29th Jun 2013

IPT IO N SC R SU B

SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

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150 Fils

KIA more than doubled UK investment

SHAABAN 20, 1434 AH

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Obama’s ‘hero’ Mandela hangs on

No: 15854

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Nerveless Navas sends Spain into Confeds final

Morsi friends, foes take to the streets

Max 47º Min 32º

Alexandria clashes raise fears of deepening unrest CAIRO: Supporters and opponents of Egyptian Islamist President Mohamed Morsi took to the streets yesterday for rival protests a year after his election, as clashes in Alexandria raised fears of widespread unrest. Fervent displays of emotion on both sides underline the bitter divisions in Egypt, with Morsi’s opponents accusing him of hijacking the revolution and his supporters vowing to defend his legitimacy to the end. Meanwhile, a man was killed by gunfire yesterday of Alexandria during clashes between the supporters and opponents of Morsi, a health ministry official said.

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Gulf to agree action against Hezbollah RIYADH: The Gulf Cooperation Council will hold a meeting in Riyadh next week to agree the mechanisms for imposing sanctions on members of Lebanese movement Hezbollah, its head Abdullatif Al-Zayani said.

The monarchies of the GCC decided on June 10 to impose sanctions on members of Hezbollah targeting their residency permits and their financial and business activities in reprisal for the Shiite group’s armed intervention in Syria. Thursday’s meeting, in which deputy interior ministers from GCC member states will take part, would “develop the appropriate mechanisms for applying” the June 10 decision, Zayani said in comments quoted by official Saudi news agency SPA. The sanctions would be implemented “in coordination... with ministers of commerce and the central banks of the GCC”, he added, without giving further details about the precise nature of the mechanisms. — AFP

ALEXANDRIA: An injured man is assisted after clashes between supporters and opponents of Egypt’s Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in Alexandria yesterday. — AP

Gulf lovers use smartphones to beat taboo

RIYADH: A Saudi woman looks at her mobile as she walks through a coffee shop in the capital Riyadh. — AFP

DUBAI: Jaber and his girlfriend flirt the day away, never wasting a minute to sweet-talk and dream of a future together, but like most Gulf Arab youths they can only do it virtually.

In the United Arab Emirates and all across the conservative Gulf countries, dating is unacceptable among nationals while arranged marriages are the norm. To beat the segregation imposed by a stern society, young men and women meet through chatting applications available on smartphones.

Sitting in a coffee shop in a luxurious Abu Dhabi mall, the love-struck Emirati young man holds a tea cup in one hand while the other one is busy typing love messages on the keyboard

of his BlackBerry.

“I saw her at the movies. I asked an employee there to hand her my BlackBerry PIN code,” Jaber recalls with a grin the day he met his girlfriend.

“I didn’t really expect her to add me to her contact list, or for such a love story to evolve between us,” said Jaber, who is in his 20s.

But it did and the first cyberspace encounter took place two months later when the young woman mustered enough courage and linked up with Jaber via Skype. It was a short meeting, said Jaber, who staunchly refused to reveal his girlfriend’s name because making their relationship public would trigger a scandal in their conservative

society.

That first Skype date was enough “to affirm our love,” said the university graduate. Eventually he convinced his beloved to meet him in secret and now the couple are considering the next step-namely should Jaber request a meeting with her father in line with tradition and formally ask for her hand in marriage.

“Despite the modernization in the United Arab Emirates, families still hold on to their traditional conservative values,” says Jamila Khanji, adviser of research and studies at the Family Development Foundation in Abu Dhabi.

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SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

Kamel Al-Awadhi

Meshal Mubarak Al-Ayyar

Saleh Bader Al-Saeedi

Faleh Al-Thafeeri

Mohammed Al-Mutairi

Mubarak Saleh Al-Enezi

Osama Al-Tahous

Talal Al-Shemmiri

Faisal Saleh Al-Harbi

Rabah Al-Najadah

65 candidates register for parliament polls Al-Roumi to run for speaker’s post KUWAIT: The first day of registration to run for the Parliamentary elections witnessed 65 candidates including one woman, Riham Al-Jlewi, in the Third district. The most notable candidate on Thursday was Abdullah Al-Roumi who said he will run for the speaker’s post in case he won the elections.

Acting Premier and Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud inspected the elections directorate, and said all precautions will be taken to avoid mistakes during the elections. He said that six teams were formed to monitor vote-buying as well as bi-elections.

Meanwhile, Information Minister and State Minister for Youth Affairs Sheikh Salman AlHumoud lauded the efforts of all those involved in the election process, and hoped that election day on July 27 becomes a good opportunity during the month of Ramadan to fulfill the wishes of citizens and the country.

He said Kuwait is proud with its democratic experience and all its institutions, adding that this is an important stage and asked citizens to participate positively to support the democratic process. Sheikh Salman said that “despite the hurdles that we faced in the past, the democratic experience proved its strength and the belief in the institutional state, and we have a

period of work and achievement ahead of us and compensate for lost time to support the development plans.”

He said the organization of elections under total supervision from the Judiciary is something that distinguished Kuwait’s elections which is always transparent. He said the responsibility of the information ministry is to play its main role in making citizens aware, and the importance of their carrying out their responsibility to support the election process.

Sheikh Salman said the information ministry has a plan to grant all candidates equal opportunities to present their platforms.

Meanwhile, informed sources said Kuwait University will launch a media campaign to educate the youth and urge them to participate in the elections and vote for the better away from secterian and tribal loyalty. The sources said the campaign will be in cooperation with government entities such as the information ministry, which will stress the importance of staying away from selling votes and show that it is a crime. The campaign will include SMS, ads, stickers and leaflets.

Parliamentary candidate Abdullah AlRoumi said he will run for the speakership, adding that the current situation requires soli-

darity and good intentions, especially under the dangers that surround the region as Kuwait is not far from it. Al-Roumi said article 71 of the constitution said that there is no absolute authority that gives the right to issue decrees.

He said the amendment of the election law requires social and national consensus, which needs collective efforts to find out a legislation that no one looks at from a personal view.

Second constituency candidate Eng. Adel Al-Khorafi said it is possible to contest the elections as it is the right of every citizen to do so, especially that the assembly annulment was due to wrong procedures. He asked the government to rely on competent Kuwait youth instead of the wide spread displeasure the people are living today.

Second constituency candidate Khalil AlSaleh said the legal and constitutional procedures for the current elections are correct, and the responsibility is now that of the voter in choosing who deserves to represent the nation. He said the number of laws that were approved in the previous assembly is 143, that benefited all Kuwaiti people, as it was a democratic assembly and approved several laws regarding development.

Meanwhile candidate Ahmad Al-Hamad

said Kuwait judiciary protected the one vote system, which corrected the defect in the election law, and “we must admit that the defect was present.” He appealed to the government and the next assembly to cooperate to finish several projects that attract investments, and activate the role of the private sector.

Candidate of the Third constituency Riham Al-Jlewi said she is running in the elections because she believes the next stage requires strong economy in order to improve the citizen’s living. She said she also wants to encourage the youth in the private sector to be present in the assembly to be part of decision making. Candidate Abdel Kareem Al-Kandari said Kuwait needs competent people, and “as a professor in commercial law, I want to present solutions through participating in several issues in the next assembly, most important of which is health, education and unemployment.

Roudhan Al-Roudhan, a former minister and former MP, said Kuwait is living a democratic festival, and all gave what they had in the previous assemblies, as people choose those they feel are the best. He said “we are looking for stability and cooperation between the two authorities and use the constitutional articles correctly.”

Kuwait welcomes Iraq’s partial exit from Chapter VII sanctions UNITED NATIONS: Kuwait is content over Iraq’s “partial” exit from Chapter VII obligations, Acting Charge d’Affaires of the Kuwaiti permanent mission to the UN, Ambassador Abdulaziz Al-Jarallah said yesterday. Under Chapter VII of the UN Security Council Charter, Iraq is impended by “action by air, sea, or land forces as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security”, which was imposed on following the invasion of Kuwait in 1990, and it has remained in

place despite the change of regime.

“The resolution reflects development of bilateral relation between the two countries, which was crowned by the recent visit of His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad AlSabah to Baghdad two weeks ago and resulted in signing four MoUs and two bilateral agreements,” Al-Jarallah said in a statement. As for the resolution, he said that “the UN role is still ongoing in following up on the issues of Kuwaiti missing and

property, as well as the national archive.

This would be done upon understandings between Kuwait and Iraq under Chapter VI.” In contrast to Chapter VII, the UNSC Chapter VI stipulates that the Council shall “call on the parties to settle their dispute by negotiation, mediation, arbitration, judicial settlement, or resort to regional agencies or arrangements or other peaceful means of their choice.”

Al-Jarallah appreciated Iraq’s efforts to fulfill its obligations, as well extending

Kuwait’s thanks to former UN high-level Coordinator for missing Kuwaiti and third country nationals and of missing Kuwaiti property Gennady Tarasov. He also commended efforts by UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) in this regard and urged Iraq to continue cooperating with it in order to fully remove it from Chapter VII. The vote took place in the presence of Iraqi Foreign Minister Hozhyar Zebari who flew to New York to witness the event. The Council transferred those two humanitari-

an issues, under Chapter VI, to UNAMI’s attention, taking into consideration the Kuwaiti conditions aimed at having the files constantly under Council review. The resolution, ..., called on Baghdad, in furtherance of its commitment to facilitate the repatriation of all Kuwaiti and thirdcountry nationals or their remains still unaccounted for, to continue cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) by providing any information about them. —- KUNA

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SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

KIA more than doubled UK investment in past 10 years 60th anniversary celebration LONDON: The Kuwait Investment Authority has more than doubled its investment in Britain over the past 10 years to more than $24 billion, Bader Mohammed Al-Saad, managing director of the KIA said yesterday.

Kuwait’s sovereign wealth fund, which manages state assets in the world’s fourth-biggest oil exporter, is the oldest sovereign fund tracked by the SWF Institute with an estimated $342 billion in assets, one of the world’s largest. “The KIO now manages more than $120 bn globally compared with only $27 bn 10 years ago,” Al-Saad said. “The KIA has invested more than $24 billion in the UK across all asset classes, sectors and industries.

10 years ago it was $9 billion,” he said at an investor lunch in London on Friday. The lunch marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Kuwait Investment His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Office, the fund’s main Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah investment arm.

“In the world of addressing the meeting. trade and industry, the close cooperation between the KIA and the United Kingdom is a force for good which I believe will continue and grow in the years to come,” he added. The KIO has around $9.24 bn invested in equities according to Thomson Reuters data, with stakes in companies including BP, Vodafone and HSBC. His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad AlSabah took part in a celebration held here yesterday to mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of Kuwait Investment Office in London.

In a speech at a banquet held on this occasion and attended by several British officials, including the Lord Mayor of the City of London Roger Gifford, Sheikh Jaber said the office was the result of historic fruitful cooperation between Kuwait and Britain.

“Today, let us celebrate together the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Kuwait Investment Office in London, which was a result of the fruitful cooperation between the State of Kuwait and the United Kingdom; emphasizing the keenness of both countries to enhance a lasting heritage of close relations,” Sheikh Jaber said.

“Our Celebration of the anniversary of the establishment of the office is an extension of the grandiose celebration held under the auspices and attendance of His Highness the Amir of the State of Kuwait during his historical visit to the United Kingdom last November, which coincided with another grand occasion; the 60th anniversary of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation.” HH Prime Minister pointed out that the investment office was founded in accordance with an agreement between the State of Kuwait and the United Kingdom on Feb 23, 1953 and was launched from the city of London being the world’s financial centre and the most appropriate setting for investments.

“It continued to grow to become one of the Kuwaiti investments’ vital arms, assisted by sovereign immunity granted to Kuwait by your friendly country. A point of pride is the commitment of the Kuwaiti investment office to the British legislations that concur with the values and principles of International trade and the global environmental and economic requirements, not forgetting legitimate competition while looking out for the national interest of the State of Kuwait,” he said.

He underlined that the occasion is one of many examples that reflect the distinguished historical relations between the two countries, “illustrating our readiness to boost cooperation and understanding, and increasingly seeking to promote relations and explore new prospects of cooperation and partnership for the welfare of both countries.

“We in Kuwait are extremely proud of the solid ties that have bound us to Great Britain throughout history and through special relations that included various aspects of cooperation in the economic, social, cultural, political and military fields, of which we are all keen for to remain firm and in constant and steady growth,” he said.

Moreover, Sheikh Jaber noted that Kuwait and Britain have many commonalities in several domains.

“May I add that there are many common features between our two friendly countries and I recall here HH the Amir’s speech before the venerable British parliament when he stated that ‘we, in the State of Kuwait share with you the spirit of democracy, we have a constitution that is considered a beacon guiding the State, government and people to a dignified way of life.’”

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SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

Students try to storm Taima school office Boy found drunk in Shaab

KUWAIT: Customs officers foiled an attempt by a truck driver to smuggle 70 kg of hashish through Abdally border. The drugs were found hidden in secret compartments of his truck. This is the first time that such a big quantity was discovered before entering the country.

—Photo by Hanan Al-Saadoun

Bomb hoax at airport

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: Security authorities were on alert yesterday at the Kuwait International Airport as they received information about a bomb on board of a Royal Jordanian aircraft. Departure of Flight number 641 was delayed from 4.55pm to 11.20 as the plane was searched by the explosives department officials.

A Security sources said that a Kuwaiti student who was supposed to travel aboard the flight arrived at the airport after the reporting time. As he was not allowed to check in, he had an argument with the officials and policemen were called in. The student told them “You are not allowing me to check in, no problem, but the aircraft has a bomb on board”!! Policemen told him that such claims will make him legally responsible, but he insisted on what he said. Authorities had to deal seriously with his claims, and following a 6-hour search and inspection, it was found to be a hoax, and the student was taken to concerned authorities.

Two arrested Ahmadi police arrested two Ethiopian women who were found wearing revealing clothes. Investigations revealed that they were trying to lure people and offer sexual services for KD 20 to KD 50. The two were sent to concerned authorities.

KUWAIT: Taima police foiled an attempt by 100 students in Mulla Essa School to storm the school administration’s offices in protest against the decision to not return their test papers, which were withdrawn by the examination committee after it discovered that the students used their smart phones while taking the tests.

Police acted after receiving a phone call from the school authorities, and got the protesting students out of the school’s premises.

Drunk boy A 12-year-old boy was found drunk and sleeping near Shaab park with a bottle of imported liquor in his hand. The boy woke up with policemen around him. Police had received a call earlier about a motionless boy lying near Shaab Park. The policemen took the boy to a health center for treatment of his injured foot. An investigation into the matter is under way.

Man shot at A Saudi man, who was fed up with his eldest brother’s ill treatment of their parents, fired his pistol at his brother and had him admitted to Jahra Hospital ICU in a very critical condition. The incident took place early on Tuesday morning when Jahra Hospital reported the admission of the wounded Saudi man. Meanwhile, the suspect entered the police station and told the officials that he had hit his brother during a domestic dispute. However, the medical report suggested otherwise, forcing the suspect to admit that he had fired from a pistol to defend his parents from his brother who had recently been released from prison. The suspect was sent to the authorities concerned.

Rape case Ahmadi detectives arrested a young

man for luring a beautician into his Mangaf flat and raping her. However, the arrested man claimed that she went willingly to the flat with him. The beautician told Abu Halaifa police that she was on a date with the man, with whom she was in a relationship for the past two years and had hopes of marrying him. She stated that he asked her to accompany him to his flat to do some work, but ended up having forced sex with her. The case was referred to the prosecution.

Offensive SMS The Appeals Court upheld a ruling that ordered a female citizen to pay KD 200 fine for sending offensive SMS to her mother-in-law. The elder woman filed a complaint after receiving bad SMS from the suspect.

Abandoned baby A new-born baby was taken to Mubarak Hospital, as he was found abandoned in front of a Hawally building.

Investigations area underway.

Copper theft An Education Ministry Supervisor filed a complaint that thieves had stolen 300 kg of copper from the training center.

Detectives are investigating. A source said the stolen items are worth several thousands of dinars.

Taima fight A bedoon dentist, and an unemployed bedoon stabbed each other with knives during a fight. The incident took place in Taima when the dentist was driving, as the other bedoon harassed him. He wanted to avoid problems and did not bother, but the bedoon kept harassing him so the dentist stopped and exchanged blows

EU, GCC states keen on cementing ties BRUSSELS: The 27-member European Union and the six-seat Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are keen to deepen their relations, according to a senior EU diplomat.

Realities on the ground are pushing both regional groups to strengthen their coordination and cooperation in mutual beneficial ways, said the ranking diplomat.

Speaking in Brussels, the diplomat who requested anonymity, said the EU-GCC ministerial meeting in Manama due tomorrow, is an annual event to take stock of the development of EU-GCC ties and discuss regional and global issues.

The EU delegation to the 23rd session of the GCC-EU ministerial meeting will be led by High Representative Catherine Ashton and Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmad Al Khalifa, will lead the GCC side as Manama holds the current GCC Presidency.

Today, senior officials from both

sides will meet in Manama to prepare for the ministerial meeting.

“We are looking forward to a frank and interesting discussion on regional issues like Syria, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, the Horn of Africa,” noted the diplomat.

The meeting will also tackle global issues like counter terrorism and fight against piracy.

On Iran, the diplomat noted that the EU at the moment has a “waitand-see” attitude following the election of Hassan Rohani as the new President.

“He is the least of hardliners, a man of the system, within the system and his powers of manoeuvre is quite limited,” said the diplomat and added that that “we shall be carefully listening to the GCC view on Iran.” He pointed out that the two sides will take stock of various fields included in the EU-GCC Joint Action Programme, which was endorsed in 2010 by the EU-GCC

ministers meeting in Luxembourg and which ends this year.

The EU side is interested to renew this Joint Action Programme which sets a number of key strategic areas and reflects the shared ambition of the two sides to reinforce cooperation.

The GCC is bound to the EU by a Cooperation Agreement dating back to 1988.

The diplomat said the EU will not raise the issue of a free trade agreement (FTA) at the meeting as negotiations are on hold due to differences over a clause regarding the imposition of GCC exports duty.

EU-GCC trade has increased in both directions and relations between the two groups are “developing on a healthy base,” added the diplomat.

The GCC groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE.—KUNA

with him. Both were taken to the police station.

Five cheated A Lebanese escaped to his country after collecting KD 5,000 as a deposit from five people whom he convinced that he will sell a saloon for them in Salmiya. The Lebanese put the saloon for sale, so five men showed interest to buy it. So he asked each to pay him KD 1000 as a deposit, and told them that he will hand over the shop by the end of the month. A security source said that one of the persons who paid the deposit visited the shop after a few days and found a Pakistani man who told him that the Lebanese man had left the country after selling it to him. So he went to the police station and filed a case. Four others did the same against the suspect.

Flirting attempt A woman in her 50s accused a young man of urging her to commit adultery.

When police summond him, he said “are you serious...she is as old as my grand mother”! The woman went to Rawdha police station and told them a man chased her from Eqaila area and kept flirting with her all the way to her house in Rawdha, and gave police his car registration number. Investigations are underway.

Unkind son An elderly Syrian woman resorted to her daughter as her son kicked her out of his house because his wife does not like her. Police patrols noticed the elderly woman in the street, and asked her why she was out, and she told them her son kicked her out of the house. She told them that she has a daughter in Kuwait, who was called and came to take her.

‘Loyalty to country key to development’ ASILAH, Morocco: Loyalty to the country should be the concern of citizens faithful to the development and prosperity of their homeland, said Former Kuwait Foreign Minister Sheikh Dr Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah here yesterday.

On the sidelines of a seminar discussing the Arab Spring, Sheikh Mohammad Al-Sabah said that political parties should be loyal to the country, adding that any political group expressing loyalty to anything else other than the land might become a threat. The seminar, held as part of the Asilah international cultural festival, focused on key issues related to the concept of citizenship, country, and development.

He indicated that participants, mostly former diplomats and intellectuals, provided valuable input during the course of the event.

Sheikh Mohammad said that the three items discussed during the course of the seminar were all connected to the notion of loyalty and indicated that development on all domains could not be achieved without this notion.

The former Kuwaiti minister thanked the Moroccan government for organizing the seminar which was part of the Asilah cultural festival.

The Asilha festival will continue its activity till July 5. Kuwait will send an official media delegation before the end of the event to partake in a seminar regarding the GCC media scene and regional development. The Kuwaiti delegation will be headed by Undersecretary at the Ministry of Information Salah Mansour AlMubaraki. — KUNA

SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

Lebanon clerics denounce arrests, ‘abuse’ of Sunnis

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US put us in ‘tough spot’ over Snowden: Russia

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Clashing visions on US drive for Taleban talks

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AMMAN: US Secretary of State John Kerry (left) speaks with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas during a meeting in the Jordanian capital Amman yesterday.—AFP

Kerry shuttle presses Mideast peace bid US officials play down hopes of a breakthrough JERUSALEM: US Secretary of State John Kerry shuttled between Jerusalem and Amman yesterday as he tried to revive moribund Middle East peace negotiations, holding lengthy separate meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

Kerry, who is trying to break a protracted deadlock in the negotiations, met Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem in two separate meetings before and after a visit to Amman for lunch with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

“Secretary Kerry and president Abbas held a two and a half-hour lunch meeting” at the Palestinian ambassador’s residence in the Jordanian capital, a state department official told AFP. The official described it as “very constructive... (and) focused on the importance of moving the peace process forward”. The top US diplomat then flew by helicopter back to Jerusalem-where had been in what he described as a “good long” four-hour meeting with Netanyahu that ended at 1:30 am (2230 GMT Thursday) — before beginning another afternoon meeting with him at Kerry’s hotel.

The two men shook hands and Kerry joked

“so soon,” after entering a suite with Middle Eastern snacks laid out on a small table, an AFP correspondent said. Kerry was set to meet Shimon Peres at his residence in Jerusalem at 7.00 pm (1600 GMT), and to dine with the nearly 90-year-old Israeli president. Officials were tightlipped about Kerry’s late-night talks with Netanyahu, held over dinner at a hotel suite named after slain premier Yitzhak Rabin.

Kerry “reiterated his strong and sustained commitment to working with all parties to achieve two states, living side by side with peace and security,” a US official said on condition of anonymity, calling the talks “productive”.

Kerry has made Middle East peace a signature priority, visiting the region five times since February. US officials have played down hopes of a breakthrough, but Kerry has said he wants progress before the UN General Assembly in September, when Abbas could rally international opinion against Israel if he sees no movement.

The immediate task is not a settlement to one of the world’s most intractable disputes but the more modest goal of resuming direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians after a gap of nearly three years. After the quick failure of

the last round, the Palestinians want guarantees that Israel will freeze construction of settlements on occupied land and commit to the principle of a peace deal based on the borders that existed before the 1967 Middle East war.

Israel has retorted that it is ready to negotiate but will not accept “preconditions”. Just a day before Kerry’s visit, an Israeli committee gave final approval of 69 new settler homes in annexed Arab east Jerusalem. While the United States was low-key in its reaction, Palestinian senior negotiator Hanan Ashrawi called the move an Israeli repudiation of Kerry’s peace initiative.

US officials say they want to build a solid foundation for the peace talks so that any renewed negotiations are not just symbolic but have a real chance of moving towards a lasting deal. Ideas floated include Israel releasing Palestinian prisoners jailed since before the 1993 Oslo peace accords, a gesture that could give Abbas more political room to negotiate.

Another possibility would be an informal agreement for Israel not to announce new settlements, without explicitly declaring a freeze-a step that would go down badly in Netanyahu’s

right-leaning government. Netanyahu emerged from January elections with coalition partners who openly oppose the creation of a Palestinian state, undermining hopes for the much-vaunted two-state solution.

Economics Minister Naftali Bennett, who heads the far-right Jewish Home party, recently described the Palestinian issue as “shrapnel in the buttocks” a problem Israel simply had to keep suffering through-but threatened to quit if the government agreed to a Palestinian state.

Former intelligence minister Dan Meridor believed a resumption of talks was “feasible”, but was unsure they would achieve anything. “I believe there will be some formula by which it will resume... the question is whether it will go (anywhere) from there,” he told journalists ahead of Kerry’s visit. Internal Palestinian divisions also present an obstacle to talks. Gaza’s Hamas premier Ismail Haniya on Friday warned Abbas against falling into the “trap of negotiations,” calling first for Palestinian “unity”. Hamas, which governs Gaza, and Abbas’s Fatah, which dominates the West Bank, have been at odds since Hamas’s takeover of the Palestinian coastal enclave in 2007. — AFP

International

SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

Lebanon clerics denounce arrests, ‘abuse’ of Sunnis Watchdog wants independent probe

A Syrian girl crosses the street holding a bag in the centre of Syria’s northeastern city of Deir Ezzor yesterday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog, which relies on a network of contacts on the ground in Syria, said that more than 100,000 people, mainly civilians, have been killed since the uprising erupted. — AFP

Morsi friends, foes...

Continued from Page 1 It was not clear whether the victim was a Morsi supporter or opponent, added Amal Sharawi, the health ministry official. He was killed in clashes near the Muslim Brotherhood’s local offices in the city’s Sidi Gaber neighborhood. State news agency MENA said 70 people had been injured.

Television footage showed protesters running in several directions in Alexandria’s Sidi Gaber area as gunshots were heard. The offices of the Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, were also set on fire during the confrontations, the FJP said, and television channels broadcast footage showing plumes of smoke rising from the building.

At least four people have died since Wednesday in clashes in the Nile Delta, three in the city of Mansura and one in Zagazig, medics said. Overnight violence erupted in the eastern part of the Nile Delta, north of the capital, Morsi’s own home province of Sharqiya.

The unrest is seen by many as a prelude to mass antiMorsi protests planned for tomorrow.

In Cairo, tens of thousands of Islamists gathered under the slogan “legitimacy is a red line”, in reference to Morsi’s insistence that he has a popular mandate. “People must go with everything they’ve got to defend legitimacy and Egypt,” one speaker told the cheering crowd, but also urging them to keep their protests peaceful.

Meanwhile, anti-Morsi protesters joined hundreds camped overnight in Tahrir Square, epicenter of the 2011 revolt that toppled Hosni Mubarak and catapulted Morsi to the presidency. —AP

SIDON: Sunni clerics yesterday denounced the arrests and alleged abuse of Sunni detainees after a deadly battle between troops and supporters of radical Sheikh Ahmad Al-Assir in south Lebanon.

A rights watchdog said there must be an independent investigation into claims the army is committing abuses against people suspected of links to the weekend clashes in which 18 soldiers died. The fighting in Abra outside Sidon was the worst in Lebanon since the outbreak of conflict in neighboring Syria 27 months ago deepened sectarian tensions.

It highlighted widespread Sunni resentment against the army, which is accused of siding with the powerful Shiite Hezbollah and being selective in its crackdown on armed groups.

Thousands of worshippers yesterday heard Sidon’s top Sunni cleric accuse the army of making arrests “without due process”. “People are being taken to prison because they are religious or because they wear a beard or a full-face veil,” Sidon’s mufti Sheikh Sousan said during Friday prayers in the southern city. “They are being beaten badly, and maybe even dying,” he charged.

A security source said dozens of people have been arrested since the army seized Assir’s headquarters in Abra near Sidon on Monday. Sidon residents claim the bodies of those killed have not been handed over to their families. “It is Sidon’s right to know how many people were killed, and to know their names. It is Sidon’s right to know how many wounded there are, and their whereabouts,” said Sousan. He called for an “inde-

The body was identified as Nader al-Bayoumy, a man the Association of Muslim Scholars said had “handed himself in” after the Abra clash.

Houry said the man’s family insisted he was alive when the fighting ended, but they later received a call to say his body was at the military hospital in Beirut. Though Assir had only a small following, his virulent antiHezbollah discourse echoed loudly with Lebanon’s Sunnis.

Rage against the Shiite movement has soared ever since it began fighting alongside President Bashar AlAssad’s troops in Syria. Hezbollah backs the Assad regime, but Lebanon’s Sunni-led opposition supports the rebels. — AFP

This citizen journalism image provided by Aleppo Media Center AMC which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows anti-Syrian regime protesters holding Syrian revolution flags, during a demonstration in the neighborhood of Bustan Al-Qasr in Aleppo yesterday. —AP

Family: No details about US woman’s death in Syria

Gulf lovers use...

Continued from Page 1 “Families still arrange their children’s marriages, even though they have now become more flexible by allowing the engaged couple to meet, or accepting longer engagement periods to give the couple better chances to get to know one another,” she said.

But while this is the case in the UAE, considered one of the Gulf’s most liberal countries, it is nearly impossible for couples in neighboring Saudi Arabia to meet as the ultra-conservative kingdom strictly prohibits mixing between the sexes.

In a cafeteria at the entrance of a shopping mall in AlTahliya street, one of Riyadh’s most vibrant districts, dozens of young men look on as fully veiled girls in high heels and designer handbags walk past and head towards the seating area reserved to women and families only.

In oil-rich Saudi Arabia it is nearly impossible for men to openly approach a woman but thanks to an easy access to the latest technologies including mobile phone applications, they can indeed meet. —AFP

pendent, objective, transparent... investigation” into abuse claims.

Human Rights Watch called for an independent judicial investigation into abuses.

On Thursday, the army handed over to the military police a group of soldiers suspected of humiliating and beating a man suspected of ties to Assir. “It’s not enough to have the military investigating itself,” HRW Beirut office director Nadim Houry said.

The army was not immediately reachable, but on Thursday a military source told AFP: “We do not accept this kind of behavior.” Sunni clerics, meanwhile, distributed images via Facebook of a body bearing marks of a severe beating.

Nicole Mansfield (left) poses for a photo with her daughter Triana. — AP

DETROIT: The family of a Michigan woman who died in Syria last month still lacks confirmation she was killed during fighting, a relative says. But a US official says the government is working behind the scenes in the war-torn country to get a death certificate and return her body.

Deidra Mansfield told The Associated Press that federal officials haven’t provided a death certificate for her cousin, 33-year-old Nicole Mansfield. Family members say agents informed them of her death on May 30 but details have been scant since. The family still holds out hope for a proper burial but first seeks the proof.

“It’s hard not having answers or knowing for sure what happened,” Deidra Mansfield said. “We don’t even know for sure if she is dead.” The US official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t author-

ized to speak publicly, said the State Department hasn’t received a death certificate from Syrian authorities, which it needs to issue what’s known as a Consular Report of Death of a US Citizen Abroad. The official said the Czech Republic - the US protecting power in Syria - is working with the Syrians to get a certificate but it isn’t clear when that might happen because of the chaotic situation in Syria. The Czechs also are working with the Syrians to try to return Mansfield’s body but the exact location of the remains isn’t known, the official said. Mansfield is the only American known to have been killed fighting in Syria. A proSyrian government news agency reported last month that Mansfield and two others were fighters for a group opposed to Syria’s government and were killed in a confrontation in the northwestern city of Idlib. —AP

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

No early scaling back in nuke work: Iran official Atom chief says uranium enrichment to go on

SADR CITY: Followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr attend yesterday prayers in the Sadr City neighborhood in Baghdad yesterday. —AP

Twin bombs kill 11 at checkpoint in Iraq BAGHDAD: Two bombs exploded near a checkpoint run by government-allied Sunni militiamen in western Iraq yesterday, killing at least 11 people in the latest strike by militants seeking to destabilize the country.

The twin blasts struck shortly before midday in the village of Zangoura, which is just south of the former insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, some 115 kilometers (70 miles) west of Baghdad, according to police. The checkpoint was manned by members of the Sahwa, who are Sunni militiamen that joined forces with US troops to fight Al-Qaeda during the Iraq War. They remain on the Shiite-led central government’s payroll for security forces, making them an occasional target for Sunni insurgents who consider them traitors.

One bomb, apparently planted by the side of the road, was the source of the initial blast. A second explosion struck as villagers rushed to help the victims of the first blast, police said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but coordinated bombings and attacks on Sahwa members are frequently the work of Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Police and hospital officials said 22 people also were wounded the attack. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media. Iraq is in the midst of the deadliest and most sustained wave of violence to hit the country since 2008, raising fears the nation is returning to the widespread sectarian-charged bloodshed that pushed it to the brink of civil war in 2006 and 2007. More than 2,000 people have been killed in bombings and other violent attacks since the start of April. Earlier yesterday, Iraqi officials raised the death toll from a series of bombings late Thursday that targeted soccer fans watching the Confederations Cup semifinal between Spain and Italy in cafes in and around Baghdad. They put the number of those killed at 36.—AP

Iraq Shiites fighting in Syria, says Zebari RIYADH: Iraqi Shiite Muslims are fighting in Syria alongside troops of President Bashar Al-Assad, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said yesterday, while insisting this was not the policy of the Shiiteled Baghdad government. “I do not deny that Iraqi Shiite fighters are participating in combat in Syria, just as Sunnis from the Gulf are doing in that country,” he said in remarks published by pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat. “But that does not come under government policy,” added Zebari, himself a Kurd and a Sunni Muslim.

