20th Nov 2013 by Kuwait Times

CR IP TI ON BS SU

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

Sisi backers, opponents scuffle on anniversary

Toronto council curbs mayor’s powers after chaotic debate

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MUHARRAM 16, 1435 AH

India opens state-owned bank for women

Kuwait beats Thailand to qualify for Asian Cup

Kuwait offers Africa $2bn in loans and investments Arab ministers blame Israel for peace talks ‘crisis’

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conspiracy theories

Grounded Airways

By Badrya Darwish

badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net

fter watching the spectacular Dubai Air Show in the past two days and after learning about the latest innovation and advancement in the aviation industry at the forum sponsored by Dubai, I am lost for words to comment on what is happening in Kuwait. Imagine guys, both airlines Emirates and flydubai announced the purchase of over 311 of the latest aircraft models for the shocking bill of $111 billion. When I heard the figure, my head started spinning. My spinning took me to Kuwait Airways - our blue bird which has been slowly losing the feathers on its wings for the past twenty years. My dream that Kuwait Airways is one day going to modernize its fleet was becoming a reality. I heard that Kuwait Airways had plans to renew its fleet too to join the modern club of aviation. Do you know how many planes Kuwait Airways plans to buy? Five aircraft. Then I woke up from my shortlived dream and learnt that Kuwait’s national carrier is not going to buy the latest Dreamliner or Boeing 777X. Kuwait Airways has plans to buy five used planes from Jet Airways. How old are these planes? Officially, I cannot give the age of the aircraft but according to tweets, they are 9 years old. Let’s suppose they are just one year old - why do we need to buy a fleet of old aircraft from Jet Airways? Kuwait is the fifth-largest OPEC oil producer with a population of less than 1.3 million natives spread on a small territory. It takes you around 50 minutes to leave the city and reach any of the country’s borders. May I know why Kuwait Airways is going to renew its fleet exactly now after 20 years of standstill? I can recall that recently there were announcements for reforms in Kuwait Airways. Is the purchase of five old aircraft from Jet Airways the reform? Or is it because we lack funding for new ones, as was reported earlier this week? At least if you are buying second-hand aircraft, consider Emirates’ old fleet since they are upgrading their fleet now. Surely, their fleet will be much newer. If you are going second hand, it is only logical to go to the best. I am totally joking. Why are we buying a second-hand fleet? By the way, I salute those countries from Africa who need funding for infrastructure projects but still opted to buy brand new planes at the air show in Dubai. As it is, Kuwait Airways has had enough emergency landings in the last few months. Adding to our fleet more older planes might even double the malfunctions. On a serious note, if the government does not want to do something serious for Kuwait Airways, they can ground it for good and just call it ‘Grounded Airways’.

KUWAIT: HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah (center) poses for a group picture with Arab and African leaders at the start of the Africa Arab Summit at Bayan Palace yesterday. — AP (See Page 2) KUWAIT: HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah kicked off the third Africa-Arab summit yesterday by pledging $1 billion in low-interest loans and the same amount in investments to African states. The two-day summit in Kuwait is exploring ways to promote economic ties between the Arab world, which includes wealthy Gulf states, and investment-thirsty Africa. “I ordered officials of the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development to provide soft loans worth $1 billion to Africa over the next five years,”

Sheikh Sabah announced. The Amir added that Kuwait, in cooperation with the World Bank and other international institutions, had decided “to provide investments and investment guarantees worth $1 billion” over the coming years focused on infrastructure projects. The Kuwait Fund is the state’s investment and aid arm in African, Asian and Arab countries. It has already provided billions of dollars in low-interest loans for development and infrastructure projects. Thirty-four heads of state, sev-

en vice presidents and three heads of government are attending the summit, which brings together 71 countries and organisations. The meeting is the ﬁrst of its kind since 2010, when leaders met in Libya prior to the Arab Spring uprisings that toppled longterm dictatorships in the region. The leaders are expected to approve measures and resolutions adopted by foreign ministers on Sunday aimed at boosting economic cooperation between countries in the two regions. Continued on Page 15

No school today KUWAIT: Education Ministry Undersecretary Mariam Al-Wutaid yesterday declared that today ( Wednesday) will be a holiday for school students of all grades. She added in the press statement the announcement does not include teachers and other educational staﬀ, for whom it will be a usual working day. The decision was reached after a study by assistant undersecretaries of the education ministry and extends to all public, private and special needs schools. — KUNA

Blasts rock Iran embassy in Beirut 23 killed • Qaeda-linked group claims responsibility

BEIRUT: A man gestures at the site of a blast in the Bir Hassan neighbourhood of the Lebanese capital yesterday. — AFP

BEIRUT: A double suicide bombing outside the Iranian embassy in Beirut killed at least 23 people yesterday, in an attack claimed by an Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group. The army said a motorcyclist blew himself up moments before a suicide bomber driving a four-wheel-drive detonated his payload in the southern Beirut stronghold of Hezbollah, an ally of both Iran and the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. The mid-morning attack, which the health ministry said also wounded 146 people, was the first time the Iranian mission has been targeted. The blasts ripped the facades off surrounding buildings, strewing rubble and glass on streets that were stained with blood. Residents walked dazed past charred cars and trees, as soldiers and Hezbollah security men tried to secure the area. The attack follows two other bombings this year in Hezbollah bastions in Beirut, amid rising tensions over the conflict in neighbouring Syria. Iran is one

of Syria’s closest allies, and is the key sponsor of Hezbollah, a powerful Shiite movement that has dispatched thousands of fighters to bolster the regime in the 32-month uprising. The blasts were claimed by the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, a jihadist group linked to Al-Qaeda that has previously fired rockets at Israel from Lebanese territory. “This is a double martyrdom operation carried out by two heroes from the heroic Sunnis of Lebanon,” Sirajeddin Zreikat, a member of the group, wrote on Twitter. Damascus quickly condemned yesterday’s attack. “The Syrian government firmly condemns the terrorist attack carried out near the Iranian embassy in Beirut,” state television said. It said an “odour of petrodollars comes from all the terrorist acts against Syria, Lebanon and Iraq,” an apparent reference to Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which back Syria’s uprising. Continued on Page 15

MPs target minister Saudi floods over poor drainage leave 4 dead Zalzalah demands Cabinet reshuffle By B Izzak KUWAIT: A number of MPs yesterday strongly criticized Minister of Public Works and Electricity and Water Abdulaziz Al-Ibrahim over failure of ministry teams to deal with heavy rains, with at least one MP calling on him to step down. At least two people have been killed as heavy rainfall lashed the country in the past two days, causing heavy material damage and turning some areas into ponds as the drainage system failed to cope with the large amount of rain. “ The countr y sank in heavy rain because the government is sinking deep in corruption. The government has lacked a vision and planning. It is not ready to face and manage crises,” said opposition MP Riyadh Al-Adasani,

who has filed a request to grill the prime minister over alleged mismanagement. “ The country has been in paralysis and without achievements for several years,” he said. MP Maasouma Al-Mubarak said that 30 minutes of rain have exposed those responsible for corruption in implementing projects, especially at the ministry of public works and the municipality. She said heavy rains have also exposed the absence of a real contingency plan. “ We have indeed drowned in shallow waters which is a scandal that necessitates questioning,” she said. MP Adel Al-Khorafi however called on the minister to acknowledge his weak performance and preparations to face the heavy rain and accordingly submit his resignation. Khorafi said the Continued on Page 15

RIYADH: Flash floods sparked by torrential rain in largely desert Saudi Arabia have killed four people and left 10 missing over the past two days, the civil defence authority said yesterday. Two of the dead and seven of the missing were in the capital Riyadh, with the rest coming in the northeastern city of Arar, the authority said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency. Since Monday, emergency teams have rescued 1,357 people trapped by the floodwaters, it added. It urged the more than five million residents of the capital to stay away from rivers and flooded tunnels. Schools and universities have been closed since Sunday. Saudi Arabia normally experiences such low rainfall that religious leaders often organise special prayers for rain. But in May last year, around 20 people were killed in flooding sparked by the kingdom’s heaviest rainfall in 25 years. Floods in the western city of Jeddah on the Red Sea coast killed 10 people in 2011 and 123 people in 2009. Poor drainage and uncontrolled construction were blamed for the high death tolls in Jeddah. — AFP

A computer generated handout image shows the stadium to be built in Al-Wakrah for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The stadium, designed by AECOM and Zaha Hadid Architects, will house 40,000 people and will be used for some 16 matches during the 2022 World Cup. — AFP

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

LOCAL

KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah chairs the Arab and African leaders summit in Kuwait City yesterday. —Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Arab and African leaders pose for a group picture ahead of the Arab-African summit at Bayan Royal Palace yesterday.

Summit gives cooperation brighter future Africa-Arab participants hail Kuwait meeting

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf attends the summit.

Egyptian interim president Adly Mansour at the summit.

Lebanese President Michel Sleiman attends the Arab and African leaders summit. His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah speaks with King Abdullah II of Jordan during a group photo at the Arab and African leaders summit in Kuwait yesterday.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II talks to Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta during the summit. KUWAIT: Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary General Abdullatif Al-Zayani said that the Third Africa-Arab Summit comes to give both regions a new dimension and a promising step to a brighter future. In his opening speech at the summit he said it reflects the historic ties that combine them both. “What combines them both of cultural, social and geographic proximity represents a solid foundation for a strong partnership that could benefit their peoples,” he added. Although he stressed that they need further cooperation and integration in order to achieve the aspirations of their peoples, especially as they together possess huge financial, natural and human resources. The GCC supports this “brotherly meeting,” he added, along with efforts aimed strengthening relations between the Arab world and Africa which would result in development and growth for both. On his turn, UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson stressed that the Arab and African regions should focus on the issues of peace, women empowerment, job opportunities, human rights and sustainable development.

Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani listens to Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas during the summit. The two regions need to work together to Philippines. Speaking before the opening session of the respond to the aspirations of their people, he said in a speech to attendees of day one of the 3rd Africa-Arab Summit, Indrawati praised the two-day Third Africa-Arab Summit held in support extended by those countries to all stricken peoples of the world. Kuwait yesterday. She called for a joint vision for cooperation He referred to a visit by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to the Sahel region, where he and integration between the Arab and African had witnessed a strong commitment for peace countries, saying such integration would benand reconciliation. In Somalia, for instance, efit them to achieve the sought development. She spoke about the poverty in Africa saythere are steps being tyaken to improve eduing 40 percent of the population in Africa live cation, he noted. Eliasson went on to note to the need for on $1.25 per day, calling for establishing a South-South trade cooperation, which the UN strategy to gight poverty. She pointed out that the Arab spring has fully supports. Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) are created an opportunity for all countries to still required to be reached, and he urged the address their problems and come up with solutions to such conflicts. nation to work towards achieving these goals. Indrawati stressed the need for initiating He also highlighted the need to address the environment, the solving of disputes, par- investments in each African country in order ticularly in Syria and the Democratic Republic to achieve trade integration, recalling the of Congo, along with the issue of Palestinian ASEAN’s experience in this regard. She said that the African continent is rich in statehood. Meanwhile, Deputy President of the World mineral resources and raw materials, stressing Bank Sri Mulyani Indrawati expressed her the need for a strong leadership and sound thanks and gratitude for all countries which financial institutions to work on increasing offered aid and assistance to the flood-stricken investment and economic partnerships

Arab and African leaders take part in a summit in Kuwait City to review steps to promote economic ties between wealthy Gulf states and investment-thirsty Africa. between the two sides. She expressed the World Bank’s thanks for the State of Kuwait’s continued cooperation aimed at achieving the welfare of the peoples of the world. She also asserted the role played by the International Fund for Africa in assisting the continent, recalling the experience of Malaysia which used to benefit from this fund where now it has become a donor country itself. For his part, Arab Parliament chief Ahmed Al-Jarwan said that the Third Africa-Arab Summit is being held amid complicated regional and international challenges. Both should work to increasing their integration in order to achieve growth and development on all sectors, he added in his speech at the Kuwait-held summit.

All efforts to make summit ‘a big success’ KUWAIT: Minister of Information and Minister of State for Youth Affairs Sheikh Salman Al-Hmoud Al-Sabah Al-Salem AlSabah affirmed here yesterday His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber AlSabah’s keenness to harness all facilities for the participating delegations in the 3rd AfricaArab Summit particularly the media personnel. “We are in dire need for convergence with the African continent in order to achieve more welfare for our peoples”, the minister told

reporters after his tour in the media center accompanying the summit’s activities at the Bayan Palace. He added that the foreign policy of the State of Kuwait under the directives of His Highness the Amir has laid firm constants through its interaction with the entire world based on mutual respect and confidence, expressing Kuwait’s desire for more interactions with the African countries in the near future. He said the theme of the summit: (Partners

in Development and Investment) “puts a great responsibility on us to execute it through investing in all sectors and work on achieving the sought political rapproachment, and thus, achieving peaceful cooperation among us”. He pointed out that the cultural cooperation is substantiation of peoples’ cooperation “which we all seek to foster”, adding that the organizing committee has harnessed all facilities and potentials for the success of the summit including the convention of cultural events. — KUNA

‘Summit in line with FAO aims’ ROME: The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation noted to the historic opportunity the Third AfricaArab Summit represents in boosting international agricultural development and food security through partnerships, stressing support of the event. Describing the event as “huge”, DirectorGeneral Graziano da Silva hailed Kuwait’s international and dynamic role, commending its contributions through investment and initiatives to the nations of both Africa and the Near East. The summit is currently a major international event, he said, as Africa has requested investment

in its agricultural sector. This will push forward the wheels of development, particularly on the local scale, in the Sahel region for example, he said, but there is a huge need for this investment to target irrigation. FAOs support of development initiatives provides expertise and training for potential investors, either in the private or government sectors, he said. This will prevent errors and problems that could arise in the future, suggested da Silva. An example of this is what happened to several countries, who had promising agricultural investments that were strongly criticised by

locals for aiming to seize land illegally. This was due to misinformation or the lack of prior preparation in conforming to the “ Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests”, which was adopted in Rome in 2012. Da Silva also expressed FAO’s keenness to act as a medium between Arab and African nations. On its relations with Kuwait, he said that preparations were being made to open up a regional FAO office in Kuwait and that talks were being held with officials there on the goal. —- KUNA

The Arab parliament looks forward to the summit’s achieving of cooperation between both regions for the benefit of their peoples. Supporting peace, rebuilding after conflicts, encouraging investment opportunities, tackling unemployment and illegal migration, and placing the mechanisms of development programmes related to the economy, health, education, culture, technology and energy were all the expectations of the talks, he said. He particularly highlighted women’s empowerment as another of these issues, calling on the need to come up with legislation serving women on the economic, political and social spectrums. He also expressed his hopes that the event would strengthening cooperation between the parliaments of the two regions. —KUNA

KFAED signs KD3m loan to Malawi for road project KUWAIT: Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development and Malawi signed a loan agreement worth KD 3 million to assist in the financing of the Lirangwe-Chingale-Machinga road project. The agreement was signed on behalf of Malawi by Cornelius Mwalwanda, Deputy Minister of Finance and on behalf of the fund, by its Director General Abdulwahab Al-Bader. The project aims at supporting the social and economic development efforts in the southeastern part of the country through reducing the transportation cost of people and goods, which shall contribute in improving productivity and income standards, especially in the agriculture sector. The project shall further contribute in the activation of international trade between Malawi, a landlocked country, and the promotion of international tourism, and transit movement of transportation between it and Mozambique, which surrounds Malawi from the north, south and west. The project comprises of civil engineering works of a bituminous road with a total length of about 62.3kms, of

about six metres carriageway and asphalted shoulders of about one metre on each side. The project consists of the construction works for drainage facilities, bridges, erosion controls and traffic safety measures. It also includes the consulting services for the revision and detailed designs and for supervision of construction. It is expected to be completed by the end of 2014. The fund’s loan will cover about 20.9 percent of the total cost of the project of around KD 14.35 million. It is also expected that the Saudi Fund for Development will assist with a loan of about 20.5 percent, the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) 20.5 percent, OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) 14.4 percent and the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development 14.4 percent, while the balance of the project’s cost will be covered by the Malawi government. Yesterday, Kuwait-based nonprofit organization Direct Aid signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Malawi to construct a university in the southeastern African nation. — KUNA

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

LOCAL

Restrictions on automobile ownership in the offing Bid to solve traffic problems By Nawara Fattahova KUWAIT: According to a report published yesterday in a local Arab daily, the government is planning to limit the number of vehicles a person is allowed to own at two for citizens and one for expats. This proposal may be announced at the beginning of the next year. The proposal also calls to stop renewing registrations of old vehicles without specifying the period, which could be between 8 to 12 years. The Ministry of Interior hasn’t received any official instructions to take action in this matter. “We are an executive department that applies the law and executes

decisions. It’s possible that there are committees at the ministry studying this proposal, but we are not aware of it yet,” Maj Naser Buslaib, Head of the Media Department at the Ministry of Interior told Kuwait Times. Economic analyst Hajaj Bukhadour thinks such a proposal is not realistic and doesn’t believe it may be applied. “Such rules do not exist in any country, even the poor ones or those suffering from traffic woes. Through such unreal proposals, the officials in charge are trying to shirk the problem. The officials pin the blame and responsibility on expats as they are not qualified and creative enough to find a solution for the traffic

problem in Kuwait,” he pointed out. Development and improvement in administration is impor tant to solve major problems. “We should improve the performance of the officials who are in charge of issuing decisions. There are mistakes in any institution, but we need to improve and this is a great part of solving the problem. Such a proposal proves that officials in charge at the Ministry of Public Works, Ministry of Interior and other institutions didn’t study the problem correctly,” stressed Bukhadour. There are various solutions according to him. “Different public institutions should cooperate to organize the movement of people in streets through differ-

ent timings of public employees, schools and others. Also, the government should provide modern and clean public transportation such as a metro or new modern buses that will respect the time and have stops near residential areas that are shaded to suit the hot weather when passengers are waiting for the bus,” he explained. He mentioned additional solutions. “Developing roads and the infrastructure is very important in solving the traffic problem. Also, the development of the Traffic Department will help in this matter. I think that such suggestions may bring better results in solving the traffic problem rather that coming up with unreal proposals,” concluded Bukhadour.

Pinoys in Kuwait thankful after SC declares PDAF unconstitutional By Ben Garcia KUWAIT: Filipinos in Kuwait expressed happiness after the Philippines Supreme Court yesterday declared the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and the use of Malampaya funds as unconstitutional. These funds are used by the president to help fast-track priority development projects for the people and are allocated to Philippine lawmakers for their constituencies. But the July 2013 discovery by the Commission on Audit with regards to the fake NGOs allegedly set up by Janet Lim Napoles put these funds into serious question since most of the money supposed to be given to people through PDAF is allegedly being pocketed by the lawmakers using the NGOs established by Napoles. Napoles is now imprisoned. “It’s a relief. God is great. I hope those people who have benefited from these fake NGOs will be punished, especially senators and congressmen,” said Nino, a Filipino who has been rallying in Kuwait to abolish PDAF fund in all forms. “These honorable congressmen and senators of the country should resign. They should be punished for allowing themselves to dirty money leaving the country in poverty. The reason why our people are steeped in poverty because the money we are supposed to enjoy for good infrastructure, roads, bridges and factories are siphoned by them and are just being pocketed,” noted Nilo, who is also a community leader. The Philippine Supreme Court voted 140, which nullified “all legal provisions of past and present Congressional Pork Barrel laws, such as the previous PDAF and Countrywide Development Fund (CDF) articles and the various Congressional Insertions, which authorize/d legislators whether individually or collectively organ-

ized into committees - to intervene, assume or participate in any of the various post-enactment stages of the budget execution,” the decision reads. Pastor Gil Bantugan, a church evangelical priest, said the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court speaks for itself. “The decision is very loud and clear. This time, the magistrate really has spoken. They heard the voice of God. I salute them for their wisdom and wise decision. Congratulations Supreme Court! The issue should be put to rest with regards to PDAF,” Bantugan said, who is also the main host of a talk show (Kapihan sa Kuwait) over the Internet aired every Friday in Kuwait. “The never-ending corruption in the Philippines starts from PDAF and if the Supreme Court will not act against it, corruption will continue and the Filipino people will continue to be a victim of these people. So the decision is really favorable to the people and I hope that it will end corruption in the Philippines,” another Pinoy leader said. In the same ruling, the high tribunal also said provisions of the laws allowing the President to use the Malampaya fund for other purposes other than energy related projects as well as the provision which allows the Presidential Social Fund to be used for priority infrastructure development projects were unconstitutional. The court said that Presidential Decree 910 Section 8 as well as the Presidential Decree 1993 regarding the Presidential Development Fund, failed on the sufficient standard test. The sufficient standard test mandates “adequate guidelines or limitations in the law to determine the boundaries of the delegate’s authority and prevent the delegation from running riot”. “The disbursement/release of the Malampaya funds under the phrase ‘and for such other pur-

The Philippine Supreme Court building poses as may hereafter be directed by the President pursuant to Section 8 of PD 910 are hereby enjoined,” the high court said. “In similar regard, the Court also enjoins the release of funds sourced from the Presidential Social Fund under the phrase ‘to finance the priority infrastructure development projects’. The said funds covered by this permanent injunction shall not be disbursed/released but instead returned to the general coffers of the government, except for funds covered by the Malampaya funds and the Presidential Social Fund which shall remain therein to be utilized for their respective special purposes not otherwise declared unconstitutional,” the high court said. The high court also nullified the laws that provided lawmakers lump sum allocations to fund their chosen projects. “All informal practices of similar import and

effect, which the Court similarly deems to be acts of grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of discretion,” are also declared void. “Accordingly the Court’s temporary injunction dated Sept 10, 2013 is hereby declared to be permanent. Thus, the disbursement/release of the remaining PDAF funds allocated for the year 2013, as well as for all previous years...are hereby enjoined,” the high court decision read. The high court ordered the Department of Justice and the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate and file the needed cases against all government officials as well as private individuals involved in the improper disbursement of PDAF. The issue had already drawn several protests against the Aquino regime, from the capital Manila to various countries where Filipinos are working, including Kuwait.

KUWAIT: Scenes from different parts of Kuwait after heavy rains hit the country on Monday. Unstable weather continued in the area yesterday with occational drizzles. — Photos by Sherif Ismail and Fouad Al-Shaikh

IOC forum on women sport opens in Kuwait KUWAIT: The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Women and Sport Forum for Africa and Asia officially began here yesterday with the participation of delegates from 150 countries and international organization. The forum is held under the umbrella of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and the involvement of the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) and will continue till Nov 20. The forum, under the auspices of Chairman of the Association of the National Olympic Committees (ANOC) and President OCA Sheikh Ahmad AlFahad Al-Sabah, will focus on issues pertaining to women sports in Africa and Asia, finding means to overcome obstacles and elevate the stature of women athletes in both continents. Sheik h Ahmad Al-Fahad, IOC Executive Board Member and Chair of the IOC Women and Spor ts Commission Anita L. Defrantz, and President of the Association of the

National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) Lassana Palenfo delivered speeches during the opening session. I n his opening speech, Sheik h Ahmad Al-Fahad said that Kuwait was honored to host the event, thanking the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for its support to the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA). During the last decade, the IOC was working very hard to elevate the status of women sports on a global scale, said Sheikh Ahmad, adding that the last Olympics in London saw the participation of a large number of women athletes from Africa and Asia which reflected the solemn global effort in involving women in spor t in both regions. In both Africa and Asia, women are working very hard to further involve themselves in sports whether on the administrative or competitive level,

affirmed Sheikh Ahmad. He hoped that the IOC would continue to support the development of Asian and African women spor t, noting that the OCA would share its experience within this field. Cultural issues should not prevent women from being involved in sports and the global Olympic community should find a balance between sports regulations and respect of traditions, said Sheikh Ahmad who called on international spor ts entities to cooperate and solve problems facing women sports within this regard. On her part, IOC’s Antia L. DeFrantz hoped that the forum would lead participants to go back to their own countries and implement measures to develop women sports. She said that the last Olympic Games saw the participation of women in ever y spor ts event, noting that women boxing was the new addition to the list of sports that female athletes could participate in the Olympics.

DeFrantz asked participants, especially women, to make a commitment to partake in sports administration, adding that men also have a role in encouraging women to more active organizing their sport. In his speech, ANOCA’s President Lassana Palenfo focused on problems facing women sports, indicating that such problems led to a decreasing number of women athletes at international competitions. He said that the increasing involvement on par t of women in the IOC since 2006 had eliminated much of the problems, but stressed that there were more challenges that should be addressed by the global sports community. Africa and Asia should work on measures to bolster ties within sports, said Palenfo, stressing that the forum was a perfect opportunity to address obstacles and develop women sports in both regions. —KUNA

News

in brief

Social Care Authority project KUWAIT: Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Thekra AlRasheedi has finalized a draft law on establishing a public authority for social care that includes care provided through care houses for the disabled, special needs, geriatric people and children, said informed sources. The sources added that Rasheedi had consulted all relevant government authorities such as the ministries of information, health, education, finance, CSC and the Fatwa and Legislation Department before setting the authority’s organizational structure. The source added that the main purpose of establishing this independent authority would be reducing the burdens shouldered by MSAL. On her part, Rasheedi said that once reviewed by the Cabinet’s legal committee, the project would be referred to the parliament for discussion and final approval. New solar panels KUWAIT: Ministry of Electricity and Water sources said a project to install solar panels on the roofs of MEW and public works ministries will be completed in January. The project aims at producing 0.5 megawatt per building. The sources said the project is part of MEW’s projects to use renewable energy instead of conventional power produced by oil, which consumes over KD 2.5 billion a year in total costs of fuel used in power generation and water desalination plants, apart from the environmental pollution caused by these stations. The sources said if the project proves successful, it will be applied to the rest of ministries and government buildings in cooperation with MEW. Integrated Administration Project KUWAIT: In an effort to link all its sectors and schools through modern systems, the ministry of education signed a 36 month contract with a specialized company to provide consultancy services for the ‘Integrated Administration Project’ at a total cost of KD 1.8 billion. In this regard, MOE’s assistant undersecretary for educational research and curriculums, Dr Khaled Al-Rasheed, said the project aims at developing educational facilities by using a technical link system that would boost the operation and performance of their elements.

Ministry employees questioned in visa trafficking probe KUWAIT: The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor prepares to refer two employees to the Public Prosecution within days to face charges related to facilitating visa trafficking by hacking into the labor department’s database to increase the maximum cap of hiring for certain companies illegally. The two men work at the Farwaniya Labor Department and have previously been questioned over similar charges, but the cases were later dropped after investigations revealed that their accounts on the database system had been hacked, Al-Jarida daily reported yesterday quoting sources with knowledge of the information. They were summoned after being identified as potential suspects in new cases discovered recently as part of the ministry’s efforts to address the root causes behind the spread of visa trafficking in the past years. According to the sources, investigations have so far revealed ‘multiple facets’ to facilitate visa trafficking, including cases in which companies’ files in the database were listed under governorates that are different from the companies’ actual locations. One incident discovered shows data of a local company were illegally altered to increase the maximum number of drivers that can be hired from 22 to 212. Such practice generates extra job openings that can be used to issue work permits and later sell them to labor forces looking for work in the oil-rich Gulf region. Local companies have limited powers to hire staff, as the maximum number of workers each firm can hire in every department is assessed by employees who work in offices called ‘labor requirement assessment’ located inside labor departments around Kuwait. There are no clear regulations based on which the evaluation process can be made, which has led for calls for a law to be legislated in this regard. Meanwhile, the annual Audit Bureau report has indicated that the software protection system which cost the MSAL around KD 6.7 million has failed to prevent hacking of the database of the ministry’s labor department. Kuwait has fallen under fire in the past few years for human right violations practiced against low-skilled labor forces, which mostly happen as a result of loopholes found in the state’s sponsorship system. Visa traffickers lure workers through permits issued illegally but fail to provide them with actual jobs once they reach Kuwait, leaving them prone to hard labor, mistreatment and extortion by asking large amounts of money to renew their expired visas. Official statistics indicate that there are 90,000 people living illegally in Kuwait, whereas thousands have been arrested and deported during police crackdowns since April. Kuwait is home to 2.6 million expatriates who make 68 percent of the country’s 3.8 million population. The parliament passed a bill earlier this year to establish the Public Labor Authority, and a report last month suggested that the government could launch it after the beginning of the new fiscal year on April 1, 2014. The new authority is hyped as a ‘natural replacement’ for the sponsorship system by exclusively handling the affairs of expatriate labor forces including hiring in local companies.

