6th Jul 2013

IPT IO N SC R SU B

SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

8

150 Fils

Morales threatens to shut US embassy after plane flap

SHAABAN 27, 1434 AH

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India rupee falls to near lifetime low

No: 15861

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Steely Djokovic tames Del Potro in epic semifinal

Egypt Islamists rally against Morsi ouster Troops kill 3 protesters • Brotherhood chief emerges

CAIRO: A defiant supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood vowed yesterday his movement would stay on Egypt’s streets in their millions until Mohamed Morsi is restored as president, after his ouster by the army.

Following the declaration by Mohammed Badie, thousands of Brotherhood supporters marched on the state television building, even after three Islamist protesters were shot dead at a Cairo rally. As military helicopters flew low overhead, Badie appeared on stage to screams of joy from jubilant supporters, following reports he had been detained in the wake of Wednesday’s ouster of the president.

“Millions will remain in the squares until we carry our elected president, Mohamed Morsi, on our shoulders,” Badie told the crowd outside Rabaa Al-Adawiya mosque, before leading chants of “Military coup!” and “Invalid!” In the fiery speech, he vowed to “complete the revolution”, and repeatedly referred to Morsi as the president. “To the great Egyptian army, I say ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is great) ... I say ... we will sacrifice,” he shouted as a military helicopter hovered low overhead. He urged the army not to fire on its own citizens, and added: “Our bare chests are stronger than bullets.”

Badie’s impassioned speech came just three hours after three protesters were killed outside the Republican Guard headquarters after breaking away from the demonstration outside the mosque. The bodies of two people were covered with sheets, said a correspondent, adding another protester was shot in the head and fell, parts of his brain spilling from his skull. The Islamists accuse the military of conducting a brazen coup against Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, after millions called for his ouster on the June 30 anniversary of his first turbulent year in power.

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CAIRO: Egyptian supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and ousted president Mohamed Morsi shout religious and political slogans during a protest near Cairo University in the Egyptian capital yesterday. (Inset) A man lies dead after being shot

by Egyptian troops near the Republican Guard headquarters yesterday. — AFP/AP

Gulf drive against Hezb may hit ordinary Shiites DUBAI: Gulf states are punishing Hezbollah for its role in Syria by expelling Lebanese expatriates linked to the group in a move that could victimise Shiites with no ties to the militants apart from their shared religious faith. Set up by Shiite power Iran in the 1980s to fight Israeli occupation forces in south Lebanon, the Islamist group has sent its guerrillas to fight alongside the army in Syria’s civil war, leading to defeats for rebels armed by some Gulf Arab states. The Sunni Muslim Gulf countries, led by regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia, have supported Syrian rebels with arms and money in a fight to topple President Bashar Al-Assad, an ally of Iran.

Denouncing what it called Hezbollah’s interference in Syria, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) last month announced its six member states would revoke the residency visas of people associated with Hezbollah and target their financial and commercial dealings in the Gulf.

The expulsions illustrate how the war in Syria has encouraged age-old tensions between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims to spread across its borders and through the region.

During a meeting of senior GCC security officials in Riyadh on Thursday, the undersecretary of Bahrain’s Interior Ministry, Major General Khaled Al-Absi, said the move against the group came after the “discovery of several Hezbollah terror cells in the Gulf states, their involvement in training of terror groups ... and their flagrant involvement in Syria”. “Unfortunately, some people will pay the price without being involved,” Abdulkhaleq Abdullah, an Emirati political scientist, said of the deportations. “But Hezbollah should be held responsible for this.

Hezbollah left its national boundary and interfered in a purely Syrian matter with brazenness and stubbornness.

This should not be left unheeded.”

At least three Gulf states - Saudi Arabia, the UAE and

Qatar - have evicted scores of Lebanese since the GCC announced on June 2 they were considering punitive measures against the group, according to a Doha-based security source and Hassan Alayan, a Lebanese critic of the campaign. The security source said 17 or 18 Lebanese Shiites were expelled from Qatar in June while Gulf-based analysts following the matter suggested the number could be larger in the UAE. Alayan, a spokesman for Lebanese Shiites who have been evicted from the Gulf, said between 20 to 30 Lebanese Shiites were believed to have been expelled from Saudi Arabia in the past month alone. “I don’t know what’s their interest in expelling people who lived in their countries for decades and offered the best they could in service of these countries,” said Alayan, a Shiite who added that he had lived in the UAE for 27 years before being told in 2009 to leave.

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LOCAL SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

Tribal surge as registration period draws to a close Consultative meetings this week KUWAUT: A surge in tribal candidates’ registration was seen during the last few days before registration closes today (Saturday), as nearly 30 registered Thursday in the fourth and fifth constituencies, alone according to a local daily. Speaking to Al-Jarida on condition of anonymity, sources familiar with tribal communities’ elections preparations indicated that the candidates registered Thursday represent main tribes including the Ajman, Rashaidah, Hawajer and Dawaser, in addition to the Mutair and Awazem tribes. The reason behind this surge, according to the sources, is the fact that tribes prepare to hold “consultative meetings” to short list their respective candidates during the week that follows registration.

Candidates will have one week to withdraw applications after registration closes today ahead of elections set for July 27. Many speculate that tribes plan to hold consultative meetings this week to allow candidates to withdraw in favor of others selected to represent the tribe. These gathering are seen as replacements to outlawed by-elections and are held to narrow the number of candidates and subsequently increase a tribe’s chance to be represented in the parliament. On that regard, the sources indicated that the Hawajer and Awazem tribes prepare to hold consultative meetings next week, while also adding that the Shemmar tribe in the fourth constituency already organized its meeting Thursday night.

Meanwhile, Al-Anba daily reported that former MP Husain Mizyed is under pressure to retract his decision of not running in the upcoming elections and signed up before the deadline passes.

This comes while the government continues preparations for elections day, as Minister of Justice Sharida Al-Maosharji formed a field team to organize schools that will be used as

polling centers. Meanwhile, Ministry of Health Undersecretary Dr Khalid Al-Sehlawi announced on Thursday that a fleet of at least 25 ambulance as well as male and female medical personnel are set to be located at polling stations around Kuwait on the election day, adding at the same time that all hospitals will be put on high alert during that day as well. He further added that the ministry offers a service to transport senior citizens and people with special needs in ambulances during the election day.

Also on Thursday, the Assistant Undersecretary for General Security Affairs in the Interior Ministry Maj Gen Mahmoud AlDousary announced a plan to “secure elections” that goes underway starting with the beginning of Ramadan (Tuesday or Wednesday) and intensifies gradually until it climaxes at election day which falls during the middle of the holy month. Maj Gen Al-Dousary added he was assigned as the field commander for the security team which is to include personnel from police stations, police detectives, traffic police officers and special security police.

In other news, the administrative court on Sunday rejected a lawsuit filed by Municipal Council members Abdullah Al-Kandari and Manea Al-Ajmi who demanded that the council’s elections be held on their previously announced date of July 6. The ruling allows the government to reschedule the Municipal Council elections and set a new date that is likely to happen on September. The Municipal Council holds its last session Monday before its 4-year term officially concludes. The original elections date was canceled after the Constitutional Court ruled last month that the National Elections Committee must be dissolved, effectively nullifying all its decisions which included the decree to invite voters to elect a new Municipal Council.

Tenders to build four hospitals examined KUWAIT: The Minister of Public Works has formed a panel to examine floated tenders for establishment of four new hospitals in Kuwait, a senior official announced on Thursday.

Abdul-Aziz Al-Kulaib, the Public Labor Undersecretary, said while examining development construction of Jamal Abdul-Nasser road, that minister, AbulAziz Al-Ibrahim, also the Minister of Electricity and Water, had formed the commissions to examine these tenders and take the appropriate decision, noting that the ventures would be according to international specifications.

Al-Kulaib indicated at some natural difficulties and hindrances in execution of development ventures, such as underground water reservoirs. However, he said, special teams have been assigned to use state-of-art engineering tools and methods to dry up these plots of land. He noted such a problem existed in the first road venture.

The Jamal Abdul Nasser road develop-

ment project is one of the mega ventures, currently underway, he said, alluding to construction of new causeways and relays.

Up to 11 percent of the venture has been accomplished, said Mahmoud Ramadan, an engineer involved in the project, noting that Al-Ghazali metallic causeway would be brought down.

In another development, the Central Statistical Bureau has revealed that the consumer price index (inflation) increased in May by 2.96 percent compared with the same month last year.

In its report the CSB, however, noted that the inflation rate remained unchanged month-on-month basis.

The price index for four major groups increased and retreated for four others in the corresponding period. While the price index for four groups remained unchanged.

The price index for the major group “cigarettes and tobacco” increased by 8.

56 percent year-on-year but declined by 0.38 percent month-on-month. — KUNA

LOCAL SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

Food, tents companies in big demand KUWAIT: Companies that deal in election-related items such as tents and food have stationed representatives and agents at headquarters of the polling department promoting products and services. In addition to the field presence, these companies have been heavily using state-of-art electronic means and applications to reach candidates and promote their items, such as large display screens, tools and equipment for establishing electoral campaigning centers, including tents and food services.

In the past, candidates used to take the initiative and speedily contact these companies to make contracts for establishing campaigning facilities and sites, but in the current electoral run-up, the companies have been seeking to get in touch with the nominees since the very first moment of the polling process.

Considering that the parliamentary elections, due on July 27, will coincide with the Ramadan fasting, representatives of these companies have been jostling to reach the largest number possible of the candidates possible ahead of the advent of Ramadan, due early next week.

Demand for food and tents is forecast to be much greater this time and the dealers are scurrying to meet the record high demand for these items, that are basic for both, Ramadan and the election. Prices of tents have already skyrocketed due to unprecedented high demand, said Hassan Uwaidah, the manager of a company that deals in this sector.

Tents are usually pitched in front of mosques and some associations throughout Kuwait during Ramadan to accommodate the poor who break their fasting on meals offered for free at dusk time. These are also heavily used by electoral nominees for rallies and campaigning. Uwaidah said his company sensed necessity of having agents and promoters physically present at the electoral sites due to heavy usage of electronic social networks by the competing companies. Usama Al-Adel, the executive manager of a food company, said his company would be compelled to cope with greater demand in the coming days due to the coincidence of the polls with the elections. —KUNA

Education Ministry terminates services of nine directors Officials worry of sweeping changes KUWAIT: Senior Ministry of Education officials find themselves on the hot seat these days as nine more general directors were handed their termination papers despite not reaching the legal duration of retirement. Earlier this month Minister of Education Dr Nayef Al-Hajraf relieved general directors of all main subjects of their duties on the wake of a cheating scandal discovered during the high school finals that ended last Wednesday.

On Thursday, MOE Undersecretary Mariyam Al-Wutaid reportedly contacted the remaining general directors and informed them of the minister’s decision to end their services by the end of the school year. “I have no idea what is happening since we haven’t even completed 25 years in service”, said one director who spoke on the condition of anonymity when contacted to comment on her release order.

Another director who was also quoted anonymously in an Al-Rai report expressed “deep regret” for “all the hard work and time taken away from our time with our families only to be rewarded with expulsion and humiliation right at the end of the finals tests”.

Meanwhile, one director described the

recent developments as “a case of mismanagement the goals of which are unknown”, and “creative chaos that eventually lead the ministry to a state of void in leadership posts”. “The minister needs to reconsider making hasty decisions in order to avoid surprises and frustration that the ministry is otherwise sure to witness in the upcoming few days”, she further told AlRai. Dr. Al-Hajraf holds a press conference tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon to announce results of high school finals, and ministry insiders insist that he plans soon afterwards to fire more senior officials who this time are likely to include assistant undersecretaries and directors of educational zones.

In other news, nearly 33 senior Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor officials who were ordered to retire after finishing at least 30 years in service plan to file complaints against minister Thekra Al-Rashidi arguing that their terminations did not follow legal procedures. According to sources quoted by Al-Jarida yesterday, the officials are seeking to file a complaint with the International Labor Organization in coordination with the National Union of Kuwaiti Workers and Employees.

Senior officials with at least 30 years in

service in the public sector had until June 30 to retire and benefit from extra financial privileges put as incentives. However, the Cabinet decision that ordered the incentives did not stipulate that the officials be forced to retire before the deadline. The 33 officials who include supervisors and heads of departments further argue that their termination was illegal since it happened collectively while Civil Service Commission regulations indicate that retirement orders must happen individually and for reasons that pertain with each individual case.

The government says that the new stipulations come as part of efforts to inject ‘new blood’ in the public sector as well as fight unemployment rates which according to latest figures have reached five percent of the national workforce.

Separately, MSAL sources told Al-Jarida that minister Al-Rashidi plans tomorrow (Sunday) to sign applications to transfer visitor’s visas into work visas in the private sector which according to earlier reports have been put on hold for weeks despite meeting requirements. The minister had given orders that visa transfer applications must go through her office before being approved.

LOCAL SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

Sheep thieves in custody Iranian illegal resident held in Maidan Hawally KUWAIT: Hawally police arrested an Iranian national who faces charges for entering the country illegally two months ago.

Security officers chased the suspect who tried to escape immediately after spotting their patrol vehicle in Maidan Hawally.

The man was taken into custody for an identity check after he failed to produce identification card. He admitted during investigations that he entered Kuwait illegally from his home country two months ago. The man was referred to the Criminal Investigations General Department for further action.

Sheep thieves Jahra police arrested a male suspect while search is on for three others after they mugged a shepherd at a location in the area on Thursday. In his statements to local police, the Indian man said that he was herding his flock at the ‘Safatí’ market in Jahra when four people showed up and started beating him after identifying themselves as police detectives. He added that the suspects stole KD60 from his wallet in addition to 10 sheep which they loaded on his car. They forced him inside the vehicle and then drove to the Jahra Stables area before leaving him outside and driving away. Police were able to locate the car and arrest one of the suspects while his accomplices escaped. The

suspect admitted of committing the crime and provided the addresses of his accomplices. All of them were out of their houses but police found the stolen sheep at one location, as well as police badges in one of the suspects’ cars which they apparently used to mug people under police impersonation.

Fugitive nabbed A fugitive wanted to serve a seven-year jail sentence was nabbed during a security operation in Shuwaikh industrial area Wednesday night. Patrol officers had pulled the suspect over at a street in the area and then verified his identity when they noticed that he was nervous. The Kuwaiti man was put under arrest after police found out that he is a wanted criminal, and then transferred him to proper authorities.

Car accidents A Kuwaiti woman died and her husband was seriously injured in an accident in Saudi Arabia recently. According to a security source familiar with the case, the two-car collision happened on the Makkah Road where the Kuwaiti couple were driving their Kuwait-registered car. The woman was pronounced dead on the scene while her husband was hospital-

ized in a critical condition. The source did not provide details about the condition of the driver of the second car involved in the accident.

Meanwhile, a man was killed and two people were injured while one person was unharmed in a two-car collision reported recently at the Abdali road. Police and paramedics arrived at the scene shortly after the accident was reported. One car carried two Palestinian nationals, and paramedics pronounced one of them dead on the scene while the other was taken to the hospital. The other car carried a Kuwaiti man and an Indian national who was hospitalized with multiple injuries. A case was filed for investigation.

Explosives found An antiaircraft missile and 25 AK47 rounds were found at a location in the Abdali desert recently. Police accompanied by bomb squads headed to the place near a Public Authority for Agricultural Affairs and fish resources building where a man reported finding foreign objects half buried in the sand. The explosives were successfully recovered from the scene and taken to a secure location before the area was swept in search for other explosives.

NBK hosts lunch for staff to mark Egraish KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) hosted a special buffet for all staff on the occasion of the Egraish in appreciation for their commitment, initiative and unremitting efforts in serving the bank as well as its clients and shareholders.

Egraish buffet were held in NBK Head Offices and was attended by NBK staff members. NBK Executive Management congratulated the employees on the

occasion of the holy month of Ramadan and thanked them for their efforts and excellence. The holding of the Egraish buffet, helps strengthen the NBK family and serve as a token of appreciation for the staff’s professionalism, dedication and hard work. Egraish is a Kuwaiti tradition celebrated before Ramadan where families gather and bring the previous night’s dinner leftover to share together.

LOCAL SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

Kuwait ranked in top 50 in Global Innovation Index Local dynamics key to overcoming divide KUWAIT: The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait lead the Middle East in overall innovation performance according to the Global Innovation Index 2013 (GII), published by Cornell University, INSEAD, the leading international business school, and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a specialized agency of the United Nations. This year’s study benefits from the experience of its Knowledge Partners: Booz & Company, the Confederation of Indian Industry, du and Huawei, as well as an advisory board of 14 international experts. Despite the economic crisis, innovation is alive and well. Research and development spending levels are surpassing 2008 levels in most countries and successful local hubs are thriving. This year’s report casts additional light on the local dynamics of innovation, an area which has remained under-measured globally. It shows the emergence of original innovation eco-systems, and signals a needed shift from a usual tendency to try and duplicate previously successful initiatives.

The GII 2013 is calculated as the average of two sub-indices. The Innovation Input Sub-Index gauges elements of the national economy which embody innovative capabilities grouped in five pillars: (1) Institutions, (2) Human capital and research, (3) Infrastructure, (4) Market sophistication, and (5) Business sophistication. The Innovation Output Sub-Index captures actual evidence of innovation results, divided in two pillars: (6) Knowledge and technology outputs and (7) Creative outputs.

The United Arab Emirates ranks top in the MENA region in four pillars; Institutions (Political, Regulatory and Business Environment), Human Capital and Research (Education, Tertiary Education, and Research & Development), Infrastructure (Information & Communication Technologies, General Infrastructure and Ecological Sustainability), and Business Sophistication (Knowledge Workers, Innovation Linkages & Knowledge Absorption). While Saudi Arabia ranks top in the MENA region in Market Sophistication (Credit, Investment and Trade & Competition), Kuwait in Knowledge & Technology Outputs (Knowledge Creation, Knowledge Impact and Knowledge Diffusion), and Qatar in Creative Outputs (Creative Intangibles, Creative Goods & Services and Online Creativity). “Worldwide, innovation is increasingly seen as a powerful tool to strengthen the competitiveness and global relevance of corporations and nations,” said Bruno Lanvin, the report’s co-editor and Executive

Director of INSEAD’s European Competitiveness Initiative. “In the Middle East and Northern Africa, recent political and social changes have also underlined the importance of addressing the needs and expectations of populations in terms of growth and job creation, especially for the young. This year’s GII shows that, in this regard, performances in the region remain uneven, but innovation is becoming a visible and pertinent instrument for economic diversification, enhanced competitiveness and global integration in an increasing number of MENA countries.”

Underperforming MENA countries can catch up with innovation leaders if they “learn” to innovate.

This will require them to transform their innovation inputs (on which they perform relatively well) into marketplace results (on which they perform considerably lower) more efficiently, said Hatem Samman, Lead Economist and Director of Booz & Company’s Ideation Center. These MENA countries can achieve this by strengthening and aligning their policies on innovation inputs-such as human capital and research-with policies that help translate them into tangible products and services-such as high- and medium-high tech output-to spur economic activities and create wealth. Strong innovation hubs can provide an efficient platform for such transformation by facilitating knowledge creation and sharing, and by providing a bridge for the commercialization of ideas. As a result, more MENA countries can move up the innovation ladder towards innovation learners and chart their way

into innovation leadership. “In the Middle East, we are seeing governments focus on building innovation capabilities as a means of catalysing the growth and diversification of their economies. For instance, many MENA countries are establishing innovation hubs in which large state-owned enterprise champions, whose business goals are aligned with the objectives of the innovation hub, are acting as the critical drivers of hub activities,” said Rasheed Eltayeb, Principal in the Public Sector Practice at Booz & Company. “These state-owned enterprise champions have the talent pools to stimulate innovation, the financial resources to bridge the gap between research and commercial success, and the scale to create markets for innovative products.”“Dynamic innovation hubs are playing a greater role in the Middle East’s innovation efforts, and are multiplying around the world despite the difficult state of the global economy. These hubs leverage local advantages with a global outlook on markets and talent,” said WIPO Director General Francis Gurry. “For national-level policy makers seeking to support innovation, realising the full potential of innovation in their own backyards is often a more promising approach than trying to emulate successful innovation models elsewhere.”

The GII 2013 looked at 142 economies around the world, using 84 indicators including the quality of top universities, availability of microfinance, venture capital deals - gauging both innovation capabilities and measurable results. Published annually since 2007, the GII has become a chief benchmark-

ing tool for business executives, policy makers and others seeking insight into the state of innovation around the world. United Nations SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon joined the authors of the report and its Knowledge Partners in presenting the GII 2013 findings at the High-Level Segment of the United Nation’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) on July 1st, in Geneva.

“The results of the GII provide testimony to the global nature of innovation today. The top 25 ranked countries on the GII are a mix of nations from across the world - North America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. While high income economies dominate the list, several new players have increased their innovation capabilities and outputs.

On average, high-income countries outpace developing countries by a wide margin across the board in terms of scores; a persistent innovation divide exists,” stressed Soumitra Dutta, co-editor of the report and Anne and Elmer Lindseth Dean, Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University. Switzerland and Sweden’s performance reflects the fact that both countries are leaders in all components (pillars) of the GII, consistently ranking in the top 25. The United Kingdom has a well-balanced innovation performance (ranking 4th in both input and output), in spite of a relatively low level of growth in labor productivity. The United States continues to benefit from its strong education base (especially in terms of top-rank universities), and has seen strong increases in software spending and employment in knowledge-intensive services. The US was last in the GII top 5 in 2009, when it was number one.

Leaders and learners The GII 2013 shows a striking pattern of stability among the most innovative nations. While individual countries swap their respective rankings within the top 10 or the top 25, not a single country moved in or out of such groups in 2013. One interpretation of this could be that innovation success leads to the emergence of a virtuous circle: once a critical threshold has been reached, investment attracts investment, talent attracts talent, and innovation generates more innovation. Through several of its analytical chapters, the 2013 edition of GII explores how innovation has benefitted from ‘local specifics’ in different parts of the world. One key message is that too many innovation strategies have been focused on trying to replicate previous successes elsewhere, like Silicon Valley in California.

SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

Two former popes to be made saints

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Xinjiang security tight on anniversary of riot

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China-Pak friendship ‘sweeter than honey’

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COCHABAMBA, Bolivia: (Left to right, front row) Presidents Rafael Correa of Ecuador, Jose Mujica of Uruguay, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of Argentina, Evo Morales of Bolivia, Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela and Desi Bouterse of Suriname pose for pictures after a meeting in this Bolivian central city on Thursday. —AFP

Latam leaders rally for Bolivia Morales threatens to shut US embassy COCHABAMBA, Bolivia: Bolivia’s president threatened Thursday to close the US embassy as leftist Latin American leaders joined him in blasting Europe and the United States after his plane was rerouted over suspicions US fugitive Edward Snowden was aboard. President Evo Morales, who has accused Washington of pressuring European nations to deny him their airspace, warned he would “study, if necessary, closing the US embassy in Bolivia”. “We don’t need a US embassy in Bolivia,” he said. “My hand would not shake to close the US embassy. We have dignity, sovereignty. Without the United States, we are better politically, democratically.”

Morales arrived home late Wednesday after a long layover in Vienna. He said his plane was forced to land there because it was barred from flying over four European nations over groundless rumours that Snowden was aboard, sparking outrage among Latin American leaders. The Bolivian president’s air odyssey began hours after Morales declared in Moscow he would con-

sider an asylum application from Snowden, who is holed up at a Moscow airport as he seeks to evade US espionage charges for revealing a vast Internet and telephone surveillance program.

In a show of support, the presidents of Venezuela, Argentina, Ecuador, Uruguay and Suriname met with Morales in the central Bolivian city of Cochabamba to discuss the incident. They demanded that the four European countries - Spain, France, Italy and Portugal explain their actions and apologize, saying that the treatment of Morales was an insult to Latin America as a whole. The slight to Morales “offends not just the people of Bolivia but all of our nations”, they said in a statement after the emergency meeting. “The worst thing is that they are treating us like children rather than show humility and say ‘we made a mistake’, added Uruguayan President Jose Mugica.

At a rally before the meeting, Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro claimed that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had ordered the four

European nations to deny access to Morales’s plane. “A minister of one of these European governments personally told us by telephone that they were going to apologize because they were surprised, and that those who gave the order to aviation authorities in this country... were the CIA,” he said.

Ecuador’s Rafael Correa said the leaders would “take decisions and show that we won’t accept this sort of humiliation against any country of (Latin) America.” “Imagine if this happened to a European head of state, if this had happened to the president of the United States. It probably would have been a casus belli, a case for war,” he said. “They think they can attack, crush, destroy international law.”

Correa had called for a larger summit gathering leaders of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), but the leaders of Brazil, Colombia, Chile and Peru did not attend, although they too condemned the incident. In an implicit criticism of his absent peers, Correa

said: “If what happened doesn’t justify a meeting of heads of state of our South America, what justifies one?” Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos voiced support for Morales but warned on Twitter against “converting this into a diplomatic crisis between Latin America and the EU (European Union)” Morales earlier urged Europeans to “free themselves from the US empire”. The US consulate’s walls in the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz were sprayed with red graffiti, one reading “Gringos Obama out,” while some 100 protesters burned flags and threw rocks at the French embassy in La Paz on Wednesday.

France has since apologized for temporarily refusing entry to Morales’s jet, with President Francois Hollande saying there was “conflicting information” about the passengers. The Bolivian government has lodged a complaint with the United Nations and said it planned another to the UN Human Rights Commission. Russia has joined Latin American leaders in condemning European nations over the incident. —AFP

I N T E R N AT I O N A L SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

Egypt army on frontline of tough transition CAIRO: With its popularly supported overthrow of president Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s army has placed itself at the forefront of a difficult transition fraught with the risks of confronting the Islamist’s backers. The military has announced a roadmap that includes the suspension of the constitution and appointment of the country’s top

judge Adly Mansour as interim president with a vague mandate ahead of new elections. But it is military chief Abdel Fattah AlSisi, also the defence minister appointed by Morsi, who will call the shots. The armed forces had previously ruled the country, in between the Arab Spring uprising that toppled longtime strongman Hosni Mubarak

CAIRO: An Egyptian protester flashes victory signs for military aircraft forming a heart shape trail in the sky over Tahrir Square yesterday. —AP

in Feb 2011 and Morsi’s election about 16 months later.

Back then, Mubarak’s defence minister, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, headed the army in a tumultuous, violence-stricken transition that damaged the military’s standing in society. This time around, however, the generals have set out to avoid a repeat that pattern, which sapped both its popular support and its officers’ morale, commentators say. “I think the new military leaders do not want to make the SCAF’s mistakes at the time,” said political analyst Hala Mostafa, referring to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. “The main difference is that this time, there is popular support” for its roadmap, she said.

The military overthrew Morsi on Wednesday after millions of protesters rallied to demand the Islamist leader quit for failing the 2011 revolution and bolstering his Islamist base at the expense of the rest of the country. Sisi made a fine point of mustering opposition and religious leaders to appear beside him during his televised address on Wednesday night to announce Morsi’s removal. His plan has been backed

by Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros II and the head of Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam’s highest seat of learning.

Israel relying on Egyptian army to counter Islamists Politicians welcome Morsi’s ouster JERUSALEM: Israel is relying on the Egyptian army to suppress Islamist militants in the Sinai and to ensure the country’s stability after the dismissal of Mohamed Morsi as president, Israeli media and politicians said. The Egyptian military overthrew Morsi on Wednesday after millions of protesters rallied to demand the Islamist leader quit for failing the 2011 revolution and bolstering his Islamist base at the expense of the rest of the country. Ministers in the Israeli cabinet have so far stuck to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s order for silence on the subject.

But MP Tzahi Hanegbi, who is close to Netanyahu, welcomed the ouster of Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically-elected president who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood.

“Israel’s clear interest is for Egypt to remain stable, favourable to the West and the US, and that it does not let itself get carried away by a wave of religious extremism,” said Hanegbi, former head of the Knesset (parliament) commission on defence and foreign affairs. “Over Morsi’s year in power, we noticed worrying developments, and that is why the return to prominence of the army and a secular authority capable of ensuring the stability of the country is good news for Israel,” he added.

Israel’s former ambassador to Egypt, Yitzhak Levanon, also stressed the positive role of the army in Egypt. “The Egyptian authorities are aware of Israel sensitivity to everything that happens in the Sinai, and now the Egyptian army feels a little freer to act firmly against

RAFAH: A Hamas policeman (right) stands in the southern Gaza Strip on the border with Egypt yesterday while an Egyptian soldier standing on top of a watchtower keeps watch from the Egyptian side. —AFP

Islamist elements,” he explained. The daily Yediot Aharonot said that the “security cooperation” between the two countries has been beefed up in recent days. The newspaper reported that just several hours after Morsi’s dismissal, an “official Israeli representative secretly arrived in Cairo to meet with Egyptian security and intelligence officials,” without giving any further details. “Security links were good during the Morsi period, and should be even better from now on,” Yediot Aharonot wrote.

A hive of militant activity, Egypt’s Sinai peninsula is a major route for drugs smuggling and human trafficking. Ever since the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak in 2011, throwing his feared security services into disarray, the region has grown even more restless and awash with weapons. Attacks and kidnappings targeting Egyptian security forces in the area have multiplied, and militants have fired rockets from the region at Israel. On Friday, militants launched coordinated rocket and machine gun attacks on Egyptian army and police checkpoints in the Sinai, killing one soldier and wounding two others, Egyptian medical sources said.

A police station and a military intelligence building in the border town of Rafah also came under fire from rockets, security sources said.

Several Islamist militants have publicly threatened to carry out raids in reprisal for Morsi’s dismissal on Wednesday. The Israeli army said Tuesday that it had “authorised” the deployment of Egyptian military reinforcements in the Sinai. “The Egyptian military activity in the Sinai is coordinated with Israeli security elements and authorised at the most senior levels in Israel, in order to contend with security threats in the Sinai that pose a threat to both Israel and Egypt,” the army said in a statement. —AFP

But some still have their doubts given the experience of the military’s handling of the post-Mubarak transition, during which opposition protests were quashed.

“Somehow Egyptians have magically forgotten the series of human rights violations that the army has conducted in the name of ‘stability’ and ‘productivity’ as well the many marches and protests that took place, calling for the army to return to its barracks,” wrote columnist Thoraia Abou Bakr in the English-language Daily News Egypt newspaper. “This time, it will be different,” they tell me, “The army does not want to rule.”

A military crackdown in which the top leadership of the Brotherhood has been rounded up may also prolong the climate of tension and violence that undermines Egypt and weighs heavily on the economy. “The forceful removal of the nation’s first democratically elected civilian president risks sending a message to Islamists that they have no place in the political order,” said the International Crisis Group.

This, the Brussels-based ICG added, would sow “fears among them that they will suffer yet another bloody crackdown; and thus potentially prompting violent, even desperate resistance by Morsi’s followers”. —AFP

Turkey cracks down on Syria aid workers ANKARA: The finger of blame which the Turkish government pointed at foreigners for orchestrating anti-government protests that rocked the country now appears to target foreign aid missions helping internally displaced Syrians.

Last week Turkish police raided offices of two humanitarian aid missions operating in war-torn Syria and deported four foreigners, witnesses said. A Turkish official however denied the action was linked to the nationwide demonstrations that presented the Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) with its most serious challenge since coming to power more than a decade ago, saying that humanitarian aid missions in border regions must be registered.

A source familiar with the humanitarian efforts in Syria gave an account of two separate cases in the city of Antakya near the border with Syria where police detained one Spanish, one German and two British aid workers and deported them after hours of interrogation. “You’re aware of how difficult it is for humanitarians to operate in Syria, but we’re also coming under increasing pressure from the Turkish state,” the source told AFP on the phone. “In one case last Wednesday an NGO staff member was forced off the road by unmarked police cars. Police caught him when he tried to run. His flat was searched. He was interrogated for hours and detained before being transferred to a counterterrorism unit,” the source added. The following day, 30 police officers raided another NGO office, which was in the process of registration, according to the source. “The charges shifted from evasion of police to drugs and to the suspicion of fomenting unrest,” he said.

Several weeks of unrest, sparked by a local environment campaign to save a central Istanbul park from demolition, grew into nationwide protests against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government, seen as increasingly authoritarian. A defiant Erdogan has dismissed the protesters as “vandals” and “looters” and branded the turmoil a plot “hatched by traitors and their foreign accomplices.” In addition to the big cities like Istanbul and Ankara, protesters also took to the streets in Antakya - which lies about 50 km from the Syrian border. The government’s violent crackdown has left four people dead including a 22-yearold man who was fatally wounded during demos in Antakya last month. —AFP

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

Egypt shadow hangs over Syria oppn ISTANBUL: Syria’s opposition hit deadlock yesterday in talks to elect a new leader, as the toppling of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood dealt a blow to its most influential faction.

The stalemate is preventing the main players in the Syrian National Coalition from reaching a deal acceptable to their Saudi and Qatari backers, who want to strengthen the opposition to counter an onslaught by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in Syria’s civil war.

Sources in the Arab- and Western-backed coalition said the fate of an agreement hinges on the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, the only organised group in the opposition, which holds a balance of votes between a Saudibacked and a Qatari-backed candidate.

