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Local FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Kuwait’s my business

Kaffeeklatsch

Upstart startups in media shakeup

Kuwait awaits the GUST chairman’s next surprise

By Shakir Reshamwala

By John P Hayes shakir@kuwaittimes.net local@kuwaittimes.net

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elcome to the brave new media world, where lumbering giants are being humbled by nimbler johnnies-come-lately. A world where senior editors of venerable American newspapers have the deer-in-the-headlights look while those of new media outlets have a precocious twinkle in their eyes. After visiting several flagship newspapers around the United States, it is clear that the business model that the print media relied on for decades does not work anymore.

Circulations are falling as the younger generation mostly consumes news online. This in turn has led to a steep fall in advertising dollars. Classified ads - cash cows that once made up to 35 percent of revenue for newspapers - have been decimated by sites like Craigslist, which took away 30 percent of it.

Papers in the US have been forced to experiment with various online news delivery options. Many are still grappling whether to put their content behind a paywall or make it available gratis to grab a share of eyeballs that are used to free news online. The New York Times has been the most successful online, but continues to cut jobs. Journalists have been forced to adapt too, as just filing a story at the end of the day is not enough. They now have to take pictures - even video - to go with their stories. Many - especially the older ones - have been dragged kicking and screaming to adopt social media tools like Facebook and Twitter.

Newer media startups tend to be more agile, since they are mostly online and do not have a print version to bog them down. They also tend to be more adventurous and willing to break norms and innovate. One feels the energy in the newsrooms of new media entities like Politico and Texas Tribune that is lacking in traditional media. Take ProPublica. Founded in 2007 in New York, it employs 40 journalists, publishes 50 major investigative stories a year and has already won two Pulitzer Prizes. It spends up to $400,000 on major stories, and pays salaries of up to $200,000 a year. Its mission is “to extend the techniques and ethos of journalism to the new generation”.

The Texas Tribune, founded in 2009, has 46 fulltime employees - half of them reporters - and made $55 million in revenue this year. Its reporters now form half the press corps in the state Capitol in Austin. “Change is good. Disruption is good. Chaos is good. It’s opportunity,” a Tribune editor said. Politico - also founded in 2007 is aggressively taking on the floundering Washington Post, which was recently sold for $250m, a paltry sum for such a storied institution. Politico “wants to do for politics what ESPN did for sports”. It aims to drive the conversation, set the narrative and fight for mindshare. Politico is also one of the rare media startups that has a print version too, albeit a free one.

But the Post bristles when compared to Politico. “(Politico) is not a looming behemoth. This is simply nonsense. Politico does not pose an existentialist threat to us.

The Washington Post does agenda-setting stories,” argued an editor at the Post, pointing out that the Post website has 17 million unique visitors a month while Politico has only 3 million. He said newspapers had been slow to adjust to the shift to digital news consumption and found it difficult to adapt fast. But he vowed “we hope to be doing some of the disrupting than being among the disrupted”.

It seems the once-mighty print dinosaurs will have to move fast to evolve to a rapidly-changing media landscape and climate - or risk going extinct.

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aving a beleaguered Kuwait is a job primarily for Kuwaitis, and earlier this week a remarkable Kuwaiti stood before his countrymen and his country’s guests and announced, “It starts here.”

Those were the words of Dr Abdul-Rahman AlMuhailan, chairman of the Board of Trustees of Gulf University for Science & Technology, as he addressed 714 GUST graduates, their family members, faculty members, administrators and VIPs, including GUST’s newly appointed president Dr Donald Bates and Dr Nayef Al Hajraf, Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education.

Given the political environment in Kuwait, it would have been acceptable for Dr Al-Muhailan to deliver a short, safe, and uninspiring speech. He could have praised the graduates and GUST’s distinguished faculty, thanked the parents for their loyalties and tuition money, extolled the virtues of a college education, ego-boosted the new president and the honored minister and thousands of hands would have politely applauded as he returned to his seat at the center of an amazing celebration. But that’s not the speech Chairman Al-Muhailan wrote for this “blessed” occasion.

Is Kuwait An Educated Society?

We might have known we were about to hear something unusual when he said, “An educated society is capable of controlling its destiny,” and continued, “Advanced countries have always relied upon their educational and scientific institutions and their research centers to solve their problems through finding the best solutions possible.” In other words, both control of the country and solutions for the country are in your grasp Kuwait, but education and advancement are prerequisites.

Historically, Kuwait was the educational pioneer of the Arabian Gulf, Dr Al-Muhailan continued, and he pointed out that Kuwaitis used to sail around the world, build schools in other countries, and export knowledge and arts to surrounding countries. And then he unloaded a more relevant fact: “Today, unfortunately, we have become followers.” Out in the audience, I turned to a colleague and whispered, “Did he just say Kuwait lacks leaders?” Indeed, he had. And I thought to myself, “Where does he go from here?”

Kuwait’s Embarrassing Data He then pointed to some embarrassing data, much of it previously highlighted by the local media.

When it comes to important indicators such as infrastructure, basic and higher education, health, technology utilization, inventions and job opportunities, Kuwait is stuck at the starting line. The Global Competitiveness Report for 2013-2014 compares 148 countries and as the chairman pointed out, kindly, “Kuwait has obtained a very late position.”

Compared to GCC countries, Kuwait trails all but Bahrain. Among the 148 countries, Kuwait ranks 84th for accomplishments in higher education and training, and 105th for market potential. With numbers like that, it’s easy to give up on Kuwait.

At this point, still asking myself, “Where does he go from here?” I heard him deliver yet another sur-

prise. Despite all the gloom, he said, he has never lost hope, especially since the founding of GUST 12 years ago. “This university was a dream in the minds of some brothers whose hearts are filled with Kuwait’s love.” In that moment, he captured the affection of every patriotic citizen in the audience, both Kuwaitis and expats. Americans value patriotism in the throes of discouragement, defeat and despair. In fact, without patriotism, everything that’s great about America wouldn’t exist. Where’s that patriotism in Kuwait?

Developing Kuwait’s Leaders “We are not here,” continued the chairman, “to absorb a surplus of high school students to help them earn their degrees and . . . get a job . . . . We are here to help create examples to follow.” Yes! In fact, most of us are here to develop leaders for a country loved by many, citizens and guests alike. “We are here to help prepare good citizens capable of developing their society,” he announced.

At this point, pride swelled among faculty in particular, and now the chairman could have returned to his seat to thunderous applause, but he did not.

He acknowledged Kuwait’s “darkness,” but said he would not curse it. He would blame neither the government nor the parliament: “They are part of us, and we are part of them.”

Promising A Solution Then he led us to the edge of the Promised Land.

“What is the solution?” he asked. That’s when he said, “It starts here.” In front of thousands of witnesses he continued, “It is GUST’s duty to play its expected role in full. . . . I hereby declare that the Gulf University for Science and Technology will organize workshops to . . . investigate the possibility of rectifying (Kuwait’s) marred situation. GUST will subsequently address the government and the parliament.”

Hallelujah! At last, without blame, malice, or the excuse we hear so often from our students (“Kuwait is corrupt and no one will change it”), one of Kuwait’s most admired and accomplished sons stood up with fire in his eyes and promised to make a difference.

Critics might ask, “So what?,” but the rest of us know that great accomplishments begin with one tiny step.

Moments later, the Chairman sat down, and many in the audience felt the urge to stand up with him to immediately begin the most honorable work that any nation can undertake, the work of advancing a beleaguered country to control its destiny.

In closing, the Chairman called upon Allah to safeguard Kuwait, His Highness the Amir, and the Kuwaiti people, and in that moment we pray that Allah also blesses Abdul-Rahman Al-Muhailan for his courage.

With renewed hope and love for Kuwait, we wait now for the chairman’s next surprise.

NOTE: Dr John P Hayes proudly heads the Business Administration department at GUST where he enjoyed watching many of his students graduate this week. You can contact Dr Hayes at questions@hayesworldwide.com, or via Twitter @drjohnhayes.

Local FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Art is to pain, not entertain

By Sunil Cherian or artist Sreenivasan, art is to disturb, haunt or to poke in Facebook language.

A black and white drawing by the art teacher details a cluttered sky filled with birds trapped in a web. A hunter’s partial body is also seen carrying a bird in his hand. When Sreenivasan posted this pencil sketch on Facebook, people as usual liked it and some commented on it. To the comment ‘This picture is so pessimistic’, the artist replied: My attempt is a success.

The art teacher’s works in general are expressions of his loneliness, memories, frustrations and hopes. ‘Anchor’ is another work on invasion. The work speaks of a settlement on a seashore which is an assault on the land.

“Though the invasion of Kuwait triggered me to create this work, the painting grew on its own, incorporated with invasions of all kinds”.

This is why the anchor has the shape of a cross implying the Christianization of parts of India.

“Art cannot be taught, it’s caught,” said Sreenivasan, who has imparted private lessons on art to hundreds of students over 20 years. “Most of the kids who come to learn art are actually sent by their parents for an entertaining use of their free time. We cannot see art on their sheets. What we see is only the paint,” Sreenivasan said.

But exceptions are there. Sreenivasan recalled the story of a student who got admission in the British School of Kuwait through his skills in art. “Now that student is doing a

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Artist Sreenivasan (right) directing a short film with cameraman Jalin

BFA in England. His case is a pleasant rarity in the multitudes of doctors and engineers that are manufactured year after year,” the art teacher who took his own path in life said.

Sreenivasan also ventured into making short films. One of his short films is “The Loss”, a pathetic story of a chicken that was slaughtered to be on the dinner table. Another film, Summer Rain, has just completed shooting and is awaiting post-production.

After 20 years in Kuwait of which 10 years as art teacher at Indian Community School in Khaitan, the artist filmmaker is leaving the

country. “I’m going back for a reunion with my family,” Sreenivasan said. “I will really miss Kuwait. But life has to move on and I try not to take this personally. Every shift is painful but when you come to think about it, it’s like you dump your old, but favorite clothes,” he said.

Sreenivasan’s advice to future artists: Teachers, don’t spoil original talents; don’t force your students to copy you. Students, the world needs not only doctors and IT professionals. It’s a world of immense possibilities.

Local FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Sameera Abdullah

Blazing her own path

By Nawara Fattahova KUWAIT: Political programs and debates are usually presented my men in Kuwait. Yet there are some exceptions. Kuwait Times met Sameera Abdullah, a TV presenter of political programs at Al Rai TV. Kuwait Times: What made you choose this political field in media?

Sameera Abdullah: I chose this profession as I love this field and I’m a fervent reader of politics and history. I follow political news and events more than any other thing. The ten years I spent abroad helped in shaping my political experience and interest in other nations. I had to educate myself to be able to discuss, argue and answer any question about my country, especially since Kuwait was invaded by Iraq and we are always asked about this sad event in Arab and Islamic history.

KT: Were you interested in political events during your childhood?

SA: I started reading about politics when my father who passed away used to ask me to read political biographies and memoirs loudly as he loved my voice and way of reading. Since then, I’m reading political issues. I also read other subjects such as sociology, literature, medicine, and other life sciences, but I’m most attracted to politics.

KT: Did you face any problems or obstacles in your profession?

SA: I faced many problems during my career but I rather call it life challenges and trials that I have to pass to be better.

The first of these challenges was lisping on the letter R. I was not pronouncing it correctly, which is due to genetic reasons as everyone in my family has the same problem.

And when I started training in Al-Jazeera, the trainer taught me the way to overcome this obstacle. At that time, I thought it was the biggest and only challenge, but later bigger challenges followed such as the refusal of my family to let me work in this field and facing jealous colleagues and rumors. I overcame all these challenges by working hard and putting effort to improve myself and this was the reply to what I faced. Today my family is proud of me and my work. I’m now also noticing the positive reactions in both the social media and the audience I meet in public places.

KT: What are the challenges that you faced in this political field that is practiced by men?

SA: I faced many challenges in my career, especially since the political programs were always presented by men in Kuwait when I started, so penetrating this field was difficult, as many people were not taking me serious because I’m a woman and they advised me to leave it to men as they had their old traditional view of women. They thought that a woman won’t be able to face men and interview them, and thought that woman are only suit-

able for social or cooking programs, but I was patient till I got the chance after I proved my ability.

KT: What have you learnt from your experience and profession?

SA: From my experience, I learnt that a person should always aim for better, and that change always comes from inside if one aims to change the community. Everybody loves to be praised, but what I love more is when a father or mother approaches me and tells me that they were against letting their daughter to work in the media, but after watching me, they changed their opinion about this profession and I became their idol. I have had this experience more than once and I’m glad, and it makes me feel that I was able to make a change in my community even if it was a small one.

KT: Has publicity affected your personal life?

SA: Publicity has positive and negative sides. The negative thing is that success and achievements bring spiteful people, but I don’t pay attention to such people, and it hasn’t affected my life at all. Thank God that the positives are much more than the negatives.

KT: How do you manage to stay neutral during an interview with a guest with opposite beliefs?

SA: The work of a TV presenter is not an ordinary or routine work. It’s a job that needs special abilities and talent. A TV presenter has to have high concentration and be able to separate his ideas, opinions, emotions and beliefs during the interview. Instead, he has to put himself in the place of his guest who can have different views. The host should be neutral and at the same time present the opposite opinion of the guest to make the interview balanced.

According to media specialists, the TV presenter should not express his own opinion as the program is addressed to the audience. And I always try to apply this principle in all my interviews as the audience is the judge and not the presenter.

KT: Tell us about some of your programs and is there any special interview you particularly remember?

SA: There were many experiences especially since the parliament was dissolved many times during the past few years and elections were repeatedly held. I was interviewing candidates daily on Rai TV’s ‘Omma Intikhabi’ program until elections day. I was meeting candidates with different views and affiliations, and this gave me more experience. In the popular program ‘Liqa’a Al Rai’, which started from the launch of Rai TV and which was presented by more than one presenter until I started presenting it, we meet different MPs and discuss with them different issues. And the most important episode of this program that I will always remember and which increased my popularity was the one with MP Obaid AlWasmi, who said I’m very good in my work and that I gave him a hard time.

Local Spotlight

Need for a car is not a luxury

By Muna Al-Fuzai

muna@kuwaittimes.net

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met an Arab expat lady recently during a social occasion. The social chatter led some of us to speak about the need to have a car in Kuwait, not as a luxury but as an essential tool to carry on with life and fulfill both work and family needs. I told them that I had an experience in which I lived in a foreign country like the UK with no car.

Yet I did not feel it was something that I really missed or desperately needed. The reason was simple because buses there are convenient and frequent and the weather makes waiting not as hard as here with no decent bus stops.

The Arab lady made a valid point that here when you apply for a job, they take the fact that you have a driving license and a car as an extra advantage over those who don’t, without thinking that getting a driving license here is not easy even with wasta. I’m not in favor of helping anyone get a driving license by wasta. I think such an act is dangerous because the driver will endanger many lives. It is no joke and I know some would argue that how else can you get a license to drive without wasta here.

I don’t know how powerful wasta is in getting a driving license. But I know that recently the ministry of interior has been investigating this matter, pursuing all those who get their licenses in illegal ways. Nothing good could come out of that. Now this makes it hard for expats to carry on with their lives and family needs unless they have a car and bearing in mind having a car is a financial burden as well.

The UAE has developed bus stops in an amazing way, providing these stops with air-conditioning and and hotlines. Here we don’t have any emergency phone for those who wait for the bus in case of accidents or harassments. I think having a hotline for all these unlucky people is a must. Maybe they don’t have a mobile. Someone assumed that everyone will and should have a mobile to use for emergency situations while waiting.

Yes, a car in Kuwait is not for showing off but is a need.

The problem here also is that many expats believe that unless you have wasta, you won’t be able to get a driving license and it is a shame that we have fuelled this thinking.

Trying to make it hard for expats to get a license is not the solution for the traffic problem here, but upgrading the road system is the key. I don’t mean by this to enlarge roundabouts! We don’t need road expansions. We don’t have underground metros and trains like may developed countries. What we need is to think of real and practical solutions to the traffic problem and try to be creative but not at the expense of expats.

Local FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

By Ben Garcia

orna, Felly and Rowena never stopped believing that the day would come when their sex slavery ends and they will be released from physical abuse, suicidal thoughts and “taking care of” 30 customers a day.

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The three-month entrapment started when the three Filipina domestic workers ran away from their kafeels, two of them trusting a fellow Filipina, who sold Loran and Felly to a Pakistani pimp who in turn locked them in a flat in Jleeb Al-Shoyoukh and asked them to “take care of 30 customers per day”. Rowena was taken to the brothel after the Pakistani driver of the taxi she flagged on the road called the pimp in Jleeb and dropped her straight to him. Rowena wanted to get to the embassy to escape abuse from her male employer.

The Pakistani pimp preyed on the women by exploiting their fear that they were runaway maids and that death for the three meant leaving their children in

the Philippines orphans and without any financial support. Baited by promises of jobs in a mall in Kuwait, the three women believed their compatriot and instead of landing their dream jobs as salesladies, they were locked in a brothel in Jleeb.

The three women were captives to the pimp and a whole gang including their female Sri Lankan madam.

Incarcerated and abused The flat in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh was worse than a jail for these three women who say that there are other girls trapped in Kuwait going through the same frightening experience - no hygiene coupled with physical and mental abuse. After run-

Local FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Local FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Kuwait distinguished by progressive nature LONDON: Kuwait is distinguished in the region by its relatively progressive nature and the country is a “blend of heritage with modernity”, according to a new special survey published yesterday. The 24-page report on Kuwait, carried by the Independent newspaper, underscores the great appeal of the GCC state to those seeking something different as it has unique attitudes to creating opportunities. The report is produced by “World Report International”, a specialised Londonbased media firm.

The supplement showered praise on Kuwait’s democracy, noting that “Kuwaitis are justifiably proud of their reputation as having the most advanced democracy in the Gulf region”. Furthermore, Kuwait is one of only two GCC countries, the other being Bahrain, with an elected parliament, which in 2009 welcomed its first four female MPs, the report noted. It pointed out that this heralded “milestone elections for the politically and socially conservative societies of the region. The event demonstrated the country’s open-

ness and willingness to embrace progressive change, which many say are typical of the trails that set Kuwait apart from its neighbours.”

Elaborating on these special qualities, the survey stressed that Kuwait by embracing modernity yet being true to its heritage, is hoping to maintain its authenticity and uniqueness. The supplement focuses also on the “rock-solid” long-term partnership between Kuwait and the UK, recalling that links between the two countries go back more than 200 years. “These ties have never been stronger than now on all levels - royal, diplomatic, political, economic, social, cultural and emotional.”

Both countries are also determined to tighten those ties even further and both governments pledged to double bilateral trade by 2015 to £4 billion per year.

Kuwaiti Ambassador to the UK Khaled Al-Duwaisan,was quoted in the survey as saying the “largest Kuwaiti embassy in the world is in London, as it is bigger than the ones in Washington, Paris or Moscow”. For his part,

Kuwait’s Minister of Cabinet Affairs and Minister of Health Sheikh Mohammad Al-Abdullah Al-Mubarak AlSabah described the ties between the two nations “at an absolute zenith”.

Another aspect of great interest in comprehensive study is the role played by the Kuwait Investment Office (KIO) in London. It noted that this year, the KIO celebrated its 60th anniversary. It has invested some £150 billion over the decades, the majority of which has been in the UK. Meanwhile, the supplement covers a wide-range of other topics including the Kuwaiti economy and potential for its diversification, the Kuwaiti wealth which flows with oil and gas, and the role played by Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) “in powering” the Kuwaiti economy.

The survey equally highlights the importance of the private sector in Kuwait as it is now taking greater role in shaping the nation’s future. In the meantime, finance, banking, health and educational sectors were also given prominence in the supplement. — KUNA

Kuwait keen to eradicate drugs TUNIS: A visiting Kuwaiti official has affirmed the country’s keenness on combating illegal trade in narcotics and ecstasy pills. Kuwait’s General Directorate of Narcotics Control has mapped out a comprehensive and integrated strategy to face the illegal drugs’ dealing and trade, including production and smuggling of the banned materials, said the department’s director general Brig Salah Al-Ghanam Al-Enezi in a statement at the 27th Arab conference for chiefs of anti-drugs agencies, held at headquarters of the Arab Interior Ministers’ Council.

Moreover, Kuwait is seeking through this strategy to contain the problem and pave way for resolving it and safeguard the human and economic wealth of the Kuwaiti society, he said. Clandestine efforts are exerted in Kuwait to foil any bid to grow narcotic plants or produce such illegal drugs or ecstasy pills, he said, also indicating that Kuwait’s anti-drug plan was submitted to the conference. The conference discussed several topics including the spread of drugs among minors and the Arab fund’s project to finance construction of rehabilitation and care centers for addicts in the Arab world.Kuwait is among participating countries in the conference, represented by a delegation headed by Enezi. — KUNA

Kuwait, US have understanding on Gitmo inmates KUWAIT: The Head of the Department of Follow-up and Coordination of the Foreign Ministry Ambassador Khaled AlMeghmas hailed Wednesday the success of talks held recently with American officials to secure the return of Kuwaiti inmates at Guantanamo Bay.”We discussed with the American side on receiving the Kuwaiti inmates and closing this file,” Meghmas told reporters on the sidelines of a ceremony held by the Peruvian Embassy here to mark Peru’s Independence Day. “We are optimistic. We have common understanding and close contacts with the US over this issue,” he added.

Meanwhile, Meghmas revealed that the recently-held joint Kuwaiti-Iraqi meeting over Khawr Abd Allah estuary reached understandings over the traffic, maintenance and cleaning of the waterway. Separately, Meghmas stated that Kuwait will respond to international reports which commented on a Kuwaiti court ruling against a tweeter in its periodic human rights review at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva next week. — KUNA

Anas Al-Shaheen

Turki Al-Dihani

Kuwait calls on world to help Palestinians State calls for Mideast free of nukes NEW YORK: Kuwait has appealed to the international community to pursue efforts and pressure Israel to coerce Tel Aviv to allow the Palestinian people to attain their rights, namely the right to self-determination and establishment of an independent state. Turki Al-Dihani, member of Kuwait’s permanent mission at the UN, criticized Israel’s practices in the occupied Palestinian territories, namely establishment of separate legal systems and institutions for Jewish communities in illegitimate settlements and Palestinian natives living under occupation. The Palestinians are deprived of equal rights with the Jews to use roads, water supplies and other utilities, said Dihani, addressing the UN economic committee during the 68th session of the General Assembly. Israel controls the Palestinians’ water, using 89 percent of the resources and leaving only 11 percent for the Palestinians, said Dihani during the session, themed “permanent sovereignty for the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territories including East Jerusalem,” held late on Wednesday. “The Israelis’ continuous violations in the occupied territories, repressive, random and inhumane attacks against the Palestinian

people and their social and economic potentials constitute a flagrant example of the occupation authority breach of the international laws, covenants, international human rights documents and treaties in addition to their blockade of the Palestinian economy,” the Kuwaiti diplomat said.

Dihani added that such Israeli practices are designed to alter the demographic status of the occupied territories and signal Tel Aviv’s lack of seriousness to cooperate with the world to establish peace in the Middle East. Citing as a tangible example affirming this Israeli approach, Dihani indicated that Tel Aviv continued to build and expand settlements. Israel is building 28,000 news settlements to house some 103,000 settlers, in breach of many international laws. He affirmed Kuwait’s support for all UN resolutions that support the Palestinian sovereignty on their territories including East Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, Kuwait called on the international community to work actively to achieve the goal of establishing a zone free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East. This came in a speech by member of the Permanent Delegation of the State of

Kuwait to the United Nations, first secretary Anas Issa Al-Shaheen during meetings of the committee on Disarmament and International Security.

Shaheen pointed to the size of the imminent danger that lies in deployed weapons of mass destruction in many parts of the world. He added that it is hard to find a spot in the world that is not exposed to the dangers of chemical or biological or radiological disaster, that is inadvertent or intentional, saying these dangers have become threatening factors to everything associated with land, environment, human civilization and even space. He said that “all this requires us to come together to agree on ways to evacuate this world of those risks.”

He said that the international community is firmly convinced that the survival of human beings and their living in peace lies in the final and complete disposal of the arsenals of weapons of mass destruction.

For this reason, Shaheen said concerted international efforts of members of the international organization over many decades have come together in order to achieve this lofty goal through treaties prohibiting such weapons and agreements that prevent their experiences.—KUNA

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Local FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

12 robberies committed daily in Kuwait KUWAIT: Well-informed security sources stressed that 12 robberies were committed in Kuwait on a daily basis and that police stations all over the country had received 2,500 robbery reports in the period of January-July 2013. The sources added that most of the time, perpetrators manage to get away and the cases get filed against anonymous suspects. The sources explained that vehicle, commercial stores and house robberies are on top of the list, which calls for stricter security measures and redeployment of security patrols inside residential areas according to how densely populated they are. “Robbing vehicles by smashing their windows while parked outside citizens and expatriates’ houses, markets or workplaces has become a phenomenon”, stressed the sources .

The sources added that total robberies committed in 2012 reached 4,664 and that crimes have accordingly doubled this year. “Some new crimes are on the increase such as premeditated murder, robbery, armed robbery, fights for various reasons, assaults, possessing unlicensed firearms and suicides,” explained the sources, noting that all state bodies should joint efforts to study such crime and discuss finding proper solutions to them.

“Though robberies are widespread worldwide, the dangerous thing here in Kuwait is that culprits are never caught in some cases and cases get filed against anonymous perpetrators and are closed,” added the sources, noting that car thieves have gone as far as robbing vehicles parked outside police stations. The

sources added that most of those arrested are unemployed people, teens, drug addicts and people with criminal records who usually smash vehicles’ windows to get a few dinars to cover their daily expenses and that the robbers usually focused on certain brands and models that can be taken apart and resold for spare parts at the scrap market.

Notably, other security sources told Al-Rai that the new measure of having dependant wives and children older than 18 have their fingerprints scanned on renewing their residency visas was meant to update security records, which may help solve some unsolved crimes where criminals remain unknown and no match could be found for their fingerprints. —Al-Qabas

Adasani surprisingly files to grill prime minister Other MPs plan grillings, Dashti under fire

By B Izzak

KUWAIT: The drugs and drug paraphernalia recovered from a Gulf national.

365 citations issued in a day

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: Within the traffic police efforts to limit traffic citations, 365 traffic citations were issued in a day including 280 non-direct and 80 direct ones, said informed sources, explaining that 23 divers were arrested including 4 for violating labor laws, 8 for reckless driving, 4 for driving without driving licenses and two juveniles for driving without a license.

Drug smuggler nabbed Sulaibiya custom inspectors arrested an Egyptian for attempting to smuggle half a kilo of hashish to Kuwait, said security sources, noting that the suspect hid the drugs in an engine he brought from Egypt as a spare part.

Notably, Sulaibiya inspectors had also arrested another suspect who hid 7,500 psychotropic pills in an incoming shipment of utensils. In a related case, Hawally detectives arrested a GCC national with drugs, said security sources.

Case papers indicate that a police patrol suspected the man and stopped him. Searching his vehicle, policemen found 51 bags of ice, a stick of hashish, sums of money and drug paraphernalia. A case was filed and the suspect was referred to relevant authorities.

Harasser arrested A 63-year-old school director was arrested for sexually harassing a female secretary working in the same school, said security sources, noting that the director who initially denied the accusations refused to comply to summon orders and had to be arrested in his own office. The sources added that after confronting him with the messages he had sent to the secretary’s mobile phone, he broke down and confessed, claiming he wanted to marry her. A case was filed.

Pedestrian killed An Indonesian female was killed when she was run over by a speeding vehicle driven by an expat in Jabriya.

KUWAIT: Opposition MP Riyadh AlAdasani surprised everyone yesterday by filing a request to grill Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah over allegations of failing to solve the housing crisis and rife corruption in government agencies. The move came just two days after the Assembly opened its new term with calls by HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah for reforms and an appeal for cooperation between MPs and the government.