At a Friday news conference in Stockholm, he said he had “no first hand figures” on the number of Iraqi Shiite fighters in Syria, but that there were “not several thousand... maybe several hundred”.

Fighters from Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah movement have also intervened in Syria alongside troops loyal to Assad, whose Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Their presence has been roundly denounced by rebels fighting to overthrow Assad, most of whom come from Syria’s Sunni majority, and by influential Egyptian-born cleric Sheikh Yusef Qaradawi.

While “Hezbollah militia are engaged in combat in Syria, there are also Sunni fatwas, such as the one by Qaradawi calling for jihad in Syria,” Zebari said. At the beginning of June, the Qatar-based cleric called on Sunni volunteers from around the Muslim world to fight alongside the rebels.

“The Syrian conflict has become more dangerous, because the sectarian confrontation has been brought to the fore. This is very dangerous and I think all countries should be aware not to push things in this direction,” Zebari said in Stockholm. —AFP

ST PETERSBURG, Russia: Iran will press ahead with its uranium enrichment program, its nuclear energy chief said yesterday, signalling no immediate change of course despite the victory of a relative moderate in the June 14 presidential election.

But once Hassan Rouhani takes office in early August, Tehran’s current hardline team in nuclear talks with six world powers, led by Saeed Jalili who was a rival election candidate, is likely to be overhauled.

Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani’s tenure as head of Iran’s atomic energy agency may be in jeopardy as well. Speaking in Russia, Abbasi-Davani said that production of nuclear fuel would “continue in line with our declared goals. The enrichment linked to fuel production will also not change”.

Speaking through an interpreter to reporters at a nuclear energy conference in St Petersburg, he said work at Iran’s underground Fordow plant - which the West wants Iran to close - would also continue.

Iran refines uranium at Fordow to a level that is relatively close to the threshold needed for atom bombs. Iran says it is enriching uranium only to fuel a planned network of nuclear power stations, and for medical purposes.

But refined uranium also provides the fissile material for nuclear bombs if processed further, which the West fears may be Tehran’s ultimate goal given that Tehran has a history of hiding some nuclear activity from UN anti-proliferation inspectors. Abbasi-Davani said Iran’s only existing nuclear power plant which has suffered repeated delays - had been “brought back online” three days ago and was working at 1,000-megawatt capacity.

A UN nuclear agency report said in May that the Russian-built Bushehr plant was shut down, giving no reason.

“Thankfully in the last days, no concrete defects with the plant have been reported to me,” Abbasi-Davani said.

Hopes for a resolution to the nuclear dispute were boosted this month with the election as president of Rouhani, who has promised a more conciliatory approach to foreign relations than confrontational predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

As chief nuclear negotiator under reformist President Mohammed Khatami from 2003 to 2005, Rouhani struck a deal with European Union powers under which Iran temporarily suspended uranium enrichment-related activities. They were resumed after Ahmadinejad was elected in

2005 and have been sharply expanded.

Jalili, the current chief negotiator, has espoused a “no compromises” stance that was derided even by other conservatives in the election campaign for failing to yield any progress in talks, triggering ever more punishing sanctions against Iran.

Asked whether there would be any change in Iranian policy after Rouhani’s election and whether it could suspend 20 percent enrichment, Abbasi-Davani said Iran’s nuclear program was aimed at producing electricity and medical isotopes only. “In line with these two goals of course the production of energy will not stop,” he said. Fordow is under the monitoring of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, he said. “We will of course continue our work at this centre.”

Iran’s theocratic supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Wednesday the nuclear stand-off could easily be resolved if the West were to stop being so stubborn. While accusing the West of being more interested in regime change than ending the dispute, Khamenei did express a desire to resolve an issue which has led to ever tighter and more damaging sanctions on Iran’s oil sector and the wider economy. — Reuters

Egypt’s security clampdown disrupts Gaza smuggling RAFAH, Gaza Strip: An Egyptian security crackdown has severely disrupted smuggling to the neighboring Gaza Strip, causing a fuel shortage, doubling the price of building materials and shutting down some construction sites in the Hamas-ruled territory. Egypt’s military clamped down on the lawless Sinai Peninsula, which abuts Gaza, in the run-up to mass protests planned for Sunday by Egyptian opposition activists trying to force out the country’s president, Mohammed Morsi. It’s not clear if the Sinai lockdown is temporary or signals a tougher security regime aimed at restricting smuggling through tunnels running under the EgyptGaza border in the long term. That would have a devastating effect on Gaza, which has relied on smugglers since Israel imposed a border blockade following the rise to power of the Islamic militant group Hamas in 2006.

The Sinai campaign began this month when Egypt’s military sent troop reinforcements and set up dozens of roadblocks across the sparsely populated stretch of desert that runs from the Suez Canal to the Gaza border. As a result, Egyptian trucks carrying cement, steel rods, fuel and other goods could no longer reach the Gaza tunnels. “Nothing can get to the (tunnel) area,” said Abu Khaled, 44, a tunnel operator in Gaza. “We are like a dry lake now. ... We all pray that this will end soon.”

Gaza has only small reserves of cement, steel and other materials for private construction.

With few exceptions, Israel bans such goods for fear Hamas will divert them for military use. In response to the Sinai clampdown, the price of cement has doubled to $220 per ton, forcing some of the more than 200 private construction sites in the territory to shut down, contractors said. A shortage of

cheap Egyptian fuel is forcing Gaza motorists to buy more expensive Israeli imports. For now, Gaza’s Hamas government is keeping silent. Hamas and Morsi’s Freedom and Justice Party share the same roots in the region-wide Muslim Brotherhood, and Hamas leaders appear reluctant to add to Morsi’s troubles by complaining publicly about the disruption of smuggling.

The Egyptian military is known to be wary of Morsi’s close ties to Hamas, viewing it as a threat to Egypt’s public security. The military is bound to play a pivotal role in the current showdown between Morsi and his opponents, with both camps trying to ensure its support. Hamas would undermine Morsi by

demanding an end to the Sinai crackdown now. Mahmoud Zahar, a Hamas leader in Gaza, said the movement is aware of Morsi’s domestic problems. “We are waiting until the administration (will) be more solid and stable” before raising demands for a new border regime, he said. A collapse of the Morsi government would deal a major setback to the Brotherhood, including Hamas. The Arab Spring uprisings of 2011 swept the Brotherhood to power in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, easing Hamas’ political isolation in the region. Hamas, which has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings and other attacks, has long been shunned by Israel and the West as a terrorist organization. —AP

GAZA CITY: Palestinian vendors sit in front of a building under construction at the main road in Gaza City on Thursday. An Egyptian security crackdown has severely disrupted smuggling to the neighboring Gaza Strip, causing a fuel shortage, doubling the price of building materials and shutting down some construction sites in the Hamas-ruled territory. —AP

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

Obama’s ‘hero’ Mandela hangs on Winnie says Mandela has ‘shown great improvement’

SOWETO: The former wife of Nelson Mandela, Winnie Mandela Madikizela, gets a hug from a well wisher after she addressed media outside their first family home in Soweto yesterday.—AFP

From Mauritania, hacker fights for Islam worldwide DAKAR: In Nouakchott, a dusty city wedged between the Atlantic ocean and western dunes of the Sahara, a young hiphop fan coordinates a diverse group of hackers targeting websites worldwide in the name of Islam.

Logging on to his computer, he greets his Facebook followers with a “good morning all” in English before posting links to 746 websites they have hacked in the last 48 hours along with his digital calling card: a half-skull, half-cyborg Guy Fawkes mask. He calls himself Mauritania Attacker, after the remote Islamic republic in west Africa from which he leads a youthful group scattered across the Maghreb, southeast Asia and the West.

As jihadists battle regional governments from the deserts of southern Algeria to the scrubland of north Nigeria, Mauritania Attacker says the hacking collective which he founded, AnonGhost, is fighting for Islam using peaceful means. “We’re not extremists,” he said, via a Facebook account which a cyber security expert identified as his.

“AnonGhost is a team that hacks for a cause. We defend the dignity of Muslims.” During a series of conversations via Facebook, the 23-year-old spoke of his love of house music and hip hop, and the aims of his collective, whose targets have included US and British small businesses and the oil industry. He represents a new generation of Western-style Islamists who promote religious conservatism and traditional values, and oppose those they see as backing Zionism and Western hegemony.

In April, AnonGhost launched a cyber attack dubbed OpIsrael that disrupted access to several Israeli government websites, attracting the attention of security experts worldwide. “AnonGhost is considered one of the most active groups of hacktivists of the first quarter of 2013,” said Pierluigi Paganini, security analyst and editor of Cyber Defense magazine.

An online archive of hacked Web sites, Hack DB, lists more than 10,400 domains AnonGhost defaced in the past seven months. Mauritania, a poor desert nation straddling the Arab Maghreb and black sub-Saharan Africa, is an unlikely hacker base. It has 3.5 million inhabitants spread across an area the size of France and Germany, and only 3 percent of them have Internet access.

Much of the population lives in the capital Nouakchott, which has boomed from a town of less than 10,000 people 40 years ago to a sprawling, ramshackle city of a million inhabitants. In its suburbs, tin and cinderblock shanties battle the Sahara’s encroaching dunes and desert nomads stop to water their camels.

In the past six months experts have noted an increase in hacking activity from Mauritania and neighboring countries.

In part, that reflects Mauritania Attacker’s role in connecting pockets of hackers, said Carl Herberger, vice president of security solutions at Radware.— Reuters

PRETORIA: US President Barack Obama headed to South Africa yesterday to pay homage to his hero Nelson Mandela, who is fighting for his life in hospital.

Mandela’s failing health has thrown into doubt prospects of a meeting between two men who shattered racial boundaries on either side of the Atlantic. “I do not need a photo op. The last thing I want to do is to be in any way obtrusive,” Obama said aboard Air Force One when asked whether he would visit the antiapartheid icon in hospital.

“I think that the message we’ll want to deliver is not directly to him but to his family, is simply profound gratitude for his leadership all these years,” Obama added.

Mandela, who turns 95 next month, remained critically ill in hospital, three weeks after he was admitted with a recurrent lung disease dating from his years in apartheid-era prisons.

Meanwhile, the ex-wife of ailing Nelson Mandela said yesterday that the antiapartheid icon’s condition had improved over recent days, but was still “unwell.”

“From what he was a few days ago, there is great improvement, but clinically he is still unwell,” Winnie Madikizela-Mandela told reporters near the couple’s old home in Soweto. Supporters have been gathering outside to offer prayers for the former political prisoner who negotiated an end to decades of racist white minority rule and went on to become South Africa’s first black president. “I came to pray for our father Nelson Mandela. We are wishing for our father to be fine,” said Thabo Mahlangu, aged 12, part of a group from a home for abandoned kids who travelled to Pretoria.

A wall of handwritten notes praying for Mandela’s recovery has become the focal point for South Africans preparing to say goodbye to the father of their nation, with singing and dancing by day and candlelight vigils at night. Reflections on Mandela’s extraordinary life will permeate Obama’s three-day stay, part of a threenation Africa tour.

On the eve of Obama’s visit, South Africa’s first black president was said to be in a critical condition, but had stabilised since a scare forced his successor Jacob Zuma to cancel a trip to neighboring Mozambique. “He is much better today,” said Zuma after seeing Mandela on

Thursday for the second time in less than 24 hours.

Yet South Africans, including Mandela’s family, braced for the worst. “I won’t lie. It doesn’t look good,” daughter Makaziwe Mandela said. But “if we speak to him he responds and tries to open his eyes-he’s still there.” Obama, the United States’s first black president, led a chorus of support for the man he called a “hero for the world”.

Mandela’s plight has lent a deeply poignant tone to the visit. “The president will be speaking to the legacy of Nelson Mandela and that will be a significant part of our time in South Africa,” said US deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes.

A visit by Obama to Mandela’s former

ical activity, when he campaigned for the anti-apartheid movement as a student in the late 1970s. The men met in 2005, when the former South African president was in Washington, and Obama was a newly elected senator, and the two have spoken several times since by telephone.

But there has been no face-to-face meeting between them since Obama was elected in 2008.

During his trip, Obama was also due to host a town hall meeting at the University of Johannesburg’s campus in Soweto, the township where Mandela once lived, as part of the US president’s Young African Leaders Initiative. He will visit a community centre with fellow Nobel Peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu and give a

DAKAR: US President Barack Obama (center) takes a tour during a food security expo yesterday in Dakar, Senegal. Obama met with farmers, innovators, and entrepreneurs whose new methods and technologies are improving the lives of smallholder farmers throughout West Africa. —AP jail cell on Robben Island, off Cape Town on Sunday would now take on extra “profundity”, he said. Speaking in Senegal on the first leg of his long-awaited African trip, Obama described Mandela as “a personal hero”.

“I think he is a hero for the world, and if and when he passes from this place, one thing I think we all know is that his legacy is one that will linger on throughout the ages.” The US president recalled how Mandela had inspired him to take up polit-

speech at the University of Cape Town. But he will not be greeted warmly by all South Africans. “NObama” demonstrations were held in Pretoria by a coalition of leftist, pro-Palestinian and anti-drone groups.

The group was protesting against what it described as the “arrogant, selfish and oppressive foreign policies” of the United States.

Mandela has been hospitalised four times since December, mostly for a stubborn lung infection.—Agencies

Central Nigeria’s violence kills 48 JOS, Nigeria: Raids by gunmen in ethnically divided central Nigeria and gun battles between soldiers and attackers have killed at least 48 people and left dozens of homes burnt, the military said.

The attacks appeared to have been reprisals linked to cattle theft, often the source of friction in the Middle Belt region dividing the mainly Muslim north and predominately Christian south of Africa’s most populous nation.

Thursday’s violence saw gunmen raid three villages in the remote Langtang region of Plateau state, leaving at least 28 residents dead. Homes were also burnt in two other villages, said Captain Salisu Mustapha, spokesman for a military task force in the region.

He did not have a specific number of homes burnt, but said it was around 100. Residents were fleeing the area to find shelter and out of fears of further violence. “We now have a total of 48 dead from the attacks on three villages,” Mustapha told AFP. He said the dead included 20 assailants killed by soldiers who responded.

“Two suspected gunmen involved in the attacks were arrested with some arms and their motorcycles,” said Mustapha. The villages attacked were Karkashi, Bolgang and Magama, and residents said the raids followed incidents of cattle rustling. Herdsmen from the mainly Muslim Fulani ethnic group were suspected to be behind the raids on the villages populated by the mainly

Christian Taroks.

Thousands have been killed in Nigeria’s central region in recent years in clashes between Muslim and Christian ethnic groups in a struggle for access to land or local power. Islamist extremist group Boko Haram, mainly based in the country’s northeast, has occasionally carried out violence in the Middle Belt as well, but there was no sign of any link in Thursday’s violence.

Nigeria’s military is currently engaged in an offensive in the northeast seeking to end Boko Haram’s four-year insurgency.

The country includes some 250 ethnic groups, and illegal weapons are widespread. Authorities have been largely unable to stop such violent flareups. — AFP

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

News

in brief

UK mosques focus on anti-abuse message LONDON: Some 500 UK mosques are planning sermons condemning the sexual abuse of children, following the sentencing of seven men of South Asian origin convicted of a series of crimes against underage girls. The effort organized by the group Together Against Grooming means that the message was being delivered at Friday prayers at participating mosques. Grooming is British term used for a process of luring vulnerable people into prostitution and other sexual activity by giving them attention, gifts, drugs and alcohol. The antigrooming group wants imams to stress that the Quran rules out all forms of sexual abuse and that Muslims have a responsibility to protect children and other vulnerable people.

Swedish firefighters battling toxic fire STOCKHOLM: Dozens of firefighters are battling a fire in a junk yard in southern Sweden that has sent a thick plume of smoke into the air near the city of Malmo. The fire started late Thursday in a harbor area outside Malmo, Sweden’s third largest city. Firefighters say plastic and rubber materials are burning forcefully, sending a toxic plume into the sky, but the winds are blowing the smoke toward the Oresund strait, and no residential areas are at risk. There are no reports of injuries.

The cause of the fire wasn’t immediately clear. Firefighters yesterday said they expect it will take them several more hours to put it out EU to open talks on Serbia entry BRUSSELS: European Union leaders have agreed to open membership talks with Serbia, in recognition of its efforts to improve relations with breakaway Kosovo. The Friday move is seen as a step toward embracing once-troubled countries in the Balkans. Presidents and prime ministers from the 27 EU nations also welcomed that Croatia becomes the bloc’s 28th member on Monday. Earlier Friday, they overcame BritishFrench divisions and agreed on seven-year, 960 billion euro ($1.3 trillion) budget. After a few hours of sleep, they returned in the morning to wrap up their two-day summit in Brussels.

IDRIJA: Japanese Princess Kiko Akishino (center) and her husband Japanese Prince Fumihito Akishino (third right) look at kids as they make laces during their visit at the Lace school in Idrija as part of their tour in Slovenia yesterday.— AFP

US put us in ‘tough spot’ over Snowden: Russia Washington did not disclose passport cancellation MOSCOW: Russia yesterday accused Washington of putting it in a “tough spot” by claiming it had failed to disclose revoking the passport of fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden prior to his arrival in Moscow from Hong Kong.

The diplomatic rhetoric around the explosive case of the 30-year-old former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor escalated when Washington blamed Hong Kong’s government of acting in bad faith by letting Snowden out in the first place.

The fate of Snowden himself remained in limbo for a sixth day on Friday as he remained holed up in the transit area of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport without making any contact with the swarm of international reporters at the scene.

The government of Ecuador-his most likely place of exile should he avoid arrest for lifting the curtain on the scale of the US global surveillance program to the media-said that it had not yet processed Snowden’s asylum application.

But Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro-who will coincidentally will be in Moscow on Monday for an energy summit-reiterated late Thursday his offer to grant a safe haven to the US fugitive.

A Russian official close to the matter on Friday told the Interfax news agency that Washington had deliberately put Moscow in a difficult position, claiming it never reported that Snowden’s passport had been revoked and that he was banned from travel.

He said Moscow might not have allowed Snowden to fly to Russia in the first place had it known about his travel problems.

“The Americans deliberately put Moscow in a tough spot by having failed to inform it of the fact that his passport was annulled in time,” the source said.

“The Russian authorities were informed of this post-factum, more than a week after Snowden was stripped of his passport,” he said.

“If this fact had been known in advance, then possibly Mr Snowden might not have flown to Moscow and this entire story might never have happened.”

Russia and the United States do not have an extradition treaty and Moscow has

thus far refused to hand over Snowden to Washington.

This refusal-expressed personally by President Vladimir Putin earlier this weekhas added to diplomatic tensions between Moscow and Washington that have existed due to the Syria crisis.

But the United States has expressed equal anger at the handling of the situation by Hong Kong-a US ally that is now administered by China but which has its

partner throughout that process,” the consul-general told foreign reporters.

The Russian source said Snowden will only be able to leave the Moscow airport after a country such as Ecuador or Venezuela offers him political asylum.

“On these grounds, he will legally leave the territory of Russia, without ever having crossed its border,” the official said.

Snowden has applied for political asylum in Ecuador and was originally sched-

MOSCOW: A supporter of National Security Agency (NSA) leaker Edward Snowden holds a poster outside Sheremetyevo airport, in Moscow, yesterday. The poster reads: Fight against new world order! Snowden himself remained holed up yesterday in the transit area of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport without making any contact with the swarm of international reporters at the scene. — AFP own British-derived legal system.

Washington’s Hong Kong envoy Stephen Young said China was guilty of “misbehavior” over the former NSA contractor’s abrupt departure from Hong Kong last Sunday. Yet he also stressed that the territory itself would bear the brunt of Washington’s displeasure.

“They’ve been throwing out some arguments as to what was going on. But frankly I don’t think we had a good-faith

uled to travel there via Cuba on a flight that he abruptly missed on Monday. But Ecuador’s leader Rafael Correa said Thursday that his government had not yet considered the case.

The Andean nation also denied claims

by WikiLeaks that it had authorised a “safe pass” travel document for Snowden and said it would be unable to process his asylum bid until he enters Ecuadorian territory. —AFP

Catholic priest arrested in Vatican bank probe ROME: A senior Catholic cleric has been arrested on suspicion of fraud and corruption in connection with a sweeping probe of the scandal-plagued Vatican bank, Italian media reported yesterday. Contrary to earlier media reports, the arrested cleric Nunzio Scarano is not a bishop but a priest from Salerno in southern Italy who is called “monsignor” in recognition of his seniority at the Holy See, Vatican senior media advisor Greg Burke said.

Scarano was arrested after an investigation into the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), as the bank is known, unearthed a suspected international fraud scheme, reports said.

The senior cleric was suspended from his position as a member of the administration that manages the Vatican’s assets (the

APSA) “about a month ago, after his superiors learnt about an investigation into his activities,” Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said.

Scarano was arrested along with a former member of the Italian secret services and a financier, reports said. Police declined to confirm the arrests, saying a press conference would be held later yesterday.

ANSA news agency said the three arrested men were suspected of plotting to illegally move 20 million euros ($26 million) from Switzerland to Italy.

The money allegedly belonged to friends of Scarano and was brought into Italy on board a private jet belonging to Italian former secret service agent iovanni Maria Zito, the reports said.

Zito purportedly received 400,000 euros for the service. According to the daily La Repubblica, Scarano is also under investigation by the Salerno prosecutor on suspicion of money laundering.

“They called him Monsignor 500... because of the great number of 500 euro notes he had at his disposition,” which he allegedly used to launder money for friends in southern Italy, the daily said.

It added that it was an initial investigation into Scarano’s bank account at the IOR which led to the discovery of the suspected racket.

Through the years the Vatican bank has been tarnished by scandals, with criminals using anonymity or false names to launder money.

The biggest scandal was in 1982 over

the bankruptcy of Banco Ambrosia, in which the Vatican was the main shareholder and which had been accused of laundering money for the Sicilian mafia.

The chairman of Banco Ambrosiano, Roberto Calvi-dubbed “God’s Banker” in the press-was found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in London in 1982 in a suspected murder by mobsters.

The Vatican promised in 2011 to redouble its efforts to reform the bank and overhaul its financial legislation following reports of anonymous accounts at the bank being used by organized crime.

The bank was back in the headlines in 2012, when its head Ettore Gotti Tedeschi was sacked by the board after a major falling out with the Holy See’s Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone.—AFP

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

Myanmar govt denies role in religious unrest YANGON: Myanmar’s government and army were not behind recent outbreaks of deadly religious violence, the president’s spokesman said yesterday, amid accusations that security forces stood by-or were even complicit-in the clashes.

Sectarian bloodshed, mostly targeting Muslims, has laid bare deep divides that were largely suppressed under decades of military rule which ended two years ago in the Buddhist-majority country.

Rights groups have criticized the police and army for failing to stop mobs attacking mainly Muslim neighborhoods in two separate flare-ups of unrest in western and central Myanmar.

The speed of the destruction, coupled with eyewitness reports of investigators arriving to spark vio-

lence, also led to speculation it was organized by elements within Myanmar’s military intent on disrupting the reform process.

“There has been some speculation about who is behind the conflict,” said president’s office spokesman Ye Htut. “However, I would like to say firmly, at this point, that it’s completely false that the government is behind this and that the military carried out what happened,” he said.

“In reality the first ones who get the headache of solving the problem are the government and the military.” Monks have also been accused of involvement in the clashes. Eyewitnesses have said people dressed in monks’ robes were among angry mobs who destroyed houses and mosques.

Radical monks have led a campaign to shun shops owned by Muslims, but senior monks have accused foreign media of one-sided reporting of the Buddhist-Muslim conflict. Speaking at a US Embassy event on the tensions, Ye Htut said that sweeping economic and political reforms were for the benefit of the whole country. “There is no reason to leave a certain group or a religion or a ethnic group behind... as long as we leave someone behind in a human society our problems can never be solved.” In March at least 44 people were killed in sectarian strife in central Myanmar and thousands of homes were set ablaze. Communal unrest last year in the western state of Rakhine left about 200 people dead and 140,000 displaced, mainly Rohingya Muslims. — AFP

Clashing visions on US drive for Taleban talks Karzai throws a spanner in the works for US

DEHRADUN: Indian defense personnel assist an injured civilian embarking from a helicopter at Jolly Grant airport in Dehradun of northern Uttarakhand state. — AFP

Two India floods survivors killed in Nepal landslide KATHMANDU: Two Nepalese migrant workers who survived recent floods in north India were killed when a landslide triggered by heavy rains buried their hotel in a remote village in Nepal, local police said yesterday. The two men, who were in their forties stopped at a hotel in northwestern Nepal en route to their home in Kalikot district when it was smashed by a landslide Thursday night, Sher Bahadur Thapa, a local police official told AFP. “Others escaped while the two (men) who shared a room on the second floor were trapped inside and buried under the debris,” Thapa said.

He said that another man who was also trapped with them was able to escape with minor injuries. The men, who worked as palanquin bearers for Hindu pilgrims visiting shrines in northern India, were returning home after surviving deadly floods caused by early, heavy rains earlier this month, Thapa said. They were rescued by Indian soldiers after being stranded in Kedarnath, among the worst-hit areas.—AFP

India seeks talks with Pakistan ISLAMABAD: India will soon engage the government led

by Nawaz Sharif in dialogue in an effort to resolve outstanding issues between the two countries, said the Indian High Commissioner (IHC) to Pakistan Sharat Sabharwal.

The IHC met the Chief of the religious political party, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F), Maulana Fazlur Rehman, informing him about progress made by the two countries in various areas as well as progress made in the field of bilateral trade.

Sabharwal said in a statement, “The visa regime has been relaxed both for businessmen and other people of 65 years or more.” He added that in the last two years, India had improved its visa regime and now Pakistani citizens were allowed to visit 10 cities. —KUNA

ISLAMABAD: As the United States makes a fresh attempt to start talks with the Taleban, competing visions in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan over what an eventual peace process might look like have emerged as one of the biggest hurdles. Washington’s hopes of negotiating with the insurgents to stabilize Afghanistan before most foreign troops leave by the end of 2014 had appeared to achieve a breakthrough last week when the Taleban opened an office in the Qatari capital Doha.

But the process was plunged into uncertainty when Afghan President Hamid Karzai refused to send negotiators to the Gulf state after the Taleban raised a flag at its new premises, infuriating the Afghan government and prompting frantic attempts

by US officials to resuscitate the planned dialogue.

While global attention has focused on the debacle in Doha, tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan - whose cooperation will be vital to any deal - have made the prospects of meaningful progress towards a settlement even less sure.

Since the Doha office was opened, Pakistani officials have made a series of comments suggesting that Karzai, who is due to step down at elections in April, 2014, is already irrelevant to what should be wide-ranging talks on Afghanistan’s future.

“His expiry date has come,” said a Pakistani government official, who is close to Pakistan’s discussions with the US and other allies on Afghanistan. “The principle is a fundamental overhaul.”

Pakistan is in a position to influence the talks because its security forces backed the Taleban’s rise to power in Afghanistan in the mid-1990s and continue to serve as gatekeepers to insurgent commanders living on its territory.

While the government official’s view does not reflect the public position of Pakistan, which has pledged to support the Afghan government’s reconciliation drive on the basis of the existing Afghan constitution, it does provide a window into a strand of thinking within Islamabad’s ruling establishment. However, it is unusual for senior officials in the government to discuss Afghan policy in detail.

The view that Karzai is a hindrance to talks was reflected in comments made to Reuters by three senior Pakistani officials

occupying key positions in the foreign ministry and the army, which holds sway over relations with Afghanistan, in recent months. Karzai was installed as president after US-backed troops overthrew the Taleban government in 2001.

“Right now, Karzai is the biggest impediment to the peace process,” a top Pakistani Foreign Ministry official told Reuters in March. “In trying to look like a saviour, he is taking Afghanistan straight to hell.” The thrust of Pakistan’s criticism is that Karzai is too erratic to handle negotiations. Pakistani officials also argue that the most important protagonists for any peace process are the

Afghan president’s policy of cultivating warmer ties with India, Pakistan’s nuclear rival. They also maintain that Pakistan has backed the Taleban through the 12 years of war against US-backed troops.

“We pleaded with Pakistan for peace, but Pakistan’s policy and intentions towards Afghanistan have always been hostile and evil,” said Bashir Bezhan, a Kabul-based political analyst.

Washington praised Pakistan last week for helping to nudge insurgents towards the negotiating table in Doha, a contrast with acrimonious exchanges in previous years over allegations that Pakistan contin-

BAGRAM: An Mi-17 helicopter used by the Afghan Air Force sits on Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan. The Pentagon is spending more than three-quarters of a billion dollars to buy Russian-made helicopters and other aircraft for an Afghan aviation unit that lacks the troops and expertise to operate and maintain the equipment, a government watchdog warned in a report yesterday. —AP United States, the Taleban, and the Northern Alliance, a group of Afghan exwarlords who fought the Taleban in the 1990s and now wield significant influence in Kabul.

This view was laid out in detail in a frontpage story published in Pakistan’s privately owned Express Tribune newspaper after the Taleban office opened, quoting Pakistani military and diplomatic sources as saying Karzai had no place in any deal.

The sources described the Afghan president as “unstable” and a “poisonous roadblock.”

Afghan officials and commentators suspect that Pakistan’s frustration with Karzai stems from its desire to ensure that any future government in Kabul overturns the

ued to covertly support the Taleban.

Against this backdrop of suspicions of Pakistan, an attack by the Taleban on the presidential palace in Kabul on Tuesday cast fresh doubt on whether Karzai would be prepared to participate in peace talks.

US President Barack Obama later called Karzai and the two agreed on the need for an Afghan-led peace process and to support the presence of the Taleban office in Doha, the White House said. But no date has been set for any negotiations.

Pakistan foreign ministry spokesman Aizaz Chaudhry said Islamabad remained committed to supporting reconciliation in Afghanistan. “The official position of the government is to support an all inclusive, inter-Afghan dialogue,” he said. — Reuters

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

US trains Philippines on how to use drones CAVITE CITY, Philippines: US troops trained their Philippine counterparts how to use surveillance drones yesterday, as Manila seeks to boost military ties with Washington and counter what it perceives as a rising security threat from China.

The naval exercises are part of annual training operations between the two defence partners, but they have come under closer scrutiny this year due to simmering tensions between Manila and Beijing over rival claims to the South China Sea. At a naval base around 13 kilometres (eight miles) southwest of the capital Manila, US Navy SEALs trained Filipino soldiers how to use small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones, launching one from a boat out at sea after which it circled the base and landed in the water.

US maritime civil affairs officer Jeremy Eden said these were the smaller “Puma” drones used only for surveillance and not the more lethal, armed versions employed in Afghanistan. “They (the Filipinos) are very interested and highly motivated to learn and if they acquire the systems, they will use them effectively,” Eden said.

The drones would be useful for the poorlyequipped Philippine military which faces both internal insurgencies and potential external threats, said Lieutenant Jojit Fiscar, a senior

coordinator of the naval exercises. “This would be a very good instrument to use. This unmanned aerial vehicle can monitor the actual movement of the targets,” he said.

The US and Philippine troops also practiced marksmanship and piloting small rubber boats which are frequently used by naval commandos.

Military officials from both sides stressed that the exercises had nothing to do with China’s claim to the South China Sea. But Philippine Defence Secretary Voltaire Gazmin reiterated yesterday that the Philippines was looking to give the United States greater access to its military bases, saying this was needed to respond to China’s threats. “At this point in time, we cannot stand alone. We need allies. If we don’t do this, we will be bullied by bigger powers and that is what is happening now: there is China, sitting on our territory,” Gazmin said.

“What are we going to do? Wait till they get into our garage?” On Thursday he said the Philippines wanted to give the United States and also Japan greater access to its military bases. President Benigno Aquino’s spokeswoman Abigail Valte said separately that any increased US presence would comply with the Philippine constitution.—AFP

MANILA: A US navy personnel (left) gives instructions to his Philippine counterpart during live firing of M-60 at the naval base in Sangley point, Cavite City, west of Manila yesterday as part of the Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) exercises. — AFP

US raises war of words with HK over Snowden China guilty of ‘misbehavior’: Envoy

BEIJING: Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (right) meets with Indian National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon (left) at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing yesterday. — AFP

Manila to resume talks with rebels on July 8 MANILA: Peace talks between the Philippine government and Muslim rebels will resume on July 8 in Kuala Lumpur with the contentious issue of wealth-sharing as the main focus of discussion, an insurgent leader said yesterday. The talks will be held even though they coincide with the Muslim month of Ramadan which may require fasting by Muslim participants, said Ghadzali Jaafar, vicechairman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. “Because it is so important, both parties decided to hold the talks even on Ramadan,” he told AFP. The talks will likely last for five days, he added. Government negotiators could not be contacted for comment. However earlier this month, members of the government peace panel said they hoped to resume talks with the MILF in early July. The government hopes to kickstart negotiations for a peace settlement that looked to have stalled in recent months. The negotiations, which began in 1997, aim to create an autonomous region for the Muslim minority in Mindanao, the southern third of the mainly Catholic nation of 100 million.