But the group is reeling from this week’s political blow its mother branch in Egypt, where the armed forces intervened to topple Islamist President Mohamed Morsi after mass street protests. “The atmosphere is subdued.

The Brotherhood in Egypt, and by extension in Syria and elsewhere, took a blow, but even their opponents feel that the Middle East lost a historic opportunity to convince Islamists to embrace democracy,” a coalition official said in Istanbul, where the opposition is meeting.

Farouk Tayfour, the deputy leader of the Syrian Brotherhood, said the Egyptian army’s removal of Morsi was a “mark of shame”. “The

Egyptian revolution, which set a high example for other revolutions because it was peaceful, has entered a bad phase,” he said.

Anas Ayrout, a leading cleric from the coastal city of Banias, said the Brotherhood in Syria now risks being a political has-been: “They have been antagonising other Islamists and now they risk becoming an old card after having been defeated in Egypt.” But he said Islamists were nevertheless in a stronger position in Syria because they dominate armed rebel ranks which would take power if Assad was toppled. “Politics is a product of power on the ground. An Egyptian scenario is difficult to repeat in Syria,” Ayrout said. More than 90,000 people have been killed since the Syrian revolt against four decades of rule by Assad and his late father erupted in March 2011, making it the bloodiest of the Arab Spring uprisings against entrenched autocrats.

The opposition’s inability to unite has made Western countries reluctant to send weapons, even as Assad’s forces recaptured territory in recent months and Washington and its European allies have vowed to aid the Syrian Free Army, which is fighting to overthrow him. The coalition has been without a leader for months after its head quit over disagreement over potential talks with Assad’s

government. It aims to agree on a new unified leadership at its talks in Istanbul. The main contenders for the presidency are secretary general Mustafa Sabbagh, a businessman seen as Qatar’s pointman, and Ahmad Jarba, a tribal figure well connected with Saudi Arabia.

Both lack the majority votes needed to become leader of the 120-member coalition which has three power centres: the Brotherhood, the Sabbagh faction, and a

Saudi-backed bloc that includes Jarba. “The Brotherhood prefers Sabbagh but they are pragmatic and may not want to anger Saudi Arabia. They will probably throw the name of a compromise candidate in at the last minute,” a coalition insider said. Names that emerged as possible compromises include Ahmed Tumeh Al-Khader a veteran opposition figure from the eastern province of Deir al-Zor, and Burhan Ghalioun, a professor based in Paris. — Reuters

Egypt Islamists rally against...

Continued from Page 1 The armed forces have already sworn in an interim president, however, and the newly appointed Adly Mansour issued his first decree yesterday, dissolving the Islamist-led parliament and appointing a new intelligence chief. Foreign diplomacy was being handled by the head of Egypt’s armed forces yesterday, as General Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi called Saudi King Abdullah to reassure him Egypt was stable.

Before yesterday’s rallies, around a dozen low-flying military jets screeched across Cairo, but the show of force failed to deter Morsi’s supporters. Shots rang out after one supporter tried to hang a picture of the ousted leader on barbed wire outside the headquarters, said the AFP correspondent.

Despite being warned twice not to approach the building, the man did so, and members of the Guard started shooting.

Bursts of gunfire were then heard from both sides, triggering panic, before security forces used tear gas to disperse the crowd.

A senior Brotherhood official, Ahmed Fahmy, later urged Morsi’s supporters to back off and not to confront the military.

Morsi, who has not been seen since Wednesday, had issued a defiant call for supporters to protect his elected “legitimacy”, in a recorded speech aired hours after his removal. The military had said it supported the right to peaceful protest, but warned against violence and acts of civil disobedience. Elsewhere, gunmen killed two policemen in the restive Sinai peninsula, after Islamist militants killed a soldier in a machinegun and rocket attack. Clashes also broke out in the Nile Delta province of Sharqiya.

On the eve of yesterday’s rallies, Mansour had called for unity in a television interview.

“All I can say to the Egyptian people is to be one body. We had enough of division,” he told Britain’s Channel 4. “The Muslim Brotherhood is part of the fabric of Egyptian

society. They are one of its parties. They are invited to integrate into this nation and be part of it.” Prominent liberal leader Mohamed ElBaradei defended the military’s intervention. “We asked the army to intervene because the other option was a civil war. We were between a rock and a hard place, and people need to understand that,” the former UN nuclear watchdog chief told the BBC. Sisi announced Morsi’s overthrow on Wednesday night, citing his inability to end a deepening political crisis, as dozens of armoured personnel carriers streamed onto Cairo’s streets. Military police have since rounded up senior members of Morsi’s Brotherhood, but freed two of them later yesterday. Saad Al-Katatni, who heads the Freedom and Justice Party - the political arm of the Brotherhood - and the deputy head of the Islamist movement Rashad Bayoumi were released after two days in detention.

Morsi himself was “preventively detained” by the military, a senior officer told AFP hours after his overthrow, suggesting he might face trial. A judicial source said the prosecution would on Monday begin questioning Brotherhood members, including Morsi, for “insulting the judiciary”. Thirtyfive of them have been banned from travel.

Morsi’s rule was marked by accusations he concentrated power in the hands of the Brotherhood. He was also blamed for a spiralling economic crisis. His supporters argue Morsi was confronted at every turn with a hostile bureaucracy left over by former strongman Hosni Mubarak, overthrown in the country’s Arab Springinspired uprising of 2011. Egypt expressed “deep regret” after the African Union suspended it in line with its strict rules against unconstitutional changes of government.

And in another blow, credit ratings agency Fitch said it had downgraded Egypt’s longterm foreign and local currency issuer default ratings to “B-” from “B” with a negative outlook.— Agencies

KFAR NUBUL, Syria: Syrian demonstrators posing with a banner referring to the situation in both Syria and Egypt during an anti-regime protest in the northwestern province of Idlib yesterday. — AFP

Gulf drive against Hezb may hit...

Continued from Page 1 Expulsions of this sort are not new, but the publicity and coordination surrounding the current campaign is unusual. For years some Gulf Arab states have made it tough for Shiites in general to get residency visas, especially when applying for jobs in government or government-related entities.

This is a result, analysts say, of a longstanding view among some states that Shiites are a security threat, mainly because of what Gulf Arab officials say is Iranian meddling in Arab internal affairs. Iran denies such accusations.

Another source of tension is a dispute over Iran’s nuclear program, which the West and its Arab allies suspect is aimed at obtaining a nuclear weapons capability.

Iran denies this. Many Lebanese see Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s support for Assad against an insurgency dominated by Syria’s Sunni majority as a miscalculation that will drag Lebanon into the Syrian quagmire, exacerbate fighting in Lebanon itself and deepen Sunni-Shiite sectarian rifts in the region. Speaking from Beirut, Alayan said he knew of at least 400 Lebanese families who had been evicted from the UAE alone since 2009, but believed the number was bigger. “This is repressive. People have lost their investments and their livelihood,” he said. “They want to create a financial burden on a certain party in Lebanon (Hezbollah) to tell them that if it were not for them, this would have not happened.”

Some Gulf officials are concerned to

show the campaign is not directed against Lebanese as a whole. Lebanese are prominent among the region’s leading professionals, administrators and entrepreneurs, many co-owning companies with Gulf partners. Qatar’s new emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, who took power on June 25 after his father abdicated, dispelled fears about widespread deportations of the Lebanese community. “The Lebanese presence in Qatar is protected, and the Lebanese in Qatar are among their own people. They abide by the state’s laws and respect them,” Sheikh Tamim was quoted as saying on June 30.

Lebanese migration to the Gulf started after World War Two with the discovery of oil in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and in the 1980s to other countries, especially the UAE, Guita Hourani, Director of the Lebanese Emigration Research Center at Notre Dame University in Lebanon, wrote in a 2010 paper. Hourani said Lebanon’s political instability and weak economy led a “reservoir of qualified human resources” to continue to migrate to the cash-rich Gulf states, sending back home hundreds of millions of dollars every year.

Theodore Karasik, director of research at the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, said that although the Gulf states had expelled Lebanese Shiites for years, Hezbollah’s military involvement in Syria heralded a tougher stance. “I think that there will be a systematic deportation program as opposed to picking out certain individuals and given the environment it’s going to be pretty high,” said Karasik. — Reuters

I N T E R N AT I O N A L SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

Mandela doctors advised turning off life support JOHANNESBURG: Nelson Mandela’s doctors advised his family to turn off the ailing icon’s life-support machines last week, a court document has shown,

prompting South Africa’s government to say yesterday he was not “in a vegetative state”. A June 26 court filing obtained by AFP described Mandela’s “perilous”

PRETORIA: A preacher gives a speech yesterday outside the Medi Clinic Heart Hospital where former South African President Nelson Mandela is hospitalized. —AFP

health and appears to show for the first time just how close the critically ill 94year-old came to death. “He is in a permanent vegetative state and is assisted in breathing by a life support machine,” lawyers said on behalf of 15 Mandela family members including his wife and three daughters. “The Mandela family have been advised by the medical practitioners that his life support machine should be switched off. Rather than prolonging his suffering, the Mandela family is exploring this option as a very real probability.”

The filing pressed a South African court to urgently resolve a bitter family feud over where the remains of three of Mandela’s children should be buried, which could have implications for Mandela’s own final resting place. On the day the document was drafted, President Jacob Zuma abruptly cancelled a trip to Mozambique to confer with Mandela’s doctors amid fears the 94-year-old may be close to the end.

Zuma, Mandela family members and his close friends have since reported his

Two former popes to be made saints Vatican issues first text co-written by Francis, Benedict

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis gave the go-ahead yesterday for John Paul II to be made saint and granted a rare exception for canonisation at the same time for John XXIII, who shares the current pontiff’s reformist views and personal touch. The announcement marked a historic day at the Vatican, which also issued an unprecedented text co-written by Francis and his living predecessor Benedict XVI in which the two popes said faith was a “common good” and called for dialogue with non-believers. The Vatican said Francis gave his widely expected formal approval to a second miracle attributed to John Paul II (1978-2005) at a meeting with Cardinal Angelo Amato, head of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

The supposed miracle occurred to a woman in Costa Rica, the Vatican said, following media reports that she had been cured of a serious brain condition by praying for the late pope’s intercession on the same day that he was beatified in 2011. John Paul II (1978-2005) was hugely popular through his 27year papacy, and helped topple Communism although he alienated many Catholics with his conservative views and was blamed for hushing up multiple scandals over paedophile priests.

At his funeral in 2005, crowds of mourners cried “Santo Subito!” - which roughly translates as “Sainthood Now!” - prompting the Vatican to speed up the path to sainthood, which normally begins five years after the death of the person in question.

In the case of John XXIII (1958-1963), Francis “approved the favourable votes” from the Congregation for the canonisation even though no second miracle has been found, in a break with the usual procedure. The long road to sainthood normally requires two “confirmed” miracles, the first of which is necessary for beatification, a hurdle the Polish pope cleared just six months after his death.

That was the healing of a French nun, Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, whose recovery from Parkinson’s disease after praying for the late John Paul II’s intercession apparently had no medical

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis (right) greets Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI during the inauguration of the Statue of St Michele in the Vatican gardens yesterday. —AFP explanation. The announcement on John XXIII was greeted with bells ringing out in a parish church in the village of Sotto Il Monte in northern Italy where he came from. A consistory, a meeting of cardinals, will now be held to determine the exact date for the canonisations but Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said they would take place “before the end of the year”.

Nicknamed “The Good Pope”, John XXIII made his name by calling the historic Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) which overhauled and modernised the Catholic Church’s rituals and doctrines.

Francis also promises to be a reformist pope, planning an overhaul of the Vatican bureaucracy and its finances and promising a “poor Church for the poor”. The current pontiff is often compared to

John XXIII for his pastoral attitude and charisma, which contrasts with the more austere and academic style of Benedict XVI. A religious text issued by the Vatican yesterday, however, showed that behind the differences in style there was continuity between Benedict and Francis. The encyclical was co-written by the two men - a first in Church history - and highlights the importance of faith in modern society, as well as restating the Vatican’s opposition to gay marriage. Faith “does not simply brighten the interior of the Church, nor does it serve solely to build an eternal city in the hereafter, it helps us build our societies,” read the text. It also said faith cannot be “imposed by force” and believers should not be “presumptuous”. —AFP

condition has improved.

South African presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj told AFP yesterday that Zuma’s office “had not been party” to the court material and would not speculate on its content. “We did not file any document and we are not saying that it’s true or not true,” he said. Maharaj told AFP that doctors had since said Mandela is not currently “in a vegetative state”, but the spokesman refused to comment on Mandela’s previous condition. “We do not go into clinical details of his condition for reasons of doctor-patient confidentiality,” said Maharaj, also citing the “dignity of the former president”.

Denis Goldberg, one of the men who was convicted with Mandela in 1964 for their fight against white-minority rule, told AFP Mandela was clearly conscious when he visited him on Monday. “He is clearly a very ill man, but he was conscious and he tried to move his mouth and eyes when I talked to him,” Goldberg said. “He is definitely not unconscious,” he added, saying “he was aware of who I was”. —AFP

Navalny faces six years’ jail KIROV, Russia: Russian prosecutors demanded a six-year jail sentence for protest leader Alexei Navalny on theft charges yesterday at a trial that he says is intended to sideline him as a rival to President Vladimir Putin. Prosecutor Sergei Bogdanov did not seek the maximum 10-year sentence, but a six-year term would keep the anti-corruption campaigner in jail until after the next presidential election scheduled in 2018. Navalny, the most prominent opposition leader to be tried in post-Soviet Russia, denies charges of stealing 16 million roubles ($482,000) from a local timber firm that he was advising in 2009 while working for the liberal regional governor.

Summing up for the prosecution at the end of a two-month trial in the industrial city of Kirov, 900 km northeast of Moscow, Bogdanov told the Leninsky court: “The evidence considAlexei Navalny ered in the trial fully proves that Navalny ... committed a crime. “I ask the court to find Alexei Navalny guilty ... and sentence him to six years in prison and a fine of 1 million roubles.” Navalny, 37, exchanged nervous smiles with his wife Yulia.

When a short break in proceedings was declared, she embraced him, and he then turned to his lawyer and said: “Overall, why be surprised? I’d expected five or six years.” Dressed casually in beige trousers and a light shirt with the sleeves rolled up, he told reporters: “I still hope everything will be fine.”

Navalny’s trial is widely seen as the most significant in Russia since oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was jailed in 2005 for fraud and tax evasion after falling out with Putin. His $40 billion oil firm, Yukos, was broken up and sold off, mainly into state hands. Navalny, who organised the biggest anti-Putin protests since the former KGB spy rose to power in 2000, has suggested the president ordered the trial to stop his criticism of what he calls a political class of “swindlers and thieves”.

The Kremlin has denied using the courts for political ends and says it does not interfere in criminal cases. But Navalny’s lawyers say there is no evidence against him and point out that the investigation had at one stage been dropped, before unexpectedly being revived.

They also complain that a large number of witnesses called by the defence were not allowed to appear. “The nature of the charges, the lack of real evidence from the prosecution, the judge’s dismissal of nearly all defence motions - all this proves this trial does not satisfy the rules of justice and is aimed at only one thing: to publicly discredit and sentence a famous civic and political activist for political motives,” defence lawyer Olga Mikhailova said. —Reuters

I N T E R N AT I O N A L SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

Indonesia, Rudd back talks on boat people

BOGOR, Indonesia: Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd (left) and Indonesia President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono shake hands before a meeting at the Presidential Palace yesterday. —AP

BOGOR, Indonesia: Indonesia’s president and Australia’s newly reinstated Prime Minister Kevin Rudd yesterday backed talks with originating countries to try to stem a tide of asylumseeker boats staging perilous journeys to Australia. Barely a week after ousting Julia Gillard in a dramatic party coup, Rudd held talks with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Indonesia on an issue that looms large at upcoming elections in Australia. As the leaders met, the problem was highlighted anew when a vessel carrying about 80 asylum-seekers ran into trouble in seas south of Indonesia.

Despite Canberra banishing asylum-seekers to remote Pacific islands for processing, thousands of wouldbe refugees continue to attempt the sea crossing to Australia every year, often from transit hubs in Indonesia.

Many have died making the haz-

ardous journey in crammed, rickety boats, normally after paying huge fees to people-smugglers. Rudd has already drawn Indonesia into the domestic debate, pouring scorn on conservative opposition leader Tony Abbott and his plan to “turn back” the boats, saying this risks a diplomatic flare-up with Jakarta.

In his previous stint as prime minister up to 2010, Rudd relaxed tough refugee controls. He is now under pressure to take a hard line on the campaign hustings although he gave little indication after yesterday’s talks that he was about to do so. Following an annual Indonesia-Australia summit in the presidential palace in Bogor, just outside Jakarta, Yudhoyono said “concrete” action was needed - but not just from Jakarta and Canberra.

He said that countries of origin,

Xinjiang security tight on anniversary of riot Uighur scholar slams China repression BEIJING: Chinese authorities imposed tight control in the capital of Xinjiang yesterday, the fourth anniversary of ethnic rioting which killed around 200 people, said state media and exile groups. Internet users posted pictures of baton-wielding security personnel in Urumqi, the scene of clashes in 2009 between mostly Muslim Uighurs and members of China’s Han majority that were Xinjiang’s worst violence of recent years. Last week two incidents in the region left at least 35 people dead and officials have vowed to crack down on what they call “terrorists”.

“Wearing helmets, officers patrolled the capital holding guns and shields,” said the state-run Global Times, describing the “heaviest security measures since 2009” in Urumqi. There was “a heavy presence of armed police officers and police vehicles at all major crossroads in Urumqi”, it added. China commonly steps up patrols for the July 5 anniversary of the riots but the report said: “Last week’s violence in the region has made authorities particularly watchful.”

The date also comes in the run-up to the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. A user of Sina Weibo, a

Twitter-like microblogging service, who was apparently visiting the city said security was tight on the eve of the anniversary. “The Urumqi train station feels safe,” posted the user under the name Zhangxh1970. “On the square there are only police.

People who came to pick up passengers are stopped outside. Harmonious Xinjiang,” he added, an apparent dig at the pacific image of the region often depicted in state propaganda.

Xinjiang’s population is 46 percent Uighur with 39 percent Han, who largely dominate the economy. Uighur organisations accuse Beijing of suppressing their language, culture and religion, while China says development of the resource-rich region has raised living standards. Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress, said in an e-mail: “China is launching a coercion policy against Uighurs to forbid them from assembling and mosques from holding prayer ceremonies for Uighurs that died in the 7.5 incident in 2009.”

“Uighurs don’t feel safe even in their own homes,” he added. “They have to face discriminative inspections and provocations everyday and new conflicts

Tourists buy various local produce at the city bazaar in Urumqi in far west China’s Xinjiang region yesterday. (Inset) Outspoken Uighur scholar and advocate Ilham Tohti speaks during an interview at his home in Beijing yesterday. —AFP

can be triggered anytime, anywhere.”

An outspoken advocate for the Uighurs criticized the authoritarian government yesterday, saying its stifling security presence has fanned ethnic discord in his far western homeland. The critique by Uighur scholar Ilham Tohti, as well as his allegations that 34 people, mostly Uighurs, remain missing after a previous crackdown, was unusually bold for an activist based on the mainland, rather than overseas, at a time when authorities are on high alert and have responded to such critics with detentions.

Tohti, a Beijing-based economist, said tensions will continue to boil over into violence as long as the government maintains its tight controls over the region and fails to address the Uighur’s complaints of discrimination and marginalization. “Every time something happens, the government responds with one word: pressure. High pressure, high pressure, and even greater pressure. This leads to greater resistance and more conflict,” Tohti said by phone.

“The government should reflect and take responsibility for what is happening in Xinjiang now and in the future.”

Tohti said the lack of transparency surrounding the recent unrest and controls on independent reporting from the region make it difficult to determine what the true nature of the violence has been.

He said that local frustration with Beijing’s policies has likely fueled the unrest in part. “The government should know that in Xinjiang there is a peaceful resistance to violence, as well as a violent struggle against violence. Some of it has nothing to do with terrorism or separatism,” Tohti said. “A lot of people just cannot go on this way. They can’t turn to legal channels or the media; they have no way to protect their own rights or express themselves. What are they supposed to do? Some of them choose confrontation and agitation,” he said.

On his website, Tohti posted a letter yesterday addressed to China’s rubber-stamp legislature, the National People’s Congress, and China’s Cabinet, the State Council, in which he compiled a list of people who remain missing after authorities launched an expansive crackdown in response to the 2009 riots.

They include 32 Uighurs and two people of the Kazakh ethnic group. He said the authorities’ persistent lack of accountability over the crackdown has fueled hatred toward the government. —Agencies

and countries through which asylum-seekers pass on their journeys, also needed to stop people-smuggling. While many use Indonesia as a jumping-off point to head to Australia, they are not normally Indonesian nationals. “Everybody must take responsibility and must take concrete action,” Yudhoyono said. “It is unfair if only Indonesia and Australia are burdened with this.

“Indonesia, in cooperation with Australia, will host a meeting,” he said, adding that it would include countries of origin and transit. He listed Afghanistan, Iran and Myanmar as countries where many asylumseekers come from, and Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia as transit countries. “We want these countries to sit together and really find a solution,” he said, without giving a date for the meeting. —AFP

Ex-fortune teller jailed for forging will in Hong Kong HONG KONG: A “charlatan” who claimed to be the lover of a late Hong Kong billionaire was jailed yesterday for 12 years after a court convicted him of forging her will in a bid to steal her fortune. Bartender-turned-feng shui master Tony Chan had claimed to be the sole beneficiary of Nina Wang’s US$13 billion estate, which she inherited after the kidnapping and disappearance of her property mogul husband. A court had ruled in 2010 - three years after Wang’s death - that a will in Chan’s possession was fake and after more than 20 hours of deliberation, a jury on Thursday found him guilty of forging the document. Sentencing the 53-year-old, judge Andrew Macrae yesterday described his conduct as “shameless and wicked as well as borne of Tony Chan unparalleled greed”. “Forgery of a will is particularly nasty and insidious,” said Macrae, as the deceased “can’t answer back”. “You are no doubt a clever, and no doubt beguiling charlatan,” the judge said, describing his actions as “cruel and egregious”.

Chan lowered his head into his hands when the sentence was read out before a courtroom packed with reporters, and smiled as he left the dock. The sensational case has for years gripped the former British colony and generated blanket media coverage, with Chan often cast as a fraudster who duped Wang by promising to find her kidnapped husband and cure her of cancer. Much of the case revolved around Chan’s claims that he and Wang were lovers and that she promised to leave him everything. During the trial, his lawyers showed a home video of the pair in a passionate embrace.

But the court heard that Chan was a grasping chancer who, despite earning HK$3 billion (US$385 million) for his feng shui services from Wang, was not content and wanted to take over her entire business empire and fortune. “Never once... has there been the slightest remorse for your conduct,” Macrae said, adding that the forgery was “extremely well planned”.

Wang, once Asia’s richest woman, was known for her thrifty nature and outlandish dress sense, and was nicknamed “Little Sweetie” for her pigtail hairstyle.

She died of cancer in 2007 aged 69, triggering a bitter public feud over her fortune. Wang’s husband Teddy, who started the Chinachem Group property empire, was abducted in 1990 and declared legally dead in 1999. His body has never been found. His disappearance kicked off a heated legal battle between Wang and her father-in-law for control of the Chinachem Group. She eventually won the case just two years before her own death in 2007.

After Chan lost his legal battle to the estate, the court ruled it would be passed onto the billionaire’s charity the Chinachem Charitable Foundation, which is run by her siblings. The court had ruled in 2010 that the will in Chan’s possession was a “highly skilled simulation”, siding with the charity’s claim to the estate based on an earlier will. Chan had built a career advising clients including Wang on feng shui, an ancient Chinese belief system based on harnessing natural and spiritual energies. But earlier this year he renounced the practice for Christianity, calling feng shui the work of the devil and changing his name to Peter, the South China Morning Post reported. Chan had said he was not afraid of going to jail. “Since I have received the greatest salvation... other things don’t matter to me anymore,” he was quoted as saying in March in reference to his religious conversion. Chan’s lawyer Andrew Kan did not respond to questions yesterday about whether he would appeal the sentence. —AFP

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

Suicide attack kills 12 police in Afghanistan

KABUL: Afghan men shout ‘long live Morsi’ as they participate in a demonstration in support of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi yesterday. — AFP

Pak reinstates death penalty ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s new government, trying to appear determined to rein in escalating crime and militancy, has ended a ban on the death penalty, in a move condemned by international organisations as inhuman and retrograde. Up to 8,000 people languish on death row in dozens of Pakistan’s notoriously overcrowded and violent jails. Once a moratorium is in place, reinstatement of capital punishment is rare, with more than 150 countries having already either abolished the death penalty or stopped administering it.

A 2008 moratorium imposed by Pakistan’s previous government, praised at the time by global rights groups, expired on June 30. “The present government does not plan to extend it,” said Omar Hamid Khan, an interior ministry spokesman.

Pakistan’s president must approve all executions. The government puts the number of people on death row at about 400.

The method of execution is usually hanging. “Pakistan is part of a dwindling minority of States who continue to retain the death penalty and carry out executions,” the International Crisis Group said. “The prospect of lifting the moratorium is all the more alarming given the extraordinarily high number of people on death row.” Khan said the new policy of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government was to execute all death row prisoners, except those pardoned on humanitarian grounds. There is, however, no firm evidence showing the practice can serve as a deterrent to crime or extremism, according to the United Nations and human rights groups. “As long as the death penalty is in place, the risk of executing innocent people can never be eliminated,” rights group Amnesty International said.

Pakistan says capital punishment is key to deterring crime in places such as Karachi, a megacity of 18 million plagued by violence, as well as in the areas on its border with Afghanistan where Taliban militants launch daily attacks. Papua New Guinea, one of the world’s poorest and most corrupt countries, reinstated the death penalty in May and repealed its sorcery laws after a string of gruesome “witch” killings and gang-rapes. Asked about Amnesty’s criticism, Khan pointed to the fact that capital punishment was still in use in parts of the United States, a nation he said was home to the “best judicial system”.

Pakistan’s moratorium drew praise because of concerns its courts and police were too inept to ensure the accused a fair trial. Pakistan did, however, break its own rules in 2012, when it executed a convicted murderer and a former army serviceman.

The previous government of the Pakistan’s Peoples Party, whose former chairman, Benazir Bhutto, was a fierce opponent of capital punishment, enforced the moratorium soon after taking power in 2008 under President Asif Ali Zardari. Zardari, the widower of Bhutto, who was assassinated in 2007, is due to step down later this year. — Reuters

KANDAHAR: A suicide bomber killed 12 policemen in southern Afghanistan yesterday when he blew himself up inside a police station as officers ate lunch in a dining hall, officials said. The bomber targeted a base used to patrol the main road from Uruzgan province to neighbouring Kandahar, through one of Afghanistan’s most volatile regions where Taliban militants have a strong presence. “A suicide bomber detonated his explosives in a battalion station in Tirin Kot, the provincial capital of Uruzgan,” Abdullah Hemat, the Uruzgan governor’s spokesman, told AFP. “The bomber, who was on foot and wearing a suicide vest, blew himself up while the policemen were having lunch. As a result, 12 policemen were killed and five others wounded,” he said. The attack was the second suicide strike in Afghanistan on Friday after another bomber detonated himself at a border crossing with Pakistan, killing two people including a senior Afghan police commander. “A suicide bomber wearing a vest of explosives crossed the border into Kandahar’s Spin Boldak district this morning and blew himself up,” Javed Faisal, spokesman for the Kandahar governor, told AFP. “A top border police commander and a civilian were killed, and eight others, including two border police and civilians were wounded.”

The Spin Boldak-Chaman border crossing is a

key route from the Pakistani city of Quetta, which gives its name to the Quetta shura Taleban council, and Kandahar, the insurgency’s heartland in southern Afghanistan. Afghan officials say many suicide attackers who strike in Afghanistan are trained in Pakistan, where the Taleban have rear bases and where some of its leaders are based. Islamabad denies allowing the Afghan Taleban to operate from inside Pakistan and says it will do everything asked to facilitate Afghan attempts to broker a peace deal to end 12 years of war.

In recent weeks, Taleban insurgents have accelerated their campaign of suicide attacks and roadside bombs against Afghan officials and Afghan and US-led NATO troops. Last week, the ministry of interior said that 300 police officers were killed in the last month, as Afghan security forces increasingly take on frontline duties fighting the Taleban.

On Monday, a Taleban suicide attack killed nine people in Kabul including four Nepalese, one Briton and a Romanian. Around 100,000 NATO troops based in Afghanistan are handing over security responsibility to Afghan forces before the international combat mission ends next year. A Taleban office that opened in the Gulf state of Qatar on June 18 to start peace talks enraged Afghan President Hamid Karzai by styling itself as an unofficial embassy for a government-in-exile. — AFP

China-Pak friendship ‘sweeter than honey’ Sharif heaps praise on ties BEIJING: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif yesterday told his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang their countries’ relationship was “sweeter than honey”, during a visit to Beijing with economic ties at the top of the agenda. Pakistan and China are close diplomatic and military allies and Sharif, who is on his first foreign trip since his May election, is looking to secure infrastructure projects to tackle a chronic energy crisis and economic malaise in his country. At the Great Hall of the People in the Chinese capital, Sharif said his welcome “reminds me of the saying, our friendship is higher than the Himalayas and deeper than the deepest sea in the world, and sweeter than honey”. Li told him: “I greatly appreciate your great warmth and deep affection for the people of China.” The Chinese premier was the first foreign leader to visit Pakistan after Sharif’s victory at the polls.

Beijing has been involved with the upgrade of the Karakoram Highway as part of a proposed economic corridor between the two countries. Earlier this year China took control of Pakistan’s Gwadar port, giving it access to the Arabian Sea and Strait of Hormuz, a gateway for a third of the world’s traded oil. A series of agreements were signed by ministers of the two countries as Li and Sharif held talks. Among these was a “long term plan” over the economic corridor, and agreements on technology, polio prevention and solar housing.

An agreement was also signed for cooperation between Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) and the Communist Party of China (CPC). The two countries also agreed a $44 million project to erect a fibre optic cable from

the China-Pakistan border to Rawalpindi, which aims to give Pakistan more connectivity to international networks. China-Pakistan trade last year reached $12 billion and is targeted to rise to $15 billion in the next two to three years. On Thursday Sharif held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, amid concerns in his country over weak growth, inflation and power cuts of up to 20 hours a day.

Xi, who referred to Sharif as an old friend and a good brother, said strengthening strategic cooperation with Islamabad was a priority for China’s diplomacy, the state-run broadcaster China Central Television reported. Sharif said his country welcomed Chinese investment and would work to create a friendly environment for it. The threat of terrorism is also expected to figure during Sharif’s discussions. — AFP

BEIJING: Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (right) and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang inspect Chinese honour guards during a welcoming ceremony outside the Great Hall of the People yesterday. — AFP

Hollande shuns fight with ‘protected jobs’

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US economy adds 195,000 jobs; Unemployment 7.6%

Business

US dollar strengthens; European shares edgy

SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

Philippines plans to lift millions out of poverty

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ALLAHABAD: An Indian homeless child eats rice on a roadside in Allahabad, India yesterday. The Indian government has decided to come out with an ordinance to give two-third of the nation’s population the right to 5 kilograms of food grains every month at a highly subsidized rate of 1-3 rupees per kilogram ($0.016- 0.05). — AP

Rupee falls to near lifetime low India president approves landmark ‘food scheme’ MUMBAI: India’s rupee fell to near its lifetime low yesterday, prompting the central bank to intervene in currency markets to drag the ailing unit up, dealers said. The rupee hit an intraday low of 60.59 rupees to the US unitnear its record low of 60.76 hit on June 26 - as Indian importers bought dollars. The Indian currency later pared some of its losses, helped by intervention from the central bank, dealers said, to close at 60.22 rupees to the dollar. “Possibly there was intervention from the Reserve Bank around the 60.58/59 level, which helped the rupee to recover,” said Hemal Doshi, a currency strategist at Geojit Comtrade, according to the Press Trust of India.

The central bank does not normally comment on whether it has intervened in the market but dealers reported there were signs of intervention to prop up the rupee. The reported intervention came a day after the central bank’s governor said the Reserve Bank of India did not have an exchange rate target. The rupee has skidded lower as overseas funds pull out of emerging markets on investor expectations of a scaling down of the hefty US monetary stimulus and as India’s domestic economic woes mount.

The Reserve Bank of India is believed to

have intervened several times in the market in recent weeks, but governor Duvvuri Subbarao said the priority was managing volatility. “We employ all instruments available to us to manage volatility, and we do try to manage volatility. But we do not have an exchange rate band,” Subbarao told reporters in the southern city of Chennai on Thursday. The Indian currency, which has fallen more than 10 percent in 2013, is the worst performing currency among major Asian countries.

Analysts believe the central bank lacks the financial firepower needed to manage the rupee and prevent it from falling further. Its tumble raises import prices of everything from oil and fertilizers to food staples such as pulses, stoking already high consumer inflation and causing hardship for India’s poor millions. Business leaders have been hoping that the RBI would cut interest rates when it meets on July 30 in an effort to spur growth, which is at a decade low of 5.0 percent, but the falling rupee makes this more difficult. The RBI has lowered rates three times this year.

