4th Oct 2013

94 killed in migrant shipwreck

10

15 perish as plane crashes in Nigeria

15

Serena, Djokovic book the China Open quarters

47 Max 42º Min 23º

NO: 15948- Friday, October 4, 2013

‘Falcon of the Gulf’ sold for KD 209,000 PAGE 8

Local FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

Conspiracy Theories

Marketing of the mind

By Badrya Darwish

badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net

L

ately in Kuwait, we have been bombarded with what I call “Western marketing of the mind”.

Hey guys, do not get carried away. It is not marketing for make-up, or foundation and creams to stretch your skin or Botox to say farewell to your wrinkles. It is not marketing for clothes. Marketing has many kinds like food, furniture and so on.

What we have of late is marketing of the mind. In order to experience it you have to pay a handsome amount to sit through a two-day or a couple of hours sessions in a luxurious five-star hotel’s hall. A professor with a high degree from a prestigious university

will lecture you on how to arrange your life, your thoughts and your mind.

Regardless of whether your life is a success or not, whether you hold a job, lost it or are looking for a new one, these professors have an answer for everything. They have a magic wand that makes you leave the seminar feeling good and courageous, like you have all the solutions to life’s problems in your hand and you’re flying high in the clouds. For you, the sky is no longer the limit.

By choosing strong words on personal success and motivation, you can beat everything, the lecturer says. You can activate all parts of your brain and way of thinking simply by using more images in your plans. Sit down and draw the images of what you want: a luxurious yacht and a big mansion on the French Riviera or a private jet waiting on the tarmac.

Or for the guys, many of them could draw a Marlin Monroe lookalike etc.

So, you can get all this just by drawing a picture in front of you? There it is: it is coming to you just when

Local Spotlight

Mr and Miss Popular

By Muna Al-Fuzai

muna@kuwaittimes.net

It’s the time of the year when kids begin to schedule their daily activities as per their school schedule and parents have to adjust their life according to school timings and events. This article is not about school preparations or how to adjust to school schedules but is about the phenomenon that has taken centre-stage in schools nowadays: Who would be titled Mr and Miss Popular? And how do the other kids see them? The sole reason for this, I feel, could be the influence of Hollywood movies, especially those that center around schools and colleges. Such movies have always portrayed the popular kids as mean jerks. I personally feel this is not true and think it’s time to talk about such kids and find out how hard they worked to come to this level. In fact many of these popular kids are smart, get straight A’s and are lucky to have developed a good social IQ. Even though I could be a little conservative when it comes to educational standards, school curricula or teachers, I still feel that school is fun! But kids have their own individual choices. Nevertheless, we all agree that being tagged popular helps because they get celebrity treatment and loads of friends which is what everyone actually desires.

I happen to know a high school boy who gets to enjoy the status of Mr Popular. But before we judge or stereotype him as someone who could be arrogant, own flashy cars and probably has no interest in studies, we should know he is a computer genius and is very smart and funny. Of course, his parents adore him and pamper

him with a personal driver and good pocket money. All boys want to be his friends.

Unlike many other kids who enjoy this kind of a popular status, he doesn’t make fun of people who are below him. Does this behavior make him arrogant? It is very natural for anyone who has tasted success to feel a sense of pride and there’s nothing wrong in this.

Who are Mr and Miss Popular? From the perspective of the kids who aren’t eligible to run this race, they feel that the popular kids are the ones who get the best of everything: loving parents, great friends, good looks, lots of money and so on! But what they don’t realize is being popular in school doesn’t always come with benefits. These popular kids also have to work hard. These kids could have financial troubles at home and parental issues also. All popular kids are not born with a silver spoon. Some have to work for it. Even if they have the best of everything they still have to work hard to make a mark.

Parents should also be applauded for their popular kids. It’s because of the parents that their children are able to reach great heights. Parents face hardships to give the best to their kids without even letting them know of the troubles they undergo. Some parents have a good social life and are popular in their friends circle and this is usually also seen in their children.

While some parents give importance to social talent, some don’t care about it and don’t even realize the need for it in everyday life. Parents have to get their kids ready for life rather than just school curricula and the need for being wanted.

In my opinion, the need for being wanted or being popular is a key that would unlock many doors of great opportunities, not only in school but outside as well, which is very important in today’s competitive life. Mr and miss Popular, enjoy your fame!

you think about it. Even if Abdulfattah Al-Ali has cancelled your licence or Minister Thekra Al-Rashidi has cancelled your iqama, you can just draw a picture and everything will be fine. This is if you are an expat.

If you are a Kuwaiti, you can draw an image of your debt written off. If I want a house from the ministry, I will just go to them and draw a big house. And there it is - in one of the nicest areas in Kuwait.

I do not know what is coming to mind right now. I am sure you will have more ideas to draw on your paper and you will get them all. What are you waiting for guys? Attend these lectures, pay the fat cheque and walk away happy. That’s what I call marketing! @BadryaD

Local FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

Kuwait’s my business

Here’s why we value brands

By John P Hayes

local@kuwaittimes.net

E

ver wonder why brands are so valuable to consumers? Here’s why. Last spring my wife said we needed a new blender, so I rode over to the City Center complex and bought a Kitchen Aid blender. It cost considerably more than what I would have paid for a department store blender, but I thought it was worth spending more for the brand. Good thing that I’m such a savvy consumer!

The blender did its job every morning mixing my protein shake, but then suddenly it started spurting liquid all over the kitchen. I panicked: “Where am I going to find a Kitchen Aid repair center in Kuwait?” Oh me of little faith!

Where’s the receipt?

But I had worse problems. I asked my wife for the receipt and she said she thought I kept it, since I bought it, and I said I thought she kept it, since she usually does. Turned out we didn’t have a receipt. Worse: I paid cash! So I couldn’t even produce a bank or credit card statement proving that I bought it on a certain date. “I think we’re sunk,” I said.

Still, I searched online for a repair center in Kuwait, found an email address, sent a note asking if someone would contact me, and sure enough they did. Even in America that doesn’t happen all the time! When I made contact the fellow wanted to know where and when I bought my blender. I could tell him where, but the when was fuzzy. “Give me your mobile number,” he said. Suddenly I felt better. I didn’t need the receipt because he had a record of the purchase.

A receipt is required!

“No such number,” he said. So I tried my wife’s mobile number.

“No such number,” he repeated. Without proof of purchase he said he would have to charge for the repair, even though on the Kitchen Aid website it says the company will replace a malfunctioning machine within one year from purchase. But that’s only in America. And a receipt is required!

I told the repairman that I would go directly to the store and get a copy of the receipt because I was certain they’d remember the white haired American who bought a Kitchen Aid blender, and then I’d bring the blender to him for repair. He thought that was a crazy idea, and it turned out he was almost right. “Who are you?” the guy at the store wanted to know. “You don’t remember me? I bought the Kitchen Aid blender,” I said while pointing to his lineup of blenders. “It was last March or May or maybe April? You delivered it to my flat. I paid cash!” All this time this guy was counting a pile of cash, and when I finished talking he looked up, grunted and said, “Wait.” A few moments later, his cash now in a drawer where anyone could easily grab it, he used his keyboard, brought up a screen and asked, “Mobile number?” Again, no record. I gave him my wife’s number, but no record. I gave him my “good” name and my address. Still no record! Then he asked again, “When you buy it?” I said last April? He said, “Oh, computer only keep two months purchases.”

But no problem, because he believed me! And I can’t explain what happened next, but he picked a piece of paper from his trash can, wrote something on it in Arabic, handed it to me and said, “Take to repair shop Al-Rai.” Now I had wasta!

I already had the repair shop’s directions so away we went, no receipt, but a broken blender and a piece of paper with 10 lines of Arabic that turned out to be as good as any wasta.

Inside the repair shop an elderly man looked at me from behind a huge desk and also grunted. I showed him the broken blender and handed him the paper. Within two seconds he shouted in Arabic and a kid came running from the back of the shop, grabbed the paper, and ran off with it. Moments later a younger man appeared at the desk and said that he wanted to help me.

“Thank you,” I said, “I need to get my blender repaired.” He said he knew that and he also knew I had no proof of purchase. How he knew, I don’t know! Just then the runner returned with the replacement part. “Sir,” said the younger man from behind the desk, “even though you don’t have a receipt, we are able to give you the replacement part because it’s a Kitchen Aid. They are very flexible. Other companies are not so flexible.” Then he put the blender together for me, smiled and placed it in a bag.

“Thank you,” I said. And that’s why I - and millions of other consumers - like buying a brand, even if it’s a little more expensive. It makes you feel good knowing that people are just a little bit more trusting and cooperative when you own a brand.

Dr John P Hayes heads the Business Administration department at GUST where he teaches marketing and leadership. He’s also the director of the Kuwait Leadership Mastery. Got a question for him? Send it to questions@hayesworldwide.com, or via Twitter @drjohnhayes.

Local FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

Re-adapting to home country Filipino expats go back from Kuwait ‘disheartened’

By Ben Garcia

A

fter spending many years in Kuwait, Estella and Ruis are going back to Manila for good. Estella and Ruis have been here for 16 and 30 years respectively. They have got used to the climate and the general working environment of Kuwait and for them, returning home, means a long period of transition and adjustment.

Estella came to Kuwait in 1996. She worked as a salesperson in one of the biggest clothing companies in Kuwait and married her childhood boyfriend in 2004. Their combined salary is at KD 600. “KD 600 used to be enough before, but now it is difficult to survive on it,” she admitted.

“I expect Manila is no longer what it was but I don’t think it would have changed too much,” Estella said. Her three sons will accompany her while her husband will stay back here. “My husband will continue working here but my children have to go back to Manila because no one is going to look after them.

We have to sacrifice for the sake of the family,” she noted. “We can no longer sustain our earlier lifestyle because of the rising costs of living here. Prices of everything in Kuwait have gone up and it is impossible for us to live the life we want to live.

First, no one can look after our kids here while we’re at work.

Second, house rental has gone up as well. My children’s wellbeing is more important than my desire to work and I am giving up my work for their sake and hopefully, we will have a better life back home.”

Estella admitted that three years ago, she and her husband could sustain the family with their salaries combined. Now, however, it is quite hard to survive. “We cannot afford to stay here if we want to maintain our lifestyle. Even hiring a housemaid is practically impossible now. But we have to survive and this family must survive. And so, I am going back with my kids and I pray that we will be okay there”. She admitted, though, that it will not be easy. “I’ve been here for a long time, I will have to adjust to a new life and new neighbors. Going back is quite hard but my husband and I weighed the pros and cons and agreed that I need to go home with my kids,” she said.

“This year will be our last in Kuwait. I have already informed everybody in Manila about our decision and they are all waiting for us there”.

Estella and her husband have bought a small house in a suburb in Manila. They have already furnished the house with the basic necessities and kitchen tools. “The house is ready

but I am concerned about our children’s safety. The area is quite notorious for petty crimes but we will have to handle this,” she said. “We had earlier planned on selling that house and looking for a place outside Manila but, we can no longer wait. My sons and I will have no other place to go when we go there, so we don’t have a choice”.

Going home Ruis’ story is quite different. He worked in the local poultry industry in Saudi until he came here in the early 1980s. “I was with them for 20 years, until I decided to leave the company for a new job. I had quite a bit of money when I resigned from

played a prominent role in the community and has been a father figure for many abused Filipina housemaids, providing them with food and shelter. “I am 64 now. Of course, no one will hire me anymore. My visa, which was provided to me by a good Kuwaiti friend, will expire in January, so I will have to leave,” he said. Ruis will be leaving Kuwait with many memories - both good and bad. “I survived the wars. I remember during those times how Kuwait was dragged into the Iran and Iraq war. Then came the Gulf War,” he reminisced.

Ruis claims that he feels apprehensive about returning to his native land. “I will be total stranger in my own country. I have spent most of my adult life outside the Philippines, so I

“Now this is it: my final exit,” he said. “I will miss the beautiful cars in Kuwait and the market nearby. I will miss the 24-hour air conditioning, even during winter. I will miss my friends here - Kuwaitis and non-Kuwaitis - and I will certainly miss all the good people around me. Kuwait has been a big part of my life and going away means saying goodbye to many things that are important to me. But I have to accept this. I don’t want to be a burden on anyone, so while I am still sane and healthy and while I am still able to walk, I will return home”. that company; in fact, with my indemnity, I bought some land near Manila. But soon after, my father fell ill, so I had to stay for a few more years here than I had originally planned, to help him with medical expenses. He died in the late 90s,” he said.

Ruis has two grown sons who are both in Dubai. “My wife passed away, so now I am alone. I have been contemplating making my final exit from Kuwait for some time now, but when I think of living alone in Manila, I convince myself to stay here for a few more years. But someone like me has to make a decision before anything goes wrong and so I am finally leaving Kuwait this December,” he said.

Ruis was once a very active Filipino community leader. He’s

have to deal with all sorts of issues. I do not regret anything because I was able to raise my kids well; we lived a good life at a certain point, then, I helped many of our ‘kababayan’. Now this is it: my final exit,” he said. “I will miss the beautiful cars in Kuwait and the market nearby. I will miss the 24-hour air conditioning, even during winter. I will miss my friends here Kuwaitis and non-Kuwaitis - and I will certainly miss all the good people around me. Kuwait has been a big part of my life and going away means saying goodbye to many things that are important to me. But I have to accept this. I don’t want to be a burden on anyone, so while I am still sane and healthy and while I am still able to walk, I will return home”.

Local FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

‘Falcon of the Gulf’ sold for KD 209,000

By Nawara Fattahova KUWAIT: A falcon was recently sold at an unbelievable price: KD 209,000. This is a record price for a bird of any kind. The unique falcon was sold during an auction held in Jahra.

This falcon is a unique Iranian Farsi falcon which was hunted by Kuwaitis in AlNuweisib when it was flying over Kuwait from Iranian mountains during the migratory season, seeking warm weather. According to a local daily, these hunters were training their falcons in the area, and when they saw this unique falcon, they immediately sent a hunting pigeon with a net to capture it. The GCC is considered a transit area for the falcons and other wild birds leaving cold areas from September to November.

The auction was attended by many falcon connoisseurs from different GCC countries. The man who sold the falcon and the man who bought it refused to speak with the media. Homoud Al-Ruwei is a big fan and owns a falcon himself. “I always attend these auctions as I really enjoy this hobby.

The price paid for this Iranian falcon was the highest ever and that’s the reason it’s called the Falcon of the Gulf. Such a falcon hasn’t been seen in many years. It reached this price as representatives of sheikhs fought hard for it and there was extensive bidding,” he told the Kuwait Times.

According to Al-Ruwei, if the falcon was

The falcon that was sold at an unbelievable price of KD 209,000. hunted in Kuwait while it was flying over the country, its price would be higher than if it was hunted abroad. “People who love this hobby spread news about this on social media, so they always know where the falcon is hunted and when the auction takes place. When a falcon is imported into Kuwait, its keen followers will immediately know when exactly it entered Kuwait and passed through the customs,” he explained.

“This falcon is a unique Farsi falcon from the mountains and is about a year old. The most important factor it its color. This falcon is white which makes it expensive. The height should be an ideal average of 17 cm

and other characteristics which matter are the feet, wings, eyes, bill and so on. Also the height of the body, which should be in average of 17 cm. If the feathers don’t have any folds, it will be considered the perfect falcon,” added Al-Ruwei.

Falcons have different origins. “Iranian falcons are the most expensive among falcons from other countries like Russia, China, Mongolia, Syria, Ukraine, Turkmenistan and others. The country of origin also affects the characteristics, and if somebody tried to artificially change the color, it will be obvious and the experts at the judging contest will find out. There are various beauty contests

held for falcons in Kuwait and other GCC countries to showcase their beauty. They don’t consider their abilities like flying or hunting because the main criterion is beauty,” he pointed out.

The average age of a falcon is between 15-20 years. “If a falcon lived for 25 years, this would be considered an exception. The price of a falcon is not affected by its gender and despite us being experts, we don’t know the gender but only know the age. We feed them pigeon meat. These birds and other wild birds are facing extinction, so they shouldn’t be hunted randomly in massive numbers,” concluded Al-Ruwei.

Drug dealer arrested in Taima KUWAIT: Jahra patrol police recently arrested a drug dealer in Taima with six kilos of hashish, four joints and eight psychotropic pills, said security sources. Case papers indicate that a police patrol suspected a vehicle with a GCC license plate and on stopping it, they found the driver looking dazed. Upon searching the vehicle, policemen found the drugs and a case was filed while the suspect was referred to the authorities.

KUWAIT: Fire-fighters battle a fire that broke out in a 2,500-square-meter area in a ranch in Kabad area yesterday.

Kabad fire destroys dry fodder

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: A fire broke out in a 2,500square-meter ranch in the Kabad area yesterday morning, security sources said. Firemen from Ardhiya and Kabad rushed to the scene and discovered that

the fire had engulfed piles of dry fodder stored over an area of 1,000 square meters. The firemen were still trying to put out the fire when this report was filed and firefighting teams had to be replaced with others from Farwaniya and Mishref. No casualties have been reported so far.

Expats arrested Five expatriates (including three Iranians) were arrested for burning used tires in Jahra, said security sources adding that after receiving reports from the army, policemen chased the suspects on foot. The suspects said that they had been burning the tires to obtain copper wires inside.

Traffic crackdown A traffic inspection campaign by erecting check points at Fahad Al-Salem Street in downtown Kuwait City, resulted in filing of 220 traffic citations and detention of 34 vehicles and 15 buses.

Woman delivers baby after accident In a strange incident, a woman delivered a baby after she was injured in a traffic accident along the Fifth Ring Road, said security sources. Case papers showed that a woman who was injured in an accident was found to be heavily pregnant and entered labor during the crash. Paramedics were called in who immediately cleared the way for an ambulance to rush in and help the woman give birth to a healthy baby boy. The mother was taken to a nearby hospital for further medical treatment.

Frauds arrested A fraudulent citizen was finally arrested after he managed to swindle a number of local banks, companies and car rentals which left him with a KD35,000 debt. Security sources said that the citizen was wanted by the local police for some time.

Another citizen, who had been wanted for drug trafficking, was arrested with drugs along Abdali Road, said security sources, who revealed that when they caught him, he was found in an intoxicated state.

Woman wants payment after sex In a bizarre incident, a woman in her fifties reported that her Kuwaiti boyfriend, with whom she had spent three days during which they slept together several times, had kicked her out without “paying” her, said security sources. The woman said that she had agreed to accompany a citizen to his apartment in Salmiya where they spent the first two days talking. On the third day, they slept together several times and he kicked her out without paying for her company. Salmiya police officers were astonished when she filed a case and demanded that he pay her the money

he owes her. Authorities are currently in conversation with the man.

Hashish seized Narcotics officials recently “fished” 90 kilos of hashish out of the waters around Failaka Island.

Case papers showed that some fishermen reported finding a bag of hashish inside their nets and on searching harder, coastguard officials managed to retrieve some more bags which added up to 90 kilos.

Man found in ladies’ restroom A man was found unconscious inside a ladies’ toilet at a Salmiya shopping mall. A woman saw a man lying on the toilet floor and screamed for help. When the mall security checked the man, they found out that he was inebriated that he mistook the ladies’ restroom for the men’s and walked in and fell unconscious. Policemen were informed and the man was arrested after they found heroin, hashish and other psychotropic drugs him.

‘Fire lips’ video goes viral Policemen are on the hunt for a young man and two young girls who have been seen in a video which has gone viral on social media. The video showed the man wildly kissing one of the girls inside his car and the girl screaming in ecstasy.

“Fire lips”, as she described them, invited the other girl in the backseat to “taste” them. Security sources said that the three would be arrested because their action violated Kuwaiti values and traditions.

Deliveryman attacked An angry client threw some mail in a Syrian deliveryman’s face because he was late in delivering it and punched him in the face, breaking some of his teeth in the bargain. Security sources said that the deliveryman filed a complaint.

Lebanese injured A 34-year-old Lebanese was left seriously injured when she jumped off the sixth floor of the building in Salmiya. She was rushed to Mubarak Hospital in a critical condition.

Local FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

ANKARA: National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim and the delegation with Turkish officials in Ankara.— KUNA

Speaker seeks united Arab-Turkey stance on regional issues at IPU Kuwait leads Arab group at 129th IPUC in Geneva ANKARA: Visiting Kuwaiti National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim said yesterday that his meetings with Turkish officials and members of parliament resulted in a mechanism to transform talks into positive tangible results for both sides.

“We move on to the 129th Inter-Parliamentary Union Conference in Geneva next week, and we will go there with a more united stance between the Arab and Muslim regions, particularly as Kuwait leads the Arab group at this conference, “ he said.

The chief parliamentarian was referring to Ankara’s views during talks he had held with Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his counterpart Cemil Cicek on Syria and the growing assaults on Al-Aqsa Mosque.

“My meeting with President Abdullah Gul was the perfect ending to my meetings in Ankara,” he said, adding “(President) Gul and HH the Amir (of Kuwait)

have a long-standing and brotherly friendship. It (this relationship) carries a lot of devotion and appreciation of Amir and the Kuwaiti people.”

“We are proud that leading officials in Turkey and the region continuously praise HH the Amir - his role, wise and balanced policies and his role in bridging viewpoints between Muslim leaders,” he concluded. The visit came at a time requiring both sides to find some sort of common ground on regional and international circumstances, reflected Kuwaiti Ambassador to Turkey Abdallah Al-Thuwaikh.

Commenting on the Kuwaiti lawmaker’s talks with the Turkish prime minister, he said the talks had focused on bilateral relations and issues of mutual significance, while his meetings with his Turkish counterpart took up from where they had left off. Turkish media reported many reactions to the visit, which comes six months after the visit of HH the Amir. — KUNA

ANKARA: Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim with Turkish President Abdullah Gul.

Howailah buys falcon for KD 6,000 to aid Syrian revolution KUWAIT: A fundraising ceremony was held recently in which members of Al-Ajmi and Al-Yam tribes gathered to collect donations and raise fund for the people who fight the Syrian regime.

Speaking on the occasion, the secretary general of the Syrian Revolution supporters in Kuwait, former MP

Mohammed Hayef Al-Howailah thanked Al-Ajmi tribe leader, Sultan Bin Hethleen for his support to the Syrian people and for helping hold the ceremony. He also bought a rare falcon that was auctioned up to KD 6,000 and the money would be donated to the people who fight the Syrian regime. — Al-Rai

KRCS to distribute Eid clothes to Syrian refugees in Jordan

Defense minister meets British military team KUWAIT: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Sheikh Khaled AlJarrah Al-Sabah met yesterday with a visiting UK military delegation. During the meeting, they discussed deep-rooted bilateral relations between both countries and ways to boost them, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. The UK delegation includes several military

officials, UK Ambassador to Kuwait Frank Baker and UK embassy military attache Colonel David Bardi.

The meeting was attended by Undersecretary of the Defense Ministry Jasser Abdulrazaq Al-Jasser, Deputy Army Chief of Staff Lt Gen Abdulrahman Mohammad Al-Othman and a number of high-ranking military officials. — KUNA

AMMAN: The Kuwait Red Crescent Society (KRCS) launched yesterday a humanitarian project to distribute clothes to Syrian refugees in Jordan to help them enjoy the upcoming Eid Al-Adha, in coordination with the Jordanian Red Crescent.

In statement, Head of the KRCS Mission here Khaled Al-Zaid said 300 Syrian families will benefit from the project. The project is part of a package of humanitarian efforts to alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people who fled the ongoing deadly conflict in their country, he said.

He explained this came within the framework of the KRCS keenness to develop the spirit of solidarity and to bring happiness to the Syrian refugees.

Al-Zaid praised the cooperation between the Kuwaiti society and its Jordanian counterpart in delivering Kuwait aid to Syrian families in the various governorates of the Kingdom, praising the role of the Embassy of Kuwait in Jordan to facilitate the task of the Kuwaiti delegation.

The director of programs and projects in the Jordanian Red Crescent Society Meshaal Al-Hadeed said that the distribution of Eid clothing to Syrian refugees in Jordan comes within the framework of the cooperation between both Kuwaiti and Jordanian crescent societies. — KUNA

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

15 die as plane crash-lands in Nigeria

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Man who brought Qaeda to Afghanistan runs for president

Israel on guard 40 years after Yom Kippur war

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LAMPEDUSA: Bodies of drowned migrants are lined up in the port of Lampedusa yesterday. — AP

At least 94 dead in migrant shipwreck Ship capsized, spills passengers into the sea ROME: A ship carrying African migrants to Europe caught fire and capsized off the Italian island of Lampedusa yesterday, killing at least 94 people as it spilled hundreds of passengers into the sea, officials said. Over 150 people were rescued but some 200 others were still unaccounted-for. It was one of the deadliest accidents in recent times during the notoriously perilous Mediterranean Sea crossing from Africa for migrants seeking a new life in the European Union.