The two sides signed a preliminary agreement in October outlining the broad terms for a peace treaty that would be signed by 2016, before President Benigno Aquino leaves office. However, both sides have since acknowledged difficulties in thrashing out the details of key issues like wealth- and power-sharing within the proposed autonomous region, as well as disarming and demobilizing the MILF. The 12,000-member MILF has waged a guerrilla war for a separate Islamic state in the southern Philippines since the 1970s that has claimed an estimated 150,000 lives. The group has since agreed to a ceasefire to negotiate for autonomy instead. Although sporadic clashes have since taken place, the truce has largely held.

Malaysia has hosted the on-again, off-again peace talks between the MILF and the Philippine government since 2001. —AFP

HONG KONG: The United States yesterday accused Hong Kong of acting in bad faith over fugitive Edward Snowden and warned of repercussions, after the city’s government said US arrest paperwork was riddled with clerical errors.

US envoy Stephen Young also said China was guilty of “misbehavior” over the former NSA contractor’s abrupt departure from Hong Kong last Sunday, but said the territory itself would bear the brunt of Washington’s displeasure. Hong Kong officials say that a US request a week ago asking for Snowden to be detained was woefully deficient, and there was no legal basis to stop him flying to Russia.

But Young, who retires at the end of July, said Washington was busy “dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s” in what it took to be a normal process of communication under the two sides’ extradition agreement. “They’ve been throwing out some arguments as to what was going on. But frankly I don’t think we had a good-faith partner throughout that process,” the consul-general told foreign reporters, accusing Hong Kong of “obfuscating” the real issues. Snowden abandoned his high-paying job as an IT technician contracted to the National Security Agency and went to Hong Kong on May 20. He then began issuing a series of leaks on the NSA’s global gathering of phone call logs and Internet data, including in China and Hong Kong.

US administration officials allege that Hong Kong, backed by Beijing, wanted to remove an irritant and was bent on letting Snowden leave regardless of the US indictment. Young said the city’s handling of the case had left a “very bitter taste in American policymakers’ mouths” and “injected a tone of distrust that I think is going to take time and effort to erase”.

Given the huge range of Sino-US inter-

ests, ranging from North Korea to bilateral trade, “we’ll get over China’s misbehavior; we expect less from China too”. But Hong Kong could not expect to continue being treated as a special case lying at one remove from the rest of China, the envoy said. “I certainly personally would hate to see a situation where we decide to treat Hong Kong like just another part of China.

So the question is how do we get out of this, and I don’t know.”

On Tuesday, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen said US suggestions that the government connived in Snowden’s departure were “totally untrue”. The paperwork sent by US government agencies listed three different versions of Snowden’s full name and failed

to give his passport number, Yuen said.

And on Thursday, the Hong Kong government said it had only just received a State Department notification that Snowden’s US passport had been cancelled-five days after he boarded a flight to Moscow, where he remains holed up.

Lawmakers from both sides of the semi-autonomous territory’s pro-democracy and pro-Beijing divide have united in lashing out at the US accusations.

One told Friday’s South China Morning Post that the US arrest paperwork was “sloppy”, and another argued that Washington was “shameless” after Snowden alleged that the NSA’s targets for eavesdropping included Hong Kong’s main Internet exchange.—AFP

HONG KONG: Protesters shouting slogans as they hold up a picture of former US spy Edward Snowden in front of the US consulate in Hong Kong. US envoy Stephen Young accused Hong Kong’s government yesterday of acting in bad faith over Snowden and warned of repercussions, angrily rejecting the city’s defense that it did everything by the book. — AFP

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

Watchdog warns of waste in Afghan aircraft buy WASHINGTON: The Pentagon is spending more than three-quarters of a billion dollars to buy Russian-made helicopters and other aircraft for an Afghan aviation unit that lacks the troops and expertise to operate and maintain the equipment, a government watchdog warned.

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said in a report yesterday these shortcomings mean the helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft destined for the Afghan Special Mission Wing “could be left sitting on runways in Afghanistan, rather than supporting critical missions, resulting in waste of US funds.” The report recommended putting the purchases on hold until the Afghans develop the capacity to support the aircraft.

The findings are sure to reverberate

on Capitol Hill, where there is stiff opposition to the purchase of the Mi-17 helicopters from Rosoboronexport, the state-run Russian arms exporter that is a top weapons supplier to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. The Pentagon announced June 17 that Rosoboronexport had been awarded a $554 million contract for 30 Mi-17s to be used by the Special Mission Wing, a move that came just days after the House approved a 2014 defense policy bill that included a prohibition on contracts with the Russian agency. The Senate Armed Services Committee included a similar ban in its version of the bill. The defense policy bill for 2013 also barred the Pentagon from using funds from that fiscal year for contracts with Rosoboronexport. But the Pentagon said money from the 2012 fis-

cal year was being used for the Mi-17 acquisition, so the restriction does not apply. A Defense Department spokesman said there was an “urgent, near-term need” to buy the wing the Mi-17s, a multi-mission aircraft designed to operate at high altitudes and uniquely suited for the wing.

“Careful consideration of all the information available to the department confirms that it would be in the public interest to procure the Mi-17s needed for the (wing) from Rosoboronexport,” Army Lt. Col. Jim Gregory said in a statement. In addition to the Mi-17s, the Pentagon is spending $218 million on 18 PC-12 cargo aircraft from the Sierra Nevada Corp. of Sparks, Nev., to allow the Special Mission Wing to perform counterterrorism and counternarcotics missions, the report said.

The special inspector general is recommending the purchase be suspended until the wing’s staffing, recruiting and training problems are resolved. Chief among them is finalizing a memorandum of understanding between the Afghan interior and defense ministries that would give the military control of the wing. But the document remains unsigned due largely to the interior ministry’s “resistance to surrendering authority” over the wing, according to the report.

Michael Dumont, the deputy assistant defense secretary for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia, said in comments included in the report that delaying the purchase of the aircraft until the agreement was signed “would unacceptably delay our efforts to develop the (wing) into a capable force.” —AP

Feds: Internet influenced Boston bombing suspect Indictment makes no mention of overseas sway

WASHINGTON: Sen Charles Schumer (right) shares a laugh with Sen John McCain (left) following a vote in the Senate on immigration reform on Capitol Hill in Washington on Thursday. The Senate passed historic immigration legislation offering the hope of citizenship to millions of immigrants living illegally in America’s shadows. —AP

Father says Snowden may return if conditions met WASHINGTON: The father of former US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden said in an interview that while he has not had recent contact with him, he is reasonably confident his son would return to the United States if certain conditions were met.

Those conditions could include not detaining Snowden before trial, not subjecting him to a gag order and letting him choose the location of his trial, NBC News said yesterday.

The NBC report added that Lonnie Snowden plans to make those points in a letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder to be sent through his lawyer later yesterday. Representatives for the Justice Department could not be reached immediately for comment on the letter. Lonnie Snowden, in part of the NBC interview that aired on the “Today Show,” also said he is concerned that his son, a former contractor for the National Security Agency, was being manipulated by others, including people from the anti-government secrecy group WikiLeaks. “I am concerned about those who surround him,” he told NBC. “Wikileaks - if you look at past history - their focus isn’t necessarily the Constitution of the United States. It’s simply to release as much information as possible. So that alone is a concern for me.”

Edward Snowden, an American, fled the United States to Hong Kong in May, a few weeks before publication in the Guardian and the Washington Post of details he said he provided about secret US government surveillance of Internet and phone traffic.He faces espionage charges in the United States and has requested political asylum in Ecuador. He has not been seen since he arrived in Moscow on Sunday, but Russian officials said he was in a transit area at Sheremetyevo airport. —Reuters

BOSTON: What Dzhokhar Tsarnaev needed to learn to make explosives with a pressure cooker was at his fingertips in jihadist files on the Internet, according to a federal indictment accusing him of carrying out the bombings at the Boston Marathon that killed three people and injured dozens more.

Investigators have been trying to determine whether Tsarnaev’s older brother, Tamerlan, who was killed while the two were on the run after the bombings, was influenced or trained by Islamic militants during a trip overseas. But the indictment released on Thursday against 19-year-old Dzhokhar makes no mention of any overseas influence.

Before the attack, according to the indictment, he downloaded the summer 2010 issue of Inspire, an online Englishlanguage magazine published by AlQaeda. The issue detailed how to make bombs from pressure cookers, explosive powder extracted from fireworks and lethal shrapnel. He also downloaded extremist Muslim literature, including

“Defense of the Muslim Lands, the First Obligation After Imam,” which advocates “violence designed to terrorize the perceived enemies of Islam,” the indictment said. The article was written by the late Abdullah Azzam, whose legacy has inspired terrorist attacks in the Middle East. Another tract downloaded - titled “The Slicing Sword, Against the One Who Forms Allegiances With the Disbelievers and Takes Them as Supporters Instead of Allah, His Messenger and the Believers” - included a foreword by Anwar Al-Awlaki, an American propagandist for al-Qaida who was killed in a US drone strike in 2011.

The 30-count indictment provides one of the most detailed public explanations to date of the brothers’ alleged motive - Islamic extremism - and the role the Internet may have played in influencing them.

“Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s justice will be in the next world, but for his brother, accountability will begin right here in the district of Massachusetts,” District

Attorney Daniel Conley, whose jurisdiction includes Boston, said at a news conference with federal prosecutors on Thursday.

The indictment contains the bombing charges, punishable by the death penalty, that were brought in April against Tsarnaev, including use of a weapon of mass destruction to kill. It also contains many new charges covering the slaying of an MIT police officer and the carjacking of a motorist during the getaway attempt that left Tamerlan Tsarnaev dead. U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz of Massachusetts said Attorney General Eric Holder will decide whether to pursue the death penalty against Tsarnaev, who will be arraigned on July 10.

Three people were killed and more than 260 wounded by the two pressure-cooker bombs that went off near the finish line of the marathon on April 15. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured four days later, hiding in a boat parked in a backyard in Watertown, Massachusetts. —AP

Line between ‘cops and robbers’ blurs in Bulger trial

SANFORD: Witness Selma Mora answers a question for the prosecution during George Zimmerman’s trial in Seminole circuit court in Sanford, Florida on Thursday. Zimmerman has been charged with second-degree murder for the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin. — AP

BOSTON: Some of accused mobster James “Whitey” Bulger’s closest allies should have been his biggest enemies - the FBI agents who cooked him dinner and tipped him off about investigations into his Winter Hill crime gang in the 1970s and 1980s. Jurors in Bulger’s murder and racketeering trial will get a second day of testimony yesterday from former FBI supervisor John Morris, who has described a cozy relationship among he, another corrupt agent and the gangsters they were meant to be keeping off the streets.

Once one of the most feared men in Boston, Bulger, 83, is charged with killing or ordering the murders of 19 people as head of Boston’s violent Winter Hill Gang, which ran extortion and gambling rackets for decades. The

trial, which began June 12, has given the jury a glimpse of an era when machine-gun toting mobsters shot associates who talked too much and buried bodies under bridges in a bloody struggle for control of the criminal underworld.

But it also has shown a dark side of the FBI during that period, when some former agents are alleged to have traded information with Bulger and his gang to help them elude arrest and murder “rats” who spoke to police.

Morris said on Thursday that he and fellow ex-FBI agent John Connolly who cultivated Bulger as an informant - would invite Bulger and his associate Steven “The Rifleman” Flemmi to dinner, where they would trade information and gifts. —Reuters

China central bank vows to keep the cash flowing

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France’s debt rises, amid budget strains

Business

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World shares, bonds rise as Fed fears ease

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Allegiant Air thrives on low costs and high fees

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SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

AMRITSAR: Indian laborers plant paddy cuttings in a field at Jahangeer village yesterday. — AFP

India doubles gas prices Unit price would rise to $8 NEW DELHI: India’s government said yesterday it had doubled natural gas prices to stimulate investment and reverse a decline in domestic production which has caused power shortages for industry. The cabinet approved the first hike in domestically produced gas prices in three years late on Thursday, saying the unit price would rise to $8 in April next year from its current level of $4.2.

The decision, contested by left-wing political parties and opposed by some in the government, is politically sensitive because of its likely impact on inflation and it will take effect around election time. Finance Minister P Chidambaram said that India was already dependent on costly imports for 30 percent of its gas requirements but this share was set to surge because India’s own output was falling. “The government is biting the bullet and taking hard decisions because we need to boost investment,” Chidambaram said at a news conference.

“We have to produce more gas and the only way it can be done is to bolster investment,” he added. The shares of energy producers jumped on the Bombay Stock Exchange in anticipation of higher profits and the increased value of their reserves, which are mostly in the gas-rich Bay of Bengal off India’s east coast. India’s largest staterun energy explorer ONGC jumped as much as 10.12 percent to 353.0 rupees, while private energy giant Reliance Industries rose 5.12 percent to 873.0 rupees. Chidambaram acknowledged the power and fertiliser ministries had raised objections to the policy, which will increase the cost of

already heavily subsidised electricity and fertilisers. The impact on consumers would be taken into account and prices would be adjusted, possibly through greater subsidies, because electricity and fertiliser “cannot become unaffordable,” Chidambaram said. India is scheduled to go to the polls in the first half of 2014 with inflation, which has been in double figures for much of the last few years, one of the main issues affecting voters.

The Communist Party of India (CPI) said the “disastrous” decision had been rammed through and would lead to a damaging rise in costs for farmers, the biggest political constituency in the country. CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta also accused the government of caving in to “pressure” from the corporate sector. The left-leaning government headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and led by the Congress party has been buffeted by repeated corruption scandals and hit by a sharply slowing economy.

Economic growth has slipped to its lowest level in a decade at 5.0 percent and the government has been under pressure from credit agencies which are concerned by the weak public finances. The rupee slipped to its lowest level ever against the dollar this week.

Chidambaram stressed that solving India’s energy crisis-vividly illustrated by a mass power cut affecting 600 million people in 2012 - was vital for economic growth. “There are many power plants that are stranded. We have not been able to add to fertiliser capacity because there is no gas,” he said. — AFP

BlackBerry posts unexpected loss TORONTO: BlackBerry offered few signs of a long-promised turnaround yesterday, with an unexpected quarterly operating loss, few details on sales of its make-or-break new devices and no return to profit in the current quarter.

BlackBerry shares tumbled 20 percent to $11.58 in US trading before the market opened.

BlackBerry, struggling to compete against Apple Inc’s iPhone, Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones and other devices powered by Google’s Android operating system, reported a net loss of $84 million, or 16 cents a share, in the first quarter ended June 1. That compared with a year-earlier loss of $518 million, or 99 cents a share. Excluding one-time items, BlackBerry reported a loss from continuing operations of $67 million, or 13 cents a share, on revenue of $3.1 billion.

Analysts, on average, expected a profit of 6 cents a share, on revenue of $3.36 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S Estimates.

“Quite frankly, the fear is that with a

full quarter of (the new) BlackBerry 10 sales - we haven’t received the BlackBerry 10 unit numbers yet - but certainly it doesn’t bode well for the initial BlackBerry 10 launch, particularly the Z10. But even the outlook for a Q2 loss doesn’t bode well for the Q10 either,” said Brian Colello, an analyst with Morningstar. BlackBerry launched two all-new smartphones this year, the touch screen Z10 device, followed by the Q10, with a mini keyboard favored by many BlackBerry users. The Z10 only hit store shelves in the crucial US market in late March, while the Q10 device only reached the United States after the end of BlackBerry’s fiscal first quarter.

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company said it shipped 6.8 million smartphones in the quarter, up 13 percent from the final quarter of its last fiscal year. But it did not say how many of them were BB10 devices. Analysts said the shipment numbers indicated sales of the new devices have not yet been as good as they hoped. —Reuters

business

SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

World central bank policymakers change gears WASHINGTON: The Federal Reserve’s gradual exit plan from printing money has shifted the world’s central bank landscape and thrown financial markets into a spin.

The US central bank has pumped $85 billion a month into its economy but has now said it will slow that rate and maybe halt it by mid-2014. The big worry for investors is that there is no playbook for stopping this unprecedented stimulus. In the coming week, the European Central Bank, Bank of England (featuring Mark Carney’s debut as governor) and the central banks of Australia, Sweden, Poland and Romania all hold monetary policy meetings.

They offer a broad snapshot of the problems facing different countries. The ECB and its UK counterpart have made clear no policy shift is imminent, Australia’s fate is closely tied to China where it exports vast amounts of raw materials, while Poland and Bulgaria are part of the emerg-

ing market world that has borne the brunt of recent volatility. Following is a breakdown of how these central banks, and others, may act as thoughts turn tentatively to quitting years of extraordinary policy measures.

EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK The ECB, unlike the central banks of the United States, Japan and Britain, has not created money out of thin air and is expected to leave interest rates at a record low 0.5 percent next week and for the rest of the year. Perhaps its biggest concerns are the continuing reluctance of banks to lend in the weaker euro-zone members and rising borrowing costs in those countries since the Fed upset the applecart. That brought to an end a 10-month trend of cheaper borrowing following the ECB’s pledge to buy government bonds in potentially unlimited amounts to shore up the single currency,

China central bank vows to keep the cash flowing Squeeze roils markets SHANGHAI: China’s central bank said yesterday it would “adjust” tight liquidity after a weekslong squeeze that has rattled financial markets concerned over the impact on the world’s second-largest economy, which is already slowing.

The assurance from governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), Zhou Xiaochuan, helped support sentiment on China’s stock market after a sell-off earlier this week that sent ripples worldwide. “The PBoC will use all sorts of instruments and measures to adjust the overall liquidity level, so as to ensure the overall stability of the market,” Zhou said in his first public comments on the issue.

Speaking at a financial forum in Shanghai, he added the bank would ensure the “normal

SHANGHAI: The Jin Mao Tower (center), the Shanghai World Financial Center (left) and the incomplete Shanghai Tower are covered in low cloud over the financial district of Pudong yesterday.

China’s central bank said it would ‘adjust’ liquidity to ensure stability after a weeks-long squeeze that has rattled financial markets.— AFP

operation” of the economy. There is anxiety that tightening credit could spread into the broader economy, with some Chinese companies reportedly running short of cash to settle suppliers’ bills. A Shanghai provider of small loans said private firms consistently have trouble getting access to capital, and that the impact of the bank liquidity squeeze had yet to be fully felt. “Recently there are more manufacturing and construction companies coming to us for loans,” said Gu Yang of Shanghai Kangxin Micro-credit Co. For three weeks, funds have been in short supply on China’s interbank market, and the interest rates banks charge to lend to each other surged to record highs last week before easing again. The PBoC was said to be worried about risk from a boom in credit, but on Tuesday the bank confirmed it had offered liquidity “support” to financial institutions and pledged to provide more if needed. That statement marked an apparent change of course after the central bank earlier ruled out providing fresh funds and ordered banks to put their financial houses in order.

The central bank reversal came after Chinese stocks had closed at lows unseen since the global financial crisis in 2009. Zhou’s comments helped nudge Chinese stocks higher yesterday with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 0.70 percent in afternoon trading. But analysts said the PBoC would have to take more radical action for the market to rise further, with the focus now shifting to the weak domestic economy.

“This is more like a kind of gesture, declaring his stance to tell everyone not to panic,” said Liu Shengjun, executive deputy director of the Lujiazui Institute of International Finance. Zhou remained confident about China’s growth, though he acknowledged the economy had slowed. “The Chinese economy, basically speaking, has maintained stable growth,” the central bank chief said. “The growth rate has slowed down a little bit, but it is still in a reasonable range,” he said, although gave no specific figure.

China has set its economic growth target at 7.5 percent for 2013. China’s economy, a crucial driver of global growth, expanded 7.8 percent in 2012 - its slowest pace in 13 years-and recorded a surprisingly weak 7.7 percent expansion in this year’s first quarter, well below forecasts. — AFP

although yields remain well short of danger level. It is not clear what the ECB can do.

Bond-buying can only be triggered if a country requests help from the euro-zone’s rescue fund and there is no sign of that happening soon. There has been talk of cutting the deposit rate - which banks get for storing their money at the ECB - into negative territory to try and boost lending.

But that rate is already at zero and has not prompted banks to help the wider economy. If deflation loomed, the ECB’s mandate would allow it to print money but again that looks unlikely.

Another option would be an offer of cheap, long-term liquidity to banks similar to the more than 1 trillion euros handed over last year but there has been no hint of the ground being prepared for that. The ECB has emphatically denied a report that it was considering launching a new bond purchase program under which it would

buy debt of all 17 euro-zone countries.

BANK OF ENGLAND Britain’s central bank holds a policy meeting on Thursday at which Canada’s Mark Carney will make his debut as governor. The Bank has already created 375 billion pounds of new money to buy government bonds and no more is expected to be sanctioned this time. A Reuters poll of economists gave a median 40 percent chance that more pounds will be printed before the year-end. There is no indication that it will begin to unwind that policy or raise interest rates in the foreseeable future, with rates expected to remain at a record low until at least 2015. The Bank has warned that banks and borrowers would be vulnerable to an abrupt rise in global interest rates which could require lenders to bolster their capital cushions again.—Reuters

France’s debt rises, amid budget strains PARIS: France’s national debt rose to 91.7 percent of annual output in the first quarter of this year, official data showed yesterday amid rising concern about French public finances.

At the end of last year, the debt amounted to 90.2 percent of gross domestic product.

European Union rules require the public debt to be no more than 60 percent of output or falling towards this ratio.

But from the last quarter of last year to the end of the first quarter of 2013, the debt rose by 36.5 billion euros ($47.6 billion) to 1.8703 trillion euros, the statistics institute INSEE said.

The debt represents the accumulation of annual public deficits, and the Socialist government is embroiled in controversy over its efforts to control the deficit for this year. It has already acknowledged that it will miss its target of achieving the EU ceiling for a deficit of 3.0 percent of output this year, now targeting 3.7 percent.

The European Commission has given France an extra two years to reach 3.0 percent, but on condition it pursues tough structural reforms. But the body which oversees the national accounts warned on Thursday that the deficit this year could well turn out to be 3.8-4.1 percent mainly because of weak tax revenues owing to weak growth. The auditing body said that France would have to act quickly to reform pensions and cut social spending to contain the deficit.

The right-wing opposition has argued that tax revenues are falling badly short of target and that spending is also overshooting. The Budget Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has said that the figures given by the opposition are incorrect, but referring yesterday to the analysis by the national accounting court, he said: “What the accounting court says is not alarmist but measured and corresponds to the reality of the situation.” French President Francois Hollande said in Brussels yesterday that France had to “contain public spending” this year but that it was too soon to give a figure for the deficit for the whole of 2013.

If growth remained weak and the economy ended the year in slight recession, tax revenues might be less than expected, he said.

He said that some of the suggestions by the accounting court for reducing spending and tax advantages were relevant, but that reduc-

ing the inflation indexation of welfare benefits was “a sensitive subject”. This week, a member of the National Assembly, or lower house of parliament, hinted that France was in talks with the European Commission over a possible adjustment of the way the annual deficit is calculated.

CONSUMER SPENDING Meanwhile, French consumers spent significantly more than economists had expected in May despite concerns about surging unemployment, data showed yesterday, rekindling some hopes that France might be slowly emerging from recession. However, although the risk of prolonged recession may be receding, activity remains far too weak in the euro zone’s second-biggest economy for a rapid recovery, economists said.

The INSEE statistics agency reported that household spending rose 0.5 percent over the month, beating by a wide margin the average forecast given by economists of a 0.1 percent fall. INSEE said the rise was due mainly to a rebound in purchases of food, which jumped 1.4 percent over one month, partially making up for a drop of 3.4 percent in April. The improvement in French consumer spending mirrored an increase in German retail sales in May, which were up 0.8 percent over one month, their best performance since January.

French household spending, traditionally the motor for the 2 trillion euro $2.6 trillion) economy, has struggled for months as consumers retrench in the face of spiraling unemployment. French consumer confidence fell this month to a record low on expectations that unemployment would keep rising in the coming months, after jobless claims hit a new record high in May. Coupled with recent improvements in industrial production and business confidence, the bounce in consumer spending makes it more likely that data for the second quarter will show France returning to feeble growth or stagnation after a short, shallow recession entered in the first quarter.

Unicredit economist Tullia Bucco said that though private-sector consumption was now likely to prove stronger than expected this quarter, any hopes for a rapid recovery would be disappointed as any spare household income was dwindling.— Agencies

business

SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

India’s tea sales to Iran surge despite sanctions MUMBAI: India tea exports to Iran are likely to surge by around 50 percent in 2013 from the previous year as the sanctions-hit country increases purchases to replenish inventory and make use of one of its few remaining payment channels. Iran is one of the biggest buyers of the south Asian country’s tea and prefers to buy orthodox grade. Its purchases in 2013 are likely to rise to 20-21 million kg from about 13.78 million kg a year ago, worth 3.2 billion rupees ($53.10 million), industry officials told Reuters.

Higher orthodox purchases by Iran will help India to maintain exports at last year’s level, as overseas demand for CTC (crush-tear-curl) is weak due

to cheaper supplies from Kenya.

“There is strong demand from Iran.

Since the payment issue has been settled I don’t see any problem in exporting. There are lots of export orders,” said Aditya Khaitan, managing director of McLeod Russel, the world’s biggest producer of tea.

India’s tea exports to Iran fell 28 percent in 2011 from the previous year, after India’s central bank, under pressure from the United States, ended a clearing mechanism which had been used to settle trades. The move also hit oil imports from Iran. Because of the US and European sanctions, which are aimed at cutting funding for Iran’s nuclear program, India now

pays for 45 percent of its oil purchases using its rupee currency and Iran can also use rupees to pay for its purchases from India.

Iran is replenishing its tea inventory as it bought much lower than its requirement in the last few years, Khaitan said. India exports CTC tea mainly to Egypt, Pakistan and the UK, and the orthodox variety to Iraq, Iran and Russia. “Tea companies are getting higher prices for orthodox due to exports demand. Some companies are making more orthodox tea instead of producing CTC,” Deepak Atal, managing director of Amalgamated Plantations, said.

India exported tea at an average

World shares, bonds rise as Fed fears ease Euro firmer, European shares flat LONDON: World shares hit their highest level in a week yesterday and bonds and oil rose after two US central bankers moved to calm fears of an early withdrawal of monetary stimulus. Their efforts, combined with better economic data from Japan and an easing of credit concerns in China, lifted MSCI’s world equity index 0.5 percent yesterday, putting it on course to reverse five weeks of losses. But the gains were seen as limited with investors avoiding large bets on the final trading day of an unsettled quarter while pondering the impact of a broader shift in Fed policy.

“It’s been a tough quarter, the easy game is up and markets have to revaluate where they stand,” Wouter Sturkenboom, Investment Strategist at Russell Investments, said. Global stock, bond and commodity markets have been notably volatile since Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke signaled last week the bank would soon cut the pace of its bond buying unless the economic recovery slowed.

Two Fed policymakers came out on Thursday to reassure investors that any winding down of stimulus was still some way off, though its ultimate course was set.

“The market is going to have to base its views about equities and currencies on actual economic growth rather than simply the fact that there’s cheap money there,” said Simon Derrick, chief currency strategist at Bank of New York Mellon. “I think that’s a fundamental shift.” The Fed’s signal that the era of cheap money is drawing to a close has already hit gold as its value as a hedge against inflation evaporates. The metal dropped to a three-year low near $1,200 an ounce yesterday, putting it on course for its worst quarterly performance in over half a century.

QUARTERLY CLOSE The end-of-quarter manoeuvring was cited behind a rise in the euro off a four-

BEIRUT: Empty tables are seen in a restaurant on the Beirut’s corniche, with a sea view of the capital’s landmark Pigeon’s Rock, which was once crowded by tourists mainly from the Gulf states at this time of the year. War in Syria, sectarian clashes, government changes and half a million Syrian refugees in Lebanon have all contributed to the fall in tourists visiting the country. — AFP week low against the dollar to $1.3045, and helped the dollar rise against the yen by 0.5 percent at 98.92 yen. The broad FTSE Eurofirst 300 index, which had opened higher in line with other world markets, pared the gains as end of quarter positioning took hold, leaving it on course to end June lower after a record 12 monthly rises.

Earlier, MSCI’s broadest index of AsiaPacific shares outside Japan climbed 1.4 percent, pulling further away from an 11month low and wiping out this week’s losses. It was still down around 7 percent for the year. Asia’s rise followed Wall Street’s rally on the Fed comments and Japanese data showing consumer prices stopped falling in May and labor demand reached a five-year high. China’s stock markets had also seen their biggest gains in two months after its central bank,

which had let short-term borrowing costs spike to record highs, said it would ensure its policy supported a slowing economy.

RISK OUTLOOK CHANGES In the fixed income markets, European bonds shared in the more positive tone, with yields falling on core German debt and riskier Spanish and Italian paper. But Patrick Jacq, European rate strategist at BNP Paribas, said investors would require higher yields in future in light of the Fed’s policy shift. “Liquidity and credit risk assessment has changed since the Fed spoke about tapering off,” he said. In commodities, Brent crude oil futures climbed 29 cents to $103.11 on course for the first monthly rise in five months.

Copper was flat but facing its biggest quarterly loss in almost two years, reflecting global growth concerns. — Reuters

price of 232.34 rupees per kg to Iran last year, according to the provisional data compiled by the state-run Tea Board. This year exporters are selling tea around 240 rupees per kg, although price varies depending on quality, exporter said. India’s overall tea exports in 2013, however, are likely to remain steady around last year’s 201 million kg as demand was weak for the CTC due to higher supplies from top exporter Kenya, Atal said.

Kenya’s tea production in the first four months of 2013 jumped by nearly 72 percent from the last year to 155.3 million kg, depressing local prices by nearly a quarter since the beginning of the year. —Reuters

Japan factory output rises TOKYO: Japanese factories put in a surprisingly strong performance in May, official data showed yesterday, the latest good news for the world’s third-largest economy as Tokyo works to breathe new life into the perpetual laggard. The figures, which showed industrial production jumped 2.0 percent in May from a month earlier, come as Japan’s trade picture improves with exports rising as business with the United States and China soars.

Markets had been expecting a monthly factory output rise around 0.2 percent.

“Broadly speaking I believe this indicates a gradual recovery. But this month’s gains could be attributed to production of large machinery like turbines and boilers. So it could represent mainly temporary factors,” said Yasuo Yamamoto, senior economist, Mizuho Research Institute.

And separate figures also published yesterday painted a more mixed picture of an economy still struggling to reverse years of growth-crimping deflation. Consumer prices were flat in May, although there was a modest increase in the metropolitan Tokyo area and the results were better than a fall in the previous month. Household spending remained stubbornly weak, however, falling 1.6 percent from a year earlier.

Those figures are a key signal for economists who have been trying to pin down whether a policy blitz from Japanese premier Shinzo Abe, dubbed “Abenomics”, is taking hold. “Deflationary pressure appears to be broadly weakening,” Hideki Matsumura, senior economist at the Japan Research Institute, told Dow Jones Newswires. This week, Abe said he will spend the next three years rebuilding the nation’s fragile economy, having banished the gloom that covered Japan when he came to power.

Since taking office in December, Abe has launched his policy prescription which blends massive monetary easing, big fiscal spending and a series of reforms aimed at freeing up businesses. Japan’s sleep-walking economy has been given a jolt by the moves, with the yen shedding some of its exportsapping strength and the stock market surging. Abe faces elections in the upper house of parliament next month that are widely expected to see a resounding victory, solidifying his power base. —AFP

BUSINESS

SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

Peugeot family ready to step aside for GM Merger would bring plant closures, job losses LONDON: PSA Peugeot Citroen’s founding family has offered to give up control of the French automaker as it tries to revive plans for a closer tie-up with General Motors Co backed by a fresh capital injection, sources said. Any deal combining Peugeot with GM’s European Opel division would face major political hurdles because it would bring more factory closures and job losses in France and Germany, people with knowledge of the discussions told Reuters.

The Peugeot clan, one of Europe’s three surviving car dynasties, and beleaguered chief executive Philippe Varin turned to 7 percent shareholder GM after inconclusively sounding out other potential investors including Chinese partner Dongfeng, the sources said. “GM faces the same overcapacity situation with Opel, and that’s why PSA is trying to convince them to merge the two,” said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are confidential.

“The Peugeot family has now accepted that they’ll lose control, so this is no longer an issue.”

The family, which founded Peugeot in 1810 as a coffee mill manufacturer, holds a 25.4 percent stake commanding 38.1 percent of voting rights in a company now struggling for survival. Peugeot and GM both declined to answer questions about their frequent discussions. “We don’t comment on speculation or rumors,” Peugeot spokesman Jonathan Goodman said. Before injecting more cash, GM would need assurances that it had a free hand to cut production capacity as it took control of integrating Peugeot and Opel, sources said in recent days.

SALES SLUMP Peugeot, its sister brand Citroen and Opel are among those worst-hit by a European car sales slump that put a $1.8 billion dent in GM’s 2012 earnings. The market is on course to contract for a sixth straight year, taking sales to a two-decade low.