‘FOOD SCHEME’ In another development, Indian President Pranab Mukherjee gave his assent yesterday

to a landmark food welfare program targeting the “poorest of the poor”, the government announced. “The president has signed the ordinance,” a senior food ministry official said, two days after the cabinet sent the National Food Security measure to Mukherjee.

The approval meant the decree came into law immediately but it must eventually be approved by parliament. The multi-billiondollar populist program is the largest in the world, offering subsidized grains to nearly 70 percent of the population, or more than 800 million people. “The food security bill has special focus on the needs of the poorest of the poor, women and children,” the ministry said in statement mailed to AFP. “Up to 75 percent of the rural population and up to 50 percent of the urban population will have uniform entitlement of five kilos per month at highly subsidized prices,” it added.

The flagship program has been pushed by the head of the ruling Congress party, Sonia Gandhi, who has insisted on honoring a 2009 election pledge. The measure would increase the annual food subsidy bill to 1.2 trillion rupees or $20 billion, the statement said. The measure is considered key to the Congressled coalition’s fortunes in elections next year.

The bill had been expected to be cleared by lawmakers in parliament in February, but it was never introduced due to opposition protests. Opposition parties have attacked the government for ramming the measure through by decree, saying there has not been enough discussion of its effect on prices and on farmers who must produce more food.

Food prices have soared in India over the last seven years, causing increased hardship in a country that still struggles to feed its 1.2-billion population adequately despite impressive economic growth over the last two decades.

Critics of the food program also say that India can ill-afford such a costly subsidy at a time of slowing economic growth and when credit ratings agencies are eyeing the country’s large deficit. Indians categorized as below the poverty line can already receive subsidized kerosene, cooking gas, fertilizers or wheat through what is the world’s biggest public distribution system. But the chaotic welfare programs are notoriously inefficient and riddled with corruption. But the government sees the bill as addressing one of India’s most intractable problems of malnutrition, which is an embarrassment for an aspiring superpower. — Agencies

business SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

Egyptian bourse euphoria ‘premature at best’ HONG KONG: This week’s euphoria for Egyptian equities is overdone. The prospect of calmer streets has sent the country’s benchmark index of 30 leading stocks up more than 12 percent since June 30, when protests against the Muslim Brotherhood government began - more than 7 percent on Thursday alone, when the military acted on its threat to force President Mohamed Morsi from power. That was the biggest one-day gain after a year of economic mismanagement under the deposed government.

Investors, though, are divided in their enthusiasm for the transfer of power and what it might mean for the economy’s future. Buyers in the last trading session were mostly local players, according to Pharos Holding,

whereas foreign investors, who make up around one-fifth of the market, were net sellers. There’s certainly a lot of value to unlock. The EGX30 is trading 25 percent lower than it was before the initial uprising in 2011. In uncertain times, companies have chosen to retain cash instead of investing.

That is affecting earnings growth.

Caution is warranted. The risk of a violent retaliation from the marginalized Brotherhood remains. Fresh aid from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which deeply distrusted Morsi’s government, could help reduce the shortage of foreign currency that made it hard for companies and individuals to exchange currency freely. But there is little visibility on when or how much Egypt will receive from its rich neigh-

bors. A sustained improvement in the stock market will depend on how fast the new regime tackles the country’s long-term economic woes. The “technocratic” government, which is yet to be announced, will need to reform energy subsidies and strike a deal with the International Monetary Fund in order to reign in the fiscal deficit and reduce the pressure on current accounts.

Stabilizing the pound, which has depreciated 21 percent against the dollar since the start of 2011, is a prerequisite for foreign investors to start funding the government again. That would reduce the pressure on local banks to buy T-bills and allow them to lend more to companies, benefiting the economy. After two-and-a-half

Oil rises near $107 Egypt on high alert after Sinai attack LONDON: Brent crude oil rose towards $107 a barrel yesterday after Egypt’s army said it was on high alert after an attack in Sinai, pushing the price to its biggest weekly gain since last June. The Egyptian army said it was on alert in the Sinai Peninsula after an attack on an airport in the town of El Arish but had not declared a state of emergency. So far, ports and shipping through the Suez Canal have been operating normally, two shipping sources and a canal official said.

Brent crude for August delivery was up by $1.21 to $106.75 by 1218 GMT after hitting a high of $107.34 a barrel following the Egyptian army’s announcement. Front-month prices have risen by 4.7 percent so far this week, the largest weekly gain since June last year US crude futures were up 53 cents to $101.77 a barrel after hitting a high of $102.19 a barrel. The army took control of Egypt on Wednesday after protesters filled the streets of major cities, asking for the resignation of Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi. The Egyptian uncertainty added to existing supply worries. Almost all physical crude grades consumed by Europe are now short including Russian, Iraqi, Libyan and African grades.

North Sea supplies, which underpin Brent, are expected to be extremely low in the coming months when main grade Forties output is reduced due to maintenance in August. The Forties crude oil stream, the main North Sea grade, will load about 252,000 barrels per day (bpd) in August, down from 387,000 bpd originally planned in July, a trade source said yesterday.

Libyan ports and various fields have been plagued by worker protests, and its largest export terminal was shut late on Thursday. Port guards locked the gate over salary complaints, preventing workers from continuing operations.

OREGON: Gasoline drips from a nozzle at a gas station in Lake Oswego, Ore. The price of oil nears $107 a barrel for the first time in 14 months on concerns about Middle East supplies and signs of an increase in US demand for fuel. — AP NON-FARM PAYROLL In its weekly energy note, Goldman US jobs data could further bolster Sachs said the tightening spread was confidence in demand prospects for “a reflection of an anticipation of the world’s largest oil consumer. Jobs inventory draws in the Midcontinent growth in the United States probably on the back of increased pipeline and slowed slightly in June, buoying the refinery operations”. Clear signals of outlook for fuel demand, according to loose monetary policy ahead from a Reuters survey. central banks in Britain and Europe on But such numbers could also sup- Thursday may lure investors back to port the Federal Reserve’s case to start riskier assets such as oil, the note said. slowing its bond purchases later this Elsewhere, seaborne oil exports from year, which would sap liquidity and OPEC, excluding Angola and Ecuador, drag on commodity prices. Brent’s will rise by 540,000 barrels per day premium to the US benchmark fell to (bpd) in the four weeks to July 20, an its lowest since December 2010 on analyst who estimates future shipWednesday. ments said. — Reuters

years of painful government inaction, investors would be better off to wait and see.

Egypt’s stock market rose 7.3 percent on July 4, one day after the army ousted President Mohamed Morsi from power. Foreign investors, which accounted for 41 percent of trading in the session, were net sellers of Egyptian stocks. An official at equity index provider MSCI said in June that investors had reported difficulties repatriating money out of Egypt. It warned that it may be forced to consider excluding Egypt from the MSCI Emerging Markets Index if the situation worsened. The EGX30, the country’s benchmark index, has declined 2.3 percent in the year to date and 25 percent since January 2011. — Reuters

Syrian crop risks threaten to worsen food shortages ROME: Four million Syrians, a fifth of the population, are unable to produce or buy enough food, and farmers are short of the seed and fertilizers they need to plant their next crop, the United Nations said yesterday. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Program (WFP) said Syria’s domestic wheat production over the next 12 months is likely to be severely compromised and that it will need to import 1.5 million tons of wheat for the 2013/14 season.

“There is a limited window of opportunity to ensure crisis-affected families do not lose vital sources of food and income,” the two agencies said. After more than two years of civil war that has killed more than 90,000 people, food shortages have escalated due to massive population displacement, disruption of agricultural production, unemployment, economic sanctions and high food and fuel prices. FAO has launched an appeal for $41.7 million to assist 768,000 people and has so far received $3.3 million.

The two agencies said the funding must be secured

by August to provide farmers with fertilizers and seeds to plant in October. Otherwise, the report said, many farmers will be unable to harvest wheat until mid-2015.

Syria’s livestock sector has also been seriously depleted by the conflict, with poultry production down by more than 50 percent compared with 2011 and significant declines in numbers of sheep and cattle, the report found. The agencies said domestic wheat output was seen at about 2.4 million tons in 2012/13, some 40 percent less than the average annual harvest of more than 4 million tons before the conflict.

WFP said last month that Syrian families were increasingly resorting to begging for food to cope with shortages and high prices. The average monthly price of wheat flour has more than doubled between May 2011 and May 2013 in several areas, and there are serious bread shortages across the country. Food production has been hampered by high costs, damage to machinery and storage facilities and by the fact that many farmers have fled their land for fear of violence, the report found. Meanwhile, the conflict appeared likely to continue into a third year as the fractious opposition, trying to hold on to swathes of territory across Syria, struggled to unite. FAO and WFP also warned of a serious risk that livestock diseases could be transmitted to neighboring countries and said farmers needed vaccines to prevent this from happening. A Syrian state buyer earlier this week issued a tender to buy 200,000 tons of flour on the international market and planned to pay with funds from bank accounts frozen by trade sanctions. —Reuters

BUSINESS SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

French trade deficit deepens PARIS: The French trade deficit, a critical problem for the recession-hit economy, worsened sharply in May, official data showed yesterday. Although the data for a single month can vary considerably, the overall picture is grim for efforts by the left-wing government to boost industrial competitively, growth and tax revenues.

The trade balance showed a deficit of 6.01 billion euros ($7.7 billion), rising above 6.0 billion euros for the first time since June 2012. This outcome was 1.5 billion euros worse than the deficit of 4.5 billion euros in April. Exports fell particularly to areas outside the European Union, notably to Asia, the Middle East and Africa. These areas represent emerging economies which are considered to be of vital importance to exporters in Europe.

The figures for May, published by the French customs service, were undermined by renewed weakness in the export of transportation equipment, and notably aircraft and aerospace equip-

ment. Exports of Airbus aircraft are a huge positive factor in the trade balance, and Airbus took firm orders totaling $39.3 billion at the Paris Air Show two weeks ago. But in terms of money earned by exports in May, the customs service said: “After two months at a very high level, deliveries of products by the aerospace and ship sectors fell back.”

Overall exports totaled 36.1 billion euros from 37.7 billion euros in April, to show one of the worst monthly performances since 2011. Imports totaled 42.1 billion euros. Big factors were imports of pharmaceutical products from Ireland, of mobile phones from China and a rise of the cost of energy imports. A trade deficit can be a drag on growth in an economy while a surplus boosts output, and France has been running a huge structural deficit for years.

In the 12 months to the end of May, the deficit totaled 63.3 billion euros and in the whole of 2012 the deficit was 67.1 billion euros. By con-

Hollande shuns fight with ‘protected jobs’ PARIS: It looks like a bread line in Soviet Russia, but the queue snaking away from Paris’s Opera Garnier house on a Saturday night is full of tourists waiting for a different sort of scarce commodity: a taxi to bring them home. Frustration with Paris’s taxi shortage - the city has fewer now than it did in 1920 - is just one symptom of competition-killing rules that limit access to dozens of professions and which the European Union says stunt the French economy.

But President Francois Hollande has yet to formulate any plans to break up cartel-like behavior in professions ranging from taxi driver to notary to veterinarian, despite fresh calls from Brussels to cut red tape. His reluctance to risk a fight with powerful interest groups shows the limits to his appetite for reform when many economists say more competition could give the faltering economy a boost.

“These are reforms that bear fruit straight away,” Barclays chief European economist Philippe Gudin said. “When you introduce competition, you have new players and so you create jobs and you reduce prices straight away.” The European Commission is due in September to step up pressure on member states to deregulate under EU provisions on free movements of persons, services and capital, a European source said. Despite pressure from markets and EU partners to reform, Greece and Italy have made little progress breaking open closed professions to competition in the face of entrenched interests.

But nowhere is resistance more dogged than in the eurozone’s second largest economy, where “competition” has negative overtones and previous attempts to liberalize have run aground. “It’s not just that these are powerful lobbies with strong traditions of sticking together against threats - it’s the fact that France doesn’t necessarily think competition is good,” said Eric Le Boucher, a journalist at business daily Les Echos and coauthor of a 2007 government-commissioned report which called for deregulation of professions.

France’s political class is almost devoid of free-market advocates, reflecting widespread statist and anti-liberal views. The EU’s so-called “Bolkestein” directive on services in 2006 met its fiercest resistance in France. Skepticism has barely lessened. In a 2012 roadmap for reform by former EADS CEO Louis Gallois, he criticized the Commission’s “dominant” rhetoric on competition and, unlike in 2007, included zero recommendations on deregulation.

THE USUAL SUSPECTS While Brussels has made deregulation a condition for granting France more time to cut its budget deficit, economists say it should be done for the economic gains. Herve Boulhol, head of the France desk at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, said an ambitious reform of services broadly could yield 5 extra points of GDP over ten years, but could be costly in the short term. —Reuters

trast Germany, the other main and bigger economy in the euro-zone, had a trade surplus of 17.7 billion euros in April after a surplus of 17.6 billion euros in March. The French government regards the trade deficit as a vital problem for the economy and living standards, and has introduced some changes to the tax and labor laws to boost competitiveness.

But the European Commission has said that France must pursue deeper reforms to make its economy more efficient, in return for allowing the country an extra two years to reduce its budget overshooting to 3.0 percent of output.

On Wednesday the new head of the French employers’ federation MEDEF, Pierre Gattaz, warned the government that his members could no longer accept increases in taxes and social charges “which burden our activities”.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley bank warned this week that the French trade deficit was the main factor in an overall deficit on all regular payments

in and out of the country, and that this could cause strains in financing national debt. They said that the payments deficit was equivalent to 2.3 percent of gross domestic product in 2012, the worst figure for more than four decades. “The driving force behind this downward trend has been the slump in the trade balance, stressing the competitiveness issues,” they said.

But so far investors were “overlooking” the sharp worsening of France’s external accounts which reflected “broad structural problems in the economy.” Savings within France would not be enough to finance the public debt and foreign investors could demand higher interest rates, they warned. These factors “could cause a problem for financing government debt.”

Meanwhile there is controversy in France within the government, and over calculations by the auditing office and the right-wing opposition, over the outlook for the severely strained public finances. —AFP

Brightening US jobs picture draws Fed closer to tapering Nonfarm payrolls rise 195,000 in June WASHINGTON: US job growth was stronger than expected in June and the employment count for the prior two months was revised higher, showing the economy on solid ground and likely keeping the Federal Reserve on track to scale back its massive monetary stimulus later this year. Employers added 195,000 new jobs to their payrolls last month, the Labor Department said yesterday, while the unemployment rate held steady at 7.6 percent as more people entered the workforce. The government revised payrolls for April and May to show 70,000 more jobs created than previously reported. Economists polled by Reuters had expected employment to increase 165,000 last month and the jobless rate to fall a tenth of a percentage point to 7.5 percent. “The strong advance in the employment count provides support for the Federal Reserve to start to taper back on its quantitative easing in the near future,” said Kathy Bostjancic, director of macroeconomic analysis at the Conference Board.

The closely watched employment report was released two weeks after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke offered an upbeat assessment of the economy’s outlook and said the US central bank expected to start trimming its bond purchases later this year. US stock index futures added to their gains on the report. Prices for US Treasury debt extended losses, while the dollar rose against the yen. Job growth averaged 196,333 per month over the last three months, closer to the 200,000 jobs that economists say the Fed is seeking.

The employment report also showed weekly hourly earnings rose by the most since November. That, together with other relatively upbeat data on housing, auto sales and manufacturing, makes it more likely the Fed will proceed with its tapering plan. The Fed is purchasing $85 billion in bonds each month in an effort to keep borrowing costs down and spur stronger growth. Twenty-eight of 60 economists polled by Reuters in late June said they expect the Fed to begin dialing back its purchases in September, with most expecting the program to end by June 2014.

The majority also forecast the Fed initially would cut purchases by $20 billion a month.

The recent signals from Bernanke that a start

WASHINGTON: A jobs sign is seen on the front of the US Chamber of Commerce building in this photo. The United States added a betterthan-expected 195,000 jobs in June. —AFP date for reducing bond purchases is approaching triggered a global selloff in stock and bond markets, which have come to rely on the Fed as a steady source of demand for financial assets. Interest rates on everything from US Treasury debt to home mortgage loans moved sharply higher, threatening to curtail credit for consumers and businesses.

WORKFORCE PARTICIPATION RISES The central bank is closely watching the unemployment rate. It has said it expects the jobless rate to drop to around 7 percent by the middle of next year, when it anticipates ending the bond purchases. The jobless rate was unchanged last month because the labor force swelled - a sign of confidence in the jobs market. The third consecutive month of increase in the workforce lifted the participation rate - the share of working-age Americans who either have a job or are looking for one - further away from a 34-year low touched in March.

Declining participation as older Americans retire and younger people give up the hunt for

work in frustration has accounted for much of the drop in the unemployment rate from a peak of 10 percent in October 2009. All the job gains in June were in the private sector, where payrolls increased by 202,000 after rising 207,000 the prior month. Government employment, in contrast, dropped 7,000 jobs after falling 12,000 in May. Economists, however, say the job losses are probably not due to the deep government spending cuts known as the sequester as most agencies are relying on furloughs.

Consumer-related areas such as retail and wholesale trade showed further gains in employment in June, reflecting strengthening demand that was highlighted by a surge in automobile sales. Retail jobs increased 37,100 last month after advancing 26,900 in May. Manufacturing payrolls fell by 6,000 jobs, declining for a fourth straight month.

Construction employment rose 13,000 adding to May’s 7,000 jobs as the housing recovery pushes ahead, but it remains constrained by a still sluggish non-residential sector. —Reuters

BUSINESS SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

Spanish shipyard faces uncertain future VIGO: Giant cranes stand idle in the shipyard in the bay of the Spanish city of Vigo due to a loss of orders blamed on the threat that the European Union may force shipbuilders to pay back billions of euros in disputed state subsidies. “There is no boat coming out of the shipyard, it is completely paralysed,” said Manuel Simon, spokesman for the metalworking section of the Vigo branch of the CIG union.

The Metalships shipyard is working at half of its capacity, thanks to an order from a US client to build a ship for an oil rig-making it a lucky “exception” according to the company’s boss Alberto Iglesias.

“Four or five years ago, if we wanted to sign five contracts at the same time, we could,” he added. Spanish shipbuilders are struggling since the European Union in 2011 ordered the end of state subsidies for the sector, he said.

The threat that Brussels may demand that the bulk of the three billion euros ($4.0 billion) which the sector received in aid between 2005 and 2011 be paid back is adding to the sector’s woes and frightening off business. The sector has lost contracts for 50 ships due to concerns over the commission’s enquiries into the state aid, according to the PYMAR association which represents Spain’s shipbuilders.

Six Spanish shipyards have already closed in recent years, leaving just 19 standing which employ 87,000 people directly or indirectly. Brussels will rule by July 17 if the state aid needs to be repaid.

The decision is anxiously awaited in Vigo, where the shipyard is a major employer along with a Citroen plant and Pescanova, a major Spanish fish company which in April filed for insolvency. The city of around 300,000 people on Spain’s northwestern coast of Galicia already has an unemployment rate of 27 percent.

“Three years ago 12,000 people worked in the shipyards, today barely 900,” said Ramon Sarniento, the head of the naval sector of the CCOO union who works at the Barreras shipyard in Vigo, just like his father and grandfather did. The Barreras shipyard has not signed a new contract in two years. During boom times it worked on up to six ships at the same time. The company had up to 2,500 employees at one time. Now it has only 80 who work for a few hours each day. The situation is just as bleak at the neighboring Armon shipyard. “We have not had a contract, or almost nothing, in three years,” said Carlos Lopez, 56, who has worked at the shipyard for nearly four decades.

Hundreds of shipyard workers, most in their blue overalls and holding their helmets in their hands, marched Thursday from the shipyard in Vigo to the centre of the city in defense of the sector. “Listen Europe the naval sector is struggling,” they chanted.

“We can start building boats again, that is the only thing that we know how to do and we do it well,” said Sarnieto. Unions have called for a day of protest and strikes on July 11 when European Union’s commissioner for competition, Joaquin Almunia, will meet with representatives of Spanish shipbuilders in Brussels.

Almunia, himself a Spaniard, has argued that those who should be made to pay are the investors who funded projects which also received state aid and the shipping companies that bought the resulting vessels. But shipbuilders fear they in turn will face legal action from those penalized to compensate them. Being forced to pay back the state aid “would be a serious attack to legal security in Spain and it will cause Spanish shipyards to lose their clients,” the president of the Spanish Shipping Association, Adolfo Utor, told reporters in Madrid on Thursday. — AFP

Dollar strengthens European shares edgy LONDON: The dollar rose broadly yesterday and commodities fell before a US jobs report that may shed light on how quickly US and European monetary policies diverge. Traders said the dollar could test the three-year high against a basket of currencies hit in May if the payrolls data due at 1230 GMT is strong as it would fan talk of an imminent cut in the Federal Reserve’s bond-buying program. Wall Street was expected to open sharply higher, catching up after the Independence Day holiday with a global rally in stocks that followed pledges of continued stimulus from the European Central Bank and Bank of England.

European shares, which had their best day in 11 months on Thursday on the back of the central bank comments, were little changed yesterday as investors trod cautiously in the runup to data likely to determine the market trend for the rest of the day on both sides of the Atlantic. Economists expect 165,000 new jobs to have been added last month and the US jobless rate to have ticked down to 7.5 percent from 7.6 percent in May, a Reuters poll shows.

“If we get nonfarm (payrolls) at 165,000, in line, you keep the (Fed) tapering story in play and you keep the dollar on the front foot,” said Daragh Maher, FX strategist at HSBC. “We’re looking at a structurally stronger dollar and the euro would be an echo to that,” he said.

The euro was down 0.25 percent against the dollar, touching a five-week low of $1.2869. The ECB’s unprecedented commitment to keep rates low for an extended period also drove the gap between 10-year US Treasury bonds and their German equivalent to its widest since April 2010, giving further support to the dollar.

The British pound eased too after the Bank of England, under new governor Mark Carney, sought to guide rates lower by saying recent rises were “not warranted” by economic developments. Sterling was near a four-month low against the dollar, dipping below $1.50 to trade around $1.4985. “Euro and sterling are both reeling after central banks moved to depress short-term rates and said any tightening will lead to a response,” said Chris Walker, currency strategist at Barclays.

DIVERGENCE LOOMS For equity investors, the impact an early end to the Fed’s $85 billion monthly spending on bonds has to be offset against the promise of future policy support from two of Europe’s biggest central banks and the ensuing currency weakness. “Anytime you get a weaker currency that’s very good news for European domiciled companies that have global revenues,” said Patrick Armstrong, chief investment officer at Armstrong Investment Managers. Trading in Europe’s broad FTSEurofirst 300 index was jittery after it gained 2.4 percent on Thursday and by midday the index was little changed. MSCI’s global share index edged about 0.1 percent higher.

Bond markets were steady, with German Bund futures ticking lower, though Portuguese debt recovered some of this week’s losses after the country’s prime minister reassured investors he could resolve its political crisis. The firmer dollar weighed on some dollar-priced commodities and gold slipped one percent to $1,236.49 an ounce. Copper was down 1.3 percent at $6,857.75 a ton while Brent crude oil dropped 4 cents a barrel to $105.50. — Reuters

TOKYO: A board is flashing numbers of Japanese yen rate against one US dollar (top) at a foreign exchange brokerage in Tokyo yesterday. Japanese shares opened 1.18 percent higher yesterday, after European shares rebounded as tension eased over Portugal’s political crisis. — AFP

HTC Q2 profit plunges 83% TAIPEI: Taiwan smartphone maker HTC said yesterday that net profit in April-June dived 83 percent year on year, although it was a slight improvement from the record low seen in the previous three months. The result comes as the firm struggles to turn things around with its high-end HTC One smartphone and heavier marketing strategy. Unaudited net profit in the second quarter came in at Tw$1.25 billion ($41.67 million), compared with Tw$7.4 billion a year ago but up sharply from the Tw$85 million in January-March, the company said.

Revenue fell 22 percent to Tw$70.7 billion year-on-year but surged 65 percent from quarter to quarter and was line with its own forecast of Tw$70.0 billion. Chief executive officer Peter Chou predicted a sharp rise in second-quarter revenue

thanks to the HTC One, which he said had received “overwhelmingly positive” reviews since its launch in February. He hailed it as a “technological breakthrough” as the company battles to win a piece of the sector that is dominated by Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy S4. However, analysts suggest sales of the phone peaked in May. And the firm has a fight on its hands.

Research firm IDC said the company held a 4.6 percent share of the global smartphone market in 2012, a sharp decline from 8.8 percent a year earlier. Samsung held a 30.3 percent stake while Apple had 19.1 percent. HTC sells its own smartphones and also makes handsets for a number of leading US companies, including supplying Google’s Nexus One. — AFP

BUSINESS SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

China takes aim at prices of milk, medicine BEIJING: China took aim this week at prices of two high-profile necessities - first baby formula, then medicines - as communist leaders try to contain surging living costs that threaten to inflame political tensions. A probe into possible price-fixing by foreign milk suppliers prompted one company, Nestle SA, to announce a price cut.

Yesterday, news reports said a Cabinet agency is looking into the cost of drugs made by 60 foreign and domestic suppliers. There was no indication of wrongdoing, but the probe could be a prelude to a cut in government-set caps on prices. The action could help the new Communist Party leadership that took power last year show its solidarity with a public frustrated by skyrocketing costs for housing, education and health care that have outpaced income gains.

“Imported infant formula has been so

expensive that the government feels it needs to take measures to ensure Chinese children can afford the milk powder that they need,” said Zheng Fengtian, a professor of agribusiness management at Renmin University in Beijing. Inflation is politically dangerous for the unelected communist leadership because it erodes the economic gains that underpin the party’s monopoly on power. The ruling party also has tried to curb soaring housing costs with controls on lending and purchases, but prices are still rising.

Both medicines and milk are industries in which scandals over faulty and sometimes deadly products have given foreign and Chinese producers with a reputation for better quality an unusual degree of leverage to charge higher prices.

Imported milk formula that can cost up to three times the price of Chinese competitors is popular because of widespread dis-

trust of domestic dairies following product quality scandals.

Chinese authorities did not accuse baby formula suppliers of collusion in setting prices, which can be hard to prove.

Instead, the investigation focused on prices they required retailers to charge. In response, Nestle SA announced it would cut infant formula prices in China by an average of 11 percent starting Monday.

Other companies including Danone Dumex, Abbott Laboratories, Mead Johnson Nutrition Co. and FrieslandCampina said they were cooperating with the investigation but did not immediately respond to questions about whether they would cut prices.

The government has more leverage over drug prices because of official controls. Beijing sets price caps for hundreds of drugs and has been able to force reductions in recent years. The Cabinet’s

China to cut off credit to rebalance economy Slowdown puts pressure on businesses BEIJING: China said yesterday it would cut off credit to force consolidation in industries plagued by overcapacity as it seeks to end the economy’s dependence on extravagant investment funded by cheap debt. In a statement from the State Council, or cabinet, Beijing laid out broad plans to ensure banks support the kind of economic rebalancing China’s new leadership wants as it looks to focus more on high-end manufacturing.

President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang have flagged for some time that the rapid growth of the past three decades needs to shift down a gear, and analysts said yesterday’s announcement was a signal that they intended to press on with reforms despite evidence of a sharperthan-expected slowdown. “The guideline shows China’s policymakers will focus more on economic restructuring to stabilize the economy rather than providing more liquidity to support economic growth,” said Li Huiyong, an economist at Shenyin Wanguo Securities in Shanghai.

The slowdown in the world’s secondlargest economy has started to put pressure on some businesses. Yesterday, China Rongsheng Heavy Industries Group, China’s largest private shipbuilder, appealed for financial help from the government and big shareholders, after cutting its workforce and delaying payments to suppliers. Analysts said the company could be the biggest casualty of a local shipbuilding industry suffering from overcapacity and shrinking orders amid a global shipping downturn.

New ship orders for Chinese builders fell by about half last year. The State Council said it would ensure credit kept flowing to businesses that it thought had competitive products, but it would work with banks to oversee a gradual winding down of other businesses. “The government will adopt differentiated policies based on the varied situations in the industries plagued by overcapacity,” it said. It did not mention any specific industries or companies and there was no sug-

BEIJING: A man rests on a bench in a shopping district of Beijing, China yesterday. — AP been trying to address. Explosive credit gestion it was referring to Rongsheng. growth, particularly in the opaque shadow banking system, is seen by analysts as one CASH CRUNCH Yesterday’s announcement was the lat- of the biggest risks to China’s economy, est sign that China’s policymakers are along with a frothy property market and determined to bring debt-fuelled expan- the run-up of debt by local governments. sion under control, after the central bank Underlining the last of those risks, a senior allowed a cash crunch last month that sent official said yesterday that the governshort-term lending rates to record highs. ment did not know precisely the extent of Ma Tao, an analyst with CEBM Group, an local governments’ debt, and warned that institutional investment research firm in it could be more than previous estimates.

Estimates of local government debt Shanghai, said sectors such as construction materials, steel and aluminum suffered range from Standard Chartered’s 15 perfrom overcapacity, as well as high debt and cent of the country’s GDP at end-2012 to financing costs. “The recent credit crunch Credit Suisse’s 36 percent. Fitch put the also served as a catalyst for their cash flow figure at 25 percent when it downgraded problems to emerge as liquidity has not China’s sovereign debt rating in April. been eased,” said Ma. The State Council Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said also said that, in future, so-called wealth China had not released official figures management products issued by banks since a 2010 auditing report that put would have to be linked to specific proj- local government debt at 10.7 trillion ects, rather than being mixed together yuan. “Currently, [according to] nationwide surveys, I think this number will with banks’ other pools of credit.

Such a move would prevent some of rise,” Zhu said, defending the debt as the riskier lending practices in the shadow mostly geared toward fuelling infrastrucbanking market that the central bank has ture projects. — Reuters

economic planning agency is gathering information on drug costs to support “development of drug price adjustments,” the newspaper China Business News said yesterday, citing agency officials. Similar reports appeared in other major newspapers and on the website of Hong Kongbased broadcaster Phoenix Satellite Television.

Phone calls to the planning agency were not answered and there was no announcement of the drug probe on the agency’s website. An agency spokesman confirmed the milk formula probe earlier in the week. Last week, police in the central city of Changsha said they detained several employees of British-based drug manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline to investigate possible unspecified “economic crimes.” The company said it did not know details of the investigation but would cooperate. — AP

Standard & Poor’s cuts Nokia rating HELSINKI: Rating agency Standard & Poor’s cut its notation of fallen mobile phone maker Nokia yesterday, because of the cost to the company of buying out a joint venture with German firm Siemens S&P cut the Finnish group’s long-term debt rating by one notch to B+ from BB-. Nokia has agreed to buy the shares held by Siemens in joint venture Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN).

Nokia said on Monday it would buy 50 percent of telecom equipment maker NSN for 1.7 billion euros ($2.2 billion), allowing it to take full control of its most profitable business. This initially pushed up the depressed price of shares in Nokia, since NSN performs strongly whereas Nokia as a telecom-equipment group is struggling. But the acquisition will cut into the mobile maker’s cash reserves, and this led S&P to lower its estimate of net cash at the end of this year to 1.3 billion euros, less than half a previous estimate of three billion euros ($3.9 billion).

“Nokia’s strong balance sheet, which we view as an offsetting factor to Nokia’s cash burn and supportive to the rating, will weaken following the acquisition,” the credit rating agency wrote. On Wednesday, Moody’s said it had placed the company’s Ba3 rating on review for downgrade. Once the star performer on the Helsinki stock exchange, Nokia has seen its market value plunge by 30 percent in the past two years.

By contrast, South Korean rival Samsung, which has taken a leading position as a maker of mobile devices, said on Friday it expected to post fresh record profits in the second quarter. It forecast a 47-percent rise in operating profit from the figure in the same period a year ago, to 9.5 trillion won (6.3 billion euros, $8.3 billion). However, the firm, the world’s largest maker of highend smartphones, failed to meet analyst expectations, fuelling concerns about flagging demand for its products. — AFP

China probes Tetra Pak for abusing market role SHANGHAI: China is investigating global packaging giant Tetra Pak for “abusing” its dominant market role, an official said yesterday, the latest in a series of probes aimed at foreign companies.

The head of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce gave no specific details of the inquiry, but said it covered 20 provinces and cities. “The administration has filed a case against Tetra Pak on suspicion of abusing its market controlling position,” Zhang Mao was quoted as saying at a meeting, according to a transcript posted online.

Tetra Pak China, whose parent is headquartered in Switzerland, confirmed a request for information by the government and said it was cooperating. A spokesman for the firm declined to comment further. Tetra Pak has more than 23,000 employees and its packages are available in 170 countries. It is part of the private Tetra Laval group, which is owned by the Swedish Rausing family.

According to Forbes’ latest billionaires list, four members of the family are among Sweden’s six richest people. Several of them live in Britain.