Adasani said the government is responsible for the chronic housing problem in which 106,707 Kuwaiti families or a total of 400,000 citizens are without houses because of government delays in projects and due to the skyrocketing prices of land. He said that due to high prices of land, a majority of Kuwaitis cannot afford to buy their own houses and have to depend on the government which delayed key housing projects and accordingly made Kuwaitis wait for as many as 15 years to get their houses.

He said that the main reasons for the high cost of land is monopoly and scarcity of land because around 95 percent of Kuwait’s territory is under government control. The scarcity of land pushed its prices very high and made the majority of Kuwaiti people unable to buy their own houses.

National Assembly speaker Marzouk Al-Ghanem told reporters that he has informed the prime minister of the grilling, adding that constitutional tools do not obstruct the work of lawmakers because grillings are a constitutional right of MPs. Ghanem said the grilling has been listed on the agenda of Nov 12 session but its debate is due after two weeks of submitting it.

State Minister for Assembly affairs and development Rola Dashti said that the grilling is a constitutional right of lawmakers and the government will deal with it in accordance with the constitution. MPs expressed mixed reactions about the grilling, with MP Abdulkarim Al-Kandari backing it while MP Saud Al-Huraiji said it was untimely.

Kandari said he may back the no-confidence request after hearing the debate.

MP Khalil Abul said the grilling was sur-

KUWAIT: MP Riyadh Al-Adasani speaks after filing a 19-page request to grill the prime minister at the National Assembly yesterday. — KUNA prising but added that he plans to submit a request to grill Dashti later this month over her weak performance.

Dashti yesterday came under fire by mostly opposition activists and former MPs and even from some current MPs over a document allegedly issued by her urging for taking action against opposition activists and sympathizers.

According to activists and lawyers, Dashti proposed new regulations to punish opposition activists and members through different measures including sacking them from government jobs. Liberal MP Rakan Al-Nasef said that if the document is proved to have been issued by Dashti, then she must face political questioning.

A number of other MPs have threatened to grill several ministers, mainly the ministers of health, public works and electricity and water and social affairs and labour, to name a few. The premier’s grilling is expected to strain relations between MPs and the government, especially since the grilling could lead to a vote of no-confidence.

Adasani, who boycotted the election in December last year as part of the opposition, contested the July polls after the constitutional court in June confirmed the single-vote law was in line with the constitution.

The lawmaker blamed the prime minister of failing to manage the affairs

of the country that lead to widespread corruption in state agencies and deterioration of the country’s affairs and public services. He cited the examples of a serious declines in health, education, long delays in the development plan, a rise in the unemployment rate among Kuwaitis and a sharp hike in prices of goods because the government failed to apply the anti-trust law and legislation governing monopoly. He also cited irregularities in the awarding of some projects, mainly the North Al-Zour power plant which he claimed violated the law.

Adasani also blamed the prime minister for the widespread establishment of paper companies which fueled the illegal trade in visas and residencies, saying that as many as 82,000 commercial licenses are suspected of being used for trading in visas. The lawmaker blamed the government of delaying the opening of Jaber Al-Ahmad Stadium because of errors in the project. He also cited government mismanagement with regards to Kuwait Airways and Kuwait international airport that caused state funds heavy losses. Adasani claimed that the government is responsible for losses in the country’s foreign assets and the pension fund investments, besides being responsible for the $2.5 billion fine paid to US petrochemicals giant Dow Chemical.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Kenyans protest against ‘grass cutting’ rapists

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China media calls for stern action after Tiananmen attack

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Veil of darkness lifts for Myanmar’s blind

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ANKARA: Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) MP Nurcan Dalbudak (center) is greeted wearing a headscarf as she attends a general assembly at the Turkish Parliament yesterday. — AFP

Turkey women MPs break taboo Head scarf debate marks fault line in Turkish public life ANKARA: Four female lawmakers from Turkey’s Islamic-rooted government attended parliament yesterday wearing headscarves for the first time, breaking a long taboo in the staunchly secular country. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lifted on September 30 a decadesold ban on headscarves in the civil service as part of a package of reforms meant to improve democracy and freedoms. In principle, the ban remains in place for judges, prosecutors, police and military personnel.

The headscarf is a highly sensitive symbol in Turkey as it is viewed by secularists a sign of political Islam in stark contrast to the republic’s strongly secular traditions. But Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: “There is nothing in parliamentary bylaws that stands as an obstacle to this.”Everyone should respect our sisters’ decision... They are the nation’s representatives in parliament,” he said Wednesday.

In 1999, Turkish American lawmaker Merve

Kavakci arrived in parliament wearing a headscarf for her swearing-in ceremony but she was booed out of the house and then had her Turkish citizenship revoked. The Turkish premier, whose wife and daughter wear a headscarf, said that opposing the wearing of headscarves in parliament showed “disrespect to parliament and their faith.”

The four women began wearing headscarves after they made the hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca this year. “I will no longer take off my headscarf,” one of the women, Gonul Bekin Sahkulubey, was quoted as saying by the Milliyet newspaper. “(Wearing a) headscarf and other religious issues are between the believer and his God... I expect everyone to respect my decision,” she added.

Opponents brand headscarf move a political ploy The AKP pledged to remove the ban on headscarves in all domains when it came to power in 2002 and has already relaxed the ban

at universities. The latest reforms were hailed by Erdogan as a “step towards normalisation”. But his opponents have branded the lifting of the ban a political manoeuvre as the country braces for an election cycle beginning with municipal polls in March next year. The opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) accused the AKP of undermining Turkey’s secular traditions to gain votes.”In Turkey, undermining the state’s secular traditions is tantamount to undermining society,” said CHP lawmaker Engin Altay.

“What will happen if a lawmaker wears a burka in parliament?” The AKP said the new measure does not apply to the full face-covering veil.

The highly charged headscarf debate lies at the heart of Turkey’s divisions between religious conservatives, who form the bulk of Erdogan’s AKP supporters, and more secular members of society.

The government is already under fire for what critics say are creeping efforts to force

Islamic values on the predominantly Muslim country. Erdogan’s government was hit by a wave of unrest in June as tens of thousands of protesters calling him a “dictator” raged against what they said was his increasingly iron-fisted, conservative-leaning style of governance. A former Islamic firebrand, Erdogan has brought relative economic and political stability to Turkey since he came to power in 2002. But his authoritarian style and a tendency to use courts to stifle dissent including a campaign taking on the powerful military establishment-have proved a major test in a country which has long sought to join the European Union. Critics say Erdogan’s decades-plus rule has left Turkish society more polarised. In May, Turkey’s parliament passed legislation curbing alcohol sales and advertising, the toughest such measures in the republics history. The AKP has a comfortable majority in the 550-seat parliament with 327 deputies. There are a total of 79 female lawmakers.—AFP

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International FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Congo army hunting rebels deep into mountain bases GOMA: Congo’s army said yesterday it was hunting rebels deep into forests and mountains along the border with Rwanda and Uganda, the last insurgent hideouts after they were driven from towns they held during a 20month rebellion. Ugandan mediators said talks had restarted on Wednesday in Kampala between the government and M23 rebels, but Kinshasa’s UN-backed army appears on the verge of defeating the most serious uprising to plague the mineral-rich east since the end of the last major war a decade ago.

“We are going to pursue M23 and push them into a corner, wherever they hide, because they are criminals,” Congo army spokesman Colonel Olivier Hamuli told Reuters. “We must not leave them time (to reorganise) because they have martyred the Congolese people for too long. Now is the time to bring peace,” Hamuli said.

M23 officials said they withdrew from towns under diplomatic pressure. Bertrand Bissimwa, M23’s political leader, told French radio RFI that the military losses would not alter their demands in talks. Clashes were reported in the hills above Bunagana, the last rebel-controlled town to fall this week, and around Runyoni, a hill that was the birthplace of the rebellion last year.

At their peak last November, M23 occupied the regional capital, Goma, after the army fled and rebels marched past peacekeepers. This defeat led to the U.N. force and mandate being bolstered, an overhaul of Congo’s army command and pressure on rebel support, changing the tide of the fighting. While the deep roots of conflict - ranging from the presence of Rwandan Hutu rebels, ethnic tensions and simmering conflicts over land and minerals - remain, the pace of the advance of Congo’s army is unprecedented.

“The M23 may be nearing its end,” Jason Stearns, a Congo expert, wrote on his blog, Congo Siasa. “This would be historic - it would be the first time the Congolese government had defeated a major rebellion.”

“And it would be the first time since 1996 that an armed group allied to Rwanda is not present in the eastern Congo.”

Political deal UN experts and human rights groups have repeatedly accused Rwanda of backing M23, the latest in a series of rebellions in eastern Congo that has been linked to Rwanda’s political and military elite. Rwanda, which has repeatedly sent its army into Congo on the pretext of hunting Hutu rebels who fled there after the 1994 genocide, denies the accusation.

Residents poured into the streets of Bunagana on Wednesday to welcome Congo’s army, which is better known for its chaotic command and poor discipline than lightening advance. “We have spent a year with M23, we could never imagine that one day we would be liberated by the army,” said a resident in Bunagana, the border town that provided rebels with funding from cross-border taxation and unfettered access to neighbours. “We have lived in terror (with M23), we were traumatised.”

Diplomats say a political deal is needed alongside the military gains to ensure progress is not reversed by rebels returning, as they have in the past, due to frustrations over the Kinshasa government’s poor handling of its remote regions.

Lieutenant Colonel Paddy Ankunda, spokesman for Uganda’s army and the mediation team, said progress was being made at talks between the two sides though questions remained over which rebels would be granted an amnesty. “Technical committees are reviewing all the remaining areas and we hope the final agreement will be signed soon,” he said.

Fatou Bensouda, prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, on Wednesday warned that she might broaden investigations into crimes in Congo and called for all those responsible to be prosecuted. U.N. peacekeepers have confirmed they are investigating reports of mass graves in areas vacated by rebels. — Reuters

Bodies of 87 migrants found in Niger desert Migrants stranded after vehicles broke down NIAMEY: Rescuers have found the decomposed bodies of 87 people stranded in the harsh Niger desert, most of them children and some eaten by jackals, in the world’s latest African migrant tragedy. The victims, nearly all of them women and children, had been trying to reach neighbouring Algeria but are believed to have died of thirst when their trucks broke down, according to a senior security source in Niger.

Almoustapha Alhacen, from local aid organisation Aghir In’man, gave a graphic account of the grim discovery on Wednesday about a dozen kilometres (miles) from the Algerian border.

“The corpses were decomposed; it was horrible,” he said. “We found them in different locations in a 20-kilometre (12mile) radius and in small groups, often under trees, or under the sun.

Sometimes a mother and children, but some lone children too.”

Among the 87 bodies were 48 children, 32 women and seven men, the security official said, adding to the bodies of five women and young children found earlier. Some of the bodies were “devoured by jackals or other wild beasts,” said Alhacen. The discovery

comes just weeks after a shipwreck disaster off the Italian island of Lampedusa on October 3, which saw 366 Africans perish when their boat caught fire and capsized. All the Niger victims died in early October after a failed attempt to reach Algeria across the inhospitable Sahara desert that covers about 80 percent of the country, one of the world’s poorest. The bodies were buried according to Muslim rites as and when they were found, added Alhacen.

Nigerien officials had said on Monday that dozens of migrants, most of them women and children, had died of thirst in the desert.

Two vehicles were carrying the Africans when they broke down, one about 80 kilometres from the northern city of Arlit where they had set off from and another about 160 kilometres away, the security source said. “The first vehicle broke down. The second returned to Arlit to get a spare part after getting all the migrants it was carrying to get off, but it too broke down,” said the source.

“We think that the migrants were in the desert for seven days and on the fifth day, they began to leave the bro-

ken down vehicle in search of a well,” said the source. However, 21 people survived, the source said, including a man who walked to Arlit and a woman who was saved by a driver who came across her in the desert and took her to the same city.

Nineteen others reached the Algerian city of Tamanrasset but were sent back to Niger, the source added.

Landlocked Niger is one of the world’s poorest countries and has been hit by successive food crises. Libya, rather than Algeria, is more frequently the favoured country of transit for west Africans making the journey across the continent, many of whom aim to travel on to Europe. Migrants are often found dead in the north African desert, frequently abandoned by people smugglers to their fate, but not usually on the scale of the latest tragedy. In May 2001, about 140 people died of thirst as they were travelling through the Libyan desert. The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that at least 30,000 economic migrants passed through Agadez, northern Niger’s largest city, between March and August of this year. — AFP

TRIPOLI: Newly graduated Libyan police officers show their skills during their graduation ceremony yesterday. — AFP

Qatar emir tours Gulf states DOHA: Qatar’s new emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, concluded yesterday a three-day tour of Gulf nations in which he stressed his support for a regional union. “This was basically a friendly tour, although it also carried a clear political message expressing the emir’s support to the Gulf union initiative presented by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia,” a Qatari official told AFP. “The emir was keen to visit Gulf countries first, to emphasise the strong relations between the six members of the Gulf

Cooperation Council,” the official said, requesting anonymity. Sheikh Tamim visited Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates this week. He had visited Saudi Arabia in August, shortly after ascending the throne following the June abdication of his father, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani.

Ties between Qatar and other Gulf nations-mainly Saudi Arabia-have been strained in the wake of the Arab Spring, notably in Syria and more recently in Egypt, as each county seeks to extend its

regional influence. The gas-rich emirate had sought to play a major diplomatic role across the region under the leadership of former prime minister and his foreign minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani.

But the country appears to have taken a back seat in regional affairs following the abdication, as Saudi Arabia has reasserted its leadership. In 2011, King Abdullah proposed that the GCC, which was formed in 1981, should move forward to become a union. The details of the proposal have yet to be worked out. — AFP

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International FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Iraq seeking new US aid after pushing out troops WASHINGTON: Nearly two years after pushing out the US military, Iraq is asking for more American weapons, training and manpower to help fight a bloody resurgence of Al-Qaeda that has unleashed a level of violence comparable to the darkest days of the nation’s civil war. The request will be discussed during a White House meeting today between Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki and President Barack Obama in what Baghdad hopes will be a fresh start in a complicated relationship that has been marked by victories and frustrations for each side.

“We know we have major challenges of our own capabilities being up to the standard. They currently are not,” Lukman Faily, the Iraqi ambassador to the US, said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We need to gear up, to deal with that threat more seriously. We need support and we need help.” He added: “We have said to the Americans we’d be more than happy to discuss all the options short of boots on the ground.”

“Boots on the ground” means military forces. The US withdrew all but a

few hundred of its troops from Iraq in December 2011 after Baghdad refused to renew a security agreement to extend legal immunity for Americans forces that would have let more stay.

At the time, the withdrawal was hailed as a victory for the Obama administration, which campaigned on ending the Iraq war and had little appetite for pushing Baghdad into a new security agreement. But within months, violence began creeping up in the capital and across the country as Sunni Muslim insurgents lashed out at Shiites, angered by a widespread belief that Sunnis have been sidelined by the Shiite-led government, and with no U.S. troops to keep them in check.

More than 5,000 Iraqis have been killed in attacks since April, and suicide bombers launched 38 strikes in the last month alone. Al-Maliki is expected to ask Obama for new assistance to bolster its military and fight Al-Qaeda.

Faily said that could include everything from speeding up the delivery of US aircraft, missiles, interceptors and other weapons, to improving national

Tunisia attacks deal blow to crucial tourism sector TUNIS: Tunisia, already destabilised by a political crisis, suffered a blow to its vital tourism industry after a suicide bombing and another that was foiled in two coastal resort towns.

Only the suicide bomber was killed Wednesday in an attack on a beachside hotel in Sousse, and the security forces thwarted another attempted suicide attack soon after in neighbouring Monastir. The interior ministry said its special forces arrested five Salafist “terrorists” directly linked to the first suicide bids in the North African country for more than a decade.

It said those behind the attacks belonged to Ansar AlSharia, Tunisia’s main Salafist movement, which the authorities have designated a “terrorist organisation” with ties to AlQaeda. The presidency insisted the attacks, which have yet to be claimed, would not “derail” the democratic transition.

It was referring to a national dialogue underway between the ruling Islamist party Ennahda and the opposition to end months of political crisis, sparked by the July assassination of opposition politician Mohamed Brahmi by suspected jihadists.

As part of a roadmap agreed by political leaders to break the political stalemate, Ennahda is to be replaced and a new prime minister named.

Ennahda’s veteran leader Rached Ghannouchi, who has been criticised in the past for encouraging dialogue with hardline Salafists, denounced “those who tried to target tourists,” calling them “criminals who want to destroy Tunisia, its economy and its democratic transition”. In the first attack, the suicide bomber “blew himself up on a beach in Sousse” near the fourstar Riadh Palms hotel, interior ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Laroui told AFP. There were no other casualties.

The bomber tried to enter the hotel by a back door but was spotted by guards and chased away before blowing himself up on the nearby beach that was deserted, witnesses said. A spontaneous protest broke out in the centre of Sousse “to condemn terrorism,” they added. Within half an hour, security forces foiled another suicide attack by an 18-year-old man on the tomb of former president Habib Bourguiba, in Monastir, 20 kilometres (12 miles) along the coast. Residents said they saw the would-be attacker behaving suspiciously in a cemetery near the tomb and reported him. He was arrested by presidential security guards. Private radio station Mosaique FM identified the suspect as Aymen Saadi Berchid and said four arrest warrants had previously been issued for him. Last year a Salafist was jailed for eight months for desecrating the tomb, a lavish building with two minarets and a gold dome that was commissioned by Bourguiba himself, Tunisia’s staunchly-secular first president. —AFP

intelligence systems. And when asked, he did not rule out the possibility of asking the US to send military special forces or additional CIA advisers to Iraq to help train and assist counterterror troops.

If the US does not commit to providing the weapons or other aid quickly, “we will go elsewhere,” Faily said.

That means Iraq will step up diplomacy with nations like China or Russia that would be more than happy to increase their influence in Baghdad at US expense. The two leaders also will discuss how Iraq can improve its fractious government, which so often is divided among sectarian or ethnic lines, to give it more confidence with a bitter and traumatized public.

The ambassador said no new security agreement would be needed to give immunity to additional US advisers or trainers in Iraq - the main sticking point that led to US withdrawal.

And he said Iraq would pay for the additional weapons or other assistance. A senior Obama administration official said Wednesday that US officials were not planning to send US

trainers to Iraq and that Baghdad had not asked for them. The administration official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters by name.

US officials were prepared to help Iraq with an across-the-board approach that did not focus just on military or security gaps, the administration official said. The aid under consideration might include more weapons for Iraqi troops who do not have necessary equipment to battle Al-Qaeda insurgents, he said.

Administration officials consider the insurgency, which has rebranded itself as the Islamic State of Iraq in the Levant, a major and increasing threat both to Iraq and the US, the official said. US and Iraqi officials see a possible solution in trying to persuade insurgents to join forces with Iraqi troops and move away from Al-Qaeda, following a pattern set by so-called Awakening Councils in western Iraq that marked a turning point in the war.

Faily said much of the additional aid including weapons and training would go toward this effort.—AP

Kenyans protest against ‘grass cutting’ rapists Over 1.3m people worldwide sign petition NAIROBI: Several hundred Kenyan protestors marched on police headquarters yesterday to deliver a petition of over a million names demanding justice after men accused of brutally gang raping a schoolgirl cut grass as punishment. The ferocious attack on the teenage girl and lack of action against those who carried it out has sparked outrage in the country. The 16year-old, known by the pseudonym Liz, was reportedly attacked, beaten and then raped by six men as she returned from her grandfather’s funeral in western Kenya in June, before the gang dumped her, bleeding and unconscious, in a deep sewage ditch. Protestors marched through the streets of the Kenyan capital wearing Tshirts with the slogan “Justice for Liz”, with activists draping dozens of women’s knickers along the fence of the police station.

“What do we want? Respect, respect, respect, dignity!”, the protestors shouted.

“Slashing grass is not punishment for rape”, a sign carried by a protestor read.

Nebila Abdulmelik, of the women’s rights campaign group Femnet, launched the petition on Monday. “Our immediate task is for the arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators, and then disciplinary action at the police who failed to take action, because we feel that they embolden others to rape,” Abdulmelik said.

“We are using Liz’s story to bring to light all the other cases of violence that are not necessarily reported to the media, to the police.” Over 1.3 million people worldwide have signed the petition, which has been publicised by the online campaign group Avaaz, and the number continues to climb. Senior police officer William Thwere, who spoke to the organisers of the march, promised police were “investigating this issue... it will be dealt with the seriousness it deserves.”

Liz is now wheelchair-bound with a

NAIROBI: Kenyan protestors march towards the police headquarters yesterday to deliver a petition of over a million names demanding justice after men accused of brutally gang raping a schoolgirl cut grass as punishment. — AFP broken back, caused either by the beating or by being hurled down into the pit, and also suffered serious internal injuries from the rape. “The three... were only ordered to cut grass around the police camp and set free shortly after,” the girl’s mother told the Daily Nation newspaper, which first reported the story and has led a campaign including raising funds to cover medical costs.

“My wish is to see justice done,” Liz also told the newspaper. “I want my attackers arrested and punished.” Creg Akoto, a young man among the protestors who works for an organisation that has set up a telephone hotline for victims of sexual violence, criticised a system he said can

favour the attackers.

“These are our sisters, our mothers, our grandparents who are victims of sexual violence,” he said. Lawmakers have condemned the attack and subsequent police failures, ordering action to be taken. Rape is a major problem in Kenya, and is often not taken seriously by the police, according to studies. One government study in 2009 found that as many as a fifth of women and girls were victims of sexual violence, although other later studies have put the rate even higher.

Another UN-backed government study in 2010 focusing on children found a third of girls and a fifth of boys had suffered sexual violence. — AFP

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International FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Fresh violence at India riots site kills 4 NEW DELHI: India stepped up security yesterday after a fresh outbreak of violence killed four people in the same region hit by deadly communal clashes last month, a police officer said. The villagers were killed overnight close to Muzaffarnagar, 105 kilometres (65 miles) northeast of capital New Delhi, where mobs last month burnt houses during Muslim-Hindu riots that left 50 people dead and forced hundreds to flee.

The Uttar Pradesh state government deployed around 500 paramili-

tary troops to Muzaffarnagar early yesterday as a precaution, while eight people were arrested in the overnight violence, the officer said. “Last night, four people died in nearby villages, including a woman. They were separate incidents,” the senior district police official told AFP on the condition of anonymity. “It seems like it is more of a domestic dispute. We are probing the matter.”

It is unclear whether the latest violence is liked to communal tensions in and around Muzaffarnagar in Uttar

Pradesh state, which has a history of religious and caste-based clashes.

According to police, the first incident involved clashes between two groups of people from neighbouring villages over a land dispute, while a woman was killed by a different group of villagers in a separate incident.

Muzaffarnagar district remains tense, with many who fled last month’s violence still living in camps.

Those clashes erupted when Hindus allegedly killed a Muslim man supposedly for sexually harassing a woman,

triggering a deadly retaliation that quickly spiralled into three days of riots. The violence triggered speculation that parties were seeking to polarise the politically pivotal state along religious lines ahead of general elections due next year. Uttar Pradesh, with its population of 200 million, witnessed riots in 1992 following the razing of a mosque by a Hindu mob.

More than 2,000 people-mostly Muslims-were killed after the 16thcentury structure in Ayodhya was demolished. — AFP

India ready to build world’s tallest statue Modi aims at history, Gandhis with Patel’s statue

MULTAN: Pakistani protesters from United Citizen Action shout anti-US slogans as they burn the US flag during a protest against US drone attacks in Pakistani tribal areas yesterday. A US drone strike targeting a militant compound killed three insurgents in a northwest Pakistan tribal region near the Afghan border, officials said.—AFP

Indian space head braced for tricky Mars challenge NEW DELHI: The head of India’s space agency warned yesterday of the immense complexity of sending a mission to Mars as the country prepares to send its first interplanetary probe to explore the atmosphere there. “As we can see for Mars there were 51 missions so far the world around and there were 21 successful missions,” K Radhakrishnan told AFP in an interview. “It’s a complex mission.”

The 1.3-tonne Mars Orbiter probe will begin a 300-day mission next Tuesday when it is launched aboard a rocket from the Sriharikota space station on the Bay of Bengal. Radhakrishnan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), denied any last-minute nerves about the 4.5 billion rupee ($73 million) project, but said his scientists had a tiny margin for error.

“In space, we should not worry about success or failure. The difference between success and failure in space is very, very thin,” he said. “But do the job well and do the best. And if it is a failure, then learn. Failure is a stepping stone for success,” he added, fresh from a meeting to brief Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on preparations. A rehearsal of the computer systems which will launch and then control the probe was successfully conducted yesterday, he said, and the final countdown will begin on Sunday morning. Radhakrishnan said the mission was another “turning point” for India’s space ambitions after it successfully placed an unmanned probe on the Moon in 2008 in a triumph that is a source of national pride.—AFP

NEW DELHI: Indian opposition leader Narendra Modi is building the world’s tallest statue at a cost of almost $340 million in honour of one of the country’s founding fathers, a project he is using to undermine his chief rivals, the GandhiNehru political dynasty. The statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who was first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s deputy and his interior minister but often at odds with him, is to be built on a river island in Gujarat, the home state of both Patel and Modi.

Modi, who rules Gujarat as chief minister and is the leading opposition candidate for prime minister in general elections due next year, is to inaugurate the construction of the statue yesterday, the 138th birth anniversary of Patel.

“Every Indian regrets Sardar Patel did not become the first prime minister. Had he been the first prime minister, the country’s fate and face would have been completely different,” Modi said on Tuesday at a public function.

The statue, twice the size of the Statue of Liberty, is seen as a not-so-subtle bid by Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to appropriate an independence-era hero associated with the ruling Congress party that has largely been run by the NehruGandhi family. Nehru, his daughter, Indira Gandhi, and grandson, Rajiv Gandhi, were prime ministers and the family has ruled for more than half of India’s 66 years as an independent nation.

Rajiv’s widow, Sonia Gandhi, is the current leader of the Congress and Rahul Gandhi, her son and Nehru’s

great-grandson, is leading the party’s campaign to take on Modi at the general elections, due to be held before May. Congress party Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was with Modi at the public function, said: “I am proud and happy that I belong to a political party to which Sardar Patel was attached. Sardar Patel was totally secular, and believed in the unity of India.”

The 20.63 billion rupee ($338 million) cost of the 182-metre iron and bronze statue has been widely criticised as being unnecessary in a nation where one-third of the 1.2 billion people live in poverty. It is to be financed by the Gujarat government and public donations. “We’re turning the whole of India into a necropolis,” said Mohan Guruswamy of the Delhi-based think tank the Centre for Policy Alternatives.

A Gujarat government official involved in the project said it would be partially funded by small contributions with the Gujarat government making up the difference. He denied it was a waste of funds, calling it ‘icon-based’ development that would attract tourism.

The sub-text to the controversy is what legacy Patel left when he died in 1950, and which of India’s two main parties can lay claim to it. Some historians have suggested Patel was more proHindu than Nehru, who was fiercely secular and opposed to the 1947 partition of British-ruled India into the independent nations of Hindu majority India and Muslim Pakistan. Patel is said to have taken a more pragmatic view and is known as the builder of modern India for cajoling and coercing the country’s

princely states into joining the new republic. Despite differences with Nehru, the two worked as a team, historians have said. “Each knew the other’s gifts, each took care not to trespass on the other person’s turf,” according to historian Ramachandra Guha. “That is how, together, they built India anew out of the ruins of partition.” But many people in Gujarat feel Patel’s legacy has been neglected by the Congress party and Modi has been quick to use that to his advantage.

His slogan on television advertisements ahead of Patel’s birth anniversary has been: “Sardar unified the country, and we will glorify it.” Modi’s strong association with Hindu religious politics is seen as divisive by critics. Many of them hold him responsible for religious riots that killed at least 1,000 people, mainly Muslims, in Gujarat in 2002, although he has denied the charges.

