9th Jul 2013

CR IP TI ON BS SU

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

Rape cases on the rise in Kuwait

Saddam’s half brother Hassan dies of cancer

NO: 15864

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SHAABAN 30, 1434 AH

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Pope lays wreath to commemorate lives lost at sea

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www.kuwaittimes.net

British cricketer Pietersen divides and conquers

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Cairo clash leaves 54 dead; Crisis deepens Muslim Brotherhood calls for an uprising

conspiracy theories

The different Ramadan

By Badrya Darwish

badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net

I

am writing my article as the start of Ramadan was announced to be on Wednesday. Everybody was psychologically prepared for Tuesday to be the first day of the holy month. But the moon-sighting committee saw otherwise. For the Arab world, this Ramadan is totally different compared to any other Ramadan I have witnessed. The Arab Spring started three years ago but things did not escalate to the same level as today. The problem is that we do not even know where we are heading to, especially in Egypt and Syria.

To me Egypt is the heart of the Arab world. If the country deteriorates, the impact will be very bad for the rest of the Arab world. I do not underestimate Continued on Page 15

CAIRO: Bodies lie on the floor at a makeshift morgue in a hospital in Cairo following overnight violence yesterday. — AFP

Max 48º Min 35º High Tide 01:33 & 11:40 Low Tide 06:25& 19:38

CAIRO: At least 54 people were killed yesterday when the Egyptian army opened fire on supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, in the deadliest incident since the elected Islamist leader was toppled by the military five days ago. Protesters said shooting started as they performed morning prayers outside the Cairo barracks where Morsi is believed to be held.

But military spokesman Ahmed Ali said that at 4 am armed men attacked troops in the area around the Republican Guard compound in the northeast of the city. “The armed forces always deal with issues very wisely, but there is certainly also a limit to patience,” the uniformed Ali told a news conference, at which he presented what he said was video evidence, some of it apparently taken from a helicopter.

Emergency services said 435 people were wounded.

Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood urged people to rise up against the army, which they accuse of a military coup to topple the leader, threatening an escalation in Egypt’s political crisis. “The massacre at the Republican Guard defies description,” said Mohamed El-Beltagy, a leading member of the Brotherhood’s political wing, on its Facebook page.

At a hospital near the Rabaa Adawiya mosque where Islamists have camped out since Morsi was ousted, rooms were crammed with people wounded in the violence, sheets were stained with blood and medics rushed to attend to those hurt. “They shot us with teargas, birdshot, rubber bullets - everything. Then they used live bullets,” said Abdelaziz Abdel Shakua, a bearded 30-year-old who was wounded in his right leg.

As an immediate consequence of the clash, the ultraconservative Islamist Nour party, which initially backed the military intervention, said it was withdrawing from Continued on Page 15

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

LOCAL

Security crackdown ‘not intended to target any specific community’ Indian minister holds talks in Kuwait

By N S Das KUWAIT: Indian Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed, who arrived in Kuwait on an official one-day visit, met His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the First Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister, Sheikh Ahmad Hmoud Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah AlKhalid Al-Hamad Al-Sabah. The Indian minister held discussions with the Kuwaiti dignitaries in the wake of the ongoing security crackdown that resulted in several thousand Indians being deported from Kuwait and a fear psychosis gripping the community.

Addressing a gathering of community representatives at the Indian embassy, the minister said, “I had strongly requested [the leadership] to provide enough time for overstaying expatriates or those on irregular visas, to return on their own or to regularize their stay as per the law, before undertaking a rigorous security crackdown.”

Urging community members to wait for awhile, he added, “I pin hopes on my discussions with the crown prince and strongly believe that the decisions the Kuwaiti authorities take will be something good for our people.”

Community members from a wide stratum of society who gathered to meet and listen to the

minister expressed their dismay at the random nature of the ongoing security crackdown and narrated several harrowing experiences.

The minister for his part said that he had conveyed the concerns of community members to the Kuwaiti leadership and they would be looking into it. The minister added that in his talks with the authorities, they had emphasized that the recent crackdown was not intended to tar-

Indian Minister E Ahmad get any specific community and that anyone who was in the country legally had nothing to worry. Stressing that security, law violations, visa and immigration matters are the sovereign

rights of every nation and that other countries cannot interfere in these legal policies and procedures, the minister added out that India and Kuwait have a long history of warm and friendly relations.

He added that Kuwait is very liberal in its issuance of visas to Indians, which is why over 700,000 Indians are currently living in Kuwait.

Speaking on the occasion, the Indian Ambassador to Kuwait Satish C Mehta, clarified that Indians were not being unfairly targeted by the authorities, adding, “We are very closely engaged with the Kuwaiti authorities to ensure that Indians do not face any harsh problems as a result of the ongoing security checks. The ambassador noted that the number of Indians deported in the first six months of this year was fewer than the number deported during the same period in 2012.

In recent months Kuwait has been implementing a security crackdown to rid the country of illegal residents and law violators. The country has also announced a policy of reducing the number of expatriate workforce in the country by a million people over a 10-year period.

Meanwhile, the External Affairs Ministry in India had stated that over 3,600 Indians had returned home since the beginning of the year, including 1,000 who had been issued emergency exit certificates.

Comparative figures of electorate of second constituency KUWAIT: Total electorate for upcoming elections due on July 27 stands at 439,715, including 49,755 — 23,480 males and 26,275 females — in the second constituency.

Number of franchised citizens in the district has risen to 1,983, by 4.15 percent of the overall electorate as compared to the figure of the 2012 polls with 977 men and 1,006 women.

Total figure of the voters in the second constituency constitutes 11.31 percent of the total number of eligible voters, amounting to 439,715, 5.33 percent men and 5.97 percent women.

The voters of this constituency are residents of 13 areas: Dahiat Abdullah Al-Salem 6,309 (3,046 men and 3,263 women), Al-Gibla 33 (14 males and 19 females), Shuwaikh 1,345 (658 men and 687

women), Shamiah 4,947 (2,422 men and 2,525 women).

Number of franchised citizens in Qadsiah stands at 6,697 (3,174 men, 3, 523 women), Mansouriah 2,899 (1,452 men and 1,447 women), Faihaa 5,819 (2,561 men and 3,258 women).

In Nuzha, the electorate amounts to 4,201 (1,920 men and 2,281 women), Sulaibikhat 7,201 (3,516 men and 3,685 women), Doha 7,313 (3,409 men and 3,904 women).

Franchised nationals in Gharnata amounts to 1,884 (709 men and 1,175 women), Qairawan 1,107 (599 men and 508 women), and none has been registered in Murgab.

Overall number of the voters in the second constituency in the 2012 elections reached 47,772 (22,503 men and 25,269 women).

They were distributed as following: Dahiat Abdullah Al-Salem 6,126 (2,975 men and 3,151 women), in Gibla 33 (14 men and 19 women), Shuwaikh 1,308 (640 men and 668 women), Shamiah 4,777 (2,347 men and 2,430 women), Qadsiah 6,386 (3,018 men and 3,368 women), Mansouriah 2,805 (1,421 men and 1,384 women), Faihaa 5,631 (2,452 men and 3,179 women).

In Nuzha, the electorate reached 4,062 (1,851 men and 2,211 women), Sulaibikhat 6,946 (3,400 men and 3,546 women), Doha 7,076 (3,278 men and 3,798 women).

Number of eligible voters in Gharnata reached 1,780 (656 men and 1,134 women), Qairawan 842 (451 men and 391 women) and none was registered in Murgab.

Total number of the franchised citizens in the 2012 polls reached

45,400 (21,396 men and 24,004 women). They were distributed in the areas as following: Dahiat Abdullah Al-Salem 5,795 (2,814 men and 2,981 women), in Gibla 34 (16 men and 19 women), Shuwaikh 1,279 (642 men and 637 women), Shamiah 4,510 (2,239 men and 2,271 women).

Figure of the voters in Qadsiah reached 6,060 (2,865 men and 3,195 women), Mansouriah 2,605 (1,321 men and 1,284 women), Faihaa 5,205 (2, 252 men and 2,953 women), Nuzha 3,857 (1,754 men and 2,103 women).

Electorate of Sulaibikhat amounted to 6,803 (3,340 men and 3,463 women), Doha 6,998 (3,249 men and 3,749 women), Gharnata 1,642 (576 men and 1,066 women), Qairawan 612 (328 men and 284 women) and none was recorded in Murgab. — KUNA

Graish day, a continuing tradition despite lifestyle changes

KUWAIT: Anti-drugs officers arrested an Asian expat for possessing 1,000 pills of drugs, 100 gm of “shabow”, and 25 gm of heroin. Earlier information indicated that the Asian was active in the drugs trade, and after collecting necessary information and legal permission, the residence of the Asian was raided, where police found the aforementioned drugs. He confessed to the charges that the drugs were for trading. He and the drugs were sent to concerned authorities.

—By Hanan Al-Saadoun

KUWAIT: As the Islamic Hijri month of Shaaban slowly comes to a close, welcoming the subsequent month of Ramadan, Kuwaitis are keen to revive the local popular social tradition, Graish day, when people celebrate their last meal before the arrival of the month of fasting.

During this day family members come together at the senior family member’s home, usually the grandparents, carrying home-made foods prepared beforehand.

However, with the modernisation of the Kuwaiti post-oil society many changes have occurred to this tradition.

For one, meals are becoming larger with international foods being added to the local ones, which once dominated this social event. Once restricted to home -made platters, deliver y from hotels and fine diners have also been introduced.

The once secluded family affair has also taken a new dimension, with a broader participation of an all-guests welcome policy, where these events are advertised via social networking sites and apps like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp. Despite the routine of a daily fastpaced life, several Kuwaitis have underlined Graish as an important event on

Concerns raised over legality of NA polls KUWAIT: Kuwait’s Constitutional Court will decide on July 14 whether to suspend the country’s snap election after concerns were raised that it will not be legal.

Lawyer Adel Abdulhadi has submitted a petition to the court arguing the Cabinet did not have the power to set a new poll date because under Kuwaiti law it must have an elected representative from the National Assembly to make decisions.

The assembly was sacked last month after the Constitutional Court ruled the December 2012 election was null and void. That left only government members appointed by the prime minister.

State Minister for Assembly Affairs and Planning Rola Dashti, who is a member of the government, was elected to the assembly in 2009 and could be considered the sole elected Cabinet member.

However, Abdulhadi said that would mean the entire 2009 assembly would have to be reinstated. That assembly was twice dissolved, in December 2011 and October 2012.

The court received a similar petition on Sunday and would immediately begin reviewing the arguments.

The separate petition was filed earlier this month with the Administrative Court demanding the election be postponed until after Sept 18, when the Constitutional Court is expected to provide legal reasoning for its decision to sack the December assembly.

A date is yet to be set to hear arguments supporting this petition.

The new election is due July 27 and would be the country’s fifth in as many years.The 2009 assembly was first dissolved in December 2011 following street protests led by the opposition.

A new election was held in February the following year but nullified on June 20, 2012, meaning the 2009 assembly was reinstated, only to be nullified again less than four months later.

The Constitutional Court also last month upheld a change that moves the country to a one-vote system, which is controversial among opposition supporters who claim it goes against them.

their annual calenders, stressing the importance of maintaining such traditions and noting to their significance to family bonding.

Umm Saad Al-Senafi, a Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor employee and mother, said that Graish, once was restricted to women or family members, used to be limited to leftover foods, often fish.

The much younger Ghalia Al-Issa, a university student, views otherwise. She had agreed with her friends to book a hall at a luxury hotel for the occasion she described as “special.”

“Nowadays Graish has become an ordeal which takes planning, processing, and preparation to mark the occasion,” she said.

“This tradition has become exaggerated and very expensive,” says a national, Saad Khalaf. Companies have started to target customers during the last days of Shaaban and the event has taken a commercial dimension, whereby foods sold for the occassion are even packaged, he said. But, Khalaf agrees that, despite his negative view, Graish remains a social bonding event where family members gather, eat, and chitchat in anticipation for the holy month. — KUNA

27 candidates to be disqualified KUWAIT: The legal committee at the Interior Ministry has finalized a report containing the names of 27 out of the 418 registered candidates for the upcoming parliamentary elections to be disqualified, a local daily reported yesterday quoting sources who added that the list was referred to First Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Hmoud Al-Sabah for approval.

Candidates are disqualified if they were convicted in a criminal case, a hate crime or in a crime of honor. The legal committee is assigned after the registration door is closed to inspect candidates’ files and find those who do not meet requirements as well as those with records of legal cases, who are then automatically disqualified.

The sources who spoke to AlJarida on the condition of anonymity noted that the disqualification list includes one former MP and three members of the scrapped Assembly, but does not include members of the 2009 par-

liament who were accused of receiving bribes in a case known as the ‘multimillion deposits scandal’ which was shelved for lack of evidence.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Mustafa Al-Shamali refuted reports that the Cabinet could be planning to cancel ‘populist’ laws passed by the scrapped parliament. These laws include a debt relief fund which the minister assured to Al-Rai is “working properly”. Separately, Al-Qabas reported yesterday quoting a survey carried out by the studies and researches department in the parliament in early 2012, which indicated that fighting corruption was mentioned as a top priority by Kuwaitis along with healthcare, education, pay raises and the housing issue.

This was the first time in which the need to fight wasta (unlawful mediation) and corruption was mentioned with the other four topics that have been a stable in surveys during the past five years.

KUWAIT: A partial view of the audience.

More awareness needed on importance of voting KUWAIT: The time has come for an increase of awareness campaigns that urge voting in parliamentary elections in Kuwait, a number of voters suggested.

Awareness campaigns, which target the youth mainly, are crucial for the perception behind choosing the appropriate candidate, they agreed when speaking ahead of Kuwait’s July 27 National Assembly elections.

“Aiding the increase of this awareness is the duty of the Ministry of Information and the local media,” said Kuwaiti female voter Fajar Al-Shemmeri, who identified talk shows and workshops as efforts that could be assumed towards the goal.

She also noted to the role of civil society institutions in encouraging the youth to take part in the democratic process.

However, this awareness should be “controlled, so as not to tip the scale in the

favour of one candidate at the expense of another, and so as not to affect the judgment of voters,” views Ali Al-Saffar, who blamed what he dubbed “commercial awareness” for aiding inaccurate choices.

“Educating the public aids clarifying certain issues that could be absent from the minds of youngsters, enabling them to make the right choice without having to give in to carrying out favours,” Abdulaziz Al-Saleh suggested. “Women’s right to vote and elect themselves was brought about as a result of huge awareness campaigns,” he indicated. Indeed, Noha AlShemmeri highlighted first-time voters as crucially in need of these instructions.

“Recent elections have enabled the average young Kuwaiti to be far more mature in their selections and major contributors to the better enactment of legislations and policies,” she said. — KUNA

Hopefuls tap photoshop technology KUWAIT: Election campaigns for the forthcoming parliamentary polls are witnessing a fresh phenomenon of using photoshop technology to beautify their photos for ads, computer designers said here yesterday.

Designers said candidates now seek to make use of high technology, including photoshop, in order to give a good impression to voters.

The culture of society has now changed, with facial appearances playing an influential role in attracting people, Mohamed Anwar, a computer company designer said.

The use by candidates of computer programs, mainly photoshop, has become so common, he added.

For his part, Khalid Shafi, another computer designer, said it is a good thing for candidates to cope with new technology by means of using technological tools like photoshop.

He said hopefuls make use of photoshop in order to look handsome and draw people’s attention. Salem Al-Enezi, a voter, has a different view saying that everyone should not be deceived by appearance as beauty does not necessarily mean good platforms or programs for candidates.

Change in appearance only influences a very limited number of people as the focus should be on electoral promises and platforms. — KUNA

KAC announces future marketing strategy plan KUWAIT: Kuwait Air ways announced future plans to develop the national carrier’s services with the goals of regaining its prestigious status, improving operational efficiency, restoring clients’ trust, providing top quality services on land and on air, as well as improving profits within three years. This announcement was made by Marketing and Sales Manager Mohammad Al-Enezi in a statement yesterday. He indicated that the marketing plan for the upcoming few years includes different strategies that include operating at least one trip to all destinations, operating two trips to certain destinations, improving connectivity between flights and improving connections between Gulf and Western destinations. The strategies also include improving connec tions between Middle Eastern and southeastern and eastern Asian destinations. It also includes operating direc t flights to Europe with immediate return of aircraft to guarantee fullest use of aircrafts’ capacities.

Meanwhile, Enezi announced that the KAC outlined a plan to open new routes in summer, which remain on hold depending on finalizing a deal to rent five new Airbus A330 planes. The new flights operation plan includes flights to Vienna, Sarajevo and Istanbul as follows: KuwaitIstanbul-Sarajevo every Wednesday from Aug 7 to Sept 18 2013. Kuwait-SarajevoIstanbul every Saturday from Aug 10 to

Mohammad Al-Enizy Sept 21 2013. Kuwait-Istanbul-Vienna every Thursday from Aug 8 to Sept 19 2013. Kuwait-Frankfur t-Vienna ever y Sunday from Aug 11 to Sept 22 2013.

Enezi also recognized the fleet redeveloping plan as one of the KAC’s strategic goals to prepare the company for privatization and profitability. “KAC seeks to improve its fleet this year through renting or buying new aircraf t to gradually replace the current fleet,” he said. KAC’s current fleet includes 17 aircraft which are 2 Boeing 777s with capacity of 273 passengers, 4 Airbus A340 with 272 passengers, 5 Airbus A300 with 232 passengers, 3 Airbus A310 with 200 passengers, and 3 Airbus A320 with 130 passengers.

KUWAIT: General Director of Saad Al-Abdullah Academy for Security Science Lt Gen Saif Al-Saif and Director of training center for border security sector Col Abdul Kareem Al-Karam and Capt Jaber Dashti have attended the 7th graduation ceremony of five cadets specialized in coast guards at Plymouth University in UK, who obtained B Sc degree in marine science. Lt Gen Saif Al-Saif held several meetings with teaching staff in the university to find out students level and to get a picture on their studying situation.

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

LOCAL

CBK contributes to print Quran in Braille KUWAIT: The Commercial Bank of Kuwait announced cooperation with the Kuwait Society of the Blind to print copies of the Holy Quran in Braille for people with visual impairment.

Assistant General Manager for Public Relations and Advertisement, Amani Al-Wara, explained that the CBK will deduct an amount of every cash withdraw transaction carried out through ATMs and donate the final sum to the Kuwait Society of the Blind, without any added expenses taken from clients.

KUWAIT: The opening of the Heritage Village at Wahran park in Shamiya.

Amani Al-Wara

Grand Mosque ready to receive worshippers KUWAIT: Ministr y of Awqaf and Religious Affairs has officially received the Grand Mosque from the Amiri Diwan following renovations and is ready to receive worshippers in the holy month of Ramadan, it was announced here yesterday.

The Amiri Diwan has already revamped the Grand Mosque upon instructions of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber AlSabah, said Minister of Justice, Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Shareeda AlMuosherji.

The Minister expressed keeness of the Ministry of Awqaf in offering an Islamic atmosphere for worshippers during the month of Ramadan, adding that it (ministry) is in continuous coordination with

state institutions and ministries to prepare for this holy month.

The Ministry has already prepared mosques and Ramadan centers in all the six governorates, he noted.

Meanwhile, the total cost of the Grand Mosque renovation amounts to 5.25 million Kuwaiti dinars (KD) and it took three months and half to be ready, said head of the Grand Mosque renovation commission, Undersecretary for financial, administrative and staff affairs at the Amiri Diwan, Abdul-Aziz Ishak said.

Ishak said in a statement that Minister of Amiri Diwan Affairs Sheikh Ali Jarrah Al-Sabah, Awqaf Minister and top officials in the ministry visited the mosque and inspected the renovation work earlier yesterday. —KUNA

Heritage Village opens at Wahran park KUWAIT: The honorary president of the Dairat Al-Khair voluntary charity group Sheikha Nawal Al-Humoud Al-Sabah stressed that the group had prepared many activities and festivities for the holy month of Ramadan including special competitions for all ages. Speaking on opening the Heritage Village at Wahran park in Shamiya in the presence of Shamiya mayor Sulaiman AlOthman, activist Najla Al-Naki, Dr Ayed AlManna’, Shamiya and Shuwaikh Co-op chairman, Ali Al-Othman, the head of Dairat Al-Khair Charity Group, Ibrahim Al-Bowair and some of the area’s families, Sheikha Nawal said that the village was the outcome of cooperation between the charity and Shamiya Co-op and assistant mayor and its goal was to instill patriot-

ism amongst the youth. “We have been keen on providing many activities in the village and building some historic monuments so that the younger generations get to know the history of their ancestors and develop their spirit of patriotism,” she added, noting that a special program had been prepared for the month of Ramadan under the title “Kuwait Is More Beautiful With Our Consolidation”. She also said that the village had been built in collaboration with the Public Authority for Agricultural Affairs and Fish Resources (PAAAFR).

On his part, Othman said that the activities due to be held in the village during Ramadan have taken into consideration all HH the Amir’s directives about greening Kuwait, consolidation

and gathering youths and the area’s residents under one umbrella. Othman added that the park allocates a special area for kids where they can play various sports, games and art activities.

He also noted that the park includes a heritage village where some small stores were built according to traditional style to display old, traditional items to revive the heritage and link the youth with their past. “The park also includes a special diwaniya where both the elderly and the youth can meet,” he added, noting that some water wells will be dug.

Also speaking on the occasion, Shamiya Coop chairman Ali Al-Othman said that the co-op would take part in special Ramadan activities like Girgian.

Sexual assaults against Filipinas on the rise KUWAIT: Minister of Amiri Diwan Affairs Sheikh Ali Jarrah Al-Sabah, Minister of Justice, Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Shareeda Al-Muosherji and top officials visit the Grand Mosque.

Kuwait reiterates support for Egypt KUWAIT: The cabinet has reaffirmed support and help to Egypt at this critical time, stressing the significance of security and stability in this brotherly Arab country.

The cabinet monitored the latest developments and serious conditions in Egypt, together with relevant challenges and risks, Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs and Minister of State for Municipal Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah said following a cabinet meeting held yesterday.

It voiced full confidence in the ability of the Egyptian people to overcome this difficult stage thanks to their high patriotic spirit, he said. Wishing Egypt’s interim president Adly Mansour best of luck, the cabinet hailed firm relations between Kuwait and Egypt and vowed to provide all types of help in supporting Egypt’s security, stability and democracy.

On the other hand, the cabinet approved a draft law on the formation of a committee that would temporarily have the power of the Municipal Council until

relevant election challenges are settled, the minister added.

The minister reviewed recent letters received by His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah from the leaders of Yemen, Palestine, Senegal and Sierra Leone on bilateral relations.

During the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khalid Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah briefed the ministers on the outcomes of the first session of the Kuwaiti-Senegalese joint committee, which focused on bilateral ties, regional and international political developments and issues of mutual interest.

He also apprised them of the outcomes of recent visits to Kuwait by Italian, Indian and Liberian officials. For his part, Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr Nayef Al-Hajraf presented a report on high school exam results and university preparations and arrangements.

Finally, the ministers considered reports on the latest Arab and international political developments. — KUNA

High application pressure behind slower processing KUWAIT: Kuwait has denied media reports that it had stopped issuing visit visas to Egyptian nationals.

Immigration officials said they were still dealing with visa applications “in accordance with the regular procedures and criteria”.

However, they added that the immigration offices during Ramadan were unusually busy “due to the high number of visit visa applications”. “ This situation requires the rationing of the transactions,” the immigration directorate said, local media reported yesterday. Egyptians make up the largest community of Arab expatriates in Kuwait with a massive presence in the public and private sector.

Kuwait in May 2011 banned nationals from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan from entering the country.

The veto was extended to include Yemenis in August.

The ban that suspended all tourism, visit and trade visas as well as visas sponsored by spouses was attributed to the “difficult security conditions in the five countries” and to “the remark-

ably increasing tendency of nationals from the five countries to apply for visas to bring in relatives who faced or could face arrest by the local authorities to Kuwait”.

In January this year, the authorities eased the ban and partially lifted the blanket restriction on the entry of the nationals from the six countries to the northern Arabian Gulf country.

Under the new regulations, nationals from Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan working in the public sector could invite their wives and children to join them.

Those working in the private sector could bring their sons into the country if they were less than 15 years old and their daughters if they were less than 18. However, the regulations stipulated that the expatriates’ wives had to be living in Kuwait at the time of the application and that they had valid residence permits.

In a third breakthrough for the nationals under the ban, business people could enter Kuwait if their companies were categorised as Grade A or as government establishments.

Rape victims recount ordeal

By Ben Garcia KUWAIT: Rape cases within the Filipino community have been escalating as of late. In the last two days, two women narrated the harrowing ordeal of rape victims to Philippine Embassy officials. There are many more reported cases at the embassy that are currently going to be reviewed. Alma, one of the victims, recounted an assault on her on July 7. It was supposed to be an ordinary day at the shop.

She came in at 8 am to open the international call centre in Abraq Khaitan.

After about an hour, two young men who said they were policemen barged into her shop. They requested the customers to cooperate and to show their civil identification. Ever yone in the shop handed over their IDs. Alma was the only one who showed a piece of paper issued to her by the Philippine Embassy.

“They asked for the civil ID but I couldn’t show mine because I have a ‘travel document’ (exit permit) issued by Philippine Embassy. I was going to leave the country and was planning for my eventual flight back to Manila,” she told Kuwait

Times.

At the start of the police crackdown, the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait started issuing travel documents to Filipinos who were considering to be deported back in the Philippines. Alma was one of those who surrendered and wanted to just be depor ted and follow Kuwait’s rule.

“I told the policeman that I am preparing to go home. When they heard this, the two young men asked all of my customers to leave the shop. I could not leave because I tend to the shop. They asked for the key (of the shop), I told them I don’t have it. So one of them took my bag and took out everything from it. He saw the key and locked the shop,” she said.

Then one of the policeman brought her to one of the cubicles at the ver y end and raped her there. “I cried for help, although I knew I couldn’t be heard by anybody there. I cried for mercy. He wasn’t finished yet when he brought me out of the cubicle and I was raped on the reception sofa in front of his friend,” she said.

“When the first man was done his friend asked me to wash up and then raped me too,” she said,

adding that they had exerted pressure on her and harassed her beyond belief.

“When they finished, they took my money out from my bag, took my two cellphones and ran away.

When the men opened the door, I was crying and told bystanders outside the shop to help me because these men were rapists and robbers. They tried to catch them but the two perpetrators managed to run away,” Alma said.

After the incident, she immediately proceeded to Philippine embassy to report her case and ask for assistance.

Alma’s story is identical to Vilma, another rape victim, who filed complaint at the Philippine Embassy on July 6. According to her, she was on her way to work in Abu Halifa around 4:30 pm. While she was waiting for a bus, a car stopped in front of her asking for her civil ID. But she immediately suspected that the man could not be a police officer since he was wearing civilian clothes. She challenged the man to show his identification. He showed to her his identification bearing a photo which she perceived to be a man in uniform. She was alarmed and pulled

her civil ID out from her wallet.

“When I showed him my ID, the man asked if I was aware that my civil ID address was in Ardiya. I told him yes, but I told him my employer can explain. He asked me to ride in his car.” Vilma resisted at first because she had a valid Article 18 visa. “On the other hand, I was aware that my embassy has appealed to all Filipinos to cooperate with the authorities. So, I did cooperate with him.”

The victim asked the man where he was taking her. “To Ardiya police station,” he said. “I was already very scared and I suspected he wasn’t taking me to the police station because he initially brought me at the back of a fast-food restaurant in Abu Halifa, but he drove quickly to another empty space nearby.

There he raped me in the back of his car. I was pleading for mercy and I told him I have seven children but he never listened,” she said. Apart from these two cases, the Philippine embassy has received more rape cases recently.

With the number of Pinay rape victims continuing to rise, the Philippine Embassy is considering harsher regulations to protect its citizens.

Ministry to increase traffic campaigns KUWAIT: Assistant Undersecretary for Traffic Affairs Lt General Abdul Fattah Al-Ali said that all preparations are ready for execution to deal with traffic during the holy month of Ramadan. He said that current preparations required the increase of traffic police and patrols in addition to officers and criminal detectives to cover major areas of traffic in all governorates. Ali added that the ministry shall increase traffic campaigns and spread out inspection groups and traffic and criminal detectives so that all on roads feel safe and secure due to continuous supervision and ease traffic jams once they happen and be ready for it.

“From experience and what the previous Ramadans witnessed, we combined experience and vision which has been translated to redistribution and spreading of traffic men before peak hours by the start of iftar and after it to ensure smooth traffic flow, which requires availability of traffic men on all roads to ease traffic jams in the streets and crossings,” he said.

Ali explained that supervision of traffic movement inside and outside urban areas is covered through several directions, and 34 sites were carefully chosen defending on traffic density and percentage of accidents. These sites were chosen as a start for traffic campaigns to control traffic movements and deal swiftly with any situation.

Concerning traffic on expressways and ways of dealing with it during the holy month, Ali said that all expressways are under continuous evaluation with respect to traffic flow and number of vehicles and their movements. Traffic signals and speed cameras aim to put a limit to over speeding, running red signals and driving in emergency lanes.

“We also review traffic strategy and consider what has been done in the inspection campaigns to update the plans and correct the system in preparation of the coming phase. In fact, the traffic operations plan during the month of Ramadan is a start for what to be used the time

of school reopening and to make use of the results in Ramadan to avoid negative effects and organize the positive ones until traffic flows easily in the short and long run,” he said.

Ali explained that some excesses on individual basis might happen in of dealing with violators “which we shall stand up and deal strictly with and the law shall be implemented on all without exception to put an end to violators and outlaws”. He said the ministry accepts constructive criticism and it is good to reveal defects and weak points in order to work together for reform and correction and make traffic men put more efforts under all conditions.

“In addition, our move is supported by a continuous media plan, information campaigns for drivers, pedestrians and all roads users, which security media are carrying out all through the year through different media tools, press, radio, television, social media, brochures and SMS on mobiles, which hopefully is not used in messaging or calling while driving,” he said.

726 packets of spoiled honey destroyed KUWAIT: Farwaniya Municipality destroyed yesterday 726 packets of spoiled honey.

This came in a campaign launched by the Farwaniya Municipality on markets and food stores in the governorate which resulted in the seizure of 726 honey packets.

Assistant Direc tor General of Kuwait

Municipality for the Farwaniya and Ahmadi governorates affairs Faisal Al-Juma said that the Municipality is proceeding with the implementation of the extended campaigns on shops and markets to take random samples in order to ensure that they meet the health requirements.

He stressed the importance of activat-

ing the super visor y role through the intensification of field campaigns on shops and food pantries and strengthen controls on all food outlets and subdue random samples of these materials for laboratory examination periodically in order to ensure the health and safety of consumers. — KUNA

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

LOCAL

Salmi Road accident uncovers unlicensed rifle, handguns Pedestrians killed in accidents KUWAIT: Police are waiting for the condition of a driver to stabilize after an accident in order to put him under arrest for carrying unlicensed weapons found in his car. Paramedics and police had rushed to a roundabout on Salmi Road where a car collision was reported. The Syrian man was found seriously injured and taken to Jahra Hospital where he was admitted in the intensive care unit. Meanwhile, police searched his car and found one rifle and two handguns in addition to 1,460 bullets. A case was filed for investigations.

Zain flies students to Abu Dhabi KUWAIT: Zain, the leading telecommunications company in Kuwait, yesterday announced that it has sponsored an educational field trip for students of the faculty of Social Sciences, Kuwait University, to visit TwoFour54 Abu Dhabi Media Zone; an initiative by the Abu Dhabi government to create an Arabic media and entertainment industry for the Middle East and North Africa.

The field trip that was attended by students from the faculty of Social Sciences, and Prof Bibi Al-Ajmi, along with representatives from Zain, provided a clear insight of the modern work environment at TwoFour54 and the various services offered that provides support and adequate facilities for media organizations and owners of creative ideas in the fields of online publications, TV, and Mobile phones in the Middle East and North Africa.

It is imperative to mention that since its inception, Zain has been a strong believer of providing the society with the essentials that help develop the market’s needs. From educational to health and environmental initiatives, Zain has certainly played an important role to maintain the availability of the latest e -learning, ar t, and culture

schemes that outbreak youth creativity and contribute to the development of their expertise and qualifies them to the real business world.

As par t of its Corporate Social Responsibility strategy, Zain is committed to supporting the development of young peoples’ skills and knowledge in Kuwait and ensuring that they have every opportunity to learn and gain the qualifications they need to reach their full potential.

The TwoFour54 field trip stands as one of many of Zain’s commitments to the wellbeing and enhancement of the local youths’ talents. It aimed at offering an overview of the most-up-to-date technologies by which will directly enrich the Kuwaiti economic sector.

TwoFour54 is a content creation community based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates that facilitates the development of the Arabic media and entertainment content in the region. The company works with businesses in television, radio, film, publishing, online, mobile, music, gaming, and animation to create local content and grow the Arab media industry. Its name refers to the geographic co-ordinates of Abu Dhabi - 24 north by 54 east.

KRCS digs 10 water wells in Somalia KUWAIT: Kuwait Red Crescent Society (KRCS) announced it has dug 10 water wells in in the city of Bosaso, Somalia and its neighboring villages in cooperation with Somalia social welfare and emergency relief authority.

KRCS President Barjas Hamoud Al-Barjas said in a statement yesterday that the water wells project in Somalia will have a positive impact for the Somalian people as it provides potable water where water scarcity is a major problem for many countries that are suffering from drought.

Al-Barjas added that this project comes within the framework of the humanitarian aid provided by the KRCS to people of Somalia as directed by His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah the Honorary President of the society.

The implementation of this project came after a field study and response to the humanity calls to participate in saving the lives of hundreds of thousands of children, women and elderly persons in Somalia who die as a result of thirst and famine due to drought in the past four years in some areas there.

He pointed out that the goal of KRCS is to provide a clean source of water in Somalia, especially in Bosaso city and its neighboring villages that suffer from water shortage, desertification and drought. —KUNA

Child falls to death A child died after falling from a high place in Riqqa Sunday. The 3-year- old girl was reportedly left playing with other kids inside her family’s house when she fell from a height.

Paramedics pronounced the victim dead on the scene before crime scene investigators were called. The body was taken to the forensics department and a case was filed at the area’s police station.

Road accidents Two pedestrians died in accidents reported in two different locations Sunday. The first case took place in Shuwaikh near Sahafa (press) Street where a woman was hit by a speeding vehicle while she was trying to cross the highway. The Filipina was pronounced dead at the

scene while the Indian driver was in police custody. Meanwhile, an Egyptian man was pronounced dead at a Sulaibikhat street shortly af ter he was hit by a dump truck whose Egyptian driver was arrested.

Brothers assaulted Investigations are ongoing in search for suspects who left one person injured and then attacked his brother in the hospital. According to the police report, the incident started at a location in Qasr where the suspects used pocketknives to attack their foe. The victim was rushed to Jahra Hospital by his brother and admitted in the intensive care unit with a deep thigh wound. Meanwhile, the man soon found himself surrounded by his brother’s attackers as they beat him up before escaping, leaving him with multiple cuts. Police headed to the hospital after the incident was reported. A case was filed for investigations af ter police obtained the injured duo’s testimonies.

Drug possession A man was arrested at the Kuwait International Airport after he was busted with possession of hashish. The Egyptian had arrived from his home country when customs officials found four pieces of hashish in his pockets during a personal search. The man, who works at a coffee shop that serves shisha,

claimed during questioning that the drugs are for his personal use. He was referred to the Drug Control General Department to face charges.

Botched escape A domestic worker was injured when she fell from a high place while trying to escape her employer ’s house in Jahra recently.

According to the police report, the woman had climbed out from the balcony of the secondstorey apartment but lost balance midway and fell to the ground. She was rushed to Jahra Hospital and admitted in the intensive care unit with several broken bones. A case was filed for investigations.

Liquor duo held Two men were arrested on charges of trafficking homebrewed liquor after their illegal activity was exposed by a fire reported at their place of residence. Firefighters and police had headed to a house under construction in Fahd Al-Ahmad where a fire was reported. After the blaze was tackled, firefighters discovered a room containing equipment used to brew alcoholic drinks, and also found bottles filled with homebrewed liquor ready for sale. Two Asian men who worked as guards for the property were put under arrest after admitting making and trading alcohol.

Egyptians visitor visa ‘codified’ KUWAIT: The Immigration General Department has requested new conditions to restrict issuing visit visas to Egyptian nationals to first degree relatives but did not make similar requests regarding dependency visas, a local daily reported yesterday quoting sources with knowledge of the case.

Speaking to Al-Rai on the condition of anonymity, the sources said that the ‘codifying procedures’ include the condition that an Egyptian national can apply for a visit visa for a first degree relative and must have a ‘reasonable salary’ to be qualified for the application.

The same procedure goes for visit visas issued as per both family or commercial conditions. The sources added that the new procedures are temporary and linked to the ongoing events in Egypt. They insisted in the meantime that the new procedures “will not negatively affect transactions of Egyptian residents in Kuwait,” and are most likely to be lifted after Ramadan. — Al-Rai

‘Kuwait Says Thank You’ campaign ends KUWAIT: Under the patronization of His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, final ceremony of the national campaign, “Kuwait Says Thank You,” was held late on Sunday at Al-Babtain Theatre.

HH the Premier was represented at the ceremony by Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs and Minister of State for Municipal Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Al-Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah.

Sheikh Mubarak Al-Abdullah said in a statement after the ceremony that Kuwait would remain well as long the youth adhere to “roots of the genuine Kuwaiti identity.”

This initiative had been launched by a group of young Kuwaitis to honor patriotic personalities for sake of bolstering social coherence, he said.

Asked by reporters about upcoming parliamentary elections, the minister said the government policy toward

these polls would be unchanged and it would facilitate allocation of sites for the process and examine nomination applications, according to standing regulations and in a transparent fashion.

He affirmed the government keenness on enforcing laws against law breaches and urged citizens to report any irregularity to the relevant authorities.

The minister acknowledged that the ballot casting would be hard for the electorate but urged citizens to consider the hard work by the electoral staff at the assigned commissions.

Sheik h Mubarak forecast high turnout as compared to previous polls and hoped that skilled figures would win seats in the parliament.

Preparations are underway for the elections, due on July 27. Nominations had already been finalized, but campaigns were proceeding for the balloting day. — KUNA

‘Dasmanite Summer Camp’ KUWAIT: Dasmanite is a three- week summer program that can help your child reach a healthy weight and make better lifestyle choices. The program offers group nutrition classes, one on one nutrition counseling, and daily exercise sessions.

The program caters to overweight and obese children aged 10 to 17. The first session taking place this summer was from June 16 to July 4 and the second

session will be from Aug 12 to 29.

The k ids meet in the Fitness and Rehabilitation Center every day during those times for three hours. The curriculum varies everyday and includes different exercise workshops (in gym and pool), nutritional classes, and educational sessions about obesity, diabetes and first aid.

The first graduating class truly was a great success and it looks forward to many more programs to come.

Amman hosts regional nuclear security workshop AMMAN: Organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a regional workshop on “systems of radiation detection to enhance nuclear security” kicked off here on Sunday, with participation from Kuwait. The workshop tackled boosting mechanisms to strengthen national capacities in the nuclear security field. Jordanian Director General of Radioactivity and Nuclear Work Organization Dr. Majd AlHawari affirmed, during the opening of the workshop, the importance of nuclear security and ways to strengthen the capacity of countries in using nuclear programs for peaceful purposes, and its role in shedding light on the mechanisms of control and organization concerning the usage of

nuclear energy. For his part, IAEA’s representative Reza Abdeen said that this workshop was part of a number of IAEA sponsored programs in cooperation with Jordan.

Kuwait’s representative at the event was Health Ministry natural radiation specialist Abdulhalim Shafiq Al-Bobbo, who said that the workshop discussed the concept of nuclear security and its legislative framework. Other issues were related to evaluating the dangers and threats of radiation systems, he added.

Some six countries from the Arab world took part in the workshop, in addition to the IAEA, including Egypt, Iraq, Oman, UAE, Jordan and Kuwait. — KUNA

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

LOCAL kuwait digest

Letters to Badriya

All Egyptians could have been ‘Brotherized’

The never ending housing problem Foreigner at home

By Muthaffar Abduallh

J

ust read your article, it’s really great to see someone has the courage to speak out. Honestly if you want to look at it, it’s not just that I was born and raised in Kuwait, and also my mom is Kuwaiti of the first degree, but yet I had to immigrate to another country and live far away from my mom just because I can’t get the Kuwaiti nationality and I’ve been treated as foreigner simply because my dad and mom are still together.

In conclusion, human rights and equality are not there. And it’s nowhere near the Islamic law or the constitution of Kuwait. Some people are just pinning their hopes on the parliament which is dealing with its own problems rather than look at the issues of people who reside there.

Come on, is there a country in the world that puts a certain set of laws (traffic laws) against a segment of the society? If this is not racist, I don’t know what it is. I just hope the best for Kuwait and I want to see it take a step forward not ten steps backwards.

W

henever religious blocs come to power, like what happened in Tunisia, Egypt, Kuwait and any other part of the world, they soon fall when it comes to respecting others and freedoms.

We could not have waited too long until the Muslim Brotherhood come to power in Egypt, but no sooner had they taken over they made an endless number of fatal mistakes in terms of administrative failure and assimilating non-Muslim Brotherhood people. Their peers in Tunisia have already started interfering in others’ personal affairs and that is why Tunisia is starting to develop its own rebellion following the Egyptian steps.

In Kuwait, my country that is wrecked by compliments, ever since they took over the parliament in the beginning of the 1980s, Islamists have been relentlessly trying to amend article two of the constitution as if it was the end of the world for them. The funny thing is that they managed to issue some unconstitutional legislations in the name of religion, such as executing blasphemers, banning co-education and others, without amending the article.

Such violations of public freedoms and placing social, religious and intellectual sects under one umbrella are inapplicable anymore because it is against human nature of diversity.

I believe that if the Muslim Brotherhood served all Egyptians equally in this one year they spent in power, the majority of the Egyptian people would have been “Brotherized”.

Similarly, if Islamist movements in Kuwait had invested religious values of tolerance and not interfered in other people’s lives, they would have been viewed differently by now. It is not enough for any political group to win a majority of votes and then sit back and relax; the real test is handling and dealing with people’s requirements and demands as well as respecting their affiliations.

The Muslim Brotherhood and other religious blocs must realize that they do not represent Islam and that they do not speak on behalf of Allah on Earth. That would be a terrible mistake like that of Turkey, where ever since Erdogan adopted a secular regime, he developed the reputation of Islamists until he started interfering in people’s everyday lives and attacking the political system. He then faced loud protests from Taksim square.

Morsi has made serious mistakes in dealing with the judiciary, government administrations, Egypt’s foreign relations, dealing with the media and excluding non-Muslim Brotherhood people that all cost him the reign of Egypt in the blink of an eye. All they needed to do is to fulfill people’s quotidian needs and prove that Islam was so great that it could include everybody, but alas, they failed and tried imposing ‘their own religion’. — Al-Jarida

A reader

In my view

kuwait digest

A return of legitimacy

Speakers on the run

By Meshal Al-Thufairi

W

hether we agree with the Muslim Brotherhood or not, the way by which Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi was ousted does not go in line with the basics of political work, and was an out-ofcontrol step by the military which could lead to undesirable consequences. Meanwhile, the way in which some Gulf states ‘blessed’ these measures reflect lack of political prudence and seem to be based on hostility towards the Muslim Brotherhood alone.

Millions of Morsi supports are protesting in Egypt today demanding a return to legitimacy in the form of reinstating the elected president.

It is not easy for the military today to contain these masses whose rallies are covered live with up to-the moment updates on social networks.

I believe that the Supreme Commander of the Egyptian Armed Forces Gen Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi finds himself in a very tough position right

now. He gave the Muslim Brotherhood a very good service by helping them regain popularity and win people’s sympathy. While I have reser vations on the Muslim Brotherhood and their political history, I have to stand by constitutional rights wherever they are, and by the sovereignty of the civil state instead of military rule.

Therefore, I support the protesters’ demands for Morsi to be reinstated as the legitimate president of Egypt on the basis of establishing a constitutional state where authorities act separately and the people are the source of all powers.

Public protests against any issue must be handled within constitutional frameworks while the military must never act on the people’s behalf under any pretext. The military institution in Egypt was shaken not only in Egypt but across the Arab World, so it has to find a way out of this crisis with minimal losses.

Meanwhile, I believe that the AlAzhar institution is part of a losing political game after the presence of Grand Imam Ahmed Al-Tayyeb was used to provide a cover to the military’s decision.

In my opinion, Al-Azhar’s role was supposed to be restricted on offering a compromise that all parties could agree upon. But after associating with the military and liberal factions, Al-Azhar’s popularity dropped within the Egyptian society to a point in which it could be perhaps surpassed by the Muslim Brotherhood’s popularity.

Egypt stands at a crossroads today: either a return of legitimacy by reinstating President Morsi, or keeping the popularity of the military. In my opinion, legitimacy is more important than military rule because we are looking for solutions that fall in favor of establishing civil states ruled by civil institutions. — Al-Rai

By Labeed Abdal

local@kuwaittimes.net

H

earing about the heated competition for the speaker’s seat in the coming parliament makes me wonder ..I expected more focus on candidates’ agendas when running for parliamentary elections rather than serving rich meals and desserts to voters. The coming elections must surely reflect on people’s concerns and needs that suffer delays and status quo.

National unity should be our priority when regional and international difficulties should make us take more actions. Boycotting the elections or creating political tensions should not be in our coming climate - all political blocs should focus on national issues that will contribute to the stability and security of the homeland.

Many social, economic, sectarian and racial issues should be dealt with to strengthen the social structure by the new legislature. No one has the right to fool the people - all efforts should be for Kuwait, not against it.

As a principle, the people must come first, all other issues should be second ...

kuwait digest

Revolution or rebellion?

kuwait digest

The historic responsibility

By Abdullatif Al-Duaij

A

few days ago I was watching an old music video of Egyptian singer Fayza Ahmad (circa 1950s). The video featured Austrian actor Estefan Rosti, Scottish-born actor Ahmad Ramzi, Egyptian actor Rushdhi Abaza who is of Circassian descent and whose mother was Italian, and of course Fayza Ahmad who is half Syrian and half Iraqi. Only Naieema Aakef and Zeenat Sedqi were actresses featured in the video who were born and raised Egyptian. This was Egypt right after the French colonization and the European influence. It is the same Egypt that very few among the current rebel movement are dreaming of today.

This is an introduction that I wanted to put before discussing a question I made in an earlier column: Are the ongoing events in Egypt considered a revolution, a rebellion against President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, or a rebellion against religious dominance? Like I suggested before, it is still too early to answer these questions especially that the situation is yet to settle in Egypt.

Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood could perhaps be stronger than before as they will find no trouble making the attack against them look as if it was an attack against Islam.

It will not be possible to defeat the Muslim Brotherhood through an approach that goes in harmony with religious speech. It is subsequently not easy to take the Muslim Brotherhood out without providing a religious alternative. The Egyptian people and their revolution are what brought the Muslim Brotherhood in power, and quite simply they have to live with it. The Muslim Brotherhood and Islamists in general are a part of the Egyptian people. In fact, they represent the entire Egyptian people today. In order for that to change, the revolution should adopt an approach in which secularism would be promoted as a solution and nationalism as the top sense of belonging. The main goal for people who came out on June 30 was to ‘punish’ president Morsi or criticize the Muslim Brotherhood’s behavior, rather than rebelling against what they represent and the ideology they have. Therefore, it cannot be called a revolution, but simply a rebellion.

During elections which happened in undemocratic atmospheres, people had no other choice but to choose between Islamists and supporters of the former regime. People went with the Islamists from the standpoint that they were more honest and closest to the people. It is similar to what the national forces did here in Kuwait when they aligned themselves with religious groups. However, this mistake came with a lot worse consequences in Egypt where the ‘rebels’ practically handed authority to the Muslim Brotherhood through elections held without a standing constitution or commitment to the democratic principles of freedom, justice and equality. It was only natural as a result that the rebels felt disappointed, or even betrayed. The Muslim Brotherhood are not yet prepared for democratic rule; not in Egypt or even in Turkey. They still need a new generation or complete change in ideologies before that happens. The damage has already been done, and the Muslim Brotherhood became the legitimate rulers of Egypt as per the narrow concepts of democracy in the Arab World. Forcing them out of power could be legitimate because of the errors they have committed, but such a step would be a clear violation of legitimacy and an unprecedented, dangerous step that could become a tradition in a region filled with problems that need only a spark to ignite.

An ‘awakening’ movement against religious dominance could be understandable, but targeting the Muslim Brotherhood for nothing but because of errors they committed in Egypt is an infringement that should never be accepted by anyone who believes in justice, freedom and equality for all people. — Al-Qabas

By Dr Hamad Al-Usaidan

A

fter long deliberation and consultations, I decided not to run for parliament after I had earlier plans to sign up last Thursday. The decision was hard to make given the large support I received from fellow citizens in the fifth constituency. However I decided to put my plans on hold after analyzing the situation in the fifth constituency.

Kuwait is in need for a strong parliament that can elevate the monitoring and legislative work. The Kuwaiti voters face a historic responsibility today as they are required to elect MPs on the basis of competency instead of sectarian or any other individualistic accounts.

My decision to participate in the elections goes in line with the principle of fighting corruption as a priority ahead of benefits, which was supported by many religious figures. Therefore, I plan to cast my vote during the elections because the ongoing circumstances and the challenges that Kuwait faces require joint efforts to put the right people in the right place in the parliament.

Kuwait is in need for a strong parliament that can elevate the monitoring and legislative work. The Kuwaiti voters face a historic responsibility today as they are required to elect MPs on the basis of competency instead of sectarian or any other individualistic accounts.

June 27 is a day in which Kuwait should begin a new phase titled ‘Kuwait First’, and hopefully the spiritual atmosphere during that day which falls in the middle of the holy month of Ramadan will serve as an extra motive for voters to elect who they believe are more competent to work for Kuwait. Therefore, I urge Kuwaitis to head to the voting centers on that day despite the extreme heat because Kuwait and its future or worthy of our sacrifice.

The reason I opted against running for parliament is the case of chaos seemingly found in the fifth constituency with nearly 150 registered candidates; a number that exceeds that of candidates in the third and fourth candidates by the double, and the first and second constituencies by almost three times. The large number of candidates with different backgrounds makes it hard to predict the outcome especially that the two largest communities, the Awazem and Ajman tribes, are divided between boycotters and those who plan to participate n the elections. Meanwhile, the large number of tribal candidates leads to ‘scattering’ of votes which could negatively affect the chances of their respective tribes to be represented in the parliament. — Al-Rai

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

Pope blasts indifference over migration deaths

Saddam’s half brother Hassan dies of cancer Page 8

Page 10

Secret move keeps Bin Laden records in shadows Navy SEAL raid info to be purged from Defense computers WASHINGTON: The top US special operations commander, Adm William McRaven, ordered military files about the Navy SEAL raid on Osama Bin Laden’s hideout to be purged from Defense Department computers and sent to the CIA, where they could be more easily shielded from ever being made public. The secret move, described briefly in a draft report by the Pentagon’s inspector general, set off no alarms within the Obama administration even though it appears to have sidestepped federal rules and perhaps also the US Freedom of Information Act. An acknowledgement by Adm William McRaven of his actions was quietly removed from the final version of an inspector general’s report published weeks ago. A spokesman for the admiral declined to comment. The CIA, noting that the bin Laden mission was overseen by thenCIA Director Leon Panetta before he became defense secretary, said that the SEALs were effectively assigned to work temporarily for the CIA, which has presidential authority to conduct covert operations.

“Documents related to the raid were handled in a manner consistent with the fact that the operation was conducted under the direction of the CIA director,” agency spokesman Preston Golson said in an emailed statement.

“Records of a CIA operation such as the (Bin Laden) raid, which were created during the conduct of the operation by persons acting under the authority of the CIA Director, are CIA records.” Golson said it is “absolutely false” that records were moved to the CIA to avoid the legal requirements of the Freedom of Information Act. The records transfer was part of an effort by McRaven to protect the names of the personnel involved in the raid, according to the inspector general’s draft report. But secretly moving the records allowed the Pentagon to tell The Associated Press that it couldn’t find any documents inside the Defense Department that AP had requested more than two years ago, and would represent a new strategy for the US government to shield even its most sensitive activities from public scrutiny.

“Welcome to the shell game in place of open government,” said Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, a private research institute at George Washington University. “Guess which shell the records are under. If you guess the right shell, we might show them to you. It’s ridiculous.” McRaven’s directive sent the only copies of the military’s records about its daring raid to the CIA, which has special authority to prevent the release of “operational files” in ways that can’t effectively be challenged in federal court. The Defense Department can prevent the release of its own military files, citing risks to national security, but that can be contested in court and a judge can compel it to turn over non-sensitive portions of records.

Transferring government records from one executive agency to another must be approved in writing by the National Archives and Records Administration, under the Code of Federal Regulations. There are limited circumstances when prior approval is not required, such as when the records are moved between two components of the same executive department. The CIA and Special

News

in brief

Saudi beheaded for murder RIYADH: Saudi Arabia beheaded one of its citizens yesterday after he was convicted of murdering a fellow Saudi in the southwestern Makkah region, the interior ministry said. Saleh bin Ali Al-Shemmarani was executed for stabbing to death Ali bin Saeed AlShemmarani after a dispute between the two, the ministry said in a statement carried by SPA state news agency. A total of 57 people have been executed in Saudi Arabia since the start of the year, according to an AFP count. In 2012, the Gulf country executed 76 people, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Human Rights Watch has put the number at 69.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia’s strict version of sharia, or Islamic law.

Yemeni colonel shot dead ADEN: A Yemeni army commander was shot dead in eastern Yemen yesterday as he was leaving home for work, the Yemeni Defense Ministry website said yesterday. More than 70 military and security officers have been killed in southern and eastern Yemen since 2011 as Islamists exploit a power vacuum and political chaos left by a mass uprising that forced former President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down. The www.26sep.net website quoted a military source as saying that assailants in a car ambushed Colonel Ahmed Mohammed Al-Suhaili, commander of an army camp in Hadramout province and leader of the artillery battalion in the 37th armored brigade, about 100 meters from his home. Suhaili exchanged fire and wounded one of them, the website said, but gave no information on who the attackers might be. Restoring stability to Yemen, which borders top oil exporter Saudi Arabia and the Red Sea shipping route, is important for the United States and its Gulf Arab allies.

Iran starts naval exercise TEHRAN: An Iranian semi-official news agency reported yesterday that the country’s navy has started an exercise in the Caspian Sea. A Fars story yesterday quoted Adm Khordad Hakimi, chief of the northern naval fleet, as saying that the maneuver in Iran’s territorial waters will end Thursday. Hakimi says the exercise is called “Amniat e Paydar” - or “Sustainable Security” in Farsi. The admiral says that the maneuver is aimed at improving the readiness of Iranian naval forces. Iran routinely holds land and sea maneuvers, including in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, where ships carrying one fifth of the world’s oil supply pass through. Iran, Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan all claim different portions of the Caspian Sea.

Operations Command are not part of the same department.

The Archives was not aware of any request from the US Special Operations Command to transfer its records to the CIA, spokeswoman Miriam Kleiman said. She said it was the Archives’ understanding that the military records belonged to the CIA, so transferring them wouldn’t have required permission under US rules. Other rules from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff dictate that records about military operations and planning are to be considered permanent and after 25 years, following a declassification review, transferred to the National Archives.

Also, the Federal Records Act would not permit agencies “to purge records just on a whim,” said Dan Metcalfe, who oversaw the US government’s compliance with the Freedom of Information Act as former director of the Justice Department’s Office of Information and Privacy. “I don’t think there’s an exception allowing an agency to say, ‘Well, we didn’t destroy it. We just deleted it here after transmitting it over there.’ High-level officials ought to know better.”

It was not immediately clear exactly which Defense Department records were purged and transferred, when it happened or under what authority, if any, they were sent to the CIA. No government agencies the AP contacted would

discuss details of the transfer. The AP asked for files about the mission in more than 20 separate requests, mostly submitted in May 2011 - several were sent a day after President Barack Obama announced that the world’s most wanted terrorist had been killed in a firefight. Obama has pledged to make his administration the most transparent in US history.