For Peugeot, heavily dependent on its home region, the threat is existential. The company burned 3 bil-

lion euros ($3.9 billion) in operating cash last year, and asset writedowns swelled its net loss to 5 billion euros. Shares in Peugeot closed 5.5 percent higher at 6.50 euros after the Reuters story was published, while GM shares closed 1.7 percent higher at $33.10 in New York.

Peugeot’s stock has plunged 77 percent over the past two years, compared with a 1.4 percent slide for the STOXX Europe 600 autos & parts index. Its debt has been classed as junk by all of the main

year, people familiar with the matter said, even if the company sticks to its goal of halving operating cash consumption to 1.5 billion euros in 2013.

Exploratory discussions about selling a 30 percent stake to a consortium led by Dongfeng Motor Group were inconclusive, the sources said, and would anyway have taken too long. Dongfeng declined to comment. “PSA will need to present a new industrial plan for people to underwrite a cap-

in more cash, Chief Executive Dan Akerson said last week, while leaving the door slightly ajar. “We don’t have any intention of investing additional funds into PSA at this time,” Akerson told reporters in Shanghai. “If we see something changes, we’ll evaluate that.”

The US Treasury, which owns just under 14 percent of GM common shares, declined to comment through a spokesman. “PSA’s situation has only deteriorated since the alliance was formed,” Barclays ana-

PARIS: Photo shows pictures of the logo of French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen (left) and the logo of US giant carmaker General Motors. Shares in ailing French auto group PSA Peugeot Citroen fell sharply yesterday amid reports, and a denial, that the US group General Motors could take control and inject cash. — AFP rating agencies since early 2012.

CEO Varin has responded by cutting 10,000 more jobs, selling 2 billion euros in assets and negotiating a 7 billion-euro state guarantee for financing arm Banque PSA. The company aims to cut more costs by pooling future car programs with GM under their existing alliance cemented by a 1 billion-euro share issue when the US auto giant acquired its Peugeot stake in March 2012. Earlier talks on a full combination were halted late last year as a French government bailout of Peugeot and its worsening cash position stirred misgivings at GM’s headquarters in Detroit. Peugeot will need another capital injection and must lay the groundwork this

ital increase, and the only hope is GM,” one said. “They (GM) are ready to inject more money if they can control the business, integrate Peugeot and Opel and rationalize production.”

PLAYING HARD BALL GM is “playing hardball” by holding out for assurances that it would be able to cut plants and jobs at reasonable cost, another person said, adding that no plan is likely to surface before German elections in September. The US carmaker has drawn criticism from some shareholders over the initial Peugeot investment. GM halved the book value of its stake in a February writedown. GM has no plans to put

lysts Michael Tyndall and Brian Johnson said in a note on the Reuters story, concluding that an expanded relationship was “unlikely.” “A further cash infusion could be viewed as throwing good money after bad,” they added. Opel should “search for global synergies with GM operations in regions such as China, where opportunity is abundant, rather than France”.

Still, walking away might not be an easy option for GM. Its own European turnaround plan draws on technology from vehicles such as the Peugeot 208 and Citroen C4 Picasso for future versions of the Opel Corsa small car and Zafira minivan. But approval for sweeping cuts seems unlikely in Germany or

France - where the government last year condemned Peugeot over plant and job cuts that President Francois Hollande described as “unacceptable.” As one of its rescue conditions, the French government appointed civil servant Louis Gallois to Peugeot’s board. Gallois, a former CEO of Airbus parent EADS, declined to be interviewed for this story.

Ministers understand that Peugeot needs a fuller combination with GM or another industry partner and now expect Varin to present a new plan within months, a French official said. While not “dogmatically” opposed to foreign control, the government remains determined to preserve Peugeot’s French sites and jobs, he added. The government or a state-owned investment vehicle could end up taking a Peugeot stake if necessary, officials have also suggested. In the past five years, GM has scrapped a Belgian car factory and earmarked another for closure in Germany, where it has about 20,000 employees.

Peugeot, which employs 77,000 workers in France, is shuttering its Aulnay plant near Paris and scaling down another domestic site. Its five French assembly plants ran at 71 percent capacity in 2012, according to IHS Automotive data, while GM’s three main German sites were at 66 percent. Combining their European operations would require deep cuts to draw benefit from the considerable overlap between similarly sized and priced cars. GM sold 9.3 million vehicles globally last year and its French partner 3 million.

Peugeot also ended 2012 with cash of 6.67 billion euros, excluding listed subsidiary Faurecia SA, and is expected to consume 2 billion euros this year after restructuring costs. Together with 2.4 billion euros in undrawn credit lines, that will leave about 7 billion euros in available reserves -but the real cushion is closer to 4 billion because Peugeot needs the difference just to operate. “The minimum level of liquidity they need is 3 billion,” said a London-based auto analyst with a major US bank. “You never want to use that up.” —Reuters

Peugeot shares zig-zag on uncertainty over GM role PARIS: Shares in ailing French auto group PSA Peugeot Citroen fell sharply yesterday amid reports, and a denial, that the US group General Motors could take control and inject cash. PSA shares were showing a fall at mid-day of 2.54 percent to 6.34 euros, in an overall French market down 0.25 percent as measured by the CAC 40 index.

On Thursday the shares had jumped 5.47 percent in an initial response to a report that GM could take control. The cause of the volatility was reports Peugeot family might be prepared to cede control to GM in return for fresh capital.

PSA is struggling to restructure with

job cuts and the closure of a big plant.

GM, which owns the German brand Opel, already owns 7.0 percent of the group under a strategic partnership agreed last year, and Dow Jones Newswire reported that according to sources close to the matter, PSA had approached GM with an invitation to inject new capital. But a spokesman for GM told AFP: “Our position remains unchanged: we have no intention of investing additional funds into PSA at this time. We will not comment on speculation.” The head of GM, Dan Akerson, had expressed the same position last week.

The Peugeot family, and also the

French government which has a representative on the supervisory board of the company, declined to comment.

The family controls about 25 percent of the capital and 38 percent of the voting rights. Sources close to the group said that the board was expected to stand by its forecasts when it published sixmonth results on July 31. It would also repeat its wish to halve the rate at which it uses up cash which last year was running at 200 million euros ($261 million) a month. But one analyst who declined to be named, commented: “The company would well need a new increase of its capital.”

He said: “This could have the effect of

diluting the shareholding of the Peugeot family because they are not prepared to provide more money.” A source close to the matter said that “there is no urgency about this” and that “while the Peugeot family wants to retain their control of Peugeot, their means are not limitless.” At Deutsche Bank, analyst Gaetan Toulemonde commented in a note to clients that if the family were prepared to give up control, that should be seen as “a message to GM to force it to take a more radical decision concerning the future of PSA and GM’s subsidiary, Opel.” PSA Peugeot Citroen has been hard hit by a big decline of the European car market. —AFP

business SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

Rising debt costs may slow Africa’s rush to Eurobond JOHANNESBURG: In a year when a record number of African countries are lining up to join the Eurobond club, membership just got pricier. After Zambia saw unprecedented demand for its debut $750 million Eurobond last September, some predicted that a rush of African issuers would tap international debt markets in 2013.

Rwanda was first out of the blocks, issuing a $400 million 10year bond at a 6.875 percent yield in April despite its B rating and a recent disruption to its foreign aid flows caused by some donors’ displeasure over Kigali’s alleged meddling in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. Ghana and Nigeria announced plans to return to the market after their debuts in 2007 and 2011 respectively, while Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola and Cameroon are also potential candidates.

But as the global economy comes to terms with a possible end to the US Federal Reserve’s bond-buying program in 2014 and rising US Treasury yields have sparked a sell-off in emerging market assets any hopes that African governments held of borrowing at cheap rates are likely to be dashed. “The window of opportunity in accessing the Eurobond market by African sovereigns is closing,” said Angus Downie, Ecobank’s head of economic research.

“They’re going to have to face the reality that investors will want higher yields in order to invest in what they consider now to be slightly more risky assets.” Demand for African Eurobonds is still expected to be solid given their scarcity and investors’ desire for diversification, but without the Fed’s stimulus, the days of outsized order books are probably gone. Zambia, which launched its Eurobond on the same day the Fed announced its third round of quantitative easing, received $11.9 billion of bids, more than 15 times the issue size, while Rwanda’s bond was more than seven times oversubscribed.

A DIFFERENT WORLD “I would say the past 12 to 18 months were God’s gift to issuers and clearly things are slowly normalising,” said Nicholas Samara, vice president in capital markets origination at Citi. “Most likely you’re not going to see these $12 billion order books anymore. Simply put, we’re in a different world.”

Reflecting the new reality, yields on African Eurobonds have climbed significantly in the past month, by more than 100 basis points for Rwanda’s 2023 bond and nearly 300 basis points for Senegal’s 2021 paper. Nigeria’s 2021 bond is trading at a yield of 5.9 percent from a low of 3.66 percent in January. Africa’s biggest oil producer, which plans to raise $1 billion this year to fund infrastructure in the power sector, completed a European and US roadshow this week but will not issue yet given volatile market conditions.

When it eventually taps the market, it will pay a higher price than if it had done so earlier this year, but its strong fundamentals and familiarity to investors means the bond will be oversubscribed, analysts said. Its domestic debt was about 18 percent of GDP in 2012 and external debt 2.5 percent of GDP, lower than its peers. Inflation is in single digits and investors are optimistic about power sector reforms, seen as key to unlocking further growth potential in the Nigerian economy.

A dollar bond from Kenya, with its diversified economy and traditionally low levels of external debt, should be well received, but countries like Ghana that are struggling with high budget deficits will face more investor scrutiny, said Razia Khan, Standard Chartered’s head of research for Africa. Small or mid-sized economies such as Tanzania are likely to face questions about the sustainability of their borrowing. The higher yields investors would demand could put such countries under pressure, potentially creating problems with repayment in the future, said Downie. “Definitely, we’re going to see smaller sovereigns that may not have accessed the Eurobond market rethink their strategy,” he said.

FINER PRICING FOR RISK Samara believes several issuers will still take the leap, especially given their need to diversify their sources of financing and fund infrastructure projects. Rates are still lower than they were before the global financial crisis, he points out. Ghana and Gabon’s 10year bonds are yielding 6.95 percent and 4.8 percent respectively but both countries issued at yields of more than 8 percent in 2007. “Today’s markets, historically speaking, are still very attractive compared to where they were pre-crisis,” Samara said. Many African sovereigns will probably issue once they have lined up specific projects that need financing, a difficult task that may have caused some to delay their plans, said Florian von Hartig, head of debt capital markets at Standard Bank— Reuters

BEIJING: A barber cuts the hair of a customer in an alleyway in Beijing yesterday. — AFP

Beijing tightens supervision on scandal-plagued food industry China expands system to track food shipments BEIJING: China is expanding a pilot system that tracks the movement of meat and vegetables to the supermarket shelf as part of efforts to tighten supervision of its scandal-plagued food industry. Under the program, which is voluntary, city governments are monitoring produce as its leaves slaughter houses and wholesale markets to make sure the same food arrives at the supermarket and to get unlicensed vendors out of the supply chain.

The system has been set up in 20 cities and is currently being rolled out in another 15 including Beijing. It should cover 50 cities by the year-end, said Li Zhenzhong, deputy chief of the Ministry of Commerce’s market supervision department. “They are trying to tackle the fact that in China, between the slaughter house and the retailer, they still have some illegal or blackmarkets,” said Xavier Bodenes, national quality and food safety director at French supermarket chain Carrefour.

“They want to be sure that the 100 tons that left the slaughter house is the same 100 tons at final distribution.” From rat meat being sold as lamb to toxins found in rice, food scandals are a daily occurrence in the world’s second biggest economy, fueling anger amongst Chinese

who also complain about severe air pollution and poor water quality. The avalanche of scandals has sown deep distrust of domestic brands, prompting Premier Li Keqiang to promise tougher rules.

Beijing has repeatedly urged more inspections of food processing facilities and meted out tough punishment to those found responsible for safety scandals. The pilot system uses barcodes as well as tags that allow radio frequency identification (RFID) to transmit information about product batches to a central database.

The system was working well, with authorities frequently checking that the retailer has keyed in data to show a shipment had arrived, Bodenes said. It has already helped remove some unlicensed slaughter houses from the supply chain, he added. Li said the new system would allow authorities to recall potentially hazardous products “within minutes”, but he gave no details and other ministry officials declined to comment.

Some experts said the system would have only limited use because it did not include China’s 200 million farmers, where health standards can be low and regulation often has little reach. Many large retailers run their own audits on what

they source from farms. “If you only go as far back as the slaughter houses, it’s of some value but not much value.

The decision to spray a certain pesticide or give an animal a specific antibiotic will usually be taken by a fairly uneducated farmer,” said John Chapple, a consultant to food companies in China. To try to tackle that problem, Beijing is encouraging a move to larger farms and farmers’ cooperatives. Consolidation is already under way in the domestic dairy sector, driven in large part by a 2008 safety scandal when milk formula tainted with the illegal additive melamine killed six infants.

Other tainted milk incidents have emerged since. China Mengniu Dairy Co Ltd signed a $1.6-billion deal this month to take over the milk powder business of Carlyle-backed Yashili International Holdings Ltd. That was its second acquisition in a month. But the meat and fresh produce sectors remain fragmented.

“China needs to encourage this kind of consolidation not only in the dairy sector, but also among its many other food manufacturers to create some national giants with the scale and resources to implement strong quality control to ensure product safety,” China’s state-run Global Times said in a commentary last week.—Reuters

New treasurer looks to keep Australia out of recession SYDNEY: Australia’s new Treasurer Chris Bowen was yesterday welcomed by business figures as he hinted at policy changes amid recession fears following an unprecedented Asia-mining boom.

Bowen, who served as assistant treasurer from late 2007 to mid- 2009 and was also minister for immigration, tertiary education and small business, was installed as treasurer on Thursday. The high office rewards the 40-year-old from Sydney for his strong support of Kevin Rudd, the former prime minister who made a dramatic political comeback as national leader on Wednesday night, ousting Australia’s first

woman premier Julia Gillard.

Chief economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch Saul Eslake said one of Bowen’s first challenges would be to improve relations between business, which has had to absorb divisive mining and carbon taxes in recent years, and government. “I think Bowen probably needs to do things to shore up the credibility of the budget,” Eslake also said, adding this would be a delicate balancing act given the economy was likely weaker now than when the budget was announced in May. Bowen, a career politician with a degree in economics, said the new leader-

ship will see some continuity but also change ahead of the yet-to-be-announced election date, originally scheduled for September 14. Rudd was due to unveil his full cabinet later Friday. “If you are asking us... to say we are never going to change any government policies, we’re never going to discuss any change to government policy in the future ... well we are not going to do that,” he told Network Seven.

Bowen takes over from Wayne Swan who took on the job in 2007 when Rudd was first elected prime minister and who was credited with helping Australia sidestep the global financial crisis. —AFP

business

SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

LAS VEGAS: A Southwest airliner comes in for a landing as a row of Allegiant Air jets are parked at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. — AP

Allegiant Air thrives on low costs, high fees Allegiant profitable for 10 straight years LAS VEGAS: There are no sure things in this city - with one exception: Allegiant Air. While other US airlines have struggled over the past decade from the ups and downs of the economy and the price of jet fuel, Allegiant has been profitable for 10 straight years. The tiny airline focuses on a niche ignored by other airlines: It only flies from small cities to sunny vacation spots.

Allegiant entices people who otherwise wouldn’t fly with low fares and non-stop flights.

Then it aggressively pitches them hotels, rental cars, show tickets and other entertainment, earning millions in commissions. Passengers face fees for almost every service and amenity imaginable. At Allegiant, fees for checked baggage and changing an itinerary - which are common on many airlines - are just the beginning.

The Las Vegas-based airline charges extra to book flights online, or to use a credit card.

Selecting a seat in advance costs $5 to $75 each way, depending on the length of a flight. Even a bottle of water costs $2.

Flying Allegiant isn’t glamorous. While other airlines tout new aircraft with Wi-Fi and TVs in every seat, Allegiant buys old planes to avoid hefty aircraft loans. And to pack in as many passengers as possible, its seats don’t recline. But for small-town Americans with limited flight options, these inconveniences are worth it for a few days of sunshine. “They could be the worst airline in the world and we’d fly them because we want to go to Vegas,” says Tom Mayo of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, who recently flew there with his family. “It’s our only option.”

Allegiant offers non-stop service from places like Owensboro, Ky, Casper, Wyo and Appleton, Wis, to popular destinations in Nevada, Florida, Hawaii and Arizona. These may not be the most coveted routes in the airline business, but that is precisely why Allegiant likes them. Only 17 of Allegiant’s 203 routes are flown non-stop by another airline. “Typically, the best way to make money is not to compete with somebody,” says Andrew C Levy, president of Allegiant Travel Co, who sits in a cubicle next to the rest of his staff.

Rather than battle major carriers for customers on routes between major cities, Allegiant uses

its marketing muscles to convince people in small towns to fly away for a vacation.

“Allegiant tends to bring people into the airport who wouldn’t normally fly,” says Tim Bradshaw, director of the Eastern Iowa people Airport in Cedar Rapids. “It brings people off the couch.” Last year, 7 million passengers took a flight on Allegiant. That is a sliver of the 642 million people who took a domestic flight last year.

But Allegiant earned a whopping $11.22 each way from those passengers. On average, the airline industry earned 37 cents each way, per passenger, according to Airlines for America, the industry’s lobbying group. Southwest Airlines, one of the industry’s most profitable carriers, made $3.85 per passenger last year. Allegiant is ruthless about keeping its costs down. Its employees are some of the lowest paid in the industry, in some cases making $20 an hour less than colleagues at other airlines.

It pays cash for airplanes nearly twice as old as everyone else. It only sells directly to vacationers, refusing to pay Expedia, Orbitz or other sites to list its flights. And if you have a question, it will cost you: the airline doesn’t have a tollfree number. Like some other budget airlines, Allegiant advertises extremely low base fares and then tacks on numerous fees. A roundtrip ticket with Allegiant costs $195, on average.

But passengers pay an additional $83 in fees - or 30 percent of the total cost of flying. To book a trip by phone, Allegiant charges $50 for each roundtrip ticket. To book online costs $20 for each roundtrip ticket. The only way to avoid the fees is to purchase tickets at the airport, something fewer than 3 percent of its customers did last year. But whether you book by phone, Internet or in person, paying with a credit card costs an extra $8.

Placing a suitcase in an overhead bin is $10 to $25. Boarding passes signify who has paid the fee. If passengers show up at the airport with a large carry-on bag and haven’t prepaid the fee, the airline penalizes them an additional $25 to $50, depending on the route. But what really makes Allegiant different are the commissions it earns from selling hotel rooms, rental cars and other extras including Everglades boat tours and

theme-park tickets. It even gets people to attend timeshare sales presentations.

Before a passenger can finalize a ticket purchase online, they must click through page after page offering them these add-ons. Last year, revenue from commissions totaled $36 million, or nearly $12 per roundtrip passenger. “I don’t think of them as an airline. I think of them as a travel company,” says Helane Becker, an airline analyst at Cowen Securities. Once onboard, Allegiant passengers are again bombarded with sales pitches. On a recent flight from Cedar Rapids to Las Vegas, flight attendants came over the loudspeaker and hawked show tickets and airport shuttles.

The in-flight magazine is filled with ads for shows and attractions instead of stories. One ad offers $30 off a Las Vegas helicopter tour if purchased from flight attendants, who are paid extra for each item sold. “They do a fantastic job packaging,” says JetBlue CEO David Barger. “I think we can learn a lot from what Allegiant does.” Ben Baldanza, CEO of Spirit Airlines - the only other US carrier to charge for overhead bin space or for booking over the Internet - also respects Allegiant’s ability to sell extras, such as a round of golf in Myrtle Beach, SC. “They developed that expertise earlier than we did,” Baldanza says. Spirit focuses on getting passengers between big cities cheaply; Allegiant taps into people’s desire to escape small-town life for a few days. Most airlines promote their new first-class seats or individual TV screens.

Allegiant - which only offers coach seats - promotes its destinations: Las Vegas gamblers smiling after winning at roulette, a hot-air balloon floating over the Arizona desert or a woman in a bikini sipping a frozen drink on a Hawaiian beach.

Allegiant’s passengers aren’t sold on the airline but on the escape. An hour and a half before a recent flight from Cedar Rapids to Las Vegas, a spare seat couldn’t be found in the airport bar. It was only 11 am, but travelers like Bridget Estrada and her four friends were too excited for their trip to wait. It was only Estrada’s second trip on a plane and her first in 13 years.

She was nervous and gave a quick thought to

her husband and three kids at home.

But she and her friends quickly got back to drinking hard lemonade, mapping out their weekend away from Iowa. A few feet away, other passengers shared tips on attractions, buffets and the cheapest blackjack tables. “You must see the pirate show,” one insisted. Allegiant finds ways to profit on routes other airlines couldn’t make work, often swooping in after they pull out. This month, it started flying between Asheville, NC, and Tampa, Fla, a route abandoned by AirTran after Southwest Airlines acquired it.

Like other discount carriers, Allegiant prefers small airports that charge airlines lower rents, even if they aren’t the most convenient. In Orlando, that means flying into Sanford, Fla, 30 minutes further from Walt Disney World than Orlando International Airport. Frugal decisions like that helped Allegiant post a net profit of $78 million last year on revenue of $909 million. Its 8.6 percent profit margin was the highest of any US airline, making it a darling of Wall Street.

The last five years have been good for airline investors. After a major spike in fuel prices in 2008 and a drop in business travelers, airlines tweaked their business models, adding baggage fees and cutting unprofitable flights. They started to make money and their stock prices climbed. While the S&P 500 climbed 26 percent in the past five years, an index of all US airline stocks has tripled. Allegiant’s stock has done even better, increasing more than fivefold to $105.40 Allegiant has 64 planes and flies to 87 cities, but it’s tiny compared with an airline like United, which carried 20 times as many people last year, often on much longer flights.

The airline got its start in 1998 as a charter operation with one airplane. By February the following year, it had started scheduled flights between Fresno, Calif. and Las Vegas. But its business struggled and less than two years later, it filed for bankruptcy protection. Maurice J Gallagher, Jr, the airline’s major creditor and a founder of ValuJet Airlines, gained control during the reorganization and became CEO. ValuJet was a low-cost carrier that changed its name to AirTran after a 1996 fatal crash in Florida.—AP

SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013 www.kuwaittimes.net

The guitarist of the band “Lightningfan” Wang Hongbin creates lightning with a Tesla Coil in their village outside of Fuzhou in China’s Fujian province. The Tesla Coil invented by Nikola Tesla in 1891 is a transformer that produces vast amounts of voltage at high frequencies that creates long bolts of electricity like lightening.

Inventor and founding member of the band Wang Zengxiang, an electrical engineer made his first Tesla Coil in 2007 and afterwards formed his 10 member band who, whilst wearing ferroalloy metal suits play guitars, violins and drums with bolts of lightening crackling from them and their instruments to the beat.— AFP

Jackson’s daughter ‘was hardest hit by star’s death’ PAGE 23

Natalie Cole releases her 1st Spanish album PAGE 23

SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

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ritish rocker Liam Gallagher kicked off three days of music at the Glastonbury festival yesterday, cheered on by mudsplattered revellers glad to see the skies clear after 18 hours of rain. In one of the worst-kept secrets of the 2013 festival, Gallagher and his band Beady Eye opened the day at 11 am (1000 GMT) from one of 58 stages scattered across a sprawling 900 acre (365-hectare) site at Worthy Farm in rural southwest England.

Despite vowing never to play at Glastonbury again after criticizing the event in 2004, the former Oasis frontman kicked off an hour-long set with “Flick of the Finger” and pulled out crowd pleasers like “Morning Glory”. “It’s never too early for a bit of rock ‘n roll aggro, is it?” a black-clad Gallagher told the heaving crowd, wearing a pair of sunglasses.

Other acts on the bill included Sinead O’Connor, Dizzee Rascal, Rita Ora, and headliners Arctic Monkeys, while the year’s main act, the Rolling Stones, will play on Saturday and British folk rockers Mumford & Sons on Sunday. More than 135,000 fans have descended on the farm located about 130 miles (210 km) southwest of London for Britain’s largest music festival, which started off as a retreat for about 1,500 hippies in 1970 who paid one pound and got free milk.

True to Glastonbury’s alternative roots, the festival includes music of all genres, from hip hop to chanting monks, and surprising choices like US country star Kenny Rogers and octogenarian British TV presenter Bruce Forsyth. Solange Knowles, younger sister to 2011 headliner Beyonce, played one of the smaller stages yesterday. The festival was not held last year due to the London Olympics and demand for the 205 pounds ($315) tickets was strong, selling out in a record one hour and 40 minutes.

Demand for tickets, upmarket camping While Glastonbury is known for its megastars, it also has a reputation for mud, and this year proved no exception with campers drenched on Thursday and some creating mud slides. Forecasters expected the rest of the weekend to stay dry. Although the main music program started on yesterday, revelers have been arriving

Festival goers wait at the Pyramid stage on the third day of the Glastonbury Festival.

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British singer Liam Gallagher gestures to the crowed while performing with his band Beady Eye on third day of the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts near Glastonbury, southwest England yesterday. — AP/AFP

British singer Rita Ora performs on the Pyramid Stage on the third day of the Glastonbury Festival.

since gates opened early on Wednesday, keen to secure the best camping spots.

For those unwilling to sleep in a normal tent, there are up to 1,000 tipis and Mongolian-style tents called yurts available for hire, which are set up in advance and can come with furnishing depending on price level. Tara Weightman, managing director of company Hearthworks that oversees the ready-pitched accommodation, said a record number of 10,000 people had paid to camp in style this year, while separate VIP areas catered for the musicians.

The Rolling Stones’ frontman Mick Jagger tweeted that he would be staying in a yurt, but the location remains unknown. “It

is popular as it makes it so much easier for people as they don’t have to come early to set up camp and they arrive to find it all ready for them,” Weightman told Reuters.

One happy customer was Steve Pratt, 29, an insurance agent, who paid 950 pounds to share a tipi with four friends in a designated areas where toilet facilities were less crowded. “I’ve been to Glastonbury before with my own tent but this really appealed to me as it gives you more space and some quiet - and you can escape the rain in comfort,” Pratt said. — Reuters

US singer and guitarist Danielle Haim and US singer and bass player Este Haim perform in the band Haim.

ick Jagger admitted yesterday he has found his career in the Rolling Stones “intellectually undemanding” and sometimes wishes he had stuck to his original idea of becoming a teacher. Jagger, who will front the Stones in their first ever appearance at Britain’s Glastonbury festival today, said he had considered other career options such as being a journalist or a dancer, although that would have involved “too many injuries”.

The 69-year-old, who was still a student at the London School of Economics when the Stones were starting out, said in a BBC interview: “A schoolteacher would have been very gratifying, I’m sure. “There are millions of things you would have loved to have done, a politician, a journalist... I thought of being a journalist once.

“All these things you think of when you’re a teenager, you can think, well, I would have liked to have done that but that’s

completely pointless,” he added. “But I don’t feel frustrated for a lack of control at all and I’m very pleased with what I’ve done. “Everyone wants to have done more things in their lives.

It is a slightly intellectually undemanding thing to do, being a rock singer, but, you know, you make the best of it.” — AFP

A picture dated May 3, 2013 shows musician Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones performing at Staples Center launching of their ‘50 & Counting’ tour on in Los Angeles, California. — AFP

US singer Amanda Palmer performs.

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ichael Jackson’s daughter Paris, who tried to commit suicide this month, was the hardest hit by her father’s 2009 death, a co-guardian of the star’s three children said Thursday. T.J. Jackson, a nephew of the late King of Pop, struggled to compose himself as he testified in court in Los Angeles, a day after the late singer’s 16-year-old son Prince took the stand. “I think the loss of my uncle has hit her at a different level,” he said of his cousin Paris, who remains in hospital after trying to cut one of her wrists and taking 20 Motrin (ibuprofen) pills.

“It’s tough. She was daddy’s girl. My uncle was her world,” he added. The 34-year-old, also a singer/songwriter, was the second Jackson family member to testify after Prince Jackson took the stand Wednesday, recounting for the first time the harrowing day of his father’s

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amily, friends and fans united in grief Thursday in an emotional sendoff for James Gandolfini, star of the hit TV series “The Sopranos.” Gandolfini, a Golden Globe and three-time Emmy winner for his portrayal of emotionally vulnerable New Jersey mobster Tony Soprano, died June 19 after a heart attack in a hotel in Rome, where he was traveling with his 13-year-old son. He was 51.

Mourners converged on Manhattan’s Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, an Episcopal church that is among the world’s biggest, well before the mid-morning start of Gandolfini’s funeral. Some 1,500 people filled the pews, including Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, the state across the Hudson River from New York City where Gandolfini was born and “The Sopranos” was set.

Also present for the two-hour funeral were cast members of the HBO series, whose creator David Chase delivered a eulogy in the form of a letter to his fellow American of Italian heritage.

“We both loved family, work, people, food, alcohol, talking,” said Chase, who remembers his friend as “a sad boy, loving and confused...

That’s why I think you were such a great actor, because of that boy inside.” Longtime friend and fellow thespian Susan Aston affectionately remembered Gandolfini as “my teddy bear friend.”

Others in attendance included actor Alec Baldwin, like Gandolfini a veteran of Broadway

theater, and Edie Falco, who played Tony Soprano’s wife Carmela in the series that ran from 1999 to 2007. “The end of The Sopranos has a different meaning to me now,” said Baldwin on his Twitter feed after the funeral.

“Rest in peace, Jimmy.” Gandolfini’s second wife Deborah Lin spoke of a loving husband and attentive father to their nine-month-old daughter Liliana who was “always trying to help someone.” Emotions were no less strong outside the cathedral. “We’ve been up since 4:30 this morning,” said Stephanie Solana, a fan who traveled to the Upper West Side from The Bronx with her two granddaughters to pay her respects.

“My heart is broken. It is really bad for the fans, but he will always live on for me. We’ll never forget him.” “I am probably the oldest fan here,” echoed a 93-year-old New Yorker, who preferred not to give her name. “He was one of the greatest actors of his generation.” “The Sopranos,” she added, was nothing less than “a work of art ... better than Shakespeare. It had a real depth.” On Wednesday, family and close friends gathered away from prying cameras for an invitation-only private viewing at a funeral home in Park Ridge, New Jersey, near where the actor grew up.—AFP

Edith ‘Edie’ Falco, best known as Carmela Soprano in The Sopranos, arrives at the Cathedral Church of St John the Divine for funeral service for ‘Sopranos’ actor James Gandolfini June 27, 2013 in New York. — AFP

death. Michael Jackson’s mother Katherine is suing tour promoter AEG Live, accusing them of negligently hiring Conrad Murray, the doctor convicted of involuntary manslaughter for giving the singer the drug that killed him.

Murray was found guilty in 2011 of administering the anesthetic propofol to Jackson to help him with chronic insomnia, as he rehearsed in Los Angeles for the planned “This Is It” comeback tour. T.J. Jackson, the son of the late King of Pop’s brother Tito, was made co-guardian last year of his three cousins Prince, Paris and “Blanket,” now 11 years old. Testifying in the AEG trial’s ninth week, he described 83-year-old family matriarch Katherine Jackson as “the queen” and “the CEO,” adding: “I help her do the daily stuff.”

He said had became extremely close to his

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t’s been four years since Natalie Cole received a kidney from a Salvadorian donor, and the singer says it not only connected her to Hispanic culture, it has given her the strength to record her first post-operation album - totally in Spanish. “I don’t believe in coincidences. I believe everything happens for a reason. That this was a Latin family, I feel like I’m part Latino now. That (made) the desire to make this record became even stronger,” Cole said recently during a private listening session of “Natalie Cole En Espanol,” released this week.

This is Cole’s first album since she received her kidney in May 2009. Her donor was a young woman from El Salvador who died while giving birth to a baby boy, Lucas, said Cole (the Grammy-winner received the donation after suffering from hepatitis C, a liver disease spread through contact with infected blood). “I couldn’t totally grasp, understand it, but there’s something there, the spirit of this young girl, the spirit of this family, the spirit of the Latin culture, of a Latin heart is inside me,” the 63-year-old said.

Produced by Cuban-American Rudy Perez, the 12-track album is a compilation of Latin American classics, plus a Spanish-language version of the Beatles’ “And I Love Her.” It includes titles like “Solamente Una Vez” by Mexican Agustin Lara, “El Dia que Me Quieras” by Argentine Carlos Gardel and a medley of “Voy a Apagar La Luz” and “Contigo AprendÌ” by Mexican Armando Manzanero, as well as two duets: “Besame Mucho,” with Italian Andrea Bocelli, and “Bachata Rosa,” with Dominican

uncle after his own mother died when he was 16. “My world crumbled and my uncle Michael saved it,” he said, at one point taking several seconds to compose himself after he was asked how much the late singer meant to him. “He was just everything,” he said. Paris Jackson was rushed to hospital after trying to commit suicide at the family home in Calabasas, northwest of Los Angeles, on June 5. She had previously been treated for depression, and remains under medical supervision. — AFP

music legend Juan Luis Guerra. The album title is reminiscent of her famous father Nat King Cole’s “Cole Espanol,” which brought him love and recognition in Spanish-speaking countries. Cole, who famously sang with her deceased father with technological wizardry on the best-selling “Unforgettable,” now sings “Acercate Mas” with him on the new album over a recording he did in Cuba in 1956.

