslim extremists against Pakistan’s minority Shiite community are on the rise. Ali Iqbal Qazilbash, a 24-year-old Peshawar University stu-

dent, told AFP he rushed out of his uncle’s home when he heard the explosion. “It was really horrifying to see blood soaked and mutilated bodies lying on the floor of the hall,” Qazilbash said.

“I immediately started knocking on doors in the neighbourhood and calling people for help.” Shiites account for 20 percent of the 180 million population in the nuclear-armed state. Extremist Sunni militant faction Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on Shiites in the southwestern city of Quetta that killed at least 25 people on June 15. —AFP

I N T E R N AT I O N A L SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

Indonesia sends planes, Singapore haze hits record JAKARTA: Indonesia deployed aircraft yesterday to artificially create rain in a bid to douse raging fires that have choked Singapore with smog, which is hitting record-breaking levels that pose a threat to the elderly and the ill. At a late-night emergency meeting, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered disaster officials to “immediately mobilise all the country’s resources” to extinguish the fires on Sumatra island that have created vast palls of smoke. Singapore’s worst environmental crisis in more than a decade has seen the acrid smoke creep into people’s flats and cloak residential blocks as well as downtown skyscrapers, and the island’s prime minister has warned it could last weeks.

Indonesia’s national disaster agency said that three helicopters carrying cloud-seeding equipment, which chemically induces rain, had been sent to Riau province, where vast swathes of carbon-rich peatland are burning.

Two planes were also there and the agency planned to send another five, said agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho. The aircraft would use cloud-seeding and would also water-bomb the blazes, he said. Firefighters on the ground have struggled to put out the blazes, which are burning under the surface of the peat.

Emergency workers tackling blazes in Bengkalis district, the worst hit area, were “overwhelmed” and unable to cope, Ahmad Saerozi, the head of the natural resources conservation agency in the province, told AFP.

“We have been fighting fires 24 hours a day for two weeks,” he said, adding that aircraft must “drop water as soon as possible. We can’t do this alone”.

record level was reached at 11:00 am (0300 GMT) yesterday after a rapid rise in the Pollutant Standards Index (PSI). It had fallen back to 143 by 5:00 pm (0900 GMT).

SINGAPORE: Tourists in masks and sunglasses take a picture at Singapore’s Merlion as air pollution returned to ‘unhealthy’ levels from the ‘hazardous’ levels of a few hours earlier yesterday. —AP As Indonesia stepped up its fire-fighting efforts, Singapore’s smog index hit the critical 400 level, making it potentially life-threatening to the ill and elderly people, according to a government monitoring site. The all-time

According to Singapore government guidelines, sustained PSI average levels above 400 on a 24-hour basis “may be life-threatening to ill and elderly persons”.

Before the latest crisis which erupted on

Monday, the previous Singapore air pollutant index high was 226, recorded in Sept 1997.

That episode cost the Southeast Asian region billions of dollars and also resulted from vast amounts of haze from Indonesia, where slashand-burn farming generates heavy smoke during the dry season that begins in June.

Parts of Malaysia close to Singapore have also been severely affected by the smog this week.

The haze crisis has had a dramatic impact on life in Singapore, with the city-state’s residents scaling back their activities in a bid to protect themselves.

Fast-food deliveries have been cancelled, the army has suspended field training, commuters are wearing medical masks, and economists are warning that the smog could have an impact on the rich city-state’s economy.

Singapore’s top Islamic authority even allowed local Muslims to skip Friday prayers, as thick haze continued to drift in from the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation.

Vivian Balakrishnan, Singapore’s minister for environment and water resources, held emergency talks with his counterpart in Jakarta on Friday and called for the city-state and Indonesia to work together to solve the “urgent problem”. Singapore has been ramping up pressure on Indonesia to take more action - but Jakarta has become increasingly irate and an Indonesian minister on Thursday accused Singapore of acting “like a child”. —AFP

Philippines first in Asia to destroy ivory tusks Multimillion-dollar stockpile eliminated MANILA: The Philippines destroyed five tonnes of elephant tusks yesterday in a landmark event aimed at shedding its image as one of the world’s worst hotspots for illegal African ivory trading. The backhoe of a bulldozer began crushing hundreds of tusks in a wildlife bureau car park, as the nation became the first in Asia to eliminate its multimillion-dollar stockpile. “This act is a strong statement to the rest of the world that the Philippines will not tolerate the illegal wildlife trade,” Environment Secretary Ramon Paje said. The five tonnes of ivory came from a total of about 13 tonnes seized by customs officers since the mid 1990s, with the two biggest hauls at Manila’s seaport

and international airport in 2005 and 2009. The rest of the ivory, worth many millions of dollars on the black market, was stolen over the years.

Most of it went missing while being kept by the customs bureau, a notoriously corrupt organisation in the Philippines, and a wildlife bureau officer is on the run after being charged with stealing about 700 kg. The Philippines was in March named by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) as one of eight nations that was failing to do enough to tackle the illegal trade in elephant ivory. The others were Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Malaysia, Vietnam, China and Thailand, and they were warned they could

MANILA: A roller and a backhoe crush five tonnes of elephant tusks at a ceremony at the wildlife bureau compound yesterday. —AFP

face international sanctions on wildlife trading if they failed to take action.

The United Nations and conservation groups have warned the demand for ivory is leading to the slaughter of thousands of African elephants each year, and could eventually lead to their extinction. The Philippines was named because of its role as a transport hub for African ivory being smuggled into countries such as China, Vietnam and Thailand, where demand has skyrocketed in recent years. The ivory is highly sought after for statues, trinkets and other items to showcase wealth. Demand is also high in the Catholic Philippines, with the ivory used for religious icons.

Paje said the destruction of the ivory was one part of the government’s action plan submitted to CITES since March to show it was trying to curb the trade. Another was the launch yesterday of a multi-government-agency taskforce focused solely on the ivory trade. “The Philippines will not be a party to this massacre (of African elephants) and a conduit for the cycle of killing,” Paje said.

The executive director of the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency, Mary Rice, praised the Philippines for taking the lead in destroying its stockpiles. “This is a really significant event. It is the first time a consuming country and an Asian country has decided to dispose of its seized stockpiles,” Rice, who was in Manila to witness the event, told AFP. Rice said thousands of kilograms of seized ivory were sitting in storehouses in other cities around Asia and other parts of the world. Rice and other conservationists called for all Asian countries with stockpiles to emulate the Philippines. —AFP

NEW DELHI: Indian children who were evacuated due to rising waters sit outside makeshift shelters on the banks of the Yamuna River yesterday. —AFP

Bodies in Ganges as India monsoon death toll mounts DEHRADUN, India: Rescue workers recovered scores of bodies from the Ganges river in northern India yesterday, as the death toll from flash floods and landslides topped 200, with thousands of mainly pilgrims and tourists still stranded.

Helicopters and thousands of soldiers have been deployed to rescue more than 50,000 people from religious sites, almost one week after floods and landslides from torrential monsoon rains struck the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, a government minister said.

More than 200 people have been killed in the disaster after raging rivers swept away houses, buildings and even entire villages, and destroyed bridges and narrow roads leading to pilgrimage towns high in the mountains, the minister said. But the death toll is likely to rise, as flood waters recede showing the extent of the devastation and rescue workers reach more isolated areas of the state, known as the “Land of the Gods” for its revered Hindu shrines and temples.

“So far, 207 people have lost their lives. But the toll may go up as debris in many areas is yet to be cleared,” said Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde in New Delhi.

Another 17 people have been killed in the neighbouring state of Himachal Pradesh, a senior government official said. Floods and landslides from monsoon rains have also struck across the border in Nepal, leaving at least 39 people dead, the government there said. In Uttarakhand, police said they have recovered 40 bodies floating in the Ganges near the pilgrimage town of Hardwar. “We have recovered some 40 bodies which floated downstream and the process of identification is on,” Hardwar police chief Rajeev Swaroop told AFP by phone. —AFP

China in credit crunch as Beijing targets debt

16

Indonesia smoke choking up SingaporeÅfs economy

Business

18

World shares, bonds recover lost ground

18

Rosneft to boost oil flows to China in $270 bn deal

17

SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

ARBIL: A general view shows newly built houses in the northern Iraqi Kurdish city of Arbil. — AFP

Arbil booms as Iraq grapples with violence Kurdish region economy growing faster ARBIL: As central Iraq grapples with a surge in violence and a longer-term struggle to wean its economy off a dependence on oil, Abdullah Abdulkarim stands at a car dealership in the northern Kurdish city of Arbil and smiles.

THINGS ARE GETTING BETTER Abdulkarim is not the only one who feels that way-the economy of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, with Arbil as its capital, is growing faster than the rest of the country and sees none of the violence that has raged across Arab areas. In Arbil, crowded cafes overflow onto sidewalks, customers pack out restaurants with no fear of attack and, perhaps most importantly for the threeprovince region’s future prospects, foreign investors appear keen to plant their flag.

“It is really easy to set up shop here,” said Jorge Restrepo, an American of Colombian origin who runs a consultancy business in Kurdistan targeting Spanish and Canadian energy companies. “The government of Kurdistan is very open to foreigners,” he said. Over the course of 22 years since the establishment of a no-fly zone over the region to keep out Saddam Hussein’s forces, Kurdistan has increasingly distanced itself from the rest of Iraq.

The region, comprised of Arbil, Sulaimaniyah and Dohuk provinces and their capitals of the same names, has its own president and prime minister, and the Kurdish flag flutters over government buildings. Rather than the Iraqi army and police, the peshmerga and asayesh comprise the region’s security forces. It is currently enjoying economic growth of 12 percent, according to its regional investment commission, while Iraq’s economy as a whole is projected to expand by nine percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund.

And almost 800 foreign firms-the majority of them from neighboring Turkey-have so far entered the Kurdish market, apparently encouraged in particular by a 2006 investment law that exempts them from taxes on imports and profits for their first 10 years in the region. Firms are not obliged to hire local staff, have local investors or local partners, and can repatriate their profits at their discretion, according to Kamiran Mufti, head of the regional investment commission. But the crucial difference between Kurdistan and the rest of Iraq remains security. “Security is really the key to success,” said Ghada Gebara, head of Korek, Iraq’s thirdbiggest mobile phone operator, which is headquartered in Arbil.

Nationwide violence in Iraq last

ARBIL: Iraqis sit at a coffee shop in the northern city of Arbil. — AFP month was its worst since 2008, mented a plan to combat it”. according to both UN and official figures, but Mufti said the autonomous ‘NOW, EVERYTHING IS GOOD’ region, by contrast, did not record a Regional officials also tout an single incident throughout May. economy that they say is more diverAnd there are more differences. sified than the rest of the country“The bureaucracy is enormous here as cement, pharmaceuticals, steel and well, but in Baghdad, you also have electricity. The latter is produced in religious divisions (between Sunni significant-enough quantities that the and Shiite Arabs), and of course the region exports surplus power to the corruption,” Restrepo said. Iraq is rat- neighboring provinces of Nineveh ed one of the world’s most corrupt and Kirkuk which, like much of Iraq, countries, placing 169 out of 176 suffer from shortfalls. But the northstates listed in Transparency ern region shares one crucial characInternational’s Corruption teristic with the rest of the Iraq-the Perceptions Index, but Mufti insisted heart of its economy is based on oil Kurdish regional leaders have “imple- production. The region has proven

reserves of around 45 billion barrels of crude, or about a third of Iraq’s total reserves, according to regional officials, and its sale is the subject of tense debates.

The central government has angrily criticized Arbil for signing contracts with foreign energy firms without the expressed approval of the federal oil ministry, dismissing such deals as illegal, and slamming the transport of oil to Turkey as “smuggling”. Gebara described the disputes-which also include a row over a swathe of territory stretching from the Iranian border to the Syrian frontier-as “healthy democratic debate”, but analysts and officials point to the disagreements as among the biggest threats to Iraq’s long-term stability.

For now, businesses in Arbil are not worried-at the dealership where Abdulkarim was eyeing a $24,500 pick-up truck, owner Hunar Majid was upbeat. His glass-walled Toyota dealership lies at the centre of the city and is packed. Majid hopes to increase sales threefold compared with last year. At the entrance, Abdulkarim, a shepherd wearing the traditional baggy Kurdish garb, wasted little time debating whether to buy the truck of his dreams. “Before, life was tough,” he said. “I could never pay for this truck.” “But now, everything is good.”— AFP

BUSINESS SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

SoftBank chief to create ‘world’s biggest company’ TOKYO: The flamboyant founder of Japanese telco SoftBank, which is close to a $21.6 billion takeover of US firm Sprint Nextel yesterday added a new goal to his lofty agenda: creating the world’s biggest company. Masayoshi Son told SoftBank’s upbeat annual meeting that he is aiming to turn what is now Japan’s third-largest telecom company into a global behemoth that outpaces the likes of ExxonMobil, JPMorgan and Apple.

“We will become the world’s number-one company at any cost-in terms of profit, cashflows and stock value,”

the 55-year-old telecom billionaire said, pointing to a slide presentation that listed the world’s most valuable firms. SoftBank, largely unknown outside Japan before the Sprint deal was announced last year, is nowhere near that level at present, standing at a paltry 113th in the world, according to Son’s PowerPoint charts. “I used to discreetly say we would be among the world’s top 10 firms, but that doesn’t fit my goals anymore,” he told shareholders who responded with chuckles and applause.

“When I promised to create a com-

pany with trillions of yen in sales, our employees were shocked and said I was crazy.” Son’s comments come just days after US satellite television provider Dish Network dropped plans to submit a revised bid for Sprint Nextel. That offer could have scuttled his play to swallow up nearly 80 percent of the US-based wireless carrier, whose shareholders will vote on the SoftBank offer next week. “We have taken a big step toward completing the acquisition,” Son said yesterday.

The Sprint offer-which, if completed, could be the biggest overseas

acquisition by a Japanese firm-is the latest in a string of deals that have marked the career of one of Japan’s most colorful entrepreneurs. By his telling, Son grew up poor in southern Japan, scrounging food from his neighbors to feed to the family’s livestock. In 1981, a year after returning from the United States where he studied at the University of California at Berkeley, Son founded SoftBank as a software wholesaler and publisher of computer magazines. He is now one of Japan’s richest men, worth an estimated $7.2 billion, according to Forbes. —AFP

AirAsia X sets low IPO, raises $308.6 million KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian longhaul carrier AirAsia X’s initial public offering yesterday raised $308.6 million, fetching a price that was near the lower end of market expectations. The airline priced its initial public offering at 1.25 ringgit per share having earlier advertised an indicative range of 1.15 to 1.45 ringgit to investors.

The budget carrier founded by aviation tycoon Tony Fernandes also said in a statement that the sale of newly issued shares would raise $231.5 million for the company. It had said it would use a third of funds raised to repay debt and another third to expand its fleet. The longhaul arm of AirAsia, Asia’s largest budget carrier by fleet size, indicated earlier the IPO could be worth up to $418 million.

“We had orders for two billion shares at 1.45 and we had only 396 million shares available in the bookbuilding exercise. We want to see retail investors benefit from this IPO and this is the reason why we priced it at 1.25,” Fernandes explained. The carrier will take delivery of 23 Airbus A330-300 planes over the next four years beginning in July, while it has also placed a firm order for 10 A350900s. AirAsia X previously scrapped London flights because of the European debt crisis and focused on serving routes within Asia-Pacific, where sustained economic growth has swelled the middle class.

It currently has 10 Airbus A330300 planes and serves 14 routes across the region, including destinations in Australia, China, Japan and Saudi Arabia. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has described Asia-Pacific as the world’s fastest growing market, with passenger traffic more than doubling since 1998, despite fuel costs surging 55 percent since 2006. Profit-making AirAsia was Asia’s first low-cost carrier to complete an IPO in 2004. —AFP

BEIJING: A Chinese woman reads a paper outside China’s central bank, or People’s Bank of China, in Beijing. A squeeze on credit in China that is rattling world markets appeared to ease slightly as a key interbank interest rate edged lower yesterday, prompting speculation the country’s central bank may have intervened to calm ravaged nerves. —AP

China in credit crunch as Beijing targets debt Credit squeeze raises worry over economy SHANGHAI: The interest rate China’s banks charge to lend money to each other fell sharply yesterday, providing respite from a liquidity squeeze, but analysts warned the cash crisis is raising worries over the already slowing economy. The seven-day repurchase rate-a benchmark for interbank borrowing costs fell to 8.33 percent from Thursday’s close of 11.62 percent, amid rumors the central bank had pressured lenders to release funds.

Rates have surged to record highs in the past two weeks as the People’s Bank of China had refrained from injecting more liquidity-owing to fears about a growth of bad debt-which has in turn weighed on the economy. Chinese media reports said yesterday that the central bank had injected 40 billion yuan ($6.3 billion) into several banks to relieve the funding crisis. The central bank has not made any public statements about its intentions since the credit crunch began.

ANZ Banking Group said yesterday: “As liquidity continues to tighten, Chinese commercial banks have slowed credit extension significantly. This will

pose a significant downside risk to the economy.”

China’s economy, a crucial driver of global growth, expanded 7.8 percent in 2012 - its slowest pace in 13 years-and recorded a surprisingly weak 7.7 percent expansion in the first quarter this year, well below forecasts. Recent weakness in the Asian economic giant had prompted some analysts to suggest the central bank would ease monetary policy but officials refused to budge.

The soaring cost of borrowing has led to a credit crunch, which has sent stocks tumbling and means banks are unable to lend. Yesterday the benchmark Shanghai index closed 0.52 percent lower. Zhang Zhiwei, an economist for Nomura Securities in Hong Kong, said China’s monetary policy stance had not changed despite talk of the liquidity injection. “Recent action by the PBoC reflects the government’s determination to take aggressive action to contain financial risks,” he said. “The monetary policy stance will remain tight.”

The Bank of China, one of the country’s “Big

Four” banks, denied a media report it was unable to complete transactions due to a fund shortage, the official Xinhua news agency said late Thursday. But Fitch Ratings yesterday said some Chinese banks could face constraints in meeting payment obligations later this month because of tight liquidity. “The Chinese authorities have the ability to address the liquidity pressures, but their hands-off response to date reflects in part a new strategy,” the ratings agency said in a statement.

“Such an approach also increases repayment risk among banks, and raises the potential for a policy misstep and/or unintended consequences,” it added. Chinese banks have already scaled back lending in May from April, official figures showed, prompting analysts to warn of threats to economic growth. “The (PBoC) is worried by the unsustainable growth rate of credit and is sending a message that market participants should not take for granted that they will always have access to cheap interbank loans,” Capital Economics said this week. —AFP

BUSINESS SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

Brent stays above $102 Investors buy in after steep drop Rosneft to boost oil flows to China in $270 bn deal ST PETERSBURG: Russia’s Rosneft agreed to double oil supplies to China, in a deal it valued at $270 billion yesterday, as the Kremlin energy champion shifts its focus to Asia from saturated and crisis-hit European markets. Rosneft will supply China with 300,000 barrels per day over 25 years starting in the second half of the decade, on top of the 300,000 bpd it already ships to the world’s largest energy consumer. “The estimated value of the deal is $270 billion,” Rosneft’s boss Igor Sechin, a powerful ally of President Vladimir Putin, told reporters in what would be one of the biggest supply deals in the history of Russia, the world’s top oil producer.

The speed of change in Russian export patterns has been dramatic - switching huge volumes from Europe in only five years.

Russia first started supplying China by railway and then by a new pipeline while opening a Pacific port, Kozmino, in 2009. Together with supplies to Kozmino, it is already exporting around 750,000 barrels per day to Asia, or 17 percent of its overall exports of 4.4 million bpd.

Europe by contrast has lost out. A decline in deliveries in the past few years partially contributed to Russian Urals crude oil often trading at a premium to benchmark dated Brent. Analysts have expressed doubts Rosneft could quickly and significantly boost supplies to China from depleted fields in West Siberia, the historic homeland of Soviet and Russian oil production. A source familiar with the deal said the new agreement with China was timed to tie in with the launch of new streams of East Siberian crude to avoid big redirection of existing flows and allow time to expand export infrastructure.

BIG PREPAYMENT Rosneft and oil pipeline monopoly Transneft have already secured $25 billion from China in 2009 in upfront payments by pre-selling oil in order to accumulate cash to finance growth and new construction projects. Rosneft’s debt burden has spiked this year after it acquired Anglo-Russian producer TNK-BP in a $55 billion cash-and-stock deal, the largest in Russian corporate history, and became the world’s largest publicly listed oil firm. Industry sources have told Reuters Rosneft may secure up to $30 billion in prepayment from China as part of the new deal. That could even double, business daily Vedomosti said yesterday. On Thursday, Putin said Rosneft’s deal with China would be worth $60 billion.

Vedomosti said Putin was referring to an advance payment that Rosneft would receive.

Sechin declined to comment on the details. “This is one of the elements of the deal,” he said when asked about the $60 billion component. Analysts said the possible upfront payment from China would be a big positive for indebted Rosneft. “If confirmed, this would be a transformational event for the company’s balance sheet: Rosneft could even potentially be able to show a net cash position, though working capital would be negative. The prepayment could minimize financing risks for the leveraged state-controlled oil company,” J.P. Morgan analysts said in a note.

TRADERS’ ROLE GROWS According to Standard and Poor’s, Rosneft faces large debt maturities in 2013, 2014, and 2015 of $6.6 billion, $15.9 billon, and $16.2 billion, respectively. Prepayment from China would allow Rosneft to lighten the burden on its balance sheet by reducing debts to banks.

The company has also used other schemes to reduce its debt, including receiving $10 billion from Glencore and Vitol, the world’s two largest oil trading houses, in exchange for five years of supplies. The money was borrowed by the traders for Rosneft and gave the two Swiss trading houses unprecedented access to Russian crude supplies in Europe.

Yesterday, Swiss trading house Trafigura, the world’s third largest, agreed to a similar deal by pre-paying Rosneft $1.5 billion for receiving 10 million tons over 5 years. Separately, Rosneft clinched a $7 billion deal with Polish refiner PKN Orlen to deliver 8 million tons of crude oil to the Czech Republic via the Druzhba pipeline. It also signed a preliminary deal with Vitol to sell liquefied natural gas (LNG) from a Rosneft’s planned plant in eastern Russia from 2019. —Reuters

SINGAPORE: Brent futures held above $102 a barrel yesterday as investors bought opportunistically after the previous session’s steep fall, but a broad market rout triggered by the US Federal Reserve’s plans to wind down stimulus capped gains. Global equities, bond prices and commodities plunged in a sharp sell-off on Thursday, and most markets extended their losses in early Asian trade yesterday. For oil, demand growth concerns following weak manufacturing data from second-biggest global consumer China added further pressure.

Brent crude slipped to as low as $101.88 a barrel before recovering to trade up 45 cents at $102.60 by 0701 GMT. US oil was up 48 cents at $95.62.

But both benchmarks were headed for their steepest weekly loss in two months.

“Ultimately, the United States being off the intravenous dip will be a good thing as it will give the economy a chance to stand on its feet,” said Ben Le Brun, an analyst at OptionsXpress in Sydney.

“But investors are looking at the nearterm impact of a withdrawal in the stimulus. The weak China PMI numbers are also weighing on sentiment in oil.”

China’s factory activity weakened to a nine-month low in June as demand faltered, adding to data pointing to a sluggish economy and raising the chances the country could miss its growth target of 7.5 percent for this year. Both Brent and US oil could slip about 4-5 percent from current levels, Le Brun said. Any upside will be capped at gains of about 2-3 percent, he added.

Assets priced in the dollar, like oil, have been pressured by the greenback which has firmed following Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s comments that

the central bank may reduce its bondbuying program with the goal of ending it in mid-2014. “Oil traded heavy all through the Asia session yesterday, with rallies quickly sold into. As US equities fell and the dollar rallied, this provided a triple headwind for oil,” ANZ analysts in a note yesterday. On Thursday, crude

Syria threatening to engulf neighboring countries. Iraq warned that Syria’s civil war is tearing the Middle East apart and Lebanon’s president urged his country’s Hezbollah movement on Thursday to pull its fighters out of the conflict. Syria’s turmoil is dragging its neighbors into a deadly confrontation

JAKARTA: Indonesian workers push their motocycles to the presidential palace in Jakarta yesterday to dramatize their anti-fuel price increase protest. Following parliament’s approval of the budget, fuel prices are expected to increase on average 33 percent. —AFP prices posted their biggest daily loss since November with Brent ending down $3.97 and US oil finishing $2.84 lower.

STEMMING LOSSES But prices may be supported by concerns about a disruption in supply from the Middle East, with the violence in

between Shiite Iran supporting President Bashar Al-Assad and Sunni Arab Gulf nations backing the Syrian rebels. “The Middle East is still a clear and present danger to oil markets and prices,” Le Brun said. “Tensions in the Middle East will continue to put a floor on prices.” —Reuters

China’s Iran oil imports jump ahead of US sanction waiver BEIJING: China’s average daily crude imports from Iran jumped nearly 50 percent in May from the previous month, back around levels before sanctions were slapped on the Middle Eastern country over its disputed nuclear program two years ago. The jump in China’s imports of Iranian crude to 555,557 barrels per day (bpd) came just before the United States renewed the country’s waiver on US sanctions aimed at cutting off Iran’s oil revenues and bringing it to the negotiating table.

But industry sources with knowledge of China’s crude imports said the surge from Iran may be due to the timings of cargo arrivals and how they were counted by the General Administration of Customs (GAC). The sources said China’s two main importers - Sinopec Corp and Zhuhai Zhenrong do not usually vary their term crude imports widely monthto-month. China, the world’s second biggest oil consumer, bought 2.36 million tons of Iranian crude in May, equivalent to about 555,557 bpd, data from the GAC showed yesterday.

That was up 49.5 percent from the 371,500 bpd of Iranian crude that China imported in April, the data showed. The May level rose 6.4 percent from 521,936 bpd a year earlier.

China and other buyers of Iranian oil including India, Japan and South Korea have been pressured by US and European

sanctions since early last year to cut imports. The United States in early June renewed waivers on sanctions for China and other Asian countries in exchange for their reducing purchases of crude from Iran.

China’s imports for the first five months of the year were up about 10 percent from the same period a year ago. The import figures for May and year-to-date contrasted sharply with China’s oil shipments from Iran in 2012, when the intake of Iranian barrels was about 438,448 bpd, down 21 percent versus 2011. The US and European measures aimed at Iran’s oil exports cut them to their lowest in decades in May and have been costing the country billions of dollars in lost revenue per month. Washington is now seeking to cut Iran’s oil shipments further through tighter sanctions.

India, Iran’s second largest customer, cut its Iranian crude imports 12.2 percent in May compared with a year ago. South Korea reduced its imports of oil from Iran by 8.3 percent from the month compared to May 2012. China has repeatedly voiced its opposition to unilateral sanctions outside those by the United Nations, such as those imposed by the United States. China’s total crude imports in May inched up 0.4 percent from a year earlier to 5.64 million bpd, customs data showed earlier in the month. —Reuters

BUSINESS SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

Indonesia smoke choking up Singapore’s economy SINGAPORE: The severe smog over Singapore caused by forest fires in Indonesia could hurt the city-state’s economy if it persists for weeks, economists said yesterday as the pollution index hit new record levels. Tourist spots are shutting down, companies are allowing staff to work from home and a VIP airport has suspended operations. Some Singapore restaurants were almost deserted during the normally busy Friday lunch period.