News of the investigation came after state media said earlier this week that another Chinese government agency has launched an “anti-monopoly” investigation into several foreign baby formula makers over high prices. —AFP

BUSINESS SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

Samsung posts disappointing earnings forecast SEOUL: Samsung Electronics Co, the world’s largest technology firm by revenue yesterday fuelled concerns about flagging demand for high-end smartphones with a weaker-than-expected earnings forecast for the second quarter. The South Korean giant forecast of 9.5 trillion won ($8.3 billion) in operating profit for the April-June quarter would be a record. But analysts had expected a figure of more than 10 trillion won, and shares in the firm lost more than three percent in afternoon trade.

“It’s weaker than expected. Slow mobile sales, combined with hefty marketing costs for the flagship Galaxy S4 smartphones, undermined the bottom line,” Jeff Kim, of Hyundai Securities said. He said earnings would be improved in the next quarter as marketing costs were expected to go down and semiconductors and displays would

perform better. “I expect the operating profit to hit 10.5 trillion won in the third quarter,” he said. But Daiwa Securities analyst Jae H. Lee said the firm would likely be hit further by higher advertising costs in the second half as it tries to keep sales volumes up.

Samsung has lost nearly $30 billion in market value since mid-March, before it launched the Galaxy S4 smartphone a month later. Investors are concerned that the company relies too heavily on IT and mobile business, which accounts for more than 70 percent of its operating profit, at a time when the global outlook for this sector is not so bright, Jeff Kim said. Several brokerages have downgraded Samsung and their earnings forecasts for the company on fears that the S4 is not selling as strongly as hoped.

Samsung, the world’s top maker of smartphones, memory chips and flat-panel TVs, was giving earnings guidance before official results at the end of July. The estimate for second-quarter operating profit represents a 47 percent increase from the actual figure of 6.46 trillion won a year earlier. The forecast marks an 8.2 percent rise from the previous quarter, when the tech behemoth posted an operating profit of 8.78 trillion on the back of robust smartphone sales.

The company did not provide a net profit estimate or break down figures for its individual business units. Sales in the AprilJune period were expected to reach 57 trillion won, up 19.8 percent from the same period last year. A poll of seven analysts forecast an average second-quarter operating profit of 10.1 trillion won on sales of

58.6 trillion won, Dow Jones Newswires said. Samsung closed 3.8 percent down at 1.27 million won as the overall KOSPI index edged down 0.32 percent.

The new market jitters about Samsung come after Canada’s troubled BlackBerry, fresh after launching two flagship phones yesterday posted an unexpected first-quarter loss and disappointing sales figures. Its share price tumbled nearly 28 percent on the news. Shares in US computer giant Apple are well off their historic highs, having taken a beating earlier this year on concerns that demand for the iPhone 5 may be tapering off. The mobile business, a key profit driver for Samsung, accounted for 74 percent of its total operating profit in the first quarter. Samsung also makes consumer electronics including cameras and laptops, and home appliances. —AFP

Philippines plans to lift millions out of poverty

Portuguese PM patches up govt to avert collapse

Govt aims to lessen worst rich-poor divides

LISBON: Portugal’s Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho patched up his ruling coalition yesterday to avert a potentially calamitous breakup as the nation’s president warned of grave financial risks ahead.

Investors fear the crisis could unleash a new wave of instability in the euro-zone’s debt-laden periphery, where anti-austerity sentiment is growing with no end in sight to high unemployment and recession.

Bond markets rallied in mid-afternoon trade a day after the prime minister said he had found a “formula” to hold together the shaky coalition, led by his Social Democratic Party.

The yield on benchmark 10-year Portuguese government bonds eased to 7.18 percent, down from the critical 8.0 percent at the height of the political crisis mid-week. The Lisbon stock exchange’s key PSI20 index rose 0.27 percent to 5,416.98 points after surging 3.7 percent the previous day on signs of an emerging political fix. Portugal’s president said the recession-struck country may find itself unable to raise money on bond markets when its 78-billion-euro ($100-billion) bailout program expires next year.

“It is possible that Portugal will not succeed in returning to the markets at reasonable rates despite implementing the program,” President Anibal Cavaco Silva told a gathering of economists. Such a failure could be provided “by external financial events or internal political difficulties”, he warned. Bank of Portugal governor Carlos Costa at the same conference urged the government to live up to its “political responsibility”. The crisis erupted when Foreign Minister Paulo Portas, who is also leader of the junior partner in the governing coalition, the small conservative CDS-PP party, resigned on Tuesday.

The announcement, which came a day after the shock departure of finance minister Vitor Gaspar, threatened to tear the coalition apart.

But after two days of talks with his foreign minister, Passos Coelho met with the country’s president before announcing he had found a “formula” to assure the stability of his government. The premier gave no details of the deal, saying it was subject to further negotiations.

“Whatever agreement they may reach, he will not gain the confidence of the country or the markets,” the daily Diario de Noticias predicted in an editorial.

The political crisis is centered on discord over the austerity policies required under the bailout extended in May 2011 by Portugal’s “troika” of creditors, the International Monetary Fund, European Commission and European Central Bank. Portas, who wants a change in economic policy, objected to the premier’s choice of new finance minister, Treasury Secretary Maria Luis Albuquerque, who was expected to pursue further austerity in defiance of mass protests. Despite growing opposition to its tight-fisted policies, the government is now under pressure to present a further 4.7 million euros in spending cuts to the troika when its auditors visit Portugal on July 15.

The austerity measures have plunged Portugal into a deeper recession with higher unemployment than had been expected, sparking mass protests and strikes. At the end of March the budget deficit amounted to 10.6 percent of annual output. The target set by creditors, already relaxed twice, is for a deficit of 5.5 percent at the end of the year. The government expects the economy to contract by 2.3 percent by the end of the year, while the unemployment rate has soared to a record 18.2 percent. —AFP

MANILA: The Philippines said yesterday it was aiming to lift more than 10 million people out of poverty in less than two years, and make an enduring impact on lessening one of Asia’s worst rich-poor divides. The government has set a target of cutting the number of people living in poverty to 16.6 percent by the end of 2015, down from 27.9 percent last year, Socio-Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said. “It’s a big challenge. We just don’t have the luxury of time and the luxury of resources to waste,” Balisacan told reporters. The ambitious goal is set ahead of when Aquino is required to stand down in mid2016 after a six-year term.

It comes after stunning economic growth, credit rating upgrades and record stock market highs in the first half of Aquino’s term failed to make a dent on crushing poverty. Even though the Philippines had the fastest growth rate in Asia of 7.8 percent in the first quarter of this year, the unemployment rate rose to a three-year-high of 7.5 percent in April.

The number of people living in povertydefined as living on 62 US cents a day or less-had also largely remained the same.

Last year 27.9 percent of the country was classified as living in poverty compared to 28.8 and 28.6 percent in 2006 and 2009 respectively. That means more than 25 million currently live in poverty.

The Philippines has long had one of the biggest rich-poor divides in Asia, with a remarkably small number of families dominating politics and business. While the Aquino administration has always aimed to create more inclusive growth, Balisacan said the government was “recalibrating” after the recent economic performance failed to make a big impact on poverty.

“We are learning the lesson of the last three years,” he said. The economy remains largely reliant on services and consumption, fuelled by the huge remittances of almost 10 million Filipinos working overseas. Balisacan said that, as part of the remodeling efforts, the gov-

MANILA: A general view shows a large slum area in a suburb of Manila yesterday. The Philippines said it was aiming to lift more than 10 million people out of poverty in less than two years, and make an enduring impact on lessening one of Asia’s worst rich-poor divides. —AFP ernment would sharply increase spending on infrastructure to create immediate jobs and make areas more attractive for investment. The government is specifically targeting ports, airports and roads.

Overall spending on infrastructure will rise from the equivalent of 2.5 percent of the Philippines’ economy in 2012 to five percent by 2016, according to Balisacan. He said the government

would also continue to ramp up spending on social services. One key focus is a “conditional cash-transfer” scheme where the country’s poorest families are given money if various health and education requirements are met, such as keeping children in school. He said the government was maintaining its forecast of 6.0-7.0 percent economic growth this year, rising to 7.0-8.0 percent in 2015. —AFP

SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

Middletons: Grandparents for the British royal baby Page 24

92-year-old Iraqi farmer marries 22-year-old girl Page 28

Musali Mohammed Al-Mujamaie a 92-year old Iraqi farmer sits next to Muna Mukhlif Al-Juburi, his new 22-year old wife, during celebrations following their wedding in his home village of Gubban, just south of the central Iraqi city of Samarra on July 4, 2013. —AFP

SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

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he ‘Sopranos’ actress wants to buck the trend for unusual celebrity monikers by calling her baby boy something “real”, rather than following in the footsteps of stars like Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, who have just named their daughter North West. The heavily pregnant star told TMZ.com: “It will be a NORMAL name. A real name.” JamieLynn is expecting her first child with baseball player Cutter Dykstra - who proposed in January this year and previously said they were still undecided on

what to call their son. The 32-year-old star, best known for her role as Meadow Soprano on the HBO Mafia show, was recently snapped showing off her baby bump in a skimpy bikini, and while the usually body-shy actress would normally have been selfconscious, she is proud of pregnancy body and doesn’t mind it being caught on camera.

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he 24-year-old actor - who starred as Ron Weasley alongside Daniel Radcliffe, 23, and Emma Watson, 23, in eight Harry Potter films - has reportedly performed in a workshop for Jez Butterworth’s ‘Mojo’, reports the Daily Mail newspaper. Grint attended the play reading held by Ian Rickson - who directed the original 1995 Royal Court production - with a cast that included 35-year-old actor, Daniel Mays and Robert Sheehan, 25, of the E4 drama ‘Misfits’. The gritty drama is set in Soho, London, in 1958 and focuses on a handsome rock star who gets caught in dodgy dealings involving a gangster, a club owner and band manager.

While Grint’s representatives are yet to confirm the reports, he is seemingly following in his ‘Harry Potter’ co-star Daniel’s footsteps as Radcliffe appeared in the controversial ‘Equus’ in 2007, in which he stripped of naked.

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ay-Z - who was celebrating the release of his new album ‘Magna Carta Holy Grail’ - threw a “secret” bash with 500 guests at Brooklyn’s Liberty Warehouse in New York City on Wednesday night. The A-list line up - which included friends and family - saw wife Beyonce, producer Timbaland, model Tyson Beckford, rapper Raekwon, as well as Jay-Z’s sisters Andrea and Michelle Carter and nephew Jarrell Carter. Us Weekly magazine report Beyonce - who was taking a night off from her ‘The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour’ - was “dancing up a storm” to the song “Tom Ford”, a lead track on the album which she features on.

In the track, Jay-Z raps “I don’t pop Molly / I rock Tom Ford” - meaning he doesn’t take ecstasy, he just wears Tom Ford instead.

Beyonce is also heard on the song ‘Part II (On the Run),’ which appears to be a sequel to their previous collaboration ‘Bonnie & Clyde,’ from Jay-Z’s album ‘The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse.’

SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

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he ‘Mirrors’ hitmaker has caused controversy after his latest music video for ‘Tunnel Vision’ - which sees topless models performing a series of provocative dance moves - was deemed too racy for the video sharing site since it conflicted with their strict no-nudity policy. Following the success of Robin Thicke’s risky video for hit single ‘Blurred Lines’ - which helped propel the track to number one in both the UK and US charts Justin was seemingly keen to capitalize on the trend. The saucy new video sees topless

women writhe around on the floor with images of the 32-year-old singer projected onto their nude bodies. Justin, who is married to actress Jessica Biel, wasn’t fazed by the controversy, taking to Twitter on Wednesday to promote the track and making sure he gave young fans a clear warning.

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he 43-year-old actor - who battled addictions to alcohol, Vicodin, methadone and amphetamines during his 10-year stint on sitcom ‘Friends’ - has finally overcome his issues and wants to finally get married and start a family. He said: “I would love to start a family of my own. I think I’d make a great dad and I think shortly I would make a great husband.” Matthew also admitted acting is no longer as important to him as it used to be and he is instead focusing on having fun and enjoying life. He told People magazine: “People are always asking me, ‘What’s next?’ There are a few entertainment things I’m discussing but honestly it’s gone down in import for me. “A year and a half ago I went to the doctor and was told, ‘The new prescription for you? ‘Go have fun.’

Wow that’s really freeing.” The funnyman recently admitted he spent years trying to hide his addictions from his co-stars - who included Jennifer Aniston and Courtney Cox and felt “lonely” because he had no one to confide in. Matthew said: “I’ve had a life of extreme highs and extreme lows. I was in the white hot flame of fame.

he reality TV stars’ sister Kim gave birth to her first child, daughter North West, last month and the proud aunts love spending as much time as they can with the baby. A source told People magazine: “Kourtney and Khloe are obsessed. Kourtney has been great with advice, from baby gear to reassuring Kim in all her decisions. The family is really supportive.” Kourtney has also introduced North to her cousins Mason, three, and 11-month-old Penelope, her children with partner Scott Disick - and all the kids have been

getting on great. North’s father Kanye West has been documenting every moment of the tot’s life so far and is rarely seen without his camera because he doesn’t want to miss a minute of her first few weeks in the world. The source added: “Kanye wants to know how to do everything and be able to hold and soothe her. He’s been documenting everything. He doesn’t want to miss a moment.”

SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

The Middletons: ‘Normal’ grandparents for a royal baby

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ritain’s royal baby will spend a childhood mostly surrounded by the stiff grandeur of the palace, but the home of ordinary grandparents, the Middletons, could offer a touch of normality. Proud parents of Prince William’s wife Catherine, Michael and Carole Middleton could not have a more different background from the royal grandfather who will be vying for the baby’s affections, heir to the throne Prince Charles.

Descended from a long line of coal miners, the then Carole Goldsmith was working as an air hostess for British Airways when she met Michael Middleton, who was a flight dispatcher. They married in 1980, had three children, and made millions in a party supplies business. Now as they await the birth of their first grandchild, just how big will be the role of the hardworking Middletons and what impact will they have on the future monarch?

‘AS CLOSE AS A MAFIA FAMILY’ These days the former Kate Middleton is grandly known as the Duchess of Cambridge, but she remains very close to her parents. Her socialite sister Pippa-whose figure-hugging dress at the royal wedding gave her one of the most famous bottoms in Britain-is also

Pippa Middleton, the sister of Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, waits for the start of a Men’s singles semifinal match between Novak Djokovic of Serbia and Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London yesterday. — AP

A picture shows Michael and Carole Middleton, the parents of Britain’s Prince William’s wife Kate.

Britain’s royal baby will spend a childhood mostly surrounded by the stiff grandeur of the palace, but the home of ordinary grandparents, the Middletons, could offer a touch of normality. — AFP

part of her close circle along with her brother James, an entrepreneur.

Writing in the society magazine Tatler, Celia Denison describes the Middleton clan as “like a traditional Mafioso family; tight-knit, with a very clear boss”. And that boss is Carole - “matriarch, financial director, fashion muse, groovy down-with-the-kids-mum and, significantly, chief grandparent to our future monarch,” says Denison. The attractive 58year-old has been spotted shopping with

Britain’s Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (left) and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge arrive back at Buckingham Palace after the Trooping The Color parade, in this file photo. — AP

Kate for a crib, and is expected to be a major source of support in the weeks after the birth.

She and Pippa will reportedly be at the hospital when Kate goes into labor.

Prince Charles has said he is “thrilled” by the prospect of becoming a grandfather, and Kate and William are thought to get on well with his second wife Camilla, who already has five grandchildren of her own. But as William’s mother Princess Diana died in a car crash in 1997, Carole will be the only “official” granny on hand. “I would expect Carole, like lots of grandparents, will be giving Kate a lot of help in the first weeks-whether it’s helping with feeding or just taking the baby for naps so Kate can have a sleep,” Claire Irvin, editor of Mother & Baby magazine said.

‘VICTIMS OF SNOBBERY’ For second-in-line to the throne William, the Middletons’ home in the idyllic village of Bucklebury in Berkshire, southern England, became a sanctuary. “William delighted in the closeness of Kate’s family, the relaxed atmosphere in the house and the humdrum nature of their daily lives,” royal biographer Penny Junor wrote. “With them, he could do everyday things and feel like any normal person.”

Luxurious but informal, it was a place where he could forget his royal duties and the endless media attention-and it could prove a similar haven for his first child.

There have been rumors that the Middletons faced snobbery from William’s aristocratic circles-his friends reportedly used to whisper “doors to manual” when Kate entered a room in a reference to her mother’s past as an air hostess. Carole is from a more

working-class family than Michael, and has faced sniggers for slip-ups such as chewing gum as she watched William graduate from his military academy, or saying “toilet” instead of the upper-class’s preferred “lavatory”.

But the royal family appear to have welcomed the Middletons, and Carole in particular is thought to get on famously with Queen Elizabeth II’s 92-year-old husband Prince Philip. Michael and Carole are models of English discretion, refusing to speak to the press-which is more than can be said for Kate’s uncle. Tattooed and shaven-headed, Carole’s brother Gary Goldsmith-who until recently had a home in Ibiza named “Maison de Bang Bang”-gave a detailed interview about the couple to a gossip magazine.

Still, royal-watchers expect the baby to spend considerable time with the Middletons and predict that this contact with a “normal”albeit rich-family will have a grounding effect on the future monarch. “It certainly would be helpful for she or he to grow up with normal expectations of what to do and say and to understand a bit more about real, normal people’s lives,” Patrick Jephson, Diana’s former private secretary said.

There have been suggestions that Kate will spend several weeks after the birth at her parents’ home, but Jephson suspects that would prove impractical. “You cannot have the world’s most famous baby living secluded in a nice part of rural England,” he said.

“There are good reasons why royal people live in palaces. This baby will live in palaces not just because they’re comfortable-but also because they’re safe.” — AFP

SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

British police officers watch as stepladders are placed by members of the media outside St Mary’s Hospital exclusive Lindo Wing in London. The media are preparing for royal-mania as Britain’s Duchess of Cambridge plans to give birth to the new third-in-line to the throne in mid-July, at the Lindo Wing. — AP

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A to Z: British royal baby first alphabet

rom the cannon fire that will mark the arrival of Prince William and Catherine’s first child, to the doctors overseeing this very special delivery, here is an A to Z of Britain’s royal baby.

A IS FOR ANNOUNCEMENT - After the birth, a proclamation signed by Kate’s doctors will be rushed to Buckingham Palace and displayed on a gilded easel at the gates.

B IS FOR BAPTISM - The baby will be christened wearing a replica of a lace and satin gown that has been used since 1841. It is not known where the baby will be baptized, but William was christened at Buckingham Palace by the Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the world’s Anglicans.

C IS FOR CANNONS - They will echo over London to mark the birth - 62 shots from the Tower of London and 41 from Green Park.

D IS FOR DELIVERY - The baby will be born in the private Lindo Wing of St Mary’s Hospital in London. Kate is believed to prefer a natural birth over a caesarian.

E IS FOR EDUCATION - The royal youngster is set to enjoy exclusive schooling. Both William and his brother Harry went to the elite boarding school Eton.

F is for FASHION. Just as style gurus have kept an eagle eye on Kate’s maternity clothes, the new royal will be a baby-wear trendsetter before it can walk and talk.

G IS FOR GRANDPARENTS - Grandpa Prince Charles is heir to the throne, but the Middletons started as lowly British Airways employees before making millions from a party supplies business. William’s mother Princess Diana died in a car crash in 1997.

H IS FOR HYPEREMESIS GRAVIDARUM The term for the severe form of morning sickness that Kate had which led to her being

hospitalised for several days in December.

I IS FOR INTERNET - As the first royal baby of the social networking era, the foetus naturally had several spoof Twitter accounts within minutes of the pregnancy being announced.

J IS FOR JULY - The palace has confirmed that the baby is due in July, but is staying tight-lipped on the exact date.

K IS FOR KENSINGTON PALACE - The future home to the new parents with apartment 1A of the palace being lavishly refurbished. The family are set to move in a few months after the birth.

L IS FOR LAVENDER - The purple flower is thought to help combat morning sickness, and Kate has reportedly been munching on lavender biscuits to keep the nausea at bay.

M IS FOR MEMORABILIA - Manufacturers have been pumping out everything from royal baby mugs to “Prince in Training” romper suits.

N IS FOR NURSERY - Decor plans for the royal nursery have not been made public, but interior designers have rushed forward with suggestions-from traditional frills to supermodern cots that rock electronically.

O IS FOR OBSTETRICIANS - The baby will be delivered by Alan Farthing, gynaecologist to Queen Elizabeth II, and his predecessor Marcus Setchell.

P IS FOR PLAYMATES - William and Kate have a coterie of aristocratic and well-to-do pals with toddlers to join the baby on playdates.

Q IS FOR QUEEN-TO-BE? -If the baby is a girl, she will be the first princess in history who cannot be pushed out of the line of succession by any younger brothers, following a change in the law.

R IS FOR RESPONSIBILITIES- The baby will be the future monarch of Britain and 15 Commonwealth realms including Canada and Australia. He or she can expect a lifetime of duty that will one day include being head of the armed forces, signing laws and shaking thousands of hands.

S IS FOR SPOTLIGHT - Prince William is fiercely protective of his wife’s privacy and will demand that the media give his offspring

As part of a publicity stunt, people from a bookmakers office dressed as Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II (right) and a British Guardsman stand with a placard with the odds for the name of the royal baby as they pose for the media. — AP

This undated photo issued by The Royal Mint shows a new silver penny coin that will be awarded to newborns who share their birthday with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridgeís first child. — AP as close to a normal childhood as possible.

T IS FOR TOYS - Former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard has been knitting a kangaroo for the baby.

U IS FOR UNCLE HARRY - William’s brother will be demoted to fourth in line to the throne after the birth. Fun-loving Harry could prove an interesting baby-sitter, while Kate’s siblings Pippa and James are also on hand.

V IS FOR VICTORIA - Britain’s longestreigning monarch also grew up in Kensington Palace, but the 19th-century princess had a much stricter upbringing she was not even allowed to climb the stairs without supervision.

W IS FOR WILLIAM - The new father is a search-and-rescue helicopter pilot with the Royal Air Force, but is expected to announce soon whether he intends to quit and take up full-time royal duties.

X IS FOR XX OR XY? - The couple insist they do not know the sex of their baby.

Y IS FOR YOGA- Kate has reportedly taken up yoga and power-walking to stay healthy ahead of the birth.

Z IS FOR ZZZZZZ - Like all new parents, William and Kate can expect months of sleepless nights, but there may be nannies on hand to share the burden. — AFP

SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

A textile craft specialist shows the Engraving stage at a presentation at the Nissim de Camondo Museum in Paris of textile crafts at French luxury goods group Hermes.

General Manager Patrick Bonnefond (left) and Hermes Metiers Director Guillaume de Seyne pose at the Nissim de Camondo Museum in Paris during a presentation of textile crafts at French luxury goods group Hermes.

Various Hermes silk scarves are presented at a presentation at the Nissim de Camondo Museum in Paris. — AFP

Various old Hermes pattern collections are presented at a presentation at the Nissim de Camondo Museum in Paris on July 4, 2013 of textile crafts at French luxury goods group Hermes.

Various Hermes sequences of printing of a silk scarf are presented near a traditional Frame Printing or Lyonnaise printing. The craftsman prints each of the colors making up the design in turn (frame by frame) according to a very precise sequence, at a presentation at the Nissim de Camondo Museum in Paris. During Haute Couture presentations, as part of the metiers díarts workshops, Hermes Texile Holding presents five textile crafts, Engraving, Frame-printing or Lyonnaise printing, warp printing, hand-cut silk au Sabre and Linking. — AFP photos

SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

In this picture made available yesterday, models present creations at the Irene Luft show during the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Berlin, Germany. — AP

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n a bustling Dhaka street full of buyers looking for deals on export rejects and designer fakes, a flight of stairs leads up to an anomaly in a country known for producing international clothing brands - a global high street fashion store. Uniqlo, owned by Japan’s Fast Retailing Co yesterday opened two stores in Bangladesh, a favorite low-cost sourcing hub for many international retailers but a country where, until now, they have not sold their clothes.

On the level below the brightly lit store, a crowd of about 150 people waited patiently for the larger of Uniqlo’s two Dhaka stores to let in customers. “Youngsters in Dhaka are hoping Uniqlo starts a trend and more brands follow,” said a beaming Dipjon Mitra, a lecturer at a local university, who had queued since 7.30 a.m. to check the store out.

The Japanese retailer, in a tie-up with Bangladesh’s Grameen Bank, founded by Nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus, is venturing into a $70 billion retail market untouched by global chains, where about 30 million people make up the middle-income bracket. In April, more than 1,100 garment workers died in the collapse of a eight-story building in Bangladesh, putting pressure on international fashion brands to improve worker safety and livelihoods.

MIDDLE CLASS FOCUS At 1,000 sq ft (90 sq meters), the Dhaka store is a far cry from Uniqlo’s large-format shops elsewhere and stocks mostly menswear - women in Bangladesh, a largely Muslim nation, still prefer to wear traditional clothes. A group of college students, who were curiously checking out the store from across the street earlier this week as final preparations were made for the opening, had never heard of the brand.

“The store looks good from the outside. I can shop here for Eid, but not always,” said Jamshed

Robin, a 25-year-old political science student, looking at the price catalogue. Eid Al-Fitr is a key religious holiday and marks a major shopping period for Muslims. A typical slim fit pair of jeans here costs 990 taka ($12.73) and a short-sleeve shirt costs 890 taka ($11.44), before a 5 percent local tax.

That means they are aimed at the small but growing middle class, rather than the masses who make up the ranks of garment factory workers and who earn a minimum monthly wage of $38.

Uniqlo, on its website, says its T-shirts cost 2030 percent more than those sold in the local market, and says it is banking that customers will pay a little more for the higher quality. “We’re not selling Uniqlo products, we’re going to be selling Grameen Uniqlo which is more geared to the local market, for between about 200 and 1,000 yen ($2$10),” said Naoto Miyazawa, a Fast Retailing spokesman in Tokyo.

SAFETY PACT Fast Retailing has so far not joined a global safety pact for factories in Bangladesh drawn up after April’s disaster at the Rana Plaza complex, in an industrial suburb north of Dhaka, preferring instead to ramp up its own inspections. Miyazawa said the company had not yet decided whether to sign up to the pact because its details were still unclear.

Uniqlo is investing $4.6 million in Bangladesh.

The company describes the initiative with microlender Grameen as a “social business venture” on its website and plans to reinvest the profits to alleviate poverty in rural areas. “We want to deliver innovative designs and fashion to the middle class customers here and have plans to open more stores across several cities that will create more jobs,” said Yukihiro Nitta, chief executive officer of the joint venture.—Reuters

In this picture made available yesterday, a model presents a creation at the Irene Luft show during the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Berlin, Germany. — AP

Photo shows fake designer bags and belts for sale displayed near the Spanish steps, in Rome. Handbags are displayed on a white sheet to make them easy to wrap up. The bags can be bought for 30 to 50 euros each. Around 350 policemen and carabinieri participated yesterday in Rome to a crackdown against the sellers of counterfeit items of luxury brands. — AFP

SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

‘Ray Donovan’ Review:

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A Fixer Who Needs Fixing

don’t think I like “Ray Donovan,” but I keep watching it, so it must be doing something right. The new Showtime drama, debuting Sunday after “Dexter” follows a Hollywood fixer who helps clients out of jams. Wake up with a dead girl?

Call Ray. Pick up a transsexual hooker? Call Ray. Have a delicate situation demanding subtlety and discretion? Call Saul from “Breaking Bad.” Ray’s job is breaking arms.

I expected to love “Ray Donovan” completely. So maybe my expectations were too high. Creator Ann Biderman, who is also responsible for the excellent “Southland,” has my deep respect. Liev Schreiber, who plays Ray, is one of my favorite actors. His 2006 Central Park performance in “Macbeth” may be the best acting I’ve ever seen by anyone. I’ve lived in Boston, Ray’s hometown, and Los Angeles, his adopted one. I know both teem with comic and dramatic potential.

So what’s wrong? Aside from Ray Donovan himself, “Ray Donovan” is cluttered with broad characters it’s hard to feel invested in. He comes from a family of Irish stereotypes. It includes two brothers who seem like Christian Bale’s “Fighter” character split in two. One is a responsible ex-boxer dealing with Parkinson’s, and the other an alcoholic who drinks to cope with being molested by a Catholic priest. Their dad, Mickey (Jon Voight) is a Whitey Bulger-esque charmer who, Ray learns in the premiere, has fathered a half-black halfbrother to the boys.

Ray’s poor wife, Abby (Paula Malcomson) is one of those blue-collar saltof-the-earth types you see a lot in TV and movies, the kind who pronounces the word whore “hoo-ah.” She has plenty of reason to use the word, given that irrepressible husband of hers. Any of the characters, except for Voight’s tiresome ex-con con man, would be fine on his own, and all of the actors manage to breathe empathy into their stock characters. But the barrage of cartoon-like people in the supporting cast gets annoying fast.

Elliot Gould, as Ray’s mentor, is given the silly tic of constantly lapsing into Yiddish.

Some of the black and Jewish characters feel like stereoptypes dreamed up by the Irish stereotypes. The most egregious ones come in the third episode, when we meet an African-American rapper trying to adopt a boy he calls “the black Justin Bieber” who has his eye on Ray’s young daughter. His music, by the way, is much cornier than that of any recent rapper, or Justin Bieber. It made me worry that the writer’s room may just be out of touch.

I’m not calling the show racist. The problem with the characters isn’t that they’re offensive. It’s that they’re offensively obvious. I think “Ray Donovan” is trying a little too hard to be gritty and gutsy and real, like “Southland” felt. But “Ray Donovan” seems to think that showing people fighting, cursing and getting it is enough to make them seem authentic. It isn’t. They also need to seem believable when they’re not in a boxing gym or bedroom.

Maybe it will get better as the show goes on. I hope so.

Because I still plan to keep watching. Why have I made it through three critics’ screeners so far? I hate to say it, but I think it’s the violence. I’m fascinated by how quicky Ray resorts to it. His job is ostensibly to find brilliant solutions to his clients’ problems, but those tend toward the incredible.

(The show would have us believe that it’s far better, PRwise, to re-stage a homicide scene and be linked to a young woman’s death than it is to pick up a transsexual hooker. Is it?

Eddie Murphy seems to have bounced back, and Phil Spector hasn’t.) Ray resorts very quickly to threatening to kick asses, or just to kicking asses. What’s interesting is that it seems to work.

There are no consequences - not from the people he batters, and not from the cops they’re afraid of calling - so we have to assume that the only damage Ray suffers is inside. —Reuters

Mexico’s female mariachis defy macho culture W

ith her hair tied back, large hoop earrings and high heels, Isabel Aguilar stood confidently in front of her five fellow mariachi musicians, all men, and sang to a mostly male crowd in a Mexico City square. Aguilar, a violinist, is among the few female musicians in Plaza Garibaldi, a tourist spot famous for its roving mariachi bands, crowded restaurants and boozefueled nightlife.

For the past 16 years, the 32-year-old mother-of-two has defied the quintessentially macho culture of mariachi music, the disdain of many of her peers and even the disapproval of her father, who was himself a mariachi musician. “He would say that women should stay at home,” Aguilar said of her father. There are around 20 women among the 2,000 buskers registered with Plaza Garibaldi’s Mexican Mariachi Union, still trying to break the male domination of this symbol of Mexican culture that emerged in the 19th century.

Mariachi is a style of folk music involving mostly stringed instruments and traditionally played by an all-male ensemble.

Some male mariachi musicians still have a hard time accepting the presence of women like Aguilar, who performs in a long brown skirt and the traditional embroidered “charro” jacket. “I will refrain from commenting,” said a veteran member of the famous Mariachi Vargas band as he sat on a bench watching Aguilar play her violin. Women, he told a colleague, still have a “long path” before they reach the level of men.

Although not all male mariachi musicians look down on their female peers, several women mariachis say they have to battle to earn the respect of their colleagues, who accuse the women of evading their domestic chores, and sometimes exclude them from gigs. Aguilar is one of the few female musicians to raise her voice against such discrimination. “The hardest thing is this prevailing macho man culture in Mexico,” declared the musician,

A

who said she was engaged in a “silent battle” with her female colleagues. “Men still carry around this idea of machismo. It’s a culture that we haven’t been able to get rid of.”

TRAILBLAZING WOMEN Aguilar is not the first woman to sing her way into a man’s world. In the 1950s, trailblazing women broke the mold and formed the first all-female mariachi groups in Mexico. Lupita Villa, an 80-year-old singer and guitar player, preciously keeps black and white photos of her band, “Las Coronelas,” who filled theaters across Mexico and gained worldwide acclaim on international tours. “We were surrounded by applause and praise for being women,” said Villa, who plied her trade during the so-called golden era of mariachi music, competing with both male bands and other female groups like the “Estrellas de Mexico.”

Back then, the women in the group could be more committed to the band because they weren’t married, she recalled. But once they tied the knot, some members quit. “Men are a bit jealous, they’re a bit suspicious. Two of the girls got married and then the mariachi band ended. The husband kept her at home,” said Villa, who never married or had children. Villa, who still plays in a band called “Las Pioneras” with other veteran musicians, said women can win respect by being professional in their work.