Issues between Iraq, Kuwait solved by commitment: Zebari KUWAIT: All of Iraq’s outstanding issues with Kuwait have been resolved as result of the commitment of both and it will carry out all of its commitments in 2015, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said yesterday. This has been achieved through cooperation, mutual trust and good intentions to solve these matters along with resolutions and commitments on Iraq, he told reporters after arriving in Kuwait to attend the Third Africa-Arab Summit. These commitments include POWs, missing individuals, compensations or borders, he added. Through joint committees, both sides reached MoUs and agreements that have been presented to the United Nations due to Iraq’s commitment to international legitimacy, he said. An agreement to jointly administer Khor Abdullah waterway has been signed, and this is an important achievement, along with the demarcation of land borders, while Iraq’s exit out of Chapter VII of the UN Charter and the shift of the humanitarian issue (POWs, missing individuals and archives) from Chapter VII to Chapter VI are two of the most important steps in cooperation.—KUNA

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

LOCAL

In my view

Making our voice heard

Effective energy saving plan need of the hour By Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg

By Labeed Abdal

local@kuwaittimes.net

he great level of importance given to supporting the Arab African Summit that Kuwait hosts carries deep implications that pertain to preventing frictions in the region, especially between two important regions: the Arab world and Africa. I believe that ‘enough’ is the best word to use in order to express what a majority of countries in the region feel as a result of threats and conflicts between a group of super powers that either want to solidify their position or regain their position in the international community and the global decision making process. In the latter’s case, countries want to make their

— Al-Jarida

Local Spotlight

In Kuwait, we are in the meantime discussing today’s issues in light of fast-paced and critical events which require putting joint solutions between Arabs and Africans to prevent potential risks against our security, unity and dignity. presence felt and voices heard in a new world filled with fighting and proxy wars. They want to announce that they too want a share in the global arms market and natural wealth. In Kuwait, we are in the meantime discussing today’s issues in light of fast-paced and critical events which require putting joint solutions between Arabs and Africans to prevent potential risks against our security, unity and dignity. Meanwhile, the level of importance that Kuwait gives to international cooperation leaves positive impacts on Kuwait’s foreign policy and image. Therefore, this should serve as a motivation for us to address our internal issues and push the process towards development forward.

Partnership summit By Muna Al-Fuzai

muna@kuwaittimes.net

uwait is hosting an international summit amid thunderstorms and turbulence in the region. HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah welcomed Arab and African leaders for the 3rd Africa Arab Summit. As 71 delegations from nations and international organizations are attending the summit, including over 34 heads of state, seven deputy leaders and three prime ministers, it is a huge gathering for a good cause. This is why we should use this event for the benefit of all. Topics on the agenda show how Arabs and Africans can be united on main topics such as Palestine. The basic goal of the summit is to strengthen mutual cooperation and partnership . The theme of the summit is “Partners in Development and Investment”. I could not agree more that the title seems interesting, glamorous and positive, but I want to

see this on the ground too. I want to see it happening in Kuwait as well. I hope and wish well for all developed countries to benefit from some if not all possible opportunities for the welfare of their countries, but I want to see Kuwait get the harvest too. This is how I see partnership. UN reports on Africa have revealed a huge gap in infrastructure development. This is a well known fact although Africa is rich in minerals and manpower. Yet in some parts, civil wars and corruption has lead to sad endings and conflicts, damaging the long and great history of Africa and its people. Investment is not charity work and the investment theory has objectives and targets to transfer developed countries that suffer difficulty in financing new projects and upgrade their economy to take this path for the benefit of their countries and strengthen relations with foreign investors. There is no doubt that Kuwait will handle this summit in its usual active way as it been for many years when it comes to foreign polices and helping African countries with easy and long-term loans. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not objecting to helping poor countries. Hopefully this summit will focus on commitment and boosting cooperation in all aspects - not only political, but economic, commercial, cultural and social too.

kuwait digest

Who benefits from austerity policies? By Dr Bader Al-Daihani

n my pervious article, I mentioned that the rationalization policies the government intends putting into practice soon are exact replicas of the economic austerity policies adopted in Europe. Those that did enraged the European Union peoples and forced European governments to back off on such ‘unfair’ policies as they are described by unions, political and public powers and NGOs that led to massive demonstrations and protests against them. Anger of the European peoples was not baseless it was the result of the awareness of these peoples of the negative impacts of those policies that would lead to deterioration of most citizens’ social rights. A recent report issued by Oxfam, an independent charity, about the impact of such policies, said that if European governments continued with these policies, the number of the poor Europeans would increase by 25 million by 2025 and that it would take Europeans 25 years to restore the living standards they knew five years ago. Oxfam report also warned that lack of equality between the poorest and those better off (the gap between the rich and the poor) was widening and that only the 10 percent of the rich had benefited from these austerity decisions. In this regard, the EU office manager at Oxfam, Natalia Alonso, said that the reduction of social security, health, education, labor rights and unfair taxes would make millions of European entrapped by poverty for generations. She also called for adopting a new economic and social system that invests in manpower, enhances democracy and adopts a fair tax system. The former World bank economy expert and Noble laureate, economist Joseph Stiglitz wrote the Oxfam’s report introduction, saying that the wave of austerity that swept Europe would be very dangerous and cause permanent damage to the social model Europeans have always expected. In an earlier interview with the Euro News to speak about his book “The Price of Inequality’, Stiglitz responded to a question if economic austerity policies had increased social differences in Europe, saying that “austerity was the real cause of economic mismanagement. The problem lies in weak demand and less circulation. Productivity decreases with austerity which leads to less development, more unemployment and less wages that make people compete to get a job. This reduces social services and helps all forms of inequality flourish.” Many dangerous consequences of economic austerity policies are anticipated in some European countries with all their democratic regimes, independent effective NGOs and high levels of public awareness. What, then might the consequences of economic austerity policies be for us with all our corrupt political systems, mismanagement and deteriorated public awareness?! And who will ever protect the rights of middle classes, the public and the poor who will be the only victims of such economic austerity policies or ‘rationalization’ as the government calls it? — Al-Jarida

arlier this month, at an electricity conference attended by senior Saudi officials, a reporter from Al-Watan daily asked the minister of water and electricity about the quality of electricity services. To answer his question, the minister made this challenge: Could anyone remember the last time electricity was out? Without waiting for an answer, he said that they would certainly find it difficult to remember. Al-Watan took up the challenge and asked readers to answer the question. First, it asked some residents of the capital city, Riyadh, if they could remember the last time electricity supply to their neighborhoods was interrupted. Over 64 percent said they could. The results were not surprising, as electricity outages are quite common in the capital, especially during the summer. The responses on the newspaper’s website were more resounding, because it was not limited to the capital. A whopping 92 percent of the respondents said they remembered blackouts. Some said outages still took place in their areas, twice a day sometimes! The minister pointed to an important factor in assessing performance of this sector: Demand for electricity increases at an annual rate of 8 percent. The Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) chief puts future rates at 9 percent. These growth rates mean that Saudi Arabia has to add on average an annual capacity of 3,500 megawatts of electricity! The high growth rates are clearly much higher than the international average, and more than the rate of economic growth in Saudi Arabia. It is over three times the rate of population growth. As such, such expansion would strain the ability of any company to cope. But does Saudi Arabia need to add so much capacity? Are we not better off reducing demand for electricity instead of increasing it? According to calculations made by the Saudi Center for Energy Efficiency (SCEE), growth for energy consumption has been staggering. Today, it takes Saudi Arabia nine times the amount of energy to produce one unit of GDP, compared to 1975. Similarly, per capita consumption of energy has increased six-fold, since 1975. During 2012, Saudi Arabia consumed daily about 4.3 barrels of oil and equivalents. Energy production accounts for about half of that total. About 80 percent of energy is consumed by residential consumers, mostly for air conditioning. The low price of electricity has something to do with the steady increase in demand. On average, a kilowatt/hour costs about five cents in Saudi Arabia. The average monthly bill for 65 percent of consumers is less than SR 100 ($27). By comparison, a KWH costs over 12 cents in the US, 18 cents in Australia, 33 cents in Germany and 34 cents in Brazil. In other words, a KWH costs more than twice as much in the US, four times in Australia, and six times in Germany and Brazil, as it does in Saudi Arabia. Low prices of electricity do not encourage energy conservation on the part of the consumers, and adversely affect the financial health of the electricity producers. To make up for this potential loss by Saudi electricity producers, they insist on getting fuel at reduced prices, way below international levels. As a result, the price the Saudi energy producers pay for crude oil is only four percent of its international price! Similarly they pay for diesel and heavy fuel oil just three percent of their international prices, and for natural gas six percent of its international price. At these prices, there is little incentive for consumers to economize and reduce waste. Similarly the cheap cost of fuel does not encourage utility producers to switch to more efficient production processes. Economists would argue that the whole problem could be solved by changing the price charged for both fuel and electricity. By raising prices, the argument goes, consumers will be forced to conserve electricity and producers will invest in new technology and speed up the process of replacing aging plants with more energy-efficient ones. However, raising prices suddenly may not be feasible where consumers are accustomed to low prices for so long and have perceived them as sacrosanct privileges that they could not live without. Perhaps for this and other reasons, the Saudi Center for Energy Efficiency has advocated a different approach. Through a mix of incentives, awareness raising and changes in regulations, it seeks to change patterns of energy consumption to make them more energy-efficient. SCEE found out that buildings consume about 80 percent of all electricity produced in the country, 50 percent of which for air-conditioning. During the summer season, according to the minister of water and electricity, air conditioning consumes over 80 percent of electricity. SCEE also found out that about 70 percent of all buildings are not insulated. Building codes are largely not binding when it comes to insulation and there is very little capacity to enforce them anyway. AC equipment used in Saudi Arabia are largely inefficient, which is true for most electric appliances. Dealers are not obligated to provide high-efficiency appliances, nor have consumers demanded them. From those findings it is easy to see that you can make a big dent in utility consumption if you can improve insulation of buildings and appliance efficiency. For such ideas to succeed, you will need a mix of carrots and sticks. First, efficiency standards for insulation and electric appliances need to be raised by law. Second, to incentivize consumers, a voucher system could be devised to reward real estate developers and homeowners who insulate their buildings according to the new standards. Prices of insulation materials could also be supported. To encourage consumers to buy energy-efficient appliances, incentives could include redeemable coupons that vary according to the efficiency rating of an appliance. Over time, consumers will notice the savings they make when they better insulate their houses and use efficient appliances and the financial incentives scheme may not need to continue. In sum, we need to think in terms of reducing energy consumption, instead of complying with the ever-increasing demand for energy, which has gone out of bounds, whether in terms of per capita usage or in relation to economic growth rates. Our rate of consumption has surpassed most other countries’ and is seriously threatening the future economic health of Saudi Arabia.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

LOCAL

Minister freezes deal to purchase used airplanes Angry reactions at social network KUWAIT: Kuwait Airways received instruction from Minister of Communications Essa Al-Kandari to freeze a deal to purchase five used aircrafts from India’s Jet Airways, Al-Qabas daily reported yesterday one day after first reporting the deal. Minister Al-Kandari explained in a letter to the Kuwait Airway’s board of directors that he needs to review details about the deal and negotiation procedures before a decision can be made. “The minister asked about the supervisory authorities that gave them approval to go ahead with the deal”, said sources quoted in Al-Qabas’ report. News about Kuwait buying five used jets for KD 80 million sparked angry reactions at social network, especially that it came simultaneously with news about multibillion-dollar deals cut by airlines in Gulf countries during the recent Dubai Airshow. In the meantime, Al-Qabas contacted sources

close to the Kuwait Airways’ board of directors who defended the decision for many reasons including the urgent need for fleet expansion and the lower cost that the deal with Jet Airways would provide. The source compared between Kuwait Airways’ proposed agreements and deals signed by Fly Dubai, Qatar Airways, and other airlines in the Arabian Gulf region. “Those deals are for expansion and to purchase new aircrafts that arrive in nearly ten years; whereas the Kuwait Airways is at urgent need to increase the number of its fleet which makes buying planes with relatively short operational age a good choice”, the sources explained. According to the sources, the planes which have been in service for four years are expected to arrive within two months if the government approves the deal. Al-Qabas wrote Monday that the Kuwait Airways

KOTC chief wins honorary Seatrade award

KUWAIT: Minister of Health Sheikh Mohammed Al-Sabah visiting the stalls after inaugurating the International Health Conference here yesterday.

GPA hails success of youth journalists workshop KUWAIT: The Gulf Press Association hailed the success of a workshop organized recently in Jeddah in cooperation with Okaz Newspaper, saying in a statement yesterday that the event “was successful by all standards”. “Young journalists from the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and Yemen interacted with activities held as part of the workshop in a very positive way which gives hope for the future of journalism in the region”, GPA Secretary General Nasser Al-Othman said in a statement made available to the press yesterday. According to Al-Othman, the GPA organized the workshop as it gives “top priority to improving the skills of young men and women in the Gulf journalism field”. He also expressed gratitude for Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Culture and Information Dr Abdul-Aziz Khouja for supervising the

DUBAI: Chairman of Kuwait Oil Tanker Company (KOTC) Sheikh Talal Al-Khaled Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah won the honorary Seatrade award, it was announced here yesterday. The award was announced during the annual Seatrade Middle East and Indian Subcontinent Awards ceremony, which was held here on Monday, KOTC Manager for Public Relations Khaled AlDoub said. Seatrade Chairman Christopher Heyman presented Sheikh Talal the award in the presence of senior figures in the field of sea transportation, he added. The award was presented to KOTC Chairman in recognition of his achievements at the company, as well as the numerous positions he filled throughout the years in Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) and its subsidiaries, Al-Doub noted. Seatrade aims to honor individuals, organizations and companies of various categories for their achievements and outstanding contributions in the field of sea trade and shipping. The Seatrade Awards is an annual award function aimed to reward companies who have achieved excellence in the year, adjudicated by an international, independent panel of judges specialized in the maritime industry. — KUNA

Kuwait hosts invention fair

Nasser Al-Othman event, and to Okaz Editor-in-Chief for cosponsoring the workshop, in addition to GPA President Tekri Al-Sadiri for his “undying support for the association’s activities”.

KUWAIT: Minister of Information and Minister of State for Youth Affairs Sheikh Salman Sabah Salem Al-Humoud Al-Sabah inaugurated the Sixth International Invention Fair in the Middle East Monday evening. The fair is organized by the Kuwait Science Club and under the patronage of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad AlJaber Al-Sabah. “I am proud to represent HH the Amir in the inauguration ceremony of this fair,” Sheikh Salman said. He added that HH Amir’s sponsorship to the event shows his unlimited support to science, scientists and inventors. He welcomed Kuwaiti, Arab and foreign inventors, wishing them great success and prominence in their contest and their life. The event, held at the Kuwait Science Club and last till November 21, brings together 166 inventors from 29 countries. It provides the inventors with an opportunity to display their state-of-the-art inventions. Additionally, the fair aims to place the State of Kuwait and the Arab world as a whole on the scientific and technological map through the participation of the largest number of Kuwaiti and Arab inventors. The fair will award valuable prizes for top inventions. —- KUNA

resorted to purchasing the five Airbus A330-200 aircrafts, each with a capacity of 252 passengers, after an agreement earlier this year with Airbus to purchase and rent the same class of aircrafts fell apart due to lack of funding and after Boeing reportedly entered negotiations with the national carrier. Meanwhile, the sources further defended the new deal as being ‘better’ than the initial deal with Airbus because of the benefits of having full ownership over the aircrafts as opposed to renting them. “The board of directors found out that purchasing the planes from Jet Airways saves 40 percent compared to renting them directly from Airbus for 8 years”, the sources explained. They further indicated that Jet Airways has previously sold aircrafts to The Etihad Airways, Royal Brunei, and other airlines “as part of its plans to reduce activity and focus on the domestic market”.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

LOCAL

Man admits killing infant son in Salmiya Girl dies in school bus accident KUWAIT: A man was arrested in Salmiya after he admitted to killing his newborn whose body was found Sunday night in the area. The 38-year-old Indian man was summoned for questioning after being identified as a suspect during investigations after police received information about a “murder case” in Salmiya. The man eventually admitted that he suffocated the baby to death and left his body in a yard near a new building in Salmiya. The man indicated that the baby was born from an illegal relationship with a Filipina woman, adding that he tried to convince his girlfriend to have an abortion several times during her pregnancy. According to the man, the four-month-old child stayed with his mother until the man came to her apartment Sunday and snatched it following a dispute which ended with him committing the crime. The man led investigators to the place where he left the infant’s body, and they found it inside a bag. Preliminary forensic test indicate that the baby

died as a result of suffocation. The man is held at the Public Prosecution and was charged with murder. Bus accident A student died after she was hit by a school bus in Hawally. Police and paramedics headed to Beirut Street where the accident was reported, but the Iranian girl had already succumbed to her injuries by the time they arrived. Preliminary investigations indicate that the girl was accidently run over by the school bus that came to pick her up. The girl’s body was taken to the forensic department after crime scene investigators examined the place. Investigations are ongoing. Highway crash A man was hospitalized in a critical condition following an accident on the Fahaheel Highway. Ahmadi police and headed to the scene with paramedics after the accident was reported, and quickly helped the driver to

Adan Hospital. The 33-year-old Kuwaiti man was admitted in the intensive care unit in a critical condition. A case was filed to investigate the circumstances behind the accident. Mortars disposed Army explosives engineers disposed off 37 mortar shells found in Julaia. The bomb squads were called to the scene by police who identified the foreign objects reported by a Kuwaiti man as explosives. Investigations indicate that the shells are remnants of the 1990-91 Iraqi invasion. Search for rapists A search is on for two male suspec ts accused of sexually assaulting a teenager in the Jahra desert. In his statements to police, the victim said that he went with two friends for a trip, but the suspects drove to a remote location instead. They raped him after restraining him and escaped, according to the juvenile. Investigations are ongoing.

Zain Platinum Sponsor of NUKS-USA Conference KUWAIT: Zain, the leading telecommunications company in Kuwait, announced yesterday its Platinum sponsorship of the National Union of Kuwaiti Students in the United States (NUKS-USA) conference, which is to be held from the 27th - 30th November 2013 in San Diego, California under the patronage of His Highness the Prime Minister of Kuwait Sheikh Jaber AlMubarak Al-Sabah. The NUKS-USA conference, which this year has a theme, ‘Let Us Make a Decision...To Correct Our Path’, is the 30th U.S. based Kuwaiti students’ conference. The NUKS-USA conference is considered one of the largest gatherings of Kuwaitis outside of Kuwait with over 3,000 participants expected to attend the event. The sponsorship is in line with Zain’s commitment to supporting Kuwaiti youth in the development of their careers after they graduate from their university education abroad. The company strongly believes in the importance of young people having national roll models, with this conference bringing together distinguished national figures from Kuwait who have had a great impact on the country’s political, economic, cultural and sporting life. Omar Al Omar, Zain’s Chief Executive Officer said: “The NUKS-USA conference is one of the very distinctive conferences that appeals to students on an intellectual and

social level. It serves as an open forum for students and elite figures in Kuwait society to exchange opinions and views that revolve around important domestic issues. Zain feels its participation in the conference is part of its responsibility as a Kuwaiti company to help provide bright and enthusiastic young Kuwaitis who are looking to enter the job market with suitable career development opportunities to the benefit of Kuwait society.” Al Omar continued: “The theme of the event ‘Let Us Make a Decision...To Correct Our Path’ carries a strong message to all those students living abroad, to keep them dedicated to pursuing their career goals and offer them an opportunity to discuss their progress through several panels conducted during the conference.” Zain will also be offering several surprises for outstanding students during the conference, in line with the company’s tireless support of Kuwaiti students and their overall success. Zain’s enthusiasm to promote a more prosperous Kuwait arises from its own commitment to being a responsible and leading telecommunication company dedicated to developing youth and supporting the community. For more information about Zain’s sponsorships and initiatives customers are advised to visit the company’s website at www.kw.zain.com, or visit the company’s

Kuwait to take part in COMSEC conference in Istanbul

KUWAIT: Fire erupted in a multi-storied building in Farwaniya yesterday. Firemen rushed to the area and extinguished the fire. No casualties were reported. —Photos by Fouad Al-Shaikh

KUWAIT: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Sheikh Salem Abdulaziz Al-Sabah is due to head an official delegation at the 29th ministerial meeting of the Permanent Committee of Social and Economic Cooperation (COMSEC) due in Istanbul today. Sheikh Salem said he would represent the State of Kuwait at this crucial Islamic economic event, in line of His Highness the Amir’s desire to bolster pan-Islamic cooperation at the strategic, political and economic levels. COMSEC’s regular meetings are increasingly gaining significance, being officially patronized by the Turkish president, he said. Agenda of the planned conference will deal with foreign investments, examination of a report on global economic

developments. Also in this vein, he underlined role of the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) for boosting trade among member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation by 20 percent by 2015, according to the previously-crafted plan. The OIC, at the extraordinary Islamic summit, held in Makkah in 2005, adopted a 10-point strategy to boost interIslamic economic and commercial cooperation. Kuwait will submit at the conference a draft protocol including proposed regulations concerning, in part, origin of products. Initiatives for combating poverty and the Africa program for development and vocational training in the OIC countries will be also on the meeting agenda. —KUNA

Gulf students to draw up ‘national policy’ for CBSE schools DUBAI: More than a thousand students from Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) schools in the UAE and the Gulf are meeting in India to frame a national policy on values, gender and well-being. The policy to be agreed at the National Summit in New Delhi in December will be integrated in curriculums across CBSE schools, said Jitender Nagpal, chairman of Expressions India. “ This is the first summit where

children will be actively involved in policy making. It is commendable that student voices across the Gulf will be heard,” Nagpal said. In preparation, a two-day summit is being held in Dubai to focus on life skills and youth leadership of students in the UAE. Thirty-two students and 16 teachers from Dubai schools are participating in the 2nd International Life Skills, Values, Gender, School Health and Well-being Summit at

Springdales School. The summit, which ends on November 19, was inaugurated by Vidya Vinod, CEO and Director of Eikon International Holding Co. FZ LLC. The event features an exhibit on anti-bullying, sustainable development, gender and environment sensitivity and social media. There are also a series of competitions and workshops aimed at youth leadership and awareness and peer mentorship.

Experts call for protecting children against violence KUWAIT: Social experts have called for protecting children against various forms of violence and have urged for enacting special laws to protect them “because they are the weakest point” of the Kuwaiti society fabric. Dr Seham Al-Fraih, Chairperson of the National Society for Protection of Children, in an interview on occasion of the Universal Children’s Day falling Wednesday, called for efforts at the State and grass-root levels to enact laws for children’s protection against serious hazards such as domestic violence. Such harm may be physical, psychological, emotional or sexual, she said, also noting that the suffering may be due to negligence. Elaborating on difficulties facing the youngest of the society segment, she said children are often target of violence at school, adding that social and psychological experts could coordinate with state authorities to face such problems. In cases where kids are roughed up by their parents, Dr Al-Fraih added the adults should be subject to psychological treatment. Dr Fatma Ayyad, a psychology professor, said that certain concepts regard-

ing the children should be altered. Some people believe that the child is a private property and this is not true; the child should enjoy independence and privacy. “The child is the weakest factor of the family and the violence against him (her) must be confronted and laws must be activated to protect the rights of children,” Dr Ayyad said. She also called for

boosting awareness of the child rights. Universal Children’s Day takes place annually on Nov 20. First proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1954, it was established to encourage all countries to institute a day, firstly to promote mutual exchange and understanding among children and secondly to initiate action to benefit and promote the welfare of the world’s children. — KUNA

Hungarian president to visit Kuwait VIENNA: Hungarian President Janos Ader is due to pay an official visit to the State of Kuwait in December and the mission will be distinguished with signing cooperation accords between the two friendly states, announced the newly-assigned Kuwaiti Ambassador to the European nation. President Ader will pay the official visit to Kuwait during first week of December, said Hamad Bou-Rahma. The two countries, during the president visit, would sign a number of agreements for cooperation in the sectors of public works, higher education and diplomatic institutes, Bou-Rahma added. The ambassador disclosed the

planned visit by the Hungarian leader in remarks by telephone to KUNA after delivering his credentials to Ader at the Presidential Palace in Budapest. Bou-Rahma said he conveyed greetings of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah to the Hungarian President and his people, wishing them prosperity and progress. President Ader reciprocated, expressing gratitude and appreciation and asked the ambassador to relay identical sentiments to His Highness the Amir, hoping the mutual cooperation between the two friendly countries would be boosted in diverse realms.—KUNA

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

Gazans in double border trouble with Egypt and Israel

Flash floods kill 17 in Italy’s Sardinia

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Huge hunt for Paris gunman Unidentified shooter ‘a real danger’; Victim critical PARIS: A huge manhunt was under way in Paris yesterday for a lone gunman who shot and critically wounded a newspaper photographer in his office before opening fire outside a bank headquarters and hijacking a car. Officers on foot and in squad cars fanned across the nervous city, taking up positions outside media offices, along the Champs-Elysees avenue and at entrances to underground train stations. Investigators have so far been unable to identify the gunman, described by French Interior Minister Manuel Valls as “a real danger”. A source close to the investigation said the police had “received several hundred calls” following an appeal for information from the public. “We have to obviously verify these, but they allow us to advance,” the source said, adding that they were also studying shots of the man captured on close circuit television and other leads. His motive remains unclear, but police believe the man was also behind an incident on Friday in which staff at a Paris television station were threatened by a gun-wielding intruder. The attacker, wearing a cap and wielding a 12-gauge shotgun, opened fire at the offices of left-wing newspaper Liberation at about 10:15 am (0915 GMT) Monday. A photographer arriving for his first day of freelance work at the paper suffered buckshot wounds to the chest and stomach. Liberation said he was 23 years old and was originally from the southern city of Toulon. He was taken to hospital in critical condition. The newspaper later said he underwent surgery and was being kept in intensive care. Liberation executive Nicolas Demorand said yesterday the man was “still critical,” although he was “in a slightly better state.” “He was in a hopeless state yesterday when he was hospitalized,” Demorand told France Inter. “He is however in a critical state and we remain hopeful.” After fleeing the daily’s offices in the east of Paris, the same man is believed to have crossed the city to the La Defense business district on its western edge, where he fired several shots outside the main office of the Societe Generale bank, hitting no one. He then reportedly hijacked a car and forced the driver at gunpoint to drop him off close to the Champs-Elysees in the centre of the French capital, where gun crime is rare. There were

rumors that the man was armed with grenades as well as the hunting-style pump-action shotgun used in the two shootings. ‘NEXT TIME I WILL NOT MISS’ Police said security camera images of the shooter suggested he was the same man who last Friday stormed into the Paris headquarters of TV news channel BFMTV to threaten staff. In that incident, the gunman pumped his shotgun to empty several cartridges on the floor, while warning a senior editor: “Next time, I will not miss you.” “Given the similarities in the four incidents, between the modus operandi, the physical appearance and attire of the perpetrator, and also in the ammunition gathered, we believe we are dealing with a single perpetrator,” Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said. Prosecutors released photographs of the man taken from surveillance camera images and described him as white, aged between 35 and 45, of average height, with salt-and-pepper hair and stubble. Demorand said the shooting in the Liberation’s entrance hall left staff traumatized but the paper vowed to carry on its work. A commentary in Tuesday’s edition of the paper signed by Demorand is headlined simply: “We will continue”. The daily devoted four pages to the unprecedented attack and an employee described the moment the gunman walked in. “The guy pulled out a gun from his bag and fired twice at the first person he saw. It lasted no more than 10 seconds, and anyone of us could have been hit. The shooter said nothing and left immediately,” the staff member was quoted as saying. GUNMAN ‘NOT PANICKED AT ALL’ Philippe Antoine, the editor-in-chief of BFMTV, came face-to-face with the attacker during Friday’s incident and said he had appeared calm and determined. The man looked at him with “a lot of intensity and determination,” Antoine said. “This was someone who was very precise in his movements, not panicked at all, someone who was in control.” French President Francois Hollande, speaking during a trip to Jerusalem, warned that the gunman “could still kill tomorrow or at any time”. Interior minister Valls said that everything possible would be done to apprehend the shooter. “This individual is on the run and he represents a real danger. We will do everything we can to arrest him,” he said. — AFP

in the

news bullets on his vehicle when he was about to reach the university campus in (the) morning. His driver was also killed in the attack,” district police chief Ali Nasir Rizvi said. “At the moment, we don’t know about the numbers of the attackers, but the incident looks like a targeted killing,” he said. Oﬃcials suspected the attack came as retaliation for violence in the garrison city of Rawalpindi on Friday in which a mainly Sunni mosque was burnt and 10 people were killed. “He was a Shiite by sect, but a very progressive oﬃcial of the campus,” Sheikh Abdul Rashid, a spokesman for the university said. Another colleague said Shah had previously received threats.

