26th Jun 2013

CR IP TI ON BS SU

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

Obesity a widespread disease

Iran, Hezbollah involvement in Syria ‘dangerous’

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NO: 15851

150 FILS

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www.kuwaittimes.net

SHAABAN 17, 1434 AH

‘Password fatigue’ haunts masses

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Serena restores order after the shockwaves

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‘New era’ as Qatar ruler hands power to his son Kuwait, Gulf rulers congratulate young Emir

Qataris sad but hopeful

DOHA: Even before Qatar’s emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani delivered his early-morning abdication speech yesterday, citizens in white traditional dishdashas were lining up outside the palace to swear allegiance to the new ruler, his son. Qataris received the news with mixed emotions as the 61-year-old emir, who came to power in a coup in which he overthrew his own father 18 years ago, announced he will cede power to his son, crown prince Sheikh Tamim, 33.

“We are sad for the departure of the builder of modern Qatar but are also pleased with the continuity of (the line of ) power,” said Hamad Al-Hijji. The 37-year-old financial expert, accompanied by his brother, waited patiently to greet the new Emir, unlike hundreds of others who turned back when they saw the vast crowds outside the palace.

Under the scorching sun, scores waited in long lines outside the large white seaside building in Doha. Sheikh Hamad, using the tiny Gulf state’s vast wealth generated by its enormous gas deposits, had transformed Qatar into a political and economic powerhouse with multibillion-dollar investments across the world. No official reason has been given for the abdication, although the emir is known to suffer from kidney problems.

Officials and diplomats say however that the Sheikh’s handing over of power was not linked to health issues but rather a determination to bring a younger leadership to the fore. Tamim’s accession makes him the youngest sovereign of any of the Gulf Arab monarchies.

Hijji said he hoped the historic transition would “encourage other Arab countries to undertake similar rejuvenations” in their political systems. Autocratic rulers in the Arab world had held power uncontested for decades until the Arab Spring revolutions that toppled regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

By ceding power at his age, “Sheikh Hamad, concerned about the national interest, gives a lesson to other Arab leaders who cling to power,” agrees a Qatari father. The 29-year-old customs employee, who declined to be named, added that he had been inspired by the “wisdom of Sheikh Hamad” in choosing to give up power. A young Qatari woman clad in a black traditional abaya, sitting in a coffee shop in a shopping centre on the outskirts of Doha, voiced mixed feelings.

“I am saddened by the departure of the father of this nation under whose reign I had lived and grown up,” she told AFP. “But I’m reassured about the future with the enthronement of Sheikh Tamim, who is young but mature.” Abdelaziz Al-Duhaimen, a 34-year-old official from the National Olympic Committee, headed by Tamim, was upbeat. “This change offers a chance for young Qataris who, like Sheikh Tamim, are well-trained and competent enough to take new responsibilities,” he said.

Continued on Page 15

DOHA: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah (center) congratulates Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani (left) and his son Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani on his accession to the leadership of Qatar as the new ruler of the state. — KUNA

Max 46º Min 33º High Tide 02:20 & 13:05 Low Tide 07:42 & 20:37

DOHA: Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani handed power yesterday to his son, Crown Prince Sheikh Tamim, in a rare abdication by a hereditary Gulf Arab ruler to try to ensure a smooth succession. The USallied state is small, with 2 million people, but is the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, a global investment powerhouse and heavy hitter in Middle East diplomacy and international media.

Qatar has also been a high-profile supporter of Arab Spring uprisings but remains an absolutist monarchy itself, a system unchallenged by a population that enjoys great affluence. Thousands of Qatari citizens thronged the emiri court in the capital Doha to pledge allegiance to the 33-year-old new head of state after the emir, 61, announced the handover. “The time has come to turn a new page in the journey of our nation and have a new generation carry out responsibilities ... with their innovative ideas,” Sheikh Hamad said in a sevenminute speech broadcast on state television.

“I address you today to inform you that I will transfer power to Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani. I am fully confident that he is qualified for the responsibility and is trustworthy,” he added, seated beside Qatar’s red-andwhite flag. Sheikh Hamad made no mention of Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim, the veteran prime minister and foreign minister who is the public face of Qatar’s assertive foreign policy and had been expected to step down as well.

Gulf political analysts said they anticipated no significant changes to foreign or domestic policy after the handover, noting that Sheikh Tamim was already involved in running the peninsular state under his father’s direction.

Continued on Page 15

3 scenarios at Constitutional Court Election either in late July or months later

By B Izzak KUWAIT: The Constitutional Court is set today to issue an explanation to its historical ruling it issued on June 16 which is expected to have an immediate impact on the election date with the possibility to delay the polls for months. The council of ministers on Monday decided to halt all procedures regarding the election until the court has issued its explanation.

Among the procedures affected was halting the publication of the election decree in the official gazette which effectively made it not possible to hold the election on July 25 as was announced earlier. This is because the law requires the decree to be published by at least one month before the election date. So, the

election date now hangs on the explanation of the court.

The Constitutional Court, whose rulings are final, has three scenarios regarding the explanation request which was filed by Abdulhameed Dashti, a member of the scrapped Assembly. It will either reject the request and decline to issue an explanation on the grounds that the ruling was clear or it may accept the request but set another date to issue the explanation.

The third option is for the court to make the explanation in today’s session explaining how the ruling should be implemented. The argument is whether the 2009 Assembly should be revived after the court ruling although it had already been dissolved on two occasions.

US has no ‘plan B’ for naval base in Bahrain Kuwait’s Shuabia, Qatar seen as alternative

SANABIS: A Bahraini Shiite man punches his fist into the air as he and thousands of others chant slogans in support for their senior clerics during a public forum, at a religious community center in Sanabis, Bahrain. Hatreds between Shiites and Sunnis are now more virulent than ever in the Arab world because of Syria’s brutal civil war. Hard-line clerics and politicians on both sides have added fuel, depicting the fight as essentially a war of survival for their sect. — AP

WASHINGTON: The US military has failed to prepare a realistic “plan B” if political turmoil forces the closure of a vital naval base in Bahrain, a naval officer argues in a report released yesterday. The Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain is the most US important maritime base in the Middle East but senior officers have become complacent about its future, Commander Richard McDaniel asserts. “Surprisingly, military leaders have no ‘Plan B’ if strategic access in Bahrain is jeopardized,” McDaniel wrote, in a paper published by the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.

“Because of a strong desire to support the government of Bahrain, losing critical access is not currently being considered, and strategic basing alternatives are not being developed.” The loss of the base “could leave the United States without a key maritime base during a critical juncture of heightened tensions in the Middle East,” wrote McDaniel, who cited interviews with unnamed US officers. His report warns the United States was caught ill-prepared and off-guard by political upheavals in the past-in Iran in 1979 and in the Philippines in 1991 - which saw Washington lose access to crucial bases.

The author proposes the United States investigate alternatives in the Qatari capital Doha, where a large port is under construction, and in Shuabia, Kuwait, as well as ports in Oman.

Continued on Page 15

The 2009 Assembly was dissolved in December 2011 following street protests and fresh elections were held in February last year which resulted in an oppositiondominated Assembly that was dissolved four months later by a constitutional court ruling which also ordered that the 2009 Assembly must be revived.

That Assembly could not meet because most MPs boycotted its sessions, forcing the government to recommend to the Amir to dissolve it for the second time. The Amir dissolved it on October 7 last year and new elections were held on December 1 within the 60-day legal period. Again, the new Assembly was dissolved by the Constitutional Court which did not order reviving the 2009 Assembly.

The explanation request asked the court

if that Assembly should be reinstated.

If the court says there is no need to revive that Assembly, then the election will most probably will be held late July possibly on July 27 after the election decree is published either today or tomorrow. If the court says the 2009 Assembly must be revived, then elections are not likely to be held in summer and are expected to be in October.

This can also happen if the court says that an Amiri decree must be issued to dissolve the scrapped Assembly elected last December. Under this scenario, the government can have the liberty in waiting several weeks to issue the decree, then several more weeks to publish the election decree and at least a month until the election date.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

LOCAL

NBK launches new session of training program KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) recently welcomed a new batch of university students in its ongoing Training Program.

This annual program is specially designed for university students and aims at providing Kuwaiti youth with the appropriate opportunities to experience how the actual professional banking issues and transactions are handled and processed.

More than 200 trainees are enrolled annually in this intensive program.

The Training Program extends over a period of two months and provides practical training covering different aspects of the banking industry. The program offers trainees

the knowledge on a variety of subjects such as: teamwork, creative thinking and modern banking, in addition to helping them have greater exposure to daily banking work procedures. NBK’s Training Program is an extension to NBK’s educative initiatives and as part of its corporate social responsibility.

NBK’s training programs include NBK Academy which aims to train and develop the professional skills of fresh graduates, the Summer Internship Program for high school and college students and the new training Al Shabab program, that is specially designed to develop the skills of newly recruited diploma holders.

KUWAIT: Mohammed Al-Othman, NBK’s Executive Manager, Consumer Banking Group in a group photo with the trainees.

Passenger clashes with security man

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: A Kuwaiti man who arrived at Kuwait Airport last night onboard a flight from Sharjah behaved in a rather peculiar fashion, and even clashed with a security man who sought to question him. The passenger even assaulted the security man, whereupon he was arrested and sent to the concerned authorities.

Maid harassed A Sri Lankan maid complained that an Egyptian expat working as a delivery boy at a restaurant harassed her sexually. She told the police that when she came out of her house to receive the meal that was ordered, he touched her inappropriately and tried to seduce her. A case was registered with the

KUWAIT: Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon left the country yesterday, ending a three-day official visit which was highlighted by a meeting with His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. President Rahmon was seen off at the airport by His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah, His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, and Deputy Chief of the National Guard Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. Also seeing off the head of state were His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Deputy Minister of Amiri Diwan Affairs Sheikh Ali Jarah Al-Sabah, and senior commanders of the army, police, and National Guard.

Saad Al-Abdullah police who have summoned the Egyptian expat to hear his side of the story.

Girl missing An Egyptian expat has filed a case saying his underage daughter went missing from the house 48 hours ago and has not returned.

Asian held A Bangladeshi expat was arrested for being in possession of 240 bottles of locally made liquor. Security sources said that a patrol on duty at King Fahad Express Way near Mina Abdullah noticed a van driven by an expat who seemed confused. After searching the van, police found cartons containing the locally made liquor. He was sent to the Mina Abdullah police station.

KUWAIT: (Left) The German Specialized surgery room. (Right) Some staff members of the German Specialized Clinic in Hawally.

Obesity a widespread disease in Kuwait German Specialized Clinic welcomes Dr Hirsch

By Ben Garcia

KUWAIT: The fire department received a report at 10:52 yesterday morning about a fire in the basement of a house under construction in Mishref area. Some timbers were stored at the 750 square-meter basement for construction purposes. Personnel from the Mishref fire center and the support center, led by Hawally governorate fire director Colonel Mohammad Al-Mihaimeed and head of Mishreef center Major Ali Abdul Razaq, responded to the call. Within 3 minutes, firemen arrived at the site and soon brought the fire under control. No causalities were reported.

KUWAIT: Obesity is a widespread disease in Kuwait, admits a former health minister. Speaking at a press conference to introduce a visiting surgeon, Dr Peter Christian Hirsch, at the German Specialized Clinic, Kuwait’s former health minister Dr Muhammad Al-Jarallah cited research based on a sample of 212 Kuwaiti men and 212 Kuwaiti women, conducted by Kuwait University, in which 71 percent people were believed to be obese.

“Excessive overweight has an important negative impact on a person’s health and quality of life, leaving surgery the only available option in certain cases,” he noted.

Jarallah mentioned that with the latest technology available now at the German Specialized Clinic and with their doctors dedicated to helping patients in Kuwait, it has become possible to tackle obesity.

“That is why we are joined here by the best international consultant and plastic surgeon. He will be here with us for several months to provide the best surgery that patients could ever have,” he added. Dr Peter Christian Hirsch graduated in Plastic Surgery from the University of Hannover,

Germany. After working in several hospitals and care centers back home in Germany, he moved to Kuwait in 2008 as a permanent consultant surgeon at a private hospital. Then, in 2013, he joined German Specialized Clinic, where he continued to deliver exceptional patient care. “Plastic sur-

KUWAIT: Kuwaiti Former Health Minister Dr Muhammad AlJarallah, center, formally welcomes Dr Peter Christian Hirsch, left, at the German Specialized Clinic at a press conference yesterday.

Also in the photo is Dr Reza Pajand.—Photos by Joseph Shagra

Travel ban on Al-Barrak lifted KUWAIT: Kuwait’s court of appeals on Monday dismissed a request by former lawmaker Musallam Al Barrak to suspend his trial until a verdict by the cassation court is pronounced. However, the court agreed to lift a travel ban imposed on the leading opposition figure put on trial on charges of undermining the status of the emir in a speech he delivered in October.

A five-year-sentence against Al Barrak by a lower court in April was overturned by the court of appeals in May. However, the court kept the case open within the court, a decision that the former lawmaker challenged at the court of cassation, saying that it needed to be sent back to the lower court. “Not taking back my case to the lower court means that I have been deprived of my litigation rights,” he said. The court of appeals scheduled the next trial on Sept 8. The ex-MP is well-known throughout his years in the country’s parliament for his vociferous statements and sharp stances. He delivered his “abusive” speech at the pinnacle of a bitter standoff between the government and the opposition over the amendment of the controversial 2006 electoral law.

The opposition, mostly conservative and tribal figures, said that the amendment that reduced the number of ballots a voter could cast from four to one was meant to ensure the election of a rubber-stamp parliament. The government argued that the “one voter, one vote” principle was adopted universally and that the amendment would also help address possible legal loopholes that had marred past elections.

With the parliamentary elections in December, both sides sought support for their arguments and the opposition staged several rallies and demonstrations where leaders gave passionfilled speeches. According to security forces and several political formations, the former lawmaker stepped over the limits traditionally accorded to the emir. However, the ex-MP and his supporters denied the claim. Al Barrak boycotted the December 1 parliamentary elections and this week urged eligible voters not to cast their ballots at the next national polls to elect a new legislative house on July 25. Several other former lawmakers supported his call, but the boycott drive on Sunday evening was dealt a heavy blow after Al Awazem, Kuwait’s largest tribe, said that its members would run in the elections.

gery is a procedure highly in demand in Kuwait nowadays. What we offer is a comprehensive approach in which a full range of surgical procedures is made available to the patient as well as qualified aftercare and specialized dermatological care,” he said.

Parts of Hirsch’s work includes body sculpting surgery, liposuction, fat transplantation, augmentation of the breast and buttocks, arm and thigh lifts, reconstruction of abdomen after pregnancies and aesthetic and functional reconstruction of body shape after weight loss.

“Successful cosmetic surgery requires a team approach. I am joined here by doctors qualified and specialized in their respective fields,” he said. His team comprises Dr Reza Pajand, an experienced Italian Board plastic surgeon and Dr Matthias Roux, German Board dermatologist who covers the full range of operative dermatology, laser treatment and cosmetic skin therapy.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

LOCAL

Opposition plans ‘more organized’ boycotting Plan to avoid confrontations

KUWAIT: The opposition plans to adopt a different approach in its campaign to boycott the elections, compared to what it adopted during last December’s polls. This time, the campaign would be “more organized” and based on “more effective” political tactics, according to sources privy to the opposition’s thinking.

Speaking to Al-Qabas on the condition of anonymity, the sources said that recent discussions among opposition groups focused on coming up with a work plan that avoids confrontations and in which every step would be in line with the law. One of the options discussed was forming a shadow parliament “to monitor the work of the executive and legislative authorities with regards to progress in fighting corruption and commitment to the constitution,” according to the source.

Separately, former MP Falah Al-Sawagh announced leading a movement in the fifth constituency to urge the voters to boycott the upcoming elections, the date for which could be postponed to next October, depending on an

explanation to be released by the Constitutional Court today for last week’s ruling that upheld the single-vote system.

Al-Sawagh’s statements came a day after a gathering of the members of his Awazem tribe during which its leader Sheikh Falah Bin Jame urged his tribesmen to vote. “The majority of the Awazem tribesmen approve of the boycott call as hundreds of them pledged to boycott after (Sunday night’s) gathering,” he told Al-Rai. Al-Sawagh argued that hundreds of Awazem tribe members walked out of the gathering in which former MPs Salem Al-Namlan, Badr AlDahoum and he himself advocated a rejection of all calls to vote. “We were carried on the shoulders of our tribesmen, and hundreds of them accompanied us to Al-Namlan’s dewaniya where they vowed to continue boycotting,” he added. Al-Dahoum also argued in a separate statement that a majority of the members of the Awazem tribe, the largest in Kuwait, plan to boycott the elections. Meanwhile, Al-Qabas reported yesterday quoting “informed sources”

that the tribesmen in all but the third constituency launched preparations to declare outlawed the by-elections in which candidates will be chosen to represent their respective tribes in the upcoming elections.

In a related note, former MP Mohammad Hayef announced that he does not plan to contest in the upcoming elections, although he rejected plans to boycott. Hayef was one of more than 30 oppositionists who boycotted last December’s elections held as per the singlevote system that was enforced in keeping with the emergency decree released by HH the Amir following dissolution of the parliament. Hayef said in his recent announcement that he changed his mind based on “the need to give priority to combating corruption ahead of personal interests.”

In other news, the Kuwait Democratic Forum released a statement announcing it will boycott the upcoming elections, but also indicated that it will not stop any members from contesting if they planned to do so.

Arab countries still suffering demographic challenges Kuwaiti Amir arrives home KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and the official delegation accompanying him arrived home yesterday after having congratulated Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani on his accession to the leadership of Qatar as the new ruler of the state.

On hand to see HH the Amir at the airport here were His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber AlSabah, His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah and a number of ministers and senior government officials.

Among members of the delegation accompanying His Highness the Amir to Qatar were Sheikh Faisal Al-Saud AlMohammad Al-Sabah, Deputy Chief of the National Guard Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad

Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Minister of Amiri Diwan Affairs Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmad AlJaber Al-Sabah, First Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Hamoud Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah, Deputy Minister of Amiri Diwan Affairs Sheikh Ali Jarrah Al-Sabah, President of the National Security Apparatus Sheikh Mohammad Al-Khalid Al-Sabah, Advisor at the Amiri Diwan Mohammad Dhaifallah Sharar, Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf Al-Ahmad AlJaber Al-Sabah, Advisor at the Amiri Diwan Sheikh Fahad Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, Director of the Office of His Highness the Amir Ahmad Fahad Al-Fahad and Chief of Amiri Protocol Sheikh Khalid Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah Al-Nasser AlSabah.—(KUNA)

CAIRO: Secretary-General of the Arab League Dr Nabil Al-Arabi pointed out here yesterday the Arab region was still undergoing divergent demographic challenges such as unemployment, marginalization, low income, and immigration despite Arab states’ efforts to strengthen and employ development opportunities.

Latest data showed that a major number of Arab countries will not be able to accomplish most of the goals of World Population Plan of Action by 2014, as well as the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, Al-Arabi said during his opening speech at the Regional Population and Development Conference, entitled “Development Challenges and Population Dynamics in a Changing Arab Region, which kicked off on Monday in the Egyptian capital.

Also, he noted the Arab world is currently witnessing high unemployment rates, compared to other international regions, adding that these high rates contributed in aggravating

poverty and marginalization rates as they were some of the main causes of the latest political events that took place in many Arab countries.

In addition, Al-Arabi explained that some of the low-income Arab countries are still undergoing high rates of population growth, death of mothers, illiteracy, low awareness, and bad health services, affirming at the same time that other Arab states are witnessing high populated migrations to their lands such as forced, irregular, work, and competencies.

Furthermore, he asserted that wars and conflicts contributed in aggravating numbers of immigrants and refugees in the region, making it one of the world’s biggest regions in hosting refugees.

The current conference is of great importance since it is occurring after two decades of the first population conference in 1994, which resulted in creating a 20 year program of action.

Moreover, the conference will discuss how well the program was

applied in the Arab world, and will also set a development plan to be executed beyond 2014.

The three-day conference, will aim to provide a better life for the 370 million people of the Arab world population, especially with the recent demo-

graphic, economic, social, and political changes they are facing. Kuwait’s delegation for the conference is headed by Minister of State for Planning and Development and Minister of State for National Assembly Affairs Dr. Rola Dashti. —KUNA

Premier sponsors LAPA cultural activities KUWAIT: LAPA (LoYAC Academy of Performing Arts) held yesterday its cultural activities at the theater of Kuwait National Museum, under the auspices of His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber AlMubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah.

His Highness Sheikh Jaber said that the government is keen on encouraging all youth talents, adopting their various ideas and theses in all fields in

general, and scientifically, socially, culturally, and aesthetically in particular. Kuwait is known to be rich with youth potential, manifested in cultural and artistic productions, said the Prime Minister, expressing confidence in the continuity of Kuwaitis’ creative efforts. The event was attended by a number of sheikhs, ministers, and senior state and Premier Diwan officials. — KUNA

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

LOCAL

In my view

kuwait digest

The looming threat

US cohabitation with terrorists

By Dr Wael Al-Hasawi

By Dr Abdulaziz Sager

A

mid speculations about what shape the parliament and Cabinet will take following the upcoming elections, my hope is that whatever formations we end up with, these should be able to help the Kuwaiti people realize their ambitions that have been put on hold during the long years of political turmoil.

If there is something we need to focus on as a top priority today, it is a plan to rescue the Kuwait’s economy and avoid a dark future in which its very existence would be at risk. This plan must be based on reformist steps to correct the huge imbalance in spending that continues to worsen, according to researches and reports released by several international organizations.

Predictions for the 2012/2013 fiscal year budget indicate that Kuwait’s revenue will reach KD18 billion while expenses are set to reach KD21 billion, which means that at least a deficit of KD3 billion is expected. What is more alarming are the statistics which indicate that the public sector’s payroll was in excess of KD10.3 billion or 57 percent of the revenue, while subsidies have reached KD5.6 billion or 30 percent of the revenue. Together, the salary budget and subsidies claim KD16 billion or 88 percent of the revenue, leaving comparatively little funds for other activities.

Some might argue that these figures are not as alarming as they seem to be, given Kuwait’s status as a country that makes more than KD10 billion in annual surplus while oil prices are gradually increasing. However, the problem lies in the fact that politicians lack a long term vision and have been unable to realize that the ongoing spending policy is leading the country towards a dark future.

According to official estimations, Kuwait is in line to face a $179 billion deficit by 2030 in a best case scenario in which oil production increases from three million barrels a day to 4.5 million and at the rate of $185 a barrel.

This scenario is almost impossible to happen; in a more pragmatic scenario, production would increase to four million barrels a day by 2030 and the price would be $100 a barrel. With a seven percent average increase in general spending, the budget deficit would exceed $624 billion by then.

No one needs an economic expert to understand what it means for a country like Kuwait that has a less than 1.25 million population and a $624 billion budget deficit. Given the lack of sources of income other than oil, not only would this deficit mean that the country would face bankruptcy, but also that debts will follow Kuwaitis everywhere they go. Greece is an example of a country that has a population larger than us, a history that goes far beyond ours as well as agricultural, touristic and industrial potential. After falling in a debt trap that reached 350 billion Euros, the European Union offered help but only as long as it follows tough conditions that include releasing 150,000 people from the public sector, salary and pension cuts, increasing the retirement age, increasing income and value added taxes, as well as merging or dissolving many public sector institutions.

Even after following these conditions, Greece is yet to recover from its debt crisis that it could have avoided more easily by acting earlier. Is a fate similar to Greece’s awaiting us? — Al-Rai

kuwait digest

What’s after boycotting elections?

By Dr Bader Al-Daihani

I

n my last article, I said that boycotting the parliamentary elections to be held under the one person-one vote decree was a principled choice of those who reject any stakeholder’s monopoly over the decisionmaking process and who want to stick to democratic practices based on the constitution.

The Kuwaiti constitution stresses that no single stakeholder should override the jurisdiction and authority of another, and thereby destabilize the political equation.

As an example, assume we are about to participate in a sport where our opponent is entitled to change its rules as he wishes while the game is in progress. Will this be game be a fair one? Can you have any hope of winning?

The answer is definitely no.

Hence, the question should not be about the practicability of boycotting the coming elections. It should rather focus on the practicability of participating while knowing beforehand that it would only impart further political and public legitimacy to the laws and decisions passed by the government, particularly since it controls all the cards in the political game and can change the rules of the game whenever it wished.

Therefore, any new parliament will not be different in essence than the one just annulled. Can this be described as a real democracy or just a nominal one that would only usher in another phony parliament?

Moreover, those who had already taken part in the previous one-vote parliament that was annulled by the Constitutional Court will find no problem participating once again as well. The question will be, then, directed to those who had boycotted the elections. They will have to ponder over what they expect to happen after the elections. The problem does not lie in the worthless gains the government can easily wipe off anytime by a simple stroke. The issue is more important than that. It is related to adhering to our democratic system that really reflects the nation’s will and addresses its interests. Democracy is not mere polling boxes and a parliament house. We have seen many examples of phony parliaments in the Arab region. Democracy is all about well defined rules and mechanisms agreed upon by all to ensure stability of the political system. Such a system can be formed and tweaked by the people themselves. So boycotting the elections being held as per the ‘necessity decree’ is a principled stance, expressing rejection of inducing imbalance in the political equation for the benefit of a government that wishes to have a nominal parliament in which no opposition group should be able to affect its decisions. It will only be used to legalize an undemocratic situation.

Boycotting the elections is a peaceful and civilized way followed in many countries worldwide to reject the moves to manipulate democratic functioning. Such manipulation would eventually render the government’s decisions illegal and, thus, the government alone would be responsible for them.

Hence, the role of youth and opposition powers and their ability to unite and overcome previous differences becomes very significant. —Al-Jarida

I

In my view

The unfolding catastrophe

By Muhammad Sahimi

W

hen the United States and its allies began imposing sanctions on Iran to persuade its leaders to reconsider their policy toward its nuclear program, they promised the world that the sanctions would be “smart” and “targeted.” They told us that the sanctions would not hurt millions of ordinary Iranians who go about their daily lives and play no role in the decision-making process of the Islamic Republic’s leaders regarding Iran’s nuclear policy. Now that the sanctions are in full force, they are hurting the same people who were not supposedly the target. In fact, a human catastrophe is emerging whose scale poses as much a threat as an outright military attack.

The supposedly “smart” and “targeted” sanctions have been increasingly expanded to all areas, even if they are not part of the official sphere of sanctions. This is because the US and its EU allies have imposed sanctions on the Central Bank and practically all other Iranian banks that are involved in commercial transactions with the outside world. Since these banks open lines of credit for imports, and provide financial guarantees for commerce with the outside world, it has become very difficult, if not impossible, to import vital goods and products into the country, even those that absolutely have nothing to do with the military, or oil, or the nuclear program.

An area that has been hit very hard is the pharmaceutical sector. Iran produces a large part of the medicines and drugs that its population needs, based on the generic versions of brand-name pharmaceuticals. But it is unable to produce the most advanced drugs that have come to the market over the past 10-15 years that deal with a variety of serious illnesses, simply because their generic versions are not yet available. As a result, Iran must still import a significant amount of drugs every year to address the needs of the Iranian people when dealing with such illnesses as leukemia, AIDS and others.

But, the sanctions imposed on Iran’s banks and financial institutions have made importing the necessary drugs and the associated chemicals almost impossible.

At the same time, as Iran’s oil exports continue to decrease due to the sanctions strain on the country’s resources, it becomes increasingly more difficult to pay for the expensive imported drugs, even if a way can be found to important them. As a result, the shortage of drugs has begun to create a human catastrophe.

The board of directors of the Iranian Hemophilia Society recently informed the World Federation of Hemophilia (IFH) that the lives of tens of thousands of children are being endangered by the lack of proper drugs as a consequence of international economic sanctions imposed on Iran. According to the letter that the Society’s board sent to the IFH, while the export of drugs to Iran has not been banned, the sanctions imposed on the Central Bank of Iran and the country’s other financial institutions have severely disrupted the purchase and transfer of medicines. Describing itself as a non-political organization that has been active for 45 years, the Society condemned the “inhumane and immoral” US and EU sanctions and appealed to international organizations for help.

There are tens of thousands of Iranian boys and young men who are hemophilic and need certain drugs that must be imported. Many of them may need surgery for a variety of reasons, but in the absence of proper drugs for their hemophilia illness, the surgeries cannot be performed. In fact, several reports from Iran indicate that surgeries for all hemophilic patients have been can-

celed, and at least a few patients have already died.

Fatemeh Hashemi, head of Iran’s Foundation for Special Diseases, recently wrote a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The Foundation cares for the needs of patients with lifethreatening diseases, including a variety of cancers in adult patients as well as children, heart diseases, lung problems, multiple sclerosis (MS) and thalassemia. The foundation has been a highly successful organization that, in addition to Iran, has also served many people in Iraq and Afghanistan, and whose work has been recognized by the U.N. In her letter, Hashemi says she leads an organization “with 6 million patients and, hence, in contact with 30 percent of Iran’s total population.” Emphasizing the nonpolitical nature of her organization and her letter, Hashemi adds, “Although drugs have not been sanctioned, due to the impossibility of paying for the imported drugs through the banking system, the heavy shadow of the sanctions is felt in the health sector. Not only has importing drugs been disrupted, importing the raw chemicals [for the drugs that Iran does produce] has also been disrupted. ... As a human activist, I call on humanity’s conscience to pay attention to the fact that, despite the claims by those that have imposed the sanctions, their pressure is having its destructive effect on the life and health of the people.”

Hence, advanced drugs for the aforementioned special and dangerous diseases cannot be imported, endangering the lives of hundreds of thousands of Iranian people. There are about 37,000 Iranians with (MS), a debilitating disease that can be controlled only with advanced medications; otherwise, the patients will die. Three members of my own extended family living in Iran are afflicted with MS. Furthermore, given that even under the best medical conditions 40,000 Iranians lose their lives to cancer every year, and that it has been predicted by many medical experts that Iran will have a “cancer tsunami” by 2015, as every year 70,000 to 80,000 new cases of cancer are identified in Iran, the gravity of the situation becomes even more glaring. The net result is that, as a result of the sanctions, the shortage of drugs for such patients and other types of illnesses is becoming chronic in Iran and has reached dangerous levels.

Meanwhile, recent reports indicate that two large plants that produce drugs for a variety of illnesses have also been closed. The reason is that it has become essentially impossible to import the chemical compounds used in the production of the drugs, due to the sanctions imposed on Iran’s financial institutions that deal with the outside world.

It may be useless to preach to the Obama administration about the human, moral, and ethical toll of its policy toward Iran, given that the president has in many respects perpetuated the destructive Middle East policy of George W. Bush, which in Iran’s case has been even tougher and more damaging to the livelihood of the Iranian people.

But, the emerging catastrophe will be an ethical and moral problem for the West for decades to come, a catastrophe that is being created simply because Western governments blindly pursue crippling sanctions against Iran. Given the tragic history of the US intervention in Iran in the past, it would be prudent to rethink the consequences of such blind sanctions, and their effect on the thinking of the Iranian people about the US-a largely pro-US population in one of the most turbulent areas in the world that has been largely hostile towards the United States.

kuwait digest

A state of confusion

By Khalid Al-Tarrah

I

t seems that the Constitutional Court’s ruling has failed to end the instability that has swept through the political scene for years. Taking a decision about whether to participate in the elections or boycott these is not an easy one, especially when reading the details in the ruling, ahead of a clarification to be released by the Constitutional Cour t today (Wednesday).

There is no doubt that the Fatwa and Legislation Department bears political and legal responsibility that cannot be justified just by releasing a statement to the press, as they did recently. Further, the statement seems like a reaction and betrays the fact that it needs rescuing. It was illogical for the FLD to abandon its responsibility since it serves the role of being the government’s only legislative body whose job is to assess the status of urgency based on which emergency decrees are released.

The single-vote system is in my opinion not compatible with the population density, the distribution of constituencies and the political system as a whole.

However, the Constitutional Court’s ruling to uphold the system must be honored. I had hoped that the rul-

ing would have ended people’s boycott of the elections, especially by the opposition. Its participation today is more necessary that it ever was in order to restore balance in the political struggle and amend the single-vote system in the parliament.

In the meantime, it is clear what steps are needed next in the political scene.

We need reinforcement of the idea of respecting different opinions and plans for a better future.

National unity is also critical at this point; we need to stand united in face of challenges at the local and regional levels. This requires us to stand together as Kuwaitis in order to reinforce public participation in the decision making process through steps based on accord. Meanwhile, the executive authority needs to take radical and reformist steps in the Fatwa and Legislation Department to avoid committing further constitutional errors.

Today, there are only two options left for the opposition: either be convinced through efforts of youth activists to answer the national call for voting, or provide a clear vision to correct the situation in accordance with the law and the constitution. —Al-Qabas

n mid-December 2012, President Obama in an interview with ABC’s Barbara Walters tried to explain US policy toward the Syrian revolution, saying “Not everybody who’s participating on the ground in fighting Assad are people who we are comfortable with.” This comment was a direct reference to the US government’s decision to designate the Syrian rebel group “Al-Nusrah Front” as a terrorist organization. It was amazing how fast and efficient the US and European counter-terrorism authorities were in discovering that the Al-Nusrah Front is a terrorist group affiliated to Al-Qaeda that deserves swift punishment.

Most Arab governments, and even the general public, raised no objection to the US administration’s decision. Yet many thought that, considering the criminal behavior of the Assad regime, evidence of Al-Nusrah practising terrorism was not sufficient or convincing. It would appear that as a Sunni Jihadi militia organization, Al-Nusrah was predestined to be branded as a terrorist group by Western governments.

The debate over whether Al-Nusrah can be considered as a terrorist group and a branch of AlQaeda was over quickly after it was promptly included on both the US and EU terrorist groups list, as well as on the UN Security Council blacklist.

Yet, deliberation is still continuing among the EU states on listing Hezbollah as a terrorist group, with considerable and evident hesitation. The fact is that both Al-Nusrah and Hezbollah have been equally accused of interfering in the Syrian internal conflict.

All terrorist groups must be faced with immediate and severe punitive action, and the crime of terrorism must be fought regardless of sectarian, religious, and nationalist pretexts. Yet, one has the right to wonder about the double standards adopted by the US and its European allies toward categorizing who deserves to be called a terrorist and who does not.

Recently, many thousands of Hezbollah militias with their heavy arms crossed the Syrian international border to participate in the Assad’s regime bloodbath against the Syrian people, on the Syrian land. Does this not amount to a terrorist act?

“Before Al-Qaeda’s attack on the US on Sept. 11, 2001, Hezbollah was responsible for killing more Americans in terrorist attacks than any other terrorist group.” These were precisely the words of the US Under Secretar y for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen on Aug. 10, 2012.

He told his audience that Hezbollah has “a long history of terrorist attacks against American citizens and officials, including the bombing of the US Embassy and Marine barracks in Lebanon during the 1980s.” He further added that Hezbollah “quickly expanded its violent campaign on to a global stage, carrying out and supporting terrorist attacks in South America, Southeast Asia, Europe, and various countries in the Middle East. More recently one has seen the group’s plotting disrupted in Azerbaijan, Egypt, Thailand, and Cyprus,” and that “Hezbollah’s members have engaged in criminal behavior, including profiting from the narcotics and money-laundering schemes.”

Yet the top counter-terrorism official in the Obama administration focused on Hezbollah’s crimes against the US, overlooking the fact that the group has practised terrorism and intimidation against the people of Lebanon for many years.

Hezbollah’s responsibility for the brutal assassination of the Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and possibly a dozen more similar crimes, has been proven by a UN investigation team.

In this context, most Arabs are concerned about US double standards, with the US government officially describing Hezbollah as a dangerous terrorist group on the one hand, yet declining to treat it like other “terrorist groups.” Indeed, if one removes the word “Hezbollah” from the US under secretary’s statement we will be mistaken that the top US official was referring to Al-Qaeda.

Does such strong US language bring any punitive consequences on the Hezbollah group, which has been on the US terrorist list since 1995? Does it actually increase the pressure on Hezbollah in any practical way?

While the US has fully mobilized its military might and its intelligence apparatus, along with thousands of US drones, determinedly chasing and hunting down Al-Qaeda’s operatives from the jungles of Africa to the mountains of Pakistan, and the deserts of Yemen, many thousands of Hezbollah’s militia members are crossing the Syrian international borders with their most sophisticated and heavy weapons, in daylight, and even under the scrutiny of the TV cameras.

This is happening while the US and its Western allies are turning a blind eye to Hezbollah, which has been developed to operate as an effective terrorist arm for the Iranian regime. The US’s official classification of Hezbollah as a “dangerous terrorist group” is no more than lip-service, mere words unsupported by real conviction and lacking any real enforcement action on the ground. Such hypocrisy and insincerity is deeply worrying.

Soon after the start of the Syrian revolt, Hezbollah successfully ‘tested the waters’ and moved rapidly from providing logistical and operational support for the Assad regime and its repression to actual participation in the bloodbath. The Iranian and Hezbollah leadership rightly assumed that the US and its allies are either unwilling or unable to stop or hinder Hezbollah’s direct involvement in the Syrian internal conflict. The US lack of resolve and interest, which remains very evident, is seen in Tehran as a green light to further pursue its agenda.

Today, the US and its Western allies are shedding crocodile tears about the atrocities committed against the civilian population in Syria, apparently with the intention to deceive Arab and international public opinion. President Obama rightly feels uncomfortable to share the ground with Al-Nusrah terrorist group. Yet, he seems comfortable to share it with the Hezbollah terrorist group.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

LOCAL

6,000 illegal residents deported in 6 months Jails getting overcrowded KUWAIT: Nearly 6,000 people were deported over the past six months of crackdowns on illegal residents in Kuwait, a local daily reported yesterday, quoting Interior Ministry statistics as of June 23. According to a source, who agreed to provide the statistics to Al-Qabas on the condition of not being named in the report, as many as 25,000 expatriates were arrested during security campaigns carried out since the beginning of the year across Kuwait.

The source said around 15,000 people were later released after their employers submitted documents to prove that the workers were living legally in Kuwait. In other cases, workers whose visas had recently expired were released after their employers gave assurances to renew their visas immediately.

The source also revealed that some employers were required to sign undertakings that they

would not to allow their employees to work in other firms before the workers were officially released. In addition to people with expired visas, the continuing crackdowns are targeting expatriate laborers reported missing by their employers, as well as people holding Article 20 visas (for domestic helpers) but working in private firms, for which visas are issued under Article 18 of the labor law.

However, the source stated, such security campaigns could be put on hold until further notice, with jails getting “overcrowded with detainees.” The source indicated that nearly a thousand employers were blacklisted for allowing domestic workers to work for others.

Furthermore, he said cooperation with the Ministry of Social Affairs resulted in the blacklisting of nearly 500 companies found guilty of visa trafficking. The source also indicated that

Kuwait Airways is currently the only airline used to transport deportees. A maximum of five deportees per flight are allowed, he added, in order to avoid trouble inside the airplane.

Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Thekra AlRashidi had announced in March the government’s intention to deport 100,000 foreigners this year, as part of a plan to reduce the expatriate population in Kuwait by one million within a decade. The Interior Ministry never confirmed that the ongoing crackdowns on illegal residents were part of the deportation plan. In response to criticism from rights groups inside and outside Kuwait, Al-Rashidi later identified “marginal labor forces” as the target of the plan. Kuwait is home to 2.6 million expatriates, who make up 68 percent of the country’s 3.8 million population.

Nearly 90,000 of them live illegally in the country, according to official numbers.

Gulf states use latest IT tools in public service KUWAIT: The Learning and Training Affairs Department under the Ministry of Interior has invited applications for admission to a training course for lance corporal specialized criminal detectives, for the academic year 201314. Applications will be accepted during the period from June 2 through July 25, as advertised earlier. Applicants should be Kuwaiti citizens with a good conduct record.

Kuwait marks World Anti-Drugs Day KUWAIT: Kuwait marks the United Nations’ International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking which falls today each year to raise awareness of the major problem that illicit drugs represent to society.

This day is supported by individuals, communities and various organizations all over the world.

Kuwait has been marking this day since 1996 when it began making laws against drug abuse and trafficking and in 2006 the

Col Adel Al-Hashash

OIC opens office in Brussels BRUSSELS: The Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) , Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu , yesterday officially opened the OIC Permanent Observer Mission to the European Union in Brussels saying the 57-member organization is keen to develop relations with the 27-member European bloc.

“There is also a growing and developing interest on the highest level in the EU to cooperate with the OIC,” he told the gathering of diplomats and officials from Europe and the Muslim world present at the inaugural ceremony.

He noted that the OIC is the second-biggest organization after the United Nations having 57 members in four continents.

Ihsanoglou said the OIC signed an agreement with the Belgian foreign ministry in 2011 to open the mission in Brussels and in November of the same they purchased the building in which the office is now located.

“I think our relations with the European Union on the different agenda items that we share will benefit all of us. There is a need for the cooperation between the Muslim world and Europe and the OIC as a collective voice of the Muslim world which stands for modernization and moderation will be the proper institution to deal with the EU,” he stressed.

Hugues Mingarelli, Managing Director for North Africa and Middle East in the EU foreign service, known as the European External Action Service, said that EU High Representative Catherine Ashton was to be present at the opening of the office but she was held up at an EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg. —KUNA

ministry of interior established a department for drug enforcement which not only went after drug abusers but worked with other government agencies and NGOs to rehabilitate habitual drug users.

Since the department of drug rehabilitation started its task at the ministry of interior and up till now, the rate of drug use has diminished measurably. In 1993 the social charity organization known as Bashayer alKhair was established unofficially for the purpose of treating and rehabilitating drug users. Its work was seen as effective by the ministry so much so that its existence was officially recognized in 2005 when it obtained an official license to operate.

Currently its activities are sanctioned by the ministry of social affairs and labor.

A good example of cooperation between the public and private sectors on disseminating drug awareness among the public is the national program or campaign for drug awareness known as Gheras, whose efforts have paid off in recent years and which has garnered accolades both regionally and internationally from the likes of the UN and the WHO. Col Adel Al-Hashash, the director of public relations, valued the gesture of the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister who inaugurated the celebrations. He said Kuwait was participating in this event since it became a signatory in 1988 to the UN agreement to fight the drugs trade.

MANAMA: The GCC states use the latest IT tools to provide advanced public services, said Director General of Kuwait’s Central Agency for Information Technology (CAIT) Abdulatif Al-Suraie here yesterday.

During CAIT’s participation at the four-day UN Public Service Awards 2013 Forum which began Monday, Al-Suraie said that the GCC states briefed the event on their experiences in utilizing IT tools in public service, adding that CAIT was honored during the forum by Deputy Bahraini Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammad bin Mubarak Al-Khalifa.

The agency was being recognized by the Bahraini government for its efforts in e-governance and valuable input to the UN forum.

He revealed that this was the first Kuwaiti participation in the forum which witnessed the participation of 1,700 figures from 80 countries.

Al-Suraie noted significance of Kuwait’s participation in the forum, the first event of this level to be held in the Middle East.

He indicated that CAIT was partaking in the exhibition, held on the sideline of the forum, which was featuring the latest IT tools and application within the public service domain. —KUNA

ABK sponsors Quran reciting competition KUWAIT: Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait announced their sponsorship of the Quran reciting competition, at the Arab Open University, to be held at the Qutaiba Al Ghanim Theatre in the University building.

The sponsorship was held under ABK’s ongoing social responsibility campaign under the slogan “Our Society... Our Responsibility”, that encourages activities for the youth in particular.

Sahar Al-Therban - PR Manager at ABK said, “ABK sponsors and supports many activities, whether

internal for their employees or external, focusing on society, education, health, charity, environment and sport. ABK is keen on participating with society on those levels, as such, our sponsorship of AOU’s Quran reciting competition helps us achieve the Bank’s goals towards fulfilling our social responsibility.” AOU’s Head of Student Council thanked and expressed his gratitudeto ABK for sponsoring their competition, while hoping for more such events and partnerships in the future.

Kuwait, Tajikistan to cement ties KUWAIT: Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) on Monday expressed desire for closer ties between Kuwait and Tajikistan in the economic and investment fields.

“The bilateral ties have great potentials for growth in all domains,” KCCI First Deputy Chairman Khaled Abdullah Al-Sager said after receiving Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and his party at the headquarters of the chamber.

He made the comments in a joint press conference with Chairman of Tajik State Committee on Investment and State Property Davlatali Saidov.

“The State of Kuwait is blessed with investment-attractive atmosphere thanks to its political stability, deep-rooted democracy, fair judicial sys-

tem, modern banking system, experienced private sector, modern infrastructure, and unique geographic location,” he noted.

“All these characteristics, coupled with friendly ties with Tajikistan, provide the suitable ground for effective partnership in the investment and commercial ties,” Al-Sager pointed out. “Kuwait is looking forward to building closer ties with the Central Asia country and open new horizons for cooperation in order to meet the needs of both nations and serve the mutual interests,” he reaffirmed.

The two countries signed an agreement on the promotion and protection of joint investments in 1995. Since then, the two sides exchanged visits on various level with a view to furthering the bilat-

eral ties. The current visit of President Rahmon to Kuwait expresses not only satisfaction with the progress of the bilateral ties but the shared aspiration for stronger economic and commercial ties, Al-Sager went on. On his part, Saidov said his country seeks “to capitalize on her friendly ties and the already-signed cooperative deals with Kuwait to attract more Kuwaiti investments.

“Tajikistan is blessed with a stable investment infrastructure and enjoys abundant natural resources that gave rise to the mining industry in such fields as gold, aluminum and coal besides the oil and gas industries,” he said, noting that his country has the biggest aluminum plant in the world. —KUNA

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

LOCAL

Zain honors its product and services partners KUWAIT: Zain, the leading telecommunications company in Kuwait, recently held its quarterly dealers lunch event to honor a number of its authorized service providers for their outstanding performance during the first quarter of 2013.

During the event, Zain acknowledged the outstanding performers of these partners based on several key indicators. ‘Media Phone Plus Company’ came first in terms of driving revenue to Zain’s value-added services, while ‘BlueTec Company’ ranked first in the overall performance of the value-added services as well as the first in receiving the least complaints , and ‘First Cable Company’ the first in providing “Zain Same’ni” value-added service.

Providers’ efforts were reflected in their eagerness to exert maximum efforts to ensure the upgrading of value-added services that Zain offers to its customers, which directly strengthens Zain’s plans and operations.

This event takes place every quarter, allowing distributors to compete fairly with one another and drive more efficiency when offering the best services and products to Zain customers.

Nadia Al-Saif Zain’s Valued Added Services Director commented by saying: “Our partners play a significant role in Zain’s success. Their

consistency in providing excellent service for Zain’s customers is critical to the company’s focus on enhancing the customer experience.”

The company provides a world of content on the users’ mobile phones, from news and games to email and messaging. Zain’s latest and unmatched value added services include the latest Mobile Applications, Mobile Health, Mobile Education, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Payment, and Mobile streaming. These services are presented to all mobile users and are available at the company’s authorized distributors, who are sparing no efforts in maintaining the highest quality standards. Zain’s distributors are without a doubt, an integral part of Zain and a significant element of success that has helped Zain reach the leading position it enjoys today. The company encourages distributors to maintain their performance and continue offering the best services and products in town to its loyal customers.

For more information about Zain’s numerous competitive promotions, customers are advised to visit any of Zain’s branches located in more than 75 locations across Kuwait, visit the company’s website on www.kw.zain.com, contact its 24 hour call center at 107, or visit the company’s social media channels.

Four-member gang in police net for forgery Man found dead in Mishref

KUWAIT: Criminal investigation department officers arrested a gang of four people who skimmed off nearly half a million Kuwaiti Dinars using forged credit cards. Investigations had been ongoing in several cases reported by shops where the suspects used the fake credit cards to purchase expensive items. Detectives were eventually able to identify one of the suspects, a Syrian man, who was arrested in an ambush in Ashbiliya. Police later arrested his accomplices a Kuwaiti, an Egyptian and a Nigerian - based on information he provided during the interrogation. Further investigations revealed that the suspects brought foreigners to Kuwait using visitor’s visas, and then registered the forged credit cards in their names. The foreigners would then leave Kuwait once their visa expired and would be paid a percentage for their cooperation. The four suspects explained that they used this ploy to avoid being arrested.

Rapist at large Search is on for a bus driver accused of sexually assaulting a disabled boy in a case reported on Monday at the Salmiya police station.

According to the 14-year-old’s statements, the suspect assaulted him inside the bus before dropping him off at his house. The boy was at first hesitant about reporting the incident but decided a week later to tell his family. His father immediately took him to the police station. A

warrant was issued to arrest the Indian man whose name was blacklisted to prevent him from fleeing the country.

defaulted on a KD4000 payment. The man was referred to the proper authorities for further action.

Bribery case A man was arrested recently for reportedly receiving bribes to release driving license applications illegally. According to a source familiar with the case, head of the General Traffic Department Major General Abdulfattah Al-Ali issued orders to investigate a tip off about a Syrian man using his connections with a number of officials in the department to release licenses illegally. Based on an extensive investigation, the man was detained and taken to the proper authorities to face charges.

School quarrel Police intervened to prevent a quarrel at a Jahra high school on Monday after teachers caught a group of students cheating. Security officers responded to an emergency call reporting that students were trying to attack the teachers supervising the final tests held at the Mulla Eissa School in Taima. The teachers told the police that the students went on a rampage after they were caught using their smartphones to cheat and were subsequently not allowed to continue their exams.

Disguised fugitive A man wanted on account of money-related charges was arrested recently after he was found disguised as a woman to avoid arrest. Traffic patrol pulled over a vehicle in Farwaniya after noticing that its female driver was donning a naqab (face-veil) in violation of traffic regulations. The driver was ordered to step outside the vehicle after ‘she’ refused to produce a driver’s license or answer the officers’ questions. Police then found that the driver was actually a man dressed in an abaiya. He said that he used the disguise as the best way to move freely since there was a warrant out for his arrest for having

Suicide A man was found dead inside an under construction building in Mishref and the case was classified as suicide, according to preliminary investigation results. Police and paramedics reached the scene where a man reported finding a person in an unconscious state. The Indian man was pronounced dead and investigators examined his body and found burn marks.

Preliminary investigations indicated that the man could have inflicted the burn injuries upon himself before jumping from a height. The body was taken for an autopsy to confirm the cause and time of death. Investigations were on.

Municipality intensifies food inspection campaigns

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: Kuwait Municipality has continued its inspection of food shops, supermarkets and stores aimed at punishing violators in various areas in Kuwaiti Governorates, ahead of incoming holy month of Ramadan.

Emergency teams and regulatory bodies of the municipality are continu-

ing their round-the-clock campaigns to ensure that all shops in the six governorates are compatible with the Municipality’s regulations in terms of food stuffs. Director General of Kuwait Municipality Ahmad Al-Subeih said that his body is stepping up its efforts to prosecute those who take advantage of the holy month of Ramadan and sell rotten food to consumers. —KUNA

KUWAIT: Kuwait Municipality inspection campaign in progress.

KPC promotes sustainable social responsibility KUWAIT: Expo Tag for Conferences and Exhibitions honored Touristic Enterprises Company officials Jassem Al-Shmais (left) and Khaled Fawzi (right) for the TEC’s sponsorship for the First Summer Festival concluded recently at the Ras Al-Ardh Sea Club.

KUWAIT:Chairman of Kuwait Oil Tanker Company and Kuwait Petroleum Corporation’s Managing Director for Government, Parliamentary, Public Relations and Media Affairs Sheikh Talal Al-Khalid Al-Sabah announced that the corporation is constantly eyeing means to promote sustainable corporate social accountability and responsibility.

The social role of KPC is just as important as its economic role, noted the chairman, adding that social responsibility is a main support to overall economic development. All

segments of society should follow the Islamic teachings of social cooperation and help those in need. There is a need for special attention to care for those with special needs in particular, a matter recognized and stressed by the government, he said. The corporation recently helped with a Kuwaiti Society for the Handicapped procurement of a speciallyequipped bus to transport patients with special needs to and from medical and entertainment facilities, and also contributed towards furbishing physical therapy halls. — KUNA

UN Public Service Forum kicks off

DMCP, US Embassy work to protect marine habitat

KUWAIT: Dow Chemical in Kuwait, in partnership with en.v, recently hosted American Ambassador Matthew H. Tueller along with representatives from the American Embassy in a cleanup at Sulaibikhat beach in Kuwait. The Dow Marine Conservation Program (DMCP) holds the distinction of being the lead corporate patron of ‘Al-Yaal’ - Kuwait’s first nationwide marine conservation initiative developed by en.v - an initiative dedicated to social responsibility in the Arab world.

“It was my pleasure to participate in Dow Chemical’s beach clean-up,” said Ambassador Tueller.”I’m so pleased to see American companies such as Dow Chemical assisting in the preservation and restoration of some of Kuwait’s most treasured beaches. I want to commend Dow Chemical and en.v on their innovative and sustainable partnership.”

“Dow is very passionate about sustainability and

the environment; this is very much in line with our core values of integrity and protecting our planet,” said Jamel Attal, Managing Director, Dow Kuwait.

“We want to raise awareness of important environmental issues and create a lasting positive impact in the Kuwaiti community.” Also in attendance were volunteers from various non-profit organizations and schools including I Am Challenge - Kuwait, The Universal American School and the Kuwait Society for the Protection of Animals and Their Habitats (K’S PATH), Al Yaal’s implementing partner. In two hours, a total of 32 volunteers collected approximately 272 kgs of waste across 8000 sqm of shoreline, filling up 34 heavy-duty waste bags.

Zahed Sultan, en.v’s Managing Director said, “Engaging youth is an integral part of this social program, as we aim to empower young members of the community to take on a leading role in bettering their surroundings and in educating their peers on

how even small, concrete actions can have significant long-term impact.”