McRaven’s unusual order would have remained secret had it not been mentioned in a single sentence on the final page in the inspector general’s draft report that examined whether the Obama administration gave special access to Hollywood executives planning a film, “Zero Dark Thirty,” about the raid. The draft report was obtained and posted online last month by the Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit watchdog group in Washington.

McRaven described steps he took to protect the identities of the SEALs after the raid, directing that their names and photographs not be released. “This effort included purging the combatant command’s systems of all records related to the operation and providing these records to another government agency,” according to the draft report.

The sentence was dropped from the report’s final version.

Current and former Defense Department officials knowl-

edgeable about McRaven’s directive and the inspector general’s report told AP the description of the order in the draft report is accurate. The reference to “another government agency” was code for the CIA, they said. These individuals spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter by name. The Defense Department told the AP in March 2012 it could not locate any photographs or video taken during the raid or showing bin Laden’s body. It also said it could not find any images of bin Laden’s body on the USS Carl Vinson, the aircraft carrier from which he was buried at sea. The Pentagon also said it could not find any death certificate, autopsy report or results of DNA identification tests for bin Laden, or any pre-raid materials discussing how the government planned to dispose of bin Laden’s body if he were killed. It said it searched files at the Pentagon, Special Operations Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla., and the Navy command in San Diego that controls the Carl Vinson. The Pentagon also refused to confirm or deny the existence of helicopter maintenance logs and reports about the performance of military gear used in the raid. One of the stealth helicopters that carried the SEALs in Pakistan crashed during the mission and its wreckage was left behind.-—AP

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

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

Syrian rebels expect advanced weapons from Saudi ISTANBUL: The new head of the opposition Syrian National Coalition said he expected advanced weapons supplied by Saudi Arabia to reach rebel fighters soon, strengthening their currently weak military position. Ahmad Jarba, who has close links to Saudi Arabia said in his first interview since being elected president of the coalition on Saturday that the opposition would not go to a proposed peace conference in Geneva sponsored by the United States and Russia unless its military fortunes improve.

“Geneva in these circumstances is not possible. If we are going to go to Geneva we have to be strong on the ground, unlike the situation now, which is weak,” Jarba said on Sunday after returning from the northern Syrian province of Idlib, where he met commanders of rebel brigades. Asked if shoulder-fired weapons that could blunt President Bashar AlAssad’s massive advantage in armor and air power would reach the rebels after Saudi

Arabia took a lead role in supporting the opposition in recent weeks, Jarba said: “We are pushing in this direction.”“I think the situation is better than before. I think these weapons will arrive in Syria soon,” he said.

“My priority (is) to secure two-tier support for the Syrian people: military and humanitarian. We are working on getting advanced and medium-range weapons to the Free Syrian army and the liberated areas,” he added. Jarba offered Assad’s forces a truce for the duration of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins on Tuesday, to stop fighting in the besieged city of Homs, where Sunni Muslim rebels face a ferocious ground and air onslaught by Hezbollah-backed troops and militias loyal to Assad. There has been no indication that the government is ready to accept such a truce.

Homs, 140 km north of Damascus, is situated at a strategic crossing linking the capital with army bases in coastal regions controlled

by Assad’s Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam that has dominated majority Sunni Syria since the 1960s. Assad’s forces have been seeking to establish an axis linking the capital to the Alawite coast. The city also links Damascus and the coast with Hezbollah strongholds in neighboring Lebanon. “We are staring at a real humanitarian disaster in Homs. Assad, whose military machine was on the verge of defeat, has been propped up by Iran and its Hezbollah proxy,” Jarba said.

LEADERSHIP OVERHAUL The coalition’s meeting over the weekend resulted in an overhaul of its leadership and a power shift in favour of a Saudi-backed wing, which defeated in a series of elections a faction effectively headed by Mustafa alSabbagh, a businessman who is Qatar’s point man. Jarba won with a razor-thin margin in a runoff ballot against Sabbagh. But the Sabbagh faction suffered a rout in elections

late on Sunday for a new coalition politburo.

Born in the northeastern Syrian province of Hasaka, which is inhabited by Arabs and Kurds, 44-year-old Jarba belongs to Shammar, a large Arab tribe that extends into Saudi Arabia and Iraq. He was a political prisoner for two years in the 1990s.

He was also arrested during the uprising against four decades of family rule by Assad and his late father, which erupted in March 2011. Jarba fled to Saudi Arabia, a Sunni state that is leading support for the Syrian opposition and backed Jarba against Qatar’s Sabbagh. During his time in Saudi Arabia, Jarba joined the Syrian National Coalition and worked on refugee relief work and later military aid for the rebels. He is close to Michel Kilo, a Christian opposition campaigner who has spearheaded efforts by the Sunni-led opposition to garner the support of minority groups fearful of an Islamist takeover.

Saddam’s half brother Hassan dies of cancer

Jordan lawyer asks court to release Abu Qatada on bail

25 dead as violence rocks Iraq BAGHDAD: Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s half-brother and intelligence chief, Sabawi Ibrahim Al-Hassan, died of cancer in a Baghdad hospital yesterday, the justice ministry said. Hassan, who was captured in 2005, had been sentenced to death for “murder and crimes against the Iraqi people,” justice ministry spokesman Wissam Al-Fraiji said in a statement announcing his death. Hassan had been transferred from prison to hospital after his condition worsened, Fraiji said. He was not the only ailing member of Saddam’s regime in custody in Iraq.

Tareq Aziz, a deputy premier under Saddam and one of the dictator’s close confidants, has been in prison since surrendering in April 2003, days after the fall of Baghdad in the US-led invasion of Iraq. His family has repeatedly called for his release on health grounds, particularly after he suffered a heart attack in late 2007. Aziz himself has requested that his death sentence for “deliberate murder and crimes against humanity” be carried out. Other officials from Saddam’s regime have already been put to death, including the dictator himself, who was executed on December 30, 2006.

RAGING VIOLENCE In another development, two days of violence in Iraq killed 25 people, including six family members shot dead while returning from a wedding, police officers and doctors said yesterday. The deadliest attack yesterday hit north Iraq, where a car bomb south of the city of Mosul

Sabawi Ibrahim Al-Hassan killed six people, including three children, and wounded eight. A car bomb in the city also killed one person and wounded four. In Madain, south of Baghdad, a bomb exploded near a football field inside a sports club yesterday, killing at least five people.

And gunmen attacked a checkpoint on a highway in northern Iraq, sparking clashes that killed three anti-AlQaeda fighters and two militants. The anti-Al-Qaeda fighters, known as Sahwa, are a collection of Sunni tribal militias that turned against Al-Qaeda and sided with

‘WILL NOT REST’ “I will not rest until I procure the advanced weapons needed to hit back at Assad and his allies. ... I give myself one month to achieve what I am intent on doing,” Jarba said. After meeting a delegation from Homs, Jarba donated $250,000 of his own money to support humanitarian relief efforts in the city. Activists who met Jarba said the remaining rebellious Sunni neighborhoods in Homs could fall in days.

Jarba was speaking in Istanbul after a meeting of the Syrian National Coalition, which has little physical presence in Syria and little influence over militant Islamist brigades that play a major role in the fight against Assad’s forces. More than 90,000 people since have been killed since March 2011, making the Syrian revolt the bloodiest of the Arab Spring uprisings against entrenched dictators. —Reuters

the US military from late 2006 onwards, helping turn the tide against Iraq’s bloody insurgency. The militiamen are regarded as traitors by Sunni militants and are frequently targeted in attacks. On Sunday night, gunmen killed a policeman, his father, his wife and three children as they drove south of Baghdad on their way back from a wedding.

And armed men shot dead two police in an attack on a checkpoint in Tikrit, north of the capital. With the latest violence, over 185 people have been killed in unrest in the first eight days of July-far more than in the whole month of December, according to AFP figures based on security and medical sources. Iraq has seen a surge in violence since the beginning of the year, coinciding with ongoing protests in the Sunni Arab community that analysts and diplomats say have boosted recruitment to Sunni militant groups and given them room to maneuver.

The country is also struggling with a political deadlock and months-long protests by its Sunni Arab minority. Iraqi political leaders have vowed to resolve outstanding disputes, with Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki meeting with his two main rivals last month in a bid to ease tensions, but no tangible measures have been announced. Analysts and diplomats worry that the standoff, which is often linked to levels of violence, is unlikely to be resolved at least until general elections due next year. —Agencies

AMMAN: The lawyer of Islamist cleric Abu Qatada, who pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges in Jordan following his deportation from Britain, said he applied yesterday for his client’s release on bail.

I applied to the state security court to release Abu Qatada on bail,” Taysir Diab said. “The court said it will examine my request and decide after 48 hours,” he said without elaborating. Jordanian military prosecutors charged Abu Qatada on Sunday with “conspiracy to carry out terrorist acts,” just hours after his deportation from Britain.

He pleaded not guilty and was remanded in custody for 15 days in the Muwaqqar prison, a maximum security facility built in 2007 that houses 1,100 inmates, most of them Islamists convicted of terrorism offences. No date has yet been set for trial. Abu Qatada, 53, was condemned to death in absentia in 1999 for conspiracy to carry out terror attacks, including on the American school in Amman, but the sentence was immediately commuted to life imprisonment with hard labor.

In 2000, he was sentenced in his absence to 15 years for plotting to carry out terror attacks on tourists in Jordan during millennium celebrations. Jordanian law gives him the right to a retrial with him present in the dock. Britain’s expulsion of the Palestinian-born preacher ended a decade-long legal battle after Amman and London last month ratified a Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters, guaranteeing that evidence obtained by torture would not be used in his retrial. He was born Omar Mahmud Mohammed Otman in Bethlehem in the now Israeli-occupied West Bank, which was part of Jordan at the time of his birth. —AFP

The Egypt rebel who ‘owns’ Tahrir Square CAIRO: Mahmoud Badr “owns” the Egyptian street. The 28-year-old activist in sneakers, jeans and a worn-out polo shirt invented the magic formula that drew millions of Egyptians out to demand the overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. Now he is determined to ensure all their demands are met.

On the day the army stepped in to remove Morsi last week, Badr and his two twenty-something co-founders of the “Tamarud - Rebel!” movement got a phone call from a general staff colonel, inviting them to meet the armed forces commander-inchief. Speaking to Reuters in a bare suburban high-rise apartment lent to his protest movement by an obscure political party, Badr said it was their first contact of any sort with the military.

They had to borrow a car to drive unwashed and unshaven - to military intelligence headquarters, where they were ushered into a room with generals, a grand sheikh, the Coptic pope, a senior judge and political opposition leaders. Far from being overawed, Badr was soon arguing with General Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi about the military’s roadmap for a political transition, and rejecting his suggestion that Morsi should call a referendum on his continued rule.

Millions of people were demonstrating for the recall of the president, not for a referendum, the activist told Sisi. “I tell you, sir, you may be the general commander of the Egyptian army but the Egyptian people are your supreme commander, and they are immediately ordering you to side with their will and call an early presidential election,” he said. The general surrendered. A bunch of kids in T-shirts had changed the course of the Arab world’s most populous nation by mobilizing mass protests against the ruling Muslim Brotherhood, then threatening to turn on anyone who resists their demands.

“We own the streets because we stand with the people and the will of the people, and we will always do so,” Badr said. Like many activists of the Facebook generation, he cut his political teeth in the uprising that toppled veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

He started working as a journalist and voted for Mursi a year ago but became disillusioned.

He told the generals that if they opted for a half-way solution, they would be lost. If they stuck to the referendum idea, he and his movement would walk out.

“I don’t have a blank cheque from the people,” he told Sisi. “People signed Tamarud’s petition for an early presidential election so I can’t go out and tell them anything else. “If you are worried about the Brotherhood’s reaction, they will also refuse a referendum, so in that case you will lose both sides. Win the Egyptian people!” A senior military source confirmed that Sisi

dropped the idea of a referendum in deference to Tamarud’s argument.

WINNERS NEVER QUIT Badr, who is not shy of saying he has presidential ambitions in the long term, was elated by his sudden power. “The idea that you are drawing the political map of your country that we believe is the most important nation in the Arab world is so great,” he said. A sign pinned on the wall proclaims: “Winners never quit, and quitters never win.” It seems hard to believe that two young journalists and a student, armed only with laptops and mobile phones, succeeded in two months in launching a mass movement where Egypt’s divided opposition parties had struggled to gain any traction. Badr put it down to sheer hard work that he, Mohamed Abdelaziz, 28, and Hassan Shahin, 23, had put in.

“No one did what we did,” he said. “Most groups held conferences or at most a protest

Tamarud activist who spoke to Reuters said she resigned three days before the giant protest because she was concerned that the secret police and former Mubarak supporters were infiltrating the movement.

“Suddenly, the faces had changed,” said B.A., who asked not to give her full name for fear of retribution from the security services.

“Many of the people I’d worked with left, and some of the new faces I knew were felul (remnants), nostalgic for Mubarak, or justifying the work of state security.” The Amn Dowla state security agency, which detained and tortured dissidents under Mubarak, especially Islamists, is widely hated and feared. Formally dissolved after the 2011 uprising, it was renamed and remains mostly intact.

Muslim Brotherhood leaders have alleged that former Mubarak cronies and secret policemen funded and encouraged Tamarud.

Ahmed Shafik, Mubarak’s last prime minister and a former air force general now living in

CAIRO: An Egyptian walks past a poster of ousted President Mohammed Morsi in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt yesterday. —AP in downtown Cairo, but we toured the country and went without sleep for days so we will not give up, and we will continue inshallah (God willing).” Tamarud activists scoured towns and villages collecting signatures on a red-printed petition demanding the recall of Morsi. They say they got 22 million signatures with names, signatures and national identity numbers, nine million more than the electors who voted to elect the president. No one has checked the numbers, but they invited the United Nations to send observers to verify the petitions.

QUITTERS NEVER WIN As the movement grew and called for mass demonstration on June 30, the first anniversary of Morsi’s inauguration, new, less familiar recruits permeated its branches. One

Abu Dhabi and accused publicly by Morsi of pulling strings behind sabotage in Egypt, says he was in close touch with the protesters. He predicted on July 1 that Morsi’s reign would end within a week and said he was “in continuous coordination with colleagues in Cairo”.

WHISTLES AND RED CARDS Badr shrugged off any suggestion that he, or his movement, could have been manipulated by Shafik or covert forces. Other groups might have jumped on the bandwagon, but Tamarud remained in the driver’s seat, he said. Activists noted that while the Brotherhood provided transportation, food and drink for their supporters, sitting in outside a suburban Cairo mosque, the Tahrir Square crowds were given only whistles and red cards to “send Morsi off”. —Reuters

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

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

Battles intensify in Syria strategic city Elderly shoplifters outstrip teenagers TOKYO: The number of elderly people caught shoplifting in Japan’s capital city has outstripped that of teenagers for the first time since records began, a report said yesterday. A quarter of the people arrested on suspicion of the crime in Tokyo last year were at least 65 years old, figures showed, amid warnings of increasing isolation in the age group. “Even though the total number of arrests for shoplifting has been declining, the ratio of elderly people are on the rise,” a Tokyo Metropolitan Police spokesman said.

“Our survey shows that elderly shoplifters tend to be lonely, having no one to talk to, and having no hobby to enjoy,” he said. Statistics showed 3,321 people aged 65 or older were arrested for shoplifting, accounting for 24.5 percent of the total, while those aged 19 or younger made up 23.6 percent, with 3,195 individual arrests. Both figures are slightly down in absolute terms from 2011, the spokesman said. It was the first time since comparable data had been collected that the elderly made up a higher proportion of suspected thieves, the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper reported.

Around a quarter of Japan’s 128 million population is aged 65 or older, and the country has a far-below replacement birthrate of an average 1.39 children for every woman. There are regular reports of bodies lying unfound for weeks or even months after a single, elderly person has died alone. Commentators say the phenomenon is a result of the fraying of familial ties as Japan has modernized. A government survey last week found 3.5 million elderly women and 1.4 million elderly men live alone. — AFP

Homs links capital with army bases on the coast BEIRUT: Syrian forces fought with rebel groups in the central city of Homs yesterday in a battle seen as crucial to the government’s attempts to divide rebels and carve out links between the capital and President Bashar Al-Assad’s coastal strongholds. Assad’s forces have been on the offensive in Homs for ten days, hitting neighborhoods over-run by rebels in central parts of the city with air strikes, mortar bombs and tanks. Rebels control much of northern Syria but have been on the back foot against Assad’s army since it retook Qusair last month, a town in Homs province and near the border with Lebanon, where victory marked a change in the government’s fortunes.

The newly elected head of the opposition Syrian National Coalition told Reuters that the rebel’s military position was weak and proposed a truce for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins today, to stop fighting in Homs. There was no sign that the government in Damascus, with its forces now grinding out advances following setbacks earlier in the war, was ready to accept such a ceasefire. “We are staring at a real humanitarian disaster in Homs,” said Ahmad Jarba, who was elected on Saturday.

He said he expected advanced weapons supplied by Saudi Arabia, the main opposition backer, to reach rebel fighters soon and strengthen their position on the ground. The Syrian National Coalition, a largely exile group, has little influence on rebel units on the ground in Syria. That could change if it succeeds in facilitating the supply of sophisticated weapons to the opposition, whose fighters say they need shoulder-launched missiles to take on Assad’s air force.

Syria’s two-year revolt began as peaceful protests but, under a fierce security force crackdown, degenerated into civil war. The conflict has killed more than 100,000 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group, says. Homs, 140 km nor th of Damascus, is situated at a strategic crossing linking the capital with army bases in coastal regions controlled by Assad’s Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam that has dominated majority Sunni Syria since the 1960s.

Assad is trying to cement control of this

HOMS: Black smoke rises from buildings damaged by Syrian government airstrikes and shelling in Homs, Syria. — AP belt of territory, a move which could sever the north and south of the country, areas where rebels have a foothold. The United States and Sunni Gulf countries say they are backing the opposition but Assad has made significant gains in recent months with military and financial support from Russia and Shiite Iran. Fighters from Lebanon’s Shiite militant group Hezbollah have also played a significant role in helping Assad recapture border towns from Sunni rebels.

CONSTANT BOMBARDMENT The Syrian state news agency SANA quoted a military source as saying that the army had killed “terrorists” - a word state media uses for insurgents - in several areas of Homs yesterday, including the Old City district of Bab Hood and some satellite

towns around the country’s third largest city. The Observatory said that Bab Hood and the Al-Safsafa district were being hit with heavy artillery, mortar bombs and tank fire, resulting in several injuries. “ Violent clashes took place yesterday morning between rebels and army forces,” the Observatory said in an email. It did not give casualty figures, which are hard to confirm due to media and security restrictions.

A local physician working in Homs with displaced families said she had heard constant bombardment over the past few days. “What can we say? We’ve gotten so used to it we don’t even want to think about it. God protects us,” she said over the phone on condition of anonymity from the central neighborhood on Inshaat. Video uploaded by an activist group in Homs

showed smoke billowing from damaged buildings and the near-constant echo of gunfire and explosions ringing through the narrow streets.

The 13th-century Khalid ibn Al-Walid mosque, a prominent central landmark, could be seen in the footage. Like many of Syria’s historical treasures, the mosque, with its silver-coloured domes, has been badly damaged. The United Nations has expressed alarm at conditions in Homs, Syria’s third largest city, saying last week that between 2,500 and 4,000 civilians were trapped there amid shortages of food, water, medicine, electricity and fuel.

Homs city was the epicenter of protests at the start of the revolt and the armed insurgency. Many districts have fallen in and out of government control during the past two years. — Reuters

Israel jails Arab citizen who briefly joined Syria’s rebels 30-month sentence in unprecedented case JERUSALEM: Israel sentenced an Arab citizen to 30 months’ imprisonment yesterday for endangering national security by briefly joining Syrian rebels fighting to topple President Bashar AlAssad. Hikmat Massarwa’s case was unprecedented, and the relatively light penalty handed down to him as part of a plea bargain reflected Israel’s indecision about who - if anyone - to back in its northern neighbor’s civil war.

Massarwa was arrested on March 19 upon returning via

Turkey from Syria, where he had spent a week at a rebel base. Israeli prosecutors accused him of undergoing small-arms training by radical Islamists there who asked him to carry out a suicide attack in Israel - although, by all accounts, he declined.

Those charges carried a maximum 15-year jail term. But prosecutors appeared unable, from the outset, to throw the book at Massarwa because of Israeli haziness about the Syria crisis. “There’s no legal guidance regarding the rebel groups fighting in Syria,” Judge Avraham Yaakov said at a session of the trial at Lod district court, south of Tel Aviv, in May. Massarwa, a 29-year-old baker, at first denied wrongdoing, saying he had gone to Syria to seek a brother missing since joining the insurgency. He also argued that the Western-backed antiAssad rebels should not be regarded as a danger to Israel.

But, changing tack yesterday, Massarwa confessed to unlawfully travelling to a hostile state and meeting what prosecutors designated a “foreign agent”. In turn, they dropped the count against him of illicitly receiving military training. Under the plea bargain, Massarwa acknowledged his actions “had potential to threaten the security of the state of Israel”.

Technically at war with Syria, Israel enjoyed decades of stable ceasefire while the Assad family ruled unchallenged in Syria. It fears that, if Damascus falls to the Islamist-dominated rebels, jihadis among them will have a Syrian springboard for striking at the Jewish state. Such concern has been stoked in recent months by Syrian gunfire and shelling into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, incidents in which Israel has routinely shot back.

Israel took the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war. Arabs, most of them Muslim, make up around 20 percent of Israel’s population.

They seldom take up arms with its enemies. Yet some Israeli officials privately described Massarwa’s trial as a bid to deter other Arab citizens from going to Syria and possibly acquiring the Islamist agenda and fighting savvy that could drive them to turn to violence once back home. —Reuters

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

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

Pope Francis commemorates dead migrants at Lampedusa Pope condemns global indifference to refugees LAMPEDUSA: Pope Francis called for an end to worldwide indifference to the plight of refugees yesterday on a visit to an Italian island where tens of thousands of migrants from Africa and the Middle East reach Europe.

“We ask forgiveness for the indifference towards so many brothers and sisters,” Francis said in his homily at a mass near the fishing harbor on his first trip outside of Rome since his election in March.

Speaking within sight of dozens of

the abandoned boats used by the migrants, he paid tribute to the hundreds who drown every year trying to reach Europe and said he had come to Lampedusa “to reawaken consciences”. “The culture of well-being makes us think about ourselves, renders us insensitive to the cries of others,” he said, urging “brotherly responsibility” and condemning a “globalization of indifference”.

The pope celebrated mass with a cross and a chalice made from the

wood of the rickety boats that migrants typically arrive on, mainly from Libya and Tunisia. The altar was also fashioned from a fishing boat.

The Catholic leader earlier boarded a coast guard boat and cast a wreath of white and yellow chrysanthemumsthe colour of the Vatican flag-into the water. Surrounded by dozens of fishing boats and yachts, the pope solemnly made the sign of the cross over the sea in a spot where one of many drownings occurred.

LAMPEDUSA: Pope Francis celebrates a Mass during his visit to the island of Lampedusa, Italy. —AP Francis also met with a group of around 50 recent arrivals, many of them Eritreans, telling them: “We will pray for those who are no longer with us.” One of the young men, who wore tracksuits and white baseball caps, told him: “We suffered a lot reaching this calm place but now we have to stay in Italy. We would like other European countries to help us.”

Under European Union rules, asylumseekers have to stay in the country they first arrive in and unaccompanied minors are often stuck on Lampedusa for months at a time awaiting relocation.

LAMPEDUSA: Faithful and fishermen escort Pope Francis’ boat (front) as the pontiff leaves the port to cast a wreath into the sea off Lampedusa island, a key destination of tens of thousands of wouldbe immigrants from Africa, during his visit yesterday. —AFP

‘INHUMAN AND UNACCEPTABLE’ In tune with the new pope’s informal style, the visit had less of the pomp customary for papal visits.

There were no meetings with politicians or high-ranking clergy, and the pope used a Fiat car on loan from a local inhabitant as a “popemobile”. The visit was announced only last week, unlike past papal trips arranged months in advance. Just hours before he touched down, the latest boat carrying 166 migrants landed on Lampedusa. Another migrant boat was reported by Italian coast guard to be in difficulty just off Libyan shores.

Cardinal Antonio Maria Veglio, head of the Vatican’s migrant department, said he hoped the visit would prompt “concrete concern and solidarity to improve situations that have become inhuman and unacceptable”. The pope also paid tribute to the local population-a fishing community of 6,000 on an island of 20 square kilometers - for the assistance and tolerance they had shown to the boat people. “May your example be a beacon for the world as a whole to have the courage to welcome those who are looking for a better life,” the pope said after the mass.

Lampedusa has seen an increase in arrivals in recent weeks, with around 4,000 arriving so far this yearthree times more than during the same period in 2012. But the numbers are still far from the peaks reached in 2011 as maritime border controls disintegrated during the Arab Spring revolts in north Africa.

Since 1999, more than 200,000 people have arrived on Lampedusamaking the island one of biggest gateways for undocumented migration into Europe.

Responding to the pope’s words, Matteo Salvini from Italy’s anti-immigration Northern League party said he was against a “globalization of illegal immigration”. But Laura Boldrini, speaker of the Italian parliament and a former UN official on refugee issues, said coordination of rescues at sea “should be improved”. “Rescuing them is a legal and ethical duty,” she said in an interview with Rai public television. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that 40 people have died so far in 2013 - most by drowning-trying to cross from north Africa, while around 500 were reported dead or missing in 2012. —AFP

TORNADIZOS DE AVILA: A civil guard climbs down from a wrecked bus after an accident in central Spain yesterday. Spanish police say the bus swerved off the road and crashed killing nine people and injuring 21 others. —AP

Spanish bus careens off road killing nine TORNADIZOS DE AVILA: A bus carrying more than 30 passengers careened off a central Spanish highway and ploughed into a metal safety barrier yesterday, killing nine people in an impact that blew out windows and tore away one side of the vehicle. Another 22 people were injured, five of them seriously, when the bus came off the road as it travelled downhill on a winding road near Avila northwest of Madrid, trapping several passengers in the wreckage, emergency services said.

The blue single-decker bus, which carried the markings of a private company, Cevesa, ended up nearly on one side, a buckled safety barrier preventing it from sliding further down a slope by the road. Windows on the entire right-hand side of the bus were torn away and the buckled frames left exposed. The broken windscreen hung open like a curtain. “Nine people have died and 22 have been injured,” said a statement by the emergency services for the region of Castile and Leon. A dozen ambulances, two medical helicopters and teams of firefighters converged on the scene. Six bodies lay on the N-403 road, covered in white sheets or shiny gold and silver foil.

Emergency services workers in black helmets and tunics carried one person away on a stretcher. Shocked passengers sat on the kerb nearby, some being comforted by first aid personnel. A female rescuer in white shirt and bright-orange vest could be seen placing a neck brace on a man lying on a yellow stretcher on the roadside, images relayed on Spanish media showed. The bus had been heading to the provincial capital Avila from the province’s southern town of Serranillos and was less than 10 kilometers from its destination when disaster struck at about 8:45

am (0645 GMT). “It came off the road for unknown reasons,” said the central government representative for Avila, Ramiro Ruiz Medrano.

“They are investigating the possible causes at the moment,” Medrano told Spanish public radio.

“There are some with very serious injuries, others are in shock,” he said. The driver was uninjured, Medrano said, though Spanish media said he was in shock. The vehicle’s insurance papers and road worthiness certificates were in order, he added.

The injured were taken to hospitals in Avila for treatment or to be checked, emergency services said. One six-year-old girl was flown about 100 kilometers by helicopter to a major hospital in Salamanca. “She is stable but they have to examine her for trauma to the brain,” the mother, who was not named, told Spanish public radio. A team of psychologists was comforting the victims’ families, who were taken to the Avila sports stadium. A tow-truck later carted away the ruined shell of the bus. Nearby, police directed traffic and searched in the long grass beside the road where the metal barrier lay squashed.

It was the deadliest bus accident since April 2008 when nine Finnish tourists were killed in a crash in southern Spain’s Andalusia region. That accident was blamed on a drunken, speeding driver of a four-wheel-drive car who tried to overtake but hit the safety barrier and then collided with the bus. In the last major bus accident in Spain on July 31, 2009, six Dutch tourists were killed and 39 injured when their bus overturned on a motorway curve near the northeastern city of Barcelona. More recently, a dozen German tourists were injured August 11, 2011 when their tourist bus hit a wall in Manacor on the Balearic Island of Mallorca. —AFP

Cypriots await landmark munitions blast verdict LARNACA: A Cyprus criminal court will decide today whether six senior officials were responsible for the island’s worst peacetime disaster in which seized Iranian munitions blew up, killing 13 people on July 11, 2011. The officials, who include then foreign minister Marcos Kyprianou and then defence minister Costas Papacostas, pleaded not guilty to manslaughter charges in connection with the killer blast at Mari naval base on the island’s south coast.

Manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of life in prison in Cyprus. The six defendants also face charges of causing death through negligence, dereliction of duty and acts which caused bodily harm, in connection with the explosion that also took out the island’s main power station, crippling the economy. It is said to be the first time in the island’s legal history that so many senior officials have faced such serious charges.

“It is my hope that the court’s decision will serve justice where it is deserved,” Justice Minister Ionas Nicolaou said at a Mari memorial service on Sunday. “Although we don’t want people wrongly convicted, we obviously want those who are at fault to be punished, even those who are politically accountable but who still failed to take responsibility for what happened,” he added. A three-judge bench at the criminal court sitting in the south coast resort of Larnaca is scheduled to deliver its verdict today almost two years to the day after the explosion.

The other defendants are army deputy commander Savvas Argyrou, fire chief Andreas Nicolaou, deputy fire chief Pambos Charalambous and the commander of the fire service’s disaster reaction unit, Andreas Loizides.

Originally eight people were due to stand trial but army Colonel George Georgiades had charges against him dropped, while former Cyprus army chief Petros Tsalikides has been charged in Greece because he could not be extradited.

During the lengthy trial, the prosecution sought to represent a picture of staggering incompetence and oversights that led to the disaster. A general malaise of shirking responsibility among those in authority was another major prosecution argument, while fire chiefs were accused of not telling firefighters on the ground what they were up against. A public inquir y found former president Demetris Christofias responsible for the explosion, but there was never any possibility of legal proceedings against him as the constitution gives

him immunity from prosecution.

Kyprianou, Papacostas and the army commander all resigned in the wake of the blast. The deputy commander was sacked. There was a public outcry after munitions stored at the naval base for almost three years, under searing heat in summer, exploded despite repeated warnings that they were unsafe. Angry Cypriots used social networking sites and texting to organize street protests against what they perceived as government negligence in not preventing the accident. Some 98 containers were piled up unprotected at the base, just 150 meters from the island’s biggest power station at Vassiliko.

They were seized in February 2009 when Cyprus intercepted a Cypriotflagged freighter bound from Iran for Syria and a UN sanctions committee said the cargo contravened a ban on Iranian arms shipments. Christofias said the decision to keep the weapons on the island was “correct” and refused to step down despite the demands of protesters that he quit. The public inquiry said the munitions were kept in Cyprus to placate Syria and Iran in a

risky diplomatic game.

Hitherto good Cyprus relations with Iran and Syria were strained by the incident. The loss of the power plant led to rolling daily power cuts and, as Cyprus withered under scorching summer temperatures, authorities had to import generators from Israel and Greece while seeking EU crisis funds. The disruption crippled the island’s economy with many arguing that the cost-estimated at three billion euros-sowed the seeds of the debt crisis that forced the government to submit a request the following year for a bailout by international creditors.

The deal the government eventually struck in March this year for emergency loans worth 10 billion euros required Cyprus to levy an unprecedented 13 billion euro levy on larger deposits in the island’s two biggest banks.

Christofias refused to step down but his plummeting popularity probably lay behind decision not to seek re-election earlier this year. Burning containers with 400 tons of gunpowder triggered an estimated 1.5 megaton blast that damaged 730 homes and businesses. —AFP

Britain’s royal baby faces succession legal wrangle LONDON: Britain’s new royal baby will be third in line to the throne but a legal wrangle in the Commonwealth is holding up new law ensuring that a female heir cannot be overtaken by a younger brother. Prince William and his wife Catherine’s baby, due this month, will be born directly in line to become king or queen, after Queen Elizabeth II’s eldest son Prince Charles, and then William, his eldest son. Ending male primogeniture had been talked about for decades but William and Kate’s wedding in April 2011 jolted governments into action to ensure that if the couple’s first-born is a girl, its gender could not keep it from the throne.

The premiers of Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the 12 other countries where Queen Elizabeth reigns reached agreement in principle at the last Commonwealth summit in October 2011. The law change must be unanimous and identical in each country to avoid ending up with different monarchs in different states. It can only come into effect when all the realms have ratified it.

But the process is not proving as straightforward as had been hoped, with challenges thrown up by Quebec in Canada and Queensland in Australia. “It’s a pretty complicated operation in which 16 countries in all have to change their law or their constitution,” Robert Hazell, director of the Constitution Unit at University College London said. “What the British government hopes is that the other countries may have changed their laws by the end of this year or at the latest over the next 12 months, but it’s taken them a long time already,” he said.

“If they had a girl and then a boy and if the new law had not been brought into effect, then the boy would be next in line to the throne, so it’s not secured yet.” But if and when it is passed, then the legislation will be backdated to apply from the 2011 Commonwealth summit agreement onwards. “It’s not a race against time,” said a spokesman for Britain’s Cabinet Office ministry.

“All the realms agreed that they would do this.” In French-speaking Quebec the issue is a court challenge to the way that the Canadian parliament passed a law to agree to the succession changes, rather than a problem with the changes themselves. —AFP

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

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

Both sides eye Clinton as she seeks right balance WASHINGTON: Hillary Rodham Clinton is trying to strike the right balance between staying out of the daily political maelstrom and setting herself up for a possible second presidential run. But her fans and foes are making that difficult.

Nearly six months after departing the State Department, Clinton finds herself in the middle of an early effort by both parties to prepare for her return to politics even as she keeps to a schedule of highly paid private speeches, work on her book and her family ’s global foundation.

Clinton has not said whether she’ll seek the White House in 2016 but grassroots activists are already at work on a super political action committee called Ready for Hillary, which has rallied local supporters, started a fundraising campaign and rolled out prominent endorsements.

Republicans, meanwhile, vow to dissect her work during the Obama administration - including last year’s deadly assault on the US diplomatic mission in Benghazi - and use the former first lady as a fundraising tool. The efforts to define Clinton, who carries the scars of being seen as an inevitable president during her 2008 campaign against Barack Obama, underscore her tricky balancing act. If she acts too political, the strong approval ratings built up from her globetrotting, above-the-fray role as secretary of state could suffer. If she allows the presidential talk to become too loud, she might get stuck with the inevitable nominee tag, making her vulnerable to a liber-

al upstart in a Democratic primary.

Yet if she avoids the limelight too much, she might create an opening for another Democrat to emerge or allow the steady criticism from Republicans for her tenure at State to sully her image.

Republicans are in the early stages of an effort to chip away at her record at the State Department. American Crossroads, the GOP group tied to Republican strategist Karl Rove, released a web video in May that suggested Clinton was less than truthful in the Benghazi case, an episode they noted happened “all under Hillary Clinton’s watch.” An independent review last year blamed the State Department for inadequate security but largely absolved Clinton of wrongdoing.

Separately, American Rising, a Republican super political action committee led by Matt Rhoades, who served as Republican Mitt Romney’s campaign manager, created the Stop Hillary PAC and has been raising money off a potential Clinton campaign. One email request, from Ted Harvey, a Colorado state senator and co-founder of the group, warned that “massive forces are aligning to begin a coronation of ‘President Hillary’.”

Republicans say they would be remiss to give Clinton the time to quietly build a campaign behind-the-scenes without scrutinizing her record. “You have to play by the rules of the game. That’s what was done to Mitt Romney and other candidates,” said Danny Diaz, a former adviser to Romney’s presidential campaign who

WASHINGTON: In this April 2, 2013 file photo, Vice President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton are seen. — AP is not involved with either group. “To operate under different sets of rules would be foolhardy.”

Ready for Hillary, meanwhile, has no official ties to Clinton. But the group is encouraging her to run and laying the groundwork for a future campaign.

Veterans of the Clinton White House like Craig T Smith and Harold Ickes are advising the group, which is building a net-

Snowden fate in balance, Cuba backs asylum bid Leaker begins third week in limbo MOSCOW: Fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden won support from Cuba for his bid to seek asylum in Latin America as he began his third week in limbo at a Moscow airport yesterday. Cuba, a key transit point from Russia on the way to Latin America, supported the leaders of Bolivia, Venezuela and Nicaragua, who have offered the 30-year-old a possible lifeline as he remains marooned without documents in the transit area of a Moscow airport.

“We support the sovereign rights of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and all the regional states to grant asylum to those who are being persecuted for their ideals or their fight for

democratic rights, in accordance with our traditions,” Cuban leader Raul Castro said on Sunday.

Speaking to Cuba’s national assembly, Castro did not say whether his country, which has been showing signs of mending ties with Washington, would itself offer refuge to Snowden. “If Raul Castro’s solidarity on #Snowden is serious, Cuba will publicly offer Snowden asylum,” antisecrecy organisation WikiLeaks said on Twitter.

Multiple obstacles continue to cloud the former National Security Agency contractor’s asylum hopes however and it remains unclear how he would be able to leave Russia, even if granted asylum by the three

Latin American countries.

The Nicaraguan embassy in Moscow yesterday confirmed it had received Snowden’s asylum application, but stressed it had not yet made any contact with the American. “We received a letter from Snowden,” the Nicaraguan embassador in Moscow, Luis Alberto Molina, told the Russian state news agency ITARTASS. “We forwarded it to Nicaragua so that the president can consider it.” The embassies of Bolivia and Venezuela said they were unaware of any developments that would help Snowden leave Sheremetyevo Airport.

The Kremlin yesterday reiterated it wanted to keep the Snowden affair at arm’s

MOSCOW: A man tries to photograph a supposed Aeroflot flight to Havana through a window of Sheremetyevo airport yesterday. — AP

length, declining to say how he could leave without a valid passport. “That’s not our business,” President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told AFP. “We are not saying anything.”

Snowden, who is seeking to evade US justice for leaking explosive details about a vast US electronic surveillance programme, caught the Kremlin off guard when he arrived in Russia from Hong Kong on June 23.

After the United States revoked his passport, Snowden, who has applied for asylum in 27 countries, has been unable to leave the Sheremetyevo transit zone.

The only flight for which Snowden was known to have been checked-in - a 12-hour Aeroflot flight to Havana - left on June 24 without the fugitive on board but with several dozen journalists in tow.

The Kremlin has been forced to perform a tough balancing act, saying it would not expel the US national but also stressing it did not want to damage ties with Washington ahead of Putin’s summit with US leader Barack Obama in early September. On Monday, the Kommersant daily, citing a source close to the US State Department, said Obama was unlikely to come to Moscow if Snowden was still stuck in the airport.

Peskov dismissed the report as “speculation”, and in Washington, National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan also said the report was false. “President Obama intends to travel to Russia in September,” Meehan said.

Even if Snowden receives a new passport or travel document and manages to board a flight to Latin America, there are no guarantees that his plane would not be grounded once it reaches European airspace, analysts say.

Bolivian President Evo Morales’s plane, flying home from a trip to Moscow last week, was forced to make an unscheduled stopover in Vienna after several European nations temporarily closed their airspace over groundless rumours that Snowden was aboard the jet. Putin said Snowden could remain in Russia as long as he stopped his leaks, a condition the Kremlin later said the American was not willing to honour.

“Bolivia and Venezuela, with their unstable governments, cannot guarantee him anything,” said security analyst Pavel Felgenhauer.

He said Snowden was increasingly vulnerable to pressure from Russian special services, which he said may strong-arm him into remaining in Russia and cooperating. —AFP

work of supporters online and holding local rallies outside Clinton speeches.

Ickes and former Rep Ellen Tauscher organized three finance briefings for donors and potential donors in New York in late June and the group will release its first fundraising report later this month, providing an early glimpse of its resources.

Some donors have privately

expressed concern with the focus on Clinton so early, even while other Democrats like Vice President Joe Biden and Maryland Gov Martin O’Malley are viewed as potential candidates. They said it could backfire and create an aura of inevitability for Clinton that hurt her last time. Smith said they were trying to address just the opposite.

“If it was inevitable there would be no need for us to do it at all,” Smith said. Yet some Democrats aren’t sold on the proposition. While Smith said he would have received a “red light” if the Clintons didn’t approve of the super PAC’s role he said he hasn’t heard anything negative - their effort is just getting off the ground and viewed with hesitation by some donors.

“I’d be surprised if many national donors want to spend the cash on a new grassroots organizing effort geared toward 2016 when we just raised $1 billion to create the best ground campaign in history,” said Wade Randlett, a major Obama donor based in California’s Silicon Valley. He said the Obama campaign offshoot, Organizing for Action, has been able to keep party activists engaged.

Clinton’s most ardent supporters, including her husband, caution that voters should not read too much into her activities. The former president said in May his wife was “having a little fun being a private citizen for the first time in 20 years” and said the constant speculation was “the worst expenditure of our time.” —AP

Mexico rivals dispute election MEXICO CITY: Mexico’s ruling party and the conservative opposition each declared victory in a key race for governor on Sunday after regional elections in 14 states that saw acts of violence and accusations of misdeeds.

The governor’s seat in Baja California state, held by the conservative National Action Party (PAN) opposition for the past 24 years, was the biggest prize in the regional polls and its result could affect a national reforms pact.

The state is significant in Mexican political history: When the PAN won the governorship in 1989, it broke decades of dominance by the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

Underscoring the importance of the results, the heads of both parties were in Tijuana, the bustling city bordering the United States, to declare victory minutes after polls closed. PRI chief Cesar Camacho said voters had “decided by a majority that their next governor will be Fernando Castro

Trenti.” Moments later, PAN president Gustavo Madero declared: “Our candidate (Francisco) ‘Kiko’ Vega is the next governor of Baja California.”

Defeat for the PAN would be another hard knock for the conservatives, which made history in 2000 when it won the presidency, ending the PRI’s 71-year dominance. The PAN however has faced intra-party fighting since losing the presidency last year. For the PRI, it would mark another big victory after President Enrique Pena Nieto ended the party’s 12-year absence from the nation’s highest office in July 2012.

Analysts say a Baja California defeat for the PAN could weaken Madero, who has faced dissent over his decision to sign a pact with the PRI and the leftist Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) to enact nationwide reforms. In turn, an end to the so-called Pact for Mexico could endanger a reform drive pushed by Pena Nieto. So far, the deal

has led to an overhaul of the education system and telecoms industry, and the president now hopes to breathe new life into the energy sector and reform the tax system. Some 32 million voters were eligible to cast ballots in 14 of 32 federal entities, with state legislatures and 931 of the country’s 2,440 municipalities on the line.

When he took office, Pena Nieto made two big promises: To break with the old ways of the PRI, which once rigged votes to hold on to power; and reduce drug violence that killed 70,000 during the six-year term of his predecessor, PAN party member Felipe Calderon.

But the country’s three main parties traded accusations of intimidation and corruption in various states during what turned out to be one of the most violent campaign seasons in recent years. A half-dozen candidates, politicians and relatives were killed in the run-up to the vote. —Reuters

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

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Myanmar Rohingya face limbo in Indonesia LHOKSEUMAWE, Indonesia: A group of Rohingya asylum-seekers from Myanmar prayed peacefully alongside Indonesians at a mosque in Sumatra, a sign of the solidarity they have found in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation after fleeing sectarian bloodshed. The members of the persecuted Muslim minority were still shaken after a gruelling, 25-day journey at sea, but were grateful to find themselves in a country where they felt at least a little at home, despite there being no chance of a normal life for them. “Indonesia, Muslim country, good,” said Muhammad Yunus, 25, in halting English, after praying at the immigration detention centre in the town of Lhokseumawe.

While the population at large is accepting of the increasing number of Rohingya arriving at Indonesia’s shores, authorities have not extended the same warm welcome. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has publicly expressed backing for the stateless minority, but Rohingya who make it to Indonesia can end up living in legal limbo for years. Buddhist-majority Myanmar views its population of roughly 800,000 Rohingya as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, and as sectarian violence in Myanmar has escalated in the past year they have fled in increasing numbers.

As other countries in Asia struggle to deal with them, the flow of Rohingya to Indonesia is increasing. After several incidents where Thailand was accused of pushing them back out to sea, 2,000 Rohingya landed earlier this year and have been detained in refugee camps.

Bangkok has said it is unable to accept

more, while Malaysia says it is reaching capacity. Most Rohingya do not initially view Indonesia as their final destination and hope to use it as a stopping point en route to Australia, where more than 220 have arrived on asylum seeker boats over the past year. Once in Indonesia, many Rohingya are held in prison-like deten-

LHOKSEUMAWE, Indonesia: In this photograph taken on April 11, 2013, an Indonesian soldier (left) joins a group of Rohingya asylum-seekers from Myanmar in prayers in a mosque at the immigration detention center in this town of Aceh province. — AFP

tion centres for long periods while their cases are processed. Those granted refugee status by the United Nations are considered the lucky ones but enjoy few rights as Indonesia has not signed a key UN convention on refugees. It will not accept them as permanent citizens and they cannot work or study as they wait to be resettled.

At a refugee housing complex in Medan on Sumatra, Rohana Fetikileh looks haunted as she contemplates the turmoil that has rocked the state of Rakhine, from where she fled in 2010.

Rakhine was the site of two outbreaks of deadly sectarian unrest between Rohingya and Buddhists in Myanmar last year. Since then, several further episodes of communal unrest across Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, have tempered international optimism about the country’s dramatic political reforms as it emerges from decades of military rule.

“If Indonesia accepted us, then we’d stay,” Fetikileh told AFP, clutching her 11month-old son in her arms as other refugee children played nearby. “As long as we can work and there is a future for our kids,” added the 28-year-old mother of four. Those given “Refugee” status are given some help from the United Nations: basic housing, schooling for their children and a 1.25 million rupiah ($128) monthly

allowance per person. But most refugees spend their days cooped up in basic community housing, with little to do. “We can’t do anything here,” said Zahid Husein, 26, who has been been waiting for resettlement more than 11 years, having passed through Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia. “We can’t study, if we want to go shopping we can’t... without being detained again,” he said.

With only 1.0 per cent of refugees globally ever resettled, according to UN data, prospects for Rohingya are bleak.

Australia had said it aimed to take around 600 refugees who are in Indonesia in the 12 months to June as part of the expansion of its humanitarian refugee programme, but that number does not include those who had come from Myanmar. Many make it to Australia by boarding rickety, wooden boats in Indonesia. Critics argue that Indonesia has failed to change its policies despite supportive rhetoric and the increasingly desperate state that the Rohingya are arriving in. Authorities have publicly backed the Rohingya on many occasions - Jakarta pledged $1 million to help those displaced in violence in Rakhine last year and president Yudhoyono raised the issue on a recent visit to Myanmar. —AFP There have also been growing signs of

Pilot of crashed Asiana jet was in 777 training Pilot made first landing at San Francisco in 777 SAN FRANCISCO/SEOUL: The pilot of the Asiana plane that crashed at San Francisco International Airport was still in training for the Boeing 777 when he attempted to land the aircraft under supervision on Saturday, the South Korean airline said. Lee Kang-kuk was the second most junior pilot of four on board the Asiana Airlines plane. He had 43 hours of experience flying the long-range jet, the airline said yesterday. The plane’s crew tried to abort the descent less than two seconds before it hit a seawall on the landing approach to the airport, bounced along the tarmac and burst into flames.

It was Lee’s first attempt to land a 777 at San Francisco airport, although he had flown there 29 times previously on other types of aircraft, said South Korean Transport Ministry official Choi Seung-youn. Earlier, the ministry said Lee, who is in his mid-40s, had almost 10,000 flying hours. Two teenage Chinese girls on their way to summer camp in the United States were killed and more than 180 people injured in the crash, the first fatal accident involving the Boeing 777

The plane crashed after the crew tried to abort the landing with less than two seconds to go, the US National Transportation Safety Board said. NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman said information collected from the plane’s cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder indicated there were no signs of problems until seven seconds before impact, when the crew tried to accelerate. A stall warning, in which the cockpit controls begin to shake, activated four seconds before impact, and the crew tried to abort the landing and initiate what is known as a “go around” maneuver 1.5 seconds before crashing, Hersman said. She said the plane was “well below” the target air speed of 137 knots (253 kph). “It wasn’t just give or take a few knots,” she told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show on Monday.

“They were very slow in this critical phase of flight.”

In a tragic twist, the San Francisco Fire Department said one of the Chinese teenagers may have been run over by an emergency vehicle as first responders reached the scene. “One of

INCHEON, South Korea: A passenger of the Asiana Airlines crash in San Francisco is pushed on a stretcher after arriving at Incheon Airport west of Seoul yesterday. — AFP since it entered service in 1995.The Asiana flight from Seoul to San Francisco, with 16 crew and 291 passengers, included several large groups of Chinese students.

Asiana said Lee Kang-kuk, whose anglicised name was released for the first time on Monday and differed slightly from earlier usage, was in the pilot seat during the landing. It was not clear whether the senior pilot, Lee Jung-min, who had clocked up 3,220 hours on a Boeing 777, had tried to take over to abort the landing. “It’s a training that is common in the global aviation industry. All responsibilities lie with the instructor captain,” Yoon Young-doo, the president and CEO of the airline, said at a news conference on Monday at the company headquarters.

the deceased did have injuries consistent with those of having been run over by a vehicle,” fire department spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge said. The two dead girls, Ye Mengyuan and Wang Linjia, were friends from the Jiangshan Middle School in Quzhou, in the prosperous eastern coastal province of Zhejiang. They were among a group of 30 students and five teachers from the school on their way to attend a summer camp in the United States, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Ye, 16, had an easy smile, was an active member of the student council and had a passion for biology, the Beijing News reported.

“Responsible, attentive, pretty, intelligent,” were the words written about her on a recent school

report, it said. Wang, a year older than Ye, also was known as a good student and was head of her class, the newspaper said. The last post on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblogging site, simply read in English; “go.”

Twelve parents, including those of Ye and Wang, were due to leave China for San Francisco yesterday, Xinhua reported. The other students in Ye and Wang’s group who are well enough to travel will return to China as the rest of their trip has now been canceled, the People’s Daily said on its official microblog. More than 30 people remained hospitalized late on Sunday. Eight were listed in critical condition, including two with paralysis from spinal injuries, hospital officials said. The charred aircraft remained on the airport tarmac as flight operations gradually returned to normal. Three of the four runways were operating by Sunday afternoon.

Hersman said it was too early to speculate on the cause of the crash. The data recorders corroborated witness accounts and an amateur video, shown by CNN, indicating the plane came in too low, lifted its nose in an attempt to gain altitude, and then bounced violently along the tarmac after the rear of the aircraft clipped a seawall at the approach to the runway. Asiana said mechanical failure did not appear to be a factor.

Hersman confirmed that a part of the airport’s instrument-landing system was offline on Saturday as part of a scheduled runway construction project, but cautioned against drawing conclusions from that. “You do not need instruments to get into the airport,” she said, noting that the weather was good at the time of the crash and the plane had been cleared for a visual approach.

The flight’s passengers included 141 Chinese, 77 South Koreans, 64 Americans, three Indians, three Canadians, one French, one Vietnamese and one Japanese citizen. Pictures taken by survivors showed passengers hurrying out of the wrecked plane, some on evacuation slides. Thick smoke billowed from the fuselage and T V footage showed the aircraft gutted by fire. Much of its roof was gone. Interior damage to the plane was extreme, Hersman said on CNN earlier on Sunday. The NTSB released photos showing the wrecked interior cabin with oxygen masks dangling from the ceiling.

Hersman said the first emergency workers to arrive at the scene included 23 people in nine vehicles. San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said a total of 225 first-responders were involved. “As chaotic as the site was yesterday, I think a number of miracles occurred to save many more lives,” Lee said at the airport news conference. Appearing later at San Francisco General Hospital, he declined to address whether one of the Chinese teenagers may have been run over. It was the first fatal commercial airline accident in the United States since a regional plane operated by Colgan Air crashed in New York in 2009. Asiana, South Korea’s junior carrier, has had two other fatal crashes in its 25-year history. — Reuters

SHANGHAI: An unidentified family member of one of two Chinese students killed in a crash of Asiana Airlinesí plane on Saturday cries at the airlinesí counter as she and other family members check in a flight to San Francisco at Pudong International Airport yesterday. — AP

Asiana crash dead from China were best friends JIANGSHAN, China: The two teenage Chinese girls killed in a South Korean passenger jet crash in San Francisco were best friends and promising students, reports said yesterday, citing grief-stricken classmates and teachers. Wang Linjia and Ye Mengyuan studied together at high school in Jiangshan in the eastern province of Zhejiang, the Beijing Morning Post said, citing Ye’s relatives, who speculated they may have sat in the same row on the plane. A picture of Wang was stuck in a hedge outside her high school Monday, surrounded by six white paper lilies and two chrysanthemums, flowers of mourning in China.

In the image Wang wears her school uniform, smiles for the camera and flashes a Vsign. Wang, 17, was an active and acclaimed student leader, according to her classmates.

“I feel very depressed after learning the news this morning,” said Lu Hao, a fellow student. “She was very friendly to all the classmates.” Wang was good at Chinese calligraphy and painting, and her works hung in the office of her father, who owns a company, the report said. Ye, 16, an outstanding student and piano player and a national aerobics champion, was the pride of her family, the report said, citing teachers and her mother. “She was learning music from me and was very gifted in singing,” the newspa-

per quoted a teacher surnamed Ai as saying.

The two were among a group of 30 students flying to the United States with their teachers to take part in a summer camp, previous Chinese media reports said.

Participants had paid nearly 30,000 yuan ($5,000) each for their places, according to the official news agency Xinhua. Jiangshan is a small but wealthy city, where many locals have made their fortune in construction materials and beekeeping, Xinhua said.

Most students on the trip were their families’ only children, it added. Wang’s last posting on one of China’s Twitter-like weibo sites was “Go!”, apparently reflecting her excitement about the journey.

Chinese nationals made up 141 of the 291 passengers aboard the Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 that burst into flames after it landed short of the runway, injuring 182.

The two teenagers are the only deaths from the accident so far. A total of 12 relatives of the dead and injured were to leave for San Francisco yesterday, Xinhua said, citing school officials. A relative of Liu Yipeng, one of the injured, told state broadcaster CCTV that the girl was still in intensive care. “We will go to the hospital to see her first. We have got the notice that she is safe, but have no idea about her exact condition,” he said. — AFP

Singapore coroner rules US scientist committed suicide SINGAPORE: A Singapore coroner ruled yesterday that a US scientist found hanged in the city-state in 2012 committed suicide during a bout of depression and was not murdered as his family claimed. The US government, which closely followed the case of electronics engineer Shane Todd, said the coroner’s inquiry was “comprehensive, fair and transparent”, but the family refused to back down. The body of 31-year-old Todd was discovered by his girlfriend in his flat in June 2012, sparking a controversy that reached the highest levels of both governments after his parents refused to accept Singapore police findings that he killed himself.

The family, citing documents found in Todd’s computer files, insists he was working on a secret project with military applications and was murdered as part of a conspiracy involving a Chinese technology firm

and a state-linked Singapore research institute. “The evidence before me instead compels me to find, beyond reasonable doubt, that the deceased had committed suicide by hanging himself,” state coroner Chay Yuen Fatt said in his verdict, adding that there was no evidence of foul play.

The investigation was limited by law to the cause of death and the verdict did not address the family’s conspiracy claims. In a statement on the verdict, the family questioned Singapore’s police investigation methods as well as the conduct of the inquiry itself, launching a campaign website called justice4shanetodd.com to press their claim that he was killed.

“We have personally concluded that a staged suicide in Singapore will never be examined or ruled as murder no matter what signs there are of foul play,” said the statement sent to AFP by the scientist’s mother Mary Todd.