A Supreme Court appointed panel did not find evidence of wrongdoing by Modi in the riots. Opinion polls say Modi is more popular than Rahul Gandhi and he is favoured by India’s business titans for his pro-investment policies and fast economic growth in his state. Several commentators have commented on the irony of Modi supporting Patel, who as home minister in 1948 helped ban the RSS, a Hindu organisation that Modi has close ties to, after one of its former members assassinated independence hero Mahatma Gandhi. “Patel repudiated the RSS. But it’s equally true that Congress repudiated Sardar Patel,” said Guruswamy of the Centre for Policy Alternatives. — Reuters

Pakistan arrests 18 over killing foreign climbers ISLAMABAD: Pakistani police said yesterday they have arrested 18 suspects over the killing of 10 foreign climbers in the Himalayas in June, but warned that others remain at large. The June 22 attack was the deadliest assault on foreigners in the nuclear-armed country for a decade and was claimed by a purported new faction of Pakistan’s umbrella Taleban movement.

Police in the northern districts of Gilgit and Diamer in the Gilgit-Baltistan region said they have arrested 18 suspects on suspicion of planning and carrying out the attack.

The officer leading the investigation

said only four of those held are believed to have been directly involved in the killings at the foot of Pakistan’s second highest mountain Nanga Parbat. “We have arrested four culprits who shot the tourists at Nanga Parbat base camp while seven are still at large”, Muhammad Naveed told AFP. The victims of the attack, carried out by men in police uniforms, were identified as one American with dual Chinese citizenship, three Ukrainians, two other Chinese, two Slovakians, one Lithuanian and one Nepalese. A Pakistani guide was also killed.

Further details of the attack have

emerged during interrogation. The suspects have revealed that their original plan was to kidnap the trekkers, an investigating officer said. “They said their plan went foul when one of the Chinese resisted after they approached them,” he said.

“After the Chinese tourist retaliated, one of the terrorists fired a shot that killed him and the terrorists fought with each other over it. After that they sprayed bullets at all the tourists.” Asked if the kidnap could have worked, the officer said it would have been almost impossible for them to escape with the hostages because of the difficult terrain. —AFP

International FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

China, other Asians angry over embassy spy reports Antennas hidden in five unnamed embassies

BEIJING: Armed police stand guard at Tiananmen Square yesterday. — AFP

China media calls for stern action after Tiananmen attack TURPAN: Chinese state media demanded severe punishment yesterday to put down what China has said is a holy war aimed at Beijing by Islamist militants from the restive Xinjiang region. Security has been strengthened in both Beijing and in Xinjiang in the far west after an SUV ploughed through bystanders in the capital’s iconic Tiananmen Square on Monday and burst into flames.

The exiled leader of Xinjiang’s Muslim Uighur minority called for an independent probe into the crash, in which the three occupants of the vehicle and two bystanders were killed and dozens were injured. US-based Rebiya Kadeer said she did not believe any kind of organised extremist Islamic movement was operating in Xinjiang, a view shared by rights groups and some experts.

“It is almost impossible for Uighurs to organise because of China’s stringent controls and attacks,” she said in an interview. But police said Monday’s incident was a carefully planned and organised “terrorist attack” carried out by people from Xinjiang. They announced they had apprehended five accomplices in Beijing who they said were Islamist militants planning a holy war. Their names suggest they are Uighurs.

Such an attack is a crime against humanity, the city’s official Beijing Daily said in a commentary.

The government should spare no effort to ensure Beijing’s safety, it added. “Violent terrorist crime is the shared enemy of all humanity, the shared enemy of all ethnic groups in the country, and it must be severely punished under the law,” said the commentary, which was also carried on the website of the ruling Communist Party’s People’s Daily.

“Maintaining the capital’s security and stability is a responsibility of utmost importance.” The English-language China Daily said the perpetrators will “go down in history as murderers not heroes”.

Xinjiang, a sprawling, desert-like region that borders Central Asian nations that were part of the former Soviet Union as well as Afghanistan and Pakistan, has been beset by violence, blamed by China on Uighur separatists and extremists.

In 2009, nearly 200 people were killed in the Xinjiang capital Urumqi in rioting between Uighurs and the majority Han Chinese. Many Uighurs chafe at Chinese controls on their religion, culture and language, although the government says they enjoy widespread freedoms. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, asked about Kadeer’s comments, said the government opposed the linking of violence with the country’s ethnic and religious policies.

“This is totally wrong and has ulterior motives.

Anyone who has the rudimentary ability to distinguish (right from wrong) can see this,” she told a daily news briefing. China is clear that it faces a threat from separatists who carry out violent attacks and have links with groups outside of China to damage the country’s stability, Hua added. “We

hope the international community can be clear about this.” However, while a Chinese state newspaper reported in July that the government suspected Syrian opposition forces were training extremists from Xinjiang to carry out attacks in China, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has dismissed the idea. “There are absolutely no Chinese fighters in Syria,” Wang told a news conference in France on Wednesday.

“Can’t say anymore” Authorities tightened security this week in energy-rich Xinjiang, with added police presence on the streets. Armed police prevented Reuters reporters from entering Lukqun town, where one of the detained suspects is from, sending them back to the nearby city of Turpan. “The people in Lukqun, they are afraid. We are afraid too,” said a man working at a food stall in Turpan. “I can’t say any more.”

Several others nearby made similar comments in broken Mandarin but waved off further inquiries.

Uighurs speak a Turkic language, and few in Turpan were fluent in Mandarin, the language spoken in most of China. One Uighur man who spoke excellent Mandarin said: “I can’t talk about Lukqun.

I just want to live a peaceful life.” No one wanted to talk about relations between Uighurs and Han Chinese. Kadeer, president of the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress, the main exiled Uighur organisation, cautioned against believing China’s account of the Tiananmen incident. “Chinese claims simply cannot be accepted as facts without an independent and international investigation of what took place in Beijing on Monday,” Kadeer said. China, which calls Kadeer an “anti-Chinese splittist”, will almost certainly ignore her call for an international investigation.

Security has also been tightened in Beijing with extra police at the airport and on the streets. Some residents expressed fear about how unrest in Xinjiang had apparently made its way to the capital. “Actually I feel very afraid because ... I often go over to Tiananmen. I thought something like this would be so far off from happening to us here, but for this to suddenly happen so close to me ... I just feel worried and scared,” said Zhang Xiaoyan, 26, who works in financial services.

Kadeer said Uighurs may or may not have been responsible for the attack on Monday. “It is difficult to tell at the moment, given the strict control of information by the Chinese government on this tragic incident,” she said. “If the Uighurs did it, I believe they did it out of desperation because there is no channel for the Uighur people to seek redress for any kind of injustice they had suffered under Chinese rule.” Her comments were made in written replies to Reuters questions, translated from the Uighur language by an aide. Kadeer is a former Chinese political prisoner who was accused of leaking state secrets in 1999. —Reuters

SYDNEY: China and Southeast Asian governments demanded an explanation from the US and its allies yesterday following media reports that American and Australian embassies in the region were being used as hubs for Washington’s secret electronic data collection program. The reports come amid an international outcry over allegations the US has spied on the telephone communications of as many as 35 foreign leaders.

A document from National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, published this week by German magazine Der Spiegel, describes a signals intelligence program called “Stateroom” in which US, British, Australian and Canadian embassies secretly house surveillance equipment to collect electronic communications.

Those countries, along with New Zealand, have an intelligence-sharing agreement known as “Five Eyes.”

“China is severely concerned about the reports, and demands a clarification and explanation,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said. Australia’s Fairfax media reported yesterday that the Australian embassies involved are in Jakarta, Bangkok, Hanoi, Beijing and Dili in East Timor; and High Commissions in Kuala Lumpur and Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. The Fairfax report, based on the Der Spiegel document and an interview with an anonymous former intelligence officer, said those embassies are being used to intercept phone calls and internet data across Asia.

In a statement, Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said his government “cannot accept and strongly protests the news of the existence of wiretapping facilities at the US Embassy in Jakarta.” “It should be emphasized that if confirmed, such action is not only a breach of security, but also a serious breach of diplomatic norms and ethics, and certainly not in tune with the spirit of friendly relations between nations,” he said.

The Snowden document said the surveillance equipment is concealed, including antennas that are “sometimes hidden in false architectural features or roof maintenance sheds.” Des Ball, a top Australian intelligence expert, told The Associated Press he had personally seen covert antennas in five of the embassies named in the

Fairfax report.

He declined to go into further detail or specify which embassies those were. But Ball said what Der Spiegel has revealed is hardly surprising or uncommon. Many countries have routinely used embassies as bases to covertly listen in on phone calls, and reports of such surveillance have been public for decades, he said. “We use embassies to pick up stuff that we can’t pick up from ground stations here in Australia - and lots of countries do that,” said Ball, a professor with the Australian National University’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre. According to the Snowden document, the spying sites are small in size and staff. “They are covert, and their true mission is not known by the majority of the diplomatic staff at the facility where they are assigned,” it said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade declined to comment on the reports. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said only that the government had not broken any laws. “Every Australian governmental agency, every Australian official, at home and abroad, operates in accordance with the law,” Abbott told reporters. “And that’s the assurance that I can give people.”

Still, there was predictable outrage in the countries named in the document. Malaysian Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said his government viewed the allegations as a serious matter and would investigate whether the US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur was being used for spying. The country’s opposition party issued a statement yesterday urging the Malaysian government to lodge a protest with both the US and Australian embassies.

Thailand’s National Security Council SecretaryGeneral, Lt Gen Paradorn Pattanathabutr, said the government told the US that spying was a crime under Thai laws, and that Thailand would not cooperate if asked to help eavesdrop. Asked about the Australian embassy allegations, he said Australians are not capable of doing such sophisticated surveillance work. “When it comes to technology and mechanics, the US is more resourceful and more advanced than Australia,” he said. “So I can say that it is not true that the Australian embassy will be used as a communications hub for spying.” — AP

Chinese boy, 10, jumps to death ‘on teacher’s order’ BEIJING: A 10-year-old Chinese boy jumped 30 floors to his death after failing to write a self-criticism letter demanded by his teacher, state media reported yesterday. The fifth-grade primary school student had been ordered to write a 1,000-character apology by his teacher for talking in class, China National Radio (CNR) reported on its website, citing a neighbour. The educator allegedly told him to jump out of a building after he failed to complete the task, the report quoted relatives and the neighbour as saying.

“Teacher, I can’t do it,” was found written in one of his textbooks, CNR said. “I flinched several times when I tried to jump from the building.” The child smashed into a parked car beneath the flat where his family live, the West China City News reported. His furious relatives posted a banner outside the

school in the southwestern city of Chengdu reading: “The teacher forced our kid to jump off the building,” pictures showed yesterday.

“The police investigation is still under way,” an official of Jinjiang district, where the incident happened, told AFP, declining to comment further. Strict discipline is an essential part of China’s education system and culture, and tradition demands deference to authority, putting children under pressure to obey instructions. The boy’s school said yesterday on its verified account on Sina Weibo, a Chinese equivalent of Twitter, that the child and some of his classmates had been ordered to write reviews of their behaviour after they disturbed a speaking competition. He died “by accident”, it said. — AFP

International FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Laos recovers crashed plane black boxes BANGKOK: Search teams yesterday recovered the flight data recorders of a Lao Airlines plane that plunged into the Mekong River in bad weather killing all 49 people on board, officials said. The black boxes, which include both voice and data recordings, were found early yesterday as part of efforts to recover parts of the stricken craft from the river’s fast-flowing waters, according to Yakua Lopankao, director general of Laos’ Department of Civil Aviation.

“It has not yet been decided where to send them to be examined, it is up to the air accident investigation committee,” he said of the operation, which has been assisted by experts from the French aviation safety agency BEA. The Lao Airlines turboprop ATR-72 plummeted into the Mekong as it went to land in the south-

ern town of Pakse on October 16 in the country’s worst air disaster. More than half of the 49 passengers and crew were foreigners from some 10 countries. So far 47 bodies have been recovered, some many kilometres downstream from the crash site as rescuers battled strong currents along the swollen river. So far, at least 43 of the victims have been identified, according to a Lao Airlines statement on Wednesday. “Our efforts remain focused on caring for the bereaved families of the victims and doing what we can to alleviate the trauma they are suffering and assist them as much as possible at this difficult time,” it said. The carrier has said the aircraft hit “extreme” bad weather, while witnesses described seeing the plane buffeted by strong winds before plummeting into the Mekong.

According to a passenger list released by the airline, there were 16 Laotians, seven French travellers, six Australians, five Thais, three South Koreans, two Vietnamese, and one national each from the United States, Canada, Malaysia, China and Taiwan. There were also five crew, including the Cambodian captain.

Founded in 1976, Lao Airlines serves domestic airports and destinations in China, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Impoverished Laos, a one-party communist state, has seen 29 fatal air accidents since the 1950s, according to the Aviation Safety Network. Previously the country’s worst air disaster was in 1954, when 47 people died in an Air Vietnam crash near Pakse, the organisation said. — AFP

N Korea defector testifies at UN rights probe in US Evidence shows systematic, gross human rights violations

BAGON: In this photo, Saw Min smiles as her eye patches are removed following a simple operation on Oct 22 to regain sight in Bagon, Myanmar. — AP

Veil of darkness lifts for Myanmar’s blind BAGON: Five decades of isolation, military rule and woeful health care have left Myanmar with a particularly high rate of blindness. Now the veil of darkness is starting to lift, thanks in part to an “assembly line” surgical procedure that allows cataracts to be removed safely, without stitches, through two small incisions. Nepalese surgeon Sandut Ruit, who helped pioneer the technique, oversaw nearly 1,300 operations at two massive eye camps in 10 days in October, with dozens of local ophthalmologists looking on and helping.

Despite improvements over the last two decades, the vast majority still use a microincision surgical technique that requires two sutures.

Doctors were confident the nostitch procedure - cheap, easy to learn and taking as little as five minutes - would catch on quickly. “This is a turning point in our cataract history,” said Dr Tin Win, the chief of Yangon Eye Hospital. He said his goal is to have all 60 eye centers in the nation of 60 million using the procedure by the end of next year.

He says he will pass on the informa-

tion to all doctors, together with training manuals and videos, at a nationwide eye conference in early November.

“If we succeed, we can double our cataract surgical rate,” he said.

“We can start getting rid of our cataract backlog.” Several organizations focused on preventing blindness have focused on Myanmar as a country in particular need of help. A 2005 survey conducted by the South Australian Institute of Ophthalmology in the rural Meiktila district of central Myanmar found that 8.1 percent of the population there was blind.

Ruit, who travels throughout the developing world holding free mass eye camps, was working in Myanmar for the first time. He and his team were initially scheduled to perform 1,000 surgeries, but added nearly 300 patients due to the overwhelming response by potential candidates. After the operation, some patients expressed hope they would be able to work again.

Others were eager to see the faces of their children and grandchildren. — AP

WASHINGTON: Her father was tortured in detention in North Korea and died. Her elder sister went searching for food during the great famine of the 1990s, only to be trafficked to China. Her two younger brothers died of starvation, one of them a baby without milk whose life ebbed away in her arms. North Korean defector Jin Hye Jo tearfully told her family’s story Wednesday to UN investigators during a public hearing in Washington, their latest stop in a globe-trotting effort to probe possible crimes against humanity in North Korea. The UN commission, led by Australian judge Michael Kirby, says evidence gathered so far points to systematic and gross human rights violations.

It is empowered to seek full accountability, although bringing perpetrators to justice remains a distant prospect.

North Korea’s authoritarian regime, which denies any rights abuses and political prison camps, is not cooperating and has refused access to the investigators.

Jin is one of two defectors testifying at the public hearing at John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. The three-member panel has received evidence from dozens of others during hearings in South Korea, Japan and Britain. Kirby said it will present its final report to the U.N. Human Rights Council in March.

Yesterday, experts were expected to testify about North Korea’s vast gulag, estimated to hold 80,000 to 120,000 political prisoners, and about access to food in the country, where hundreds of thousands perished in the 1990s famine and many children suffer stunted growth because of malnutrition. Among the commission’s various lines of inquiry, it is expected to probe the causes of the famine and to what extent it was due to natural disasters as the authoritarian regime of then-leader Kim Jong Il claimed - or mismanagement.

Jin, 26, who has lived in the United States since 2008 and runs a charity for North Korean defectors, scoffed at the suggestion that the food shortages were due to natural causes, claiming that government officials drive BMWs and drink exotic whiskies while children die. She recalled how the shortages became very serious in 1996 and she would return from school feeling dizzy from hunger. Her parents made clandestine trips north to China to get food.

But her father was arrested and, according to a fellow detainee, was beaten and killed, although authorities claimed he was shot trying to escape. The family’s fortunes only got worse. In 1998, after Jin’s elder sister went missing, her mother went to China to try and locate the sister.

Jin, then age 10, was left with her grandmother and two younger siblings to care for their newly-born brother.

Because of the father’s previous arrest, she said, the family was shunned by neighbors when they begged for food.

“My baby brother died in my arms because we had nothing to eat. Because I was holding him so much he thought that I was his mom, so when I was feeding him water he was sometimes looking at me, smiling,” Jin said, weeping. She said her grandmother and her 5-year-old brother also starved. The remaining family members fled to China, but were arrested several times and repatriated before gaining finally asylum in March 2008 with the help

of Christian missionaries.

Rights activists criticize China for such deportations, saying it is a violation of a UN refugee convention that it is a signatory to. China claims the North Koreans are economic migrants. Jin gave a detailed account of beatings and torture inflicted by security officials both in North Korea and China. While the UN commission’s work has put a spotlight on the dire human rights conditions in North Korea - long eclipsed by international concern over its nuclear weapons program - it’s not yet clear what actions the world body could take to punish the North.

Kirby told the UN General Assembly on Tuesday that when the commission delivers its final report, “the international community will be obliged to face its responsibilities and decide what concrete action it will take” to protect the North Korean people. The North is subject to tough sanctions because of its nuclear and missile programs, barring it from trading in weapons or importing luxury goods.

Even if the panel concludes crimes against humanity have been committed, a referral to the International Criminal Court appears unlikely, as it would require the approval of the UN Security Council, where China has a veto. — AP

WASHINGTON: Jin hye Jo wipes a tear as she testifies during a hearing of the United Nations mandated Commission of Inquiry about the human rights situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. — AP

17

International FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

50 years on, memories haunt John F Kennedy’s witnesses

Eike Batista

Brazil’s showy playboy tycoon takes big fall RIO DE JANEIRO: Just a few years ago, flamboyant billionaire Eike Batista was boasting that he’d soon be the world’s richest man. He loved to show visitors his Mercedes-Benz McLaren kept parked right in the living room of his mansion. The fall has been deep and fast. Batista’s OGX oil company filed for bankruptcy protection Wednesday in a stunning reverse for the champion speedboat racer who came to symbolize the country’s economic boom with Brazilian flair.

Batista was born to privilege. His father was the mines and energy minister and also led what was then the state-run Vale mining company, which has since been privatized. The younger Batista made his first fortune in his 20s, scouring the Amazon to buy up gold, which he resold in Brazil’s big cities and Europe. Those beginnings led to his current conglomerate of oil, mining, infrastructure and real estate companies firms, all suffering as his once high-flying OBX faces possible liquidation.

Married for more than a decade to Luma de Oliveira, a former model and one of Brazil’s most beloved Carnival queens with whom he had two sons, his life was as much fodder for celebrity scandal sheets as business pages. Now 56, Batista’s fortune has reportedly dwindled to less than 1 percent of the $34.5 billion that Forbes magazine estimate he was worth in early 2012. He’s ordered that his luxury yacht be cut up and sold for scrap.

His problems have extended into his personal life. In June, his son Thor, 21, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for running over a slum-dwelling cyclist while driving the same model of Mercedes-Benz his father keeps parked near a family couch. Critics contend Batista misled investors about the size of the oil fields that OGX had found in recent years and say his troubles are a new sign that Brazil won’t soon see an end to its economic slide. The economy grew 7.5 percent in 2010, but then eked out just a 0.9 percent gain last year amid a downturn in world commodity prices and Brazilian consumer spending.

OGX didn’t respond to requests for comment. His star wasn’t supposed to stop glittering so soon. Just 18 months ago, President Dilma Rousseff attended a ceremony marking OGX’s first offshore oil production and said resolutely that state-run oil company Petrobras would go into deep partnerships with Batista’s firm. “Eike is our standard, our expectation and, above all, the pride of Brazil when it comes to a businessman in the private sector,” Rousseff told those in attendance.—AP

DALLAS: James Tague was stuck in traffic in downtown Dallas around noon on November 22, 1963 when he became an eyewitness to history. Then a 27-year-old car salesman, Tague was waiting for John F Kennedy’s motorcade to sweep by. Riding in an opentop Lincoln Continental, the president, flanked by Secret Service bodyguards, waved to the lunchtime crowd, his wife Jacqueline at his side along with Texas Governor John Connally and his spouse. “I noticed a car with flags on the front fender, coming through the crowd,” Tague told AFP ahead of the 50th anniversary of Kennedy’s assassination.

“That’s where I remembered that I read about Kennedy being in town that day and then here comes a pop of a firecracker,” he said. “It turned out it’s the first shot. Then there was a pause and then the crack-crack of two rifle shots.” On his right cheek, Tague felt something hit him-a bullet that had ricocheted off the sidewalk, leaving him with a slight wound and no idea what just happened.

Within minutes, a deputy sheriff in plainclothes approached Tague and asked what was going on. “I said I didn’t know, but we noticed that a motorcycle had stopped over by the grassy knoll, and there’s a couple of people talking to the motorcycle policeman,” he said. “We got there just in time to hear this man sobbing: ‘His head exploded. His head exploded.’ And the policeman said: ‘Whose head?’

And he says: ‘The president’s head.’”

By then the presidential motorcade had gone, racing the mortally wounded Kennedy to hospital. Along with Connally, who was badly wounded, Tague was the only person injured on a fateful day that still weighs heavily on Americans’ hearts and minds.

Pierce Allman, then 29, was program director at WFAA radio when curiosity drove him to go out to see Kennedy’s

motorcade go by the Texas School Book Depository on Elm Street. “I was standing on the corner, across from the depository building and here came the motorcade. I waved and said: ‘Welcome to Dallas, Mr President,’” he recalled.

Allman vividly remembers First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in “that marvelous pink outfit,” waving to the crowd, and Kennedy, “sort of waving” brushing the hair off his face. Then came the “boom” that Allman says he’ll recognize “for the rest of my life.”“But it didn’t go through my mind (that) this first attempt was a shot. It was not the flat-cracked sound of a rifle. It was a loud boom sound. It came from in front and directly above,” he said. “I thought at first, well, it’s a firecracker ... and then boom!

Second shot...

“During the first shot I had looked up and on the fifth floor (of the depository) there were three guys hanging out of the fifth-floor window and looking up at the sixth floor. “I looked up at the sixth floor but things were happening so fast I couldn’t tell you if I saw a rifle-bearer or not.” On the second shot, Allman saw Kennedy’s hands go up to his neck, and heard Mrs Kennedy screaming. Then came a third shot, and “Kennedy did a violent sideways move.”

Hugh Aynesworth, “a little put out” for not being assigned to cover Kennedy’s visit by his newspaper, the Dallas Morning News, where he was a 32-year-old science and aerospace editor, ventured down to Dealey Plaza on his own because “you don’t see a president every day.” “The crowd along Main was very heavy, very excited. I couldn’t get closer so I kept walking, so that’s why I ended up over here” at Dealey Plaza, he said. “As they passed me, Jackie was so happy she was beaming, Kennedy was waving and all of a sudden, I heard what I thought

was a motorcycle backfire, but it wasn’t a motorcycle,” he said. “I can tell the next two were shots from a rifle. I saw people immediately grabbing each other-some running each direction, some falling down, covering their kids, screaming, crying. It was a mass hysteria within seconds.” Phyllis Hall, a 28-year-old nurse at Parkland hospital, was starting her lunch break when her supervisor cryptically announced that there had been “an accident” in Kennedy’s motorcade.

“The doors from the outside just blew open,” she recalled. “There was a lot of chaos and shouting. Here came a cart with the governor Connally-he was very gravely injured-and (then) came the next carriage.

“I would learn a few minutes later this is the one that had the president on it.” Hall worked in the emergency ward four years previously, so when a “gentleman carrying a very big gun” took her by the elbow and said “we need you back here,” she did not resist. “When we got into Trauma Room One, Mrs Kennedy was standing at the foot of the cart,” she said. “In my estimation, the president was dead on arrival because he was very grayishblue. He was especially dark blue around his mouth. I felt for vital signs.

There were none. I saw no movement.

“The other doctors came down. They started to do a tracheotomy... There was nothing to do because just before we stopped the emergency measures, a doctor, a neurosurgeon came down, he came over... “He lifted up the piece of hair (from Kennedy’s head) and that’s where I could see that a great amount of brain matter was no longer in the head. It was all over Jackie. It was on the Connallys and I’m told it was all over the cart.”

President John F Kennedy, admitted to Parkland hospital at 12:38 pm as patient number 24740, was declared dead at 1:00 pm. —AFP

Pilot accused of groping teenage girl on flight SALT LAKE CITY: A Utah airline pilot is facing federal charges after being accused of groping a 14-year-old girl while he was a passenger on a flight from Detroit to Salt Lake City. Michael James Pascal, 45, of Park City, is charged with abusive sexual contact, shows a criminal complaint filed this week by the US Attorney’s Office in Utah. The girl told investigators that she woke up from a nap on an Oct 26 Delta Airlines flight and found Pascal’s hand under her, gripping her buttocks, court documents show. She says the armrest that she had pushed down was in the upright position. She elbowed Pascal, and said, “What the hell are you doing?” documents show.

She says Pascal pulled his hand out from under her and said, “I’m sorry, I’m

sorry, I was asleep, I have to use the bathroom.” The girl, who was flying alone, told flight attendants what happened and changed seats. She said Pascal seemed nice earlier in the flight, helping her get a blanket from the flight crew since she was on crutches.

But after the incident, she noticed Pascal looking at her in her new seat on the back of the plane in an “annoyed” manner, court documents show.

Pascal, whose attorney says works as a pilot for a regional airline carrier that contracts with Delta, told investigators he fell asleep with his hands in his lap. He said he doesn’t recall where his hand was when he awoke. He said he pushed up the armrest between him and the girl because the man on

the other side of him was taking up a lot of room. Pascal’s attorney, Rhome Zabriskie, said his client is in shock about being charged. He has a teenage daughter of his own and has been consistent with his story that he just fell asleep. “When he woke up, he realized he had kind of flopped over on the passenger next to him,” Zabriskie said.

“Any touching that occurred was inadvertent.” Delta Airlines spokesman Michael Thomas said the airline is cooperating with the investigation, but declined to comment further. The regional airline where Pascal reportedly works declined to confirm or deny if he’s an employee. Pascal was scheduled to be in federal court yesterday morning in Salt Lake City for a detention hearing. — AP

18

International FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Alaska’s Young is longest serving Republican JUNEAU: Alaska’s sole representative in the US House now has another distinction: the longest-serving Republican in the chamber. Don Young was first elected to Congress in 1973 after winning a special election and with the Oct 18 death of Rep Bill Young of Florida he became the longest serving GOP member. And at age 80, Young shows no signs of slowing down. He plans to seek a 22nd term next year and remains feisty as ever, saying he can’t imagine stepping aside unless his health fails.

“Right now, I feel like I’m in pretty darn good shape,” he said. Young also said he has yet to meet a challenger willing to commit at least 30 years to serving in the House, which he sees as the time needed to build clout in the chamber of 435 members. With that seniority, he said, “I still can get things

done that no freshman can get done in 10 years.” Young was born and raised in California but considers home to be Fort Yukon, Alaska, a community of about 600 people accessible primarily by air at the confluence of the Yukon and Porcupine rivers in the state’s rugged, harsh interior. He served in the Army and after moving to Alaska, held jobs in areas like construction, trapping, commercial fishing, teaching and as a tug and barge operator, according to his official biography.

