23 Aug 2013

Beards and niqab become liability in troubled Egypt

Beit Al-Othman Museum - Keeping the past alive

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Neymar rescues Barca as injured Messi limps off

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NO: 15906- Friday, August 23, 2013

www.kuwaittimes.net

Mubarak ‘released’

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CAIRO: Egyptian medics and military policemen escort former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak into an ambulance after he was flown by a helicopter ambulance to the Maadi Military Hospital from Torah prison yesterday. (Inset) Mubarak’s supporter kisses his poster outside the Tora prison. — Agencies

Local FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Zookeeper Goner is feeding giraffe at Kuwait Zoo

A day in the life of a zookeeper Challenging, yet rewarding

By Nawara Fattahova KUWAIT: Taking care of animals is a passion for some people, while it’s a job for others.

This profession requires employees to have a lot of patience and genuine love for animals to do a good job.

Goner, is one of the zookeepers working at the Kuwait Zoo since 1992. At the zoo, each zookeeper is responsible for a certain kind of animal. “I’m responsible for the herbivores, including giraffes, hippos, gazelles, and other animals. My work starts early in the morning and observing animals is the most important part of our job,” he told the Kuwait Times.

Cleaning is done on a daily basis at the zoo. “We clean the grass, the water containers, and feeding boxes. The most important place to keep clean is the food area. This hot weather attracts a lot of germs and bacteria.

We do this work every day so that the animals are always kept in a clean environment. We feed them the required quantity of food after that,” said Goner.

Strict observation includes the animals and their babies. “When a mother has a new baby, we have to take care of the baby and move it to a different enclosure, especially if it’s not well. Different animals have different temperaments and we’re trained to deal with them in special ways. Some animals are aggressive and may hurt themselves with pins, so we have to place them in special enclosures. Some animals like giraffes, hippos, and lions need to be tranquilized before we can treat them for any kind of illness,” he explained.

Observation is a continuous daily process.

“The animal can’t tell us when it’s sick but we always get to know when something is

wrong. For instance, they tend to look tired or move sluggishly. Usually watery eyes, lack of appetite, weight and hair loss are sure signs of illness. We take them to the veterinarian who has the final say in medicines and form of treatment, he said.

Sometimes this job brings injuries. “We have been hurt by animals many times, especially by gazelles which can be very aggressive sometimes. When we try to catch them for treatment, they attack us instead of trying to run away. Over time, we have learnt to deal with them,” said Goner.

However, this isn’t a problem. The greater challenge which the zoo-keepers face is a horde of uncivilized visitors. “Many visitors throw sweets or food covered in plastic bags to the animals and the poor animals consume it. The plastic will obviously not be digested and will cause more problems, including sudden death sometimes. When there are more visitors, we keep a close watch on the cages.

We have signs everywhere in the zoo warning visitors against feeding the animals or beating them, but they break all the rules and some even light cigarettes and give it to the monkeys. Some horrible boys use their slings to kill birds, and we discovered this only after we saw some birds with bleeding heads. In fact, many visitors are aggressive and don’t even respect the guards,” Goner admitted.

The zookeepers are sometimes injured by the animals. “Many times my colleagues and I were beaten up by monkeys or hit by gazelles when we tried to move from them from one enclosure to another. A lot of people breed them on farms and when they realize they can’t take care of them anymore, they give the zoo a call and tell us to take them away,” he said.

Goner and his colleagues nursing a wounded animal

“Many visitors throw sweets or food covered in plastic bags to the animals and the poor animals consume it. The plastic will obviously not be digested and will cause more problems, including sudden death sometimes. When there are more visitors, we keep a close watch on the cages.”

Local FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Local Spotlight

Stop this senseless killing of strays

By Muna Al-Fuzai KUWAIT: Fish feeding is a ritual that attracts tourists around the world. This is the Kuwait version of the sightseeing activity. —-Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat muna@kuwaittimes.net

I

don’t have a dog, not that I don’t like dogs but I can’t afford the responsibility of taking care of a living soul. To me, an animal doesn’t require lesser than a human in terms of safety and security. It’s a basic need for all creatures on earth after all. This is why I believe this article should be a wake-up call for all of us to stand up against this wild killing campaign in Kuwait where the goal is to shoot all stray dogs at once.

The team was formed after a 4-year-old Kuwaiti girl called Aisha was attacked by six stray dogs in Kheiran, a weekend resort destination in Kuwait. Yes, I agree we need to get rid of the dangerous stray dogs but in the most humane and sensible way possible and not in this brutal and random manner - under the guise of protecting the community from possible threat of attack. One of the solutions I think is to catch these dogs and place them in a shelter or put them up for adoption. I understand the wild and dangerous ones should be administered lethal injections to end their lives peacefully but it’s not fair to generalize that all strays are dangerous. Some of them might just be hungry and scared too.

I know some may argue that they deserve to be killed for attacking a small child. But if this is the argument, then we will have to kill all animals on earth, including lions and birds and since there’s a possibility of them attacking humans at any given time. I hear that the shooters will be starting a fresh round of attacks next month.

I know some will say that many people get killed every day and there’s meaningless bloodshed, so why are we making a fuss about animals? These are the same narrow-minded people who believe that killing animals is a noble cause. They are wrong because according to them, animals are a waste in this universe but nothing on this planet is without a reason. Allah the Almighty has gifted wisdom to all creatures: men, animals and even small insects. If we truly understand and believe this, we’ll know that all have a right to live.

What do I want? I want people to stop thinking animals are not more important than man. I really do and just for the record, this applies even to cats being killed on the roads by speeding cars. I think the more we discuss this in the media, the more attention it will get. I also hope the shooting club won’t support this campaign.

Just simply stop the killing.

KUWAIT: A man is trying to seek refuge from the hot sunrays under a newspaper. — Photo by Joseph Shagra

Local FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Beit Al-Othman Museum

Keeping the past

alive

By Ben Garcia

A The museum that opened to the public two years ago serves as a reminder of the past instilling a great sense of nationalism, patriotism and responsibility among the younger generations.

house originally built in the 1940s by Abdullah Al-Othman has been turned into a national museum. Al-Othman Museum houses historical artifacts, art and documents which were collected by people who wanted to see their rich cultural heritage under one roof where it is protected and treasured.

The museum serves as a reminder of the past events which instills a great sense of nationalism, patriotism and responsibility among the younger generations.

Surrounded by an elevated wall, in a total area of 9,454 square meters, Abdullah Othman Museum houses numerous rooms dedicated to the history and culture of Kuwait from the pre-oil era to present time.

Housh (courtyard), diwaniyas, muqallatt, kitchen, living room, master’s bedroom and visitors’ room can all be seen. There are rooms dedicated to ministries such as Ministry of Information, Interior and the Culture and Arts, along with the Kuwaiti House Museum, Heritage Hall, Drama Museum, Kuwaiti Souq, Journey of Life Museum. They are all housed in the wellorganized Othman Museum, located just along the intersection of Abdullah AlOthman Street and Ibn Khaldoun Street at Nugrat Al-Othman in Hawally.

Witnessing the past The building witnessed various political and cultural changes in the history of Kuwait.

Hussein Al-Qattan, a researcher in the Kuwait Heritage Team, a non-governmental organization running the museum, was very helpful and explained the story of the museum

and its artifacts. “Abdullah Al-Othman was an important part of history and his work and contribution to the country’s national heritage is really worth-remembering and praising,” said Al-Qattan. He said Abdullah Othman was one of Kuwait’s many famous philanthropists way back in his era, when he amassed wealth after entering the trade and contracting business. “He used to distribute money to the poor people who flocked to his house or in places he visited at that time.

Truly, he was a remarkable man worth remembering,” he said. “This person was a real philanthropist and he used to give his ‘zakat’ annually. He loved to give and that is why he was known as the ‘Great Philanthropist’ and was later called ‘AlOthman Zakat’. He died in 1965 and even then, he allocated a third of his wealth to charity,” Al-Qattan mentioned. “The place is exactly what we want in the museum. We want the traditional touch, so we did not remodel it but just re-touched the original place. The place is huge; there are rooms dedicated to the family members, to visitors, and that is why you can see separate diwaniyas for men and women. So here, we decorated it according to the tradition,” he added. The museum became a reality when a group ‘Kuwait Heritage Team’ came together, under Sheikha Amthal Al-Sabah, and renovated the old house to preserve its value and identity.

One of the features inside the museum was a maritime room, a place dedicated to the maritime industry and probably the most important and significant section in the museum. “This place is a very important part of the museum because this where many of us were able to live and survive at that time

Local FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

before the discovery of oil. So it is a very important reminder to our own people.

What you see here are important tools and utensils used on the boats during that time.

People of today should know that we used all these tools during those days to survive,” he said.

The Ministry of Information was featured in the ‘drama room’. The drama room has various artistic costumes used by actors/actresses during those days in their various drama productions. The costumes used by actors/actresses were displayed together with video and actual footage of the artistes. This is a room dedicated to all rulers of Kuwait starting from Sheikh Mubarak (The Great) to the present Amir His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah.

Annals of history Another room was also dedicated to historic and mostly original manuscripts/documents/transcriptions from various ministries.

An important place that you can see inside the museum is a press room, dedicated to the press of their first publication. “All the first issues of Arabic newspapers in Kuwait are displayed here. We haven’t got the copy of Kuwait Times (first issue) as yet, but if we get it, we are going to display that here as well,” Al-Qattan said. There are corners dedicated to ceramics, old baqalas and life inside a tent. In the housh (courtyard), various tents and life-sized stuffed (domestic and wild) animals are also displayed.

The museum opened to the public two years ago and offers a daytime getaway culture tour during summer.

Beit Al-Othman Museum houses numerous rooms dedicated to the history and culture of Kuwait from the pre-oil era to present time.— Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

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Local FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

All the world is a stage Art lovers find expat life fertile for their creativity

By Sunil Cherian

P

D Poulose, an Indian carpenter and a theatre artiste in Kuwait for the past 12 years, had a crush on theater when he was young.

But he could not materialize his theatrical dreams ‘because of life’s greater roles’. As a son he had to take care of his, now deceased, parents; as a husband he had to earn for his wife; and as the father of two children, his responsibilities only multiplied. All is well, thanks to Kuwait; Poulose has called an end to his expat life. He is leaving Kuwait with the experience of being an actor in two short films and many stage plays. His swan song, a solo drama, will be performed next Friday at Pravasi Auditorium, Jleeb.

“If I wasn’t in Kuwait, my life may not have turned this way”, said Poulose in-between rehearsals for his last performance in Kuwait. “If I were back home I wouldn’t have had the confidence I gained in Kuwait. I come from a place where the Kerala state School of Drama is located and I have a lot of friends who studied there. I could have become like them but my family responsibilities swung over my head like the sword of Damocles. You know you need to fulfill the basic needs. Once that’s done, you’ll have time for creativity”, said Poulose who

took the initiative to start Future Eye Theatre, Kuwait, an organization that conducts stage performances and discussions on theater.

Babu Chakkola, a businessman based in Mangaf has a glittering story of making Kuwait his cultural home.

The businessman-actor spent KD 8,000 last year to stage an epic drama in Kuwait. He brought the famous art director Sujathan to Kuwait to create the sets and stage properties. “I do a stage performance every year with my group KALPAK (Kerala Arts and Literature Promoting Association of Kuwait)”, said Chakkola who has a record of telecasting one of his stage dramas on TV. “If I weren’t in Kuwait I would have become an actor perhaps without a proper family life. In Kuwait, my business, creative work and family life perfectly blend”.

Chakkola also has the credit of presenting King Mahabali, the legendary figure who is said to be visiting Keralites during the Onam festival, as a family man. Enacting the Asura king two years ago, Chakkola also brought to the stage his wife and children, all clad in royal attire. Chakkola’s new venture is a tele-drama on Perumthachan (The Great Carpenter), where the entire stage play will be recorded and telecast on TV channels.

Kuwait-based film producers -

Bobby Avagama and Somu Mathew went on with their usual lives in Kuwait while their feature films were shot back home. Both films won the state and national awards in their respective years. Bobby’s film, ‘I’m Not Alone’, was about a depressed Hindu woman who was rescued and sheltered by a Muslim woman against all odds. Somu’s film, ‘Train on the 10th Floor’, unearthed a psychologically ‘unhealthy’ man and society’s treatment towards the elderly.

Both Bobby and Somu agree Kuwait has helped with funds, time and energy needed for full-length feature films they have produced.

Bobby’s film was said to have a ‘Kuwait touch’ when Philipose Mar Chrysostom, Mar Thoma Metropolitan Bishop watched the movie on coming to Kuwait. “The bishop was immediately drawn to the movie because of its communal harmony message and made it a part of his peace mission”, said Bobby who later received the Best National Integration Film Award, 2012, from the Indian president.

P D Poulose in his solo drama ‘What the Cloud said to the Sand’

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Local FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Kuwait’s My Business

Leaders who encourage teamwork enjoy more success

By John P Hayes

local@kuwaittimes.net

L

eaders depend on their teams to succeed. This is my fourth column in a series about leadership, and this week I’m focusing on the importance of teamwork. In a country that values family and tribes, the challenge in Kuwait isn’t finding or attracting a team, but rather it is the ability of the leader to nurture the team, and the ability of individual team members to meet the team’s expectations.

Improving teamwork skills Local employers tell us that Kuwait’s college graduates need to improve their ability to work with teams. Among multinational companies, teamwork is a high priority. If you can’t lead or work with a team, you’re not a good candidate for employment or promotion. But then, if you can’t lead or work with a team, you’re not a good candidate for leadership, either. Even if you are independently employed and work alone, you soon discover that it’s not possible to achieve your goals (and leaders must have goals) without a team of other people. Leaders want to get things done, usually big things for the good of the company or the country, and getting things done depends on teamwork.

Can you think of any valued project completed in Kuwait that was accomplished by one person instead of a team?

What we can’t overlook is that a leader nurtured that team.

Every time I give my students a teamwork assignment, at the end of it I say: “I’ll never do that again!” Teamwork assignments often create arguments and confusion among students, most of whom do not know how to work on a team, which, of course, is the reason for the assignment. Many students also are not academically capable of contributing to a team, or they simply don’t want to, and that creates ill will. Instead of gelling and working together to reach a common goal (which would include an A grade), student teams too often deteriorate with the students pointing fingers at each other. “You didn’t do your part,” one will accuse another, while someone else will claim, “You didn’t give me a chance to contribute.”

How does an instructor make sense of that? Who gets an A and who gets something less? This is when I tell myself that teamwork projects are messy in Kuwait, and I want to avoid them (even though I can’t because we have an obligation to teach students how to work on teams).

Who did the work?

Many of my students would applaud the decision to cancel teamwork projects. These are always the more capable students; they want to be evaluated for all of their work, not just a part of it. “Sir, I did most of the team’s work, and it’s not right that everyone gets an A because most of them did nothing.” But if I ask the student to take names, that’s where our discussion ends, unfortunately. I have no way of knowing who did what on a team project unless the team members tell me. But most won’t do that.

It’s not taking names that’s important to this assignment; rather it’s the evaluation of performance. Employers want to hire young people who can perform in teams.

Governments rely on people who are capable of leading teams. Families and organizations - and the whole of society - depend on people who understand how to work with teams. In a word, these are leaders!

Critiques lead to improvements Some people are born leaders, but most are not.

Leadership is a skill that can be learned. But how do you learn if your peers are afraid to critique your performance?

If you won’t tell me how I can improve, or what I can do next time to meet the team’s expectations, how can I possibly learn? A student critiquing the performance of another student seems to be unacceptable in Kuwait. It’s at least uncomfortable. However, it’s necessary to help people grow... it’s necessary to help people develop leadership skills.

Leaders must learn how to evaluate the performance of peers. This evaluation process helps leaders know who to select for their teams. However, the process also helps peers improve, and the betterment of people is another mark of a leader. Nurturing team members, critiquing them effectively (usually privately), and ultimately depending on them is necessary for leaders to succeed.

Leaders: Today, encourage someone to improve their performance for their own good, and the good of the team.

You’ll enjoy more success if you do.

Dr. John P Hayes heads the Business Administration department at GUST and he taught leadership skills to 60 youth at the Kuwait Leadership Mastery. Contact Dr. Hayes at questions@hayesworldwide.com, or via Twitter @drjohnhayes.

News

in brief

KUWAIT: The fatal car crash on the Seventh Ring Road in which a Kuwaiti was killed. Rescue officials from Mubarak AlKabeer rushed to the scene to assess the damage.

KUWAIT: A Kuwaiti lady in her twenties was rescued from the wreckage of a car yesterday following a car collision near Shedadiya University project site.

Citizen arrested with narcotics Man killed in car crash

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: A citizen was recently arrested with 20 grams of heroin, 200 psychotropic pills and a kilo of ICE by security sources. Case papers indicate that narcotics officials acted on a tip-off about the suspect and on raiding his house with a search warrant, they found him hiding in the basement with the stash. A case was filed.

ATM robbed A security guard at a gas station in Ardhiya reported that six unidentified robbers made off with the ATM at the station. According to the guard, the robbers raided the station, tied him up and threw him in the toilet, and tied the ATM to a truck before pulling it away.

They fled the scene immediately. A case has been filed and investigations are underway.

Citizen dies in accident A citizen was killed in a car crash on the Seventh Ring Road and rescue officials from Mubarak Al-Kabeer rushed to the scene to assess the damage.

with another near Shedadiya University project site. Firemen had to pry the door open before admitting her to a local hospital.

Mentally unstable man rescued A citizen who was enjoying a quiet day fishing reported seeing a man drowning and tried to rescue him.

Security sources said that Salmiya officials rushed to save the man who was alive though completely naked. The sources added that the man was suspected to be mentally unstable. He was clothed and fed before the police informed his folks.

Accident A citizen in her twenties was left trapped inside her vehicle and sustained several injuries when her car collided

Speaker Al-Ghanem slams Syrian genocide KUWAIT: National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem condemned the regretful ugly genocide which took place in East Ghota town, claiming 1,360 lives. The speaker, in a statement yesterday, denounced this ugly crime in strong terms which targeted innocent children and women and called on the United Nations to intervene and stop this massacre. He also proposed international investigations into the uninhibited use of chemical substance in the ongoing conflict in Syria. Speaker Al-Ghanem urged the international community to intervene in Syria, halt the bloodshed and compel the regime to allow medical relief teams to help those in need. “This is the least that must be offered to our brotherly Syrian people who have been suffering this tragedy on a daily basis,” he said.

Kuwait parliament determines priorities’ next session KUWAIT: The Kuwaiti parliament identified its foreign diplomacy priorities on Wednesday, ahead of their referral to the National Assembly speaker. The priorities include the GCC security pact, and another agreement between Kuwait and Jordan, Saleh Ashour, Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee Chief told reporters after the meeting. Others include discussing amendments to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Kuwait and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), on establishing headquarters for the organization in Kuwait. The committee had previously refused the MoU draft in accordance with a constitutional court ruling that annulled the December 2012 parliament, Ashour said.

Kuwaitis warned against concealing number plates ABU DHABI: The Kuwaiti Embassy in the United Arab Emirates warned Kuwaiti citizens traveling to the country by road against hiding their vehicles’ registration number plate to avoid unnecessary legal hassles by the UAE authorities. In a statement, the embassy said that according to UAE laws, anybody who covers the number plate with special ‘Paint Protection Film’ will be subjected to two years imprisonment and/or a fine of AED 20,000 AED. The embassy advised all visiting Kuwaitis to abide by UAE’s traffic laws and regulations and said that many motorists faced the consequences for hiding their number plates over the past few days.

Officials inspect the wreckage

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Local FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Al-Ghunaim delivers Amir’s message to League chief CAIRO: Kuwait’s ambassador to the Arab League Ambassador Jamal Al-Ghunaim delivered yesterday a message from His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah to the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, Dr Nabil El-Araby.

Al-Ghunaim said in a statement that the message contains an official invitation from His Highness the Amir to the Secretary-General to attend the 3rd Arab-African summit, to be held in Kuwait next November 19-20. He added that he discussed with the Secretary-General a number of issues and arrangements for the convening of the summit by the State of Kuwait to make it a success. He stressed that the preparations are going as planned in terms of arrangements and appointments whether by the Arab League, the African Union or Kuwait, the host State. In

response to a question about what will be hoped of this summit, Al-Ghunaim said that the African countries highly appreciate the role played by Kuwait and HH the Amir in the political, economic, development, investment and cultural arenas in Africa. He added that this summit will be a qualitative leap in the path of Arab-African cooperation after the Cairo and Sirte summits.

He stressed Kuwait’s keenness on the success of this summit and build bridges of Arab-African relations, saying that this summit will create strong bridges of economic, trade and investment ties between the Arab and African sides. AlGhunaim pointed out that an Arab-Afro Economic Forum would be held on the sidelines of the summit to discuss the prominent prospects of cooperation between Arab and African sides. —KUNA

Shrimp fishing season starts

KUWAIT: This file photo shows containers filled with shrimps at Kuwait fish market. —Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

KUWAIT: Shrimp fishing season will kick-off in Kuwaiti local waters tomorrow, Public Authority for Agricultureal Affairs and Fish Resources announced yesterday. It called on the fishermen to abide by the local fishing laws and regulations, in order to protect fish resources, and avoid being subjected to penalties. The authority banned shrimp fishing in Kuwaiti local waters, starting mid-June 2013. —KUNA

KUWAIT: Sheikh Khalid Al-Jarrah receives French Ambassador to Kuwait Nada Yafi yesterday. —KUNA

Defense minister receives diplomats KUWAIT: Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Sheikh Khalid Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah yesterday received Ambassador Sheikh Ali AlJaber Al-Sabah and congratulated him on his new post as Kuwaiti ambassador to Italy.

Sheikh Khalid Al-Jarrah also received French envoy to Kuwait Nada Yafi who was

accompanied by her country’s new appointed military attache at the French embassy here.

The French envoy discussed, at the meeting, issues of common interest. Sheikh Khalid AlJarrah, on the other hand, expressed his deep appreciation to the solid ties between Kuwait and France. —KUNA

KUWAIT: Opposition protesters stage a sit-in at the Determination Square Wednesday night. (Right) A child displays a flag during the sit-in.

Kuwait protestors call for negotiating with Sisi Hayef urges GCC clerics, politicians to join KUWAIT: A number of opposition leaders protested at the Iradha Square on Wednesday night and launched an initiative to negotiate with the Egyptian Defense Minister, Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi, to stop what they called “blood-shedding” in Egypt.

Speaking at the protest which was attended by 200 citizens, former MP Mohammed Hayef said that GCC clerics, scholars and political icons were ready to negotiate with Al-Sisi to find a solution to resolve the current crisis in Egypt. “It is now time for GCC people to take the initiative as the leaders aren’t doing anything,” he said urging Al-Sisi to “be reasonable” and “listen to advice and take initiatives”.

“We heard you have been rejecting Egyptian and European

initiatives”, he said, urging Muslim leaders to accept responsibility. He also said that the incidents in Egypt have been manipulated by the media. “But those attempts do not beguile people with intellect. I myself heard Egyptian scholars talk about injustice,” he said, warning Muslim leaders that Muslims will not “bury their heads in the sand”. “It was the people who supported the Syrians and we will never stay silent. We will reveal the oppressors and those who assisted them”, he warned.

Osama Al-Shaheen said that the protest was organized to show support to the Syrian and Egyptian people. He also accused GCC governments of plotting against the people from both these countries. —Al-Watan

Recording of Friday sermons restored KUWAIT: The Minister of Justice and Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Shareeda Abdullah Al-Muosherji is to bring back the recording of Friday sermons in all mosques in order to achieve public unity, improve performance of preaching and protect the Imams’ rights.

This move came in response to a memorandum that unanimously recommended re-adopting of the Friday sermons recording, Assistant Undersecretary for Financial and Administrative Affairs of the ministry, Fareed Asad Emadi said in a statement yesterday. This decision would help evaluating the sermons and the Imams’ performance in future stages. The purpose of recording the sermons is to create an environment of competition where the best sermon will be featured in a publication that will also features the competence of each Imam, the minister added. He said “recording Friday sermons protects the rights of the Imam, especially if complaints were to be made against him.” It also ensures that mosques will not violate any regulations. —KUNA

FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Mugabe, 89, sworn in for 5 more years

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‘I was framed,’ Bo Xilai mounts feisty defense

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US admits spying on Americans

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CAIRO: An Egyptian soldier stands guard as a helicopter carrying former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, 85, lands at Maadi Military Hospital from Torah Prison yesterday. (Inset) Mubarak’s supporter raises up his portrait outside the Tora prison. — AFP

Mubarak leaves prison for house arrest Army-backed government, Brotherhood in standoff CAIRO: Egypt’s former autocrat Hosni Mubarak was flown from jail yesterday in a symbolic victory for an army-dominated old order that has overthrown and imprisoned his freely elected Islamist successor. A blue-and-white helicopter took Mubarak from Cairo’s Tora prison, where scores of his supporters had gathered to hail his release. He was flown to a military hospital in the nearby southern suburb of Maadi, officials said.

“He protected the country,” said Lobna Mohamed, a housewife in the crowd of Mubarak well-wishers. “He is a good man, but we want (Abdel Fattah) Sisi now,” she said, referring to the army commander who overthrew Islamist Mohamed Morsi on July 3. For Mubarak’s enemies, the moment marked a reversal of the Jan. 2011 pro-democracy uprising that brought him down after three decades in power as one of the pillars of authoritarian rule in the Middle East.

But some Egyptians, many of whom have rallied behind the army’s decision to depose Morsi, expressed fondness for the 85-year-old former air force commander whose tight grip on power brought stability. Judicial authorities had ordered Mubarak’s release from Tora. His lawyer

and other sources said earlier that his first destination would be an upscale hospital northeast of Cairo. The prime minister’s office has said Mubarak will be placed under house arrest. That decision was made under a month-long state of emergency declared last week when police stormed protest camps set up in Cairo by deposed leader Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood to call for his reinstatement.

According to official sources, about 900 people, including some 100 soldiers and police, have been killed in violence across Egypt since then, making it the bloodiest bout of internal strife in the country’s modern history as a republic. The Brotherhood says the toll is even higher. Most of the victims were gunned down by security forces. In the latest violence, gunmen in a car killed an army major and a soldier near the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, security sources said. Two soldiers were wounded. The assailants escaped.

Mubarak’s release dismayed some Egyptians.

“He should stay in prison. The country is facing obstacles so people are turning back to Mubarak. They don’t know what they are doing,” said Hoda Saleh, a fully veiled woman who was

leaving Tora, where her brother is an inmate. To outsiders who watch Egypt, the symbolism was powerful. “This is the end. Mubarak will never be an important political player, but symbolically, it’s a victory dance by the reconstituted old state under the leadership of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces,” said Joshua Stacher, an Egypt expert at Kent State University in the United States. Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison last year for failing to prevent the killing of demonstrators. But a court accepted his appeal earlier this year and ordered a retrial in the case, for which he has already served the maximum amount of pretrial detention. Mubarak was arrested in April, 2011. This week, two court rulings in separate corruption cases removed the last legal grounds for his continued detention, although he will not be allowed to leave Egypt and his assets remain frozen.

At the Maadi hospital where he was taken, there were few signs of extra security for Mubarak apart from three police cars parked around the corner. Soldiers guarded the main gate, across a tree-lined boulevard from a Nile restaurant and boat club. Patients and visitors on

foot and in cars came and went from the whiteand green-painted medical complex which resembles a beach hotel, with palm trees and landscaped gardens. At the prison he left behind, Mohamed Hussein, a 36-year-old jobless man waiting outside to visit a jailed relative, said: “We love Mubarak.” His sister Fatheya chimed in: “Isn’t it enough that for 30 years he did not drag us into a war, and let us live in dignity?”

A brief commotion occurred when the daughter of a jailed Brotherhood leader, Khairat Al-Shater, berated journalists awaiting Mubarak’s release. “Why are you waiting for Mubarak?”

Khadija Al-Shater asked. “We Islamists are in jail in there.” As several Egyptian journalists shouted at her to answer for the deaths of police officers in the unrest, she said she had been denied access to her imprisoned father. Asked if he had seen a lawyer, she told Reuters: “His lawyer is in jail.” Mubarak’s release plays into the Brotherhood’s argument that the military is trying to rehabilitate the old order. The armyinstalled government casts its conflict with the Islamist movement as a life-or-death struggle against terrorism. — Reuters

International FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Syria crosses ‘red line’ Assad’s troops bombard Damascus suburbs

GHOUTA: A handout image shows bodies of children wrapped in shrouds. Syrian rebels claim they were killed in a toxic gas attack by pro-government forces in eastern Ghouta. — AFP BERLIN: Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said yesterday a “red line was crossed” in Syria and called for international action following reports of a massacre involving chemical weapons. “We call on the international community in this situation where the red line was crossed long ago to intervene as soon as possible,” he said in Berlin after talks with his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle.

Davutoglu said the United Nations Security Council had been too hesitant in the face of the bloodletting in Syria. “If we don’t manage to pass sanctions, we will lose the power to create a deterrent,” he said, speaking through an interpreter. “If we don’t act decisively, even worse massacres will follow.” Westerwelle said the reports of the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime were still unverified.

SUBURBS BOMBARDED Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar AlAssad’s forces bombarded rebel-held suburbs of Damascus yesterday, activists said, keeping up pressure on the besieged region a day after the opposition accused the army of gassing hundreds in a chemical weapons attack. With Wednesday’s death toll estimated between 500 and 1,300, what would be the world’s most lethal chemical weapons attack since the 1980s prompted an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in New York.

Opposition activists said men, women and children were killed as they slept. The council did not explicitly demand a UN investigation of the incident, although it said “clarity” was needed and welcomed UN chief Ban Ki-moon’s calls for a prompt investigation by the UN inspection team in Syria, led by Ake Sellstrom. An earlier Western-drafted statement submitted to the council, seen by Reuters, was not approved. The final version of the statement was watered down to accommodate objections from Russia and China, diplomats said.

Moscow and Beijing have vetoed previous Western efforts to impose UN penalties on

Assad. The Syrian opposition said President Bashar Al-Assad’s forces fired rockets that released deadly fumes over rebel-held eastern Damascus suburbs, which are part of what is known as the Ghouta. The area is an expanse of old farmland dotted with large built up areas inhabited mostly by members of Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority that have been at the forefront of the uprising against Assad’s Alawite rule.

Assad’s Shiite backer Iran said the Syrian government could not have been behind the possible chemical weapon attack as Assad had the upper hand in the fighting. A report by the opposition al-Sham Research Centre said the use of chemical weapons on a scale unseen since their use was first reported last year is “a message” from Assad to Turkey and the Arab Sunni backers of the revolt.

They appeared to have increased their support for the armed opposition, and the attack showed that Assad was not afraid of escalating the conflict, unleashing a new wave or refugees and destabilizing the region, the centre said. In Ghouta yesterday, rockets fired from multiple launchers and heavy mortar rounds hit the neighborhoods of Jobar and Zamalka, which are on the eastern outskirts of the capital, the activists said.

Rockets also hit the nearby district of Qaboun to the north, where rebel fighters have repelled attempts by loyalist forces to overrun the area, and the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp area to the south, the activists added.