As thick grey smoke and the acrid smell of burning wood and grass smothered the city-state for a fifth day running, economists said tourism in particular could suffer from Singapore’s worst environmental emergency since the 1997 haze crisis. Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Thursday that the problem “can easily last for several weeks, and quite possibly longer until the dry season ends in Sumatra”.

The season lasts from June to September. “The impact on Singapore from the Indonesian haze is particularly severe this year, and could become worse than 1997,” said Rajiv Biswas, Asia Pacific chief economist at research firm IHS Global Insight. “If the haze persists over the coming weeks during the seasonal slash-and-burn period in Sumatra, it has the potential to have significant negative effects on the Singapore economy.

“Images of the haze enveloping Singapore are being widely reported on TV channels and other media globally, and can be particularly damaging to Singapore’s world-class tourism industry.” Tourism is a revenue-spinner for

Singapore, a tiny city-state that has designed itself as a regional hub for everything from hosting conventions to managing the wealth of the world’s millionaires. Singapore welcomed 14.4 million visitors last year who generated Sg$23 billion ($18 billion) in tourismrelated revenues. The sector contributed 4.0 percent directly to the gross domestic product (GDP).

“If the number of tourist visitors fall sharply even for several months, this will hurt Singapore’s GDP numbers for the third quarter of 2013,” Biswas said. He

noted that such a decline would come at a time when Singapore’s manufacturing sector, a traditional pillar of the trade-driven economy, is hurting from weak orders, particularly for electronics products, from its main markets the United States and Europe.

“It’s a bit of a disappointment that you can’t really see the towers or the buildings. And it’s a bit dark,” said 26-year-old British tourist Amy Jones, referring to Singapore’s famous Marina Bay Sands casino complex which looks like a curved ocean liner perched on three hotel tow-

SINGAPORE: People sit at bars along the Boat Quay in Singapore yesterday.

Severe smog over Singapore caused by forest fires in Indonesia could hurt the city-state’s economy if it persists for weeks, economists said yesterday, as the pollution index hit new record levels. — AFP

Morocco to cut subsidies RABAT: Morocco will begin deregulating prices for some basic goods in the next two weeks, its first step towards reducing subsidies, its general affairs minister said. The Islamist-led government has delayed reforms to subsidies and pensions recommended by the International Monetary Fund because of their political sensitivity.

“We will activate automatic price adjustment in the next two weeks - before Ramadan - for energy products and sugar, except cooking gas,” General Affairs and Governance Minister Mohamed Najib Boulif said in an interview late on Thursday. His comments came a few days after an IMF team visited the North African kingdom to audit its public finances.

The shift will allow the government to cut spending on subsidies by 20 percent, to 42 billion dirhams ($5 billion) or less, the minister said. That is within the limit fixed by the 2013 budget, which is based on an oil price of $105. Coming just before the start on July 10 of Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month that often involves heavy spending for millions of Moroccans, the move may be controversial. “The adjustment will be in both directions. When (oil) prices are less than $105, that will let Moroccans consider that it is not necessarily a bad thing,” Boulif said.

Subsidies burned up 53.36 billion dirhams in 2012 or 6.4 pct of Morocco’s GDP, including 32.4 billion dirhams for oil, 15.8 billion dirhams for gas and 5 billion dirhams for sugar.

The minister said prices would not be fully liberalized, however, and that maximums would be set. “(The figure) is not public yet, I can’t say it,” he said. “The government will help the process by price hedging to anticipate fluctuations of commodity prices in the international markets.”

Last August, the IMF approved a $6.2 billion precautionary line of credit for Morocco over two years while urging reforms of its subsidy and pension systems. Boulif said the move had been agreed by the coalition government, which a junior party had threatened to quit unless Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane moderated plans for sweeping cuts to subsidies on food and energy. Benkirane insists the reforms will go ahead. —Reuters

ers over 50 storeys high. Jit Soon Lim, head of equity research for Southeast Asia at Nomura Singapore Ltd, said domestic consumption will also suffer as residents stay indoors. Singapore’s GDP is expected to grow between 1 and 3 percent this year, according to official forecasts.

The Pollutants Standards Index rose to an all-time high of 401 at midday yesterday, a level deemed as potentially lifethreatening to ill and elderly persons if it persists over a 24-hour period. Wild Wild Wet, a popular aquatic park in the island’s eastern suburbs, was shut down along with the Singapore Flyer, the world’s biggest Ferris wheel. Jurong Bird Park was open but outdoor shows have been cancelled. Seletar Airport, which services the private jets of VIP guests, was also closed “as a result of prolonged poor visibility caused by the haze,” authorities said. The main Changi Airport remains operational. Non-essential employees at Malaysian bank CIMB were allowed to work from home and staff were given N95 masks, which block out 95 percent of airborne particles larger than 0.3 microns, said the lender’s regional economist Song Seng Wun. But one sector is a direct beneficiary of the haze problem-surgical masks are in short supply because people have been buying them in great numbers from pharmacies. Southeast Asia’s worst haze crisis took place in 1997-1998, causing widespread health problems and costing the regional economy billions of dollars as a result of business and air transport disruptions. — AFP

World shares, bonds recover lost ground Commodities, bonds steady after Fed-driven selloff LONDON: World shares, bonds and commodities recovered some lost ground yesterday, after a sharp sell-off triggered by the US Federal Reserve’s plan to roll back the asset-buying program which sustained markets through the financial crisis. Easing fears about an immediate banking crunch in China also made for a calmer tone, although short-term funding rates there remain elevated, especially for smaller banks.

But with investors still trying to map out a direction for life after the Fed’s largesse comes to an end, emerging markets in particular remained under stress. Growing signs of US economic strength was seen sparking a migration by investors back to more advanced economies as the attractiveness of the returns on offer in star developing countries such as Turkey and South Africa waned. “There have been huge moves, there have been huge repositionings, so maybe before the weekend volatility can come down a bit,” Piet Lammens, a strategist at KBC said.

MSCI’s benchmark index for emerging equities fell a further 0.5 percent yesterday after sliding by over 4 percent in Thursday’s violent selloff. World stocks in general were up 0.15 percent, though still on track for their worst week in over a year. In Europe, the broad FTSE Eurofirst 300 index rose 0.4 percent in morning trade, having slid 3.1

percent on Thursday, its biggest one-day fall in 19 months. A 0.5 percent rise in US stock futures also hinted at a rebound on Wall Street later.

“The fear is ... setting in, with a lot of cutting of bullish positions. The most likely scenario is that rallies will be sold so I would be very careful buying the dip,” said Lex van Dam, hedge fund manager at Hampstead Capital. The dollar stepped back from a two-week high against a basket of developed currencies but was seen on a solid footing given the Fed’s plans and could see its best weekly rise in a year. It gained 0.5 percent against the yen to 97.75 yen in choppy trade. The euro was steady at $1.3220, having backtracked from Wednesday’s four-month peak of $1.3414.

NEW WORLD All major equity markets along with many of the world’s main bonds and key commodities are still on course for their worst week in months if not years as investors prepare for the end of Fed’s massive $85 billion a month of liquidity injections. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke had revealed the plan on Wednesday when he said that if the US economy keeps improving as expected, the central would begin tapering back the cash inflows later this year and end them completely by the middle of 2014.

The huge stimulus effort has driven

many riskier assets to new highs and even after this week’s selloff many will still be in positive territory for the year though the adjustment to the Fed’s new policy is expected to be ongoing. “We are in a new environment,” Larry Kantor, head of research at Barclays said. “It has been an extremely friendly (investor) environment and now, it is just going to be a bit more normal.”

GREEK DRAMA In the fixed income market, the core German bonds were little changed, pausing after posting their biggest daily drop since March on Thursday, largely tracking US Treasuries yields which have steadied near two-year highs. However, in the riskier peripheral euro zone markets fears of growing political turmoil in Greece were dominating trading, sending 10-year Greek debt yields up 70 basis points to 11.4 percent.

Commodity markets saw some demand from investor’s attracted by the week’s big price falls although worries about China’s sluggish growth outlook weighed on sentiment. Gold recovered from a three-year trough to be up 1.5 percent at $1,297.01 an ounce as Chinese buyers became more active. Brent crude recovered to trade up 45 cents at $102.60 and US oil was up 48 cents at $95.62, though both benchmarks were headed for their steepest weekly loss in two months. — Reuters

BUSINESS SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

EU trade chief sees speedy end to Chinese solar row BEIJING: The European Union’s trade chief expressed confidence yesterday that Brussels and Beijing can reach a speedy agreement in a bitter dispute over Chinese solar panels that sparked fears of a debilitating trade war. “I trust that we can come to a solution in the coming days or coming weeks,” EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said at a press conference in Beijing.

De Gucht spoke after talks with Gao Hucheng, China’s minister of commerce, at the annual meeting of the two sides’ joint economic and trade commissions.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, this month imposed an average tariff of 11.8 percent on solar panel imports from China-rising to 47.6 percent on August 6 if there are no negotiations based on a Chinese commitment to address the problem. The tariffs on solar panels are provisional for six months, with EU member states having a vote in December on whether to make them permanent or not.

De Gucht had said earlier this month that Chinese panels were being sold at up to 88 percent below cost in the European market. Complaints from European companies had triggered a probe. Yesterday, De Gucht suggested that the August 6

deadline was a key factor in the need to clinch a settlement. “We should reach an agreement so as to have a solution which can be implemented by the 6th of August,” he said. Though De Gucht insisted that the solar panel issue was not included in the discussions at the annual meeting, he said that negotiators have been working on it in both Brussels and Beijing.

“I think these meetings have been very helpful,” he said. He declined to reveal the content of the negotiations. “These are very technical things which have to be figured out,” he said. “We need to contact customs and so on.” China’s commerce ministry had no immediate reaction to De Gucht’s comments. Earlier, at a joint appearance with the European, Gao said: “Both sides have the wish and goodwill to

BEIJING: EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht (left) and China’s Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng attend a press conference in Beijing yesterday. — AFP

EU finance ministers tackle banking reform LUXEMBOURG: European Union finance ministers tackled bank sector reform yesterday, aiming to build on a euro-zone deal to inject capital directly into failing lenders to prevent wider damage to the economy. On Thursday, the 17 eurozone finance ministers agreed how the single currency’s rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism, could help the banks without adding to the already large debt burden on member states. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said that the accord marked an “important step ... towards banking union,” the new regulatory framework for EU banks aimed at containing the fallout from any bank collapse.

Warning that the talks could prove difficult, Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan said the deal cleared the way for discussion of the last major issues on the way to banking union. “We have made significant progress in narrowing the ground (but) there are still some significant divergences of opinion,” Noonan said, highlighting the treatment of bank creditors. Up to now, the taxpayer has paid for most of state and bank bailouts but this has stoked growing unease and only added to overall debt levels. Part of a bailout for Greece involved losses for bondholders, and this caused a crisis for banks in Cyprus.

To address problem of taxpayers’ being landed with most of the costs, the EU, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund in March agreed a Cyprus rescue which ‘bailed-in’ larger depositors in its two biggest banks to pay for their restructuring. That move shocked savers who had felt they were safe, particularly in light of the EU’s supposedly blanket guarantee of deposits up to 100,000 euros. Noonan said the biggest issue at the talks would be how the bail-in option would be managed, with some states wanting more flexibility to deal with it at a national, as opposed to an EU level.

RISK OF REPERCUSSIONS The concern is if a company is bailed-in during a bank rescue, it could be weakened as a result and have an adverse knock-on effect on the wider economy. Over-extended banks have been at the heart of the debt crisis and fixing the problem through what is known as the Banking Recovery and Resolution Direction being discussed yesterday is seen as crucial. The EU initially set up the 500-billion-euro ($665-billion) ESM to bail out member states but last June, when Spain’s banks looked near to collapse, Brussels extended its scope to allow direct aid for struggling lenders. —AFP

address the solar panel issue” through discussions about prices.

In addition to solar cells, Brussels and Beijing are also involved in a series of disputes covering other products, ranging from steel pipes to wine, that have sparked fears of a trade war. China said this month it will deal “appropriately” with the EU’s decision to challenge it at the World Trade Organization after Beijing slapped duties on some steel products. Beijing has launched a probe into imports of EU wine and chemicals amid accusations it is selling goods below cost-a process known as “dumping”-while the EU has threatened an investigation into the country’s telecom equipment firms.

The tit-for-tat trade measures have triggered concerns over the repercussions they may cause to broader business relations between the two. The tariffs on solar panels are provisional for six months, with EU member states having a vote in December on whether to make them permanent or not. According to Chinese industry figures, China exported $35.8 billion of solar products in 2011, more than 60 percent of them to the EU, while it imported $7.5 billion-worth of European solar equipment and raw materials. — AFP

Creeping mistrust stops euro-zone bank lending Cross-border interbank loans slide BRUSSELS: Euro-zone banks are refusing to lend to peers in other countries in the common currency bloc, signaling a worrying fall in confidence that appears to have worsened since the Cyprus bailout earlier this year, data analysed by Reuters showed. In a trend that could reignite fears about the euro and its banks, European Central Bank data shows the share of interbank funding that crosses borders within the euro-zone dropped by a third, to just 22.5 percent in April from 34.5 percent at the beginning of 2008.

Banks are now lending to other banks across euro-zone borders at only about the same rate as when the single currency was first launched, 15 years ago. The silent retreat to within national borders is most pronounced in the troubled economies of southern Europe but is seen even in Germany.

Cross-border interbank funding of German banks was down by 11.2 percent year on year in March, equivalent to banks elsewhere in Europe withdrawing 29.5 billion euros from its biggest economy.

“We have seen the banks very much reverting to their domestic markets and not wanting to extend credit abroad,” said Tony Stringer, a government debt analyst with ratings agency Fitch. “Interbank deposits have been reduced. Confidence in banks across the euro-zone has been reduced. If banks continue to struggle, then they can’t extend credit to the real economy.” Euro-zone banks’ stock of lending to their Greek peers was a startling 68 percent lower in April than in the same month a year earlier - equivalent to 18 billion euros withdrawn. In Portugal, the decrease was roughly one quarter.

The figures, obtained from the ECB, include lending both between separate banks in different euro-zone countries and within a single banking group to its crossborder units. Faltering confidence may be

responsible for the reduction in cross border lending, due in part to a bailout of Cyprus that closed one of its two main banks and imposed losses on creditors, making banks in the euro-zone appear more risky. While the withdrawal of cross-border funds seems to have taken place throughout the year, the figures spiked in several countries - including Germany and Greece - in March, the month of the Cyprus bailout.

Lobbyists for the banking industry also say a soon-to-be-finalized EU law making it possible to impose losses, or “haircuts”, on bank creditors could hurt confidence. “At any point in time, this thing can blow up,” said Karl Whelan, an economist at University College Dublin, warning of a potential spillover onto regular savers. “We are relying on an absence of panic among depositors while we sit around and work out who to haircut. There is a risk of large scale deposit withdrawals in Spanish banks, in particular.

They are the obvious tinder box.”

ECB DENIES PROBLEM The European Central Bank denies that the fall in cross-border lending is a sign of confidence problems. A spokesman for the European Central Bank countered that the trend was due to a general shift towards secured lending and funding via retail deposits. Banks were deleveraging, which increases the importance of stable retail deposits. “Overall these facts suggest rather a stronger, more resilient banking system,” the spokesman said.

The ECB itself has provided banks with an alternative source of funding, creating more than 1 trillion euros of liquidity in the past year by offering 3-year-loans. But Lena Komileva of consultancy G+ Economics said ECB funding was no substitute for a healthy supply of loans from other banks across the

bloc. “Some banks suffer from chronic illiquidity in the capital markets,” she said.

“Central bank liquidity is no remedy for dysfunctional markets and undercapitalised banks.”

CHRONIC SITUATION The trend has put Europe’s supervisors on alert and stands in contrast with statements

by ECB President Mario Draghi that banks in “stressed” countries are finding it easier to get such loans and that the ECB had got “better control of monetary conditions in the euro area”. The cross-border freeze also blunts ECB efforts to bolster the economy by cutting interest rates because it prevents cheaper and easier loans for consumers and business, especially in southern Europe, where loan costs are double that of north.

Were the system working at its best, southern European banks should be able to borrow from northern ones and pass on the cheap rates to their customers. Joerg Asmussen, the German member of the ECB’s executive board, conceded that some banks continue to struggle: “Banks from the countries most severely hit still have only limited access to the money market,” he said on Monday. Such concerns set the backdrop for a gathering of European Union finance ministers in Luxembourg on Friday, which will shape a new EU law allowing the imposition of losses on bondholders and large depositors of a failing bank. Some countries, partly due to nervousness that such rules will erode confidence or prompt big savers to withdraw cash, want national leeway in deciding whether to “bail in” creditors. “It’s at the back of our minds that investors are more exposed,” said Sharon Bowles, a lawmaker in the European Parliament who will play a part in shaping the rules. “But that’s a deliberate policy choice. —Reuters

BUSINESS SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

Turkish assets stabilize Lira, shares steady, bonds weaken ISTANBUL: The Turkish lira and shares edged higher, while bonds weakened in low volumes yesterday, as investors monitored the central bank’s response to Thursday’s sharp sell-off triggered by Federal Reserve plans to cut back its asset-buying program.

The lira, which has lost around 8 percent of its value against the dollar this year, hit a fresh all-time low of 1.9420 overnight but rebounded to 1.9330 by 0830 GMT, firming slightly from 1.9363 late on Thursday.

The central bank, which sold $350 million to support the lira in six forex auctions on Thursday, opened a another $50 million auction yesterday morning. HSBC Asset Management strategist Ali Cakiroglu said he expected cautious trading after Thursday’s

losses, with the direction of the lira setting the tone for markets as a whole.

“In this connection the decision which the Turkish central bank takes will be monitored. I think the high level of volatility will continue,” he said. Bankers said on Thursday the central bank could call an emergency meeting and raise the upper band of its interest rate corridor in response to the lira weakness. It would be the first time it took such a step since August 2011.

The central bank held its monthly rate setting meeting on Tuesday and kept its main policy rate, the one-week repo rate, at 4.50 percent, its borrowing rate at 3.5 percent and its overnight lending rate at 6.5 percent. The bank’s next monetary policy

meeting is due on July 23, but many bankers argue it cannot afford to wait that long.

Against its euro/dollar basket, the lira weakened to 2.25 in early trade from 2.2443 a day earlier and stood at 2.2435 at 0830 GMT. “The central bank’s sale of foreign exchange in the current conditions makes the job of exiting (the market) easier for those who want to,” said a forex trader at one bank, adding that direct intervention could also be an option.

The March 8, 2023 10-year bond traded at 8.48 percent, up from a last trade of 8.32 percent on Thursday. The yield on the two-year benchmark bond, which has been scarcely traded in the last two weeks, was at 7.97 percent after rising 80 basis points to 7.61 per-

Australia names ‘Outback Adventurer, Chief Funster’ ‘Best Jobs in the World’ competition SYDNEY: Australia yesterday selected a Californian as “Chief Funster” and an Irish Internet entrepreneur as “Outback Adventurer” in its “Best Jobs in the World” competition, a campaign that attracted 330,000 applicants from 196 nations. “Blimey,” gasped Englishman Rich Keam as he was named “Taste Master”, a job that will see him spend six months in Western Australia touring the huge state’s best restaurants, wineries, breweries and pubs.

“Queensland is just beautiful, I chose well,” beamed Frenchwoman Elisa Detrez, who will spend her time patrolling the tropical beaches of the Sunshine State as a park ranger, taking rainforest walks and promoting Australia’s unique native plants and animals. “I think Australia is a bit like the new El Dorado,” Detrez said.

“Everybody wants to come here because the life is just so cool, and the weather is better, and the (financial) crisis is not here. So we all want to come here.”

Other winners were Brazilian Roberto Seba who will be a lifestyle photographer in Melbourne and Canadian Greg Snell who will become a wildlife caretaker in South Australia, while American Cameron Ernst gets to travel the country on Virgin Australia to champion the best customer service experiences.

Australia first announced the jobs in March as a marketing push to build on the success of its 2009 “Best Job in the World” campaign, won by Briton Ben Southall who was paid to become caretaker on a picture-perfect island on the Great Barrier Reef for six months. In the latest incarnation, the jobs were open to travelers aged between 18 and 30, designed to promote tourism opportunities offered by Australian working holiday visas.

Thousands of Australians also entered, but none were among the finalists who also came from Hong Kong, Scotland, Taiwan, Afghanistan, Belgium and Germany.

Tourism Australia managing director Andrew McEvoy said the campaign was already delivering results, with airlines and travel agencies reporting increased bookings and officials seeing a significant spike in interest in the working holiday programme which last year contributed Aus$2.5 billion (US$2.3 billion) to the economy.

Hopefuls had to upload a 30-second video explaining why they were best for the job, with Irishman Allan Dixonwho will journey through the Outback, be immersed in indigenous culture and get up close with Australian wildlife for his job-using social media to enlist the support of sprinter Usain Bolt, adventurer Bear Grylls, TV host Conan O’Brien and actor Hugh Jackman for his bid.

The finalists spent the past week in Australia as part of

SYDNEY: Allan Dixon from Ireland, the winner of the Northern Territory ‘Outback Adventurer’ job in Tourism Australia’s ‘Best Jobs in the World’ competition, jumps on the steps of the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney yesterday. — AFP their assessment for the positions and Frenchwoman Detrez, 28, who is from Les Molunes, liked what she saw.

“Everything was so, so gorgeous, landing in the middle of the rainforest was a great experience, diving in the Great Barrier Reef was something really special too,” she said.

Funster Andrew Smith, 25, admitted his Sydney job title was a little ambiguous but he was looking forward to travelling the state as a social media commentator and getting involved in festivals and events, such as Sydney Harbour’s New Year’s Eve fireworks.

“In my opinion Chief Funster is somebody who goes and discovers the passion behind what people do,” he said.

“Because they always have a story and they always have a reason. —AFP

cent on Thursday. The main Istanbul stock exchange index, which tumbled 6.82 percent on Thursday, edged up 0.08 percent to 73,516.45 points. It has slid 21 percent since May 22.

Standard Bank’s emerging market research head Timothy Ash said the EM selloff was “long overdue” with the latest problems exposing vulnerabilities ignored in recent months amid the Fed’s bond-buying program, known as quantative easing (QE).

“This crisis is laying bare the fact that QE was bad for fundamental reform in EM as many countries facing easy and cheap financing conditions got lulled into a false sense of security and slow boated on key fiscal and structural reforms,” he said. — Reuters

Gold heads for biggest weekly drop in 2 years LONDON: Gold recovered some lost ground yesterday after earlier hitting near three-year lows, but stayed on track for its biggest weekly drop in almost two years after the Federal Reserve signaled an end to easy money. The precious metal rebounded more than 1 percent as world shares, bonds and commodities steadied yesterday, a day after a sharp sell-off triggered by plans by the US Federal Reserve to cut back its quantitative easing program. But that did little to offset Thursday’s 5.4 percent price crash. Gold is still down more than 7 percent since last Friday, its biggest weekly fall since its drop from record highs in September 2011.

Spot gold was up 1.4 percent at $1,295.60 an ounce at 1001 GMT, having earlier hit its lowest since September 2010 at $1,268.89 an ounce. “Quantitative easing was massively stimulative for precious metals, and we are now seeing that process going into reverse,” Natixis analyst Nic Brown said. “The effects of QE had been hugely positive for precious metals because they weakened the dollar and pushed medium-term interest rates to abnormally low levels, which removed most of the negative carry associated with holding gold.”

“As you take away liquidity, you see a significant rise in longer-term interest rates, and 10-year yields shot up yesterday. That to us is the trigger (for lower gold prices).” US gold futures for August delivery were up $9.10 an ounce at $1,295.30, having earlier touched a near three-year low at $1,268.70. The CME Group Inc, parent of the Chicago Board of Trade, raised initial margins for Comex gold after prices plunged to their lowest in three years on Thursday. Comex gold futures fell 6.4 percent, in heavy volumes.

VOLUMES HIGH “Almost 391,000 gold futures contracts were traded on the COMEX yesterday,” Commerzbank said in a note. “This corresponded to 1,215 tons of gold, and was almost three times the previous average this month.” “Almost 169,000 silver contracts (26,200 tons) were traded, the biggest trading volume since prices collapsed in mid-April. It was likewise almost three times more on a daily basis than hitherto this month.”

Investment interest in gold has waned this year, with holdings of physically backed gold exchange-traded funds - a popular way to invest in bullion since the financial crisis - falling more than 485 tons this year.

The largest, New York’s SPDR Gold Trust, reported another 4.5-tonne drop in its holdings on Thursday, taking them to their lowest in more than four years at 995.35 tons, 26 percent below their December 2012 peak of 1,353 tons. — Reuters

SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013 www.kuwaittimes.net

Kim Kardashian, Kanye West name their baby North West PAGE 22

US circus boasts AfricanAmerican roots, global cast PAGE 25

High wire performer Nik Wallenda walks across a wire as he practices Tuesday, June 18, 2013 in Sarasota, Fla. Wallenda, a seventh generation highwire walker, will attempt to walk across the Grand Canyon tomorrow. — AP

SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

Katy Perry finds reading difficult

T

he ‘Firework’ singer was brought up in a strict Christian household and didn’t “go to school much” because her family moved around the US when she was younger, and her education suffered as a result. She told US Vogue: “I have a problem reading ... I wasn’t going to great schools, because my parents didn’t believe in public education. They wanted the education to be influenced by their religion, so I was going to these halfway education-slash-Christian schools that were like pop-up shop-style education.” Katy - who moved back to Santa Barbara in California with her parents at the age of10 - doesn’t blame her parents for her education, crediting her mother, Mary Hudson, with being a great teacher. She said: “She went to a couple of girls’ schools in Carmel and then went to Berkeley and studied abroad in Spain. She speaks French, she used to be a painter, but now she is just in the ministry. She used to be a reporter, actually. She wanted to be Barbara Walters.”

Brad Pitt’s family makes him ‘richest man alive’

Kim Kardashian, Kanye West name their baby North West

T

he reality TV star gave birth to the couple’s first child on Saturday and despite previous speculation they had settled on the name Kaidence Donda for their newborn daughter, the stars have reportedly opted for the directional name. Gossip website TMZ has seen the birth certificate for the baby, who was born at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills, California, while other reports from the US corroborate the name, also.

UsMagazine.com confirms the tot’s name as North, adding that the couple will call her ‘Nori’ as a nickname. Both mother and baby are said to be “doing great” even though Kim, 32, went into labour five weeks early. A source said: “The baby is so sweet. Kanye is in love. Kim’s real due date was July 12 — Kanye’s mom’s birthday. That warmed his heart.” Kim and Kanye, 36, were rumoured to be considering calling their baby North in the past and the ‘Keeping Up with the Kardashians’ star even joked about giving her child a compass-themed name in an interview with Jay Leno on ‘The Tonight Show’. She said: “I do like Easton, Easton West.”