Young served as mayor of Fort Yukon and in the state Legislature before he was elected to Congress in a special election to replace Democratic US Rep Nick Begich, who was declared dead after his plane disappeared. He said he lost a good friend with Bill Young’s passing and considers it an honor to be the longest-serving GOP

After 2 years in jail, trial for alleged pirate WASHINGTON: For 2 and a half years, a Somali man has languished in jail, waiting for his trial on piracy charges to begin even though the judge in the case says he’s not a pirate and has concluded that the lengthy pretrial lockup violates his constitutional rights. “It’s embarrassing for a nation committed to the rule of law to have someone sitting in jail for 30 months without a trial,” said Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law expert at George Washington University who is familiar with the case.

Authorities allege that Ali Mohamed Ali, 51, negotiated a ransom for Somali pirates during a November 2008 pirate takeover of a Danish merchant ship in the Gulf of Aden. At the time of his 2011 arrest, he was the education minister in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia, but he’s spent most of his adult life in the United States.

Ali, who faces up to life in prison, has pleaded not guilty. Jury selection in his trial finally begins Thursday. Twice in the last two years, US District Judge Ellen Huvelle ordered Ali released pending trial - only to have the appeals court reverse her. “The government’s suggestion that Ali has been in detention for only ‘a few months’ demonstrates a disregard for Ali’s constitutional rights, as well as the depressing reality of conditions at the DC Jail,” she wrote in releasing him last month. Huvelle added that Ali had recently spent 10 days in unwarranted solitary confinement, which “highlights the extremely stressful conditions that can accompany pretrial detention.”

Ali was out of jail for less than 24 hours last month before the appeals court reversed Huvelle and he was ordered back. Turley, the constitutional law expert, said the US “is now viewed as something of a rogue nation by civil libertarians - the biggest example being Guantanamo, where some detainees have been held for more than a decade without being charged with a crime.

Cases like Ali’s are fueling that perception of the US.” The US Attorney’s Office in Washington, which is prosecuting the case, declined to comment. According to the government indictment, pirates seized the M/V CEC Future in November 2008, and Ali boarded the boat a couple of days later. The government alleges that on behalf of the pirates, Ali, an English speaker, communicated with officials from Clipper Group, the ship’s owner, and demanded a $7 million ransom. Clipper eventually paid $1.7 million to the pirates, and a separate ransom to Ali of $75,000, the indictment says. The pirates’ siege lasted more than two months.

Ali was lured to the U.S. on a bogus invitation to attend an education conference in Raleigh, NC, and was arrested in April 2011, when he landed at Dulles International Airport outside Washington. “Those who negotiate and collect these ransoms are every bit as responsible for these crimes as the pirates who commandeer the ships,” US Attorney Ronald Machen said at the time.

Ali’s defense attorneys argue that he intended to board the ship as an “observer,” as some Western journalists were trying to do at the time, but the pirates refused unless he also acted as their translator.—AP

member. Young said he is now looked upon as “the dean on the Republican side.” Rep John Dingell, D-Mich, is the longest serving House member, with 57 years. Young wants his legacy to be one of working for the people. He counts among his legislative highlights passage of legislation that allowed for construction of the trans-Alaska pipeline system, which has become the state’s economic lifeline.

He has been an unapologetic supporter of earmarks as a way to bring home projects and build up infrastructure in the state, backing the derisively labeled “bridge to nowhere” project that would have connected Ketchikan to the island on which its airport sits.

His career also has been marred by investigations and criticism about his attendance record, which Democrats have hit him on. The House Ethics

Committee in March announced that it was forming a special panel to investigate whether Young failed to report gifts on disclosure forms, misused campaign funds and lied to federal officials.

He has said the FBI had found him “totally innocent.” Young, who won his last election with about 64 percent of the vote, also is known for his often colorful, sometimes offensive language, including the use of a slur to refer to Hispanic migrant workers. He apologized for the remark. Political commentator Michael Carey, in a June opinion piece in the Anchorage Daily News, said Young’s best days are behind him, but that it’s hard to imagine that Young would retire and spend his days painting or sunning himself on a Florida beach. “Forget it,” Carey wrote. “Don Young’s bucket list has one word on it: congressman.” —AP

Mosquitoes carrying dengue, yellow fever seen in California 500,000 people with dengue require hospitalization each year LOS ANGELES: A tropical mosquito known to carry potentially fatal diseases such as dengue and yellow fever has been detected in California, raising concerns among public health officials and prompting intense efforts to eradicate the insect. No illnesses associated with the mosquito, known by the scientific name Aedes aegypti, have been reported since it first appeared in California’s Central Valley in June, and none of the specimens trapped and tested has been found to be infected.

But the species’ feeding and breeding habits make it a voracious pest, which if allowed to propagate could pose a serious new health threat to the nation’s most populous state while diminishing its outdoor lifestyle, authorities say. The small dark mosquito, distinguished by white markings and banded legs, feeds aggressively during the day, is especially fond of humans, often bites indoors, and requires very little standing water to reproduce.

“If it gets established, it’s going to change the way we live in California,” Tim Phillips, manager of the Fresno Mosquito and Vector Control District, which identified some of the first small invaders, said on Wednesday. “We’re not going to be able to go out on the patio and have a beer or have a barbecue without being eaten up by these things,” he added. How Aedes aegypti was introduced to the California remains a mystery. Possible sources include imported potted plants or other small containers with water, Phillips said.

Native to tropical and subtropical regions, the species has already turned up in Hawaii, Arizona, Texas and parts of the US Southeast, Florida in particular. “We’re hoping to eradicate this species, but that will be challenging, and we’re certainly interested in whether it can survive the winter months in California,” said Vicki Kramer, chief of vector-borne diseases for the state Department of Public Health.

Vector-control authorities in Fresno, Madera and San Mateo counties, where the mosquito has been identified, are warning residents to empty bird baths, dog dishes, flower pots and other sources of standing water from around their homes.

Aggressive daytime feeder Homeowners are also advised to keep screens fastened over open windows and doors, to apply repellent when outside and to use mosquito netting over infant cribs, carriers and strollers. Mosquito abatement districts are using special pesticides in places where aegypti is found, but they need help from the public to pinpoint infestations. They say the biggest telltale sign is being bitten in the daytime.

Most mosquito species that are common to residential areas of California tend to feed at night. Others that bite during daylight hours are typically found in rural or undeveloped areas only, officials say. Aedes aegypti feels very much at home around humans, feeds most often in daylight, and it is a primary vector for both yellow fever and dengue. Moreover, its eggs can survive without moisture for up to two years without hatching, Phillips said.

For now, the risk of contracting either illness in California is low, because a mosquito would have to bite an already infected person then bite another person, experts

say. While there have been locally transmitted human cases of dengue reported in Florida this year, and occasional cases in Hawaii and Texas, all 183 cases documented in California since 2010 have been in people infected while traveling in Latin America, Asia or Africa, Kramer said.

Yellow fever in California is even more rare. The last known case was in 1999, she said. But the chances of local transmission rise as the incidence of “imported” human cases grows and the Aedes aegypti mosquito population expands. Dengue causes high fever, debilitating joint and muscle pain, headaches, vomiting and a skin rash. Yellow fever often begins with flu-like symptoms and can progress to a more severe phase that can lead to jaundice and internal bleeding. Both can be fatal. Worldwide, some 500,000 people with severe dengue require hospitalization each year, and 2.5 percent of those stricken die, according to the World Health Organization. It estimates the annual number of yellow fever cases worldwide at 200,000, resulting in 30,000 deaths a year. — Reuters

ALASKA: Spc. Alfred Smith of Wasilla, Alaska (left) introduces his son Skyler, nine months, to Staff Sgt Wayne Chaput of Juneau (right) and his daughter Sarah, 4, prior to a deployment departure ceremony for 53 Alaska Army National Guardsmen in the 761st Military Police Battalion on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska. The soldiers will travel to Fort Bliss, Texas, for final pre-mobilization training, joining 30 Guardsmen who left Alaska in September.— AP

Business FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Markets take a hit from Fed outlook

Mideast funds bullish on equities after bull run PAGE 21

PAGE 20

LOS ANGELES: Bottles of Huy Fong brand Sriracha chili sauce are seen for sale at a grocery store in Los Angeles, California. A row over spicy smells wafting from the Huy Fong factory is threatening to halt production of the popular chili sauce, as a judge mulls a legal challenge. — AFP

Hot sauce company sued over chili odors US spicy smell row threatens famous sauce supply LOS ANGELES: A small Southern California city has sued the makers of the popular Srirachabrand hot pepper sauce, saying tear-inducing odors emanating from its chili processing plant in town are creating a public nuisance. Irwindale officials said they plan to ask a Los Angeles County judge yesterday for a court order forcing Huy Fong Foods to immediately halt production of Sriracha (pronounced sir-RAH-chah) at its chili factory while review of the case continues.

The lawsuit, filed on Monday, says the company has denied a problem exists and refused to take action to abate fumes powerful enough to prompt some “residents to move outdoor activities indoors and even to vacate their residences temporarily to seek relief.” Since mid-September, Irwindale, about 20 miles east of Los Angeles, has received numerous reports from residents complaining of “strong, offensive chili odors” that cause eye and throat irritation and headaches, the suit says. City officials said they have met twice with company executives and cited the firm for violating public nuisance ordinances, all to no avail.

The company declined requests by Reuters to comment on the dispute. But Huy Fong Foods owner David Tran told local public radio station

KPCC this week that he has installed filters on rooftop vents at the factory that he says absorb about 90 percent of the chili and garlic odors from the processing exhaust. “To filter 100 percent, I haven’t found any engineer (that) can do it,” Tran

said. City manager John Davidson said Irwindale officials consulted with an environmental chemist who toured the factory this month and devised a filtering system that should address 99 percent of the issue. But he acknowledged it would cost as

Britain mulls tax on property investors LONDON: Britain is considering imposing capital gains tax on foreign property investors in an effort to tackle soaring house prices in the capital, Sky News reported yesterday citing unidentified sources. It said the Treasury had provisionally costed the measure and was awaiting a final decision from finance minister George Osborne ahead of his budget update, known as the “Autumn Statement”, on Dec 4. The Treasury said Sky’s story was “pre-Autumn Statement speculation” and declined to comment further.

House prices in London are rising at an

annual pace of more than 10 percent, according to property website Rightmove, buoyed by strong demand from overseas buyers. Britons have to pay capital gains tax - typically at 28 percent - if they make a profit when reselling any property that is not considered their primary residence. But foreign property investors have hitherto been exempt, unlike in many other European countries. The plight of firsttime homebuyers has moved up the political agenda in Britain where property prices nationally are rising at around 6 percent - more than 8 times faster than average incomes.—Reuters

much as $600,000 to build, purchase and install.

Tran, an ethnic Chinese immigrant from Vietnam, founded his company in Los Angeles in 1980 and opened a plant in the neighboring town of Rosemead a few years later. He recently opened the Irwindale facility to expand his capacity.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the company produces up to 200,000 bottles of hot sauce a day and sold more than $60 million worth last year.

The red-colored Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce, sold in clear plastic bottles with a green cap and trademark rooster logo, is made from locally grown Jalapeno peppers, garlic and other ingredients. It ranks as Tran’s leading product.

In recent years it has grown into one of the top-selling bottled sauces in the United States as spicy international cuisine has exploded in popularity, with salsa replacing ketchup as America’s No 1 condiment. Sriracha, celebrated as the ingredient of the year for 2010 by Bon Appetit magazine, has inspired cookbooks, a food festival, a movie documentary and a potato chip flavor. Tran told the Los Angeles Times he has done the best he could to control fumes from his plant and that the pungent qualities of his chilies make for a better sauce, saying, “If it doesn’t smell, we can’t sell.”— Reuters

Business FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Markets take a hit from Fed outlook Tapering remains data-dependent

RIO DE JANEIRO: A man walks past the headquarters building of Brazilian oil firm OGX, seen with its windows broken by protestors, in downtown Rio de Janeiro. Shares of Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista’s crippled oil firm OGX tumbled 17.39 percent to a record low of $0.09 at the opening bell on the Sao Paulo bourse. — AFP

The spectacular rise and fall of Brazil’s Eike Batista SAO PAULO: Once Brazil’s richest man, Eike Batista’s dream of becoming the wealthiest person on the planet went up in smoke with the collapse of his flagship oil firm OGX. Wednesday, OGX filed for bankruptcy protection in Rio to avert default after debt-restructuring talks with creditors failed. Credit rating agency Moody’s said that with OGX’s debts of up to $5.4 billion, it would be the biggest bankruptcy protection process in Latin America since 1990.

Known or his passion for speedboats, Batista, who turns 57 Sunday, came to symbolize the world’s infatuation with emerging behemoth Brazil, luring foreign investors to his grandiose oil projects.

The Brazilian tycoon’s EBX conglomerate of commodities and energy businesses include OGX, MPX (energy), LLX (logistics), MMX (mining), OSX (offshore oil and gas services) and other firms. His companies quickly grew on financial markets thanks to oil production promises that did not materialize and ultimately turned investors away. “OGX sold very well without having a single barrel of oil,” analyst Marcelo Pereira of the Sao Paulo-based Tag Investimentos consulting firm said. “I fell for it. When you live in a country where huge oil reserves are discovered why could I not have been blessed with one of them?,” Batista said in interview with the Wall Street Journal in September.

A little over a year ago, he ranked as Brazil’s richest man and 7th among the world’s billionaires. His net worth was then estimated at $30 billion but today his wealth has shrunk to $900 million, according to Forbes magazine. With most of his assets made up of company shares, his fortune could shrink even further, added the magazine, to which Batista confided a few years ago that he wanted to become “the wealthiest person on the planet.”

In early October, Batista’s dreams turned into a nightmare when OGX announced it would forgo a $44.5 million interest payment to its international creditors. Tuesday, OGX said debt restructuring talks with creditors has failed. Eccentric and superstitious, this son of a former mines and energy minister and a German mother, once launched a book with 10 recipes to become a millionaire. He is reported to be keeping a silver sports car parked in his living room in pristine condition, with no one allowed to drive it.

Among his superstitions an obsessive inclusion of the number 63, including the letter X to the names of all the companies he created within his EBX empire (“X to multiply profits”). He is also known for his generous donations and helped finance a variety of cultural, sporting and environmental projects across Brazil. He also leads a consortium which controversially won the concession for Rio’s iconic Maracana stadium which will host several World Cup games next year. Batista has blamed his financial woes on bad luck and also said he was “misled” by some of his aides. —AFP

LONDON: Markets suffered a glancing blow yesterday after the US Federal Reserve’s latest outlook was deemed less alarmist about the state of the economy than some had wagered, lifting both bond yields and the dollar. The impact was mostly superficial, with European shares opening down just 0.2 percent after MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan had edged back 0.6 percent. In Asia, sentiment was helped by the Bank of Japan’s decision to stick with a massive stimulus program that has shown tentative signs of breaking the grip of deflation.

And in Europe, some mildly disappointing German retail and French consumer data focused attention on the European Central Bank as one of its policymakers hinted at further injections of cheap cash.

That all helped lessen the drag from Wall Street, which had slipped after the US central bank kept its $85 billion-a-month stimulus plan intact but did not sound quite as alarmed about the state of the economy as some had anticipated.

Given US shares had reached record highs this week, the resulting profit-taking came as no surprise. The MSCI world equity index, which tracks 45 countries, eased 0.3 percent from a high not seen since January 2008. Dealers said the market had talked itself into expecting the Fed would make “dovish” changes to its statement in favor of holding off longer with any monetary

tightening. So it was somehow considered “hawkish” when those did not materialize.

“We interpreted the statement as neutral and balanced and think the Fed is essentially in a holding pattern,” said analysts at Australia and New Zealand Bank.

US-based Citibank moved its prediction for the Fed’s first trimming of bond-buying forward to January and shortened the odds on a December move. But the vast majority of analysts still pointed to it holding off until later in the new year. The Fed funds futures barely budged on the statement and short-dated Treasury yields stayed well anchored while the longer end moved up only modestly. Yields on the 10year note were steady at 2.53 percent.

ECB FOCUS Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 25 points by 0830 GMT, or close to 0.4 percent, Germany’s DAX 0.4 percent and France’s CAC 40 0.3 percent. But with those markets in general hovering near 5-year highs there were few concerns. A survey of Japanese manufacturing out yesterday showed activity accelerated to its fastest in more than three years in September, although Japan’s Nikkei fell 1.2 percent in late trading as corporate earnings from the likes of Honda Motor Co Ltd disappointed investors.

There was some soft European data to contend with. Euro zone unemployment

was steady at a record high in September, German retail and French consumer was weaker-than expected while the pace of inflation slowed to a near 4-year low. “In Europe the story is gradually becoming one of slow inflation again and that should be an additional argument for the ECB to do more.” said Jan von Gerich, chief developed markets strategist for Nordea.

Benchmark European government bonds, were a touch softer amid the focus on ECB monetary policy. Speaking in a TV interview, Ewald Nowotny, one of its longest serving policymakers said the central bank would provide more liquidity by the time cheap long-term loans it made in late 2011 and early 2012 expire. The dollar index was fractionally higher on the day at 79.782 despite signs momentum was fading. The euro dipped to $1.3696.

The New Zealand dollar bounced after the country’s central bank said increases in interest rates were still likely to be needed next year, putting it well ahead of most other developed economies in tightening.

The currency rallied as much as half a US cent in reaction, though the central bank also noted that a strong currency meant it might be able to wait longer before having to raise rates. Spot gold faded after rising the most in a week at one stage on Wednesday. It fetched $1,336.20 an ounce on Thursday. Brent crude eased 31 cents to $109.25 a barrel. — Reuters

IMF pressurizing Ukraine to increase gas prices at home KIEV: An International Monetary Fund mission visiting Ukraine has urged the government to raise gas prices for domestic consumers and introduce a flexible exchange rate for the national currency, the hryvnia, a Fund official said yesterday. Jerome Vacher, the IMF’s resident representative in Kiev, told a ratings conference that these were among recommendations made by a Fund team which has just ended a 10-day trip to the ex-Soviet republic. “Measures included a flexible exchange rate, strengthening of the banking system, fiscal adjustment, reform of the energy sector (and) substantial improvement of the business environment,” Vacher told the annual Fitch ratings conference.

He made clear that by energy reform the IMF meant raising the tariffs for domestic consumers of gas - both industry and households - something long opposed by the government.

A previous $15 billion stand-by IMF program was frozen in early 2011 after Kiev refused to end Soviet-era subsidies and raise prices in the household gas and heating sector. Raising gas prices at home would be highly unpopular for President Viktor Yanukovich’s government, with a presidential election due in early 2015, and the issue remains a stumbling block in the way of any new loan deal with the IMF. At the same time, Ukraine, which

hopes to sign landmark agreements in November with the European Union marking a swing westwards away from Russia, needs new credits to shore up foreign currency reserves and meet big foreign debt repayments next year, including to the Fund. The call for a flexible exchange rate has also been made many

times by the IMF, which believes it will help narrow the trade gap between exports and imports. But the national bank, through a policy of regular interventions and other regulatory measures, prefers to keep the hryvnia pegged at 8 to the dollar for political reasons, presenting it as a symbol of stability. — Reuters

Air France-KLM pulls out of danger zone PARIS: Air France-KLM reported a sharp climb in its flight out of crisis yesterday, but delayed the timetable for getting over its debt mountain. The airline, considered at risk of failing two years ago, reported that third-quarter operating profit leapt by nearly a third thanks to restructuring efforts. But the net figure fell by half because of a writedown of the group’s interest in Alitalia which has just averted insolvency.

Air France-KLM is restructuring to pull out of deep financial problems and cope with low-cost competition, and chief executive Alexandre de Juniac said that the operating figure was “very encouraging” as a sign that the measures were working.

Operating profit jumped by 29.1 percent to 634 million euros ($868.6 million), in line with analysts’ expectations and up from 491 million euros in the same quarter last year. Net profit fell to 144 million euros from 296 million euros. This reflected a tax charge of 140 million euros and a factor of 137 million euros on an equivalence basis for results and write-downs for its interests in Italian airline Alitalia.

Air France-KLM said in a statement that the writedown reflected “the share in the results and the depreciation of the residual value of Alitalia shares.” Air FranceKLM owns 25.0 percent of Alitalia and has until the middle of November to decide whether or not to subscribe to a capital increase by the Italian company. But the restructuring program at Air France-KLM, called Transform 2015, continued to bear fruit and the group said it had been able to reduce unit costs. On the basis of these results, the group held to its targets for the whole of 2013. —AFP

Business FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Red ink runs at Sony again, cuts profit forecast TOKYO: The “White House Down” flop added to earnings woes at Sony Corp. in the latest quarter, dragging the entertainment and electronics giant to a 19.3 billion yen ($196 million) loss. The action movie’s lackluster box office, especially compared with last year’s releases of “21 Jump Street” and “The Amazing Spider Man,” contributed to a 17.8 billion yen ($181 million) operating loss for Sony’s pictures division, the company said yesterday. The company slashed its profit forecast for the fiscal year ending in March to 30 billion yen from 50 billion yen, reflecting deep-seated problems in its electronics business, televisions in particular, and the disappointing performance at Sony Pictures.

“White House Down” starred Jamie Foxx as President of the United States and Channing Tatum as a Capitol police officer who ends up as the president’s impromptu

bodyguard while touring the executive residence with his daughter just as a band of rogue former soldiers and government employees attack. Milder in its violence, it appeared to suffer from comparisons with “Olympus Has Fallen,” a slightly earlier release featuring a former North Korean terrorist who takes the president hostage.

Sony’s sales for the July-September quarter rose 10.6 percent from a year earlier to 1.78 trillion yen ($18.1 billion), thanks mainly to the favorable impact of the yen’s decline against the US dollar. Adjusted for the 20 percent drop in the value of the yen, revenue fell 9 percent. The company’s sales of digital cameras and video cameras fell while its television, music and smartphone businesses improved. Sales of its Xperia Z smartphone helped and are expected to remain strong, the company said.

Although sales of televisions and per-

sonal computers improved slightly from earlier in the year, they were lower than the same quarter of 2012. “The electronics business is declining beyond expectations” due to shrinking sales of televisions and other audio-visual equipment, along with slowing growth in major emerging markets such as China, the company said in its presentation.

“Sony expects its business environment to continue to be severe in the second half of the fiscal year,” it said. Sony said it is striving to improve profitability at its troubled television division by focusing on sales of higher cost products such as its 4K LCD TVs. The company, which has suffered declining fortunes for several years, is also gearing up for the launch of its PlayStation 4 game machine. But it still faces fierce competition from Apple Inc’s iPad and iPhone as well as from powerful South Korean rival Samsung Electronics Co. Sony

sank to record losses for the fiscal year ended March 2012, reporting the worst result in the company’s six decade history. Still, its loss for April to September narrowed to 15.8 billion yen ($161 million) from 40 billion yen in the first half of the previous fiscal year.

Rival Panasonic, meanwhile, said its quarterly profit improved to 63.3 billion yen ($644 million) from a 698.6 billion yen loss the year before. Panasonic, like Sony, has benefited from weaker yen. While its domestic sales fell 4 percent, sales overseas climbed 11 percent. Total revenue of 1.88 trillion yen ($19.1 billion) was up 3 percent from a year earlier after taking a hit from the sale of Sanyo businesses carried out in the current fiscal year. Panasonic raised its sales forecast to 7.4 trillion yen ($75.3 billion) and doubled its profit forecast for the fiscal year to 100 billion yen ($1 billion).— AP

Mideast funds still bullish on equities after bull run Optimism towards Egypt continues to grow

JAKARTA: Indonesian workers stage a rally along Jakarta’s main road and block traffic yesterday during a two-day nationwide strike. — AFP

Strike paralyzes Indonesia JAKARTA: Tens of thousands of workers went on strike across Indonesia yesterday, in the latest industrial action to hit Southeast Asia’s top economy as its citizens seek a greater share of the spoils from stellar growth. But the police estimate of participation in the strike was only around 100,000, far below the three million unions had predicted, taking some pressure off the government and employers who are seeking to limit wage increases.

Unions earlier claimed two million downed tools on day one of the two-day nationwide strike, but crowds appeared small in many cities and police forces across the country mostly reported only minor walk-outs.

The strike was called for workers to demand hefty pay rises as the cost of living skyrockets due to surging inflation, which has been driven up in recent months by an unpopular fuel price hike.

While the industrial action was smaller than anticipated, it still closed many factories around the country that produce everything from clothes to electronics, often for international companies. By far the biggest strikes were in Jakarta and the industrial hub of Bekasi just outside the capital, with around 60,000 people walking out in the area.

Security was tight with more than 150,000 police mobilized across the country. In Pulogadung industrial estate in East Jakarta, thousands of workers in uniform marched past deserted factories, led by a truck with people shouting from loudspeakers.

Hundreds of strikers rode motorcycles, waved banners and shouted: “Long live the workers” and “Raise our pay”. “I am not asking to live in a castle or sleep on a bed of gold, just for what we deserve from working so hard to contribute to the economy,” said Achmad, 46, a welder who, like many Indonesians, goes by one name.

Elsewhere, police said around 5,000 took part in the strike in Surabaya in East Java province, and 1,000 downed tools in Makassar on the central island of Sulawesi. National police spokesman Ronny Sompie said: “There were more than 100,000 workers who went on strike today, and most of them were also part of labor protests across Indonesia.—AFP

DUBAI: Fund managers in the Middle East show little sign of taking money off the table as a year of strong gains for Gulf stock markets nears its end, a Reuters survey showed. Dubai’s market, rebounding from the bursting of a real estate bubble in 2008-2010, is up 80 percent so far this year, while Kuwait is up 33 percent and Saudi Arabia has gained 18 percent. While normally such gains might be expected to invite heavy profit-taking, most fund managers in the monthly survey of 16 leading Middle East-based investment institutions said they felt the markets had enough momentum to keep rising.

The survey, conducted in the past 10 days by Trading Middle East, a Reuters forum for market professionals, found 56 percent of the managers saying they expected to increase their overall equity allocation to the Middle East in the next three months, while only 6 percent expected to reduce it. That was slightly more bullish than September, when 50 percent expected to increase equity allocations and 13 percent to decrease them. “We do not see any resolution (other than postponing) to the biggest challenge in the global markets, namely, unwinding of leverage,” said Tariq Qaqish, head of asset management at Al Mal Capital in the United Arab Emirates.

“With this in mind, we expect investors to embrace more risk until the Fed (US central bank) eventually starts tapering its quantitative easing program. We continue to remain positive on equities as an outperforming asset class.” Because of the spectacular gains in United Arab Emirates stock markets, opinion among fund managers is most sharply divided about them. Twenty-five percent of managers in the latest survey expected to increase their UAE equity allocations and 25 percent to decrease them, while the rest intended to keep them the same. In the September survey, the figures were 31 percent for an increase and 38 percent for a decrease.

“We all believe the strong fundamen-

tals that Dubai and Abu Dhabi have, and yes we agree that markets were undervalued, but after making around 80 percent in 10 months, I think we should underweight UAE and be cautious since we might see the correction very soon,” said Abdullah Al Durdunji, chief treasury officer at the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development. But Mohammed Ali Yasin, managing director at NBAD Securities, said much would depend on whether Dubai was in late November awarded the right to host the 2020 World Expo. It is competing for that right with three other cities.

A win could help to justify heavy real estate and infrastructure investment in Dubai, and could push Dubai’s stock index towards a gain of 100 percent for this year, Yasin said. If its Expo bid is unsuccessful, the market could trim this year’s gains to 65-70 percent. The latest survey also showed slightly less opti-

mism about Saudi Arabian equities; 56 percent of fund managers said they expected to increase their allocations there, compared to 75 percent in September.

Disappointing third-quarter earnings from several Saudi consumer sector companies, which previously were heavily bought by local retail investors, have knocked that market back moderately in the last several days. The survey suggested sentiment towards Egypt continues to improve gradually as fund managers hope the political and economic environment there will stabilize next year after planned elections. Forty-four percent of managers expected to raise their equity allocations to Egypt in the next three months, while 19 percent expected to decrease them. In September, 38 percent expected to increase their Egyptian investment. — Reuters

AUB seeks to complete Gulf jigsaw with M&A MANAMA: Bahrain-based Ahli United Bank (AUB) is looking for acquisitions in its existing markets and in new ones as it tries to build a network across the Middle East, its chief executive said. Its desire to expand across borders reflects a trend among Gulf banks, which are increasingly outgrowing their home markets. Rising trade and travel among the six nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are also pushing the region’s banks to become more international. AUB, with operations in six Middle East and North African countries as well as the United Kingdom, wants a presence in the three GCC states where it currently has no base - the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar plus Turkey.