Speaking from Ghouta, activist Khaled Amer said explosions from rockets hitting Zamalka were being heard. In Jobar, a Damascus neighborhood only 3 km from the historic centre of the ancient capital, explosions were heard at an army fortification and another compound housing tanks, apparently from a rebel attack on the facilities.

Fadi Al-Shami of the Tarhrir Al-Sham Brigade, which operates in the eastern Ghouta region, said scattered fighting was taking place along the Jobar-Zamalka axis and that opposition

forces have moved closer to loyalist lines, partly to be in safer positions in case of another chemical attack. Syrian Information Minister Omran Zoabi said the allegations were “illogical and fabricated.” Assad’s officials have said they would never use poison gas against Syrians. The United States and European allies believe Assad’s forces have used small amounts of sarin before, hence the current UN visit.

LIMITED RESPONSE Immediate international action is likely to be limited, with the divisions among major powers that have crippled efforts to quell 2-1/2 years of civil war still much in evidence. Russia backed up Syrian government denials by saying it looked like a rebel “provocation” to discredit Assad. Britain voiced the opposite view: “I hope this will wake up some who have supported the Assad regime to realize its murderous and barbaric nature,” Foreign Secretary William Hague said on a visit to Paris.

France, Britain, the United States and others called for an immediate on-site investigation by UN chemical weapons inspectors who arrived in the Syrian capital only this week. Moscow, urging an “objective” inquiry, said the very presence of that team suggested government forces were not to blame. US President Barack Obama has made the use of chemical weapons by Assad’s forces a “red line” that in June triggered more US aid to the rebels.

But previous, smaller and disputed cases of their deployment have not brought the all-out military intervention rebel leaders have sought to break a stalemate. US Senator John McCain, a Republican critic of Obama’s Syria policy, said on Twitter that failure to penalize previous gas attacks had emboldened Assad: “No consequence for Assad using chemical weapons & crossing red line,” he said. “We shouldn’t be surprised he’s using them again.”

Images, including some by freelance photographers supplied to Reuters, showed scores of bodies - some of them small children - laid on

the floor of a clinic with no visible signs of injury.

Some showed people with foam around their mouths. The United States and others said it had no independent confirmation that chemical weapons had been used. The UN chief, Ban, said the head of the inspection team in Damascus was already discussing the latest claims with the government.

‘SLEEPING DEAD’ Opposition activists cited death tolls ranging from about 500 to - by one account - some 1,300 after shells and rockets fell around 3 am on Wednesday. In 1988, 3,000 to 5,000 Iraqi Kurds were gassed by Saddam Hussein’s forces at Halabja. The Syrian Network for Human Rights, an opposition monitoring group, said that 587 people were killed by chemical weapons and 78 by conventional shelling, but the organisation warned that the death toll was still “initial”.

The opposition Syrian National Coalition said 650 people died. One man who said he had retrieved victims in the suburb of Erbin told Reuters: “We would go into a house and everything was in its place. Every person was in their place. They were lying where they had been.

They looked like they were asleep.” Doctors interviewed described symptoms they believe point to sarin gas, one of the agents Western powers accuse Damascus of having in an undeclared chemical weapons stockpile.

Activists said rockets with chemical agents hit the Damascus suburbs of Ain Tarma, Zamalka and Jobar during a fierce pre-dawn bombardment by government forces.

The Damascus Media Office said 150 bodies were counted in Hammouriya, 100 in Kfar Batna, 67 in Saqba, 61 in Douma, 76 in Mouadamiya and 40 in Erbin. A nurse at Douma Emergency Collection facility, Bayan Baker, said: “Many of the casualties are women and children. They arrived with their pupils constricted, cold limbs and foam in their mouths. The doctors say these are typical symptoms of nerve gas victims.” — Agencies

International FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Mugabe, 89, sworn in for 5 more years Africa’s oldest leader extends 33-year-rule HARARE: Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, Africa’s oldest leader at 89, was sworn in yesterday for a new five-year term in the face of criticism from opponents and the West that his re-election in a July vote was not credible. Mugabe, who has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980, has told critics of his re-election to “go hang” and has vowed to press ahead with nationalist policies forcing foreign firms to turn over majority stakes to black Zimbabweans.

He took his new oath of office before bewigged Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku at a ceremony held in a 60,000-seat football stadium in Harare witnessed by thousands of cheering supporters, diplomats and delegations from the region. His longtime rival and opponent in the last three elections, Morgan Tsvangirai, boycotted the ceremony. He has denounced the July 31

election as a “huge fraud” and a “coup by ballot”, alleging massive rigging by Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party. Mugabe and his ruling party have rejected these allegations.

This will be Mugabe’s fifth term as president of the southern African state.

He had also served two terms as prime minister after 1980 independence ended white minority rule in the country previously known as Rhodesia. Mugabe and senior officials from his ruling ZANU-PF party are the target of sanctions imposed by governments in the West, which has accused them of staying in power through massive human rights violations and vote rigging.

Britain said yesterday Mugabe’s reelection could not be deemed credible without an independent investigation into allegations of voting irregularities.

US officials this week said the election was flawed and Washington had no

plans to loosen sanctions until there were signs of change in the country.

The European Union will review relations with Zimbabwe given its “serious concerns” about the election, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said yesterday. The EU’s verdict on the fairness of the elections will be crucial to a decision on whether it continues to ease sanctions. Soon after the July 31 vote, which went ahead peacefully in contrast to 2008 election violence, domestic monitors from the Zimbabwe Election Support Network said registration flaws may have disenfranchised up to a million people out of 6.4 million registered voters. But observer missions from the regional 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union broadly endorsed the vote as free and peaceful and called on all parties to accept its results.— Reuters

Thai court jails Iranian pair over Bangkok’s bomb plot BANGKOK: Two Iranian men were sentenced to between 15 years and life yesterday for their parts in a botched bomb plot last year in Bangkok that ended with one of them having his legs blown off. The pair, who had denied the charges, were among five Iranians suspected of involvement in blasts that Israel has linked to a 2012 spate of attacks on its diplomats across the world. Saeid Moradi, 29, who lost his limbs as he hurled an explosive device at police in the Thai capital, was

found guilty on charges including attempted murder and handed a life term by the Bangkok Southern Criminal court.

A judge said the court found him “guilty of carrying explosives in public, using explosives to attempt to kill officials and using explosives which caused the destruction of property”. “Because attempted murder displays serious intent the court sentenced him to life in prison,” he added. A second defendant, Mohammad Khazaei, 43, was given a 15-

BANGKOK: Saeid Moradi, 29, (left), an Iranian suspected of involvement in February 2012 bomb blasts in Bangkok, gestures to the media next to compatriot Mohammad Khazaei, 43, during an appearance at the southern criminal court in Bangkok yesterday. —AFP

year jail term for possession of explosives.

The blasts on February 14 last year occurred a day after bombs attacks on Israeli diplomats in India and Georgia. A huge explosion tore the roof off a house in suburban Bangkok when bombs detonated inside, apparently accidentally.

Moradi tried to “escape by carrying two bombs with him... throwing the first to stop people following... throwing the second when police tried to stop and arrest him”, the judge said as he sentenced the pair yesterday, adding that an expert witness said five C-4 explosives had been hidden in radios in the house. Prosecutors said Moradi hurled one of the bombs at a taxi, then threw the second at two police officers as they approached him on the street, but it instead detonated near him.

The court heard that Khazaei ran out of the house after the first explosion and headed to the airport where police arrested him at the boarding gate.

A third man is thought to have fled to Malaysia, where he is in custody and fighting extradition to Thailand. Two other suspects are believed to have returned to Iran. Israel has accused Tehran of waging a terror campaign over the Bangkok bomb plot. “This sentence proves once again that Iran is engaged and in proliferation of terror all around the world,” Israeli ambassador Simon Roded told reporters after attending the court hearing.

He thanked the Thai government for its response to the blasts. “I hope that other countries will join Thailand in fighting this terror and bringing terrorists to justice,” said the diplomat, who was flanked by bodyguards as he watched proceedings.

Moradi, who appeared in court in a wheelchair, had argued in his defense that he accidentally found bombs in the Bangkok property and was trying to dispose of them safely when they detonated. The court also found him guilty of possession of explosives.—AFP

News

in brief

Three ‘Moonies’ set themselves ablaze SEOUL: Three Japanese Unification Church members set themselves on fire in South Korea yesterday before the first anniversary of the death of the controversial church founder Sun Myung Moon, a report said. The two women and one man had doused themselves with paint thinner and set themselves alight in a village at the church’s global headquarters in Gapyeong east of Seoul, Yonhap news agency said. They suffered severe burns and two of them were in serious condition, it added. Church officials were not available for comment. Moon died at the age of 92 on September 3 last year, but followers observe August 23 as the first anniversary of his passing according to the lunar calendar.

Moon, revered by his followers but described by critics as a charlatan who brainwashed church members, was a deeply divisive figure whose shadowy business dealings once saw him jailed in the United States.

Gunmen kill 5 in Iraq MOSUL: Gunmen killed five people, including two soldiers, in Iraq yesterday, officials said, the latest in a spike in violence that the government has so far failed to stem. Security forces have in recent weeks carried out some of their biggest operations since the 2011 withdrawal of US forces, but analysts and diplomats have said authorities have not addressed the root causes of the violence. In the northern province of Nineveh, gunmen killed four people, including two soldiers, and wounded another in two separate attacks, one of them targeting a checkpoint, an army officer and a doctor said. In the northern city of Kirkuk, gunmen kidnapped and executed a lawyer, while a car bomb in a government car park wounded four people, police and a doctor said.

Ammonia leak kills 9 OAXACA: At least nine people died and 40 others were hurt when road workers accidentally punctured an ammonia pipeline in southern Mexico, officials said Wednesday. Some 1,500 people were evacuated from surrounding towns following Tuesday’s incident near the rural municipalities of Matias Romero and Barrio Soledad. State-run energy firm Pemex and the Oaxaca government confirmed the death toll. The pipeline broke when it was hit by a backhoe used by construction workers widening a road. The police and army have blocked the road. It is the latest accident to hit Pemex, a state-owned monopoly that has suffered deadly blasts at several facilities and pipelines in recent years, including a gas leak explosion that killed 37 people at its Mexico City headquarters earlier this year.

Storm lashes China BEIJING: Southern China was hit by fresh flooding yesterday as the second storm in a week lashed the region after killing 17 people in the Philippines. Typhoon Trami skirted Taiwan before landing in China’s Fujian province yesterday morning and weakening into a tropical storm. It was heading northwest, bringing heavy rain to a region still feeling the effects of Typhoon Utor, which ground across Guangxi, Guangdong and Hunan provinces over the weekend. Minor damage from Trami was reported in coastal areas, but no deaths or injuries had been reported as a result of the storm yesterday afternoon. Flooding around China over the past week has left about 250 people dead or missing, including 21 who were killed Tuesday when a construction site in remote Qinghai province was struck by a flash flood.

Malaysia’s ‘Allah’ case KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s government yesterday won the right to appeal a court ruling that allows the country’s nonMuslim minority to use the word “Allah” to refer to God. Appeal hearings are scheduled to start Sept 10 to resolve the politically sensitive dispute that triggered attacks on Malaysian churches and other places of worship more than three years ago. “Allah” is the Arabic word for God and is commonly used in the Malay language to refer to God. The government, however, insists “Allah” is an Islamic word and that its use by others would confuse Muslims. Roman Catholic representatives say the government’s curb on their use of “Allah” is unreasonable because Christians who speak the Malay language had long also used the word to refer to God in their Bibles, literature and songs before authorities sought to enforce the ban in recent years.

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International FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Bo and Heywood’s French Connection BEIJING: A luxurious, bougainvillea-clad mansion in one of the most exclusive neighborhoods in the French Riviera resort of Cannes emerged as a key exhibit in Chinese prosecutors’ corruption case against fallen political heavyweight Bo Xilai yesterday. Nestled on a hillside overlooking the Mediterranean, the sixbedroom villa was once managed by close associates of Bo, including British murder victim Neil Heywood, French court documents obtained by AFP show.

According to French court filings seen by AFP, the villa in Cannes, near Nice, is owned by a French-registered company called Residences Fontaine Saint Georges, founded in 2001. Shide Group chairman Xu Ming testified in court that Bo’s wife Gu Kailai told him in 2000 that she wanted to buy a villa in France and Xu provided $3.23 million. Prosecutors said they had evidence to show Bo was present when Gu showed the businessman pictures of the villa and the politician knew he was buying it for her.

In later years, Xu repeatedly discussed with Gu nominees to own the Fontaine Saint Georges property on her behalf, the prosecution said, according to transcripts of the proceedings released by the court. Neither Bo nor his family appear on official French records as owners of the property. Bo told the court: “I was completely unaware of the Nice property and the whole process was made up.” The politician was one of China’s highest-flying Communist Party members until his downfall last year following Heywood’s death, for which Gu was later convicted. He faces charges of bribery totaling $3.6 million, embezzlement and abuse of power. The Cannes property stands on the winding Boulevard des Pins, in a suburb favored by wealthy foreigners, according to property agents who specialize in high net worth clients.

“It’s a quiet boulevard with views of the sea and numerous villas that are owned by emirs and international companies,” Patrick Montavon of property firm Agence de la Californie told AFP.

“It’s next to billionaires’ row.”

Despite its neoclassical entrance, colonnaded balconies and shaded terrace with accompanying pool, the villa itself appears modest compared to its nearest neighbors, many of which sell for upwards of 50 million euros ($67 million). The case has cast a spotlight on how disconnected many of China’s Communist party leaders are from ordinary citizens, squirrelling fortunes away in overseas investments and sending their children abroad to study.

Bo’s family is said to have amassed immense wealth, owning property in France, Britain and the United States. According to French records, Residences Fontaine Saint Georges received payments from several corporate entities, one of them a limited company registered in Luxembourg called “Russel International Resorts”. Documents detailing the complex payment structures show that three people have run Residences Fontaine Saint George in the last decade, and therefore the

Defiant Bo denies bribery charge; China trial opens ‘I was framed,’ Bo Xilai mounts feisty defense JINAN: Fallen politician Bo Xilai put up a feisty defense yesterday as he faced China’s most political trial in decades, saying he was framed in one of the bribery charges against him and had admitted to it against his will during interrogation. The 64-year-old former Communist Party chief of the southwestern city of Chongqing has been charged with illegally taking almost 27 million yuan ($4.41 million), corruption and abuse of power and will almost certainly be found guilty.

Bo’s denial of one of the charges and strong language as he made his first public appearance since being ousted early last year were unexpected. But observers said he could have struck a deal with authorities to show he was getting a fair trial in exchange for a prearranged sentence. President Xi Jinping is seeking unstinted support from the party as he seeks to push reforms that will rebalance the economy, and will want Bo’s trial to be finished quickly and with a minimum of fuss.

“He (Bo) is clearly going along with this trial,”

said Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch. “The outcome has been already decided. There’s probably an agreement already between Bo and the party as to what the outcome will be.” Bo’s downfall has pitted supporters of his Maoistthemed egalitarian social programs against the capitalist-leaning economic road taken by the leadership in Beijing, exposing divisions within the ruling party as well as Chinese society.

Bo was one of China’s rising political stars and his trial in the eastern city of Jinan marks the culmination of the country’s biggest political scandal since the 1976 downfall of the Gang of Four at the end of the Cultural Revolution.

Appearing sombre, a clean-shaven Bo, whose hair looked like it was still dyed black, stood in the dock without handcuffs, according to television pictures. He was dressed in a long-sleeved white shirt and stood with his hands crossed in front of him, flanked by two policemen.

Foreign media were not allowed to attend the trial and Bo’s remarks were carried on the

SHANDONG: This screen grab taken from CCTV footage shows the presiding judge (top center) reading a document during the trial of ousted Chinese political star Bo Xilai in the Intermediate People’s Court in Jinan. —AFP

court’s official microblog, so are likely to have been highly edited. Still, the transcripts provided by the court mark a level of openness that is unprecedented for a trial in China. “Regarding the matter of Tang Xiaolin giving me money three times, I once admitted it against my will during the Central Discipline Inspection Commission’s investigation against me,” Bo said, referring to the party’s top anti-graft body. “(I’m) willing to bear the legal responsibilities, but at that time I did not know the circumstances of these matters: my mind was a blank,” he added.

“MAD DOG” Bo was charged with receiving about 21.8 million yuan ($3.56 million) in bribes from Xu Ming, a plastics-to-property entrepreneur who is a close friend and is in custody, and Tang, the general manager of Hong Kong-based export company Dalian International Development Ltd, the court said. Bo called Tang “a mad dog” who wanted to “frame me out of consideration for his own interests”. “This evidence has little to do with my criminality,” Bo said. “I was just hoodwinked. I thought it was all official business.”

Bo also denied receiving bribes from Xu. “The entire process is fabricated, I have never admitted to this 20 million yuan from the beginning to the end,” Bo said. Bo received the bribes from Tang through his wife, Gu Kailai, and his son, Bo Guagua, the court said, citing the indictment. It was the first time that authorities had named the younger Bo in the case against his father. Guagua is now in the United States, pursuing a law degree at Columbia University.

Bo Guagua was not immediately available for comment. Tang’s whereabouts are unclear.

A secretary at Dalian International’s office in Hong Kong said she had not seen Tang since May or June last year. There was also no one at his last known residential address in Hong Kong. Written evidence from Gu was provided to the court in which she said she had seen a large amount of cash in safes at two of their residences, money which matched the amount alleged given to Bo from Tang. —Reuters

Cannes villa. The first manager was Patrick Devillers, a French architect who maintained a business relationship with both Bo and Gu forged when the politician ran the industrial port town of Dalian. Devillers was detained in June 2012 at his home in Cambodia at Beijing’s request and spent several weeks in custody in China before being released. The second manager of the luxury villa was Neil Heywood, another friend and business partner of Bo and Gu before their relationship deteriorated.

Heywood was found dead in November 2011 and Gu Kailai was convicted last year of poisoning him after a business deal went sour.

Documents show that six months earlier, Residences Fontaine Saint George was entrusted to Feng Jiang Dolby, a prominent former state television presenter reportedly close to Bo. Court filings say the company made the change because of “very significant difficulties” as Heywood was based far away, and thanked him for his service. —AFP

China flight delays show military grip on airspace HONG KONG: China’s fast growing air travel market is the world’s second biggest. But when it comes to flight delays, it’s No 1. Shanghai resident Chen Chen learned the hard way on a recent business trip when she flew out of Inner Mongolia about 24 hours later than scheduled. Her evening flight to Beijing was delayed until the next day and when staff couldn’t give her a departure time, she bought a ticket on another airline. That flight left late too.

“That’s the worst experience I’ve ever had,” said Chen, a modeling agent. “I was numb when I reached Beijing. No words. I just wanted to kiss the ground.” Chen’s ordeal was typical of the problems faced by many air travelers in China.

Delays are so frequent and lengthy that scenes of travelers smashing up check-in desks, brawling with staff or storming the tarmac have verged on the commonplace. According to official figures, 75 percent of China’s flights left on time last year. But private surveys paint a different picture. A recent report by travel industry monitor FlighStat Inc. found that just 18 percent of flights at Beijing’s airport left on time in June, the lowest proportion among 35 airports worldwide, with Shanghai second at 29 percent. Eight of the 10 worst performing airlines were mainland Chinese carriers.

The chronic delays underscore the challenges for China’s domestic carriers as they strive to meet booming passenger demand. They face two longstanding problems that won’t be easy to fix. The first and biggest is the powerful military’s tight control of airspace, which analysts say leaves as little as 20 percent of the country’s airspace for civilian traffic. Congestion is inevitable as jetliners are forced into narrow air corridors that snake through restricted military airspace. Those airways will become even bigger bottlenecks, with demand for domestic air travel forecast by IATA to grow 10 percent a year in China, adding nearly 160 million new passengers by 2016. “You start to have a pressure cooker of flights growing faster than there is space available to accommodate them,” said Will Horton, an analyst at CAPA The Center for Aviation. “Until there is reform of air traffic, growth will be stunted.” In the U.S. and many other countries, most airspace is given over to civilian traffic while military zones are typically small and in remote areas far from busy airports.

In China, planes are routinely delayed when the military shuts down civilian airspace at short notice for air drills. Delays also happen when large thunderstorms sweep in, as is common in summer. Pilots say they’re routinely denied permission to detour around storms into restricted military areas in order to avoid severe turbulence. So planes typically sit on the ground waiting for clearance. “Those delays build up and it cascades through the rest of the system, so by the evening, the system is clogged,” said Todd Siena, partner at Shanghaibased consultancy Avia-Tek. Sometimes, no reasons are given for are delays. —AP

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International FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Study seeks super agers’ secrets to brain health CHICAGO: They’re called “super agers” - men and women who are in their 80s and 90s, but with brains and memories that seem far younger. Researchers are looking at this rare group in the hope that they may find ways to help protect others from memory loss. And they’ve had some tantalizing findings: Imaging tests have found unusually low amounts of age-related plaques along with more brain mass related to attention and memory in these elite seniors.

“We’re living long but we’re not necessarily living well in our older years and so we hope that the SuperAging study can find factors that are modifiable and that we’ll be able to use those to help people live long and live well,” said study leader Emily Rogalski, a neuroscientist at Northwestern University’s cognitive neurology and Alzheimer’s disease center in Chicago.

The study is still seeking volunteers, but chances are you don’t qualify: Fewer than 10 percent of would-be participants have met study criteria. “We’ve screened over 400 people at this point and only about 35 of them have been eligible for this study, so it really represents a rare portion of the population,” Rogalski said. They include an octogenarian attorney, a 96-year-old retired neuroscientist, a 92-yearold Holocaust survivor and an 81-year-old pack-a-day smoker who drinks a nightly martini.

To qualify, would-be participants have to undergo a battery of mental tests. Once enrolled, they undergo periodic imaging scans and other medical tests. They also must be willing to donate their brains after death. The memory tests include lists of about 15 words. “Super agers can remember at least nine of them 30 minutes later, which is really impressive because often older adults in their 80s can only remember just a couple,” Rogalski said.

Special MRI scans have yielded other remarkable clues, Rogalski said. They show that in super agers, the brain’s cortex, or outer layer, responsible for many mental functions including memory, is thicker than in typical 80- and 90-year-olds. And deep within the brain, a small region called the anterior cingulate, important for attention, is bigger than even in many 50- and 60-year-olds. The super agers aren’t just different on the inside; they have more energy than most people their age and share a positive, inquisitive outlook. Rogalski said the researchers are looking into whether those traits contribute to brain health.

Other research has linked a positive attitude with overall health.

And some studies have suggested that people who are “cognitively active and socially engaged” have a reduced chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease, but which comes first - a healthy brain or a great attitude - isn’t known, said Heather Snyder, director of medical and scientific operations for the Alzheimer’s Association. Snyder said the SuperAging study is an important effort that may help provide some answers. Edith Stern is among the super agers. The petite woman looks far younger than her 92 years, and is a vibrant presence at her Chicago retirement home, where she acts as a sort of room mother, volunteering in the gift shop, helping residents settle in and making sure their needs are met.

Stern lost most of her family in the Holocaust and takes her work seriously. “What I couldn’t do for my parents, I try to do for the residents in the home,” she said, her voice still thick with the accent of her native Czechoslovakia. Stern acknowledges she’s different from most people at the home, even many younger residents. “I am young inside. And I think that’s the difference,” she said. “I grasp fast,” she adds. “If people say something, they don’t have to tell me twice. I don’t forget it.” —AP

School employee helped avert tragedy in standoff Brave clerk talked gunman out of bloodbath DECATUR: The 911 tapes from a frightening standoff and shooting at an Atlanta-area school show how a school employee’s calm demeanor and kind approach helped end the ordeal without any injuries. Police said Wednesday that school bookkeeper Antoinette Tuff was heroic in how she responded after being taken hostage a day earlier by Michael Brandon Hill, a 20-year-old man with a history of mental health issues. Hill went to the school armed with an AK 47-style rifle and nearly 500 rounds of ammunition, police said.

On a recording of a 911 call released Wednesday, Tuff can be heard relaying messages from Hill to DeKalb County emergency dispatchers before convincing him to surrender. She tells the dispatcher that Hill said he wasn’t there to hurt the children but wanted to talk to an unarmed officer. “He said, ‘Call the probation office in DeKalb County and let them know what’s going on,’” Tuff is heard telling the dispatcher. “He said he should have just went to the mental hospital instead of doing this, because he’s not on his medication.”

No one was injured, but police said the suspect shot into the floor and exchanged gunfire with officers who had surrounded Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy in Decatur, a suburb east of Atlanta.

The school has 870 students in prekindergarten through fifth grade.

Dramatic television footage showed lines of young students racing out of the building with police and teachers escorting them to safety. They sat outside in a field for a time until school buses came to take them to their parents at a nearby Wal-Mart.

The exchange between Tuff and the suspect was captured on a recording of a 911 call made by school officials to dispatchers. Tuff begins by telling Hill of her own struggles, including raising a disabled child

and losing her husband. The bookkeeper reassures him by saying he didn’t hurt anyone, hadn’t harmed her and could still surrender peacefully. “We’re not gonna hate you, baby.

It’s a good thing that you’re giving up,” Tuff says after having Hill put his weapons and ammunition on the

assault on a police officer, terroristic threats and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Police declined to discuss what he told them when questioned. “We have to make a reasonable assumption he was there to do harm to someone,” DeKalb County Police Chief Cedric L. Alexander said.

DECATUR: In this undated photo provided by the Dekalb County Police Department, Michael Brandon Hill poses with an AK 47-style rifle that authorities believed is the one he had when he was arrested at a Decatur, Ga., elementary school. —AP counter. Tuff tells Hill she loves him and will pray for him.

Before he surrendered, Tuff took to the school’s public address system to say Hill was sorry for what he’d done and didn’t want to hurt anyone although the lockdown remained in effect. Hill is charged with aggravated

The DeKalb County Public Defender’s office said in a statement that it was representing Hill, calling him “a young man with a long history of mental health issues.” “Mr Hill is being represented by members of our Mental Health Division and he has decided to waive his first appearance

today,” the statement said. “We are all very thankful that no one was hurt in this incident and that all of the children are safe.” One of the office’s attorneys, Claudia Saari, wrote in an email that a preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept 5.

Police said Hill got the gun from an acquaintance, but it’s not clear if he stole it or had permission to take it.

His motive is still unclear. Law enforcement officers praised Tuff for helping to avert a potential tragedy.

“She was a real ally,” Alexander said.

“She was a real hero in all of this. She just did a stellar job. She was cool, she was calm, very collected in all of this, maintained her wherewithal.” Tuff told WSB-TV in Atlanta that she tried to keep Hill talking to prevent him from walking into the hallway or through the school building.

“He had a look on him that he was willing to kill - matter of fact he said it. He said that he didn’t have any reason to live and that he knew he was going to die today,” Tuff said. Hill was arrested in mid-March for making terroristic threats in Henry County, DeKalb and Henry County sheriff’s officials have said. He was sentenced to probation. A woman who said she served as a mother-like figure to him said he didn’t seem to have any friends and rarely talked about his family or past during the months he lived with her and her husband several years ago.

He was quiet and didn’t display anger or violent tendencies, said Natasha Knotts, the woman who took him in after he started coming to the small church where her husband is pastor and she is an assistant pastor.

Knotts told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Hill lived with them for about six months in his late teens.

“He was part of our family,” Knotts said, though they were not related.

She said her family was aware that “he had a mental disorder” before he moved in. —AP

Captures bring fear than relief at Mexico border MEXICO CITY: Instead of bringing relief, the recent capture of drug lords in northern Mexico has raised fears of new turf wars in border cities that are major US trafficking routes. The violence between the Zetas and Gulf cartels has been so great in the state of Tamaulipas, which borders Texas, that newspapers no longer report on drug-related crime and residents are afraid of openly talking about gangs.

Last month, the government detained Zetas leader Miguel Angel Trevino, alias “Z40,” capturing a man whose cartel is accused of some of the most gruesome crimes in Mexico, including massacres of scores of migrants and beheadings of rivals.

Then last weekend, troops nabbed Gulf Cartel boss Mario Ramirez Trevino, dealing a blow to a criminal organization already

severely weakened by major arrests, internal divisions and its violent split with the Zetas, its former paramilitary wing, in 2010.

But residents of Nuevo Laredo, a city considered a Zetas fiefdom, and Reynosa, home to the Gulf cartel, are holding their breath for potential internal wars of succession or incursions by rivals such as the Sinaloa cartel. The government says it has ramped up security in Tamaulipas to prevent any new violence following the captures. The state’s murder rate rose from 10 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2009 to 46 per 100,000 last year.

“Now we’re waiting to see what happens,” said Carlos Alberto Renteria, a shop owner in Nuevo Laredo, a city of 370,000 people through which one-third of Mexican land exports travel-along with drugs

stashed in vehicles. Pablo, a teenager who admits working as a lookout for the Zetas, said the gang “says that things will continue as before, that nothing has changed and that Z-42 is now in control.” Security experts believe that Trevino’s brother Omar, known as Z-42, has taken over the Zetas and that the cartel appears to still be holding together despite its top leader’s arrest.

Nuevo Laredo has witnessed horrific scenes in recent years. In May last year, 14 bodies were dumped in front of City Hall and nine others were hung from a bridge.

The Gulf Cartel run by Ramirez, alias “X-20,” controls the drug trade in Reynosa, a city of 600,000 people, but his arrest may prompt the Zetas to launch a raid. “People are very afraid. They don’t know what will happen, but nobody wants to talk about it,” said a

journalist based in Reynosa, who like most people in the region asked to remain anonymous.

Analysts say it is unclear whether Mexico’s most wanted drug kingpin, Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, will make a new bid for Nuevo Laredo despite his defeat there in 2005.

“Nuevo Laredo is the crown jewel, so if people perceived the Zetas as being weak, they would have pushed to take it. But we haven’t seen that at all,” Scott Stewart, analyst at the US intelligence consultancy Stratfor said. While it is considered the most powerful cartel in Mexico, the Sinaloa crime syndicate “is not immune or untouchable,” Stewart said, adding that the takedowns of drug lords may lead to a “Balkanization” of drug cartels. —AFP

16

International FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

What’s making floods worse in Manila?

MANILA: Lashed each year by typhoons and stuck with outdated drainage systems, the Philippine capital has been hit by ever-worsening floods. Population growth, inadequate infrastructure, corruption, deforestation and even trash buildup combine to exacerbate the impact. It’s a trend experts expect to continue. Here’s why: NO EXIT FOR WATER Manila is located in a catch basin sandwiched between Manila Bay and Lake Laguna to the southeast.

The city was built on waterways, canals and creeks that have for centuries channeled floodwaters into the sea. But half the 40 kilometers of narrow waterways and canals that would drain rainwater - constructed and modified during the Spanish colonial period - have been lost, cemented or paved over, said architect and urban planner Paulo Alcazaren.

Many of the remaining ones are clogged with garbage and ill-maintained, teeming with squatter colonies occupying riverbanks and coastal areas. Much of Manila, once known as the “Pearl of the Orient,” was lost in heavy bombardment at the end of World War II. The haphazard, poorly planned urban reconstruction coupled with the 10-fold jump in population to nearly 12 million today has severely strained the

city’s ability to cope with flooding.