P

T

he 49-year-old actor has six children - Maddox, 11, Pax, nine, Zahara, eight, Shiloh, six, and fouryear-old twins Knox and Vivienne - with his fiancée Angelina Jolie says being a father has changed everything about his life and enriched it in so many ways. He said: “You learn to value the basic beauty of family, of watching your children grow and evolve. Being a father has changed me on so many levels and made me more generous and alive. “I see my children as a basic part of my life and it means so much to me to educate them and help them make their way in the world. “I love being a father and all the responsibilities it entails. I feel like the richest man alive since I’ve become a father.” Brad has also praised his own parents, Jane and William, for their influence on his life and the way they raised him. He added: “My attitude is pretty much shaped by the way my own parents raised me and my brother and sister. I feel that I was able to grow up with a good perspective and a good common-sense understanding of the world.” The Hollywood hunk’s latest film is the apocalyptic horror movie ‘World War Z’ - which he co-produced and stars in - and he is adamant the underlying message in the film is about protecting your family, despite all the killer zombies. He is quoted by the Daily Mirror newspaper as saying: “It’s saying that you have to do what it takes to protect your family. It’s saying that you have to be prepared to take up a challenge at such a fundamental level of survival.”

No birthdays for Paris Jackson

aris Jackson hasn’t celebrated her birthday since her father Michael Jackson died. The 15-year-old aspiring actress -who is currently recuperating in hospital following a suicide attempt earlier this month - hasn’t thrown a party on her special day since the private circus bash the King of Pop arranged for her in April 2009, just two months before he died. In the ongoing wrongful death lawsuit that the Jackson family have brought against AEG Live in relation to the star’s death, Michael’s former personal chef, Kai Chase, revealed how the troubled teen hasn’t been coping and “breaks down” in tears all the time. Kai told the court: “Paris hasn’t had any birthdays since [Michael died]. She hasn’t wanted to celebrate since.” She later added: “Being daddy’s little girl, Paris is devastated.

She’s devastated and lost. She’s trying to find herself and find who she is. “It’s taking a lot of love and understanding to keep her together. She breaks down, she cries, she talks about him.” Kai revealed how Michael’s youngest child, son Blanket, 11 - who is homeschooled - wears a T-shirt with a picture of his dad’s face emblazoned on it every Friday. She explained: “He never really had a time when it was father- son because he was so tiny.” The chef then went on to explain how Michael’s eldest son, Prince, 16 - who is set to be a key witness in the legal battle - is feeling the strain during the trial. She said: “At 16, the weight of the world is on his shoulders.”

Michael’s mother, Katherine Jackson - who is the legal guardian of Prince, Paris and Blanket - is suing the company for $40 billion as she claims the concert promoters failed to properly investigate Dr Conrad Murray - who is currently serving four years imprisonment for the involuntary manslaughter of Michael, who died from a Propofol overdose - before entrusting Michael to his care.

SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

T

P Diddy appreciates his female fans

he ‘Coming Home’ hitmaker - who has five children - has mellowed now he is 43 and no longer has wild and crazy parties backstage. When asked what the craziest thing a fan has done for him was, Diddy told Extra TV: “I’ve had some fun, and some of the stories are true, and I thank God for those stories of being in the music industry and having fun. But as you evolve and as you grow you kind of look for something more special and appreciate your female fans.

You’re always looking for that one special person you can always count on.” Diddy appeared alongside Mark Wahlberg, who also said he is grateful to the fans who have supported his career. He added: “I’ve been very fortunate in that I’ve had a lot of genuine support, people appreciate the work that I do because they know how much effort I put into it. “If you want to see any of my other stories you can look at the inspiration behind [TV show] ‘Entourage’ and some of the early episodes of that, whether it was me, or Diddy or someone else.” Meanwhile Diddy has announced he is launching a new cable channel in the US, Revolt TV. Diddy wants the new venture to be the “first channel of the social media age,” and will designed to be broadcast across a number of different platforms. He added: “I would say this journey started me for seven years ago when MTV stopped playing music and that had huge impact on the future of music. “The music started to become safe. We didn’t have the experience I had when I grew up, whether it be Led Zeppelin or Janice Joplin. There was no longer a platform for music artists to trust with their creativity.”

Amy Adams charmed

by Henry Cavill

A

my Adams couldn’t stop “giggling” when she looked into Henry Cavill’s eyes. The actress plays the hunky actor’s love interest Lois Lane in new Superman movie ‘Man of Steel’ and admits she couldn’t help but succumb to his charm when they filmed romantic scenes together. She said: “He’s extremely charming and charismatic. It’s very easy to imagine him as Superman because of his look and his presence. “Whenever I looked into his eyes, I started giggling because he has this effect on you. I think most women feel the same way about Henry. He’s dreamy!” However, away from the film set, the 38-year-old star only has eyes for fiance Darren Le Gallo with whom she has two-year-old daughter Aviana - who she credits for making her feel “complete”. She gushed: “He’s enabled me to grow up and evolve into a much more mature and complete woman. I think he also helped me become a better actress. When you find that kind of man, it eases a lot of anxieties and you just enjoy the process of loving someone with all your heart.” Before becoming a Hollywood star, Amy admits she lacked self-confidence as a child and was “painfully awkward. She added: “I was very homely and didn’t fit in at school. I always thought of myself as painfully awkward. I wasn’t brimming with the self-confidence you need to go on and become an actress.”

Jackie Stallone looks like a ‘chipmunk’

T

he 91-year-old star - mother of screen icon Sylvester Stallone - has had countless surgical procedures over the years, and regrets how they have left her looking. When asked if she still has cosmetic surgery, she told website MailOnline: “I do and actually I’ve got too much, I look like I’ve got a mouth full of nuts, it’s [cosmetic filler] Juvederm , too much of it. I feel as though I look like a chipmunk.’ Explaining Juvederm, she added: “It plumps you up but it looks like you have a mouth full of walnuts. “I’ve had chemical peels, I’ve had three of those and about 50 injections.” However, Jackie is against Botox injections, fillers which reduce wrinkles but can leave the face looking stiff. She added: “No Botox, I don’t need that, what I want Botox wouldn’t help. I don’t have wrinkles in my forehead, I genetically don’t have that, that’s something I can be thankful for.”

Although she lives in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica, Jackie does not visit doctors in nearby Beverly Hills for her surgery, as she doesn’t trust them. She added: “I’m all for everything to make you look good - anything and everything. But most of the plastic surgery in Beverly Hills is rotten. I have seen on TV and in person the biggest hacks. I will go to other states. “Just because it’s Beverly Hills and they do the stars, but do you see what the stars look like? They look like they’ve been struck by lightning don’t they?” Jackie is also fit and healthy, attending tap dancing classes, working with a personal trainer and playing the piano every day, as she wants to set an example to other senior citizens. She said: “u have to be a role model for seniors. And actually I became a role model for the movie stars at 50, because what they dread more than anything is getting old and shot. But I get more popular as I get older “I use a bag of spinach a day, every morning for breakfast I steam a bowl of it and boil an egg on it. That’s the secret to my longevity.”

Dame Helen Mirren, Sir Anthony Hopkins are a ʻmatch made in heavenʼ

T

he 67-year-old actress starred alongside the 75-year-old actor in ‘Hitchcock’ - a biographical film about the making of Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’ - and will be seen on screen together again in upcoming action sequel ‘RED 2’, which is about retired secret agents reunited for one more mission in which she plays a glamorous MI6 operative. Helen says Anthony is an inspiration on set and she is very proud of their work together. She told the new issue of Readers Digest magazine:”It’s a match made in heaven, if you ask me. Somehow we’ve always missed working together. And now I get to do two movies with him in one year. Completely coincidental. “The incredible thing about Anthony is that he’s still a real inspiration. “He puts all the height of his incredible expertise, ability, talent and professionalism into anything and everything he does.” The Oscar-winning actress also revealed she is inspired by Gene Hackman, the retired American actor who won three Golden Globes and two BAFTAs in a career that spanned five decades. She added: “Gene Hackman is someone I really, really admire and he has the same quality. No matter the material, he gives it his highest quality performance. That’s the kind of actor I want to be.” The full interview appears in July issue of Reader’s Digest, in shops June 25. —Bangshowbiz

SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

Harley-Davidson motorbikers parade celebrations for the 110th anniversary in Rome on June 15, 2013. — AFP photos

As boomers age, Harley hunts for younger riders H

arley-Davidson Inc doesn’t do much quietly.

Its motorcycles are notoriously noisy. Its slogans - “Screw It. Let’s Ride.” - are loud too. So why was the Milwaukee company quiet last year when by its own numbers it successfully zoomed past a demographic hazard analysts had fretted about for years? Some background: In a recent interview, a top Harley-Davidson executive told Reuters that in 2012, for the first time in years, the average buyer of the company’s bikes was not a baby boomer.

For a brand defined by the emergence and, lately, the aging of the post-World War II cohort of consumers, that’s a big deal - proof the 110-yearold company is gaining traction with a new generation of riders. Yet its top global marketing guru, Mark-Hans Richer, continues to insist it’s no biggie even though investors have long wondered how Harley would survive as boomers, who embraced its bikes as totems of rebellion in the 1960s and 1970s and drove its growth in the ensuing decades, rode off into the sunset.

One top analyst, Robin Farley at UBS Investment Research, suggests the company’s muffled messaging reflects its desire to avoid having the accomplishment examined too closely. That’s

because by her calculation the average age of riders is still going up, not down. The company disputes her math but says even if she were correct, a new marketing focus means metrics like average age are less important than in the past. Farley is skeptical. Average age is important because “that’s ultimately the core customer,” she says. “That’s one of the reasons they don’t want to talk about it.”

Beyond the boomer that brung ya Harley-Davidson has long known its reliance on an overwhelmingly white, male and middle-aged consumer base would ultimately challenge sales in North America, where it still earns two-thirds of its revenue. So several CEOs ago, the company began an effort to attract buyers born after 1964. An outreach program was launched to gain favor with women and minorities; products were redesigned.

Harley-Davidson regularly claims the effort has been a success - and trots out supportive research from RL Polk, a leading provider of auto industry data, which shows Harley has been the market leader among riders ages 18 to 34, as well as women, African-Americans and Hispanics, for five years running.

But internal numbers have been hard to find, at

least recently. Prior to 2009, Harley regularly reported data on average rider age. It stopped, it says, because the number did not measure the outreach effort - as much about winning over nonwhite, non-male riders of all ages as about wooing the young. Harley-Davidson also stopped talking about its boomer problem, analysts say, because it didn’t want to appear to be repudiating the generation that still buys a lot of its bikes but now has a choice of several other brands with the “Made in the USA” cred vying for its dollars.

Still, as the company’s annual shipments to dealers retreated from a record of 350,000 set before the recession to the 259,000 to 264,000 bikes it expects to ship in 2013, investors worried the outreach effort was not working and that Harley-Davidson’s demographic problem was getting worse. Not so, says Richer. In the interview with Reuters, he said the company’s average buyer is now 47 years old, one year younger than five years ago, and holding steady. If true, that means that in 2012 the average Harley rider was born in 1965 - the first year of Generation X, according to the Census Bureau’s definition. Given the demographic concerns, that’s huge.

Not everyone is buying it, including Farley, who

has covered Harley-Davidson for a decade. She says that until the company stopped routinely disclosing the number, average rider age was rising steadily at a rate of about 6 months every year since at least 1999. In 2008, Harley-Davidson said its average rider was 48 years old, up from 46.1 in 2004 and 43.4 in 1999, Farley says. Extrapolating from those figures, she believes the current average rider is over 50 and, by definition, still a boomer. After she published a note based on her calculations, she says a company “senior manager” called her to say she was mistaken - but that the real number was 49 years, 6 months - a boomer still and not the 47 Richer claims.

Spokeswoman Maripat Blankenheim says the unnamed executive misspoke because he did not refer to “the most recent and more accurate database we are using.” Most analysts accept HarleyDavidson’s claims that the outreach is working.

Jamie Katz, an analyst at Morningstar, said that while the company has “a long way to go” before it gets back to the shipping rate it hit before the recession, “What they’ve done on the outreach front is impressive. “Our biggest concern was that their core consumer - the old white man - was obviously decreasing in size.” —Reuters

Famous Russian mime in uneasy circus challenge

W

orld-famous Russian mime Slava Polunin was just a few months into his appointment as head of Russia’s oldest circus when an animal rights scandal laid bare his uneasy challenge: to reform the stodgy venue without an ugly uproar. Now the bushy white-haired Vyacheslav (Slava) Polunin carefully chooses his words when asked whether the Big Saint Petersburg Circus, also known as the Fontanka Circus, will get rid of its many animal numbers and veer toward the more artful western style.

“I want to keep the best there is in the circus. I don’t want to destroy anything,” said Polunin, who has spent many years in France, Britain, and Canada, where he worked with the Cirque du Soleil before accepting the ground-breaking invitation to head the Fontanka Circus in January. The Fontanka-named for the Saint Petersburg street where it is located dates back to 1877. It was the first stationary circus in Russia, housed in a magnificent state-of-the-art building in a prime location of the historic imperial city.

It was founded by Italian Gaetano Ciniselli, and his family ran the venue until the Bolshevik revolution. In 1919 the circus was nationalised and Ciniselli’s son

fled the country. Today, the sign “Ciniselli Circus” adorns the ornate building, but inside it has lost much of its lustre. The circular audience stalls date from the Soviet times, and their red fabric seats are faded and worn.

Critics have disparaged the circus for its tired Soviet-era tricks and lack of vision. On its 135th anniversary show last year, guests watched as a man in a tailored suit tamed lions, acrobats soared to the tune of a Russian folk song, and poodles marched on hind paws in a single file - all staples of the Soviet past.

In April Polunin staged a symbolic washing of the circus’ facade, which involved drummers, juggling artists, and clowns who frolicked in the soapy water.

But days later, a scandal rocked the circus when footage made by the Vita animal rights group showed trainers beating a monkey and a kangaroo during training.

Though it was not clear when the incidents occurred, many celebrities including rock star Boris Grebenshikov and arthouse film director Alexander Sokurov asked the famous clown in a letter to end the

This file photo shows renowned Russian mime Slava Polunin speaking during an interview at his office in the Big Saint Petersburg Circus in the northwestern Russian city of St Petersburg. — AFP misery of “circus animal prisoners” and make the institution animal-free. Moscow’s renowned Durov circus, which has animal numbers, meanwhile has pleaded with Polunin to keep the decades-old Russian tradition of circus animals, arguing that “separate cases of cruelty don’t reflect the entire picture”. —AFP

SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

US circus boasts African-American roots, global cast

G

rowing up in Trinidad and Tobago, Makeba Gabriel imagined living a life of Carnival limbo dancing. Running away with the circus never crossed her mind. “That was my dream, to be a dancer,” said the 31-year-old star of the UniverSoul circus who thinks nothing of bending over backwards to crawl under five rows of open flames 10 inches (25 centimeters) off the ground.

“It wasn’t to be with a circus. But it just so happens that I’ve been with the circus for seven years, and it is a pleasure. It’s really fun and enjoyable,” she said. UniverSoul is among dozens of circuses that criss-cross the United States every summer, sustaining a form of live entertainment that dates back to the late 18th century. “If you live anywhere in the United States within 30 or 40 miles of any primary or secondary market, you will find a circus,” circus historian Rodney Huey told AFP. The grandest and most historic is the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus, the selfstyled “greatest show on Earth,” while the Canadian-based Cirque de Soleil enjoys a strong following. UniverSoul is a smaller one-ring affair, but its heritage makes it unique. Founded in 1994 by pioneering rap concert producer Cedric Walker, whose hip-hop tours helped to make RunD.M.C. and Salt-n-Pepa household names, it is the only modern circus with African-American roots.

“It was an opportunity whose time had come,” Walker told AFP outside the UniverSoul big top on a breezy plateau overlooking the Potomac River outside Washington, where the circus is performing this month. “There wasn’t a family attraction I saw that reflected the urban lifestyle, the energy, the music” of contemporary African-American culture, he said.

“It was pretty exciting and a lot of people did turn on to the idea of an urban show that was kind of funky, that had the fashion and the style and the cross-culture thing.” UniverSoul has two units on the road hitting about 35 cities this year, with the one at National Harbor employing a cast

of 150 entertainers and backstage crew, not to mention a menagerie of elephants, tigers and horses.

‘It’s a fun life’ While the 2,300-member audience at one recent Sunday show was predominantly AfricanAmerican, drawn from Washington and its sprawling suburbs, the cast was truly international.

Johannesburg native Daniel “Lucky” Malatsi, now 24, was nine years old, playing the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront in Cape Town, when he joined UniverSoul. Today he’s one of the co-hosts as well as a dancer and acrobat.

“When I first started off I was an acrobat and a contortionist, and I’ve done numerous things ever since,” he said. “That’s one of the great things with the UniverSoul circus. It taught me to evolve and

An artist performs during a show.

A vendor sells popcorn prior to a show of the UniverSoul Circusat National Harbor, Maryland. — AFP photos not always be one thing.” He travels with his wife, a former circus showgirl, and their three-year-old son, who he proudly reveals is “on his way to becoming an acrobat.”

“It’s a fun life, traveling from city to city,” he said. “I have my family with me, so I have everything I need.” His advice to those who relish run-

ning away with the circus: “Get an education. Like me, I had to finish my schooling even when I was on tour... Then if you have talent, come on and join the circus.” Unmarried and childless, Gabriel regards her troupe-whose Caribbean Carnival acts blend wildly colorful costumes with towering stilt dancers and heart-stopping limbo feats-as her family for most of the year.

She makes limbo dancing sound so easy: “It’s all in the pelvis area. You must have a strong pelvis, a good pair of knees, and you’re good to go. It’s a piece of cake.” Born into a Vietnamese circus family, the muscular Giang Brothers-Quoc Nghiep, 24, and Quoc Co, 29 — are hand-to-hand acrobats who studied circus arts in their native Ho Chi Minh City.

Their crowd-pleasing signature stunt is a “head-to-head” balancing act, with one sibling inverted atop the head of the other. Young veterans of the European circus circuit, and award-winners at festivals in Italy and Cuba, UniverSoul is the duo’s introduction to life on the American road. “I think we will have a long time to stay here,” said Giang Quoc Nghiep in halting English, his smiling brother nodding in agreement. “This is a good country. Very nice. I like.” Walker considers circus performers “the most under-rated artists in the world.” “They do a lot. They give a lot. The circus is a reflection of life... I’ve been with a lot of singers and rappers, but I’ve come to be very fond of these artists for what they’re made of and where they come from.” — AFP

‘Androgynous’ Swiss model, new catwalk star

I

n a quiet Paris street, model Tamy Glauser, with a shaven head since chopping off her “pretty” long locks six years ago, offers an impromptu demonstration of two very different catwalk techniques. First, her arms swinging and body rocking slightly from side to side, she strides along jauntily looking every inch the latest in skinny, edgy, male fashion. Then, with nothing more than a haughty toss of her bare head, shoulders back, hips forward, eyes smouldering, she is suddenly feline and super-feminine.

At 28, Glauser would once have been regarded as past it by the modelling industry. But only a year after she left her job on the door of a Geneva nightclub, the Swiss model has a string of shows under her belt and a contract with top modelling agency Ford Models Europe. With her boyish looks, Glauser is the latest recruit to a small group of female models who not only sport an androgynous look but have also found themselves in demand on the men’s catwalk.

Casey Legler, Saskia de Brauw, Jenny Shimizu and Ashleigh Good are among the models who have led the way in what Glauser says feels like a small “movement”. “I don’t think about androgyny,” she told AFP in an interview in Paris dressed in her off-duty

File photo shows Swiss model Tamy Glauser posing in Paris. — AFP uniform of skinny jeans, vest top, boots self snapped up by Ford.

Within months she was on the Paris and woollen hat. “I think that right now beauty is a lot to do with personality. I catwalks for top designers such as think simply beautiful is still beautiful, Vivienne Westwood and Jean Paul Gaultier and modelling men’s clothes but it’s sort of boring,” she said.

A year ago, Glauser, a former Swiss for Givenchy. “I don’t really know how national team swimmer, was preparing this all happened. But it (modelling to move to Berlin to give university one men’s clothes) was always my idea. It last go after dropping out twice. A made sense because the clothes that friend there, who worked as a booker I’m wearing are much more men’s fashat an agency, suggested she do some ion,” she said.

Steeven Kanoo, Ford’s women’s modelling to help pay the bills.

However, when the agency sent out division director, says clients have her photograph, instead of a few part- moved away from strictly conventional time assignments, Glauser found her- ideas of female beauty and are now

looking for models with strong personalities. And he attributes the current interest in androgynous-looking models to the skinny tailoring of French designer Hedi Slimane.

The Saint Laurent designer’s models are famously on the thin side-even by industry standards-and he is credited with revolutionising menswear during his stint at Dior from 2000 to 2007. “In the 1990s there was a common idea of beauty but things have been changing since Hedi Slimane went for super edgy skinny boys. It changed something,” he said.

“Then we got girls with these strong features and everyone was tired of having this common idea of beauty-it goes with stupidity-and so it was like ‘let’s get something a bit more special’.

“Now you can be super weird and look amazing in pictures so that’s why they push on that to get more personality.

“It’s a different time, but fashion is a circle (and) we’re going to come back to the nineties for sure,” he added. For Glauser, who describes herself as a free spirit who can’t stay in one place for long, it is an opportunity to live a life that suits her better than being an undergraduate. “The fashion world is very different, completely another planet but that’s why I feel so comfortable,” she added. — AFP

SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

90s fashion darling Lacroix returns to Paris catwalk

O This photo shows Chinese actress (left) Bai Bai He and Chinese actor Peng Yu-yan speak at the 2013 Chinese film festival closing press conference in Seoul. — AFP

Zombie racers: ‘World War shows speedy undead

L

ooks like some (undead) body has been hitting the treadmill. The zombies in “World War Z” move with Carl Lewis speed and a swarm-like mentality inspired in part by rabid dogs, furthering the eternal fan debate over whether the walking dead should actually run. Traditionalists - fans of George Romero’s 1968 horror classic “Night of the Living Dead” - prefer their zombies slow and lumbering. But modern incarnations of the undead are often more agile.

“Some people think slow-moving zombies aren’t that much of a threat, because they’re pretty easy to maneuver against,” said Roger Ma, author of “The Zombie Combat Manual: A Guide to Fighting the Living Dead.” “I’m more a fan of the slow-moving genre, and that’s how I approach the strategy in my book. Fast-moving zombies present a whole new host of issues you have to deal with.”

Films such as “Dawn of the Dead” and “28 Days Later” have also shown more lithe living dead. Romero blamed the shift to swift-footed undead on video games. “It makes sense if you

This publicity image released by Paramount Pictures shows Brad Pitt in a scene from “World War Z.” — AP

think about it. Those games are all about hand-eye coordination and how quickly can you get them before they get you. So the zombies have to keep coming at you, crawling over the walls and across the ceiling,” he told Vanity Fair in 2010. “I still don’t agree with it. If zombies are dead, how can they move fast? My guys don’t run. They never have and they never will. They’re just lumbering oafs that are easy to dispose of unless you make a mistake. Those are the rules, and I’ll stick with what I’ve got.”

In the Brad Pitt thriller opening Friday, those infected with the zombie virus move slowly until they detect prey. Inspired by images of attack dogs and feeding insects, filmmakers said they wanted to honor the zombie genre, but also “try to do something new and different.” Director Marc Forster likens the movement of “World War Z” zombies to “the way flocks of birds or fish or ants move together.”

“I thought it would be interesting to see these zombies, who have no intellect since they are the walking dead, react in this swarm mentality,” he said.

Z’

“When the feeding frenzy starts, it’s almost like a shark that smells blood. In the moment they sense that there’s something to attack, they will just go for it.” Pitt plays a former United Nations investigator searching for the source of the worldwide plague that turns people into athletically inclined zombies that can scale walls and overtake cities in minutes. Soldiers shoot down some of the zombies, but without a weapon, humans don’t stand much of a fighting chance.

“With fast-movers, you really lose the ability to strategize, both from an individual perspective and an agency, law enforcement or government perspective,” said Ma, whose book deals with fighting zombies without guns. “You don’t have time to think. That’s the most challenging thing with the fast movers.” But can devotees of traditional depictions of the undead appreciate the sportier zombies of today? “It’s always great to see zombies,” Ma said.

“As a fan, we’ll take whatever we can get. Fast moving, slow moving... as long as the story is good, there’s a place for both.” — AP

ne-time darling of the fashion world Christian Lacroix returns to the Paris catwalks next week with a tribute to late Italian designer Elsa Schiaparelli, famed for her collaborations with Salvador Dali and Jean Cocteau. Saint Laurent designer and champion of the pencil-thin skinny suit Hedi Slimane, meanwhile, will unveil his second menswear collection for the label following his grunge dominated debut.

The shows will be highlights of a nine-day fashion marathon that kicks off in Paris on Wednesday with five days of spring/summer 2014 menswear collections followed by four days of haute couture for winter 2014.

Frenchman Lacroix, feted by fashion editors in the 1990s after he created the first couture house to open in a quarter century in 1987, will present 15 reinterpretations of Schiaparelli designs for the relaunched couture house.

Schiaparelli, whose greatest rival was Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, famously collaborated with surrealist artist Dali on her 1937 Lobster Dress, a white silk evening dress on which Dali painted a lobster. In another collaboration, the pale blue Tears Dress, a Dali designed print created the illusion of torn flesh.

The label, which closed in 1954 after failing to adapt to post-war austerity, was officially reopened in July 2012 having been purchased in 2006 by Diego Della Valle, head of the Italian leather goods company Tod’s.

Lacroix rode the wave of the 1990s luxury spending boom with a string of exuberant, over-the-top creations that dazzled the fashion world.

But he lost his his fashion house in December 2009 when a Paris bankruptcy court approved a plan to end production of the classic Christian Lacroix label’s haute couture and ready-to-wear lines. The house had run up losses of 10 million euros (about 15 million dollars) in 2008 after being hit by the sharp downturn of the luxury market.

At next week’s men’s shows, Slimane’s latest collection will also be closely watched to see if he opts to stick with the grungy look also seen in his second Saint Laurent women’s collection in March. The intense interest in the French designer’s work comes as men’s collections become ever more important commercially.

“Before men’s was in retreat (compared to women’s wear) but today brands are making a lot of money thanks to men’s,” said fashion consultant Jean-Jacques Picart.

“There is a growing interest,” added Gregoire Proffit, a buyer for French store Galeries Lafayette. New overseas markets “consume a lot of men’s fashion” and in France, the younger generation “want to be fashionable and do not want to miss out on a trend”, he said.

Young people have closely followed rising designers such as Melinda Gloss, the label created in 2009 by two young Parisians, or Kenzo whose collection is designed by New Yorkers Humberto Leon and Carol Lim, he added.

Other highlights of the week will include Karl Lagerfeld’s Chanel couture show on July 2, 100 years after Gabrielle Chanel opened her first shop in Deauville in the summer of 1913. By contrast, Givenchy will be absent from the haute couture calendar for a second consecutive season.

Designer Riccardo Tisci “has been working on numerous other projects”, said the house, citing notably his work on costumes for the ballet Bolero by Opera de Paris.

“Riccardo is a perfectionist” and “would not present a collection that he was not satisfied with”, the house added.