Witnesses earlier testified that Todd had suffered a relapse of depression, a condition he first experienced as a university student, and had repeatedly surfed websites on suicide shortly before his death. “His psychiatric condition included suicidal ideations of an overall increasing severity over the last few months of his life, which he had masked from the people around him,” the coroner said.

Todd’s parents said he was murdered as part of a conspiracy involving his former employer, Singapore’s Institute of Microelectronics (IME), and Chinese technology giant Huawei Technologies, a firm accused by US officials of involvement in espionage.

IME and Huawei said they had held preliminary talks on a potential project with commercial applications, but they had not gone further.

The family attended the Singapore inquest in May but angrily walked out

before hearings ended, saying they had “lost faith” in the proceedings.

During the hearings, their star witness, US pathologist Edward Adelstein, recanted an earlier theory that Todd was garroted with a cord in his own apartment. Instead he presented a new scenario - that Todd was killed by assassins who made his death look like suicide - but offered no evidence. In his verdict yesterday, coroner Chay rejected Adelstein’s testimony, calling it “nothing short of bizarre and extremely unhelpful in the way that it detracted from the critical pathological issues before the court”.

He said he did not doubt the “independence or competence” of two other US pathologists who affirmed the suicide findings. —AFP

SINGAPORE: Singapore Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Law K Shanmugam speaks to reporters at the parliament yesterday. A Singapore state coroner ruled that US scientist Shane Todd (inset) found hanged in the city-state in 2012 committed suicide and was not murdered as his family claims. — AFP

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

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

Insurgents increasing in east Afghanistan FORWARD OPERATING BASE LIGHTNING, Afghanistan: Insurgents have stepped up operations in Afghan border provinces close to Pakistan, one of Afghanistan’s top generals said, with militant numbers up on last summer as government forces work to improve security in the volatile east. Major-General Mohammad Sharif Yaftali, who commands Afghan forces in seven crucial southeast provinces, said insurgent numbers were up around 15 percent on last year’s summer fighting months, with an estimated 5,000 insurgents now in his area.

Many were Pakistanis and Chechens, Yaftali said, reinforcing recent assessments by Afghan army chief of staff General Sher Mohammad Karimi that the insurgency’s backers in Pakistan had shut Islamic schools to send more fighters across the border. “They closed them on purpose, to push them to Afghanistan to disrupt security,” said Yaftali. “There are 3,500 madrassas in Pakistan and if everyone send five people, well, you can imagine.”

Pakistan, which supported the 19962001 Taleban government in Afghanistan, is seen as crucial to US and Afghan efforts to promote peace in Afghanistan, a task that is gaining

urgency as NATO-led combat troops continue to leave the country. Karimi, in comments rejected by Islamabad, said in a recent interview that the influential Pakistan military could end the 12-yearold Afghan war if it chose to “in weeks”, despite facing a Taleban insurgency of its own.

Afghanistan has levelled a string of accusations against Pakistan since peace talks with the Taleban imploded last month, in a row that has dashed hopes of a reset in the relationship between the South Asian neighbours. Kabul is angry with what it sees as the insurgent movement’s attempt to position itself as a legitimate government in waiting and has accused Pakistan of supporting and sheltering militants. Pakistan, for its part, is upset because it feels it played a crucial role in bringing the Taleban to the negotiating table. Yesterday, Foreign Office spokesman Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry said accusations that it was shutting schools to send fighters to Afghanistan were baseless. “We have checked. This information is not correct.

Pakistan wants what is best for peace and stability in the region,” he said, declining further comment.

Yaftali said recent security operations in the east by four Afghan brigades had

greatly improved security with only minimal assistance from NATO coalition allies.

Major roads were cleared and more than 650 insurgents killed over three months.

While local people in Paktia province say the Taleban-allied Haqqani network still influences at least five of 14 districts, Yaftali said around 150,000 girls attending school in his command were proof the insurgency was on the back foot and its leaders were now throwing everything possible into the fight.

As evidence, Afghan commanders organised a media conference with a Pakistani insurgent captured after being shot in the leg and who was handcuffed to a bed as he recovered at the military’s Paktia Regional National Hospital. “The people told us there are infidels and to go and fight against them. That’s why I came,” said the fighter, who gave his age as around 22 and his name as “Hezbollah”, after the Lebanon-based Islamic militant group and political bloc.

Hezbollah, captured with a radio and AK-47 rifle and whose name is unlikely to be genuine, said he had received minimal training and was the youngest of a group of 13 fighters who had made their way over the mountains into Afghanistan, staying for 15 days before being shot. “The people did not help us.

HEART: Afghan workers stack sweets at a traditional ‘jalebi’ (sweet) factory ahead of the holy month of Ramadan yesterday. — AFP But there was a mosque and that was like our base station. We had food and water and sleep,” he said. “I don’t know where I was captured, because I am not from this country. We were ambushed.”

Rapid improvements in the ability of the army to operate independently of NATO forces has raised hopes among

coalition commanders that Afghan security forces will be able to match the insurgency after the 2014 exit of most Western troops. Paktia is one of three provinces fiercely contested by the militant Haqqanis, blamed for several prominent attacks in Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan. —Reuters

13 killed in India as hotel collapses 17 people rescued from debris SECUNDERABAD, India: A twostorey hotel collapsed in the southern Indian city of Secunderabad yesterday, killing at least 13 people and injuring 17 others, police said. Rescue workers were searching through tonnes of rubble hours after the collapse in the city in Andhra Pradesh state in case people were still trapped, local police official K Satyanarayana told AFP. “The number of people killed is now 13,” the officer said. Most of the

victims were said to be employees and local residents reported that one of them was the hotel owner’s son.

The officer said 17 people have been rescued from the debris and taken to hospital, and three of them were in a critical condition. Some 25 people were working at the hotel, located on a busy road in Secunderabad, when a kitchen wall gave way, triggering a larger collapse and burying staff and others under debris, local police offi-

HYDERABAD: Unidentified family members cry after they identify the body of their relative who died in a building collapse at the mortuary of Gandhi Hospital yesterday. — AP

cial B Surender told AFP. “The building was very old and the walls showed cracks, according to people working nearby,” Surender added.

It was unclear how many people, hotel employees as well as customers and others, were still trapped in the rubble. Rescuers have set up lights to continue the search through the night, an AFP photographer at the scene said. “The rescue operations are continuing and as a precautionary measure we are taking the help of experts in removing those trapped under the debris,” city police chief Anurag Sharma told the Press Trust of India. Paramedics were seen stretchering the injured from the site.

Local residents joined rescue workers, who used diggers, cranes and electric cutters, in trying to clear away the debris. Family members of hotel workers still missing were waiting at the site for news. Several buildings have collapsed in India in recent months, many of them apartment blocks in the financial capital Mumbai. One collapse in April in the city killed 74 people.

The accidents have highlighted pervasive poor construction standards in the country, where massive demand for housing and endemic corruption often results in illegal buildings and a lack of safety inspections. — AFP

Police make arrest over Buddhist temple bombs PATNA, India: Indian police arrested a man yesterday over weekend bomb attacks targeting one of Buddhism’s holiest sites and were studying CCTV footage that appeared to show two men planting explosives. The Indian government condemned the “terror attack” after multiple small bombs exploded at the historic Bodh Gaya Buddhist temple complex on Sunday morning, wounding two monks at the pilgrimage destination in eastern Bihar state. “ The police are doing everything to identify the two persons on the basis of the CCTV footage,” local police official Chandan Kushwaha told AFP. Security camera footage released

of the complex, a UNESCO World Heritage site, also showed pilgrims running from the scene after one of the blasts. Indian Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said 10 bombs exploded at the site, increasing the previous number from nine, with three more devices discovered and defused. “Today, I have the information of 10 blasts. A total of 13 bombs were placed there... (but) I will not go into details where they were kept,” Shinde told reporters. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but police arrested a local man who was being questioned in connection with the blasts. “A man identified as Vinod Mistri was taken into custody in

BHUBANESWAR, India: Indian members of a special tactical unit, including personnel of the Special Operation Group (SOG) skilled for anti-Naxal operations, display their skills during a room intervention demonstration yesterday. The special tactical unit force has been created to combat terrorist activities in urban areas. — AFP

connection with the serial bomb blasts in Bodh Gaya,” state police official S K Bharadwaj told AFP. Police picked up Mistri in the Barachatti area, a stronghold of Maoist insurgents 130 km south of the state capital Patna, Bharadwaj said.

Delhi police said they had earlier warned officials that Islamist militants could target the temple complex as revenge for unrest involving Buddhists and Muslims in neighbouring Myanmar. Attacks on Buddhists are rare in India, but there have been tensions in the region recently following the clashes in Myanmar, as well as frictions in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Sri Lanka stepped up security yesterday for its holiest Buddhist temple, containing the sacred Sri Maha Bodhi tree, following the blasts in neighbouring India, police said. “We have asked all units to be extra vigilant,” a police official told AFP on condition of anonymity. “We had a discussion with the chief monks and decided on a string of new measures.”

The Indian complex contains temples, a celebrated 24-m statue of the Buddha, and dozens of monasteries housing monks from around the world. It also contains the holy Bodhi tree, where Buddhists believe the Buddha reached enlightenment in 531 BC. After his meditations beneath the tree, the Buddha is said to have devoted the rest of his life to teaching.

The complex houses multiple shrines marking the places where Buddha is said to have spent time after his enlightenment. He founded an order of monks before dying aged 80. The complex, 110 km south of Patna, is one of the earliest Buddhist temples still standing in India. The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, makes frequent trips to the complex, which attracts visitors during the peak tourist season from October to March. — AFP

SRINAGAR: Police uses colored water to disperse Kashmiri government employees during a protest yesterday.

Police detained dozens of government employees during the protest demanding regularization of contractual jobs and a hike in salary. — AP

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TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

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Issues

Egypt Islamists ‘abused power’

By Uri Dromi nce again, the American administration finds itself in the situation where it doesn’t really know exactly how to deal with an enigmatic Middle East. This time, it’s Egypt that is teaching Americans how complex this turbulent region is. From the standpoint of Washington, something good must have happened in Egypt in the last two years. After decades of dictatorship, it seemed that democracy had eventually prevailed. The many Egyptians who took to Tahrir Square in January 2011 chanting, “Enough is enough,” finally got, in the eternal words of President Lincoln, “a government of the people, by the people, for the people.”

But did they really? The Muslim Brotherhood movement, which for eight decades has prepared itself for taking over the government in Egypt, managed to snatch the revolution from the hands of the people who had generated it.

Gaining power by using free elections - an instrument of democracy in which they have never believed - the Muslim Brothers quickly drafted a constitution that was meant to turn Egypt into a country ruled entirely by the laws of Islam.

This step was not only an abuse of the will of many Egyptians, but it also failed in every other aspect. Egypt, already suffering from chronic socio-economic malaise, found itself in a much more serious situation, which deteriorated last week into a popular revolt. The army, being the only functioning organ in the Egyptian executive branch, felt it was its duty in such a crisis to step in, and while twisting the democratic rules of the game, restore public order and thus serve the best interests of the nation.

This is not unprecedented, even in Western democracies.

It was none other than President Lincoln, who, in the first days of the Civil War, found it necessary to suspend a constitutional right, the habeas corpus writ - the right of every citizen to a due process of law. Defending his act before a perplexed Congress, in a special session on July 4, 1861, Lincoln, the master of explaining the most difficult issues in few simple words, said: “Are all the laws, but one, to go unexecuted, and the government itself go to pieces, lest that one be violated?”

The Congress endorsed the president’s action, but some remained unconvinced, among them the chief justice at that time, Roger Taney. In his Ex parte Merryman opinion he argued that while the president’s duty was to “faithfully execute” the laws, it didn’t imply that he had to execute them himself, or to use the military in order to usurp judiciary powers. An angry Lincoln threatened to arrest the chief justice. Gen Abdel Fattah El-Sissi, Egypt’s strongman, graduated from Pennsylvania’s US Army War College in 2006. I’m not sure that when Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called him last week that the two actually discussed that old American constitutional debate. I’m pretty confident, though, that hanging in the air was the issue of much-needed US aid to Egypt, when US law prohibits the administration from supplying aid to countries that have gone through a military coup. I guess, then, that between Hagel’s lines there was a silent wish that whatever happens in Egypt, it shouldn’t look like a military coup.

At first, it looked like the plan had worked. In his dramatic televised speech, Gen El-Sissi, surrounded by an impressive representation of the Egyptian civic and religious communities (not the ousted Muslim Brothers, of course), declared that the military would stay out of politics, and in a distant reverse of President Lincoln’s feud with his chief justice, the Egyptian general announced that the president of the Constitutional Court will serve as an interim president until elections are held. This was a very powerful speech, much better than the one El-Sissi made in 2011, when, after some female Egyptian protesters had been subjected to “virginity tests” conducted by the army, he justified the humiliating acts. Just a reminder of what a long way Egypt still has to go when it comes to real democracy. Anyway, to complicate things even further, Sen Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, spoiled the party by declaring that US law is clear: “Aid is cut off when a democratically elected government is deposed by military coup or decree.”

I don’t envy President Obama, who will have to mobilize his best oratory to explain to his fellow Americans what’s going on in this highly delicate matter. I guess he will not dare tell them the plain truth - that in certain areas of the world, Western democracy is not the cure to all problems.

On the contrary, when used by un-democratic forces, it makes the lives of the people involved even worse.

Remember the elections in Iran in 1979, which doomed the Iranian people to the oppressive rule of the ayatollahs, and the 2006 elections in Gaza, which left the people there suffering under Hamas.— MCT

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All articles appearing on these pages are the personal opinion of the writers. Kuwait Times takes no responsibility for views expressed therein. Kuwait Times invites readers to voice their opinions. Please send submissions via email to: opinion@kuwaittimes.net or via snail mail to PO Box 1301 Safat, Kuwait.

The editor reserves the right to edit any submission as necessary.

In defense of a multicultural Europe

By Arwa Ibrahim he debate about multiculturalism resurfaced after the recent Boston bombings, Woolwich attack and Stockholm protests. Many now feel justified in saying that multiculturalism across Europe and the West has failed miserably. It’s easy to feel that cultures are boundaries, incapable of coexisting. But history has proven otherwise. Recognizing the multiple cultural influences in Western history is an important means not only to reduce tensions in our communities but also to encourage more understanding and respect among our societies. The European Renaissance, beginning in the 14th century, is known for being an age of preoccupation with science, learning and invention. But the passion for wider social and political knowledge, disassociated from a religious interpretation of the world, only reached Europeans in the 18th century when Enlightenment philosophers such as Voltaire, Locke and Hobbes promoted ideas to help improve living conditions through science and reason.

Their ideas, which were based in Greek and Muslim thought, advocated that war, disease, poverty and ignorance are not God-given punishments to be accepted stoically but can be alleviated through the application of knowledge. Yet since the 7th century caliphs and emirs in what is now the Middle East and North Africa had been prioritizing lectures, conversing with men of science and spending long hours in libraries. The European tradition of literary salons, social gatherings designed to increase the knowledge of guests, was in

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fact borrowed from the courts of Muslim caliphs.

Literary genres including poetry, fiction, romance and chivalry were influenced by Muslim authors, such as Ibn Tufayl of Spain who influenced Defoe’s classic novel, Robinson Crusoe. And these are only a few of the cultural affinities brought to the West from the Muslim world. Culture has historically been an ever-evolving concept among human civilizations, used to connect, not divide people. And it continues to be structured through an exchange of ideas, values and customs.

European and Western culture is a compilation of centuries of exchange between different peoples and different civilizations. Culture is more accurately defined as an exchange of values among civilizations rather than consisting of sets of Arab, British, Swedish or American values. It is alien to me that today multiculturalism is used as a scapegoat, blamed for problems like poverty, increased crime rates, unemployment and extremism. It is disturbing to see some policymakers and analysts suggest a stricter definition of European identity or become less tolerant of cultural exchanges and differences.

I believe it is important for today’s European and wider Western communities to realize that societies and cultures constantly evolve - due to many internal and external factors. We should not be bullied into objecting to multiculturalism through fear that accepting ethnic minorities in Western communities will change them. They will change anyway. This myth assumes that Western culture has developed in isolation and without exchange with other world cultures and that it can be

defined and restricted to maintain a static set of values.

It also denies the great influence of Muslim civilizations on modern Western culture - this very culture belongs to the ancestors of the communities that today are seen as threats. More dangerously however, the myth misleads policymakers into thinking that the solution to such social problems is found simply in challenging multiculturalism. And it transforms the role of a historically harmonizing human experience into one that creates boundaries of division and hatred within communities.

Muslims and non-Muslims in Western societies can address the social challenges we face today by accepting and respecting each other as equally valuable parts of one community. Realizing that there are differences, which do not have to disappear, actually enriches our various cultures as we give and take to evolve into more humane and advanced societies.

Violence, crime, poverty and segregation need to be addressed as social and economic issues that may be prevalent among certain ethnic communities but are not a result of their ethnicities. It is now time that European and Western communities encompass the best of their identities, customs and cultures and learn to embrace and respect their differences instead of endeavoring to erase them. This is the way toward a more harmonious, cohesive and advanced society.

Arwa Ibrahim is a British Egyptian journalist and researcher on issues of social and public policy and development. —CGNews

Merkel’s road to a third term could be rocky

By Noah Barkin he German election is still more than two months away but for many the vote’s final chapter has already been written. Angela Merkel, it is widely assumed, is cruising to a third victory at the polls. When she wins, the thinking goes, there will be few, if any, major changes to German policy. The vote could well play out according to script. Merkel’s conservatives hold a dominant 16-19 point lead over the next strongest party, the centreleft Social Democrats (SPD), and recent polls suggest she may be able to renew her centre-right coalition with the Free Democrats (FDP) after Sept 22nd.

But should she fail to secure a parliamentary majority with the FDP, the election aftermath is likely to be far messier than many casual observers of German politics presume. In this scenario, Merkel would probably have to pay a very heavy price in terms of policy concessions to stay in the Chancellery. And her exit could not be ruled out. In a note this week, JP Morgan analyst Alex White put the chance Merkel will be booted out of office after the election at 20 percent.

“If the election result produces neither a centre-left or centre-right majority, which seems very likely, then we will witness the most difficult, protracted and dramatic coalition negotiations in the history of the Federal Republic,” Heribert Prantl wrote in an editorial in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily. “The winner takes it all? That may work for Abba but not in German politics,” he wrote, referring to a song by the Swedish pop band. “The chancellor will not necessarily be the one that comes out on top.”

Under the German political system, leaders must secure a majority in the Bundestag lower house of parliament to rule. Merkel’s conservatives may be far ahead of the SPD in opinion polls, but they are unlikely to win more than 40 percent of the vote on election day, meaning she will have to find a partner to stay in power. If she can’t do that with the FDP, which may

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not reach the 5 percent threshold to enter the Bundestag, the likelihood is that she turns to the SPD, with whom she ruled in her first term between 2005 and 2009.

HAUNTED The problem this time around is that the SPD is dead-set on avoiding a “grand coalition” under Merkel. That’s because the party is still haunted by their previous partnership, when Merkel co-opted many of her rival’s policy ideas, coaxed away its supporters and left the SPD with its worst election result in the post-war era four years ago. Senior members of the party are vowing to prevent a repeat in September-even if it leads to months of post-election uncertainty. “Anyone who believes the SPD is going to jump right back into a grand coalition doesn’t know the mood in the party nor the power of the states,” said a leading figure in the SPD who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.

After a string of regional victories in recent years, the SPD now governs in 13 of Germany’s 16 states. The party’s regional barons are particularly worried about another “grand coalition” and are exerting

huge pressure on the SPD leadership to explore other options after the vote. “There are a lot of people in our party that would prefer to see Merkel partner with the Greens than do another grand coalition,” the SPD leader said. Despite the reluctance, Frank Decker, a political scientist at Bonn University, believes the SPD will not be able to avoid partnering with Merkel if she fails to get her preferred centre-right majority.

That’s because all other coalition combinations seem far-fetched.

POUND OF FLESH With her decision to pull out of nuclear power after the Fukushima disaster in Japan, Merkel removed the biggest hurdle to a partnership with the environmentalist Greens, a combination that has been tried at state but never at the federal level. But the cultural divide and policy gap between the parties, particularly on economic issues, are seen as too big to overcome.

The same holds true for a so-called “traffic light” coalition between the SPD, Greens and FDP, or what Germans call a “Jamaica” coalition between the CDU, FDP and Greens, because the colors of the respec-

German Chancellor Angela Merkel

tive parties match those of the Jamaican flag. An additional variant involving the SPD, Greens and far-left “Linke”, or Left party, has been definitively ruled out by the SPD. And the option that has some in Merkel’s entourage worried-a minority government of the SPD and Greens, with the tacit support of the Left in parliament-is also seen as a no-go in stability-obsessed Germany. Still, if the election result is not clear-cut, the expectation is that the major parties will sound each other out on most of these combinations. Everyone will be talking to everyone, meaning talks on forming a new government could stretch well into November, as they did in 2005 when incumbent Gerhard Schroeder initially refused to concede defeat to Merkel because of her razor-thin margin of victory.

If the SPD does buckle and link up with Merkel again, the consensus is that it will demand-and eventually get-its pound of flesh in terms of policy concessions.

This could lead a new Merkel government to take a tougher line on banks, push up spending and raise taxes on high earners, even if she has ruled this out during her campaign. On the margins, it could also lead to a more pro-growth approach in Europe. “The SPD will try to find one theme that they can really force on Merkel,” said Peter Loesche, professor emeritus at Goettingen University. “Taxes is a good place to start. Merkel will have no other alternative.”

A poll this week for public television station ARD showed that 81 percent of Germans expect Merkel to remain chancellor after the vote, compared to just 13 percent who see her SPD challenger Peer Steinbrueck taking power.

But the complexities of coalition-building and the possibility that other parties, like the anti-euro “Alternative for Germany”, make it into parliament, mean that Merkel may have a bigger fight on her hands than is commonly assumed. “This won’t be as easy as it looks,” said a top aide to the chancellor. “If we don’t get a majority with the FDP, it’s going to be messy. It will be very, very difficult.”— Reuters

NEWS

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

CAIRO: Egyptian supporters of deposed president Mohamed Morsi sit in front of barbed wire fencing that blocks the access to the headquarters of the Republican Guard in Cairo yesterday. — AFP

Emotions run wild at scene of Egypt ‘massacre’ CAIRO: Emotions ran wild yesterday near an elite military base in Cairo outside which at least 51 people were gunned down in a dawn attack on supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. As pitched battles raged on Salah Salem, a boulevard where Morsi supporters hurled rocks at a security forces behind a cordon of barbed wire, people searched for the names of their loved ones at a hospital a few hundred meters away. Dozens of bodies were laid on the bloody floor of a makeshift morgue. The bloodshed occurred outside the headquarters of the elite Republican Guard, which the Brotherhood accuses of betraying Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president who was ousted in a popularly backed military coup

last Wednesday.

Tears flowed freely as doctors operated on a bullet wound in a man’s stomach at a field hospital set up at Rabaa Al-Adawiya mosque, where Morsi supporters have been staging a mass sit-in for the past 12 days. “This is a Tshirt belonging to my friend who died,” said Ahmed Mansour, holding up the bloodsoaked piece of clothing. “The police shot us with birdshot,” said Aymen Sayyed, whose face was still smeared with blood.

In addition to the 51 dead, the emergency services said more than 430 people were wounded, and some patients at the field hospital were covered in bandages. Outside on Salah Salem, on the main route between the mosque and the Republican Guard head-

quarters, the stench of blood was mixed with tear gas. Debris was scattered all along the boulevard, which was lined by cars with smashed windscreens, punctuated by thick black smoke billowing from burning tyres and trees.

On the walls of the nearby defense ministry building, slogans denounced army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the general behind Morsi’s overthrow. “This will soon be the headquarters of the Islamic republic,” said some of the graffiti, which also called for Sisi’s execution. Armored vehicles closed off all streets leading to the area, as members of the security forces fired shots into the air to stop the Islamists from getting too close.

Accusations flew left, right and centre.

Kuwait oppn firm on boycotting elections

By B Izzak KUWAIT: The Kuwaiti opposition has reiterated its position of boycotting the July 27 election, saying that the single -vote law, which was confirmed by the Constitutional Court last month, has undermined the constitution and aggravated divisions in the society.

Speakers at a gathering late Sunday night also called for deeper democratic reforms including a number of constitutional amendments to strengthen democracy in the country.

Opposition leader and former MP Mussallam AlBarrak said that the boycott has become more necessary because the reasons for the first boycott of last December election have remained unchanged. Former opposition MP Faisal Al-Muslim said the boycott is more urgent this time because corruption has become more widespread and obvious than before.

Muslim said that the previous National Assembly was dissolved in a bid to boost voter turnover in the next election after attempts to convince merchants and tribes to take part in the election process. The voter turnover in last December election was one of the lowest in Kuwait’s history at just under 40 percent according to the government and at 26 percent according to opposition claims.

He added that it will be difficult to make achievements under the current parliamentary system and called for the opposition groups to reach an agreement on the need to forge with necessary constitutional

reforms. The opposition has in the recent past called for fundamental democratic reforms to achieve a full multiparty democratic system that requires constitutional amendments which are very difficult to undertake.

A member of the scrapped February 2012 Assembly Bader Al-Dahoum said there is essentially no difference between the next and the past polls except in the participation of a number of respected candidates. He said that the boycott of the election must continue in order to foil plots against the will of the people and the constitution. Former MP Jamaan Al-Harbash said that the boycott must continue out of respect for the will of the people and in defense of the dignity of the people.

In the meantime, a number of candidates began organizing election campaigns with just over two weeks for the polls with most of the campaigns focusing on the need to achieve political stability in the country. Former MP Youssef Al-Zalzalah expects the next Assembly to be more productive after the singlevote law had been upheld by the Constitutional Court, adding that law has rescued Kuwait from chaos.

But Zalzalh described the situation in the country as very dangerous because of the lack of stability, saying that since 2003, Kuwait has had six national assemblies instead of only three. “In the past two years, we had three assemblies and about five governments. No government can perform within just four months. Since 1996, no Kuwaiti cabinet survived more than 30 months and if this trend continues we have to forget about development,” Zalzalh said.

The different Ramadan Continued from Page 1 any other country but Egypt is Egypt. It has its own weight in the Middle East. To see it go down is very sad.

Everyone jubilated the ousting of Mubarak. Even many people from outside the Arab world thought he was a big dictator. Little did we know what was in store for Egypt.

The timing of the most recent tumultuous development is important. Why at the start of Ramadan? Did they think that once Ramadan starts, things will cool down and people will cool down? I have no idea. I do not mean to decide for the Egyptians who they choose. It is their country and their right. I pray to God and would love to see a strong and tranquil Egypt. If you take a 30-minute flight from Cairo to Damascus, the scenario is worse.

There is already a civil war in Syria. I am telling you, nobody will be a winner there except those who orchestrated the war. Of course, it’s not the Syrians and we all know that.

Back to Ramadan. Ramadan in Egypt has a different taste compared to any country I travelled to. Egyptians really know how to celebrate Ramadan. To them it is a culture. Cairo does not sleep in Ramadan. Just visit Khan Al-Khalili (one of the biggest and busiest markets in the region) and you will know what I mean. People sit all night and eat suhoor at the market and then go home.

Will Egypt celebrate Ramadan in the same fashion as before? Will Khan Al-Khalili be as busy and booming as it always has been?

Ramadan Mubarak inshallah to all!

“The Republican Guard shot us while we were praying,” charged Ayman Ibrahim.

Shaimaa Younes also said the Islamists were fired at as they worshipped, countering claims by the military that “armed terrorists” tried to storm the base. “We were praying at dawn in rows and, as we bowed down, the Republican Guard fired at us. Then there was chaos and people were falling into pools of blood.” Others told a different story. “The thugs of the national security (police) started firing at us while we were praying at dawn,” said Anas Ayman. “They hid behind police vehicles, and we tried to get the army to protect us but they started shooting as well.”

Another man, Hussein, said: “The thugs... started firing birdshot heavily, then the army

fired tear gas, and we were stuck between the fire and the gas.” Badreddine Adel said: “Muslim Brotherhood supporters threw Molotov cocktails at the army which set alight three floors of one nearby building.”

Abdel Hamid Ali, wearing a bloodstained shirt, gave his version of events. “Thugs started shooting and the army also began shooting. There was chaos. I lost all my belongings.” Ambulances were everywhere, but private cars also ferried casualties to the field hospital. Pro-Morsi protesters then started breaking up the pavement and formed a barricade between themselves and the army. They threw rocks at the army over barbed wire, and the armed forces responded with tear gas. — AFP

Cairo clash leaves 54 dead; Crisis deepens Continued from Page 1 talks to form an interim government for the transition to new elections. A spokesman for the interim presidency, Ahmed Elmoslmany, said work on forming the government would go on, though Nour’s withdrawal could seriously undermine efforts at reconciling rival factions. The military has said that the overthrow was not a coup, and it was enforcing the will of the people after millions took to the streets on June 30 to call for Morsi’s resignation. But pro- and anti-Morsi protests took place in Cairo, Alexandria and other cities, and resulted in clashes on Friday and Saturday that left 35 dead. It leaves the Arab world’s largest nation of 84 million people in a perilous state, with the risk of further enmity between people on either side of the political divide while an economic crisis deepens.

A Reuters journalist at the scene saw first aid helpers attempting mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on a dying man. Al Jazeera’s Egypt channel showed footage from inside a makeshift clinic near the scene of the violence, where Morsi supporters attempted to treat bloodied men. Seven dead bodies were lined up in a row, covered in blankets and an Egyptian flag. A man placed a portrait of Morsi on one of the corpses. Footage broadcast by Egyptian state TV showed Morsi supporters throwing rocks at soldiers in riot gear on one of the main roads leading to Cairo airport.

Young men, some carrying sticks, crouched behind a building, emerging to throw petrol bombs before retreating again. Footage posted on YouTube yesterday showed a man on a rooftop wearing what appeared to be a military helmet opening fire with a rifle five times, apparently in the direction of a crowd in the street below. In the clip, which could not be independently verified, two bloodied men were shown carried away unconscious.

State-run television showed soldiers carrying a wounded comrade along a rock-strewn road, and news footage showed a handful of men who looked like protesters firing crude handguns. The rest of the city was for the most part calm, though armored military vehicles closed bridges over the Nile to traffic following the violence. The military overthrew Morsi on Wednesday after mass nationwide demonstrations led by youth activists demanding his resignation. The Brotherhood denounced the intervention as a coup and vowed peaceful resistance.

Talks on forming a new government were already in trouble before yesterday’s shooting, after the Nour Party rejected two liberal-minded candidates for prime minister proposed by interim head of state Adli Mansour, the top constitutional court judge. Nour, Egypt’s second biggest Islamist party, which is vital to give the new authorities a veneer of Islamist backing, said it had withdrawn from the negotiations in protest at what it called

the “massacre at the Republican Guard (compound)”.

“The party decided the complete withdrawal from political participation in what is known as the road map,” it said.

The military can ill afford a lengthy political vacuum at a time of violent upheaval and economic stagnation.

Scenes of running street battles between pro- and antiMorsi demonstrators in Cairo, Alexandria and cities across the country have alarmed Egypt’s allies, including key aid donors the United States and Europe, and Israel, with which Egypt has had a US-backed peace treaty since 1979. The violence has also shocked Egyptians, growing tired of the turmoil that began two-and-a-half years ago with the overthrow of autocrat Hosni Mubarak in a popular uprising.

In one of the most disturbing scenes of the last week, video footage circulated on social and state media of what appeared to be Morsi supporters throwing two youths from a concrete tower on to a roof in the port city of Alexandria. The images, stills from which were published on the front page of the state-run Al-Akhbar newspaper on Sunday, could not be independently verified. On Sunday, huge crowds numbering hundreds of thousands gathered in different parts of Cairo and were peaceful, but nonetheless a reminder of the risks of further instability.

For many Islamists, the overthrow of Egypt’s first freely elected president was a bitter reversal that raised fears of a return to the suppression they endured for decades under autocratic rulers like Mubarak. On the other side of the political divide, millions of Egyptians were happy to see the back of a leader they believed was orchestrating a creeping Islamist takeover of the state - a charge the Brotherhood has vehemently denied. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she deplored the loss of life: “All those who claim legitimacy must act in a responsible way for the good of the country and avoid any provocation or escalation of violence,” she said in a statement. Washington has not condemned the military takeover or called it a coup, prompting suspicion within the Brotherhood that it tacitly supports the overthrow.

President Barack Obama has ordered a review to determine whether annual US assistance of $1.5 billion, most of which goes to the Egyptian military, should be cut off as required by law if a country’s military ousts a freely elected leader. Egypt can ill afford to lose foreign aid. The country appears headed for a looming funding crunch unless it can quickly access money from overseas. The local currency has lost 11 percent of its value since late last year. Yesterday, British energy firms BG Group and BP said they had pulled 160 e x p a t r i a te s t a f f o u t o f Eg y p t d u e to s p re a d i n g unrest, although operations and production were not expected to be affected. Egypt’s share index lost 3.6 percent yesterday. — Agencies

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

S P ORTS

Abidal returns to Monaco SPAIN: Former France defender Eric Abidal has rejoined big-spending Monaco on a one-year deal after his contract ended at Barcelona.

Monaco said on their website (www.asm-fc.com) that the 33-year-old left back, who began his professional career with them in 2000, was returning after 13 years with Lille, Olympique Lyon and Barcelona. Abidal said an emotional farewell to Barcelona last month after the Spanish club decided not to renew his contract.

The defender, who won 61 caps for his country and played in the 2006 and 2010 World Cups, had fought his way back into the squad after having a liver transplant last year.

Monaco are bankrolled by Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev and have been active in the transfer market since winning promotion to Ligue 1 at the end of last season.

Their signings include Colombian striker Radamel Falcao from Atletico Madrid for a transfer fee that media reports said was in excess of 50 million euros ($64.17 million).—Reuters

British Open spots LONDON: American Boo Weekley and Dane Thomas Bjorn are among 10 players to book their places in next week’s 142nd British Open at Muirfield through the FedExCup and Race to Dubai standings. The Royal & Ancient organisers said in a news release on Monday that five Race to Dubai moneylist exemptions had been secured by Bjorn, South African Richard Sterne, Australian Brett Rumford, Finn Mikko Ilonen and Briton Marc Warren.

The 42-year-old Bjorn will be playing in his 16th British Open. He has twice finished tied second, at St Andrews in 2000 and at Sandwich three years later.

The Dane was also a double European Tour runner-up last month, at the BMW International in Germany and the Austrian Open. Former Ryder Cup player Weekley, Billy Horschel, Russell Henley, Jimmy Walker and Harris English have booked their tickets for the third major championship of the season through the U.S. PGA Tour’s FedExCup points table. Weekley ended a five-year drought by winning the Crowne Plaza Invitational in Texas in May. He finished tied 13th at the British Open in 2009. Swede Jonas Blixt, winner of the Greenbrier Classic in West Virginia on Sunday, is among eight players to get into golf’s oldest major through the world rankings. The other seven are fellow Swede Fredrik Jacobson, British pair Chris Wood and Martin Laird, Americans Ken Duke and Kyle Stanley, Marc Leishman of Australia and Graham DeLaet of Canada. The British Open begins on July 18. —Reuters

Stoichkov quits CSKA SOFIA: Former European Footballer of the Year Hristo Stoichkov resigned as coach of CSKA Sofia yesterday after only a month in charge of the troubled Bulgarian club, saying he had lost faith in the owners and their “endless lies”.

“I’m fed up, I’m leaving,” the former Barcelona striker said in a letter addressed to local media. “I agreed to start coaching without a contract and I had a great desire to help. “I had the support of the players and my staff. We endured until it became clear there’s no chance of promises being fulfilled,” added Stoichkov, who didn’t attend CSKA’s training sessions in the last 10 days. CSKA are the most successful Bulgarian club with 31 league titles but have hit difficult times of late with inept performances on the pitch combining with controversy in the boardroom and stifling levels of debt. Titan Sport, a subsidiary of Titan International Holdings, have overseen the tricky times since acquiring 100 percent of CSKA shares in 2009. In an attempt to calm the escalating situation ahead of the start of the new season on July 20, they turned to crowd favorite Stoichkov last month for their fourth coach of the year.

Diamondbacks sweep Rockies PHOENIX: Patrick Corbin gave up three hits in eight innings to finally get his 10th victory and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat Colorado 6-1 Sunday for their fifth straight win and a dominant threegame sweep of the Rockies.

Corbin (10-1) struck out 10 in his seventh attempt at win No. 10. The 23-year-old lefty, picked a day earlier as an All-Star, also hit an RBI double as the Diamondbacks outscored the Rockies 22-2 in the series. The Rockies lost more than the game.

Star outfielder Carlos Gonzalez left after swinging at a pitch in the ninth. Afterward, he said it was a sprain and nothing serious. Starter Roy Oswalt (0-4) exited with what initially was called a strained left hamstring in the second. It could be worse than that, however, because he said he “heard something pop.”

NEW YORK: Robinson Cano No. 24 of the New York Yankees connects on a fifth inning base hit against the Baltimore Orioles at Yankee Stadium. —AFP

Orioles get past Yankees NEW YORK: Adam Jones hit a two-run homer off Mariano Rivera in the ninth inning and the Baltimore Orioles beat the Yankees 2-1 on Sunday, ending New York’s longest winning streak of the season at six games. A healthy Hiroki Kuroda pitched seven innings of threehit ball for the Yankees, but they were unable to finish off a three-game sweep after Baltimore took all three games from them at Camden Yards last weekend.

David Robertson worked a 1-2-3 eighth and Rivera (1-2) entered looking to reach 30 saves for the 15th time, which would break a tie with Trevor Hoffman for the major league record. It was Rivera’s second blown save in 31 chances this year. Baseball’s career saves leader had converted 41 tries in a row at home since the start of the 2011 season.

Darren O’Day (5-0) got two outs and Jim Johnson, who blew a save in the series opener Friday, struck out two in a perfect ninth for his major league-leading 30th save in 36 attempts.

ANGELS 3, RED SOX 0 In Anaheim, Jered Weaver combined with three relievers on a five-hitter and All-Star Mike Trout homered to the lead the Angels to their 10th win in 12 games. Weaver (3-4) allowed five hits, struck out six and walked two in 6 2-3 innings. It was his first outing since becoming a father on Friday, when he named his first child Aden David Weaver in honor of his late teammate and friend Nick Adenhart.

Weaver beat former teammate John Lackey (6-6), whose three-game winning streak ended.

Lackey struck out nine in seven innings and was charged with two runs and five hits.

Ernesto Frieri pitched the ninth to earn his 22nd save in 24 chances.

RAYS 3, WHITE SOX 1 In St. Petersburg, David Price went the distance to win his second straight start since returning from an injury, helping the Rays finish a three-game series sweep.

Price (3-4) worked around eight hits. The 2012 AL Cy Young Award winner spent 47 days on the disabled list with a strained left triceps, then came back and struck out 10 in seven shutout innings against Houston. The Rays have won eight of nine to move a season-high nine games over .500.

Josh Phegley hit his first major league homer for Chicago, which has lost nine of 11.

John Danks (2-6) allowed three runs and five hits over seven innings.

ATHLETICS 10, ROYALS 4 In Kansas City, Josh Reddick homered and drove in four runs, and Jed Lowrie and Eric Sogard also went deep for Oakland.

AJ Griffin (7-6) rebounded from a miserable start against the Cubs to go five innings for the

A’s. The only damage he allowed came on solo homers by George Kottaras and Alex Gordon.

Jesse Chavez earned his first career save with four scoreless innings of relief. Luis Mendoza (25) allowed five runs in the second inning for the Royals, and was yanked to a round of boos after retiring just four batters. It was the right-hander’s shortest start in exactly five years - since an outing on July 7, 2008, when he was still with Texas.

BLUE JAYS 11, TWINS 5 In Toronto, Todd Redmond pitched one-hit ball over five innings for his first major league win and Toronto beat Minnesota for the 10th time in the last 13 meetings. Rajai Davis hit a three-run homer and Jose Reyes and Colby Rasmus also connected for the Blue Jays.

Redmond (1-1) allowed two runs, with three walks and four strikeouts. He was making his first start of the season for Toronto and just the second of his career. The right-hander was called up from Triple-A last week after the Blue Jays designated Chien-Ming Wang for assignment. All three Toronto homers came off Scott Diamond (5-8), who lost for the fourth time in six starts. The Blue Jays took two out of three and have not lost a series against Minnesota since May 2007.

INDIANS 9, TIGERS 6 In Cleveland, Michael Brantley’s two-run homer in the eighth inning off Al Alburquerque helped Cleveland snap a seven-game skid against Detroit. Brantley hit a solo homer in the sixth and had a career-high five RBIs. He drove a 3-1 pitch from Alburquerque (1-2) over the wall in right as the Indians recovered after their bullpen blew a five-run lead. Detroit had overpowered Cleveland in the first two games of the four-game series, and the Tigers rallied to tie it 6-all in the eighth on Torii Hunter’s threerun homer. Cody Allen (4-1) got one out in the eighth and Chris Perez gave up a single in the ninth before getting his ninth save.

RANGERS 5, ASTROS 4 In Arlington, AJ Pierzynski hit a three-run homer, Nelson Cruz had a tiebreaking single in the fifth inning to lift Texas. Five Rangers relievers, including right-hander Joakim Soria in his first appearance in nearly two years, pitched a scoreless inning apiece after rookie starter Justin Grimm couldn’t get an out in the fifth.

Cory Burns (1-0) got the win, and Joe Nathan pitched a perfect ninth for his 29th save in 30 chances a day after making his sixth All-Star team and second in two seasons with Texas.

Pierzynski gave the Rangers a 3-0 lead in the first inning with his 8th homer, a shot into the Texas bullpen in right field after consecutive walks to Elvis Andrus and Cruz by Erik Bedard (3-5).—AP

CUBS 4, PIRATES 3 In Chicago, pinch-hitter Dioner Navarro lifted a game-ending sacrifice fly in the 11th inning, sending the Chicago Cubs over Pittsburgh.

The Pirates tied it with two outs in the ninth on Starling Marte’s solo homer. Pittsburgh has dropped three of four and fallen into a tie with St. Louis for the NL Central lead and the best record in the majors. Anthony Rizzo and Alfonso Soriano singled in the Cubs’ 11th. Pirates catcher Russell Martin threw the ball into center field while trying to pick off Rizzo, allowing both runners to advance.

Luis Valbuena was walked intentionally before Navarro’s fly ball off Bryan Morris (4-3) gave the Cubs their seventh win in 11 games. Matt Guerrier (3-4) pitched two scoreless innings.

PHILLIES 7, BRAVES 3 In Philadelphia, freshly chosen All-Star Domonic Brown homered, tripled and drove in two runs as the Philadelphia Phillies topped Atlanta.

Ben Revere hit a two-run triple for Philadelphia, which took two of three from the NL East leaders.

Chris Johnson homered and Brian McCann got three hits for Atlanta, which has lost 10 of its last 15 road games. Winner Jonathan Pettibone (5-3) allowed one run on five hits in 5 1-3 innings. Kris Medlen (6-8) gave up a season-high six earned runs in 5 1-3 innings.

NATIONALS 11, PADRES 7 In Washington, Ryan Zimmerman hit a grand slam, Bryce Harper added three hits and two stolen bases, and the Washington Nationals sent San Diego to its ninth straight loss.

Stephen Strasburg (5-6) allowed four runs over six innings. He matched his season-high with nine strikeouts as the Nationals won their fourth straight, the last three over San Diego.

Zimmerman’s slam off Robbie Erlin (1-2) put Washington ahead 5-1 in the third inning. Two batters later, Anthony Rendon hit a two-run homer.

Rendon and Strasburg had RBI singles during the Nationals’ four-run fifth. Washington is four games over .500 for the first time since April 12.

San Diego lost the final nine on its 10-game road trip.

DODGERS 4, GIANTS 1 In San Francisco, AJ Ellis hit a three-run double in the ninth inning, All-Star Clayton Kershaw made a third straight stellar start and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat slumping San Francisco.

Kershaw (8-5), a candidate to start the All-Star game for the National League, wasn’t as sharp as he’d been in his previous two starts but still only allowed one run over eight innings. He helped the Dodgers move into second place in the West heading into a three-game series with division-leading Arizona.

Kershaw also pitched out of a two-on, two-out jam in the eighth before Kenley Jansen worked the ninth for his ninth save.

Hanley Ramirez doubled and tripled to extend his career-high hitting streak to 18 games. Rookie Yasiel Puig added two hits, including a single that started the ninth off Sergio Romo (3-4). The Giants

PHOENIX: Infielder Jonathan Herrera No. 18 of the Colorado Rockies throws over the sliding Paul Goldschmidt No. 44 of the Arizona Diamondbacks to complete a double play during the seventh inning of the MLB game. —AFP have dropped 11 of 13.

CARDINALS 3, MARLINS 2 In St. Louis, Lance Lynn outpitched Marlins AllStar Jose Fernandez for his 11th win and Matt Holliday homered for the St. Louis Cardinals as they wrapped up a three-game sweep.

Lynn (11-3) worked seven strong innings and matched All-Star Adam Wainwright for the team lead in wins, bouncing back from losses in consecutive starts for the first time in his career. He struck out seven, fanning Giancarlo Stanton all three times. Edward Mujica pitched for the fourth straight game and finished for his 23rd save in 24 chances, giving him a win and two saves in the series. The 20-year-old Fernandez (5-5) worked six innings a day after getting the nod as the Marlins’ lone All-Star and gave up three runs on four hits and a season-high four walks.

METS 2, BREWERS 1 In Milwaukee, Jeremy Hefner allowed one run on two hits over seven innings and the New York Mets turned two throwing errors by Milwaukee third baseman Juan Francisco into a pair of unearned runs.

Josh Satin had two doubles and a single for the

Mets, scoring one run and driving in the other to extend his hitting streak to 11 games.

Hefner (4-6) matched his career-high with eight strikeouts and has a 1.64 ERA since June 4. Bobby Parnell came on with a runner on first and two outs in the eighth and finished for his 15th save.

Reliever Tom Gorzelanny (1-2), pressed into his second spot start of the season to give Willy Peralta a couple extra days to rest his ailing left hamstring, allowed two unearned runs in six innings and struck out eight.

INTERLEAGUE MARINERS 3, REDS 1 In Cincinnati, Joe Saunders pitched seven efficient innings and Nick Franklin and Justin Smoak each homered to lift the Seattle Mariners over Cincinnati. Saunders (7-8) gave up six hits, walked none and struck out two while winning back-toback starts for the first time this season.

Charlie Furbush pitched a 1-2-3 eighth and Tom Wilhelmsen was perfect in the ninth for his 18th save, helping the Mariners pick up their second win of the three-game series and improve to 10-2 against the Reds since interleague play began in 1997. Bronson Arroyo (7-7) fell behind during a 32pitch first inning.—AP

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

American League Eastern Division W L Boston 54 36 Baltimore 49 40 Tampa Bay 49 40 NY Yankees 48 40 Toronto 43 45 Central Division Detroit 48 39 Cleveland 46 42 Kansas City 41 44 Minnesota 37 48 Chicago White Sox 34 51 Western Division Oakland 52 37 Texas 51 37 LA Angels 43 45 Seattle 39 49 Houston 32 57

PCT .600 .551 .551 .545 .489

GB 4.5 4.5 5 10

Atlanta Washington Philadelphia NY Mets Miami

.552 .523 .482 .435 .400

2.5 6 10 13

Pittsburgh St. Louis Cincinnati Chicago Cubs Milwaukee

.584 .580 .489 .443 .360

0.5 8.5 12.5 20

Arizona LA Dodgers Colorado San Francisco San Diego

National League Eastern Division 50 38 46 42 43 46 37 48 32 55 Central Division 53 34 53 34 50 38 38 48 35 52 Western Division 47 41 42 45 42 47 40 47 40 49

.568 .523 .483 .435 .368

4 7.5 11.5 17.5

.609 .609 .568 .442 .402

3.5 14.5 18

.534 .483 .472 .460 .449

4.5 5.5 6.5 7.5

America’s Cup gets under way with one-boat race

SAN FRANCISCO: Emirates Team New Zealand’s AC72 catamaran sails past Alcatraz Island during the first round robin of the Louis Vuitton Cup. Luna Rossa Challenge, originally slated to compete Sunday, chose to sit out the race while awaiting a jury decision on a protest motion. —AFP

SAN FRANCISCO: The 34th America’s Cup sailing regatta began in San Francisco on Sunday with only one team competing in the first race as Italy’s Luna Rossa Challenge sat it out in protest of rule changes it says put it at a disadvantage.

In an bizarre start to a competition that was originally meant to attract a dozen or more international challengers, Emirates Team New Zealand sailed the race course alone in San Francisco Bay in order to formally win the first of several matches in the Louis Vuitton Cup. The winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup will challenge software tycoon Larry Ellison’s Oracle Team USA for the America’s Cup in September.

Luna Rossa failure to show up for the midday match that was supposed to k ick off the America’s Cup “summer of racing” was another setback for an event where little has gone as planned.

Both Luna Rossa, backed by Prada fashion mogul Patrizio Bertelli, and New Zealand have objected to boat design changes that were put in place after a May accident that killed Artemis Racing crew member Andrew Simpson, an

Olympic sailing champion from Britain, and wrecked the team’s boat.

An international jury is considering the arguments, but a formal hearing was not scheduled until Monday — a day after the opening race.

Luna Rossa skipper Max Sirena said participating in the opening race would have implicitly signaled his team approves of the rule changes, which organizers say improve safety.

“We have no choice but to stay ashore until the International Jury has reached a decision on the matter. We have been forced into this position,” Sirena said on his team’s website on Sunday.

Cafes, bars and viewing areas at a venue organizers built on San Francisco’s waterfront for the Cup were far from crowded as the New Zealand yacht glided across the bay - alone - at speeds that briefly reached 42.8 knots, equivalent to 49 miles per hour, or 79 km per hour.

Ellison, who won the cup in 2010 and with it the right to set the rules for this year’s race, hoped to make the 162-year-old competition more accessible to everyday sports fans and push the boundaries of high-tech boat design.

The result was a competition featuring 72-foot lightweight twin-hulled boats made of carbon fiber, with hard “wing” mainsails. Called AC72s, the huge catamarans have the ability to lift up out of the water on hydrofoils, but criticism has grown that the boats are dangerous and hard to maneuver in San Francisco’s Bay’s heavy winds and rip currents.

“The people really hurt by this are the fans, who have waited for more than two years to see the first race in these spectacular AC72 catamarans,” said Stephen Barclay, the CEO of the America’s Cup Authority, in a news release on Saturday in response to Luna Rossa’s refusal to race.

Scuttled races are also a potentially major setback to teams that have invited hundreds of VIP sponsors to view the events up close in hospitality boats.

While, Luna Rossa’s refusal to sail on Sunday may in the end have little impact on the competition, it symbolizes how Oracle Corp CEO Ellison’s ambitious effort to reshape what critics deride as a rich man’s yacht race has gone awry. —Reuters

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

S P ORTS

McQuaid: Armstrong shouldn’t be factor in UCI race AIGLE: Seeking re-election amid fallout from the Lance Armstrong doping affair, UCI President Pat McQuaid believes the high-profile case should not be an issue in the campaign for the leadership of cycling’s world governing body.

McQuaid’s opponent, British federation leader Brian Cookson, has offered cycling a fresh start after the damaging case fuelled claims the UCI protected Armstrong from doping allegations during his 1999-2005 run of Tour de France wins. McQuaid, who became UCI leader in 2005 after Armstrong first retired, said Monday the American rider “and issues related to him” should not affect the September vote.

“I don’t think he should be a factor,” McQuaid said in an interview with The Associated Press as he launched his campaign manifesto yesterday. “This election should not be about what happened 10 years ago. This election should be about cycling today and cycling tomorrow.”

McQuaid’s key pledges in a 20-page document, “A Bright Future for a Changed Sport,” include to “preserve the new culture and era of clean cycling,”

promote women’s cycling and continue developing the sport outside its traditional European base.

As an IOC member since 2010, McQuaid also suggests cycling needs to maintain a voice within Olympic decision-making, including adding new medal events at the Summer Games.

Cookson claims support from cycling officials dissatisfied with how the UCI dealt with allegations about Armstrong’s doping, which was finally detailed in a report by the US Anti-Doping Agency last October.

Cookson’s manifesto also committed to improve the calendar of elite road races and women’s professional cycling both recommended by UCI consultants Deloitte in May. Then, McQuaid told the AP that the UCI was working with the World AntiDoping Agency to create an independent panel to examine longstanding claims that the governing body covered up suspicious samples from Armstrong, and how it accepted $125,000 in donations from the now-disgraced rider.

“I expect it (the audit panel) to be up

and running before September,” the Irish official said Monday, adding that he hoped Armstrong would “remain out” of the campaign.

McQuaid suggested that cycling officials worldwide were not as concerned with the Armstrong case. “They see it as a scandal that has happened in the past,” he said. “They are more interested in how they see the UCI developing the sport.

That is the basis I am standing on and there is work still to continue.” McQuaid seeks a third four-year term in office at the UCI’s election congress on Sept. 27, on the sidelines of the road world championships in Florence, Italy.

“The first term is only just getting to know what the job is about,” said the former UCI road-race commission chairman, who succeeded Hein Verbruggen of the Netherlands. “The second term, you start implementing things and then if you get a third term you can see them through.”

The winner requires a simple majority in a secret ballot by 42 delegates divided among the UCI’s five continental confederations. The strongest opposition to McQuaid is likely to come from parts of

Europe and the Americas, which have 23 votes combined.

McQuaid believes that a first week at the Tour de France with exciting stages watched by enthusiastic crowds backs his claim that the endemic culture of doping has changed.

“There is evidence from (race leader Chris) Froome and Dan Martin that you can win clean,” said the UCI leader, who was in Corsica for the opening stages.

“You see human performances now.

Riders are up one day, down the next day. That is natural, that is human.”

How to combat doping is an inevitable election issue: Cookson calls for the UCI’s anti-doping foundation to be fully independent, and McQuaid says it needs only an independent board and new office base away from the governing body’s headquarters, partly funded by top-tier teams.

McQuaid has raised tensions by calling Cookson’s idea “half baked, fundamentally flawed and financially impractical.” Earlier, he questioned Cookson’s links to wealthy Russian cycling boss Igor Makarov in a strongly worded letter to

national federations, which prompted the challenger to remark about “megaphone diplomacy.”

“I asked questions which were pertinent questions about his manifesto,” McQuaid said. “I don’t call that bullying, that’s politics.”

“I’m not by nature an aggressive person,” he said, adding that the presidency made him tougher, in battles with big race organizers, team bosses and WADA. “Verbruggen was known to be a tough leader, and I said coming in I would be the opposite. I wasn’t long in in the job until I realized that it was just impossible.”

Cookson responded Monday by reminding that Deloitte urged the UCI to restore its own credibility and tackle the public perception of its leaders.

“It is my belief and that of many others that we need a complete change of leadership in order to successfully achieve this,” Cookson said in a statement. In an election contest which appears tight, McQuaid said punishing him for the UCI’s past should not be decisive. “I would hope that it doesn’t and I would think that it doesn’t,” he said.—AP

Blixt wins Greenbrier title

Tony McGahan

Rebels oust Hill, install McGahan MELBOURNE: The Melbourne Rebels have continued their end-of-season clean-out by sacking head coach Damien Hill, a day after sensationally dumping Australia back James O’Connor.

Hill will be replaced by former Munster coach Tony McGahan who joins the struggling Super Rugby franchise on a two-year deal, the team said yesterday.

Hill’s dismissal adds to sweeping changes to the Rebels roster with captain Gareth Delve, and Wallabies backs Nick Phipps and Cooper Vuna, among a raft of players departing. “There are many, many attributes that need to be in alignment to actually create a sustainable winning culture and that’s not born overnight,” chief executive Rob Clarke, who took over the club mid-season, told Reuters by telephone.

“In a young club like ours it will take some time but tough decisions obviously need to be made at various times to help to get toward that outcome.”

McGahan helped Munster to two Heineken Cup titles as defensive coach before being named head coach in 2008. He ended his six-year stint with the Irish province in 2011 to join the Wallabies as an assistant coach to Robbie Deans last year.