The capital’s flood control system is outdated, incomplete and poorly designed, said Felino Palafox, Jr, another urban architect who has closely studied flooding in Manila. He said that starting in the 1970s, he and international development agencies had unsuccessfully called for the construction of a major spillway that would drain excess water during the typhoon season from Lake Laguna to Manila Bay. The lake has become heavily silted, decreasing its capacity to hold water and often overflows and floods outlying towns and cities,

including Manila. “There’s no exit for water,” Palafox said.

TYPHOONS PACKING MORE POWER: Each year, about 20 typhoons hit the country, and they have become stronger over the past decade, said Edna Juanillo, head of the Philippine government weather agency’s climatology division. That prompted the agency about a decade ago to add a fourth category to public storm warning system for typhoons with sustained winds of more than 185 kilometers per hour (115 mph).

MANILA: Residents wade through floodwaters along McArthur Highway at Malolos township, Bulacan province, north of Manila, Philippines yesterday. —AP

“It has not been concluded if this is caused by global warming and climate change, but we’ve been seeing more powerful tropical cyclones with winds of 150 kph and above in the last decade,” Juanillo said. Four of the strongest typhoons that hit between 2008 and 2012 caused damage of $2.2 billion compared to $828 million for the four of the most devastating typhoons between 1990-1998. The most ferocious storm to ever hit Manila was Typhoon Ketsana in 2009, which dumped more than a month’s worth of rain in 12 hours with floodwaters reaching 7 meters (23 feet). That and a second typhoon on its heels killed about 1,000 people and caused more than $1 billion in damage. Last year, the annual monsoon and thunderstorms unleashed nonstop rains over eight days, flooding the same areas again, destroying thousands of homes, roads and submerging about 90 percent of Manila.

This week’s deluge, brought by a monsoon and a tropical storm, dumped about the same amount rain as Ketsana but over 24 hours and wider area, submerging half of the city and shutting it down for two days. About a million people were affected. Excessive logging on the Sierra Madre mountains north of the city has also made things worse. The rainwater rushes down the denuded slopes into the Pasig River, which runs through

Life and death on the margin in North Korea North Koreans ‘treated like sub-humans’ SEOUL: North Korea’s famine in the 1990s unleashed a Darwinian struggle for survival that swiftly eliminated many of the most vulnerable in an already sharply stratified society, a UN panel heard yesterday. “People are treated without dignity in North Korea-and in some cases like sub-humans,” said Ji Seong-Ho, who was 14 when he lost his hand and left leg trying to steal coal from a moving train during the famine years. Ji, now 31, was one of a number of North Korean defectors called to testify before a UN Commission of Inquiry into human rights in North Korea that is currently holding hearings in Seoul.

The North, which strongly denies allegations of rights abuses, has refused to recognize the commission and barred its members from visiting the country. Ji said mentally and physically disabled people faced widespread social and official discrimination in North Korea, where they are judged as being of “no use” to society. “When I was young, before my accident, I admit I used to make fun of adults with disabilities,” he said.

During the 1994-98 famine, which saw hundreds of thousands starve to death, ordinary North Koreans had to focus all their energies on scavenging to stay alive. Food was so scarce that there was little to share and those who could

not fend for themselves-the very young, the elderly, the disabled-were at particular risk. “We had disabled people in our town, but by the time the food situation had begun to improve slightly in the late 1990s, we didn’t see them any more, meaning they must have died,” Ji said.

In March 1996 he was attempting to steal coal from a train to sell for food when he fell under the wheels, severing his left hand and leg. “It was only then I realized how loud I could scream,” said Ji, who was taken to hospital and operated on without morphine or general anaesthetic. Unable to walk without crutches and with no job prospects, Ji managed to cross the border illegally into China in 2000 in an effort to find food for his family.

Police caught him on his return, held him for a week and, Ji said, beat him severely. “They shouted at me, calling me a cripple and saying that I brought shame on North Korea by looking the way I did,” he said. Ji finally escaped for good in 2006 and settled down in South Korea, where he now studies law and speaks publicly about life in the North.

Also testifying to the commission on Thursday was Kim Hyuk, 32, who at the age of seven after his mother’s death became a “ggotjebi”-the North Korean term for street children, mostly orphans,

who beg, scavenge and steal to survive.

“When I started that life, people were willing to give us food, but obviously that changed when the famine came,” Kim said. As children began to die in the streets, Kim said special police units were set up to round up all the ggotjebi and send them to shelters and orphanages, where many still died of starvation. “There was no food at all,” Kim said of the orphanage where he spent three years. “Just powdered corn husk which left you constipated. I caught and ate lizards, snakes, rats and grass.” Of the 75 children in the orphanage, 24 died.

“The officials said it was due to disease, but it was malnourishment. They became too weak to walk. Their bodies were buried in the backyard,” Kim said.

Kim ran away but was then arrested for making smuggling runs across the border with China and served 20 months in a re-education camp where the conditions were as bad as the orphanage.

“There were 24 of us who entered the camp on the same day. Only two survived,” he said. Released from prison, Kim sneaked across the Tumen River into China in December 2000 and arrived the following year in Seoul, where he now lectures on his experiences on behalf of the Unification Ministry. —AFP

Manila and typically overflows.

POLITICS, CORRUPTION AND TRASH Several proposals to dredge Lake Laguna failed to materialize. One such $430 million contract was signed by former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s government and a Belgian company but was shelved by her successor, Benigno Aquino III, on suspicion of corruption and irregularities. Aquino has authorized a plan to relocate slums from the city’s waterways to ease flooding.

Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson revealed in June that local politicians sought the delay of the operation ahead of the May congressional elections, making it too late for the onset of this year’s rainy season.

The governing structure of Metro Manila also makes it difficult to get decisions covering the whole area.

The metropolis is made up of 16 cities and one municipality, each headed by a separately elected mayor and city councilors. The increasing volume of trash is also a problem.

Most of the garbage ends up in landfills, but a substantial amount is discarded into drainage. One estimate

by Metro Manila Development Authority is that the city dumps daily 3,000 cubic meters (equivalent to 600 trucks) of garbage and other solid materials in rivers, drains and waterways. —AP

Maldives court quashes flogging of rape victim MALE: A Maldivian court has overturned a public flogging sentence for a 15-year-old rape victim whose conviction sparked international outrage and focused attention on the holiday isle’s treatment of women. The High Court issued a statement on Wednesday saying the girl, whose step-father is on trial for raping her, had been wrongly convicted by a juvenile court of having pre-marital sex with another man.

The court said the sentence was handed down based on a confession that the child made while she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, adding she had been “unfit for trial”. The Maldivian government appealed on behalf of the teenager following an international outcry over the February sentence to punish her with 100 lashes when she reached the age of 18. The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was charged after police investigating a complaint that she was raped by her step-father found that she had also been having consensual sex with another man.

Premarital sex is illegal in the Maldives, a popular honeymoon destination in the Indian Ocean, which observes elements of Islamic Sharia law as well as English common law. Maldivian President Mohamed Waheed was “overjoyed” with the High Court decision, his spokesman said yesterday. “It is the government’s policy to protect victims, but we had to do it within the framework of the law,” spokesman Masood Imad said. Imad said the girl would remain in state care, adding that government authorities had done everything they could to ensure she received proper care and protection. He also lashed out at the international outcry over the case, saying the government had been unfairly targeted. “Since the new government came to power (in February 2012), not a single flogging has been carried out in this country,” Imad said.

“We have been unfairly treated over this issue. Some have called for a boycott of the Maldives. There are so many horrible rapes in India, but they don’t say boycott the Indian economy. We are doing everything within the law to ensure that women and children are protected.” The London-based rights group Amnesty International, which campaigned to spare the victim, said she should never have been put on trial in the first place. “Annulling this sentence was of course the right thing to do,” Polly Truscott, Amnesty International’s Deputy Asia-Pacific Director, said in a statement. —AFP

International FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Manning wants to live as a woman Manning seeks hormone therapy WASHINGTON: Bradley Manning, the US soldier sentenced to 35 years in military prison for the biggest breach of classified documents in the nation’s history, said yesterday he is female and wants to live as a woman named Chelsea. Manning received the sentence on Wednesday for giving more than 700,000 secret files, videos and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks. His lawyers had argued the former Army intelligence analyst suffered a sexual identity crisis when he leaked the files while serving in Iraq in 2009 and 2010.

“As I transition into this next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me. I am Chelsea Manning, I am a female,” Manning, 25, said in the statement read by anchorwoman Savannah Guthrie on NBC News’ “Today” show. “Given the way that I feel and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible,” Manning said. “I also request that starting today you refer to me by my new name and use the feminine pronoun.”

An Army spokeswoman said the Army does not provide hormone therapy or sexchange surgery. Manning’s lawyer David Coombs said on the TV program he expected his client to get a pardon from US President Barack Obama. Manning was convicted last month on 20 charges, including espionage and theft. He will serve his sentence at the US Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Coombs has said Manning could be

pardoned in seven years.

Coombs said Manning was seeking hormone therapy and not a sex-change operation. “I’m hoping that Fort Leavenworth will do the right thing and provide that. If Fort Leavenworth does not, then I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure that they are forced to do so,” he said. An Army spokeswoman said in an emailed statement, “The Army does not provide hormone thera-

py or sex-reassignment surgery.” Military inmates have access to mental health professionals, including a psychiatrist, psychologist, social workers and behavioral science specialists, she said.

‘Comfortable in her skin’ Asked if Manning wanted to be sent to a women’s prison, Coombs said no. “I think the ultimate goal is to be comfortable in her skin

WASHINGTON: Protesters demonstrate the conviction of Wikileaker Bradley Manning late August 21, 2013 in front of the White House in Washington, DC. — AFP

US town mulls drone hunts to decry spying DEER TRAIL: This tiny plains town an hour east of Denver doesn’t have much to offer visitors - a gas station, a bar and a small-time rodeo one weekend a year. But Deer Trail, population 500, is considering a proposal to make itself a national attraction for gun enthusiasts and people skeptical of government surveillance. Citizens on Oct 8 will vote on whether to issue permits to hunt drones.

Yes, those drones. Shoot ‘em down for $25. With a $100 bounty reward for shooters who bring in debris from an unmanned aircraft “known to be owned or operated by the United States federal government.” The initiative’s architect insists it’s a symbolic stand against government surveillance. “These are not big drones you see on TV that look like airplanes. These are little 55-pound things that can come right down into your land,” said Phillip Steel, a traveling structural inspector.

Steel got the idea after seeing news reports about the National Security Agency’s domestic spying efforts. “Do we really want to become a surveillance society? That’s what I find really repugnant,” Steel said. The measure drew a stern warning from Washington, which is considering several regions - most of them in Colorado and other Western states - where civilians can use drones on an experimental basis. “Shooting at an unmanned aircraft could result in criminal or civil liability, just as would firing at a manned airplane,” the Federal Aviation Administration warned.

The proposal has sharply divided this tiny burg that lays claim to the world’s oldest rodeo and not much else.

(Some historians credit Deer Trail’s 1869 rodeo as the first, though Deer Trail is just one of many claimants to the title.) Taking a break from dishing up beef plates at the rodeo recently, Libby Mickaliger said it could be a great low-cost fundraiser for this dusty outpost. “If it raises money for the town, why not? It’s not like people are going to go and shoot one down,” she said.

Harry Venter, editor of the weekly Tri-County Tribune, worries the proposal sends the message that Deer Trail disapproves of the military, not domestic surveillance. “It’s embarrassing to most of us, to be honest with you,” Venter said. Drone hunting has become the dominant topic at the Brown Derby, Deer Trail’s only bar. “I try to play pretty impartial with it. —AP

and to be the person that she’s never had an opportunity to be,” he said. Coombs said he was not worried about Manning’s safety in a military prison since inmates there were firsttime offenders who wanted to complete their sentences and get out.

Experts generally view military prisons as safer than civilian prisons since the inmates are accustomed to hierarchy and discipline.

Manning had not wanted his sexual identity issues to become public, but they did after his arrest in 2010, Coombs said.

“Now that it is (public), unfortunately you have to deal with it in a public manner,” he said. A psychiatrist, Navy Reserve Captain David Moulton, testified during Manning’s trial that he suffered from gender dysphoria, or wanting to be the opposite sex, as well as narcissism and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Defense lawyers had argued that Manning had been increasingly isolated and under intense stress when he leaked the files, and that his superiors had ignored warning signs. They cited erratic behavior, including sending a picture of himself dressed as a woman to a superior and punching another soldier. In a related case involving sexualidentity issues in prisons, a federal judge last year ordered Massachusetts officials to pay for a convicted murderer’s sex-change operation. The judge ruled the state had violated the inmate’s constitutional rights in denying the procedure. — Reuters

US admits electronic spying on Americans NSA collected 56,000 emails by Americans a year WASHINGTON: The National Security Agency may have unintentionally collected as many as 56,000 emails of Americans per year between 2008 and 2011 in a program that a secret US court subsequently said may have violated US law and the Constitution, according to documents released on Wednesday. The once-classified documents were released by US intelligence agencies as part of an unprecedented White House effort to smooth the uproar following revelations by former contractor Edward Snowden about the extent of secret government surveillance programs.

US officials say the documents show that intelligence collection programs that inadvertently intrude on Americans’ privacy are found and fixed. But they also appear to raise new questions about operations by the eavesdropping National Security Agency and its oversight by the secret US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). “The court is troubled that the government’s revelations regarding the NSA’s acquisition of Internet transactions mark the third instance in less than three years in which the government has disclosed a substantial misrepresentation regarding the scope of a major collection program,” Judge John Bates of the surveillance court wrote in one of the declassified documents. More specifically, Bates said in an October 2011 ruling that the court had concluded that the process that resulted in improper collections of the tens of thousands of emails was “in some respects, deficient on statutory and constitutional grounds.” The newly declassified documents can be found at www.icontherecord.tumblr.com ‘NOT AN EGREGIOUS OVERREACHING’ The emails in question represent only a small slice of the electronic communications scooped up around the world by the NSA. It targets about 250 million email communications for collection each year and, under a separate program, has captured and kept records of millions of phone calls by Americans. According to the documents, only about 9 percent of the emails - or less than 25 million - are collected from “upstream” sources, which officials familiar with intelligence operations said are cable links belonging to telecommunications companies.

The rest are acquired by the NSA from Internet service providers at the point where they are sent or received. The roughly 56,000 annual emails in question were from “upstream” sources. Intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, defended their practices. “This is not an egregious overreaching by a greedy agency seeking to spy on

Americans. This is a technological problem that resulted in an inadvertent collection of a relatively small number of US person communications,” a senior intelligence official told reporters.

In the newly declassified ruling of the FISA Court, the court in a footnote estimates that, based on data supplied by the NSA, between 2008 and 2011, the agency might have unintentionally collected as many as 56,000 emailed communications of Americans annually. US intelligence officials told reporters that the domestic emails were collected under a program designed to target the emails of foreign terrorism suspects.

The program does not collect emails because of flagged words such as “bomb.” Instead it takes in those mentioning specific addresses, or going to or from particular addresses, one official said.

One way that emails of American citizens can get caught in the net is because the program captures the screenshot of the person’s webmail account that shows a page of emails received or sent, rather than just the one targeted email, he said. “For technological reasons NSA was not capable ... and still is not capable of breaking those down into their individual components,” the official said.

‘SELF-POLICING’ According to the officials and a court document which the administration released, the NSA decided to “purge” the material after discovering it was inadvertently collected. “When you look at these documents taken as a whole, you’ll get a sense for the really effective selfpolicing that goes on at NSA,” an intelligence official said. “Any time you have a large technologically complex operation that involves thousands of people, there will mistakes, there will be errors.” The historically ultra-secretive NSA has recently taken rare steps to openly discuss classified surveillance programs after the Snowden disclosures put the Obama administration on the spot to try and explain that US intelligence agencies were not deliberately spying on Americans and foreign allies. A handful of lawmakers, most notably Senator Ron Wyden, a Democratic member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, had begun complaining months ago that the NSA was eavesdropping on Americans’ communications in ways that were excessive and not transparent. Wyden, in a statement, said the declassification of the court ruling was “long overdue” and made clear that the law as written was “insufficient to adequately protect the civil liberties and privacy rights of law-abiding Americans and should be reformed.” —Reuters

International FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Salafists warn against trying to wipe out Islamism Nour Party followers beaten, detained because of beards CAIRO: While security forces round up the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s second largest religious party has warned the state against trying to wipe out political Islam entirely during its toughest crackdown in decades. The Nour Party, a Salafist group that backed the military’s removal of President Mohamed Morsi last month, is now also feeling the heat, its leader Younes Makhyoun told Reuters.

Members of his pacifist party - which follows an austere interpretation of Islam - have been beaten, harassed and turned over to the police in recent days, simply because they wear beards as a sign of their religious observance, he said.

With at least 900 people killed in a week, Makhyoun cautioned against an arbitrary campaign targeting Islamists, saying this would drive some underground. “This will be a dangerous path and make many disavow the tools of democracy, and perhaps resort to other methods,” he said in an interview.

Political Islam could not be “uprooted”, he added. “If anyone is thinking about excluding it, that is of the utmost stupidity.” The Brotherhood’s main rival, the Nour Party turned strongly against the much older Islamist group earlier this year, joining liberals who accused Morsi of staging a power grab. When Morsi was overthrown on July 3, Nour endorsed an army-backed transition plan, lending Islamist support to the new order as the government promised an inclusive process. But the party began to distance itself from the government after dozens of Brotherhood supporters were gunned down by security forces.

Makhyoun, a dentist who took over the party leadership last year, said the government had to assure Egyptians that freedoms won by the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak in 2011 would not be rolled back following the bloodiest week in Egypt’s modern history. “We need guarantees from the authorities to the Egyptian people: that the gains of the Jan. 25 revolution cannot be violated, especially in the field of freedoms, human rights and freedom of expression,” he said. Head of a party born out of the uprising, Makhyoun described threats to freedom including a revival of the Mubarak-era political security apparatus as the state fights the Brotherhood, which ruled for a year until Morsi’s fall. Some Nour members, angered by events and agitated by Brotherhood rhetoric, had broken party ranks, he said, adding to indications that Egypt’s established Islamist groups may be losing their grip on supporters.

Since the crackdown began, more than 1,000 Brotherhood activists including its leaders have been arrested while 100 members of the security forces have also died in the last week.

Makhyoun warned against violence and counter-violence at a time when arms have been freely available in neighboring Libya since the fall of

Muammar Gaddafi two years ago.

“Enormous quantities of weapons” had entered Egypt from Libya since 2011, he said. A compromise solution was now more complicated than ever but the only way out of the crisis, he added. “If Egypt sinks, it will sink with everyone aboard.”

The Nour Party, the most successful political newcomer after Mubarak’s downfall, tried to take the middle ground in the last months of Morsi’s rule. It tabled proposals for defusing political tensions and boycotted proMorsi rallies. That reduced Morsi’s allies to smaller Islamist parties including the Gamaa Islamiya, a once armed Salafist movement. After Morsi’s downfall, Nour exercised major influence in shaping the interim government, vetoing two candidates for prime minister. Analysts say the party has paid a price as its approach eroded its standing among some Islamists.

Makhyoun said the party had faced “enormous pressure” from its youth base to take part in the Brotherhoodled protests. It had been difficult to keep them in check as Morsi’s allies used religious rhetoric to rally young Islamists. “There was great difficulty in convincing them in this charged, emotional atmosphere,” Makhyoun said.

“There are some people who broke away - this is something natural,” he said. “I am confident that when matters become clear, they will return.”

Makhyoun traced the crisis to the violent language he said the Brotherhood and its allies had used on the eve of Morsi’s downfall. Leaders of Gamaa Islamiya, which waged an insurrection in the 1990s against the state before joining the political process, had said Morsi’s opponents should be crushed.

“We were accused of treachery: everyone who was against them was a traitor. This is difficult language and could take the youth to the path of violence, no doubt,” he said.

Brotherhood activists involved in violence should be put on trial, he said. But “random arrests of all Brotherhood members is a mistake”, he said. Since Morsi’s downfall, the Interior Minister has announced the revival of a political security apparatus, stirring fears that agencies used in Mubarak’s days to suppress the opposition would be used against the Islamists. Makhyoun listed that as one of his main concerns, together with the reimposition of the state of emergency, the closure of Islamist TV stations the day Morsi was toppled, and the mobilization of “thugs” by the state. “There are checkpoints manned by thugs who specifically harass those with beards,” Makhyoun said.

“This has happened a lot to members of the Nour Party.” “People are asking us every day: ‘What do you think?

Has State Security returned again?” said Makhyoun. “We don’t know their intentions - only God knows them but what we can say is there are steps and signs that cause concern.”— Reuters

CAIRO: This file photo shows a fully-veiled Egyptian supporter of the deposed president Mohammed Morsi performing the evening prayer at Rabaa Al-Adawiya square. — AFP

Beards and niqab become liability in troubled Egypt CAIRO: Abdul Salam Badr had no choice but to shave his beard to save himself from becoming a target in Egypt’s crackdown on supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. In recent days, overt signs of piety have become all it takes to attract suspicion from security forces at Cairo checkpoints and vigilantes looking to attack Islamists.

“I was in a shared taxi headed to the morgue, transporting the body of my friend who was killed in the demonstrations,” said Badr. “I was stopped by members of a vigilante group because I had a beard,” added the 29-year-old, who said he was not loyal to any political organization. “The only thing that saved me was the fact that I was transporting a dead body.” And so in a small, dusty salon, he shaved his facial hair, “because life has become safer without a beard.”

The ouster of Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, has set off something of a witch hunt against those perceived as being his supporters. The campaign has been fed by domestic media, which has broadcast around-the-clock images of bearded gunmen allegedly firing at security forces during demonstrations. One video, showing a bearded man with a jihadist flag attacking young men after they were thrown off the roof of an apartment block in Alexandria has exacerbated the frenzy.

Local media and the government have also loudly labeled the Muslim Brotherhood wholesale as “terrorists”. So-called “popular committees”neighborhood militias-have made life even worse, giving vigilantes the chance to wreak havoc, particularly in Cairo after a night-time curfew was implemented. The beard and women’s full-face veil, or niqab, are often characteristics of religious Muslims, but have become conflated with support for the Muslim Brotherhood.

Certain Brotherhood leaders sought to promote the wearing of the face veil during Morsi’s

turbulent year-long presidency. But now such religious symbols have become a liability. “People who wear a beard are paying the price for those members of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups who have resorted to violence” in recent days, said May Moujib, professor of political science at Cairo University. Those affected range from actual Brotherhood members to those who have no affiliation with the group but happen to sport a beard.

One Western news photographer decided to shave his beard after being repeatedly accosted in the street and even threatened by Egyptians who mistook him for a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. A bearded taxi driver, meanwhile, admitted customers were increasingly reluctant to use his services. “This is possibly the beginning of a campaign to boycott bearded taxi drivers,” he said. Mohammed Ibrahim, a pharmacist who also has a beard, has changed his route to work and the hours he keeps in order to avoid “tension with the popular committees.”

As the crackdown continues, reports have suggested that some preachers have even offered religious dispensation to the faithful who want to shave their beards to avoid being targeted. “The hostility of the people is even worse than police harassment,” said Mohamed Tolba, a Salafist Muslim.

“We are observing a tenet of Islam, but we face the hatred of the population,” said Tolba, who has recently launched an online comic to try to break frequently-held stereotypes of Salafist Muslims.

“The targeting of those with beards is deplorable behavior which threatens peaceful coexistence between Egyptians,” warned Nivine Messad, another political science professor at Cairo University. “It is a bad sign for the future, and an indication of the divisions between Egyptians,” she said. “Cooler heads must step in to put an end to the violence and incitement.”—AFP

Business FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

From China to euro-zone, world economy rebounds

Two Qatari LNG tankers to head to Egypt

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BANGALORE: An employee at a foreign currency exchange shop counts US dollar notes in Bangalore yesterday. The Indian economy, Asia’s third largest, grew 5 percent in the financial year ended March, its slowest in a decade and well off the 8 percent pace it had averaged over those 10 years. — AP

Fed uncertainty hits Asia, rupee sinks Chidambaram says currency panic ‘unwarranted’ HONG KONG: India’s rupee sank to another record low yesterday as emerging Asian currencies retreated after US Federal Reserve minutes failed to provide clarity about the future of its stimulus program.

While traders remain in sell mode on expectations the bank will soon pull the plug on its bondbuying, they were given a fillip by HSBC data showing Chinese manufacturing expanded for the first time in four years this month. The rupee dived to 65.56 against the dollar at one point as worries about the Fed cash were compounded by growing fears about the state of the Indian economy. However it retraced slightly to 64.87 later.

Meanwhile, India’s finance minister said yesterday that intense selling pressure on the rupee was exaggerated and that the currency market “panic” was unnecessary. “The panic that has gripped the

currency market is unwarranted,” P Chidambaram told a press conference. “It is almost universally accepted that the devaluation has overshot the reasonable and appropriate level,” he said, describing the volatility in the currency market as “unacceptable”. “Virtually every emerging market seems to be facing the same problem,” he added.

Indonesia’s rupiah was at 10,825 to the dollar-a four-year low but a slight improvement on the 10,945 seen Wednesday-while the Thai baht slipped to 32.01 from Thursday’s 31.77.

In share trading Jakarta ended down 1.11 percent, or 47.04 points, at 4,171.41. Kuala Lumpur lost 1.40 percent, or 24.48 points, to close at 1,720.37 while Bangkok lost 0.25 percent, or 3.33 points, to 1,351.81. Mumbai however closed 2.27 percent up, or 407.03 points to 18,312.94, snapping four straight days of declines as dealers

picked up bargains after recent losses.

Manila slumped 5.96 percent as the market played catch-up with the rest of the region after being closed for four days owing to severe flooding and a public holiday. The composite index gave up 389.22 points to 6,136.73.

Investors were left none the wiser about the Fed’s plans for its $85 billion a month stimulus known as quantitative easing (QE), which has fuelled an investment splurge in emerging Asia over the past year.

The Indian rupee, which has hit record lows for five straight trading days, slumped to 65.56 to the dollar on Thursday as uncertainty about the future of the US stimulus program added to growing fears about the state of the Indian economy. The rupee has lost about a fifth of its value this year and there are doubts over whether policymakers

are in control of the situation. Chidambaram said there was no plan to resort to capital controls and that reviving growth, which has slumped to a decade low of five percent in the year to March, would remain the focus of government. “We are exploring structural measures to reduce the current account deficit and improve foreign capital inflows,” he said, adding that the current account deficit would be contained at $70 billion this fiscal year. India has a large current account deficit which must be funded with foreign capital and the country is seen as one of the most vulnerable among emerging markets whose currencies are under pressure globally. Economists are concerned that the US Federal Reserve will begin winding down its bond-buying scheme, which has helped fuel an investment splurge in Asia’s emerging markets. — Agencies

Business FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Two Qatari LNG tankers to head to Egypt DUBAI: A third shipment of liquefied natural gas donated

by Qatar to Egypt to help alleviate its energy crisis set sail early yesterday, and a fourth is expected to leave in the evening, Qatar’s state news agency (QNA) said. Citing an unidentified official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, QNA said a fifth and final gift shipment was expected to be loaded next month.

QNA said late on Monday the second tanker left Qatar’s Ras Laffan gas export terminal on Aug. 9, a week after the first cargo. Before the Egyptian army removed Dohabacked Islamist President Mohammed Morsi from power in July, Qatar had agreed to supply Egypt with five shipments to help alleviate fuel shortages which cause frequent power cuts in summer.

Qatar’s foreign ministry has asked for the release of jailed Muslim Brotherhood leaders and condemned the Egyptian security forces’ clearing of pro-Morsi protests which has left hundreds dead across the country over the last few weeks. Because Egypt lacks the facilities to unload the LNG, the cargoes are expected to be handed to foreign firms GDF Suez and BG Group which have not received agreed Egyptian gas supplies. The cargoes will help Cairo channel more of its own gas to the domestic market. — Reuters

JAKARTA: Indonesian customers queue up to change their currencies at a money changer in Jakarta yesterday. The Indonesian currency, the rupiah, on August 20 hit a fouryear low of 10,419 to the US dollar as foreign investors flee Indonesia and other emerging markets as expectations grow that the US Federal Reserve will announce a draw-down of its $85-billion-a-month bond-buying scheme at a policy meeting next month. — AFP

Iraq PM flies to India to sell more oil BAGHDAD: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki expects to finalize a deal to sell India more crude oil during a visit to New Delhi over the next few days, Maliki said yesterday. Iraq was India’s biggest supplier of crude in June, pipping Saudi Arabia to the top slot, while imports from Iran, which used to be India’s second-biggest supplier, have slumped due to sanctions.

Indian energy companies are also interested in Iraqi oil exploration and refinery projects and Maliki’s four-day visit may see in some preliminary agreements on Indian investments in the increasingly important OPEC oil producer.“Iraq welcomed this desire by India to initiate this cooperation in the energy area which includes a deal ... to supply India with oil,” Maliki said at a press conference in Baghdad before leaving for India.

India’s imports of crude oil from Iran have more than halved from a year ago, hitting just 140,800 bpd in June, with Essar Oil the only remaining Indian client of the sanctions-hit country.

Tensions between Iran and Iraq have simmered for decades, spilling into outright war during the 1980s, but they are now focused on the battle for market share as Iran struggles with the impact of western sanctions on its sales. The United States and European Union have made it increasingly difficult for Iran to sell oil by imposing sanctions on finance and insurance as they target funding for Tehran’s controversial nuclear program. — Reuters

US unemployment claims edge higher 336,000 seek aid, but firms lay off lesser workers WASHINGTON: The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week after reaching the lowest level in nearly six years. But the broader trend suggests companies are laying off fewer workers and could step up hiring in the months ahead.

The Labor Department said yesterday that applications for first-time benefits rose 13,000 in the week ending Aug. 17 to a seasonally adjusted 336,000.

The four-week average, which smoothes week to week fluctuations, fell to 330,500. That’s the sixth straight decline and the lowest for the average since November 2007. At the depths of the recession in March 2009, applications numbered 670,000.

Applications for unemployment benefits generally reflect layoffs. The fourweek average has fallen 5 percent in the past month. The drop in applications over the past month suggests employers added 200,000 or more jobs in August. That would be an improvement from the 162,000 added in July.

The unemployment rate fell to a 41/2-year low of 7.4 percent last month, from 7.6 percent in June. That’s still well above the 5 percent to 6 percent range associated with a normal economy.

The drop in layoffs helps explain why job growth has increased this year to an average of 192,000 net jobs a month, even while overall economic growth has stayed sluggish.

MIAMI: Job seekers check out companies offering more than 2,000 job opportunities at a job fair in Miami Lakes, Florida. — AP Net job gains show the number of people hired minus those who lose or quit their jobs. And when companies cut fewer jobs, it doesn’t take many new hires to create a high net gain.

The weak economy has made employers hesitant to hire freely. The economy grew at a sluggish 1.4 percent annual rate in the first half of the year, hobbled by tax increases, federal spending cuts and global economic weakness.

Many economists foresee growth accelerating in the second half of the year to

an annual rate of roughly 2.5 percent.

They expect consumer spending to pick up as the effects of the tax increases and spending cuts diminish.