However, Dutch designers Viktor&Rolf will be represented with a return to the couture shows after a more than 10-year absence. And for those who dream of attending a couture show but don’t have an invitation, Frank Sorbier is putting around 100 tickets for its July 3 show on sale with prices ranging from 43 to 8,000 euros ($56 to $10,500). — AFP

SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

Artist Faith Ringgold talks about her artwork in front of her painting, “US Postage Stamp Commemorating the Advent of Black Power, 1967” during a preview of her exhibition, American People, Black Light: Faith Ringgoldís Paintings of the 1960s at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington. (Right) Faith Ringgold’s painting, “The Flag is Bleeding,” is one of her works on display. — AP

Revival of paintings on display at women’s museum W

earing gold-sequined Uggs, a bright smile and flawless brown skin that belies her 82 years, Faith Ringgold explains her “confrontational art” - vivid paintings whose themes of race, gender, class and civil rights were so intense that for years, no one would buy them. “I didn’t want people to be able to look, and look away, because a lot of people do that with art,” Ringgold said. “I want them to look and see. I want to grab their eyes and hold them, because this is America.”

Look away they did. And they walked away.

So Ringgold tucked the paintings out of public view, where they stayed for more than 40 years. Now, Ringgold’s early works are enjoying a revival. They go on display Friday in a new exhibit in the nation’s capital. “American People, Black Light: Faith Ringgold’s Paintings of the 1960s,” is on display at the National Museum of Women in the Arts until Nov 10.

The exhibit includes 49 paintings from her “American People” and “Black Light” series of the 1960s and 1970s, along with earlier works and political posters created for activist Angela Davis and for efforts in support of the Black

Panthers and the 1971 Attica prison riot.

“I’m very happy and very pleased that this work is getting another chance to be seen and heard and that the American people are getting another chance to take a look at themselves,” Ringgold said in an interview. “Most of that work I still own because people just didn’t want to look at it. They didn’t want to see it.”

Some works from the “American People” series were first shown at New York’s Spectrum Gallery in 1967. Those and other paintings reemerged beginning in 2010 at the Neuberger Museum of Art in Purchase, NY, then at Spelman College Museum of Fine Art in Atlanta and the Miami Art Museum before making their way to the women’s museum.

A Harlem native best known for reviving the popularity of African-American story quilts 30 years ago, Ringgold said she created the paintings in response to the civil rights and feminist movements. Ringgold was actively involved in both; she championed displaying artwork by blacks and women, and protested outside the Whitney Museum and Museum of Modern Art in New York in the 1960s and ‘70s.

The former University of California and New York public school educator said some cultural topics - like race and gender inequality - often resurface in cycles. “A lot of these issues have still not been addressed,” she said. “This is typical, kind of - when there is a problem - the group that has the issue rises to the occasion and speaks out and there are some parts that are addressed and then when you look around, we’re right back where we started. Throughout the history of the United States, this has been what has happened.”

Paintings from the “American People” series are vibrant and colorful, drawing influences from pop art and traditional African artwork, and depicting a variety of races - along with how they interact with each other in many of the pieces. Ringgold’s mural “The Flag is Bleeding” depicts a white man, white woman and black man linking arms and standing before an American flag splattered with blood, because of race riots common during that time. “When I started painting this blood, I just felt like ‘Oh, my God,’ this blood, it just gave such an eerie kind of feeling,” Ringgold

recalled. “I had seen blood in the street. I had seen the effects of some riots and so on. But they were not in the newspapers, they were not pictured. They were not in news photographs - the blood part - and I wanted to bring that out.”

The other series in the exhibit, “Black Light,” further explores race, even celebrating the beauty of blacks, and incorporates texts in some artwork. Ringgold said it shows the “the darkened skin tones of black people and the magical ways in which black is presented in art.”

These paintings include “Big Black” with an abstract face similar to an African mask and “Party Time,” a split-screen ode to black dance and culture. She urges viewers to look and see, enjoy and pass it on. “What I wanted, what I was trying to do there, was trying to tell my story,” she said. “As an artist, the time, the place, the identity of the artist is exceedingly important and I was trying to put that all in focus.” Ringgold, who has illustrated and written an autobiography and 15 children’s books, is completing “Harlem Renaissance Party” to be published by Harper Collins next year. — AP

Lebanon’s Baalbek festival to change venue

L

This photo shows Jan Steen’s painting “As the Old Sing, So Twitter the Young” on display in the “Girl with a Pearl Earring: Dutch Paintings from the Mauritshuis” exhibit during a media preview at the museum in Atlanta. — AP

ebanon’s world famous Baalbek International Festival is looking to move away from the ancient city with its Roman ruins because of spillover violence from Syria’s civil war, an official said yesterday. The change of venue from Baalbek, where the annual music festival is usually held under the towering columns of the Roman Temple of Jupiter, is the latest fallout from Syria’s civil war, which is increasingly drawing Lebanon in. This month a barrage of 18 rockets and mortar rounds fired from Syria hit Baalbek, about 15 kilometers (10 miles) from the Syrian border.

Lebanon and Syria share a complex web of political and sectarian ties and rivalries that are easily enflamed. Lebanon has been on edge since the uprising in Syria against President Bashar Assad erupted in March 2011. Lebanon’s Sunni Muslims mostly back the overwhelmingly Sunni Syrian rebels, while many Shiites support Assad, a member of Syria’s minority Alawite sect,

an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

In addition to the rockets fired from Syria, the eastern Bekaa Valley, where Baalbek is located, has also seen rising tensions between rival local groups. Yesterday, Lebanese troops opened the Beirut-Baalbek highway a day after it was closed by anti-Assad Lebanese. They were protesting a closure by Shiite gunmen of a road leading to the eastern town of Arsal. An ambush near Baalbek killed four Lebanese Shiite Muslims last Sunday, and some locals blamed residents of Arsal. “The situation in Baalbek does not permit holding the festival, and we are now looking for a new venue,” an official with the Baalbek International Festival told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak to reporters. “Until now there is no cancelation of the festival,” the official said, insisting that participants said they would go to any other venue in Lebanon for the festival. —AP

SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

Olive Garden luring diners with cheaper prices

I

f the free breadsticks and unlimited soup and salad aren’t enough, Olive Garden is hitting the gas on other promotions to get customers through its doors. Darden Restaurants Inc, which has been struggling to hold onto customers in recent years, said deal offers like “2 for $25” dinner special helped drive up customer traffic at its flagship Olive Garden and Red Lobster chains in the latest quarter. The company said it will keep stressing the affordability of its food in the year ahead to attract more diners.

The strategy raises concerns among some investors, who worry that it’s a short-term fix that only hurts profit margins. But in a call with analysts, CEO Clarence Otis said that boosting customer traffic is a priority for the company, even if it means sacrificing profit margins for a time. “We need to do what we need to do,” Otis said.

Darden’s struggles to hold onto customers partly reflect the shifting restaurant industry.

Casual dining chains were hit hard by the economic downturn, which made people more careful about eating out. Competitors like Applebee’s, which is owned by DineEquity Inc., responded by rolling out a “2 for $20” deal during the depths of the recession. But Darden has conceded that it was slow in emphasizing value. Since 2008, its customer traffic is down about 8 percent.

At the same time, casual dining chains are also contending with changing eating habits.

So in addition to underscoring value, Darden is also trying to update its menu choices to better reflect the type of food people want.

Last year, for example, it began adding lighter dishes to the Olive Garden menu. The company said they’re already capturing about 10 percent of orders and that it plans to add more such options going forward.

For the quarter, Darden said net income fell 12 percent on rising costs and expenses. It earned $133.2 million, or $1.01 per share, compared with $151.2 million, or $1.15 per share, a year ago. Removing costs and purchase accounting adjustments tied to its acquisition of Yard House USA Inc, earnings were $1.02 per share, 2 cents shy of Wall Street estimates.

Revenue climbed 11 percent to $2.3 billion, topping the $2.27 billion Wall Street expected. Comparable sales at its Olive Garden, Red Lobster and LongHorn Steakhouse restaurants rose 2.2 percent, helped by an uptick in customer traffic. Sales at The Capital Grille locations open at least a year rose 4.5 percent. The metric climbed 4.3 percent at Eddie V’s and 1 percent at Seasons 52. These restaurants are part of Darden’s specialty restaurant group.

For the year, Darden earned $411.9 million or $3.13 per share. Adjusted earnings were $3.22 per share. Annual revenue increased 7 percent to $8.55 billion.

Darden said that it expects fiscal 2014 adjusted earnings per share to be up between 4 percent and 6 percent. Revenue is anticipated to climb 6 percent to 8 percent, including an additional quarter of sales from Yard House. That implies earnings of $3.35 to $3.41 per share on revenue of $9.06 billion to $9.23 billion. Wall Street had been looking for earnings of $3.19 per share on revenue of $8.52 billion. — AP

Jennifer Lopez poses with her new star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Thursday, June 20, 2013 in Los Angeles.

— AP photos

Jennifer Lopez tears up over Hollywood star “J

enny from the Block” has a spot on the most famous block of all - the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Jennifer Lopez received the 2,500th star Thursday surrounded by her boyfriend Casper Smart, her 5-year-old twins Max and Emme, and friends including Jane Fonda, Keenen Ivory Wayans and “Selena” director Gregory Nava. “I cried like almost 15 thousand times,” she said afterward.

“It was so crazy. But I kept promising everybody I wasn’t going to cry and they were like, ‘Cry!’ ‘You’re not helping!’ But it was an amazing moment.”

Lopez relished the chance to “kind of walk down memory lane” with Wayans - “he’s the reason I moved to Los Angeles because I got that job as a fly girl” - and Nava, who put her in her first movie. “You realize you’ve been at this for a long time and

you’ve been fighting and getting it,” she said. “It’s a real kind of landmark day for me and I am just glad my family was here to share it with me.”

Just don’t ask Max and Emme what the fuss was all about. “I just told them, ‘Mommy is getting a star today,’” said Lopez. “They don’t really know what that means but they were great.” A committee selects celebrities eligible for a star and those who accept pay $30,000 in costs and fees. “For a romantic like me, it’s forever and I believe in that. I believe in forever. It’s a good day,” Lopez said. — AP

Jennifer Lopez (left) and Beau “Casper” Smart.

Depardieu fined, has license suspended over drink-driving

A

court yesterday ordered eccentric French actor Gerard Depardieu to pay a 4,000 euro ($5,290) fine and suspended his driver’s licence for six months for driving his scooter in Paris while drunk. The 64year-old star, who has made headlines in recent months with erratic behaviour and a tax feud with French authorities, was arrested in November after falling off his scooter while more than three times over the legal alcohol limit. He was sentenced in absentia after repeatedly skipping court appearances.

Depardieu has in recent weeks been filming a movie in Russia. He faced a maximum sentence of up to two years in prison, though prosecutors had not called for jail time. The actor’s lawyer Eric de Caumont

A picture shows French actor Gerard Depardieu on his scooter leaving his mansion. — AFP

said he was disappointed by the ruling, after arguing in court that his client had only drunk a few glasses of champagne several hours before driving. “I will inform Gerard Depardieu of the ruling in the coming hours and will see him next week in Moscow, where he is shooting a film,” Caumont told reporters. He said a decision had not yet been made on whether to appeal the ruling.

Prosecutors had told the court that a “strong smell of alcohol” had come from the actor when police arrived at the scene after he fell off the scooter. He initially refused to take an alcohol test, telling officers that he had been drinking. Hailed as one of the greatest actors of his generation, Depardieu starred in films including “Green Card”, “Cyrano de Bergerac”, “Jean de Florette” and the “Asterix & Obelix” series. He also owns a number of businesses including vineyards.

But in recent years he has become as famed for his off-screen behaviour as for his acting talents. The star announced in November he was moving abroad after President Francois Hollande’s Socialist government sought to impose a 75 percent tax rate on annual incomes over one million euros. He took up residency in Belgium and was granted Russian citizenship by President Vladimir Putin. The decision sparked controversy, as have his friendships with Putin and Chechnya’s strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov. Depardieu recently told a French newspaper he considered himself a “citizen of the world” and said he was also applying for an Algerian passport. He said he hoped eventually to have citizenship in seven countries. In August, he was cautioned after punching a motorist who had forced him to swerve on his scooter, and in 2011 he generated global headlines when he tried to urinate in a bottle aboard a plane as it prepared to take off from Paris for Dublin. In the interview with Le Journal du Dimanche earlier this month, Depardieu described himself as “someone who is a bit of a rebel, who shakes things up and who is sometimes drunk.” — AFP

SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

Islamic Fashion Festival

Models present creations designed by various designers at the Islamic Fashion Festival in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia yesterday. — AFP/AP

Technology SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

France threatens Google with privacy fines PARIS: France is giving Google three months to be more upfront about the data it collects from users - or be fined.

Other European countries aren’t far behind. Now it’s up to Google to decide whether the relatively small fines are enough of an incentive to rethink its privacy rules - the Internet giant risks a euro 300,000 euro ($402,180) penalty in France. Europe’s a big market, but one where Google has no serious competition. However, the company does have a reputation problem when it comes to protecting user privacy.

Thursday’s legal action puts new pressure on Google, which is smarting from criticism over providing customer data to the US government as part of its fight against foreign terrorists.

The French agency that regulates information technology says that five other European countries are taking similar steps in a staggered offensive against Google’s privacy policy between now and the end of July. It says Google largely ignored earlier recommendations from European regulators.

The French National Commission on Computing and Freedom, known as CNIL, says Spain joined France in the first wave of legal action Thursday, and that Britain, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands will join in the coming weeks. The legal action accelerates a long-running European fight against Google over privacy, which is more rigorously protected in many European countries than in Google’s homeland, the United States. A spokesman for Google said Thursday that it believes its privacy practices respect European laws.

“We have engaged fully with the authorities involved throughout this process, and we’ll continue to do so going forward,” said Al Verney. Paris’ formal warning gives the company three months to make changes to its privacy practices.

They include specifying to users what it is using personal data for, and how long it’s held. Regulators also want Google to let users opt out of having their data centralized - for example, when data from online searches, Gmail and YouTube are crunched into a single location.

If not, Google risks a fine of up to 300,000 euros by France, which could eventually mean millions of euros in penalties across all six countries. By comparison, Google’s revenues were $14 billion in the first quarter of this year, much of that from advertising - which is boosted by the Internet giant’s ability to target users based on what they read, watch and buy online.

In Britain, the Information Commissioner’s Office said its investigation into whether Google’s privacy policy complies with UK law is still underway and it will soon contact Google about its preliminary findings. Spain’s data protection agency did not have immediate comment on the French statement.

The Dutch privacy watchdog, the College for the Protection of Personal Data, said it is investigating Google’s “privacy conditions” but spokeswoman Lysette Rutgers declined further comment while the investigation is ongoing.

France’s data protection agency led a European investigation last year into Google’s privacy policy.

“French law demands that when you’re collecting information about someone, you need to collect it for a precise reason,” said CNIL president Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin. She said the outcry about the role of Google and other online players in government surveillance illustrates that users want transparency about where their data goes. Google’s image has suffered since it was identified this month as one of nine US Internet companies that gave the National Security Agency access to data on its customers, as part of the agency’s efforts to track foreign threats to U.S. national security. Revelations about the program, known as PRISM, by a former NSA contractor has opened a debate about the privacy of Americans’ communications.

In the European privacy dispute, Nick Pickles of Britainbased watchdog Big Brother Watch said, “There’s a real worry that (the European fines) won’t be a particularly strong deterrent, that Google may see it as a price of doing business.”

“People shouldn’t be able to ignore people’s rights and the law, make huge profits and then continue acting as if nothing was amiss,” he said.

Pickles noted that many European countries are limited by laws on data protection that date from before Google was even born 15 years ago. EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding proposed last year that the maximum penalties for privacy matters be raised from the current ?600,000 to 2 percent of a company’s global sales. —AP

Gamer outrage prompts Xbox One policy changes SAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft handed gamers a victory Wednesday by backing off plans for new-generation Xbox One consoles to require Internet connections and put restrictions on playing second-hand game disks. Microsoft interactive entertainment business president Don Mattrick announced in a blog post that the US technology titan was surrendering in the face of outrage by gamers in the wake of last week’s premier E3 videogame expo. “The ability to lend, share and resell these games at your discretion is of incredible importance to you,” Mattrick said in a message to gamers.

“Also important to you is the freedom to play offline, for any length of time, anywhere in the world.” He promised Xbox One will now let people “play, share, lend and resell” game disks the same way they can on current-generation Xbox 360 consoles. Xbox One consoles will only need to connect to the Internet once, to set up systems, and users will then be free to play games offline.

“There is no 24-hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360,” Mattrick said. Sony’s new-generation PlayStation 4 console scored an opening skirmish triumph over Microsoft’s Xbox One last week at E3. Sony and Microsoft each hosted distinct private events to spotlight their new champions in long-running console wars.

LOS ANGELES: Attendees play Project Spark for Xbox One on the final day of the E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo. — AFP Both titans showcased blockbuster games, but Sony triggered unbridled cheers with assurances it would not interfere with sales of used titles or require Internet connections for play.

The points were in sharp contrast to Microsoft, which said at E3 that Xbox One consoles would need to check in online once every 24 hours for games to work, and set conditions on used games.

Sony also priced PS4 at $399, compared to the $499 Microsoft said it will charge for Xbox One consoles when they are released in the US and Europe in November.

Sony built on its E3 momentum with

ads stressing the ease with which used games could be played on PS4 consoles.

“When a player buys a PS4 disk, they have the right to use that game, trade it in, lend it to a friend or keep it forever,” Sony Computer Entertainment of America chief Jack Tretton said at the company’s E3 press event. Sony and Microsoft both plan to release their new videogame consoles in time for the year-end holiday shopping season.

Microsoft has sold some 77 million Xbox 360 consoles since they hit the market in late 2005. Console rival Sony has sold about the same number of PlayStation 3 consoles, which was introduced a year later. — AFP

Instagram video is one savvy move by Facebook NEW YORK: If you think Instagram snapshots of lunch plates, drooling babies and random desk objects are exciting, just wait until your friends start posting 15-second videos. You won’t have to wait long. On Thursday, Facebook’s popular Instagram photo-sharing app added a video feature. Much like its competitor Vine, which is owned by Twitter, Instagram now lets you record and share short videos using a few taps of a finger on a mobile device.

Most people don’t do this. Vine has just 13 million users (one-tenth of Instagram’s user base), and no other video-sharing apps have attracted mass appeal. Part of the reason: technical limitations. Instagram cofounder Kevin Systrom said during the service’s unveiling that the video feature was initially left out of Instagram because the “speed, simplicity and beauty” the creators strived for in the app “were definitely possible with photos - but it was really hard for video.” It’s easier now. Internet connections have become faster and mobile phones are snappier and equipped with better cameras.

And as Systrom promised, Instagram’s video feature is certainly simple. Download the latest version on your iPhone or Android device. Open it and tap the camera icon on the bottom of the screen. This will take you to a new screen with a video camera icon.

Another tap and you’re ready to go.

You can record whatever your little heart desires. I opted for a shaky panorama of the newsroom with close-ups on coworkers’ faces, which I deleted. Another video featuring different types of hot sauce and other

MENLO PARK: Instagram’s new video feature is demonstrated at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California. — AP things on my desk was better received by my friends on Instagram.

The videos don’t have to be shot in one take. Lift your finger and the recording stops until you tap the icon again. Writing about the feature is actually more complicated than using it. The finger-tap recording feature that Vine fans are familiar with works well with Instagram, especially for patient videographers. Tap-stop-tap your way through recording a puppet show or a piece of cake being eaten and you’ll have yourself a 15-second stop-motion animation clip - or shorter if you wish.

One of my biggest complaints with Vine is that many of the videos I took using the app are shaky. You try running after friends in the alleyways of Venice while shooting a video of the scenery with your phone. Shaky.

To address problems like this, Instagram has added a “cinema” feature that stabilizes the videos. Unfortunately for me and my cracked iPhone 4, it only works on the iPhone 4S or higher, and it’s not yet available on Android. I should probably get a new phone.

As for speed, videos my friends posted on Instagram loaded fairly quickly, though not as fast as photos. Sometimes they wouldn’t play, possibly due to a less-than-ideal connection in our office. A small video camera icon differentiates the videos from photos on Instagram. You can view a video by tapping its icon. The problem is that tapping is also a shortcut for “liking” a video or photo. This is how I “liked” one of my own boring videos and how a coworker “liked” another undeserving video by a former high school classmate. And still, they wouldn’t play.

And that’s probably just as well. Systrom’s third aspiration, beauty, is harder to gauge.

Since it’s only been a few hours since video’s launch on Instagram, I’m withholding judgment. Hopefully my friends will take the same sort of care and artistic curation with their videos as they do with their snapshots which, of course, means I can expect tons of videos of babies crawling, dinner dishes waiting to be eaten, cocktails getting shaken, bunnies munching on parsley and waves crashing on the beaches of Greece. Actually that doesn’t sound so bad. —AP

Technology SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

Review:

Google Reader’s end hatches better service

NEW YORK: On July 1, we say goodbye to Google Reader, a handy tool for bringing headlines and articles from your favorite websites into a single place.With Reader, I’ve been able to see at a glance all the updates from various news services, blogs and company websites I follow. Although many of these items relate to work, I have added a few fun topics, too, including news on Antarctica and a daily dose of passive aggressive notes that people send each other.

I have spent a lot of time curating Reader, so I’m not keen on seeing it die. Fortunately, there’s an afterlife. Google has made it easy to move your list of sites you follow, known as feeds, to another service. And many of those rival services have made it easy to accept those feeds, especially after Google said in March that it would retire Reader.

Reader’s demise comes as little surprise.

Google says usage has declined since Reader made its debut in 2005. RSS feeds - for really simple syndication - used to be a popular way to keep track of multiple websites without having to visit each and every one.

Content comes to you, through readers such as Google Reader. More recently, though, Twitter and Facebook have performed a similar role in discovering content. I myself have logged on to Reader less frequently because keeping up with more than 150 feeds from dozens of sites became overwhelming.

Yet I still check it now and then for a glimpse of what’s out there. As July 1 approached, I looked at a half-dozen alternative services. All of them are free, like Reader.

It didn’t take long to find one that exceeds what Reader offers in many ways, though a few omissions will leave me missing Google’s offering. The service that stands out is Feedly. An update available Wednesday allows Feedly to run on just about any major Web browser. The service also is available through apps on the iPhone, the iPad and Android devices.

Transferring your feeds from Reader is

easy. Most other services require you to create a data file of those feeds using a Google tool called Takeout. It’s fairly straightforward, but you then have to save the file to your computer and import that to the service. In one case, only one of the more than 150 feeds survived the transfer because of some glitch. With Feedly, you can skip that step.

Simply log in with your Google account, and all that gets done automatically. There’s also no need to create and remember a separate

or two of each item. You can click on any item for more. You can also share the item on a number of social networking sites. That freedom isn’t available on Reader, which confines sharing to Google’s own Plus service. My four main complaints with Feedly: You can save a link to read later, but it would have been better had Feedly fetched those items as well so you can read them offline.

Although the service lets you email items to others, you have to go through stand-

Feedly account. You use your Google credentials each time you’re back.

On Reader, I have my feeds organized by category into folders. Those categories remain intact on Feedly, though they appear alphabetical rather than topical, as I had arranged them on Reader. It isn’t too difficult to reorder them. Feedly excels in highlighting the most popular items from all your feeds, based on sharing and other interactions on Feedly and elsewhere. Simply visit a page called “Today.” Under the default layout, you see headlines and the first sentence

alone software such as Outlook, which is often tied to your work account. By contrast, Reader lets you email over the Web using Google’s own Gmail service. With Reader, items are automatically marked as read as I scroll down, so that they won’t reappear the next time. Feedly does that, too, in a nondefault layout that most resembles Reader’s.

That part is good. But while Feedly offers additional layout options, it doesn’t take full advantage of its greater breadth. It would have been nice to have auto-marking when scrolling in those layouts as well.

Apple, US govt spar in antitrust trial finale NEW YORK: Apple on Thursday dismissed allegations it conspired to raise the price of e-books and said the US government’s antitrust case against it would deter new entrants to concentrated markets. The two sides delivered closing arguments at the three-week trial, which has shed an uncomfortable light on the technology icon and the clubby world of high-stakes publishing.

A decision is expected in the next couple of months.

“The issue in this case is collusion,” said Mark Ryan, a Justice Department attorney who outlined the government’s case that Apple conspired with publishers to hike prices, costing consumers hundreds of millions of dollars. The trial focused on a sixweek period in late 2009 and early 2010 during which Apple negotiated contracts with publishers ahead of its iPad launch and proposed a new and more profitable business model.

At the time, publishers were furious at the state of the market dominated by Amazon, which sold most bestsellers for just $9.99. Amazon held “wholesale” contracts with publishers in which it set prices. Apple’s contracts shifted to an “agency” model where publishers set the price in exchange for a 30 percent commission to Apple.

Prior to Apple’s entry, the publishers — all of whom have settled in the case-would complain about Amazon’s $9.99 price at private dinners in fancy New York restaurants, but each feared taking on the Internet giant alone. Apple and the publishers agreed on contracts that let publishers set the price of most bestsellers at $12.99 or $14.99, but Apple won a provision that allowed it to match the prices of Amazon or any other retailer.

As Apple was finalizing its deals, publishers successfully pressured Amazon to accept the agency model and higher prices.

Several publishers threatened to withhold e-books from Amazon if it did not go along. Ryan pointed to testimony from Apple senior vice president Eddy Cue in which he said he knew the publishers wanted to raise prices. Cue admitted his contracts gave publishers the ability to raise prices and said he provided reassurances about potential Amazon retribution, telling each publisher it would not be alone in signing with Apple. —AFP

Many websites let you easily add their feeds by clicking on a button. Reader is usually among the options, but Feedly isn’t yet.

Instead, you must copy and paste the Web address for the feed into Feedly. But Feedly is better than Reader at suggesting feeds to add, if you don’t have specific ones in mind for a given topic.

I did try one other service that makes it as easy as Feedly to transfer feeds from Reader and discover new ones. But that service, called Pulse, does require you to set up a separate Pulse account or use Facebook’s not Google’s. If you can get past that added hassle, Pulse does the rest of the work for you once you log in to your Google account.

There’s no Google data file to create, save and import.

Unfortunately, articles are presented as tiles, similar to what you see in Microsoft’s oft-criticized Windows 8 operating system.

That works fine when you’re choosing apps on a tablet computer. On desktop and laptop computers, I find a list much easier to read and scroll through. I had a backlog of more than 20,000 articles, and I wasn’t about to click on 20,000 squares. There are dozens of other services I didn’t get a chance to try.

Some of them are more geared toward mobile devices. Others are still in development. For example, a popular site called Digg promises one on June 26, just five days before Reader’s cutoff.

I’m sure there’s one out there that matches or exceeds what Feedly offers, but I saw no need to look further. Feedly has tripled its user base to 12 million since Google announced Reader’s retirement.

The growth has given Feedly incentive to work on new features. Feedly has also designed the system so that outside developers can build apps for it. You can use one to run Feedly on BlackBerry phones, for instance. Feedly isn’t perfect, but switching to it will make Reader’s demise easier to accept. — AP

Apple’s first computer valued at $500,000 NEW YORK: It’s the kind of electronic junk that piles up in basements and garages - an old computer motherboard with wires sticking out. But because it was designed by two college dropouts named Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, it could be worth more than half a million dollars. An Apple 1 from 1976, one of the first Apple computers ever built and forerunner of today’s MacBooks, IPads and IPhones, goes on the auction block at Christie’s next week. The bidding starts at $300,000.