A new mariachi school that opened near Plaza Garibaldi in October could attract more women to the world of mariachi music, Villa said, lamenting that all-female bands no longer exist in the capital. Eleven of the 85 students are women and most, like Maria Teresa Gabriel, say the school will “prepare women well” to face any challenge they may meet after they complete the threeyear program. “How great would it be if more women come out and have the good fortune that we did to lift Mexico’s name high?” Villa said. — AFP

92-year-old Iraqi farmer marries 22-year-old girl

92-year-old Iraqi farmer married a woman 70 years his junior in a village north of Baghdad, he said yesterday, voicing happiness at getting hitched alongside two teenage grandchildren who also tied the knot.

Musali Mohammed Al-Mujamaie married 22-year-old Muna Mukhlif Al-Juburi on Thursday evening, three years after the death of his first wife of 58 years, with whom he raised 16 children in his home village of Gubban, which lies just south of the central Iraqi city of Samarra.

“I am so happy to get married with my grandsons,” Mujamaie told AFP after the ceremony. “I feel like a 20-yearold!” Mujamaie said the marriage of his two grandsons, aged 16 and 17, was repeatedly delayed while his own wedding was being arranged, so that the three could tie the knot on the same day. The wedding carried on for four hours, with musical and dance performances and celebratory gunfire, and was attended by local tribal and religious leaders. — AFP

SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

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t is the comic book cover that captured the grim visage of an older, wiser - and meaner - Batman. Now, the 1986 pen and ink creation - drawn by writer/artist Frank Miller - that is the cover to “The Dark Knight Returns” No 2 will be sold next month in Dallas by Heritage Auctions. It’s the first cover from DC Comics’ 1986 fourissue “Dark Knight” miniseries to be sold and is expected to go for more than $500,000.

Miller’s story “radically altered the direction of comics,” said Todd Hignite, Heritage’s vice president. “For fans of modern comics, this drawing is where everything really begins,” he said. “This moment defines Miller’s Dark Knight, and the modern day perception of Batman, like no other drawing.”The only cover Hignite says might come close is the next in the series - with Batman and Robin that was auctioned two years ago for nearly $450,000.

“It represents not only one of the most memorable images from the 1980s, but from Batman’s entire illustrious history,” Hignite said.

“Miller’s revolutionary Dark Knight radically altered the direction of comics with its prestige miniseries format, combined with the fact that it was one of the first modern mainstream features to put a gritty noir patina on the squeaky-clean Silver Age hero mythos previously exemplified by DC.” Also up for sale is a 9.2-graded copy of “Batman” No 1 from 1940, that shows Batman and Robin swinging in front of a Gotham city skyline. It’s being auctioned on behalf of Tadano America Corp. A similar copy sold for $850,000 in 2012. “By any measure this is one of the most desirable comic books in existence,” said Barry Sandoval, director of operations for comics and comic art category at Heritage. “There are just a few comics ahead of this on the ultimate comics list, but it’s close when you see just how fantastic the shape of this book is.” The record price for a comic book remains “Action Comics” No. 1, which sold for $2.16 million in 2011. That featured Superman’s first appearance. — AFP

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T

he appeal of “Pacific Rim” isn’t complicated. Like the kind of boyhood fantasy that delights in flying men and relishes dreams of dinosaurs, “Pacific Rim,” the latest film from director Guillermo Del Toro, is predicated on the simple, childlike thrill of seeing big ol’ robots and big ol’ monsters slug it out. But while summer spectacles have grown ever larger in recent years, the monster movie - the original city-smashing genre - has mostly ceded the multiplexes to superheroes and more apocalyptic disaster films.

But 14 years after Roland Emmerich’s forgettable “Godzilla” remake, Del Toro’s “Pacific Rim” constitutes a large-scale attempt to bring Japan’s beloved Kaiju movies - their monster films, of which Ishiro Honda’s 1954 “Godzilla” is the most famous - to American shores. “Monsters have always spoken to a part of me that is really, really essential,” Del Toro, the Mexican director of the Oscar-nominated “Pan’s Labyrinth,” said in a recent interview.

“All of my life, I felt out of place. The tragedy of every monster in every movie is that they are out of place. That’s the essential plight of monsters.” In the 3-D “Pacific Rim,” which Warner Bros. will release on July 12, the 25-story-high Kaiju emanate (as is tradition) from the sea one by one, each uniquely grotesque beasts.

To combat these monsters and defend the coastlines of the Pacific, equally giant robots called Jaegers are built, each controlled by two brain-connected pilots.

Since he was a child, Del Toro has compulsively drawn monsters, beginning with sketches of the Creature from “Creature from the Black Lagoon” and the Phantom from “Phantom of the Opera.” He’s still an obsessive drawer (he has a book of drawings for every movie he makes), but creating the creatures and robots of “Pacific Rim” meant working in an entirely different scale.

While the Kaiju films of Toho studios were a formative influence on Del Toro, he boxed up his DVDs before starting work on “Pacific Rim,” intent on making a movie that wasn’t a mere homage. Instead, he took inspiration less from Japanese monster films than paintings like Goya’s “The Colossus” (which depicts a passing muscular giant, with fists raised, surrounded by clouds) and George Bellows’ visceral boxing paintings of hulking combatants.—AP Guillermo Del Toro

struggle over the USS Enterprise’s past and future helped sour JJ Abrams on the “Star Trek” franchise and may have contributed to his decision to take on the “Star Wars” universe. Competing ambitions between Paramount, CBS and Abrams’ production company Bad Robot over merchandising surrounding the first film in the rebooted “Star Trek” franchise led the director to curtail plans to turn the series into a multi-platform experience that spanned television, digital entertainment and comic books, according to an individual with knowledge of the dispute.

JJ just threw up his hands,” the individual told TheWrap.

“The message was, ‘Why set up all this when we’ll just be competing against ourselves?’ The studio wanted to please Bad Robot, but it was allowing CBS to say yay or nay when it came to what was happening with the ‘Star Trek’ products.”

“Star Trek Into Darkness” arrives in US multiplexes Thursday with tie-ins ranging from Bing to Hasbro. It is expected to gross more than $100 million at the domestic box office over the extended weekend.

Yet this marketing assault pales compared to the one that Abrams (above) and Bad Robot once envisioned for “Star Trek” and now plan to construct around the new “Star Wars” films. A major stumbling block: “Star Trek’s” licensing and merchandising rights are spread over two media conglomerates with competing goals. The rights to the original television series from the 1960s remained with CBS after it split off from Paramount’s corporate parent Viacom in 2006, while the studio retained the rights to the film series. CBS also held onto the ability to create future “Star Trek” TV shows.

Paramount must license the “Star Trek” characters from CBS Consumer Products for film merchandising. Much to the dismay of Bad Robot, CBS’ merchandising arm continued to create memorabilia and products based on the cast of the original 1960s series and market them to Trekkies.

The production company did market research and found that there was brand confusion between Abrams’ rebooted Enterprise crew and the one starring William Shatner and DeForest Kelley.

TheWrap has learned that Bad Robot asked CBS to stop making products featuring the original cast, but talks broke down over money. The network was making roughly $20 million a year on that merchandise and had no incentive to play nice with its former corporate brother, the individual said. In response, the company scaled back its ambitions to have “Star Trek’s” storylines play out with television shows, spin-off films and online components, something Abrams had been eager to accomplish.

Paramount declined to comment for this article and a spokesperson for Bad Robot did not respond to a request to comment. “As the merchandising rights holder for Star Trek, CBS Consumer Products has ongoing relationships with all our partners, including Paramount,” a spokesman for CBS Consumer Products said in a statement. “We have worked closely with them for the last five years to create merchandise to enhance the movies and satisfy fans. We are all looking forward to a successful opening of ‘Into Darkness.’”

Despite the initial bumpy ride, it appears that Paramount, Bad Robot and CBS Consumer Products worked more harmoniously on “Star Trek Into Darkness.” The parties collaborated on a Star Trek video game (left) that will feature the voices of the film’s stars Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto; a graphic novel prequel to the film that was overseen by screenwriter Roberto Orci; and a novelization from Simon & Schuster (below).

Still, Jeff Gomez, CEO of the transmedia consulting firm Starlight Runner Entertainment, says there could have been so many more lucrative tie-ins. He contends that the rebooted franchise has enormous potential outside the multiplex. “Right now the ‘Star Trek’ movies are movies,” Gomez said. “There is no apparent ongoing transmedia strategy behind them, just a handful of licensing opportunities around the release of ‘Into Darkness.’—AP

TECHNOLOGY

SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

Solar plane: Making clean tech sexy, adventurous

Use of Laptops in Kenyan schools.

Some Kenyan parents oppose laptops for kids NAIROBI: An ambitious plan by Kenya’s government to give laptops to schoolchildren has been opposed by parents who say the money for the computers should instead go toward raising teachers’ salaries and feeding children.

The program is bound to fail in a country that lacks enough teachers and where others strike regularly for better pay, Musau Ndunda of the Kenya National Association of Parents said Thursday.

Kenya currently has a shortfall of 40,000 teachers, and more than 200,000 teachers in public schools across the country are currently striking over unpaid housing, transport and hardship allowances promised 16 years ago.

Ndunda said Kenya also needs 42,000 classrooms. He said the money used for the laptops needs to be used to increase the number of children in the country’s school feeding program, meant to help children from poor backgrounds to stay in school and improve their health and nutrition.

Currently teachers do not have the capacity to implement the laptop project because they have not been trained and the government has not developed a curriculum for the project, said Ndunda. He said there are worries that the laptops would be lost or stolen, citing the recent scandal in which 70 million textbooks in a free primary-school education program went missing.

“If they are able to lose such an amount of textbooks then with the laptops it might be worse,” he said. He wondered how the laptops will be safe in households among the country’s poor, saying “you cannot keep such a gadget in your house if you don’t have something to eat.”

Stephen Mutoro, of the Consumer Federation of Kenya, said the though noble the laptop project was “not well thought out and was politicized beyond redemption.”

President Uhuru Kenyatta proposed while campaigning that his government would give laptops to 1.2 million children who start school every year, part of a wider plan to make the East African country an Internet hub. Details of the program, which will cost the government $615 million in three years, have not been made public. It is set to start later this year.

Microsoft, through the Partners in Learning Schools program, in last five years had trained 32,600 teachers, whose impact was being felt by more than 1.8 million children, Louis Otieno of Microsoft Africa Initiatives said in a statement Thursday. He said the government has not reached a final agreement with Microsoft, which will implement the project.

Muthui Kariuki, the government spokesman, defended the laptop project, saying it was crucial to Kenya’s goal of training a digital-savvy workforce.

“Anybody criticizing the idea is somebody who does not care about the future,” he said. “We are in a digital age and from the young people we will train we will get the next managers of the ‘silicon valley’ spurring growth and creating jobs. Technology is the only remaining frontier.” —AP

WASHINGTON: In noisy, energetic New York City, the pilots of a spindly plane that looks more toy than jet hope to grab attention in a surprising way: By being silent and consuming little energy.

This revolutionary solar-powered plane is about to end a slow and symbolic journey across America by quietly buzzing the Statue of Liberty and landing in a city whose buildings often obscure the powergiving sun. The plane’s top speed of 45 mph is so pokey, it would earn honks on the New Jersey Turnpike. The plane is called Solar Impulse. And it leaves from Washington on a commuter-like hop planned for Saturday, depending on the weather. It will take hours for the journey and offers none of the most basic comforts of flying.

But that’s OK. The aircraft’s creators say its purpose really has little to do with flying. They view themselves as green pioneers - promoting lighter materials, solarpowered batteries, and conservation as sexy and adventurous. Theirs is the highflying equivalent of the Tesla electric sports car. They want people to feel a thrill while saving the planet. Think Charles Lindbergh meets Rachel Carson. And if there’s one person who knows about adventure and what it means to Earth, it’s Bertrand Piccard.

He’s one of the two pilots who take turns flying Solar Impulse. His grandfather was the first man to see the curve of the Earth as a pioneering high-altitude balloon flier more than 80 years ago. His father more than half a century ago first took a submarine to the deepest and most inaccessible ocean trench on Earth.

And now in the 21st Century outside the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum annex not too far from a retired space shuttle, Piccard says there’s no truly new place on Earth for explorers to pioneer. At 55, he’s tried.

He already was the first person to fly around the world non-stop in a balloon, but that wasn’t really enough. So Piccard found a way to explore by looking inward and acting globally.

“It’s an exploration of new ways of thinking,” said Piccard, who is also a psychiatrist. “It’s important to understand that pioneering is not only what you do. It’s how you think. It’s a state of mind more than action.” For him, there was no better cause than clean technology.

“After a conquest of the planet, the 21st Century should be about improving the quality of life,” Piccard said. And the lightweight beanpole that’s called Solar Impulse “is something spectacular in order to capture the attention of the people. If you make a solar bicycle to drive, nobody

CHANTILLY: Andre Borschberg, one of two pilots of the Solar Impulse plane, poses for a portrait in the cockpit of the purely solar powered plane during a media availability at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. — AP would care. If you make a solar plane, everybody cares. Everybody wants to see it.’”

Europe saw it first with a test flight from Switzerland and Spain to Morocco last year. This year’s U.S. flight is another trial run that’s really preparation for a 2015 around-the-world trip with an upgraded version of the plane. Solar Impulse has been to San Francisco, Phoenix, Dallas, St. Louis, Cincinnati and Washington. All that’s left is New York’s JFK Airport and Piccard talked about having to wait his turn to land with all the big jets.

“We’re flying the most extraordinary airplane in the world,” Piccard said.

Although it’s promoted as solar-powered, what really pushes the envelope with this plane is its miserly energy efficiency, said Solar Impulse CEO Andre Borschberg, the plane’s other pilot.

Parts of its wings are three times lighter than paper. Its one-person cockpit is beyond tiny. Borschberg lowers himself gingerly into it for a television camera, grimaces, and practically wears the plane it is so snug on him.

Most of the 11,000 solar cells are on the super-long wings that seem to stretch as far as a jumbo jet’s. It weighs about the size of a small car, and soars at 30,000 feet with what is essentially the power of a small motorized scooter.

When it landed at Dulles International Airport in suburban Washington after midnight on June 15, its wings were lit with 16 LED lights that used less power than two 100-watt bulbs. “We can use much less energy than we use today without the sacrifice,” Borschberg said. “And that’s really

important.”

People won’t sacrifice to save energy or the planet, but if they are smart they don’t have to, Borschberg said. That’s why he and Piccard pointedly talk about “clean technologies” not “green technologies.”

They think “green” has the image of sacrifice.

The only sacrifice with the plane is staying up in the air alone for 20 hours in such a small space. And even then, the two pilots don’t call it a sacrifice. Borschberg said after a while it feels homey and enveloping and it’s hard to get out of the cocoon. Sitting for eight hours in an economy class seat on a commercial airplane is cramped; doing what you love by sitting three times longer in this plane isn’t, Piccard added.

The flights are long because here’s another thing about Solar Impulse: It’s slow. Its cruising speed of just under 45 mph would get them honked at on an highway.

So that has meant a lot of 4 a.m. takeoffs in the dark and landings well after midnight. But Borschberg, who will pilot the last leg from Washington to New York, is hoping for a daylight approach to New York City so he can get a photo opportunity with the Statue of Liberty.

Borschberg and Piccard both say this is not about clean-energy planes for the future. What they’re doing is more likely to improve energy efficiency on the ground, in cars and homes, agrees U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz who met with the pair to talk up future energy a couple days after they landed at Dulles. Still, questions of practicality come up. —AP

Internet sites join protest against US surveillance NEW YORK: The online community rallied on Thursday in support of live protests against the U.S. government’s surveillance of internet activity, a practice recently exposed by a former contractor for the National Security Agency.

Websites such as Reddit and Mozilla supported a campaign in cities across the United States to “Restore the Fourth” - a reference to the US Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, which protects citizens against unlawful search and seizure. The home page of the website Boing Boing, for example, displayed the following message to the NSA: “Happy 4th of July! Immediately stop your

unconstitutional spying on the world’s internet usersThe People.” The protest comes as the United States celebrates its Independence Day holiday.

By early afternoon, crowds of more than 400 had gathered in New York City and Washington, D.C., the organizers said. They estimate the total turnout will be more than 10,000 nationwide.

The NSA, on its own website, said: “NSA does not object to any lawful, peaceful protest. NSA and its employees work diligently and lawfully every day, around the clock, to protect the nation and its people.”

Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has been

charged with espionage after disclosing the agency’s surveillance programs. He has spent more than a week in a Moscow airport seeking a country that would grant him asylum. The online protest was launched by the Internet Defense League, a network of more than 30,000 websites and internet users whose goal is to protest attempts to curtail the freedom of the Web. Evan Greer, a spokesman for the IDL, said nearly 13,500 Twitter users had taken part in a so-called thunderclap, in which they all tweeted the same or similar message at the same time to their more than 9 million followers. — Reuters

TECHNOLOGY

SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

How to prepare for a video job interview NEW YORK: Discussing your qualifications for a new job via a video interview sounds easy enough and even appealing. No worrying if your palms are clammy when you shake hands, since you won’t be shaking hands. You don’t have to travel farther than your own home. As long as you look presentable from the waist up, you could even skip a shower and interview in sweatpants.

But interviewing over video and doing it well can take more preparation than an in-person meeting. After all, if you are not looking at the camera properly, you may come off as distracted or unhinged. If the video set-up is poor, you appear technically incompetent. Your smudged walls or home office clutter may suggest things you do not wish to convey about your work habits. Odds are, there is a video job interview in your future. A 2012 survey from the staffing service Office Team, which asked more than 500 human resources managers about their use of video interviews, showed that 66.7 percent were using them “very often.” So if you are in job-interview mode, or think you will be, here are some tips to consider: EQUIPMENT You will need a webcam and voice-over-IP software, the most popular and well-known being Skype, which is free to download. You can find Web cameras on the Internet for as low as a few bucks, but you will pay closer to the $70 to $100 range if you want a trouble-free technology experience during the interview.

“Your webcam should be (high-definition)-quality, have the capability to zoom - to compensate for camera set-up distance - and include a good built-in microphone,” says Nick Balletta, chief executive officer of Talkpoint.com, a webcasting technology company in New York City. After you check the sound quality, if you

China and US to discuss cybersecurity at forum BEIJING: China is ready to discuss strengthening cybersecurity with US officials at a high-level forum next week and wants Washington to help settle territorial disputes in East Asia, officials said yesterday.

Next week’s two-day Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Washington will also include talks on finance and climate change and the inaugural gathering of a US-Chinese cybersecurity group, the officials said at a government briefing.

Beijing is under US pressure to crack down on cyberspying after security consultants tracked a wave of hacking attacks to China.

“We are ready to work with the United States and engage in dialogue and communication and, on the basis of mutual respect and mutual trust, enhance understanding and consensus and work with the international community to build a peaceful, secure, open and cooperative cyberspace,” said Zheng Zeguang, an assistant foreign minister.

The US delegation to the dialogue is to be led by Secretary of State John F. Kerry and Secretary of the Treasury Jacob J. Lew. The chief Chinese envoys will be State Councilor Yang Jiechi and Vice Premier Wang Yang.

They are to be joined by finance, military, energy, environmental and other officials.

The annual talks are aimed at heading off trade and other disputes between the world’s two largest economies and to promote cooperation on managing the global economy, climate change and other issues. Security experts say China is a base for a large share of the world’s cyberspying, some of which might be carried out by its military. Beijing has rejected that, saying China is a victim of computer hacking. Asked about disclosures by former NSA employee Edward Snowden about US government spying and whether those would influence the talks, Zheng said, “The information released by the media shows once again that China is among the victims of cyberattacks.”

On regional issues, Zheng said Beijing wants Washington to “do more to contribute” to settling tensions over territorial disputes. —AP

don’t feel your voice comes through loud and clear, you may want an independent microphone.

PRACTICE Perform a “mini-test run” to work out kinks. Ideally, practice talking to someone else with a computer’s webcam, so you can see how you look and sound.

“People tend to be more nervous on camera than in real life, because as infrequently as we may do job interviews, most of us have conversations on camera even less often,” says Christine Allen, a Syracuse, New York-based psychologist, consultant and executive coach.

Just don’t come off as too rehearsed, says Stephanie Kinkaid, the program coordinator for the career and leadership center at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois.

“Be yourself,” she says.

BEFORE THE INTERVIEW Skipping a shower and interviewing in sweatpants is something you can do only in theory. No self-respecting career coach actually recommends this. “You want your brain to believe that you are functioning at your best.

Dressing the part from head to toe, even though the interviewer will only see the top half of you, will help you get there,” says Karen Elizaga, a New York-based executive coach who works with everyone from first-time job seekers to Fortune 500 executives.

Natural lighting is optimal, Kinkaid says. Avoid having a light right above or behind you. She offers another helpful tip: If there is information you fear you will forget during the interview, you can keep notes on your computer screen in front of you. Think of them as cue cards.

This isn’t a Hollywood production. You want to look your best, but there is no need to hire a professional to do your makeup and hair styling, says Elizaga. Naturally, she

adds, you should be well-groomed. If you wear makeup, make sure it is “polished - you can put on a bit more, to give your look a little more pop,” Elizaga says. If you have kids or pets, herd them out of earshot during the interview. Be sure to unplug or silence your landline, and shut down your cell phone.

GAME TIME If the video equipment is making you nervous, Allen suggests being up-front about that: “It may help break the ice.” Obviously, your experience, work ethic and the discussion itself are the most important facets of the interview. But it is difficult to be taken seriously if you look odd to the interviewer. Look at the camera eye, both when listening and talking. It is tempting to watch the interviewer’s image, but if you do, you will make very little perceived “eye contact” from the interviewer’s perspective. “It will seem like you’re looking at the floor,” Elizaga says.

Don’t look yourself on your computer screen, or it will appear that you are not making eye contact, says Michael Joseph, 24, an account executive at a public relations firm in Burlington, Vermont. Joseph did two video interviews two years ago, when he landed his first job after graduating from West Virginia University. Make the image of yourself on your computer screen thumbnail-sized, and position it on your screen so that it is directly under the Web camera. “If you check it, you won’t look like you’re looking away,” Joseph says.

WRAPPING UP It seems obvious, but be sure to thank the interviewer for his or her time. And while conducting a video interview can seem daunting, once you have everything down, “think of this like a phone call,” Elizaga says. “This is no different - it’s just that now, people can see you.” — Reuters

Professor discovers new use for laser in art world DURHAM: A US professor who developed a laser to study melanoma has discovered a new use for it: uncovering what’s underneath artwork without damaging the pieces. Dr. Warren S. Warren was at the National Gallery in London, looking at an exhibit on art forgeries, when he realized that the art world used imaging technologies that were 30 or 40 years old. So he began investigating whether lasers could be used to safely uncover the mysteries underneath layers of paint. So far, the answer is a qualified yes.

Warren and others in Duke University’s Center for Molecular and Biomedical Imaging, which he leads, have found they can use Warren’s pump-probe laser to create three-dimensional cross-sections of art that let researchers see colors and layers and maybe, at some point, discover the source of materials.

“It’s showing some real promise, and that’s exciting,” said John Delaney, senior imaging scientist in the conservation division of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Delaney, who researches how to adapt noninvasive analytical imaging methods to help identify and map artists’ materials, has seen the laser system at work. The NC Museum of Art’s 14th-century “Crucifixion” by Puccio Capanna was the first painting to get a pump-probe laser exam. It revealed a thick layer of lapis lazuli over Madonna’s mantle, said William Brown, the museum’s chief conservator.

Typically, that blue is achieved with a layer of the less expensive azurite, covered with a thin layer of lapis, which was more expensive than gold at the time, he said.

“This tells us it was a really important

DURHAM: In this Thursday, June 27, 2013 photo, a laser is redirected through a prism in the process of examining art with pump-probe lasers at Duke University in Durham. — AP painting,” said Brown, adding that it could be part of an altarpiece at the Vatican.

Typically, an art conservationist uses a scalpel to remove tiny samples from a painting to learn more about both the painting and the materials used. That method damages the painting and is limited in where a conservationist can nick at the paint - corners and background, for example, and but not faces. The pumpprobe laser system provides a threedimensional view of any part of a painting without taking a chip. Researchers can zoom in and out, like looking at a layer cake, and separate colors to see what was originally on the canvas.

“Through these techniques, you’re also

understanding the technology that went into the creation of these paintings,” Brown said. “And you can chart the whole history of the world through technology and technology innovations. It affects the economy, it affects everything.”

The laser system is attracting attention from other conservationists, including those who care for the Dead Sea Scrolls, Warren said. They want to know if the pump-probe can let them read what’s in scrolls that are too fragile to unwind.

“Nothing has to be perfect,” Delaney said. “We’re looking for what can help us solve problems that we don’t have a good way to solve now. And this shows some potential.” — AP

TV listings SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

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

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James May’s Man Lab James May’s Man Lab James May’s Man Lab You Have Been Warned Overhaulin’ 2012 Gold Divers Alaska: The Last Frontier Sons Of Guns How It’s Made How It’s Made How It’s Made How It’s Made How It’s Made Gang Wars Kidnap And Rescue Ultimate Cops

The Gadget Show How Tech Works What’s That About?

X-Machines Scrapheap Challenge Moon Machines Bigger, Better, Faster, Stronger Bigger, Better, Faster, Stronger What’s That About?

Human Body: Ultimate Machine The Gadget Show How Tech Works What’s That About?

Human Body: Ultimate Machine The Gadget Show How Tech Works Weird Connections Unchained Reaction Unchained Reaction

04:30 Leno 05:30 06:00 06:30 07:00 08:00 08:30 09:00 09:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 Leno 12:00 12:30 13:00 13:30 14:00 14:30 15:00 15:30 16:00 16:30 17:00 18:00 18:30 19:00 19:30 20:00 Leno 21:00 21:30 22:00 23:30 00:30 01:00 01:30

The Tonight Show With Jay Friends Hope & Faith Arrested Development Late Night With Jimmy Fallon Brothers Friends How I Met Your Mother Go On 2 Broke Girls Arrested Development The Tonight Show With Jay Hope & Faith Brothers Friends Arrested Development How I Met Your Mother 2 Broke Girls Go On The Daily Show The Colbert Report Hope & Faith Late Night With Jimmy Fallon Wilfred Happy Endings Hot In Cleveland 2 Broke Girls The Tonight Show With Jay The Daily Show The Colbert Report Saturday Night Live Syndicated Late Night With Jimmy Fallon The Daily Show The Colbert Report Saturday Night Live Syndicated

13:00 13:30 14:00 15:00 16:00 On 17:00 18:05 19:00 20:00 22:30 00:00 01:00

Coach Trip Come Dine With Me Ireland The Hungry Sailors The Jonathan Ross Show Paul McCartney & Wings: Band

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

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 That’s So Raven Good Luck Charlie Shake It Up Jessie Austin And Ally A.N.T. Farm

Celebrity Fit Club USA The Chase May The Best House Win Come Dine With Me Ireland Popstar To Operastar Marco’s Kitchen Burnout Celebrity Fit Club USA

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

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

01:30 Private Crimes 02:00 Gangs Of Britain With Gary & Martin Kemp 03:00 Haunted Encounters: Face To Face 04:00 Jack The Ripper 05:00 Crime Stories 06:00 The FBI Files 07:00 Psychic Detectives 07:30 Psychic Detectives 08:00 Psychic Detectives 08:30 Psychic Detectives 09:00 Curious & Unusual Deaths 09:30 Private Crimes 10:00 Vanished With Beth Holloway 11:00 Vanished With Beth Holloway 12:00 Vanished With Beth Holloway 13:00 Vanished With Beth Holloway 14:00 Curious & Unusual Deaths 14:30 Private Crimes 15:00 Beyond Scared Straight 16:00 Beyond Scared Straight 17:00 Beyond Scared Straight 18:00 Beyond Scared Straight 19:00 The FBI Files 20:00 Snapped: Women Who Kill 20:30 Snapped 21:00 Cold Case Files 22:00 My Ghost Story 23:00 Mobsters

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C.S.I. Miami Glee Smallville The Ellen DeGeneres Show C.S.I. Miami Body Of Proof C.S.I. New York White Collar Top Gear (US) Smallville Glee White Collar Top Gear (US)

03:00 How I Met Your Mother 03:30 How I Met Your Mother 04:00 Brothers

Good Luck Charlie Monsters Inc. Good Luck Charlie Shake It Up Jessie A.N.T Farm A.N.T. Farm A.N.T. Farm Austin And Ally Shake It Up Jessie Jessie A.N.T Farm Cheetah Girls: One World Prankstars That’s So Raven Jessie A.N.T Farm A.N.T. Farm A.N.T Farm Austin And Ally Austin And Ally That’s So Raven Good Luck Charlie Shake It Up A.N.T Farm

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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 Too Young To Kill

03:15 Coastal Kitchen 03:40 Cash In The Attic 04:30 Bargain Hunt 05:15 Daily Cooks Challenge 05:45 How Not To Decorate 06:30 Coastal Kitchen 07:00 Phil Spencer - Secret Agent 07:55 Phil Spencer - Secret Agent 08:50 Phil Spencer - Secret Agent 09:40 Phil Spencer - Secret Agent 10:30 Phil Spencer - Secret Agent 11:20 Cash In The Attic 12:15 Come Dine With Me 13:05 The Good Cook 13:35 Planet Cake 14:00 Tareq Taylor’s Nordic Cookery 14:25 Hairy Bikers’ Bake-ation 15:15 Bargain Hunt 16:00 Antiques Roadshow 16:55 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 13:15 Barefoot Contessa 13:40 Barefoot Contessa 14:05 Unique Sweets 14:30 Unique Sweets 14:55 Unique Sweets 15:20 Unique Sweets 15:45 Charly’s Cake Angels 16:10 Charly’s Cake Angels 16:35 Reza’s African Kitchen 17:00 Reza’s African Kitchen 17:25 Ultimate Recipe Showdown 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

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Food Wars Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Unwrapped Food Wars

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A Dog Named Duke-PG15 Robots-PG The Tourist-PG15 The Way-PG15 A Fall From Grace-PG15 The Lucky One-PG15 The Tourist-PG15 Joyful Noise-PG15 Five-PG15 Horrible Bosses-18 The Devil Inside-18 The Tourist-PG15

07:15 Planet Ocean-PG15 09:00 Ties That Bind-PG15 11:00 The Decoy Bride-PG15 13:00 Sammy’s Adventure: The Secret Passage-FAM 15:00 The Perfect Man-PG 17:00 Underground: The Julian Assange Story-PG15 19:00 Return-PG15 21:00 J. Edgar-18 23:15 Powder Blue-18 01:00 Locked In-18

04:00 A Monster In Paris-PG 06:00 Frankenweenie-PG 08:00 Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part One-PG15 10:00 Do No Harm-PG15 12:00 Frankenweenie-PG 14:00 American Girl: McKenna Shoots For The Stars-PG 16:00 Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part One-PG15 17:45 The Amazing Spider-Man-PG15 20:00 Dark Shadows-PG15 22:00 Prometheus-PG15 00:15 Do No Harm-PG15 02:00 The Amazing Spider-Man-PG15

03:45 Captain America: The First Avenger-PG15 06:00 And Soon The Darkness-PG15 08:00 Warbirds-PG15 10:00 Superman vs. The Elite-PG15 12:00 Charlie’s Angels: Full ThrottlePG15 14:00 Warbirds-PG15 16:00 Constantine-PG15 18:15 Charlie’s Angels: Full ThrottlePG15 20:00 Arena-18 22:00 The Killing Jar-PG15 00:00 Carlito’s Way-18 02:30 Arena-18

08:00 Monte Carlo-PG15 10:00 Love Birds-PG15 12:00 Ernest Goes To Jail-PG 14:00 The Tooth Fairy 2-PG 16:00 Love Birds-PG15 18:00 The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom-PG 20:00 Bridesmaids-18 22:15 The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard-18 00:00 Friends With Benefits-18 02:00 Bridesmaids-18

10:45 World Trade Center-PG15 13:00 The First Grader-PG15

TV listings SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013 14:45 War Horse-PG15 17:15 The Vow-PG15 19:00 Dying Young-PG15 21:00 Ironclad-18 23:00 The Most Fun You Can Have Dying-PG15 01:00 Kathmandu Lullaby-PG15

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Live AFL Premiership Inside The PGA Tour ICC Cricket 360 Live Cricket Friends Life T20 Inside The PGA Tour Live PGA Tour Inside The PGA Tour Live PGA Tour

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05:30 Inside The PGA Tour 06:00 Trans World Sport 07:00 Live AFL Premiership 10:00 Futbol Mundial 10:30 Trans World Sport 11:30 ICC Cricket 360 12:00 Live British & Irish Lions Tour of Australia 15:30 Futbol Mundial 16:00 Live Super Rugby 18:00 Live Super Rugby 20:00 Live Super Rugby 22:00 ICC Cricket 360 22:30 Cricket Friends Life T20

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Total Rugby ICC Cricket 360 Cricket Friends Life T20 Super Rugby Golfing World Cricket Friends Life T20 NRL Full Time Live NRL Premiership Live NRL Premiership PGA European Tour Weekly Live PGA European Tour British & Irish Lions Tour Super Rugby

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Porsche GT 3 Cup Prizefighter Mass Participation NHL WWE Smackdown WWE Bottom Line WWE Vintage Collection UAE National Race Day Series

00:00 Wild Carpathia 01:00 Off Limits 02:00 Departures 03:00 Globe Trekker 04:00 Inside Luxury Travel - Varun Sharma 05:00 Bizarre Foods America 06:00 Eden Eats 07:00 Globe Trekker 08:00 Off Limits 10:00 Bert The Conqueror 12:00 Ultimate Braai Master 13:00 Ultimate Braai Master 14:00 International House Hunters 15:30 Essential 16:00 Hotel Impossible 18:00 Ultimate Braai Master 20:00 Reza, Spice Prince Of India 20:30 Jonathan Phang’s Caribbean Cookbook 21:00 World’s Greatest Motorcycle Rides 22:00 Luxury Trains 23:00 Inside Luxury Travel - Varun Sharma

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Top European cities

W

ith summer prices on the rise, we’re eager to explore some places that are just starting to appear on many travelers’ radars. With up and coming spots within Europe as the focus, the editors and members of travel website VirtualTourist.com compiled a list of the “Top European Cities To See Now.”