It was unclear whether he would remain in the Wallabies role, with the Australian Rugby Union expected to fire Deans this week in the wake of the 2-1 series loss to the British and Irish Lions.

McGahan’s appointment puts an end to speculation that Ewen McKenzie, outgoing coach of the rival Queensland Reds, would take over the Rebels post if overlooked for the Wallabies role.

McKenzie is in a two-horse race to replace Deans with former World Cup-winning coach Jake White, according to local media.

Tipped for a big improvement in their third season of Super Rugby, the Rebels have disappointed during a tough year marred by injuries and discipline problems with key players.

Hill, an assistant to inaugural Rebels coach Rod Macqueen, managed only four wins after taking over from the World Cup-winning mentor last year and has added only four victories this year with one match left to play in the regular season.

The Rebels were also shaken by off-field dramas surrounding marquee signing Kurtley Beale, who punched former Wales backrower Delve and another team mate in a boozy incident on a team bus in South Africa.

Beale and O’Connor joined the team last year in what was considered a recruiting coup, but have given the team little value due to a string of injuries and off-field problems.

The duo have a long discipline rap-sheet and were under fire during the Lions series after they were photographed at a fast food outlet at four in the morning days before the second test in Melbourne. Clarke said “offfield elements” had been a factor in releasing the 23-year-old O’Connor, a Wallabies posterboy. Local media have speculated that Beale will head back to his native Sydney to re-join the New South Wales Waratahs, and Clarke, overseeing the club’s comprehensive review, was equivocal about retaining the wayward back.

“Kurtley’s a quality player and he’s an international player so we will look at all of those types of factors as we weigh up our roster and whether Kurtley himself wants to remain here or whether he sees his future elsewhere,” he said.

Hill will coach the Rebels for their last game of the season at home to New Zealand’s Highlanders on Friday.—Reuters

WEST VIRGINIA: Swede Jonas Blixt took advantage of a last-day collapse by overnight leader Johnson Wagner to win his second PGA Tour title by two shots at the Greenbrier Classic in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia on Sunday.

Four strokes off the pace heading into a weather-interrupted final round that ended in fading light, Blixt fired a three-under-par 67 in rain-softened conditions on The Greenbrier’s Old White Course.

The 29-year-old Swede held his nerve over a pressure-packed closing stretch, mixing four birdies with two bogeys over the last 10 holes to post a 13-under total of 267.

American Wagner, two ahead overnight in his bid for a fourth PGA Tour victory, dropped three shots after the turn as he struggled for accuracy off the tee on the way to a 73 and a four-way tie for second place.

Also finishing at 11-under were Wagner’s compatriot and playing partner Jimmy Walker (71), and Australians Steven Bowditch (68) and Matt Jones (68).

Blixt, who had missed eight cuts in 16 starts on the 2013 PGA Tour before this week with a best finish of joint 11th at the Crowne Plaza Invitational in May, choked back the tears as he reflected on his come-from-behind win.

“This year has been kind of a bad year for me so to pull it off, I can’t believe it,” the emotional Swede, who earned an automatic place at next year’s Masters with his triumph, told Golf Channel.

“I am really happy. Just to be able to play Augusta (National) ... so many dreams come true. “It’s just one week and the whole year kind of turns around,” added Blixt, who clinched his maiden PGA Tour title by one shot at last year’s Frys.com Open.

The final round was interrupted

by a weather delay of just over three hours as thunder rumbled and lightning cracked overhead and a Monday finish appeared to be on the cards when the action finally resumed in the late afternoon.

Wagner eventually teed off in the last pairing shortly after 5:00 p.m. ET (2100 GMT) under leaden skies and light drizzle and he threeputted for bogey at the par-four second for his overnight lead to be cut to one at 13 under.

However, Walker followed suit when he three-putted from well below the hole at the par-three third to hand Wagner a two-stroke advantage.

Though Walker rebounded with a birdie at the par-four fifth, where he struck a superb approach to six feet, Wagner responded with a curling 15-footer to birdie the sixth and regain his two-shot lead at 14under. Blixt briefly trimmed Wagner’s advantage to one with birdies at the fifth, ninth and 10th but the Swede slid back with a bogey at the par-four 11th after missing the green to the right with his approach. Wagner then bogeyed the 11th after hitting a poor chip from greenside rough and was caught in a two-way tie at the top at 13-under when Blixt knocked in a five-footer to birdie the par-five 12th. The Swede also succumbed to the pressure over the closing stretch when he bogeyed the par-four 13th after finding the left rough off the tee.

Moments later, Wagner faltered at the same hole, a three-putt there dropping him back into a tie for the lead with Blixt at 12-under.

Blixt seized the outright lead for the first time by sinking a nine-foot birdie putt at the 16th and soon after found himself two strokes in front when Wagner bogeyed the short 15th after missing green to

WEST VIRGINIA: Jonas Blixt of Sweden poses with the trophy following his victory in the Greenbrier Classic at the Old White TPC. —AFP left off the tee.

As twilight fast approached, Blixt narrowly missed a seven-foot birdie putt at the 17th, then safely two-putted from long range at the par-three 18th to remain at 13under, two ahead of the chasing pack. Striving for late birdies, Wagner and Walker each parred the

McDowell bags French Open FRANCE: Tied with Richard Sterne of South Africa in the final round of the French Open, Graeme McDowell didn’t wilt on the back nine.

The Northern Irishman made two of his five birdies on the way home to shoot a 4-under 67 Sunday and capture his ninth European Tour title by four strokes.

Sterne, by contrast, made three birdies on the front nine before faltering after the turn with three bogeys to hit a 71 and finish runner-up.

“Thankfully I’ve managed to learn how to calm my emotions and learn how to respond under pressure, sometimes,” McDowell said. “I’m starting to become very comfortable under pressure.”

McDowell won the World Match-Play Championship in May, but missed the cut in his

three following tournaments. That could have given rise to doubt on the tough Albatross course of Le Golf National, which will host the Ryder Cup in 2018, but he put that aside to finish in style. “ There was no real panic button,” McDowell said. “It’s been a funny season.

Inconsistent, yes. But when it’s been good, it’s been really good.”

Graeme Storm of England, the 2007 winner, and Eduardo De La Riva of Spain shot 69s to share third place, five strokes off the pace.

McDowell played solidly throughout the tournament, making only four bogeys in four rounds. In fifth place after the second round, the 2010 US Open champion started believing in his chances on Saturday. “The last 12, 13 holes yesterday, I felt the old juices kind of starting to flow

Israel must ease travel for Palestinian players — Blatter RAMALLAH: FIFA president Sepp Blatter told Palestinian sports leaders on Sunday that he would speak to Israeli officials to try to ease travel restrictions on Palestinian soccer players.

The head of the sport’s governing body was due to meet Israel’s soccer chiefs late yesterday and was also hoping to speak to political leaders on the matter.

Palestinians are angry that Israel’s security forces, who control movement between the Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied West Bank frequently prevent athletes from travelling freely between the two separated territories.

“I will go to defend not only the Palestine Football Association but I will defend the basic principles of FIFA (which are) to connect people and not to separate people... The principles are ... to recognise each other through football and to live not only in peace but in harmony,” Blatter said.

Palestine FA head Jibril Rajoub threatened that if the matter was not resolved satisfacto-

rily, he would call on delegates at the next FIFA Congress to expel Israel.

Israel cites security concerns but says it has eased travel for athletes between Palestinian territories. The Palestinians want the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for a future state with Arab East Jerusalem as its capital.

The West Bank, which is controlled by Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of the secular Fatah faction has self-rule in some areas but Israel has overall military control of the territory.

Israel allows a small number of Palestinians through the border posts that it controls around Gaza, mainly for medical treatment. It also maintains a naval blockade of the strip but a border crossing with Egypt is largely open for travel.

“We hope the Israelis will not lose this chance to reconsider their behavior with the Palestinians. If they do not ... we will ask next year that Israel should be expelled from FIFA,” Rajoub said.—Reuters

last three holes to ensure that Blixt would celebrate a second victory on the PGA Tour.

“I am so happy I pulled it off,” said the Swede. “It was a little bit ‘iffy’ today but I pulled out some really good shots and had some short birdie putts that I could make.

It’s awesome.”—Reuters

FRANCE: Northern Ireland golfer Graeme McDowell poses with his trophy after winning the EPGA French golf Open. —AFP

again,” McDowell said. “I hit a lot of quality shots coming in yesterday, and I got a lot of belief from that. You know, if the putter had been a little hotter perhaps I could have got my nose in front a little earlier in this tournament.”

McDowell and Sterne entered the final round with a share of the lead and both broke away from the field by making two birdies for a threeshot advantage after five holes.

Sterne won the Joburg Open in South Africa and was the runner-up at the Dubai Desert Classic, both in February. “He really hung in there, played some great golf, and I knew it was not going to be an easy day,” McDowell said.

“The way he played kind of inspired me to play better, and you know it was a really good battle with him.”

McDowell missed short birdie putts on Nos. 6, 11 and 14. But the Northern Irishman could rely on his accurate long game.

“That was the key really,” said McDowell, who led the field in hitting greens. “Short game was tricky around this course. The rough was quite sticky and the greens were quite firm and fast.

You had to be very careful to leave the ball on the correct side of the pin, and I hit a lot of greens.” Sterne initially got the upper hand when McDowell missed a short par putt on No. 7. But McDowell picked up a shot on No. 10 to draw level with Sterne. He then took sole possession of the lead when the South African sent his tee shot into the thick rough to bogey No. 12.

McDowell smiled when he sank a short par putt on No. 16 to increase his lead to two strokes as Sterne sailed 15 feet past the flag from a chip on the edge of the green to make bogey.

“Fifteen and 16 were just kind of those lucky breaks that you need when you win tournaments,” McDowell said. “Fifteen was an average putt which I thought missed and it went in.

Sixteen, I still don’t know how that putt went in.

It was a right-to-left putt that I was trying to hit right edge and I felt like I started it left edge, and it managed to go in.”

McDowell rode the momentum with a birdie on No. 17 while Sterne missed a four-foot par putt. After clearing the water hazard on the last, McDowell waved to the crowd on his way to the green with victory just about secured.—AP

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

S P ORTS Contador: Situation not ideal FRANCE: Alberto Contador admitted yesterday that his position on the first rest day of this year’s Tour de France is not ideal but remains hopeful that nothing will be decided until the third and final week of the race. The Spaniard lay joint fifth in the overall standings, 1min 51sec behind yellow jersey wearer Chris Froome, when he and his Saxo teammates travelled north from the Pyrenees on Sunday night to rest up at La Baule, just up the Atlantic coast from Nantes.

There, the two-time Tour winner explained the reasons why he did not try to peg back some time on Froome during Sunday ’s stage from SaintGirons to Bagneres- de -Bigorre despite the evident shortcomings among the Kenyan-born Briton’s teammates.

“On the last climb I didn’t think that it made much sense to attack,” Contador said of the category one ascent to La Hourquette d’Ancizan.

“At the summit of the last ascent there were still another 30 kilometres to go to the finish and there were still a lot of riders in the group. “I thought I would be better off saving myself for the time trial,” he added, with one eye on tomorow ’s 11th stage from Avranches to Mont-Saint-Michel.

Froome remains out in front despite being left utterly alone during Sunday’s stage as all of his teammates were dropped, including Australian Richie Porte, who disappeared from sight after a superb ride

24 hours earlier.

However, the Spaniard does not expect to see Sky repeat their mistakes in the days to come. “It is always good to see that his team has weaknesses but that will not become a habit,” he said. “ What happened yesterday (Sunday) surprised more than a few people. If that happens again, we will need to take advantage. “Yesterday was not the day but I hope we will take advantage in the Alps.

“I would prefer to be where Froome is, especially before the timetrial, which will favor him.” With the exception of tomorrow’s individual time-trial, the coming week is unlikely to change much in the battle for the yellow jersey, but Contador, 30, hopes the final week, when the peloton hit the Alps, will see the situation turn in his favor.

Then, he hopes Froome will fade, just as he did during last year’s Vuelta, when he finished in fourth place as Contador emerged victorious.

“My condition is not brilliant but I improve ever y day in the Grand Tours,” he insisted. “I feel my best in the third week. Froome is very strong but we saw during the Vuelta last year that he struggled in the third week, so we need to wait and not think that it’s impossible.

“Of course I am going to try something. We need to know when to take risks, especially when ever yone is struggling.”—AFP

FRANCE: Britain’s Christopher Froome (left) and Spain’s Alberto Contador ride during the Tour de France cycling race. —AFP

Sky ready to face rivals after ‘war’ of stage nine LA BAULE: Team Sky said they are ready to adapt their strategy for the remainder of the Tour de France after the “war” of stage nine shook up race leader Chris Froome.

After the euphoria of Froome’s stunning victory atop Ax-Trois-Domaines gave the Kenyan-born Briton the race lead on Saturday, Sky were put to the test on Sunday ’s second day in the Pyrenees as teams colluded to loosen their grip.

By the end of the stage Froome was still in command but aggressive racing

by Sky’s rivals saw Australian teammate Richie Porte, sitting second overall at 51secs overnight, tumble to the nether regions of the overall standings.

Sky’s spectacular collapse left Froome on his own and exposed to attacks by rivals like Alberto Contador (Saxo) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar).

Froome ultimately weathered the storm, and team principal Dave Brailsford gave him a pat on the back.

“To use a boxing analogy, he’s taken the biggest right hook on the chin and he didn’t flinch,” said Brailsford. Faced with suggestions that Sky had hit too hard, too soon and have upset rivals who will pounce later in the race, Brailsford was defiant.

“We’ve learned some lessons and there are some valuable lessons to be learned that we will take into the rest of the race,” he said.

Brailsford was hesitant to elaborate but added: “We will adapt our strategy for the rest of the race. I’m not going to go into the details of what we’re going to change.” While Froome did not lose any time on stage nine, the loss of Porte as a potential podium finisher is a major handicap for Sky in terms of tactics.

Attacks by either rider in the coming mountain stages would likely prompt rivals to spend energy counter-attacking, allowing Sky to save energy and attack when they decide the time is

right. Froome admitted: “From my side it’s a huge shame that we don’t have that card to play now, and of course it’s a shame for Richie.”

Porte, meanwhile, put his collapse down to an ‘off-day’, a common occurrence for riders on the demanding three-week Grand Tours.

“Anybody here who’s been a bicycle racer knows on the Grand Tours you have good and bad days,” said the Australian, the reigning Paris-Nice champion. But he admitted that Sky’s success on Saturday had elicited an “angry ” response from their rivals.

“There was an angry peloton that threw ever ything they had at us...

Yesterday was a special day, it makes for great viewing at home. But it was an absolute war.”

After Sunday ’s stage Froome and Porte admitted they had both possibly suffered their “worst” day on the bike.

And with 12 stages remaining, including a time trial on Wednesday over 33 km and several brutal days in the Alps in the final week, most will expect Sky to come under attack again.

Porte, for one, is hoping Froome can help restore order in the peloton by taking more time off his rivals in tomorrow’s time trial.

“My hope is that it (race) will become a little bit more controlled, and it is going to get easier after the time trial,” added the Tasmanian.

Brailsford, meanwhile, says his team will simply have to adapt their strategy as the race moves on towards the Alps.

Stage 15 to Mont Ventoux could be the next battleground.

“I don’t have a crystal ball,” added Brailsford. “This is sport... we’re here, we’ve got a team of committed riders, we’ve got some strong opposition, we’re leading the race, we’ve got some time trials to come, some different mountain stages and we’ll try to adapt our strategy for those.”—AFP

Photo of the day

Toma Coconea and Martin Freinademetz perform during the Red Bull Man Against Machine at Lake Balea. —www.redbullcontentpool.com

Vettel cracks Germany, further challenges await NUERBURGRING: Sebastian Vettel finally got the monkey off his back and triumphed at his home German Grand Prix but more challenges await this month with a tyre test and a race in Hungary he has never won.

Red Bull’s triple world champion increased his lead in the current standings to 34 points on Sunday after holding off a late charge from Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen to the delight of thousands of German fans at the famous Nuerburgring track.

The victory was his first in July and he will now head to Budapest at the end of the month with renewed confidence, even if the tyres set to be used at the Hungaroring will differ from Germany.

A series of dangerous tyre blowouts at the British Grand Prix two Sundays ago forced supplier Pirelli to rush out a safer set of rear tyres for the Nuerburgring which had an inner belt of Kevlar, a synthetic fibre, rather than steel.

A more long-term approach will be taken from Hungary with tyres more similar to 2012 set to be introduced after a special testing session for F1 drivers at the young drivers’ test at Silverstone July 1719. Uncertainty still reigns though. “ There’s a test at Silverstone where race drivers are allowed to test and so we have a tyre test you can say, for at least a day and get a little bit more of an idea, and then I think Pirelli will make up their mind and decide to get together with the FIA,” Vettel told reporters.

“Whether the teams like it or not, it doesn’t matter. So I think at this point we don’t know which tyres we are probably running in Hungary. The most important thing is that we learn the lesson from

previous races, especially Silverstone.”

Red Bull will be sad to see the rears from Germany go after being impressed with how they degraded

excellent effort by Lotus and the Frenchman also feels much happier with Pirelli’s new tyre outlook after complaints from teams all year about high degradation.

qualifying on Saturday to conserve tyres for the race but Fernando Alonso, second in the overall standings, only managed to climb to fourth. The Italian team’s perform-

GERMANY: Red Bull Racing’s German driver Sebastian Vettel celebrates on the podium at the Nurburgring race track in this file photo. —AFP and per formed safety-wise, although they had one calamity at a Mark Webber pit stop when a rear tyre came free and hit a television cameraman, who broke his collarbone and two ribs.

“There are further changes for Budapest and teams get a chance to try it out at Silverstone. I don’t think the tyres need to be so high in degradation to produce good races,” team principal Christian Horner said after a thrilling end to the race in Germany.

Romain Grosjean was third in an

“I am looking forward to using the full new tyres from Budapest onwards that I understood a little bit better last year than this year,” he said.

The only team puzzled by this weekend’s tyres were home hopes Mercedes, who endured a difficult race with Lewis Hamilton slipping from pole to fifth and Nico Rosberg coming a lowly ninth as they struggled with high temperatures affecting the rubber.

Ferrari took a bold strategy by deciding not to push for pole in

ance in Hungary could be key to the rest of the season with 10 races remaining this year.

The three -week gap until Budapest is likely to see developments on Pirelli’s bid for a contractextension for 2014 with big engine rules changes coming in next year and limited testing opportunities.

Champions Red Bull are also losing Webber to endurance racing at the end of the year and a rumored announcement of Raikkonen as his replacement cannot be discounted this month.—Reuters

Formula One pitlane safety under spotlight GERMANY: Formula One faced calls for improved pitlane safety after a cameraman was hit and injured by a bouncing wheel that came off Mark Webber’s Red Bull during Sunday’s German Grand Prix. Mechanics wear flameproof overalls and helmets during pitstops but others in the restricted group given access to the pitlane — such as the media — do so without protective headgear.

Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn told reporters after Briton Paul Allen was taken to hospital with a broken collarbone and fractured ribs that it was time to tighten up the procedures.

“We should be thinking that all people in the pitlane are properly dressed and equipped.

Everyone in the pitlane should have a helmet on,” he said. “It is certainly worth reviewing the

whole thing.” Red Bull team boss Christian Horner agreed. “These cars have so much energy in them and it is a timely reminder that things can go wrong,” he told reporters after his triple world champion Sebastian Vettel won his home race at the Nuerburgring for the first time.

“The mechanics wear safety gear and helmets. Maybe it is time that we looked at safety equipment for the other operational people working in the pit lane.

“The camera guys are getting close to the action. They are getting some great pictures but it is still a dangerous environment,” he added.

Tyre changes are now quicker than ever, regularly under three seconds, and pitstops are also more frequent because the 2013 Pirelli tyres are less durable than last year.

Allen was fortunate that the tyre struck him

on the back and not the head. This season has already seen one racetrack fatality, with marshal Mark Robinson killed at last month’s Canadian Grand Prix when he was run over by a recovery tractor removing a car from the side of the track.

The two previous Formula One race weekend fatalities involved trackside marshals being struck on the head by wheels flying off cars Paolo Ghislimberti in Italy in 2000 and Graham Beveridge in Australia in 2001.

Tethers were introduced after Ghislimberti’s death to prevent wheels from flying off cars in accidents but Webber’s was never properly attached.

Television camera crew at the Le Mans 24 Hours sportscar race, where there is also the risk of a flare-up as cars are refuelled, wear light protective headgear as well as overalls.—Reuters

Atletico to sign Barca’s Villa MADRID: Atletico Madrid have reached a deal in principle to sign Spain striker David Villa from Barcelona, the Catalans said yesterday. Having signed for Barca in a 40 million euro ($51.5 million) deal from Valencia in 2010, the 31-yearold, who struggled to hold down a regular first team place at the Camp Nou last season, will cost Atletico just 5.1 million euros.

“FC Barcelona and Atletico de Madrid have reached an agreement in principle for the transfer of the player David Villa to the Madrid club,” said Barca in a statement.

“The operation will cost a maximum of 5.1 million euros, made up

of 2.1 million euros this season, two million more if the player remains at Atletico in 2014/15 and another million if he extends his contract until 2015/16.

“In the meantime Barcelona retain the rights to 50 percent of any future transfer of the player.” Villa will henceforth fill the void left by Colombian striker Radamel Falcao’s transfer from Atletico to Monaco.

Villa began his career at Sporting Gijon before moving on to Real Zaragoza and then Valencia in 2005.

He scored 108 goals in 166 league games for Valencia, becoming one of the hottest strikers in Spanish football.—AFP

PARIS: A file picture taken on April 1, 2013 shows Barcelona’s Spanish striker David Villa. —AFP

19

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

SPORTS

LONG POND: James Hinchcliffe, of Canada, crashes in Turn 1 on the first lap of the Pocono IndyCar 400 auto race. —AP

Dixon wins in IndyCar Series return to Pocono LONG POND: Scott Dixon felt like his losing streak stretched as long as IndyCar’s absence from Pocono.

After 24 years, the series returned to the triangle track.

And it was a big welcome back to Victory Lane for Dixon. Dixon enjoyed it so much, he even had two of his teammates tag along on the podium.

Dixon led a monster day for Chip Ganassi Racing, leading a podium sweep for the team with a win Sunday at the IndyCar Series event at Pocono Raceway.

He was followed by Ganassi teammates Charlie Kimball and Dario Franchitti in IndyCar’s first race at Pocono since 1989.

Ganassi was waiting when Dixon hopped out of the No. 9 Honda. “I said to him, ‘This morning, I didn’t think we’d be sitting here,’” Dixon said. “To say the least, it was a little bit of a shock.”

Dixon struggled this season to make a serious run at wins and had led only one lap, at the Indianapolis 500.

He led the final 27 at Pocono for his 30th career IndyCar victory. He snapped a 13-race winless streak that dated to the Aug. 12, 2012 race at Mid-Ohio.

“It has been a tough year,” Dixon said. “We’ve had some great races and we’ve had a lot of bad ones.

That’s motor racing, man.”

He caught a big break when Tony Kanaan clipped Dixon’s car on a pass for the lead and was forced to pit road. Dixon dominated down the stretch of the 400mile race and became IndyCar’s eighth different winner in 11 races this season.

Kanaan lost his bid at the Triple Crown when he clipped his front wing on Dixon’s car. Kanaan connect-

ed with Dixon on a pass for the lead on the 107th lap.

Kanaan had to pit three laps later and faded to the back. He lost the lead - and a chance for $1 million.

With Pocono back on the schedule, IndyCar resurrected the “Triple Crown” challenge, a three-race competition for $1 million to the driver that wins the Indianapolis 500, Pocono and the season finale at Fontana. A driver who wins two of the three can win a $250,000 bonus from promotion sponsor Fuzzy’s Vodka, leaving Kanaan and Dixon still eligible for the prize. Kanaan had no idea he hit Dixon and spent most of the rest of the race a lap down. He finished 13th.

“I made a mistake and it cost us big,” Kanaan said. “I had a run on Dixon but didn’t really think that I was closing that fast on him. We had a car that was capable of winning this race.”

Andretti Autosport had three of them after it qualified three drivers on the front row. But James Hinchcliffe and Ryan Hunter-Reay were involved in accidents and Marco Andretti battled fuel woes over the final laps.

Will Power was fourth and Josef Newgarden fifth.

Points leader Helio Castroneves was eighth. Dixon’s win helped push him to fourth in the points standings.

He also moved into 10th on IndyCar’s career wins list.

“Considering the crazy and poor results we’ve had throughout the year, it’s still astonishing that we are fourth in the championship,” he said.

This was the first time Ganassi swept a podium in any form of racing: IndyCar, CART, NASCAR or GrandAm. It was the 100th win for Ganassi’s Target-spon-

sored cars in all forms of motor sports and the 200th in IndyCar competition for engine manufacturer Honda.

“I had no idea we’d go 1-2-3,” Ganassi said. “I was just hoping for a decent finish today.” Kimball matched his career-best finish and Franchitti had his first podium finish of the season. When Franchitti walked into the media center, he mused, “Who saw that one coming?”

Certainly not the guys at Andretti. Andretti Autosport’s banner qualifying effort that saw three cars start on the front row was wasted before the second lap. Hinchcliffe’s bid for his series-high fourth win was derailed when he tagged the wall heading into the first turn of the first lap.

Hinchcliffe, who started third, limped as he walked out of his car. He said he just banged up one of his knees. Hinchcliffe was cleared at the infield care center and worked the rest of the race in ABC’s broadcast booth. “The car just snapped loose on me,” he said.

“We went a bit aggressive on setup because we had an understeering car all week, and we didn’t want that in the race. Maybe we overstepped it a bit.”

Hunter-Reay started second and was running in the top five when he was involved in a pit road accident.

Takuma Sato hit the right side of Hunter-Reay’s car near the entrance of pit lane. Hunter-Reay was forced to the garage with damage to his right front wheel and front wing. He returned about 20 laps later and finished 20th Andretti, raised about 30 minutes away in nearby Nazareth, won the pole and was the hometown

LONG POND: Scott Dixon, of New Zealand, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the Pocono IndyCar 400 auto race. —AP favorite. He dominated the race and led the most laps until fuel woes put him 10th. He ran out just after he crossed the finish line.

With the Andretti crew out of the picture, Ganassi’s drivers set the pace. This was the first 1-2-3 team finish since Roger Penske had Power, Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe on the podium in August 2011 at Sonoma Raceway.

“To have a glimpse of something great and something to be positive about, hopefully we can keep the momentum rolling,” Dixon said.—AP

Murray: Wimbledon title a springboard to more slams

PASEDENA: Panama’s Marcos Sanchez (right) and Mexico’s Rafael Marquez (left) battle for control of the ball during the CONCACAF Gold Cup. —AFP

Panama stun holders Mexico LOS ANGELES: Mexico’s bid to capture a third straight CONCACAF Gold Cup got off to a shaky start when they fell to a surprise 2-1 defeat by Panama in Los Angeles on Sunday.

‘El Tri’ entered the tournament with a young, domestic-based team and their lack of experience showed as Gabriel Torres scored twice for Panama, who completed a day of upsets after Martinique’s shock 1-0 win over Canada in the opening match of the 12-team tournament.

Panama striker Torres put the underdogs ahead in the seventh minute at the Rose Bowl when he converted a penalty kick awarded after team mate Alberto Quintero was brought down in the box.

Mexico recovered to take control of proceedings and deservedly levelled the contest just before halftime when Marco

Fabian settled a pass and finished.

Torres, though, put Panama back in front in the 48th minute after combining with Quintero and they held on to complete the win against Mexico and heap more pressure on coach Jose Manuel “Chepo” De La Torre.

The victory put Panama top of Group A along with Martinique, who marked their first Gold Cup appearance since 2003 with a dramatic 93rd minute winner to ditch past champions Canada 1-0.

Fabrice Reuperne was the match winner, the 37-year-old firing a left-footed blast from outside the box that found the upper right corner of the net and gave the Caribbean islanders, who are not FIFA members, a famous win. Martinique next play Mexico while Panama take on Canada in Seattle on Thursday.—Reuters

Brits awake to new tennis era LONDON: Britain awoke to a new era yesterday, into a world in which the tennis-loving public finally has its own Wimbledon champion once again.

“After 77 years, the wait is over,” headlined the Daily Telegraph, a day after Andy Murray beat Novak Djokovic in straight sets to win the men’s title at the All England Club. With the victory, Murray became the first British man to win the Wimbledon title since Fred Perry in 1936, a victory that has already sparked talk of a knighthood.

“Arise Sir Andrew, knight of the holy grail,” The Times of London wrote in its lead story.

“Impossibly, dreamily, unbelievably and yet somehow almost easily, somehow almost inevitably, Andy Murray won the Men’s Singles final at Wimbledon yesterday.”

Murray beat Djokovic 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 on a warm day under the sun at Centre Court, playing his usual defensive style almost perfectly against

an opponent who also plays often-spectacular defensive tennis. Prime Minister David Cameron, who watched the match from the Royal Box, seemed to be on board with Murray getting knighted and joining the ranks of other sporting greats such as Roger Bannister, Nick Faldo and Kelly Holmes.

“I can’t think of anyone who deserves one more,” Cameron said. Murray, however, quickly downplayed the possibility. “It’s a nice thing to have or be offered,” the 2013 Wimbledon champion said. “I think just because everyone’s waited for such a long time for this, that’s probably why it will be suggested but I don’t know if it merits that.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, the national papers - all of them - featured Murray on their front pages. “History in his hands,” headlined the Daily Mirror. Across the top of the Daily Express were the words “Magical Murray.”—AP

LONDON: Andy Murray is getting a taste for grand slam titles and believes crushing Novak Djokovic to end Britain’s interminable wait for a men’s champion at Wimbledon will be a springboard to take his career to the next level.

The 26-year-old became a national hero on Sunday when a 6-4 7-5 6-4 victory on a baking Centre Court meant the nation could finally stop talking about Fred Perry who won his third Wimbledon title in 1936. Murray’s stunning performance was hailed by everyone from politicians, movie stars and fellow sportsmen, as well as the millions who watched his landmark victory, but the Scot will not be milking the plaudits for long.

After attending the Wimbledon ball on Sunday he was planning to celebrate with his sizeable entourage, including coach Ivan Lendl on Monday, then, after a week of rest and relaxation it will be back to the grind.

“I know what it feels like to lose in finals, in a Wimbledon final, but now I know what it feels like to win and that’s certainly a lot better and it’s worth putting in the hard work for,” Murray told Reuters on Monday at the All England Club.

“I didn’t know last year that it was worth it because I had never won a grand slam before until the US Open last year.

“After that you realise the hours you put in training, preparing and working on the practise court, it’s all worth it. “So I hope this is a springboard for me and I will use it for my advantage.”

Murray, who now holds two of the grand slams and Olympic gold, was already a member of the exclusive All England Club but when he walked in on Monday after “a few hours sleep” he did so with Wimbledon champion as a new title.

It is quite an upgrade and the realisation of what he achieved the on a momentous Sunday for British sport was slowly sinking in, but only after watching a few TV replays.

“The last game was something that stands out but I had to watch it a few times to remember what actually happened because when I came off the court I had no recollection of that game,” a relaxed Murray said.

“I had no recollection of the last few points in it at all. It was just a crazy way to finish the game and I didn’t think it would have happened for me any other way.

“For everyone watching it needed to be like that to make it more special.”

Murray had the whole country on edge as Djokovic saved three championship points in a row before Murray kept his nerve to engineer a fourth which he con-

LONDON: In this photo taken Sunday, July 7, 2013, the Wimbledon Men’s singles tennis champion Andy Murray of Britain (left) and the Women’s singles tennis champion Marion Bartoli of France pose with their trophies during the Champions’ Dinner. —AP verted to spark wild celebrations.

His reaction to victory was a dazed walkabout on Centre Court before climbing into the stands to hug his support group, girlfriend and mother Judy.

Last year’s Olympic gold was memorable but Murray said winning Wimbledon was the pinnacle. “I think it’s number one, it’s different from the Olympics,” he said. “I think winning Olympic gold within sport is a huge thing but winning Wimbledon within tennis is the pinnacle and I don’t think I will ever top that.”

Murray beat Djokovic in the Olympic semi-finals and said that result had fuelled his belief that he could be the Serbian world number one again on the biggest day of his career.

“I spoke with Ivan the night before and we spoke about tactics and I watched my match against Novak in the Olympics semi-final from last year,” Murray, whose decision to hire Lendl as coach 18 months ago has proved an inspired one.

From a player with all the shots to win majors, Lendl has tweaked Murray’s mind to that of a champion too. “We spoke again on the morning of the match and he basically said go out and work for every single point, that’s your court, your fans are going to be behind you, just bring the title home, and I managed to do it.”

With Murray and Djokovic both aged 26

and at the peak of their powers their rivalry looks set to dominate men’s tennis, especially with Roger Federer showing signs of a slow decline and doubts over the durability of Rafa Nadal’s knees.

Others like Juan Martin del Potro and Tomas Berdych are also threats but Murray is predicting plenty of exhausting battles ahead with old junior sparring partner Djokovic.

“I’ve known him since I was 12 and when we finish playing I’m sure we’ll get on really well with each other but right now it’s hard to be best of friends because these matches are so tough physically and mentally,” Murray said.

“The matches we play are brutal and so physically challenging. It’s nice we’ve know each other since we were kids and our parents have seen us kind of grow up together but it’s hard playing against him.”

Djokovic remains the world number one, for now, despite only having the Australian Open currently under his belt.

“It’s tough,” Murray said when asked if knocking Djokovic off his perch was a priority. “Right now I hold two slams, the Olympic gold and the final of another slam and I’m still nowhere near number one in the world. The goal for me is to try and win the grand slams, win those tournaments and not worry too much about the ranking.”—Reuters

Vettel cracks Germany, further challenges await

Blixt clinches Greenbrier title

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

18

17

Murray: Wimbledon title a springboard to more slams

Page 19

NOTTINGHAM: The first five-match Ashes Test starts tomorrow at Trent Bridge in the latest edition of Test cricket’s oldest rivalry between England and Australia.

England favorites to retain Ashes LONDON: A battle-hardened and experienced England side go into the five-match Test series against a callow-looking Australian team as strong favorites to retain the Ashes.

While Australian preparations have been dogged by problems on and off the pitch, Alastair Cook’s England have quietly gone about their business, beating New Zealand 2-0 in a warmup series and on Saturday they named a familiar 13-man squad.

“This bunch of cricketers have fought a lot of campaigns and won a lot together,” England

coach Andy Flower said. “They are matchhardened - that should give them a lot of confidence.

“We were pretty clear what our squad would be and what our XI will be,” added Flower.

England’s batsmen have made over 80 test centuries between them, Cook leading the way with 25 followed by Pietersen on 22. But the team’s recent success has been built around their fast bowling attack led by James Anderson and Stuart Broad.

Steven Finn, Tim Bresnan and Graham

Onions are fighting for the final place in the attack with off-spinner Graeme Swann certain to play.

“The English quicks are certainly as good as there are in the world at the moment and have been for the last few years,” said Australia opener Shane Watson. “It is the ultimate challenge to be able to take on the best bowlers with a brand new ball, sometimes with bowler-friendly conditions as well, so if I can’t get up for that there’s no point in playing.”

Watson will be a key player for Australia and

will open the batting with the 35-year-old Chris Rogers who has only played one test match in his career.

The retirements of Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey have left Australia very short of experience in the middle order and the form of captain Michael Clarke will be vital.

Peter Siddle, James Pattinson and Mitchell Starc will lead the pace attack, probably supported by off-spinner Nathan Lyon who is a more of a containing bowler than a genuine wicket-taker like Swann.

Pietersen divides and conquers LONDON: Love him or loathe him, Kevin Pietersen’s return from a knee injury in time to face Australia in the Ashes series will have left England supporters breathing a sigh of relief.

The controversial South Africa-born middle-order batsman, who divides opinion off the field with as much ease has he destroys opposition bowlers on it, is the England player the Australians fear the most. “There’s only certain players that you can fear and they’re the Pietersens, the (Brian) Laras and Viv Richards,” former Australian batsman Damien Martyn said.

“In Pietersen you can sense he can win a game in a session - he’s dangerous.”

Pietersen, 33, has played little cricket since returning early from the tour of New Zealand in March due to injury but the right-hander scored a century for Surrey last month in his first innings of the season.

“He is very important to our side. He is a superstar with the bat who can dominate and intimidate opposition,” England coach Andy Flower said. “He is a big physical presence and a big personality, and those people influence sporting contests.”

Pietersen has a history of falling out with colleagues and his antics have led to accusations that he is not a team player. But when he dazzles the crowd and opposition with his flamboyant strokeplay and performances such as the swashbuckling 158 at the Oval in 2005 that helped secure the Ashes and a career-best 227 in Adelaide in 2010, much can be forgiven.

However, the spontaneity Pietersen displays in his batting has had a tendency to show itself as rashness off the field.

He fell out with his captain at his first county side, Nottinghamshire, and threatened legal action in a bid to leave the club.

In 2008, Pietersen was appointed England captain but quit five months later following the breakdown of his relationship with coach Peter Moores, who was sacked.

The advent of social media has only served to bring examples of Pietersen’s impetuous nature to the notice of a wider audience.

In 2010, he was fined for a foul-mouthed outburst on Twitter after being left out of the England squad for the one-day and Twenty20 series against Pakistan and was punished again last year for using the social media site to criticise a pundit.

His most recent transgression occurred last year when he was dropped for the final test against South Africa at Lord’s after sending provocative texts to opposing players.

Pietersen underwent a process of reintegration and committed to playing for England in all three forms of the game before being allowed back into the national fold. He made his comeback in India in November and in characteristic fashion reminded England what they had been missing by blasting 186 in his second test back. “When Kevin’s got a point to prove he usually proves it with the bat,” his former England team mate Andrew Flintoff told the BBC last year.

Aside from his many external conflicts, Pietersen appears to battling an internal

England have won three of the last four Ashes series including a 3-1 victory in Australia in 2010-11 but Martyn believes the appointment of Darren Lehmann as coach two weeks ago gives the touring side a better chance of reclaiming the urn.

“In Australia, there’s a huge buzz now the coach has changed,” he said. “There’s a lot more excitement. “We’re starting to believe that we can win this, we can compete with England and pull off a win.” The first Test starts at Trent Bridge, Nottingham tomorrow. — Reuters

Clarke leads from the front

NOTTINGHAM: England’s Kevin Pietersen bats during a practice session at Trent Bridge, prior to the first Ashes cricket Test match between England and Australia tomorrow. — AFP one, considering himself an introvert in stark contrast to the brash persona he presents in public. “I’m very much an introverted person. I like my own company, my own family. I don’t really go out much,” Pietersen said in a BBC interview, “I think the confidence has grown from what I’ve achieved on the cricket field but I’m not as confident as anybody thinks.”

Born in Natal in 1980 to a South African father and English mother, Pietersen began his cricketing career as an off-spinner.

He first came to England’s notice in 1999 when he made 61 not out, batting at nine, and took four wickets for KwaZulu-Natal against Nasser Hussain’s side in a tour match. Frustrated at South Africa’s racial quota system, Pietersen left for England and ended up at Nottinghamshire in 2001 where he averaged almost 60 with the bat in his first season. — Reuters

LONDON: Since celebrating his test debut with a dazzling century, Michael Clarke has combined the brash self-confidence of his native Sydney with a purity of style allied to fluent footwork in the finest Australian tradition.

Last year the Australia captain added a Bradmanesque appetite for Test runs, accumulating 1,595 at an average of exactly 106, including three double centuries and a triple. He was selected as the leading international cricketer for 2012 by the Wisden almanack.

Clarke’s blend of elegance and acquisition led former Australian off-spinner Ashley Mallett to suggest that the righthander was now an amalgam of Victor Trumper and Don Bradman, who also forged their reputations in Sydney.

“He possesses the majesty of Trumper...and much of the efficiency of Bradman, who collected runs like a frequent flyer clocks miles,” enthused Mallett.

A modern and more relevant parallel could be drawn with Allan Border, another Sydneysider who was the initially reluctant captain of a side who lost series against West Indies, England, Pakistan and New Zealand.

Like Clarke, Border stood figuratively head-and-shoulders above his team mates as a batsman; tough, pragmatic and at his best in the perennial crises afflicting his team.

In tandem with coach Bobby Simpson, Border instilled his own gritty work ethic into an under-performing side, weeded out the players he did not want and backed those he thought possessed the right stuff. Australia won the World Cup in India in 1987 and two years later Border’s men defeated England 4-0 in a six-match series. England did not regain the Ashes

until 2005.

Can Clarke emulate Border? After losing three Ashes series out of the last four, Australia’s run-up to tomorrow’s first Test at Trent Bridge could hardly have been less promising.

Clarke presided over the first three losses during this year’s 4-0 whitewash in India, before returning home with a recurrence of the degenerative back problem which has troubled him since he was a teenager.

He missed his team’s unsuccessful Champions Trophy campaign in England last month and was in London receiving treatment when David Warner threw a punch at England batsman Joe Root in a Birmingham bar. The batsmen stayed on tour but received a suspension until the first test.

Coach Mickey Arthur, who suspended four players in India after a breakdown in discipline, was then sacked 16 days before the start of the Ashes campaign and Clarke resigned his post as a national selector. “We have no excuses,” said Clarke.

“The Australian public and us as players want to have success. “We know what the expectations and standards are off the field as well in regards to behavior, and we have no excuses for not upholding those values. We’ve been very disappointed with our performances so far on this tour and we have to turn that around.”

Clarke is by instinct an imaginative, attacking captain, who has won praise from Ian Chappell, one of Australia’s best leaders. “His entertaining approach is based on one premise, trying to win the match from the opening delivery,” Chappell said.“ This should be the aim of all international captains, but sadly it isn’t.” — Reuters

Business

ECB drops old style, but short of options Page 23 Fearful Chinese pay more for imported infant goods Page 25

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

German light bulb maker debuts on stock market Page 22 Page 23

Turkey central bank tightens policy to shore up lira

MUMBAI: The new Jaguar F-Type car is pictured while an Indian model poses during the vehicle’s launch event yesterday. Jaguar & Land Rover India launched the F-Type S and F-Type V8S sports cars, priced at 13.7 million rupees ($213,000) and 16.1 million rupees ($264,000) ex-showroom in Mumbai. — AFP

Rupee tumbles to new record low Worries mount US Federal Reserve will reduce stimulus program MUMBAI: India’s rupee slid to a new record low against the dollar yesterday as the greenback was boosted by stronger than expected US jobs numbers. The currency hit 61.20 rupees to the US unit - moving past its previous low of 60.76 rupees on June 26 - as worries mount that the US Federal Reserve will reduce its stimulus program that has prompted investor flows into emerging markets. The Indian currency recovered in afternoon trade amid reports that the central Reserve Bank of India likely sold dollars through state-run banks to prop up the ailing rupee, dealers said.

The currency closed yesterday at 60.62 rupees to the dollar. “There was possible (RBI) intervention at 61.02 rupee lev-

els,” said Param Sarma, chief executive at NSP Forex, a forex consultancy firm in Mumbai. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will meet industry leaders on July 29 to discuss the rupee’s fall and ways to close the country’s gaping current account deficit, the broadest measure of trade, India’s Economic Times reported. The current account deficit which stems mainly from huge oil and gold imports and weak exports amid the global economic downturn - hit a record 4.8 percent of GDP in the fiscal year to March. The rupee has also been dragged down by the sharply slowing economy. “Sentiment is extremely fragile for the rupee.

Strong US economic data is driving the dollar up (and weak-

Brent crude lower as supply concerns ease NEW YORK: Brent crude oil fell yesterday as the announced returns of a Libyan oilfield and an Iraqi pipeline eased concerns about global oil supplies following an early rally to a three-month high above $108 a barrel because of continuing unrest in Egypt.

Libya’s major Sharara oilfield will resume operations after an agreement was reached with the armed group that shut it down last month, a senior Libyan oil source said yesterday. On Sunday, Libyan officials said they reached an agreement with security guards who shut down two oil export terminals in the east of the country to demand better working conditions.

A pipeline from Iraq to the Turkish port of Ceyhan will resume operations in two to three days following an interruption caused by a leak, two sources in Iraq’s state-run North Oil Company (NOC) said yesterday. The drop comes after oil prices posted their biggest weekly gain in a year last Friday as tension in Egypt rattled markets and better-than-expected US labor data sparked concern about the winddown of the Federal Reserve’s monetary stimulus. “The Libyans did restart the export terminal so that lent itself to today’s softer crude values and there definitely is profit-taking” following last week’s gains, said Andy Lebow, vice-president at Jefferies Bache in New York.

Brent, the European benchmark, was down 40 cents at $107.32 a barrel by 12:39 p.m. EDT (1639 GMT) after hitting $108.04, its highest since April 4. US crude slipped 10 cents to $103.12 after earlier touching a new 14-month high of $104.12. The spread between the two benchmarks was at $4.20 after earlier widen-

ing out to $4.76 and narrowing to $3.78 in a volatile day in spread trading. “The market is a bit less concerned about a major disruption in Egypt and was probably overbought a little bit going into the holiday weekend,” said Phil Flynn, an energy analyst at Price Futures Group.

He said it was not unusual for prices to surge ahead of holiday weekends. US markets were closed on Thursday for the Independence Day holiday. “Going into the holiday weekend, we’re always nervous about geopolitical risk and the market has a tendency to overcompensate, so we’re seeing some of that protection buying start to come off,” he added. At least 42 people were killed in Cairo on Monday, medical sources said.

Islamist protesters angered by the military overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi said they were fired on at the Cairo military barracks where he was being held.

Any conflict in the Middle East raises worries of disruption at major oil-producing areas or oil shipments. So far, ports and shipping through the Suez Canal through which a major portion of the world’s oil is shipped - have been operating normally. “It is Egypt’s position as a major transit point for global crude oil movements that explains the current concern and geopolitical risk premium assigned to the goings on in that country,” said a research note from Standard Bank.

Investors are also keeping an eye on the euro zone, where euro zone finance ministers will decide on Monday if Athens gets the cash it needs all at once or by drip feed.

Greek officials have offered new promises to redouble reform efforts to keep international financial aid flowing. — Reuters

ening the rupee),” said Sarma.

The Indian unit’s tumble raises import prices of everything from oil and fertilisers to food staples such as pulses, stoking already high consumer inflation and causing hardship for India’s poor millions. “The government and central bank need to take immediate measures to tackle the situation,” said Abhishek Goenka, chief executive with IndiaForex, an advisory firm. Weak local share markets have put additional pressure on the rupee as overseas funds sell Indian stocks amid expectations of weak corporate earnings.

Indian shares ended down 0.88 percent at 19,324.77 points yesterday. Foreign investors have been pulling out

funds from India - as well as from other emerging markets since June as they look for stronger returns in the United States and elsewhere. The rupee has fallen nearly 12 percent against the dollar this year, making it the worst performing currency among major Asian economies. The Reserve Bank is believed to have intervened several times in the market in recent weeks, but governor Duvvuri Subbarao said the priority was managing volatility. The central bank does not normally comment on whether it has intervened in the market.

The central bank’s governor said last Thursday that the Reserve Bank of India does not have an exchange rate target for the rupee. — AFP

Eurozone nears Greece lifeline deal BRUSSELS: With fresh promises from Greece to redouble its reform efforts to keep international financial aid flowing, eurozone finance ministers were to decide yesterday if Athens gets the cash it needs all at once or by drip feed. There will also be warning shots to Portugal to ensure that its economic reforms stay on track despite political stress. After more than three years on a lifeline from Europe, Greece’s governing coalition is split over how to meet the demands of its bailout program, putting the country centre stage and threatening to reignite the euro zone debt crisis.

But a week of talks in Athens, culminating in promises to reform the public sector, appeared to convince the troika of international lenders - the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank - that Greece is committed to rebuilding its economy. That paves the way for Greece to receive Ä8.1 billion ($10.5 billion) as part of its Ä240-billion rescue package, although ministers meeting in Brussels may split up the cash into instalments to force through unpopular reforms ranging from sacking public workers to selling state assets. “If we get proof that Greece is living up to everything, then Greece will get its money,” Luxembourg Finance Minister Luc Frieden told reporters as he arrived at the meeting.

In Athens, thousands of Greek municipal workers and state school teachers took to the streets to protest against the public sector layoffs that the government has promised in exchange for the funds. In a cautiously worded statement, the troika said it believed Greece can meet targets on reforming its economy. “Important progress continues to be made,” the statement said, cautioning of an ‘uncertain’ outlook. Greek officials said on Sunday the troika agreed to give Athens more time to make staff cuts and that 25,000 state workers must be moved into a so-called mobility scheme by the end of 2013 - to be transferred or laid off within a year. Among the most upbeat of the ministers was France’s Pierre Moscovici, who signalled money could be paid by the end of the month. “The basis exists for a political accord,” he said.

Germany’s Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble was more wary. Officials earlier told Reuters that Berlin was unlikely to support a full disbursement to Greece yesterday. Schaeuble is mindful that his boss, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, is seeking a third term in elections on Sept. 22 and wants to avoid being seen at home as too generous to spendthrift countries. “The path for Greece will remain a difficult one. I would warn against any illusions,” Schaeuble told reporters. “It is far from the case that all problems are resolved.” Olli Rehn, the EU’s commissioner in charge of economic affairs, confirmed on Friday that the next tranche may be paid in instalments, which would be conditional on Athens meeting

so-called milestones on Greek reforms, such as cutting state jobs.

Euro zone finance ministers, accompanied by ECB President Mario Draghi and IMF head Christine Lagarde, will also deliver a firm message to Portugal that last week’s political instability must not derail its plan to return to the debt market in 2014. Officials are concerned that more upheaval could upset Lisbon’s efforts to leave a Ä78-billion bailout program as the country’s bond yields topped 8 percent last week, a level seen as making new borrowing unaffordable.

Vitor Gaspar, the architect of Portugal’s austerity drive under the bailout, resigned last week, citing a lack of public support for cuts into welfare benefits and tax hikes. Unemployment is at a record high of nearly 18 percent. Hoping to end a rift that threatened to bring down the government, Portugal’s prime minister promoted the head of the junior coalition party to be his

deputy. “The ministers will give Portugal the message that the country should stick to its obligations,” said a euro zone official, who added that the country had funds that give it, unlike Greece, some room for manoeuvre.

Portugal’s new finance minister, Maria Luis Albuquerque, is a familiar face to the euro zone ministers, having earlier attended their meetings as an official.

But the events are being followed with unease by the ECB. Draghi told lawmakers in the European Parliament that Portugal should not “unravel the progress” that it had made. It has also worried some economists in Ireland, which is due to return to normal market borrowing and exit its bailout programme in coming months.

“The problems of Portugal and Greece keep on coming back to haunt us,” said John Fitzgerald of the Economic and Social Research Institute, a Dublin-based think tank.

“With the crisis not put to bed, we are walking in a minefield.” — Reuters

ATHENS: Athens’ municipal police take to the streets yesterday as tens of thousands of Greek civil servants went on strike against a new round of job cuts enacted by the government to gain access to promised EU-IMF loans. — AFP

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

BUSINESS

Sovereign fund chiefs not created equal HONG KONG: China Investment Corporation finally has a new boss. But compared to most companies, a change of the top at a sovereign wealth fund doesn’t always mean a change of tack. A sovereign fund’s proximity to the government and its investment approach are critical when it comes to determining the importance, or relative unimportance, of who sits at the top. Ding, a career bureaucrat, may be relatively unknown in global financial circles. That

needn’t matter. His predecessor Lou Jiwei, who was promoted to finance minister in March, also lacked experience when he took charge of CIC when it was established in 2007.

But that didn’t stop CIC from growing; the fund has more than doubled in size and now manages roughly 15 percent of China’s $3.4 trillion foreign currency reserves. CIC’s domestic portfolio is dominated by legacy stakes in the country’s biggest banks and the fund outsources

most of its overseas investments to external money managers. Unless the fund gets a big injection of new money, it’s unlikely Ding will get a chance to create waves.

By contrast, investors should pay more attention to Ding’s new rival in Qatar. The Qatar Investment Authority has a much more active approach to managing its $100 billion - $200 billion of funds. Ahmad Al-Sayed was last week named as chief executive for the QIA.

And whereas Ding’s appointment looks like political continuity, the Qatari appointment is a bigger shift, since Sayed’s predecessor was also the prime minister. Sayed’s reputation as an aggressive dealmaker is unlikely to change. But Qatar’s new emir Sheikh Tamim, who is also chairman of the fund, now wants the country to “avoid arrogance”. The QIA’s future investments may thus focus on delivering financial rather than political returns.

At the other end of the spectrum from CIC is Singapore’s Temasek. Finding a successor to Ho Ching, who has led the fund for over a decade, will be more tricky, since Ho has transformed the fund from a passive into an active investor.

Temasek is also independent from the government, even though Ho herself is the prime minister’s wife. That means that the buck really stops with the CEO. Few sovereign fund bosses can say that. — Reuters

Iran looking to buy 350,000 tons of wheat LONDON/HAMBURG: Iran’s state grains agency GTC is in talks on buying around 350,000 tonnes of milling wheat for shipment in July-August, European traders said yesterday. “It seems like payment will be made via a Russian bank,” one European trader said. “The bank in question is one of those with frozen oil revenues.” The European Union and the United States have imposed sanctions aimed at discouraging Tehran’s nuclear program. Iran insists that its program is for peaceful purposes.

Sanctions do not target food or animal feed shipments, but financial measures have frozen Iranian companies out of much of the global banking system, which have hindered payments.

Iran, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has oil revenues of billions of dollars in local currencies frozen in bank accounts in countries such as Turkey, India and Russia.

Traders say frozen bank accounts have in past weeks been available to pay for food and animal feed imports. “Iran is seeking fresh cargoes with shipment starting from the end of July,” another European trade source said. “They will aim to pay for the

JENIN: A Palestinian vendor displays traditional Ramadan decorations at a market in this West Bank city yesterday. — AP

Central bank tightens policy to shore up lira

Etihad passenger revenue up by 8%

Turkish ‘interest rate lobby’ blamed ANKARA: The Turkish central bank ramped up its monetary conditions yesterday to shore up the local currency, the lira, after it slumped to a record low value against the dollar. The bank announced that it was applying immediately a “strong” tightening of monetary conditions. “A strong extra monetary tightening will start as of today,” the bank’s governor Erdem Basci said in a statement. “It’s essential that the extra monetary tightening is strong, effective and temporary,” he said. In late morning trading the lira was being traded at 1.9488 to the dollar, having firmed from a record weak level of 1.9740 earlier in the day.

Analysts said the latest decision was not a surprise. “This is not the first time that the central bank has done this as we have seen two recent episodes of additional tightening on June 11 and between June 19-21 more recently,” Sengul Dagdeviren at ING Bank based in Turkey told AFP. “The move was not a surprise and shows that the central bank will continue to tame volatility within existing policy framework, ready to sell more FX (foreign exchange) via auctions too,” she commented.

Basci added that the latest measures would be applied for as long as required, depending on developments on the foreign exchange market.

In a presentation to economists on changes in policy, the bank said that it would continue gradually to shift the way in which the flow of lira was made available to the Turkish financial sector. This would be done by switching liquidity from net foreign assets to net domestic assets until the bank’s next monetary policy committee meeting later this month. “This strategy will not only soften extremely rapid credit growth but also support the value of the Turkish lira,” a summary on the bank’s website said. The central bank is independent of the government in setting monetary policy.

On the government debt market, Turkey’s 10year borrowing rate stood at 8.8 percent as the central bank announced its new tough action.

The yield had climbed to more than 9.0 percent on June 21, amid a wave of unprecedented protests against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamic-based government. The borrowing rate was slightly above 6.0 percent in April. The Istanbul stock market plunged in early June. Victor in three elections in a row, Erdogan has overseen strong economic growth - an average five percent a year since he first won office in 2002. The economy is ranked as the 17th biggest in the world, and the government hopes it will become the 10th-biggest within a decade.

purchases with money locked in oil accounts.”

Syria, also facing sanctions, has also started using money in frozen bank accounts to pay for food imports, traders said. This is the first major Iranian interest in wheat purchasing since mid-June, when Iran bought more than 800,000 tonnes two weeks ahead of the country’s elections.