“This is a piece of history that made a difference in the world; it’s where the computer revolution started,” said Ted Perry, a retired school psychologist who owns the old Apple and has kept it stashed away in a cardboard box at his home outside Sacramento, California. The green piece of plastic covered with a copper-colored labyrinth of memory chips was one of the first 25 such computer elements, and sold for $666.66. About 200 were made but most have disappeared or been discarded.

Various estimates put the number known to still exist from about 30 to 50. They came with eight kilobytes of memory - a million times less than the average computer today. Vintage Apple products have become an especially hot item since Jobs’ death in October 2011, surrounding the

This undated photo provided by Christie’s Auction House shows an “Apple 1” prototype computer, built in 1976, accompanied by an operation manual and schematic as well as a photo of its inventors, Steve Wozniak (left) and Steve Jobs. — AP mystique attached to this entrepreneur who joined forces with Wozniak to build computer prototypes in a California garage.

Another Apple 1 was sold last month for a record $671,400 by a German auction house, breaking a previous record of $640,000 set in November. Sotheby’s sold

one last year for $374,500. “This is the seed from which the entire orchard grew, and without this, there would be no Apple,” said Stephen A. Edwards, professor of computer science at Columbia University. “I’ve been shocked auction prices got into the six digits. The market has just gone crazy.” —AP

TV listings SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

14:10 15:05 16:00 16:55 17:50 18:45 19:40 20:35 21:30 21:55 22:25 22:50 23:20 23:45 00:40 01:10 01:35

14:20 14:50 15:45 16:40 17:35 18:25 19:20 20:10 21:05 22:00 22:55 23:50 00:45 01:35

Life On A Wire Life On A Wire Life On A Wire Life On A Wire Overhaulin’ 2012 Gold Divers Alaska: The Last Frontier Sons Of Guns Storage Hunters Storage Hunters Storage Hunters Storage Hunters Storage Hunters Inside The Gangsters’ Code I Escaped: Real Prison Breaks I Escaped: Real Prison Breaks Ultimate Cops

Hero Factor I Shouldn’t Be Alive...

Combat Countdown The Kennedy Detail Becoming Barack The Real Inglorious Bastards American Car Prospector Delta Divers Empire Combat Countdown American Car Prospector The Real Inglorious Bastards Death Machines Death Machines

14:20 14:45 15:10 16:00 16:55 17:45 18:10 18:35 19:00 19:30 20:20 21:10 21:35 22:00 22:50 23:40 00:05 00:30 01:00 01:50

Food Factory Food Factory X-Machines Scrapheap Challenge Through The Wormhole Bigger, Better, Faster, Stronger Bigger, Better, Faster, Stronger The Gadget Show The Tech Show What’s That About?

X-Machines Kitchen Chemistry Kitchen Chemistry What’s That About?

Dark Matters Kitchen Chemistry Kitchen Chemistry How Do They Do It? Thunder Races Thunder Races

14:00 14:30 15:00 15:30 16:00 16:30 17:00 17:30 18:00 19:00 19:30 20:00 20:30 21:00 22:00 22:30 23:00 23:30 00:00 00:30 01:00 01:30 02:00

Counting Cars Counting Cars Pawn Stars Pawn Stars Counting Cars Counting Cars Pawn Stars Pawn Stars American Pickers American Restoration Pawn Stars Pawn Stars Pawn Stars American Pickers Storage Wars Storage Wars Texas Pawn Stars Pawn Stars Counting Cars Counting Cars Storage Wars Storage Wars Storage Wars

14:00 C.S.I. 15:00 Glee 16:00 Smallville

17:00 18:00 19:00 21:00 22:00 23:00 00:00

The Ellen DeGeneres Show C.S.I. Body Of Proof White Collar Top Gear (US) Greek Glee

03:00 Wilfred 03:30 Friends 04:00 Seinfeld 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 Two And A Half Men 06:00 All Of Us 06:30 Til Death 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 Seinfeld 08:30 Two And A Half Men 09:00 Wilfred 09:30 Go On 10:00 2 Broke Girls 10:30 Til Death 11:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:00 All Of Us 12:30 Seinfeld 13:00 Two And A Half Men 13:30 Til Death 14:00 Friends 14:30 2 Broke Girls 15:00 Go On 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 Wilfred 18:30 Happy Endings 19:00 The Neighbors 19:30 2 Broke Girls 20:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 Veep 22:30 Veep 23:00 The Ricky Gervais Show 23:30 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 Veep 02:00 Veep 02:30 The Ricky Gervais Show

05:15 05:35 06:00 06:25 06:35 06:45 07:10 07:35 07:55

Brandy & Mr Whiskers Brandy & Mr Whiskers Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jake & The Neverland Pirates Jake & The Neverland Pirates Suite Life On Deck A.N.T. Farm Jessie That’s So Raven

08:20 08:45 09:05 09:30 09:55 10:15 10:40 11:05 12:35 13:00 13:25 13:45 14:10 15:50 16:10 16:35 17:00 Year 18:45 18:55 19:20 19:40 20:05 20:30 20:50 21:15 21:40 22:00 22:25 22:50 23:10 23:35 00:00 00:20 00:45 01:05 01:30

Gravity Falls Good Luck Charlie Shake It Up Jessie Austin And Ally A.N.T Farm Code: 9 High School Musical Code: 9 Gravity Falls Jessie A.N.T. Farm High School Musical 2 Shake It Up Gravity Falls A.N.T. Farm High School Musical 3: Senior Prankstars Gravity Falls Good Luck Charlie Jessie Shake It Up Austin And Ally A.N.T. Farm That’s So Raven Good Luck Charlie Shake It Up A.N.T. Farm Austin And Ally Wizards Of Waverly Place Wizards Of Waverly Place Stitch Stitch A Kind Of Magic A Kind Of Magic Emperor’s New School

JUMPING THE BROOM ON OSN MOVIES HD

01:50 Emperor’s New School 02:15 Replacements 02:35 Replacements

14:05 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 15:00 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 16:00 THS 17:00 Fashion Police 18:00 E! News 19:00 Chasing The Saturdays 19:30 Kourtney And Kim Take Miami 20:30 Married To Jonas 21:00 Married To Jonas 21:30 What Would Ryan Lochte Do? 22:00 What Would Ryan Lochte Do? 22:30 Playing With Fire 23:30 Chelsea Lately 00:00 Chelsea Lately 00:30 Scouted 01:25 THS

03:05 Phil Spencer - Secret Agent 03:55 Phil Spencer - Secret Agent 04:45 Perfect Day 05:10 Food & Drink 05:40 The Roux Legacy 06:10 Planet Cake 06:35 The Good Cook 07:00 Food Poker 10:45 Planet Cake 11:10 The Good Cook 11:40 Food & Drink 12:05 The Roux Legacy 12:40 James Martin’s Champagne 13:05 Celebrity MasterChef 14:25 Superhomes 15:15 Bargain Hunt 16:00 Antiques Roadshow 16:55 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 17:40 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 19:00 Celebrity MasterChef 19:55 Vacation Vacation Vacation 20:25 Gok’s Fashion Fix 21:15 Antiques Roadshow 22:10 Bargain Hunt 23:00 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 00:20 Cash In The Attic 01:05 Gok’s Fashion Fix 01:55 Design Rules 02:25 James Martin’s Champagne 02:50 Celebrity MasterChef

03:00 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 03:25 Unique Eats 03:50 Food Crafters 04:15 United Tastes Of America 04:40 Chopped 05:30 Amazing Wedding Cakes 06:10 Unwrapped 06:35 Unwrapped 07:00 Hungry Girl 07:25 Hungry Girl 07:50 Hungry Girl 08:15 Hungry Girl 08:40 Extra Virgin 09:05 Extra Virgin 09:30 Extra Virgin 09:55 Extra Virgin 10:20 United Tastes Of America 10:45 United Tastes Of America 11:10 United Tastes Of America 11:35 United Tastes Of America 12:00 Amazing Wedding Cakes 12:50 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 13:15 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 13:40 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 14:05 Food Network Challenge 14:50 Amazing Wedding Cakes 15:35 Amazing Wedding Cakes

16:20 16:50 17:20 18:15 18:40 19:05 19:30 19:55 20:20 20:45 21:10 22:00 22:50 23:40 00:05 00:30 00:55 01:20 01:45

Charly’s Cake Angels Charly’s Cake Angels Staten Island Cakes Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Food Wars Food Wars Food Wars Food Wars Chopped Iron Chef America Iron Chef America Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Food Wars Food Wars Unwrapped Iron Chef America

04:30 Snowmen-PG 06:00 Muhammad And Larry-PG15 07:00 Jumping The Broom-PG15 09:00 Black Forest-PG15 10:30 Frankenweenie-PG 12:00 Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3: Viva LA Fiesta!-PG 14:00 Saving Grace B. Jones-PG15 16:00 Black Forest-PG15 18:00 Wrath Of The Titans-PG15 20:00 Now Is Good-PG15 22:00 The Woman In Black-PG15 00:00 Wuthering Heights-18 02:15 Black Forest-PG15

07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00 01:00

Dangerous Flowers-PG15 Enter The Phoenix-PG15 A Heartbeat Away-PG15 Ike: Countdown To D-Day-PG15 Encounter With Danger-PG15 Blackthorn-PG15 Arbitrage-PG15 When Love Is Not Enough-PG15 Contraband-18 Blackthorn-PG15

04:00 The Hairy Tooth Fairy 2-PG 06:00 Today’s Special-PG15 08:00 Valentina-FAM 10:00 Sinbad: Legend Of The Seven Seas-FAM 12:00 Tower Heist-PG15 14:00 Into The Wind-PG15 16:00 Valentina-FAM 18:00 HappythankyoumorepleasePG15 20:00 Battleship-PG15 22:15 Ted-18 00:15 Into The Wind-PG15 02:00 HappythankyoumorepleasePG15

04:00 Meteor Storm-PG15 06:00 The Tourist-PG15 08:00 Brake-PG15 10:00 Green Lantern-PG15 12:00 True Justice: Blood Alley-PG15 14:00 Brake-PG15 16:00 Thor-PG15 18:00 True Justice: Blood Alley-PG15 20:00 Sutures-PG15 22:00 Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life-PG15 00:00 The Godfather II-18 OSN MOVIES COMEDY 08:00 Police Academy 6: City Under Siege-PG15 10:00 Mrs. Miracle-PG15 12:00 Back To The Future-PG15 14:00 Toys-PG15 16:00 Mrs. Miracle-PG15 18:00 Spy Kids: All The Time In The World-PG 20:00 Crazy, Stupid, Love.-PG15 22:00 Detroit Rock City-18 00:00 Bridesmaids-18 02:15 Crazy, Stupid, Love.-PG15

TV listings SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

08:00 Monte Carlo-PG15 10:00 Bowfinger-PG15 12:00 Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell Of Fear-PG15 14:00 Lemony Snicket’s A Series Of Unfortunate-PG 16:00 Bowfinger-PG15 18:00 Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult-PG15 20:00 The Romantics-PG15 22:00 30 Minutes Or Less-18 00:00 Jackass: The Movie-18 02:00 The Romantics-PG15

09:45 The Key Man-PG15 11:15 Raggedy Man-PG15 13:30 Phenomenon-PG 15:45 The Key Man-PG15 17:15 Oscar-PG15 19:15 Broken-PG15 21:00 In The Land Of Blood And Honey-R 23:15 The Company Men-PG15 01:00 Arc-18

01:00 01:30 03:30 06:00 07:00 10:00 10:30 11:30 12:00 15:30 16:00 18:00 20:00 23:30

Inside The PGA Tour Super League AFL Premiership Trans World Sport Live AFL Premiership Futbol Mundial Trans World Sport ICC Cricket 360 Live British & Irish Lions Futbol Mundial Live International Rugby Union Live International Rugby Union British & Irish Lions International Rugby Union

00:00 01:00 03:00 04:00 06:00 06:30 07:00 09:00 10:00 10:30 12:30 14:30 15:00 19:00 20:00

UFC The Ultimate Fighter WWE Smackdown WWE Bottom Line NRL Premiership European Tour Weekly Inside The PGA Tour Live Champions Tour Trans World Sport Inside The PGA Tour Live International Rugby Union Live NRL Premiership European Tour Weekly Live PGA European Tour Trans World Sport Live PGA Tour

00:00 00:30 01:00 05:30 06:00 07:00 08:00 10:00 12:30 15:30 17:30 19:30 22:00

ICC Cricket 360 Futbol Mundial PGA European Tour Inside The PGA Tour Total Rugby ICC Cricket 360 Super League PGA Tour Live AFL Premiership International Rugby Union NRL Premiership AFL Premiership International Rugby Union

00:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 20:00

UFC Ping Pong World US Bass Fishing NHL WWE Smackdown Live Asian Tour Golf WWE Vintage Collection WWE Bottom Line WWE Smackdown NHL UAE National Race Day Series UFC

Working his way up to ‘White House Down’ PASADENA: Though he always felt something was pushing him toward acting, Lance Reddick ignored it.

His dad was an attorney, and Lance was on his way to becoming a classical music composer. Then something went awry. “I always knew I had a thing when it came to acting but never took it seriously. I just thought people who wanted to be actors were silly,” he says, in the sunny patio restaurant of a hotel here. It may have been silly, but Reddick has managed to parlay that tom-foolery into a full blown career with memorable performances in TV shows like “Oz,” “Fringe,” “Lost” and “The Wire” and his new movie, “White House Down,” due June 28.

For a guy who was too shy to even consider performing, he somehow beat the odds. He studied music composition at the prestigious Eastman School of Music, the piano his instrument. “Because my parents wanted to give me what they didn’t have, I grew up around a bunch of affluent white kids,” says Reddick.

“So everybody’s parents were lawyers and doctors, bankers and architects. I didn’t really get it. Now I do.”

He developed his first taste for music at an Episcopal elementary school when he started singing with the choir. “A lot of black people grow up singing gospel music. I grew up singing Gregorian chants and 16th century motets,” he grins.

Still, he left Eastman before he graduated. “I realized I was in denial and I really wanted to be a rock star,” he says. “So I got married straight out of school, moved to Boston because my wife at the time was from there.

Two years later my daughter was born. And I found myself working three jobs, seven days a week.” He still wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. But an excruciating back injury changed all that. “I was lifting a big bundle of newspapers, but it wasn’t the lifting itself, it was the exhaustion. I’d come from a double shift of waiting tables to a double shift of delivering newspapers and I delivered the Wall Street Journal in downtown Boston ... I just cranked it up for about 24 hours, and I was just exhausted and something went,” he says.

“At the time I was used to working on adrenaline and I worked out every day - even with all I had going on. So when I was in pain or exhausted I just ignored it and kept going.” Two weeks later he awoke unable to get out of bed. Fourteen days of bed rest forced him to re-evaluate his life. “It sounds crazy but I thought, ‘Well, I know the recording studio I’m working with is taking me for a ride. It’s time for me to admit that to myself. So let me start from scratch. I can sing and I can act. So let me try to act ...’ I went on a couple of musical theater auditions and realized that wasn’t me, so I started going on straight auditions and getting cast and getting cast and getting cast.”

Reddick thinks his period with est (Erhard Seminars Training) - especially a workshop on communication lent him the ability to ace those early auditions. “I led seminars for about two years when I was in college. My participation had a profound effect on my acting later, and my ability as a seminar leader allowed me to fill in the gaps in my training that I didn’t have in auditioning,” he explains. “Because I was used to figuring out how to read a room and being myself in front of people - even though I hadn’t really studied auditioning _ I was able to audition well and that made a big difference ...

When I did est and that was over - I didn’t want to think it - but I was thinking, ‘What the heck was that? I want my money back.’ All these people were, like, ‘Wow.’ I didn’t get it. But there was something there that I was curious about, so I kept participating,” he says, sipping a glass of water.

“I was different when I came out of the workshop.

I’m shy, an introvert. I was so withdrawn, so self-conscious, but when I came out I was ‘Whoa!’ Suddenly all this stuff I’d been suppressing since I was 7, I let go of.”

Though at one time he was costarring in three shows at once, it wasn’t always so easy. Married with a daughter,

Lance Reddick plays the military coordinator at the Pentagon in the new film, “White House Down” due June 28. — MCT 24, and a son, 19, he and his first wife split in ‘97. (He has since remarried).

“She made three times the money I did,” he recalls.

“God rest her soul, she passed away a couple years ago, but she was a brilliant artist, really talented. We didn’t make it, but she was a great lady,” he sighs. “Six months after she left I got ‘The Siege’ and I was ducking the landlord. And I had the kids every other week, so I was borrowing money to buy groceries. I got ‘The Siege’ then I got ‘I Dreamed of Africa’ then went to the Guthrie and got to play Marc Antony (in “Julius Caesar.”) I came back home to New York and didn’t work for six months.

For somebody who’s always doing a side job or has a trust fund or savings, it’s one thing. But I didn’t ... The only reason I didn’t quit was I didn’t have any alternatives. What was I going to do, wait tables? The only way to get out of the situation I was in was to make it.”

William Fichtner stars in NBC’s ambitious new series, “Crossing Lines,” premiering on Sunday. The show, which is filmed in various parts of Europe, is headquartered in Prague. Fichtner says he had some concerns about working that far from home. “I read it and I liked it but, you know, it’s a challenge. It was a big thing. This is not like I’m going to commute to California and see the family. This was a big commitment to go because I wasn’t going to do this without traveling with my wife and my entire family, which I did.”

Love being an armchair detective, ever on the alert to solve the crimes that your TV heroes can’t quite manage? ABC will give you that chance when it presents its

new reality show “Whodunnit?” premiering Sunday.

Players will examine the evidence in a series of puzzling murders until the competing detectives have been winnowed down to three. The final episode will reveal who the real killer is and promote one of its contestants to a $250,000 prize. All this has been conjured up by Anthony Zuiker, the executive producer of “CSI.” Lifetime’s “Drop Dead Diva,” almost dropped dead, but has amazingly been resuscitated by the network that once decided to cancel the show. Executive producer Josh Berman says he was astonished when he was notified that “Diva” would not enjoy another season. “I was devastated when we were canceled because I hated leaving the fans in such a lurch, and I was ecstatic when we were picked up. But, I think that (star) Brooke Elliott and I never lost hope ... in our guts. And we had these conversations where we just believed the show couldn’t be over. And perhaps we were just in denial, but we also felt that the fan base was so strong.

And within a week of being of canceled there were petitions online demanding that the show be brought back with literally tens of thousands of signatures, and dozens and dozens of homemade videos on YouTube and pages on Facebook wanting the show to be brought back. So, we really just believed it would have to happen. It’s hard to get fans behind a show in a universe that’s so fragmented right now, especially the cable universe. So, knowing our diehard fans were there, we couldn’t give up, so I don’t think we ever fully believed we were gone.” — MCT

W H AT ’ S O N SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

Announcements Issue of online visa

by Indian embassy oreigners requiring visas for India need to apply it online from 16th June 2013. Applicants may log on to the Public portal at www.indianvisaonline.gov.in. After successful online submission, the hard copy, so generated, has to be signed by the applicant and submitted with supporting documents in accordance with the type of visa along with the applicable fee in cash at any of the two outsource centres at Sharq or Fahaheel. It is essential that applicants fill in their personal details as exactly available in their passports. Mismatch of any of the personal details would lead to non-acceptance of the application. Fees once paid are non-refundable. All children would have to obtain separate visa on their respective passports.

F

Indian Embassy sets up helpline he Indian Embassy in Kuwait has set up helpline in order to assist Indian expatriates in registering any complaint regarding the government’s ongoing campaign to stamp out illegal residents from the country. The embassy said in press release yesterday that it amended its previous statement and stated if there is any complaint, the same could be conveyed at the following (as amended): Operations Department, Ministry of Interior, Kuwait. Fax: 22435580, Tel: 24768146/25200334. It said the embassy has been in regular contact with local authorities regarding the ongoing checking of expatriates. The embassy has also conveyed to them the concerns, fears and apprehensions of the community in this regard. The authorities in Kuwait have conveyed that strict instructions have been issued to ensure that there is no harassment or improper treatment of expatriates by those undertaking checking. “The embassy would like to request Indian expatriates to ensure that they abide by all local laws, rules and regulations regarding residency, traffic and other matters,” the release read. It would be prudent to always carry the Civil ID and other relevant documents such as driving license, etc. In case an Indian expatriate encounters any improper treatment during checking, it may be conveyed immediately with full details and contact particulars to the embassy at the following phone number 67623639. These contact details are exclusively for the above-mentioned purpose only.

T

T

he Malayalam Media Forum, Kuwait gave farewell to George Koickaleth, a well-known social worker and a media person, who is leaving Kuwait for good after serving in the country for over 37 years.

Koickaleth has written for various publications in Kuwait including Kuwait Times. MMF convener Gafoor Moodadi presented a memento to Koickaleth on behalf of the forum. The members who felicitated him on the occasion wished him success in his future endeavors.

KNES shines in Islamic competitions

K Saturday: ** 9:30am Showtime Available for Groups Flight of Butterflies 3D 10:30am, 1:30pm, 8:30pm Tornado Alley 3D 11:30am, 2:30pm, 5:30pm, 7:30pm, 9:30pm To The Arctic 3D 12:30pm, 6:30pm Born to be Wild 3D 3:30pm Journey to Mecca 4:30pm 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.

uwait National English School excelled in Islamic competitions held by the Private Education Ministry taking first place amongst the private schools in Kuwait. Under the auspices of the Director General of Private Education, Mohamed Abdullah Al-Dahais and the first Inspector, Jassim Al-Masbah, students of Kuwait National English School were honored as winners in the Al-Hadeeth, Al-Sharif and Quran Memorization competitions. The staff and students of Kuwait National English School are very proud of their achievement.

Write to us Send to What’s On upcoming events, birthdays or celebrations by email: local@kuwaittimes.net Fax: 24835619 / 20

W H AT ’ S O N SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

Embassy Information

The Scientific Center carried out visits to patients at a hospital run by the Kuwait Association for the Care of Children in Hospital (KACCH). The centre organized workshops and other activities for the patients.

ASSE Kuwait marks World Environment Day

■■■■■■■

A

merican Society of Safety Engineers - Kuwait Chapter Commemorated World Environment Day 2013 on 5th June, 2013 at Hotel Safir, Fintas, Kuwait. The celebration began with a welcome note

by G Sampath Reddy, Secretary.

Vasudevan President in his address highlighted about the 10th Successive year of Chapter celebrating this day, he also mentioned about the various initiatives taken by the chapter during last one year to create awareness among the members, school children and general public.

Fadhel Al-Ali, Chairman, ASSE-Kuwait Chapter in his Opening address emphasized the importance of the Theme of the year and appreciated ASSE members for their contribution towards protecting the Environment. Jignesh Shah, Head, Health & Environmental Committee gave an introductory presentation on World Environment Day 2013 with the details on the importance of the Day along with the Theme of the year “THINK.EAT.SAVE”. Rama Krushna Chary, Head, Technical Events Committee introduced the speaker of the Day Dr Sami Al-Yakoob, Project Manager, Kuwait Integrated Environment Management (KIEM).

Dr Sami Al-Yakoob, presented on the Topic: “Kuwait Integrated Environmental

EMBASSY OF AUSTRALIA The Australian Embassy Kuwait does not have a visa or immigration department.

All processing of visas and immigration matters in conducted by The Australian Consulate-General in Dubai. Email: info.ausdxb@vfshelpline.com (VFS) immigration.dubai@dfat.gov.au (Visa Office); Tel: +971 4 355 1958 (VFS) - +971 4 508 7200 (Visa Office); Fax: +971 4 355 0708 (Visa Office).

In Kuwait applications can be lodged at the Australian Visa Application Centre 4B 1st Floor, Al-Banwan Building Al-Qibla Area, Ali Al-Salem Street, opposite the Central Bank of Kuwait, Kuwait City, Kuwait. Working hours and days: 09:30 - 17:30; Sunday - Thursday. Or visit their website www.vfs-au-gcc-com for more information. Kuwait citizens can apply for tourist visas on-line at www.immi.gov.au/e visa/e676.htm.

Management System: Toward an Enhanced Regulatory Framework in Kuwait”.

In his Presentation he provided live examples of environmental factors in Kuwait, EPA & Ministerial planning, decisions, protocols etc. towards development of environment regulatory framework.

A spot quiz competition was conducted for ASSE members by Environmental & Health committee of ASSE Kuwait chapter and winners were awarded with prizes.

On this occasion ASSE Kuwait chapter also designed a Photography Competition for the Member’s Families, the First, Second & third pictures were presented. To highlight the importance of the day, Saplings were distributed to all the members. As a token of appreciation EC, AC Members presented a memento to the Speaker of the Day. The meeting was concluded with high tea sponsored by ASSE Kuwait Chapter.

Around 70 ASSE members and their family members attended for this program.

EMBASSY OF CANADA The Embassy of Canada in Kuwait does not have a visa or immigration department. All processing of visa and immigration matters including enquiries is conducted by the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Individuals who are interested in working, studying, visiting or immigrating to Canada should contact the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, website: www.UAE.gc.ca or www.goingtocanada.gc.ca, E-mail: abdbi-imenquiry@international.gc.ca. The Embassy of Canada is located at Villa 24, Al-Mutawakei St, Block 4 in Da’aiyah. Please visit our website at www.Kuwait.gc.ca. The Embassy of Canada is open from 07:30 to 15:30 Sunday through Thursday. The reception is open from 07:30 to 12:30. Consular services for Canadian citizens are provided from 09:00 until 12:00, Sunday through Wednesday.

■■■■■■■

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 DS-160, photos must be a .jpg between 600x600 and 1200x1200 pixels, less than 240kb, and cannot be digitally altered); A completed DS-160 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 I-20.

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

HEALTH SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

HPV vaccine cuts infection by half ATLANTA: A vaccine against a cervical cancer virus cut infections in teen girls by half in the first study to measure the shot’s impact since it came on the market. The results impressed health experts and a top government top health official called them striking. The research released Wednesday echoes studies done before the HPV vaccine became available in 2006. But the new study is the first evidence of just how well it works now that it is in general use.

Only about half of teen girls in the US have gotten at least one dose of the expensive vaccine, and just a third of teen girls have had all three shots, according to the latest government figures. “These are striking results and I think they should be a wake-up call that we need to increase vaccination rates,” said Dr Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Cervical cancer is caused by certain types of the common sexually transmit-

ted virus called HPV, for human papillomavirus. The vaccine, which costs about $130 per dose, protects against a few of those strains, including two blamed for 70 percent of cervical cancers. The shots work best if given before someone is sexually active so the emphasis has been on giving the shots to 11- and 12year olds.

The CDC study compared infection rates in girls ages 14 to 19 before and after the vaccine became available. The proportion infected with the targeted HPV strains dropped 56 percent, from about 12 percent before the vaccine was sold to 5 percent. That result was for all teens after it was on the market, whether or not they were vaccinated.

Among girls who had gotten the vaccine, the drop in HPV infections was higher - 88 percent. There are two vaccines against HPV, but the study mainly reflects the impact of Gardasil, the Merck & Co. vaccine that came on the market in 2006. A second vaccine approved in 2009 - GlaxoSmithKline’s

Cervarix - probably had relatively little bearing on the results, said the CDC’s Dr Lauri Markowitz, the study’s lead author.