DMCP is now preparing to launch its Summer Awareness Campaign, which will focus on educating the public about proper waste-management and on demonstrating how each individual’s actions can contribute to a cleaner and more sustainable Kuwait. Since its launch in April 2011, Dow’s Marine Conservation Program has collected over nine tonnes of waste from over 84,000 sq.m. of Kuwait’s shoreline, engaged close to 400 volunteers and educated over 2000 students. The program’s concentrated efforts continue in order to protect and restore the rich marine ecosystem of beaches along Kuwait’s bay. These areas are abundant in marine life and coral reefs and serve as natural nesting grounds for turtles and migratory birds. Their fragile balance is endangered by indiscriminate disposal of direct and indirect man-made waste.

MANAMA: Bahraini Deputy Premier Sheikh Mohammad bin Mubarak Al-Khalifa underlined yesterday the importance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in enhancing government services through e-government, which has made landmark strides regarding the number and quality of services provided by eservice platforms in all fields.

Sheikh Mohammad, who is also the Chairman of the Supreme Committee for Information and Communication Technology (SCICT), made his remarks in a speech at the opening ceremony of the UN Public Service Forum 2013, on behalf of King Sheikh Hamad bin Issa Al-Khalifa. Sheikh Mohammad affirmed the Government of Bahrain’s keenness to keep side by side of all developments in the field of public service through constantly updating the laws and legislations regulating government work out of its drive to upgrade performance and achieve good governance.

The deputy premier noted that within King Hamad’s pioneering Reform Project, the public service sector has assumed its role in implementing government programs fully through enhancing performance, achieving excellence and developing mechanisms and goals, including use of ICT, transparency, responsibility and other incentives and stimulating programs. He added that the government was keen to provide the quality public services for the citizens,

in line with its belief in the UN goals, asserting that the kingdom will embark on a plan to upgrade the performance of state establishments in the coming period, which, he said, requires it to be informed about the successful experiences of other countries.

Sheikh Mohammad pointed out that the forum provides a platform for participants to exchange views, expertise and successful experiences and discuss ways of promoting advanced government work systems that cope with the fast technological developments witnessed by the world, especially in the field of eGovernment in which the kingdom of Bahrain has made quantum leaps and become a regional role model in a record time.

The Bahraini official added that the UN Public Service Awards distribution ceremony testified to the world’s interest in public service and keenness to address the challenges it is facing in the economic, social, cultural, health and education fields, congratulating the laureates and lauding their contributions in the service of individuals and societies.

Also in his speech, Sheikh Mohammad conveyed greetings from the King to the participants, wishing a happy stay in the kingdom and successful forum. The forum which tackles various technology and sustained government public service issues is bringing together international and regional experts. — KUNA

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

Out with the old in Qatar but little change expected

Few cheers in Brussels as Croatia readies to join EU Page 10

GOLAN HEIGHTS: Israeli soldiers from the Golani brigade drive their APC (Armored Personnel Carrier) during a military exercise in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights near the border with Syria yesterday. — AP

Al-Qaeda’s rift may spark conflict among jihadis ‘Power grab’ by Iraqi Qaeda boss angers Syria jihadis BEIRUT: A rift between Syrian jihadis and their fellow fighters from Al-Qaeda’s Iraqi wing may lead to internecine war among some of the most effective rebel groups in combating President Bashar Al-Assad. Trouble has been brewing since April over what Syria’s Nusra Front regards as a power grab by Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State of Iraq. Now, Baghdadi’s insistence that he will keep fighting as head of a united jihadi brigade in Syria, defying orders from AlQaeda chief Ayman Zawahri, has brought the two groups close to turning on each other.

“Tension is increasing, it is about to reach boiling point. Both sides are saying they are right. A clash between them could occur soon and if it happens, it will be ugly,” said a senior rebel commander in Damascus who is following the dispute. The two-year uprising against Assad has drawn fighters from many foreign countries to both sides, in what is increasingly a sectarian struggle between the main denominations of Islam. Some Iraqi Shiites are fighting for Assad, whose Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shiite Islam, while Iraqi Sunni radicals who once took on USled forces at home have joined the Syrian rebels.

Baghdadi’s attempt to unite the Syrian and Iraqi wings of Al-Qaeda has provoked the dispute at a sensitive time when some Western governments are considering arming more moderate rebels, but fear the weapons might fall into the radicals’ hands. In April Baghdadi announced his Islamic State of Iraq was merging with the Nusra Front, which has staged some of the deadliest attacks on Assad’s forces.

This apparently unilateral move opened up bitter and public rifts with the Nusra Front leadership - which resisted what it saw as his bid for overall power - and with Zawahri, the global AlQaeda leader who instructed him to put the merger on hold in an apparent attempt to settle the row. Baghdadi dismissed the demand from Zawahri, who has headed Al-Qaeda since US forces killed Osama bin Laden in 2011. The merged Islamic state of Iraq and Levant “is staying as long as we have a pulse and an eye that

blinks... We will not compromise over its existence,” Baghdadi responded earlier this month.

“After consultation I decided to (follow) the order from God over the order that opposes i t ,” h e a d d e d i n a n a u d i o m e s s a g e. N u s r a fighters, other rebels and Islamic sources reacted by saying Baghdadi had effectively severed his Al-Qaeda links. “He rejected the ruling of Sheikh Zawahri and therefore he is no longer a brother of al Qaeda,” said a senior N u s r a c o m m a n d e r. “A f t e r S h e i k h Z a w a h r i ruled in our favor, the State (Islamic State of Iraq and Levant) is illegitimate.”

PUSHING BAGHDADI OUT A source close to Nusra leader Abu Mohammad Golani described Baghdadi’s defiance as dangerous. “We have no choice but to confront them, or Zawahri himself has to deal with these people,” he said. Nusra was ready to fight Baghdadi’s forces and kick them out of Syria, but “Golani does not want bloodshed among brothers in Islam, he added. “Right now there is a decision to avoid them... but if he acts in a way that goes against Syria’s interest he will be pushed out by force, him and his people.”

Beneath the bluster, Nusra fighters appear to be in no position for now to challenge Baghdadi’s forces, and would need time to regroup and find allies among Syria’s other rebels. A senior commander from a hardline Islamist rebel brigade in the northern province of Idlib said Baghdadi’s men would probably win a direc t clash. “Nusra was weakened by (Baghdadi’s) takeover and weakened even more by the split that happened,” he said. “It will be very difficult for Golani or anybody to bring it back from ashes.”

With powerful, mostly foreign, fighters on his side, Baghdadi forced Golani and some of his men to go underground, confiscating some Nusra weapons. Many other Nusra fighters went home or joined other Islamist brigades. But the source close to Golani said the fact that most of Baghdadi’s fighters were non-Syrians meant they

could end up isolated, even among the jihadis, because they were more concerned with imposing an Islamist agenda than toppling Assad.

Resentment about Baghdadi’s agenda in Syria echoes the way that Al-Qaeda fighters alienated many Sunni fighters during the Iraqi insurgency against the US occupation forces and the Shiiteled government in Baghdad. This could encourage other rebel brigades to join a Nusra backlash against Baghdadi. “Baghdadi and those who believe in his extreme thinking, they are mostly foreigners and they are on their own,” the source said. “Nusra is back to work,” he added, saying Golani had ordered his commanders to prepare to resume operations.

Despite losing ground to Baghdadi’s men in the north, particularly in Aleppo and Raqqa provinces, rebels say the Nusra Front remains active and prominent in operations in the southern province of Deraa, near the border with Jordan. Any resurgence of the Nusra Front, which fights alongside other rebel brigades against Syrian government forces, would further complicate Western efforts to support Assad’s opponents. The United States has been reluctant to arm the rebels because of fears that weapons could end up in the hands of anti-Western jihadis such as the Nusra fighters. However, after a string of Assad gains around Damascus and near the Lebanese border, backed by Lebanon’s Shiite militia Hezbollah, President Barack Obama said Washington would increase military aid.

ARMING A FRACTURED FORCE Any weapons which are sent would flow into a fractured rebel force. “Nusra believe, and they are right, that this is their land, it is their Syria and they have the right to lead the battle here,” said the senior rebel commander in Damascus.

Islamist sources close to Al-Qaeda’s thinking say that Baghdadi’s attempt to merge the Iraq and Syrian wings of the movement did not contradict Zawahri’s belief in a hierarchy and structure that could form the basis of a power ful Islamic state.—Reuters

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Young

Qatar Emir likely to remain an exception The step is sure to stir the interest of young Arab royals around the Gulf, especially those impatient for plum state jobs shared out in royal deliberations far from the public eye. And in time, as Tamim’s profile grows, his rule may raise expectations of more youth-friendly policies in Gulf societies where almost a third of the population is under 15.

DUBAI: Ageing Gulf Arab rulers swiftly congratulated Qatar’s young new emir on his accession yesterday, but will be in no rush to emulate his father’s abdication - for them, hereditary rule is for life. The ascent to power of Crown Prince Sheikh Tamim, 33, provides a stark contrast to other Gulf Arab states whose youthful populations are ruled by kings or princes in their 60s, 70s and 80s, some with heirs of the same vintage.

The step is sure to stir the interest of young Arab royals around the Gulf, especially those impatient for plum state jobs shared out in royal deliberations far from the public eye. And in time, as Tamim’s profile grows, his rule may raise expectations of more youthfriendly policies in Gulf societies where almost a third of the population is under 15.

Since Arab uprisings erupted in 2011, Gulf states have worked harder to provide more jobs and better social services to Internet-savvy populations increasingly outspoken online. But reverence for age, and a view of Qatar as an irrelevant maverick, mean other Gulf states are unlikely to follow the example Qatar set yesterday when the emir handed over to Tamim, hailing the “innovative ideas and active energies” of youth. “This step will not be repeated in other parts of the Arab world,” said Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a political scientist in the United Arab Emirates. “What happened in Qatar will be forgotten.” Analysts also suggest that the complex internal politics of Gulf ruling families, which often involve balancing rival dynastic lines, tend to exhaust the energies of senior players.

ELITES GET SET IN THEIR WAYS Tough decisions on succession tend to get put off.

“Elites get set in their rules and operations, in their way of thinking and of working,” said Shafeeq Ghabra, professor of political science at Kuwait University. “They just keep going for decades until things become problematic and crises happen.” In Oman, for example, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, 72, who has yet to name a successor, has ruled for 43 years.

Kuwait’s Amir, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah, 84, put in 40 years as foreign minister before acceding to the top job.

Bahrain’s powerful Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman bin Khalifa, in his late 70s, an uncle to the king and an advocate of stringent internal security, has been prime minister for four decades. In Saudi Arabia, the largest and most powerful Gulf Arab state, the ruling Al-Saud family has cautiously elevated younger princes over the past two years, but has given no hint that it is contemplating a Qatar-style transfer of top roles. Two royal deaths since 2011 have led King Abdullah, who turns 90 this year, to retire some older princes and promote comparatively younger members of the family to senior posts.

Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, 53, made Interior Minister in November, is now the most powerful prince of his generation, commanding a ministry that oversees the kingdom’s formidable security infrastructure and 13 provincial governors. King Abdullah’s son, Prince Miteb, who took command of the National Guard from his father in 2010, was made a full minister in May, reinforcing his seat at the top table. Other members of the next generation grandsons rather than sons of the dynasty’s founder King Abdulaziz Al-Saud - have been made governors of the Riyadh and Eastern provinces.

FAMILY SIZE SLOWS DECISIONS However, while younger princes may be hungry for top jobs, Saudi and Gulf analysts say whatever happens in Qatar will make little difference to its larger neighbor’s succession

Outgoing Emir, a visionary for tiny Gulf state

Sheikh Hamad, Emir who made Qatar world player DOHA: To his admirers, Qatari emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani is a champion of the common man’s struggle against tyranny, and a visionary who turned billions of dollars in energy revenues into strategic international investments.

To his critics, the 61-year-old ruler only pretends to be a friend of the masses, for while he backed Arab Spring revolts against autocracy, he clamped down on freedoms at home. What both groups tend to agree on is that Sheikh Hamad has managed to turn the tiny Gulf state into a regional powerhouse that punches above its weight in international diplomacy and highrolling finance.

His vision is expected to continue after he announced on Tuesday that he was stepping down and handing power to his son, Crown Prince Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani. The dramatic step is unheard of in a region where, until Arab Spring revolts two years ago, authoritarian rulers usually remained in power for life.

The handover cements Qatar’s standing as “the great regional maverick”, said Kristian Ulrichsen, a Gulf expert at The Baker Institute for Public Policy. The impetus behind Sheikh Hamad’s pursuit of the limelight for his country over the past decade, analysts say, was a wish to differentiate Qatar from regional neighbors, especially Sunni powerhouse and rival Saudi Arabia.

VOLATILE REGION “He dexterously fostered a unique place for Qatar as a relatively neutral country in a volatile region,” said David Roberts, deputy director of the Royal United Services Institute in Doha. “This not only improved his status domestically, but furthered Qatar economically by encouraging a modern, attractive and liberalizing image.” Under Hamad’s tenure, along with his influential wife Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser al-Missned, Qatar garnered much attention in the past decade through the launch of the Al Jazeera television network, as well as its successful bid to host the 2022 soccer World Cup. Sheikh Hamad mediated conflicts in Darfur, Somalia and Lebanon, often by hosting lavish multi-day peace talks in five-star hotels until the rival sides agreed to a deal. But it was Qatar’s aggressive intervention in the Arab Spring revolts, especially supplying rebels in Libya with weapons to oust long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi and pushing for Arab agreement on a no-fly zone, that really turned attention to the peninsula state of 1.9 million people.

Sheikh Hamad personally directed that billions be spent on supplying weapons as well as fuel and supplies to the Libyan rebels. As one of the world’s richest countries with a cradle-tograve welfare system for its 250,000 native population, Qatar has largely escaped the unrest seen in other Arab countries. It is perhaps that fact that has pushed Sheikh Hamad to throw his weight behind popular revolts abroad without worrying about any backlash at home.

BIG GAS RESERVES He has also shored up Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood which rose to power after Hosni Mubarak was deposed, depositing millions of dollars in Egypt’s central bank as the country struggled economically under the Islamist leadership of Mohamed Mursi. In Syria, Qatar was at the forefront of Arab countries calling for the ousting process. For one thing, the complex internal politics of the roughly 7,000-strong Al-Saud family makes any direct power shift to younger men much trickier than within Qatar’s Al-Thani dynasty. Unlike in Qatar, Saudi succession does not pass from father to son but down a line of brothers born to King Abdulaziz and then to an as-yet unchosen prince from the younger generation.

That means there is no single clear candidate among the younger princes for the family to rally around. Instead, there are half a dozen who might one day become king. Princes in their 50s and 60s in Saudi Arabia at best occupy deputy ministerial positions or governorships of small provinces, making them callow by the standards of a family that likes its senior princes to have held top jobs for decades.

Nevertheless, Tamim’s youth could evolve into a

Qatar’s Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa AlThani of President Bashar Al-Assad, as well as official recognition of the Syrian opposition at the Arab League.

The first embassy for the Syrian opposition opened in Doha in March. A close US ally that hosts a large American military base, its copious natural gas reserves have made Qatar one of the world’s richest countries. The tiny country whose economy once centered on pearl fishing now has a sovereign wealth fund that controls an estimated $100 billion in assets. Its high-profile purchases, such as the acquisition of London department store Harrods, have highlighted the country’s immense wealth.

“It would not be a stretch to say that in some ways, Qatar today is more influential than Egypt on the regional stage, even though Egypt has more than 240 times the number of citizens,” said Shadi Hamid, director of research at Brookings Center Doha, the Qatar branch of the Washington-based think-tank. That boldness helped Qatar cultivate remarkable success as a regional mediator. During Sheikh Hamad’s reign, Doha displayed an ability to engage almost everyone from the United States to Hezbollah, and even Iran.

SUPPORTIVE TWEETS The transformation of Qatar from a backwater into a global powerhouse began in June 1995 when Hamad, then aged 45, ousted his father in a bloodless coup. “I am not happy with what has happened but it had to be done and I had to do it,” he said in brief televised speech at the time.

“God knows that I was not seeking power by this method for the love of power. It is rather a heavy responsibility and a great trust, and I beseech Almighty God to guide us.”

As Hamad handed over power to his son, the Qatari Twitter-sphere was awash with supportive tweets for the outgoing ruler, with a “thank you Hamad” hashtag quickly gaining popularity.

“Today is a new step in the history of the state of Qatar,” said one Twitter user. Another Twitter user from Qatar said: “Don’t want media to analyze today, I just want them to witness the birth of an icon. Seldom do we come across this in MENA.” — Reuters

potent symbol for Gulf states acutely aware of the need to address the concerns of their youthful and sometimes restless societies.

Christopher Davidson, a Gulf expert at Britain’s Durham University, said Tamim’s rise “ushers in the first generation of Gulf rulers who have near-native English, are fully social media-savvy, and are fully a product of the oil era.” Jane Kinninmont of the Chatham House think tank in London said the sight of an absolute monarch voluntarily stepping down “defies the conventional wisdom about the Gulf and will linger in the imaginations of many in the wider Middle East. “It becomes harder for other powerful royals to insist the younger generation must wait years or decades for their turn in power. This has implications for every single one of the other Gulf countries.” — Reuters

Qatar handover tests

assertive global push DUBAI: Qatar’s leadership transition is well-managed by the standards of the Arab Gulf, where rulers tend to hold on until death. The abdication of Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, 61, who deposed his father in a bloodless coup eighteen years ago and has transformed Qatar, ensures an orderly succession by his son Sheikh Tamim, 33. But it raises some uncertainty over the country’s outsize portfolio of financial and foreign policy interests.

The handover is unlikely to result in a major change of direction for the country’s fast-growing economy. Domestic spending has been agreed up until 2017, notes Eurasia Group.

Sheikh Tamim has also been active in many of the emirate’s biggest projects, including Doha’s successful but controversial bid to host the football World Cup 2022. That project commits the country to massive infrastructure spending.

Qatar’s foreign policy in recent years has been

both assertive and ad hoc. That makes the outlook less certain now. The new emir will have more flexibility to adopt a more moderate stance overseas, where Doha’s interests range from bankrolling Syria’s rebels to propping up Egypt’s flailing new Islamist government. He may also be under pressure to do so. A desire to shore up the emirate’s security has driven decision making, but the interventionist approach has arguably made Doha more vulnerable - not less.

There’s no official word yet on the fate of Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim AlThani, one of the country’s most powerful men, and a savvy dealmaker. That will determine the impact of the transition on Qatar’s massive sovereign fund. He is expected to step down as part of the first cabinet reshuffle in more than a decade.

If he keeps his role as chairman of Qatar Holding and gives the fund his full attention, activity could increase. —Reuters

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Fadl Shaker: Lebanon crooner turned fugitive militant BEIRUT: Once adored by women for his warm voice and good looks, Lebanese crooner Fadl Shaker followed an unlikely path to become an Islamist militant now on the run with fellow fugitive Sheikh Ahmad Al-Assir.

The pair are now being sought in a nationwide manhunt after clashes between Assir and his Salafist supporters and the military in the southern city of Sidon that left 17 soldiers dead.

Though he grew to become one of the Arab world’s most famous singers, Shaker suffered through a miserable childhood of poverty, which a onetime musician friend says helped lead him down a dark path later in life. Now in his mid-forties, Shaker was born to a Palestinian mother and Lebanese father in the country’s biggest Palestinian refugee camp, Ain Al-Helweh. Born Fadl Shmandur, he began his career as a popular wedding singer who performed from the rooftops of the camp, an over-crowded and hopeless place. “He has a beautiful voice.

Hearing him live was even more beautiful than a recording,” a former friend of Shaker’s told AFP on condition of anonymity. “But he has always been naive and gullible. The more of a star he became, the further he strayed from the people who really loved him.

He constantly ended up in bad company,” said the friend, who lost touch with him some years ago. In his prime, Shaker sang love songs that were instant region-wide hits. He released

his first album in the late nineties, and continued to perform until 2011.

His biggest hits, Bayyaa Al-Qulub (The Heartbreaker), Ya Ghayeb (You who are far away) and Law Ala Albi

SIDON: File picture shows Lebanese Sunni Muslim Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed Al-Assir (left) holding the hand of Lebanese singer Fadel Shaker during a small concert where he sang Muslim hymns in the southern city of Sidon. —AFP

Asia fuels ‘explosion’ in global arms trade Opportunities East are double-edged, analyst warns LONDON: Asian powers are outpacing the United States to become the biggest spenders on defense by 2021 and are fuelling an “explosion” in the global arms trade, a study showed.

The global arms trade jumped by 30 percent to $73.5 billion between 2008-2012 in spite of the economic downturn, driven by surging exports from China and demand from countries like India, and is set to more than double by 2020, defense and security consultancy IHS Jane’s said yesterday.

“Budgets are shifting East and global arms trade is increasing competition. This is the biggest explosion in trade the world has ever seen,” said Paul Burton, a senior manager at IHS Jane’s whose study looked at 34,000 defense acquisition Programs. The United States has accounted for the lion’s share of global defense spending over the past decade, but budget cuts in Washington, as it withdraws from countries such as Afghanistan, mean that it will account for just 30

(My heart melted in your love), are regularly played at Arab weddings and parties. Shaker’s songs are romantic and his voice full of longing.

“He is a very sensitive, extremely

percent by 2021 to fall behind Asia at 31 percent.

Military spending in the Asia Pacific region - which includes China, India and Indonesia - will rise 35 percent to $501 billion in the next eight years, compared to a 28 percent fall in US spending to $472 billion over the same period, IHS Jane’s said. “The big Western defense companies have no option - export or shrink - but this could be sowing the seed of their own demise; the opportunities in the East are a double-edged sword, fuelling a trend which threatens US dominance of defense.” said Guy Anderson, senior principal analyst at IHS Jane’s.

China’s ramp-up in defense spending in recent years is worrying its neighbors such as Japan, with whom it is currently embroiled in a stand-off over a series of uninhabited islands, despite its repeated reassurances that there is nothing to fear. Japan, as well as India and South Korea, are among countries being courted by weapon

makers such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing and BAE Systems who want to sell them fighter jets and other equipment to make up for reduced spending in their Western home markets, but such deals tend to require investment in the buyers’ defense industries.

India, for instance, is speaking exclusively to France’s Dassault Aviation on a $12 billion order of 126 warplanes and wants 50 percent of the work to be given to Indian companies. China is expected to increase its defense budget by 64 percent to $207 billion by 2021, compared to India and Indonesia which are respectively forecast to spend 54 and 113 percent more, the study said. These countries aspire to build thriving defense industries capable of developing modern equipment such as fighter jets andaircraft carriers, and may be able to export “world class kit” rivaling that of the West in a decade as a result of their willingness to spend, IHS Jane’s said. —Reuters

News

in brief

Saudi jails activist RIYADH: A Saudi Arabian court has sentenced a human rights activist to eight years in prison for sedition after his group campaigned for a constitutional monarchy and elections in the Gulf Arab kingdom. Abdulkarim al-Khader co-founded the Saudi Political and Civil Rights Association (ACPRA) and served as its head after the imprisonment of two of his colleagues in March. Mohammed Fahd Al-Qahtani and Abdullah Hamad were sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges that included sedition and damaging the countr y ’s reputation.

Monday’s ruling stipulated that Khader will only serve three years in jail, with five years suspended unless he resumes his activities, human rights activists said yesterday. He has also been barred from travel for a further 10 years, they said.

37 die in mine collapse BANGUI: At least 37 people were killed when a gold mine collapsed at Ndassima in the middle of the Central African Republic, where President Michel Djotodia has declared three days of mourning, national radio reported yesterday. The accident occurred on Sunday after a landslide in very heavy rain “led to the death of almost 40 of our compatriots”, presidential spokesman Prosper Ndouba said on the radio. “It is to be feared that the casualty toll may unfortunately rise in the next few hours or coming days,” Ndouba added.

“Confronted with this tragedy, the president of the republic presents his sincere condolences to the families of the vic tims and to the entire Centrafrican people. He has decided on three days of national mourning as of Tuesday.” A source in the district administrator’s office in the central Ouaka region said “there is no hope of finding any survivors” in the mine, which has been active since 2009.

Iraq bombings kill 14 KIRKUK: Bombings targeting protesters and pilgrims outside of Baghdad killed 14 people yesterday, the latest in a surge of violence that has sparked fears of a revival of all-out sectarian conflict in Iraq. The latest attacks come a day after 35 people were killed nationwide, most of them in a series of car bombs across Baghdad, as the country grapples with a prolonged political deadlock and months of protests from its Sunni Arab minority.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Sunni militants linked to Al-Qaeda frequently target Shiite Muslims-both the protesters and the pilgrims were from Iraq’s Shiite majority-whom they regard as apostates. Yesterday’s deadliest attack struck the ethnically-mixed town of Tuz Khurmatu, which lies in a tract of territory in north Iraq that Kurdistan wants to incorporate into its three -province autonomous region over Baghdad’s objections.

BAGHDAD: Iraqis inspect the damage outside shops in Baghdad yesterday following an explosion the night before. —AFP

Baghdad picks up its pieces after bombs BAGHDAD: Workers at a Baghdad supermarket choked back tears yesterday and took a moment to mourn fallen friends before resuming a familiar task in Iraq-picking up the pieces after a bombing, and rebuilding. The Warda supermarket in the Iraqi capital’s Karrada district was hit by one of a series of car bombs on Monday night, badly damaging the store’s facade and much of its interior. Two shop workers, Ashur and Jaabar, and two customers-apparently a mother and daughter-were killed, and several others were wounded in the 7:00 pm attack, when a minibus bomb blew up in the parking lot in front of Warda, which means flower in Arabic. Overall, at least 28 people were killed and more than 120 wounded in the attacks across the city. “I was terrified,” said Thair Ghazi Said, a 48-year-old Warda employee, describing the moment of the attack. “I saw some people dead, some people were bleeding.” “A woman and her daughter passed away just here,” he said, motioning to the ground, his hands and clothes covered in dust from picking through debris. “I could smell the powder used in the explosives, it was mixing with the smell of blood and flesh.”

A BIG MESS INSIDE The explosion struck the supermarket that, over the past several years, has transformed from a musty shop with heavy glass doors and tills where cashiers manually calculated customers’ change to one of Baghdad’s best. It now features electronic cash registers, an in-house bakery, a fresh fruit section, and often puts up stalls providing free samples of new products from international brands such as Cadbury’s and Kraft.

That is, it did, until Monday’s attack. “Whoever did this is inhuman,” said Maher Abdulrahman, another Warda employee. “Some of the employees working here are so poor, they have only this job to make a living. Can you imagine what their families are going through? Who will compensate them, who will take care of them?”

Alluding to Iraq’s religious diversity, and fears that a recent surge in violence could push the country back towards the sectarian war that raged here in 2006 and 2007, he continued: “Here, we are all working-Christians, Muslims, Sunnis, Shiites. We are all friends here.”“A friend of mine, he was Christian, he died yesterday,” the 29-year-old said, referring to Ashur. “He was like my brother. I held him, I tried to help him, but he passed away.” —AFP

reserved person,” said Shaker’s friend.

“When his Palestinian wife left him, he would cry on stage as he sang, thinking of her. He is very emotional.” In one of his most well-known songs, he sang: “O you who are far away, why don’t you ask after the one who loves you, and who can’t sleep at night? I am thinking of you.”

Shaker’s immense popularity was boosted by the fact he was also a defender of Palestinian rights, and was granted honorary Palestinian citizenship by President Mahmud Abbas. Shaker also opened a restaurant in Sidon and pondered swapping his music career for a less hectic life, closer to his three children. “I knew he would leave music one day, but I would never have thought he would join Assir. It’s such a shame, he has such talent. I feel sorry for him,” his friend said. Shaker’s brother had long been a strict Muslim, and he tried for years to convince him to leave music.

But it wasn’t until after the outbreak of an uprising in Syria against President Bashar Al-Assad that Shaker became convinced that singing is haram, or forbidden in Islam. Shaker soon became the bestknown face of Assir’s small movement of openly sectarian, Sunni radicals and praised the cleric as “the lion

of the Sunnis”. He grew a beard and became a highlight of Assir’s rallies, helping attract attention to the phenomenon of Sunni radicalism in the small Mediterranean country.

Performing during a television interview earlier this year, Shaker swapped his love songs for a chant about jihad (holy war) and death.

Sitting by Assir, Shaker smiled and sang as sweetly as ever: “God gave me the gift and invited me to join the jihad... Mother, don’t cry for me...

Death does not frighten me, and my wish is to become a martyr.” His latest media appearance came in an amateur video in which he boasts: “We got rid of two of your swine, of your dogs... God is great.”

The video went viral, with many alleging Shaker referred to killing army troops. Others said the footage referred to earlier clashes between Assir supporters and pro-Hezbollah fighters. Lebanon’s judicial authorities issued a detention order for Assir and 123 of his supporters, including Shaker, whose brother was killed in weekend clashes with the army in Sidon.”Fadl’s story makes me sad, but in a way I am not surprised. He has always been easy to manipulate,” his friend said. “These people have used him. Without him, no one would have heard of them.” —AFP

Iran, Hezbollah involvement in Syria is ‘dangerous’: Saudi JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia regards the involvement of Iran and Hezbollah in Syria’s civil war as ‘dangerous’ and believes the rebels must be offered military aid to defend themselves, the kingdom’s foreign minister said yesterday. Speaking at a news conference with US Secretary John Kerry in Jeddah, Prince Saud Al-Faisal added that Saudi Arabia “cannot be silent” about Iranian intervention and called for a resolution to ban arms flows to the Syrian government. “The kingdom calls for issuing an unequivocal international resolution to halt the provision of arms to the Syrian regime and states the illegitimacy of the regime,” Prince Saud said. More than 93,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict, which began as a popular protest movement against President Bashar Al-Assad but has descended into a civil war with sectarian overtones. Nearly 1.7 million refugees have fled into neighboring countries, including Lebanon, where clashes between

armed groups supporting opposing sides in Syria have fuelled fears of a lapse back into sectarian civil war.

BEGGING SPREADS Meanwhile, families in Syria are increasingly resorting to begging for food to cope with shortages and high prices wrought by the civil war, the World Food Program (WFP) said yesterday. The conflict between President Bashar Al-Assad and rebels trying to overthrow him has killed 93,000 people, uprooted millions of people, destroyed livelihoods and wrecked property, businesses and infrastructure worth tens of billions of dollars.

A survey of 105 families conducted by WFP food monitors in seven provinces, including the hotspots of Homs and Aleppo in April and May, found many switching to lower-quality foods in order to spend less, the United Nations agency said.

“Those who cited begging as a coping

strategy noted that it had become their only option to cope with the deterioration in their living conditions,” WFP spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs told a news briefing in Geneva. She said the WFP was stepping up food deliveries in Syria ahead of the start in early July of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, during which devout Muslims fast from dawn to dusk and economic activities are disrupted.

“We have to anticipate that during month of Ramadan..., some transport activities will slow down or stop. It is urgent to ensure delivery to ensure normal distribution to families.” Some 9 percent of those interviewed reported begging for assistance, a rise from 5 percent in March, Byrs said. “They need fresh products which are missing from their diet,” she said. “Many markets are not stocked or products are expensive”. WFP hoped to reach 2.5 million Syrians with food supplies in June, up from 2.4 million in May. —Reuters

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EU rebukes Turkey on crackdown by delaying entry talks LUXEMBOURG: The European Union rebuked Turkey yesterday for its crackdown on anti-government protesters by postponing a new round of membership talks for at least four months, but said its path to the EU remained open. The EU’s move, discussed in advance with Turkey, drew only a mild response from Ankara and avoided a feared crisis in EU-Turkey relations. The EU had planned to open a new chapter, or policy area, in talks with Turkey today, reviving Turkey’s bid to join the bloc that has been virtually frozen for three years. But Germany, backed by Austria and the Netherlands, blocked the plan, believing it would send the wrong signal so soon after police cracked down on protesters in Turkish cities.

EU governments yesterday backed a Germaninspired proposal, agreeing to open the chapter on regional policy but delaying the formal launch of talks until after an Oct. 9 report by the European Commission on reforms and human rights in Turkey. EU governments will meet again after the report comes out to set a date for talks on the new chapter in the light of what the report says about Turkey ’s behavior. Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger said the EU agreement gave Turkey “a probationary period (for) how it handles basic rights for citizens, how it handles the right to demonstrate and the right to free speech.”

“In my view this is absolutely necessar y because we cannot have a double standard in the European Union. We have a community of European values and this assumes that citizens’ basic rights will be respected,” he said in Vienna.

Protests swept Turkish cities after police used teargas and water cannon to disperse a demonstration

against redevelopment of an Istanbul square. Two weeks of clashes with police have left four people dead and about 7,500 injured.

TROUBLED BID Turkey and Germany became embroiled in a

diplomatic row last week after Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was appalled by the Turkish crackdown. Germany and France have always had concerns about allowing a largely Muslim country of 76 million people into the 27-nation EU, fearing

ANKARA: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (2nd right) speaks with a member of parliament from his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) during a meeting at the Turkish parliament in Ankara yesterday. Erdogan yesterday praised the police “heroism” in handling several weeks of unrest that threw up the biggest challenge yet to his government after more than a decade in power. — AFP

that Turkey’s cultural differences and its size will make it too difficult to integrate. The delay in reviving Turkey’s bid is helpful to Merkel as it pushes back the talks until after a German election in September. Merkel’s conservatives oppose Turkish EU membership. Other EU governments, including Sweden, argued that the EU must keep Turkey on the path to EU membership and should engage more closely with Ankara to foster civil rights.

“While we have been disturbed by the reaction to the recent peaceful protests in Turkey, I believe the EU accession process is the most effective tool we have in influencing the reform agenda in Turkey,” Eamon Gilmore, foreign minister of Ireland, current holder of the EU presidency, said in a statement. German Foreign Minister Guido Wester welle, who spoke several times to his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu before yesterday’s EU decision to smooth over any ill-feeling, said the decision was “a good decision in a difficult situation”.

Turkey had promised a “strong reaction” to any EU decision and Turkish press reports had said it could suspend negotiations with Brussels altogether if today’s talks were called off, but it toned down its criticism yesterday. “What is important is the confirmation of the opening of the chapter with an irrevocable decision,” Davutoglu said in Ankara. “An obstacle in Turkey’s relations with the EU has been overcome... Our target now is the opening of two new chapters.” Turkey opened negotiations to join the EU in 2005, 18 years after applying. The talks have advanced at a snail’s pace and it has provisionally closed just one of 35 chapters. — Reuters

Russia, China reject US pressure over Snowden White House says China relations ‘damaged’ MOSCOW: China and Russia rejected US accusations they helped a former US spy agency contractor escape prosecution in the United States, deepening a rift between powers whose cooperation may be essential in settling global conflicts including the Syrian war. Edward Snowden, charged with disclosing secret US surveillance programs, left Hong Kong for Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on Sunday. The US State Department said diplomats and Justice Department officials were holding discussions with Russia, suggesting they were looking for a deal to secure his return to face espionage charges.

MOSCOW: Photographers take pictures as light shines through a cabin window on seat 17A, right, the empty seat that an Aeroflot official said was booked in the name of former CIA technician Edward Snowden, during Aeroflot flight SU150 from Moscow to Havana, Cuba. — AP

An airport source said the 30-year-old American, who has asked for asylum in Ecuador, had flown in on Sunday and had been booked on a flight to Cuba on Monday but had not got on board. Journalists camped out at the airport have not spotted him inside, or leaving, the transit area, and say a heavy security presence has been relaxed for the past 24 hours. He has not registered at a hotel in the transit zone, hotel sources say.

A receptionist at the Capsule Hotel “Air Express”, a complex of 47 basic rooms decorated predominantly with grey carpets and grey walls, said Snowden had turned up on Sunday, looked at the price list but then left. US officials admonished Beijing and Moscow on Monday for allowing Snowden to escape their clutches but the United States’ partners on the UN Security Council, already at odds with Washington over the conflict in Syria, hit back indignantly.

“The United States’ criticism of China’s central government is baseless. China absolutely cannot accept it,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in Beijing, also dismissing US criticism of Hong Kong, a Chinese territory, for letting Snowden leave. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denied suggestions Moscow had helped Snowden in any way, including by allowing him to fly into Sheremetyevo. “He chose his itinerary on his own. We learnt about it ... from the media. He has not crossed the Russian border,” he said. “We consider the attempts to accuse the Russian side of violating US laws, and practically of involvement in a plot, to be absolutely groundless and unacceptable.” Lavrov’s insistence Snowden had not entered Russia implies he has not left the airport transit area, used by passengers flying from one non-Russian airport to another without going through passport control or requiring an entry visa. The transit area is Russian sovereign territory, but it could be argued that in staying there Snowden had not formally entered the country - a move that could implicate President Vladimir Putin in helping a fugitive. Interfax news agency quoted a source “in the Russian capital” as saying Snowden could be detained to check the validity of his passport if he crossed the Russian border. Snowden is travelling on a refugee document of passage provided by Ecuador, the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said. Putin is not shy of celebrating people who challenge Washington, but has an interest in keeping relations with the United States on track as both sides try to improve security cooperation and arrange a peace conference on Syria.

US, RUSSIA DISCUSS SNOWDEN Jay Carney, a spokesman for the White House, said it was

Washington’s assumption that Snowden was still in Russia.

Snowden, whose exposure of the surveillance raised questions about civil liberties in the United States, flew to Moscow after being allowed to leave Hong Kong even though Washington had asked the Chinese territory to detain him.

Snowden, until recently a contractor with the US National Security Agency, had been expected to fly to Havana from Moscow on Monday and eventually go on to Ecuador, according to sources at the Russian airline Aeroflot. There is no direct flight from Moscow to Quito, which has said it was considering Snowden’s asylum request.

Ecuador, like Cuba and Venezuela, is a member of the ALBA bloc, an alliance of leftist governments in Latin America that pride themselves on their “anti-imperialist” credentials. The Quito government has been sheltering WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at its London embassy for the past year. The airport source confirmed Snowden was travelling with Sarah Harrison, a legal researcher working for WikiLeaks. “She (Harrison) came together with Edward Snowden from Hong-Kong on June 23 around 5 pm,” the source said. “He had a ticket to go to Havana on the 24th, but he did not use it. She also had one, but she didn’t use it either.”

DEFIANCE With Snowden’s whereabouts a mystery, US President Barack Obama, may face prolonged embarrassment from a young man leading the world’s lone superpower on a global game of hide and seek. Obama told reporters his government was “following all the appropriate legal channels working with various other countries to make sure the rule of law is observed”.

But US officials said intelligence agencies were concerned that they did not know how much sensitive material Snowden had in his possession and that he may have taken more documents than initially estimated.

He could publish more documents or they could get into the hands of foreign intelligence. The Kremlin denies knowledge of any contacts between Russian officials and Snowden, despite media speculation the security forces could be questioning him. Carney said his escape would damage US-China relations and US Secretary of State John Kerry said Snowden’s activities could threaten the security of China and the United States. “People may die as a consequence to what this man did,” he told CNN. But to his supporters, Snowden is a whistle blowing hero who exposed the extent of US surveillance activities.— Reuters

Few cheers in Brussels as Croatia readies to join EU BRUSSELS: A giant banner hanging from the European Commission headquarters in Brussels hails Croatia’s impending accession on July 1 but there is little real cheer at the prospect of another troubled economy joining EU ranks. The first new member of the club since Bulgaria and Romania joined in 2007 is also proving unpopular in the streets, where opinion polls show a majority of Europeans have turned against enlargement after years of grinding recession and austerity.

“The nuptials will not be followed by a honeymoon period, given the complexity of the current socio-economic and political context,” said Corina Stratulat, an expert at the European Policy Centre, a think-tank in Brussels.

“Instead, Croatia will plunge straight into a tepid marriage and needs to prove itself,” she said, echoing the less than celebratory mood in the EU’s corridors of power as the former Yugoslav state’s economic fundamentals have worsened.

The European Union’s executive arm is already warning Croatia that it could face a sanctions procedure if it breaches the EU’s already widely flouted public debt threshold of 60 percent of gross domestic product next year, as forecast.

Croatia has said it expects its economy to grow by 0.7 percent this year and 2.4 percent next but the European Commission is forecasting a contraction of 1.0 percent in 2013 and a weak recovery to growth of 0.2 percent in 2014.

The deficit is expected to reach 4.7 percent of GDP this year and could even hit 5.6 percent in 2014 - well above the EU’s three-percent limit, with unemployment rising over 18 percent.

“Croatia faces important challenges,” the Commission said in a report last month that stressed the need to relaunch growth, strengthen public finances and boost competitiveness. Germany’s Bild mass-circulation tabloid

was less diplomatic. “Debts, corruption and high unemployment. This is Croatia,” the newspaper said in an editorial, adding: “This is the next Greece, which will swallow up billions from Berlin.” The controversy-courting paper is not

the only one voicing concern about Europe’s capacity to bring into the fold a fragile new arrival at a particularly difficult time. Bulgaria and Romania have set a worrying precedent. —AFP

News

in brief

Next in line for EU membership BRUSSELS: As Croatia prepares to join the European Union on July 1, several other countries are still waiting in line-most of them in the Balkans and the former Soviet Union. Only three others-Iceland, Montenegro and Turkey-have begun membership talks but several are considered candidates and others still are seen as possible future bidders. Here is a list of the current state of play for enlargement: TURKEY Turkey is the European Union’s longest-lasting suitorit first applied in 1987 — but talks have stalled in recent years mainly because of opposition from members like Germany. Turkey, which actually began membership talks only in 2005, has also refused to normalize ties with Cyprus, whose northern half it occupied in 1974, leading to a long-running sovereignty dispute. Hit by a series of unprecedented antigovernment protests in past weeks and growing criticism of its human rights record, Turkey’s membership now appears an even more distant prospect.

ICELAND Membership negotiations began in 2010 but have so far skirted the most sensitive issues-such as fisherieseven though Iceland has already adopted a lot of EU regulation. A new centre-right coalition came to power earlier this year and is less keen on joining than the previous government, saying it will first hold a referendum before continuing talks. Iceland is also highly integrated in the European network as a member of the European Economic Area (EEA), the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and the visafree Schengen area. Two-thirds of its foreign trade is with EU member states.

MONTENEGRO Negotiations began in 2012 and in April of this year Podgorica closed its second accession chapter out of 35, although key issues like reforming the justice system have still not been discussed. Brussels has stressed that Montenegro has a European future but has urged the government to do far more to fight organized crime and corruption.

CANDIDATE COUNTRIES Skopje obtained the status of candidate in 2005 and the Commission recommended opening membership talks in 2009 but European leaders have still not given it the green light. Greece is officially in favor but has said the country cannot use the title “Macedonia” as this is the name for a northern Greek province and has proposed it be called “North Macedonia.”

SERBIA Belgrade was granted candidate status last year and is hoping to get the go-ahead for the start of membership talks at a summit of EU leaders later this week. The main remaining stumbling block to membership negotiations had been relations with Kosovo, which Belgrade normalized in an historic EUbrokered agreement signed in April.

KOSOVO Kosovo proclaimed its independence from Serbia in 2008 - a status that Belgrade and some European countries like Spain still refuse to recognize.

Following the April normalization deal with Serbia, the European Commission has recommended the opening of negotiations on a stability and association agreement with the EU. ALBANIA Tirana applied in 2009. The main condition was that it hold elections in accordance with international norms, as well as clamp down on corruption and organized crime.

BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA Sarajevo is behind its Balkan neighbors on ties with Europe. It has still has not amended its constitution in line with a request from the European Court of Human Rights which says it discriminates against Roma and Jewish minorities. The constitution states only members of the three main communitiesSerbia, Croatian and Muslim-can be elected to the upper chamber of parliament or the presidency.

BRUSSELS: A banner announcing the arrival of Croatia into the EU is seen hanging on a main wall of the Berlaymont building at the EU Headquarters in Brussels yesterday. From July 1, 2013, Croatia will be the 28th country to enter in the European Community. — AFP

FORMER SOVIET REPUBLICS Six former Soviet republics-Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine-are considered by the European Commission as possible future candidates for enlargement and are all members of the EU’s Eastern Partnership. — AFP

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

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

US Senate clears security hurdle for immigration bill WASHINGTON: The US Senate cleared a key immigration reform hurdle Monday, bucking pointed Republican opposition and proceeding on a critical measure that would tighten security on the US border with Mexico. The procedural vote marked an important test for comprehensive immigration reform backed by President Barack Obama. He wants it enacted this year, though the landmark legislation faces an uncertain fate in the House of Representatives. Fifteen Republicans joined a unanimous Democratic side to end debate on the allimportant amendment, which would bring muscular new security measures to the southern US border including 20,000 additional agents, 350 miles (560 kilometers) of new fencing and expansion of drone surveillance.

The controversial legislation, shepherded through the Senate by its four Republican and four Democratic authors, would create a 13-year-long pathway to citizenship for the more than 11 million immigrants living illegally in the United States. It would also reform the work visa system in agriculture

and high-technology fields, institute electronic employment verification and comprehensive entryexit tracking, while seeking to prevent future waves of illegal immigration by making the US-Mexico border virtually impenetrable.

“We’re securing the border but we’re allowing those people at the back of the line to have some pathway to continue to live the American dream, the same things that we want for our sons and daughters all across the country,” said Senator Bob Corker, who crafted the border deal with fellow Republican John Hoeven. Obama, who has largely stayed out of the fray but in recent weeks sought to nudge the bill forward, stressed at a White House meeting with business leaders Monday ahead of the vote that immigration reform would give the nation’s economic recovery a boost.

“Now is the time to get comprehensive immigration reform done,” he said. A coterie of conservatives however were banding together against the legislation, including Senator John Cornyn of Texas, a state with a long border with Mexico. Cornyn accused top

Senate Democrat Harry Reid of running a “dictatorship” in the Senate by exerting unassailable control over which immigration amendments received votes in recent weeks, and attacked the Corker-Hoeven deal as “a “political fig leaf” that “will not solve the problem.” While recognizing the amendment boosts border enforcement, Cornyn and others said it unacceptably fails to implement border “triggers” that would only allow the full legalization for undocumented workers to begin once all the border security measures are in place. “This bill has no teeth. This bill has $48 billion thrown up against the wall to buy the votes to say this bill will secure the border, and it will not,” Senator Tom Coburn boomed.

Democrats hotly countered that the new border enforcement has no fewer than five triggers, including the requirement that the “e-verify” system be in place before any permanent residency cards are issued to legalized immigrants.

“They just won’t take yes for an answer,” Schumer said, citing the added security measures inserted as a concession to skeptical Republicans. “No one can dis-

pute that the border will become virtually air tight.”

He said new technologies unavailable as recently as 10 years ago, like drone surveillance, would allow for far tighter operational control of the 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) border.

Reid is pushing for a vote on the 1,200-page bill’s final passage this week, and he has said he hopes to secure at least 70 votes to send it to the House with major momentum. Monday’s procedural step was approved 67-27, although the two Democrats who missed the vote support the amendment. Some lawmakers have warned it will be dead on arrival in the Republican-held House, where conservatives want to see stronger protections in place that would only allow the full legalization for undocumented workers to begin once all the border security measures are set.

The Corker-Hoeven amendment details $3.2 billion in new equipment, including four unmanned drone systems, 40 helicopters, 30 boats, 4,595 unattended ground sensors, and hundreds of fixed and mobile camera systems. “It’s almost overkill,” Corker himself admitted. — AFP

Obama must play catch up on trip to Africa

RIO DE JANEIRO: A masked man marches toward the Cinelandia square during a protest in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Monday, June 24, 2013. — AP

Brazil earmarks $23bn for public transport Lull in demonstrations SAO PAULO: President Dilma Rousseff proposed a wide range of actions to reform Brazil’s political system, fight corruption and improve public services - all demands angrily asked for by the millions of protesters who’ve taken to the streets the past week. In a meeting Monday with four leaders of a main group behind the protest movement and later with governors and the mayors of 26 capital cities, Rousseff shifted some of the burden for progress onto the back of Brazil’s widely loathed congress - in particular, in calling for a plebiscite on political reform that only lawmakers have the authority to call.

Rousseff told the governors and mayors that the government would allocate $23 billion for new spending on urban public transport, but she didn’t provide details on what the new projects would be. The four leaders of the free-transit activist group that launched the first demonstrations more than a week ago said she also gave them no concrete plans. “I mainly want to repeat that my government is listening to democratic voices. We must learn to hear the voices of the street,” Rousseff told the governors and mayors. “We all must, without exception, understand these signals with humility and accuracy.”

She said her government would focus on five priorities: fiscal responsibility and controlling inflation; political reform; health care; public transport, and education. Protesters have filled cities across this vast country to air a wide spectrum of grievances including poor public services and the high cost of hosting next year’s World Cup soccer tournament and the 2016 Olympics. Mayara Longo Vivian, one of the leaders of the Free Fare Movement who met with Rousseff in the capital Brasilia, said that no concrete measures were given to the group and that their “fight would continue.” The movement has been working since 2006 to eliminate public transport fares.

Vivian referred to the billions of dollars Brazil is spending for the World Cup, saying, “If they have money to build stadiums, they have money for zero tariffs” on public transportation. “The people are on the street, the left is on the street, with legitimate agendas,” she said. “Only with concrete measures from the state will this situation be reversed.” At a demonstration in Rio de Janeiro on Monday, 68-year-old sociologist Irene Loewenstein said she was not too impressed by Rousseff’s action.

“It’s a necessary first step, but not a particularly meaningful nor surprising one,” she said. “Neither Dilma nor any other politician here is capable of even understanding, much less putting into practice, the kind of systematic change the people are demanding. It’s just not within their world views.”

Monday marked the beginning of a more hands-on approach for Rousseff in the face of sharp criticism that she had been too silent during protests last week. She only made brief comments on June 17 and then a 10-minute, pre-recorded nationwide address Friday, a week after the protest explod-

ed and a day after a million people took to the streets in at times violent protests. Since then, the demonstrations have shrunk and become less widespread, while Rousseff looked stronger Monday outlining her agenda.

Many of the means she listed, including using oil royalties to fund education and a program to attract foreign doctors to work in areas underserved by Brazilian physicians, had already been proposed by Rousseff before but met stiff resistance in congress. By putting the issues before the public at this sensitive time, the president is ratcheting up pressure on congress, an institution widely loathed by the population, to not serve as a bottleneck for the proposals.

Opposition politicians in congress, including a senator who is viewed as her biggest rival for next year’s presidential election, blasted Rousseff’s call for a plebiscite on political reform.

“It’s the specific jurisdiction of congress to call a plebiscite,” said Sen. Aecio Neves. “To divert attention, she’s transferring to congress a privilege that is already ours and isn’t responding to the expectations of the population.”

Some scattered protests flared Monday, and two women died after being hit by a car as they tried to block a highway in the state of Goias near the nation’s capital. The highway patrol in Goias said the driver fled and was being sought. Protests in Sao Paulo state blocked road access to the nation’s largest port in Santos, causing a huge backlog of trucks trying to unload products. In Brasilia, a group of about 300 students protesting against corruption blocked some streets.

The protests have hit as the nation hosts the Confederations Cup soccer tournament, seen as a warm-up for the World Cup. Experts said the protesters, though mostly disorganized, were in control thanks to support from the majority of Brazilians as seen in recent polls. That opened a window for concessions on their demands for less corruption and improvements to the nation’s woeful public services.

Complicating matters, though, is Brazil’s worsening economic climate, which Rousseff referred to Monday. The government has been struggling against both a lagging economy and rising inflation, which economists say require contradictory actions to fix. While the nation’s benchmark interest rate could be slashed to stoke economic growth, it could also be raised to keep inflation at bay.

“Brazil will see several waves of protests,” said Guillermo Trejo, a professor at the University of Notre Dame in the US whose research focuses on social protests in Latin America.

“This cycle will decline, and it’ll likely return to episodic protests once the media attention of the Confederations Cup goes away.” But next year could be a bumpy ride as Rousseff faces re-election, Trejo said. Already, the protests have become the largest of their kind in Brazil in at least two decades.

“Presidential elections are always a huge magnet for protests and hosting a major event like the World Cup will open a window for more,” Trejo said. — AP

Ruling favors US transgender girl DENVER: Officials say a school district discriminated against a 6-year-old transgender girl by preventing her from using the girls’ bathroom, in what advocates described as the first such US ruling in the next frontier in civil rights. Coy Mathis’s family raised the issue after school officials at Eagleside Elementary in suburban Colorado Springs said the first-grader could use restrooms in either the teachers’ lounge or in the nurse’s office, but not the girls’ bathroom. Coy’s parents feared she would be stigmatized and bullied.

On Monday, the Mathis family and its lawyers celebrated the ruling on the steps of the state capitol. Coy, dressed in a glittering tank top, jeans and pink canvas sneakers, ran around a towering blue spruce tree as her mother spoke to reporters. “Her future will be better if we get to this place where this is nothing to be ashamed of,” Kathryn Mathis said, noting the family hadn’t sought a civil rights battle but was happy for the Colorado Division of Civil Rights’ ruling.

As the country’s gay rights movement has won mounting legal and electoral victories in recent years, advocates

hope the latest decision will lend momentum to the struggles of transgendered people. “This is by far the high-water mark for cases dealing with the rights of transgendered people to access bathrooms,” said the Mathis family’s attorney, Michael Silverman of the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund. He and other advocates said the case is one of several potentially ground-breaking transgendered civil-rights cases winding their way through US courts.

The Maine Supreme Court is considering the case of a 15-year-old transgendered girl who was forbidden from using her school’s girls’ bathroom. Last year, Vice President Joe Biden called transgendered rights “the civil rights issue of our time.” Sixteen states, including Colorado, and the District of Columbia expressly outlaw discrimination against transgendered people.

Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel, which focuses on religious and family litigation, said transgender cases are “a mockery of civil rights.” He said his group got involved defending a department store employee who was disciplined for ordering a person who was obviously male to leave the women’s changing room. —AP

WASHINGTON: It is a comparison President Barack Obama may not relish: when it comes to Africa, he’s no Bill Clinton.

Or even George W Bush for that matter. Obama makes his first extended trip to Africa today. After the sky-high expectations raised by his election in 2008, Obama now faces the prospect of trying to convince Africans that the United States has vital interests there that it intends to safeguard and pursue.