“We have not completed the jigsaw,” Adel El-Labban said in an interview for

the Reuters Middle East Investment Summit, adding that AUB aimed to buy majority stakes or stakes as large as local law allowed a foreign party to own. He wouldn’t be drawn on whether the bank was looking at any specific deals currently. AUB has been built on acquisitions since it was formed in May 2000 through the merger of United Bank of Kuwait and Al-Ahli Commercial Bank; ElLabban said the lender had looked at around 25 deals since formation.

However, obtaining enough information about potential targets in the region can be difficult, while the political environment in the Middle East has shifted dramatically in the last three years, he said. “The risk level within Arab Spring countries and non-Arab Spring countries is much higher today than it was four or five years ago.” —Reuters

Business FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Bank of Fujairah eyes growth as northern emirate prospers Port makes Fujairah increasingly important to UAE

ATHENS: Disabled people in wheelchairs demonstrate outside the ministry of labor in Athens during a protest rally against their benefits’ cuts and the austerity measures yesterday. The disabled asked for their exclusion from the new property tax. — AFP

Euro-zone inflation hits four-year lows BRUSSELS: Euro-zone inflation dropped sharply to nearly fouryear lows in October and unemployment stuck at record highs in September, increasing pressure on the European Central Bank to do more to protect economic recovery. Inflation fell to 0.7 percent year-on-year in October - the lowest reading since November 2009 - a flash estimate from the European Union’s statistics office showed yesterday. It was lower than any forecast from economists in a Reuters poll.

The inflation rate dropped below 1 percent for the first time since February 2010. Analysts had expected the inflation rate to be unchanged at 1.1 percent in October. The ECB, which meets nect Thursday, wants to keep inflation below, but close to 2 percent over the medium term. Its main refinancing rate is now already at a record low of 0.5 percent.

“We see December as the most probable timing for a 25 basis points cut in the refi rate, in tandem with another round of low staff projections for inflation, including for 2015,” Ken Wattret, chief euro- zone market economist at BNP Paribas said. The 9.5 trillion euro economy of 17 countries sharing the single currency returned to growth in the second quarter but fiscal consolidation, high unemployment and weak business and consumer confidence are preventing a more robust rebound.

Adding to factors in favor of a rate cut was the strength of the euro, which has been appreciating since early September, although on the day the inflation data and increased chances of a rate cut sent to euro lower to 1.3660 against the dollar from 1.3690. Eurostat said that costs of food, alcohol and tobacco products rose by 1.9 percent, but at the same time prices of energy fell 1.7 percent year on year. Excludes prices of energy, food alcohol and tobacco, inflation slowed to 1.1 percent year-on-year from 1.4 percent in September, Eurostat said.

RECORD HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT Price growth is also kept in check by record high unemployment. Eurostat previously reported that the number of people out of work fell to 12.0 percent of the workforce in August, raising hopes of a turnaround in the labor market. But yesterday it revised the August number up to 12.2 percent and said the rate had not changed in September. In absolute figures, the number of people without work even increased by 60,000 in September against August to 19.447 million people.

The global financial crisis, followed by European sovereign debt crisis wiped out hundreds of thousands of jobs over the past four years and no swift turnaround is in sight as job problems in Europe are of structural and long-term nature. Young Europeans, aged 15-24, are the ones most affected. Youth jobless rates in European Union countries like Spain, Greece and Croatia are above 50 percent. They are below 10 percent only in Germany and Austria. European Commissioner for Employment Laszlo Andor, in reaction to the September data, said the rate was unacceptably high and continued to undermine a more robust economic recovery. The unemployment rate in Germany edged lower to 5.2 percent after being flat for three consecutive months, while the second largest economy France and third largest Italy registered a modest increase in their jobless rates in September.

European leaders made the fight against high unemployment one of key priorities. The ECB also considers the unemployment rate unacceptably high as Europe risks losing a generation of young workers if it fails to address the problem and revive growth. “The latest figures put a dent in hopes that the labor market may have reached a turning point,” Ben May, European economist at Capital Economics said. — Reuters

DUBAI: National Bank of Fujairah (NBF) may open trade finance offices in Africa as part of an expansion of foreign business that is taking the bank far from its roots in one of the more remote, less developed parts of the United Arab Emirates. With its home base in the small emirate of Fujairah, one of the seven members of the UAE, the bank does not have the same wealthy background as competitors from Abu Dhabi or Dubai. But it is now benefiting from an economic shift within the UAE: as the wealthy southern emirates grow, money is spilling across their borders into the north.

Meanwhile Fujairah, with a population of only about 190,000 people but a port on the Gulf of Oman, is prospering as a trading channel between the other emirates and the rest of the world - a channel which NBF is keen to exploit. “We’ve consistently seen over this year a 30 percent range of year-on-year growth in net profit and we see that continuing because it’s not coming from a one-off,” NBF’s chief executive Vince Cook said.

Earnings growth at the bank, which is owned 40 percent by Fujairah’s royal family and 10 percent by Investment Corp of Dubai, is being driven by trade financing revenues, credit facilities and debt advisory services, he told the Reuters Middle East Investment Summit. NBF’s net profit for the first nine months of this year jumped

31 percent from a year earlier to 286.4 million dirhams ($78.0 million). Loans and advances rose to 13.9 billion dirhams at end-September from 12.2 billion dirhams at the end of 2012.

FOREIGN TRADE Fujairah became strategically more important to the UAE last year when the emirate opened an oil pipeline with a capacity of up to 1.8 million barrels a day, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz and Iranian threats to block that shipping route if geopolitical tensions worsen. Officials have said the pipeline will carry most of Abu Dhabi’s oil exports. A string of projects has begun to expand oil storage facilities and possibly build a second refinery in Fujairah. Also, the UAE’s non-oil foreign trade is growing rapidly, particularly with Asia and Africa; Dubai’s non-oil trade rose 16 percent from a year earlier in the first half of 2013. Fujairah can profit by serving some of that business.

“Trade is a relatively high percentage of the bank’s overall business and we believe more growth will come from trade,” said Cook. “Supporting Fujairah’s interests, particularly in the marine, oil and gas activities plus precious metals, in particular the gold business, will feed into some elements of the bank’s trade finance business.” Cook said NBF had recently opened a company in Hong Kong to process trade

deals and facilitate letters of credit into the Far East, and would look at opening similar offices in Africa. “We would like to increase our coverage in Africa - sort of what they call the south-south channel of trade.”

BRANCHES NBF also plans to expand its current network of 14 branches in the UAE with “a couple” new ones next year. The bank expects to step up its financing advisory services and debt capital market activities given high funding needs for projects in Fujairah, particularly expansion of the port, bunkering facilities and an airport, and development of the arid coastline. It is looking at starting a capital markets program next year to diversify its sources of funding. “We have traditionally had one main bank syndication that we have relied upon for our medium-term funding needs and that matures next year,” Cook said.

“Going forward, we’ll probably break that into smaller transactions and maybe more bilateral transactions with partner banks, and then maybe do a capital market program starting sometime next year that will enable us to issue paper on an orderly basis.” Cook predicted non-performing loans would shrink to about 5.0 percent by year-end from the current 5.7 percent, and then gradually fall to “normal” levels of 2-3 percent. — Reuters

Lukoil project must fuel better life: Iraq’s tribes Tribes want more jobs, drinkable water BASRA: Sheikh Mansour Hamid Al-Imara clutches his prayer beads and watches a huge new oil facility nearing completion across the road from his village, hoping that Russian operator Lukoil will offer his poor tribesmen a better way of life. “When the lights are on at the Lukoil plant, it’s a victory for us,” he said, sipping tea with tribal elders in their reed meeting house, 65 kilometers northwest of the southern oil hub of Basra.

“We are sitting on a huge pool of oil and want to take advantage of our resources.

And the people of our tribe should be the first to be employed.”

After struggling for decades from sanctions and wars, most recently the US-led invasion from 2003-2011, expectations run high among the 150,000 tribesmen living on West Qurna-2, the world’s second-largest undeveloped oilfield. Their sheer number leaves Lukoil with a far tougher challenge than rival firms operating the huge but sparsely populated fields nearby. It has been an uneasy co-existence since Lukoil’s arrival here two years ago sparked tribal disputes that set back the start of the $30 billion project - crucial to Iraq’s oil expansion by more than a year to early 2014. Russia’s No 2 oil producer moved swiftly to repair relations, hiring thousands of locals and supplying equipment for educational, medical and sports institutions. West Qurna-2 now employs about 11,000, two-thirds of

whom are Iraqi nationals, according to Lukoil. “We can see that the living conditions and economic situation in the village have got much better,” said security manager Ibrahim al-Maliki of South Oil Co (SOC), the Iraqi state partner in the project.

“Lukoil has done a better job than the other foreign oil companies when it comes to social development projects.” But the Imara sheikhs say Lukoil needs to do more for their tribe, which dwells on the outskirts of the marshes, where miles of wasteland are dotted with baked mud huts, stagnant canals and palm trees. “The water here is not fit to drink, and there are no clinics with specialist doctors or primary schools,” said sheikh Qahtan, senior chieftain of the Imara tribe. “I am not very happy with Lukoil. They employ few of our people, make them work 12-hour days and pay them about $1,000 a month.”

DILAPIDATED INFRASTRUCTURE When it comes to infrastructure, there are limits to what Lukoil can do to reverse the damage done by more than a decade of international sanctions after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, and by the late former president Saddam Hussein, who accused the Marsh Arabs of treason during the 1980-88 war with Iran and drained the wetland.

“Lukoil, together with SOC, is trying to find a way for improving the quality of water that

is used by the local people,” said Kirill Smolyakov, director of external affairs at Lukoil Overseas Baltic. “But these types of demands and claims go beyond the scope of Iraq’s oil service contract. Nevertheless, our company makes a great effort to support the local population through social projects.”

As for employment opportunities, the main problem for Lukoil, acknowledged by the sheikhs, is that a generation of neglect has left many tribesmen illiterate and unmotivated. “Many of our young people are unskilled and don’t really want to work.

And they are not familiar with the way that foreign companies do things,” said sheikh Sadiq Al-Imara. “We need Lukoil to teach them how to work.” Lukoil says it has been doing just that since 2011 at its nearby training centre, which can enrol up to 350 students. “Hundreds of local welders, carpenters, electricians, mechanics and riggers have become highly qualified workers,” said Smolyakov. “After finishing work at the West Qurna-2 project, they can easily find wellpaid jobs in other regions.” For its part, the Imara tribe has sought to sustain good relations with Lukoil. Its tribal elders settled a major dispute in April that saw hundreds of protesters block a main entrance of the oilfield, demanding jobs. “If the companies are good to us, we will protect them until death,” said sheikh Qahtan.—Reuters

THEY ARE THE 99!

99 Mystical Noor Stones carry all that is left of the wisdom and knowledge of the lost civilization of Baghdad. But the Noor Stones lie scattered across the globe - now little more than a legend. One man has made it his life’s mission to seek out what was lost.

His name is Dr. Ramzi Razem and he has searched fruitlessly for the Noor Stones all his life. Now, his luck is about to change - the first of the stones have been rediscovered and with them a special type of human who can unlock the gem’s mystical power.

Ramzi brings these gem - bearers together to form a new force for good in the world.

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THE FASCINATING STORY OF THE 99 Jabbar the Powerful, Samda the Invulnerable, and Noora the Light dive deep into the Pacific Ocean to rescue a trapped group of sharks from a sunken military vessel. But once released, the sharks sever Noora’s and Samda’s air hoses, and the two 99 members find

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themselves trapped inside Samda’s force field with a dwindling supply of air… @THE99Comics

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The 99 ® and all related characters ® and © 2013, Teshkeel Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

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26

Opinion FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Twitter aims high, but faces hurdles

By Rob Lever

H

ow does a company that has lost millions since 2010 and never made a profit raise $1.6 billion in a public offering and reach a value of some $11 billion? Say hello to Twitter, which could become the next behemoth in the new world of technology - or another flash in the pan.

“What Twitter believes is that they have a massive opportunity to become a ubiquitous global platform and they are spending ahead of that,” said Lou Kerner, founder of the Social Internet Fund, an investment firm specializing in social media. “If they achieve that, they will be massively valuable, and if they don’t, it is massively overpriced.”

The popular messaging platform, which could make its stock market debut in the early days of November, seeks to raise as much as $1.6 billion.

The IPO suggests a market value for the social network of between $9.3 billion and $11.1 billion - a conservative amount compared to estimates by some analysts. Kerner said Twitter is losing money because of its investments in technology and people, taking the long view that it could grow from a niche service - with some 232 million users around the world - to one much bigger. The key is getting more users - or “eyeballs” in tech language on the service on a regular basis. “If they can get the eyeballs, they can monetize them,” Kerner said. But he added that “the simplicity which makes Twitter compelling also makes it vulnerable to risk,” which could see rivals such as Snapchat or others overtake it.

The research firm eMarketer estimates that Twitter will bring in $582.8 million in global ad revenue this year, and nearly $1 billion in 2014. Michael Pachter, head of equity research for Wedbush Securities, said Twitter has a unique product and is poised for massive growth. “They have barely scratched the surface,” Pachter told AFP. “They have attracted about 10 percent of the interesting people in the world who should be on Twitter.”

Pachter said he sees no real competition for Twitter because it has “critical mass,” with no other platform threatening it.

Aswath Damodaran, a New York University finance professor, said Twitter’s investments for research and development are the reasons for its losses “and capitalizing that value does make the company very mildly profitable.” Since 2010, Twitter has lost more than $440 million. But “it remains a young company with significant growth potential in a competitive market,” Damodaran said in a blog post. Looking 10 years out, he sees Twitter revenues in 2023 of $11.2 billion and the operating profit margin of 25 percent.

Damodaran said Twitter, learning a lesson from Facebook’s IPO fiasco, has set the initial pricing low with a relatively modest amount of shares offered.

This suggests an “underpricing of 20 percent,” which he said seems to be an intentional long-term strategy. “The existing investors in Twitter... are willing accomplices in this pricing process, who view the loss on the opening day as a small cost to pay for a more lucrative later exit,” he said in a blog post. Twitter began advertising in the form of “promoted tweets” in 2011 and has been finding new ways to expand this, with ads targeted to user interests. Twitter’s influence may be disproportionately high because of the large number of celebrities, journalists and world leaders who use the platform. Yet Twitter could fall flat like some other former tech stars, argues Trip Chowdhry at Global Equities Research, claiming that the IPO documents are short of key details, such as the competitive threats.

Chowdhry said Internet users are spending more time on Twitter alternatives like WhatsApp, SnapChat, Skype IM and Apple iMessage. And he says Twitter has a tough task to keep pace with the “visual Web” trend, of photo sharing, using services like Pinterest and Facebook’s Instagram. Just in the past days, Twitter announced a revamp of its page feeds to become more visual, which some say make it more like Facebook, or Instagram for mobile users. Another advantage is that this creates an opportunity for display-type advertising, which could be a major revenue source. But Chowdhry said Twitter “will need to spend a huge amount of money investing in data centers to catch up with the visual aspects of the social networks to remain competitive with Google, Facebook and Yahoo.” —AFP

A sign is seen outside of Twitter’s headquarters on Oct 25, 2013 in San Francisco. — AFP

Liquidity swell to spill

By Mike Dolan

A

fter a bone-dry summer, world markets seem awash with cash again and it looks like spilling into 2014. Even though the US Federal Reserve has kept its $85 billion-a-month of bond buying constant throughout, fevered speculation surrounding its easy money spigot has by itself dictated the massive ebb and flow of liquidity seen this year.

The rethink of Fed intentions after September 18 - when the central bank declined to cut back its asset purchases as expected - has raised all financial boats in one big wave.

Since the Fed demurred six weeks ago, the S&P500 index of top Wall St stocks has jumped 3.5 percent. So too have 10-year US Treasury bonds. High-yield corporate “junk” bonds are also up more than 3 percent, as are gold and the euro. Even indices of the most esoteric and speculative ‘frontier markets’ have added more than 3 percent. The global surge has been remarkable as an evaporation of this year’s US dollar’s gains has removed huge pressure from emerging market currencies and, in turn, eased the strain on some $7.2 trillion of emerging central bank reserves. And given these reserves are largely banked in western bonds, a virtuous circle of liquidity appears to have formed.

And by pumping up the euro and Japanese yen, the retreating dollar has upped chances of further easing - quantitative or otherwise - by the Bank of Japan and European Central Bank. The global liquidity pool - one seeded by central banks and supercharged by the markets themselves - seems to expand anew. Major stock markets from Tokyo, London, Frankfurt and New York have now clocked up

year-to-date gains of between 20 and 30 percent and the latter two are in uncharted territory.

Property hotspots in many of the same locales are similarly motoring.

Is this the mirror of the financial bubble that blew up pre-2007, as long-term bears such as Societe Generale’s Albert Edwards insist it is? With huge amounts of spare capacity still across developed labour markets and economies and little or no sign of rising inflation, policymakers seemed unperturbed. But scale of money building up appears very real.

‘Most Extreme Ever’ JPMorgan analysts reckon investor flows behind the latest market surge are akin to the indiscriminate, liquidity-fueled equity and bond buying seen at the start of the year before talk of Fed tapering saw an equity bias emerge as many funds fled bonds and the economy sped up. More “Asset Reflation” than “Great Rotation” this time around, they surmise. To be sure, US Mutual fund data from Thomson Reuters’ Lipper showed that last week alone there were hefty net inflows to equity, bond and money funds alike - more than $11 billion net to domestic equity, almost $5 billion to overseas equity and more than 3 billion to all taxable bond funds.

So what’s the scale of this global sea of liquidity? JPM splits the notion of liquidity into two buckets - one looks at how the banking system absorbs and distributes new QE money from central banks and another is the broad view of money supply in the wider economy of households, firms and investors. The former can be febrile, as we saw during the summer. When the central banks

pump in new zero-yielding money, or excess reserves to the banking system, the banks just buy bills and bonds from other banks as the money gets passed around like a ‘hot potato’, bidding up asset prices and depressing yields.

That is until policy uncertainty lifts interest rate volatility and threatens bond prices, as it did after May, and forces those ‘excess reserves’ to go to ground and hunker down in cash again until the coast is clear. With the Fed speaking softly again, one-month US Treasury bond volatility indices have fallen to their lowest since May - half of June’s peaks. On one level, it shows the power that policyspeak alone still has in controlling this money and many argue the stretch for yield during the first four months of the year prompted the Fed to deliberately fire its verbal shots across the bow.

The other measure of global liquidity, however, appears positively explosive. JPMorgan estimates its measure of “excess liquidity” in the global system is still surging into record territory, with global M2 aggregates up by $3 trillion, or 4.6 percent, so far this year - far outstripping a 2 percent global inflation rate. Two thirds of that M2 expansion came from emerging markets, where domestic loan growth shows few signs of being fazed by the mid-year financial market turbulence. Using these “excess liquidity” gauges as a guide to asset prices and assessing their power over time, the report concludes that remains a powerful upsurge. “The current episode of excess liquidity, which began in May 2012, appears to have been the most extreme ever in terms of magnitude,” it concluded. — Reuters

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

www.kuwaittimes.net

RUSSIAN FEDERATION : This picture taken on March 16, 2009 shows Russian ballerina Diana Vishneva of the Mariinsky theatre reflected in a mirror while performing the piece F.L.O.W. (For Love of Women) in St. Petersburg. One of Russia's most adored ballerinas spoke out vehemently on October 30, 2013 against the appointment of outspoken dancer Nikolai Tsiskaridze to head its top ballet school, in a controversy that could spiral into a major scandal. Diana Vishneva, a star dancer with the Mariinsky Ballet in Saint Petersburg, became the first high-profile figure to publicly criticise the appointment of Tsiskaridze to head the Vaganova Ballet Academy in Saint Petersburg. — AFP

Food FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

The best seafood recipes swimming out there

By Jamie Oliver

Asian-steamed sea bass Method Score the sea bass on both sides at 2cm intervals, cutting roughly 1cm deep, then place into the steamer tray. Sprinkle the inside and both sides of the fish lightly with sea salt. Mix the spring onions, chilli, ginger, coriander stalks and most of the leaves together on a board, then stuff and push into the cavity and slits in the fish. Squeeze over the lime juice, adding the squeezed lime halves to the tray. Hit it up with a splash of soy sauce, then cover with the lid. Fill the steamer pocket on the front of the oven with around 1 litre of water, then slot the steamer tray into the bottom of the oven so that the metal nozzle on the tray engages with the back of the oven, and set to steam for around 25 minutes, or until cooked to perfection. Serve on a bed of fluffy rice, drizzled with the juices from the bottom of the steamer tray, a drizzle of sesame oil and the remaining coriander leaves sprinkled over.

Warm salmon & Jersey Royal salad

Salmon filo pie Method Brilliant as a lunch or light dinner, this filo pie looks and tastes fantastic - crisp on the outside, flaky and soft in the middle. As well as salmon, we’re also celebrating slowcooked leeks and courgettes, which do amazing things when given time to get soft and sweet. They help stretch the salmon further and complement it perfectly. Trim and roughly chop the leeks and courgettes and place in a large pan on a low heat with a lug of olive oil and the thyme leaves. Cook gently for 30 minutes, or until soft and lightly golden, with the lid on for the first 5 minutes, stirring regularly. Once soft and sweet, season to perfection and leave aside to cool for 5 to 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4.

Flake the salmon into the cooled mixture,

crumble in the feta, grate over the zest from the lemon, crack in the eggs and stir well to combine. Layer the filo over the base of a lightly oiled ovenproof frying pan or dish (roughly 30cm), overlapping the sheets and letting them hang over the edge of the pan as you layer - make sure you fully cover the base and allow enough overhang to fully cover the filling once folded in - brushing with olive oil as you go. Spoon in the salmon filling, then fold in the overhanging filo to form a lid. Brush the top with olive oil and finely grate over the Parmesan. Bake on the bottom shelf of the oven for 45 to 50 minutes, or until cooked through, golden and crisp.

Method This dish is great warm or cold, as a starter or a main, and is perfect for a picnic. Place the potatoes in a saucepan, cover with cold, salted water and bring to the boil. Simmer for around 15 minutes until just cooked. Drain and place to one side. Fill a saucepan, big enough to hold all the salmon fillets in one layer, with water and season with a little sea salt. Place the pan on the heat and when the water boils, gently lower the fillets in, making sure they’re under the surface. Top up with a little extra boiling water if necessary. Poach the salmon very gently for 10 minutes. Remove with a fish slice and leave to cool. Slice the cooked potatoes in half lengthways and toss with half the lemon juice, a lug of olive oil, the chopped dill and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Arrange on a serving dish and flake the cooked salmon over the top. Season the yoghurt with salt and pepper, then mix in the lemon zest and remaining lemon juice.

Spoon the yoghurt over the salmon and serve with a sprinkling of torn basil, cress and chopped chilli.

Food FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Crispy squid & prawns with homemade sweet chilli sauce Method Cooked in lime-spiked batter and served with a kickin’ sweet chilli sauce, these crispy squid and prawns are a real naughty treat - enjoy! Start by making the sweet chilli sauce: finely chop the chillies, keeping some seeds intact, then peel and finely chop the garlic.

Place the sugar and 1 cup of cold water in a medium saucepan over a high heat. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Add the chillies, garlic, a good pinch of salt and a good splash of vinegar, then cook over a low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, or until it coats the back of a spoon. For a smooth syrupy texture, whiz the sauce in a food processor if you like, or leave it finely chopped, then put to one side.

Place a deep-fat fryer or a large, deep saucepan over a medium-high heat (roughly 180 Degree C).

Fill three-quarters full with vegetable oil and leave to heat up. Meanwhile, wash and pat dry the squid. Slice the tubes horizontally into rings or slice and open them out, then halve lengthways and cut a crisscross pattern onto the surface. Place the squid onto a large plate, along with the prawns, making sure any black bits

have been removed. Finely grate over the zest of the limes and squeeze over most of the juice, then toss to coat.

Place the flour and a good pinch of salt and pepper into a large bowl, then add the squid and prawns and toss to coat (you’ll need to do this in batches). To test if the oil is hot enough, drop a piece of bread into the pan - if the bread floats to the surface, sizzles and turns golden, it’s about right. Using a slotted spoon, carefully lower the prawns and squid into the hot oil and fry for 3 to 4 minutes, or until golden and crisp on the outside and cooked through (you’ll need to do this in batches). Transfer the cooked prawns and squid to a doublelayer of kitchen paper, then repeat with the remaining seafood.

When the last batch of seafood is almost done, squeeze a little lime juice over the parsley sprigs, then dip into the flour and lower into the oil for a few seconds - be careful as it’ll spit.

Serve the crispy squid and prawns straight away, with crispy lime-spiked parsley, lemon wedges for squeezing over and the sweet chilli sauce on the side for dipping. Keep any leftover chilli sauce in sterilised bottles and store for up to 2 months in a cool dry place.

Whole roasted salmon stuffed with lemon & herbs Method Salmon is such a fantastic fish, it really doesn’t need much help at all to be delicious, but I’m a sucker for lovely fresh herbs and I couldn’t resist - plus they make the fish look pretty good, too! Slashing the fish like this and stuffing the herbs inside means they really get in contact with the meat, giving it a real depth of flavour. What’s great about this dish is that it’s just as good cold as it is hot, so cook it ahead of time and serve at room temperature if you fancy.

Preheat your oven to full whack. Get yourself a large roasting tray that your whole salmon will fit inside - you’ll probably need to lay the fish diagonally across the tray, and it won’t matter if the head and tail drape over a little. Lay your sliced potatoes over the base of the tray and season well with salt and pepper. Scatter your baby fennel over the top and give it all a generous drizzle of olive oil. Now get on with your fish.

Pick half the leaves from each of the herb bunches and put them on a chopping board, keeping the remainder to one side. Grate the lemon zest over the herbs then roughly chop everything together. Scrape this mixture into a bowl and wipe the board down with a piece of kitchen paper. Transfer your salmon to the board, then wipe it inside and out with a fresh piece of kitchen paper. Make sure there are no scales on the silvery salmon skin - the fishmonger should have taken all of these off for you. If there are any left on there, scrape them

with a blunt knife until they ping off. Make vertical slashes in the skin on both sides of the salmon from its back towards its tummy - about 2cm deep and at an angle, so you leave a flap of skin you can stuff your herbs under. Make about 6 slashes on each side of the fish. Sprinkle salt and pepper into each slash, then stuff with a pinch of your lemon-herb mix. Smooth the flaps down again and drizzle the fish all over with a light coating of olive oil. Lay it on top of your potatoes and fennel.

Take the leftover herb bunches and stuff them inside the belly cavity of the fish, then slice up one of the zested lemons and stuff these slices in there as well. Bake the fish in your screaming hot oven for 15 minutes, then turn the temperature down to 180 Degree C/350 Degree F/gas 4 and cook for another 30 minutes. To check the fish is cooked, take a clean skewer and push it into the deepest part of the fish, just behind the head. Count to 10, then carefully take the skewer out and hold it against your top lip. If it’s nice and warm, the fish is cooked. Squeeze the juice of your remaining lemon over the top, drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil and serve.

Delicious.

The best tuna burger Method A quick, tasty snack that’s great for barbecues. Whiz the tuna, basil, mint, spring onions, coriander and lemon zest and red chilli, if using, together in a food processor or, alternatively, chop them all up together finely with a big chopping knife.

Tip the mixture out on to a clean work surface and divide into four equal pieces. Wet your hands (so the tuna won’t stick to them) and shape the lumps of tuna - first into balls, then into burgers by patting them down with the palm of your hand.

Chill the burgers for at least half an hour to let them set.