“We need only caskets, certainly not ambulances,” Pietro Bartolo, chief of health services on the island, told Radio 24. He gave the death toll of 94 but told Sky TG24 he expected that to rise as search operations continued. “It’s an immense tragedy,” said Lampedusa Mayor Giusi Nicolini, adding that the dead included at least one child of about 3 and a

pregnant woman. Blue, white and black tarps covered the bodies at the port. Coast guard ships, local fishing boats and helicopters from across the region were combing the waters trying to find survivors, said coast guard spokesman Marco Di Milla. The boat left from Tripoli with migrants from Eritrea, Ghana and Somalia, Di Milla said. Antonio Candela, the government’s health commissioner for Palermo, said 159 people had been rescued, but the boat is believed to have been carrying as many as 500 people, the LaPresse news agency reported.

Nicolini said the ship had caught fire after those on board set off flares so it would be seen by passing ships. The ship apparently then capsized, spilling the passengers into the sea near Conigli island.

Lampedusa is closer to Africa than the Italian mainland - a mere 70 miles off the coast of Tunisia - and is

the frequent destination for smugglers’ boats.

Interior Minister Angelino Alfano canceled his appointments yesterday and headed to Italy’s southernmost island to oversee the rescue operations.

Pope Francis, who visited Lampedusa in July, quickly sent condolences.

It was the second shipwreck this week off Italy: On Monday, 13 men drowned while trying to reach southern Sicily when their ship ran aground just a few meters from shore. Hundreds of migrants reach Italy’s shores every day, particularly during the summer when seas are usually calmer. They are processed in centers, screened for asylum and often sent back home. Those who aren’t usually melt into the general public and make their way to northern Europe, where immigrant communities are bigger and better organized. In Italy, migrants can only work

legally if they have a work permit and contract before they arrive. According to the UN refugee agency, 8,400 migrants landed in Italy and Malta in the first six months of the year, almost double the 4,500 who arrived during the first half of 2012. It’s still a far cry from the tens of thousands who flooded to Italy, especially through Lampedusa, during the Arab Spring exodus of 2011. The numbers, though, have spiked in recent weeks, particularly with Syrian arrivals. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees had recorded 40 deaths in the first half of 2013 for migrants arriving in Italy and Malta, and a total of 500 for all of 2012, based on interviews with survivors.

Fortress Europe, an Italian observatory that tracks migrant deaths reported by the media, says about 6,450 people died in the Canal of Sicily between 1994 and 2012. —AP

International FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

Aleppo stalemate fuels rebel frustration ALEPPO: The struggle for Syria’s second city Aleppo has been locked in stalemate for months, fuelling the frustration of rebels who see no way out but to doggedly battle on. “We take a building and then lose it two or three days later, only to take it back the following week,” said Abu Ahmad, whose platoon operates in the Salaheddin and Saif Al-Dawla districts of the devastated city that was once Syria’s commercial capital.

“There is no progress. We are not winning the war,” the 42-year-old fighter grumbled as he spoke to an AFP reporter who passed the night with the platoon on the front line. “Take this street, for example. We took it in just an hour a year ago, and since then we haven’t advanced one meter.” The conflict in Syria has cost more than 115,000 lives since it erupted in March 2011 with peaceful protests that became a civil war after a harsh regime crackdown on dissent.

But the fighting came late to Aleppo.

Rebels seized parts of the northern city in July 2012 and President Bashar Al-Assad’s troops have been trying ever since to regain full control of it. Morale is particularly low this night. One of the rebels has been seriously wounded by a sniper who shot him in the chest. Resting his AK-47 assault rifle against the wall and taking off his combat jacket, one of Abu Ahmad’s men said bluntly: “This war is wearing us down. “The food is bad, and there’s not enough of it. We can only wash a couple of times a week because we don’t always have water, and the electricity comes and goes.” But it is not just everyday comforts that are lacking, but the means to wage a proper war, said Abu Ahmad, as he opens a plastic bag and empties its contents on the floor. Two men collect the bullets up and snap them into magazines, which they shove in their jackets. “We have to count every bullet,” Abu Ahmad said.

DAILY TEDIUM OF BATTLE “We don’t have the luxury of wasting ammunition... If the army attacked now in force, we would only have enough to pull back without losing too many men.” The daily tedium of the battle is relentless. The men move through the night’s shadows, ghost-like shells of buildings on either side. Broken glass crunches under their boots. Pop! A far-off sniper takes a shot at them, but no one is hit. They run into a deserted building and up to the fourth floor. There, through holes in the wall, they aim their Kalashnikovs into total darkness. Waiting for a flicker of light, a sound, a moving shadow. And then, they make out a small group of men edging stealthily along the street.

They open fire, emptying their magazines into the darkness. “And that’s the way it is, night after night,” said one of the fighters, Omar, his voice tinged with bitterness. “The commanders keep telling us

to wait, that they are preparing a plan to take Salaheddin, but all we do is fire through holes in the wall. “I don’t know what they’re waiting for. We can’t spend five or 10 years peering through holes in the wall and waiting for Allah to win the war for us.”

Despite being disillusioned, the rebels see no alternative to carrying on the fight.

“We couldn’t surrender because they would show us no mercy, and a political solution wouldn’t change anything,” Abu Ahmad said.

“No, the only solution must be for Assad to leave.” Hussein, a 23-year-old former student of Arab philology at the University of Aleppo, tries to explain why. “Assad is discredited in the eyes of the people. How could we do a deal with someone who has massacred his people and now wants to negotiate to stay in power as if nothing had happened?” — AFP

Syrian rebels urge rival groups to end infighting BEIRUT: Six Syrian rebel groups called on AlQaeda and its rival Western-backed rebels to end their infighting in northern Syria as international inspectors tasked with overseeing the destructions of the government’s chemical arsenal pressed on with their second full day of work in the country yesterday. The inspectors’ mission - endorsed by a UN Security Council resolution last week - is to scrap Syria’s capacity to manufacture chemical weapons by Nov 1 and to destroy the entire stockpile of President Bashar Assad’s estimated 1,000-ton arsenal of chemical weapons by mid-2014.

They are working against the backdrop of a relentless civil war that has pitted a wide array of opposition fighters and groups against Assad’s troops and pro-government militiamen in all major cities and their surroundings. The conflict, now in its third year, has recently become even more complex, with rebel groups turning their guns on one another - particularly in the north where opposition fighters are now battling over territory they captured together from government troops in the past year.

The rebel infighting underscores the immense security challenges that the international weapons experts face as they work amid the civil war to meet tight deadlines.

In a statement released late Wednesday, six rebel groups urged the two major rebel factions battling each other around the town of Azaz near the border with Turkey to “cease the fire immediately” and resolve their differences before an Islamic court.

The two major factions are Al-Qaeda’s Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant on one side, and the Western-backed Free Syrian Army’s Northern Storm Brigade on the other. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which documents the civil war and also the rebel-on-rebel fighting, said those that signed the appeal included the Islamic Army, the Tawheed Brigade and Ahrar Al-Sham group - all affiliated with the Western-backed FSA alliance.

The appeal also called on the Al-Qaeda group to withdraw its fighters to areas

where they were before Azaz clashes erupted late last month. A convoy of three UN vehicles left from a hotel in central Damascus yesterday with nine experts from the Netherlands-based chemical weapons watchdog, but it was not clear where they were heading. The team now consists of an advance group of 19 experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons experts and 14 UN staff members who arrived on Tuesday. A second group of inspectors is to join them within a week.

Their daily work has been shrouded in as much secrecy as is possible in Syria. Their mission stems from a deadly Aug 21 attack on opposition-held Damascus suburbs in which the UN has determined the nerve agent sarin was used. The US and its allies accuse the Syrian government of being responsible for the attack, while Damascus blames the rebels for the attack. The US has said it killed 1,400 people. Death toll estimates by activists and rights groups are significantly lower, but still in the hundreds.

The Syrian conflict began in March 2011 as largely peaceful protests against Assad’s rule, then gradually turned into an uprising and a civil war that has killed at least 100,000 people so far. More than two millions Syrians have been displaced, many fleeing to neighboring Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq. Also yesterday, an international human rights organization released a report saying that according to its estimate, Assad’s government is unlawfully holding tens of thousands of regime opponents and torturing many in custody.

Those arrested include medics who treated wounded protesters, businessmen who raised money for displaced Syrians and even software developers who worked with citizen journalists, said Human Rights Watch. The New York-based group offered accounts of 21 Syrians who had been detained and who said they were beaten in custody with batons, cables and metal rods. The report also cited some as saying they were sexually abused and raped in custody. — AP

JEDDAH: A handout picture released by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) shows Saudi’s King Abdullah, whose reduced public appearances have sparked health scares. The 90-yearold monarch met princes and religious scholars at the Al-Salam royal palace six days after the kingdom celebrated its national day, an event he did not attend. — AFP

Saudi scraps UN speech in protest over Syria, Israel Riyadh fumes over UN stance on Arabs, Islam RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s frustration at international inaction over Syria and the Palestinians led it to cancel its speech at the United Nations General Assembly for the first time ever this week, a diplomatic source said.

Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal had been scheduled to deliver an address to the general assembly on Tuesday afternoon. By the standards of the world’s top oil exporter and birthplace of Islam, which usually expresses diplomatic concerns only in private, the decision represented an unprecedented statement of discontent.

“The Saudi decision... reflects the kingdom’s dissatisfaction with the position of the UN on Arab and Islamic issues, particularly the issue of Palestine that the UN has not been able to solve in more than 60 years, as well as the Syrian crisis,” said the source. The conservative Islamic kingdom is one of the main backers of rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar AlAssad in a civil war that has killed more than

100,000 people in two and a half years.

It has repeatedly called for the international community to intervene on behalf of the rebels, whom it provides with weapons, and has said Assad must be toppled because Syrian government forces have bombarded civilian areas. Saudi Arabia had hoped that a chemical weapons attack on the edge of Damascus in August would lead its allies including the United States to bomb forces loyal to Assad, diplomats in the Gulf say.

When Washington instead agreed to a Russian plan to avert military strikes by dismantling Syria’s chemical weapons, Saudi Arabia said the move did not address the broader issue of civilian deaths in the war.

Riyadh supports Palestinian independence and does not have diplomatic relations with Israel. In 2001 it pushed the idea of an ArabIsraeli peace plan in which Arab states would make peace with Israel if it retreated to pre1967 borders.— Reuters

International FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

Washington, Tokyo aim at balanced security alliance US drones, radar to be deployed in Japan TOKYO: New US drones and a radar to defend against North Korean missiles will be deployed in Japan, senior politicians from both sides said yesterday as they met to rebalance their security alliance. US Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera held the first review of the cornerstone alliance in 16 years, after years of rising Chinese power and provocations from Pyongyang.

“Our goal is a more balanced and effective alliance, where our two militaries are full partners working side-by-side with each other, and with other regional partners, to enhance peace and security,” Kerry said after the meeting. Washington has long expressed frustration at Japan’s narrow interpretation of its pacifist constitution, which precludes the right of first strike and confines military action to defense against a direct attack on Japanese people or property.

At the same time a resurgent centre-right, in the form of popular Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is increasingly nervous about China’s intentions in the region. Abe has said he

wants Japan’s well-resourced and welltrained military to play a more active rolechiefly the ability to come to the aid of its ally if it were attacked, for example by a North Korean missile attack on a US base. However, some on Japan’s left are uneasy at the idea of a more active military and the subject raises hackles in China, which accuses Tokyo of mulling a return to the militarism of World War II. Fears over North Korea’s missile and nuclear program were high on the agenda, with the US pledging new hardware in Japan. “Another key priority is missile defense, given the threat posed by North Korea’s ballistic missiles to both of our countries,” said Kerry. “Today we announced our plans to deploy a second TPY-2 radar to Kyoto Prefecture. This additional radar will bolster our ability to defend the US homeland and Japan against North Korean ballistic missiles, and enhances an important 21st century alliance capability.”

Pyongyang conducted its third and most powerful atomic test in February, triggering months of heightened military tensions on the Korean peninsula. A US think-tank said

Wednesday after analyzing new satellite imagery that it is clear that Pyongyang has restarted an ageing plutonium reactor. The US also said it would be stationing drones in Japan, spreading out an asset that has become key to the US military machine. A US source said unmanned reconnaissance vehicles had been used in Japan before, but had never been stationed here.

MOVING TO GUAM The so-called “2+2” meeting also revisited a 2009 agreement intended to move 8,000 Marines off Okinawa, the southern island chain that hosts the majority of the 47,000 US troops in Japan. Around half of the Marines will be moved to Guam by early next decade, with Japan meeting $3.1 billion of the $8.6 billion cost of this move.

As has become customary at US-Japan meetings over the last 12 months, the American side reiterated its position that the Senkakus, which Beijing calls the Diaoyus, fall under the two countries’ security treatment as an area under Japanese control. That means if the islands were invaded, the US would be forced to respond. Japan is keen to

extract this reassurance at every opportunity, as a way of bolstering its case against China and as a warning against Beijing overreaching.

Washington looks every time to strike a wary balance between promising to backstop its ally and giving too much succor to less moderate voices in Tokyo, who might push for a more provocative course against China. “The United States has made it clear the longstanding policy that has not changed, that while we don’t take positions on the sovereignty of the Senkaku islands, we do recognize Japan’s administration of those islands,” Kerry said.

“And we have urged the parties not to engage in any unilateral actions that challenges that and rather to engage in dialogue and diplomacy as an effort to resolve that.”

Earlier in the day Kerry and Hagel had paid respects at Chidori ga Fuchi, Japan’s national cemetery, in an apparent US attempt to nudge Japan away from lionizing its controversial Yasukuni Shrine. East Asian neighbors condemn Japanese leaders’ visits to Yasukuni, which enshrines the remains of war criminals among other war dead.—AFP

15

International FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

Doomed lives of Albania’s children of vendetta MAZREK: Since they were born, nineyear-old Nikolin and his older brother Amarildo, 12, have never left their house in Albania. They do not play outside, nor do they go to school. The boys are imprisoned because of a blood feud, or vendetta, with neighbors that has made them fear for their lives. Their uncle killed a neighbor in a 1993 dispute and, although he was jailed for 25 years, the victim’s family-living only a dozen meters away-has vowed to avenge the death.

Albanians still respect the tradition of vendetta, which dates back to the 15th century and spares no male in a family, including babies. The brutal custom is widely followed in the poor mountainous regions in the north of the country, but also in some villages and towns in other regions. Nikolin and Amarildo spend most of their lives in a cold, somber room at their home in Mazrek, a village about 150 kilometers north of the capital Tirana. They are

surrounded by photographs of dead relatives on the walls, their small window covered with iron bars.

The bitter feud has already led to some casualties and the two youngsters, entangled through no fault of their own, could be next. “Outside, we are facing death,” Amarildo whispers.

He says he dreams of having a ball and playing with his only friend, the brother that shares his fate. The boys’ mother, Vjollca, recently committed suicide, unable to stand her family’s captive life any more. She was 29. “I found her hanged in the barn,” Amarildo says, his voice choking as he fights back tears.

The rival family gave them three days to mourn and bury her, promising not to kill them during that time.

CONDEMNED TO DEATH The boys’ only link with the outside world is their teacher, Liljana Luani, who comes twice a month to teach them to read and write. “The children

of vendetta are condemned to death,” says Luani, who has asked the Albanian authorities to bring an end to what she calls an “unacceptable crime for a country that wants to integrate into Europe”.

Almost 600 Albanian children were unable to start the new school year in September, hiding at home from vendetta threats, which sometimes now extend to women and girls, Gjin Marku, who monitors the problem for a local organization said. Police say there have been 225 victims of blood feuds in Albania in the last 14 years, but activist groups estimate the real number could be much higher. “In Albania, vendetta was developed due to a weak judiciary system that pushed people to settle scores on their own,” sociologist Suela Dani explains.

During the communist era in Albania, from the end of World War II until 1992, a strict application of the death penalty in cases of vendetta

Nigeria plane crash kills 15 Plane was ‘carrying body of former governor’ LAGOS: Fifteen people were killed when an Embraer passenger plane crashed shortly after take-off just outside Lagos airport’s domestic terminal yesterday, Nigerian authorities said. Airports Authority general manager Yakubu Dati told a news conference the plane was an Embraer 120, a Brazilian make. The Associated Airlines plane was flying from Nigeria’s commercial capital to Akure, a southwestern town about 140 miles (225 km) away.

“An Embraer 120 plane came down at 9.32 am with 20 passengers on board, inclusive of crew, and five people survived,” Dati said. “We have recovered the black box,” he said. He did not know the engine’s maker.

But a diplomatic source said the engine was a Pratt & Whitney Canada, a unit of United Technologies Corp, PW100. Aviation Ministry spokesman Joe Obi had earlier said 27 people were on the plane but Lagos state emergency management agency chief Olufemi Damilola Oke-Osanyintolu said at the site that in fact only 20 of the 27 seats were filled.

Several local radio stations and Channels TV reported that it was carrying a family and the body of former governor of Ondo state Olusegun Agagu to his funeral. A Reuters reporter saw emergency workers bring out a coffin from the wreckage. “The plane was making a lot of noise before it came down,” said witness Rasheed Olajide, an engineer

LAGOS: A man looks at the wreckage of an Associated Airlines plane that crash-landed after takeoff in Lagos yesterday. — AFP working at the airport. “It appeared to coming from the runway. There are firereverse back to avoid crashing into the fighters rushing to the scene,” Rasaki residential area. It came down at a 45 Rhakod, who runs a car service around the airport said. In June last year, 163 degree angle.”

Air crashes are relatively common in people died when a Dana Air plane Nigeria, which despite having Africa’s crashed into a Lagos apartment block in second-biggest economy has a poor the country’s worst airline disaster in safety record. “There’s a lot of smoke two decades. — Reuters

Saudi jails, lashes 4 ‘naked’ dancers RIYADH: A Saudi court has sentenced four men to up to 10 years in prison and 2,000 lashes for dancing “naked” in public, media reported yesterday. In a video posted on YouTube, several men appear dancing atop a vehicle in the ultra-conservative province of Qassim.

None seemed naked. The court in Buraydah, Qassim’s provincial capital, sentenced one defendant to 10 years in prison and 2,000 lashes, and another to seven years in prison and 1,200 lashes, Al-Sharq newspaper reported in what media

have dubbed the “naked dancing” case.

Their two companions were jailed for three years and sentenced to 500 lashes each, it said. The four were charged with “dancing on a vehicle in public and posting a video online, encouraging vice, defying norms of the society and violating public morals,” according to Al-Sharq. Two of them were identified as security officials. Saudi Arabia applies a strict version of Islamic shariah law that imposes many social restrictions and bans public entertainment. — AFP

allowed the regime to suppress it.

Since communism fell, the maximum punishment has been life imprisonment, but a lack of confidence in the justice system has led to an escalation in blood feuds. Dani says “all the state structures” must make a real commitment to ending the ruthless practice, which can derail the lives not just of those targeted but also of those seeking vengeance.

When his uncle was killed, Alfred Vekaj, 17, swore he would get even.

“Every morning on my way to school I saw a man from the family that had killed my uncle and one day I hid my grandmother’s gun in my school bag,” he says.

“I did not want to kill him, just to prevent him from passing in front of my school any more.” But Vekaj missed his target and killed a passer-by. “At least I am alive,” he said from his prison cell in Kavaja, the city where he is serving an eight-year sentence. — AFP

Iran eyes economic revival after historic Obama’s call TEHRAN: Iranians hope international sanctions that have suffocated the economy could be lifted if relations improve between Tehran and Washington after President Hassan Rouhani’s historic phone chat with Barack Obama. Iran and the United States, which have had no diplomatic relations since 1980, “should have done it earlier”, said Morteza, a taxi driver who did not want to be fully identified. “Because everyone is affected by the sanctions and the economic situation,” he said, complaining that he could not find quality spare parts for his car because of sanctions.

Iran, subject to UN sanctions over its controversial nuclear program, is also struggling with harsh measures imposed by the United States and the European Union targeting its vital oil income and access to the global banking system. Economy Minister Ali Tayyebnia warned in August that the official figure of 3.5 million unemployed, or 11.2 percent of the workforce, could rise to 8.5 million with a wave of young people on the verge of entering the job market.

While inflation has dropped slightly, it currently stands at 39 percent. Consumer prices have nearly doubled in a year, making common commodities such as staples rice, cooking oil and chicken too expensive for many people, according to the official statistics organization. Iran’s currency, the rial, has been grossly devalued since late 2011. But since Rouhani’s charm offensive targeting the international community, the rial has started to stabilize.

Today, some 30,000 rials buy one US dollar, compared with a rate of 38,000 to one just a few months ago.

Officials have warned that detente with the world, and the eventual lifting of sanctions, would be a drawn-out process. But for Iranians, last Friday’s phone conversation between Rouhani and the American president-the first such contact since the 1979 Islamic revolution is a real sign of hope. Mehdi Miremadi, head of the Franco-Iranian chamber of commerce, told AFP that he was optimistic but said it was vital not to forget how bad the economic situation is.

COMPANIES FACE CLOSURE “If certain sanctions are not lifted within six months, with the priority on those affecting banking transactions, half of large companies running on imported materials will close,” he said.

Iranian firms have had to resort to back channels just to survive, he said, explaining that the cost of doing business has risen by 25 percent because of this. A European economic observer in Tehran agrees. “The pressure is clearly on the economy. It is evident with high figures in unemployment and inflation, as well as the dramatic drop in production,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

After Rouhani’s June election, “entrepreneurs in my country were optimistic but also realistic at the same time. They wanted to see what happens,” he added. The momentum quickly began to build. “I organized a regional meeting with a couple of small businesses,” he said. He had expected 15 businesses to attend, but 50 came in the end. —AFP

International FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

Turkey questions EU future as Brussels looks to Balkans BRUSSELS: Turkey has been trying for years to join the European Union, presenting itself as a growing economic and political power and a bridge to Asian and Middle Eastern markets. But the next country to join the EU’s existing 28 members is more likely to be one of six small Balkan countries, five of which still formed part of Yugoslavia when Turkey made its first membership bid.

Several powerful EU states are reluctant to open the door to a large, mainly Muslim country, even a member of the NATO Western military alliance, fearing a troublesome integration whereas small countries have a track record of smooth accession. While the EU focuses its attention elsewhere, the Turkish government and public are increasingly despondent and have started to wonder whether it really needs Europe after all. “I guess that nobody wants to say that we are not going to continue with the accession process, neither the EU nor Turkey,” said Turkey’s ambassador to the EU, Selim Yenel, speaking at a Brussels think-tank in September.

“But there will be one day in which we will have to decide on what to do about it, because this is going nowhere.” Joining the EU can bring the benefits of easy access to the world’s largest trading bloc, free movement of workers, funding for poorer regions and infrastructure and the chance to belong to a relatively stable political union. Over the next decade or so, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania, Bosnia and Kosovo may all be able to take advantage of those perks, following Slovenia and Croatia to a spot on the members’ list.

Meanwhile Turkey’s membership bid has been virtually frozen for three years, held back by political obstacles and resistance in some EU countries, including Germany, France and Austria.

Support for EU membership among the Turkish public fell to 44 percent this year from 73 percent in 2004, according to a recent German Marshall Fund report. Ankara’s chief EU negotiator Egemen Bagis said last month his country would probably never join the EU because of the attitudes of the bloc’s existing members.

GEOGRAPHY A senior official with direct knowledge of enlargement discussions said EU leaders were not focused on Turkey which would be the most populous member, giving it the largest share of seats in the European Parliament and influence across Europe’s institutions. “There is a real openness to enlargement to the Balkans and further east (in eastern Europe),” the official said, pointing out that “six or seven” countries in the region could ultimately become members, boosting the EU’s total to 34 or 35 states. “The Western Balkans are very close to Europe.

But Turkey is qualitatively different for all sorts of reasons. It’s an issue of geography, the fact that it is a Muslim country, the fact that public opinion in some member states is very strongly against it becoming a member.”