Both vaccines are approved for use in males and females - in ages 9 to 26 for females, and 9 to 21 in males. The vaccine was only recommended for boys in late 2011, and the CDC has not yet reported data on how many boys have gotten the shot since then. HPV vaccination requires three shots over 6 months.

An estimated 75 to 80 percent of men and women are infected with HPV during their lifetime. Most don’t develop symptoms and clear it on their own.

But some infections lead to genital warts, cervical cancer and other cancers.

The study didn’t look at cervical cancer rates. It can take many years for such cancers to develop, and not enough time has passed to know the vaccine’s impact on cancer rates, CDC officials said.

The study involved interviews and physical examinations of nearly 1,400 teen girls in 2003 through 2006 and of

740 girls in 2007 through 2010. The vaccine’s impact was seen even though only 34 percent of the teens in the second group had received any vaccine.

That could be due to “herd immunity” when a population is protected from an infection because a large or important smaller group is immune.

Only about 20 percent of those vaccinated got all three doses. That result will likely feed an ongoing discussion about whether all three doses are necessary, Markowitz said. Overall, the study found no significant change over time in the proportion of teens who’d ever had sex and in those who had multiple sex partners. However, it did find that a higher percentage of vaccinated teens said they’d had three or more sex partners. That could have driven down infection rates, Markowitz noted, if the teens who got vaccinated were the ones at highest risk of getting an infection and spreading it. The research was released online by the Journal of Infectious Diseases. — AP

Environment holds business risks and chances: UN study Greenhouse gases to double in next 50 years

CLEVELAND: This photo released by the Cleveland Animal Protective League shows Lurleen, the nursing mother and Noland the puppy snuggling up. — AP

Cat nurses orphaned pitbull puppy in Ohio CLEVELAND: A cat caring for four newborn kittens is nursing an orphaned week-old pitbull puppy in Cleveland. Sharon Harvey of the Cleveland Animal Protective League said Wednesday that Lurlene the cat welcomed Noland the puppy to her “unusual little family.” The puppy was dropped off at the animal shelter last week when he was a day old. The staff decided to place Noland with the nursing cat and her litter because bottle feeding doesn’t always work. The puppy will grow faster, so the shelter says it may have to come up with another feeding idea in several weeks until Noland is ready for adoption. — AP

PARIS: Rising temperatures, storms linked to climate change and growing competition for water and land point to tough times ahead for the business sector, but also a chance for profitable innovation, the UN said yesterday. Citing the ravages of floods in Australia in 2010-11 which cost insurer Munich Re $350 million (265 million euros) and mining group Rio Tinto another $245 million, the report said companies had no choice but to adapt.

“From extreme weather events, to rising pressures on finite natural resources, changes in the global environment will increasingly impact operating costs, markets for products, the availability of raw materials, and the reputation of businesses, from finance and tourism, to healthcare and transport,” said the UN Environment Programme document.

“The future of the private sector will increasingly hinge on the ability of businesses to adapt to the world’s rapidly changing environment and to develop goods and services that can reduce the impacts of climate change, water scarcity, emissions of harmful chemicals, and other environmen-

tal concerns.” In the tourism sector, for example, a 1.4-2.2-degree Celsius (2.5-4degree Fahrenheit) rise in average winter temperatures would likely mean the closure of more than half the ski resorts operating in the northeastern United States in 30 years.

The report said Earth-warming greenhouse gas emissions were projected to double in the next 50 years, leading to a global average surface temperature increase of 3-6 C (5.4-10.8 F) by the end of the century. As for water scarcity, it said platinum mines in South Africa’s Olifants River system faced ten times higher water charges by 2020 as they compete with local communities for the ever scarcer commodity.

Global electricity demand could be over 70 percent higher in 2035 than 2009, said the report-and pointed to more frequent heat waves associated with climate change affecting grid reliability. Last year, blackouts in northern India caused by high temperatures and low rains left hundreds of millions of people without power for several hours.

But while the risks to business were “significant”, they also presented unique opportunities for companies that seized the grow-

ing demand for greener technology, investments and services, said the report entitled “GEO-5 for Business: Impacts of a Changing Environment on the Corporate Sector.”

More than 80 percent of the capital needed to address climate change may come from the private sector. “This can bring about significant ‘green economy’ investment opportunities in the finance sector for green buildings, energy-efficiency technology, sustainable transport and other low-carbon products and infrastructure,” the UNEP said.

“In cities, around 60 percent of the infrastructure needed to meet the needs of the world’s urban population by 2050 still needs to be built, presenting significant business opportunities for greener urban construction and retrofits.” There were opportunities in the energy sector too, with coal’s global share of total power generation expected to drop from two-fifths to one-third by 2035, said the report, and renewables rising from 20 to 31 percent. “The ‘decarbonisation’ of electricity will present opportunities for the sector to advance renewable energy technologies,” said a UNEP statement. — AFP

Woman’s face drives relationship length PARIS: Men looking for a quick fling prefer women with more “feminine” facial features, said a study yesterday that delved into the evolutionary determinants of the mating game. Feminine features like a smaller jawbone or fuller cheeks are closely linked to a woman’s perceived attractiveness, which in turn is taken as an indicator of health, youth and fidelity and other traits, it said.

Feminine features are associated with a higher level of the female hormone oestrogen, which is also linked with reproductive success. Studies on factors that

influence human mating mostly focus on women, who have shown a similar preference for a hunkier man for a fling but a geekier one to settle down with-possibly a more reliable bet for helping to raise children.

In a study with several hundred heterosexual male volunteers, a team of researchers made composite pictures of women’s faces, and asked the men which ones they would choose for long- or shortterm relationships.

There were two versions of each faceone with slightly more feminine and the

other more masculine features. The faces were taken from European or Japanese faces. They found that men rated women with more feminine features more highly for a fling. The preference was especially high among men who were already in a steady relationship.

“When a man has secured a mate, the potential cost of being discovered may increase his choosiness regarding shortterm partners relative to unpartnered men, who can better increase their shortterm mating success by relaxing their standards,” wrote the study authors. But in

making long-term choices, men “may actually prefer less attractive/feminine women,” they added.

Previous research has found that attractive women are likelier to be unfaithful, particularly if their partner is ugly. “If his partner cheats on him, a man risks raising a child which is not his own,” explained the authors.

The study, led by Anthony Little from the University of Stirling and Benedict Jones from the University of Glasgow, appears in the British Journal of Psychology. — AFP

SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

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

MATRIMONIAL

24812000 22450005 24843100 25312700 24849400 24892010 23940620 24840300 24846000 24874330/9

Clinics Rabiya Rawdha Adailiya Khaldiya Khaifan Shamiya Shuwaikh Abdullah Salim Al-Nuzha Industrial Shuwaikh Al-Qadisiya Dasmah Bneid Al-Ghar Al-Shaab Al-Kibla Ayoun Al-Kibla Mirqab Sharq Salmiya Jabriya Maidan Hawally Bayan

24732263 22517733 22517144 24848075 24849807 24848913 24814507 22549134 22526804 24814764 22515088 22532265 22531908 22518752 22459381 22451082 22456536 22465401 25746401 25316254 25623444 25388462

Kuwait SHARQIA-1 WORLD WAR Z (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) LAY THE FAVORITE (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) LAY THE FAVORITE (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) SHARQIA-2 THE LEGEND OF SARILA (DIG-3D) MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG-3D) MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG-3D) MAN OF STEEL (DIG-3D) MAN OF STEEL (DIG-3D) MAN OF STEEL (DIG-3D) SHARQIA-3 TATTAH (DIG) SCENARIO (DIG) TATTAH (DIG) SCENARIO (DIG) TATTAH (DIG)

Invited for a Roman Catholic girl, 25/155cm, BSc Nurse working in Kuwait, (Thrissur Dist.) proposals from God fearing, suitably educated and employed boys. Email: lindatp7@gmail.com (C 4444) 18-6-2013 Inviting marriage proposal for Tamil Christian girl age 30, working in Kuwait, qualifications B.P.T + M Sc (UK).

Contact Email: proposal.groom2013@gmail.com (C 4441)

12-6-2013 Inviting marriage proposal for Kerala Christian boy, age 29/ ht - 176cm, from Trichur district working as an Accountant in a reputed company in Kuwait. Contact: Email: sanjayantony42@gmail.com (C 4440)

12:45 PM 2:30 PM 4:45 PM 7:00 PM 9:45 PM 12:30 AM

2:00 PM 4:30 PM 7:15 PM 9:30 PM 12:05 AM

MUHALAB-1 MAN OF STEEL (DIG) MAN OF STEEL (DIG) SCENARIO (DIG) MAN OF STEEL (DIG)

1:30 PM 4:15 PM 7:00 PM 9:30 PM

MUHALAB-2 WORLD WAR Z (DIG) LAY THE FAVORITE (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) LAY THE FAVORITE (DIG)

1:30 PM 3:45 PM 5:45 PM 8:00 PM

Ministry of Interior

Automated enquiry about the Civil ID card is

1889988

website: www.moi.gov.kw Prayer timings

112 For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128

Fajr:

03:14

Shorook

04:48

Duhr:

11:50

Asr:

15:24

Maghrib:

18:51

Isha:

20:23

No: 15847

CHANGE OF NAME I, NSE OKON AKPAN holder of Nigerian passport Number A01448202 do hereby change my name to NSE SAMUEL KASALI. 18-6-2013 I, Kamasani Damodaram holder of Indian passport No. E6147415 issued at Hyderabad on 26-08-2003, I wish to change my name Kamasani Damodar Reddy.

(C 4443) 15-6-2013

KNCC PROGRAMME FROM THURSDAY TO WEDNESDAY (20/06/2013 TO 26/06/2013) WORLD WAR Z (DIG)

1:30 PM 3:45 PM 6:15 PM 8:15 PM 10:45 PM 12:45 AM

THE PUBLIC AUTHORITY FOR CIVIL INFORMATION

MUHALAB-3 MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG-3D) THE LEGEND OF SARILA (DIG-3D) MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG-3D) TATTAH (DIG) TATTAH (DIG) FANAR-1 WORLD WAR Z (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG)

10:00 PM

1:00 PM 3:30 PM 5:15 PM 7:30 PM 9:45 PM

12:30 PM 3:00 PM 5:30 PM 8:00 PM 10:30 PM 1:00 AM

FANAR-2 MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG) MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG) MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG) SCENARIO (DIG) SCENARIO (DIG) TATTAH (DIG)

1:00 PM 3:15 PM 5:30 PM 7:45 PM 10:15 PM 12:45 AM

FANAR-3 LAY THE FAVORITE (DIG) LAY THE FAVORITE (DIG) NOW YOU SEE ME (DIG) LAY THE FAVORITE (DIG) LAY THE FAVORITE (DIG) LAY THE FAVORITE (DIG)

1:45 PM 3:45 PM 5:45 PM 8:00 PM 10:00 PM 12:05 AM

MARINA-1

LAY THE FAVORITE (DIG) SCENARIO (DIG) LAY THE FAVORITE (DIG) SCENARIO (DIG) LAY THE FAVORITE (DIG) SCENARIO (DIG)

1:30 PM 3:30 PM 6:00 PM 8:00 PM 10:30 PM 12:45 AM

MARINA-2 WORLD WAR Z (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) MAN OF STEEL (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) MAN OF STEEL (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

12:30 PM 2:45 PM 5:00 PM 7:45 PM 10:00 PM 12:15 AM

MARINA-3 THE LEGEND OF SARILA (DIG-3D) MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG-3D) THE LEGEND OF SARILA (DIG-3D) MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG-3D) TATTAH (DIG) TATTAH (DIG) TATTAH (DIG)

1:30 PM 1:15 PM 3:30 PM 5:15 PM 7:30 PM 9:45 PM 12:15 AM

AVENUES-1 LAY THE FAVORITE (DIG) LAY THE FAVORITE (DIG) LAY THE FAVORITE (DIG) LAY THE FAVORITE (DIG) LAY THE FAVORITE (DIG) LAY THE FAVORITE (DIG) LAY THE FAVORITE (DIG)

1:15 PM 3:15 PM 5:15 PM 7:15 PM 9:15 PM 11:15 PM 1:15 AM

AVENUES-2 SCENARIO (DIG) SCENARIO (DIG) SCENARIO (DIG) SCENARIO (DIG) SCENARIO (DIG)

2:15 PM 4:45 PM 7:15 PM 9:45 PM 12:15 AM

AVENUES-3 WORLD WAR Z (DIG-3D) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG-3D) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG)

1:45 PM 4:15 PM 6:45 PM 9:15 PM 11:45 PM

360ยบ- 1 WORLD WAR Z (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG)

12:30 PM 3:00 PM 5:30 PM 8:00 PM 10:30 PM 1:00 AM

360ยบ- 2 SCENARIO (DIG) SCENARIO (DIG) SCENARIO (DIG) SCENARIO (DIG) SCENARIO (DIG)

1:15 PM 3:45 PM 6:15 PM 8:45 PM 11:15 PM

360ยบ- 3 THE LEGEND OF SARILA (DIG-3D) THE LEGEND OF SARILA (DIG-3D) THE LEGEND OF SARILA (DIG-3D) WORLD WAR Z (DIG-3D)

1:00 PM 3:00 PM 5:00 PM 7:00 PM

information SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION In case you are not travelling, your proper cancellation of bookings will help other passengers use seats Airlines BBC QTR MEA RJA JZR JZR SAI THY ETH GFA PIA UAE ETD FDB KAC RJA RBG MSR OMA QTR THY DHX FDB BAW KAC JZR JZR JZR MEA KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC FDB UAE ABY QTR IRC IRM FDB ETD IRA GFA IAW IRM MSC KAC KAC JZR JZR JZR JZR FDB GFA MSC JAI RBG FDB FDB KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC UAE MSR THY KNE QTR FDB IRC IRM MSR SVA KNE SYR KNE JAV RJA QTR ETD UAE ABY UAL GFA SVA NIA

Arrival Flights on Saturday 22/6/2013 Flt Route 43 DHAKA 148 DOHA 408 BEIRUT 644 AMMAN 267 BEIRUT 539 CAIRO 441 LAHORE 764 SABIHA 620 ADDIS ABABA 211 BAHRAIN 239 ISLAMABAD 853 DUBAI 305 ABU DHABI 67 DUBAI 416 JAKARTA 648 AMMAN 555 ALEXANDRIA 612 CAIRO 643 MUSCAT 138 DOHA 770 ISTANBUL 170 BAHRAIN 69 DUBAI 157 LONDON 412 MANILA 1541 CAIRO 555 ALEXANDRIA 529 ASSIUT 406 BEIRUT 352 COCHIN 344 CHENNAI 382 DELHI 302 MUMBAI 206 ISLAMABAD 53 DUBAI 855 DUBAI 125 SHARJAH 132 DOHA 6588 SHAHRE KORD 1186 TEHRAN 55 DUBAI 301 ABU DHABI 3407 MASHAD 213 BAHRAIN 157 BAGHDAD 1188 MASHAD 401 ALEXANDRIA 284 DHAKA 362 COLOMBO 329 NAJAF 325 NAJAF 503 LUXOR 165 DUBAI 63 DUBAI 219 BAHRAIN 405 SOHAG 572 MUMBAI 553 ALEXANDRIA 61 DUBAI 8057 DUBAI 502 BEIRUT 788 JEDDAH 790 MEDINAH 674 DUBAI 562 AMMAN 538 SOHAG 104 LONDON 176 GENEVA 871 DUBAI 610 CAIRO 766 ISTANBUL 480 TAIF 140 DOHA 57 DUBAI 6692 MASHAD 1184 SHIRAZ 575 SHARM EL SHEIKH 500 JEDDAH 472 JEDDAH 341 DAMASCUS 470 JEDDAH 621 AMMAN 640 AMMAN 134 DOHA 303 ABU DHABI 857 DUBAI 127 SHARJAH 982 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 215 BAHRAIN 510 RIYADH 251 ALEXANDRIA

Time 00:05 00:05 00:10 00:30 00:20 00:40 01:30 01:40 01:45 01:55 02:05 02:25 02:30 03:10 06:35 03:10 03:15 03:15 03:20 03:30 04:35 05:10 05:50 06:30 06:15 06:25 06:20 06:40 09:45 08:05 08:20 07:30 07:50 07:25 07:45 08:25 08:50 09:00 09:00 09:10 09:15 09:30 10:35 10:40 11:00 11:45 12:00 08:15 08:45 10:10 12:25 07:40 11:35 18:55 19:05 19:30 19:35 19:40 20:00 14:50 18:50 15:00 13:55 19:25 19:55 15:40 18:45 17:45 12:45 13:00 13:10 13:20 13:45 13:50 14:00 14:05 14:15 14:30 14:35 14:55 15:05 15:10 15:55 16:15 16:35 16:55 17:10 17:15 17:20 17:20 18:00

IZG QTR KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC JZR JZR JZR JZR JZR JZR JZR JZR OMA ABY IRA MEA MSR KNE AXB KLM ALK UAE ETD QTR GFA JAI QTR FDB AIC KNE UAL DLH JAI MSR THY FDB KAC KAC JZR JZR JZR JZR JZR

4167 144 804 618 672 118 542 774 535 177 241 357 269 777 125 359 647 129 607 402 618 462 489 415 229 859 307 136 217 576 146 59 975 474 981 636 574 614 772 8053 614 786 135 239 189 185 513

MASHAD DOHA CAIRO DOHA DUBAI NEW YORK CAIRO RIYADH CAIRO DUBAI AMMAN MASHAD BEIRUT JEDDAH BAHRAIN MASHAD MUSCAT SHARJAH MASHAD BEIRUT ALEXANDRIA MEDINAH COCHIN AMSTERDAM COLOMBO DUBAI ABU DHABI DOHA BAHRAIN COCHIN DOHA DUBAI CHENNAI JEDDAH BAHRAIN FRANKFURT MUMBAI CAIRO ISTANBUL DUBAI BAHRAIN JEDDAH BAHRAIN AMMAN DUBAI DUBAI SHARM EL SHEIKH

Airlines AIC JAI UAL DLH MSR KLM MEA BBC JZR THY SAI THY ETH RJA PIA UAE FDB RBG MSR OMA ETD QTR QTR FDB RJA JZR JZR GFA THY JZR JZR KAC BAW FDB KAC JZR JZR KAC KAC ABY KAC UAE FDB

Departure Flights on Saturday 22/6/2013 Flt Route 976 GOA/CHENNAI 573 MUMBAI 981 WASHINGTON 637 FRANKFURT 615 CAIRO 413 AMSTERDAM 409 BEIRUT 44 DHAKA 502 LUXOR 773 ISTANBUL 442 LAHORE 765 ISTANBUL 621 ADDIS ABABA 645 AMMAN 240 SIALKOT 854 DUBAI 68 DUBAI 556 ALEXANDRIA 613 CAIRO 644 MUSCAT 306 ABU DHABI 139 DOHA 149 DOHA 70 DUBAI 649 AMMAN 328 AL NAJAF 358 MASHHAD 212 BAHRAIN 771 ISTANBUL 240 AMMAN 164 DUBAI 537 SOHAG 156 LONDON 54 DUBAI 803 CAIRO 324 AL NAJAF 534 CAIRO 789 MADINAH 671 DUBAI 126 SHARJAH 787 JEDDAH 856 DUBAI 56 DUBAI

18:05 18:25 15:40 19:10 13:40 16:00 18:15 19:25 16:10 17:30 12:35 16:50 19:15 17:50 16:25 12:45 20:00 20:05 20:10 20:15 20:30 20:35 20:35 21:05 21:10 21:15 21:30 21:35 21:45 21:55 22:00 22:20 22:25 22:30 22:40 23:10 23:20 23:30 23:45 21:30 23:00 22:40 23:00 22:30 20:10 22:40 23:20 Time 00:05 00:20 00:25 00:30 00:30 00:55 01:10 01:30 01:30 02:20 02:30 02:40 02:45 03:05 03:35 03:45 03:50 03:55 04:15 04:20 04:20 04:25 05:15 06:30 06:35 06:55 06:55 07:00 07:10 07:10 07:25 07:45 08:25 08:25 08:55 09:10 09:10 09:15 09:25 09:30 09:35 09:50 09:55

QTR IRC ETD KAC IRM MEA JZR KAC GFA KAC IRA KAC IAW JZR MSC IRM JZR JZR JZR MSR THY KNE UAE FDB KAC QTR IRC MSR KAC IRM KNE FDB KAC SYR SVA JZR KAC KNE JAV RJA KAC JZR JZR QTR ETD JZR ABY UAE GFA SVA UAL JZR JZR NIA IZG QTR FDB GFA KAC JZR KAC RBG MSC JAI FDB ABY KAC OMA KAC IRA MEA MSR KAC KNE DHX KLM FDB ETD ALK UAE KAC QTR KAC GFA FDB KAC JAI QTR JZR JZR KNE KAC JZR

133 6589 302 101 1185 407 356 501 214 541 3406 165 158 776 406 1189 176 124 268 611 767 481 872 58 561 141 6693 576 673 1187 473 8058 617 342 505 188 773 461 622 641 785 238 512 135 304 538 128 858 216 511 982 184 266 252 4168 145 64 220 613 134 283 554 402 571 62 120 331 648 351 604 403 607 543 475 171 415 8054 308 230 860 381 137 301 218 60 205 575 147 554 1540 471 411 528

DOHA SHAHRE ABU DHABI LONDON SHIRAZ BEIRUT MASHHAD BEIRUT BAHRAIN CAIRO MASHHAD ROME AL NAJAF JEDDAH SOHAG MASHHAD DUBAI BAHRAIN BEIRUT CAIRO ISTANBUL TAIF DUBAI DUBAI AMMAN DOHA MASHHAD SHARM EL SHEIKH DUBAI IMAM KHOMEINI JEDDAH DUBAI DOHA DAMASCUS JEDDAH DUBAI RIYADH MADINAH AMMAN AMMAN JEDDAH AMMAN SHARM EL SHEIKH DOHA ABU DHABI CAIRO SHARJAH DUBAI BAHRAIN RIYADH BAHRAIN DUBAI BEIRUT ALEXANDRIA MASHHAD DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN BAHRAIN BAHRAIN DHAKA ALEXANDRIA ALEXANDRIA MUMBAI DUBAI SHARJAH TRIVANDRUM MUSCAT KOCHI ISFAHAN BEIRUT LUXOR CAIRO JEDDAH BAHRAIN DAMMAM DUBAI ABU DHABI COLOMBO DUBAI DELHI DOHA MUMBAI BAHRAIN DUBAI ISLAMABAD ABU DHABI DOHA ALEXANDRIA CAIRO JEDDAH BANGKOK ASSIUT

Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)

10:00 10:00 10:15 10:25 10:30 10:45 11:00 11:10 11:25 11:30 11:35 11:45 12:00 12:25 13:00 13:10 13:20 13:30 13:35 14:00 14:10 14:10 14:15 14:30 14:40 14:55 15:00 15:00 15:05 15:20 15:30 15:35 15:45 15:55 16:00 16:00 16:00 16:05 16:30 16:55 17:00 17:05 17:15 17:20 17:20 17:40 17:50 18:15 18:20 18:20 18:30 18:30 18:40 19:00 19:05 19:25 19:35 19:50 20:00 20:05 20:15 20:20 20:30 20:35 20:40 20:45 20:50 20:55 21:05 21:10 21:15 21:30 21:30 21:45 21:50 22:05 22:10 22:15 22:20 22:25 22:30 22:35 22:40 22:45 23:00 23:00 23:05 23:05 23:20 23:25 23:25 23:40 23:55

SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

Word Search

Yesterdayʼs Solution

C R O S S W O R D 2 2 8

ACROSS 1. (prefix) Bad or erroneous or lack of.

4. Dry red Italian table wine from the Chianti region of Tuscany.

11. An Indian unit of length having different values in different localities.

15. South American wood sorrel cultivated for its edible tubers.

16. Dyed with henna.

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

18. The longer of the two telegraphic signals used in Morse code.

19. (of tempo) Fast n 1.

20. Divulge information or secrets.

21. Polished and well-groomed.

23. A state in the southeastern United States on the Gulf of Mexico.

25. Wild geese.

27. The sixth month of the civil year.

28. Informal terms for a mother.

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

31. An opening that permits escape or release.

34. A Loloish language.

37. Large elliptical brightly colored deep-sea fish of Atlantic and Pacific and Mediterranean.

40. A medium (art or business) that disseminates moving pictures.

42. A colorless and odorless inert gas.

43. After the expected or usual time.

46. A city in northern India.

48. An act punishable by law.

49. (Babylonian) A goddess of the watery deep and daughter of Ea. 51. A city in northeastern Ohio.

53. (informal) Of the highest quality.

54. A Christian holiday celebrating the birth of Christ.

57. A historical region on northwestern India and northern Pakistan.

59. Any property detected by the olfactory system.

61. The upper angle between an axis and an offshoot such as a branch or leafstalk.

62. Take away the weapons from.

64. Plant having a large slender white bulb and flat overlapping dark green leaves.

65. (Babylonian) God of storms and wind.

68. Yellow-fever mosquitos.

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

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

75. The skilled practice of a practical occupation.

76. Large sweet juicy hybrid between tangerine and grapefruit having a thick wrinkled skin.

77. Exhibiting or restored to vigorous good health.

80. The molecular weight of a substance expressed in grams.

81. A particular geographical region of indefinite boundary (usually serving some special purpose or distinguished by its people or culture or geography).

82. A substance that produces a fragrant odor when burned.

83. A lipoprotein that transports cholesterol in the blood.

DOWN 1. A youth subculture that began in London in the early 1960s.

2. The United Nations agency concerned with civil aviation.

Daily SuDoku

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

4. Thorny shrub or small tree common in central Argentina having small orange or yellow flowers followed by edible berries.

5. (Greek mythology) The beautiful daughter of Zeus and Leda who was abducted by Paris.

6. An arm off of a larger body of water (often between rocky headlands).

7. Used of a single unit or thing.

8. Someone (especially a woman) who annoys people by constantly finding fault.

9. A three-tone Chadic language.

10. A person who worships idols.

11. An esoteric or occult matter that is traditionally secret.

12. A Dravidian language spoken in south central India.

13. A fraudulent business scheme.

14. A island in the Netherlands Antilles that is the top of an extinct volcano.

22. United States evangelical preacher famous as a mass evangelist (born in 1918).

24. A public promotion of some product or service.

26. A former agency (from 1946 to 1974) that was responsible for research into atomic energy and its peacetime uses in the United States.

29. A short synopsis.

32. A city of central China.

33. Any tree or shrub of the genus Inga having pinnate leaves and showy usually white flowers.

35. (Zen Buddhism) A state of sudden spiritual enlightenment.

36. The bivalent radical UO2 which forms salts with acids.

38. Not contained in or deriving from the essential nature of something.

39. A ductile gray metallic element of the lanthanide series.

41. A flat-bottomed volcanic crater that was formed by an explosion.

44. Of or relating to or characteristic of Texas or its residents.

45. A nucleic acid consisting of large molecules shaped like a double helix.

47. Antibacterial agent (trade names Mandelamine and Urex) that is contained in many products that are used to treat urinary infections.