Heat a barbecue or griddle pan until hot. Brush the burgers on each side with a little oil and season with a little salt and pepper. Grill for 2 minutes on each side or until cooked through - the cooking will depend on how thick you made your burgers. It’s okay to eat them when they’re still a little pink inside, but if you want to cook them through then go ahead. Toast your buns lightly on the hot griddle pan or barbecue and make the burgers by filling each bun with a hot tuna pattie, some dressed salad leaves, some sliced tomato, a wedge of lemon on the side and some ketchup. Tip: Make sure your barbecue or griddle pan is nice and hot before you cook the burgers!

Tr a v e l FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Brazil: Much more

than football and coffee

B

razilians often say they live in a continent rather than a country. It’s an excusable exaggeration. The landmass is bigger than the United States if you exclude Alaska; the journey from Recife in the east to the western border with Peru is longer than that from London to Moscow, and the distance between the northern and southern borders is about the same as that between New York and Los Angeles. Brazil has no mountains to compare with its Andean neighbours, but in every other respect it has all the scenic - and cultural - variety you would expect from so vast a country.

Despite the immense expanses of the interior, roughly two-thirds of Brazil’s population live on or near the coast and well over half live in cities - even in the Amazon. In Rio and Sao Paulo, Brazil has two of the world’s great metropolises, and ten other cities have over a million inhabitants. Yet Brazil still thinks of itself as a frontier country, and certainly the deeper into the interior you go, the thinner the population becomes.

Other South Americans regard Brazilians as a race apart, and language has a lot to do with it - Brazilians understand Spanish, just about, but Spanish-speakers won’t understand Portuguese. Brazilians also look different. In the extreme south German and eastern European immigration has left distinctive traces; Sao Paulo has the world’s largest Japanese community outside Japan; slavery lies behind a large Afro-Brazilian population concentrated in Rio, Salvador and Sao Luas; while the Indian influence is still very visible in the Amazon. Italian and Portuguese immigration has been so great that its influence is felt across the entire country.

Brazil is a land of profound economic contradictions. Rapid post-war industrialization made it one of the world’s ten largest economies by the 1990s and it is misleading to think of Brazil as a developing country; it is

quickly becoming the world’s leading agricultural exporter and has several home-grown multinationals competing successfully in world markets. The last decade has seen millions of Brazilians haul their way into the country’s expanding middle class, and acrossthe-board improvements in social indicators like life expectancy and basic education. But yawning social divides are still a fact of life in Brazil. The cities are dotted with favelas, shan-

tytowns that crowd around the skyscrapers, and there are wide regional differences, too: Brazilians talk of a “Switzerland” in the South, centred on the Rio-Sao Paulo axis, and an “India” above it, and although this is a simplification the level of economic development does fall the further north or east you go.

Brazil has enormous natural resources but their exploitation has benefited fewer than it should. Institutionalized corruption, a bloated

Brazil is a land of profound economic contradictions.

Rapid post-war industrialization made it one of the world’s ten largest economies by the 1990s and it is misleading to think of Brazil as a developing country; it is quickly becoming the world’s leading agricultural exporter and has several home-grown multinationals competing successfully in world markets.

and inefficient public sector and the reluctance of the country’s middle class to do anything that might jeopardize its comfortable lifestyle are a big part of the problem. Levels of violence that would be considered a public emergency in most countries are fatalistically accepted in Brazil - an average of seventeen murders per day in the city of Rio de Janeiro, for example.

These difficulties, however, don’t overshadow everyday life in Brazil, and violence rarely affects tourists. It’s fair to say that nowhere in the world do people enjoy themselves more - most famously in the annual orgiastic celebrations of Carnaval, but reflected, too, in the lively year-round nightlife that you’ll find in any decent-sized town. This national hedonism also manifests itself in Brazil’s highly developed beach culture, superb music and dancing, rich regional cuisines and the most relaxed and tolerant attitude to sexuality - gay and straight - that you’ll find anywhere in South America.

RIO DE JANEIRO The citizens of the fourteen-million-strong city of Rio de Janeiro call it the Cidade Marvilhosa - and there can’t be much argument about that. Although riven by inequality, Rio has great style. Its international renown is bolstered by a series of symbols that rank as some of the greatest landmarks in the world: the Corcovado mountain supporting the great statue of Christ the Redeemer; the rounded incline of the Sugar Loaf mountain, standing at the entrance to the bay; and the famous sweeps of Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, probably the most notable lengths of sand on the planet. It’s a setting enhanced annually by the frenetic sensuality of Carnaval, an explosive celebration that - for many people - sums up Rio and its citizens, the cariocas. The major downside in a city given over to conspicuous consumption is the

Tr a v e l FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

rapacious development that has engulfed Rio. As the rural poor, escaping drought and poverty in other regions of Brazil, swell Rio’s population, the city has been squeezed like a toothpaste tube between mountains and sea, pushing its human contents ever further out along the coast. Over the decades, much of the city’s rich architectural heritage has been whittled away, along with the destruction of much of its natural environment.

Sitting on the southern shore of the magnificent Guanabara Bay, Rio has, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the most stunning settings in the world. Extending for 20km along an alluvial strip, between an azure sea and forest-clad mountains, the city’s streets and buildings have been moulded around the foothills of the mountain range that provides its backdrop, while out in the bay there are many rocky islands fringed with white sand.

The aerial views over Rio are breathtaking, and even the concrete skyscrapers that dominate the city’s skyline add to the attraction. As the former capital of Brazil and now its second largest city, Rio has a remarkable architectural heritage, some of the country’s best museums and galleries, superb restaurants and a vibrant nightlife - in addition to its legendary beaches. With so much to see and do, Rio can easily occupy a week and you may well find it difficult to drag yourself away.

The state of Rio de Janeiro, surrounding the city, is a fairly recent phenomenon, established in 1975 as a result of the amalgamation of Guanabara state and Rio city, the former federal capital. Fairly small by Brazilian standards, the state is both beautiful and accessible, with easy trips either northeast along the Costa do Sol or southwest along the Costa Verde, taking in unspoilt beaches, washed by a relatively unpolluted ocean. Inland routes make a welcome change from the sands, especially the trip to Petrapolis, a nineteenthcentury mountain retreat for Rio’s rich.

The best time to visit both city and state, at least as far as the climate goes, is between May and August, when the region is cooled by trade winds, the temperature remains at around 22-32∞C and the sky tends to be clear. Between December and March (the rainy season), it’s more humid, with the temperature hovering around 40∞C; but even then it’s rarely as oppressive as it is in northern Brazil, and there’s a chance of blue sky for at least part of the day.

SAO PAULO Sao Paulo, the country’s most populous state and home to by far its biggest city, is Brazil’s economic powerhouse. Home to nearly half the country’s industrial output, it is also an agricultural sector that produces, among other things, more orange juice than any single nation worldwide. Its eponymous city boasts a dizzying variety of cultural centres

and art galleries, and the noise from its vibrant fashion and music scenes is heard around the globe. Although most people come to the state in order to visit the city merely for business, Sao Paulo has numerous attractions other than the concrete jungle at its heart. The beaches north of the important port of Santos - especially on Ilhabela - rival Rio’s best; those to the south, near Iguape and CananÈia, remain relatively unspoiled. Inland, the state is dominated by agribusiness, with seemingly endless fields of cattle pasture, sugar cane, oranges and soya interspersed with anonymous towns where the agricultural produce is processed; additionally, some impressive fazenda houses remain as legacies of the days when Sao Paulo’s economy was pretty well synonymous with coffee production. To escape scorching summer temperatures, or for the novelty in tropical Brazil of a winter chill, you can head to Campos do Jordao, one of the country’s highest settlements and a kitsch Alpine-style resort seen through a peculiarly Brazilian lens.

MATO GROSSO Very Brazilian, in both its vastness and its frontier culture, the Mato Grosso region is essentially an enormous plain, home to the sprawling Pantanal swamp - the best place in Brazil for seeing wildlife, and one of the world’s largest wetlands - and rippled by a handful of small mountain ranges. Equally Brazilian, there’s a firm political boundary, a line on a map, across the heart of the swamp, marking the competing ambitions of two mammoth states: Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul. The former state, the northern half of the region, is sparsely populated, with the only settlements of any size - Cuiaba, Rondonapolis and Caceres - having a combined population of around one and a half million. The name Mato Grosso, which means “thick wood”, is more appropriate to this northernmost state, where thorny scrubland passes into tropical rainforest and the land begins its incline towards the Amazon, interrupted only by the beautiful uplifted plateau of the Chapada dos Guimaraes. By contrast, most of the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, which is marginally more populous, is either seasonal flood plain or open scrubland. To the west of Mato Grosso do Sul are Bolivian swamps and forest; the mighty rivers Araguaia and Parana (one flowing north, the other south) form a natural rim to the east, while the Rio Paraguai and the country named after it complete the picture to the south.

The simple road network and the limited sprinkling of settlements make getting about within Mato Grosso fairly hard work.

Distances are enormous, and although most of the buses and trunk roads are in relatively good condition, any journey is inevitably a

long one. That said, the variety of landscape alone - from swamps and forests to cattle ranches, riverine villages and Indian reservations - makes the trip a unique one and, for the adventurous traveller, it’s well worth the effort.

The cities of Mato Grosso are particularly deceptive. Although surprisingly modern and developed, they’ve only recently received the full trappings of civilization. Portuguese colonists began to settle in the region fairly

The state of Rio de Janeiro, surrounding the city, is a fairly recent phenomenon, established in 1975 as a result of the amalgamation of Guanabara state and Rio city, the former federal capital.

late, at the time of the great Cuiaba gold rush of the early eighteenth century, though Cuiaba town itself remained almost completely isolated from the rest of Brazil until its first telegraph link was installed in the 1890s.

Masterminded and built by a local boy made good - a down-to-earth army officer named Rondon - the telegraph lines were Mato Grosso’s first real attempt to join the outside

world. Since the 1980s, with the completion of Highway BR-364, Cuiaba has again become a staging post for pioneers, this time for thousands of Brazilian peasants in search of land or work in the western Amazon states of Rondonia (named after the same local boy) and Acre. While Cuiaba can’t exactly claim to be a resort town - it’s highly urbanized with a high-rise city centre as well as an old colonial nucleus of streets - it is, nevertheless, a natural stepping stone for exploring either the Pantanal, or the mountainous scenery of the Chapada dos Guimaraes.

Until 1979 Cuiaba was capital of the entire Mato Grosso. Campo Grande in the south, however, was also growing rapidly and playing an increasingly important financial and administrative role within Brazil. When the old state was sliced very roughly in half, Campo Grande became capital of the brand-new state of Mato Grosso do Sul. This tightening of political control over the various Mato Grosso regions reflects their rapid development and relative wealth - a complete contrast to the poorer, even more expansive and much more remote wilderness of the Amazon basin.

These days Campo Grande is a bustling, very modern city of almost a million people, with most visitors stopping here en route to the Pantanal.

Topographically, and in terms of its tourist potential, Mato Grosso will always be dominated by the Pantanal, the world’s largest contiguous wetland or swamp, renowned for its wildlife. In the past, between two million and five million caiman alligators were “culled” annually from the Pantanal, and today it retains possibly the densest population of alligators in the world. This spectacular region is, however, better known for its array of birdlife, with over 464 identified species (though none of them endemic), and its endless supply of fish, with 325 species - including a great many piranha, which are used in an excellent local soup. So far it’s proved impossible to put a road right through the Pantanal, and travelling anywhere around here is slow.

After Cuiaba and Campo Grande, Corumba, on the western edge of the swamp, is probably the next most popular urban destination and a good base for visiting the Pantanal. Compared to Cuiaba and the northern areas, it’s usually a less expensive entry point for the swamp. A relatively small city, Corumba is only half an hour from Bolivia, but seven or eight from Campo Grande, the nearest Brazilian outpost. It is possible to travel through the Pantanal by river from Corumba, directly to the port of Caceres near Cuiaba, though unless you can afford a tailor-made luxury tour this adventurous fluvial route takes at least a week, and often longer.

— www.roughguides.com

Health FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Keep your skin summer fresh in winter The weather outside may be unsightly, but your skin doesn’t have to be.

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or many people, the cold clear days of winter bring more than just a rosy glow to the cheeks. They also bring uncomfortable dryness to the skin of the face, hands, and feet. For some people, the problem is worse than just a general tight, dry feeling: They get skin so dry it results in flaking, cracking, even eczema (in which the skin becomes inflamed). “As soon as you turn the heat on indoors, the skin starts to dry out,” Bonnie LaPlante, an esthetician with the Canyon Ranch resort in Lenox, Mass., tells WebMD. “It doesn’t matter if you heat your home using oil, wood, or electricity. The skin gets dry.” Sound familiar? Read on to get the top 10 tips for boosting your winter skin care regimen, so that your skin stays moist and healthy through the winter months.

1. Seek a specialist If you go to your local drugstore, you’ll be hard put to find a salesperson who can give you good advice. That’s why going to an esthetician or dermatologist even once is a good investment. Such a specialist can analyze your skin type, troubleshoot your current skin care regimen, and give you advice on the skin care products you should be using. But that doesn’t mean you’ll be stuck buying high-end products.

“Inexpensive products work just as well as high-end ones,” says David Voron, MD, a dermatologist in Arcadia, Calif. “In fact, the extra price you pay for the expensive stuff is often just for packaging and marketing. What’s most important is how your skin responds to the product-and how you like its feel, not how much mon-

ey you paid for it.”

2. Moisturize more You may have found a moisturizer that works just fine in spring and summer. But as weather conditions change, so, too, should your skin care routine. Find an “ointment” moisturizer that’s oil-based, rather than water-based, as the oil will create a protective layer on the skin that retains more moisture than a cream or lotion. (Hint: Many lotions labeled as “night creams” are oil-based.) But choose your oils with care because not all oils are appropriate for the face. Instead, look for “nonclogging” oils, like avocado oil, mineral oil, primrose oil, or almond oil. Shea oil-or butter-is controversial, because it can clog facial pores. And vegetable shortening, LaPlante says, is a really bad idea. “It would just sit on the skin,” she says. “And it would be really greasy.” You can also look for lotions containing “humectants,” a class of substances (including glycerine, sorbitol, and alphahydroxy acids) that attract moisture to your skin.

3. Slather on the sunscreen No, sunscreen isn’t just for summertime.

Winter sun-combined with snow glare-can still damage your skin. Try applying a broadspectrum sunscreen to your face and your hands (if they’re exposed) about 30 minutes before going outside. Reapply frequently if you stay outside a long time.

4. Give your hands a hand The skin on your hands is thinner than on most parts of the body and has fewer oil

glands. That means it’s harder to keep your hands moist, especially in cold, dry weather.

This can lead to itchiness and cracking.

Wear gloves when you go outside; if you need to wear wool to keep your hands warm, slip on a thin cotton glove first, to avoid any irritation the wool might cause.

the hot summer months, but during the winter, your feet need stronger stuff. Try finding lotions that contain petroleum jelly or glycerine instead. And use exfoliants to get the dead skin off periodically; that helps any moisturizers you use to sink in faster and deeper.

5. Avoid wet gloves and socks Wet socks and gloves can irritate your skin and cause itching, cracking, sores, or even a flare-up of eczema.

9. Pace the peels If your facial skin is uncomfortably dry, avoid using harsh peels, masks, and alcoholbased toners or astringents, all of which can strip vital oil from your skin. Instead, find a cleansing milk or mild foaming cleanser, a toner with no alcohol, and masks that are “deeply hydrating,” rather than clay-based, which tends to draw moisture out of the face. And use them a little less often.

6. Hook up the humidifier Central heating systems (as well as space heaters) blast hot dry air throughout our homes and offices. Humidifiers get more moisture in the air, which helps prevent your skin from drying out. Place several small humidifiers throughout your home; they help disperse the moisture more evenly.

7. Hydrate for your health, not for your skin If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times: Drinking water helps your skin stay young looking. In fact, it’s a myth.

Water is good for your overall health and “the skin of someone who is severely dehydrated will benefit from fluids. But the average person’s skin does not reflect the amount of water being drunk,” Kenneth Bielinski, MD, a dermatologist in Oak Lawn, Ill., tells WebMD “It’s a very common misconception.” LaPlante agrees. “I see clients at the spa who drink their 10 to 12 glasses of water a day and still have superdry skin. It just doesn’t do that much.”

8. Grease up your feet Yes, those minty foot lotions are lovely in

10. Ban superhot baths Sure, soaking in a burning-hot bath feels great after frolicking out in the cold. But the intense heat of a hot shower or bath actually breaks down the lipid barriers in the skin, which can lead to a loss of moisture. “You’re better off with just warm water,” LaPlante advises, “and staying in the water a shorter amount of time.” A lukewarm bath with oatmeal or baking soda, can help relieve skin that is so dry it has become itchy, Bielinski notes. So, too, can periodically reapplying your moisturizer. If those techniques don’t work, go see a dermatologist. “You may need a prescription lotion to combat the dry skin,” Bielinski says. “Or you may have a condition that isn’t simply dry skin and that requires different treatment.”

— www.webmd.com

Lifestyle FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

In Spain, even toddlers learn Chinese for job hopes “X

iang jiao! Banana!” says Fu Huijuan, beaming as she waves the fruit in front of her three-year-old pupil, Leon, at a Madrid nursery school. He and his four classmates have barely learned to speak even in their native Spanish, but already they are absorbing Mandarin Chinese-as are many adult Spaniards concerned for their job prospects.

“Xiang jiao,” Leon replies in a tiny voice, grinning as he is rewarded with a bite of banana and a sticker. “Xie xie. Thank you.” Fu’s class-offered free for the first month-is the newest after-hours activity for children at the TEO private nursery, whose parents hope it will pay off later in life.

Numerous schools and language centers here have started holding such lessons as Spaniards look to China’s fast-growing economy for opportunities after five years of on-off recession in Spain. “Chinese seems to me an essential language in today’s world, and the best way to learn it is from an early age. Learning it as an adult seems much more difficult,” says Leon’s mother, Sara Vergara.

‘A long-term strategy’ “It is a long-term strategy, for his job prospects in the future,” adds Vergara, a 33-yearold housewife, arriving to pick Leon up from the class. “And I think he is enjoying himself.” Pilar Alvarez, director of TEO, said the nursery launched the after-hours Chinese lessons after seeing that many other schools in Madrid were doing so. “After the second or third class, the kids start really getting into it,” she says. “We are considering introducing it bit by bit for all the children during normal school time.”

Regional governments in Spain are also expanding Chinese courses in their subsidized language centers, while some public schools are offering them as an after-school activity. A program of free classes jointly funded by the Andalucia government and the Chinese state has seen enrolments nearly double since it started two years ago, to 1,200 for this school year, the regional education ministry says. It estimates that 30,000 people are currently studying Chinese as a foreign language in Spain. No such figure was available from the national education ministry.

“China is expected to be the leading world power in a few decades,” the Andalucia ministry said in a statement. “This is driving a boom in the number of people studying its language and

Chinese teacher Huijuan holding a flashcard during a Chinese lesson.

A picture taken on October 14, 2013 shows Chinese teacher Huijuan gesturing during a Chinese class at TEO 2 kindergarten in Madrid.—AFP photos

Aurora, 3 years old and Angela, 4 years old, attending a Chinese lesson at TEO 2 kindergarten. culture.” Madrid’s network of official language schools has taught Chinese since the 1960s but demand has surged recently, said Maria Jose Garcia-Patron, head of secondary education and professional training in the regional education ministry. “Demand for these lessons was stable for 40 years, with about 80 or 90 students enrolled, but over the past 10 years the number has grown markedly and has reached about 300,” she told AFP in an email.

The recent crop of students in Chinese seem undeterred by its alien systems of intonation and writing that many see as challenging for

Western learners. “It is a bit hard to write, but I think it is easy to teach children to talk,” said Fu. “Children have good memories.” Fu, 25, came to Spain six months ago and applied for the teaching job with Bambu Idiomas, a private company that organizes classes for schools and individuals of all ages.

“There are lots of opportunities in Spain. Lots of families are looking for Chinese teachers, and now lots of nurseries too,” she said. Set up in 2011, the family-run company had 87 pupils signed up last year. This year the number surged to 235, said one of its Spanish founders, Ruben

Camarero. “It is an important language for the future,” he said. “We decided it was a language that would interest people because Spain is in an enormous economic crisis and China is drawing a lot of interest worldwide.”

In the classroom, Fu plays from her laptop the nursery rhyme known in Europe as “Frere Jacques”, sung in Mandarin in a version wellknown to Chinese children. As she repeats the names of fruit to the five toddlers, correcting their intonation, four-year-old Angela jumps around excitedly, her long brown hair whirling.

“Banana!” she yells. “Xiang jiao!”—AFP

Cirque du Soleil fined in death of acrobat at Las Vegas show

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irque du Soleil has been fined more than $25,000 for safety violations in connection with a fatal accident in which an acrobat dropped 94 feet to her death during a mid-air battle scene during the show “KA” in Las Vegas in June, Nevada officials said on Wednesday. Concluding a four-month investigation into the fatal fall of Paris native Sarah Guillot-Guyard, the Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued six citations, totaling $25,235, to Montreal-based Cirque du Soleil, which describes its shows as “a dramtic mix of circus arts and street entertainment.”

Guillot-Guyard died after falling in the final scene of the performance, in which the stage is vertical and performers engage in mid-air battle while wearing safety harnesses attached to a cable. The 31-year-old performer had been in the midst of the scene when she began to quickly ascend as part the act, Nevada OSHA said. As she moved upward, the wire rope attaching her to a safe-

ty harness scraped against suspension equipment and was detached.

“The wire rope was severed due to the rapid ascent of the performer, ultimately causing the rope to be freed from the sheave/pulley and scraping against a shear point,” the agency said. Cirque du Soleil was fined for violations including inadequate equipment training for Guillot-Guyard, and a circus fall protection program that did not match state safety standards, Nevada OSHA said.

Nevada OSHA also penalized the Las Vegas MGM Grand, where the show was performed, $7,000 for exposing its employees to workplace hazards, including onstage opensided floors and pyrotechnic dust used for Cirque du Soleil performances. Both Cirque du Soleil and MGM Resorts, the owner of the Las Vegas MGM Grand, said in separate statements that they would appeal the rulings.

Cirque spokesman RenÈe-Claude Menard said in a statement that the company had

completed an exhaustive review of its safety policies and procedures after the accident.

“Safety always has been the top priority for Cirque du Soleil, its performers and crew members,” Menard said. Alan Feldman, executive vice president of MGM Resorts, said in a statement that safety was a top priority for his company as well.

The companies have 15 days from the time they were notified of the citations to appeal the rulings with OSHA staff or its board, Nevada OSHA spokeswoman Teri Williams said on Wednesday. Williams said the groups were given notice sometime last week. Guillot-Guyard, a mother of two young children, had been part of the cast of “KA” since 2006. She was the first performer to die during a show in Cirque du Soleil’s 29-year history, a Cirque spokesman said shortly after the accident.—Reuters

This undated photo provided by David Fox shows acrobat Sarah Guillot-Guyard, 31, who was pronounced dead after falling about 50 feet from the Cirque du Soleil “Ka” show’s stage during a production at the MGM Grand. Safety.—AP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Perry tops Billboard in worst week for album sales since 1991

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Japanese-US artist Yoko Ono presents the ‘John Lennon Educational Tour Bus’ in front of John-Lennon-Gymnasium in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday. — AP

Yoko Ono ‘thankful’ for McCartney’s comments

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oko Ono says she’s thankful Paul McCartney appears to have gotten over his grudge against her. McCartney, in a recent Rolling Stone interview, said he’s getting along fine with the widow of John Lennon, his old songwriting partner.

The bad feelings dated back to when Lennon’s

romance with Ono caught fire as the Beatles were falling apart. Ono, in an interview with The Associated Press, said it was good to hear those words. McCartney even called her a “badass,” in a good way. She said: “He’s a rocker.”—AP

op singer Katy Perry shot to the top of the weekly Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday with her latest album, “Prism,” although overall album sales for the week were the lowest since the publication began charting in 1991. “Prism,” Perry’s fourth studio album, which features the lead single “Roar,” sold 286,000 copies in its first week, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan, making it the biggest sales week by a female artist this year. It came in ahead of Miley Cyrus’ “Bangerz,” which sold 270,000 copies in its first week earlier this month.

The success of Perry’s latest album has been aided by the popularity of “Roar,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. But the opening week sales of “Prism” did not come close to the year’s biggest debuts, led by Justin Timberlake’s “The 20/20 Experience,” which opened with 968,000 copies in March. New albums from Jay Z, Kanye West and Daft Punk also opened with bigger sales earlier this year.

Overall album sales for the week ended Oct. 27 fell to a record low of 4.5 million units. Album sales have generally been lower this year compared with last year, partly because of listeners finding new digital platforms to consume music, often for free.

Other new albums in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart, which measures physical and digital sales, include girl band Fifth Harmony at No. 6 with its “Better Together” EP, hip hop DJ Khaled at No. 7 with “Suffering from Success,” and rockers AFI with “Burials” at No. 9.

Katy Perry

On the Billboard Digital Songs chart, which measures digital single sales, New Zealand newcomer Lorde reigned at No. 1 with “Royals.”

Swedish DJ Avicii’s “Wake Me Up” climbed two spots to No. 2 and Lady Gaga’s new single, “Do What U Want,” with R&B singer R. Kelly, rounded out the top 3. — Reuters

‘Ender’s Game’ could win box-office battle but lose the franchise-launch war

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nder’s Game” is the clear-cut favorite to win the box office this weekend with around $25 million, topping two other wide openers, the animated turkey tale “Free Birds” and the geriatric bachelor party comedy “Last Vegas.” But it’s far less certain whether the thriller based on Orson Scott Card’s classic 1985 sci-fi novel can launch the young adult franchise that Summit Entertainment, Odd Lot Entertainment and Digital Domain envisioned.

The effects firm created the film’s futuristic world and helped bankroll its $100 million production.

The turkey tale “Free Birds,” which features the voices of Owen Wilson and Woody Harrelson, is a good bet to finish second with about $18 million, analysts say. Third place is looking like a battle between a bunch of old guys: Both last week’s No. 1 film, “Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa,” and CBS Films’ “Last Vegas” - starring Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline - are projected to land around $14 million their opening weekend.

“Ender’s Game” has the ingredients to be a

young adult franchise: It has a huge built-in base from Card’s book - which has climbed back atop the best-seller list - and a plot featuring a young genius trained to be the fiercest warrior on an Earth threatened by aliens. Asa Butterfield, Abigail Breslin, Hailee Steinfeld star, along with Harrison Ford, Viola Davis and Ben Kingsley. Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci produce, and it is directed by Gavin Hood (“X-Men Origins: Wolverine”).

The huge success of the “Twilight” movies, which took in $3.3 billion globally for Summit, and the nearly $700 million haul of last year’s “The Hunger Games” - have fueled Hollywood’s drive to find next the Bella or Katniss and launch a franchise. But capturing the attention of teenagers isn’t easy, and Warner Bros.’ “Beautiful Creatures,” Open Road’s “The Host” and Sony’s “Mortal Instruments: City of Bones” have all tried and failed this year.—Reuters

Indian Bollywood actors Hrithik Roshan and Vivek Oberoi pose with actress Kangana Ranaut during a promotional event for the forthcoming Hindi film ‘Krrish 3’ Halloween party in Mumbai late October 30, 2013.—AFP

Hoffman, Bates, Molina to star in indie drama ‘Boychoir’

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scar winner Dustin Hoffman is set to star alongside Alfred Molina and Kathy Bates in the indie drama “Boychoir,” which Francois Girard (“The Red Violin”) will direct from an original screenplay by Ben Ripley (“Source Code”). Story follows Stet, a troubled and angry 11-year-old from the wrong side of the tracks who ends up at a Boy Choir school. Completely out of his element, he finds himself in a battle of wills with a demanding Choir Master (Hoffman) who recognizes a unique talent in this young boy as he pushes him to find his creative heart and soul in music.

Molina will play a teacher at the school, while Bates will play its headmistress. The filmmakers are currently looking for a young boy with both dramatic and musical talent to play Stet. Singers from

the renowned American Boychoir School, one of the world’s most prestigious boy choirs, will be featured in the film, which is scheduled to start principal photography in February in Connecticut and New York.