Turkey is still trying to win favor in Brussels. A package of reforms unveiled on Monday, including allowing education in languages other than Turkish at non-state schools and a possible lowering of the threshold for a political party to enter parliament, was welcomed by the European Commission. The steps, designed to salvage a peace process with Kurdish insurgents, could help Turkey get higher marks in the Commission’s annual progress report due on Oct. 16, helping its prospects of winning approval from EU states to open talks on a new policy area, known as a chapter, towards membership.

But opening a new chapter - one of 35 it must complete will not change the overall picture of a stuttering negotiation.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives oppose Turkish EU membership on the grounds that its size would “overburden” the bloc. While she may be forced into a coalition with the Social Democrats or the Greens who want the EU to continue accession talks with Turkey, it is not a top priority.

Some EU states, including Britain, strongly support Turkey’s membership bid, seeing the addition of a dynamic economy and a powerful player in Middle East politics as a benefit for the EU. Marietje Schaake, a Dutch liberal member of the European Parliament, believes the EU must continue to work on Turkish accession while pushing for reforms. “Our relationship is going through difficult times ... but as a trade partner, as a NATO ally, as a neighbor in a complicated Middle East, we must be aware of the importance of the relationship between the EU and Turkey,” she said.—Reuters

Leader of Greek Golden Dawn jailed before trial Far-right calls decision ‘most wretched conspiracy’ ATHENS: The leader of Greece’s far-right Golden Dawn party was sent to jail yesterday pending trial on criminal charges, the first time an elected party chief has been put behind bars since a military coup nearly five decades ago. The imprisonment of Nikolaos Mihaloliakos, who has watched support for his party wane after a supporter fatally stabbed a popular rapper, is a reprieve for Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s government that has vowed to wipe out the party, calling it a “gang of neo-Nazis”. Stunned by a court decision to free three other senior Golden Dawn lawmakers on Wednesday, the government hailed yesterday’s verdict as “the most dynamic confrontation of a neo-Nazi criminal gang in European, and possibly, world history”.

The government, which is hoping the mass arrests of Golden Dawn’s top brass will help it subdue a party seemingly untouched by accusations of violence and intimidation, praised the justice system for “doing its job”. Mihaloliakos, grey-haired and bespectacled, shouted: “Long live Greece! Victory!” as he was led away from court in handcuffs in the early hours of yesterday. He denied charges of founding and belonging to a criminal organization during a six-hour plea session before a judge.

His wife and daughter, joined by Golden Dawn lawmakers, stood outside the court in the rain. “You are a diamond - don’t buckle,” his wife Eleni Zaroulia, a fellow lawmaker, told him. Flagwaving supporters yelled a popular party slogan: “Blood! Honor!

Golden Dawn!”. Mihaloliakos, who was arrested on Saturday

alongside other party members, will be transferred to a high security prison later. His deputy, Christos Pappas, who turned himself in on Sunday, arrived at the heavily guarded court to respond to charges. Another lawmaker, Yannis Lagos, was sent to jail on Wednesday pending trial.

NEO-NAZI MENTALITY Golden Dawn said the decision was “the most wretched conspiracy in modern Greek political history”. “The jailing of our general secretary is totally unfair, unconstitutional and dictated by foreign centers of power,” the party said in a statement posted on its website. Another party member was also detained pending trial after responding to the same charges, a court official said. On Wednesday, three senior Golden Dawn lawmakers were freed pending trial. That decision had raised questions about the state’s case against Golden Dawn after one of its sympathisers stabbed anti-racism rapper Pavlos Fissas to death last month.

Party spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris and fellow lawmakers Ilias Panagiotaros and Nikos Michos stormed out of the court celebrating their release as they kicked and spat at journalists and punched a camera out the way. “I wonder how they can celebrate with such accusations on their back,” Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias told a Greek newspaper who described the scene as “repulsive, ugly and indicative of their neo-Nazi mentality.”—Reuters

ATHENS: Ourania Mihaloliakou (left), daughter of Golden Dawn leader Nikos Mihaloliakos, exits the police headquarters after visiting her father who was arrested in Athens. — AFP

Madagascar mob lynches 2 Europeans on tourist island ANTANANARIVO: A mob in Madagascar yesterday killed two Europeans suspected of mutilating and murdering a young boy at the country’s main tourist resort, security forces said. Residents on Nosy Be island went on the rampage after the missing eight-yearold was found dead with his genitals and tongue cut off, according to assistant gendarmerie commander Guy Bobin Randriamaro.

“The rioters launched a manhunt and killed the Europeans,” Randriamaro said from the capital Antananarivo. Local police commissioner Honoya Tilahizandry said the pair “were killed and burnt on Ambatoloaka beach”, a popular palm-fringed strand of white sand. The two men were identified only as Sebastien and Roberto.

In Paris, the government said “two foreigners have died and we have confirmation that at least one of them is French.” While local officials said both men were French, witnesses said one may have been Italian. The murders occurred after days of tension on the island. Residents marched on the paramilitary police station

Wednesday, convinced the boy’s killer was being held there.

Security forces say they fired shots in the air to disperse the crowd, but at least one person died and two others were wounded. “The police tried to convince the mob that the alleged kidnapper was not at the station, but it was not enough to dissuade the crowd,” national police spokesman Alexandre Sylvain Ranaivoson.

The mob also torched eight houses. “They suspected the two foreigners of being behind the murder and trafficking human organs,” said the gendarmerie’s Randriamaro. The two men “confessed under torture to having trafficked organs”, he added. A witness told local media the rioters only targeted the two men suspected of having ordered the boy’s kidnapping, but left other foreigners alone. The French consulate discouraged its nationals from visiting Nosy Be island “until order is restored, especially on the beaches.” Nosy Be, lying of the north west coast of Madagascar, is a magnet for Europeans and other tourists.— AFP

International FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

Who knew? Shutdown casualties shatter stereotypes WASHINGTON: Taking out a mortgage. Getting married in a park. Going for a fall foliage drive. Cashing a check. Who knew that so many random activities of daily life could be imperiled by a shutdown of the federal government?

Americans are finding that “the government” entails a lot more than the stereotype of faceless DC bureaucrats cranking out red tape.

And so it is that two dozen October weddings, including nine this week, are in jeopardy because they’re scheduled for monument sites on the National Mall. Ditto for a New Jersey couple planning to marry at the Grand Canyon.

Mike Cassesso and MaiLien Le’s permit to get married Saturday on the lawn near the Jefferson Memorial looks to be among the casualties, giving rise to a new Twitter hashtag for their #shutdownwedding. They’re looking at alternate sites, including the restaurant booked for their reception.

Also canceled: a weekend Ku Klux Klan rally at Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania. Want to take a drive along Virginia’s popular Skyline Drive to take in the fall colors in Shenandoah National Park? Not till the government reopens. It’s not just romance, tourism and public events that are in jeopardy. Consider the Wisconsin farmer who can’t cash a check for a cow he sold. Ben

Brancel, the state’s agriculture secretary, said that because the farmer has a loan from the Farm Service Agency, he can’t cash the check without both his own signature and one from an FSA official, unavailable during the shutdown.

“Our advice to him was he was going to have to wait, that there wasn’t anything he could do about it,” Brancel said. Ready to buy your first house? Borrowers applying for a mortgage can expect delays, especially if the shutdown is prolonged. That’s because many lenders need government confirmation of applicants’ income tax returns and Social Security data. Mortgage industry officials say they expect bottlenecks on closing loans if the shutdown stretches on for more than a few days.

In addition, low- to moderate-income borrowers and first-time homebuyers seeking government-insured mortgages for single-family homes from the Federal Housing Administration can expect longer waits because of sharp reductions in FHA staffing. Even workers who get their paychecks from a state government aren’t safe from the ripple effects of a federal shutdown.

An assortment of state workers around the country are on furlough because the money for their jobs includes dollars from Washington. Among those are hundreds of workers at Arkansas’ Military Department and one at the

Crowley’s Ridge Technical Institute, a vocational school in Forrest City, Ark. In Illinois, the furloughs include 20 workers in the state Department of Employment Security and 53 in the Department of Military Affairs. “These are the first, and there may be more,” said Abdon Pallasch, the state’s assistant budget director.

Want to escape the shutdown worries with a bike ride on the C&O Canal, a popular 184-mile trail and national park between Washington and Cumberland, Md.? Those thinking of ignoring the closure notice and going anyway should consider this: Restrooms will be locked and handles removed from water pumps along the way. One possible silver lining to shutdown annoyances writ small and large: The whole thing could serve as a teachable moment for all those people who tell pollsters that they want budget cuts - as long as they aren’t directly affected.

“As time goes by, more and more people see these little things that they took for granted,” said Ed Lorenzen, a policy adviser at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan group pushing for spending discipline. He said the shutdown could serve as a reminder that “you’re not going to be able to the balance the budget just by cutting spending in Washington that doesn’t affect people.” — AP

Tourists kicked out of landmark parks in US JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK: For many people it is the trip of a lifetime. But thousands have been left angry at being locked out of landmark US national parks due to the government shutdown. Hundreds who were lucky enough to already be staying in places like Yosemite and the Grand Canyon faced a deadline Thursday to leave, 48 hours after the shutdown went into force due to a budget standoff in Washington DC. “We grew up seeing pictures of it in books,” said Clare Cogan from Cork, Ireland, on honeymoon with her husband Mohally but locked out of Yosemite National Park, shuttered since Tuesday.

“You know, the cars underneath those huge sequoia trees. That was America,” she told the Los Angeles Times, which called the spectacular Californian park “an emblem of partisan divide.” The National Park Service closed its gates on its 401 sites as soon as the shutdown went into effect after midnight Monday, leaving visitors-including many from overseas-frustrated at park entrances across the country.

Tourists who were already staying in hotels, cabins and campgrounds inside national parks like world-famous Yosemite were allowed to stay-but only for 48 hours, after which they were told to leave. “Guests ... who are already checked-in can continue with their vacation plans, but they are required to leave by October 3 at 3:00 pm,” said Lisa Cesaro of the company that operates over 1,000 rooms in the park, DNC Parks & Resorts at Yosemite.

The park, which was already partially closed in August due to a massive wildfire, is known around the globe-especially for Yosemite Valley, where tourists flock to see landmarks including the spectacular El Capitan and Half Dome rock formations. “We came all the way from England to climb and get to the top of El Capitan, but now we won’t get the chance,” Tim Larrad, a 52year-old retired police officer from Worcester told the Contra Costa Times newspaper at his campsite.

“It’s very disappointing. This climb was lifetime stuff. The trip took a lot of time to plan and prepare for,” he said. The Yosemite spokeswoman said that since Tuesday most activities, including horseback riding and bike rentals, had been suspended. “We are continuing to provide retail, dining and limited transportation services for overnight guests in the park through Thursday,” she said. “If the shutdown continues, we will try to reschedule those who have upcoming reservations or cancel their booking and provide a refund,” she added.

Some 715,000 visitors flock daily to National Park Service sites across the country, on average in October, according to CNN. Other world-famous tourist attractions shuttered until further notice include the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone National Park, and the Alcatraz prison island in San Francisco Bay. Joshua Tree National Park, two hours’ drive east of Los Angeles, is famous for its bizarre cactus-like trees and weird rock formations, which draw climbers from around the world, especially at this time of year between the high heat of summer and the cooler winter. —AFP

NEGEV DESERT: Israeli soldiers of the 33rd Caracal Battalion rest at the end of a graduation march in the northern part of the southern Israeli Negev desert yesterday. The Caracal unit is an infantry combat battalion of the army, composed of both male and female soldiers mostly serving along the Israeli southern desert borders. — AFP

Israel on guard 40 years after the Yom Kippur war Jewish state feels vulnerable to surprise attack JERUSALEM: Forty years after the Yom Kippur war, when Arab states caught it off guard, Israel once again feels vulnerable to a surprise attack in a hostile region. Israel’s enemies since the 1973 war, when Syria and Egypt led the assault, have diversified to include Lebanon’s Shiite movement, backed by Iran. Israeli media have been filled with articles, analyses and documentaries about the conflict which shook Israel out of a complacency that followed its rout of the same foes in the 1967 Six-Day War. “One of the causes of our failure at the beginning of the conflict came from a feeling of superiority that we held after the 1967 victory,” Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said at a meeting with top defense officials in September. Israel had “too much confidence, arrogance and lack of caution. We’ll never underestimate the enemy again,” he said. And this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed no sign of complacency as he used his speech at the UN General Assembly to attack arch-foe Iran, whose new President Hassan Rouhani has reached out to the West.

Netanyahu said Israel was ready to take unilateral military action if diplomacy failed to ease what the Jewish state sees as an existential threat from Iran’s nuclear program. The danger posed by Iran’s ally Hezbollah, whose southern Lebanon heartland borders Israel, is still very much alive after a 2006 showdown that killed some 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and nearly 160 Israelis, most of them troops.

Israelis were scrambling for gas masks just weeks ago, fearing reprisals by Hezbollah and its ally Damascus as a US strike against President Bashar Al-Assad’s Syria looked imminent. Israel fears that Assad’s chemical weapons arsenal could fall into Hezbollah’s hands.

Yet 40 years earlier, it was Israel’s then defense minister Moshe Dayan who urged Prime Minister Golda Meir to allow the use of “non-conventional” weapons against the Arab armies.

Iran’s top general on Wednesday slammed Netanyahu as a “warmonger,” saying his threat of military strikes was an act of “desperation” after Tehran’s charm offensive. The left-leaning newspaper Haaretz gave a damning assessment of the rhetoric from Israel, the Middle East sole if undeclared nuclear power. “Now as then, 40 years later, Israel continues on its own way. It leans only on its military power and the support of the United States. It continues to ignore its isolation and the limitations of its power,” it wrote. In 1973, Meir ignored Egypt’s diplomatic overtures before the war, with commentators viewing Israel’s rude awakening in 1973 as both a political and military failure. But most historians attribute Israel’s slow start in the war to military intelligence failures, as its army had failed to detect Egyptian and Syrian troops massing on the borders. Some 2,700 Israeli soldiers were killed when Egyptian troops thrusting north across the Suez and from the Sinai and a Syrian attack from the Golan Heights surprised the Jewish state on October 6, 1973 as Israel marked the solemn Yom Kippur holiday.—AFP

International FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

NATO warms up for Europe role after Afghan pullout CAVOUR: As NATO prepares to pull out of its longest and most faraway war in Afghanistan, its focus is back on Europe with a multitude of exercises planned, notably in the Mediterranean. Currently taking place, “Brilliant Mariner 13” is NATO’s most ambitious naval exercise in seven years, gathering 23 warships from six countries and 5,000 troops from eight nations.

From September 25 to October 6, a vast part of the Tyrrhenian Sea off the western coast of Italy has been cordoned off to allow forces to enact a classic naval confrontation, an air attack, a terrorist offensive, or even a rescue mission. Alongside Italy’s aircraft carrier Cavour are two submarines, three destroyers, four frigates and six minesweepers from Italy, Spain, Britain, Germany, France and Turkey. In total, 12 of the alliance’s 28 members are taking part.

“These kinds of exercises will be one of our top priorities in the next few years,” said US General Philip Breedlove, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander. “NATO is shifting from the deployed posture to a ready posture after 2014,” he added, referring to the end next year of the biggest operation the alliance has undertaken since its creation in 1949 - the Afghan front where tens of thousands are deployed. In all some 100,000 troops stand behind the banner of the Atlantic alliance, including in Kosovo and in Turkey, in case of a Syrian missile attack, and also in counter-piracy missions in the Indian Ocean.

“We are at the pinnacle of NATO operability, cohesiveness and capability because we have been fighting together for 12 years,” Breedlove said of the military input provided by member states. But “if we don’t do something, this capability will diminish over time.” NATO’s return to its old heart of operations comes amid myriad of challenges. In a key policy shift, the United States is relocating military resources to the Asia-Pacific region just as governments across Europe cut military spending and public opinion becomes increasingly skeptical over military intervention.

But there is no question of NATO lowering its guard, particularly in the Mediterranean region shaken by the events of the “Arab Spring” taking place on its southern flank. “Clearly the upheaval in the Mediterranean and North Africa and their weak state of governance are big concerns to the Allies and they pose potential risks down the road,” said Alexander Vershbow, NATO’s deputy secretary-general. And the alliance too cannot ignore Moscow’s decision to reinforce its fleet in the eastern Mediterranean because of events in Syria.

Meanwhile in northeastern Europe, another area of potential tension with Russia, NATO in November will stage its largest combined air, naval and ground exercise since 2006. Taking place in Poland and the Baltic states, “Steadfast Jazz” will gather together 6,000 troops from 20 NATO members and partners, including Ukraine and Finland, from November 2 to 9. Breedlove insisted that the exercise was not intended at repelling a hypothetical Russian attack.

“In the interest of transparency we have invited Russian officers to visit our exercise as observers,” he said, adding that Russia for its part had invited NATO to observe its “Zapad” maneuvers in Belarus in September. The main thrust of NATO’s 2013 exercises is to reinforce its Reaction Force (NRF), a 13,000strong multinational army aimed at responding to an emerging crisis anywhere in the world. The NRF, created in 2003, has never yet been used in such a situation but has taken part in rescue operations in the United States after Katrina and in Pakistan after an earthquake.—AFP

Afghanistan military faces surge in roadside bombs Roadside bombs - the No 1 killer GARDEZ: Raqam Jan was at home on furlough after two years of fighting for the Afghan army when he stepped out of his house and onto a homemade mine. It had been planted not just to kill him but to send a message to his fellow villagers about the perils of serving in the Afghan security forces. Recovering from shrapnel wounds to his legs in a military hospital in Gardez, near the border with Pakistan, the 24-year-old private vented his frustration with the Taleban’s increasing use of what the US military calls IEDs, or improvised explosive devices. “Fighting them face-to-face is not a problem for us; our weakness is mines, we have some weakness countering mines,” Jan said.

After 12 years of war, roadside bombs are the No 1 killer, claiming thousands of lives every year. And as foreign troops wind down operations in preparation for their withdrawal in 15 months, insurgents are using an ever larger number of these explosives to assert their grip and recapture territory.

Afghan and coalition military officials say their enemy is resorting to hidden

bombs because it can’t take on the Afghan security forces in open battle.

Now they are equipping Afghan forces with metal detectors and specialized vehicles to clear roads, and running a school for bomb squads.

Gen Mohammad Sharif Yaftali, commander of Afghanistan’s 203rd Thunder Corps, said these soldiers and police are neutralizing 90 percent of the IEDs they find. But while visits to bases around the country have shown the Afghan forces are capable of fighting insurgents in open battle, the Taleban are resorting to fewer but bigger bombs, as well as more suicide attacks. They are becoming more deadly, using bombs with sophisticated remote control detonators. Their surveillance has improved, according to Afghan and coalition military officials.

On Sept 7, insurgents used a bomb to blow up a helicopter as it was landing on hill near a main air base in western Herat province, seriously wounding the Afghan pilot and his US army trainer.

They apparently had noticed that the helicopter always landed in the same place after a training mission. “The ene-

my’s only real weapon is the IED,” Yaftali said in Gardez recently. “IEDs are the only way they can show their presence.

It is the weapon of choice.” The casualty toll among the 350,000 strong Afghan army and police has risen sharply in the months since they took over security responsibility from the US-led coalition up to 100 are killed each week.

In mid-August, Lt Gen Mark Milley, who runs the coalition’s joint command, told reporters that 1,000 Afghan security personnel had been killed and 3,000 wounded in four months. Afghan military officials say about 50 percent of the casualties are caused by roadside bombs. At that rate the casualty toll could be double what it was last year. By comparison, with few if any foreign soldiers on patrol since the handover of security responsibilities, their death toll this year is 126, compared to 302 in the same period of 2012, according to an Associated Press tally. The UN said in the first six months of this year, 1,319 civilians were killed and 2,533 were wounded, the majority of them by roadside bombs.—AP

KABUL: Former Islamist warlord, Abdul Rasul Sayyaf (center) talks to local and international journalists and supporters after the registration process for the forthcoming presidential elections at the Independent Election Commission (IEC) in Kabul yesterday. — AFP

Man who brought Al-Qaeda to Afghanistan runs for president KABUL: The man said to be responsible for bringing Al-Qaeda to Afghanistan announced he was running for president yesterday, a move likely to be greeted with apprehension by the international community. President Hamid Karzai is barred from running by the constitution, and the new government is seen as an opportunity to push the country away from years of damaging allegations of corruption and maladministration.

“Today I nominate myself in order to serve my countrymen and my nation - I want to stand alongside the true servants of Afghanistan,” Abdul Rassoul Sayyaf said minutes before he registered at the offices of Kabul’s Independent Election Commission. Next year, millions of Afghans will vote in what is being hailed as the most important election since the United States-led war against the Afghan

Taleban began 12 years ago.

NATO and the US are also pushing for a credible vote ahead of the exit of tens of thousands of foreign combat troops by the end of the next year. Western diplomats have previously told Reuters of their concerns regarding Sayyaf’s nomination, given his deeply conservative views regarding women’s rights and social freedoms, and his deep ties to militant Islam.

The Philippine insurgent group Abu Sayyaf is named after him and he was mentioned in the 9/11 commission reports as “mentor” to Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, the operational mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks.

A conservative Islamic scholar, Sayyaf ran paramilitary training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan in the 1980s and 1990s, and it was there he meet Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. In 1996, Sayyaf

helped bin Laden return to Afghanistan after he was ejected from Sudan. Bin Laden stayed in the country under the protection of the Taleban until the American-led invasion of late 2001.

Sayyaf’s nominee for first vice president, Ismail Khan, will also worry the country’s Western backers.

Khan, from the country’s west, is a warlord turned politician who has been accused of seeking to re-arm ahead of the NATO withdrawal. Sayyaf’s nomination comes two days after the first of the serious contenders, former Northern Alliance leader Abdullah Abdullah, announced his candidacy. Other likely front runners, including foreign minister Zalmay Rassoul, Western-leaning liberal Ashraf Ghani and Karzai’s brother, Qayum, are likely to register over the next few days, with nominations closing on Sunday.—Reuters

Business FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

Global food prices fall to 3-year low Page 22

Moody’s grants Philippines investment-grade status Page 20

A sign on Highway 41 north of Fresno, California, alerting motorists of the closure of Yosemite Park due to the government shutdown. President Barack Obama brought top lawmakers to the White House on Wednesday as Republicans rejected Democratic demands to vote on legislation ending a two-day partial government shutdown without changes to the nation’s three-year-old health care law. — AP

Shutdown on 3rd day; no sign of way out Obama banks on ‘common sense’ as impasse rattles investors WASHINGTON: The government limped into a third day of partial shutdown yesterday with no sign of a way out after a White House conversation between President Barack Obama and top congressional leaders seemed only to harden the stances of Democrats and Republicans.

“The president remains hopeful that common sense will prevail,” the White House said in a written statement after the unproductive meeting about the political standoff that has idled 800,000 federal workers and halted an array of services Americans expect from their government.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, complained to reporters that Obama used the meeting simply to declare anew that he won’t negotiate over his health care law.

House Republicans, pushed by a core of tea party conservatives, are insisting that Obama accept changes to the healthcare law he pushed through three years ago as part of the price for reopening all of government. Obama refuses to consider any deal linking the healthcare law to routine legislation needed to extend government funding. “We’re probably through negotiating with ourselves,” Rep Jeb Hensarling, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said yesterday on MSNBC. Republicans who initially sought to defund the healthcare law in exchange for funding the rest of government have gradually scaled back their demands but say they need some sort of offer from Obama. Expressing frustration after Tuesday night’s White House meeting, Boehner said: “All we’re asking for here is a discussion and fairness for the American people under Obamacare.”

The White House said Obama would be happy to talk about healthcare - but only after Congress moves to reopen the government “and stop the harm this shutdown is causing to the economy and families across the country.”

The lack of progress fanned the widening impression that the shutdown dispute could persist into mid-October and become tangled with an even more consequential battle over the debt

limit. The Obama administration has said Congress must renew the government’s authority to borrow money by Oct. 17 or risk a first-ever federal default, which many economists say would dangerously jangle the world economy.

The shutdown stalemate is already rattling investors. Stock markets in the US and overseas faded Wednesday, and Europe’s top central banker, Mario Draghi, called the shutdown “a risk if protracted.” Leading financial executives met with Obama, and one, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, said politicians should not use a potential default “as a cudgel.” Democratic Sen Claire McCaskill said the House could easily defuse the worsening situation.