This duet was possible thanks to a recently discovered recording that Nat King Cole did in Cuba in 1956, said Perez. Both father and daughter recorded their Spanish albums learning the lyrics phonetically; neither of them spoke the language. “Black people and Hispanic people have the same kind of feel for passion, for music, for fun, for heart,” Cole said. “We are very similar in that way and that to me is the next language. I love French .. I love Portuguese, I love Italiano, but for me right now is Espanol.” — AP

SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

A gallery assistant holds a Martin D-28 Marquis ‘Birthday Special 2007’ guitar that used to be owned and played by British musician Jimmy Page ahead of its sale at Bonhams auction house The guitar is estimated to fetch between 10,000-15,000 British pounds (12,000 - 18,000 Euros). — AFP

A gallery assistant holds a Vox Mk. XII twelve string electric guitar that used to belong to British musician David Bowie ahead of its sale at Bonhams auction house. The guitar is estimated to fetch between 10,000-15,000 British pounds (12,000 - 18,000 Euros). — AFP

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view of relationships. “The saccharine is gone, but the heart is there and it’s more realistic,” veteran marketing researcher and Capstone Global Marketing co-founder Catherine Paura, said. “The role of women in our culture has changed enormously when you think about how many women are head of households, how many women don’t get married, how many women are single mothers and what women do at work.”

It’s also helping to explode the prejudice that women can’t be funny; an argument that bubbled up in the mid-aughts thanks to the late Christopher Hitchens’ infamous 2007 Vanity Fair essay, in which he asserted that women dampen their humor to appeal to men. “When the crazy thing years ago was like, ‘women aren’t funny,’ I

he studio really wanted Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock to have love interests in “The Heat,” but the filmmakers resisted the urge to bring romance into the picture. Jenno Topping, president of films at Chernin Entertainment and a producer on the Fox film, considers the lack of male main squeezes key to the appeal of the movie about a pair of mismatched cops. She freely admits it’s risky from a business perspective.

“Male figures aren’t relevant one way or the other to Sandy and Melissa’s journey in this film,” Topping told TheWrap. “The very thing that appealed to us the most was the riskiest element of the movie. We had all the naysayers saying you’re going to cancel out your audience, because men aren’t going to want to see a movie about two women being cops and women won’t want to see women playing cops and not wearing pink fluffy dresses.”

Topping said Fox especially wanted Bullock, a former queen of romantic comedies, to have a love interest in the movie. Yet the producers and the stars remained adamant that men remain an afterthought. “It would have changed the constellation of the thing,” Topping said. “It was so unusual to see two parts for women that were funny without them being relegated to love interests. It was a platonic love story about women working in a traditionally male workplace, but not in a didactic way.”

If the movie succeeds, it could pave the way for more female buddy cop movies, much the way that “Bridesmaids” opened the door to more raunchy comedies revolving around women. Male buddy cop movies have been a staple for years, but women have been relegated to playing sidekicks or at best one half of a law enforcement team. Bullock, coincidentally, played a fashionimpaired FBI agent in “Miss Congeniality,” while McCarthy has been upending expectations about female roles since breaking out in “Bridesmaids.”

“The Heat,” like “Bridesmaids,” was directed by Paul Feig and based on a screenplay written by a woman, Katie Dippold.

The movie boasts a tracheotomy in a Denny’s

but nary a blushing bride. Bullock plays an uptight FBI agent forced to work with a cranky Boston cop personified by McCarthy while tracking down a drug lord. Neither has had a partner and both are socially impaired. The movie, opening Friday, is on pace to open to $35 million this weekend, according to pre-release tracking. “Bridesmaids” did have a wedding, although audiences would be hard pressed to pick the groom out of a lineup. It, like “The Heat” and to a lesser degree McCarthy’s “Identity Thief,” emphasized friendship in place of sexual attraction.

That’s in keeping with modern moviegoers, analysts and marketing experts say. The depictions of women on film mirror the varied experiences of women in the real world and the more jaundiced

This film publicity image released by 20th Century Fox shows Sandra Bullock as FBI Special Agent Sarah Ashburn, left, and Melissa McCarthy as Boston Detective Shannon Mullins in a scene from ‘The Heat.’— AP

thought, ‘what cave do you live in?’” McCarthy said while promoting “The Heat” at CinemaCon. “Uncensoring women has I think led to more fun on screen,” Bullock said at the same event. She praised “Bridesmaids” as a movie that was less interested in showing women should say or behave in a certain way. “It was just these funny people having awkward life moments and I think it takes the sex out of it,” she said.

Barry Mendel, one of the producers of “Bridesmaids,” believed the female friendship at the heart of the movie was key to its success, not the racy comedy that grabbed some headlines.”‘Bridesmaids’ was raunchy and wild and scatological, but we were trying to tell a complex story of two people who had a close friendship that changed as they got older,” Mendel told TheWrap. “It’s about a woman who does not feel valued and valuable and all of those ingredients are equally important to why ‘Bridesmaids’ succeeded.”

Thus far, moviegoers are embracing the new kind of comedies with the same intensity that they once rejected romantic comedy duds like “How Do You Know” and “New Year’s Eve.” “Identity Thief” earned $174 million worldwide on a $35 million budget while “Bridesmaids” scored with $288.4 million on a $32.5 million budget. Its success helped stoke a bidding war for the buddy comedy “Don’t Mess With Texas,” a project starring Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara as a cop and prisoner on the run in the Lone Star State.

Despite the gains women have made in these movies, producers and analysts acknowledge that there are fewer opportunities for them onscreen than men. “Social change occurs very slowly in big businesses,” said Martha Lauzen, executive director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University. “‘The Heat’ may have two female leads and that’s encouraging, but can we name five more studio films with female leads this summer? I wouldn’t expect a quick turnaround.” —Reuters

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ow that summer is in full swing in the Northern Hemisphere, the lingering daylight and sultry evenings are prime-time for outdoor concerts. In an effort to get you swaying in the breeze, online travel advisers Cheapflights.com (www.cheapflights.com) has put together this list of the places to enjoy outdoor summer music. Reuters has not endorsed this list: Red Rocks, Morrison, Colorado, United States More than a mile high and forged by over 160 million years of shifting sands and sandstone, Red Rocks is an amphitheater like no other. The natural acoustics, surrounding landscape and big sky vistas combine to make an amazing concert setting. And, if the star power coming from the sky isn’t enough of a draw, the glittering stage line-up will lure you. Imagine shows from Sting, Darius Rucker, Big Head Todd, Widespread Panic, Robert Plant, the Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, BB King and Peter Frampton and George Thorogood in an intimate setting (fewer than 10,000 people and seats as close as 10 feet from the stage). That’s just a sampling of what’s on tap at Red Rocks in 2013.

Slane Castle, County Meath, Ireland Along the shores of the River Boyne, 30 minutes north of Dublin, lies Slane Castle, the ancestral home of the Conyngham family. For over 300 years, that family has called the castle home, but for the last 30 plus years, so has rock and roll. Starting with Thin Lizzy in 1981, concerts in a natural amphitheater in the shadow of the castle have been a summer tradition at Slane. Now crowds of 80,000 people flock to the 1,500 acre estate for majestic shows from classic bands like the Rolling Stones (2007) to more modern favorites like Oasis (2009) and Kings of Leon (2011). This summer Bon Jovi will grace the grounds, giving audiences a mix of classic rock and regal living. U2 is best able to attest to life at the castle, having performed there three times and even lived and recorded there.

The‚tre Antique d’Orange, Orange, France This classic Roman amphitheater showcases the setting and acoustics of the ancients. A UNESCO World Heritage site, ThÈ‚tre Antique features an incredibly preserved stage wall that bore witness to the shows of Roman times. Now the 100 meter (328 foot) long, 37 meter (120 foot) high wall serves as the backdrop to an annual opera festival, the ChorÈgies d’Orange, and a diverse and international music line-up ranging from The Cure in 1986 to DJ Laurent Wolf’s 2009 “Wash My World Festival” to upcoming shows by Chinese pianist Lang Lang and Italian opera duo Patrizia Ciofi and Leo Nucci. Audiences enjoy the excellent sound quality projected from the wall and marvel over the statue of Apollo at center stage and the columns and complex array of theater entrances and structures that date back thousands of years.

The Gorge Amphitheater, George, Washington, United States The Columbia River canyon, the Cascade Mountains and The Who. That’s what you get as a show sitting on the lawn at The Gorge Amphitheater. The simple stage and hillside seating make it clear the scenery, a sweeping vista down the Columbia River with a backdrop of the Cascade Mountains, and the music are the draws. The Who is just one of many big names to perform backed up by the gorgeous view. The Gorge has hosted everyone from David Bowie to the Dave Matthews Band and been the site of numerous festivals, including Lilith Fair and Lollapalooza. Look for John Mayer, Phish and Black Sabbath, among others, this summer.

Dalhalla, R‰ttvik, Sweden It seems fitting that Earth, Wind and Fire is one of the acts coming to Dalhalla this summer. This limestone quarry turned music venue is another great example of the elements delivering a natural stage. Thanks to a meteorite strike that left the region rich in limestone and 50 years of excavation, a perfectly shaped acoustic bowl emerged. Now crowds descend into the 55 meter (180 foot) deep, 400 meter (,1300 foot) long hole for the ultimate in surround sound experiences. The dramatic layers of rock that rise above just add to the visual effect. Look for Toto, Sting and Patti Smith to add their music to the mix this summer as well.

Kootenay Lake, Kaslo, British Columbia, Canada Here’s a venue you won’t find every day. In fact, it only exists for a three-day music festival held each August. The stage for the Kaslo Jazz Festival floats just off the beach on a serene lakefront, with deep blue water, bobbing boats and even some distant hilltops as a backdrop. With attendees lounging in beach chairs or swimming around the stage, the whole event has a casual summertime feel. However, when the musicians take to the floating stage, the energy spikes and the crowd dives into the music as well. With performances from the likes of Tiempo Libre, Dave Brubeck and a host of other jazz, funk and blues performers, the festival (now in its 22nd year) offers a great combination of setting and sound.

Festival goers feast on the native rhythms from every corner of the world. And they do so deep in the rainforest of Borneo.

Odeon of Herodes Atticus, Athens, Greece Built initially between 160 and 174 AD by Herodes Atticus in memory of his wife, this amphitheater on the southern slope of the Acropolis is a storied as well as scenic venue. For more than 1,500 years, the Roman-style marble theater was little more than a ruin, damaged by fire and buried under farmland. However, as modern Greece emerged, so too did the Herodeon, as it is often called. Extensively restored in the middle of the 20th century, the Herodeon is a center piece of the annual Athens Festival, a summer long program of arts and entertainment dating back to 1955.

In addition to hosting a summer of classical, jazz and folk performers for the Athens Festival including, this year, the Greek National Opera as well as Diana Krall and Haris Alexiou, the reborn ruin has been center stage for a number of historic music moments. Elton John, Sting, Yanni and Andrea Boccelli have all performed major events here.

Jones Beach Theater, Wantagh, NY, United States A landmark for Long Island and the greater New York area, this waterfront amphitheater once had a true standout stage. It was on an island all its own with a moat separating the audience from the performers. A boat had to deliver the stars of the show to perform. The moat has since been filled in, but the feeling of seeing a show with the waves lapping at your feet remains. The Jones Beach Theater is part of the Jones Beach Park, a stretch of protected beaches just 33 miles (or a subway ride) from Manhattan. It features expansive views of picturesque Long Island Sound and the Atlantic as well as good acoustics for all 15,000 seats. And, in true New York style, even after taking a severe blow from Hurricane Sandy last fall, the show will go on at Jones Beach. The restoration efforts wrapped up just in time for the opening of the 2013 season. Expect to take in Fleetwood Mac, One Direction, Lil’ Wayne and Train along with the view this summer.—AP

Sarawak Cultural Village, Kuching, Borneo, Malaysia This outdoor museum is a living exhibit of the many tribes and cultures of Malaysia. Visitors can explore the homes and lifestyles of various native populations in this ethnically diverse region and are treated to daily dance and music performances. However, the biggest show is the annual Rainforest World Music Festival. For three days, the chance to see and explore cultures at the Sarawak Cultural Village goes global as music groups from Ireland, Korea, South Africa, Australia, Colombia and elsewhere take to the stage.

Usher, recipient of the ASCAP Golden Note Award, poses at the 26th Annual ASCAP Rhythm and Soul Music Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Thursday in Beverly Hills, Calif. — AP

Iraqi singer, Kazem al-Saher, performs on stage during a concert at the Jarash Festival of Culture and Arts on June 27, 2013 at the South Theater of Jordan’s ancient Greek-Roman city of Jarash. Some 5000 people attended Saher’s concert, who was performing for the eighth time at the festival. — AFP

SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

A swirling colorful rock formation known as The Wave in the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument in Arizona. — AP photos

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mall wooden balls click rapidly in a whirling bingo basket, as 78 hikers wait to see if their numbers will roll out to win one of 10 permits to visit a rock formation known as The Wave.

Some had been contemplating the hike for years. Only 20 people are allowed to visit The Wave each day, with 10 chosen in an online lottery four months in advance and the other 10 picked in this daily 9 am lottery. The US Bureau of Land Management limits access to protect The Wave’s delicate red sandstone formation and to prevent overcrowding at the designated wilderness site.

“Fortunately or unfortunately, The Wave has kind of caught on as a fun hike,” Kathy Spellman, a visitor information assistant with the BLM, explained to the room of hopeful hikers in May, where cheers went up as the numbers were announced. “The hike out is very nice,” she said. “It’s 6 miles (9.6 kilometers) round-trip, so it’s not too long, not too short. You can go in there and it’s not a marked trail. The trees don’t have names on them. There are not little rocks along the edges of the trail, so you can feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere.”

The Wave’s dramatically flowing contours in bright orange, red, pink and yellow, are a prized image among landscape photographers, who can be seen lugging tripods across the desert wilderness. The fiery swirls have been emblazoned on postcards, posters, maps and computer screensavers.

“It’s just become such a ubiquitous, iconic photo,” said Kevin Wright, monument manager of Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, where The Wave is located in the Arizona backcountry near the Utah border. Among “people that love the outdoors and have these bucket lists, I think it’s become something to

A section of a rock formation known as The Wave.

check off their list.” About a third of visitors are from other countries, particularly Germany, with an upswing from Japan and China in recent years, according to Wright.

Last year, 48,264 people applied to visit The Wave, said Spellman, who works at the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Visitor Center in Kanab, Utah, where the drawing is held for hikes that take place the next day. That’s compared to 7,300 permits awarded in a year, based on the 20 allowed each day. To reach The Wave, lottery winners drive the 46 miles (74 kilometers) from the drawing site in Kanab to the trailhead.

The colorful, contoured landscape at Vermilion Cliffs is more than just something to marvel at; it’s how you find The Wave.

Permits come with a map and directions that include compass points. The map also has 12 photographs of key navigational points with dotted lines showing the way with sandstone ridges and other stony landmarks. Six photos capture main points on the way; six illustrate the way back. Each photo also has written directions to help get from an area shown in one photo to the next.

Hikers are warned about sun and heat. At least a gallon of water per person is recommended, as well as salty snacks and sunscreen. If you’re not handy with a compass, the photographs alone may not be enough to navigate the unmarked way. Some get lost, either on the way or when trying to return. The area is remote, so losing your way can lead to an unexpected night on the rocks. One photographer who stayed to take a picture of The Wave at sunset got lost in the dark and died after falling into a slot canyon.

Hikers walking on rocky terrain for a 3-mile trip to The Wave rock formation.

SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

A hiker on a rock formation.

Guides can be hired to provide a ride in a four-wheel drive vehicle across the 8 miles (13 kilometers) of dirt road that leads to the start of the hike. First-timers can also hire guides to accompany them on the trail to make sure they won’t get lost. The BLM has a list of registered guides who don’t need an additional permit to accompany permitted hikers.

An early start is a good way to get ahead of the heat. A dirt footpath leads to a washed out stream for the first half-mile (nearly 1 kilometer) of the trip. Soon, the landscape opens up into a vast area of reddish rock, dotted with green sage bushes. About two-thirds of the trip is in Utah before hikers cross over the Arizona border.

Sandstone buttes and huge mesas surround the area throughout the richly colored geological upheaval. The work of powerful tectonic force through the ages is on full display. Panoramas full of jagged red rock project out of the sand. Beyond them, towering hills of rosy stone loom in the backdrop. Some may find the scenery along the way as stunning as the destination. Small, swiftly moving lizards put on vigorous territorial push-up displays, urging hikers to move along, but that’s about the only thing that disturbs the serenity except for the occasional small group of hikers.

Once you are there, it’s easy to appreciate the 20-hiker daily limit.

After about two hours of walking, a black crack in a ridge that serves as a landmark becomes visible. The Wave is just below it.

The steepest incline of the hike takes place right at the base of

Hikers pausing to view a rock formation known as The Wave.

A hiker taking a photo on a rock formation known as The Wave in the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument.

The Wave. You have to climb up into it. Once you reach the top of the incline, it’s a short walk.

Suddenly, you’re standing in a tall bowl of long thin lines, stained in searing oranges, yellows and reds. It conveys a sense of the dynamic movement of wind and water that has been long at work on the stone from the Jurassic period. Part of the thrill of visiting is wandering around to drink in various angles, which provide a smorgasbord of images for a photographer. The colors change noticeably as varying degrees of cloud cover pass and time goes by.

Gerald Bryant, director of the field research institute at Dixie State University in St. George, Utah, says the sand composing The Wave was deposited 180 million to 190 million years ago, based on analyses that date the area using fossil pollen and volcanic ash deposits. “The sandstone is weakly cemented and ongoing processes of erosion are important to its present configuration,” Bryant wrote in an email. “Though the bulk of landscape incision and sediment removal has been accomplished by running water, many of the delicate surfaces have been sculpted by wind.”

The Wave was not well-known in the decades before Vermilion Cliffs was designated a national monument in 2000.

“Nobody knew really where The Wave was,” Spellman said.

“Friends had to tell friends. It wasn’t on the Internet. Somebody would give you a secret map, hand drawn with circles, and you’d go up to a desk and people would say: ‘Oh yeah, go on in there.’”

But nowadays, Wright said, it’s not uncommon to have 150 people take part in the daily drawing, particularly in April, May and June. Fewer apply in winter, and a hot forecast in summer can also cut the numbers. Those caught hiking without a permit face tickets ranging from $125 to a couple of thousand dollars.

“People will find out about those people, and they turn them in,” Spellman said.

Up to six people can be represented by one bingo ball in the drawings, but if only two spots remain and a group of four is chosen, they have to decide which two can go. On occasion, a whole group passes, and cheers can be heard as renewed possibilities open up for others and the drawing continues.

The disappointment can be palpable for people who don’t win. Still, with destinations like the Grand Canyon’s North Rim, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park and other natural wonders located an easy day trip from Kanab, there are plenty of great alternatives.

Karla Costa of Chicago didn’t get selected in a drawing in May. Next time, she says, she will try the online lottery. Despite missing out on The Wave, Costa noted the many other places to explore.

“If it does not work out in the morning, we just, you know, hit the road,” she said. — AP

SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

Models present creations by US designer Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton fashion house. — AP/AFP photos

T

he Louis Vuitton man moved from the eastern Himalayas of last season to the sunny West Coast of the United States for this spring-summer 2014. “This was the American road trip, just enjoying and celebrating Americana from NASA through to the traditional things such as bandanas,” said designer Kim Jones, breaking a sweat backstage Thursday at the Paris show that was held inside a scorching conservatory.

The collection ranged from the road trip, as imagined in khaki parkas with travel badges and cotton printed bandanas, to a whole mix of different American styles: From sportswear, as in white, blue and red silk graph check tailored shorts, to Gatsby-style evening suits in raw kimono silk with a classy curved lower part. As ever, when traveling anywhere Vuittonstyle, don’t expect to rough it. Stylish and coiffed David Beckham looked approvingly on from the front row.

Silhouettes were tight and masculine. The 41 classy looks were fairly eclectic and so served up a little something for everyone. The collection, however, produced no great creative surprises, apart from the piece de resistance: A fantastic retro black silk jacket with mother-of-pearl jacquard featuring the famed LV monogram. — AP

“T

rue style has no rules,” designer Maria Grazia Chiuri said of the spring- summer 2014 collection for Valentino - only the second menswear outing in Paris for the storied Italian house. The show, with a uniform theme, was more coherent than last season - and felt as if Chiuri and her design partner Pier Paolo Piccioli were finding their feet in this new territory for Valentino, a label that’s known principally for its womenswear.

The idea of “no rules” played out in the 47 looks - mostly to good effect - where uniform was broken up and subverted. The show’s opener was the most successful example of this, with the uniformity of the bread-and-butter sharply tailored suits broken up with contrasting bands of blue dye. Elsewhere, pockets, martingales, panels and collars were given textural and color contrasts on ensembles with military, mechanic and school uniform styles.

(This sort of paneling is becoming something of a recurrent theme in Valentino’s nascent menswear vocabulary.) However, in some of the military-inspired looks, a dalliance with camouflage didn’t feel very fresh, and a series of dazzling coats and suits in ultramarine look like they’d be hard to wear. Still, Valentino was one of Wednesday’s hottest menswear tickets, shown by the roll call of celebrities such as Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or winner Adele Exarchopoulos who lined the front row. — AP Models present creations by designers Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Picciol for Valentino fashion house.

U

S fashion photographer Bert Stern, famous for his photos of Marilyn Monroe taken six weeks before her death, has died in New York, his partner told AFP on Thursday. He was 83. “Bert Stern passed yesterday, Wednesday,” Shannah Laumeister said in a brief email. During a career of more than 50 years, he photographed some of the world’s most beautiful women, also including Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Sophia Loren and Brigitte Bardot.

But he was known above all for the moving pictures of a largely undressed Monroe, taken at the Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles in June 1962. Over three days he took 2,571 photos, turned years later into a book, “Marilyn Monroe: The Complete Last Sitting.”

The actress died on August 5 that year. Stern also took publicity shots, and is considered a key figure in transforming such pictures into an art form in the 1960s. He also made the film “Jazz on a Summer’s Day” in 1959. His work has been shown in some of the world’s most prestigious galleries and museums, including New York’s Museum of Modern Art. — AFP

SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

Models present creations for Belgian fashion designer Ann Demeulemeester during the men’s ready-to-wear fashion shows yesterday in Paris. — AFP

Models present creations by Indonesian fashion designer Sjully Darsono during the Islamic Fashion week in Jakarta, Indonesia, yesterday. — AP photos

TECHNOLOGY SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

Samsung puts curve in OLED televisions SEOUL: After delays, Samsung Electronics Co rolled out yesterday a curved TV that uses an advanced display called OLED. The 55-inch TV will sell for 15 million won ($13,000) in South Korea, more than five times the cost of LCD televisions of the same size. But Kim Hyunsuk, the executive vice president of Samsung’s TV division, said the company is optimistic about demand for the high-end TV. “OLED is about picture quality,” Kim told reporters. “We are sure that we realized the perfect picture quality.”

It remains to be seen if consumers will be willing to pay a premium for enhanced imagery. The TV industry has been struggling to excite interest with

its latest technologies. In recent years, attempts to boost sales by introducing 3-D TVs and TVs that are connected to the Internet have failed to end the downturn in the TV industry. Samsung is not the first to introduce a curved TV using OLED. In May, its rival LG Electronics Inc, the second-biggest TV maker, launched a 55-inch curved TV in South Korea.

LG’s model, which also sells for 15 million won, is not sold outside South Korea.

LG spokesman Kenneth Hong said the company will ship curved OLED TVs to other countries in the near future. Samsung will ship its curved OLED TVs to overseas markets starting July, Kim said. The company does not plan to manufacture flat OLED

TVs this year, he said. The concave display gives viewers a sense of being immersed in the images, according to Samsung. Samsung and LG, which are the only TV makers in the world to begin commercial sales of OLED TVs, had promised to launch them in 2012 but delayed the launch to this year.

The two South Korean TV giants tout OLED, short for organic light-emitting diode, as the next generation display technology that will eventually replace older displays. But mass producing OLED displays still faces many challenges, leading to high prices.

In addition to curved OLED TVs, Samsung launched two ultra-HD TVs, with about four times the resolution of regular high-definition TVs.—AP

Hospitals seek high-tech help for hand hygiene RICHMOND HEIGHTS: Hospitals have fretted for years over how to make sure doctors, nurses and staff keep their hands clean, but with only limited success. Now, some are turning to technology - beepers, buzzers, lights and tracking systems that remind workers to sanitize, and chart those who don’t. Health experts say poor hand cleanliness is a factor in hospital-borne infections that kill tens of thousands of Americans each year. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta estimates that one of every 20 patients in US hospitals gets a hospital-acquired infection each year.

“We’ve known for over 150 years that good hand hygiene prevents patients from getting infections,” said Dr John Jernigan, an epidemiologist for the CDC. “However, it’s been a very chronic and difficult problem to get adherence levels up as high as we’d like them to be.” Hospitals have tried varying ways to promote better hygiene. Signs are posted in restrooms. Some even employ monitors who keep tabs and single out offenders. Still, experts believe hospital workers wash up, at best, about 50 percent of the time.

One St Louis-area hospital believes it can approach 100 percent adherence.

Since last year, SSM St Mary’s Health Center in the St Louis suburb of Richmond Heights, Mo, has been the test site for a system developed by Biovigil Inc, of Ann Arbor, Mich. A flashing light on a badge turns green when hands are clean, red if they’re not. It also tracks each hand-cleaning opportunity - the successes and the failures. The failures have been few at the two units of St Mary’s where the system is being tested, the hospital said. One unit had 97 percent hand hygiene success, said Dr Morey Gardner, the hospital’s director of infection disease and prevention. The other had 99 percent success.

“The holy grail of infection prevention is in our grasp,” Gardner said. The Biovigil system is among many being tried at hospitals. A method developed by Arrowsight, based in Mt Kisco, NY, uses video monitoring. It is being used in intensive care units at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, NY, and the University of California San Francisco Medical Center. Akron, Ohio-based GOJO Industries, maker of Purell hand sanitizer, has developed an electronic compliance monitoring system using wireless technology to track when soap and hand sanitizer dispensers are used.

Photo shows Theresa Gratton, infection prevention coordinator at St Mary’s Health Center, wears a device to help remind health care workers to keep their hands clean at the hospital in Richmond Heights, Mo. — AP

BRAZIL: Favela tour guide Thiago Firmino speaks on his cell phone in Santa Marta shantytown in Rio de Janeiro on June 11, 2013. — AFP photos

BRAZIL: Sara Esteves das Machado speaks on her cell phone in Santa Marta shantytown.

Wireless revolution reaches Brazil’s favelas RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazilian tour guide Thiago Firmino notices that the two cable cars servicing the working-class neighborhood of Dona Marta, on a steep hillside overlooking Rio, are out of order. He quickly snaps a photo with his smartphone and sends a complaint via Twitter to the governor of Rio de Janeiro state. Firmino, 32, always has his smartphone at the ready. In fact, he has twowith different service providers. If he needs to connect with clients, he can. If there is a pothole or broken street light, he complains instantly.

His phones, he says, give him great freedom. With mass protests sweeping Brazil over public services, corruption and the elevated cost of the 2014 World Cup, mobile phones have become indispensable tools. And that connectivity is finally reaching into some of the most forgotten corners of Rio-the city’s sprawling favelas. “It was like a small revolution was taking place little by little,” says Firmino, who has a blog for his tour guide business, and accounts on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. In his free time, he works as a disc jockey.

“We exchange text messages, use smartphone apps to send short messages, and we coordinate for protests,” said Firmino, who says he always goes to the demonstrations with his phones fully charged to take photos and tweet

them. Dona Marta, a pocket of poverty in the wealthy southern part of Rio that sees major tourist traffic, was one of the first of the city’s shanty towns to be “pacified” by police and taken over from drug gangs in 2008. In 2011, it also became the first favela to have free wi-fi access.

As of late January, the National Telecommunications Agency (ANATEL) says there were 262.2 million mobile phones operational in Brazil-a country of 194 million and the world’s seventh largest economy. On average, 30 phones are sold in the country every minute, according to consulting firm LCA. But the infrastructure can be spotty. In Dona Marta, residents sometimes gather at night in a neighborhood plaza where the signal is strongest.

“Everyone comes to the plaza to use Facebook,” said 21-year-old Daiana Santos. As of March, some 73 million Brazilians had Facebook accounts, six times more than in February 2012, according to company officials in Brazil.

“This new class of consumer wants to have access to this type of technology, and the favela resident already has the necessary access to credit to make these purchases,” said Luis Anavitarte, vice president of polling in emerging markets for Gartner Consulting. Over the past decade, 40 million Brazilians

entered the country’s growing middle class, in part due to government social programs. Many of them also want to join the 21st century communications revolution.

The potential for mobile phone growth in Brazil is enormous proportionally two times higher than that of India, another powerful emerging economy, Anavitarte said. “In 2013, the expenditure on technology in general

by Brazilians should reach $123 billion,” he predicted.

About 14 percent of Brazil’s population, or 27 million people, has a smartphone, according to a study by Our Mobile Planet carried out for Ipsos.

Fifteen years ago, the favelas did not even have fixed-line telephones, said Sara Machado, 52, a resident of Chapeu Mangueira, located just steps away from Rio’s famed Copacabana beach. “Now we find out about everything thanks to this small device,” said Machado, who has a mobile phone but has not yet upgraded to a smartphone. Wireless access has allowed the rest of Brazil to get to know the favelas, and vice-versa, said Sivaldo Pereira, an expert in contemporary culture at the Federal University of Alagoas.

Firmino agrees. “Those who do not have a mobile phone are prisoners on the high mountain-they do not expand their horizons,” he said. — AFP

TECHNOLOGY SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

Wearable computers a smart fashion trend SAN FRANCISCO: The notion of being fashionably smart is getting a makeover as Internet-linked computers get woven into formerly brainless attire such as glasses, bracelets and shoes. A wearable computing trend is at the heart of the “quantified self” movement in which people track anything from how many calories they burn to how well they sleep or their moods at any given moment.

“We are heading for the wearable computing era,” Gartner analyst Van Baker told AFP. “People are going to be walking around with personal area networks on their bodies and have multiple devices that talk to each other and the Web.” Understandably, the trend has found traction in fitness with devices such as the Jawbone UP, Nike’s FuelBand, and Fitbit keeping tabs on whether people are leading active, healthy lifestyles.

The devices use sensors to detect micro movements and then feed information to smartphones or tablets, where applications tap into processing power to analyze data and provide feedback to users. San Francisco-based Jawbone jumped into wearable computing years ago, building electronic brains into stylish wireless earpieces and speakers for smartphones.

Jawbone recently added muscle to its lineup of fitness lifestyle devices with a deal to buy BodyMedia. BodyMedia makes armbands used to track caloric burn of fat-shedding competitors on US reality television show “The Biggest Loser.” “There’s an enormous appetite for personal data and self-discovery among consumers that will only continue to grow,” said Jawbone chief executive and founder Hosain Rahman. A Forrester Research survey conducted early this year found that six percent of US adults wore a gadget to track performance in a sport, while five percent used a gadget like UP or Fitbit to track daily activity or how well they sleep. Worldwide shipments of wearable computing devices could climb as high as 30 million units this year, according to Forrester.

Interest goes beyond fitness to desire for things like a gadget that recommends films based on wearers’ moods and one that replaces keys when it comes to unlocking cars or homes, the survey indicated. “It is just amazing,” said engineering professor Asim Smailagic, director of a wearable computer lab at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania. “We will see an exciting future ahead.” Smailagic began working on wearable computing at the university about 25 years ago, with projects including head worn displays that serve up technical information when needed during aircraft maintenance.

‘Wearable computing has to be unobtrusive’ Sophisticated and inexpensive sensors for tracking movement,

SEOUL: Photo shows South Korean children displaying their smartphones after a special class on smartphone addiction at an elementary school in Seongnam. — AFP photos

sound, GPS locations and more combined with “killer apps” in powerful smartphones have set the stage for wearable computing to be commonplace, according to the professor. “Contextually aware computers will be hot topics for at least the next decade,” Smailagic said. “They can help you when you need help, even to look smarter.

“Everybody likes to have the kind of help contextual computing can provide.” Contextual computing goes beyond recognizing where someone is to factoring in other information such as whether it’s lunchtime or if someone has shown a preference for a nearby restaurant. “When you combine wearable computing with sensors and machine learning algorithms then you get context, the computer knows your state and is able to help out clearly in

ing aid at this year’s Wimbledon. Apple chief Tim Cook last month said he sees promise in computers shrunk down and worn like watches.