LVIV, UKRAINE Lviv, a city in Western Ukraine that’s become a modern business hub, is the spot VirtualTourist members unanimously agreed is the top European city to see now. Many of its highlights are found in an incredibly compact central area, making it the perfect place to explore on a weekend jaunt. Start in Rynok Square, the center of city, which is surrounded by almost 50 unique architectural monuments including the Kornyakt Palace, a Renaissance landmark. Visitors can’t miss the Lviv Opera House, a Neo-Renaissance treasure that is often compared to opera houses of Paris and Vienna. In July, the city hosts “Night Lviv,” a festival that includes over 100 night tours and theatrical performances, like a fire show, late into the night.

HAMBURG, GERMANY Located in Northern Germany on the Elbe River, Hamburg has been overshadowed by Berlin for far too long. With the diversity of being Germany’s second largest city and the outdoor opportunities of a metropolis on the water, Hamburg is primed for a great tourism boom in coming years. Providing both small town qualities with big city growth, you can stroll along Jungfernsteig on Alster Lake just as families have done throughout history or check out the city’s concert hall-in-the-making, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, in the buzzing neighborhood of HafenCity.

VILNIUS, LITHUANIA Home to the largest Baroque old town in Eastern and Central Europe, Lithuania’s capital is a great destination for travelers interested in architecture. The Church of St. Peter and St. Paul is a Baroque masterpiece, with close to 2,000 stucco figures inside, and the pink facade of the Church of Saint Catherine makes it difficult to miss. Multiple VirtualTourist members recommend visiting St. John’s Church and its bell tower, and while Vilnius is famous for Baroque buildings, the gothic St. Anne’s Church is also a must-see.

Another interesting spot, the Gates of Dawn, is a shrine within the sole surviving gate of the first original five gates in the city wall; it houses an exceptional portrait of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

VALENCIA, SPAIN Only a short train ride from Barcelona, Valencia is finally coming into its own as Spain’s third largest city and a tourism destination in its own right. The city has a unique combination of historical sites and modern attractions. Near the Plaza de la Virgen, visitors can see a number of religious landmarks, such as the Catedral, which holds the Holy Chalice that according to tradition was used

by Christ during the last Supper. Another historical site is the Llotja de la Seda (Silk Exchange), a UNESCO Heritage Site and a great example of Gothic architecture that illustrates the important role the city has in Mediterranean trade throughout history.

Newer landmarks are Valencia-born “starchitect” Santiago Calatrava’s City of Arts and Sciences a complex which includes an IMAX theatre, the largest aquarium in Europe, an interactive science museum, and a four hall performance arts center.

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PORTO, PORTUGAL Built into the hillsides that rise above the Douro River, Porto has long been a favorite amongst VirtualTourist travelers. Its historic center is a UNESCO World Heritage site and its wine is renowned the world over. Favorite spots among VirtualTourist members include strolling the Ribeira district along the waterfront, visiting the Cathedral or the Sao Bento railway station to view the azulejos (ceramic hand-painted tiles), and stopping by the Lello bookshop. There are also great new buildings to see in Porto including Rem Koolhaas’ Casa de Musica, which hosts classical music concerts every Sunday at noon for less than 10 Euros.

ZAGREB, CROATIA Croatia’s cities along the Adriatic Sea have long been in the limelight, but the country’s capital, Zagreb, is ready for its close-up.

Members love riding the funicular to the city’s Upper Town, where the Zagreb Cathedral, St. Mark’s Church, and the Lotrscak Tower are located. The neo-gothic Cathedral is actually within a medieval fort making it a must-see for both architecture lovers and history buffs, and St. Mark’s Church is famous for the coat-of-arms on its colorful roof.

VirtualTourist members also noted that the Oktagon, a shopping passage in the Lower Town, is a beautiful experience and a nice change of pace for sightseers.

VALLETTA, MALTA Only 93 km (58 miles) south of the Italian island of Sicily, Malta has historically had great strategic significance due to its location, and is finally coming into its own as a travel destination. Valletta, the country’s capital, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and was recently named the European Capital of Culture for 2018. One of the most concentrated historic areas in the world, Valletta offers some truly remarkable landmarks including the Co-Cathedral of St. John with its exquisite Baroque interior and two paintings by Caravaggio.

BUDAPEST, HUNGARY Although it has long been on lists of European cities to watch, it seems Budapest is finally primed to be a destination unto itself. Originally two separate cities on either side of the Danube, the capital is noted for its romantic architecture, landmarks with panoramic views, and spa culture. The Buda Castle, Fisherman’s Bastion, and Matthias Church in Trinity Square are lie on the Buda side of the river, while the Parliament Building and the Gresham Palace, an outstanding example of Hungarian Art Nouveau architecture (now home to the Four Seasons Hotel) are on the Pest side of the river. Many VirtualTourist members enjoy photographing the sites from boat cruises along the Danube.

RIGA, LATVIA While many Baltic cities are becoming more popular with tourists, the city of Riga undoubtedly provides an eyeful for every visitor. Known for its grandiose Jugendstil facades, the city is widely recognized as having one of the greatest collections of Art Nouveau architecture in Europe. Old Riga, the historical center on the right bank of the Daugava River, is also popular with visitors for its quaint squares and cobblestoned streets.

Favorite spots of VirtualTourist.com members include St. Peter’s Church, the House of Blackheads, and the “Three Brothers,” a set of three buildings on Maza Pills Street which reflect the changing trends of Latvian architecture over time.—MCT

W H AT ’ S O N SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

What to do in Kuwait this summer?

Visit the Sadu House Al-Sadu Society is dedicated to preserving, documenting and promoting the rich and diverse textile heritage of the Kuwaiti Bedouin, from the nomadic weaving of the desert to the urban weaving of the town. Sadu is a traditional Bedouin art that involves weaving geometric designs on dyed and colored wool that is spun by hand to create magnificent carpets, rugs, and Bedouin tent screens. Inside the Sadu House, visitors have the opportunity to see Bedouin women weaving. Sadu House is located near the National Museum. It is considered to be the center of Bedouin art aiming at presenting Kuwait’s roots and protecting Bedouin crafts from eradication.

Address: Arabian Gulf Street, Next to the National Museum of Kuwait, Kuwait City Opening Hours: Saturdays to Thursdays: Mornings from 08 am to 1 pm. Evenings from 4 pm to 8 pm.

Contact: 22432395 E-mail: info@alsadu.org.kw Website: www.alsadu.org.kw View Boushahri Gallery The Boushahri Art Gallery was established in 1982 by Jawad Boushahri, the Chairman of the Boushahri group who is also an acclaimed Kuwaiti sculptor. It is one of the oldest private art galleries in the Middle East. This long established gallery showcases contemporary regional work. In order to create an awareness toward art in Kuwait as a community service, the Boushahri Art Gallery educates, supports and sponsors local and international artists, displaying their paintings, potteries, ceramic portraitures, designs, photographers, sculptures and much more. To encourage the Art lovers and educate society, Boushahri Art Gallery offers many courses, seminars and lectures about Art. Address: Salmiya, Baghdad St., Building Number: 36, in front of Al- Laheeb Mosque Opening Hours: 10 am to 1 pm and 5 pm to 9 pm. The museum is closed on Friday and Thursday afternoons.

Contact: 25621119/99770607 Website: www.boushahrigroup.com/client/PhotoandArt.aspx

Take a break at Al-Khiran Resort The Al-Khiran resort is a relaxing “get-away” from the mayhem of stressful city life. The resort provides a soothing tranquil environment that includes beautiful green lawns, wide, well-defined roads, ample parking spaces, and clean wellmaintained beaches. It has many chalets that are beautifully furnished and air-conditioned. The resort also offers a variety of other facilities such as football and basketball courts, luxurious restaurants, yacht clubs, an amusement park for children, electronic computer arcade and the ‘Duza’ ballroom. The resort also provides variety in food as it includes a fast-food counter, and a counter that offers seafood, Italian and oriental food.

Address: Gulf Street, Al-Khiran district Contact: 23951122 E-mail: mailbox@khiranresort.com Website: www.khiranresort.com Stop at the Tareq Rajab Museum The Tareq Rajab Museum houses an anthology of over thirty thousand items collected over the last fifty years, of which approximately ten thousand are on permanent display. Tareq Sayed Rajab was the first Kuwaiti to be sent abroad to study art and archaeology and his collection includes Islamic arts, ceramic, gold and silver jewelry, English manuscripts, metal and glass works, old English costumes, and musical instruments. His personal collection includes over thirty thousand Islamic treasures that were gathered over the years. The

Museum is divided into two parts: in Area A, calligraphy, manuscripts, ceramics, metalwork, glass, jade, wood and stone carvings are exhibited. Area B contains objects such as costumes, textiles, jewellery and musical instruments produced in the Islamic world.

Address: Jabriya, near the intersection of the Fifth Ring Motorway and the Abdulaziz Bin Abdilrahman al-Saud Expressway (Fahaheel Expressway); Street 5; Block12; House 16 Opening Hours: Weekdays from 9 am to 12 pm; Evenings: From 4 pm to 7 pm; Fridays: From 9 am to 12 pm.

Contact: 25317358/25354916 Website: www.trmkt.com The Scientific Center, Kuwait The Scientific Center is designed to reflect the Islamic arts and culture. It has three main fascinating attractions: Aquarium, Discovery Place and IMAX Cinema. The Aquarium presents an ecosystem of desert, sea, and coastal edge. Visitors of the Aquarium explore the lives of beings and animals in their environments. When entering the Discovery Place, visitors gain scientific experience through educational games. Highly specialized trainers are assigned to guide visitors through hand-on playful training. On entering the IMAX Cinema, one can watch 3D movies played on the giant screen. Visitors can enjoy watching educational and documentary presentations and get engaged into a highly imaginative experience.

Address: The Scientific Center, Gulf Road Contact: 1848888 E-mail: info@tsck.org.kw Website: www.tsck.org.kw Visit Dar Al-Funoon gallery Dar Al-Funoon, which was established in 1993, focuses on contemporary Arab art as well as Arabic calligraphy.

Exhibitions are held monthly from October to May, and a special silk exhibition of arts and crafts is held in December. Between temporary exhibitions, items from the private collection are on display, which can be bought. The gallery is located between the Sheraton Hotel and the Arabian Gulf Street. The area itself is interesting thanks to its old Kuwaiti-style houses and a large courtyard which includes a number of excellent restaurants.

Address: Behbehani compound, Salhiya, House No. 28, Al-Watiah, Kuwait City Opening Hours: Sundays to Thursdays: 10 am to 1 pm Evenings: 4 pm to 8 pm Contact: 22433138 E-mail: info@daralfunoon-kw.com Website: www.daralfunoon-kw.com Bayt - Lothan Bayt Lothan is dedicated to the promotion of arts and crafts and is host to various exhibitions and displays throughout the year. It covers an area of 4,000 square meters on the Arabian Gulf Street and caters to all tastes and themes, including sculpture, ceramic arts, jewelry and photography, as well as contemporary art and calligraphy.

Watch out in the local press for details of current and forthcoming exhibitions or seminars. There is also a small coffee shop for basic refreshments and for theatre lovers they also hold drama classes throughout the year.

Address: Gulf Street, beside Marina Mall, in front of Corniche Hotel Contact: 25755866 / 25727388 E-Mail: info@baytlothan.org Opening Hours: Sundays to Thursdays: 9 am to 1 pm; Evenings: 5 pm to 9 pm Website: http://www.baytlothan.org Visit Ghadir Gallery, Kuwait The Al-Ghadir Gallery Kuwait is dedicated to promote the Kuwaiti formative artist and writer Thuraya Al-Baqsami and successfully accomplished 120 national and international solo art exhibitions, literary and poetry readings and musical events. It also participates in charity activities worldwide. The gallery offers varieties of art including paintings, frames, handcrafts, art materials and antiques.

Address: Block 6, Street 5, Villa 40, Mishref, Kuwait Contact: 22435101, 22426240 E-mail: info@ghadirgallerykuwait.com Website: www.ghadirgallerykuwait.com

Tour the Entertainment City The Entertainment City is located 20 km from Kuwait City and provides complete entertainment for all members of the family. The city is divided into three theme parks: The Arab world, the International World and the Future World. The park offers more than 40 different rides, lots of games to play, and stage show unique to the Middle East. The major attractions to look out for in the park include the City of Dreams, the City of Sinbad and Ali Baba, the City of Thunder and Hurricanes, the African boat, Grand Pix, Arabian Carousel and the Fantasy Cinema. The place is fully equipped with a police station of its own and ambulance service, shops where souvenirs and other merchandise can be purchased, and a parking lot that can accommodate around 3000 vehicles.

Address: Al-Madina Al-Tarfihiya, Al - Doha Opening Hours: Sundays - Fridays: 5 pm to 1 am (Summers) and 3 pm to 11 pm (Winters) It is important to note that Mondays are allocated only for women and men are not allowed on Mondays.

Contact No.: 24879455

Take the kids to Al-Shaab Leisure Park Al-Sha’ab Leisure Park is located on the southern coast of Kuwait City. It combines more than 70 special rides on the level of the Middle East. It also provides integrated services, including restaurants, a mall, and rides and games that meet the interests of all age groups. The park also offers indoor games as well as outdoor sports like bungee jumping, pony rides and ice-skating. Families can also access facilities such as the movies and the delicious meals at the restaurants. At Al-Sha’ab Leisure Park, all these facilities are maintained according to international standards.

Address: Baghdad Street, Block 11, Salmiya Opening Hours: All days from 5 pm to 1 am (Summer) and 10 am - 12 Midnight on weekends.

Contact: 25613777 E-mail: shaabpark_fb@uetc.com.kw Website: www.shaabpark.com Kuwait National Museum The Kuwait National Museum hosts a range of items such as fossils, bones, Islamic artifacts, and pottery tools that reflect the culture, history and heritage of the Kuwaiti society and the Islamic world. The relics on display presents Kuwait’s ancient past, the development of the Islamic nations and the impact of the discovery of oil. Part of the Dar-Al-Athar-Al-Islamiyah collection is also on display, and a replica of the Muhallab II that graces the entrance has also recently been restored as a reminder of Kuwait’s seafaring past. There is also a modern Planetarium, built by Carl Zeiss which is a pleasant educational experience for both adults and children. The three major attractions in the museum are the heritage museum, the planetarium and the wooden ship.

Address: Behind Sadu House, Arabian Gulf Street Contact No.: 22451195 Opening Hours: 8:30am to 12:30pm and 4:30pm to 8:30pm (Summers); and 8 am to 4 pm (Winters). The Museum is closed on Sundays, Friday mornings and Saturday afternoons.

Stop to view AL M. Gallery AL M. Gallery is a contemporary fine art gallery located in the heart of Kuwait City in Salhia Complex. Gallery organizes exhibitions of Kuwaiti, Middle Eastern and International artists.

Address: Salhia Complex, Gate 4, Mezzanine 2, Place 16.

Opening Hours: Sundays to Thursdays 10 am to 3 pm and Evenings: 5 pm to 9 pm Contact No.: 22996447 E-mail: info@al-m-gallery.com

W H AT ’ S O N SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

GUST welcomes scholarship applications until July 18

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he Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST) Vice President for Academic Services, Dr Sabah Al Quadoomi announced that GUST is now accepting internal scholarship applicants until July 18, 2013. Dr. Al Quaddoomi noted that a dedicated team has been put in place to allow for a smooth registration process for the students hoping to apply to the various programs available at GUST; including the now available applications online through apply.gust.edu.kw.

For the students who would like to apply within general admissions will be able to do so until September 12th, 2013, as the Fall 2013/2014 semester starts on September 15th. Dr. Al-Quadoomi noted the scholarship requirements for science

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Announcements

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hat’s more fun than clicking a beautiful picture? Sharing it with others! Let other people see the way you see Kuwait through your lens. Friday Times will feature snapshots of Kuwait through Instagram feeds. If you want to share your Instagram photos, email us at instagram@kuwaittimes.net

Information EMBASSY OF AUSTRALIA The Australian Embassy Kuwait does not have a visa or immigration department. All processing of visas and immigration matters in conducted by The Australian Consulate-General in Dubai. Email: info.ausdxb@vfshelpline.com (VFS) immigration.dubai@dfat.gov.au (Visa Office); Tel: +971 4 355 1958 (VFS) - +971 4 508 7200 (Visa Office); Fax: +971 4 355 0708 (Visa Office). In Kuwait applications can be lodged at the Australian Visa Application Centre 4B 1st Floor, Al-Banwan Building Al-Qibla Area, Ali Al-Salem Street, opposite the Central Bank of Kuwait, Kuwait City, Kuwait.

Working hours and days: 09:30 - 17:30; Sunday Thursday. Or visit their website www.vfs-au-gcccom for more information. Kuwait citizens can apply for tourist visas on-line at www.immi.gov.au/e visa/e676.htm.

majors is 70%, which is equivalent to 2.50GPA, and a 78% for arts majors, which is equivalent to 2.90; for diploma holders, 30 units minimum must be transferable and their graduation GPA should be 3.00.

For general admission, GUST requirements include the completion of the Math and English placement tests or a copy of the student’s latest TOEFL scores, along with a 60% or equivalent 2.00GPA. Dr. Al-Quadoomi stated that GUST is continuously working to provide its prospective students with the necessary tools that will help them through their journey from the day they enroll until they graduate from the university. Dr. Al-Quadoomi wishes all the applicants the best of luck and hopes to see them on campus in the Fall.

Indian Embassy sets up helpline he Indian Embassy in Kuwait has set up helpline in order to assist Indian expatriates in registering any complaint regarding the government’s ongoing campaign to stamp out illegal residents from the country.

The embassy said in press release yesterday that it amended its previous statement and stated if there is any complaint, the same could be conveyed at the following (as amended): Operations Department, Ministry of Interior, Kuwait. Fax: 22435580, Tel: 24768146/25200334. It said the embassy has been in regular contact with local authorities regarding the ongoing checking of expatriates. The embassy has also conveyed to them the concerns, fears and apprehensions of the community in this regard. The authorities in Kuwait have conveyed that strict instructions have been issued to ensure that there is no harassment or improper treatment of expatriates by those undertaking checking. “The embassy would like to request Indian expatriates to ensure that they abide by all local laws, rules and regulations regarding residency, traffic and other matters,” the release read. It would be prudent to always carry the Civil ID and other relevant documents such as driving license, etc.

In case an Indian expatriate encounters any

Embassy

improper treatment during checking, it may be conveyed immediately with full details and contact particulars to the embassy at the following phone number 67623639. These contact details are exclusively for the above-mentioned purpose only.

8th Expo Pakistan to commence in September he 8th Expo Pakistan will be held from September 26 to 29 in Karachi. Held annually, Expo Pakistan is the biggest trade fair in the country showcasing the largest collection of Pakistan’s export merchandise and services.

Foreign Exhibitors also use the event to launch their products. Expo Pakistan 2012 was visited by delegates from 52 countries and generated a business of over $ 518 million. A 16 member delegation from Kuwait including reputable companies like Al-Yasra Foods also took part in the last exhibition.

Expo Pakistan 2013 is being held under the auspices of the Trade Development Authority Pakistan. Details about the event can be viewed www.expopakisan.gov.pk. Further information and details of sponsorship can be obtained from the office of Commercial Secretary, Pakistan Embassy, Jabriya (25356594) during office hours.

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

EMBASSY OF CANADA he Embassy of Canada in Kuwait does not have a visa or immigration department. All processing of visa and immigration matters including enquiries is conducted by the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. Individuals who are interested in working, studying, visiting or immigrating to Canada should contact the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, website: www.UAE.gc.ca or www.goingtocanada.gc.ca, E-mail: abdbi-im-enquiry@international.gc.ca.

The Embassy of Canada is located at Villa 24, Al-Mutawakei St, Block 4 in Da’aiyah.Please visit our website at www.Kuwait.gc.ca. The embassy will be closed on Monday July 1st 2013, for Canada Day, and will resume its duties on Tuesday 2 July 2013. The Embassy of Canada is open from 07:30 to 15:30 Sunday through Thursday. The reception is open from 07:30 to 12:30. Consular services for Canadian citizens are provided from 09:00 until 12:00, Sunday through Wednesday.

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EMBASSY OF GREECE The Embassy of Greece in Kuwait has the pleasure to announce that visa applications must be submitted to Schengen Visa Application Centre (VFS office) located at 12th floor, Al-Naser Tower, Fahad Al-Salem Street, AlQibla area, Kuwait City, (Parking at Souk Watia).

For information please call 22281046 from 08:30 to 17:00 (Sunday to Thursday). Working hours: Submission from 08:30 to 15:30. Passport collection from 16:00 to 17:00. For visa applications please visit the following website www.mfa.gr/kuwait.

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EMBASSY OF SOUTH AFRICA During the holy month of Ramadan, the South African Embassy will be open to the public, Sunday through Thursday from 09:00 am to 14:00 pm. Please note that the Consular Section operation hours will be from 09:30 am to 12:00 pm, Sunday through Thursday.

HEALTH

SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

New Nebraska research center to study concussions

LONDON: Joanna Foster, actress, singer and singing teacher (second right) leads a singing class at Royal Brompton Hospital in London, Monday, June 17, 2013.

The weekly group is led by a professional musician and is offered to people with respiratory problems including asthma, emphysema, and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder, or COPD. — AP

Having breathing difficulties? Try singing LONDON: In a third-floor room of a London hospital with orange and white walls draped with Tibetan prayer flags, roughly a dozen people gathered recently to perform vocal exercises and sing songs, including folk music from Ghana and Polynesia.

While the participants were drawn to the session by a fondness for music, they also had an ulterior motive for singing: to cope better with lung disease. The weekly group is led by a professional musician and is offered to people with respiratory problems including asthma, emphysema, and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder, or COPD. Doctors at London’s Royal Brompton Hospital started the program after reasoning that the kind of breathing used by singers might also help lung patients.

“Since many people enjoy singing, we thought it would help them associate controlling their breathing with something pleasant and positive rather than a standard physiotherapy technique,” said Dr. Nicholas Hopkinson, the hospital’s top chest physician. “It’s almost accidental that they learn something about their breathing through singing,” he said.

People with COPD have damaged lungs, which limits how much air they can breathe in and out. “Some people start to breathe very rapidly, which aggravates the problem,” Hopkinson said. “They take many rapid, shallow breaths and that makes it even harder for them,” he said. Hopkinson said learning to sing gives patients better posture and teaches them to breathe at a more manageable rate.

Still, two trials on the singing therapy conducted by Hopkinson and colleagues haven’t found much improvement in patients’ performance on breathing tests. “The lung function test doesn’t change because the underlying disease hasn’t changed,” he explained. Hopkinson said that in a study comparing patients who went to the singing class versus those who attended a film discussion group, only the patients who sang reported feeling physically better afterwards, even if it couldn’t be measured objectively. Other experts agreed the singing therapy was an unusual but worthy approach. “There’s a sound physiological rationale for this,” said Dr. Norman Edelman, chief medical officer of the American Lung Association. “Controlled breathing, like the kind you might learn in singing, is very important because people with COPD should try to take deep breaths and slowly synchronize each breath when they’re doing something like walking up stairs,” he said. Some experts said singing would probably only appeal to a minority of patients and emphasized it could not replace traditional treatments. “Not everybody wants to sing but everybody can learn exercises to help them,” said Julia Bott, a spokeswoman for Britain’s Chartered Society of Physiotherapy.

She said other activities like yoga and tai chi had breathing techniques similar to the types of physio exercises respiratory patients are usually taught.

Bott also said the breathing techniques used for singing would probably only be helpful for people with mild problems. “If you’ve got severe disease, it will be pretty hard to sing if you’re panting and out of breath,” she said. Bott said the songs used would also have to be pretty basic. “No one is going to be singing any Wagnerian operas after this,” she said.

John Cameron Turner, 77, is convinced the singing classes have helped him breathe easier. Diagnosed with severe emphysema in 2002, Turner has tried various medicines but said none have really helped. —AP

LINCOLN: If all goes according to Dennis Molfese’s plan, the day is coming when a football player who takes a hit to the head will come to the sideline, take off his helmet and slip on an electrode-covered mesh cap.

The team’s medical staff will analyze the player’s brain waves on the spot and determine within minutes whether he can safely return to the game or whether he has sustained a concussion and, if so, how severe.

Putting the finishing touches on that device is among the projects planned in the University of Nebraska’s Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior, which opens this month in Memorial Stadium’s newly expanded east side.

CB3, as it’s called, is housed in the same $55 million structure that holds 38 luxury suites and an additional 6,000 seats for the football stadium. The center is one of a number of university-affiliated research centers across the nation looking for better ways to diagnose and treat traumatic head injuries and make football and other sports safer.

“There has been great concussion research that’s been going on for decades,” said Molfese, the CB3 director. “It’s disconcerting to realize just how little we really know.” Tom Osborne, Nebraska’s retired football coach and athletic director, said CB3 and the adjoining Athletic Performance Lab fit his vision for what he wanted to include in the stadium expansion.The project was one of Osborne’s major initiatives in his five years as athletic director. Osborne envisioned a collaboration of the athletic and academic sides of the university. So while athletes participate in concussion studies, political science researchers might use CB3’s brain-scanning technology to see if they can figure out why some people lean conservative and others liberal.

Concussions have become one of the top concerns in sports in recent years after prominent brain injuries and disease in former NFL players, driven in part by some high-profile suicides. Thousands of former players are suing the league, saying that for years the NFL did not do enough to protect players from concussions. The NCAA also is addressing the issue.

“There are a lot of things that are very important with the NCAA as far as the health and safety of the student-athlete,” NCAA chief medical officer Brian Hainline said, “and concussion is right up there as first and foremost. It’s the elephant on the table, and we, with everyone else, we have to solve it.”

There are about 300,000 sports-related concussions reported in the United States annually, and hundreds of millions of dol-

NEBRASKA: In this May 31, 2013, photo, research assistant Kevin Real wears an EEG net for detecting brain activity, at the University of Nebraska’s Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior in Lincoln. — AP lars have been funneled into research, with much of the funding going to universities.

Nebraska recruited the 67-year-old Molfese away from the University of Louisville, giving him virtual carte blanche in the design and equipping of CB3.

Molfese is among 14 experts serving on the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine Committee on Sports-Related Concussions in Youth, which will report to Congress and President Barack Obama on brain injuries in children and young adults.

He also heads a Big Ten-Ivy League partnership studying brain injuries in sports.

Nebraska’s brain center is connected by a 100-foot skywalk to the new Athletic Performance Lab, which will research, among other things, injury prevention and high-tech ways to maximize performance of athletes. CB3 and the performance lab will partner on some projects.

CB3’s main attraction is a type of magnetic resonance imaging machine - known as a functional MRI - that tracks the brain’s blood flow. It’s hoped the $3 million scanner helps in the effort to better define what is and is not a concussion.

“There’s no question it’s going to move

the dial forward,” the NCAA’s Hainline said.

“The big, hoped-for dream would be, let’s have a biomarker in brain imaging.

If you’re to the left of that, you’re safe; if you’re to the right of it, you’re not. That’s probably a few years out. But functional brain imaging and blood flow are going to be a very important part of that.” The MRI machine also can be used on game days to assess injuries of all kinds. Molfese said the sideline concussion assessment tool would be the first of what he hopes are many groundbreaking developments to come out of CB3.

The device would allow medical personnel to go beyond the standard practice of asking the injured athlete questions and judge, based on his or her answers, whether it’s safe for him or her to return to a game.If a linebacker took a hit to the head, he would come to the sideline and have an electrode net placed over his head.

Battery-powered brain-recording equipment would measure the player’s responses to stimuli. “We can get an idea of what area of the brain is being involved in the process, whether the speed of processing is at the rate it should be,” Molfese said. —AP

Japan’s Kanebo recalls cosmetic products over skin stain fears TOKYO: Japanese cosmetics maker Kanebo on Thursday announced it was recalling 54 skin whitening products from all over Asia after complaints they caused discoloring that does not clear up even after use was discontinued.

The cosmetics contain a substance called 4HPB, a synthetic version developed by Kanebo of a natural compound, the company said. “Some consumers complained that they had white patches on their skin after using the products, and we suspect a link between the condition and 4HPB,” a spokeswoman said. A company spokesman later told AFP there had been 39 complaints from customers in Japan.

Of those, 15 had shown no improvement in their conditions even after they stopped using the products, he said. The company has shipped a total of 4.36 million products in Japan and is

recalling 450,000 that have already been sold to consumers, as well as all inventory from the domestic market.

It will also recall products on sale abroad. A total of 370,000 items have been sent to overseas markets but at present it plans only to recall items that are on sale.

The recall affects Japan and 10 Asian territories: Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Vietnam. Taiwan is the largest overseas market for the products, a Kanebo spokesman said. “The problem was initially thought to be a type of skin disease, but there was a growing concern for a link to 4HPB” which led the company to recall the products, the spokesman said.

Skin whitening products are popular among women all over east Asia, with users seeking lighter tones. — AFP

SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

No: 15861

Kuwait

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CHANGE OF NAME I, Huzaifa Shabbir Gulamali, holding Passport No. F0010303 wish to change my name to Huzaifa Shabbir Amjawala. (C 4453) 4-7-2013 FOR SALE Mitsubishi Galant, model 2013, excellent condition, 10,500 km, registration up to end of 2015, price KD 3,150/-.

Contact: 97487330.