“Get us through this six weeks and then let’s sit down and figure out how we pay our debts and bring down federal spending,” McCaskill of Missouri, said on MSNBC yesterday. Republicans planned to continue pursuing their latest strategy: muscling bills through the House that would restart some popular programs.

Votes were on tap for restoring funds for veterans and paying members of the National Guard and Reserves. On Wednesday, the chamber voted to finance the national parks and biomedical research and let the District of Columbia’s municipal government spend federally controlled dollars.

Democrats demanded that the entire government be reopened, and the White House and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, made clear that the GOP’s narrower bills have no chance of survival. They said the strategy showed that Republicans were buckling under public pressure, with Rep. Louise Slaughter saying groups like veterans were being “used as a pawn in this cynical political game.” Republicans countered that Democrats were being inflexible and were to blame for the continued closure of programs the GOP was trying to reopen. A favorite target was Reid, who has made clear that the Senate will be a graveyard for the Republican effort.

“The Senate’s refusal to work with the House is an all-time

low,” Rep Trey Radel, said. Reid told reporters that Obama and Democrats are “locked in tight” on not diluting the health care law.

In an interview afterward, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, scoffed at the president’s stance. “He can’t get his way exactly the way he wants it because he doesn’t control the entire government,” McConnell said on CNBC’s “The Kudlow Report.”

Democrats continued lambasting Boehner and freshman Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, the tea party hero who has helped sell fellow conservatives in both chambers on keeping the government shuttered until Obama retreats on his coveted health care law.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and other House conservatives said they met with Cruz and other Senate conservatives Wednesday to update each other on what was happening.

“We think we just have to keep talking about our message, which is real simple: ‘Treat people fairly,’” Jordan said. Republican leaders and many rank-and-file GOP lawmakers, especially in the Senate, had been reluctant to link demands for curbing the health care law to legislation keeping government open, concerned that voters would blame Republicans for any shutdown.

But Wednesday, Republicans solidly opposed an unsuccessful Democratic move to force the House to vote on a Senate-passed bill keeping government open until Nov. 15 without any strings on the health care law.

“Now that we’ve jumped off the cliff, lit ourselves on fire, we’ve entered the valley of death,” said Rep. Devin Nunes, who has criticized the conservatives’ strategy. “So now we’ve got to keep running and we have to hold together.”

The House has approved legislation keeping the entire government funded through Dec. 15. It also would impose a oneyear delay in the health care law’s requirement that individuals buy health insurance, which would threaten to cripple the program, and block federal subsidies for health coverage bought by lawmakers and their staff. —AP

Business FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

Dubai IPOs signal rebound, market eyes bigger listings Possible Dubai-Abu Dhabi exchange merger could help

MANILA: Laborers work in a new building in Manila yesterday. The Philippines yesterday completed its transformation from one of Asia’s weaker economies after Moody’s became the third and final ratings agency to grant the country investment-grade status. —AFP

Moody’s grants Philippines investment-grade status MANILA: The Philippines yesterday completed its transformation from one of Asia’s weaker economies after Moody’s became the third and final ratings agency to grant the country investment-grade status. The decision to give Manila a Baa3 rating with a “positive outlook” follows similar moves by Standard & Poor’s and Fitch earlier this year.

Moody’s made its decision citing the country’s strong growth, political stability and improved governance. “The Philippines’ economic performance has entered a structural shift to higher growth, accompanied by low inflation,” it said.

Economic growth in 2012 and the first half of 2013 were among the highest in Asia-Pacific even as inflation remained “well-anchored” and below the central bank’s ceilings, it added.

“The new growth path is being reinforced in part by improved fiscal management,” allowing more money to be spent on infrastructure and social services. A “Baa3” rating is the lowest in the outfit’s investment ranks but represents an important milestone for the country, which was once considered one of Asia’s laggards. The Philippines economy expanded 6.8 percent in 2012 and 7.6 percent in the first half of 2013, among the highest levels in the Asia-Pacific.

President Benigno Aquino’s spokesman Ramon Carandang told AFP the upgrade was “proof that the continuing fiscal reforms... are further improving our credibility in the international community.”

“Our fundamental macroeconomic strengths... serve to differentiate us from other emerging markets that are resourceand export-dependent,” Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said. He said in a statement that despite the three upgrades, “we are still among the most underrated countries”.

The Philippine stock market closed 0.4 percent higher yesterday following the Moody’s upgrade. — AFP

Saudi business activity growth at 6-month high RIYADH: Growth in non-oil private business activity in Saudi Arabia accelerated to a six-month high in September as output prices rose for the first time since January, a survey showed yesterday.

The seasonally adjusted SABB HSBC Saudi Arabia Purchasing Managers Index was at 58.7 points in September, well above the 50-point mark separating expansion from contraction, against 57.5 in August. It was buoyed by a sharp increase in new orders and solid growth in output.

Output growth hit a five-month high of 60.9 in September, while new orders rose to an 11-month high of 68.8 from August’s 66.3. New export orders were at 62.6, the fastest clip since the survey started in August 2009, against 56.0 in August 2013.

Output prices rose for the first time in eight months in September to 50.8, from 48.9 in August. Overall input prices continued to rise with the sub-index at 55.1, little changed from the previous month. — Reuters

DUBAI: A slew of IPO plans in Dubai shows the stock market is finally regaining its role as a fund-raising source for companies. But big new listings - the kind that could stimulate turnover and attract fresh foreign money - are still some distance away. Over the past several weeks, at least three relatively small companies have been laying plans for initial public offers of shares on Nasdaq Dubai, which could start as soon as this month. That is a sign that the wounds of the global financial crisis, and Dubai’s real estate crash of 2009-2010, have largely healed. The most recent listing on either of Dubai’s stock two markets occurred in early 2009, when construction firm Drake & Scull listed.

With real estate prices now recovering strongly and the main Dubai stock index up 74 percent year-to-date though still 55 percent below its 2008 peak - the emirate can once again absorb supplies of new equity. Listings of large companies, however - including some of Dubai’s state-linked giants would be needed to deepen and diversify the market substantially. For this to happen, authorities may have to revise regulations and make a political decision to cut the state’s stake in some of its prize assets.

“We’re seeing a number of SME (small and medium-sized) companies seeking a listing in the UAE given the improvement in investor sentiment in the region in general, and the UAE in particular,” said Tamer Bazzari, chief executive at Genero Capital, a United Arab Emirates-based investment advisory firm. “Bringing these companies to the local markets, which have been in a lull for the last four years, will encourage other companies to tap into the IPO market as a source of financing and create an exit platform for family groups and private equity firms.”

But he added, “Trading in SME companies might be limited given their size hence the need for larger companies to go public and boost the liquidity.”

Bank of London and The Middle East (BLME), Britain’s largest stand-alone Islamic bank, said last month that it planned to seek a listing on Nasdaq Dubai, offering shares worth $503 million. Just Falafel, a United Arab

Emirates-based franchise restaurant offering the traditional Arab food, has hired an adviser to help arrange an IPO on Nasdaq Dubai as soon as October, sources said.

And Emirates REIT, the UAE’s first real estate investment trust, plans to sell shares in an IPO on Nasdaq Dubai before the end of this year, people aware of the plan said. BLME plans its listing as Dubai makes a push to develop as an Islamic financial centre, while Emirates REIT is involved in Dubai’s booming property market. But in some ways Just Falafel may be the most exciting listing for investors, because it is a play on the region’s consumer boom.

“The IPOs that will help the market the most will not be from real estate and banking - because most people are already invested in those and are looking at other exposure like domestic consumption and companies which leverage on Dubai’s tourism boost,” said Amer Khan, Dubai-based fund manager at Shuaa Asset Management.

With the combined capitalisation of Nasdaq Dubai and the bigger Dubai Financial Market (DFM) at about $80 billion, and Dubai’s trading turnover back up to 2010 levels, there is no doubt that the market can absorb the fresh equity comfortably. “There are many reasons contributing to the increased interest in IPOs,” said Yasser Geissah, head of equity capital markets at National Bank of Abu Dhabi. He cited catalysts such as increased liquidity on UAE and regional exchanges, higher profits and dividends at UAE corporations, and the decision of index compiler MSCI to upgrade the UAE to emerging market status next June, which is expected to attract more foreign funds.

All of the listings planned so far are of relatively small companies, however; bigger companies are still steering clear of the UAE. Dubai’s DAMAC Properties, one of the region’s largest private property developers, has hired two international investment banks to help it arrange an IPO in London.

Abu Dhabi-based firms have recently chosen to float abroad rather than in their domestic market. Al Noor Hospitals listed in London in June with a valuation of $1 billion; its rival NMC Healthcare

listed in London last year and its share price has risen 55 percent since then.

“UAE markets missed two great health care companies which would have given the market great diversity,” said Fadi Al-Said, head of investments at ING Investment Management. One deterrent to the listings of big companies on DFM is the regulatory framework, fund managers say.

The rules require all IPOs on DFM to be priced at a par value of 1 dirham per share, limiting owners’ options in structuring the offers. Also, DFM requires IPOs to offer at least 55 percent of a company. Nasdaq Dubai in some ways has more flexible IPO rules and sets a minimum offer requirement of 25 percent, but its trading turnover is smaller than DFM’s.

“It’s about time IPO regulations change in the UAE, before this expected wave,” said ING’s Al Said. The UAE regulator, the Securities and Commodities Authority, referred questions about its IPO policy to its website, which says the SCA is working “to improve the efficiency of UAE capital markets through the development of the necessary legislations, the enhancement of supervisory regulations and the development of investment and legal awareness.”

Another issue for the market is that many of Dubai’s blue chips are controlled by the government, which owns large stakes in them. Investors would love to see IPOs of firms such as the fastgrowing Emirates airline and Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, but that would depend on a political decision.

Such a decision may be nearing.

Mohammed Al-Shaibani, chief executive of the state’s Investment Corp of Dubai, told Reuters that Dubai expected to offer at least one flagship asset to the public as early as next year, to stimulate investment and shore up its role as a global trade hub.

Investors have also been encouraged by news that Abu Dhabi and Dubai have hired banks to advise on a possible merger of DFM and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange.

By creating a single, larger market, a merger could improve liquidity and smooth the eventual launch of big IPOs in state-linked companies. — Reuters

Qatar Petroleum plans global expansion drive DOHA: Qatar Petroleum (QP), the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter and main source of Qatar’s huge wealth, plans to expand internationally, the Gulf state’s energy minister said yesterday. QP businesses account for over half of Qatar’s gross domestic product and about three quarters of export earnings, with Qatari gas exports earning around $8 billion a month. But a self-imposed moratorium on further development of Qatar’s one big gas field is forcing QP to expand abroad to maintain market share as LNG supplies from US, Australian and African producers rise over the next few years.

“Our new vision is to be a world

class oil and gas corporation with its roots in Qatar and a strong international presence,” Energy Minister Mohammed Bin Saleh Al-Sada said at the launch of a strategy plan. “We will augment our presence worldwide, in addition to improving sustainability at home and adding to our industrial sector here with a number of mega projects,” he told reporters.

An expansion abroad would likely see the state-owned company buying assets abroad, as it is unlikely to expand organically given its small size.

Qatar declared a moratorium on development of the North Field in 2005 to study the impact of a rapid increase in output.

The moratorium is set to remain in place until at least 2015. By that time, former leading Qatari LNG buyer, the United States, is expected to start exporting its own LNG, while a wave of Australian projects are due to start supplying Asia - which currently buys about half Qatar’s gas exports. Qatar Petroleum International’s (QPI) global growth to date has been very limited, and the Qatari leadership wants to see QPI extend its reach. Banking sources said last month that QP plans an initial public offering of around 3.2 billion riyals ($880 million) of petrochemical assets bundled together under a company called Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding Co. —Reuters

Business FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

Markets wobble amid US budget standoff LONDON: Financial markets remained fixated on developments in Washington as the partial shutdown of the US government entered its third day and showed few signs of being resolved soon. The mood remained cautious any buying following Wednesday’s broad-based selling in stock markets was capped by fears that the US could be heading for an even bigger economic shock. American lawmakers have to agree an increase in the debt ceiling by Oct 17 or the world’s largest economy may be in default of its debts. Congress must periodically raise the limit on government borrowing, but the once-routine matter has become the subject of bitter fights between Republicans and Democrats.

As well as undermining confidence in the ability of the US to pay back what it owes, a US default could send shock-

waves round the world economy, threatening the patchy economic recovery. On Wednesday, President Barack Obama met with lawmakers in Congress but little of substance appeared to have been achieved in the dispute that has idled hundreds of thousands of workers and curtailed services nationwide. “This failure in bipartisan politics could have wider implications than merely shutting down the US government,” said Alex Conroy, a sales trader at Spreadex. “If both sides continue to play chicken with each other and fail to agree before the debt ceiling deadline, the government would only have cash left to pay bills and the chance of default goes from unthinkable to near certainty.”

That’s hardly a backdrop to encourage euphoria in markets. In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was up 0.2 percent at 6,448 while

Germany’s DAX fell 0.1 percent to 8,623.

The CAC-40 in France was 0.4 percent lower at 4,143. Wall Street was poised for a lower opening, with Dow futures and the broader S&P 500 futures down 0.3 percent. The focus in markets will likely remain on developments in Washington over the day although a run of economic data, such as the non-manufacturing survey from the Institute for Supply Management will provide some distraction. Weekly jobless claims are also expected despite the partial government shutdown. Friday’s key data release - September’s nonfarm payrolls report - is not expected.

One offshoot of the US budget stalemate is that investors think it’s now less likely that the US Federal Reserve will start to reduce its monetary stimulus this month, or maybe even this year. For much of the summer, investors thought

a tapering of the stimulus would happen this year. “The longer this goes on with the Fed feeling partially blind on assessing the economy, the further away Fed tapering becomes,” said Derek Halpenny, an analyst at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ. The dollar has been on the retreat too this week amid the budget crisis.

The euro headed up toward its yearhigh, trading another 0.2 percent higher at $1.3608. The dollar recovered some ground against the yen, up 0.4 percent at 97.75 yen. Earlier, trading in Asia was fairly mixed. Though Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1 percent to 23,214.40, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 0.1 percent to close at 14,157.25. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.4 percent to 5,234.90. Markets in mainland China and South Korea were closed for public holidays. — AP

UK’s payday lenders escape interest rate clampdown

VIENNA: One person is seen on a Metro rail car during the morning rush-hour commute yesterday in Vienna, Virginia. The train left the Vienna station with three people on the car and had only 17 riders by the time it reached McPherson Square near the White House. The government shutdown has eased the commute to and from Washington for many, but it is costly for Metro as they do not have as much revenue. —AFP

Iran eyes economic revival after historic Obama call TEHRAN: Iranians hope international sanctions that have suffocated the economy could be lifted if relations improve between Tehran and Washington after President Hassan Rouhani’s historic phone chat with Barack Obama. Iran and the United States, which have had no diplomatic relations since 1980, “should have done it earlier”, said Morteza, a taxi driver who did not want to be fully identified. “Because everyone is affected by the sanctions and the economic situation,” he said, complaining that he could not find quality spare parts for his car because of sanctions.

Iran, subject to UN sanctions over its controversial nuclear program, is also struggling with harsh measures imposed by the United States and the European Union targeting its vital oil income and access to the global banking system. Economy Minister Ali Tayyebnia warned in August that the official figure of 3.5 million unemployed, or 11.2 percent of the workforce, could rise to 8.5 million with a wave of young people on the verge of entering the job market.

While inflation has dropped slightly, it currently stands at 39 percent. Consumer prices have nearly doubled in a year, making common commodities such as staples rice, cooking oil and chicken too expensive for many people, according to the official statistics organization.

Iran’s currency, the rial, has been grossly devalued since late 2011. But since Rouhani’s charm offensive targeting the international community, the rial has started to stabilize. Today, some 30,000 rials buy one US dollar, compared with a rate of 38,000 to one just a few months ago. Officials have warned that detente with the world, and the eventual lifting of sanctions, would be a drawn-out process.

But for Iranians, last Friday’s phone conversation between Rouhani and the American president-the first such contact since the 1979 Islamic revolution is a real sign of hope.—AFP

LONDON: Britain’s financial watchdog drew fire yesterday for failing to impose a cap on the huge interest rates imposed by payday lenders as it set out its plan to discipline the industry.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) warned it would impose much tougher rules on payday lenders - which provide short-term loans intended to tide borrowers over til payday - forcing them to check whether borrowers can afford their loans and limiting the number of times those loans can be extended. “Today I’m putting payday lenders on notice: tougher regulation is coming and I expect them all to make changes so that consumers get a fair outcome,” FCA Chief Executive Martin Wheatley said. “The clock is ticking.”

The payday loan industry has boomed in the wake of the financial crisis as banks seeking to avoid risky loans turn away customers who are struggling to manage household budgets. Wonga, one of the biggest payday lenders in Britain, reported a surge in profit last year, saying it had lent 1.2 billion pounds. Wonga - who had no immediate comment on the FCA’s announcement - charges an annual interest rate of 5,853 percent, according to its website.

Unite, Britain and Ireland’s biggest trade union which represents 1.4 million workers across all sectors of the economy, said the measures were “too little, too late.” “They fail to deal with the real reason people who borrow from a payday lender end up in deep financial trouble, which is the criminally high interest rates these lenders can get away with,” said general secretary Len McCluskey.

Britain’s opposition Labour party said the government should impose a cap on payday interest rates straight away.

Chris Leslie, the opposition finance spokesman, said lenders were “making a mint while ministers sit on their hands.”

The FCA, which has powers to impose a cap, said it was concerned that doing so could make it harder for people to borrow and push them into the hands of backstreet loan sharks. Australia, most

ATHENS: Protesters at Athens university, wearing white masks, shout slogans during a demonstration, in central Athens yesterday. University staff suspended all operations for the fourth week in protest at staff cuts. — AP parts of the United States and some European countries have slapped a cap on payday loan interest rates, said Andre Spicer, a professor at London’s Cass Business School, who argued that imposing a cap would push lenders to consider more ethical alternatives like community credit co-ops.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has campaigned for tighter control of the industry and pledged to use the Church to build up credit unions to compete with payday lenders.

He told Reuters the FCA’s measures would protect “those most at risk from the dangers of an uncontrolled slide into unmanageable debt” and welcomed the introduction of a curb on how often lenders can retrieve payments. The FCA said loan companies would only be allowed to dip into a customers bank account or credit card twice to obtain payment after normal collection has been unsuccessful, a practice known as continuous payment authority.

“The publication of the FCA’s rule book is an important milestone for the entire consumer credit industry, and an opportunity to set a bar over which irre-

sponsible lenders will struggle to jump,” said Russell Hamblin-Boone, Chief Executive of the Consumer Finance Association, which represents the major short-term lenders operating in the UK. A government survey released on Thursday showed payday lenders were not fully complying with industry standards designed to protect consumers.

Nearly a quarter of consumers were put under pressure to extend their loan and about half said lenders did not explain the risks to them of doing so, said the survey of more than 4,000 people.

“This research shows that the industry has failed to self-regulate effectively.

We warned the industry months ago that if it didn’t get its house in order we would step in,” said government minister Jo Swinson.

The FCA, which takes over supervision of credit firms from next April, said it would also examine peer-to-peer lending - websites which allow savers to earn interest by lending money to other members of the public. The sector’s rapid growth has prompted some concern that not all individuals are aware of the risks and protected. — Reuters

Business FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

US jobless claims point to labor market healing WASHINGTON: The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits edged higher last week but remained at pre-recession levels, a signal of growing strength in the labor market. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 308,000, the Labor Department said yesterday. The data could provide some of the strongest guidance this week on the health of the US economy as a partial government shutdown delays the release of economic data, including the monthly employment report which was scheduled to be released today. New jobless claims have been falling for much of this year and for weeks there have been fewer of them than even before the 2007-09 recession began, a signal that the long cycle of elevated layoffs had ended. However, employers have been more reticent about adding new workers to payrolls, and many economists doubt whether the claims data still provides a clear signal on the pace of hiring.

Ian Shepherdson, an economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the data was “good news, if only the payroll numbers would tell the same story.” Still, he said the number was at least consistent with a slightly faster pace of hiring. The jobless claims data can also be volatile, although a Labor Department analyst said there was nothing unusual in last week’s data.

The four-week average of new claims,

which smooths out weekly volatility, fell 3,750 to 305,000, the lowest level since May 2007.

The data appeared to have little impact on investor sentiment. US stock index futures fell as the government shutdown extended to a third day and leaders in Congress showed no sign of progress towards resolving the stalemate. Prices for US government debt held at lower levels following the data’s release.

The shutdown might also start clouding the jobless claims data as well. While hundreds of thousands of federal workers furloughed this week would be counted separately from the state unemployment benefits data, contractors out of work because of closed government agencies could apply for state benefits, the department analyst said.

The claims report showed the number of people still receiving benefits under regular state programs after an initial week of aid rose by a sharp 104,000. The department analyst said this reflected California catching up on unprocessed claims following an update to its computer processing systems. A separate report showed the number of planned layoffs at US firms fell 20 percent in September, even as cuts in the healthcare sector more than doubled from the prior month.

Employers announced 40,289 layoffs last month, down from 50,462 in August, according to the report from consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. — Reuters

MIAMI: Job seekers check out companies at a job fair in Miami Lakes, Florida. The Labor Department reported on the number of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits yesterday. —AP

Global food prices fall to 3-year low FAO trims crop forecasts

ROME: Global food prices are not expected to fall much further after dipping to their lowest level in three years in September, the United Nations food agency said yesterday, trimming its estimate for 2013/14 world cereals production. The decline in prices last month was driven by a sharp fall in the cost of grains, while dairy, meat and sugar prices all rose, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said.

Food prices surged during the summer of 2012 due to a major drought in the United States but prospects for a rebound in cereal supplies to record levels have reversed the price trend this year. The FAO’s index measuring monthly price changes for a basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy, meat and sugar, averaged 199.1 points in September, down about 1 percent from 201.4 points in August. The index has fallen for five consecutive months and has reached its lowest level since September 2010.

“There is still some room for prices to go down but not significantly,” said FAO senior economist Abdolreza Abbassian. “Anything that happens now on the negative side could push up prices again,” he said. FAO is due to hold a second ministerial meeting to discuss food price volatility at its Rome headquarters on Oct. 7, with 40 ministers expected to attend.

Its first meeting last year was organized to

tackle the third spike in grain prices in four years. Even though prices have fallen from their peaks, FAO said it wanted to hold another meeting as markets were still vulnerable to supply shocks. The agency said it had slightly trimmed its forecast for world cereal output in 2013/14 to 2.489 billion tons, 3 million tons lower than a previous estimate, but still 8 percent higher than production in 2012. It cut its forecast for world wheat output to 704.6 million tons from 709.8 million, mainly due to poorer prospects for the South American crop. Excessive moisture is also hampering the harvest in the Black Sea region and affecting planting for 2014, Abbassian said.

He added that exportable supplies in major wheat exporters were tighter compared with last year, so any production problems could have a strong impact on international prices. World cereals stocks at the close of seasons ending in 2014 are now seen at about 559 million tons, down 2 percent from a previous estimate in September, though still 12 percent above their opening levels.

FAO’s price index hit a record peak of 237.9 points in February 2011, when high food prices helped drive the Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa.

In the summer of 2012 the index began surging to levels close to another peak seen in 2008, in which year there were riots, some deadly, in several poor countries. — Reuters

Gold drops on US shutdown log jam LONDON: Gold fell yesterday, as investors booked profits after the previous session’s gains due to uncertainty about a partial US government shutdown and slow demand in key physical markets.

The metal rose 2.2 percent on Wednesday, posting the biggest daily gain in two weeks, as the dollar fell to an eight-month low and the shutdown showed no end in sight.

Failure to increase the debt limit would push the world’s biggest economy into default and shake markets, already on the edge over the outlook for US stimulus. “There is some profit-taking and volumes are low as investors are not certain of the US political deadlock,” VTB Capital analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov said.

“October 17th is the deadline for the US debt ceiling talks, and... as far as gold is concerned, I think there isn’t enough conviction in the market for the safe-haven appeal to really materialize.” Spot gold was down 0.7 percent to

$1,305.60 an ounce by 1019 GMT. Gold had fallen 3 percent earlier this week, when a big Comex sell order rattled investors and sent prices below $1,300 an ounce.

The metal has lost nearly a quarter of its value this year as investors fretted the US central bank would roll back its $85 billion bond-buying stimulus. Increased central bank liquidity and a low interest rates environment encourage investors to put money into non-interest-bearing assets such as gold.