He predicted there will be “tons of companies playing” in the wearable computing sector but sidestepped a question as to whether Apple would be among them with the creation of a rumored “iWatch” device to be worn on the wrist. “The wrist is interesting,” Cook did allow. Pebble smart watches created by a startup that raised more than $10 million in funding at crowdsource investment website Kickstarter recently began shipping to buyers. The wearable computing craze has already spread to dogs, with startup Whistle introducing a pendant that tracks canines.

SAN FRANCISCO: These two file photos show (at left) a model displaying a Fitbit Flex wristband device and a smartphone as Japan’s mobile operation giant Softbank announces the launch of the new health care service in Tokyo on May 7, 2013; and (at right) Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, wearing Google Glass during Google’s annual developer conference, Google I/O, on June 27, 2012. — AFP the situation,” Smailagic said. He is confident Google Glass will be a hit despite privacy worries expressed about the yet-to-bereleased Internet-linked eyewear with camera capabilities.

Google Glass connects to the Internet using Wi-Fi hot spots or, more typically, by being wirelessly tethered to mobile phones.

Pictures or video are shared through the Google Plus social network. “Wearable computing has to be unobtrusive, fit as a natural extension of your body, and not get in the way,” Smailagic said.

“Google Glass is on the right path to solve these problems.” The invention has been a hit with American tennis player Bethanie Mattek-Sands, who has been testing the special glasses as a train-

Whistle devices attached to dog collars or harnesses use movement-sensing accelerometers to track activity and even how well a pet is sleeping, then relay the information wirelessly to smartphones or wi-fi hotspots. An online database built in collaboration with researchers and veterinary something may be amiss.

“Traditional technology companies will have to start paying attention to how sensors are enabling us to live,” said Ben Arnold, director of industry analysis for consumer technology at NPD. “Consumers are ultimately going to become more aware of their data in the digital ether,” he said. “I suspect wearables are going to disrupt the way tech firms are doing business now.”— AFP

SEOUL: South Korean children during a special class on smartphone addiction at an elementary school.

SEOUL: South Korean children hugging with their parents during a clinic for smartphone addiction at a church.

Ultra-wired South Korea battles smartphone addiction SEOUL: Kim Nam-Hee pulls no punches as she warns a classroom of wide-eyed South Korean 10-year-olds that they stand on the edge of an addiction that will turn them all into “mindless slaves”.

The grim presentation by the social campaigner follows a survey with the loaded title: “Who’s your real family?” It asked the students to compare the hours they spend on their smartphones with the time they spend interacting with relatives. South Korea’s pride in its high-tech prowess, from ultra-fast broadband speeds to Samsung’s cutting-edge smartphones, is now tinged by anxiety over digital addiction-with even pre-school children showing symptoms of IT obsession.

The country has long promoted Internet technology as a key driver of growth, and the capital Seoul is often referred to as the

“most wired” city on the planet. About 70 percent of South Korea’s 50 million people have smartphones-the highest penetration rate in the world, according to the market research firm eMarket. But the country’s fixation with everything digital has parents worried about its impact on young-sometimes very young-children. The concern is shared around the world in other advanced economies, but the South Korean government has gone furthest in its response. “We felt an urgent need to make a sweeping effort to tackle the growing danger of online addiction... especially given the popularity of smart devices,” the science ministry said when it announced a policy package on June 13. The initiative, organized in conjunction with the health and education ministries, requires schools to teach special classes on Internet addiction and organize holiday “boot camps” to

wean students off their dependency. According to government data, more than 80 percent of South Koreans aged 12 to 19 owned smartphones in 2012, double the 2011 figure.

Nearly 40 percent of those spent more than three hours a day tweeting, chatting, or playing games-despite attempts by teachers to confiscate all devices at the beginning of the day and return them when classes are over. An annual government survey estimated that nearly 20 percent of teenagers were “addicted” to smartphones. Addiction was defined by a number of criteria, including anxiety and depression when separated from a smartphone, a repeated failure to cut back on usage time, and feeling happier using smartphones than being with family or friends.—AFP

TV listings

SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013 22:00 Top Gear (US) 23:00 Greek 00:00 Glee 14:10 15:05 16:00 16:55 17:50 18:45 19:40 20:35 21:30 21:55 22:25 22:50 23:20 23:45 00:40 01:05 01:35

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

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

Marine Corps Survival School Combat Countdown King Tut Unwrapped Real Gangs Of New York American Car Prospector Delta Divers Empire Combat Countdown American Car Prospector Real Gangs Of New York Legend Detectives Legend Detectives

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

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

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

Dark Matters Kitchen Chemistry Kitchen Chemistry Weird Connections Thunder Races Thunder Races

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

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

15:00 16:00 17:00 19:00 21:00

Glee Smallville The Ellen DeGeneres Show Body Of Proof White Collar

03:00 How I Met Your Mother 03:30 How I Met Your Mother 04:00 Seinfeld 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 Two And A Half Men 06:00 All Of Us 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 Seinfeld 08:30 Two And A Half Men 09:00 How I Met Your Mother 09:30 Go On 10:00 2 Broke Girls 11:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:00 All Of Us 13:00 Two And A Half Men 14:00 How I Met Your Mother 14:30 2 Broke Girls 15:00 Go On 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 16:30 All Of Us 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 Wilfred 18:30 Happy Endings 19:30 2 Broke Girls 20:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno

21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 23:30 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report

05:15 05:35 06:00 06:25 06:35 06:45 07:10 07:35 07:55 08:20 08:45 09:05 09:30 09:55 10:15 10:40 11:05 12:35 13:00 13:25 13:45 14:10 14:35 15:00 15:25

Brandy & Mr Whiskers Brandy & Mr Whiskers Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jake & The Neverland Pirates Jake & The Neverland Pirates A.N.T. Farm A.N.T. Farm Jessie That’s So Raven Gravity Falls Good Luck Charlie Shake It Up Jessie Austin And Ally A.N.T. Farm Code: 9 Beverly Hills Chihuahua Code: 9 Shake It Up Jessie A.N.T. Farm That’s So Raven Good Luck Charlie Austin And Ally Gravity Falls

15:50 16:10 16:35 17:00 18:30 18:55 19:20 19:40 20:05 20:30 20:50 21:15 21:40 22:00 22:25 22:50 23:10 23:35 00:00 00:20 00:45 01:05 01:30 01:50 02:15 02:35

Shake It Up Shake It Up Shake It Up Harriet The Spy: Blog Wars That’s So Raven Gravity Falls Good Luck Charlie Jessie Shake It Up Austin And Ally A.N.T Farm That’s So Raven Good Luck Charlie Shake It Up A.N.T Farm Austin And Ally Wizards Of Waverly Place Wizards Of Waverly Place Stitch Stitch A Kind Of Magic A Kind Of Magic Emperor’s New School Emperor’s New School Replacements Replacements

14:05 What Would Ryan Lochte Do? 14:30 What Would Ryan Lochte Do? 15:00 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 16:00 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 17:00 Married To Jonas

SKYFALL ON OSN MOVIES HD

17:30 18:00 19:00 20:00 20:30 21:00 21:30 22:30 23:30 00:00 00:55 01:25

Married To Jonas E! News THS What Would Ryan Lochte Do? What Would Ryan Lochte Do? Chasing The Saturdays Fashion Police E! News Chelsea Lately Dirty Soap Style Star 20 Acts Of Love Gone Wrong

03:05 Coastal Kitchen 03:30 Food Poker 04:15 Bargain Hunt 05:00 Mitch And Matt’s Big Fish 05:25 Planet Cake 05:50 Cash In The Attic 06:35 Coastal Kitchen 07:00 Phil Spencer - Secret Agent 07:50 Phil Spencer - Secret Agent 08:40 Phil Spencer - Secret Agent 09:30 Phil Spencer - Secret Agent 10:20 Cash In The Attic 11:05 Come Dine With Me 11:55 Planet Cake 12:20 Planet Cake 12:45 Planet Cake 13:10 Tareq Taylor’s Nordic Cookery 13:40 Food Poker 14:25 The Hairy Bikers Come Home 15:15 Bargain Hunt 16:00 Antiques Roadshow 17:00 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 18:20 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 19:00 Celebrity MasterChef 19:55 Vacation Vacation Vacation 20:20 Come Dine With Me 21:15 Antiques Roadshow 22:15 Bargain Hunt 23:00 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 23:45 Superhomes 00:35 Phil Spencer - Secret Agent 01:25 Phil Spencer - Secret Agent 02:20 Phil Spencer - Secret Agent

03:00 Food Wars 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 Healthy Appetite With Ellie Krieger 07:25 Healthy Appetite With Ellie Krieger 07:50 Healthy Appetite With Ellie Krieger 08:15 Healthy Appetite With Ellie Krieger 08:40 Cooking For Real 09:05 Cooking For Real 09:30 Cooking For Real 09:55 Cooking For Real 10:20 Tyler’s Ultimate 10:45 Tyler’s Ultimate 11:10 Tyler’s Ultimate 11:35 Tyler’s Ultimate 12:00 Staten Island Cakes 12:50 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 13:15 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 13:40 Barefoot Contessa 14:05 Unique Sweets 14:30 Unique Sweets 14:55 Unique Sweets 15:20 Unique Sweets 15:45 Chopped 16:35 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 17:00 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 17:25 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 17:50 Barefoot Contessa - Back To

Basics 18:15 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 18:40 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 19:05 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 19:30 Chopped 20:20 Chopped 21:10 Amazing Wedding Cakes 22:00 Food Wars 22:25 Food Wars 22:50 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 23:15 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 23:40 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 00:05 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 00:30 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 00:55 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 01:20 Unwrapped 01:45 Food Wars

04:15 Skyfall-PG15 06:45 Battleship-PG15 09:00 Alvin And The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked-PG 11:00 Skyfall-PG15 13:30 Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close-PG 16:00 Alvin And The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked-PG 18:00 Think Like A Man-PG15 20:00 The Three Stooges-PG15 22:00 Paranormal Activity 3-18 00:00 Pariah-18 02:00 Think Like A Man-PG15

07:00 Second Chances-PG15 09:00 Madea’s Big Happy Family-PG15 11:00 Spy Kids: All The Time In The World-PG 13:00 This Means War-PG15 15:00 The Dragon Chronicles: Fire & Ice-PG15 17:00 Just Crazy Enough-PG15 18:45 We Bought A Zoo-PG 21:00 The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo-R 23:45 The Disappearance Of Alice Creed-18 01:30 Just Crazy Enough-PG15

04:15 Mandie And The Secret TunnelPG 06:00 Last Holiday-PG15 08:00 Waiting For Forever-PG15 10:00 Journey 2: The Mysterious Island-PG 12:00 The Tree Of Life-PG15 14:15 Every Jack Has A Jill-PG15 15:45 Waiting For Forever-PG15 17:45 New Year’s Eve-PG15 19:45 Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows-PG15 22:00 The Avengers-PG15 00:30 Waiting For Forever-PG15 02:15 New Year’s Eve-PG15

04:00 06:00 08:00 10:00 PG15 12:00 14:00 15:45 18:00 20:00 22:00 23:45 PG15 02:45

Killer Mountain-PG15 The Adventures Of Tintin-PG Battle For Terra-PG Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes-

08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00

Mr. Popper’s Penguins-PG Ernest Scared Stupid-PG15 The Wish List-PG15 Puss In Boots-PG Ernest Scared Stupid-PG15

Ice Road Terror-PG15 Battle For Terra-PG X-Men: First Class-PG15 Ice Road Terror-PG15 Killer Elite-18 House Of The Rising Sun-18 Covert One: The Hades FactorHouse Of The Rising Sun-18

TV listings

SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

18:00 20:00 22:00 00:00 02:00

The Winning Season-PG15 A Few Best Men-18 Cellmates-PG15 Spread-R A Few Best Men-18

09:15 11:30 13:30 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:15 01:00

Virtual Lies-PG15 The Artist-PG Treasure Island-PG15 The Beaver-PG15 The Prey-PG15 The People vs Larry Flynt-R Shadows & Lies-18 Super 8-PG15

01:30 03:30 05:30 06:00 07:00 10:00 10:30 11:30 12:00 15:30 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00

Super League NRL Premiership ICC Cricket 360 Trans World Sport Live AFL Premiership ICC Cricket 360 Trans World Sport Futbol Mundial Live British & Irish Lions ICC Cricket 360 Live Super Rugby Live Super Rugby Live Super Rugby British & Irish Lions

01:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 07:00 08:00 20:00 21:30 22:00

WWE Smackdown WWE Bottom Line UFC The Ultimate Fighter Super Rugby Trans World Sport Live Rugby World Cup Sevens Live PGA Tour Inside The PGA Tour Live PGA Tour

00:00 00:30 01:00 04:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 09:30 10:00 10:30 12:30 14:30 16:30 19:30 21:30 23:30

ICC Cricket 360 Futbol Mundial Cricket Friends Life T20 Trans World Sport Super League Champions Tour ICC Cricket 360 Futbol Mundial Total Rugby Live Super Rugby Live NRL Premiership Super League Live Cricket Friends Life T20 NRL Premiership NRL Premiership ICC Cricket 360

00:30 01:00 02:00 02:30 03:00 04:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 10:00 10:30 12:30 13:30 14:30 15:00 19:00 20:00 23:00

WWE This Week UAE National Race Day Series Mobil 1 The Grid Motor Sports 2013 Motor Sports 2013 Mass Participation NHL WWE Smackdown WWE Bottom Line Mobil 1 The Grid Live NRL Premiership WWE Vintage Collection UAE National Race Day Series Motor Sports 2013 Live PGA European Tour Motor Sports 2013 UFC UFC The Ultimate Fighter

‘White House Down’ a silly throwback

S

taggeringly implausible, cartoonishly comical, Roland Emmerich’s “White House Down” is refreshingly dumb. Refreshing because carefree action absurdity, once the province of the summer cinema, is on the outs. Solemnity - even for caped, flying men in tight-fitting trousers - is in. But there’s an inarguable, senseless pleasure in watching Jamie Foxx, as the president of the United States, kicking a terrorist and shouting: “Get your hands off my Jordans!” Hail to the chief, indeed. “White House Down” follows Antoine Fuqua’s “Olympus Has Fallen,” released in March, as the second movie this year to imagine an assault on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The two films are very similarly plotted, but “White House Down” is notably less serious, more content to loosen the strings and acknowledge its own inherent preposterousness.

This becomes particularly crystallized somewhere around the time Foxx’s President James Sawyer and his rescuer, Channing Tatum’s wannabe secret service agent, are careening across the White House lawn in the president’s limo while terrorists shoot in pursuit. Onlookers behind a fence - media, regular people, the Army - merely gape in awe, as if frozen by the idiocy. “White House Down” is most entertaining when it’s a simple, ludicrous buddy movie, with Tatum and Foxx fleeing across the White House grounds, dropping one-liners as they go, eluding a gang of assailants led by a bitter turncoat (James Woods) and his ferocious henchmen (including Jason

Clarke, swapping sides in the war on terror following “Zero Dark Thirty”).

This is a kind of coronation for Tatum as a movie star. He’s now reached the level that he can breeze through a blatantly silly movie and look none the worse for it. He’s John Cale (not to be confused with the Velvet Underground musician, although, how could you?), a Silver Star veteran of Afghanistan and a police bodyguard to the speaker of the house (Richard Jenkins). For his Secret Service interview at the White House, he’s brought along his politicsobsessed 11-year-old daughter (the promising Joey King). But it goes poorly, partly because his would-be boss turns out to be an old flame (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who doubts he’s grown up. There’s some reason to believe her, since Cale (in the mold of most action heroes) is an absentee, divorced dad.

It’s an archetype defined by Bruce Willis in “Die Hard,” a movie “White House Down” apes right down to the tank top. When the Capitol dome is detonated and the White House invaded, Cale is separated from his daughter and stumbles into the kidnapping of the president. From there, it’s a series of chases through the handsome, recreated halls of the White House, where golden light filters in through venetian blinds but seemingly scant security measures exist.

Emmerich, the director of spectacles like “Independence Day” (a movie he references in “White House Down”) and “2012,” has made blowing up the White House something of a fetish, having already

done it in both of those movies. It’s a style of blockbuster that now feels dated, like a ‘90s kind of bigbudget moviemaking that depends on explosions, flashes of comedy and star charisma. The charm of Tatum - toned but goofy - carries the film. Foxx, a more gifted comic actor, is left off-screen for large chunks. His president is a kind of liberal fantasy version of Barrack Obama, boldly removing all troops from the Middle East, thereby sparking the fury of the Beltway’s white power players.

If “White House Down” had pushed the farce further, Emmerich’s overlong romp could have been something special. But the comedy in James Vanderbilt’s screenplay only comes in spurts. Many of its biggest laughs don’t come when they’re cued up, but at the film’s attempts at emotion. Woods, for example, gravely announces: “Killing Ted Hope was the second hardest thing I’ve had to do in my life.” If stripped of its production value, “White House Down” would make one hysterical off-Broadway one-act.

“White House Down,” a Columbia Pictures release, is rated PG-13 for prolonged sequences of action and violence including intense gunfire and explosions, some language and a brief sexual image. Running time: 137 minutes. Two stars out of four. — AP

‘Elephant’ Star Robinson Wraps Indie Thriller ‘Intruder’

“E

lephant” star John Robinson has just wrapped the psychological thriller “Intruder,” which recently completed filming in Portland, Oregon. Veteran production designer Travis Zariwny wrote and directed the film, which also stars Louise Linton (“Lions for Lambs”).

After a random encounter on the street, a young woman (Linton) is followed home where she spends two days becoming increasingly frightened by strange happenings in her apartment. An individual familiar with the project tells TheWrap that “Intruder” blends the modern, simplistic tone of “Paranormal Activity” with the cinematic elegance of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rope” to create a disturbing thriller that will make audiences think twice about being home alone.

Linton helped produce the film with Michael Jones,

Peter Winther and Tina Sutakanat. Robinson was discovered by director Gus Van Sant, who cast him as the lead in 2003’s school shooting drama “Elephant.” He went on to play Stacy Peralta in Catherine Hardwicke’s “Lords of Dogtown” and appear alongside Shia LaBeouf in Michael Bay’s “Transformers.” His recent credits include Kelly Reichardt’s drama “Wendy and Lucy” with Michelle Williams and Michael Polish’s adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s novel “Big Sur.” Robinson is repped by Paradigm and Radius Entertainment. — Reuters

WHAT’S ON SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

ASSE-Kuwait Chapter elects new board KUWAIT: American Society of Safety Engineers - Kuwait Chapter (ASSE-KC) conducted its 13th Annual General Body meeting on June 25 at Hotel Safir, Kuwait. The program started with HSE moment by Jignesh Shah, Head, Env and Health Committee and welcome address by Fadhel Al-Ali, Chairman, ASSE-Kuwait Chapter.

Vasudevan, President, in his address highlighted the growth of Chapter during last three years and thanked the committee heads and other members who have contributed to the Chapter activities during the year 20122013.

Subsequently G. Sampath Reddy, Secretary, delivered a brief report on the Chapter activities conducted during the society year 2012 - 2013. He started off with the key achievements of the Chapter and briefed about the programs that included outreach programs, activities of Publication Committee, participation in Expos and other conferences, honors and awards received by Kuwait chapter. He concluded with a challenging tasks for the incoming executive committee to take up during their term 2013- 2014. Head of Committee for Technical Events Ramakrushna Chary, Student and Govt affairs committee Engr. Ahmad Alattar, Training Committee Engr. Nada Al Saleh, WISE committee Janet and Health and Environment Committee Jignesh Shaw presented

their respective committee activities conducted during the year. G. Sampath Reddy, Secretary, also delivered the financial report (2012-13) on behalf of Treasurer. The house approved the financial report.

For the active support and contribution towards the chapter activities, mementos were presented to the members of Advisory Committee, Executive Committee, Administration Staffs and other members who contributed for Chapter activities.

Mohammad Riaz Shareef, Vice President, in his vote of thanks, thanked the committee members for their excellent services and the contribution and requested all the members to extend their generous support and cooperation for the new committee.

Following are the details of the elected officers for the term 2013-2014: President .. Eng. Ahmad Alattar, Vice President.. Mohammad Riaz Shareef, Secretary C.H. Rama Krushna Chary, Treasurer.. Dan Mangalam There were around 70 members who attended the event. The meeting concluded with a dinner sponsored ASSE-Kuwait Chapter.

WHAT’S ON SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

Sheikha Al-Ghaliya with Sheikh Ali, Abeer Al-Tamimi and family members.

Sheikha Al-Ghaliya with her father Sheikh Ali Al-Abdallah and her mother Abeer Al-Tamimi and sister Sheikha Haya.

Sheikha Al-Ghaliya with her certificate.

KUWAIT: Mubarak Al-Kabeer Governor Sheikh Ali Al-Abdallah Al-Salem Al-Sabah and his wife Abeer Al-Tamimi celebrated the graduation of their daughter Sheikha Al-Ghaliya from Al-Bayan Bilingual school and wished her more success.

KUWAIT: Future Kid Company celebrated with the outstanding students during a celebration, in which Sebamed was a sponsor. Gifts and prizes were distributed during a day of fun and celebration.

HEALTH

SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

Britain plans world’s first go-ahead for ‘3-parent’ IVF babies LONDON: Britain is planning to become the first country in the world to offer controversial “three-parent” fertility treatments to families who want to avoid passing on incurable diseases to their children. The methods, currently only at the research stage in laboratories in Britain and the United States, would for the first time involve implanting genetically modified embryos into women, and raise serious ethical questions.

The techniques involve intervening in the fertilization process to remove faulty mitochondrial DNA, which can cause inherited conditions such as fatal heart problems, liver failure, brain disorders, blindness and muscular dystrophy. They are designed to help families with mitochondrial diseases - incurable conditions passed down the maternal line that affect around one in 6,500 children worldwide. Mitochondriaact as tiny energy-generating batteries inside cells, The controversial potential treatment is known as three-parent in vitro fertilization (IVF) because the offspring would have genes from a mother, a father and from a female donor.

After a national public consultation showed Britons broadly favor the idea, the government’s chief physician said yesterday it should be allowed to go ahead under strict regulation. “Scientists have developed ground-breaking new procedures which could stop these diseases being passed on, bringing hope to many families seeking to prevent their children inheriting them,” Sally Davies, chief medical officer, told reporters.

“It’s only right that we look to introduce this life-saving treatment as soon as we can.” Davies said the government’s health department is drafting regulations to cover the new treatments, and plans to publish them later this year. The move would make Britain the first country in the world to give patients to option of using so-called mitochondrial DNA transfer to avoid passing the diseases on to their children.

DNA swap Scientists are researching several three-parent IVF techniques. One being developed at Britain’s Newcastle University, known as pronuclear transfer, swaps DNA between two fertilized human eggs.

Another, called maternal spindle transfer, swaps material between the mother’s egg and a donor egg before fertilization.

A British medical ethics panel which reviewed the potential treatments for mitochondrial diseases decided last year they were ethical and should go ahead as long as research shows they are likely to be safe and effective. Because Britain is in the vanguard of this research, ethical concerns, political decisions and scientific advances here are closely watched around the world - particularly in the United States where scientists are also working on DNA swap techniques.

Some pro-life campaigners have criticized the scientific research, saying that creating embryonic children in a lab abuses them by subjecting them to unnatural processes. Critics also worry that modifying embryos to avoid disease could be the first step towards the creation of “designer babies”, whose genetic makeup could be modified as embryos to ensure certain traits such as height or hair color.

Asked whether she was “comfortable” with taking such a major step along the way to allowing human genetic modification, Davies said she had debated and considered the ethical implications with many experts over many years and had come to the conclusion the techniques should be allowed. Any final decision on putting the regulations in place to allow the new treatments to be offered will be subject to a vote in parliament, but Davies said she hoped the first patients may be able to get the new treatments within the next two years. — Reuters

New rules aim to rid schools of junk foods WASHINGTON: High-calorie sports drinks and candy bars will be removed from school vending machines and cafeteria lines as soon as next year, replaced with diet drinks, granola bars and other healthier items. The Agriculture Department said Thursday that for the first time it will make sure that all foods sold in the nation’s 100,000 schools are healthier by expanding fat, calorie, sugar and sodium limits to almost everything sold during the school day. That includes snacks sold around the school and foods on the “a la carte” line in cafeterias, which never have been regulated before. The new rules, proposed in February and made final this week, also would allow states to regulate student bake sales.

The rules, required under a child nutrition law passed by Congress in 2010, are part of the government’s effort to combat childhood obesity. The rules have the potential to transform what many children eat at school. While some schools already have made improvements in their lunch menus and vending machine choices, others still are selling high-fat, high-calorie foods. Standards put into place at the beginning of the 2012 school year already regulate the nutritional content of free and low-cost school breakfasts and lunches that are subsidized by the federal government.

However most lunchrooms also have the “a la carte” lines that sell other foods - often greasy foods like mozzarella sticks and nachos. Under the rules, those lines could offer healthier pizzas, low-fat hamburgers, fruit cups or yogurt, among other foods that meet the standards.

One of the biggest changes under the rules will be a near-ban on high-calorie sports drinks, which many beverage companies added to school vending machines to replace high-calorie sodas that they pulled in response to criticism from the public health community. The rule would only allow sales in high schools of sodas and sports drinks that contain 60 calories or less in a 12-ounce serving, banning the highestcalorie versions of those beverages. Many companies already have developed lowcalorie sports drinks - Gatorade’s G2, for example - and many diet teas and diet sodas are also available for sale.

Elementary and middle schools could sell only water, carbonated water, 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice, and low fat and fat-free milk, including nonfat flavored milks. First lady Michelle Obama, an advocate for healthy eating and efforts to reduce childhood obesity, pointed out that many working parents don’t have control over what their kids eat when they’re not at home. “That’s why as a mom myself, I am so excited that schools will now be offering healthier choices to students and reinforcing the work we do at home to help our kids stay healthy,” Mrs Obama said in a statement.

At a congressional hearing, a school nutritionist said Thursday that schools have had difficulty adjusting to the 2012 changes, and the new “a la carte” standards could also be a hardship. Sandra Ford, president of the School Nutrition Association and director of food and nutrition services for a school district in Bradenton, Fla., said in prepared testimony that the healthier foods have been expensive and participation has declined since the standards went into effect. She also predicted that her school district could lose $975,000 a year under the new “a la carte” guidelines because they would have to eliminate many of the foods they currently sell.

“The new meal pattern requirements

have significantly increased the expense of preparing school meals, at a time when food costs were already on the rise,” she said. Ford called on the USDA to permanently do away with the limits on grains and proteins, saying they hampered her school district’s ability to serve sandwiches and salads with chicken on top that had proved

“It’s not enough for it to be low in problem nutrients, it also has to provide positive nutritional benefits,” says Margo Wootan, a nutrition lobbyist for the Center for Science in the Public Interest who has lobbied for the new rules. “There has to be some food in the food.” The new rules are the latest in a long list of changes designed to make foods

KANSAS: File photo shows a student purchases a brown sugar Pop-Tart from a vending machine in the hallway outside the school cafeteria, in Wichita. — AP popular with students. The Government Accountability Office said it visited eight districts around the country and found that in most districts students were having trouble adjusting to some of the new foods, leading to increased food waste and decreased participation in the school lunch program.

However, the agency said in a report that most students spoke positively about eating healthier foods and predicted they will get used to the changes over time. One principle of the new rules is not just to cut down on unhealthy foods but to increase the number of healthier foods sold. The standards encourage more whole grains, low-fat dairy, fruits, vegetables and lean proteins.

served in schools more healthful and accessible. Nutritional guidelines for the subsidized lunches were revised last year and put in place last fall. The 2010 child nutrition law also provided more money for schools to serve free and reduced-cost lunches and required more meals to be served to hungry kids. Last year’s rules making main lunch fare more nutritious faced criticism from some conservatives, including some Republicans in Congress, who said the government shouldn’t be telling kids what to eat. Mindful of that backlash, the Agriculture Department left one of the more controversial parts of the rule, the regulation of inschool fundraisers like bake sales, up to the states.—AP

What’s in and out under new school snack rules The government for the first time is proposing broad new standards to make sure all foods sold in schools are healthful. The rule announced Thursday will apply to “a la carte” lines in school cafeterias, vending machines, snack bars and any other food sold regularly on campus. It won’t apply to fundraisers, afterschool concession stands, class parties or foods brought from home. A separate set of rules already applies to free and low-cost meals in the main lunch line that are subsidized by the federal government.

Under the new rules, most food sold in school will now be subject to fat, calorie, sugar and sodium limits. Snack foods will have to be less than 200 calories and have some nutritional value. Some examples of what could be in and out under the rules provided the items meet or don’t meet all of the requirements: What’s in Baked potato chips Granola bars Cereal bars Trail mix Dried fruits

Fruit cups Yogurt Sugarless gum Whole grain-rich muffins 100 percent juice drinks Diet soda (high schools) Flavored water (high schools) Diet sports drinks (high schools) Unsweetened or diet iced teas (high schools) Baked lower-fat french fries Healthier pizzas with whole grain crust Lean hamburgers with whole wheat buns What’s out Candy Snack cakes Most cookies Pretzels High-calorie sodas High-calorie sports drinks Juice drinks that are not 100 percent juice Most ice cream and ice cream treats High-fat chips and snacks Greasy pizza Deep-fried, high-fat foods — AP

health & science SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

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

TUITION

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

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

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Kuwait SHARQIA-1 WORLD WAR Z (DIG) MAN OF STEEL (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) MAN OF STEEL (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

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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

Prayer timings Fajr:

03:16

Shorook

04:51

Duhr:

11:51

Asr:

15:25

Maghrib:

18:51

Isha:

20:24

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

THE PUBLIC AUTHORITY FOR CIVIL INFORMATION

112

Automated enquiry about the Civil ID card is

1889988 No: 15854

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KNCC PROGRAMME FROM THURSDAY TO WEDNESDAY (27/06/2013 TO 03/07/2013) TATTAH (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) TATTAH (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) MUHALAB-3 MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG-3D) MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG-3D) MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG-3D) WHITE HOUSE DOWN (DIG) WHITE HOUSE DOWN (DIG) FANAR-1 DARK TIDE (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) DARK TIDE (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) DARK TIDE (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED FANAR-2 MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG) MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG) THE PURGE (DIG) MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG) THE PURGE (DIG) THE PURGE (DIG) THE PURGE (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED FANAR-3 MAN OF STEEL (DIG) MAN OF STEEL (DIG) LAY THE FAVORITE (DIG) MAN OF STEEL (DIG)

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MARINA-3 MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG-3D) MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG-3D) MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG-3D) WHITE HOUSE DOWN (DIG) WHITE HOUSE DOWN (DIG) WHITE HOUSE DOWN (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

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information SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

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

Arrival Flights on Saturday 29/6/2013 Flt Route 43 DHAKA 148 DOHA 267 BEIRUT 539 CAIRO 644 AMMAN 408 BEIRUT 441 LAHORE 764 SABIHA 620 ADDIS ABABA 211 BAHRAIN 239 ISLAMABAD 853 DUBAI 305 ABU DHABI 555 ALEXANDRIA 1541 CAIRO 67 DUBAI 648 AMMAN 555 ALEXANDRIA 612 CAIRO 643 MUSCAT 138 DOHA 770 ISTANBUL 170 BAHRAIN 69 DUBAI 157 LONDON 8706 LUXEMBOURG 416 JAKARTA 412 MANILA 206 ISLAMABAD 284 DHAKA 352 COCHIN 165 DUBAI 503 LUXOR 529 ASSIUT 53 DUBAI 855 DUBAI 125 SHARJAH 132 DOHA 6588 SHAHRE KORD 1186 TEHRAN 55 DUBAI 301 ABU DHABI 3407 MASHAD 213 BAHRAIN 157 BAGHDAD 1188 MASHAD 406 BEIRUT 382 DELHI 302 MUMBAI 362 COLOMBO 344 CHENNAI 674 DUBAI 618 DOHA 502 BEIRUT 774 RIYADH 357 MASHAD 269 BEIRUT 325 NAJAF 257 BEIRUT 777 JEDDAH 535 CAIRO 241 AMMAN-QUEEN ALIA 177 DUBAI 125 BAHRAIN 359 MASHAD 401 ALEXANDRIA 871 DUBAI 610 CAIRO 766 ISTANBUL 480 TAIF 140 DOHA 57 DUBAI 6692 MASHAD 1184 SHIRAZ 575 SHARM EL SHEIKH 500 JEDDAH 472 JEDDAH 341 DAMASCUS 470 JEDDAH 640 AMMAN-QUEEN ALIA 134 DOHA 303 ABU DHABI 857 DUBAI 127 SHARJAH 982 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 215 BAHRAIN 510 RIYADH 251 ALEXANDRIA 4167 MASHAD 144 DOHA 63 DUBAI

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

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

219 405 572 8057 538 790 176 788 542 672 804 104 118 614 135 239 189 185 513 553 61 647 129 607 402 618 462 489 415 229 859 307 136 217 576 146 59 975 474 981 636 574 614 772 8053 6258 786

BAHRAIN SOHAG MUMBAI DUBAI SOHAG MEDINAH GENEVA JEDDAH CAIRO DUBAI CAIRO LONDON NEW YORK BAHRAIN BAHRAIN AMMAN-QUEEN ALIA DUBAI DUBAI SHARM EL SHEIKH ALEXANDRIA DUBAI MUSCAT SHARJAH MASHAD BEIRUT ALEXANDRIA MEDINAH COCHIN AMSTERDAM COLOMBO DUBAI ABU DHABI DOHA BAHRAIN COCHIN DOHA DUBAI CHENNAI JEDDAH BAHRAIN FRANKFURT MUMBAI CAIRO ISTANBUL DUBAI AMSTERDAM JEDDAH

19:05 19:30 19:35 14:50 15:40 13:55 17:45 15:00 18:15 13:40 15:40 18:45 16:00 23:00 23:00 22:30 20:10 22:40 23:20 19:40 20:00 20:00 20:05 20:10 20:15 20:30 20:35 20:35 21:05 21:10 21:15 21:30 21:35 21:45 21:55 22:00 22:20 22:25 22:30 22:40 23:10 23:20 23:30 23:45 21:30 20:55 22:40

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

Departure Flights on Saturday 29/6/2013 Flt Route 976 GOA/CHENNAI 573 MUMBAI 981 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 637 FRANKFURT 615 CAIRO 413 AMSTERDAM 409 BEIRUT 502 LUXOR 44 DHAKA 773 ISTANBUL 442 LAHORE 765 ISTANBUL 621 ADDIS ABABA 645 AMMAN 240 SIALKOT 854 DUBAI 68 DUBAI 556 ALEXANDRIA 613 CAIRO 644 MUSCAT 306 ABU DHABI 139 DOHA 149 DOHA 70 DUBAI 649 AMMAN 358 MASHHAD 212 BAHRAIN 771 ISTANBUL 240 AMMAN 164 DUBAI 537 SOHAG 8716 LUXEMBOURG 156 LONDON 54 DUBAI 256 BEIRUT 803 CAIRO 324 AL NAJAF 534 CAIRO 789 MADINAH 671 DUBAI 126 SHARJAH 787 JEDDAH 856 DUBAI

Time 00:05 00:20 00:25 00:30 00:30 00:55 01:10 01:30 01:30 02:20 02:30 02:40 02:45 03:05 03:35 03:45 03:50 03:55 04:15 04:20 04:20 04:25 05:15 06:30 06:35 06:55 07:00 07:10 07:10 07:25 07:45 08:15 08:25 08:25 08:50 08:55 09:10 09:10 09:15 09:25 09:30 09:35 09:50

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

56 133 6589 302 101 1185 407 356 501 214 541 3406 165 158 776 406 1189 176 124 268 611 767 481 872 58 561 141 6693 576 673 1187 473 8058 617 342 505 773 188 461 641 785 238 512 135 304 538 128 858 216 511 982 184 266 252 4168 145 64 220 613 134 283 554 402 571 62 120 331 648 351 604 403 607 543 475 171 415 8054 308 230 860 381 137 301 218 6258 205 60 575 147 554 1540 471 411 528

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

Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)

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

SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

Word Search

Yesterdayʼs Solution

C R O S S W O R D 2 3 5

ACROSS 1. The sixth month of the civil year.

