7th Nov 2013

CR IP TI ON BS SU

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

Amir attends PIC’s golden jubilee celebrations

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www.kuwaittimes.net

MUHARRAM 3, 1435 AH

Messi magic returns as Barca progress to last 16

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Defiant Adasani won’t withdraw PM grilling Barrak slams doctor’s transfer • Assembly to discuss housing on Dec 12

By B Izzak and A Saleh

in the

news

KUWAIT: Opposition MP Riyadh Al-Adasani said yesterday he has no plans to withdraw a request to grill the prime minister he submitted last week and insisted that the premier must accept to debate the grilling in an open session or he should step down. “I will not back down or withdraw the grilling against the prime minister. After all, it is not an atomic bomb,” Adasani said. The lawmaker surprisingly submitted the grilling request against Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah on a variety of charges, mainly the housing problem, widespread corruption and an alleged decline in public participation in Kuwait. The grilling is listed on the agenda of the Nov 12 session but the prime minister has the right to demand the postponement of its debate for two weeks.

The lawmaker however insisted that the aim of the grilling is not to force the ouster of the prime minister but to hear his responses to the accusations listed in the grilling, but if he is found responsible for the shortcomings, the premier should leave, he said. Adasani challenged supporters of the prime minister to highlight a single achievement he has made since he was appointed in the post about two years ago. In a related development, MP Osama Al-Dabbous charged that a number of pro-government MPs are planning to either postpone the debate of the grilling or force its withdrawal.

MP Hussein Al-Quwaian meanwhile officially asked National Assembly Speaker Marzouk Al-Ghanem yesterday that he wants to add a new issue to the grilling Continued on Page 15

KKR, KPC team up for RWE unit bid DUBAI/FRANKFURT: US private equity firm KKR has teamed up with the international arm of Kuwait Petroleum Corp to jointly bid for German utility RWE’s oil and gas unit DEA, four banking sources familiar with the matter said. RWE, suffering from loss-making power plants, a boom in renewable power and €35 billion ($47.2 billion) in net debt, said in March it planned to sell DEA to save billions of euros it would otherwise have to invest in exploration and production. Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co (Kufpec), which is scouting for overseas acquisitions to beef up its energy portfolio, is joining hands with KKR to bid for the unit, potentially worth up to €5 billion, the sources said. DEA’s Egyptian assets could be a sticking point in any sale, given the substantial investments needed there and the unstable political situation in the country. The state’s relationship with the North African country has also been good of late, which may help explain Kufpec’s interest in DEA’s Egyptian assets, which accounted for about 12 percent of DEA’s oil and gas in 2012.

Dubai police add Brabus to fleet DUBAI: With a $2.5 million Bugatti Veyron and a nearly $550,000 Lamborghini Aventador already patrolling the streets, Dubai police have decided to expand their luxury spending-spree by adding a custom-made Mercedes Brabus SUV to its fleet. Despite the vehicle’s off-roading capabilities, the Brabus B63-S 700 Widestar will be dispatched to tourist areas. Quoted by the United Arab Emirates-backed newspaper The National yesterday, Dubai Police fleet director Col Nabil Al-Redha says the vehicles are “a good advertisement” for the city and its police force. The Brabus joins a glitzy fleet of cars that include an Aston Martin One77, a Ferrari FF, a Bentley Continental GT and two Audi R8s - all painted in green-and-white colors of the Dubai force. The vehicles are on display this week at the Dubai International Motor Show.

Saudi police arrest expats, kill Ethiopian RIYADH: Saudi police killed an Ethiopian migrant who tried to flee arrest, authorities said yesterday, as a crackdown on foreigners working illegally in the kingdom widens with more than 16,000 arrests. State-backed Saudi Gazette reported yesterday that residents are already feeling the brunt of the everyday work the migrants provided, from ritual washings of corpses before burial to food delivery and bagging groceries. The Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported that authorities detained around 16,500 workers in the first 48 hours of the nationwide crackdown. A resident in the poorer neighborhood of Al-Manhoufa in Riyadh told AP he saw police stopping people outside a mosque after prayers and arresting those who did not have the correct papers on them. A statement yesterday by Riyadh police chief Nasser Al-Qahtani said security forces killed the African migrant worker in Manhoufa a day earlier when he and others tried to resist arrest. Those detained will eventually be deported.

Qatar frees US couple over daughter’s death DUBAI: A Qatari court released yesterday a US couple on trial for allegedly causing the death of their eight-year-old adopted daughter to sell her body parts. Matthew and Grace Huang are American citizens of Asian origin held in Qatar since January, when their daughter Gloria died in the Gulf state.

The couple, who moved to Qatar in 2012, were at the hearing as seven of their friends appeared as witnesses and denied accusations they had starved Gloria to death. The court of first instance in Doha ordered the release of the Huangs but imposed a travel ban on them. The “Free Matt and Grace” website says the daughter, who had been adopted from an orphanage in Ghana, died “suddenly” on Jan 15.

It says she had suffered from eating disorders which “likely were triggered by the extreme poverty she endured at an early age”. The Huangs reportedly have two other adopted African children who they sent back to stay with relatives in the United States.

Max 30º Min 14º High Tide 00:57 & 15.06 Low Tide 08:33 & 20:29

Democratic Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio poses with son Dante, daughter Chiara and wife Chirlane after he was elected the first Democratic mayor of New York City in 20 years in the Brooklyn borough of New York on Tuesday. (Inset) Republican New Jersey Gov Chris Christie celebrates his election victory in Asbury Park, New Jersey on Tuesday. — AP

New Qatar emir takes aim at inflation, graft

Dems unseat Reps in New York, Virginia Christie wins big in New Jersey NEW YORK: Democrats retook Republican strongholds in New York’s city hall and the Virginia governor’s mansion Tuesday, while a Republican with potential presidential hopes won reelection easily in New Jersey. Tuesday’s vote was the first major round of balloting in the United States since President Barack Obama won a second term in the White House last year. Some races were seen as litmus tests for future national voting. In the nation’s largest city New York, old-style progressive Bill de Blasio became its first Democratic mayor in a generation, specifically since 1989, even though New York is overall largely

Democrat. Another key race, for the governorship of the southern state of Virginia, turned out to be a nailbiter, but in the end Democrat Terry McAuliffe won in the otherwise strongly Republican state bordering the nation’s capital.

In other states, lesser issues like marijuana were on the ballot. Portland in the state of Maine on the east coast legalized it for people over 21, joining other cities which have done so. But this was unprecedented on the East Coast. And in Colorado, where the herb was recently legalized, voters agreed to tax sales of it.

Continued on Page 15

DUBAI: Qatar will use all available tools to contain inflation while cracking down on corruption and business monopolies, its new ruler said in his first major economic policy speech since taking office.

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, who became emir in June when his father handed over power, was speaking to a government advisory council on Tuesday. His remarks showed sensitivity to issues that could become politically controversial in the tiny but wealthy state of around 2.1 million people, about 250,000 of whom are local citizens. The speech also betrayed concern that Qatar’s huge construction plans should not destabilise the economy.

The 33-year-old emir, quoted by state news agency QNA, described inflation as the foremost problem associated with the rapid growth of the economy. “No doubt that inflation has (a) negative effect on growth and society, and therefore price rise is a problem that worries everyone and the government will seek to contain it by all available means and tools,” he said. “I mention in particular the monetary and fiscal policies, combating monopoly, encouraging competitiveness, Continued on Page 15

Ms Marvel returns as Muslim teen Tests show Arafat was killed with polonium PARIS: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat Organization had many enemies, was poisoned to death in 2004 with although she noted that Israel had radioactive polonium, his widow Suha branded him an obstacle to peace. Arafat said yesterday after receiving the results signed the 1993 Oslo interim peace of Swiss forensic tests on her husband’s accords with Israel and led a subsequent corpse. “We are revealing a real crime, a uprising after the failure of talks in 2000 political assassination,” she told Reuters on a comprehensive agreement. in Paris. A team of experts, Allegations of foul play surincluding from Lausanne faced immediately. Arafat University Hospital’s had foes among his own Institute of Radiation people, but many Physics, opened Arafat’s Palestinians pointed the fingrave in the West Bank city ger at Israel, which had of Ramallah last November, besieged him in his and took samples from his Ramallah headquarters for body to seek evidence of the final two and a half years alleged poisoning. “This has of his life. confirmed all our doubts,” “President Arafat passed said Suha Arafat after the away as a victim of an Swiss forensic team handed organised terrorist assassiYasser Arafat over its report to her nation perpetrated by a lawyers and Palestinian offistate, that is Israel, which cials in Geneva on Tuesday. “It is scientifi- was looking to get rid of him,” Wasel Abu cally proved that he didn’t die a natural Yousef, member of the executive comdeath and we have scientific proof that mittee of the Palestine Liberation this man was killed.”

Organization, said in a statement yesterShe did not accuse any country or day. “The publishing of the results by the person, and acknowledged that the his- Swiss institute confirms his poisoning by toric leader of the Palestine Liberation Continued on Page 15

This comic book image released by Marvel Comics shows character Kamala Khan (left) with her brother Aamir, father Yusuf, mother Aisha and friend Bruno from the ‘Ms Marvel’ issue. — AP NEWYORK: Marvel Comics is bringing Ms Marvel back as a 16-year-old daughter of Pakistani immigrants living in Jersey City named Kamala Khan. The character among the first to be a series protagonist who is both female and Muslim - is part of Marvel Entertainment’s efforts to reflect a growing diversity among its readers while keeping a hold of the contemporary rele-

vance that have underlined its foundation since the creation of Spider-Man and the XMen in the early 1960s. Writer G Willow Wilson and artist Adrian Alphona, working with editor Sana Amanat, say the series reflects Khan’s vibrant but kinetic world, learning to deal with superpowers, family expectations and adolescence.

Continued on Page 15

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

LOCAL

PIC celebrates golden jubilee Amir attends celebrations KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber AlSabah attended yesterday a celebration held at Jumeirah Hotel marking the 50th anniversary of the Kuwaiti Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC). Board Chairman of PIC Muhammad Al-Farhood delivered a speech at the celebration-to which government and company officials had been invited - in which he gave an overview of the history of PIC and its accomplishments over the past 50 year period.

Established in 1963, PIC was the first petrochemical firm among countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), he said, noting that it was formed along with its partners at the time, BP and Gulf companies. The initial name of the emerging company was Chemical Fertilizers Co. which along with its partners built four factories in Shuaiba to produce, among other chemicals, ammonia, urea, sulfuric acid, and ammonium sulfate.

In 1997, the company jumped by leaps and bounds to become a domestic and international competitor in the field of petrochemicals having established a new company under the name of EQUATE Petrochemicals Company, he said, adding that in 2004 a number of subsidiaries were established, among

them The Kuwait Styrene Co., The Kuwait Aromatics Co., Qurain Petrochemical Industries Co., and Boubyan Petrochemicals Co., the latter a shareholding company listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange.

In the past few years PIC has achieved on balance a rate of return on investment approaching 30 percent, both on the domestic and international markets, said the board chairman, underlining the company’s aspiration to increase production of its petrochemical products to reach about 15 tons annually and to achieve annual revenues topping USD 20 billion by the end of the year 2025 and beyond.

He emphasized PIC’s keenness on fostering the training of young Kuwaitis to get jobs in the petrochemical field and on instilling the spirit of volunteerism in them. The company, cognizant of its societal role, has sponsored, along with contributions from civic society organizations, the volunteer-based environmental project of planting about half a million trees around Kuwait. He stressed the company’s abidance by international standards in keeping the environment clean.

In his turn, addressing the PIC celebration, Deputy Prime Minister and Oil Minister Mustafa Al-Shemali

recounted some of the highlights in the history of the Petrochemicals Industries Company and afterwards noted that some officials in the oil sector recently visited Vietnam to mark the celebration of laying down the foundation for the joint KuwaitiJapanese-Vietnamese project of Nghi Son Refinery Petrochemical Complex, which he said would be operational by 2017.

Calling it a project of historical dimensions for Kuwait, he stressed that it would allow the Kuwaiti oil sector to delve into projects that required expertise in all facets of energy production, beginning with discovery of oil and gas and ending with setting up refineries and factories for producing petrochemicals.

Such projects, as the one in Vietnam, were sure to create ample job opportunities for Kuwaitis interested in pursuing careers in the petrochemical industries, said the oil minister, emphasizing that the oil sector was planning on constructing locally a third olefins production company and one for the production of ethanol. More refineries and petrochemical projects were in the pipeline, he said, which would be built in friendly countries that welcomed Kuwaiti investments.

These projects would go hand-in-

Kuwaiti bankers say cooperation necessary for GCC integration ABU DHABI: Kuwaiti bankers affirmed yesterday necessity of boosting cooperation among Gulf banking sectors to serve the aspired GCC unity and economic merger among the council member states.

The GCC banking sector made “positive strides” over the past years, thus it had become ready to contribute effectively to joint economic development projects among the GCC countries, they said on the fringes of the 11th GCC Banking Conference on the “Role of the GCC Banking Sector in Supporting GCC Economies.”

Majed Al-Ajeel, Burgan Bank Chairman, said the conference constituted an opportunity for Kuwaiti and GCC banks to seek greater cooperation for the ultimate purpose of establishing GCC economic integration.

The law for allowing Gulf banks to open branches in various member states of the council enabled them to serve these goals, he said, urging private banks and banking institutions to support the joint GCC integration and development schemes.

Mohammad Al-Fozan, in charge of retail services at Kuwait Finance House,

noted the conference significance, due to its emphasis on crucial issues, such as role of the banking sector in supporting small and medium enterprises, enabling women to contribute in the banking sector through management and acquisition, in addition to overhauling all banking services.

The Kuwaiti banking sector has taken the lead in many economic ventures, outlined in the conference agenda, he said, hoping the gathering would constitute start for closer banking cooperation among the council countries.

Kuwait International Bank’s Chief Executive Officer Loai Maqames asserted, for his part, role of the Gulf Islamic and traditional banks in supporting small and medium enterprises for such an approach would help in boosting development of the GCC countries. He also noted necessity of cooperation between the public and private sectors to shore up the national economies of the regional countries.

The two-day conference, which concluded yesterday, involved GCC central bankers and financial leaders, namely Mohammad Al-Hashel, Governor of the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK), and ranking Kuwaiti bankers. — KUNA

Farmland golden sponsor of 2014 HORECA Kuwait KUWAAIT: Farmland Company, the official supplier of the President trademark, joined the list of sponsors of 2014 HORECA Kuwait, an exhibition of hospitality and catering organized by the Leaders Group in cooperation with Hospitality Services Company.

The event takes place at the Badriya Ballroom at the Jumeirah Hotel from Jan 27-29, 2014.

Farmland General Manager Antoine Obaid said that the decision to participate as a golden sponsor for the third straight year comes “in recognition of HORECA’s position as one of the most distinguished exhibitions of hospitality and catering which became a meeting point for leading companies and experts eager to share their expertise and display their latest products and services”.

Meanwhile, Obaid announced that Farmland will take part in the cooking competition which is a part of the exhibition.

Antoine Obaid

hand with the nation’s strategic development plans to diversify sources of income and to turn it into a financial and commercial hub in the region. These plans, he said, required partnerships with international firms that had a firm grasp on advanced technologies and expertise in management and marketing.

The oil sector, he added, valued partnerships with the domestic private sector, saying that the petrochemical industries could use such partnerships over the long run as

these industries had an effective presence in consumer-based industries related to the manufacture of automobiles, medical equipment, tires, and plastics.

Affirming that Kuwait sought to provide international oil markets with crude oil and its derivatives, the minister said the nation was also keen on inviting outside investments in the oil sector and on opening pathways into new promising markets for Kuwaiti oil and petrochemical products.

Minister Al-Shemali further said

that the current oil production of 3.2 million barrels a day would be bumped to four million by 2020, after which, that level of production would be firmly maintained.

With regard to the production of natural gas, the minister said all efforts were being exerted to increase the level of production, while trying hard to maintain a clean environment. At the end of the celebration, a new PIC logo was revealed, as were shown a short film and a brief stage presentation. —KUNA

Traffic offices in co-ops to conduct transactions on holidays KUWAIT: The General Traffic Depar tment plans to assign offices at a select number of co-operative societies where traffic-related transactions can be carried out during national holidays, a local daily reported yesterday quoting the I nterior M inistr y ’s Assistant Undersecretary for Traffic Affairs Maj Gen Abdulfattah Al-Ali. “ The vital project will be carried out in cooperation with the Kuwait Union of Consumer Co-operative Societies and allows people to transfer car ownership, issue registrations, pay fines, renew licenses and receive

appointments for driving tests during holidays,” Ali told Al-Rai daily. He added that the step comes as part of efforts to “prevent paralysis” of public sector work during lengthy breaks which can extend to up to 10 days similar to the Eid Al-Adha holiday last month.

Furthermore, Ali indicated that the new procedure helps expatriates to pay traffic fines as a precondition to renewing their visas in accordance with new procedures adopted in this regard. He also added that traffic department personnel are available at immigration departments around Kuwait since last Monday

Improving Gulf Corporate Governance to take time DUBAI: It’s been a sore point for years and seems to remain so for a while longer: corporate governance among Gulf companies is weak and improving it will be a slow process, a new report from Standard & Poor’s shows.

Only 2 (Dubai’s Majid Al Futtaim and Saudi Basic Industries Corp), or 6.3%, of the 32 companies in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region that S&P rates have earned “strong” management and governance points. That compares with an average of 9.5% in the wider Europe and Middle East region and 7.5% globally.

Specifically, the main corporate governance flaws of Gulf companies are weak transparency and disclosure practices, as well as the lack of independence of management boards, S&P said.

The ratings firm’s credit analyst Tommy Trask cites the prevailing ownership structure in the Gulf region-either governments or powerful local families-as the main reason behind the companies’ poor governance record.

“It is predominantly an issue of ownership practices, that is probably the biggest reason,” Mr. Trask said. Government-related entities tend to make decisions that serve the interest of state policies rather than minority shareholders or creditors.

Similarly, in the case of family-owned businesses, one person often holds both the chairman and CEO position, which combined with a strong appetite for investments, risks creating diversified companies

“that are based more on opportunism than a clearly articulated strategy,” S&P said. Businesses lacking top corporate governance practices face higher funding costs while their access to capital markets is more limited. It could also turn off international investors who are on the prowl for opportunities in the region. “Potential investors face closely controlled company ownership, a general lack of transparency, and the vagaries of individual states’ jurisdictions with respect to creditor protection,” S&P said. “This leaves them open to the risk of weak management and, in extreme cases, fraud,” it added.

S&P also notes that corporate governance was less of a priority during the boom years leading up to 2008 but resurfaced when the financial crisis uncovered a lack of liquidity among large corporations such as Ahmed Hamad Al Gosaibi & Brothers Co, Saad Group, Dubai World, Dubai Group, Arcapita and Global Investment House.

On the positive side, the ratings agency says corporates in the region are increasingly aware of the need for better management structures but that the process to change will take time.

“A lot of these companies have been able to get bank loans quite comfortably for a long time and they may not have seen the need to open up and prepare themselves to access the capital markets,” Mr. Trask said. “It’s on everyone’s radar but changing it is a slow process, we don’t expect things to be happening overnight.”

“to allow expatriates seeking to renew their visas to pay traffic fines in one place”.

Separately, Ali announced that the General Traffic Department managed to collect almost KD 42 million owed from car rental offices for the period between 2002 and the end of Oct 2013. In other news, Al-Anba daily reported that the General Traffic Department started placing new speed cameras on highways as per instructions of Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Mohammad Al-Khalid Al-Sabah to increase the number of speed cameras in Kuwait.

No Cabinet reshuffles, ministers to face grilling KUWAIT: A well-informed governmental source stressed that the Cabinet will not consider conducting any reshuffles in the foreseeable future and that all ministers were instructed to either face any possible grilling motions filed against them or to resign from office. The source also stressed that the government has not been formed long enough to consider excluding any of its members, especially since all Cabinet members had submitted their respective agendas to the parliament last week.

The source highlighted that a special committee had already started studying the two grilling motions filed against the PM and found out he should not take the blame for the grievances included in both motions. “Ministers should not be blamed alone for the problems of education and housing - the specialized parliamentary committees should take part of the blame,” stressed the sources, expecting that the health minister would take the podium to respond to the grilling motion filed against him while that filed against the PM would be postponed till he returns from a trip abroad.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

LOCAL

Kuwait ready for Security Council seat if necessary Saudi ‘unlikely’ to change its position KUWAIT: Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal arrived in Kuwait yesterday for talks that focused on topics that will be discussed in the upcoming Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Kuwait, but did not address the Kingdom’s rejection of a United Nations Security Council seat. This was reported by a Kuwaiti daily yesterday quoting diplomatic sources who indicated that “Saudi Arabia is still a Security Council member practically, technically and realistically as the kingdom is yet to officially announce its withdrawal”.

While indicating that Saudi Arabia is ‘unlikely’ to change its position, the sources were asked about Kuwait being a possible replacement should that happen.

“If Riyadh officially withdraws, Kuwait is considered the most qualified country for the post,” said the sources who spoke to Al-Qabas on the condition of anonymity. They further indicated that Kuwait has ‘finished preparations’ to participate in elections that would be held to select Asia’s representative in the Security Council if Saudi Arabia continues to reject the invitation. The issue is expected to be settled before the end of the year, according to the sources, who explained that the list of non-permanent members should be completed before the Security Council makes a resolution on Jan 2014.

In other news, Annahar daily reported yesterday that Syria will not be invited to the 3rd ArabAfrican Summit that takes place in Kuwait on the 19th and 20th of the current month. ‘Diplomatic sources’ quoted in the report explained that

‘Improper inspection’ sets bad food merchants free KUWAIT: The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has lost more than 80 percent of court cases filed against companies pertaining to spoiled food products as a result of errors during inspection procedures and the legal process.

This was reported by Al-Qabas yesterday quoting legal sources, adding that the cases lost include one against a supplier accused of selling pork products.

Another lost case was against a supplier whose warehouse was busted with tons of meat unsuitable for human consumption. Al-Qabas added that it obtained

court orders released by the Appeals Court, meaning that they are final, which found the suppliers not guilty for several reasons including errors in the inspection process, improper seizure of stored products in warehouses, inconsistency between the seizure date and inspection crackdown date, delay in reporting samples from seized products for laboratory tests as well as the lack of the seizure date in some lab test results. The majority of these rulings were between late 2012 and the middle of Oct 2013, AlQabas added.

Draft very close: Minister

KUWAIT: Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal Al-Saud arrived here yesterday for an official visit to Kuwait. He was received at the airport by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Khaled Al-Jarallah and several other officials. the decision is based on the fact resent their respective countries in Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and Iraqi that Syria’s membership in the Arab the summit. The list includes Vice President Khodair Al-Khozaei.

League is frozen. The Syrian Lebanese President Michel The sources also mentioned Iraqi National Coalition will also not be Suleiman, Palestinian President Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, invited as an alternative to take Mahmoud Abbas, Bahrain’s King Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Somali Hassan Sheikh Syria’s seat, added the sources who Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, Qatar’s President spoke on the condition of anonymi- Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al- Mohamud, Libyan Prime Minister Thani, Tunisian President Moncef Ali Zeidan, and interim Egyptian ty.

Annahar named a list of Arab Marzouki, Sudanese President President Adly Mansour may attend leaders who the paper said will rep- Omar Al-Bashir, Yemeni President the summit as well.

Arab journalists disgruntled at arrests, torture, suppression safeguard the freedom of expression and speech, allow pressmen to play their due effective role in addressing societal issues and create a free independent media atmosphere based on multiplicity and press freedom.

Moreover, more professional training courses, and better medical, financial and social security services need to be provided for journalists, according to the statement.

However, they urged all members of Arab press unions to struggle to live up to the level of about-turns on the Arab scene by means of promoting and beefing up democracy, freedom and equality. They further called for cementing and propping up Arab media cooperation and coordination, overhauling Arab media organizations

and improving the professional levels of Arab journalists. Politically, the Arab journalists expressed emphatic opposition to foreign interference in the internal affairs of all Arab countries, while calling for allowing people to choose their leaders freely.

Holistic societal reforms, mainly sustainable development, democracy and public freedom, should be put in place in the Arab world, according to the statement.

On Palestine, they highly commended the struggle and steadfastness of the defenseless Palestinian people, but they urged Arab countries to provide more support and help to Palestinians and to expose the schemes, plans and crimes of the Israeli enemy. —KUNA

Economists extoll move to recall capital increases KUWAIT: Kuwaiti economists have interpreted the increasing requests for recalling capital increases for many of the companies listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) as a clear indication of the restoration of confidence between those companies and their existing or new shareholders.

They said in separate interviews with Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that the economic and business environment as well as the overall situtation of the national economy are encouraging and lucrative for many companies that want to finance their expansions through sound financing instruments.

The expected an increase in the pace of this tool especially for companies that want to expand their activities, especially that the negative repercussions caused by the global financial crisis in 2008 had dwindled, thus, increasing the standard of trust between the shareholders and their companies.

For his part, Chairman of the Board and Managing Director of International Financial

Advisors (IFA) Saleh Al-Salmi said that recalling the increase of capital of any company is a defined financing tool in the Kuwaiti market, adding it is one of the tools sought by companies wishing to expand their activities, which means that their use came after the economic situation in Kuwait has stabilized.

He added that companies’ shareholders are always looking to achieve good returns, adding that the recall of capital increase issue is followed in every country in the world.

He indicated that Kuwaiti companies possess good expertise and staff that meet the aspirations of their shareholders through local or external projects which is an evidence of the restoration of confidence in these companies.

For his part, Advisor to the Board of Directors of Arzaq Capital Co. Salah Al-Sultan said that the recall of capital increases is done according to the law, however, this must be associated with a good feasibility study and inform shareholders on the best way to exploit this increase according to a satisfactory methodology.

honor for every young Kuwaiti man to be prepared for cases of emergency and to meet the national call of duty,” he said.

Meanwhile, the minister announced that the Kuwaiti air force has started receiving recruitment applications and added that more than 2,000 young men have applied so far. “Recruits will be sent on scholarships to France, United Kingdom, United States, Italy and Gulf Cooperation Council countries,” he said. The minister added that registrations for the navy will be opened once air force registration closes.

Citizens to bid for health insurance hospitals soon KUWAIT: Minister of State for Planning and Assembly Affairs Rola Dashti announced that a public bidding would be open to citizens for the proposed health insurance hospitals’ company within two months. She added that the company’s capital would be KD 220 million. Dashti also denied the government’s intention to impose any taxes on citizens’ income during the next four years.

Dashti added that coordination with

the parliamentary priorities committee was in progress to set a date for a special session to discuss the housing problem and review the government’s suggested solutions in addition to needed laws and legislations. Dashti stressed that privatization-targeted sectors include fertilizer industries, marine fleet operations, the marine agency, the gas cylinder filling factories, postal services, parking meters and the government supplies department.

Lebanese media delegation in town

KUWAIT: The three-day gathering of the Federation of Arab Journalists in progress yesterday.

KUWAIT: Arab journalists have voiced extreme discontent with some “appalling practices” against journalists in several countries; primarily physical liquidation, torture and detention and suppression.

In a final communiquÈ of the three-day gathering of the Federation of Arab Journalists, which wound up here yesterday, they openly denounced the lingering assassination and killing of journalists in Palestine, Somalia, Syria, Egypt, Libya and Iraq.

Therefore, protection ought to be provided for all media representatives at flashpoints in order to enable them to do their job properly, they requested.

They also called on Arab governments to

KUWAIT: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Sheikh Khalid Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah announced that conscription is “very close” as passing this law to come into effect is only awaiting approval of the parliament. The minister made these statements to Al-Rai daily in which he indicated that the conscription law is “an urgent priority” for the defense ministry.

He said the law was already discussed during the previous parliament’s term and meetings will be held to prepare the project for application.”Military service is an

He added that the call of capital increases in the Gulf states depends on several requirements, including provision of the actual activity of the company, in addition to determining the revenues expected to be realized from this step to assure the shareholder that their money will revert to them with abundant profits.

For his part, Director of the Al Arabi Financial Brokerage Company Maythem Al-Shakhs said that among the basic principles in the inclusion of companies in any capital market is to look for expansion of the capital base to obtain new shareholders or cash flows from veteran shareholders. He added that the success depends on the favorable economic conditions, capital market conditions, legal, regulatory and financial solvency conditions carried out by the funding sources such as banks and companies.

He said that the success of the move also depends on the company’s activities where there are companies which recall the capital increases and have no clear vision how to exploit them. —KUNA

KUWAIT: A team representing the public relations department in the Kuwait Fire Services Directorate gave a lecture at Salmiya High School for girls which focused on fire prevention and awareness. —Photo by Hanan Al-Saadoun

KUWAIT: Board Chairman and Director General of Kuwait News Agency Sheikh Mubarak Al-Duaij Al-Ibrahim Al-Sabah received Dean of Lebanese Journalists Elias Aoun, accompanied by career journalist Ahmad Shamsiddeen El-Bouz at KUNA office yesterday.

The discussions at the meeting covered an array of media issues, particularly development of Arab media to compete against international media.

The KUNA chairman stressed the importance of creating bridges among Arab media institutions for exchange of ideas, information, and expertise, and for coordinating views and stances vis-a-vis

issues and causes of interest to the Arab World.

He added there is no alternative for cooperation and coordination of effort in light of today’s rapid changes and revolutions in the fields of information technology in general and of the technical and technological developments which brought about a sea change in the media industry. Meanwhile on the Lebanese side, Aoun said Arab media showed marked development in recent years, but more effort is still needed to develop Arab media address to reach the level acceptable and desired by the public today. —KUNA

Decrease in crime rate KUWAIT: The crime rate in Kuwait has decreased by 14.3 per cent in the past six months, figures from the interior ministry indicate.

Lt Col Adel AlHashash, Director of Public Relations and Moral Guidance, said that 9,845 crimes were recorded from January to June, compared with 11,491 cases in the same period of 2012. The decrease of 1,646 cases represented a 14,3 per cent drop, he said.

Al Hashash, who also holds the position of acting director of security media

at the ministry, said that the latest statistics showed that during the first six months of this year the crime rate was low in all of the country’s governorates, compared with the crime rate of the same period last year.

Highest crime rates were recorded in Farwaniya, Hawally and Ahmadi governorates, he said.

The drop in crime rates was also across the categories of financial crimes, murder, defamation and public security.

‘Better to be deported than jailed’ NEW DELHI: Downplaying concerns over deportation of illegal Indian workers in Gulf countries including Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, India yesterday said it is an opportunity to correct their work status and that it is better to be deported than to be put in jails there.

The issue is likely to figure during the talks Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah will have with top leadership here during his fourday visit beginning today.

“I think it is good for our people that they are sent back rather than put into jails,” Joint Secretary (Gulf Region) Mridul Kumar said, adding that actions are being taken against those found violating the laws of the respective countries.

Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi had yesterday said that around 1.34 lakh Indians have already come back from Saudi Arabia after the country launched a strict inspection campaign to target illegal foreigners earlier this year and the extended deadline expired on November 3.

Kumar said 4,500 to 5,000 Indians have been sent back by Kuwait this year which is less than last year’s figure.

“When you have got a huge expatriate population within your country, it is a very sovereign right of a sovereign

nation to decide what kind of treatment people who are in violation of their law would meet,” said Kumar.

MEA spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said this was an opportunity for illegal workers to leave those countries without facing any major penalty and correct their work status.

On visit of Sheikh Jaber, Kumar said India was looking forward to upgrade its relationship with the oil-rich nation from “buyer-seller” to that of a “strategic” level and that enhancing ties in diverse sectors including in energy security, trade and investment will be discussed.

“It is a very special visit for us,” he said.

It will be the first head of governmentlevel visit from Kuwait to India since the post of Crown Prince and Prime Minister was bifurcated in the Gulf nation in 2003.

The last high-level visit to Kuwait from India was in 1981 when the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had gone there.

Kumar said India was interested in having joint ventures with Kuwait in petro chemicals and fertiliser sectors.

Sheikh Jaber, who will be accompanied by a high-level delegation comprising ministers, senior officials and captains of industry, will hold talks with the top leadership including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

LOCAL

kuwait digest

In my view

Kefaya’, oh sheikh!

Time to change women’s place

By Tariq Al-Mubarak

By Dr Sajed Al-Abdali

Al-Anbaa

E

very part of the world has seen changes in women’s social status at different times in history.

The authoritarian male-female relationship, which entails men viewing women as their property, once existed in Europe. Not that long ago, women in Europe gained the right to vote - and we can say the same thing about China prior to the Cultural Revolution. In the Arab world, we all know that women in general went through similar stages with regards to the right to education and work. Therefore, women in the Gulf are no different from their sisters elsewhere, apart from the delay in giving them their rights and reforming the patriarchal relationships between men and women. For decades, Gulf societies - and this varies from one Gulf state to another have been fiercely fighting for women to receive no more than basic schooling.

Due to the influences of both globalization and mass communication, we have shifted to a new lifestyle where it is no longer possible to prevent change. Therefore, it is no longer possible to use terms like “Westernization” or to speak of ways to counteract that Western trend, as they both belong to the period of history where it was possible to control the scale of mutual influence among people around the world. Today we find ourselves faceto-face with a new generation of women - women who are open to the world and who constantly draw comparisons between lifestyles in the Arab world and the West, thanks to the media and their experiences of studying abroad.

Tens of thousands of female students are learning what independence means, due to the several years they spend studying in the West. Young people, both men and women, have become responsible for building their personalities and giving a special meaning to their lives. This new self-regard is crucial to forming their hopes for the future, and it cannot be ignored simply because it is a cultural trait, especially in an open world such as ours today.

Those monitoring the language of women on social networks right now will notice a tone indicative of suppressed anger that results from the difference between their own sense of self and their position in the current social system. Their anger largely wells up from the need to recognize the individuality of women in the world we live in today, whether we like it or not. This individuality is being violated in several ways. Women are viewed as a burden on men in many dealings with the government.

They are unable to move around the cities in which they live unaccompanied by a man due to a lack of public transportation or restrictions on women driving cars.

They sign up to a broken system of marriage - broken because of the values on which it was established and its authoritarian nature. And that is not to mention other issues, including divorce and child custody.

We need to reconsider some concepts of Islamic jurisprudence, keeping in mind the human dignity that has been endorsed by all religions. Some members of our societies have already objected to changes made in the status of women, such as allowing them to be educated and awarding them scholarships to study abroad.

These detractors base their arguments on exaggerated assumptions and fears aimed at undermining key human rights. And after these changes have been made, their assumptions have been shown to be mere exaggerations -exaggerations made at the expense of a large part of society.

It is high time we moved forward with bringing about change, in order to live up to the aspirations of this promising generation of Gulf women.

In my view

Maliki policies pose big threat

By Hassan Barari

I

n 2010, US President Barack Obama backed Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki to form a government despite warnings that Maliki harbored sectarian agendas. Understandably, Obama was focusing more on making good on his electoral pledge to withdraw US troops from Iraq. Rather than embracing a democratic and inclusive policy, Maliki pursued a combination of authoritarian and sectarian agendas thus alienating the Sunni community who had previously helped the US defeat Al-Qaeda.

Not long ago, Maliki aligned himself with Iran, thus transforming Iraq into a safe conduit for Iranian weapons and fighters to reach Syria in an attempt to bolster support for embattled Assad. Meanwhile, Maliki’s authoritarian governance and his anti-Sunni policies have stoked a Sunni-Shiite rift. Over the course of this year, Iraq seems to have plunged again in a kind of civil war in which more than 7,000 Iraqis have so far been killed. Undoubtedly, the ongoing war in Syria has contributed to a surge of violence in Iraq, but Maliki’s polarizing policies have helped AlQaeda resurrect in Iraq.

Fearing the potential of losing the ground, Maliki turned to Washington to enlist its support for his efforts to restore stability in Iraq. To convince the skeptical US administration to sell Iraq the necessary weapons to fight Al-Qaeda, he frames the challenges that Iraq is facing in a language that is appealing to the US. By and large, the Iraqi premier positions himself in the anti-terrorist camp. His argument is simple: Iraq has become the victim of the war in Syria and homegrown insurgents have been empowered by the unresolved Syrian crisis. Al-Qaeda - the argument goes - would not have gained a foothold in Iraq were it not for the war in Syria.

While the US does not want to see Al-Qaeda winning in Iraq, it is equally important for the administration to step up the pressure on Maliki to fix his relationship with the Sunnis and the Kurds. Maliki

has neither the intention nor the capability to effect genuine reconciliation with the other component of the Iraqi people. Thus far, he has followed the winner-take-all politics and his anti-Sunni sentiments and policies can hardly be concealed.

Indeed, many senior US politicians have lost faith in Maliki. In a letter sent to President Obama, a bipartisan group of senators criticized Maliki in a harsh manner. “Unfortunately, Prime Minister Al-Maliki’s mismanagement of Iraqi politics is contributing to the recent surge of violence,” the letter said. The senators emphasize that Maliki and his cronies have disenfranchised the Sunni community and marginalized the Kurds. Equally important, his authoritarian rule has also alienated “the many Shiite Iraqis who have a democratic, inclusive and pluralistic vision for their country,” according to the letter.

With violence reaching a grave level, Obama must have realized that Maliki, who is pleading for American security assistance, is vulnerable to US pressure. For this reason, Obama made it perfectly clear that his country was committed to help Iraq build “an inclusive, democratic and prosperous” country. Obama took advantage of Maliki’s desperate need for weapons by saying that honoring the lives of those who lost their lives in the Iraq war entails Maliki to work out a plan to build a functioning democracy in Iraq. That said, it seems that Obama would agree to provide Iraq with weapons.

Apparently, the last thing the US would like to see is Iraq slipping into a catastrophic civil war or Al-Qaeda victory.

Although stakes are high, if President Obama commits another mistake by accepting the argument that Iraq’s problem is security related. The root cause of the security problem is political. Hence, nothing short of forcing Maliki or whoever in power to adopt an inclusive, pluralist and democratic blueprint will stabilize Iraq.

D

r Kefaya Abdul Malek is one of the outstanding Kuwaiti doctors heading the ICU at Al-Amiri hospital. As an integral part of her job duties, she decided that one of the patients could be safely transferred to a ward and complete his treatment there after his condition stabilized in order to make room for another who was really in need for intensive care. It is noteworthy to say that ICU departments in all Kuwaiti hospitals are under continuous pressure and one can hardly find an empty bed in any of them, which sometimes necessitates transferring critical cases between hospitals in the quest for an empty ICU bed. Therefore, based on her technical specialized opinion, Dr Kefaya made her decision solely for the best of her patients.

All sounds normal so far. The problem is that the patient whose ICU treatment she decided to end and transfer him to a ward was the father of a current MP, who naturally enough, did not like her decision and accordingly contacted the health minister who is neither a doctor nor specialized in medicine and is merely a political minister holding another portfolio that seems closer to his interests. Instead of rejecting this unaccepted parliamentary interference in specialized medical concerns, His Excellency issued political orders to keep the MP’s father in the ICU, which was rejected by Dr Kefaya, and accordingly, the minister issued immediate orders to transfer her to the infectious diseases hospital as a punishment for her disobedience!

I do not think we need more explanation.

Things are as obvious as the sun. An unspecialized and unqualified person has political powers which he believes are absolute interferes in the work of a highly qualified and specialized person and impedes her from serving the society fairly and with integrity. He even punishes her for insisting on providing quality services for which he should have rewarded. “Dr Kefaya is well-qualified and should prove her skills in the new post,” said the minister when criticized for his decision.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is not the first-of-akind incident. It is happening all the time in various ministries and government establishments.

Therefore, it is a clear example of how the country is being devastated because politics overrules specialty and technicality in an impeding and spoiling manner. In most cases, qualified people prefer going away to avoid conflicts. If we review most of the problems our country suffers from, we will surely find them revolving around this concept!

The medical body at the health ministry is required to stand firmly against such continuous futile twiddling in order to protect its line of work from interference of non-specialized people regardless of their positions. Those who will not do so will most probably be the next victims!

— Al-Jarida

kuwait digest

kuwait digest

Punishment for people

End of Kuwait rentier policy

By Abdullatif Al-Duaij

By Walid Abdallah Al-Ghanim

M

P Dr Abdulrahman Al-Jeeran said “we were told during the opening session that if the road of crises and escalation is followed, then the Assembly will be dissolved, and this is the ultimate wisdom in my view”. The MP did say who told them this, was it the Assembly’s secretary general, the state minister for National Assembly affairs or the prime minister himself? He also did not explain how were they informed with this wisdom that made him happy - was it through Whatsapp or a paper that was circulated during the session or as they were leaving the hall? I believe that most MPs, due to their status in the state with their legislative independence and representation of the people, would have considered this message an insult to them and the people. Yet this is just another situation with some MPs who look at themselves as if they are in a students’ union.

Why did the political solutions in the past year go in the direction of dissolving the Assembly, new elections and halting the work of parliament? Why are the people being punished because of the government’s inability to carry out its job and its failure in front of a weak and fragmented

Assembly? Why isn’t the political solution of continued confrontations between the government and the Assembly a change of government? Ministers’ resignations?

Changing the state’s general administration method? By setting a correct government program and presenting it to parliament during the period set by the constitution. A weak government shaken by any grilling does not deserve to run the country’s and citizens’ affairs. It is unrealistic to have the only and continued solution of political confrontations in dissolving parliament and hold new elections months after months.

Yes, there are some MPs who spoil the situation deliberately for known reasons, but they would not be audacious to perform their hired roles if they faced a strong government that has plans and knows where it is going and finish its jobs in the people’s interests with true development from which the people benefit justly and permanently. In this case, it will find the people behind it and force MPs to back it. A government fails in its job and the people are punished for this by repeating elections...so until when this situation will continue! — Al-Rai

W

elfare, or more accurately rentier spending, which the government has adopted since the discovery of oil, is no longer the same as the concept which the prime ministry recently warned would end. Both policies of and motives behind rentier spending nowadays are different compared to those of the early spending days.

The discovery of oil wealth put profuse amounts of funds in the state’s hands at the time. And while the government almost immediately invested the majority of those funds in improving the country’s primitive infrastructure, the surplus after that remained too large.

Therefore, the founding fathers - both rulers and citizens - found themselves ‘forced’ to go with the rentier spending policy so that all citizens can feel the welfare brought by the oil boom and improving national income.

As a result, the government since then adopted several methods to ‘generalize’ and share the wealth with citizens by entitling them to aspects of luxurious life. Of course, that era was not clear of ‘errors’ or misdistribution of wealth, but the ‘abundance’ of funds left no chance for anyone to complain.

Rentier spending or ‘spoiling’ citizens at the time was

not a good policy, but the government felt it had to do it due to the abundance of wealth and the need to drastically develop the society, coupled with true desire to provide elements of luxurious life to citizens. This is how the rentier spending policy, or welfare state, began. It was spontaneous, and to meet the requirements of development at first and distributing wealth second. However, this policy deviated from its goal eventually when the government’s main goal became earning people’s political loyalty. This policy transformed from being a natural response to the abundance of wealth and honest desire to improve citizens’ living conditions, to becoming a weapon in the government’s hand that it uses it to overpower the opposition or force undemocratic policies.

This is unfortunately how the policy of welfare and improving living conditions became a policy of profiteering and loyalty ‘buying’. In the end, this policy became a burden on the society that led Kuwaitis astray and took away their humanity. So thank you, prime minister, for announcing that this policy is coming to an end. But the question remains: is it going to end entirely, or only the negative part will be ended? — Al-Qabas

kuwait digest

End of Kuwait welfare state

By Saad Al-Rushaidi

P

ositive expectations suffered a setback in Kuwait when the government warned that the welfare state as we know it could end by 2020. And while this alarming news was supposed to give everyone a wakeup call, the number of those who started researching the reasons that could lead to the end of the welfare state is very limited.

The problem in the media and parliamentary platform in the Arab world is that people ‘jump’ to the details regarding a certain issue which in some cases should rather be ignored, especially when it comes to fateful issues. In Kuwait, the moment news came about the government’s ‘end of welfare state’ announcement, the media and MPs should have focused on discussing alternatives that could help

Kuwait avoid such a fate. The first step to achieve this goal is to admit that we have a problem, then move to fixing the errors that are threatening the national budget.

Kuwait dropped three spots in the 2013 World Bank report on the Ease of Doing Business, settling at 104, which ranks the country in the last place among the other Gulf Cooperation Council countries. The World Bank ranks economies from 1 to 189 based on the ease of doing business index. The ranking depends on the average for a country’s ranking in ten different subjects that include starting a project, obtaining building and electricity licenses, property registration, insurance and investor protection policies and taxes and settlements in case of insolvency.

According to the information mentioned in the World Bank’s report, starting a business in Kuwait requires 12 procedures, an average of 32 days and 1.1 percent of the national income per capita.

Meanwhile, the report indicates that starting a business in any Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member state requires 5 procedures, an average of 11.1 days and a cost that reaches 3.6 percent of the national income per capita. The 2013 report ranks Kuwait in the 152nd place among 189 economies in ease of starting a project, while the country ranked 143rd in last year’s index. Kuwait also dropped in the ease of licensing index from 127 to 133, and remained in 11th place in tax payment.

In my opinion, Kuwait has all the tools and necessary infrastructure but lacks systems and regulations that lead to reform. Bureaucracy and political struggle will definitely lead Kuwait into ending the welfare state; and could also lead us to a situation in which Kuwait as we know it would no longer exist.

We need a clear economic vision that addresses all fields, especially the financial and oil fields, in order to seize opportunities in mega developmental projects more dynamically. Meanwhile, decision makers can focus on improving the organizational business environment in Kuwait on par with that of other economies, in order to secure sustainability of the welfare state as long as Kuwait continues to attract businesses. — Al-Rai

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

LOCAL

Thief returns bag after finding no money inside Drunk man ‘organizes traffic’ KUWAIT: A schoolteacher received her handbag back after a thief returned it when he found no money in it. The incident was reported in Jahra where a woman told police on Monday that a thief broke into her car that was parked outside her house and stole her bag. The woman returned to the police station the next day and said that the thief left the bag near her car. She added that the unknown suspect called her earlier and notified her that he had returned the bag, which contained exam papers and other school documents, after he couldn’t find anything valuable in it. Police found out that the suspect used a public phone to make the call. Fingerprints were taken from the bag as investigations are ongoing in search for the thief.

Drunk man A former police officer was arrested in Hawally where he set up a checkpoint while being under the influence of alcohol. A traffic policeman approached the man whom he noticed was stopping drivers and asking for their papers while not being in uniform. The officer first asked the man to see his police ID, then placed him under arrest after discovering he was drunk. The man was taken to the authorities where he was identified as a former police officer who was dismissed for misconduct.

Road accident A woman was arrested on Tuesday two days after she caused an accident while apparently being under the influence of alcohol according to preliminary investigations.

Sulaibikhat police station officers were approached by two men who said that a drunk driver hit their car and escaped.

They gave the license plate of the car which police used to identify its owner. The owner, a Kuwaiti woman, was summoned and taken for investigations after the complainants were able to identify her.

KUWAIT: Around 70 high school female and male students demonstrated here Tuesday outside the Ministry of Education premises in protest against what they described as unjust ministry decisions. The students’ complaints included complex curriculums, cancelling second chance exams for those who miss any with reasonable excuses and combining paper one and paper two exams into one for Arabic and English.

Kuwait gives steady support to UNESCO’s efforts PARIS: Kuwait is giving a steadfast support to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) since it believes that this international body strives to bring different people together and to develop world communities, Kuwaiti Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education Nayef Al-Hajraf stressed yesterday.

The minister made this remark after meeting with UNESCO’s Director-General Irina Bokova on the fringes of the opening ceremony of the 37th UNESCO General Conference, launched in Paris yesterday.

“The state of Kuwait firmly believes in the role played by UNESCO that brings different people and different communities together through the sharing of educational, scientific and cultural experiences; out of this belief His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber AlSabah granted $3.5 million to support the international body in its endeavors,” Al-Hajraf remarked.

During his meeting with Bokova, Al-Hajraf discussed with her means of putting in use the numerous experiences provided by the UNESCO to what is beneficial for the state of Kuwait’s educational, scientific and cultural realms.

One of the focal points discussed in the meeting was the Failaka Island, where Kuwait presented a file to the UNESCO to consider this island as part of the World Heritage Map; a map that features the World Heritage sites and brief explanations of them.

The minister noted that a UNESCO team will visit Kuwait

in February to see the island and to evaluate its historical significance, locally and globally. Al-Hajraf also discussed with the UNESCO chief a prize under the name of the late Amir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah that is dedicated to support research done on the education for persons of special needs; the latter lauded this prize that embodies the main principles of the UNESCO. He also expressed his aspiration to turn Kuwait, with the help of UNESCO, into an international hub for scientific research directed to those people with special needs and learning difficulties.

While attending the UNESCO’s 37th General Conference, Kuwait will be signing a joint pact of “strategic partnership” with the international body.

Al-Hajraf concluded by lauding the roles played by all Kuwaiti civil societies and how they back government efforts in providing the best educational services to the Kuwaiti youth, especially those of special needs.

Several heads of State and some 150 ministers and delegates from all 195 UNESCO Member States will gather in Paris over the next 15 days for the Organization’s General Conference. This 37th session, started today in Paris, will shape the Organization’s strategy and direction for the next eight years.

The Conference is also expected to confirm another four-year term for Irina Bokova as Director-General. She was nominated for a second term by UNESCO’s Executive Board last month. —- KUNA

KUWAIT: A Kuwait Fire Services Directorate delegation participated in the 2013 Childhood Exhibition that took place under the patronage of Sheikha Suad Al-Sabah at the International Fairground in Mishref recently.

— Photo by Hanan Al-Saadoun

Major role of human rights body GENEVA: The State of Kuwait affirmed yesterday commitment to the implementation and promotion of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and all human rights agreements.

Ambassador Khaled Al-Maghames, director of the coordination and follow-up division of the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry, said his country contributed effectively to the enhancement of human rights on the domestic and international scales through robust support to the concerned organizations. He made the statements while presenting Kuwait’s second regular report on the implementation of the ICESCR to the 51st Session of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR).

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah raised several initiatives that contributed to the launching of development funds geared to improve the living standards of peoples; these include the Decent Life Fund to which Kuwait donated $100 million, Ambassador AlMeghames pointed out.

In this connection Kuwait hosted the high-level International Humanitarian Pledging Conference for Syria in January, 2013, and contributed $300 million to the relief effort for the Syrian displaced by the conflict; it also plans to host another conference in next January in addition to its annual contribution to the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR), he stated.

“Out of firm commitment to the protection of human rights, Kuwait finalized the development of a draft law on the launching of a diwan on human rights and the relevant constitutional and legal procedures,” he noted.

“On August 22, 2013, Kuwait joined the UN Convention

on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, a move that materializes the country’s pledges to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

“Kuwait’s respect for human rights stems from profound belief in these rights and in their positive impacts on the welfare of individuals and the community at large,” Ambassador Al-Meghames went on.

“This belief is based on the country’s identity and its Arab and Islamic values that esteem human dignity was enshrined in the constitution of 1962,” he said, citing the provisions of chapters two and three of the constitution.

He recalled that the brutal invasion of Kuwait by the former Iraqi regime in 1990 had catastrophic impacts on the Kuwaitis’ march towards enjoyment of full economic, social and cultural rights. Despite the ensuing challenges in the aftermath of the invasion, Kuwait was able to forge ahead with the efforts to enhance human rights and joined the ICESCR pursuant to Act No. 11 for 1996.

The State of Kuwait is fully convinced that employment is one of the basic ways for improving the economic rights.

Therefore, the country works to regulate the labor market in a way that protects the rights of workers whether in the public or private sector or housekeeping, he added, citing Act No 40 for 1992, Act No. 6 for 2010 and Act No. 109 for 2013. The 51st Session of the CESCR is being held here between Nov 4 and 28.

Beside Ambassador Al-Meghames, Kuwait’s delegation to the session includes representatives of the ministries of social affairs and labor, interior, education, and justice, as well as representatives of the central agency for illegal residents and the Women’s Affairs Committee. —- KUNA

Attempted rape Investigations are ongoing in a case in which a job seeker accused a man of attempted rape inside an apartment where she said she headed for an interview. In her statements to Adan police station officers, the woman said that the man gave her the address during a phone call in which he offered to help her be appointed in a private company and finish necessary transactions for her to receive the government’s labor allowance. The woman added that the man used force as he attempted to pull her into the apartment when she reached the place, but she managed to escape.

Woman dead A woman died in an accident reported Tuesday on the Fifth Ring Road in Salmiya. Paramedics and police had rushed to the scene after the accident was reported, but the Syrian driver had already succumbed to her injuries by the time they arrived. The body was transported to the forensic department after crime scene investigators were called to examine the crash site. Investigations are ongoing to determine the circumstances which led the car to lose balance and overturn.

Worker suicide A man was pronounced dead inside the house of his employer who told police that the man committed suicide.

Police and paramedics arrived to the scene located in Adan following an emergency call, and found the 24-year-old Indian man hanging from a rope tied to the ceiling of his room. The domestic worker’s employer told police that he found him hanging before he made the emergency call.

Investigations are ongoing to determine the circumstances behind the man’s death.

Ex-fiance charged Hawally police arrested a man whose ex-fiance accused him of stealing her money then using the cash to marry another woman. In her statements to police, the Kuwaiti woman said that she had given the man KD 70,000 in total during their engagement period, which she said he had requested to address financial difficulties he claimed to be going through. She added that the man ended their engagement soon afterwards, and she later discovered that he used her money for marrying another woman. Police arrested the man who remains in custody pending legal action.

KFAED aids Lebanese hospital with equipment BEIRUT: Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) has granted the Lebanese government Al-Bouar Hospital, located north of Beirut, medical equipment as part of the fund policy to aid development in the country. Lebanese Minister of Health Ali Al-Khalil, in a statement during a ceremony held on the occasion at the hospital, located in the region of Nahr Ibrahim on the coast north of the capital, praised the Kuwaiti fund for its major contribution to Lebanon’s development in various sectors, namely the health field.

Nawaf Al-Dabbous, KFAED’s representative in Lebanon, affirmed the fund policy of backing development in Lebanon, noting that the Kuwaiti support would continue and cover social and economic sectors in all Lebanese regions.

The fund devotes special interest for the health sector, he said, noting that it has been helping the country rehabilitate medical centers and update equipment at hospitals in various areas of the country.

The fund has contributed to construction and renovation of six hospitals and eight medical centers, in addition to offering consultancy for supervision of such ventures. The latest Kuwait help includes a cardiac audio device, an integrated X-ray system, a device for treating glaucoma and surgical equipment. — KUNA

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

LOCAL

Cambodia celebrates Independence Day

By Long Kern, Ambassador of Cambodia KUWAIT: On the auspicious of the 60th Anniversary of the Independence Day of the Kingdom of Cambodia, I would like to extend my warm greetings to Cambodian people in Kuwait. I also take this opportunity to thank Kuwaiti and other friends for their good wishes and greetings.

Nov 9 is the historical day of the declaration of the full independence of Cambodia under the royal crusade and the noble mission of Preah Karuna Preah Bat Samdech Preah Norodom Sihanouk, the Heroic KingFather for Independence, Territorial Integrity and Khmer Unity, to claim independence from the French colonization in 1953.

All Cambodian people always remember in our hearts the compassion and great sympathy of Preah Karuna Preah Bat Samdech Preah Norodom Sihanouk, who has physically and mentally sacrificed for the causes of national independence, integrity, happiness and prosperity of the society with priceless achievement until today as well as paving the way for peace, development and solidarity for the whole Cambodian society, which Cambodian people have always followed up this noble development path.

As we celebrate our Independence Day, I would like to take this opportunity to highlight the history of Cambodian governments, the current economic and social developments and business opportunities in Cambodia and the good relations between Cambodia and Kuwait as follows: History of Cambodian Governments: After Independence, under the leadership of King Norodom Sihanouk, Cambodia had adopted a policy of neutrality and got support from international community to guarantee Cambodia’s independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty. Cambodia had enjoyed peace and developments in all fields for more than one decade. But the conflict of cold war had huge negative affected to the development of Cambodia and its people since 1970 to 1991.

With support from the international community, Cambodian conflict was resolved by the Paris Peace Agreement in 1991. The United Nations was given a mandate to organise peacekeeping operations and held election in Cambodia in 1993. It was the first time that nation has enjoyed political stability and started rebuilding its country. Cambodia is a constitutional monarchy and adopts a policy of liberal democracy and pluralism.

The Royal Government of the fifth Legislature of the National Assembly was created by a free, fair, just and transparent general election held on 28 July 2013.

The Royal Government firmly adheres to the grand spirit of national unity and solidarity in order to mobilize the force of people from all walks of live, all political tendencies both at home and overseas to unite

under the national motto- Nation, Religion, King- to build and protect the nation and maintain its social achievements in the framework of independent sovereign state enjoying territorial integrity, peace, democracy, progress and prosperity following the footsteps of His Majesty Norodom Sihanouk, the King-Father of independence, territorial integrity and unity of Cambodia.

Economic and Social Development in Cambodia: Peace, full territorial unity and political stability for the last decade, allows Cambodia to implement its reform programs in all sectors to re-build institutional capacities, strengthen socio-economic infrastructure, and create a highly conducive climate to attract investments from both domestic and overseas sources to enable strong economic growth and poverty reduction.

Based on the prudent and interlinked implementation of public finance and monetary policies in combination with the free market policy, the Royal Government of Cambodia has realized macro-economic stability and favourable conditions far development.

Cambodia’s economy has grown steadily, its national strength has been enhanced considerably, and Cambodian people’s livelihood has improved significantly. Cambodia’s economy gained momentum and dynamism by growing on average 9.4% per annum during 2000-2007.

Despite the global economic downturn, the Cambodian economy was growth at 7.2 percent in 2012 and it is estimated to grow by 7.5 percent in 2013.

People’s living standards have been improved considerably, contributing to the social security of the country.

Business Opportunity in Cambodia: Cambodia is in Southeast Asia, covers an area of 181,035 sq km. It is a country with great and unexploited potential. The potential in agriculture, both agro-industry and agroprocessing, is tremendous with fertile land and favourable climate. The Royal Government has provided land for large scale agriculture and agro-industry projects through economic land concessions to private companies. The Royal Government of Cambodia supports large scale investments in agriculture and agroindustry through economic land concessions, in which the main objectives are socio-economic development, jobs creation and improvement in living standards in rural areas by linking development with sustainable environment conservation.

In the tourism sector, Cambodia is fortunate to inherit great historical and cultural heritages especially Angkor Wat Temple and a beautiful natural environment along the mountain ranges, forests, lakes, seashores and offshore islands. Tourism continues to grow and significantly contribute to the development of the service sector. The diversity of historical and cultural heritages, natural and cultural parks such as forests, lakes, seashores and attractive landscapes has

turned the tourism into an attractive sector for investment in Cambodia. The tourism industry has continued to grow rapidly with foreign arrivals exceeding 2 million per year since 2007 and reaching 3 million visitors in 2012.