“The African leaders, the African public have been wondering where the US president has been,” said Ben Leo, global policy director for the anti-poverty group ONE. “This trip has been designed to address some of those perceptions, those concerns, hopefully reset the engagement trajectory over next couple of years.”

Obama’s trip risks being overshadowed by the deteriorating health of South Africa’s national hero and revered former leader, Nelson Mandela, who is approaching his 95th birthday. Mandela’s decline could dwarf other topics. Madiba, as he is known by his clan name, is adored by most of South Africa’s 53 million people as the architect of the 1994 transition to multi-racial democracy after three centuries of white domination. Mandela spent his second week in a hospital, where his condition was described as “critical.” The White House has said Obama will defer to the wishes of the Mandela family with regard to any meetings. “We’ll be in touch with them,” said White House foreign policy adviser Ben Rhodes. “If he has an opportunity to see the family in some capacity, that’s certainly something that we may do.”

Obama may also face questions about the exposure of classified information by former US government contractor Edward Snowden, which has forced the president to defend widespread government surveillance of Internet and phone data. The furor over Snowden’s disclosures could drown out issues Obama wants to spotlight on the trip, particularly Africa’s potential as a business and trade partner for the United States. Still, Obama’s weeklong visit may afford him a

chance to reverse some of the criticism that his administration has failed to launch any of the grand health or trade initiatives in Africa that his two predecessors accomplished. In the absence of US involvement, other countries, particularly China, have aggressively pursued business opportunities on the continent. “This is a place where the United States needs to be present, and we’re very pleased that early in the second term, we can send a signal of increased US engagement through this trip,” said Rhodes.

Shadow of Bush, Clinton Critics of Obama’s Africa policy point to George W. Bush’s program to combat HIV/AIDS in Africa, with an initial commitment of $15 billion over five years when it as launched in 2003. As a result, the United States is credited with directly supporting antiretroviral treatment for more than 4 million people. “George kind of knocked it out of the park,” the Irish rock star Bono, an activist for development causes, said last year. Bush is also praised for initiating the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a foreign aid agency that provides assistance, if a recipient nation can meet good government criteria, for anti-malaria initiatives and for forgiving debt.

Before him, Bill Clinton generated enormous goodwill by becoming the first American president to make more than one trip to Africa and for signing the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, which dropped trade restrictions on more than 6,000 exports to America from 35 African countries.

Clinton was also close to Mandela and supportive during South Africa’s transition from white-minority rule to its first free election in 1994.

“Africans still consider Clinton their president,” Mwangi Kimenyi, director of the Africa Growth Initiative at the Brookings Institution, recently told reporters. Obama has been preoccupied with winding down two foreign wars and the worst financial crisis in the United States since the Great Depression. —Reuters

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

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

Australia PM Gillard knits toy kangaroo for royal baby SYDNEY: Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has revealed she is knitting a red kangaroo for the first baby of Prince William and his wife Kate. The nation’s first woman leader, battling a tough final week in parliament ahead of September elections amid renewed speculation that she could be ousted from within her own party, found time to tell the Australian Women’s Weekly she had set herself the

task of making the toy. Gillard, known globally for her stance against sexism, said it was important people saw a different side of her beyond the politics. “In terms of knitting for Kate Middleton’s baby-I knit for babies-in part, they are the smaller projects, I’ve got not that much time in my life,” Gillard told the magazine to be published today. “I just thought that it would be a cute project to work on. I thought I would

set myself the challenge of knitting a little stuffed toy, and why not a kangaroo?”

The prime minister’s office suggested the idea of the knitting story, but the media have made light of it with Sydney’s Daily Telegraph calling it “Spins & Needles” and a “last-stitch bid to woo voters”. The charm offensive comes amid more bad opinion polls for Gillard and her centre-left Labor Party, with the latest Newspoll pub-

lished in The Australian on Tuesday showing her personal support has crashed to record lows. The poll found that if an election were held now, Labor would be crushed 56 percent to 44 percent by the conservative opposition led by Tony Abbott, a former minister in John Howard’s government. Despite knitting for the royal baby, Gillard said she still hoped Australia would one day become a republic.

“There is a real sense of respect for the Queen, so I do think a natural moment to look again (to a republic) will be when her reign comes to an end,” she said. “Prince William and Kate, and their child, will still be personalities in Australia; people will still follow their lives with interest.” The heir to the British throne and the duchess of Cambridge are expecting the baby in midJuly. —AFP

Taleban hits Kabul’s presidential palace CIA base attacked by gunfire KABUL: Taleban gunmen and bombers using fake NATO identification attacked an entrance to the Afghan presidential palace in the heart of Kabul yesterday, just a week after insurgent leaders opened an office in Qatar for peace talks. A nearby building known to house a CIA base also came under attack as explosions and gunfire erupted for more than an hour in an area close to heavily secured Western embassies and ministry buildings. Three Afghan security guards and all

to pass through a checkpoint to access the sprawling palace grounds at about 6:30 am (0200 GMT). “The first vehicle was checked and let in, and as the second car tried to get in the guards became suspicious and tried to prevent it,” Mohammad Daud Amin, the Kabul deputy police chief, told AFP. “The clash started and the cars were detonated. All the attackers were killed.” Police said the cars had been fitted with radio antennae to make

KABUL: Afghanistan National Army (ANA) soldiers arrive near the entrance of the Presidential palace yesterday. —AFP four assailants were killed, officials said. It was one of the most brazen assaults on the city since President Hamid Karzai narrowly escaped assassination in April 2008 when the Taleban attacked an annual military parade.

The three guards were killed close to the Ariana hotel building, used as a CIA base since about 2002, but officials said neither the palace nor the CIA property were breached. Two fourwheel-drive cars using fake badges from NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) tried

them look like ISAF vehicles and that the four attackers were also wearing military uniforms. The car bombs detonated near the CIA base inside the first of several layers of outer checkpoints, but a government official told AFP that the militants had not entered the palace grounds. The challenge of securing peace in Afghanistan as NATO troops exit next year was underlined when a bomb killed eight women and one child travelling to celebrate a wedding in the southern province of Kandahar.

Karzai, who lives in the palace, was due to hold a press event in Kabul yesterday morning.

Officials confirmed that he was in the building at the time of the attack but not in danger. All roads to the palace are permanently closed off, with multiple rings of heavy security around the complex keeping people far away. “A big group of attackers have struck against the CIA office as the main target and also the palace and the defence ministry nearby,” Taleban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP. The last major attack in Kabul was on June 11 when the Taleban claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb outside the Supreme Court that killed at least 15 civilians. Yesterday’s attack came during a visit to Kabul by US envoy James Dobbins after a diplomatic spat over the Taleban’s new office in Qatar, whose creation is meant to be a first step towards a peace deal to end 12 years of fighting in Afghanistan.

The Qatar office used the formal name of “Islamic Emirate Of Afghanistan” from the rebels’ 1996-2001 government, and flew the white Taleban flag, displaying the trappings of power in a way that infuriated Karzai. The president broke off Afghan-US talks on an agreement that would allow Washington to maintain soldiers in Afghanistan after 2014. He has refused to send representatives to Qatar, but pressure is growing for a ceasefire and eventually a peace settlement ahead of the NATO withdrawal and a presidential election due in April. About 100,000 foreign combat troops, 68,000 of them from the US, are due to exit by the end of 2014, and NATO formally transferred responsibility for nationwide security to Afghan forces a week ago. When in power, the Taleban imposed a harsh version of Islamic law that banned television, music and cinema, stopped girls from going to school and forced woman to wear the all-covering burqa.

They were ousted in 2001 for sheltering AlQaeda in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, but launched a resilient and bloody insurgency against US-led NATO troops and the US-backed Afghan government. Dobbins on Monday said the United States was “waiting to hear” whether the militants were committed to peace talks after opening the Qatar office. “It doesn’t seem like an entirely spurious effort on their part but whether they are prepared to participate... we just don’t know,’ he told reporters. —AFP

Fears of disease in flood-hit India Indian journalist reports from victim’s shoulders

RUDRAPRAYAG: Indian officials stepped up efforts yesterday to prevent an outbreak of disease in the northern Himalayan region devastated by landslides and flash floods, as rains hampered the rescue of thousands still stranded.

Workers sprayed disinfectant amid concerns about disease from the bodies of hundreds of people who perished when floods hit the state of Uttarakhand, known as the “Land of the Gods” for its revered Hindu shrines. “We are spraying disinfectant in the flood-affected areas to prevent the spread of water-borne diseases,” state medical officer KD Sharma said.

The move came as fresh rains and landslides hampered efforts by the military to evacuate some 6,000 pilgrims and tourists still stranded throughout the state since the floods hit on June 15. Raging rivers swept away houses, buildings and even entire villages in the state, which was packed with travellers in what is a peak tourist season. More than 1,000 bridges have been damaged along with roads, cutting off hard-hit villages and towns.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said he was saddened by the disaster, which has killed some 1,000 people. “The secretary-general is saddened by the loss of life, and the damage to homes and infrastructure in India as a result of the torrential floods in the northern state of Uttarakhand over the last week,” a statement from his spokesperson said. Officials have stepped up preparations for a mass cremation of victims in the hard-hit holy town of Kedarnath, amid health concerns, with tonnes of wood flown by helicopter into the area. The cremation had been expected to go ahead yesterday but has now been delayed by the downpours, an official said.

A police official in charge of organising the cremations said belongings and documents recovered from bodies will be used to help with identification while DNA samples will also be collected.

“Under no circumstances can we allow an outbreak of an epidemic,”

senior disaster management official K.N. Pandey told AFP. “We have reports that many stranded people are suffering from diarrhoea and other ailments and have decided to cremate the corpses near the Kedarnath shrine,” he said.

A senior official warned that the death toll of 1,000 could rise dramatically as the grim task of collecting the bodies from rivers and from

still awaiting rescue, officials said.

Thousands of soldiers along with the Indo-Tibetan Border Police have been evacuating people by foot, using harnesses and erecting rope bridges across flooded rivers to help them to safety.

Meanwhile, an Indian television journalist reporting on the deadly floods that have swept northern India defended his decision yester-

as a sign of respect. The man “wanted to show me some respect, as it was the first time someone of my level had visited his house. So while crossing the river he offered to help by carrying me... between which, I thought of reporting“, Pargaien said.

The journalist also attacked his cameraman for framing the shot so it showed him sitting on the floods

GAURI KUND: Indian army medical staff attend to an elderly pilgrim at Guptkashi after his rescue from the flood damaged area of Gauri Kund. —AFP under flattened villages and other debris continues. “From the feedback we are getting from people on the ground, people working in scavenging bodies, our estimate is the toll could be anything between 4,000 and 5,000,” a senior disaster management official who did not want to be named told AFP. Helicopters and soldiers have evacuated tens of thousands of people from the floods, while tonnes of food and other emergency supplies have been dropped to those still stranded. Unmanned drones have also been deployed to scan the thick jungles to find those

day to file a report while perched on a survivor’s shoulders. Narayan Pargaien, who works for the local News Express channel, told Indian media website newslaundry.com that the criticism he has faced since the video was posted online was unfair.

“People are talking about us being inhuman and wrong but we were actually helping some of the victims there,” Pargaien said. The reporter claimed that the slight man who carried him, who can be seen wobbling under the strain while standing in ankle-high water, had hoisted him onto his shoulders

survivor’s shoulders and accused him of posting the video online.

“The report was supposed to be telecast only with footage of me chest-up. This was entirely the cameraman’s fault, who... tried to sabotage my career by shooting from that distance and angle and releasing the video,” he said.

“I was wrong as well. That was the wrong thing to do, and the wrong time to have shot that sequence. But what my cameraman did was even more unacceptable.”

The video has been viewed more than 11,600 times since it was posted Saturday. —Agencies

UDHAMPUR: Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh (left), receives flowers from Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah after arriving at the Udhampur district of Jammu yesterday. —AFP

Strike shuts down Kashmir over Indian PM’s rare visit SRINAGAR: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh faced protests as he arrived for a rare visit to Indian Kashmir yesterday, a day after militants killed eight soldiers in the deadliest attack in the region for five years. Singh said India was united in the fight against terrorism after landing in the southern town of Kishtwar as part of the two-day trip, his first to the region for three years. “India is firmly united against terrorism. (We) Won’t let them succeed in their nefarious designs,” the premier told Indian media in Kishtwar, where he laid a foundation stone for a hydro-power plant.

Singh stressed in a speech that violence “had shown a sharp decline and was the lowest in last two decades,” the Press Trust of India news agency reported. Singh was accompanied by Sonia Gandhi, the president of the ruling Congress party, for the visit in which he will inspect major infrastructure projects and inaugurate part of a railway line to connect north and south Kashmir.

It is the first time the premier has visited the Indian-controlled part of the divided Himalayan territory-which has been the scene of two wars with Pakistan-since June 2010 and comes less than a year before India goes to the polls. Police and paramilitary forces have been deployed in strength across the region for the visit, including in the main city of Srinagar where the premier is expected later yesterday.

Shops and other businesses, along with schools, banks and offices were closed throughout the city after the three main separatist groups called a strike to protest Singh’s visit. Government forces were enforcing curfew-like restrictions in the volatile and congested old town in Srinagar.

“We are confined to our homes whenever a

politician from Delhi visits our Kashmir,” a resident of the area said by phone, adding that he was not able to leave his neighbourhood for work.

Despite the high security, a group of militants staged an attack on Monday on a troop convoy on the outskirts of Srinagar, killing eight soldiers and wounding 13 others. Hizbul Mujahideen, a local pro-Pakistan militant, group claimed responsibility for the attack, the deadliest on Indian security forces since July 2008 when a landmine killed nine soldiers on a bus on the outskirts of Srinagar.

More than a dozen armed rebel groups have been fighting Indian forces since 1989 for the region’s independence or its merger with Pakistan and tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians have died in the fighting. Armed violence had been declining steadily since the early 2000s but the region has been tense following the execution in February of a local man over a deadly 2001 attack on the national parliament in New Delhi.

Mohammed Afzal Guru’s execution, carried out in a New Delhi prison without first informing his family, triggered widespread protests in Kashmir where many doubted his guilt. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was among those who condemned Monday’s attack, saying it was “aimed at restoring the shattered morale of the militants”.

Abdullah is an ally of Singh but has criticised the Delhi government for showing what he regards as a lack of political will to resolve the underlying tensions in what is India’s only Muslim-majority state. “The Kashmir issue needs to be addressed politically. Economic packages are not a solution to the issue nor can it be found on the point of a gun,” Abdullah said recently. —AFP

Pak tourism industry reels after shootings ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s already embattled tourism industry is struggling to deal with worried customers and cancellations after Islamic militants attacked foreign climbers preparing to summit one of the world’s tallest mountains, killing 11 people. For years, intrepid climbers and mountaineers, lured by a collection of awe-inspiring peaks, were some of the only international tourists willing to come to Pakistan. The region has also attracted Pakistanis looking for a respite from the summer heat in the southern part of the country.

Now hotel owners, tour operators and tourism officials worry that may be in danger after the vicious attack by militants Saturday on the climbing group at the base camp of Nanga Parbat, the second highest peak in Pakistan and the ninth highest in the world. “The impact is huge,” said Ghulam Nabi Raikoti, one of two brothers who run Raikot Serai, a resort in an area of northern Pakistan called Fairy Meadows.

From the hotel’s cottages and tents, visitors can look up at the face of Nanga Parbat, which has been nicknamed the “killer mountain” for the number of people who’ve died trying to climb its 8,126-meter (26,660-foot) peak.

Raikoti said a tour group of 50 Pakistani students already cancelled a stay at the resort. Pakistan has been beset by militancy for years, but this attack will likely be especially disruptive to tourism because it struck foreign tourists in what is usually one of the most peaceful regions of the country. The attack also demonstrated a high degree of planning. Just getting to the base camp takes roughly two days of hiking.

The militants, disguised in paramilitary uniforms, first abducted two local Pakistanis to take them to the remote camp in Gilgit-Baltistan. Late Saturday night, a group of about 15 gunmen attacked the camp, beat the mountaineers

and took away mobile and satellite phones and money. Some climbers and guides were able to run away, but those that weren’t were shot dead.

By the end, 10 foreign tourists and a Pakistani cook employed by a tour company were killed. A faction of the Pakistani Taleban has claimed responsibility for the shootings. The remaining mountaineers who were at camps higher up on Nanga Parbat when the shooting happened have been evacuated to allow the authorities to freely comb the area for the suspects, said the president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, Manzoor Hussain.

“In that area it is difficult for someone to hide,” said Hussain, who added that there will be no more expeditions to Nanga Parbat this summer. The Pakistani military evacuated 34 tourists Monday on a C-130 aircraft that flew them to Islamabad, said Muhammed Ajmal Bhatti, deputy commissioner of Diamer District near where the shootings happened; about a dozen left on Sunday. They were also evacuating the porters, guides and other Pakistanis from the area.

Meanwhile, those associated with the tour industry, including tour operators affected by the tragedy, faced worried customers. Mohammed Ali, owner of Karakoram Magic Mountain, with which the slain cook was working, said a trekking tour expected later this summer was already in doubt. “I don’t know if they will come or not. Last night they sent emails to me, and they want to know more information about this incident,” he said.

Several thousand foreign tourists a year come to the northern region known as Gilgit-Baltistan during the warmer summer months. Trekkers come for longer hikes that don’t require technical skill or equipment. Climbers generally tackle the more serious peaks that require technical skills and a good deal of experience. —AP

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

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

Websites in Koreas shut down on war anniversary South Korea issues cyber-attack alert

ULAN BATOR, Mongolia: In this photo, Mongolia’s incumbent President Elbegdorj Tsakhia of the ruling Democratic Party waves at his supporters during a campaign rally in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, for today’s presidential elections. —AP

Incumbent favored over wrestler in Mongolia polls ULAN BATOR: A popular ex-wrestler and a physician, the first woman to seek Mongolia’s top office, are the main rivals to the Harvard-educated incumbent in today’s presidential elections, but neither is likely to wrest the job from him. The election campaigning in this northern Asian nation has been dominated by debate over corruption, which President Elbegdorj Tsakhia hopes will work in his favor-throughout his 4-year term, the former journalist has attacked bribery and embezzlement, weeding out graft in the national airline, public welfare funds and among the custodians of Mongolia’s vast mineral wealth.

But he has also been accused of shielding his party members from corruption investigations.

“I’m your son. I know your pain and struggles,” Elbegdorj, 50, told cheering supporters at a final campaign rally Sunday in the capital, Ulan Bator. “I know exactly what I will do if I’m re-elected. I will continue my fight against corruption and finish what I already started.” This year’s election has again raised the question of how best Mongolia, a staunch US ally, should benefit from its boom in the mining of coal, copper, gold, and other minerals. The newfound wealth has propelled the economy to dizzying heights, but also contributed to soaring inflation and further skewed the uneven wealth distribution in the landlocked country, squeezed between China and Russia.

Polls show Elbegdorj, of the ruling Democratic Party, with a strong lead over his rivals. Elbegdorj, who has a degree from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, has also been highlighting his political origins as a leader of the 1990 protests that ended 70 years of one-party Communist rule and gave birth to a thriving democracy in a region better known for stern dictatorships. He was elected president in 2009 after serving two terms as prime minister. He lives with his wife, mother and 25 children of whom 20 are adopted. Along with fighting graft, he has promised to enact further legal reforms, increase public participation in government decision-making, and boost the Alaska-sized nation’s participation in global institutions.

“Before Elbegdorj, nobody dared touch these corrupt officials protected by their party leaders,” said retired Ulan Bator accountant Tungalag Tsedevdorj, a supporter of the president. “Now we are hearing and seeing about the arrest and jailing of corrupt government officials,” Tungalag said. Elbegdorj’s main rival, opposition Mongolian People’s Party lawmaker Baterdene Badmaanyambuu, is a former wrestling champion who has portrayed himself as a clean politician committed to upholding national unity and fighting the environmental degradation brought by the mining industry.

Mongolians have huge respect for their traditional burly wrestlers, who compete bare-chested

in boots and leather shorts, and Baterdene has successfully leveraged that popularity to win three terms to the Great Hural, Mongolia’s parliament. Baterdene, who towers over most of his compatriots with a height of 177 cms (5 feet 10 inches), is one of Mongolia’s most successful wrestlers ever. He is a 11-time winner of the Mongolian national competition of Naadam that combines horse racing, archery and wrestling.

Baterdene, who also holds a master’s degree in law, has vowed to overcome regional rivalries in the herding nation of 3 million people, a third of whom are poor, further root out corruption, and rid law enforcement and the justice system of political influence. A third candidate, Health Minister Udval Natsag, is Mongolia’s first woman to vie for the presidency and a staunch backer of former President Enkhbayar Nambar, now serving time in jail for corruption.

Elbegdorj’s Democratic Party also controls the legislature under Prime Minister Altankhuyag Norov, although elections for that body are not due until 2016. Baterdene, who is No. 2 in the race, has pledged to review a multibillion-dollar investment agreement signed with AngloAustralian mining giant Rio Tinto, and has sworn to fight corruption regardless of who is implicated. “I will not discriminate based on the notion that this is my party member or my brother,” he said.

Baterdene, 49, has himself faced unproven accusations that he acquired a former state farm on the cheap through a murky privatization deal, and - perhaps most seriously in a land where herd animals have long been the basis of survival - sold hay bales to China in the middle of calamitous winter blizzards.

Critics of the president say he and his party are using the anti-corruption campaign as cover for politically motivated attacks on Baterdene’s Mongolian People’s Party. They point out that no Democratic Party members have been investigated or arrested by the country’s anti-corruption body, the Independent Agency Against Corruption, run by Elbegdorj’s allies, and say the judicial and law enforcement branches have effectively become Democratic Party auxiliaries.

Third-running Udval has sought support from female voters and also raised complaints that deals with foreign mining firms have failed to benefit ordinary Mongolians and threaten the country’s economic independence. Udval, 59, began her career as a neonatology doctor in 1978 and held various senior medical positions before entering politics in 2011. She was appointed health minister last year. “Mongolia is facing a new choice. It is time to decide whether Mongolia can exist or not. If we can’t make a new choice, we face the prospect of living as the colony of a foreign people,” she told supporters. —AP

China dissident cites Tiananmen in praising Taiwan democracy TAIPEI: Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng said yesterday that the pushing and shoving that comes with Taiwan’s raucous democracy was superior to “having tanks going rampant on the streets and squares”, referring to China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on protesters. Chen, who was invited to Taiwan by opposition lawmakers, sparked a diplomatic crisis between the United States and China after he fled house arrest in China and sought refuge at the US Embassy in Beijing. He has been a research fellow at NYU Law School since he flew to the United States in May 2012.

Chen has accused New York University of bowing to Chinese pressure to ask him to leave. On Monday, he refused to shed light on the issue. “Taiwan’s experience is a valuable asset. A good use of it could let China get rid of dictatorship and walk on the path to democracy more easily,” Chen told reporters. “It’s better to have pushing and shoving in a parliament hall than having tanks going rampant on the streets and squares.”

China had warned Chen to mind his language and protect China’s “dignity” on his visit to self-ruled Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own and insists must unite with the mainland, by force if necessary. Chen, who has been blind since childhood, is a self-schooled legal advocate who campaigned against forced abortions. He was jailed for four years on charges that he and his supporters said were spurious, and then held in his village home for 19 months after being released.

Public discussion of the Tiananmen

Square crackdown is still taboo in China, where on June 3 and June 4, 1989, its leaders ordered troops to open fire on demonstrators and sent in tanks to crush a student-led campaign movement, killing hundreds. China and Taiwan have been ruled separately since defeated Nationalist forces fled to the island in 1949 after losing a civil war with the communists.

When asked about Chen’s comments, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said: “Every Chinese citizen has the duty and responsibility to abide by China’s constitution and law, and should not say or do things that harm China’s national interests.” Taiwan began dismantling the structures of decades of iron-fisted rule by Nationalist dictator Chiang Kai-shek in the 1980s, allowing the formation of new political parties and replacing appointed politicians with elected ones.

The reforms spawned a feisty brand of democracy. It is common for lawmakers to shout and punch their way through parliament sessions while voting and approving laws.

Taiwan regularly plays host to people China despises, including exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. It is also home to two leaders of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests who escaped China - Wang Dan and Wu’er Kaixi. Yesterday, about 30 to 40 lawmakers shoved each other in parliament while arguing over a cross-straits services agreement. A legislator from the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, a man, grabbed the arm of a female legislator from the Nationalist Party, who started crying. —Reuters

SEOUL: Major government and media websites in South and North Korea were shut down for hours yesterday on the 63rd anniversary of the start of the Korean War. Seoul said its sites were hacked, while it was unclear what knocked out those north of the border. Seoul said experts were investigating attacks on the websites of the South Korean presidential Blue House and prime minister’s office, as well as some media servers.

There were no initial reports yesterday that sensitive military or other key infrastructure had been compromised. The attacks in South Korea did not appear to be as serious as a March cyber-attack that shut down tens of thousands of computers and servers at South Korean broadcasters and banks.

Seoul alerted people to take security measures against cyber-attacks.

The North Korean websites that shut down yesterday included those belonging to the national airline, Air Koryo, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper, the North’s official Uriminzokkiri site and Naenara, the country’s state-run Internet portal.

All but Air Koryo were operational a few hours later. South Korean National Intelligence Service officials said they were investigating what may have caused the shutdown of the North Korean websites. North Korea didn’t make any immediate comment.

Operators of several Twitter accounts who purported to be part of a global hackers’ collective known as Anonymous claimed that they attacked North Korean websites. The Associated Press received no answer to several requests to speak to the Twitter users. Shin Hong-soon, an official at South Korea’s science ministry in charge of online security, said the government was not able to confirm whether these hackers were linked

to yesterday ’s attack on South Korean websites.

It wasn’t immediately clear who was responsible. North and South Korea have traded accusations of cyber-attacks in recent years. South Korean officials blamed Pyongyang for a March 20 cyber-attack that struck 48,000 computers and ser vers, hampering banks and

trains large teams of cyber warriors and that the South and its allies should be prepared against possible attacks on key infrastructure and military systems. If the interKorean conflict were to move into cyberspace, South Korea’s deeply wired society would have more to lose than North Korea’s, which largely remains offline. The shut-

evening, men lined up in the shadow of the capital’s iconic Juche Tower to practice coordinating their steps as they hoisted signs reading “Sweep away the imperialist American aggressors,” “sworn enemies,” and “US troops out of South Korea” while a man with a megaphone barked out orders.

In South Korea, thousands of

YEONCHEON: South Korean army’s K-55 A1 self-propelled howitzers fire during a military exercise to mark the 63rd anniversary of the start of the Korean War in Yeoncheon near the demilitarized zone that divides the two Koreas yesterday. —AP broadcasters for several days, although television programming was not interrupted and officials have said that no bank records or personal data were compromised.

Seoul officials said in April that an initial investigation pointed to a North Korean militar y run spy agency as the culprit. North Korea blamed South Korea and the United States for cyber-attacks in March that temporarily disabled Internet access and websites in North Korea.

Experts believe North Korea

downs came on a war anniversary that both countries were marking with commemorations. They also are gearing up for the 60th anniversary of the end of the fighting July 27, a day North Koreans call “ Victor y Day ” even though the Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

Tens of thousands of North Koreans were gathering yesterday to Pyongyang’s main Kim Il Sung Square for the largest of many rallies around the nation denouncing the United States. On Monday

people, including Korean war veterans, gatherrf at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul for a commemoration. Two South Korean army units held militar y drills in Yeoncheon in Gyeonggi Province, near the demilitarized zone, defense officials said in Seoul. North Korea in recent weeks has pushed for diplomatic talks with Washington. Tensions ran high on the Korean Peninsula in March and April, with North Korea delivering regular threats over UN sanctions and US-South Korean military drills. —AP

N Korea to dominate S Korea-China summit SEOUL: South Korean President Park Geun-Hye heads for a summit in China today, looking to exploit signs of Beijing’s growing frustration with its unpredictable ally North Korea.

The North and its nuclear weapons programme will dominate the agenda of Park’s summit talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, which will be anxiously monitored by the regime in Pyongyang. Speaking to senior officials on Monday, Park said her priority in Beijing would be to “harden” China-South Korea cooperation on “attaining the goal of North Korea’s denulcearisation”.

Officials in South Korea feel the time is ripe for a re-calibration of the Seoul-Beijing-Pyongyang axis. “China has traditionally emphasised the need to keep North Korea stable, while trying to solve the nuclear issue,” said Choi WooSeon, a professor at the state-run Korea National Diplomatic Academy. “But the two issues are actually sometimes contradictory and these days China’s position is gradually moving closer to the position of the US and South Korea.”

Washington and Seoul have made it clear they will never accept the idea of North Korea as a nuclear state, and insist Pyongyang must show a tangible commitment to abandoning its nuclear weapons if it wants substantive talks. Both have pressured China-North Korea’s sole major ally and economic lifeline-to use all its leverage to bring Pyongyang to heel. North Korea appears to have moderated its line after a series of incendiary threats in recent months against Seoul and Washington. While a planned meeting with South Korea fell through, it has offered direct talks with the United States, and has sent two envoys to Beijing in the past four weeks.

China’s relationship with North Korea-famously described by Mao Zedong as being as close as “lips and teeth”-was forged in the 1950-53 Korean War which China entered to prevent the North’s total defeat. But it has weakened significantly over the years, as China’s economic transformation has distanced it from the ideological rigidity of the dynastic Kim regime across the border.

In line with UN sanctions, Beijing has moved to restrict Pyongyang’s financial operations in China which the international community says are the major conduit for funding its nuclear weapons programme. “China tended to emphasise dialogue rather than pressure in the past, but I think that Chinese leaders began to realise it’s necessary to put some strong pressure on North Korea,” Choi said.

China’s relations with South Korea got off to a late start with diplomatic relations only established in 1992, but have improved steadily ever since, especially in the economic sphere. China is now South Korea’s biggest trade partner and Park will be accompanied on her trip by a sizeable business delegation. The two sides are expected to discuss a free-trade pact.

The strategic side of the partnership has always been coloured by the issue of North Korea and stagnated under Park’s predecessor Lee Myung-Bak, who focused his efforts on boosting Seoul’s alliance with Washington.

The hopes of a reboot have been bolstered by the fact that Park and Xi are both new leaders, having taken office within one month of each other earlier this year.

Park will be hoping for a strong joint statement that commits both sides to a denuclearised North Korea, with China unlikely to go much further. As irritating as Beijing might find Pyongyang’s behaviour, ensuring North Korea’s survival remains China’s bottom line, given the alternative of a unified Korea allied to the United States.

Jia Qingguo, a professor of international relations at Peking University, said Beijing wanted to strengthen the overall strategic relationship with Seoul. “China wants to attach a lot of importance to this relationship not just because of North Korea,” Jia said. “The relationship deserves this kind of attention.” But he acknowledged that any improvement in China-South Korea ties would “impact the feelings” of North Korea. “They are sensitive to events like this,” he said. —AFP

BEIJING: US businessman Chip Starnes stands behind the bars of his office window after being held hostage for five days over a wage dispute at his Specialty Medical Supplies factory in Huairou, Beijing yesterday. —AFP

Chinese workers holding US boss say wages unpaid BEIJING: Chinese workers keeping an American executive confined to his Beijing medical supply factory said yesterday that they had not been paid in two months in a compensation dispute that highlights tensions in China’s labor market.

The executive, Chip Starnes of Specialty Medical Supplies, denied the workers’ allegations of two months of unpaid wages, as he endured a fifth day of captivity at the plant in the capital’s northeastern suburbs, peering out from behind the bars of his office window. About 100 workers are demanding back pay and severance packages identical to those offered 30 workers being laid off from the Coral Springs, Floridabased company’s plastics division. The demands followed rumors that the entire plant was being closed, despite Starnes’ assertion that the company doesn’t plan to fire the others.

The dispute highlights general tensions in China’s labor market as bosses worry about rising wages and workers are on edge about the impact of slowing growth on the future of their jobs. Inside one of the plant’s buildings, about 30 mostly women hung around, their arms crossed. One worker, Gao Ping, told reporters inside an administrative office in the plant that she wanted to quit because she hadn’t been paid for two months. Dressed in blue overalls and sitting down at a desk, Gao said her division - which makes alcohol prep pads, used for cleaning skin before injections - had not been doing well and that she wanted her salary and compensation.

Workers in other divisions saw how badly her division was doing, thought the whole company was faring poorly and also wanted to quit and get compensation, said Gao, who had been working for the company for six years.

Starnes, 42, denied that they were owed unpaid salary. “They are demanding full severance pay, but they still have a job. That’s the problem,” he said, still in the clothes he wore when he went to work Friday morning.

Chu Lixiang, a local union official representing the workers in talks with Starnes, said the workers were demanding the portion of their salaries yet to be paid and a “reasonable” level of compensation before leaving their jobs.

Neither gave details on the amounts demanded. Chu said workers believed the plant was

closing and that Starnes would run away without paying severance. Starnes’ attorney arrived yesterday afternoon. Chu later told reporters that there would be no negotiations for the rest of the day. Starnes said that since Saturday morning, about 80 workers had been blocking every exit around the clock and depriving him of sleep by shining bright lights and banging on windows of his office. The standoff points to long-ingrained habits among Chinese workers who are sometimes left unprotected when factories close without severance or wages owed.

Such incidents have been rarer as labor protections improve, although disputes still occur and local governments have at times barred foreign executives from leaving until they are resolved. Starnes said the company had gradually been winding down its plastics division, planning to move it to Mumbai, India. He arrived in Beijing a week ago to lay off the last 30 people. Some had been working there for up to nine years, so their compensation packages were “pretty nice,” he said. Then workers in other divisions started demanding similar severance packages on Friday, he said.

Kevin Jones, who advises US companies on Chinese labor and employment law, said it is better if American executives stay at home and let their local managers lay off workers. In a case last week, Jones said the chief financial officer of a US telecommunications equipment maker wanted to come to Beijing to explain the situation and give 41 white-collar workers their termination notices.

“We told him to stay in America,” said Jones, who chairs the Shanghai-based Faegre Baker Daniels labor and employment practice. The company’s lawyers met with six employee representatives in a hotel. “We had two bodyguards but that was just in case things got out of control,” Jones said. Christian Murck, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, said Chinese labor law specified a minimum severance pay in the event of a layoff due to economic necessity or if someone is dismissed due to cause, but not a maximum one.

“There is a kind of structural weakness in the way the labor law is set up that leads to negotiations and disputes when departures occur,” Murck said. —AP

14

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

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Issues

Berlusconi legal blow could create more problems

By Francoise Kadri ilvio Berlusconi’s furious reaction to a conviction for paying for sex with an underage prostitute suggests a belligerent centre-right will intensify pressure on the coalition government to favour its policies, particularly concerning the hot-button issue of tax, analysts said Tuesday. Political observers had warned a guilty verdict could provoke the capricious former premier into pulling support from Enrico Letta’s grand coalition, for failing to offer him legal protection.

Commentators yesterday said the risks of that were limited for now, but the right would want payback for the harsh seven-year jail sentence and lifetime ban on holding public office inflicted by magistrates Berlusconi has long decried as “leftist” persecutors.”Nothing will ever be the same again. The government will not fall but it will not be saved from the storm,” political analyst Stefano Folli said in Italy’s main business daily Il Sole 24 Ore. “It would not serve Berlusconi to bring down the grand coalition,” but “he will try and present himself as a sort of ‘defender’ of the people, unjustly persecuted,” Folli said.

The 76-year-old billionaire cannot afford to pull the plug just yet: polls show the left currently leads over the right, and any withdrawal from the coalition would open up the path to a damaging alliance between the left and the protest Five Star Movement.

Berlusconi can, however, drum up public support for having been handed a sentence even stiffer than that requested by prosecutors-who had called for him to be given six years in jail. The media magnate late Monday slammed “an incredible sentence, of a violence never seen or heard before, handed down to try and eliminate me from political life,” and pledged to “resist this persecution (and not) abandon my fight to make Italy a truly free and just country.”

The sentence will be suspended until all appeals have been exhausted, a process likely to take years. According to Folli, the centre-right “may plausibly increase pressure on their keystone issues” such as blocking an increase on VAT and a loathed housing tax. Nicholas Spiro, managing director of Spiro Sovereign Strategy, said: “Berlusconi’s conviction adds another layer of political risk at a time when the Letta government is deeply divided over fiscal policy and Italy’s economy remains mired in recession.”

After interest rates rose at a debt auction on Tuesday, Spiro warned: “Further pressure on Italy’s bond market will inflame political tensions, with Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PDL) party heaping more pressure on Letta to take a tougher line with Germany and the European Central Bank.” The government, says political editorialist for La Stampa daily Marcello Sorgi, risks remaining “as if suspended in mid air... without political margins for manoeuvre or the strength necessary to face the seriousness” of Italy’s recession.

Massimo Franco, political commentator for the Corriere della Sera daily, said the verdict was “a time-bomb” for the uneasy centre-left and right coalition, already suffering internal tensions. “Not dumping his judicial misfortunes on the coalition, at least for now, validates Berlusconi as a responsible politician,” he said. “He has taken on the role of victim, which he excels at.” “But what worry are the repercussions on a coalition which already has to perform daily acrobatics to survive,” he said. James Walston, politics professor at the American University of Rome, said the conviction “turns up the heat” on Berlusconi, whose sentencing on Monday was just one of several legal woes.

A Milan court last month upheld his conviction for tax fraud connected to his Mediaset empire, confirming the punishment of a year in prison and a five-year ban from public office, frozen pending a second appeal. A definitive ruling in that case is expected to fall around October this year. “Berlusconi now has to use every weapon in his armoury to get out of this conviction. He will try to change the law, get a pre-emptive amnesty, anything to give him judicial protection,” Walston said.

Ordinary Italians were, as ever, divided over Berlusconi’s legal woes and his future in politics. “I don’t believe he will pull support for the government... it would not work in his favor. I’m curious to see what he’ll come up with this time, he is certainly a cat with nine lives,” said 46year-old Raffaele Lanzia, as he drank coffee in a bar in the centre of Rome. Paola, a 35-year-old Italian nurse, said she thought Berlusconi likely had already struck a deal by which he would be made exempt from his legal responsibilities before the Mediaset verdict falls. “I’m sure there will be an amnesty soon, they wouldn’t have sentenced him otherwise,” she said.—AFP

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Questions turn to US competence in Snowden saga

By Andy Sullivan and David Ingram he Obama administration has spent the past few weeks arguing it can wield power responsibly after Edward Snowden unveiled its sweeping spying programs. Now the administration must prove it can wield power effectively. As the 30-yearold leads the world’s lone superpower on a global game of hide and seek, US government officials faced questions about whether they had botched the effort to extradite Snowden from Hong Kong to face charges related to his leak of classified information.

The latest wrinkle in the Snowden saga poses a different set of questions for an administration that has spent weeks fending off questions about whether it has abused its power to collect taxes, investigate criminal activity and fight terrorism. On Monday, administration officials said they had done all they could to bring Snowden to justice.

Chinese defiance, rather than bureaucratic bungling, had allowed the 30-year-old former contractor to slip out of Hong Kong as officials there weighed Washington’s request for extradition, they said.

“This was a deliberate choice by the government to release a fugitive, despite a valid arrest warrant,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said at a briefing. Carney said early Monday afternoon that it was the US assumption that Snowden was still in Russia after fleeing Hong Kong for Moscow over the weekend. Other administration officials tried to dispel any notion of foot-dragging since Snowden first went public on June 9, and dismissed suggestions that they could have taken other steps to detain Snowden, who had gained access to highly sensitive information as a contract systems administrator at a National Security Agency facility in Hawaii.

Snowden’s exact whereabouts were a

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mystery on Monday as Russia resisted White House pressure to stop him during his journey to escape US prosecution. Reporters staking out an Aeroflot flight to Havana from Moscow on Monday, saw no sign of Snowden. The captain told reporters on emerging from customs: “No Snowden, no.”

Ecuador said it was considering Snowden’s request for asylum, and advocates in the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks were also asking Iceland to take him in.

Snowden’s decision to go on the lam creates another headache for the Obama administration, which has seen priorities like immigration reform threatened by a string of scandals. Republicans in Congress say the Obama administration has abused its power by targeting conservative groups for heavyhanded tax scrutiny and seizing reporters’ phone records in the process of investigating security leaks. When it comes to the NSA revelations, most lawmakers were already aware of the surveillance program and few have raised objections. Republicans by and large have focused their criticism on Snowden and China rather than the administration. That may change if the ordeal drags on.

Republican Representative Peter King of New York on Monday said Obama should have taken a harder line with the Chinese authorities who ultimately control the semiautonomous region of Hong Kong.

“I hate to be in the middle of a crisis second guessing the president, but where is he?

Where is the president? Why is he not speaking to the American people? Why is he not more forceful in dealing with foreign leaders?” King said on CNN television. There are also likely to be increasingly embarrassing questions about how Snowden managed to download and take many highly sensitive documents when he was working in Hawaii for NSA contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. The

head of the NSA, General Keith Alexander, said on Sunday that he did not know why the NSA did not catch Snowden before he left Hawaii for Hong Kong in May. WHITE HOUSE STEERS CLEAR Obama first learned that Snowden had turned up in Hong Kong on Sunday, June 9, as he flew back from a weekend of talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. But Obama does not appear to have played a direct role in trying to get him back. Obama declined to say on Monday whether he has spoken directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin or other foreign leaders about the extradition efforts. Obama had an icy meeting with Putin a week ago at the G8 summit in Northern Ireland.

“We’re following all the appropriate legal channels and working with various other countries to make sure the rule of law is observed,” Obama told reporters at an unrelated event on Monday on immigration reform. Obama’s public schedule leaves little room for the extradition effort. He makes a major speech on climate change on Tuesday, and then leaves on a week-long trip to Africa.

Michael Chertoff, a former Homeland Security Secretary under Republican President George W Bush, said extradition laws are riddled with loopholes and the United States has a limited ability to get other countries to do what it wants.

“You can do all the paperwork, but it becomes a question of leverage,” he said.

“Either they didn’t have enough, or they didn’t exercise enough.” Though the White House has distanced itself from the Snowden affair, other agencies have taken pains to show that they have done all they could to bring Snowden back to face charges. The Justice Department said it had filed espionage and theft charges against Snowden

on June 14, one week before it made the charges public, and asked Hong Kong to arrest Snowden the next day.

Officials from the FBI, the Justice Department and the State Department worked with their counterparts in Hong Kong to extradite Snowden over the next several days, culminating in a telephone call between US Attorney General Eric Holder and Hong Kong’s Secretary for Justice, Rimsky Yuen, on June 19. “There was a sense that the process was moving forward,” a Justice Department official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Hong Kong officials asked for more information and evidence two days later, but did not give the United States enough time to respond before Snowden left the Chinese territory on June 23. Administration officials dismissed suggestions that they had mishandled the extradition effort. Using a so-called “red notice” to ask Interpol, the international police organization, for help was unnecessary because Snowden should not have been able to leave Hong Kong if his passport had been revoked, a Justice Department official said.

US officials said privacy laws prevent them from describing the status of any individual’s passport, but Carney hinted that it had indeed been revoked. “Hong Kong authorities were advised of the status of Snowden’s travel documents in plenty of time to have prohibited his travel,” he said.

George Terwilliger, who served as the Justice Department’s No 2 official under President George H W Bush, said it was too early to know whether the agency should be blamed for failing to get Snowden. “These are not legal issues, per se. They’re political and diplomatic issues, and most of the skills that are exercised are exercised away from the public eye.”— Reuters

Bruised Greek government to limp along

By Harry Papachristou Greece’s weakened coalition government is expected to survive the departure of a junior partner for now but will be forced to resist any fresh demands from its foreign lenders to prevent its tiny parliamentary majority from crumbling. A year after coming to power, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras suffered a heavy blow when his smallest coalition partner, the Democratic Left, quit the government last week to protest the abrupt closure of state broadcaster ERT. Left with a three-vote majority in the 300-seat parliament, Samaras rushed to appease his only remaining ally, PASOK, by giving the Socialist party key portfolios in a cabinet reshuffle and naming its chief, Evangelos Venizelos, as his deputy.

The new cabinet sworn in yesterday by Greece’s archbishop has 11 PASOK members, including four full ministers. PASOK opted to have little say in the previous cabinet, which only included two PASOK-appointed technocrats in ministerial posts. The more inclusive approach and PASOK’s fear of new elections - in which the already battered party risks losing even more - means the two-party coalition is in some ways more stable than its three-party predecessor, analysts said.

That will allow the government to limp along for now, helped by the opposition of Greeks to a new round of elections that could throw the country into chaos and reopen fears of a Greek exit from the euro zone if the hard-left Syriza opposition won. But few expect it to see out its four-year term ending in 2016 and the coalition could be pushed to breaking point in the autumn if lenders demand more austerity measures to meet budget targets under the country’s EU/IMF bailout, analysts said.

“Most people don’t want elections and therefore they are willing to tolerate an otherwise fragile government,” Thomas Gerakis, head of the Marc pollsters said. “Their survival really depends on the whether they actually

implement reforms without any serious trouble.” Teneo Intelligence, which assesses political risk, said a government collapse before year-end could not be ruled out.

REFORM HURDLES A big test for the coalition will be to show it is on track to meet the target to fire 15,000 public sector employees by the end of 2014 and accelerate privatizations-a process which has all but stalled. Politically well-connected labor unions have already vowed to fight both and dock workers called for a sevenhour nationwide walkout as a warning against the planned sale of the country’s two biggest ports. Despite naming the pro-reform Kyriakos Mitsotakis as administrative reform minister, Samaras will likely struggle to push through reforms that take on powerful special interest groups like lawyers or engineers with his 153-seat majority.

Four independents and some Democratic

Left lawmakers have signaled they might back reforms to keep Greece in the euro, but their support is unlikely to come without strings attached. Failure on that front could in turn trigger demands from the EU and IMF for additional austerity measures, which Samaras has ruled out to spare Greeks reeling from repeated rounds of pay cuts and a 27 percent jobless rate.

Instead, a new coalition agreement due for release soon is expected to reject new austerity measures and insist on pushing lenders for gradual tax cuts to help soften a severe recession in its sixth year. Samaras said yesterday avoiding new austerity measures to fulfill targets in the country’s international bailout was the priority. “Our immediate priority is to return to recovery ahead of time, defeat unemployment, bring in investment, avoid new measures and create jobs for the youth,” he told ministers at their first cabinet meeting.

ATHENS: Ministers attend the first cabinet meeting after the swearing-in ceremony of the new government in Athens yesterday. — AFP

TALKING TOUGH Several coalition lawmakers have also signaled the government plans to toughen its stance with its lenders. “The government will negotiate tough,” Socialist deputy Costas Skandalidis told the Mega television channel, saying it will reject new wage cuts or tax hikes on low-income workers. The government is already pressing the EU and IMF to repeal tax hikes on restaurants and fuel. It is also resisting any new tax rises or public sector wage cuts to offset a privatization revenue shortfall after failing to sell state gas firm DEPA. “If this doesn’t happen, the (bailout) program won’t work,” Skandalidis said, suggesting that the government could threaten the troika with elections if it doesn’t get its way.

Another Socialist deputy, Panagiotis Rigas, went further, saying the government would leverage the IMF’s admission earlier this month - that Greece’s first bailout programme in 2010-2012 was unnecessarily harsh - to seek better terms.

But with German Chancellor Angela Merkel keen to avoid a flare-up of trouble in Greece before she faces re-election in September, most analysts do not expect any serious clash with the EU/IMF troika before then. Crunch time for the coalition is expected soon after, when Athens and its lenders will also have to decide how much in new savings Greece needs to drum up to meet fiscal targets for 2015 and 2016 - when it faces a 4 billion euro revenue gap.

“If new measures are required, then things will get tough for the government,” said political analyst Costas Panagopoulos. The opposition has also vowed to turn up the pressure come September, and says the government is already near collapse.

“This government is already running on empty, it’s weak from the outset. It’s the same two-party system that brought the country to the mess it’s in today,” said Panos Skourletis, spokesman for the Syriza party. “It’s a shortterm government.”— Reuters

NEWS

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

CAIRO: General view shows a traffic jam surround a gasoline station as drivers wait in long queues in Cairo yesterday. Fuel shortages have caused long lines for months, but Egypt’s Supply Minister Bassem Ouda told a news conference that the latest fuel shortage will end in a matter of days. Authorities blame the shortage on a technical problem at a major petrol depot on the outskirts of Cairo. — AP

Snowden: The invisible international traveler MOSCOW: Fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden seemingly vanished into thin air in Moscow after arriving from Hong Kong at the weekend. Now the hunt is on to find where on earth he is. Snowden’s roundthe-world travels with no valid passport and caches of files revealing the dirty secrets of Washington’s super-espionage efforts are the stuff of James Bond movies from the Cold War. Here is a summary of what we know about Snowden’s whereabouts since his decision to spill the beans on US and UK surveillance programs.

EXIT FROM HONG KONG The anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks said Snowden left Hong Kong for Moscow on

Sunday on Aeroflot flight SU 213. It said that he had received emergency refugee travel papers from Ecuador the state where he wants to seek political asylum and which is currently sheltering WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at its London embassy. Washington had by this point revoked Snowden’s passport and had filed an extradition request to Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong government said Washington’s paperwork was incomplete and that Snowden had “voluntarily” left China’s special administrative region for a third country. Dozens of journalists swarming Moscow’s grungy Sheremetyevo international airport’s Terminal F failed to spot Snowden in the crowd of passengers disembarking the Aeroflot flight from Hong Kong. Some of those

on board nodded when shown a picture of Snowden and asked if they had seen anyone like that on their flight. Reports then emerged that Snowden was staying in the so-called “transit zone”-an airport no-man’s land that is not actually Russia proper because it ends prior to passport control.

NO SHOW ON FLIGHT Snowden was checked in on Aeroflot’s Monday SU 150 flight to Havana but never appeared on board-unleashing speculation of his intentions and whereabouts. Some say he may have never intended to go to Havana and had just wanted to throw journalists off his scent.

Interfax said that he may have already

secretly slipped out of Russia by the time the flight departed. ITAR-TASS countered with information from an unnamed source that Snowden was definitely still at Sheremetyevo.

Intelligence “veterans” quoted by both Interfax and RIA Novosti speculated that Snowden was far too valuable a find for Russia to let him go so easily. Meanwhile desperate journalists on board flight SU 150 had nothing left to do but resign themselves to a half-day flight around the world with no booze served.

WHERE IS SNOWDEN NOW? Speculation now abounds as to the whereabouts of the man Washington has painted as the most dangerous leaker of the cyber era.

He could still be staying in the box-like rooms

of the “capsule hotel” inside the Sheremetyevo departures area where he is reported to have spent Monday night. He may have left Russia or been taken for special debriefings somewhere in Moscow or even given refuge at a South American embassy in Russia.

Or he simply could be killing time before taking a flight out of Moscow some other day in the hopes he will not be pursued by the press. Sources quoted by Russian news agencies have been adamant that Snowden is a transit passenger who never crossed the border after arriving from Hong Kong. But Snowden has also never been seen by any journalist at the Moscow airport. This has led to conjecture that he may have never travelled to Moscow at all. — AFP

‘New era’ as Qatar ruler hands power...

Continued from Page 1 A Qatari official said earlier that the transition of power, once announced, would take immediate force.

State television later showed Qataris lining up to shake hands and rub noses in the traditional Gulf Arab greeting style with the new emir and his father. Outside, a queue of black Mercedes cars snaked their way to the royal court.

On the eve of the power transfer, Sheikh Hamad issued a decree extending the term of the advisory shura council, in effect indefinitely postponing elections that had been tentatively scheduled for the second half of the year. Diplomats had said earlier that Sheikh Hamad, who overthrew his father in a bloodless coup in 1995, had long planned to abdicate in favor of the Crown Prince.

Yesterday was a national holiday in the country of 2 million, ruled by the Al-Thani family for more than 130 years. Regional governments, including Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, were swift to welcome the new ruler. An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said Tehran regarded “tranquillity and stability” in Qatar as very important. British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a statement that he looked forward to even stronger ties with Qatar, which gained independence from Britain in 1971.

Sheikh Hamad has elevated Qatar’s global profile through the development of the Al Jazeera television network, as well as its successful bid to host the 2022 soccer World Cup tournament. Qatari state media said Sheikh Hamad had formally told family members and top decision makers of his decision at a meeting in Doha on Monday. Arab and Western diplomats said they understood the motive was the emir’s desire to effect a smooth transition to a younger generation.

Such a transition would be unusual for Gulf Arab states, where leaders usually die in office.

“As Tamim’s succession is very much the outcome of a longer process rather than the enforced product of any sudden upheaval, there will be less sensitivity attached to the change of leadership than might otherwise be the case,” said Gulf expert Kristian Ulrichsen at the Baker Institute for Public Policy. “If anything, the decision to hand power to a younger generation confirms Qatar as the regional outlier, as a state that does things differently, meaning there is less direct comparison with other Gulf States,” he said.

Meanwhile, Rulers of the Arab states of the Gulf, where ageing monarchs retain power, congratulated Qatar’s new young emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad AlThani, whose father abdicated in his favor yesterday.

The first reaction came from Saudi Arabia’s 90-year-old King Abdullah. He congratulated Sheikh Tamim, who has played a major role in improving relations between Qatar and the regional powerhouse, which had been strained until 2007 over a border dispute. “We are happy to express to you in the name of the people and Saudi Arabia’s government and in our name, our sincerest congratulations,” King Abdullah said in a statement published by SPA. “We are confident that you will continue the journey of your father... and his efforts in serving the state of Qatar and its brotherly people as well as strengthening relations between the two nations.” King Abdullah’s age

and frequent hospitalization have raised concerns about the future leadership of his ultra-conservative kingdom, a key player in the Middle East and a major exporter of oil. Recently, the king had carried out a series of reshuffles of princes holding government posts in the OPEC kingpin.

The United Arab Emirates also congratulated Sheikh Tamim, voicing hope of stronger ties, the official WAM news agency reported. UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan affirmed “the deepness of the brotherly relations between the two countries and the keenness to strengthen them to serve the people of both states,” WAM said. Relations have become strained during the past few months over Qatar’s reported support of the Muslim Brotherhood, which, allegedly backed by the gas-rich state, has risen to power in several Arab Spring states.