5. Any of various tall perennial herbs constituting the genus Frasera.

12. White crystalline compound used as a food additive to enhance flavor.

15. An island in Indonesia south of Borneo.

16. The part of the skull that encloses the brain.

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

18. (physics and chemistry) The smallest component of an element having the chemical properties of the element.

19. The shape of a bell.

20. A nucleic acid consisting of large molecules shaped like a double helix.

21. A summary that repeats the substance of a longer discussion.

23. A logarithmic unit of sound intensity.

24. A Nilo-Saharan language spoken in parts of Chad.

26. Mild yellow Dutch cheese made in balls.

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

29. A language spoken by the Atakapa people of the Gulf coast of Louisiana and Texas.

32. A soft white precious univalent metallic element having the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of any metal.

33. A former communist country in eastern Europe and northern Asia.

36. Of or related to the genital and urinary organs or their functions.

37. A silvery soft waxy metallic element of the alkali metal group.

40. Being one more than one hundred.

41. A transuranic element.

45. A compartment in front of a motor vehicle where driver sits.

46. Being one more than one.

49. The cardinal number that is the sum of five and one.

51. A white soft metallic element that tarnishes readily.

52. A landlocked federal republic in central Europe.

54. Relating to the abomasum (the fourth compartment of the stomach of ruminants).

56. Stems of beans and peas and potatoes and grasses collectively as used for thatching and bedding.

58. One of a set of small pieces of stiff paper marked in various ways and used for playing games or for telling fortunes.

59. Relating to or characteristic of or occurring on the sea or ships.

61. (computer science) A coding system that incorporates extra parity bits in order to detect errors.

62. The compass point that is one point south of southeast.

67. Harsh or corrosive in tone.

70. United States physicist who invented the bubble chamber to study subatomic particles (born in 1926).

72. A coffee cake flavored with orange rind and raisins and almonds.

75. Fiddler crabs.

76. A unit of time equal to 60 seconds or 1/60th of an hour.

77. A river that rises in northeastern New Mexico and flows eastward into Oklahoma where it becomes a tributary of the Arkansas River.

79. (Irish) The sea personified.

80. A boy or man.

81. A thin pliable sheet of material.

82. A doctor's degree in education.

Daily Sudoku

DOWN 1. Slightly open.

2. The specified day of the month.

3. Long-legged web-footed black-and-white shorebird with slender upward-curving bill.

4. The ninth month of the Moslem calendar.

5. Being one hundred more than two hundred.

6. Toward the mouth or oral region.

7. The 11th letter of the Greek alphabet.

8. A transuranic element that has not been found in nature.

9. An unwholesome atmosphere.

10. Made by polymerizing butadiene.

11. A member of the Siouan people formerly living in the Missouri river valley in NE Nebraska.

12. A state in southeastern India on the Bay of Bengal (south of Andhra Pradesh).

13. The capital and largest city of Yemen.

14. The mother of your father or mother.

22. Large burrowing rodent of South and Central America.

25. Largest known toad species.

27. Informal terms for a mother.

30. An enveloping or covering membrane or layer of body tissue.

31. A territory in southwestern Germany formerly ruled by the counts palatine.

34. Of or relating to a directionless magnitude.

35. Humorously vulgar.

38. An avalanche volcanic water and mud down the slopes of a volcano.

39. (Islam) The man who leads prayers in a mosque.

42. Japanese ornamental tree with fragrant white or pink blossoms and small yellow fruits.

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

44. Long nerve fiber that conducts away from the cell body of the neuron.

47. Devoid of any feeling of awe or reverence.

48. Area around the altar of a church for the clergy and choir.

50. The capital and largest city of Bangladesh.

53. A married man.

55. A small sc or pouch (especially the smaller chamber of the membranous labyrinth).

57. African tree having an exceedingly thick trunk and fruit that resembles a gourd and has an edible pulp called monkey bread.

60. A bachelor's degree in science.

63. English essayist (1775-1834).

64. A member of an Iroquoian people formerly living on the south shore of Lake Erie in northern Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania and western New York.

65. Queen of England as the 6th wife of Henry VIII (1512-1548).

66. A visual representation of an object or scene or person produced on a surface.

68. Made agreeably cold (especially by ice).

69. Any of a group of Indic languages spoken in Kashmir and eastern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan.

71. Electronic warfare undertaken to prevent or reduce an enemy's effective use of the electromagnetic spectrum.

73. An undergarment worn by women to support their breasts.

74. Used of a single unit or thing.

78. A metric unit of length equal to one thousandth of a meter.

Yesterdayʼs Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

SPORTS SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

Red Sox extend AL East lead BOSTON: Jon Lester pitched into the eighth inning before leaving with a jammed hip, and Dustin Pedroia homered in a seven-run second to help the Boston Red Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays 7-4 in the opener of a four-game series Thursday night. Toronto, which reeled off 11 straight wins this month, had won 12 of its past 14 games and 15 of 19 to close within 6Ω games of the AL East-leading Red Sox. Then the Blue Jays ran into Lester (8-4), who was charged with four runs on five hits with five strikeouts and three walks in winning for just the second time in his last eight starts. The left-hander retired 10 straight to begin the game and didnít allow a hit until the fifth. He came out after giving up two singles to start the eighth and with a 3-0 count on Emilio Bonifacio.

Red Sox manager John Farrell came darting out of the dugout as the infielders crowded around Lester. Moments later, Lester walked off the field and Junichi Tazawa came on in relief. Lester said afterward that he doesnít think heíll miss

his next start. Koji Uehara pitched a perfect ninth for his third save.

Chien-Ming Wang (1-1) lasted just 1 2-3 innings, allowing all seven runs on six hits.

RANGERS 2, YANKEES 0 Derek Holland tamed a team that often tagged him, pitching a twohitter as Texas finished an impressive road trip with a win over New York. Jurickson Profar homered and scored twice, while fellow rookie Engel Beltre got two hits in his first big league start. AL West-leading Texas went 5-1 on its trip to St. Louis and Yankee Stadium. Holland (6-4) threw his sixth career shutout and the lowest-hit shutout by a visiting Rangers pitcher against the Yankees since the Texas franchise moved from Washington for the 1972 season. The 26-year-old lefty struck out seven, walked two and didnít permit a runner after the third. Phil Hughes (3-7) allowed five hits in eight innings after getting seven daysí rest.

ORIOLES 7, INDIANS 3 Chris Davis drove in the tiebreak-

ing run on a fielderís choice grounder in a wild five-run fifth inning, and Baltimore rallied for a victory over Cleveland. The Orioles used six hits and two errors to erase a 3-2 deficit in the fifth, salvaging a split in the four-game series. Nick Markakis, Matt Wieters and JJ Hardy also had RBIs during the rally.

Miguel Gonzalez (6-3) won for the fourth time in five decisions. He allowed three runs on nine hits over 6 2-3 innings, walking none and matching a career high with nine strikeouts. Lonnie Chisenhall and Mike Aviles homered for the Indians.

Chisenhall had three hits. Corey Kluber (6-5) yielded seven runs - six earned - in 4 2-3 innings.

ANGELS 3, TIGERS 1, 10 INNINGS Albert Pujols hit a tiebreaking double in the 10th inning and Los Angeles beat Detroit for a threegame sweep and its ninth straight victory over the Tigers. Mike Trout had four hits and Jered Weaver pitched seven strong innings in a tight duel with Detroit right-hander Doug Fister. JB Shuck singled leading off the 10th against Phil Coke (0-

5) and went to third on Troutís single to right field. Pujols sent a drive to deep center, where Austin Jackson failed to make a difficult catch with his back to home plate.

Josh Hamilton made it 3-1 with a sacrifice fly. Kevin Jepsen (1-2) worked a scoreless ninth for the win and Ernesto Frieri got his 19th save.

TWINS 3, ROYALS 1 Samuel Deduno pitched seven sharp innings and one of Justin Morneauís two doubles drove in Minnesotaís first run in a victory over Kansas City. Deduno (4-2) gave up only five hits and, more importantly, one walk. He struck out three and let only eight fair balls leave the infield. Jared Burton pitched a scoreless eighth and Glen Perkins notched his 20th save in 22 tries with a scoreless ninth despite allowing a walk and a double. The Twins even managed to beat Jeremy Guthrie (7-6). The right-hander topped them twice earlier this season and brought a 6-2 record over nine previous career matchups into the game. Salvador Perez hit a long homer for the Royals.— AP

Diamondbacks salvage finale of 3-game series WASHINGTON: Didi Gregorius drove in the go-ahead run with a bunt single in the 11th inning and Aaron Hill homered as the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Washington Nationals 3-2 Thursday night to salvage the finale of a threegame series. Miguel Montero led off the 11th with a ground-rule double off Craig Stammen (4-3). AJ Pollock ran for Montero and Cody Ross bunted him to third. After Jason Kubel drew a walk, Gregorius bunted down and Pollock ran on contact, scoring the go-ahead run as Gregorius beat the throw at first.

Josh Collmenter (4-0) pitched the 10th inning and Heath Bell picked up his 14th save as the Diamondbacks snapped a three-game losing streak. Ian Desmond homered for the Nationals. Arizonaís Patrick Corbin, who came in 9-0, and Stephen Strasburg matched up for seven innings with each allowing two runs.

Strasburg gave up six hits while striking out four and walking two as he threw 113 pitches. Corbin allowed five hits while striking out six and walking two.

DODGERS 6, PHILLIES 4 Yasiel Puig singled home the tying and go-ahead runs in the seventh inning, Andre Ethier had a two-run double and Los Angeles beat Philadelphia.

Greinke (4-3) struck out five over seven innings and allowed four runs on 12 hits, including solo homers by Domonic Brown and Chase Utley. Kenley Jansen got the last three outs for his seventh save in nine chances as Los Angeles won its sixth straight. The Dodgers loaded the bases in the bottom half of the seventh against rookie reliever Justin De Fratus (2-2) without the benefit of a hit,

and Puig slapped a two-out, 0-2 pitch to left field to put the Dodgers ahead 5-4.

METS 3, ROCKIES 2 Marlon Byrd hit a go-ahead homer in the eighth inning and threw out a runner from right field in the ninth to lead New York past Colorado in a makeup of a snowed-out game April 17. With the Mets trailing 2-1 and a runner on, Byrd drove a fastball from reliever Matt Belisle (4-5) into the left-center seats. That was about the extent of the offense for New York with star slugger David Wright receiving a rare rest. Starter Jeremy Hefner drove in the teamís other run.

LaTroy Hawkins (3-1) earned the win with a scoreless seventh and Bobby Parnell closed for his 14th save in 17 chances. The fourth-place Mets finished 7-4 on a four-city road trip that took them to three time zones. They have won eight of 12 overall.

CUBS 7, BREWERS 2 Matt Garza struck out 10 in seven solid innings and Dioner Navarro hit a three-run homer, sending Chicago to a victory over Milwaukee. Garza (3-1) had his third consecutive strong outing. The right-hander allowed one run on eight hits and a walk while throwing 101 pitches. The Cubs broke the game open with four runs in the third, capped by Navarroís seventh homer. Milwaukee made a pair of errors and all the runs in the inning off Wily Peralta (5-9) were unearned. Peralta gave up seven runs, three earned, on eight hits and a walk while striking out two in five innings. He allowed the leadoff batter to score in three of the first four innings.— AP

LOS ANGELES: Jonathan Pettibone #44 of the Philadelphia Phillies pitches against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on June 27, 2013. — AFP

sports

SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

Prepare for a fight, Tour rivals tell Team Sky PORTO VECCHIO: Rivals are lining up to target Team Sky’s hopes of consecutive Tour de France victories when the 100th edition of the world’s most famous cycle race gets under way in Corsica today. The 2012 success was built on Bradley Wiggins’s domination of the time trials and Team Sky’s conservative tactics in the mountains which led to Wiggins becoming the first Briton to win the Tour. This year, with Wiggins out through illness, Team Sky is led by Chris Froome, last year’s runner-up, who is in “the absolute ideal place”, said team principal Dave Brailsford.

Froome has won four of the five stage races he entered this season as Team Sky set a blistering pace in the mountains. But last year’s beleaguered rivals are geared up for a fierce challenge in a race that this year will feature an unprecedented double ascent of the 21 hairpins to l’Alpe d’Huez. The presence of Spanish climbers Joaquim Rodriguez and Alberto Contador will definitely spice up the action, as will as Garmin-Sharp’s plan to “cause chaos” in the three-week race.

Garmin-Sharp manager Jonathan Vaughters told reporters: “(Team effort) is our strength and we’re going in with the same open strategy. We don’t have one superstar but we have a bonded group of guys who together can create chaos in the race and create a situation where (we) can perform way above what anyone’s expectations of us are.” With 2012 Giro d’Italia champion Ryder Hesjedal of Canada, Liege-Bastogne-Liege winner Dan Martin of Ireland and American hope Andrew Talansky, the U.S. team are a formidable outfit.

Contador’s Team Saxo-Tinkoff have Czech Roman Kreuziger, Irishman Nicolas Roche and Australian Michael Rogers in the team as well as road manager Bjarne Riis, who was lured from Team Sky this season. Movistar could also be a factor as Spain’s Alejandro Valverde, Portugal’s Rui Costa and Colombian Nairo Quintana can all do well in the general classification. “There will be more action this year,” double champion Contador, back after a one-year absence due to a doping ban, told reporters. “There will be more movement than the previous year.”

Spaniard Contador, who won the Tour in 2007 and 2009, was beaten by Froome every time they crossed swords this season but both know that counts for nothing when the 198 riders line up at the start. “Once we line up...every other race this season folds away,” said Froome, who is hoping to win the first race since seven-times winner Lance Armstrong admitted to doping his way to victory. Armstrong, stripped of his Tour titles, told Le Monde newspaper yesterday that winning the Tour in his era without doping was impossible.- Reuters

America’s Cup set to sail despite rule turbulence SAN FRANCISCO: America’s Cup organizers have vowed that the premier yacht-racing event would launch as planned here next week despite protests over last-minute rule changes. “I don’t see any possibility of delay,” America’s Cup event authority chief executive Stephen Barclay told reporters in a sun-drenched pavilion on the San Francisco waterfront that will be among the viewing spots for races.

“No one is talking about not going out there and racing.”

Four days of mediation over America’s Cup rule changesadopted in May for safety after the death of British sailor Andrew Simpson-ended on June 22 with no final resolution.

Sticking points included allowing a design change to catamaran ‘elevators,’ a part of the rudder that effects how high boats can rise out of the water and, by extension, how fast they can go. “This provision has nothing to do with safety, it is purely a performance intervention,” said a spokesman for Italian team Luna Rossa, which planned to file a formal protest within a few days. “We will not accept it,” he continued. “The race director has exceeded his authority.”

Rule changes focused on boats, instead of things like safety gear for crews, fall under the category of ‘class’ changes that can’t be implemented without unanimous agreement from competitors, Luna Rossa argued. Luna Rossa did not threaten to pull out of the Cup, saying “it was here to race.”

Team New Zealand also said it would file a formal protest with the America’s Cup international jury over proposed changes to the AC72 catamaran class rules.

The two changes at issue were among the 37 recommended by regatta director Iain Murray in the wake of the deadly capsizing of the AC72 of Swedish syndicate Artemis Racing in training on San Francisco Bay.—AFP

PORTO VECCHIO: Team Saxo-Tinkoff climbs during a training ride ahead of the start of Tour de France cycling race in Porto Vecchio, southern Corsica island, France. — AP

Armstrong: Is impossible to win Tour ‘without doping’ Riders hit back at Armstrong doping claims PORTO-VECCHIO: Tour de France riders yesterday dismissed claims by shamed US cyclist Lance Armstrong that it was “impossible” to win the sport’s most famous race without doping, saying his claims hit at their credibility. Cadel Evans, who won the Tour in 2011, said he had shown it was possible to triumph without cheating, amid claims the focus was being shifted away from the start of this year’s historic 100th edition of the race, which begins on Saturday.

“I think the opposite. I am proof that that is not true,” the Australian BMC rider told a news conference in PortoVecchio, on the Mediterranean island of Corsica. “I sometimes read in the press what Armstrong says and I respect him as a human being but really I just focus on doing my own job as best I can and fortunately we are supported by a great group of people.

“We try to do our job as we see fit and within the rules of course.” Evans’ teammate, the Belgian Philippe Gilbert, blamed the media for seizing on the comments just as riders prepared for the race. Team Sky, which includes favorite Chris Froome, said they did not want to comment. Armstrong was asked in an interview with French daily Le Monde published on Friday whether it was possible to win without taking performance-enhancing drugs when he was riding.

He responded: “That depends on the races that you wanted to win. “The Tour de France? No. Impossible to win without doping because the Tour is an

endurance event where oxygen is decisive,” he was quoted as saying by the French daily. He added: “To take one example, EPO (erythropoetin) will not help a sprinter to win a 100m but it will be decisive for a 10,000m runner. It’s obvious.” Armstrong, who won the Tour a record seven times between 1999 and 2005, later said his claims only applied to the period in which he dominated the sport. “99-05. I was clear with Stephane Mandard (the sports editor of Le Monde) on this. Today? I have no idea. I’m hopeful it’s possible,” he wrote on his Twitter account @lancearmstrong.

Armstrong was last year exposed as a serial drug cheat in a devastating US Anti-Doping Agency report that plunged cycling into crisis about the extent of drug-taking in the peloton.

The Texan rider, who insisted for years that he did not take performanceenhancing drugs, was stripped of his Tour titles and banned from the sport for life. He then admitted in a television interview that he used a cocktail of drugs, including the blood booster EPO, testosterone and blood transfusions, to win the Tour.

Armstrong told Le Monde that he was not the first athlete to dope and there would always be a doping culture but cycling was being made a “scapegoat” for the practice in all sport. “I simply took part in this system. I’m a human being,” he said, admitting that he could never erase the past but would strive to make up for it for the rest of his life. The head of world cycling’s governing body,

Pat McQuaid, also disagreed with Armstrong. “It might have been true in the past because there were undetectable substances such as EPO,” the International Cycling Union (UCI) president told RTL radio.

“So everyone used EPO in cycling and other endurance sports too. But today the system is more strict and I’m convinced that you can win endurance sports by being clean and win the Tour de France by being clean.” McQuaid, who has faced calls to quit because of accusations of UCI complicity and cover-up in Armstrong’s activities, denounced the American as an “opportunist”. “The Tour de France gets under way this weekend, so he’s decided to attack the Tour de France at this precise moment and to attack the authorities,” he added.

“Lance Armstrong is someone who only thinks about himself.” Five-time Tour winner also Bernard Hinault reacted angrily to Armstrong’s comments, calling for an end to claims that all cyclists were “thugs and druggies”. “It depresses me to hear all this,” he told BFM TV, suggesting that other sports were also implicated. “Stop saying it’s cultural for God’s sake. It’s impossible.

There are plenty of young riders who’ve had dope tests and not tested positive.

It’s constant suspicion,” he added.

Hinault on Thursday lashed out at claims that his fellow French cyclist Laurent Jalabert took EPO on the scandal-hit 1998 Tour, claiming that people wanted to “kill” the race.— AFP

sports SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

Ricciardo ready to fill Webber’s shoes SILVERSTONE: Daniel Ricciardo is ready to progress from being the ‘other Australian’ on the Formula One starting grid to the only one next year. Where the Toro Rosso driver ends up remains to be seen but in his ideal world it would be at champions Red Bull as replacement for compatriot Mark Webber, who announced on Thursday that he will be leaving the sport at the end of the season.

Ricciardo and team mate Jean-Eric Vergne are both part of the Red Bull young driver program, the same one that saw triple world champion Sebastian Vettel graduate from Toro Rosso to the main team at the end of 2008 with sensational consequences. Both are under consideration to replace Webber, although Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen - the 2007 world champion - is seen as a frontrunner by much of the paddock.

Ricciardo’s challenge is to produce convincing evidence that he is the right man for the job, starting at this weekend’s British Grand Prix. “Unfortunately I’ve had a pretty poor run in the last few races so that’s definitely my concern. My priority now is to get some results back on the board,” said the Australian, who has not scored a point since Spain in May. “I haven’t really come off a strong few (races) to give me bragging rights to say ‘That’s mine, everyone,’” added the eversmiling Perth native, who turns 24 on Monday.

“So I’ve definitely got to focus on the next few weekends to remind everyone that I’m here to be successful. “I think ideally, in the perfect world, they (Red Bull) would love one of us juniors to go through and to do what Seb did. I think that’s the real philosophy of the program. I think they would love to see one of us really start to shine.” Ricciardo was 15th in the previous race in Canada and retired in Monaco after being shunted out by Lotus’s Romain Grosjean. Vergne, on the other hand, has arrived at Silverstone on the back of two strong scoring finishes.

BIG BOXES Asked whether he felt he had time to convince Red Bull, Ricciardo - who made his F1 debut in 2011 with the nowdefunct HRT team - hoped so. “I’ve got to really make sure I get the next few races the way I want them to go,” he said.

“And then at least I can say I’ve done all I did. If it comes off or if it doesn’t, whatever. I’m sure there will be another opportunity maybe further down the track.

“The chance is definitely there. If I can get Silverstone, Nuerburgring, Budapest... if I can get three great results, maybe exceed the expectations of the team then I don’t see why it wouldn’t put me in a good position for it. “As long as I do all that and tick pretty big boxes... then I think I’ve got it all in my control.” Webber, Australia’s main focus in Formula One for more than a decade, will be missed by the next big hope who can expect to line up in Melbourne next year as the only home driver in the race. Ricciardo acknowledged his debt to the Red Bull veteran. “He has helped me out,” he said. “When I first stepped into an F1 car, he called me the night before my first test and gave me some advice and just eased me into it a bit. “To hear from him, and I was still a young kid and he was an idol of mine, definitely motivated me. And once I got into F1 two years ago here, he came over and had a bit of a chat and just made life a bit easier for me. “Not only myself but Australia will miss him on the grid. But then that’s my job to try and keep Australia still cheering for someone. We’ll see what happens there.” —Reuters

ASSEN: Jorge Lorenzo of Spain rides his Yamaha in wet conditions during the MotoGP Free Practice of the Dutch Grand Prix, in Assen, northern Netherlands. —AP

Pedrosa gains as Lorenzo limps out ASSEN: Dani Pedrosa’s hopes of wresting back the world title momentum at this weekend’s Dutch MotoGP were increased after Jorge Lorenzo’s unfortunate high speed crash in practice.

Reigning world champion Lorenzo arrived in Assen with back-to-back wins in Spain and Italy, and the Spaniard had lain down a marker by topping the times in Thursday’s first practice session. But in the second session, fate and rain - intervened to leave the Yamaha rider nursing a fractured left collarbone after being flung from his bike at 200 kilometers an hour. While Lorenzo faces surgery in Barcelona this weekend, Pedrosa will be intent on extending his slim seven point lead in the riders’ standings.

Pedrosa, unlike Lorenzo yet to wear the MotoGP crown after three near misses, is out to take the chequered flag after two close runner-up finishes to his arch-Spanish rival in the last two races.

And Assen holds fond memories for the Honda man. “I have raced here many

times. My win here was my first ever and I have very good memories from that day,” Pedrosa told a pre-race press conference on Wednesday. He added: “The championship is now closer but there is still a long way to go; we must keep going with the points. It looks like the weather will be a big thing and we’ll just have to adapt to the situation.”

With Lorenzo out of the picture Yamaha’s hopes are represented by multiple former champion Valentino Rossi, who came in fifth in Spain and is optimistic of a good showing in Assen after a positive testing session last week. “I am very happy about the test in Aragon and I’m looking forward to going to Assen,” the nine-time title winner told the sport’s official website, motogp.com. “The settings that we tested were positive and I now feel more feeling with the bike, especially when braking. For me it is an important step and I really want to try the new setup on another track.

“I hope that this improvement will

help me also to get a better starting position as it is so important to make the best qualification possible. Assen is a great track, I love it and it brings to mind a lot of good memories. We’ll try to leave this good feeling with the track and the bike to improve our results.”

Lying third behind Pedrosa and Lorenzo in the championship battle is Marc Marquez, the 20-year-old rookie who became the youngest ever MotoGP winner at the Grand Prix of the Americas.

Ahead of his first taste of Assen in the top category the Honda new boy, who was narrowly edged out for second by Pedrosa in Catalunya, said: “This is a track I like. “It will be interesting to see how it is on a MotoGP bike and we’ll pay attention to the weather because that will be the biggest problem this weekend, but anyway we will try to be ready.”

Going into this seventh leg of the MotoGP season P:edrosa leads the riders’ standings on 123 points from Lorenzo (116), Marquez (93), Cal Crutchlow (71) and Rossi (60).—AFP

F1: Williams jumps the lights to mark 600 races SILVERSTONE: Frank Williams has never been one to stand and wait, always obeying the adage that claims if you stand still in Formula One, you will be overtaken by the developments of your rivals. As a result, it is no surprise that the Williams team will be celebrating their achievement of 600 Grand Prix race starts at this weekend’s British Grand Prix-one week before they actually reach that landmark.

The team will clock up 600 at the German Grand Prix on July 7, exactly seven days after the Silverstone race starts tomorrow, but they have decided that this weekend’s British event is more suitable for them to celebrate their longevity with their home fans. “For an independent team like Williams to reach 600 races at the pinnacle

of motorsport is a remarkable achievement,” said Williams, the team’s founder and principal. “Seventy-eight teams have come and gone or changed ownership since our foundation and our longevity is a testament to the thousands of people who have sacrificed so much to keep us here.

“It seems only right to mark this milestone at the home of British motorsport alongside our loyal British fans.”The British Grand Prix circuit was the scene of the team’s first win in 1979 and their 100th win in 1997. To mark the achievement, the Williams team will carry the number 600 on the side-pods of both their FW35 cars. The livery will also be emblazoned with the names of all 691 Williams employees who work across all divisions of the Williams

Group, as a tribute to their continued hard work and dedication.

“Williams has never been an organization to dwell on what has gone before but this weekend we will be rightly celebrating our heritage and reflecting on some of our defining moments over the past 36 years,” added Williams’ daughter Claire, who is deputy team principal and commercial director. “This is also an opportunity for us to take stock and look ahead to the future, making sure that we have the necessary pieces in place to make our next 600 races just as memorable.”

Founded in 1977 by Frank Williams and Patrick Head, Williams have secured 297 podiums, 114 race wins and 16 world championship titles in 36 years always

sticking to their principles and remaining as British as afternoon tea. Nine of those titles have been won in the constructors’ championship. The other seven were drivers’ championships won with Alan Jones, Keke Rosberg, Nelson Piquet, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve.

Quintessentially British, the Williams Group has also grown into a significant international business since its inception and its achievements earned Frank Williams a knighthood in the 1999 New Year’s Honors List to augment France’s highest civil decoration, the Legion d’Honneur. The team hope to add to the celebrations this weekend by scoring their first points of the season. —AFP

sports SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

Noel, Len atop an NBA draft full of questions NEW YORK: Nerlens Noel is coming off a major knee injury. Alex Len is in a walking boot. One of them could be the No 1 pick Thursday in an NBA draft that appears short on stardom, and neither looks ready to get his career off to a running start. “This draft is really unpredictable, a lot of guys with injuries and you don’t have any, like, LeBron James,” Len said Wednesday. “So it’s going to be interesting.”

Ten years after James climbed on stage to start a draft that goes down as one of the best in recent memory, the No 1 pick again belongs to Cleveland. The Cavaliers won’t find anyone who can play like James on the court - if they keep the pick - and even the climbing the stage part will be a challenge for the big men who opened their college seasons against each other and are competing again now. Noel tore the ACL in his left knee on Feb. 12, ending his lone season at Kentucky.

The 6-foot 11 freshman led the nation in shot blocking and his conference in rebounding, but hasn’t been able to show the Cavaliers if his offensive game has grown. The only basketball work he did during his visit to Cleveland was shooting some free throws.

Perhaps the pants he wore with his sports jacket and orange tie were just too tight, but Noel was walking gingerly as he exited a hotel ballroom after meeting with the media Wednesday.

“I wanted to do more. Unfortunately I got hurt, but I mean I definitely felt right before I got injured I was really coming along as a player and just really coming into my own during that part of the season,” Noel said. “But like I said, unfortunately I got hurt, so I wasn’t able to show as much as I wanted to.” Nor has Len, but that hasn’t stopped the 7-1 center from the Ukraine who spent two seasons at Maryland from climbing into the mix at No 1. His left foot started bothering him around February, and he found out after the season that it was a stress fracture.

He was aware he was projected as a top-10 pick before the draft combine, but may go much higher even though his visits to teams have consisted of nothing more than interviews. He no longer needs crutches but will be in the boot for perhaps two more weeks. So, with all these injury questions, what about playing it safe and picking a healthy guy? “I mean, probably a lot of people wish it could be that easy,” Kansas guard Ben McLemore said. “But it’s a process for the teams, they’ve got to see what’s available and what they really need.

And like I said, this draft is up in the air and nobody knows what’s going to happen, who’s going to get drafted in which order.”

Orlando has the No 2 pick, followed by Washington, Charlotte and Phoenix. McLemore, Indiana’s Victor Oladipo, Georgetown forward Otto Porter and national player of the year Trey Burke of Michigan are among the other players who will hear their names called early at Barclays Center by NBA Commissioner David Stern in his final draft. It’s a class that won’t draw any comparisons to the one that James led, which featured future Miami Heat teammates Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, along with NBA scoring champion Carmelo Anthony among the first five picks. Brooklyn Nets general manager Billy King said a number of teams are trying to trade out of the draft and acquire extra picks for next year, which is expected to be a stronger class. But he doesn’t know if there will be enough teams interested in being trade partners to get those deals done.