After yesterday’s weaker-than-expected ADP jobs data catapulted gold higher, investors will continue to watch US economic numbers, although many federal agencies have stopped collecting and publishing economic data due to the shutdown. The lack of official data on the economy could further delay a reining in of stimulus, Eric Rosengren, head of the Federal Bank of Boston, said on Wednesday.

Uncertainty over the release of the non-farm payrolls

data on Friday, was unnerving investors, analysts said. As a gauge of investor sentiment, SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund (ETF) and a good indicator of investor sentiment, said its holdings fell 4.2 tons to 901.79 tons on Wednesday - the biggest fall in nearly three weeks. Physical demand remained weak as China was shut for the National Day holidays. Gold premiums in China fell from over $40 an ounce at the start of July to less than $10 by the end of September, as prices rose, Macquarie said.

“More bearish (is that)... when the gold price fell back in September the premium did not rise as might have been expected, suggesting a non-price related weakening of Chinese demand; in other words that the Chinese might not want much gold,” it added. Silver fell 0.9 percent to $21.51 an ounce. Spot platinum fell 1 percent to $1,374 an ounce and spot palladium edged down 0.6 percent to $711.72 an ounce. — Reuters

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THE FASCINATING STORY OF THE 99 Baghdad lies in ruins, destroyed by the marauding armies of Hulagu Khan. The brave librarians of the great Dar Al-Hikma rush to save the glory of the ancient world’s accumulated wisdom, little knowing that centuries later their efforts will bear strange

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Opinion FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

‘Big business’ outflanked by Republicans? ig business, a traditionally powerful but pragmatic player in Republican policy-making, has found itself outflanked and marginalized by smaller conservative groups opposed to compromise in the country’s current fiscal crisis and the looming showdown over the debt ceiling. As the shutdown of the government approaches its third day, business leaders and groups like the US Chamber of Commerce are worried about the economic implications of a standoff over the debt limit, but their pleas have not moved the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives to action. Meanwhile right-wing groups like the Club for Growth and Heritage Action have gained traction, particularly as Tea Partyaligned lawmakers rise in prominence.

Politics.

In the budget dispute, the House Republican leadership has aligned with lawmakers sympathetic to the Tea Party in opposing a deal to end the shutdown, despite the pleas of business groups like the Chamber and Fix the Debt to avoid actions that would damage the economy. With many Capitol Hill staff members off work because of the shutdown and Boehner meeting with Obama in the White House on Wednesday evening, the speaker’s office did not immediately respond to questions about the Chamber’s letter or the speaker’s relationship with the business community.

Former House Republican leadership spokesman Kevin Madden said party chairmen and big donors used to have a more exclusive level of access to persuading legislators. “It’s become a much more competitive market for (leadership’s) attention.”

A short-ter m shutdown would slow US economic growth by about 0.2 percentage points, Goldman Sachs said on Wednesday, and a weeks-long disruption could weigh more heavily, at 0.4 percentage points. If Congress fails later this month to raise the $16.7 trillion borrowing cap, the United States would go into default, likely sending financial shockwaves around the world.

UNEASE AND FRUSTRATION Paul Stebbins, executive chairman of the board at World Fuel Services Corp in Miami, said the Republican willingness to allow a shutdown created “a very deep unease” among his fellow business leaders as they look ahead to the debt ceiling fight.

Honeywell International Chief Executive Dave Cote, a self-proclaimed “lifelong Republican,” said he was frustrated with the party’s unwillingness to agree to a deal. Major bank executives including Goldman Sachs’ Lloyd Blankfein and JP Morgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon met with Obama at the White House on Wednesday to discuss the budget impasse and the debt ceiling, but they did not go as a group to Capitol Hill, and none were scheduled to meet with Boehner or Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

After the White House meeting, Blankfein said the executives, in Washington as part of the Financial Services Forum, wanted lawmakers to understand “the long-term consequences of a shutdown - we’re already in the short-term consequences of a shutdown - but certainly the consequences of a debt ceiling (not being raised), and we all agree that those are extremely adverse.”

Blankfein implicitly criticized Republicans for using Obamacare as a weapon. “You can litigate these policy issues. You can re-litigate these policy issues in a political forum, but they shouldn’t use the threat of causing the US to fail on its ... obligations to repay on its debt as a cudgel,” he said.

A short-term shutdown would slow US economic growth by about 0.2 percentage points, Goldman Sachs said on Wednesday, and a weeks-long disruption could weigh more heavily, at 0.4 percentage points. If Congress fails later this month to raise the $16.7 trillion borrowing cap, the United States would go into default, likely sending financial shockwaves around the world.

United Technologies Corp, which makes Sikorsky helicopters and other items for the military, said it would be forced to furlough

By Gabriel Debenedetti

B

The US Chamber’s chief lobbyist said 16 House Republicans are now “out of earshot” for the Chamber, enough by his count to stymie legislation. These lawmakers do not listen to their own Republican leaders and are oblivious to national polls, said Bruce Josten, the Chamber’s executive vice president for government affairs. “They aren’t going to listen to anybody except what they are being told from home.”

Led by a group of conservative members, Republicans wanted to tie continued government funding to measures that would undercut President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law. The dispute threatens to merge with an Oct. 17 deadline for Congress to authorize an increase in the government’s debt limit, or risk an unprecedented default. The Chamber, which has long opposed Obama’s health insurance reforms, on Monday sent a letter to lawmakers from over 250 business groups, urging them to fund the government and raise the debt limit while cutting entitlement spending.

While the letter was addressed to all lawmakers, the message was clearly directed more at Republicans, with whom the Chamber has historically had far more influence. Despite the letter, the impasse continues, with both sides blaming each other for intransigence. The shutdown began on Tuesday after Democrats rejected Republican efforts to undercut the Affordable Care Act. Also known as Obamacare, a key piece of the program went ahead on Tuesday as people enrolled in new online insurance marketplaces. The Republican Party is traditionally seen as supporting business interests while maintaining strong ties to leading industry groups such as the US Chamber of Commerce, which helps fund candidates’ campaigns and lobbies for corporate-friendly measures in Congress. In the 2012 election cycle the Chamber spent nearly $28 million campaigning against Democrats, out of $32 million overall, according to Washington research group the Center for Responsive

as many as 4,000 employees, if the U.S. government shutdown continues through next week, due to the absence of government quality inspectors.

Rise of conservative groups Much of the far-right antipathy for big business began in 2008, with the passage of the Troubled Asset Relief Program that critics equated to a bailout of major banks and corporations. While longstanding industry groups like the Chamber have lost some of their sway over House Republicans, conservative organizations like Heritage Action have taken their place, some observers said.

Heritage Action is the political wing of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank run by former Tea Party Republican Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina since January. Stebbins, of World Fuel Services, said single-issue groups like Club for Growth, an anti-tax advocacy group with a political action committee, were playing an outsized role in driving the politics behind the impasse.

“I think that one of the things that pragmatic businesspeople resent is that these absolutist imperatives become the litmus test whether you get to succeed politically,” Stebbins said.

Led by former Indiana congressman Chris Chocola, Club for Growth has heavily supported Texas Senator Ted Cruz, whose 21hour speech on the Senate floor last week helped set the stage for the budget fight. In addition to lobbying members of Congress, Heritage Action also puts out a scorecard ranking lawmakers and funds aggressive advertising and publicity campaigns for its favored issues and officials.

Club for Growth is a juggernaut campaign funder of fiscally conservative Republicans. Leaders from both Heritage Action and Club for Growth acknowledged that the Republican Party was indeed distancing itself from traditional business interests.

“The nature of the (House Republicans) has changed, and we think we have had something to do with that, with our support of some of the candidates we’ve endorsed,” Chocola told Reuters, noting that “our goal is to be cheerleaders rather than obstructionists,” and that he no longer speaks with Republican leadership.

Heritage Action spokesman Dan Holler said his group is in “constant communication” with leading Republicans, and that the lawmaker movement away from big business interests showed more attention is being paid to constituents. Both Holler and Chocola pointed to their opposition to authorizing the Export-Import Bank as an example of their disagreement with the Chamber. “There’s an awakening in the Republican Party that being in favor of free markets and less government doesn’t mean that you’re going to be pro-big business,” Holler said. “Now you’re getting to the point where (members of Congress) are saying, ‘I don’t care if groups like the Chamber of Commerce are lobbying for a tax credit,’ or something like that.” — Reuters

WASHINGTON: Goldman Sachs Group, Inc Chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein (right) and Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, walk out of the West Wing of the White House in Washington on Wednesday to speak to reporters after they and other financial leaders met with President Barack Obama regarding the debt ceiling and the economy. —AP

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013 www.kuwaittimes.net

An employee poses with a mid-20th century ceremonial dance mask from Democratic Republic of Congo displayed at the Tribal Perspectives art show at The Gallery in central London on October 2, 2013. — AFP

Food FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

Ideas are baking for fall desserts B

aking season has arrived, and the oven is beckoning. So we’ve asked some of the best pastry chefs in Los Angeles for home recipes to ease bakers into fall. Their recipes call for 10 ingredients or fewer but are desserts worthy of bringing to a party, even Sharlena Fong’s marshmallow-studded campfire scones from Semi Sweet Bakery. (“Brunch is a party,” Fong says.

“And scones are fancier than muffins.”)

Karen Hatfield of Hatfield’s and the Sycamore Kitchen shares a rich, rustic-yet-elegant brown butter cake with dark chocolate and hazelnuts. The traditional pecan pie is re-imagined by Genevieve Gergis, pastry chef at Bestia, with a filling and crust that’s improved with a little creme fraiche. Roxana Jullapat of Cooks County makes a pumpkin mascarpone fool that is creamy and cool. And Gjelina Take Away pastry chef Nicole Rucker’s apple custard crumb pie, spiced with cardamom, is sort of genius. Rucker uses dried apples so “you don’t have to peel, core and cut them,” she points out. Easy.

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HAZELNUT BROWN BUTTER TORTE WITH BITTERSWEET CHOCOLATE 1 hour. Serves 8 to 12 1 cup (2 sticks) butter 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (11.5 ounces) powdered sugar 1 cup (3.6 ounces) almond flour 2/3 cup (2.9 ounces) cake flour 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup egg whites, from about 7 eggs 1 tablespoon hazelnut oil 1\2 cup chopped bittersweet chocolate 1\2 cup chopped roasted hazelnuts 2 to 3 tablespoons granulated sugar, for sprinkling Brown the butter: In a medium saucepan, heat the butter over medium-low heat and cook until the butter melts and browns, taking on a nutty aroma, 8 to 10 minutes. Be careful not to overcook or the butter will burn. Remove from heat and cool to warm before using.

While the butter is cooling, prepare the pan: Grease a decorative 10-inch cake or tart pan with butter and flour, or line with parchment. Heat the oven to 375 degrees.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, or in a large bowl, sift together the powdered sugar with the almond flour, cake flour and salt. With the mixer running, or using a hand mixer, add the egg whites in a steady stream. Once combined, quickly add the hazelnut oil, then the butter, and mix just until combined; be careful not to overmix.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan, filling the pan threefourths of the way full. Sprinkle with the chopped chocolate and hazelnuts, as well as the granulated sugar. Bake until the torte is puffed and medium brown on top, about 35 minutes. Cool before serving.

EACH OF 12 SERVINGS Calories: 372 Protein: 5 grams Carbohydrates: 39 grams Fiber: 2 grams Fat: 23 grams Saturated fat: 11 grams Cholesterol: 41 mg Sugar: 31 grams Sodium: 185 mg

NOTE: Adapted from Karen Hatfield of Hatfield’s and the Sycamore Kitchen.

AUTUMN FOOL 40 minutes, plus cooling and chilling times.

Makes 8 individual fools or one family-style fool Graham cracker crumbs 2/3 cup (2.8 ounces) all-purpose flour 1/3 cup (1.5 ounces) whole-wheat flour 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1\2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 cup (1 stick) cold butter, cubed 1/3 cup dark brown sugar 1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, wheat flour, salt, cinnamon, butter and brown sugar, pulsing until they come together to form a somewhat firm dough.

2. Place the dough between two sheets of parchment paper and roll to a thinness of approximately one-eighth inch.

Place the dough, still covered, on a cookie sheet and chill for 20 minutes.

3. Carefully peel the top sheet of parchment paper and bake the dough until it is a deep golden brown, about 10 minutes.

Cool the graham cracker completely, then crumble the cracker and pulse in a food processor until it is broken into coarse crumbs. This makes about 21/2 cups crumbs.

PUMPKIN FILLING AND AUTUMN FOOL 1 cup pumpkin puree 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 cups heavy cream 1 cup dark brown sugar 1\2 cups mascarpone Prepared graham cracker crumbs 1. In a mixing bowl, combine the pumpkin puree with the ground cinnamon.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, or in a large bowl using an electric mixer, whip the heavy cream, brown sugar and mascarpone on medium to high speed until the mixture forms soft peaks, about 5 minutes.

3. Carefully fold the pumpkin puree into the whipped cream mixture using a rubber spatula. Fill a large pastry bag set with a plain decorative tip with the pumpkin filling.

4. To build the fools, place 8 half-pint glasses or Mason jars on a tray. Put a tablespoon of the graham cracker crumbs into each glass, pipe about 2 tablespoons of the pumpkin mixture directly on top. Continue alternating until you fill the glasses to the top, finishing with graham crackers.

Alternatively, to serve a family-style fool, build the layers in a trifle dish (4-quart capacity). Refrigerate for at least one hour, and up to 24 hours, before serving.

EACH SERVING Calories: 710 Protein: 8 grams Carbohydrates: 38 grams Fiber: 2 grams Fat: 61 grams Saturated fat: 35 grams Cholesterol: 180 mg Sugar: 23 grams Sodium: 134 mg NOTE: Adapted from Roxana Jullapat of Cooks County.

CAMPFIRE SCONES 1 hour, plus overnight freezing time for the dough. Makes 10 to 12 scones 3 1/3 cups (14.1 ounces) all-purpose flour 1/3 cup (1.4 ounces) whole wheat flour 4 teaspoons (.7 ounces) baking powder 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1\2 cup (1.75 ounces) sugar Pinch of salt 1 cup (1 stick) cold butter, cut into cubes 2 tablespoons honey 1 1/2 cups heavy cream, plus \ cup for brushing, divided 1 cup mini chocolate chips 1 cup mini marshmallows, plus extra for dotting the tops of the scones, if desired Cinnamon sugar, for sprinkling

Food FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or in a large bowl using an electric mixer, beat together the all-purpose and wheat flours, cinnamon, sugar and salt. Add the cold butter and mix at the lowest speed until the butter is reduced to the size of peas.

2. Combine the honey and 11/2 cups heavy cream and, with the mixer on low speed, slowly pour into the flour and butter mixture. Mix until just blended. The dough will look lumpy, and there should still be bits of butter visible in the dough.

Combine the chocolate chips and marshmallows, add to the dough, and mix on low speed just until incorporated.

3. Place the dough onto a well-floured surface and knead it into a ball. Flour your hands and a rolling pin, and roll the dough three-fourths-inch thick. You should see small bits of butter in the dough. Flour a 3-inch round plain or fluted cutter and cut circles of dough. Place the scones on a baking pan lined with parchment paper. Collect the scraps neatly, roll them out, and cut more circles. Freeze the dough overnight after they’re cut; the scones can be prepared up to this point and frozen for up to 2 weeks before baking (wrap the scones well if freezing for an extended period of time to prevent freezer burn).

3. Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Brush the frozen scones with the remaining cream and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Bake until puffed and set and the tops are a rich golden brown, 25 to 35 minutes. If adding extra marshmallows to the top, sprinkle them over the scones halfway to two-thirds

pan, approximately 12 inches in diameter. Chill the rolled dough for 30 minutes, then carefully fit it into the pan, trimming and saving any leftover dough. Freeze the dough until ready to bake, at least 1 hour.

4. Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line the inside of the tart shell with foil and beans or pie weights. Blind-bake the frozen shell until set and golden on the sides, 20 to 25 minutes; the dough will shrink a bit on the sides. Remove the weights and foil and continue to bake until the crust is fully set and a deep golden brown, an additional 10 to 20 minutes.

5. Cool on a rack, then chill the shell until ready to complete the tart (chill up to one day before baking).

FILLING 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 tablespoon dark rum (optional) 6 tablespoons creme fraÓche 6 tablespoons butter 1 cup maple syrup 1 cup light brown sugar 1 teaspoon salt 3 egg yolks 1 cup coarsely chopped lightly toasted pecans Prepared frozen tart shell Whipped creme fraiche (1/2 cup each heavy cream and creme fraiche beaten with 1{ tablespoons sugar to soft peaks) 1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk the vanilla and rum into the creme fraiche.

2. In a heavy saucepan, combine the butter, maple syrup, brown sugar and salt over low heat. Cook, continuously whisking, until the butter is completely melted and the mixture comes together. Increase the heat to high and continue to cook until the mixture is frothy and bubbly. Continue cooking, whisking constantly, for 1 minute.

3. Remove from heat and slowly and carefully add the creme fraiche mixture, whisking until smooth. Continue whisking, adding the yolks, one at a time. Stir in the pecans.

4. Fill the cold tart shell with the filling just to below the top of the crust; you may have a little filling leftover. Bake until the top has developed a crust and the filling looks set, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove the tart from the oven and gently tap on the counter to release any air bubbles. Place on a rack to cool completely. Serve the cooled tart with whipped creme fraiche.

EACH OF 12 SERVINGS Calories: 473 Protein: 4 grams

of the way as they bake so the marshmallows brown slightly (the extra marshmallows may deflate a bit once they come out of the oven).

4.

Cool the scones on a rack before serving.

EACH OF 12 SERVINGS Calories: 431 Protein: 5 grams Carbohydrates: 49 grams Fiber: 2 grams Fat: 25 grams Saturated fat: 16 grams Cholesterol: 68 mg Sugar: 17 grams Sodium: 194 mg NOTE: Adapted from Sharlena Fong of Semi Sweet Bakery.

MAPLE PECAN TART WITH CREME FRAICHE 1 hours, plus cooling, chilling and freezing times. Serves 8 to 12 CREME FRAICHE CRUST 1 cup plus 3 tablespoons (5 ounces) flour 1 tablespoon sugar 1\2 teaspoon salt 1 cup (1 stick) butter, cut into cubes and frozen 1/3 cup creme fraiche 1. In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar and salt together to combine. Add the frozen butter cubes and pulse until the butter is reduced to pea-sized balls. Add the creme fraiche and pulse until mixed and the dough begins to form clumps.

2. Remove the dough and form into a coarse ball, then flatten to form a disk. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.

3. Roll the dough larger than the diameter of the 10-inch tart

Carbohydrates: 33 grams Fiber: 2 grams Fat: 37 grams Saturated fat: 2 grams Cholesterol: 128 mg Sugar: 22 grams Sodium: 165 mg NOTE: Adapted from Genevieve Gergis of Bestia.

APPLE CUSTARD CRUMB PIE 11/2 hours, plus freezing and cooling times. Serves 8 to 12 CRUST 6 ounces (approximately 12) digestive biscuits, preferably Gentilini Osvego 1\2 cup sugar 1 teaspoon salt

1\2 cup (1 stick) plus 1 tablespoon butter, melted In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the cookies, sugar and salt until sandy in texture, then add the melted butter and pulse a few more times to combine. Turn out the mixture into a buttered 91/2inch deep-dish pie plate, pressing evenly onto the sides and bottom to form a crust with uniform thickness. Freeze the crust and, just before filling and baking, run a pairing knife around the top edge to trim the cookie crust cleanly.

APPLES 2 cups dried apples 1 tablespoon sugar 1 teaspoon cardamom 1 vanilla bean, seeded 1 cup water In a large saute pan, combine the apples with the sugar, cardamom, seeds and water. Gently simmer until the apples have absorbed the water and are plumped. Remove the apples from the pan and set aside to cool.

CUSTARD 1 cup sugar 1/3 cup flour Pinch of salt 3 eggs 1 vanilla bean, seeded 2 cups milk While the apples are cooling, assemble the custard: In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour and salt. Add the eggs and vanilla seeds, and whisk until incorporated. Whisk in the milk until completely combined.

APPLE CUSTARD CRUMB PIE Prepared apples Prepared frozen cookie crust Prepared custard 1 tablespoon granulated sugar Powdered sugar, for sprinkling 1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. If there is any excess liquid with the apples, discard the liquid, and arrange or scatter the apples in the bottom of the prepared crust. Pour the custard over the apples, leaving one-eighth inch of crust at the top.

3. Place the pie on the bottom rack of the oven and bake until a light skin forms at the top of the filling, about 5 minutes.

Sprinkle the tablespoon of granulated sugar over the filling, then continue to bake until the custard starts to brown on top and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean, 30 to 55 minutes (timing will vary depending on the oven, beginning temperature of the crust and fillings, and type of pie dish). The finished pie will still jiggle slightly when remove from the oven but will set as it cools.

4. Cool the pie on a rack, then sprinkle with powdered sugar; serve warm.

EACH OF 12 SERVINGS Calories: 281 Protein: 4 grams Carbohydrates: 44 grams Fiber: 2 grams Fat: 10 grams Saturated fat: 5 grams Cholesterol: 63 mg Sugar: 31 grams Sodium: 159 mg NOTE: Adapted from Nicole Rucker of Gjelina Take Away in Venice, Calif. Digestive biscuits are available at select gourmet markets and cooking supply stores, as well as online. — MCT

Tr a v e l FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

Have yourself an old-fashioned Christmas at Germany’s markets

A giant-sized “pyramid,” replicates the traditional table-top Christmas decoration in Germany.

— MCT photos

By Anne Z. Cooke and Steve Haggerty

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o, you want to celebrate the holidays in style,” said my seat partner, Max, a businessman flying to Berlin. He gave me a knowing look. “And you’re going for the first time? Don’t miss Nuremburg. That’s where you’ll taste the very best lebkuchen. It’s a spiced gingerbread. We try to go every year.” His advice wasn’t the first to come my way. I’d been urged to go to Leipzig where choir concerts in the St Thomas church mark the season. Or to Cologne, famous for spekulatius, a cinnamon-spiced biscuit; or to Erzgebirge for a nussknacker, a carved wood nutcracker. If I wanted to buy one of the candle-powered twirly-whirly “pyramids” typical of Saxony, I’d been assured that table-top versions were sold everywhere.

Would three markets in eight days be too hectic? Not if I abandoned the idea of renting a car and decided to ride the rails. With a German rail pass good for the week, I saved myself the trouble of driving and parking. And I booked hotel rooms in Dresden, Berlin and Weimar, all fairly near each other and with conveniently located in-town train stations.

By early December, a good two weeks before Saint Nick and the reindeer were due on my rooftop in California, I was already among the revelers in Dresden, primed for decorated trees, shimmery glass stars and roasted chestnuts.

When it comes to celebrating Christmas the old-fashioned way, nobody does it like Germany. For 11 months of the year, summer holidays and the health of the European

Union occupy most conversations. But as December approaches, tradition takes precedence, a fond reminder of simpler days. When twilight settles over these ancient towns - and it comes early in the northern latitudes 10,000 tiny lights twinkle on and holiday revelers, swaddled in thick coats, gather to stroll, gawk, finish their gift shopping and meet friends for an evening’s merriment.

Not knowing quite what to expect, I started in Dresden, a good place for an initiation into Saxon-style cheer. Here were crafts, wood carvings, ornaments, baked goods and cheeses of every size and kind, with smiling

vendors bundled in winter coats offering bitesize tastes. Sausage vendors standing at sizzling grills offered grilled bratwurst in a bun, the traditional match for mulled wine (gluhwein).

Wandering over to the Frauenkirche church, now famously rebuilt, I poked my head in the door and was lucky enough to get a ticket for that evening’s Christmas concert.

Here, too, was my chance to visit one of Germany’s oldest Christmas markets, the Striezelmarkt, now celebrating its 579-year anniversary.

In Weimar, where the market was busy by

Tradtional wood toy figures are sold at the Alexanderplatz Christmas Market in Berlin, Germany.

A girl shops at Weimar’s Christmas Market in Germany with her grandfather. mid-morning despite falling snow and drifts piling up on the town’s minature Market Square, the smell of bratwurst and sounds of Christmas carols filled the air. Instead of deterring residents, the weather brought them out, with parents pushing babies in strollers and pulling older kids on sleds.