50. Of or relating to or exhibiting isomerism.

52. An industrial city in southern Poland on the Vistula.

55. A master's degree in business.

56. (Greek mythology) The son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra.

58. The southern part of the ancient Palestine succeeding the kingdom of Judah.

60. Any unsaturated aliphatic hydrocarbon.

63. A device that, on receiving radar signals, transmits coded signals in response to help navigators determine their position.

66. Dearly loved.

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

69. The specified day of the month.

71. (computer science) A standardized language for the descriptive markup of documents.

72. A compact mass.

73. A local and well-defined elevation of the land.

78. The ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle.

79. A rare heavy polyvalent metallic element that resembles manganese chemically and is used in some alloys.

Yesterdayʼs Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

SPORTS SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

Springboks wary of Samoa despite big wins PRETORIA: South Africa are wary of Samoa before they clash in a fournation tournament final today despite a string of large victories over the Pacific islanders. Springbok winning margins of 52 points twice, 50, 42, 28 and 27 were achieved with the only ‘respectable’ defeat suffered by Samoa being 13-5 at the pool stage of the 2011 Rugby World Cup. Only five of that South African side will run out at the 52,000-seat Loftus Versfeld stadium while there are seven Samoan survivors from the team beaten at Albany in New Zealand. South Africa coach Heyneke Meyer has been impressed by the form of the islanders during the mini-league phase of a tournament featuring Test double-headers on three consecutive weekends. Star left-wing Alesana Tuilagi bagged a brace of tries as Samoa outmuscled Scotland 27-17 in Durban and another five were scored last weekend in a 39-10 trouncing of Italy in Nelspruit.

It was a pleasant change from the Samoans’ first weekend in the republic this June when a side lacking several stars suffered a humiliating 74-14 loss to demoted Super 15 outfit Golden Lions. “Samoa have a strong squad and are benefiting from their best players competing in the Super Rugby championship and at top club level in Europe,” warned former Northern Bulls coach Meyer.

The Springboks survived some second-half hiccups to down Italy 4410, but did not seal a flattering 30-17 victory over Scotland until substitute centre Jan Serfontein snatched a last-minute try.

Serfontein, skipper of the 2012 IRB World Junior Championship-winning team, is among several newcomers this season as Meyer seeks to broaden his player base ahead of stiffer Rugby Championship (formerly Tri-Nations) challenges. Crowd favourite Willie le Roux, a free spirit who plays on the right wing for Central Cheetahs, gets a third outing in a row at full-back and former wing

JJ Engelbrecht has looked comfortable at outside centre.

Arno Botha was impressive at flank until an early injury against Scotland ended his season, and gave Siya Kolisi a chance to star as he continued a rags-to-riches rise from township poverty to wearing the green and gold. Meyer has shuffled his pack for Samoa after a disappointing showing at the breakdown against a Scottish side lacking several key forwards, including injured skipper Kelly Brown. Powerful ball carrier Willem Alberts is back in place of Botha to get the Springboks over the gain line more often and the return of ‘scavenger’ Francois Louw, who was married last week, should ensure plentiful ruck and maul ball.

“We underperformed and underachieved against Scotland,” admitted Louw from English Premiership club Bath, “but it was a lesson well learnt. You need those games to put things into perspective”. There is also a change at lock with 120-kilo-

Genia expects to be hunted by the Lions BRISBANE: Australia scrumhalf Will Genia fully expects the British and Irish Lions to come after him in today’s first test but he is happy to have a target on his back if it gives his team mates more opportunities. Genia is widely regarded as the best scrumhalf in the world and was the first name on Lions defense coach Andy Farrell’s lips when asked about the Wallabies threat.

Genia reads the game brilliantly, leads his forwards like an on-field general, kicks well from hand and constantly probes for defensive weakness to exploit around the fringes. ‘Stop Genia and you stop Australia’ has been a mantra for opposing sides over the last few years and the 25-year-old has no doubt he will come in for some close attention at Lang Park.

“You just have to deal with that in the game,” he told reporters yesterday.

“In the test match they’ll look to pressure you a bit more than a Super Rugby match but at the end of the day I’m just one player. “If all the attention is on me then there is going to be opportunities elsewhere, so I just have to work hard if there is that extra bit of attention and pressure on me to deal with that and look to give other blokes opportunities.” The son of a former minister in the Papua New Guinea government, Genia had his game face and had clearly made good use of his time in the Wallabies training camp.

“Having watched the Lions in the last few weeks there hasn’t been too much space around that ruck area,” he said. “If that’s the case then obviously there has to be space somewhere else, so it’s just about identifying the right times and

BRISBANE: Australian rugby union player Will Genia kicks the ball during the captain’s run at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane. — AFP taking the right opportunities when they present themselves. “If it’s on to run, it’s on to run, but as it’s been tight around that area maybe it’s early to shift the ball to James O’Connor or Christian Lealiifano or the forwards to do the hard work early on in the game.”

HUGE FIRST GAME Genia will renew his acquaintance with Lions scrumhalf Mike Phillips today and has a healthy respect for his opposite number, even if he thinks it cannot be defined as a battle between them. “He’s an exceptional player,” Genia said. “He’s a physical, abrasive character. He likes to get stuck in. “As far as individual battles go, you very

rarely as halfbacks come into contact with each other. “There’s no real oneon-one opportunities with each other, it’s more just doing as well as you can for your team and having a positive influence, rather than trying to do too much and outdo the other bloke.” With his Queensland Reds halfback partner Quade Cooper having been left out of the squad by coach Robbie Deans, Genia will link with inexperienced flyhalf O’Connor today. “We’re rooming together,” said Genia. “We’ve made a big effort to make sure we’ve built bonds within the group and with a nine and 10 combination you have to do that so you have a trust and a good understanding in each other. —Reuters

gram Flip van der Merwe replacing lighter, line-out specialist Juandre Kruger, and teaming up with Eben Etzebeth as Meyer seeks greater engine-room options. After a decade of legends Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha lording line-out battles against all-comers, it has come as a shock to Springboks supporters when rivals steal some throws.

Samoa, skippered by outside centre Paul Williams because wing David Lemi is injured, favor an unstructured game which lets Tuilagi and company loose to demonstrate their power and pace.

However, neither Williams nor recalled full-back James So’oialo possesses the match-winning goalkicking skills of South Africa playmaker Morne Steyn, and it would be a shock if the Springboks did not claim first place. The Loftus doubleheader kicks off with a third-place play-off between Six Nations championship rivals Italy and Scotland, who won 34-10 when they last met five months ago in Edinburgh. — AFP

Beale ‘can turn his life around against Lions’ MELBOURNE: Australia coach Robbie Deans is right to throw Kurtley Beale into the first British & Irish Lions test despite his personal problems, according to Andrew Walker, whose own international career derailed after helping the Wallabies win the 2001 series. Dual international Walker, who scored a try from the wing during the lost first test in 2001, is thrilled the utility back has a place on the bench for today’s match at Lang Park following his battles with alcohol issues and a recent stint at a private health clinic.

“It’s great for him to get back there,” Walker, capped seven times for the Wallabies, told Reuters in an interview yesterday. “There may be some people who don’t want him to play but because it’s the Wallabies, he’ll stand up because he’s playing with some great players as well. “He’s got an opportunity to really turn things around and if he comes out of it like a hero, everyone’s going to love him again. “It’s important for him, not to prove everyone wrong but just to prove himself right. To know that he’s one of the best in the world.”

Beale, 24, has played scarcely more than half an hour of senior rugby in nearly four months after struggling with a hand injury and a string of alcohol-related incidents. He was stood down by his Super Rugby side Melbourne Rebels in March for more than a month after punching Welsh captain Gareth Delve and another team mate in a boozy incident on a team bus in South Africa.

Days after his return to the side during an off-field program of counseling, he was stood down again indefinitely for breaking the terms of his rehabilitation, including being found drinking at a social function with team mates.

Beale promptly checked himself into a private health clinic but resumed training with the Wallabies camp earlier this month while he continues his off-field program.

As an indigenous player who struggled with alcohol and drugs throughout a roller-coaster career, Walker can identify with Beale’s off-field battles. Born one of 13 in a small coastal town south of Sydney, Walker represented Australia in rugby league before union, but his Wallabies career was cut short in 2001 after seven tests when the team grew tired of him disappearing from training camps to go on long drinking sessions.

He revived his career in the National Rugby League but was banned for two years for testing positive to cocaine in 2004. Walker switched back to rugby union after his ban ended and finished his top-flight career for Super Rugby’s Queensland Reds in 2008. —Reuters

SPORTS SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

Serena Williams ‘sorry’ after rape comments NEW YORK: Serena Williams reached out to the family of a victim in a rape case after the tennis star was quoted in a Rolling Stone article saying “she shouldn’t have put herself in that position.” Williams, in England preparing for Wimbledon, spoke to the victim of the Steubenville, Ohio case, her mother and a family lawyer for about 30 minutes on Wednesday, the lawyer said. “Serena was very nice, very sincere and it was a very well-received conversation among two women and a young lady,” attorney Bob Fitzsimmons said on Thursday.

Williams apologized in a statement released through her agent on Wednesday. “I am currently reaching out to the girl’s family to let her know that I am deeply sorry for what was written in the Rolling Stone article,” the statement said. “What was written - what I supposedly said - is insensitive and hurtful, and I by no

means would say or insinuate that she was at all to blame.” The comment was made in one paragraph of a long story posted online on Tuesday about Williams. The 16-time Grand Slam winner is coming off a French Open title and is ranked No. 1 entering Wimbledon, which starts next week.

The victim’s family welcomed Williams’ apology in its own statement on Wednesday, saying it was “proud of her” for the updated remarks. “We are sure Serena has & will continue to use her God given talents to advance women’s equality and send the message that rape is never acceptable under any circumstance,” according to the statement released

by Fitzsimmons. “We are fans of Serena and will continue rooting for many more championships but more importantly watching her advance the cause of rape victims who are nev-

er to blame.” Two players from a high school American football team in Steubenville were convicted in March of raping a drunken 16year-old girl. One of the boys was ordered to serve an additional year for photographing the girl naked. The case gained widespread attention in part because of the callousness with which other students used social media to gossip about it. “What happened in Steubenville was a real shock for me. I was deeply saddened,” Williams said in the statement. “For someone to be raped, and at only sixteen, is such a horrible tragedy! For both families involved - that of the rape victim and of the accused.” According to the Rolling Stone story, Williams says the perpetrators of the crime “did something stupid,” and she asks: “Do you think it was fair, what they got?” She adds, “I’m not blaming the girl, but if you’re a 16-year-old and

you’re drunk like that, your parents should teach you: Don’t take drinks from other people.” Williams also is quoted as saying: “... she shouldn’t have put herself in that position, unless they slipped her something, then that’s different.”

Williams added in her statement: “I have fought all of my career for women’s equality, women’s equal rights, respect in their fields anything I could do to support women I have done. My prayers and support always goes out to the rape victim. In this case, most especially, to an innocent sixteen year old child.” WTA CEO Stacey Allaster said in a statement the tour had been touch with Williams about the article.

“If she was accurately quoted, then Serena’s comments were both insensitive and wrong,” Allaster said. “We disagree with the statements and have made that clear to her.”— AP

For Pete’s sake, US needs a Wimbledon champion

Swiss Roger Federer

Federer faces a tough road to another Wimbledon final Djokovic to avoid big three rivals until final LONDON: Roger Federer faces a tough road to another Wimbledon final after yesterday’s draw threw Rafa Nadal and home favorite Andy Murray into the champion’s path and cleared the way for world number one Novak Djokovic.

The third seed could face Spaniard Nadal, seeded only fifth to reflect his current ranking as he works his way back from injury, in what would likely be an epic quarter-final on the grass of southwest London.

Federer and Nadal, the big danger in the draw, played three finals in 2006, 2007 and 2008. If the Swiss seven-times winner gets through the quarter-final, he faces a potential clash with last year’s finalist Murray in the semi-finals. World

number one Novak Djokovic would be on course to face seventh seed Tomas Berdych in the quarter-finals but will avoid any of his three main rivals until the final.

Djokovic plays Florian Mayer in his opening match and also has fourth seed David Ferrer in his half of the draw.

Nadal, the eight-times French Open winner who suffered a shock second-round defeat in London last year, starts out against Belgian Steve Darcis while Federer’s first opponent is Romanian Victor Hanescu. Second seed Murray’s opener is against world number 95 Benjamin Becker, the 31-year-old German he beat in the quarter-finals on his way to victory in the Aegon

Championships at Queen’s Club last week.

If all goes to plan, Murray will face old foe Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the last eight having beaten the Frenchman in last year’s semi-finals and at Queen’s this month. “You don’t look past the first match,” the Scot had said ahead of the draw.

“There are a lot of dangerous players out there early in the tournament.”

Murray, Federer and Nadal are all scheduled to play on the opening day on Monday. In the women’s draw, top seed and defending champion Serena Williams will begin her quest for a 17th grand slam title against Luxembourg’s Mandy Minella. — Reuters

LONDON: It’s been almost 10 years while 38 Grand Slams have passed since the United States, once the undisputed heavyweight champion of world tennis, was able to salute a men’s trophy winner at the majors. Nobody expects that record decline to be suddenly reversed at Wimbledon from next week. Pete Sampras was the last American man to win in London when he captured his seventh title in 2000, before Andy Roddick suffered three heartbreaking final losses to Roger Federer in 2004, 2005 and 2009.

Since then, the only American man to trouble the All England Club engravers was John Isner whose name now adorns a plaque on Court 18 to recognize his winning role in the world’s longest tennis match in 2010. “I like to compete. And especially when you’re playing in a Grand Slam, you want to go out competing,” said Isner, who became part of Wimbledon folklore after beating Nicolas Mahut in that famous 2010 first round clash.

The 28-year-old American won the final set 70-68 in a match which took three days to complete. But Isner would rather be winning Wimbledon than forever being associated with a first round tie as he tries to improve on a woeful record at the All England Club where he had yet to get beyond the second round. Only once at any major-the 2011 US Open-has he managed to reach a quarter-final. It’s all a far cry from the glory years of Sampras or Andre Agassi, the 1992 champion, three-time winner John McEnroe (1981, 1983 and 1984) and double champion Jimmy Connors (1974 and 1982).

Isner is no longer even the American number one with the mantle having passed to Sam Querrey, the 25-year-old world number 19. But Querrey too has an underwhelming track record at the majors. His best Wimbledon performance was a last-16 run in 2010 backed up by similar fourth round spots at the US Open in 2008 and 2010. Ryan Harrison, 21, who will be one of 12 US men in the main draw at Wimbledon, has long been touted as the next big thing in American tennis.

But like Isner and Querrey, he has struggled by being thrust into the space created by the shock retirement last year of Roddick, the country’s last major champion at the 2003 US Open, and Mardy Fish’s ongoing health problems.

Harrison won his first tour-level match at just 15 and cracked the top 100 as an 18-year-old in July, 2011. His ranking rose to 43 in July last year but his progress has stalled and he will go into Wimbledon at 84 in the world.

As well as the universal draining effects of the Grand Slam monopoly exercised by Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, Harrison believes that US men’s tennis needs a high-profile role model to get more youngsters playing the game.

“You’ve got to have a guy who’s American and winning a lot, because then kids have something to look up to,” said Harrison. “For the most part over the last seven, eight years, you turn on the TV to watch the Australian Open final or the final at Wimbledon, whatever, you can count on one hand the guys you’ve been seeing over and over.

“That’s what tennis in the States needs to have someone who is really being an idol to the kids growing up, making them say, I want to get in that position; I want to be like that.”— AFP

SPORTS SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

Reactions from KMWFCT draw KUWAIT: The draw of Kuwait Mini World Futsal Club Tournament (KMWFCT) received wide ranging reactions from officials of participating teams, yet all agreed that the competition will be difficult. Qadiseya Club indoor team official Khalid Al-Dhafiri said his team has a good chance to compete well in the tournament as his team began preparations early while looking for the strengths and weaknesses of other teams so as to decide how best to deal with them. He asked

fans to back the team and be present during matches.

He said the results of the draw brought teams that are similar and of the same level - though he considered the Iranian team the strongest due to the experience of its players. He said “we will try our best to compete with them as the club is able to bring in high caliber professional players to compete for the title”.

Meanwhile, Manager of Kazima Indoor Soccer team Mohammad Al-

Sanad said the draw placed them in a difficult group including Spain’s Santiago, Croatia’s Aluminos and Thailand’s Tshonbori. Al-Sanad said the opening match will be very important and will be the launching pad to the rest of the tournament.

Egypt’s Al-Maqasa club representative said the club is pleased to participate in such a major event representing Egypt at the international level. He said Al-Maqasa is Egypt’s indoor soccer champion and has 10 of its players in

the national team. “We realize that the teams we will face are very strong. We will play with the highly advanced Ukraine as well as Colombia in addition to Saudi Arabia’s Al-Nasser club,” he added. Meanwhile president of Spain’s Santiago Club Ramon Garcia said the competition will be fierce as levels of most teams are close to each other. He said most teams are champions in their countries and have outstanding players, adding that reaching the final stages will not be easy.

Marquez, Bradley eager to put Pacquiao behind them BEVERLY HILLS: Juan Manuel Marquez could have fought Manny Pacquiao for a fifth time.

Timothy Bradley could have had a rematch with the Filipino congressman. They both turned down chances to follow up on the biggest victories of their boxing careers.

Marquez and Bradley wanted to face each other instead, and they will meet in a welterweight title bout Oct 12.

Marquez (55-6-1, 40 KOs) and Bradley (300, 12 KOs) are looking for a chance to be seen outside Pacman’s enormous shadow, and they’ll get it at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas. “I feel like I won the last three fights against Pacquiao,” Marquez said Thursday at the Beverly Hills Hotel. “Now that I finally beat him, I want to keep this feeling for a while. I want to keep it, and I want to fight somebody else.”

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum would have signed either fighter for a rematch with Pacquiao, who instead will take on Brandon Rios in Macau in November. When Bradley and Marquez chose each other, Arum tenta-

tively booked the fight for Sept 14 before moving it back four weeks when Floyd Mayweather Jr declared his intention to fight Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on the same day. Arum is still confident the matchup will be one of the most intriguing pay-per-view bouts of the year. “They could have made more money, but this fight isn’t only for money,” Arum said of Bradley and Marquez. “They’re looking to make history.”

Marquez’s bit of history is obvious: He could become the first Mexican boxer to win five titles in five weight classes, even doing it after his 40th birthday this summer. Marquez knocked out Pacquiao last December, ending a near-decade of frustration against his nemesis with a big overhand right in the sixth round. “If I want to be the best, I need to beat the best,” Marquez said. “Bradley is the champion. His style and my style make a great fight. I’m training very hard on my speed, especially for this fight, because speed is the most important thing in it.”

Bradley is seeking history through

redemption. The unbeaten bruiser won a decision over Pacquiao last year, but almost nobody outside of Bradley’s corner agreed with the verdict. Bradley stewed for months over the perceived disrespect from a fight he still believes he won. Although that frustration still hasn’t abated much, he’s confident he’ll finally get the respect he deserves by trouncing Marquez. “This is the opportunity that I had in the Pacquiao fight that slipped away due to the controversy,” Bradley said. “I want to become a superstar in boxing. I want to be a household name.

I’m a four-time champion, and I’m still not on everybody’s pound-for-pound list. I want to be a superstar, but nothing you get in life is easy. You have to go take it, and that’s what I’m going to do when I win this fight.”

Bradley showed up in Beverly Hills sporting a beard and looking fully healed from his thrilling brawl with Ruslan Provodnikov in March. The Palm Springs-area fighter won new fans while showing a recklessness few imagined he possessed, recovering from

severe punishment and dishing out his own shots to win a decision in his first fight since beating Pacquiao.

Bradley has been criticized as a boring fighter with little knockout power, but his win over Provodnikov altered his reputation. That bout even intrigued Marquez, who has been a brutally effective puncher throughout his 15-year pro career. “I’m trying a different way to train,” Marquez said. “He’s a very different style of fighter from (Pacquiao). I’d like to win this fight because he has never lost a fight.”

Marquez’s win over Pacquiao boosted his status, but the Mexican star’s buff physique also prompted numerous whispers about the way he achieved it. Marquez and Bradley have signed contracts for their fight, but they’re still sniping about the various methods and agencies for random drug testing.

Bradley said the fight would be off if Marquez doesn’t comply with unnamed testing conditions in the fighters’ contracts. “I want to prove I’m a clean fighter,” Marquez said. “It’s no problem.” —AP

SPORTS SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

Hoffman fires 61 to seize Travelers lead CROMWELL: Charley Hoffman fired a nine-under-par 61 on Thursday to seize a one-stroke lead over fellow American Hunter Mahan after round one of the $6.1 million PGA Travelers Championship. Hoffman, who shared 45th at last week’s US Open, eagled the par-4 10th and par-5 13th holes and after a birdie at the 15th needed to birdie the last three holes to match the US PGA’s all-time record low round of 59.

“It sort of crossed my mind, but not for long,” Hoffman said. “I learned that 16, 17, 18 aren’t an easy test.”

He only managed a birdie at the 18th, but it was enough to put him atop the leaderboard by a stroke over Mahan, who shared fourth at the US Open, and two shots over 2012 Masters champion Bubba Watson. Past major winners Zach Johnson and Webb Simpson were in a group sharing fourth on 65 that included fellow American John Merrick, Venezuela’s Camilo Villegas, Canada’s Graham DeLaet and Australia’s Rod Pampling. US Open winner Justin Rose of England fired a 67 to share 18th, with a high point of the day being the first time he heard his name announced as a major champion.

“Being announced as the 2013 US Open champion, I couldn’t help but smile before I hit my first tee shot,” Rose said. “That’s an achievement that I’ve been dreaming about. “I had a sluggish four or five holes where I struggled, but I stayed patient. I’ve stayed sort of committed to the same things that worked so well for me last week. That was my goal today, really.” Defending champion Marc Leishman of Australia opened on 66. He finished one stroke ahead of Mahan and Hoffman last year to capture the crown at the TPC River Highlands for his first US PGA victory.

Hoffman’s bogey-free round included birdies at the par-5 sixth and par-4 seventh, his pair of eagles sandwiched around a birdie at the 12th and birdies on two of the last four holes. He fired a back-nine 28, the lowest nine-hole score of his PGA career and the US tour’s lowest back nine since Vijay Singh fired a 28 in 1998. And Hoffman did it with a broken tooth, albeit one that was not causing him pain.”The tooth broke at The Players this year. I haven’t had time to go home,” Hoffman said. “Got it re-plastered a couple times, so just going to get it re-glued. Nothing major, no pain or anything.” Mahan, who won this event in 2007, began on the back nine with a birdie, ran off three birdies in a row starting at the 13th and added another at 17, birdied the par-4 second and bagged two final birdies at the par-3 fifth and the sixth. Watson opened with a pair of birdies but took a bogey at fourth and followed a birdie at six with a bogey on the next hole before closing the front nine with another birdie. He added birdies at 11 and 13 before making an eagle at the par-4 15th and a birdie at 17. — AFP

Gay and Gatlin cruise in US 100m qualifying IOWA: Tyson Gay and Justin Gatlin cruised through the opening round of the 100 meters at the US trials on Thursday as America’s top sprinters launched their bids for August’s world championships.

Former world champion Gay, the year’s fastest man, won his heat in 10.28 seconds while Olympic bronze medalist Gatlin, racing into a stronger head wind, finished behind collegian Charles Silmon in 10.37 in the next race. Silmon ran 10.35. “I didn’t really have a great start,” said Gay, his hair and beard neatly trimmed after several months of letting both grow out. “But (I wanted) to the get the kinks out, get the nerves out. I should be ready for tomorrow.”

Gatlin, who recently surprised world record holder Usain Bolt in Rome, was more concerned about qualifying than a fast time, especially with a 2.9 meters per second wind blowing into his face. “There was a little hurricane out there, the head wind, but it felt good to come out here and shake the legs out a little bit,” said the 2004 Olympic 100 meters gold medalist. The semi-finals and finals are on Friday with the top three finishers from the Des Moines, Iowa, meeting qualifying for the August 10-18 worlds in Moscow.

Collegian Dentarius Locke and Jeff Demps were the day’s fastest, both in 10.19 seconds, as former US champion Mike Rodgers and Olympian Walter Dix joined Gay and Gatlin in the semi-finals. Barbara Pierre, a former Haitian Olympian now representing the United States, led a depleted field in women’s 100 meters qualifying. Pierre clocked 11.18 seconds as Olympic silver medalist Carmelita Jeter and fellow Olympian Tianna (Madison) Bartoletta missed the meeting through injury and Olympic 200 meters gold medalist Allyson Felix chose to run only her specialty.

Jeter still advanced to the world championships thanks to her wild card entry as the defending world champion. Jeremy Wariner was not as fortunate. The 2004 Olympic winner finished last in 400 meters qualifying. Olympic silver medalist Galen Rupp claimed the men’s 10,000 meters final, winning in 28 minutes, 47.32 seconds, two seconds ahead of runner-up Dathan Ritzenhein, with Shalane Flanagan, the 2008 Olympic bronze medalist, taking the women’s race in 31:43.20. The championships continue through Sunday. — Reuters

Photo of the day

Sebastien Ogier performs during the 2013 Argentinian Rally in Cordoba, Argentina.

— www.redbullcontentpool.com

Audi and Toyota duel headlines at Le Mans LE MANS: The 81st edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours this weekend is set to provide a fitting finale to week-long festivites at the fabled Circuit de la Sarthe, celebrating its 90th anniversary this year, with Toyota out to knock title-holders Audi off their perch. Audi’s dominance stretches back to their first title in 2000 with the German manufacturer victorious on 10 of 12 occasions since, including the last three races. However, Toyota, who made their return to the event last year after a 13-year absence, will aim to build on a promising 2012 display that was ultimately curtailed by a series of accidents and mechanical failures.

Audi have again demonstrated their superiority by winning the first two events of this season’s World Endurance Championship (WEC) at Silverstone and Spa and on Thursday locked down the

LE MANS: Audi R18 e-tron quattro No 2 driven by Danish Tom Kristensen competes during the second qualifying practice session of the 90th 24-hours of Le Mans. — AFP

first three places on the grid ahead of today’s renewal with the trio of Loic Duval, two-time winner Allan McNish and eight-time champion Tom Kristensen securing pole position in the #2 R18 e-tron quattro.

Toyota though, whose two cars qualified fourth and fifth fastest, will take confidence from a trio of successes in Sao Paulo, Fuji and Shanghai that saw them finish the 2012 campaign strongly and will benefit from a rule change that will allow them to carry three extra litres of fuel, a move criticized by Audi with one of their drivers complaining: “You don’t change the rules during the game.”

Swiss team Rebellion, led by longtime Formula One veteran Nick Heidfeld, also harbor hopes of challenging for the podium after a fourth-place finish in last year’s race. Also among the

168 drivers slated to take to the Le Mans track this weekend are a pair of ex-F1 drivers in Japan’ Kamui Kobayashi, who will compete for Ferrari in the GT Endurance Pro category, and Brazilian Bruno Senna, nephew of three-time F1 world champion Ayrton Senna, who will take to the wheel of an Aston Martin.