“There are good players in this draft, but right now, there are not impact players. What I mean by that is that there’s no one you look at in this draft that within two years will be an All-Star, say like Kyrie Irving was, players like that,” said Minnesota Timberwolves president Flip Saunders, referring to the guard Cleveland took with the No. 1 pick in 2011.

“And so in order for you to move up and dilute your talent pool and your roster, you’ve got to get an impact-type player, and I just don’t believe ... there’s good players, probably pretty good players in this league, but are they going to be that impact player who’s going to be an All-Star or future Hall of Famer? That’s what you don’t see.

And sometimes that’s something you don’t see for two or three years in a row.”

McLemore has in some ways been hurt by healthy, since by being able to work out he’s given teams something to nitpick. Noel and Len have been largely free of criticism while sitting on the sideline. Instead, Len is hoping his first impression of the season is one that holds up, when he had a career-high 23 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks against Noel in Maryland’s loss to Kentucky, right in the building where they will be Thursday. “I did well against him. So, it’s not up to me, it’s up to teams,” Len said of a team choosing between the two. Neither player said he knows what the Cavs will do. There has been speculation they are open to dealing the pick, something teams rarely consider in a year with a clear-cut No 1. Noel said he had gotten no sense from the Cavs that they had concern about his knee, which could keep him off the court until early in the regular season. And in a draft full of questions, he believes selecting him is the right answer. “I’m a good teammate, I definitely love to work,” Noel said. “I want to get better. I want to be great, I want to reach my potential, be the best player I can be. I definitely do countless hours in the gym and I’m definitely working to get there.”— AP

Photo of the day

The Stig drives the RB7 during the Top Gear Festival in Durban, South Africa.

NFL criminal cases put focus on vetting NEW YORK: Two felony charges in one day were more than a bump in the NFL’s offseason. They pointed to an ongoing problem for the league - players who wind up at the center of criminal cases. New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was arrested on Wednesday in Massachusetts, accused of murdering his friend Odin Lloyd. Hours later, Cleveland Browns linebacker Ausar Walcott was charged with attempted murder in New Jersey.

Both players were cut later in the day by their teams. On Thursday, the league said any club that now wants to sign Hernandez will face a hearing with Commissioner Roger Goodell first. The question is whether the veteran tight end and the rookie should have been in the league at all. “It is difficult, it’s always a balancing act,” says Tony Dungy, who won a Super Bowl as Indianapolis Colts coach and has served as a mentor to players since leaving the NFL, including Michael Vick after the quarterback served federal prison time for dogfighting.

“The league has a security department that sends out information, and every team is different in terms of how much its scouting department does and what areas are concentrated on most. “It’s really a matter of what you do with the information and what your organization feels is important. One thing you have to keep in mind is a lot of the (negative) things that happen come when they are 15 or 17 or 19 years old.”

According to FBI statistics cited by the league, the incidence of NFL players getting arrested is much lower than in the general public. The average annual arrest rate of NFL players is roughly 2 percent of about 3,000 players who go through the league each year, including tryouts and minicamps. That’s about half the arrest rate of the general U.S. population, the league says. The NFL notes the disparity becomes even more dramatic when the group is narrowed to American men ages 20-34.

But Jeff Benedict, author of several books on athletes and crimes, including “Pros and Cons, The Criminals Who Play In The NFL,” believes the FBI statistics are a bad gauge. “The danger of doing comparisons with the general public is, if you look at these people and their backgrounds, how many of those guys who have been arrested in the FBI numbers have been to college, make a lot of money like NFL players do, and live in safe, good neighborhoods?” Benedict says. “The issue is why any of these guys are doing this when they have all these good things going on in their lives.”

The San Diego Union-Tribune, which has tracked NFL arrests “more serious than speeding tickets” dating to 2000, has listed 36 this year, including Hernandez and Walcott and three players who were charged twice. By comparison, the NBA says six of its players have been arrested since last July 1, and Major League Baseball says it’s

aware of three cases this year worse than a speeding ticket: Two drunk driving and a misdemeanor drug charge.

While granting that NFL rosters are far bigger than those in the NBA or MLB, Benedict says, “You can’t take these tiny snap shots and say the NFL is low.” Of course, even a few cases such as Hernandez’s or that of Jovan Belcher - the Kansas City player who shot his girlfriend to death last December, then committed suicide in front of his coach and general manager - can create a widespread negative image. And anyone who has suited up for an NFL team will face extra public scrutiny for even minor transgressions.

That, in turn, puts more pressure on the league’s vetting process.

Dungy stresses that the amount of homework teams do is critical because they don’t get a lot of one-on-one time with prospective players. Some clubs do psychological analyses, even hiring outside agencies to handle them. Though others like the approach, Dungy is not a fan of it and always believed in his gut feeling about a player.

“You have to find out if they have grown from the issues, or there seems to be a pattern, or will these issues always be there,” he says.

Bill Polian, who built the Bills, Panthers and Colts into Super Bowl teams as one of the NFL’s most successful general managers and team presidents, strongly maintains that the league’s vetting process is solid. It delves into players’ histories from high school and university before they enter the league. Those investigations have become more sophisticated through the years; background checks include not only public records such as court documents and arrest data, but talking to teammates and coaches, high school principals and other people who have been a part of a player’s life and development.

But there’s no way of knowing how playing American football for a living will change a young man. “There’s no magic wand a team can wave and change that player who has had serious problems. It’s no different than any other workplace in America, just more publicized,” Polian says. Former Denver Broncos general manager Ted Sundquist said the Vick scandal made teams improve vetting. “Vick was the turning point on the timeline,” Sundquist says. “He was right in their backyard and they didn’t know it was going on, an example of a team that had not had a handle on what players were doing.”

Ultimately, if the public grows tired of player misconduct, regardless of the low percentages, it could become a huge problem for the NFL. And it could change how the teams approach player procurement. “As these issues become a much more public situation in a business that relies upon the public for its goodwill,” Polian says, “you are more and more concerned about taking chances on individuals no matter what the talent - if they have problems in their background.”— AP

SPORTS SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

Chiefs blow away Hurricanes to go top HAMILTON: Aaron Cruden continued his development as a potential world class flyhalf by guiding a ruthless Waikato Chiefs side to the top of the Super Rugby standings with a 34-22 victory over the Wellington Hurricanes in Hamilton yesterday. Cruden, who grew in confidence when he started two tests for the All Blacks against France earlier this month as world leading points scorer Daniel Carter recovered from a broken hand, created two tries and slotted 14 points with the boot.

The four-try victory moved the 2012 champions to 61 points, ahead of Australia’s ACT Brumbies (59), who

have played one game more than the New Zealand side. The loss ended the Hurricanes’ playoff hopes. “We were a bit rusty in the first half and I think (showed) a bit more accuracy and ticker (heart) in the second half,” Chiefs captain Craig Clarke said in a pitchside interview. “The points are crucial as we aim to get a home semi and we have to keep winning these local derbies.”

The intensity was ramped up with the playoffs looming as both sides shook off the rust from the international break. Both were patient in their attack, willing to build phases and stretch the opposition defense with the only difference in the first half

being a missed conversion by Beauden Barrett. Cruden slotted an early penalty and converted tries to number eight Matt Vant Leven and inside centre Bundee Aki. Both of the Hurricanes tries, to scrumhalf TJ Perenara and Barrett, came from patient build-ups and while the flyhalf converted Perenara’s try, he was unable to add the extra points from his own. The 22-year-old, however, added a penalty with halftime looming to reduce the deficit to 17-15 at the break. Barrett missed an early second half penalty and the match settled into a war of attrition before Cruden gave his side a five-point cush-

ion with his second penalty before the Chiefs shut the Hurricanes down in the final quarter.

The Chiefs pulled clear when scrumhalf Tawera Kerr-Barlow and replacement prop Ben Tameifuna crashed over to give the home side a 19-point lead with five minutes remaining before Alapati Leiua grabbed a consolation try for the Hurricanes. “I felt we were in that game even though the scoreboard suggests otherwise,” Hurricanes captain Conrad Smith said. “They’re a good side and you know that when you think you’re in it, look at the scoreboard and are 10 points down.”— Reuters

Lions on verge of first series win in 16 years

NEW YORK: Spectators watch Hee Young Park, of South Korea, hit a tee shot on the 10th hole during the second round of the US Women’s Open golf tournament at the Sebonack Golf Club in Southampton. — AP

Park in the major mix at US Women’s Open South Korean opens with a 67 at Sebonack NEW YORK: South Korea’s in-form Park Inbee made an ideal start in her pursuit of a third major crown this year as she charged into contention for the US Women’s Open in Southampton, New York in Thursday’s opening round.

Taking advantage of some favorable tee positions, the world number one birdied four of her last nine holes to fire a superb five-under-par 67 at Sebonack Country Club, ending the day a stroke behind her pacesetting compatriot Kim Ha-neul.

Another Korean, Kim In-kyung, was also in early contention for the season’s third major after carding a 68 to finish level with American Lizette Salas and Swedes Caroline Hedwall and Anna Nordqvist. However, Park will have given every other player in the field plenty to think about after surging to the top of the leaderboard in her bid for a sixth victory on the 2013 LPGA Tour, and the fourth major title of her career. “I played very good today,” the 24-year-old Korean told reporters after mixing six birdies with a lone bogey and totaling only 25 putts. “I hit the ball very good,

didn’t miss many fairways or greens.”

Tournament organizers had moved several of the tees up due to concerns over a poor weather forecast for Thursday, and Park took advantage with some aggressive approach play. “I was able to attack some pins where the USGA (United States Golf Association) was a little generous on us, a lot of tees were moved up,” she said. “So instead of hitting like five-irons, we were hitting nineirons, and that made the course much easier. “I was actually able to go for some pins and give myself a lot of opportunities today. I made a lot of putts and didn’t leave much out there.”

OOZING CONFIDENCE Having already won this year’s Kraft Nabisco Championship and LPGA Championship, Park is oozing self-belief as she seeks to emulate Babe Zaharias (1950), Mickey Wright (1961) and Pat Bradley (1986) by clinching three major titles in one season. “I do have a lot of confidence in myself at the moment ... the way I’m playing, the way things have

been going, the way I’ve been getting the luck,” said Park. “I think I am in the zone. I’ve been playing my best in my career at the moment. I really just want to enjoy the moment.”

Park, who at 19 became the youngest ever winner of the US Women’s Open with a four-shot victory in the 2008 edition at Interlachen, was a heavy favorite coming into this week following wins in her previous two starts on the LPGA Tour. “I’ve played very good golf the last two or three months,” the South Korean said. “Everything’s been going the right way. Everything’s going the way I really want it to.” Park held at least a share of the lead for most of the day until Kim birdied her 17th hole, the par-five eighth, to edge one shot clear.

“This is my first time in US Open, and I didn’t think that I’m going to do it like this,” the 24-year-old Kim said through a translator after piling up six birdies in a bogey-free display. Kim has triumphed seven times on her home LPGA of Korea Tour where she led the money list in 2011 and 2012. —Reuters

MELBOURNE: The British and Irish Lions are poised to secure their first series in 16 years while the Wallabies have their backs to the wall and must win today’s pivotal second Test in Melbourne. Warren Gatland’s Lions go in with the edge after clinging on to a 23-21 victory in last week’s Brisbane Test when Kurtley Beale missed a kickable penalty in the final minute. The Lions last won a series in South Africa in 1997 and the chief coach has shaken up a winning side in a bid to wrap up the series ahead of the July 6 final Test in Sydney.

Gatland has made five changes, while Australia counterpart Robbie Deans has made two enforced changes and kept faith in James O’Connor at flyhalf despite his difficult night in the first Test defeat. Gatland was forced to switch two of his front five because of injuries with England’s Mako Vunipola and Geoff Parling promoted to take the places of Alex Corbisiero in the front row and lock Paul O’Connell.

The coach has also added Wales flanker Dan Lydiate to the back row in place of Tom Croft, while Ben Youngs replaces experienced scrum half Mike Phillips, who has a knee injury.

Tom and Ben Youngs will become the first brothers to start together in a Test for the Lions since Scotland’s Gavin and Scott Hastings in the third Test of the 1989 series against the Wallabies. Ireland’s Tommy Bowe returns on the right wing for Brisbane try scorer Alex Cuthbert after making a three-week recovery from a broken hand that required surgery.

“One or two changes were forced on us, and we’ve got a couple of players coming back from injury, but it just shows how strong the squad is and that we have a huge amount of competition,” Gatland said. “It is about picking the best team to do a job for us. We can win this series by winning today and that’s where our whole focus needs to be. Everything for us is about today’s night.” Deans, whose Wallabies’ coaching future may hinge on the series outcome, brought in Beale for concussed Berrick Barnes at fullback and Joe Tomane for sidelined winger Digby Ioane.

But Deans points to the availability of Christian Lealiifano as key for his side’s chances after the ACT Brumbies’ insidecentre was knocked out in the opening tackle of last week’s Test and was carried off. The Wallabies also had further disruption with Barnes and Pat McCabe stretchered off and injuries to Adam Ashley-Cooper and Ioane. “It was a pretty challenging circumstance last week. It’s not great to get injured in your first outing. Christian will get the chance to experience a lot more this week and we’ll get the benefit of that,” Deans said.

“I thought the boys did incredibly well under the circumstances, particularly as it was a domino effect that went from there to the extent where we had to play a forward in the backline. So for the team to work their way through and put themselves in the position to be able to win that game was remarkable. “Clearly this week we’ve had the benefit of some more prep and hopefully we’ll have a lit bit more fluency in our game and Christian will be a big part of that.”

On the last two tours to Australia, in 1989 and 2001, the side that has won the first Test has gone on to lose the series.

Lions captain Sam Warburton does not want history to repeat itself. “The talk around the players has been making sure we finish it this weekend,” Warburton said. —AFP

sports

SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

Nerveless Navas sends Spain into final Spain beat Italy 7-6 on penalties to reach Confeds final

Tax authorities tighten screw on Spanish clubs MADRID: News that the Spanish tax authorities intend to pursue World Footballer of the Year Lionel Messi on charges of avoiding more than four million euros ($5.2 million) tax on income from his image rights has captured world attention.

The Spanish taxman’s focus on the previously squeaky-clean Argentine superstar is in keeping with a more robust approach to the world of football when it comes to paying their dues to society in a time of economic crisis. On the surface, the health of Spanish football looks rosy. The national team are world and European champions and all 11 players chosen in FIFA’s 2012 team of the year played in La Liga.

But beneath that healthy exterior is a mountain of debt that clubs below the big two are struggling to cope with. At the end of the 2011/12 season the total debt of Spanish clubs stood at an incredible 3.3 billion euros, much of it owed to the tax authorities. Latest figures released in March showed that although the debt to the state had fallen by 8.2% in the past year, there was still some 690.4 million euros outstanding 535.8 million of which belonged to teams in the Primera Division.

The authorities claim the reduction in the debt is thanks to their firm stance, with repayment plans in place with a number of clubs. The Spanish Professional Football League has also begun to take serious measures to curb the culture of debt amongst its members. Clubs will have to lodge with the league their budgets for the upcoming season along with their operating costs and the amount they are due to repay tax authorities over the season. The league will then set a limit that the club is allowed to spend on its first-team squad and management team.

Moreover, from the 2014/15 season clubs will have to deposit 35% of their income from television rights with the league, and it will then be used as security against them failing to pay the tax authorities on time. The long-term goal of these measures is to clear the clubs’ tax debts by 2020. The regulations will also coincide with UEFA’s newly implemented Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules which threaten clubs that fail to balance their books with expulsion from European competition.

However, there has been skepticism as to whether bigger clubs who fail to meet such obligations will be punished as harshly as smaller fry. Stefan Szymanski, professor of sport management at the University of Michigan and who has written extensively about the economics of European football, points out that tax authorities often struggle with clamping down on big clubs with huge fanbases and significant power to influence governments.

“Tax authorities the world over will go after a well-known player or football club once in a while as it is a very strong way of sending a message that everyone is liable for tax. —AFP

FORTALEZA: Jesus Navas scored the decisive penalty as World Cup holder Spain beat Italy 7-6 in a shootout Thursday after extra time ended 0-0, setting up a showdown with host Brazil in the Confederations Cup final. Nobody missed in the shootout until Italy defender Leonardo Bonucci shot over the bar to give Navas an attempt at the winner.

The recently signed Manchester City midfielder cooly beat goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon to end a top-class battle and send Spain to another major final. “We were lucky in the penalty shootout,” Spain coach Vicente del Bosque said. “It was a very difficult match for us.” In draining heat and humidity, each side hit the woodwork in extra time. Emanuele Giaccherini smashed a shot off the post in the 93rd minute and Buffon deflected a shot from Xavi Hernandez off the post in the 115th.

“It was a marvelous team effort by both teams,” Del Bosque said. “It was a clean and sporting match that was played under very difficult climatic conditions.” The final will be played tomorrow at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. Italy will also face Uruguay in the third-place match in Salvador tomorrow. “Now we have to consider what we have to do in the three days to recover,” Del Bosque said. “We will definitely stand up to Brazil in the Maracana.

The players should feel as happy as kids playing in the Maracana. They have won a lot, but they want to win in the Maracana.”

In a rematch of the Euro 2012 final, which Spain won 4-0, Italy threatened early on even without the injured Mario Balotelli, relying on counterattacks, while Spain relied on its usual game of short passes and ball possession. “We played a great match. We created and we conceded but we were always in the match,” Italy coach Cesare Prandelli said. “They’re still ahead of us but we’re improving. “In these conditions, between absences and fatigue, it’s nearly impossible to go all the way, but the guys really moved me,” Prandelli added.

The roles reversed in the second half but it wasn’t until extra time that each side produced some of the match’s best chances. “The Italians were better than us for all of the first half. In the second half it was more balanced and then in extra time we improved gradually and then we were superior,” Del Bosque said. When English referee Howard Webb whistled the end of

extra time in the 120th minute, the crowd inside the Castelao Stadium cheered loudly, applauding two hours of world class football between teams which could not be separated. Before kickoff, about 5,000 anti-government protesters battled police about 2 kilometers from the stadium. More protests are expected at tomorrow’s final of the World Cup warm-up tournament.

inside the box that Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas did well to block.

A minute later, Xavi Hernandez set up Spain’s only real chance early on but Fernando Torres shot wide. Reverting to a three-man defense, Prandelli made another tactical move to start the second half, replacing center back Andrea Barzagli with midfielder Riccardo Montolivo and putting

FORTALEZA: Players of Spain celebrate after midfielder Jesus Navas (out of frame) scored his penalty in the shoot-out at the end of the extra time and defeating Italy in their FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil 2013 semifinal football match on June 27, 2013. — AFP Thursdays’ were the latest in a series of massive, nationwide protests that have hit Brazil since June 17. Demonstrators are angered about corruption and poor public services despite a heavy tax burden.

Protests are also denouncing the billions of dollars spent to host the World Cup and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Tomorrow is the fourth major final Spain will play in five years, having won the 2008 and 2012 European Championships plus the 2010 World Cup. Inside the Fortaleza stadium, which appeared full, there was overwhelming support for Italy from local fans, who were perhaps afraid of facing Spain in the final. Spain was booed early on every time it took the ball.

Christian Maggio had the best chance of the first half in the 36th with a header

De Rossi at the center of the defense.

Seeking to inject some energy into his squad, Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque sent on Navas for David Silva in the 52nd and Navas had the first significant chance of the second half six minutes later with a long, low effort that Buffon controlled.

The roles reversed as the second half wore on, with Italy controlling more and Spain resorting more to counterattacks.

Italy had a series of corner kicks at one point but had trouble producing chances.

Navas threatened in the 92nd with a long shot that appeared to surprise Buffon but the goalkeeper quickly recovered. A minute later, Giaccherini hit the post and then Jordi Alba volleyed high from close range as all of a sudden there was a flurry of chances. —AP

Julio Cesar set for Confeds conquest RIO DE JANEIRO: After being one of the main fall guys for a disappointing 2010 World Cup, goalkeeper Julio Cesar is back in Brazil’s good books for playing a major part in the Selecao’s march to the Confederations Cup final. The oldest player in a squad comparatively lacking experience as coach Luiz Felipe Scolari builds a team to lift the World Cup next year on home soil, the 33-year-old came to this event hot after suffering the indignity of relegation from the English Premier league with Queen’s Park Rangers.

That fate was not quite the way the veteran shot-stopper from Duque de Caxias had expected to prepare for his end-of-season World Cup dress rehearsal.

But he has risen to hero status after his

penalty save in Wednesday’s semi-final win over Uruguay provided the springboard for a gutsy, if slightly fortuitous, victory at the Mineirao stadium in Belo Horizonte.

His stop from Diego Forlan’s spotkick drew praise even in the immediate aftermath of what was a crushing blow for Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez, who swallowed his frustration to note that Cesar “has again shown what a great keeper he is”. Julio Cesar’s career has had its ups and downs ever since he made his debut for Flamengo 16 seasons ago. An under-17 world champion in 1997 who made his full debut for Brazil in 2004, winning the Copa America - with a penalty shootout save against Argentina. And though he

generally played second fiddle to Dida, he swiftly came to the attention of Inter Milan, who initially farmed him out to Chievo on loan.

But he was back within months to oust Francesco Toldo as first choice at San Siro and after helping his country win the 2009 Confederations Cup, his club career hit the ultimate high with Inter’s victory in the Champions League in 2010. Yet weeks later he was deemed to be at fault for a Wesley Sneijder goal in a World Cup quarter-final loss to Holland and after Mano Menezes replaced Dunga at the helm he lost his place. His exile ended earlier this year after Scolari replaced Menezes and he has re-established himself as number one between the posts.

Of his save against Uruguay, Julio Cesar, closing in steadily on the 100 caps mark, said he had simply done his homework and that he knew Forlan would fire his penalty to his left. “I played with him at Inter Milan - but it was a good stop,” he told reporters. “Luckily, Julio Cesar made a really great stop,” added fellow Londonbased star, Chelsea defender David Luiz, whose tug on Diego Lugano gave away the penalty. Julio Cesar has managed to throw off his recent travails both with QPR and with Brazil and is now one match away from a third international crown.

But he will hope his real crowning glory will come in 12 months’ time as Brazil target what they really want more than anything: A sixth World Cup.— AFP

SPORTS SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

US men slump to 100-year Wimbledon low LONDON: The United States suffered their worst men’s singles performance at Wimbledon for over a century when they were left without a player in the third round for the first time since 1912. World number one Novak Djokovic delivered the fatal blow by beating the last American man standing, world number 156 Bobby Reynolds, 7-6 (7/2), 6-3, 6-1 in the second round.

In all, 11 American men started out in the main draw on Monday but their only two seeded players-John Isner and Sam Querrey were out by Wednesday. Isner, the 18th seed, retired with an injury from his second round match against France’s Adrian Mannarino. Querrey, the 21st seed, lost a five-setter in the first round to Australia’s Bernard Tomic. By Thursday, only James Blake, Denis Kudla and

Reynolds were left. It was a challenge too far as Blake fell to Tomic and Kudla was put out by Ivan Dodig of Croatia.

So it’s been almost 10 years and now 39 Grand Slams since the United States was able to salute a men’s trophy winner at the majors. Pete Sampras was the last American man to win Wimbledon when he captured his seventh title in 2000. Andy Roddick, the last US man to lift a major at the 2003 US Open, suffered three heartbreaking Wimbledon final losses to Roger Federer in 2004, 2005 and 2009.

Since then, the only American man to trouble the All England Club engravers was Isner whose name now adorns a plaque on Court 18 to recognise his winning role in the world’s longest tennis match in 2010.

It’s all a far cry from the glory years of Sampras and Andre Agassi, the 1992

champion, three-time winner John McEnroe (1981, 1983 and 1984) and double champion Jimmy Connors (1974 and 1982). Isner has still to get beyond the second round at Wimbledon despite having the killerserve which should, in theory, ease his path through the draw. “I was the highest seeded player on a surface that I’m tough to beat on, given how well I can serve and how much I can hold serve,” said Isner.

“I had a good chance to go pretty far here. My deal is just as long as I can get through the first couple of rounds I feel like I always get better as events go on.” Querrey’s best Wimbledon performance remains a last-16 run in 2010. Ryan Harrison, 21, who was another first round victim. Harrison won his first tour-level match at just 15 and cracked the top 100 as an 18-year-

Zemlja beats Dimitrov to silence Sharapova Robson keeps British flag flying LONDON: Slovenian Grega Zemlja had to deal with Grigor Dimitrov’s thunderous serve, drizzle and Maria Sharapova’s vocal support for his opponent as he caused another surprise at Wimbledon on yesterday. After the match was stopped by Thursday’s rain with unseeded Zemlja leading 9-8 in the fifth, having had two match points, he returned to complete the job in a nervy finale, winning 3-6 7-6 3-6 6-4 11-9 to reach the third round for the first time.

Russia’s former world No1 Sharapova, Dimitrov’s high-profile girlfriend who was already consigned to the second-round scrapheap during a tumultuous Wednesday, urged her man on with loud “C’mons!” from a her courtside seat. Bulgarian Dimitrov saved three more match points in the opening game of the day, the first after another delay as he refused to play on at 30-40, saying the court was too greasy. However, there was to be no escape as the solid Zemlja crunched a running forehand winner down the line.

“At a few points I heard her Maria screaming behind my back which wasn’t very pleasant!” the 26-year-old son of a former ski jumper, told reporters. “It was after the points not during the points though.” Dimitrov, whose stylish shots have led to comparisons with 17-times grand slam champion Roger Federer, is yet to make a major breakthrough and many predicted a strong run here for the 22-year-old 29th seed. Victory over Zemlja would have meant he survived longer this year than seven-times champion Federer, but he lacked the authority to seize his chance, despite some stunning winners.

TOO GREASY At 8-9, 30-30 Dimitrov lost his footing while delivering a serve and tried to play his second shot from a sitting position.

Then he walked towards his chair and refused to play on saying the surface was too greasy, forcing a 15-minute delay.

“When I slipped, I fell down, I hit my hip,” Dimitrov told reporters. “I told him, I’m not serving. Basically we had to stop and wait for another chance.” Zemlja, who spent the previous night reflecting on the two match points that went begging on Thursday, was not impressed.

“I said to the umpire, “What’s going on we were playing until now, the conditions are not changing so why are we not playing,” but I can’t force him to play.” When the match point was finally contested Dimitrov thumped down a pile-driving serve and Zemlja’s forehand return smacked into the net tape and stayed on his side.

Dimitrov saved two more match points in the same game, both greeted with a loud cheers from Sharapova who sported a pair of expensive-looking sunglasses and Converse sneakers.

“Baby-Federer” had a break point at 9-9 but, like many of his opportunities in the four-hour contest, he wasted it and he his

LONDON: Grega Zemlja of Slovenia follows a return to Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria during their Men’s second round singles match at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon yesterday. -— AP resistance cracked in the following game. “Not at all,” Dimitrov said when asked whether having Sharapova cheering him on increased the pressure. “I feel even more pumped and happy that she’s there for me.” Zemlja will play eighth seeded Argentine Juan Martin del Potro in the third round today.

BRITISH FLAG FLYING In another development, Laura Robson, the last British woman standing at Wimbledon, made it through to the third round for the first time yesterday, beating Colombian qualifier Mariana Duque-Marino in straight sets. — Agencies

old in July, 2011. His ranking rose to 43 in July last year but his progress has stalled and he went into Wimbledon at 84 in the world.

Reynolds believes there is hope and that there is some promising young talent in the college system and in the early stages of ATP careers. “You have guys like Jack Sock and obviously Steve Johnson and Kudla, guys like that, that have huge weapons,” said Reynolds.

“They’ve got huge serves, huge forehands. Obviously, it’s a matter of harnessing those, cutting down on the errors, and using that. “I do see those guys as having top potential. Isner had a freak accident. He could have gone a long way. Querrey had tough trial with Tomic. “There’s a lot of guys are coming up. They’re knocking on the doorstep of top 100.”— AFP

It’s Wimble-Zen as Djokovic gets inner Buddhist peace LONDON: Novak Djokovic admits trips to a Buddhist temple near Wimbledon have given him the peace of mind to cope with a manic week at the All England Club. Djokovic has progressed serenely to the last 32 while several of the world number one’s rivals for the Wimbledon title have suffered agonizing exits. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga all perished within the first three days, but Djokovic has yet to drop a set and hasn’t surrendered his serve in his opening two matches.

The 26-year-old Serb maintained his dominant form on Thursday with a 7-6 (7/2), 6-3, 6-1 win over American qualifier Bobby Reynolds under the Centre Court roof. And Djokovic revealed he has been taking his mind off the intense struggle for a second All England Club title by seeking refuge in the tranquil surroundings of a Buddhist Temple near the rented house which he shares with girlfriend Jelena Ristic and his coaching team in Wimbledon Village. “It’s very calm and quiet, obviously. I stay in a house which is very nearby. This is a place which we all visit,” Djokovic said.”We like Wimbledon and London in general because there’s so many beautiful parks and nature, places which you can call getaways during these two weeks of a hectic Grand Slam atmosphere. “Obviously there is huge amount of pressure and stress and everything involved, so you need to have a place where you know you can switch off and recharge your batteries.

“I guess it’s private, in a way. But I just can say that it’s a very calm and very beautiful environment where I like to spend time.” Djokovic’s low-stress path towards another Wimbledon final is unlikely to get much more demanding in the next round when he is due to face French 28th seed Jeremy Chardy or German qualifier Jan-Lennard Struff.

Tomas Berdych and David Ferrer are potential quarterfinal and semi-final opponents respectively, but neither are likely to strike fear into the heart of the six-time Grand Slam champion.

However, Djokovic is adamant he won’t get carried away by dreams of more Wimbledon glory just because a few big names have crashed out. “I don’t think about the final because it’s still a very long way,” he said. “I think the fact that the top players lost in the last few days gives enough reason for all of us to not underestimate any opponent and not look that far. “So we got to take it step by step. It’s sport, you know. This is what happens.

“Everybody, especially lower ranked players in the opening rounds, have nothing to lose really when they go on the centre stage and they come up with their best game.

“It’s something that you should always be cautious about, the potential upsets. “This is part of the sport. There is also a huge amount of expectation for the top players always to reach the final stages.” —AFP

SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

Sports

Zemlja beats Dimitrov to silence Sharapova

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WIMBLEDON: Spain’s David Ferrer celebrates beating Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut during their second round men’s singles match on day five of the 2013 Wimbledon Championships tennis tournament yesterday. — AFP

Ferrer books third round spot Stakhovsky fails to build on Federer shock LONDON: David Ferrer came out on top in an all-Spanish second round match at Wimbledon, getting the better of a baseline battle to beat Roberto Bautista Agut 6-3 3-6 7-6(4) 7-5 yesterday. When fourth seed Ferrer claimed the first set after 43 minutes, there was no hint that the 60th-ranked Bautista Agut could upset the country’s pecking order and reach the third round of a grand slam for the first time. But his clever shot-making drew a string of unforced errors from this year’s French Open finalist Ferrer in the second set and he tenaciously dug-in to take the third set to a tiebreak.

However, Ferrer kept his nerve to regain the lead, broke in the 11th game of the fourth set and closed it out to set up a third-round match against Ukraine’s Alexandr Dolgopolov.

FEDERER-SLAYER STAKHOVSKY Sergiy Stakhovsky’s Wimbledon fairytale came to an abrupt end as Roger Federer’s conquerer slumped to a 6-2, 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 defeat against Austria’s Jurgen Melzer in the third round on Friday.

Stakhovsky had caused one of the biggest upsets in the history of the All England Club when the world number 116 defeated reigning champion Federer on Centre Court on Wednesday. It was Federer’s earliest exit from a Grand Slam for a decade and ended the seven-time Wimbledon champion’s incredible run of 36 successive quarter-final appearances at the majors.

But Stakhovsky, 27, was brought back down to earth just 48 hours later in the less glamourous surroundings of Court Three. Unlike Federer, world number 37

Melzer was able to subdue Stakhovsky’s serve and volley tactics and will play Spanish 15th seed Nicolas Almagro or Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz for a place in the quarter-finals. Stakhovsky might have had an inkling it wasn’t going to be his day when he suffered an injury scare midway through the first set, slipping as he raced to the net and twisting his right ankle into an awkward position as he struggled to stay upright.

The slippery condition of the grass courts has been a major bone of contention this week and Grigor Dimitrov had refused to continue playing when he fell as rain came down during his defeat to Grega Zemlja on the same court earlier in the day.

The Ukrainian called for a medical timeout and had the ankle heavily strapped before

continuing, but Melzer, already a break up, easily closed out the set.

Stakhovsky had out-played Federer by attacking the Swiss great with a retro game-plan rarely seen in this era of baseline dominance. Stakhovsky, bidding to make the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time, kept coming to the net and levelled the match as he broke twice to take the second set. He broke again for a 42 lead in the third set, but suddenly lost his rhythm and Melzer hit back in ruthless fashion, breaking twice to move within one set of victory. Stakhovsky failed to convert three break points in the second game of the fourth set and that proved the end of his memorable week as Melzer made him pay with a break in the next game to seal the win. — Agencies