Soon Santa himself appeared in the town hall’s upper-most window, and hoisting a sack on his back, climbed down on a rather wob-

Tr a v e l FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

Weimar’s Christmas Market in Germany is set up by city hall. bly-looking ladder to greet the kids. Later that day I toured the home of Goethe, the legendary polymath who was not only a poet and dramatist but a politician, amateur scientist and shrewd economic advisor to his royal patron. This was news to me, since I’d known him only as an author.

In Berlin, where the blaze of lights from the bustling Alexanderplatz Market were visible from my hotel window, the impulse to walk over after dinner, even after a day of sightseeing, was impossible to resist. As the biggest and busiest of Berlin’s largest holiday markets - the street car runs through the middle - it was an ideal place for a gluhwein nightcap.

In recent years, Christmas markets have popped up all over Germany, a trend resulting from population growth and a booming economy. A tradition that originated in medieval market towns (before the advent of refrigeration and the supermarket), they’re now the core of the annual holiday celebration.

What do most of these jolly affairs look like? They resemble the sort of farmers’ mar-

ket you shop at on Saturday: rows of stalls, tents or traditional wood huts, usually - but not always - set up outside on the town’s largest historic town square. Clustered among Gothic churches and Renaissance halls, they make you feel that old St. Nick might just be around the corner. In the daylight before visitors begin to arrive - mid-afternoon, say you’ll think it looks more like the state fair. But switch on those millions of twinkling lights and set the 20-foot-tall “pyramids” a-twirling, and magic happens.

In Dresden, the stalls are set up in front of the restored Frauenkirche church with the overflow creeping down adjacent cobblestone streets. The Strietzelmarkt is in an empty lot. In Weimar, they’re lined up on the market square under the gaze of the City Hall clock tower. In Berlin we visited three markets, though I was told as many as 70 exist, one for each neighborhood We spent most of our time at the Alexanderplatz market because we could see the lights and hear the music from our hotel window. Hotels fill up quickly, with visitors

Snow falls on Weimar’s Christmas Market in Germany. and tour groups coming from all over Europe for a long festive weekend with plenty of shopping, sightseeing and eating marking the occasion.

As I wandered among the stalls, each piled high with gifts and goodies, the world’s languages and their owners drifted past. Here was a bit of Russian, and there some Turkish.

An Italian couple read the labels on the cheeses, and a French family sorted through hand-knitted wool hats, trying to find something their two teenagers - in tow - would wear. A Spanish woman who thought I was German stopped and asked me for directions.

The occasional overtones of Brooklyn, Texas and Missouri accents revealed that the American contingent had arrived.

For Europeans, Christmas markets promise a weekend getaway. For a Californian like me, it might have been daunting. But I booked a night flight and was there the next afternoon.

A Minnesota couple I met at the Frauenkirche concert told me it was their gift to each other, the kind of gift that would never go out of style and wouldn’t take up any room at home.

I didn’t buy much, but that didn’t spoil the pleasure of browsing among tables loaded with hand-carved wood toys, holiday cakes, cookies, chocolate candy, hand-knitted hats and scarves, candles, piles of cheeses and sausages. The tree ornament sellers were the busiest, swamped by so many customers that lines formed to keep prospective buyers orderly. With racks and shelves displaying everything from blown glass bells and crystal icicles to silvery stars, carved choir singers, drummers and nutcrackers, there was something for every taste.

In recent years, some Christmas markets have extended the season, starting early and ending later, from late November to New Year’s. Profit is the motivation, of course. I even spotted some sellers offering T-shirts, jeans, wallets and backpacks, and in once market a Mickey Mouse-themed kids’ ride.

Horrors! But the butchers, the bakers and the toy makers are still front and center, tempting you with their wares and ensuring that in Germany, at least, Christmas isn’t about to change.

IF YOU GO TWO TIPS TO REMEMBER: Fly nonstop if possible, and buy a German rail pass for intra-city travel. I flew on airBerlin because I could get an affordable nonstop flight to Germany from Los Angeles, Miami, New York City and Chicago. Look for rail passes with Deutsche Bahn, with rail service to nearly every town any importance.

Connections are on time, the trains are comfortable and new and the stations are centrally located. You won’t have to find or pay for a parking space, and once in the city center, you can walk or take public transport.

Snow falls on Weimar’s Christmas Market in Germany.

WHERE I STAYED: In Berlin at the small but contemporary Hotel Indigo Berlin, a block from the Alexanderplatz Market; www.hotelindigoberlin.com. In Dresden, at the stylish Swissotel am Schloss, one block from the Frauenkirche church; www.swissotel.com/Dresden. In Weimar, at the resort-style Dorint Am Goethepark Hotel, a 10-minute walk from the Market Square, a favorite with tour groups and an unbeatable choice for lavish buffet breakfasts; at www.dorint.com/en/hotelweimar. — MCT

Health FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

Homemade beauty recipes for skin any of the same wholesome foods that you eat to help your skin glow from the inside-out can also be used externally, as cleansers, moisturizers, and skin masks. These vitamins, minerals, and oils that nourish your body also nourish your skin. Below you’ll find recipes for a variety of skincare products that you can make at home with a few simple ingredients.

Make them for yourself or even give them as gifts by reusing pretty class jars or bottles. Your friends and relatives will love the personal touch, and you’ll be recycling and saving money too! Here are some recipes to get you started.

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Note: If you have sensitive skin, do a patch test before using any of these products. Apply a few drops to the inside of your wrist, and wait 12 hours to see if any irritation develops.

Soothing Lavender Body Wash Lavender essential oil gives this body wash a fragrant scent, while grapeseed oil helps keep skin healthy.

• 1/2 cup liquid, unscented castile soap • 1 tsp grapeseed oil • 4 drops lavender essential oil • • Pour ingredients into a container, swirl to mix, and store in the shower for up to one month.

Mother Nature’s Moisturizer There are lots of simple plant oils that you can use to moisturize your skin, all of which can be stored in your bathroom.

• 1/2 cup cocoa butter • • 2 Tbsp beeswax, finely chopped or grated • 2 tsp filtered water • 3 Tbsp grapeseed oil• • 2 Tbsp coconut oil • 1 Tbsp wheat germ oil Combine water and beeswax in a saucepan

and heat until melted. Add cocoa butter and stir until smooth. Allow to cool somewhat, then add oils. Pour into a glass jar, and allow to cool completely.

Grapeseed Face Wash for Dry Skin This face wash will clean your skin without drying it out.

• 1 cup full-fat, plain yogurt • 2 Tbsp grapeseed oil • 1Tbsp freshly-squeezed lemon juice Whip all ingredients until smooth. Pour mixture in a tightly-sealed glass jar and store in the refrigerator. This facial wash will keep for a few weeks.

Chamomile Facial Cleansing Gel (for all skin types) The oats in this cleansing gel help to gently exfoliate your skin.

• 1 chamomile herbal tea bag • 1-1/2 cups of filtered water • 2 tsp whole (not ground) flaxseeds • 1/2 cup organic rolled oats, finely ground in a blender • Fine mesh strainer Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan, turn off heat, and drop in the tea bag. Allow to steep for 5 minutes, then remove the bag and add the flaxseeds. Return to a boil, lower heat and simmer

for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Pour cooled mixture through a fine mesh strainer, into a glass jar. To use, sprinkle a small amount of ground rolled oats in the palm of your hand, and mix with a small amount of the flax gel. Scrub face gently, and rinse well. Store the gel and the oats separately in the refrigerator. They will both keep for a few weeks.

Banana Face Mask for Oily Skin Both of these recipes for face masks use easy-to-find ingredients that you probably already have in your kitchen.

• 1 overly-ripe banana • 1 Tbsp honey • A squeeze of fresh lemon juice Whip all ingredients until smooth, and apply. (For best results, cleanse and steam your face before applying.)

Leave on for 15 minutes, and then wipe clean with a warm washcloth.

Yogurt and Honey Face Mask for Dry Skin • 1 Tbsp full-fat, plain yogurt • 1 Tbsp honey Combine ingredients until smooth, and apply. (For best results, cleanse and steam your face before applying.) Leave on for 15 minutes, and then wipe clean with a warm washcloth.

Beeswax, a natural wax made by bees in honeycombs, is commonly used in cosmetics. It helps to seal, moisturize and protect the skin. You can buy beeswax in chunks or “pearls.” Beeswax chunks are more economical, and slightly less processed than pearls, which are more heavily filtered to achieve cosmetic grade. Many natural foods stores sell beeswax in bulk form (buy only as much as you want), and you can also find it in craft stores.

Castile soap refers to liquid or bar soap that is made exclusively from vegetable oils (as opposed to animal fat) and comes in a variety of scents (or unscented). You’ll find it in natural foods stores. Dr. Bronner’s is a commonly used brand.

Cocoa butter, natural fat in cacao beans, is extracted during the process of making chocolate. Commonly used in cosmetics, thanks to its smooth texture and sweet fragrance, this stable fat has a shelf life of two to five years.

Look for 100% cocoa butter in natural foods stores, craft stores, or online sources that sell soap-making supplies.

Coconut oil (or coconut butter), which comes from coconuts, is an excellent moisturizer. You’ll find it in most natural and conventional food stores, next to other cooking oils.

Grapeseed oil (also called grape seed oil or grape oil) is pressed from the seeds of various grapes. It possesses regenerative and restructuring qualities, and is often used in commercial eye creams. You’ll find it in most natural or gourmet food stores, next to other cooking oils.

Lavender essential oil (or “oil of lavender”) is derived from lavender plants via steam distillation. Simply put, an essential oil carries a plant’s distinctive scent (or “essence”), but no other fundamental properties of that plant. Lavender has been used in aromatherapy for years to ease anxiety, stress, and depression. You’ll find essential oils in small, tinted glass bottles in your natural foods store (in the bulk, beauty or aromatherapy section).

Wheat germ oil is extracted from the germ of a wheat kernel. This highly perishable oil contains more vitamin E (a powerful antioxidant) than any other natural (non-fortified) food source, along with minerals and B-complex vitamins. You’ll find it in the supplement section of your natural foods store. www.sparkpeople.com

Lifestyle FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

People attend the opening ceremony of the Busan International Film Festival at Busan Cinema Center in Busan.

Busan film festival opens with stars, new talent

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stablished Asian stars as well as budding actors and actresses walked the red carpet yesterday at the start of this year’s Busan International Film Festival. But the director of the festival’s opening film, Bhutanese monk Khyentse Norbu, ditched the red carpet for something much less glamorous: a cave. While most filmmakers would jump at a chance to appear at Asia’s largest film festival as their work opened the event, Norbu remained in Bhutan for a Buddhist

retreat in a cave on a remote mountain.

Norbu’s third feature movie, “Vara: A Blessing,” a drama depicting religion, art and forbidden love in an Indian village through a classical South Indian dance, took the opening spot - a position usually reserved for a Chinese or Korean movie.”I’m speechless ... I’m so honored,” Norbu told reporters in Busan in a video message. He thanked the festival for “so much support and encouragement to obscure, special films and spe-

Producers and actors of Busan International Film Festival’s opening movie ‘Vara: A Blessing,’ from left, Indian actress Shahana Goswami, American producer David Urrutia, Indian actor Devesh Ranjan, American producer Nanette Nelms and Indian executive producer Suresh Jindal pose for photographers at a press conference at Busan Cinema Center in Busan, south of Seoul, South Korea yesterday. — AP photos

Chinese actor Aaron Kwok and South Korean actress Kang Soo-yeon pose before hosting the opening ceremony.

South Korean actors Yang Dong Yeun and Lee Tae Im arrive for the opening ceremony.

cial filmmakers that are not necessarily known and established.”

The choice of a non-Chinese and non-Korean movie for the opening underlined the festival’s effort to emphasize lesser-known works in the region. The festival’s director, Lee Yong-kwan, who selected the opening movie, said this year’s event would demonstrate the potential of Asian movies. The Busan festival is known for discovering new talent and highlighting movies on the fringe of the global film industry. Among the guests at this year’s festival are Academy Award nominee Ken Watanabe, Irish director Jim Sheridan, Japanese heartthrob Joe Odagiri and Taipei-based director Tsai Ming-liang. Hong Kong actor Aaron Kwok and South Korean actress Kang Soo-yeon hosted the opening night event.

The festival, held in South Korea’s secondlargest city, is younger than its rivals in Tokyo and Hong Kong. But it has grown to become one of the most important events in the industry, with new talents and independent moviemakers

showcasing their works and finding investors, and global movie industry officials discovering new Asian films. Works from Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan and Singapore are among the 301 movies to be presented during the 10-day fair.

“Nagima,” a Kazakh director’s drama about young orphans, was selected among the six Gala Presentation works, comprising mostly Korean movies. The selection of movies from 70 countries includes 95 world premieres and the usual large selection of works by independent South Korean movie makers, but fans of established film directors are not to be disappointed. South Korean director Bong Joon-ho will present the Englishlanguage film “Snowpiercer” before its US release, while Kim Jee-woon will visit the festival for the world premiere of “The X.” Director Kim Ki-duk is set to return to Busan with another controversial work, “Moebius.”— AP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

Bieber won’t be charged for alleged threat

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ustin Bieber won’t face criminal charges for allegedly threatening a neighbor who complained about his driving. City News Service says Los Angeles County prosecutors decided Wednesday that there’s insufficient evidence to charge the pop star. A neighbor in Bieber’s gated Calabasas neighborhood told a sheriff’s deputy that Bieber threatened him and spat in his direction when he confronted the 19year-old about his driving last March.

Prosecutor Alan Yochelson wrote in a document that

Bieber’s response seemed “immature” but not necessarily criminal. He also said there’s not enough evidence to charge Bieber over a neighbor’s complaint that Bieber drove his Ferrari recklessly through the area in May. Yochelson said it’s unclear who was at the wheel. Messages left for Bieber’s representative, Melissa Victor, weren’t immediately returned Wednesday. — AP Justin Bieber

Usher, Wahlberg, Run-D.M.C. slapped with copyright infringement lawsuit

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sher, Mark Wahlberg and Run-D.M.C. are among a slew of musicians who are being sued in a sprawling lawsuit claiming that dozens of artists infringed on a song by sampling it without authorization. In the suit, filed in US District Court in Illinois on Tuesday, Twilight Records and Syl-Zel Music claim that the above defendants and others sampled “Different Strokes,” which was sung and recorded by Sylvester Thompson, a/k/a Syl Johnson, in 1967, and later in a derivative version.

According to the suit, Usher infringed on “Different Strokes” with his 1993 song “Call Me a Mack,” while Public Enemy made use of the tune on multiple songs, including “Fight the Power” and “Fear of a Black Planet.”

Wahlberg, meanwhile, is allegedly in hot water for his tenure in the much-missed Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, whose “The Last Song on Side B” made unauthorized use of the song, according to the suit. (Yes, his

brother Donnie is also named as a defendant.)

Run-D.M.C., meanwhile, allegedly sinned by using “Different Strokes” in their tunes “Naughty” and “Beats to the Rhyme.” A number of record labels, including Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group, are also named in the suit for contributory copyright infringement.

The complaint seeks accounting, along with a permanent restraint against sampling the song, along with unspecified damages.

This isn’t the first time that “Different Strokes” has sparked a lawsuit. In 2011, Johnson sued Kanye West and Jay-Z, claiming that the song was improperly sampled on that pair’s album “Watch the Throne.” That suit was later settled. — Reuters

British actor Ben Kingsley, US actress Abigail Breslin, US actor Harrison Ford and British actor Asa Butterfield pose during a photocall for the film Ender’s Game in Madrid yesterday. — AFP

Low-budget ‘Machete’ strikes again at box office

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tudios are risk-adverse. Good ideas cannot flourish. All the best work is being done in television.... So go the complaints of many a US filmmaker. But not lowbudget director Robert Rodriguez, whose “fun” and “wacky” action film “Machete Kills”, featuring Mel Gibson, Charlie Sheen, Antonio Banderas and Lady Gaga, comes in the wake of the box office success of “Machete”.

Rodriguez, 45, whose films include “From Dusk Till Dawn” with George Clooney and the “Spy Kids” series, doesn’t waste time wringing his hands about the state of the industry.

“With the rising costs of marketing it’s harder for the studios to take the gambles and risks that they used to,” he told AFP in an interview in Paris, where “Machete Kills” has just opened. “Even the Weinsteins can’t take the risks that they used to take, so it is difficult because you need to be able to take risks to find new ideas,” he said the Weinsteins being independent-film backers Bob and Harvey, co-founders of Miramax studios and The Weinstein Company.

Rodriguez says that far from forcing him into a creative strait-jacket, low-budget movie making has left him free to experiment. “Machete”, with its comic-book vio-

lence and action sequences, was made for just $13 million (9.6 million euros), while “Machete Kills”-in which actor Danny Trejo returns as Machete, an ex-federal agent in Mexico-cost not much more, around $17 million. “When I do something, I try to make it the kind of movie that will make some money. Then I can experiment all I want because if it’s succesful it’s a big success because it didn’t cost very much,” said Rodriguez.

“And if it doesn’t do well at the box office, it’s still a success because it didn’t cost very much. It’s a win-win situation.... Then you can make movies for ever,” he said. Rodriguez turns his hand to whatever he can in order to free up cash to hire the best actors, albeit just for a day or two. “Most action films like that are about 100 days. This was 29 days so Charlie Sheen was there one day, Lady Gaga was there one day... Mel Gibson was there three days,” he said. “It was fast so it was challenging.”—AFP

Iron Maiden’s vocalist, Bruce Dickinson, performs during a concert in Santiago. — AFP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

Marc Jacobs farewell to Vuitton is a dark one

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s maids swept away dust from steps that led into a set in mourning, it was clear that the Louis Vuitton fashion show in Paris on Wednesday was a spring-summer collection in name only. There was a dark fountain and a nightmarish carousel featuring inky, surreallooking horses. There was a twin escalator and a luxury hotel elevator. And there was the universe of clothes in all-black. The decor was like a greatest hits collection that fused elements of past shows with the present one, tracing designer Marc Jacobs’ influential 16-year reign at the house.

Shortly after the show at the Louvre Museum in Paris, the visual metaphor was explained: LVMH announced that Jacobs was stepping down as creative director of its flagship brand.

So Jacobs’ ready-to-wear collection for the storied house looked like a funeral for a reason. The dark show came on the final day of a fashion week that saw designers channel black and white but also other, sometimes colorful trends.

Looks on high rotation included: tribal African, ethnic pattern prints, multitudinous pleats, metallic sheen and revealing micro mini crop tops. Mid-blue was a particularly favored color.

And while Louis Vuitton shows are often extravagant and can use sets that cost millions of euros, the less well-off had options, too, during this year’s fashion week. An initiative in recent years called the “Designer’s Apartment” provided showroom spaces for top young designers such as Aganovich, Monographie and Le Moine Tricote. Still, it was the well-established heavy hitters who drew the most attention.

Models present creations for Miu Miu during the 2014 Spring/Summer ready-to-wear collection fashion show. — AP/AFP photos

Lifestyle FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

HERMES

MIU MIU

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t was the art of contrast in Prada’s baby sister label Miu Miu. For spring-summer 2014, Miuccia Prada softened her musings to produce a more wearable and feminine collection than last season’s intellectual tight foulards, polka dots and enormous handbags. Cleanly cut coats in pastel shades of blue, gray and yellow with softly colored panels produced harmonious contrasts alongside bright flashes of bright red and navy. They often appeared on thick, patterned stockings that helped paint the whole silhouette in color. Bright red sequined boots accessorized one look with a patterned sudden mid-thigh coat to give it an artfully contrasting punch of creative fun. Samantha Critchell in New York and Sarah DiLorenzo in Paris contributed to this report. — AP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

HERMES

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esigner Christophe Lemaire took to the jungle for his intimate spring-summer show, with models who snaked around foliage in a central Paris orangery in deep greens, blues and nature prints. “The dream of the jungles. I started with the deep shades and then gradually brought in prints colors,” Lemaire said of his luxuriant collection, which used a large tulip print on high-collared silk gowns called “folkloric.” The show had all the usually fine cut Hermes-style clothes, like one musthave loose beige suit paired with leather sandals, but it couldn’t help but feel a bit mute overall. A pale buckled ethnic skirt in rough material with a flash of green was a fiery little touch that Lemaire could have developed more.

Lemaire said the jungle theme was inspired by the master painter Henri Rousseau, whose most famous work is “Tiger in a Tropical Storm.” It was a shame there were no tigers here.

Pets FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

Jake, a 9-month old Labrador, locates handler Jonathan Ball who is hidden in a barrel during a training exercise for search dogs at the University of Pennsylvania Working Dog Center in Philadelphia. — MCT

Class of canines Working Dog Center graduates first class of search dogs

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ob Dougherty, a Cheltenham, Pa, police officer from the K-9 unit, strides across a scrap yard in West Philadelphia, his boots crunching over gravel. Scrambling over a mountain of broken pallets and rubble, Dougherty crawls into one of several half-buried blue plastic barrels and pulls a wooden lid over the opening. Hide and seek has never been this serious. Inside, it is oppressively hot, and Dougherty is heavily clothed - helmet, long sleeves, long pants, thick canvas gloves. But he is doing this voluntarily, for a good cause. And he knows he will have to wait only a few seconds.

He is playing with a pro. His seeker is Sirius, a 14-month-old yellow Labrador retriever bred for his hunting instincts. Since he was only 8 weeks old, the dog has been taught to track down human scent. Sirius is a member of the first class to graduate from the new Working Dog Center at the University of Pennsylvania. The center will hold a ceremony Tuesday to mark its oneyear anniversary and the dogs’ completion of the training program.

Named for the only search and rescue dog killed at the World Trade Center on 9/11, Sirius will soon join either a police department or some other investigative

team. Depending on their individual talents and personalities, his six classmates, also named for 9/11 dogs, will be sold for $10,000 each to law enforcement and security forces or private individuals. For the rest of their lives, the dogs will help detect cancer, prevent diabetics from lapsing into comas, locate explosives, uncover drugs, and find people who are buried in collapsed buildings or lost in the wilderness.

The idea for the center came to Cindy Otto nearly 10 years before she was able to make it a reality. A veterinarian with a Ph.D. in veterinary physiology, Otto, 52, specializes in critical care and emergency medicine. During 9/11, she helped care for the dogs that scoured ground zero, looking for bodies.

During her 16-year tenure on the federal urban search and rescue task force in Pennsylvania, she saw a decline in the quality and availability of dogs needed to perform critical tasks. “There are only about 180 of these dogs nationwide,” she said, giving a tour of the facility she now directs.

Traditionally, most of the dogs came from other countries, primarily in Eastern Europe.

But as demand for detection dogs has increased, high-quality breeders have had trouble keeping up, she said. “China and

India use search and rescue dogs now. And they’re needed here not just to find drugs and explosives, but bedbugs, too.

Conservation groups use them to find invasive plant species or pet pythons that have been set free in the Everglades.”

Some of the new breeders who have entered the market, she said, are less careful about maintaining the exacting standards needed to produce reliable dogs. Otto and her colleague, Gail Smith, a veterinary orthopedist, had mused about the need to breed and train the dogs domestically. In 2004, Otto came up with a rough plan for a center.

“The only problem was, I had no money and no space,” Otto said. She and a few of her colleagues took courses at the Wharton School to learn how to run a small business.

In 2011, several false starts later, she learned that the University of Pennsylvania had bought an old chemical research facility in Philadelphia’s Grays Ferry neighborhood.

With help from the Penn administration, and a PowerPoint presentation at the Westminster Dog Show, she received $500,000 from donors and grants - enough to refurbish the buildings and hire staff. The first seven puppies, donated by top breeders in the United States, arrived Sept. 10,

2012. Their lessons began immediately which was unusual, said Annemarie DeAngelo, director of training.

Traditionally, it was thought that if puppies were taught obedience too early, it would interfere with their drive, DeAngelo said. “But we learned that is not true at all.”

All of the dogs - the original seven and an additional nine that have arrived over the course of the year - have responded beautifully, DeAngelo said. And by observing the puppies from such a young age, the trainers have been able to identify and nurture their innate skills.

From the beginning, Sirius proved to be a natural hunter. About 100 yards from where Dougherty is hiding, a handler tells the dog to sit. Sirius waits until the leash is unclipped and he hears the command, “Find!” He flies across the yard. He stops to sniff for a split-second at a barrel where Dougherty had been, then homes in on the one where he is now. Barking loudly, Sirius peers into the hole in the lid and is quickly rewarded. Dougherty pokes his hand out, offers the dog a heft of rope, then shimmies into the sunlight to play a rugged game of tug-of-war. “Thank you, bud,” says Dougherty with soft, gruff gratitude. “Thank you for finding me.” — MCT

Stars

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

Aries (March 21-April 19)

You feel mentally and physically great, and your business and financial interests may take a sudden turn for the better. A contract could be involved. Love matters should also be going very well, and children could bring you great pleasure. This is a good time to make future plans and pursue your most cherished ambitions.