“Boychoir” is being financed and produced by Informant Media, whose Judy Cairo (“Crazy Heart”) will produce with Carol Baum (“The Good Girl”) and Jane Goldenring. Informant’s Michael A. Simpson and Eric Brenner will executive produce with Ripley. Casting director John Papsidera of Automatic Sweat will serve as coproducer.—Reuters

Lifestyle FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Jane’s Addiction receives star on Hollywood walk of fame

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rummers John Densmore of The Doors and Taylor Hawkins of the Foo Fighters join the band members at the ceremony.

The influential alternative rock band Jane’s Addiction received the 2,509th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Wednesday.

Drummers John Densmore of The Doors and Taylor Hawkins of the Foo Fighters joined band members Perry Farrell, Eric Avery, Stephen Perkins and Dave Navarro at the ceremony in front of Playmates of Hollywood at 6436 Hollywood Blvd.

“We would see movies on this very street when I was a kid growing up, and I never imagined that I would be a part of this legacy with this band,” Navarro said.

The band was formed in Los Angeles in 1985.

Farrell, its founder and singer, found Avery, the bassist, who then brought on Perkins, the drummer. Navarro was chosen after after many guitarists auditioned. Jane’s Addiction became a sensation on the Los Angeles club scene and a staple on the Sunset Strip. It was one of the first bands to

emerge from the early 1990s alternative rock movement to gain mainstream media attention and commercial success in the United States.

Jane’s Addiction broke up in 1991 and reunited briefly in 1997 with Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers filling in on bass. The band reunited again in 2001, first touring with Martyn LeNoble on bass. Following the tour, the group recorded the album “Strays” with Chris Chaney on bass.

The band continues to tour, including performing last week at San Manuel Casino in Highland. Some of Jane’s Addiction most popular songs include “Ocean Size,” “Stop!,” “Had A Dad,” “Been Caught Stealing,” “Three Days,” “Classic Girl,” “Ripple,” “Jane Says” and “Superhero.” The band is named in honor of Farrell’s housemate, Jane Bainter, its muse and inspiration.

— Patch.com (From left) Musicians Perry Farrell, Stephen Perkins, Chris Chaney and Dave Navarro attend the ceremony honoring them with a Star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame on October 30, 2013 in Hollywood, California. — AFP

James Blake wins Mercury music prize for 2013 best UK/Irish album

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British musician, James Blake, smiles after winning the Barclaycard Mercury Prize 2013 award, at the Camden Roundhouse in north London, Wednesday. — AP photos

ongwriter and singer James Blake won the 2013 Barclaycard Mercury Prize for best album on Wednesday for “Overgrown”, with the winner announced at the end of a star-packed concert and awards event in London. The album selected by a panel of music industry experts as the best of the year from British or Irish artists carries a 20,000-pound ($32,200) cash prize but more importantly helps to boost sales. Blake, 25 of London, who is known for his melancholy tunes but also incorporates hip hop and electropop, said as he collected his award on the stage of London’s Roundhouse that he wanted to thank his fellow band members for “showing the importance of letting other people help you”.

Asked if he would give a description of his music, which many critics have had trouble characterizing, Blake said: “No, because that will come right back at me.” Pressed on the point, he said that his music “...keeps changing so I keep writing new music.”

The shortlist in the award’s 22nd year included some of the bestknown names in the British pop world, including pop and fashion idol David Bowie who at age 66 was in the competition for “The Next Day” which won rave reviews from critics.

Bowie did not attend in person but submitted a music video featuring images of himself as the young man who became famous as Ziggy Stardust and of himself as an old man, accompanied by poignant lyrics like “say goodbye to the thrills of life ... say goodbye to nights without pain”. Also in the running were the Sheffield, England-based Arctic Monkeys who rose from Internet fame to release a first album that became the fastest-selling in British history. They took the Mercury Prize in 2006 and were short-listed in 2007.

But the night also saw cameos from newcomers, including the torch-song, blues-tinged singer Laura Mvula of Birmingham, whose first album was “Sing to the Moon” and who sang a solo blues song accompanying herself on the piano. Another firsttimer was Jake Bugg, 19, of Nottingham who began playing the guitar the age of 12 and who sings about the gritty side of life including pill-popping and stabbings at parties. The prize has gone to a wide range of musical genres since it began in 1992 and is based solely on the music on the album.

The shortlist for this year’s award was as follows: Arctic Monkeys - “AM” David Bowie - “The Next Day” Disclosure - “Settle” Foals - “Holy Fire” James Blake - “Overgrown” Jake Bugg - “Jake Bugg” Jon Hopkins - “Immunity” Laura Marling - “Once I Was An Eagle” Laura Mvula - “Sing To The Moon” Rudimental - “Home” Savages - “Silence Yourself” Villagers - “{Awayland}”-Reuters

Jonas Brothers on Break-Up: We won’t leave fans in the lurch

T

he Jonas Brothers said that they will not complete the album they were working on at the time of their break-up, but promised to do something for their fans during an appearance on “Good Morning America” on Wednesday morning. The group will release four songs from their now aborted fifth album and will combine them with live tracks from their summer concert appearances.

They will give that music to their fan club members.

“We do not want to just leave without giving them back something,” Kevin Jonas said. The news of the split has left the Jonas faithful stunned, ever since the boys canceled a 19-date tour earlier this month just a few days before it was set to begin. They reflected with host Robin Roberts about their reasons for separating after eight years making hit music together, noting that it had a lot to do with differences over the band’s sound.

“It was time and for us it took some time getting there, but we feel like it’s time that the Jonas Brothers comes to an end,” Kevin said. Nick said he was the one who initiated

the discussion about a possible breakup. “We’re family first, and that’s always been our main priority, and so honesty within what we do as a group was really important,” Nick said. “In a nutshell, I said, ‘I feel like we’ve had some complications within the new group for a long time without addressing them. I think this train will fall off the tracks without getting real about some of the limitations and some of the concerns that we may feel as individuals and within the group,’ “he added.

“We felt like it was starting to get stale to us,” Joe said.

“It was just individual things that we were butting heads about, whether it was a way to set up the music video to even personal opportunities, and at some point we decided that it was best to finish this.”—Reuters This Aug 12, 2008 file photo shows The Jonas Brothers, from left, Nick Jonas, Joe Jonas and Kevin Jonas at MTV Studio’s in Times Square for a taping of MTV’s ‘Total Request Live’ show in New York. — AP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Participants wearing zombie makeups perform during a Halloween event at Tokyo Tower in Tokyo, yesterday. — AP photos

‘Zombies’

swarm Tokyo Tower in Halloween stunt

A

zombie swarm in Tokyo? Why not, it’s Halloween.

Led by a former sumo grand champion, about 1,000 beauty schools students and Halloween fun-seekers descended on Tokyo Tower - the Japanese capital’s most iconic landmark - yesterday in a “zombie attack” organized

by Fox International Channels, Japan, to mark the beginning in the country of Season 4 of the popular TV show “The Walking Dead.”

Replete with black eyes, blood-soaked clothes and enough open wounds to fill several emergency rooms, the “zombies” covered the grounds of the tower in central Tokyo after making their way across town on buses and trains - much to the surprise of unsuspecting onlookers.

Halloween is popular in Japan, and Tokyo’s subways are often crowded with partygoers in full costume on Halloween night. “Our only concern is that somebody might see all these zombies and have a heart attack,” said Dan Smith, a Fox producer who thought up the stunt.

Leading the zombie charge was Chad Rowan, who is famous in Japan under his sumo name, Akebono. Rowan,

who is now a pro wrestler, is the first foreigner to reach sumo’s highest rank and stands 203 centimeters tall (6foot-8). “It’s great to be doing this in Tokyo,” said Rowan, who was dressed in black and had his face made up to look like he had two large gashes on his forehead. “It’s so unusual to be able to do something like this here.”— AP

Exorcism of 1949 continues to fascinate St Louis

Z

ach Grummer-Strawn has never seen “The Exorcist,” the 1973 horror film considered one of the finest examples of cinematic terror. He’s only vaguely familiar with the monthlong 1949 demon-purging ritual at his school, Saint Louis University, that inspired William Peter Blatty’s novel and later the movie. But just in time for Halloween, Jesuit scholars have joined a whole new generation of horror buffs in St Louis to recount the supernatural incident. The university hosted a panel discussion Tuesday on the exorcism, which involved the treatment of an unidentified boy. About 500 people crammed into Pius XII Library to listen.

“I’d like to believe it’s the real thing,” said Grummer-Strawn, a theology and sociology student. “But you just can’t know. That’s part of why we’re here. It’s the pursuit of truth. And it’s such a great story.” The university scholars and guest speaker Thomas Allen, author of a 1993 account of the events at the school’s former Alexian Brothers Hospital, emphasized that definitive proof that the

boy known only as “Robbie” was possessed by malevolent spirits is unattainable. Maybe he instead suffered from mental illness or sexual abuse - or fabricated the experience.

Like most of religion’s basic tenets, it ultimately comes down to faith. “If the devil can convince us he does not exist, then half the battle is won,” said the Rev. Paul Stark, vice president for mission and ministry at the 195-year-old Catholic school. He opened the discussion with a prayer from the church’s exorcism handbook, imploring God to “fill your servants with courage to fight that reprobate dragon.”

Some in the audience spoke of personal connections to an episode that has enthralled generations of St Louis residents. One man described living near the home where the 13-year-old boy arrived in the winter of 1949. Another said she was a distant cousin of Father William Bowdern, who led the exorcism ritual after consulting with the archbishop of St. Louis but remained publicly silent about his experiences - though he did tell

Allen it was “the real thing.”Bowdern died in 1983.

Bowdern was assisted by the Rev. Walter Halloran, who unlike his colleague spoke openly with Allen and expressed his skepticism about potential paranormal events before his death a decade ago.”He talked more about the boy, and how much he suffered, and less about the rite,” Allen said. “Here was a scared, confused boy caught up in something he didn’t understand.”He told me, ‘I simply don’t know,’ and that is where I leave it,” the author added. “I just don’t know.”

Allen zealously protects the anonymity of “Robbie,” despite others’ efforts to track him down.

Blatty, who could not be reached for comment on Wednesday, said in a 2011 interview with The Huffington Post that was timed to the book’s 40th anniversary, that the “1949 case was the novel’s inspiration.” The book and film were set at Georgetown University rather than in the Midwest, and the possessed child became a girl instead of a boy.— AP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

People dressed up as zombies take part in a Zombie Walk in Nice, southeastern France. — AFP photos

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Kuwait

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ACCOMMODATION One room with attach bathroom available in Hawally, Tunis Street, near Sadique roundabout, behind Tijari bank, for single executive or couple. Contact: 69302121.

(C4551) 31-10-2013 Sharing accommodation available in Hawally Tunis Street, dowra Sadique, near bank Tijari, with attach bath for single executive or couple. Contact 69302121.

(C 4545) 26-10-2013

SITUATION VACANT A lady maid is needed to work for a single ArabAmerican man in a house located in Salmiya. Time 2-8 pm. Salary KD 100. Call 66417504. (C 4550) 28-10-2013 Executive is looking for parttime housemaid. If interested please send your name and phone number by SMS. Contact No. 60716890.

(C 4551) 31-10-2013 MATRIMONIAL

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(C 4547) 27-10-2013

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THE PUBLIC AUTHORITY FOR CIVIL INFORMATION

Automated enquiry about the Civil ID card is

1889988 112

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

04:40 06:01 11:32 14:39 17:02 18:20

Books FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Jeffrey Archer’s top 10 romans-fleuves Music of Time, probably the most ambitious scheme in postwar English writing. Through the eyes of the narrator, Nicholas Jenkins, we see the English upper-class and bohemian life as it was lived by a generation growing up in the shadow of the great war and then grappling with the horrors of another conflict and the profound social changes of a postwar world: the years covered range from the 1920s to the 1970s. Powell’s characterisation and dialogue are deft, his eye for detail is sharp, and he is often very funny, but in truth I found it quite a struggle.

By Jeffrey Archer

R

oman-fleuve sounds a very French sort of thing. Britannica defines it as “a series of novels, each one complete in itself, that deals with an era of national life, or successive generations of a family”. There are of course French examples, but the novels I’ve chosen are all English, with the kind of solid storytelling and unforgettable characters that inspire me.

And I can’t talk about romans-fleuves, without mentioning my own five-book series, The Clifton Chronicles. The first book, Only Time Will Tell, opens in 1920 and takes Harry Clifton, a docker’s son from the backstreets of Bristol, through to Oxford University, after he wins a scholarship because of his magnificent singing voice. He meets Emma at the age of nine, and she decides they will be married. And although, years later, they reach the church, the marriage never takes place. Book two, The Sins of the Father (published this week), picks up the Clifton and Barrington family saga and takes Harry and Giles through to the end of the second world war, when they have to make decisions that will affect the rest of their lives.

7. The Swann saga by RF Delderfield Delderfield was a particularly skilful writer of multi-volume sequences. The three-book A Horseman Riding By was a great success in the 1960s, and he followed it between 1970 and 1973 with the three volumes of the “Swann saga”: God Is an Englishman, Theirs Was the Kingdomand Give Us This Day. The story of the Swann family and their haulage business runs from the latter half of the 19th century into the early 20th, and the pace never flags.

8. The Smiley trilogy by John le Carré In Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley’s People, Le Carré achieves a perfect blend between the novel of manners and the sophisticated spy story. Future generations will be able to learn all they need to know about the attitudes and obsessions of a certain part of British society in the 1960s and 1970s from these novels. At the centre stands the unforgettable character of George Smiley - decent, intelligent, thoughtful, relentless, self-questioning - who uncovers a mole in the secret service, attempts to restore the service’s prestige and takes on the great Soviet spymaster Karla. When it comes to spies, Le Carré has no equal.

1. The Palliser novels by Anthony Trollope The Oxford Companion to English Literature tells me that “Trollope established the novel sequence in English fiction”. Many would choose his Barsetshire novels for a survey of this sort, but I’ve preferred the six Palliser novels because the Palace of Westminster is more to my taste than the cathedral close. A large cast of characters is common to all six novels, but Trollope ensures that each can be enjoyed on its own. Trollope stood unsuccessfully for parliament and did not enjoy the experience - and he uses this first-hand knowledge with great verve.

2. The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy The Forsyte Saga was the greatest success of Galsworthy’s career, and largely responsible for the exceptional honours he received among them the Nobel prize for literature in 1932 and the Order of Merit in 1929. Much of the social detail has dated, and the passing of time has made some of his characters’ concerns less immediate, but the characters themselves are recognisable and compelling, and Galsworthy still hits his targets - materialism, selfishness, insensitivity, possessiveness - with force and accuracy. And the first mini-series set new standards for television drama.

3. The Sword of Honour trilogy by Evelyn Waugh Recognisably based on some of the author’s own experiences in the second world war, this trilogy has at its centre the figure of Guy Crouchback, an upper-class English Catholic in his 30s. The failure of his marriage and a general weariness with life disposes him to see war as a noble thing and a welcome opportunity to do something worthwhile with himself. Over the three novels, Waugh deftly strips him of this illusion in ways that are tragic, touching and savagely funny. Probably the best thing in English literature to be inspired by the second world war.

4. Strangers and Brothers by CP Snow The 11 novels that make up Strangers and Brothers appeared between 1940 and 1970, and trace the career of Lewis Eliot, a barrister, who progresses from provincial origins to positions of influence in national life; this progression to some extent mirrors Snow’s own career. Perhaps the most successful of the

Roman-fleuve sounds a very French sort of thing. Britannica defines it as “a series of novels, each one complete in itself, that deals with an era of national life, or successive generations of a family”. There are of course French examples, but the novels I’ve chosen are all English, with the kind of solid storytelling and unforgettable characters that inspire me. novels are The Masters, a well-informed account of the election of a new head of a Cambridge college, and The Affair, about a scientific scandal. The title of one of the novels introduced a useful phrase into the language: “the corridors of power”. Together, the sequence presents a vivid portrait of British academic, political and public life. Snow was that rare thing, a scientist and novelist.

teenage beginnings to his appointment as admiral and award of a peerage. Along the way, Forester’s mastery of his subject tells us much about British history and society in the 18th and 19th centuries. Hornblower’s character is plausibly developed, and Forester’s handling of the war scenes is skilful and exciting.

Like the work of all great storytellers, it transfers well to the screen.

5. The Hornblower novels by CS Forester These 11 magnificent novels trace the naval career of Horatio Hornblower, from

6. A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell Twelve novels make up A Dance to the

9. The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott You could fill a good few shelves with novels concerned with the relationship between Britain and India, but not many would come close to Paul Scott’s achievement. Covering a fairly short time-span (the rape that is the key event in the first novel takes place in 1942, and the series ends only five years later, with the partition of India in 1947), Scott nevertheless probes deeply into his story’s conflicts of cultures and loyalties. Ronald Merrick, presented by Scott as an epitome of what was wrong with British rule in India, is a memorable villain, but generally Scott’s treatment of his characters is insightful and even-handed.

10. The Clayhanger novels by Arnold Bennett Bennett was a contemporary of Galsworthy, and the four novels that make up his Clayhanger series were published between 1910 and 1918, at the same time as the Forstye Saga was appearing. Bennett’s main literary inspiration was the writing of French realists such as Zola and Balzac, but nothing could be more English than the industrial Staffordshire setting of the Clayhanger novels. They are rich in memorable characters but the principal ones are Darius Clayhanger, a domineering self-made man; his son Edwin, whose ambition to become an architect is frustrated by his father; and Hilda Lessways, whom Edwin loves and who becomes the innocent victim of a bigamous marriage. Good old-fashioned storytelling.

— www.theguardian.com

Stars

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Aries (March 21-April 19)

In your case, the phrase "turning point" has some meaning. This turning point could take the form of a new person or a key event that changes things forever. Sometimes amazing things we hear about really do happen. One of these things may be happening to you in the coming months.

Taurus (April 20-May 20)

It may be that you've come back deeply changed from a long voyage. Of course, travel changes everyone to some extent, but in your case, the change is more profound. You're going to have a problem getting back into your old life. It may feel too limiting for you. So what are you waiting for? Change it!

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

If you feel suffocated by your romantic relationship, if you feel it lacks spice or is too traditional, then why not liberate yourself?

Today's planetary energy will help you turn even your craziest ideas into reality. Starting today, you're going to be asked to be more decisive.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

Your boisterous, generous attitude is inspiring and welcomed by others. There are also some people who consider your behavior ostentatious or arrogant. You may wonder how this is possible, since your intentions are good. You want people to share in the love and good times. You're attentive to others' feelings. Sit down and talk with people one-on-one to understand how they feel.

Leo (July 23-August 22)

If you've yearned to modify something in your daily life, do it now. The planetary energy is telling you that the hour has come to make concrete changes. Whether the change you seek is at home or at work, physical or emotional, don't be afraid to seriously upset the status quo of your life.

Virgo (August 23-September 22)

The planetary shift will probably be imperceptible today, but you'll have several months to understand how this change impacts you. It will dawn on you that you feel a strong need for liberation. Perhaps you need to release yourself from the bonds of your group. Change and innovation are in the air!

Libra (September 23-October 22)

You mustn't expect any enormous changes today. The process you began three or four years ago will accelerate slightly.

You're changing the moorings of your identity, the ideas that make you sure of who you are. Your family, background, and education no longer count for as much as your spiritual foundations.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21)

The day ahead should be fairly positive. You'll begin to feel the faintest hint of a major change beginning. This new phase will last seven months. As it progresses, you'll find greater freedom of expression. You can expect to shift into high gear on subjects you used to avoid in the past. Some friction with siblings may arise in the next few months.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21)

The solar system is liable to trigger a transformation that will last several months. The change will center on the means you use to fulfill yourself in terms of your career and love life. If you feel hemmed in by your training or upbringing, you can expect to seek liberation from these inhibitions in the months to come.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)

It's an excellent day for you! Although no major events occur today, there's the promise of freedom in the coming months. A fundamental shift is about to occur in your occupation and love life. As the months unfold, you can expect to be more visionary, more creative, and perhaps more rebellious. You'll be much more effective than in the past two or three years.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18)

To understand the shift occurring today, you must look at events from a lofty perspective. A slow liberation process is gathering momentum. Over the next few months you won't refuse an opportunity to rid yourself of an oppressive part of your past. You'll shed your old complexes and emerge renewed. Don't be alarmed if family relations suffer a bit. The distress is only temporary.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

You may feel like there's a big opportunity waiting for you but your head is too muddled to take advantage of it. Perhaps you're afraid that if you accept this offer now, you'll miss an even better one later. Don't delay. Change is progress. Go after the things that catch your eye and draw you in. These opportunities won't last forever. Stop dreaming and start doing.

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, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Word Search

Yesterdayʼs Solution

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

ACROSS 1. The federal agency that insures residential mortgages.

4. A major school of Buddhism teaching social concern and universal salvation.

12. A proportion multiplied by 100.

15. The fatty flesh of eel.

16. A band of cloth or leather or metal links attached to a wristwatch and wrapped around the wrist.

17. A strong emotion.

18. An enclosed space.

19. Of or relating to the teeth.

20. A sharp hooked claw especially on a bird of prey.

22. A detailed description of design criteria for a piece of work.

24. A public promotion of some product or service.

25. The habit of being tidy.

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

29. A stopping.

30. A physician who is not a specialist but treats all illnesses.

32. A small cake leavened with yeast.

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

35. Gear (including necessary machinery) for a particular enterprise.

37. Relatively nontoxic South African herb smoked like tobacco.

39. Small winged insect living on the bark and leaves of trees and feeding on e.g. fungi and decaying plant matter.

43. A constellation in the polar region of the southern hemisphere near Octans.

45. (prefix) In front of or before in space.

47. A quantity of no importance.

48. Archaebacteria requiring a salt-rich environment for growth and survival.

52. Small terrestrial lizard of warm regions of the Old World.

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

54. The cry made by sheep.

56. Resinlike substance secreted by certain lac insects.

57. Large Old World bat of warm and tropical regions that feeds on fruit.

61. A sock with a separation for the big toe.

62. Molten rock in the earth's crust.

63. Gully or streambed in North Africa and the Middle East that remains dry except during rainy season.

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

68. One who hates or loathes.

72. An organization of countries formed in 1961 to agree on a common policy for the sale of petroleum.

75. Owing or owed feudal allegiance and service.

76. A room equipped with toilet facilities.

80. Being one more than seven.

81. The sixth day of the week.

82. The great hall in ancient Persian palaces.

83. At a previous time.

4. A condition (mostly in boys) characterized by behavioral and learning disorders.

5. A particular geographical region of indefinite boundary (usually serving some special purpose or distinguished by its people or culture or geography).

6. A bag used for carrying money and small personal items or accessories (especially by women).

7. A legal document codifying the result of deliberations of a committee or society or legislative body.

8. In the manner of William Butler Yeats.

9. Large genus of perennial and biennial pungent bulbous plants.

10. A colorless odorless gaseous element that give a red glow in a vacuum tube.

11. Atlas moth.

12. Low-growing tropical perennials grown for their stingless foliage.

13. Extending or lying across.

14. In or of a state of physical or nervous tension.

21. Any woodland plant of the genus Anemone grown for its beautiful flowers and whorls of dissected leaves.

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

26. Hanging cloth used as a blind.

28. A unit of absorbed ionizing radiation equal to 100 ergs per gram of irradiated material.

31. A fee charged for the use of pipes.

33. German organist and contrapuntist (1685-1750).

36. A Russian prison camp for political prisoners.

38. Offering fun and gaiety.

40. South African plant widely cultivated for its showy pure white spathe and yellow spadix.

41. Conforming to an ultimate standard of perfection or excellence.

42. An artistic form of nonverbal communication.

44. Affecting or characteristic of the body as opposed to the mind or spirit.

46. Relating to or located near a tibia.

49. A metabolic acid found in yeast and liver cells.

50. The Palestinian uprising (beginning in 1987) against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

51. Relating to the blood vessels or blood.

55. Formerly a large constellation in the southern hemisphere between Canis Major and the Southern Cross.

58. The blood group whose red cells carry both the A and B antigens.

59. Before noon.

60. (linguistics) Relating to the dative case.

64. South American armadillo with three bands of bony plates.

65. Mother goddess.

67. (often followed by `for') Ardently or excessively desirous.

69. A person who is entitled by law or by the terms of a will to inherit the estate of another.

70. Armor plate that protects the chest.

71. An investment trust that owns and manages a pool of commercial properties and mortgages and other real estate asssets.

73. Liveliness and energy.

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

77. An informal term for a father.

78. An associate degree in nursing.

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

Yesterdayʼs Solution

DOWN 1. (heraldry) An ordinary consisting of a broad horizontal band across a shield.

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

3. Genus of erect herbs of the Middle East having showy flowers.

Daily SuDoku

Yesterday’s Solution

Sports FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

McIlroy finds form

PITTSBURGH: Marc-Andre Fleury #29 of the Pittsburgh Penguins makes a save behind Reilly Smith #18 of the Boston Bruins and Matt Niskanen #2 during the game at Consol Energy Center on October 30, 2013. — AFP

Penguins edge Bruins

PITTSBURGH: Brandon Sutter and Jussi Jokinen scored in a 6:58 span in the third period as the Pittsburgh Penguins held on for a 3-2 victory over the Boston Bruins on Wednesday. Chris Kunitz also scored for the Penguins, who gained a small measure of revenge on the Bruins after Boston swept them out of the playoffs last spring. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 21 shots for Pittsburgh, including a sliding save on David Krejci just before the final horn. Sidney Crosby picked up an assist to push his points total to an NHL-high 21.

Patrice Bergeron and Jarome Iginla scored for Boston. Tuukka Rask finished with 28 saves, but couldn’t stop the Bruins from dropping a road game for the first time this season. The meeting between the teams was the first since Boston’s four-game sweep in the Eastern Conference finals, when the Bruins suffocated the NHL’s highest scoring team into submission. The Penguins scored only twice in nearly 14 periods of hockey, undone by Boston’s defense and a near flawless performance by Rask, who stopped 134 of 136 shots in the series.

KINGS 4, SHARKS 3, OT Anze Kopitar scored on a power play 2:32 into overtime after setting up Justin Williams’ tying power-play goal with 7:39 left in the third period as Los Angeles rallied from behind three times to beat San Jose. Drew Doughty and Jarret Stoll also had goals and Jonathan Quick stopped 17 shots in the first meeting of the season between the Pacific Division rivals, helping the Kings win for the eighth time in 11 games. Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Joe Pavelski and Logan Couture scored for the Sharks, who finished the first month of the season 10-1-2 and set a franchise record for wins in October.

Antti Niemi made 19 saves in the finale of a 3-2 road trip.

RED WINGS 2, CANUCKS 1 Tomas Tatar scored his first goal of the season late in the second period as Detroit defeated Vancouver. Daniel Alfredsson had the other goal for the Red Wings (7-4-2), while Jimmy Howard made 19 saves as Detroit snapped a four-game

slide. Daniel Sedin scored for Vancouver (9-5-1), which finished with a season-low 20 shots and had its four-game winning streak stopped.

Roberto Luongo stopped 25 shots in the loss.

Henrik Sedin set up Vancouver’s first goal to extend his point streak to 10 games (three goals, nine assists).

MAPLE LEAFS 4, FLAMES 2 James van Riemsdyk scored a short-handed goal and Jonathan Bernier made 41 saves to help Toronto beat Calgary. Eastern Conference-leading Toronto has won three straight to improve to 10-4-0. It was the Maple Leafs’ first victory in Calgary since Dec 27, 2002. Joffrey Lupul, Mason Raymond and Paul Ranger - short-handed into an empty net - also scored for Toronto. Coming off a 4-0 victory on Tuesday night in Edmonton, the Maple Leafs will wrap up their three-game trip through Western Canada on Saturday night in Vancouver. Matt Stajan and David Jones scored for Calgary. The Flames are 5-5-2. — AP

Dyson faces possible tour ban after ‘serious breach’

SHANGHAI: England’s Simon Dyson could be fined, banned or even expelled from the European Tour following his disqualification from the BMW Masters last week in Shanghai. The European Tour announced yesterday that he will go before a disciplinary panel to answer a charge of a “serious breach” of the tour’s code of behavior.