The construction sector is booming in Cambodia.

Many foreign investors have been invested in this sector by building of huge towers, business centers and shopping malls. Moreover, Cambodia has adopted a new law in 2011 that allows foreigners to own the first floor of flat or apartment. ftc law provides a good opportunity for foreigners to buy cheap property in Cambodia. The construction project approvals has been up sharply to 1.9 billion in the first half year 2013.

Garment sector is also play an important role for the economic growth in Cambodia. It creates many jobs for Cambodian people and it became the Cambodia’s biggest export earner, $4.45 billion in 2012. The garment sector is now in good standing to compete in the world market by improving its labour standards and the Cambodian government has taken measures to implement trade facilitation and promote investment.

In mineral resources, the promising future from the commercialization of oil, gas and other mineral resources has opened up new economic opportunities and hopes for Cambodia to become a new development zone in the region. These factors highlighted the opportunity to achieve high and sustainable economic growth in the medium and long terms as well as to promote fast economic diversification.

In addition to the potential of these sectors, Cambodia is one of beneficiaries of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) scheme which import tariffs on many of its products are exempted or reduced by developed countries. Cambodia membership in ASEAN, WTO, AFTA, ASEM, Trade Agreement with China, EU and the US as well as other development initiatives in the region have provided investors with market accesses to most countries around the world.

Although Cambodia has economic growth in recent years, but it still has a long way to go to achieve economic and social development.

Cambodia is still in needs of a number of infrastructures such as transport system, telecommunication, electricity and irrigation system. Cambodia offers a competitive investment incentive package with a nondiscriminatory stance to all kinds of investment, and opens every economic sector for investment. Following the export program of the Royal Government of Cambodia by 2015, Cambodia would export one million tonnes of rice to the world market. In this connection, on behalf of Royal Government of Cambodian, I would like to invite Kuwaiti/foreign investors to explore opportunity for cooperation and investment in Cambodia, especially in the fields of agriculture, garment, tourism, construction, gas and oil, where

Cambodia has comparative advantage.

Cambodia will continue to encourage foreign companies to make investment and do business in Cambodia. We will create a more friendly investment, market competition and legal protection.

Facts will continue to prove that to come and do business in Cambodia is a wise decision to grow their business.

Cambodia and Kuwait Relations: Diplomatic relations between the two countries were established in 1994 and have been strengthened by a continuing exchange of senior official visits. His Highness Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah, Prime Minister of the State of Kuwait visited Cambodia in August 2008 and Samdech Ahkka Moha Techo Hun Sen, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia paid a return visit to Kuwait in mid January 2009. These visits had constructively contributed to strengthening relations and led to the signing of a dozen bilateral agreements and Memorandum of Understandings between Cambodia and Kuwait. For realizing the documents have been signed by the two governments, Cambodia and Kuwait will establish the joint commission to work together to promote further cooperation and relations between the two countries and peoples.

For strengthening the mutual diplomatic relations between the two countries, the Embassy of the State of Kuwait was opened in Phnom Penh from 2011 and H.E. Dhirar Nasser Al-Tuwaijri as Ambassador to Cambodia.

As the first of an extraordinary and plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Kingdom of Cambodia to the State of Kuwait, it is my privilege to underline the importance of our valuable mutual relations between Cambodia and Kuwait. Cambodia receives the generous assistance from the Kuwait government and other religious organizations in rebuilding its country infrastructure and social development. I would like to express my sincere thanks and deepest gratitude to the government and peoples of Kuwait for their generous support for the development of Cambodia and for the valuable and continued assistance rendered to the Royal Embassy of Cambodia in the State of Kuwait.

Finally, on this happy occasion, I wish all Cambodian people in Kuwait good health, happiness and prosperity. I also take this opportunity to wish continued good health and well-being to His Highness the Amir of the State of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al- Ahmad Al-Jaber AlSabah, His Highness the Crown Prince of Kuwait, Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber A1-Jabah, His Highness the Prime Minister of Kuwait, Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, and the friendly people of the State of Kuwait.

May the relations of friendship and cooperation between Cambodia and Kuwait be further strengthened and developed for the benefits of our two peoples, for peace, stability and prosperity in the region and in the world.!.

Envoy underlines importance of premier’s India visit Long-standing relations

Al-Kout hosts marine conservation campaign KUWAIT: Al-Kout mall, located in Fahaheel, hosted an awareness campaign for the Al-Yaal marine conservation program last weekend. The awareness campaign consisted of showcasing a strip of polluted beach, where volunteers educated the mall goers on the negative side-effects and damage caused by littering beaches.

There was an avid interest from mall-goers, since this is a unique effort to conserve the environment and marine wildlife.

There were also demonstrative activities where people learned how to segregate waste for recycling, were taught how to make their very own recycling stations at home, and discovered how to identify ‘good’ plastic from non-recyclable one through educational recycling games. The Al-Yaal program is a collaborative effort between en.v and K’S PATH. Their volunteers interacted with all, both young and old and explained how waste on beaches can affect the environment, the marine wildlife as well as local flora and fauna.

“We are constantly seeking ways to help such environmen-

tal and volunteer groups” said Jumana Atallah, Al-Kout Center Manager, in a statement. “We knew immediately we wanted to help this very important cause as we recognize a need to address such issues and create as much awareness as possible.”

Al-Kout Mall, Fahaheel Waterfront is a beautiful waterfront property with a modern shopping mall offering a mix of approximately 100 international, regional and local brands and a fresh foods market which includes a vegetable, fish and meat market. The property also includes a marina for large boats with over 150 berths, visitor’s marina, fisherman’s marina and a 1.6 km beach front for the enjoyment of visitors. The centre of attraction of the property is a performing musical fountain surrounded by cafes offering visitors a unique leisure experience.

Built in a modern-Arabic architectural style Al-Kout Fahaheel Waterfront is the winner of the prestigious International Council of Shopping Center Design Award and is one of the few projects in Kuwait that offers shoppers a mix of shopping and leisure.

CBK releases 2014 calendar KUWAIT: The Commercial Bank of Kuwait announced the release of their 2014 calendar which once again carries paintings that reflect the Kuwaiti culture and traditions.

“We are pleased to announce the release of the 2014 calendar with paintings that document elements from the old Kuwaiti culture; a habit that the Commercial Bank has been committed to for more than 25 years”, Marketing and Public Relations Department Manager, Sheikha Nouf Salem Al-Ali Al-Sabah, said in a statement yesterday.

Meanwhile, Sheikha Nouf Al-Sabah indicated that the paintings chosen for the 2014 calendar highlight means of transportation that Kuwaitis used in their movement and travel.

The paintings were drawn by Kuwaiti artist Ahmad Al-Ayoub “who follows a distinguished artistic school and way in portraying the Kuwaiti heritage”, Sheikha Nouf Al-Sabah said.

Sheikha Nouf Al-Sabah

KUWAIT: His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber AlMubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah’s visit to India today is “important” because it is the first “head of government-level visit” to the country, Indian Ambassador Satish C Mehta said yesterday. The ambassador said His Highness Sheikh Jaber, accompanied by a high-level delegation of ministers, senior officials, and businessmen, would be visiting India from Nov 7 to 10 at the invitation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

“This is the first Head of Government-level visit from Kuwait to India,” said Ambassador Mehta, who noted that the last Indian head of government to visit Kuwait was then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, in 1981. Mehta said that His Highness Sheikh Jaber would meet with President Pranab Mukherjee and Vice-President Hamid Ansari. He will hold bilateral talks with Singh.

The Kuwaiti Prime Minister, who would be visiting Agra, would also meet with Ministers of Finance, External Affairs, and Commerce and Industry.

His Highness Sheikh Jaber, said Mehta, would also attend a business luncheon meeting jointly organised by the three business chambers: the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), and the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

Ambassador Mehta shed light on the long-standing relations between India and Kuwait. “India and Kuwait historically share friendly relations based on close people-to-people contacts. Geographic proximity, historical trade links, cultural affinities, and growing cooperation in key areas of mutual interest, including interalia energy security, trade and investment, infrastructure development projects, petrochemicals, and education continue to strengthen and broaden this longstanding relationship,” he said.

The two countries are among each other’s major trading partners, he added. Ambassador Mehta said Kuwait has been India’s fourth largest crude oil supplier globally with bilateral trade in excess of $17 billion in 2012-13. Both countries are exploring enhanced cooperation in energy and other sectors through mutually beneficial investments in projects including in oil exploration, refineries, petrochemical complexes, and fertilizer plants, he said.

“Indians form the largest expatriate community in Kuwait and their positive contribution in the progress and development of their host country is well recognized,” noted Mehta in reference to over 700,000 Indian nationals working in Kuwait.

The relations between the two people go back to the pearl diving and seafaring era in Kuwait, with British Agent George Stuart Knox noting that Kuwait’s trade with India was 27.5 percent of the overall in 1907. Marking this long history, His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah went on an official visit to India in June 2006. The late Amir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah had also been in India back in September 1980.

Reflecting like keenness on bolstering relations, then Indian Premier Indira Gandhi had visited Kuwait in May 1981.

There was a series of visits by other senior officials between the two nations, focusing on bilateral ties as well as coordinat-

ing on regional and international issues of mutual interest.

As part of this interaction, former foreign minister Sheikh Dr Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah was in New Delhi in August 2004, and a strategic consultancy group was set up to coordinate foreign ministers level meetings.

India’s Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari was later in Kuwait, in 2009, and the two sides bolstered their coordination in the fields of politics, trade, culture, technology, and more.

Most recently, Minister of Amiri Diwan Affairs Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah visited the Indian Capital, New Delhi, in March, with investment cooperation featuring highly in his meeting with Indian officials.

Kuwait’s relations with India were the first with a non-Arab country since independence in 1961. Today, the Indian community in Kuwait is over 650,000 people, the biggest nonArab community in the country. The community helps with development in the host country while supporting the economy of their home country with annual remittances worth $3-4 billion.

India is currently the fourth importer of Kuwait oil, importing oil, oil derivatives, fertilizers, scrap metal, and aluminum worth $15.7 billion in 2012. Kuwait meanwhile imports goods including jewelry, fabrics, clothing, foodstuff, construction material, and electrical and electronic goods.

Kuwait and India are meanwhile bound by over 18 agreements, most notably in the fields of trade and economy. The two countries signed an economic cooperation agreement in February 1974, renewed in February 1992 to encourage joint trade, industrial, services and development, and technical ventures. An agreement to encourage and protect joint investments was signed in April 1997. Kuwaiti investments in India currently come to around $3 billion, both by the state’s Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) and by individual investors.

In terms of cooperation through Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED), fund statistics indicate that India received eight loans worth an overall $913.340 million since establishment of KFAED in late December 1961 till end of March 2012.

The two nations sought cooperation in areas other than economy and trade as well, signing a security agreement and a judicial cooperation agreement in August 2004. Virtue of these agreements, the two sides exchange legal information and extradite offending nationals between them within the framework of countering terrorism. They also signed an agreement on curbing the drug trade in June 2006. In the area of civilized and cultural interaction, the state of Kuwait and India signed an agreement for cultural exchange in December 1999, renewed in June 2006. The agreement encourages cultural, educational, and media exchange in both direction. In further stress on the cultural aspect of the bilateral relations between the two countries, September 2011 saw the opening of Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Library in New Delhi’s “Jamia Millia Islamia” university. The library contains thousands of Kuwaiti and Arabic compositions as well as works of foreign authors and a section for photographs, which documents a long history of strong relations, both on official and public level. — KUNA

Stage set for Landmark ‘Beat Diabetes’ Walkathon KUWAIT: Landmark Group, the region’s leading retail and hospitality conglomerate invites residents of Kuwait to participate in its fourth edition of ‘Beat Diabetes’ walkathon. The 3.2km walk walkathon scheduled to take place on Saturday, Nov 16, will flag off at 9:00am from the Yacht Club and end at Green Island. It is held in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Dasman Diabetes Institute.

Saibal Basu, Chief Operating Officer, Landmark Group Kuwait, said: “We are working towards a healthier community.

The objective of ‘Beat Diabetes’ is to build awareness and educate the community on the risk factors that cause diabetes;

this shall enable people to prevent and even detect the condition at an early stage. We believe the campaign will help people to take better control of their lifestyles should they be diagnosed as diabetic.

Open to all age groups, participation in the walkathon is free of charge and all walkers will be given complimentary tshirts & caps. Participants can even come to the Venue on the day of walk and register on the spot. Qualified trainers will lead a mass warm-up session prior to the walk and the group will distribute awareness pamphlets to educate the public about the condition.

Registrations can be done across all Centrepoint, Max, Home Centre and New Look outlets. Individuals, groups and organizations can also register for the walk through the Beat Diabetes website www.beatdiabetes.me or the Landmark Group Kuwait’s facebook page.

Diabetes is growing at an alarming rate and currently affects over millions worldwide.

Landmark Group adopted the ‘Beat Diabetes’ initiative with a focused view to spread awareness on the causes, effects and dangers of the condition. Launched in 2009, the initiative

today encompasses seven countries - UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, KSA and India.

As part of the initiative Landmark Group conducts year round activities and these cumulate with the Beat Diabetes Walk organized in November - World Diabetes Month. Last year the Group organized a series of walkathons in seven countries, which drew the participation of over 45,000 people, and a huge drive to provide free blood glucose tests. The Group has also partnered with several organizations, including the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), and local institutions in every country, to spread awareness about diabetes.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

Tajiks ready to elect leader for fourth term

Indian police arrest man over Nigerian death in Goa Page 11

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Israel slams Palestinian ‘crisis-mongering’ Kerry seeks to rescue Israeli-Palestinian peace process BETHLEHEM: US Secretary of State John Kerry met with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas yesterday, hoping to rescue faltering peace talks after Israel’s prime minister said the Palestinians were creating “artificial crises.” Kerry is striving to keep the fragile talks on track amid recriminations on both sides following three months of direct talks that have apparently made little progress in resolving the decadesold conflict. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier hit out at the Palestinians, who had threatened to quit the talks over Israel’s continuing settlement construction on occupied land they want for their future state.

Netanyahu said he was “concerned about the progress” of the talks, as Kerry made his seventh visit to Israel and the West Bank since he became the top US diplomat in February. “I see the Palestinians continuing with incitements, continuing to create artificial crises, continuing to avoid, run away from the historic decisions that are needed to make a genuine peace,” Netanyahu said at the start of early morning talks with Kerry.

“I hope your visit will help steer them back to a place where we could achieve the historical peace that we seek,” he said, before the two men met for three hours. Kerry sought to calm the situation later, driving to Bethlehem to unveil $75 million (56 million euros) in new US aid for Palestinian projects in the West Bank, including roads, schools, clinics and community centres.

“As in any negotiations, there will be moments of up and moments of down. It goes back and forth,” he told a crowd gathered in the sunshine outside the Church of the Nativity, the traditional site of Jesus’s birth. “But President (Barack) Obama and I are determined and neither of us will stop in our efforts to pursue the possibility. We are determined to try to bring lasting peace to the people of this region,” he said. “We are convinced that despite the diffi-

BETHLEHEM: US Secretary of State John Kerry gestures following his meeting with Palestinian authority President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday. (Right) A handwritten note is held by Kerry as he speaks to the press. — AFP meeting between the negotiators in Jerusalem the official said. “The Palestinian delegation reitculties both leaders, president Abbas and Prime where we are standing today.”

Shop owner Nabil Giacaman, who is a third broke down over settlements, a senior erated to the American side its absolute rejecMinister Netanyahu, are also determined to work towards this goal.” All sides have set them- generation Palestinian wood carver and owner Palestinian official told AFP, with Israel advanc- tion of these claims. But the Israeli side insists selves the ambitious aim of reaching a final of the Christmas House in Bethlehem’s Manger ing plans for some 3,700 new settler homes in on continued settlement building, and we can’t peace deal within nine months-towards the Square, welcomed Kerry’s visit. It was “a good the past week alone. The Palestinians have continue talks in light of this unprecedented end of April. Kerry stressed the need to improve thing, to show the world that we are in a good repeatedly denied Israeli claims that the settle- settlement attack.”

In recent days, three Israeli newspapers the Palestinian economy. “We need to develop state here, there are no problems, everything is ment announcements are in keeping with tacit the economies to show both peoples that peaceful,” he told AFP. However, he also “understandings” between the two sides linked reported that a draft US proposal for an interim peace has the benefits of economic opportuni- bemoaned the falling number of tourists. He to the release last week of 26 veteran agreement, to be presented to the sides early next year, was in the works. But Kerry has flatly ty and prosperity and a better quality of life.” He expressed hope that one day the Israeli separa- Palestinian prisoners.

“Israel claims there’s a deal to continue set- denied any such move, telling reporters earlier joked he was “the carrier of money” and said tion barrier cutting off areas of the West Bank tlement building in exchange for releasing the this week: “There is no other plan at this point “nowhere better represents the untapped would be removed.

Just before Kerry’s arrival on Tuesday, a last batch of prisoners, but this is not true at all,” in time.” — AFP potential of the Palestinian economy than

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

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

Gunmen shoot dead Iran prosecutor in unruly southeast DUBAI: Gunmen shot dead a public prosecutor and his driver in southeastern Iran yesterday, Iranian media said, less than two weeks after militants killed 14 Iranian border guards nearby and Tehran retaliated by hanging 16 prisoners. The killings, in the city of Zabol, near to where the borders of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan meet, come at a time of heightened tension in the region as separatist Sunni Islamist militants step up

attacks on officially Shi’ite Iran. Heavily armed drug smugglers are also active in the region.

The gunmen shot dead Zabol public prosecutor Musa Nouri and his driver as he was on his way to work, Iranian news agencies said. The pair were “martyred in a hail of bullets from Kalashnikov rifles”, Fars news agency quoted the province’s chief justice Ibrahim Hamidi as saying.

“The assassination is likely the result of

enforcing justice in the province,” another Fars news report quoted Rajabali Sheikhzadeh, deputy governor of Sistan and Baluchistan province, as saying.

Fourteen Iranian border guards were killed and at least three others captured in an attack in Sistan and Baluchistan on the border with Pakistan on Oct 25. The previously little known group Jaish ulAdl said it had carried out the attack.

Iranian judges in the provincial capital

responded by hanging 16 people they called terrorists the next day.

The killing of a public prosecutor so soon after the reprisal executions appears to mark a further escalation of the violence. However, there was no immediate claim of responsibility for yesterday’s attack. Following Iran’s 2010 execution of the leader of the Baluchi separatist Sunni Muslim group Jundollah, analysts say there has been a

radicalisation of armed insurgents in the majority Sunni region, with militants advocating a noticeably more AlQaeda-style international ‘jihad’ or holy war. Rights groups have documented more than 400 executions in Iran so far in 2013. At least 125 of those have been carried out since the election of President Hassan Rouhani on June 14, Human Rights Watch said recently. —Reuters

Egyptian court upholds Muslim Brotherhood ban Brotherhood lawyer to appeal ruling

DUSHANBE: Tajik women vote at a polling station in Dushanbe yesterday. —AFP

Tajiks ready to elect leader for fourth term DUSHANBE: Voters in Tajikistan, the poorest state in the former USSR, were set yesterday to hand President Emomali Rakhmon an easy victory for a fourth term at the helm of his country bordering Afghanistan. In a tale all too familiar for elections throughout the Muslim but vehemently secular ex-Soviet states of Central Asia, the five candidates standing against Rakhmon are virtual unknowns even inside the country, with next to no chance of victory.

Rakhmon’s most significant rival, female rights lawyer Oinikhol Bobonazarova of the moderate opposition Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan, was unable to stand after narrowly failing to muster the signatures required to register her candidacy.

Bobonazarova gathered only 202,000 of the 210,000 signatures required that equates to five percent of the electorate, a shortfall her party blamed on harassment from local authorities on its activists during the signature campaign.

Her party’s spokesman confirmed that the Islamic Revival Party would not be taking part in the polls and would give its estimate after election day. Another main opposition party, the Social Democratic Party, said it was boycotting the elections due to “violations of the constitution, organised falsifications and a lack of democracy and transparency.” The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, which is monitoring the polls, noted in its interim report that “there is no visible campaign by other candidates so far”, while state media had “extensively and positively” covered the president’s trips around the country.

‘The result is clear’ At the entrance to Dushanbe Plaza, the capital’s tallest building, Tajiks were greeted by live music and poll workers dressed in traditional costumes who were handing out free drinks in an effort to attract a bigger vote. Rakhmon won the last election in 2006 with nearly 80 percent of the ballot on reported turnout of about 90 percent, and many expected him to do just as well this time around. “I think the result is clear.

We know who the president will be for the next seven years,” said Abdurozik, 57, after casting his ballot. A taxi driver named Rakhim, 43, expressed a similar sentiment.

“My only question is why they put up so many other candidates,” he said. “Everyone knows Rakhmon. But who are these other guys?”

Shadowed by the more than 7,000metre-high peaks of the Pamir Mountains, Persian-speaking Tajikistan boasts a crucial strategic position, bordering China and Afghanistan, as well as ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Its importance could grow with the pullout of US troops from Afghanistan in 2014. Yet the resourcepoor country suffers from chronic energy shortages and is mired in grinding poverty that has left it the poorest ex-Soviet state and forced many to work in Russia, with their remittances providing a crucial chunk of GDP. Rakhmon, who came to power in 1992 amid the chaos of the start of Tajikistan’s five-year civil war, has made the country’s energy independence the key plank of his campaign, in particular ensuring the construction of his vastly ambitious pet project, the Rogun hydroelectric dam. Tajikistan also suffers from dire relations with its regionally powerful neighbour Uzbekistan, with not even direct air connections between Dushanbe and Tashkent and trade stymied.

Rakhmon has a deeply acrimonious personal relationship with Uzbek President Islam K arimov, who has accused Dushanbe of trying to rob his country of precious water resources and effectively warned that the building of the Rogun dam could lead to war. After his initial war time appointment by the Tajik Supreme Soviet in 1992, Rak hmon enjoyed easy re-elections in 1994, 1999 and 2006. With the Tajik presidential mandate now seven years, he could potentially stay in power until 2020. Rakhmon, 61, the father of nine children-one of whom is tipped as a possible successor-warned candidates ahead of the polls not to disrupt the state’s stability and behave with “full patriotic responsibility”. —AFP

UK businessman accused of corrupt Bahrain payments LONDON: A British prosecutor alleged on Tuesday that London-based businessman Victor Dahdaleh made “corrupt payments” of over 40 million pounds ($63 million) to the former chairman and chief executive of a Bahraini aluminium smelter to secure contracts worth over $3 billion for companies including US group Alcoa. Dahdaleh, 70, who holds dual Canadian and British citizenship, has pleaded not guilty to the seven charges of corruption and one of transferring criminal property which were brought by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office.

Britain’s top fraud agency has a lot at stake in the trial after a series of setbacks in other cases and because of the scale of the allegations. The accusations of high-level corruption in Bahrain, between 1998 and 2006, also come at a sensitive time for the Gulf state, a Western ally whose Sunni ruling dynasty has been dogged by sporadic protests by the Shi’ite majority.

Dahdaleh’s lawyer made no comment on Tuesday and the defence will be presented later in the trial. Prosecutor Philip Shears told the jury that Dahdaleh’s defence would be that the payments were “sponsorship” in line with Bahraini “custom and practice”. “This case is about corruption. It is corruption, as we will suggest, on a very large scale,” Shears said.

“The rewards to Mr. Dahdaleh were enormous.” The businessman was accused of having made hundreds of millions of dollars by acting as a middleman between the then chairman of smelter Alba - a member of Bahrain’s royal family - and a number of sup-

plier companies, including Alcoa. Alcoa is not accused of wrongdoing and is not a party to the case. The company would make no comment, a spokeswoman said in an email.

Shears said that Dahdaleh had paid 38.8 million pounds to former Alba chairman Sheikh Isa Bin Ali Al Khalifa. Australian national Bruce Hall, who was chief executive of Alba from 2001 to 2005, had received about 3 million pounds, Shears said. Hall has pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to corrupt and accepted that he was part of a criminal conspiracy with Sheikh Isa and Dahdaleh, Shears said. Hall will be the first prosecution witness in Dahdaleh’s trial.

Reuters was unable to contact Isa for comment. Britain has no extradition treaty with Bahrain and no way to compel Sheikh Isa to come to court, Shears said. Sheikh Isa is named as a co-conspirator with Dahdaleh in count one of the indictment, which is the main count of conspiracy to corrupt. He is also named in counts two, three and four as the recipient of corrupt payments made by Dahdaleh.

Shears said Dahdaleh had used his influence with Sheikh Isa to facilitate contracts between Alba and suppliers so that he could personally benefit from them. The biggest such contract was between Alba and its long-term supplier of the key raw material alumina, US giant Alcoa. Shears said Dahdaleh did not dispute that the payments to Sheikh Isa and Hall were made but said they were a form of “government sponsorship” or tax and were part of the custom and practice of Bahrain. —Reuters

CAIRO: A court in Egypt upheld yesterday an earlier ruling that banned the Muslim Brotherhood and ordered its assets confiscated, the state news agency reported. The decision moves forward the complicated process of the government taking control of the Islamist group’s far-reaching social network and its finances. The Cairo Court for Urgent Matters rejected the Brotherhood’s appeal to suspend the Sept 23 ruling that ordered the group’s assets confiscated and its activities banned.

The sweeping September verdict was viewed as a legal pretext for the interim authorities to move against assets owned or administered by Brotherhood members, including schools, hospitals, charities, and businesses. It is part of a wider government crackdown against the group following the popularly backed coup in July that removed President Mohammed Morsi, a Brotherhood member and Egypt’s first elected leader after the 2011 fall of autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Senior leaders have been arrested, and many of them sent to trial on a number of charges, including Morsi himself. His trial began Monday on charges of incitement to murder. Egypt’s military-backed authorities formed a committee on Oct 2 to review the Brotherhood assets but have

not moved against its finances. Outlawed for most of 85-year existence - with successive regimes alternating between repression and tolerance - the Brotherhood built its networks largely underground. That made it difficult for authorities to track, since many institutions were registered under individuals’ names.

Brotherhood lawyer Osama el-Helw said the group will file another appeal against yesterday’s ruling, but this appeal unlike the first will not suspend implementation of the ban unless it is accepted by a court. It is also unlikely to reverse the initial ruling, legal experts said. Technically, yesterday’s verdict allows the government to move in on the group’s assets. The committee that includes judicial, security and intelligence officials has started to do an inventory of the group’s finances.

The leftist Tagammu party, which filed the case demanding the banning of the group, said the decision to uphold the ruling should give the authorities the green light to move. “The government must take urgent measures to implement the court ruling ... and prove it is serious about implementing the law,” Hani elHusseini, a Tagammu member, told the official MENA news agency. There was no immediate government comment.

El-Helw said the government has already violated due process by forming the committee and allowing it to begin its work while the group had filed for suspension of ruling. “We will pursue legal means. Let the law be the arbiter,” elHelw said, adding they have 15 days to appeal the decision to reject the suspension.

Brotherhood lawyers had previously said the verdict is flawed and they were considering other legal options, such as filing new court cases against the verdict in a different court.

The initial court’s explanation to ban the group gave few specific legal grounds, beyond saying the group used Islam “as a cover” while it “violated citizen’s rights.” It denounced the group in broad political terms, saying that during Morsi’s year in office, “Egyptians found only repression and arrogance.” The ruling banned the group as well as “any institution branching out of it or ... receiving financial support from it,” which could also force the disbanding of its political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party.

There is another legal case before Egypt’s administrative court seeking to dissolve the group’s offshoot, a non-governmental organization registered after the group rose to power in 2012. The court is holding its next session on Nov 12.— AP

Elusive Syria peace dialogue delayed by rivals’ divisions GENEVA: The UN-Arab League envoy for Syria expressed hope that a peace conference again delayed could still be held by year’s end, as the Syrian opposition remained deeply divided over its participation. “We were hoping that we’d be in a position to announce a date today, unfortunately we’re not,” UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday.

“But we’re still hoping that we’ll be able to have the conference before the end of the year,” he said, adding he would meet again with Russian and US officials on November 25.

His comments followed a day of intense discussions with senior diplomats from the world powers in Geneva aimed at preparing a new international conference to try to end the Syrian conflict.

But Tuesday’s meeting ended without a date. Pressed to reveal the main stumbling blocks, Brahimi cited divisions within the Syrian opposition, saying he hoped they would “move towards the formation of a credible delegation” for peace talks. “That will be a big step forward to make the conference possible,” the Algerian veteran international mediator said. The main umbrella opposition National Coalition has said it plans to meet in Istanbul on Saturday to decide whether to attend the peace talks.

But a key member of the bloc has threatened to quit if it decides to attend, and some rebels have warned all participants will be deemed traitors. The fate of President Bashar al-Assad is crucial to the opposition which has insisted that his resignation be on the negotiating table-a demand rejected by Damascus. A senior US official voiced optimism that the conference, dubbed Geneva II, could be held by the end of the year, but stressed the importance of giving the splintered opposition time to create a representative delegation. “ This is about building the

future of Syria. That is a long, difficult, complicated process. If it takes the opposition coalition a few more weeks to prepare themselves in the way they feel they need to .. we want to support them to do that,” the official said, requesting anonymity. Russia, a staunch ally of the Syrian regime, was meanwhile planning to meet with members of the Syrian opposition in Geneva on Wednesday, Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov, who took part in Tuesday’s talks, told Russian media.

The momentum for a new peace conference came after a landmark Russian-US accord reached in September to destroy Syria’s chemical arsenal by mid2014, raising hopes that diplomatic efforts might also manage to coax the warring sides to the table later this month. But on the same day as the discussions in Geneva, the US ambassador to the United Nations voiced “scepticism” about Syria’s declaration of its chemical weapons to an international watchdog and said it was checking its accuracy.

“More work of course remains to be done to ensure that the Syrian government ’s list of declared sites is comprehensive and that the process remains on track, particularly as we enter the destruction phase,” said the US envoy Samantha Power. “We obviously bring scepticism born of years of dealing with this regime...”, she added.

The Syrian regime for its part has been expected to participate in the proposed Geneva peace conference, but on Monday it stressed it would not accept negotiations that aimed to oust Assad. “We will not go to Geneva to hand over power as desired by (Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud) al-Faisal and certain opponents abroad,” Syrian information minister Omran alZohbi was quoted by the official SANA news agency as saying.

DAMASCUS: A handout picture shows a man carrying an injured child after a bomb explosion allegedly rocked the heart of the Syrian capital Damascus, killing at least eight people and wounding 50 others. — AFP Visiting Poland Tuesday, US Secretar y of State John Kerr y underscored that the point of a peace conference was to put in place a transition government acceptable to both sides. “I don’t know how anybody believes the opposition is going to give mutual consent to Assad to continue,” Kerry told reporters, a day after visiting Riyadh to try to calm Saudi fears that Washington’s resolve to push Assad from power is fading.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar, two major backers of the Syrian rebels,

have meanwhile stressed the need for a clear timetable for the conference. Tuesday ’s meeting took place amid growing alarm about the humanitarian situation in Syria, where more than 120,000 people have been killed in the 31month conflict. Some 9.3 million people, or nearly half of the Syrian population, are now in need of humanitarian assistance while 6.5 million people have been displaced in Syria and some 2.2 million have fled the country, according to UN data. —AFP

Gaza jihadists take their fight to Syria GAZA CITY: When Mohammed Al-Zaanin blew himself up in a suicide attack in Syria, the 23year-old Palestinian joined the ranks of a growing band of Gazans who have died fighting the Damascus regime. Zaanin was a member of a Salafist Islamist group in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, and his flight to war-torn Syria represents the mix of frustration and zeal that have seen more than two dozen young men leave in search of jihad, local militants say. “I ask you, Lord, to place me among the highest ranks of martyrdom,” Zaanin said in his videotaped statement-known in Arabic as a “will”-which was posted on YouTube.

“Jihad is duty for every Muslim man and woman,” he said, sitting in front of the black flag used by Al-Qaeda-affiliated groups.

Salafists in Gaza marked his death by putting up a large placard hailing him as “a martyr of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” (ISIL) — a jihadist group affiliated to Al-Qaeda fight-

ing in Syria. Zaanin left Gaza in June, apparently on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, but only in September did his family realise he was in Syria.

“He left on June 13 without telling us, then contacted us on September 2 saying he was in Syria fighting the jihad,” said his mother, who did not wish to give her name. “The last time we spoke to him was on September 16. The next day, a friend of his informed us he’d died in a suicide bombing,” she told AFP. Abu Abdallah al-Maqdisi, a prominent Salafist leader in Gaza, puts the number of Gazan jihadists to have travelled to Syria at “around 27, some of whom have returned and some who’ve been martyred.

“Others have been injured and are still over there, or in neighbouring countries, receiving treatment,” he said. Maqdisi said several factors had pushed the men towards holy war in faraway lands rather than closer to home. “There’s the combination of the relative calm in the

Gaza Strip, and the lack of opportunities for (violent) resistance. “Zaanin himself was being constantly followed by Hamas’s security forces for participating in rocket attacks against Israel,” he said. Following a November 2012 ceasefire between Israel and Hamas which ended a bloody eight-day conflict, the Islamist movement’s security forces have been patrolling the strip to stop rogue militant groups firing rockets over the border.

Now, young would-be Islamist fighters are turning elsewhere to satisfy their thirst for jihad, Maqdisi said. Another Gazan who met the same fate in Syria was Mohammed Qanita, 32, who left the enclave in September 2012 and was killed three months later, according to his brother Bakr. “He trained on the Syrian-Turkish border near Antakya and did a lot of tours” in Syria, Bakr told AFP, quoting his brother’s cofighters who contacted the family to tell them he had died.—AFP

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

I N T E R N AT I O N A L Black French minister sounds alarm over increasing racism PARIS: France’s most prominent black politician has warned that the country’s social cohesion is under threat from a rising tide of racism of which she herself has been the victim.

Speaking out for the first time over monkey taunts and other abuse she has suffered since taking office last year, Justice Minister Christiane Taubira yesterday voiced alarm over what she described as the collapse of a long-established social taboo on the use of overtly racist language in public debate.

“It is not about careless little slips of the tongue, it is much more serious than that,” Taubira said in an interview with left-wing daily Liberation.

“Inhibitions are disappearing, dykes have been breached.” In the last month alone, Taubira has twice been publicly compared to a monkey, once by a group of children whose parents had taken them on a protest against gay marriage and once by an electoral candidate of the far right National Front, who wrote on her Facebook page that she would prefer to see the minister “swinging from the branches rather than in government.”

Taubira said those well-publicised incidents were only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the hostility she has encountered since she was named as one of the four most senior ministers in the Socialist government that took office last year. “I’ve been getting monkey and banana insults for a long time but there is also something more subtle going on that nobody has highlighted,” she said.

By way of example, the minister noted how the opponents of gay marriage had targeted her personally rather than the government as a whole and had emphasised the “Frenchness” of the protest movement. She also pointed to the outspoken reactions that her initial appointment had provoked. These included Jean-Francois Cope, one of the leaders of the main opposition party, warning centre-right voters that: “If you vote for the FN, you get the Left and you get Taubira.”

Concern over rising racism shared by others Taubira’s concern over a perceived

increase in racism-or the acceptability of racism-in French society, echoes warnings issued recently by various rights groups and social commentators. They fear a section of society is backing away from the vision of a multicultural France most famously embodied in the jubilant celebrations of the black-brown-white make-up of the 1998 World Cup winning side.

“There is something unprecedented about a government minister being attacked purely because of the colour of her skin,” said Aline Le BailKremer, a spokeswoman for the watchdog group SOS Racisme. “The whole country should have stood up against it, but in reality the reaction has been lukewarm.”

Figures compiled by the Interior Minister point to a sharp rise over the last year in the number of acts or threats deemed to be of a racist, antisemitic or anti-Muslim nature. As always with such figures, it is not clear to what extent they represent an actual increase in racist incidents or an increased willingness of members of ethnic minorities to report them.

But both anecdotal and survey evidence point to a hardening of attitudes in the wake of this year’s bitter debate over gay marriage, which divided France down the middle and introduced a new, virulent tone to the country’s social and political debate.

A poll published last month to mark the 30th anniversary of a landmark march for the rights of second-generation Arabs found that 59 percent of the French believed racism had become more common in the intervening three decades.

The front page of yeterday’s edition of Le Parisien asked bluntly: “Is France becoming racist?” Yes, the tabloid replied in an editorial. “A rancid odour is floating over France,” it said. “Words, phrases and gestures that we thought belonged to another age are making a comeback.” Harry Roselmack, a black tv news presenter, agrees. “What pains me is how racism has been able to resist both time and the best of intentions, not just in the FN (National Front), but at the deepest levels of French society,” Roselmack wrote in Le Monde this week. — AFP

Sollecito pleads innocence in Kercher murder trial in Italy Police experts find Knox DNA on presumed murder weapon FLORENCE: Raffaele Sollecito, the young Italian accused with his former girlfriend Amanda Knox of murdering Briton Meredith Kercher in 2007, appealed to a court yesterday to dismiss the “absurd” charges. Addressing the court in Florence, Sollecito, 29, said he had faced “incredible persecution that makes no logical sense at all to me” during a six-year ordeal in which he was found guilty and sent to prison in 2009, then freed on appeal in 2011 before a retrial was ordered this year.

“I’ve been described as a cold and ruthless killer but none of that is true at all,” he said. “Amanda was the first real love of my life,” he told the court. “We wanted to have a life away from everything to live out our own little fairy tale. “I ask you, humbly, to look at the reality of this whole episode and see the big mistake that’s been made,” he said.

Knox, now back in her home town of Seattle, has opted not to return to Italy for the trial. She has repeatedly denied killing Kercher.

The trial in Florence has re-opened one of the most sensational murder cases in recent Italian history and renewed questions about the effectiveness of Italy’s justice system given widespread doubts over the handling of the investigation and key pieces of evidence. Kercher, a 21-year-old Leeds University student, was sharing a house with Knox during a year abroad in the picturesque hill town of Perugia when she was killed. The attack left her body with 40 stab wounds and a deep slash to the throat.

Prosecutors say she was held down and stabbed after she rejected attempts by Knox, Sollecito and another man, Ivory Coast-born Rudy Guede, to involve her in a sex game.

Guede is the only person still in jail for the murder and many aspects still remain unexplained.

DNA match Yesterday, police investigators said a fresh analysis of evidence presented in the original hearing had confirmed physical evidence linking Knox to a kitchen knife presumed to have been used in the murder. “There is a very strong match between DNA from Amanda Knox and what was found on the sample analysed,” a police expert from the RIS forensic investigation service told the court.

Francesco Maresca, a lawyer for the Kercher family, said the evidence confirmed that the knife, which was recovered in Sollecito’s apartment, had been in Knox’s hands but defence lawyers said it merely showed that experts believed an initial analysis had been carried out correctly.

“This evidence is nothing at all. It crumbles as soon as you look into it,” Giulia Bongiorno, Sollecito’s lawyer, told reporters. She said it was unsurprising that Knox’s DNA should have been on the knife given that she had often eaten at his house.

In a memoir published earlier this year, Knox described herself as a naive young woman who was railroaded by Italy’s creaking and inefficient justice system. The defence is expected to respond formally on Dec 16-17 before a prosecution response in January. A verdict is expected on Jan 10. — Reuters

FLORENCE: In this picture, US student Amanda Knox’s Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito (right) kisses his lawyer Giulia Bongiorno, during of a hearing in Sollecito and Knox’s trial at an appeals court yesterday. — AP

Kosovo to repeat vote in Serbian stronghold PRISTINA: Kosovo’s government said yesterday it would re-run a watershed election in the ethnic Serb-dominated north, setting up a showdown with Serb hardliners opposed to EUbacked efforts to end Kosovo’s de facto partition. Sunday’s election for councils and mayors was the first to be held across the entire territory of the mostly ethnic Albanian country, but was badly disrupted in the north.

Masked men broke into polling stations on the Serb side of the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica, lobbing tear gas and smashing ballot boxes in a violent climax to days of open intimidation of would-be voters. Florian Dushi, a member of Kosovo’s Central Election Commission, said the election in that area would be annulled.

“We decided to organise a new election, but we have not decided when,” he told Reuters. The prime ministers of Serbia and its former province were meeting in Brussels yesterday to discuss how to move ahead with an accord brokered by the European Union to integrate the Serb north with the rest of Kosovo after the election. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who brokered the accord and chaired yesterday’s talks, said Serbia’s Ivica Dacic and Kosovo’s Hashim Thaci had agreed how to complete the electoral process, which should result in the creation of an

association of Serb-majority municipalities with powers over areas such as economic development, health and education.

The police and courts will report to Pristina, however - something Kosovo Serb hardliners are fiercely opposed to. Ashton said both sides would continue implementing the April agreement at an “accelerated pace”, but her statement offered few details. The Serb north has for years has been beyond the reach of Kosovo’s authorities. Its participation in elections was central to the integration deal, which Serbia agreed to support as one of the conditions for opening EU membership talks.

The accord foresees the north, home to some 40,000-50,000 ethnic Serbs, living fully under Kosovo law, ending years of limbo under a form of weak control from Belgrade. Kosovo broke away from Serbia in 1999, when NATO bombed for 11 weeks to halt the killing and expulsion of Albanian civilians by Serbian forces trying to crush a guerrilla insurgency. It declared independence from Belgrade in 2008.

The replay of the municipal election will almost certainly require a more robust security operation involving EU and Kosovo police and a NATO peace force, which numbers some 6,000 soldiers. — Reuters

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

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

‘Chavistas’ flank Venezuela opposition with shadow govts CARACAS: Venezuela’s leftist government has created shadow governments in states led by the opposition, establishing special entities with money to spend ahead of next month’s crucial, test-of-strength municipal elections, experts say. Three government-funded corporations have popped up since March in states that elected opposition governors in December 2012.

Sanctioned by law, the state corporations have their own budgets for public works and in every case are led by the losing “Chavista” gubernatorial candidate. For instance, in the populous state of Miranda, which includes part of Caracas and whose governor is opposition leader Henrique Capriles, Foreign Minister Elias Jaua heads “CorpoMiranda.”

Capriles charges that “the money allocated to CorpoMiranda is not to resolve problems, but for political activities.” And he says the corporation received more funds this year than the entire state budget, which

is also assigned by the central government. Jaua, on his Twitter account, denies that and insists “we are performing miracles for our people, efficiently and honestly.”

The rivalry has intensified with the approach of the December 8 municipal elections, which are being closely watched as the first real test of political strength since President Nicolas Maduro’s disputed election April 14.

Maduro was handpicked by the late Hugo Chavez to be his successor.

But the coming contest will indicate how much force the endorsement still carries, especially as the country confronts a deepening economic crisis. “The government seeks to weaken the image, the authority and the financial resources available to the elected authority by establishing a parallel administration,” said John Magdaleno, an expert on Venezuelan politics.

Maduro appears nearly every day on the state-controlled television, and in many these broadcasts is seen

inaugurating new schools, roads and clinics with the presidents of the state corporations. Not in the pictures are the opposition governors, who accuse the government of abandoning their states. In Venezuela, states do not have power to borrow money and must work within the budgets assigned to them by the central government.

“We have come to govern directly, to build factories so that the people of Miranda have jobs, to address health issues, education,” Maduro has said. Maduro’s government accuses Capriles, who lost the April presidential elections by 1.5 percent and has yet to concede defeat, of neglecting the state as he campaigns nationally for the opposition. And it holds up Jaua, when he isn’t attending to diplomatic duties, as the “Protector of Miranda.” “It’s too tropical, this business of taking care of the foreign policy of Venezuela and the local ones of Miranda at the same time,” said Magdaleno.

But, he said, “Chavismo has no alternative but to confront (Capriles) publicly and to try to change the climate of public opinion in Miranda at the same time.” The state corporations have precedents tat go back to the 1960s, when the government established the Corporacion Venezolana de Guayana to oversee state mining and electric power industries in the country’s south.

In the late 1980s, development corporations were assigned different territories as part of a decentralization effort. Chavez, however, was the first to create a parallel local government in 2009 after his party lost the mayoralty of Caracas to the opposition. Nicmer Evans, a political scientist and university professor, said that while the state corporations are legal entities, their use of government funds for political proselytizing during campaigns is not. “That is the crime,” he told AFP. “There is abuse (of power) from the point of view of institutions, which cannot be used like that.” — AFP

Naked and chained: US woman recounts 11 years in captivity Five pregnancies forcibly terminated

BOSTON: In this file photo, Paul Martino, president of United Prosthetics, talks with Boston Marathon bombing survivor Mery Daniel (left) while helping her try on her newly-built leg at the family-owned company in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston. — AP

In Boston, making fake legs is genuine business BOSTON: When amputees take their first steps on artificial legs, that moment of triumph can be tinged with a sudden sense of disappointment that things will never be the way they were before. Paul Martino, president of a family-run Massachusetts prosthetics company, has seen it many times. Lately, he has seen it with survivors of the Boston Marathon bombing. Since the April 15 attack, eight people who lost one or both legs have come to United Prosthetics, a company that Martino’s Italian immigrant grandfather, originally a shoemaker, started in Boston in 1914.

Inside the company’s two-story brick building in the city’s Dorchester section, crews use carbon fiber to fabricate sockets that fit over the end of a wounded leg. Then they connect the sockets to artificial knees and feet that are manufactured elsewhere.

The company deals with patients who have lost limbs to accidents, diabetes or combat, and part of the Martino family’s job is being honest with those who are suddenly realizing they won’t get back everything they had. The Martinos urge people to give it time.

“We’re the voice of reality. First, it sucks to be an amputee,” said Paul Martino, a 62-yearold National Guard veteran. “Whoever designed us, whatever you believe, made the perfect machine. We’re chasing it.” That goslow, one-day-at-a-time approach was a challenge for bombing victims like Mery Daniel.

The 31-year-old medical school graduate lost most of her left leg and wanted her life to get back to normal quickly. She was disappointed initially that the first socket she got was bulky and didn’t seem to be state-of-the-art. But

she decided to stick with United Prosthetics.

“I was too quick to judge,” Daniel said. “We keep on comparing those legs with what we used to have. But they’re not our legs.” She added: “The idea of ‘Give it time’ I think was spot-on.” Martino runs the business along with his siblings Greig, Mary and Gary, and his son Chris. Gary Martino, 49, said his late father believed in educating people about prosthetics, a field he says has gotten more attention because of the Boston tragedy and the troops who have lost limbs in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I used to say, ‘I make fake arms and legs,’” Gary Martino said. “Now I can tell people I make orthotics and prosthetics.” Some of the bombing victims who came to United Prosthetics have moved on to other companies. The Martinos said they use the latest technology, but unlike some other companies, they don’t like to fit new amputees with certain kinds of prosthetic systems while their injured limbs are still changing shape.

Patients replace artificial limbs many times throughout their lives, and the Martinos said some open up and come to feel like part of their family. Joe LeMar, who has been a patient for about 20 years, is one of those people. The 42-year-old Massachusetts high school track coach began competing with a prosthetic device after losing a foot to a tumor, and he won medals at the Paralympics in 1992 and 2000. Over the years, United Prosthetics has outfitted him with more than 20 artificial limbs. He said the marathon bombing victims are in good hands with the Martinos. “They’re going to get back to close to where they were pretty soon,” he said. — AP

SAO PAULO: Policemen arrest a protester during a demonstration for the Guy Fawkes world day in Sao Paulo. — AFP

Brazil protest groups call for fresh demos RIO DE JANEIRO: Black Bloc anarchists joined other protestors in more than a dozen Brazilian cities Tuesday to mark Guy Fawkes day, the anniversary of the failed 1605 Gunpowder Plot in London. Many here have donned Guy Fawkes masks in recent months as they took to the streets unhappy with corruption and political administration.

In recent years, the Anonymous protest group has marked November 5 as a “day of global resistence to corruption and tyranny” and they and others used social media to urge action. “We want to change this corrupt system,” said Eron Morales de Melo, a veteran protester dressed as Batman. “We are paying high taxes and this doesn’t get invested in education. We don’t have good healthcare, public security is precarious, as is public transport.”

Police insisted he take off his face mask in compliance with recent legislation. Opinion polls show Brazilians support the hosting of the World Cup next June and the Rio

Olympics in 2016 but are aghast at the cost and believe the money would be better spent on social infrastructure.

“We love the World Cup, we love sportswhat we don’t accept is a government which wants to look good by investing millions in the World Cup but forgets about health and public education,” Melo said. Several hundred people brought traffic to a standstill in central Rio where marchers brandished banners reading “the only good corrupt (politician) is a dead one. Blood for blood.

Anarchist Revolution.”

A small march of around 100 people in the business capital Sao Paulo took place under police supervision. Meanwhile, authorities said they have identified 130 people suspected of fanning violence in recent protests in Rio and Sao Paulo. The marches were not on the scale of the mass protests last June that accompanied the Confederations Cup World Cup dress rehearsal but ended in more violence. — AFP

CHICAGO: With her chin held high against the inevitable tears, Michelle Knight on Tuesday described 11 years of captivity spent naked and chained in what came to be known as Cleveland’s “house of horrors.” It was the first public interview given by any of the three women who were held captive by rapist Ariel Castro since their dramatic escape on May 6. Knight was the first to be snatched off the street in 2002 when she was 20 years old.

In a paid interview with the Dr Phil show, the diminutive woman described how Castro had been hoping for a younger victim. “He thought I was a 13-year-old prostitute. When he found out my real age, he got mad,” Knight said. A year later Castro captured 16-year-old Amanda Berry. He kidnapped 14-year-old Gina DeJesus in 2004. The women escaped when Berry managed to break open part of the front door and call out to a neighbor for help. She emerged from the dilapidated house with her young daughter who was fathered by Castro during her captivity.

Police found Knight and DeJesus huddled in fear upstairs. More than 92 pounds (42 kilos) of chains were found in the filthy, darkened home where the women were kept in locked rooms with boarded-up windows. Castro, 53, pleaded guilty on August 1, after prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty. He hanged himself from the window of his prison cell a month later.

Knight, who was also the only victim to speak at Castro’s trial, reportedly suffered the worst abuse. Court documents described how Castro forcibly terminated five of her pregnancies by beating and starving her. In the first of two taped episodes, she told psychologist host Phil McGraw

CLEVELAND: In this image, freed kidnapped victim Michelle Knight speaks at the law offices of Jones Day in Cleveland, Ohio. — AFP

that Castro blamed her for the first miscarriage after he slammed a barbell into her stomach.

She described painful and degrading rapes, vicious beatings and constant threats. “I cried daily, and he would always yell at me for crying,” she said. “‘You’re not supposed to be crying you’re

Jimmy Carter works to prevent blindness caused by houseflies NEW YORK: As Jimmy Carter approaches 90, he is reaching for victory in a 15-year war against an infection spread by houseflies that blinds millions in developing countries and posed a threat to his own family and neighbors as a child on a Georgia farm. “Our goal is to eliminate blinding trachoma from the face of the earth by 2020,” the former US president said during a visit on Tuesday to the New York headquarters of Pfizer Inc , which donates the antibiotic Zithromax used to treat the disease.

Trachoma, the world’s leading cause of preventable blindness, affects more than 20 million people worldwide, of whom about 2.2 million are visually impaired and 1.2 million are blind, according to the World Health Organization. The disease is caused when houseflies, attracted to the moist eye, spread Chlamydia bacteria. It is spread further through contact with eye discharges on towels, fingers or other infected surfaces. After years of untreated trachoma infections, the eyelids turn inward and scrape the cornea, causing blindness. The disease was eliminated in the United States in the 1970s but is still a threat to an estimated 320 million people worldwide, especially in developing nations, according to Pfizer. Largely through the combined efforts of the Carter Center and an independent nonprofit program called the International Trachoma Initiative co-founded by Pfizer in 1998, blindness associated with the disease may have been eradicated in Morocco and Ghana.

But blinding trachoma remains a threat in other developing nations, especially Ethiopia, where almost a third of the population is considered at risk. “When you go to a village, quite often from a distance you see children and think they’re wearing eyeglasses,” Carter said.

“And you get close to them and you see instead of eyeframes, it’s a circle of flies around their eyeballs sucking out moisture. That causes the disease and they don’t even know that they should wash their faces.” Carter said other necessary elements of controlling the disease, besides routinely washing the face, are surgery, antibiotics and building latrines so human waste does not provide a breeding ground for flies.

Training health workers In Ethiopia, Carter said his center has helped train more than 30,000 health workers, most of them women, and that half of them have the skills of a licensed practical nurse. He noted that in some African nations, he has had to deal with dictators and corrupt or ineffective ministers who have been at odds with each other or slow to recognize the potential of eliminating blinding trachoma. Especially important, he said, is cooperation from ministers of transportation because many or most villages are practically inaccessible. “These are the kinds of things you have to overcome,” he said. “It’s a long tedious slow process, but once you teach the top leaders in a country or surrounding village this can be done, there’s almost an overwhelming reaction of enthusiasm and cooperation.” The Carter Center, in partnership with national programs, is still trying to eliminate blinding trachoma in the African nations of Mali, Nigeria, Niger and Sudan.—Reuters

supposed to be happy.’ That was his little fairy tale world.” Knight said she could often hear visitors in the home, but Castro prevented her from calling for help by stuffing a “dirty, nasty sock” in her mouth and covering it with duct tape.

Castro would also talk to her about his desire to kidnap other girls and tell Knight she “wasn’t the first,” and leading her to believe that a previous victim had been killed. “I begged him not to bring any more there to suffer the hell I went through,” she said. Knight was embarrassed when Castro first brought fellow captive Berry to see her because she had nothing to cover her nakedness but a sheet and had only been allowed to shower once in a year.

“He would say, you don’t need clothes... you’re here for one thing, and that’s it,” she said. The two women were kept in separate rooms, never left alone together and were afraid to call out to each other, Knight said. Knight said knew another girl had been kidnapped because she could hear DeJesus’s screams from the basement. “I had to help him drill holes in the wall to put the chains through to hook us together,” she said. At one point, Castro allowed Knight to briefly have a dog.

“One day my dog decided to protect me, bit him and he broke his neck right in front of me,” she said. “All I heard was a yelp and he was gone.”

Asked if she had ever wished for death in her horrific ordeal, Knight said the thought of her sonwho was two years old when she was kidnappedgave her the will to survive. “That would be taking the easy way out,” Knight said. “I want my son to know me as a victor, not a victim, and I want him to know that I survived, loving him. His love got me through.” — AFP

Toronto mayor vows to stay on after admitting crack use TORONTO: Toronto Mayor Rob Ford apologized Tuesday after admitting that he once smoked crack cocaine, but vowed to stay in office in Canada’s largest city and even seek re-election. The stunning admission by the 44-year-old came after repeated denials, and six months after a video surfaced that allegedly showed him consuming the illicit drug. “I know I embarrassed everyone in the city and I will be forever sorry,” he told a news conference, before adding: “I was elected to do a job, and that’s exactly what I’m going to continue doing.”

Earlier, he told reporters outside his office: “Yes, I have smoked crack cocaine.”

“Am I an addict? No. Have I tried it?

Probably in one of my drunken stupors,” he added. Ford said he believed the incident happened “about a year ago,” but admitted: “I don’t know exactly.” Later at the news conference, Ford said: “I know what I did was wrong.” “I know that admitting my mistake was the right thing to do. And I feel like a thousand pounds have been lifted off of my shoulders.”

Ford, who has not been charged with a crime, said he kept his substance abuse from his family, including his brother Doug who is a Toronto city councillor, and from his staff and colleagues at city hall. “I was embarrassed and ashamed,” he said. He went on to say, however, that he would not resign despite mounting calls for him to step aside and seek treatment. Instead, Ford vowed to try to regain voters’ “trust and confidence” ahead of the next municipal elections in October 2014.

“I love my job. I love this city. I love saving taxpayers money and I love being your mayor,” he said. “For the sake of the taxpayers, we must get back to work immediately. We must keep Toronto moving forward.

I was elected to do a job, and that’s exactly what I’m going to continue doing.” The existence of the 90-second clip at the center of the scandal was first reported in May. The daily Toronto Star and American gossip website Gawker said they had seen the footage, which reportedly showed a man resembling Ford lolling back in a chair in a room, inhaling from what appeared to be a glass crack pipe. But after Gawker raised more than $200,000 in an online campaign to buy the video, it said it was told by its unnamed source that the video was “gone.”

Last week, Toronto police chief Bill Blair said technicians had salvaged the deleted video and other data from a hard drive seized in an investigation of the mayor’s

longtime friend Alexander Lisi for extortion, related to Lisi’s attempts to recover the video. The controversy over the video led to the departure of six of Ford’s key staffers, including his chief of staff in the spring.

Political allies subsequently appeared to distance themselves from Ford, despite coveting his “Ford Nation” of supporters based in Toronto’s suburbs. All the while, his refusal to explain himself further fueled speculation, as he jousted with journalistscalling them “maggots”-and assailed his critics. This week, Ford’s brother demanded Blair’s removal for showing “bias” against the mayor in comments to the media.

Blair had confirmed for the first time that the mayor appeared in the video and said he was “disappointed.” On Monday, he also uninvited the mayor to his annual charity gala. Ford and his lawyer, meanwhile, have called on police to release the video, but Blair declined, saying it was evidence in a criminal case now before the courts.

“I want everyone in the city to see the tape... I want to see the state I was in,” Ford said. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, who previously warned that she might remove Ford from office, has called on police and prosecutors to “take action.” Canada’s attorney general, Peter MacKay, said it was “certainly a sad day for the city of Toronto,” adding that Ford “needs to get help.”

Toronto city councillor Jaye Robinson, a former ally who was booted from Ford’s inner circle in May, called on him to step aside, saying his antics had turned city hall into “a circus.” “We have become the laughingstock of North America, if not the world,” she said, adding that the scandal was disrupting city business. “He needs to step aside, take a leave of absence and address his personal issues, which are clearly escalating.”

Robinson speculated that Ford finally came clean because he faces being dragged into an “unfolding criminal investigation” of Lisi and the video. Blair last week dismissed the possibility of drug charges against Ford, but left open the possibility that prosecutors may lay more charges in the ex tor tion case.

Toronto police have filed 500 pages of heavily-redacted court documents detailing months of police surveillance of Ford and his associates, along with videos on materials belonging to suspected drug dealers. On at least one of those videos, the mayor is alleged to be smoking the drug from a glass pipe at a suspected crack house. — AFP

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

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

Indian police arrest man over Nigerian death in Goa PANAJI: Indian police in Goa said yesterday they had arrested a local man in connection with the killing of a Nigerian, whose death has triggered protests and heightened tensions in the holiday state. A Indian man in his mid-thirties was detained on Tuesday night in north Goa, accused of being part of a gang who stabbed the Nigerian man to death last week, a senior police official told AFP, adding further arrests were expected soon.

Tensions have been rising in the western resort state since the man was found dead on October 30, with

police blaming the killing on rivalry between local and Nigerian drug traffickers. The arrest came after Nigeria told India on Tuesday that it feared for the safety of its nationals in Goa and called for immediate action against those behind the killing.