Iran, once a wheat exporter, is forecast to need at least 3 million tonnes of imports in the season starting in summer with market talk its harvest this year was not as good as hoped.

“I think the latest 350,000 tonnes of wheat will be sold this week,” a third European trader said. “Belief is firming up that Iran will import about 5 to 6 million tonnes of wheat this year due to poor harvest yields and quality, much more than generally expected.”

Another trader added: “The ability to use cash from frozen bank accounts for food imports is making it possible for Iran and Syria to make more specific inquiries than in past months, when Iran especially was unwilling to speak about likely volumes in its purchase inquiries.” — Reuters

But last month, the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) was shaken by nationwide demonstrations, the most serious public challenge since it came to power in 2011.

Erdogan blamed various groups both inside and outside the country, including what he called an “interest rate lobby” of speculators pushing for high returns. This referred to pressure in some quarters for a rise in interest rates to support the currency and retain foreign capital. Turkey, in common with many emerging economies is subject to signals from the US Federal Reserve bank that it will soon begin to wind down its special injections of money into the financial system to support the US economy.

The prospect that US monetary conditions will become tighter has caused some funds to be withdrawn from emerging economies. “The pressure on the Turkish lira is solely in parallel to the economic monetary pressure in the rest of the world,” said Dagdeviren. “We don’t think local issues have been a significant decoupling factor so far for local markets,” she added. The Turkish economy grew by 2.2 percent in 2012, short of the government forecast of 3.2 percent expansion. This was a major slowdown from 2010 and 2011 when the Turkish economy grew by 8.9 percent and 8.8 percent respectively. — AFP

Cargo business grew 26% ABU DHABI: Abu Dhabi airline Etihad raised passenger revenues by 8 percent in the second-quarter, helped by higher turnover from its code-sharing and equity alliance partners. Passenger revenues for the three months to June 30 totalled $921 million versus $855 million in the year ago period, the state-owned airline said in a statement. For the first half of 2013 the rose 13 percent to $1.8 billion.

Some $184 million came from codesharing and equity alliance airline partners in the quarter, up 25 percent over the same period last year. Partnership revenue comprised 20 percent of the airline’s total passenger revenue in the second quarter and the first half of this year.

“This reflects not only the continuing popularity of our Abu Dhabi hub, but the growing maturity of our airline partnership strategy and the strength of our cargo operations, which continue to well exceed industry growth rates,” James Hogan, president & CEO, said in the statement. Codesharing involves two or more airlines sharing the same flight with pas-

sengers able to purchase a ticket on one airline although the actual flight may be operated by another under a different flight number or code.

Unlisted Etihad, which has stakes in Air Berlin and Virgin Australia, increased such partnerships in the second quarter by adding JAT Airways. The airline said in June it was mulling taking an equity stake in the Serbian carrier. It also announced new partnerships with Air Canada, South African Air ways and Belavia of Belarus, which would take effect in the third quarter, the statement said. The airline is still awaiting regulatory approval from Indian authorities to acquire a 24 percent stake in Jet Airways, having agreed a $370 million deal in April. Etihad’s cargo business, in tonnage terms, grew 26 per cent in the second quarter year-on-year, the statement said. However, the average seat occupancy, or seat factor, in the second quarter was 77.3 percent, down 0.3 percentage points on the same quarter of 2012. — Reuters

EXCHANGE RATES Irani Riyal

Commercial Bank of Kuwait US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian Dollar Australian DLR Indian rupees Sri Lanka Rupee UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi riyals Omani riyals Egyptian pounds

.2770000 .4310000 .3680000 .3020000 .2780000 .2940000 .0040000 .0020000 .0771240 .7513970 .3930000 .0720000 .7366120 .0370000

CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES US Dollar/KD .2841000 GB Pound/KD .4338920 Euro .3707360 Swiss francs .3043390 Canadian dollars .2795430 Danish Kroner .0497330 Swedish Kroner .0443660 Australian dlr .2963730 Hong Kong dlr .0365940 Singapore dlr .2291130 Japanese yen .0029600 Indian Rs/KD .0000000 Sri Lanka rupee .0000000 Pakistan rupee .0000000 Bangladesh taka .0000000 UAE dirhams .0773800 Bahraini dinars .7538810 Jordanian dinar .0000000 Saudi Riyal/KD .0757800 Omani riyals .7382100 Philippine Peso .0000000

Al-Muzaini Exchange Co. Japanese Yen Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Srilankan Rupees Nepali Rupees Singapore Dollar Hongkong Dollar Bangladesh Taka Philippine Peso Thai Baht Irani Riyal

ASIAN COUNTRIES 2.842 4.729 2.872 2.199 2.951 224.380 37.092 3.687 6.582 9.154 0.271

.2880000 .4470000 .3760000 .3170000 .2920000 .3020000 .0069000 .0035000 .0778990 .7589480 .4110000 .0770000 .7440150 .0440000 .2862000 .4370990 .3734770 .3065880 .2816100 .0501010 .0446940 .2985640 .0368650 .2308060 .0028810 .0052870 .0022880 .0029190 .0036810 .0779520 .7594530 .4048090 .0763400 .7436660 .0069870

0.273

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd

GCC COUNTRIES 76.737 79.068 747.430 764.320 78.368

Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham

ARAB COUNTRIES Egyptian Pound - Cash 42.950 Egyptian Pound - Transfer 40.332 Yemen Riyal/for 1000 1.342 Tunisian Dinar 171.530 Jordanian Dinar 406.370 Lebanese Lira/for 1000 1.931 Syrian Lier 3.126 Morocco Dirham 33.841 EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 287.650 Euro 370.490 Sterling Pound 429.750 Canadian dollar 272.910 Turkish lira 147.850 Swiss Franc 298.700 Australian Dollar 261.470 US Dollar Buying 286.450 GOLD 239.000 121.000 63.000

20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

SELL DRAFT 264.43 275.97 306.62 375.10 286.10 441.06 2.94 3.694 4.751 2.190 2.976 2.866 77.96 761.47 40.21 407.18 744.04 79.00 76.42

Selling Rate 287.400 274.760 428.985 370.385 298.000 760.910 78.225 78.890 77.505 405.140 40.249 2.198 4.713 2.870 3.690 6.562 705.016 3.836 9.270 4.105 3.040 89.395

Bahrain Exchange Company CURRENCY

UAE Exchange Centre WLL COUNTRY Australian Dollar Canadian Dollar Swiss Franc Euro US Dollar Sterling Pound Japanese Yen Bangladesh Taka Indian Rupee Sri Lankan Rupee Nepali Rupee Pakistani Rupee UAE Dirhams Bahraini Dinar Egyptian Pound Jordanian Dinar Omani Riyal Qatari Riyal Saudi Riyal

Rate for Transfer US Dollar Canadian Dollar Sterling Pound Euro Swiss Frank Bahrain Dinar UAE Dirhams Qatari Riyals Saudi Riyals Jordanian Dinar Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupees Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Pesso Cyprus pound Japanese Yen Thai Bhat Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees Malaysian Ringgit

SELL CASH 274.000 282.000 312.000 380.000 284.500 448.500 3.300 3.670 5.050 2.550 3.250 2.900 78.000 753.000 38.800 410.000 748.000 79.500 76.000

British Pound Czech Korune Danish Krone Euro Norwegian Krone Scottish Pound Swedish Krona Swiss Franc Australian Dollar New Zealand Dollar Uganda Shilling Canadian Dollar Colombian Peso US Dollars Bangladesh Taka Cape Vrde Escudo Chinese Yuan Eritrea-Nakfa

BUY Europe 0.4206990 0.0067912 0.0454741 0.3637308 0.0422823 0.4182513 0.0388748 0.2926660

SELL 0.4296990 0.0187912 0.0504741 0.3712308 0.0474823 0.4257513 0.0430748 0.2996660

Australasia 0.2504071 0.2143883 0.0001136

0.2624071 0.2243863 0.0001136

America 0.2648617 0.0001463 0.2853000

0.2738617 0.0001643 0.2874500

Asia 0.0036459 0.0031901 0.0458190 0.0166300

0.0037009 0.0034201 0.0508490 0.0197300

Guinea Franc Hg Kong Dollar Indian Rupee Indonesian Rupiah Jamaican Dollars Japanese Yen Kenyan Shilling Malaysian Ringgit Nepalese Rupee Pakistan Rupee Philippine Peso Sierra Leone Singapore Dollar Sri Lankan Rupee Thai Baht

0.0000446 0.0345139 0.0046549 0.0000239 0.0028759 0.0027569 0.0032718 0.0849530 0.0027922 0.0028424 0.0061239 0.0000734 0.2201797 0.0021589 0.0087677

0.0000506 0.0376139 0.0047199 0.0000291 0.0038759 0.0029369 0.0035018 0.0919530 0.0029922 0.0028824 0.0065939 0.0000764 0.2261797 0.0022009 0.0093677

Bahraini Dinar Egyptian Pound Ethiopeanbirr Ghanaian Cedi Iranian Riyal Iraqi Dinar Jordanian Dinar Kuwaiti Dinar Lebanese Pound Moroccan Dirhams Nigerian Naira Omani Riyal Qatar Riyal Saudi Riyal Sudanese Pounds Syrian Pound Tunisian Dinar UAE Dirhams Yemeni Riyal

Arab 0.7560397 0.0383105 0.0128812 0.1461639 0.0000800 0.0001839 0.3998699 1.0000000 0.0001764 0.0217453 0.0012267 0.7356152 0.0783000 0.0761200 0.0467410 0.0019598 0.1688615 0.0764400 0.0012972

0.7645397 0.0403405 0.0193812 0.1479539 0.0000805 0.0002439 0.4073699 1.0000000 0.0001964 0.0457453 0.0018617 0.7486152 0.0790830 0.0767600 0.0472910 0.0021796 0.1758615 0.0778900 0.0013972

Al Mulla Exchange Currency US Dollar Euro Pound Sterling Canadian Dollar Indian Rupee Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupee Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso Pakistan Rupee Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham Saudi Riyal *Rates are subject to change

Transfer Rate (Per 1000) 287.150 371.050 429.450 273.650 4.720 40.325 2.195 3.688 6.577 2.870 764.350 78.200 76.650

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

BUSINESS

Fervent foes devote their lives to fracking fight VESTAL, New York: Big energy companies have been trying for five years to tap the riches of the Marcellus Shale in southern New York, promising thousands of new jobs, economic salvation for a depressed region, and a cheap, abundant, clean-burning source of fuel close to power-hungry cities. But for all its political clout and financial prowess, the industry hasn’t been able to get its foot in the door.

One reason: Folks like Sue Rapp and Vera Scroggins are standing in the way. Rapp, a family counselor in the Broome County town of Vestal, in the prime shale gas region near the Pennsylvania border, is intense and unrelenting in pressing her petitions.

Scroggins - a retiree and grandmother who lives across the border in hilly northeastern Pennsylvania, where intensive gas development has been going on for five years - is gleefully confrontational. She happily posts videos of her skirmishes.

The anti-fracking movement has inspired a legion of people like Rapp and Scroggins- idiosyncratic true believers, many of them middle-aged women, who have made it the central mission of their lives to stop gas drilling using high-volume hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus region that underlies southern New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.

They are not necessarily popular; they have been shunned by former friends who support drilling and the economic benefits it brings. Their opponents accuse them of distorting the truth about fracking’s impacts

by insisting that their communities and surrounding countryside will be transformed into a polluted industrial wasteland if natural gas interests have their way. But many of those same opponents acknowledge that Rapp, Scroggins and others like them have been effective.

“There’s no denying that their actions have had an impact,” said Jim Smith, spokesman for the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York. “If they weren’t doing what they’re doing, we would have been through with this a long time ago.

They’re wrong on the facts but they’re very loud and very vocal, and that gets noticed for political reasons.”

Their cause is amplified by an extensive coalition - including deep-pocketed environmental groups, New York City lawyers, organic farmers, doctors, paid professional activists and celebrities - that has waged a relentless campaign urging Gov. Andrew Cuomo to ban fracking. The Democratic governor continues to delay his decision, leaving drillers and landowners with leases in limbo since 2008. That’s when the state launched a study of the environmental impact of fracking, which frees gas from shale a mile or so underground by injecting chemically treated water and sand into a horizontal well bore.

While Rapp and Scroggins are among the more visible of the grassroots fracking foes, their motivations and personal styles are different. “I don’t have a political agenda.

I just want to preserve the quality of life for

myself and my neighbors,” Rapp said as she had lunch with Scroggins at the Vestal Diner. Thin and birdlike with curly red hair, Rapp is a leader in the so-called “home rule” movement, which has led more than 100 communities to enact bans or moratoriums against fracking. The gas industry has challenged the legality of such bans but has lost two cases which it plans to appeal to the state’s highest court.

Rapp devotes her free time to organizing letter-writing campaigns to the governor, gathering signatures on petitions, and trying - unsuccessfully - to get her town board to enact a fracking ban or pass roaduse laws aimed at the convoys of water and gravel trucks heading for Pennsylvania’s drilling sites. She campaigned last fall for anti-fracking candidates. But in her county and others in the border region where drilling is most likely to start if Cuomo gives it the green light, all were defeated. “I have two petitions, the road petition and the ban petition,” Rapp said. “I knock on doors, I go to farmers markets and the rail trails. I don’t think of myself as an activist or an environmentalist; this is just something I have an enormous commitment to.”

In contrast, Scroggins relishes the label of activist. A short, stocky woman with long silver hair and loose T-shirt, Scroggins is a scrappy, in-your-face videographer and selfappointed guide to the gas patch of northeastern Pennsylvania, where she lives in a single-wide trailer near a lake. She has given tours to state and local politicians, commu-

nity groups, and anti-fracking celebrities such as Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon and Susan Sarandon. Several days a week, she drives people around to show them drilling sites, pipelines, compressor stations, and truckworn roads. She introduces them to residents of Dimock and Franklin Forks who believe their well water was ruined by drilling operations - even though state and federal investigators couldn’t confirm all the complaints. She records the tours on video.

She also records town board meetings, often raising the ire of people who’d rather not be in the videos she posts online by the hundreds. “Basically what I show is, ‘Do you want this near your home?’” Scroggins said, standing on a road beside a well site with a rumbling compressor station, tanks, pipes, and other equipment. There are 700 gas wells in Susquehanna County; 38 percent of the county is under lease, and gas companies indicate a potential of 3,000 drilling locations.

Gas industry bloggers have mocked Scroggins, but she clearly relishes her notoriety. On a recent tour, she flagged down the SUV of a gas company’s new security guards and introduced herself. “I’m the tour guide. I’m sure you’ve heard about me,” Scroggins said. When the guards said they hadn’t, Scroggins told them about her frequent tour groups and said she’s often tailed by security details and shooed away from drilling sites. Many of the farmers and other landowners who are getting royalty checks from the gas wells on their land

don’t welcome the self-appointed guide to the gas patch. Some have signs in their yards saying “Our water’s fine” and “My gas well pays my mortgage.”

Scroggins takes it in stride. Rolling slowly down the road, she waved and smiled at a woman glowering in a front yard. “She hates me,” Scroggins said. Victor Furman, head of a pro-gas landowners’ group in New York’s Chenango County, said Rapp and Scroggins are part of a “fringe group” that relies on emotion rather than science to build opposition. “They hold meetings that are full of lies and misinformation,” said Furman, a retired technical writer for IBM. “They do have some legitimate concerns, but they don’t want to talk about the mitigations to address those concerns,” such as storing fracking wastewater in closed tanks instead of open ponds and requiring multiple layers of well casing to protect ground water.

The industry-funded Energy In Depth sometimes sends its own camera-toting representatives to tail Scroggins’ tours and rebut what she says. The group posted video on its website of Scroggins shouting personal insults and obscenities at Phelim McAleer, a pro-fracking filmmaker who tried to talk to Ono and Sarandon during their January tour. McAleer tried to tell them the Environmental Protection Agency had determined the drinking water in question was safe, not contaminated by drilling. “I admit that I lost it that day,” Scroggins said. “It wasn’t my finest hour.” —AP

ECB drops old style, but short of options ‘Forward guidance’ is what markets expected FRANKFURT: The European Central Bank’s vow last week to keep record-low interest rates “at present or lower levels for an extended period” is a big philosophical shift for a bank that used to insist it would not tie its hands. On the face of it an unprecedented and bold move, such ‘forward guidance’ is really just formal recognition of what markets expected anyway, and the bank’s realistic policy options are narrowly confined. ECB President Mario Draghi, who vowed a year ago to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro, said the move was driven by market volatility, which set in after the US Federal Reserve last month set out a plan to begin slowing its stimulus.

“Draghi’s message was a clear break from the ‘we never pre-commit’ ECB of the past,” said Andrew Bosomworth, a senior portfolio manager

“Nobody thought they were going to hike rates ...

It was a statement of the obvious.” A Reuters poll of more than 60 analysts conducted before last Thursday’s policy meeting showed they already expected the ECB to keep its main refinancing and deposit rates on hold at their record lows until at least the end of next year. The ECB duly held its main rate at 0.5 percent and left the deposit rate it pays banks for holding their money at zero.

The phrasing of the ECB’s guidance is crucial.

Draghi said the Governing Council “expects” rates to remain at their existing level or go lower, he did not make a cast-iron promise. The morning after the policy announcement, Governing Council member Erkki Liikanen qualified the pledge to keep rates low, saying it is good for as

LISBON: A man carries a big piece of meat on his shoulder to deliver it to a supermarket butchery yesterday. —AP at Pimco, the world’s largest bond fund. “The Governing Council wants the world to know they are on a different timetable to the Fed,” he added.

But the ECB’s steer is more flimsy than the guidance offered by the Federal Reserve or even the Bank of England, which suggested last Thursday it could give more detailed guidance on monetary policy as soon as next month.

The risk is that when the Fed does begin unwinding its stimulus, the ECB’s words won’t be enough to protect the euro zone from the fallout, and market interest rates will rise - a scenario that would make the bloc’s escape from crisis harder.

Then the ECB would have to back up its words with action, and the policy options it has are unpalatable to many at the bank - a conservative institution focused on inflation fighting. “What they have done is very soft. We don’t know what ‘extended period’ is,” said Anders Svendsen, analyst at Nordea.

RBS economist Richard Barwell agreed:

long as the economy remains weak. “When there are changes, they will be taken into account.

Everything depends on the development of the economy,” he told Finnish broadcaster YLE. A sudden, if unlikely, pick-up in the euro zone economy or an oil price shock could easily force a change in policy. The more immediate threat to the euro zone, however, is fresh market turmoil when the Fed begins unwinding its stimulus.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s announcement on June 19 that the US economy central bank was likely to begin slowing the pace of its bond-buying later this year sent peripheral euro zone sovereign bond yields sharply higher.

A political crisis in Portugal pushed yields on its benchmark bonds above 8 percent last week, near levels that forced it to seek international aid two years ago.

RBS’s Barwell said the ECB’s guidance should inoculate shorter-dated bond yields from the impact of the Fed ‘tapering’. “What happens if

that fails? What happens if the contagion comes nonetheless? Then they are back in the ball game of they might have to do something rather than talking,” he said. Yet the conditions attached to the ECB’s sharpest policy tool - its bond-buying program known as Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT) - mean the central bank cannot use it to help Portugal at the moment, or even Spain or Italy for that matter. OMT requires a country to seek outside help from the euro rescue fund - which neither Rome or Madrid have done - and be issuing debt regularly on the bond market for the central bank to intervene and buy its bonds.

Portugal has been issuing Treasury bills but is not regularly issuing longer-dated bonds across the yield curve. Draghi said last week the ECB rules on the OMT were unchanged, all but directly leaving Portugal alone to resolve its crisis. That leaves more specific guidance - with a clearer timeframe - or straightforward rate cuts as alternative options. Draghi said the ECB discussed cutting rates last week. The trouble with rate cuts is that the ECB’s low rates are not reaching all euro zone economies evenly, with lenders in crisis-hit states passing on higher funding costs to customers.

A further option is to offer banks another batch of ultra-cheap long-term loans, known as LTROs. The ECB lent banks a total of more than Ä1 trillion in such twin three-year lending operations in December 2011 and February 2012 - a ploy that Draghi said “avoided a major, major credit crunch”. The interest rate on the loans, which banks are now repaying early, is tied to the ECB’s refinancing rate. Barwell believed a new LTRO would need to be offered at a fixed rate for banks to take it up, and thereby push down market interest rates. “I think it can’t be the same as what’s been done before,” he said. “My view is that they’ve got to make it more attractive, and the key thing to do would be a fixed-rate LTRO.” The International Monetary Fund is already pressing the ECB to take such action. In its annual Clause IV consultations with Italy, the IMF on Thursday called for the ECB to complement Italy’s reform efforts with direct assets purchases and more bumper loans to euro zone banks.

“Direct asset purchases by the ECB, such as for SME credits, another LTRO of considerable tenor, and lower haircuts on eligible collateral would help lower bank funding costs and lending rates,” the IMF said. Full-on asset purchases with a US-style quantitative easing program could depress yields further out than the 2-3 year maturities that Pimco’s Bosomworth said the ECB’s commitment to low rates for an “extended period” would cover.

But the conservative DNA of many ECB policymakers makes them averse to such radical policy steps. Going further would be much harder for the ECB. Draghi stressed last week that the move to take forward guidance was “unprecedented” and a “very significant step”. “This was as strong a commitment as one can get that the ECB will remain accommodative for as long as needed,” said Bosomworth. —Reuters

Lloyds shares hit 2-year high LONDON: Lloyds Banking Group shares jumped to a 2-1/2 year high yesterday as overseas investors stepped up their interest in buying part of the bank, with media reports suggesting some may want half the government’s stake.

Former Standard Chartered chief executive Mervyn Davies is talking to others about forming a consortium to be an “anchor” or cornerstone investor in part-nationalised Lloyds which the government is planning to sell, a person familiar with the matter said. Davies is a partner at US private equity firm Corsair Capital. It was too early to say how big a stake any consortium might want, the source said.

Sky News said a Corsair-led consor-

tium of sovereign wealth funds and financial firms could buy up to 10 billion pounds ($14.9 billion) of Lloyds, or half the government’s 39 percent stake.

The government has received a number of tentative enquiries about the sale, including from overseas investors, a person familiar with the matter said on Sunday. Britain is keen to start selling its 20 billion pound holding in Lloyds this year, and dozens of top investment banks will pitch for the job of handling the sale by a Treasury deadline on Monday.

The Sunday Times said Singapore state investor Temasek had made an approach about buying a 4.5 billion pound stake in Lloyds, although indus-

try sources said there had been no direct approach to the British government. By 1030 GMT Lloyds shares were up 2.8 percent at 66.4 pence, after hitting 66.6p, their highest level since Feb 2011 and comfortably above the 61.2p level the government regards as its break-even price. “Given the shares are trading at a premium to what the government paid and the capital position seems to be where it needs to be and the signs of improvement in the UK economy, everything seems to be moving in the right direction,” said Gary Greenwood, analyst at Shore Capital.

“Now would seem to be a good time to kick it off (the government share sale), and if the stories about sovereign

wealth funds and other interest are true then there are willing buyers.”

Britain’s finance minister George Osborne last month gave the green light to starting the sale of Lloyds shares soon. Lloyds shares outpaced a 1.5 percent rise by the STOXX Europe 600 banking index. The shares have jumped more than 40 percent in the last three months, valuing the bank at about $70 billion. Shares in RBS, which is 81 percent owned by the government, rallied 4.8 percent on signs of greater interest in the state-backed banks. But bankers and analysts say a sale of Britain’s stake in RBS is unlikely to occur until well into 2014 at the earliest. —Reuters

FRANKFURT: Wolfgang Dehen, CEO of German light company OSRAM (left) is seen with CEO Reto Francioni of the Deutsche Boerse prior to the company’s stock market launch in front of the stock exchange yesteday. —AFP

German light bulb maker debuts on stock market BERLIN: German lighting company Osram, the world’s second largest, had its stock market debut yesterday after spinning off from engineering giant Siemens, and in initial trading the shares fell 3.8 percent. The shares were issued at €24.00 ($31) but in early deals they fell to just above €23. The offer of 104.7 million shares valued the listed portion of Osram at about €2.5 billion ($3.2 billion). Siemens retained 17 percent of the company and the Siemens pension fund kept 2.5 percent.

In yesterday’s Frankfurt stock market debut, Siemens - rather than launching a traditional public offering for Osram handed each shareholder one Osram share for every 10 Siemens shares they hold. This

meant that for just one day the Frankfurt DAX index had 31 rather than 30 listed companies. The start of trading had been delayed several times since Siemens scrapped plans for a public offering in 2011 because of market volatility amid the eurozone debt crisis.

Osram, with about 40,000 staff worldwide, is undergoing restructuring after suffering a net loss of €378 million last year and has said it would shed 8,000 jobs by 2014. Long a leader in making light bulbs, along with General Electric and Philips, Osram has faced stiff competition from players such as Samsung and LG as the market has shifted toward low-energy bulbs and light-emitting diodes. —AFP

Europe floods to cost insurers up to $4.5bn

ZURICH: Floods in central Europe last month may cost insurance companies $3.5-4.5 billion, only half of one previous estimate but more than was paid out for the last major washout in 2002, the world’s second biggest reinsurer said yesterday. The forecast from Swiss Re compares to an earlier warning from a damage modelling agency that losses could top $8 billion. That, and its estimate of a $300 million hit for its own results, saw shares in Swiss Re and some other sector firms rise.

The flooding in early June forced Czech soldiers to erect metal barriers and pile up sandbags to protect Prague’s historic centre after days of heavy rains swelled rivers and forced evacuations from low-laying areas.

Emergency workers, soldiers and volunteers worked desperately to shore up flood defences in towns along the Danube and Elbe rivers as the high water moved downstream in the following days, with Germany among the worst-hit.

German insurance trade body GDV last week estimated the country’s insurers could face damage claims of nearly €2 billion ($2.57 billion), slightly ahead of the €1.8 billion cost seen in the Elbe floods a decade ago. Floods which drowned Prague’s historic Old Town and other cities in water in 2002 cost insurers around $3.4 billion.

The world’s biggest reinsurer, Munich Re, is due to publish its estimate of insurance industry and economic losses on Tuesday, in an overview of natural catastrophes in the first half of the year. It will release a figure for its own share of the losses from the floods, which also hit towns in Austria, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, with second quarter earnings data on Aug 6. Swiss Re said steps such as the mobile flood barriers used in Prague had helped spare many regions from substantial losses. “Thanks to timely preven-

tion measures, large areas have been saved from flooding,” said Swiss Re’s Group Chief Underwriting Officer Matthias Weber.

Reinsurers like Hannover, Munich Re and Swiss Re help insurance company customers cover the cost of major damage claims like hurricanes or earthquakes in exchange for part of the premium. Earlier forecasts had resulted in far higher loss estimates, though industry observers caution that there are differences in what is included in the estimate, for example indirect costs such as relocation lodging or business interruption. Catastrophe modelling firm AIR Worldwide had said insurance claims for flood damage in Germany alone may be as much as $8 billion.

Credit rating agency Fitch had put losses at up to €3 billion ($3.85 billion) in Germany, while Insurance broker Willis estimated claims of €4 billion in Europe.

Europe’s biggest insurer, Allianz, has pencilled in claims of €500 million from the floods across Europe, before passing on some costs to reinsurers. Vontobel analyst Stefan Schuermann said the claims burden would pose little threat to Swiss Re’s earnings and ability to pay a high dividend.

“This first major natural catastrophe loss event will impact second quarter results but year-to-date natural catastrophe claims remain well below budget having experienced virtually nothing in the first quarter,” Schuermann said.

Shares in Swiss Re were trading up 1.2 percent at 71.10 Swiss francs by 0950 GMT, while the STOXX Europe 600 insurance index rose 1.9 percent. Munich Re shares rose 2.4 percent. Swiss Re reported a 21 percent rise in profit in the first quarter, driven by a rise in premium and fee income, low catastrophe losses and the expiry of a quota share agreement with Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. —Reuters

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

BUSINESS

US jobs data reinforces expectations of early QE tapering NBK MARKET REPORT UNITED STATES Dollar Gains Last week the market revolved around the US Job report and several major Central Bank meetings. The ECB and BoE decisions to keep rates at record lows lifted the USD index higher to reach a high of 84.53. Furthermore, the US Dollar continued to gain against its major counterparts as speculation over an early tapering of the Fed’s QE program increased by better than expected economic data especially the Labor market. The index surged to a 3-year high amid the news. The euro dropped against the greenback amid worries over Portugal’s political situation combined with the ECB’s decision to keep rates at record lows. The single currency opened the week at 1.3011 reached a 6-week low of 1.2805 amid the better than expected jobs data from the US. Finally, the euro closed the week at the low of 1.2830.

Similarly, the pound dropped against the US Dollar despite better than expected data from the Services and Manufacturing sectors. On Thursday,

the pound plummeted across the board as the BoE kept its key lending rate unchanged.

Additionally, in an unprecedented move, the former Canadian central bank Chief Mark Carney said market pricing for future interest rate rises was “not warranted by the recent developments in the domestic economy.” Cable opened the week at 1.5200 and fell on Friday to a low of 1.4856. The currency closed the week at 1.4887.

The Japanese yen dropped to reach a 5-week low of 101.22 as better than expected data pushed investors towards the greenback. The Yen closed the week at 101.21. Meanwhile, the Aussie went under pressure as the Reserve Bank of Australia kept their interest rates unchanged. In a conference after the meeting, Governor Glenn Stevens said the board “deliberated for a very long time” before keeping its key interest rate unchanged, sending the currency to the lowest level since September 2010. The currency opened the week at 0.9127 dropped to a low of 0.9036 and closed the week at 0.9062.

Gold tumbled 3 percent on Friday after posi-

tive US jobs data sent the dollar rallying and renewed worries that the Federal Reserve might be drawn to scale back its monetary stimulus later this year.

ADP Employment Exceeds Estimates US private employers hired more workers than expected in June, a report released on Wednesday showed, supporting the view of overall moderate job gain but one that might allow the Federal Reserve to reduce stimulus later this year. The ADP National Employment Report said US companies added 188,000 jobs in June, exceeding a forecast of 160,000. It was higher than a slightly downgraded 134,000 increase in May. Jobless Claims The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell last week, pointing to moderate job growth despite slowing economic activity. Initial claims declined by 5,000 to 342,000 from an upwardly revised 348,000 in the previous period.

Unemployment Report US job growth was stronger than expected in June and the payroll gains for the prior two months were revised higher, reinforcing expectations for the Federal Reserve to start winding down its massive stimulus program as early as September. Employers added 195,000 new jobs to their payrolls last month, while the unemployment rate held steady at 7.6 percent as more people entered the workforce. The government revised its count for April and May to show 70,000 more jobs were created than previously reported, a sign the economy was on solid ground, despite higher taxes, government spending cuts and signs of weakness overseas.

Trade Balance Widening in May The trade deficit in the US unexpectedly jumped in May as imports climbed to the second-highest level on record, pointing to an economy that is overcoming higher taxes and government cutbacks. The gap widened by 12.1 percent to $45 billion, the biggest since November, from $40.1 billion in April.

The value of imports at $232.1 billion was second only to a record $234.3 billion in March 2012. Purchases of cellular phones, automobiles and fuel produced overseas add to signs demand from American consumers and businesses are picking up heading into the second half of the year. The report also showed exports stagnated, reflecting slack global growth as markets from China to Europe struggle to gain momentum.

Manufacturing back to Growth Manufacturing activity grew in June, rebounding from an unexpected contraction the prior month, but hiring in the sector was the weakest in nearly four years, an industry report showed yesterday. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said its index of national factory activity in June rose to 50.9 from 49.0 in May, a touch above of expectations of 50.5. A reading above 50 indicates expansion in the sector. The gauge for new orders rose to 51.9 from 48.8, while production jumped to 53.4 from 48.6, helping the overall index bounce back from May’s contraction.

Slower Growth in the Services Sector The pace of growth in the US services sector slowed in June to its weakest level in over three years as new orders nearly stalled, though a jump in employment provided an encouraging sign for the labor market.

The Institute for Supply Management said on Wednesday its services index fell to 52.2 last month from 53.7 in May, short of economists’ forecasts for a gain to 54. While a reading above 50 indicates expansion in the sector, June’s decline brought growth to its lowest level since Feb 2010.

key interest rates unchanged at regular monthly policy meetings amid evidence of a fragile recovery in their economies. However, in a big break with tradition, both banks offered guidance on the rate outlook. ECB President Mario Draghi said interest rates in the currency bloc would stay where they are for an extended period or even fall. Earlier, at former Canadian central bank chief Mark Carney’s debut policy meeting as governor, the Bank of England said market pricing for future interest rate rises was “not warranted by the recent developments in the domestic economy.”

UK Manufacturing British manufacturing recorded its strongest growth in more than two years in June and new orders rose even faster, in a fresh sign of momentum in the economy just as the Bank of England gets a new governor.

The Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) jumped to 52.5 from an upwardly revised 51.5 in May, beating analysts’ forecasts for a reading of 51.5.

UK Services Similarly, Britain’s service sector grew at the fastest rate in more than two years in June, a survey showed on Wednesday fuelling optimism on the economy. In a sign that the upswing may be sustained, new orders in the service sector rose at the fastest rate since June 2007. The Purchasing Managers’ Index for services, compiled by Markit and the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply, rose to 56.9 in June from 54.9 in May. That was higher than any of the 26 economists polled

by Reuters had predicted, and more than two points above the consensus forecast.

AUSTRALIA RBA Keeps Rates Unchanged Australia’s central bank left its key interest rate at a record low on signs of a pickup in housing and as a slide in the currency eases pressure on exporters. Policy makers kept the overnight cash-rate target at 2.75 percent. in a conference after the meeting, Governor Glenn Stevens said the board “deliberated for a very long time” before keeping its key interest rate unchanged, sending the currency to the lowest level since September 2010.

CHINA Factory Activity Expanding in China China manufacturing expanded at the slowest pace in four months in June as a cash squeeze in the banking system reduced the flow of credit to companies. The Purchasing Managers’ Index was at 50.1 versus the previous months 50.8.

KUWAIT

EUROPE & UK ECB & BoE Interest Rate Decisions The ECB and the Bank of England left their

Kuwaiti dinar at 0.28670 The USDKWD opened at 0.28670 on Sunday morning.

Iraqis say oil flow to resume in 2-3 days KIRKUK, Iraq: The flow of crude from Kirkuk in Iraq to the port of Ceyhan in Turkey will resume in two to three days af ter being interrupted for weeks due to a pipeline leak, two sources in Iraq’s state-run North Oil Company (NOC ) said yesterday.

Pumping through the pipeline has been suspended since June 21 because of the leak in the Ain alJahsh area, around 290 k m (180 miles) northwest of Baghdad. A senior Turkish energy official said Iraq had given notice flows would resume

by Friday. “Iraqi officials told Turkey that the flow on K irkuk- Ceyhan pipeline will resume by Friday at the latest, but it is possible that it may be delayed until after Friday,” the official said.

Flows through the pipeline, which has an official capacity of 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd), are regularly interrupted due to technical problems and attacks by insurgents. “Every time we had a bomb attack, a quick fix was required to avoid disruption to exports from Ceyhan, but that’s not working anymore as parts of the pipe have become like a sieve,” an NOC official said on condition of anonymity. Work on the pipeline was suspended last month after unidentified militants ambushed a repair crew, killing two technicians and two

members of the oil police, NOC and Iraqi security sources said.

Security forces have since been sent up from Baghdad to provide cover for the repair team, and an oil ministry official said security measures along the pipeline would be reviewed. Shipping and trading sources said loading of Kirkuk crude onto tankers at the Turkish port of Ceyhan had been halted for more than two weeks because there was not enough oil in storage there.

Typically, when the pipeline is idled, tanker loadings at Ceyhan can continue for a few days using stored oil, maintaining supplies to the Mediterranean market.

“The pumping had been very problematic over the past couple of months.

Every single ship has had to wait for at least 2-3 days... the problem is on the Iraqi side,” said a Ceyhan-based shipping source, adding that eight tankers were currently waiting to be loaded.

The stoppage contributed to a decline in OPEC member Iraq’s June oil exports to 2.328 million bpd from 2.484 million the previous month, short of its 2.9 million bpd target for 2013. Iraq has the world’s fourth-largest oil reserves and is targeting exports of 6 million bpd by 2017, which would see it overtake its neighbour and fellow OPEC member Iran. —Reuters

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

BUSINESS

Fearful Chinese pay more for imported infant goods SHANGHAI: Sophie the Giraffe is a teething toy taking over the world one baby mouth at a time. The toy, handmade in France from Malaysian rubber sap, is the rage for parents of toddlers the world over, including China. But the knobby chew toy is priced around $30 in China, nearly three times the price in France. It’s not a shock for Chinese parents, who have long lived with imported baby products that are sharply more expensive than elsewhere in the world. Last week, Chinese authorities began an investigation into possible price-fixing and anticompetitive practices at five foreign companies manufacturing infant formula milk, including Nestle SA, Abbott Laboratories, Mead Johnson Nutrition Co, Danone’s Dumex brand and Wyeth Nutrition.

Several other products aimed at infants and toddlers appear to be exorbitantly priced in China. Import duties are

only a part of the reason, experts say much of the premium for imported infant products can be ascribed to fears that locally made goods may be contaminated. Chinese parents, who are mostly only allowed to have one child, simply do not want to take the risk of possible contamination in local baby products. Foreign companies know this and many take advantage. “Brands have been able to get away with this just because of the fear factor about buying unsafe products,” said Benjamin Cavender, principal analyst at China Market Research Group. “If you look at how consumers spend their money, they are disproportionately willing to spend money on anything that their child will be eating or what will be touching their child’s body.”

In 2008, six infants were killed in China and thousands fell sick after consuming milk tainted with melamine. There have been several food scandals in recent

months, involving rat meat in mutton, excessive hormones in chicken meat and toxins in rice. But when it comes to children, the fear of domestic goods goes beyond food to items like toys and diapers. Many local toys have been found to have toxic levels of substances like lead, arsenic and mercury. For many Chinese and expatriates living in China going to Hong Kong or overseas for holidays, the shopping list includes diapers and infant formula, and they buy in bulk.

In March, Hong Kong passed a law that classified milk powder as a restricted export, alongside items like rough diamonds, mandating that anyone without a licence caught exporting more than 1.8 kg, about two cans of milk powder, will be fined or jailed. Security guards patrol shops at Hong Kong’s international airport to make sure the rule is not broken.

In Britain, shops are rationing sales of baby milk after Chinese visitors and bulk

buyers cleared their shelves to send the goods to China. Boxes of baby milk costing around £10 ($15) in Britain are on sale on Chinese websites for up to three times as much.

Other imported infant items are similarly marked up in China. Sophie the Giraffe retails for about 8 euros ($10.33) on Amazon’s French website. Under Chinese law, Sophie would face an import duty of 10 percent if imported as a rubber item and a value-added-tax (VAT) of 17 percent. If it is imported as an animal toy, there is no import duty but the VAT still applies. Transport and distribution costs would also apply. Shanghai Tongzhen Trading Co sells the toy for $27 on Chinese e-commerce platform Jingdong Mall.

After China announced the investigation into infant formula, Swiss food company Nestle and French rival Danone said they will cut the price of the milk powder

in China. A can of Karicare Gold 3 infant milk powder from Nutricia, a unit of Danone, retails in New Zealand and Australia for around $19. In China, the official Nutricia store on the online Taobao Mall sells one can for 190 yuan ($31). The VAT is still 17 percent but import duty for milk powder stands at only five percent.

Cai Junfang, a Shanghai woman who has a two-month old baby girl, says she manages the high prices by breastfeeding and using local diaper brands. “The prices of imported baby goods are indeed very high,” said Cai, adding that the quality of imported goods was however generally better than domestic products. But when it comes to her baby’s milk formula, she’s not taking chances. “There has been too much media exposure on the domestic formula safety. The most important thing is my baby’s health,” she said. —Reuters

India not such a super market for Wal-Mart Red tape, graft hit US retail giant

SEOUL: A woman talks on a mobile phone before a stocks display board showing Asiana Airlines’ share price index at the Exchange Exhibition Hall yesterday. —AFP

Crash mars Asiana’s image SEOUL: South Korea’s number two airline Asiana has spent years trying to build a reputation for safety and quality but the San Francisco crash could tarnish its image, business analysts said yesterday as the carrier’s share price dived. But aviation experts said the damage to its business would probably be limited, even though suspicion is focussing on pilot error as the cause of Saturday’s accident. South Korea’s two major carriers - Asiana and flag carrier Korean Air -made strenuous efforts to improve safety, bringing in overseas experts, after what one expert called a “terrible period” in the later decades of the 20th century.

The crash, which killed two teenage Chinese passengers and injured 182 other people when the plane touched down short of the runway, was Asiana’s first fatal passenger jet crash since 1993. Korean Air’s last deadly passenger jet crash was in 1997.

Asiana’s share price tumbled yesterday, losing 5.76 percent to 4,825 won ($4.20) as investors digested the impact of the accident . “You can’t rule out the possibility that such a fatal accident that hurts the firm’s reputation will sap demand for Asiana’s services down the road,” HMC Investment Securities analyst Kang Dong-Jin told AFP. Potentially huge insurance payouts to victims and for the aircraft will raise future premiums and increase financial burdens, he added. “Although the cause of the accident has not been revealed yet, the firm’s first major accident in 20 years will inevitably cause damage to its business both in the short and long term,” said KDB Daewoo Securities analyst Jay Ryu. US investigators said the Boeing 777 was travelling much slower than recommended on final approach, and a pilot asked to abort the landing moments before the plane’s tail smashed into the ground.

The flight data recorder also showed that as the 777 approached the runway its pilots were warned that the aircraft was likely to stall, said US National Transportation Safety Board chairwoman Deborah Hersman. The request to abort the landing was captured on the cockpit voice recorder 1.5 seconds before the crash, Hersman said. Asiana said

the troubled plane was controlled all the way through to landing by a pilot who was undergoing training on a 777.

Lee Kang-Kuk, 46, had only 43 hours of experience in handling this type of aircraft but is a skilled pilot with more than 9,000 flying hours, it said. And Lee was accompanied by an experienced co-pilot, it added.

South Korea’s transport ministry said it could take months to identify the cause of the accident, even though an initial inspection showed the tail struck a sea wall at the end of the runway.

While Korean carriers had a “terrible period” of accidents in previous decades, “in the past 10 years their record has been pretty good”, said Tom Ballantyne, chief correspondent of Orient Aviation magazine. The fact that an Asiana pilot under training for 777 aircraft was landing the plane was “very normal”, he said. Combined, the pilots had “thousands of hours’ experience in the cockpit”. Ballantyne said it was “pretty certain” from the debris field that the plane’s tail hit the sea wall and that the evidence pointed to “misjudgment by the person operating the aircraft”. “By the time they decided to go around (abort), it was far too late.”

But Ballantyne said the Asiana cabin crew should take credit for the speedy evacuation of the plane - a point made by passengers, including one who praised a flight attendant as a “hero” for helping survivors escape as smoke billowed through the cabin. Ballantyne also forecast no long-lasting damage to the airline’s reputation. “People would be surprised at how quickly airlines recover from incidents like this if they handle it correctly and are open and honest.”

Jonathan Galaviz, managing director of Galaviz & Company - a US-based consultancy that focuses on Asia including the leisure and travel industry - also said the effect on Asiana would be limited. “The impact of the crash on the long-term growth of airlines based out of Asia will be negligible,” Galaviz told AFP in emailed comments. “All things considered, most large airlines in Asia have great safety records and have great pilots who are very experienced in international environments.” —AFP

MUMBAI: Wal-Mart’s India expansion is stalled.

When India announced last September that it would allow foreign supermarket chains to take majority ownership of their Indian operations, it marked a victory for Wal-Mart Stores Inc, which had spearheaded efforts to open the market and said its first retail store would open within two years. Now, two sources within the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company’s Indian unit say it is unlikely to apply for its first retail store licence before March 2015. The company has said it needs a further 12 to 18 months after winning government approval to open each store, which means its first retail outlet in the country would open in 2016 at the earliest.

Meanwhile, Bharti Enterprises, its local partner in an existing wholesale business, is reconsidering its commitment to their joint venture given the heavy investment requirement and distant prospects for returns, four sources with direct knowledge of the matter said. Bharti denied that it is looking to exit the tie-up and said it remains fully committed to the joint venture, and a WalMart spokeswoman declined to comment on what she called speculation. The latest developments stem from an ongoing internal bribery probe relating to its Indian operations, still-evolving rules governing foreign participation in India’s retail sector, and national elections due by May 2014 that could result in the controversial retail reform being reversed - and any newly opened supermarkets being shut - the sources said.

The delay and faltering partnership mean WalMart may miss out on the “first-mover” advantage in a country considered the last great frontier for global retailers. If Bharti pulled out, Wal-Mart would be forced to find a new partner from a tiny pool of large Indian retailers to meet the requirement that a local firm owns 49 percent of the business. On June 26, Wal-Mart announced that Raj Jain, who led its India push for the past six years, had left the company.

The world’s biggest retailer named Ramnik Narsey, who recently joined the company after heading the Indian operations of Australia’s Woolworths Ltd, as interim India chief, without explaining the change. Jain did not answer repeated calls to his mobile phone and the company declined to make Narsey available for comment. Narsey headed the consumer electronics wholesale business of Woolworths in India for fifteen months, before it was sold to the Tata Group, offering little insight into what his appointment might mean for Wal-Mart’s India rollout.

“It will take lot more than a management change to fix things,” said Devangshu Dutta, who heads Bangalore-based retail consultancy Third Eyesight. “Wal-Mart is being investigated for breaking entry rules, bribery and these are problems that are much larger than any individual or the changes he can quickly bring about,” he said.

Wal-Mart has said it is in compliance with India’s foreign direct investment guidelines.

The US retailer is currently investigating bribery allegations in its Indian operations. With 1.2 billion people and 90 percent of its $500 billion in retail trade done at mom-and-pop shops, India is potentially lucrative for retailers such as Wal-Mart, Carrefour SA and Tesco Plc. But no global supermarket chain has applied to enter because of regulatory uncertainty. Wal-Mart’s

local joint venture partner Bharti, one of the few large-scale retailers in India, is getting cold feet because of the additional investment required to run retail operations.

Bharti, controlled by billionaire Sunil Mittal, wants to consolidate its balance sheet and sharpen its focus on Bharti Airtel Ltd, India’s biggest telecoms operator, which has $12 billion in debt, sources said. “The JV is under review. Bharti is taking a closer look at it because it wants to move out,” said a senior official at Bharti Wal-Mart Pvt Ltd, declining to be identified. With high costs and narrow margins, most big retailers in India lose money. The Bharti Walmart wholesale joint venture lost 2.77 billion rupees ($48 million) on sales of 18.8 billion rupees in 2011, according to

India. More than 15 attorneys from US law firm Greenberg Traurig are now working with the Indian business to help strengthen compliance, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman said. Wal-Mart, which has run wholesale stores in India since 2009, has not opened a new one since October despite its stated plans to open eight in 2013. It has 20 such stores in India. In response to questions from Reuters, Wal-Mart said its India wholesale store rollout had encountered delays but did not say how many it will open in 2013.

“We are in the process of implementing additional controls for our new store permit and licensing program to ensure the process is handled appropriately and in full compliance with all laws and regulations,” the Wal-Mart India

KITANG, India: Indian farmers work in the fields of this village of Kitang outside Gangtok, the capital of the north-eastern state of Sikkim on Sunday. Over 70 percent of Indians depend on farm incomes and about 65 percent of India’s farms depend on rains that fall between June and September. —AFP the most recent regulatory filing. “Bharti will continue to look at divestiture,” said another source with direct knowledge of the matter. “The plan is to make it a focused business rather than the hands and legs going in all directions.” There is no certainty that Bharti will exit the wholesale joint venture after the review, the sources said.

Wal-Mart’s internal crackdown on bribe-paying has also slowed expansion plans in a country where paying bribes is seen as a standard cost of doing business, according to Indian retailers and industry officials. Reuters reported in May that retailers in India often pay so-called “speed money” to smooth the process of obtaining dozens of permits. The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act forbids American firms from paying bribes. WalMart launched a global review of corruption last year after a New York Times report on bribery at the company’s Mexico operations. Its lawyers flagged India among the countries with the highest corruption risk.

In November, Bharti Walmart, the company’s India joint venture, suspended employees including the chief financial officer as part of an internal investigation into bribery allegations in

spokeswoman said. “As we develop and implement enhanced procedures for obtaining licenses, there have been some temporary delays in store openings,” she said in an e-mailed statement.

At its Rajahmundry wholesale store in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, Wal-Mart has not sold fresh fruits and vegetables since October as it has been unable to acquire a licence from the state Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee, according to a company source. APMC officials declined comment. In the same state, Wal-Mart’s wholesale store in Hyderabad is only open six days a week because it has been unable to secure a 365-day operating licence, the person said. In both cases, according to the company source, the licence has been held up because Wal-Mart won’t pay a bribe. “If you do not pay a bribe, who will do your work in this country? Have all the government officials in India become honest overnight? Nothing has changed,” the company executive told Reuters, on condition of anonymity. The Andhra Pradesh APMC and municipal officials declined comment. —Reuters

In tough year for Boeing, crash may not be setback The first fatal crash of a Boeing 777 jetliner on Saturday may not pose much of a setback to the company, in part because design features of the plane helped prevent burning and break-up that could have led to greater loss of life, experts said. So far, there were no indications of mechanical failure aboard Asiana Airlines flight 214 before it touched down short of the runway in San Francisco, skidded across the tarmac and erupted in flames, killing two passengers and injuring more than 180 people.

National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Deborah Hersman said Sunday that it was too early to say whether pilot error or mechanical failure were to blame.

But she said there was no evidence of problems with the flight or the landing until 7 seconds before impact, when the crew tried to increase the plane’s speed and the

plane responded normally. The control tower was not alerted to any plane issues.

Aviation experts noted that confidence in the plane was increased by the fact that the fuselage remained largely intact after impact and the fire remained at bay until after many passengers had exited, thanks to engineering design and a flame retardant cabin interior that are standard on modern jets. The 777 also has a exceptional safety record that will support confidence in the jet.

“This, to me, is actually more of a story about tremendous safety,” said Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst at the Teal Group in Virginia. “You have this cataclysmic-looking crash where the overwhelming majority of people walk away. This is a very safe plane.”

Hospitals were surprised that there were not more burn victims.

“We were expecting burns, we did

not see them,” said Dr Margaret Knudson, chief of surgery at San Francisco General Hospital, which received the most patients of any hospital. The accident came as Boeing Co is battling to sell a new 777 version to customers to compete with a rival A350 plane from Airbus. Earlier this year, Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner was grounded by regulators after batteries overheated on two jets, raising safety concerns about that jet and prompting an overhaul of battery design.

Hours after the accident, the first airliner crash in the United States since 2009, Asiana Airlines President and CEO Yoon Young-doo said the plane did not appear to be at fault.

“For now, we acknowledge that there were no problems caused by the 777-200 plane or (its) engines,” Yoon told reporters at the company headquarters on the outskirts of Seoul. That kind of early reassurance

for the aircraft could support Boeing shares. “Investors will not view this negatively for the 777,” said Ken Herbert, an analyst at Imperial Capital in San Francisco. “I do not think it will have any lasting impact on what has otherwise been a stellar record for the 777.”

Still, the two deaths on Saturday mar the unblemished safety record for one of Boeing’s flagship jetliners and a solid workhorse of the industry, which has flown since 1995 without a fatal crash. In Jan 2008, all passengers and crew survived when a similar British Airways 777-200ER crashlanded yards short of the runway at London’s Heathrow Airport. A twoyear investigation blamed the crash on a fuel blockage caused by the release of ice that had built up during the long flight from Beijing. The discovery led to changes in the design of the British Rolls-Royce engines used on some 777s. —Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO: A United Airlines plane lands next to the wreckage of Asiana Flight 214 at the San Francisco International Airport on Sunday. —AP

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

BUSINESS

Markaz: ICT spending expected to reach $28bn during 2012-2015 KUWAIT: Kuwait Financial Centre “Markaz” recently published the executive summary of its report on Kuwait Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Sector. In this research note, Markaz analyzes status of the Sector, and discusses challenges and investment opportunities in the GCC Education sector.

Markaz’s report points out that Kuwait is the third largest spender on ICT infrastructure in the GCC. ICT spending has grown at a CAGR of 12.6 percent between 2003-2011 and is expected to moderate to a 6.4 percent annualized growth over the next three years. The report expects total ICT spending to reach $28 billion between 2011-2015.

The bulk of ICT spending, about 80 percent ($21.3 billion), is towards Communications, followed distantly by Computer Hardware

and Software. The projection is in line with the bigger picture in the region as a whole, where the key driver in ICT spending remains to be in the telecommunication sector.

Computer hardware and computer software are growing at double digit rate however the size of spending lackluster in comparison. The next decade is more likely to see a quantum leap in computer hardware and software spending as governments and business transform from the “pen and paper” to the new digital world.

The report notes that ICT sector is in constant growth in tandem with economic and demographic trends of Kuwait. This induces a great need for capacity building and maintenance. In the early eighties, Kuwait adopted telecommunication technology

before its GCC peers by establishing Mobile Telecommunications Company (now Zain), the first telecommunication company in the region. Kuwait was one of the earliest internet adopters in the region as well. However, it lagged behind other countries in the recent years in terms of various key indicators. For example, in terms of network readiness index, it ranks 62 compared to 27 for Bahrain and 28 for Qatar. Similarly it has lower mobile and internet penetration compared to other GCC countries. One of the key limitations of Kuwait ICT sector is the lack of an independent regulatory body which is slowing further development in this evolving sector.

Based on segment analysis, ICT spending is concentrated on consumer segment with 47% of total 2011 spending, followed

by energy and utilities with 9.3 percent while the government segment contributed to 7.2 percent of total ICT spending. Going forward, segments which were underinvested will have a better opportunity to shine such as Construction, educational service, transportation and retail trade which grew at a CAGR of 11.4 percent between 2007-2010 and is expected continue its robust growth between 2012-2015.

Consumers might be leading ICT adoption in Kuwait; however this is not the case in the government sector. This issue was addressed by the Government of Kuwait, through the establishment of the Central Agency for Information technology. The CAI is in charge of digitizing the government, the task is long and challenging but fruitful as we can see with several unified commu-

nication tools including Ministry of Health digital medical record initiative and TASDEED portal. CAI projects once implemented will require increased spending on ICT infrastructure.

Investment forecasts are usually a projection based on current trends. However, since the Information Technology is in constant growth and advancement mode, the report points out that if the CAI implements its educational mandate effectively, the ICT investment forecast will actually be in line with the telecommunication spending since the convergence of Information Technology with daily activities - be it work or personal - is evident; and once it is adopted by the general users in dealing with government entities, the critical mass alone will spur investments.

Yusuf A Alghanim & Sons’ auto Ramadan promotion

KUWAIT: Yusuf A Alghanim & Sons Automotive, the exclusive distributor of Chevrolet vehicles in Kuwait, is celebrating the holy month of Ramadan with a special promotion on all Chevrolet vehicles, allowing everyone to own and drive the Chevrolet vehicle of their choice and benefit from exceptional prices. Customers will also have the chance to win up to 5 Malibu LTs which are included in a weekly draw during this unique Ramadan promotion. For every KD 500 purchase, customers will receive a coupon that entitles them to enter a weekly draw.

Yusuf A Alghanim & Sons Automotive offers its wide range of Chevrolet vehicles at reasonable prices, providing everyone the opportunity to own the Chevrolet of their choice. Visit any of Yusuf A Alghanim & Sons Automotive’s showrooms and choose any Chevrolet model that suits your lifestyle including the Chevrolet Tahoe that starting at KD 9,777, the powerful Silverado starting at KD 5,777, the family-friendly and advanced Traverse starting at KD 8,222, Chevrolet Malibu starting at KD 5,444, the elegant Cruze that starting at KD 4,444 and the stylish sporty Captiva starting at KD 5,999.