Dozens of people are on trial in the UAE over their suspected links to the Islamist movement, with 94 of them accused of forming a “secret organization plotting to overthrow the regime.” Kuwait’s Amir, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, was the first leader to meet Tamim as he visited the gas-rich state to offer the new emir his best wishes. Congratulations also came from Oman, where Sultan Qaboos has been in power for four decades, and Bahrain’s King Hamad, whose country has been rocked by a Shiite-led uprising demanding the ouster of the prime minister, the monarch’s uncle, since February 2011.

Qatar has loomed large in promoting Arab Spring protests, lending significant support to rebels who toppled and killed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and to a continuing uprising against Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. Doha has established strong links with moderate Islamists, especially Egypt’s ruling Muslim Brotherhood group. State television showed Youssef AlQaradawi, a prominent Egyptian preacher based in Qatar, greeting the outgoing emir and his son.

Qatar has also played host to a delegation of the Afghan Taliban, which opened an office in Doha last week in preparation for possible talks with the United States about how to end a 12-year-old conflict in Afghanistan. Other crises and wars that Qatar has tackled include Yemen, Somalia, Lebanon, Darfur and the Palestinian territories. Doha has often arranged for peace talks on its own soil to show it can punch above its weight in international diplomacy.

But although he has strongly supported uprisings against veteran autocracies in other Arab states, Sheikh Hamad cracked down on dissent at home, restricting freedom of expression. In February this year a Qatari poet was jailed for 15 years for criticizing the emir and attempting to incite revolt. But Arab Spring sentiment has scarcely figured in Qatar, which has one of the world’s highest per capita incomes and whose citizens have cradle-to-grave welfare.

Still, Qatar and other Gulf ruling dynasties have worked harder to provide more jobs and better social services to Internet-savvy populations increasingly outspoken online. Qataris said Sheikh Tamim had a big task upon his shoulders. “He told us he would do his best to continue the development in the country. He looked happy,” Khalid Rashid Mohammed, a 34-year-old wellwisher, said after he shook hands with the new ruler. “It’s not easy work. It’s a heavy responsibility.” — Agencies

LOS ANGELES: Los Angeles Police Department officers search cars during a massive manhunt for a suspect who attempted to kill two detectives yesterday in Los Angeles, California. The shooting happened in the early morning hours as the two detectives were ambushed and slightly injured outside the Los Angeles Police Department’s Wilshire Station, prompting the closure of a 25-square-block area in the Mid-City section of Los Angeles. — AFP

US has no ‘plan B’ for naval base in Bahrain Continued from Page 1 Shifting the whole headquarters to ships at sea is also an alternative, he wrote, though it would be costly and problematic. US defense officials and military officers dismissed the report, saying the Pentagon regularly reviews contingency plans, particularly for pivotal bases.

“That’s not the case,” a senior defense official said of the report’s claims. “We’re always assessing the security situation,” said the official, who spoke on condition of

anonymity. “Our relationships with the kingdom of Bahrain and other nations in the region remain strong,” a US Navy officer, who also asked not to be named said.

“As in other parts of the world, we have a number of viable options to maintain a robust presence,” the officer said. Rights groups have accused the United States of failing to use its leverage from the naval base to persuade Bahrain’s monarchy to address the grievances of protesters and ease a crackdown on dissent. Since 2011, a Shiite-led uprising has demanded more rights from the ruling Sunni dynasty. — AFP

Qataris sad but hopeful Continued from Page 1 Yesterday was announced a public holiday in Qatar as the palace invited Qataris-who comprise just 200,000 people out of a population of nearly two million-to come to the palace to swear allegiance to the new emir.

On the corniche near the palace, a van decorated with Qatar’s burgundy and white flags played patriotic music and anthems. The rest of the city was nearly empty.

Television footage showed Qataris, among them tribal leaders, army officers and dignitaries, pouring into the palace to greet the new emir who stood smiling next to his father.

Among those who arrived to congratulate the father and son was influential Muslim cleric Sheikh Yusuf al-

Qaradawi, who embraced both. Qaradawi is a controversial figure in the West and has millions of supporters, mostly from the Muslim Brotherhood-which Qatar reportedly supports. But expatriates, who make up a majority of the emirate’s population, seemed indifferent.

“For us, this makes no difference. It is an internal matter and it is the same family ruling,” said a Bangladeshi taxi driver. The allegiance ceremony, open to men only based on the conservative Gulf state’s traditions, would continue through today morning, according to a palace statement. Qatari newspapers, which devoted their front pages to yesterday’s event, are committed today to the highly profitable ritual of publishing congratulatory statements from the country’s top personalities and tribal dignitaries. — AFP

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

S P ORTS

Pakistan to play in UAE

‘Sick Soccer’ tax probe

Loeb to race on circuits

DUBAI: Pakistan will play series against South Africa and Sri Lanka in the United Arab Emirates, a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official said yesterday.

South Africa declined to tour Pakistan due to security concerns and the PCB had no option but to play matches on neutral ground. Chief operating officer Subhan Ahmad said the series against South Africa would take place in October and November and would include three tests, five one-day internationals and a Twenty20 match.

Fixtures are to be played at venues in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, with the series against Sri Lanka, due to start in November, to follow a similar format.

No foreign team has toured Pakistan since 2009 when militants attacked a Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore in which six Pakistani policemen and a van driver were killed and members of the touring side wounded. Militants killed nine foreign tourists last week in the Nanga Parbat mountainous region, sparking further safety fears in the country. —Reuters

NAPLES: Italian finance police seized documents from about 40 soccer clubs yesterday as part of an investigation, dubbed “Sick Soccer”, into possible tax evasion and money laundering in the buying and selling of players.

Naples prosecutors said that authorities sought documentation from virtually all of Italy’s top flight Serie A clubs, including three listed on the stock exchange - Lazio , AS Roma, and Juventus - last season’s league champions.

Spokesmen for Lazio, Roma and Napoli had no comment, while Juventus officials did not respond to phone calls or email. The document seizures were part of an investigation into a “criminal conspiracy whose objective was to evade taxes through the systematic issuing of inexistent invoices” in player transfers, the Naples court said in a statement.

The suspicious player transactions “took enormous quantities of cash away from tax authorities”, the court said. The probe also includes 12 Italian and foreign player agents, police said. Italian soccer has been dogged by match fixing allegations in recent years. Juventus were stripped of two Serie A titles in 2006, and later Italy was the focus of an international match-fixing ring, with Juventus coach Antonio Conte temporarily suspended last year for failing to report infractions. —Reuters

FRANCE: Citroen and their nine-times world rally champion Sebastien Loeb will race on circuits next season in the FIA World Touring Car championship (WTCC), the French manufacturer said yesterday. Loeb is not contesting the world rally title this year, opting instead for a limited programme of events, and he is eager to return to full time racing.

“It’s a bit of a dream to think that we are going to write a new chapter in our history. I can’t wait to get out on track in the car and start testing,” he said in a Citroen statement announcing the new venture. “I have used this transitional year to try out various experiences and to improve my track driving skills. I don’t expect to win straight away, but I am determined to get there one day.”

Citroen brand head Frederic Banzet said involvement in the touring car championship would help to develop the brand in promising growth markets such as China, Russia and South America. The manufacturer will continue to compete in the world rally championship.

“Obviously, we’re still committed to rallying and we’ll continue to work hard to try and get the best possible result in 2013,” said Citroen Racing head Yves Matton.

“Our partnership with Abu Dhabi is set to be reinforced, enabling us to continue to be involved in WRC with a new system and with new objectives.” Matton said Citroen would be able to use much of their existing expertise on the WTCC project as well as the DS3 WRC car’s 1.6-litre direct injection turbo engine. —Reuters

Giants fall to Dodgers

ST. PETERSBURG: Infielder Emilio Bonifacio No. 1 of the Toronto Blue Jays tags out Wil Myers No. 9 of the Tampa Bay Rays as he attempted to steal second base. —AFP

Rays roll over Jays ST. PETERSBURG: Jeremy Hellickson allowed one hit in seven shutout innings and rookie Wil Myers homered in his home debut, helping the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Blue Jays 4-1 on Monday night to end Toronto’s 11-game winning streak.

Myers hit the second of three straight Tampa Bay homers in the second, connecting in his first at-bat at Tropicana Field. His drive to center off Esmil Rogers (3-3) was sandwiched between home runs by James Loney and Sam Fuld as Tampa Bay went deep three times in a span of eight pitches.

Luke Scott added a bloop RBI double to make it 4-0 in the third, and that was all the support Hellickson (6-3) needed. Fernando Rodney worked the ninth, earning his 16th save in 21 opportunities.

The Blue Jays were limited to four singles and five walks. They came up short in their bid to extend the longest winning streak in the majors since Detroit won 12 straight in

2011. Toronto’s winning streak matched the best in club history. The Blue Jays also won 11 in a row in 1987 and 1998.

INDIANS 5, ORIOLES 2 In Baltimore, Michael Brantley homered and had four RBIs to lead Cleveland past Baltimore for its ninth win in 12 games.

Brantley put the Indians ahead with a tworun single off Zach Britton (1-2) in the sixth inning and made it 5-2 with a two-run shot in the eighth off Darren O’Day. His four RBIs tied a career high, reached twice previously. The victory improved Cleveland’s record against the AL East to 7-17 and provided an uplifting start to an 11-game road trip.

Ubaldo Jimenez (6-4) allowed two runs in 5 1-3 innings and Vinnie Pestano, the fourth Indians reliever, worked the ninth for his fourth save. Nick Markakis and Matt Wieters homered for the Orioles, who have lost four straight. —AP

Perry leads PGA Professional SUNRIVER: Rod Perry shot an even-par 72 in rainy conditions Monday at Sunriver Resort to take the second-round lead in the PGA Professional National Championship.

Perry, the PGA head pro at Crane Lakes in Port Orange, Fla., had two birdies and two bogeys on the Crosswater Club course, the site of the final two rounds. The 39-year-old left-hander had an 8-under 135 total after opening with a 63 on the Meadows course.

“No lead is safe; that’s for certain,” said Perry, the 2012 PGA Professional Player of the Year. “Obviously, Crosswater is playing pretty tough. The crosswinds are there, and it’s tough to get the ball close to the hole. It’s tough to get the ball inside 8 to 10 feet. We

have a lot of golf to play. Thirty-six holes on this golf course a lot can happen.”

Mark Sheftic and Chip Sullivan, the 2007 winner at Sunriver, were a stroke back after shooting 4-under 67 on the Meadows course. The 38-year-old Sheftic is a PGA teaching pro at Merion in Ardmore, Pa., the site of the US Open last week.

“Hectic is the right word,” Sheftic said.

“But, you have to say this, everyone that works at Merion and the members, it was a hectic week for us all. Being out here it’s almost like a vacation. I don’t know if I want to say it that way, because it’s still a lot of stress. But it’s fun to get out here and play some golf.” —AP

LOS ANGELES: Rookie sensation Yasiel Puig hit his seventh home run in 20 major league games and added a tiebreaking single in the eighth inning against Madison Bumgarner, leading the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 3-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Monday night.

Nick Punto led off the eighth with a double. Mark Ellis sacrificed Punto to third and reached safely when Bumgarner threw high to first for an error.

Puig greeted George Kontos with a line-drive single to left that scored Punto. Hanley Ramirez drove in the final run on a liner toward the middle that shortstop Brandon Crawford knocked down with a lunging attempt before getting the out at first.

Paco Rodriguez (2-2) got two outs and Kenley Jansen worked the ninth for his fifth save.

Bumgarner (7-5) was charged with three runs - two earned and five hits in seven-plus innings in his 100th big league start.

PADRES 4, PHILLIES 3 In San Diego, Kyle Blanks singled home the winning run in the 10th inning for his careerhigh fourth hit, and San Diego rallied from a three-run deficit in the ninth to beat Philadelphia.

Blanks also had a two-run single and scored the tying run on Carlos Ruiz’s passed ball in the ninth as the Padres fought back against Cliff Lee and struggling closer Jonathan Papelbon.

Joe Thatcher (3-1) retired Domonic Brown with a runner on third in the 10th. Chase Utley homered and Ruiz had an RBI single for the Phillies. Justin De Fratus (2-1) took the loss. —AP

LOS ANGELES: Pitcher Paco Rodriguez No. 75 of the Los Angeles Dodgers pitches in relief for Ronald Belisario No. 51 (not in photo) in the eighth inning during the MLB game against the San Francisco Giants. —AFP

MLB results/standings Cleveland 5, Baltimore 2; Tampa Bay 4, Toronto 1; LA Dodgers 3, San Francisco 1; San Diego 4, Philadelphia 3 (10 innings).

National League American League Eastern Division Eastern Division Atlanta 44 33 .571 W L PCT GB Washington 37 38 .493 6 Boston 45 33 .577 Philadelphia 36 41 .468 8 NY Yankees 41 34 .547 2.5 NY Mets 30 42 .417 11.5 Baltimore 42 35 .545 2.5 Miami 25 50 .333 18 Tampa Bay 40 37 .519 4.5 Toronto 38 37 .507 5.5 Central Division Central Division St. Louis 47 29 .618 Detroit 42 32 .568 Pittsburgh 46 30 .605 1 Cleveland 39 36 .520 3.5 Cincinnati 45 32 .584 2.5 Kansas City 35 38 .479 6.5 Chicago Cubs 31 43 .419 15 Minnesota 34 38 .472 7 Milwaukee 31 43 .419 15 Chicago White Sox 31 42 .425 10.5

Texas Oakland Seattle LA Angels Houston

Western Division 44 32 44 34 34 43 33 43 29 48

.579 .564 .442 .434 .377

1 10.5 11 15.5

Arizona Colorado San Diego San Francisco LA Dodgers

Western Division 41 34 39 38 39 38 38 38 33 42

.547 .506 .506 .500 .440

Mayweather, Alvarez kick off tour in Times Square NEW YORK: Floyd Mayweather stood in the middle of a jam-packed Times Square, speaking over the chants of “Mex-i-co!” that grew increasingly louder.

The eight-time world champion also had plenty of fans cheering him on, but Mexican star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez appeared to be the slight crowd favorite as the two kicked off an 11-city tour Monday to officially announce and promote their title fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on Sept. 14.

Not that it seemed to bother Mayweather all that much. “I take my hat off to the country of Mexico, and they have produced some tremendous champions and I respect the country of Mexico,” Mayweather said on a steamy afternoon in the heart of Manhattan in front of a few thousand fans with Broadway marquees serving as a colorful backdrop.

“But one thing I always know about the sport of boxing is that my fans can’t fight for me, and his fans can’t fight for him,” he continued. “The Earth is my turf. You can put me in any ring and I will always come out victorious.”

The promotional tour includes stops in cities such as Washington D.C., Chicago, Miami and Mexico City, and is jumpstarting the hype ahead of one of boxing’s most anticipated bouts in recent memory.

Mayweather, 36, is unbeaten in 44 fights, the last a unanimous 12-round decision over Robert Guerrero on May 4 in defense of his 147-pound title.

Alvarez, a 22-year-old rising star, is 42-0-1 and unified the 154-pound titles with a unanimous

victory over Austin Trout on April 20. “In the sport of boxing, it’s everybody’s time, and this is my time,” Alvarez said through a translator. “I’m going to win.”

The 12-round fight will be contested at 152 pounds with both men’s super welterweight/junior middleweight titles on the line - Mayweather’s WBA super welterweight “super” championship, and Alvarez’s WBC, WBA and Ring Magazine super welterweight championships.

The bout billed simply as “The One” is expected to be a monstrous draw on pay-per-view for Showtime. It also just might satisfy many fans who had been wishing during the last several years for Mayweather to take on Manny Pacquiao.

“In every sport, there are certain rare occasions when you have the best fighting the best,” said Stephen Espinoza, executive vice president and general manager of Showtime Sports. “The Super Bowl, Final Four, the college football national championship. Sept. 14 will be one of those occasions - the two biggest stars in the sport, the two biggest fan bases.

“We have America’s No. 1 fighter versus Mexico’s No. 1 fighter. We have the No. 1 poundfor-pound fighter in the sport versus the No. 1 new star in the sport.”

There remains some dispute over who set the 152-pound catch weight, with Mayweather’s camp saying Alvarez’s people brought it up first.

Alvarez, however, insisted it was Mayweather who decided on having both fight at 152 pounds instead of 154.

“It wasn’t me,” Alvarez told reporters before the news conference. “I don’t want to fight 2 pounds below my weight class. That’s the way it was negotiated, and I accepted it. I’m fine with it.”

There was also some contention between the two because Alvarez chose to headline his own fight card against Trout rather than be included on the undercard of Mayweather-Guerrero card.

But both fighters agreed that this is a matchup that needed to happen.

“I’ve visualized this fight for years,” Alvarez said, “and I feel I’m going to win.” The fighters each announced on Twitter last month that they would face each other, exciting boxing fans around the world. Monday’s event marked the start of perhaps the sport’s most ambitious promotional tour since Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya also stopped in 11 cities before their 2007 bout - won by Mayweather. Each fighter took a stroll down a makeshift red carpet leading to the dais with pops of confetti - red, white and blue for Mayweather and red, green and white for Alvarez - marking their entrances. One fan got Mayweather to crack up when he held up a Chucky doll from the “Child’s Play” movie franchise, taking a clear shot at Alvarez’s hair color.

The two took their seats after staring each other down for nearly a minute - Mayweather next to Leonard Ellerbe, the CEO of Mayweather Promotions, and Alvarez next to De La Hoya, the president of Golden Boy Promotions. It was a mostly tame news conference with the banter between sides at a minimum. Before the news

conference, Mayweather talked about shooting a commercial with the Spanish-speaking Alvarez and someone asked why he isn’t doing his usual trash talking with his opponent. “He wouldn’t understand me anyway,” Mayweather said, laughing.

It is the second in Mayweather’s six-bout, 30month contract with Showtime that could pay him more than $200 million. After Mayweather beat Guerrero, he said he wanted to fight again in September - marking the first time since 2007 he will be in the ring twice in a calendar year.

Mayweather showed little rust while dominating Guerrero by using superior defensive skills in his first ring appearance since serving a jail term for assaulting the mother of his children.

Alvarez is a confident and rapidly rising fighter who should provide a huge test for Mayweather. Alvarez was solid against the previously unbeaten Trout, showing up some fans and media who speculated that perhaps he wasn’t ready to face such an experienced opponent.

“To be the best,” Alvarez said when asked before the news conference what his motivation is to fight Mayweather now. “(I want) to go down in history as the guy who beat the guy people consider the best.” When the news conference was over, both fighters got up and stared each other down one more time. And again, the crowd went wild.

“Canelo, I appreciate you for taking the fight,” Mayweather said. “Now, let’s give the fans what they want to see.” —AP

3 3 3.5 8

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

S P ORTS Tour de France winners PARIS: Tour de France winners since the event was first staged in 1903 (no races during the World Wars): 2012 Bradley Wiggins (Britain) 2011 Cadel Evans (Australia) 2010 Andy Schleck (Luxembourg) *** 2009 Alberto Contador 2008 Carlos Sastre (Spain) 2007 Contador 2006 Oscar Pereiro (Spain) ** 2005 * 2004 * 2003 * 2002 * 2001 * 2000 * 1999 * 1998 Marco Pantani (Italy) 1997 Jan Ullrich (Germany) 1996 Bjarne Riis (Denmark) 1995 Miguel Indurain (Spain) 1994 Indurain 1993 Indurain 1992 Indurain 1991 Indurain 1990 Greg LeMond (US) 1989 LeMond 1988 Pedro Delgado (Spain) 1987 Stephen Roche (Ireland) 1986 LeMond 1985 Bernard Hinault (France) 1984 Laurent Fignon (France) 1983 Fignon 1982 Hinault 1981 Hinault 1980 Joop Zoetemelk (Netherlands) 1979 Hinault 1978 Hinault 1977 Bernard Thevenet (France) 1976 Lucien Van Impe (Belgium) 1975 Thevenet 1974 Eddy Merckx (Belgium) 1973 Luis Ocana (Spain) 1972 Merckx 1971 Merckx 1970 Merckx 1969 Merckx 1968 Jan Janssen (Netherlands) 1967 Roger Pingeon (France) 1966 Lucien Aimar (France) 1965 Felice Gimondi (Italy) 1964 Jacques Anquetil (France) 1963 Anquetil 1962 Anquetil 1961 Anquetil 1960 Gastone Nencini (Italy) 1959 Federico Bahamontes (Spain) 1958 Charly Gaul (Luxembourg) 1957 Anquetil 1956 Roger Walkowiak (France) 1955 Louison Bobet (France) 1954 Bobet 1953 Bobet 1952 Fausto Coppi (Italy) 1951 Hugo Koblet (Switzerland) 1950 Ferdi Kubler (Switzerland) 1949 Coppi 1948 Gino Bartali (Italy) 1947 Jean Robic (France) 1939 Sylvere Maes (Belgium) 1938 Bartali 1937 Roger Lapebie (France) 1936 Sylvere Maes (Belgium) 1935 Romain Maes (Belgium) 1934 Antonin Magne (France) 1933 Georges Speicher (France) 1932 Andre Leducq (France) 1931 Magne 1930 Leducq 1929 Maurice De Waele (Belgium) 1928 Nicolas Frantz (Luxembourg) 1927 Frantz 1926 Lucien Buysse (Belgium) 1925 Ottavio Bottecchia (Italy) 1924 Bottecchia 1923 Henri Pelissier (France) 1922 Firmin Lambot (Belgium) 1921 Leon Scieur (Belgium) 1920 Philippe Thys (Belgium) 1919 Lambot 1914 Thys 1913 Thys 1912 Odile Defraye (Belgium) 1911 Gustave Garrigou (France) 1910 Octave Lapize (France) 1909 Francois Faber (Luxembourg) 1908 Lucien Petit-Breton (France) 1907 Petit-Breton 1906 Rene Pottier (France) 1905 Louis Trousselier (France) 1904 Henri Cornet (France) 1903 Maurice Garin (France) *** Spain’s Alberto Contador was stripped of the title after testing positive for a banned anabolic agent during the 2010 race. ** American Floyd Landis was stripped of the title after testing positive for elevated levels of testosterone during the 2006 race. * American Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven titles from 1999-2005 for doping. The titles have not been reallocated. —Reuters

Froome, Contador could make 100th Tour a classic

Chris Froome

Alberto Contador

PARIS: Chris Froome is overwhelming favourite for the Tour de France but the return of former winner Alberto Contador after a one-year hiatus could trigger a classic duel to mark the 100th edition of the great cycling race.

It will also be the first Tour since American Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven titles after admitting he cheated his way to glory from 1999-2005, leaving a huge gap in the event’s records.

It is a period Briton Froome will be happy to put in the past for good. “The fact that I’m able to finish at the front in the mountains and in the general classification means that the sport has changed since 10 years ago,” said Froome, who was promoted to Team Sky leader before team mate and defending champion Bradley Wiggins withdrew from the race for health reasons.

“You learn from the past. The sport is going in the right direction and my results are proof of that.” Froome has won four of the five stage races he has entered this season. “It definitely gives me confidence that I’ve had the right build-up to the Tour, that I’ve had the right preparation for the Tour,” he explained.

“It also gives my team mates a lot of confidence, that they’re riding for a worthy cause, that they know I can deliver the result.

“But having said that, once we line up on the start line in Corsica, every other race we’ve done early on this season folds away,” added Kenyaborn Froome, with a note of caution.

Froome is expected to have the upper hand in the individual time trials and will rely on a super strong Team Sky with a stunning capacity to set a high tempo in the mountains to prevent attacks a tactic Wiggins heavily relied on in 2012.

Contador’s presence, after missing last year’s Tour because of a doping suspension, will definitely be felt even if the Spaniard has made little impression so far this season.

Contador, who won the Tour in 2007 and 2009, goes into the race with only one low-key victory under his belt - a stage of the Tour de San Luis in January.

Since then, the 30-year-old has been comprehensively beaten by Froome and others, despite repeated attacks in the uphill stages of the Tour of Oman or the Criterium du Dauphine.

Froome is likely to gain time in the two individual and one team time trial of this year’s race, which starts on June 29, so Contador will have to make up for it in the mountains, where his rival also shines.

The race should not be decided before the last week with the 14th stage finishing up the Mont Ventoux and the 18th sending the peloton twice round the 21 hair-pins of L’Alpe d’Huez.

However, Contador is one of only five men with titles in all three grand Tours (Spain, Italy, France) while Froome has only two podium finishes - seconds in the Vuelta in 2011 and the Tour in 2012.

Contador will also be assisted by a solid team featuring Australian Michael Rogers, who was instrumental for Team Sky during last year’s Tour, as well as Irishman Nicolas Roche and Czech Roman Kreuziger. Both have relinquished their personal ambitions to help the Spaniard clinch a third title.

“There are quite a few guys whom I believe to be threats to the yellow jersey and until any of those guys lose time on the general classification they should be treated as potential yellow jersey wearers,” said Froome.

“Contador is definitely not someone to write off from the group of contenders. I did come out on top in the time trial and in the mountain stages (in the Dauphine) against Contador but he cannot be ruled out.”

Contador proved in winning last year’s Vuelta that he never gives up, taking the overall lead in the 17th stage after launching a devastating surprise attack.

Should he and Froome falter, the indefatigable Cadel Evans, winner of the Tour in 2011, will be ready to step up, as well as fellow Australian Richie Porte, the Team Sky number two.

“Richie’s results this year have been fantastic,” Team Sky coach Tim Kerrison said. “He’s a very very good stage racer and a strong GC contender.”

The battle for the points classification green jersey is likely to be between Slovakia’s Peter Sagan and Mark Cavendish, although the Briton would be happy with a brief spell in yellow.

“I would like to wear the yellow jersey after the first stage in Corsica,” said Cavendish, who is 11 stages shy of Eddy Merckx’s all-time Tour record of 34. “It’s the only one of the three grand tours where I haven’t worn the leader’s jersey, so I’d like to do that.”—Reuters

Doping affairs PARIS: A look at major doping scandals involving the Tour de France since the Festina affair in 1998: ● 1998: Festina medical team member Willy Voet was arrested at the French border before the start of the Tour after customs officers seized banned substances, including the blood-boosting drug erythropoietin (EPO).

Festina were kicked out of the race and their riders later admitted to taking performance-enhancing drugs. Top rider Richard Virenque was banned for nine months, team director Bruno Roussel and Voet were fined and given suspended jail sentences. ● 2006: American Floyd Landis became the first Tour winner to fail a drugs test during the race after testing positive for the male sex hormone testosterone. Landis was stripped of the title and given a two-year ban.

Germany’s 1997 Tour winner Jan Ullrich and Giro d’Italia champion Ivan Basso were among nine competitors withdrawn on the eve of the prologue after being implicated in a Spanish doping investigation, Operation Puerto.

Ullrich, who retired from competition in 2007, admitted earlier this month to blood-doping under the guidance of the Spanish doctor at the centre of the Operation Puerto scandal.

Basso admitted his involvement in the scandal to the Italian Olympic Committee in May 2007 and was banned for two years. ● 2007: Pre-race favorite Alexander Vinokourov tested positive for blood doping after winning a time trial. The Kazakh’s Astana team left the Tour and sacked Vinokourov, who denied any wrongdoing.

The Cofidis team pulled out of the race following Italian Cristian Moreni’s positive test for testosterone.

Moreni was suspended for two years.

Tour leader Michael Rasmussen was sacked by his Rabobank team during the race for lying about his whereabouts in training. He was banned for two years by the Monaco Cycling Federation for violating anti-doping rules.

German Patrik Sinkewitz was suspended after a test taken in June was positive for elevated levels of testosterone. Sinkewitz had already pulled out of the Tour injured following a crash with a spectator.

Spanish rider Iban Mayo, who finished the race in 16th place, was suspended by his team Saunier Duval after cycling’s governing body confirmed traces of EPO in a sample taken during the race. ● 2008: Italian Riccardo Ricco was kicked out of the race after failing a test for the new generation of EPO called CERA (Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator). Saunier Duval then announced they were withdrawing their sponsorship of the team.

Austrian Bernhard Kohl, third overall and the race’s top climber, as well as Italian Leonardo Piepoli and German Stefan Schumacher were also found guilty of using CERA following retroactive tests.

Kazakh Dmitriy Fofonov tested positive for the banned stimulant heptaminol and was fired by his Credit Agricole team. Spaniards Manuel Beltran and Moises Duenas Nevado tested positive for EPO. Barloworld ended sponsorship of their team after Nevado’s test result. ● 2012: Luxembourg’s Frank Schleck tested positive for the banned diuretic Xipamide during the second rest day and was withdrawn from the race by his RadioShack team. He was suspended for one year.

In June, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) recommended charging seven-times Tour winner Lance Armstrong, who won the race from 1999 to 2005, with using performanceenhancing drugs during his career.

After initially saying he would fight the charges, Armstrong changed his mind and in August USADA stripped him of his Tour titles and banned him for life.

USADA said in its report that Armstrong and his U.S. Postal team had run “the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen”.

In January 2013, Armstrong admitted in a television interview he used banned substances in all of his Tour victories. —Reuters

Hamilton raring for British GP BRACKLEY: Lewis Hamilton has put trials and tribulations behind him and is raring to make his first British Grand Prix appearance for Mercedes this weekend in a car he says is better than last year’s McLaren. With McLaren yet to finish higher than fifth this season, after winning seven races in 2012, the 2008 Formula One champion has no regrets about the move to Mercedes that many were still questioning only months ago.

He heads for Silverstone as one of four British drivers but the one with the best chance of victory, Mercedes already being a winner in Monaco thanks to Germany’s Nico Rosberg and being on pole four times in seven races.

“I feel like I have a better car this year so I think we should be more competitive than we were last year,” he told reporters at the Mercedes factory, a short drive from Silverstone.

“It is definitely closer (to being able to win) than what I have had for a couple of years, so I am looking forward to seeing what the car can do,” he added.

“I think the car will go really well here.” Two clouds that hung over Hamilton at the last race in Canada have lifted. One was personal and the other was an international tribunal that could have imposed heavy sanctions on his team for a

“secret” tyre test with Pirelli.

Last week’s hearing handed Mercedes a reprimand and ordered them to miss a young driver test in July, but neither punishment will have much impact on Hamilton or Rosberg.

In Montreal Hamilton had seemed abrupt and distant, telling reporters he had “things” on his mind, but on Tuesday he was relaxed again.

“I feel good. I am really happy,” he said. “My mind was a bit clouded (in Canada), it didn’t really affect my weekend in terms of performance and being able to do the job, but I feel good.

And I am looking forward to this weekend and just getting on with it.

“I can’t wait until Friday...And I am on the simulator tomorrow so I get to really focus on trying to nail the set-up, so we start on the right foot during the weekend.”

Hamilton, who was at McLaren in 2007 when the Woking team were fined a record $100 million and stripped of all their constructors’ points for a spying controversy, said he had not allowed the tribunal to unsettle him.

“I tried my best not to give it much thought.

(Team principal) Ross (Brawn) kept me in the loop and I’d get an email here and there from the lawyer explaining where we were,” he said.

“Of course, when I saw the team at the weekend it was a relief for everyone...that they could get on and start focusing on the next race. And I’m happy as well.”

Hamilton said the team was doing a great job, adding: “We’ve got into a good position so far and if we can get into an even better one that would be fantastic. They have been working so hard to get the results that we’ve had, a negative result was not needed.”

Although Hamilton would not have taken part in the young driver test, he said the lack of it would be a setback. The test is the sole chance during the season for teams to try out new developments.

“That does suck a little bit,” said the Briton of the team’s exclusion. “It’s important because we had a lot planned, upgrades and stuff, on those three days.

“It’s also vital for the (reserve) drivers who are always on the simulator to test the tyres, and where they are, and come back in here and feed back so they continue working on developments and improving the simulator.

“It definitely puts us back a little bit but we’re going to have to try to figure out a way to recover it elsewhere.”—Reuters

Lewis Hamilton

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

S P ORTS

Lions put down Rebels MELBOURNE: The British and Irish Lions will head into the second test against Australia with a head full of steam after subjecting the Melbourne Rebels to a 35-0 thrashing in their tour match yesterday.

Eager to impress coach Warren Gatland in their last non-test tour match, the midweek Lions ran in four tries and were awarded fifth by penalty as they completely outclassed the Super Rugby strugglers at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium.

England centre Manu Tuilagi celebrated his return to action after a niggling shoulder injury by contributing to the first two tries for the Lions for scrumhalf Conor Murray and winger Sean Maitland.

Openside flanker Sean O’Brien and

replacement scrumhalf Ben Youngs crossed over after the break as the Dan Lydiate-captained Lions dominated on all fronts.

The tourists suffered a shock loss to a well-drilled ACT Brumbies last week, with their set pieces a mess and well beaten at the breakdown, but their forwards made amends against the Rebels, setting up scoring chances with sharp work at the lineout.

“We definitely had to up our game coming here, we wanted to get the result and keep the momentum going for the weekend,” said Lydiate, a replacement for the Brisbane test last weekend.

“It’s a massive game for us this weekend and some of the boys put their hands up for selection tonight.

MELBOURNE: British and Irish Lions Simon Zebo is tackled heavily

by Lachlan Mitchell of the Melbourne Rebels during the Lions’ tour match against the Rebels at AAMI Park. —AP

“The main thing was to get the win but also play well as a team and play well as individuals ... All credit to the Rebels guys, they gave us a good game tonight.”

Tuilagi drove the Lions forward with a jinking run to set up their first try in the 15th minute, scrumhalf Conor Murray swooping on a loose ball from the resulting five-metre scrum before spinning over in the right corner.

The barnstorming centre was even more involved in the second try with another powerful break, a fend and an offload helping number Toby Faletau take the tourists to the Rebels’ line.

Inside centre Brad Barritt played scrumhalf at the breakdown to get the ball to Simon Zebo, who flung it wider still to another winger in New Zealandborn Maitland for an easy try in the right corner.

The Rebels, captained by former Wales backrower Gareth Delve and marshalled by former Wallaby scrumhalf Luke Burgess, pressed hard but were let down by poor finishing.

Fullback Jason Woodward missed a penalty kick from straight in front, and the Rebels waved away another three points by kicking for the corner only to botch the lineout a minute before the break.

Although dictating proceedings, the Lions ‘dirt-trackers’ made a hash of a few scoring chances, and O’Brien was left fuming a few minutes after halftime when a long looping pass from Maitland sailed into touch to deny the Irishman a certain try.

O’Brien was all smiles a few minutes later, though, when he dived over to score in the opposite corner after lock Richie Gray and Lydiate had combined well from the lineout.

The Rebels, reduced to something of a rabble after a raft of substitutions, conceded a penalty try some 10 minutes later, with replacement flanker Jordy Reid sent off for illegally stopping a rolling maul. Youngs completed the rout by sharking the ball at the back of a lineout and beating two defenders to cross between the posts and hand the Lions momentum heading into Saturday’s second test against the Wallabies.

“Disappointing,” said Delve. “We wanted to try a few things but we never really got the stability at the set piece that we wanted. And a quality team like that, they ran a few points up on us.” —Reuters

Clarke gives Australia fitness boost for Ashes TAUNTON: Australia captain Michael Clarke gave the beleaguered tourists a much-needed lift two weeks before the Ashes series by declaring himself fit to return to competitive action after three months out with a lower back problem.

Clarke came through Australia’s first training session under new coach Darren Lehmann, who was hired on Monday to replace the fired Mickey Arthur. Clarke will start the four-day tour match against Somerset at Taunton beginning today.

“Michael is definitely playing against Somerset, which is great news,” Australia vice captain Brad Haddin said yesterday. “It is the first match of an

Ashes tour and the Australian captain is pretty excited about being involved.

“He is in a good spot. He had a good catching session this morning and a bit of a hit.”

Clarke hasn’t played a competitive match since the tour of India in March, when Australia slipped to a humiliating 4-0 loss in the test series. During that tour, four players - including vice-captain Shane Watson - were dropped for the third test for failing to complete written reports on their views of the team’s performance - a saga dubbed “Homeworkgate.”

And the woes of the once-mighty Australian cricket have deepened since

Michael Clarke

then, with opener David Warner first fined following a Twitter rant at senior journalists and then suspended for throwing a punch at England batsman Joe Root in a bar. That came during the Champions Trophy, where Australia failed to win a match and exited at the group stage.

Cricket Australia reacted by sacking Arthur after 19 months in charge and hiring Lehmann, a popular former test batsman who has two weeks to turn things around before the first Ashes test against England starts on July 10.

Lehmann has made a good impression already, according to Haddin.

“Training was good and sharp, so the new coach got a tick today!” Haddin said Tuesday. “Darren is a good person, who loves the game of cricket and talking about it. He loves to see guys learning about cricket and has a lot of knowledge, so he is well respected over here and at home.

“He is very excited about getting the group together and playing some cricket. There has been enough talk, now it’s time to get out there and enjoy the start of an Ashes tour.”

The inclusion of James Faulkner in the starting XI will see Australia go with a five-strong bowling attack for Lehmann’s first match in charge.

Somerset’s team will include Nick Compton, who appears likely to miss out on the Ashes opener at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, after being dropped for England’s warm-up match against Essex starting Sunday. —AP

NSW primed for Queensland BRISBANE: New South Wales can finally end Queensland’s record run of seven straight State of Origin series triumphs with a victory in today’s second match in Brisbane.

The Blues set up their chance with an impressive 14-6 victory over the Maroons in the opening game in Sydney earlier this month.

But they are prepared for a charged Queensland response before their own fans in a bid to keep this year’s series alive until the final encounter in Sydney on July 17.

Blues’ coach Laurie Daley believes his team will have to improve on their first-match win to repel a fired-up Queensland if they are to grab their first Origin series since 2005.

In the eight times NSW have travelled to Queensland following a game one victory, they have won just once — in 2000 — and none of the current squad of 17 have won a live rubber at the intimidating Suncorp Stadium.

“In front of their home crowd they’re going to be a lot stronger and use those opportunities better than they did in Sydney,” Blues’ backrower Greg Bird said.

Scrum-half teammate Mitchell Pearce added: “They’re going to lift and we’re going to have to improve.” The NSW team is expecting Queensland’s irrepressible Test trio of Cameron Smith, Johnathan Thurston and Cooper

Cronk to improve their decision-making under pressure in the big moments to lift the cornered Maroons.

All-conquering Queensland coach Mal Meninga has been working on improving his team’s attitude for the pivotal showdown after the Maroons were outplayed for much of the Sydney opener.

“We have spent the week making sure our attitude is a lot better, particularly at the start,” Meninga said. “Because we need to play better.

“We can’t get away from the fact that we didn’t execute the best that we possibly could (in game one).” Offfield issues have clouded NSW’s build-up to the big game with prop James Tamou suspended on a drink-driving charge and winger Blake Ferguson dropped after he was charged by police for the indecent assault of a woman in a late-night bar incident.

South Sydney winger Nathan Merritt will replace Ferguson, while St George Illawarra fullback Josh Dugan will make his return to Origin football after Jarryd Hayne was ruled out with a hamstring injury.

Wests Tigers prop Aaron Woods will make his Origin debut after coming in for Tamou. Meninga has revamped his side with Daly Cherry-Evans and Josh Papalii coming onto the reserves bench for Ashley Harrison and David Shillington. —AFP

Photo of the day

Danny MacAskill performs a backflip during the Imaginate filming in Glasgow, United Kingdom.

—www.redbullcontentpool.com

Uruguay, Brazil, and the ghosts of 1950 FORTALEZA: For all the glory associated with their famous yellow shirts, Brazil can never shake the sense of unease that descends whenever they find themselves confronted by Uruguay.

Today’s Confederations Cup semifinal in Belo Horizonte will be the 71st match between the South American neighbors, and for Brazilians it will dredge up a 63-year-old nightmare that haunts the Selecao to this day.

The 1950 World Cup in Brazil was intended to crown the hosts’ emergence as the world’s best national team, but instead it witnessed their most traumatising defeat, immortalised as the ‘Maracanazo’ (‘Maracana Blow’).

A side led by all-action inside-forward Zizinho went into the decisive match at Rio de Janeiro’s newly built Maracana stadium needing only a draw to win the tournament for the first time.

On July 16, the day of the game, Rio newspaper O Mundo carried the headline “THESE ARE THE WORLD CHAMPIONS!” alongside a picture of the team, and an estimated 200,000 fans streamed into the giant concrete arena in anticipation of Brazil’s coronation.

Opponents Uruguay, narrow victors over Sweden in their previous game, were offered up as the sacrificial victims and they seemed destined to fulfil that role when Friaca put Brazil ahead early in the second half.

Juan Alberto Schiaffino equalised,

but Brazil remained on course for the trophy until Uruguay winger Alcides Ghiggia surprised goalkeeper Barbosa with a low shot in the 79th minute that stunned the giant stadium. “Only three people have ever silenced 200,000 people at the Maracana with a single gesture,” Ghiggia once said. “Frank Sinatra, Pope John Paul II, and I.” Uruguay, not Brazil, were the world champions, and the host nation sank into mourning. Barbosa became an instant scapegoat and played for his country again only once. Reports of suicides abounded. “Everywhere has its irremediable national catastrophe, something like a Hiroshima,” said Nelson Rodrigues, the Brazilian playwright, journalist and novelist.

“Our catastrophe, our Hiroshima, was the defeat by Uruguay in 1950.” In response, a competition was launched

by Rio newspaper Correio da Manha to redesign the uninspiring white strip that Brazil’s players had worn in the final.

The winning entry, submitted by 19year-old illustrator Aldyr Garcia Schlee, combined the yellow, green and blue of the Brazilian flag and is worn to this day, but even there, Uruguay played a part. Schlee was born in the border town of Jaguaro and as he told British author Alex Bellos in the 2002 book ‘Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life’, he grew up supporting the national team from the blue side of the frontier.

Uruguay, the country, spent the first three centuries of its existence being tugged back and forth between the Spanish and Portuguese empires and was only granted independence from Brazil in 1828.

It has been wreaking vengeance in the form of guerilla raids on the football pitch ever since. Brazil’s heaviest defeat, a 6-0 thrashing in September 1920, came at Uruguay’s hands and La Celeste have twice beaten their neighbours in the final of the Copa America.

A Brazil team featuring the great Socrates fell to Uruguay in 1983, while the 1995 final saw a Brazil side containing five members of the team that had overcome Italy in the previous year’s World Cup final beaten 5-3 on penalties in Montevideo.

Brazil claimed symbolic revenge for the Maracanazo by defeating Uruguay in the 1989 Copa America final at the Maracana, Romario heading in the only goal, but the memory of the 1950 match refuses to fade. In 2014, Brazilian players will take to the field at a Brazilian World Cup for the first time since Zizinho and his disconsolate team-mates left the pitch at the Maracana over six decades previously.

So although Brazil have since amassed five World Cups and will start as strong favourites against Uruguay today, victory would represent only partial consolation. —AFP

BRAZIL: Brazil’s goalkeeper Diego Cavalieri fails to catch the ball during a training session at the Mineirao Stadium in Belo Horizonte on the eve of their FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil 2013 semifinal football match against Uruguay.—AFP

Blanc takes over as PSG coach PARIS: Paris St Germain named Laurent Blanc as coach on a two-year contract yesterday, ending weeks of speculation over who would succeed Carlo Ancelotti.

The 47-year-old Blanc, out of a job since departing as France coach after their Euro 2012 quarter-final exit, led Girondins Bordeaux to the French title in 2009.

“Paris St Germain is delighted to announce the appointment of Laurent Blanc as coach for the next two years,” PSG said in a statement. Blanc will begin work on Monday for the start of the pre-season training. The former France international sweeper replaced Ancelotti, who said last month he wanted to leave the club after leading them to their first French title since 1994. The Italian agreed to join Real Madrid yesterday.

Blanc, who played for Montpellier, Marseille, Manchester United, Barcelona and Inter Milan, was part of France’s World Cup-winning squad in 1998 and won the last of his 97 caps in the 2000 European championship final victory against Italy.

But he was not PSG’s first choice, according to media reports. French media said Roberto Mancini, Fabio Capello, Andre Villas-Boas, Frank Rijkaard, Manuel Pellegrini, Rafa Benitez, Michael Laudrup and Guus Hiddink were all approached by the club.

Owners Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) have spent over 200

million euros ($262 million) on transfers since taking over the club two years ago, recruiting the likes of Sweden striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Brazilian defender Thiago Silva in pursuit of a Champions League victory within five years. Blanc, whose European coaching experience is limited to two seasons with Bordeaux, will have to deal with QSI’s high expectations.

“The mission Paris St Germain’s management has assigned Laurent Blanc is to continue the work initiated last year and lead the team towards the European heights,” the statement said. The Frenchman, who earned the nickname “The President” during his playing days, will also have to prove he can handle a squad full of characters after failing to keep France’s bad-tempered players under control at the European Championship.

The list includes PSG forward Jeremy Menez who was banned for one game by the French Football Federation for insulting a referee.

The representatives of Brazil captain Silva and Ibrahimovic appear to have supported the appointment, saying the most respected players in PSG locker-room back Blanc.

“Laurent Blanc can’t be a wrong choice. He was France coach, he’s equal to all the names that have been cited. They are all great coaches,” Silva’s agent Paulo Tonietto told French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche. —Reuters

19

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

SPORTS

The longest minute in a long comeback BOSTON: The Stanley Cup is back in the city of big shoulders and short memories, delivered by a Chicago team that featured neither.

The Blackhawks started the lockoutshortened NHL season so fast, they were the team to beat for months. But they still couldn’t outmuscle anybody. They were all about speed and skill, advantages that get squeezed tighter, round by round, in the defensive vise of the postseason.

They had to find another way to play with 1:30 left Monday night in Boston, when goalie Corey Crawford headed for the bench to bring on another attacker.

Turns out the Blackhawks do desperation well, too.

“That’s kind of the way you had to score this whole series,” coach Joel Quenneville said after Bryan Bickell and Dave Bolland banged in a pair of gritty goals during a 17-second span to stun the Bruins.

Yet even after Bolland’s putback of a rebound - off the goal post, no less slipped by sprawling Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask, there were still 59 seconds left on the clock.

“An eternity,” Patrick Kane, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, called it. “Nerve-wracking,” captain Jonathan Toews added.

“Things were happening so fast,” recalled winger Patrick Sharp, “I looked up at the clock and knew it was going to be the longest minute of the season.”

Better a minute like that one than all the minutes Blackhawks fans ignored just five short years ago. It wasn’t that long, after all, that the current toast of the town was just toast.

Toews, 25, and Kane, 24, came along in 2006 and 2007, when the Blackhawks were already beginning their bounce back from the bottom. Just a few years before that, the Blackhawks were roundly derided as the worst franchise in pro sports. At 32, Sharp is one of the longestserving veterans of the team’s core. He’s made it a point not to let anybody in the locker room forget that.

After Chicago’s 3-1 victory in Game 5, Sharp sat at his cubicle exhausted and stories rolled out about the bad old days.

“We’d get, maybe 10,000 fans, and in our building that felt like empty. I could pick friends of mine out in the crowd.

Some nights, they’d have their own section,” he laughed.

“We used to have business cards with a website address and we’d tell people, ‘Go there and you’d get two free tickets.’

People wouldn’t even take the cards!”

The 2004-05 lockout hurt hockey, but the rule changes that opened up the game helped the Hawks.

Then-general manager Dale Tallon finally quit pursuing draft picks and free agents with wide bodies and narrow skill sets. Suddenly, guys like Sharp and slickpassing defensemen Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook had targets up ice with the imagination and ability to finish plays.

Except at first, nobody noticed. A decade or so of continuing futility - in a city where the gold standard is the Cubs at a century and counting - kept all but the hardcore fans away.

Tight-fisted owner William “Dollar Bill” Wirtz stubbornly kept games off TV, and drove off legacy names like Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita. Then Wirtz died in September 2007 following a brief battle with cancer and the bitterness spilled out in one sweeping gesture.

During a moment of silence for Wirtz at the home opener, the crowd responded with boos. The Hawks made the postseason after a six-season hiatus, but those fans who chose self-exile only grudgingly began trickling back. It wasn’t until Wirtz’ son, Rocky, was in control for a full season - putting the games back on TV, bringing guys like Hull and Mikita back as ambassadors and putting up statues outside the United Center - that all was forgiven, and then some.

Average attendance jumped 7,000 seats by the end of the 2008-09 season.

The product on the ice was reflected in the fast-climbing value of the franchise.

The season after that brought the team’s fourth Stanley Cup title, giving one of the NHL’s “Original Six” some recent history worth boasting about.

The realities of the salary cap, though, dictated what happened next. The Blackhawks had to unload or choose not to resign nine players on that team, electing instead to lock up Toews, Kane, Keith and a handful of others.

They got ambushed in their first postseason outings the next two years -

something the Blackhawks remembered when they were down 3-1 in a series against Detroit in an earlier round, and again against Boston as the clock ticked down the final few seconds.

“You win it once and you think you’re going right back to the Stanley Cup finals the next year after that,” Toews said. “Two first-round exits for us last couple years will make you realize how tough it is to get here.”

The Blackhawks have become the first team to win a second Stanley Cup in the salary-cap age, a bit of smart spending that would have pleased old man Wirtz. And they did it as the last team standing from a final four that featured the last four cup winners, playing wide open or gritty as each game or each shift demanded.

As talk of a third Cup and even the dreaded “dynasty” began making the rounds, Quenneville put up his hand and asked for a moment where he didn’t have to recall what was behind or worry about what was ahead. “I’m going to enjoy this one first,” he said, “and have fun with it. And then we’ll talk about that one.”—AP

Blackhawks win Stanley Cup

BOSTON: Patrick Kane No. 88 of the Chicago Blackhawks celebrates with the Conn Smythe Trophy defeating the Boston Bruins in Game Six of the 2013 NHL Stanley Cup Final. —AFP

Kane named Stanley Cup playoffs’ MVP BOSTON: Chicago Blackhawks winger Patrick Kane was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the Stanley Cup playoffs after helping his team to the National Hockey League championship on Monday.

The 24-year-old American was presented with the trophy after Chicago rallied in the final minutes to beat the Boston Bruins 3-2 and clinch the best-of-seven series 4-2.

Kane was Chicago’s leading point scorer during the playoffs with 19 points from 23 games, including nine goals, but said he felt lucky to win the award, insisting his teammates did all the real work. “We actually came up with a name for myself this morning, calling me the ‘Benefish,’ for the beneficiary of all their hard work,” he told a news conference.

“I had a couple chances to finish and ended up doing that, so got to give them the credit.” Despite his reluctance to take credit for his achievements, Kane’s star has been rising for years.

A native of Buffalo, New York, he was drafted first overall in 2007 after an outstanding junior career and was named the NHL’s rookie of the year in 2008.

He won a silver medal with the American team at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics then his first Stanley Cup with Chicago later that same year, scoring the championship-clinching goal in over-

time against the Philadelphia Flyers.

“I think there’s something about our core. Hopefully we can stay together a long time because that’s two Cups in four years, and we seem to only be getting better and better,” he said.

“It’s unbelievable to be in this situation.

“It’s just a great group and it’s going to be fun to celebrate with them.”

Kane paid a special tribute to Chicago captain Jonathan Toews, who won the Conn Smythe trophy in 2010, and played in Monday’s Game Six despite saying he had his “bell rung” in the previous game. “He’s a great player. He’s played big in a lot of big games,” Kane said.

“That’s really all you can say about Jonathan Toews is he’s a competitor. He leads the team in the right way and we all follow.”—Reuters

Matches on TV (Local Timings)

FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil v Uruguay Al Jazeera Sport +9 Al Jazeera Sport HD 1

22:00

BOSTON: Two goals. Seventeen seconds apart. A second Stanley Cup victory in four seasons for the Chicago Blackhawks.

Seventy-six seconds away from defeat and a trip home for a decisive seventh game, Bryan Bickell tied it. Then, while the Bruins were settling in for another overtime in a series that has already had its share, Dave Bolland scored to give Chicago a 3-2 victory in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday night.

The back-to-back scores in about the time it takes for one good rush down the ice turned a near-certain loss into a championship clincher, stunning the Boston players and their fans and starting the celebration on the Blackhawks’ bench with 59 seconds to play.

“We thought we were going home for Game 7.

You still think you’re going to overtime and you’re going to try to win it there. Then Bolly scores a huge goal 17 seconds later,” said Chicago forward Patrick Kane, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the postseason’s most valuable player. “It feels like the last 58 seconds were an eternity.”

The team that set an NHL record with a 24-game unbeaten streak to start the lockout-shortened season won three straight games after falling behind 2-1 in the best-of-seven finals, rallying from a deficit in the series and in its finale. Corey Crawford made 23 saves, and Jonathan Toews returned from injury to add a goal and an assist in the first finals between Original Six teams since 1979.

“I still can’t believe that finish. Oh my God, we never quit,” Crawford said. “I never lost confidence. No one in our room ever did.”

Trailing 2-1, Crawford went off for an extra skater and the Blackhawks converted when Toews fed it in front and Bickell scored from the edge of the crease to tie the score.

Perhaps the Bruins expected it to go to overtime, as three of the first four games in the series did. They sure seemed to be caught off-guard on the ensuing faceoff. Chicago skated into the zone, sent a shot on net and after it deflected off Michael Frolik and the post it went right to Bolland, who put it in the net.

The Blackhawks on the ice gathered in the corner, while those on the bench began jumping up and down. It was only a minute later, when Boston’s Tuukka Rask was off for an extra man, that Chicago withstood the Bruins’ final push and swarmed over the boards, throwing their sticks and gloves across the ice. “It’s unbelievable, man,” Crawford said. “So much hard work to get to this point. Great effort by everyone on the team.”

The Bruins got 28 saves from Rask, who was hoping to contribute to an NHL title after serving as Tim Thomas’ backup when Boston won it all two years ago.

“It’s obviously shocking when you think you have everything under control,” Rask said quietly, standing at his locker with a blue baseball cap on backward and a towel draped over his shoulders.