(C 4452) 1-7-2013

Prayer timings Fajr: Shorook Duhr: Asr: Maghrib: Isha:

03:18 04:53 11:52 15:26 18:51 20:23

GOVERNORATE

Al-Madena Police Station

22434064

Al-Murqab Police Station

22435865

Al-Daiya Police Station

22544200

Al-Fayha’a Police Station

22547133

Al-Qadissiya Police Station

22515277

Al-Nugra Police Station

22616662

Al-Salmiya Police Station

25714406

Al-Dasma Police Station

22530801

PHARMACY

ADDRESS

PHONE

Ahmadi

Sama Safwan Abu Halaifa Danat Al-Sultan

Fahaeel Makka St Abu Halaifa-Coastal Rd Mahboula Block 1, Coastal Rd

23915883 23715414 23726558

Jahra

Modern Jahra Madina Munawara

Jahra-Block 3 Lot 1 Jahra-Block 92

24575518 24566622

Capital

Ahlam Khaldiya Coop

Fahad Al-Salem St Khaldiya Coop

22436184 24833967

Farwaniya

New Shifa Ferdous Coop Modern Safwan

Farwaniya Block 40 Ferdous Coop Old Kheitan Block 11

24734000 24881201 24726638

Hawally

Tariq Hana Ikhlas Hawally & Rawdha Ghadeer Kindy Ibn Al-Nafis Mishrif Coop

Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Salmiya-Amman St Hawally-Beirut St Hawally & Rawdha Coop Jabriya-Block 1A Jabriya-Block 3B Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Mishrif Coop

25726265 25647075 22625999 22564549 25340559 25326554 25721264 25380581

information SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

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

Arrival Flights on Saturday 6/7/2013 Flt Route 43 DHAKA 148 DOHA 408 BEIRUT 644 AMMAN-QUEEN ALIA 539 CAIRO 267 BEIRUT 441 LAHORE 764 SABIHA 620 ADDIS ABABA 211 BAHRAIN 239 ISLAMABAD 853 DUBAI 305 ABU DHABI 412 MANILA 206 ISLAMABAD 416 JAKARTA 768 ISTANBUL 67 DUBAI 555 ALEXANDRIA 612 CAIRO 643 MUSCAT 138 DOHA 770 ISTANBUL 170 BAHRAIN 69 DUBAI 157 LONDON 555 ALEXANDRIA 1541 CAIRO 529 ASSIUT 284 DHAKA 344 CHENNAI 382 DELHI 672 DUBAI 352 COCHIN 362 COLOMBO 53 DUBAI 855 DUBAI 125 SHARJAH 132 DOHA 6588 SHAHRE KORD 1186 TEHRAN 55 DUBAI 301 ABU DHABI 3407 MASHAD 213 BAHRAIN 157 BAGHDAD 1188 MASHAD 401 ALEXANDRIA 871 DUBAI 610 CAIRO 766 ISTANBUL 480 TAIF 140 DOHA 302 MUMBAI 359 MASHAD 165 DUBAI 503 LUXOR 241 AMMAN-QUEEN ALIA 325 NAJAF 219 BAHRAIN 405 SOHAG 572 MUMBAI 553 ALEXANDRIA 61 DUBAI 647 MUSCAT 129 SHARJAH 607 MASHAD 402 BEIRUT 618 ALEXANDRIA 462 MEDINAH 489 COCHIN 790 MEDINAH 804 CAIRO 788 JEDDAH 176 GENEVA 542 CAIRO 674 DUBAI 104 LONDON 118 NEW YORK 538 SOHAG 57 DUBAI 6692 MASHAD 1184 SHIRAZ 575 SHARM EL SHEIKH 500 JEDDAH

Time 0:05 0:05 0:10 0:30 0:40 0:20 1:30 1:40 1:45 1:55 2:05 2:25 2:30 6:15 7:25 6:35 2:50 3:10 3:15 3:15 3:20 3:30 4:35 5:10 5:50 6:30 6:20 6:25 6:40 8:15 8:20 7:30 13:40 8:05 8:45 7:45 8:25 8:50 9:00 9:00 9:10 9:15 9:30 10:35 10:40 11:00 11:45 12:00 12:45 13:00 13:10 13:20 13:45 7:50 12:45 11:35 7:40 12:35 12:25 19:05 19:30 19:35 19:40 20:00 20:00 20:05 20:10 20:15 20:30 20:35 20:35 13:55 15:40 15:00 17:45 18:15 19:25 18:45 16:00 15:40 13:50 14:00 14:05 14:15 14:30

KNE SYR KNE RJA QTR ETD UAE ABY UAL GFA SVA NIA IZG QTR FDB KAC KAC KAC KAC JZR JZR JZR JZR JZR JZR JZR JZR KLM ALK UAE ETD QTR GFA JAI QTR FDB AIC KNE UAL DLH JAI MSR THY KAC KAC JZR JZR JZR JZR

472 341 470 640 134 303 857 127 982 215 510 251 4167 144 63 562 502 774 618 357 777 269 535 177 257 125 189 415 229 859 307 136 217 576 146 59 975 474 981 636 574 614 772 786 614 239 135 513 185

JEDDAH DAMASCUS JEDDAH AMMAN-QUEEN ALIA DOHA ABU DHABI DUBAI SHARJAH WASHINGTON DC DULLES BAHRAIN RIYADH ALEXANDRIA MASHAD DOHA DUBAI AMMAN-QUEEN ALIA BEIRUT RIYADH DOHA MASHAD JEDDAH BEIRUT CAIRO DUBAI BEIRUT BAHRAIN DUBAI AMSTERDAM COLOMBO DUBAI ABU DHABI DOHA BAHRAIN COCHIN DOHA DUBAI CHENNAI JEDDAH BAHRAIN FRANKFURT MUMBAI CAIRO ISTANBUL JEDDAH BAHRAIN AMMAN-QUEEN ALIA BAHRAIN SHARM EL SHEIKH DUBAI

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

Departure Flights on Saturday 6/7/2013 Flt Route 976 GOA 573 MUMBAI 981 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 637 FRANKFURT 615 CAIRO 413 AMSTERDAM 409 BEIRUT 44 DHAKA 502 LUXOR 773 ISTANBUL-ATATURK 645 AMMAN 442 LAHORE 765 ISTANBUL-SABIHA 621 ADDIS ABABA 240 SIALKOT 769 ISTANBUL-ATATURK 854 DUBAI 68 DUBAI 556 ALEXANDRIA 613 CAIRO 644 MUSCAT 306 ABU DHABI 139 DOHA 149 DOHA 70 DUBAI 212 BAHRAIN 771 ISTANBUL 164 DUBAI 156 LONDON 54 DUBAI 803 CAIRO 324 AL NAJAF 671 DUBAI 126 SHARJAH 787 JEDDAH

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 19:55 18:50 19:25 19:10 16:50 17:50 19:15 16:10 17:30 14:30 16:25 20:10 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 22:40 23:00 22:30 23:00 23:20 22:40 Time 0:05 0:20 0:25 0:30 0:30 0:55 1:10 1:30 1:30 2:20 2:30 2:30 2:40 2:45 3:35 3:40 3:45 3:50 3:55 4:15 4:20 4:20 4:25 5:15 6:30 7:00 7:10 7:25 8:25 8:25 8:55 9:10 9:25 9:30 9:35

UAE FDB QTR IRC ETD KAC IRM GFA IRA KAC IAW JZR MSC IRM JZR JZR JZR MSR THY KNE UAE FDB KAC QTR IRC MSR KAC IRM KNE KAC SYR SVA JZR KAC KNE RJA KAC 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 ETD ALK UAE KAC QTR KAC GFA FDB KAC JAI QTR JZR JZR KNE KAC JZR

856 56 133 6589 302 101 1185 214 3406 165 158 776 406 1189 176 124 268 611 767 481 872 58 561 141 6693 576 673 1187 473 617 342 505 188 773 461 641 785 135 304 538 128 858 216 511 982 184 266 252 4168 145 64 220 613 134 283 554 402 571 62 120 331 648 351 604 403 607 543 475 171 415 308 230 860 381 137 301 218 60 205 575 147 554 1540 471 411 528

DUBAI DUBAI DOHA SHAHRE-KORD ABU DHABI LONDON SHIRAZ BAHRAIN MASHHAD ROME AL NAJAF JEDDAH SOHAG MASHHAD DUBAI BAHRAIN BEIRUT CAIRO ISTANBUL TAIF DUBAI DUBAI AMMAN DOHA MASHHAD SHARM EL SHEIKH DUBAI TEHRAN JEDDAH DOHA DAMASCUS JEDDAH DUBAI RIYADH MADINAH AMMAN JEDDAH 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 ABU DHABI COLOMBO DUBAI DELHI DOHA MUMBAI BAHRAIN DUBAI ISLAMABAD ABU DHABI DOHA ALEXANDRIA CAIRO JEDDAH BANGKOK ASSIUT

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

9:50 9:55 10:00 10:00 10:15 10:25 10:30 11:25 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 15:45 15:55 16:00 16:00 16:00 16:05 16:55 17:00 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 22:15 22:20 22:25 22:30 22:35 22:40 22:45 23:00 23:00 23:05 23:05 23:20 23:25 23:25 23:40 23:55

SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

Word Search

Yesterdayʼs Solution

C R O S S W O R D 2 4 2

ACROSS 1. A unit of length equal to one thousandth of an inch.

4. Sect of Orthodox Jews who follow the Mosaic Law strictly.

12. An open box attached to a long pole handle.

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

16. A woman's drawstring handbag.

17. A metal-bearing mineral valuable enough to be mined.

18. A hospital unit staffed and equipped to provide intensive care.

19. Someone who regulates the tone of organ pipes.

20. (Mesopotamia) God of agriculture and earth.

22. Differing from a norm or standard.

24. The syllable naming the fourth (subdominant) note of the diatonic scale in solmization.

25. Displeasing to the senses and morally revolting.

26. Standard time in the 5th time zone west of Greenwich, reckoned at the 75th meridian.

27. Perversely irritable.

30. A pale rose-colored variety of the ruby spinel.

32. A very loud utterance (like the sound of an animal).

33. A river that rises in northeastern Turkey (near the source of the Euphrates) and flows generally eastward through Armenia to the Caspian Sea. 37. The capital and largest city of Zambia.

39. Towards the side away from the wind.

40. An Iranian language spoken in Afghanistan.

41. A trivalent metallic element of the rare earth group.

42. Young of domestic cattle.

44. A logarithmic unit of sound intensity.

46. A republic in central Europe.

47. (Akkadian) God of wisdom.

48. Thickening of tissue in the motor tracts of the lateral columns and anterior horns of the spinal cord.

52. Antacid (trade name Prilosec) that suppresses acid secretion in the stomach.

56. Turn up, loosen, or remove earth.

57. Tag the base runner to get him out.

58. English theoretical physicist who applied relativity theory to quantum mechanics and predicted the existence of antimatter and the positron (1902-1984).

61. Turn sharply.

62. The time of day immediately following sunset.

64. Type genus of the Gavialidae.

66. A person who participates in a meeting.

69. The branch of information science that deals with natural language information.

72. Neckwear consisting of a long narrow piece of material worn (mostly by men) under a collar and tied in knot at the front.

73. The branch of engineering science that studies the uses of electricity and the equipment for power generation and distribution and the control of machines and communication.

74. Acute ulceration of the mucous membranes of the mouth or genitals.

78. Fiddler crabs.

79. A tricycle (usually propelled by pedalling).

81. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

82. (informal) Roused to anger.

83. The great hall in ancient Persian palaces.

84. An Arabic speaking person who lives in Arabia or North Africa.

Daily SuDoku

DOWN 1. A master's degree in religion.

2. A ruler of the Inca Empire (or a member of his family).

3. A tangible symbol signifying approval or distinction.

4. A republic in the western Balkans in south-central Europe in the eastern Adriatic coastal area.

5. (in Gnosticism) A divine power or nature emanating from the Supreme Being and playing various roles in the operation of the universe.

6. Sewing consisting of a link or loop or knot made by drawing a threaded needle through a fabric.

7. Intentionally so written (used after a printed word or phrase).

8. A steep part of a glacier resembling a frozen waterfall.

9. Existing for a long time.

10. Being nine more than forty.

11. A master's degree in education.

12. Scottish writer of rustic verse (1770-1835).

13. Using speech rather than writing.

14. Declare untrue.

21. Wild sheep of northern Africa.

23. (Old Testament) The second patriarch.

28. An artificial language for international use that rejects rejects all existing words and is based instead on an abstract analysis of ideas.

29. English monk and scholar (672-735).

31. 100 aurar equal 1 krona.

34. British colonial administrator who founded Singapore (1781-1826).

35. Reach a destination.

36. Someone who can use sign language to communicate.

38. By bad luck.

43. Feed, care for, and rear young birds for flight.

45. An authoritative direction or instruction to do something.

49. Widely distributed family of carnivorous percoid fishes having a large air bladder used to produce sound.

50. An employee of a railroad.

51. (New Testament) Disciple of Jesus.

53. In place of, or as an alternative to.

54. A body of (usually fresh) water surrounded by land.

55. A Russian river.

59. A motorized wheeled vehicle used for camping or other recreational activities.

60. West Indian tree having racemes of fragrant white flowers and yielding a durable timber and resinous juice.

63. A city in central New York.

65. A long-playing phonograph record.

67. Type genus of the Nepidae.

68. Relatively deep or strong.

70. A small cake leavened with yeast.

71. Decapod having eyes on short stalks and a broad flattened carapace with a small abdomen folded under the thorax and pincers.

75. South American wood sorrel cultivated for its edible tubers.

76. A federal agency established to regulate the release of new foods and healthrelated products.

77. The sense organ for hearing and equilibrium.

80. An official prosecutor for a judicial district.

Yesterdayʼs Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

SPORTS SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

Tigers rout Blue Jays TORONTO: Justin Verlander pitched seven shutout innings, Austin Jackson hit a two-run homer and the Detroit Tigers routed the slumping Toronto Blue Jays 11-1 on Thursday night.

Jackson went 4 for 5 with a walk and scored four times as the Tigers pounded out 16 hits while playing without achy slugger Miguel Cabrera.

Torii Hunter had three RBIs and Prince Fielder drove in a pair of runs as the Tigers won for the ninth time in 11 meetings with Toronto.

Verlander (9-5) allowed three hits, all singles, while winning for the first time since June 7 at Cleveland. It was his first start in Toronto since he pitched his second career no-hitter on May 7, 2011.

The Blue Jays lost for the eighth time in 11 games since matching a franchise record with an 11-game winning streak. Cabrera was held out of the lineup with a sore back. It was the first day off this season for Cabrera, the reigning AL Triple Crown winner. Toronto starter Esmil Rogers (3-4) allowed season worsts of seven runs and 11 hits in five-plus innings.

WHITE SOX 3, ORIOLES 2 In Chicago, Adam Dunn hit a game-ending solo homer off Tommy Hunter in the ninth inning, lifting the White Sox to the win.

Dayan Viciedo flied out to left before Dunn drove a full-count pitch from Hunter (3-2) over the wall in left for his 23rd homer. It was the third hit of the game for Dunn, who also had two RBIs. Jose Quintana pitched seven innings of two-hit ball for the White Sox, finishing with a career-high 11 strikeouts. He retired his last 13 batters. Addison Reed (4-1) got three outs for the victory. Baltimore rallied against Nate Jones in the eighth. Brian Roberts scampered home when pinch hitter Matt Wieters reached on an error by first baseman Dunn, and Nick Markakis delivered a tying sacrifice fly.

ROYALS 10, INDIANS 7 In Kansas City, Lorenzo Cain hit his first career grand slam, Salvador Perez provided a bases-loaded double in the eighth inning and the Royals rallied to get the win.

Kansas City trailed 5-0 before Cain’s slam and a solo shot by George Kottaras tied it in the sixth. The Indians regained the lead on Carlos Santana’s two-run double in the seventh, but the Royals answered in the bottom half on a two-run homer by Eric Hosmer.

Indians reliever Bryan Shaw (0-2) walked Kottaras to lead off the eighth and then hit Johnny Giavotella.

Shaw was lifted for Rich Hill, who promptly walked

Jarrod Dyson to load the bases.

Perez entered the game as a pinch hitter and roped a double down the left-field line, slapping his hands together on the way to first as the Royals cleared the bags for a 10-7 lead.

Luke Hochevar (2-1) worked a scoreless eighth inning for the Royals, and Greg Holland got three outs for his 19th save.

YANKEES 9, TWINS 5 In Minneapolis, Vernon Wells drove in three runs, and the Yankees pounded rookie Kyle Gibson while finishing a four-game sweep.

Travis Hafner had three hits and scored twice, and Ichiro Suzuki had a two-run triple among his three hits for the Yankees, who scored 29 runs in the series.

The Yankees didn’t even need their usual supersized contribution from Robinson Cano, whose streak of six straight multihit games ended without reaching base. He still batted .500 on the seven-game road trip with 11 RBIs. Justin Morneau homered twice for the Twins, onethird of his season total. But Gibson (1-1) gave up 11 hits and eight runs in 5 1-3 innings.

New York starter David Phelps (6-5) was charged with four runs and eight hits in 6 1-3 innings. The Twins have lost 10 of their last 13 games.

RANGERS 5, MARINERS 4 In Arlington, Adrian Beltre homered twice and the Rangers used a four-run seventh inning to avoid a series sweep. Beltre finished with three hits and two RBIs, and Mitch Moreland and Elvis Andrus each drove in a run.

With Texas trailing 3-1, Beltre led off the seventh with a drive to center against Hisashi Iwakuma (7-4). A.J. Pierzynski then singled and Lance Berkman walked before Moreland bounced a tying single up the middle against Charlie Furbush.

Andrus came up with a go-ahead sacrifice fly and Ian Kinsler capped the big inning with an RBI single.

Josh Lindblom (1-2) recorded the final two outs of the seventh to pick up his first win since Aug. 31, 2012. Joe Nathan pitched a scoreless ninth for his 28th save. Raul Ibanez homered for the Mariners, belting a tiebreaking two-run shot in the seventh.

RAYS 7, ASTROS 5 In Houston, Yunel Escobar drove in three runs, including a tiebreaking double in the 11th inning that sent Tampa Bay to the victory. Escobar and Desmond Jennings each doubled twice and singled, helping the Rays win for the fifth time in six games. Brett Wallace

Washington 8, Milwaukee 5; Arizona 5, NY Mets 4 (15 Innings); Boston 8, San Diego 2; Philadelphia 6, Pittsburgh 4; Chicago White Sox 3, Baltimore 2; Kansas City 10, Cleveland 7; NY Yankees 9, Minnesota 5; Tampa Bay 7, Houston 5 (11 innings); Oakland 1, Chicago Cubs 0; Detroit 11, Toronto 1; Miami 4, Atlanta 3; Texas 5, Seattle 4; Colorado 9, LA Dodgers 5; LA Angels 6, St. Louis 5.

American League National League Eastern Division Eastern Division W L PCT GB Atlanta 49 36 .576 Boston 53 34 .609 Washington 43 42 .506 6 Baltimore 48 38 .558 4.5 Philadelphia 41 45 .477 8.5 NY Yankees 46 39 .541 6 NY Mets 35 47 .427 12.5 Tampa Bay 46 40 .535 6.5 Miami 32 52 .381 16.5 Toronto 41 44 .482 11

Oakland Texas LA Angels Seattle Houston

Western Division 50 36 .581 49 36 .576 41 44 .482 37 48 .435 31 55 .360

homered twice for the Astros. Jose Lobaton walked to start the 11th and moved to second on a passed ball by Jason Castro. Escobar then doubled into the right-field corner off Josh Fields (0-1). Jamey Wright (2-1) pitched a scoreless 10th for the win and Fernando Rodney finished for his 18th save.

right-hander’s second pitch into the center field trees for his 11th homer. Howie Kendrick and Mark Trumbo followed with singles, and Mujica (0-1) retired his next two batters before Erick Aybar drove in the winning run with an opposite-field single to left. Aybar had three hits and scored a run for Los Angeles.

INTERLEAGUE ANGELS 6, CARDINALS 5 In Anaheim, Josh Hamilton hit a tying two-run homer in Los Angeles’ three-run ninth inning, leading the Angels to the win.Mark Trumbo belted his 19th homer and Mike Trout had two RBIs for Los Angeles, which took two of three in the series. Scott Downs (2-2) got three outs for the victory. St. Louis ace Adam Wainwright, the NL pitcher of the month for June, took a 5-3 lead into the ninth before giving up a leadoff single by Albert Pujols, who was 1 for 11 in his first series against his former team. Manager Mike Matheny then brought in Edward Mujica, and Hamilton drove the

RED SOX 8, PADRES 2 In Boston, Dustin Pedroia hit a two-run double, David Ortiz had a two-run single and the Red Sox handed the Padres their season-high sixth straight loss.

Brandon Snyder and Jacoby Ellsbury each hit a solo homer for the Red Sox, who won eight of nine to match its best homestand since June 2010.

Allen Webster (1-2) pitched six innings for his first major league win, allowing two runs and five hits.

The Padres have scored just seven runs in their losing streak. They also lost for the 10th time in 12 games.

Eric Stults (6-7) gave up four runs and nine hits over 4 13 innings for San Diego. —AP

Nationals down Brewers

MLB results/standings

Central Division Detroit 46 38 .548 Cleveland 45 40 .529 Kansas City 40 42 .488 Minnesota 36 46 .439 Chicago White Sox 34 48 .415

TORONTO: Austin Jackson No. 14 of the Detroit Tigers hits a two-run home run in the eighth inning during MLB game action against the Toronto Blue Jays. —AFP

1.5 5 9 11

Central Division Pittsburgh 52 32 .619 St. Louis 50 34 .595 Cincinnati 49 36 .576 Chicago Cubs 36 47 .434 Milwaukee 34 50 .405

2 3.5 15.5 18

0.5 8.5 12.5 19

Western Division Arizona 44 41 .518 Colorado 42 44 .488 LA Dodgers 40 44 .476 San Diego 40 46 .465 San Francisco 39 45 .464

2.5 3.5 4.5 4.5

WASHINGTON: Wilson Ramos hit a go-ahead, threerun homer in the seventh inning Thursday in his Fourth of July return to the Washington Nationals, leading an 8-5 matinee win over the Milwaukee Brewers. Back after missing 44 games with a strained left hamstring, Ramos had three hits and a career-high five RBIs as the Nationals earned a split of the fourgame series and moved back above .500 in their seesaw season.

Ian Desmond, moved to the No. 2 spot in a lineup “epiphany” from manager Davey Johnson, had three hits, stole two bases and scored two runs. Taylor Jordan allowed two runs over 5 2-3 innings in his second major league start, and Drew Storen (3-2) got the win despite blowing a 5-2 lead in the seventh. Ramos and the Nationals quickly bailed out Storen with a two-out rally. Jayson Werth singled off Tom Gorzelanny (1-1). Reliever Brandon Kintzler walked Anthony Rendon and Ramos homered. Rafael Soriano pitched the ninth for his 22nd save. On a star-spangled day in the nation’s capital, the game began at 11:06 a.m. and featured a national anthem sang by Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and a new “Freedom Song” performed by Neil Diamond.

DIAMONDBACKS 5, METS 4 In New York, Cliff Pennington hit an RBI single with two outs in the 15th inning and the Arizona

Diamondbacks, boosted early by Gerardo Parra’s bunt double, outlasted the Mets to split an exhausting series at Citi Field. Arizona scored in the final three innings but couldn’t close out the feisty Mets until Brad Ziegler retired Kirk Nieuwenhuis on a grounder with runners at second and third to end a game that lasted 5 hours, 46 minutes. Anthony Recker and Nieuwenhuis hit tying homers in consecutive extra innings for New York, which dropped its final home appearance before hosting the All-Star game July 16.

In a span of four days, the teams played a 13inning game, a 15-inning marathon and two others delayed by rain for a total of 31/2 hours. Chaz Roe (1-0) got the win. Scott Rice (3-5) took the loss.

PHILLIES 6, PIRATES 4 In Pittsburgh, Major league loss leader Cole Hamels pitched seven strong innings, Carlos Ruiz hit a tiebreaking single and the Philadelphia Phillies beat Gerrit Cole and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Hamels (3-11) gave up one earned run and five hits, striking out eight without a walk. The former World Series MVP won for the first time since June 5.

Cole (4-1) lost for the first time in the majors after becoming the first Pirates’ pitcher to win his first four career starts since Nick Maddox in 1907. Cole allowed three runs and eight hits in 5 1-3 innings. Jonathan Papelbon worked a perfect ninth inning for his 17th save in 21 opportunities. —AP

SPORTS SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

UAE team vie for FIFA U-17 World Cup

Mohamed Al Akbari

Ali Ghloom

Mohamad Al Mansoori

DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates U-17 National Team has qualified for the FIFA U-17 World Cup twice previously, the first time in Italy 1991 after clinching second place in the Asian qualifications, and later in Nigeria 2009 by reaching 2008 AFC U-16 Championship semi-finals. While their international debut was less than expected after leaving the first-round with only one point, they made a much better comeback later in Africa, forging ahead to the Round of 16 and securing a third place, until they lost 2 - 0 to Turkey.

In recent years the UAE U-17 team has achieved impressive records; lifting the Under 17 Gulf Cup of Nations golden trophy twice in 2006 and 2009, in addition to securing the third place in 2008 AFC U-16 Championship in Uzbekistan. As preparations continue to progress for the FIFA U-17 World Cup UAE 2013 - the biggest football tournament ever staged in the Emirates, the young Emirati players are keeping up the hard training for the challenge ahead. In this feature we introduce three upcoming stars in the UAE U-17 National Team, and get to know about their training and ambitions for the upcoming tournament in October.

Position : Goalkeeper Height : 179cm Hometown : Sharjah and Abu Dhabi Player Profile : Al Mansoori’s first steps in football have been very impressive when he started in the UAE U-16 squad and played in the 2010 Qatar AFC U-16 festival. The young Emirati team went on to win the tournament.

the UAE and we are looking forward to being a part of it and gaining this invaluable experience.

Q: What are some of your favourite things to do when you’re not playing football?

Al Akbari: I like going down to the beach when I have some free time.

Ghloom: I spend most of my time playing football but I also spend time studying.

Al Mansoori: Besides football I like to play some table tennis and do some swimming in my free time.

PLAYERS TO WATCH Player Profiles Name : Mohamed Al Akbari Age : 17 Position : Striker Height : 184cm Hometown : Abu Dhabi Player Profile : Al Akbari’s name came to fame during the U-15 football UAE tournament in 2011/2012 when he was awarded the second best scorer, finishing only two goals behind his younger brother, Ahmed Al Akbari, who clinched the title with a record of 24 goals. The UAE U-17 player owes his passion for football to his uncle, Ghazi Al Ameri, ex-player in Baniyas Sports Club. His ambition is to win the FIFA U-17 World Cup UAE 2013 trophy with his national team this autumn.

Name : Ali Ghloom Age : 17 Position : Midfielder Height : 183cm Hometown : Sharjah Player Profile : Ali Ghloom has proven to be a key player in the UAE U-17 National team’s defense line. Ali’s first international appearance was in 2012 when he was 14 years old, playing in the friendly match with the UAE U-16 National team against Uzbekistan, and has been playing on UAE’s side since.

Name : Mohamad Al Mansoori Age : 17

Q: What was it like growing up in the UAE and playing football where you lived?

Al Akbari: I started playing at the age of seven and that is when I joined Al Wahda Club in Abu Dhabi. I recently joined the U-17 squad so I am looking forward to playing at the tournament in less than four months.

Ghloom: I started playing football from the age of seven where I joined Al Ahli Club. I have been so lucky with the support I have had from the club and the UAEFA. Al Mansoori: My father encouraged me to start playing football at the age of six and since then it has been my passion.

Q: How would you describe your strengths as a football player?

Al Akbari: Besides scoring, I try during the match to keep harrying opposition defenders and the goalkeeper. My strongest talent is my speed, and ability to sneak behind opposing team’s defense line.

Ghloom: I am good at long passes; precision is crucial when passing the ball, and I feel I am good at that.

Al Mansoori: I can handle corner free kicks and corner kicks very well.

Q: What are you hoping for as a member of the UAE team at the FIFA Under-17 World Cup this autumn?

Al Akbari: I would like to become the top scorer for this tournament but I am also hoping we win the trophy.

Ghloom: The UAE team has been training and preparing for this tournament since March 2012. I would definitely love to earn the best player award for this tournament and I will do my best to reach that goal.

Al Mansoori: I want to do my best out on the field and make our fans and this nation proud of our team.

Q: Why is it important that big crowds come out to the U17 World Cup matches in the UAE this autumn?

Al Akbari: Playing on home soil is a money-can’t-buy feeling and fans play a huge part in making us feel great when playing out on the field.

Ghloom: The U-17 World Cup is a great opportunity for all UAE football fans to watch us and all of the qualifying teams battle it out on the field for the tournament trophy so it would definitely be a great experience for our fans and the team.

Al Mansoori: This is the largest football event to happen in

Anelka links up with West Brom LONDON: Former France striker Nicolas Anelka has joined West Bromwich Albion after passing a medical, the English Premier League club said on Thursday.

A statement on the club website (www.wba.co.uk) said the 34-year-old had signed a one-year contract with a further year’s option in the club’s favor.

Anelka, who has played for Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, Bolton and Chelsea, was a free agent after ending his loan spell with Juventus at the end of last season.

He won league and FA Cup doubles with Arsenal and Chelsea and national titles with Fenerbahce in Turkey and Juventus. Anelka also helped Real Madrid win the Champions League in 2000, scoring in both legs of the semi-final against Bayern Munich and starting in the final.

In the same year he also lifted the European championship trophy with France. He retired from international football in 2010 after winning 69 caps and scoring 14 times.

His move to West Brom reunites him with Steve Clarke, the Albion manager who was part of the backroom coaching staff when Anelka joined Chelsea in 2008.

“We are missing a bit of firepower from last year - we’re trying to put that right - and to kick off with the signing of Nicolas at the start of the summer is a great boost for everyone at the club,” Clarke said. “The sole focus at the club is trying to build on what we did last season. The more quality players you can bring to the club the better and no one can question Nicolas’ quality. —Reuters

SPORTS

SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

Indianapolis aims to become center for cricket INDIANAPOLIS: The Midwestern city best known for its basketball and auto racing is gearing up for cricket - a game most Americans know only from British films or by surfing through international sports channels. Indianapolis is spending $6 million to equip one of its parks with a premier cricket pitch, and space for Gaelic football, rugby, hurling and other sports mainly popular overseas.

Mayor Greg Ballard hopes his World Sports Park project will bring international exposure to Indiana’s capital and help local companies attract talented overseas workers by offering them a home for their favorite games.

“I don’t think there’s any city that’s trying to put all these pieces together, but there’s always a first-mover advantage for those who try to do it right,” he said. “These are global sports and they’ll give us more visibility in the global marketplace.”

Cities across the country are jockeying for any advantage they can find to boost economic development, and sports is an easy target. The NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball pump millions into local economies in the cities that host them.

But can a sport that most Americans are unfamiliar with have the same payoff? It’s a gamble, said Bob Dorfman, a sports market-

ing expert at San Francisco’s Baker Street Advertising. “How do you sell it to a public who really doesn’t understand it? To me cricket is a fairly mystifying sport,” Dorfman said. “It takes a lot to really figure it out.”

That hasn’t always been the case. The British brought cricket to the American colonies in the early 1700s. And the game enjoyed a strong following until baseball, an offshoot of cricket, became the nation’s favored game after the Civil War. Ballard, a Republican in his second term, isn’t daunted. Indianapolis has already signed a three-year deal to host a US amateur cricket tournament and championship, starting in August 2014. That tournament will be the first such event in the US since 2011. “When people around the world think of cricket, I want them to think of Indianapolis,” he told media in India during a trade visit in April.

Whether Indianapolis residents buy in remains to be seen. Local Democrats have criticized Ballard for moving ahead with the park upgrade at a time when the city faces a $50 million budget deficit. The project’s funding is coming from a $425 million fund set aside for infrastructure upgrades after the city sold its water and sewer utilities.

Democratic Councilman William Oliver says the money would have been better

spent on new sidewalks and other projects that would have benefited a wider spectrum of residents.

“You can shoot craps if you’ve got the money to wager a bet, but we don’t have the money,” Oliver said. Cricket supporters insist Ballard’s vision can become a reality.

Darren Beazley, the chief executive of the United States of America Cricket Association, said there are currently 50 cricket leagues with 1,108 teams in the US and that about 30,000 Americans - mostly immigrants from former British colonies - play cricket, which he said is the world’s second-most popular sport after football.

Beazley said his Florida-based group hopes to double the nation’s pool of cricketers within five years, in part by demonstrating the sport to schoolchildren to get them hooked, much as football was popularized a few decades ago.

“How do we get the average American kid to say, ‘You know what, this is a good, fun, safe game. I love it and I want my friends to play’? That’s the challenge,” he said.

Jatin Patel, president of the Indiana Youth Cricket Association, said students in about 240 Indiana schools have been shown the basics of the sport since his Indianapolisbased group began an outreach program in 2010. Patel, who moved to the US from India

in 1986, said the organization is also training teachers as cricket coaches, with about 80 certified to date. He said some schools have added after-school cricket programs, drawing more youngsters into the game.

“They need to learn this game, that’s all it takes. They’ll get used to it once they see teams playing in their backyard, their neighborhoods or their school,” Patel said.

Indianapolis isn’t the first US city to try to tap into the sport’s overseas popularity.

Lauderhill, Florida, opened a $5 million cricket stadium in 2007 that’s the only US cricket venue certified by the International Cricket Council. Indianapolis hopes the cricket pitch it’s building will become the nation’s second certified by the Dubai-based group.

Although Lauderhill’s venue has attracted international games, it’s been plagued by a lack of income and marquee events.

Lauderhill Mayor Richard Kaplan said his South Florida city is still working to land long-term agreements for international cricket matches, such as a game it hosted last year between the West Indies and New Zealand that he said was seen by a global television audience of about 1 billion people. “If your goal is to try and connect with many parts of this world for potential commerce, trade and tourism, that’s a huge market to go after,” he said. —AP

‘Ashes’ help English cricket to weather testing times LONDON: Unintelligible to most beyond Britain and its former colonies and under threat from an upstart short form of the game, the battle for “the Ashes” with Australia is a rare chance for English cricket to prove its financial worth. With strong roots in the country’s expensive private schools and still divided into patrician “gentlemen” and working class “players” as recently as the 1950s, the national summer sport is an integral part of the country’s heritage.

But in commercial terms, the traditional version of the game, with its quaint rituals of lunch and tea breaks and where a stalemate is possible even after five days, faces a struggle to prove its relevance. Cricket-mad India, whose 1 billion consumers represent the game’s largest market, has been seduced by

T20, luring the world’s top players on big salaries to a Premier League where the game is over in a deafening threehour flurry of hits and misses.

It’s a far cry from 1877 when England and Australia played their first international. The Ashes term was coined five years later when a mock obituary was published to lament England’s first home defeat by former penal colony Australia. More recently the West Indies’ and then Australians’ domination in the 1990s forced reform on the game’s rulers and led to a revival back home.

Playing on the love-hate relationship between Australia and Britons, the Ashes brand will put the purest form of the game at the centre of the UK sporting landscape for the next few weeks.

“It is the ultimate opportunity for us

LAHORE: Pakistan cricket coach Dav Whatmore (right) speaks with team captain Misbah-ul Haq in Lahore. Whatmore on July 5 assured his team will put the woeful performance in the Champions Trophy behind them and will look for better results on their tour of the Caribbean. — AFP

as a governing body to inspire the nation to play, attend and follow more cricket,” said John Perera, commercial director with the England and Wales Cricket (ECB) board. “This gives cricket the ‘shop window’ that it needs every four years,” added Perera, looking ahead to the start of the five-test Ashes series in Nottingham on July 10.

Cricket is not the easiest product to sell. A game with complex rules, like baseball it has the capacity to baffle or delight. As well as requiring time, expensive kit is needed when children graduate to playing with its hard ball.