There have been some recent signs of improvement. Sales of previously occupied homes surged in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.4 million. That was the most in 3 1/2 years and a sign the housing recovery should continue to spur economic growth. Last week, the government said US retail sales grew at a solid pace in July. — AP

India’s Iranian oil imports drop 75% NEW DELHI: India’s imports of Iranian crude plunged by three quarters in July from June, tanker arrival data obtained by Reuters showed, as the country’s only active importer in the past two months curbed buying. The cut in Essar Oil’s Iran volumes were likely due to New Delhi’s delay in extending approvals for Iranian insurers covering shipments into India, a trade source said.

Indian imports of Iranian crude are expected to rise from August, however, with refiner Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd resuming shipments after a gap of four months because of a separate insurance issue. MRPL’s return as a buyer could give some relieve to Iran, which has seen its exports more than halved by sanctions imposed in 2012 by the United States and the European Union, costing Tehran billions of dollars a month in lost oil revenue.

India on July 17 granted a three-month approval to Iranian shipping underwriters Kish P&I Club and Moallem Insurance Co with effect from June 28, the date of lapse. Essar Oil has declined to comment on whether the issue over the shipping insurers resulted in its lower imports for July or if the resolution means its imports would rebound in August. Essar Oil imported 35,500 barrels per day (bpd) of oil from Iran in July, compared with 140,800 bpd in June, tanker arrival data made available to Reuters shows.

The cuts dropped India’s Iranian oil imports 82 percent from 201,900 bpd in the same month a year ago, when state-backed refiners were also taking shipments. Iran dropped in July to 15th place on the list of India’s crude suppliers for the month, down from eighth place in June and fourth for all of 2012. The US and EU sanctions placed on Iran over its nuclear program

have reduced its oil exports more than half from pre-sanction levels of about 2.2 million bpd.

In the first half of 2013, imports of Iranian oil from its four biggest buyers - China, India, Japan and South Korea - fell more than a fifth from a year ago to around 960,000 bpd. MRPL, which used to be Iran’s top Indian client, and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd halted Iranian oil imports in April due to difficulties in getting insurance for refineries processing Iranian oil. That forced New Delhi to look at providing its own reinsurance after European firms backed out over sanctions.

MRPL has already started taking Iran oil again, while HPCL has said it wants more adequate coverage for refineries running the sanctions-hit crude. The Indian government also wants to boost imports from Tehran to prop up the rupee, which fell past 65 to the dollar to a record low on Thursday.

The US and European Union sanctions have pushed Tehran into accepting payment in rupees for some of its oil, and higher volumes could support the currency.

“Within the UN sanctions and fully complying with the sanctions, there may be more space for imports from Iran,” Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said earlier this month.

Overall in the first seven months of this year India’s imports from Iran have declined 46 percent from the same period last year to about 185,700 bpd, the trade data showed.

India imported nearly 58 percent more oil from Latin America in the January to July period as its Iranian shipments dropped. Overall, Asia’s third-largest economy shipped in 14.1 percent more oil in July than a year ago, while imports for the January-July period rose about 10.3 percent, the data showed. — Reuters

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Business FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

From China to euro-zone, world economy rebounds US factories to show further expansion HONG KONG: PetroChina President Wang Dongjin attends the company’s interim results announcement in Hong Kong yesterday. State-owned PetroChina’s half-year profit rose to nearly $11 billion as Asia’s biggest oil producer increased output of crude and natural gas. —AP

PetroChina H1 profit up 5.6% HONG KONG: PetroChina yesterday said first-half net profit increased 5.6 percent for 2013, citing a boost from policy reforms, which helped narrow losses for its refining and chemical businesses.

China, one of the world’s largest oil consumers, brought in fuel pricing mechanisms in March that are more in line with international market standards, giving more room for oil companies to set prices closer to market rates. PetroChina, the country’s largest listed oil company, said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Thursday it recorded a net profit of 65.52 billion yuan ($10.70 billion) for the first six months ending June 30, compared to 62.02 billion yuan for the first half of 2012.

Revenue rose 5.2 percent to 1.10 trillion yuan, compared with 1.05 trillion yuan in the same period last year. “The group successfully reduced losses of the refining and chemicals segment,” company chairman Zhou Jiping said in the statement.

The refining segment saw a 45 percent drop in operating losses to 15.86 billion yuan, compared with 28.88 billion yuan from the same period last year. In March, Beijing authorities brought domestic fuel price setting a closer in line with international standards, swaying from an old practice where domestic prices were often fixed lower than market prices, squeezing the profits for refiners.

However, PetroChina said global economic uncertainties, China’s slowdown in growth, and oversupply of oil globally are challenges that the company has to face for the rest of the year. “The recovery of the global economy will remain highly uncertain in the second half of 2013,” Zhou said. —AFP

India’s Tata rebrands ‘world’s cheapest car’ MUMBAI: India’s top vehicle maker Tata Motors says it plans to reposition the Nano as a “smart city car” after its marketing pitch as the world’s cheapest auto resulted in disappointing sales. The Nano was launched in 2009 as a budget solution for millions of aspirational lower-middle class Indian families wanting to change from two- to four-wheel vehicles. But status-conscious consumers largely shunned the “cheap” tag.

“We are now focusing on increasing the features and the perceived value of the Nano with every subsequent model launch,” Tata chairman Cyrus Mistry told shareholders at its annual meeting on Wednesday in Mumbai. “We are now focusing on making it a smart city car and targeting the young customers,” he said, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported.

The jellybean-shaped Nano, which sold for around $2,200 when its first edition went on the market, saw sales drop by more than 27 percent in the year to March, and Tata’s former chairman Ratan Tata admitted the car had an image problem.

New boss Mistry said added features will include power steering options, an improved interior and exterior and better fuel efficiency. He also said the company would launch the much-delayed compressed natural gas -fuelled variant of the Nano this year.

Tata’s dedicated Nano plant in the western state of Gujarat is currently running at less than half its capacity, according to the PTI report. Tata, which owns Jaguar and Land Rover, reported a 23 percent dive in net profit in the April to June quarter as higher sales for its British luxury brands failed to offset weak domestic demand. —AFP

LONDON: Evidence is growing that the world economy is on the mend. Business surveys yesterday showed better-than-expected growth in the euro zone and a rebound in China’s vast manufacturing sector. Figures later in the day are similarly expected to confirm a continued strengthening of US factory output, probably clearing the way for the Federal Reserve to start ending its immense bond purchase program next month.

Markets are struggling to adjust to the idea that the Fed will ease off its stimulus program and pare back the $85 billion of bonds it has been snapping up every month. But at its most basic level, the move would signal that the world’s largest economy is firmly on the road to recovery.

“Tapering would be a sign that the Fed believes the US economy is gaining some traction. It signals that the recovery is more solid,” said Philip Shaw, chief economist at Investec.

“There are signs that momentum is building, albeit slowly, in the pace of the euro-zone recovery, and in China too.” The world economy has struggled for momentum, hobbled by debt problems ravaging Europe while China grapples with waning foreign and domestic demand for its goods. But Markit’s Flash Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) yesterday showed business activity across the euro zone picked up this month at a faster pace than expected, bouncing to 51.7 from last month’s 50.5. Anything above 50 indicates expansion.

It was the highest reading since June 2011 and beat all predictions in a Reuters poll whose median forecast was for 50.9. Readings above 50 signify expansion in activity. An flash composite PMI from Germany, the bloc’s largest economy, showed the growth rate was the fastest in seven months. In France, however, activity declined across the board.

A sister survey from China rose to a fourmonth high of 50.1 from July’s final reading of 47.7, although only barely passing the watershed

50 line. The Chinese government has announced a series of targeted measures to support the economy, including scrapping taxes for small firms, offering more help for ailing exporters and boosting investment in urban infrastructure and railways.

zone escape from its longest recession on record last quarter, expanding at a better-than-expected but still modest 0.3 percent. Markit said yesterday’s composite PMI, which surveys thousands of companies across the region and is used as an indicator of growth, pointed to a 0.2-0.3 percent

ATHENS: People look at goods at a shop in central Athens yesterday.

ECB board member Joerg Asmussen said that Europe would consider additional aid to Greece if Athens makes progress on cutting its budget deficit and meets all the terms of its bailout deal. —AFP “It confirms that the economy has stabilized in the short term and downside risks for (the second half of the year) have declined,” said Zhiwei Zhang, China economist at Nomura in Hong Kong said of the PMI. The flash reading for US factories, due at 1258 GMT, is expected to come in at 54.0 compared to July’s 53.7.

Growth data last week showed support from Germany and France helped the 17-nation euro

economic expansion in the current quarter.

That is similar to a Reuters poll taken earlier this month that predicted a third-quarter growth of 0.2 percent. “It’s looking good. If the euro zone is picking up then that bodes well for the global economy. The wobble in France is a bit of a worry, but hopefully that will be corrected,” said Chris Williamson, Markit’s chief economist. —Reuters

Indian tycoon Ambani in court for telecom trial NEW DELHI: One of India’s richest men, Anil Ambani, appeared in court yesterday to answer questions about his company’s role in the allegedly fraudulent allocation of telecom licenses in 2008.

The tycoon, who heads the Reliance ADA Group, lost a legal bid to postpone his appearance and answered questions from the witness stand. Three of his Reliance Telecom executives have been charged in the case, one of the biggest corruption scandals in India’s history, but he was called as a prosecution witness.

Asked about various meetings and links between his company and others accused of wrongdoing, he replied frequently that he did “not recall” or “was not aware”.

Prosecutors allege that the then-telecom minister A. Raja, who is also on trial, sold telecom licences in 2008 at giveaway prices to favored companies that paid bribes to secure sought-after secondgeneration (2G) bandwidth. The national auditor calculated that the losses to the state were as high as $40 billion, but this

figure is disputed by the government and some analysts.

Three telecom firms-Reliance Telecom, Unitech Wireless and Swan-have been charged with corruption, as well as more than a dozen individuals. They have pleaded not guilty.

Ambani was frequently asked about links between Reliance and Swan, which prosecutors allege was a front for his business. “I am not aware,” he responded when asked if Reliance had invested in Swan. When asked about the minutes of meetings at which he was allegedly present to discuss Swan’s finances, he replied: “I attend a large number of meetings, I don’t recall (each one).”

The small courtroom was packed with lawyers and media, with most of them forced to stand. Ambani’s wife Tina has been summoned to give evidence on Friday. The so-called “2G scam” in India has been immensely damaging for the ruling coalition led by the Congress party, which has been ensnared in a series of corruption scandals since its re-election in 2009. —AFP

NEW DELHI: Reliance Dhirubhai Group Chairman Anil Ambani (right) walks with officials as he leaves the Supreme Court in New Delhi. —AFP

Business

FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

British banks face £1.3bn bill over new mis-selling LONDON: Britain’s troubled banking sector faces a bill of up to £1.3 billion to compensate millions of customers who were mis-sold credit card insurance and identity protection policies, regulators said yesterday.

Card holders were mis-led into spending about £30-£80 pounds a year on insurance, the watchdog said, spotlighting another case of sharp practice in the British financial sector which has been damaged by a number of scandals in recent years. The cost of the compensation works out at up to the equivalent of $2.0 billion or 1.5 billion euros. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said in a statement that it had agreed a compensation package with policy provider Card Protection Plan Limited (CPP), as well as 13 banks and credit card issuers.

Among these was Barclays, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and a division of Lloyds Banking Group. “The FCA has reached an agreement with CPP and 13 high street banks and credit card issuers that will pave the way for redress to be paid to customers who were mis-sold CPP’s Card Protection and Identity Protection policies,” the regulator said in a statement.

“Seven million customers, who between them bought and renewed about 23 million policies, will soon receive a letter from CPP giving more information on the process. The redress bill could be up to £1.3 billion,” it added. The amount of compensation will depend on the type of policy and the length of time it was held, while CPP will contact affected customers from the end of August.

CPP had already been slapped with a £10.5-million fine in November 2012 over the issue.

“Customers were given misleading and unclear information about the policies so that they bought cover that either was not needed, or to cover risks that had been greatly exaggerated,” the FCA added yesterday. “As well as CPP selling directly to customers, high street banks and credit card issuers introduced millions of customers to CPP.” The watchdog added: “The involvement of the banks and credit card issuers reflects the fact that they introduced customers to CPP’s products and so must share responsibility for putting things right.” The insurance policies were called ‘Card Protection’, which cost approximately £30 per year, and ‘Identity Protection’, which cost about

£80 per year. Both were widely missold. “We have been encouraged that, working closely with the FCA and despite their different business needs, a large number of firms have voluntarily come together to create a redress scheme that will provide a fair outcome for customers,” added FCA chief executive Martin Wheatley. “This kind of collaborative and responsible approach is a good example of how firms are taking more responsibility and helping-step by step-to rebuild trust.”

Britain’s troubled banks are still reeling from a series of scandals, including the Libor rate-rigging crisis and the misselling of payment protection insurance (PPI) on credit products. The sector has already paid out more than £11 billion to compensate customers who were mis-sold PPI. — AFP

Gas, power hub to trump London’s airport project National Grid plans to expand the facility

BEIJING: A woman uses her iPhone as she walks past an advertisement featuring iPhone cases at the Macworld iWorld expo in Beijing yesterday. —AP

China manufacturing rebounds in August BEIJING: Chinese manufacturing activity expanded for the first time in four months in August, according to a closely watched indicator yesterday, pointing to renewed strength in the world’s second-largest economy. HSBC said the preliminary reading of its purchasing managers’ index (PMI) came in at 50.1 for the month, up from July’s 47.7, which was an 11month low.

The PMI tracks activity at China’s factories and workshops and is a closely watched gauge of the health of the economy.

A reading above 50 indicates expansions, while anything below signals contraction. The tally was the highest since April’s 50.4 and ended three straight months of contraction.

Lu Ting, China economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong, described the result in a report as “a nice big surprise to the markets”. The figure brings HSBC’s measurement more in line with the country’s official figures. The National Bureau of Statistics this month said its PMI rose to 50.3 in July from 50.1 in June. China is expected to announce the official August PMI on September 1, while HSBC’s final figure will be released the following day.

“China’s manufacturing growth has started to stabilize on the back of modest improvements of new business and output,” Qu Hongbin, HSBC’s chief economist for China based in Hong Kong, said in the bank’s statement announcing the figure. He attributed the improvement to “initial filteringthrough” effects of recent policy measures to boost the economy as well as restocking of inventories.

“We expect further filtering-through, which is likely to deliver some upside surprises to China’s growth in the coming months,” he added. Fears over China’s economic outlook were rampant during the first six months of the year as growth slowed. The government has avoided large-scale stimulus measures, but in late July announced limited steps to boost growth, including reducing taxes on small companies.

Positive data for July, including an acceleration in industrial production to a five-month high, have helped improve sentiment that China’s downtrend may have hit a bottom for the time being. — AFP

LONDON: The London mayor’s preferred plan for a new airport is likely to fall flat, because it would force relocation of one of Europe’s biggest liquefied natural gas terminals at a time when Britain relies ever more on overseas gas. Mayor Boris Johnson in July gave his backing to three plans for a new airport, which he said were deliverable by 2029, and favoured a 68 billion pound ($106.6 billion) project on the Isle of Grain in Kent, 30 miles east of London.

“The Isle of Grain has the space to accommodate a world-class, efficient hub airport,” Johnson said in a submission to the Airport Commission, which is assessing the options and will make recommendations in a final report by summer 2015. But building an airport there would require the dismantling and relocation of one of Britain’s most important energy hubs including the LNG terminal, gas storage sites and a big power station in a complex that dominates the eastern end of the peninsula.

The mayor’s office did not identify an alternate location for the energy hub, and analysts say another site is not likely to be found close to London that can take the 350 metre-long LNG tankers that arrive at the terminal. “There are so many things that don’t make sense with the Isle of Grain as an airport, and energy is certainly a huge factor in this,” Zoe Metcalfe, aviation director at Buro Happold Consulting, said.

“Where else close to London will you find a space to build another deep-water port for LNG tankers that’s accepted by the public? It just doesn’t work,” she added.

Britain relies increasingly on gas imports because its own North Sea reserves are dwindling fast. The Grain LNG terminal, Europe’s biggest in terms of tank capacity, is able to import over 20 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas per year, around 20 percent of Britain’s needs.

National Grid has planned to expand it.

“By 2020, over 60 percent of UK Gas is expected to be imported,” National Grid said in a report on the Grain terminal.

The plan for a new airport on the Thames Estuary.

But National Grid says it is in talks over a “The UK faces a significant energy challenge over the coming years, and the 300 million pound Isle of Grain expansion, developments taking place at the Isle of which would include a massive new storGrain will ensure meeting that challenge,” age tank, a second cryogenic pipeline and a new jetty that would allow two LNG it said.

LNG tankers bring supercooled (minus tankers to unload at the same time.

The grid company has applied to regu160 degrees Celsius), pressurized gas from overseas suppliers such as Qatar. Once in lator Ofgem for an expansion of 8.4 bcm Britain, the gas is pumped through cryo- per year over 27 years starting from genic pipelines into massive gas storage October 2016. Ofgem has said it is likely to tanks before it is regasified to 600 times its grant 24 years, extending the terminal’s life into the 2040s. liquid volume and fed into the grid.

“Grain would enhance UK security of The mayor’s submission backs a plan by architect Norman Foster for a new Thames supply ... and we agree that the additional Hub Airport with four runways that could 8.4 bcm will increase flexibility as the handle up to 150 million passengers a year. demand for LNG increases,” an Ofgem The 35-page submission includes only one report says. Even before National Grid’s paragraph on the existing use of the Isle of expansion plan, the Isle of Grain now has enough storage capacity to meet three Grain as an LNG and power hub.

It calls for the LNG terminal to be days’ worth of UK gas demand, important moved. “National Grid’s LNG facility is too for safeguarding security of supply.

As for other facilities, the Isle of Grain is tall and too close to the proposed airport site and would need to be relocated,” the the connection point for the 1,000 megawatt (MW) BritNed undersea power submission said.

Analysts say relocation of the Grain cable between Britain and continental energy infrastructure, including company Europe. German utility E.ON also opened a compensation, would cost around 3 billion 500 million pound, 1,300 MW gas-fired pounds. The 39-page Foster plan, which power station there in 2010, which can devotes several paragraphs to the power supply around 1 million households. The and gas hub, says the LNG terminal will be mayor’s submission says the 244-metre approaching the end of its life cycle by the chimney of the Grain power station “would require special consideration”. — Reuters late 2020s.

Health FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Disconnect seen between two key brain regions LONDON: The delusions and other psychotic symptoms experienced by people with schizophrenia may be caused by a faulty brain “switch” that blurs their ability to distinguish inner thoughts from objective reality, scientists said on Wednesday. In a study published in the journal Neuron, researchers found the severity of symptoms such as hearing voices and delusions was due to a disconnection between two key regions of the brain - the insula and the lateral frontal cortex. The finding, they said, could in future lead to the development of better, more targeted treatments for schizophrenia, with fewer side effects.

“In our daily life, we constantly switch between our inner, private world and the outer, objective world,” said Lena

Palaniyappan, of Nottingham University’s psychiatry department, who co-led the study. “This switching action is enabled by the connections between the insula and frontal cortex. (But) this switch process appears to be disrupted in patients with schizophrenia.”

Schizophrenia is one of the most common serious psychiatric disorders affecting around 1 in 100 people worldwide.

Scientists are not yet clear what causes it, but believe it could be a combination of a genetic predisposition to the condition combined with environmental factors.

Drug use is known to be a key trigger - people who use cannabis, or stimulant drugs, are three to four times more likely to go on to develop recurrent psychotic symptoms.

Researchers also think underdevelopment of the brain in the womb and in early childhood could play a role in schizophrenia.

Side-effects Previous studies have found that schizophrenia patients have unusually smooth “folding” patterns of the brain over the insula region - suggesting this brain area may not have developed normally. In this latest study, Palaniyappan’s team used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans to compare the brains of 35 healthy volunteers with those of 38 schizophrenic patients.

The results showed that whereas the majority of healthy people were able to make the switch from inner thoughts to external reality using the connections

between the insula and frontal cortex regions, the patients with schizophrenia were less likely to shift to using their frontal cortex. “This could explain why internal thoughts sometime appear as external objective reality, experienced (by schizophrenia patients) as voices or hallucinations,” Palaniyappan said.

She said it could also explain why people with schizophrenia find it hard to take in external material pleasures - for example to enjoy a social event or listening to music.

Palaniyappan said that normally, the insular and frontal cortex form a loop in the brain with the insular stimulating the frontal cortex while it in turn inhibits the insula - but in patients with schizophrenia this system was found to be flawed. — - Reuters

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26

Opinion FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Flamboyant Chinese princeling faces indignity

By Ben Blanchard

T

he writing was perhaps already on the wall for Bo Xilai, the controversial former top official of China’s southwestern city of Chongqing, when he appeared at last year’s parliamentary meeting, alternately chastened and combative. In earlier annual sessions of parliament, Bo had swept in, all smiles and lanky grace, preceded by a wave of TV cameras and popping flashbulbs.

This time he was uncharacteristically restrained.

Bo rolled his eyes at repeated questions from foreign reporters about a scandal involving then-vice mayor Wang Lijun, and the normally effusive state media and parliament delegates kept their distance. Wang, who doubled as the city’s police chief before his downfall, went to ground in the US Consulate in nearby Chengdu in February last year until he was coaxed out and placed under investigation.

“I certainly never expected this,” Bo said of Wang’s flight. “I felt that it happened extremely suddenly.” News of his own change of fortune came just as suddenly. A few days after his news conference in March last year, a terse report from the official Xinhua news agency announced that Beijing had sacked Bo from his post, all but snuffing out his chances of rising to the top echelons of the Communist Party. Now the end appears imminent for Bo, 64, whose long-awaited trial on charges of corruption, accepting bribes and abuse of power opened on Thursday, when he is certain to be found guilty by the Communist Party-controlled court.

Bo’s wife, Gu Kailai, and Wang were jailed last year over China’s biggest political scandal in years, which stems from the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood in November 2011, a crime for which Gu was convicted. After first helping Gu evade suspicion of poisoning Heywood, Wang hushed up evidence of the murder, according to the official account of Wang’s trial. In late January 2012, Wang confronted Bo with the allegation that Gu was suspected of killing Heywood. But Wang was “angrily rebuked and had his ears boxed”.

After Bo was sacked, he disappeared from public view and has not had a chance to respond publicly to the accusations against him. Sources told Reuters in February that Bo was refusing to cooperate with the government investigation, had staged hunger strikes and had refused to shave to protest against what he saw as his unfair treatment. But he later began cooperating with authorities, the sources said last month.

As the outspoken Chongqing party chief, Bo had mounted a daring bid for the nation’s top political body, the party’s Politburo Standing Committee.

He captured national attention with a crackdown on organized crime and corrupt police officers in Chongqing, China’s teeming wartime capital, and brought about stronger economic growth. But he also alienated political peers.

The anti-mafia campaign netted thousands of people and tapped into popular anger over the corruption and collusion that has accompanied China’s economic boom. “Fighting organized

crime is for the sake of letting the people enjoy peace and creating a clean social environment in Chongqing,” Bo said at his parliamentary news briefing, defending his record.

“We are sure of ourselves and free of regrets.” Bo, a former China commerce minister and mayor of the northeastern port city of Dalian where he wooed foreign investors, once had a flair for the dramatic. His directness and independent streak impressed foreigners but annoyed peers, who prefer to rule through backdoor consensus and often stilted slogans. Analysts have noted that no one in the top leadership had publicly praised Bo or the crackdown on organized crime.

Then-Premier Wen Jiabao told his annual news conference last year that Chongqing’s leadership should reflect on the Wang Lijun incident, and also obliquely criticized Bo’s drive to revive songs and culture from the heyday of Mao’s Communist revolution. Bo is a son of late vice-premier Bo Yibo, making the younger Bo a “princeling” - a child of an incumbent, retired or late national leader. His wife was a lawyer and their son, Bo Guagua, was educated at an expensive, elite British private school and then Oxford University. The younger Bo’s Facebook photos from parties caused their own Internet stir in China.

While wooing investors, Bo also envisioned low-cost housing for rural poor and migrant labourers, designed to appeal to then-President Hu Jintao’s

SHANDONG: This screen grab taken from CCTV footage yesterday shows ousted Chinese political star Bo Xilai (left) being escorted by policemen as he enters the courtroom to stand on trial in the Intermediate People’s Court in Jinan, in eastern China’s Shandong province. —AFP goal of creating a “harmonious society”.

He called his vision “Peaceful Chongqing.” It included text messages with Maoist slogans, singing old-style

revolutionary songs by civil servants, who also had to adopt poor families and staff petition offices where citizens can complain. But Bo had difficulty shaking

off the suspicion of some critics, both inside and outside the country, that he was more concerned with his own rise than that of China. —Reuters

Obama faces distasteful choice in troubled Egypt

By Stephen Collinson, Nicolas Revise

T

he United States again faces the unpalatable policy dilemma that has shaped decades of relations with Egypt. Should it swallow its values on human rights and democracy and sup with Egyptian generals who plotted a coup but are vital to US strategic and security interests? The White House has struggled for two years to keep pace with Arab revolutions.

But the ouster of democratically-elected president Mohamed Morsi and a bloody crackdown on Islamist protesters have revived uncomfortable questions which dogged the alliance with strongman Hosni Mubarak. For years, Washington bought a cold peace between Israel and Egypt, priority access to the Suez Canal, a partner in Middle East peace brokering and checked the spread of Islamic extremism with billions of dollars in mostly military aid. Now, President Barack Obama must decide whether to renew that pragmatic bargain with a government again accused of crushing bedrock freedoms.

“This is a balancing act between how to best promote our interests and our values and our principles,” said Marie Harf, a State Department spokeswoman.

Early signs suggest national interests will be decisive.

With rare candor, the White House will not call Morsi’s ouster a coup-to avoid being forced to cut aid to Egypt under US law. But with protesters gunned down in the streets, some question whether US credibility on human rights is undercut by a relationship with Egypt’s junta.

“We can no longer conduct business as usual,” said Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, an Obama ally, calling for a halt to aid to Egypt pending a return to democracy and political freedoms. The tussle between US values and national security priorities is

not confined to Egypt-it has been a theme in US foreign policy since the 1970s. “There has always been this tension. It has generally been decided in favor of short term national interests, strategic interests and not human rights and democratic issues,” said Gregory Gause, a political science professor at the University of Vermont. As guarantor of the 1978 Camp David peace accords between Israel and Egypt, Washington has fed Egyptian generals top US hardware, including battle tanks, F-16 warplanes and helicopters. Since 1987, the annual price tag has been $1.3 billion plus several hundred million in economic and development help. Only Israel enjoys more US largesse. But Obama said last week “our traditional cooperation cannot continue as usual when civilians are being killed in the streets.” He called for an end to martial law and support for universal rights while cancelling a planned military exercise with Egypt. He did not however turn off military aid, though will assess the price and return of US assistance and US capacity to influence events in Cairo, in a policy review. The remaining nearly $600 million of military aid due this year remains pending. Officials however privately say an order of 10 Apache attack helicopters to Cairo could be held off.

A fight meanwhile is brewing on Capitol Hill over next year’s package. Obama’s moral exposure on Egypt may be more acute than that of previous presidents. A Nobel laureate, he argues that long-term, democratic transitions in the Arab world are vital to US security. And after calling for a “new beginning” with the Islamic world in Cairo in 2009, cozying up to the generals slaughtering the Muslim Brotherhood would spark hypocrisy charges.

American guilt over the pact with Egypt has surfaced periodically. In 2005, George W Bush sent his secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to Cairo with a

startling message. “For 60 years, my country, the United States, pursued stability at the expense of democracy in this region, here in the Middle East-and we achieved neither,” Rice said. America got a swift response: Mubarak opponent Ayman Nour was soon jailed. But US aid still flowed and Mubarak kept his seat at the Middle East peacemaking table.

Obama also bought into the bargain, praising Mubarak in the Oval Office in 2009 as a “leader and counselor and friend,” though the State Department said Egypt was stained by torture, abuse and arbitrary arrests. Apparently without noticing the irony, Obama drove the same year through Cairo streets cleared by Mubarak’s iron-fisted security forces, and then made a case for Arab political freedom in a seminal speech. Two years later, the US president helped push the aged Egyptian leader from power. Critics of the US pact with Cairo’s generals argue it fomented anti-Americanism and bred extremism. Egypt is fertile ground for jihadi recruiters: Al-Qaeda chief Ayman AlZawahiri is Egyptian as was Mohammed Atta, top hijacker on September 11, 2001. So, as officials admit that US influence in Cairo is not what it was, what will Obama do? Previous form suggests he will plot a middle course after what an official told AFP would be the most comprehensive rethink of US policy towards Egypt in years.

One option might be to reorient military aid to equipment suitable to fighting jihadism in the Sinai peninsula. Hussein Ibish, of the American Task Force on Palestine, predicted Obama would opt for watered-down foreign policy realism. Washington will “go as far as it can without putting into danger the fundamentals of the strategic relationship with Egypt: the peace treaty with Israel ... preferential shipping treatment in the canal, military cooperation, intelligence cooperation,” Ibish said.—AFP

FOOD

Cronuts

FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Necessity, meet invention

Whatever you call it, the world is agog at the Cronut, a deep-fried croissant-like doughnut. The originals are made in New York, but here’s an option for your own kitchen. Once upon a month ago, a New York City bakery unleashed upon the world a New Thing. They called it a Cronut - a deep-fried doughnut made with croissant dough, plumped with pastry cream, then glazed. The bakery also trademarked the name, betting that Cronut Fever would lead to all sorts of knockoffs passing through sugar-glazed lips.

Thus, we are calling our take on this delicacy the Crodo. Or maybe the Fauxnut. Or ... really, what’s in a name? Just don’t call them “gone.” You’ll never have to, once you know how to make a version at home.

And you can, thanks to a blogger in Britain, if you’re up to the challenge. They’re not difficult, but they are putzy. And you’ll be the coolest kid at the office/brunch/picnic/party when you prance in with a platter of ... whatever you want to call them.

(Whoop Loops? - because people may whoop.)

Edd Kimber, who blogs from London

(theboywhobakes.co.uk), is no slouch around sugar. He won the BBC Two series “The Great British Bake Off” in 2010, and has a new cookbook, “Say It With Cake,” coming out in August. He wrote that he was intrigued when the Dominique Ansel Bakery (dominiqueansel.com) debuted the Cronut on May 10. Lines formed. Within days, scalpers were holding the pastries hostage for $20. $30? $40!

That’s partly because the bakery makes only 300 each day. Supply, meet demand.

On June 3, Kimber posted his version.

“Since I won’t be in New York anytime

soon,” he wrote, “I thought I would see if I could replicate them at home, and you know what? They are pretty damn good!”

He’s the first to say that he doesn’t use “proper croissant dough.” Instead, he tweaks recipes for quick puff pastry into a croissant dough that needs only 20 minutes of actual labor, and an overnight rest in the refrigerator. The results aren’t quite as tender or lofty as what comes from a truly laminated dough - or what emerges from Monsieur Ansel’s bakery - but for what the New York Times called a Frankenpastry, it’s good enough.