Goan police arrested 53 Nigerians last week after around 200 of them staged a protest against the killing, chasing a police hearse carrying the corpse of the dead Nigerian and putting the body on the road. Following the demonstration, which blocked Goa’s main highway

for several hours, Goa’s chief minister Manohar Parrikar asked police to track down Nigerians living illegally in the former Portugese colony so that they could be deported. After the protest, a minister in the state’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government, Dayanand Mandrekar, stirred more controversy by saying: “Nigerians are like cancer”. Nigeria’s High Commission issued a diplomatic note and demanded on Tuesday that the security of its nationals be assured.

“We have lost one of our nationals in a cold-blooded

murder,” Nigerian High Commission press spokesman Tokunbo Falohun said, calling for justice and compensation for the family of the dead man. The previous day, another High Commission official warned of repercussions against Indians living in Nigeria if Goa did not stop “evicting Nigerians” from the coastal state and failed to arrest the killers. Asked if there would be any “repercussions” from the murder, Falohun said Tuesday there would be none if Indian authorities dealt properly with the matter. — AFP

‘Aussie Taleban’ to fight Gitmo terror conviction Hicks describes ‘6 years of hell’ in book

WASHINGTON: People look at photographs by Greg Constantine showing the plight of Burma’s Rohingya people, projected on the exterior walls of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. — AP

Holocaust museum highlights Rohingya WASHINGTON: Just a few blocks from the White House, where Myanmar’s president was feted for working for democracy, another side of his country is now on display at a more haunting Washington landmark: the plight of its most beleaguered people, the Rohingya Muslims, depicted in photos projected at night onto the external walls of the Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The stark, black-and-white images by American photographer Greg Constantine combine searching portraits with pictures of the scorched settlements the Rohingya were forced to flee after a deadly outbreak of sectarian violence last summer that left more than 100,000 confined to camps and further darkened the prospects for this stateless people. They are denied citizenship in Myanmar, also known as Burma, and are typically regarded there as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh.

“It’s disturbing that at a time when there are so many conversations on the perceived amazing developments in Burma, this tragedy has been overshadowed by everybody’s interest on what’s been happening elsewhere in the country with democratic reforms,” said Constantine, who has spent seven years photographing the Rohingya on both sides of the MyanmarBangladesh border.

The federally funded Holocaust museum primarily commemorates the genocide against the Jews by the Nazis during World War II. But it also documents the mass killings that have blighted Bosnia, Rwanda and Sudan, and seeks to spotlight situations where it sees a repeat of such atrocities. It has previously projected images on its walls of Holocaust survivors and from South Sudan and the Darfur region of Sudan. “We are not saying that genocide is taking place in Burma,” said Michael Abramowitz, director of the museum’s Center for the Prevention of Genocide. “We are not trying to equate these different situations. The Holocaust was a unique event in human history. But what we do want to do is use our assets to try to prevent these kinds of crimes from happening to others in the future.”

Myanmar authorities’ failure to prevent sectarian clashes between minority Muslims and majority Buddhists has dented the international reputation of the government of Myanmar President Thein Sein.

The former general, hosted by President Barack Obama at the White House in May, has been applauded in the West for steering the country from decades of direct military rule. He has eased media restrictions, freed most political prisoners and been

rewarded with a rapid lifting of sanctions.

But crimes against humanity have been reported in the midst of the democratic reforms. Sectarian violence that broke out between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya in the country’s west has spread to other regions of the country. In all, some 240 people have been killed, mostly Muslims, and 240,000 forced to flee their homes.

Many thousands of Rohingya have fled by sea. More than 60 died this weekend when their boat capsized. The Myanmar Embassy in Washington did not respond to an email seeking comment about the exhibition. Constantine’s images will also be shown at the European Parliament building in Brussels at the end of November.

Constantine, who is from Carmel, Ind., but is based in Thailand, has traveled to Malaysia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Kuwait and the Dominican Republic to document stateless people. He regards the situation of the Rohingya, who have faced persecution for decades, as the most extreme case of all.

He began photographing them in Bangladesh in 2006, but only last year was he able to visit them in Myanmar, traveling to the western city of Sittwe. He said he saw a “complete helplessness” among Rohingya in displacement camps: people who wanted to return their homes but had no idea there’s little left there but rubble.

“It was disturbing to see and feel the complete and total absence of any Muslim presence in Sittwe,” Constantine said, who last visited in March.

“There was no call to prayer going on.

All the mosques were empty or destroyed or Burmese troops were living in them.

Every single Muslim shop was boarded up.”

Facing criticism from the West and the Islamic world, Myanmar’s government has vowed to prevent further violence, but the Rohingyas’ plight draws little sympathy among the wider population there.

Tomas Ojea Quintana, a senior investigator on human rights in Myanmar for the UN, said last month the government is showing greater willingness to address the crisis in Rakhine state but has failed to investigate allegations of widespread human rights violations, including by security forces.

Constantine, for one, says the stone facade of Holocaust museum is an appropriate canvas for his photographs. “The fact is this is a museum that’s there to elevate discussion of atrocities against humanity,” he said. “I believe that’s what happening against the Rohingya right now.” — AP

NEW DELHI: A Tibetan exile wears a Tibetan flag while participating in a protest rally yesterday. The rally was held to seek the attention of the international community towards the plight of Tibetans in Tibet and for the release of Tibetan political prisoners in China, among others, according to a press release. — AP

SYDNEY: David Hicks, once dubbed the “Aussie Taleban” after being captured in Afghanistan and spending more than five years at Guantanamo Bay, vowed to clear his name yesterday after filing an appeal against his conviction. Hicks agreed to a plea deal in 2007 which saw him return to Australia to serve out a nine-month sentence for providing material support for terrorism, but says it was made under duress after five-and-a-half years in the US military-run prison.

On Tuesday his lawyers filed an appeal in the United States seeking to overturn the conviction following a court ruling last year in a separate terror-related case which held that the charge Hicks was convicted of was not a war crime. Hicks, now 38 and living in Sydney where he works as a panel-beater, said the move was “all about recognising my conviction should be null and void”.

“The purpose of this action is to obtain formal recognition of my innocence so that the wrongs of the past committed against me can be righted, to put it all behind me and move on with my life,” he told reporters. “It is important to myself and to my family and those who were supporting me and had faith in me over the years. It will help with closure and moving forward for sure.”

Hicks, who was captured in Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks on the United States, said he still suffered physically and psychologically from the effects of his time at Guantanamo which he has described in his book as “six years of hell”.

“Australian media tend to still refer to me as a convicted terrorist.

Obviously that has some type of psychological impact on me,” he said. Asked what he felt would be justice done, he said “to show that no crime was committed and to have you guys on board to say what was done was wrong so it won’t happen to someone else again”.

“For example, we’ve still got Julian Assange out there that may end up in US hands,” Hicks said, referring to the WikiLeaks founder who has been holed up in the Ecuador embassy in London, where he has sought asylum, for more

SYDNEY: David Hicks, once dubbed the “Aussie Taleban” after being captured in Afghanistan and spending more than five years at Guantanamo Bay, smiles during a press conference while sitting in front of a Martin Luther King, Jr poster in Sydney yesterday. — AFP than a year. “And I would expect him not to go to Guantanamo but to receive some type of harsh treatment, probably in the form of torture if he winds up in their hands and I don’t expect the Australian government to do absolutely anything about it.

“As long as we allow the Australian government to do this to citizens like myself and others, not to do anything about, it will just happen to another Australian citizen again.” Hicks’s father Terry fought a long and public battle in Australia to have his son released from Guantanamo, and David Hicks eventually returned home as the matter threatened to become a political issue ahead of the 2007 election. Hicks has admitted to taking part in paramilitary training in

Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as conflicts in Kosovo and Kashmir, as a young man but maintains he never had extremist intentions.

His lawyer Stephen Kenny said he was optimistic of success for his client, who said he was tortured while in Guantanamo. “David, I know, has never committed a crime and what he was charged with and pleaded guilty to was not a crime,” Kenny said.

“If the crime did not exist, then everything else falls away. If there is no crime then there can be no conviction.” Hicks said despite his normal “9 to 5” job and family life in Australia, the matter was “not behind me at all”. “I’ve just got to do something to put an end to it, I suppose, put it behind me,” he said. — AFP

After Kenya mall attack, children’s traumas fester NAIROBI: When the shooting began at the Nairobi mall, Cynthia Carpino and her husband hid in the parking lot. But their 1-year-old daughter wouldn’t stop crying. To muffle her cries, her father placed his hand over her mouth so hard she almost suffocated. Little Azzurra fainted in his arms, and three weeks later she’s still not right.

“Now when I try to put a sweater on her, and it goes over her mouth, she starts screaming and screaming,” says Carpino. “I know this is because of what happened at the mall. But I don’t know what to do about it.” Nor do other parents whose children were caught in the Westgate Mall horror on Sept 21 in which 67 people were killed. The parents are now struggling to help their traumatized children at the same time that they themselves are grappling with signs of distress.

The attackers struck on a Saturday afternoon, a time when families flock to the mall. At least 1,000 people were inside the four-story complex, including many children. Couples pushed strollers through marbled floors that would soon turn red with blood. Mothers with toddlers in tow loaded groceries into shopping carts at the supermarket, the same carts which would be used hours later as gurneys to evacuate the dead. When the assault started, parents threw themselves over their children to shield them, but they couldn’t block out the sights and sounds. Now the psychological toll is becoming apparent. Girls draw pictures of grenades and machine guns. Kids who once played hide-andseek are “playing Westgate,” impersonating the terrorists. Yet some children who were directly in the line of fire are showing few, if any, symptoms, creating a confusing array of responses, sometimes within the same household.

Cynthia Carpino, a Kenyan, and her Italian husband, Livio, had just parked their car and were pushing their two-seater pram up the ramp leading to the mall’s rooftop terrace. When the shooting erupted, Cynthia grabbed her 12-dayold baby while her husband held Azzurra. They ran in separate directions. Cynthia slipped under a parked car, the baby cradled in her arm.

Frightened shoppers tried to squeeze in after her.

The terrorists spotted them and sprayed the car, until the young mother was surrounded by a buffer of corpses. The car began leaking water, drenching her. Her baby began to cry.

“Whenever they heard a baby cry, they would throw a grenade. Then you didn’t hear the cries anymore,” said Carpino. “I saw the feet of one go by. He said, ‘We are Al-Shabab. Your president has invaded our country. Our women are being raped. Our kids are being killed. So why should we spare your kids?’ And then he opened fire.”

Later Al-Shabab, Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Somalia, would claim responsibility, saying the attack was in retaliation for Kenya’s deployment of troops into Somalia, its neighbor.

Terrified that she might be spotted, Carpino opened her shirt and tried to get her baby to nurse under the chassis of the car. Each time the

infant whimpered, she shoved its face into her chest, smothering the sound.

Meanwhile, her husband had ducked behind an enclosure and was struggling to calm their older daughter. When he put his hand across her mouth, she struggled, then went limp. The family survived, but now find themselves in different worlds. Livio Carpino has gone back to his job as pilot for Kenya Airways, while his wife is afraid to leave the house. Even though both her children were smothered, her baby appears unaffected, while Azzurra struggles with tasks as simple as getting dressed.

Clinical psychologist Katie McLaughlin, whose research at the University of Washington in Seattle focuses on post-traumatic stree disorder, or PTSD, says trauma alters the chemistry of the brain. So Azzurra would associate something touching her face with her panic during the attack. “It’s typical conditioning,” McLaughlin says, and for most people it fades over time.

It’s when this process fails to happen that PTSD can set in, she said in a telephone interview. PTSD is more than ordinary stress. It’s associated with severe or unusual trauma. Those experiencing it may suffer from violent, intrusive thoughts. They have trouble sleeping. Once innocuous things, like a particular smell or sensation, can set off a flashback. In the community of Newton, Conn., for instance, signs ask people to close doors softly because loud bangs still bring on flashbacks, nearly a year after a gunman opened fire inside the Sandy Hook Elementary School.

A number of factors determine why even siblings can have diametrically opposed reactions to the same experience. Keya and Kashvi Sarkar, 9-year-old twin sisters, came away with very different reactions to the attack, and what they saw may explain why. The sisters, amateur cooks, couldn’t wait to get to the mall and compete in the second round of the SunGold SunRice Super Chef Junior Competition.

They had put on their white chef hats and blue aprons, and had taken their seats, waiting for their turn at the cutting board. When their mother tried to linger, she was told parents had to stay outside. So she left, and when the first explosion went off, the girls found themselves alone. In desperation they ran to the far end of the parking lot, huddling against the wall. Keya got there first and managed to squeeze between two large women, her body shielded by theirs.

Kashvi got there too late, and was left on the edge of the cowering crowd, directly exposed to the gunmen. She lay on the pavement and closed her eyes. By contrast, Keya kept looking: “I saw three men. Three terrorists. They were wearing black turbans ... They were just shooting at anyone that moved,” she said. “There was a lady with a baby next to me. When the baby started crying, they threw a grenade at us. It bounced over a car and landed next to my sister. The only grenade I’d seen before was on Tom & Jerry.”

The grenade rolled to a stop. It began giving

off black, acrid smoke. Just feet away, Kashvi stayed face down, never looking up. Keya covered her head with her arms and waited for the blast, which never came. When it didn’t go off she stole a peek. The peek turned into a stare. By the time they were evacuated she’d been looking at the grenade for so long that when the therapist asked her to draw it, she could replicate its exact shape, down to its ovoid shell and Lshaped lever, her parents said.

By contrast her sister, who was far more exposed, showed no desire to draw pictures of what she’d seen. At school, when their teacher gave them the choice of writing about Westgate or about a trip to space, Keya chose Westgate, carefully detailing what had happened. Her sister wrote about a voyage around the cosmos.

It’s indicative of how powerful images are in the trauma registered by children, says psychologist Dr Jonathan Comer, who is leading a study surveying the responses of hundreds of youth to the Boston Marathon bombing. “One kept her eyes open. One kept her eyes closed. It may seem that these two girls had a very similar experience, but experience is multisensory. The fact that one girl did not witness some of the horror visually means she had a smaller dose of traumatic exposure,” said Comer, who heads the Mental Health Interventions and Technology Lab at Florida International University.

Many US school districts instruct children to walk out with their eyes closed from situations like the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut last year, he said. This is specifically because there is mounting evidence of the potential harm of seeing terrible things. Similarly, after the Sept 11, 2001 attacks, researchers found that children were being traumatized simply by watching TV coverage of the event, says Dr Lawrence Amsel, an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University. According to one 2005 study, 8 percent of children in Seattle showed signs of possible PTSD even though their only connection to the attacks was the nightly news.

After Westgate, schools throughout Nairobi as well as private professionals offered free counseling. Therapists are encouraging kids to draw what they saw, or play out what happened, while coaxing them to imagine a different outcome and absorb a new narrative. Clinical psychologist Dr Stephen Wahome has seen many of the victims, including Keya and Kashvi.

“I say to them, ‘Let’s play Westgate.’ And they grab a stick and say it’s a gun, or they hide behind something and say they are the terrorist.

It can bring on discussion. It’s a way to get it out of them. It becomes less painful. I talk to them, and say, ‘OK so the terrorist went there? Where could you have gone to get away?’” Wahome concluded: “Trauma is a scar. It doesn’t go away.

What you do is you can make it become smaller and smaller. When you work on it, it becomes less painful, and eventually you learn to live with it.” — AP

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

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

1 killed, 8 hurt in China explosions ‘Self-made bombs’ filled with ball bearings

In this video image run by China’s CCTV via APTN, Chinese journalist Chen Yongzhou is shown confessing on state television. — AP

China’s latest tactic: Confessions on state TV BEIJING: The 27-year-old journalist wore a green jail uniform, his head shaved and hands in metal cuffs, when he appeared on national TV and confessed his guilt in bribery allegations. And he had yet to be charged with anything. “I willingly admit my crime, and I repent it,” Chen Yongzhou said in footage aired on the state broadcaster China Central Television. He said he took money while a reporter at a metropolitan newspaper in southern China in exchange for running several stories smearing a company that makes heavy machinery.

It was the latest of several high-profile, televised confessions, a new tactic by Chinese authorities attempting to scrub information they deem harmful, illegal or false from the public domain, especially from the Internet.

The confessions have come alongside a propaganda campaign warning against relaying false information, and new penalties for reposting untrue information in social media.

Critics warn that the government is trying to curb public speech, and legal and journalism scholars say the airing of confessions before court trials tramples on China’s rule of law. “The street parades of yesterday have become television parades of today,” Chinese University of Political Science and Law professor He Bing lamented on his microblog. He was alluding to China’s Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s, when mobs denounced and punished suspected wrongdoers without due process.

This time, police and state media appear to be working together. Police detain the suspect and get a confession. Then the interrogation video footage - mostly likely filmed by police gets aired on the country’s most powerful state broadcaster before a court gets to hear the case, and sometimes even before charges are filed - such as with Chen, who was charged four days after his televised confession.

The practice has been highly selective, with clear political overtones. “I don’t think this has anything to do with the trials at all,” said Carl Minzner, a professor at Fordham Law School in New York. “Rather, these are experiments with using public confessions on state television completely independently of any legal proceedings - as a mechanism to send political warnings to the rest of Chinese society.”

Said He Bing in a phone interview: “The political movement has overtaken the law.”

Legal scholars say evidence gathered during the police investigation should remain confidential by law until the probe is closed. They question on what grounds police have given CCTV access to suspects in detention or video footage of their interrogations. They asked what’s behind CCTV’s decision to air the selfincriminating footage. Some have raised the possibility of coerced confessions.

“To declare suspects guilty before court trials, CCTV has not only violated the professional code but also China’s existing law,” said Chen Lidan, a journalism professor at Renmin University in Beijing. In at least one case, the lawyer of a suspect said his client never accepted an interview with CCTV but believed the police edited, compiled and shared the footage from the interrogations with the broadcaster.

“For the police to do that, it is completely illegal,” said Yang Mingkua, lawyer for the environmentalist and popular microblogger Dong Rubin. CCTV did not respond to faxed questions about the confessions. Police in the four cities where such confessions have been filmed either could not be reached or did not respond to media requests.

In one of the first prominent cases, ChineseAmerican investor Charles Xue was detained by police on suspicion of engaging in prostitution. It has become clear that Xue has been targeted in a government effort to discredit liberal-minded microbloggers who tend to advocate values such as democracy and freedom.

Xue urged other popular microbloggers to draw a lesson from him and expressed his support for more governmental regulations over online discourse. But first he was seen on CCTV confessing about his escapades with prostitutes, drawing public snickers.

“According to my recollection, there has been six to seven times when I had sex with more than two prostitutes at once. Most recently, a female named A-Jie brought two other prostitutes, and I had sex with them at the same time,” he said as if reading off a prepared script. “Altogether, I paid 3,000 yuan ($500).” Xue remains in detention, but there has been no official word on whether he has been charged since his last television appearance on Sept 15.

Then it was the turn for the environmentalist Dong Liangjie, who in September said on CCTV that he posted false allegations online, including one about contraceptive drugs in tap water. He was detained on suspicion of provoking trouble at the time of the confession, but it is unclear if he’s been charged since then.

In October, Dong Rubin - the other environmentalist - said on the national network that he had taken money to make his clients look good online. A voice-over said Dong had fabricated rumors and purchased fake accounts to help spread them. In the video, Dong - with his head shaved and hands cuffed - was seen in a yellow vest issued by a detention center in the southwestern city of Kunming. He was then charged with providing false capital in business registration. His lawyer, Yang, said Dong did not admit any crime.

Also in October, a freelance journalist and popular microblogger appeared on TV when he was charged with blackmailing. “This is an ugly thing,” Ge Qiwei said of his offense. He appeared much as Dong had - hands cuffed, yellow vest - though in his case the vest was issued by a detention center in the city of Hengyang in the southern province of Hunan.

Chinese authorities have deployed a similar tactic in another public campaign this year against alleged bribes made by foreign pharmaceutical companies to boost sales. They aired footage of a police interrogation in which a drug company executive confessed to the wrongdoing. “Such parading is clearly a violation of due process, and it shows how the party propaganda is prevailing over those who seek to promote the rule of law,” said political scientist Yang Dali of the University of Chicago. — AP

Indonesia claims reported US, Australian spying damaged trust JAKARTA: Indonesia said yesterday that reported spying by the Australian and the US embassies had “hurt our trust” and it would review how it shares information with both countries. The news came as a senior Indonesian MP demanded that the top Australian and American diplomats in the country, who have already been summoned over the spying allegations, face questions from lawmakers about the affair.

The espionage controversy spread to Asia last week after reports that US missions across the region were being used for clandestine surveillance, and that Australian embassies and consulates were also involved. On Monday Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa ratcheted up the angry rhetoric, declaring “enough is enough” and suggesting the controversy could affect cooperation between Jakarta and Canberra.

And yesterday the government went a step further, saying the reports had “hurt our trust” in Washington and Canberra and it would now look at how it cooperates with both. “As a sovereign state, Indonesia has a formal framework for cooperation with the countries in question,” said presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha.

“The reports have really hurt our trust in them so Indonesia will review how we currently cooperate in exchanging information.

“This is a serious matter and we certainly hope

they understand.” But he declined to go into details and refused to say whether whether any formal agreements would be examined.

Indonesia and Australia have such agreements in areas including people smuggling and counter-terrorism.

Agus Gumiwang, the deputy chairman of parliament’s commission on defence, foreign affairs and information, said he was seeking to have the top Australian and American diplomats summoned to face questions. He said he would discuss with Natalegawa the possibility of “summoning the (top diplomats) from the United States and Australia to the commission to seek an explanation”.

Australia has an ambassador in Jakarta while the United States currently has a charge d’affaires. The escalating anger in Indonesia came as Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop denied there was a rift with Jakarta over the spying allegations, as she headed yesterday to the Bali Democracy Forum.

“I don’t accept that there has been a rift,” she told ABC television late Tuesday. The annual forum, established by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2008 to promote democracy in the Asia-Pacific, is taking place on Thursday and Friday. The reports of the surveillance network in the Sydney Morning Herald last week brought the spying scandal to Asia, after they had already soured Europe-US ties. — AFP

BEIJING: A series of bombs packed with ball bearings exploded outside a provincial headquarters of China’s ruling Communist Party yesterday, killing at least one person days after a fiery attack in Tiananmen Square. Police and state media gave no possible motive for the blasts in Taiyuan, capital of the northern province of Shanxi. Disgruntled citizens have staged several incidents elsewhere in the country in recent years.

The bombings came a little over a week after a fatal car crash described by authorities as a “terrorist attack” at the symbolic heart of the Chinese state, and days ahead of a highly anticipated meeting of top party leaders in Beijing. “There were several explosions caused by small explosive devices near the party provincial commission in Taiyuan,” local police said on a verified social media account.

Eight “explosive sounds” were heard, the official Xinhua news agency said, adding that police “discovered ball bearings and explosive devices made using electric circuit boards” at the scene. Metal fragments such as ball bearings and nails are used in bombs to increase injuries, and Xinhua cited police as saying the finds indicated the blasts were “self-made bombs”. Protests in China-on a host of issues including local corruption, land seizures, environmental policy, and labour rightsare estimated to top 180,000 a year, even as the government devotes vast sums to “stability maintenance”.

Legal paths for pursuing justice are limited in the one-party state, as courts are subject to political influence and corruption, and citizens who lodge complaints against authorities often end up in detention. The street where yesterday’s explosions happened was the scene of a protest by some 200 laid-off workers last week, according to microblog postings.

One person was confirmed dead in the blasts, another was severely wounded and seven slightly hurt, a provincial government news portal said, citing police. “Witnesses said that there were seven sounds of explosion that lasted several minutes and were very powerful,” media company Caixin reported on its verified microblog. “Some interviewees said that they could feel the power of the blast wave even 100 metres away and that the ground was shaking.”

Pictures posted on China’s hugely popular weibo social networks showed vehicle doors peppered with small impacts, and tyres with holes punched through them. Other photos showed car windows blown out and debris scattered across the road. One showed two metal spheres the size of large marbles that appeared to have been among the ball bearings sprayed by the bombs.

Images showed several fire engines on a road which had been blocked to traffic, and a large crowd on one side of the street. Caixin cited sources with knowledge of the matter as saying that “major leaders of Shanxi, including those in charge of petition work and public security, are holding an emergency meeting”. Authorities in China maintain tight control over public security and place huge importance on maintaining social order. While protests happen regularly, incidents of targeted violence are normally rare. But on Monday last week a car barrelled into Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, killing two tourists and injuring dozens. The three people inside also died after they set the vehicle on fire. Authorities termed that

TAIYUAN: A Chinese police officer is framed by the glass window of a vehicle damaged by explosions outside the provincial headquarters of China’s ruling Communist Party in Taiyuan in north China’s Shanxi province yesterday. — AP incident “terrorism” and have said that it was carried out by several people from China’s far-western Xinjiang region, home to the mostly Muslim Uighur minority.

China’s top security official said a separatist group known as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement was a behind-the-scenes supporter of the attack. The Taiyuan explosions also come ahead of a highly anticipated meeting of top party leaders in Beijing this weekend, at which broad economic

reforms are expected to be on the agenda.

Following the Tiananmen attack, authorities moved quickly to clamp down on discussion of the incident, deleting photos and comments posted on social networks. But the Chinese Internet was abuzz with dispatches and photos of the Taiyuan explosions yesterday, and “Shanxi provincial commission” was the sixth-most-popular search term on the Twitter-like Sina Weibo site yesterday afternoon. — AP

Timeline of Chinese bombings BEIJING: At least one person died yesterday when a series of bombs exploded outside a provincial headquarters of China’s ruling Communist Party in Shanxi province. China has seen a number of attacks in recent years, sometimes carried out by citizens disgruntled with their treatment by the government. Here is a chronology of incidents in recent years: 2008 July-A man sets off explosions on two buses at Kunming, in Yunnan in the southwest, killing two and injuring 14. He blows himself up in a cafe five months later.

2009 June-An unemployed man in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province in the southwest, sets a bus on fire, killing 28 including himself and injuring more than 70.

2010 July-A man described as an unsuccessful businessman sets an airport shuttle bus on fire in Changsha, capital of the central province of Hunan, killing two people and injuring more than 10. He is later executed.

2011 May-A man kills three people including himself when he sets off explosions outside three government offices at Fuzhou, in the central province of Jiangxi. He left a note saying he sought revenge after local authorities demolished two of his homes. June-A resident of the northern port of Tianjin sets off an explosion near a local government building, slightly injuring two people.

2013 June-An arsonist kills 47 people including himself on a bus in Xiamen in the eastern province of Fujian, to “vent personal grievances”, according to authorities.

July-A disabled man sets off an explosion at Beijing’s international airport, reportedly in protest after he was savagely beaten by police. He injures himself and is sentenced to six years in jail.

October-A car ploughs into crowds on Tiananmen Square, killing two tourists, crashes near a large portrait of Mao Zedong and bursts into flames, with the three people inside dying.

Beijing describes it as “terrorism” and blames separatists from Xinjiang, the far-western province home to the mostly Muslim Uighur minority. — AFP

Drugs, guns, race feed Malaysia gang violence KUALA LUMPUR: Jobless at 16 and facing the economic marginalisation of many Malaysian Indians, Raju opted for the danger and easy money of life in the notorious “04” criminal gang. He was nearly beaten to death by a rival gang a few years ago, his teeth and bones broken. But he survived, and is flush with cash thanks to the lucrative drug-trafficking and protection rackets on his Kuala Lumpur turf.

“To live a luxurious life you have to deal in drugs.

There is a lot of money to be made,” the burly, mustachioed gang captain, now 33, told AFP, asking that his real name be withheld. But these are perilous times for people like him. Malaysian police are battling to douse a burst of gang violence blamed on drug-trafficking turf battles, readily obtainable guns, and government policies that critics say marginalise Malaysia’s two million ethnic Indians, driving many into crime.

Public concern over robberies and street crime has escalated for years in Malaysia, but this year’s surge in gun violence has shocked a nation proud of its record of stability despite a tense mix of races and religions. High-profile unsolved killings have included those of Malaysia’s deputy customs chief in April and a respected former banker in July.

Blaming gangs, police in August launched a national crackdown that has seen 21,000 suspected gang members arrested and more than a dozen shot dead, including “04” members. But gangsters and crime experts warn that the Indian-dominated syndi-

cates have deep roots, including links to police and politicians. “The gangs have been around for too long and the networks have grown too big. You can silence them for a while but not eliminate them,” Raju said in the Tamil language spoken by most Malaysian Indians.

Malaysian gangs started as Chinese triad organisations established in the early 1800s, police said.

Over time, poor Indians were entrusted with the more dangerous work, and when many Chinese bosses graduated into legitimate businesses like construction in the 1980s, Indians moved up. Home Minister Zahid Hamidi-who drew fire for reportedly urging police this month to “shoot first” when confronting crime suspects-has said an estimated 72 percent of 40,000 suspected gang members in the country of 28 million were Indian. Dozens of such gangs now dominate drug-trafficking, loan-sharking, gambling, extortion and prostitution rackets, as well as contract killings and armed robberies, police said.

‘With women around us, we were envied’ The tough-guy glamour and easy money is hard for many marginalised young Indian men to resist, said Reghu Devan Lopez, 34, a former gangster who now runs a Kuala Lumpur restaurant. As a teen, his gang lived it up at expensive Kuala Lumpur hotels for up to two weeks after a major heist. Some bought luxury cars and watches and took holidays in America.

KUALA LUMPUR: This picture shows Malaysian special policemen standing during a press conference called “Op Cantas Khas” outside a shopping mall. — AFP

“We splashed our money on drinks and karaoke.

With women around us, we were the envy of others,” said Reghu, who now helps former gang members find legitimate jobs. The situation has revived a racially charged debate over the state of the Indian minority, originally imported under British colonial rule as plantation workers.They have fared poorly compared with majority Malays-who control politics and enjoy affirmative-action perks from the Malaydominated government and the large and prosperous Chinese minority. “The federal government has, to a large extent, neglected the Indians,” said Pasupathi Sithamparam, an activist who helps Indian school dropouts.

Idle and disaffected Indian teens left out of the country’s economic success are a steady source of gang recruits, said G Gunalan, 16. At 13, he was recruited into the feared “08” gang and soon had 30 underlings. “To become a leader you must do drugs, break into houses, steal, extort, or even kidnap,” he said. He quit last year, fearing for his life. The growth of gangs-and the violence-is underpinned by an expanding market for illegal drugs and guns imported largely from neighbouring Thailand, police and gang members said.

Authorities estimate that Malaysia has about 300,000 drug addicts but say consumption of crystal methamphetamine, heroin, marijuana and other drugs is on the rise despite mandatory death for traffickers. Lee Lam Thye, chairman of the Malaysia Crime Prevention Foundation, called the situation “very alarming”, saying nearly 50 percent of crimes committed are drugs-linked. Raju, meanwhile, said obtaining a gun is “as easy as buying a fish”, even though owning one is essentially outlawed. Police blame the recent spike in violence on the release of more than 2,000 crime suspects when a harsh preventive detention law was abolished in 2011.

‘To eliminate gangs, start with politicians’ “You see the emergence of a turf war. The Indian thugs are shooting one another,” said Amar Singh, deputy police chief of Kuala Lumpur. The police crackdown appears to have silenced the gang guns.

But gang members say there are deep-rooted links between the underworld and a police force widely viewed as corrupt and brutal, on up to some political figures. “Some of these people sit at the top of the pyramid in criminal organisations,” said P Sundramoorthy, a criminology professor at Universiti Sains Malaysia. “They are influential individuals and are difficult to prosecute in court,” he said, declining to elaborate due to the issue’s sensitivity. For Reghu, the solution is simple. “If you want to eliminate gangs, start with the politicians, and then with the police.” — AFP

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

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Focus

Tunisia old guard shuts out youths behind revolt

By Kaouther Larbi hree years after Tunisia’s revolution, youths who formed the vanguard of protests find themselves sidelined from the political arena by veteran leaders determined to hold on to power. Sparked on Dec 17, 2010 by the self-immolation of a 26-year-old street vendor angry with corruption and police harassment, the uprising toppled autocratic president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali a month later. But since then, “the revolution of the youths has been confiscated by the old who were hiding at home or abroad during the popular uprising,” said Naima Charmiti. “Our dinosaurs haven’t stopped telling us that we have a political future, but in reality they haven’t done anything concrete,” lamented the 32-year-old who runs the arabesque.tn news website.

Two veterans dominate the crisis-hit political scene in the North African country, where people under the age of 30 account for 51 percent of the population.

One of them, Rached Ghannouchi, 73, heads the ruling Islamist party Ennahda and spent two decades in exile before returning to Tunisia in 2011.

The other, Beji Caid Essebsi, 86, leads the main opposition party, Nidaa Tounes. Essebsi was a minister under Habib Bourguiba, the father of Tunisia’s independence, as well as a parliament speaker during Ben Ali’s rule and prime minister in the months after the revolution.

The pair were at the heart of talks that failed on Monday to lead to the appointment of an independent prime minister to steer Tunisia out of a political crisis that began in July with the assassination of an opposition leader. Each side has its own candidate: Ennahda and its allies support 88-year-old Ahmed Mestiri; and the opposition backs 79-year-old Mohamed Ennaceur.

Both men entered politics during the Bourguiba era.

“Right now it’s clear the leaders of parties are all old, and making matters worse, they appeal to even older men!” said Thameur Mekki, a 27-year-old who supports rappers who have fallen foul of the law for irreverent lyrics. And in a divisive political era that comes in for ceaseless criticism, one of the rare things leaders have been able to agree on is the lifting of the age limit of 75 for presidential candidates. Salem Ayari, secretary general of the Tunisian union for unemployed graduates, said the problem is that the political elites simply consider youths as incompetent.

“These people do not believe that young people can take over,” he said, adding it was the same under the ousted regime of Ben Ali “who excluded youths from political life”.

Among political parties, there are restraints that have impeded the involvement of youths, the engine of the revolution who now account for 30 percent of Tunisia’s unemployed against the national average of 16 percent. “Following the hyper-enthusiasm of the revolution, there is real hyper-disappointment,” said Selim Ben Abdessalem, a 43-year-old deputy in the Nidaa Tounes party. “It would be a huge mistake to ignore them, but there is a lack of ability to attract them. There is a distrust of... youths in all companies and parties.” But the situation could also be explained by the need for people with experience in Tunisia, which faces growing jihadist violence, political crises and economic hardship. “We must also stop populism, and the cult of youth,” said Ben Abdessalem.

“Tunisia is in a situation where you don’t go to someone who has no experience in government as prime minister. And if we don’t want those who weren’t in the Ben Ali regime, we have to rely on those from the Bourguiba era,” he explained. — AFP

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Tunisian girls walk on Habib Bourguiba Avenue yesterday in Tunis. — AFP

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

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

Cracks start to show in frontier markets

By Carolyn Cohn hree years ago, a trip to the Southern Kenya production facilities of Canadian company Africa Oil attracted only seven potential investors. Two months ago, 60 boarded the flight. The investor trip, described by sales staff at Citi following a recent client conference, is just one illustration of the swelling interest in the most esoteric frontier markets. In a world of low yields and paltry growth, the attraction of frontier markets - the lesser developed emerging markets in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America - is pretty clear. Juicy returns, often huge natural resources and young populations provide a stark contrast to the ageing economic profile in the West.

“Everyone and his dog seems to know something about (frontier markets) now,” Citi wrote.

And yet, like many small, illiquid and often opaque markets, there’s a problem. The surge in interest may already be in the price.

Frontier market stocks have outridden a slump in broader emerging markets this year, with help from long-term investors.Stars include Nigeria’s Dangote Cement, up 48 percent, and Dubai’s Emaar Properties, up 61 percent. But these countries’ restrictively tiny markets and increasingly pricey stocks are starting to dent their appeal.

“My best-performing stock this year has

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been a Nigerian cement company. Is that likely to be the case next year? I doubt it,” Richard Titherington, CIO of emerging equities at JP Morgan Asset Management, told a recent media briefing. “You need to be careful about being too optimistic about frontier markets,” he added, saying he preferred emerging market companies which paid strong dividends, for example.

One critical warning signal has been the crossover in valuations between frontier and emerging markets. Frontier companies are traditionally seen as cheap because of the perception of the high risks involved in buying them. But frontier market valuations have become more expensive than emerging markets, at around 13 times earnings, for the first time in nearly two years. Some stock markets may be close to the top of their game, with Dubai and Kenya near five-year highs. HSBC emerging equity analyst John Lomax last week downgraded Kenya to neutral. “The market has already run up aggressively and...valuations are beginning to look somewhat expensive,” he wrote in a client note.

Individual valuations in some cases look alarming. Nestle Nigeria has a price/earnings ratio of 40 times, and its 12-month forward PE ratio is at 33, well above its peers, according to Reuters Eikon data. Another concern is that these markets’ small size will struggle to attract new money, with investors finding it difficult to enter the markets without influ-

encing prices. Templeton Emerging Markets Group, which has $3 billion under management in its frontiers strategy, closed its frontiers fund to new investors earlier this year.

Templeton’s role is huge in an asset class where many funds total $100 million or less.

The market capitalisation of the closelywatched MSCI frontiers index is only $130 billion, compared with $3.8 trillion for the emerging markets index, or more than $15 trillion for the S&P 500. “Frontier markets have had a good run, they have outperformed, but at the end of the day it’s a considerably smaller universe than emerging markets,” said Maria Gratsova, emerging equities strategist at Citi.

The MSCI emerging stock index is in the red for the year on weak earnings growth and fears about a reduction in risk-supporting US monetary stimulus. The MSCI frontiers index , in contrast, has climbed 20 percent, in line with moves in developed stocks. But the frontiers rally masks wide disparities, in market size and performance, with some countries posting losses. Bulgaria and the UAE are topperforming markets, and off-index plays Saudi Arabia and Iraq have also soared.

But Lebanon and Jordan - down 0.5 and 0.1 percent respectively, and weaker in dollar terms - have suffered from their proximity to Syria. Away from the index, Mongolia has dropped nearly 20 percent, with investors deterred earlier this year by restrictive foreign

investment laws. The MSCI index of 26 countries contains a mix of markets. Kuwait has a 23 percent weighting, while energy-producing markets United Arab Emirates and Qatar together make up 30 percent. The bias towards these markets makes benchmarking to the index more difficult, potentially adding investment risk. “We are never going to have a 50-60 percent weighting in countries in the Gulf region,” said Andrew Brudenell, frontier fund manager at HSBC Asset Management, which uses a customised MSCI index to match its investment strategy more closely.

Other indices, such as those compiled by S&P and FTSE, contain different markets or have a wider range of countries. But the larger number of countries can also lead to smaller size and liquidity in each, analysts say, and the indices all use similar market capitalisation criteria which give heavy weighting to only a few markets. Frontier investors say, however, that despite the difficulties of investing, their markets are enjoying a welldeserved catch-up after lagging emerging markets in 2009 and 2010, and they are confident of longer-term gains. Veteran investor Mark Mobius, Templeton Emerging Markets executive chairman, has large holdings in Nigeria and says Africa, for example, holds out a lot of investment hope. “The number of people who have bank accounts is very, very tiny, the growth prospects are very, very good - the future is Africa.” — Reuters

Post-US shutdown, pragmatism is in

By Ken Thomas lectability and pragmatism won.

Ideology and rigidity lost. In Democratic-leaning New Jersey, voters gave Republican Chris Christie a second term and rewarded him for his bipartisan, get-it-done, inclusive pitch. In swing state Virginia, voters narrowly rejected Republican Ken Cuccinelli’s uncompromising, conservative approach. If there’s a lesson from Tuesday’s off-year elections, it might be that during a time of deep divisions within the Republican Party, staunchly conservative GOP candidates who press ideological positions have difficulty winning general elections in competitive states. Candidates with mainstream appeal like Christie in New Jersey and Democrat Terry McAuliffe in Virginia can overcome obstacles that might trip up others.

Christie, in a victory speech aimed at national Republicans, said Americans “angry with their dysfunctional government in Washington” could look to his state as a model for getting things done. “I know that if we can do this in Trenton, New Jersey, maybe the folks in Washington, DC, should tune in their TVs right now,” Christie said. “See how it’s done.” Christie trounced his Democratic opponent, state Sen Barbara Buono, offering a template for Republicans who want to win and attract a broad coalition of voters. His re-election, the largest by a Republican governor in New Jersey since 1985, could help him make a case for governing as a conservative without ceding the political middle ahead of a possible presidential bid.

In Virginia, McAuliffe held off a late charge by Cuccinelli in a polarizing campaign that exposed liabilities that could drag down both parties next year: President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul for Democrats and a partial government shutdown for Republicans.

McAuliffe is a longtime friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton, giving the former secretary of state an important ally should she seek the White House again. In Republican-friendly Alabama, Bradley Byrne, a lawyer backed by the US

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Chamber of Commerce, defeated tea party-backed candidate Dean Young in a special GOP primary to succeed retiring Rep Jo Bonner. Byrne will be the heavy favorite in December to hold onto the congressional seat and gives business groups a victory over the tea party.

Cuccinelli held a narrow edge among those who said health care was their top issue and 53 percent of all Virginia voters said they opposed the health care overhaul passed in 2010. Tea party leaders and social conservatives said the state attorney general’s vociferous opposition to the

Boston Mayor-elect Martin Walsh embraces his girlfriend Lorrie Higgins as Higgins’ daughter Lauren looks on after Walsh addressed the crowd at a watch party Tuesday in Boston. — AP

Far from the intensity of a presidential campaign, the low-turnout elections don’t offer a greater meaning into the nation’s political psyche. But Virginia and New Jersey often give parties clues to the electorate’s mood heading into congressional elections. The backdrop was a partial government shutdown triggered partly by tea party demands and a clunky rollout by the Obama administration of the health care law.

In Virginia, exit polls showed that about a third of voters said they were personally affected by the government shutdown, and those who were broke for McAuliffe by nearly 20 points. But

health care law narrowed the gap - even though it didn’t overcome a fundraising disadvantage. “This has got to be a real wakeup call for the Obama White House and Democrats in general,” said Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition. “If the tail of the Obamacare meltdown could have this kind of impact ... then I think they need to be really concerned about the red state Democratic seats” in the 2014 Senate elections.

Democrats said McAuliffe’s victory - the first in Virginia by a member of the same party holding the White House in nearly four decades - could provide a roadmap for governors’ races in 2014 featuring

Republican incumbents in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and elsewhere. “Virginia is a harbinger for what a challenge the tea party governors are going to have - a referendum on their policies,” said Vermont Gov Peter Shumlin, the chairman of the Democratic Governors Association.

Both New Jersey and Virginia offered overtones for the 2016 presidential race.

Christie’s advisers were quick to point out that the governor won a majority of women and boosted his support among black and Latino voters, showing that he could compete for voters who comprise Obama’s coalition. For Democrats, the election may make some wonder if Buono is this year’s version of Garry Mauro, the Texas Democrat who lost to George W Bush in a lopsided governor’s race in 1998. Some Democrats regretted not competing more aggressively against Bush, who captured the GOP nomination and won the White House in 2000.

But it remains to be seen if Christie’s conservative-yet-pragmatic approach can win over Republicans in places like Iowa and South Carolina, where party loyalists may be skeptical of his post-superstorm Sandy alliance with Obama and his commitment to conservatives on social issues.

Democrats’ win in Virginia gives a boost to the Clinton campaign model of attracting moderates and business-oriented voters while driving turnout among women.

McAuliffe’s narrow victory rested on a 9point edge among women and could offer Democratic candidates in 2014 a case study for winning in swing-voting territory - especially if Obama’s support is weakened.

Christie and McAuliffe both outspent their opponents by large margins and aired tough TV ads months before the election to negatively define their opponents, stealing a page from Obama’s playbook against Republican Mitt Romney. No matter the election, the tactics matter.

“We shouldn’t lose focus on the fundamentals,” said Republican strategist Martin Baker, a former adviser to Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign. He said the races are “textbook examples that money and mechanics remain critical to a successful campaign.” — AP

NEWS

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

Skyscrapers reach up into the clouds at dusk in Kuwait City. — Photo by Sherif Ismail

Dems unseat Reps in New York, Virginia Continued from Page 1 New Jersey’s Republican Governor Chris Christie handily defeated his Democrat challenger, earning a second four-year term in a race some pundits said would serve as a platform for a future presidential bid.

Christie is a straight-talking moderate Republican who won much praise for his handling of the devastation wrought on his state last year by Superstorm Sandy. He cruised to a landslide win even though he is at odds with many in his party at the national level. At a raucous victory rally, Christie promised yet more pragmatic leadership. “We stand here tonight showing that it is possible to put doing your job first, to put working together first, to fight for what you believe in yet still stand by your principles and get something done for the people who elected you,” he declared. He is increasingly seen as a contender for the Republican nomination for the White House in 2016 given his pragmatism, charisma and ability to command cross-party support. Obama called De Blasio, McCauliffe and Boston mayor-elect Martin Walsh to congratulate them.

Meanwhile, the race in the Big Apple - in which de Blasio long

had been tipped as the heavy favorite to replace billionaire Michael Bloomberg - was one of several seen as a barometer of public opinion ahead of congressional elections in 2014. De Blasio, 52, promises a new style in a city transformed by 12 years of tough love under Bloomberg, a Republican-turned-independent who is stepping down after a record three terms. “Our work is really just beginning,” De Blasio told supporters at his Brooklyn campaign headquarters in his victory speech.

One of his key focuses is to narrow the gap between rich and poor in the nation’s financial hub. “The challenges we face have been decades in the making. And the problems we set out to address will not be solved overnight. But make no mistake - the people of this city have chosen a progressive path - and tonight we set forth on it - together as one city,” de Blasio said in a speech delivered in both Spanish and English. He left Republican rival Joe Lhota trailing in the dust in the biggest city in the United States by tapping into the worries of the economically vulnerable middle class. He promises to raise taxes to fund universal pre-kindergarten education and after-school programs, and build 200,000 affordable housing units.

The incoming de Blasio administration is likely to usher in a

Defiant Adasani won’t withdraw...

Continued from Page 1 request he submitted early this week against Health Minister Sheikh Mohammad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah. He said he requested to add the issue of Dr Kefaya Abdullah who was transferred from Amiri Hospital last week to the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Sulaibkhat after refusing to keep the father of a lawmaker in the ICU after his condition stabilized. Quwaian described the minister’s action as oppressive and an abuse of authority that the minister must be questioned for.

Former opposition MP Musallam Al-Barrak also announced that the opposition coalition has asked its legal office to contact Dr Kefaya to form a panel of lawyers to defend her and his media office manager Zayed Zaid in lawsuits it intends to file as a result of what he described “tyranny practiced against them by parties wishing to establish sheikhdom and cancel the rule of law and the constitution”. He added that the Kuwaiti people should be alert more than ever to stop “the government’s peddling practices”. He also accused the government of not respecting the people or the constitution.

“Using its one-vote election system, the government is trying to vacuum the legislative’s powers, intimidate the Kuwaiti people and fill them with fear,” he said, severely criticizing the government program declared by the minister of state for development. “Why did the government and the one-vote parliament approve the document behind closed doors as if they were in a Masonic meeting?” he wondered. Barrak also expressed astonishment on the transfer of Dr Kefaya “by a minister who knows nothing about medical issues simply because she disobeyed his orders”. “This will be an example to be followed and all those who disobey sheikhs will be punished,” he warned.

Commenting on the recent statements of the premier on the end of the ‘welfare’ state, Barrak stressed that such a state was only enjoyed by a certain number of people while the majority of people were overburdened with installments. He also called for checking the number of citizens living on Zakat House aid since 2006, and urged citizens to act without fear against stealing of public funds. Barrak also criticized the GCC security agreement, noting that it only

aimed to protect ‘regimes and sheikhs’.

On a related note, MP Faisal Al-Duwaisan said he has abandoned a plan to file a request to grill the prime minister over allegations that the interior ministry signed a contract with a company which has links to Israel. Duwaisan said the prime minister and the interior minister have stopped the second and third contractor and ordered the company in the first contract not to import Israeli-made devices. The National Assembly’s team of priorities yesterday agreed with the government to hold a special debate on the housing problem on Dec 12. The decision came after a meeting yesterday between the parliamentary team and a ministerial delegation. The Assembly had already declared that resolving the housing problem has been accorded top priority during the current term which opened on Oct 29. The move came after a poll conducted by the Assembly. The session will be the second to be held by the Assembly on housing this year, especially after the number of those awaiting government houses rose to over 107,000.

Commenting on tweets made by MP Safa Al-Hashem on his Twitter account, Minister of Commerce and Industry Anas Al-Saleh stressed that the issues she spoke about were very important but said “it would be better to use the monitoring tools invested in her parliamentary powers to discuss them in parliament instead”. The comments were posted “on the eve of the new Hijri year, and I congratulate her,” he said. “MP Al-Hashem has her monitoring and inquiry tools and ignoring them and resorting to some tweets would be considered escaping responsibility, which does not befit a representative of the people,” he added, noting that serious inquiries based on verified information and documents were always welcome. Notably, Hashem had wondered on her Twitter account how the minister would enforce the anti-monopoly law “while he takes part in some tenders himself”. Separately, the Interior Ministry yesterday warned that any bedoon demonstrations would be banned after activists called on social media to organize protests on Saturday in Taima in Jahra. The ministry has issued instructions to prevent any marches or rallies that block traffic, even if force is needed. The instructions also called for the immediate arrest of those who do not comply.

Ms Marvel returns as Muslim teen Continued from Page 1 Amanat calls the series a “desire to explore the MuslimAmerican diaspora from an authentic perspective” and what it means to be young and lost amid expectations by others while also telling the story of a teenager coming to grips with having amazing powers. “I wanted Ms Marvel to be true-to-life, something real people could relate to, particularly young women. High school was a very vivid time in my life, so I drew heavily on those experiences - impending adulthood, dealing with school, emotionally charged friendships that are such a huge part of being a teenager,” said Wilson, a convert to Islam whose previous comics work includes the graphic novel “Cairo” and series “Air” from Vertigo. “It’s for all the geek girls out there and everybody else who’s ever looked at life from the fringe.”

This Ms. Marvel can grow and shrink her limbs and her body and, Wilson said, ultimately, she’ll be able to shape shift into other forms. The idea came after a discussion with senior editor Stephen Wacker as he and Amanat, a MuslimAmerican, compared stories about growing up. From there

it germinated into a “character for all those little girls who are growing up now the way you are growing up,” she recalled. Wilson was brought on board to write the series and the team quickly got approval from Marvel’s creative committee to move forward.

DC Comics last fall relaunched its “Green Lantern” series with Simon Baz, an Arab American and Muslim. The character reflects writer Geoff Johns’ Lebanese ancestry and his upbringing in the Detroit area. There have been a few others: Marvel Comics has Dust, a young Afghan woman whose mutant ability to manipulate sand and dust has been part of the popular X-Men books. DC Comics in late 2010 introduced Nightrunner, a young Muslim hero of Algerian descent reared in Paris. The creative team said that Khan’s backstory, growing up Muslim, is an element of the story, but not the critical foundation, either. “Kamala is not unlike Peter Parker,” said Marvel Editor-In-Chief Axel Alonso of the teenager turned wall crawler. “She’s a 16-year-old girl from the suburbs who is trying to figure out who she is and trying to forge an identity when she suddenly bestows great power and learns the great responsibility that comes with it.” — AP

dramatic change in the mayor’s office led by Bloomberg, a transformative figure, but who leaves behind an electorate divided over his legacy. There has been a continued reduction in violent crime and his aggressive public health policies, such as banning smoking in bars and restaurants, have been copied in many cities.

Meanwhile, Virginia’s changing demographics - with a rural-suburban split and significant military and government employee populations - make it a litmus test for the political mood ahead of the next presidential vote in 2016. Christie’s win, paired with Cuccinelli’s loss, is likely to solidify thinking that Republicans would be better served with ditching deeply ideological candidates. Mayoral elections were also held Tuesday in the rustbelt

city of Detroit, which recently declared bankruptcy. Democrat Mike Duggan won, though his job holds little power as the city is now run by a state-appointed emergency administrator.

In Boston, traumatized by the Boston Marathon bombings in April, Democrat Walsh replaced outgoing Mayor Thomas Menino.

Menino, also a Democrat, departs after 20 years in office, the longest in Boston mayoral history.

Out in Colorado in the west, six of 11 counties voted to ask authorities to explore the idea of seceding and forming the 51st US state. Proponents of this move said they were unhappy with the state legislature because of stricter gun laws and new renewable-energy standards. — AFP

Tests show Arafat was killed...

Continued from Page 1 polonium and this means that Israel carried it out.” The Israeli government has denied any role in his death, noting that he was 75 years old and had an unhealthy lifestyle. It made no comment on the new findings.

An investigation by the Qatar-based Al Jazeera television news channel first reported last year that traces of polonium210 were found on personal effects of Arafat given to his widow by the French military hospital where he died. That led French prosecutors to open an investigation for suspected murder in August 2012 at the request of Suha Arafat. Forensic experts from Switzerland, Russia and France all took samples from his corpse for testing after the Palestinian Authority agreed to open his mausoleum.

The head of the Russian forensics institute, Vladimir Uiba, was quoted by the Interfax news agency last month as saying no trace of polonium had been found on the body specimens examined in Moscow, but his Federal Medico-Biological Agency later denied he had made any official comment on its findings. The French pathologists have not reported their conclusions publicly or shared any findings with Suha Arafat’s legal team. A spokeswoman for the French prosecutor’s office said the investigating magistrates had received no expert reports so far. One of her lawyers said the Swiss institute’s report would be translated from English into French and handed over to the three magistrates who are investigating the case. Professor David Barclay, a British forensic scientist retained by Al Jazeera to interpret the results of the Swiss tests, said the findings from Arafat’s body confirmed last year’s results from traces of bodily fluids on his underwear, toothbrush and clothing. “In my opinion, it is absolutely certain that the cause of his illness was polonium poisoning,” Barclay told Reuters. “The levels present in him are sufficient to have caused death. “What we have got is the smoking gun - the thing that caused his illness and was given to him with malice.”

The Swiss scientists’ report, posted in full on Al Jazeera’s website, was more cautious. It concluded: “Taking into account the analytical limitations aforementioned, mostly time lapse since death and the nature and quality of the specimens, the results moderately support the proposition that the death was the consequence of poisoning with polonium-210.” Al Jazeera said the levels of polonium found in Arafat’s ribs, pelvis and in soil that absorbed his remains were at least 18 times higher than normal. The same radioactive substance was slipped into a cup of tea in a London hotel to kill defecting Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in 2006. From his deathbed, Litvinenko accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering his murder. The British government refused to hold a public inquiry into his death after ministers withheld some material which could have shed light on Russia’s suspected involvement.

Barclay said the type of polonium discovered in Arafat’s body must have been manufactured in a nuclear reactor.

While many countries could have been the source, someone in Arafat’s immediate entourage must have slipped a miniscule dose of the deadly isotope probably as a powder into his drink, food, eye drops or toothpaste, he said.

Arafat fell ill in Oct 2004, displaying symptoms of acute gastroenteritis with diarrhoea and vomiting. At first Palestinian

officials said he was suffering from influenza. He was flown to Paris in a French government plane but fell into a coma shortly after his arrival at the Percy military hospital in the suburb of Clamart, where he died on Nov 11. The official cause of death was a massive stroke but French doctors said at the time they were unable to determine the origin of his illness. No autopsy was carried out. Barclay said no one would have thought to look for polonium as a possible poison until the Litvinenko case, which occurred two years after Arafat’s death.

Some experts have questioned whether Arafat could have died of polonium poisoning, pointing to a brief recovery during his illness that they said was not consistent with radioactive exposure. They also noted he did not lose all his hair. But Barclay said neither fact was inconsistent with the findings.

Since polonium loses 50 percent of its radioactivity every four months, the traces in Arafat’s corpse would have faded so far as to have become untraceable if the tests had been conducted a couple of years later, the scientist said. “A tiny amount of polonium the size of a flake of dandruff would be enough to kill 50 people if it was dissolved in water and they drank it,” he added.

In an October report published by The Lancet, eight scientists working at the Institute of Radiation Physics and University Centre of Legal Medicine in Lausanne confirmed they found traces of polonium in separate tests on clothing used by Arafat which they said “support the possibility” he was poisoned. Polonium is a highly radioactive material rarely found outside military and scientific circles. Small doses exist in the soil and atmosphere, and even in the human body, but in high doses it is highly toxic if it is ingested or inhaled, and can damage the body’s tissues and organs.

It is one of the rarest natural elements - in 10 gm of uranium ore there is a maximum of a billionth of a gram of polonium. Polonium-210 is the least rare of its 33 known isotopes.

The substance has been used industrially for its alpha radiation in research and medicine, and as a heating source for space components, but in those forms it is not conducive to easy poisoning.

The Al Jazeera investigation was spearheaded by investigative journalist Clayton Swisher, a former US Secret Service bodyguard who became friendly with Arafat and was suspicious of the manner of his death. Suha Arafat called for an investigation inside the Muqata Palestinian government headquarters and said she and her student daughter, Zahwa Arafat, would pursue the case through the courts in France and elsewhere until the perpetrators were brought to justice. Hani AlHassan, a former aide, said in 2003 that he had witnessed 13 assassination attempts on Arafat’s life, dating back to his years on the run as PLO leader. Arafat claimed to have survived 40 attempts on his life.

Arafat narrowly escaped an Israeli air strike on his headquarters in Tunisia in 1985. He had just gone out jogging when the bombers attacked, killing 73 people. He escaped another attempt on his life when Israeli warplanes came close to killing him during the 182 invasion of Beirut when they hit one of the buildings they suspected he was using as his headquarters but he was not there. In Dec 2001, Arafat was rushed to safety just before Israeli helicopters bombarded his compound in Ramallah with rockets. — Agencies

New Qatar emir takes aim at...

Continued from Page 1 setting an appropriate timetable to invest in major projects, and coordinating between these projects to avert being concentrated in a short period of time, leading to pressure on the available potential capacity.” A government committee has been set up to propose ways to control internal and external inflationary pressures, Sheikh Tamim said, adding that individuals and institutions would be required to help in avoiding unjustified price rises.

He did not elaborate on how the government would fight monopolies. Inflation in the world’s top liquefied natural gas producer eased to 2.7 percent year-on-year in September, the lowest level this year and well below a record 15 percent hit in 2008, official data showed last month.

But analysts expect price pressures to pick up in coming years as the OPEC member envisages spending some $140 billion on an airport, a port, roads, stadiums and other projects before it hosts the 2022 soccer World Cup tournament. Qatar’s fiscal spending has risen by over 24 percent annually on average in the past decade as the country has expanded its gas producing facilities

and infrastructure. But its ability to fight inflationary pressure with monetary policy is constrained by the riyal currency’s peg to the US dollar. In May, the Qatar Central Bank’s Director of Research and Monetary Policy Khalid Alkhater said the country and other Gulf states should consider moving to more flexible exchange rates to better manage inflation risks in the next decade. A Reuters poll of analysts in September forecast average Qatari inflation of 3.5 percent in 2013 and 4.0 percent in 2014.