A beloved choice amongst the youth in Kuwait, the high-powered Silverado proves to be the ultimate answer for any terrain, be it rough rides in the desert or leisurely outings. Available in two and four-wheel-drive configurations, the Silverado is powered by a 4.8, 5.3 or 6.0-liter engine that generates 360 hp on all three Silverado models which are the 1500, 2500 and the 3500. The Silverado comes in regular, extended or crew cab versions, all of which merge smart technology and features an independent air conditioning unit and Stabilitrak.

The beloved Tahoe, is the ideal SUV that contains features sought by the youth, fans of powerful cars, top executives as well as families who seek spacious, solid cars that conveniently and comfortably transport them downtown or carry

them through the great outdoors. Nicknamed “The Muscle Car” by its youthful fan base due to its powerful performance on the road, the Tahoe comprises an 8-cylinder, 5.3-liter engine with 6speed automatic transmission with overdrive

that reaches up to 320 hp. The Tahoe has proven to be the ultimate vehicle of choice for any need or want due to its rich features and security measures that comprise of eight airbags, ABS, Stabilitrak, Cruise Control and remote engine starter.

Apart from having a long and rich history, Camaro has been the ultimate drive that won

the hearts of thrill-seeking youth ever since it was introduced. The Camaro is equipped with three engines, a 6.2-liter engines that generates 426 hp, another model is equipped with a V6, 3.6-liter engine with an impressive 323 hp. The latest model introduced is The Camaro ZL1 which is a supercar, it generated a monstrous 580-horsepower, the Camaro ZL1 is the fastest Camaro to ever be built. Once you get over the rush of the all-aluminum 6.2L supercharged V8 engine and its 580 horsepower and 556 lb.-ft. of torque, you will realize that this Camaro goes beyond raw power. The Camaro’s performance and precision continues with Magnetic Ride Control, world-class braking and 4-wheel independent suspension. The Camaro ZL1 is the kind of vehicle that engineers dream of designing and speed lovers crave to drive.

Apart from the remarkable features and the attractive prices, customers will also get the chance to enter the weekly Ramadan draw for a chance to win up to 5 Malibu LT, every KD 500 gives you one chance to enter the weekly draw.

Additionally customers will enjoy excellent customer service, quality maintenance options and competitive prices on spare parts, all of which are provided to you by a team of professional and skilled technicians and team members. An element that further enhances customers’ peace of mind is Yusuf A. Alghanim & Sons Automotive’s service center that is distinguished by its continuous and successful efforts in providing the highest quality of services that are up to international standards. The largest in the world, the service center is equipped with a large variety of the most advanced equipment operated by a team of skilled professionals and effective consultants who ensure timely service.

Turn your Ramadan into a rewarding one this year by buying the Chevrolet you want at the best price and getting the chance to win a brand new Chevrolet Malibu.

Jazeera Airways boosts summer schedule with 61 additional flights KUWAIT: The Middle East’s #1 airline in on-time performance, Jazeera Airways announced it is adding 61 additional flights to its summer schedule. The additional flights boost frequencies on routes to Jeddah, Dubai, Amman, Luxor, Assiut, Sohag, Al Najaf and Mashhad. A total of 18 out of the 61 flights were added to the Kuwait-Jeddah route to support the Ramadan travel period between July 10 and July 27. The addition results in one additional flight to Jeddah per day during the period, bringing the total number of flights operated by the airline on the Kuwait-Jeddah route to two flights per day.

Below is a schedule of the flights that were added to the summer season: Jeddah 18 Dubai 5 Amman 6 Luxor 5 Assiut 4 Sohag 2 Al Najaf 2 Mashhad 19 Jazeera Airways serves 19 popular destinations in the Middle East from Kuwait, including

KUWAIT: Saudi International Insulation Manufacturing Company (SIIMCO), a joint venture equally owned by Alghanim Industries and Saint-Gobain has announced that it has signed an agreement with the Yanbu Royal Commission to lease a 65,000 m2 site at Yanbu Al-Sinaiyah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The lease is for a period of 30 years and will allow the development of a new plant utilising Saint-Gobain’s proprietary technology to produce stone wool, which is widely used as insulation in many parts of the construction industry. The agreement follows a comprehensive review of the environmental impact and approval for plant layouts, building structure and utilities from the Yanbu local authorities.

Construction of the state-of-the-art plant is expected to begin in August 2013 and it is planned to be operational by early 2014. The plant represents an investment by SIIMCO of about €45 million (approx KD 16.75 million). When completed it will employ around 200 people and have the annual capacity to produce 60,000 MT of stone-wool, thermal and acoustical insulation materials in the form of slabs, rolls, stitched mats, and preformed pipe insulation annually. It will serve the technical and building insulation market segments in Saudi Arabia and other regional markets in the GCC, Egypt, Iraq and Levant.

Omar Alghanim, Chief Executive of Alghanim Industries, commenting on the agreement said: “Our joint venture invest-

ment at Yanbu will supply local and regional industrial and building areas with a reliable source of high quality insulation, which is both environmentally friendly and will assist in improving the fire safety of buildings.

“Saint-Gobain is one of the world’s leading construction industry suppliers and we have worked together very successfully in the past. This is the second joint venture we have shared together in this sector, following our very successful investment in Turkey for the production of similar products. I look forward to continuing to develop and strengthen our relationship as we proceed with the plant at Yanbu.” The agreement was formally signed by Dr. Alaa Nassif, Executive President for Royal Commission and Mohammad Al-Soaib, General Manager of the First Saudi Insulation Manufacturing Company, a wholly- owned Alghanim Industries subsidiary, at a special ceremony that took place in Yanbu.

Etihad Airways posts record results for Q2 and H1 of 2013

high-demand business, leisure, family, and weekend destinations such as Dubai, Bahrain, Beirut, Alexandria, Amman, Istanbul, Sharm El Sheikh, Luxor, Assiut, Sohag, Mashhad, Jeddah, Riyadh, Cairo and Al Najaf. Jazeera Airways operates seven fully owned Airbus A320s with a twoclass cabin comprising a Business Class and an Economy Class. Business Class travelers get both an upgraded experience and exclusivity, starting

Nissan corporate average fuel economy up 24.9% DUBAI: Corporate average fuel economy at Nissan Motor Co, Ltd improved by 24.9 percent in fiscal year 2012 compared to fiscal 2005. The figure marks Nissan’s best fuel economy performance since fiscal 2005, and represents a 10.2 percentage points year-on-year improvement from fiscal year 2011. Nissan continues to work toward achieving the ambitious environmental targets set in its action plan, Nissan Green Program 2016 (NGP2016).

Strong sales volume of the Nissan Note in Japan, the Altima - with its best-in-class fuel economy - in the US, together with the Sylphy and Teana in China contributed significantly to the solid improvement in corporate average fuel economy. Under the NGP2016, Nissan aims to achieve a 35-percent corporate average fuel economy improvement compared to its fiscal year 2005 baseline by fiscal 2016. In particular, the program is focused on reducing CO2 emissions by expanding a wide range of new products featuring advanced, fuel-efficient, environmentally-friendly technologies called “PURE DRIVE.” In FY2012, sales of PURE DRIVE models in Japan, the US, Europe and China rose to approximately 41.5 percent of sales in those markets. Also, global sales of vehicles equipped with Nissan’s fuel-efficient continuously variable transmission (CVT) climbed to 2.28 million units. Nissan aims to further improve its corporate average fuel economy numbers in fiscal 2013 by expanding

Alghanim and Saint-Gobain join forces for stone wool factory

the PURE DRIVE line-up with fuel-efficient cars that match customer needs, such as the all-new Nissan Dayz minicar that was recently launched in Japan.

Nissan today also announced that corporate CO2 emissions were reduced by 8.3 percent (t-CO2/vehicle) compared to fiscal year 2005. They fell 0.3 percentage points compared to fiscal year 2011 through better loading efficiency during transport and promotion of a modal shift in logistics, even though CO2 emissions accruing to added global production capacity increased. Nissan aims to reduce CO2 emissions from corporate activities by 20 percent compared to fiscal year 2005.

Accordingly, upgrades to high-efficiency manufacturing equipment continue.

Overall, Nissan has steadily reduced CO2 emissions on the corporate side by implementing more efficient production technologies and procedures.

NGP2016, which began in FY2011, will guide Nissan’s efforts to reduce the environmental impact of the corporation activities and pursue harmony between resource consumption and ecology. In particular, Nissan’s corporate energy is being dedicated to improvements in four main areas: zero-emission vehicle penetration, fuel-efficient vehicle expansion, corporate carbon footprint minimization and new natural resource use minimization.

with exclusive check-in lines, business lounge access, up to 60 kilograms in free baggage allowance, and an exclusive on-board cabin. The airline’s Economy Class offers travelers free baggage allowance of 40 kilograms and free onboard meals with a changing menu ever y month. Jazeera Airways is an IATA-member airline and operates one of the youngest Airbus A320 fleets across the Middle East.

URC sells assets in Kuwait and Qatar KUWAIT: United Real Estate Company (URC), the leading real estate development company in the MENA region announced yesterday the sale of ten of its plots in the Mubarakiya area, one of the oldest commercial areas in Kuwait, and the sale of two of the company’s plots in Entertainment City, a mixeduse master development in Qatar. The total cash transaction value for these two transactions was worth KD 13.4 million Kuwaiti, achieving a combined net profit of KD 2.8 million. The total area for the ten Mubarakiya plots sold is approximately 1,295 sq m, representing 1 percent of URC’s total assets with a book value of KD 4.7 milMohammed lion. The cash transaction value for this sale Al-Saqqaf was KD 5.6 million, resulting in a net profit of KD 907,268.

As for the sale of the Entertainment City plots, URC recorded an approximate of KD 1.9 million in net profit, where the cash value of the transaction was KD 7.8 million. The total area for the two plots sold is 29,216 sq m with a total asset value of KD 16.7 million, representing 3.63 percent of URC’s total assets.

Commenting on this, URC’s CEO, Mohammed Ahmed Al Saqqaf stated, “The sale of these plots is in line with our strategy to liquidate similar assets and use the proceeds more efficiently. Our ability to manage our assets is a reflection of our rigorous approach to manage our cash flows and our commitment to diversify and develop our real estate portfolio.”

After the sale of these plots, URC will still hold one plot in Mubarakiya measuring approximately 165 sq m, and maintains a presence in Qatar through an additional plot of land in Entertainment City, measuring 10,105 sq m and two plots in Energy City with a total area of 10,463 sq m.

ABU DHABI: Etihad Airways has announced its strongest second quarter and half-year financial performances on record, reflecting continued solid growth in its airline alliance strategy and global cargo operations. The national carrier of the United Arab Emirates achieved an eight per cent increase in Q2 2013 passenger revenues, generating $921 million (2012: $855 million), while passenger revenues for the first half of 2013 reached $1.8 billion (2012: $1.6 billion), up by 13 per cent.

Revenue generated by codeshare and equity alliance airline partners was $184 million in Q2 2013. This was 25 per cent above the $147 million turnover in the same period of 2012. Partnership revenue comprised 20 per cent of the airline’s total passenger revenue in both Q2 and the first half of 2013. The President and Chief Executive Officer of Etihad Airways, James Hogan, said the company’s Q2 and half year results were achieved despite the continuation of unsteady economic and geopolitical factors, with air fare yields slightly lower for the quarter, compressed by strong competitive capacity growth and resultant price competition.

“Despite the tough global trading climate, we have still achieved record, double digit growth in both Q2 and the first half of 2013,” Hogan said. “This reflects not only the continuing popularity of our Abu Dhabi hub, but the growing maturity of our airline partnership strategy and the strength of our cargo operations, which continue to well exceed industry growth rates.” Hogan said a significant achievement in Q2 was the improved contribution of the Etihad Airways equity alliance partners, in particular Germany’s airberlin, which has become the largest codeshare contributor. This reflects increased connectivity between the integrated networks of the two airlines.

Etihad Airways increased its codeshare partnerships during Q2, adding Serbia’s national carrier, JatAirways, and announced new partnerships with Air Canada, South African Airways and Belavia of Belarussia, all to take effect during Q3. With these inclusions, Etihad Airways will have 45 codeshare partners and a virtual global network of more

than 350 destinations, the most comprehensive of any alliance or Middle Eastern airline. In Q2, Etihad Airways’ Available Seat Kilometres (ASKs) - reflecting network seat capacity - rose by 13 per cent to 17.2 billion (2012: 15.2 billion).

Revenue Passenger Kilometres (RPKs) reflecting traffic - increased by 13 per cent to 13.3 billion in Q2 2013 (2012: 11.8 billion).

This growth was achieved through the delivery of two new Boeing 777-300 passenger aircraft - a three-class version seating 328 passengers and a two-class model seating 380 - and a corresponding increase in flights, including new services to Amsterdam, Sao Paulo and Belgrade. Results for Q2 were further strengthened by the introduction late in March of daily flights to a fourth new destination, Washington, DC. Etihad Cargo continued to achieve the strongest growth in the company, with 112,963 tons uplifted in Q2 2013 (2012: 89,470 tons) and 215,124 tons in the first half of 2013 (2012: 174,622 tons). This reflected a massive 26 per cent growth in Q2 and 23 per cent growth for the first half of 2013.

The growth in cargo volumes was underpinned by the delivery in Q2 of three new freighter aircraft - one Airbus A330-200F, one Boeing 777-200F and the company’s first Boeing 747-8F, which was wet leased from Atlas Air - taking the cargo fleet to nine. Cargo performance was further boosted by increased passenger services, providing more under-floor freight capacity. During Q2 Etihad Airways announced that, subject to regulatory approvals, it would acquire 24 per cent of India’s Jet Airways, enlarging the Etihad Airways equity alliance and group network.

In addition, Etihad Airways signed an Initial Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Serbia to discuss potentially investing in JatAirways.

Etihad Airways also secured Australian regulatory approval to increase its equity stake in Virgin Australia from 10 per cent to 19.9 per cent. As well as its Virgin Australia stake, Etihad Airways holds a 29 per cent shareholding in airberlin, 40 per cent of Air Seychelles and three per cent of Aer Lingus.

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

technology

Cyberspying targeted S Korea, US military

Facebook pushes search feature to more users NEW YORK: Users who may have grown frustrated with Facebook’s rudimentary search feature are getting an updated version designed to make it easier to find people, places and photos on the site.

Facebook unveiled its social search tool in January but only made it available to a small fraction of its 1.1 billion users, as its engineers continued to tweak and test it.

Over the next few weeks, starting on Monday, the company is rolling out the social search tool, called “Graph Search,” to everyone whose language is set to US English.

Unlike searches on Google, which are good for finding specific things, Facebook’s tool is useful in unearthing information about your social circles. Graph Search lets you find friends who live in San Francisco who are vegan. Friends of friends who live near you and like hiking. Photos of your boyfriend taken before you met him in 2010. Nearby restaurants that your friends like - and so on.

But soon after Facebook launched the tool, the Internet had a field day with less innocuous and more embarrassing queries, showing just how much information people reveal about themselves on the site, intentionally or not. Care to find out which brand of condoms your friends prefer?

Graph Search might tell you. A blog called actualfacebookgraphsearches.tumblr.com

posted a collection of searches ranging from “married people who like prostitutes” to “current employers of people who like racism.” Both yielded more than 100 people.

While it is possible that some of those Facebook users are fully aware that what they’ve shared is easily searchable, it is likely that some are not. It’s easy to click “like” on a page and forget about it.

To avoid any unpleasantness, Facebook plans to notify users that it’s “getting easier for people to find photos and other things you’ve shared with them” along with a reminder that they can check “who can see my stuff” under their privacy settings.

“The goal is to avoid bad surprises,” said Nicky Jackson Colaco, privacy and safety manager at Facebook. But she stressed Facebook’s view that the search tool “indexes information differently than we have ever been able to do before, in a really positive way.” Facebook does not currently show users ads based on what they are searching for, but the company may do in the future. As Google has shown, it’s a lucrative business. Research firm eMarketer estimates that Google will take nearly 42 percent of all US digital ad spending this year, well above Facebook’s share of less than 7 percent. With its new search tool, Facebook is clearly trying to divert traffic and ad spending from its rival. —AP

Japan broadcasters ban ‘smart’ TV commercials TOKYO: Japanese broadcasters are refusing to air commercials for Panasonic’s new “smart” television, the manufacturer said yesterday, amid speculation they feel threatened by its combined TV-Internet function.

Private broadcasters-in a rare case of turning down a major advertiser have said they will not show commercials for the product, claiming the split screen simultaneously showing broadcast content and web pages may confuse viewers, according to reports. “IPTV, or smart television, is a new area of service, and we are in talks to create new rules for broadcasting,” Panasonic said in a statement. “We refrain from making further comments.”

Web users who have seen the commercial, available on video-sharing site YouTube, lashed out at broadcasters for an apparently quixotic attempt to protect their medium from competition. “Terrestrial

broadcasting is finished because it has failed to keep up with the trend,” said one posting underneath the video by Desuzo Otaku. “Forget it. We live in the time of the Internet.”

“LG, Samsung have already released similar televisions a long time ago, but they cannot bring them to Japan,” said another posting by tairaomote, referring to Panasonic’s South Korean rivals.

Japan has a lively and competitive broadcast scene and a thriving Internet culture. However, despite a reputation for innovative wizardry, Japan is sometimes slow to adopt new forms of technology into mainstream use. Some major companies are criticised for not keeping up with changes in modes of consumption. Rules on political campaigning that had banned the use of the Internet have only recently been relaxed ahead of the July 21 upper house election. —AFP

Kaspersky Lab appoints Abu Baker as new Managing Director for the ME DUBAI: Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content and threat management solutions, has announced the appointment of Khalid Abu Baker as the new Managing Director of Kaspersky Lab Middle East.

Khalid who was previously the Corporate Sales Director at Kaspersky Lab Middle East will continue to be based out of the company’s regional headquarters in Dubai, UAE and will report to Garry Kondakov, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Kaspersky Lab. In his new role, Abu Baker will continue to build on the company’s global strategy to raise awareness around its B2B portfolio of products, solutions and services while sustaining its leadership in the B2C market. Making the announcement, Kondakov said, “Since joining Kaspersky Lab Middle East in 2010 as Regional Sales Manager, Khalid has successfully boosted our corporate business across all the key markets in the Middle East including the GCC, Egypt, and Pakistan in addition to the Levant territories, Libya and Ethiopia. With our global strategy to develop business in the corporate segment and new products such as Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business, Khalid will be able to further improve great results achieved previously.”

Kaspersky Lab is ready to offer its corporate customers not only the new integrated Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business platform, but also a range of specialized services to protect against specific cyber threats.

A focus to reinforce the company’s strength in the B2B segment would involve key investments in channel engagement and development, introducing partners to new sales models and revenue generation opportunities to help them boost their own business while actively expanding Kaspersky Lab’s customer base across the region.

Commenting on his new role, Abu Baker said, “I am proud and honored to take on this exciting new role in a region

that represents huge growth opportunities for Kaspersky Lab. Over the last few years, Kaspersky Lab has successfully established a market leading position across the emerging markets worldwide; driven by our ability to provide comprehensive security solutions designed to meet the pain points of both companies and individuals in a digital world.

I now look forward to combining the

strength of our channel network with the power and efficiency of our cutting edge B2B technologies to further reinforce this position and bring customers the ability to focus on innovation and business growth while we take care of all their security needs.”

As part of this planned transition, Tarek Kuzbari, the current Managing Director who has been with Kaspersky Lab since 2008, will be moving to the United Kingdom to complete his MBA. In his five years since joining Kaspersky Lab, Kuzbari has made a significant contribution to the company’s recognition in the region as a trusted security brand that offers comprehensive, all -round security.

Kondakov said, “Over the last five years Tarek has exhibited the deepest commitment to Kaspersky Lab, its partners and customers. His keen understanding of the region’s dynamics and evolving business needs and ability to understand a customer’s unique challenges have no doubt played a key role in enhancing our presence in the region.

We wish him the very best in his future endeavors.”

SEOUL: The hackers who knocked out tens of thousands of South Korean computers simultaneously this year are out to do far more than erase hard drives, cybersecurity firms say: They also are trying to steal South Korean and US military secrets with a malicious set of codes they’ve been sending through the Internet for years.

The identities of the hackers, and the value of any information they have acquired, are not known to US and South Korean researchers who have studied line after line of computer code.

But they do not dispute South Korean claims that North Korea is responsible, and other experts say the links to military spying add fuel to Seoul’s allegations.

Researchers at Santa Clara, California-based McAfee Labs said the malware was designed to find and upload information referring to US forces in South Korea, joint exercises or even the word “secret.”

McAfee said versions of the malware have infected many websites in an ongoing attack that it calls Operation Troy because the code is peppered with references to the ancient city.

McAfee said that in 2009, malware was implanted into a social media website used by military personnel in South Korea.

“This goes deeper than anyone had understood to date, and it’s not just attacks: It’s military espionage,” said Ryan Sherstobitoff, a senior threat researcher at McAfee who gave The Associated Press a report that the company is releasing later this week. He analyzed code samples shared by US government partners and private customers.

McAfee found versions of the keywordsearching malware dating to 2009. A South Korean cybersecurity researcher, Simon Choi, found versions of the code as early as 2007, with keyword-searching capabilities added in 2008. It was made by the same people who have also launched prior cyberattacks in South Korea over the last several years, Choi said.

Versions of the code may still be trying to glean military secrets from infected computers.

Sherstobitoff said the same coded fingerprints were found on an attack June 25 - the anniversary of the start of the 1950-53 Korean War - in which websites for South Korea’s president and prime minister were attacked. A day later the Pentagon said it was investigating reports that personal information about thousands of US troops in South Korea had been posted online.

Sherstobitoff began his investigation after the March 20 cyberattack, known as the Dark Seoul Incident. It wiped clean tens of thousands of hard drives, including those belonging to three television networks and three banks in South Korea, disabling ATMs and other bank services. South Korea says no military computers were affected by Dark Seoul.

The code used in the shutdown is different from that used to hunt for military secrets, but they share so many characteristics that Sherstobitoff and Choi believe they were made by the same people.

Sherstobitoff said those responsible for the spying had infected computers by “spear phishing” - targeted attacks that trick users into giving up sensitive information by posing as a trusted entity. The hackers hijacked about a dozen obscure Korean-language religious, social and shopping websites to make it easier to pull secrets from infected computers without being detected.

The McAfee expert said the hackers have targeted government networks with military information for at least four years, using code that automatically searched infected computers for dozens of military terms in Korean, including “US Army,” “secret,” “Joint Chiefs of Staff ” and “Operation Key Resolve,” an annual military exercise held by US Forces Korea and the South Korean military.

The report does not identify the government networks that were targeted, but it does mention that in 2009, the code was used to infect a social media site used by military personnel living in South Korea. McAfee did not name the

military social media site, nor release what language it is in, at the request of US authorities who cited security issues. South Korea has a military force of 639,000 people, and the US has 28,500 military personnel based in the country.

McAfee also said it listed only some of the keywords the malware searched for in its report.

It said it withheld many other keywords that indicated the targeting of classified material, at the request of US officials, due to the sensitivity of releasing specific names and programs.

“These included names of individuals, base locations, weapons systems and assets,” said Sherstobitoff.

Choi, who works for a South Korean cybersecurity company, has made similar discoveries through IssueMakersLab, a research group he and other “white-hat” hackers created.

Results of a report Choi produced were published in April by Boan News, a Seoul-based website focused on South Korean security issues, but they did not get broad attention. That report included many search terms not included in the McAfee report, including the English-language equivalents of Korean keywords.

Both McAfee and IssueMakersLab found that

source, and by showing that users of a military social media site were targeted.

There are clues in the code as well. For example, a password, used again and again over the years to unlock encrypted files, had the number 38 in it, a politically loaded figure for two countries divided on the 38th parallel, security experts said.

Pentagon spokesman Army Lt. Col. James Gregory said the Defense Department is aware of the study and looks forward to reviewing it.

“The Defense Department takes the threat of cyber espionage and cyber security very seriously, which is why we have taken steps to increase funding to strengthen capabilities and harden networks to mitigate against the risk of cyber espionage,” he said.

South Korea’s Defense Ministr y says its secrets are safe. Ministry spokesman Kim Minseok said officials were unaware of McAfee’s study, but added that it’s technically impossible to have lost classified reports because computers with military intelligence are not connected to the Internet. When accessing the Web, military officials use different computers disconnected from the internal military server, he said.

SEOUL: In this March 20, 2013 photo, a customer sits in a branch of Shinhan Bank in Seoul, South Korea, after the bank’s computer networks was paralyzed. —AP any documents, reports and even PowerPoint files with military keywords on infected computers would have been copied and sent back to the attackers.

The attackers are also able to erase hard drives en masse by uploading malware and sending remote-control commands, which is what happened March 20.

Before that attack, hackers had been sending spy malware on domestic networks for months, giving them the ability to gather information about how their internal servers work, what websites the users visit and which computers are responsible for security, the researchers found. This information would have been crucial for planning the coordinated attacks on banks and TV networks.

Anti-virus software and safe practices such as avoiding links and attachments on suspicious emails can prevent computers from getting infected, but the March attack shows how difficult this can be to accomplish on a broad scale.

Ironically, some of the malicious codes used were disguised as an anti-virus product from Ahnlab Inc., South Korea’s largest anti-virus maker, said McAfee.

McAfee said it shared its findings with US authorities in Seoul who are in close collaboration with South Korean military authorities.

Tim Junio, who studies cyberattacks at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, said the McAfee report provides “pretty compelling evidence that North Korea is responsible” for the attacks in the South by tying the series of hacks to a single

A hack of sensitive South Korean military computers from the Internet “cannot be done,” Kim said. “It’s physically separated.”

Sherstobitoff, however, said it can be done, though he’s not sure that it has been. “While it is not entirely impossible to extract information from a closed network that is disconnected from the Internet, it would require some extensive planning and understanding of the internal layout to stage such an exfiltration to the external world,” he said.

Kwon Seok-chul, chief executive officer of Seoul-based cyber security firm Cuvepia Inc., said recent hacking incidents suggest that hackers may have enough skills to infiltrate into the internal servers of Korean and US military. Even if two networks are separated, he said, hackers will do anything to find some point where they converge. “It takes time, but if you find the connection, you can still get into the internal server,” Kwon said. FBI Assistant Director Richard McFeely would not comment on McAfee’s findings, but said in a written statement that “such reports often give the FBI a better understanding of the evolving cyber threat.”

Neither the McAfee nor the IssueMakersLab reports suggest who is responsible for the cyberattacks, but many security experts believe North Korea is the likely culprit.

South Korean authorities have blamed the North for many cyberattacks on its government and military websites and have said they linked the March 20 attacks to at least six computers located in North Korea that were used to distribute malicious codes. —AP

Internet big boys take aim at Singapore’s new rules SINGAPORE: Singapore’s move to tighten regulation of news web sites, already under fire from bloggers and human rights groups, has attracted criticism from an unexpected quarter — large internet firms with a big presence in the city-state who say the new rules will hurt the industry.

Web giants Facebook Inc, eBay Inc, Google Inc and Yahoo! Inc have said the revised rules “have negatively impacted Singapore’s global image as an open and businessfriendly country”.

The comments, made in a letter to Singapore’s minister of communications and information by the Asia Internet Coalition, an industry body, are the first sign that Singapore’s success in wooing major players to its shores is not assured. Google, eBay, Facebook and Yahoo all have a major presence in the city-state.

Google said separately it was concerned about the long-term implications of the regulation - especially for local internet entrepreneurs who it said now faced greater uncertainty and legal risk. In late May Singapore said websites that regularly report on Singapore would have to be licensed and listed 10 news sites that would be affected, based on criteria such as having 50,000 unique visitors from Singapore each month.

Websites affected by the new licensing regime would have to put up a S$50,000 ($39,300) performance bond as well as take down within 24 hours any story that authorities deemed objectionable.

“Singapore aims to be the future, but this regulation looks a lot like the

past,” Google’s Ann Lavin, director of public policy and government affairs, Southeast Asia, told Reuters.

The Media Development Authority (MDA) said the changes would make the rules governing news websites more consistent with those affecting newspapers and other traditional media platforms. But it has stressed there was no change in its content standards. “The new licensing framework is not intended to clamp down on Internet freedom,” an MDA spokesman said in a written response to questions.

The Asia Internet Coalition was (AIC) set up in 2011 by Google, Facebook, Yahoo and eBay to lobby for free and open access to the Internet and promote e-commerce.

The Internet and related industries have become an important sector for Singapore, with revenues last

year growing 23 percent to S$103 billion ($81 billion). The sector employs more than 144,000 people out of the city-state’s 3.2 million workforce, according to government data. “When you look at other countries in the region it’s hard to see anyone immediately breathing down the neck of Singapore and Hong Kong,” said John Ure, executive director of AIC. “But things can change. Five to 10 years is not a long time.”

Singapore has attracted major internet companies to its shores in part because of its commitment to what it has called a “light touch” when it comes to policing the Web. Yahoo’s popular Singapore news site was the only foreign website among the 10 listed by the MDA, but critics fear the rules could be extended to cover other websites, including

those critical of the government.

A senior official at the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) responsible for the ruling, Permanent Secretary Aubeck Kam, told a gathering of the Singapore Computer Society on Thursday that the rules would not cover commentary sites, and that the government had never ordered removal of content because it was critical of the government under existing regulations. The new rules will come under scrutiny later on Monday, with the opposition Workers’ Party tabling questions such as how authorities would treat online news services catering to Singapore’s large financial sector and individual Facebook pages with large followings.

A Yahoo spokesman said it had no official comment on the regulation but that the AIC’s position was “broadly consistent with ours”.

Rights groups have joined local bloggers in criticising the move. Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, said that major internet companies adding their voice should give Singapore serious pause about its approach. The government, “like a little boy in a dark bedroom, imagines that every bump in the night means there are monsters under the bed ready to pounce on Singapore’s much vaunted social stability”, he said. Ure said the coalition’s members had been unnerved by the announcement coming “out of the blue” at a time when it had been holding discussions with the Singapore government on several

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

H E A LT H & S C I E N C E

Easing into outdoor workouts on sultry summer days NE W YORK : Can’t take the heat?

Fitness experts say one way for outdoor exercisers who dread the long, hot summer days of steamy runs and breathless aerobics during a heat wave is to embrace it. “It takes most healthy people 10 to 14 days to fully acclimate to exercising in the heat,” said Dr Cedric X Bryant, chief science officer of the American Council on Exercise. “In order to achieve that you need to be exercising in heat.”

The heat-acclimated individual will sweat sooner and that sweat will be more dilute, Bryant said. There will be a lower risk for dehydration and a reduction in the heat gained through exercise that will help maintain a lower core temperature and hear t rate

response. He said as much as 25 percent of the healthy population is estimated to be heat intolerant in an unacclimated state. Once they get acclimated that drops to 2 percent.

A 2011 report from the US Centers for Disease Control showed that about 6,000 people a year seek emergency treatment for heat illnesses suffered while playing sports or participating in other recreational activities outdoors.

While acclimating to the physiological demands of the heat, Bryant said, be sure to tone down your workout.

“Strictly adhere to the talk test (the ability to talk as a gauge of correct exercise intensity),” he said. “It’s not a time to do intervals or high-intensity exercises.

Afterwards, when you’re fully acclimated, you can ramp up intensity.”

Connecticut-based fitness instructor Ellen Barrett said a daily dose of hot yoga primed her for the heat wave that slammed the US East Coast in June. “I did the Bikram yoga challenge every day for a month, so when that heat wave hit I didn’t even notice it,” said Barrett, author of the upcoming book, “The 28 Days Lighter Diet.”

She said Swiss tennis ace Roger Federer trains in Dubai. “He plays all day in the hot sun so when he’s at the US Open at the end of summer in New York City, he looks fresh as a daisy,” she said. Exercise physiologist and running coach Tom Holland is a veteran of more than 60 marathons and 21

Ironman triathlons, many held in sweltering conditions including an Ironman in Malaysia, where the temperature soared to 104 degrees (40 Celsius) and humidity to 99 percent.

“I actually love running in the brutal heat and humidity and have trained myself accordingly,” said Holland, author of “The Marathon Man.” When running in the heat, he recommends adjusting speed and goals and said runners should expect to run more slowly and should focus on covering the distance. “I paced a 60-year-old client in the 2012 Boston Marathon where the race hit 90 degrees,” he said.

“When I saw how hot it would be, we adjusted his race goal from 3:40 (three hours, 40 minutes) to just finishing.”

Running in heat is difficult, Holland explained, because blood has two conflicting interests - supplying working muscles and going to the skin to cool the body down. “So there is less blood for the muscles, our hearts have to work harder, our heart rate increases, and the relative intensity of the run increases,” he said. “You simply cannot run as fast in hot conditions.” Bryant said that even the fully heat-acclimated exerciser reverts rapidly when the training stops. “Unfortunately the benefits of heat acclimation are lost quite quickly,” he said. “For every two days an individual abstains from heat exposure, one day of acclimation is lost. So after two to three weeks you’re back to starting over.”— Reuters

Safety advances increase plane crash survival odds Passengers more likely to survive than in past disasters

FRANCE: Barn Owl chicks (chouette-effraie) are pictured at the zoo of the French eastern city of Amneville yesterday. —AFP

First test-tube baby born after new, cheaper genome screening LONDON: The first test-tube baby to come from an embr yo screened for genetic defects using a new, low-cost technique that could improve in-vitro fertilization success rates was born last month and is a healthy boy. The birth in June was announced yesterday as part of a study that scientists said validated the concept of next-generation genome screening, although more clinical tests are needed before the system is used widely.

The new technique uses modern lowcost DNA sequencing to spot both whole chromosome abnormalities and specific gene defects before an embryo is implanted in the womb. Only around 30 percent of embryos selected during invitro fertilisation (IVF) - when eggs are fertilised with sperm in a lab dish - actually implant successfully, and chromosomal defects are a major factor in failures.

Other genetic screening methods have been developed over the past decade but the new system should be substantially cheaper, researchers believe. “We can do this at a cost which is about a half to two-thirds of what current chromosome screening costs are,” said Dagan Wells of the University of Oxford. “If further randomised trials confirm this, we could reach a point where there is a very strong economic argument that this should be offered very

widely - perhaps to the majority of IVF patients.”

Screening of embryos in IVF is currently reserved for older women, who are at increased risk of chromosomal abnormalities, and those with recurrent miscarriages. Wells will present his research, which also includes results of laboratory tests on cells with known genetic defects, at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) annual meeting in London. A second woman who underwent the screening process is due to give birth shortly. Stuart Lavery, director of IVF at Hammersmith Hospital in London, who was not involved in the work, said the rapid analysis of vast amounts of DNA using the new genome sequencing technique was “amazing science”.

“It gives us a very, very powerful tool for examining pre-implantation genetic diagnosis and gives us increased confidence when looking at multiple genetic abnormalities in a human embryo,” he told reporters.

But Lavery added there needed to be a randomized clinical trial program to confirm the efficacy of the approach something Wells and his team plan to begin later this year. One in six couples worldwide experience some form of infertility problem at least once in their lifetime, according to ESHRE.—Reuters

Major biorefinery unveiled in Britain LONDON: One of Europe’s largest biorefineries, capable of meeting up to a third of Britain’s bioethanol demand, opened officially near Hull in eastern England yesterday. The 350 million pound ($520.9 million) biorefinery has been developed by Vivergo Fuels, part-owned by BP which has a 45 percent stake. Associated British Foods also owns 45 percent of the venture and DuPont 10 percent. The plant is designed to turn 1.1 million tons of animal feed wheat each year into 420 million litres of bioethanol and 500,000 tons of protein-rich animal feed for the UK market, BP said in a statement. The facility was opened

by Vince Cable, secretary of state for business, innovation and skills.

Biorefining breaks down the starch in wheat to sugars, which are then fermented into alcohol through a process similar to that used in a whisky distillery. The bioethanol produced can be blended with petrol for use as a lower-carbon transport fuel.

Vivergo hopes to source its feed wheat primarily from farms in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. The bioethanol produced at the Vivergo plant will save over 50 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions that come from standard petrol, BP said, equivalent to the emissions of more than 180,000 British cars a year.

The European Union has set a target that 10 percent of all fuels used in transpor tation should come from renewable sources by 2020. The use of biofuels is under scrutiny, however, because some are thought to displace food production into new areas, forcing forest clearance, releasing large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and worsening climate change. Another big biorefinery in Britain is operated by Ensus, which is owned by US private equity funds the Carlyle Group and Riverstone. It is located in northeast England and has a similar capacity to the Vivergo facility. — Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO: Passengers in plane crashes today, such as the one in San Francisco involving Asiana Airlines Flight 214, are more likely to survive than in past disasters. Saturday’s crash was the latest where a big commercial airliner was destroyed but most passengers escaped with their lives.

There were plenty of cuts, bruises and broken bones - and some more severe injuries - but only 2 of the 307 passengers and crew onboard died.

Planes now are structurally sounder. In the cabin, stronger seats are less likely to move and crush passengers. Seat cushions and carpeting are fire retardant and doors are easier to open. Those improvements allow people to exit the plane more quickly.

The nature of crashes has also changed.

Improvements in cockpit technology mean that planes rarely crash into mountains or each other accidents that are much more deadly. “Crashes are definitely more survivable today than they were a few decades ago,” said Kevin Hiatt, president and CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation, an industrybacked nonprofit group aimed at improving air safety. “We’ve learned from the past incidents about what can be improved.”

Investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the Asiana crash. But whatever the reason, it reflects the trend of fewer people dying in plane accidents. The odds weren’t always in passengers’ favor. From 1962 to 1981, 54 percent of people in US plane crashes were killed. From 1982 to 2009, that figure improved to 39 percent, according to an Associated Press analysis of National Transportation Safety Board data. Those figures only include crashes with at least one fatality. There have been other serious crashes where everybody survived.

The most famous was a US Airways flight in January 2009 that lost engine power after striking a flock of geese after taking off from New York’s LaGuardia Airport Capt Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger ditched the Airbus A320 in the Hudson River and all 155 people onboard survived.

The crash was dubbed the “Miracle on the Hudson.”

A British Airways flight in January 2008 crashed short of the runway at London’s Heathrow Airport.

All 152 passengers and crew onboard the Boeing 777 - the same jet type as Saturday’s Asiana flight survived.

This April, a Boeing 737 flown by Indonesian airline Lion Air crashed into water short of a runway in Bali. The plane’s fuselage split into two sections but all 108 people on board survived. “What’s really important is for people to understand that airplane crashes, the majority of them are survivable,”

Deborah Hersman, chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said Sunday on the CBS News television show, “Face the Nation.”

Several advances in aviation technology have made these feats of survival possible. They include: Stronger seats - Today’s airplane seats - and the bolts holding them into the floor - are designed to withstand forces up to 16 times that of gravity. That prevents rows of seats from pancaking together during a crash, crushing passengers.

Fire retardant materials - Carpeting and seat cushions are now made of materials that burn slower, spread flames slower and don’t give off noxious and dangerous gases.

Improved exits - Doors on planes are much simpler to open and easily swing out of the way, allowing passengers to quickly exit. And planes now come with rows of lights on the floor that change from white to red when an exit is reached.

Better training - Flight attendants at many airlines now train in full-size models of planes that fill with smoke during crash simulations.

Stronger planes- Aircraft engineers have looked at structural weaknesses from past crashes and reinforced those sections of the plane. Regulators started mandating such cabin improvements after two deadly aircraft fires in the 1980s. First, an Air Canada flight made an emergency landing at Cincinnati’s airport in 1983 after a fire broke out in the bathroom. The plane landed safely but half of the 46 passengers and crew died because they couldn’t quickly escape the smoke and fire. Two years later, a British Airtours plane aborted a takeoff in Manchester, England after an engine fire.

Passengers evacuated but not fast enough. Of the 137 people onboard, 54 died after inhaling toxic smoke. Those two accidents together led the US and British governments to impose new fire-safety standards, said Bill Waldock, a professor of safety science at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Prescott, Arizona campus. Saturday’s Asiana crash may have benefited from those changes. The Boeing 777 involved was manufactured in 2005 and contained all of the advances in safety. “It may have been worse if that fuselage had been designed with practices that were common 20 or 30 years prior,” said Todd Curtis, a former safety engineer with Boeing and now a director of the Airsafe.com Foundation.

The emergency response also played a part in limiting the number of fatalities. Airport fire departments frequently hold drills where crews simulate a crash and practice coordinating with area hospitals on how to care for the injured. “Had this happened in a developing world country with

no (advanced) trauma center, there might have been more fatalities,” Curtis said. New technology helps today’s pilots avoid the deadliest types of crashes. Accidents with planes hitting mountains or each other in midair, typically at speeds up to 500 mph (800 kph), are rare in North America and Europe. Crashes during landing happen while planes are flying at lower speeds of 130 mph (210 kph) to 150 mph (240 kph).

“You’ve changed the nature of accidents,” said Capt Alan W Price, the former chief pilot for the Atlanta base of Delta Air Lines and founder of consulting firm Falcon Leadership. Today’s planes come with ground proximity warning systems, which alert pilots if they are too low. An alarm sounds and a computer shouts “terrain, pull up.”

That technology didn’t exist in 1974, when a Trans World Airlines plane heading for Washington Dulles International Airport crashed into 1,754-foot tall Mount Weather in Virginia. All 92 people on board died.

Modern cockpit radar systems alert pilots to other planes nearby. Such a system would have probably prevented the 1960 midair collision of a TWA jet with a United plane over New York, killing all 128 people on the two planes and 6 people on the ground. Better radar systems on the ground have also helped. They’ve prevented planes from going down the wrong taxiway or onto active runways. The deadliest aviation disaster in history remains the collision of Pan Am and KLM jets on the runway of Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands in 1977.

In foggy conditions, amid confusion over air traffic controller instructions, the KLM plane took off while the Pan Am jet was taxing down the same runway. The crash killed 583 people on both planes; 61 survived. Had such radar existed at the time, the KLM pilots would have probably seen the Pan Am jet in its way. Today, thanks to these advances there are about two deaths worldwide for every 100 million passengers on commercial flights, according to an Associated Press analysis of government accident data.

Just a decade ago, passengers were 10 times as likely to die when flying on an American plane. The risk of death was even greater during the start of the jet age, with 1,696 people dying - 133 out of every 100 million passengers - from 1962 to 1971.

The figures exclude acts of terrorism. Those in the airline industry often say that a person is more likely to die driving to the airport than on a flight.

There are more than 30,000 motor-vehicle deaths each year, a mortality rate eight times greater than that in planes.—AP

Doctors develop $260 test-tube baby system for the poor world LONDON: Belgian doctors have developed a low-cost version of test-tube baby technology for use in developing countries, where sophisticated Western systems are unaffordable for most couples. The researchers said yesterday their simplified process cost around 200 euros ($260) per cycle of treatment and delivered results that were not much different to those seen with conventional in-vitro fertilization (IVF) programs. The price is just 10 to 15 percent of the current cost of Western-style IVF and suggests infertility care could one day become universally accessible, Elke Klerkx from the Genk Institute for Fertility Technology told a medical meeting.

Around 5 million babies have been born around the world since the birth of the first test-tube baby in 1978 - but the treatment remains largely the preserve of developed countries because of its high cost.

“Infertility care is probably the most neglected healthcare problem of developing countries, affecting more than 2 million couples according to the WHO ( World Health Organisation),” Klerkx said.

In order to slash the price, Klerkx and her colleagues used an embryo culture method that removes the need for much of the expensive laboratory equipment found in European or North American IVF clinics.

Results from a study showed similar success rates between the standard and low-cost system - and two-thirds of the top quality embryos from 35 cycles as assessed by an independent expert came from the simplified system. “Our initial results are proof of principle that a simplified culture system

designed for developing countries can offer affordable and successful opportunities for infertility treatment where IVF is the only solution,” said Klerkx. “This is a major step towards universal fertility care.”

Low-cost laboratory Fertility experts attending the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embr yology (ESHRE) annual meeting in London, where her results were presented, said the system could bring IVF to many corners of the world, including much of Africa, where there is a huge unmet need. But they cautioned that it had, as yet, only been shown to work in a developed world setting, using a laboratory in Belgium, and larger trials in one or more developing country were now needed to test the process fully. Infertility is a serious problems in some countries in Africa and other resource -poor settings, where infections are a common cause of tubal blockages in women, leading to often high rates of infertility and social isolation.

Many cases of infertility in the developing world are due to infectious diseases like chlamydia, gonorrhoea or tuberculosis. Richard Kennedy, general secretary of the International Federation of Fertility Societies, said the Belgian team’s work had great potential. “Infertility is a disease which does not respect national boundaries. Until now it has been unaffordable for many in the developing world,” he said in a statement.

ESHRE estimates the prevalence of infertility that lasts for at least 12 months to be around 9 percent worldwide for women aged 20-44.

Klerkx and the Genk team are now working to build a low-cost IVF laboratory that could be a used as a template for use in poorer countries. The cost of setting up a highquality IVF lab is between 1.5 million and 3 million euros, but she

expects the low-cost version to cost less than 300,000 euros.

Construction of the centre in Genk is expected to be completed by November this year and it will provide training for clinicians from developing countries.—Reuters

FRANCE: Two of the four new born lions and their mother are pictured at the Amneville zoo, eastern France.—AFP

H E A LT H & S C I E N C E

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

Health insurers fear young people will opt out MIAMI: Dan Lopez rarely gets sick and hasn’t been to a doctor in 10 years, so buying health insurance feels like a waste of money. Even after the federal health overhaul takes full effect next year, the 24-yearold said he will probably decide to pay the $100 penalty for those who skirt the law’s requirement that all Americans purchase coverage. “I don’t feel I should pay for something I don’t use,” said the Milwaukee resident, who makes about $48,000 a year working two part-time jobs. Because he makes too much to qualify for government

TEXAS: In this Wednesday, June 19, 2013 photo, Emily Nicoll smiles for a photo in Coppell.—AP photos

subsidies, Lopez would pay a premium of about $3,000 a year if he chose to buy health insurance. “I shouldn’t be penalized for having good health,” he said.

Persuading young, healthy adults such as Lopez to buy insurance under the Affordable Care Act is becoming a major concern for insurance companies as they scramble to comply with the law, which prohibits them from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions and limits what they can charge to older policy holders.

Experts warn a lot of these so-called “young invincibles” could opt to pay the fine instead of spending hundreds or thousands of dollars each year on insurance premiums. If enough young adults avoid the new insurance marketplace, it could throw off the entire equilibrium of the Affordable Care Act. Insurers are betting on the business of that group to offset the higher costs they will incur for older, sicker beneficiaries.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that about six million people of various ages will pay the tax penalty for not having insurance in 2014, the first year the law championed by President Barack Obama will be fully implemented.

It’s hard to estimate how many of those will be the young and healthy adults insurers are trying to reach, but that subgroup makes up a very small portion of the overall market. Even though it’s small, experts say it could be enough to throw the system’s financing off-kilter.

About 3 million 18-24 year-olds in the US currently purchase their own insurance.

Many pay high prices for scant benefits, with high deductibles and co-pays because they make too much to qualify for Medicaid and have no coverage options from their employers or parents. The Urban Institute estimates that the majority of adults in their 20s will qualify for government subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. Premium hikes could be a disincentive for young people weighing their options.

Premiums for people aged 21 to 29 with single coverage who are not eligible for government subsidies would increase by 42 percent under the law, according to an analysis by actuaries at the consulting firm Oliver Wyman. By comparison, an adult in his or her early 60s who would see about a 1 percent average increase in premiums under new federal health rules.

Insurers including America’s Health Insurance Plans and The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association recently wrote to federal health officials warning that they feared low enrollment by young adults and proposed beefed up penalties for opting out. Insurers worry the $100 penalty might not be a strong enough deterrent. The penalties jump to $695 or 2.5 percent of taxable income - whichever is more - by 2016.

“The key to keeping health care affordable is you really want to balance the pool, where you have enough young and healthy people to balance off the care of the older, sicker people who are likely to utilize much more health care services,” said Justine Handelman, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association’s vice president for legislative

and regulatory policy.

She said younger people use about a fifth of the services that older beneficiaries do. Jonathan Gruber, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who helped craft that state’s law, said he thinks the first-year federal penalty should be higher. The penalty under the Massachusetts law, which served as the model for Obama’s overhaul, was $218 the first year in 2007. Gruber said that amount proved effective. “People hate paying money and getting nothing for it,” he said. Roughly 40,000 of about 6 million Massachusetts residents paid the penalty the first year, he said.

Many young adults have chosen relatively bare-bones health plans before the Affordable Care Act, but the new law requires all plans to offer a minimum set of benefits, thus raising the price for coverage. The cost of health coverage is difficult to estimate because it includes so many factors, but a 27-year-old making $30,000 a year in 2014 will have a $3,400 premium and will be eligible for subsidies that cover about 26 percent of the bill. That person would end up paying $2,509, or about $209 a month. That does not include deductibles, co-pays and other variables which can vary widely.

The estimates come from the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation’s online Health Reform Subsidy Calculator. Francois Louis, a 20-year-old college student in South Florida who works part-time, can’t remember the last time he went to the doctor and gets by on over-the-counter

FLORIDA: In this Friday, June 21, 2013 photo, college student Francois Louis, 20, poses for a photo in Davie. medication whenever he’s sick. He’d love to get a check-up, but says it’s too expensive on his income of less than $15,000 a year.

“I probably would do the $100 fine because it’s just cheaper and you don’t have to worry about paying off monthly costs,” said Louis, a student at Broward Community College near Fort Lauderdale.

Louis would get a $2,718 tax credit and have to pay $300 toward his premium, according to the calculator.—AP

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

W H AT ’ S O N

GUST English Foundation students enjoy internationally accredited program

SEND US YOUR INSTAGRAM PICS

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

Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait’s Ramadan timings

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l Ahli Bank of Kuwait extends its warmest greetings to ABK customers and the people of Kuwait as we near the holy month of Ramadan. During this auspicious month, ABK’s branches will remain open to serve customers from 10 am to 1:30 pm. However, as Sahar Al Therban, Public Relations Manager commented, “ABK is accessible round the clock to its customers through various other channels. Ahlan Ahli, at 1 899 899, will be accessible 24/7 as it always is. ABK’s upgraded online services provided by its website www.eahli.com are some of the most comprehensive and advanced that are available today. The new and improved eahli.com now allows customers to register online for the convenient SMS service where clients can request information on any movement in their accounts in real time, giving them instant, up-to-date information of their account activities.”

Other available online services include applications to open accounts at ABK, issuance of credit cards and cheque books, as well as payment of credit card bills and a new system of direct debit where clients can arrange to have payments deducted from their accounts on a predetermined date. Therban added, “ In addition, “Ahli Chat” features on our website www.eahli.com, where you can chat live with an ABK agent for your banking needs. Last but not the least, iPhone users can download iAhli from your App store to enjoy a whole new world of mobile banking.” So you can reach ABK from anywhere, anytime!

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

The embassy said in press release yesterday that it amended its previous statement and stated if there is any complaint, the same could be conveyed at the following (as amended): Operations Department, Ministry of Interior, Kuwait. Fax: 22435580, Tel: 24768146/25200334. It said the embassy has been in regular contact with local authorities regarding the ongoing checking of expatriates.

The embassy has also conveyed to them the concerns, fears and apprehensions of the community in this regard. The authorities in Kuwait have conveyed that strict instructions have been issued to ensure that there is no harassment or improper treatment of expatriates by those undertaking checking. “The embassy would like to request Indian expatriates to ensure that they abide by all local laws, rules and regulations regarding residency, traffic and other matters,” the release read. It would be prudent to always carry the Civil ID and other relevant documents such as driving license, etc. In case an Indian expatriate encounters any improper treatment during checking, it may be conveyed immediately with full details and contact particulars to the embassy at the following phone number 67623639. These contact details are exclusively for the above-mentioned purpose only.

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Issue of online visa

by Indian embassy oreigners requiring visas for India need to apply it online from 16th June 2013.

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

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

Enjoy the taste of true espresso at Vergnano Cafe at Olympia Complex

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he superior quality of the blends comes from the meticulous selection of the best raw materials available, and from an extraordinary production process. Cafe Vergnano is the first to introduce an innovation that brings all the passion and pleasure of the perfect

espresso to everyday life at home.

Espresso is now available in Kuwait, through Al-Sanabel Al-Thahabiya Est. Tel: 22413795/98. Espresso Vergnano can be ordered through www.taw9eel.com Espresso Vergnano capsules are compatible with other espresso machines.

he Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST) English Foundation Unit Program recently attained 5-year international accreditation by the Commission on Intensive English Program Accreditation(CEA) based in the U.S. The aim of CEA isto provide a means for improving the quality of English language teaching and administration through accepted standards.

The GUST team, led by Foundation Program Director Margaret Combs,started the accreditation process in 2011. The process required a significant effort, strong teamwork, and a commitment at all levels of the university working together on various procedures and improving certain aspects of the program including curricula and program requirements. “The process was long, carefully planned and executed,” Combs said about the 2-year journey. “Changes had to be made and techniques were tweaked in order to meet and exceed the expectations and requirements of the Commission. It was not an easy process, and it has changed the way the program works.” GUST had to undergo a site visit and a voluntary process of peer review, designed by the CEA to improve and assure the quality of the program or institution.Said Ms. Combs, “The site visit and peer reviews were key factors in the final decision, and the GUST team worked hard during the past couple of years to ensure that they went smoothly.

It took a lot of teamwork and collaboration between the staff, faculty and even the students to make this happen. At the end, we believe that we all can see and experience the benefits.”

When it comes to the reasons behind GUST’s pursuit of accreditation, there was an obvious answer:”We want to give our students the highest level education in the country and in the region, so we will always continue to strive to better our programs and standings in the edu-

cational community locally and internationally,” Combs stated. “CEA’s accreditation decision represents the highest level of accreditation that can be awarded to the program and shows the program’s substantial conformance to the CEA standards. Going through the process challenged us to find better ways to serve our students, and it is a constant reminder that our responsibility is to improve the quality of instruction and delivery of optimal educational opportu-

nities to the GUST community.”

Even though accreditation has been attained, the journey has just begun. “It will not stop at this, I assure you. The accreditation is an on-going process which the GUST team has gladly undertaken to ensure the continuous development and progress of its programs,” vowed Combs.

GUST is looking forward to welcoming its new prospective students for the Fall 2013-2014 semester. For more information on how to apply please visit www.gust.edu.kw, call 1886644 (Student Advising Department) or visit us on our campus next to the Mishref International Fairgrounds.

Home Centre unveils 2013 catalogue

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ome Centre, the region’s leading home retailer, has launched a comprehensive and shopper-friendly new catalogue for 2013. This year’s 117page catalogue showcases a fresh collection of furniture and household accessories to suit every home.

Ranging from crisp modern styles to rich classical textures and transitional pieces that beautifully balance the two themes, Home Centre continues to live up to the ‘Find Your Home in Ours’ brand promise.

Aarti Jagtiani, General Manager Operations, Home Centre, said: “As always, the 2013 Home Centre catalogue keeps our customers in mind and reflects designs for their homes. It is very exciting to be able to continuously upgrade our yearly catalogue with special features, more range and an even more evolved design. Each year, our catalogue provides

innovative home inspirations and newer styles at the same great value.”

Jagtiani added: “This year, we have showcased over 40 furniture designs across our range and for the first time emphasised on a wide repertoire of household accents like cushions, lighting, attractive tableware and gifts. We believe this year’s catalogue will immerse our customers by bringing them closer to our brand and offering them a comprehensive tool for better shopping experience.”

In its latest catalogue, Home Centre keeps in mind the wide range of choices even within a style preference that a customer may have. It is, therefore, not only about stark choices between modern or classical designs. Much like its evolving and eclectic customer, the catalogue moves from sophisticated and ultra-modern masterpieces to cheerfully contemporary designs - particularly for those with a

forward looking slant.

For shoppers who prefer timeless elegance, there is an array of glamorous, neo-classical styles leading into rich textures and opulent classics that have stood the test of time. The fine balance between the cutting edge and the timeless is also beautifully represented in the latest catalogue.

Just like the little wonders in your life deserve a space all of their own, the new catalogue also captures the energy and imagination of childhood through a display of the latest kids’ collections and accessories.

The 2013 catalogue is available at all Home Centre stores, - Al Rai, Shuwaikh, Awqaf and Fahaheel and can also be viewed online at www.homecentrestores.com/catalogue.