After converting Kimber’s recipe from metric, we tweaked a few things, making them a bit smaller (thus reducing the

on their Facebook page, AngelFoodMN. Gregory’s Foods in Eagan, Minn, which manufactures doughs, mixes and batters for local bakeries, quickly developed their take. They call it a (yawn) “croissant-cut donut,” knowing that individual bakeries will come up with their own names. Mike Reineck, director of sales, said that interest is strong. “You hardly ever see a whole new category emerge,” he said, predicting that within the next few weeks, 250 bakeries in the metro area will be proofing and frying Gregory’s base dough, likely putting their own spin on it. “No one I’ve spoken to says, ‘Nah, we’re going to pass on this fad.’”

Be forewarned: The shelf life of these treats is comparable to a hummingbird’s

degree of indulgence), the pastry cream a bit creamier, and shifting the frosting to a glaze. We considered a garnish of groundup Lipitor tablets, but decided that would send the wrong message. Twin Cities residents already have some options for comparison-tasting, with more in the wings.

Angel Food Bakery and Coffee Bar in Minneapolis began selling their take on the craze a few weeks ago. Further experimentation led to a twisted knot that looks nothing like the original Cronut “because we decided to take the idea even one step further toward traditional French pastries,” said baker/owner Cynthia Gerdes. Croknots? They’re running a naming contest

wingbeat. This pastry wants to be consumed as soon as possible after frying, absolutely on the same day, which gives the home baker the freshness advantage.

Some knockoffs omit the pastry cream, which helps them last a bit longer, and also forestalls the need to chill them should they not be served within a few hours.

None of the recipe’s steps is difficult, but there are several. The good news is that the dough and pastry cream need to be made the day before you plan to serve, which spreads out the work. In the morning, roll out the dough, cut the doughnut shapes, let them rest until they begin to puff a bit, then fry them. Roll them while

FOOD FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

warm in a lemony sugar, then inject the pastry cream in four quick jabs. Drizzle with a lemon glaze, and serve them with a flourish. When people ask, “What are these things?” there’s only one response: “You tell me.”

HOMEMADE ‘CRONUTS’ Makes 10, plus doughnut holes.

Note: This recipe is adapted from Edd Kimber, a London baker who blogs at theboywhobakes.co.uk. He calls these Lemon and Vanilla Fauxnuts. You’ll have to start the recipe the day before you want to fry these as the dough needs resting time. Instant yeast also is called bread machine or rapid-rise yeast.

Croissant dough: 1\2 c. milk 1\2 c. water 1 c. all-purpose flour 1 c. bread flour 2 tsp. instant yeast 2 tbsp. granulated sugar 1\2 tsp. salt 10 tbsp. (1 1\2 sticks) unsalted butter, diced and chilled Lemon sugar: 1/3 c. granulated sugar Zest of 1 lemon Glaze: Lemon juice, freshly squeezed 1 c. powdered sugar Pastry cream filling: 4 egg yolks 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour 1\2 c. plus 1 tbsp. granulated sugar 1\2 c. half-and-half 1 tbsp. vanilla extract Directions: To make the croissant dough: Combine milk and 1\2 cup water in a small bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flours, instant yeast, 2 tablespoons granulated sugar and salt. With a pastry blender, cut in the chilled butter until it is in bits no smaller than the size of a pea. This is the important stage.

You are not making a bread or a pastry so don’t overwork the mixture; you need to see individual pieces of butter.

Add the liquid ingredients and gently fold into the dry ingredients, trying to moisten everything without making the butter any

smaller. Once the ingredients are roughly combined, turn the mixture out onto a work surface and lightly knead together to form a ball of dough. Return the dough to the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 2 hours. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place on a well-floured work surface.

Roll out the dough into a roughly 8-by-16-inch rectangle. (It will look quite shaggy.) Fold in thirds, like a business letter, brushing off excess flour. This is the first turn. Give the dough a quarter-turn and repeat the rolling and folding process 2 more times, giving the dough a total of 3 turns. (It will get increasingly smoother.) Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

To make the lemon sugar: In a small bowl, rub the 1/3 cup granulated sugar and lemon zest together for a few minutes with your fingers. Set aside.

To make the glaze: Stir in lemon juice, a teaspoon at a time, to the powdered sugar to make a thin glaze.

To make the pastry cream: In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, flour and granulated sugar (1\2 cup plus 1 tablespoon).

In a medium saucepan, bring half-and-half just to a boil over medium heat. Whisking constantly, slowly pour the half-and-half over the egg mixture, then pour this back into the saucepan and cook until thickened, continuing to whisk. Whisk in the vanilla. Pour the thickened custard into a clean bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until needed.

To make the pastries: Place the chilled dough on a floured surface and roll to about 1/3 inch thick - much thicker than if making a croissant.

Using your doughnut cutter as a guide, the rectangle should enable you to cut 2 columns of 5 doughnuts. (If you don’t have a doughnut cutter, use a cookie-cutter, then cut the “hole” with a frosting tip). Cut additional doughnut holes from the scraps.

Place the doughnuts on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and allow to rest until they puff a bit, about 20 minutes. In the meantime, pour enough canola or vegetable oil into a thick-bottomed saucepan to make it two-thirds full.

Heat over medium heat to 340 degrees.

Begin frying the doughnuts two or three at a

time, a couple of minutes on each side, until golden brown. Remove with a metal slotted spoon to a wire rack placed on a baking sheet.

Gently roll in the lemon sugar, then set aside to cool completely. Continue until all doughnuts are fried and sugared.

Place the pastry cream into a piping bag fitted with a bismarck tip (long and needle-like).

Press the tip into each quarter of the pastries and pipe in a small amount of the custard until it backs up in the hole. (You will be doing 4 squirts of pastry cream in each doughnut.) Just before serving, drizzle with lemon glaze. If desired, garnish with fresh lemon zest. — MCT

Tr a v e l FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Italy is much more than

pizzas and pizzazz

Best places to visit in Italy

V

acation travel in Italy is about as good as it gets and the best places to visit in Italy are spectacular. For the art buff Italy is the home to the major works of Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and other notables; for the architecture aficionado there’s the Colosseum in Rome, St Mark’s Square in Venice and the Duomo in Florence; and for those of you who like chic, it’s shopping in Milan. Those looking for the countryside will revel in Tuscany, Umbria, Liguria, Campania or Sicily. We cover the all of the below, but recommend you see our detailed travel guides for the cities and regions of Italy for details on what to see and do, as well as some stunning photos of your chosen destination.

Rome (Roma) The “Eternal City” is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. Once the capital of western civilization, Rome has an incredible number of world-class attractions, including the Colosseum, the Forums of the Roman Empire, gorgeous piazzas, stunning fountains, and fabulous museums. The saying “All roads lead to Rome” was a truism during the Roman Empire and the city displays its heritage in a spectacular fashion. Rome is a fantastic destination; you will run out of time before you run out of worthwhile things to see and do. Rome is a tourist friendly city - see our recommendations on the best places to visit in Rome and, then, book your vacation.

Be sure to see Ancient Rome, including the Colosseum, the Capitoline Hill, the Roman and Imperial Forums, the Pantheon, and Castel

Sant’Angelo. The city’s many piazzas (Piazza Navona, Piazza di Spagna (and the Spanish Steps), Piazza Venezia) and the city’s fabulous fountains (the Trevi Fountain, the Fountain of the Four Rivers and others) are popular places for good reason. In addition to the masterpieces they contain, these areas usually are surrounded by good quality restaurants, fine shopping, and gelato shops (gelaterias) are usually easy to find.

Museums are the city’s strong suite, but the museums dedicated to the history of Ancient Rome, as well as to the arts are the most acclaimed. You might want to spend an after-

noon visiting a few of Rome’s many churches, as they often are incredibly beautiful and endowed with stunning art and architecture.

Anyone who visits Rome should reserve time to experience the Best Places to Visit in the Vatican, which we cover in our destination guide for the Holy See. Take time to see the Vatican Museums, as they contain unimaginable treasures of civilization, as well those of the Catholic faith. In addition, be sure to see St Peter’s Basilica and its famous Square. Although surrounded by Rome, the Vatican is an independent state that was established under the

Lateran Treaties of 1929 (see our section on country facts on the Vatican for more information).

Venice (Venezia) Travel in Venice oozes romance and history.

Canals, beautiful buildings, world famous landmarks - Venice is an experience unique in the world of travel. Whether taking a gondola down the Grand Canal or gazing at this romantic city’s unique setting and architecture, Venice is a vision that you will never forget. Be sure to see the Piazza San Marco, including the Basilica (St Mark’s) and the Doge’s Palace (Palazzo Ducale).

The Grand Canal is another must, as are its palazzos, bridges and gondolas. Venice has delightful art museums such as the Guggenheim, the Galleria dell’Academia and the Museo Corer, incredibly beautiful churches, and if that were not enough, you can take a boat trip the colorful islands of Murano (center for glassmaking) and Burano (center for lace).

Florence (Firenze) From the point of view of art and architecture, Florence rivals Rome. During the renaissance, Florence was the art center of western civilization. A list of past residents of the city represents the “Who’s Who” of the Masters, including: Dante, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael, among others.

Culture is the strong suite of Florence; perhaps that is why its museums are so popular.

However, this is not a one-stop town, as shopping and restaurants in Florence tend to be incredibly attractive to tourists. If you have an

Tr a v e l FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

interest in cooking, this may be the place to find a cooking school.

Be sure to see the Duomo (cathedral) and its impressive Piazza and the adjacent Piazza San Giovanni, containing the famous Baptistery, the Museo of the Duomo and the famous Bell Tower

by Giotto. For art, it is the Uffizi Gallery and the Galleria Dell’Accademia, which contains Michelangelo’s world-famous sculpture of David While museums abound, you may find yourself lured to the Ponte Vecchio, the famous shoplined bridge across the Arno River.

Tuscany (Toscana) Florence is the crown jewel of Tuscany (Toscana), although the region is known for its scenic, rural hill towns, agricultural setting interesting culture and unique architecture.

While the region’s quaint hill towns are popular with all travelers, Tuscany and its people are the main attraction. The countryside is beautiful and varied, including coastal plains and mountains.

In turn, the magic of Tuscany’s landscapes has been used to establish the setting of many wonderful works of literature.

Tuscany is a region to be savored and it has become the region of Italy most favored for lengthy vacations by visitors. Its hill towns are known for their scenic settings, interesting history, good food and pleasant quality of life. An increasing number of vacationers who visit Tuscany do so in hopes of savoring the pace and quality of Tuscan life, rather than flitting from one eye-popping attraction to the next, as is common when visiting Rome, Venice, or Tuscany’s own Florence. Leading destinations in Tuscany include Florence, Siena, Pisa and these famous hill towns: San Gimignano, Cortona, and the Chianti Hills between Florence and Siena.

Liguria and the Cinque Terre (Ligurian Coast) The Ligurian Coast is home to the Italian Riviera, one of the most scenic and appealing sections of the Italian coast, although the Amalfi in Campania is preferred by some. There are three sections to the Ligurian Coast and each has a distinctly different flavor. The Riviera di Ponente is to the west of Genoa and includes the wonderful, popular, and pricey resorts towns as San Remo and Ventimiglia.

The central section of the Italian Riviera includes and surrounds Genoa, a working port that celebrates its history of navigation and its amazing explorers.

The Riviera Levante to the east of Genoa includes the five scenic villages nestled within dramatic craggy hillsides and coastline of the Cinque Terre, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

This is an area that invites you to hike between the towns and visiting is a treat, although the villages (Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore) can be quite crowded at the peak of summer.

Note that Vernazza and Monterosso were seriously damaged during mud slides during the floods of October 2011. Rehabilitation continues in some outlying areas surrounding these towns. Further north on the Riviera Levante, you will find the storied resort towns of Portofino, Santa Margherita Ligure and Rapallo that are a popular spots for yachting, luxury vacations and fun in the sun.

Milan (Milano) Be sure to see the Cathedral (Duomo) and its museum, as well as La Scala (the world-famous opera house), the impressive Castello Sforzesco and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II for fine shopping and dramatic architecture.. Budget time to see the city’s many interesting art museums, such as the Brera Art Museum and the Museo Poldi Pezzoli. If you plan on seeing DaVinci’s famous painting The Last Supper at the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, you will need to reserve tickets several weeks in advance to guarantee admission.Milan is the perfect place to begin on a tour of the majestic and charming Italian Lakes.

Naples and the Amalfi Coast (Campania) Campania is one of the most popular regions of Italy, and its attractiveness is largely manifested along its spectacular scenic coast. If you like hairpin turns, this is a great coast to drive (unless you are stuck behind a string of tour buses). For mariners there are numerous boating adventures that let you view this elegant coastline from the sea, where its beauty is close to overwhelming, especially near dusk.

Campania is on most traveler’s wish list due to the magnetic attraction of the picturesque towns of the Amalfi Coast (Amalfi, Ravello, Positano) and nearby Sorrento. These colorful resort towns, all with winding, narrow streets, colorful buildings, and fine restaurants crawl from the waters edge up and into the nearby imposing mountains. Campania is, also, famous as the site of Pompeii, the Roman town that was encapsulated by lava and gases from an eruption of nearby Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Now excavated and in remarkable condition, Pompeii is one of Italy’s most popular attractions. If you have want to get away from it all for a relaxing vacation, consider the lure of the scespending a night or two in one of the hill towns to understand the lure of Umbria.

Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean and was long considered a strategic stepping stone for those interested in invading southern Europe. The earliest colonization of the island was by the Phoenicians, followed by invasions by almost every empire that developed along the shores of the Mediterranean. The Greeks, Romans, Muslims and Normans had the greatest historical influence, although modern Sicily is a mix of numerous cultures. Visit Palermo for its spectacular mix of architectures inspired by the Muslim and Norman conquests.

Segesta is another must-see location that is known for its large collection of well-preserved Greek temples. More temples and excavations can be found at Selinunte, although Agrigento (known as the Valley of the Temples) is worldfamous for its unusual collection of excavated Greek Temples. Visit the Roman Villa at Casale to view some of the finest mosaics to be found nic Isle of Capri and its luxury resorts and spas.

Most visitors are day trippers, but the lure of staying on this enchanting island appeals to many. Of course, there are other attractions to fill your time, such as the wonderful museums in Naples (where you will find most of the treasures from Pompeii), the well-preserved Greek Temple at Paestum and the island of Ischia, a lower cost alternative to Capri, although it is somewhat less attractive.

Italy’s Lake Country (The Italian Lakes) Along Italy’s scenic border with the Swiss Alps are several large glacial lakes nestled into the rolling hills leading to the mountains. The landscape is beautiful, the shoreline serene and the combination creates an area that is pure delight. The Italian Lakes are a place to savor.

Driving through the area and slowing for a view will allow you to see a lot, yet miss the best parts of this peaceful, serene and amazing corner of Italy. Lake Como is considered by many to have the most beautiful setting of all the lakes, although Lake Maggiori attracts many visitors to its Borromean Islands and the gardens of Isola Bella. Lake Garda is a recreation center and the most popular of the lakes with locals. Although most of the shoreline of Lake Lugano is in Switzerland, it can easily be accessed from Italy and benefits from the mix of cultures.

Umbria (Regione Umbria) Often thought of as an alternative to Tuscany, Umbria, which is graced with beautiful countryside and interesting, fortified hill towns, represents some of the best travel in Italy. While each town has its artistic and architectural treasure, the beauty of Umbria is in its simplicity and

its residents leisurely approach to life.

Popular towns include Perugia, Assisi, Spello and Orvieto. These are smallish hill towns with interesting architecture, mysterious winding streets, amazing town halls, wonderful piazzas and amazing churches. However, the attractions are limited, as are the museums, although we find them delightful to visit.

Perhaps it is the pace life, the beauty of the countryside or the marvelous food, but the ambiance of Umbria will grow on you, if you give it the chance. Note that the area can be very crowded during the high travel season and for that reason, we recommend you consider

anywhere in the Mediterranean. For a little variety plan on touring the active volcano Mount Etna, although this is usually a side-visit from the nearby Taormina, a beautiful town that is one of the most popular resort areas of Sicily. If you need more reasons to visit Sicily, then plan to exploring Siracusa, once the largest city in the Greek Empire, to see its impressive collection of Greek ruins. Those wanting a water adventure and willing to travel a little further afield might find the scenic Aeolian Isles, just the place for a summer vacation.

—www.thereareplaces.com

Health FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

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ils produced by the body help keep skin healthy, but there can be too much of a good thing. Excess oil can lead to blemishes and acne flare-ups. “Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to cut down on oiliness,” Andrea Cambio, MD, medical director of Cambio Dermatology in Cape Coral, Florida, says. Clear complexion strategies range from over-the-counter cleansers to prescription lotions and cosmetic treatments.

Cleansers Dermatologists agree that the most effective way to manage oily skin is to cleanse your face both morning and night.

“Always use a gentle cleanser since harsh soaps can trigger the skin to increase oil production,” April Armstrong, MD, assistant professor of dermatology at the University of California, Davis, says. Also, beware of the buff. A washcloth or buff puff can actually stimulate more oil secretion.

If a basic facial cleanser doesn’t cut oiliness, try a product that includes an acid such as benzoyl peroxide, salicylic acid, glycolic acid, or beta-hydroxy acid. “Many products containing these acids are marketed as acne facial care products.

They’re great for people with acne, but they’re also fine for people whose problem is just oily skin,” Armstrong says.

“Since some of these ingredients can be irritating, buy a small size to see how your skin responds. People often have to try several products before they find the one that works best for them.” Wash with warm water, not hot, because temperature extremes can irritate skin.

Toners Dermatologists are divided on whether the oil-reducing properties of toner are legitimate. “I’m not a big fan of astringent toners because they tend to irritate the skin and can lead to more oil production,” Cambio says. “Still, if people like using them, I recommend applying toners only on oily areas of the skin, such as the forehead, nose, and chin. Avoid using them on areas that tend to be dry or you’re likely to create dry patches on your skin.”

That’s advice worth remembering for all your skin care regimens. “There’s a myth that some people have dry skin, some people have oily skin. In fact, most people have combination skin, oily in some places, dry in others,” Ellen Marmur, MD, associate professor of dermatology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, says.

Medicated pads Pads medicated with salicylic acid, glycolic acid, or other oil-cutting acid ingredients are another beauty routine option. “Medicated pads are a favorite among my patients with oily skin,” Marmur says. “You can carry them in your purse and use them on the run to freshen up your skin and remove excess oil.”

Blotting paper Cosmetic blotting papers offer a great option for removing oil because they don’t dry out your skin. “Patients with oily skin really love blotting paper because it’s convenient and easy to use,” Armstrong says. Apply it to oily areas, such as

Get more glow and less shine with skin-clearing solutions from leading dermatologists forehead, nose, and chin. Don’t scrub your skin with the sheet of blotting paper. Instead, simply press it against the oily area long enough to absorb oil, usually 15 to 20 seconds. Some blotting papers are lightly powdered, which further reduces shine.

Masks and Clays Applying masks and clays to the skin helps draw out oils and cleanses pores, but there is also concern for over drying.

“My advice is to apply them only to problem areas and use them only occasionally,” Rebecca Kazin, MD, director of Johns Hopkins Cosmetic Center, says. She suggests limiting masks and clays to really big events such as a wedding, a birthday dinner, or a big presentation.

Moisturizers “People who have oily skin often steer clear of moisturizers,

worrying that they’ll make their skin look even shinier,” Kazin says. That’s a bad idea. “Even oily skin needs to be moisturized to look its best,” she says. To avoid an oily sheen, choose an oil-free moisturizer. Vary the amount you apply depending on whether the area tends to be dry or oily.

Oil-free Sunscreen “Traditional sunscreens can pose a problem for people with oily skin since they tend to go on pretty thick and can block pores,” Armstrong says. Even so, protecting skin from ultraviolet radiation is absolutely essential. Sunscreen gels are less likely than creams and lotions to make your skin look oily, and there are a variety of new oil-free products for oily skin.

Some of the newest products, including facial powders, offer enough protection to ward off sun damage in most situations.

Adapt your facial regimen How oily your skin appears can vary season by season, week by week, even day by day. “Oil production is influenced by hormones, by mood, even by the weather,” Cambio says. “For example, some people have problems with oily skin only in the summer when they’re sweating.”

It’s important to be aware of how your skin varies so that you can adjust your regimen accordingly. “You may need cleanser with glycolic acid or beta-hydroxy acid every day during the summer but only now and then during the winter,” Kazin says. “That’s important to know since overusing these products can cause skin to dry out.”

Talk to your dermatologist If over-the-counter products aren’t enough to help you manage oily skin, talk to your dermatologist. Lasers and chemical peels can help reduce oiliness and improve the overall look of your skin. Creams laced with tretinoin, adapalene, or tazarotene can also help by altering pores and reducing oiliness. “Since these products can be irritating, it’s best to use them only on oily areas and only as often as you really need it,” Kazin says.

It’s worth remembering that oil production is a normal part of healthy skin. “People with naturally oily skin tend to have fewer wrinkles and healthier looking skin,” Marmur says. So don’t go overboard in your efforts. Remove excess oiliness when you need to look your best, but be careful to preserve your skin’s natural anti-aging mechanism. —www.webmd.com

Lifestyle FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

The place where former Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena were executed is pictured in Targoviste, Romania. (Right) A sculpture representing the mother of former Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, Alexandra Ceausescu is pictured inside the house where Nicolae Ceausescu was born in 1918 in Scornicesti village (150km southwest from Bucharest) Romania. — AFP photos

Ceausescu execution spot to become tourist attraction T

he grim barracks where Romania’s brutal communist despot Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena were executed are to be opened

Metallica to headline at the Apollo

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here will be a different type of Sandman featured at the Apollo next month. Metallica is set to rock the legendary Harlem venue on Sept 21. They will promote their 3D concert-action film “Metallica Through the Never,” released in IMAX on Sept 27 and other theaters a week later. It will also air live on a special temporary Metallica channel on SiriusXM. The Apollo, revered for its place in black entertainment and historic performances from the likes of James Brown to Michael Jackson, has become a venue for rock legends in recent years, including Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney.

And while the Apollo is known for its “Sandman” character who boots weak contestants during its famous amateur show, “Enter Sandman” is one of Metallica’s famous songs. — AP

to the public in the latest bid to boost “dictator tourism”. The former military unit at Targoviste, 100 kilometers (60 miles) northwest of Bucharest, is to be turned into a museum and is due to welcome its first visitors in early September. “Many Romanians and foreigners said they wanted to see the wall against which Ceausescu and his wife Elena were shot on December 25, 1989,” Ovidiu Carstina, director of the museum, told AFP. The death of the Ceausescus became one of the defining images of the revolutions which convulsed eastern and central Europe in 1989. On December 22, as angry crowds gathered in front of the Communist Party headquarters, they fled the capital Bucharest in a helicopter. It was to be their final journey. They were stopped by the army, detained in Targoviste, and shot after a makeshift trial. It brought to a grisly end more than 20 years of repressive rule aided by a huge security apparatus, where any free speech was ruthlessly suppressed.

The population suffered from food and power shortages and on top of that, Ceascescu’s rule was marked by nepotism, paranoia and a deeply ingrained personality cult. Wife Elena was seen as the regime’s ‘number two’. “Our aim is to present events as they unfolded, without making comments on the trial, the Ceausescus’ life or the cult of personality,” said Carstina.

In the barracks, built in 1907, time seems to have stood still since the execution.

The walls are painted a greyish yellow and the iron beds complete with dirty mattresses where the Ceausescus slept have remained there ever since. The makeshift dock where Nicolae

Nephew of former Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, Emil Barbulescu speaks inside the house where Nicolae Ceausescu was born in 1918 in Scornicesti village (150km southwest from Bucharest) Romania. and Elena, dressed in their winter coats, sat listening to the charges against them will be put back in the very place where the couple were tried and sentenced to death. Outside, the wall against which they were shot just a few minutes later still carries bullet holes. Footage of the trial and the execution, broadcast all over the world in December 1989 and drawing criticism over the summary judicial proceedings, will run on a black and white TV set.

“We do not wish to stir a controversy but only to speak of a landmark in Romania’s history,” Carstina stressed. Sociologist Vasile Dancu said “every nation must acknowledge its history, without trying to hide certain events”. “No matter what we do, we cannot erase the image of that sham trial which only speaks of the collapse of a system,” he told

AFP. A group of Swedish tourists has already booked tickets for the museum, Carstina said.

Confronting Romania’s past Also on their must-see list is the grandiose Palace of Parliament in the heart of Bucharest. To erect the building, initially called “House of the People”, Ceausescu ordered the razing of much of the city’s historic district, forcing the relocation of some 40,000 people who lost their homes. State coffers, meanwhile, foot the bill for the 350,000 square-meter (3.7 million square-foot) structure that was fitted out with enough marble to fill 400 Olympic swimming poolsat a time when Romanians suffered from severe food shortages and regular power cuts. The palace is now one of Romania’s top attractions. More than 144,000 tourists visited it in 2012,

110,000 of them foreigners.

But Lucia Morariu, head of the local tour operators’ association, felt turning Ceausescu into a tourist brand was not a good idea. “Why encourage those who mourn him? Romania boasts other highlights,” she said, citing the Danube delta, part of UNESCO’s heritage, or the picturesque natural reserve of the Retezat mountains, home to Europe’s biggest bear and wolves populations.

However, in the southern town of Scornicesti, the small, traditional house where Ceausescu was born in 1918 is a major draw for tourists. The perfectly preserved abode, dating from around 1900, with no running water or electricity, is sporadically opened to visitors by Ceausescu’s nephew Emil Barbulescu, who lives next door.

The 55-year-old former head of the local communist militia does not hide his nostalgia for the “good old days” and says steps have been taken recently to “restore the truth” about his uncle.

“History will put him back where he belongs,” he told AFP. Two smartly-dressed women in their fifties, who declined to give their names, stepped down from their SUV, pleased that they could enter Ceausescu’s house. “We are here out of respect, because we wanted to be closer” to the late “Conducator”, they said. A man and his wife also stopped their car in front of the house. “There were a lot of restrictions at the time,” Ioan Donga, 58, said, adding however that his family “lacked nothing” under the communist regime. But he insisted that the execution remained an open wound in Romania. “Of course he deserved to be shot but this is not the way they (the authorities) should have acted.” — AFP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Review

Buffett returns with lackluster new album Jimmy Buffett, “Songs From St Somewhere” (Mailboat)

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n Jimmy Buffett’s first album in four years, the mayor of Margaritaville returns to mixing softly swaying beach tunes with pirate tales of foreign intrigue and social commentary. The problem, however, is Buffett’s voice doesn’t sound nearly as engaged as his imaginative songwriting and a few turns with inspired guests. The 66-year-old veteran sounds bored on the island songs, snapping off each word with a clipped tone and a bland sense of phrasing - an about-face from the performances that made Buffett such an enjoyable performer in the past. He sounds livelier on a series of ambitious songs about the mysterious adventures of a world

traveler, but the tunes lack the hooks that made Buffett’s famous songs of long ago so memorable.

There are positive exceptions, especially when guests Mark Knopfler (on “Oldest Surfer on the Beach”) and Latin singer Fanny Lu (on a Spanish version of “I Want to Go Back to Cartagena”) stir up the proceedings. Best of all is a duet with country star Toby Keith. “Too Drunk to Karaoke” bobs along with common-man humor and vivid writing and performing. It’s the one song from the new album sure to become a favorite during Buffett’s ever-popular live shows. — AP This CD cover image released by Mailboat Records shows ‘Songs from St Somewhere,’ by Jimmy Buffett. — AP

Disney’s ‘Lone Ranger’ Lands China Release in October “T

Marian McParland

Jazz legend Marian McParland dead at 95

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arian McPartland, a jazz pianist who was a glittering fixture in her musical genre over a career spanning six decades, has died at the age of 95, her record label said. English-born McPartland also hosted a program on National Public Radio called “Piano Jazz,” which at more than 30 years was the longest running cultural program on the popular US radio station, Concord Music Group said. McPartland died of natural causes at her home in Long Island, New York on Tuesday night, NPR said. She recorded over 50 albums and the honors she received included the George Foster Peabody Award, the National Music Council’s American Eagle Award and a GRAMMY Trustee’s Award for lifetime achievement.

On her radio program, she interviewed practically every major jazz musician of the post World War-II era, NPR said. She told the station in 2005 that her interest in music started when she was a young girl, after hearing her mother play piano. “From that moment on, I don’t remember ever not playing piano, day and night, wherever I was,” she said.

“At my aunt’s house, at kindergarten-wherever they had a piano, I played it. Of course, on the BBC they played all the hits from over here [in the US]. They played them, I heard them and I learned them,” McPartland said. — AFP

Photographer sues Kanye West over LAX scuffle

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photographer who claims he was attacked by Kanye West at Los Angeles International Airport is suing the rapper. Daniel Ramos is alleging assault, battery, negligence and violation of his civil rights in the lawsuit filed Wednesday. Ramos was a member of the paparazzi who staked out at the airport July 19 to snap celebrity photos. He was talking to West, who stopped and addressed him.

Ramos claimed the rapper then suddenly punched him in an unprovoked attack and wrestled his camera to the ground. Last week, the district attorney’s office declined to prosecute West, saying Ramos didn’t have a significant injury. The city attorney’s office was considering whether to file misdemeanor charges. An attorney for West couldn’t immediately be located. — AP

he Lone Ranger” will open in China this October after its initial debut in the country was postponed by three months, according to two individuals with knowledge of the film’s plans. That delay left Disney no choice but to abruptly postpone a promotional trip to China by stars Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer, director Gore Verbinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Chinese authorities have now approved October 6 as the premiere date for the western.

That said, in China, delays and alterations are a frequent occurrence when it comes to scheduling a film’s debut, so that date may be change.

“The Lone Ranger” was one of the summer’s biggest flops. The film cost $215 million to produce and has only earned $217 million worldwide.

Currently 30 foreign films have been approved to be released in China since the beginning of 2012. That leaves four available slots open for big-budget films like “Gravity” or “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” to try to grab before the

calendar year ends, so the competition for the remaining berths may be fierce.

China has a strict quota on the number of foreign pictures it allows to screen in the country, capping it at 34.

Getting into China is a big deal for a film like “The Lone Ranger.” The film

could add tens of millions of dollars to its box office haul. China, which recently surpassed Japan as the second largest market for films, contributed more than $120 million to the global take of another Disney release, “Iron Man 3.” — Reuters

Spike Lee revises ‘Essential’ films list to include 7 by women

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pike Lee realizes he made a few omissions when he posted his “Essential List of Films for Filmmakers”: It didn’t contain any films directed by women. He’s improved the situation, adding seven films to the list, which now contains 94 films in all.

One omission was apparently especially egregious: Italian filmmaker Lena Wertmuller went from not appearing on the list at all to appearing on it four times - more than any other director, including Alfred Hitchcock, John Huston, Federico Fellini, and Stanley Kubrick, who appear three times each.

Lee notes in his revised list that “many of you informed me” about the omission of female directors. “Thank you for that coat pulling,” he wrote. Lee, who is also teaching at New York University, posted the list as part of the successful Kickstarter campaign for his next film, which he’s described as being about “Human beings who are addicted to Blood. Funny, Sexy and Bloody. A new kind of love story (and not a remake of “Blacula”).”