Sheikh Tamim also said people responsible for negligence, mismanagement or corruption would be held accountable - a sign that he saw the risk of waste and abuse in the billions of dollars of state contracts that will be awarded in the next few years. “A study has to be made on the causes that raise the cost of some projects in Qatar in a way that does not conform with the cost and profit as well as supply and demand,” he said. “And checking the cause of the rising cost of real estate and storage, and mismanagement that leads to the frequent change in the specifications of projects at the expense of the state, or in delaying them and stalling their implementation, then hastily implement them, with worse conditions that would increase the cost,” he added. —Reuters

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

S P ORTS

Vlasic back in training ZAGREB: Croatia’s former world high-jump champion Blanka Vlasic is back in training after recovering from a foot injury. “Already after my first training sessions I did not feel the usual pain, which showed me clearly that I’m on the right path,” Vlasic said in a statement on her official website. Vlasic said she resumed training earlier this week after undergoing seven days of treatment at a sports clinic in Carlow, Ireland. “There is still a lot of hard work ahead of me, but I will stay patient and keep a smile on my face,” said Vlasic who will turn 30 on Friday.

On when she would return to competition, the Croat was less sure. “I am not in a hurry, I have to respect every step of my rehabilitation, but for the time being I’m very satisfied with the development,” she said. Her next medical checkup in Ireland was scheduled to take place in three weeks time, she added.

Vlasic said in August that her withdrawal from competition this season would not mean the end of her career. She missed last year’s Olympics because of repercussions from a poorly-performed operation on an ankle, but had shown she was returning to form after a 20-month absence with victory in her first event back, the Diamond League meet in New York. The Croatian won world gold in 2007 and 2009, as well as silver in 2011. —AFP

Scott targets major ‘slam’ MELBOURNE: Australia’s Adam Scott has set a goal of winning a career grand slam of golf’s four majors and says his breakthrough US Masters win is yet to pay full dividend to his game.

“I’d love to win the career grand slam and put myself in that really small group of players who have won all four majors,” the 33-year-old told reporters at Australia’s Gold Coast yesterday, his first trip to his homeland since his Augusta triumph.

“I think that would be a good goal but that’s a long way off for the moment. I’ve only got one, so there’s a lot of work to do.” Only South African Gary Player and Americans Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen have achieved the feat since the Masters was founded in 1934.

Having enjoyed the best year of his career with two PGA Tour titles, few would dispute the world number two has the game to win more majors.

Scott infamously blew a four-stroke lead in the last four holes of the 2012 British Open to finish runner-up.

The US Open is the only major tournament not to yield a top-10 finish for the Australian.

In the meantime, Scott has turned his attention to the far more achievable goal of clinching a career grand slam in the three marquee events of Australia’s golfing summer. Having won his country’s national Open title in 2009 and the Australian Masters last year, Scott will bid to win the Australian PGA Championship trophy at Royal Pines starting on Thursday. Like his mentor and former world number one Greg Norman, Scott has been a solid supporter of Australia’s battling local tour throughout his career, but returns this time for a lap of honor and without the major milestone around his neck.

“I think all the great things that come from winning the Masters are still yet to happen for me as a golfer personally,” said Scott, who showed off the green jacket at a sponsor’s dinner on Tuesday.

“Knowing I’m going back there for the next, hopefully, 50 years or something, being involved with that golf club and that golf tournament for that amount of time and going to the champions’ dinner, there may be a little less pressure on me to play great down here. “I feel good with where my game is at.

“But (there’s) just a little less to prove after having won a major and maybe shown the ‘mongrel’ or whatever it was that everyone wanted to see in me,” Scott added, using the classic Australian term meaning ‘toughness’ or ‘aggression’.

Scott was to receive the keys to the city from the Gold Coast mayor on Wednesday and tournament organisers have deemed Friday ‘Green Day’, asking fans to turn up in green in tribute to the Australian’s Augusta win. With world number nine American Brandt Snedeker, the tournament’s second biggest drawcard, a late withdrawal due to a knee injury, Scott has a clear run to tear up the innocuous Royal Pines course where young American Rickie Fowler, ranked 43rd in the world, is among the challengers.—Reuters

Concussion knocks South Africa’s Smith out of ODIs DUBAI: South Africa test captain Graeme Smith has been withdrawn from their last three one-day internationals against Pakistan because of “post concussion syndrome”, team manager Mohammed Moosajee said yesterday. Smith received a blow to the head in the second test between the two countries in Dubai late last month and although he has since played in two successive ODIs in the United Arab Emirates, he has felt dizzy and had difficulty focusing in recent days.

“We took him for an MRI scan on Tuesday which showed no injury to the brain but it is prudent to withdraw him. He needs to rest. It could take a week or two or maybe a bit longer than that to recover,” Moosajee told SuperSport television before the third ODI in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday in which Smith was due to play.

Smith was struck on the head by a bouncer from Pakistan opening bowler Mohammad Irfan on his way to a double century in the test, which South Africa won to level the two-match series in the UAE. “He had a slight headache after that but seven days post-injury, during the second ODI in Dubai, he started complaining of blurred vision which progressed to dizziness, unsteadiness on his feet and difficulty focusing,” Moosajee added.—Reuters

Young dives into controversy LONDON: Manchester United’s Ashley Young plunged headfirst into another diving controversy when the winger tumbled over to win a penalty during Tuesday’s 0-0 Champions League draw at Real Sociedad. Robin van Persie smashed the spot kick against the right post but Young’s apparent theatrics left former United players accusing him of “conning” the referee.

“If you are a Manchester United player and you see a player getting tugged back you want him to go down. Ashley Young has obviously gone down too much over the last few months,” former United captain Roy Keane said on ITV television. “He’s been heavily criticised in England, but of course we’re playing in a foreign country and it’s almost more acceptable. But I think he’s conned the referee there.”

Young, who was warned by manager David Moyes earlier in the season about diving, went down easily in front of the referee in the 69th minute after Sociedad’s Markel Bergara appeared to tug his arm. “This is as bad for me as all these over-the-top tackles we’re getting at the moment because that is a conning of the referee,” Sky Sports pundit and former United player Ray Wilkins said.—Reuters

Capitals pound Islanders WASHINGTON: Alex Ovechkin returned from a shoulder injury to score his 11th and 12th goals of the season, and the Washington Capitals rode a second-period flurry to a 6-2 win over the New York Islanders on Tuesday night.

After being sidelined for two games, Ovechkin scored twice on the power play in a five-goal second period for the Capitals, who have won three straight and are above .500 for the first time this season (8-7). John Carlson, Marcus Johansson, Alexander Urbom and rookie Tom Wilson also scored for Washington, which netted four power-play goals.

Nicklas Backstrom had three assists, and Braden Holtby made 34 saves. John Tavares and Kyle Okposo scored for the Islanders, who had won two in a row. Evgeni Nabokov had 33 saves.

was called for tripping 32 seconds into the extra period, and Arcobello sent a slap shot from the left circle past goalie Jacob Markstrom 1:23 later. Taylor Fedun netted his first NHL goal, and Philip Larsen also scored for Edmonton. Devan Dubnyk made 20 saves. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had two assists.

Upshall scored two third-period goals, and Marcel Goc also scored for the Panthers. Markstrom stopped 23 shots. Florida has lost six straight and nine of 10.

HURRICANES 2, FLYERS 1 Manny Malhotra scored 2:40 into overtime, and Carolina broke a five-game losing streak by rallying to beat Philadelphia.

Justin Peters stopped 28 shots and earned his first win of

the Flames. Reto Berra stopped 13 of 15 shots through two periods before the Wild broke the game open with two goals in 33 seconds midway through the third.

BLUES 3, CANADIENS 2 TJ Oshie’s shootout goal lifted St. Louis over Montreal.

Alexander Steen and Chris Stewart scored for St. Louis (9-2-2) in regulation. Jaroslav Halak stopped 25 shots through overtime and turned away three shots in the shootout.

Rene Bourque and Michael Bournival scored for Montreal (8-7-1), and Carey Price made 30 saves. St. Louis opened the scoring at 2:38 of the first period when Steen fired home his NHL-leading 13th goal of the season. Stewart tied it 2-2 at 10:31 of the third period by deflecting Kevin Shattenkirk’s shot

STARS 3, BRUINS 2 Tyler Seguin and Rich Peverley scored in a shootout against their former team and lifted Dallas over Boston. It was the second straight shootout win for the Stars.

Vernon Fiddler tied the game for Dallas on a penalty shot with 2:34 left in the third period after he was tripped from behind by Dennis Seidenberg. It erased a lead Boston took with 8:21 remaining when Milan Lucic tipped in Dougie Hamilton’s shot from the blue line.

The other goals came in the first period with Benn scoring for Dallas at 3:38, and Torey Krug tying it at 4:16. The game was the first against the Bruins for Seguin and Peverley, who were traded to Dallas after last season. Boston lost for the fourth time in five games after a four-game winning streak.

SABRES 5, SHARKS 4 Cory Hodgson scored in the fourth round of the shootout and Ryan Miller made 47 saves for Buffalo, which overcame a pair of blown third-period leads and beat San Jose for its third win in 17 games this season. Henrik Tallinder, Cody McCormick, Drew Stafford and Tyler Ennis also scored for the Sabres, who have defeated the Sharks five straight times.

Tyler Kennedy and Tomas Hertl scored 70 seconds apart early in the third to erase a two-goal deficit for the Sharks.

Tommy Wingels got another equalizer late in the third, but San Jose still lost its third straight game. Marty Havlat also scored and Antti Niemi made 32 saves.

Matt Moulson and Logan Couture each scored in the first round of the shootout, and then Miller stopped three straight shots before Hodgson beat Niemi for the winner.

SENATORS 4, BLUE JACKETS 1 Erik Karlsson scored two goals, and backup goalie Robin Lehner made 32 saves as Ottawa topped Columbus and snapped a five-game losing streak. Clarke MacArthur and Chris Neil also scored, and Jason Spezza had two assists.

Lehner earned his first win of the season while filling in for Craig Anderson, who was sidelined with a sore neck after a collision with Dallas rookie Valeri Nichushkin on Sunday. RJ Umberger scored a power-play goal from his knees for Columbus, which lost its fourth in a row. The Senators are 4-32 on the road but just 1-3-2 at home.

OILERS 4, PANTHERS 3 Mark Arcobello scored his second goal of the game and season 1:55 into overtime, and Edmonton snapped a fivegame losing streak with a victory over Florida.

Edmonton went on the power play after Scottie Upshall

WASHINGTON: Washington Capitals right wing Alex Ovechkin (8), of Russia, goes for the puck against New York Islanders defenseman Thomas Hickey (14) during the third period an NHL hockey game. — AP the season while starting his fifth straight game since replacing the injured Cam Ward on Oct. 24.

Scott Hartnell had given Philadelphia a 1-0 lead with 3:58 left in regulation, but Jared Staal tied it with 52.3 seconds remaining to force overtime. The Flyers, who have lost three of four, have scored more than two goals only once this season in 14 games.

WILD 5, FLAMES 1 Zach Parise scored twice and Josh Harding made 24 saves in winning his fifth straight start as Minnesota routed Calgary.

Harding leads the NHL with a 1.10 goals-against average and .950 save percentage. Parise put the Wild ahead 2-1 with a power-play goal at 6:28 of the second period. Mikko Koivu, Justin Fontaine and Zenon Konopka also scored for Minnesota. Jiri Hudler scored his sixth goal of the season for

from the blue line off the post and Price.

Tomas Plekanec was awarded a penalty shot in the final minute of the third period, but missed the net high and wide.

COYOTES 3, CANUCKS 2 Antoine Vermette scored the deciding goal in the shootout for the second straight game, and Phoenix topped Vancouver for its fifth straight win.

Vermette, who gave the Coyotes a victory at San Jose on Saturday, trickled the puck just past the line in the sixth round of this tiebreaker. Henrik Sedin lost control of the puck on his chance after Vermette’s goal, and the Coyotes skated off with their third consecutive shootout win.

Radim Vrbata and Shane Doan scored in regulation for the Coyotes, 7-0-1 at home. Dan Hamhuis and Ryan Kesler had goals for Vancouver. — AP

Motorsport superstars to judge Red Bull Car Park Drift Regional Finals DUBAI: A team of international motorsport superstars are set to judge the forthcoming Red Bull Car Park Drift Regional Finals, in a high-octane event that will pit 17 finalists from 10 countries against each other. The regional finals will take place on November 8 at the Dubai World Trade Centre as a main event of the newly announced Dubai Motor Festival, held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai.

Drift legends Meang-Keun Lee (Korea) and Alexandr Grinchuk “Grinya” (Ukraine) will be joined by HRH Prince Abdulaziz Turki AlFaisal to judge the action filled event while Rallying legend Abdo Feghali AKA “Dado”, will assume the role of race director, after having broken the record for the world’s longest drift in Abu Dhabi earlier this year.

The event has been one of the most anticipated events in the Middle East’s busy motorsport calendar, bringing smoking tires, flames, and spectacular sideways’ rides around a

Red Bull Car Park Drift in UAE.

difficult, technical course.

Judge Meang-Keun Lee, from MKRC, has been at the forefront of the “Hankook DDGT Champioship”, which has strong roots in Korean motor sports, and has paved the way for the specialization and popularization of the sport in

The two international drifting stars will be joined by regional motorsports hero HRH Prince Abdulaziz Turki AlFaisal who has two Porsche GT3 Championship titles under his belt. With an impressive record in the region, in 2011, Prince Abdulaziz proved that he could succeed out-

Regional drifters rev up their engines to fight for the “King of Drift” title Korea. Lee participated in drag racing and became a Korean record holder, acquiring nicknames like “midnight knight of drag” and “Full Speed Bullet”.”

The second judge is Ukranian drifter Alexandr Grinchuk, twice champion of Ukraine, and one of the most successful drivers in the history of Ukrainian drifting.

side the Middle East, winning the first race at FIA GT3 in Portugal. During 2010-2011, he took part in the Middle East Porsche Cup Championship and finished in second place, only two points behind the winner. He also tested to qualify for Le Mans 24 Hours endurance, coming in second place. In 2012 he competed in the Dunlop 24-hour race in Dubai, fin-

Nasser Al Mutairi drifting.

ishing fourth and also took part in the FIA GT3 World Championship.

This year’s competition introduces a new set of judging criteria. A total of 40% of the marks will be awarded for overall drifting skills; 20% for the optimal clipping point; 10% for speeds clocked at the Speed Trap; and an additional 10% each for the appearance of the car, the crowd’s reaction, smoke generated from the drift and the engine.

The spectacular techniques will leave the crowd at the edge of their seats, while the drifters gear up to bring out their best skills and inner motion detectors, but only one will be crowned the ‘King of Drift’. The participants will demonstrate their skills in the technical areas of going sideways, braking and steering. Roaring engines and billowing tire smoke will be the name of the game in this action-packed drifting extravaganza. Tickets start at AED55 for general or AED200 for grandstand and are available at www.virginmegastore.me and at the door.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

S P ORTS

Heat beat Raptors as Pacers stop Pistons TORONTO: LeBron James scored a seasonhigh 35 points, Dwyane Wade had 20 and the Miami Heat beat the Toronto Raptors 104-95 on Tuesday for their first road victory in three tries this season.

Ray Allen scored 14 points for Miami, which lost at Philadelphia on Oct. 30 and was beaten 101-100 at Brooklyn on Nov. 1.

James also had a season-high eight rebounds and eight assists as Miami topped 100 points for the fifth straight game, extending their team-record run to begin the season. With a putback dunk at 2:31 of the first quarter, James became the fifth player in NBA history to score 10 points or more in 500 consecutive games.

A four-time MVP, James joined Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (with streaks of 787 and 508 games), Michael Jordan (866), Karl Malone (575) and Moses Malone (526) as the only players to accomplish the feat.

PACERS 99, PISTONS 91 Paul George scored 31 points, and the Pacers remained the NBA’s only unbeaten team with a victory over the Pistons.

The Pacers have matched their best start in franchise history. They are 4-0 for the first time since the 2004-05 season. Indiana blew a 15-point lead in the first half but took control again with a strong third quarter. CJ Watson added 15 points and David West had 12 for the Pacers. Brandon Jennings scored 17 points for the Pistons, who were done in by their 5-for-25 shooting from 3-point range.

MAVERICKS 123, LAKERS 104 Monta Ellis had 30 points and nine assists, Dirk Nowitzki was one of seven Dallas players in double figures with 11 points and the Mavericks beat the Lakers.

Ellis, Nowitzki’s new pick-and-roll partner, put on a show for Steve Nash, the big German’s buddy and old running mate. He was 11 of 14 from the field, made all eight of his free throws and had just one turnover.

Nash was scoreless until the second half and finished with five points. Nick Young led the Lakers with 21.

BOBCATS 102, KNICKS 97 Kemba Walker scored 25 points, Gerald Henderson added 18 and the Bobcats held off a late run by New York to beat the Knicks.

Charlotte led by 13 in the third quarter before New York cut it to two points late in the game. Henderson hit two free throws with 13 seconds left and Walker one seven seconds later to seal the victory. Carmelo Anthony scored 32 points to lead the Knicks, but was 10 for 28 from the field.. His back-toback baskets late in the fourth quarter twice brought the Knicks within two, but every attempt that the Knicks had to take the lead failed. New York lost starting center Tyson Chandler midway through the first quarter with a right knee injury.

NETS 104, JAZZ 88 Brook Lopez scored a game-high 27 points, Deron Williams had 10 points and eight assists and the Nets ended their fourgame losing streak to the Jazz.

There were several firsts for Brooklyn, who beat the Jazz for the first time since January 2011. Williams got his first victory over the team that traded him to the Nets in February 2011, and it was first-year coach Jason Kidd’s first regular-season game on their home court. He missed the home-opening win over

Photo of the day

Miami because of a two-game suspension.

Joe Johnson had 12 points for the Nets, and Paul Pierce and Shaun Livingston each had 11. Gordon Hayward led Utah with 22 points. The Jazz have lost four straight to start the season. They had lost their first three games by an average of 3.6 points.

SUNS 104, PELICANS 98 Eric Bledsoe had 25 points, Gerald Green tied a career high with six 3-pointers and the Suns rallied to beat the Pelicans.

Trailing 60-50, the Suns scored 28 points in the last 6:23 of the third quarter to go ahead 78-69 and led the rest of the way.

The Pelicans cut the deficit to 87-85 in the fourth, but Bledsoe finished them off with three driving layups. Green scored 18, Markieff Morris had 17 points and twin brother Marcus Morris added 16 points for the Suns.

Eric Gordon led New Orleans with 20 points but had only six in the second half.

Anthony Davis had a quiet first half before finishing with 17 points and 11 rebounds.

ROCKETS 116, TRAIL BLAZERS 101 James Harden scored 33 points, Dwight Howard added 29 points and 13 rebounds, and the Rockets beat the Trail Blazers 116-101 on Tuesday night.

Jeremy Lin and Patrick Beverley each added 12 points for the Rockets (4-1). Damian Lillard scored 22 points and LaMarcus Aldridge added 21 to lead the Blazers, who fell after winning two in a row. Wesley Matthews added 19 points.

Playing for the fourth time in five nights, the Rockets bounced back from getting clobbered by the L.A. Clippers 137-118 Monday night in Howard’s first trip back to the Staples Center since leaving the L.A. Lakers during the summer.

SPURS 102, NUGGETS 94 Tony Parker scored 24 points, Tim Duncan had 17 and the Spurs pulled away in the fourth quarter to beat the Nuggets.

Kawhi Leonard added 14 points and Tiago Splitter 12 for the Spurs, who beat the Nuggets for the fifth time in the last eight meetings at the Pepsi Center.

Ty Lawson had 20 points to lead Denver, which is still seeking its first win of the season under first year coach Brian Shaw.

Kenneth Faried scored 15 points and had eight rebounds in his return to the starting lineup after coming off the bench in Denver’s first two games while dealing with a sore hamstring.

HAWKS 105, KINGS 100 Al Horford had 27 points and 10 rebounds, Paul Millsap had 25 points and 11 rebounds and the Hawks held off the Kings.

The Hawks (2-2) led by 17 points going into the fourth quarter but but the Kings cut it to three points with 32 seconds left. Isaiah Thomas had a chance to tie it with 3 second left but missed a 3-pointer and the Hawks beat the Kings for the 11th straight time, including six straight in Sacramento.

Jeff Teague had 18 points and 10 rebounds for Atlanta, while both Kyle Korver and Cartier Martin had nine apiece.

Thomas had 18 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter for the Kings (1-3), who have dropped three straight. Marcus Thornton and Ben McLemore had 15 points and John Salmons added 13. —AP

A Competitor performs at the WISBI Challenge Final 2013 in Spielberg, Austria.— www.redbull.com

Djokovic douses Federer’s fire LONDON: Roger Federer showed flashes of his best but Novak Djokovic exposed the Swiss maestro’s fading powers with a three-set victory at the ATP World Tour Finals on Tuesday.

World number two Djokovic, at 26 six years Federer’s junior, briefly looked in trouble midway through an absorbing Group B opener but eventually surged to a 6-4 6-7(2) 6-2 win in front of another sell-out crowd at the O2 Arena.

Djokovic’s win, his 18th in a row since losing to Rafa Nadal in the U.S. Open final, was his second in four days over Federer and kept alive his slender hopes of toppling the Spaniard from the top of the world rankings.

In the day’s Group A match, Nadal crushed compatriot David Ferrer 6-3 6-2 and will seal the year-end No. 1 ranking for the third time in his stellar career if he beats Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka yesterday.

Three days after losing to Ferrer in the Paris Masters semi-finals, Nadal resumed his customary dominance over his compatriot with a victory that will not live long in the memory.

“I played with a little bit more calm than the other day,” Nadal, who is trying to win the only major prize to elude him, told reporters after his first match at the venue since 2011 after he missed last year through injury.

“Last year was a big miss for me. Even if I was not able to play my best a lot of times here, I really have great feelings every time I have the chance to play in this stadium.”

Nadal was gifted half the points he won in unforced errors by the unusually profligate Ferrer, who admitted it had been a “bad day”.

Djokovic, on the other hand, was made to work hard against old adversary Federer.

With the pre-match music blasting around the steep stands and the players emerging on to a darkened court accompanied by smoke and lights the stage seemed set for some fireworks on the day Britain marks Guy Fawkes night.

However, the 31st clash between the two never quite reached a crescendo as Federer showed he is struggling to maintain the intensity needed to get the better of the top guns in world tennis.

With the majority of the 17,000 crowd, many

LONDON: Serbiaís Novak Djokovic returns against Switzerland’s Roger Federer in their Group B singles match in the round robin stage on the second day of the ATP World Tour Finals tennis tournament. —AFP dressed in Swiss red and wearing Federer-branded clothing, roaring on the 32-year-old he battled back from the disappointment of dropping serve in the 10th game to lose the first, levelling the match with a sublime tiebreak which he won 7-2. After spluttering into life, however, Federer lost his spark in the deciding set as Djokovic repeated his victory over the Swiss in Paris at the weekend.

“It’s slow here and it’s the first match, so there’s going to be errors,” Federer, who had not lost his opening match at the Tour Finals since 2008, told reporters. “There’s a lot of neutralizing going on. You have to take a lot of chances to get the ball past Novak, like I mentioned.

Eventually that draws errors out of you.”

Defending champion Djokovic, who was in action in Paris until Sunday and had precious little time to adapt to the conditions in London, looked weary at the end of the second set but

struck back immediately at the start of the decider.

Federer’s resistance melted away after he had been broken to love in the first game of the decider and there was no way back when he surrendered serve again to trail 4-1.

Federer, who has won a record six titles at the year-ender, remained hopeful of beating Richard Gasquet on Thursday to keep alive his hopes of ending a disappointing year on a high.

Djokovic will face Juan Martin del Potro on Thursday and said he was relieved to survive a tough opener. “It was probably the toughest start I could get for this tournament, especially considering the scheduling that I had, playing two days ago in Paris finals,” he said.

“I didn’t know how I would respond physically. It took some adjustment, but I’m happy with the way I played. I’m just happy that I overcome this challenge.” —Reuters

Le Clos, Hosszu tighten grasp on World Cup

PORTLAND: James Harden No. 13 of the Houston Rockets drives against LaMarcus Aldridge No. 12 of the Portland Trail Blazers at the Moda Center. —AFP

Miami 104, Toronto 95; Brooklyn 104, Utah 88; Indiana 99, Detroit 91; Charlotte 102, NY Knicks 97; Phoenix 104, New Orleans 98; Dallas 123, LA Lakers 104; San Antonio 102, Denver 94; Houston 116, Portland 101; Atlanta 105, Sacramento 100.

GB 1 1 2 3 2 2 2.5 2.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 2

Western Conference Northwest Division Minnesota 3 1 .750 Oklahoma City 2 1 .667 Portland 2 2 .500 Denver 0 3 0 Utah 0 4 0 Pacific Division LA Clippers 3 1 .750 Phoenix 3 1 .750 Golden State 3 1 .750 LA Lakers 2 3 .400 Sacramento 1 3 .250 Southwest Division Houston 4 1 .800 San Antonio 3 1 .750 Dallas 3 1 .750 Memphis 2 2 .500 New Orleans 1 3 .250

final evening.

But Hosszu admitted the tough schedule got the better of her as she finished last in her final event, the 50m butterfly, at Singapore Sports School.

“I already swam four times and it was really close but I still like to get up and race and try my best,” said Hosszu, who is building up to the European short-course championships next month.

“It definitely gives me good experience of how it feels when I’m really tired.” Both swimmers enjoy a big lead in the points table, with little realistic chance they will be caught in the eight-stop series’ final two legs in Tokyo and Beijing.

South Africa’s Myles Brown opened proceedings with a masterful win in the men’s 1500m, going neckand-neck with Gergely Gyurta before surging at the close to win by two seconds.

Jamaica’s Alia Atkinson was just 14 hundredths off the world record in

SINGAPORE: Chad Le Clos of South Africa swims in the men’s 100m butterfly during the FINA Swimming World Cup short-course swim.

Chad won the gold medal. —AFP the women’s 50m breaststroke, while Australia’s Cate Campbell was also a fast winner in the 100m freestyle.

Le Clos looked way off the pace in the men’s 200m freestyle as Australia’s Thomas Fraser-Holmes took a big lead from halfway.

But the South African star

stormed home in a thrilling finish to snatch gold by just 18-hundredths of a second. It was a similar story in the 100m butterfly as the reigning longcourse world champion came from fourth position at 50 metres to win it by five-hundredths from Poland’s Konrad Czerniak.—AFP

Kuwaiti Squash Federation honors ‘Gulf Insurance’

NBA results/standings

Eastern Conference Atlantic Division W L PCT Philadelphia 3 1 .750 Toronto 2 2 .500 Brooklyn 2 2 .500 NY Knicks 1 3 .250 Boston 0 4 0 Central Division Indiana 4 0 1.000 Detroit 2 2 .500 Cleveland 2 2 .500 Milwaukee 1 2 .333 Chicago 1 2 .333 Southeast Division Miami 3 2 .600 Orlando 2 2 .500 Atlanta 2 2 .500 Charlotte 2 2 .500 Washington 0 3 0

SINGAPORE: Chad Le Clos and Katinka Hosszu both completed a stunning haul of five gold medals at the Singapore World Cup yesterday to take a virtually unassailable lead in the series standings.

Le Clos, who set a new shortcourse 200m butterfly world record on day one, added the 200m freestyle, 100m butterfly and 200m individual medley titles-winning every race he entered.

“Last night was a very good night for me, probably the best night I’ve had in short-course, and tonight was just about racing good competitors to see where I’m at,” said the South African, 21.

“The butterfly and freestyle were very, very close. I’m just really happy with tonight. Two years ago I got six gold medals, so I’ll take 11 from 11!”

Hungary’s Hosszu finished her gruelling two-day programme of 11 races with five victories after winning the 400m and 100m individual medleys and the 100m backstroke on the

0.5 1 2.5 3 1.5 2 0.5 0.5 1.5 2.5

KUWAIT: The Kuwaiti Squash Federation recently honored “Gulf Insurance”, the leading insurance service provider in Kuwait and Middle East, for its support towards organizing the “Gulf Insurance International Challenger Tournament”, which took place from November 1-5. The Federation recognized “Gulf Insurance’s” role in organizing the successful mega sports event. The company’s team’s efforts in planning, implementing following up as well as concluding the overall tournament has been a key driver in its recognition.

Kuwaiti classified athlete, Abdulla Almuzayen (Rank 40) won the first place after defeating Scotland’s Greg Lobban, who came in second place. Such accomplishments reflect “Gulf Insurances” overall objectives in supporting participating teams as well as catering for sports and youth related activities.

Moreover, the Federation expressed its gratitude to “Gulf Insurance” for its continuous efforts to supporting athletic activities across Kuwait, while also highlighting the importance of developing local talents in different sports. Such initiatives represent a continuation of the company’s prominent role in various social responsibility initiatives.

“Gulf Insurance” Company organized the First International Squash Tournament in collaboration with the Kuwaiti Squash Federation and the Professional Squash Association. The tournament’s activities took place in the playgrounds of the Kuwaiti Squash Federation with the participation of 40 players from Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, India, The Kuwaiti Squash Federation giving the award to Gulf Insurance.

USA, Scotland and Nigeria.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

S P ORTS

SA down Pakistan to take series lead

DHAKA: Bangladesh cricketers pose for a photograph with the One -Day International (ODI) trophy following their victory in the three-match ODI series at an award ceremony at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium yesterday. —AFP

NZ end Bangladesh tour with Twenty20 victory DHAKA: Colin Munro and Anton Devcich hit half-centuries and Tim Southee grabbed three wickets as New Zealand ended their Bangladesh tour with a 15-run victory in the Twenty20 match in Dhaka yesterday.

Munro remained unbeaten on 73 off 39 balls after debutant Devcich had smashed 59 off 31 balls to lift the Black Caps to 2045, their second-highest total in Twenty20 cricket behind the 214-6 against Australia in 2010. The tourists, beaten in all three one-day internationals after a drawn twoTest series, restricted Bangladesh to 189-9 in front of some 35,000 disappointed home fans at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.

Set a target of more than 10 runs an over, Bangladesh made a shaky start when they lost three wickets in the first two overs for 19 runs.

Southee, who finished with three for 38, dismissed both openers Shamsur Rahman and Ziaur Rahman in the first over before Mitchell McClenaghan removed Mominul Haque in the second.

Skipper Mushfiqur Rahim and Nasir Hossain retrieved the situation, but their dismissals in successive overs sent Bangladesh reeling.

Mushfiqur fell to Corey Anderson after making 50 off 29 balls, his maiden Twenty20 half-century, which contained seven fours and a six. Nathan McCullum

took a brilliant return catch in the next over to dismiss Nasir for 28 off 20 balls.

Munro, a 26-year old left-hander, hit three fours and five sixes for the Black Caps, as he built on the 10 boundaries and a six hit by Devcich.

“I think in the first innings we batted very well,” said Kyle Mills, who led the tourists in the absence of the injured Brendon McCullum.

“Our opening with Devcich really took the game by the scruff of the neck, and then Ross Taylor (28) and Munro crafted beautiful innings.

“If you put a decent total on the board like 200, you’re reasonably confident at the half-way mark.” Bangladesh were left to rue shoddy catching after debutant Al-Amin Hossain dropped Devcich, who was then on six, in Mashrafe Mortaza’s first over.

“We lost the match because we could not bowl according to our plans, especially in the powerplay overs,” said Mushfiqur.

“We gave 20 extra runs and that cost us the game. If we could have restricted them to 180-185 runs it could have been a different ball game.” Al-Amin made amends by grabbing two wickets in the final over to finish with 2-31 in his four overs.

New Zealand now travel to Sri Lanka for three one-dayers and two Twenty20 internationals starting on November 10. —AFP

SCOREBOARD DHAKA: Scoreboard of the Twenty20 international between Bangladesh and New Zealand at the Shere-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka yesterday: New Zealand: A. Devcich c Shamsur b Razzak 59 H. Rutherford c Nasir b Sohag 17 R. Taylor c Naeem b Ziaur 28 C. Munro not out 73 C. Anderson b Al-Amin 18 L. Ronchi c & b Al-Amin 0 N. McCullum not out 0 Extras (lb2 w7) 9 Total (five wickets, 20 overs) 204 Fall of wickets: 1-73 (Rutherford), 2-83 (Devcich) 3-176 (Taylor) 4-200 (Anderson), 5-200 (Ronchi) Bowling: Mashrafe 4-0-46-0 (w1), Sohag 3-0-30-1 (w1), Al-Amin 4-0-31-2 (w1), Nasir 1-0-16-0, Mahmudullah 4-0-34-0(w2), Razzak 2-0-19-1, Ziaur 2-0-26-1(w2) Bangladesh: Shamsur c McClenaghan b Southee Ziaur Rahman b Southee

4 6

Mominul Haque c Mills b McClenaghan 9 Mushfiqur Rahim c Taylor b Anderson 50 Naeem Islam c Southee b Mills 18 Nasir Hossain c & b McCullum 28 Mahmudullah c Taylor b Anderson 34 Sohag Gazi run out 24 Mashrafe Mortaza not out 7 Abdur Razzak b Southee 0 Al-Amin Hossain not out 5 Extras (lb3, w1) 4 Total (nine wickets; 20 overs) 189 Fall of wickets: 1-4 (Shamsur) 2-11 (Ziaur) 3-19 (Mominul) 4-62 (Naeem) 5-116 (Mushfiqur) 6-120 (Nasir), 7-177 (Sohag), 8-177 (Mahmudullah) 9183(Razzak).

Bowling: Southee 4-0-38-3 (w1), McClenaghan 30-45-1, Mills 4-0-32-1, McCullum 2-0-18-1, Devcich 3-0-32-0, Anderson 4-0-21-2.

New Zealand won by 15 runs

Cook, Carberry in huge unbeaten opening stand HOBART: Skipper Alastair Cook and Michael Carberry put England in a commanding position with unbeaten centuries on the opening day of their tour match against Australia A yesterday.

At the close, England had batted all day and were 318 without loss after winning the toss, with Cook unbeaten on 154 and Carberry, preferred as opener to Joe Root, on 153. It is already the highest opening partnership at Hobart’s Bellerive ground, and not since Graham Thorpe and Mark Ramprakash put on 377 against South Australia on the 1998/1999 tour have an England pair batted together for an entire day. A dominant Cook conjured memories of his last triumphant Ashes tour of Australia three years ago with another big innings off 272 balls.

Carberry all but played his way into the Test team for the Ashes series opener against Australia in Brisbane on November 21 with his patient 288-ball innings, which included 22 boundaries and two sixes. The 33-year-old Hampshire left-hander was given his chance to open with Cook after Root was bumped down to number five in the batting order for the Hobart game.

Carberry followed up his 78 in last weekend’s drawn opening tour game against the WA Chairman’s XI in Perth with another impressive audition for a Test spot.

He made his only Test appearance against Bangladesh in Chittagong in 2010, where he put on 72 and 65 batting with Cook at the top of the order.

Root appears to have paid the price for England’s brittleness in the top order during the July-August Ashes series, when the home side failed to pass 400 in any of their innings.

On six occasions, England were three down for less than 65 runs and, aside from a big 180 at Lord’s, Root struggled against Australian quicks Ryan Harris and Peter Siddle, who are likely to again have the new ball in Brisbane.

Australian leg-spin great Shane Warne said on Monday that Root would be “crucified” if he was picked to open in the Tests, and he is likely to find a place lower in the

order as he averages 40 with two centuries from just 11 matches.

Cook, also criticised by Warne as a negative and unimaginative captain, showed glimpses of his best form in the 2010-11 Ashes in Australia, when he scored an unbeaten 235 and two other centuries.

England had an easy time against the thin Australia A bowling attack under sunny skies with just two recognised seamers in Trent Copeland and Ben Cutting, along with allrounder and captain Moises Henriques. It was a deliberate tactic by Australia not to pick bowlers in Ashes contention for the Hobart match, however the plan might have backfired, with England’s openers given an armchair ride into the coming Test series.

“Yeah possibly (a bowler short). We only had the five bowling options and with Moises being back from a long trip to India ... he didn’t bowl as much as he would have liked to,” Australia A wicketkeeper Tim Paine said.

“We didn’t use the new ball as we could have ... we were a fraction short.” Cook, batsman Kevin Pietersen, spinner Graeme Swann and paceman Stuart Broad were selected for their first outings on tour after all missed the Perth match.

Gary Ballance was included again after his first-ball duck in Perth as he bids to win the number six batting spot in the opening Ashes Test. —AFP

SCOREBOARD HOBART, Australia: Scoreboard at close of play on the opening day of the four-day tour match between Australia A and England at Hobart’s Bellerive Oval yesterday: England 1st innings Alastair Cook not out 154 Michael Carberry not out 153 Extras (b4, lb4, w1, nb2) 11 Total (0 wkt; 93 overs) 318 Bowling: Cutting 21-4-56-0, Copeland 25-7-680 (1nb), Henriques 9-2-34-0 (1nb, 1w), Holland 12-0-66-0, Maxwell 24-3-80-0, Khawaja 2-0-6-0.

ABU DHABI: Leg-spinner Imran Tahir took four wickets while JeanPaul Duminy and Faf du Plessis scored half-centuries to help South Africa beat Pakistan by 68 runs in the third day-night international in Dubai yesterday.

Tahir wrecked Pakistan’s middle order with figures of 4-53 to bowl them out for 191 in 44.3 overs after they were set a challenging 260-run target at Sheikh Zayed Stadium.

The emphatic win gives South Africa a 2-1 lead in the five-match series. Both teams will meet again at the same venue on Friday before the series is rounded off in Sharjah on Monday.

South Africa won the first match in Sharjah by one run while Pakistan won the second match in Dubai by 66 runs. Tahir, who conceded 18 in his first two overs, returned for a second spell, triggering a batting collapse which saw Pakistan lose five wickets for 30 runs.

Tahir trapped Misbah-ul Haq (19), caught and bowled Umar Akmal (seven) and Asad Shafiq (11) caught at cover to leave Pakistan struggling at 116-7.

Wahab Riaz, who top-scored with 33, added 61 for the eighth wicket with Sohail Tanvie (31) but it only delayed the inevitable.

Pakistan had raced to 50 by eighth over as Ahmed Shehzad, who hit half-centuries in the first two games, hit three boundaries off Lonwabo Tsotsobe in the fourth over and then added two more off Morne Morkel in the next.

But spearhead Dale Steyn, who missed the first two matches to rest at home, struck in his second over, removing Shehzad caught in the slip with a sharp outgoing delivery.

Two runs later, Mohammad Hafeez played Morkel (2-35) straight into the hands of point after making 15.

Misbah and Umar Amin (13) attacked Tahir with four boundaries in his first two overs but the legspinner had the last laugh, taking three wickets in the space of 31 runs.

It was Jean-Paul Duminy (64) and Faf du Plessis (55) who anchored the South African total after they won the toss and batted.

Duminy hit three boundaraies off 89 balls and gave the innings the much needed impetus with a 66-run fifth wicket stand with David Miller (34), adding 65 in the last ten overs.

Du Plessis had steadied the innings during his 60-ball knock,

ABU DHABI: South African captain AB de Villiers plays a shot during the third day-night international in Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium. —AFP adding 77 for the second wicket with Quinton de Kock who made 40 from 57 balls. Hashim Amla was dismissed for ten in the fifth over.

South Africa were forced to make three changes from the side which lost the second match by 66 runs in Dubai, bringing in Amla, Steyn and De Kock.

Graeme Smith-ruled out of the

series due to post-concussion after being hit on the head by a bouncer in the second Test in Dubai-Colin Ingram and Wayne Parnell were left out.

Leg-spinner Shahid Afridi (2-40) derailed the innings by dismissing De Kock and Du Plessis in quick succession, both stumped.

Du Plessis hit eight boundaries

while De Kock crossed the boundar y five times.

Paceman Mohammad Irfan finished with 345 in his 10 overs. When South Africa looked set for a big total with Duminy and Miller at the crease, off-spinner Saeed Ajmal (2-38) dismissed Miller before Tanvir had Duminy caught at mid-wicket off a misjudged pull. —AFP

SCOREBOARD ABU DHABI: Scoreboard of the third day-night international between Pakistan and South Africa at Sheikh Zayed Stadium yesterday.

South Africa: Hashim Amla b Irfan 10 Q. de Kock st Umar b Afridi 40 F. du Plessis st Umar b Afridi 55 JP. Duminy c Misbah b Tanvir 64 AB de Villiers c Hafeez b Ajmal 34 D. Miller b Ajmal 34 R. McLaren lbw b Irfan 13 D. Steyn c Shehzad b Irfan 2 M. Morkel not out 0 L. Tsotsobe not out 0 Extras: (b1, lb2, w 4) 7 Total: (eight wicket; 50 overs) 259 Fall of wickets 1-20 (Amla), 2-97 (De Kock), 3-112 (Du Plessis), 4-182 (de Villiers), 5-243 (Miller), 6-245 (Duminy), 7-248 (Steyn), 8-258 (McLaren) Bowling: Irfan 10-0-46-3 (1w), Tanvir 8-0-47-1 (1w), Hafeez 6-0-45-0, Ajmal 10-1-38-2, Riaz 6-0-40-0 (1w), Afridi 10-0-40-2 (1w)

Pakistan: Mohammad Hafeez c du Plessis b Morkel 15 Ahmed Shehzad c Amla b Steyn 32 Umar Amin c de Kock b Tsotsobe 13 Misbah-ul-Haq lbw b Tahir 19 Asad Shafiq c du Plessis b Tahir 11 Umar Akmal c and b Tahir 7 Shahid Afridi lbw b McLaren 6 Sohail Tanvir c Amla b McLaren 31 Wahab Riaz c de Kock b Morkel 33 Saeed Ajmal lbw b Tahir 1 Mohammad Irfan not out 4 Extras (b 5, lb 2, w 12) 19 Total (all out; 44.3 overs) 191 Fall of wickets 1-50 (Shehzad), 2-52 (Hafeez), 3-86 (Amin), 489 (Misbah), 5-106 (Umar), 6-114 (Shafiq), 7-116 (Afridi), 8177 (Riaz), 9-182 (Ajmal) Bowling: Morkel 9-1-35-2 (2w), Tsotsobe 10-2-34-1 (1w), Steyn 8-0-31-1 (1w), Tahir 10-1-534 (6w), McLaren 7.3-0-31-2 (2w).

Result: South Africa won by 68 runs

Riess wins WSOP title, $8.4 million LAS VEGAS: A 23-year-old poker pro from Michigan won the World Series of Poker main event late Tuesday, claiming the $8.4 million title after pushing past his last opponent in a brief, dramatic match.

Ryan Riess started out behind on Tuesday, but used cleverly varied play to seize and maintain a lead amid the unpredictability of no-limit Texas Hold ‘em.

On the last hand, 29-year-old Las Vegas club promoter Jay Farber went all-in with a Queen-Five. Riess, dealt an Ace-King, rightly suspected his opponent wasn’t holding much and called instantly.

Riess backed into the stands to watch the cards turn, and won the championship with the arms of his girlfriend around his shoulders.

Moments later, he kissed the diamondencrusted championship bracelet he’s been chasing since he was 14 years old. After tearfully thanking his friends and family, he told reporters, “I just think I’m the best player in the world.”

Riess came out sparring as the night began at the 1,600-seat theater at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino off the Las Vegas Strip. Rubberbanded stacks of hundred dollar bills representing the grand prize sat on the table like a third player.

Farber started 19 million chips ahead with 105 million, but Riess soon brought the score virtually even. The tide turned definitively about two hours in, when Riess took a $58.5 million pot with pocket Jacks.

Riess then brought out a more aggressive style he hadn’t yet shown at the final table, forcing Farber to fight- too often with the weaker hand.

“I just decided to turn the pace up and drive him down,” Riess said. His fans, a collection of clean-cut men in white “Riess the beast” T-shirts, chanted and stomped each time the boyish player with a mop of strawberry blonde hair used his chip advantage to go after Farber.

Riess spent most of the night hunched over his chips, tracing small circles on the green felt and giving Farber occasional wan smiles.

Had the event been a trash-talking contest, Farber’s side would have won hands down.

His fans- stylish club kids with tight T-shirts and slick hair under fuzzy panda hats- taunted Riess about his gangly height, his need for a haircut, the poor fortunes of Detroit, and the performance of Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson, whose jersey Riess wore dur-

LAS VEGAS: Ryan Riess holds up two bricks of $100 bills after winning the World Series of Poker Final Table on Tuesday. Riess defeated runner-up Jay Farber for an $8.4 million payout —AP

ing both days of play. Riess’ side’s only retort was that pandas are delicious.

Both sides watched with fists pressed to light lips as Farber’s fortunes plummeted.

With just 14 million in chips to Riess’ 176 million, Farber made his stand with a Queen and five of spades. He went all-in before any community cards were revealed, only to run into Riess’ Ace and King of hearts when the younger player called.

It didn’t look promising, but Farber still had a chance - that is until the first three community cards came four-Jack-10. That meant a Queen would now make a straight for Riess, so only one of the three remaining fives in the deck could boost Farber. Neither the fourth nor the fifth community cards brought any help, and Riess was champion.

Riess said he knew Farber was bluffing because he repeated a gesture from earlier in the night, when Farber took a huge pot holding nothing but six-high.

“I was picking up on his body language and facial tells. When everybody was screaming then, he did the exact same thing,” Riess said.

Farber said the championship was a great experience, but he plans to keep his day job as a club promoter despite taking home $5.2 million, more than an average American

makes in a lifetime. The publicity will be good for business, he said.

An amateur with no bankroll, Farber sold stakes in his championship bid. His investors stand to win half a million dollars for every thousand they put in.

The tournament began in July with 6,352 entrants and was whittled to nine over seven days of play. Those finalists played for nine hours Monday night until only two remained.

Riess seemed like an underdog at times, despite his chip advantage, as ESPN commentators and Twitter pundits gushed about his opponent’s unconventional backstory and possible ability to usher in a new golden age of poker.

They began calling Farber the second coming of Chris Moneymaker, referring to the amateur who famously won poker’s richest tournament in 2004, catapulting the championship into the mainstream and convincing every computer nerd with a pair of mirrored sunglasses that he could take on the pros.

Riess is the sixth consecutive professional to win the title. But he also sees his victory as a win for the Moneymaker legacy.

“Ever since I saw Chris Moneymaker win this event in 2003, I knew it was something I wanted to experience too,” he said. “ I’m surprised it came so quickly.” —AP

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

S P ORT S

Hulk catches Porto napping to seize Zenit an equalizer ST. PETERSBURG: Hulk missed a penalty but scored the equaliser as Zenit St Petersburg secured a 1-1 home draw against Porto yesterday to stay favorites for the runners-up spot in Champions League Group G. The Brazilian dented his former club’s hopes as Zenit moved on to five points with two matches remaining, one above the Portuguese champions, who are third.

Porto captain Lucho Gonzalez opened the scoring with a fine header after 23 minutes before burly forward Hulk punished lax defending to level.

Helton saved a Hulk penalty in the second half, awarded for a Nicolas Otamendi handball.“The result leaves a bitter taste because of our good first half. We had come here to get a win,” UEFA man-of-the match Gonzalez told Portuguese television Sport TV. “But, mathematically, we still have a chance to go through.”

The visitors saw more of the ball early on and drew first blood as Zenit seemed happy to sit back and try to catch Porto on the break.

The 32-year-old Lucho, playing his ninth Champions League campaign, made his experience count, applying a textbook header from a pinpoint Danilo cross that bounced off the ground and into the bottom corner. The Portuguese champions were held to a disappointing draw by Belenenses in the championship over the weekend and have been criticised by their

fans for inconsistent performances and giving away soft goals. Those voices are certain to be heard again as they gifted Zenit the leveller with hesitant defending. Brazil’s Hulk caught two defenders and keeper Helton napping, pouncing on a seemingly harmless ball to score his second goal of the competition. But Porto coach Paulo Fonseca remained optimistic. “I think we were better than them over the two matches despite the defeat and the draw,” he said.

“We played a great first half, at times had 69 percent of possession and finished the game with 22 shots on goal.” Hulk, who spent four seasons at Porto, downplayed his celebrations out of respect for his former club but he wasted a penalty with a tame shot after 52 minutes.

“I scored an important goal but I did not celebrate because Porto and that whole city is in my heart. I could have taken that penalty better though,” Hulk said.

Zenit keeper Yuri Lodyg saved fierce shots from Porto for wards Jackson Martinez and Silvestre Varela and the Russians champions were wasteful.

Substitute Andrey Arshavin forced Helton go down to his feet to parry a closerange shot after a neat flowing move.

Hulk thought he had a strong case for another penalty but his appeals were waved away by the referee. “Arshavin came in strong and we had a few chances later on but this was a positive result in the end,” said Hulk. — Reuters

GERMANY: Dortmund’s midfielder Sven Bender (center) vies for the ball with Arsenal’s Spanish midfielder Mikel Arteta (left) and Arsenal’s English defender Kieran Gibbs (right) during the UEFA Champions League Group F football match. — AFP

Arsenal down Dortmund to avenge London defeat DORTMUND: Premier League leaders Arsenal avenged their Champions League home defeat to Borussia Dortmund a fortnight ago with a 1-0 victory in Germany yesterday.

Having lost 2-1 at London’s Emirates Stadium, the Gunners claimed revenge at Borussia’s Westfalenstadion as Welshman Aaron Ramsey headed the only goal of the game.

“It’s a difficult place to get a result, but the fans were magnificent,” said the goal-scorer Ramsey.

“They got behind us and we managed to get the win for them. “We were very good defensively and we were also very patient. “It was a great away performance and a great result.” Arsenal deserved the victory having taken their chance during a bright second-half spell, having absorbed huge amounts of first-half pressure from the hosts who had peppered the Gunners’ goal. Their victory means Arsenal remain top of Group F on goal difference, level on nine points with second-placed Napoli.

Last season’s Champions League finalists Dortmund, second in the Bundesliga, drop to third with six points ahead of their tricky remaining games at home to Napoli and away to Marseille. In the build-up, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger had targeted Robert Lewandowski-who has said he will leave at the end of the season when his contract expires-as Dortmund’s main threat but the Poland striker had a quiet night by his standards.

Towering centre-back Per Mertesacker was tasked with containing the Polish hot-shot and the German international rarely let Lewandowski out of his sight. Dortmund’s heavy metal-loving coach Jurgen Klopp had compared Wenger’s Arsenal as a finely-tuned “orchestra”, while the Frenchman had said the game promised to deliver a “great symphony” but it was the Gunners who ultimately had Dortmund dancing to their tune.

Dortmund’s attacking midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan squandered a clear first-half chance

when he fired wide with the goal at his mercy.

And Germany winger Marco Reus hit the back of the Arsenal net in the second half, but the goal was ruled offside. Arsenal’s Poland goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny had a frantic start to the first half as Dortmund turned up the pressure, but it was the Gunners who broke the deadlock.

Arsenal scored on their first purposeful attack when Ramsey headed home on 62 minutes.

Arsenal’s Germany midfielder Mesut Ozil swung in the ball on the right edge of the penalty area and France’s Olivier Giroud headed into Ramsey’s path for the in-form Arsenal midfielder to sneak in ahead of Dortmund’s Nuri Sahin to head home.

The goal energised Arsenal’s attack as Mertesacker headed over just moments later. Klopp threw on pacy winger Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for the final 15 minutes in a bid to force a crucial equaliser while Lewandowski had a clear penalty appeal turned down in the dying stages. —AFP

Sio salvages point for Basel ST. PETERSBURG: Porto’s Silvestre Varela (left) is challenged by Zenit’s Cristian Ansaldi during the Champions League Group G soccer match. — AP

Schone goal revives Ajax hopes AMSTERDAM: Lasse Schone scored at the end of a sweeping move early in the second half to earn Ajax Amsterdam a 1-0 win over Celtic in the Champions League yesterday and a first success for the Dutch club in Group H. The victory revived Ajax’s chances of progress from the group phase as they moved on to four points from as many matches, just one behind second-placed AC Milan.

Danish international Schone’s goal came at the end of a series of swift interchanges of short passes involving five different Ajax players as they picked open the Scottish club’s defence to break the deadlock in the 51st minute.

Defeat for Celtic left them bottom with three points and matches to come at home to Milan this month and away at leaders Barcelona in December.

The Glasgow club also wasted chances to at least share the spoils when they twice came close on the counter-attack in a match played at high tempo between two evenly-matched sides.

Beram Kayal shot wildly over at the end of a long surge upfield in the 50th minute that saw the home defenders backing off and being pulled wide by other players and a gap opening up for the Celtic midfielder who wasted his chance.

Seven minutes later James Forrest and Anthony Stokes were two up against a soli-

tary Ajax defender on a swift counter attack but Forrest fluffed his attempted pass to Stokes who would have needed just to place the ball into the net for the equaliser.

Ajax had an in-swinging corner cleared off the line by fullback Emilio Izaguirre.

Meanwhile, eight police officers needed hospital treatment and more than 15 soccer fans were arrested following violent clashes ahead of yesterday’s Champions’ League match between Scotland’s Celtic and Dutch club Ajax Amsterdam.

A spokesman for Amsterdam police said a large crowd of Celtic supporters turned on a group of plainclothes police officers in Dam Square, the city’s historic heart shortly before 1700 GMT. “The officers took quite a beating,” said spokesman Rob van der Veen. “One of the officers was unconscious, another had his nose broken.”

Earlier on Wednesday, the mayor of Amsterdam issued an emergency order allowing the police to remove people they judged to be a threat to public order.

Dutch media reported that fans attacked the police with thrown bottles and sticks. News portal nu.nl reported that fans of Belgian club Anderlecht and Germany’s St Pauli were also in the city.

Large numbers of Dinamo Zagreb fans are also in Amsterdam before Thursday’s Europa League match against Dutch club PSV Eindhoven. — Reuters

BASEL: Giovanni Sio scored a stoppage-time equaliser to give FC Basel a 1-1 draw at home to Steaua Bucharest after the Romanians had been cruising towards a comfor table Champions League win yesterday.

The Ivorian turned in Valentin Stocker’s cross to cancel out an early goal by Italian Federico Piovaccari, who has spent most of his career playing for Italian lower league clubs and is on loan from Sampdoria. The

draw left Basel, who began their campaign with a spectacular 2-1 win at Chelsea, with five points from four games in Group E. Steaua, who extended their winless run in the competition to 21 games, have two points. Steaua went ahead in the 17th minute when Lukasz Szukala sent a long pass over the Basel defence and Piovaccari broke clear to fire the ball into the roof of the net from close range.

Mohamed Salah had a couple of chances to equalise, though Steaua were closer to a second when a Florin Gardos close-range header was superbly saved by Yann Sommer.

Apart from those efforts, the Egyptian was largely kept quiet by a dogged Steaua defence. The 1986 champions appeared to have the points in the bag until Sio escaped the attention of the defence and stretched to meet Stocker’s cross. — Reuters

Atletico cruise into CL knockout stages MADRID: Atletico Madrid’s superb start to the season continued yesterday as an effortless 4-0 win over hapless Austria Vienna saw them qualify for the Champions League last 16 as winners of Group G. Atletico, who have won 11 of their 12 matches in La Liga this season and won all four of their Champions League group games, eased to victory with goals by Miranda, Raul Garcia, Filipe Luis and the prolific Diego Costa, who took his tally to 13 goals in 11 games.

Atletico’s appearance in the last 16 is their first since the 2008/09 season and their victory also registered a new club record for successive wins in Europe’s elite competition with four, beating the previous mark set by their predecessors in the 1958/59 campaign.

Atletico wasted little time in taking control of the game as Miranda scored in the 11th minute knocking the ball home from a few yards out after Garcia had failed to get proper contact on Koke’s corner.

Garcia missed another good chance a few minutes later but made no mistake in the 25th minute as he headed home after being set up by Costa, adding to the goal he scored against the same opposition a fortnight ago.

Costa went close himself a minute later but his dipping volley was well saved by the visitors ‘keeper Heinz Lindner, who had made several other good saves in the first half to keep the score relatively respectable. However, he was picking the ball out of his net for the third time on the stroke of half-time, saving an Adrian Lopez shot only for Filipe Luis to finish into an empty net.

MADRID: Atletico Madrid’s Uruguayan defender Diego Godin (left) vies with Austria Wien’s forward Philipp Hosiner during the UEFA Champions League football match. — AFP Garcia came close to doubling his tally for the evening 20 minutes into the second half, only to see his header saved by Lindner.

But Costa finally got on the scoresheet eight

minutes from time, finishing off Garca’s backheel into his path with real gusto, and many of the socalled bigger clubs will be hoping to avoid Diego Simeone’s side in the knockout stages. —AFP

Champions League tables Champions League standings after yesterday’s matches (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points): Group A Man United Leverkusen Shakhtar Sociedad

Anderlecht 4 4 4 4

Group B Real Madrid 4 Galatasaray 4 Copenhagen 4 Juventus 4 0 3 1 6

AMSTERDAM: Ajax’s Ricardo Van Rhijn (left) and Celtic’s Giorgos Samaras (right) vie for the ball during the Champions League Group H soccer match. — AP

Group C PSG Olympiakos Benfica

4 4 4

2 2 1 0

2 1 2 1

3 1 1 1 1 1 7 3 3 2 1

1 1 1

0 1 1 3 0 2 2

0 1 2

6 8 3 1

3 5 5 5

8 7 5 1

14 4 10 6 10 4 3 8 4

13 2 6 5 3 5

10 7 4

4

0

1

3

1

11 1

Group D Bayern 4 Man City 4 CSKA Moscow 4 Pilsen 4

4 3 1 0

0 0 0 0

0 1 3 4

12 11 6 2

1 6 12 12

12 - Q 9 -Q 3 0

Group E Chelsea Schalke Basel Steaua

4 04 4 4

3 4 1 0

0 2 2 2

1 0 1 2

11 2 4 2

2 4 4 9

9 6 5 2

Group F Arsenal

4

3

0

1

6

3

9

6

Napoli Dortmund Marseille

4 4 4

3 2 0

0 0 0

1 2 4

7 6 4

6 9 4 6 10 0

Group G Atletico Zenit Porto Vienna

4 4 4 4

4 1 1 0

0 2 1 1

0 1 2 3

12 3 3 0

2 4 4 8

12 - Q 5 4 1

1 2 1 0

0 1 2 3

9 5 3 2

2 5 7 5

10 - Q 5 4 3

Group H Barcelona 4 3 AC Milan 4 1 Ajax 4 1 Celtic 4 1 Q - qualified for Last 16

Le Clos, Hosszu tighten grasp on World Cup

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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

Riess wins WSOP title, $8.4 million

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Heat beat Raptors as Pacers stop Pistons

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SPAIN: Barcelona’s Argentinian forward Lionel Messi (center) vies with AC Milan’s Dutch midfielder Nigel de Jong (left) and AC Milan’s midfielder Andrea Poli (right) during the UEFA Champions league football match. — AFP

Messi sees Barcelona into last 16 BARCELONA: Barcelona sealed their place in the Champions League last 16 with two games to spare as Lionel Messi scored twice in their 3-1 win over AC Milan at the Camp Nou yesterday.