American Patrick Dempsey, best known for his role in the TV series Grey’s Anatomy, will make his second appearance, this time with Porsche in the GT Endurance AM class, after a ninth-place finish with Ferrari in the GT2 category in 2009. However, nine-time World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb won’t take part after his team withdrew their entry, while Green GT also pulled out after announcing their hydrogen-powered car was not yet ready for the challenge of motor racing’s oldest active endurance race. — AFP

SPORTS SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

New Zealand duo eye more rowing history LONDON: New Zealand’s Hamish Bond and Eric Murray will look to take sole possession of the longest winning streak in men’s rowing when they bid for their 14th straight major title at the World Cup regatta on the London Olympic course of Eton Dorney this weekend. The 27-year-old Bond and 31-year-old Murray, who’ve never lost a competitive rowing event as a duo, are currently tied on 13 consecutive major titles, equal with the Danish lightweight four of 1996-1999 and the German men’s eight of 2009 to date, although the Germans have gone through several crew changes.

As far as many within the sport are concerned, the Kiwis’ place in rowing history has already been secured. “They are regarded as the quickest pair there has ever been,” said Tom James, Britain’s double Olympic gold medalist. Yet the New Zealanders’ stellar career was forged on the back of a loss. In 2008, Bond and Murray were in the New Zealand four that disappointed at the Beijing Olympics, finishing seventh in a competition won by Great Britain.

After the Games, the strongest two oarsmen in the victorious British crew Andrew Triggs Hodge and Pete Reed-decided to switch from the four to the pair. The two men had combined to win every British trial since 2004 and were, and remain, outstanding physical specimens with giant lung capacities ideal for the six minutes of aerobic agony required to win medals at rowing. But if they were hoping to dominate the run up to London 2012, they were to be disappointed, because-out of the wreckage of the defeated New Zealand boat-Bond and Murray had also decided to switch to the pair.

The first competitive match-up between the four men took place at the opening World Cup regatta of the 2009 season in Munich. Half way through the race, the Kiwis were already rowing off into the distance, eventually finishing more than three seconds ahead of Hodge and Reed. At the next World Cup race, in Switzerland, the Kiwis won again, this time by five-and-a-half seconds. And so it continued, all that summer, at World Cups, at World Championships and at the Henley Royal Regatta Of the two New Zealand oarsmen, Murray better fits the profile of the star athlete. He is tall, 6ft 4in (2.01m), broad and wears trademark mutton chop blonde whiskers. On the rowing machine, he once clocked up 18.73 theoretical kilometres in 60 minutes (a world record). Murray is also exceptionally proficient in the single sculls. Last year, Murray took on his team-mate Mahe Drysdale, the single scull world and Olympic champion, at a local regatta in New Zealand. He beat Drysdale by half a second.

Despite Murray’s impressive athleticism, it is the shy, round-shouldered Bond who excites the most fascination within the rowing community.

Bond is not particularly tall nor heavy, but his strength-toweight ratio is astonishing. Martin Cross, a British gold medallist at Los Angeles 1984 and now the BBC’s rowing correspondent, explained: “Bond is much smaller than Andy Hodge, but his ergo scores are right up there, which means he can shift his weight more effectively in the boat. He’s simply a beautiful, fluid athlete.”

Altogether, Bond and Murray won three consecutive World Championship titles in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Hodge and Reed ran the New Zealanders hard in 2010 on the Kiwis’ home water at Lake Karapiro-the British pair led going into the final 1,500m in one of the gutsiest races ever contested-but the final defeat, by 0.32 seconds, was as close as they would ever get to beating their New Zealand rivals. At London 2012, the Kiwis won the Olympic gold long predicted for them setting a new world best time along the way (rowers usually refer to ‘world best’ rather than ‘world record’ times because of the difference in water conditions from race to race). Hodge and Reed also won gold on the Eton Dorney lake-but only after switching to a four to compete alongside James and Alex Gregory. —AFP

BIRMINGHAM: India’s Dinesh Karthik misses a catch during the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy cricket match between Pakistan and India at Edgbaston in Birmingham. —AFP

India, England face off in Champions Trophy final LONDON: With its national game embroiled in corruption allegations and its national team supposedly in transition, India arrived at the Champions Trophy as the world’s top-ranked one-day side but with few giving them a chance. However, just like Italy’s football team emerged from adversity and scandal at home to win World Cups in 1982 and 2006, India’s new-look class of 2013 is proving a resilient bunch.

Heading into tomorrow’s final against Trophy host England, the Indians have won four from four, their bowlers have come to relish unfamiliar English conditions, and bearded opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan has become the star of the tournament. The era of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag will long be revered but their replacements have signaled over the past two weeks that the future can be bright without them.

Only three players - Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and captain MS Dhoni - played in India’s victory over Sri Lanka in the World Cup final in 2011 and will likely turn out against the English at Edgbaston, but the inexperience isn’t showing. “If we can bowl to our field and play to our strengths, we will do well against any team,” India paceman Ishant Sharma said. “We have not been under pressure in this tournament so far and we really don’t know where our real weaknesses lie. “We’ll stick to the plans and we’ll stick to our strengths, just carry on doing the same thing in the final.”

While India has been playing against the backdrop of a spot-fixing scandal involving players and officials in the Indian Premier League, England’s Champions Trophy campaign is being seen by its supporters as merely a taster ahead of the real business of this summer - the Ashes series. At least in public, England’s players aren’t seeing it that way. Their team has never won a world 50-over event, having lost in the finals of both the World Cup and the Champions Trophy over the past two decades. The Ashes can wait for one more weekend.

“The past is the past, and we can’t change anything about it.

So there is no point worrying about it,” said England wicketkeeper Jos Buttler. “This is a great chance to right those wrongs.” If the hosts are to break its 50-over tournament drought, they will need a brilliant bowling performance from James Anderson and Co in Birmingham. Dhawan has emerged from the shadows of Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir and been a revelation, scoring a tournament-high 332 runs in four innings.

That included centuries in group matches against South Africa and West Indies and a 68 in the semifinal victory over Sri Lanka on Thursday. Light on his feet and punishing anything outside off stump, the left-handed Dhawan has played with a swagger to thrill Indian fans who will be at Edgbaston en masse on Sunday. Even if he fails, with Kohli, Dinesh Karthik, Raina and Dhoni to come in the batting lineup, India won’t be concerned.

In the absence of Kevin Pietersen, England hasn’t been as fluent with the bat - the team hasn’t reached 300 yet - but Jonathan Trott is the third highest run-scorer in the tournament and is always a steadying influence at No. 3 in the order, despite his critics in the English media. Meanwhile, England’s bowlers have been getting more movement with the ball than any other team in this tournament but India’s attack hasn’t been far behind.

Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav have been disciplined and bowled a good length, all the time being ably assisted by spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin.

Some feat for a unit used to such different conditions on the subcontinent. Even Dhoni felt confident enough to strip off the pads and have a bowl in the semi against Sri Lanka. England may be at home but India has steamrolled allcomers, and will be able to count on huge support. It adds up to India being the favorite to claim the Champions Trophy and cement its position as the king of one-day cricket. —AP

Wallabies to prevent repeat of ‘Sea of Red’ BRISBANE: Australia captain James Horwill has implored Wallabies fans to come to Lang Park dressed in gold today and prevent a repeat of the 2001 British and Irish Lions test when visiting fans famously created a ‘Sea of Red’ in Brisbane. The 2001 test, which the tourists won before going on to lose the series 2-1, was played at the Gabba cricket ground and Brian O’Driscoll recalled yesterday how the predominance of Lions fans had

helped drive the team to victory. “It generally felt that day like a home game,” the Irish centre said. “We just didn’t even think that was a possibility but when we ran out, it literally felt like three-quarters red.

“It gives us an extra pep in your step and gives you an added incentive when you know they are roaring you on.”

Today’s match will be played at Lang Park, which Australia have made a fortress in recent years with only one defeat in

their last 10 tests. The 52,500-capacity stadium is also home to Horwill’s Queensland Reds, who won 2011 Super Rugby title in a dramatic final against the Canterbury Crusaders at the ground. The Brisbane crowds have developed a reputation for passionate support and Horwill said it could be a factor in deciding who wins the first test today. “It can have an impact, the fans get right behind us and that’s why it’s so special and we’re hoping all the Aussie

fans are wearing their gold tomorrow night and we don’t see that sea of red from 2001,” he said. “I think that caught some of the guys by surprise last time and we’re very aware of the travelling support the Lions do have and they’re very vocal and passionate. “I think here in Queensland, our supporters are equally as passionate so we’re looking forward to them coming out in the gold and drowning out the Lions supporters.” —Reuters

SPORTS SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

Protests pierce soccer bubble at Confed Cup SALVADOR: The player glances anxiously at the press officer, who furrows his brow. With one press-conference question from a reporter, the Brazil protests crash in on the neatly organized interior life of the Confederations Cup. “What do you think about the protests?” is not a question to which many of the players at the two-week tournament of continental champions have had to give much thought.

Battles have raged in Brazil this week, fugs of tear gas drifting through the streets as riot police clash with protesters angry at the alleged misallocation of government funds, but the event at the centre of it all remains largely untouched. On several occasions, demonstrators have attempted to breach the tight security around

the competition’s six host stadiums, but on each occasion they have been rebuffed by riot police.

In the midst of it all, the players from the eight competing countriesmany of them millionaire superstarshave been ferried around from venue to venue in their team buses, trying to keep as low a profile as possible. The cosseted stars were initially reluctant to express opinions on the demonstrations, the biggest to hit Brazil in 20 years, only for the host nations’ players to shatter the omerta in the buildup to their game with Mexico on Wednesday.

Dani Alves, David Luiz, Hulk and Fred all spoke out in support of the protesters, before the teams’ poster boy, Neymar, delivered a chastening

message to the government, accusing them of neglecting their “obligation” to the Brazilian people. Prior to Wednesday’s game, 15,000 people marched on the match venue in Fortaleza and the atmosphere inside the stadium was electric. When the music of the Brazilian national anthem finished playing, players and fans alike sang on regardless, spontaneously forming an a cappella choir of 60,000 people that observers described as “spine-tingling”.

Luiz, the Chelsea defender, said it was “one of the most beautiful moments of my life”. Thiago Silva, the captain, sang with his eyes tightly closed, his head raised to the sky. Leftback Marcelo revealed that young midfielder Oscar had “tears in his

Wambach’s outburst sets world record Wambach is soccer’s all-time leading goal scorer HARRISON: A drenched and elated Abby Wambach stood at midfield with her US teammates after a win over South Korea, watching the goal onslaught on the big screen. They laughed, nudged each other and smiled as one great goal after another

by Wambach was shown. It all was appropriate Thursday night after Wambach surpassed Mia Hamm and became the greatest goal scorer in international soccer.

Wambach scored four times in the first half to break Hamm’s record for international career goals with room to spare in a 5-0 victory. The secondbest game of her career gave the 33year-old Wambach 160 goals in 207 games, two more than Hamm had in a storied 275-game career that ended in 2004. “I don’t think about how I sit in history, in the books,” Wambach said.

“What my legacy is, that is something I do care about, and something that has eluded me is a World Cup championship. I think every great athlete in these moments, you do have to separate yourself and really celebrate.

I am going to celebrate tonight with my friends and family, but at the end of the day, tomorrow when the sun comes up, I still have to keep working on my game to get better. “I think that is what the best athletes do.

They don’t dwell on their championships or records. As soon as they win one, all you want to do is find something new and move toward that.” Wambach came into the friendly at Red Bull Arena needing two goals to tie Hamm.

The chase for Hamm’s record of 158 was over with three goals in the opening 29 minutes. She added another in injury time to give her a nice round number. Ali Daie of Iran holds the men’s record with 109. “I can’t say how

HARRISON: Abby Wambach #20 of the USA gets a Gatorade bath by her teamates after a 5-0 win against Korea Republic after Wambach broke Mia Hamm’s all-time International goal scoring record with 159 at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey. — AFP much I look up to Mia and how amazing the record she set was,” said Wambach, who was doused with a bucket of water after the game. The historic 159th came on a line-drive header that ripped into the twine in the back of the net off a corner kick by Megan Rapinoe.

“I’m just so proud of her,” Hamm said. “Just watching those four goals, that’s what she is all about. She fights for the ball, she’s courageous and she never gives up. Her strength and perseverance is what makes her so great and it’s what defenders and opposing teams fear. “From being her teammate early in her career, I know all she ever wanted to do was win, and she continues to do that. I’m just glad I got to share 158 with her. It was short, but it was fun.” After the record-setting goal, Wambach turned and ran a couple of steps in the direction of the US bench,

then stopped as Rapinoe jumped into her arms. The Rochester, NY, native was then mobbed by teammates on the field and those who streamed off the bench as the crowd of 18,961 at Red Bull Arena cheered wildly. After the hugs, Wambach turned to the stands and blew a kiss toward her parents, Judy and Peter. “My teammates know me super well, and at halftime they said: ‘You’re such an extremist.

You are all or nothing. When you want to do something, you just go do it,’” Wambach said of getting the record. “I am very much like my father in that way.”

Other than “perfect ball,” Rapinoe quipped, the only thing she said after the goal was, “YESSSS!” “I’m just so happy for her,” Rapinoe said. “This was an amazing, amazing accomplishment in way less games, the way she has done it. —AP

eyes”. Whether as a direct result or not, others have since added their voices to the chorus of support for the protests. “I think each person has their reasons for making a protest,” said Uruguay striker Diego Forlan, who plays for Brazilian club Internacional.

“I believe that this is a moment now where everyone is focusing on the World Cup and looking at Brazil, so this is a moment for people to speak up and express their opinions about what is wrong.” He was echoed by his coach, Oscar Tabarez, who asserted the demonstrators’ “right” to have their voices heard.

In general, however, the tone has been circumspect. “We keep football apart from politics,” said Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi. —AFP

Pitfalls every corner on the long road to Brazil SALVADOR: Pot-holed pitches, hostile customs officials, over-zealous police, unwelcoming hosts and marathon plane trips have turned the 2014 World Cup qualifiers into a via crucis for some teams despite efforts from FIFA to impose fair play. Although there has been nothing approaching the socalled “football war” which followed an El Salvador-Honduras qualifier in 1969, the sparks can still fly as players and coaches face career-changing matches in unfamiliar conditions.

The last two weeks alone have seen Jordan’s coach detained in Australia, a mudslinging session between the coaches of South Korea and Iran and Argentina’s Javier Mascherano sent off in a bizarre incident involving a stretcher cart. Meanwhile, three African teams have been put under investigation for fielding ineligible players and Togo’s Alaixys Romao refused to travel to Libya with his team saying it was unsafe.

The days when bands would play outside a visiting team’s hotel to keep the players awake may have past, but poor hospitality still causes numerous complaints. South Korea coach Choi Kang-hee stoked the flames before his team’s match at home to Iran on Tuesday by claiming his squad had been “badly treated” when they lost 1-0 in Tehran last October. Rival coach Carlos Queiroz refuted the allegations and described them as a “humiliation” for the Iranian people.

Kenya were fuming after their players ended up training on a dusty housing estate before their match in Nigeria in March. Kenya said they were put in a low-grade hotel, and were made to wait in Lagos, rather than being flown straight to the match venue in Calabar. In another incident Jordan coach Adnan Hamad was held for four hours and questioned by immigration officials in Australia after his side arrived for their World Cup qualifier in Sydney this month. Australia Foreign Minister Bob Carr said he regretted “any embarrassment or inconvenience that may have been caused” but stopped short of an official apology.

Pitches are a frequently a bone of contention. The United States are rarely happy with conditions in Central America and the Caribbean, complaining about long grass and an afternoon kick off in the heat of Honduras and playing on a cricket field in Antigua. Yet, with a wealth of options for home matches, the US chose to host Costa Rica in March in Denver and the game was played in a blizzard, prompting angry protests from the visitors which were dismissed by FIFA on a technicality. Zimbabwe and Egypt clearly struggled to cope with a rutted field at Harare’s National Sports Stadium, described as a “potato patch” by a local newspaper, while Cameroon faced swampy conditions as they lost 2-0 at Togo’s Stade de Kegue. That result could now be overturned as FIFA investigates allegations that Togo fielded an ineligible player, while Ethiopia and Equatorial Guinea face similar charges. Teams in South America have to contend with a variety of difficult conditions, ranging from the steamy heat of Barranquilla in Colombia to the thin air of La Paz in Bolivia, at 3,600 metres above sea level. —Reuters

SPORTS SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

Merciless Spain crush Tahiti 10-0 Torres scores four, misses penalty RIO DE JANEIRO: Spain won by a landslide as expected but tiny Tahiti emerged with their reputations enhanced and their dignity intact despite their 10-0 loss to the world and European champions in the Confederations Cup on Thursday. Fernando Torres scored four times, and missed a penalty, David Villa hit three, David Silva two and Juan Mata one as Spain scored double figures for the third time in their history.

The outcome of one of the most unlikely matches to take place in a senior FIFA competition was never in doubt and even Tahiti coach Eddy Etaeta said before the game his side’s chances of winning were “quite impossible”. Despite the Group B hammering, Tahiti played some attractive attacking football against a second-string Spain side that still contained some of the biggest names in European soccer including Sergio Ramos and Pepe Reina.

“Often inferior teams look to break up the game and get aggressive, they play without spirit or hope.

Standards aside, Tahiti showed a great example of how to go about playing football,” Torres told Spain’s Telecinco television after a record Confederations Cup victory. “We have tried to show them respect in every sense. We tried to play well, to play simple football, and to score goals and these goals will be important for the next stage.”

Tahiti’s first meeting with European opposition was more of an occasion than a match in many respects, and the fans created a superb atmosphere in the newly refurbished Maracana, the venue for next year’s World Cup final. They cheered every Tahiti pass and tackle and roundly booed Spain. Two of the loudest cheers were for two fine saves made by 20-year-old Tahiti goalkeeper Mikael Roche midway through the second half with his side already 7-0 down. The first goal arrived after only five minutes when Torres scored in the huge gap which Roche left between himself and the near post.

OBVIOUS SUPERIORITY Tahiti, who lost 6-1 to Nigeria first up and next face Uruguay on Sunday, kept Spain at bay for the next 26 minutes and weaved some neat passing moves together with Teheivarii Ludivon providing some of the best distribution for his side. But they were unable to make any real impact on the Spanish defense apart from a fine angled shot from Ricky Aitamai just before halftime. By then Spain were already well in control and leading 4-0 with Silva, Torres and Villa all finding the target in an eight-minute spell. But despite Spain’s obvious superiority against the Oceania champions, who are ranked 138th in the world, the amateurs from the South Pacific never stopped trying to play football to the delight of the 71,000-plus crowd.

Spain midfielder Santi Cazorla even earned himself a booking for a clumsy challenge in the first half, which ended with the crowd cheering Tahiti off.

Spain flexed their muscles after the break with Villa adding two more and Torres one in the first 15 minutes of the second half before Mata made it eight when he got a lucky deflection after a one-two with David Silva. Torres then missed a penalty after 78 minutes, prompting a huge cheer from the crowd, but got his fourth goal and Spain’s ninth a minute later when he rounded Roche to score.

Silva made it double figures in the 89th minute after another move that slit open the Tahiti defense.

Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque, whose side beat Uruguay in their opener and next play Nigeria on Sunday, said: “We played a good game, we took it seriously and our superiority was evident. “I don’t think the stadium were against Spain. I think it was more to do with things beyond the stadium. We have seen in the previous game, and in the street, everyone has shown us great affection.” Protests about the cost of living and the cost of the World Cup have rocked Brazil in recent days. —Reuters

RIO DE JANEIRO: Tahiti’s goalkeeper Mikael Roche dives as the ball hits the crossbar following a penalty taken by Spain’s forward Fernando Torres during their FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil 2013 Group B football match, at the Maracana Stadium. —AFP

Forlan inspires Uruguay to 2-1 win over Nigeria SALVADOR: Diego Forlan celebrated his 100th appearance for Uruguay in style, setting up one goal then scoring the winner in a 2-1 victory over Nigeria on Thursday to move his team within sight of the Confederations Cup semifinals. Forlan’s decisive goal came in the 51st minute with a sweetly-struck left-footed drive, when he finished off a swift counterattack that involved all three of the South American champion’s forwards, starting with Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani.

Malaga defender Diego Lugano put Uruguay ahead in the 19th following a cross from Forlan and Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel equalized for Nigeria in the 37th. “(Forlan) is a top striker with the way he uses both feet and the way he handles the ball,” Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez said. “He showcased that talent tonight.” Uruguay and Nigeria are level with three points each in Group B but Uruguay will be expected to win its next match against underdog Tahiti while Nigeria faces World Cup holder Spain.

“Since the draw we knew that this was the huge match to play,” Tabarez said. “We have taken a huge step toward the semifinals but we’re not there yet.” Spain, which routed Tahiti 10-0 earlier Thursday, leads the group with a full six points, while Tahiti is last with none. However, Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi wasn’t giving up yet.

“Everything is achievable,” he said. “It depends how bad you want it.” At the Arena Fonte Nova on

a warm and humid evening, the sparse crowd supported Nigeria, or rather rooted against Brazil’s southern neighbor Uruguay.

Nigeria relied on long balls while Uruguay relied on a more deliberate approach. The 34year-old Forlan won the Golden Ball trophy as the best player at the 2010 World Cup when Uruguay finished fourth and he rekindled some of that form in this match. For the opening goal, Forlan crossed toward the center of the area and Edinson Cavani fooled Nigeria’s defense by letting the ball pass through his legs to the waiting Lugano, who slotted it in from close range.

However, Lugano struggled at the other end and Mikel dribbled by him to launch a powerful shot into the top of the net to draw Nigeria level.

Suarez started off the action that led to the winner by taking the ball near midfield then passed it across to Cavani who flicked it on to Forlan for an angled shot inside the area. It was Forlan’s 34th goal for Uruguay, moving him one ahead of Suarez into the squad’s all-time lead.

Tabarez had considered removing Forlan from the lineup for this match but he played from the start as the 1 in an offensive 3-4-1-2 lineup behind Cavani and Suarez. “We had never played with the three strikers this way,” Tabarez said. “Our intention from the outset was very clear. We played in Nigeria’s half at the start but then Nigeria turned the tables. At halftime we decided we needed to

take over supremacy again. It wasn’t showy football. We had to work hard.”

Keshi cited a lapse in concentration on Forlan’s goal. “I’m very impressed with what my boys did,” he said. “The difference was that Uruguay’s team has been together for six years vs. ours has been together for a year and a half. So I hope we can sustain this performance and add a little bit of personality.” Nigeria opened the tournament by beating Tahiti 6-1 while Spain beat Uruguay 2-1. In the final round of group matches Sunday, Nigeria faces Spain in Fortaleza and Uruguay meets Tahiti in Recife. Nigeria, which nearly didn’t show up at the tournament after players threatened a strike last week over bonuses, risks going home early. —AP

Matches on TV (Local Timings) FIFA Confederations Cup Italy v Brazil 22:00 Aljazeera Sport +9 Japan v Mexico Aljazeera Sport +10

22:00

SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

Sports

Wambach’s outburst sets world record

46

MIAMI: Miami Heat basketball players (from left) Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, and Chris Bosh celebrate after the Heat defeated the San Antonio Spurs 95-88 to win Game 7 of the basketball series in Miami. —AP

Heat win 2nd straight NBA title James, Heat get their dynasty purring MIAMI: The Miami Heat won their second straight National Basketball Association (NBA) title on Thursday with a 95-88 win over the San Antonio Spurs in the decisive seventh game of an epic series. Miami’s LeBron James, the sport’s biggest star playing at the peak of his powers, had a game-high 37 points and pulled in 12 rebounds in a dominant performance while Dwyane Wade had 23 points.

“To be able to come on to our floor and do it, it’s the ultimate,” James, who delivered the perfect answer to those who doubted his killer instinct in the big games, said during an oncourt interview. “I can’t worry about what everybody says about me. I am LeBron James from Akron, Ohio, from the inner city, I’m not even supposed to be here. I’m blessed.” James, named most valuable player of the Finals, shot 12-of-23 from the floor, including 5-of-10 three-pointers to lead Miami to their third NBA title and his second just two nights after the Heat’s championship defense almost ended abruptly.

San Antonio, chasing a fifth NBA title, were just seconds away from clinching the championship on Tuesday before Miami staged an extraordinary comeback to win in overtime and force a decisive seventh game. James, a four-times league MVP, sealed the victory with a jump shot with 27.9 seconds left, pumping his fist as the home crowd hailed their hero.

NBA Commissioner David Stern described the series as a “championship for the ages” which had “captivated a global audience” and there were generous words from the Heat for a Spurs team who pushed Miami all the way.

“It’s no fun to lose, but we lost to a better team,” said Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich.

“And you can live with that as long as you’ve given your best. And I think we have.”

FRENZY OF EXCITEMENT The visitors made a great start, opening up a seven-point cushion in the first quarter and by three points late in the third quarter but came up just short. Tim Duncan had 24

points and 12 rebounds for the Spurs while Kawhi Leonard had 19 points in the winnertake-all clash that had whipped basketball fans into a frenzy of excitement during a wildly fluctuating series full of escalating drama.

Courtside tickets for Thursday’s game were selling on the secondary market for up to $30,000 and the game lived up to the hype with both teams fiercely contesting every possession. Miami made yet another slow start and trailed by seven points less than five minutes into the game, a sloppy pass from James allowing Duncan an easy dunk.

A trademark turnaround jumper from Wade indicated the veteran from the Heat’s 2006 title-winning team was in an aggressive mood and the introduction of Chris Andersen into the game injected some more energy into the Heat. A pair of three pointers from Shane Battier brought roars from the crowd as Miami built an 18-16 lead by the end of the opening quarter. James sat for the opening three min-

utes of the second quarter and the Spurs kept close. With just under seven minutes left in the half, the teams were tied at 27-27.

SPURS KEPT CLOSE The brief rest paid off as James quickly gave Miami a six-point lead - he was fouled while scoring, putting away the free throw and then followed up with a three-pointer from deep. But while the Heat were moving the ball well, typically, San Antonio kept close, helped by a huge three pointer from Gary Neal before a Duncan lay-up leveled the game at 40-40 with 1:55 left in the half. Wade ended a fine first half performance with a fallaway jump shot to give the Heat a 46-44 lead at the break after scoring 14 points on 7-12 shooting and grabbing six rebounds.

James drained his third three-pointer early in the third quarter but two jumpers from the an impressive Kawhi Leonard, who had grabbed 10 first-half rebounds, ensured the Spurs kept with the pace. Danny Green, who

had been struggling with his shooting, sank a three-pointer to put San Antonio briefly a point ahead with 5:27 left in the third but James responded with two long rangers of his own, his five three-pointers a personal best in an NBA Finals game. The Spurs led by two but Mario Chalmers beat the buzzer at the end of the third with a 30-footer to take Miami into the final quarter of the season with a 72-71 lead. A Battier three gave the Heat an early four-point cushion and a Wade basket extended the lead to six with 7:14 remaining. But San Antonio again responded and when Leonard drained a three-pointer it was a two-point game with two minutes left.

Chalmers missed two free throws but with 27 seconds left James delivered the killer blow with a vital jump shot and then made sure of victory when he snatched a Manu Ginobili pass, was fouled and put away both his free throws. Wade added another from the free throw line before the home crowd erupted in celebration. —Reuters