As Indie wire noted, woman still directed only 6.44 percent of the films on Lee’s list. Nine percent of the top 250 movies at the domestic box office last year came from female directors, and that number has historically been much lower. Here are the seven new films on the list:

“The Piano,” Jane Campion (1993) “Daughters of the Dust,” Julie Dash (1991) “The Hurt Locker,” Kathryn Bigelow (2008) “The Seduction of Mimi,” Lina Wertmuller (1972) “Love and Anarchy,” Lina Wertmuller (1973) “Swept Away,” Lina Wertmuller (1974) “Seven Beauties,” Lina Wertmuller (1975) —Reuters

Lifestyle FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

‘The World’s End’ a toast for 3 filmmaking friends I

Katy Perry to close iTunes music festival

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aty Perry seems to be closing a lot these days. Shortly after she was announced as a performer at the upcoming 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, reports surfaced that she would close the show. Now, Perry is also confirmed for a Sept 30 headlining gig at the month-long iTunes Festival. The music fest returns this September with a 30-day long run of free shows at The Roadhouse in London.

Fans can watch the concerts for free on iTunes or via the festival app. More than 60 artists are schedule to perform, including Lady Gaga, Robin Thicke, Elton John, Kendrick Lamar, Justin Timberlake and many more. Ironically, Gaga, who opens the MTV VMAs is also opening the iTunes Festival.

Perry is closing both. Gaga’s set kicks the month off at 4 pm on Sep 1, Perry’s wraps it all up at the same time on Sep 30. The “Roar” singer tweeted Tuesday, “PUMPED to announce I will be closing the month-long @iTunesFestival on 9/30 with my friends @IGGYAZALEA & @iconapop opening! Click HERE...” — Reuters

Police: Intruder found

at Jennifer Lopez estate

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olice say an intruder had been living for a week on Jennifer Lopez’s property in the Hamptons while she was away.

Southampton police said Wednesday the entertainer had an order of protection against 49year-old John Dubis. Information on why the order was obtained was not immediately available.

According to Newsday, workers found Dubis on the property on Aug. 8 and called police. He was arraigned on charges of burglary, criminal contempt, stalking and possession of burglar tools. He’s due in court Aug 28. Dubis is being held on $100,000 bail. Newsday says the publicist for the singeractress couldn’t be reached for comment, and it was unclear whether Dubis had a lawyer. — AP

t’s not the end of the world, but “The World’s End” marks a creative conclusion for Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright. For the British trio behind “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz,” Friday’s release of “The World’s End” completes a trilogy. The longtime friends have no future collaborations planned as each heads into new projects that match their growing profiles.

Wright is writing and directing Marvel’s “Ant-Man.” Pegg will star in “Hector and the Search for Happiness,” while Frost is starring (and dancing) in the upcoming comedy “Cuban Fury.” It’s fitting, then, that their final film together (for now) is a toast - 12 times over. In “The World’s End,” Pegg and Frost play former friends among a group reunited to take on “The Golden Mile”: A dozen pubs in their old UK hometown, downing a pint at each. The real-life friends gathered at a Sunset Strip hotel (over ice-waters) to talk about movies, friendship and beer.

AP: Is it bittersweet to complete this trilogy?

Pegg: It feels like we’ve done something we set out to do... We know we’ll probably work together again. Highly likely, in fact.

Frost: At the heart of what we do is that we’re all best mates, so it’s not like that’s that, we’ll never see each other.

We’re friends first and foremost.

Wright: I feel the sense of satisfaction that we made good on a promise.

We made a promise to ourselves as much as we did the fans of making three movies, so to actually finish the movies and have a film that we’re really proud of - three films that we’re really proud of - British films and pretty uncompromised, is huge for us.

AP: What was really in the glasses during filming?

This film publicity image released by Focus Features shows, from left, Nick Frost as Andy, Eddie Marsan as Peter, Simon Pegg as Gary, Paddy Considine as Steven, and Martin Freeman as Oliver in ‘The World’s End.’ — AP Frost: It was like a sugared water: A water colored with burnt sugar with cream soda on top for the head. But the shots were Sambuca.

Pegg: It had to be water because we had to drink so much of it. It couldn’t have been anything else. It couldn’t be apple juice or tea... It tasted a little bit like weak-tasting lemonade, I guess, and we put away pints of the stuff.

AP: What is the beer that you name in the movie?

Wright: Crowning Glory... We named it in the script, and then we found this local brewery that said (they’d) make a beer and call it Crowning Glory. So they have actually released it. It’s like an ale. The one that’s named in the movie ... is now real, which is hilarious.

AP: How did the two of you (Pegg and Frost) becoming fathers change your drinking habits?

Pegg: I don’t drink at all now. I gave it up completely.

Frost: I try not to drink. Because what if I woke up and he’d eaten a knife?

AP: What would Ant Man drink?

Wright: I think he’s probably a lightweight because he’s so tiny, but then so am I. Pegg: He could probably still drink more than you.

AP: Will you all work on “AntMan?” Wright: I like our collaborations together to be ones that we write. Not that I haven’t written “Ant-Man,” but it’s an adaptation. So I think when we reconvene it should be for (a) completely original screenplay.

Frost: So in five years’ time, when we get back together to do “Rhino Man and the Abs,” people will enjoy it more.” — AP

Rapper DMX arrested on marijuana charge in S Carolina

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apper DMX, whose real name is Earl Simmons, was arrested on Tuesday in South Carolina and charged with possession of marijuana, two days before he was due in court on a drunk driving charge. Police stopped a truck in which Simmons was a passenger for making an improper lane change shortly before midnight, according to a police report. On inspecting the car, police found three bags of marijuana, the report said.

Simmons complained of a medical condition and was aggressive, police said.

Emergency medical services were called to check his condition and cleared him, the report said. Simmons was booked into Greer City Jail on charges of possession of marijuana and failure to appear on a previous warrant, police said.

Officers “claimed that they found bags of marijuana in the floorboard,” said Domenick Nati of Nati Celebrity Services,

Inc, which represents DMX. “No drugs were found on DMX or the other passengers and the alleged bags of marijuana were never shown to DMX or the other passengers,” Nati added. Simmons, 42, is due to appear in court on Thursday in Greenville on separate charges stemming from a July 26 arrest for drunk driving, and failing to have a valid drivers license, Bob Beres of the South Carolina Highway Patrol said on Wednesday.

After his July arrest, the rapper paid $1,235 in bail and left Greenville County Detention Center after being booked on the charges, jail officials said. But a representative for the New York-born rapper, who lives in South Carolina, said the DUI charge was never officially filed because Simmons passed a breathalyzer test in the jail. The rapper, whose albums include “It’s Dark and Hell is Hot” and “Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood,” also starred in

the movies “Romeo Must Die” and “Cradle 2 The Grave.” Simmons’ arrest record includes charges of: animal cruelty, reckless driving, drug possession, weapons charges and probation violations. He has had several felony convictions and has served prison time in Arizona. — Reuters

Lifestyle FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Pilgrims flock to Bulgarian mountains to cleanse spirit

Members of an international religious movement called the White Brotherhood perform ritual dances on the top of the Rila Mountain, near Babreka lake.

Members of an international religious movement called the White Brotherhood perform ritual dances.

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he sounds of women singing to the strains of violins fill the clear air of Bulgaria’s Rila mountains as 2,000 white-clad pilgrims move gracefully in a series of rhythmic meditation exercises. Every August, followers of the Universal White Brotherhood converge from across the world on the Rila lakes, at an altitude of 2,100 meters (6,900 feet), to celebrate the beginning of their new year at the height of summer. The highlight of the day is “paneurhythmy”, a dance-like ritual that pilgrims perform in large concentric circles, creating a striking image on the verdant mountain plain.

The esoteric society combining Christianity and Indian mysticism believes that positive cosmic energy is at its strongest here around August 19 and that paneurhythmy will help them channel it and spread it around the world.

“We come to Rila before the feast to cleanse ourselves from the mud of everyday big-city life with the energy of this place and with positive thinking,” Alexandrina Stoilova, 80, told AFP, adjusting her wide-brimmed white hat before joining in the rituals.

The pilgrims, who address each other as “brother” and “sister”, camp near the Seven Rila Lakes, greeting the sunrise with prayers and meditation before hiking up to the

nearby plateau to practise paneurhythmy. They also attend lectures to open their souls and fill them with positive energy. The spiritual school, founded by Bulgarian theologian Peter Deunov in 1897, emphasises brotherly love, healthy habits, positive thinking and living in harmony with nature.

It does not keep track of its numbers but is believed to have tens of thousands of followers worldwide, possibly more. Deunov-also known as Master Beinsa Douno-began developing paneurhythmy and taking his followers camping to Rila in the 1930s, by which time they numbered around 40,000.

The Bulgarian government later recognized the positive health effects of his “cosmic rhythm” exercises, and paneurhythmy was experimentally taught in a Sofia school as a physical education option.

But World War II and the installation of communist rule in Bulgaria in 1944 drove the movement underground.

“Paneurhythmy was practised in secret and people still

came to Rila even if it was officially banned,” said 68-yearold Hristo Madjarov, one of the movement’s lecturers and a long-time follower. “Things got worse after 1957, when the authorities confiscated and burned our books and many brothers and sisters were sacked from their jobs.”

Authorities closely monitored meetings in Sofia, and the secret police often questioned members, Madjarov added.

Even now, the Universal White Brotherhood remains at odds with the Christian Orthodox Church, which has dismissed it as a sect. After the fall of communism in 1989, however, the brotherhood was officially registered as a religious movement, and by 2007 Deunov had gained so much stature that he ranked second among the greatest Bulgarians in a 2007 state television poll. His movement has also grown abroad: from France-where Deunov’s disciple Mihail Ivanov, better known as Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov, first spread his teachings-to Belgium and Switzerland, and as far as Canada, Mexico, Iceland and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“This is my second time in Rila, and I would like to keep coming, as dancing paneurhythmy in the mountains here is a lot different from practising it back in Switzerland,” David Gerard, who joined the brotherhood 37 years ago, told AFP. Maria Jesus, a 43-year-old economist from Granada, said she had practised paneurhythmy in Spain for eight years and that it gave her “spiritual harmony and vitality”. In a new study published this month, Bulgarian Sports Academy professor Lyudmila Chervenkova noted the benefits of attending just a six-month beginners’ course in paneurhythmy, whatever the learner’s age. Deunov’s simple exercises improve balance and physical endurance while lowering aggression levels, boosting optimism and battling depression, she found. — AFP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Ghosts of German history haunt fabled Berlin dance hall

Photo shows people as they sit in an outdoor restaurant of Claerchens Ballhaus in Berlin. — AFP photos

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t’s survived two world wars, communist spies and a Quentin Tarantino movie production and at the ripe age of 100, Berlin’s most legendary dance hall is also among its most unlikely success stories. As Claerchens Ballhaus (Claerchen’s Ballroom) prepares to fete its centenary next month, the fabled venue still sees hordes of party-goers young and old queue up in front of its crumbling facade.

White-haired ladies in tiaras and dancing shoes wait to gain entry with hipsters in skinny jeans in a courtyard under a canopy of mature trees, strings of lights and a giant mirrored disco ball. “Under the kaisers, the chancellors and the chiefs of the (communist) state council, in times of upheaval and social experiments, divided and united again everybody on one and the same dance floor of history-every political system left its traces,” Marion Kiesow writes in her new book timed for the anniversary, “Berlin Dances at Claerchen’s Ballroom”.

Kiesow argues that in a city that has seen a century of turmoil and reinvention, Claerchen’s is a remarkable constant.

Combing through the building from the basement to the attic, she uncovered decades of relics including love letters, sepia photos and even ripped military maps left behind by Nazi officers during World War II to help her tell Claerchen’s unique story. In the heyday of German ballrooms around the turn of the last century, Berlin alone had about 900 venues like Claerchen’s, fixtures of every neighborhood. Many were destroyed during World War II air raids and those remaining fell out of favour in the 1970s and 1980s as revellers flocked to discos and later the techno clubs that cropped up in the city’s abandoned industrial spaces. Only three of the imperial-era ballrooms in the city centre remain and Claerchen’s is seen as the most authentic, with nightly dancing.

Nazis banned ‘un-German’ dance styles The venue opened on September 13, 1913, named Buehler’s Ballroom after its first owner, but later became known as Claerchen’s after the nickname of his widow Clara. Clara Buehler was a tough Prussian farmer’s daughter who became one of the first women in Berlin to earn a driving licence. When business suffered after World War I, she rented the building out for then-banned sabre duels popular among students and staged widows’ balls. After she herself lost her husband, Claerchen remarried, took the name Habermann and kept the

venue afloat.

Under the Third Reich, “un-German” dance styles such as tango were outlawed, but the parties went on, often drawing the Nazi brass. Propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels briefly banned public dancing during the war, and Claerchen’s finally closed in 1944. Life behind the Berlin Wall turned the place into something of a dive, where cheap beer drew rowdy soldiers, factory workers and travelling salesmen, some coming from West Berlin for the bargain and the dance hall’s reputation for “loose women”.

The snappily dressed cloakroom attendant since the 1960s, Guenter Schmidtke whose mother and late wife also worked at Claerchen’s-said there were fist fights several times a week between revelers. And as it attracted West Germans, it also became a den of Stasi spies, and more-or-less discreet prostitutes. When her stepdaughter Elfriede Wolff took over in 1967, the severe-looking Claerchen still sat at a reserved table at the end of the buffet to keep an eagle eye on her livelihood.

Wolff held the reins until the year the Wall fell in 1989.

Reunification brought soaring rents and an influx of boutiques and galleries along Auguststrasse, the street where Claerchen’s is situated. Theatre impresarios David Regehr and Christian

People dance during a Swing night in the hall of Claerchens Ballhaus in Berlin.

Schulz took over the venue in 2005 and changed as little as possible, apart from reopening a “Sleeping Beauty” upstairs ballroom for the first time since the war.

They say it would be “crazy” to renovate the pockmarked exterior, which wears its war damage and the patina of the last century like a badge of honor. Claerchen’s has parlayed that flair into use as a film set for “Valkyrie” with Tom Cruise and Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” with Brad Pitt. Lotta Weigl, 39, leads swing dance classes in the once-opulent upstairs banquet hall, with its cracked mirrors and chipping paint. “It’s a little like ‘Harry Potter’-you think there are ghosts

People dance during a Swing night in the hall of Claerchens Ballhaus in Berlin. who are having some fun and dancing along with us,” she said.

“The thing I love most about this place is its spirit-it’s a spirit you find not only in the building itself but also in the people who have worked here for so long. It’s part of the Berlin tradition and about survival.” Ulrich Linser, 58, from East Frisia in northern Germany, expertly twirls his wife Beate, 60, around Claerchen’s dance floor every time they are in Berlin visiting their son. “It’s very international here, you can speak Spanish or English and it’s such a broad mix of ages too-there’s a 15-yearold here and a 90-year-old there,” Ulrich said. “You feel like you’re part of a long tradition and it’s wonderful.” — AFP

FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Kuwait

SHARQIA-1 KILLING SEASON (DIG) THE SMURFS 2 (DIG) JOBS (DIG) KILLING SEASON (DIG) JOBS (DIG) KILLING SEASON (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED SHARQIA-2 THE SMURFS 2 (DIG-3D) DESPICABLE ME 2 (DIG-3D) NO THU THE SMURFS 2 (DIG) NO THU Special Show “THE SMURFS 2 (DIG)” THU THE CONJURING (DIG) THE CONJURING (DIG) THE CONJURING (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED SHARQIA-3 THE CONJURING (DIG) THE CONJURING (DIG) Special Show “THE SMURFS 2 (DIG)” THU CHENNAI EXPRESS (DIG) (HINDI) NO THU THE WOLVERINE (DIG) THE WOLVERINE (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED MUHALAB-1 JOBS (DIG) RED 2 (DIG) CHENNAI EXPRESS (DIG) (HINDI) JOBS (DIG) MUHALAB-2 KILLING SEASON (DIG) FRI THE CONJURING (DIG) THE CONJURING (DIG) KILLING SEASON (DIG) THE CONJURING (DIG) THE CONJURING (DIG)

1:00 PM 3:15 PM 5:30 PM 8:00 PM 10:00 PM 12:30 AM

2:00 PM 4:15 PM 6:15 PM 6:15 PM 8:30 PM 10:45 PM 1:00 AM

1:30 PM 3:45 PM 6:15 PM 6:00 PM 9:00 PM 11:45 PM

1:30 PM 4:15 PM 6:30 PM 9:30 PM 1:30 PM 1:00 PM 3:30 PM 5:45 PM 7:45 PM 10:00 PM

MUHALAB-3 THE SMURFS 2 (DIG-3D) DESPICABLE ME 2 (DIG-3D) THE SMURFS 2 (DIG-3D) THE WOLVERINE (DIG) THE WOLVERINE (DIG)

12:45 PM 3:00 PM 5:00 PM 7:15 PM 9:45 PM

FANAR-1 RED 2 (DIG) RED 2 (DIG) JOBS (DIG) JOBS (DIG) JOBS (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

2:00 PM 4:30 PM 6:45 PM 9:15 PM 11:45 PM

FANAR-2 DESPICABLE ME 2 (DIG) DESPICABLE ME 2 (DIG) STREET DANCE ALL STARS (DIG) DESPICABLE ME 2 (DIG) KILLING SEASON (DIG) KILLING SEASON (DIG) KILLING SEASON (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

12:30 PM 2:30 PM 4:30 PM 6:45 PM 8:45 PM 10:45 PM 12:45 AM

FANAR-3 CHENNAI EXPRESS (DIG) (HINDI) THE LONE RANGER (DIG) CHENNAI EXPRESS (DIG) (HINDI) CHENNAI EXPRESS (DIG) (HINDI) THE LONE RANGER (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

12:30 PM 3:30 PM 6:30 PM 9:30 PM 12:30 AM

FANAR-4 THE SMURFS 2 (DIG-3D) THE SMURFS 2 (DIG-3D) THE SMURFS 2 (DIG-3D) THE WOLVERINE (DIG) THE WOLVERINE (DIG) THE WOLVERINE (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

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

FANAR-5 THE CONJURING THE CONJURING THE CONJURING EL7ARAMY & EL3ABIET

1:15 PM 3:30 PM 5:45 PM 8:00 PM

KNCC PROGRAMME FROM THURSDAY TO WEDNESDAY (22/08/2013 TO 28/08/2013) THE CONJURING THE CONJURING NO SUN+TUE+WED

10:00 PM 12:15 AM

MARINA-1 DESPICABLE ME 2 (DIG) HAMMER OF G’S (DIG) KILLING SEASON (DIG) JOBS (DIG) JOBS (DIG) KILLING SEASON (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

12:45 PM 2:45 PM 5:00 PM 7:00 PM 9:30 PM 12:30 AM

MARINA-2 THE WOLVERINE (DIG) THE WOLVERINE (DIG) EL7ARAMY & EL3ABIET (DIG) THE WOLVERINE (DIG) RED 2 (DIG) THE WOLVERINE (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

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

MARINA-3 THE SMURFS 2 (DIG-3D) DESPICABLE ME 2 (DIG-3D) THE SMURFS 2 (DIG-3D) THE CONJURING (DIG) THE CONJURING (DIG) THE CONJURING (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:30 PM 4:00 PM 6:00 PM 8:15 PM 10:30 PM 12:45 AM

AVENUES-1 KILLING SEASON (DIG) KILLING SEASON (DIG) KILLING SEASON (DIG) KILLING SEASON (DIG) KILLING SEASON (DIG) KILLING SEASON (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

2:00 PM 4:00 PM 6:00 PM 8:00 PM 10:00 PM 12:05 AM

AVENUES-2 CHENNAI EXPRESS (DIG) (HINDI) CHENNAI EXPRESS (DIG) (HINDI) CHENNAI EXPRESS (DIG) (HINDI) CHENNAI EXPRESS (DIG) (HINDI) CHENNAI EXPRESS (DIG) (HINDI) NO SUN+TUE+WED

12:30 PM 3:30 PM 6:30 PM 9:30 PM 12:30 AM

AVENUES-3 RED 2 (DIG) THE LONE RANGER (DIG) RED 2 (DIG) RED 2 (DIG) RED 2 (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:00 PM 3:30 PM 6:30 PM 9:00 PM 11:30 PM

AVENUES-4 THE CONJURING (DIG) THE CONJURING (DIG) THE CONJURING (DIG) THE CONJURING (DIG) THE CONJURING (DIG) THE CONJURING (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:30 PM 3:45 PM 6:00 PM 8:15 PM 10:30 PM 12:45 AM

AVENUES-5 THE WOLVERINE (DIG) THE WOLVERINE (DIG) NO THU Special Show “JOBS (DIG)” THU THE WOLVERINE (DIG) CHENNAI EXPRESS (DIG) (HINDI) THE WOLVERINE (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:00 PM 3:30 PM 3:30 PM 6:15 PM 8:45 PM 12:15 AM

AVENUES-6 THE WOLVERINE (DIG) THE WOLVERINE (DIG) THE WOLVERINE (DIG) THE WOLVERINE (DIG) THE WOLVERINE (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

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

AVENUES-7 THE LONE RANGER (DIG) HAMMER OF G’S (DIG) HAMMER OF G’S (DIG) MADRAS CAFE (DIG) (HINDI) HAMMER OF G’S (DIG) HAMMER OF G’S (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

12:45 PM 3:45 PM 5:45 PM 7:45 PM 10:45 PM 12:45 AM

360º- 1 THE CONJURING (DIG)

12:30 PM

THE CONJURING (DIG) THE CONJURING (DIG) THE CONJURING (DIG) THE CONJURING (DIG) THE CONJURING (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

2:45 PM 5:00 PM 7:15 PM 9:30 PM 11:45 PM

360º- 2 RED 2 (DIG) RED 2 (DIG) RED 2 (DIG) RED 2 (DIG) RED 2 (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

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

360º- 3 DESPICABLE ME 2 (DIG-3D) DESPICABLE ME 2 (DIG) DESPICABLE ME 2 (DIG-3D) DESPICABLE ME 2 (DIG) DESPICABLE ME 2 (DIG) THE WOLVERINE (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:30 PM 3:45 PM 6:00 PM 8:15 PM 10:30 PM 12:45 AM

360º- 4 THE SMURFS 2 (DIG) THE SMURFS 2 (DIG-3D) THE SMURFS 2 (DIG) THE SMURFS 2 (DIG-3D) THE SMURFS 2 (DIG) EL7ARAMY & EL3ABIET (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

2:00 PM 4:15 PM 6:30 PM 8:45 PM 11:00 PM 1:15 AM

AL-KOUT.1 EL7ARAMY & EL3ABIET (DIG) THE WOLVERINE (DIG) JOBS (DIG) THE WOLVERINE (DIG) EL7ARAMY & EL3ABIET (DIG) THE WOLVERINE (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

12:30 PM 2:30 PM 5:00 PM 7:30 PM 10:00 PM 12:05 AM

AL-KOUT.2 DESPICABLE ME 2 (DIG) THE SMURFS 2 (DIG) DESPICABLE ME 2 (DIG) THE SMURFS 2 (DIG) JOBS (DIG) JOBS (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

12:45 PM 2:45 PM 5:00 PM 7:00 PM 9:15 PM 11:45 PM

AL-KOUT.3 THE CONJURING (DIG) THE CONJURING (DIG) THE CONJURING (DIG) THE CONJURING (DIG) THE CONJURING (DIG) THE CONJURING (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:00 PM 3:30 PM 5:45 PM 8:00 PM 10:15 PM 12:30 AM

AL-KOUT.4 RED 2 (DIG) KILLING SEASON (DIG) THE LONE RANGER (DIG) KILLING SEASON (DIG) RED 2 (DIG) KILLING SEASON (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:15 PM 3:30 PM 5:30 PM 8:30 PM 10:30 PM 12:45 AM

BAIRAQ-1 DESPICABLE ME 2 (DIG-3D) DESPICABLE ME 2 (DIG-3D) THE WOLVERINE (DIG) DESPICABLE ME 2 (DIG-3D) THE WOLVERINE (DIG) THE WOLVERINE (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

12:30 PM 2:45 PM 4:45 PM 7:15 PM 9:30 PM 12:05 AM

BAIRAQ-2 THE SMURFS 2 (DIG) THE SMURFS 2 (DIG) THE SMURFS 2 (DIG) THE SMURFS 2 (DIG) RED 2 (DIG) RED 2 (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:15 PM 3:30 PM 5:45 PM 8:00 PM 10:15 PM 12:30 AM

BAIRAQ-3 JOBS (DIG) THE CONJURING (DIG) JOBS (DIG) THE CONJURING (DIG) THE CONJURING (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

2:00 PM 4:30 PM 6:45 PM 9:15 PM 11:30 PM

SITUATION VACANT For a family of two adults, a live-in house boy and home care. Good English and Arabic is preferred, transferable visa.

Contact: 99060969.

20-8-2013 ACCOMMODATION For ladies or bachelor Filipino only near big Jamiya Farwaniya. Available August 25, 2013. Contact 66158188 or 66826412.

20-8-2013

in Kuwait. Looking for a suitable accounts job. (Can join immediately).

Contact: 65173606/67668929.

(C4486) 20-8-2013 FOR SALE Mitsubishi Jeep Nativa model 2011 white color, 6 cylinder engine, alloy rim excellent condition, 4 wheel drive (installment possible), cash price KD 3,400 negotiable.

Tel: 99194874. (C 4487) 20-8-2013 MATRIMONIAL

CHANGE OF NAME I, Thottakath Abu, holder of Indian Passport No. G9943123 issued at Kuwait on 28/10/2008, have changed my name to Aboobacker Thottakath.

(C 4488) 21-8-2013 I, Thamer Medhat Moh. Khattab holder of Filipino Passport No. TT0990386 hereby change my name to Tamer Medhat Moh. Khattab, hereafter all dealings in my new name.

20-8-2013 SITUATION WANTED Indian lady Accountant, B.Com with 3 years experience

Marthomite parents in Kuwait, invites proposals for their daughter (28/160/fair), BB Kuwait, Masters UK, well employed in Kuwait, from well qualified and employed Marthoma/CSI/Orthodox/Jac obite boys preferably in Kuwait/Dubai/USA/Australia/ Canada with good family background and clean habits.

Email: jacobthomask3@yahoo.com

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

03:56 05:20 11:51 15:26 18:22 19:43

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

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

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

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

Pets FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

N

orm Lopez is a feline celebrity.

Mention his name in central city neighborhoods, and people gush about him. He has his own Facebook page and now has more than 500 friends.

Commuters frequently stop by his 14th Street house just to get a glimpse of him. A local band has put his image on its posters.

Now his image is on T-shirts promoting a fundraising pub crawl.

“He really just gained popularity by doing what he does best, lying in the middle of the sidewalk and letting everyone love him,” said owner Tyler Lopez of the celebrity cat who weighs between 26 and 31 pounds. “He kind of just became known as that huge, loving, affectionate cat on 14th Street.” Norm’s fame likely saved his life.

Last weekend, a well-meaning passer-by mistook Norm for a pregnant cat in distress and dropped him off at the city of Sacramento’s Front Street animal shelter. A worker told the shelter’s manager Gina Knepp about a cat who was the largest she had ever seen, and it suddenly “dawned on” Knepp that she knew this animal.

She posted Norm’s Facebook photo on the shelter’s online site to see if anyone recognized the cat. Facebook followers quickly identified Norm. And when Lopez returned from her camping trip on Sunday, she discovered countless messages on social media accounts about Norm being found at the animal shelter.

According to Knepp, social media worked so well that Norm was picked up within hours and brought back to his porch on Friday, the same day he had been turned into the shelter. Lopez said she had him microchipped on Monday. Knepp said about 1 percent of lost cats are reconnected with their owners each year nationally. She attributed Norm’s recovery “100 percent” to his social media popularity.

This was not, however, Norm’s first brush with potential doom. Norm is a rescue cat.

Two years ago, Lopez heard that a relative’s neighbor was going to take the cat to a pound if he wasn’t adopted, she said.

After hearing this story, Lopez took her two dogs - Gracie, a Maltese, and June Bug, a Chihuahua mix - to visit the cat. According to Lopez, it was “love at first sniff.”

“Norm ran right up to my

Tyler Lopez of Sacramento, California, rescued Norm, orange cat at her feet, about two years ago. — MCT

Sacramento feline’s social media fame a life saver dogs, and as if he were a dog himself, started smelling them,” Lopez said. “They all got along just fine, so I knew that they would be fine living together.” This week Norm was back to his usual haunts. Early Tuesday, he lay belly-up - his favorite pose in the shade of a staircase leading up to the front entrance of a Victorian-style residence.

Lopez said her cat has brought the neighborhood together. “I work from home sometimes, and around lunchtime, I hear people out there talking to him,” Lopez said.

“He gets a lot of lunchtime visitors

and after-work visitors.” She said she decided to start throwing annual “Friends of Norm” barbecues during summer to unite the community and give them a chance to spend time with Norm.

At one of the events, an attendee suggested launching a Facebook page for Norm. “I thought it was silly, but then, I said, ‘Oh, what the heck, I’ll create the page,’ “ Lopez said. All posts on the page are written in first person from Norm’s point of view.

And he gets comments.

In response to an Aug 1 post, which included a photo of Norm in his younger days, a user proceeded to call him “the George Clooney of cats.” Because of his growing fame, Lopez said that this year she couldn’t accommodate all his fans in a front yard barbecue. Instead, she decided to organize a pub crawl for Aug 31. Lopez will sell shirts with Norm’s image for $25 as a fundraiser for the Front Street Animal Shelter. Local graphic artist John Conley came up with the design for the T-shirt.

According to Conley, he didn’t even know Norm was famous when he first saw the cat sleeping in the middle of the sidewalk last summer, and took a picture that would be used on promotional materials for his sister’s band. “I just couldn’t believe how enormous he was,” Conley said. Knepp hopes Norm’s story will inspire others to have their pets microchipped. She said residents can get their pets microchipped at the city shelter for $20. — MCT

Stars

FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Aries (March 21-April 19)

Your steady nature will be greatly appreciated today, Aries. A well thought out plan of attack is the one that wins approval from the higher-ups. You know the best way to proceed and now all you need is the confidence to follow through with your ideas. Getting things started should be easier for you today since your mind is working in harmony with your heart.

Taurus (April 20-May 20)

It's possible that you're feeling obliged to do something out of a sense of duty toward family or loved ones, Taurus. Take this time to help someone who's struggling with who they are and what they're doing in this world. Your concern for others reflects a noble sense of empathy that you should develop more regularly.

We're only as strong as the weakest link. Do your part to strengthen the chain.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

Your thinking is clear today, Gemini, but it might be hard to take action on your thoughts. A restrictive force may seem to be holding you back. A sense of discipline is welling up within you, reminding you to add a touch of conservatism to whatever it is that you have in mind. Take the opportunity to pursue tasks that require you to be reserved and collected.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

Your flamboyant approach may not get as much attention today as you'd like, Cancer. Don't push yourself to achieve something that isn't working. By insisting that something should be done your way, you'll only create enemies and bottlenecks in whatever task you're trying to accomplish. A thoughtful, conscious, reserved approach is going to win today.

Leo (July 23-August 22)

You may be considering taking a trip or planning a party with some friends, Leo. You may find out today that it's up to you to do all the organizing. This won't bother you too much because you know you'll do it right. Why don't you think about really trying to outdo yourself and plan something special that your friends will never forget?