Messi ended his three-game run without a goal as he smashed home the opener from the penalty spot after Neymar had been felled by Ignazio Abate.

Sergio Busquets then headed home a second, but Milan were handed a lifeline just before half-time when Gerard Pique turned Kaka’s cross into his own net.

However, Messi made the game safe seven minutes from the end when he dinked the ball home from Cesc Fabregas’ pass. Defeat still leaves Milan in second place in Group H, a point ahead of Ajax and two clear of Celtic after the

Dutch champions beat the Scottish side 1-0 in the night’s other match.

“We knew the Messi thing was just a question of games because he is incomparable and in front of goal he is always in form. We hope he now doesn’t stop scoring,” Busquets told Canal Plus.

“We have achieved our objective. I think we played very well in the first-half, it was just a shame to concede the own goal. “We played quite a complete match, although we had a few problems in the second-half. Now we are in a good position.”

An eighth meeting between the sides in just the past three seasons meant there was a more subdued atmosphere than would normally be expected for a meeting between two of

Europe’s heavyweights. However, Barca boss Gerardo Martino showed how intent he was on sewing up qualification as he named his strongest available side with the fit-again Adriano restored at left-back.

Milan boss Massimiliano Allegri, meanwhile, sprang a surprise by leaving Mario Balotelli on the bench with the former Real Madrid duo of Robinho and Kaka starting instead in attack.

Both Brazilians were largely isolated in the first half though as Barcelona controlled proceedings. Xavi Hernandez pulled an early free-kick just wide before Neymar ought to have scored when played in by Messi, but he took a heavy touch and allowed Christian Abbiati to smother.

Milan’s defensive resistence was finally undone on the half-hour mark by a moment of

madness from Abate as he pulled back Neymar inside the area and Messi converted from the spot for his fifth Champions League goal of the campaign.

Riccardo Montolivo then had Milan’s first effort on goal 10 minutes before the break with an angled drive that flew just past.

Barca went on to double their advantage six minutes before half-time though when Xavi’s free-kick was easily headed home by the unmarked Busquets.

Adriano forced Abbiati into a finger-tip save moments later as Barca threatened to run riot, but incredibly Milan got back in the game with the last kick of the half when Pique turned Kaka’s cut-back into his own net.

Allegri then introduced Balotelli for the inef-

fective Robinho at the interval and the Italian international instantly brought a new dimension to the Milan attack with a fierce low drive that Victor Valdes did well to handle.

Milan came close again on 63 minutes as a wonderful run from Balotelli took him past two Barca defenders and his cross was swept just wide from Kaka.

Neymar so nearly then produced one of the goals of the season as he waltzed past four Milan players only to skew his shot just wide, and seconds later Abbiati produced an incredible low stop to turn Alexis Sanchez’s effort from point-blank range behind as Barca upped the pace. And Messi did finally seal the three points with a cool finish into the roof of the net after a wonderful one-two with Fabregas. — AFP

Chelsea close in on knockout phase LONDON: Chelsea shook an unexpected loss to Newcastle United out of their system by overcoming Schalke 3-0 yesterday to close on a place in the Champions League knockout phase.

The London club had seen a six-game winning run ended at St James’ Park on Saturday, but they got back on track by reasserting their control of Champions League Group E with their 100th victory in UEFA competition.

Schalke goalkeeper Timo Hildebrand gifted

Samuel Eto’o the opening goal with a dreadful error and the Chelsea striker claimed a second shortly after half-time before substitute Demba Ba added a late third.

It was a repeat of the scoreline from when the sides met in Gelsenkirchen two weeks ago and it left Jose Mourinho’s side three points clear of Schalke at the top of the group with two matches to come.

Chelsea can now qualify for the last 16 with a draw in their next match at Basel, whose 1-1

LONDON: Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic (left) vies for the ball with Schalke’s Christian Fuchs during the Champions League Group E soccer match. — AP

draw at home to Steaua Bucharest in the other group game took some of the sting out of defeat for Jens Keller’s Schalke.

Mourinho had threatened to make “11 changes” after the 2-0 loss at Newcastle; in the end he restricted himself to six, with Gary Cahill, Cesar Azpilicueta, John Mikel Obi, Willian, Andre Schurrle and Eto’o coming in.

Schalke’s squad has been ravaged by injury this season, but it was Chelsea who looked like a team of strangers in the opening stages as the Germans went close on three occasions.

Julian Draxler clipped a shot narrowly wide of the left-hand post from the edge of the box, with Adam Szalai and Christian Fuchs also threatening from distance.

Chelsea settled, however, and only a sinewstraining save from Hildebrand prevented Schurrle from breaking the deadlock with a venomous, dipping free-kick.

Sadly for the German goalkeeper, his next contribution would prove far more memorable, and for all the wrong reasons.

The 34-year-old inexplicably took an age lining up a long kick, allowing Eto’o to ghost in from wide on the Chelsea left and block the ball the moment it left his foot, sending it rolling into the net.

It was Eto’o’s first goal in the competition for Chelsea and he tested Hildebrand again before half-time with a volley that skidded off the turf.

There was an early warning for Chelsea in the second half, Petr Cech brilliantly palming a left-foot shot from Draxler around his righthand post, but in the 54th minute the hosts extended their lead. If Eto’o’s first goal was fortuitous, his second was superb, with Willian stealing past Fuchs and squaring the ball to the Cameroonian, who finished with aplomb.

Hildebrand did his best to shrug off the taunts from the Chelsea fans behind his goal by saving from Schurrle, but Ba had the final say with an adroit left-foot volley from fellow substitute Frank Lampard’s pass. Chelsea are now assured of a place in the Europa League, the competition they won last season after a group-phase exit in the Champions League, but the chances of them having to defend their title seem remote. —AFP

ITALY: Napoli’s midfielder Marek Hamsik of Slovakia kicks the ball in front of Marseille’s Cameroonian defender Nicolas Nkoulou (left) during an UEFA Champions League Group F football match. —AFP

Higuain brace sinks Marseille MILAN: A Gonzalo Higuain brace helped Napoli to a 3-2 win over Marseille yesterday as the Italians moved up to second place in Champions League Group F. Marseille came to the San Paolo still without a point having lost their opening three games in the section, including a 2-1 defeat at home to Rafael Benitez’s Serie A side last month.

Andre Ayew gave Elie Baup’s men an early lead, but Napoli hit back to lead at the interval thanks to strikes by Gokhan Inler and Higuain in the space of two minutes. Florian Thauvin pulled Marseille level just after the hour mark as Marseille enjoyed a dominant spell, but the visitors were caught out when a low Dries Mertens cross was turned in by Higuain at the back post to make it 3-2.

Napoli’s third win in four group games lifted the Italians up to second, level on points with Arsenal, who lead the section after winning 1-0 win away to Borussia Dortmund in the night’s other game.

Pre-match reports centred on the huge police presence in Naples to contain the threat of possible violence between fans of the Group F rivals following incidents in Marseille on October 22.

But if there was any tension among the visiting support, it was soon eased when Andre Ayew gave Marseille a 10th-minute lead with a header from a corner which beat a static Jose Reina in the Napoli

net. Barely 14 minutes later, however, Marseille were already trailing.

Inler chested down a loose ball 20 yards from goal and fired a precision volley past flailing Marseille ‘keeper Steve Mandanda in the 22nd minute. And Napoli then took the lead on the break moments later when Marseille were caught in possession in midfield. When the ball found its way to Goran Pandev, the Macedonian’s header came off the head of Souleymane Diawara and fell to Higuain, who smashed a low drive into the net.

Marseille were fired up at the start of the second half but Jordan Ayew’s cross was just too high for Mathieu Valbuena and while Thauvin threatened with a drive, it was off target.

Just before the hour Baup replaced Valbuena with Dimitri Payet, and he had a direct role in Marseille’s leveller, crossing for Thauvin who sneaked in behind Pablo Armero at the back post to bundle the ball past a stunned Pepe Reina.

Three minutes later, Benitez replaced Pandev with Marek Hamsik and the Slovakian played an indirect role in Higuain’s winner.

Hamsik was several yards offside when Federico Fernandez sent a long ball from midfield to the left of the area but it was collected by Mertens, and he squared for Higuain to beat a confused Mandanda with ease at his back post.

Business

Japanese automakers step on profit accelerator Page 22 Chaos in Libya brings trouble importing food Page 25

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

China seeks world role for ‘people’s money’

Qatar spending rules aim to avoid state debt overload Page 26

Page 25

SILIGURI: An Indian vendor negotiates with customers at a roadside vegetable market in Siliguri yesterday. The price of onions, a staple in Indian cooking have gone through the roof in the past few months, quadrupling to as much as 100 rupees a kilogram ($1.65) in parts of the country and turning the vegetable into an unaffordable luxury for the poor. — AFP

Saudi healthcare firms plan IPOs Healthcare demand booming in Gulf Arab region DUBAI: Two of Saudi Arabia’s largest private hospital groups will seek to float their shares on the kingdom’s bourse next year, banking sources aware of the matter said, aiming to capitalize on investor interest in the fast-growing healthcare sector. Healthcare businesses in the Gulf Arab region are expected to boom in coming years on the back of rising wealth coupled with an increase in so-called lifestyle diseases - five of the six Gulf nations are in the global top 10 for prevalence of diabetes for instance, according to the International Diabetes Federation.

Healthcare spending in Saudi Arabia is set to increase to around 174 billion riyals ($46.4 billion) in 2017 from 68.7 billion in 2010, according to a November 2012 report from Riyadh-based NCB Capital. Seeking to reflect such demand, Sulaiman Al-Habib Medical Group (HMG), one of the largest private providers of healthcare in the Gulf Arab region, has appointed the investment banking arm of Banque Saudi Fransi to assist with a planned share sale, two Saudi banking sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity as the matter has not been made public.

Almana General Hospitals (AGH), focused on the kingdom’s Eastern Province, also wants a listing on the local

bourse and has appointed GIB Capital, the investment banking arm of Gulf International Bank, to help with the process, according to the sources. HMG’s initial public offering (IPO) is likely to be the largest for an established private company in Saudi Arabia since investment firm Kingdom Holding in 2007, one of the sources said.

Kingdom, now worth $21.5 billion, had floated 5 pct of the company to raise 3.23 bln riyals. HMG operates 14 medical facilities across Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, including seven hospitals and six medical centers.

The group also owns the Olaya Medical Centre in Saudi’s capital Riyadh, consisting of about 300 medical centres.

FAST TRACK AGH had a net income of between 100 million and 150 million riyals ($27 million to $40 million) in 2012 and the business could be valued at 13 times that figure, one source said. The company operates facilities in regions such as Dammam, Khobar, Jubail and Hofuf. HMG did not respond to emails and calls seeking comment. An AGH spokesman was not available for comment. Both companies are expected to list in the latter part of 2014 or early

2015, the sources said, with their applications set to be fast-tracked by the authorities. No details were yet available on what amount they were likely to raise but both would offer around 30 percent of their shares to the public.

“Saudi regulators would like to see more healthcare IPOs coming to the market, so it’s unlikely that these companies will have a long waiting period like some of the other firms,” a second Saudi-based banking source said, adding the increased diversification of a bourse dominated by petrochemicals and banks would be of benefit to investors. The source also said planned government-led healthcare projects in the kingdom may curb the profitability of private operators in future.

Saudi Arabia’s stock market, whose constituents have a combined market value of about $430 billion, is the largest in the Gulf Arab region and the most active for IPOs. However it is not yet fully open to international investors and share issues are usually priced at a significant discount to benefit local citizens. Outside the kingdom, United Arab Emirates-based Al Noor Hospitals and NMC Healthcare have sold shares in London in the last 18 months and are around 48 and 71 percent up on their IPO price. — Reuters

Investing in Kaesong - Who dares?

SEOUL: For a foreign investor, there must be safer bets around than a project run by two countries that are technically at war, permanently at odds, and rarely on speaking terms. But only a few months after being threatened with a pre -emptive nuclear strike by North Korea, South Korea is pushing hard for overseas involvement in the joint industrial zone the two rivals operate in Kaesong.

The complex has recently reopened after a five-month closure caused by North Korea withdrawing its 53,000-strong workforce in April as military tensions surged to dangerous levels. South Korea’s thinking is that foreign involvement would make it that much harder for Pyongyang to shut down Kaesong again in the event of another flare-up.

But why would any foreign investor even consider taking a punt on Kaesong, which lies 10 kilometers inside North Korea, over one of the world’s most heavily militarized borders? “That’s a very difficult question to answer,” South Korean Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-Jae acknowledged during a briefing with foreign reporters in Seoul last week. For Ryoo, the principle of encouraging foreign involvement-in the hope that it will help promote international operating norms and standards in Kaesong-is worth upholding, even if it never actually happens.” Whether it is possible or not is not the problem here. It is a necessary and a desirable step to take,” he said.

If that sounds contradictory, Kaesong has always been more about politics than business. Born out of the “sunshine” reconciliation policy initiated in the late 1990s by then-South Korean president Kim Dae-

Jung, it opened in 2004 and proved remarkably resilient, riding out repeated inter-Korean crises that closed down every other facet of cooperation. The North’s decision to pull its workforce in April took most by surprise, especially as it was the North that reaped the greatest financial benefit from its operations.

The hard currency wages paid by the 120-plus South Korean firms in Kaesong are kept by the state, which passes on a fraction-in local currency-to the actual workers.

South Korean businesses setting up in Kaesong get cheap, Korean-language labor,

as well as preferential loans and tax breaks from the South Korean government which also effectively underwrites their investment. “Kaesong wasn’t set up as, and has really never been run as, a commercial concern. It was always a political concern,” said Go Myong-Hun, an analyst at the Center for Risk, Information, and Social Policy at the Asan Institute think-tank in Seoul. “It’s useful for South Korea because it provides North Korea with an incentive to negotiate and South Korea with a certain amount of leverage,” Go said. “But it’s hard to imagine why any foreign investor in their right mind

PAJU: Photo shows a general view of the Kaesong joint industrial park seen from a South Korean observation post along the border in Paju. — AFP

would think about investing there,” he added. Outside participation in Kaesong has always been possible on paper, and some foreign companies have taken a close look at the zone but, until now, none has been tempted by what they saw.

The South Korean government is considering “sweetener” legislation that would offer some of the same perks extended to domestic firms, like tax breaks and statebacked insurance against closure of the complex. But the real barrier remains the huge potential for instability due to the total incompatibility of the two countries that operate Kaesong. The most recent example was South Korea’s decision to cancel a Kaesong foreign investor day scheduled for October 31 because talks with the North on normalising operations were making too little progress.

“The internationalization of Kaesong will not be successful unless drastic steps are taken to make the zone completely free from all this political maneuvering,” said Yang Un-Chul, an expert on the North Korean economy at the Sejong Institute think-tank in Seoul.

For the moment, Yang believes the pool of potential foreign investors is limited to a few Chinese or Russian firms, or possibly some independent, ethnic-Korean US entrepreneurs who might be willing to step up out of patriotic duty. “But even then I’m skeptical,” he added.

One of the roles Seoul initially envisaged for Kaesong was as a beachhead for market reforms in North Korea that would spread from the complex and expose tens of thousands to the outside world’s way of doing business. —AFP

News

in brief

Dubai’s GDP growth accelerates to 4.9% DUBAI: Dubai’s economic growth accelerated in the first half of 2013 to 4.9 percent year-on-year, buoyed by strong expansion of trade and tourism, the government’s statistics department said yesterday. The economy grew 4.4 percent in 2012 as a whole and 4.0 percent in the first half of 2012. Dubai’s real estate market has been rebounding this year from its crash of 2009-2010, helped by an influx of foreign money and supporting an economic boom which can be seen in the performance of the stock market, up 79 percent year-to-date. The hotel and restaurants sector grew 13.7 percent in the first half of this year, the statistics department said. The number of hotel guests jumped 11.1 percent to 5.6 million, while the number of rooms available increased by 4,729 to 58,950. The wholesale and retail trade sector, which accounts for nearly onethird of GDP, expanded 4.1 percent from a year earlier.

Indonesia’s Lion Group eyes Bombardier order JAKARTA: The parent company of Indonesia’s Lion Air said yesterday it hopes to strike a deal for at least 50 Bombardier passenger jets next year, a purchase with a list price of more than $3 billion. It would be the latest huge bet on Indonesia’s booming aviation sector by Lion Group, which has in recent years struck two of the world’s largest plane orders, worth $46 billion. The company was hoping to complete the deal with Canadian manufacturer Bombardier for at least 50 new medium-range CS300 aircraft early next year, said Leithen Francis, head of public relations at Lion Group. “We are talking to Bombardier, we are considering the CS300, we do hope that negotiations do progress to where we can come to a decision by the first quarter,” he said. “We would expect the deliveries of the aircraft to start in 2016.” He said the company was still deciding whether the planes would be allocated to its budget carrier Lion Air or its full-service airline Batik Air. British austerity protesters target Buckingham Palace LONDON: Hundreds of Anonymous protesters wearing Guy Fawkes masks protested outside Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth II’s London home, as part of a global demonstration against austerity yesterday. Protesters threw bottles at police in riot gear and a fire was lit outside the palace. “They started shouting move back, move back, but we had nowhere to go,” said protester Ceylan Hassan. “The police started pushing us, screaming ‘move back, move back’. “There was a fire on the right hand side of the (Victoria) monument and people started throwing things,” she added. The demonstration was part of a pre-arranged “million mask” protest by “hacktivist” group Anonymous with similar events taking place in Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. The protest coincided with Bonfire Night in Britain, the annual commemoration of the failed 1605 “Gunpowder Plot”, in which Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up parliament in order to install a Catholic monarch.

Centrica, Qatar sign $7 billion LNG import deal LONDON: Centrica has signed a 4.4 billion pound ($7 billion), 4-1/2-year deal with Qatar to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies as domestic production dwindles, the British utility said yesterday. Centrica is to buy 3 million tons of LNG per year, or the equivalent of approximately 13 percent of Britain’s annual residential gas demand, it said. The deal extends a 2 billion pound, three-year LNG supply agreement between Centrica and Qatar, the world’s biggest producer of shipped gas, it signed in 2011 and which expires in June 2014.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

BUSINESS

Cadillac SRX, the daringly distinctive crossover KUWAIT: Ever since its launch, the Cadillac SRX continues to thrill the youth who seek crossover vehicles that have the per fect combination of youthful sportiness and luxurious appeal. This year’s Cadillac SRX has arrived with the harmonious appeal of engineering artistry coupled with a brand new feel and design, elements that works together to complement the innovative safety features that make the sporty ride a safe and sound drive. The innovativeness of the Cadillac SRX comprise of a comprehensive range of factors that include a powerful performance, technological improvements and an exceptional design that has been delicately crafted by the most skilled engineers in the world.

Anyone can now enjoy a test drive at any Yusuf Ahmed Alghanim & Sons Automotive showroom, the exclusive distributor of Cadillac vehicles in Kuwait.

ELEGANCE MEETS YOUTHFUL ALLURE Since its introduction, the Cadillac SRX has established a strong visual signature in the luxury crossover segment. Today, the new Cadillac SRX has been successful in adding a more refined and pristine appearance with a new design for the front upper and lower grills that convey a greater form of depth as well as highlighting the luxury brand’s attention to detail. The newly added front fender vents incorporate LED light pips, a feature that gives the Cadillac SRX an exquisite glow. Other refined exterior features include the adaptive forward lighting system, power lift-gate, rain-sense windshield wipers, chrome trim and new, 20inch chrome aluminum wheels.

TECHNOLOGICALLY ADVANCED CABIN One can experience the utmost of luxury by merely sitting behind the wheel of the Cadillac SRX. Its spacious passenger and cargo room are wrapped in the dramatic, signature Cadillac style, elements that elevated the brand to being the top luxur y vehicle in the world. The CUE (Cadillac User Experience) is the main factor that establishes Cadillac SRX’s

enhanced driving experience as it pairs entertainment and information data from up to 10 Bluetooth enabled mobile devices, USBs, SD cards and MP3 players with a vehicle infotainment system that reduces complexity through customized information with fewer buttons and larger icons.

The comprehensive, in-vehicle experience is designed to be unique for each consumer, starting from an individual who prefers a simplistic, minimal driving experience to one who enjoys a fully connected one. The heart of CUE is a vibrant, eight-inch LCD multi-touch screen that is seamlessly integrated at the top of the central instrument panel. It displays CUE’s homepage that is similar to a smar t phone’s screen with large, easy-to-target icons that execute commands.

The Cadillac SRX’s CUE system is complemented with additional features and design refinements including Bluetooth audio streaming, a center console that features two additional USB ports, an SD card slot auxiliary input jack and a 12-

Japan automakers step on profit accelerator Toyota did not specifically address the issue of China, the world’s biggest vehicle market yesterday.

However Japanese automakers’ sales in the country were dented in the wake of the diplomatic row, which flared again last year after Tokyo nationalized part of a small East China Sea archipelago also claimed by Beijing, setting off demonstrations across China and the damaging boycott. Toyota and Honda were less affected by the China sales downturn than Nissan, while the pair benefited more from a slide in the yen, which boosts their competitiveness overseas and inflates the value of repatriated foreign income.

All three have said the damage from the territorial row is fading. “Japanese automakers have largely benefited from a cheaper yen,” said Tatsuya Mizuno, head of Tokyobased Mizuno Credit Advisory. “The US market is recovering to levels before Lehman Brothers’ collapse, and the sector’s presence is also coming back in China compared with a year ago when they were hit hard by the political dispute. “At home, also, the environment is getting better,” he added.

Japanese manufacturers have benefited from an economic policy blitz launched by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, with huge monetary easing measures from the premier’s hand-picked team at the Bank of Japan helping push down the yen since the start of the year. Manufacturers are also eyeing a likely pickup in domestic demand before a sales tax rise next year. —AFP

TOKYO: Japanese automakers are stepping on the profit accelerator as a weak yen, recovering US demand and the fading impact of a consumer boycott in China boost their bottom line. The sector’s buoyant half-year results underscore a firm recovery after the 2011 quake and tsunami devastated sales and production, and highlight a rebound in demand from some key markets.

However a sharp decline in the yen over the past year was the key driver behind bumper profits.

Toyota acknowledged the currency’s impact yesterday as it said net profit in the six months to September soared 82.5 percent. Japan’s most valuable company also raised its annual earnings forecast. Toyota, the world’s biggest automaker, was the last of Japan’s major carmakers to publish halfyear earnings after Honda last week said its net profit soared on the weaker yen and stronger US demand. Smaller rivals Suzuki and Mitsubishi Motors also reported upbeat numbers.

Nissan meanwhile said its half-year net profit rose 6.5 percent while sales rose 14.7 percent from a year earlier. However shares in Japan’s number two automaker plunged more than 10 percent Tuesday after Nissan slashed its full-year profit forecast, blaming a sluggish European market and expensive product recalls. Nissan said sales to China, which accounts for about one-quarter of its revenue, were also down in the wake of a Tokyo-Beijing territorial dispute that sparked a consumer boycott of Japanese brands.

volt power outlet, new headphone and remote design for the rear-seat entertainment system that also includes a new instrument cluster with the new driver information center for CUE integration.

Adding to the luxury experience, the new Cadillac SRX also comprises active noise cancellation that aids in creating a quieter and more serene driving experience for the driver and passengers alike.

Other new interior features worth mentioning are the tri-zone climate control, ambient lighting and an ultra-view power sunroof.

ADVENTURE FULL OF CONFIDENCE Cadillac SRX’s luxurious interior is complemented by its power ful and smooth driving experience that is powered by a direct-injected, SAE-certified 3.6L V6 engine with 308 horsepower and 358 Nm of torque. Available in all-wheel drive system, the engine is matched with a hydra-matic 6T70 six-speed automatic transmission that features driver-selectable eco-features that alter the shift points for up to 235L/100 km, improving fuel economy in normal driving conditions.

Cadillac SRX comes with the most comprehensive suite of owner benefits, providing luxury owners everything they need including free service and maintenance for four years or 100,000 km, 24hour roadside assistance for up to four years or unlimited mileage, warranty for 4 years or 100,000 km and finally, courtesy transportation and a replacement vehicle when one’s Cadillac is undergoing maintenance service.

Adding to the luxury Cadillac offers its customers is Yusuf Ahmed Alghanim & Sons Automotive’s service center that is

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Japan bond investors shrug off BOJ inflation drumbeat Impact of weaker yen seen wearing off TOKYO: Six months after the Bank of Japan adopted an unprecedented scale of monetary stimulus to end stubborn deflation, the shock therapy has not yet changed Japanese investors’ own stubborn mindset that the country is stuck in a deflationary trap. Many Japanese banks and life insurers have piled into Japanese government bonds, sending the benchmark 10-year yield below 0.6 percent last week, even as the country’s consumer inflation steadily rises.

In an economic outlook report published last week, the BOJ stuck to its forecast that core inflation would rise near 2 percent in 2015/16, excluding the impact from a sales tax increase. “More than 90 percent of market players think that is not going to happen,” said Hidenori Suezawa, analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities. To be sure, Japan’s inflation has risen in line with the central bank’s projection so far since April, when the BOJ announced a two-year asset purchase plan to double its holding of bonds and some other assets. Core inflation was at a five-year high of 0.8 percent in August and stood at 0.7 percent in September, well above March when core prices fell 0.5 percent. But the uptick was driven mostly by rising import prices following a sharp fall in the yen in November-May. One problem for Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, investors say, is that a boost from a weaker yen will wear off around April.

Just to maintain the current level of inflation will likely require another yen fall of the same magnitude, meaning the yen will need to fall to around 120 per dollar from around 100 now. In the latest Reuters poll, however, the mean forecast for the yen a year ahead is 107, with even the most bearish response at 117.

Domestic consumption is not seen strong enough to boost prices as wages are still stagnant - something fund managers at Japanese firms can tell even without looking at government data. The upshot is most Japanese institutional investors are still ready to buy JGBs even as the 10-year yield falls below inflation.

Most of Japan’s biggest life insurers said they increased domestic bond holdings in AprilSeptember and that they plan to increase them further. There was no major reallocation of funds despite speculation the BOJ’s massive easing could spark “portfolio rebalancing” to foreign bonds by Japanese investors. Japan’s biggest banks, which initially sold a large amount of bonds on inflation fears, have started rebuilding their bond portfolio. “Bank lending is not growing that much so they have cash

at hand. In the past, banks were selling into the BOJ’s buying. Now both of them are buying, that’s why JGB yields are falling,” said Tadashi Matsukawa, head of fixed income investment at PineBridge Investments in Tokyo.

BOJ data shows city banks - the country’s top lenders - increased JGB holdings in August for the first time since March to 85.44 trillion yen ($867 billion) from 85.38 trillion yen in July, after having slashed them by 22 trillion yen since March. In a sign banks are becoming less eager to sell JGBs, the BOJ’s latest buying in JGBs with 5 to 10 years to maturity drew the smallest offers in recent months. The BOJ’s offer on Thursday to buy 400 billion yen of JGBs in those maturities attracted offers of 939.7 billion yen, the first time offers did not reach one trillion yen. — Reuters

Gulf Bank credit card holders receive exclusive discounts KUWAIT: Gulf Bank announced that its credit card and red debit card holders can now receive exclusive discounts when making a purchase from the Honda Alghanim showroom. The offer is valid from October 1st 2013 until December 31st 2014 until, and allows card holders to receive a 10% discount on Motorcycles and Power Products and a special discount on Marine Engines. The discount is granted directly upon making the purchase using the Gulf Bank credit

card and/or red’ debit cards. This offer comes in line with the Bankís Rewards Program, which was designed as a means to reward Gulf Bank card users for their loyalty and trust in the Bankís services and products, and is one of a series of offers the Bank plans to present its customers with. Gulf Bank continuously seeks to identify different ways in which it can differentiate its services and provide exclusive offers to its customers.

EXCHANGE RATES Al-Muzaini Exchange Co. ASIAN COUNTRIES Japanese Yen Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Srilankan Rupees Nepali Rupees Singapore Dollar Hongkong Dollar Bangladesh Taka Philippine Peso Thai Baht Irani Riyal Irani Riyal

2.895 4.592 2.649 2.155 2.877 228.980 36.431 3.626 6.559 9.105 0.271 0.273 GCC COUNTRIES

Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham

75.350 77.639 733.920 750.500 76.951 ARAB COUNTRIES

Egyptian Pound - Cash Egyptian Pound - Transfer Yemen Riyal/for 1000 Tunisian Dinar Jordanian Dinar Lebanese Lira/for 1000 Syrian Lira Morocco Dirham

40.950 40.544 1.318 174.190 399.030 1.896 3.070 35.306

EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 282.450 Euro 391.480 Sterling Pound 458.560 Canadian dollar 271.590 Turkish lira 142.650 Swiss Franc 317.360 Australian Dollar 272.420 US Dollar Buying 281.250 GOLD 20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

248.000 125.000 65.000

UAE Exchange Centre WLL COUNTRY Australian Dollar Canadian Dollar Swiss Franc Euro US Dollar Sterling Pound Japanese Yen Bangladesh Taka Indian Rupee Sri Lankan Rupee Nepali Rupee Pakistani Rupee UAE Dirhams Bahraini Dinar Egyptian Pound Jordanian Dinar Omani Riyal Qatari Riyal Saudi Riyal

SELL DRAFT 273.41 276.55 315.70 386.12 283.30 455.35 2.95 3.643 4.592 2.166 2.878 2.657 77.20 754.03 41.11 403.20 736.76 78.23 75.68

SELL CASH 272.000 276.000 316.000 388.000 286.000 458.000 3.000 3.800 4.910 2.600 3.400 2.770 77.500 754.900 41.200 408.300 742.900 78.600 75.900

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd Rate for Transfer US Dollar Canadian Dollar Sterling Pound Euro Swiss Frank Bahrain Dinar UAE Dirhams Qatari Riyals Saudi Riyals Jordanian Dinar Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupees Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Pesso Cyprus pound Japanese Yen Thai Bhat

Selling Rate 283.400 274.600 456.300 383.840 311.200 748.315 77.135 78.690 76.440 399.495 41.085 2.161 4.581 2.641 3.641 6.545 696.086 3.870 10.110

Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees Malaysian Ringgit Chinese Yuan Renminbi

3.055 3.855 90.952 46.880

Singapore Dollar South African Rand Sri Lankan Rupee Taiwan Thai Baht

0.225000 0.022645 0.001891 0.009510 0.008770

0.231000 0.031145 0.002471 0.009690 0.009320

Bahraini Dinar Egyptian Pound Iranian Riyal Iraqi Dinar Jordanian Dinar Kuwaiti Dinar Lebanese Pound Moroccan Dirhams Nigerian Naira Omani Riyal Qatar Riyal Saudi Riyal Syrian Pound Tunisian Dinar Turkish Lira UAE Dirhams

Arab 0.743809 0.038421 0.000078 0.000183 0.394722 1.0000000 0.000138 0.022620 0.001196 0.728643 0.078982 0.074790 0.001925 0.169706 0.140723 0.076028

0.751809 0.041521 0.000080 0.000243 0.402222 1.0000000 0.000238 0.046620 0.001831 0.734323 0.078195 0.075490 0.002145 0.177706 0.147723 0.077177

Bahrain Exchange Company COUNTRY SELL CASH Belgian Franc British Pound Czech Korune Danish Krone Euro Norwegian Krone Romanian Leu Slovakia Swedish Krona Swiss Franc Turkish Lira

SELLDRAFT Europe 0.007351 0.447076 0.006619 0.048057 0.383682 0.043903 0.081615 0.008099 0.040294 0.308198 0.140723

0.008351 0.456076 0.018619 0.053057 0.391162 0.049103 0.81615 0.018099 0.045294 0.318398 0.147723

Australian Dollar New Zealand Dollar

Australasia 0.260043 0.227620

0.271543 0.237120

Canadian Dollar US Dollars US Dollars Mint

America 0.265129 0.278750 0.279250

0.273629 0.283100 0.283100

CurrencyTransfer

Bangladesh Taka Chinese Yuan Hong Kong Dollar Indian Rupee Indonesian Rupiah Japanese Yen Kenyan Shilling Korean Won Malaysian Ringgit Nepalese Rupee Pakistan Rupee Philippine Peso Sierra Leone

Asia 0.003422 0.045021 0.034395 0.004482 0.000021 0.002799 0.003411 0.000256 0.085857 0.003030 0.002507 0.006438 0.000069

0.004022 0.048521 0.037145 0.004883 0.000027 0.002979 0.003411 0.000271 0.091857 0.003200 0.002787 0.006718 0.000075

US Dollar Euro Pound Sterling Canadian Dollar Indian Rupee Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupee Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso Pakistan Rupee Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham Saudi Riyal * Rates are subject to change

Al Mulla Exchange Rate (Per 1000) 283.300 385.350 454.000 274.150 4.575 41.105 2.163 3.631 6.545 2.650 754.500 77.150 75.575

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

BUSINESS

Strike hits Greece as auditors mull further cuts ATHENS: A general strike hit Greece yesterday, paralyzing public services and disrupting transport as EU-IMF auditors worked to finalize the recession-hit country’s next budget, looking to eliminate a fiscal shortfall that could bring more unpopular cuts. Defying pouring rain, some 4,000 members of the Communist-affiliated union PAME marched to central Syntagma square, police said. Another 1,000 protesters gathered outside the offices of the biggest union GSEE but the main demonstration was scrapped due to the weather.

“It is an unfortunate occurrence, the protest will not take place owing to the weather conditions,” a GSEE spokeswoman said. Similar protests are being held in Greece’s second city Thessaloniki, with some 10,000 demonstrators taking part, according to police. The latest strike this year by the country’s main unions shut down the civil service as well as train and ferry services nationwide. Hospitals were operating on reduced staff and several flights were

cancelled because of work stoppages by civil aviation staff.

Journalists also staged a five-hour walkout to 1300 GMT. GSEE, which represents the private sector, said workers were “carrying on their struggle against pointless austerity policies”. “The government and (creditors) are talking about fiscal gaps and deficits. But they don’t say that the big gap is in the social state and society,” GSEE chairman Yiannis Panagopoulos said in a statement.

Greece lurched into recession when the global economic crisis hit in 2008, and by 2010 rising borrowing costs on its massive debt forced Athens to seek a bailout from the EU and International Monetary Fund.

Two bailouts, worth up to 240 billion euros ($325 billion) plus about 100 billion euros in a debt write-off, helped stave off a feared break-up of the euro and kept the Greek state financially afloat. However they came at a stiff cost to Greeks. In order to tap the bailout loans the Greek government had to raise taxes while cutting benefits, wages, and

jobs. Since 2008, the unemployment rate has tripled to 27.6 percent while the economy has contracted by 22 percent.

“We will not stop. Our only hope lies in struggle,” Panagopoulos said.

The mission by the so-called troika of creditors-the EU, IMF and the European Central Bank-is expected to push for more unpopular austerity measures to cover a fiscal gap of two billion euros ($2.7 billion) forecast for 2014. The troika’s report is also necessary to unlock a vital one-billion-euro ($1.3 billion) loan installment. There is anger in Greece over ongoing cuts in the face of a sixyear recession and soaring unemployment, and further outrage that new taxes are being prepared to help meet deficit goals. On Tuesday, protestors heckled the auditors outside the finance ministry and a man was briefly detained after throwing coins at the car of the IMF mission’s chief. A sizeable number of government deputies have also protested at plans to increase tax on agricultural land, a move that has put pressure on Prime Minister Antonis

ATHENS: Protesters march in the center of Athens yesterday during a 24-hour strike. — AFP Samaras. “This is a negotiation... we should remove the notion that this is a

war,” Samaras said in a televised interview late on Monday.— AFP

Germany, Britain shine but Europe recovery still fragile Euro-zone PMIs show rising job losses

MADRID: A man standing next to a newspaper shop looks at the trash left on a side walk during the second day of a garbage collectors strike yesterday. Street cleaners and garbage collectors who work in the city’s public parks walked off the job at midnight in a strike called by trade unions to contest the planned layoff of more than 1,000 workers. — AP

Spain readies reforms of natural gas market LONDON: Spain is preparing a reform of its natural gas sector to stop incipient losses borne by the state from growing into the kind of multi-billion-euro debt problem that prompted a controversial reform of the electricity industry earlier this year. The government unveiled a sweeping power overhaul in July to resolve a 26 billion euro ($35 billion) electricity tariff deficit created after more than a decade of a mismatch between regulated prices and costs of power, which the state guarantees. Now it intends to pass measures to align regulated costs and revenues in the gas sector and increase competitiveness, Industry Minister Jose Manuel Soria said in an interview at the Spanish embassy in London.

“There will be a gas reform to avoid what happened in the electricity sector.

Right now there is a small, incipient (tariff ) deficit in gas. We have to control it,” Soria said after attending an international tourism event in London. Spain is battling excess gas supply due to a recent surge in renewable energy, which in the first half of the year accounted for over half of total electricity generation, as well as excess capacity after years of over-ambitious infrastructure planning.

The scale of the country’s gas sector is the result of targets formed in the boom years before crisis hit and left plants operating at a fraction of their capacity. Spain finally emerged from recession in the third quarter of this year after five years of contraction or stagnation that led to one of Europe’s highest unemployment rates at 25 percent and a drop in energy demand.

Spain has power generation capacity of 100 gigawatts, far outstripping current peak demand of 44 gigawatts.

As part of the gas reform, Spain will introduce an exchange for gas prices, moving away from bilateral agreements, said Soria, who comes from the Canary Islands and is a longtime leader in the ruling conservative People’s Party. Analysts estimate the gas deficit could reach 1 billion euros in 2015 if a new underground storage facility

called Castor, also conceived before Spain’s economic crisis, opens. Castor was indefinitely halted last month after minor earthquakes.

REASONABLE PROFIT Among the July power reforms, Madrid said it would cut previously double-digit guaranteed returns for energy investors to Spain’s 10-year government bonds plus 300 basis points for renewable energy as part of a “reasonable profit” policy. Soria left the door open to linking guaranteed gas profit to treasury yields in the same way, but said he could not give more specific details. The July measures, which will also cut power subsidies and cap profits on distribution, have faced fierce criticism from traditional electricity utilities, renewable energy firms, consumers, opposition parties and even the Spanish energy regulator.

Foreign investors in debt-backed renewable energy projects say the measures are retroactive and have threatened lawsuits, a prospect that Soria played down, saying the reform was in line with Spanish law.

“We respect their objections, but our mission is to comply with the law and provide financial stability,” he said. Spain’s Abengoa, a thermosolar operator, has taken the Spanish government to the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, saying the measures are expected to cut its thermosolar revenues by over a third.

Without the power reform, expected to gain parliamentary approval by early next year, pending some final details, Soria has said electricity prices would have grown by 42 percent and the tariff deficit by over 10 billion euros. Energy bills have become a hot issue in Europe, where consumers continue to bear the bulk of the costs of renovating ageing power systems and kickstarting renewable energy projects. But whether or not the tariff deficit is contained this year, as intended with the new reform, depends on the central government injecting up to 3.1 billion euros into the system as promised.— Reuters

Disaster risks help drive Asia insurance industry SINGAPORE: Asia’s vulnerability to natural disasters is helping drive the insurance industry in the region, an international conference in Singapore heard yesterday.

Rising affluence resulting from strong economic growth and the region’s expanding ranks of the elderly are the two other major factors expected to boost the industry, Singapore’s central bank chief told the conference. “The prospects in Asia are especially bright. The Asian risk landscape is transforming rapidly, generating robust demand for insurance and reinsurance,” said Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

He said in a speech at the Singapore International Reinsurance Conference that the insurance business in Asia is projected to grow at about 8.0 percent per year over the next decade. By 2020, Asia is forecast to account for almost 40 percent of the global market, he added. One major driver is Asia’s

vulnerability to natural calamities, Menon said, pointing out that the region accounted for 52 percent of global economic losses from disasters between 2000 and 2009. In 2011 alone, Asia accounted for 81 percent of global economic losses and only about 35 percent were insured, he said.

“A growing risk awareness, coupled with rising asset values, will lead to greater demand for catastrophe insurance and reinsurance, including alternative risk transfer solutions,” Menon said. “Following the 2011 catastrophes, several Asian countries have already established insurance pools for catastrophe risks.” Asia’s continued robust economic growth and its ageing population will also help power the insurance industry ahead, Menon said. He cited data showing that by 2050, the Asia Pacific region will be home to 62 percent of the world’s elderly population, with one in four persons aged 60 and above.— AFP

LONDON: The euro-zone’s economic recovery lost a little momentum last month, according to surveys that showed only modest growth in German and French businesses. Data from non-euro-zone Britain impressed again, however, and German industrial orders jumped underlining the uneven nature of overall European recovery. Yesterday’s purchasing managers’ indexes (PMIs) from Markit showed the pace of growth in eurozone businesses slipped last month, although not nearly as badly as first projections. Taken as a whole, the indexes pointed to fragile economic growth that will do little to ease the pressure on the European Central Bank to take some action, although not perhaps at its policy meeting today.

With surprisingly low inflation last month, speculation in markets and among economists has grown that the ECB is primed to stimulate the economy again - perhaps next month. “Our view is that rates will remain on hold tomorrow although we expect that ECB President (Mario) Draghi will ‘disclose’ that a rate cut was considered,” said analysts at Rabobank, after the PMIs. Financial markets also question what effect a straightforward interest rate cut would have given that rates are already at record lows.

Overall, the tone of the data yesterday were mixed. German industrial orders rose at a far faster pace than expected in September, but euro-zone retails sales slipped more than predicted during the same month. By contrast, British indicators added to evidence the UK is spearheading Europe’s recovery from recession. UK industrial output in September came in much better than the Reuters consensus, following on from Tuesday’s upbeat business surveys.

The Bank of England meets

FRANKFURT: A journalist photographs the view from the site of the European Central Bank’s (ECB) new headquarters in Frankfurt am Main. The building is expected to be completed by the middle of 2014. — AFP today and is not expected to change policy, having said it will keep interest rates at their record low until unemployment falls to 7 percent. Economists expect the Bank to bring forward its expectation for when that will happen currently late 2016 - when it publishes new forecasts next week. The euro tip-toed away from a sevenweek low on Wednesday after the data, as talk of extending the lifespan of the US Federal Reserve’s stimulus helped balance expectations of easing by the ECB in coming months.

Markit’s October Euro-zone Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) of activity in both the services and manufacturing sectors slipped to 51.9 in October from 52.2 in September. That marked an

improvement on an initial estimate two weeks ago of 51.5, however.

The PMI for the services sector, covering thousands of firms across the euro-zone from major banks to hairdressers, slipped to 51.6 from September’s 52.2. Again, that was higher than the preliminary reading of 50.9. Readings above 50 indicate expansion in activity.

While the modest pace of growth in activity at German and French companies was unchanged last month, it dwindled at Italian services firms and activity declined again in Spain. “The loss of momentum raises concerns that the upturn is faltering and piles further pressure on the European Central Bank to reinvigorate the recovery,” said Chris Williamson, chief economist at PMI compiler Markit. The ECB is

likely to resist pressure for an interest rate cut on Thursday despite a dive in inflation to 0.7 percent in October, close to a four-year low and far below its target of close to 2 percent.

Companies continued to trim prices charged to customers at a steady pace last month, the PMI showed, suggesting little chance inflation will edge higher. The surveys brought more bad news on the labor front as companies cut jobs at a faster pace in October.

Data last week showed euro-zone unemployment hit a record 12.2 percent in September. Ireland’s services PMI was one of the few unambiguously positive surveys from yesterday’s euro-zone batch, Markit said, showing the strongest growth since 2006.—Reuters

Dual economy: Companies profit despite weak growth WASHINGTON: Look at the US economy and you’ll notice an unusual disconnect. The economy is being slowed by a tight job market, scant pay raises and weak business investment. Yet corporate profits are reaching record highs and fueling record stock prices. How are companies managing to earn so much money in a sluggish economy?

And why aren’t their profits goosing the economy?

For starters, weak job growth has held down pay.

And since the recession struck six years ago, businesses have been relentless in cutting costs.

They’ve also stockpiled cash rather than build new products or lines of business. And they’ve been earning larger chunks of their profits overseas.

All of which is a recipe for solid profits and tepid economic growth. The economy grew at a meager annual rate of just 1.8 percent in the first half of 2013. The unemployment rate is 7.2 percent, far above the 5 percent to 6 percent considered healthy. Even so, corporate profits equaled 12.5 percent of the economy in the April-June quarter, just below a 60-year high reached two years ago. Profits of companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 have nearly doubled since June 2009.

Earnings appear to have risen again in the JulySeptember quarter.

Big companies like Kellogg, FedEx and Best Buy have been slashing costs in the face of slowing revenue. Their strategy has been working: Despite sluggish revenue, their profits are up. Burger King’s sales dropped last quarter as competition intensified. Yet the company’s earnings surged because it cut expenses and enjoyed growth overseas.

“Corporations have more market power than workers have and have kept wage growth to subdued levels,” said Dean Maki, an economist at Barclays. “That’s left more for corporate profits.”

Those solid earnings have helped boost stock prices. So has the Federal Reserve’s drive to keep long-term interest rates near record lows: Lower bond yields have led many investors to shift money out of bonds and into stocks, thereby boosting

stock prices. The Dow Jones industrial average has jumped nearly 20 percent this year, closing at 15,639 on Monday, just below its record high. “If we ended the year at these levels, it would be a phenomenal year,” said Bob Doll, chief equity strategist with Nuveen Asset Management. Here are factors economists cite for the gap between healthy corporate profits and subpar economic growth: FLAT PAY Wages and salaries equaled just 42.6 percent of the economy in the April-June quarter, near a record low set in 2011. More than 8.5 million jobs were lost in the recession and its aftermath, leaving workforces leaner and more productive.

Corporate revenue rose as the economy recovered. But workers haven’t benefited much. With unemployment still high, they’ve had little leverage to demand higher pay. Many have been happy just to have a job. “We’ve just had a very lopsided economic recovery,” said Ethan Harris, an economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Smaller paychecks have deprived Americans of money to spend. In the 30 years before the recession, consumer spending grew an average of 3.4 percent a year. Since 2010, just after the recovery began, it’s risen just 2.2 percent a year. “If workers don’t have any money, businesses don’t have any customers,” said Nick Hanauer, an entrepreneur who has written about US economic disparities.

The stock market’s gains have boosted total US household wealth. But they haven’t enriched most Americans. The wealthiest 10 percent of households own about 80 percent of stocks.

COST CUTTING This week, Kellogg said it would cut about 7 percent of its workforce - 2,200 jobs - by 2017. The cuts are part of a “global efficiency and effectiveness program,” the company said. Even though Kellogg’s sales were flat in the July-September quarter compared with a year earlier, it squeezed

out 2.5 percent more net income. A key factor: It cut administrative and borrowing costs. Its shares have risen 15 percent in the past year. FedEx is cutting jobs, too. And though its quarterly revenue rose just 2 percent, its earnings grew 7 percent.

The company has cut maintenance costs by replacing older aircraft with more fuel-efficient planes. The shift helped reduce maintenance costs 11 percent in the June-to-August quarter. The new planes are merely replacing older aircraft rather than expanding FedEx’s fleet. So the economy doesn’t stand to benefit as much. The average sales growth of an S&P 500 company was 2.35 percent in the first six months of 2013, down from 3.76 percent in 2012, according to S&P Capital IQ. The average profit margin for an S&P 500 company widened from 8.1 percent to 9.1 percent in the same period.

CASH HOARDING Higher profits could help the economy if corporations plowed them back into new plants, equipment and other projects. That hasn’t happened.

“Corporations have been extremely cautious in their spending in this recovery,” said Maki of Barclays. Business spending on big-ticket items like computers, industrial machinery and capital goods has remained about one-third below the average in previous recoveries, Harris estimates.

Instead, companies have stockpiled a record $1.8 trillion in cash, according to the Fed, up nearly 10 percent since the recession ended in 2009. And thanks to the Fed’s drive to keep rates low, big companies have been able to borrow cheaply and replace their higher-cost debt. All that has bolstered corporate finances and helped boost stock prices even though companies remain reluctant to expand. Improved finances are “great for the company and its stock price, but from the point of view of the broader economy, you’d prefer they use the money to hire more workers and invest in more projects,” Harris said.—AP

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

BUSINESS

China exchange hatches plan for egg futures SHANGHAI: Recognizing that investors should not put all their eggs in one basket, a Chinese commodities exchange is offering a novel futures contract to hedge against risk. The Dalian Commodity Exchange, China’s main market for agricultural product trading, said it will begin trading chicken egg futures tomorrow.

Futures are an agreement to deliver or take delivery of a commodity or financial instrument at a set date and

price. “As China’s first livestock futures product and fresh agricultural product, the introduction of egg futures has profound meaning for the industry and development of the futures market,” the exchange said in a statement.

China, the world’s most populous country, is a major producer of farm goods to feed its more than 1.3 billion people. The national retail price for eggs in China was around 3.82 yuan ($0.63) per half-kilogram yesterday,

freshness of the eggs for buyers who take delivery. China has grappled with both a widespread outbreak of H7N9 bird flu earlier this year which hit poultry sales and repeated food safety scandals, including cases of “fake” eggs uncovered by consumers.

But that has not deterred Chinese investors, who face limited choices on where to put their money given the country’s strict controls over overseas investment. “There’s plenty of interest,”

according to an industry estimate. The exchange, which also trades China’s benchmark corn and soybean futures, said the new product would benefit both farmers and companies. It will trade in five-ton lots.

China is not the first to offer egg futures. But the United States stopped trading them in 1982 and Japan in 2010, the Dalian exchange said on its website. Analysts said one challenge would be to guarantee quality and

Gao Yanbin, an analyst at Jinshi Futures said. “Farmers and feed companies hope this kind of product will give them corresponding protection from spot prices,” he said. If the new futures contract is successful, it could lead to other types of “fresh” farm products such as live hogs, he added. China has four futures exchanges including one trading financial instruments, which are competing to offer more products to cook up business.—AFP

Euro pares losses Data pick-up tempers ECB rate cut hopes

Ford to launch 17 new vehicles DUBAI: Ford Motor Company said yesterday it plans to launch 17 new or refreshed Ford and Lincoln vehicles in the next 24 months to accelerate growth in the Middle East and Africa - including the Ford Fusion sedan and the EcoSport small SUV debuting today at the 2013 Dubai International Motor Show. “The Middle East and Africa is poised to become one of the next big automotive growth markets and we want to be there for these customers with great new cars and trucks,” said Stephen Odell, president, Ford of Europe, Middle East and Africa, speaking today at the show.

“Ford and Lincoln sales have grown 60 percent in the Middle East over the past four years, and we expect total industry sales in

the combined Middle East and Africa region to increase nearly 40 percent to around 5.5 million units by 2020.” Two all-new vehicles are making their Middle East debut this week at the show. The Ford EcoSport small sport utility vehicle is based on Ford’s global B-segment platform, and combines the agility, affordability, and fuel efficiency of a small family car with the flexibility, style, and spaciousness of a sports utility vehicle.

The all-new Ford Fusion brings mid-size sedan customers an unprecedented selection of driver-assistance technologies, such as Lane Keeping Assist, Blind Spot Information System, Active Park Assist, and Adaptive Cruise Control.

Its striking silhouette introduces the new face of Ford, with quality and craftsmanship customers will see and feel inside and out.

Middle East customers also will have an opportunity to see the Ford Atlas Concept, which makes its premiere outside of North America at the show. The Atlas Concept raises the bar on capability, fuel economy, and innovation, and pushes the limits of what a fullsize pickup can be.

NEW BUSINESS UNIT To take advantage of profitable growth opportunities, Ford is combining the four regions of North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa and the Middle East into a single business unit. Effective Jan. 1, 2014, all sales, share and financial reporting will be consolidated for the 47 Ford markets throughout the Middle East and Africa. The new Ford Middle

East and Africa operation - Ford’s fifth global business unit - will be headquartered in Dubai.

“The Middle East and Africa region is comprised of very diverse markets with different political, cultural and economic environments,” Odell said. “Building a robust and profitable operation in this region requires a dedicated focus and clear understanding of how to support the unique conditions and customer needs in these markets.” To attain that dedicated focus and support the diversity of the markets, Middle East and Africa will be managed in two sub-regions - South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East and North Africa. While regional operations will be headquartered in Dubai, Ford will maintain regional offices in both South Africa and Dubai. Key priorities for Ford Middle East and Africa include:- Bringing more new Ford vehicles to customers in the region through the One Ford global vehicle and technology portfolio, including 17 new or refreshed vehicles in the next 24 months. - Supporting Ford’s dealer network throughout the region to service customer needs. - Expanding parts accessibility and service support throughout the Middle East and Africa.

Leading the new Ford Middle East and Africa region is Jim Benintende, a 36-year Ford veteran who will oversee operations in all 47 markets. Benintende has significant experience in the Middle East and Africa region, most recently as director, Ford Export Operations and Global Growth Initiatives. He also previously served in the Ford Middle East and North Africa region in various roles from 1994-2006. “Our intention is to grow the Ford business while staying true to our principles of being active and supportive members of the community in the Middle East and Africa,” said Jim Benintende, president, Ford Middle East and Africa. “Under the One Ford strategy, we will be able to leverage our global vehicle and technology portfolio, and our scale to better serve customers in this important and dynamic region.”

STRONG GROWTH IN MIDEAST Ford has a strong heritage in the Middle East as well, with more than six decades of presence in the region. The company has increased its sales for the Ford and Lincoln brands in the region by nearly 60 percent during the past four years. In the first three quarters of this year, Ford Middle East has already recorded strong sales with a nearly 20 percent increase compared to the same period in 2012.

The strong performance is brought by customers’ continued confidence on Ford and Lincoln vehicles complemented by massive dealer expansions across the region, according to the company. In the past three months alone, several Ford dealers have opened new facilities in a number of markets, including Al Tayer Motors with its new dealership in Sharjah, UAE. In total, there are more than 60 new Ford and Lincoln sales and service facilities currently in process region-wide to serve the expanding Ford and Lincoln customer base.

LAHORE: A Pakistani vendor separates peanuts at a market in Lahore yesterday. An International Monetary Fund (IMF) team is visiting Pakistan to monitor progress on reforms tied to a $6.7 billion loan package, with analysts warning difficult months lie ahead. —AFP

LONDON: The euro tip-toed away from a sevenweek low yesterday as talk of extending the lifespan of the US Federal Reserve’s stimulus helped balance expectations of easing by the ECB in coming months. With uncertainty high about what steps the European Central Bank might signal at its policy meeting today, investors were left weighing a fresh batch of data that included euro zone services PMIs, with German output figures also due later.

The services report pointed to a continuing gradual recovery in the 17-country euro zone but one that remains painfully slow in many parts of the bloc. European shares had already inched to a new five-year high by the time the data came out, helped by a batch of better-thanexpected results, including from world No. 1 jobs agency Adecco, which flagged increasing demand in Europe.

Expectations of a dovish turn by the ECB kept the euro on the defensive, though it was holding steady at $1.3500 in early trading from $1.3469 overnight. Dealers reported talk of buying by a Swiss bank, perhaps covering a short position ahead of the ECB meeting. “For the next couple of days we have such a heavy events schedule, with the ECB tomorrow and then US payrolls on Friday, that I think we are looking at the market battening down the hatches,” said Ned Rumpeltin, head of G10 FX strategy at Standard Chartered.

The dollar, meanwhile, pared its recent gains against a basket of major currencies and dipped 0.2 percent, even while it edged up on the Japanese yen to 98.64. Comments from Fed policymaker John Williams who said the central bank should wait for stronger evidence of growth momentum before trimming bond-buying helped balance out a surprisingly strong US service sector report. There was also strong interest in a couple of research papers from top Fed officials suggesting there was scope for the central bank to provide even more stimulus to the economy and more relaxed thresholds for when to raise rates. Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman Sachs, felt the papers were important enough to alter his outlook for policy. “The studies suggest that some of the most senior Fed staffers see strong arguments for a significantly greater amount of monetary stimulus,” he wrote in a note to clients. “Our central case is

TOKYO: A man stops at a crossing outside a securities firm in Tokyo. Asian stock markets mostly flitted between gains and losses yesterday after an improvement in US service industries reinforced expectations the Federal Reserve will reduce monetary stimulus that has propelled stocks higher. —AP now that the FOMC will reduce the threshold from 6.5 percent to 6 percent at the March Open Market Committee meeting.”

BONDS NUDGE UP That helped Treasury prices and trimmed yields on 10-year notes by 15 basis points to 2.6476 percent, while German Bunds matched the moves in Europe. Asian markets for the most part had moved sideways in face of the uncertainty over US and European monetary policy, though Japanese stocks managed to buck the trend thanks to gains in major car makers.

Excitement was otherwise sorely lacking, with MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan barely moved. Australia’s main index was all but flat, while shares in Shanghai dipped. Investors mostly took their cue from Wall Street, which ended lower on Tuesday after the Institute for Supply Management’s October read on US services came in at a surprisingly strong 55.4.

Oil rises to $106 LONDON: Brent oil rose to $106 a barrel yesterday, supported by a fall in US oil product inventories and worries about prolonged weakness in supply from Libya as the peak winter heating season looms. Brent crude gained 68 cents to $106.01 a barrel by 0848 GMT, after settling 90 cents lower at a four-month low in the previous session. US oil rose 70 cents to $94.07, after ending $1.25 down at its lowest in five months.

Data from industry group the American Petroleum Institute (API) showed that gasoline stocks fell 4.3 million barrels, far below analysts’ expectations of a 338,000-barrel draw. Distillate fuel stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 2.73 million barrels compared with expectations of a 1.3 million-barrel drop.

However analysts said the overall picture was still negative for oil. “I would attribute (the market’s rise) to a countermove after heavy losses in the previous day,” said Carsten Fritsch, analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt.

Overall crude inventories rose by 871,000 barrels in the week to Nov 1 to 382 million barrels, posting a seventh straight weekly increase.

“The general picture is still bearish,” Fritsch said.

“Note that API crude stocks rose despite sharply higher refinery utilization.” Investors are now waiting for stockpile data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) for clarity on demand at 1530 GMT. LIBYAN TURMOIL Turmoil in Libya continued to worry oil investors. Militia fighters on the government payroll fought each other on the streets of Tripoli in the worst clashes in the capital in weeks, highlighting the government’s inability to secure oil fields and ports. Strikes and armed protests have shut much of the OPEC member’s oil output for months. However, continued progress in talks between Iran and the West over Tehran’s nuclear program is taking some of the risk premium away from the market, helping cap gains.