Chinese tourist bus crash in Bali kills 6

ZINJ: Bahraini former opposition MP Khalil Marzuq arrives at the headquarters of the “Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society” Shiite opposition party in the village of Zinj, west of Manama after a hearing at the courthouse. — AFP

Bahraini court upholds jail terms for 17 Shiites DUBAI: A Bahrain appeals court has upheld jail terms of up to 15 years for 17 Shiites convicted over attacks on police in the unrest-hit country, a judicial source said yesterday. The Manama court, which delivered the verdicts on Monday, also reduced by seven years sentences for three other defendants in the same case, the source said. The group of Shiites were tried on charges of attempting to murder police, carrying out arson attacks on their vehicles, causing public disturbance and possessing Molotov cocktails. The charges followed a ﬁrebomb attack in February 2012 on a police station in Sitra, a Shiite-populated village near Manama, that left one policeman injured and the front of the station damaged. It came a year after Shiite-led protests broke out against Bahrain’s Sunni rulers, in an uprising to demand a democratic reforms that was crushed in a month.

Gunmen kill Shiite university director LAHORE: Unidentified gunmen riding a motorcycle yesterday killed a senior Shiite university director along with his driver in central Pakistan, officials said. In an apparent sectarian attack, Syed Shabir Hussain Shah, director of student affairs at Gujrat University in Punjab province, was attacked while on his way to the campus. “Gunmen riding a motorbike sprayed

ULUWATU: A minibus carrying Chinese tourists has plunged into a ravine on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali, leaving six people dead and three fighting for their lives, an official said yesterday. Four Chinese tourists, the Indonesian driver and a tour guide died when the accident happened Monday as the bus tried to pass along a road towards a popular, cliff-top Hindu temple. As the bus approached Uluwatu temple in southern Bali, it swerved and fell some 15 meters into the ravine, Djoko Heru Utomo, police chief in the Balinese capital Denpasar said. “When the bus was approaching the destination there seemed to be a sudden engine failure,” he said. The Chinese consulate -general in the city of Surabaya, East Java province, said that three Chinese nationals died on Monday and a fourth died in hospital yesterday. It added that three other Chinese nationals were in intensive care and six had been admitted to hospital but were not in a life-threatening condition.

Christians urged to stay in Syria BEIRUT: Gregory Laham, the Syrian patriarch of the Melkite Greek Catholic church has called on his fellow Christians to stay in Syria, despite the brutal conflict raging in the country. “I say to my children, stay in your country, the future will be difficult, but it will be better, God willing,” he said in an interview. The patriarch, who is headed to the Vatican for meetings with Pope Francis, also urged European countries to not “encourage Syrian Christians to emigrate.” “I say to the European countries that want to help, help people in difficulty, humanitarian cases but don’t encourage people to emigrate,” he said. According to the patriarch, 450,000 Syrian Christians have been displaced by the conflict that began in March 2011, around 40,000 of whom have fled to Lebanon. He said between 1,000 and 1,200 Christians had been killed, both members of the military and civilians. But he said, “Christians are not the only ones being targeted. All Syrians are being targeted, Shiites and Sunnis and Druze and Christians from all denominations.”

PARIS: French police officers wearing bullet-proof jackets stand at the entrance of France Info radio station in Paris yesterday. (Inset) Handout grab taken from CCTV images shot shows an alleged shooter walking in the underground station of Concorde, in the center of Paris. — AFP

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Gazans in double border trouble with Egypt and Israel RAFAH: It was the publicity stunt of the year in Hamas-ruled Gaza: the delivery of Kentucky Fried Chicken from a branch in Egypt through a tunnel under their shared border. But since the service was launched in spring, the Hamas-friendly Egyptian government of Mohamed Morsi has been toppled in an army coup. And since then, Egypt’s military has destroyed hundreds of the tunnels, sending the takeaway orders into free-fall with the rest of Gaza’s economy, already squeezed by trade restrictions imposed by its other neighbor, Israel. In Rafah, the sprawling city which straddles the Gaza-Egypt border, the dust raised by hectic smuggling activity has settled in the wake of the Egyptian army’s campaign against the tunnels. Just a few scattered diggers are working under tarpaulins covering the entrances to abandoned tunnels, excavating “for the future”. “Is there a future for tunnels? Not with Sisi,” sighs a Gazan border police officer, referring to Egyptian military chief General Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi. The flow of state-subsidized Egyptian fuel to Gaza has all but dried up since the July coup, dwindling from about a million litres a day in June to 10,00020,000 litres a week now, according to the latest report of the UN Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The shortage caused the shutdown on November 1 of the Palestinian territory’s only power plant, which provided about a third of the strip’s electricity. The closure has resulted in power cuts for 16 hours a day. Without electricity, water treatment stations have stopped working, and last week sewage

began spilling onto the streets of several neighbourhoods in Gaza City. Now the Al-Yamama delivery company is looking back nostalgically on its days of delivering Egyptian KFC. “Despite the high prices because of transport costs, people paid to have something that does not exist here,” said Haitham alShami, a 29-year-old partner in the business. “It was a challenge,” he said, “to show that Gaza is not only war and death. We love life, but we have nothing.”

GAZA: A Palestinian girl walks with her umbrella under the rain in Gaza City. — AFP

Putin tells Rouhani of ‘real chance’ for Iran nuke deal VIENNA: World powers and Iran have geared up for fresh nuclear negotiations, with Russian President Vladimir Putin telling Iranian counterpar t Hassan Rouhani he was upbeat about prospects for an accord, even though the US downplayed hopes of an imminent deal. Speaking by phone two days before the talks resume today in Geneva, Putin “stressed that a real chance has now emerged for finding a solution to this longstanding problem,” the Kremlin said. The comments came a day after French President Francois Hollande laid out in Israel the “essential” steps that Tehran must agree with the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany, known collectively as the P5+1 group. These steps include halting enrichment of uranium to 20-percent purity, reducing enriched uranium stockpiles, and stopping construction of a new reactor at Arak, which could produce plutonium. But Hollande stressed in Jerusalem on Monday that “we will maintain the sanctions as long as we are not certain that

‘KETCHUP AND MAYONNAISE ‘ His subterranean fast food service, largely conceived to promote Al-Yamama’s business, lasted only a month before being banned by Hamas “for public health reasons” even before the tunnel crackdown, Shami said. According to Palestinian economist Omar Shaaban, Gazans had developed a taste for small luxuries, which Israeli and Egyptian restrictions have taken away again. “Gaza is a modern society. People in Gaza

Iran has definitively renounced its military (nuclear) program.” And it remains to be seen whether the small and reversible sanctions relief that the P5+1 is offering in return will be enough to persuade Tehran to play ball. After US officials last week said a deal was “quite possible,” US Secretary of State John Kerry was more cautious on Monday saying: “I have no specific expectations with respect to the negotiations in Geneva, except that we will continue to negotiate in good faith.” “We will try to get a first step agreement and hope that Iran will understand the importance of coming there prepared to create a document that can prove to the world that this is a peaceful program,” Kerry said. Israel and the West have long accused Iran of seeking a nuclear weapons capability, but Tehran insists its controversial uranium enrichment program is for entirely peaceful purposes. Years of US and EU sanctions have more than halved Iran’s oil sales, sent the currency plummeting and inflation soaring. —AFP

know Nescafe and capuccino and these products,” he said. “Now we have become a relief society-we depend on international humanitarian assistance for food.” Israel first imposed its land, sea and air blockade on the coastal strip in 2006 after militants there seized an Israeli soldier, who was eventually freed in a lopsided prisoner swap in 2011. It was further tightened in mid-2007 when the Islamic militant group Hamas took control of Gaza. Israel eased the blockade slightly following an international outcry after its botched commando raid on a Turkish Gaza-bound flotilla in 2010, allowing food and some building materials to be trucked in. “The siege destroyed the industrial productive sector, the siege prevented any export from Gaza, only five or six items were allowed,” said Shaban, director of local think-tank Palthink. “We’re not suffering because of a lack of rain or because we don’t have food. It’s a man-made catastrophe, because somebody decided to make our life difficult,” he added. “We are a hostage by four kidnappers,” he said, naming Israel, Hamas, the Western-backed Palestinian Authority which rules the West Bank, and the international community. Palestinian negotiator Mohammed Shtayyeh wrote last month in left-leaning Israeli daily Haaretz that token Israeli economic measures would not change the Palestinians’ lives. “In recent years, some international parties have tried to convince the world that solutions begin by removing a roadblock or allowing ketchup and mayonnaise into Gaza,” he said. “What Palestine needs is ending the Israeli occupation, which is the only way for Palestine to reach its full economic potential.” — AFP

Shebab suicide commandos blast way into police station Bodies strewn at blast site MOGADISHU: A suicide Shebab car bomber blasted open the gates of the police station in the central Somali town of Beledweyne yesterday, before insurgent commandos stormed the compound shooting and killing, commanders and police said. Bodies were reported to be strewn around the blast site, but it was not immediately possible to say how many had been killed. The Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab, who boasted of killing several people, said that Djiboutian troops with the African Union force and Ethiopian soldiers were also based at the police compound. “Several of our special mujahedeen commandos carried out the attack on the military base in Beledweyne ...they have killed many of the enemy,” local Shebab commander Sheikh Mohamed Abu Suleiman said. Shebab spokesman Abdulaziz Abu Musab, who said one attacker blew himself up in a car at the gate before gunmen entered the base, reported the insurgents had “killed mainly Somalis but also some Djiboutians”, and called the attack a “victory”. The town has in recent months been hit by a

series of bombs and shootings claimed by the Shebab. Witnesses said the car rammed the gate of the police station before bursting into a huge ball of flames. “The car hit the gate of the police station and exploded, then after the explosion men with machine guns stormed the building, there was lots of shooting,” said Hassan Nur, who saw the attack. “I can’t say how many are dead, but I saw several bodies lying around the area where the car blew up.” Senior Beledweyne police commander Colonel Abdulkadir Ali said the “situation is now under control”. “The explosion was enormous and there are casualties,” he added, without giving more details. Last month a suicide bomber killed at least 15 people in an attack on a popular restaurant in the town, which lies close to the border with Ethiopia, and which is under the control of pro-government Somali forces. The Shebab also said they carried out the restaurant bombing, saying they were targeting Ethiopian troops and soldiers from the AU mission stationed in the town. Beledweyne, which lies some 300 kilometers

north of Mogadishu, holds a strategic position commanding the road to the capital. The Shebab have been driven out of fixed positions in Somalia’s major towns, including Mogadishu and the southern port of Kismayo, by a UN-mandated African Union force of more than 17,000 men. However the group still controls large swathes of southern Somalia and continues to launch brazen attacks including suicide bombings and commando attacks. Many of the worst attacks have been in the heart of the capital, such as a car bomb earlier this month at a popular hotel that killed at least four people, including one of Somalia’s top diplomats. In September the group also claimed responsibility for a massacre at the upmarket Westgate shopping centre in the Kenyan capital Nairobi that left at least 67 dead. The attack comes as the African Union force in Somalia awaits an important troop boost of over a quarter to 22,000 men, approved this month by the UN Security Council as part of efforts to step up offensive operations against the Shebab. —AFP

Egypt army backers and opponents mark ’versary CAIRO: Dozens of supporters and opponents of the army gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square yesterday to mark the anniversary of anti-military protests, amid mounting anger over a memorial to those killed in Egypt’s uprising. The 2011 demonstrations in central Cairo were against the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, the military junta that took power after the fall of Mubarak. The Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, which has held regular protests against the military for ousting president Mohamed Morsi, has not called for any demonstrations yesterday. At least 43 people were killed and more than 3,000 wounded in days of clashes between protesters and security forces that began on November 19, 2011, just nine months after Mubarak’s ouster. Hundreds of Egyptians had gathered on Monday evening in Tahrir Square, where the government has built a monument to commemorate those killed in Egypt’s “revolution” since the outbreak of protests against Mubarak. Its decision to inaugurate the monument on Monday, the eve of the anniversary of the 2011 clashes, has angered activists. By yesterday morning the monument had been badly damaged after protesters chanting anti-military slogans sprayed the memorial with red paint the previous evening. “For us, the revolution is still unfinished,” protester Hussein Safed said, adding he had participated in protests against the army at the square two years ago. Graffiti on the monument read: “Down with the betrayers: the military, the remnants (of the Mubarak regime),” the Brotherhood, and “this is not a memorial, it’s a public scam.” The SCAF

CAIRO: A supporter of Egypt’s powerful military chief Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi (portrait) holds up a flag with the crescent and cross sign of national unity yesterday at the site of a defaced monument that was inaugurated this week in central Cairo to mark the anniversary of protests against the military in 2011, which ignited deadly clashes with security forces. — AFP had handed over power in 2012 to democratic rule, but real power is Morsi, a veteran Muslim Brotherhood believed to lie with military chief Abdel leader who won Egypt’s first democratic Fattah al-Sisi, whose popularity has soared since Morsi’s overthrow. presidential election. The interior ministry has warned of a But just one year later the army overthrew him following mass demonstra- firm response to any violence yesterday. tions against his turbulent rule and Authorities reinforced security at key installed an interim government that government installations around Tahrir currently rules the country. This was fol- square like the ministry of interior, govlowed by a brutal security forces crack- ernment administrative buildings and down on Morsi’s Islamist supporters that parliament. Meanwhile, the Tamarod peaked on August 14, when police dis- (rebellion) movement which mobilized persed two pro-Morsi protest camps, protesters against Morsi called its supkilling hundreds. The interim govern- porters to keep off the streets yesterday ment has pledged a return to civilian, to avoid any violence. — AFP

Mauritania’s khaima tents make ‘unlikely’ comeback NOUAKCHOTT: Twinkling like a thousand stars in the silent repose of a black Saharan night, Mauritania’s traditional “khaima” tents were once a pervasive emblem of the exotic culture of Africa’s nomadic Moors. Replaced gradually by urban sprawl, they had all but disappeared in the capital Nouakchott, but are enjoying an unlikely revival thanks to the country’s upcoming elections. The khaima, which looks like a white mini circus tent and can comfortably house a small family, is made of thin layers of canvas mounted on two poles and attached by ropes to stakes driven into the ground, offering protection from downpours and sandstorms alike. They have been used only occasionally in recent years in Nouakchott: during weddings, baptisms and other social occasions, or erected for tourists looking to soak up some local culture. Yet since the launch of the campaign for Mauritania’s nationwide elections, they have been springing up all over the city. Their folds billowing in the desert breeze, they can be seen

on numerous street corners, in front of public buildings and by homes-makeshift campaign headquarters for activists needing somewhere temporary to work. Their popularity is due in part to the fact that they are easy to carry, even easier to put up and remove, and can be modified to the exacting requirements of the ambitious campaign director. Most have been embellished with ambient lighting, comfortable furniture, campaign posters and sound systems blasting out music to attract voters. They have been a hit with the electorate, who have until Saturday to decide who to back in the first parliamentary and local polls since 2006. Ahmed Ould Tegui, a retired teacher who has travelled throughout Mauritania, said he was pleased to see the tents “rediscover their nobility through democracy and its positive impact on people”. Moussa Ould Cheikh, an elderly man with a henna-dyed beard, was also delighted by the sight, noting playfully that young people could once again enjoy the “sleepless nights” of the “good old days” in the nomad camps of his youth. —AFP

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Germany having second thoughts on legalized prostitution BERLIN: A decade after Germany legalized prostitution, a debate has kicked off to again ban the trade, with leading feminist Alice Schwarzer labeling the country “a paradise for pimps”. Dozens of politicians, actors and journalists this month have signed Schwarzer’s appeal to Chancellor Angela Merkel and parliament to abolish sex work. “We know there is slavery in the world today, but there is no modern democratic country that would tolerate, accept or promote slavery,” she said at a recent Berlin press conference on her new book “Prostitution, A German Scandal”. “However, Germany tolerates, accepts and promotes prostitution, mostly at the expense of the poorest women from neighboring countries.” She urged a review of the 2002 lawpassed under a centre-left Social Democrats-Greens coalition government-

that theoretically gave sex workers access to unemployment insurance, controlled working conditions and medical coverage. The founder of the feminist magazine Emma argued that the law backfired and has turned Germany into a “paradise for pimps” who can now more easily exploit women, especially from poorer central European countries like Romania and Bulgaria. Schwarzer, 70, said this “liberalization of prostitution has been a disaster for the people involved,” estimating the number of prostitutes working in Germany now at 700,000. “These brothels are always in need of ‘fresh meat’, as they say, which means that the women generally work for a few weeks in these establishments and eventually end up on the street,” Schwarzer said. In a 2007 report-with the official figures so far on the effects of the law-the

government conceded that the outcome had been disappointing and the legal change did not “actually improve the welfare of prostitutes”. The study found that only one percent of prostitutes had an employment contract. Many social workers and police also report that the law only aggravated the situation. “It is now indisputable that there is an urgent need to effectively respond to the phenomenon of trafficking in human beings, which is spreading,” the police commissioner of the southern city of Augsburg, Helmut Sporer, told a parliamentary inquiry in June. National police data shows that reported cases of human trafficking have been on the decline, from 811 in 2002 to 432 in 2011, the latest year for which figures are available. However, Chantal Louis, editor of Emma magazine which published Schwarzer’s appeal, said

that “it is really very cynical to first pass a law making the investigation ... of trafficking particularly difficult, then to say that the number of cases is declining.” The renewed debate to curb prostitution has now made it onto the agenda of ongoing coalition talks between Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats. “We are very, very proud,” that the issue has grabbed top political attention, said Schwarzer. The writer, who was involved in the French women’s liberation movement while she was a Paris correspondent, also praised the current push there to stamp out prostitution, spearheaded by women’s rights minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem. “It has encouraged us to see that in Europe, there are more and more countries that speak of prostitution in terms of human dignity and are beginning to act,” she said.

But, as in France, the campaign against prostitution has also sparked resistance in Germany. During her Berlin presentation, Schwarzer was whistled at and booed by audience members who said they were sex workers. Undine de Riviere, a prostitute and spokeswoman for a professional union of suppliers of sexual and erotic services, is part of the opposition. “Feminists do not think we can speak for ourselves,” she told the Munich daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung. “The desire to control sexuality and prostitution has always been great and very difficult to get out of people’s heads.” Schwarzer said that “of course we are not naive, we know prostitution won’t be abolished tomorrow ... it is a social process of raising consciousness, of creating an awareness about the injustice. “We want to, step by step, move toward the goal.”— AFP

Unraveling plot reveals tension at heart of Czech government President accused of plotting against would-be PM PRAGUE: It had all the elements of a spy thriller: a convoy of cars with tinted windows, a Baroque castle outside the Czech capital, a clandestine meeting of senior politicians. This though was real, it happened late last month, and it was the culmination of a battle for power between the Czech President Milos Zeman and former allies who nearly ended his political career 10 years ago. In what Zeman’s opponents call an unsuccessful coup d’etat, the president is accused of trying to block Bohuslav Sobotka, the leader of the Social Democratic party, from becoming prime minister, in concert with rebels inside the party. Zeman, who hosted the rebels at the castle, has said little about the events, except that the meeting was not called at his initiative and need not have been kept secret. Indeed the meeting between Zeman and the anti-Sobotka plotters was exposed and a weakened president has

my. Data released this month showed the economy had slipped back into recession in the third quarter of this year. That is bad news for foreign investors - dominated by firms from neighboring Germany such as Volkswagen and Siemens - who came to the Czech republic for its robust growth and predictable politics. BETRAYAL The drama that played out last month has its roots in events in 2002. Zeman had finished a successful stint as a Social Democratic prime minister, and his party invited him to be its candidate in the presidential election. At a meeting of the party’s members of parliament to discuss Zeman’s candidacy, there was a sudden turn-around. Senior party figures, including some Zeman had groomed as his proteges, changed their minds and withheld their support. Sobotka, then finance

PRAGUE: A man feeds seagulls in Prague. Meteorologists forecast temperatures around 4 degrees for the coming week in Prague. —AFP accepted that Sobotka has the right to form a government. But few people inside the Czech political elite think the drama is over. The tricky process of forming a coalition government could present new opportunities to rock the boat. That could create prolonged political paralysis at a time when decisive action is needed to lift the econo-

minister, was one of those who voted against Zeman, according to Czech media. Sobotka has declined to answer questions about whether he voted against Zeman. Zeman felt betrayed. Zeman, according to his memoirs, told his party colleagues at that meeting he felt like Premysl Otakar II, a 13th century Czech king who was killed when some of his

nobles deserted him on the battlefield. After this, Zeman retreated to his farm-house in the remote Vysocina region, about 120 km south-east of the capital. He spent his days at home, or calling into the local pub. In the summer, he was often photographed lying in a small inflatable dinghy on a neighborhood pond. But he had not forgotten. His memoirs, “How I was wrong in politics,” published two years into his retirement, contained withering descriptions of the people he felt had betrayed him. Earlier this year, Zeman seized his opportunity to return. He won election as president, playing on his support among working class voters in the provinces, and his reputation as a man with the common touch. He quickly asserted power, even though the presidency is a largely ceremonial post. After the previous, centre-right government folded this year, he went against the will of political parties and installed a caretaker government of his allies. REVENGE In last month’s parliamentar y election Sobotka’s party won more votes than any other party, but less than they had anticipated. Sobotka was vulnerable, especially as there were rivals for the leadership in the party, who were also close to Zeman. As night fell on Saturday, Oct 26 and the election results came in, Sobotka was in the studios of Czech television taking part in a live broadcast. At about the same time, at least two sedan cars headed out of Prague, drove along country roads and then through the wrought iron gate into Lany Castle, a presidential retreat set in woodland 40 km (25 miles) west of Prague. The next day, the pro-Zeman faction inside the Social Democratic party attempted to dump Sobotka, winning a majority in the party’s leadership for a non-binding resolution calling on their leader to go. Yet the rebellion turned out to be more farce than spy thriller. A crew from Czech television managed to follow the convoy of cars to the castle. When the journalists asked a sentry at the gate who was inside, he gave them the names of Sobotka’s party rivals. One of the rebels at the meeting later said it took place, even though fellow participants were denying it. Several of the rebels had to back down and apologise. Their leader, Michal Hasek, stepped down from his post as first deputy chairman of the Social Democrats.—Reuters

New conflict brewing over oil prospecting off West Sahara RABAT: Unprecedented plans by an international oil consortium to drill in waters off the disputed Western Sahara are making waves, with activists warning the move could scupper chances of resolving the conflict. The region remains bitterly contested, nearly 40 years after its annexation by Morocco, a move never recognized by the international community. Moroccan exploitation of the territory’s natural resources has been a key issue in the dispute with the Polisario Front, who fought for independence until a UN-brokered ceasefire in 1991. A surge of interest in its potential subsea riches, coupled with Morocco’s unaffordable energy bills, has pushed oil exploration up the agenda, threatening to enflame tensions if any discoveries are made. Last month, Texas firm Kosmos Energy and Britain’s Cairn Energy announced plans to sink a well next year in the Cap Boujdour block in the waters of Western Sahara. Cairn said the permit lay 50 kilometers (30 miles) “offshore Morocco.” Kosmos insists its activities are consistent with international law. But Erik Hagen, who heads Western Sahara Resource Watch, an international lobby group, said it was the most specific announcement of an exploration well to date and called it a “very worrisome development.” “ What the oil companies are doing is making it impossible to solve the conflict. Morocco would have no incentive to enter into any purposeful UN peace talks with an oil find,” Hagen said. Others caution there is nothing illegal about exploration activity authorized by Morocco, the de facto administering power in the region, but say that

could change. “If oil were found, it would raise a lot of questions about how it was going to be exploited and how to ensure the people of Western Sahara benefit,” a diplomat in Rabat said. LEGAL OPINIONS Rabat has vowed to invest in Western Sahara, with a palace appointed council last week calling for a 13 billion euro ($18 billion) plan, which could double the region’s GDP and create 120,000 jobs. The controversy over Morocco’s right to exploit the resources of the region, which it considers an integral part of its territory, centres on a 2002 UN legal opinion. The Security Council requested the opinion in response to two exploration contracts, since relinquished, that Moroccan authorities signed with US firm Kerr McGee and French firm Total. The document concludes if exploration and exploitation activities were to take place “in disregard of the interests and wishes of the people of Western Sahara, they would be in violation of the principles of international law.” Kosmos says it operates ethically, arguing resource development can create significant benefits for the Sahrawi people and that its activities are in compliance with the UN legal opinion. Francesco Bastagli, a former UN special representative to Western Sahara, disagrees. “Morocco has been engaged with the phosphates and the fisheries and now with the oil in a practice that is not legal under international law, which is confirmed in the 2002 opinion,” he said. “The oil companies, rather than investing now, which is frankly unethical, should maybe lobby with their governments so that they

make a real effort to legalise whatever status the Western Sahara should have.” Bastagli said it was not for Morocco or its partners to decide whether the exploitation of their resources was benefiting the Sahrawi people, whose UN-sponsored referendum on self-determination has been shelved. ‘UNEQUAL DEVELOPMENT’ Morocco is the leading global exporter of phosphates, and the main economic activity in Western Sahara is the extraction of the mineral from the Bou Craa region, by state-owned phosphate company OCP. Ex-finance minister Nizar Baraka said the local population was reaping the benefits from state investments in Western Sahara, which amounted to “10 times” the revenues it generated. “OCP reinvests its profits in the region,” he insisted. But Mustapha Naimi, a Sahrawi anthropologist at Rabat University, denies this, saying Morocco had plundered phosphate reserves, and criticizing the lack of transparency in the industry. Despite some investment, Naimi said regional development had been “very unequal,” and the state had failed to instill among Sahrawis a belief in the “Moroccan-ness of the Sahara.” However, Maghreb expert and energy analyst Jon Marks argues wider economic realities, including new offshore drilling technology and high oil prices, together with the lack of progress in peace negotiations may be working in Morocco’s favor. “The fact that Kosmos was able to persuade Cairn to come into that block shows that the whole business of Morocco awarding acreage in Western Sahara is no longer such a toxic product,” he said. — AFP

OLBIA: An overturned car is seen in a flooded street in Olbia northern Sardinia. Italy declared a state of emergency yesterday after flash floods on the island of Sardinia left 17 people dead and forced hundreds to seek emergency shelter after the waters swept away bridges and flooded homes. — AFP

Flash floods kill 17 in Italy’s Sardinia ROME: Italy declared a state of emergency yesterday after flash floods on the island of Sardinia left 17 people dead and forced hundreds to seek emergency shelter after the waters swept away bridges and flooded homes. Several people were still reported missing and emergency workers were trying to access low-lying rural areas affected by the heavy rain and high winds on Monday, which saw many rivers break their banks. “We have decided to call a cabinet meeting to declare a state of emergency that will help boost rescue operations and allocate resources. The priority is to save human lives,” Prime Minister Enrico Letta said. “This is an incredible tragedy,” Letta said. The port city of Olbia, a popular holiday destination in the summer months, was left almost entirely under water and hotels, sports halls and private residents on the island put up people displaced by the flood. “The number of victims has risen to 17 and several people are missing,” regional governor Ugo Cappellacci said on news channel SkyTG24. “The operation to provide basic necessities to the evacuees is under way. We are planning to restore electricity, start pumping out water from flooded areas and clear the roads,” Cappellacci said.

Gianfranco Galaffu, a local director of the civil protection agency said that “around 20,000 people” had been affected by the flooding in Sardinia. “We are still trying to reach some parts of the lowlands. There could be more victims in their cars... But the worst of the emergency is over,” he said. Among the dead was an entire family of four Brazilians who drowned in their basement flat in the town of Arzachena in the northern part of the island. Three people from the same family also died when a road bridge collapsed onto their van near Olbia, while a mother and daughter were found dead in a car that was swept away in the city by surging waters. A 64-year-old woman died in her flooded home in Uras in the southwestern part of the island, while her husband was hospitalized suffering from hypothermia. Rescue efforts were concentrated in a mountainous region near Nuoro, where many people climbed onto the roofs of their homes or up trees to escape the waters. Civil protection agency chief Franco Gabrielli said the island was “unprepared” for the flooding and many local residents took to social media to complain that they did not receive sufficient warning about the forecast.—AFP

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Survivors of US Midwest tornado sift through wreckage WASHINGTON: When a powerful tornado bore down on the small city of Washington, Illinois, on Sunday, Ryan Bowers took his wife’s advice and sheltered in the basement with their 2-1/2-month-old daughter and their dogs. Winds of up to 200 miles per hour leveled their home, along with a large swath of the city of 15,000 people east of Peoria, but the Bowers survived, as did almost all of their neighbors. The twister, part of a fast-moving storm that hammered much of the Midwest, killed eight people in Illinois and Michigan, but many survived thanks to quick reactions like Bowers’s and because their homes had basements to flee to. “I have to believe that 90 percent of those people who survived were probably in their basement, taking cover, or at church,” said Washington Mayor Gary Manier, who noted that he was among the many town residents who were in church when they heard warning sirens. “We thank God that our community listened and took heed,” Manier said, standing in a destroyed section of Washington where bits of American flags and insulation from destroyed houses clung to trees that had been stripped of their branches and remaining leaves by the storm. Bowers, 33, said he normally disregarded tornado warnings but headed to his basement after seeing the debris cloud barreling toward his house. “I ran back inside, ran in the basement, not 15 seconds later our basement windows were sucked in and everything was twirling about,” said Bowers. “Everything was white and all I could hear was snapping ... Things were dropping on top of me and splitting in two.” He and his wife Andrea, 32, briefly returned on Monday to retrieve a family Bible and a pink baby rattle that was their daughter Sydney’s favorite toy. UP TO 500 HOMES DAMAGED Manier estimated that 250 to 500 homes had been damaged by the tornado, rated as the secondmost powerful magnitude of twister, which hit the

city east of Peoria with winds of 166 to 200 miles per hour (267-322 km per hour). In the destroyed area, where buildings were reduced to rubble and cars turned upside down, authorities barred vehicle traffic out of concern that people could be injured while attempting to retrieve their possessions. But people came anyway, on bicycles and on foot, to sort through their belongings and help their neighbors. “It’s crazy, you walk through a town you’ve lived in your whole life and you don’t even know where you’re at,” said Tanner Smith, a 17-yearold wide receiver who was among about 30 members of the Washington Community High School football team, the Panthers, who came to help with relief efforts.