Virgo (August 23-September 22)

Trying to talk your way out of tasks and obligations probably isn't the best way to win friends today, Virgo. In fact, this is a time to get yourself in gear and take responsibility for your actions. The time you spend trying to weasel your way out of something is better spent just doing the thing that you need to do. Be understanding and receptive of other people's objectives.

Libra (September 23-October 22)

Just when you thought you had everything figured out and planned correctly, another obstacle appears, Libra. Your first reaction may be to get upset. Rage won't help. You can't always control everything.

There are bound to be surprises. Plan for what you can, but know that there are often unknown forces working against your aims.

Watch out!

Scorpio (October 23-November 21)

The fire within you may be burning brightly, Scorpio, but unfortunately, there isn't a great deal of fuel available to keep it going. It may seem as if people are trying to rain on your parade, but they're just trying to do their duty. Relax and contemplate what's going on around you. This may not be the best day to implement change and promote new ideas.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21)

You may find that other people are the missing variable in the equation that you seek answers to today, Sagittarius. Don't feel like you have to come up with all the details and resolutions yourself. Work with those who also have something to contribute to the situation at hand. A quiet, disciplined approach is exactly what's needed to plow through any problem that needs fixing.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)

By jumping around from place to place, Capricorn, you may end up feeling like you're getting nowhere. Instead of tackling many different tasks, today is better spent focusing your energy on one. Start from ground level and work up. Get to the root of the problem and many of the related issues will simply dissolve as you work.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18)

Make a plan at the beginning of the day for what you want to accomplish by sundown, Aquarius. This is a good time to tackle many of the nitpicky tasks that require your attention. Be conscious of the fact that there are time limits and restrictions on some of the things you're working on. Keep on task and try not to get distracted by other people.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

You might have to adjust your way of thinking in order to match the energy of the situations around you. While you may feel a desire to strike out into some new, adventurous activity, there's a strong resistance asking you to be more cautious and stable.

Don't lose touch with your pioneering attitude, but don't fall prey to reckless behavior, either.

COUNTRY CODES 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 Republic 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 Somalia 00252 South Africa 0027 South Korea 0082 Spain 0034 Sri Lanka 0094 Sudan 00249 Suriname 00597 Swaziland 00268 Sweden 0046 Switzerland 0041 Syria 00963 Taiwan 00886 Tanzania 00255 Thailand 0066 Toga 00228 Tonga 00676 Tokelau 00690 Trinidad 001868 Tunisia 00216 Turkey 0090 Tuvalu 00688 Uganda 00256 Ukraine 00380 United Arab Emirates00976

Stars

FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Word Search

Yesterdayʼs Solution

C R O S S W O R D 2 8 8

ACROSS 1. A guided missile fired from shipboard against an airborne target.

4. Conforming exactly or almost exactly to fact or to a standard or performing with total accuracy.

12. The residue that remains when something is burned.

15. A statement that deviates from or perverts the truth.

16. Any freshwater fish of the family Characinidae.

17. The 21st letter of the Greek alphabet.

18. A constellation in the southern hemisphere near Telescopium and Norma.

19. Hardy English breed of dairy cattle raised extensively in United States.

20. Imperial dynasty that ruled China (most of the time) from 206 BC to 221 and expanded its boundaries and developed its bureaucracy.

21. A member of the a nomadic tribe of Arabs.

23. The cognitive process of understanding a written linguistic message.

25. The rate at which red blood cells settle out in a tube of blood under standardized conditions.

28. A very poisonous metallic element that has three allotropic forms.

30. Any of numerous local fertility and nature deities worshipped by ancient Semitic peoples.

32. Flexible twig of a willow tree.

33. A network of intersecting blood vessels or intersecting nerves or intersecting lymph vessels.

35. (Irish) Mother of the Tuatha De Danann.

37. A bay on the Mediterranean Sea in northern Egypt.

41. South American plant cultivated for its large fragrant trumpet-shaped flowers.

43. A public promotion of some product or service.

44. Small turnover of Indian origin filled with vegetables or meat and fried and served hot.

45. (Irish) Mother of the ancient Irish gods.

46. A form of magnetic resonance imaging of the brain that registers blood flow to functioning areas of the brain.

49. American prizefighter who won the world heavyweight championship three times (born in 1942).

50. A unit of elastance equal to the reciprocal of a farad.

52. A soft silvery metallic element of the alkali earth group.

53. Enthusiastic approval.

55. A city in southern Turkey on the Seyhan River.

56. East Indian tree bearing a profusion of intense vermilion velvet-textured blooms and yielding a yellow dye.

59. A Tibetan or Mongolian priest of Lamaism.

60. A flat wing-shaped process or winglike part of an organism.

62. The ending of a series or sequence.

63. By bad luck.

67. The United Nations agency concerned with atomic energy.

71. Primitive predaceous North American fish covered with hard scales and having long jaws with needle-like teeth.

72. A drug (trade names Calan and Isoptin) used as an oral or parenteral calcium blocker in cases of hypertension or congestive heart failure or angina or migraine.

74. An alloy of copper and zinc (and sometimes arsenic) used to imitate gold in cheap jewelry and for gilding.

76. Rounded like an egg.

78. A tricycle (usually propelled by pedalling).

80. Bulky grayish-brown eagle with a short wedge-shaped white tail.

81. An amino acid that is found in the central nervous system.

82. Brazilian tree with handsomely marked wood.

Daily SuDoku

83. A chronic skin disease occurring primarily in women between the ages of 20 and 40.

DOWN 1. Block consisting of a thick piece of something.

2. A river in northern England that flows southeast through West Yorkshire.

3. English economist noted for his studies of international trade and finance (born in 1907).

4. Canna grown especially for its edible rootstock from which arrowroot starch is obtained.

5. Wild goose having white adult plumage.

6. 4-wheeled motor vehicle.

7. Antibacterial agent (trade names Mandelamine and Urex) that is contained in many products that are used to treat urinary infections.

8. The airforce of Great Britain.

9. Islands in the Atlantic Ocean belonging to Portugal.

10. (Greek mythology) The blind prophet of Thebes who revealed to Oedipus that Oedipus had murdered his father and married his mother.

11. Any ameba of the genus Endamoeba.

12. Any of various small plant-sucking insects.

13. The imperial dynasty ruling China from about the 18th to the 12th centuries BC. 14. A joint that holds two parts together so that one can swing relative to the other.

22. A member of a Turkic people of Uzbekistan and neighboring areas.

24. Wheat with hard dark-colored kernels high in gluten and used for bread and pasta.

26. Leaf or strip from a leaf of the talipot palm used in India for writing paper.

27. Taking place over public roads.

29. The upper house of the parliament of the Republic of Ireland.

31. (Old Testament) In Judeo-Christian mythology.

34. A crown-like jewelled headdress worn by women on formal occasions.

36. Submerged aquatic plant having narrow leaves and small flowers.

38. Sluggish tailless Australian arboreal marsupial with gray furry ears and coat.

39. Muslims collectively and their civilization.

40. An Indian side dish of yogurt and chopped cucumbers and spices.

42. Viscera and trimmings of a butchered animal often considered inedible by humans.

47. A soft silvery metallic element of the alkali metal group.

48. Botswanan statesman who was the first president of Botswana (1921-1980).

51. Type genus of the Anatidae.

54. An assertion of a right (as to money or property).

57. One of the Aesir having a strong and beautiful body but a dull mind.

58. An oral cephalosporin (trade names Keflex and Keflin and Keftab) commonly prescribe for mild to moderately severe infections of the skin or ears or throat or lungs or urinary tract.

61. (Babylonian) A demigod or first man.

64. Rock that in its molten form (as magma) issues from volcanos.

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

66. An informal term for a father.

68. In bed.

69. A British peer ranking below a Marquess and above a Viscount.

70. An inflammatory disease involving the sebaceous glands of the skin.

73. (Irish) The sea personified.

75. A loose sleeveless outer garment made from aba cloth.

77. A white soft metallic element that tarnishes readily.

79. Being one more than one hundred.

Yesterdayʼs Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

Sports FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

AL CAPSULES

Suzuki gets 4,000th hit NEW YORK: Alfonso Soriano hit a tiebreaking two-run homer with two outs in the eighth inning and Ichiro Suzuki got his 4,000th hit between the major leagues and Japan, as the Yankees handed the Toronto Blue Jays their 12th straight loss in New York, 4-2 on Wednesday. David Huff (1-0) pitched one-hit ball in five innings of relief to shut down the Blue Jays before New York finally got to Toronto’s R.A. Dickey. The 39-year-old Suzuki hit a liner off Dickey (9-12) that bounced just beyond diving third baseman Brett Lawrie for the milestone hit in the first inning. Suzuki broke a tie with Lou Gehrig when he got his 2,722nd major league hit in his 13th season. The speedy outfielder amassed 1,278 hits in nine seasons with Orix of Japan’s Pacific League. Adam Warren started for New York and gave up two runs in three-plus innings, including Josh Thole’s tying homer in the fourth. It was Thole’s first homer with the Blue Jays. Huff relieved and didn’t allow a hit until Lawrie led off the eighth with an infield single. Mariano Rivera pitched the ninth and earned his 37th save.

TIGERS 7, TWINS 1 Torii Hunter hit a go-ahead, two-run double in the seventh inning and scored from second base on a passed ball to help Detroit beat Minnesota. Drew Smyly (5-0) struck out two in a perfect inning in relief of Anibal Sanchez. Jose Veras entered with two outs in the eighth inning and closed the game for his first save with the Tigers. Kevin Correia (8-10) allowed four runs - two earned - and nine hits over 6 2-3 innings. The Twins let Detroit score four runs with two outs in the seventh. The Tigers gave up a 16th straight stolen base, extending the longest active streak in the major leagues, according to STATS. RANGERS 5, ASTROS 4 Elvis Andrus hit a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth inning to give Texas its major league-leading 40th comeback win of the season with a victory over Houston. During a wild eighth inning, Rangers reliever Tanner Scheppers gave up three hits, one walk, hit two batters and threw two wild pitches to surrender the lead.

But closer Joe Nathan (4-2) shut down the Astros in the ninth to get the win. Craig Gentry homered and scored three times for Texas, one on a perfect squeeze bunt by Andrus in the seventh that gave Texas a 4-2 lead. Lo Chia-jen (0-1) took the loss for Houston.

ORIOLES 4, RAYS 2 Chris Davis hit his major league-leading 46th home run and Adam Jones also homered as Baltimore beat Tampa Bay to avoid a three-game sweep. Davis connected against Jeremy Hellickson (10-7) leading off the fifth inning. The drive landed on Eutaw Street beyond the 25-foot wall in right field and gave the Orioles a 4-2 lead. Chen Wei-yin (7-6) gave up two runs and six hits in seven innings to help the Orioles win for only the third time in their last nine games. Darren O’Day worked a perfect eighth and Tommy Hunter got his fourth save. Hellickson allowed four runs and seven hits in 4 1-3 innings.

MARINERS 5, ATHLETICS 3 Brendan Ryan hit a two-run double in the sixth and added an RBI single in the eighth to help Seattle past Oakland. Michael Morse and Brad Miller homered for the Mariners, who overcame an uneven start by Hisashi Iwakuma to beat the A’s for the fourth time in the past five games. Iwakuma (12-6) gave up a pair of home runs but limited the damage to win his second straight. The Mariners right-hander struck out four and walked two in seven innings. Coco Crisp and Brandon Moss hit home runs for the A’s, who are 15-16 since the All-Star break. Oakland starter AJ Griffin (10-9) struck out seven in six innings. He walked four.

INDIANS 3, ANGELS 1 Justin Masterson pitched effectively into the seventh inning and Nick Swisher hit a two-run homer as Cleveland completed a three-game sweep of Los Angeles. The Indians, who came in 5 1/2 games behind Detroit in the AL Central and 3 1/2 behind Oakland in the race for the second wild card spot, surpassed last season’s win total with 35 games to spare. Masterson (14-9) allowed a run and five hits over 6 2-3 innings, tied a season high with five walks and struck out seven. Cody Allen pitched a scoreless eighth for Cleveland and Chris Perez got three outs for his 20th save in 24 attempts. Jerome Williams (5-10) yielded two runs and six hits in 6 1-3 innings with six strikeouts.

WHITE SOX 5, ROYALS 2 Dayan Viciedo hit his second career grand slam to highlight a five-run inning, and Andre Rienzo picked up his first career win as Chicago beat Kansas City. Rienzo (1-0) allowed only a sacrifice fly to Mike Moustakas while cruising through six innings to win for the first time in five starts. The Brazilian right-hander allowed just five hits and two walks in helping the White Sox win their seasonbest fifth straight game. —AP

CINCINNATI: Brandon Phillips #4 of the Cincinnati Reds makes a bad throw allowing a run to score during the game at Great American Ball Park on August 21, 2013 in Cincinnati, Ohio. — AFP NL CAPSULES

Heyward hit in jaw as Braves beat Mets 4-1 NEW YORK: Chris Johnson hit a three-run homer in the 10th inning as Atlanta beat the New York Mets 4-1 on Wednesday after Braves outfielder Jason Heyward sustained a broken jaw when he was hit by a pitch. Atlanta got an RBI single from Freddie Freeman and another impressive start by rookie Alex Wood in splitting the two-game series for its 20th victory in 24 games. The Braves also benefited from a disputed call in the 10th. Andrelton Simmons singled off Scott Atchison (3-2) with two outs and Freeman hit a two-strike grounder back toward the box that ticked off the bottom of Scott Rice’s glove and rolled behind him. The reliever retrieved the ball and fired to first, where Freeman was called safe. Greg Burke allowed Johnson’s homer.

Luis Avilan (5-0) pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the ninth and Craig Kimbrel reached 40 saves for the third straight season. He has converted 30 chances in a row.

CARDINALS 8, BREWERS 6 Carlos Beltran and Allen Craig hit towering home runs in St Louis’ six-run second inning as the Cardinals held off Milwaukee. Matt Holliday also homered and Shane Robinson had three hits for the Cardinals, who are one game behind Pittsburgh in the NL Central race.

After taking a one-run lead in the first inning on a double by Craig, the Cardinals went ahead 7-0 in the second off Brewers starter Tom Gorzelanny (3-5). Starting pitcher Jake Westbrook hit a bases-loaded double into the left-center field gap that scored two runs. The Brewers cut into the lead in the third on a three-run homer by Aramis Ramirez, and then added two runs in the fifth. Kevin Siegrist (2-1) recorded two outs to notch the victory. Edward Mujica earned his 33rd save in 35 attempts despite giving up a home run to Logan Schafer in the ninth.

PADRES 2, PIRATES 1 Ian Kennedy pitched seven strong innings, combining with two relievers on a four-hitter, and Yonder Alonso drove in two runs as San Diego beat Pittsburgh to avoid a three-game sweep. Kennedy (5-9) won for the second time in four starts since being obtained from the NL West-rival Arizona Diamondbacks on July 31. He held Pittsburgh to four hits, struck out eight and walked three. Luke Gregerson pitched the eighth, walking Felix Pie and allowing Andrew McCutcheon’s sacrifice fly, and Huston Street worked the ninth for his 24th save in 25 chances. Gerrit Cole (6-6) allowed two runs and 10 hits in six innings, struck out five and walked none.

PHILLIES 4, ROCKIES 3 Michael Young hit the winning single with one out in the ninth inning after Carlos Ruiz tied the game with a double, pushing Philadelphia past Colorado. Erik Kratz opened the ninth with a double off closer Rafael Betancourt (2-4). Pinch runner Casper Wells advanced to third on a grounder and scored the tying run on Ruiz’s pinch-hit double to left. Jimmy Rollins was walked intentionally and Young followed with the winning single to left. Jake Diekman (1-3) tossed a scoreless ninth for the win. Wilin Rosario homered for Colorado. Chase Utley went deep for the Phillies. Phillies starter Cliff Lee remained winless since July 5 and is 0-4 with two no-decisions since beating Atlanta.

DODGERS 4, MARLINS 1 Zack Greinke allowed one run in eight innings to win his fourth start in a row as the Los Angeles Dodgers took advantage of sloppy defense by Miami for the second consecutive night. Greinke (12-3) allowed six hits, walked none and lowered his ERA to 2.91. The Marlins’ lone run came on a first-inning homer by Giancarlo Stanton, and they had only one hit after the fourth inning. Miami committed a season-high three errors, including two in the Dodgers’ three-run fourth inning. The Dodgers improved to 27-5 since the All-Star break, and they have won 21 of their past 24 road games. They are unbeaten in their past 18 series since mid-June.

REDS 10, DIAMONDBACKS 7 Choo Shin-soo went 4 for 5 with a homer and three RBIs to spark Cincinnati’s offensive outburst in a win over Arizona. The Reds opened a six-game lead over Arizona in the race for the National League’s second wild-card spot. Cincinnati remained third in the NL Central, but moved to 21/2 games behind first-place Pittsburgh. Mike Leake allowed four runs in the fifth inning, but was dominant in his other five innings for first win in his past five starts. Leake (11-5) allowed six hits and four runs with no walks and three strikeouts while the Reds were building an 8-0 lead. Aroldis Chapman pitched the final two innings for his 32nd save - his first career two-inning save.

NATIONALS 11, CUBS 6 Jayson Werth and Scott Hairston hit three-run homers to lead Washington over Chicago. Werth’s three-run homer in the third inning off Jake Arrieta gave the Nationals a 6-1 lead and was his eighth since the All-Star break. Hairston, who was traded by the Cubs on July 8, was pinch-hitting for Tanner Roark and hit his off James Russell (1-4) with two outs in the seventh to give the Nationals a 9-6 lead after they had given up a 6-1 lead. Anthony Rizzo hit his first two homers since Aug 6 and had three RBIs, but couldn’t stop the Cubs from losing their 15th in their past 18 at home. Ross Ohlendorf was activated off the disabled list before Wednesday’s game by Washington and allowed four runs and six hits and 4 1-3 innings.

Roark (3-0) allowed two runs in the fifth, but pitched 1 2-3 innings for the win.

INTERLEAGUE RED SOX 12, GIANTS 1 Stephen Drew and Will Middlebrooks each hit a home run, and Jonny Gomes and Jarrod Saltalamacchia drove in two runs apiece, as Boston beat San Francisco. Felix Doubront (9-6) rebounded from a tough outing to pitch eight strong innings for the Red Sox, who have won three of five. Doubront gave up one run on five hits. He walked one and struck out three. Joaquin Arias homered among his two hits for the Giants, who have lost three of four. Barry Zito (4-9) lasted 3 2-3 innings in his first start since July 30. He allowed six runs on seven hits, walked two and struck out three. Jacoby Ellsbery and Shane Victorino each had three hits for Boston. — AP

43

Sports FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Eritrean cyclists pedal country onto world stage ASMARA: When Eritrean cyclist Natnael Berhane crossed the finish line of the Tour of Turkey in May, he made history not only for his country but for his continent. Natnael, 22, who is expected to take first place after the winner was disqualified for doping, was the first person from sub-Saharan Africa to win a race of that class.

But he is only one of several Eritreans in this cycling-mad Horn of Africa state making his mark on the sport, showing another side of a nation that makes headlines more for brutal repression than world-class athletes. Eritrea offers ideal training ground for serious cyclists, with its breathtaking, cliff-hugging roads that swoop from the highland capital Asmara, elevation 2,325 metres (7,628 foot), in a 100-kilometre (60-mile) stretch down to the Red Sea. “When I race in Europe, the aim is to introduce our country to the world,” professional cyclist Meron Russom told AFP, sporting the bright yellow gear of his South African-based MTN Qhubeka team ahead of a training session. “We are still fighting to push Eritrea to the top in sport, especially cycling,” added the slen-

der 26-year-old, a former winner of the Tour of Eritrea, a race modeled on the more famous Tour de France. Eritrea’s competitive cyclists have zoomed forward in recent years, boosted by a training centre set up in South Africa by the International Cycling Union (UCI) in 2005.

“They’ve never had the opportunity...in trying to move them into the higher arena of cycling, until the UCI set up a satellite training centre in South Africa,” said UCI President Pat McQuaid.

The tradition of cycling in Eritrea dates back more than a century, when Italian colonizers introduced the sport. Though international races were hosted in Eritrea, it was not until the late 1940s that Eritreans were permitted to ride competitively alongside their Italian occupiers.

Today, cycling is an integral part of life as cars compete with bikes-the day-to-day transport for many-on the capital’s roads.

The groups of youths who take to the highaltitude routes alongside professional racers each weekend, however, continue to grow.The sport suffered during the three decades of war that won Eritrea independence from neighbouring Ethiopia in 1991, said cyclist Giovanni

Mazzola. “Before independence it was bad.

Because the war continued, the people could not go out,” said Eritrean-born Mazzola, who competed for Ethiopia in the 1960 Rome Olympics.

TERRAIN IDEAL FOR TRAINING Today, the country boasts six professional riders who compete internationally, and more than 650 cyclists in the national cycling federation. But the sport is hampered by lack of funding for equipment and limited local training programs. “Funding is a problem, it is not enough,” said Eritrean Cycling Federation president Asmerom Habte, sitting in his office next to a handful of cycling trophies.

The government helps buy some professional bicycles, while top riders are supported by sponsors. But obtaining travel visas to compete abroad adds another challenge since the hardline regime restricts travel, even for national athletes. And the fact that some national athletes have defected has not helped matters.

Olympic runner Weynay Ghebresilasie defected after the 2012 London Games. Last

December Eritrea’s football team disappeared in Uganda, and at least two more cyclists have defected so far this year.

“We have had one or two who have come and disappeared, which doesn’t help the ones who are trying to get in after that,” McQuaid said. Yet the mood remains optimistic that the sport will continue to grow here. Many of the country’s professional cyclists, Meron included, prefer to return home to train in the country’s high altitude , temperate weather and varied terrain good for both mountain biking and road racing - which some feel gives Eritreans a competitive edge over other African riders.

National pride is anther push for Meron.

While Kenyan-born Chris Froome won this year’s Tour de France, he carried a British flag.

Meron hopes that one day there will be an African-and specifically an Eritrean-winning that most famous of cycle races. “Here in Eritrea, everybody knows us, when we pass in the road, they call us by our name, so they give us a big boost,” said Meron. “That’s why we are still racing and riding, because of our people.” —AFP

Sagan dashes to second Colorado stage victory STEAMBOAT SPRINGS: Tour de France sprint jersey winner Peter Sagan claimed the third stage of the USA Pro Challenge, edging out runner-up Luka Mezgec by a wheel in a

dash to the finish Wednesday. Cannondale’s Sagan, of Slovakia, earned his second stage victory in the 170-kilometer ride from Breckenridge to Steamboat Springs, which

Red-hot Marquez eyes 4th straight win at Brno PRAGUE: Spanish rookie Marc Marquez will seek to extend his three-race winning streak and widen his lead of the MotoGP standings when the world championships continue with the Czech Grand Prix in Brno on Sunday. The 20-year-old Spaniard leads the MotoGP pack after 10 of 18 races with 188 points, 21 ahead of his Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa and 35 ahead of Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo.

With his impressive win at Indianapolis on Sunday, Marquez became the first rookie to win three consecutive premier-class races since American Kenny Roberts in 1978. In that same year, Roberts also won the championships as a rookie-a feat unrivalled to the present day, and a challenge for the red-hot Marquez.

“Now we go back to Europe and we will try to continue in the same way,” Marquez told motogp.com after winning the Indy title on Sunday. “I had a perfect weekend and I will try to repeat that in the future but it will be difficult. There are still a lot of races to go and Jorge and Dani have a lot more experience,” he said. Pedrosa won at Brno ahead of Lorenzo last year, while Marquez took the Moto2 victory before replacing Australia’s Casey Stoner at Repsol Honda for this season.

“Brno isn’t one of my favourite tracks but I won there last year so I still have a good feeling there,” the crash.net website quoted Marquez as saying. He added he expected Lorenzo and his Yamaha

teammate Valentino Rossi, fourth overall, to be serious contenders for him on the 5.4-kilometre (3.4-mile) circuit in the southern Czech city of Brno. “We will see when we get there, historically Yamaha have been very strong so I’m sure they will be very fast again this year, also considering they tested there a few weeks ago.”

Earlier this month, Lorenzo and Rossi spent two days on the Brno circuit testing a new seamless shift gearbox already used by Honda, which their team hopes to use at Brno. “I don’t think the points situation makes a big difference about this decision for Yamaha [to race debut the new gearbox]. But I will hope to have it in Brno,” Lorenzo told crash.net. “We need some push now, some pieces maybe, some evolution to be more competitive. Because now it’s difficult to fight with” Marquez and Pedrosa, he added.

Lorenzo, the reigning world champion who missed July’s German GP over a broken collarbone, said after Indy that “from this moment we can only be better and better”. Recovering from the same injury, Pedrosa was equally upbeat. “It’s important I can recover in time for Brno just a few days from now,” Pedrosa said after finishing second at Indianapolis despite problems caused by the injury.

“Brno is a fast track, with high speed corners and in the past the Honda has performed well there. Last year we had a strong race there and I hope we can repeat the same this year.” —AFP

was topped off with a bunch sprint. “I am very happy,” said Sagan. “Thank you to my teammates. They did very good work.”

Mezgec (Argos-Shimano) was second and Canada’s Ryan Anderson placed third.

Lachlan Morton (Garmin-Sharp) held onto the overall leader’s jersey and will wear it during Thursday’s stage four from Steamboat Springs to the winter ski resort of Beaver Creek. The Australian will have a two-second cushion over Mathias Frank (BMC Racing).

Sagan is third overall, at 11 seconds. Twotime Tour de France stage winner Jens Voigt had the solo lead with just over five kilometers to go before the peloton caught him.

“I attacked because I saw the group falling apart, due to different interests,” said Germany’s Voigt. “I was angry, disappointed.

I thought it would work out today, and it didn’t, and I was a little bit mad with the world in general. Then I heard a crash happened, so it could have been worse.” Voigt managed to avoid a crash with two kilometers to go which took down several competitors, including Mike Friedman (Optum), George Bennett, Kiel Reijnen, Alex Candelario and Jesse Anthony.

Friedman stayed down for a long time but managed to climb back on his bike and finish, his jersey ripped and flapping in the breeze. Reijnen also finished, but had to be taken to hospital for treatment. Sprint specialist Sagan pounced in the final 200 meters as he charged up the middle for the victory after Belgium’s Greg Van Avermaet tried to get the early jump on the pack. Anderson (Optum) decided to try his luck from the outside position while Sagan threaded the needle between them.

Tour de France champion Chris Froome of Britain placed 72nd on Wednesday. He is now 73rd in the overall general classification, 16.08 minutes adrift of Port Macquarie’s Morton. The third USA Pro Challenge continues with the 165-kilometer fourth stage which features 3,545 meters of climbing, including the category one Bachelors Gulch ascent. The course also has a finishing climb from Avon to the ski resort. —AFP

MICHIGAN: Joey Logano, driver of the #22 ShellPennzoil Ford, and Kurt Busch, driver of the #78 Furniture Row / Serta Chevrolet, lead the field during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 44th Annual Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan. —AFP

Busch wins Truck race BRISTOL: Kyle Busch won the NASCAR Truck Series race Wednesday night at Bristol Motor Speedway for his record 14th overall victory on the high-banked, 0.533-mile oval. The Sprint Cup driver took fresh tires with 16 laps to go, passed Ryan Blaney for the lead with six laps left and held off Timothy Peters in a race to the finish that ended with Peters crashing on the frontstretch. “He wrecked a pretty good race truck and I hate it for him,” Busch said. “But, we had a pretty good race truck. We got behind with a penalty on pit road, but we just stuck in there and persevered to get back to the front.”

Busch broke a tie with Darrell Waltrip for the NASCAR track victory record. Busch has four victories at the track in the Truck Series, five in Sprint Cup and five in the Nationwide Series. “Some might say you’re not breaking anything until you win 12 Cup races,” Busch said. “I’ve been fortunate in my career to have a lot of great vehicles here to race. I’ve won here with a lot of different vehicles, a lot of different crew chiefs. I’d like to be able to win 13 Cup races and break that record, too.”

The victory was his third in eight Truck starts this season and pushed his career total to 33. Busch also has three victories this year in Sprint Cup and eight in Nationwide. He has 119 victories in NASCAR’s top three series - 27 in Cup, and a record 59 in Nationwide. Busch started 10th in the No 51 Toyota and worked his way up to second early in the race.

He was given a penalty for speeding on pit road on lap 85 and fell back to 26th. He was 12th, nearly a lap down with 20 laps to go before the caution came out for a wreck by Jeff Agnew. —AP

44

Sports FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

China’s Li faces scrutiny over fiery temper BEIJING: China’s fiery tennis superstar Li Na heads into next week’s US Open eyeing a second Grand Slam crown but with questions over her temperament mounting in Chinese media after two furious outbursts.

Winning the 2011 French Open title sealed Li’s place as the country’s tennis darling as 116 million people at home tuned in to watch her become Asia’s first Grand Slam singles champion.

But the world number six, now a veteran at 31, has developed a reputation as a prickly character in a nation where sports stars typically keep their emotions strictly in check after years in the rigid state sports training system. After her second-round exit at the French Open and her quarterfinal defeat at Wimbledon, Li turned on Wang Zijiang of official news agency Xinhua when he asked if she had a message for fans back home. “I lost a game and that’s it. Do I need to get on my knees and kowtow to them? Apologise to them?” she snapped in Paris.

A month later at Wimbledon, he asked the same question again. “How dare he?

Doesn’t he have any shame?” said Li, who

trained as a journalist herself in her 20s. Her reaction prompted widespread denunciations on China’s hugely popular microblogging sites. “Losing the game is OK, you can win it next time. What you really need to improve is your courtesy and behavior,” said a poster with the username Dibayin.

Li, who reached the final of this year’s Australian Open, has developed an individualistic style not common in China since she opted out of government control in 2008, enabling her to choose her own coaches and keep most of her winnings.

Her supporters have spoken before of the intense pressure she faces as China’s only top tennis player, and her performance at tournaments is closely monitored by Chinese media, who are largely unfamiliar with dealing with athletes who confront aggressive questioning.

Nonetheless her comments would be unusual for Western sports stars, who are often mindful of their image and the commercial endorsements that depend on it.

Wang, a London-based sports reporter for Xinhua said that her response had “shocked” him, and that she had “definite-

ly overreacted”. Li was such a prominent figure in China and so important to most media outlets that she could often choose which questions to answer, he added.

“Many can only ask questions which please her, and this allows Li Na to confront the media and gives her a feeling of looking down on them,” he said. “Li Na has been spoiled in this media environment.

When she answers to the media, she is not professional, she really is childish. “And being faced with direct questions from Xinhua-whose purpose is not to gain attention and improve newspaper salesher sensitive self-esteem cannot cope.”

Zhang Rongfeng, one of Xinhua’s top sports commentary writers, said Li had a “weakness of character”. “When she wins a game, she has a better attitude and is nice to the media. But if she loses, she transfers her bad temper from the tennis court,” he said. It is a far cry from the heroine-worship of 2011, when Li was praised as a pioneer for Chinese tennis after her victory at Roland Garros, widely considered to have helped the sport become the third most watched in the country.

Roger, over and out?