In joint second place after two rounds at Lake Malaren, Dyson was seen on television during his second round to tap down illegally with his ball a spike mark on the line of his putt on the eighth green and was disqualified. He will now have to explain his actions to an independent disciplinary panel, the European Tour said in a statement issued to golf reporters in Shanghai.

“At the conclusion of the tournament, and having reviewed subsequent reports from Tournament Director Mikael Eriksson and Chief Referee John Paramor, it was decided by David Garland, Director of Tour Operations for The European Tour, that further action was required under The European Tour’s Code of Behaviour

and Disciplinary Procedure,” said the statement issued to media at the WGC-HSBC Champions tournament at Sheshan Golf Club.

The relevant clause in the code states: “Serious Breach. If, at the conclusion of an investigation into an alleged breach of the Code by a Member, it is evident that a serious breach of the Code may have occurred, then a disciplinary hearing shall take place before an independent disciplinary panel.” The statement said Dyson was in breach of “Rule 16-1a, which states that a player must not touch his line of putt”.

He should have added a two-shot penalty to his card and was therefore disqualified for signing for the wrong score. Dyson will be given 21 days notice to face the three-man panel at a date to be determined and if found guilty will face action ranging from a reprimand to a fine, suspension or even expulsion from the tour. The duration of the procedure leaves him free to compete in next week’s Turkish Airline Open in Antalya for which he is entered, and the DP Tour

Championships in Dubai the following week. But it seems unlikely he would take up his place in those fields with the case hanging over him.

“I have been informed of the procedure being put in place by The Tour following my actions during the second round of the BMW Masters in Shanghai last week and am perfectly happy to co-operate with the investigation by the independent disciplinary panel,” said Dyson in a statement issued to media from his management team. “I would like to say at this stage that I have never deliberately broken the rules either on this occasion or in the past.

“It was only after I was shown the replay of my action after marking the ball on the eighth green during the second round that I realized what I had done and that I was in breach. “I immediately accepted that I should be disqualified. “It was simply an accidental mistake which I have no reservations in apologizing for.” Dyson had not qualified for this week’s event in Shanghai and flew back to the UK tomorrow. — AFP

SHANGHAI: Rory McIlroy enjoyed one of his best rounds of a disappointing season to storm into a two-shot lead over a star-studded field at the $8.5 million WGC-HSBC Champions tournament yesterday. Displaying a deft short game with a new lob wedge, McIlroy reeled off eight birdies en route to a first round seven-under-par 65 at the World Golf Championship event in Sheshan.

Spaniard Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano and Welshman Jamie Donaldson are tied for second on five-under, one ahead of a group of four players that includes American prospect Jordan Spieth and Briton Justin Rose.

After cruising along nicely for 16 holes, British Open champion and two-time winner of this event Phil Mickelson looked primed to challenge McIlroy’s lead until he suffered a dramatic late-round meltdown to fall off the pace. The left-hander dropped four strokes at the par-five eighth, his 17th, where he twice found the pond in front of the green, and also dropped a shot at the ninth after pulling his second into the water for a one-under 71.

McIlroy, on the other hand, had no such misadventures with his only dropped shot coming on the 11th hole, his second of the round. “It’s only one round but it’s definitely the way I wanted and needed to start this week,” said the two-time major champion, who was ranked number one in the world as recently as March but has yet to record a victory this season.

However, refreshed after a recent fourweek break and armed with a new driver and new ball, the world number six looked to have rediscovered the swagger that carried him to order of merit titles on the European and PGA Tours a year ago. His improvement was not readily apparent in his tie for 27th at last week’s BMW Masters, also played in Shanghai, but when he beat Tiger Woods in an exhibition on Monday, his timing and demeanor around the course looked like the McIlroy of old.

UNDER CONTROL “Last week I wasn’t reading the greens very well and my pace was off as well and when you have that combination you’re not going to hole any putts,” he said. “I let a couple of putts get away from me today - a couple of the downhill ones - but I was able to hole the ones coming back. “And with the irons, I pretty much had the ball under control all day. I hit a couple of loose drives but it’s one of the best rounds I’ve played (this year).

“I shot 64 at Boston (Deutsche Bank Championship) but this is probably better because of a little trickier conditions.” McIlroy is a surprising 62nd on the European Tour’s Race to Dubai. Only the top 60 qualify for the season-ending event in a fortnight, so he is not quite guaranteed a spot yet, but has made a huge step in the right direction. “I obviously want to play myself into Dubai and pick up my first win of the season,” he said.

Fernandez-Castano, meanwhile, continued the form that carried him to victory at the BMW Masters on Sunday. “I was feeling a little tired on Tuesday but I guess it’s normal after all the adrenaline rush,” he said. “I was feeling a little tired but I wasn’t in the pro-am yesterday so I took a good rest and I’m feeling 100 percent.” Donaldson is also feeling refreshed after suffering from jet-lag last week. “I didn’t sleep great last week but I’m fully acclimatized now so there are no excuses,” said Donaldson, who eagled the par-four 16th after driving the green. — Reuters

Sports FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Relentless Vettel seeks third win in Abu Dhabi LONDON: Newly-crowned quadruple world champion Sebastian Vettel should be forgiven this weekend if he appears reluctant to grab pole position at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The relentless 26-year-old German, who won last Sunday’s Indian Grand Prix to secure his fourth drivers’ crown in succession and confirm his Red Bull team’s fourth constructors’ title, will not have over-celebrated.

As a keen, but shrewd, student of his sport’s history, he will know not only that he has joined an exclusive hall of fame - as one of only four men to have taken four titles - but also that the prime starting spot at the Yas Marina Circuit is something of a poisoned chalice. In the four previous Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the pole sitter has experienced serious problems three times and failed to finish the race - hardly an auspicious sign that it is essen-

tial to success in the season’s only ‘twilight’ race.

The only driver to have taken pole and not only finished, but won in Abu Dhabi, however, was Vettel on the evening when he secured his maiden title in November, 2010, an achievement that initiated some wild scenes of celebration. In 2009’s inaugural race, defending champion Briton Lewis Hamilton retired with a brake problem. In 2012, also with McLaren, he lost fuel pressure. In 2011, Vettel took pole, but suffered a first corner puncture.

If this suggests that the winner can come from anywhere, it would be untrue since only one victor - Finn Kimi Raikkonen for Lotus last year - started from behind the front row, a fact that makes second on the grid such a promising position. Vettel, who won from second in

2009 and from pole in 2010, will thus be seeking a third Abu Dhabi success to extend his remarkable run of six straight wins to a magnificent seven.

Hamilton, who won from second in 2011, will seek his second win at one of his favorite circuits not only to end Red Bull and Vettel’s supremacy, but also to book-end it with two wins of his own. “What he has done, his achievement, is incredible, especially for such a young individual,” said Hamilton, following Vettel’s latest triumph. “He is in a class of his own, and he is on his way to becoming the greatest driver in F1, if he is not already. “Big congratulations, I’m really happy for him....”

That praise delivered, however, the 28year-old Briton warned that he will remain as committed to winning as ever despite Red Bull’s double success. “The race in Abu Dhabi

Stars light up Paris Masters

PARIS: World number one Rafael Nadal and Swiss star Roger Federer led a host of leading fancies into the third round of the Paris Masters on Wednesday. Federer’s 6-4, 6-4 victory over South African Kevin Anderson was enough to secure his spot at the World Tour Finals in London, his 12th straight appearance at the season’s glamour finale. “It’s magnificent to come back to Paris which is close to my heart especially after 2009 (his only French Open triumph) and 2011,” when he won the Paris Masters,” said Federer.

“I’m just happy right now to have made it again, you know.

It’s definitely somewhat of a highlight of the season for me after having a tough few months to still make it to the World Tour Finals. “It’s a good moment right now sitting here knowing it’s secure.” added the Swiss former world number one. At a packed Bercy arena, Nadal turned in a trademark swashbuckling display to defeat Spanish compatriot Marcel Granollers 7-5, 7-5. Nadal, 27, hasn’t played at the Paris tournament since 2009 and is attempting to become the first player since Andre Agassi in 1999 to win both the French Open and Paris Masters in the same year.

Nadal advances to a last-16 meeting against last year’s surprise finalist Jerzy Janowicz. The eight-time French Open winner, who is chasing a record sixth Masters title in the same season, said after the match he was happy to win but needs to improve. “It can be difficult when your opponent serves well and you didn’t play your best, so matches are very close, especially on a surface like this one. “I didn’t play well tonight.

Something that can happen after two weeks without playing and after a long time without playing on indoors, this kind of surface.

“I have to improve a lot for Thursday.” said Nadal. Philipp Kohlschreiber will be Federer’s next opponent after the experienced German blew away two-time Paris semi-finalist and compatriot Tommy Haas 6-2, 6-2. Defending champion David Ferrer of Spain was pushed to three sets by Czech Lukas Rosol in his opening match before easing into the last-16, 6-0, 2-6, 6-3. The experience of the 31-year-old French Open runner-up proved decisive in the decider as Ferrer consistently put pressure on the Rosol serve and was rewarded with a third-round tie against Frenchman Gilles Simon.

Argentine fourth seed Juan Martin Del Potro made it 14 wins from 15 matches since the US Open as he defeated Marin Cilic.

The 25-year-old, who won his fourth ATP title of the year last weekend at Basel, withstood 19 aces from his opponent before closing out a tense encounter 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) against the Croatian.

“This is a really big tournament and very important for all the players so I’m very happy to have won and hope to go far in the tournament,” said Del Potro.

Del Potro, who is playing what he said ‘is the best tennis of my life’, will next face dangerous Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.

Swiss number two Stanislas Wawrinka increased his chances of protecting his eighth-place ranking when he ground down Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

PARIS: Switzerland’s Roger Federer serves to South Africa’s Kevin Anderson during their second round match at the ninth and final ATP World Tour Masters 1000 indoor tennis tournament on October 30, 2013. — AFP This year’s US Open semi-finalist now faces 13th seed Nicolas Almagro following the Spaniard’s comfortable 6-4, 6-3 victory over Croatian Ivan Dodig. Earlier, big-serving American John Isner bombarded Polish qualifier Michal Przysiezny with 27 aces on the way to a 7-6 (7/3), 4-6, 6-3 second-round win and a third round matchup against Novak Djokovic. In the final match of the day, Canada’s Milos Raonic kept his outside chances of qualifying for London flickering, with a ruthless 6-3, 6-4 thrashing of Dutch qualifier Robin Haase. — AFP

is always fun and one which I enjoy. The circuit and the Yas Marina complex are so impressive and racing from the sunshine into the twilight is special.

“With three races left, we are still pushing and there is a lot that our team can achieve.

It’s all about consistency now and making sure that both Nico (Rosberg) and I score good points so we can keep the other teams behind us. - and we are up for that challenge.” For Hamilton and Mercedes, that means staying ahead of Ferrari and Lotus in the teams’ title race while strugglers Marussia and Caterham battle to avoid finishing outside the top ten.

Tyre wear is less likely to be a major factor than it was in India, but the swiftly falling temperatures in the latter stages of Sunday’s race by around 15 degrees Celsius - can play havoc with some teams’ expectations. — AFP

Skating - Li, 16, leads Chinese medal hopes BEIJING: Diminutive teenager Li Zijun will be one of the hosts’ top medal hopes at the Cup of China figure skating as they seek Olympic momentum just months away from Sochi 2014. The 16-year-old three-time Chinese champion showed her prowess on the big stage when she placed a creditable seventh at this year’s world championships. This week Li, just five foot four inches is one of a group of young hopefuls taking on Italy’s Carolina Kostner in the women’s competition.

Japan’s former Four Continents winner Kanako Murakami, 18, and European silver-medallist Adelina Sotnikova, 17, will also be hoping to upset ex-world champion Kostner.

In the pairs, China’s Olympic silver-medallists Pang Qing and Tong Jian will take on four-time world champions and Sochi favourites Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy.

Pang and Tong take to the ice a week after Sui Wenjing and Han Cong’s exploits at Skate Canada, where they pulled off a rare quadruple twist lift but ultimately finished second.

Fifty-one of the world’s best figure skaters from nine countries have gathered in Beijing for what is the third leg of the six-stop Grand Prix series. Skaters are looking to gather points and medals to reach the circuit’s finale in Fukuoka, Japan, in December, the last major audition before the Winter Games in March. In a blow to her Olympic hopes, South Korea’s reigning champion Kim Yu-na is expected to miss the series with a foot problem, while men’s title-holder Evan Lysacek is also struggling with injury.

Kazakhstan’s world silver-medallist Denis Ten returns from illness to lead the men’s competitors in Beijing, with China’s former world junior champion Han Yan, 17, also in contention.

Japan’s Takahiko Kozuka, entering his second Grand Prix event of the year, will be looking to improve on his sixth place at Skate America two weeks ago. In the ice dance, Russia’s reigning European champions Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev will hope to lay down a marker ahead of the Sochi games.

Their biggest competition looks to be two-time European gold-medallists Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat of France, although America’s Madison Chock and Evan Bates could also figure. The event starts at Beijing’s Capital Gymnasium on Friday.

It is returning to the Chinese capital after being held for the past two years in Shanghai. China has so far won seven Olympic medals in figure skating, placing the world’s most populous nation 13th in the all-time medals table. — AFP

Sports FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Napoli, Juventus closing gap on Roma Juve outclass Catania 4-0 MILAN: Juventus outclassed Catania 4-0 and Napoli battled to a 2-1 win away to Fiorentina to move to within two points of Serie A leaders Roma on Wednesday. Roma, who set an all-time league record last Sunday by winning all nine of their opening games, will aim to make it 10 in a row yesterday when they host bottom side Chievo at the Olympic Stadium.

Chievo, who have four points and one win to their name all season, are set to become the latest victims of a rampant Roma side that has already accounted for Inter Milan, Napoli and Lazio. Juventus and Napoli, however, avoided any slipups to keep pace with Rudi Garcia’s record-setting side.

Champions Juve were in imperious form in Turin where Chilean midfielder Arturo Vidal started the rout with a deflected 28th minute strike, before Andrea Pirlo doubled the lead with a sumptuous curling free kick.

Carlos Tevez made it 3-0 just after the hour mark and Antonio Conte’s side wrapped up the points when Leonardo Bonucci was allowed to run in unchallenged and tap home Sebastian Giovinco’s low pass. Away to Fiorentina, who stunned Juve with a come-from-behind 4-2 win two weeks ago, Napoli were expected to work hard for the points. However, Rafael Benitez’s men were never under

pressure, typified by a 12th minute opener after Gonazalo Higuain crossed to the right for Spaniard Jose Callejon to beat goalkeeper Neto with a sweetly-struck first-time strike.

Fiorentina were soon back on level terms when Giuseppe Rossi’s spot kick, after Borja Valero was fouled in the area, sent Pepe Reina the wrong way. It took Rossi’s league-leading tally to nine goals, but his and Fiorentina’s joy was short-lived. Napoli restored their advantage on 36 minutes when Dries Mertens ran unchallenged into the hosts’ area to beat Neto with an angled strike. Fiorentina spurned several chances to pull level in the second half, Rossi sending his shot from a difficult angle wide of goal and then his curling effort bring a great diving save from Reina.

Napoli midfielder Christian Maggio saw red on 80 minutes for a second bookable offence, but as Fiorentina battled for the equaliser, they were also reduced to 10 men when Juan Cuadrado was sent off in injury time for simulation after tumbling in the area under a challenge from Gokhan Inler. Fiorentina coach Vincenzo Montella thought it was a harsh decision and said: “We played an excellent game. They caused us problems when they were on the offensive, but we created a lot and didn’t really deserve to

lose. “Seeing Cuadrado sent off for simulation was strange.”

Benitez was keen to avoid provoking any controversy. “I don’t really want to talk about refereeing decisions,” the Spaniard told Sky Sport Italia. “We won because we managed to exploit the space behind their defense. We dominated possession and tried to maximize that, they’re a difficult team to play at home.” As league new boys Verona secured a precious 2-0 home win over struggling Sampdoria, Fiorentina’s second reverse dropped them one place to sixth, nine points adrift of Roma and seven behind Napoli and Juventus.

With coach Massimiliano Allegri under increasing pressure, AC Milan were desperate for all three points at home to Lazio and were sent on their way when Kaka scored a sublime individual goal just after the restart. The hosts, however, were stunned when French defender Michael Ciani fired home the equalizer on 72 minutes.

Allegri’s side host Fiorentina tomorrow and despite this latest setback the Italian remained defiant. “It’s a bad spell for us. We’re far off third place and we have to start winning again to climb the table,” said Allegri. “But we can’t let our heads go down. If we keep playing as we are I’m sure the results will come.”— AFP

Arsenal and Liverpool title claims on scrutiny

NEWCASTLE: Newcastle United’s English defender Mike Williamson (right) vies with Manchester City’s Montenegrin striker Steven Jovetic during the English League Cup fourth round football match between Newcastle United and Manchester City at St James’ Park in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. — AFP

City, Spurs advance in League Cup LONDON: Alvaro Negredo and Edin Dzeko scored in extra time to send Manchester City into the League Cup quarterfinals with a 2-0 win at Newcastle on Wednesday, while Tottenham needed a penalty shootout to earn a place in the last eight. Newcastle dominated in the early stages but City weathered the storm and then raised its game in extra time. Negredo broke the deadlock from close range after a simple move in the 99th minute before Dzeko took the ball round goalkeeper Tim Krul to seal the victory in the 105th.

In the other fourth-round match, Tottenham and Hull were level at 2-2 after extra time. Hull player Ahmed Elmohamady, who gave away the penalty converted by Roberto Soldado at White Hart Lane in Hull’s 1-0 defeat to Tottenham in the Premier League on Sunday, missed the decisive spot-kick. Gylfi Sigurdsson’s 25-yard (meter) shot in the first half had put the home side ahead, before American goalkeeper Brad Friedel fumbled the ball into his own net.

Paul McShane scored in extra time to give Tottenham the lead, but Hull substitute Harry Kane made it 2-2. Tottenham prevailed 8-7 on penalties. “To a man my players were magnificent. They didn’t deserve to go out of the Cup but it wasn’t our day today. We had the

better chances,” Hull manager Steve Bruce said. At St James’s Park, Negredo calmly tapped the ball in to put his team ahead after Dzeko sent in a low cross from the left side of the area that Newcastle defender Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa failed to intercept.

David Silva and James Milner combined well to set up the second goal. Milner found Dzeko with a superb pass that the Bosnian striker converted. Dzeko praised City backup goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon’s performance after the Romanian player kept the pressure on City’s No 1 keeper Joe Hart. “He was great. This is the second game in the Cup that he hasn’t conceded a goal, so he’s definitely improving,” Dzeko said.

City coach Manuel Pellegrini made 10 changes to the side that lost to Chelsea at the weekend. His team soon came under pressure and was lucky not to concede when Papiss Cisse’s clever lob over goalkeeper Pantilimon flew just wide in the eighth minute. Without Vincent Kompany, City’s defense looked shaky and following a free kick and a melee in the box, Newcastle fans erupted in cheers when Ameobi slotted in from close range - only to see his goal disallowed for offside.—AP

LONDON: The title credentials of leaders Arsenal and third-placed Liverpool will come under scrutiny when they meet in a heavyweight Premier League clash tomorrow. Arsenal, top of the table with 22 points, have only lost one league match this season, on the opening day against Aston Villa, but have been beaten by Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League and Chelsea in the League Cup in the past week. The visit of Liverpool (1730GMT), on 20 points, is only the second time they have met a team with realistic top-four ambitions following a win over local rivals Tottenham Hotspur.

Manager Arsene Wenger fielded a weakened side against Chelsea and he said it was important not to read too much into recent results. “Let’s not jump too quickly to conclusions because if you take the points we have made since the first of January, we have made more than anyone else,” he told reporters after the 2-0 home loss to Chelsea. “I believe that a longer distance reveals more about the quality of a team than the last few games. It is difficult to swallow that happened to us in the last week, but the mistakes are not so big that it cannot be corrected.”

He acknowledged, however, that it was vital to get back on track against Liverpool, for whom Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge scored all the goals in last week’s 4-1 thrashing of West Brom, especially with tough games against champions Manchester United and surprise packages Southampton to follow. “It’s a difficult (run), but that’s part of the season. We know the games,” Wenger said. “We have to respond well against Liverpool. We are in a strong position in the league and have a good opportunity at home, and we have to turn this round. Away from home we are very solid, but at home you know it’s important and vital to win the big games.”

SENDING MESSAGE Liverpool midfielder Jordan Henderson said his team were determined to send a message that they were genuine contenders this season having not finished in the top five since 2008-09. “They’re all tough games in the Premier League and Arsenal have been flying of late,” he told the club’s website (www.liverpoolfc.com) “But so have we, so I think it will be a good game to watch and hopefully we can get a good result. “It would send out a message to the rest of the teams that we’re here and we mean business. But I think the main focus is going there and playing like we have been.” Under-pressure Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew’s side have picked up one Premier League win in the last five matches, and he believes tomorrow’s match against Chelsea (1245) and the following one against Spurs will define their season. “We are coming into some games which are really what our season is all about. We have lost two games to teams in and around us and we have to try to make up those two against the top teams.” —Reuters

Sports FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

German League preview

‘Thank God it’s Friday’ as Dortmund eye top spot BERLIN: If statistics are anything to go by then Borussia Dortmund are set to reclaim the Bundesliga top spot from Bayern Munich when they take on VfB Stuttgart today. Last season’s runners-up have not lost a home game on a Friday in nine years and given their current form, second-placed Dortmund have every right to eye a return to the top with leaders Bayern not in action until tomorrow. With just one defeat in 10 league games so far, Dortmund (25 points) have quickly found their stride this season as they again challenge the Bavarians for domestic bragging rights. But coach Juergen Klopp warned against any complacency as they had not beaten Stuttgart in their last four home games.

“It will not be an easy game,” Klopp told reporters. “We have to be prepared for everything against Stuttgart. It will be tough.

“They have a lot of quality and are having a good run at the moment and when they switch to attack they can be really tricky

to handle.” Klopp, who this week extended his contract by two years to 2018, committing his immediate future to a club he led to consecutive titles from 2011, could have captain Sebastian Kehl back in the squad after the player returned to training on Wednesday following a lengthy injury absence.

FINE EXPECTED “What that means for today, I still do not know,” Klopp added.

“We have to see how he reacts but I am just very happy that he is back.” Klopp will, however, be without midfielder Ilkay Guendogan and defender Luasz Piszczek, who are still recovering from injuries and will not be fit enough to play today. Dortmund will also have one eye on the stands after their own fans hurled flares onto the pitch and into rival Schalke 04 enclosures in their 3-1 derby win last week and the club now face a likely fine.

Stuttgart have gone on a seven-game unbeaten run since coach Thomas Schneider replaced Bruno Labbadia early in the season, climbing back into European contention in eighth place. They have, however, drawn their last three matches.

In-form forward Vedad Ibisevic has not scored more goals against any other Bundesliga team than Dortmund with six but Schneider is likely to be without injured defender Daniel Schwaab. “We have to be quick on our feet, act quickly and move the ball,” Schneider said. “The way we change from defense to going forward will be the key to this game. “We do not have to apologize to anyone for our last three straight draws,” he said.

Bayern, top of the standings on 26 points, travel to improving Hoffenheim while third-placed Bayer Leverkusen, level on 25 points with Dortmund, meet bottom side Eintracht Braunschweig. — Reuters

Spanish League preview

Fabregas enjoys major role as derby looms MADRID: Cesc Fabregas has said he is enjoying his more significant role in the Barcelona side as they look to continue their storming start to the campaign with a win over Espanyol in the Catalan derby today. Fabregas was involved in all three of Barca’s goals as they moved four points clear of Atletico Madrid in second place with a convincing 3-0 win over Celta Vigo on Tuesday. Barca boss Gerardo Martino had taken the opportunity to rest a number of his stars for the game in Galicia as the likes of Neymar, Andres Iniesta and Xavi all started on the bench.

However, Fabregas was retained from the side that beat Real Madrid 2-1 on Saturday and registered his second goal of the season with Barca’s third nine minutes into the second-half. “Right now I am playing a lot of games, I feel important and the only thing that I have to do is play well for the team,” he told the club’s website.

“These rotations give life to a lot of players and they are making us all feel important.”

Martino has been keen to ensure his players don’t suffer from burnout in the way they did towards the end of the last campaign when they were hammered 7-0 on aggregate by Bayern Munich in the Champions League semi-finals. And with Barca in the midst of seven games in 22 days, the Argentine will rotate once more for the visit of Epsanyol. However, despite the game being sandwiched by a series of other important matches for the hosts, Fabregas doesn’t belive the derby will lose any of its importance. “A derby is always a derby. It will be difficult and we hope to show our best form and win the three points.”

Despite much talk of Barcelona’s defensive problems, Tuesday night also saw them register their ninth clean sheet in 16 games. And goalkeeper Victor Valdes, who is the only Barca player to start every game this season, hailed their attitude so far in what, on paper, should be their easier fixtures. “Winning against Celta is the best possible way to prepare for a derby. We have been reinforced by the Madrid match.

“We have shown how much we want this league and everything depends on winning games like the one on Tuesday and against Espanyol.”Barca could be short of options at left-back as Adriano is a doubt after limping off against Celta with a hamstring strain, whilst Jordi Alba remains sidelined by a thigh injury so right-back Martin Montoya may start in an unfamiliar role.

Otherwise, Martino has a fully-fit squad to choose from with Gerard Pique, Neymar, Xavi and Iniesta all expected to return.— AFP

MADRID: Real Madrid’s French forward Karim Benzema (top right) heads the ball to score next to Real Madrid’s Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo (top left) during the Spanish league football match Real Madrid CF vs Sevilla FC at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid. — AFP

Real crush Sevilla 7-3 Ronaldo nets treble, Bale scores twice MADRID: Cristiano Ronaldo grabbed a hat-trick and Gareth Bale became the fifth British player to score for Real Madrid at the Bernabeu in La Liga when he struck twice in an action-packed 7-3 win over Sevilla on Wednesday. Making his first home start for the Spanish club, Bale also conjured two assists in a performance that will help dispel doubts about the 100 million euro ($138 million) winger’s form and fitness since his record move from Tottenham Hotspur. France striker Karim Benzema, who has been struggling to find the net for both club and country, also helped himself to two goals as thirdplaced Real closed to within two points of Atletico Madrid ahead of their game at Granada. Carlo Ancelotti’s team looked far from convincing at times and let Sevilla back into the match after taking an early 3-0 lead but what eventually became a rout was a welcome boost after Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Barcelona. Sevilla played the final quarter of an hour with 10 men after midfielder Stephane M’Bia was shown a second yellow card for catching substitute Luka Modric with a flailing arm and it was the first time in almost 50 years that 10 goals were scored in a La Liga match at the Bernabeu.

“It was quite a strange game with the amount of goals and everything that happened, some of the decisions, but we got the three

points,” Real midfielder Xabi Alonso, who came on as a second-half substitute after a lengthy injury absence, told Spanish television.

“Personally I am very pleased to be back because these five months have been a big challenge,” added the Spain international. “Little by little I will pick up the pace and start to be useful to the team again.”

FRANTIC MINUTES Bale’s pre-season preparations were disrupted by the protracted negotiations over his move and he has gradually been working his way back from a thigh strain in recent weeks. The 24-year-old fired Real ahead in the 13th minute when he picked up a Benzema pass in the area and lashed the ball superbly into the top corner.

By scoring at Real’s giant arena, the Welshman was following in the footsteps of British compatriots Laurie Cunningham, Steve McManaman, David Beckham and Michael Owen. Bale’s second came in the 27th when his free kick ricocheted off Sevilla fullback Alberto Moreno and bounced into the net past wrongfooted goalkeeper Beto. Real were apparently flying when Isco won a penalty converted

by Ronaldo five minutes later but the visitors stunned the home fans into silence with two quick goals.—Reuters