Taurus (April 20-May 20)

You can overcome difficulties with business and money through the help of someone older. Helpful advice makes a future course of action seem clearer and more practical than before. Your practical abilities are heightened. You're less likely than usual to let strong emotions interfere with using them. A previously unused intuitive ability could also help you now.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

Today a piece of information for which you've been searching could suddenly become known. You might use your business and money-management skills to help a friend or a group with which you're affiliated. You'll have some good pointers to impart. Gratitude, if not financial compensation, should be forthcoming. Put your nose to the grindstone and get going!

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

Efforts to advance your career that you've made over the past few weeks could finally bear fruit. Success and good fortune are strongly indicated where business and money are concerned.

Worries over finances disappear. You could receive public recognition of some kind, particularly from higher-ups. Some benefit through contracts or legal papers is also indicated. This is a satisfying, profitable time.

Leo (July 23-August 22)

A long-awaited vacation or move you've been hoping to make could finally be possible today. Before you go, there may be some paperwork to take care of. Thoughts of business advancement may play in your mind, and you might consider taking a course or two to increase your marketability and help you get closer to achieving your goals.

Virgo (August 23-September 22)

Heightened imagination and ingenuity could bring new ideas for advancing yourself in money and business affairs. Practical information attained from outside sources merges with insights to bring useful information your way. Consider everything carefully before taking action. Be open to the advice of others. Whatever you do, today shows promise of being successful and fortunate.

Libra (September 23-October 22)

Social events, especially those unrelated to business, could bring exciting new contacts. Relationships with partners should be mutually beneficial, particularly when the people you're dealing with are friends. If you've been considering entering a new business partnership, this is the day to start discussing it seriously. Romantic partnerships begun or moved forward now should also go very well.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21)

Your efficient and practical abilities are operating at a very high level. A long-term goal that you've been working toward could finally be reached today, bringing good fortune and open acknowledgement. Your efforts may be so appreciated that you could be asked to continue doing what you're doing. In other words, major advancement could be in the works.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21)

Your strong business head and practical skills couple with imagination and innovation to bring advancement your way.

Information received from far away could prove especially valuable now. Relationships with friends and neighbors should be warm, cordial, and cooperative. Love relationships also prove rewarding. This evening blow off a little steam by going out.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)

Business colleagues or prospective partners could visit today.

The meeting promises to be cooperative, rewarding, and fruitful. Any partnership formed now shows promise of being a step in the right direction. You might fantasize about how you're going to spend all the money you're going to make. This is fine as long as you postpone actually spending it until you have the money in your hands.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18)

Forcefulness may not be a usual part of your nature, but if there is a day in which you feel comfortable throwing your weight around, today is it. Enough is enough. Take control of your actions and responsibility for the consequences. Use this day to build your confidence and act assuredly in all your dealings.

You either want it or you don't.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

Your business and financial interests could suddenly take a turn for the better. Any difficulties you've been having may disappear as if by magic. Whatever your work, either related to career or projects of your own, it should suddenly run a lot more smoothly. You should be feeling physically strong and energetic. Optimism and enthusiasm permeate your thoughts.

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, OCTOBER 4, 2013

Word Search

Yesterdayʼs Solution

C R O S S W O R D 3 3 0

ACROSS 1. Anterior pituitary hormone that stimulates the function of the thyroid gland.

4. Raspberry native to eastern North America having black thimble-shaped fruit.

12. Any of various units of capacity.

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

16. (Spanish) Sweetened red wine and orange or lemon juice with soda water.

17. (used especially of commodities) In the natural unprocessed condition.

18. Having many worn or threadbare spots in the nap.

20. An ornamental net in the shape of a bag that confines a woman's hair.

21. Goddess of criminal rashness and its punishment.

22. Tropical starchy tuberous root.

23. A Russian river.

25. Large Indian antelope.

27. A prisoner serving a term of life imprisonment.

29. A white metallic element that burns with a brilliant light.

30. Tear down so as to make flat with the ground.

37. A federal agency established to coordinate programs aimed at reducing pollution and protecting the environment.

39. Tropical woody herb with showy yellow flowers and flat pods.

41. An ester of adenosine that is converted to ATP for energy storage.

42. A thin plate or layer (especially of bone or mineral).

45. Not only so, but.

48. A ballistic missile that is capable of traveling from one continent to another.

49. (Middle East) An ornamental metal cup-shaped holder for a hot coffee cup.

51. Indicating the most important performer or role.

52. (India) Flat pancake-like bread cooked on a griddle.

54. Place a value on.

56. (botany) Especially of plant parts.

58. (plate tectonic theory) A hypothetical continent including all the landmass of the earth prior to the Triassic period when it split into Laurasia and Gondwanaland.

59. The capital and largest city of Bangladesh.

61. Being one hundred more than three hundred.

62. The acetylated derivative of salicylic acid.

65. A three-tone Chadic language.

68. Mild yellow Dutch cheese made in balls.

72. (Babylonian) God of storms and wind.

75. A Hindu prince or king in India.

76. A decree that prohibits something.

80. Having undesirable or negative qualities.

81. A benevolent aspect of Devi.

82. Relating to or of the nature of or having a mouth or mouthlike opening.

83. A unit of surface area equal to 100 square meters.

7. System of measurement based on centimeters and grams and seconds.

8. Influential German idealist philosopher (1724-1804).

9. Electronic equipment that provides visual images of varying electrical quantities.

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

11. A tricycle (usually propelled by pedalling).

12. (informal) Exceptionally good.

13. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

14. 100 lwei equal 1 kwanza.

19. A strong wind moving 45-90 knots.

24. A light strong brittle gray toxic bivalent metallic element.

26. A workplace for the conduct of scientific research.

28. Offering fun and gaiety.

31. Any member of Athapaskan tribes that migrated to the southwestern desert (from Arizona to Texas and south into Mexico).

32. South Asian deer with three-tined antlers.

33. A professional cook.

34. Disparaging terms for the common people.

35. Form a mental image of something that is not present or that is not the case.

36. South American cavy.

38. A colorless explosive liquid that is volatile and poisonous and foul-smelling.

40. A port in southwestern Scotland.

43. Made difficult or slow.

44. A member of the Nahuatl people who established an empire in Mexico that was overthrown by Cortes in 1519.

46. A collection of objects laid on top of each other.

47. Widely separated especially in space.

50. The branch of computer science that deal with writing computer programs that can solve problems creatively.

53. Essential oil or perfume obtained from flowers.

55. Resinlike substance secreted by certain lac insects.

57. An ancient region of west central Italy (southeast of Rome) on the Tyrrhenian Sea. 60. A son who has the same first name as his father.

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

64. A member of an extinct North American Indian people who lived in the Pit river valley in northern California.

66. An ancient Hebrew unit of dry measure equal to about a bushel.

67. A Loloish language.

69. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

70. Slightly open.

71. Produced by a manufacturing process.

73. A vacuum tube in which a hot cathode emits a beam of electrons that pass through a high voltage anode and are focused or deflected before hitting a phosphorescent screen.

74. A toilet in England.

77. A bachelor's degree in science.

78. A highly unstable radioactive element (the heaviest of the halogen series).

79. A silvery ductile metallic element found primarily in bauxite.

Yesterdayʼs Solution

DOWN 1. A (usually) large and scholarly book.

2. Any of a number of fishes of the family Carangidae.

3. The (prehensile) extremity of the superior limb.

4. A fatal disease of cattle that affects the central nervous system.

5. The act of laying off an employee or a work force.

6. An associate degree in nursing.

Daily SuDoku

Yesterday’s Solution

Sports FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

Genia’s yo-yo season takes an upward turn ROSARIO: Australia scrum-half Will Genia’s yo-yo season took an upward turn when he was recalled for tomorrow’s Rugby Championship Test in Argentina. Genia comes in for Nic White in the only change to the starting line-up from that beaten 288 by South Africa in Cape Town last weekend. White drops to the bench for the wooden-spoon showdown at Estadio Gigante de Arroyito in Rosario, 300 kilometers north west of Buenos Aires.

There is also one change among the replacements with utility back Bernard Foley coming in for Chris Feauai-Sautia, scorer of the Wallaby try against the Springboks. Papua New Guinea-born Genia, 25, has skippered Australia this year in the absence of injured lock James Horwill. But he was axed by coach Ewen McKenzie after leading the Wallabies in a humiliating 26-point drubbing by South Africa in Brisbane.

White impressed sufficiently to stay on the pitch for the full 80 minutes as Australia squeezed a 14-13 home win over the Pumas in a dour duel. But his field-kicking came unstuck in Cape Town and the Wallabies fared far better when Genia came on for the second half. McKenzie, a Super Rugby titlewinning coach with the Queensland Reds, replaced New Zealander Robbie Deans after a 2-1 series loss to the British and Irish Lions. But the former Wallaby prop has experienced a baptism of fire with home and away reverses against the New Zealand All Blacks and the Springboks.

Since arriving in Argentina, McKenzie admitted that trying to slug it out with South Africa in a field-kicking contest was a blunder. He emphasized to his squad the need to play it off the cuff at times, with natural runner and full-back Israel Folau expected to keep the ball in hand more. Australia have four points and Argentina two after five rounds, meaning the losers of the final 2013 Rugby Championship fixture get the unwanted wooden spoon. The Wallabies have a slight advantage in previous meeting on Argentine soil with four victories, three losses and one draw. —AFP

Toulon seeking to rebound against old foes Clermont PARIS: The row over next season’s European Cup will take backstage in France on the weekend as the Top 14 offers up more mouth-watering clashes, notably between Toulon and Clermont.

Toulon pipped Clermont to the European crown by a point last season and while rumors of an Anglo-French split from the tournament rumble on, it is back to the rough and tumble of league action, the bread-and-butter entertainment of French club rugby.

Toulon will have a point to prove, having lost 25-22 last weekend to newly-promoted Oyonnax, coach Bernard Laporte laying out in no uncertain terms his feelings after the match. “It’s a match we could have won by 30 points but we lost it,” Laporte said, having seen his star-studded outfit fall prey to a last-gasp drop goal by Argentina fly-half Benjamin Urdallipeta.

“Some players didn’t do what they had to do.” The scalp was not Oyonnax’s first of the season, having already beaten Clermont and defending Top 14 champions Castres, as just 10 points separates leaders Stade Francais from 13th-placed Bayonne, with bottom club Biarritz the sole adrift on just seven.

But the success of the small club from eastern France, close to the Swiss city of Geneva, or the fact that tomorrow’s match was against Clermont were not things that interested Laporte.

The defeat involved “players I love, players I chose with president (Mourad) Boudjellal”, the former France coach said. “We spoke together and they reassured me that they were committed.” Turning to the weekend, Laporte added: “Defeats are always forbidden! But the opponents count for little, I don’t care that it’s Clermont. “They’ll do what they’ve got to do and we, if only we do what we have to do... Clermont are a very good team - we didn’t learn that this morning.”

Clermont sit in second in the table one point ahead of Toulon, and welcome back France centre Aurelien Rougerie for the game at the Allianz Riviera stadium in Nice. Rougerie has been out all season with a foot injury, but will face a baptism of fire against the likes of human wrecking ball Mathieu Bastareaud and Australian playmaker Matt Giteau at the 35,000-capacity stadium.—AFP

Photo of the day

Antoine Bizet performs at the Martin Soderstrom Invitational at Uppsala Slott in Uppsala.—Sweden www.redbull.com

Springboks and All Blacks seek psychological blow JOHANNESBURG: The next World Cup may still be two years away, but tomorrow’s Rugby Championship decider between South Africa and New Zealand at Ellis Park could provide an early psychological blow for the victor. A bruising physical battle is expected between the top two sides in the world rankings, with the return of both Bismark du Plessis and Richie McCaw adding steel and guile to what is already shaping up to be an explosive fixture.

Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer has made no secret of the fact that he has selected his team for this year’s series with England 2015 in mind, and beating the current world champions would be a huge affirmation of his plans. “This is probably the last year to experiment before that World Cup,” Meyer told reporters recently. “We have some guys coming back from injury in the next few months, so I believe that we have a strong group of players going forward.

“We’ve got very high standards, we want to be the best team in the world and we want to win the World Cup.” Meyer reiterated that South Africa would not be reckless in their pursuit of the bonus point victory needed tomorrow (1500GMT) to lift them above the All Blacks in the Rugby Championship table, having narrowly missed out on the crucial extra point against Australia in Cape Town last weekend.

“Obviously it would be great to win the game and the Championship, and we are in with a chance. I never said

we’re going to go out and score four tries. We’re just going to go out there and try and play positive rugby. “It is very difficult playing against the All Blacks as they’ve only conceded seven tries in the last eight Test matches.

Nobody has scored four tries against them for the last eight, maybe nine years, and in those days the defense wasn’t as organized. “We’ve got a plan but it is a difficult task ... they are a quality side and just to win the game will be a massive challenge for us.”

The All Blacks last conceded four tries in a 26-24 loss to old rivals Australia in a Bledisloe Cup match in Hong Kong three years ago. Du Plessis has been restored to the starting line-up ahead of Adriaan Strauss as Meyer continues to rotate his hookers. The Sharks front-rower will get a chance to redeem himself with the All Blacks after he was red-carded in the last match between the teams in Auckland last month. McCaw missed that 29-15 victory for New Zealand with a knee injury, but now returns to make his 120th appearance for the side in what is the team’s most important fixture since the 2011 World Cup final.

KICKING DUEL McCaw will likely be a central figure in the breakdown, an area that has been vastly improved for South Africa in 2013.

But Meyer also believes the boot will play a pivotal role in tomorrow’s decider and said the All Blacks have held the edge kicking out of hand in recent

times. “They’ve got a great running game but what makes them so effective is their kicking game.

“They outkicked us when we played in Soweto (in 2012) and we couldn’t get out of our half - they kicked 12 times more than us. So if we want to beat them even before we start scoring tries, we have to match them with their kicking game.” His counterpart Steve Hansen expects the Springboks to play a more expansive game as they go in search of the five points they need.

“The Springboks at Ellis Park is a challenge the team is really looking forward to, one we are very excited about,” Hansen said. “We know South Africa will come at us with their physical game but to win the Rugby Championship they’ll have to do that by scoring four tries.

“We are expecting more ball movement than we have seen in the past. The answer is pretty simple for us. We will have to match their physicality and be very accurate with our execution across the park, both on attack and defensively.” Aside from the return of Du Plessis, Juandre Kruger replaces suspended lock Flip van der Merwe. A third change is possible for the Springboks if centre JJ Engelbrecht does not recover from injury in time, with Jan Serfontein set to replace him. The All Blacks only other change is prop Charlie Faumuina replacing the injured Owen Franks, ruled out of the test at Ellis Park because of a groin injury sustained in Argentina last weekend.—Reuters

Sports FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

Low-spending teams get chance in MLB playoffs NEW YORK: Baseball’s playoffs no longer are an exclusive club of high rollers.

Pittsburgh, 26th among the 30 teams with a $73.6 million payroll, rolled past Cincinnati on Tuesday night and into an NL divisionseries matchup against St Louis. Oakland, 27th on the spending list at $71.1 million according to Major League Baseball’s latest figures, won the AL West and faces Detroit.

And Tampa Bay, 28th at $65.6 million, plays the wild-card game on Wednesday night against Cleveland, 21st at $88.6 million.

“We’ve created things that have really helped our sport. They’ve really helped us in a myriad of ways,” Commissioner Bud Selig said with pride Tuesday. “The economics they were archaic. I used to joke that we were still in back in the Ebbets Field-Polo Grounds days. What I call the reformation of the economic system certainly created a lot of this, there is no question.” Sure, some of the big spenders found their way into October. The Los Angeles Dodgers raised their spending to $236.8 million during the season and are currently about $100,000 behind the Yankees. (Final figures may change depending on award bonuses and revisions).

Despite a No 1 payroll, the Yankees finished tied for third in the AL East following an injury-filled season. Boston is third at $174.1 million, Detroit fifth at $153.4 million,

St. Louis 11th at $119.3 million and Cincinnati 13th at $113.3 million. But half the playoff teams are from the bottom 50 percent in spending, with the A’s, Rays, Pirates and Indians joined by Atlanta (16th at $95.3 million). Increased revenue sharing has helped. But a team must make good draft picks and be prudent with contracts and clever with trades.

“I think that the playing field is not level, never will be. But we as the Pittsburgh Pirates have committed ourselves to never using that as an excuse,” controlling owner Bob Nutting said just before the team’s first postseason appearance since 1992. “Is it easier to build a great club with $200 million than with $75-$80 million? Absolutely. But I believe, have always believed and will continue to believe, that we can be competitive at that level. We need to make different decisions. We need to make smart decisions.”

Parity has increased markedly. No team has won consecutive World Series since the New York Yankees took three in a row from 1998-2000. Half of the 30 teams have made the expanded playoffs in the past two years.

Twenty-one have reached postseason play in the last five, and every club except Kansas City and Toronto has appeared in the playoffs over the past 13 seasons.

Many accustomed to the October spot-

Bourdy proud to fly the flag for France PARIS: French number one Gregory Bourdy gets his first taste of a major team tournament when the Seve Trophy tees off yesterday and with it a chance to lay down a marker for next year’s Ryder Cup team. The 31-year-old from Bordeaux is shaping up as only the third ever French representative to play at the Ryder Cup and first since Thomas Levet in 2004 and says it is an honor to play in the tournament which bears the name of the late Spanish legend.

“Its the first time I’ve played the Seve Trophy. Like Miguel (Angel Jimenez), it’s a big honor to be in the team and I’m very proud to be in that team because it’s in the name of Seve. “He was an amazing player and I watched him many times when I was young on TV. I met him once and I will remember that moment for a long time. “He was very different, even when he was at the end of his career. I saw him at the Spanish Open and I’ve never seen another player with the charisma like his, or his talent with the ball.” Bourdy teams up with Dutch rookie Joost Luiten in the penultimate match of five foursomes yesterday’s opening day at the Saint-Nom-La-Breteche golf club and also paid tribute to his European captain Jose Maria Olazabal. “I’m proud to be here and to have a captain like Jose Maria is also a big honor for me because he’s a friend of mine and he’s helpful for me. “He’s a great champion, one of the best we have in Europe, he’s a simple man and very kind with everybody,” added Bourdy who has eight career wins to his name and four on the European Tour. “He’s also like Seve, a special one and I’m very proud to be in his team,” he said. When asked how he felt to be the only Frenchman in the team and any added pressure, the man who recently won the Wales Open in September brushed aside any doubts about his ability to perform. “I’m not thinking about the pressure, I’m just happy and proud to be on the team and it’s a pleasure to play at home.

“When you play for yourself (in individual tournaments), you are under control, your emotions are not the same at all.

“In team events, you can see when you watch on TV it is different. I watch the Ryder Cup and Seve Trophy and all the guys are much more emotional and participating with the crowd and the other guys so everything is different. “It’s so different and when you win, yeah, it’s even better.” Belgian teammate Nicolas Colsaerts chipped in that there was something else to look forward to: “It’s usually a very good party.” —AFP

light already are home. Missing out along with the Yankees were Philadelphia (fourth at $166.2 million), the Los Angeles Angels (sixth at $143.4 million), defending champion San Francisco (seventh at $141.3 million), Texas (eighth at $134.5 million) and Toronto (ninth at $125.9 million). Oakland, Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay have found success with youth. Only Houston ($29.3 million) and Miami $42.3 million had lower payrolls than the Rays, and they jettisoned veterans in favor of young players.

While they endured terrible seasons - the Astros were 51-111 and the Marlins 62-100 they hope a young core will transform into a contender in a few years. “If you place that type of faith in them, a lot of times they’ll come through for you,” said Athletics manager Bob Melvin, who works under Billy Beane, the general manager who made “Moneyball” famous. Cleveland manager Terry Francona has seen the dollar divide from both sides. He led the large-market Red Sox to World Series titles in 2004 and 2007, and then took over the more-limited Indians last fall.

“Once the game starts, dollar signs go out the window,” he said. “It’s more helpful in the winter when you’re trying to sign guys, but I’ve immensely enjoyed this team and that has nothing to do with money. It’s the characters and the character on this team,

and whether we win or lose won’t have anything to do with money.” Revenue sharing came in with the labor agreement in 1997, two years after the end of a strike that wiped out the World Series for the first time in nine decades. Revenue sharing was boosted again in the 2002 labor deal, when a tougher luxury tax was agreed to.

That tax has gotten stiffer, and in 2011 players agreed to restraints on bonuses for amateur draft picks and international signings. “I took a lot of criticism back in those days,” Selig said. “Is it worth it now? You bet it is. Because I knew we were doing the right things.” Rays manager Joe Maddon thinks there’s another factor at play: drug testing.

With fewer players using performanceenhancing drugs since testing began in 2003, there are fewer oversized sluggers with oversized statistics who bulk up their salaries in the free-agent market.

“I thought that the elimination of PEDs in the game permits teams with lower payrolls to compete and win.” he said. Salary may be the key figure from November to February, but once players are on the field, pitching and execution usually matter most. “Any team can beat any another team on any given day,” Oakland catcher Derek Norris said.

“It could be a guy making minimum versus a guy making $30 million, that guy making minimum can still beat him.”—AP

Cobb, Rays roll 4-0 over Indians in AL wild card CLEVELAND: The Tampa Bay Rays’ road show rolls on. Next stop: Boston. Alex Cobb dodged trouble for nearly seven innings and the Rays pitched their way to another must-have win on the road, beating the Cleveland Indians 4-0 Wednesday night in the AL wild-card game. Cobb, who missed a chunk of the regular season after he was hit in the head by a line drive, quieted a thundering Cleveland crowd and ended the Indians’ unexpected season.

“Can’t put into words the appreciation I have celebrating on this field,” Cobb said.

“I knew how close it was to not coming back. Sitting on the couch watching these games, I knew we had a good chance. We have a great team. I was going to do everything I could to get back and be a part of it.” Delmon Young homered in the third inning off rookie Danny Salazar as the Rays, playing in their third city over four days, advanced to face the AL East champion Red Sox in the division series starting Friday.

“I felt like we’ve done it and been here before,” said Desmond Jennings, who hit a two-run double. “The road we took to get here was pretty tough going to New York, Toronto, playing a game in Texas.” Cobb’s comeback in August from his frightening injury helped stabilize the Rays, who have spent the past two weeks winning crucial games to reach the postseason for the fourth time in six years. Cobb pitched out of massive jams in the fourth and fifth, and allowed two runners to reach in the seventh before turning it over to Tampa Bay’s dependable bullpen.

Joel Peralta struck out Nick Swisher on three pitches, ending Cleveland’s last real chance. Fernando Rodney worked a perfect ninth, striking out Lonnie Chisenhall to end it. Rodney

CLEVELAND: Fernando Rodney #56, Evan Longoria #3, and Jose Molina #28 of the Tampa Bay Rays celebrate after defeating the Cleveland Indians 4-0 in the American League Wild Card game at Progressive Field on October 2, 2013. — AFP dropped to one knee, pointed skyward and soon was mobbed by all the Rays, who may be a little homesick but are Boston-bound. “Go out and play our game,” Jennings said. “It’s going to be tough anytime you play Boston.” Unfazed by a raucous, red-clad, towel-waving crowd of 43,579 that roared like a jet engine inside Progressive Field, the Rays handled the Indians and will now face their division nemesis, the Red Sox, who went 12-7 against Tampa Bay this season.

David Price set the tone for the Rays’ postseason run by throwing a complete game to beat Texas in the wild-card tiebreaker Monday night, and Cobb picked up where his teammate left off.