Homecentre is opening its 5th store at the Avenues before Eid al-Fitr.

GUST appoints Professor Ghassan Aouad as Vice President for Academic Affairs

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he Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST) announced the appointment of Dr. Ghassan Aouad as the new Vice President for Academic Affairs at the university, succeeding Dr. Robert Cook who recently ended his term in the role. GUST is always keen on attracting exceptional talents in its different departments and positions to maintain its commitment to providing the highest standards in all departments to lead the university towards development and success.

In light of this new change, GUST would like to express its sincerest thanks and appreciation to Dr. Robert Cook, who has made a distinctive effort and enormous

contributions to the progress and growth of the university is his six years of service.

And at the same time, welcome Dr. Ghassan Aouad to the GUST family and wish him luck in his new role at the univer-

sity to continue the progress towards academic excellence.

Dr. Ghassan Aouad was the President of the University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD), where he led the development of the Strategic Plan 2013-2018 and the preparation of the documentation for the institution licensure renewal and the University achieved an increase of 13% in student recruitment. . Prior to his role at UOWD, he was the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation and Dean of the College of Science and technology at the University of Salford in the UK, responsible for some 400 staff and 6,000 students before he left the university to reside in Dubai.

The Regency celebrates Ramadan

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s the Holy Month of Ramadan approaches family, friends and colleagues look forward to coming together to celebrateand reflect on the important things in life.

Ramadan at The Regency offers a bevy of wonderful opportunities, from truly memorable Iftar, Suhour and Ghabka to added value gift vouchers, and a Facebook competition to win the chance to stay in one of the hotel’s sumptuous suites.

A tempting feast of culinary delights is available at both Silk Road and Al Liwan. These are, as always, served from Maghrib prayer.

In Silk Road, the sumptuous evening Iftar buffet is an ever-changing banquet bursting with colour, featuring all the favourite Ramadan refreshments and dishes. Break a long day’s fast with the sweetest dates or a range of cold drinks such as the thirstquenching karkade - red hibiscus tea, known for its innumerable health qualitiesor the apricot-flavoured Qamar Al Deenand of course, Arabic coffee.

Feast on a plethora of traditional treats from all over the Middle East including culinary specialties from The Levant and Kuwait. Countless live cooking stations will serve mixed grills, unlimited hot and cold mezze. A highlight of The Regency’s buffets are the wonderful hot main courses, including the wellloved Qozi, a whole roast lamb served on saffron rice with pomegranate seedstogether with a rich tangy

sauce. On the endless dessert buffet are a swathe of international sweets and puddings and a wide selection of The Regency’s famous homemade Arabic sweets.

Complementing the lavish Iftar buffet is the early morning Suhour, served as a set menu. This year special gift voucher booklets have been produced to offer added value to those wishing to offer friends or colleagues the chance to enjoy The Regency’s splendid Iftar buffet, created by The Regency’s team of talented chefs from all over the Arab worldand beyond.

For those seeking to treat a large number of colleagues or friends, The Regency is well known for its exquisite Ghabkas. This year The Regency is able to provide a completely exclusive private beachside

venue for groups of up to sixty people; companies seeking to reward staff can of course delight their guests by booking any of the hotel’s opulent ballrooms; early reservations are recommended.

General Manager, Mr.Giraudo commented “First and foremost I would like to wish all our patrons, past and future, their friends and families a blessed month and thank them for their support. This year’s Ramadan we are confident The Regency’s culinary quality, service and selection will be unbeatable; furthermore this year we can offer many new experiences such as a stunning private venue for a memorable beachside Ghabka and our added-value Iftar gift vouchers”.

The Regency not only has a summer season of spectacular offers on its rooms but in addition, from July 1 this year a Facebook competition is launching with three sensational prizes worth a total of over KD3,000. Winners stand a chance to sample a stay in some ofthe hotel’s most spectacular suites.See Regency.Kuwait for details.

Ramadan festivities start on the first day of Ramadan and will last until Eid-al-Fitr. Iftar buffet will open daily at Silk Road from Maghreb prayers to 10.00pm and an exclusive Suhour set menu will be available from 10.00pm to 2.00am. For more information on these events or Iftar vouchers kindly call 2566 6666.

TIES Ramadan Qur’an competition

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thman bin Affan ñ Prophet Muhammadís companion ñ narrated that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said, ‘The best among you are those who learn the Qurían then teach it.’ (As-Silsila Al-Saheeha 3/168) According to Abdullah bin Amr, Prophet Muhammad said: ‘It will be said to the companion of the Qur’an: Recite and ascend as you recited in the world, for verily, your rank is determined by the last verse you recite.’ (Sunan AtTirmidhi 2914).

Inspired by these sayings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), TIES Center is glad to inform all those interested that it will host a Qur’an memorization competition for Western new Muslims including men, women and children.

Competitors should memorize the following surahs (chapters): AlFatihah (The Opening, 1), AlIkhlaas (The purity or sincerity, 112), Al-Falaq (The Daybreak, 113) and An-Naas (Mankind, 114).

The first prize will be K.D. 60, second prize is K.D. 50 and third prize is K.D. 40. All those interested in participating are required to register before the 15th of Ramadan. The competition will be held on the 20th of Ramadan and the prizes will be awarded on the 27th of Ramadan.

For more information, please call 25231015/6 or e-mail: info@tiescenter.net or log onto: www.tiescenter.net

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

W H AT ’ S O N

Embassy Information

Reflecting the Ramadan experience at Crowne Plaza

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rowne Plaza Kuwait is ready and set to welcome the holy month of Ramadan in the true spirit of Arabian hospitality. With all its lavish and varied facilities and services, every customer has something to avail at the hotel and feel the satisfaction.

Delicious tidbits are available at the Espresso CafÈ, when you want to just enjoy a coffee and relax.

Conventions With 34 years of excellent experience in hosting and catering for events, Crowen Plaza Kuwait is pleased to provide you with a true Ramadan experience from the banquets. Special offers are available for booking your iftars, Ghabgas at the AlBaraka Grand Ballroom and Crowne Plaza convention halls.

Rooms Step in to the lobby of the Crowne Plaza Kuwait and feel the spirit of Ramadan flowing in with its exquisite and traditional decor.

This holy month of Ramadan, the hotels of Crowne Plaza Kuwait and Holiday Inn have decided to add a new dimension for the rooms’ facility of their hotel. This year Crowne Plaza Kuwait and its sister Properties- the Holiday Inn Salmiya and Holiday Inn Downtown have decide to join hands together in doing a joint campaign as IHG Properties and come up with a room package suitable to all the guests during this holy month, Elegantly furnished guest rooms and suites await the arrival of every family to spend their moments of fasting and prayer. For only KD 59, guests can have their Sohour for two during their stay at any of the three hotels. This special promotion is a joint campaign between the three hotels, which makes it unique and special.

Restaurants You Dine we donate. That is the theme at our restaurants this year. Crowne Plaza Kuwait will spread the true spirit of giving this Ramadan by donating a part of the amount spent by the guests at their restaurant to charity.

Enjoy your Iftar and Ghabka at any of our restaurants. Relish the international display of Ramadan feast at the Al Ahmadi restaurant while you enjoy your sheesha at the Ramadan rent for the Ghabka Feel the authentic Lebanese tradition at the Ayam Zaman as you gather with your friends to experience a memorable Ramadan. Treat yourself to elegant and special Ramadan offerings at the Fauchon Salon de The. Due to popular demand Jamawar Indian Restaurant will be continuing on its Tandoori temptations promotion offering tandoori specialties where our guests can indulge in delightful and succulent tandoori grills cooked to perfection and served straight from the tandoor. Enrich

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

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

EMBASSY OF CANADA 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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your dining experience with Jamawar’s Culinary magic.

Enjoy an appetizing tour around the world at Crowne Plaza Kuwait this Ramadan. Have your choice of cuisine from any one of our 8 exquisite restaurants, each special in their own way. Savor the sumptuous buffet offered at the Al Ahmadi International Buffet, best steaks in

town at Rib Eye Steakhouse, the food of the royals at the Shabestan Iranian restaurant, taste the true flavors of India at the Jamawar Indian Restaurant, dining becomes an art at the Sakura Japanese restaurant, the treasures of the seas at the Al Noukhaza Seafood restaurant and traditional food with nostalgic memories at the Ayam Zaman Lebanese restaurant.

Fun in the Sun: Also catering to our younger guests, special fun in the sun is planned for the kids this summer at the Edge 24 Hour Fitness club located at the Crowne Plaza Kuwait. Special aquatic games, Ball games and martial arts are planned for the kids who are looking for something fun to do this summer. Edge24hour Fitness club offers classes three days in a week to keep the kids busy.

With all the options available to one and all, there is nothing that the management of the Crowne Plaza Kuwait has left to chance in its quest to cover every need and satisfy every taste of our privileged customers. In the bringing forth of such offers, Crowne Plaza Kuwait continues to support the State of Kuwait in all its endeavors and wishes everyone a blessed Ramadan!

Diet Care launches Cook Book 2013

D

iet Care, Kuwait’s leading provider of health and nutritional programs and services today launched its “Healthy Cooking” Cook Book. The 2013 Cook Book will feature over 80 new original, scrumptious, kitchen-tested recipes featuring a variety of healthy entrees, side dishes and snacks. It will have 43 new recipes for Ramadan and 37 new recipes for kids.

This comprehensive cook book entitled “Healthy Cooking” is an effort undertaken by the company to combat the obesity epidemic which has nearly tripled among children and adolescents in Kuwait. It has an extensive collection of healthy Arabic and international dishes, rich in content, low in calories and great in taste.

The 2nd edition of the cookbook has been written

by Mariam Al Othman, Assistant General ManagerProduction, Diet Care and produced by Diet Care to promote healthy eating and assist people with their meal plans. The book focuses not only on healthy recipes which comes with the nutritional facts but also has pages of cooking tips listing nutrients and their benefits.

Commenting on the 2013 cook book, Sarah Dimashkieh, Director of Clinical Operations, Diet Care said: “ We are very excited about the capability of this year’s edition of “Healthy Cooking” which I believe is a must have in every family kitchen. Good food is one of life’s great pleasures and good health is one of our greatest gifts. With healthy habits, we can reduce the risk of obesity and many chronic diseases among children, adolescents and adult in our society. At Diet Care we are proud to offer a resource that will help people make smart choices every day.”

“This full-colour, illustrated cook book is very informative and has over 80 new complete meal recipes that are incredible simple to follow. In addition it also comprises of popular recipes from last year’s edition. Our goal with this cookbook is to eliminate unhealthy eating habits and broaden the food options for adults and kids for them to enjoy a variety of healthy delicious meals during Ramadan.”

Since its establishment, Diet Care has taken up various initiatives including Get Healthy Campaign, Gethealthykuwait.com, organising different nutritional events and participating in a variety of Social and health awareness campaigns across Kuwait that includes schools, malls, and different local organizations to improve lifestyles and nutrition. Kuwait’s leading dieticians, nutritionists and trained experts at the

EMBASSY OF GREECE The Embassy of Greece in Kuwait has the pleasure to announce that visa applications must be submitted to Schengen Visa Application Centre (VFS office) located at 12th floor, Al-Naser Tower, Fahad Al-Salem Street, AlQibla area, Kuwait City, (Parking at Souk Watia). For information please call 22281046 from 08:30 to 17:00 (Sunday to Thursday). Working hours: Submission from 08:30 to 15:30. Passport collection from 16:00 to 17:00. For visa applications please visit the following website www.mfa.gr/kuwait. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF INDIA During the holy month of Ramadan, the office timings of the Indian Passport and Visa Service Centres of BLS International Visa Services Co., Kuwait, situated at (i) Emad Commercial Centre, Basement Floor, Ahmed Al Jaber Street, Sharq, Kuwait, and (ii) Mujamma Unood, 4th floor, Office No. 25-26 Makka Street, Fahaheel, Kuwait, will be from 8am to 3pm from Saturday to Thursday (i.e. six days a week).

Tokens for submission of applications will be issued till 2pm only. Delivery of Passports and Visas will be from 11am onwards till 3pm.

Embassy of India, Kuwait, will maintain its usual working hours. nnnnnnn

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. nnnnnnn

diet care have put together various recipes in the cook book including Fish Basaliya served with Saj Bread, Chicken Jareesh, Kuwaiti Cheese Cake and Cherry almond Slash that are low in calories and taste great at the same time. Readers can also read about the nutritional contents for each recipe, healthy cooking tips and the benefits of various nutrients found in the recipe.

Mariam Al Othman, Assistant General ManagerProduction, Diet Care concluded by saying: “Low calo-

rie food is generally associated to being tasteless and boring, but that’s not the case with the recipes in our cook book. The meals are healthy, easy to prepare and also filled with taste. “Healthy Cooking” reflects a fresh attitude to cooking which promotes good health and well being through incorporating a healthy and nutritious diet into our day-to-day lives.

5000 copies of the “Healthy Cooking” by Diet Care cook book have been published and are available throughout the three Diet care branches and 16 boutiques across Kuwait.

Diet Care was established in 2005 to improve lifestyles through health and nutrition, through proven life changing product lines with a variety of over 30 delicious, calorie-controlled signature and seasonal dishes prepared and delivered fresh daily to customers and branches.

Since its establishment, Diet Care has become the leading provider of gourmet nutritional food in Kuwait and serves a growing customer base of tens of thousands of people, families and offices through its network of in-store outlets and various weight loss meal programs. All Diet Care products are developed by Diet Care’s team of world-class nutritionists and dietitians, and overseen by talented chefs.

The company, which started with providing individual customers and families with personalized nutritional plans offered through 28-day meal home-delivery programs, is the largest Kuwaiti company in its field, the only one that operates a microbiology lab to oversee product quality, and the only nutritional provider in Kuwait certified by the international Arab Center for Nutrition and awarded Superbrand Status.

EMBASSY OF US Parents of Kuwaiti citizen children may drop off their sons’ and daughters’ visa applications - completely free of an interview or a trip inside the Embassy. The children must be under 14 years of age, and additional requirements do apply, but the service means parents will no longer have to schedule individual appointments for their children, nor come inside the Embassy (unless they are applying for themselves). The service is only available for children holding Kuwaiti passports. To take advantage, parents must drop off the following documents: Child Visa Drop-off cover sheet, available on the Embassy website (http://kuwait.usembassy.gov/child_visas.htm) Child’s passport; The Child’s previous passport, if it contains a valid US visa; 5x5cm photo of child with eyes open (if uploaded into DS-160, photos must be a .jpg between 600x600 and 1200x1200 pixels, less than 240kb, and cannot be digitally altered); A completed DS-160 form; Visa Fee Receipt from Burgan Bank; A copy of the valid visa of at least one parent. If one parent will not travel, provide a visa copy for the traveling parent, and a passport copy from the non-traveling parent with a letter stating no objection to the child’s travel. - For children of students (F2): a copy of the child’s I-20.

Children born in the US (with very few exceptions) are US citizens and would not be eligible for a visa. Parents may drop off the application packet at Window 2 at the Embassy from 1:00 to 3:00 PM, Monday to Wednesday, excluding holidays. More information is available on the U.S. Embassy website: kuwait.usembassy.gov/child_visas.html nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF VENEZUELA Working hours of the Embassy of Venezuela during the holy month of Ramadan 09.00 till 13.30.

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

TV PROGRAMS

14:35 Border Security 15:05 Auction Hunters 15:30 Auction Kings 16:00 Ultimate Survival 16:55 One Man Army 17:50 Mythbusters 18:45 Sons Of Guns 19:40 Deconstruction 20:05 How It’s Made 20:35 Auction Hunters 21:00 Flip Men 21:30 Off The Hook: Extreme Catches 21:55 Off The Hook: Extreme Catches 22:25 Robson’s New Extreme Fishing Challenge 23:20 River Monsters 00:15 Off The Hook: Extreme Catches 00:40 Off The Hook: Extreme Catches 01:10 Robson’s New Extreme Fishing Challenge

14:20 14:45 15:10 16:00 16:55 17:45 18:35 19:30 20:20 2011 21:10 21:35 22:00 22:50 2011 23:40 00:05 00:30 01:00 01:25 01:50

The Gadget Show Tech Toys 360 Scrapheap Challenge Storm Chasers Superships Thunder Races Through The Wormhole Scrapheap Challenge Killer Robots: Robogames The Gadget Show Tech Toys 360 Scrapheap Challenge Killer Robots: Robogames The Gadget Show Tech Toys 360 Weird Connections Bang Goes The Theory Bang Goes The Theory Bang Goes The Theory

00:30 Dr G: Medical Examiner 01:20 A Haunting 02:10 I Was Murdered 02:35 I Was Murdered 03:00 Blood Relatives 03:45 I Almost Got Away With It 04:30 Dr G: Medical Examiner 05:20 A Haunting 06:10 Nightmare Next Door 07:00 Life Or Death: Medical Mysteries 07:50 Street Patrol 08:15 Street Patrol 08:40 Real Emergency Calls 09:05 Who On Earth...

09:30 On The Case With Paula Zahn 10:20 Solved 11:10 Disappeared 12:00 Life Or Death: Medical Mysteries 12:50 Street Patrol 13:15 Street Patrol 13:40 Forensic Detectives 14:30 On The Case With Paula Zahn 15:20 Real Emergency Calls 15:45 Who On Earth...

16:10 Disappeared 17:00 Solved 17:50 Forensic Detectives 18:40 On The Case With Paula Zahn 19:30 Dr G: Medical Examiner 20:20 Nightmare Next Door 21:10 Couples Who Kill 22:00 Couples Who Kill 22:50 Deadly Women 23:40 I Almost Got Away With It

00:30 01:30 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00

Born To Kill Private Crimes Crimes That Shook Britain Psychic Kids Nightmare In Suburbia Crime Stories

06:00 The FBI Files 07:00 Snapped: Women Who Kill 07:30 Snapped: Women Who Kill 08:00 Fugitive Chronicles 09:00 Crime Stories 10:00 Nightmare In Suburbia 11:00 Crimes That Shook Britain 12:00 The FBI Files 13:00 Snapped: Women Who Kill 14:00 Snapped: Women Who Kill 14:30 Snapped: Women Who Kill 15:00 Fugitive Chronicles 16:00 Fred Dinenage: Murder Casebook 17:00 Crimes That Shook Britain 18:00 The FBI Files 19:00 The FBI Files 20:00 Snapped: Women Who Kill 21:00 Crimes That Shook Britain 22:00 Private Crimes 22:30 I Survived 23:30 Paranormal Cops

03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 10:45 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00 01:00

My Own Love Song-PG15 The Big Year-PG The Pirates! Band Of Misfits-PG Every Jack Has A Jill-PG15 John Carter-PG15 A Better Life-PG15 Mr. Popper’s Penguins-PG Every Jack Has A Jill-PG15 Tower Heist-PG15 Gone-PG15 Cowboys & Aliens-PG15 The Girl-PG15

07:30 Muhammad And Larry-PG15 09:00 When Love Is Not EnoughPG15 11:00 Spy Kids: All The Time In The World-PG 13:00 Winx-FAM 15:00 Second Chances-PG15 16:45 We Bought A Zoo-PG 19:00 The People vs George LucasPG15 21:00 Young Adult-PG15 23:00 Saving Grace B. Jones-PG15 01:00 Second Chances-PG15

04:00 Today’s Special-PG15 06:00 Austin Powers In Goldmember-PG15 08:00 Bending The Rules-PG15 10:00 A View From Here-PG15 12:00 Happy Feet Two-PG 14:00 The Three Stooges-PG15 16:00 Bending The Rules-PG15 18:00 Men In Black 3-PG 20:00 Flypaper-18 22:00 Your Sister’s Sister-18 00:00 Dungeons & Dragons: The Book Of Vile Darkness-18 02:00 Men In Black 3-PG

04:00 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00 01:00 02:30

Source Code-PG15 True Justice: Dead Drop-PG15 Rage Of The Yeti-PG15 Burden Of Evil-PG15 Mission: Impossible-PG15 Rage Of The Yeti-PG15 Ice Road Terror-PG15 Mission: Impossible-PG15 Beverly Hills Cop 3-PG15 Saving Private Ryan-18 Graystone-18 Ice Road Terror-PG15

08:00 A Heartbeat Away-PG15 10:00 Ernest Scared Stupid-PG15 12:00 Sorority Wars-PG15 14:00 The Naked Gun: From The Files Of Police Squad-PG 16:00 Ernest Scared Stupid-PG15 18:00 The Wish List-PG15 20:00 Crazy, Stupid, Love.-PG15 22:00 The Giant Mechanical ManPG15 00:00 Flypaper-18

09:30 Departures-PG15 11:45 Offline-PG15 13:15 Christmas Comes Home To Canaan-PG15 14:45 Departures-PG15 17:00 The Presidio-PG15 19:00 Coriolanus-PG15 21:00 Sound Of My Voice-18 23:00 The Artist-PG 01:00 The Imposter-PG15

00:00 World’s Greatest Motorcycle Rides 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 Departures 09:00 Off Limits 10:00 World’s Greatest Motorcycle Rides 11:00 Hotel Impossible

00:00 PGA European Tour Highlights 01:00 PGA Tour Highlights 02:00 Super Rugby Highlights 03:00 Super League 05:00 Super Rugby 07:00 Cricket Friends Life T20 10:00 Super League 12:00 British & Irish Lions Tour of Australia 14:00 Super Rugby Highlights 15:00 Rugby World Cup Sevens 18:00 PGA European Tour Highlights 19:00 ICC Cricket 360 19:30 Live Cricket Friends Life T20 22:30 NRL Full Time 23:00 Futbol Mundial 23:30 British & Irish Lions Tour of Australia

00:00 NRL Premiership 02:00 AFL Premiership Highlights 03:00 Rugby World Cup Sevens 06:00 Trans World Sport 07:00 Super League 09:00 Super Rugby Highlights 10:00 PGA Tour Highlights 11:00 PGA European Tour Highlights 12:00 AFL Premiership Highlights 13:00 Trans World Sport 14:00 Futbol Mundial 14:30 ICC Cricket 360 15:00 Cricket Friends Life T20 18:00 AFL Premiership Highlights 19:00 PGA Tour Highlights 20:00 UFC The Ultimate Fighter 21:00 WWE SmackDown 23:00 WWE Bottom Line

01:30 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 10:00 10:30 11:30 12:30 13:30 15:30 17:30 18:30 19:30 20:30

ITU World Triathlon Series World Pool Masters World Pool Masters Golfing World Golfing World NRL Premiership Futbol Mundial World Pool Masters World Pool Masters Golfing World NRL Premiership Super Rugby World Pool Masters World Pool Masters Super Rugby Highlights UK Open Darts

00:00 01:00 03:00 03:30 04:00 05:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 13:00 14:30 15:30 16:30 17:30 18:30 20:30 21:00

UFC The Ultimate Fighter NHL Porsche GT 3 Cup Porsche GT 3 Cup Motor Sports 2013 NHL WWE NXT WWE Bottom Line Ping Pong World US Bass Fishing NHL Mass Participation Mass Participation WWE Experience Ping Pong World US Bass Fishing NHL Mobil 1 The Grid Porsche GT 3 Cup

GONE ON OSN MOVIES HD

12:00 Eden Eats 13:00 Bizarre Foods America 14:00 International House Hunters 14:30 International House Hunters 15:00 Inside Luxury Travel - Varun Sharma 16:00 Globe Trekker 17:00 World’s Greatest Motorcycle Rides 18:00 Off Limits 19:00 Departures 20:00 Ultimate Braai Master 21:00 Reza, Spice Prince Of India 21:30 Jonathan Phang’s Caribbean Cookbook 22:00 Bizarre Foods America 23:00 Inside Luxury Travel - Varun Sharma

Travolta loved playing a woman

J

YOUNG ADULT ON OSN CINEMA 21:30 Porsche GT 3 Cup 22:00 UFC Unleashed 23:00 UFC Unleashed

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

C.S.I. Miami Drop Dead Diva Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show C.S.I. Miami Royal Pains Franklin & Bash The Killing Banshee Awake Drop Dead Diva Banshee The Killing

03:00 Breaking In 03:30 Breaking In 04:00 Brothers 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 Friends 06:00 Hope & Faith 06:30 Arrested Development 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 Brothers 08:30 Friends 09:00 Breaking In 09:30 Hot In Cleveland 10:00 Parks And Recreation 10:30 Arrested Development 11:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:00 Hope & Faith 12:30 Seinfeld 13:00 Seinfeld 13:30 Arrested Development 14:00 Breaking In 14:30 Parks And Recreation 15:00 Hot In Cleveland 15:30 The Daily Show Global Edition 16:00 The Colbert Report Global Edition 16:30 Hope & Faith 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 Last Man Standing 18:30 Raising Hope 19:00 Hot In Cleveland 19:30 Men At Work 20:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 21:00 The Daily Show 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 Malibu Country 22:30 Out There 23:00 Brickleberry 23:30 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 00:30 The Daily Show 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 Seinfeld 02:00 Seinfeld 02:30 Friends

13:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 20:30 21:00 23:00 00:00 01:00 02:00

Lewis Above Suspicion The Jeremy Kyle Show USA 60 Minute Makeover Emmerdale Coronation Street Coach Trip Come Dine With Me Ireland Doc Martin Moving On The Jeremy Kyle Show USA 60 Minute Makeover Emmerdale

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

Brandy & Mr Whiskers Brandy & Mr Whiskers Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Doc McStuffins A.N.T Farm A.N.T Farm Jessie Jessie Shake It Up Shake It Up Austin And Ally Austin And Ally Good Luck Charlie Good Luck Charlie A.N.T Farm A.N.T. Farm Jessie

11:50 12:15 12:35 13:00 13:25 13:45 14:10 14:35 15:00 15:25 15:50 16:10 16:35 17:00 17:20 17:45 18:10 18:30 18:55 19:20 19:40 20:05 20:30 20:50 21:15 21:40 22:00 22:25 22:50 23:10 23:35 00:00 00:20 00:45 01:05 01:30 01:50 02:15 02:35

Jessie Austin And Ally Austin And Ally Shake It Up Shake It Up A.N.T Farm A.N.T Farm Good Luck Charlie Good Luck Charlie Jessie Jessie Shake It Up A.N.T. Farm Austin And Ally That’s So Raven Suite Life On Deck Good Luck Charlie Shake It Up Austin And Ally Jessie A.N.T Farm A.N.T Farm Shake It Up Suite Life On Deck Austin And Ally That’s So Raven Jessie A.N.T Farm Good Luck Charlie Wizards Of Waverly Place Wizards Of Waverly Place Hannah Montana Hannah Montana Brandy & Mr Whiskers Brandy & Mr Whiskers Emperor’s New School Emperor’s New School Replacements Replacements

14:30 15:00 York 16:00 York 17:00 17:30 18:00 18:30 19:00 20:00 20:30 21:30 22:30 23:30 00:00 00:55 01:25

Style Star Kourtney & Kim Take New Kourtney & Kim Take New What Would Ryan Lochte Do? What Would Ryan Lochte Do? Married To Jonas Married To Jonas E!es Chasing The Saturdays Kourtney And Kim Take Miami Playing With Fire Fashion Police Chelsea Lately Opening Act Style Star E!es

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 Unwrapped 07:25 Unwrapped 07:50 Andy Bates Street Feasts 08:15 Unique Sweets 08:40 Red, Hot And Yummy 09:05 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 09:30 Amazing Wedding Cakes 10:20 Extra Virgin 10:45 Kid In A Candy Store 11:10 Charly’s Cake Angels 11:40 Unique Sweets 12:00 The Next Iron Chef 12:50 Red, Hot And Yummy 13:15 Barefoot Contessa 13:40 Barefoot Contessa 14:05 Tyler’s Ultimate 14:30 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 14:55 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 15:20 Guy’s Big Bite 15:45 Chopped 16:35 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 17:00 Red, Hot And Yummy 17:25 Reza’s African Kitchen 17:50 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 18:15 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 18:40 Guy’s Big Bite 19:05 Charly’s Cake Angels 19:30 Amazing Wedding Cakes 20:20 Chopped 21:10 Chopped 22:00 Reza’s African Kitchen 22:25 Reza’s African Kitchen 22:50 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 23:15 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 23:40 Food Wars 00:05 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 00:30 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 00:55 Unique Eats 01:20 Unique Eats 01:45 Reza’s African Kitchen

ohn Travolta says playing a woman came naturally to him. The 59-year-old actor has always been inspired by “erotic” screen sirens so jumped at the chance to be transformed into voluptuous comedy character Edna Turnblad in 2007 musical movie ‘Hairspray’, and had no trouble mastering an effeminate walk for the role. He told The Sun newspaper: “Women have been so important in my life. I didn’t need to ask my wife how to play a woman for my film ‘Hairspray’. I’d grown up surrounded by women and had a lot of great memories. “The women I liked growing up were Sophia Loren, Anita Ekberg, Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. They were erotic to me. I have the ability to move in a curvaceous way. If you give me breasts and an ass - as I had in ‘Hairspray’, with the prosthetics - I can move!”

John - who has 13-year-old daughter Ella Bleu and two-year-old son Benjamin with Kelly Preston - admits his wife was in awe of his transformation, and joked he prefers women with a little meat on them so was comfortable with playing largerthan-life Edna. He added: “When my wife saw that movie, she cried. She found it moving, touching, sweet and funny. I like well-built women. “To me, women are too skinny now. I married a voluptuous woman. She might not look it, but she is!

Trust me on that.”

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 Daily Cooks Challenge 07:30 Tareq Taylor’s Nordic Cookery 07:55 Planet Cake 08:20 Phil Spencer - Secret Agent 09:10 Bargain Hunt 09:55 Antiques Roadshow 10:50 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 11:35 MasterChef Australia 12:25 Come Dine With Me 13:15 Tareq Taylor’s Nordic Cookery 13:45 Bargain Hunt 14:30 Cash In The Attic 15:20 Antiques Roadshow 16:15 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 17:00 Phil Spencer - Secret Agent 17:55 Hairy Bikers’ Bake-ation 18:50 Food & Drink 19:20 New Scandinavian Cooking With Claus Meyer 19:45 Come Dine With Me 20:35 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 21:20 Antiques Roadshow 22:15 Bargain Hunt 23:00 Phil Spencer - Secret Agent 23:55 Cash In The Attic 00:40 Come Dine With Me 01:30 MasterChef Australia 02:20 How Not To Decorate

03:00 Andy Bates American Street Feasts

SOURCE CODE ON OSN ACTION HD

Classifieds TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

Kuwait

SHARQIA-1 WORLD WAR Z (DIG) NO FRI OFFICER DOWN (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) OFFICER DOWN (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) OFFICER DOWN (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG)

1:15 PM 1:30 PM 3:30 PM 6:00 PM 8:00 PM 10:30 PM 12:30 AM

WORLD WAR Z (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG)

10:00 PM 12:15 AM

MAN OF STEEL (DIG) MAN OF STEEL (DIG) MAN OF STEEL (DIG)

5:15 PM 8:15 PM 11:15 PM

FANAR-2 THE PURGE (DIG) MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG) MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG) MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG) THE PURGE (DIG) THE PURGE (DIG)

1:15 PM 3:30 PM 5:45 PM 8:15 PM 10:30 PM 12:30 AM

AVENUES-3 TATTAH (DIG) TATTAH (DIG) TATTAH (DIG) TATTAH (DIG) TATTAH (DIG) TATTAH (DIG)

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

360ยบ- 1 THE PURGE (DIG) THE PURGE (DIG) THE PURGE (DIG) THE PURGE (DIG) THE PURGE (DIG) THE PURGE (DIG) THE PURGE (DIG)

1:00 PM 3:00 PM 5:00 PM 7:00 PM 9:00 PM 11:00 PM 1:00 AM

360ยบ- 2 OFFICER DOWN (DIG) OFFICER DOWN (DIG) OFFICER DOWN (DIG) OFFICER DOWN (DIG) OFFICER DOWN (DIG) OFFICER DOWN (DIG) OFFICER DOWN (DIG)

12:45 PM 2:45 PM 4:45 PM 6:45 PM 8:45 PM 10:45 PM 12:45 AM

SHARQIA-2 MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG-3D) CINDERELLA (DIG-3D) MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG-3D) WHITE HOUSE DOWN (DIG) WHITE HOUSE DOWN (DIG) WHITE HOUSE DOWN (DIG)

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

FANAR-3 MAN OF STEEL (DIG) MAN OF STEEL (DIG) MAN OF STEEL (DIG) OFFICER DOWN (DIG) OFFICER DOWN (DIG) OFFICER DOWN (DIG)

12:30 PM 3:15 PM 6:00 PM 8:45 PM 10:45 PM 12:45 AM

SHARQIA-3 THE PURGE (DIG) THE PURGE (DIG) TATTAH (DIG) THE PURGE (DIG) TATTAH (DIG) THE PURGE (DIG)

1:00 PM 3:00 PM 5:00 PM 7:30 PM 9:30 PM 12:05 AM

MUHALAB-1 OFFICER DOWN (DIG) THE PURGE (DIG) OFFICER DOWN (DIG) THE PURGE (DIG) OFFICER DOWN (DIG) THE PURGE (DIG)

MARINA-1 OFFICER DOWN (DIG) THE PURGE (DIG) THE PURGE (DIG) TATTAH (DIG) THE PURGE (DIG) OFFICER DOWN (DIG) OFFICER DOWN (DIG)

12:30 PM 2:30 PM 4:15 PM 6:00 PM 8:15 PM 10:00 PM 12:05 AM

12:30 PM 2:45 PM 4:30 PM 6:30 PM 8:15 PM 10:15 PM

MUHALAB-2 WORLD WAR Z (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) TATTAH (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) TATTAH (DIG)

MARINA-2 WORLD WAR Z (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) MAN OF STEEL (DIG) TATTAH (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG)

12:45 PM 3:00 PM 5:15 PM 8:00 PM 10:15 PM 12:45 AM

12:45 PM 3:00 PM 5:30 PM 7:45 PM 10:00 PM

MUHALAB-3 CINDERELLA (DIG-3D) WHITE HOUSE DOWN (DIG) MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG-3D) MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG-3D) WHITE HOUSE DOWN (DIG)

12:30 PM 2:45 PM 5:15 PM 7:30 PM 9:45 PM

MARINA-3 MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG-3D) CINDERELLA (DIG-3D) MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG-3D) WHITE HOUSE DOWN (DIG) WHITE HOUSE DOWN (DIG) WHITE HOUSE DOWN (DIG)

12:30 PM 2:45 PM 5:00 PM 7:15 PM 9:45 PM 12:30 AM

AVENUES-1 WORLD WAR Z (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG)

1:30 PM 4:00 PM 6:30 PM 9:00 PM 11:30 PM

AVENUES-2 MAN OF STEEL (DIG)

2:15 PM

FANAR-1 WORLD WAR Z (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) DARK TIDE (DIG)

12:30 PM 3:00 PM 5:15 PM 7:45 PM

FOR SALE

KNCC PROGRAMME FROM THURSDAY (04/07/2013) UPTO 1st DAY OF RAMADAN

Toyota Yaris model 2008, red color, fog lamp, CD alloy rim, rear bumper sensor, installment possible, 4 cylinder engine. Cash Price KD 1,950. Tel: 99105286 . (C 4454) 8-7-2013 CHANGE OF NAME I have changed my name from Husain, s/o Kosar Godichand, Indian Passport No. H1819475 in future I am known from this name Husain Godichand, s/o Kosar Godichand, Res. Obrimohalla, Sagwara.

(C 4455) 8-7-2013 I, Huzaifa Shabbir Gulamali, holding Passport No. F0010303 wish to change my name to Huzaifa Shabbir Amjawala. (C 4453) 4-7-2013 TUITION

360ยบ- 3 WORLD WAR Z (DIG-3D) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG) WORLD WAR Z (DIG-3D) WORLD WAR Z (DIG)

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

AL-KOUT.1 MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG-3D) CINDERELLA (DIG-3D) MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (DIG-3D) WORLD WAR Z (DIG-3D) WORLD WAR Z (DIG-3D) WORLD WAR Z (DIG-3D) NO SUN+ TUE+WED AL-KOUT.2 WHITE HOUSE DOWN (DIG) WHITE HOUSE DOWN (DIG) WHITE HOUSE DOWN (DIG) WHITE HOUSE DOWN (DIG) WHITE HOUSE DOWN (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

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

Position available in Kuwait for a teacher/ psychologist.

Qualifications: male, degree in education, experience in behavior modification and or social skills training, excellent command in English. Contact: 99114449/ 99602744. (C 4456) 8-7-2013

112

Prayer timings 1:15 PM 4:00 PM 6:45 PM 9:30 PM 12:15 AM

Fajr: Shorook Duhr: Asr: Maghrib: Isha:

THE PUBLIC AUTHORITY FOR CIVIL INFORMATION

03:21 04:55 11:53 15:27 18:51 20:22

Automated enquiry about the Civil ID card is

1889988

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

Airlines BBC QTR JZR RJA MEA JZR PIA THY ETH GFA UAE ETD FDB RBG JZR MSR OMA QTR THY DHX FDB BAW FDB KAC KAC KAC JZR JZR UAE ABY QTR FDB IRA ETD GFA MEA TMA UAE MSR THY KNE QTR FDB SVA KNE KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC

Arrival Flights on Tuesday 9/7/2013 Flt Route 43 DHAKA 148 DOHA 267 BEIRUT 644 AMMAN-QUEEN ALIA 408 BEIRUT 539 CAIRO 239 SIALKOT 764 SABIHA 620 ADDIS ABABA 211 BAHRAIN 853 DUBAI 305 ABU DHABI 67 DUBAI 555 ALEXANDRIA 555 ALEXANDRIA 612 CAIRO 643 MUSCAT 138 DOHA 770 ISTANBUL 170 BAHRAIN 69 DUBAI 157 LONDON 53 DUBAI 416 JAKARTA 412 MANILA 206 ISLAMABAD 503 LUXOR 1541 CAIRO 855 DUBAI 125 SHARJAH 132 DOHA 55 DUBAI 605 ISFAHAN 301 ABU DHABI 213 BAHRAIN 404 BEIRUT 213 BEIRUT 871 DUBAI 610 CAIRO 766 ISTANBUL 480 TAIF 140 DOHA 57 DUBAI 500 JEDDAH 472 JEDDAH 546 ALEXANDRIA 284 DHAKA 562 AMMAN-QUEEN ALIA 352 COCHIN 302 MUMBAI 514 TEHRAN

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

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

788 332 561 177 640 134 303 857 127 982 510 215 144 341 63 219 393 572 553 647 61 129 402 619 618 415 229 859 307 136 217 146 576 59 981 981 636 574 614 772 8053 674 786 104 166 1802 618 542 742 774 678 777 239

JEDDAH TRIVANDRUM SOHAG DUBAI AMMAN-QUEEN ALIA DOHA ABU DHABI DUBAI SHARJAH WASHINGTON DC DULLES RIYADH BAHRAIN DOHA DAMASCUS DUBAI BAHRAIN KOZHIKODE MUMBAI ALEXANDRIA MUSCAT DUBAI SHARJAH BEIRUT LAR ALEXANDRIA AMSTERDAM COLOMBO DUBAI ABU DHABI DOHA BAHRAIN DOHA COCHIN DUBAI CHENNAI BAHRAIN FRANKFURT MUMBAI CAIRO ISTANBUL DUBAI DUBAI JEDDAH LONDON PARIS CAIRO DOHA CAIRO DAMMAM RIYADH MUSCAT JEDDAH AMMAN-QUEEN ALIA

15:00 7:55 12:00 17:30 15:55 16:15 16:35 16:55 17:10 17:15 17:20 17:20 18:25 18:25 18:55 19:05 19:15 19:35 19:40 20:00 20:00 20:05 20:15 20:20 20:30 21:05 21:10 21:15 21:30 21:35 21:45 22:00 22:05 22:20 22:25 22:40 23:10 23:20 23:30 23:45 15:10 19:25 18:30 18:45 18:40 16:40 19:10 18:15 19:30 19:25 19:35 17:50 22:30

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

Departure Flights on Tuesday 9/7/2013 Flt Route 976 GOA 490 MANGALORE 206 LAHORE 573 MUMBAI 981 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 637 FRANKFURT 615 CAIRO 411 AMSTERDAM 409 BEIRUT 502 LUXOR 44 DHAKA 240 SIALKOT 773 ISTANBUL 765 ISTANBUL 621 ADDIS ABABA 645 AMMAN 854 DUBAI 68 DUBAI 556 ALEXANDRIA 613 CAIRO 644 MUSCAT 306 ABU DHABI 139 DOHA 149 DOHA 560 SOHAG 70 DUBAI 212 BAHRAIN 771 ISTANBUL 545 ALEXANDRIA 156 LONDON 54 DUBAI 513 IMAM KHOMEINI 561 AMMAN 126 SHARJAH 787 JEDDAH 856 DUBAI 56 DUBAI 133 DOHA 1801 CAIRO 302 ABU DHABI 604 ISFAHAN 101 LONDON 214 BAHRAIN 541 CAIRO 165 ROME 405 BEIRUT 776 JEDDAH 677 MUSCAT 785 JEDDAH 176 DUBAI 611 CAIRO

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION

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

THY KNE UAE FDB QTR TMA KAC KNE SVA KAC FDB KAC KAC RJA JZR QTR ETD JZR ABY UAE SVA GFA UAL JZR QTR SYR FDB GFA AXB KAC RBG JAI FDB ABY OMA KAC KAC MEA IRA MSR DHX KLM ETD ALK UAE KAC QTR KAC GFA FDB KAC QTR JAI JZR KAC

767 481 872 58 141 223 673 473 501 617 8054 773 741 641 238 135 304 538 128 858 511 216 982 266 145 342 64 220 394 283 554 571 62 120 648 343 351 403 618 607 171 415 308 230 860 381 137 301 218 60 205 147 575 554 411

ISTANBUL TAIF DUBAI DUBAI DOHA DUBAI DUBAI JEDDAH JEDDAH DOHA DUBAI RIYADH DAMMAM AMMAN AMMAN DOHA ABU DHABI CAIRO SHARJAH DUBAI RIYADH BAHRAIN BAHRAIN BEIRUT DOHA DAMASCUS DUBAI BAHRAIN KOZHIKODE DHAKA ALEXANDRIA MUMBAI DUBAI SHARJAH MUSCAT CHENNAI KOCHI BEIRUT LAR LUXOR BAHRAIN DAMMAM ABU DHABI COLOMBO DUBAI DELHI DOHA MUMBAI BAHRAIN DUBAI ISLAMABAD DOHA ABU DHABI ALEXANDRIA BANGKOK

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

34

stars CROSSWORD 245

STAR TRACK Aries (March 21-April 19) There are several opportunities for in-depth discussions and probing conversations with all sorts of business associates today. Others will find you at your mental best.

Your perceptive abilities are at a high point. Past problems can be set aside for now. This workday seems to accent your own ideas and expectations. Working within a group or groups in a spirit of cooperation and communion is a natural. This evening you may be feeling more inward and more like sharing some time with your loved one or with close friends. This is a good time for propping your feet up and enjoying some good communication between yourself and those you love. Close relationships take on more emotional depth, power and importance now.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) You seem very focused today and that is good because most of the people around you seem a bit unorganized. You are not interested in the superficial or the things that do not relate to business or the subject at hand. You do not care about the worldwide situations, only about how things impact you and yours. There is an intellect and emotions mix to the point of inseparability. An instinctive imperative to be powerful and in control may lead to a greater interest in investing. There is a tendency to be too strict with you. You can’t solve your problems and all the world’s in one day. Your ambition is intensified. You can get the most out of others and as a result, you could see a raise in pay when you become the next manager or some other type of supervisor.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

ACROSS 1. Aircraft landing in bad weather in which the pilot is talked down by ground control using precision approach radar.

4. Mix together different elements.

12. The upper side of the thighs of a seated person.

15. 300 to 3000 megahertz.

16. Pay too little.

17. Fermented alcoholic beverage similar to but heavier than beer.

18. A broad flat muscle on either side of the back.

19. Ruffed grouse.

20. The principles of right and wrong that are accepted by an individual or a social group.

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

23. Being or relating to or resembling or emanating from stars.

25. A loose sleeveless outer garment made from aba cloth.

26. (Greek mythology) Goddess of the earth and mother of Cronus and the Titans in ancient mythology.

29. Diuretic (trade name Edecrin) used to treat edema.

31. 100 thebe equal 1 pula.

33. Amount of a charge or payment relative to some basis.

34. Green algae common in freshwater lakes of limestone districts.

40. (Akkadian) God of wisdom.

41. An anti-TNF compound (trade name Arava) that is given orally.

46. The basic unit of money in Peru.

48. A soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot.

50. A person whose duty is to throw troublemakers out of a bar or public meeting.

53. An anticipated outcome that is intended or that guides your planned actions.

54. Any disease of the throat or fauces marked by spasmodic attacks of intense suffocative pain.

56. A youth subculture closely associated with punk rock music in the late 1970s.

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

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

61. The principal evil jinni in Islamic mythology.

64. (Babylonian) God of wisdom and agriculture and patron of scribes and schools.

68. A medical establishment run by a group of medical specialists.

70. Moving quickly and lightly.

72. The act of slowing down or falling behind.

73. Airtight sealed metal container for food or drink or paint etc..

74. A cephalosporin antibiotic (trade name Ultracef).

76. United States liquid unit equal to 4 quarts or 3.785 liters.

77. The number that is represented as a one followed by 6 zeros.

78. Engaged in war.

79. American prizefighter who won the world heavyweight championship three times (born in 1942).

DOWN 1. A Russian prison camp for political prisoners.

2. A Bantu language spoken by the Chaga peo-

ple in northern Tanzania.

3. (nautical, aeronautical) Situated at or toward the stern or tail.

4. A communist state in the Caribbean on the island of Cuba.

5. United States musician (born in Japan) who married John Lennon and collaborated with him on recordings (born in 1933).

6. (biology) Of unlike parts or organs.

7. Property that is leased or rented out or let.

8. At a previous time.

9. A cut of pork ribs with much of the meat trimmed off.

10. A white metallic element that burns with a brilliant light.

11. A small hole (usually round and finished around the edges) in cloth or leather for the passage of a cord.

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

13. (law) A defense by an accused person purporting to show that he or she could not have committed the crime in question.

14. Wood of a pecan tree.

22. An island in the Persian Gulf.

24. (Babylonian) God of storms and wind.

27. The 7th letter of the Greek alphabet.

28. The blood group whose red cells carry both the A and B antigens.

30. A ductile gray metallic element of the lanthanide series.

32. The sense organ for hearing and equilibrium.

35. The capital city of Vietnam.

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

37. A car that is closed and that has front and rear seats and two or four doors.

38. Go trecking.

39. English businessman who created a retail chain (1888-1964).

42. Make amendments to.

43. Light wispy precipitation that evaporates before it reaches the ground (especially when the lower air is low in humidity).

44. Attractiveness to the opposite sex.

45. Of or relating to Papua or its people or language.

47. Moving in surges and billows and rolls.

49. A white soft metallic element that tarnishes readily.

51. A soft silver-white ductile metallic element (liquid at normal temperatures).

52. A country on the island of Jamaica.

55. Nuts or fruit pieces in a sugar paste.

58. Belonging to or on behalf of a specified person (especially yourself).

60. American filmmaker and comic actor (1935).

62. (Scottish) Bluish-black or gray-blue.

63. An Iranian language spoken in Afghanistan.

65. Primitive chlorophyll-containing mainly aquatic eukaryotic organisms lacking true stems and roots and leaves.

66. Any of numerous local fertility and nature deities worshipped by ancient Semitic peoples.

67. Large sweet juicy hybrid between tangerine and grapefruit having a thick wrinkled skin.

69. A user interface in which you type commands instead of choosing them from a menu or selecting an icon.

71. A newt in its terrestrial stage of development.

75. A soft gray malleable metallic element that resembles tin but discolors on exposure to air.

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

Someone around you is continuing their education and someone else is getting that job they always wanted—another friend or relative is going into business for themselves. You catch the bug and have a yearning to broaden your possibilities.

You have always wanted to have a business of your own and now could be the time. Law, politics, education, travel, religion—these are some of the areas in which a home based business could begin. What is needed now is a plan, particularly since your interests are so varied.

Although there is much dedication when you do choose a goal, you can sometimes change your mind in the middle of the stream, so to speak; so, give this some time to settle in your mind. Your logic and practicality will come with time.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) You work well with those in authority who are independent and original. You could find yourself engaged in nonconformist causes, always ready to promote what is modern and forward thinking. You have a high degree of motivation when it comes to giving and to personal sacrifice. Your radical approaches find you in the middle of a product breakthrough. An animal is determined to adopt you this afternoon; if you cannot offer it a good home, you might be happier to find this creature another home. Good feelings and a sense of harmony with family members make this a happy time. After the evening meal, you may become involved in your favorite creative art. Leave time for romance this evening; a lover wants more of your attention.

Leo (July 23-August 22) You are powerfully motivated today. A lot of energy goes into getting things scheduled and organized. A busy schedule has you occupied—you might end up taking work home if you do not have the power to allocate a few of the errands. Rushing through today can only cause mistakes and irritability; welcome your breaks and do not forget healthy dieting. There is a tendency to be too strict with yourself, to insist that whatever does not contribute to security and other long-term goals is trivial. Your ambition is intensified. Slow and easy moves will get you into the fast lane just as quickly as the reckless moves. The difference is in the endurance. A last-minute invitation leads to fun and relaxation this evening.

Virgo (August 23-September 22) Real insight into your own inner workings or psychology could surface today and in a manageable form. You may be in the mood for deep and penetrating conversations or thoughts. You are a good worker, always thinking and caring for things. You are naturally service-oriented and enjoy taking care of the needs of others. You are very discriminating and can sort out the good apples from the bad. You may find yourself lecturing or at the very least, speaking to a small audience. Your imagination and sense of what connects all of life are felt in your speech and in the way you communicate. You love a good story and this afternoon may find you reading or entertaining young people . . . Your mind soars on wings of the imagination.

Word Search

Libra (September 23-October 22) Obtaining and exchanging information is important now—competition could be involved. There is a tremendous drive to succeed and some sheer good luck, bringing about a real accomplishment. There is a lot of physical energy available. You are very ambitious and motivated and could serve as group leader or manager. A family person at heart, you will find that a family business could work well now or in the near future. You are more involved with neighbors or siblings this afternoon—there is joy among good friends and family members. This evening you may enjoy a good movie or book or feel like escaping from everyday realities for a while. You appreciate an imaginative approach and many futuristic or advanced ideas.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) You may find that your ideas and thoughts run smoothly today. Your outward charm and your desire to be all things to all people are what are most central to your personality. This ability to solve problems, to give advice and always to put others at ease is the key to meeting and coming to know you. There are opportunities springing up all around you and you must be prepared to stretch beyond your average production and move forward. Be prepared. You must decide whether a risk is worth the change it will bring about in your present situation. A business trip is likely soon and you will be able to connect with important contacts. You may consider taking a class or involving yourself with some hobby that stimulates you intellectually.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) Gut-level is the way you think, speak and perceive in the cycle you have just begun. You are not interested in the superficial; instead, you want to get right to the root of things. You do not care about the universal, only about how things impact you and yours. Intellect and emotion mix to the point of inseparability. You can be very practical when it comes to dealing and working with others. You know just what to do and can act without haste. You are called on to make use of your natural abilities and talents today. This afternoon there are opportunities to visit with friends, join a party or a few other social activities. If you visit a short while within a social atmosphere, you can do a lot to energize yourself. Consider going home early.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19) CAPRICORN Your understanding of a particular situation is very intuitive. You put a lot of thought and energy into a desirable outcome and you avoid the commonplace with great effort. Your drive to find new ways to use things is well coordinated. This afternoon you can back off the push to complete projects as you have accomplished more than you set out to accomplish. Your career always seems to get the support you need and this is one area of life that runs smoothly—particularly today. Later today is a good time for some form of levity. A light movie, a new joke book, a positive friend—all seem to be what you enjoy delving into after such a tough day at work. A light evening meal is not a bad idea either and it could be time for you to choose fish.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) Your work or career is in harmony with the rest of your life. There is a tendency to be too strict with yourself but it is okay to relax a little and move with the flow of the day. Change is the one thing you can count on so going with the flow of work is what will make you most successful. Ambition is intensified and you will achieve quite a lot within a short time. This may be surprising to learn but as you trust in your skills and keep moving forward, you will find less time spent in frustration. Circumstances are favorable for whatever project needs attention. Things may seem almost magical in the way they work out. Your mind tends to be very imaginative this evening. Ideas and writings of a mystical or poetic nature may appeal to you.

Pisces (February 19-March 20) You do your job and others do their job—progress. This afternoon you may be asked to exchange ideas and solve problems with some of your co-workers. This is a time of great mental activity and heightened communication with others.

Intellectualism and the exchange of ideas have a special appeal to you. You are full of wit and sharp insights. This could be a time for real breakthroughs in the idea department.

You are in top form when it comes to mental activity. You may have opportunities today to be with young people, perhaps guiding young people. There is a chance to understand those around you and to have a special time with someone you love. There are good feelings and a sense of harmony.