Iran’s top negotiator said that a framework deal on its nuclear program was possible as early as this week. Iran resumes negotiations in Geneva today with six world powers to try to end a stand-off over its program, which the West suspects may be aimed at developing nuclear weapons, despite Iran’s denials. Gains were also capped after a report from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) showed US service-sector business activity picked up, spurring speculation that the US Federal Reserve may begin to scale back monetary stimulus later this year. A roll-back would boost the dollar, making dollar-denominated assets such as oil more expensive for holders of other currencies.—Reuters

While evidence of economic resilience was welcome, it also adds to the case for the Fed to wind back its bond buying program. Most analysts still favor March as the window for a move, but a shift in December is a growing risk. New Zealand also added to the run of better global economic news as employment jumped well past forecasts. It prompted investors to bring forward rate hike expectations. The country’s dollar climbed a third of a US cent to $0.8386.

In commodity markets, gold was a few bucks firmer at $1,314.71 and trying to stabilize after seven straight sessions of losses. Copper rose 0.2 percent. Oil prices recouped just a little of their recent losses, which had seen US crude end at a five-month trough on Tuesday. Growing US supplies have continued to pressure oil prices, with US crude ending on Tuesday at a five-month low. Brent crude regained 80 cents to $106.16 a barrel, while NYMEX crude futures bounced 82 cents to $94.18.— Reuters

Gold halts losing streak Physical demand soft, Indian premiums halve LONDON: Gold advanced yesterday, halting its longest losing streak in nearly six months as the dollar fell on continued talks of extending the lifespan of the US Federal Reserve’s stimulus. Comments from Fed policymaker John Williams who said the central bank should wait for stronger evidence of growth momentum before trimming bond-buying helped balance out a surprisingly strong US service sector report on Tuesday.

The timing of any tapering of the Fed’s $85 billion in monthly bond purchases has been a key factor driving gold prices this year. The metal has lost a fifth of its value so far on fears the Fed would start cutting back its stimulus.

Recent mixed economic data, however, has cast doubts over the real strength of the US economy, leaving markets to speculate whether the Fed would act before year-end.

Spot gold was up 0.5 percent at $1,317.35 an ounce by 1051 GMT. The metal had dropped 3 percent over the past seven sessions and analysts see it still vulnerable to break below the $1,300 mark if US data shows a pick-up in the economy. Comex gold futures for December rose $9.20 to $1,317.30 an ounce. Volumes have been very low over the past few sessions and investors are expected to remain cautious ahead of the non-farm payrolls report on Friday, which could give more clues on the state of the U.S. economy and the future of the Fed’s stimulus.

“The non-farm payrolls are coming on Friday and tomorrow we have the ECB and the BoE meetings on interest rates,” MKS SA head of trading Afshin Nabavi said. “Markets are a little bit hesitant, waiting for some kind of direction ... gold seems to have found support at $1,306, while $1,321 is a good resistance level.”

The euro rose against the dollar as investors waited to find out what steps the European Central Bank (ECB) might signal at its policy meeting today. “The ECB is expected to keep rates on hold, but the relative dollar strength against the single currency is still important to keep an eye on as far as bullion is concerned,” VTB Capital said in a note.

On the physical side, demand has failed to pick up robustly, as traders await for clearer price direction. “Physical demand is quietening down and people are hoping to buy at cheaper levels in the Far East, where there is interest but no orders yet,” Nabavi from MKS said. Gold premiums in India halved on Tuesday from last week because of unusually muted demand during the festival season and as supply was set to improve after some importing agencies began purchasing for domestic use. Spot silver rose 1.3 percent to $21.92 an ounce. Spot platinum gained 0.6 percent to $1,456.20 an ounce and spot palladium rose to its highest level since Aug. 19 at $759.75 an ounce earlier in the day.— Reuters

Yunus blasts Bangladesh over Grameen Bank ‘destruction’ DHAKA: Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus yesterday blasted the Bangladesh government after it passed a law he said would pave the way for the “ultimate destruction” of Grameen Bank, the pioneering microlender he founded. The bill passed by parliament late Tuesday tightens the government’s grip on the bank set up to fight poverty, and brings it under ever closer control of the central bank. Yunus, who was ousted from the lender in 2011 in what was seen as a politically engineered move, condemned the new law and said it “created the opportunity for the government to take 100 percent control of the bank”, with which he shared the Nobel.

“Grameen Bank was created as a bank owned by poor women, and managed by poor women. Its legal structure did not allow any government interference of any kind, except for regulatory oversight,” he said in a statement. “These amendments fundamentally change the character of the bank. With these amendments, the government has opened the door for its ultimate destruction.

What a shame for the nation, and the whole world!” “I feel extremely sorry that the nation has to go through the unnecessary traumatic experience of seeing a great global iconic institution, created by this nation, be brutally harmed by a group of irresponsible and thoughtless people,” he added. Finance Minister A M A Muhith defended the new law, saying it was a constitutional requirement because the original ordinance that created the bank in 1983 during military rule must be passed by parliament.

“The Supreme Court has outlawed all ordinances that were enacted by the military regime,” he said on Tuesday. The new law replaced the Grameen Bank Ordinance but also made some amendments, bringing its finances under close supervision of the central bank and raising its authorized capital level. From now on the bank’s new branches must also be approved by the central bank and it cannot run any business beyond its mandated area of lending to landless entrepreneurs in rural areas.—AFP

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

BUSINESS

China seeks world role for ‘people’s money’ BEIJING: With deals from London to Singapore, China is seeking a greater role for its yuan currency in global markets to challenge the hegemony of the almighty dollar.

The most attention-grabbing reform planned for Shanghai’s new free trade zone is free convertibility of the yuan-also known as the renminbi, or “people’s money”-an unprecedented change which would allow greater use of the currency.

But no timetable has been specified, and a true contest between Mao Zedong, Communist China’s founding father whose face is emblazoned on most yuan notes, and Benjamin Franklin on the $100 bill will be years in the making. For decades the US has benefited to the tune of trillions of dollarsworth of free credit from the greenback’s role as the default global reserve unit. But as the global economy trembled before the prospect of a US default last month, only averted when Washington reached a deal to raise its debt ceiling, China’s official Xinhua news agency called for a “de-Americanised” world.

It also urged the creation of a “new international reserve currency... to replace the dominant US dollar”. For China-which has the world’s biggest foreign exchange reserves-the immediate appeal of a greater role for the yuan is lubricating trade flows and drawing foreign investment.

“Policymakers have made new efforts to

increase the attraction of the renminbi in global markets,” said Capital Economics analyst Wang Qinwei.

He pointed to a deal with Britain in October allowing London-based institutions to invest directly in China-avoiding an expensive detour via Hong Kong-with an initial quota of 80 billion yuan ($12.9 billion).

A week later Beijing signed a similar 50 billion yuan agreement with Singapore.

China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China, also signed a currency swap deal with the European Central Bank last month for 45 billion euros ($61 billion), giving eurozone banks greater access to the yuan.

In the run-up to an important plenum of the ruling Communist Party, Zhao Longkai of the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University, said the measures were “important steps” but added that progress was likely to be slow. “We take gradual steps, so that’s what China will do,” he told AFP. “It’s China, it’s hard to talk about any dramatic changes.” “China has to be very careful about this because... we want to maintain the value of the currency,” he added.

The yuan-dollar exchange rate is effectively controlled by Chinese authorities, and the relaxation of strict capital controls could see funds flow out of China. Since January, the yuan has strengthened by more than two percent, setting a series of record highs

and creeping towards the symbolically significant 6.0 yuan to the greenback mark. The Chinese central bank has been “purchasing foreign exchange at a frantic rate in recent weeks... underlining again how reluctant policymakers are to leave the renminbi in the hands of market forces,” said Wang of Capital Economics. “Among many other implications, this suggests that capital account liberalization is a long way off.”

But investors’ lust for yuan shows no sign of weakening. It became the world’s eighth most-traded currency this year, overtaking the Russian ruble and South Korean won, according to the interbank network Swift.

Yuan currency trading volumes more than doubled between January 2012 and August this year, when it held a 1.49 percent global market share, it added. Outside China and Hong Kong, London saw 62 percent of the transactions by value, followed by New York and Paris.

The market for “dim sum” bonds, denominated in yuan and issued in Hong Kong, is small but growing rapidly: the total issued in the first nine months of this year was 65 percent higher than that for all of 2012, according to ratings agency Fitch. The yuan will become the world’s fourth most commonly used currency in international trade by 2020, with $3 trillion-worth of business denominated in yuan, estimates Standard Chartered economist Stephen Green.

But Jens Nordvig, global head of foreign exchange strategy for investment bank Nomura, warned that internationalization of the unit could only occur “over a multi-year horizon”. China needs free convertibility on the capital account and developed capital

markets, he said. At present the yuan is only convertible on the current account, consisting mainly of trade flows. “First, it needs to be super liquid and second it needs to be available for global investors,” he said, “neither of which are fully developed in China”. — AFP

BEIJING: A woman walks past an automated teller machine (ATM) at the entrance of a bank in Beijing yesterday. With deals from London to Singapore, China is seeking a greater role for its yuan currency in global markets to challenge the hegemony of the almighty dollar. — AFP

Experian halts share buyback after $850 million acquisition Bank of America Merrill Lynch downgrades stock

Al Ghurair Group’s REFCO opens new aluminum downstream plant DUBAI: Royal Engineering Fabrication Company (REFCO) LLC, a fully-owned subsidiary of the Al Ghurair Group supplying fabricated components to the automotive, nonautomotive and architectural sectors, opened its new aluminum downstream plant at Jebel Ali Industrial Area in Dubai on Tuesday, November 5, 2013. The UAE’s largest aluminum producers including Dubal, Emal and Gulf Extrusions will be the chief suppliers for the state-of-the-art facility.

The opening was attended by Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, CEO and MD Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, Majid Al Ghurair, CEO of Al Ghurair Group, Modar Al Mekdad, General Manager of Gulf Extrusions, Matthew Webb, General Manager of REFCO and representatives of Emal and Dubal. The ceremony was followed by a tour of REFCO’s outfit.

Additionally, the plant inauguration was also officially announced on the same day at the 17th Arab International Aluminum Conference (ARABAL), the premier trade event of the Middle East’s aluminum industry.

Several delegates from this event, ongoing until November 7, 2013, also took the time out to visit the plant.

Majid Al Ghurair, CEO of Al Ghurair Group, said: “The opening is a reflection of Al Ghurair Group’s commitment to building a truly world class downstream supplier within the UAE to support its long-term industrial strategy. The new plant, while adopting the latest advanced technologies and the highest standards in sustainability and environmental conservation, will propel our country’s economy by boosting its aluminum products

export, particularly for the automotive sector.”

“This is a major step towards enhancing our footprint and reputation within the Tier 1, Automotive, Non Automotive, Aerospace and Architectural business portfolios. With increased production capacity, we are now better positioned to capitalize on the region’s abundant supply of aluminum to ensure customer advantages on three key aspects, namely Quality, Cost and Delivery. It will improve not just REFCO’s competitive advantage, but the UAE’s as well in the global market,” added Matthew Webb, General Manager of REFCO. In 2013, REFCO will produce over 1.3 million parts for premium vehicle manufactures, while its growth forecast for next year is 1.9 million parts. Besides, creating value within the downstream aluminum sector, the company will also play a big role in encouraging local industries to generate 100 per cent UAEmade products.

Royal Engineering Fabrication Company, a Member of Metals Industries - Al Ghurair Group, is the first organization of its kind in the region and has been established in Dubai as a global leader of value added fabricated extrusion.

REFCO provides finished, pressed, machined and formed parts to the global automotive sector, supplying on time through an infrastructure of local distribution points into Eastern Europe, Germany, France, Italy, UK and Mexico. It is considered as a grade A supplier of automotive parts, while as an extruded alloy fabrication and surface treatment specialist, REFCO supplies world class finished alloy product to its customers.

Zain announces the Hackathon Challenge KUWAIT: Zain, the leading telecommunications company in the Middle East and Africa, announces the introduction of the ‘Zain Hackathon’, in partnership with SLA Mobile. This gives Zain the precedence among the region’s mobile operators in launching a Direct Operator Billing challenge to developers and the wider public, whereby winners can earn a total of prizes worth of $15,000.

The Zain Hackathon challenge has been launched to drive innovation and recognize participants’ skills in the development of apps that monetize network assets. The challenge is to design a fully functional mobile app which uses our service partner SLA Mobile’s frictionless Direct Operator Billing APIs and engages Zain customers in any of the following categories: Games, News, Entertainment, Utilities, Social Network, Sports, Travel, Search Tools and Weather.

Direct Operator Billing presents a real opportunity for mobile operators and marketing partners to meet consumers’ need for a real-time way to pay for goods and services without the use of credit card details.

Transactions appear on the customer’s mobile phone bill. Prepay customers simply pay using their credit balance. Direct Operator Billing is a simple and secure, one-

click purchase experience.

Eligibility to participate in the challenge is open to all individuals and entities that reside in a country in which Zain operates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, South Sudan and Sudan. The first place winner of the ‘best app’ category will be rewarded with $10,000, while the second place prize for the ‘most innovative app’ will be $4,000, and the third place prize for the ‘most promising app’ will be $1,000. The rewards extend to include revenue shares from any roll outs of the winners’ applications to any of the Zain operations.

Registration for the challenge is now open and will close on 15 November. App submissions will start on 17 November until 23 November, and the judging phase will take place between 24 November and 28 November when the winners will be announced. Following that, the award ceremony will occur on the last day of Zain Technology Conference (ZTC) on 3 December 2013. ZTC is a three day event that brings Zain Group and its operating companies together with leading technology providers and partners holding interactive discussions, presentations, technical solutions demos, and information exchange, helping to align technological outlooks.

LONDON: British credit data provider Experian said it would suspend a $500 million share buyback program after agreeing to buy a US healthcare data firm for $850 million, sending its shares lower yesterday. Experian’s acquisition of Passport Health Communications follows its $324 million deal to buy US fraud detection firm, 41st Parameter, last month.

The British company first entered the US healthcare payments market five years ago and has steadily expanded its position through investments and acquisitions. Experian had also spent $322 million on buying back shares from investors at the end of September, having com-

mitted in May to buying back half a billion dollars worth in the next 12 months.

The company, best known for running consumer credit checks for banks, landlords and retailers, said it would stop returning money to shareholders via the buyback following its latest acquisition. “There’s a little bit left to go but it doesn’t make sense to continue, Chief Executive Don Robert said. However Robert said the group planned to continue to increase its dividend payouts to shareholders. The group is paying an interim dividend of 11.5 cents per share, up 7 percent. Experian reported a 2 percent rise in first-half pretax profit to $573 million. Revenue

from continuing businesses rose 6 percent.

Robert said he expects organic revenue growth to be in a similar range as in the first half.

Shares in Experian, which have risen by 28 percent since the start of the year, were down 6.6 percent at 0930 GMT. Bank of America Merrill Lynch downgraded the stock to “neutral” from “buy”, citing the stock’s high valuation and disappointment over its rate of organic growth.

“Investors may also question the shift in capital allocation to more expensive M&A,” it said.

Experian said it would fund the acquisition of Passport Health Communications with its existing debt facilities. — Reuters

Libya has trouble importing food TRIPOLI: Payments problems, chaos and corruption are hampering Libyan importers from making big deals to buy wheat, another setback as the country spins out of control two years after dictator Muammar Gaddafi was toppled by rebels and NATO warplanes. In the latest disruption, the biggest wheat importer Mahatan Tripoli, which supplies most of the capital’s bread, says it may have to put off its next major wheat purchase unless the state starts paying it nearly $100 million owed for previous imports.

For months, rogue militia members have disrupted Libya’s oil exports, the main source of funding for a state that feeds its six million people with subsidized bread handed out for as little as 2 US cents a loaf. There are no signs of food shortages - quite the opposite: bread is still plentiful and cheap. But global grain traders say big Libyan buyers are now having difficulty arranging import deals. Exporters abroad are worried about being paid on time, and about the additional risks of unloading ships in chaotic ports where armed militia members run rampant.

The chairman of Matahan Tripoli, which buys wheat on international markets and sells flour and other processed foods to the state’s subsidized distribution system, said the government owed it $96.7 million. “If we don’t get paid within two weeks then we don’t have the funds to open new credit letters and make purchases again,” Mustafa Abdel-Majid Idris said. Without the state funds, the formerly state-owned milling firm would have to delay an order of 50,000 tons of wheat, intended to help feed the capital for three months, Idris said.

The Libyan government insists the country will not have trouble financing its imports.

Economy Minister Mustafa Abu Fanas said Libya would sort out any tender problems of private importers. “We monitor and control the private sector if there are any problems to facilitate trade exchange through our economic relations...and fix some problems imports face,” he said. But in a country where the prime minister was abducted last month by gun-toting militia members, the government’s ability to deliver on its promises is always in doubt.

Under a system that has grown far less centralized since the civil war that toppled Gaddafi, Libya’s state no longer imports huge quantities of wheat itself, but instead mostly pays for around 35 private milling firms to do the importing.

The largest is Matahan Tripoli, which was owned by the state under Gaddafi and milled about 40 percent of Libya’s imported wheat, supplying the capital with pasta, semolina, animal feed and other products as well as flour for subsidized bakeries. It is now a private firm.

Idriss said the government had promised to pay for private companies to import even more wheat than usual this year and was now having difficulty meeting those pledges. “They opened many credit letters because they were worried people might be dying of hunger,” he said. “Now the state is obliged to pay what it has contracted... It now faces difficulties to solve the problem.” He said the rise in the number of contracted tenders would force the government to spend some 1.5 billion Libyan dinars ($1.21 billion) on bread subsidies this year, 500 million

dinars more than it usually pays.

Foreign trade and shipping sources say some exporters have become more reluctant to deal with Libya. Cargoes shipped to Libya have been smaller sized in recent months. “The overall climate there is chaotic. You are seeing more wariness from the international trade to get involved in commodities deals,” said a Middle East-based trade source. “There are also payment issues and letters of credit are taking a long time to be opened. There is also the country risk and the discharge and demurrage risk,” the Middle East trade source said. Demurrage refers to costs that shippers can face if unloading cargo is unexpectedly delayed. Since Gaddafi was deposed in the only one of the “Arab Spring” revolts that drew in major Western military involvement, Libya’s central government has failed to tame rogue militias or bring security to the country.

Unlike poorer Arab states that saw revolts in 2011, Libya’s oil wealth allows it to guarantee a decent quality of life to most of its comparatively small population. But it also means the public depends on the unraveling state for food and jobs.The situation worsened sharply this summer when militias managed to block most oil

“The lack of supervision and uncertainty means corruption is becoming endemic. It is a nightmare trying to do business with the government.” Another European trader said the situation appeared to be more difficult in western Libya near the capital Tripoli than in the east, where the main mill for the city of Benghazi succeeded in buying 50,000 tons of wheat last week. “In my view the Tripoli agencies are almost at a standstill. The Benghazi agency did buy 50,000 tons of wheat but naturally there are concerns it will actually be paid for. I would expect the Benghazi agency to pay.”

WEANING PUBLIC Ultimately, Libya’s government may have to wean the public off such lavish subsidies, which provide bread so cheaply that the authorities believe 40 percent of it is simply wasted. Forty bread loaves cost only as much as a single can of Coca-Cola. Libyans sometimes feed bread to their animals. Much of it is tossed in the bin.

“Few people buy fewer than ten loaves,” said Massoud Gampalo, who runs a busy Tripoli bakery, describing customers who load up plastic bags with cheap bread. While he was talking a

ZAWIYA: Oil workers from the Libyan National oil and gas company walk at the the Zawiya oil installation. Talks between Libyan authorities and protesters blockading oil terminals have reached a deadlock after three months, a negotiator warned, prolonging a crisis that has cost the country an estimated $13 billion. - AFP

exports at ports, cutting off the government’s main source of revenue. While the central bank has built up sizable reserves from oil sales, Prime Minister Ali Zeidan said last month the opposition in parliament was deliberately blocking budget payments in a bid to bring down his government.

A European trader said he believed Libya still had enough funds to pay for food imports, but corruption and confusion were making it impossible to strike big deals. “I think the problems are with the governmental chaos and the rising corruption this is in turn creating rather than lack of money. I think money is available but the government is hardly functioning in some regions and cannot pay it out.

customer stuffed some 50 small baguettes into a box. Libya imported a staggering 1.8 million tons of wheat last year - nearly six kilos per person per week. Data from the International Grains Council predicts imports falling slightly to 1.7 million tons this year. Some of the subsidized wheat is diverted through corruption or smuggled to neighboring countries for sale at market prices. In a desert country with only a small strip of fertile land along the coast, domestic production is meager. It is expected to total just 100,000 tons this year, down from 260,000 in 2010, largely due to power cuts and damage to machinery from the 2011 war, said Ali Ahmed Ruhuma, head of the wheat production authority.— Reuters

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

BUSINESS

Premium models continue to drive growth in Kuwait KUWAIT: Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive, the BMW Group importer in Kuwait, has announced a 33% sales growth for BMW and MINI for the first nine months of 2013 compared to the same period in 2012. Year to date sales of vehicles sold to customers make Kuwait the third biggest market after the UAE and Saudi Arabia in terms of the number of BMW and MINI cars sold in the Middle East.

Testament to the strength of the Kuwait market, these figures highlight the continued demand for BMW Group vehicles and the importance of Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive’s on-going focus on exceptional customer service, an extensive product offering and premium facilities to cater for the brands’ on-going growth.

The biggest seller across the product range has continued throughout the year to be the 5 Series which aside from being the world’s best-selling vehicle in the executive saloon segment, it accounted for an 11% increase in registrations. The recent launch of the new BMW 5 Series is expected to continue to drive sales for the executive saloon.

The BMW 7 Series - the leader in the premium luxury segment continues to be one of the best-selling vehicles from Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive. The successful launch of the latest generation BMW 7 Series late last year has

continued to flow through into the first nine months of this year and be a positive contributor to the BMW Group’s overall outlook for 2013 in the Kuwait. With a sales increase of 102% compared to the same period in 2012, the BMW 7 Series continues to be a key driver of growth for the BMW brand in the Kuwait.

Commenting on the exceptional performance, Yousef Al Qatami, General Manager, Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive said: “It comes as no surprise that the BMW 7 Series continues to be a key driver of growth in Kuwait. It truly is the epitome of luxury and the clear leader in the premium luxury segment in our market.

Customers in Kuwait are extremely discerning and consistently demand the best in motoring and our growth figures are a clear testament to this. We are confident that both our product offering as well as our commitment to customer service will ensure that we will end the year with a phenomenal success.”

The ever-popular 3 Series continues to maintain its position as the world’s best-selling premium car with a 34% increase in sales for Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive as more supply of the new model filters through to the region. The recent introduction of the BMW 3 Series Gran Turismo will ensure that this popular model continues on its successful path in the Kuwait.

Qatar spending rules aim to avoid state debt overload Doha aims to avert any Dubai-style debt crisis

Al Ahli Bank hands Fiat 500C key to the winner KUWAIT: Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait brought it’s APlus account’s popular Fiat 500C promotion to a conclusive end, with the announcement of the winner. The campaign gave students who joined APlus a chance to win a Fiat 500C car. The draw was held at the Head Office on the 30th October in the presence of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry representative.

Mohammad S Alseraji from Al Zahraa branch was declared the lucky winner of the car.

Stewart Lockie, GM Retail Banking, pre-

sented the car keys to the winner and said, “At the outset, I would like to congratulate Alseraji for winning the Fiat 500C car. We are delighted that during this promotion a large number of students opened the APlus account; APlus grants students various benefits and privileges, in addition to receiving discounts at stores across Kuwait through the ‘ABK Advantage’ program.”

Lockie added, “Our offers and campaigns are ongoing throughout the year, and we will continue designing more such to suit the needs of our APlus customers.”

Turkey lira, rouble bonds to join Barclays Global Index LONDON: Russian and Turkish local currency bonds may receive billions of dollars in capital inflows after their inclusion into a flagship global index, a vote of confidence for markets that are just recovering from a bruising summer selloff. Being part of a widely-used index tends to bring in cash because investment funds tracking the index will have to make room in their portfolios for the bond or stock in question.

Barclays said government bonds in rouble and lira would enter the Barclays Global Aggregate Index from March 31 2014, joining the 22 currencies already included.

Although the index share - 0.14 for Turkey and 0.17 for Russia-is small, it will give investors extra access to two important emerging markets and their high yielding bonds. The two countries’ foreign currency debt is already included.

“The weights are optically modest, but the amount tracking the index is sizeable.

We estimate potential tracking flows of $2.5-3.0 billion to Russia and $2.0-2.2 billion to Turkey,” Barclays told clients late on Tuesday. Barclays does not disclose how much investor cash is benchmarked against its indices but it said: “There should be a positive sentiment effect from index inclusion for both local markets, as the inclusion is not a mechanical process but relies also on the input of investors.”

To qualify for inclusion in the Global Aggregate Index a credit must have an investment-grade rating and a freely traded, convertible currency. There must also be a liquid forward market that allows investors to hedge their currency exposure. Russian hard currency bonds have been in the Barclays index since 2008, while Turkish dollar and euro-denominated government bonds joined in June 2013 following the sovereign’s promotion to investment grade.

VOTE OF CONFIDENCE Investors did not expect any immediate

reaction, with flows from tracking funds seen materializing only after March 31. “It’s clearly a very big index and it’s very important. (But) Turkey and Russia are going to be very small in the index,” said Angus Halkett, a portfolio manager at Stone Harbor Investments. UBS strategist Manik Narain said both markets had taken in huge inflows earlier this year, with Russian OFZ debt especially benefiting from liberalization of the rouble bond market.

Since February, foreign investors buying OFZ bonds have been able to process them through international clearing houses Euroclear and Clearstream, enjoying easier and quicker access to the market. “I think most of the investors who wanted exposure to these bonds will have already gotten in after Euroclearability in Russia was announced last year and Turkey’s upgrade to investment grade,” Narain said.

Russia is likely to benefit more from the move, he said noting that foreign holdings of Turkish and Russian debt are currently around $57 billion and $26 billion respectively. The other important effect is psychological. The lira and rouble were among those bruised by the selloff that hit emerging markets from May-August, with the former plunging to record lows against the dollar. But Barclays said the decision to include these currencies into the index had been endorsed by investors.

“This is further evidence of the increasing trend of emerging markets issuance becoming eligible for the mainstream benchmark fixed income indices,” it said.

Emerging currencies already represented in the index are Mexican peso, Polish zloty, South African rand, Malaysian ringitt, Thai baht, Singapore dollar, Israeli shekel, Czech crown, Hong Kong dollar and Chilean peso. Inclusion of lira and rouble bonds will bring the emerging markets component of the index to 5.6 percent, Barclays said, contrasting this a 0.38 percent share in 1999.— Reuters

DUBAI: State-owned companies in Qatar must now seek approval from the Ministry of Finance before undertaking any borrowing activity, banking sources said yesterday, as the tiny state looks to avoid unsustainable debt levels in a rush for growth. The new guidelines aim to add more centralized control to the borrowing process at a time when the country is spending billions of dollars to develop its infrastructure and prepare to host the 2022 soccer World Cup. With a population of just 2.1 million, Qatar envisages investing about $140 billion over the next decade on a rail system, a new airport, a seaport, and hundreds of kilometers of major new roads in addition to stadiums for the soccer tournament. If it is not managed carefully, the spending could destabilize the economy by inflating real estate prices and saddling companies with excessive debt, conceivably leading to the kind of crash which hit Dubai in 2009-2010.

“When you have a lot of government-related entities borrowing simultaneously there can be an issue with coordination and build-up of contingent liabilities that, as we’ve seen, can really hurt the lending banks,” said Khalid Howladar,

banking analyst at Moody’s Investors Service, referring to the experience of the United Arab Emirates. “Any additional financial discipline and transparency around the overall debt build-up is positive, particularly in light of Qatar’s spending plans and the role of the local and regional banks in funding these projects.”

Qatari companies with a “significant” government shareholding must now obtain the ministry’s approval for all exposures that create a potential obligation, including loans from banks, bond issues, derivatives trades and hedges, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to talk to media.

There was no definition for what constitutes “significant”. Senior Qatari officials could not be contacted on Tuesday to discuss the rules, contained in a circular from the ministry sent out in late October.

Qatar Petroleum (QP), the state-owned energy firm, and its subsidiaries are excluded from the order, which the bankers attributed to its huge cash-generating ability. The oil and gas sector generated over half of Qatar’s gross domestic product in 2012, according to the Qatar Statistics

Authority. QP controls the infrastructure, either wholly or through majority stakes in joint ventures with international energy firms.

While growth of total bank lending in Qatar fell in September to its lowest level since May 2011, it was still high by international standards at 13 percent year-on-year, according to central bank data. Qatari banks have largely avoided the billions of dollars of loan loss provisions which banks in the UAE have had to make in the last few years, thanks to government support including purchases of real estate assets.

However, they haven’t been immune to problems - Commercial Bank of Qatar, the secondlargest lender by assets, posted falls in net profit in the last two quarters because of higher provisions, including one on a domestic real estate loan. Some other countries in the Gulf have taken steps resembling Qatar’s since the global financial crisis. Abu Dhabi set up a debt management office to coordinate borrowing by government-related entities after the crisis in neighboring Dubai, which resulted in a $20 billion bailout and massive debt restructurings at statelinked entities.— Reuters

New Saudi refinery loads second diesel SINGAPORE: Saudi Aramco Total Refining and Petrochemical Company (SATORP) has loaded its second diesel cargo from its new Jubail refinery, industry sources said yesterday. The cargo from the 400,000-barrels-per-day Jubail refinery is expected to remain within Saudi Arabia, they added. The new refinery-a joint venture by France’s Total and Saudi Aramco-is expected to reach full capacity by the end of this year and will help feed rising domestic demand, cutting the country’s dependence on fuel imports. Saudi Aramco loaded the refinery’s second diesel cargo in early November, which will be for its own use, one of the sources close to the matter said.

The exact sulphur specification of the cargo could not be confirmed, but it is probably diesel with 3 partsper-million (ppm) sulphur, similar to the first cargo shipped from the refinery, traders said. “The sulphur content is low as the refinery is processing Arab Light crude now,” a Gulf-based trader said. The refinery is designed to eventually process Arab Heavy crude, with diesel cargoes likely to be of 10 ppm sulphur, traders have said.

Total loaded the first diesel cargo from the refinery in October, instead of September as initially expected due to “teething issues” in starting up the refinery, traders added. The first diesel cargo headed to East Africa, they said. “The cold properties in the cargo probably didn’t match Europe specs so even though the sulphur content was low, they had to ship it to Africa,” a second Gulfbased trader said, though this could not be confirmed with Total.

Saudi Aramco has however still not sold a jet fuel cargo it was offering from the new refinery, a second source close to the matter said. Apart from diesel, the refinery has so far sold a fuel oil cargo that loaded in late September and a naphtha cargo which loaded in lateOctober. Traders are also keeping an eye on Saudi Aramco’s term imports. Lower overseas purchases for next year could have a significant impact on term premiums being negotiated.

Saudi Aramco has a term contract to lift unspecified volumes from India’s Reliance and from Gulf refiners, traders said. The firm has not decided if it will finalize a term contract for next year to import diesel or look to the spot market to meet domestic demand, the first source close to the matter said. Aramco relies heavily on imported diesel in summer when demand for electricity peaks with rising use of air-conditioning as temperatures can soar to a grilling 50 degrees Celsius. — Reuters

Markaz named ‘Best Asset Manager in Kuwait 2013’ KUWAIT: Kuwait Financial Centre “Markaz” announced winning the “Best Asset Manager in Kuwait - 2013” award by Global Investor magazine, a Euromoney publication specialized in finance and investment. The award’s judges selected Markaz based on the company’s healthy balance sheet; the performance and diversity of its product offerings; its innovation in creating new investment products; its high level of corporate governance; and its sustainable growth in market share, assets under management and client base.

In light of this achievement, Mohamed Alsaad, Vice President - MENA Equities Department at Markaz said: “We would like to thank Global Investor Magazine for granting Markaz the ‘Best Asset Manager in Kuwait’ award for the fourth consecutive year. This achievement is a testament of our team’s effort to achieve our investment objectives by offering versatile products and constantly improve our ability to appropriately allocate our assets based on well-researched policies

that guarantees achieving the best possible returns amidst a highly volatile investment climate.”

He added: “Markaz ability to reap prestigious awards year after year is a result of our prudent risk management policies amidst the current circumstances in both local and international markets, in addition to our commitment towards achieving the best results for our investors by backing up our investment decision with well-rounded research and investing in quality assets.

It is also a result of our constant revision of our risk management policies to ensure its compatibility with the rapidly changing investment environment.” Markaz’s track record in asset management in Kuwait and the GCC extends back to almost three decades. In 1983, the company started offering portfolio management services in the Kuwaiti Market, and in 1999 Markaz entered the fund management field and since then has produced and managed several award winning funds.

Yakuza’s loans scandal claims another lender TOKYO: A major Japanese credit company said yesterday it had lent money to yakuza gangsters in a widening scandal that is sweeping through the country’s banking system. The admission by JACCS, a unit of Japan’s largest lender Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, is the latest in a growing line and comes as a government agency says it will buy shady loans to help companies keep their balance sheets clean.

A spokesman for JACCS said an inspection of its books had revealed several instances of its lending cash to figures with links to Japan’s underworld.

“Those cases were found linked to anti-social individuals after the initial screenings,” said the spokesman.

He refused to give an exact number, but admitted it was “more than one but still single digit”. The scandal has gripped Japan’s banking sector since Mizuho Financial Group came under fire in September for the revelation that it had processed hundreds of loans worth about $2 million to mobsters.

A panel of lawyers hired by Mizuho to probe the transactions said last week that “many officials and board members were aware of, or were in a position to be aware of, the issue”. “However they failed to recognize it as a problem, believing that the compliance division... was taking care of it,” said the panel’s 100page report. The company said 54 former and cur-

rent executives would be punished, including Mizuho Bank chairman Takashi Tsukamoto, who would step down from his post but stay on as head of the parent company. In the wake of that report, Japan’s financial watchdog said it would probe the country’s top three banks-Mizuho, Mitsubishi UFJ and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.-in an effort to weed out the practice of offering loans to the underworld. Like the Italian mafia or Chinese triads, the yakuza engage in activities ranging from gambling, drugs, and prostitution to loan sharking, protection rackets, white-collar crime and business conducted through front companies. —AFP

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

technology

World cyber-security leaders call for cooperation STANFORD: Governments and businesses spend $1 trillion a year for global cyber-security, but unlike wartime casualties or oil spills, there’s no clear idea what the total losses are because few will admit they’ve been compromised. Cyber-security leaders from more than 40 countries are gathering at Stanford University this week to consider tackling that information gap by creating a single, trusted entity that would keep track of how much hackers steal. Chinese Minister Cai Mingzhao acknowledged there are issues of trust to overcome - with some US cyber-security firms pointing to attacks coming from the Chinese military. But he said countries must work together.

“In cyberspace, all countries face the same prob-

lems and ultimately share the same fate,” he said.

Mingzhao also urged counterparts to establish new international rules for behavior in cyberspace, a move State Department cyber issues coordinator Christopher Painter said isn’t necessary. “I don’t think we need a new global instrument for all these different issues,” he said, noting the adopting worldwide rules would take 5 to 10 years “and you end up with something that’s not as strong as what we have now.”

Painter, who spoke after Mingzhao, said a USChina joint cyber-security working group announced

by Secretary of State John Kerry in April has already met once and is moving forward on cooperating against third party threats. It’s crucial work, said

Stanford University economics professor John Shoven, who directs the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. He warned of the “tremendous disruption the lack of trust in the security of the Web would do to the economy.” “We can’t let that happen,” said Shoven.

Sergio Benedetto, president of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Communications Society, noted that the Internet can be mysteries for non-experts. “For many diplomats and politicians, the world of cyberspace is still like a roomful of scattered puzzles,” he said. Thus, he said, scientists need to be a part of important global discussions.

One key initiative many agreed on was to create the first worldwide, high level benchmarks for cyber-

security, in hopes of getting better assessments of the frequency and damages of cyber-security compromises. The Cyberspace Cooperation Summit was the fourth annual gathering sponsored in part by the EastWest Institute, a global security nonprofit organization.

Stroz Friedberg’s Executive Managing Director Erin Nealy Cox co-authored a plan with the Institute to aggregate losses and begin to identify the true costs of cybercrime. “Our recommendations offer the means to break through the logjam that prevents effective data collection, analysis and reporting, and such global information and intelligence sharing is critical to bolstering security efforts around the world,” Nealy Cox said. — AP

BlackBerry to focus on software - not devices BBM downloaded by 20m users on Android, iOS

SAN JOSE: In this photo, the Twitter app is shown on an iPhone 4s in San Jose, Calif. — AP

Twitter is powerful, but where are the profits?

I

t can help overthrow dictators. But can it make money? Protesters famously used Twitter to organize during the Arab Spring three years ago. President Barack Obama announced his 2012 re-election victory using the short messaging service.

Lady Gaga tweets. So does the pope. But for all its power and reach, Twitter gushes losses - $65 million in the third quarter, nearly three times more than it lost a year ago.

As Wall Street analysts size up Twitter ahead of its first public stock sale this week, more than a few are expressing concern about the company’s lack of profits. Those misgivings are echoed by average investors.

Some 47 percent of Americans believe Twitter won’t be a good investment, according to a recent AP-CNBC poll.

Of course, a company’s pre-IPO losses are no indication its stock will do poorly.

Amazon.com had big losses before it went public 16 years ago and still occasionally posts them. Yet its stock is up more than 18,000 percent since the IPO. Even so, future Twitter shareholders poring over the company’s more than 200-page IPO document are being asked to take a leap of faith.

The document never makes clear when the company will sell enough ads to stanch the red ink and deliver sustainable profits.

What’s Twitter’s sales pitch to potential investors? “They’re taking you to the edge of a swamp and saying, ‘Someday, this is going to be paradise,’” says Anthony Catanach, a professor of accounting at Villanova University. Pessimists who have gazed at that swamp believe Twitter is going public too soon but can’t resist exploiting a market in which investors are eager to look past losses as stock prices soar to record highs. Optimists refuse to believe a company that has turned itself into a worldwide water cooler in just seven years can’t make big money - at least someday.

“Twitter is in its infancy, and it’s a site a lot more people will go to,” says Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities.

“They’ll figure out how to sell advertising.”

Many money managers seem to agree. In a reflection of high demand from them for the stock, Twitter on Monday said it expected to sell stock for as much as $25 per share in the IPO, up from its previous estimate of $20.

To the optimists, Twitter’s losses are expected, even welcome, as the company spends hundreds of millions of dollars to attract users and build an ad business.

Twitter, those who are bullish about the company point out, is allowing TV advertisers to grab the attention of people who are using Twitter to engage in running commentary on the shows they’re watching.

When the lights went out during the Super Bowl in February, for instance, Oreomaker Mondelez tweeted a picture of the cookie with the caption, “You can still dunk in the dark.” People re-tweeted the ad 15,000 in a few hours. Another example: Earlier this month, moments after New

England quarterback Tom Brady was intercepted in a big game, the NFL sent its Twitter followers a video replay, preceded by an eight-second Verizon ad.

Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst at research firm eMarketer, sees plenty more opportunity for Twitter to shake up the ad world. She says Twitter is an ideal medium for targeting people with ads while they’re away from home because it’s mostly accessed by smartphones and other mobile devices. Williamson muses about a future in which you tweet that you’re hungry for a particular snack, and Twitter, using the location service on your device, sends you a coupon and directs you to a store nearby.

Unfortunately, that’s not all that potential Twitter investors are left to muse over after studying the company’s IPO document. What companies are its biggest advertisers? The document doesn’t say.

When does it hope to make profits? It’s not clear. What we do know from the document raises questions about whether Twitter’s race to grow quickly is faltering. Twitter had 232 million users in September, up 6 percent from June. The number of people using Twitter had been growing at doubledigit rates last year.

Another problem: Those 232 million users are just one-fifth of the 1.19 billion monthly users on Facebook, a big rival for social-media ad dollars. Brian Wieser, an analyst at Pivotal Research Group, says investors shouldn’t be put off by Facebook comparisons. He says Twitter is a “niche” business, but one with potentially a bright future selling ads. He reckons the company is worth maybe $29 per share.

But even bulls like Wieser say Twitter is a gamble. Twitter is less developed than most companies going public, he says, and is therefore an investment perhaps better suited for a venture capitalist than a public investor. “They have to invent the ad products. They have to evangelize to marketers,” he says. “They have to get advertisers to cut checks.”

As with any company in the early stages of building its business, investors should expect plenty of hiccups, and in surprising places. Take Twitter’s supposed strength - all those users accessing it via smartphones.

Skeptics say that because of the small screen, Twitter could easily alienate users as it tries to squeeze in more tweets from advertisers.

One thing Twitter pessimists can’t deny about the IPO: The timing seems perfect.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq index is up 30 percent in 2013, and the stocks of plenty of unprofitable companies have soared.

Zynga, a maker of games played over the Internet, is losing money this year and is expected to do the same in 2014. Its stock is up 56 percent this year. Yelp, the user-generated review site, is a big money loser, too.

Its stock has more than tripled. “People get very excited about social media,” says Villanova’s Catanach. “The passionate userbase wants to invest.” — AP

TORONTO: BlackBerry lovers left could be in for some bad news. The device that was so addictive that it was dubbed the “CrackBerry” might not have much of a future: Its new chairman and interim chief executive says he wants to emphasize software and services - not devices. That could mean the company might ultimately get out of the business of selling smartphones. The possible change in strategy comes as Fairfax Financial, BlackBerry’s largest shareholder with a 10 percent stake, said Monday it won’t buy the struggling smartphone company and take it private. It said that instead Fairfax and other investors will inject $1 billion as part of a revised investment proposal.

CEO Thorsten Heins is stepping down and John Chen was appointed chairman of BlackBerry’s board of directors and interim CEO. Chen, the former CEO of software data company Sybase, told The Associated Press on Monday that BlackBerry employees need to start thinking differently about the company and accept that “we’re really not in phones but we’re in phones for software, for services.”

Chen said he wants to find a CEO with a strong software and services background. He noted that BlackBerry Messenger, BlackBerry’s popular messaging application, has been downloaded by more than 20 million users since it became available on Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS platforms in the last 10 days.

BlackBerry Messenger, or BBM, works like text messaging but doesn’t incur extra fees.

BBM had long been one of the most popular features on BlackBerry devices and only became available on rival smartphones last month. While there are fewer users of the actual BlackBerry smartphone, BBM remains popular. Chen said there are now about 80 million active users of BBM. “I’d like to find somebody to help me monetize that,” Chen said. Colin Gillis, an industry analyst at BGC Financial, questioned whether that’s possible. “It’s like Apple saying we’re going to stop making phones and we’re going to become an iMessage company,” Gillis said.

BlackBerry no longer provides the number of actually device subscribers, and a company spokeswoman said that number would not be “an accurate reflection of our business today.”

In June, it said the total BlackBerry subscriber base was about 72 million. Mike Walkley, an analyst with Canaccord Genuity, estimates that there were about around 65 million BlackBerry device subscribers globally at the end of August, down from a peak of around 80 million at end of August 2012. He said he expects the rate of decline to accelerate. By comparison, smartphone market leader Samsung Electronics Co shipped 81 million units in the July-September quarter alone, according to research group IDC. Gillis said BlackBerry might indeed stop selling phones but noted BlackBerry is already obsolete. He doesn’t think current BlackBerry users have to worry though. “They are not just going to shut the lights off,” Gillis said.

The decline of the BlackBerry has come shockingly fast. In 1999, BlackBerry became a game-changing breakthrough in personal connectedness. It changed the culture by allowing on-the-go business people to access wireless email. President Barack Obama couldn’t bear to part with his BlackBerry. Oprah Winfrey declared it one of her “favorite things.”

Then came a new generation of competing smartphones, and suddenly the BlackBerry looked ancient. Apple debuted the iPhone in 2007 and showed that phones can handle much more than email and phone calls. In the years since, BlackBerry Ltd been hammered by competition from the iPhone as well as Androidbased rivals. This year’s much-delayed launch of the BlackBerry 10 system and the fancier devices that use it was supposed to rejuvenate the brand and lure customers. It did not work.

Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry recently announced 4,500 layoffs, or 40 percent of its global workforce, and reported a quarterly loss of nearly $1 billion.

Fortinet poll shows Gen Y’s stance against corporate BYOD policies DUBAI: Fortinet - a global leader in high-performance network security - has published global research revealing the growing appetite of Generation Y employees to contravene corporate policies governing use of own devices, personal cloud storage accounts and new technologies such as smart watches, Google Glass and connected cars. Based on findings from an independent 20-country survey of 3,200 employees aged 20-29 conducted during October 2013, the research showed a 42 percent increase in the willingness to break usage rules compared to a similar Fortinet survey conducted last year1. The new research also describes the extent to which Generation Y have been victims of cybercrime on their own devices, their ‘threat literacy’ and their widespread practice for storing corporate assets on personal cloud accounts.

Strong trend of contravention Despite respondents’ positivity about their employers’ provisions for BYOD policy, with 45 percent agreeing this ‘empowers’ them, in total, 51 percent stated they would contravene any policy in place banning the use of personal devices at work or for work purposes. This alarming propensity to ignore measures designed to protect employer and employee alike carries through into other areas of personal IT usage. 36 percent of respondents using their own personal cloud storage (e.g. DropBox) accounts for work purposes said they would break any rules brought in to stop them. On the subject of emerging technologies such as Google Glass and smart watches almost half (48 percent) would contravene any policy brought in to curb use of these at work.

Wearable technology set to enter workplace When asked how long it would take for wearable technologies such as smart watches and Google Glass to become widespread at work or for work purposes, 16 percent said ‘immediately’ and a further 33 percent when costs come down. Only 8 percent of the entire sample disagreed that the technologies would become widespread.

Widespread use of personal cloud accounts 89 percent of the sample has a personal account for at least one cloud storage service with DropBox accounting for 38 percent of the total sample. 70 percent of personal account holders have used their accounts for work purposes. 12 percent of this group admits to storing work passwords using these accounts, 16 percent financial information, 22 percent critical private documents like contracts/business plans, while a third (33 percent) store customer data.

Almost one third (32 percent) of the cloud storage users sampled stated they fully trust the cloud for stor-

ing their personal data, with only 6 percent citing aversion through lack of trust.

Threat literacy required When asked about devices ever being compromised and the resulting impact, over 55 percent of responses indicated an attack on personally owned PCs or laptops, with around half of these impacting on productivity and/or loss of personal and/or corporate data. Attacks were far less frequent on smartphones (19 percent), with a slightly higher proportion resulting in loss of data and/or loss of work productivity than on PCs/laptops, despite the sample reporting a higher level of ownership of smartphones than for laptops and PCs. The same percentage was observed for tablets (19 percent), but with greater consequences, since 61 percent of those attacks resulted in significant impact. Among one of the worrying findings of the research, 14 percent of respondents said they would not tell an employer if a personal device they used for work purposes became compromised. The research exercise examined ‘literacy levels’ for different types of security threat, with the results revealing two opposing extremes of ignorance and enlightenment, separated by an average of 27 percent with minimal awareness. Questioned on threats like APTs, DDoS, Botnets and Pharming, up to 52 percent appear completely uneducated on these types of threats. This represents an opportunity for IT departments to provide further education around the threat landscape and its impact.

The survey also hinted at a direct correlation between BYOD usage and threat literacy, i.e. the more frequent the BYOD habit, the better a respondent’s understanding of threats. This represents a positive finding for organizations when considering if/when to bring policies in alongside training on the risks.

“This year’s research reveals the issues faced by organizations when attempting to enforce policies around BYOD, cloud application usage and soon the adoption of new connected technologies,” said Alain Penel, Regional Vice President - Middle East, Fortinet.

“The study highlights the greater challenge IT managers face when it comes to knowing where corporate data resides and how it is being accessed. There is now more than ever a requirement for security intelligence to be implemented at the network level in order to enable control of user activity based on devices, applications being used and locations.” “It’s worrying to see policy contravention so high and so sharply on the rise, as well as the high instances of Generation Y users being victims of cybercrime,” continued Alain Penel.

“On the positive side, however, 88 percent of the respondents accept that they have an obligation to understand the security risks posed by using their own devices.

Japan’s robot astronaut eyes ‘compatriot’ spaceman TOKYO: The world’s first robot astronaut is pining for a conversation partner as he waits for Japanese spaceman Koichi Wakata aboard the International Space Station. “Mr. Wakata, are you not here yet? I really want to see you soon,” the pintsized android said in a message released by its project team in Japan yesterday. The wide-eyed and bootie-wearing “Kirobo”-roughly the size of a chihuahua — left Earth on a cargo-carrying rocket and reached the space station on August 10.

“Good morning to every one of you people on Earth. I am robot astronaut Kirobo. I am the world’s first talking robot astronaut. Nice to meet you,” the automaton said in Japanese.

Wakata along with Mikhail Tyurin of Russia and NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio will be aboard the Soyuz-FG rocket

which will set off from Kazakhstan at 0414 GMT Thursday for a six-hour journey to the ISS. Kirobo, which stands just 34 centimetres (13.4 inches) tall and weighs about one kilogram (2.2 pounds), is programmed to communicate in Japanese and keep records of its conversations with Wakata, the first Japanese astronaut to command the ISS. “My dream is to see human beings and robots live together as friends,” the robot added. “I will talk to you a lot from space so please listen to my chats.” The humanoid was created jointly by advertising firm Dentsu, the University of Tokyo, robot developer Robo Garage and Toyota. The robot is part of a study aimed at seeing how a non-human companion can provide emotional support for people isolated over long periods.— AFP

This handout picture received from KIBO ROBOT PROJECT yesterday shows humanoid robot “Kirobo” in the International Space Station (ISS). — AFP

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

H E A LT H & S C I E N C E

Greenhouse gas in atmosphere hits new record: UN GENEVA: The amount of greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere hit a new record high in 2012, continuing an everfaster rise that is driving climate change, the UN weather agency said yesterday. “ The concentrations are reaching once again record levels,” Michel Jarraud, who heads the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO), told reporters in Geneva. His organisation released its annual repor t on greenhouse gases Wednesday, showing that concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide all broke fresh records in 2012.

Global concentrations of CO2, the main culprit in global warming, for instance reached 393.1 parts per million last year, or 141 percent of pre-industrial levels-defined as before 1750.

The report was released a day after the UN Environment Programme

warned the chances of limiting the global temperature rise to two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels were swiftly diminishing, and ahead of UN climate talks that open in Warsaw next week.

The UN’s two-degree target is being chased through efforts to curb Earthwarming greenhouse gas emissions, mainly caused by fossil-fuel burning to power industry, transport and farming. “ The obser vations from WMO’s extensive Global Atmosphere Watch network highlight yet again how heattrapping gases from human activities have upset the natural balance of our atmosphere and are a major contribution to climate change,” Jarraud said.

Dave Reay, a carbon management expert at the University of Edinburgh, said that stabilising greenhouse gas concentrations was the key to successful climate negotiations, emissions reg-

ulations, and carbon markets rests.

“Despite the financial crash, and reduced emissions from some nations, the global picture is one of carbon dioxide concentrations in our atmosphere reaching a record-breaking high year after year,” Reay added.

Experts warn that unless more is done to rein in emissions, the world faces potentially devastating effects such as more frequent megastorms, species extinctions, water shortages, crop die-offs, loss of land to the rising seas as glaciers and polar ice melt, and spreading disease. “CO2 has a ratchet effect,” said Peter Wadhams, professor of ocean physics at the University of Cambridge.

“Its influence on the climate system lasts for about 100 years, so we will be paying for our profligate use of fossil fuels for a long time to come-so long, in fact, that we may well have now made it

impossible for the planet to avoid catastrophic global warming effects, even if we make a start now on reducing CO2 emissions.”

The atmospheric increase of CO2 from 2011 to 2012 was higher than the average growth rate over the past 10 years, WMO said, stressing that the global concentrations of CO2 last year were dangerously close to the symbolic 400 parts per million threshold.

That threshold was actually exceeded at several Arctic stations during the year, and the global annual average CO2 concentration looks set to cross it in 2015 or 2016, the UN agency said.

This level has not existed on Earth in three to five million years, experts say.

Concentrations of methane, meanwhile, were 260 percent of the preindustrial level, while nitrous oxide reached 120 percent.

The WMO report said that between

1990 and 2012 there was a 32 percent increase in so-called “radiative forcing”the warming effect on our climate because of heat-trapping gases.

CO2 accounted for 80 percent of this increase. What is happening in the atmosphere is just part of the picture.

Only about half of the CO2 emitted by human activities remains in the atmosphere, with the rest absorbed in the biosphere and in the oceans, the WMO underlined. Jarraud noted that the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently sounded the alarm over gas concentrations.

“According to the IPCC, if we continue with ‘business as usual,’ global average temperatures may be 4.6 degrees higher by the end of the century than pre-industrial levels-and even higher in some parts of the world. This would have devastating consequences,” he said. —AFP

New computer software helps GPs spot cancer Diagnosis based on symptoms

A diet rich in wholegrains, vegetables and essential fatty acids can help to protect your body.

Go on a Mediterranean diet in middle age for healthy long life BOSTON: Eating wholegrains, vegetables and vital fatty acids can protect your body from a host of chronic diseases and protect your brain from cognitive decline as you grow older. People who stick to a Mediterranean-style diet in midlife have a 40 per cent greater chance of surviving past the age of 70 with no physical or cognitive impairment, according to a study published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Researchers from the University of Bordeaux in France and Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, USA, reviewed dietary data from a survey of 10,670 women who were in their late 50s and early 60s at the time of the questionnaire.

The same women provided information on their health approximately 15 years later. The researchers found a group, which they named “healthy agers”, who reached 70 free from 11 chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes and had no impairment in cognition or physical disabilities.

This study highlights that eating well

isn’t a quick fix but a long-term investment to help us stay well, Victoria Taylor, senior dietitian at the British Heart Foundation said. This group typically ate more fruit and vegetables, whole grains and fish. They also limited their alcohol intake and ate less red and processed meats.

The researchers concluded: “Better diet quality at midlife seems to be strongly linked to greater health and well-being in persons surviving to older ages.”

Victoria Taylor, senior dietitian at the British Heart Foundation, said: “This study highlights that eating well isn’t a quick fix but a long-term investment to help us stay well.” Dr Simon Ridley, head of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “Diseases such as Alzheimer’s are likely to be caused by a mix of genetics and environmental factors, and investment in research to understand these factors is vital. “The best evidence suggests people can lower their risk by eating a healthy, balanced diet, exercising regularly, not smoking, and keeping blood pressure in check.” —AP

Health benefits of wild blueberries abound MAINE: Wild blueberries are a rich source of phytochemicals called polyphenols, which have been reported by a growing number of studies to exert a wide array of protective health benefits. A new study by researchers at the University of Maine adds to this growing body of evidence.

This new research, published today in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, shows that regular longterm wild blueberr y diets may help improve or prevent pathologies associated with the metabolic syndrome, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

“The metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a group of risk factors characterized by obesity, hypertension, inflammation, dyslipidemia, glucose intolerance and insulin resistance, and endothelial dysfunction,” explains Dr. Klimis-Zacas, a Professor of clinical nutrition at the University of Maine and a co-author of the study. “MetS affects an estimated 37% of adults in the US .”

Many substances found in food have the potential to prevent MetS, thus reducing the need for medication and medical intervention. “We have previously documented the cardiovascular benefits of a polyphenol-rich wild blueberry in a rat model with impaired vascular health and high blood pressure,” says Klimis-Zacas.

“Our new findings show that these benefits extend to the obese Zucker rat, a widely used model resembling human MetS.” “Endothelial dysfunction is a landmark characteristic of MetS, and the obese Zucker rat, an excellent model to study the MetS, is characterized by vascular dysfunction. The vascular wall of these animals shows an impaired response to vasorelaxation or vasoconstriction which affects blood flow and blood pressure regulation.”

According to the study, wild blueberry consumption (2 cups per day, human equivalent) for 8 weeks was shown to regulate and improve the balance between relaxing and constricting factors in the vascular wall, improving blood flow and blood pressure regulation of obese Zucker rats with metabolic syndrome. “Our recent findings reported elsewhere, documented that wild blueberries reduce chronic inflammation and improve the abnormal lipid profile and gene expression associated with the MetS.” Thus, this new study shows even greater potential such that “by normalizing oxidative, inflammator y response and endothelial function, regular long-term wild blueberry diets may also help improve pathologies associated with the MetS.”

LONDON: A computer program could help busy GPs spot patients who might have cancer, say UK experts. It estimates the risk of five types of cancer, including hard-to-detect conditions such as ovarian and pancreatic cancer, based on symptoms. If cancer is a possible diagnosis, it alerts the GP and suggests more tests.

Practices in England and Wales have been testing the software in a pilot scheme which is partly funded by the Department of Health.

Macmillan Cancer Support, the charity behind the work, hopes the electronic Cancer Decision Support programme could be rolled out to surgeries across the UK from next year.

Dr Rosie Loftus, lead GP adviser at Macmillan

Cancer Support, said: “GPs have a vital role to play in ensuring that cancer is diagnosed at an early stage to give people the best possible chance of survival.

“When you’ve only got around 10 minutes with each patient, it’s vital that you ask the right questions and are able to quickly calculate someone’s risk in order to facilitate an early referral.”

The program can estimate cancer risk for oesophago-gastric, lung, colorectal, pancreatic and ovarian cancers and alerts GPs to cancer risk as soon as a patient tells them about a symptom.

For instance, if a patient visits their GP complaining of nausea and returns three weeks later

with difficulty swallowing, the program detects that the patient could be at risk of oesophageal cancer.

Prof Willie Hamilton, a GP researcher based at the University of Exeter, and one of those upon whose work the tool is based, said: “Despite the fact that more than one in three of us will be diagnosed with cancer in our lifetime, cancer cases are still relatively unusual occurrences for GPs to encounter during their day-to-day practice. “ We’ve designed a system that doesn’t replace their knowledge or training, but could be used alongside their notes to give extra information.” — Reuters

Venezuela’s health care in collapse MARACAY, Venezuela: Evelina Gonzalez was supposed to undergo cancer surgery in July following chemotherapy but wound up shuttling from hospital to hospital in search of an available operating table. On the crest of her left breast, a mocha-colored tumor doubled in size and now bulges through her white spandex tank top. Gonzalez is on a list of 31 breast cancer patients waiting to have tumors removed at one of Venezuela’s biggest medical facilities, Maracay’s Central Hospital. But like legions of the sick across the country, she’s been neglected by a health care system doctors say is collapsing after years of deterioration.

Doctors at the hospital sent home 300 cancer patients last month when supply shortages and overtaxed equipment made it impossible for them to perform non-emergency surgeries.

Driving the crisis in health care are the same forces that have left Venezuelans scrambling to find toilet paper, milk and automobile parts.

Economists blame government mismanagement and currency controls set by the late President Hugo Chavez for inflation pushing 50 percent annually. The government controls the dollars needed to buy medical supplies and has simply not made enough available.