After he was pulled in the seventh, Cobb walked to the dugout where he was first

greeted with a high-five from Price. “The adrenaline was going pretty fast there in the early going,” Cobb said. “Once Delmon hit that home run, I tried to fill up the strike zone. My stuff wasn’t the best, but I made my defense work. They were awesome.” There was a time when Cobb wasn’t even sure he would pitch again this season. On June 15, he suffered a concussion when he was struck in the right ear by a line drive hit by Kansas City’s Eric Hosmer. Cobb was sidelined for 50 games and Tuesday he recalled lying on his sofa and wondering if he would be able to help the Rays contend for a playoff spot. He didn’t want a repeat of 2011, when he couldn’t pitch in the playoffs after undergoing surgery to remove a blood clot in his ribs.—AP

Sports FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

Italian league Preview

Transformed Roma to clash with revitalized Inter ROME: AS Roma take their 100 percent record to unbeaten Inter Milan tomorrow in a Serie A game featuring two sides who have undergone a startling transformation under new leadership this season. Roma have won all six games under Frenchman Rudi Garcia, who inherited a squad in disarray and has quickly turned them into potential title winners. Inter’s decision to hire Walter Mazzarri as coach has also paid off with the new boss, who enjoys the rare privilege of having never been sacked, performing wonders on a team that lost 16 league matches last season.

Roma, who lead the table with 18 points, have the best attack and defense in the league while Inter, four points behind in fourth, are the second best in both departments.

Both coaches have started by shoring up patchy defenses.

Roma, whose cavalier attitude under Zdenek Zeman last season left them with one of the worst defensive records in the

league, have conceded only one goal in their opening six matches. Morocco defender Mehdi Benatia has proved an outstanding signing from Udinese and Brazilian fullback Maicon has enjoyed a new lease of life following his move from Manchester City. Ivorian forward Gervinho, who joined from Arsenal, has also found a second wind while captain Francesco Totti, 37 and in his 22nd season at the club, is as influential as ever. The team have scored 17 goals already, including five against hapless Bologna last Sunday. Inter, with three goals conceded, have the second best defensive record, not surprising given Mazzarri’s record as a coach who likes his teams to play on the counterattack.

In typical Mazzarri style, they are quick and efficient when breaking forward. Tomorrow’s game at San Siro (1845 GMT) is the highlight of a weekend which also sees Juventus host struggling AC Milan. Milan’s start to the season has been

almost a repeat of last year with injuries, new signings struggling to settle in and some last-gasp goals which have prevented their situation from becoming even worse. The only difference is that there has been less speculation about the future of coach Massimiliano Allegri, although that is sure to change if they do not improve quickly.

Milan’s maverick forward Mario Balotelli will be serving the second of a three-match ban for his sending-off late in the 2-1 defeat at home to Napoli. With five wins and a draw, Juventus are two points behind Roma on 16 points, although forward Carlos Tevez has yet to settle and four of their wins have been by single-goal margins. Napoli, who also have 16 points and suffered their first defeat under Rafael Benitez in the Champions League at Arsenal on Tuesday, host promoted Livorno, who have made a respectable start and have eight points, on Sunday (1300). — Reuters

German league preview

Bayern’s unbeaten run faces stern test

TURIN: Juventus’ Spanish forward Fernando Torres Llorente (right) fights for the ball with Galatasaray’s defender Gokhan Zan during the group B Champions League football match Juventus vs Galatasaray at Juventus Stadium in Turin on October 2, 2013. — AFP

Juventus suffer from ‘same old problems’ ROME: Carlos Tevez was supposed to be the solution for the Juventus attack, yet despite his arrival the frontline remains the weak point of a team which is has one of the strongest midfields in Europe. Antonio Conte’s team, held 2-2 at home by Galatasaray in the Champions League on Wednesday, have won Serie A for the last two seasons without a world class striker. Instead, Conte rotated his two-man front line, picking his combinations from Fabio Quagliarella, Sebastian Giovinco, Mirko Vucinic and Alessandro Matri. By and large, it worked. The four scored 34 Serie A goals between them last season, evenly distributed with Vucinic netting 10, Quagliarella nine, Matri eight and Giovinco seven. All were all adept at creating space for the midfielders behind them, allowing Arturo Vidal to also net 10 goals from midfield.

However, it was felt that to launch a serious challenge for the Champions League, Juventus needed a big name to lead the attack and when Tevez became available, they snapped him up while Matri was offloaded to AC Milan. Since his arrival, Tevez has started all but one match, scoring four goals in nine matches in all competitions, while his partners have been rotated.

It started very promisingly as Juventus thrashed Lazio 4-0 in the pre-season Supercup and beat the same opponents 4-1 in the league two weeks later with Tevez partnering Mirko Vucinic in both games. Since then, however, the attack has gone off the boil and Juventus’s total of 11 goals in the first six league games is four short of the same stage last season. While there is no doubting Tevez’s pedigree, his dominance of the attack means fewer openings for the other strikers, including Fernando Llorente, another new signing in attack. Giovinco, in particular, has suffered from lack of playing time and has gone off the boil. “Carlos is doing very well in a team that has won two championships without him,” Conte said before the match at Chievo Verona last week. “He’s definitely brought something new to the team... We have never been dependent on one type of player, that’s not my style of football. “Giovinco is doing a good job. He will have his chance,” he added. “When I get the feeling that Giovinco may be important from the first minute, I’ll put in the starting line-up. He combines technical qualities with speed. “Some people don’t like him, but I like him very much, even if I’m not letting him play that much.”—Reuters

BERLIN: Bayern Munich appear to have grown even stronger under new coach Pep Guardiola but when the treble winners travel to Bayer Leverkusen tomorrow they will line up opposite the last team to defeat them in the Bundesliga. The Bavarians have stretched their unbeaten league run to 32 games, four shy of the alltime Bundesliga record, with their last defeat coming at the hands of their fellow Champions League competitors in Munich a year ago.

After taking 19 of a possible 21 points from their opening seven games, Bayern, who have yet to lose in any competition this season, are second to Borussia Dortmund on goal difference with Leverkusen lurking a point behind in third. Bayern crushed Manchester City 3-1 in the Champions League on Wednesday and travel to Leverkusen with their confidence sky high but the scorer of the third goal, Arjen Robben, has warned his team mates to remain focused.

“Last week in our 1-0 win over Wolfsburg the reviews were bad. Now we are a top team again so it is best to just stay firmly on the ground, because in a few days there is the next big match in Leverkusen,” the Dutch winger said. “Obviously, we want to pick up where we left off at Manchester. That is important for our development.” A victory for Guardiola’s team would keep them either level or ahead of main rivals Dortmund, who are also undefeated in the league and have so far given Bayern a good run for their money.

Leverkusen are equally buoyant after snatching a last gasp 2-1 win over Spain’s Real Sociedad to get their own Champions League campaign up and running after an opening Group A defeat. Coach Sami Hyypia’s team have recorded their best ever Bundesliga start with six wins out of seven games, killing off matches with their trademark lightningquick counter attacks that has seen them score more goals than Bayern so far.

“We have been having a good feeling all season and are well prepared for this game,” said Jens Hegeler, whose stoppage time free kick on Wednesday earned them their first group win. “Bayern are Bayern.

They are the best team in the world at the moment but if we do everything we can then we will have our chances in this game.” Dortmund, who crushed Olympique Marseille 3-0 in the Champions League this week, travel to Borussia Moenchengladbach in another of tomorrow’s fixtures.— Reuters

Sports FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

Spotlight on Neymar at Messi-less Barcelona MADRID: With Lionel Messi sidelined with a thigh strain, new signing Neymar will have another chance to steal the headlines from the World Player of the Year when Barcelona host Real Valladolid in La Liga tomorrow (2000 GMT). The Brazil forward shone in Messi’s absence in Barca’s 1-0 Champions League success at Celtic on Tuesday and the consensus is that he is already starting to justify the fee of 57 million euros ($77.5 million) the Spanish champions paid Santos in the close season to secure his services.

Concern the frail-looking 21-year-old would be unable to cope with the physicality of the European game appears unjustified and he has shown an impressive ability to take any punishment meted out by opposition defenders while demonstrating a faultless work rate. He has also showcased his dazzling skills and although he has yet to hit the prolific goal-scoring form he has managed for his country he has set up five of Barca’s goals this term, four in La Liga and one in the Champions League.

Coach Gerardo Martino praised Neymar for his maturity after the Celtic crowd targeted him following the sending off of home captain Scott Brown on Tuesday. Brown was shown a straight red card with around half an hour left after hauling Neymar down and then kicking him in the back when he was on the floor and thereafter the Brazilian’s every touch was greeted with a cacophony of boos and whistles.

Instead of allowing the provocation to affect his concentration, he responded by freeing Alexis Sanchez on the right with a superb pass and the Chilean crossed for Cesc Fabregas to head the only goal of the game. Neymar twice came close to scoring himself but Celtic goalkeeper Fraser Forster pulled off a couple of stunning saves. “He didn’t need today’s game for us to know the class that he is in,” Martino told a post-match news conference.

Tomorrow’s game against struggling Real Valladolid, who are 16th in the standings, could be the ideal opportunity for Neymar to add to his one La Liga goal this term. Barca are seeking a perfect eighth win in eight games and top the table alongside Atletico Madrid, who also have a maximum 21 points and host Celta Vigo on Sunday (1000).—Reuters

Zenit to extend lead in Tomsk MOSCOW: Russian Premier League leaders Zenit St Petersburg look set to extend their winning run when they face struggling Tomsk on Sunday. Zenit, who are three points ahead of Moscow sides Lokomotiv and Spartak, are still missing first-choice goalkeeper Vyacheslav Malafeyev through injury. Midfielder Oleg Shatov, who picked up a knock in Tuesday’s Champions League encounter with Austria Vienna, could also miss the game. Zenit’s Italian manager Luciano Spalletti said he believed his team could still perform at their best despite their crowded schedule.

“I don’t think we will experience serious problems playing twice a week,” he said. “Roman Shirokov and Domenico Criscito have recovered from injuries and are currently gaining their best form. “They both are very skilled players and their return to the ranks will add our team some freshness and will give me more opportunities to vary the line-up. I don’t see any serious problems and look forward with optimism. I believe we’re going the right way.” Meanwhile, the Moscow sides have run into problems as none of the venues in the capital is currently fit for Premier League football.

Spartak Moscow failed to find an alternative venue for their match with Terek Grozny after the pitch at Lokomotiv stadium, which they are using as their home ground this season, was pronounced unfit. On Wednesday, the Russian Premier League ordered Spartak to play the match at Yekaterinburg, 1,700 kilometres from Moscow. The problem is due to the reconstruction of the Luzhniki and Dynamo stadiums for the 2018 World Cup and the unfavorable weather conditions in the Russian capital in September, when heavy rain caused serious damage to the pitches at the Khimki and Lokomotiv arenas. Spartak will be without a string of first-team regulars as their injury list includes Italian defender Salvatore Bocchetti, Ukrainian goalkeeper Andrei Dykan, Brazilian midfielder Romulo and Paraguayan forward Lucas Barrios, while recently-signed German defender Serdar Tasci will also be missing. Terek, who clinched their season’s first win over champions CSKA Moscow last weekend, will be without injured Polish midfielder Maciej Rybus. —AFP

Di Maria not giving up without a fight MADRID: Real Madrid forward Angel Di Maria will almost certainly lose his place in the starting lineup to world record signing Gareth Bale when the Wales winger is back from injury but he is not going down without a fight.

The Argentina international with the lethal left foot scored twice in Wednesday’s 4-0 Champions League rout of FC Copenhagen and set up Cristiano Ronaldo for the second of his double with an eye-catching piece of skill. Known as “fideo” (noodle), the whippet-like Di Maria has won over Real’s demanding fans with his energy and commitment and was recently cited by coach Carlo Ancelotti as an example for the rest of the squad to follow.

Despite all that, Italian Ancelotti will have no choice but to relegate Di Maria, who comes from Lionel Messi’s birthplace of Rosario, to the bench when Bale has recovered from a minor thigh strain. After agreeing to pay Tottenham Hotspur 100 million euros ($136 million) for the Welshman in the close season, Real president Florentino Perez would never allow the world’s most expensive player to be left out of the starting formation.

With prolific Portugal forward Ronaldo, Spain playmaker Isco and Perez favourite Karim Benzema, the struggling France striker, also ahead of him in the pecking order, Di Maria is likely to be used as second-half substitute even if his performances merit a regular place in the team. The 25-year-old’s situation has prompted speculation he could leave and several of Real’s European rivals, including English Premier League clubs Arsenal and Manchester City, have reportedly considered a bid.

For the time being, Di Maria, who even has the same goal celebration as Bale where he makes a heart shape with his fingers, is doing his best to convince Ancelotti but is almost certainly fighting in vain. If he does eventually decide to leave, his exit could prompt the same mutterings of discontent among fans that greeted Mesut Ozil’s departure to Arsenal on transfer deadline day. “I am just working the same way as always,” Di Maria told reporters after the Copenhagen match. “I am trying to show the coach that I want to play but the important thing is to keep up the effort,” he added. Di Maria’s ‘rabona’ assist for Ronaldo’s second goal, flicking his left leg behind his right and chipping the ball into the centre of the area, was one of the highlights of Wednesday’s game and the move has become something of a trademark for the former Benfica player.

Unfortunately for Real fans, it may be another team who benefits from such sublime skills before long.— Reuters

MADRID: Real Madrid’s Argentinean midfielder Angel di Maria celebrates after scoring during the UEFA Champions League Group B football match Real Madrid CF vs FC Copenhagen on October 2, 2013. — AFP

No panic for Moyes at Manchester Utd LONDON: Two wins in six Premier League games have left anxious Manchester United fans wondering if manager David Moyes is up to the job although the man himself is refusing to push the panic button. The English champions have endured their worst start to the season since 1989 and are in the bottom half of the table in 12th with seven points after back-to-back league defeats against Manchester City and, more surprisingly, West Bromwich Albion.

“I have been in situations very similar to this at my old clubs Everton and also at Preston. You get on and you do the right things,” Moyes told reporters before his side secured a creditable 1-1 draw against Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League on Wednesday. “I haven’t changed what I have done. I will continue to do that. The results will come. I have no doubt about that.

“It is always the thing at Manchester United - everyone is interested in them.

It is a talking point for everybody throughout the world,” added the Scot who has not been far from the back pages of British newspapers since taking over from Alex Ferguson. With boos

heard around Old Trafford at the end of the West Brom defeat, United fans may think they have got it bad but next up for Moyes’s men is a trip to bottom club Sunderland, who sacked coach Paolo Di Canio last month following a string of poor results.

Whatever the result on Saturday, Moyes is unlikely to suffer the same fate any time soon, according to former United defender Gary Neville, now a pundit for Sky Sports. “David Moyes will be given time over three or four years to build a football club and learn the ropes.

It takes time and he’ll be given time, just as Arsenal have done with Arsene Wenger,” said Neville, who retired as a player in 2011 after almost 20 years at the club. “If you think about the early years of Sir Alex Ferguson, he was allowed to develop into a presence. In the first three or four years he was at the club he was coming under intense pressure. “David Moyes, there’s no doubt about it, is still learning to come to terms with his squad and getting to know his players and the culture of the club,” he added. On Sunday, West Brom host league leaders Arsenal, who have been rejuvenated since the arrival of

Mesut Ozil from Real Madrid on transfer deadline day. Arsenal are unbeaten in 10 games in all competitions and the Germany playmaker was central to the Gunners’ 2-0 win over Napoli in the Champions League on Tuesday, scoring his first goal for the club.

“He enjoys playing football, he enjoys playing with his partners,” said Wenger.

“Of course he has given everyone at the club a lift and belief, and belief is a part of the success of football.” Liverpool, two points behind the leaders, host struggling Crystal Palace on Saturday boosted by last weekend’s goalscoring return of striker Luis Suarez against Sunderland after a 10-match ban for biting Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic.

“He’s just given us more confidence,” team mate Lucas Leiva told the club website (www.liverpoolfc.com). “The squad that we had without him was a good one, but with him back in it, we’ll be even better. He’s one of the best in the world.” Seventh-placed Manchester City, who have yet to win in the league away from home after losing 3-2 at Aston Villa last time out, return to the Etihad Stadium to face Everton on Saturday.—Reuters

Sports FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

Threat to No1 spot ‘not a distraction’ says Djokovic BEIJING: Novak Djokovic denied being distracted by the threat of losing his number one ranking after he edged through to the quarter-finals at the China Open Wednesday despite a “lack of concentration”. The top seed in Beijing remained on course to reclaim the title he won last year after he defeated Fernando Verdasco 7-5, 2-6, 6-2, while women’s top-ranked player Serena Williams also made it into the last eight. The Serb’s status as the world number one men’s player is under attack from the second seed in Beijing, Rafael Nadal, who has already made it to the last eight, and only needs to reach the final to claim the top spot.

Djokovic took the first set of his second-round match with relative ease, but his unbeaten run in Beijing stretching back to 2009 looked to be in danger when his Spanish opponent took the second set 6-2. “I had some chances in the start of the second set and I managed to allow him to come back to the match and start playing well,” Djokovic told reporters, adding that it was a “lack of concentration from my side”.

But he denied that the threat from Nadal was distracting him. “I try to do what I need to do and that is to win the matches,” he said. “The rankings will change. They change all the time. Over the years that has been the case. You can’t think too much about it. “Your job is to win as many matches as possible and the ranking will follow the results that you make.” The 26-year-old regained his composure in the third set, breaking Verdasco at the first attempt to race to a 3-0 lead, before breaking him again in the final game.

Djokovic, who followed up wins in 2009 and 2010 with victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in last year’s final, faces Sam Querrey in the next round. The American dumped out the tournament’s sixth seed Stanislas Warwinka 6-3, 7-6 (7/2) in their second-round match at Beijing’s National Tennis Centre. French fifth seed Richard Gasquet is also through to the last eight after he defeated Australia’s Bernard Tomic 76 (7/2), 6-4. Gasquet finished the match in style with a stunning ace to set up a quarter-final against David Ferrer, after the Spaniard overcame Marinko Matosevic 5-7, 6-1, 6-2.

In the women’s tournament, world number one Serena Williams claimed victory over Maria Kirilenko in two unconvincing sets, with the scores finishing 7-5, 7-5. The top seed was forced to summon extra strength at the end of each of her two sets as her Russian opponent became increasingly aggressive. Kirilenko was poised to claim the first set at 40-0 up with the score at 5-4 in her favor, but after missing three set points, Williams stepped up a gear to overturn the scoreline.

The American was also forced to come from behind in the second set, with Kirilenko, a former winner in Beijing in 2005, leading 4-3. But Williams then broke Kirilenko’s serve before closing in on victory in the third-round match. In the quarter-finals, Williams will play Danish number six seed Caroline Wozniacki who beat Sloane Stephens 6-3, 6-1. She appeared to be uncomfortable at times on the court, but said she had no injuries. “I have little aches everywhere, but I’m feeling okay,” Williams said. Czech Lucie Safarova ended Andrea Petkovic’s fairytale China Open with a hard-fought 6-4, 6-7 (7/4), 7-6 (7-2) victory.— AFP

BEIJING: Serena Williams of the US returns to Maria Kirilenko of Russia during the third round of women’s singles match on China Open tennis tournament in Beijing yesterday. Serena Williams won 7-5, 7-5. —AFP

Djokovic, Serena book quarters in China Open BEIJING: Novak Djokovic remained on course to reclaim his China Open title as he progressed to the quarter-finals yesterday, while women’s top seed Serena Williams also edged into the last eight. The top seeded Serb needed three sets to defeat Fernando Verdasco 7-5, 2-6, 6-2, while Williams claimed victory over Maria Kirilenko in two unconvincing sets, with the scores finishing 7-5, 7-5. Djokovic’s status as the world number one men’s player is under threat from the second seed in Beijing, Rafael Nadal, who has already made it to the last eight, and only needs to reach the final to claim the top spot.

Djokovic took the first set of his second round match with relative ease, but his unbeaten run in Beijing stretching back to 2009 looked to be in danger when his Spanish opponent took the second set 6-2. He started brightly in the third, breaking Verdasco at the first attempt to race to a 3-0 lead and again in the final game.

Djokovic, who followed up wins in 2009 and 2010 with victory over JoWilfried Tsonga in last year’s final, faces Sam Querrey in the next round.

The American dumped out the

tournament’s sixth seed Stanislas Warwinka 6-3, 7-6(7/2) in their second-round match at Beijing’s National Tennis Centre. In the women’s tournament, world number one Serena Williams was forced to summon extra strength at the end of each of her two sets as her Russian opponent became increasingly aggressive. Kirilenko was poised to claim the first set at 40-0 up with the score at 5-4 in her favor, but after missing three set points, Williams stepped up a gear to overturn the scoreline.

The top seed was also forced to come from behind in the second set, with Kirilenko, a former winner in Beijing in 2005, leading 4-3. But Williams then broke Kirilenko’s serve before closing in on victory in the third-round match. It was the second unconvincing victory in Beijing for Williams, who only showed rare moments of her trademark powerplay when she overcame Italian Francesca Schiavone 6-4, 7-5 in her second-round match. In the quarterfinals, Williams will play on Friday against either Sloane Stephens or Caroline Wozniacki, who clashed yesterday evening.

“Whoever I play it will be a tough match,” Williams said, adding she would have to “pick up my level”.

Williams appeared to be uncomfortable at times on the court, but said she had not picked up any injuries. “I have little aches everywhere, but I’m feeling okay,” she said. “Really happy to get through this match and get off the court. I have the rest of the day to recover and fix everything. So I’m looking forward to that.” Czech Lucie Safarova ended Andrea Petkovic’s fairytale China Open with a hard-fought 6-4, 6-7(7/4), 7-6(7-2) victory. The German had dumped out previous Beijing champions Svetlana Kuznetsova and Victoria Azarenka in the opening rounds.

Seventh seed Angelique Kerber and eighth seed Jelena Jankovic safety negotiated passages through to the last eight. Kerber, Germany’s top ranked player, defeated Italy’s Roberta Vinci 6-2, 6-4, while Jancovic ruthlessly disposed of Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro in her third-round match, with the Serb taking both sets 6-0, 6-0. The China Open will reach its climax on October 6.—AFP

Raonic and Nishikori on course for finals repeat TOKYO: Baby-faced assassins Milos Raonic and Kei Nishikori both roared into the quarter-finals of the Japan Open yesterday to remain on course for a repeat of last year’s final. Third seed Raonic, beaten by local hero Nishikori in the 2012 final, overpowered Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 6-3, as bright sunshine returned to Tokyo Bay and the roof was finally opened on centre court after a wet start to the $1.43 million event. Fourth seed Nishikori sent Spain’s Feliciano Lopez packing with a 7-6, 6-0 victory, extending his winning streak on the Ariake hard-court to 10 in Japan Open and Davis Cup competition with a swashbuckling display.

Never remotely threatened, world number

11 Raonic did not face a single break point and put Chardy out of his misery with his 17th ace after 76 minutes. “I feel so comfortable on this court I almost don’t have to think,” said the Canadian, coming off his fifth career title in Bangkok last weekend. He faces lucky loser Lukas Lacko in the last eight.

“Lukas has nothing to lose. He made the draw in a fortunate situation and made the most of it. He’s dangerous so I’ll have to play very tight and disciplined.” Slovakian Lacko beat qualifier Edouard Roger-Vasselin 7-5, 6-4 to boost his earnings for the week to $32,000 so far since winning the coin toss to replace injured Frenchman Michael Llodra in the main draw.

Nishikori took seven minutes less than Raonic to advance, taking the first set tiebreak 7-4 with an ace down the middle before dishing out the dreaded “bagel” to Lopez in a 21-minute second set.

He completed the job with a thundering forehand return. “I didn’t feel happy at all about winning a second-round match,” said world number 13 Nishikori, who became the host country’s first Japan Open winner last year.

“Probably because I’m the defending championI know there’s a long way to go. “It’s my home court,” added the 23-year-old, steadily rediscovering his form after a nightmare hard-court season which culminated in a shock first-round exit

from the US Open. “I went through some of the biggest mental trauma of my career this summer but I’ve sorted my head out and I’m finding my rhythm again.”

Nishikori burst onto the scene as an 18-yearold by winning in Delray Beach as a 244thranked qualifier in 2008, becoming the first Japanese man to win an ATP title since Shuzo Matsuoka in 1992. He plays Spain’s Nicolas Almagro in the last eight after the sixth seed thrashed Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos 6-4, 6-2.

Top seed Juan Martin del Potro safely reached the quarter-finals on Wednesday, before former Tokyo champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga suffered a shock second-round defeat. —AFP

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

Raonic, Nishikori on course for finals repeat Page 47

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BEIJING: Novak Djokovic of Serbia returns to Fernando Verdasco of Spain during their second round men’s single match on China Open tennis tournament in Beijing yesterday. Novak Djokovic won 7-5, 26, 6-2. — AFP

Djokovic, Serena book their China Open quarters Page 47