Yesterday’s Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

Daily SuDoku

Yesterday’s Solution

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

i n f o r m at i o n For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128 GOVERNORATE Sabah Hospital

24812000

Amiri Hospital

22450005

Maternity Hospital

24843100

Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital

25312700

Chest Hospital

24849400

Farwaniya Hospital

24892010

Adan Hospital

23940620

Ibn Sina Hospital

24840300

Al-Razi Hospital

24846000

Physiotherapy Hospital

24874330/9

PHARMACY

ADDRESS

PHONE

Ahmadi

Sama Safwan Abu Halaifa Danat Al-Sultan

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

23915883 23715414 23726558

Jahra

Modern Jahra Madina Munawara

Jahra-Block 3 Lot 1 Jahra-Block 92

24575518 24566622

Capital

Ahlam Khaldiya Coop

Fahad Al-Salem St Khaldiya Coop

22436184 24833967

Farwaniya

New Shifa Ferdous Coop Modern Safwan

Farwaniya Block 40 Ferdous Coop Old Kheitan Block 11

24734000 24881201 24726638

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

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

25726265 25647075 22625999 22564549 25340559 25326554 25721264 25380581 25628241

Hawally

Al-Madeena

22418714

Al-Shuhada

22545171

Al-Shuwaikh

24810598

Al-Nuzha

22545171

Sabhan

24742838

Al-Helaly

22434853

Al-Faiha

22545051

Al-Farwaniya

24711433

Al-Sulaibikhat

24316983

Al-Fahaheel

23927002

Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh

24316983

Ahmadi

23980088

Al-Mangaf

23711183

Al-Shuaiba

23262845

Kaizen center

25716707

Rawda

22517733

Adaliya

22517144

Al-Jahra

25610011

Khaldiya

24848075

Al-Salmiya

25616368

Kaifan

24849807

Shamiya

24848913

Shuwaikh

24814507

Abdullah Salem

22549134

Nuzha

22526804

Industrial Shuwaikh

24814764

Qadsiya

22515088

Dasmah

22532265

Bneid Al-Gar

22531908

Shaab

22518752

Qibla

22459381

Ayoun Al-Qibla

22451082

Mirqab

22456536

Sharq

22465401

Salmiya

25746401

Jabriya

25316254

Maidan Hawally

25623444

Bayan

25388462

Mishref

25381200

W Hawally

22630786

Sabah

24810221

Jahra

24770319

New Jahra

24575755

West Jahra

24772608

South Jahra

24775066

North Jahra

24775992

North Jleeb

24311795

Ardhiya

24884079

Firdous

24892674

Omariya

24719048

N Khaitan

24710044

Fintas

23900322

INTERNATIONAL CALLS

PRIVATE CLINICS Ophthalmologists Dr. Abidallah Al-Mansoor 25622444 Dr. Samy Al-Rabeea 25752222 Dr. Masoma Habeeb 25321171 Dr. Mubarak Al-Ajmy 25739999 Dr. Mohsen Abel 25757700 Dr Adnan Hasan Alwayl 25732223 Dr. Abdallah Al-Baghly 25732223 Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) Dr. Ahmed Fouad Mouner 24555050 Ext 510 Dr. Abdallah Al-Ali 25644660 Dr. Abd Al-Hameed Al-Taweel 25646478 Dr. Sanad Al-Fathalah 25311996 Dr. Mohammad Al-Daaory 25731988 Dr. Ismail Al-Fodary 22620166 Dr. Mahmoud Al-Booz 25651426 General Practitioners Dr. Mohamme Y Majidi 24555050 Ext 123 Dr. Yousef Al-Omar 24719312 Dr. Tarek Al-Mikhazeem 23926920 Dr. Kathem Maarafi 25730465 Dr. Abdallah Ahmad Eyadah 25655528 Dr. Nabeel Al-Ayoobi 24577781 Dr. Dina Abidallah Al-Refae 25333501 Urologists Dr. Ali Naser Al-Serfy 22641534 Dr. Fawzi Taher Abul 22639955 Dr. Khaleel Abidallah Al-Awadi 22616660 Dr. Adel Al-Hunayan FRCS (C) 25313120 Dr. Leons Joseph 66703427 Psychologists /Psychotherapists

Paediatricians

Plastic Surgeons Dr. Mohammad Al-Khalaf

22547272

Dr. Khaled Hamadi

Dr. Abdal-Redha Lari

22617700

Dr. Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rashed

Dr. Abdel Quttainah

25625030/60

Family Doctor Dr Divya Damodar

23729596/23729581

Psychiatrists Dr. Esam Al-Ansari

22635047

Dr Eisa M. Al-Balhan

22613623/0

Gynaecologists & Obstetricians DrAdrian arbe

23729596/23729581

Dr. Verginia s.Marin

2572-6666 ext 8321

Endocrinologist

25665898 25340300

Dr. Zahra Qabazard

25710444

Dr. Sohail Qamar

22621099

Dr. Snaa Maaroof

25713514

Dr. Pradip Gujare

23713100

Dr. Zacharias Mathew

24334282

(1) Ear, Nose and Throat (2) Plastic Surgeon Dr. Abdul Mohsin Jafar, FRCS (Canada)

25655535

Dentists

Dr. Fozeya Ali Al-Qatan

22655539

Dr. Majeda Khalefa Aliytami

25343406

Dr. Shamah Al-Matar

22641071/2

Dr. Ahmad Al-Khooly

25739272

Dr. Anesah Al-Rasheed

22562226

22618787

Dr. Abidallah Al-Amer

22561444

Dr. Faysal Al-Fozan

22619557

Dr. Abdallateef Al-Katrash

22525888

Dr. Abidallah Al-Duweisan

25653755

Dr. Bader Al-Ansari

25620111

General Surgeons Dr. Amer Zawaz Al-Amer

22610044

Dr. Mohammad Yousef Basher

25327148

Internists, Chest & Heart Dr. Adnan Ebil Dr. Latefa Al-Duweisan

22666300 25728004

Dr. Nadem Al-Ghabra

25355515

Dr. Mobarak Aldoub

24726446

Dr Nasser Behbehani

25654300/3

Soor Center Tel: 2290-1677 Fax: 2290 1688

Neurologists

22639939

Dr. Mousa Khadada

info@soorcenter.com www.soorcenter.com

3729596/3729581

Dr. Sohal Najem Al-Shemeri

25633324

Dr. Jasem Mola Hassan

25345875

Gastrologists Dr. Sami Aman

22636464

Dr. Mohammad Al-Shamaly

25322030

Dr. Foad Abidallah Al-Ali

22633135

Kaizen center 25716707

25339330

Dr. Ahmad Al-Ansari 25658888 Dr. Kamal Al-Shomr 25329924 Physiotherapists & VD Dr. Deyaa Shehab

25722291

Dr. Musaed Faraj Khamees

22666288

Rheumatologists: Dr. Adel Al-Awadi

Dr Anil Thomas

Dr. Salem soso

Dr. Abd Al-Naser Al-Othman

25330060

Dr. Khaled Al-Jarallah

25722290

Internist, Chest & Heart DR.Mohammes Akkad

24555050 Ext 210

Dr. Mohammad Zubaid MB, ChB, FRCPC, PACC Assistant Professor Of Medicine Head, Division of Cardiology Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital Consultant Cardiologist Dr. Farida Al-Habib MD, PH.D, FACC Inaya German Medical Center Te: 2575077 Fax: 25723123

2611555-2622555

William Schuilenberg, RPC 2290-1677 Zaina Al Zabin, M.Sc. 2290-1677

Afghanistan 0093 Albania 00355 Algeria 00213 Andorra 00376 Angola 00244 Anguilla 001264 Antiga 001268 Argentina 0054 Armenia 00374 Australia 0061 Austria 0043 Bahamas 001242 Bahrain 00973 Bangladesh 00880 Barbados 001246 Belarus 00375 Belgium 0032 Belize 00501 Benin 00229 Bermuda 001441 Bhutan 00975 Bolivia 00591 Bosnia 00387 Botswana 00267 Brazil 0055 Brunei 00673 Bulgaria 00359 Burkina 00226 Burundi 00257 Cambodia 00855 Cameroon 00237 Canada 001 Cape Verde 00238 Cayman Islands 001345 Central African 00236 Chad 00235 Chile 0056 China 0086 Colombia 0057 Comoros 00269 Congo 00242 Cook Islands 00682 Costa Rica 00506 Croatia 00385 Cuba 0053 Cyprus 00357 Cyprus (Northern) 0090392 Czech Republic 00420 Denmark 0045 Diego Garcia 00246 Djibouti 00253 Dominica 001767 Dominican Republic 001809 Ecuador 00593 Egypt 0020 El Salvador 00503 England (UK) 0044 Equatorial Guinea 00240 Eritrea 00291 Estonia 00372 Ethiopia 00251 Falkland Islands 00500 Faroe Islands 00298 Fiji 00679 Finland 00358 France 0033 French Guiana 00594 French Polynesia 00689 Gabon 00241 Gambia 00220 Georgia 00995 Germany 0049 Ghana 00233 Gibraltar 00350 Greece 0030 Greenland 00299 Grenada 001473 Guadeloupe 00590 Guam 001671 Guatemala 00502 Guinea 00224 Guyana 00592 Haiti 00509 Holland (Netherlands) 0031 Honduras 00504 Hong Kong 00852 Hungary 0036 Ibiza (Spain) 0034 Iceland 00354 India 0091 Indian Ocean 00873 Indonesia 0062

Iran 0098 Iraq 00964 Ireland 00353 Italy 0039 Ivory Coast 00225 Jamaica 001876 Japan 0081 Jordan 00962 Kazakhstan 007 Kenya 00254 Kiribati 00686 Kuwait 00965 Kyrgyzstan 00996 Laos 00856 Latvia 00371 Lebanon 00961 Liberia 00231 Libya 00218 Lithuania 00370 Luxembourg 00352 Macau 00853 Macedonia 00389 Madagascar 00261 Majorca 0034 Malawi 00265 Malaysia 0060 Maldives 00960 Mali 00223 Malta 00356 Marshall Islands 00692 Martinique 00596 Mauritania 00222 Mauritius 00230 Mayotte 00269 Mexico 0052 Micronesia 00691 Moldova 00373 Monaco 00377 Mongolia 00976 Montserrat 001664 Morocco 00212 Mozambique 00258 Myanmar (Burma) 0095 Namibia 00264 Nepal 00977 Netherlands (Holland) 0031 Netherlands Antilles 00599 New Caledonia 00687 New Zealand 0064 Nicaragua 00505 Nigar 00227 Nigeria 00234 Niue 00683 Norfolk Island 00672 Northern Ireland (UK) 0044 North Korea 00850 Norway 0047 Oman 00968 Pakistan 0092 Palau 00680 Panama 00507 Papua New Guinea 00675 Paraguay 00595 Peru 0051 Philippines 0063 Poland 0048 Portugal 00351 Puerto Rico 001787 Qatar 00974 Romania 0040 Russian Federation 007 Rwanda 00250 Saint Helena 00290 Saint Kitts 001869 Saint Lucia 001758 Saint Pierre 00508 Saint Vincent 001784 Samoa US 00684 Samoa West 00685 San Marino 00378 Sao Tone 00239 Saudi Arabia 00966 Scotland (UK) 0044 Senegal 00221 Seychelles 00284 Sierra Leone 00232 Singapore 0065 Slovakia 00421 Slovenia 00386 Solomon Islands 00677

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

lifestyle G o s s i p

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ollywood actor Hrithik Roshan has undergone surgery to remove a blood clot in his brain. The actor wrote on his Facebook page before going into surgery that he was suffering from a subdural hematoma. Press Trust of India reported that the blood clot was the result of an injury to the head. The news agency said Sunday’s surgery was a success. The 39-year-old actor has acted in more than 20 films since rising to stardom with debut film “Kaho Naa ... Pyaar Hai” or “Say ...

You Love Me” in 2000. Roshan comes from a well-

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rince Jackson has earned his blue belt in Jiu Jitsu. The 16-year-old son of late singer Michael Jackson has been training in the Japanese martial art at the Gracie Academy in Beverly Hills, California, and earned his blue belt last week. The blue belt is the second level of skill after white belt. To advance to this level Prince will have mastered 34 different manoeuvers. These include a choke-hold known as guillotine; a position which allows the user to gain a physical advantage around the opponent’s elbow known as an arm bar and a position which allows the fighter to achieve a dominating straddling position on their opponent known as an elevator sweep,

known Bollywood family. His father, Rakesh Roshan, is a film producer and director, and he is married to his childhood sweetheart Suzanne Khan, daughter of actor Sanjay Khan.

with roughly four different techniques.

TMZ.com report there are only five belts white, blue, purple, brown, then black - in the Gracie Academy belt hierarchy, and it is difficult to move up the ranks, taking a lot of perseverance and determination to progress through each level. For Prince to reach the next belt he will have to learn an additional 600 moves.

Gracie Academy has trained multitudes of Mixed Martial Arts stars including Brendan Schaub, Nate Diaz, Antoni Hardonk and Tim Tebow.

Anthony and J Lo always make time for kids

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arc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez “live crazy lives” but always make time for their children. Marc - is father to 18-year-old Arianna from a relationship with Debbie Rosado, 12-year-old Cristian and nine-year-old Ryan with his first wife Dayanara Torres, and twins Emme and Max, five, with J.Lo - is trying to balance work with his children and praised his former partners for making an “effort” to make sure he has family time. He told the new UK issue of HELLO! magazine: “We live crazy lives, but we have always made it clear that we need to be present and involved in their lives and to make an effort.” Marc - who was spotted with Jennifer, who he split from in 2011, and the twins at a school event in Los

Angeles last month - revealed J.Lo works with him to ensure their schedules work for the kids. He added: “We compare our timetables and modify them to make sure we can have this time.” Despite having a colourful love life, the singer/songwriter who recently rekindled his romance with 22-year-old Topshop heiress Chloe Green is happy in his personal life and is thankful for everything that he has been blessed with. Marc - who was married to J.Lo for seven years - said: “I’m happy and very fortunate. I have lots to thank God for.

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onny Lee Miller has put his home on the market for $1.659 million. The 40-year-old actor and his wife Michele Hicks are selling their luxurious Spanish Revival home in the Hollywood Hills, which spans over 2,800 sq ft. The property - which was bought by the British actor in 2009 - boasts beamed cathedral ceilings, sun room and three bedrooms. The lucky buyer will not only be able to make the most of the stunning abode’s top-notch features, but will also become neighbours to A-list stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who is coincidentally Jonny’s ex-wife. Jonny and his wife Michele are expected to be up-sizing thanks to the actor’s lucrative role as a modernday Sherlock Holmes in hit TV series ‘Elementary’. The ‘Trainspotting’ star recently revealed he couldn’t get used to his newfound popularity off the back of the US crime drama, and found it strange having to explain to his four-year-old son Buster why his face is on billboards everywhere. Discussing how surreal the experience is, he said: “The day that isn’t strange will be a sad day. I had to sit my little boy down and explain to him why, when he is standing on the street with his mum and a bus goes past, it has daddy on the side.”

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he 65-year-old actor remembers his elders as being less than jovial, which has spurred him to be far more playful around his two daughters’ four grandkids, who are all under ten.

Billy told Metro newspaper: “When I think of them [his grandparents] I always think of them as old. “Even in their sixties they looked like they were in their eighties. They were not fun. “I’ve already had more fun with my grandchildren than my grandparents ever had with me.” Despite their lack of cheer, Billy said his grandparents taught him a lot about life. He said: “They were really interesting people. You actually did feel like you were going to glean real wisdom from them. I remember them with great respect and affection.” Billy has previously said he his grandchildren demand he talk in the voice of his ‘Monsters, Inc.’ character Mike Wazowski. He said: “My grandkids, when they started to understand what I did, because they didn’t know, the first thing they saw was ‘Monsters, Inc.’ so then for six months I had to talk like Mike Wazowski. It drove me crazy.”

vril Lavigne felt like a “complete woman” when she saw Chad Kroeger at the altar. The ‘Here’s To Never Growing Up’ hitmaker tied the knot with Nickleback frontman Chad in a gothic-themed ceremony at a medieval castle in the south of France last Monday and Avril found it an “intense” experience. She told HELLO! magazine: “Before I walked down the isle, I had to take a few breaths because my heart was pounding. It was so intense. “My body was overtaken by emotion. I saw him and he was so calm and happy. He had a tear coming down and he wiped it away. “I felt so good walking to him. It made me feel like a complete woman.” Chad will “never forget” the moment he saw Avril at the altar after she walked down the aisle in a black tulle Monique Lhuillier gown before they exchanged their vows in front of 110 guests. He said: “I had goosebumps from head to toe and my eyes filled with tears. It’s a moment I will never forget as long as I live.” ‘Girlfriend’ singer Avril - who was previously married to Sum 41 star Deryck Whibley - is still on good terms with her former husband, but thinks they were too young when they settled down, and she also admits she didn’t see her romance with Chad coming. She added: “Deryck and I are really good friends. We were just really young and we were together for six or seven years. But with Chad I was single for the first time and I was like ‘woo-hoo’ ready to party.

Then - bam - it just happened.” The pair got together in February 2012 when Chad was helping Avril record her fifth studio album, set for release in September 2013.

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

lifestyle F a s h i o n

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and black flower pin, and drop earrings, WhatchamaCallit Fashions; Elaine Turner leather tote, and Kate Spade patent wedge sandal, Stanley Eisenman Fine Shoes; Maybelline Color Sensational Vivids in “Fuchsia Flash” on lips, Target; Rimmel Lasting Finish Pro in “Bare Naked” on fingernails, CVS Pharmacy; Essie “Secret Story” on toenails, Target.

oday’s fashion lines are blurry, and it’s not my old 60-plusyear-old eyes that are the problem. No, I see the confusion among many of my fellow baby boomers when it comes to what fashion look is right for our age. Is the line between what is “too young to wear” fading? Have the rules that our moms once held about how to dress for our age group vanished? Are we mystified about how to dress when the media typically only shows fashion ideas more appropriate for a 20year-old? Yes to all.

Blame it on the Internet and Photoshopped models and movie stars gracing magazine covers. The obsession with looking young has created a whole new problem: What does an over-50-year-old realistically look like today, and what trends can she wear?

As a stylist, fashion show coordinator and wardrobe consultant with more than 40 years of experience, my business is fashion. I visit hundreds of closets of women of all ages, but especially those of women over 50, who are frantically seeking assistance in finding a look that is contemporary yet age-appropriate. I’ve learned over the years that the key to the right look is balance: Don’t dress too old or too young. But what’s the trick to finding this balance?

Our model Irene, a busy mom of two, is just days from hitting the half-century mark but exemplifies how the “over-50” crowd can wear summer trends without having to reach for those reading glasses to find the just-right fashion look.

Be bold The trend: Neon colors, and mixing prints with patterns The body challenge: “Batwing” or out-of-shape arms; sallow, aging skin; heavy hips and legs; and hot flashes!

The fashion solution: Try a lightweight, neon sweater with three-quarter-length sleeves great cover for arms, plus the neon adds a splash of much-needed color. The cappedsleeve V-neck linen tee is breathable, cool and more edgy than a solid tee when coupled with the skirt. The stitcheddown pleated, printed skirt hides larger hips, while the hemline ends just below the knees in a flattering spot for thicker legs. The low-heel, patent linen wedge is a comfy, go-to choice. Geometric jewelry and layers of bracelets add summer fun to the outfit.

Shop the look: Sweater, J.Crew; T-shirt, Madewell; skirt, Talbots; Arturo Chiang wedge shoes, , Dillard’s; Kendra Scott drop earring, Lawrence’s; pearl and gold bracelet, Lawrence’s; gold bangle bracelets, Lawrence’s; L’Oreal Colour Riche Caresse Stick in “Fiery Veil” on lips, CVS Pharmacy; OPI Nail Lacquer “Hot & Spicy” on nails and toenails, Beauty Brands.

Graphic design The trend: Lace, black and white, capri pants, statement jewelry The body challenge: Large calf muscles, “cankles” (unsightly folds of skin on top of your ankles), petite and extra tall shapes, hefty lower body, thickening waistline, large upper arms and fuller neck The fashion solution: This lightweight sweater in stylish black-and-white print captures the trend while keeping you

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a Yuqawam orchid prairie and tobacco blaze set to ignite feelings

Rasasi Perfumes, which offers a wide range of exclusive fragrances - today announced a unique extension of its La Yuqawam oriental collection with the orchid prairie and tobacco blaze series.

The new series comes within a year of Rasasi’s launch of La Yuqawam Pour Homme and Pour Femme, which brought the oriental luxury and Arab heritage in all its splendor and magnificence to the regional consumers.

La Yuqawam means irresistible in Arabic and orchid prairie and tobacco blaze for men and women epitomizes Rasasi’s brand philosophy and extends a classic yet modern feel to it. Every aspect of La Yuqawam - from its concept notes to the premium packaging reflects the ultimate in luxury.

La Yuqawam orchid prairie and tobacco blaze men series preserves the irresistibility with its scents of saffron and neroli that unites with violets, armoise and coumarine to ignite the feelings. La Yuqawam women is tuned with nature, thanks to the mix of the scents of blue flowers with rose that settles down with oud and amber.

The collection is available in beautifully tarnished and chic 75 ml bottles with elegantly rounded curves.

Anis Kalsekar Director, Oriental Product development-Rasasi at perfumes, said: “Last June, we launched the La Yuqawam range in line with the preferences and styles of our niche customers in the region. Now, we extend this Oriental line to build on the allure

Bright beauty The trend: Bright lips, smoky eyes, nail art and wild colors The body challenge: Thinning lips, sallow skintone and disappearing eyes The fashion solution: Use bold lip colors to brighten your skintone. Also, try color that is infused with lip plumper. Forget the gloss; it slips into wrinkles and emphasizes unwanted lines.

Use matte eye shadow to highlight eyes and mask the “hooded eye,” that pesky skin that gathers between your brow and eyelid. Avoid wrinkle-maximizing frosted shadows and heavyhanded shades combined with harsh eyeliner. Blend thoroughly to create softer, more forgiving shades.

Go for classic nail colors like red, coral and pink, or go nude.

That means saying no to your daughter’s funky nail polish. Skip the artsy pastel shades, nail art enamel or darker teen tones. If you want something fun for summer, try brighter colors or coral and hot pink shades that work well with aging hands.

Irene Gavenas models fashion tips for the mature woman.

Here, the trend is neon colors, and mixing prints with patterns. — MCT photos cool in Texas heat. The lace top has a cami beneath that smooths, while the lace lies flat across your waist and stomach.

The slim, cropped capri pant hits at the perfect spot on our 5foot-9-inch model’s legs. A standout statement necklace brings more attention where you want it: the face. A patent, wedge shoe with an open front further creates leg length. Remember, gladiator sandals and ankle straps cut across your ankle, making your legs appear shorter. The laser-cut leather bag is trendy yet roomy enough to hold summer essentials.

Shop the look: Sweater, Chico’s; lace top, Ann Taylor; cropped pant, White House/Black Market; statement necklace

and leave an inspirational trail. The classical harmony brings in a warm and comfortable feeling in the new series.

The enticing new fragrances will evoke fond memories and bring a smile while the fresh colors add a touch of style and comfort.”

Kalsekar added: “La Yuqawam orchid prairie and tobacco blaze men series epitomizes our core philosophy aimed at offering a premium product for our high-profile clientele. Like our previous collection, the new series will redefine luxury perfume in its own inimitable way, and join the elite band of true classics.”

An alluring blend of sophistication, La Yuqawam orchid prairie and tobacco blaze men series offers a leading note of neroli, muget saffron, cascades down to violet, apricot, accord, coumarine, amber and cedar wood, and ends with patchily, leather and pure Indian oud.

The female series leads with rose, geranium and blue flowers, with middle notes of cashmeran, coumarine and oud wood jakarta and ends with vanilla, musk, amber and pure Indian oud. The new range is available at select Rasasi exclusive stores across UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Top 10 anti-aging tips 1. Show less skin. Highlight your silhouette and shape more than showing skin. Remember, less is more.

2. Emphasize the best parts of your shape today, not the shape you had 30 years ago. Focus on your best features.

Yes, you still have them.

3. If you have lost or gained weight, visit a bra specialist for a proper fitting. As we age, we droop, but the correct bra can lift you in a way that will make you look like you just “lost” five pounds. And while you are at it, invest in a bra designed to be worn under T-shirts. It should be smooth with no show-through lace or “spillage.”

4. Think like the French: Wear basic clothing that fits well, then add accessories to update classic items each season.

5. Wear narrow pant legs. The rule: The older you are, the slimmer the pant leg. It narrows your silhouette so that you appear thinner.

6. Don’t sacrifice good looks for comfort. Say no to pants that are too loose, too tight or too bejeweled. And the unmentionable “mom jeans” don’t go there. There are jeans and pants that can be comfortable and fashionable on your body.

7. To wear or not to wear Spanx? If you feel more comfortable with some support underneath, look for lightweight shapewear. Today’s offerings breathe so you can, too.

8. Don’t try to keep past trends alive. Say no to crop tops, Peter Pan collars, glitzy nails, see-through and clinging fabrics, belly buttons on show, tattoos, piercing and writing on shirts (just to name a few don’ts).

9. Those fun-loving, cool-for-summer capri pants can make your legs look shorter instead of leaner. The style is sized for women at least 5-foot-9. If you are shorter, the pants will

Irene Gavenas models lace, black and white, Capri pants and statement jewelry trend.

usually be too long. Hem them to the best place on your leg.

10. The best footwear choice is a platform, wedge, sandal or flat shoe for both comfort and style. Speaking of feet, put on those reading glasses and check your feet for hair. Yes, shaving those tootsies is a must. — MCT

The online T-shirt maker CustomInk’s top 100 iconic Tshirts include a “Property of USC” T-shirt. From the Southern California point of view, the “real” T-shirt was born right here.

The online T-shirt maker CustomInk’s top 100 iconic Tshirts include the Stussy and Big Dogs logos, “Frankie says Relax.”

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liked their own T-shirts that they opted to wear them instead of the Army-issued tank-style undershirt, according to the 90th Infantry Division Preservation Group.

Graphic T-shirts got their real start around 1950 as the original licensee for Disney characters, Tropix Togs, adorned T-shirts with Mickey Mouse and a gun-toting Davy Crockett, among other characters. Not long after, Hollywood reached a zenith of T-shirt hotness the 1950s. “A Streetcar Named Desire” in 1951 brought Marlon Brando bellowing, “Stella!” in a ripped T-shirt that revealed his wellmuscled back. Brando wore his tee under leather in 1953’s “The Wild One.” Then James Dean created a classic image in white tee and blue denim in 1955’s “Rebel Without a Cause.”

Tie-dyed T-shirts became a symbol of the 1960s, when message shirts also came into their own. Warren Dayton created wearable art with images of Cesar Chavez, the Statue of Liberty, “polluted lungs and other political and comic images,” as his website states.

The ‘60s also saw the kickoff of “Che chic,” with T-shirts stamped with the face of Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara.

By comparison, memorable images from the 1970s and ‘80s were on the lighter side the Rolling Stones’ lips and tongue, the happy face icon, the MTV logo. This era also saw the advent of the iron-on transfer. It was instant customization, as CustomInk notes.

The online T-shirt maker’s top 100 iconic T-shirts include the Stussy and Big Dogs logos, “Frankie say Relax,” “Jesus is my homeboy,” “Vote for Pedro” (from the 2004 movie “Napoleon Dynamite”) and Milton Glaser’s 1977 design “I (heart) NY,” which the site calls “one of the most worn T-shirts of all time.”—MCT

his year marks the 100th birthday of the T-shirt. Maybe. It’s clear the simple little garment has been around for many, many years and rose in popularity just as fashion was losing some of its starch. But no one knows exactly when the T-shirt as we know it was born. What we do know is that in 1913, the US Navy brought tees into public consciousness in a big way when it ordered a “light undershirt” for sailors to wear under uniforms.

Americans were likely taking their cue from European soldiers who had begun sporting lightweight cotton undergarments. But online T-shirt maker CustomInk, for one, has seized on the Navy’s 1913 endorsement of the garment to trumpet the T-shirt’s century mark, as well as round up its own list of iconic T-shirts through the ages. Among them? A “Property of USC” T-shirt. From the Southern California point of view, the “real” T-shirt was born right here.

Articles from the Los Angeles Times’ archives point to the year 1932, when legendary USC football coach Howard Jones and athletic director Bill Hunter asked Jockey International Inc. to create a sweat-absorbent undershirt that would keep shoulder pads from chafing players’ skin.

The shirts, stenciled with “Property of USC” to discourage theft, became wildly popular with students. But T-shirts had entered the fashion lexicon years before that. The first use of the word “T-shirt” in print was in 1920 in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “This Side of Paradise,” according to fashion historian Heather Vaughan. Protagonist Amory Blaine sets out for New England, “the land of schools,” and his list of supplies includes “six suits summer underwear, six suits winter underwear, one sweater or T shirt.”

The T-shirt gained popularity in an era when the union suit fell by the wayside and underwear was becoming outerwear. What was it that brought an undergarment out into the sunshine? Three things were key, Vaughan said: Everyday wear was becoming more informal, sportswear was on the rise and men’s relationship with their undershirts was changing.

In the late 1920s, she said, the one-piece union suit was out, and sleeveless undershirts were in. Then Clark Gable took off his shirt in the movie “It Happened One Night” (1934) to reveal his bare chest. Legend has it there was a dip in undershirt sales, which may or may not be so. But as men debated skipping the undershirt like Gable, they were donning T-shirts for day wear. It was part of the gradual change in fashion from the 1920s to the 1940s, said Vaughan, Western region president of the Costume Society of America.

“During this time, fashion became somewhat less formal,” she said, “and casual wear grew more distinct.” French tennis player Rene Lacoste popularized in the 1920s a lightweight cotton knit shirt with short sleeves and a rib knit collar the polo shirt. He moved to fashion design in 1933, Vaughan said, and men’s casual attire in that decade grew to include knit polo shirts, “with Henleys and T-shirts worn while playing sports.”

In 1938, Sears sold what it called a “gob”-style tee (slang for Navy seaman) for 24 cents each. In ‘42, one of the earliest printed Tshirts Air Force Gunnery School, worn by a strapping student made the cover of Life magazine. During World War II, Army soldiers so

The online T-shirt maker CustomInk’s top 100 iconic Tshirts include the Milton Glaser’s 1977 design “I (heart) NY,” which the site calls “one of the most worn T-shirts of all time.”— MCT photos

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

lifestyle F e a t u r e s

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rom Billie Jean King to The Beatles, Jimmy Connors to Jimi Hendrix, Chris Evert to The Rolling Stones. For decades, the stadium at the West Side Tennis Club was not only one of the cathedrals of tennis - host of the US Open - it was also a stirring music venue, tucked into a leafy neighborhood of stately homes in Queens’ Forest Hills neighborhood. That heyday came to an end in 1978 when the Open moved three miles away to the much more expansive grounds at Flushing Meadows. The horseshoe-shaped stadium at Forest Hills quickly became a relic, and its days as a music venue faded as well amid complaints from neighbors about noise, crowds and cars parking on residential streets.

bance. If all goes well, club officials and a promoter are aiming to stage 18 more concerts in the next three or four years.

“The concerts will go on if they’re palatable to the neighborhood,” says Meier. “We’re sensitive to the neighborhood.” He says the hope is that the music will draw more attention to the century-old Queens club itself - where the membership has dropped from over 1,000 to 750 in recent years - and help bring back professional tennis events. After years of neglect, the 90-year-old stadium is definitely showing its age, with areas of crumbling concrete and weeds sprouting in the stands. Meier says testing has proved that the stadium is structurally sound but

Kids participate in drills at the West Side Tennis Club in the Queens section of New York.

But a new plan is now in the works to revive the sound of music at the 16,000-seat Forest Hills stadium and perhaps, one day, bring back big-time professional tennis. “We were once the center of the tennis universe,” says club president Roland Meier. “And this is our revival.” It begins Aug 28 with a concert featuring the British band Mumford & Sons, which will serve as a test to convince neighbors that such performances will not create too much of a distur-

needs repairs to its concrete that are under way, a better sewer system, sealing to avoid water penetration and new seating.

Still, the old edifice retains the distinctive columns and archways that made it a distinguished home of the national tennis championships from 1915 to 1977. Spectators look out on the lush, green grass courts and the grand, Tudor-style clubhouse, rich with the history of the great champions who played

there: Bill Tilden, Fred Perry, Margaret Court, Pancho Gonzales, Billie Jean King and Rod Laver. It was the place where Arthur Ashe became the first AfricanAmerican man to win the open, where a skinny teenager from Florida named Chris Evert burst onto the scene, and where Guillermo Vilas beat Jimmy Connors on clay to win the last men’s final there in 1977.

The 1960s and ‘70s were the high point of the stadium as a music venue. The Beatles played two consecutive sold-out shows there in 1964. Barbra Streisand took a break from her role in Broadway’s “Funny Girl” to play a concert at the stadium that same year. Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones and The Who were also among the big names. The venue secured its place in music lore in 1967 when Jimi Hendrix was the opening act for The Monkees. He got so tired of the boos and screams from impatient fans of the group that he flipped a finger at the crowd and stormed off stage.

Complaints from neighbors were a big part of the reason the music went away. Frank Gulluscio, district manager of Queens’ Community Board 6, says he’s been working with the club and police to make sure traffic and noise are kept to a minimum during the Mumford & Sons show in August. Henry Berolzheimer, 84, who lives a walk away, says he wouldn’t mind hearing music again.

After all, decades ago, “when they would play, you could listen from our living room - for free,” he says. “I heard Janis Joplin, I heard The Beatles, I heard most of them.” He and his late wife once rented out their garage to accommodate the cars that crowded the residential neighborhood. But traffic hasn’t been a problem for a while. “Nothing has happened here in about 20 years,” club president Meier acknowledges.

“We’ve had wallflower status.” At one point in 2010, club members voted down a proposal to sell the stadium to a developer who wanted to turn the property into luxury apartments. Meier says the club’s nearly 12 acres are “the biggest undeveloped property in Queens, and we want to retain this oasis - an intimate setting with so much history.” “It’s a time of transition, and there’s an excitement here about this.”—AP

File photo shows workmen repairing on the stadium at the West Side Tennis Club in the Queens section of New York. — AP photos

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Pakistani visitor looks at posters of the forthcoming Pakistani film ‘Main Pakistani actor Humayun Saeed speaks during the houn Afridi’ or ‘’ I am Afridi’. promotion of the forthcoming Pakistani film ‘Main houn Afridi’ or ‘I am Afridi’ in Karachi. — AFP

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SN, the region’s leading pay-TV network, set the stage for the season premiere of the highly-anticipated Hareem Al-Sultan, with a vibrant and dynamic flash mob. Featuring a line-up of dancers and performers dressed in royal attire that resonates with the show, the flash mob, held at Marina Mall, aimed to personify the essence of the epic series, for fans across Kuwait.

The flash mob was complemented by a first-of-its-kind spectacle in the region, a majestic parade which paraded to the sounds

of drum beats attracting fans and visitors at the mall who were able to pose with their favourite characters and take photos in what was described as an unforgettable experience. One of the most sought-after shows, Season 3 of Hareem Al Sultan promises to be even more compelling, shining the light on the life of ‘Suleiman the Magnificent,’ and survival in the Harem. The new series is airing exclusively on OSN Ya Hala! HD at 21:00 KSA.

n the set of Univision’s live morning show, the hosts don goofy wigs to sing and perform outlandish skits, while a Chihuahua named Honey Berry scampers underfoot. “She almost got stepped on this morning,” a Univision executive said as the dog, which has its own Twitter account, disappeared behind sound equipment. Univision’s zany “Despierta America” has experienced a Cuban coffeelike jolt in the ratings. Ratings for the four-hour daily news and variety show, whose name means “Wake up America,” have jumped 28 percent compared with last season, boosted by younger viewers coveted by major broadcast networks.

“If you are going to watch TV in the morning, you want to wake up to something that makes you laugh and feel good,” said Gloria Constanza, chief contact strategist for the advertising agency D’Exposito & Partners. “‘Despierta’s’ format is so friendly, people feel like it is inviting them in.” Morning shows are big business and are sometimes a network’s most profitable show. Last year, morning programs on broadcast and cable TV raked in a combined $1.4 billion in advertising revenue, according to Kantar Media.

But fortunes have been shifting. NBC’s “Today” lost its No. 1 perch to rival ABC’s “Good Morning America” last year amid revelations of behind-the-scenes backstabbing at NBC and the tearful exit of co-host Ann Curry. The long-dominant show is down 12 percent in viewers compared with last season, while “Good Morning America” is up 8 percent. The revamped “CBS This Morning,” led by Charlie Rose, has climbed 11 percent.

In Los Angeles, “Despierta America” is the thirdmost-watched morning show, behind “GMA” and KTBC-TV’s newscast. Among viewers ages 18 to 49, “Despierta” beats the shows on ABC, NBC and CBS. Advertising revenue from “Despierta America” shot up 52 percent to $163 million in 2012, according to Kantar Media. This year, the Spanish-language show is expected to capture even more, and it is helping the network boost its overall ad sales nearly 17 percent during the industry’s annual sales bazaar. “‘Despierta’ is totally different from how the other

Pakistani film inspired by the fairytale career of cricket star Shahid Afridi goes on release next month, a heart-warming tale of raw talent that producers believe will be a smash hit. Pakistan’s film industry has been on the skids for years, unable to compete with India’s Bollywood, but filmmakers hope the phenomenal popularity of one of the country’s best-loved cricketers will translate into takings at the box office.

“Main houn Afridi” or “I am Afridi” is about a young boy who dreams of becoming as great as the cricket star and chronicles the ordeal he faces en route to playing like his idol. Producer Humayun Saeed, a top actor in Pakistan, initially persuaded Afridi to take the lead role, but the 33-year-old said it violated the traditions of his tribe on the Afghan border. “They offered me the role but my elders didn’t let me act as it is against our traditions but I happily give permission to use my name as this film will give a positive message,” Afridi told AFP. Saeed said the film, which cost around $1 million to make, will be released in Pakistan for the Muslim festival Eid, as well as in the Gulf and in India. “It’s an underdog story which centers on the game of cricket. It’s all about wealthy ver-

networks program their morning shows,” said Lia Silkworth, senior vice president of Tapestry, a Chicago ad agency. “It is more lively _ it feels like a party. And its growth shows the importance of connecting with viewers and being culturally relevant.”

On a recent morning, the set at Univision’s headquarters in west Miami was controlled chaos as stagehands rushed to shift props, potted plants and furniture during commercial breaks while a news anchor read headlines and a stylist prepared to reveal a beauty makeover. In a regular feature called the “Soap Opera Club,” the male hosts and guests comically analyzed plot twists from telenovelas that Univision aired the night before.

The vibe is “Good Morning America” meets “The

sus poor, who both try to make a name in cricket but the passion of the poor wins the day,” Saeed told AFP. The star-studded cast includes Bollywood actor Javed Sheikh, Nadeem Baig, Shafqat Cheema, Saeed and Mahnoor Baloch.

The lead is played by Noman Habib, a young boy from Karachi.

India has had successes in recent years with films based on sports-related plot lines, like Iqbal, based on the real-life story of India’s World Cup winning paceman Munaf Patel. Afridi, who enthrals crowds the world over by hitting big sixes, has so far played 27 Tests, 354 one-days and 59 Twenty20 matches for Pakistan in a career with fairytale beginnings. When he was just 16-years-old, Afridi was sent to Kenya as a replacement to play for Pakistan’s team. — AFP

sure with Latino audiences, A-list stars have trooped to the Miami set, among them Mark Wahlberg, Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx, Will Ferrell and Halle Berry (she was so smitten with the Chihuahua, then named Honey, that the dog was renamed Honey Berry). “The big stars don’t always speak Spanish, but they do like the fun of the show,” said Karla Martinez, one of the hosts.

The show’s growth spurt came after Univision Communications Inc. Chief Executive Randy Falco, a former top NBC executive, felt the show had stalled and was not doing enough to tap its revenue potential. He installed a new executive producer. Then last fall, Univision brought in Alberto Ciurana, a top executive from Mexico’s dominant entertainment compa-

Co-hosts Alan Tacher, from left, Karla Martinez, Raul Gonzalez, and Johnny Lozada appear during a segment of Despierta America, a show on Univision, at the company’s studio in Miami, Florida. — MCT Carol Burnett Show.” On a recent morning, the hosts spray-painted a male colleague’s hair green to celebrate a Mexican soccer team. In one skit, a prominent Miami stylist shrieked in mock horror after having his hair chemically fried by his own brand of hair product.

(It was just a wig.)

“You don’t need coffee in the morning with this show,” talent manager Emilio Estefan, the husband of singer Gloria Estefan, said after appearing on the show. In the last year, trying to increase their expo-

ny, Grupo Televisa, to be Univision’s chief programmer. “During my first meeting with Randy in New York, he told me, “We need to fix ‘Despierta,’” Ciurana recalled in an interview. “It has been a big priority and we needed to do a lot.”—MCT

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

lifestyle F e a t u r e s

A Spanish-style estate in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, owned by actress Kate Walsh, is on the market for $3,995,000. — MCT photos

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ctor-producer-director Tom Hanks has listed a house in Pacific Palisades for $5.225 million. The Spanish-style villa, built in 1929, features archways, frescoed ceilings, a library, a sky-lit kitchen, a sun room, a beauty salon, four bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms and 6,289 square feet of living space. The living room opens to a loggia and gardens. The property sits behind hedges and a tall wall on nearly one third of an acre. The rules are strict for getting a peek at the place.

No photos are allowed, and agents must accompany clients touring the house.

This is not the contemporary home Hanks and wife Rita Wilson bought from veteran producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall three years ago for more than $26 million. That 14,513-square-foot house, built in 1996 and also in Pacific Palisades, has four bedrooms and five bathrooms.

Hanks, 56, won Oscars for his work in “Forrest Gump” (1994) and “Philadelphia” (1993) and received lead actor nominations for “Big” (1988), “Saving Private Ryan” (1998) and “Cast Away” (2000), which he also produced. He played symbolist Robert Langdon in “The Da Vinci Code” (2006) and “Angels & Demons” (2009) and is the voice of Woody in the “Toy Story” movies. He directed, wrote and starred in the 1996 film “That Thing You Do!” Wilson, 56, appeared opposite Hanks in “Sleepless in Seattle” (1993). Her film work also includes “Jingle All the Way” (1996), “Runaway Bride” (1999) and “It’s Complicated” (2009).

The house last sold for $1.9 million in 1988, according to public records. Mary Lu Tuthill and Kathleen Tuthill of Coldwell Banker’s Brentwood office are the listing agents, the Multiple Listing Service shows.

Key change for pop star British singer Leona Lewis has sold her home in Hollywood Hills West for $2,073,500. The Nichols Canyon-area compound sits on three-quarters of an acre in a gated community. The remodeled contemporary Mediterranean, built in 1999, features an all-white decor, formal living and dining rooms, four fireplaces, four bedrooms, four bathrooms and 3,946 square feet of living space. The detached guesthouse contains a gym, a bedroom and a bathroom.

A swimming pool, lawn and gardens complete the lush grounds. Lewis, 28, was nominated for the 2009 best pop album Grammy Award. She also was nominated for best female pop vocal performance for the hit single “Bleeding Love.” The singer-songwriter was the 2006 winner of the British version of the talent competition show “The X Factor.”

She released “Glassheart,” her third album, last year. Lewis bought the property in 2009 for $1.85 million, public records show. Annie Challis and Deborah Moore of Keller Williams’ Beverly Hills office were the listing agents. Grant Linscott of the Los Feliz office represented the buyer.

Tv doc’s sale hurt only a little Actress Kate Walsh has parted with her Spanish-style estate in Los Feliz for $4.675 million. The gated home retains such 1928 details as the intricately tiled main hall and grand staircase, arched windows and stenciled beamed ceilings. A formal dining room with an oval inset ceiling, a wine room, a denmedia room, breakfast room, five fireplaces, four bedrooms and six bathrooms are contained within 5,940 square feet of

living space.

The one-third-acre grounds include a swimming pool with spa, a pool house, an outdoor cooking center, alfresco dining area and a circular driveway. The three-room garage was converted into a gym and two offices. Walsh, 45, stars as Dr Addison Montgomery on “Private Practice” (2007-present), a spinoff of “Grey’s Anatomy,” on which she played the same character starting in 2005. She will star in the comic film “Bad Judge,” due out this year.

The actress bought the house in 2007 for $4.75 million, according to public records. Barry Sloane and Marc Silver of Sotheby’s International Realty were the listing agents. Jon Grauman of Partners Trust’s Beverly Hills office represented the buyer.

No joke: He’d like $15.5 million One of America’s revered funnymen, Bob Newhart, has listed his estate in Bel-Air for sale at $15.5 million. The French country-style home, designed by Wallace Neff and built in 1941, is two stories with a basement and an attic. There are five fireplaces, five bedrooms, seven bathrooms and 9,169 square feet of living space. Offices sit above the garage. The 1.37 acres of grounds include a lagoon-style swimming pool, mature trees and lawn.

Newhart, 83, entertained a national audience with his sitcoms “The Bob Newhart Show” (1972-78), “Newhart” (1982-90) and “Bob” (1992-93). Later generations know the comedian from appearances on shows such as “ER” and “Desperate Housewives” and the film “Elf” (2003). This year he gueststarred on “The Big Bang Theory.” The property was purchased

in 1990 for $4.2 million, public records show. Michael Sahakian and Johnny Schell, both of Coldwell Banker’s Beverly Hills South office, are the listing agents, according to the Multiple Listing Service.

Watson holes out in the palisades After taking a couple swings at it, golfer Denis Watson and his wife, attorney Susan Loggans, have sold their Pacific Palisades compound for $12.9 million. Built in 1982, the renovated Mediterranean-style estate, guesthouse, tennis court, pool, cabana and spa sit on 2.5 acres adjacent to Will Rogers Historic State Park. The equestrian property has corrals and a year-round stream. There are nine bedrooms, 9.5 bathrooms and about 10,000 square feet of living space.

Watson, 57, won three PGA titles in 1984. He joined the senior tour after turning 50 and was voted rookie of the year in 2007. Watson and Loggans bought the property in 2004 from former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, according to public records. It had been listed then for $7.95 million.

They put the house on the market early this year at $13.9 million, having first listed it 2.5 years ago. Kurt Rappaport and Fred Bernstein of Westside Estate Agency were the listing agents. Fran Flanagan of Coldwell Banker’s Pacific Palisades office represented the buyer. — MCT

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A member of the “Avocadoo” club performs a pole dance on a street sign pole.

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alk about a traffic stopper: three pole dancers in central Poland have been honing their skills on street corners, throwing their legs around signposts to the surprise and delight of many a passerby. Clad in black booty shorts and neon pink T-shirts on a recent afternoon in downtown Lodz, the barefoot and pony-tailed women checked the sidewalk for glass. With all clear on the corner, it was time to hop on that signpost. “Which pose should we start with? The Frog, the Scorpion or the Foreign Lady?” Karolina Kicinska, 25, asked her partnersin-poles.

Members of the ‘Avocadoo’ club perform a pole dance on a street sign pole in Lodz, central Poland. — MCT photos The trio first swung their bodies around signposts this spring for a photo shoot for their Avocadoo dance studio. Drawing a positive response from onlookers, they decided to make it a regular gig. “Pole-dancing is usually associated with erotic dance, strip clubs, go-go dancing.... Through street pole-dancing we want to break those stereotypes,” said Kicinska, a passionate participant who hopes to open it up to a wider audience. “Pole-dancing is a real sport and even an art that combines acrobatics, gymnas-

tics and fitness. It requires a lot of strength and flexibility,” added the tall brunette, a molecular biotechnology student at the Medical University of Lodz.

Since making its way over to Poland from the United States and Australia a few years ago, the performance art has flourished despite its sleazy stigma. The women train regularly, usually indoors but at least once a week outside their studio in this working class city dubbed the Polish Manchester. “Obviously in winter, autumn and the very beginning of spring we don’t hit the streets because of the cold and rain,” said Iwona Drzymala, 24, a dance education student.

After warming up with stretches and jumping jacks, the women take to the signposts for an hour at a time. They swing around the pole, then hang upside down or straddle it cross legged, with their leg and abdominal muscles on prominent display.

Flashing smiles and flipping around with gusto, the women channel Gene Kelly’s famous lamppost routine from “Singing in the Rain”minus the music and the umbrella twirls. But their toothy grins mask the enormous effort involved. “It’s much easier in the studio. The poles are made of chromed steel, all smooth and easy on the hands,” said Drzymala, her palms powdered for traction. Not so with signposts.

Often old and rusty, with the paint chipping off, they can tear up a hand. They also vary in size, making it tricky to get a good grip. Where the ideal diameter is four to five centimeters (1.6-2.4 inches), street poles are much thicker and rougher to boot.

“That’s why we go home with plenty of bruises all over” our bare hands and legs, said Kicinska, who has been pole-dancing for two years and now teaches it too. Beyond Poland, urban pole-dancing has also cropped up in places ranging from the streets of Mexico City to the London underground, creating a stream of double-takes and gawking among the admiring public. “They’re marvelous, really marvelous,” said onlooker Stanislawa Sztuc, a local retiree stopping to watch the Polish pole dancers on her way home from grocery-shopping.—AFP

unch or just a little snack at your desk? It’s rude to eat in front of someone else who is not partaking. On the other hand, nobody expects you to share your Philly cheesesteak should they walk in on you grabbing a quick bite to eat in the office. Unless you want the other person to sit down, stand up (or at least make like you would like to, were your lap not filled with food particles of varying sizes), and ask if you can get back to them when you’re finished. Give a time-frame, and stick to it. Try: “I’ll be finished in another 10 minutes and will come by then.” There are a few other caveats to remember.

Your lunch should not smell so much it attracts attention, negative or positive.

It’s not bait for a visit. Nobody should be able to hear you chomping it, either, or slurping your soup or beverage. Otherwise, you may well end up the brunt of office jokes, and deservedly so.

When the office has a communal kitchen, some rules for peaceful coexistence should apply. First and foremost spell out who is in charge of the kitchen and has the authority to determine when and how it is cleaned. Post the rules clearly (together with whatever rule you might have about kitchen postings). Is the refrigerator door fair game for announcements beyond the cleaning schedule? If it is off limits, let everybody know that that is the case.

Otherwise the next thing you know it will be festooned with family photos, want ads, for sale signs, etc. Refrigerators need to be cleaned out every week, and food should not be stored there over weekends. Never bring smelly food to the fridge in the first place. Whatever you bring, make sure it’s in airtight containers labeled with your name. More than likely, there will be some unlabeled food; do not consider this fair game for you to scarf up (or down, as it may be). When in doubt, ask. Better still, if you are bringing something in for the entire department to enjoy, put a note on it that says so.

Don’t be a space hog, monopolizing the fridge with your colossal container that is sure to flatten everybody else’s focaccia. And make sure to close the refrigerator door. If, although your lunch had been clearly labeled, some fledgling criminal element has stolen it, ask around without making a fuss. Give the miscreant the benefit of the doubt - this one time. Mention it to your department head, without mentioning names of potential suspects so that it can be brought up at the next office meeting.

You also could send an interoffice email or text with a little humor (at least the first time), offering a reward to the person who brings the goodies back, no questions asked. Microwaves are not for cooking at the office. They are only for heating food, so don’t monopolize them, and don’t walk away and leave them while something of yours is being heated. Wipe off the exploded pieces of casserole as soon as you discover that you forgot to cover the dish.

Be careful what you prepare so that your food doesn’t leave the entire office redolent of eau de popcorn, or worse. In fact, some offices have rules against popcorn because of the smell and also the likelihood of setting off the smoke alarm. Many offices are using single-serving coffeemakers. While this eliminates the hassle of who cleans the coffeepot, it still means that whoever drinks last, cleans up after himself and gets the machine ready for the next person. So dispose of the used container, and be sure to wipe up any drips. If your office has a regular coffee pot, the same consideration applies.

The well-known Boy Scout rule to leave the campsite cleaner than the way you found it can and indeed should be applied to office kitchen sinks and counters. Crumbs, human or otherwise, have no place on counters or in the sink. Wash your own mug, plate, silverware, glasses, and put them in the drainer right away. No fair leaving dirty dishes in the sink. If that doesn’t work with your mother, you can be sure that it won’t fly with your co-workers. Whether it’s your desk, the office refrigerator, the coffeepot, the counter, the sink, or the floor: if you spill something, clean it up. Your colleagues are not your servants; nor are you theirs. Think ÈgalitÈ and fraternitÈ; you may choose to ignore the accents, but you must be accountable for the accidents. — Reuters

Mariachi musicians attempt to break the Guiness World Records title for the most mariachi musicians performing together during half time of the Mexico vs Panama 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup Opener at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Popular mariachi group Los Camperos and 11-year-old Sebastian De La Cruz - singer of the US National Anthem in San Antonio during the 2013 NBA Finals- led the record-breaking attempt of 600 mariachis.

The current world record is 555 mariachis and was set in 2010. This record will attempt to add 45 more mariachis than the previous record. — AFP

Tom Hanks casting off one of his Pacific Palisades properties

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2013

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An Alcurrucen’s ranch fighting bull runs towards revelers during the running of the bulls of the San Fermin festival, in Pamplona, Spain. Revelers from around the world arrive to Pamplona every year to take part on some of the eight days of the running of the bulls glorified by Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel ‘The Sun Also Rises.’ — AP

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house on a hilltop in Slatington, near Allentown. But Joe had a secret life. He was blowing thousands a week gambling on college and pro football. Sometimes losing $8,000 in a weekend.

Andy knew he gambled. She’d hear him on the phone saying “5” or “10” but she thought it meant $5 — not $500 or $5,000. Joe’s only brother also had a gambling problem. He wrote a suicide note and was found with a loaded gun. After that, Joe’s father summoned both sons and their wives to an intervention. That’s when Andy learned Joe had lost $40,000. The trust was gone, and over the next few years, the marriage crumbled. Andy and Joe divorced Dec 21, 1990, just shy of their 20th anniversary. Joe was a family guy, and he’d lost it all. Fifty-seven days after the divorce, Joe dropped the kids off after pizza. He and Andy were supposed to sign papers the next day to sell their dream house. But they collapsed in one another’s arms. “I wish I could explain it,” says Andy.

Joe moved back in, but they didn’t remarry. Andy felt they were living a lie, but Joe was in no hurry. The divorce had been bitter and costly. They lived as husband and wife, and life returned to normal.

Joe gave up sports gambling. Andy permitted him to buy lottery tickets. Joe bought them weekly for years but rarely checked them. At lunch recently in a restaurant on Long Beach Island, Joe was asked: How could he not check? He was silent for the longest time and looked bewildered. “I can’t answer that question,” he said.

“I really don’t know.” After another pause, he added: “The rush is more important. Everyone dreams, including yourself.” Joe bought tickets and stuck them in shoe boxes in the basement.

On Nov 20, 1993, a Saturday, Joe read a story in the Allentown paper headlined, “Whose lucky numbers? 4-13-25-28-35-47.”

“Someone out there is holding a Wild Card Lotto ticket worth $20.8 million from Nov 20, 1992. It will expire Monday if not claimed.” “It will be the largest jackpot ever unclaimed in Pennsylvania lottery history.” Joe continued to the sports pages. He went upstairs and made the bed. Then, he decided, “Maybe I should check.” He found the ticket. He did a Mummer’s strut, still in his pajamas. He told Andy, playing in a volleyball tournament.

She was euphoric and terrified. Would money ruin their lives?

Would his addiction return? Joe and a friend drove to Harrisburg to claim his prize. He told the media, including this reporter, that he had been at an office supply convention in Arizona a year before A photo (center, lower right) from the Jones’ second marriage is seen on a Family Tree display in the dining room of their and forgotten to check his tickets. He had been in Arizona, but it Long Beach Island, New Jersey home. wouldn’t have mattered. After Joe won, Andy checked every one of Joe’s lottery tickets hundreds of which had expired. She collecttheir home near Naples, Fla. From May to October, they bounce he was playing pickup basketball in the Brookwood section of ed $375 more. Joe worked a few years, then retired at 43. But all his between the Allentown area, where their grandchildren live, and a Bensalem, where he was living at the time, and tasked with cover- friends were still working. Andy was working as a legal secretary, a ing a girl, Andrea “Andy” Marcell, also 16. He did more than cover job she loved. The youngest child was still in school. Joe had home on Long Beach Island. nobody to play with, so he watched television all day. The inactivity Andy permits Joe an allowance every week of $200. If he takes her. He asked her out. And at 18, he married her.

The first in his family to attend college, Joe majored in account- nearly killed him. He developed adult-onset diabetes and needed more than that from a cash machine, he’d better have a good reason. “The judge,” he quips, meaning his wife, “will call me to the wit- ing at La Salle University and took a job selling office supplies. They a double bypass.—MCT ness stand.” Joe didn’t let the lottery ruin his life because he’d had three children, and Andy, whose mother had married five already let sports betting ruin it. He had a gambling addiction times, and who had lived for months in an orphanage, was deliribefore he won, and it cost him his marriage, at least for a time. It ously happy as a stay-at-home mom. In his 30s, said Joe, he began “making $175,000 selling file folders.” They moved to their dream also nearly cost him the $20.8 million. oseph T Jones Jr won $20.8 million in 1992 in a Pennsylvania Wild Card Lotto — $993,000 yearly for 21 years. He just deposited the last check months ago. “I didn’t spend it all. I didn’t lose it all,” said Joe. His nickname for the last 20 years has been “Lotto.”“If I’m at the urinal at an Eagles game,” he explains, “and one of my friends sees me, he’ll yell, ‘Yo, Lotto!’ “ Joe, 61, is still selling office supplies, though work is a relative term. He visited two clients before he hit the golf course on a recent Wednesday at 9:50 am. Shot a 42 on the back nine. Joe and his wife, Andrea, winter at

Friends made a personalized ceramic ‘Lifeopoly’ board game with highlights of the Jones’ life, including proposal, birth of children and the lotto for the Long Beach Island, New Jersey couple.— MCT photos

Joe discovered the winning ticket a year after he bought it-two days before it expired. Joe loved buying lottery tickets. As long as he had a ticket, he had a shot. He just had no interest in checking whether he won. Joe grew up at Fourth and York streets in North Philadelphia. His grandfather played the daily number. His father played the daily number. Two uncles ran bars, and bookies were a ubiquitous part of Joe’s life.

Joe played basketball at Archbishop Ryan High School, and friends called him “Wally” Jones after the 76ers star. In 1968, at 16,

Joseph T Jones Jr, left, and his wife, Andrea, talk to a reporter at their home on Long Beach Island.

Joseph T Jones Jr, left, and his wife, Andrea on Long Beach Island.

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2.55-metre (8 foot 4 inch) Chinese man who is among the world’s tallest living people has been hospitalized for a hip replacement, reports said yesterday. Wang Fengjun has been measured as 29 centimeters taller than China’s towering former NBA basketball player Yao Ming.

According to the Zhengzhou Evening, a paper in his home province of Henan, Wang’s hands are 30 centimeters long and he wears specially made size-75 shoes.

A photo shows Wang Fengjun sitting on a specially designed chair after he arrived at a hospital in Zhengzhou, central China’s Henan province.

Wang Fengjun walking on crutches after he arrived at a hospital.— AFP photos