WASHINGTON: People survey the damage in the Washington Estates subdivision in the aftermath of a tornado. — AFP

In traffic stop fracas, US officer fires at van ALBUQUERQUE: Two New Mexico state police officers are under investigation and a mother and her 14-year-old son are facing charges after a routine traffic stop turned to chaos when the teen physically confronted one officer and another officer fired shots at a minivan carrying children. Details of the recent stop emerged when KRQE-TV obtained video from the dashboard camera of the police cruiser that pulled the family of six over for speeding near the northern New Mexico tourist town of Taos. The footage taken Oct 28 shows driver Oriana Farrell, 39, disobey the officer’s orders, including driving off after being told to take her keys out of the vehicle. The Memphis, Tenn, woman was pulled over again and the situation escalates as she pleads for lenience while refusing the officer’s orders to get out of the van. She eventually exits the vehicle, but tries to get back in as the officer tries to restrain her. The TV station’s edited video shows at least two of her five children get out of the vehicle to confront the officer in her defense. Farrell ushered the smaller child back into the van as the 14-year-old struggled with the officer. The teen got back in the vehicle and shut the door after the officer appears to pull out his stun gun. At that point, backup arrived as the initial officer bashed out the minivan’s front passenger window with his nightstick and another officer shot at the vehicle as it drove off. The mother and teenage son were arrested at a hotel after a brief chase. She has since been released and faces charges of child abuse, fleeing and misdemeanor possession of drug parapher-

nalia for a pair of marijuana pipes found in the van. Ferrell was released on a $10,000 unsecured bond. It’s unclear whether the 14-year-old is in custody. He faces charges of battery of an officer. His name has not been released. Farrell’s attorney Alan Maestas did not immediately return a phone call to The Associated Press. Maestas, however, suggested to a judge last week that Ferrell was acting out of fear for the safety of her children when she drove away from officers. Eighth Judicial District Attorney Donald Gallegos the situation could have been avoided if Farrell had followed the officer’s instructions. “She wouldn’t do the simple act of just signing a ticket,” Gallegos said. In a statement, New Mexico State Police Chief Pete Kassetas said his department will conduct a “full and thorough review” of the shooting and traffic stop. Kassetas said he has seen the video and has “concerns relating to the conduct of the officer who discharged his firearm.” He said the department “will take swift action” if the investigation determines the officer acted improperly. The officers have not been identified. Gallegos said based on what he’s seen from the video, the district attorney’s office will not pursue criminal charges against any of the officers. But he said that could change if state police present more evidence. On the video, the initial officer could be heard telling Farrell she had been driving 71 mph in a 55 mph zone. The shooting comes after a New Mexico state police officer shot and killed a Santa Fe woman after a high-speed chase earlier this month. — AP

2nd massacre shake Mexico border city CIUDAD JUAREZ: A second massacre in as many months has shaken the border city of Ciudad Juarez, once considered one of the most dangerous places in the world, but whose falling crime rate has been held up recently as a model for all of Mexico. Officials in the northern city grappled with the brutal killing of eight related people as authorities in western Mexico said Monday they had uncovered more remains from clandestine graves linked to drug violence. In the same region, vigilantes who have been fighting one of the cartels seized a town in a weekend clash that killed two people. In Ciudad Juarez, the eight members of an extended family found stabbed to death early Sunday were not victims of organized crime and may have been killed by someone they knew, Chihuahua officials said. There was no forced entry into the house where they were found, and the knife used in the stabbing was possibly from the kitchen, state Prosecutor Enrique Villareal said at a news conference. The attack included the binding and killing of three young children and was an assault on the entire community, said Enrique Serrano, mayor of the border city across from El Paso, Texas. “We deeply reject this act and hope to have results soon,” he said. All the victims had tape over their mouths and their hands were tied, including two 4-year-olds and a 6-yearold. A 3-month-old baby was spared. The oldest victim was a 60-year-old woman, one of three adult women and two adults males killed. State authorities are offering 300,000 pesos ($23,000) for information about the assailants. Warring drug cartels once made Ciudad Juarez one of the deadliest cities in the world, but drug-related killings had declined in recent years. According to federal statistics, homicides spiked in the city in 2010 at 3,900 and have fallen steadily to 1,134 in the first nine months of this year. The federal government now combines all killings into one statistic and no longer says how many are related to drug trafficking. The city has one of the busiest crossings

Amid the rubble, Chris Morrissey, 43, was amazed to find her stepmother’s china dolls and glass paperweights intact - though the house itself was destroyed. Her father and stepmother had been away in Florida, but were returning to see the damage. “They’re alive. You can’t ask for better than that,” Morrissey said. At least eight people were killed in the storm across two states. Of the six people killed in Illinois, authorities said one died in the city of Washington, in Tazewell County, and about 120 others were injured in the town. Elsewhere in the state, an 80-year-old man and his 78-year-old sister were killed in Washington County, about 200 miles south of Peoria, County Coroner Mark Styninger said. Three more people

into the US and is considered a desirable route for drug traffickers. Mexican federal officials have said they turned around Ciudad Juarez with better security and millions invested in social programs. Others say violence has dropped because one of two warring cartels won the battle over the routes. Despite the recent calm, the border area was unsettled in September when two gunmen burst into a home east of the city and killed 10 people celebrating a baseball victory - a 7-year-old girl, her mother, three teenage boys and five adult men. The bodies were found scattered over a radius of about 12 yards suggesting some had tried to flee when they were gunned down. A trophy from the baseball game was found at the home. It was one of the biggest massacres in the area since the 2010 killing of 15 people at a birthday party in Ciudad Juarez’s workingclass neighborhood of Villas de Salvarcar. That massacre was believed to have been a case of mistaken identity, in which a drug gang attacked the party because it thought members of a rival gang were there. Seven of the dead in Sunday’s attack were members of the Jehovah’s Witness, according to the religious group’s public information office in Mexico City. Villareal said every indication is that they were honest, hard-working people and that the slaughter was an isolated attack. Officials said they were questioning two people. One motive could have been robbery, as one of the victims had a car sales business and was known to receive large amounts of money, Villareal said. Meanwhile, the number of bodies found in eight clandestine graves in western Mexico rose to 20 on Monday, according to a federal prosecutors official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the press. Nearly two dozen police officers who confessed to working with a drug cartel led agents to the series of mass graves last week near the border between Jalisco and Michoacan states. The official said agents were still excavating. —AP

died when a tornado devastated several neighborhoods in Massac County on the Kentucky border, emergency officials said. In central Michigan, rescue workers found the body of a 59-year-old man entangled in downed power lines on Sunday night. The man went outside to investigate a noise, according to Shiawassee County Sheriff ’s Department Lieutenant David Kirk. A 21-year-old man was killed on Sunday night when a tree fell on his car in the central Michigan town of Leslie, said Jackson County Sheriff Steven Rand. The storm also damaged homes and buildings in Indiana and Kentucky, though no fatalities were reported in those states. Over 675,000 homes and businesses in the US Midwest and in the province of Ontario, Canada, were still without power on Monday afternoon following the storm, according to local power companies. BASEMENT SAFE HAVENS The unusual late-season storms moved dangerously fast, tracking east at 60 miles per hour (97 kph), with the bulk of the damage spanning about five hours, said spokeswoman Patti Thompson of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. Survivors said they rode out the storm in their basements, which are common in homes in the affected area, a fact that may have helped hold down the death toll, officials said. In May, a monster, top-category tornado killed 24 people in Moore, Oklahoma, a part of the United States where basements are less common. Nancy Rampy, 62, said she fled to her basement when she heard the storm sirens blaring on Sunday. “I heard what sounded like 12 trains just roaring down the tracks, and it just wouldn’t stop. It just kept coming and coming,” Rampy said. “I ran to the basement, sat in the basement with my flashlight in the dark and just prayed, ‘Let it be over soon.’” Rampy’s house was spared. — Reuters

Republicans defy threat, block Obama’s 4th judicial nominee Unclear if Democrats will pull the trigger WASHINGTON: US Senate Republicans on Monday blocked a fourth nominee by President Barack Obama to a District of Columbia appeals court, defying a threatened rule change by Democrats to strip them of their ability to stop such picks. On a nearly party-line vote of 53-38, seven short of the needed 60, Democrats failed to end a Republican procedural hurdle known as a filibuster and move forward on the nomination Robert Wilkins. Obama wants to elevate Wilkins, a federal district court judge in Washington since 2011 who has received the American Bar Association’s highest rating, to the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. But Republicans refused to clear the way for the nominee, making the Harvard-educated Wilkins the fourth Obama pick to this court to be the target of a filibuster this year. Democrats threatened an unprecedented Senate rules change to reduce from 60 to 51 the number of votes needed to end filibusters against judicial and executive-branch nominees. “After tonight, the talk about changing the cloture rules for judicial nominations will no longer be just talk. There will be action,” said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat. “We cannot allow this unprecedented, wholesale obstruction to continue without undermining the Senate’s role provided in the Constitution and without harming our independent federal judiciary,” Leahy said. In a statement issued by the White House, Obama said, “This obstruction is completely unprecedented. Four of my predecessor’s six nominees to the DC Circuit were confirmed. Four of my five nominees to this court have been obstructed.” Senior party aides said it remains unclear if Democratic leaders will decide to pull the trigger on a possible rule change, and if rank-and-file members would support it. That is because such a rule change would hurt Democrats once Republicans win back control of the Senate, which could come as early as next year’s elections. THINK TWICE “I think Democrats will think twice about this. I hope they do,” said Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, a member of Leahy’s Judiciary

WASHINGTON: Sen Ben Cardin (D-MD) (left) and Sen Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) (right) confer before a press conference at the US Capitol on the nomination of Robert Wilkins to be US Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia. — AFP Committee. “Republicans were wise years ago to pull back when we considered it,” Flake said. “Democrats have been wise so far. I hope they continue to be.” The DC Circuit is considered the country’s second most important court, behind only the US Supreme Court. One of 13 circuit courts, the DC court handles cases involving federal regulations and the separation of powers between Congress, the president and the courts. Republicans accuse Obama of trying to “pack the court” to win favorable rulings, and contend that there is not enough work for the court to merit confirmation of any more judges. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell also accused Democrats of trying to “divert as much attention as possible” from the botched roll out of Obama’s new healthcare law. “Rather than change the law that is causing so many problems for so many, they want to change the subject,” McConnell said. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, rejected the charges, saying,

“Appointing judges to fill vacant judicial seats is not court-packing. It’s the president’s right, as well as his duty.” Democrats contend the court’s workload is more than it was during the presidency of Republican George W Bush. The court now has eight judges - four picked by Democratic presidents, four by Republican presidents - and three vacancies. Reid threatened a rules change in July to confirm seven of Obama’s executive-branch nominees. But he backed off after a bipartisan deal was reached to fill the posts. Reid is again talking privately with fellow Senate Democratic leaders about changing the rules, aides said. But aides said Reid figures he has nothing to lose, given there is no indication that Republicans are willing to compromise with Obama on much of anything. Reid also assumes that voters, who polls show are disgusted with a gridlocked Congress, will not be upset if he changes the rules to get some things done, aides said. — Reuters

Argentina leader returns from surgery, names new minister

BUENOS AIRES: Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner poses with Simon - a present from the brother of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez- while recording a message to the nation at Olivos presidential residence in Buenos Aires. — AFP

BUENOS AIRES: Argentine President Cristina Fernandez burst back on the scene yesterday after a five-week absence following surgery, naming as economy minister the government’s point man in its 2012 seizure of the country’s biggest oil company. The promotion of leftist economist Axel Kicillof, who had been deputy economy minister, was announced by government spokesman Alfredo Scoccimarro in a televised address. Kicillof, a charismatic and polarizing figure, is a favorite of Fernandez. He steered her administration’s seizure of energy company YPF from its former parent company, Spain’s Repsol. The YPF takeover enraged Argentina’s trading partners from the European Union, but was welcomed by many Argentines as a defense of national strategic interests. Known for his fiery speeches in defense of Fernandez’s unorthodox economic policies, Kicillof spent most of his career in academia, giving classes and writing about the theories of economists such as John Maynard Keynes and Karl Marx. He replaces Hernan Lorenzino, who was named ambassador to the European Union. Fernandez had an operation on Oct 8 to remove blood that had pooled on the surface of her brain after she fell and bumped her head. She had not made an official public appearance or speech until earlier on Monday evening, leaving a five-week political vacuum in Latin America’s third biggest economy. “Thank you ... to the thousands of Argentines who have been praying for

me,” a smiling Fernandez said in a televised address before the Kicillof announcement was made by her spokesman. Sitting on a sofa, she appeared healthy. On a table was a vase of red roses she said had been sent by a well-wisher. She also displayed an oversized stuffed blackand-white penguin, which she said was another gift. She briefly she held a small white dog she said was sent to her by one of the brothers of Hugo Chavez, the late left-wing leader of Venezuela and a political ally of Fernandez. The president’s absence had been conspicuous in a country accustomed to her centralized leadership style and frequent speeches. Her office said her agenda on Monday was confined to meetings with senior officials. She has not been cleared for air travel and is scheduled for another medical checkup on Dec 9. As she enters the final two years of her second term, Fernandez faces possible new protests from farmers who say her policies hurt their profits. High inflation, estimated by private analysts at 25 percent, rising crime, an overvalued currency and dwindling foreign reserves are also concerns. Fernandez’s supporters suffered heavy losses in congressional elections on Oct 27 that ended her chances of securing a change to the constitution that would have enabled her to run for a third term in 2015. Also on Monday, Argentina designated Carlos Fabrega as the country’s incoming central bank chief and Carlos Casamiquela as agriculture minister. — Reuters

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

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Nepal defies threats in post-war election Nepalis give politicians another chance, vote to end gridlock

JALALABAD: Afghan students display an effigy of US Presdient Barack Obama with the word ‘donkey’ scribbled across his forehead during a protest against the upcoming Loya Jirga, a traditional means of consultations, in Jalalabad, eastern Afghanistan. — AP

Jirgas in Afghanistan, a traditional way to solve issues KABUL: A jirga is a tribal assembly of elders in Afghanistan that come together to take decisions by consensus about important issues. This week a “loya jirga”grand assembly in the Pashto languagewill decide on a security pact with the United States which will shape Washington’s future military presence in Afghanistan. Jirgas small and large are a common feature in the Pashtun areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Small jirgas are a central part of the traditional dispute resolution mechanism in tribal Pashtun society, in which the disputants accept a mediator usually a religious leader or a village notable-to hear both sides in front of a mass of people. The elders in jirga then discuss the case, and come to a decision about how to handle the matter, which the mediator then announces. The jirga’s conclusion in the matter is binding. Loya jirgas are mass meetings held to discuss particularly important matters such as choosing a

new king, adopting a constitution, or discussing important political or emergency issues. There have been numerous loya jirgas through the history of Afghanistan. In 2002, an “emergency loya jirga” elected Hamid Karzai as the president of the interim government after the fall of the Taleban regime in late 2001. In 2003, another loya jirga endorsed a new post-Taleban constitution, and in 2010 around 1,600 delegates attended a peace jirga in an attempt to gain consensus on how to approach peace talks with the Taleban. But the militants responded with rocket attacks at the tent housing the gathering while Karzai was inside. The attack resulted in the sacking of the interior minister and the intelligence chief. Tomorrow, around 2,500 tribal elders and civil leaders are expected to take part in the latest loya jirga to decide whether to accept a draft Bilateral Security Agreement between Afghanistan and the US. — AFP

KATHMANDU: A crude bomb exploded early on Election Day in Nepal yesterday, injuring three children as voters turned out for a poll seen as crucial in stabilizing the Himalayan country after a civil war. The explosive planted in a middle-class residential neighborhood in the capital Kathmandu went off three hours after polling stations opened, with another five hoax bombs recovered by police on Monday. “I was passing by when I saw three children lying on the ground, crying for help,” 28-year-old eyewitness Saroj Maharjan said at the scene, where voters said they were now terrified. “One of the children, whose face was covered in blood, fainted in my arms as I carried him to a nearby hospital,” he added. Police said an eight-year-old had picked up the bomb shortly before it detonated, assuming it to be a toy. A splinter faction of the Maoist party has vowed to disrupt the poll, undermining the objective of producing a constituent assembly of national unity which must write a new constitution. A first assembly elected in 2008, two years after the end of fighting by the Maoists, was dominated by the former rebels but was riven by divisions and highly unstable. Five prime ministers served brief terms, for long periods the country had no leader, and the 601-member body collapsed in 2012 after failing to agree on a new constitution. The Maoists led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, known better by his nomde-guerre Prachanda, are expected to be the biggest losers with many supporters disillusioned by their leadership. Prachanda, who launched a “People’s War” in 1996 inspired by China’s Cultural Revolution, voted in the southern district of Chitwan wearing a shirt and Western-style black suit. Organizing the election has been a logistical headache in a country home to eight of the

Parliament holds crunch session on Tymoshenko KIEV: Ukraine’s parliament met for a crunch session yesterday to try to pass a law that would allow jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko to go to Germany for medical treatment and clear the way for landmark deals with the European Union. With less than two weeks to go before the signing of a free trade and cooperation agreement at a summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, the EU says the former Soviet republic has not yet met the conditions the bloc has laid down. The main sticking point is over former Prime Minister Tymoshenko, a fierce opponent of Yanukovich who was jailed in 2011 for seven years for abuse of office after a trial that Western governments say was political. EU governments see Tymoshenko’s case as symbolic of “selective justice” in Ukraine and want her, as part of a compromise, to be allowed to travel to Germany to be treated for chronic back trouble. Yanukovich, whose supporters fear a comeback by Tymoshenko could disrupt his bid for re-election in 2015, has refused to pardon her. He has, however, said he will sign into law any proposal by parliament to allow her to go to Germany for hospital treatment for a spinal condition. Ukraine’s parliament hit deadlock on the issue last week, with pro-Yanukovich deputies blocking any draft law that might allow her to return to the political fray. The session, which opened on Tuesday and was attended by EU envoys, is due to last until Friday. It is possible that no firm decision either way on Tymoshenko, internationally renowned as the braidedhaired co-leader of Ukraine’s Orange Revolution protests against electoral fraud nine years ago, will emerge until the end of the week. Meanwhile, the “mood music” is changing in the Yanukovich camp, with his supporters in parliament expressing annoyance and suspicion at the EU’s insistence on the release of Tymoshenko. Summit host Lithuania warned Ukraine on Monday that the Tymoshenko question had to be resolved and other reforms on elections and the public prosecutor’s office enacted for the agreement to be signed on Nov 28. “If this is not done, it will not be possible to sign the agreement,” Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite told reporters in Vilnius on Monday. — Reuters

KIEV: An unidentified pro-EU deputy of the Ukrainian parliament wearing a t-shirt with a picture depicting jailed Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko and signed “Free Yulia!” reacts during the parliamentary session in Kiev yesterday. — AFP

Maldives leader appoints niece as foreign minister MALE: The new leader of the Maldives has appointed the daughter of former strongman Maumoon Abdul Gayoom as foreign minister, an official said yesterday, underscoring the family’s renewed influence in the country. President Abdulla Yameen, half-brother of Gayoom who ruled for 30 years till 2008, named Dhunya Maumoon, 43, to the post in his first appointments Sunday before forming a full cabinet later, the official said. “The foreign ministry is crucial for the Maldives given the country needs to rebuild its international image after nearly two years of political unrest,” said the senior administration official, asking not to be named. The election of Yameen, 54, in Saturday’s run-off election ended nearly two years of turmoil in the honeymoon islands. The official said the new president was considering requests from his coalition partners to fill more cabinet positions. Minister Maumoon, Yameen’s niece, was deputy foreign minister in the government of Mohamed Waheed, who took power after his predecessor Mohamed Nasheed was toppled in what he called a coup in February 2012. Yameen retained as defense minister Mohamed Nazim, a former army officer accused of involvement in

the alleged coup to oust Nasheed. “We will maintain good-neighborly relations with regional countries and others,” Yameen said soon after his inauguration Sunday. “I shall strive to make the Maldives the safest and most developed nation in the region.” The United States and regional superpower India were among the first to congratulate Yameen and said they looked forward to working closely with him. Nasheed, a former pro-democracy campaigner and climate change activist, saw his rivals unite to keep him out of power after his first-round victory on November 9. He became the first democratically elected president in 2008 when he defeated Gayoom in a run-off. Nasheed conceded defeat after a bitterly fought battle and said he was pleased the country finally had a democratically elected leader. After an annulled election result and two cancelled polls, foreign diplomats had increasingly come to view the delays as politically inspired. Western diplomats had threatened the atoll nation with international isolation unless the Maldives allowed its people to freely elect a leader. — AFP

KATHMANDU: Nepalese police and army personnel are pictured at the site of a bomb blast in Kathmandu yesterday. — AFP

world’s 14 highest mountains, requiring helicopters, horses and porters to deliver ballot boxes to remote areas. “Some of the voters have trekked for five hours to reach here. They include elderly as well as young first-time voters,” Gitachari Acharya, an official at the nearest polling station to Mount Everest said. Centenarian Lal Bahadur Rai was the first man to vote at a polling station in northeastern Sankhuwasabha District. “My vote is for the future of youngsters and the new generations,” the 101year-old told AFP in a phone interview after casting his ballot. The political deadlock has had a severe impact on the economy, with annual GDP growth tumbling from 6.1 percent in 2008 to 4.6

percent last year, World Bank figures show. With 39 percent of the country aged between 16 and 40, according to government data, jobs are a major issue for young first-time voters like Urmila Maharjan. The 22-year-old student said she hoped “the new assembly will address issues like unemployment”. Hopes of reconciliation between the country’s politicians were dashed by the decision of a 33-party alliance, led by the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M), to disrupt the polls and intimidate voters. In recent days they have torched vehicles and hurled explosives at traffic to protest the fact that the vote is being held under an interim administration headed by the

chief justice of the Supreme Court. They wanted a cross-party government in place which would include them. One person has been killed and more than 360 arrested, police say. Security had been tightened across the country as a result, with the government deploying 50,000 soldiers and 140,000 police to guard polling stations. Measures include a ban on all public and most private transport, meaning that nearly all voters had to walk to polling stations to cast their ballot. More than 100 parties, including three major ones-the Uniﬁed MarxistLeninist, the Nepali Congress and the Maoists-are ﬁelding candidates for the constituent assembly, which will also serve as a parliament. — AFP

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

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Uncertainties abound in Fukushima decommissioning TOKYO: It’s costly, risky and dependent on technologies that have yet to be fully developed. A decades-long journey filled with unknowns lies ahead for Japan, which took a small step this week toward decommissioning its crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant. Nobody knows exactly how much fuel melted after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems. Or where exactly the fuel went - how deep and in what form it is, somewhere at the bottom of reactor Units 1, 2 and 3. The complexity and magnitude of decommissioning the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant is more challenging than Three Mile Island or Chernobyl, say experts such as Lake Barrett, a former US regulator who directed the Three Mile Island cleanup and now is an outside adviser to Fukushima operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. One core melted at Three Mile Island in 1979, versus three at Fukushima, and it didn’t leak out of the containment chamber, the outer vessel that houses the reactor core. At Fukushima, multiple hydrogen explosions caused extensive damage, blowing the roofs off three reactor buildings and spewing radiation over a wide area. Chernobyl was a worse accident in terms of radiation emitted, but authorities chose an easier solution: entombing the facility in cement. At Fukushima, TEPCO plans a multi-step process that is expected to take 40 years: Painstakingly removing the fuel rods in storage pools, finding and extracting the melted fuel within the broken reactors, demolishing the buildings and decontaminating the soil. “This is a much more challenging job,” Barrett said during a recent visit to Japan. “Much more complex, more difficult to do.” Also, water must continuously be channeled into the pools and reactor cores to keep the fuel cool. Tons of contaminated water leaks out of the reactors into their basements, some of it into the ground. Uncertainty runs high as Japan has never decommissioned a full-size commercial reactor, even one that hasn’t had an accident. TEPCO has earmarked about 1 trillion yen ($10 billion) for the decommissioning, and says it will agree to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s request to set aside another 1 trillion yen to fight water leaks. The government itself has contributed or prom-

ised 145 billion yen, and is expected to step up its involvement in the years to come, following criticism over its lack of support and growing concern that the technical and funding challenges are beyond TEPCO’s capabilities. TEPCO began removing fuel rods Monday from a storage pool at Unit 4, whose building was severely damaged but didn’t have a meltdown because the fuel had been removed from the core for maintenance. In an underwater operation, 22 of the 1,533 sets of fuel rods in a pool on the building’s top floor

must be overcome,” said Hajimu Yamana, a Kyoto University nuclear engineer who heads a government-affiliated agency that is overseeing technological research and development for the cleanup. Closing the holes and cracks in the containment vessels is the biggest hurdle in the decommissioning process, experts say. Every opening must be found and sealed to establish a closed cooling system. Then, under the current plan, the next step would be to fill the reactor vessels with water and examine the melted fuel.