Make-or-break time for Federer NEW YORK: Plagued by back trouble and the declining influence brought on by advancing years, Roger Federer heads for the US Open with his game and legacy, if not his famed confidence, in crisis. The 17-time Grand Slam title winner is at a crossroads as he prepares for his 14th US Open. A five-time champion at Flushing Meadows from 2004 to 2008, the 32-yearold Swiss finds himself at seven in the world-his lowest ranking since October 2002 — after a tortuous summer.

His second round loss to Ukraine’s world number 116 Sergiy Stakhovsky at Wimbledon was his worst Grand Slam

defeat for a decade and ended a run of 36 successive quarter-final appearances at the majors. Then followed the bizarre decision to play low-profile claycourt events in Hamburg and Gstaad which ended in shattering losses to unheralded Federico Delbonis and Daniel Brands, both outside the top 50.

There was even a brief flirtation with a larger racquet as Federer scrambled for a recovery. The statistics are conspiring against the former world number one whose last US Open final appearance ended in defeat to Juan Martin Del Potro in 2009. His great hero Pete Sampras won

Roger Federer of Switzerland

his fifth and final US Open in 2002 when he was 31 and promptly quit the sport, a punch-drunk second round exit at Wimbledon having already warned him of the dangers of over-staying his welcome.

Meanwhile, Federer’s great rivalsNovak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray-all seem comfortably to have the measure of him. World number one Djokovic trails 16-13 in their career matchups but the Serb, who was the 2011 champion in New York and runner-up in 2010 and 2012, has won seven of their last 10 meetings. Nadal leads 21-10 and has also won seven of their last 10 clashes, including all three in 2013.

Murray, the defending US Open champion, leads Federer 11-9 and have split their last 10 clashes. Federer, however, insists he is unconcerned about his predicament, shrugging off his lowly ranking and preferring to accentuate the positives gleaned from taking a set off Nadal in their Cincinnati quarter-final last week. “It doesn’t change anything for the US Open. As long as you’re either in the top 4 or the top 8, I think at this point that’s what matters,” said Federer.

“Rankings are not what lead me. It’s about getting my game back on track, and that’s what I’m doing well. So that’s what’s exciting right now.”

The Swiss will discover how tricky his New York path will be when the draw is made later Thursday, but his humble seeding means he could face any of the top three as early as the quarter-finals. He insists his back problem is not the restriction that it has been in recent weeks, even if, deep down, he remains to be totally convinced. “I believe when I can walk and I can hit decent, you never know.

Sometimes miracles happen, like last year at Wimbledon (when he beat Murray to win his most recent Grand Slam title). You get a bit lucky or you heal well, get the extra day off, and all that stuff.” —AFP

She defied Chinese convention by getting a tattoo-a red rose-on her chest and earlier this year graced the cover of Time magazine, in which US tennis legend Chris Evert praised her as a “maverick”. But her outspoken views have sparked controversy before, most notably when she claimed she was not “here for the country” in a tournament last year. The “self v country” row played out on Chinese social media resulted in a widely reposted Internet rumor that authorities in her hometown of Wuhan were to remove a bronze statue of her from the local “Walk of Fame”.

But some Chinese reporters say the media should respect Li’s personality.

“Both sides need to step back a little bit to see the picture here because Li Na is the one player we have who is capable of doing great in tournaments,” said Liu Renjie, who covers tennis for Sina, one of China’s top Internet news portals, and has interviewed her on many occasions.

“Sometimes we need to maybe take it easy, and not put so much pressure or criticism on her so we can ease the tension.” —AFP

Serena favored; Azarenka threatens at the US Open NEW YORK: World number one Serena Williams enters the US Open as a heavy favorite to defend her title, but second-ranked Victoria Azarenka leads a host of rivals looking to dethrone her. Williams is seeking her 17th Grand Slam singles crown and fifth US Open title, which would move her one shy of Chris Evert’s Open-era record for most titles at the year’s final major event on the Flushing Meadows hardcourts.

“I’m definitely prepared. I’m definitely ready for New York,” Williams said. “I definitely had more matches than I could want, but I’m definitely prepared for the US Open.” The 31-year-old American has been on an amazing run over the past 14 months, going 77-4 and capturing last year’s Wimbledon, London Olympic and US Open titles, plus this year’s French Open crown. But two of those defeats came at the hands of Azarenka, in last February’s Doha final and last Sunday at the WTA final in Cincinnati by a score of 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (8/6).

It was only the third victory for the 24-year-old from Belarus over Williams but with the two having won seven of the past nine Grand Slam titles, it sets the stage for a potential rematch of last year’s US Open final. “It would be totally different circumstances,” said Williams, who also beat Azarenka in this year’s Rome final. “It’s just a new event.

You just got to go in there with a fresh mind.” Williams will go into the Open without a win streak such as she had the past few Grand Slam events. “It makes me more relaxed and almost happy that I lost because now I don’t have to worry about every day someone asking me about some silly winning streak,” Williams said. “So maybe it was for the best.”

Williams also finds herself in a cordial rivalry, appreciating Azarenka off the court as a friend and on the court as an adversary. “She’s so competitive on the court, like an animal, and I’m the same exact way, like my dad described me as a pitbull,” Williams said. Williams is looking for her ninth title of the year after triumphs at Brisbane, Miami, Charleston, Madrid, Rome, Roland Garros, Bastad and Toronto. But she has proven vulnerable in Grand Slams, falling to compatriot Sloane Stephens in the Australian Open quarter-finals and Germany’s Sabine Lisicki in the fourth round at Wimbledon, but completing her title run on Paris clay with a victory over Russia’s Maria Sharapova. Sharapova would have been the third seed at the US Open but she withdrew from the tournament on Wednesday, citing right shoulder bursitis. As a result, Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska becomes the third seed, followed in order by Italy’s Sara Errani, China’s Li Na, Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki, Czech Petra Kvitova and Germany’s Angelique Kerber.

Azarenka, the reigning Australian Open champion, says she has learned from past losses to Williams. “Every time we play, I face a big challenge, my biggest opponent, and that’s what I want to go through,” Azarenka said. “I had tough losses before against her, but I feel like I learned from those losses, and it helps me improve. I feel like I’m playing better and better. I’m reaching for the new level that I want to be at, physically, mentally, tennis-wise and that’s the progression that I’m really the most excited about.” —AFP

Sports FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

McIlroy hopes for a late start JERSEY CITY: Rory McIlroy knew the rules going into last year’s FedEx Cup playoffs, which didn’t make it any easier to digest. He won the Deutsche Bank Championship after a duel with Louis Oosthuizen. The next week at Crooked Stick, he blew away a powerful leaderboard that featured Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Lee Westwood, Dustin Johnson and Adam Scott to win the BMW Championship.

He closed out his great run with a tie for 10th at the Tour Championship.

All that got him was second place in the FedEx Cup (along with a $3 million bonus). “Maybe it will be the other way around this year,” he said Wednesday at The Barclays, the first of four FedEx Cup playoff events. McIlroy has no complaints about this postseason bonanza on the PGA Tour. The objective is to be among the top 30 players who reach the final event at East Lake for the Tour Championship, preferably in the top five to have a guaranteed shot at the $10 million.

A year ago, McIlroy was the No 1 seed at East Lake by nearly double the amount of points over Tiger Woods. That wasn’t enough to win the FedEx Cup, however, because the points are reset for the final event to give everyone a chance at the $10 million prize and inject some excitement.

This year, the 24-year-old from Northern Ireland is No. 48 in the standings, not even guaranteed getting to the third playoff event outside Chicago.

He doesn’t seem terribly worried, despite having such a poor year. “I feel like my game is in good shape,” McIlroy said. “I’m coming off a nice weekend at the PGA Championship - that was probably the worst I could have finished. I feel like I’m in a good place. I’m just playing golf and focusing on my targets. I’ve still got events this year and four big ones, the playoffs. And I’m really looking forward to the last four months.”

The running joke with caddie JP Fitzgerald is that McIlroy has taken the last six months off. There’s no better time to start than now. Even though the majors are over, McIlroy could find a big payoff waiting for him if he can start producing the results that made him No 1 in the world at this time a year ago. He finally sorted out his driver issues in July, and he was swinging freely during Wednesday’s proam round at Liberty National.

Yes, he found the water with his tee shot on the drivable par-4 16th, but only because his high fade fell about a yard too far to the right. His next shot was on the edge of the green, and he pounded his drives down the middle of the 17th and 18th fairways. His game looks sharp. His mood is upbeat. And he laughed at the idea that he could still walk away with a FedEx Cup trophy and $10 million prize after all he’s been through this year.

“I think it would be great,” he said. “That’s the beauty of the FedEx Cup. You look at basketball, baseball, football.

Teams squeeze in and make a great playoff run and win. I’m in that position. I’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.” There is still plenty up for grabs - for Woods, Mickelson, Adam Scott and so many others. Even though Woods has five wins this year - no one else has more than two - Mickelson could make a case for PGA Tour player of the year if he were to win a playoff event (or two), particularly the FedEx Cup and its $10 million prize to go along with his claret jug from the British Open.

Despite two decades of greatness and a spot in the World Golf Hall of Fame, Mickelson has never won player of the year, a money title or the Vardon Trophy. Would that be enough? Bill Haas didn’t hesitate when asked who had the best year - Woods. Neither did Scott, despite his green jacket for winning the Masters. “It’s hard to pass up looking at five wins,” Scott said. “I think the next best guy might have two, is that right? That’s a great year to win that many times.

It’s all personal opinion. If you think winning a major is what you base success on, then if you haven’t (won), you haven’t had a great year. But winning ... I’ve always based it around winning events, and I don’t think one major makes up for five tournaments.” That led to another question: Would Scott trade seasons with Woods? “I’d rather have mine, that’s for sure,” said Scott, who collected his first major at Augusta National. —AP

Photo of the day

Adam Xu performs during the Red Bull King of The Rock at King’s Park Centenary Centre in Hong Kong.

—www.redbull.com

All Blacks turn to rookie as Wallabies keep faith WELLINGTON: The All Blacks are gambling on novice playmaker Tom Taylor to stamp their authority on the Rugby Championship when they confront a wounded Wallaby side tomorrow in Wellington. The Wallabies, humiliated 47-29 in the first Test in Sydney last week, meanwhile made only one injury-enforced change as coach Ewen McKenzie gives his new-look squad a second chance. An All Blacks win will see them wrap up the Bledisloe Cup for an 11th straight year and have them well placed to defend their Rugby Championship crown with home and away Tests to be played against South Africa and Argentina.

All Blacks coach Steve Hansen is in no doubt the Wallabies will be fired up to exact revenge for last week’s hiding, which was a demoralizing first outing for new coach McKenzie. “They are obviously going to be more dangerous. The first sign of that is that they’re not talking as much this week,” he said. “They will be looking to play with more accuracy and intensity so, therefore, we will need to meet-or better that-with a higher level of execution right across the board if we are to be successful.”

With his leading flyhalf choicesDan Carter, Aaron Cruden and Beauden Barrett-all injured, Hansen has put his faith in the uncapped Taylor to step up as the All Blacks helmsman. “He is mentally tough and plays the game with a lot of confidence and maturity,” Hansen said. “These factors, along with his assured goalkicking

under pressure, has made this an easy selection.” Taylor, a son of 1987 World Cup-winning centre Warwick Taylor, has played for the Canterbury Crusaders this year at centre, wing and fullback, but not flyhalf. He was nevertheless unfazed, saying he was “treating it as just a normal game”.

The Wallabies haven’t beaten the All Blacks in New Zealand since 2001 but McKenzie was in no mood to dwell on the past. “The job is to come over here and change that,” he said. The one change to the Wallabies sees siderower Scott Fardy promoted to replace Hugh McMeniman, who is to undergo shoulder reconstruction. McKenzie had hinted at possible backline changes after the first Test, where Israel Folau saw little action, James O’Connor was out of position for two of the All Blacks’ six tries and debutants Matt Toomua and Jesse Mogg were unconvincing.

But after reviewing the match tapes, the coach said he was backing his squad to improve. “You can’t fudge experience and I know this group learned a great deal from last week and will be much better for the experience on Saturday night,” he said. Apart from the inclusion of Taylor, the All Blacks have a second-row change with Brodie Retallick in for injured lock Luke Romano. While this will be Taylor’s first Test, for prop Tony Woodcock it will be his 100th, becoming the fourth All Black to reach a century behind Richie McCaw (117), Keven Mealamu (105) and Mils Muliaina (100).—AFP

Wallaby Beale returns to New South Wales SYDNEY: Wallabies fullback Kurtley Beale has drawn a line under his troubled two years with the Melbourne Rebels and re-signed with the New South Wales Waratahs, the Super Rugby team said yesterday. The richly-talented 24-year-old’s unhappy time in Melbourne culminated with a drunken assault on captain Gareth Delve and team mate Cooper Vuna in South Africa in March.

Another infraction of the team’s disciplinary code saw Beale stood down indefinitely by the Rebels and return to his home city of Sydney to undergo counseling for issues relating to alcohol abuse. Beale did, however, play a part in all three of Australia’s tests against the British and Irish Lions before deciding to have surgery on his shoulder in a move that has sidelined him for the rest of the year. “I feel at home in Sydney, it’s where my family are,” Beale said in a statement after signing the one-year deal with the Waratahs and Australian Rugby Union (ARU).

“The Waratahs are a team going places and I’m really looking forward to playing some good, consistent rugby. “I’ve made the decision to get my shoulder right, I hope this next year will be a big one for me. “I’m excited by the World Cup on the horizon and I’m just looking forward to getting back to playing really good rugby, having a big year for the Waratahs and hopefully getting selected for the Wallabies.” His long anticipated return to the Waratahs, who he first signed for as a 16-year-old schoolboy, has been a protracted process and Beale was linked with a move to rugby league this week.

“Kurtley is an extremely talented player and we can’t wait to see him back in a sky blue jersey and playing our style of game,” said Waratahs coach Michael Cheika. “Kurtley is just coming into his prime playing years and over this period, we want to ensure that he maximizes his potential as a rugby player.” —Reuters

Sports FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

United, Chelsea meet in battle of heavyweights MANCHESTER: Lingering uncertainty over Wayne Rooney’s future hovers over Monday’s Premier League match between title contenders Manchester United and Chelsea, with the two clubs still fighting to secure the striker’s services. United has stuck to its “not for sale” stance over the unsettled Rooney following two bids from the London club, but Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho’s declaration that he will lodge a third offer for the England international has added further intrigue around the game at Old Trafford.

Rooney, who indicated toward the end of last season that he wanted to leave United, isn’t guaranteed to start Monday as he remains short of full match fitness but his body language will be scrutinized if he plays any part in the first major showdown of the new season. The visitors will be looking to demonstrate to Rooney that they are the

new force in English football following the much-heralded return of Mourinho and their perfect start to the campaign, which has seen them record wins over Hull and Aston Villa to go to the top of the early standings. United also began well, beating Swansea 4-1 away in David Moyes’ first competitive match in charge of the Premier League champions.

“In Mourinho’s first spell at Chelsea, they obviously got off to a few good starts and we didn’t manage to catch them,” veteran United midfielder Ryan Giggs said. “It has obviously been well documented that we have got a tough start, but we started well with a good win at Swansea on Saturday and hopefully we can carry that on.” After Chelsea, United plays Liverpool and Manchester City across its next three games so a loss on Monday will pile the pressure on Moyes.

Tevez, Higuain, Gomez top Serie A transfers MILAN: Carlos Tevez, Gonzalo Higuain and Mario Gomez have given some lustre back to Italy’s Serie A ahead of the new season after joining Juventus, Napoli and Fiorentina respectively.

Argentine international striker Tevez joined the defending champions from Manchester City in June and, along with Spain international Fernando Llorente, should give Juve the extra edge as they aim for a rare third consecutive scudetto as well as Champions League glory.

It is a deal which should suit both parties. Ahead of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, where both the hosts and Argentina will be expected to shine, Tevez has one eye on snatching a place in Alejandro Sabella’s side. Juve are desperate to boost their chances of advancing to the final stages of the Champions League following a 4-0 aggregate humbling by eventual champions Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals of the competition earlier this year.

Conte is hoping Tevez, who scored 73 goals in 148 appearances during a torrid spell with City, will prove a useful addition to his already impressive squad. “He’s a true professional, a good person, and is willing to work,” said Conte, who also secured up and coming defender Angelo Ogbonna from city rivals Torino. Whether the capture of Tevez and Llorente are enough to take Juve further in a competition they last won in 1996 remains to be seen.

While Llorente is already on the sidelines having struggled to adapt to Conte’s rigid tactical system ahead of their season opener at Sampdoria on Saturday, Tevez opened his account with a goal in a 4-0 Italian Super Cup rout of Lazio last Sunday.

Napoli, meanwhile, could have have their work cut in the Champions League this season having sold Uruguayan international striker Edinson Cavani to big-spending Paris Saint Germain for a Ligue 1 record 64 million euros ($84 million).

Cavani topped the Serie A scoring charts last season with 29 goals. But while replacement Higuain has a commendable record of 107 league goals for Real Madrid, his record in Europe leaves a lot to be desired. The Argentine international, who scored once in a 2-1 friendly win over Italy last week, scored just eight goals in 48 Champions League appearances with Real and none of those came against big-name opposition.

Having often suffered due to Real president Florentino Perez’s preference for Frenchman Karim Benzema during a rather turbulent spell at the Santiago Bernabeu, it was no surprise that Higuain claimed he was going somewhere “he would be loved” when he announced his departure from Real at the end of the season. Ironically, Higuain looked to be headed to Juventus until Rafael Benitez, who has replaced new Inter Milan coach Walter Mazzarri at the helm of Napoli, stepped up the chase. “He’s a great player and it was an easy choice for me to sign him,” said the Spaniard, who also signed goalkeeper Pepe Reina on loan from Liverpool.—AFP

And he’ll be given no respite from Mourinho, who isn’t giving up in the chase for Rooney in the remaining days of the transfer window. The Portuguese coach insisted Wednesday, though, that a new offer won’t be made before Monday’s match. “We did (bid for Rooney) before and we will do later, but I think this period - from the ethical point of view - is a period when we are going to be quiet and just thinking about that game,” Mourinho said. The title race this season is expected to be fought out by United, Chelsea and City, and all three looked in sharp form in the opening days of the season.

City, with its new and improved forward line, appeared to be able to score at will in its 4-0 thrashing of Newcastle on Monday and a visit to promoted Cardiff on Sunday shouldn’t pose too many problems. “One of our main targets for this season is to win the

title back,” City right back Pablo Zabaleta said. “We know how difficult it is. It is still a long way to go but we are very positive. We have a very strong squad.” Cardiff and fellow promoted clubs Hull and Crystal Palace failed to score a goal between them on the opening weekend, showing how tough the step-up will be from the second-tier League Championship.

While it gets no easier for Cardiff this weekend, Hull will fancy its chances of picking up its first points of the season in a home match against Norwich and Palace travels to Stoke tomorrow after opening up with a 1-0 loss at home to Tottenham. Also yesterday, it’s: Fulham vs Arsenal; Aston Villa vs Liverpool; Everton vs West Bromwich Albion; Newcastle vs. West Ham; and Southampton vs Sunderland.

Tottenham hosts Swansea in Sunday’s other game.— AP

Rooney saga hangs over Chelsea-Man Utd clash LONDON: Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho’s pursuit of Manchester United’s unsettled striker Wayne Rooney has added spice to the first big Premier League match of the season when the title rivals clash at Old Trafford on Monday. The west London club have already tabled two bids for the England forward and have not ruled out making a third, despite new United boss David Moyes’s steadfast refusal to sell.

“We have Plans B and C,” Mourinho said ahead of Wednesday’s home game against Aston Villa, which they won 2-1 thanks to a second-half header from Serbian Branislav Ivanovic. “Don’t ask me names because it’s difficult to speak about players from other clubs. We have the conditions to try

SWANSEA: Manchester United’s English striker Wayne Rooney runs with the ball in front of Swansea City’s Spanish midfielder Miguel Michu during the English Premier League football match on August 17, 2013.

Manchester United won 4-1.—AFP

to improve our team by bringing in one more player and we are going to try that till the end.”

The Blues are keen to add to their striking options of Fernando Torres, Romelu Lukaku and Demba Ba but United do not want to sell to a Premier League title challenger despite the form of Robin van Persie and Danny Welbeck, who each scored twice in an opening 4-1 win at Swansea City on Saturday. Monday’s match between two of the Premier League’s biggest rivals sees David Moyes in charge of United at home in the league for the first time since replacing Alex Ferguson, a man whose absence the returning Mourinho said would be strange.

“It will be difficult for me, and I think all managers, to go to Old Trafford and play against Manchester United without this mythical figure waiting for us,” he recently told Sky Sports. The match (kickoff 1900 GMT) is part of another busy start to the season for Europa League holders Chelsea, who take on European champions Bayern Munich for the Super Cup in Prague, a repeat of the 2012 Champions League final. It is also the first in a tough run of fixtures for former Everton boss Moyes’ side, who also play Liverpool and Manchester City in coming weeks, and the Scot will be desperate to make an early mark in front of his new fans at Old Trafford.

UNDER FIRE Arsenal will look to put their off-pitch woes to one side when they make the short trip to Fulham on Saturday (1145).

Manager Arsene Wenger has been under fire for a lack of transfer activity, especially after a shock 3-1 home defeat by Aston Villa on Saturday, though he maintains reinforcements will be brought in before the transfer window shuts on Sept 2.

One player ruled out of the game is winger Alex OxladeChamberlain, who injured his knee against Villa and could be out for three months or at least six weeks, according to Wenger. “Gutted I’m injured so early in the season. But I’m going to be working hard to hopefully be back playing in 3 months,” the player tweeted on Tuesday.

Newcastle United will hope for a significant improvement on their 4-0 thrashing at Manchester City when they host West Ham United on Saturday (1400), a match which sees Sam Allardyce return to St James’ Park where he briefly managed in 2007-8. Cardiff City host their first top-flight match since 1962 when Manchester City travel to South Wales on Sunday (1500) and are confident Danish striker Andreas Cornelius will make his Premier League debut after missing the 2-0 defeat at West Ham. The Welsh side’s chances of gaining their first Premier League points could be slim, however, despite the likely absence of captain Vincent Kompany with Manuel Pellegrini’s expensively assembled side looking ominous in their opener. Having splashed out over 50 million pounds ($78.39 million)to date on new players, Tottenham Hotspur will be keen to impress against Swansea City at White Hart Lane on Sunday (1500)after their opening 1-0 victory at Crystal Palace.—Reuters

Sports FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Dortmund’s Klopp wary of slumbering giants Bremen BERLIN: Coach Jurgen Klopp has admitted he is wary of today’s opponents Werder Bremen as Borussia Dortmund aim to maintain their 100 percent record to stay top of the Bundesliga. Bremen and Dortmund are two of the five German league teams to have won both of their opening games leaving Borussia top of the table only on goal difference.

Defending champions Bayern Munich, Champions League side Bayer Leverkusen, who host Borussia Moenchengladbach tomorrow, and Mainz 05, who are home to VfL Wolfsburg the same day, are the other three Bundesliga times with 100 percent records.

Bremen have won both their matches under new coach Robin Dutt by with 1-0 victories away against promoted Eintracht Braunschweig and home to Augbsurg respectively having flirted with relegation last season.

Bremen last lifted some silverware when they won the German Cup in 2009, but Klopp said their is too much talent in the Bremen team to take them lightly at Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion. “There is a lot of attacking potential slumbering in this Bremen squad, so we have to be very careful,” said Klopp with Bremen expected to give Argentinean striker Franco di Santo his debut after signing from Wigan Athletic a week ago.

Champions League finalists Dortmund have had just four days to prepare for Bremen’s visit since their 2-1 home win over promoted Braunschweig last Sunday.

Borussia needed 75 minutes before rising star Jonas Hofmann broke the deadlock with a super strike before Germany’s Marco Reus netted a penalty to claim the three points.

Klopp expects Bremen to have a similar game plan to Braunchweig to defend hard and hit Dortmund on the break whenever possible. “Bremen have showed they are very patient, it might be that Bremen will have similar match plan as Braunschweig,” said the 46-yearold. Dortmund’s Australian reserve goalkeeper Mitchell Langerak could be set to play with Roman Weidenfeller suffering from gastroenteritis, while Germany midfielder Ilkay Gundogan sits out again with a back injury he aggravated on international duty last week.

Defending champions Bayern host Nuremberg tomorrow with Germany midfield star Mario Goetze set to make his league debut since joining from Borussia Dortmund for 37 million euros ($49.5m). “Obviously it’s going to take a little longer before I recover my rhythm and really get back to 100 percent,” said the 21-yearold Goetze who has not played since tearing his hamstring in April’s Champions League semi-final at Real Madrid for Dortmund.

France winger Franck Ribery is out with an ankle injury he suffered in last Saturday’s 1-0 win at Eintracht Frankfurt. Javi Martinez, who has yet to lose a league game for Bayern, is in contention for selection again having been left out of the match day squad at Frankfurt after a long flight back from Ecuador after playing for Spain. Hamburg travel to Hertha Berlin tomorrow looking for an improved performance after they were hammered 5-1 at home to Hoffenheim last Saturday.

Coach Thorsten Fink was so furious with his team that he gave them two days off, but both midfielder Tomas Rincon and defender Dennis Aogo have been thrown out of the squad for using the time to fly to Mallorca. “The two days off had been meant to think about what they could do better in future, not to go partying. They couldn’t have made a worse decision,” said Hamburg CEO Carl Jarchow, with the north German team having leaked eight goals in just two games.— AFP

Neymar rescues Barcelona Injured Messi limps off MADRID: Neymar’s first competitive goal for Barcelona and an injury worry for Lionel Messi puts the Brazil forward in the running for a place in the starting line up at Malaga in La Liga this weekend. The 21-year-old, who cost Barca 57 million euros, came on as a second-half substitute and nodded in at the back post as the champions came from behind to draw 1-1 at King’s Cup winners Atletico Madrid in the Spanish Super Cup first leg on Wednesday.

Barca coach Gerardo Martino has tried to keep the pressure off the youngster, calling for patience from fans, and has only used him as a substitute in last Sunday’s La Liga opening 7-0 rout of Levante and against Atletico. The Argentine brought Neymar on in the 59th minute at the Calderon with the side trailing against an abrasive and well-organised Atletico, and he shrugged off the animosity of the home crowd to head the equalizer.

“I score very few goals with my head so for this reason I value them more,” Neymar told reporters. “I’m pleased with the goal because it helped my colleagues. The important thing is to help the team.” Neymar arrived at the Nou Camp with a reputation as a flashy dribbler, and touted as a player who would help divert attention and defenders away from World Player of the Year Messi.

However, his first few performances have been relatively subdued as he has appeared keen to show himself to be a team player rather than a show pony. By scoring an important goal in testing circumstances - Atletico had bettered Barca for best part of an hour - Neymar also displayed a predator’s eye for goal. Messi was withdrawn at halftime in the Calderon, more as a precautionary measure because of bruising Martino said, and is to undergo further tests. He could be sidelined

MADRID: Barcelona’s Brazilian forward Neymar da Silva Santos celebrates after scoring during the Spanish Super Cup first leg football match Atletico Madrid vs Barcelona at Vicente Calderon stadium in Madrid on August 21, 2013. — AFP on Sunday (1900 GMT) or rested ahead of the Super Cup second leg next Wednesday.

While Neymar could be said to have helped Barca forget about Messi, it was Cesc Fabregas who actually replaced the Argentine, and the inform former Arsenal captain, along with Neymar, helped turn the game.

“It’s good news he (Neymar) has scored. It will be the first of many,” Fabregas said. Barca visit a Malaga side rebuilding under Bernd Schuster and who lost their opening fixture 1-0 at Valencia, while Atletico are at home to Rayo Vallecano on Sunday (1700).

Diego Simeone’s side were impressive 3-1 winners at Sevilla last Sunday and caused Barca plenty of problems in the Super Cup, taking the lead though Spain striker David Villa, who netted his first competitive goal for the club against his former team mates.

“David was really motivated and he scored a great goal,” Atletico midfield-

er Mario Suarez told reporters. “He had other chances too and I am sure he will score a lot more for us.” Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid have to wait until Monday (1900) for their next outing, when they visit Granada and a ground where they slipped to a surprise 1-0 defeat under Jose Mourinho last season. Real will be without midfielder Xabi Alonso, who has broken a bone in his foot, and all eyes will be on Ancelotti’s choice of goalkeeper.

Diego Lopez, made number one by Mourinho toward the end of last season, was preferred for their league opener at home to Real Betis last weekend, when they scraped a 2-1 victory, leaving fan favorite and captain Iker Casillas on the bench.

Ancelotti hinted that the first-choice keeping slot was still up for grabs, but if Lopez is chosen again it could be a major blow to Spain’s number one as the countdown to the World Cup finals in Brazil gathers pace.—Reuters

Injury-hit Schalke face crisis as Hanover await BERLIN: With just one point and a string of injuries to key players, Schalke 04 have their backs to the wall as they desperately try to turn their poor Bundesliga start around and appease angry fans. Schalke, who grabbed fourth place last season after imploding midway through the campaign only to battle back in the final weeks, had hoped for a confidence-boosting start this time round but have so far failed to deliver.

They followed up a 3-3 opening draw with Hamburg SV by suffering a 4-0 demolition at the hands of VfL Wolfsburg last week. With the club drawing 1-1 against Greece’s PAOK in their Champions League qualifying first leg on Wednesday, fans are quickly running out of patience and their jeers and whistles in the European tie did not go unnoticed. Even brief scuffles broke out

among Schalke fans and police after the Greeks equalized and Schalke’s misery was complete when Jefferson Farfan was taken off on a stretcher with an ankle injury.

The Peruvian midfielder will undergo medical tests later on Thursday to determine the extent of the injury. Last week, top striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar was ruled out for several weeks with a knee injury along with defender Sead Kolasinac, who is nursing a muscle problem. Central defender Kyriakos Papadopoulos, who is still recovering from an injury of his own, has yet to play this season. New signing Adam Szalai is under pressure to hit the ground running and make up for the loss of Huntelaar up front.

For coach Jens Keller, initially brought in as a temporary solution late

last year but given a new deal after the team’s good finish to the season, the early pressure is nothing new.

“Obviously we are not satisfied with the results but we had that kind of pressure last season as well so nothing unusual there,” Keller told reporters. “What we will have to see is whether we will have enough fit players for the weekend and for next week’s (return leg at PAOK),” Keller said. Hanover could not have hoped for better timing as they look to bounce back from a 3-0 defeat to Borussia Moenchengladbach.

“We know that Schalke will be coming to us with a lot of ambitions and they will want to shake off that 4-0 defeat from last week,” said Hanover midfielder Leon Andreasen, back after a year out with a cruciate ligament rupture. — Reuters

Rooney saga hangs over Chelsea-Man Utd clash Page 46

www.kuwaittimes.net

FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Neymar rescues

Barca Page 47

MADRID: Barcelona’s Brazilian forward Neymar da Silva Santos (left) vies with Atletico Madrid’s midfielder Juanfran during the Spanish Super Cup first leg football match Atletico Madrid vs Barcelona at Vicente Calderon stadium in Madrid on August 21, 2013. — AFP