The sold-out TD Garden had begun chanting “We want the Cup!” after Milan Lucic’s goal put the Bruins up 2-1 with eight minutes left, but it fell silent after its team coughed up the lead. The team came out to salute its fans as they streamed out of the building for the last time, from the air conditioning into the summer air.

“Probably toughest for sure, when you know you’re a little bit over a minute left and you feel that you’ve got a chance to get to a Game 7,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said. “And then those two goals go in quickly.” The arena was almost empty ‚Ä” except for a few hundred fans in red Blackhawks sweaters who filtered down to the front rows ‚Ä” when NHL commissioner Gary Bettman handed the 35-pound Cup to Toews, who left Game 5 with an undisclosed injury and wasn’t confirmed for the lineup until the morning skate.

The Chicago captain skated the Cup right over the crease in which the Blackhawks mounted the come-

BOSTON: Brandon Saad No. 20 of the Chicago Blackhawks hoists the Stanley Cup Trophy after defeating the Boston Bruins in Game Six of the 2013 NHL Stanley Cup Final at TD Garden. —AFP back and in front of the fans in Blackhawks sweaters who lined the front row behind the net. Toews banged on the glass while the remaining Bruins fans headed up the runways. He then continued the tradition of handing it from player to player before the team settled to the side of the faceoff circle for a picture with the trophy they will possess for the next 12 months.

Just like in 2010, they won it in a Game 6 on the road. “In 2010, we didn’t really know what we were doing. We just, we played great hockey and we were kind of oblivious to how good we were playing,” said Toews, who scored his third goal of the playoffs to tie it 1-1 in the second period, then fed Bickell for the score that tied it with 76 seconds to play.

“This time around, we know definitely how much work it takes and how much sacrifice it takes to get back here and this is an unbelievable group,” Toews said. “We’ve been through a lot together this year and this is a sweet way to finish it off.”

The Blackhawks opened the season on a 21-0-3 streak and coasted to the Presidents’ Trophy that goes to the team with the best regular-season record.

But regular-season excellence has not translated into playoff success: Chicago is the first team with the best record to win the Cup since the 2008 Detroit Red Wings.

The Blackhawks went through Minnesota in five games and Detroit in seven, rallying in the Western Conference semifinals from a 3-1 deficit and winning Game 7 in overtime. They got through the defending NHL champion Los Angeles Kings in five games to return to the Cup finals, where Boston was waiting.

Chicago won the first game at home in three overtimes but dropped Game 2 ‚Ä” another overtime ‚Ä” and fell behind 2-1 in the series when it returned to Boston. After that, it was all Blackhawks. The tightly contested finals ‚Ä” with three games going a total of five overtimes ‚Ä” may help fans forget the lockout that shortened the season to 48 games and pushed back the opener to Jan. 19. That left the teams still playing ice hockey on a 95-degree day in Boston on June 24, matching the latest date in NHL history.

Fans in their Bruins sweaters filtered into the TD Garden to see the last game in Boston for the season with the hope there would be one more in Chicago: a seventh game just like two years ago, when the Bruins rallied from a 3-2 deficit, then won in Vancouver for their first NHL championship since 1972.

Both teams were bolstered by the return of star forwards, Selke Trophy winner Toews of Chicago and Patrice Bergeron, who was a finalist for the award giv-

en to the top defensive forward in the league. Both returned after missing the end of Game 5, but only Toews showed up in the box score.

Bergeron said afterward that he had a broken rib, torn cartilage in muscles, and added to that a separated shoulder on Monday night.

“It’s the Stanley Cup Final. Everyone is banged up,” Bergeron said. “It’s tough to put words to describe how we’re feeling right now. You work so hard just to get to this point and give yourself a chance to get the Cup. You feel like you’re right there and you have a chance to force a Game 7, and definitely it hurts.”

What had already been a physical series continued to take its toll, with Jaromir Jagr ‚Ä” the NHL’s active playoff scoring leader ‚Ä” and Andrew Shaw both going to the dressing room during the first period.

Jagr’s injury was not known, but Shaw deflected a slap shot from Shawn Thornton off his own right cheek and crumpled to the ice, leaving behind a pool of blood when he skated off.

Both returned, but Jagr again disappeared from the Boston bench in the second. Crawford also forced a stoppage of play when his mask came off following David Krejci’s slap shot off his shoulder; the Chicago goalie appeared to need a little time to recover, but he stayed in the game.

“The whole playoffs. It wasn’t just Chicago. It’s going to be physical, grinding the whole playoffs,” said Bruins captain Zdeno Chara, the 2009 Norris Trophy winner who was on the ice for 10 of the last 12 Chicago goals. “I think that first game we played them we knew it would be a close series. We just had that feeling. It went all the way to triple overtime. It was physical. It was close. At times a very fast game, (but) it was very, very even.”

The Bruins, who never led in Games 4 and 5, took the lead seven minutes into the game when Tyler Seguin gloved a pass from Daniel Paille and controlled it, then backhanded it across the middle to Chris Kelly. He beat Crawford on the glove side to make it 1-0.

But the Blackhawks tied it early in the second when, as a Bruins power play was ending, Toews broke into the Boston zone on the right side. He had Kane in the middle and Shaw coming out of the box, but didn’t need either one, rattling it in off the right post to make it 1-1.

It stayed that way until Lucic put Boston ahead with 7:49 left in the third. The final series seemed headed for a Game 7 for the sixth time in 10 years before Bickell and Bolland turned it around. “Dave Bolland, what else can you say about that guy?” Kane said. “He just shows up in big playoff games.”—AP

Italy preparing to run past Spain in semis FORTALEZA: Italy has defined a clear-cut strategy for its Confederations Cup semifinal match against Spain tomorrow: Out-run the World Cup holders.

As far as Italy coach Cesare Prandelli is concerned, matching Spain’s ball possession or passing skills is impossible. So in training Monday, running took priority over tactics.

The Azzurri players - at least the ones that are still healthy after a series of injuries - sprinted from one end of the field to the other at full speed about 10 times consecutively at one point, then stopped to have their heart rates checked by team trainers.

“We’ve got to get it into our heads that against Spain it’s going to be a battle of suffering,” Italy coach Cesare Prandelli said. “Their ball possession is superior to ours and the Spanish are unbelievable at getting past any sort of trap

set up by the opponents. They’re excellent at holding on to the ball and attacking so we’ve got to try to make them run as much as possible.”

Prandelli may be on to something with his strategy but it remains to be seen if his players have the stamina to execute such a plan.

Japan and Brazil ran circles around Italy in the first half of their group matches and two key Azzurri players have been sent home injured since the 4-2 loss to Brazil - forward Mario Balotelli left with a strained left thigh and fullback Ignazio Abate departed with a dislocated right shoulder.

Also, midfielder Andrea Pirlo sat out the Brazil match due to a muscle problem and has continued to train separately from the rest of the squad.

Daniele De Rossi, another midfielder, missed

the Brazil game after picking up two yellow cards. Not surprisingly, De Rossi appeared among the freshest players in training, and he and Emanuele Giaccherini were the two fastest runners in the training exercise.

But running may not be enough against Spain, which routed Italy 4-0 in last year’s European Championship final.

“Spain is much better off than then, if you consider how easily they advanced from the group and how solid they have been,” Prandelli said. “They have a precise identity and they are the favorites without a doubt.” Including its 10-0 win over Tahiti, Spain outscored the opposition 15-1 in the first round. Italy, by contrast, scored eight goals and allowed eight in the group phase. Still, Prandelli does not seem concerned by his defense, even after attending Spain’s 3-0 win over Nigeria on Sunday.—AP

FORTALEZA: Spain’s defender Alvaro Arbeloa is surrounded by Brazilian fans on the beach near the team’s hotel in Fortaleza. Spain will play against Italy in their FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil 2013 semifinal football match tomorrow. —AFP

Lions put down Rebels

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

18

Blackhawks win Stanley Cup

19

Froome, Contador could make 100th Tour a classic

Page 17

WIMBLEDON: Serbia’s Novak Djokovic returns against Germany’s Florian Mayer during their men’s first round match on day two of the 2013 Wimbledon Championships tennis tournament at the All England Club. — AFP

Djokovic and Serena cruise LONDON: Top seeds Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams cruised into the Wimbledon second round yesterday as the All England Club recovered from the shockwaves of Rafael Nadal’s exit 24 hours earlier. World number one Djokovic, the 2011 champion, beat Germany’s Florian Mayer 6-3, 7-5, 6-4, in the Serb’s first grass-court outing of the season and his first match since his shattering fiveset semi-final loss to Nadal at the French Open. “It was a big pleasure to play in front of a packed Centre Court against a tricky rival like Mayer. He’s got a great variety of shots and his game is wellsuited to grass,” said Djokovic, who next faces either Bobby Reynolds or Steve Johnson.

Defending champion Williams, chasing a sixth Wimbledon title and 17th major, racked-up her 32nd successive win, cruising to a 6-1, 6-3 win over Luxembourg’s Mandy Minella.

Her 57-minute romp on Centre Court briefly

deflected attention away from the storm surrounding her controversial comments on a US high school rape case and the fall-out from her criticism of Maria Sharapova’s love life.

The 31-year-old took out her frustrations on the hapless Minella, the world number 92 who has never defeated a top-30 player let alone one of Williams’s calibre whose French Open title three weeks ago took her majors haul to 16.

Victory was also her 75th in her last 78 matches, a run that stretches back to her shock first round departure at Roland Garros in 2012, the worst Grand Slam exit of her career.

Yesterday’s 32nd successive win took her to within just three of the record set by older sister Venus in 2000. “I never think about the run, I just treat every match like a new one,” said Williams.

“It was special coming out as defending champion. I played great and I have some great memo-

ries.” Williams did not concede a single point on her serve in the first set and finished the match with 25 winners to Minella’s five. She goes on to face French qualifier Caroline Garcia, who she beat in the second round in Paris, for a place in the last 32.

Russia’s Maria Kirilenko, who made the quarterfinals last year, slumped to a first round exit at the hands of Britain’s world number 38, Laura Robson, who claimed a 6-3, 6-4 win.

“That was a big one for me just because of all the nerves and playing in front of your home crowd at Wimbledon,” said Robson, a former junior champion. On a bad day for Russians, 21st seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova slumped to a 6-0, 6-1 loss to Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova who made the semi-finals in 2010. Russian 13th seed Nadia Petrova went out 6-3, 6-2 to Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic. Kimiko Date-Krumm, just three months shy of her 43rd birthday, made the

second round with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Carina Witthoeft, an 18-year-old German qualifier, who was just four when the Japanese star made her Wimbledon debut in 1989. “I’m taking care of my body, because of course the most difficult thing is recovery. I need more training. But if I do too much I feel tired,” said Date-Krumm, a semi-finalist in 1996.

“I like Chinese tea. Sometimes Japanese tea. I drink a lot. I have a tea pot I always I carry. It’s here with me now.” Li Na, the Chinese sixth seed, enjoyed a comprehensive 6-1, 6-1 defeat of Dutchwoman Michaella Krajicek.

The 31-year-old former French Open champion next faces Romania’s Simona Halep. “It was a pretty good start to Wimbledon. Because the last two years I didn’t do well on the grass court,” said Li, twice a quarter-finalist. “I have to get used to playing on the grass. I was feeling pretty happy.”

Qatar’s new emir raised his profile with sports

Real Madrid appoint Ancelotti as new coach MADRID: Carlo Ancelotti has been appointed as the new coach of Real Madrid on a threeyear deal, the club confirmed yesterday.

“Carlo Ancelotti will be the coach of Real Madrid next season,” said a statement on the club’s website. Ancelotti will be formally presented to the media on Wednesday afternoon.

The 54-year-old’s protracted move from Paris Saint-Germain was finally confirmed after the French champions also appointed Laurent Blanc to be their coach for next season yesterday.

That cleared the path for Madrid to end a five-week wait to announce their new boss after it was announced Jose Mourinho would not be continuing at the club on May 20.

However, the former Juventus, AC Milan and Chelsea boss has always been Real president Florentino Perez first choice to replace Mourinho and arrives with a impressive CV. “He has won practically everything in the ambit of international football (two Champions Leagues, two European Supercups, One World Club Cup and One Intertoto Cup) and has won the league in three different championships in which he has managed (Italy, England and France),” the club statement added. “Familiar with the pressure of managing big teams on the continent, the Italian is a guarantee to manage an exciting project.”

It is that experience that Madrid have bet on after a tumultuous final year under Mourinho in which Real failed to win a major trophy and the Portuguese clashed with many of his senior players.

And his appointment has been backed by defender Sergio Ramos, one of those who had a public clash with Mourinho last season.

“You can only say good things about his CV and what he’s shown at a global level,” he said yesterday at a press conference ahead of Spain’s Confederations Cup semi-final with Italy.

It is Ancelotti’s proven track record in the Champions League in particular that attracted Perez as winning a 10th European Cup remains Madrid’s primary objective.

After falling short at the semi-final stage under Mourinho for the past three seasons, Perez has now entrusted Ancelotti to take what is currently the most expensive squad ever assembled in the history of the game the extra two stages required to land Madrid’s first Champions League trophy since 2002.

The Italian’s arrival is also likely to signal the beginning of major moves in the transfer market from the Spanish giants who have so far just exercised their right to buy-back Spanish under-21 international Dani Carvajal from Bayer Leverkusen and converted 21-year-old Brazilian Casemiro’s loan deal from Sao Paulo into a permanent move in recent weeks.

The purchase of Malaga midfielder Isco for a price in the region of 30 million euros ($39 million, £25.5 million) is also expected to be completed this week as Real look set to beat off strong competition from Manchester City for the highly rated Spanish international.

Real have also been strongly linked with a move for Tottenham Hotspur’s Gareth Bale and

In the men’s first round, Spanish fourth seed David Ferrer beat Argentina’s Wimbledon debutant MartÌn Alund 6-1, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 while Bulgarian 29th seed Grigor Dimitrov, the man at the centre of the Williams-Sharapova spat, cruised past Italy’s Simone Bolelli, 6-1, 6-4, 6-3. Argentinian eighth seed Juan Martin del Potro, who missed the French Open through illness, saw off Spain’s Albert Ramos 6-2, 7-5, 6-1.

Australia’s Bernard Tomic put out American 21st seed Sam Querrey, 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 2-6, 6-3 despite complaining of dizziness midway through the match and being forced to call for a doctor.

Tomic, a quarter-finalist in 2011, was playing without his controversial father in the crowd.

John Tomic, who is facing a criminal charge in Spain for assaulting his son’s hitting partner, has been banned from the club by Wimbledon authorities. — AFP

TOULOUSE: A picture taken on February 1, 2013 shows PSG’s coach Carlo Ancelotti reacting during the French League football match. — AFP Liverpool’s Luis Suarez, however one of Ancelotti’s first jobs may be to sanction a few transfers out of the club to create the funds for future moves.

Striker Gonzalo Higuain has spoken of his desire to leave the club and his father admitted on Sunday that the player was close to reaching an agreement with both Arsenal and Juventus. — AFP

DOHA: Qatar’s new ruler was the not the first choice to lead the Gulf nation and its growing political and economic ambitions.

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani became the crown prince a decade ago - at the age of 23 - when his older brother Jassim gave up his position as emir-in-waiting.

That began a gradual grooming process for the British-educated Sheikh Tamim inside Qatar’s security and investment arms, which are bankrolled by enormous oil and gas wealth.

As deputy commander of the armed forces, he had sway over multibillion dollar arms purchases and direct dealing with defense officials from the US and other Western allies. His senior role with the Qatar Investment Authority gave him a powerful voice over the direction of one of the world’s most active sovereign wealth funds, whose landmark stakes around the world include Harrods department store in London and luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co. But Sheikh Tamim’s most enduring international image to this point has been linked to sports. His crowning moment came as he helped win Qatar’s bid to host the 2022 World Cup. Sheikh Tamim and other Qatari officials, however, later faced complaints that the nation used its vast wealth to swing support its way from football federation members in Africa and elsewhere.

Last year was less positive - an International Olympic Committee member since 2002, Sheikh Tamim headed Doha’s unsuccessful bid for the 2020 Olympics.

Qatar’s capital has been mentioned as a pos-

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani sible bidder for the 2024 Games - an effort that could get a boost from the new emir.

Sheikh Tamim - who also has served as head of Qatar’s Olympic panel since 2000 helped avoid an embarrassing showdown with Olympic overseers by organizing the first female athletes representing Qatar for last year’s London Olympics. Neighboring Saudi Arabia and the Asian country of Brunei also sent their first women Olympic athletes.

Sheikh Tamim was educated at schools in England and then graduated from Sandhurst, Britain’s prestigious military academy and alma mater for many Middle Eastern leaders.

His two wives include Sheikha Anoud bint Mana al-Hajri, a member of a prominent Qatari family. He has six children. — AP

Business

StanChart banker Nelson to take helm at Dubai’s ENBD Page 22 German election puts Europe’s hopes on ice Page 23

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

BMW ME reaches 1m fans on Facebook

Kuwait: Employment in private sector sees rise

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NEW DELHI: Managing director and chief executive officer of Mercedes-Benz India Eberhard Kern poses with the newly launched E Class model of Mercedes-Benz yesterday. Car sales in India slid by over 12 percent in May, data showed, marking an unprecedented seventh straight month of decline, and an industry body warned that layoffs loomed in the once-booming sector. — AFP

Fuel-short Egypt faces long, hot summer Egypt cuts back on gas exports, grapples with imports CAIRO: A gift of gas to Egypt from tiny Qatar shows just how tough this summer is shaping up to be for the government in Cairo, facing a funding crunch and power cuts as it struggles to contain explosive public discontent. Daily blackouts have darkened homes and businesses across the country over the past few weeks, aggravated in recent days by an early summer heatwave that has Egyptians cranking up their air conditioners. Qatar offered five cargoes of liquefied natural gas (LNG), worth perhaps $300 million, “as a gift to the Egyptian people during the summer months”.

It is a small gesture from a Gulf ally which has already lent Egypt some $7 billion in the past year but highlights how tough times are for the 84 million Egyptians. Falling living standards since the 2011 revolt that ended six decades of military rule have led to disillusionment focused on Islamist President Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood.

Opponents have called for mass protests on June 30, the first anniversary of Morsi’s election.

The country’s budget deficit has widened, the Egyptian pound has weakened, and investors have taken fright, sending the Cairo share index on Monday to its lowest close in more than 10 months. A vicious circle of unrest and slumping tourism revenues has drained government cash reserves, leaving ministers scrambling for favours abroad, notably to maintain supplies of heavily subsidised fuel and bread that account for a quarter of all government spending.

“We will suffer this summer,” said Mohamed Shoeib, who until recently ran EGAS, the state natural gas concern, and is now a managing director at private equity firm Citadel Capital. “This will be the hardest

and most difficult and darkest summer Egypt has ever seen.” Adding to worries about energy, the month-long Muslim fast of Ramadan will begin around July 9, a time when tempers can fray as temperatures hit 40 Celsius (100 Fahrenheit) and above.

Fiscal crunch Since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, the authorities have run through more than half of Egypt’s foreign reserves, or some $20 billion. They have also borrowed billions from abroad and delayed payments to oil companies and other suppliers. Yet partly due to fuel subsidies energy consumption remains high as the state grapples to pay for imports of fuel to generate electricity. In April, Qatar and Libya extended loans worth $5 billion and Libya said it would provide another $1.2 billion in credit to buy crude oil for Egypt at world prices.

But this will only plug a portion of the country’s energy gap, and still leaves Egypt needing to find fuel on the international market, get it from ports to power plants, keep those plants running at near full capacity and deliver the electricity to consumers across a leaky power grid. This is proving difficult, with rolling blackouts throughout the country, some for up to 10 hours at a time, which prompted protests in late May, and a heatwave in early June that pushed temperatures in Cairo to 45 Celsius and compounded the problem. In some places, people blocked roads and railways to demand power - needed in many apartments to pump water. In the ancient Pharaonic capital of Luxor, local governor Ezzat Saad told Reuters that power cuts blacked out major tourist sites last month, including the 3,400-year-old temple, and he

had appealed to Cairo to prevent such incidents.

Infrastructure Successive governments have long avoided of cutting subsidies on fuel which has left Egypt, once a net exporter of energy, in need of imported gas and products including diesel, fuel oil and gasoline. The political instability of the past two years has also stalled exploration and drilling activities in Egypt’s key offshore and desert areas, reducing production at a time of rising domestic demand. It has also delayed infrastructure needed to import LNG. Currently Egypt’s two LNG terminals are equipped only for export, meaning the five Qatari cargoes are likely to be diverted to clients previously contracted to buy Egyptian gas.

Egyptian officials expect to be able to receive LNG imports by October, but industry sources say it could take up to 14 months before a floating import facility can be towed into place and connected to the country’s grid. In the meantime, Egypt has already cut back on gas exports to free up supply for its own power stations, including pipeline deliveries to Jordan. Its power plants that use fuel oil also face difficulties, including foreign suppliers that have become reluctant to offer credit terms and bottlenecks in distribution.

“Even if you have the money to import all the amounts that you need, the logistics that we have cannot cope with transporting them,” former EGAS head Shoeib said. “Since the revolution they are struggling to get fuel oil from ports to power plants,” one fuel oil trader in the region said. Last summer, during the hottest days, electricity consumption peaked at 27,000 megawatts (MW ) and

seems likely to do so again this year, pressing the power sector to its limits.

“In the summer, in Ramadan ... on some days (demand) could rise to 29,000,” Aktham Abou-Elella, undersecretary of state at the Electricity Ministry, told Reuters. “We can’t operate at more than 86 percent of capacity 27,000 is our ceiling. Anything above that we for sure need to conserve energy.” The government is hoping a public awareness campaign can help cut demand this summer.

“It could result in a reduction in consumption of 2,000 MW at least, especially setting air-conditioners at 25 degrees rather than 18 degrees and turning off unnecessary lights,” Abou-Elella said. Mosques and government buildings will be urged to save electricity, he said, adding that the ministry had agreed with energy-intensive industries to smooth out peak loads.

Some businesses have, however, have suffered shortages of energy. Mahmoud Arafat, a spokesman for the Nahda cement plant in Qena, 700 km (400 miles) south of Cairo, said it ran out of diesel on May 28, forcing it to lay off 600 workers. Another cement executive said production at major plants around the capital has fallen by half for lack of fuel.

In the Mediterranean port of Damietta, a major furniture-making centre, hundreds of people staged a sit-in outside the local power station last month in protest over repeated blackouts that had disrupted factories for days. At the Electricity Ministry, Abou-Elella estimated that blackouts might last no more than an hour a day but hoped the government plans to manage demand would work.

“If all these attempts succeed, we should have an acceptable summer,” he said. “We should not have black-outs.” —Reuters

Indian jewelers join govt drive to cut gold buying MUMBAI: India’s biggest jewelers’ association has asked members to stop selling gold bars and coins, about 35 percent of their business, adding its weight to government efforts to cut gold imports and stem a swelling current account deficit. The call by the All India Gems and Jewelry Trade Federation (AIGJTF), which represents about 90 percent of jewelers, comes just days after financial services company Reliance Capital halted sales of its goldbacked funds.

“As a responsible trade body, we have requested our retailers not to sell gold coins or bars. We need to help the government to solve the CAD (current account deficit) problem,” said Haresh Soni, chairman of the AIGJTF, which has more than 40,000 members. India is the world’s biggest gold buyer, and soaring imports have sent its current account to a record deficit. New Delhi has raised the import duty on gold twice since Jan. 1, doubling it to 8 percent, and the central bank has imposed measures forcing cus-

tomers to pay up front for gold.

“We have appealed to members not to sell coins and bars till our CAD situation resolves,” Soni said. “We expect 1,500-2,000 retailers to stop sale of gold coins and bars immediately,” he added. About 30 to 35 percent of last year’s imports of 860 tonnes went into investment demand, Soni said. Most of the gold imported into India goes into making gold jewelry, traditionally part of a bride’s trousseau and dowry.

“We are safe guarding the jewelry industry ... (which) generates employment and creates revenues for the government,” he said. On Monday, shares in listed jewelrs such as Gitanjali Gems Ltd and PC Jeweler Ltd fell sharply on concerns the government measures could hit their businesses. Soni said the federation had asked the government to reduce the import duty from 8 percent to 4 percent.

Falling world prices from mid-April triggered a surge in demand globally. India’s

imports hit a record of 162 tonnes in May, more than double the average monthly import level in 2011, a record year. The government’s and central bank’s latest actions to curb buying came earlier this month, and Soni said imports in June had declined drastically. He declined to give specific figures.

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said last week imports had fallen in value to about $36 million a day from $135 million before the curbs. But the World Gold Council (WGC) estimated imports could still be 300-400 tonnes in the second quarter - almost half the total for 2012 - and the government itself said imports had exceeded 300 tonnes in April to mid-May. Domestic prices are already back near levels before the rise in the duty, which indicates demand could revive, particularly as a bountiful monsoon starts to raise hopes of increased incomes for farmers and India’s large rural community. On April 16, domestic gold futures hit a contract low of 25,270 rupees

($430) per 10 grams, and they are now trading around 26,734 rupees.

The WGC said it expected 2013 demand largely covered by imports - to be “at the higher end of our estimate of 865 to 965 tonnes”, which would be close to the record 969 tonnes of 2011. “Demand in India is price inelastic ... the fundamental reasons for gold demand in India cannot be addressed through supply restrictions,” said Somasundaram PR, managing director for India at the WGC, in an email. The WGC last month said 82 percent of Indian consumers in a survey said they thought the price of gold would increase or be stable in the next five years. Many Indians see gold as a sound investment in a country that lacks any kind of comprehensive banking system and with real interest rates stubbornly low. Over centuries, Indians have squirreled away at least 20,000 tonnes of gold - more than is stored in the vaults of the US Federal Reserve - in their quest for a safe investment. — Reuters

Bahrain approves 11% rise in 2013 budget spending DUBAI: Bahrain’s state spending is expected to jump 11 percent this year, by more than originally planned, after its parliament approved 174.2 million dinars ($462 million) in additional expenditure, official data showed.

Budget expenditure in the small non-OPEC oil exporter is now expected to total 3.62 billion dinars in 2013, up from 3.26 billion actually spent last year, according to a breakdown provided by Mahmood Almahmood, a member of parliament’s financial and economic committee.

Bahrain’s 2014 spending plan was raised by 164.5 million dinars from last November’s initial finance ministry proposal, to 3.71 billion dinars. Parliament approved the 2013-2014 budget plan on Monday. Demands within parliament for extra spending, especially to raise public sector salaries by 15 percent, a measure opposed by the cabinet, had delayed approval for several months. In the end, parliament passed the plan without the public sector pay hike, but it added rises in pension payments for both public and private sector retirees, and higher subsidies for food and other items, to the plan, Almahmood said. The plan was supported by 23 deputies, while seven rejected it and 10 were absent, he said. Finance ministry officials were not available to comment.

The tiny island state faces difficult choices between boosting state spending to support the economy in the face of political unrest, and grappling with a rising state budget deficit, by far the largest in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council as a proportion of Bahrain’s economy. Bahrain expanded its original 2012 expenditure plan by nearly 19 percent in September 2011 after protesters, inspired by revolts elsewhere in the Arab world, took to the streets of Manama demanding political reforms.

The International Monetary Fund warned in May that the island needed to reform its public finances in the medium term to avoid its debt burden becoming unsustainable. Softness in oil prices is one threat. Bahrain now expects state revenue to dip to 2.79 billion dinars in each of the years 2013 and 2014 from an actual 3.0 billion last year, based on an average budgeted oil price of $90 per barrel.

It predicts a budget deficit of 833.2 million dinars in 2013, widening to 914.4 million in the following year.

Last November’s initial budget plan had forecast shortfalls of 662.0 million dinars and 752.9 million. The actual deficit in 2012 widened sevenfold to 227 million dinars, though it was still smaller than the government’s original projection.

The oil price which the country needs to balance its budget reached a critical level of $115 per barrel in 2012, making Bahrain vulnerable to any sustained decline in oil prices, the IMF said. The country relies on output from the Abu Safa oilfield shared with Saudi Arabia - which supports Bahrain’s Sunni rulers politically - for some 70 percent of its budget revenue. Analysts believe Manama’s share of the oil could be raised if its budget runs into trouble. The IMF expects Bahrain’s fiscal deficit to widen to as much as 8.6 percent of gross domestic product in 2018 from 4.2 percent forecast for this year. —Reuters

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

BUSINESS

Sharjah’s logistics industry offers immense potential for investors SHARJAH: Sharjah’s transport and logistics sector is expected to grow at 15 per cent annually over the next four years, driven by its fast growing sea-air traffic, according to a study released by the Sharjah Investment and development Authority (Shurooq). “Transport and logistics is a very dynamic market in the Emirate, where the total market size reached Dh3.53 billion in 2012, out of which Dh1.28 billion worth is sea freight and Dh 0.7 billion is air freight, offering rewarding investment opportunities for local and foreign investors,” Marwan bin Jassim Al-Sarkal, CEO of Shurooq said.

The transport and logistics industry consists of twosub sectors, marine fright and airfreight, which have been experiencing a phenomenal growth due to major expansion plans and development projects.

Highlighting Sharjah’s promising future, Al-Sarkal said, “As a responsible investment Authority with a mandate to stimulate the Emirate’s economy, Shurooq is now focusing on expanding Sharjah’s logistics infrastructure, taking advantage of the Emirate’s strategic location between Europe and the Far East as well as its direct access to the Gulf and the Indian Ocean.”

“This geographic location has led to a unique integration of land, sea and air links, offering a gateway to 160 countries serving 2 billion consumers, thus offering unbeatable logistical, warehousing and distribution advantages for investors,” Al-Sarkal remarked.

“Capitalizing on this perfect location, the transport industry is expected to see a phenomenal growth, powered by the various mega transport projects that are currently underway, while many others are still in the pipeline,” he added.

Al-Sarkal stated that Sharjah has all the logistical advantages for being a larger player in the logistics market, where traders can take the advantage of cutting freight cost and saving on shipping time. He added that Sharjah’s transport and logistics industry is not only on the move, but is doing extremely well, boosted by increasing global and regional trade and high investor demand.

The Emirate’s economy had exhibited strong growth during the period between 2002-2009, despite the repercussions of the global financial crisis which hit the world in early 2008, driven by its open-economy polices, incentives, flexible legislation, and the state-of-the art facilities and sophisticated logistics infrastructure, he explained.

According to Shurooq’s statistics, Sharjah’s GDP registered a compound growth rate of 13 per cent between 2002 and 2009, one of the highest in the UAE, while between 2005 and 2009, its GDP per capita increased by 50 percent. Furthermore, the emirate of Sharjah is aspiring to establish itself as a leading business hub between

three continents by focusing on four key sectors, namely travel and leisure, transport and logistics, healthcare, and the environment.

“We have an open and fast growing economy; it is an economy that encourages competiveness and innovation without compromising our cultural identity and heritage,” Al-Sarkal said, adding that the logistics sector is the gateway to commerce in the Middle East, which has become one of the world’s top trading regions after

Emirate’s growing airfreight traffic, Humaid Al-Khatri, Commercial Director of Sharjah International Airport Free Zone (SAIF Zone), said, “The impressive growth of Sharjah’s air and sea freight industry is strongly driven by its unique geographic location as the only Emirate with seaports on the Arabian Gulf and the Indian Ocean.”

Sharjah has carved a niche in the sea-air traffic sector, experiencing growth rates of more than 50 per cent in the last few years,” he added. The Sharjah Free Zones

diversifying its economy into non-oil products and services. Shurooq’s CEO said that cities with greater logistics capabilities and sophisticated infrastructure tend to attract more foreign direct investment. Sharjah is on the move, which is creating an extraordinary opportunity for investors to enjoy the Emirate’s abundant business opportunities. He stressed that the Emirate has many unique characteristics and competitive advantages that make it an ideal business destination for investors from all over the world.

The logistics sector is one of the four key sectors Shurooq is now focusing on, to fuel the Emirate’s economic growth and offer new business opportunities, in order to pull more local and foreign investors into Sharjah’s thriving economy. Speaking about the

and the airport have been instrumental in helping Sharjah’s economy scale new peaks. SAIF-Zone is the fastest growing airport free zone in the region, while the international airport has gained an enviable reputation as a leading cargo hub, Al-Khatri commented.

Further expounding on Sharjah’s cargo capabilities, Dr. Ghanem Al Hajri, Chairman of Sharjah Airport Authority said, “Sharjah International Airport has been always a key landmark on the international air cargo industry map, as a result of its on-going development strategies in with regard to infrastructure, equipment, and adapting state-of-the-art cargo handling systems and procedures. Most notably the airport pioneered the introduction of the Sea-Air Cargo concept in UAE, where cargo originating from Far East is moved by sea to UAE

StanChart banker Nelson to take helm at Dubai’s ENBD

Iran looking to be major fuel exporter DUBAI: Iran hopes to become a major exporter of vehicle fuels with the opening of more plants after it moved from dependence on imports to selfsufficiency, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a state news agency yesterday.

Iran has been forced to increase its refining capacity over the past few years due to Western efforts to prevent it from importing fuel as part of wideranging sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear activities.

Refinery capacity expansions and government efforts to curb fuel use have slashed Iran’s imports over the last three years. Around 1.8 million litres a day of additional gasoline production capacity from the Lavan oil refinery, starting this week, should reduce imports further.

“Now we have no need for imports of any petroleum products. Through exploiting the Persian Gulf Star refinery in Bandar Abbas and other develop-

ports and then out of the airport to its final destinations in Europe and the USA.” Dr Ghanem went on to add, “Sea-Air Cargo has become the golden median between using prohibitively expensive direct airfreight and the often too slow sea freight, and Sharjah, with its excellent sea and air infrastructure, was instrumental in its remarkable success story in the UAE. Sharjah International Airport has also recorded the fastest cargo transfer time, with cargo offloaded from the ship, transferred to the airport, pushed forward to the aircraft, and final departure within 6 hours.”

On the topic of logistics, Ali Al-Fathi, Senior Commercial Executive at Gulftainer Company Limited spoke about the swift development taking place in Sharjah’ s logistics and transport industry, “Sharjah has a unique advantage as it is the only Emirate that has ports on the Arabian Gulf (Sharjah Container Terminal) and Indian Ocean (Khorfakkan Container Terminal).

Gulftainer, operator and manager of the two Container Terminals are able to serve the business community in Sharjah and the Northern Emirates with a fast, efficient and reliable service that saves them time and money.”

Saud Salim Al-Mazroui, Al-Hamriyah Free Zone Director of Commercial Affairs, said, “Al-Hamriyah Free Zone (HFZ) is the UAE’s second largest free zone and one of the largest free trade areas in the Middle East, making Sharjah one of the cornerstones of the UAE’s industrial development as it is the only free zone in the UAE which offers a port specialised in bulk and heavy cargo with a 14 metre deep sea port that accommodates dedicated berths for petrochemical bulk.”

Sharjah is the industrial powerhouse of the UAE, accounting for more than 40 percent of the country’s industrial GDP, he clarified. “The HFZ is growing at an impressive rate of 10 per cent annually, and the industrial area in the free zone has been expanded recently to meet the high investor demand,” Al Mazroui said. He added that Sharjah’s strategic access to both the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, makes it an ideal business destination for port operators, sea freight forwarders, shipping and cargo companies, and logistics providers.

Shurooq was established in 2009 with the aim of achieving social, cultural, environmental and economic development on the basis of Sharjah’s distinct Arab and Islamic identity, and to encourage investment by adopting the best international standards in providing quality services that help attract investors from the region and the world. Shurooq’s key mission is to provide facilities and incentives to help overcome obstacles facing investment activities in the Emirate, evaluate tourism and investment related infrastructure projects, and lay down the necessary plans to complete such projects.

ment projects we will become a big fuel exporter,” Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by state agency IRNA. “In the past the oil industry was completely dependent and all equipment was imported. Study, exploration and development was also in the hands of others,” he said, marking the inauguration of the upgraded refinery.

According to a report last week by oil ministry news service Shana, the Lavan refinery was able to produce around 1 million litres a day of gasoline before the expansion.

Further upgrade work at the refinery will also boost its diesel capacity from 1.7 million to 4 million litres, Shana reported, without giving a timeline for when the extra capacity would be ready.

Iran has rationed gasoline for private motorists since December 2010.

Shana said in March that average daily gasoline consumption in Iran averaged around 63 million litres. — Reuters

ENBD chief executive to leave at year-end DUBAI: Emirates NBD’s appointment of a senior Standard Chartered banker with Asia experience as its new group chief executive reinforces the trend of Gulf-based banks looking beyond their own region for their next growth phase. Shayne Nelson, currently based in Singapore as the British-based lender’s head of private banking, will assume the top job at Dubai’s largest lender when current CEO Rick Pudner leaves at the end of the year.

ENBD, like other large Gulf banks, is increasingly looking outside its home market to generate revenue and diversify its business in the face of strong competition and limited growth opportunities. The bank completed its first foreign purchase this month with the acquisition of the Egyptian assets of BNP Paribas and aims to make a fifth of its revenue outside the United Arab Emirates (UAE) within five years. The forthcoming CEO change wouldn’t derail ENBD’s overseas expansion, Pudner said in April.

‘Strong credentials’ “He’s done various senior roles across Standard Chartered so would come with strong credentials and a global perspective,” said a former colleague of Nelson, speaking on condition of anonymity. The

appointment of Nelson, an Asia-focused banker who has worked in the UAE previously, draws comparisons with the appointment by National Bank of Abu Dhabi of its new chief executive, fellow Australian Alex Thursby.

The neighbouring emirate’s largest lender is focused on organic growth in the Far East and Thursby led Australia and New Zealand Banking Group’s push into Asia over a six-year period before replacing long-standing CEO Michael Tomalin at NBAD. Thursby starts his new role on July 1.

Lenders in other Gulf states have also been expanding their networks outside their home region: Qatar National Bank bought Societe Generale’s Egyptian assets, Kuwait’s Burgan Bank acquired the Turkish arm of Greece’s EFG Eurobank and Commercial Bank of Qatar is buying 71 percent of Turkey’s Alternatifbank. “Banking systems in the Gulf predominantly cater to local populations, which are limited in size (excluding Saudi Arabia), so you could see some of them, particularly in Qatar, being active and doing deals,” said Timucin Engin, of Standard & Poor’s.

Return to Dubai Nelson also has local experience, having been

Standard Chartered’s regional CEO for the Middle East and North Africa and its UAE chief executive before being tapped to head its private bank in July 2010, his profile on the bank’s website said. “I think he enjoyed his stint in Dubai, so he won’t be averse to coming back. Plus ENBD is a high-profile role,” the former colleague said. Nelson’s last day at Standard Chartered will be Aug. 9, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.

A successor will be named in due course, the memo said, with his private banking responsibility being covered by Judy Hsu, global head of wealth management and priority and international banking.

Nelson was also chairman of the lender’s Islamic banking arm, which will be run temporarily by Raheel Ahmed, regional head of consumer banking, Middle East, Pakistan and Africa.

Pudner joined Emirates Bank as chief executive in early 2006. A year later the bank merged with National Bank of Dubai in one of the region’s largest tie-ups to form ENBD. He led ENBD through the latter part of Dubai’s economic boom before the emirate was hit by a collapse in its real estate market, forcing its statelinked entities to restructure billions of dollars of debt. — Reuters

EXCHANGE RATES Commercial Bank of Kuwait US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian Dollar Australian DLR Indian rupees Sri Lanka Rupee UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi riyals Omani riyals Egyptian pounds US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian dollars Danish Kroner Swedish Kroner Australian dlr Hong Kong dlr Singapore dlr Japanese yen Indian Rs/KD Sri Lanka rupee Pakistan rupee Bangladesh taka UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi Riyal/KD Omani riyals Philippine Peso

.2770000 .4310000 .3680000 .3020000 .2780000 .2940000 .0040000 .0020000 .0771240 .7513970 .3930000 .0720000 .7366120 .0370000

.2880000 .4470000 .3760000 .3170000 .2920000 .3020000 .0069000 .0035000 .0778990 .7589480 .4110000 .0770000 .7440150 .0440000

CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES .2841000 .4338920 .3707360 .3043390 .2795430 .0497330 .0443660 .2963730 .0365940 .2291130 .0029600 .0000000 .0000000 .0000000 .0000000 .0773800 .7538810 .0000000 .0757800 .7382100 .0000000

.2862000 .4370990 .3734770 .3065880 .2816100 .0501010 .0446940 .2985640 .0368650 .2308060 .0028810 .0052870 .0022880 .0029190 .0036810 .0779520 .7594530 .4048090 .0763400 .7436660 .0069870

Al-Muzaini Exchange Co. ASIAN COUNTRIES Japanese Yen Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Srilankan Rupees Nepali Rupees Singapore Dollar Hongkong Dollar Bangladesh Taka Philippine Peso

2.928 4.781 2.883 2.210 2.994 224.360 36.811 3.660 6.558

Thai Baht Malaysian ringgit Irani Riyal Irani Riyal

9.218 94.271 0.271 0.273

Omani Riyal Qatari Riyal Saudi Riyal

741.44 78.73 76.16

747.600 79.100 76.400

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd

GCC COUNTRIES Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham

74.164 78.477 741.850 758.600 77.782

ARAB COUNTRIES Egyptian Pound - Cash Egyptian Pound - Transfer Yemen Riyal/for 1000 Tunisian Dinar Jordanian Dinar Lebanese Lira/for 1000 Syrian Lier Morocco Dirham

39.200 40.140 1.332 174.460 403.330 1.916 3.103 34.274

EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 285.500 Euro 376.290 Sterling Pound 441.950 Canadian dollar 272.290 Turkish lira 146.860 Swiss Franc 306.990 Australian Dollar 263.800 US Dollar Buying 284.300

Rate for Transfer US Dollar Canadian Dollar Sterling Pound Euro Swiss Frank Bahrain Dinar UAE Dirhams Qatari Riyals Saudi Riyals Jordanian Dinar Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupees Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Pesso Cyprus pound Japanese Yen Thai Bhat Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees Malaysian Ringgit

Selling Rate 283.750 280.895 445.920 380.130 300.705 751.230 77.230 77.885 75.630 399.990 39.942 2.223 4.857 2.877 3.643 6.561 696.050 4.000 9.785 4.055 3.325 95.150

GOLD 20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

244.000 123.500 64.000

UAE Exchange Centre WLL COUNTRY Australian Dollar Canadian Dollar Swiss Franc Euro US Dollar Sterling Pound Japanese Yen Bangladesh Taka Indian Rupee Sri Lankan Rupee Nepali Rupee Pakistani Rupee UAE Dirhams Bahraini Dinar Egyptian Pound Jordanian Dinar

SELL DRAFT 266.58 275.63 310.16 377.86 285.10 441.75 2.97 3.684 4.777 2.216 2.986 2.888 77.69 758.81 40.15 405.76

SELL CASH 266.000 275.000 310.000 380.000 287.800 445.000 3.000 3.700 5.110 2.800 3.600 2.990 78.200 760.700 40.200 410.900

Bahrain Exchange Company COUNTRY British Pound Czech Korune Danish Krone Euro Norwegian Krone Scottish Pound Swedish Krona Swiss Franc Australian Dollar New Zealand Dollar Uganda Shilling Canadian Dollar Colombian Peso US Dollars Bangladesh Taka Cape Vrde Escudo Chinese Yuan Eritrea-Nakfa Guinea Franc

SELL CASH Europe 0.4333862 0.0066804 0.0465862 0.3699962 0.0436254 0.4307440 0.0395474 0.3009076 Australasia 0.2534400 0.2137168 0.0001119 America 0.2663205 0.0001452 0.2831500 Asia 0.0036301 0.0031651 0.0455360 0.0164867 0.0000443

SELLDRAFT 0.4423862 0.0186804 0.0515862 0.3774962 0.0488254 0.4382440 0.0445474 0.3079076 0.2654400 0.2237168 0.0001119 0.2753205 0.0001632 0.2853000 0.0036851 0.0033951 0.0505360 0.0195867 0.0000503

Hg Kong Dollar Indian Rupee Indonesian Rupiah Jamaican Dollars Japanese Yen Kenyan Shilling Malaysian Ringgit Nepalese Rupee Pakistan Rupee Philippine Peso Sierra Leone Singapore Dollar Sri Lankan Rupee Thai Baht Bahraini Dinar Egyptian Pound Ethiopeanbirr Ghanaian Cedi Iranian Riyal Iraqi Dinar Jordanian Dinar Kuwaiti Dinar Lebanese Pound Moroccan Dirhams Nigerian Naira Omani Riyal Qatar Riyal Saudi Riyal Sudanese Pounds Syrian Pound Tunisian Dinar UAE Dirhams Yemeni Riyal

0.0342247 0.0047508 0.0000237 0.0028506 0.0028410 0.0032714 0.0842790 0.0028596 0.0028584 0.0060597 0.0000729 0.2200755 0.0021720 0.0087723 Arab 0.7503375 0.0381014 0.0127898 0.1450613 0.0000793 0.0001778 0.3968289 1.0000000 0.0001750 0.0222390 0.0012130 0.7300286 0.0777095 0.0751467 0.0461426 0.0027430 0.1740625 0.0758409 0.0012801

0.0373247 0.0048158 0.0000289 0.0038508 0.0030210 0.0035014 0.0912790 0.0030596 0.0028984 0.0065297 0.0000759 0.2260755 0.0022140 0.0093723 0.7588375 0.0401314 0.0192898 0.1468513 0.0000798 0.0002378 0.4043289 1.0000000 0.0001950 0.0462390 0.0018480 0.7410286 0.0784925 0.0757867 0.0466926 0.0029630 0.1800625 0.0772909 0.0013801

Al Mulla Exchange Currency US Dollar Euro Pound Sterling Canadian Dollar Japanese Yen Indian Rupee Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupee Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso Pakistan Rupee Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham Saudi Riyal *Rates are subject to change

Transfer Rate (Per 1000) 284.920 376.550 442.150 273.250 2.965 4.780 40.120 2.209 3.657 6.523 2.883 758.650 77.600 76.100

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

BUSINESS

Kuwait: Employment in private sector sees rise Employment growth improves among Kuwaitis, expats NBK ECONOMIC UPDATE

This handout combo made of pictures from the Iotornose.it website shows Italian surgeon Ciro Mastroianni (left) and Italian lawyer Natascia Musardo. — AFP

‘Dear Italy, I have left, but would return if...’

MILAN: As thousands of Italians leave the country to look for work elsewhere, one young journalist’s blog claims to offer “a megaphone for this generation,” a voice to all those who profess to be ready to return “if...”. From disenchanted rants to nostalgic laments, feedback from young film directors, researchers and doctors in New York, France and Germany are published by Antonio Siragusa on his blog “iotornose.it” (“I’ll come back, if...”). “They have an interesting point of view on Italy, which is not heard enough. They can propose changes inspired by the countries where they are living better lives,” the 28-year-old blogger from Caserte, near Naples in southern Italy, told AFP. “The situation is dramatic. As a precarious worker, I feel it personally,” said Siragusa, who began the blog after his brother, cousins and friends began to emigrate, and does not rule out packing his cases too “if nothing changes”. The stories on his blog speak of a country stuck in a two-year recession, where anti-crisis austerity programmes have squeezed ordinary Italians hard, but they also denounce a deep-seated culture of nepotism and corruption.

“I would like to return to Italy because the quality of life is better... but here I get a salary I could never dream of back home and my work is appreciated,” said Michela Pascucci, 27, who works for PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Brussels.

Natascia Musardo, 28, studying for a doctorate in law at Mainz University in Germany, said: “I’d return, even if I had to earn half as much, if there was a decent job to go to.”

“I’d come back if, to achieve things, I was not forced to make frustrating or illegal compromises; if I was able, by investing time and energy, to obtain my goals without being someone’s “daughter”; if Italy was ready to hire me on merit and choose someone else over me if they are better than me,” she said. From 2000 to 2010, according to a survey cited by La Stampa newspaper, 316,000 Italians between 25 and 37-years-old with university degrees emigrated, the majority heading for Germany, followed by Britain, France and the United States.

Confindustria business association head Giorgio Squinzi said this month that Italy

had spent five billion euros ($6.5 billion) on educating those now working abroad, sardonically adding: “our incredulous competitors thank us for this precious gift.” Gabriele Scoditti, a 28-year-old project controller in San Francisco, says on the blog: “after living abroad, especially in a place like Silicon Valley, you can see how, while returning to Italy is possible, the price to pay is high.”

“If you do it, you do it for your heart, not for your career,” he said. The euro-zone’s third largest economy did worse than thought in the first quarter of this year, shrinking by 0.6 percent, and the national unemployment rate in April rose to 12 percent. The brain drain phenomenon is not new to Italy, but the issue has been exacerbated over the last few months, with youth unemployment reaching 40.5 percent in April, sparking promises of government action.

Prime Minister Enrico Letta earlier this month apologised to the country’s young for letting them down, saying: “the biggest debt that we are accumulating... is towards the young people, which is an unforgivable mistake.” He vowed to push for action to “free up the energy of a country stifled by privileges, bureaucracy and conservatism”.

Letta has also been at the forefront of calls for EU leaders to take immediate measures to boost job creation when they meet tomorrow and Friday. The Italian government is set to unveil next week a series of measures for tackling unemployment, such as tax breaks for firms hiring young people, but many-including the thousands of protesters who took to the streets of Rome last weekend-say enough is not being done.

“Letta must do more than say sorry. We need a very courageous policy. Nobody has done anything about it in twenty years,” said Gianluca Spina, president of Milan’s business school MIP. Italy’s taxes are “excessive on payrolls and too low on property,” he said. “We cannot cut taxes but we can shift them. Such measures would be difficult to implement, however, because Silvio Berlusconi’s right is very against the idea of a property tax.” At the moment, Italy “is a country which exports brains and imports muscles. “It has become a country of emigration once more, but unlike previous waves driven by the lower classes, this is an ‘emigration of talent’,” Spina said. —AFP

China central bank soothes after plunge SHANGHAI: China’s central bank said yesterday it saw an end to a liquidity crisis and offered to support banks, after stocks closed at a level unseen since the global financial crisis in 2009. For more than two weeks, funds have been in short supply on China’s interbank market and the interest rates banks charge to lend to each other have surged to record highs. Instead of pumping money into the system, the central People’s Bank of China (PBoC) had stood by, as recently as Monday ruling out providing fresh cash and ordering banks to put their financial houses in order. After China’s financial markets closed yesterday, the central bank sought to ease the worries of domestic and international investors.

“Interest rate fluctuations and the situation of tight liquidity will gradually ease,” the bank said in a statement. It added it had already offered funds to financial institutions and would continue to do so, but gave no details. Analysts have warned the liquidity squeeze was raising the risk of a hard landing for the world’s second largest economy.

“If prolonged, this may lead to a credit crunch to the real economy, risking a hard landing scenario in China,” ANZ Banking Group said in a research report yesterday.

The liquidity tightness could persist to midJuly, analysts said. “The longer this goes on, there’s a risk that it could feed into the price of credit going into the real economy,” said Paul Gruenwald, chief economist for the Asia-Pacific region for ratings agency Standard & Poor’s.

“But for now, we don’t see a measurable macro (economic) impact,” he told a conference call with financial analysts and journalists. Analysts said the policy of the central bank stemmed from worries over financial risk from loosely regulated wealth management products and the vast “shadow banking” system. China’s stock investors have responded poorly to the moves.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index ended down 0.19 percent yesterday at the lowest closing level since January, 2009. The index tumbled as much as 5.79 percent in afternoon trading before rebounding on bargain-hunting. The market closed down 5.30 percent on Monday.

“The situation with tight liquidity conditions has not improved,” Zhang Yanbing, an analyst at Zheshang Securities, told AFP. “The market is still anxiously waiting for authorities to improve liquidity conditions and stabilise the stock market,” he said. But in a stern warning for China’s 170 million stock investors, the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, the People’s Daily, warned the government would not play “wet nurse”. “The securities regulatory commission is not the stock market’s ‘wet nurse’ nor is the central bank,” the influential newspaper said in a commentary. “Socalled market-saving and market-boosting acts will not help the stock market, rather they will harm the market,” it said. The handling of the liquidity squeeze has put the credibility of China’s new leaders on the line as they try to control financial risks while at the same time keeping economic growth on track.

“The liquidity squeeze is the first real economic test for China’s new leaders to prove their willingness to overcome tough economic issues not with words, but by their actions,” said Zhang Zhiwei, a Hong Kong-based economist for Nomura Securities. “If the new leaders maintain their current approach... it will add downside risk to growth in 2013,” he said in a research report, though he added it would help make growth more sustainable in the long term. China has set its annual economic growth target at 7.5 percent for all of this year. The country’s economy, a crucial driver of global growth, expanded 7.8 percent in 2012, its worst performance in 13 years. — AFP

KUWAIT: Population growth gained pace in 2012 boosted by a more solid increase in expatriate numbers as hiring in the private sector picked up. By contrast, the population of Kuwaiti nationals saw its growth moderate, reflecting an ageing trend seen over the past two decades.

Kuwait’s population grew by 3.4 percent in 2012 to end the year at 3.82 million.

While general employment growth was stable during the year, it appeared to strengthen somewhat in the private sector. More Kuwaitis obtained employment in the private sector than the prior year. Meanwhile, in line with an improving economy, private sector growth boosted expatriate job growth, particularly in unskilled employment.

Kuwaiti population growth continues to moderate The population of Kuwaiti nationals grew by 2.5 percent during 2012 to reach 1.21 million.

This was the slowest rate of growth on record, with the slowing trend reflecting Kuwait’s aging population. On average, Kuwaiti nationals are tending to choose smaller families and are often delaying having children.

Despite the aging trend, the Kuwaiti population is still youthful by global standards. Over a third of Kuwaitis are under 15 years of age. In the last decade, this share has fallen from 41 percent to 37 percent. This compares to a global world average of 27 percent and an average for wealthy economies of 22 percent.

The number of births among Kuwaitis peaked in early 2011. Monthly births per 1,000 women aged 20-45 has declined from 14.8 in 2005, to 13.2 at the end of 2011. This ratio is likely to continue to fall in the coming years.