OKUMA: A cask (center) of nuclear fuel is being lifted and moved by TEPCO workers as TEPCO started operations to remove fuel rods from a pool at the unit four reactor building of TEPCO’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in the town of Okuma in Fukushima prefecture. — AFP were transferred to a cask that will be used to move them to safer storage. By 2018, the utility hopes to remove all 3,100 fuel assemblies from storage pools at the four damaged units. After that would come the real challenge: removing melted or partially melted fuel from the three reactors that had meltdowns, and figuring out how to treat and store it so it won’t heat up and start a nuclear reaction again. “This is an unprecedented task that nobody in the world has achieved. We still face challenges that

Because of still fatally high radiation levels, the work will have to rely on remote-controlled robots for years. Scientists are developing robots to spot leaks, monitor radiation levels and carry out decontamination. They are also developing robots that can detect holes and fill them with clay. Among them is a camera-loaded swimming robot that can go underwater to spot holes and cracks, and another one that can go into ducts and pipes. Computer simulations show the melted fuel in

Unit 1, whose core damage was the most extensive, has breached the bottom of the primary containment vessel and even partially eaten into its concrete foundation, coming within about 30 centimeters of leaking into the ground. “We just can’t be sure until we actually see the inside of the reactors,” Yamana said. “We still need to develop a number of robots and other technology.” Three Mile Island needed only a few robots, mainly for remote-controlled monitoring, sampling and handling debris, as the melted fuel remained in the core. Manned entry was possible a little more than a year after the accident. Some experts say Japan’s current decommissioning plan is too ambitious. They counsel waiting until contamination levels come down, and even contemplate building a shell around the reactors for the time being, as at Chernobyl. “I doubt if Fukushima Dai-ichi’s full decommissioning is possible. Its contamination is so widespread,” said Masashi Goto, a nuclear engineer who designed the Unit 3 reactor and now teaches at Meiji University in Tokyo. “We should not rush the process, because it means more exposure to workers. Instead, we should wait and perhaps even keep it in a cement enclosure.” Others say the Chernobyl solution wouldn’t be effective, noting that the reactor was a different type without massive water leaks. Developing expertise during the operation is also important to Japan, which has dozens of reactors that face eventual retirement and is considering turning decommissioning into a viable business at home, and possibly in a growing global market. “If you just put concrete over this, groundwater still will be flowing and things like that, and you have an uncontrolled situation,” Barrett said. “I just don’t see that as a plausible option.” Only a small test reactor had been successfully scrapped in Japan, with five others now being decommissioned - two experimental and three commercial. The furthest along is Tokai Power Station’s No 1 reactor, which is 15 years into a planned 22-year process. Japan also has to worry about future natural disasters. “There will be many more earthquakes and typhoons,” Goto said. “I hope these plans won’t fail, but we might just have to pray.”— AP

Indonesian, Australian leaders trade jabs over spy allegations Australian PM rejects calls for apology

HERNANI: A human skull, one of the dozens found in the destroyed public cemetery, is displayed on top a tomb after the graves were swept away during the storm surge brought about by Super Typhoon Haiyan in the town of Hernani, Eastern Samar province in the central Philippines. — AFP

Philippines typhoon rips bodies from the graves HERNANI: Skulls lie on tombstones and a hand reaches out from a grave at a cemetery in the eastern Philippines, after a typhoon so powerful it pulled the dead from the earth. Shell-shocked survivors speak of how there was nowhere to hide when the storm brought the ocean surging ashore, sweeping through a school where children and the elderly cowered. Typhoon Haiyan killed at least 75 people in the small rural town of Hernani. Another 45 are missing. And like something from a nightmare, the storm surge was so powerful it washed bodies from their graves as it swept over the local cemetery. Those who survived the onslaught were horrified to discover the graveyard in ruins. “It was a hair-raising sight. Some of the dead were sticking halfway out of their tombs. Others were strewn across the street,” said Claire Gregorio, an aid worker from the nearby Catholic diocese of Borongan. “The water came in and just swept everything away,” said Gregorio, one of the first aid responders to reach Hernani, pointing to the ocean about 700 meters away and hidden by a strip of now-dead mangrove forest. On the day an AFP team visited, the Catholic cemetery in this deeply religious country was a jumble of upturned and broken concrete and marble tombs, half-buried by the fine, crushed coral that came in with the water. A calcified hand stuck out of one broken grave, several skulls lay on top of tombs and a thighbone sat on the ground. Romeo Vazquez, 45, recalls how the waters rose rapidly around 2am on November 8 and did not retreat for five terrifying hours. “These fields were like a sea at the time,” he said. “There were houses and boats afloat as well as people, both the dead and those still alive.” His family all survived after sitting out the flood on a small hill behind their

house. But relatives who had been laid to rest once before have now gone. “My brother is missing, his shattered tomb was empty,” he said. “My grandmother’s remains are also missing.” Farmer Luciano Habagat, 70, waded to safety through chest deep water when the waves engulfed his home. “People were awake because of the strong winds, but it was very dark. Some people sought sanctuary in a nearby school while others ran to the hills,” he said. His sister died in the flood. Gregorio, the church aid worker, said villagers had fled to the school because they thought they would be safe there. “The elementary school was an evacuation centre, but after a while the floor became wet and the water tasted like salt,” she said, relating stories from survivors. “When they opened the doors the seawater exploded in their faces.” Typhoon Haiyan was one of the strongest ever recorded when it thundered through the Philippines, cutting a swathe of destruction and killing thousands. More than a week after it hit, 1,600 people are still officially listed as missing in addition to the 3,976 dead, and up to four million are homeless. A huge global rescue operation has swung into action, with millions of dollars’ worth of aid being delivered around the clock. But food remains scarce, especially in remote areas. There is no power and no running water across a wide area, and even in some of the larger cities, decomposing bodies still lie on the street. In Hernani, survivors could not wait for an official effort to re-bury their dead. Most of those that were disinterred were put in a mass grave, after a blessing from the parish priest, apart from one man whose funeral had been held just two days before the storm, said Gregorio. “The relatives decided to re-bury him in a grave of his own.” — AFP

Coalition partner cautious on Abe’s security agenda TOKYO: Japan’s government should focus on economic recovery and respect a decades-old pacifist defense policy, the junior coalition partner of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party said yesterday, in a bid to rein in Abe’s security agenda. The hawkish Abe returned to power for a rare second term in December, pledging to bolster the military to cope with what Japan sees as an increasingly threatening security environment, including an assertive China and an unpredictable North Korea. A panel of security experts assembled by Abe is set to urge Japan to lift its self-imposed ban on exercising the right of collective selfdefense, or aiding an ally under attack. The report will be followed by debate within the

ruling bloc. Proponents say lifting the ban would free up the Japanese military to work more closely with the armed forces of the United States and other allies, while critics say it would make Japan more likely to get involved in overseas armed conflicts. “As for the issue of collective self-defence, we are not necessarily in a situation where the people’s lives and property would be threatened if Japan did not scramble to take some emergency steps,” New Komeito chief Natsuo Yamaguchi told Reuters in an interview. “Beating deflation and economic recovery are our top priority ... The most important thing is to promote and carry out policy steps with high priority. We would not set them aside to tackle other issues first.” —Reuters

JAKARTA: The leaders of Indonesia and Australia traded punches yesterday in a row over alleged spying by Canberra, with both sides refusing to back down in a growing rift between the two often uneasy neighbors. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono used Twitter, following the recall of Indonesia’s ambassador to Australia the previous day, to accuse Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott of dismissing his country’s concerns. Abbott, in office since September, rejected calls for an explanation, describing surveillance by Australian governments as “reasonable intelligence operations”. The latest flare-up followed Australian media reports, quoting documents leaked by former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, that Australian spy agencies had tried to tap the mobile phones of Yudhoyono, his wife and senior officials. Reports last month said Australia’s Jakarta embassy had been part of a US-led surveillance network to spy on Indonesia. “I ... regret the statement of Australian Prime Minister that belittled this tapping matter on Indonesia, without any remorse,” he wrote. He did not say to which statement by Abbott he was referring. “These US & Australian actions have certainly damaged the strategic partnerships with Indonesia, as fellow democracies,” Yudhoyono tweeted. Indonesia, he wrote, “demands an official response, one that can be understood by the public”. DIFFERENCES OVER ASYLUM SEEKERS Abbott was unrepentant. “I don’t believe that Australia should be expected to apologise for reasonable intelligence gathering operations, just as I don’t expect other countries or other governments to apologize for their reasonable intelligence gathering operations,” he told parliament. Earlier he told reporters that the two

JAKARTA: Police and security personnel stand guard outside of the Australian embassy in Jakarta yesterday. — AFP countries had a very good relationship, but added: “Obviously today may not be the best day in that relationship. He pledged never to undertake any action that would damage ties with Indonesia, “which is, all in all - our most important relationship”. Australia and Indonesia have a long and turbulent history in their relations. In 2009, an Indonesian officer admitted the military had killed five foreign journalists, including two Australians, to cover up the early stages of its 1975 invasion of East Timor. Indonesia recalled its ambassador to Australia in 2006 in protest over a decision to grant temporary visas to 42 asylum seekers from the Indonesian province of West Papua. Relations had improved more recently, helped by the settling of a disagreement over live cattle exports to Indonesia. But they have

deteriorated under Abbott in the face of disagreements over the handling the politically charged issue of asylum seekers trying to reach Australia via Indonesia. Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa recalled the ambassador to Canberra, calling the reported eavesdropping “nothing less than an unfriendly act ... (that) has a serious impact on bilateral relations”. Australia’s former Foreign Minister Bob Carr, now in opposition, told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio: “I think this is nothing short of catastrophic.” He warned that the fallout from the spying spat could extend into Indonesia’s presidential elections next year. “None of the half dozen suggested names for the next president is going to find it easy to do anything but lambast Australia and our treatment of Indonesia,” Carr said, calling on Foreign Minister Julia Bishop to apologize to Indonesia. — Reuters

Tacloban families anxiously Hunt for their missing ones TACLOBAN: Marife Tabiola was playing with other children at a refuge in typhoon-ravaged Tacloban when her adoptive father walked in, having flown from Saudi Arabia after learning via Facebook she had survived the Philippines typhoon. “Papa! Papa!” screamed the eight-yearold as she rushed into the wide open arms of Tenerio Tabiola, her only remaining family. She had survived the huge storm surge the typhoon brought by clinging to the top of a tree. The reunion came after a social worker who was looking after her began using one of the few operational Internet connections to comb Facebook for Marife’s father, looking for everyone using the name Tabiola. Nora Maano eventually left a message on a page that had a picture of Marife, telling her father, who works in Jubail, Saudi Arabia, that the young girl was safe and well. Father and daughter hugged each other tightly as teary-eyed workers looked on at the poignant reunion, one of the small bright spots in a country grappling with the tragedy unleashed Super Typhoon Haiyan on November 8. Tenerio Tabiola’s wife and other child died in the storm when 315 kilometer per hour winds whipped up tsunami-like waves that engulfed Tacloban, reducing the city to ruins. More than a week after the storm barrelled through the central Philippines, killing around 4,000 people, many still do not know whether their loved ones are alive or dead. Officially, some 1,600 people are recorded as missing, but with communications still very poor and travel all but impossible for most survivors, many are anxious about rela-

tives in far-off places. Tacloban City Hall has become a focal point for those looking for the lost. As of Monday afternoon, more than 400 people from the city alone were officially unaccounted for. Photos of some of the missing are posted on a noticeboard near the entrance to the operations centre at the compound. Each has a message of desperation and a telephone number begging for information. Among them is a picture of three-year-old Leona Macey Aguzar, wearing a pretty pink dress and with a school bag strapped on her back, looking like she hasn’t a care in the world. By Monday, Leona had still not been found. The noticeboard also has lists of the missing, with a contact number for each. The bleakness of the sheets of paper, filled with names of people who have not been seen for more than a week, is punctuated by crossings out and the word “survivor” scrawled alongside a few names. But most remain unchanged, a roll call of people who may never be found; their bodies perhaps sucked out to sea when the huge storm surge retreated. Television and radio stations are airing details of the missing to spread the message, but without electricity in the typhoon zone, few people will be seeing or hearing their broadcasts. Other survivors are relying on word-ofmouth, asking everyone if they know anything. Jet Yangao, 23, told foreign journalists to look for her family in the badly-hit town of Guiuan on Samar island. “I try to ask around, from anyonefriends, other relatives, just anyone,” she said.

Those who can, are making their way-painfully and slowly-to the disaster area. Jim Pagatpat, a government clerk working in Manila, spent four days travelling over land and sea and sleeping in buses along the way to look for his 95-year-old mother on Samar island. “The images being flashed on television really scared me,” said the 45-year-old native of Guiuan, a fishing town about 600 kilometers southeast of Manila. His mother was alive, but her home was gone. “The typhoon carried off the entire house. Not even a nail was left,” Pagatpat said as he lined up for a place on a military plane back to Manila. For many people in this poor part of a poor country, where so much has been destroyed, all they can do is hope. In the coastal village of Manlurip that hope faded for many on Monday when recovery teams plucked at least 20 bodies from stagnant water. But, like the story of Marife, there have been moments of joy among the despair, albeit few and far between. Flordeliza Arpon, 32, said she and her eldest child got separated from her 35-year-old husband Sharon during the flood. He clung to their two younger children, while Flordeliza and her 10-year-old were carried away by the waves. “We found each other only four days later. I was resigned to their fate. I thought surely they died,” she said. Then she saw her daughter queuing up for water. “She did not recognize me at first. I tightly embraced her and cried for hours. She later took me to her father, who was watching over the youngest,” she said. “We have lost everything,” she said, but “we are all still together”. — AFP

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Xi assuming Deng mantle By Felicia Sonmez y claiming authorship of broad reform pledges after repeated conservative pronouncements, China’s Communist chief Xi Jinping is assuming the mantle of Deng Xiaoping, who oversaw both huge economic changes and the Tiananmen crackdown, scholars say. Days after the conclusion of a key internal gathering known as the Third Plenum, the ruling party leadership unveiled a list of sweeping changes to economic and social policy. They included reforms to the country’s land ownership system, loosening controls over state-owned enterprises, relaxing the controversial one-child policy and eventually shuttering forced labour camps. The 22,000-word document explicitly declared Xi as head of the group charged with its drafting - a marked departure from previous administrations that suggests he is linking his own personal prestige to the planned changes, according to experts. “It was pretty surprising,” said Barry Naughton, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, and an expert on China’s economy. “He said, ‘I was the head of the writing group.’ That’s a very strong and unambiguous thing to say, and there’s also the fact that he said it rather than leaving it unsaid.” In a story yesterday on the way the decision was drawn up, the official Xinhua news agency mentioned Xi 21 times, while Premier Li Keqiang was not named at all. Like Deng, the man who led China from 1978 to 1992 and launched the country’s boom following the death of Mao Zedong, Xi has made economic reform a top priority, experts say. Deng is viewed as having steered China politically further towards authoritarianism, but some scholars argue that he actually envisioned greater restructuring of the political system. Xi’s first year in office has seen a high-profile campaign to tackle graft and a revival of some Mao-era practices such as “self-criticism sessions” for public officials. “Xi Jinping in a way actually seems to think that he can take the current political system and instil it with a little more discipline and a little more mass supervision and a tough assault on corruption, and I guess combine that with economic reform,” Naughton said. “So, in a way, that’s more Dengist than Deng, because it’s a more active pursuit of the political side of it.” But Xi has also presided over a tightening of control over the press and public expression, particularly on China’s social media, and an unknown number of activists, even some campaigning on his signature issue of corruption, have been detained. Perry Link, a professor at the University of California, Riverside, and a renowned China scholar, cautioned that despite the attention-grabbing nature of the promises issued by the Third Plenum, they amounted to “language only”. “Just one example: the announcement that the reform-through-labour system will be abolished is designed to make the Chinese people and the world feel better about the party, to give it more ‘legitimacy’. “But the leaders can easily continue using the same system under a different name, if they like, or under no name at all. Whatever they put in pretty language, the hard fact is that repression has grown much worse in recent months. We need to watch actions, not words.” The pledges on the market, state enterprises and other aspects of the economy have been largely welcomed by analysts, with ANZ economists even raising the prospect of “a golden decade of sustainable growth and unparalleled prosperity”. But while the economic reforms pay heed to Deng, Xi’s stamping of his name on the reform document suggests he is seeking to accumulate power, contrary to Deng’s own admonitions, said Willy Lam, a Chinese politics specialist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Analysts expect Xi to head a new national security committee, announced by the Third Plenum and with parallels seen to the US National Security Council. “Right now, it seems Xi Jinping has gathered more power in his hand than (former president) Jiang Zemin even at the height of his power in his last five years,” Lam said. “It’s very unusual,” he added. “And I think, presently speaking, it’s of course unhealthy for one individual have amassed so much power. “It goes against one of the major reforms of Deng Xiaoping, and that is to promote a collective leadership. That was the lesson that everybody learned from the Cultural Revolution.” — AFP

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Investors may want to take cover By Steven C Johnson ive years of rapid-fire money printing at the US Federal Reserve and easy money policies at other central banks have left trillions of dollars sloshing around the world financial system, and some of it is ending up in some rather odd places. The froth can be seen in everything from Pakistan’s stock market to thoroughbred racehorses, rare paintings and gemstones, taxi licenses and the digital currency Bitcoin. “When it gets like this, just pick your asset - a painting, a bottle of wine, whatever. It’s almost always a sign that there’s too much money floating around,” said Howard Simons, a strategist at Bianco Research in Chicago. Certainly, the risks don’t look as great as they did in 2005-2007, when real estate prices in the US and other countries skyrocketed, then collapsed, triggering the financial crisis. The most inflated prices are in smaller pockets of the markets than they were back then, so there is less systemic risk. But if a series of smaller financial market bubbles deflate or even burst there will still be a lot of agony, investment strategists warn. When the Fed does pull back from stimulating the economy by cutting back its quantitative easing program of bond buying - which is expected in the first half of 2014 - there could be some shocks for markets to withstand, said Win Thin, an emerging market strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman. “That could lead to some painful adjustments.” One toxic corner of the markets can infect stronger assets as investors seek to raise cash to cope with a plunge. “What I learned in the last two bear markets is that it doesn’t matter if you own the crappy asset,” said Simons. “If someone else does and starts panic selling, it takes your good stuff down too.” And a further bond market selloff, following the reversal this summer, could not only hurt investors but threaten a downturn - as mortgage rates and other borrowing costs climb. There is evidence of possible excess in many areas. Getting into a taxi cab these days may no longer come with a menu of can’t-miss stock tips from the driver but the cab’s owner probably paid a steep price for the right to the license. At a New York auction last week, taxi medallions sold for more than $1 million, about double the prices paid five years ago. As for US stocks, it’s hard to find many bearish investors despite - or because of - the 26 percent gain in the S&P 500 index this year and the 166 percent rise since 2009. In Europe, it often feels as if the continent-wide debt crisis that threatened the euro never happened. Price-toearnings ratios have soared to 2007 levels even as earnings momentum has sputtered. Over the last month, short-sell-

ing has dropped to a seven-year low and top performers in the STOXX Europe 600 index are shares that were once heavily shorted. As hedge fund manager David Einhorn put it in a letter to investors in October: “When ‘high short interest’ becomes a viable stock-picking strategy and conventional valuation methods no longer apply for many stocks, we can’t help but feel a sense of deja vu,” he said in reference to the dotcom stocks bubble and bust in 19982001. That particular bubble turned investors, especially retail investors, into addicts for the latest stock offerings. And things are looking a bit frothy again. So far, 199 US companies have gone public this year, the highest number since 2007, and some of the first-day gains have been huge. Such a race to list is a sign that things are nearing a top, says Peter Atwater, president of Financial Insyghts, an investment advisory firm in Mendenhall, Pennsylvania. While the broader US market does not look particularly pricey - the S&P’s forward P/E ratio of 15 is about bang in line with the long-run average - individual stocks certainly do. Look no further than some of the biggest names coming to market in recent years, such as the social media star Twitter or electric car maker Tesla Motors. At current market prices, after almost doubling on its first day of trading, the micro-blogging site is valued at almost $24 billion despite being unprofitable. Tesla is trading at a P/E ratio of around 80 based on expected 2014 earnings. Even the retailer Container Store Group Inc, which sells things to put things in, saw its shares double on its stock market debut on Nov 1. Stephen Massocca, managing director at Wedbush Equity Management, said, “nobody in their right mind would make an all cash offer at current levels for a lot of these companies.” Even professional athletes are getting in on the action. Arian Foster, a National Football League player with the Houston Texans, was the asset for a planned IPO based on 20 percent of his future earnings, which he had sold to San Francisco-based Fantex. The firm would then sell stocks based on Foster’s economic performance. “I thought it was a joke,” said Daniel Morgan, senior portfolio manager at Synovus Trust Co. “They’re not robots, they wear down. What’s the life of an average guy in the NFL, four years?” Fantex, though, had to postpone the Foster IPO after the running back suffered a season-ending injury, underlining just how risky an investment it would have been. By suppressing interest rates, central banks have yieldstarved investors falling over themselves to lend money to companies with less-than-stellar credit records, as well as looking for some of those exotic investments. Quite a few investors, frightened that super-low interest rates will start rising next year, have bought up floating-rate loans. The

only problem: many have no covenants, which usually limit the amount of debt a borrower can take on and let lenders have a say in the business if things start to go sour. “People don’t realize they’re taking a lot of credit risk,” said AllianceBernstein portfolio manager Gershon Distenfeld. Meanwhile, high-yield bond issuers - companies with weak balance sheets and sub-investment grade ratings are paying on average 5.8 percent to borrow, near record lows. Default rates at around 2.5 percent are well below historical averages but Martin Fridson, head of FridsonVision, said recently he expects those default rates to spike to 8.4 percent between 2016-2020, which could cause a lot of forced selling. Perhaps one of the best ways to measure froth is to watch what the super-rich do with their pocket change. Lately, they seem to have developed an insatiable taste for fine art - a painting by Francis Bacon set a new high water mark when it fetched more than $142 million last week in New York. In Geneva, “Pink Star,” a flawless pink diamond the size of a plum, sold for a cool $83 million, a record for a gemstone. Even the market for thoroughbred racehorses is roaring away. In Europe, a one-year-old horse that had never been raced sold this year for £5 million ($8.1 million), a record price. “Most of the people involved in it are extremely rich, and lately they’ve had the money to spend,” said Alastair Donald, a horse-buying expert at UK racehorse agent SackvilleDonald. “There are ways of making money with racehorses, but mostly, it’s a luxury, it’s fun. It’s about buying a dream.” Association with drugs, money laundering and other illegal activities has not tarnished the virtual shine of Bitcoin, the digital currency not backed by any government or central bank. The currency, whose supply has been carefully controlled, on Monday soared above $600 from below $80 in early July. Societe Generale strategist Sebastien Galy said Bitcoin is an example of “how far and aggressively greed can push a deeply inelastic market”. And the casino approach isn’t restricted to developed markets by any means. Pakistan is nobody’s idea of a safe and predictable investment destination but one wouldn’t know it from the nation’s stock market. Pakistani stocks have nearly doubled since the start of 2012 and are well above their levels even before the financial crisis. It’s another instance of the reach for yield driving political risk considerations out the window, says GFT Forex managing partner Boris Schlossberg. “The Fed’s QE,” he said, “is having a spillover effect all over the world.” Consequences of the likely withdrawal of that support is the biggest issue for 2014. The risk is that even investors who have identified bubbles will wait too long to exit. — Reuters

Salaam, shalom, peace in Android By Linda Gradstein he gel in his hair, the designer jeans and ironed button down shirt make Aziz Kaden look like any of the thousands of high-tech workers in Israel. But until recently, he was the only Arab at E4D Mobile in the town of Petach Tikva, a suburb of Tel Aviv not far from Ben Gurion International Airport. “I enjoy exchanging cultural knowledge with my co-workers, and we even go out for beer sometimes,” Kaden, told The Media Line. “But it gets uncomfortable when politics comes up. We usually don’t share the same political opinions.” At age 20, Kaden has been a software engineer at the company for five months at an age when most of his Jewish contemporaries are still doing their compulsory military service. He attended an accelerated program at Haifa University and says he feels very comfortable in Hebrew -probably from watching a lot of television, he says. When he completed his studies, Kaden turned to Tsofen High Technology Centers, a non-profit organization that is trying to get more Arab citizens of Israel into the high-tech sector. While Arab citizens make up 20 percent of Israel’s population, there are only about 1,200 Arab software engineers among Israel’s 80,000 high-tech workers. “There are multiple obstacles (to Arabs joining the high-tech sector),” Roni Floman, who has recently written a book on the subject and volunteers at Tsofen told The Media Line. “Many Arabs live in villages that are fairly segregated. They study at school in Arabic so they don’t speak Hebrew well. They’re not that connected to the local (Jewish) culture and economy. In many cases, looking for a job, apart from university studies, is the first contact they have with Israeli society.” Floman says some companies won’t even interview Arabs out of concern that their skill level won’t be high enough or they won’t integrate into the company. Other candidates are turned down because of cultural issues. “Someone told me that she was flummoxed by the fact that people showed up

with family members for interviews, or told her that his mother was waiting in the car below,” she said. “That is very legitimate in Arab society. It doesn’t signify any personal problem but is very uncommon in a Western culture.” There can also be security barriers. Some high-tech companies work on military or defense projects and hire only those who have served in the Israeli army. While most Jewish Israelis are drafted, Arab Israelis can volunteer to serve, very few do. Tsofen offers short courses for high-tech graduates on interview skills and acts as a go-between with various companies. There is a shortage of engineers in high-tech, Smader Nehab, executive director and co-founder of the organization tells The Media Line. There is no reason that Arab engineers cannot fill these positions. “High tech is a major driving force for the Jewish economy,” she said. “It can also be the engine of growth for the Arab economy and contribute to the Israeli economy in general.” Hasan Abo-Shally, 22, has just started a new job as a web/mobile developer and designer at Kola Technologies BV in Tel Aviv. For a year, he worked as one of five engineers at an all-Arab start-up called iNorSoft in Ummel-Fahm, near his home. “As a startup it was hard to raise money,” he told The Media Line. “Here people see us as Arabs, but in the outside world, especially the Arab world, we are seen as Israelis. It’s hard to get investment from the Arab world.” The company still hasn’t managed to raise enough capital to expand. He says he enjoys the multi-cultural character of his new company, which has several workers from Vietnam and China. “I am exposed to different cultures and it’s fun,” he said. “We sit together during breaks and we learn about each other.” Abo-Shally is also participating in entrepreneurship courses in Nazareth and Tel Aviv, and he and a few friends are working on a new mobile application on weekends. Nehab says her ten-year goal is to have 10,000 high-tech workers in the sector. In the past three years, the numbers have grown from 300 to 1,200.

Tsofen also wants to bring more Arab women into the workforce. Only about 27 percent of Israel’s Arab women work outside the home, as compared to over 70 percent of Jewish women. In addition, the public transportation system in Arab areas of the country is far inferior to those on the Jewish side. Tsofen’s solution is to bring the jobs to the women, encouraging hi-tech companies to open call centers for customer support in local villages. They are also encouraging joint Israeli-Arab industrial parks in Arab cities. The first park opened recently in Nazareth in northern Israel, funded primarily by wealthy Israeli industrialist Stef Wertheimer. The international telecommunication company Amdocs has opened a branch in Nazareth, and is employing hundreds of Arab engineers. “By starting industry in Nazareth we broke strong stereotypes such as that an Arab city cannot be a high-tech center,” Nehab said. “It also changes the direction of traffic from being only from Arab bedroom cities to Jewish industrial areas. We are starting to see Jews coming from other places to work in Nazareth.” The project is also subsidized by the Israeli government, and land in Israel’s “periphery” is far cheaper than in Tel Aviv. Tsofen is also partially funded by the European Union, as part of its Partnership for Peace Program in Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories. “This is a real practical link helping Israeli Arabs find jobs and helping Jewish employers find the employees they need,” David Kriss, the Press and Information Manager of the Delegation of the European Union to the State of Israel told The Media Line. “It is putting Jews and Arabs together in a productive environment.” Kaden says he believes he shares a lot with his Jewish co-workers. “In the end, we all sit in front of a computer all day and do this,” he says, miming typing. “I think both Arabs and Jews have a lot of stereotypes about each other. But if you put us together in one room, and let them share their stories, I get to understand you and you understand me.” — Media Line

NEWS

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

Stuffed toys are placed on a clothes line for drying along a road in Quinapundan town, Eastern Samar province, central Philippines yesterday. — AFP

MPs target minister over poor drainage Continued from Page 1 ministry’s performance in dealing with rain has been well below the mark although suﬃcient opportunity and time had been provided for the ministry to prepare, but it failed. The lawmaker criticized ministry oﬃcials for failing to utilize the huge budget allocated for the ministry. But the ministry yesterday defended the ministry’s weak performance on the fact that large quantities of rain fell in a short time that exceeded the capacity of the drainage system. The minister said that in some areas, rainfall in one hour on Monday exceeded the average rainfall of several months combined.

In another development, Shiite MP Youssef AlZalzalah called yesterday on Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah to carry out a Cabinet reshuffle to dismiss a number of ministers who are spoiling ties with the National Assembly. The lawmaker said the premier needs to change at least five ministers whom he accused of failing to cooperate with MPs. MP Safa Al-Hashem meanwhile said yesterday that there are no personal motives behind the request she filed last week to grill the prime minister. She said the grilling deals with the failure to handle the country’s administration and draw up the right policies. The debate of the grilling is scheduled for Nov 26.