“Instead of a traditional football in the winter, cricket in the summer model, schools and society are now exposed to and take advantage of a range of diverse and sometimes new sports,” said Simon Chadwick, professor of sports marketing at Coventry University in central England. In common with other sports in Britain, cricket pales in comparison with the riches generated by the runaway success of soccer’s Premier League at home and worldwide.

English cricket revenues rose to 200 million pounds ($305 million)in 2012, up from 166 million in 2007 thanks largely to higher broadcast income, Deloitte said in a recent report. By comparison, English Premier League clubs generated more than 2.3 billion pounds in revenues in 2011-12. Mindful of the threats it faced, cricket tried to broaden its appeal with T20 which launched in England in 2003 and has taken off in the handful of former British colonies where the sport is played to a high level.

India has found that there is money to be made in T20, auctioning off eight franchises when the IPL was launched in 2008 for an average of $90 million per team. —Reuters

Danish Kaneria

Kaneria slapped with life ban KARACHI: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) endorsed the life ban on Danish Kaneria yesterday, effectively ending the career of the former test spinner who was banned in England last year for spot-fixing. Kaneria was found guilty of corruption while playing for county side Essex in 2009 and his appeal against a life ban from cricket was dismissed by an England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) disciplinary panel on Tuesday.

The 32-year-old leg-spinner has repeatedly denied any involvement in trying to engineer particular situations in a game but could not overturn the punishment.

“The ECB appeals panel has upheld the life ban on Kaneria and the PCB is bound to recognize, respect and enforce the ban in Pakistan,” the Pakistan board said in a statement.

“PCB hopes that Kaneria will reflect on his past conduct and will now initiate efforts towards redemption and rehabilitation,” the statement read.

A PCB spokesman said Kaneria was suspended for life from any involvement in the playing, organisation or administration of cricket in any form or manner under the jurisdiction of PCB. The spinner, who played the last of his 61 tests against England in 2010, said he had been a “victim of injustice right from the start” and was consulting his lawyers on whether to appeal in a court of law. —Reuters

SPORTS

SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

Gainey, Wagner share lead WEST VIRGINIA: Invigorated by a new driver in his bag, Tommy Gainey made a welcome return to form as he charged into a share of the lead in Thursday’s opening round of the Greenbrier Classic at White Sulphur Springs in West Virginia.

The man known as “Two Gloves” for his habit of wearing black gloves on both hands when he plays fired a blistering eight-under-par 62 on a rain-softened layout, ending the day level with compatriot Johnson Wagner.

Former US Open champion Webb Simpson and South Korean Park Jin also took advantage of preferred lies as they opened with 64s, though fan favorite and world number six Phil Mickelson, the highest-ranked player in the field, battled to a 74.Gainey had come into the week languishing 150th in the PGA Tour’s driving accuracy charts but, armed with a new Callaway Optiforce driver, he hit of 13 of 14 fairways as he surged to the top of the leaderboard. “If I can hit fairways, I can score, I can really play this game,” Gainey told reporters after piling up eight birdies and totalling 25 putts in a bogeyfree display. “All of us can. All these guys out here, if we hit the fairways, we can score.

“If you don’t hit it in the fairway, you’re just trying to knock it on the green and make par because hitting it out of this rough is no fun.”

Gainey, who won his maiden PGA Tour at last year’s McGladrey Classic, buried memories of 13 missed cuts this season in 22 starts as he reeled off four consecutive birdies round the turn on the Greenbrier’s Old White Course to surge into contention.

“When you have soft greens and the rough is not too penal, you can really score low out there,” said the 37-year-old American, who is renowned for his unusual baseball-style swing. “I just was one of the lucky ones to make some putts, hit some fairways, and we all know it’s all about making putts out here.”

Wagner briefly raised hopes of shooting a magical 59 after he chipped in from 30 yards to eagle the par-five 12th and get to eight under for the round, but had to settle for a 62 after parring the last six holes. “I had a chance at 59 today, or so I thought, and it’s nice to be disappointed with 62 after being disappointed with 76s and 79s lately,” said the 33-year-old, a three-times winner on the PGA Tour.

“I hit a lot of good shots coming in, I had a lot of good looks. But I made good putts and I am really happy with the way I did everything coming in. No changes and no regrets.”

Wagner has mainly struggled this season, and came into this week on the back of six missed cuts in his previous seven starts. Mickelson, seeking a 42nd career victory on the PGA Tour, has been in good form for much of this year but the American left-hander battled on the greens on Thursday.

“I am hitting every putt really solid but I am struggling reading these greens,” Mickelson said after mixing four birdies with five bogeys and an ugly triple at the par-five 17th where he hit his tee shot into water. “I am having a hard time on those five, six-footers ... they look straight to me and they are moving quite a bit, so I am having a tough time adjusting to this golf course. It’s very subtle, subtly challenging.” South African world number 10 Louis Oosthuizen opened with a 67 while 2012 Masters champion Bubba Watson carded a 68, ending the day level with his 63-year-old namesake Tom Watson, an eight-times major winner. American Ted Potter Jr., who triumphed at the Greenbrier last year in his rookie season after beating compatriot Troy Kelly in a playoff, launched his title defence with a 69. —Reuters

WEST VIRGINIA: Tommy Gainey hits his second shot on the 11th hole during round one of the Greenbrier Classic at the Old White TPC. — AFP

GERMANY: Red Bull Racing’s German driver Sebastian Vettel and Lotus F1 Team’s Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen drive during the second practice session at the Nurburgring race track. — AFP

Vettel clocks fastest time NUERBURGRING: Sebastian Vettel edged German rival Nico Rosberg for the fastest lap in practice for the German Grand Prix yesterday, while the Formula One chief played down the drivers’ threat of a pullout over tire safety concerns.

F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone said a boycott would help nobody and drivers who refused to race on Sunday risked losing their licenses.

Three-time champion Vettel is seeking his first win on home soil and beat Rosberg by .235 seconds in the second practice, after finishing eighth in the slower morning session.

Vettel’s fastest lap was 1 minute, 30.416 seconds. Mark Webber in the second Red Bull was third and Romain Grosjean was fourth, ahead of Lotus teammate Kimi Raikkonen.

Next came Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who failed to complete a full lap in the morning because of electrical problems.

Lewis Hamilton, who topped the morning session ahead of Mercedes teammate

Rosberg, was eighth in the afternoon.

Ecclestone, who came to Germany despite facing possible bribery charges in a Munich case, said the drivers were right in stating that it was their neck on the line.

But he told the German newspaper Die Welt the drivers understood that Pirelli would do everything to resolve the tire issue, which turned serious when five cars endured blowouts at the British GP last week. “There is a big difference between thinking about something and carrying it out. If the drivers boycott the race, they risk losing their super licenses,” Eccelstone said. “Such a boycott would serve no one and won’t solve the problem faster.”

There were no punctures in the practices, although some drivers complained about the quick degradation of soft tires.

Drivers threatened through the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association to withdraw from Sunday’s race if tire problems persist, while Pirelli has asked teams to stick to operating requirements.

Pirelli wants all teams to remain within

the prescribed pressure limits and to stop switching tires from left to right and vice versa.

The International Automobile Federation said on Friday it was the responsibility of each team to comply with the requirements.

This weekend, the belt on the rear tires is made of Kevlar instead of steel in an effort to reduce the chance of punctures.

From the Hungarian GP at the end of this month, the tires will change again, using the 2012 construction with 2013 compounds.

In the paddock at the Nuerburgring, some drivers praised Pirelli for acting quickly to rectify the problem. But the GPDA, chaired by Pedro de la Rosa and with Vettel and Jenson Button as directors, met later and decided to take their own action in order to avoid a repeat of the scenes from Silverstone. Not all divers are members of the GPDA - Raikkonnen and Adrian Sutil of Force India are among nonmembers. — AP

Pelicans, Blazers, Kings make deal NEW YORK: New Orleans, Portland and Sacramento have agreed to a three-team trade sending guard Tyreke Evans to the Pelicans, center Robin Lopez to the Trail Blazers and guard Greivis Vasquez to the Kings, people familiar with the deal said.

The people, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity on Thursday because NBA rules prevent confirmation of trades until Wednesday, say Portland is sending secondround draft pick Jeff Withey to New Orleans and a future draft pick to Sacramento as part of the deal. The trade also sends guard Terrel Harris to Portland.

Evans, a former rookie of the year and restricted free agent, averaged 15.2 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.5 assists with the Kings last season, his fourth. He has demonstrated the versatility to play either guard position, or even small forward when matchups favor doing so. Lopez, who was New Orleans’ starting center after arriving in a trade with Phoenix, averaged 11.3 points to go with 5.6 rebounds and 1.6 blocks last season, all career highs in what was his fifth NBA season. Vasquez, who started at point guard, averaged career highs of 13.9 points and nine assists and the Venezuelan was widely regarded as one of the most improved players in the NBA. For New Orleans, the trade comes on the heels of a draft-day deal that sent sixth overall pick Nerlens Noel to Philadelphia in exchange for All-

Star point guard Jrue Holiday. Because of Evans’ versatility, he could potentially become a key sixth man, backing up both Holiday or high-scoring shooting guard Eric Gordon as needed and giving all three players the minutes they command. That is, if the Pelicans decide not to trade Gordon, who has played only 51 games in the past two seasons combined because of lingering knee problems. The Pelicans also now have a void to fill at center. If New Orleans does not acquire another starting center through a trade or free agency, it could potentially move reserve power forward Jason Smith into that spot, which he has played periodically during the past few seasons. Anthony Davis and Ryan Anderson, who generally play power forward, also could fill in at center in stints if needed.

Last season, Portland played J.J. Hickson, a true power forward, at center alongside two-time All-Star LaMarcus Aldridge and Nicolas Batum. The addition of Lopez will give the Blazers help at the position while developing Meyers Leonard, the 11th overall pick in the 2012 draft. It is the second major move the Blazers have made since the NBA draft. On Sunday, Portland added frontcourt depth by acquiring forward Thomas Robinson from the Houston Rockets in exchange for a pair of future draft picks and the draft rights to Kostas Papanikolau of Greece and Marko Todorovic of Montenegro. —AP

SPORTS

SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

Crusaders demolish chiefs CHRISTCHURCH: Kieran Read scored a brace of tries and Dan Carter notched his 1,500th point in Super Rugby as the Crusaders boosted their title credentials with a 43-15 demolition of the table-topping Chiefs in Christchurch yesterday.

Fired by their New Zealand internationals, the Crusaders ran in five tries at their home AMI stadium to earn a bonus point and give themselves a chance of leapfrogging the Chiefs at the top of the New Zealand conference.

Both teams are playoffs-bound but the defending champion Chiefs suffered a big blow to their confidence ahead of the final round of regular season matches, turning in an insipid display bogged down by indiscipline and

Kieran Read handling errors. “It was nice. (We) set a nice standard at the start of the game,” Crusaders captain Read said in a pitchside interview after scoring a try in both halves. “We’ll definitely take the win but we know we have to come back next week and start again.”

Dominated at the breakdown, the

PREVIEW

Cagey Lions ‘desperate’ to end 16 years of failure SYDNEY: The British and Irish Lions are desperate to win the decisive third test against Australia and end 16 years of failed attempts to claim a series victory, assistant coach Graham Rowntree said yesterday. Describing today’s Olympic Stadium showdown as the biggest moment in the career of every member of the touring party, Rowntree was not about to give an inch in the final few hours of the prematch psychological battle.

Gone was his normal easy conversational style and the former England prop was all business as he brusquely rebutted any negative stories attaching themselves to the Lions this week.

First up were the Twitter rumours that replacement centre Manu Tuilagi had suffered an injury and Ireland’s Brian O’Driscoll was in line for a dramatic return to the team he was controversially omitted from on Wednesday. “News to me. We’re all good. Trained well this morning,” he said with a breezy harrumph that set the tone for the remainder of the news conference at North Sydney Oval.

O’Driscoll, he said, had been “exemplary” since being axed, ending that line of questioning by describing it as “Wednesday’s story”.

The two days off in the Queensland resort of Noosa earlier in the week, also criticised by some, were important to allow the team to “switch off” after the second test defeat and had “refreshed” the team. The record-equalling selection of 10 Welshman in the starting XV was justified on form, he added, and the beefed up pack was “appropriate” for the match - even if the Australians should not read too much into it.

Rowntree continued the tourists’ courtship of the referees over the last two tests, describing Frenchman Romain Poite as “one of the best referees we’ve got up north” and even offering the assistance of his players in officiating the scrum. “He’s known for his setpiece accuracy, so I’m looking forward to working with him tomor-

row night,” he said. “We’ve got a real responsibility to help the referee at scrum time.

“Indeed, following on from last week and the week before, all we can do as a group is work on what we’re showing the referee and what we’re doing technically. “And try to improve that and try to take the referee out of the equation so to speak.” Hooker Richard Hibbard, brought into the starting line-up for his bulk, later articulated the open secret that the Lions were planning to attack the Wallabies in “the scrum, breakdown and physicality”. For Rowntree, though, that would have been giving away too much to the enemy, although he was happier to discuss the possible weaknesses in the home side’s preparations.

The surprise recall of flanker George Smith after four years out of test rugby and six weeks on the sidelines with a knee injury was a “surprise”, he said, and it would be interesting to see how match-fit the 32-year-old was.

Rowntree also expanded on a theme introduced by head coach Warren Gatland earlier in the week, that the Wallabies had expended a huge amount of emotion in winning last week’s second test in Melbourne to level up the series.

The question, Gatland suggested, was whether they could summon up similar intensity for a second week in a row against a Lions team at desperation point as they bid to win a first test series since 1997.

“I thought we saw the reaction from Australia after they beat us, especially their captain, (James) Horwill, who was crying after the game,” Rowntree said. “They threw everything at us in that game, and beat us by a point. We really didn’t get our game going. “There’s loads more to come from us. The guys are desperate to win. This is grand final rugby, last throw of the dice. Everything to play for. “These players are desperate for tomorrow.” —Reuters

Chiefs conceded four penalty goals in the opening quarter to trail 12-3 before winger Asaeli Tikoirotuma scored an opportunistic try from a cross-kick by scrumhalf Tawera KerrBarlow to reduce the deficit to four points.

That was to be the last highlight for the visitors until a consolation try for centre Charlie Ngatai in the 73rd minute. Number eight Read, who led the All Blacks to a 3-0 series sweep of France last month in the absence of Richie McCaw, scored the Crusaders’ first try on the stroke of halftime, darting for the line from the back of a ruck.

Carter’s conversion put the Crusaders up 19-8 at the break and fullback Israel Dagg rode the momentum with a try in the 43rd minute,

dancing through a slack defence and pirouetting over the line. Carter slotted his second conversion, making him the first to notch 1,500 points in the competition, and finished with 18 points for the game, continuing his rich vein of form at the business end of the season. A brilliant break by Dagg along the left wing put Read over the line a few minutes later and centre Ryan Crotty crossed at the opposite corner in the 57th minute to put the Chiefs all but out of the game.

Ngatai spun over at the left corner for the Chiefs’ second try, but replacement back Tyler Bleyendaal completed a miserable night for the title-holders by intercepting a pass after the whistle and charging 60 metres for the final try. — Reuters

Moyes makes mark in first week at United LONDON: Less than a week into the job as Manchester United manager, David Moyes has already made his presence felt at the club’s newly rebranded Aon training complex in the Greater Manchester village of Carrington.

The task of succeeding the legendary Alex Ferguson has been widely described as an impossible one but Moyes, who officially started work on Monday, appears determined to tackle it head-on.

He has made sweeping changes to the backroom staff, notably releasing Ferguson’s trusted coaches Mike Phelan, Rene Meulensteen and Eric Steele, and replacing them with his own men.

Assistant manager Phelan was a close Ferguson ally and while Meulensteen’s innovative training sessions were lauded by the players, goalkeeping coach Steele was credited with helping to improve the form of David de Gea, having even learnt Spanish to assist communication.

Moyes might have been expected to preserve a coaching set-up that had helped United regain the Premier League title from Manchester City last season co-chairman Joel Glazer spoke of him “taking up from where Alex is leaving off”-but instead, he tore it down.

Steve Round, Chris Woods and Jimmy Lumsden followed the 50-year-old Scot from Everton and although all three earned Moyes’s trust during his time at Goodison Park, the huge level of expecta-

David Moyes

tion at United will be as unfamiliar to them as it is to him.

However, while Moyes and his closest advisors have only limited experience of amassing silverware, he has drafted trophy-winning expertise into the dug-out in the shape of veteran midfielder Ryan Giggs, United’s most decorated player, and former Old Trafford stalwart Phil Neville.

Both men will approach their new roles fuelled by a beginner’s hunger to succeed, but perhaps more importantly, they will also give Moyes’s coaching team a validity that only on-pitch achievement can bring. “Ryan’s success and ability to adapt his game over a number of years gives him an unrivalled perspective on the modern game. His career is an example to any aspiring young player,” said Moyes, who will address the media for the first time on Friday.

The presence of Giggs and Neville on the training pitch will also protect a thread of continuity that Ferguson’s departure threatened to snap.

Along with Nicky Butt, hired by United last season, and Paul Scholes, who has also joined the coaching staff, the two men represent the homegrown core of players around which all of Ferguson’s greatest triumphs were constructed.

With his support staff now in place, Moyes will be expected to show his hand in the transfer market.

He is likely to return with an improved bid for Everton left-back Leighton Baines after an initial offer of £12 million ($18.3 million, 14.1 million euros) was turned down last week.

There are also reports of interest in Benfica’s Argentine centre-back Ezequiel Garay and Barcelona midfielder Thiago Alcantara, son of Brazilian World Cup-winner Mazinho and star of Spain’s recent success at the Under-21 European Championships in Israel.

Moyes must also address the thorny issue of what to do with unsettled striker Wayne Rooney, who reportedly remains aggrieved at Ferguson’s claim that he has asked to leave the club for a second time.

Moyes was the man who gave Rooney his professional debut at Everton in 2002 but British media reports have indicated that an anticipated meeting between the two men on Wednesday did not materialise. The new manager took training for the first time on Thursday and although he has less than a week to prepare the squad for their five-game tour of Asia and Australia, he has already given strong indications that he intends to lead the club on his own terms. —AFP

SPORTS

SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

LAUSANNE: The athletes cross the finishing line, and Tyson Gay, from the US (centre) wins the men’s 100m race, at the Athletissima IAAF Diamond League athletics meeting in the Stade Olympique de la Pontaise in Lausanne. —AP

Gay continues impressive buildup LAUSANNE: American champion Tyson Gay continued his impressive buildup to next month’s world championships on Thursday by winning the 100 metres at Lausanne’s Athletissima Diamond League meeting in 9.79 seconds.

Jamaica’s former world record holder Asafa Powell was among the athletes left trailing while 2003 world champion Kim Collins of St Kitts and Nevis ran a personal best of 9.97 seconds at the age of 37 to finish fourth.

Free from the injuries which have hampered him since he won the 100 and 200 metres world titles in 2007, Gay has already

produced season’s best times in both events. Gay, who raced in the US trials less than two weeks ago, got off a good start before charging down the final 70 metres to destroy the field.

“It shows I’m fit and healthy and that’s the key,” Gay told Swiss television. Asked by the BBC asked if he would face Olympic and world record holder Usain Bolt before the world championships, Gay replied: “Maybe, I’m not sure of my schedule.”

Powell, who missed the Jamaica trials through injury, was happy with his performance after finishing second in 9.88, his best time of the season. “I’m happy my

times are getting better slowly but surely,” he told the BBC. “I was really disappointed (about the Jamaican trials), I know how good I can be.”

Injury-troubled David Oliver, who missed the London Olympics, won the men’s 110 metres hurdles in 13.03. “It feels good to be back, I’m running healthy,” said the Beijing bronze medallist. “Lausanne is always a great event, it’s a good stepping stone to Moscow.”

Olympic champion Felix Sanchez was second in the 400 metres hurdles where he was beaten by Puerto Rico’s Javier Culson, the bronze medallist in London, who pro-

duced a personal season’s best of 48.14 seconds. Ukrainian Mariya Reymyen produced an upset when she beat Kimberly Duncan and Carmelita Jeter to win the women’s 200 metres in 22.61 seconds.

Her compatriot Bohdan Bondarenko leapt 2.41 metres to win the men’s high jump and was close to clearing a world record 2.46.

World and Olympic champion Sally Pearson finished down the field in seventh place in the women’s 100 metres hurdles which was won by Dawn Harper-Nelson in 12.53 seconds. U.S. athletes took the first four places. — Reuters

Bolt building confidence ahead of worlds PARIS: Usain Bolt is looking to build confidence for the world championships in Moscow by racing in the 200 meters at the Areva Meeting in Paris today.

In the ninth leg of the Diamond League, Bolt will take on Jamaican compatriots Warren Weir, Nickel Ashmeade and Jason Young, along with former European 200 champion Christophe Lemaitre of France. All five sprinters have run below 20 seconds.

“I’m just trying to make sure I get a couple of results before the championships,” Bolt said on Friday, “and get the routine right when the championships come, because that’s what really matters.”

Bolt is the 200 world recordholder and has won the last two world and Olympic titles. He has the second best time this season, 19.79 seconds at the Bislett Games in Oslo on June 13.

Tyson Gay ran the fastest 200 this year, 19.74 at the US trials on June 23. Although Gay wasn’t in Paris, Bolt was not underestimating the competition.

“I never said I’m invincible,” he said. “When I’m in great shape and I’m at the top of my game, I’m very confident that no one can

beat me because I know what I’m capable of. “But you can be beaten. There’s times when you get injuries, there’s times when you’re off your game. There’s so many different scenarios that can happen.” Weir ran 19.79 in Kingston last month to win the Jamaican trials. In May, the Olympic bronze medalist also won the 200 in Shanghai and New York.

Bolt should break the meet record of 20.01, set by Michael Johnson in 1990, if his challengers push him hard enough. The sixtime Olympic champ came close to breaking that mark in 2011, but a bout of flu prevented him from racing at full throttle. Bolt clocked 20.03 then to outclass Lemaitre by 0.18.

Bolt’s form and motivation were questioned when he lost by one hundredth of a second to Justin Gatlin in the 100 at Rome’s Golden Gala on June 6.

But Bolt has recovered by winning the 200 in Oslo, and running 9.94 in the 100 at the Jamaican trials. “I’m really trying to get back on target, trying to get up to speed,” Bolt said. “I’m feeling great in training, I’m running pretty well. I have a few more weeks to go.” The worlds start on Aug.

10. In the men’s 400, world and Olympic champion Kirani James of Grenada said he was looking forward to another race with LaShawn Merritt of the United States. James believed the more he’s pushed the longer he’ll be motivated. “(I’m) just trying to stay consistent and just trying to be around this sport as long as I possibly can,” James said. “I don’t want to be a two-year or threeyear wonder and people wondering what happened to Kirani.”

James ran a season-best 44.02 to beat Merritt in Shanghai on May 18. But the American took his revenge in Eugene, Oregon on June 1.

“I think it does bring out the best in us,” Merritt said about his rivalry with James. “Before the competition, just mentally getting ready, knowing that right now we’re the two fastest quarter-milers in the world. We definitely have to bring our A game.

Tomorrow, it should be something special.”

Merritt won the Olympic gold in 2008 and the world title in 2009 before completing in 2011 a 21month suspension for failing a doping test. —AP

PUNE: Gold winner Saudi Arabia’s Emad Hamed Nour gestures after crossing the finish line during the men’s 1500 meters race on the third day of the five-day Asian Athletics Championship 2013 at the Chatrapati Shivaji Stadium in Pune. —AFP

SPORTS SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

FRANCE: Best sprinter’s green jersey, Slovakia’s Peter Sagan, celebrates as he crosses the finish line at the end of the 205.5 km seventh stage of the 100th edition of the Tour de France cycling race. — AFP

FRANCE: South Africa’s Daryl Impey celebrates his overall leader’s yellow jersey on the podium at the end of the 205.5 km seventh stage of the 100th edition of the Tour de France cycling race. — AFP

Sagan stuns sprinters, Impey defends yellow ALBI: Slovakian Peter Sagan dominated a bunch sprint to win the seventh stage of the Tour de France yesterday as South African Daryl Impey defended the race leader’s yellow jersey.

Sagan, last year’s winner of the race’s green jersey points competition, surged in the final 150 metres of the 205.5km stage from Montpellier to Albi to claim his first win of the 100th edition.

Germany’s John Degenkolb (Argos) and Italian Daniele Bennati (Saxo) finished a bike length behind in second and third respectively.

It ends a frustrating first week for Sagan, who has narrowly missed out on sprint wins on four occasions. “The team did an incredible job and I want to thank them all,” said Sagan.

“I hope today’s win gives an answer to all the fans who had criticised me and the team on the internet. Now the pressure is off.” A day before the first of two consecutive stages in the Pyrenees, a combination of the climbs and the

pace in the peloton proved too much for sprinters Mark Cavendish and Andre Greipel.

Both were dropped in succession on the second of the day’s four small climbs, and when the news filtered through to Sagan he put his troops on the front of the main bunch and ordered them to hit full gas. It left Cavendish and Greipel, who won stages five and six respectively, in an 84-strong group which flirted with missing the time cut-off limit.

The late arrivals crossed the finish nearly 15 minutes in arrears, but Cavendish was unperturbed. “Over half the peloton was dropped on that climb,” said the Manxman. “It was difficult.”

He added: “There’s still a lot of sprint stages, especially the last stage on the Champs Elysees.”

German veteran Jens Voigt (RadioShack) and Frenchman Blel Kadri (ALM) lit up the early stages with an attack inside the first 20 km, the pair building a maximum lead of 6min 50sec on the main peloton over undulating terrain.

But as Sagan set his sights on the points from the intermediate sprint, and other riders came to the front to help the chase, the pair were eventually reeled in just after the 114km mark.

Sagan took the 20 points by winning the sprint at the 135km mark, but soon after Cannondale were put to work again.

Sitting only 33sec behind Impey overall, Jan Bakelants attacked in a bid to regain possession of the yellow jersey and was joined by Cyril Gautier and Juan Oroz.

For a spell it looked like Impey, with only Orica-GreenEdge teammate Michael Albasini to help him, was in danger of losing the lead.

But the South African maintained his composure as Cannondale’s efforts eventually helped close a gap that had never got above the 60-second mark. Impey admitted the second climb that had snared many of the sprinters had tested his resolve: “There was a moment on the second climb that the pressure was on, but we han-

dled it pretty well,” said the 28-year-old.

“But I was happy to see the top of that climb, that’s for sure.” The escapees’ bid ended with just under 4km to race. “I had great legs today, but unfortunately the last 10 kilometres were into a headwind,” lamented Bakelants, who wore the yellow jersey for one day after stage two.

In the closing kilometre Argos, whose main sprinter Marcel Kittel was left trailing with Cavendish and Greipel, set up the lead-out train for Degenkolb.

But their timing was flawed. Degenkolb powered to the finish but hit top speed well before the line, leaving Sagan to surge past in triumph and reinforce his grip on the sprinters’ top prize.

Sagan now has a lead of over 100 pts in the points competition, but said the green jersey was far from secure. “So far the first seven days have gone very well, but we still have to get through the next 14,” he added. —AFP

Lisicki eyes dream end to Wimbledon fairytale LONDON: Germany’s Sabine Lisicki admits winning the Wimbledon final against Marion Bartoli today would be the perfect way to cap her remarkable recovery from a devastating injury that threatened to ruin her career.

When Lisicki walks onto Centre Court for her first Grand Slam final this weekend it will be both the culmination of a childhood dream and also a fitting end to a tale of redemption that started three years ago.

The 23-year-old German’s joyful celebration at the conclusion of Thursday’s dramatic 6-4, 2-6, 9-7 win over Polish fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska was a far cry from the dark days of 2010 when she was on crutches for months after sustaining a serious left ankle injury at Indian Wells. Unable to walk and with her promising tennis career in the balance, Lisicki was at a crossroads. But she refused to bow to suggestions that it might be better to leave tennis rather than risk further damage to her body. And after five months of rehabilitation, she was finally able to return to action.

Even then the journey back to top had to be taken one step at a time. By the end of 2010 her ranking had slipped from 23 to 179 and in March 2011, she was down at 218. But later that year she reached the Wimbledon semi-finals as a wildcard and hasn’t looked back since.

Beating French 15th seed Bartoli in a battle of two players both looking for their first Grand Slam title would

be the icing on the cake for Lisicki, who has become the darling of the Centre Court with her beaming smile and all-action play.

“I always believed. Always. No matter what happened.

I can still remember when the doctor told me that I have to be on crutches the next six weeks,” Lisicki said.

“That period made me such a much stronger person and player. I know anything is possible after learning how to walk again.

“I love the sport so much and I miss it when I cannot be out there on the court. It just gives me the belief to overcome anything.” Lisicki’s tale of triumph in adversity carries extra resonance at Wimbledon, where her compatriot Steffi Graf enjoyed so many great days.

Victory this weekend would make Lisicki Germany’s first champion at a major since Graf beat Martina Hingis to claim the 1999 French Open.

Graf, who sent Lisicki a good-luck text ahead of the semi-final, was also the last German to reach a final at a major when she was runner-up to Lindsay Davenport at Wimbledon that same year.

And Lisicki, who caused one of the great Wimbledon shocks when she defeated five-time champion Serena Williams in the fourth round this year, admits success at the All England Club would fulfil a wish she first had as a child at home in Troisdorf. —AFP

WIMBLEDON: A combination of pictures show France’s Marion Bartoli (left) reacting to winning the first set against US player Sloane Stephens and Germany’s Sabine Lisicki (right) reacts to winning the first set against Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska during their women’s singles semi-final at the 2013 Wimbledon Championships. —AFP

SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2013

Sports

Sagan stuns sprinters, Impey defends yellow

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WIMBLEDON: Serbia’s Novak Djokovic returns during his men’s singles semi-final match against Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro on Day Eleven of the 2013 Wimbledon Championships tennis tournament at the All England Club. — AFP

Djokovic into Wimbledon final LONDON: Novak Djokovic defeated heroic Juan Martin del Potro 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (7/2), 6-7 (6/8), 6-3 yesterday in the longest Wimbledon semi-final in history to move into his 11th Grand Slam title match.

In a titanic struggle played out over four hours and 43 minutes, world number one Djokovic squandered two match points in the fourth set tiebreak before going on to seal a final clash against either British second seed Andy Murray, the runner-up last year, or 24th seeded Pole Jerzy Janowicz. The topseeded Serb, the champion in 2011, leads Murray 11-7 in career meetings but has yet to face Janowicz, the first Polish man to make the semi-finals of a major.

Djokovic, bidding for a seventh Grand Slam crown, fired 22 aces and 80 winners in his breathtaking win over the luckless Del Potro, the 2009 US Open champion, who had been hoping to become just the second Argentine to make the Wimbledon final. “It was one of the best matches I’ve been part of, certainly one of the most exciting. It was so close and nothing could separate us,” said Djokovic.

“But that’s why he is a Grand Slam champion, every time he was in a tough situation he comes up with unbelievable shots.

“I’m very proud to go through. When I lost the fourth set of course it was disappointing because I was close to winning

and didn’t capitalise. He came up with some big forehands. It was a very high level of tennis. “I was ready to go five sets. I was able to stay tough and get through in the end.”

Del Potro, who had defeated the Serb for the Olympic bronze medal at Wimbledon last year, had matched Djokovic blow for blow in the first set but had to bat back a break point in the sixth game to stay on level terms.

At 6-5, Djokovic stepped it up, a backhand from off his toes landing in the corner before a backhand off-balance from the Argentine sailed long.

The Serb, playing in his fourth successive Wimbledon semifinal, sensed blood and a wide forehand from the suddenly besieged Del Potro gave the world number one the opener.

Djokovic was rewarded for his positive approach. His 14 winners comfortably trumped the meagre four that the eighth seed, still with his left knee heavily-strapped, could manage.

Del Potro called for the doctor after slipping down 3-2 in the second set, but the consultation didn’t remedy his problems against the top seed as he immediately had to fend off four break points.

However, buoyed by his defiance, Del Potro broke for a 4-3 edge, the second point of the game clinched by chasing down a Djokovic drop shot which he dinked over cross-court.

Del Potro just about backed it up for 5-3 before he went on to level the tie on a sun-baked Centre Court, a picture-perfect drop shot followed by an unreturned serve.

It was the first set that the Serb had dropped in the tournament. Djokovic fought off a break point in the fifth game of the third set and two more in the seventh before the Argentine had to save three set points in the 12th, the last courtesy of a 90mph winner.

But Djokovic cruised through the tiebreak with Del Potro’s confidence and challenge shattered in an instant when the 6ft 6in (1.98m) giant netted an easy smash on the sixth point.

Del Potro was beginning to wilt in the 26-degree heat and Djokovic took advantage, breaking for 4-3 as another fierce return landed on the Argentine’s toes.

However, Del Potro wasn’t finished and brought the crowd to their feet by breaking back for 4-4 and saving two match points in the breaker, the first at the end of a punishing 24stroke exchange.

In the decider, Djokovic fought off a break point in the fifth game before Del Potro saved one in the sixth. The Argentine cracked to trail 3-5, Djokovic saved another break point as he served for the match in the ninth game before he claimed his epic win with a huge forehand.— AFP