“I feel like I’ve been abandoned,” Gonzalez, 37, tells a bright-eyed hospital psychologist trying to boost her morale. Her right eye is swollen by glaucoma diagnosed two years ago but left untreated when she had trouble getting an appointment.

Doctors not allied with the government say many patients began dying from easily treatable illnesses when Venezuela’s downward economic slide accelerated after Chavez’s death from cancer in March. Doctors say it’s impossible to know how many have died, and the government doesn’t keep such numbers, just as it hasn’t published health statistics since 2010.

Almost everything needed to mend and heal is in critically short supply: needles, syringes and paraffin used in biopsies to diagnose cancer; drugs to treat it; operating room equipment; Xray film and imaging paper; blood and the reagents needed so it can be used for transfusions. Last month, the government suspended organ donations and transplants. At least 70 percent of radiotherapy machines, precisely what Gonzalez will need once her tumor is removed, are now inoperable in a country with 19,000 cancer patients - meaning fewer than 5,000 can be treated, said Dr Douglas Natera, president of the Venezuelan Medical Federation.

“Two months ago we asked the government to declare an emergency,” said Natera, whose doctors group is the country’s largest. “We got no response.” The Associated Press sought comment from Health Minister Isabel Iturria but her press office did not respond to repeated interview requests.

Last week, a deputy health minister, Nimeny Gutierrez, denied on state TV that the system is in crisis, saying supplies are arriving regularly from Cuba, Uruguay, Colombia and Portugal, and additional purchases “will let us be moderately relaxed until the end of the year.”

The interviewer read a viewer’s question about Central Hospital patients being forced to buy their own supplies. “It’s a hospital that received permanent stocks from us,” Gutierrez said, promising to investigate.

The country’s 1999 constitution guarantees free universal health care to Venezuelans, who sit on the world’s largest proven oil reserves.

President Nicolas Maduro’s government insists it’s complying. Yet of the country’s 100 fully functioning public hospitals, nine in 10 have just 7 percent of the supplies they need, Natera said.

The other nearly 200 public hospitals that existed when Chavez took office were largely replaced by a system of walk-in clinics run by Cuban doctors that have won praise for delivering preventative care to the neediest but do not treat serious illnesses. The woes are not restrict-

MARACAY: Evelina Gonzalez is with her daughter Evelin while her two nieces play nearby at her home in Maracay. Gonzalez is on a list of 31 breast cancer patients waiting to have tumors removed at one of the country’s biggest medical facilities, Maracay’s Central Hospital, before they spread and invade the women’s lungs, brains or livers. — AP ed to the public system.

Venezuela’s 400 private hospitals and clinics are overburdened and strapped for supplies, 95 percent of which must be imported, said Dr. Carlos Rosales, president of the association that represents them.

The private system has just 8,000 of the country’s more than 50,000 hospital beds but treats 53 percent of the country’s patients, including the 10 million public employees with health insurance. Rosales said insurers, many stateowned, are four to six months behind in payments and it is nearly impossible to meet payrolls and pay suppliers.

Worse, government price caps set in July for common procedures are impossible to meet, Rosales said. For example, dialysis treatment was set at 200 bolivars ($30 at the official exchange rate and less than $4 on the black market) for a procedure that costs 5,000 bolivars to administer. “The health care crisis is an economic crisis. It is not a medical crisis,” said Dr. Jose Luis Lopez, who oversees labs at the Municipal Blood Bank of Caracas.

Dr. Jose Manuel Olivares, a 28-year-old medical resident in Caracas, recounted having to tell a father who brought his son in with a broken ankle that the man would have to spend more than half his monthly wages on bandages, plaster and antibiotics.

At Maracay’s 433-bed Central Hospital, mattresses are missing, broken windows go unrepaired and the cafeteria has been closed for a year. Paint peels off walls and rusty pipes lie exposed. In the halls, patients on intravenous drips lie recovering on gurneys.

“We have some antibiotics but they aren’t usually appropriate for what you are specifically treating,” said Dr. Gabriela Gutierrez, the surgeon caring for Gonzalez. There is no anesthesia for elective surgery. Medical students quietly showed AP journalists around to avoid alerting government supporters, who bar reporters from recording images in public hospitals. Broken anesthesia machines and battered stainless-steel instrument tables, some held together with tape, filled one of five idled operating rooms.

Foul odors and water from leaky pipes continue to seep into the rooms, doctors said.

In August, cancer patients protested at the

eight-month mark since the hospital’s two radiotherapy machines broke down. The machines remain out of order.

Half the public health system’s doctors quit under Chavez, and half of those moved abroad, Natera said. Now, support staff is leaving, too, victim of a wage crunch as wages across the economy fail to keep up with inflation.

At the Caracas blood bank, Lopez said 62 nurses have quit so far this year along with half the lab staff. It now can take donations only on weekday mornings.

The last pre-Chavez health minister, Dr. Jose Felix Oletta, said that while the public health care system had its problems, the Cuban-run program of 1,200 clinics is a politically motivated waste of billions.

It doesn’t vaccinate or do PAP smears for uterine cancer, while the Chavista system reversed important gains against tropical diseases including malaria, Oletta said. Dengue fever, he said, is making a worrisome comeback. The number of women dying in childbirth has also risen, to 69 per 100,000 in 2010 from 51 in 1998.

Under Chavez, Venezuela began buying most medical equipment through Cuba, China and Argentina. That has led to considerable waste, because it is cheaper to buy direct from the manufacturer, critics say.

The Health Ministry’s oncology chief, Dr. Morella Rebolledo, said it is negotiating with Argentina maintenance contracts for the idled radiotherapy machines that had lapsed.

Back home in San Mateo, a 90-minute bus ride away in a neighborhood where even the dogs look hungry, Evelina Gonzalez sits outside the tin-roofed, plywood-walled two-room shack she shares with her family of five. Because her last chemotherapy was in June, she needs more sessions before surgery, but the drugs are not available and the cancer has reached lymph nodes beneath her armpit.

Gonzalez says she adored Chavez for his antipoverty programs, always voted for him and constantly applied for government benefits, though she never received any.

She has a good chance of survival if she gets the right care, Gutierrez said. But that’s not happening. “I’ve got nowhere else to turn,” Gonzalez says. — AP

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

H E A LT H & S C I E N C E

Japan mis-labelling scandal spreads to luxury food Govt plans strict actions TOKYO: Japan’s hotels, restaurants and food shops were being warned yesterday over dishonest labelling amid a growing scandal that is threatening to undermine the country’s reputation for safe, high-quality produce. The direction comes as top department stores

became the latest Japanese firms to admit they had been selling food with labels falsely claiming high-quality or expensive ingredients.

“It’s extremely regrettable as it seriously undermines consumer confidence,” Chief Cabinet Secretar y

TOKYO: Japan’s top department store chain Takashimaya executive Yutaka Masuyama bows his head at a press conference to apologise after the department store used giant tiger prawns to make a “Japanese tiger prawn” terrine, sold under the luxury French brand Fauchon in their department store, in Tokyo yesterday. Japan’s hotels, restaurants and food shops were being warned over dishonest labelling amid a growing scandal that is threatening to undermine the country’s reputation for safe, high-quality produce. — AFP

Yoshihide Suga told a regular press conference, speaking about the widening scandal.

“The Consumer Affairs Agency will take strict actions under the law (against misleading representations),” he said. Suga, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s right-hand man, was speaking after luxury department store chain Takashimaya admitted that for years labels claiming the use of top-of-therange prawns or freshly-squeezed orange juice sat on produce made with inferior ingredients.

For example, the department store used giant tiger prawns to make a “Japanese tiger prawn” terrine, sold under the luxury French brand Fauchon.

Japanese tiger prawn is widely considered a top shrimp and one that can command premium prices in this seafood-loving nation, while giant tiger prawns are more widely available.

The company insisted that the wide range of false labelling were honest mistakes, echoing excuses from a string of hotels that had long served meals claiming quality ingredients that were not part of the dish.

Whatever their excuses, “the fact remains they deceived consumers by making their products seem more luxurious than in reality,” the Asahi Shimbun said in a front-page commentary, calling for tougher regulations.

A number of major hotel chains including Hankyu Hanshin Hotels, which operates the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Osaka among others, have admitted

that their restaurants have long falsely labelled food on their menus.

The Ritz-Carlton Osaka has admitted that it also used cheaper prawns while the menu claimed the expensive species, among other falsehoods.

Tokyu Hotels, which operates 45 hotels, also admitted on Tuesday that 22 of its restaurants and seven banquet facilities have misleading food labels, largely involving shrimps and steak meat.

Hotel New Otani Kumamoto also said it too used cheaper shrimps and meat but claimed them as high-end.

A traditional ryokan-style hotel in the ancient capital of Nara also said it used Australian beef but labelled it as “wagyu”, high-end Japanese beef, among other things.

Japanese food has built a worldwide reputation for quality and safety, with producers of luxury products able to charge premium prices at home and abroad.

Consumers in China have long preferred Japanese imports to locally produced fare, a preference that was reinforced following a series of adulteration scandals there, including one in which an industrial chemical was added to infant formula milk with fatal results.

But the nuclear disaster at Fu k u s h i m a , w h i c h s e n t c l o u d s o f radiation over a swathe of Japanese farmland, dealt a blow to producers, who found their offerings shunned around the globe for fear they were tainted. —AFP

Australian milk science lures food makers tapping Asia’s changing diet SYDNEY: Food companies stalking Australia’s Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory Company Holdings Ltd are being lured by the firm’s high-tech milk extracts as much as its basic dairy produce.

The extracts are a core element in health-promoting products from premium infant formula to bone supplements. Known as nutraceuticals, the extracts are poised for big growth as Asia becomes more affluent and diets change.

With the nutraceuticals market in the Asia-Pacific set to be worth $80 billion by 2017, Warrnambool is sitting pretty. It is one of just two producers of the extracts in Australia, the only country in the region with the scale of spare milk capacity required to produce them. Extracting just 1 kilogram of lactoferrin, a nutraceutical used in premium infant formula, takes up to 100,000 litres of regular milk.

“Critically, most of the countries responsible for the surging demand in Asia can’t produce milk themselves,” said Michael Harvey, dairy analyst at Rabobank. “They need countries like Australia that have a surplus of milk to export.”

Australia has been producing milk below capacity for years following soaring feed costs and a brutal supermarket price war that pushed farmgate prices to record lows. The country has the capacity to add around 2 billion litres to the 9 billion litres of milk it currently produces each year, exporting about half.

For its part, Warrnambool has almost completed construction of a specialist A$14 million plant to make lactoferrin. The only other producer of the neutraceutical in Australia is major shareholder Bega Cheese Ltd - the company that started the bid war for Warrnambool.

Big global food and drug companies from Nestle SA to Pfizer Inc have developed nutraceuticals operations in other regions. But Warrnambool’s comparatively low valuation after milk price wars has combined with its new lactoferrin plans and Australia’s spare production capacity to put it firmly on the map as an acquisition target to serve Asia.

Previously little known outside its home base, the 125-year-old company has attracted three full takeover offers from Bega, fellow shareholder Murray Goulburn Co-operative Co Ltd and Canada’s Saputo Inc since September. Saputo’s bid is the highest at A$449 million ($424 million).—Reuters

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

W H AT ’ S O N

SEND US YOUR INSTAGRAM PICS

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

Greetings

Kuwait English School hosts French Embassy staff

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oung angel Eya Hammadi Allalah recently celebrated her 4th birthday amongst family and friends. She received heartily birthday greetings from everybody especially from her father, Hammadi and uncle Hassan.

Happy birthday and many happy returns.

Enjoy the taste of true Espresso at Vergnano Cafe at Olympia Complex

T

he superior quality of the blends comes from the meticulous selection of the best raw materials available, and from an extraordinary production process. Cafe Vergnano is the first to introduce an innovation that brings all the passion and pleasure of the perfect

espresso to everyday life at home.

Espresso is now available in Kuwait, through Al-Sanabel Al-Thahabiya Est. Tel: 22413795/98. Espresso Vergnano can be ordered through www.taw9eel.com Espresso Vergnano capsules are compatible with other espresso machines.

n October 31st Kuwait English School was honored by a visit from Madame Sadia Attiglah, the Deputy Director of the French Institute, and Monsieur Francois Brossard, the Cultural advisor to the French Embassy. The visitors were invited by Paul Naylor, Head of French at KES, in order to receive a cheque on behalf of Medecins Sans Frontieres. Every year at KES, students participate in a French Day to celebrate the “Journee Internationale de la Francophonie” and the money raised from numerous events (such as a croissant sale and a French show) is donated to MSF, a French charity which sends medical aid to countries all over the

world.

A reception was hosted by Rhoda Mahmood, the school director, and in attendance were Janet Carew, the Senior School principal, and Madame Naela, of the High Management, who formally presented the cheque on behalf of the school. Afterwards the two guests met members of the KES French staff and participated in a French lesson where they were interviewed by Year 11 students.

Monsieur Brossard thanked all concerned for the warm reception and was impressed with the high profile and high standards of French at Kuwait English School.

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harming Ilef recently celebrated her birthday. She received heartily birthday wishes from everybody especially from her aunt, Olfa. Happy birthday and many happy returns.

Students from Arkansas State University visted Kuwait Times yesterday. The visit was sponsored by the Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST).

—Photos by Joseph Shagra

AnnouncementS ALMASS-Kuwait anniversary First Anniversary & Annual General Meetingof ALMASS-Kuwait (The alumni association of St Stephens College, Uzhavoor; Kuwait -Chapter) shall be held on Friday November 22, 2013 at 4pm onwards at Indian Community School, Khaitan. Lalu Alex an indispensable part of Malayalam cinema in the past 35 years & a proud alumni of St.Stephen’s College will be the chief guest. Expecting all the former students of St.Stephen’s College- Uzhavoor across Kuwait shall participate in the meet.

KEF celebrates Onam 2013 Kuwait Engineers Forum (KEF) celebrates Onam 2013 on 8th November 2013 at at Al-Arabi sporting club , Mansooriya, 2nd Ring Road with all its traditional gaiety alongwith various colorful entertaintment items. Programme starts at 9 am with lighting of lamp by first ladies of all 8 constituent aluminies followed by various colorful dances and other cultural programmes. Apart from cultural programs, traditional “Onasadya” also willbe served. Entry shall be restricted with coupons. All KEF members are requested to reserve their entry coupons well in advance.

Gokulotlsavam, 2013

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eva Darshan Kuwait’s children’s wing Bala Darshan Kuwait will hold a day-long competition for its children tomorrow named ‘Gokulotsavam’ at the Khaitan Indian Community school. Over 300 children will compete in various categories based on the study classes they attend every week. The off-stage competitions was held on November 1 at various locations in Abbasiya, Salmiya and Fahaheel. Vichar Bharati Kuwait in association with PART (Progressive Art Realization Troop Kuwait) will be holding an open canvas exhibition on Swami Vivekananda as part of the Swami Vivekananda Jayanti 150th year celebrations at the venue. For further details contact at sevsadarshan@gmail.com.

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

W H AT ’ S O N

BSK hosts annual Awards Evening

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

Embassy Information

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he annual Awards Evening for the Year 7-13 students at The British School of Kuwait (BSK) took place in lavish style at the Al-Baraka Grand Ballroom at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, as parents and staff celebrated the many and varied achievements of the school year 2012-13. The Secondary Head Teacher, Andrew Moulden, welcomed parents, staff and students, before delivering his Annual Report, including recent developments and plans for further improvement.

Moulden outlined the results of BSK’s recent triple inspection, in which BSK was awarded the status of a British School Overseas, and received the highest assessment of any English curriculum school in Kuwait.

He also updated parents on developments within the ‘House system’ that operates at BSK and other ways in which standards are being pushed ever higher.

Parents were delighted to learn that BSK’s June 2013 examination results were again superb, with 91% A*-C at IGCSE and GCSE, a 98% A-E pass rate at AS Level and,

for the fourth year in a row, a 100% A*-E pass rate at A Level. Moulden informed parents and guests that, once again, many Year 13 students had decided to pursue their degree courses in Britain, joining the Universities of Exeter, Aberdeen, Strathclyde, Newcastle, Huddersfield and Imperial College London.

Also popular was Canada, where students joined the University of Toronto, McGill University and Dalhousie University.

The prestigious Subject Awards went to the top student in each subject in each year group, many of whom achieved near to 100% in their final examinations. The Roll of Honor for the 72 Subject Award winners was read by the Middle Department Coordinator, Estelle Jones. The Awards Evening also honored some 233 students who achieved Excellence Awards in 201213. Now in their third year, the Excellence Awards were conceived to celebrate and encourage a high level of success across a broad range of subjects. The Roll of Honor was read by Assistant Head Teacher, John

Lambert.

The Guest of Honor was Jacky Perkins, Deputy Head of Mission at The British Embassy, who gave a very interesting address focusing on the value of a quality British education, and Munira AlFadhli, Assistant Undersecretary at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, representing the Minister. The climax of the evening was the Head Teacher’s Awards, presented by Moulden and BSK Founder Mme Vera Al-Mutawa.

Seven such awards were conferred, to one student from each of the previous Years 6-12. The winners were Siddhant Singh, Natasha Roy, Rayan Abdul-Baki, Nada Abu-Zarour, Ji Inn Kim, Farah Abdelhameed and Dario Gelevski. BSK Principal, Paul Shropshire, rounded off the evening by proposing a vote of thanks to all the participants, congratulating the students on their great successes and looking ahead to another year of hard work and exceptional achievements.

EMBASSY OF AUSTRALIA The Embassy of Australia has announced that Kuwait citizens can apply for and receive visit visas in 10 working days through www.immi.gov.au.

All other processing of visas and Immigration matters are handled by the Australian Visa Application Centre located in Al Banwan Building, 4B, 1st Floor, Al Qibla Area, Ali Al Salem Street, Kuwait City. Visit. www.vfs-au-gcc.com for more info. The Embassy of Australia does not have a visa or immigration department.

All processing of visas and immigration matters is conducted by the Australian Consulate-General in Dubai. Email: Info.ausdxb@vfshelpline.com ( VIS), immigration.dubai@dfat.gov.au ( Visa Office), Tel: +971 4 205 5900 ( VFS), Fax: + 971 4 355 0708 ( Visa Office). Notary and passport services are available by appointment. Appointments can be made by calling the Embassy on 22322422.

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EMBASSY OF CANADA The Embassy of Canada in Kuwait does not have a visa or immigration department. All processing of visa and immigration matters including enquiries is conducted by the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Individuals who are interested in working, studying, visiting or immigrating to Canada should contact the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, website: www.UAE.gc.ca or www.goingtocanada.gc.ca, E-mail: abdbiim-enquiry@international.gc.ca. The Embassy of Canada is located at Villa 24, Al-Mutawakei St, Block 4 in Da’aiyah.

Please visit our website at www.Kuwait.gc.ca. The Embassy of Canada is open from 07:30 to 15:30 Sunday through Thursday. The reception is open from 07:30 to 12:30. Consular services for Canadian citizens are provided from 09:00 until 12:00, Sunday through Wednesday. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF GREECE The Embassy of Greece in Kuwait has the pleasure to announce that visa applications must be submitted to Schengen Visa Application Centre (VFS office) located at 12th floor, Al-Naser Tower, Fahad Al-Salem Street, Al-Qibla area, Kuwait City, (Parking at Souk Watia). For information please call 22281046 from 08:30 to 17:00 (Sunday to Thursday).

Working hours: Submission from 08:30 to 15:30. Passport collection from 16:00 to 17:00. For visa applications please visit the following website www.mfa.gr/kuwait. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF US The US Embassy in Kuwait has new procedures for obtaining appointments and picking up passports after visa issuance. Beginning August 9, 2013, we now provide an online visa appointment system, live call center, and in-person pick-up facilities in Kuwait. Please monitor our website and social media for additional information. This new system offers more flexibility for travelers to the US and to meet the increase in demand for visa appointments.

The general application steps on the new visa appointment system are: 1. Go to www.ustraveldocs.com/kw (if this is the first time on ustraveldocs.com, you will need to create a profile to login).

2. Please complete your DS-160 Online Visa Application which is available at ceac.state.gov/genNIV. 3. Please print and take your deposit slip to any Burgan Bank location to pay your visa application fee.

4. Schedule an appointment for your visa interview online at www.ustraveldocs.com/kw or by phone through the Call Center (at +965-2227-1673).

5. If you need to change or cancel your appointment, please do so 24 hours beforehand, as a courtesy to other applicants. For more information, please visit the US Embassy website - kuwait.usembassy.gov - as it is the best source of information regarding these changes. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF VATICAN The Apostolic Nunciature Embassy of the Holy See, Vatican in Kuwait has moved to a new location in Kuwait City. Please find below the new address: Yarmouk, Block 1, Street 2, Villa No: 1. P.O.Box 29724, Safat 13158, Kuwait.

Tel: 965 25337767, Fax: 965 25342066. Email: nuntiuskuwait@gmail.com.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

TV PROGRAMS 01:10 01:35 02:05 02:50 03:25 Lion Man: One World African Safari 03:50 Lion Man: One World African Safari 04:15 Bondi Vet 05:05 ER Vets 05:30 ER Vets 05:55 Animal Cops Houston 06:45 Earthquake: Panda Rescue 07:35 Call Of The Wildman 08:00 Monkey Life 08:25 Bondi Vet 09:15 The Most Extreme 10:10 Bad Dog 11:05 Lion Man: One World African Safari 11:35 Lion Man: One World African Safari 12:00 Animal Cops Houston 12:55 Monkey Life 13:20 Call Of The Wildman 13:50 Animal Airport 14:15 Animal Airport 14:45 Swimming With Monsters: Steve Backshall 15:40 Lion Man: One World African Safari 16:05 Lion Man: One World African Safari 16:30 My Cat From Hell 17:30 The Most Extreme 18:25 Baby Planet 19:20 Panda Adventures With Nigel Marven 20:15 Bondi Vet 21:10 ER Vets 21:40 ER Vets 22:05 Lion Man: One World African Safari 22:35 Lion Man: One World African Safari 23:00 Outback Rangers 23:25 Outback Rangers 23:55 North America 00:50 Animal Cops Houston 01:45 Human Prey 02:35 Untamed & Uncut

03:00 Dead Boss 03:30 Carrie’s War 05:00 Me Too! 05:20 The Green Balloon Club 05:45 Jollywobbles 05:55 Nuzzle & Scratch: Frock n Roll 06:15 Me Too! 06:35 The Green Balloon Club 07:00 Jollywobbles 07:10 Nuzzle & Scratch: Frock n Roll 07:30 Last Of The Summer Wine 08:00 Roger & Val Have Just Got In 08:30 The World’s Toughest Driving Tests 09:20 Eastenders 09:50 Doctors 10:20 Full Circle With Michael Palin 11:10 The Weakest Link 11:55 Last Of The Summer Wine 12:25 The World’s Toughest Driving Tests 13:15 Roger & Val Have Just Got In 13:45 Eastenders 14:15 Doctors 14:45 The Weakest Link 15:30 Full Circle With Michael Palin 16:20 The World’s Toughest Driving Tests 17:10 Eastenders 17:40 Doctors 18:10 The Weakest Link 19:00 One Foot In The Grave 19:30 Dead Boss 20:00 Mistresses 20:50 Lead Balloon 21:20 Alan Carr: Chatty Man 22:05 Alan Partridge’s Mid-Morning Matters 22:30 Luther 23:25 The Weakest Link 00:10 One Foot In The Grave 00:40 Dead Boss

Eastenders Doctors Alan Carr: Chatty Man Luther

03:25 Fantasy Homes By The Sea 04:15 The Boss Is Coming To Dinner 04:40 Cash In The Attic 05:25 Raymond Blanc’s Kitchen Secrets 05:55 Bargain Hunt 06:40 Fantasy Homes By The Sea 07:30 The Boss Is Coming To Dinner 08:00 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 08:45 Bargain Hunt 09:30 Homes Under The Hammer 10:25 Bill’s Kitchen: Notting Hill 10:50 Rick Stein Tastes The Blues 11:45 Come Dine With Me 12:35 Celebrity MasterChef 13:30 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 14:15 Antiques Roadshow 15:05 Homes Under The Hammer 16:00 Homes Under The Hammer 16:55 Bargain Hunt 17:40 Cash In The Attic 18:25 Antiques Roadshow 19:15 Homes Under The Hammer 20:10 Nigel Slater’s Simple Cooking 20:35 Baking Mad With Eric Lanlard 21:00 Baking Mad With Eric Lanlard 21:30 Come Dine With Me 22:20 Antiques Roadshow 23:15 Bargain Hunt 00:00 Cash In The Attic 00:45 Homes Under The Hammer 01:40 Come Dine With Me 02:30 Celebrity MasterChef

03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00 00:00 01:00 02:00

BBC World BBC World BBC World BBC World BBC World BBC World BBC World BBC World BBC World BBC World BBC World BBC World BBC World BBC World BBC World BBC World BBC World BBC World BBC World BBC World BBC World BBC World BBC World BBC World

03:00 03:50 04:15 04:40 05:05 05:30 06:00 07:00 07:50 08:40 09:30 09:55 10:20 10:45 11:10 11:35 12:25 13:15

Mythbusters Border Security Storage Hunters Baggage Battles How Do They Do It? How It’s Made Sons Of Guns Mythbusters Yukon Men: Last Chance Overhaulin’ Border Security Storage Hunters Baggage Battles How Do They Do It? How It’s Made Bear Grylls: Escape From Hell Dual Survival (Brazil) Car vs Wild

14:05 Border Security 14:30 Storage Hunters 14:55 Baggage Battles 15:20 Finding Bigfoot 16:10 Overhaulin’ 17:00 Ultimate Survival 17:50 Dirty Jobs 18:40 Mythbusters 19:30 Sons Of Guns 20:20 Storage Hunters 20:45 Baggage Battles 21:10 How Do They Do It? 21:35 How It’s Made 22:00 You Have Been Warned 22:50 Dynamo: Magician Impossible 23:40 Mythbusters 00:30 You Have Been Warned 01:20 Dynamo: Magician Impossible 02:10 Mythbusters

03:10 04:00 04:45 05:30 06:20 07:10 08:00 08:50 09:40 10:05 10:30 Jones 11:20 12:10 13:00 13:50 14:40 15:30 Jones 16:20 16:45 17:10 18:00 18:50 19:40 Jones 20:30 Jones 21:20 22:10 23:00 23:50 00:15 00:40 01:30 02:20

True CSI Deadly Women Killer Kids Dr G: Medical Examiner Ghost Lab Nightmare Next Door Deadly Sins Nightmare Next Door I Was Murdered Stalked: Someone’s Watching True Crime With Aphrodite Extreme Forensics Dr G: Medical Examiner I Almost Got Away With It Deadly Sins Nightmare Next Door True Crime With Aphrodite I Was Murdered Stalked: Someone’s Watching Couples Who Kill Extreme Forensics Dr G: Medical Examiner True Crime With Aphrodite

23:00 Prophets Of Science Fiction 23:50 Stephen Hawking’s Grand Design 00:40 Dark Matters: Twisted But True 01:30 Weird Connections 02:00 Gadget Show - World Tour 02:25 The Tech Show 02:50 Prophets Of Science Fiction

03:30 04:25 05:20 05:45 06:15 07:05 08:00 08:50 09:15 09:45 10:35 11:30 12:20 13:10 13:35 14:05 14:55 15:50 16:45 17:40 18:35 19:25 Britain 20:20 21:10 21:35 22:05 Hood 23:00 Britain 23:55 00:50 01:45 Hood 02:35 Britain

Human Sacrifice I Shouldn’t Be Alive The Aviators The Aviators Danger Hunters Trashopolis I Shouldn’t Be Alive The Aviators The Aviators Trashopolis Altered Statesmen Ultimate Warfare Trashopolis The Aviators The Aviators Trashopolis Danger Hunters Richard III: King In A Car Park Heroes In The Sky Timewatch I Shouldn’t Be Alive America’s Planned War On Trashopolis The Aviators The Aviators How The Bismarck Sank HMS America’s Planned War On Human Sacrifice Most Evil How The Bismarck Sank HMS

03:15 Rocket City Rednecks 03:45 Stuck With Hackett 04:10 Stuck With Hackett 04:35 Punkin Chunkin 2010 05:25 Through The Wormhole 06:15 Gadget Show - World Tour 06:40 The Tech Show 07:05 Mega World 08:00 Mighty Planes 08:50 Mighty Ships 09:40 Gadget Show - World Tour 10:05 The Tech Show 10:30 James May’s Man Lab 11:25 Mega World 12:20 Punkin Chunkin 2010 13:10 Through The Wormhole 14:00 Junkyard Wars 14:50 Weird Connections 15:20 Gadget Show - World Tour 15:45 The Tech Show 16:10 Rocket City Rednecks 16:35 Rocket City Rednecks 17:00 James May’s Man Lab 17:55 Mega World 18:45 Punkin Chunkin 2010 19:35 Through The Wormhole 20:30 Prophets Of Science Fiction 21:20 Stephen Hawking’s Grand Design 22:10 Gadget Show - World Tour 22:35 The Tech Show

COURAGEOUS ON OSN MOVIES ACTION

True Justice: Blood Alley Nick Of Time Courageous Wild Wild West Ultraviolet Courageous XXX: The Next Level Ultraviolet Shadow The Keeper Paintball Shadow

04:00 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00 00:00 Star 02:00

Jack And Jill Adventures In Babysitting Barnyard Mr. Destiny Jack And Jill New Year’s Eve Mr. Destiny Tower Heist Venus & Vegas The Inbetweeners Bucky Larson: Born To Be A

03:15 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

Good Day For It Of Two Minds Angels Crest The Iron Lady Good Day For It Hidden Crimes The Darkest Hour StreetDance 2 Morning Hesher Locked In

03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 18:45 Close 21:00 23:00 01:00

Wish You Were Here Dark Horse Planet Of The Apes (1968) A Dog Named Duke Encounter With Danger The Perfect Man The Presidio Encounter With Danger Extremely Loud & Incredibly

Venus & Vegas

America’s Planned War On

True Crime With Aphrodite I Almost Got Away With It Deadly Sins Blood Relatives Who On Earth Did I Marry?

Who On Earth Did I Marry?

Killer Kids Couples Who Kill Ghost Lab

04:00 06:00 07:45 10:00 12:00 13:45 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00 00:00 02:00

03:00 The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody 03:20 The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody 03:45 Sonny With A Chance 04:05 Sonny With A Chance 04:30 Suite Life On Deck 04:50 Suite Life On Deck 05:15 Wizards Of Waverly Place 05:35 Wizards Of Waverly Place 06:00 Austin And Ally 06:25 Austin And Ally 06:45 A.N.T. Farm 07:10 A.N.T. Farm 07:35 Jessie 07:55 Good Luck Charlie 08:20 Sofia The First 08:45 Doc McStuffins 09:05 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 09:30 A.N.T. Farm 09:55 A.N.T. Farm 10:15 Jessie 10:40 Jessie 11:05 Suite Life On Deck 11:25 Suite Life On Deck 11:50 Shake It Up 12:15 Shake It Up 12:35 Austin And Ally 13:00 A.N.T. Farm 13:25 That’s So Raven 13:45 Dog With A Blog 14:10 Good Luck Charlie 14:35 The Adventures Of Disney Fairies 15:05 That’s So Raven 15:25 Good Luck Charlie 15:50 Good Luck Charlie 16:10 Violetta 17:00 Dog With A Blog 17:20 Austin And Ally 17:45 Wolfblood 18:10 Monsters University: Behind The Screams 18:30 That’s So Raven 18:55 Shake It Up 19:20 Violetta 20:05 Jessie 20:30 Good Luck Charlie 20:50 Good Luck Charlie 21:15 Gravity Falls 21:40 Shake It Up 22:00 Austin And Ally 22:25 A.N.T. Farm 22:50 Good Luck Charlie 23:10 Wizards Of Waverly Place 23:35 Wizards Of Waverly Place 00:00 The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody 00:20 The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody 00:45 Sonny With A Chance 01:05 Sonny With A Chance 01:30 Suite Life On Deck 01:50 Suite Life On Deck 02:15 Wizards Of Waverly Place 02:35 Wizards Of Waverly Place

07:00 Max Steel 07:25 Phineas And Ferb 07:50 Phineas And Ferb 08:15 Crash & Bernstein 08:40 Kickin It 09:05 Ultimate Spider-Man 09:30 Phineas And Ferb 09:55 Phineas And Ferb 10:20 Lab Rats 10:45 Lab Rats 11:10 Pokemon Bw: Adventures In Unova 11:35 Max Steel 12:00 Zeke & Luther 12:25 Zeke & Luther 12:50 Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja 13:15 Scaredy Squirrel 13:40 Pair Of Kings 14:05 Pair Of Kings 14:30 Phineas And Ferb 14:55 Phineas And Ferb 15:05 Phineas And Ferb 15:20 Pokemon Bw: Adventures In Unova 15:45 Phineas And Ferb 15:55 Phineas And Ferb 16:10 Phineas And Ferb 16:20 Phineas And Ferb 16:35 Crash & Bernstein 17:00 Lab Rats 17:30 Kickin It

TOWER HEIST ON OSN MOVIES COMEDY 18:00 Kickin It 18:25 Phineas And Ferb 18:50 Phineas And Ferb 19:00 Phineas And Ferb 19:15 Slugterra 19:40 Crash & Bernstein 20:05 Ultimate Spider-Man 20:30 Kickin It 20:55 Pair Of Kings 21:20 Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja 21:45 Phineas And Ferb 22:10 Phineas And Ferb 22:35 Lab Rats 23:00 Kickin It 23:30 Scaredy Squirrel 00:00 Programmes Start At 7:00am KSA

03:15 Style Star 03:40 Extreme Close-Up 04:10 THS 05:05 E!ES 06:00 THS 07:50 Style Star 08:20 Fashion Police 09:15 Scouted 10:15 Married To Jonas 10:40 Chasing The Saturdays 11:10 What Would Ryan Lochte Do? 11:35 What Would Ryan Lochte Do? 12:05 Fashion Police 13:05 Extreme Close-Up 13:35 E!ES 14:30 Style Star 15:00 Kourtney And Kim Take Miami 16:00 Kourtney And Kim Take Miami 17:00 The Wanted Life 17:30 The Wanted Life 18:00 E! News 19:00 Fashion Police 20:00 Ryan Seacrest With The Kardashians: An E!...

21:00 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 22:00 Eric And Jessie: Game On 22:30 E! News 23:30 Chelsea Lately 00:00 Chelsea Lately 00:30 The Dance Scene 00:55 The Dance Scene 01:25 THS 02:20 E! Investigates

03:10 Reza, Spice Prince Of India 03:35 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 04:00 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 04:25 Food Wars 04:50 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 05:15 United Tastes Of America 05:40 Chopped 06:30 Iron Chef America 07:10 Food Network Challenge 08:00 Unwrapped 08:25 Unwrapped 08:50 Food Crafters 09:15 United Tastes Of America 09:40 Extra Virgin 10:05 Barefoot Contessa 10:30 Food Network Star 11:45 Aarti Party 12:10 Unwrapped 12:35 Unique Sweets 13:00 Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook Off 13:50 Tyler’s Ultimate 14:15 Barefoot Contessa 14:40 Barefoot Contessa 15:05 Siba’s Table 15:30 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 15:55 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 16:20 Symon’s Suppers 16:45 Chopped 17:35 Barefoot Contessa

18:00 18:25 18:50 19:15 19:40 20:05 20:30 20:55 21:20 22:10 23:00 23:25 23:50 00:15 00:40 01:05 01:30 01:55 02:20 02:45

Barefoot Contessa Roadtrip With G. Garvin Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Guy’s Big Bite Reza’s African Kitchen Siba’s Table Charly’s Cake Angels Chopped Iron Chef America Charly’s Cake Angels Charly’s Cake Angels Unique Sweets Unique Sweets Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Heat Seekers Meat & Potatoes Outrageous Food Charly’s Cake Angels

03:30 Somewhere In China 04:25 Mega Food 05:20 Banged Up Abroad 06:15 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 07:10 Bondi Rescue 07:35 Bondi Rescue 08:05 Eat Street 08:30 Eat Street 09:00 Banged Up Abroad 09:55 Banged Up Abroad 10:50 Somewhere In China 11:45 Mega Food 12:40 Banged Up Abroad 13:35 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 14:30 Bondi Rescue 14:55 Bondi Rescue 15:25 Eat Street 15:50 Eat Street 16:20 Banged Up Abroad 17:15 Banged Up Abroad 18:10 Somewhere In China 19:05 Deadly Arts 20:00 Banged Up Abroad 21:00 Banged Up Abroad 22:00 Banged Up Abroad 22:55 Don’t Tell My Mother 23:50 Market Values 00:15 My Sri Lanka With Peter Kuruvita 00:45 Street Food Around The World 01:10 Deadliest Journeys 01:40 Earth Tripping 02:05 Chasing Time 02:35 Eat Street

03:00 Banged Up Abroad 04:00 Blowdown 05:00 Prehistoric Predators 06:00 Banged Up Abroad 07:00 Situation Critical 08:00 Megastructures 09:00 The Border 10:00 Ancient Secrets Mystery Of The Silver Pharaoh 11:00 Banged Up Abroad 12:00 Blowdown 13:00 Prehistoric Predators 14:00 Banged Up Abroad 15:00 Situation Critical 16:00 Megastructures 17:00 The Border 18:00 Breakout 19:00 Breakout 20:00 My Brilliant Brain 21:00 Animal Mega Moves 22:00 Britain’s Greatest Machines 23:00 World’s Toughest Fixes 00:00 Ultimate Airport Dubai 01:00 Banged Up Abroad 02:00 Inside Combat Rescue

03:00 The Simpsons 03:30 Melissa & Joey

04:00 Seinfeld 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 The War At Home 06:00 All Of Us 06:30 Friends 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 Seinfeld 08:30 The War At Home 09:00 The Simpsons 09:30 The Crazy Ones 10:00 Arrested Development 10:30 Friends 11:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:00 All Of Us 12:30 Seinfeld 13:00 The War At Home 13:30 Friends 14:00 Melissa & Joey 14:30 The Crazy Ones 15:00 Arrested Development 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 16:30 All Of Us 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 Breaking In 18:30 Whitney 19:00 Whitney 19:30 Happy Endings 20:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 Enlightened 22:30 Out There 23:00 Family Guy 23:30 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 Enlightened 02:00 Out There 02:30 Family Guy

03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 12:30 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 16:30 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00 00:00 01:00 02:00

American Horror Story Grey’s Anatomy Once Upon A Time Touch Drop Dead Diva Royal Pains Grey’s Anatomy Once Upon A Time Homeland Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show Royal Pains Touch Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show Royal Pains Warehouse 13 Perception Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Justified American Horror Story Touch Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Justified

04:00 06:00 08:00 09:45 12:00 14:00 15:45 18:00 20:00 22:00 00:00 02:00

Graystone True Justice: Blood Alley Nick Of Time Courageous Wild Wild West Ultraviolet Courageous XXX: The Next Level Ultraviolet Shadow The Keeper Paintball

Meeting Evil Being John Malkovich Vampire

03:00 Flower Girl 05:00 Fastest 07:00 Arthur 3: And The War Of Two Worlds 09:00 Brave 11:00 Wreck-It Ralph 13:00 Dead Lines 15:00 Arbitrage 17:00 Brave 18:45 Anna Karenina 21:00 Cheerful Weather For The Wedding 23:00 The Grey 01:00 Seeking Justice

04:30 Problem Child 06:00 Mandie And The Secret Tunnel 08:00 Easter Egg Escapade 10:00 Dragon Hunters 11:30 Twigson 13:00 Problem Child 14:30 Barbie In The Pink Shoes 16:00 Luke And Lucy: The Texas Rangers 18:00 Dragon Hunters 20:00 Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups 22:00 Barbie In The Pink Shoes 23:30 Luke And Lucy: The Texas Rangers 01:00 Easter Egg Escapade 02:45 Barbie In The Pink Shoes

04:00 Flicka 3 06:00 True Justice: Dead Drop 08:00 Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part One 09:30 Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part Two 11:00 Mrs. Miracle 12:45 Mary & Martha 14:30 A Heartbeat Away 16:00 Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part One 17:30 Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part Two 19:00 Bernie 20:45 Insidious 22:30 The Sweeney 00:30 Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part One 02:15 Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part Two

05:00 Top 14 07:00 Rugby League World Cup 09:00 Champions Tour Highlights 10:00 Challenge Series Golf Highlights 10:30 European Challenge Tour Highlights 11:30 Top 14 13:30 World Golf Championships Highlights 14:30 Trans World Sport 15:30 World Match Racing Tour Highlights 16:30 Rugby League World Cup 18:30 Rugby League World Cup 20:30 European Tour Weekly 21:00 Inside The PGA Tour 21:30 Trans World Sport 22:30 Top 14 Highlights 23:00 International Rugby Union 01:00 ICC Cricket 360 01:30 Trans World Sport 02:30 Rugby League World Cup

Classifieds THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

Kuwait

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

SHARQIA-2 CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:30 PM 4:15 PM 7:00 PM 9:45 PM 12:30 AM

SHARQIA-3 ESCAPE FROM PLANET EARTH (DIG) KALBY DALILI (DIG) KALBY DALILI (DIG) DJINN (DIG) KALBY DALILI (DIG) DJINN (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:45 PM 4:00 PM 6:00 PM 8:00 PM 10:00 PM 12:05 AM

MUHALAB-1 DJINN (DIG) ENDER’S GAME (DIG) DJINN (DIG) ENDER’S GAME (DIG) ENDER’S GAME (DIG)

1:30 PM 3:30 PM 5:45 PM 7:30 PM 9:45 PM

MUHALAB-2 ESCAPE PLAN (DIG) ESCAPE PLAN (DIG) KRRISH 3 (DIG) (HINDI) KALBY DALILI (DIG) KALBY DALILI (DIG)

12:30 PM 2:45 PM 5:00 PM 8:00 PM 10:00 PM 1:00 PM 3:45 PM 6:30 PM 9:15 PM

FANAR-1 ESCAPE PLAN (DIG) KALBY DALILI (DIG) BANI ADAM (EMIRATHI FILM) KALBY DALILI (DIG) KALBY DALILI (DIG) ESCAPE PLAN (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

2:00 PM 4:15 PM 6:15 PM 8:45 PM 10:45 PM 12:45 AM

FANAR-2 ESCAPE FROM PLANET EARTH (DIG) ENDER’S GAME (DIG) ESCAPE FROM PLANET EARTH (DIG) ENDER’S GAME (DIG) ENDER’S GAME (DIG) ENDER’S GAME (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

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

FANAR-3 DJINN (DIG) DJINN (DIG) DJINN (DIG) KRRISH 3 (DIG) (HINDI) KRRISH 3 (DIG) (HINDI) DJINN (DIG)

KNCC PROGRAMME FROM THURSDAY TO WEDNESDAY NO SUN+TUE+WED

SHARQIA-1 ENDER’S GAME (DIG) DIANA (DIG) KRRISH 3 (DIG) (HINDI) ENDER’S GAME (DIG) ENDER’S GAME (DIG) ENDER’S GAME (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

MUHALAB-3 CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG)

FOR SALE

12:45 PM 2:45 PM 4:30 PM 6:15 PM 9:15 PM 12:15 AM

KALBY DALILI (DIG) KALBY DALILI (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

FANAR-4 CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:30 PM 4:15 PM 7:00 PM 9:45 PM 12:30 AM

10:30 PM 12:45 AM

AVENUES-4 ENDER’S GAME (DIG) ESCAPE PLAN (DIG) ENDER’S GAME (DIG) ENDER’S GAME (DIG) ENDER’S GAME (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

2:00 PM 4:30 PM 7:00 PM 9:30 PM 12:05 AM

3:30 PM 5:45 PM 7:45 PM 10:00 PM 12:05 AM

360º- 1 ENDER’S GAME (DIG) ENDER’S GAME (DIG) ENDER’S GAME (DIG) ENDER’S GAME (DIG) ENDER’S GAME (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

2:00 PM 4:30 PM 7:00 PM 9:30 PM 12:05 AM

1:45 PM 3:45 PM 6:00 PM 8:00 PM 10:00 PM 12:05 AM

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

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

MARINA-2 DJINN (DIG) ENDER’S GAME (DIG) DIANA (DIG) ENDER’S GAME (DIG) DJINN (DIG) ENDER’S GAME (DIG) DJINN (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

12:45 PM 2:30 PM 4:45 PM 7:00 PM 9:15 PM 11:00 PM 1:15 AM

360º- 3 CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 (DIG-3D) CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 (DIG-3D) CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 (DIG-3D) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG)

MARINA-3 CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:15 PM 4:00 PM 6:45 PM 9:30 PM 12:15 AM

AL-KOUT.1 CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:00 PM 4:00 PM 6:45 PM 9:30 PM 12:15 AM

AVENUES-1 GRAVITY (DIG) GRAVITY (DIG) GRAVITY (DIG) GRAVITY (DIG) GRAVITY (DIG) GRAVITY (DIG) GRAVITY (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:00 PM 3:00 PM 5:00 PM 7:00 PM 9:00 PM 11:00 PM 1:00 AM

AL-KOUT.2 DJINN (DIG) ESCAPE FROM PLANET EARTH (DIG) ESCAPE FROM PLANET EARTH (DIG) DJINN (DIG) DJINN (DIG) DJINN (DIG) DJINN (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

12:45 PM 3:00 PM 5:00 PM 7:00 PM 8:45 PM 11:00 PM 12:45 AM

AVENUES-2 KRRISH 3 (DIG) (HINDI) KRRISH 3 (DIG) (HINDI) KRRISH 3 (DIG) (HINDI) KRRISH 3 (DIG) (HINDI) KRRISH 3 (DIG) (HINDI) NO SUN+TUE+WED

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

AL-KOUT.3 ENDER’S GAME (DIG) ESCAPE PLAN (DIG) ENDER’S GAME (DIG) ESCAPE PLAN (DIG) ENDER’S GAME (DIG) ENDER’S GAME (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

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

FANAR-5 CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 GRAVITY GRAVITY GRAVITY GRAVITY NO SUN+TUE+WED MARINA-1 ESCAPE FROM PLANET EARTH (DIG) ESCAPE FROM PLANET EARTH (DIG) KALBY DALILI (DIG) KALBY DALILI (DIG) KALBY DALILI (DIG) ESCAPE PLAN (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

AVENUES-3 KALBY DALILI (DIG) KALBY DALILI (DIG) KALBY DALILI (DIG) KALBY DALILI (DIG)

1:30 PM

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

Nissan Pathfinder, 2003 model, full option: Tel 97277135 6-11-2013 2003 model Toyota Prado 4 cylinder for sale, new tyres, good condition, expecting KD 2,950, serious buyers only contact 97277154.

5-11-2013

Kuwait, converted to Islam do hereby change my name from Anandharaj to Abdul Rehman with immediate effect. (C 4552) I, Bondalapati Venkata Raman a Devi, D/o Bondlapati Chitti Babu, R/o 155 K Bethapudi Na rasapur West Godavari District, A.P. I, have changed my name and religion as “Syeda Ayisha Siddeeqa and Religion Islam. (C 4556) 5-11-2013

CHANGE OF NAME

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

AL-KOUT.4 GRAVITY (DIG) KALBY DALILI (DIG) KALBY DALILI (DIG) BANI ADAM (EMIRATHI FILM)

I, Muruganandham Asokan S/o Muruganandham, Indian Passport No. E6570385, address: Kothanda Raman Nagar, Ponnavarai main road, Kalyana Puram (PO), Thiruvaiyaru (TK), Thanjavur (Dt) hereby change my name to Sam Ashok Sam. (C 4558) 7-11-2013 I, Anandharaj son of Subbaiyan holder of Indian Passport No: F4197628, permanent resident of new Udaiyar Street, Pattukkottai P.O, Thanjavur Dt, Tamil Nadu, India, present resident of Jabriya block 10, street 18, bld 11, flat 3

LOST Lost driving license (No. 256040602005), if found please contact Tel: 97732317 or 97732318.

(C 4559) 7-11-2013 Lost original examination, compartment, migration, secondary, senior secondary school certificates for year 2000/2002. Please contact 65841234. (C 4557) 5-11-2013 Original document policy no. 633004321-8 Mr. Imran Qammer the State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan, Gulf zone is

reported to have been lost.

Anyone finding the same or claiming any interest in it should communicate with the manager Kuwait State Life office Ph: 22452208.

(4553) Original document policy no. 6330034920 Mrs. Haleema Agha the State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan, Gulf zone is reported to have been lost.

Anyone finding the same or claiming any interest in it should communicate with the manager Kuwait State Life office Ph: 22452208.

(4553) SITUATION VACANT Required English speaking nanny/maid. Please call 99824597. (C 4555) 5-11-2013 SITUATION WANTED M.Com (finance) graduate, pursuing MBA 10 years of experience in company accounts, preparations of financial statements, reconciliation of bank accounts, payroll management, transferable visa, Kuwait driving license. Mob: 65008377.

(C 4547)

No: 15979

1:30 PM 3:30 PM 5:30 PM 7:30 PM

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

Airlines BBC JAI KLM JZR JZR THY QTR SAI GFA THY UAE ETD MSR QTR MSC FDB THY DHX QTR FDB JZR KAC JZR BAW KAC IRA KAC KAC FDB KAC KAC KAC KAC UAE ABY QTR ETD IRA FDB IZG GFA MSC MSC MEA DHX JZR JZR JZR SYR TBZ UAE MSR MSR FDB QTR KAC KAC SVA

Arrival Flights on Thursday 7/11/2013 Flt Route 43 DHAKA 574 MUMBAI 411 AMSTERDAM/DAMMAM 539 CAIRO 267 BEIRUT 772 ISTANBUL 1084 DOHA 441 LAHORE 211 BAHRAIN 764 SABIHA 853 DUBAI 305 ABU DHABI-INTL 612 CAIRO 1076 DOHA 401 ALEXANDRIA 67 DUBAI 770 ISTANBUL 170 BAHRAIN 8524 DOHA 69 DUBAI 503 LUXOR 412 MANILA/BANGKOK 529 ASYUT 157 LONDON 206 ISLAMABAD 617 AHWAZ 302 MUMBAI 382 DELHI 53 DUBAI 352 COCHIN 332 TRIVANDRUM 362 COLOMBO 284 DHAKA 855 DUBAI 125 SHARJAH 1070 DOHA 301 ABU DHABI-INTL 605 ISFAHAN 55 DUBAI 4161 MASHAD 213 BAHRAIN 403 ASYUT 405 SOHAG 404 BEIRUT 870 BAHRAIN 165 DUBAI 561 SOHAG 241 AMMAN-QUEEN ALIA 341 DAMASCUS 5483 MASHAD 871 DUBAI 610 CAIRO 579 SOHAG 57 DUBAI 1078 DOHA 672 DUBAI 546 ALEXANDRIA 500 JEDDAH

Time 00:05 00:10 00:30 00:40 00:40 00:45 00:55 01:30 02:10 02:15 02:35 02:45 03:10 03:45 03:45 04:20 05:35 05:40 05:45 05:50 05:50 06:45 06:20 06:40 07:40 07:50 07:55 07:55 07:50 08:10 08:15 08:45 08:50 08:40 09:00 09:10 09:20 09:30 09:40 10:35 10:40 11:15 11:20 11:55 11:15 11:30 12:55 12:45 12:30 12:35 12:50 13:00 13:05 13:50 13:55 14:00 14:05 14:30

JZR KAC KNE KAC NIA JZR OMA UAE QTR ETD RJA JZR JZR SVA ABY GFA UAL JZR KAC JZR QTR FDB KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC GFA OMA JZR JAI AXB ABY TAR FDB MSR SYR DLH ALK MEA JZR ETD UAE GFA QTR KLM JAI THY AIC ABAD FDB JZR JZR UAL PIA KAC

257 562 472 788 252 535 645 857 1072 303 640 787 777 510 127 215 982 135 542 177 1080 63 502 786 104 176 674 774 614 618 217 647 189 572 393 129 328 61 618 1431 634 229 402 181 307 859 219 1074 417 576 6512 981 22:30 59 239 185 981 205 118

BEIRUT 14:45 AMMAN-QUEEN ALIA 14:50 JEDDAH 15:00 JEDDAH 15:10 ALEXANDRIA 15:50 CAIRO 15:50 MUSCAT 15:55 DUBAI 16:40 DOHA 16:40 ABU DHABI-INTL 16:50 AMMAN-QUEEN ALIA 16:55 RIYADH 17:00 JEDDAH 17:55 RIYADH 17:15 SHARJAH 17:25 BAHRAIN 17:30 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 18:00 BAHRAIN 18:00 CAIRO 18:05 DUBAI 18:20 DOHA 18:40 DUBAI 18:45 BEIRUT 18:50 JEDDAH 18:45 LONDON 19:35 GENEVA/FRANKFURT 19:15 DUBAI 19:25 RIYADH 19:30 BAHRAIN 19:35 DOHA 19:00 BAHRAIN 19:30 MUSCAT 19:55 DUBAI 20:15 MUMBAI 20:10 KOZHIKODE 20:15 SHARJAH 20:20 DUBAI 20:00 DUBAI 20:05 ALEXANDRIA 20:05 DAMASCUS 20:50 FRANKFURT 20:55 COLOMBO 21:10 BEIRUT 21:20 AL MAKTOUM INTERNATI 21:30 ABU DHABI-INTL 21:35 DUBAI 21:40 BAHRAIN 21:45 DOHA 22:00 AMSTERDAM 22:05 COCHIN/ABU DHABI-INTL 22:10 ISTANBUL 22:20 CHENNAI/HYDERABAD/AHMED DUBAI AMMAN-QUEEN ALIA DUBAI BAHRAIN LAHORE NEW YORK

22:30 22:20 23:20 23:10 23:15 23:35

Airlines AIC AXB JAI KLM BBC DLH SAI THY UAE ETD MSR QTR MSC FDB QTR JZR FDB JZR THY QTR GFA KAC JZR THY FDB BAW IRA JZR JZR KAC KAC KAC ABY KAC UAE ETD QTR IRA FDB KAC GFA KAC IZG KAC MSC MSC JZR MEA KAC DHX SYR JZR JZR TBZ MSR MSR

Departure Flights on Thursday 7/11/2013 Flt Route Time 976 GOA/CHENNAI 00:05 490 MANGALORE/COCHIN 00:15 573 MUMBAI 01:10 411 AMSTERDAM 01:45 44 DHAKA 01:45 635 FRANKFURT 02:10 441 LAHORE 02:30 773 ISTANBUL 02:55 854 DUBAI 03:50 306 ABU DHABI-INTL 04:00 613 CAIRO 04:10 1085 DOHA 04:15 406 SOHAG 04:45 68 DUBAI 05:00 1077 DOHA 05:15 560 SOHAG 06:20 70 DUBAI 06:30 164 DUBAI 06:55 765 SABIHA 07:05 8525 DOHA 07:15 212 BAHRAIN 07:15 545 ALEXANDRIA 07:15 240 AMMAN-QUEEN ALIA 07:20 771 ISTANBUL 07:30 54 DUBAI 08:30 156 LONDON 08:45 616 AHWAZ 08:50 256 BEIRUT 08:55 534 CAIRO 09:00 787 JEDDAH 09:25 561 AMMAN-QUEEN ALIA 09:25 671 DUBAI 09:30 126 SHARJAH 09:40 101 LONDON/NEW YORK 09:50 856 DUBAI 09:55 302 ABU DHABI-INTL 10:05 1071 DOHA 10:10 606 MASHAD 10:20 56 DUBAI 10:20 501 BEIRUT 11:10 214 BAHRAIN 11:25 541 CAIRO 11:30 4162 MASHAD 11:35 165 ROME/PARIS 11:50 404 ASYUT 12:15 402 ALEXANDRIA 12:20 776 JEDDAH 12:25 405 BEIRUT 12:55 785 JEDDAH 13:00 523 BAGRAM 13:00 342 DAMASCUS 13:30 786 RIYADH 13:35 176 DUBAI 13:45 5484 MASHAD 13:50 580 SOHAG 13:50 611 CAIRO 14:00

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION

UAE FDB QTR JZR KAC KAC JZR KNE SVA KAC KAC NIA OMA JZR JZR ETD QTR UAE JZR RJA ABY SVA GFA JZR JZR UAL FDB QTR GFA KAC FDB TAR OMA KAC ABY MSR JAI KAC AXB KAC KAC SYR DHX ALK MEA ETD GFA KAC UAE KAC JZR KLM JAI FDB QTR JZR KAC KAC

872 58 1079 134 673 617 188 473 505 773 613 251 646 238 180 304 1073 858 538 641 128 511 216 184 266 982 64 1081 218 283 62 328 648 331 120 619 571 351 394 343 543 1432 171 230 403 308 220 301 860 205 554 417 575 60 1075 528 411 415

DUBAI DUBAI DOHA BAHRAIN DUBAI DOHA DUBAI JEDDAH JEDDAH RIYADH BAHRAIN ALEXANDRIA MUSCAT AMMAN-QUEEN ALIA AL MAKTOUM INTERNATI ABU DHABI-INTL DOHA DUBAI CAIRO AMMAN-QUEEN ALIA SHARJAH RIYADH BAHRAIN DUBAI BEIRUT BAHRAIN DUBAI DOHA BAHRAIN DHAKA DUBAI TUNIS MUSCAT TRIVANDRUM SHARJAH ALEXANDRIA MUMBAI COCHIN KOZHIKODE CHENNAI CAIRO DAMASCUS BAHRAIN COLOMBO BEIRUT ABU DHABI-INTL BAHRAIN MUMBAI DUBAI ISLAMABAD ALEXANDRIA DAMMAM/AMSTERDAM ABU DHABI-INTL/COCHIN DUBAI DOHA ASYUT BANGKOK/MANILA KUALA LUMPUR/JAKARTA

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

34

s ta rs CROSSWORD 361

STAR TRACK Aries (March 21-April 19)

ARIES You may have to excuse yourself from some of the interactions with coworkers today in order to get your work accomplished. You may feel like talking a bit more than usual, happily becoming lost in conversations but this morning would be better served in concentration and focus. There will, however, be an urge to communicate more than usual. With your positive attitude, much can be accomplished. This afternoon is a productive time to work in a group or team. After work you can be able to express your thoughts. You exchange information with neighbors or siblings. Others may find you especially witty and eccentric. You are ready for big changes and may even seek advice for ways to proceed when looking to redecorate or build an addition to your home.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) Things are changing in your career or path and the good results depend on your own ambition and drive, which are strong now. Communications are high this afternoon. You desire to be with friends that are stimulating and help you to stretch beyond your usual routine. The things you have in common and the way you listen and enjoy another person’s presence will be the staying power in these relationships. You and your friends will benefit by entering into a project that includes some type of charity or needy mission such as toy bears for the police officers to give to children, rocking babies in the hospital, food for the elderly, etc. Bring meaning and excitement to your life now—in more than just one way. Good fortune and plain old luck surround you now.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

ACROSS 1. A reproach for some lapse or misdeed.