Blasts rock Iran embassy in Beirut Continued from Page 1 But Iran, in condemning the attack, accused Israel and its “mercenaries” of responsibility. Israel immediately denied involvement. Britain and France issued swift statements of condemnation, which London described as a “shocking terrorist attack”, and UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged restraint. The army confirmed the double suicide bombing, saying “the first explosion was caused by a suicide attacker who was driving a motorcycle and blew himself up. The second suicide attacker was driving a 4x4 vehicle and also detonated himself.” Iranian Ambassador Ghazanfar Rokn-Abadi said all staff inside the embassy at the time escaped unharmed. But officials in Tehran said the cultural advisor, Ibrahim AlAnsari, was in critical condition after the blast. By early evening, Mohammad Bashir, director of the Rasul Aazem hospital in the neighbourhood, said Ansari had died of his injuries. Coincidentally, Lebanon and Iran’s football teams were due to play in Beirut yesterday, and the match went ahead, but with fans banned from attending. An AFP correspondent at the scene described blood and glass on the streets, and media broadcast harrowing images of charred bodies, some still on fire. One shocked resident said the attack was an act of “savagery”. “People want to live. After this kind of thing we are paralysed for days. Thank God my children were at school,” said Farah, a woman in her 30s. A woman in a black robe and headscarf, unable to stand, clutched a man, pleading with security forces for help. “Nader,” she wailed, crying out a man’s name. “Nader is missing.” Another man ran from the area, carrying a South Asian migrant worker limp in his arms. “People aren’t sacred anymore. We aren’t safe,” said a

mechanic whose store windows were shattered by the blasts. He declined to be identified because he did not want to be seen as involved in sectarian tensions that have split the Lebanese over Syria’s conflict. “People fight outside (Lebanon), but send their messages through Lebanon. With bombs. It’s their SMS service,” he added. At the nearby Rasul Aazem hospital, which received seven bodies from the blasts, relatives waited to hear news of their loved ones while others queued to donate blood. At the Zahraa hospital, Mohamed AlHajj was searching for his neighbour Tariq. “He works in front of the embassy and now we don’t know where he is. We checked all the hospitals,” he told AFP. Hezbollah has already seen its strongholds in southern Beirut targeted twice by car bombs this year, on July 9 and Aug 15, killing 27 people. Its involvement in Syria has angered many Lebanese Sunni Muslims who back the country’s Sunni-dominated opposition. It has also raised fears Lebanon could be engulfed by the Syrian conflict, which has killed more than 120,000 people since March 2011. “We tell those who carried out the attack, you will not be able to break us,” Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Mikdad told Al-Mayadeen TV. “We got the message and we know who sent it and we know how to retaliate.” But Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah pledged just last week that he would not withdraw his forces. “We have said on several occasions that the presence of our soldiers on Syrian soil is to defend... Syria, which supports the resistance” against Israel, he said. “So long as that reason exists, our presence there is justified.” Nasrallah’s defiance was echoed by some residents after yesterday’s blasts. “Even if they do a million explosions, we will not leave the area,” said Ali, accusing “Salafis from Syria” of being behind the attacks. — Agencies

Kuwait offers Africa $2bn in loans... Continued from Page 1 In his opening speech, Sheikh Sabah called for a focus on projects to achieve “food security” in Arab and African countries. African leaders who address the meeting said an economic partnership between Africa and the Arab world would benefit everyone. “It is a win-win partnership for the two sides,” said Gabon President Ali Bongo Ondimba. He called for increased cooperation between the private sectors and for the formation of an African-Arab business council. Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, who is also co-chairperson of summit, said that focused investments by sovereign wealth funds can lead to a “green revolution” in Africa “which is capable of meeting Arab food demands”. Kuwait’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Sabah said the summit would discuss a proposal by the Africa-Arab Economic Forum to create an Arab-African common market for a combined population of around 1.2 billion people. The leaders will also look at how to accelerate investment flows into Africa, which is facing an acute investment gap. According to the World Bank, Africa needs around $30 billion a year just to develop its energy sector. The International Monetary Fund says African economic growth was a solid 5.0 percent in 2012 despite the world economic crisis. Growth is forecast to ease slightly at 4.8 percent this year and rebound to 5.1 percent in 2014. In addition, Africa has 12 percent of global oil reserves and 42 percent of its gold deposits. The discovery of large quantities of natural gas off Africa’s east coasts has added to the continent’s economic potential. On the other hand, the energy-rich Gulf

Cooperation Council states have accumulated surpluses of $2.0 trillion thanks to persistently high oil prices. A majority of the assets are invested in the United States and Europe. The summit held in Libya three years ago adopted an Africa-Arab Partnership Strategy and a 2011-2016 Joint Action Plan to increase investment, trade and other economic projects. But implementation has been slow, in part because of the turmoil unleashed by the 2011 Arab Spring, which saw the leaders of Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Yemen toppled by mass protests and the outbreak of civil war in Syria. Meanwhile, an Arab ministerial committee charged with monitoring the Middle East peace process blamed Israel for the impasse in negotiations with the Palestinians after the meeting. “Israel is responsible for the deep crisis in negotiations because of its intensifying of settlements (construction), repeated attacks against the sacred Al-Aqsa mosque (in Jerusalem), seizing of Palestinian lands, and strengthening the blockade against Gaza,” it said in a statement. The committee, which is chaired by Qatar and includes 13 Arab countries, met on the sidelines of the Arab-African summit in the presence of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. The latest peace talks, launched at Washington’s urging in July, have shown little sign of progress, with the Palestinians objecting to repeated Israeli announcements of new settlement construction on occupied territory. A major spike in settlement announcements last week prompted the resignation of the entire Palestinian negotiating team. But on Sunday Abbas told AFP that peace talks with Israel would continue for the full nine months agreed with Washington -”regardless of what happens on the ground”. — Agencies

Toronto mayor’s powers trimmed Ford remains defiant TORONTO: Toronto’s disgraced mayor Rob Ford, who has admitted to smoking crack and binge drinking, went down fighting as the city council stripped him of most of his remaining powers, taunting hecklers as “punks”, comparing his punishment to a military invasion and knocking over a councillor as he charged across the chamber. In the latest chapter of an ugly, embarrassing saga in Canada’s biggest city and economic hub, Ford was reduced to largely a figurehead following the latest sanctions against him for his admissions of smoking crack and binge drinking. But Ford remained defiant and again refused to step down. “You are absolutely telling everybody that voted in the last municipal election that their vote does not count,” he said. Comparing the council’s decision to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, he added: “Well folks, if you think American-style politics is nasty, you guys have just attacked Kuwait.” Leading up to the vote, debate on the motion descended into farce. Ford taunted hecklers in the public gallery, deriding them as “punks”. At one point he accidentally bowled over a female councillor as he charged across the chamber. The civic leaders of Canada’s largest city had already voted last week to curb Ford’s official duties. On Monday they went further in order to “restore the confidence of the public in the government of Toronto,” according to the deputy mayor. But Ford, who has apologized for his hell-raising lifestyle and for obscene public outbursts, refuses to quit, has spoken of taking court action and said the only judgment he should face is that of voters at the ballot box next year. “This is going to be outright war,” said the mayor, who has faced a swell of outrage over a litany of misdeeds, both admitted and alleged, since police last month revealed they had video footage of him smoking crack. Ford admitted he had smoked the illicit drug and apologized for his antics, including what he described as his many “drunken stupors”. New allegations of misconduct, disclosed last week, and his lewd remarks in denying sexual harassment claims deepened the scandal, prompting widespread calls for his resignation. However, in an interview aired late Monday with public broadcaster CBC, Ford said he had not touched alcohol in three weeks and would never drink again. In interviews with US broadcasters aired yesterday, Ford disputed he has an alcohol problem. “I’ve embarrassed not just myself, my family, my friends, my support-

ers, the whole city,” Ford told NBC’s Today show. “I take full responsibility for that. We’ve all made mistakes ... I’m not perfect.” However, when asked if he was in an alcohol treatment program, the mayor said: “No, I have a weight issue. Have been training every day.” In remarks to ABC’s “Good Morning America” show, also aired yesterday, he pledged to reform his behavior but noted that “talk is cheap”. “Come back in five months. If you don’t see a difference, you can say, Rob, I don’t believe you,” he said. “Go take a drug test or urine test or alcohol test. No problem.” Debate over the motion to curb the mayor’s powers was marked by rowdy outbursts and argumentative toand-fro between councillors and Ford’s dwindling band of supporters. Ford swung in his chair and pantomimed one councillor’s alledged drinking and driving, and stood to confront hecklers in the public gallery. Having said he thought his brother Doug, who is also a city councillor, “was getting into an altercation”, he ran across the chamber and somehow knocked a grey-haired female councillor to the floor. She appeared rattled but uninjured as Ford, a former football linebacker, broke off to help her to her feet. While council overwhelmingly voted to cut the mayor’s budget and staff, a few expressed concerns, saying it is “illegal and anti-democratic”, “craziness” and de facto removing the mayor from office. “This is a modern-day overthrow of an elected official. This is wrong,” said the mayor’s brother. Moments before the start of the emergency council meeting, the motion sanctioning Ford was slightly watered down, for fear it went too far. In its aftermath, the mayor now maintains a smaller office budget and a handful of aides, and keeps a seat on the city’s executive council. He can also still attend official functions as Toronto’s mayor. But the deputy mayor assumes most of his other responsibilities. The prime minister’s office said it “does not condone illegal drug use, especially by elected officials while in office,” but added it would continue to work with Ford. Others praised the council’s unprecedented move. “We have clipped his wings. His ability to do damage at city council now is curtailed,” said Councillor Joe Mihevc. Over the weekend, Ford made the rounds of the US media to try to convey his side of the story, to general incredulity, and attended a Toronto Argonauts football game where fans cheered him on. He maintained, however: “I’m not an alcoholic, I’m not a drug addict.” Of his critics, he said: “The haters are going to be the haters.” — Agencies

‘Selfie’ beats ‘twerk’ as word of the year LONDON: “Selfie” - a self portrait usually on a smartphone or webcam - was selected word of the year yesterday by the Oxford Dictionaries, based on a 17,000 percent rise in its usage from a year ago. “Selfie” was chosen after it “gained momentum throughout the English-speaking world in 2013 as it evolved from a social media buzzword to mainstream shorthand for a self-portrait photograph”, Oxford Dictionaries said in a statement. The spike in popularity of the word, whose origin can be traced back to an Australian online forum in 2002, was based on “language research conducted by Oxford Dictionaries editors”, the publisher said. “Selfie” beat a number of other buzzwords of 2013, including “twerk” referring to dancing in a sexually provocative manner and which was popularised by singer Miley Cyrus at the MTV Video Music Awards last August. “The Word of the Year need not have been coined within the past 12 months and it does not have to be a word that will stick around for a good length of time,” Judy Pearsall, editorial director for Oxford

Dictionaries, said. “It is very difficult to predict accurately which new words will have staying power, and only time will tell if these words have lasting significance,” she added. “Selfie” has spawned a raft of spinoffs, including “helfie” for a picture taken of someone’s own hair, “belfie” for taking a picture of your own posterior and “drelfie” for a self portrait while in a drunken state. The word’s usage was based on statistical analysis of the Oxford English Corpus, which is a structured set of texts stored electronically, and specifically the New Word Monitor Corpus, Oxford Dictionaries said. It said that the New Monitor Corpus collects around 150 million words in use each month, using automated criteria to scan new web content using the English language worldwide. This is used to track and verify new and emerging words and senses on a daily basis, and the firm has a dedicated team of editors whose job it is to add new words to the Oxford English Dictionary and OxfordDictionaries.com using this data. — Reuters

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

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Barca’s Xavi, Tello injured MADRID: Barcelona’s injury woes deepened yesterday when tests showed that Spain playmaker Xavi had a muscle strain and winger Cristian Tello suffered knee ligament damage in training. Both players were in doubt for Saturday’s La Liga game at home to Granada, the Spanish champions said on their website (www.fcbarcelona.com). Xavi had a problem with his left hamstring, while Tello had damaged ligaments in his right knee, they added. Barca are already missing World Player of the Year Lionel Messi, who was ruled out for up to eight weeks after tearing a leg muscle in this month’s 4-1 La Liga win at Real Betis. Defenders Gerard Pique and Jordi Alba worked apart from their team mates yesterday as they continued their recoveries, Barca said, without specifying whether they would be available for Saturday’s game at the Nou Camp. Midfielder Cesc Fabregas, who could replace Xavi in central midfield against eighth-placed Granada, again trained normally as he works his way back from a knee problem picked up in the Betis game. Unbeaten Barca top La Liga by three points from Atletico Madrid after 13 matches, with Real Madrid a further three points adrift in third. Atletico are at home to Getafe on Saturday, when Real play at promoted Almeria. —Reuters

IOC re-testing 2006 Torino dope samples BERLIN: Samples stored from the 2006 Torino winter Olympics are being retested by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the eight-year statute of limitations runs out next year, an official said yesterday. The IOC is eager to root out cheats long after Olympic Games by using new methods of tracing known banned substances or substances that were not known at the time. The IOC official said the retests were in no way connected to a German state television report about two doping labs finding hundreds of positive tests using new methods. “We are re-testing Torino Games samples as planned. This is not linked to that report,” the official told Reuters. The IOC can re-test athletes’ samples from its own events up to eight years after the Games and can sanction them. They did so with five samples from the 2004 Athens Olympics coming back positive. According to German ARD broadcaster labs in Cologne and Moscow found traces of anabolic steroids in hundreds of urine samples using the new testing method. “This case is a good example of the necessity of performing retests on Olympic doping samples. I would certainly conduct retests here,” Arne Ljungqvist, head of the IOC’s medical commission told ARD. “We have the mandate for that, after all”.—Reuters

Tough for rookie QBs BEIJING: Highly-paid rookie quarterbacks are under increasing pressure to make an instant impact in the NFL, former San Francisco 49ers great Joe Montana said. “There’s more pressure because they’re making a lot more money. When you get paid all that money they want you to start right away,” he told Reuters during a promotional event for NFL China in Beijing. “Just to stay and make it through the year, it’s pretty good. If you can do that and hang on to your job for that long as a rookie, then you’re doing a pretty good job.” Huge hopes have been pinned on the crop of new recruits over recent seasons, with the spotlight on the likes of Heisman trophy-winning college quarterbacks Sam Bradford of the St Louis Rams, Carolina Panthers’ Cam Newton and Robert Griffin III at the Washington Redskins. Griffin set the NFL alight last year during a spectacular rookie season but following injury has struggled in this campaign, while 2013 rookies like Geno Smith of the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills’ EJ Manuel, chosen in the first round of this year’s draft, are still finding their feet. Montana downplayed what fans should expect from new players. “It’s a tough go, no matter what, for that first year,”Montana said. “There’s a lot of things that are so much different, so much more complicated than it appears on television, than it might be.” He said it was too early to count out players like Smith, who put up impressive numbers in college at West Virginia but has been inconsistent in his debut NFL season. “Unfortunately you’ve got to wait it out sometimes for a few years. Some guys take a little longer,” he remarked. Montana was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in 1979 but only became the starting quaterback midway through the 1980 season and went on to win four Super Bowls and three MVP awards. —Reuters

Penguins get past Ducks

Lance Armstrong

Armstrong: UCI head planned doping cover-up LONDON: Lance Armstrong claims former International Cycling Union president Hein Verbruggen instigated a cover-up of his doping at the 1999 Tour de France. Armstrong told Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper in an interview published Monday that Verbruggen insisted “we’ve got to come up with something” to explain his positive tests for a banned corticosteroid. Cycling’s governing body, the UCI, appeared to ignore its own anti-doping rules when it accepted Armstrong’s backdated prescription for a cream to treat saddle sores. That allowed Armstrong to stay in the race, and he went on to win the first of his seven Tours, helping revive the sport after doping scandals wrecked the 1998 event. “The real problem was, the sport was on life support,” Armstrong said in the article. “And Hein just said, ‘This is a real problem for me; this is the knockout punch for our sport ... so we’ve got to come up with something.’ So we backdated the prescription.” Though Armstrong has acknowledged the prescription excuse in a television interview with Oprah Winfrey, he had not previously linked Verbruggen or other UCI officials to a cover-up. Verbruggen, who served as UCI president until 2005, did not respond to phone messages Monday. The Dutch official, who is still listed by the UCI as its honorary president, has long denied any collusion with Armstrong despite widespread claims the American rider was protected. Corticosteroids, which reduce inflammation, are banned unless the athlete has a therapeutic use exemption. Armstrong and his manager, Johan Bruyneel, had signed the doping control document that he was not taking any medication at the time, so under UCI rules, he should have been disqualified even if he later produced a prescription. Verbruggen was granted honorary membership by the IOC in 2008 after 12 years’

service and will complete his duties as chairman of the Olympic Broadcasting Service after the Sochi Winter Games in February. The IOC released a statement Monday, saying, “It is hard to give any credibility to the claims of a cyclist who appears to have misled the world for decades.” “That said, the UCI is currently working on plans to investigate the matter more thoroughly and we await proper considered outcomes,” the Olympic governing body added. Armstrong spoke out while the UCI is in the process of creating an independent commission that will examine alleged official collusion, and he is expected to be the star witness. Armstrong, who is seeking a reduction in his lifetime ban, told the Daily Mail that he would reveal details of how the UCI operated. “I have no loyalty toward them,” he said. “In the proper forum I’ll tell everyone what they want to know. I’m not going to lie to protect these guys. I hate them. They threw me under the bus.” In October 2012, the UCI decided not to challenge a US Anti-Doping Agency verdict to strip Armstrong of his Tour titles and ban him for life. Verbruggen’s successor, Pat McQuaid, said the disgraced rider deserved to be forgotten by the sport. The UCI has been led since September by British official Brian Cookson, who defeated McQuaid in a presidential election in which the Armstrong case and cycling’s doping past were central issues. In a statement Monday, the UCI said its commission would “invite individuals to provide evidence.” “We would urge all those involved to come forward and help the Commission in its work in the best interests of the sport of cycling,” the governing body said. “This investigation is essential to the wellbeing of cycling in fully understanding the doping culture of the past, the role of the UCI at that time and helping us all to move forward to a clean and healthy future.” — AP

Ireland plans ambitious bid for rugby World Cup DUBLIN: Ireland will consider launching a bid for the 2023 rugby World Cup this week, the country’s sports minister said on Monday, hoping a politically-symbolic proposal will win it the right to host the event for the first time. The ambitious effort would see games played on both sides of the Irish border as unlike soccer, the national team is an allIreland selection, and would represent another major step since a 1998 peace agreement mostly ended three decades of violence in Northern Ireland. Ireland has been mulling the idea for over a year, looking to replicate the successful hosting by similarly populated New Zealand in 2011, and minister Leo Varadkar said he will seek approval from cabinet colleagues late yesterday. “It’s probably the biggest event a country like Ireland could do, we’re too small for the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup and for that reason it would engender enormous national pride,” Varadkar told an International Rugby Board conference. “The second thing is that even during the very difficult times of the Troubles, rugby in Ireland was a unifying sport. For us in Ireland, it would just be a symbol of how far we’ve come from the bad times to the better times now.” South Africa, hosts of the hugely symbolic 1995 rugby World Cup and 2010 soccer World Cup, have also indicated that they plan to make a bid. France, hosts as recently as 2007, have also expressed an interest in the 2023 edition. Dublin has been working with the Northern Ireland executive on the propos-

al and also has the backing of Ireland’s Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), meaning it can use stadiums like the 82,300-capacity Croke Park. Alongside Croke Park, there are another 10 Gaelic grounds as big or bigger than the second-largest rugby stadium in the countr y, Munster ’s Thomond Park, although many will need major renovation to stage an international tournament. The GAA, governing body for Ireland’s unique sports hurling and Gaelic football, had to ask its members earlier this year to allow the stadiums to be opened up to other sports which it had previously done eight years ago. In 2005 the GAA changed its rules to permit rugby and soccer to be played at Croke Park while the old Lansdowne Road was being upgraded. The vote was a landmark decision as Croke Park, the national stadium for Gaelic football and hurling, was the venue for the original “Bloody Sunday” in 1920 when British troops killed 14 people during Ireland’s War of Independence. Until 1971 the GAA banned members from playing or attending so-called “foreign games” like rugby and the politicallycharged Six Nations game against England in Croke Park in 2007 marked a significant moment in British-Irish relations. Varadkar said it could potentially boost the ailing economy by as much as 800 million euros ($1.1 billion) with hundreds of thousands of fans coming to the country, according to a report prepared for government by consultancy firm Deloitte & Touche. —Reuters

PITTSBURGH: Sidney Crosby capped a thirdperiod outburst with his 10th goal of the season as the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Anaheim Ducks 3-1 on Monday. Brian Gibbons scored on the first shot of his NHL career and Brandon Sutter chipped in his fourth goal of the season as Pittsburgh’s struggling offense found a rhythm late against the Pacific Division-leading Ducks. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 26 shots for Pittsburgh, which won for only the second time in six games. Crosby’s goal was his second in 11 games. Ryan Getzlaf scored his 11th goal for the Ducks, who earned just one point during a four-game East Coast road trip. Viktor Fasth made 24 saves but struggled in the final 20 minutes. Gibbons took a slick backhand pass from Evgeni Malkin to break a scoreless tie 3:56 into the third. The Penguins needed just 62 seconds to make it 2-0, as Sutter deflected a shot from the point by Olli Maatta. Anaheim responded immediately when Getzlaf scored his fifth goal in four games. Crosby pushed Pittsburgh back in front by two, finishing the Penguins’ threegoal outburst in a span of 4:04. BRUINS 4, HURRICANES 1 Reilly Smith and Carl Soderberg had a goal and an assist each in the first period as Boston topped Carolina. Johnny Boychuk scored midway through the third period, and Milan Lucic added an empty-net goal for Boston, which has 11 points in its last seven games (5-1-1). Boston killed four Carolina power plays, including 63 seconds when the Bruins were down two skaters. They haven’t allowed a power-play goal in 32 short-handed situations since giving up goals on five consecutive power plays in October. The Hurricanes played their first game since Oct. 24 with Cam Ward in net. Ward, who missed 10 games because of a leg injury, made 26 saves. He rebounded from a rough start in which he gave up two goals on Boston’s first four shots. Tuukka Rask stopped 23 shots for Boston. FLAMES 5, JETS 4 Sean Monahan scored the winning goal in the eighth round of a shootout as Calgary ended its six-game losing streak with a victory over Winnipeg. Jiri Hudler had given Calgary a 4-3 lead with 3:26 remaining in regulation, but the Jets tied it on Bryan Little’s with six seconds left. With Winnipeg goalie Al Montoya on the bench for an extra attacker, the Jets swarmed

PITTSBURGH: Viktor Fasth No. 30 of the Anaheim Ducks makes a save against the Pittsburgh Penguins during the game at Consol Energy Center.— AFP

NHL results/standings Boston 4, Carolina 1; Pittsburgh 3, Anaheim 1; Calgary 5, Winnipeg 4 (SO). Eastern Conference Western Conference Atlantic Division Pacific Division Tampa Bay 14 6 0 64 50 28 W L OTL GF GA PTS 13 6 1 57 37 27 Boston Anaheim 15 6 2 72 59 32 Toronto 12 7 1 57 47 25 San Jose 13 3 5 72 50 31 Detroit 9 5 7 54 60 25 Montreal 10 9 2 52 45 22 Phoenix 14 4 3 73 66 31 Ottawa 8 8 4 58 62 20 Los Angeles 14 6 1 58 46 29 Florida 5 12 4 46 70 14 Vancouver 11 8 3 56 58 25 Buffalo 5 16 1 41 68 11 Calgary 7 11 3 59 79 17 Metropolitan Division Pittsburgh 13 8 0 59 48 26 Edmonton 5 15 2 53 83 12 69 59 25 Washington 12 8 1 Central Division NY Rangers 10 10 0 42 50 20 Chicago 14 3 4 78 61 32 Carolina 8 9 4 40 59 20 Minnesota 13 4 4 55 44 30 New Jersey 7 8 5 42 49 19 NY Islanders 8 10 3 61 68 19 St. Louis 13 3 3 66 46 29 Columbus 7 10 3 52 57 17 Colorado 14 5 0 59 41 28 Philadelphia 7 10 2 35 48 16 Dallas 11 7 2 58 56 24 Note: Overtime losses (OTL) are worth one Winnipeg 10 10 3 61 66 23 point in the standings and are not included in the loss column (L). Nashville 9 9 2 46 63 20 goalie Reto Berra, and Little put a rebound into an open side of the net. Montoya made 29 saves. Berra stopped 43 shots, including three in overtime, to help the Flames end their 0-5-1 skid. Calgary’s Michael Cammalleri scored his team-leading ninth goal

of the season on the power play and added an assist. T.J. Brodie and Lance Bouma also scored. Michael Frolik, Olli Jokinen and Dustin Byfuglien had goals for Winnipeg, and defenseman Grant Clitsome and Blake Wheeler both added a pair of assists. — AP

Mind coach hails mountain-climbing Stenson LONDON: Henrik Stenson’s mind coach Torsten Hansson was a proud and happy man on Monday after having been in Dubai to witness his protege accomplish the task of climbing “the world’s highest golfing mountain”. A win at the 2009 Players Championship in Florida, the sport’s unofficial fifth major, took the Swede up to fourth in the world before he suffered the second big form slump of his career to crash out of the top 200. Stenson decided to reunite with his former mind coach Hansson in 2012 and since then he has fought his way back to the top, culminating in Sunday’s historic six-shot triumph at the DP World Tour Championship in the Middle East. Not only did the victory enable the former Ryder Cup player to finish the season as Europe’s number one golfer, it also meant world number three Stenson became the first man to land the Race To Dubai and US FedExCup double. “I used a metaphor these last four days when we were working hard to try and get these titles that we were attempting to climb the highest mountain in the world,” Hansson told Reuters by telephone just moments after arriving back in his native Sweden. “We had been struggling in the bushes and then the woods but then suddenly we could see above the tree tops and we could actually start climbing. “In these last four days we were in the last stages of our climb and I told Henrik, ‘It’s going to be hard because you’re totally worn out and it’s freezing up there but you must be really aware of where you’re putting your hands and feet’,” said Hansson. “After he finished and we were having dinner last night I talked about the metaphor we had used and I gave him a flag because that’s the only thing he forgot to do, put the flag at the top of the mountain.” During the course of the European Tour’s season-

ending $8 million tournament in Dubai, Hansson said he wanted Stenson to be sure of every step he took. “On the flag there’s an inscription that says no one has ever been here before and you are the first one,” he added. “When you’re at that level of climbing you have to be 100 percent certain where you put your hands and feet so I was just trying to tell him, ‘Don’t move anything unless you are sure you have a good grip’. “We take it

Henrik Stenson of Sweden

one shot at a time and we don’t do anything unless he’s absolutely positive about the shot he’s about to play.” Not surprisingly, given the scale of his achievement, Stenson resembled something of a busted flush on Sunday night. “We had a low-key party really,” said Hansson. “I was with Henrik, his family and his close friends. “I think he was more relieved and surprised than overwhelmed. Most athletes tell me the same, that they

can’t really get in touch with their feelings because they’re so absolutely worn out. “There wasn’t much drinking from Henrik last night, he’s not really into that stuff.” Stenson will remain in Dubai for a couple of days before jetting to South Africa for a family holiday and rounding off his golfing year by competing in the Nedbank Challenge in Sun City that starts on Dec. 5. The 37-year-old has been troubled by a wrist injury for the last month but Hansson said he was confident two weeks of rest would cure the problem. “Not only is his wrist sore now, everywhere in the body is sore after the last couple of weeks we’ve had, what with playing, praticising, training and all the effort he’s put in,” he explained. “I think if we give him 14 days rest he’ll be ready again.” Britain’s Ian Poulter, who battled Stenson all the way only to finish second in the Race To Dubai money list, said the Swede could justifiably be called “the best player on the planet” right now. Stenson trails second-placed Australian Adam Scott and 14-times major winner Tiger Woods in the rankings but Hansson had no argument with Poulter’s assertion. “You saw the performance he gave yesterday,” said Hansson. “With all that pressure, all that media scrutiny and then to top it all with an eagle at the 18th, how can you ever explain it in any other way? “I’ve told him so many times if we stick to the plans and work really hard there will be moments when we have the golfing gods with us and he had that. “The gods wanted him to win yesterday and they wanted him to win in a really spectacular way so that everyone in the world could see how good he is,” said Hansson. “We really feel he can reach number one in the world. Now we have new goals and new mountains to climb.”— Reuters

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

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Newton lifts Panthers CHARLOTTE: Cam Newton threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Ted Ginn Jr. with 59 seconds lef t as the Carolina Panthers held off the New England Patriots 24-20 Monday night for their sixth straight victory when officials picked up a penalty flag on the final play. Stephen Gostkowski’s 26-yard field goal put the Patriots up 20-17 before

Newton drove Carolina 83 yards on 13 plays for the go-ahead touchdown. The speedy Ginn escaped Kyle Arrington along the left sideline and outraced Logan Ryan to the left pylon for his third touchdown of the season. The Patriots appeared on the verge of making an improbable comeback when Brady moved New England to the Carolina 18 and fired into the end

CHARLOTTE: Carolina Panthers’ Luke Kuechly (59) blocks New England Patriotsí Rob Gronkowski (87) on the final play during the second half of an NFL football game. — AP

zone on the game’s final play. The pass was intercepted by safety Robert Lester, but officials threw a flag after it appeared linebacker Luke Kuechly had interfered with tight end Rob Gronkowski by grabbing him with both hands. But officials quickly gathered together and waved off the flag. An angry Brady sprinted over to two officials to argue the call as they walked off the field. Meanwhile, the Panthers celebrated. “We had good pressure and our safety Robert Lester was in good position to make the play,” Panthers coach Ron Rivera said. Brady was 29 of 40 for 296 yards and one touchdown. Newton completed 19 of 28 passes for 209 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran seven times for 62 yards in what will go down as one of his best games a pro. After the game, Rivera called it a “gutsy effort.” “It wasn’t our best defensive effort, but it was one of our better offensive efforts,” Rivera said. “It was good for our guys to win a game like this.” Carolina’s win came eight days after a 10-9 victory over reigning NFC champion San Francisco. The Panthers entered the fourth quarter with a 17-10 lead, but Stevan Ridley made up for an earlier fumble with a 1-yard touchdown run and the Patriots took the lead with 6:32 left in the game when Gostkowski slipped a 26-yard field goal just inside the left upright. Newton gave Carolina a 17-10 lead in the third quarter on an 81-yard touchdown drive that took more than 8 minutes off the clock and featured a scramble in which the third-year quarterback avoided four tacklers and turned a potential 20-yard sack into a 14-yard gain and a first down. Newton completed all seven passes on the drive for 77 yards finding Greg Olsen at the right pylon with 2:10 left for his second touchdown pass, putting the Panthers back in front. “Cam did the things he needed to do to put us in position to win the football game,” Rivera said. “It has a lot to do with his maturity that we have talked about.” — AP

NFL standings American Football Conference AFC East W L T OTL PF PA New England 7 3 0 1 254 199 5 5 0 0 183 268 NY Jets Miami 5 5 0 0 213 225 Buffalo 4 7 0 1 236 273 AFC North Cincinnati 7 4 0 2 275 206 4 6 0 0 216 245 Pittsburgh Baltimore 4 6 0 1 208 212 Cleveland 4 6 0 0 192 238 AFC South Indianapolis 7 3 0 0 252 220 4 6 0 1 227 226 Tennessee Houston 2 8 0 1 193 276 Jacksonville 1 9 0 0 129 318 AFC West Denver 9 1 0 0 398 255 9 1 0 0 232 138 Kansas City Oakland 4 6 0 0 194 246 San Diego 4 6 0 1 228 222

PCT .700 .500 .500 .364 .636 .400 .400 .400 .700 .400 .200 .100 .900 .900 .400 .400

National Football Conference NFC EAST Philadelphia 6 5 0 0 276 260 5 5 0 0 274 258 Dallas NY Giants 4 6 0 0 192 256 Washington 3 7 0 0 246 311 NFC North Detroit 6 4 0 0 265 253 Chicago 6 4 0 0 282 267 Green Bay 5 5 0 0 258 239 Minnesota 2 8 0 0 240 320 NFC South New Orleans 8 2 0 0 288 183 Carolina 7 3 0 0 238 135 Tampa Bay 2 8 0 1 187 237 Atlanta 2 8 0 0 214 292 NFC West Seattle 10 1 0 0 306 179 San Francisco 6 4 0 0 247 178 Arizona 6 4 0 0 214 212 St. Louis 4 6 0 0 224 234

.545 .500 .400 .300 .600 .600 .500 .200 .800 .700 .200 .200 .909 .600 .600 .400.