Kuwait’s expatriate population increased to 2.61 million by the end of 2012, 3.9 percent higher than a year before. The proportion of non-Kuwaitis has remained mostly unchanged since 2007. Before that, it had climbed relatively

quickly from 62 percent in 2001. The growth of the expatriate population has been accelerating moderately since the economic slowdown in 2008 and 2009, but has not returned to the pace seen in the years before the financial crisis when it averaged 8.5 percent annually.

Employment growth in 2012 Overall employment in Kuwait grew by 3.2 percent in 2012, a pace similar to 2011. Total employment reached 2.25 million, 83 percent of which were expatriates. Kuwaiti nationals accounted for only 17 percent of employment.

This ratio has improved since 2007 when it stood at 15%.

Kuwaiti civilian job growth has been somewhat more rapid recording an increase of 4.4 percent in 2012, with a net increase of jobs of over 12,300. Annual job growth has been roughly similar over the last three years following the economic slowdown.

Job growth in the private sector strengthened in 2012. Nearly 3,000 more Kuwaitis worked in the private sector at the end of the year than did at the start. Employment growth in this sector accelerated to 5.9 percent from 1.7 percent the year before. Still, the proportion of Kuwaitis working in the private sector remained mostly stable at 18 percent.

By contrast, the government sector generated fewer new civilian jobs in 2012. The net increase in civilian employment in this sector reached 8,500, down from 9,750 the year before.

Still, the government continued to employ over 76 percent of Kuwaitis working in civilian positions, a ratio which has been relatively stable since 2008. The oil sector, which is also largely government owned, accounts for another 5 percent.

Labor participation rate among Kuwaiti women rising One of the notable trends visible over the last

two decades has been the increasing role of women in the labor market. This trend continued in 2012 with the proportion of 30-34 yearold women in employment rising to 84 percent by the end of 2012. Ten years before, this ratio stood at 59%. By comparison, men have a participation rate of 92 percent.

Expatriate employment picked up in 2012 The year saw a further improvement in job growth among expatriates, which has been on a recovering trend since the economic slowdown in 2008 and 2009. The non-Kuwaiti workforce rose by 3.3 percent in 2012, a net increase of nearly 60,000 jobs. The vast majority of these new jobs were in unskilled positions in the private sector.

At the end of 2012, 1.86 million expatriates worked in Kuwait. Nearly half were unskilled workers employed in the private sector. Another 30 percent were domestic workers. Only around 15 percent of the expatriate workforce was made up of skilled employees in the private sector. Meanwhile, the remaining 7 percent were employed in the government sector.

The year saw a small pickup in the growth of skilled expatriates working in the private sector, though the pace remained modest at 1.4 percent. Skilled jobs in the private sector, which rose to 276,000, continued to be under pressure from a modest economic recovery and increasing Kuwaitization. Meanwhile, unskilled job growth topped 6.7 percent in 2012.

Employment growth is expected to continue to pick up in the coming period especially as economic growth accelerates in the non-oil economy. Private sector employment in particular is likely to pick up steam resulting in job growth for both Kuwaitis and expatriates. This will help reduce the burden on government hiring. It will also help generate further economic growth as higher income jobs increase in the country.

German election puts Europe’s hopes on ice BRUSSELS: For the best part of a year, the minds of European policymakers have focused on one overriding issue - banking union. By establishing stricter oversight of Europe’s banking sector and a unified system for dealing with any problems, they hope to draw a line under more than three years of debt and economic turmoil by separating countries from their banks.

For months, a summit of EU leaders on June 27-28 was flagged by officials as an important ‘landmark’ on the road towards a fully fledged banking union. But it now looks more likely to produce a letdown than a breakthrough.

There are unlikely to be any significant decisions given upcoming German elections, continued disagreement over how banking problems should best be resolved and the fact that financial markets are no longer exerting the same pressure. “We’re in a holding pattern until after the German elections in September,” said a senior diplomat involved in preparing files for the summit. “Nothing controversial can happen until then, at least in terms of economic policy.”

Ever since banking union started to take shape in mid-2012, Germany has been wary of it. It is concerned that as the currency

union’s largest and most powerful economy, it will end up on the hook for other countries’ debts if a single, EU-wide system for sorting out problems is put in place.

Combined with German frustration at having to bail out weaker eurozone members including Greece and Portugal, it is not surprising Chancellor Angela Merkel wants to keep any banking union controversies out of the debate ahead of the Sept. 22 vote, when she will bid for a third term.

She is being helped by the inability of EU finance ministers to agree on how best to go about cleaning up bad banks. Nearly 20 hours of meetings in Luxembourg last Friday again failed to reach a deal. As a result, the ThursdayFriday summit will focus on youth unemployment and the need to reinvigorate growth in the EU worthy goals but ones that some leaders feel are a distraction.

“If we don’t discuss a common resolution of banks in crisis at the next meeting, I have a feeling that the December 2013 deadline for this will also not be met,” Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta said last week. While other countries such as Finland, France and the Netherlands share Italy’s concerns about a delay, there is little sign the

slowdown is having an effect on financial markets, where minds are more occupied by central bank policy in the United States, Japan and at the European Central Bank.

“Market sentiment is really of the view that banking union will come at some point in time, it’s a mid-range goal,” said Carsten Brzeski, an economist with ING Bank in Brussels. “In that respect, Merkel has prevailed. Muddling through has become an accepted and successful policy strategy.

Europe is muddling through in very small steps.”

The danger is that muddling through becomes complacency or procrastination. If concrete progress on banking union - originally conceived of as a three-step process involving a single supervisor, a single resolution mechanism and a single bank deposit-guarantee scheme - is put off until after the German election, the chances are that nothing will happen until mid-2014 or later. It takes around six weeks to form a coalition in Germany, which means the next EU leaders’ summit in October will come too soon to deal with the outstanding issues, and it is unlikely much progress can be made before the December EU gathering either, officials acknowledge.

Then early 2014 will be dominated by campaigning for the European Parliament elections in May. If the anti-EU vote turns out to be strong, as expected, it will complicate the appointment of a new president of the European Commission, a process in which the parliament has an increased say.

Policymakers may have to wait until after that process is complete, and perhaps until a new Commission is in place, before they can seriously crack on with implementing banking union. “Europe is probably capable of making steady, but incremental, progress without an overarching vision for the next few years,” said Alex White, an economist with JP Morgan, playing down the prospect of any progress at the summit. “Leaders look increasingly unlikely to do much that is both additive and transformative for the region in the near term.” While that may be acceptable, it doesn’t come without risks. If the anti-EU vote in next May’s elections is particularly strong, and it therefore proves very difficult to appoint new presidents to the European institutions, the EU could find itself in a power vacuum while also not having made any progress on sorting out its banks - one of the origins of the crisis. — Reuters

Irish outrage grows over ‘arrogant’ failed bank DUBLIN: Ireland’s deputy prime minister laid in to “arrogant” executives yesterday at a failed bank who mocked government efforts to tackle an economic crisis, amid growing public outrage at the latest revelations in tapes of bank executive phone calls. The revelations were seen as potentially damaging to Ireland’s efforts to obtain concessions from the European Union on the terms of a bank rescue that pushed it to an 85-billion-euro ($111 billion) bailout.

The bank eventually cost taxpayers some 30 billion euros during the financial crisis, almost one-fifth of the country’s annual output, and three former executives - not including Bowe - will go on trial next year on fraud charges. “I mean the degree of arrogance, the degree of hubris, the degree of couldn’t-care-less-about-the-taxpayer, about the Irish people, that seemed to be part and parcel of the culture of that bank,” deputy prime minister Eamon Gilmore said.

In Dublin, the story dominated television and radio news for a second day, with almost all national papers splashing the story on their front pages. “How come nobody’s in jail?” read the lead headline in the Irish Sun. The Irish Independent released more details including Bowe singing the German national anthem and laughing as he discussed the prospect of German money flowing in after the guarantee on deposits.

“There is a lot of latent anger about this issue,” said Eoin O’Malley, a lecturer in politics at Dublin City University. “Most of us must have known - but now you can hear them commenting and you can hear the tone.” Many Irish have had their salaries cut by 20 percent or more in order to meet fiscal deficit targets as part of the loan guarantees for the country’s international bailout. The unemployment rate has trebled since the crisis to 14 percent after the bank-and-land speculation property bubble burst. The 2008 blanket guarantee on bank liabilities led to an 85 billion euro IMF/EU bailout and provoked widespread anger in the country of 4.6 million.

“These guys in the banks lose billions and nothing ever happens,” said Noel Newman, a 78-year-old retiree in Dublin. “On the tape they were laughing, joking. The way they said it was disgusting. Unbelievable.” Bowe and another executive, consumer banking chief Peter Fitzgerald, said they regretted the conversation but denied any wrongdoing or intention to mislead the central bank. —Reuters

BARCELONA: A member of the Mortgage Victims’ Platform (PAH) protests against evictions yesterday. —AP

Spain short-term borrowing costs soar MADRID: Spanish short-term borrowing costs rose sharply yesterday, reflecting market concerns over China and over US monetary policy which Spain’s finance minister said posed a risk to its economic recovery. The Spanish treasury said it raised 3.075 billion euros ($4.03 billion) in sovereign bills of three and nine months’ maturity on Tuesday, surpassing its target of two to three billion euros.

But the rate of return demanded by investors rose compared to the last comparable sale on May 21 — a sign of weakened confidence in Spain’s financial strength.

The rate nearly tripled on the three-month bill, rising to 0.869 percent from 0.331 percent. On the nine-month bill the rate rose to 1.441 percent from 0.789 percent. Spain, the euro-zone’s fourth-biggest economy, has seen its borrowing costs generally ease this year after it resisted pressure to reach out for a sovereign bailout in 2012. “The Spanish treasury’s situation is much more comfortable now than what it was just a few months ago,”

said Finance Minister Luis de Guindos at an economic conference on Tuesday ahead of the sale. But analysts’ warnings over China’s economic growth and its banks, plus the looming withdrawal of monetary stimulus measures by the US Federal Reserve, caused European stock markets to slump on Monday.

“Times of change in direction in monetary policy are always delicate,” Guindos warned.

“They introduce volatility in the capital markets, which if not duly controlled can derail the recovery that we are undergoing.” Spain’s soaring borrowing costs last year raised fears for the overall stability of the euro-zone.

“Europe is no longer a problem for financial stability. It is no longer in the eye of the storm,” Guindos said on Tuesday, however. He said that Spain’s economic output and employment figures would improve in the current quarter. “The question now is not whether the Spanish economy is going to recover. The fundamental question is how strong the recovery is going to be.” — AFP

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

BUSINESS

Honda Alghanim’s Service Center launches summer offer KUWAIT: Due to its dedication to providing its customers with exceptional offers and quality services, Honda Alghanim has announced the launch of its exclusive summer promotion for all Honda vehicles under warranty. The promotion includes a KD 50 voucher that could be traded in for any of Honda’s genuine spare parts, accessories or comprehensive vehicle maintenance services.

All Honda vehicles under warranty are welcome to Honda’s all new service center in Shuwaikh that is located beside Alghanim Industries and across from the Classical Car Museum so as to bene-

fit from this exclusive offer. Apart from its high quality services and products, Honda’s Alghanim service center also offers comfortable amenities including waiting lounges that have been created especially for Honda Alghanim customers, electronic games area including PS3, TV screens, lounges, family section, free wireless Internet access and massage chairs.

The exclusive offer complements the series of valuable promotions that Honda Alghanim has recently launched during the start of the summer season. Today, many offers are available at Honda Alghanim; from Honda SUV vehicles for fami-

lies to all-new Honda sedans, customers now have the freedom to choose whichever Honda suits their taste and lifestyle.

Honda Alghanim is also committed to providing its customers with flexible payment solutions, an element that furthers customers’ satisfaction with owning a Honda vehicle of their choice.

The brand new Honda Alghanim service center carries the same high standards as every international Honda service center around the world. The Honda Alghanim’s service center’s standards are further heightened by the exceptional measures Alghanim Industries has

applied to every process and service offered at the service center to achieve highest levels of customer satisfaction..

Apart from being the exclusive distributor of Honda vehicles, power products and motorcycles in Kuwait, Alghanim Motors also offers warranted spare parts and genuine Honda oils, all of which enhance a customer’s overall level of satisfaction with his/her Honda ownership experience. In order to benefit from this exclusive offer, visit the Honda Alghanim service center that is located behind Alghanim Industries and across from the Classical Car Museum in Shuwaikh.

NEW YORK: In this photo, traders gather at the post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange that handles Pfizer and Zoetis. Stock and bond prices are sinking because investors were caught off guard and alarmed by the Federal Reserve’s signal that long-term interest rates are headed higher. — AP

Unseen legacy of Europe’s crisis BRUSSELS: As the first anniversary of her graduation in eco-tourism and cultural history approaches, Linnea Borjars remains jobless and frustrated. After finishing her studies at Sweden’s Linkoping University, the 25-yearold accepted an unpaid, part-time position at Fair Travel, a non-profit group focused on human rights and tourism, hoping it would lead to a full-time job and a salary. But no such luck. When her contract ended in December, she declined the offer to stay on as an unpaid intern. Since then, dozens of applications and endless hours of networking have yielded just two interviews, despite a resume boasting a stellar academic record and a string of hard-to-obtain internships.

“I feel in some ways that I’m of no use anymore. It’s like I’m posing nude in my cover letter, begging for approval, but I just keep on getting dumped,” says Borjars, who lives a few train stops south of where young Swedes rioted last month, in part in an outcry against their miserable job prospects. Borjars’ situation is a reflection of the depth of the European economic crisis. It is not only unemployment but also underemployment including workers who are overqualified, interns who are unpaid or low-paid and parttime employees who want full-time work that has reached critical levels in many EU countries, and could leave a permanent financial and psychological mark on a generation.

The European Union’s unemployment statistics do not account for university graduates who are employed to flip hamburgers, or part-time coffee shop baristas who want to work more hours. But experts now argue that the number of people who are underemployed has become too great to ignore, and represents a huge loss of potential economic output.

Overqualified and underemployed To understand where underemployment fits in, it is worth looking at how the EU’s statistics break down. Last December, the most recent full figures available, 25 million of the EU’s workforce of 240 million were unemployed and actively looking for jobs, producing an unemployment rate of 11 percent. An additional 11 million were unemployed but had stopped looking or were not immediately available to start work, and were therefore not classified as unemployed. Adding them to the total would bump the jobless rate up to 15 percent.

Then there were more than 9 million parttime workers who wanted to work more hours but had no opportunity to do so - they were counted as employed but felt underemployed. And finally there were those who were overqualified for their jobs and might well have been making more money elsewhere if they had found the right match for their skills.

There is no specific figure for the overqualified, but a study published in 2011 by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, a club of wealthy nations, estimated that they may number as many as 65 million in the European Union, or more than a quarter of the total workforce. Daniel Feldman, a professor in management at the University of Georgia and a specialist in underemployment, puts the cost of unrealised economic output in larger EU member states from the under-use of skills in the tens of billions of euros.

While European politicians are focused on the deepening scourge of youth unemployment, which in countries such as Greece and Spain has topped 50 percent, they are also starkly aware of the threat from underemployment. Getting people into their first job is one thing - and will be the focus of discussion among EU leaders at a summit in Brussels on June 27-28. But ensuring that those who have jobs are properly or fully employed, especially at a time when there are 2 million vacancies across Europe, is also critical.

Whether in the Netherlands, Belgium or Austria, which have a tradition of job-sharing, or in southern Europe and Scandinavia, where it is much less common, the number of people who work part-time, increasingly against their will, is soaring. A fifth of the EU’s workforce is now registered as part-time, up from 16 percent in a decade.

Lost generation?

“The situation in Spain is terrible. In the Starbucks where I work, they look for people to work 10 hours per week,” said Laura Higueras, 24, who studied chemistry at Universidad Autonoma in Madrid. “I have

friends in Germany and Austria who work as engineers and chemists. In Spain, if you work at a Starbucks, you are lucky.” Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, says Europe has not had such a well-educated generation since World War Two, especially in countries like Italy and Spain.

“Their parents invested a lot of money in the education of their children, everything they did was right,” the German Socialist told Reuters in an interview earlier this year. “And now that they are ready to work, society says: ‘No place for you.’ We are creating a lost generation.” David Blanchflower, an economics professor at Dartmouth College in the United States, who was previously a member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee and studied unemployment figures in detail, reckons a fifth of the part-time workers in the European Union are underemployed.

In Britain, wage freezes, particularly in the public sector, have resulted in a decrease in the number of workers over 50 who choose to cut back on working hours. This hurts the young, who traditionally have picked up those hours. “ There is now a huge gap between these two groups. Before the crisis, they were equal,” Blanchflower told Reuters. “I argue that the young actually get a double whammy - they can’t get jobs, but if they do, they can’t get enough hours.”

Studies have shown that part-time work often sets people back on the pay scale, rarely includes benefits and can hinder future career advancement. While working parents may be willing to accept that trade-off, the long-term cost for young people at the dawn of their careers can be high. “If you have a large section of the job market that for a long time is dependent on short-term jobs, it can be very damaging to people’s future prospects,” said Dorothy Watson, a researcher at Dublin’s Economic and Social Research Institute.

Poverty trap Bjorn Gustafsson, a professor in the department of social work at the University of Gothenburg, sees underemployment driving people into poverty and ultimately onto welfare. “The process of becoming self-sufficient through employment is taking longer than it did before,” he said. “They get low income, low living standards and end up in poverty, and they utilise other means of income, such as welfare and health benefits.” With more and more Europeans graduating from university, many companies are additionally demanding practical experience from job applicants. This has deepened the mismatch between theoretical college programmes and the job market, and forced a growing number of young graduates to accept jobs they are academically overqualified for. Or else to study more.

In Stockholm, Linnea Borjars has filed an application for graduate school, but remains ambivalent about its usefulness. “It’s a dilemma - you rack up more college credits, but that doesn’t necessarily make you more employable,” she said. While unemployment is a known cause of psychological and social problems, the mental effects of underemployment are less well researched. But experts say they are equally serious.

Feldman, who has written several books examining underemployment, lists cynicism, resentment, anxiety and depression as some of the common, long-lasting side effects. “The effects are much longer-term than people think,” he said. “Even after people get reemployed in better jobs, they still don’t devote the same level of organisational commitment. They always keep looking over their shoulder for a better deal.” Goran Majlat, a 26year-old from Croatia, returned to his home country in 2011 after earning a business degree at the University of Minnesota in the United States.

Even with overseas academic credentials, finding a job proved to be tough. Majlat went unemployed for seven months, adding to Croatia’s 35 percent youth unemployment. “I went through all seven stages of depression and couldn’t get out of my house. You need money for everything - to drive, drink coffee and all that. It was terrible, “ Majlat said.

He was eventually hired as a bell boy at a local hotel, but was let go after the summer.

After another nine months without a job, he found a position as a sales representative and also works greeting holidaymakers at a yacht firm. The latter is “unglamorous but easy”, he says. “But you are lucky if you have a job - any job.” — Reuters

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

BUSINESS

BMW Middle East becomes first automotive brand in region to reach 1m fans on Facebook DUBAI: BMW Group Middle East has reached 1,000,000 Facebook fans - the only automotive brand in the region to reach this milestone. This landmark comes less than three years after the world’s most successful premium automotive company launched its popular Facebook page in the Middle East in November, 2010. The pace of its growth has accelerated rapidly, with the fan base continuously growing affirmation of the increasing popularity and success of the BMW brand in the region. The majority of BMW Middle East Facebook fans are from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Lebanon.

Facebook continues to be an overwhelmingly dominant force in the Middle East’s social space.

According to a recent Arab Social Media Report by the Dubai School of Government, there are approximately 43 million facebook users in the Arab world, which is the equivalent of one third of the region’s total population. There is also growing reliance on technology signaling an increasing shift to mobile commerce. According to the Luxury Institute, one in three consumers own a tablet or e-reader. “People in the Arab world trust news shared by peers on social media platforms such as Facebook over mainstream

media reports. As such, we recognise the significant social and cultural impact of digital networks and the importance of including it within our marketing strategy,” said Michael Keller, Marketing Manager at BMW Group Middle East.

“We always strive to launch creative and unique digital marketing campaigns, which connect and engage customers with our brand, and create standout against competitors. Our strategy is obviously the right one as demonstrated in this milestone achievement.”

Model launches have proven to be big contributors when it comes to increasing “Likes” as it offers fans exclusive images and insights of the new models as well as conversations.

This forms part of a detailed content strategy which focuses on delivering high quality posts, offering product previews and allowing customers to book test drives through the Facebook page’s application.

The one million mark achievement is testament to the success and increasing popularity of the world’s most successful premium automotive brand here in the Middle East, with a record 24 per cent increase in sales for January - May 2013.

Japan’s ANA, AirAsia to dissolve budget carrier ANA to launch new budget brand in November

WASHINGTON: In this file photo, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke speaks during a news conference. — AP

Cash hard to raise as US Fed jars credit markets NEW YORK: Prospective borrowers ranging from US companies to county governments on Monday shelved a raft of deals to raise new capital or refinance debt as a suddenly uncertain interest rate environment dented demand. In the municipal bond market, half a dozen deals aimed at raising collectively more than $300 million were postponed, while several companies pulled plans to refinance syndicated bank loans. Corporate bonds, meanwhile, passed a fourth day with no deals brought to market, either in the risky high-yield sector or the safer investment-grade sphere.

Raising capital has been challenging to say the least since last Wednesday when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sent interest rates soaring by outlining a plan to wind down the central bank’s massive stimulus program. Known as quantitative easing and consisting of $85 billion a month in bond purchases, the program was instrumental in a rally of bonds, equities and commodities, and had driven interest rates to record lows. But since Bernanke’s comments last week, the yield on the benchmark 10year US Treasury Note has shot up 37 basis points, briefly touching a two-year high of 2.67 percent on Monday. “ We need to have panic selling (in Treasuries) out of the way and a stable level on the 10-year Treasury,” before the newissue market can return, said Scott Schulte, senior investment-grade corporate bond syndicate manager at Citigroup. That needs to be followed by borrowers willing to sell bonds at higher yields than they had to under the Fed’s easy-money regime.

Corporate bonds had been flying off the shelves until recently as companies looked to refinance at record low rates and yield-hungry investors were ready to sign checks. Since Bernanke first floated the notion last month of a pull back from bond buying, corporate bonds have fallen hard and are now down for the year by 3.74 percent on a total return

basis, according to the Barclays investmentgrade index.

“The level to which investment grade corporate bonds are interest rate sensitive will certainly be an eye-opener to many total return investors when they open up their quarterly statements on June 30,” said Edward Marrinan, head of Royal Bank of Scotland’s US research. Said CrediCorp Capital CEO Christian Laub: “What we know is that we won’t see cheap financing like we did in the early half of the year.”

Municipal issues have also slowed to a crawl, with bond sales worth $331 million postponed on Monday. That brought the total value of deals shelved since mid-June to $2.6 billion. A steep price drop in the $3.7 trillion municipal bond market has lifted yields on bonds due in 10 and 30 years to levels not seen since 2011.

“Public officials do not want be the ones selling a deal at yields which result to be top of the market,” said a municipal bond analyst who declined to be named. “They prefer to wait for the market to calm down and become more stable before pushing ahead with their sales.” Loop Capital, a muni bond underwriter, recently cut its estimate for 2013 muni issuance to $360 billion from $400 billion, but Loop Managing Director Chris Mier said they may cut their forecast more if present conditions persist.

Still, the two big munis deal of the week remain on the calendar for now: $1.3 billion each from the state of Illinois and the city of Los Angeles.

In the syndicated loan market, Loan Pricing Corp, a unit of Thomson Reuters, reported that Beats Electronics, the consumer audio company founded by rapper Dr. Dre, pulled a $600 million to $650 million senior secured loan deal designed to finance a dividend recapitalization. Meanwhile, aircraft part manufacturer PRV Aerospace shelved a proposed repricing due to market conditions, sources told LPC. —Reuters

Jane Austen ‘waiting in wings’ to feature on UK banknotes LONDON: Author Jane Austen is “waiting in the wings” to become the next famous Briton to be honoured on the country’s banknotes, outgoing Bank of England governor Mervyn King said. The writer of 19th century classics such as “Pride & Prejudice”, “Sense & Sensibility” and “Emma” is already a “reserve” figure whose image could be a clear candidate to replace that of naturalist Charles Darwin on the 10-pound note when his time is up, King said yesterday.

The announcement potentially defuses criticisms of a future lack of female figures on the currency, which have been levelled at the central bank since it said in April that wartime leader Winston Churchill would feature on the fivepound note from 2016, replacing prison reformer Elizabeth Fry. Churchill and Darwin will complement economist Adam Smith and steam engine inventors Matthew Boulton and James Watt to complete the all-male line-up - other than the image of Queen Elizabeth on the overleaf.

The monarch is on one side of each of Britain’s four denominations of bank notes, while celebrated Britons take their turn for 10 to 20-year stints on the other

side. Austen would be a well-known and likely popular choice. Her novels of romance among the Regency gentry, spiced with sharp social comment, still regularly feature on bestseller and literature course reading lists, and have spawned numerous period-drama TV shows and film adaptations.

Historical women figures should be chosen as individuals rather than for their gender, King said at his final appearance as governor before parliament’s Treasury Committee. “One thing which we are quite determined to avoid is any suggestion that the five pound note in some sense be reserved for women,” he said.

The notes featuring Fry would continue to circulate for some time and although the final decision as to the identity of the next figure would be one for the incoming governor, Canadian Mark Carney, it was unlikely that there would be a time when there were no females, King said. “I think it is extremely unlikely that we should ever find ourselves in the position where there are no women among the historical figures on our banknotes. “Jane Austen is quietly waiting in the wings.” — Reuters

TOKYO: Japan’s All Nippon Airways and AirAsia said yesterday they have agreed to terminate their budget carrier joint venture as business slumped amid management clashes, dealing a blow to the country’s fledgling low-cost sector.

Malaysia-based AirAsia said AirAsia Japan would cut service by the end of October, just over a year after it started flying out of Tokyo’s Narita airport in August. “The joint venture... faced many challenges since its launch,” AirAsia said in a statement.

It cited a “fundamental difference of opinion between its shareholders on how the business should be managed from cost management to where the domestic business operations should be based”. AirAsia chief executive and founder Tony Fernandes added that “it is time for us to part ways and focus our attention on what we do best, which is running a true LCC (low-cost carrier)”. Fernandes hinted AirAsia may return to Japan, saying its brand had “resonated with Japanese customers”.

“I remain positive on the Japanese market and believe there is tremendous opportunity for an LCC to succeed,” he added. However Shinzo Shimizu, senior vice president of ANA Holdings, told a press briefing in Tokyo yesterday that the venture dissolved because “its name didn’t spread in Japan and it couldn’t make profits”.

The airline booked an operating loss of about 3.5 billion yen ($36 million), he said.

Another problem was that the carrier focused on online sales-a key strategy for AirAsia-but many Japanese travellers still book flights through travel agents, Shimizu said. “We think that there is a limit to the strategy of simply bringing AirAsia’s operation into the Japanese market,” he added ANA would launch a new budget brand in November, he said, although the airplanes leased by AirAsia Japan would be

TOKYO: All Nippon Airways (ANA) senior vice president Shinzo Shimizu (right) answers a question next to the company’s executive vice president Yoshinori Maruyama during a press conference at the company’s headquarters yesterday. — AFP staging point for the most profitable domestic returned to the Malaysian firm.

“We will announce details of which brand routes. Flying out of Narita requires a one-hour and aircraft to use, as well as routes, in July,” train ride from the city centre, a long-standing Shimizu said. News reports said a new airline headache for travellers including passengers could fly under ANA’s other budget carrier joint with AirAsia Japan and Jetstar Japan, a joint venture, Peach Aviation, which flies out of venture between JAL and Australia’s Qantas.

The Japanese aviation industry has long Osaka. AirAsia Japan was one of three budget airlines to come online in Japan over the past been notorious for sky-high landing fees and couple of years, promising to shake up a sector fuel taxes.

Another no-frills carrier, Skymark Airlines, has long controlled by ANA and rival Japan Airlines.

But a key constraint for budget carriers is struggled to offer the kind of heavily discounted that they were shut out of Haneda airport, just a fares seen in Europe and North America due to short train ride from downtown Tokyo and the high operating costs. — AFP

In Britain, attempts to cut spending fuel LONDON: When the chief enforcer for Britain’s finance ministry suggested that the army should cut spending further because it had more horses than tanks, he provoked an indignant response from one of his own colleagues in the cabinet. As Britain prepares to say who will take the pain for more cuts, the row over ceremonial horses versus tanks shows just how hard it is to trim the size of a state that the government says has been overspending for years. While the cuts have upset some voters and stoked tensions among senior members of Prime Minister David Cameron’s coalition government, the debt mountain is still rising and Britain has lost its prized triple-A credit rating for the first time since it received the rating in 1978.

For finance minister George Osborne, the row over Britain’s military horses shows the political dangers and limits of austerity just as he puts the finishing touches to his spending review announcement due on June 26. “In a department that has more horses than it has tanks, there are room for efficiency savings without affecting our overall military output,” said Danny Alexander, Osborne’s cabinet-level deputy at the Treasury.

Asked about the criticism of his horses, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond fired back in parliament: “I will probably not share with my Honourable Friend all the thoughts that I would like to offer to the Treasury and some of my colleagues.”

“While it is easy to draw attention to such things as the number of horses in the army, the moral component of our armed forces - that which links it to the great tradition of military service in this country - is a very important part of delivering military capability and is money well spent.” One lawmaker retorted that the bosses at the Treasury, Britain’s most powerful ministry, should be served with an “idiot’s guide” to Her Majesty’s armed forces to put them out of their ignorance.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said it had about 500 horses compared to around 350 tanks. The horses are used in ceremonial events such as the opening of parliament and the celebration of Queen Elizabeth’s official birthday. In what will be the fourth year since he took power promising deep spending cuts, Osborne reached deals with ministers including Hammond to secure 11.5 billion pounds ($17.70 billion) of further cuts in 2015-2016. The fate of the horses was not immediately clear.

Austerity Britain?

When Osborne arrived at the offices of the Treasury following the 2010 election, his deputy had been left a note by departing Labour treasury chief secretary Liam Byrne saying: “I’m afraid there’s no money left”. Osborne faced a budget deficit of 11 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and the UK gilt market was, in the words of Pimco’s Bill Gross, the manager of the world’s biggest bond fund, “resting on a bed of nitroglycerine” because debt was far too high.

The opposition Labour Party accuses him of damaging the economic recovery by cutting too far and too quickly, although it has pledged to keep to the spending plans for 2015-16 if it wins power in the 2015 election. After Osborne staked the reputation of the Conservative-led coalition government on reducing Britain’s debts, lower than expected tax receipts from a stagnant economy forced him to extend the budget cuts way past the 2015 election. “We are out of intensive care and our job now is to secure the recovery,” Osborne said in a BBC interview on Sunday.

“We’re going to go on taking the difficult decisions, go on cutting back spending, go on prioritising spending on the things that help the economy and cutting the spending that doesn’t.” The International Monetary Fund, long known for its support of austerity economics, has begun calling on Osborne to increase spending to boost demand. Yet the chancellor has shown no sign of relenting, at least in public.

The British state is still spending about 120 billion pounds more than it receives each year. Public sector net debt is forecast to peak at 85.6 percent of GDP in 2016-17. “Prior to the financial crisis, we had one of the lowest debt ratios of below 40 percent of GDP, so we have seen our debt ratio rise faster than our peer group,” said John Hawksworth, chief economist for the United Kingdom at PwC. “Sustained growth is harder to achieve now, and an older population will be very averse to higher inflation, so it will be a long tough job to get our debt ratio back down to pre-crisis levels of about 40 percent of GDP.” The biggest debt since World War Two has stoked a discussion about whether the taxpayer can still afford the size of state which Britons have cherished for over half a century. The post-war creation of the welfare state by Labour is taught at schools and Britain’s National Health Service is a

point of pride, celebrated at the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony as a part of what it means to be British.

Despite Osborne’s reputation for swingeing cuts, total expenditure has actually increased in nominal terms under his watch and is due to rise to 720 billion pounds in 2013-14 from 670 billion pounds in 2009-10. Osborne says the public sector was far too big and that Britain needs a tough fiscal policy to get the deficit under control so that the government can spend on health and schools.

State spending is declining as a percentage of GDP: from 47.4 percent in 2009-10 to 45.2 percent of GDP in 2013-14. But most of the cuts are still in the future, with spending projected to fall to 40.5 percent of GDP in 2017/18, near the long-term average for Britain for the past half century. Still, even achieving the cuts so far has required reducing the public sector workforce by nearly 10 percent, to 5.7 million from 6.3 million, a step Labour says holds back the economic recovery by taking money out of the economy.

Britain is cutting the army by 20,000 soldiers over this decade and its navy and air force have lost 5,000 each. Fees charged to students for university have been tripled. The police force has been cut by at least 10,000 and the Foreign Office has had to cut back embassy jobs, sell off exotic properties and cap expenses for mid-ranking diplomats.

Osborne’s hands are partly tied by pledges not to touch spending on the National Health Service and schools - which together account for a third of spending - as well as on overseas aid - a small item but one that annoys some Conservatives who think it wrong to shield aid abroad while imposing cuts at home. Some senior members of Cameron’s Conservative party say Osborne has so far failed to get a grip on the biggest target of all, 220 billion pounds ($338.5 billion) of annual “social protection” spending, nearly a third of the total and more than five times as big as the defence budget.

So far, the government has announced a cap on benefits for any one family at 26,000 pounds a year to ensure that those on state aid do not receive more than the average working family.

Tenants in state-funded social housing will be forced to pay a fee or move home if their homes are deemed too large. Those on unemployment benefit will see rises to their payments capped at 1 percent a year for three years. — Reuters

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

BUSINESS

KUWAIT: Shadi Alamah, Faisal Al-Boos and other Danat Al-Kuwait officials inaugurate the new showroom.

KUWAIT: The new and improved Danat Al-Kuwait showroom.

Hyundai Electronics, Danat Al-Kuwait state partnership KUWAIT: Hyundai Electronics Marketing and Sales Manager Shadi Alamah announced a partnership agreement between the Standards Arabia Company, the exclusive supplier of the Hyundai Electronics Brand, and the Danat Al-Kuwait Group. As per this agree-

KUWAIT: Shadi Alamah and Faisal Al-Boos are seen.

ASAR advises on KD 60m bond issuance by URC KUWAIT: ASAR - Al-Ruwayeh & Partners (ASAR), Kuwait’s leading and most prominent corporate law firm, and one of the region’s top tier firms has advised the Joint Lead Managers on the placement of a KD 60 million bond issue by United Real Estate Company (URC). The five-year bond will mature in 2018 and will be issued in two tranches, namely fixed rate bonds of KD 36.45 million, and Floating Rate Bonds of KD 23.55 million.

The fixed rate bonds bear a fixed interest at the rate of 5.75 percent per annum. The floating rate bonds bear an interest at the rate of 3.25 percent per annum over the discounted rate of the Central Bank of Kuwait, capped at 6.75 percent, in effect on the rate fixing dates. The bonds include a Kuwaiti Dinar denominated fixed income investment opportunity which will deliver regular income in the form of quarterly coupon payments with redemption at maturity of the five year term. The bonds have been rated BBB- with a positive outlook by Capital Intelligence.

Rob Little, Partner at ASAR - Al-Ruwayeh & Partners said: “We are pleased to have advised the Joint Lead Managers in relation to URC’s latest bond issue. Such transactions are crucial for the development of the local debt capital markets. We strongly believe that a fully functioning and vibrant local bond market is a key element in the development of Kuwait’s private sector, in line with the plan of developing Kuwait into a key financial center in the region. The issuance of this bond comes at an opportune time as we

Rob Little and John Cunha

witness a renewed growth of the local bonds market, more so for the real estate sector.”

John Cunha, Partner at ASAR - AlRuwayeh & Partners said: “ASAR has been consistently at the forefront in advising large organizations with their bond issuance. The firm previously advised the joint lead managers to Burgan Bank’s landmark KD 100 million (US$ 356 million) Lower Tier II Subordinated Bond Issue. The bond marked the first KD-denominated Lower Tier II subordinated bond, largest private sector KD issuance and longest tenor in Kuwaiti market to be issued by a Kuwaiti bank.

Moreover, ASAR also previously advised Kuwait Projects Company (KIPCO) with successfully completing its four year KD 80 million bond issuance.”

With dedicated offices in Kuwait and Bahrain coupled with its associated offices and relationships, ASAR provides clients across an extensive range of industry sectors with comprehensive legal advice and support for their business activities in Kuwait, across the GCC, and beyond.

ASAR has been consistently rated as the leading corporate and commercial law firm in Kuwait by many of the world’s leading and reputable legal guides such as the Chambers Global Guide, International Financial Law Review, and the Legal 500. In 2012, ASAR was named as the “Best Law Firm in Kuwait 2012” by the International Financial Law Review (IFLR), the market-leading guide for financial law firms worldwide. The firm also won the “Best Equity Deal in the Middle East” award

by IFLR during the same year.

ment the Danat Al-Kuwait Showroom for Electronics was reopened in Al-Fahaheel after undergoing redecorations in a ceremony attended by Faisal Al-Boos and other Danat Al-Kuwait officials. In a statement made to the press on the occasion of the showroom’s opening,

Alamah acknowledged the Danat Al-Kuwait group as “a pioneer in the electronics trading business with a long history in the Kuwaiti market”, and also expressed appreciation to the partnership deal that gives his company the opportunity to compete in the local market.

KUWAIT: Shadi Alamah (left) receives a commemorative plaque from Faisal Al-Boos.

Al-Riyada focuses on lucrative realty projects KUWAIT: Al-Riyada Finance & Investment Co realizes significant returns approximating 22 percent for the company and its clients of invested capital.

This significant realization of profit comes as a result of the company’s exit from its investment in Al-Liwan Mall located at the state of Kuwait - Eqaila area. The mall covers an area of 5,592 sq with total exit value of KD 30 million.

Muhanad Al-Sane, Chairman & Managing Director, stated that Al-Riyada, since inception in 2008, has focused on the achievement of its basic objectives including the provision of finance solutions for feasible and carefully selected real estate

projects with manageable risks, investment in such projects and establishing appropriate exit strategies for the company & its clients. Al-Liwan Mall (launched in the middle of 2012) is one of its achievements.

Al-Sane concluded his statement by stipulating that profits realized should be included in the 2013 results. In regards to the reasons of this exit, Al-Sane indicated that the market is full of profitable and promising investment opportunities and Al-Riyada wishes through its future vision to diversify sources of income for the company and its clients.

CFC’s ‘Askatna Al-Khamsa’ campaign in great demand KUWAIT: “Askatna Al-Khamsa” campaign that has been recently launched by Commercial Facilities Company (CFC) receives good acknowledgement from a wide range of customers who wants to purchase a car. Customers can take advantage of this offer to own a new or used car regardless of the source be it a car agent, supplier or individual by paying their four years installment in a stretched period of five years.

Speaking about the campaign, Nasser Ali Al-Mannai, Assistant Managing Director Marketing, Commercial Facilities Company said: “”Askatna Al-Khamsa” campaign is special with its role in uplifting the car sector in Kuwait.

The campaign includes new and used cars regardless of the source be it a car agent, supplier or individuals in Kuwait.”

Al-Mannai added: “We are really pleased with the huge success the campaign has achieved for being an extension of the company’s leading marketing initiatives that were previously launched. This reflects the importance of the marketing strategy that the company follows to guarantee meeting the customer’s needs and requirement at all levels in Kuwait. The campaign played a big role in contributing towards the car sales in one month since its launch which reflects the customer’s interests to

take advantage of what the “Askatna Al-Khamsa” campaign offers.”

In conclusion, Al-Mannai said: “We are moving forward in achieving more accomplishments thanks to our commitment to the best initiatives and financing solutions that focus mainly on auto financing, in addition to the highest standards of efficiency in customer service, which was a key element in the success of the campaign. We continue to make every possible effort to provide the best and latest products and services which we hope will gain the trust and satisfaction of existing and prospective customers at the same time. “ Customers can submit applications very easily at any of the company’s branches across Kuwait and through sales employees who are available in all car agencies and suppliers. In addition they can also pay monthly installments, enquire about their account balance and next installment due date through the company’s website as well as smart devices which are compatible with systems “App Store” and “Google Play that are secure and flexible hence saving time. CFC, the first leading finance company, has gained a stronger position thanks to its uniqueness in best serving its clients, quick processing of transactions and remarkable convenience.

Muhanad Al-Sane

FASTtelco launches Wi-Fi services in Al-Raya Center KUWAIT: FASTtelco, the leading internet service provider in Kuwait specialized in providing innovative internet and data communications solutions, announced that it had successfully launched its Wi-Fi services in Al-Raya Center in the framework of its plans aiming to cover all areas in Kuwait with high quality, reliable internet.

With its leading position in the Kuwaiti Internet and data communications market, FASTtelco reaffirmed its commitment to provide Internet coverage all over Kuwait thanks to its state of the art infrastructure and cutting edge Internet technology.

FASTtelco noted that installing a Wi-Fi network in Al-Raya Center illustrates its dedication to meet all the needs of its clients mainly in the commercial centers that attract a great number of people on a daily basis. FASTtelco went on and explained that offering

Abdulwahab Ahmad Al-Nakib

this Wi-Fi service in Al-Raya enables the visitors, specifically businessmen and professionals to effectively pursue their work efficiently.

Abdulwahab Ahmad Al-Nakib, Chairman and Managing Director of Al-Deera Holding, and CEO of FASTtelco, said that the company has always been eager and determined to install more Wi-Fi hotspots in key locations in Kuwait such as Al Raya Center, and revealed that it had successfully covered over 70 other locations, available and seen on FASTtelco’s dedicated page.

He confirmed that Al-Raya is a key location in Kuwait as it is an everyday destination for many visitors; AlNakib went on and noted “Our aim is to provide customers visiting public with fast reliable Internet connectivity. We are glad that we are now covering this key commercial center in Kuwait City”. On the other hand, AlRaya officials expressed their appreciation for such convenient, value added services from FASTtelco, and highlighted that hosting such reliable Wi-Fi service may in fact invest in and enhance the satisfaction of the visitors.

Al-Nakib concluded that during the last years FASTtelco has proved its capabilities in delivering highly innovative internet services in numerous important locations while assuring its quality, affirming its position among the top technological and social responsibility driven companies in the region.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

technology

In Asia, ancient writing collides with the digital age TOKYO: As a schoolboy, Akihiro Matsumura spent hundreds of hours learning the intricate Chinese characters that make up a part of written Japanese. Now, the graduate student can rely on his smartphone, tablet and laptop to remember them for him.

“Sometimes I don’t even bother to take notes in seminars. I just take out my tablet to shoot pictures of what instructors write on blackboards,” he told AFP. Like millions of people across East Asia, 23-year-old Matsumura is forgetting the pictographs and ideographs that have been used in Japan and greater China for centuries.

While some bemoan what they see as the loss of history and culture, others say the shift frees up brainpower for more useful things, like foreign languages, and even improves writing as a whole.

Naoko Matsumoto, a professor of law who heads international legal studies at the prestigious Sophia University near Tokyo, said the students in her classes now write more fluently than their predecessors. “I’m in my 40s and compared with my generation, they have more and more opportunities to write using Twitter” and other social networking services, she said.

“I think they are actually better at writing” because they write in a simple and easy-to-understand way, she said. Priorities are changing with more emphasis placed on building logical thinking strategies-a case of content becoming more important than form.

“The skill of handwriting kanji (Chinese characters) perfectly is becoming less necessary compared with earlier times,” the professor said.

Kanji developed in China as a mixture of pictographs-characters that represent a thing, like “mountain”-and ideographs-those that depict an abstract concept, like “think”.

Greater China uses only these characters-a simplified version on the mainland and the traditional form

in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Japan imported kanji some time during the first millennium to use as a writing system, despite there being no linguistic link between Japanese and Chinese. By around the 8th-9th centuries, it developed a syllabary-a system of consonant/vowel blends-called “hiragana”. Where kanji contain a meaning, but no inherent sound, each hiragana character represents a sound, but has no inherent meaning-like a letter in the Latin alphabet. Unlike the alphabet, however, each syllable only ever has one sound. A second syllabary, called “katakana”, also developed. Modern-day written Japanese is a mixture of kanji, hiragana and katakana, with an increasing amount of Western script also thrown in (known as “romaji” or Roman letters).

In both Chinese and Japanese, computer and smartphone users need only to type the pronunciation of the kanji from the constituent sounds using either the syllabary or the alphabet. They then choose one of several options offered by the device.

Very different meanings can come from the same sounds. For example, in Japanese, “shigaisen” produces “street fighting” and “ultra-violet rays”.

FORGETTING, AND REMEMBERING “It’s easy to forget even the easiest of characters,” said Zhang Wentong, an assistant at a calligraphy centre in Beijing. “Sometimes you’ve got to think for ages.

Occasionally I’ll repeatedly type the character out phonetically in my phone” until the right one pops up.

Graduate student Matsumura said his reliance on devices leaves him adrift when faced with filling in forms for repairs at the electronics shop where he works part-time.

“I sometimes can’t recall kanji on the spot while a customer is watching me,” he said. “I remember their rough shapes but can’t remember exact strokes... It’s

foggy.” Traditionalists fear that forgetting kanji means the irrevocable loss of a fundamental part of culture.

In Hong Kong, Rebecca Ko said her 11-year-old daughter uses the computer more and more, but she insists the child learn traditional characters, and sends her to a Chinese calligraphy class.

“We cannot rely too much on computers, we should be able to write... (and) we should be able to write neatly, it’s a basic thing about being Chinese,” she said. But, says Matsumura, times change and the spread of technology gives people opportunities to develop their language capability in other ways, for example allowing some to read more.

“I’m one of them. I used to listen to music blankly on trains, but I now read news and other things,” he said. Guardians of the characters say there is no evidence of any drop-off in enthusiasm.

The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation, a Kyoto-based organisation, says the number of people who take its exam every year is holding steady at around two million.

People are “increasingly using text messages rather than making phone calls”, which means they need to know which characters to use, said a spokeswoman.

And kanji characters are not falling out of favor with all younger people. Yusuke Kinouchi, a 24-yearold graduate student at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, thought children should keep learning the characters in the way they have done for hundreds of years.

Kanji provide a certain economy, he said, where one character can stand in for the sounds made by several letters in a language such as English-something particularly useful on Twitter, for example, with its 140-character limit. But beyond the economy, there is one other good reason to keep them alive, he said.

“They are beautiful.” — AFP

TOKYO: Akihiro Matsumura (left) a University student uses his tablet computer, while his friend parctices hand writing of Chinese characters on a copybook in Tokyo. Matsumura spent hundreds of hours learning the intricate Chinese characters that make up a part of written Japanese. He can rely on his smartphone, tablet and laptop to remember them for him.—AFP

Microsoft to unveil latest Windows adjustments

BEIJING: In this May 29, 2013 file photo people sit around laptop computers at a cafe in Beijing. Millions of Internet users have learned the hard way, no password is safe when hackers can, and do, pilfer them en masse from banks, email services, retailers or social media websites that fail to fully protect their servers. — AFP

‘Password fatigue’ haunts Internet masses WASHINGTON: Looking for a safe password?

You can give HQbgbiZVu9AWcqoSZm ChwgtMYTrM7HE3ObVWGepMeOsJf4iHMyNX MT1BrySA4d7 a try. Good luck memorizing it.

Sixty-three random alpha-numeric characters-in this case, generated by an online password generator-are as good as it gets when it comes to securing your virtual life.

But as millions of Internet users have learned the hard way, no password is safe when hackers can, and do, pilfer them en masse from banks, email services, retailers or social media websites that fail to fully protect their servers.

And besides, with technology growing by leaps and bounds, why does the usernameand-password formula-a relic of computing’s Jurassic era-remain the norm?

“The incredibly short answer is, it’s cheap,” said Per Thorsheim, a Norwegian online security expert and organizer of PasswordsCon, the world’s only conference dedicated to passwords, taking place in Las Vegas in July.

“If you want anything else-if you want some kind of two-factor authentication that involves using a software-based token, a hardware-based token or biometric authenticationyou need something extra,” he told AFP. “And that will cost you extra money.” Back in the beginning, it was all so easy. The very first computers were not only room-sized mainframes, but also stand-alone devices. They didn’t connect to each other, so passwords were needed only by a handful of operators who likely knew each other anyway. Then along came the Internet, binding a burgeoning number of computers, smartphones and tablets into a globe-girdling web that required some virtual means for strangers to identify each other.

Passwords have thus proliferated so much that it’s a daily struggle for users to cope with dozens of them-and not just on one personal computer, but across several devices.

There’s even a name for the syndrome: password fatigue. “People never took passwords very seriously, and then we had a number of really big password breaches,” said Marian Merritt, Internet security advocate for software provider Norton.

“As people are increasingly accessing websites from smartphones and tablets, typing passwords is becoming an ever bigger pain,” added Sarah Needham of Confident Technologies, developers of a picture-based password alternative. In a 24-nation survey last year, Norton found that 40 percent of users don’t bother with complex passwords or fail to change their passwords on a regular basis.

Rival security app firm McAfee says its research indicates that more than 60 percent of users regularly visit five to 20 websites that require passwords, and that a like-sized proportion preferred easy-to-use passwords.

The most popular passwords, infamously, are “password” and “123456,” according to Mark Burnett, whose 2005 book “Perfect Password: Selection, Protection, Authentication” was among the first on the topic.

BIOMETRICS ARE COMING Carl Windsor, director of product management at California-based network security firm Fortinet, said he once ran John the Ripper, a free program to crack passwords, through an employer’s Unix system with its consent.

Within seconds, Windsor had one-third of its passwords. Within minutes, he had another third. “I also won a bet by finding the ‘super secure’ password of a colleague in less than five minutes,” he told AFP by email.

Password alternatives are in the pipeline.

Google is toying with the idea of users tapping their devices with personalized coded finger rings or inserting unique ID cards called Yubikeys into the USB ports of their computers. —AFP

SAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft will use its annual developers conference to release a preview of Windows 8.1, a free update that promises to address some of the gripes people have with the latest version of the company’s flagship operating system.

Many of the new features have been shown off already. The Build conference, which starts today in San Francisco, will give Microsoft’s partners and other technology developers a chance to learn more about the new system and try it out. It also will give the company a chance to explain some of the reasoning behind the update and sell developers on Microsoft’s ambitions to regain relevance lost to Apple’s iPad and various devices running Google’s Android software.

There’s also speculation that Microsoft could show off a new, smaller version of its Surface tablet computers. One of the new features in Windows 8.1 is the ability to work well on smaller-screen devices. Windows 8.1 will be available as a preview starting Wednesday for anyone to download. It will be released to the general public later in the year, though a specific date hasn’t been announced.

Windows 8, which was released in October, was meant to be Microsoft’s answer to changing customer behaviors and the rise of tablet computers. The operating system emphasizes touch controls over the mouse and the keyboard, which had been the main way people have interacted with their personal computers since the 1980s. But some people have been put off by the radical makeover. Although Microsoft has said it has sold more than 100 million Windows 8 licenses so far, some analysts have blamed the lackluster response to the operating system for a steep drop in PC sales in the first three months of the year, the worst drop since tracking by outside research firms began in 1994.

Among the complaints: the lack of a Start button on the lower left corner of the screen. In previous versions of Windows, that button gave people quick access to programs, settings and other tasks. Microsoft replaced that with a tablet-style, full-screen start page, but that covered up whatever programs people were working on, and it had only favorite programs. Extra steps were needed to access less-used programs.

Settings, a search box and other functions were hidden away in a menu that had to be pulled out from the right. How to do that changed depending on whether

BOSTON: In this Thursday, Aug. 23, 2012 file photo, the Microsoft Corp. logo (left) is seen on an exterior wall of a new Microsoft store. Microsoft will use its annual developers conference to release a preview of Windows 8.1, a free update that promises to address some of the gripes people have with the latest version of the company’s flagship operating system. — AP a mouse or touch was used. And while Microsoft has encouraged people to use the new tablet-style layout, many programs - including Microsoft’s latest Office software package - are designed for the older, desktop mode. People were forced into the tablet layout when they start up the machine and had to manually switch the desktop mode each time.

Windows 8.1 will allow people to start in the desktop mode automatically. In that mode, it is restoring a button that resembles the old Start button. Although the Start button will now take people back to the new tablet-style start screen, rather than the old Start menu, the re-introduction of the familiar button may make it easier for longtime Windows users to get accustomed to the changes.

Other new features of Windows 8.1 include more options to use multiple apps. People will get more options to determine how much of the screen each app takes while showing up to four different programs,

rather than just two. The update will also offer more integrated search results, showing users previews of websites, apps and documents that are on the device, all at once.

Although Microsoft is addressing much of the criticisms with Windows, it is positioning the update as more than just a fix-up job. From its perspective, the tuneup underscores Microsoft’s evolution into a more nimble company capable of moving quickly to respond to customer feedback while also rolling out more innovations for a myriad of Windows devices smartphones, tablets or PCs. It’s crucial that Microsoft sets things right with Windows 8.1 because the outlook for the PC market keeps getting gloomier. IDC now expects PC shipments to fall by nearly 8 percent this year, worse than its previous forecast of a 1 percent dip. IDC also anticipates tablets will outsell laptop computers for the first time this year. —AP

Top award for Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 in the MRG Effitas Real-World Protection Test DUBAI: Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2013 for home users has been granted the highest 5-star award in MRG Effitas’ Real World Protection Test for Q2 2013. The solution detected and blocked 100% of all threats it faced in the test.

During testing, the experts assessed the ability of rival antivirus solutions to detect and block dangerous malware. The MRG Effitas experts deliberately selected samples of malware which an ordinary user may face while working online.