4. Mark with a date, and often with a place, to, as of a newspaper article or a letter.

12. A sudden loss of consciousness resulting when the rupture or occlusion of a blood vessel leads to oxygen lack in the brain.

15. An inflammatory complication of leprosy that results in painful skin lesions on the arms and legs and face.

16. A genus of herbs and shrubs belonging to the family Euphorbiaceae.

17. (Irish) The sea personified.

18. Expandable metal or wooden wedge used by printers to lock up a form within a chase.

20. A trivalent metalloid element.

21. Water frozen in the solid state.

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

24. Large ornamental tropical American tree with bipinnate leaves and globose clusters of flowers with crimson stamens and sweet-pulp seed pods eaten by cattle.

26. The state prevailing during the absence of war.

27. A palace and fortress built in Granada by the Moslems in the Middle Ages.

29. A family of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in southeastern Asia.

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

33. (Greek mythology) The Muse of history.

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

39. (informal terms) "gave me a cockamamie reason for not going".

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

44. A pilgrimage to Mecca.

46. Leopard lizards.

48. An onerous or difficult concern.

50. An awkward and inexperienced youth.

51. A sharp hand gesture (resembling a blow).

52. Greenwich Mean Time updated with leap seconds.

53. United States writer (1914-1986).

55. Of or relating to alleles.

57. A mechanically operated piano that uses a roll of perforated paper to activate the keys.

59. An informal term for a father.

60. A woman hired to suckle a child of someone else.

62. Cubes of meat marinated and cooked on a skewer usually with vegetables.

67. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

71. Title for a civil or military leader (especially in Turkey).

72. A fatty deposit in the intima (inner lining) of an artery.

76. Resinlike substance secreted by certain lac insects.

77. (prefix) Bad or erroneous or lack of.

78. A cut of pork ribs with much of the meat trimmed off.

79. The 22nd letter of the Greek alphabet.

80. The residue that remains when something is burned.

81. Thin-shelled freshwater mussels.

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

DOWN 1. A summary that repeats the substance of a longer discussion.

2. Small arboreal tropical American insectivorous lizards with the ability to change skin color.

3. A folded part (as a fold of skin or muscle).

4. Fairly small terrestrial ferns of tropical America.

5. (informal) Of the highest quality.

6. A hard gray lustrous metallic element that is highly corrosion-resistant.

7. A river in central Europe that arises in northwestern Czechoslovakia and flows northward through Germany to empty into the North Sea. 8. A benign tumor composed of muscle tissue.

9. The month following March and preceding May. 10. The 17th letter of the Greek alphabet.

11. A resident of Kansas.

12. An upward slope or grade (as in a road).

13. A Roman Catholic priest who acts for another higher-ranking clergyman.

14. A particular environment or walk of life.

19. Any of various small chiefly tropical and usually nocturnal insectivorous terrestrial lizards typically with immovable eyelids.

23. Relating to or characteristic of or occurring on the sea or ships.

25. Affect with wonder.

28. Relating to the blood vessels or blood.

30. Comprises tropical American species usually placed in genus Masdevallia.

31. A state in midwestern United States.

34. An island of central Hawaii.

35. Any plant of the genus Inula.

37. A soft white precious univalent metallic element having the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of any metal.

38. The seventh month of the Moslem calendar.

40. Scale-like structure between the base of the wing and the halter of a two-winged fly.

41. Bright with a steady but subdued shining.

42. West Indian evergreen with medium to long leaves.

45. (Old Testament) The fourth son of Jacob who was forebear of one of the tribes of Israel.

47. Any of various units of capacity.

49. The capital and largest city of Yemen.

54. A port city in southern Kenya on a coral island in a bay of the Indian Ocean.

56. Mild yellow Dutch cheese made in balls.

58. (electronics) Designating sound transmission from two sources through two channels.

61. Declare or acknowledge to be true.

63. Armor plate that protects the chest.

64. A vigorous blow.

65. A group of cattle or sheep or other domestic mammals all of the same kind that are herded by humans.

66. Pitiable in circumstances especially through abandonment.

68. Type genus of the Alcidae comprising solely the razorbill.

69. King of Saudi Arabia since 1982 (born in 1922).

70. Harsh or corrosive in tone.

73. Administration of a nutritionally adequate solution through a catheter into the vena cava.

74. 10 hao equal 1 dong.

75. A loose sleeveless outer garment made from aba cloth.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

You bring a lot of mental insight to whatever you do and could help others to take a more independent approach on their life or career. You encourage others to be strong in their character and in their morals. Some of your friends and even co-workers may seek you out for your psychological insight and understanding from time to time. Today may be one of those days where you spend more time giving advice to others than in achieving results from your work. You may find yourself in overtime or taking a bit of work home with you this afternoon. Your inner resources and emotions are accented this evening when perhaps a young person presents you with some interesting challenges. It may take a while but you will achieve positive results.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) It is you they are all writing or talking about—you are the new senior director or you will have some other big name you always wanted. You are proud of your job and you work very hard to keep it. Make sure your boasting is only at the end of your name or in your return address. This afternoon you may find yourself in a long line, waiting to purchase some very much wanted concert tickets. This is a very lucky day for making decisions and finding your way through just about any problem you may discover. A friend of yours is moving from one apartment to another and you want to make yourself available to help make that move easier. You might enjoy his or her company in an overnight visit. You learn easy and convenient storage ideas this evening.

Leo (July 23-August 22) You enjoy conversations with young people before your day even begins.

You exchange jokes with these young people and enjoy looking back into a more carefree time. The opportunity to use one of their jokes in order to lighten up the mood around the workplace is a pleasure for you. Your current appreciation for just about everything may lead you to overspend while shopping this afternoon. If you are trying to stay within a budget, check out the library close to you and look for books that talk about good buys in your area. Some people make their living by shopping for others and finding the best products. Most libraries would carry this book, magazine or pamphlet. Enjoy a borrowed movie or book this evening.

Virgo (August 23-September 22) It is easy to move forward in projects around the workplace and in any other areas of your life. You are much admired for your people skills and your friendliness.

Perhaps you are a plumber or an electrician or in some other profession that gives you the opportunity to talk with customers in their own homes. As you make house calls, you always say or show the homeowners little tips that will make their life a bit easier. This will build up a customer list for you. Environmental contaminants connected with your work can be a problem and you may find yourself successfully convincing higher-ups of needed changes. Others appreciate your attention to better environmental conditions as well as better working conditions.

Word Search

Libra (September 23-October 22) This is a good day—most any task should move along quite well. You will enjoy the noon hour with a few of your co-workers as you help to execute some kind of a celebration for your boss or a co-worker. This afternoon brings with it lots of work and a great deal of mental activity. Do something different this afternoon, or find some internet page that lists the entertainment in your city. Find something to do this coming weekend that you would not normally do, perhaps a barbershop quartet, square-dance club or a boat show that may be appearing in your city. Any one of these things will be just what is needed to bring you smiles and chuckles and that wonderful feeling of relaxation. Tonight is good for planning and chatting with friends.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) There is a more energetic and outgoing quality to your lifestyle now.

Besting others in the heat of competition and taking on a leadership role means more to you now than in the past: second best is not good enough! Financial gain and material well-being are among the brighter prospects looming before you now, particularly as you focus in on how much things really mean to you. There may be a tendency to emphasize the material too much, which could lead to the feeling that the things you own, own you instead. This can be an expansive, creative and even romantic phase, a time you will look back on with pride and fondness. This is a great time to reflect and understand your own situation. Emotions and feelings of those around you are very clear.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) A radio station geared for children comes to your attention and you do everything to encourage the nurturing, advancement and advertisement of the station to others. If you are in the educational business, you will do everything you can to get the word out to others. You can demonstrate great understanding and sensitivity to the needs of others and you are in a good position to teach, guide or just enjoy the special personalities of the people around you. Your mind is ever on communication and how you present yourself to others so that you are understood. It is easy for you to express yourself in a crowd—you are a real smoothie. The sight of some well-needed weather puts you in a good mood tonight; you might even cook.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19) If you are retired and wondering how to fill your hours, there is a need for your experience to be taught through the junior colleges in your area. Just think, what you enjoyed as a hobby or a job can be taught to others. You might even want to teach or learn the art of rendering horoscopes. It is good to pass on some of your experience to others that are just now coming into your same category of work. The loopholes and the shortcuts are things you would be able to help others understand. Perhaps you fly a plane or are a cattle rancher. A new animal comes into your life and may become a permanent guest. This will bring much laughter to you and it will never break a confidence. A relaxed evening with music can provide opportunities for you to meditate.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) Melodramatic behavior is not like you. When you see this behavior in others, you are able to bring about some semblance of peace and truth. Whatever has brought about some confused thinking can now be dealt with in a mature and compassionate way. Now is the time to encourage commonsense thinking and to not give in to the what-if way of thinking. You could be dealing with some form of law today and may find yourself comforting a relative, friend or neighbor. With little patience for red tape and superficialities, you insist on getting right to the heart of any question and putting any difficulty behind you. Some sort of task force can be put together to do some detective work.

You will look back on this time with pride and fondness.

Pisces (February 19-March 20) The work you do, the way you take care of health and other obligations are important keys to your best potential now, in many respects. You have begun a routine of vitamins, exercise and a heart-healthy diet that seems to suit you very well. There is a need for focus in this area of your life and you set up schedules and stick to it. You may experience some very high-energy days as you begin a new routine. You will also find that energies balance out quite nicely as time moves along. You move to complete some long-term projects that may have become tedious or boring. You could find that you are appreciated for your ability to act and get things done. A need to be the center of attention takes hold in your life this evening, a craving to be appreciated.

Yesterday’s Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

Daily SuDoku

Yesterday’s Solution

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

i n f o r m at i o n For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128 GOVERNORATE Sabah Hospital

24812000

Amiri Hospital

22450005

Maternity Hospital

24843100

Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital

25312700

Chest Hospital

24849400

Farwaniya Hospital

24892010

Adan Hospital

23940620

Ibn Sina Hospital

24840300

Al-Razi Hospital

24846000

Physiotherapy Hospital

24874330/9

PHARMACY

ADDRESS

PHONE

Ahmadi

Sama Safwan Abu Halaifa Danat Al-Sultan

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

23915883 23715414 23726558

Jahra

Modern Jahra Madina Munawara

Jahra-Block 3 Lot 1 Jahra-Block 92

24575518 24566622

Capital

Ahlam Khaldiya Coop

Fahad Al-Salem St Khaldiya Coop

22436184 24833967

Farwaniya

New Shifa Ferdous Coop Modern Safwan

Farwaniya Block 40 Ferdous Coop Old Kheitan Block 11

24734000 24881201 24726638

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

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

25726265 25647075 22625999 22564549 25340559 25326554 25721264 25380581 25628241

Hawally

Al-Madeena

22418714

Al-Shuhada

22545171

Al-Shuwaikh

24810598

Al-Nuzha

22545171

Sabhan

24742838

Al-Helaly

22434853

Al-Faiha

22545051

Al-Farwaniya

24711433

Al-Sulaibikhat

24316983

Al-Fahaheel

23927002

Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh

24316983

Ahmadi

23980088

Al-Mangaf

23711183

Al-Shuaiba

23262845

Kaizen center

25716707

Rawda

22517733

Adaliya

22517144

Al-Jahra

25610011

Khaldiya

24848075

Al-Salmiya

25616368

Kaifan

24849807

Shamiya

24848913

Shuwaikh

24814507

Abdullah Salem

22549134

Nuzha

22526804

Industrial Shuwaikh

24814764

Qadsiya

22515088

Dasmah

22532265

Bneid Al-Gar

22531908

Shaab

22518752

Qibla

22459381

Ayoun Al-Qibla

22451082

Mirqab

22456536

Sharq

22465401

Salmiya

25746401

Jabriya

25316254

Maidan Hawally

25623444

Bayan

25388462

Mishref

25381200

W Hawally

22630786

Sabah

24810221

Jahra

24770319

New Jahra

24575755

West Jahra

24772608

South Jahra

24775066

North Jahra

24775992

North Jleeb

24311795

Ardhiya

24884079

Firdous

24892674

Omariya

24719048

N Khaitan

24710044

Fintas

23900322

INTERNATIONAL CALLS

PRIVATE CLINICS Ophthalmologists Dr. Abidallah Al-Mansoor 25622444 Dr. Samy Al-Rabeea 25752222 Dr. Masoma Habeeb 25321171 Dr. Mubarak Al-Ajmy 25739999 Dr. Mohsen Abel 25757700 Dr Adnan Hasan Alwayl 25732223 Dr. Abdallah Al-Baghly 25732223 Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) Dr. Ahmed Fouad Mouner 24555050 Ext 510 Dr. Abdallah Al-Ali 25644660 Dr. Abd Al-Hameed Al-Taweel 25646478 Dr. Sanad Al-Fathalah 25311996 Dr. Mohammad Al-Daaory 25731988 Dr. Ismail Al-Fodary 22620166 Dr. Mahmoud Al-Booz 25651426 General Practitioners Dr. Mohamme Y Majidi 24555050 Ext 123 Dr. Yousef Al-Omar 24719312 Dr. Tarek Al-Mikhazeem 23926920 Dr. Kathem Maarafi 25730465 Dr. Abdallah Ahmad Eyadah 25655528 Dr. Nabeel Al-Ayoobi 24577781 Dr. Dina Abidallah Al-Refae 25333501 Urologists Dr. Ali Naser Al-Serfy 22641534 Dr. Fawzi Taher Abul 22639955 Dr. Khaleel Abidallah Al-Awadi 22616660 Dr. Adel Al-Hunayan FRCS (C) 25313120 Dr. Leons Joseph 66703427 Psychologists /Psychotherapists

Paediatricians

Plastic Surgeons Dr. Mohammad Al-Khalaf

22547272

Dr. Khaled Hamadi

Dr. Abdal-Redha Lari

22617700

Dr. Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rashed

Dr. Abdel Quttainah

25625030/60

Family Doctor Dr Divya Damodar

23729596/23729581

Psychiatrists Dr. Esam Al-Ansari

22635047

Dr Eisa M. Al-Balhan

22613623/0

Gynaecologists & Obstetricians DrAdrian arbe

23729596/23729581

Dr. Verginia s.Marin

2572-6666 ext 8321

Endocrinologist

25665898 25340300

Dr. Zahra Qabazard

25710444

Dr. Sohail Qamar

22621099

Dr. Snaa Maaroof

25713514

Dr. Pradip Gujare

23713100

Dr. Zacharias Mathew

24334282

(1) Ear, Nose and Throat (2) Plastic Surgeon Dr. Abdul Mohsin Jafar, FRCS (Canada)

25655535

Dentists

Dr. Fozeya Ali Al-Qatan

22655539

Dr. Majeda Khalefa Aliytami

25343406

Dr. Shamah Al-Matar

22641071/2

Dr. Ahmad Al-Khooly

25739272

Dr. Anesah Al-Rasheed

22562226

22618787

Dr. Abidallah Al-Amer

22561444

Dr. Faysal Al-Fozan

22619557

Dr. Abdallateef Al-Katrash

22525888

Dr. Abidallah Al-Duweisan

25653755

Dr. Bader Al-Ansari

25620111

General Surgeons Dr. Amer Zawaz Al-Amer

22610044

Dr. Mohammad Yousef Basher

25327148

Internists, Chest & Heart Dr. Adnan Ebil

22639939

Dr. Mousa Khadada

22666300

Dr. Latefa Al-Duweisan

25728004

Dr. Nadem Al-Ghabra

25355515

Dr. Mobarak Aldoub

24726446

Dr Nasser Behbehani

25654300/3

Soor Center Tel: 2290-1677 Fax: 2290 1688

info@soorcenter.com www.soorcenter.com

3729596/3729581

Neurologists Dr. Sohal Najem Al-Shemeri

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Gastrologists Dr. Sami Aman

22636464

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Dr. Foad Abidallah Al-Ali

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Kaizen center 25716707

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Dr. Ahmad Al-Ansari 25658888 Dr. Kamal Al-Shomr 25329924 Physiotherapists & VD Dr. Deyaa Shehab

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Rheumatologists: Dr. Adel Al-Awadi

Dr Anil Thomas

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Dr. Mohammad Zubaid MB, ChB, FRCPC, PACC Assistant Professor Of Medicine Head, Division of Cardiology Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital Consultant Cardiologist Dr. Farida Al-Habib MD, PH.D, FACC Inaya German Medical Center Te: 2575077 Fax: 25723123

2611555-2622555

William Schuilenberg, RPC 2290-1677 Zaina Al Zabin, M.Sc. 2290-1677

Afghanistan 0093 Albania 00355 Algeria 00213 Andorra 00376 Angola 00244 Anguilla 001264 Antiga 001268 Argentina 0054 Armenia 00374 Australia 0061 Austria 0043 Bahamas 001242 Bahrain 00973 Bangladesh 00880 Barbados 001246 Belarus 00375 Belgium 0032 Belize 00501 Benin 00229 Bermuda 001441 Bhutan 00975 Bolivia 00591 Bosnia 00387 Botswana 00267 Brazil 0055 Brunei 00673 Bulgaria 00359 Burkina 00226 Burundi 00257 Cambodia 00855 Cameroon 00237 Canada 001 Cape Verde 00238 Cayman Islands 001345 Central African 00236 Chad 00235 Chile 0056 China 0086 Colombia 0057 Comoros 00269 Congo 00242 Cook Islands 00682 Costa Rica 00506 Croatia 00385 Cuba 0053 Cyprus 00357 Cyprus (Northern) 0090392 Czech Republic 00420 Denmark 0045 Diego Garcia 00246 Djibouti 00253 Dominica 001767 Dominican Republic 001809 Ecuador 00593 Egypt 0020 El Salvador 00503 England (UK) 0044 Equatorial Guinea 00240 Eritrea 00291 Estonia 00372 Ethiopia 00251 Falkland Islands 00500 Faroe Islands 00298 Fiji 00679 Finland 00358 France 0033 French Guiana 00594 French Polynesia 00689 Gabon 00241 Gambia 00220 Georgia 00995 Germany 0049 Ghana 00233 Gibraltar 00350 Greece 0030 Greenland 00299 Grenada 001473 Guadeloupe 00590 Guam 001671 Guatemala 00502 Guinea 00224 Guyana 00592 Haiti 00509 Holland (Netherlands) 0031 Honduras 00504 Hong Kong 00852 Hungary 0036 Ibiza (Spain) 0034 Iceland 00354 India 0091 Indian Ocean 00873 Indonesia 0062

Iran 0098 Iraq 00964 Ireland 00353 Italy 0039 Ivory Coast 00225 Jamaica 001876 Japan 0081 Jordan 00962 Kazakhstan 007 Kenya 00254 Kiribati 00686 Kuwait 00965 Kyrgyzstan 00996 Laos 00856 Latvia 00371 Lebanon 00961 Liberia 00231 Libya 00218 Lithuania 00370 Luxembourg 00352 Macau 00853 Macedonia 00389 Madagascar 00261 Majorca 0034 Malawi 00265 Malaysia 0060 Maldives 00960 Mali 00223 Malta 00356 Marshall Islands 00692 Martinique 00596 Mauritania 00222 Mauritius 00230 Mayotte 00269 Mexico 0052 Micronesia 00691 Moldova 00373 Monaco 00377 Mongolia 00976 Montserrat 001664 Morocco 00212 Mozambique 00258 Myanmar (Burma) 0095 Namibia 00264 Nepal 00977 Netherlands (Holland) 0031 Netherlands Antilles 00599 New Caledonia 00687 New Zealand 0064 Nicaragua 00505 Nigar 00227 Nigeria 00234 Niue 00683 Norfolk Island 00672 Northern Ireland (UK) 0044 North Korea 00850 Norway 0047 Oman 00968 Pakistan 0092 Palau 00680 Panama 00507 Papua New Guinea 00675 Paraguay 00595 Peru 0051 Philippines 0063 Poland 0048 Portugal 00351 Puerto Rico 001787 Qatar 00974 Romania 0040 Russian Federation 007 Rwanda 00250 Saint Helena 00290 Saint Kitts 001869 Saint Lucia 001758 Saint Pierre 00508 Saint Vincent 001784 Samoa US 00684 Samoa West 00685 San Marino 00378 Sao Tone 00239 Saudi Arabia 00966 Scotland (UK) 0044 Senegal 00221 Seychelles 00284 Sierra Leone 00232 Singapore 0065 Slovakia 00421 Slovenia 00386 Solomon Islands 00677

36

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

LIFESTYLE G o s s i p

Cruise

says he’s close to daughter despite work

T

om Cruise maintains a close relationship with his daughter Suri despite his divorce from her mother and a hectic film schedule, the actor wrote in a court filing to support his defamation

lawsuit against a magazine publisher. The actor’s two-page description of his relationship with his daughter was filed Tuesday in a case against Bauer Publishing Co. The actor is suing Bauer over a pair of 2012 tabloid stories that claimed he had “abandoned” his daughter. The stories in Life & Style and In Touch magazines cited Cruise’s absence from Suri’s life due to overseas film shoots. “I have in no way cut Suri out of my life - whether physically, emotionally, financially or otherwise,” Cruise wrote.

He said despite filming back-to-back movies in the second half of 2012, he spoke to his daughter nearly every day and got frequent updates about her from her mother, actress Katie Holmes. Cruise’s lawyers are asking a judge to order Bauer to declare it didn’t have any sources to support its contentions

about his parenting role. Bauer’s lawyers argue that a judge should reject Cruise’s motion. Their lawyers also cited files they have turned over to Cruise’s legal team that describe the magazine’s reporting and statements from confidential sources that the actor had missed Suri’s first day of school and could have flown to New York to see her. Cruise sued Bauer Publishing in October 2012, and his lawyer Bert Fields attacked the notion that the actor had deserted his daughter as a “vicious lie.”

Tom Cruise

Pitbull hosting the 2013 American Music Awards

Melissa Joan Hart:

‘I’m pretty much surrounded by Republicans’ in Hollywood

R

apper Pitbull, also known as Mr Worldwide, is hosting the 2013 American Music Awards, Dick Clark Productions announced Tuesday. In addition to hosting duties, Pittbull will also perform his new single, “Timber,” with Ke$ha, which is yet another addition to the performance lineup including Luke Bryan, Miley Cyrus, Florida Georgia Line, Lady Gaga, Imagine Dragons, Kendrick Lamar, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, and One Direction. ABC will broadcast the award show live from Nokia Theatre LA Live in downtown Los Angeles on Nov 24. Allen Shapiro and Michael Mahan are executive producing this year’s AMA’s for Dick Clark Productions, while Larry Klein is producing. “Pitbull is a multi-talented global superstar and the right man to take the reins of the night, which is going to be one great party,” Klein said in a statement. “That’s why he is called Mr. Worldwide. He’s the perfect choice to celebrate the universal language of music.”

Pitbull

Blanchett

to receive Santa Barbara Fest’s performer of the Year Award

C

Melissa Joan Hart

D

espite Hollywood’s reputation as a bastion of liberalism, former “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch” star Melissa Joan Hart says that there are a growing number of Republicans in Tinseltown - so much so that she says she’s “pretty much surrounded” by GOP-philes these days. In an interview with Fox to promote her new book “Melissa Explains All,” Hart said that, when she revealed that she voted for Republican presidential candiate Bob Dole during her “Sabrina” stint, “there were some jaws dropping on the set that day.” These days, however, Hart - who currently stars in the ABC Family series “Melissa & Joey” - says, “I find more in Hollywood,” adding, “These days I’m pretty much surrounded by Republicans at work.” While saying that the increase of Republicans in Hollywood has made life “a little easier” for her, the actress eschewed hardcore partisanship in the Fox interview, and in fact lamented the restrictions of a two-party system. “I love having a healthy debate with anyone. Nobody’s one way or the other,” Hart said. “I feel that unfortunately in this country there are only two parties. I wish there were more because nobody fits into one or the other.”

Cyrus

Aguilera

gets new tattoo of her grandma

bans ‘dairy and carbs’ to slim down

M

iley Cyrus has a portrait of her grandma tattooed on her arm.

The 20-year-old pop star got the black and grey design of her maternal grandmother, Loretta Finley, inked by artist Kat Von D to commemorate their close relationship. The ‘Wrecking Ball’ hitmaker wrote on Twitter: “because i am her favorite & she is mine (sic).” She also added the image of her tattoo, which shows Loretta smiling with her wavy locks falling into short side-parted bob style. Miley also hinted she may be adding to her collection of tattoos after working on new material.

She added: “Yesterday was a day of making music, tattooing, and hangin w friends... Gonna repeat that today! (sic)” The ‘We Can’t Stop’ star - who split from fiance Liam Hemsworth in September - got her first tattoo in 2009 at the age of 17 and has since built up an impressive collection of inkings. Most recently she got “Rolling $tone” tattooed on the soles of her feet as she wanted to do “something fun” during her interview with Rolling Stone magazine. Other notable designs include the Roman numerals VIIXCI - which stand for 7/91 the month and year her parents, Billy Ray and Tish met - and a quote which reads “So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” In addition, she has skulls on her ankles, a mini replica of Leonardo da Vinci’s anatomical heart drawing on her forearm, the Hindu ohm symbol and an anchor on her wrists, as well as a tattoo of the words “just breathe”.

C

hristina Aguilera banned “dairy and carbs” from her diet to lose weight. The 32-year-old star had a number of small meals throughout the day, avoided dairy and carbohydrates products - both of which provide energy - in addition to doing “energy training” to slim down. A source told Yahoo omg! “Her diet plans has been built around very small portions and very high energy training for short periods of time, but frequently. “Banned are dairy and carbs. On the agenda is a lot of coconut water, herbal teas, tofu, celery, oily fish and small amounts of low fat cheese.

“But the major key to this is only hand size portions of every meal and five small meals a day.” Christina’s weight loss became apparent at the start of this year and her new figure helps increases her confidence.

The source added: “Her body is hugely important to her and it’s one of the ways she gets her confidence - so being overweight was something she was never going to live with.”

Sarah Jessica Parker

joins Twitter

T

Christina Aguilera

Miley Cyrus

he ‘Sex and the City’ star posted her first tweet on the micro-blogging site on Tuesday and already has more than 439,814 followers. In her first message, the mother-of-three promoted her new AOL documentary series about the New York City Ballet - which she executive produced. Using the Twitter handle @SJP, she posted: “Very 1st tweet. Proud to share my new series city. ballet. on AOL On. @NYCballet dancers = extraordinary!” The 47-year-old actress isn’t only keeping her tweets generalized, as she’s also opted for an anonymous avatar picture, of an extreme close-up shot of one of her eyes. Fans said it was “better late than never” she has finally jumped on Twitter bandwagon and many speculated as to whether Sarah will post about her most famous role as Carrie Bradshaw in ‘Sex and the City’. Sarah, who is married to actor Matthew Broderick, is appearing in a production of ‘The Commons of Pensacola’, which will officially open on November 21 in New York.

ate Blanchett will receive the Outstanding Performer of the Year Award at the 2014 Santa Barbara International Film Festival, SBIFF organizers announced on Tuesday. The actress, whose performance in Woody Allen’s “Blue Jasmine” has made her a frontrunner in the Best Actress race, will receive the honor on Saturday, Feb 1 at the festival in the coastal town north of Los Angeles. She is the first of a number of performers and filmmakers who will be honored at the festival, which typically gives awards to an assortment of Oscar contenders The 2014 festival will run from Jan 30 through Feb 9, midway between the announcement of Oscar nominations and the beginning of final voting. Blanchett has been in Australia working in the theater for much of the time since the debut of “Blue Jasmine,” in which she plays a cocktail-swigging, pillpopping woman on a downward spiral since her husband was sent to jail for financial misfeasance. “It’s an unraveling, a downfall, a portrait of a fall from grace,” Blanchett told theWrap of the role.

Cate Blanchett

Ora

named best musician at Women of the Year Awards

R

ita Ora was named Best Musician at the Harper’s Bazaar Women of the Year Awards last night. The ‘R.I.P’ singer was among a host of celebrities who picked up trophies at the ceremony - held at Claridge’s Hotel in London - which celebrates the achievements of women in the worlds of art, fashion, film and music. ‘Skyfall’ star Naomi Harris, 37, took home the coveted award for British Actress, while Victoria Beckham was handed a Special Contribution to British Fashion prize. The fashion designer was accompanied Rita Ora on the red carpet by her 14-year-old son, Brooklyn.

The designer kissed her eldest child on the cheek as she was honored for her growing empire which has helped put British fashion in the spotlight. The Rolling Stones’ singer Mick Jagger was also at the party, supporting his fashion designer partner, L’Wren Scott, who picked up the Tastemaker prize. After the ceremony, Rita and Jourdan Dunn, who picked up an award for her modeling, carried on the celebrations at the after party, also held at Claridge’s. The full list of winners at the Harper’s Bazaar Women of the Year Awards 2013 • Gillian Anderson - Television Icon • Victoria Beckham - Special Contribution to British Fashion • Cate Blanchett - International Actress • Jourdan Dunn - Model • Idris Elba - Man of the Year • Livia Firth - Green Award • Frida Giannini - International Designer • Naomie Harris - British Actress • Aerin Lauder - Businesswoman • Rita Ora - Musician • JK Rowling - Inspiration • L’Wren Scott - Tastemaker • The creators, producers and cast of Downton Abbey - Special Contribution • Natalia Vodianova – Philanthropist.—Bang Showbiz

37

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

LIFESTYLE F e a t u r e s

Kintamani, Tirtha Empul and the Elephant Cave Temple wrap up Bali tour Bali should be the new destination on everybody’s list

Photo shows the Elephant Cave Temple.

By Ben Garcia

A

visit to Kintamani (a 45-minute drive from Kuta City) wrapped up a weeklong stay courtesy of Garuda Indonesia. From the airport at Ngusa Rai, Denpasar to my hotel located near the famous resort of Nusa Dua, the drive offered an outstanding and fascinating spectacle. The group I was with visited the tallest peak there called Kintamani, right after the Asia Pacific Economic Summit in Nusa Dua. On the way to the peak (about 1,500 feet above sea-level), we were treated with breathtaking sceneries of picturesque rice fields, coconut trees and stone carvings of Hindu gods along side streets. Before ascending Kintamani, we were ushered to a place called ‘Shadewa’ where villagers offered services and time to entertain foreign visitors. Actors showcased their prowess in folklore dances and plays.

“The performers are farmers and natives of this area Batu Bulan (Gianyar). They do this before going to their farms for extra income,” the tour guide said, adding that the place is also famous for stone carvings and temples. Shadewa (Barong & Kris Dance) is a musical play which represents an eternal fight between good and evil. The character ‘Barong’, a mythological animal which represent good, and Rangda (evil) was the center of the story. After the show, the bus headed to a coffee and herbs plantation a thousand feet above sea level a couple of minutes away from Kintamani.

Our tour bus of mostly journalists from different parts of the world were served with all types of coffee and herbs including ginseng at the plantation. After the coffee break, the bus headed directly to Kintamani, where we

A view from Penelokan overlooking Gunung Batur region. arrived just before lunch.

Kintamani is located on the western edge of Gunung Batur. We went straight to Penelokan, a north-south road point where visitors get a panoramic and majestic view of Gunung Batur region. At first glance, you will be hypnotized by the region’s splendor. The breathtaking view of the mountains, lakes and villages will captivate you and you’ll definitely love to stay longer. According to our tour guide, most of the time, the surrounding areas are hidden by clouds, so some tourists stay in the area for hours just to have a clear view of the region’s beauty. But we were lucky because the sky was clear and little clouds were blocking the stunning view of the wonderful region.

The name Kintamani is derived from a native dog of Bali. It is surrounded by captivating nature and ten ancient villages namely Kedisan, Buahan, Abang, Trunyan, Songan, South Batur, Middle Batur, North Batur, Sukawana and Kintamani. From the grand view of Kintamani, the bus took us to another tourist destination called Pura Tirtha Empul (Tirtha Temple). The temple is holy to many Hindus. It is near Ubud or Tampaksiring district and is famous for its holy water. Visitors are allowed to take some water from the spring believed to have medicinal values that can heal skin diseases.

“If you are getting married, the couple usually comes in this holy temple and takes a holy bath to cleanse themselves from impurities,” the tour guide explained. Tirta Empul Temple was built in 962 AD during the Warmadewa dynasty (from the 10th to 14th centuries) at the site of a large water spring believed to have appeared when a Hindu guru was dying of dehydration.

Visitors can only enter if they don a traditional sarong. On the upper left

Photo shows the Pura Tirtha Empul.

MINI

the ‘not normal’ brand is picture perfect at the Dubai International Motor show

M

INI celebrated its ‘not normal’ brand campaign at this year’s Dubai International Motor Show with a series of unconventional activities that included a fun photo booth in association with Oreo.

In typical MINI style, visitors to the stand were encouraged to act differently by dressing up in a whole host of fun and funky accessories to make their photo ‘not normal.’ Once captured, the photos were uploaded onto facebook.com/MINI.middleeast page and projected on the large LCD screens on the MINI stand promoting the unconventional nature of the MINI brand.

Friend to football fans and to MINI, ex-FIFA captain Fabio Cannavaro a MINI Cabrio driver himself joined the brand on their stand for the Middle East launch of the MINI Instagram page, and to participate in having his ‘not normal’ photo taken.

Other special guests to the stand included the new MINI John Cooper Works Pace man, MINI Cooper S Ray Edition, MINI Cooper S Cabrio and the Middle East’s best-selling MINI Country man with a John Cooper works aerodynamic package.

And the fun didn’t stop in the photo booth. Guests who had their photo taken were given a MINI goodie bag with their photo booth image on it, which also contained samples of Oreo, the world’s favourite cookie.

MINI launched their ‘not normal’ global marketing campaign in June to highlight brand’s individual, high-energy attitude to life and the strong emotional and personal connection between drivers and their MINI’s.

The Dubai Motor Show is taking place from 5-9th November at the World Trade Centre, Dubai and MINI can be found at stand number SSA30 for visitors wanting to take part in the brand’s fun photo booth action.

Photo shows our tour guide showing us the coffee beans.

side of the temple is a modern villa built for President Sukarno’s visit in 1954. It was formerly a residence of Dutch officials.

Not far from this place is another tourist location called the Elephant Cave Temple. The temple, a stunning place to visit, is located at Ubud Township. Known as Goa Gajah to the Balinese, it has served as a place of worship (complete with a holy bathing pool) and general sanctuary since the 9th century. The temple is sounded with centuries-old trees and rainforests. The actual elephant cave is small but cool and serene from within.

Inside the cave are displays of stone elephant gods and the head of the Hindu elephant god venerated by some Hindus as a symbol of wisdom and knowledge.

At the entrance of the cave are stone carvings of menacing demons believed to be carved to ward off evil spirits. If you have enough time, you can enjoy trekking in the mountainous and rocky areas nearby. Souvenir shops can also be found in areas frequented by visitors, but they are expensive compared to shops in the famous cities of Bali like Kuta, Ubud, Nusa Dua, Jimbaran and Padang Bai. Since the Bali bombings of 2002, Kuta has become more famous and attractive to foreign visitors. A monument was erected near the site of the bombing, and the actual site is now a parking space, while the other bombing site has a new restaurant frequented by local and foreign visitors. The city has moved on and is thriving. It has become more vibrant and bustling, and clubs and businesses are everywhere.

Indeed Bali is a place to visit, a venue to relax and enjoy life to the fullest.

Photo shows the famous king bath at the Elephant Cave Temple.

Max unveils autumn collection W

ith summer nearly over every fashionista worth their salt is thinking about their autumn/winter wardrobe. The latest collection from Max is the perfect combination of high fashion and affordability drawing inspiration from high fashion catwalks.

For women, this season’s collection stems from ‘tartan grunge’ and rich warm colors taking cue from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Gala adding our own animal print twist to the mix.

Mesh inserts and overlays and panel blocs are all presented in the collection. The Scottish Highlands are another source of inspiration with kilts, tartan skirts and print on print combinations. Embellished collars and hems are also trends to keep an eye out for at Max this season. It’s all about the detail.

This winter Max men’s wear experiments with specific key trends across the season starting off with the ever popular tartan trend offering items like, blazers, printed sweaters cardigans and shorts.

Influenced by rock music, studs add detail to basic wardrobe items; tees, sweaters and denims in black, ivory, grey marl and ink. There is a huge influence by military prints with a modernized take including, animal prints, camouflage military styled shirts plaid shirts and military uniform styled jackets and trousers. The New York ‘90s are back with bomber and baseball jackets, sneakers, thick sweaters, hoodies, coats & baggy tees.

For girls floral jeans, polka dots, lace and stripes make up the key trends. Country chic, tartan, monochrome and plaids are all important will all be seen this autumn and are a perfect way to update any young fashionistas wardrobe.

Our adorable infant boy’s collections are full of cute pieces for your little one. They are heavily inspired by the great outdoors,our key themes this season are Snow Valley, Varsity Sports and lovely graphic tees with chunky knits or plaid flannel shirts.

Our infant girl’s collection is as cute as it gets! Key items for the season include, festive dresses and a-line woven tops all of which are ideal to be layered underneath our adorable duffle jackets and coats. We also have a mixed palette of classic reds and deep purples combined with herringbone and tweeds, as well as rich purples with turquoise.

This season our boy’s collection is packed with great pieces in exciting themes. We have the season staple of varsity and lots of it, with cut and sew polo’s, padded gilets and washed chinos, collegiate and argyle themes featuring lots of chunky striped polos, elbow patch shirts and paneled jeans. We also have some edgy looks for your aspiring rock star with our Rock Rebel collection, with a classic monochrome palette with a splash of red and forest.

This season our girls collections are really looking outstanding! Classic a-line shapes mixed with lovely textures such as herringbone and tweed. Our My Little Kitty collection consists of gold, ebony and ivory with gorgeous prints and girly shapes.

38

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

LIFESTYLE

Pajamas a perennial holiday gift favorite F a s h i o n

C

ynthia Greenwood’s three girls always get new sleepwear at Christmas, the only gift they are allowed to open on Christmas Eve. The sisters waste no time getting comfy before the family sits down to a holiday dinner and relaxes by the fire. “They come right in from church, they look under the tree and there’s the box of PJs, and they run back to their room and put them on and we start the festivities,” said Greenwood, of Arlington Heights, Ill. “It’s just a really nice night. It’s special.”

The tradition has been going strong for about two and a half decades in the Greenwood home: The sisters, now 31, 28 and 23, have seen their gifts evolve from one-piece footed numbers to matching ruffled nightgowns to two-piece pajama sets. New pajamas are a holiday custom in many families and a perennially popular gift, whether it’s Mom and Dad outfitting the kids in coordinating PJs for keepsake photos, a husband or wife tired of seeing their spouse in the same old ratty nightwear, or a treat for a special friend.

“Getting sleepwear is very nostalgic,” said Jennifer Wilson, associate corporate merchant for LL Bean. “You’re giving the gift of warmth and comfort. It’s cozy but it’s practical at the same time.” People spend a lot of time in their PJs, often changing into them right after work, snuggling up on the couch to watch a football game or even wearing them out of the house, notes Stacey Buonanno, director of product development for online retailer PajamaGram.

“People are trying really hard to carve out family time together and relaxation time, whether it’s playing a game together or watching a movie. A lot of that time happens in your PJs or sweats,” said Buonanno. Pajamas also make a great gift because many people neglect to buy them for themselves, she added.

And sleepwear is easier to buy for someone else than a sweater or pair of jeans because you don’t need to worry about the perfect fit. “With PJs, just go up a size if you’re not sure and say you wanted them to be comfortable,” Buonanno said. There are a lot of choices when shopping for jammies. Does your guy like a classic button-front or pullover style? Do the kids need fleece or cotton? Does the lady in your life prefer a gown (short or long? sexy or demure?) or a two-piece set? Will your recipients appreciate the whimsy of a reindeer eating a candy cane or do they expect a traditional tartan?

A look at some options: Kids For parents, there may be nothing cuter (or more relief-inducing) after a long day of holiday celebrations than seeing the kids all washed up for bed and in new PJs. Matching family sets — the same print for men, women, children and pets — are a hit at PajamaGram, with orders quadrupling over the last few years, Buonanno said. The company’s most popular family looks are a red Stewart plaid and the holiday stripe: red, green and white striped pants with coordinating red and green tops.

If matchy-matchy isn’t your thing, there are countless choices for kids to show off their individuality. At Kohl’s, look for sleepwear featuring a favorite team, a beloved cartoon character or a cool design, like camouflage. Old Navy offers a festive Santa suit PJ set for babies and toddlers, superhero PJs for boys and Hello Kitty sets for girls.

Women PJs are more popular than nightgowns, retailers say, but there are many holiday options in both styles. At L.L. Bean, the ankle-length tartan flannel nightgown and pajama come in a traditional red royal Stewart and in colors new this year: a light blue and a blackwatch plaid that includes a shot of bright pink.

“The gowns would be great for your grandmother and the flannel PJs might be perfect for your sister,” Wilson said. For a less “high holiday” look, or if you are not sure what a woman likes, Wilson suggests Bean’s pima cotton flannel PJs in a cornflower blue with white dots. “It’s got a pretty universal appeal,” she said.

PajamaGram offers everything from button-up PJs to satin ones to pretty gowns, but a best-seller is the Hoodie-Footie, a grown-up version of the infant sleeper. The one-piece fleece has a hood, zip-off feet and pockets. “Men love to buy them for

This photo provided by Jumpin Jammerz shows officially licensed Star Wars Spaceships Adult Footed Pajamas by Jumpin Jammerz.

This photo provided by The Vermont Teddy Bear Company shows Stewart Plaid Pajamas for the Whole Family by PajamaGram.

This photo provided by L.L.Bean shows a light blue Tartan Flannel Nightgown that comes in traditional red royal stewart or new colors, Diana and or Baird.

This photo provided by Kohl’s Department Stores shows a Chicago Bears boys pajama set.

This photo provided by L.L.Bean shows a light blue Tartan Flannel Nightgown that comes in traditional red royal stewart or new colors, Diana and or Baird.

their wives and girlfriends,” Buonanno said. “It keeps her warm from head to toe, plus she looks really cute in it.”

Men The classic button-front and the pullover style are equally popular at PajamaGram. At L.L. Bean, Wilson likes the fleece sleep bottoms, the monochromatic waffle-knit PJs and the scotch plaid flannel PJs, which come in several color combinations. Look for one-piece footed PJs from online retailer Jumpin Jammerz, which offers prints showing “Star Wars,” Kiss and the Hulk.

While winter-themed and red and green sleepwear is never in short supply, nightwear celebrating Hanukkah and Kwanzaa for adults can be found online at CafePress, and PajamaGram has a Hanukkah design as well.—AP

This photo provided by CafePress shows Live Love Latkes, Mens Light Pajamas.

Ode to Ugg: O

This photo provided by Cooljams shows a wicking camistrap, “Jennifer,” nightgown

by Cool-jams, which features contrasting white accents and lace at the neckline.—AP photos

ne of the things I love about them is that they are such a genuine company and the customer comes first to them.

That breeds longevity,” she says. Put Ugg boots in the category of Wellington rain boots or the all-purpose cardigan “cozy” that DKNY has offered year after year, Oprah’s Glassman says. “It’s totally consumer driven. Every high-end designer has done a version of Uggs in his or her own line.”

He counted three pairs in his office the other day — and it’s only October. “I am probably the only person in fashion who’ll tell you how much they love their Uggs,” he says.

Not true, actually. In previous interviews over the past year, Rachel Zoe and Michael Kors have sung their praises. And it’s always a similar tune: They are for the moments when comfort counts and conditions allow. They’re not really for the times when you’re making a major fashion statement, but how many of those do you really have? Glassman recalls a glitzy black-tie event during a snowstorm. “Everyone was so glammed up, but I was tired of ruining my fancy — and expensive — shoes, ruining my pants.

I brought a little shopping bag with my tuxedo shoes, I switched them inside and checked in my Uggs at the coat check. It was a little awkward — a little Melanie Griffith in ‘Working Girl’ — but

This photo provided courtesy of Old Navy shows a Marvel Heroes Pajama set for boys.

This photo provided by Kohl’s Department Stores shows a Up-Late Camo Dino Pajama Set for Boys 4-10.

This photo provided by Vermont Teddy Bear Company shows fun and festive Holiday Stripe Pajamas for the whole family from PajamaGram.

This photo provided by The Vermont Teddy Bear Company shows the Hoodie-Footie for Women in Winter Whimsy pajama by PajamaGram.

This photo provided by CafePress shows Kwanza African Dancers Pajamas for men.

In or out, boots have staying power when we left, it was still snowing. I changed again, walked outside, and everyone said, ‘Wow, you were the smartest guy here.’”—AP

39 Songwriter Dean Dillon honored as BMI Icon

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

LIFESTYLE

M u s i c

S

ongwriter Dean Dillon penned hits for George Strait, George Jones, Kenny Chesney and others in his prolific career in Nashville, and several of those artists honored him as the newest BMI Icon at Tuesday’s BMI Country Awards. Dillon has written more than 50 songs for Strait.

The beloved singer paid homage with a medley of his Dillon-penned hits. Chesney, Luke Bryan and Lee Ann Womack also per-

&

M o v i e s

formed some of Dillon’s songs at the annual event put on by Broadcast Music, Inc, a music rights management company.

Rodney Clawson was named songwriter of the year for helping to write six of the year’s most performed country songs. Young country artist Hunter Hayes took home the song of the year award for his smash hit, “Wanted,” which was cowritten with Troy Verges.—AP

Kenny Chesney performs during a tribute to songwriter Dean Dillon.

Rogers

Dean Dillon, center, is joined by Luke Bryan, left, Lee Ann Womack, second from left, George Strait, second from right, and Kenny Chesney, right, for a photo before the start of the BMI Country Awards on Tuesday, in Nashville, Tenn. –AP/AFP photos

Waters

returns to benefit for wounded

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heir faces are young and strong, but their bodies sit in wheelchairs or stand on artificial limbs. They laugh and smile as Roger Waters holds court in a rehearsal hall. The wounded servicemen are waiting to rehearse their set with the former Pink Floyd frontman ahead of yesterday’s “Stand Up for Heroes,” the annual fundraising benefit that supports wounded veterans through the Bob Woodruff Foundation. They are excited for the chance to perform with the rock great, but these young men are not the only ones with admiration in their eyes.

“I feel a great sense of empathy for the people that live on the sharp end of conflicts and the ones that actually get injured,” the 70-year-old Waters said at Monday’s rehearsal. “I get so much more out of it than I put into it.”

Throughout his long career, Waters has written music about victims of conflict, with both “The Wall” and “The Final Cut” having a direct connection to war (he lost his father in World War II and his grandfather in the first World War).

Last year, he played a touching version of his seminal “Wish You Were Here” while accompanied by 14 wounded soldiers he met at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC Waters wants to do his part to help returning veterans

wounded in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts because he feels that all too often, they fall through the cracks.

“I’m not a US citizen, but I pay taxes here, and I wish a far greater percent of my tax dollars went to look after these guys,” Waters said.

He joins Bruce Springsteen (who’s performed at every one of the benefits), “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart, Bill Cosby, Jerry Seinfeld and other guests. The Bob Woodruff Foundation was started by the 52-year old ABC journalist after he was seriously injured by an improvised explosive device while covering the war in Iraq in 2006. The foundation helps returning veterans and their families reintegrate with society. “I never imagined any of this when I woke up out of that coma,” Woodruff said. “You wake up in the hospital happy to be alive, but then realize we’re not the same anymore.”

He added: “I wanted to create a way to help these guys because this was a new kind of war.” Not long after, he was approached by Caroline Hirsch, who made the “Stand Up for Heroes” benefit a part of her yearly New York Comedy Festival. She said she was proud to do it. “These soldiers will be coming back and need to be taken care of for the rest of their lives; we cannot forget what they have done for us,” Hirsch said.—AP

Singer and songwriter Hunter Hayes, front left, takes the stage to accept the song of the year award for his song “Wanted”.

‘Glee,’

Sandra Bullock top People’s Choice nominees

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it TV show “Glee” topped the list of nominees for the public-voted People’s Choice awards announced Tuesday, while Sandra Bullock and singer Katy Perry were also among the most short-listed. Veteran actor Robin Williams, who won his first People’s Choice Award in 1979 for “Mork and Mindy,” won another nomination nearly 35 years later in the same category, favorite actor in a new TV series, for “The Crazy Ones.”“Bridesmaids” star Melissa McCarthy was the only actress to win nods in both movie and TV categories, as favorite comedy actress on the small screen, and favorite comedy movie actress.

Musical series “Glee” had the most nominations overall with eight, while Perry was the top music nominee with five, and Bullock garnered five nods to top the movie categories. On the big screen front, the nominees for favorite movie were all sequels: “Despicable Me 2,” “Fast & Furious 6,” “Iron Man 3,” “Monsters University” and “Star Trek Into Darkness.” Best network TV drama nods went to “Chicago Fire,” “The Good Wife,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Nashville” and “Parenthood.” More than 160 million votes were cast to produce nominee shortlists for the awards, to be handed out on January 8 at the Nokia Theatre in downtown Los Angeles.

Here are the nominees in the main categories:

Musician Roger Waters and his band hold rehearsals with members of the Wounded Warriors Project for the “Stand Up For Heroes” benefit concert.—AP

• Favorite movie: “Despicable Me 2,” “Fast & Furious 6,” “Iron Man 3,” “Monsters University,” “Star Trek Into Darkness.”

• Favorite movie actor: Channing Tatum, Hugh Jackman,

Spotify’s Top 10 most viral tracks The following list represents the most viral tracks on Spotify, based on the number of people who shared it divided by the number who listened to it, from Monday, Oct 28, to Sunday, Nov 3, via Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and Spotify.

United States 1. Young the Giant, “It’s About Time” (Fueled by Ramen) 2. Eminem, “The Monster ft. Rihanna” (Aftermath Records) 3. Childish Gambino, “3005” (Glassnote) 4. One Direction, “Story Of My Life” (Simco) 5. VA, “This is Halloween” (Walt Disney Records) 6. Misfits, “Halloween” (Caroline) 7. Jhené Aiko, “Bed Peace ft Childish Gambino” (Island Def Jam) 8. DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, “A Nightmare on My Street” (Jive/Legacy)

Dean Dillon makes his acceptance speech after being presented with the Icon Award.

9. Lady Gaga, “Venus” (Interscope) 10. Bobby “Boris” Pickett, “The Monster Mash (Re-Recording)” (TheMonsterMash.com)

United Kingdom 1. Eminem, “The Monster ft Rihanna” (Aftermath Records) 2. Nick Mulvey, “Nitrous” (Polydor Ltd) 3. RY X, “Berlin” (Dumont Dumont) 4. Vance Joy, “Riptide” (Infectious Music UK) 5. Sam Smith, “Latch - Acoustic” (PMR Records) 6. Hozier, “Take Me To Church” (Rubyworks) 7. One Direction, “Story Of My Life” (Syco Music) 8. Ylvis, “The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?)” (Parlophone/Warner Music Norway) 9. Lou Reed, “Walk On The Wild Side” (Sony BMG) 10. White Denim, “At Night In Dreams” (Downtown)--AP

Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert Downey Jr. • Favorite movie actress: Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Aniston, Melissa McCarthy, Sandra Bullock, Scarlett Johansson.

• Favorite network TV drama: “Chicago Fire,” “The Good Wife,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Nashville,” “Parenthood.”

• Favorite network TV comedy: “2 Broke Girls,” “The Big Bang Theory,” “Glee,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “Modern Family.”

• Favorite cable TV drama: “Downton Abbey,” “Pretty Little Liars,” “Sons of Anarchy,” “The Walking Dead,” “White Collar.”

• Favorite cable TV comedy: “Awkward,” “Cougar Town,” “Hot in Cleveland,” “Melissa & Joey,” “Psych.”

• Favorite TV comedy actress: Jane Lynch, Kaley Cuoco, Lea Michele, Melissa McCarthy, Zooey Deschanel.

• Favorite TV comedy actor: Chris Colfer, Darren Criss, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Jim Parsons, Neil Patrick Harris.

• Favorite TV drama actress: Julianna Margulies, Mariska Hargitay, Pauley Perrette, Sandra Oh, Stana Katic.

• Favorite TV drama actor: Jim Caviezel, Josh Charles, Kevin Bacon, Mark Harmon, Patrick Dempsey.—AFP

Songwriter Dean Dillon honored as BMI Icon

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

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School children look at a Superman logo made out of food cans during the 21st annual “Canstruction” exhibition and food drive in New York, November 4, 2013. The exhibition features sculptures made entirely of unopened canned food that will be donated to City Harvest and distributed to some 400 soup kitchens and food pantries throughout the city. The exhibition is open until November 13, 2013 and admission is free, however, visitors are encouraged to bring high-quality, non-perishable cans, which will be donated, along with the cans used in the exhibition, to City Harvest, an organization responsible for feeding more than one million hungry New Yorkers.—AFP photos

A schoolboy looks at a skyline made out of food cans.

A schoolboy walks past two “Minions” cartoon characters.

Booming sales in first auction of East African art

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uyers snapped up works for more than $200,000 at east Africa’s first commercial art auction, organizers said yesterday hailing the success of an event that highlighted the rise of the region’s art scene. With around 90 percent of the 47 works sold, the result of the auction in Kenya’s capital Nairobi was beyond expectations, said Danda Jaroljmek of Circle Art, the agency that organized Tuesday’s sale.

“It was a real success... I can’t believe it,” Jaroljmek said, noting that the most expensive piece sold for almost $20,000 (1.7 million Kenya shillings, 14,700 euros), a painting entitled “Celebration” by the late Ugandan artist Geoffrey Mukasa. The oil on canvas painting, showing a lively party scene of drums and dancing, went for almost double its catalogue price. Held in a ballroom-sized venue at a five-star Nairobi hotel, the auction was packed to capacity with several hundred excited potential buyers, including scores forced to stand at the back.

“Two or three works were unsold, but many went for way higher (than estimated)”, Jaroljmek said, adding that the works sold totalled 18.5 million shillings ($217,000, 160,000 euros). Kenyan artists predominated in the sale but Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda and Sudan were also represented. More than half of works sold were to local collectors, with many Kenyans using absentee bidders to buy the art.

Some pieces went for three or four times their catalogue price. The auction is the latest sign of a growing interest in east African art, which has until recently taken a back seat to west and southern African works.

‘It’s great for the artists’ London auction house Bonhams earlier this year sold the work of eight leading Kenyan artists on the eve of its “Africa Now” sale of

contemporary African art, meaning that works that would previously have been seen only in Nairobi were shown in London. Wanyu Brush, a grey dreadlocked artist in his mid-60s, said the auction had “gone well”. Brush, who was born John Kamau, saw his watercolour on paper “Christ in the Manger”, the first lot, sold for just over the upper range of its estimate, $2,050 (1,515 euros).

Sane Wadu, who co-founded the Ngecha Artists’ Association along with Brush, saw his six-part acrylic on paper “World Trade Centre”, painted 25 years ago during a visit to New York, go for 1.3 million shillings ($15,200, 11,250 euros), double the upper end of its catalogue estimate. “It’s great for the artists,” Junho Lee, a South Korean businessman who has a collection of more than 400 pieces of African art, told AFP. Auctioneer Dendy Easton sparked laughter when he occasionally mixed up pounds sterling and Kenyan shillings, in which the works were priced.

He said he had “never seen so many people at once in a room at an auction.”“In England we don’t get this,” Easton said. Eria Sane Nsubuga, a Ugandan-born artist, saw his “Christ at Golgotha”, an acrylic on canvas representation of a non-European Christ on the cross, sell for 480,000 shillings ($5,600, 4,150 euros), four times the upper end of the range.

The final lot on sale was “Auction”, Michael Soi’s two-metre (nearly seven foot) long acrylic on canvas, a pop-art style take on an art auction, and featuring a young red-headed auctioneer. “That was me with hair,” quipped Easton. To the satisfaction of its creator, who has long complained that Kenyans do not buy his work, Soi’s “Auction” was bought by a Kenyan lawyer living in London.—AFP

A schoolboy takes a picture of a Batman logo made out of food cans.

A century of Camus, France’s unlikely literary giant

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lbert Camus once said that those who write clearly have readers, while those who write obscurely have commentators. By his own maxim, he must have been doing something right because, 100 years after his birth and more than half a century since his untimely death, Camus is still picking up new readers across the globe. His best known novel, “L’Etranger,” translated into English as either the “The Stranger” or “The Outsider”, has been published in more than 40 languages and has sold more than eight million copies, a remarkable achievement for what is a complex, morally ambiguous tale set in a racially divided, colonial world few people would now recognize.

Born into poverty in French-ruled Algeria on November 7, 1913, Camus was an unlikely candidate to become one of the giants of 20th century literature.

His mother was illiterate and partially deaf. His father, a farm worker, perished in one of the first major battles of World War I while Camus was still a babe in arms. Yet, by the age of 44 he was collecting the Nobel Prize for literature, an award he dedicated to the memory of the primary school teacher who had nourished his fledgling intellect with daily extra lessons and persuaded his reluctant family to allow him to take the exams that would open the doors to higher education.

Camus made the most of the chance accorded him. After studying at the University of Algiers he moved to Paris during the dark days of Nazi occupation and embarked on a writing career as the

main editorialist for Combat, an underground Resistance newspaper. By the time he died, in a car accident in 1960 at the age of 46, he had established himself as one of France’s most influential writers and thinkers, an intellectual sparring partner to the likes of JeanPaul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.

With his sharp cheekbones, turnedup collars and a Gauloise invariably dangling from his lip, Camus was one of the faces of the post-war Left Bank in Paris, his trademark look memorably captured in a Henri Cartier-Bresson photograph that is a defining image of that time. But Camus was never quite one of that particular crowd. His philosophical writings, which echoed some of the themes explored in his fiction—the absurdity of the human condition and the necessity of rebelling against it—were frequently savaged by contemporary critics.

Politically, his ambivalent attitude towards Algerian demands for independence put him at odds with most of his contemporaries on the left. And at a time when the Communist Party held sway over many French intellectuals, his criticism of the Soviet Union’s authoritarianism led to some bitter clashes with Sartre and others.

‘Football, without hesitation’ It was that independent spirit combined with an ability to express his ideas through compelling story-telling that explains why Camus remains widely read to this day, according to Frederic Worms, a professor of philosophy at top Paris graduate school ENS. “Camus

A file picture taken on October 17, 1957 shows French writer Albert Camus posing for a portrait in Paris following the announcement that he was being awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.—AFP lives on because his novels embody his philosophy in concrete human experience,” Worms told AFP. “His political commitments also survive because he maintained a fundamental line: don’t be taken in by illusions and don’t renounce your principles.

“The great and the good of the world should all re-read Camus, as a safeguard and as a guide. He shows us that those who have the greatest power, also have the greatest duty—to do more.” In France, Camus has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years. According to his publisher Gallimard, sales of his works, some of which are still set texts in schools, rose by nearly five percent between 2008 and 2012.—AFP