Amos given Wales debut, Hook starts against Tonga CARDIFF: Teenage back Hallam Amos was set to make his Wales debut after being included yesterday in a muchchanged side to play Tonga at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium on Friday. Meanwhile James Hook was in line for his first start against another Test country in more than two years after being selected at fly-half by coach Warren Gatland. The 19-year-old Amos, born in Stockport, north-west England but who moved to Wales aged four, was one of 11 changes to the team that

thrashed Argentina 40-6 in Cardiff last weekend. The four survivors were full-back Leigh Halfpenny, wing George North, flanker Justin Tipuric and prop Rhodri Jones in a team captained by No 8 Ryan Jones, with regular Wales and British and Irish Lions skipper Sam Warburton on the bench. Amos was only called up to join the Wales training squad nine days ago, but he now goes into the team on the left wing, with Gatland likely to revert to his ‘first-choice’ side for next

JEJU: Japan’s Koki Kameda (right) competes against South Korean challenger Son Jung-Oh (left) during their WBA Bantamweight World Championship. Kameda defeated Son by decision. — AFP

week’s concluding November Test against Australia. Hook, excluding last year’s match against the Barbarians, will be making his first Test start since the 2011 World Cup bronze medal match defeat by the Wallabies in Auckland. Now a full-back with French club Perpignan, it looked as if early in Hook’s Test career that his best position might be fly-half. But the 28-year-old’s versatilityHook has also played Test as a centre and full-back-has counted against him, especially given Wales have also been able to call on the likes of now retired fly-half Stephen Jones, centres Tom Shanklin, Gavin Henson, Jamie Roberts and Jonathan Davies, as well as Lions ace Halfpenny, during his international career. There are six changes in the Wales pack, including starts for Newport Gwent Dragons flanker Andrew Coombs, Ospreys lock Ian Evans and Paul James, a prop with English club Bath. Tonga arrive in Wales following a 38-18 loss to France in a fier y encounter in Le Havre and Gatland said: “Tonga are a typical South Sea Island side and will be physical, powerful and won’t take a backwards step. “We pride ourselves on matching other sides’ physicality, and we will have to do that on Friday,” added Gatland, whose Wales team were rendered try-less by South Africa during a 24-15 loss in their opening November Test. “It should be a great encounter with both sides looking to move the ball around. “ We have made a number of changes, but it’s a great opportunity for these guys to show us exactly how they cope with the international game,” the New Zealander explained. “The whole squad has trained well since the start of the campaign and they deserve their chance,” added the 50-year-old Gatland, the former Ireland and Lions boss, who will celebrate his 100th Test as an international coach on Friday. — AFP

Photo of the day

Competitors perform during Red Bull Flugtag at Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar on November 1, 2013. — www.redbull.com

Australia take aim at England’s bid for history BRISBANE: Australia hope their impregnable record at the Gabba will help them seize early momentum as they bid to stop England completing their best Ashes run in 123 years from tomorrow. Michael Clarke’s team went down 3-0 just three months ago in England, leaving them in danger of losing four Ashes series in a row-a fate they have not suffered since 1890. However, Australia now appear more settled and they will also take heart from their performances at Brisbane’s Gabba ground, where they are unbeaten in a quarter of a century. Australia have not lost on the famously fast, bouncy pitch since 1988, against a Viv Richards-led West Indies, and England’s last win there was under Mike Gatting in 1986. While history favors the hosts, a Brisbane victory by Alastair Cook’s England would deal psychological damage to a team trying to rebuild after a long slump. However Australia, strengthening under coach Darren Lehmann, believe they may now be ready to end England’s run of wins in 2009, 2010-2011 and earlier this year. England’s 3-1 victory in 20102011 was their first in Australia for 24 years, pointing to a much tighter contest than the July-August Tests. England did not reach 400 in the last series, yet mastered the Australians with inspired spells in the key moments at Trent Bridge, Lord’s, Chester-Le-Street and The Oval. Allrounder Shane Watson, who must overcome a hamstring injury to play in the first Test, believes Australia need test the endurance of England’s four-man bowling attack. “That is the way we are going to win the Ashes,” Watson said. “As a batting unit we are going to bat for a long period of time, especially in the first couple of Tests. We will see where they are at physically and mentally. That is one of our biggest goals. “We have no doubt they will keep

coming but at what level? We haven’t been able to challenge that level. Keep them coming back, get them fatigued and try to keep them that way as well. Don’t let them off by batting badly and getting a rest.” England are yet to decide on their third seamer to supplement James Anderson and Stuart Broad, but Chris Tremlett, a success on the last Ashes tour here, looks likely to play along with penetrating off-spinner Graeme Swann. The tourists also have injury concerns, with first-choice wicketkeeper

Meanwhile Australia have chosen one-day skipper George Bailey to make his Test debut aged 31 in the problematic number six batting position. And the enigmatic Mitchell Johnson is poised to share the new ball amid an injury list that includes pacemen James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc and Jackson Bird. Johnson has been plagued by erratic line and length at Test level, and was the target of a merciless campaign by England’s ‘Barmy Army’ travelling support in 2010/2011.

BRISBANE: England’s Monty Panesar (left) consults with spin bowling coach Mustaq Ahmed (center) during a cricket practice session. — AFP

Matt Prior nursing a calf strain and star batsman Kevin Pietersen needing a cortisone injection for a troublesome knee ahead of his 100th Test. England have also moved to address a weakness from the last series, when they were three wickets down for less than 65 on five occasions. Opener Joe Root has been bumped down the order to six to accommodate Hampshire’s Michael Carberry, after his strong start to the tour with half-centuries in his three warm-up games.

But Australian leg-spin great Shane Warne believes Johnson is now a changed bowler. “He’s forced his way in through bowling some serious pace. He’s going to shake the English side up,” Warne said. The teams are playing twice in the same year, rather than once every other year as is traditional, to avoid having an Ashes series directly before the 2015 World Cup. Australia must win the five-Test series to regain the Ashes, while England will keep the tiny urn-said to contain the burnt remains of a bail-if it ends in a draw. — AFP

South Africa, Pakistan clash again JOHANNESBURG: Five days after completing a series in the United Arab Emirates, South Africa and Pakistan square up again in a Twenty20 international at the Wanderers Stadium today. Two Twenty20 games will be followed by three oneday internationals in a tour arranged in haste after a fallout between the Indian and South African boards led to India cutting short a tour to the republic. It is the third tour featuring South Africa and Pakistan this year. The Pakistanis played three Tests, five one-day internationals and two Twenty20 internationals in South Africa between January and March. In a reciprocal tour which ended last Friday, the two nations clashed in two Tests, five one-day internationals and two Twenty20 internationals in the United Arab Emirates. The tour will serve a double purpose for South Africa. It will reduce the estimated loss of an estimated more than US$10-million caused by the curtailment of the India tour - four one-day internationals and two Twenty20 games were cut from the original itinerary and it will enable the host country’s limited overs teams to continue to work towards the elusive goal of winning a global tournament. Although South Africa’s Test team are the undisputed world champions, both the Twenty20 and one-day sides have had mediocre records in recent times. Both made considerable progress in the UAE, where South Africa won the one-day series 4-1 and the Twenty20 series 2-0.

Pakistan, by contrast, have ground to make up after their batsmen in particular let them down in the recent series. Mohammad Hafeez, Pakistan’s T20 captain, said in an arrival press conference on Sunday that his players were heartened by their showing in South Africa earlier in the year when they won the only completed 20-overs game and extended South Africa before losing the oneday series 3-2, with their batsmen performing better than they did in the UAE. “We put up a good show in the shorter formats and we believe in this part of the world, we’ve done reasonably well,” said Hafeez. Pakistan coach Dav Whatmore, whose contract will not be renewed when it expires in February, hailed the emergence of the hard-hitting Sohaib Maqsood as a positive from the recent series. But Pakistan will hope for improved form from the likes of Hafeez, Ahmed Shehzad and Umar Akmal. Pakistan will be without tall left-arm fast bowler Mohammad Irfan, one of their better bowlers in the recent series. He suffered a hip injury in the last match in the UAE. South Africa named an unchanged squad for the two Twenty20 games. A squad for the one-day internationals will be named later in the week. It is widely expected that veteran all-rounder Jacques Kallis will be included. Kallis has not played in a one-day international since February 2012. — AFP

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

S P ORTS

F1 still chasing American dream AUSTIN: A year after making a splashy return to the United States, Formula One’s American dream has yet to come true with the glamour sport unable to captivate a market it has long coveted. While motor racing fans across the globe planned their Sunday around the US Grand Prix, for Americans it was just another event on an actionpacked day of National Football League (NFL) games and NASCAR. The Circuit of the Americas carved out of the south Texas scrubland, one of the most popular stops on the calendar for paddock regulars and praised by drivers, teams and spectators alike, was supposed to provide the launching pad for a new era for F1 in the US but has so far failed to take off. When Formula One returned to the United States in 2012 after a five-year hiatus F1 commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone stood in the paddock and enthusiastically outlined a coast-to-coast vision for the sport in America with races in Austin, New Jersey and Los Angeles. A year later, talk of a race in Los Angeles has disappeared while the elfin Ecclestone breezed through the Austin paddock on the weekend avoiding questions about a New Jersey race that is struggling to get off the ground. “We can always do more,” said McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh, noting that the US is a major market for many F1 sponsors especially car makers such as Ferrari and Mercedes. “This is such

an important market that I think we have to treat it as a new market. “I know there have been lots of races in the States before but we have never cracked the States in the way we should have done and I think the opportunity is there and all of the stakeholders, the commercial rights holders, the teams, the promoters all of us should be working together and harder to make sure we demonstrate to the great US public what a fantastic sport Formula One is. “I think it is reasonable to say we are not doing enough.” Unable to find a permanent home in the United States, Formula One has been forced into a string of unsatisfying one-night stands with Austin, the Texas capital, becoming the 10th venue to host the series after Sebring (Florida), Riverside (California), Watkins Glen (New York), Phoenix (Arizona), Dallas (Texas), Detroit (Michigan), Las Vegas (Nevada), Long Beach (California) and Indianapolis (Indiana). Americans have had a long-standing love affair with the automobile but the romance of Formula One, which sets hearts of motor sports fans around the world aflutter, has never managed to get pulses racing in the United States. The Circuit of the Americas, the only purposebuilt F1 track in the United States, has provided an attractive foundation for the sport in the US but one promoters have since been unable to build on.

Even in Austin, known as “The Weirdest City In Texas,” F1 had to battle for attention with a college football showdown between the University of Texas and Oklahoma State stealing the buzz during Saturday qualifying then going head-to-head against the NFL goliath on Sunday. Three day attendance was announced at 250,324, a drop of 6 percent from last year’s inaugural event but remains one of the most well-attended events on the circuit. The main reason for a lack of interest in the United States is that F1 is almost devoid of American content with no US teams or drivers on the starting grid. Attempts to form a US-based team with a factory in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2010 failed and there has been no American driver on the circuit since Scott Speed left in 2007. Even Ecclestone has acknowledged that in order for F1 to grow in the United States they need to develop an American driver who can win or, at the very least, be competitive. Mario Andretti, who handed out trophies after Sunday’s race won by Sebastian Vettel, remains America’s best known F1 driver 35 years after he claimed the series drivers’ championship. No American has won a Formula One race since. Andretti’s son Michael followed his father to Europe and competed briefly in F1 for McLaren alongside the triple World Champion Ayrton Senna. Andretti

told Reuters he would like to see grandson Marco, who currently races on the IndyCar series, give F1 a shot but has no desire to be involved. “I have no interest in creating a team, the only thing I would be interested in seeing is my grandson Marco getting some proper testing and evaluation,” Andretti told Reuters. “That in itself could be interesting but I agree with Bernie, you don’t necessarily have to have a team but if you have a driver representing the US with a top team it would make all the difference in the world as far as press interest.” American Alexander Rossi could be the next American to appear on the F1 starting grid after leaving home at 16 to pursue his F1 dream in Europe. A winner in F1 feeder series GP2 and currently a reserve driver for Caterham, Rossi made brief appearance in Austin during the first practice session but it is still uncertain when, or if, a full-time F1 seat will ever come. “It doesn’t matter if you win every junior championship in America you have to go to Europe and start all over again and prove to them (F1 teams) you can race in Europe and compete against the Europeans,” Rossi told Reuters. “That’s just the way the sport is. Formula One is a European-dominated sport and they don’t believe anyone deserves a chance unless they won and competed in Europe.” — Reuters

Macau GP quenches thirst for speed, danger

Kobe Bryant

Lakers eagerly await return of ace Bryant LOS ANGELES: While the Los Angeles Lakers have made a better start to this season than many had expected in the absence of Kobe Bryant, there is no question that their 15-time All-Star shooting guard has been sorely missed. The Lakers have lurched between a few surprising wins, most notably against the Los Angeles Clippers and Houston Rockets, and several disappointing losses, where they suffered due to the lack of a dominating presence in the final quarter. Bryant is widely regarded as one of the greatest closers in the game and his teammates are eagerly awaiting the return of the ‘Black Mamba,’ who has been sidelined since mid-April with a torn left Achilles’ tendon. “He’s so intelligent that he helps guys get in the right spots and makes the game a lot easier not only for myself but for the whole team,” backup shooting guard Jodie Meeks told reporters. “He’s been in the league for almost 20 years, he knows it all inside and out. He’s the alpha dog. He tells everybody where to go, gets everyone in the right spots and gives everyone confidence.” Bryant was given full medical clearance to resume all basketball activities over the weekend and the 35-year-old certainly gave his teammates a welcome boost when he joined them on Saturday for several practice drills. However, Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni has urged caution, and does not want to see his star player rushed back into action. “Everybody’s excited and I’m sure he’s excited, but (it’s) a little bit premature right now,” D’Antoni told reporters on Sunday about Bryant’s participation in 5-on-0 drills and half-court work. “You’re dealing with, ‘Is he sore today? Is there a setback tomorrow?’ That’s the first step and there’s a lot of steps to be taken. We need to be cautious.”

Though several backup Lakers players such as Meeks, Jordan Hill, Xavier Henry and Nick Young have all flourished at times this season, D’Antoni knows the team have badly missed the steel, late points and sheer grit provided by Bryant. “He’s a presence, no doubt, and we need that presence, especially at the end of games,” D’Antoni said of the Lakers, who are 5-7 this season and occupy 12th place in the 15-team Western Conference. “But we’ve got games to win and there’s going to be a bunch of them before he comes back, so we’re going to have to do our business.” Bryant, a five-time NBA champion, may be well short of game fitness at the moment but he certainly impressed his teammates with his practice form over the weekend. “He looked real good,” Hill said of Bryant, after pouring in a career-high 24 points and 17 rebounds in the Lakers’ 114-99 victory over the Detroit Pistons on Sunday. “He was going real hard. I thought he wasn’t going to be able to go that hard but he was really pushing it. I know he’s not ready yet but he’s coming along and he should be ready pretty soon.” Spanish forward Pau Gasol agreed. “He looked good and did a few moves I didn’t expect him to do right away,” said Gasol. “I’m very happy for him and for us, and definitely looking forward to when he’ll play in a game.” As for Bryant, he was happy enough with his overall shape during the drills. “The fade-away still works, the ball-handling and being able to post,” he told NBA TV. “Those are things that I can do right now. But it’s not the playoffs, thank God.” The Lakers, whose next game is against the Golden State Warriors in Los Angeles on Friday, have not yet laid out a timetable for the likely return of their most influential player. — Reuters

Concussion expert: Players still in fear MELBOURNE: A leading concussion expert from the United States says players in highlevel contact sports still are often fearful of sitting out games after head injuries because they might lose their positions in the team. Chris Nowinski, a Harvard graduate and former wrestler, is a co-director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University, otherwise known as the “Brain Bank,” one of the leading research groups in the world on the effects concussions are having on athletes, highlighted by recent cases involving National Football League players. Nowinski has been in Melbourne meeting with officials from the Australian Football League players association and the National Rugby League. “There still has to be a culture change with the players, they need to take that time off,” Nowinski said in an interview with The Associated Press yesterday. “They still have that impression that their job or role might be at risk. And I’m still not sure that players anywhere, even now, appreciate or understand the risk they are exposing themselves to.” He said Australian officials and those in the United States have become more aware of rest and recovery needed after concussions and head injuries, but even the prominent lawsuits in the NFL haven’t improved the situation as much as he’d like

to see it. “You would think so, particularly is a player is mishandled,” Nowinski said of the threat of legal action against teams by their players over head injuries. “There is no reason now why a player can’t come back to the team and say he had permanent brain damage and it was because of lack of proper treatment by the team doctors.” One of those players seriously affected by head injuries is Shaun Valentine, a former rugby league player in Australia who retired in 2003 after suffering seven concussions in 18 months while playing for the North Queensland Cowboys. Valentine, whose short-term memory is terrible, is one of nearly 200 athletes who have donated their brains to Nowinski’s Boston center for posthumous research. The only way to confirm Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) caused by concussions is by examining brains after death. Nowinski said he met the 37-year Valentine for the first time over dinner on Monday night in Melbourne. “It was good to see him, we had a lot in common as we both are now about 10 years out since we had our concussions,” Nowinski said. “We talked about how we can make things better in the future. “How he’s feeling, his experience of having those concussions over such a short period,” Nowinski added. —AP

MACAU: Lewis Hamilton calls it the world’s “coolest street circuit” and some of the greatest names in motorsport such as Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher have savored its super-fast straights and treacherous corners, but for many the Macau Grand Prix is all about the danger. Each year fans flock to the southern Chinese territory to see motorcycles and cars flirt with barriers at breakneck speeds as they hurtle around the 6.2-kilometre Guia street circuit. The racing festival marked its diamond jubilee this month, with 13 races spread out over two weekends, and while there were plenty of spectacular spills on both two wheels and four, there were no fatalities. It was a different story last year, however. Hong Kong driver Phillip Yau crashed and died on the frighteningly fast Mandarin Bend, and Portuguese motorcycle rider Luis Filipe de Sousa Carreira was killed when he smashed into a wall at high speed during qualifying. Adderly Fong, who clinched the 2013 Audi R8 LMS Cup title this year, was good friends with Yau. “I was speaking to him on the Monday, told him I was going to go see him on Thursday, then decided to not go and watched from the hotel instead,” the 23-year-old told Reuters. “It happened right underneath the hotel.” Fong said thinking about the danger would hold drivers back. “It’s like stepping into a coliseum with walls and grandstands. It’s a gamble each time, like walking into a casino - you’re taking chances and you don’t know what the consequences will be. “When you step into a racing car everyone should be prepared for the worst, but you have to put it in the back of your mind, because death is the only thing that causes fear and when you have fear, you can’t drive fast.” Fong’s father said his son’s fate was out of his hands. “God gave us our son and God will decide when to take him away,” he said. Prior to last year, the last two fatalities on the track were in 1994 and 2005, while a spectator died in 2000 after a car left the track, prompting the installation of more safety fences, a far cry from the bamboo barriers used in the early days. Macau Grand Prix race coordinator Joao Manuel Costa Antunes said the safety of drivers, riders and fans was paramount and that last year’s incidents could have happened anywhere. “We cannot say the accidents happened because of the track or because of the safety of

MACAU: Carlin team’s Jazeman Jaafar of Malaysia (front) and other drivers power their cars in this file photo during the Formula Three Macau Grand Prix. — AFP the track,” he said in a news conference ahead of the festival. “The two accidents could happen either in Macau or anywhere in the world,” he said, adding that safety “is always our first priority.” Since its humble beginnings as a motorized treasure hunt in 1954, the festival has attracted some of the sport’s biggest names, with Formula 1 champions Senna, Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button among those drawn to the race. Racers talk about the importance of track knowledge on the challenging circuit, with its unique undulations, narrow, twisting turns and high-speed straights. Carreira and Yau did not lack for experience, however. Portuguese rider Carreira was taking part in his seventh race in Macau, while Yau had previously notched two wins on the track. Even drivers used to Formula 1 speeds struggle on the circuit. Malaysian Alex Yoong hit the

wall hard in qualifying this year and a video of his dramatic crash went viral. For those on two wheels, the barriers come uncomfortably close. British rider Dean Harrison’s bike and body sustained damage when he highsided during the Motorcycle Grand Prix. Harrison said he had experienced far worse. “I broke my neck at Brands (Hatch) last year. I rode the next day. I didn’t know I’d done it until the Monday,” he told Reuters. When he was finally diagnosed with a cracked C7 vertebra, his time on the sidelines lasted just three weeks before he was racing once again. German driver Maro Engel, who was leading this year’s GT Cup race until a puncture from debris on the track forced his retirement, said there was no question what made the race so appealing. “The danger absolutely makes it more exciting. That’s why we’re here,” he said. “It’s the greatest track in the world.” — Reuters

UCLA down Sacramento State LOS ANGELES: With three players out and another ailing, five of the UCLA Bruins who logged major minutes Monday night scored in double figures. After a slow start, the 22nd-ranked Bruins cranked up their offense in an 86-50 victory over Sacramento State. Jordan Adams scored 21 points, including seven straight during a 14-0 second-half run. He’s led the Bruins (3-0) in scoring in each of their games after breaking his foot to end last season. “It’s good to establish your rhythm early against a team like this,” he said. “I just went after it.” Zach LaVine and Norman Powell added 14 points each, David Wear had 12 points and 10 rebounds, and Tony Parker scored 10 points. Kyle Anderson had a career-high eight assists and Adams had a careerbest eight steals in the first of three games for the Bruins this week. “Kyle’s always looking to give us guys passes,” LaVine said. “We got to keep our heads up and look for them.” The Bruins were without starter Travis Wear, although coach Steve Alford said he will return for Friday’s game against Morehead State after being out since having an appendectomy on Oct. 28. Also out were freshman Waanah Bail, who has yet to be cleared for game action, and reserve Noah Allen. He had surgery last week for fractures to his face after getting hit going for a loose ball in the closing seconds against Oakland. Alford said Bail may possibly play next week. Bryce Alford played 24 minutes, with seven points and five assists, despite a virus. His brother Kory joined him in the final minutes. They are the coach’s sons. “I felt really bad this morning and just fought through it,” Bryce Alford said. Dylan Garrity scored 18 points - all on a career-high six 3-pointers - to lead Sacramento State (1-2). “That’s my role on the team, to be aggressive, to look to shoot the ball,” Garrity said. “Playing in Pauley Pavilion is a lot of fun. It’s brand new, it’s a good time, but we didn’t get the win so I’m not happy.” The Hornets, of the Big Sky Conference, fell to 0-13 against ranked opponents since joining Division I in 1991-92, and 3-36 all-time against Pac12 schools. The Bruins led 45-29 when they put together the game’s biggest run. They outscored

LOS ANGELES: Cody Demps No. 2 of the Sacramento State Hornets is defended by Jordan Adams (left) and David Wear No. 12 of the UCLA Bruins in the second half at Pauley Pavilion. — AFP the Hornets 27-6, including a 14-0 run, to extend their lead to 72-35. Six UCLA players scored in the spurt, including eight points by LaVine, whose dunk enlivened the announced crowd of 5,489 at Pauley Pavilion. Adams’ seven straight points came on a 3-pointer and two layups, including one off his own steal. Anderson added five points. “It’s obvious that UCLA will be a good team this year,” Hornets coach Brian Katz said. “They are a team that can explode and they did. They have a lot of weapons, and when Adams got going the way he was shooting it was going to be a long night for us.” UCLA didn’t commit a foul until nearly

10 minutes into the game. “That was huge knowing that we were short-handed,” Steve Alford said. The Bruins easily exceeded their 81.5-point scoring average while holding the Hornets to 34 percent shooting. Sacramento State had 18 turnovers. UCLA had 10 turnovers and 19 assists. “Hopefully we’re making some progress,” Steve Alford said. The Bruins used a 16-6 run to end the first half leading 36-23. The Hornets led by one point and tied the game once early on before UCLA gradually pulled away to a 14-point lead. The Hornets never made it to the free throw line, where the Bruins were 12 of 18 and five times missed hitting the front end of a 1-and-1. — AP

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

S P ORT S

Messi’s injury problems may be his own fault MADRID: Lionel Messi seems to keep getting injured these days, and he could be the one to blame for his own troubles. The four-time world player of the year hurt his left hamstring while playing for Barcelona on Nov. 10 and will be sidelined for 6-to-8 weeks, keeping him off the field until after Christmas. “He’s a kid who doesn’t know how to manage himself because he is so passionate for the sport. Someone has to set limits for him,” trainer Fernando Signorini, who has worked closely with Messi, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “He’s certain to have problems because of how he is. It’s fine that you have a contract to play but the player also needs to know when to stop,” Signorini said. “And since he cannot manage it, someone behind the scenes needs to understand that he needs to be managed.” Prior to his most recent injury, Messi said he was not yet 100 percent recovered from the last one. But last week was the final chance to garner votes for this year’s world player of the year award, so Messi played on in the hopes of winning a fifth straight

Ballon d’Or. Signorini, who also worked as Diego Maradona’s personal trainer during the Argentine great’s playing days, was Messi’s trainer with Argentina but left the national team following Maradona’s exit as coach. Signorini said Messi and Maradona share an obsessive passion for the game that clashes with unrealistic commitments put forth by their clubs and the international playing calendar. For Messi, who has played nearly every game over the past five seasons, too many games may be taking their toll. “He needs to have confidence in the people who are taking care of him, especially the people at Barcelona who are responsible for helping him reach the heights he has,” Signorini said. “(But) the player also needs to know when to stop and take a break. He should know how to listen because he is such an intelligent person.” Messi, however, has said he would not set any limits to his playing time. “As long as I feel well enough, I will play when necessary,” Messi said in a report published in Argentine sports daily Ole. “I don’t need to set limits. There’s no need to look for things that don’t exist.

My plan is to play again when my body feels ready.” Fears of injury have increased since former Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola left the team after the 2011-12 season. An injury-free Messi helped Barcelona win 16 trophies since 2009, including four Spanish leagues and two Champions Leagues. “Messi owes Guardiola a lot. His obsessive personality helped put order into Messi’s life and it brought the best out of him,” said Sebastian Fest, coauthor “The Mystery of Messi” alongside former l’Equipe journalist Alexandre Juillard. Messi, who had a history of injuries under previous coach Frank Rijkaard, saw his poor diet and offfield habits transformed, and his game improved. He also had physician Juan Brau assigned to travel with him fulltime, including when he played for Argentina. “At first he (Guardiola) even tried to regulate Messi’s playing time, to keep from playing so much, and that’s when they started to butt heads,” Fest said. “Messi told him, ‘You don’t understand, I have to play, always.’ And when Guardiola didn’t play him, he sometimes wouldn’t show up for practice.”