The experts from this respected research company chose malware samples with the most dangerous payloads. So the test samples included various types of backdoors (programs that can remotely control the user’s computer), financial malware (software designed to steal

financial information), ransomware, malicious programs with integrated rootkit functionality and other dangerous types of malware.

The testing was conducted on computers running Windows 7 SP 1 32 bit. These PCs were also set up with a suite of popular applications which have vulnerabilities regularly exploited by hackers. Kaspersky Lab’s product competed alongside 16 other popular security solutions.

Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 blocked every one of the 585 threats prepared for the testing, earning MRG Effitas’ highest award - 5 stars.

Only two other solutions in the trial could match Kaspersky Lab’s result.

“To receive the highest MRG Effitas award is a worthy achievement, but more than that these test results are a kind of marker which

indicates a high-quality security solution. Any protection product must be able to safeguard the user from the real and dangerous threats such as backdoors, financial malware, ransomware, rootkits, etc. A product which cannot do this can hardly be called a security solution,” said Oleg Ishanov, Director of the Anti-Malware Research Unit, Kaspersky Lab. Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 continues to collect awards in several independent Real World Protection tests. In May and April, the product demonstrated impressive effectiveness in similar tests conducted by the independent AV-Comparatives laboratory. Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 has also been highly acclaimed by other well-known testing laboratories such as AV-Test.org, Matousec.com and others.

Help at hand for those wanting to detox from technology PARIS: Tired of checking your smartphone every few minutes for new emails, likes or retweets? Do you spend more time looking at your device than chatting to your date? Are you close to a digital burn-out?

Fear not, an increasing number of options are available for those seeking to detox from technology, from wallpaper that blocks wi-fi to Internet-free holidays and software that forces you off addictive sites.

“People connect all the time, everywhere, in every position-lying down on their bed, at the restaurant, in the waiting room,” says Remy Oudghiri, a director at French polling firm Ipsos and author of a book on the subject. More and more people own devices that allow this. In the United States, over half of adults now have a smartphone, while more than a third own a tablet computer. “This sudden surge in connection possibilities, after the initial period of enthusiasm, prompts every user to reflect on how to continue to enjoy life while taking advantage of their connection. How to avoid becoming

dependent,” Oudghiri said.

French researchers have come up with one solution, creating a special type of wallpaper that blocks wifi, which materials company Ahlstrom is busy developing further with the aim of putting it on the market next year. Spokesman Robin Guillaud says there has already been significant interest in the invention. Schools in particular have made enquiries, keen to prevent students from spending too much time hooked to their smartphones.

According to an Ipsos survey, nearly a third of French people now feel the need to disconnect, with similar trends recorded in other countries.

Separate research from the same firm found that in 2006, 54 percent of the French population felt people spent less time together due to the advent of new technologies, a figure that leapt to 71 percent last year. Companies have latched onto this lassitude, particularly in the tourism industry where some hotels and resorts offer digital detox packages. The upmarket Westin hotel in Dublin, for instance, gives guests the

option to surrender their smartphones and tablets on check-in and provides them with a detox pack that includes a tree planting kit and a board game. But it comes at a price — 175 euros ($230) per person per night. Other firms are offering more in-depth packages to really get away from it all.

The US-based Digital Detox organises techfree retreats to remote places in the United States or escape destinations such as Cambodia. “Some of it is marketing”, said Thierry Crouzet, a blogger who went cold turkey and disconnected for six months. “There are loads of places that are tranquil. No need to book a tour operator that takes you to the North Pole.” The 49-year-old wrote a book about his experience called “I unplugged”, after suffering from a digital burn-out that saw him so craving technology that he would sometimes check his email, blogs and Twitter at night.

“I see a lot of blogger friends who are easing off.

Nearly everyone gradually takes breaks. We’re realising that at the end of the day, it (technology) doesn’t nourish us,” he said. —AFP

THAILAND: This picture taken on March 20, 2013 shows people looking at their smartphones while waiting for a train at a BTS station in Bangkok. — AFP

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

H E A LT H & S C I E N C E

Cuba to send doctors to work in Saudi Arabia HAVANA: Cuba will send temporary medical personnel to work in Saudi Arabia under a deal reached this week with Riyadh, officials in Havana announced. The foreign ministry said Monday that Saudi Arabia will become the latest country to receive doctors from Cuba, which contracts its medical professionals to work in nations around

the world. “The first group of Cuban doctors will work in the King Saud Medical City and at the Prince Salman Hospital, two of the most prestigious Saudi medical institutions,” it said in a statement. Cuba’s ambassador Enrique Enriquez signed the agreement on Sunday in Riyadh, the ministry said.

Officials from both countries are now

negotiating “other types of medical cooperation, which would let the Saudi health system benefit from the experience... of the public health sector in Cuba,” the statement read.

The government of President Raul Castro hopes to expand the paid program because it produces an annual income stream of $6 billion a year-an

important source of hard currency for the cash-strapped Caribbean island. As of May, Cuba had 38,870 medical personnel working abroad, including 15,407 doctors, said Yiliam Jimenez, head of the office that coordinates foreign medical cooperation.

The Cuban doctors work in 66 countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa.

Forty of the participating nations are poor countries receiving free medical assistance as par t of a program designed by former president Fidel Castro in 1998.

The remaining 26 countries-including Venezuela, China, South Africa and Algeria-pay for the medical workers’ services.—AFP

Indonesia sorry for haze, sends thousands to fight fires

INDONESIA: In this handout photograph released by the presidential palace yesterday, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono inspects government firefighting personnel during a sendoff ceremony at the Halim Perdanakusuma airport in Jakarta.—AFP

How some US states are addressing doctor shortages California A package of bills moving through the Legislature is aimed at addressing California’s medical provider gap. The legislation would allow nurse practitioners, optometrists and pharmacists to expand the types of services they can provide patients.

The proposals face heavy opposition from doctors, who favor training and placing more primary care physicians in rural and other underserved communities.

Opponents also worry such changes would create two classes of medical care - one for people who have access to doctors and another for people who don’t.

Delaware Among the steps Delaware officials have taken to address the primary care physician shortage is a loan repayment program for primary care providers who commit to work in underserved areas. The program, funded by the state and federal governments, provided more than $360,000 in loan repayments to seven primary care providers in fiscal 2013. Officials say they are looking at expanding it.

Florida Gov Rick Scott funded an additional 700 residency slots this year, but Florida will still need additional residencies and fellowships just to bring the state up to the national average per capita. Scott also recently signed into law a long-debated bill that expands the drug-prescribing powers of optometrists. The state now allows optometrists to prescribe oral medications to treat eye diseases. House Republicans repeatedly used the shortage of primary care physicians and nurses in the state as a reason not to expand Medicaid under the federal Affordable Care Act. Illinois A state medical society succeeded in killing or gutting bills this year that would have given more medical decision-making authority to psychologists, dentists and advanced-practice nurses. That included one bill that would have allowed trained dentists to give flu shots and other immunizations. The dental society plans to bring the issue to lawmakers again but focus narrowly on flu shots. The group contends dentists should be prepared to respond to a future flu pandemic. They plan to make the case that the Affordable Care Act will increase the number of patients eligible for free flu shots and that the number of professionals who can give them also should increase.

Indiana State officials and professional associations representing primary care physicians and other health providers are reviewing the state’s primary care providers and where they are concentrated. Shortly after the federal health care law was signed in 2010, state officials determined that Indiana had not been properly tracking the density of primary care physicians and needed to do a complete review, said David Roos, executive director of Covering Kids and Families of Indiana.

Kansas Efforts in Kansas to address medically underserved areas of the state began nearly a half- century ago at the University of Kansas, where a scholarship program is aimed at recruiting new physicians to start their practices in rural areas. Kansas has expanded those efforts in recent budget years, including legislation this year to increase the scope of study that would be eligible for the scholarships in return for serving in rural areas. Legislators also have expanded the laws to give pharmacists the ability to perform certain wellness functions, including administering vaccines.

Kentucky The state has not yet taken steps to deal with an influx of patients, but a recent study showed Kentucky’s 10,475 doctors were not enough to keep pace with current patient loads. A report from Deloitte Consulting said

Kentucky needs some 3,790 additional physicians, including primary care doctors and specialists, plus 612 more dentists, 5,635 more registered nurses, 296 more physician assistants and 269 more optometrists to meet current demand. The report’s recommendations included expanding the use of telemedicine, particularly to put patients in contact with specialists.

New Jersey Three bills in the New Jersey Legislature would give non-physicians more authority.

The bills would let advanced-practice nurses determine causes of death if doctors are not available, let psychologists prescribe medications and let advanced-practice nurses prescribe drugs without the same oversight required for doctors. None of the bills has gotten far, and the Medical Society of New Jersey opposes all three.

New Mexico According to a state legislative report, New Mexico residents could have trouble accessing medical care due to the potential need of 2,000 physicians, 3,000 registered nurses and as many as 800 dentists. State lawmakers didn’t act this year on a plan that would have allowed dental therapists to practice in the state. An association representing dentists opposed the measure, although supporters said therapists would help address the state’s shortage of dentists.

New York The New York health department’s 201314 budget includes $8.5 million for programs that place physicians in underserved areas. Doctors Across New York began in 2008 and has awarded $8.9 million to support practices and $7.6 million for loan repayments. So far this year, it has provided 26 awards totaling more than $2.5 million over two years.

North Dakota North Dakota has a program that reimburses family doctors for student loans up to $90,000 for a two-year commitment to work in a rural or other underserved area. A community match is required. A related program gives similar loan repayments up to $30,000 to physician assistants and nurse practitioners for a two-year-commitment to work in rural or other underserved areas, again with a community match required.

Ohio The governor wants to target graduate medical education funding toward training in primary care. Under a budget proposal still being debated, medical schools would receive about $200 million over the twoyear budget period that begins in July. The state would then work with medical deans on a plan to prioritize training in primary care services, with the idea that dollars would be more focused in that area in the 2015 budget year.

South Dakota South Dakota has a program that reimburses doctors double the University of South Dakota School of Medicine’s resident tuition for the most recent four-year-period if they agree to practice for three years in underserved rural areas. The current amount is about $138,000. A related program also gives double tuition reimbursements to physician assistants, nurse practitioners and nurse midwives who agree to practice in rural areas for three years, while a third program gives a $10,000 payment to nurses, therapists, lab professionals and others who practice in a rural area for three years.

Wisconsin So far, no Wisconsin bills have dealt specifically with increasing the number of physicians or granting medical decisionmaking authority to pharmacists and other health care workers. But the budget-writing committee of the Republican-controlled state Legislature unanimously approved a measure to shift more money toward residency programs in the state. Supporters said the bill will encourage new doctors to remain in Wisconsin.—AP

JAKARTA: Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has apologized to Singapore and Malaysia over fires that have cloaked the countries in thick haze, as thousands of emergency workers were deployed yesterday to tackle the blazes. Southeast Asia’s worst smog crisis for years pushed haze levels in Singapore to a record high last week, with residential buildings and skyscrapers shrouded and daily life for millions in the city-state dramatically affected. The smog has drifted north and is now badly affecting Malaysia, while in a badlyhit province on Indonesia’s Sumatra islandwhere the fires are raging in peatland-hundreds gathered to pray for rain.

The crisis has triggered a war of words between Jakarta and its neighbors, with an Indonesian minister accusing Singapore of acting “like a child”. But Yudhoyono sought to ease tensions by issuing a public apology late Monday. “As the president of Indonesia, I apologize for what has happened and ask for the understanding of the people of Malaysia and Singapore,” he said. “We accept it is our responsibility to tackle the problem.” Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Singapore accepted Yudhoyono’s “gracious” apology, adding: “We need a permanent solution to prevent this problem from recurring annually.”

Indonesia had previously sought to deflect blame for the crisis, saying Singaporean and Malaysian companies who own plantations on Sumatra were also responsible. But Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said late Monday the question of who owns the plantations “is not the issue here” and called on Jakarta to take action against those responsible, national news agency Bernama repor ted. Police in Riau province, where the fires are centered, said they had arrested nine people so far on suspicion of starting the blazes, all small palm oil farmers.

Smog from Sumatra is a recurring problem during the June-September dry season, when big companies and smallholders alike light fires to clear land, in a cheap but illegal method of clearing space for planting. Several big palm oil companies have been accused of lighting fires on their concessions in Sumatra, and the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) said yesterday it would investigate five of its members over the allegations.

The RSPO, which produces a sought-after certification for producers deemed sustainable, bans its members from using burning to clear land. Southeast Asia suffered its worst smog outbreak in 1997-98, which cost the region an estimated $9 billion, and was hit with a serious recurrence in 2006. Indonesia’s national disaster agency said yesterday that more than 3,000 personnel-including members of the army, air force and police-would be sent over the next two days to Riau to join some 2,300 already tackling the blazes. Firefighters are backed by helicopters and planes dropping water and attempting to chemically induce rain through cloud-seeding.

After efforts in previous days proved ineffective, cloud-seeding managed to successfully induce rains in several parts of Riau yesterday, officials said. While the smog has lifted from Singapore, which was enjoying its third straight

sunny day yesterday after the air pollution index eased from the all-time highs of last week, Malaysia is now bearing the brunt of the crisis.

Air quality was “hazardous” in two Malaysian districts, including the country’s busiest port, Port Klang on the Strait of Malacca facing Sumatra, where the readings stood at 484 midmorning yesterday.

Readings above 300 indicate “hazardous” conditions. Three other areas, mostly in central Malaysia near the capital Kuala Lumpur, logged “very unhealthy” air quality. In one Riau district almost 300 people were evacuated over the past two days as fires raged close to their houses, and in the province’s badly-hit Dumai city hundreds gathered to pray for rain. “This morning, we prayed to God for rain and for the efforts to fight the haze to be successful,” said local environment official Basri, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.—AFP

INDONESIA: This picture shows a private helicopter deployed by pulp paper and Palm Oil Company APP Sinar Mas conducting water bombing operation on forest fires in Siak regency in Riau Province, on Indonesia’s Sumatra island.—AP

Talking to teens about weight loss tied to unhealthy dieting, laxative use NEW YORK: Teens were more likely to diet and use other unhealthy measures to control their weight when their parents talked to them about losing weight or the importance of being thin, in a new study.

Conversely, family conversations about healthy eating that did not involve the topic of weight were linked to fewer unhealthy behaviors, such as laxative use and skipping meals - especially among heavier adolescents.

“It’s important to (have) conversations that focus on healthy eating as a cause for healthy bodies and strong bones, rather than a cause for weight and size,” said Jerica Berge, who led the new study at the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis. Past studies have shown that being told to diet or being teased about weight by a parent is harmful to children, she said. But that still leaves the question of what families who genuinely want to help an overweight child

should be talking about. “ They would always ask me, ‘What do I say to my kid?’” Berge said.

She and her colleagues surveyed 2,800 racially and socioeconomically diverse middle and high school students and one or both of their parents about food, weight and related conversations. Twentyeight percent of mothers of normal-weight teens said they ’d talked about healthy eating with their child, and 33 percent said they’d had conversations about weight or the need to lose weight.

That compared to 15 percent of mothers who talked solely about healthy eating with their overweight teens and 60 percent who discussed losing weight. Rates were similar for conversations initiated by fathers.

The researchers found that dieting and unhealthy eating patterns were more common among both normal weight and overweight children of parents who focused on weight. For example, 64 percent of

overweight teens whose mothers talked about weight and weight loss had used worrisome weightcontrol behaviors. That compared to 41 percent when family discussions were only about healthy eating and 53 percent when mothers didn’t discuss food or weight at all.

Likewise, 39 percent of normal weight children whose mothers brought up weight had used unhealthy behaviors, compared to 30 percent of those with mothers who emphasized being healthy, Berge’s team reported Monday in JAMA Pediatrics. “If a child is concerned about their weight and they want to talk about their weight, you want to have an open conversation with them,” said Alison Field, who studies weight and unhealthy eating at Boston Children’s Hospital but wasn’t involved in the new research.

However to have that talk with a kid who doesn’t really want to discuss weight probably won’t be helpful, she said. Because the sur-

veys represent a single point in time, Berge and her colleagues couldn’t determine whether family conversations or a teen’s dieting and unhealthy weight-control behaviors came first. Field said future studies will ideally follow teens who don’t engage in any unhealthy weight-related behaviors to see how family talks about food affect who does and doesn’t start.

Still, the researchers said, the findings suggest parents should stay away from conversations that focus on losing weight and being thin - and talk about the general impor tance of healthy eating instead. “Healthy eating conversations are not going to be harmful, and they may be helpful,” Field said. “That to me is a positive message for parents who have an overweight kid and are struggling because they don’t know what to do,” Berge added. “The best thing they can do is focus on a healthy message.”—Reuters

Japan to robustly defend whaling at ICJ TOKYO: Japan will robustly defend its whaling program at the UN’s top court this week, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said yesterday as Canberra and Tokyo ready to do battle over the legality of the hunt. A day before hearings are due to start at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Kishida said Tokyo has no intention to back down under pressure. “Japan will fully engage in the case so the country’s position and thinking will be

JAPAN: Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida speaks at a press conference after a cabinet meeting at his office in Tokyo yesterday.—AFP

understood,” he told reporters.

“Japan’s research whaling is a scientific endeavour carried out legally under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, article 8.

“Japan will make this point clearly in the hearing.”

While Norway and Iceland have commercial whaling programs, Japan insists its hunt is purely scientific, although it makes no secret of the fact that the resulting meat ends up on plates back home.

The whaling research is to prove that commercial whaling is viable. The proceeds from sales of the meat partly pay for the program. Tokyo defends the practice of eating whale meat as a culinary tradition.

Australia’s Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus will argue the case in the final week in The Hague and said Canberra would assert that “Japan’s so-called scientific whaling is contrary to its international obligations and must be brought to an end”. “For more than 20 years Australian governments have tried without success to end Japan’s whaling through diplomacy,” Dreyfus told Australian parliament yesterday. “Modern science can obtain the information we need to understand and protect whales without harming them.”

Because Japan was a “friend” of Australia, Dreyfus said the two nations had agreed that “the International Court of Justice is the best place to resolve our differences”. Japan’s Fisheries Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi vowed in February that Japan would never stop hunting whales, saying it was a “long tradition and culture” in his country. Canberra will argue before the International Court of Justice

that Japan is exploiting a loophole by continuing to hunt whales as scientific research in spite of a 1986 International Whaling Commission (IWC) ban on commercial whaling.

Australia wants ICJ judges to order Tokyo to stop its JARPA II research program and “revoke any authorizations, permits or licenses” to hunt whales in the Southern Ocean. In its application, Australia accuses Japan of breaching its obligation “to observe in good faith the zero catch limit in relation to the killing of whales.” Critics question what remains for Japan to conclude about sustainable whale populations after carrying out its research in the decades since the moratorium on international whaling was established.

Japan killed around 6,500 Antarctic minke whales between 1987 and 2005, after the moratorium came into effect, compared to 840 whales for research purposes in the 31 years prior to the moratorium, court papers said. A further 2,500 minke whales were killed between 2005 and 2009 under the JARPA II program. Minke whales are not endangered, but JARPA II also allows for the killing of endangered mammals including humpback and fin whales.

The haul from Japan’s most recent whaling mission in the Southern Ocean was a “record low”, the government said earlier this year, blaming “unforgivable sabotage” by activists. Whalers came back with just 103 Antarctic minke whales, less than half its tally last year, and no fin whales, after repeatedly clashing with militant environmentalist group Sea Shepherd.—AFP

H E A LT H & S C I E N C E

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

E-cigarette study hints at quit-aid potential NEW YORK: In a trial of e-cigarettes among Italian smokers with no desire to quit using tobacco at the outset, up to 13 percent of participants were not smoking regular cigarettes at all a year later.

Though the study was not billed as a smoking-cessation test, more than half of participants cut down on tobacco soon after they started using the e-cigarettes.

And the percentage who quit smoking entirely by the end rivals results achieved with medications, the authors note in the journal PLOS ONE. “I think the main message of the study is that we can use these products as an extraordinary tobacco control tool,” Dr Riccardo Polosa, the new study’s senior author from the University of Catania, told Reuters Health. “This really is the first clinical trial that’s ever been reported on electronic cigarettes. There has been survey evidence and anecdotal reports, but this is the first serious study,” said Dr Michael Siegel, who studies e-cigarettes but wasn’t involved in the new research.

E-cigarettes were first introduced in China in 2004. The battery-powered devices let users inhale nicotine-infused vapors, which don’t contain the harmful tar and carbon monoxide in tobacco smoke.

While past studies have looked at the use of e-cigarettes, the new study is the first to follow hundreds of smokers for an entire year. It did not, however, compare the devices to traditional nicotine replacement therapies, such as gum or patches.

To see how many e-cigarette users would cut down or quit smoking cigarettes without any encouragement, the

researchers recruited 300 people between June 2010 and February 2011. All were current smokers who stated they had no intention of quitting in the near future.

Each participant was then randomized into one of three groups. One group received e-cigarettes along with cartridges containing 7.2 milligram (mg) of nicotine. Another group also received the devices and 7.2 mg nicotine cartridges, but later in the study they were switched to 5.4 mg nicotine cartridges. And a third group got e-cigarettes and cartridges containing only tobacco flavor but no nicotine. Each participant received enough supplies to last three months and went to regular checkups throughout the year. At the end of the study, 13 percent of the group that first received the highestdose nicotine cartridges was no longer smoking. That compared to 9 percent of those who were in the reduced-nicotine group and 4 percent in the group without nicotine.

Since there was no control group of smokers who got no e-cigarettes at all, it’s hard to know how many would have quit smoking on their own by the end of a year, experts noted. Siegel, a professor at the Boston University School of Public Health, said he would expect about 2 percent of the participants to quit within a year if they weren’t involved in a study.

However, Polosa’s team also found that between 9 and 12 percent of people in each of the nicotine-cartridge groups had reduced the amount they smoked by at least half. “The study is very positive in that it shows if you smoke even a low- or medium-strength e-cigarette, you can get

some increased quitting and decreased smoking,” Dr Murray Laugesen, a tobacco and nicotine researcher who was not involved with the new study, told Reuters Health.

“It also has to be acknowledged that these are good results in people who had no intention of quitting,” said Laugesen, a public health medicine specialist at Health New Zealand Ltd in Christchurch.

He is also involved in an e-cigarette clinical trial and hopes to present the results in September. Siegel told Reuters Health that what’s attractive about e-cigarettes is they can not only provide the nicotine that smokers crave without other harmful substances; they allow people to mimic their traditional smoking behavior.

Researchers said that’s one reason why e-cigarettes might turn out to be a better form of nicotine replacement therapy than patches and gums, but there’s no data yet to prove it. “I think that’s why they... found the people who actually got no-nicotine electronic cigarettes had some sort of quitting behavior... But obviously the people who got the nicotine and the high dose of nicotine did the best.

Clearly having the nicotine and device structure is ideal,” Siegel said. But he cautioned that more research is needed especially on the long-term safety of ecigarettes and how the devices stack up against traditional smoking cessation methods. “ My advice to people is to try the traditional therapy first. But I think electronic cigarettes are for people who have tried and failed nicotine replacement therapy, which is, sadly, most people,” Siegel added.—Reuters

Deadly piglet virus spreads to nearly 200 US farm sites NEW YORK: A swine virus deadly to young pigs, and never before seen in North America, has spiked to 199 sites in 13 states - nearly double the number of farms and other locations from earlier this month. Iowa, the largest US hog producer, has the most sites testing positive for Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus: 102 sites, as of June 10. The state raises on average 30 million hogs each year, according to the Iowa Pork Producers Association.

PEDV, most often fatal to very young pigs, causes diarrhea, vomiting and dehydration. It also sickens older hogs, though their survival rate tends to be high. The total number of pig deaths from the outbreak since the first cases were confirmed May 17 is not known.

Researchers at veterinarian diagnostic labs, who are testing samples as part of a broad investigation into the outbreak, have seen a substantial increase in positive cases since early June, when data on the PEDV outbreak showed it at some 103 sites nationwide. The data was compiled and released last week

by Iowa State University, University of Minnesota, Kansas State University and South Dakota State University. The virus does not pose a health risk to humans or other animals and the meat from PEDVinfected pigs is safe for people to eat, according to federal officials and livestock economists.

But the virus, which is spreading rapidly across the United States, is proving harder to control than previously believed. In addition to Iowa, Oklahoma has 38

positive sites, Minnesota has 19 and Indiana has 10, according to the data. PEDV has also been diagnosed in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and South Dakota. Swine veterinarians, investigators with the US Agriculture Department and others are trying to determine how the virus is spreading from farm to farm and state to state. Currently the focus is on the nation’s livestock transportation system.

PEDV is spread most commonly by pigs ingesting contaminated feces. Investigators are studying physical transmission, such as truck trailers marred with contaminated feces, or a person wearing dirty boots or with dirty nails. While the virus has not tended to kill older pigs, mortality among very young pigs infected in US farms is commonly 50 percent, and can be as high at 100 percent, say veterinarians and scientists who are studying the outbreak.

The strain of the PEDV virus that is making its way across the nation’s hog farms and slaughterhouses is 99.4 percent similar in genetic structure to the PEDV that hit China’s herds last year, according to the US researchers. After PEDV was first diagnosed in China in 2010, it overran southern China and killed more than 1 million piglets, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal. No direct connection has been found between the US outbreak and previously identified outbreaks in Asia and Europe, say scientists and researchers.—Reuters

W H AT ’ S O N

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

SEND US YOUR INSTAGRAM PICS

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hat’s more fun than clicking a beautiful picture? Sharing it with others! Let other people see the way you see Kuwait - through your lens. Friday Times will feature snapshots of Kuwait through Instagram feeds. If you want to share your Instagram photos, email us at instagram@kuwaittimes.net

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.

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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 abovementioned purpose only.

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8th Expo Pakistan to commence in September he 8th Expo Pakistan will be held from Sept 26 to 29 in Karachi. Held annually, Expo Pakistan is the biggest trade fair in the country showcasing the largest collection of Pakistan’s export merchandise and services.

Foreign Exhibitors also use the event to launch their products. Expo Pakistan 2012 was visited by delegates from 52 countries and generated a business of over $ 518 million. A 16 member delegation from Kuwait including reputable companies like Al-Yasra Foods also took part in the last exhibition.

Expo Pakistan 2013 is being held under the auspices of the Trade Development Authority Pakistan. Details about the event can be viewed www.~pop~dstaii~gpy.pk. Further information and details of sponsorship can be obtained from the office of Commercial Secretary, Pakistan Embassy, Jabriya (25356594) during office hours.

The Najla Al-Naqqi Forum hosted a seminar recently discussing the aftermath of the Constitutional Court ruling and the need to honor the judgment of the Kuwaiti law. Several lawyers and political activists attended the event including Abdul-Aziz Al-Khateeb, Ahmad Al-Mulaifi, Dr Ayed Al-Manna, Yaha Al-Enizy, Hamed AlOmairi, Ahmad Al-Faresi, Dr Khalid Al-Enizy and Dr Abdul-Wahed Al-Khalfan.

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The Embassy of Russia he Embassy of Russia has launched its official page on Facebook social network which can be found by following address: http://www.facebook.com/RussianEmbassyKu wait All necessary information about Russia, bilateral relations between Russia and Kuwait and information for those who are going to apply visa can be found there. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. We’ll be happy to help you.

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IMAX IMAX film program Wednesday: ** 9:30am Showtime Available for Groups To The Arctic 3D 10:30am Tornado Alley 3D 11:30am, 6:30pm, 9:30pm Flight of Butterflies 3D 12:30pm, 7:30pm Journey to Mecca 5:30pm Born to be Wild 3D 8:30pm Thursday: ** 9:30am Showtime Available for Groups Flight of Butterflies 3D 10:30am, 5:30pm, 8:30pm Born to be Wild 3D 11:30am Tornado Alley 3D 12:30pm, 7:30pm, 9:30pm To The Arctic 3D 6:30pm

German Shepherd owners are invited to a gathering organized this Saturday by the ‘German Shepherd Group’ in Kuwait at the Mesilah Water Village. Group leader Bader Al-Sayegh announced special activities to be featured during the event which starts at 5 pm.

Meeting of company representatives with Indian ambassador

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he Ambassador of India Satish C. Mehta held a meeting on June 24, with HR Managers and Representatives of about 20 Companies employing Indian labourers in large number to discuss concerns about ongoing checking by the Kuwaiti authorities.

The ambassador briefed the company representatives about the efforts made by the Embassy of India to address the apprehension and concerns of the Indian community. Details of the help lines of Ministry of Interior and the embassy were given. A free exchange of views and an interactive question-answer session was held during the meeting which led to clarification of a number of doubts and apprehensions. During the session a few useful suggestions emerged for all companies to follow. The Ambassador urged the Company Representatives to disseminate the correct perspective to their Indian employees. He also advised the Company Representatives to set up their own English and Arabic help lines for the benefit of Indian employees in their companies.

The Ambassador urged the Company Representatives to convey to the Indian workforce to abide by the Kuwaiti laws, rules and regulations and carry Civil ID and other relevant documents such as driving license etc.

Orio Milane - your Italian dining destination

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njoy delicious Italian cuisine with a flavor that you will never forget. Experience unique Italian dishes and relish every bite. A visit to Orio Milane is a fascinating journey to savour the healthy and scrumptious Italian delights with an unparalleled service in a relaxing ambiance. Now open in Abu Halifa, Dome Mall, Besides Kuwait Magic.

W H AT ’ S O N

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

Embassy Information

Premier Goal Academy celebrates closing of successful season

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he Premier Goal Academy in association with Everton F.C. and under the sponsorship of Porsche Centre Kuwait, Behbehani Motors Company, held their Gala Presentation Evening Season 2012-13 at the Marina Hotel this week. Over 400 guests packed into the Salwa Sabah Al-Ahmad Theatre and Hall for a spectacular occasion under the Patronage of H.E. the British Ambassador, Frank Baker, which commenced with the playing of the national anthems of Kuwait and the United Kingdom. Several other Ambassadors and Embassy officials, Ministry of Education officials and special guests graced the occasion, during which over 150 glittering awards were presented to selected players, coaches and sponsors at the end of a tremendously successful season of coaching courses, matches, festivals tournaments, overseas trips and special events involving over 500 young play-

ers. Over 100 of these players, aged from 3 to 18 years, were nominated by their coaches to receive awards in several categories, including: Most Outstanding, Most Improved, Most Sporting, Top Trainer, Star Player, Coaches Award and Centre of Excellence Team Player.

These players demonstrated an abundance of hard work, commitment and high standards of performance and conduct over the course of the season to earn their rewards. Special Presentations were made to Coaches Peter Mapendere by Mr. Paul, Charge D’Affaires of the Zimbabwean Embassy, and to Nasser Dakak by H.E. the Palestinian Ambassador, Mr Rami Tahbob, in recognition of their initiatives to support Global Football Development by promoting organized sports activities and donating footballs and equipment to underprivileged youth in Zimbabwe and bringing visiting teams to Kuwait from Jerusalem, Palestine.

Further awards were made to players involved in the Girls Coaching Courses, School Community Programmes, and specialist Goalkeeping Awards. All the players were presented with trophies by the British Ambassador, the Palestinian Ambassador and the Deputy Head of Mission from the Canadian Embassy, Colleen Mapendere. Many surprise gifts were also provided by the awards sponsors, Porsche Centre Kuwait, Behbehani Motors Company and Go Sport, including gift vouchers, footballs, sports sunglasses, fitness packs, cameras and BMX bicycles. Academy Director Mike Finn and Executive Director Baker Al-Nazer thanked the coaching team, sponsors and supporters for all their assistance in making the season such an enjoyable and successful one for everyone involved with the P.G.A.

EMBASSY OF AUSTRALIA The Australian Embassy Kuwait does not have a visa or immigration department. All processing of visas and immigration matters in conducted by The Australian Consulate-General in Dubai. Email: info.ausdxb@vfshelpline.com (VFS) immigration.dubai@dfat.gov.au (Visa Office); Tel: +971 4 355 1958 (VFS) - +971 4 508 7200 (Visa Office); Fax: +971 4 355 0708 (Visa Office). In Kuwait applications can be lodged at the Australian Visa Application Centre 4B 1st Floor, Al-Banwan Building Al-Qibla Area, Ali Al-Salem Street, opposite the Central Bank of Kuwait, Kuwait City, Kuwait.

Working hours and days: 09:30 - 17:30; Sunday Thursday. Or visit their website www.vfs-au-gcccom for more information. Kuwait citizens can apply for tourist visas on-line at www.immi.gov.au/e visa/e676.htm. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF CANADA The Embassy of Canada in Kuwait does not have a visa or immigration department. All processing of visa and immigration matters including enquiries is conducted by the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Individuals who are interested in working, studying, visiting or immigrating to Canada should contact the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, website: www.UAE.gc.ca or www.goingtocanada.gc.ca, E-mail: abdbi-im-enquiry@international.gc.ca. The Embassy of Canada is located at Villa 24, Al-Mutawakei St, Block 4 in Da’aiyah.

Please visit our website at www.Kuwait.gc.ca.

The Embassy of Canada is open from 07:30 to 15:30 Sunday through Thursday. The reception is open from 07:30 to 12:30. Consular services for Canadian citizens are provided from 09:00 until 12:00, Sunday through Wednesday. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF US Parents of Kuwaiti citizen children may drop off their sons’ and daughters’ visa applications - completely free of an interview or a trip inside the Embassy. The children must be under 14 years of age, and additional requirements do apply, but the service means parents will no longer have to schedule individual appointments for their children, nor come inside the Embassy (unless they are applying for themselves). The service is only available for children holding Kuwaiti passports. To take advantage, parents must drop off the following documents: Child Visa Drop-off cover sheet, available on the Embassy website (http://kuwait.usembassy.gov/child_visas.htm) - Child’s passport; The Child’s previous passport, if it contains a valid US visa; 5x5cm photo of child with eyes open (if uploaded into DS160, photos must be a .jpg between 600x600 and 1200x1200 pixels, less than 240kb, and cannot be digitally altered); A completed DS160 form; Visa Fee Receipt from Burgan Bank; A copy of the valid visa of at least one parent. If one parent will not travel, provide a visa copy for the traveling parent, and a passport copy from the non-traveling parent with a letter stating no objection to the child’s travel. - For children of students (F2): a copy of the child’s I20.

Children born in the US (with very few exceptions) are US citizens and would not be eligible for a visa. Parents may drop off the application packet at Window 2 at the Embassy from 1:00 to 3:00 PM, Monday to Wednesday, excluding holidays. More information is available on the U.S. Embassy website: kuwait.usembassy.gov/child_visas.html nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF GREECE The Embassy of Greece in Kuwait has the pleasure to announce that visa applications must be submitted to Schengen Visa Application Centre (VFS office) located at 12th floor, Al-Naser Tower, Fahad Al-Salem Street, AlQibla area, Kuwait City, (Parking at Souk Watia). For information please call 22281046 from 08:30 to 17:00 (Sunday to Thursday). Working hours: Submission from 08:30 to 15:30. Passport collection from 16:00 to 17:00. For visa applications please visit the following website www.mfa.gr/kuwait. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF VATICAN The Apostolic Nunciature Embassy of the Holy See, Vatican in Kuwait has moved to a new location in Kuwait City.

Please find below the new address: Yarmouk, Block 1, Street 2, Villa No: 1. P.O.Box 29724, Safat 13158, Kuwait. Tel: 965 25337767, Fax: 965 25342066.

Email: nuntiuskuwait@gmail.com The Sabah Al-Ahmad Center for Giftedness and Creativity (SACGC) concluded its ‘Bright Minds’ course at the “Fab Lab Q8” workshops in Qadsiya, in which children of SACGC employees learned the basics of computer programming and robot operation.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

TV PROGRAMS

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

Border Security Auction Hunters Auction Kings Discovery Saved My Life Heroes Of Hell’s Highway Mythbusters Sons Of Guns Industrial Junkie How It’s Made Auction Hunters Storage Hunters Unchained Reaction Skywire With Nik Wallenda Mythbusters Unchained Reaction Skywire With Nik Wallenda

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

Real Gangs Of New York Reign Of The Dinosaurs Great Planes Chasing Classic Cars Chasing Classic Cars Marine Corps Survival School Combat Countdown Living With The Kombai Tribe What The Ancients Knew Combat Countdown Legend Detectives Most Evil Chasing Classic Cars Chasing Classic Cars Combat Countdown

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

Food Factory Food Factory Thunder Races Nextworld Mega World Mars: The Quest For Life The Gadget Show How Tech Works Through The Wormhole How The Universe Works Food Factory Food Factory Through The Wormhole Stuck With Hackett Stuck With Hackett Food Factory Food Factory How Do They Do It? How The Universe Works Stuck With Hackett

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

Ancient Aliens Ancient Aliens Ancient Aliens Ancient Aliens Ancient Aliens Ax Men Pawn Stars Storage Wars Ancient Aliens Ancient Aliens Soviet Storm: WWII In The East Pawn Stars Storage Wars Ancient Aliens Ancient Aliens

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

C.S.I. Glee Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show C.S.I. Touch Bones Castle Breakout Kings Greek Glee Castle

03:00 Last Man Standing 03:30 Raising Hope 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 Last Man Standing 09:30 Hot In Cleveland 10:00 Men At Work 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 14:00 Raising Hope 14:30 Men At Work 15:00 Hot In Cleveland 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 Ben And Kate 18:30 The Simpsons 19:00 Modern Family 19:30 The Mindy Project 20:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 South Park 22:30 South Park 23:30 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 South Park 02:00 South Park

05:15 Brandy & Mr Whiskers 05:35 Brandy & Mr Whiskers 06:00 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 06:30 Doc McStuffins 06:45 A.N.T. Farm 07:10 A.N.T. Farm 07:35 Jessie 07:55 Jessie 08:20 Shake It Up 08:45 Shake It Up 09:05 Austin And Ally 09:30 Geek Charming 11:05 A.N.T Farm 11:25 Jessie 11:50 Jessie 12:15 Austin And Ally 12:35 Austin And Ally 13:00 Shake It Up 13:25 Shake It Up 13:45 The Adventures Of Disney Fairies 14:10 The Adventures Of Disney Fairies 14:35 Suite Life On Deck 15:00 Gravity Falls 15:25 Good Luck Charlie 15:50 Jessie 16:10 Shake It Up 16:35 A.N.T. Farm 17:00 Austin And Ally 17:20 Gravity Falls 17:45 Suite Life On Deck 18:10 Good Luck Charlie 18:30 That’s So Raven 18:55 Austin And Ally 19:20 Jessie 19:40 Gravity Falls 20:05 A.N.T. Farm 20:30 Shake It Up 20:50 Suite Life On Deck 21:15 Austin And Ally 21:40 That’s So Raven 22:00 Shake It Up 22:25 A.N.T Farm 22:50 Austin And Ally 23:10 Wizards Of Waverly Place 23:35 Wizards Of Waverly Place 00:00 Hannah Montana Forever 00:20 Hannah Montana Forever

00:45 01:05 01:30 01:50 02:15 02:35

Brandy & Mr Whiskers Brandy & Mr Whiskers Emperor’s New School Emperor’s New School Replacements Replacements

14:30 Style Star 15:00 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 16:00 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 17:00 Ice Loves Coco 17:30 Ice Loves Coco 18:00 E! News 19:00 Fashion Police 20:00 THS 21:00 Kourtney And Kim Take Miami 22:00 What Would Ryan Lochte Do? 22:30 E! News 23:30 Chelsea Lately 00:00 Scouted 00:55 Style Star 01:25 THS

03:05 Coastal Kitchen 03:30 Food Poker 04:15 Bargain Hunt 05:00 Mitch And Matt’s Big Fish 05:25 Mitch And Matt’s Big Fish 05:50 Cash In The Attic 06:35 Coastal Kitchen 07:00 Food Poker 07:45 Home Cooking Made Easy 07:55 The Hairy Bikers Come Home 08:15 Phil Spencer - Secret Agent 09:05 Bargain Hunt 09:50 Antiques Roadshow 10:45 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 11:30 MasterChef Australia 12:15 Come Dine With Me 13:00 The Hairy Bikers Come Home 13:55 Bargain Hunt 14:40 Cash In The Attic 15:25 Antiques Roadshow 16:15 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 17:00 Phil Spencer - Secret Agent 17:55 Planet Cake 18:25 Tareq Taylor’s Nordic Cookery 18:55 Baking Mad With Eric Lanlard 19:20 New Scandinavian Cooking With Claus Meyer 19:45 Come Dine With Me 20:35 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 21:20 Antiques Roadshow 22:15 Bargain Hunt 23:00 Phil Spencer - Secret Agent 23:55 Food Poker 00:40 Come Dine With Me 01:30 MasterChef Australia 02:20 Cash In The Attic

03:00 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 03:25 Food Wars 03:50 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 04:15 Unique Eats 04:40 Chopped 05:30 Iron Chef America 06:10 Food Network Challenge 07:00 Guy’s Big Bite 07:25 Guy’s Big Bite 07:50 Andy Bates American Street Feasts 08:15 Unique Sweets 08:40 Red, Hot And Yummy 09:05 Barefoot Contessa 09:30 Food Network Challenge 10:20 Extra Virgin 10:45 Kid In A Candy Store 11:10 Charly’s Cake Angels 11:35 Unique Sweets 12:00 Amazing Wedding Cakes 12:50 Red, Hot And Yummy 13:15 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 13:40 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics

14:05 Food Wars 14:30 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 14:55 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 15:20 Guy’s Big Bite 15:45 Chopped 16:35 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 17:00 Red, Hot And Yummy 17:25 Food Wars 17:50 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 18:15 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 18:40 Charly’s Cake Angels 19:05 Unique Sweets 19:30 Amazing Wedding Cakes 20:20 Chopped 21:10 Chopped 22:00 Charly’s Cake Angels 22:30 Charly’s Cake Angels 22:55 Unique Sweets 23:15 Unique Sweets 23:40 Food Wars 00:05 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 00:30 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 00:55 Unwrapped 01:20 Unwrapped 01:45 Charly’s Cake Angels

03:00 Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol-PG15 05:15 Marley & Me: The Puppy Years-PG 06:45 Hugo-PG 09:00 Kung Fu Panda 2-PG 11:00 Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol-PG15 13:30 Every Jack Has A Jill-PG15 15:30 The 16th Man-PG15 16:45 Kung Fu Panda 2-PG 18:45 Snow White And The Huntsman-PG15 21:00 Shadow Dancer-PG15 23:00 The Rum Diary-18 01:00 Gone-PG15

07:00 The Stool Pigeon-PG15 09:00 The Decoy Bride-PG15 11:00 Underground: The Julian Assange Story-PG15 13:00 No Surrender-PG15 15:00 Jane Eyre-PG15 17:00 Footloose-PG15 19:00 The Darkest Hour-PG15 21:00 Snowtown-R 23:00 Now Is Good-PG15 01:00 Footloose-PG15

04:00 12 Dates Of Christmas-PG15 06:00 Frankenweenie-PG 08:00 Source Code-PG15 10:00 Batman: Year One-PG15 12:00 Frankenweenie-PG 14:00 A Mother’s Choice-PG15 16:00 Source Code-PG15 18:00 Johnny English Reborn-PG15 20:00 The Girl-PG15 22:00 Love And Other Impossible Pursuits-PG15 00:00 Source Code-PG15 02:00 Johnny English Reborn-PG15

04:00 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 19:45 21:45 23:30 02:30

Ip Man 2-PG15 Soldiers Of Fortune-PG15 Ice Quake-PG15 Boiler Room-PG15 Lara Croft: Tomb Raider-PG15 Ice Quake-PG15 Romancing The Stone-PG15 Lara Croft: Tomb Raider-PG15 The Big I Am-18 The Crazies-18 The Godfather III-18 The Crazies-18

08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00 00:00 02:00

Scrooged-PG15 3 Holiday Tails-PG Beethoven’s Second-PG Rookie Of The Year-PG 3 Holiday Tails-PG Larry Crowne-PG15 Friends With Benefits-18 Extract-PG15 30 Minutes Or Less-18 Friends With Benefits-18

10:00 Project Nim-PG15 11:45 Courage-PG15 13:15 The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom-PG 15:00 Project Nim-PG15 16:45 Win Win-PG15 18:45 Money For Nothing-PG15 21:00 Columbus Circle-PG15 23:00 Roadie-18 01:00 L.A I Hate You-PG15

00:00 AFL Highlights 01:00 PGA European Tour Highlights 02:00 PGA Tour 07:00 Super League 09:00 NRL Premiership 11:00 Trans World Sport 12:00 ICC Cricket 360 12:30 Live British & Irish Lions 14:30 International Rugby Union 16:30 ICC Cricket 360 17:00 PGA Tour Highlights 18:00 AFL Highlights 19:00 British & Irish Lions 21:00 NRL Full Time 21:30 Futbol Mundial 22:00 Trans World Sport 23:00 PGA European Tour Highlights

SHADOW DANCE ON OSN MOVIES HD

00:00 NRL Premiership 02:00 Super League 04:00 International Rugby Union 06:00 AFL Premiership Highlights 07:00 Trans World Sport 08:00 PGA Tour Highlights 09:00 PGA European Tour Highlights 10:00 AFL Premiership Highlights 11:00 Futbol Mundial 11:30 UK Open Darts 15:30 Futbol Mundial 16:00 British and Irish Lions Tour 18:00 PGA European Tour

Highlights 19:00 PGA Tour Highlights 20:00 ICC Cricket 360 20:30 Live Cricket International Twenty20 23:30 UFC The Ultimate Fighter

00:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 10:00 10:30 11:30 12:30 13:30 14:30 16:30 18:30 19:00 21:30 23:30

UK Open Darts World Cup Of Pool World Cup Of Pool Trans World Sport Golfing World International Rugby Union Futbol Mundial World Cup Of Pool World Cup Of Pool Trans World Sport Golfing World Super League NRL Premiership Futbol Mundial AFL Premiership Super League NRL Full Time

00:00 01:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 15:30 16:30 17:30 18:30 20:30 21:00

UFC The Ultimate Fighter NHL Mass Participation Motor Sports 2013 NHL WWE NXT WWE Bottom Line Ping Pong World US Bass Fishing NHL Mass Participation Mass Participation Mobil 1 The Grid WWE Experience Ping Pong World US Bass Fishing NHL Mobil 1 The Grid Prizefighter

JANE EYRE ON OSN CINEMA

Director Emmerich brings ‘White House Down’ with terrorism plot

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ilm director Roland Emmerich has made obliterating the White House a trademark in his apocalyptic blockbusters and true to form, he ravages it in spectacular fashion with a terrorist attack in “White House Down,” opening in theaters on Friday. “White House Down,” starring Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx and Maggie Gyllenhaal, is Emmerich’s first foray into terrorism.

“It’s about the division in America, it’s about lobbyism and about how some people feel entitled to do certain things and totally believe in them patriotically,” Emmerich told Reuters. Emmerich, 57, has actually made his career destroying the White House. In his 1996 film, “Independence Day,” the building was annihilated by an alien laser beam, then buried in snow in 2004’s “ The Day After Tomorrow,” and swept away by an aircraft carrier riding a tidal wave in last year’s “2012.”

“Whenever something big happens in America, the White House is involved. Because of that there is a lot of White House in my movies because I always try to do a relatively international plot. I’m not the only one. The White House gets attacked a lot! But I probably hold the record,” the director said. In “White House Down,” Emmerich dedicated the best part of two hours to destroying the presidential building as an aspiring Secret Service agent, played by Tatum, finds himself protecting the president, played by Foxx, during a terrorist attack.

Emmerich teamed up with screenwriter James Vanderbilt, who wrote 2012’s box-office reboot “The Amazing Spider-Man,” to develop a script exploring the threat of terrorism. “Any point of view when taken to an extreme can turn into a bad thing, no matter how rational it is to begin with,” Vanderbilt told Reuters.

Asked if being a European gave him a slightly different perspective as a filmmaker, the Germanborn director said: “I’m maybe a little bit more courageous than an American. I realized that when

‘Independence Day’ writer Dean Devlin asked me ‘So what do we blow up in Washington? The Capitol?’ And I said ‘No, No. The White House.’ And he said ‘Oh!’.”

Spotlight on Tatum “White House Down,” produced by Sony Corp’s Columbia Pictures for an estimated $150 million according to IMDB.com, shines a spotlight on Tatum, who is rising fast into the Hollywood’s upper echelons. Tatum, 33, voted ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ by People magazine last year after starring as a stripper in “Magic Mike,” performed most of his many stunts himself in the action-packed movie.

Emmerich said he was so eager to have Tatum in his movie, that he brought filming forward by 10 weeks to accommodate the actor’s busy schedule.

“When I met him, I couldn’t believe how smart and intelligent he is, and grounded in reality, humble and how cool and everything,” Emmerich said. “And I realized: I have a real problem if he says ‘no’.”

Foxx, 45, who plays fictional President James Sawyer, said the role was a welcome change from his last one in Quentin Tarantino’s spaghetti Western about slave revenge “Django Unchained.” “I was doing ‘Django’ a year ago. I was a slave, so playing the president is much better,” Foxx joked with reporters at a premiere screening in Washington, attended by an audience of journalists, politicians and former White House staff members.

“Remember, this is fiction. I’m here to make sure this doesn’t happen,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano quipped on the red carpet in Georgetown. — Reuters

Classifieds WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

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)

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

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) WORLD WAR Z (DIG)

1:30 PM 3:45 PM 5:45 PM 8:00 PM 10:00 PM

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

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

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) FANAR-2 MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG)

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

1:00 PM

KNCC PROGRAMME FROM THURSDAY TO WEDNESDAY (20/06/2013 TO 26/06/2013) MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG) MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG) SCENARIO (DIG) SCENARIO (DIG) TATTAH (DIG)

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

SCENARIO (DIG) SCENARIO (DIG)

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

1:00 PM 3:00 PM 5:00 PM 7:00 PM 9:30 PM 12:05 AM

AL-KOUT.1 MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG-3D) MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG-3D) MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG-3D) WORLD WAR Z (DIG-3D) WORLD WAR Z (DIG-3D) WORLD WAR Z (DIG-3D)

1:15 PM 3:30 PM 5:45 PM 8:00 PM 10:15 PM 12:45 AM

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

AL-KOUT.2 TATTAH (DIG) TATTAH (DIG) TATTAH (DIG) SCENARIO (DIG) TATTAH (DIG) TATTAH (DIG)

2:15 PM 4:45 PM 7:15 PM

AL-KOUT.3 MAN OF STEEL (DIG) MAN OF STEEL (DIG) MAN OF STEEL (DIG)

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

1:00 PM 3:45 PM 6:30 PM

TUITION Tuition for IGCSE/ TOEL/ IELTS/ GMAT/ SAT and for American, English, Bilingual Schools and University students. Spoken English for all. English teacher - call: 66948099. (C 4446) 24-6-2013 CHANGE OF NAME I, HASEENABIBI Manorsha Fakir holding passport No. J4436269 wish to change my name to Mrs. Hasinabibi Fakir Mohammad Diwan.

I, FAKIR Manorsha Pirusha, holding passport No. F8463173 wish to change my name to Fakir Mohammad Pirusha Diwan.

(C 4450) 26-6-2013

silver color (1.8), hatch back, 60,000km, price KD 1,750/-. Contact: 66729295.

(C 4448) Mitsubishi ASX (Jeep), 2011 model, dark gray color, full options, 71,000 km, price KD 2,900/-. Contact: 50994848. (C 4449) 25-6-2013

I, Eshfak Esmailbhai Huseiny, holder of passport No. H2611280 have changed my name to Mustafa Esmailbhai Huseiny. (C 4445) 24-6-2013

112 THE PUBLIC AUTHORITY FOR CIVIL INFORMATION

FOR SALE Mercedez Benz E230, 1998 model, white color in excellent condition for sale, well maintained, insured up to June 2014. Contact: 99797826. (C 4451) 26-6-2013

Automated enquiry about the Civil ID card is

1889988 Prayer timings Fajr:

03:14

Mitsubishi Pajero, 2007 model, single man driven, maintained by Mitsubishi, for immediate sale. Contact: 66101542. (C 4447)

Shorook

04:50

Duhr:

11:50

Asr:

15:24

Maghrib:

18:51

Nissan Tiida, 2011 model,

Isha:

20:23

Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)

Airlines QTR JZR QTR RJA THY JZR UAE ETH GFA UAE ETD LZB THY RJA QTR RBG KAC FDB MSR OMA QTR THY DHX FDB BAW JZR JZR JZR MEA KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC FDB UAE ABY QTR IRM FDB IRA ETD GFA MEA IAW MSC IRM TMA KNE JZR JZR JZR JZR MSC MSR JAI FDB OMA ABY ETD

Arrival Flights on Wednesday 26/6/2013 Flt Route 148 DOHA 267 BEIRUT 6130 DOHA 644 AMMAN 764 SABIHA 539 CAIRO 4965 DUBAI 620 ADDIS ABABA 211 BAHRAIN 853 DUBAI 305 ABU DHABI 7779 BOURGAS 768 ISTANBUL 642 AMMAN 6058 ZARAGOZA 557 ALEXANDRIA 412 MANILA 67 DUBAI 612 CAIRO 643 MUSCAT 138 DOHA 770 ISTANBUL 170 BAHRAIN 69 DUBAI 157 LONDON 555 ALEXANDRIA 529 ASSIUT 1541 CAIRO 406 BEIRUT 382 DELHI 344 CHENNAI 352 COCHIN 284 DHAKA 206 ISLAMABAD 302 MUMBAI 53 DUBAI 855 DUBAI 125 SHARJAH 132 DOHA 1186 TEHRAN 55 DUBAI 603 SHIRAZ 301 ABU DHABI 213 BAHRAIN 404 BEIRUT 157 BAGHDAD 403 ASSIUT 1188 MASHAD 213 BEIRUT 470 JEDDAH 243 AMMAN 1543 CAIRO 561 SOHAG 165 DUBAI 405 SOHAG 606 LUXOR 572 MUMBAI 61 DUBAI 647 MUSCAT 129 SHARJAH 933 ABU DHABI

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

MEA AXB KLM ALK UAE FDB KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC UAE MSR THY CLX KNE IYE QTR FDB IRC MSR SVA RJA QTR ETD UAE ABY UAL SVA GFA KNE NIA QTR FDB GFA JZR JZR JZR JZR JZR JZR JZR JZR ETD QTR GFA QTR JAI FDB AIC UAL DLH JAI MSR THY FDB JZR JZR JZR

402 489 417 229 859 8057 542 672 774 166 786 618 790 102 538 674 871 610 766 792 480 826 140 57 6692 575 500 640 134 303 857 127 982 510 215 462 251 144 63 219 357 777 787 535 257 177 189 481 307 136 217 146 576 59 975 981 636 574 614 772 8053 185 239 135

BEIRUT COCHIN AMSTERDAM COLOMBO DUBAI DUBAI CAIRO DUBAI RIYADH PARIS JEDDAH DOHA MEDINAH NEW YORK SHARM EL SHEIKH DUBAI DUBAI CAIRO ISTANBUL LUXEMBOURG TAIF SANAA DOHA DUBAI MASHAD SHARM EL SHEIKH JEDDAH AMMAN DOHA ABU DHABI DUBAI SHARJAH WASHINGTON DC DULLES RIYADH BAHRAIN MEDINAH ALEXANDRIA DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN MASHAD JEDDAH RIYADH CAIRO BEIRUT DUBAI DUBAI SABIHA ABU DHABI DOHA BAHRAIN DOHA COCHIN DUBAI CHENNAI BAHRAIN FRANKFURT MUMBAI CAIRO ISTANBUL DUBAI DUBAI AMMAN BAHRAIN

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

Airlines AIC JAI UAL DLH MSR JZR QTR THY THY ETH RJA LZB THY UAE FDB MSR OMA ETD QTR QTR UAE JZR QTR FDB RJA JZR GFA RBG THY JZR KAC BAW FDB JZR KAC JZR KAC KAC ABY UAE FDB QTR ETD IRA IRM MEA JZR GFA KAC MEA IAW KAC JZR JZR MSC KAC JZR KAC IRM KNE JZR TMA

Departure Flights on Wednesday 26/6/2013 Flt Route 982 AHMEDABAD 573 MUMBAI 981 WASHINGTON 637 FRANKFURT 615 CAIRO 1542 CAIRO 6131 DOHA 773 ISTANBUL 765 ISTANBUL 621 ADDIS ABABA 645 AMMAN 7780 BOURGAS 769 ISTANBUL 854 DUBAI 68 DUBAI 613 CAIRO 644 MUSCAT 306 ABU DHABI 139 DOHA 149 DOHA 4965 DUBAI 560 SOHAG 6058 DOHA 70 DUBAI 643 AMMAN 242 AMMAN 212 BAHRAIN 558 ALEXANDRIA 771 ISTANBUL 164 DUBAI 537 SHARM EL SHEIKH 156 LONDON 54 DUBAI 256 BEIRUT 117 NEW YORK 534 CAIRO 789 MADINAH 671 DUBAI 126 SHARJAH 856 DUBAI 56 DUBAI 133 DOHA 302 ABU DHABI 602 SHIRAZ 1187 IMAM KHOMEINI 407 BEIRUT 356 MASHHAD 214 BAHRAIN 541 CAIRO 405 BEIRUT 158 AL NAJAF 175 FRANKFURT 776 JEDDAH 480 ISTANBUL 406 SOHAG 103 LONDON 786 RIYADH 785 JEDDAH 1189 MASHHAD 461 MADINAH 176 DUBAI 223 DUBAI

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION

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

MSR THY KNE UAE FDB IYE CLX QTR IRC MSR KAC FDB KAC SVA JZR KAC RJA JZR QTR ETD JZR ABY UAE SVA GFA UAL JZR KNE JZR NIA QTR FDB GFA JZR KAC MSC MSR JAI FDB ABY KAC KAC OMA KAC MEA DHX KLM ETD FDB ETD ALK UAE KAC QTR KAC GFA FDB KAC QTR JAI JZR JZR KAC JZR

611 767 481 872 58 827 792 141 6693 576 673 8058 617 503 188 773 641 238 135 304 538 128 858 511 216 982 184 471 266 252 145 64 220 134 283 404 619 571 62 120 361 331 648 351 403 171 417 934 8054 308 230 860 381 137 301 218 60 205 147 575 554 1540 415 528

CAIRO ISTANBUL TAIF DUBAI DUBAI RIYAN MUKALLA GIALAM DOHA MASHHAD SHARM EL SHEIKH DUBAI DUBAI DOHA MADINAH DUBAI RIYADH AMMAN AMMAN DOHA ABU DHABI CAIRO SHARJAH DUBAI RIYADH BAHRAIN BAHRAIN DUBAI JEDDAH BEIRUT ALEXANDRIA DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN BAHRAIN DHAKA ASSIUT ALEXANDRIA MUMBAI DUBAI SHARJAH COLOMBO TRIVANDRUM MUSCAT KOCHI BEIRUT BAHRAIN DAMMAM SHARJAH DUBAI ABU DHABI COLOMBO DUBAI DELHI DOHA MUMBAI BAHRAIN DUBAI ISLAMABAD DOHA ABU DHABI ALEXANDRIA CAIRO KUALA LUMPUR ASSIUT

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

34

s ta rs CROSSWORD 232

STAR TRACK Aries (March 21-April 19) ARIES Abundance is in the air! Tap into and use a prosperous attitude to create wealth. A co-worker or customer may be just a little too sensitive today. There may be some difficulty in controlling a situation. Consider the person is probably afraid of something that does not relate to the present surroundings. Your interest in probing the secrets of others is very energetic, but this may not be the proper time. Devote time and energy to a creative project this afternoon. You can be very effective as you play. Young people like to visit and be with you when you are not in a serious tone. It is worth a change of plans, to take time for love this evening. There are opportunities to have an understanding and a deeper bonding with those you love.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) You are a real charmer—able to enchant others and bring them under your spell. All sorts of social interactions are possible. A co-worker friend is about ready to have her baby and a shower is in order. Although you have plenty of work to carry out you manage to put on a nice little shower during the lunch break. You will have help to clean up and help this co-worker pack her things up for her drive home. At home this evening you will still have a couple of days before you have the kids over at your place for a birthday party. A busy but fun time . . . Certainly something that takes a rare person to carry out. Your success is remarkable. There is time this evening for a foot massage after your nice hot bath or shower.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

ACROSS 1. System of measurement based on centimeters and grams and seconds.

4. A cut of pork ribs with much of the meat trimmed off.

12. A proportion multiplied by 100.

15. Resinlike substance secreted by certain lac insects.

16. A skirt consisting of a rectangle of calico or printed cotton.

17. Of or relating to a member of the Buddhist people inhabiting the Mekong river in Laos and Thailand.

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

19. Long-legged web-footed black-andwhite shorebird with slender upward-curving bill.

20. Any of numerous low-growing cushionforming plants of the genus Draba having rosette-forming leaves and terminal racemes of small flowers with scapose or leafy stems.

22. Corrupt morally or by intemperance or sensuality.

24. (Islam) The man who leads prayers in a mosque.

26. Harsh or corrosive in tone.

27. A state in New England.

29. Declare untrue.

30. The place where some action occurs.

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

35. A large fleet.

41. Injure or wound seriously and leave permanent disfiguration or mutilation.

42. A small cake leavened with yeast.

44. A gonadotropic hormone that is secreted by the anterior pituitary.

45. The ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle.

46. The rate at which heat is produced by an individual in a resting state.

48. The officer who presides at the meetings of an organization.

52. A soft silvery metallic element of the alkali metal group.

54. That is able or fit be rented.

55. The branch of engineering science that studies the uses of electricity and the equipment for power generation and distribution and the control of machines and communication.

56. (informal) Of the highest quality.

59. A town and port in northwestern Israel in the eastern Mediterranean.

63. A very young child (birth to 1 year) who has not yet begun to walk or talk.

67. Dyed with henna.

70. An associate degree in applied science.

73. A master's degree in business.

74. A unit of surface area equal to 100 square meters.

75. Used of animals.

76. A decree that prohibits something.

77. A fractional monetary unit of Japan and Indonesia and Cambodia.

78. Pearl oysters.

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

DOWN 1. Wearing or provided with clothing.

2. A measuring instrument for measuring and indicating a quantity or for testing conformity with a standard.

3. Someone who works (or provides workers) during a strike.

4. Patterned by having color applied with

sweeping strokes.

5. A setting with precious stones so closely set that no metal shows.

6. 100 avos equal 1 pataca.

7. Of or related to genetically distinguished groups of people.

8. Fragrant resin obtain from trees of the family Burseraceae and used as incense.

9. Sweet liqueur made from wine and brandy flavored with plum or peach or apricot kernels and bitter almonds.

10. Being one more than three.

11. Having undesirable or negative qualities.

12. An innocuous or inert medication.

13. Small room on a ship or boat where people sleep.

14. A person who tries to please someone in order to gain a personal advantage.

21. Measuring instrument in which the echo of a pulse of microwave radiation is used to detect and locate distant objects.

23. A communist state in Indochina on the South China Sea. 25. Informal terms for a mother.

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

31. Annual or perennial herbs with large leaves that resemble the leaves of cabbages.

32. An independent ruler or chieftain (especially in Africa or Arabia).

34. A member of the Taracahitian people of central Mexico.

36. Lower in esteem.

37. (combining form) Very large in scale or scope or capability.

38. A loud resonant repeating noise.

39. A translucent mineral consisting of hydrated silica of variable color.

40. Denoting a quantity consisting of one more than eight and one less than ten.

43. A flat wing-shaped process or winglike part of an organism.

47. Small European freshwater fish with a slender bluish-green body.

49. Genus of North American herbs with basal cordate or orbicular leaves and small panicled flowers.

50. A switch made from the stems of the rattan palms.

51. A unit of information equal to one million (1,048,576) bytes.

53. (trademark) A liquid that temporarily disables a person.

57. Found in moist places as rounded jellylike colonies.

58. Realistic Norwegian author who wrote plays on social and political themes (18281906).

60. A Bantu language spoken by the Kamba people in Kenya.

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

62. A city in southern Turkey on the Seyhan River.

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

65. A member of a rural Finnish people living in eastern Russia.

66. Trace the shape of.

68. Having an eye or eyes or eyelike feature especially as specified.

69. A quantity of no importance.

71. A diagrammatic representation of the earth's surface (or part of it).

72. A groove or furrow (especially one in soft earth caused by wheels).

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

Everything seems to put you in the limelight today. You come off well in group matters. The areas in which you enjoy doing the best work are with the written and spoken word and with ideas in all their flavors. Your enthusiasm for mind, the intellect and the world of ideas makes it easy for you to communicate these things to others. You have no trouble putting your feelings into words and what you say always carries a lot of content. You could have difficulty getting outer recognition for your efforts or accomplishments. This does not mean they are worthless but it does mean you should throw your efforts into work or ventures from which you take great pleasure. You enjoy mental effort and discipline and will find your efforts successful.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) Today, you will find it easier to work with others than most days. You tend to pour a lot of energy into those around you. Your home and surroundings reflect your tender loving care as well. Your loved ones and perhaps your birds or other animals keep you company. When it comes to teaching or coaching young people, you are a natural and this is an area in which you may want to become involved this evening. You are always able to motivate and inspire others. Your social life seems to have increased and because you are able to get along well with all sorts of people, you may be learning about another country through someone you just met while traveling. You have an easy manner and find it easy to communicate with just about anyone.

Leo (July 23-August 22) Not a great starter today, you may have trouble initiating things and getting them moving. You may need help from friends or others to motivate you into becoming more aggressive and outgoing when necessary. After you get your motor going, however, it could be hard to slow you down. As you become motivated, situations are almost specialized so that you can see which path is the one for you to take.

This is a time of good fortune when things open up naturally. Garage sales, home repairs, talk of investing and visiting with neighbors make up most of this day.

Opportunities flourish and you feel that you could do almost everything. Later this afternoon you will probably exhibit your ability to be a smooth talker with a quick wit.

Virgo (August 23-September 22) Independence, as well as anything unusual or different, is valued. You are very communicative, flexible, mental and other-oriented as you wait or serve the public today. Your smooth talking abilities, as well as your quick wit and ready tongue, will create some positive results—high productivity. You may, however, yearn for a time that you can get away from all the busy work of late. Family outings or friendly visits could be planned for this upcoming weekend, perhaps a group camping expedition. There will be a chance to understand those around you and to have a special time with someone you love. There are good feelings among friends and family today as well as a chance to deepen a weak relationship. A child tells a joke.

Word Search

Libra (September 23-October 22) You may be sought after for your advice and counsel. You seem to magically cut through the red tape and get at what is hidden. This is a great time to be with others—in play or work. Success is indicated in education, politics or the law. You know how to attack and solve problems, whether they are personal or public difficulties.

Chances are that your social skills mean you are popular with almost everyone. Your energies run effectively toward making yourself felt in the material, tangible outer world. You are an action-person who gains the attention of others and seems to get things moving.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) You may be very forceful in what you say and think. With all of this emotional energy, you could speak or communicate very well. You have a lot of mental drive now. Learn to use your good intuition and feelings so that you will become more in-tune with what is most needed today. This is a great time to make the extra effort to stretch beyond the usual daily routine and help a person. While it is difficult for you to approach your sensitive areas, it is of great importance that you do so. A good transition from work to home this evening would be some fun trip to see an award-winning rose garden or stopping to exercise at the gym or any number of other activities that pleasantly shake up the day. You enjoy time with your partner tonight.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) You are understanding to the needs of others and are in a good position to communicate concerning groups and society. You are very imaginative when it comes to your health, the food you eat and how you take care of yourself. You are quick to get the picture and you may find you take an interest in helping others see the benefits that proper care—mental, physical and such—can bring. Others may find you especially witty and eccentric. You may have insights or breakthroughs with regard to your living situation or life circumstances. A move could be in order. You are very sensitive, even vulnerable when it comes to expressing yourself. Periods of intense creativity enable you to go through changes and inner growth. There is music.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19) There are challenges this morning, but you know the details—now is the time to just forge ahead. Your organizational abilities and sense of accountability will be what guides you and proves successful. Your career could assume a much more determined form. This is a time of good fortune when things open up naturally. Working overtime is hard to avoid today. You may, however, find that you want to do almost everything. Circumstances should work together to help bring out your ideals—make it easier to make your dreams real. Overall, this is a good time to project your image. Whatever you ask for is granted—within reason. Real estate matters may be important soon. Tonight you learn a new trick to make your technical work easier.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) You could have difficulty getting your ideas across to others today. You may have doubts about those who talk too much and have little to back up their claims. Your inner self-confidence may be lacking and you could try to overcome this by defensive aggressiveness—careful. You probably wish you had more of the selfassurance your fiery acquaintances have. You could have difficulty getting outer recognition for your efforts or accomplishments. This does not mean they are not recognized—it does mean, however, that you should throw your efforts into work or ventures you really love doing. You have an average amount of change present in life, neither too much nor too little. Lighten up on your workload. You deserve a little break—go dancing.

Pisces (February 19-March 20) You could be an excellent teacher in areas requiring discipline. You value order and place a high premium on hard work and effort. You like to get down to the bare bones, to what is essential. Whatever is most practical is best—you appreciate things that are durable and long lasting. You love truth, philosophy, law and the like. This afternoon you may be able to pick up a little extra pay because of some processing machine that you have. You can either loan it out or use it to process some product for others. This doesn’t happen often but it is nice when you can get the extra cash. While you are working a bit of fun music fills the air—not too loudly now. More money and better accommodations make life a little more comfortable . . . Sigh.

Yesterday’s Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

Daily SuDoku

Yesterday’s Solution

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

i n f o r m at i o n For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128 GOVERNORATE Sabah Hospital

24812000

Amiri Hospital

22450005

Maternity Hospital

24843100

Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital

25312700

Chest Hospital

24849400

Farwaniya Hospital

24892010

Adan Hospital

23940620

Ibn Sina Hospital

24840300

Al-Razi Hospital

24846000

Physiotherapy Hospital

24874330/9

PHARMACY

ADDRESS

PHONE

Ahmadi

Sama Safwan Abu Halaifa Danat Al-Sultan

Fahaeel Makka St Abu Halaifa-Coastal Rd Mahboula Block 1, Coastal Rd

23915883 23715414 23726558

Jahra

Modern Jahra Madina Munawara

Jahra-Block 3 Lot 1 Jahra-Block 92

24575518 24566622

Capital

Ahlam Khaldiya Coop

Fahad Al-Salem St Khaldiya Coop

22436184 24833967

Farwaniya

New Shifa Ferdous Coop Modern Safwan

Farwaniya Block 40 Ferdous Coop Old Kheitan Block 11

24734000 24881201 24726638

Tariq Hana Ikhlas Hawally & Rawdha Ghadeer Kindy Ibn Al-Nafis Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Salmiya-Amman St Hawally-Beirut St Hawally & Rawdha Coop Jabriya-Block 1A Jabriya-Block 3B Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

25726265 25647075 22625999 22564549 25340559 25326554 25721264 25380581 25628241

Hawally

Al-Madeena

22418714

Al-Shuhada

22545171

Al-Shuwaikh

24810598

Al-Nuzha

22545171

Sabhan

24742838

Al-Helaly

22434853

Al-Faiha

22545051

Al-Farwaniya

24711433

Al-Sulaibikhat

24316983

Al-Fahaheel

23927002

Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh

24316983

Ahmadi

23980088

Al-Mangaf

23711183

Al-Shuaiba

23262845

Kaizen center

25716707

Rawda

22517733

Adaliya

22517144

Al-Jahra

25610011

Khaldiya

24848075

Al-Salmiya

25616368

Kaifan

24849807

Shamiya

24848913

Shuwaikh

24814507

Abdullah Salem

22549134

Nuzha

22526804

Industrial Shuwaikh

24814764

Qadsiya

22515088

Dasmah

22532265

Bneid Al-Gar

22531908

Shaab

22518752

Qibla

22459381

Ayoun Al-Qibla

22451082

Mirqab

22456536

Sharq

22465401

Salmiya

25746401

Jabriya

25316254

Maidan Hawally

25623444

Bayan

25388462

Mishref

25381200

W Hawally

22630786

Sabah

24810221

Jahra

24770319

New Jahra

24575755

West Jahra

24772608

South Jahra

24775066

North Jahra

24775992

North Jleeb

24311795

Ardhiya

24884079

Firdous

24892674

Omariya

24719048

N Khaitan

24710044

Fintas

23900322

INTERNATIONAL CALLS

PRIVATE CLINICS Ophthalmologists Dr. Abidallah Al-Mansoor 25622444 Dr. Samy Al-Rabeea 25752222 Dr. Masoma Habeeb 25321171 Dr. Mubarak Al-Ajmy 25739999 Dr. Mohsen Abel 25757700 Dr Adnan Hasan Alwayl 25732223 Dr. Abdallah Al-Baghly 25732223 Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) Dr. Ahmed Fouad Mouner 24555050 Ext 510 Dr. Abdallah Al-Ali 25644660 Dr. Abd Al-Hameed Al-Taweel 25646478 Dr. Sanad Al-Fathalah 25311996 Dr. Mohammad Al-Daaory 25731988 Dr. Ismail Al-Fodary 22620166 Dr. Mahmoud Al-Booz 25651426 General Practitioners Dr. Mohamme Y Majidi 24555050 Ext 123 Dr. Yousef Al-Omar 24719312 Dr. Tarek Al-Mikhazeem 23926920 Dr. Kathem Maarafi 25730465 Dr. Abdallah Ahmad Eyadah 25655528 Dr. Nabeel Al-Ayoobi 24577781 Dr. Dina Abidallah Al-Refae 25333501 Urologists Dr. Ali Naser Al-Serfy 22641534 Dr. Fawzi Taher Abul 22639955 Dr. Khaleel Abidallah Al-Awadi 22616660 Dr. Adel Al-Hunayan FRCS (C) 25313120 Dr. Leons Joseph 66703427 Psychologists /Psychotherapists

Paediatricians

Plastic Surgeons Dr. Mohammad Al-Khalaf

22547272

Dr. Khaled Hamadi

Dr. Abdal-Redha Lari

22617700

Dr. Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rashed

Dr. Abdel Quttainah

25625030/60

Family Doctor Dr Divya Damodar

23729596/23729581

Psychiatrists Dr. Esam Al-Ansari

22635047

Dr Eisa M. Al-Balhan

22613623/0

Gynaecologists & Obstetricians DrAdrian arbe

23729596/23729581

Dr. Verginia s.Marin

2572-6666 ext 8321

Endocrinologist

25665898 25340300

Dr. Zahra Qabazard

25710444

Dr. Sohail Qamar

22621099

Dr. Snaa Maaroof

25713514

Dr. Pradip Gujare

23713100

Dr. Zacharias Mathew

24334282

(1) Ear, Nose and Throat (2) Plastic Surgeon Dr. Abdul Mohsin Jafar, FRCS (Canada)

25655535

Dentists

Dr. Fozeya Ali Al-Qatan

22655539

Dr. Majeda Khalefa Aliytami

25343406

Dr. Shamah Al-Matar

22641071/2

Dr. Ahmad Al-Khooly

25739272

Dr. Anesah Al-Rasheed

22562226

22618787

Dr. Abidallah Al-Amer

22561444

Dr. Faysal Al-Fozan

22619557

Dr. Abdallateef Al-Katrash

22525888

Dr. Abidallah Al-Duweisan

25653755

Dr. Bader Al-Ansari

25620111

General Surgeons Dr. Amer Zawaz Al-Amer

22610044

Dr. Mohammad Yousef Basher

25327148

Internists, Chest & Heart Dr. Adnan Ebil Dr. Latefa Al-Duweisan

22666300 25728004

Dr. Nadem Al-Ghabra

25355515

Dr. Mobarak Aldoub

24726446

Dr Nasser Behbehani

25654300/3

Soor Center Tel: 2290-1677 Fax: 2290 1688

Neurologists

22639939

Dr. Mousa Khadada

info@soorcenter.com www.soorcenter.com

3729596/3729581

Dr. Sohal Najem Al-Shemeri

25633324

Dr. Jasem Mola Hassan

25345875

Gastrologists Dr. Sami Aman

22636464

Dr. Mohammad Al-Shamaly

25322030

Dr. Foad Abidallah Al-Ali

22633135

Kaizen center 25716707

25339330

Dr. Ahmad Al-Ansari 25658888 Dr. Kamal Al-Shomr 25329924 Physiotherapists & VD Dr. Deyaa Shehab

25722291

Dr. Musaed Faraj Khamees

22666288

Rheumatologists: Dr. Adel Al-Awadi

Dr Anil Thomas

Dr. Salem soso

Dr. Abd Al-Naser Al-Othman

25330060

Dr. Khaled Al-Jarallah

25722290

Internist, Chest & Heart DR.Mohammes Akkad

24555050 Ext 210

Dr. Mohammad Zubaid MB, ChB, FRCPC, PACC Assistant Professor Of Medicine Head, Division of Cardiology Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital Consultant Cardiologist Dr. Farida Al-Habib MD, PH.D, FACC Inaya German Medical Center Te: 2575077 Fax: 25723123

2611555-2622555

William Schuilenberg, RPC 2290-1677 Zaina Al Zabin, M.Sc. 2290-1677

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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

lifest yle M u s i c

&

M o v i e s

Arab Idol winner Palestinian Mohammed Assaf wears a garland of flowers around his neck and a scarf in the colors of the traditional Palestinian head dress or Kaffiyeh upon his arrival to the Rafah crossing terminal between Egypt and the southern Gaza Strip yesterday. — AFP photos

housands of Gaza residents yesterday gathered at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, eagerly awaiting the arrival home of a 23-year-old Palestinian who won this year’s prestigious Arab Idol talent show. Young and old alike waved Palestinian flags and held up posters of Mohammed Assaf, raising banners congratulating him on his win in Beirut on Saturday, when he beat off stiff competition from fellow singers from across the Arab world. The meteoric rise of Gaza’s Assaf to snatch the top prize in the pan-Arab singing contest sparked an unprecedented outpouring of joy across the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, unifying an often divided public.

“We are making him an official welcome,” said Gaza’s cul-

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ture ministry director Fakri Judeh, who was heading a government delegation to receive Assaf. “Assaf is a Palestinian citizen who has made an outstanding achievement... and we support him,” he said, adding “we hope he will use his God-given talent to serve the Palestinian cause.” Assaf left Gaza via the Rafah crossing for an audition in Egypt in October last year, and made it through each stage, eventually staying in Beirut alongside other contestants for the final rounds.

Assaf’s victory in the finals, held in the Lebanese capital and screened live on television across the Arab world, marked the first such success for a Palestinian entertainer.

“Mohammed Assaf is the Arab Idol!” declared on Saturday the

presenter of the show which is modeled on the British hit show Pop Idol, as confetti rained down on the cheering audience. The handsome, tuxedo-clad singer immediately dedicated his win to “the Palestinian people, who have been suffering for more than 60 years from (the Israeli) occupation”. He won a professional recording contract and a car, a 2013 Chevrolet Camaro. Assaf’s competition included singers from as far west as Morocco and Tunisia, from Gulf countries Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, and notably war-torn Syria and even Iraqi Kurdistan.

The victory of the young man from Khan Yunis in the besieged Gaza Strip united tens of thousands of Palestinians in celebration, temporarily overshadowing the political crisis

he creator of the “Kick-Ass” action film franchise said on Monday that he was “baffled” over why its star Jim Carrey has publicly objected to violence in the movie since Carrey’s character takes an anti-gun stance and refuses to fire a weapon. Comedic actor Carrey, 51, said on Twitter that the December shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, had changed his mind about the violent superhero film that is due to open in theaters in August.

“I did Kickass a month b4 (before) Sandy Hook and now in all good conscience I cannot support that level of violence,” Carrey posted on Twitter on Sunday. The shooting killed 26 people, including 20 children and intensified a push for gun control in the United States.

Mark Millar, who wrote the comic books on which “Kick-Ass” and its sequel “Kick-Ass 2” are based and serves as a producer on the films, rebutted Carrey’s comments in a post on his website, saying the film deals with the “consequences of violence.” “I’m baffled by this sudden announcement as nothing seen in this picture wasn’t in the screenplay eighteen months ago,” Millar said. “Yes, the body-count is very high, but a movie called ‘Kick-Ass 2’ really has to do what it says on the tin.”

Carrey, who in the past has spoken out in support of gun-control, said on Twitter he was not ashamed of the film but that the Sandy Hook shooting

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A picture taken in Paris shows French actor Gerard Depardieuon leaving his mansion. — AFP

rench movie star Gerard Depardieu was slightly injured in a traffic accident in central Moscow, where he is shooting scenes of his latest film, Russian media reported yesterday. Depardieu, who recently gained Russian citizenship after denouncing, exorbitant taxes in his native France, was riding in a minivan with five others en route to the lavish Metropol hotel when a taxi crashed into the side, Izvestia daily reported. Depardieu is shooting a film called “Turquoise” on location in Grozny and Moscow, where he plays a father whose son is killed in Russia, while Elizabeth Hurley plays his love interest.

“The six passengers from the film crew received scratches,” Izvestia quoted traffic police as saying. The accident came after Depardieu last week was ordered by a court in Paris to pay a fine and had his license suspended for driving his scooter while drunk. The accident occurred early Sunday, but details were

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ctress Halle Berry testified in favor of California legislation that would limit the ability of paparazzi to photograph the children of celebrities. The hearing before the Assembly Committee on Public Safety was set for 9 am yesterday although it’s not clear exactly when Berry is expected to speak.

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only published yesterday. Traffic police told the media that the taxi driver had run through a red light and did not even have a valid licence.

Izvestia ran a photograph of several policemen in reflective clothing surrounding the French star at the scene of the accident close to the Bolshoi theatre and Red Square. Unnamed traffic police sources told Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper that the taxi driver Dmitry Subbotin had been banned from driving until 2016 for drink-driving but had continued to work for a taxi company. Depardieu received his Russian passport during a dinner with Putin in January after getting into a fight with the French authorities over a new 75-percent tax on the super-rich. — AFP

Berry has repeatedly tangled with paparazzi. The Los Angeles Times reports that in April she shouted and cursed at photographers at Los Angeles International Airport, telling them to get away from her young daughter.—AP

Indian Bollywood actors Farhan Akhtar and Riteish Deshmukh pose with choreographer judge Geeta Kapoor during the promotion of the forthcoming Hindi film ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’ in Mumbai on June 24, 2013. — AFP

“caused a change in my heart.”

The “Ace Ventura” star plays Colonel Stars and Stripes in “Kick-Ass 2,” the follow-up to 2010’s “Kick-Ass,” starring Chloe Moretz and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, in which a young girl teams up with a nerdy teenage boy to fight evil bullies.

“Ironically, Jim’s character in ‘Kick-Ass 2’ is a born-again Christian and the big deal we made of the fact that he refuses to fire a gun is something he told us attracted him to the role in the first place,” Millar said.

“Ultimately, this is his decision, but I’ve never quite bought the notion that violence in fiction leads to violence in reallife any more than Harry Potter casting a spell creates more Boy Wizards in reallife,” Millar added. Comcast Corp’s Universal Pictures, the film’s distributor, had no comment. — Reuters

This film publicity image released by Universal Pictures shows actor Jim Carrey portraying Colonel Stars and Stripes in a scene from ìKick-Ass 2.îóAP

amous directors, fans and even Darth Vader congratulated “Star Wars” creator George Lucas on Tuesday on his marriage to long-time girlfriend Mellody Hobson at his Skywalker ranch in California.

Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington, who was at the wedding on Saturday, tweeted a picture of Lucas in white tie with a white flower on his label and his bride in a white dress with a veil.

“The visionary “Star Wars” filmmaker wed the Ariel Investments president before an intimate gathering,” Huffington wrote in a report for her news and gossip website. She said Lucas’s second wedding was officiated

by US journalist Bill Moyers and was attended by friends and family including fellow filmmakers Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola. Van Morrison flew in to perform at the reception.

Another guest, US film director Ron Howard went on Twitter to congratulate the couple. “George Lucas Melody Hobson (sic) wedding was joy to behold .. Congrats Mr&Mrs Lucas,” tweeted Howard. The evil Lord Vader, a dark presence in the original “Star Wars” trilogy which first hit the silver screen in 1977, revealed a sunny side on the social media site. “Congrats to George Lucas, who got married this weekend. May the Force be with your marriage,” tweeted one fan from Twitter account Darth Vader@Depressed Darth.

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at home. The resignation of West Bank prime minister Rami Hamdallah and internal political wrangling was largely overshadowed by Assaf ’s victory, with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas crowning him a national goodwill ambassador, and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees named him their UNRWA Youth Ambassador.

Gaza’s Islamist Hamas rulers disapprove of shows such as Arab Idol, which are considered to be un-Islamic, but they have not clamped down on support for the contest. — AFP

Lucas, 69, has been married once before, to film editor Marcia Griffin. He has three adopted children. His son Jett was his best man and his daughters, Katie and Amanda, served as bridesmaids, Huffington wrote. It was the first marriage for 44-year-old Hobson.

Last October, the creator of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, sold his production company Lucasfilm Ltd to Walt Disney Co for $4.05 billion. Since then Disney has announced plans for three new “Star Wars” films for the big screen which will be made in Britain and

a new animated series to air on television in 2014.

“Star Wars” has become a cultural phenomenon, making characters such as Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Darth Vader, and phrases like “May the force be with you” part of popular culture. The original six-film franchise has grossed more than $4.4 billion at the worldwide box office. — Reuters

In this June 16, 2013 file photo, George Lucas, left, and longtime girlfriend Mellody Hobson arrive at the 40th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif. — AP

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

lifestyle

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oland Emmerich knows all about disasters.

The 57-year-old filmmaker laid waste to several landmarks in “Independence Day,” turned New York into an ice cube in “The Day After Tomorrow” and leveled most of the world in “2012.” However, when it comes to his latest film, “White House Down,” the biggest catastrophe might not be that terrorists have commandeered America’s most famous home. It’s perhaps that the action-packed film starring Jamie Foxx as the President of the United States and Channing Tatum as his impromptu bodyguard is being released Friday - just three months after “Olympus Has Fallen,” which featured a strikingly similar under-siege White House plot with Aaron Eckhart and Gerard Butler in the parallel roles.

Yet Emmerich doesn’t think the coincidence is the end of the world. “You do your film,” said Emmerich. “They do their film. I remember when there were two volcano and two meteor movies. I thought, ‘Isn’t Hollywood stupid to do that?’ All of a sudden, I was in the same situation, and I said, ‘I’m not stopping.’ I like my script. I have the two coolest dudes I always wanted to work with together in one film. I’m not stopping.’” “White House Down” focuses on Sgt John Cale, a Capitol police officer played by Tatum who is touring the White House with his daughter right after tanking an interview for a Secret Service job. When rogue former soldiers and government employees begin wreaking havoc on Pennsylvania Avenue, Cale must step up to rescue his daughter and the president.

While there are more than a few similarities between the films, there are some differences. The “Olympus Has Fallen” baddies were led by a former North Korean terrorist who kept Eckhart’s President Asher in captivity for most of the movie.

The “White House Down” villains are a rag-tag band of mercenaries who spend their time hunt-

ing down Foxx’s President Sawyer. The biggest contrast is that FilmDistrict’s “Olympus Has Fallen” was rated R and Sony’s “White House Down,” which was originally set for a November launch, is rated PG-13. It’s a lighter, less violent occupation of the presidential palace. Emmerich said he encouraged just as many jokes from Tatum and Foxx as he did stunts during filming last year in Montreal.

“You have to release a lot of tension with humor,” said Emmerich. “I personally don’t like movies that are too intense. I just don’t like them, so when I’m making something as intense as this when a girl is constantly at gunpoint, you have to figure out ways to laugh in between. Otherwise, it becomes too fast and not enjoyable anymore.”

Emmerich first learned another White House takeover movie was in the works when he traveled to Louisiana to meet with Foxx about the commander-in-chief role. At the time, “Training Day” director Antoine Fuqua wasn’t attached to “Olympus Has Fallen,” so Emmerich didn’t take the movie seriously. He still hasn’t seen it - and doesn’t intend to for a while.

“I will probably watch it at Christmas when all is said and done,” the director said with a smirk.

When it comes to like-minded movies, there’s no conclusive box-office evidence that going second is a death sentence. Sure, “Dante’s Peak” grossed more than “Volcano” when it erupted two months earlier in 1997, but “Armageddon” outperformed “Deep Impact” when it struck seven weeks later in 1998. Last year, “Snow White and the Huntsman” mined more than double at the box office two months after the debut of fellow live-action Snow White adaptation “Mirror Mirror.”

“Olympus Has Fallen,” which also starred Angela Bassett and Morgan Freeman, opened higher than expectations last March, earning $30.3 million in its first weekend after distributor

FilmDistrict originally pegged it at somewhere in the under-$20 million range. The thriller has gone on to bank $98.4 million in North America.

Emmerich isn’t concerned by such figures. “You make your own thing and hope for the best,” he said. “That’s it.” — AP

In this undated publicity photo provided by Sony Pictures Entertainment, Channing Tatum, left, and Jamie Foxx, center, star in Columbia Pictures’ ‘White House Down,’ directed by Roland Emmerich. — AP

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Seong Ryeong-chul, a daughter-in-law of late South Korean director Min Kyoung-sik, shows leaflets and photos of Min’s movie ‘The Street of the Sun,’ before its first screening in six decades at Korean Film Archive in Seoul, South Korea, yesterday. — AP photos

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or decades, South Korean film buffs thought all their country’s movie making from the Korean War era was lost forever. And it would have been, but for one film wrapped in a cocoon of old newspapers, tucked inside a plastic bag and placed in a dark, dusty closet. That film, “The Street of the Sun,” got its first screening in six decades Tuesday, the 63th anniversary of the beginning of the war. Now digitally restored, it offers South Koreans a rare glimpse at how their ancestors lived amid the destruction and poverty of war.

The movie was the debut feature of Min Kyoung-sik, a South Korean director who took a camera to the streets of Daegu in 1952, while a stream of refugees poured in. The southeastern city was tucked behind a perimeter secured by US and South Korean forces battling North Korea and China to the north. The film’s sentimental story of a refugee schoolteacher who becomes a surrogate father figure for street urchins attempts to teach a social lesson about wartime poverty and crime.

While fiction, it offers a look at real life in war-torn South Korea. The actors and producers had been uprooted by fighting, and many of the scenes reflect the city’s actual surroundings rather than a movie set, with non-actors in the mix. The war started June 25, 1950, and ended in a truce a year after the film was made. The Koreas remain technically at war, separated by a heavily fortified border, and about 28,500 US troops are still stationed in the South.

Min’s movie was long believed to have been destroyed or lost, along with the 13 other South Korean films made during

Late South Korean film director Min Kyoung-sik, center on photo, is pointed at by Min’s daughter-in-law Seong Ryeong-chul, before the screening of his film ‘The Street of the Sun’.

the war, according to the Korean Film Archive, the organization behind the film’s restoration. But two decades ago, the director’s daughter-in-law, Seong Ryeong-chul, found the 62minute, 16 mm film in a closet at her home. Seong said in an interview that she nearly threw away the coil of negatives.

“But when I raised the plastic ribbon against the light, I saw tiny images of people etched inside,” she said.

Even after the discovery, well over a decade passed before the Korean Film Archive became aware of the film. Seong contacted the organization in 2009, and in 2012 she granted the film to the archive for an undisclosed fee. The audio has never been found, so the film was screened yesterdaywithout sound. The story begins at a train station where a Seoul schoolteacher arrives at the scene of a fight.

He watches a local break up the brawl between two men.

Another scene depicts a dusty road in wartime Daegu lined with thatched roof houses that form a shantytown around the original city. The influences of American culture prevail over the scenes. Refugee children play baseball in clothing straight out of 1950s American comic strips.

Civilian life behind the US-South Korean perimeter is depicted as impoverished but peaceful: Children bend vines in an apple orchard and swim together in a creek where they learn to stop fighting and get along. Though they watch their elders struggle to make ends meet, there are no obvious references to war in the film. Chung Chong-hwa of the film archive said the film shows the influence of post-World War II Italian classics like “The Bicycle Thief” in South Korean cinema at a

time when war, poverty and desperation marked everyday life. Chung said the style of “The Street of the Sun” influenced other filmmakers, including prolific South Korean director and producer Shin Sang-ok. Shin was kidnapped in 1978 by Kim Jong Il, son and eventual successor of North Korean leader Kim Il Sung, and spent years making movies for the cinephile and future dictator before escaping with his wife. Min, who made five films in a relatively low-key career, had a life story that reflects the divisions that still haunt the two Koreas. Min’s son, Min Byoung-hak, said Tuesday that the director’s younger brother, Min Jung-sik, was on the north side of the 38th parallel when the Koreas were divided, and ended up making propagandistic films for the Pyongyang government.

Even in South Korea, which was led by military dictators for decades, filmmakers were often prevented from making the films they wanted to make as late as the 1990s, according to Darcy Paquet, founder of Koreanfilm.org. South Korean film directors are now a growing presence on the international film festival circuit. The modern South Korean classic “Old Boy” was remade by US film director Spike Lee and will be released this fall. — AP

eyman Moaadi, who starred in the Oscar-winning foreign film “A Separation,” is set to star opposite Kristen Stewart in writerdirector Peter Sattler’s politicallycharged indie drama “Camp X-Ray,” TheWrap has learned.

Stewart stars as Cole, a young soldier who escapes her suffocating small town by joining the military, only to find that she’s been stationed at Guantanamo rather than Iraq, as she had hoped. Met with hatred and abuse from the Muslim men in charge, she forges an odd friendship with Ali (Moaadi), who has been imprisoned at Gitmo for eight years.

“Army Wives” star Joseph Julian Soria will co-star as one of Stewart’s closest friends on the base.

Gina Kwon and Sophia Lin are producing, which David Gordon Green is executive producing with Lindsay Williams and Ellen Goldsmith-Vein. Production will begin later this summer in Los Angeles. Moaadi is an accomplished screenwriter who has penned several famous Iranian films and recently made his directorial debut with the award-winning drama “The Snow on the Pines.” He started his acting career in Asghar Farhadi’s 2009 film “About Elly” before reuniting with the director on “A Separation.”

Moaadi will soon be seen alongside Morgan Freeman in “The Last Knights” and he also worked with James Gandolfini on the HBO pilot “Criminal Justice,” which is now in limbo following Gandolfini’s death.

He’s repped by Shelley Browning of Magnolia Entertainment. — Reuters

Star power: Depp, Cruise hail producer Bruckheimer

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Sequel to Pitt’s ‘World War Z’ is in works

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rad Pitt is getting his action franchise after all. A person close to Pitt’s “World War Z” told The Associated Press on Monday that Paramount Pictures is likely to develop a sequel to the apocalyptic zombie thriller. The person was not authorized to announce the plans and spoke on condition of anonymity. “World War Z,” based on Max Brooks’ novel, was always intended to spawn a trilogy for Pitt, who stars as a United Nations inspector. But that seemed in doubt when the film ran significantly over budget, the ending had to be reshot and reports of turmoil among the filmmakers surfaced.

But the film opened strongly over the weekend, earning $66.4 million domestically and another $45.8 million internationally. That put it on course to easily recoup its production

budget of about $200 million. Reviews, too, have been mostly positive, and the film earned a B+ CinemaScore from moviegoers over the weekend.

Pitt, who’s also a producer on the film, has spent recent weeks traveling around the world to aggressively promote “World War Z.” When asked about the possibility of sequels in an interview last week, Pitt said there was plenty of fodder.

“We’ve got so many good story lines stemming from the book or inspired by the book and then just generated from our own powwows,” he said. “It might still be fun. We’ve got enough material, that’s for sure.”—AP

ohnny Depp and Tom Cruise hailed veteran producer Jerry Bruckheimer on Monday, as the man behind “Top Gun” and “Pirates of the Caribbean” got a star on Hollywood’s storied Walk of Fame. The A-listers joined Bruckheimer at a ceremony adding his name on the famous stretch of Hollywood Boulevard sidewalk, which is lined with stars in tribute to generations of entertainment celebrities. Depp, who starred as Captain Jack Sparrow in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” films and as Tonto in Bruckheimer’s latest film, “The Lone Ranger,” hailed the 67-yearold as a legend. “Without Jerry, there would be no ‘Pirates,’ there would be no Captain Jack,” Depp said. “Without Jerry, there would be no ‘Lone Ranger,’ there would be no reinvigorated Tonto.

“So I have a lot to thank him for. The man is a legend to me, a legend to us all, hence this congregation to celebrate him for his long-deserved star on the Walk of Fame. I, for one, could not be more honored to be here.” Bruckheimer, whose films have made more than $16 billion at the box office, got the 2,501st star on the Walk of Fame, in a prime location outside the El Capitan Theatre opposite the famed Chinese and Dolby theatres.

“My lifelong dream began when I was a young boy in Michigan, and it always remained the same-to be a filmmaker,” he said. “It’s been a long exciting journey from the streets of Detroit to the sidewalks of Hollywood, to be given a star to mark my contribution to an industry I love so much,” he added.

Other celebrities at the ceremony, which came a week or so before the release of “The Lone Ranger,” included director Gore Verbinski, actor Jon Voight and actress Marg Helgenberger.

Bruckheimer called the star an “unbelievable honor,” noting that fellow honorees on the tourist-crowded Walk of Fame, which stretches for a mile or two along Hollywood Boulevard, include Charlie Chaplin and Alfred Hitchcock. — AFP

Director Jerry Bruckheimer is honored with the 2,501st star.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

lifestyle F a s h i o n

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earing a sleek black dress topped with a taupe bolero and long stiletto-heeled boots, Nathalie Benhaim cuts an elegant figure. For her, Orthodox Judaism’s rules of modesty have never been synonymous with austerity. “I’m always made up and have my hair done, I never let myself go. It’s important for me and for my husband,” explains this motherof-four who has just opened a bakery in Jerusalem. The Benhaims describe themselves as religiously observant.

Jewish religious woman Nathalie Benhaim, 40, poses at her home on January 13, 2013 in Jerusalem. — AFP photos

They are also prominent in government under the leadership of cabinet minister Naftali Bennett, head of the hardline right-wing Jewish Home party. Mixing as they do with the secular population often sparks heated debate over the interpretation of halacha, the Jewish code of law which governs, among other things, how

women should behave and dress. Earlier this year, Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, one of the strictest leaders of religious Zionism, issued an updated dress code for women, banning them from wearing red or other bright colors, prohibiting any transparent fabrics-and ordering them to wear opaque tights. He even specified what thickness — 40 denier.

But this extreme reading of Jewish law has sparked widespread condemnation, even within the movement itself where interest in women’s fashion is rapidly growing, with an ever-growing number of shops and specialist designers entering the field. “Just a few years ago, religious Zionist fashion was all hippy chic and babacool. But recently a real national religious style has developed,” explains Vered Gilboa, who runs a boutique in the centre of Jerusalem. “Now it’s more vintage, chiffons and lace. But there are many different trends and designers. Zionist religious women are more and more interested in fashion, like women in the rest of Israeli society,” she adds.

Such is the surge in interest that the Shenkar School of Engineering and Design-the most popular in Israel, which has produced names such as Lanvin creator Alber Elbaz-recently launched a fashion course aimed at these very women. Dress codes for women within the Orthodox Jewish world hardly lend themselves to the creativity of designers: low necks are banned, dresses and skirts must cover the knees and sleeves must reach to the elbow.

to look dreary. We are forbidden to attract attention, that’s all. Halacha does not give a single, definitive interpretation,” she says.

“It has become more and more open since I arrived in Israel,” says Haiks, who has been in the country for 25 years. Leah Sheklar, a settler in her 50s living just north of the West Bank city of Ramallah, has combined her interest in Jewish spirituality with her taste for clothes and organizes a weekly workshop for women at a Jerusalem cafe.

In a side room, she has set up a mirror where the women are invited to stand and show others how they have put together an outfit. Standing in front of the mirror and looking at themselves also encourages women to think more about their own identity. “The question of clothing comes up far too often in terms of what is banned. Those who are prohibiting are actually obsessed, not by the Torah, but by that thing which they never mention-sex,” explains Sheklar, wearing a black dress with a brooch, an elegant beret covering her head.

“I am trying to see how to live freely in the world while respecting the rules. In my workshop, we speak about clothes as a means of self-discovery,” she says.

“Many religious Zionist women are following the trend in society as a whole to become more and more individualistic, they want to be happy, to live their feminity and their identity while at the same time living harmoniously with the religious world,” she adds. — AFP

‘We can’t live in a bubble’ But according to Nathalie Haiks, a mother-of-five, it is possible to be stylish while staying faithful to Jewish law. Her secret: basic skirts and t-shirts of the accepted length. “After you’ve done that, you can wear whatever you want from whatever shop,” says the 48-year-old, a personal assistant at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “We cannot live in a bubble even if we have to respect the rules. The Torah does not compel women

Models display creations as part of Giorgio Armani Menswear Spring-Summer 2014 collection yesterday during the Menís fashion week in Milan. — AFP

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

lifestyle F a s h i o n

Fashion designers Dean and Dan Caten pose with models at the end of DSquared2 men’s Spring-Summer 2014 collection, part of the Milan Fashion Week, unveiled in Milan, Italy yesterday. — AP/AFP photos

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ritish fashion designer Vivienne Westwood said on Monday that she has no plans to further expand in China and defended the high prices of her designs as a way to encourage customers to buy fewer clothes.

Westwood, who started selling clothes in London in the swinging 60s and now has shops in 15 other countries, said she is assessing her company, its operations and its aims.

“I want to backtrack and control it,” Westwood said before showing her men’s spring/summer 2014 collection in Milan. “I don’t want to expand in China anymore at the moment.” Westwood, an environmental activist, said she has turned her attention to her supply chain, starting with the material used to make the protest T-shirts that have become a feature of her shows. “We do a lot of T-shirts and at least I’ve managed to get the jersey that we use for the Tshirts, which comes from Peru mostly. It’s organic and it’s not harmful,” she said.

For the Milan show, staff and some models wore T-shirts supporting US Army private Bradley Manning, who is accused of releasing hundreds of thousands of classified files, videos and other data to the WikiLeaks anti-secrecy website. A romantic idea of India, which was chosen by her husband and creative director, Andreas Kronthaler, is the theme of the show, which featured Harem-style trousers, kaftans and chunky necklaces along with military berets.

Westwood, dressed in a grey sequined dress she had worn before, said she hoped other fashion icons such as Britain’s Queen Elizabeth and the duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, would also re-wear

their clothes. The designer added that she isn’t worried about people’s changing habits squeezing her profits. “If people like my clothes, it’s good if they don’t buy things for six months, then they’ll be able to afford them,” she said. Westwood defended the

cost of her designs, which carry high price tags, with a man’s suit costing about 800 pounds ($1,200). “I think it’s ecologically friendly that the clothes should be expensive,” she added. — Reuters

Designers Vivienne Westwood and husband Andreas Kronthaler acknowledge the audience at the end of the Vivienne Westwood Spring-Summer 2014 Menswear collection on June 23, 2013 during the Men’s fashion week in Milan. — AFP photos

Star power: Depp, Cruise hail producer Bruckheimer

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2013

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People interact with a large-scale installation art piece by Argentinian artist Leandro Erlich, entitled ‘Dalston House’, in East London yesterday. A replica front of a late nineteenth-century Victorian terraced house lying on the ground has a large mirror angled above it which gives the illusion of people hanging from the brick work. — AFP

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almatians, the ultimate menswear accessory, and a clutch of sporting greats are just some of the national successes that Croatia will bring to the EU when it joins the bloc on July 1.

“At all events, people who deny the influence of Europe’s ‘smaller nations’ should remember that the Croats have the rest of us by the throat,” wrote Norman Davies in his book “Europe: A History”. The British historian was referring to a tie or cravat-

The founder of the non-governmental organization Academia Cravatica, Marijan Busic, poses with ties in his office in Zagreb. — AFP

worn every day by millions of men worldwidewhose Croatian origin reaches far into the past and is linked to love and devotion.

“For centuries girls were tying scarves around their darlings’ necks, namely when they were leaving for wars, as a token of love and fidelity, they were ‘tying’ or obliging them,” explains Marijan Busic, founder of the Academia Cravatica, a non-

governmental organization. Revealingly, the word “croata” can be found in many languages as the root of words meaning tie or cravat: the historical reason comes from the tight neck scarves worn by Croatians in the French army during the Thirty Years War in the 17th century.

The humble tie was soon accepted as a fashion accessory by the powerful French court, including King Louis XIV himself, and later spread to Britain and throughout the world. The Academia promotes the tie as part of Croatia’s cultural heritage, and in 2003, broke a Guinness World Record by wrapping an ancient Roman amphitheatre in the northern port city of Pula with the world’s longest tie-an 800-metre (2,640-foot) specimen. While the origins of the tie may prove a surprise to the rest of Europe, the country has one “export” that is known and loved.

Of Croatia’s seven native dog breeds, Dalmatians, with their distinctive brown or black spots and elegant bodies, have won global fame thanks to Walt Disney’s cartoon “101 Dalmatians”, first released in 1961. Originating from the coastal region of Dalmatia on the Adriatic, these friendly dogs were first depicted in a number of paintings and church chronicles dating from between the 16th and 18th centuries, before becoming soughtafter domestic pets hundreds of years later.

Nowadays, though, it seems both foreigners living in Croatia and sport aficionados abroad think of athletes as the country’s best-known brand. “I find it amazing how much quality in the world of competitive sport Croatia brings. They (athletes) are a fantastic advert and an indication and example of the potential of this country,” 47-year-old Russell Owens, a British businessman and Croatia resident, told AFP. Tennis legend Goran Ivanisevic and high jump champion Blanka Vlasichas have made names for themselves internationally, taking their first sporting steps in a country whose 4.2 million population is fond of sport but where there is still a seri-

ous lack of financial support for athletes. Alpine ski champions, sister and brother Janica and Ivica Kostelic, have also found stardom-even if their homeland has practically no ski resorts.

Croatia’s football squad are ranked fourth on FIFA’s world list, while its national handball team scooped the world champions title in 2003 and Olympic gold in 1996 and 2004. And in 2007 Croatia’s water-polo squad were crowned world champions, while its top basketball players, Drazen Petrovic, who died in 1993, and NBA star Toni Kukoc bounced Croatia into the sporting spotlight.

On the foodie side of things, Croatia’s big claim to fame is its prosciutto ham from Istria, whose artisan producers hope to obtain protected status for the tasty delicacy.

Of course, for much of Europe, Croatia’s big draw is its tourism-and more specifically its pristine Adriatic coast dotted with more than a thousand islands and islets. These vary from those with lunarlike surfaces such as Pag in the north, to islands dense with Mediterranean forest like the southern island of Mljet. It is not for nothing that Dubrovnik, perched on the coast, and gleaming with Baroque buildings, has earned its nickname as the “pearl of the Adriatic”. A survey conducted within the EU showed that Croatia is best known for its natural beauty and tourism, public relations expert Bozo Skoko told AFP. “There is an overall consensus over that,” he said. — AFP

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razilian literature and arts will this year come under the spotlight at the world’s biggest book fair, which annually attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors in the western German city of Frankfurt, organizers said yesterday. After New Zealand was last year’s guest of honor, Brazil takes centre stage at the 2013 Frankfurt book fair, with 70 of its authors as well as artists and others expected to showcase the country’s literary and cultural traditions.

“We want to show how culture feeds Brazilian life, especially when one sees what’s happening currently in Brazil,” fair director Juergen Boos told a new conference, referring to a two-week wave of street protests in Brazil.

Brazil’s organizing committee head Renato Lessa said there was a lot of expectation in the fair and that it was important for the country to trumpet its own language internationally.

The authors selected to take part represent “an excellent and vivid assortment”, he said. “The current selection, although committed to giving a broad sense of the literary variety of the country, aims to show the link between Brazilian contemporary literary trends and the international ones,” he added. The book fair, which runs from October 9 to 13, will also stage Brazilian concerts, exhibitions and demonstrations of street art, theatre and films. More than 7,300 exhibitors from 97 countries took part in last year’s five-day fair, which drew about 280,000 visitors. — AFP