While Guardiola initially found common ground with Messi, by the end of the coach’s tenure their relationship had soured to the point where the two are no longer on speaking terms, according to the book. Messi missed the end of last season - and was hobbled during Barcelona’s humiliating Champions League semifinal loss to Bayern Munich - because of injury, and appears to have taken little time to recover. There have been problems off the field, too. Messi has had to deal with tax fraud charges against him and his father Jorge, with the pair paying more than 5 million euros ($6.6 million) in back taxes. That dilemma and Messi’s added anxiety of being healthy to captain a strong Argentina squad into the World Cup in neighboring Brazil has made this season unlike any other. But that, he said, hasn’t changed him. “I’m doing the same things I always have,” Messi said. “This injury happened because it had to. I’m not the only person who plays so many games every season. “I’m going to stick to the plan we set at the start of the season. There’s no reason to do anything else.”— AP

Ameobi scores brilliant goal as Nigeria draw with Italy

ST LOUIS: Maximiliano Rodriguez No. 11 of Argentina traps the ball as Edin Visca No. 19 and Haris Medunjanin No. 18 of Bosnia-Herzegovina look on during the international friendly match. — AFP

Aguero’s brace sinks Bosnia ST. LOUIS: Striker Sergio Aguero scored twice to give Argentina a 2-0 win over fellow World Cup finalists Bosnia in a friendly at the Busch baseball stadium in St Louis, Missouri on Monday. Aguero, wearing the number 10 shirt in absence of injured captain Lionel Messi, could have registered a hat-trick but blasted the ball over the bar in the 75th minute after goalkeeper Asmir Begovic had parried a shot from his strike partner Rodrigo Palacio. Argentina, who played out a goalless draw with Ecuador in New Jersey on Friday, ended their U.S. tour unbeaten as coach Alejandro Sabella tried two experimental line-ups and tested defensive variations. The Bosnians, whose appearance in the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil will be their first, might have taken an early lead but shots from strikers Vedad Ibisevic and Edin Dzeko went narrowly wide of Sergio Romero’s posts.

Argentina, though, enjoyed more possession with busy midfielder Angel Di Maria creating a string of chances. Di Maria’s headed pass into the box led to the first goal with Begovic fouling Palacio as he went for the ball and Aguero following through to steer it into the net between two defenders five minutes before halftime. “It was important to finish the year well playing like this and that we didn’t concede goals in either match,” Aguero told broadcasters TyC Sports. The striker, lucky the referee missed his kick in retaliation for a dangerous challenge in the 56th minute, found the net 10 minutes later with a left-footed volley from the left after a fine pass from deep in midfield by Maxi Rodriguez. Substitute Erik Lamela, on for Di Maria, had two good chances in the dying minutes while Dzeko, kept in check for most of the match, had a stinging shot beaten away by Romero. — Reuters

SYDNEY: Australia’s Mile Jedinak (center) tries to score against the Costa Rica during their soccer friendly. Australia won the match 1-0. — AP

Australia see off Costa Rica SYDNEY: Ange Postecoglou enjoyed a winning start to his tenure as Australia head coach with Tim Cahill’s second half header enough to see off Costa Rica 1-0 in a friendly between World Cup finalists yesterday. The New York Red Bulls substitute rose highest to meet Tommy Oar’s 69th minute corner from the left to leave the 20,165 fans at Allianz Stadium happy after a promising first display by the hosts under the new manager. “Tonight was a good starting point,” Postecoglou told reporters. “We didn’t obviously get the fluency tonight because we changed the system, and the manner in which we play but the intent was always there and the players tried to play football. “ We didn’t take a backwards step tonight against a very good team. That was because our pressure, our commitment and our discipline was fantastic.” Postecoglou took the reigns after German Holger Osieck was dismissed last

month following the back-to-back 6-0 maulings by Brazil and France. He made four changes to the Socceroos starting line-up that defeated Canada 3-0 in London under caretaker boss Aurelio Vidmar last month, bringing in Matthew Leckie and Robbie Kruse in attack, Matthew Ryan in goal and Ivan Franjic at right back. Franjic saved Ryan’s blushes with an alert clearance after a mix up over a header in the fifth minute, before Kruse set up Leckie for their best chance of the half, but the burly striker side-footed his 42nd minute shot over from close range. A raft of second half substitutions opened the game up, with a mazy dribble by Tom Rogic almost providing an opening after Costa Rica’s Kenny Cunningham missed a good chance for the visitors. But Cahill was on hand to split the deadlock with a trademark header that struck the knee of the Costa Rican defender to leave the hosts celebrating. — Reuters

LONDON: Italy and Nigeria played out a thrilling 2-2 draw which included a goal-of-the-season contender from Shola Ameobi in an entertaining friendly at Fulham’s Craven Cottage on Monday. Italy dominated the game but the African champions, who joined their opponents at next year’s World Cup on Saturday, produced a few magical touches and defended superbly as the Italians pounded their goal in search of a late winner. Italy coach Cesare Prandelli made eight changes from the team that drew 1-1 with Germany in a friendly on Friday and his side dominated the early stages after going ahead in the 12th minute when Mario Balotelli set up Giuseppe Rossi. Rossi, shrugging off a bout of tonsillitis, showed great composure to shift the ball from one foot to the other before scoring. Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi made seven changes from the team which sealed their World Cup place by beating Ethiopia. The African side gradually played their way back into the game, Victor Moses troubling the Italian defence with bursts down both wings. Nigeria equalised in the 35th minute when a deep raking cross from Ameobi was powerfully headed past goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu by Bright Dike. That meant that the first two goals were scored by two players born one day apart in the United States on Feb.1 and Feb. 2, 1987. Rossi was born in New Jersey to Italian parents and Dike in Oklahoma to Nigerian parents. There was nothing strange about the third goal though — just sheer brilliance. Moses fed Francis Benjamin wide on the left with a perfect pass and his cross was volleyed in by the leaping

LONDON: Italy’s goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu (right) vies with Nigeria’s striker Bright Dike (left) during the International friendly football match at Craven Cottage. — AFP Ameobi who slammed the ball into the net with Candreva, powerfully driving the ball past Ejide. The introduction of the experienced Andrea the outside of his right foot. Italy almost equalised when Balotelli lobbed Pirlo into midfield after 53 minutes tipped the the defence with an overhead kick, ran on to balance Italy’s way and they went close to a wintrap the ball and teed it up before volleying ner as substitutes Marco Parolo and Alessandro Diamanti hit the woodwork and Diamanti straight at goalkeeper Austine Ejide. Italy drew level just after halftime when crashed a free kick against the bar. Italy have Emanuele Giaccherini put the final touch to a now only won one of their last 12 friendlies and fine move involving Rossi and Antonio drawn the last four. — Reuters

Mexico not sitting on laurels as World Cup slot beckons WELLINGTON: Mexico coach Miguel Herrera has kept faith with the team that hammered New Zealand in the first leg of their 2014 World Cup qualifier last week for the second match at Wellington Regional Stadium today. El Tri beat the All Whites 5-1 at the Azteca last week and the home side have to win the return leg by at least 4-0 to qualify for their second successive finals. Herrera, who selected only locally-based players for the intercontinental playoff, told reporters in Wellington he would stick with the same team but was not prepared to allow his side to sit back and defend. “We want to win the game, not just qualify for the World Cup,” Herrera said through an interpreter on Tuesday. “We know that New Zealand need to come and attack us but we will play exactly the same way we did in Mexico. “We want to win this game.” Herrera, who was appointed to the role after the Mexican Federation changed three coaches in just six weeks as the CONCACAF heavyweights lurched through qualifying, said he was keen to stay in the role should they advance to the Brazil finals today. “You can ask the guys in the back who are the Mexico federation,” he said while laughing before adding “of course I want it,” when pressed on whether he personally wanted to stay on. Herrera acknowledged that Mexican fans may have decided they had already qualified for the finals courtesy of their hefty goal advantage, though he and the team were having none of it. “I was not very happy with the goal we conceded,” he said of Chris James’ late consolation goal for the All Whites. “We have been watching videos of the team and hopefully we don’t concede any more goals. “We have 90 minutes to play, tomorrow we need to win and then Mexico will be happy.” New Zealand fans in contrast have all but written off their side’s hopes though All Whites coach Ricki Herbert was keen to put the visitors under pressure they had yet to experience in Herrera’s

stewardship. “They have had four coaches,” Herbert said with a smile in relation to Herrera becoming the fourth head coach of the side within six weeks. “They have had a lot of personnel changes too. “They played against Finland in a non-challenging

environment (in a friendly) ... and then came up against a New Zealand side that never threatened them. “It’s important for us to change that challenge ...and put pressure back on the Mexican side to see how good they are.” — Reuters

WELLINGTON: Mexico’s Carlos Pena (second from right) and his teammates have light moments during the team’s training for the FIFA World Cup qualifier match against New Zealand. — AP

Maracanazo 1950 repeat is the spur for Uruguay MONTEVIDEO: Uruguay are 5-0 up going into the second leg of their World Cup playoff against Jordan at the Centenario today and already dreaming of achieving another ‘Maracanazo’ at the finals in Brazil next year. Before kickoff the hosts will honour 86-yearold Alcides Ghiggia who scored the winning goal and is the sole survivor of the 2-1 upset victory over Brazil that gave Uruguay their second world title in the 1950 final at the Maracana. “What happened in that World Cup left a big mark on the Brazilian people,” Paris St Germain striker Edinson Cavani told a news conference on Monday. “Uruguay have earned their respect,” said Cavani who scored a brilliant fifth goal with a venemous free kick in last week’s first leg in Amman. The Uruguayans suffered a form slump in 2012

that jeopardised their qualification chances but were desperate to make it to Brazil, given the rivalry with their northern neighbours and the memory of the ‘Maracanazo’. Cavani’s side, semi-finalists at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, do not want to show any lack of respect to their playoff opponents despite the one-sided nature of last week’s match. The Interior Ministry have urged the sellout crowd of 45,000 at the Centenario, the stadium where Uruguay won their first World Cup in 1930, not to whistle or boo the Jordanian national anthem before kickoff. “Uruguay took a substantial step towards qualifying for Brazil 2014 and they did so without humiliating their rivals even if the loaded scoreline appears to suggest the opposite,” the ministry said in a statement at the weekend. “The thousands of Jordanians who

watched the match enjoyed the light blues’s game. A packed stadium dreaming of another result ended up applauding our team, showing that respect is ... as valuable as the dream of playing at a World Cup.” A team brimming with top talent such as Liverpool’s Luis Suarez and his strike partner Cavani would have to experience a true nightmare not to go through to the finals from this position. Coach Oscar Tabarez, who is likely to name an unchanged team, is not expecting any complacency from his side. “Footballers often feel their motivation according to their needs,” he said. “When there’s no need there’s no motivation but I think as we get nearer the match ... things will fall into place and I hope we can fulfil our objective which is to play a very good match.” —Reuters

Australia take aim at England’s bid for history

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

UCLA down Sacramento State

Maracanazo 1950 repeat is the spur for Uruguay

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KUWAIT: Talal Nayef No. 21 of Kuwait vies for the ball with Teeratep Winothai No. 14 of Thailand during the qualifying match for the 2015 Asian Cup. Yousef Naser hit a brace in the 19 and 71 minutes while Fahad Awad found the net in the 56th minute. Mongkol of Thailand reduced the margin. Kuwait won 3-1 to qualify for AFC Asian Cup — Photo by Yasser Al- Zayyat

Kuwait book Asian Cup spot Iran, Qatar, Oman and Uzbekistan qualify, China wait SINGAPORE: Three-times champions Iran cruised into the 2015 Asian Cup finals after thrashing Lebanon 4-1 yesterday, but China missed the chance to join them and face a nerve-jangling final qualifier after being held to a goalless draw by Saudi Arabia. World Cup-bound Iran were one of five teams to qualify for the finals from the nine matches played in the penultimate round yesterday, with fellow west Asian sides Qatar, Oman and Kuwait also securing berths, as well as Uzbekistan. Twelve teams have now booked a place at the 16-team finals in Australia, with few bigname casualties apart from in Group C, where 2007 winners Iraq or China will battle it out in March to decide who joins Saudi Arabia in escaping the group. China will feel they should already be plan-

ning an 11th consecutive appearance in the Asian showpiece event, but they could not find a way past a stubborn Saudi backline in Xi’an. “We need to learn how to convert dominance into a winning situation. I hope we can make it in the last game,” China’s caretaker coach, Fu Bo, told reporters. China have eight points from five games in the group, two ahead of Iraq, who kept their finals hopes alive by easing to a 2-0 win in Indonesia. Hammadi Ahmed scored with a powerful downward header and Kerrar Jassim coolly converted a penalty as the visitors were able to turn their attentions to a home match against China. “The result of China’s game means a lot for us,” Iraq coach Hakeem Shakir told reporters. “It benefits us as it puts China under pressure and it gives us a good chance to qualify.”

The best third-place side across the ﬁve qualifying groups will also secure a berth, meaning all might not be lost for the loser, with Iraq currently holding that position. They are just ahead of Lebanon, whose automatic chances were crushed in a 4-1 loss at home to Iran in Group B. Central defender Amir Hossein Sadeghi headed home a corner from the left just before halftime, with Ashkan Dejagah drilling in a second in the 51st minute. Captain Javad Nekounam slotted a penalty before Reza Ghoochannejhad continued his strong scoring form to make it 4-0 in a match that was played without fans following a double suicide bombing near the Iranian embassy in Beirut earlier yesterday. The result in the Lebanese capital helped Kuwait seal a place in Australia after they beat bottom side Thailand 3-1 at home to move on

to nine points from five matches, four behind Iran and four clear of Lebanon. Oman struck a 91st-minute winner to beat ‘home side’ Syria 1-0 in a poor quality Group A clash in Tehran. “Today you didn’t witness our best game, but ... I am happy with the result we achieved,” Oman coach Paul Le Guen said after Eid Al Farsi was afforded too much space to sidefoot home from 12 metres out. Jordan, trying to overturn a 5-0 first-leg deficit against Uruguay in their World Cup qualifier on Wednesday, were not in action in Group A but are expected to claim the second berth in the pool when they face Oman and Singapore early next year. The situation was less complex in Groups E and D, with Uzbekistan and Qatar securing away wins to emulate the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, who qualified on Friday.

Grizzlies beat Clippers LOS ANGELES: Zach Randolph had 26 points and 15 rebounds against his former team as the Memphis Grizzlies overcame the first-quarter ejection of shooting guard Tony Allen to beat the Los Angeles Clippers 106-102 on Monday in a rematch of their first-round playoff series. Marc Gasol had 23 points, nine rebounds and eight assists to help put the Grizzlies (6-5) over .500 for the first time this season. Mike Conley scored eight of his 15 points during a 4-minute span of the fourth quarter. Blake Griffin had 23 points and 11 rebounds for the Clippers. Chris Paul had 18 points and 11 assists for his 11 straight double-double, the most by any player from the start of a season since Magic Johnson in 1990-91. Allen was charged with a flagrant-2 foul with 1:51 left in the opening quarter after he lifted his left leg in a vain attempt to impede Paul’s drive to the basket and kicked him in the face. Allen walked over to Paul at the foul line to apologize while referees Bill Kennedy, Mark Ayotte and John Goble watched the replay at the official scorer’s table to determine the severity of the foul. TRAIL BLAZERS 108, NETS 98 LaMarcus Aldridge scored 27 points, Wesley Matthews added 24 as Portland earned its seventh straight victory. Damian Lillard finished with 19 points and nine assists as the Trail Blazers withstood the Nets’ blistering start to win seven in a row in the same season for the first time since a 13-game run in December 2007. Portland (9-2) is just a half-game behind San Antonio and Indiana for the NBA’s best record. The Blazers will try to complete a perfect 4-0 road trip Wednesday at Milwaukee. Shaun Livingston scored 23 points for the Nets, who stormed out to their best first quarter of the sea-

son and then seemed to run out of gas against the younger Trail Blazers. Kevin Garnett made all six shots in the 40-point first period, then went 2 for 13 from there to finish with a season-high 16 points. BULLS 86, BOBCATS 81 Luol Deng scored 21 points as the Bulls overcame a rough shooting night to record their fifth straight win. Carlos Boozer had 12 points and 17 rebounds for Chicago, which is on its longest winning streak since taking eight in a row from Feb. 20-March 7, 2012. Jimmy Butler had 14 points and Derrick Rose finished with 12. Deng’s 3-pointer with 27.1 seconds remaining gave the Bulls an 85-81 lead. Gerald Henderson then missed for the Bobcats, and Rose had a free throw to help Chicago wrap it up. Rose, who hit a career-high six 3-pointers in the Bulls’ 110-94 win Saturday over Indiana, went 4 for 13 from the field. The Bulls shot 27 of 75 (36 percent) overall. Jeffery Taylor led Charlotte with a career-high 20 points and Henderson had 16. THUNDER 115, NUGGETS 113 Kevin Durant scored 38 points and Russell Westbrook had 30 points and 12 rebounds as Oklahoma City rallied for the win. Westbrook also had seven assists in a terrific allaround game that helped Oklahoma City erase a 14point deficit in the second half. Reggie Jackson added 14 points. With the score tied at 105, Serge Ibaka pulled down an offensive rebound and found Durant for a 3-pointer that put Oklahoma City (7-3) ahead to stay. Jeremy Lamb and Derek Fisher each hit a pair of free throws in the final 14 seconds to help the Thunder hold on. Ty Lawson led Denver (4-6) with 29 points and eight assists. J.J. Hickson had 18

points and 19 rebounds. MAVERICKS 97, 76ERS 94 Monta Ellis scored 24 points, including 13 in the third quarter when Dallas took its first lead. Dirk Nowitzki and Shawn Marion had 20 points apiece for the Mavericks, who began a stretch of seven of nine games in Dallas. Nowitzki had 10 rebounds, and Marion chipped in seven. Ellis had 19 points in the second half and added a game-high 10 assists and two of Dallas’ 11 blocked shots. Two nights after a 35-point loss in New Orleans, the Sixers held the Mavericks scoreless for the first 5 minutes and led by 10 in the first half. Even after losing its lead for good late in the third quarter, Philadelphia stayed close behind Evan Turner, Tony Wroten and some late 3-pointers from James Anderson. Turner had 26 points, nine rebounds and seven assists while Wroten had 19 points and five steals. WARRIORS 98, JAZZ 87 Stephen Curry scored 22 points for Golden State, and Klay Thompson and Harrison Barnes had 17 apiece in the Warriors’ victory. Curry had eight assists and made four 3-pointers before leaving in the fourth quarter after Utah’s Marvin Williams landed on his head in a scramble for a loose ball. After a couple of minutes to gain his bearings, Curry got up and left the court under his own power with a towel draped over his head. Curry is expected to be ready for today’s home game against Memphis. The Warriors made 12 of 22 attempts from 3-point range and led by as many as 28 points. Gordon Hayward scored 18 points and Williams had 16 but the Jazz (1-11) dropped their third straight after earning their lone win of the season. — AP

Malaysia goalkeeper Khairul Fahmi Che Mat handed Qatar all three points in Kuala Lumpur when he came flying out of his goal as Sebastian Soria crossed for Abdulkareem Al Ali to steer into an empty net. Uzbekistan had a nervy wait against 10-man Hong Kong before they found the breakthrough in the 83rd minute thanks to Vokhid Shodiev, who swept in a right-foot effort on the turn. Talented midfielder Odil Ahmedov struck a second in the final moments for Uzbekistan, who reached the semi-finals four years ago. “We will do our best in Australia and try and do better than we did in Qatar,” said coach Mirdjalal Kasimov. The UAE made it five wins from five in Group E with a 5-0 thrashing of 10man Vietnam, while Bahrain eased to a 2-0 success over Yemen in Group D to remain a point clear of Qatar. — Reuters

Ghana qualify for third successive World Cup CAIRO: Ghana yesterday qualified for a third successive World Cup, securing their ticket to Brazil with a 7-3 aggregate win over Egypt. The Black Stars, who have featured at the 2006 and 2010 World Cup finals, lost the African zone play-off return leg in Cairo 2-1 but had already done enough in last month’s first leg in Kumasi, routing Egypt 6-1. Egypt took the lead yesterday in the 25th minute through Amr Zaki, who crashed his body against a free kick by Mohamed Aboutrika and Ghana goalkeeper Fatau Dauda misjudged the flight of the ball. Substitute Mohamed Gedo doubled the hosts’ advantage when he tucked home from inside the box in the 83rd minute. Kevin-Prince Boateng pulled a goal back for Ghana in the 88th minute, when he connected home a low cross from the right delivered by skipper Asamoah Gyan. For Egypt, it was too little, too late as the damage had been done in Ghana last month. This was the last chance for Egypt’s ‘Golden Generation’ of Aboutrika, Wael Gomaa and Said Moawad to appear at the World Cup after the Pharaohs’ last featured in the tournament in 1990. Egypt stayed in the attack for most of the first half, winning corners but never really threatened their opponents’ goal. Zaki shot at goal inside the first minute, but goalkeeper Dauda held it firmly. In the sixth minute, Spartak Moscow striker Majid Waris threatened the Egyptian goal after he was set up by Sulley Muntari, but his low shot was wide of the post. It was Ghana’s best chance of the first

period as the home side continued to pile on the pressure for a first goal. The Pharaohs were rewarded for their endeavor after 25 minutes after a piece of poor defending by Ghana. But it was not until the 35th minute that Egypt again threatened when Zaki’s dipping shot from outside the box was tipped over the bar by goalkeeper Dauda for a corner. A penalty appeal in the 41st minute for Egypt was overlooked by the Ivorian referee when it looked like Mohamed Salah had been brought down inside the box by Rashid Soumaila. In first half stoppage time, Hazem Emam tested the Black Stars’ goalkeeper with a low shot taken from inside the box after he was released by Salah. In the second half, Ghana tried to attack after they were pegged back in their own half in the first 45 minutes. In the 57th minute, Aboutrika, with his back to goal, hooked a good chance from inside the box, but it narrowly missed the target. Muntari’s free-kick in the 61st minute from outside the Egypt box was low and hard but it lacked accuracy. Ghana goalkeeper Fatau had to come off his lines in the 68th minute to thwart Basel forward Salah, who tried to use his pace to outrun his marker. In the 75th minute, Gedo was denied and moments later, Jerry Akaminko had to clear the ball off his line as Egypt continued to chase the game. In stoppage time, Mahmoud Shikabala missed a sitter after he was set up by Salah to sum up the night for Egypt. — AFP

Business

Volkswagen Kuwait GM wins VW Audi certificate Page 25

Gulf produced 129m tons of petrochemicals in 2012

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

Page 26 India opens first bank for women

Islamic MFs regrouping after purge, says study Page 22

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NEW DELHI: Iranian exhibitors wait for customers during the 33rd India International Trade Fair (IITF) in New Delhi yesterday. Forty-four countries and 27 Indian states are participating in the 14-day multi-product show focusing on the themes of tourism, industry and promoting exports of small and medium sized companies. —AFP

OECD lowers global growth outlook Risks for emerging markets; euro-zone still unsteady PARIS: Growth in advanced economies will pick up speed this year and next, but mostly at a slower pace than forecast as new risks loom, especially from emerging economies, the OECD said yesterday. Japan and the euro-zone will do slightly better than expected in both years as austerity policies retreat, monetary stimulus is maintained and ﬁnancial conditions improve, the OECD said. But the US economy will grow less quickly than forecast, with the OECD pointing to political dysfunction in Washington and the eventual tapering of monetary stimulus as factors that could hamper recovery. The organization, a 34-nation policy forum for developed democracies, revised global growth of gross domestic product down by nearly half a percentage point both this year, to 2.7 percent, and next, to 3.6 percent. In a ﬁrst estimate for 2015, it foresaw growth of 3.9 percent. Global “outcomes this year and near-term prospects appear a little weaker than had been expected in May, at the time of the previous Economic Outlook,” the OECD said. The future of monetary stimulus in the United States has become a central risk worldwide, the OECD

said, adding to long-standing problems, such as the fragility of euro-zone banks and a decade of soaring Japanese public debt. The OECD urged the US Federal Reserve central bank to maintain its ultra-easy monetary policy for some time, and it suggested that the European Central Bank consider extra action to relax monetary conditions if deflationary pressures increased. The latest OECD outlook report said that old worries “have been augmented by new concerns, most notably the possibility of significant financial instability in advanced and, especially, (emerging economies) during the exit from unconventional monetary policies in the United States.” Emerging economies, until recently a driver of global activity, could become a drag. Moreover, the OECD warned, if political battles in Washington were to make a debt ceiling in the United States binding next year, the outcome could have “extreme” effects on the world economy. Any automatic policy to cut spending by the US government, “could have large adverse effects on the stability and growth of the world economy,” it said. “To prevent the possibility of

such disruptive effects”, the debt ceiling currently being fought over in US Congress “should be abolished”. The forecast for US growth in 2013 was slashed to 1.7 percent from 1.9 percent, but edged up to 2.9 percent for 2014. The OECD said that efforts to slow fiscal consolidation in the US and the euro-zone were appropriate given slightly improving public finances and the uncertain economic outlook. Japan on the other hand, must implement “strong fiscal tightening” in order to cut its debt. But despite this overhang, Japan’s recent efforts to jumpstart the economy will bear fruit with the OECD now forecasting 1.8-percent growth in 2013 instead of 1.6 percent. In 2014, Japanese growth will slow to 1.5 percent, hobbled by debt. The OECD said that the euro-zone still had the potential to unsettle the world economy and urged the currency bloc to press on with its banking union reform which includes a stringent stress test for banks. The OECD weakened its recession outlook in the currency area this year to contraction of 0.4 percent instead of 0.6 percent, and forecast growth of 1.0 percent in 2014.

Saudi market slips, Egypt up MIDEAST STOCK MARKETS DUBAI: Saudi Arabia’s index shed 0.6 percent yesterday as some investors booked profits after a three -week rally, while Egypt ’s bourse continued to strengthen on hopes for fresh Saudi aid and progress towards political reform. The Saudi index had been gaining steadily since the end of October, helped by renewed confidence in the petrochemical sector and a region-wide hunt for dividend yields ahead of the year-end. “Today we are seeing small profit-taking activity,” said Rami Sidani, head of investment at Schroders Middle East. “That was to be expected after the rally.” Saudi Arabia’s Capital Market Authority announced new rules on Monday which, once they take effect next July, will compel companies with accumulated losses totalling 50 percent of their capital to announce plans to remedy their financial standing. Comnpanies with much bigger losses will face penalties including suspension of trading in their shares. Analysts said the insurance sector, which has faced tough competition in the last few years despite growing revenues and has over 30 listed companies, was likely to be most affected by the rules. The several firms in the sector

which already have accumulated losses of 50 percent or are approaching that level will face heavier pressure to improve their performance or exit the sector. This could benefit them or, by accelerating a shakeout in the industry, benefit the larger companies. The sector slightly outperformed the overall market yesterday, declining 0.4 percent. Egypt’s bourse rose 1.0 percent as expectations continued to build for a new financial aid package from the oil-rich Gulf states following media reports this week that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates could pledge an additional $9 billion. Next month, Egyptians are expected to vote in a referendum on a new constitution as part of a transition back to civilian rule following the ouster of former president Mohammed Morsi in July by an army-backed government. Yesterday, a street protest in Cairo - commemorating the second anniversary of the deaths of 42 people in clashes with security forces was dispersed by police who used tear gas, but no fatalities have been reported. Schroders’ Sidani said Egyptian stocks - which have risen 34 percent since Morsi’s ouster could climb further on the back of Gulf support and political stabiliza-

tion. “I expect the strong performance to continue,” he said. Other regional markets were little changed yesterday. Dubai’s index was the most volatile, rising as much as 1.0 percent during the day before closing flat at 2,856 points. It faces major technical resistance around 2,900 points, where the market stalled in late October and early November. Many analysts expect the market will trade sideways until Nov. 27 when the result of Dubai’s bid to host the Expo 2020 world fair will be announced. “On some days you will see people getting excited about the Expo and buying, on other days you will see people taking profits,” said a United Arab Emirates portfolio manager. Qatar Exchange cancelled all transactions executed yesterday after an unspecified technical problem disrupted its trading platform. The exchange said it hoped to resume trading as usual on Wednesday morning. It gave no details of the technical problem, which initially brought trading to a halt during the morning before it resumed for a short time, then halted again for the rest of the day. The market in Kuwait was closed for an Afro-Arab summit. — Reuters

PARIS: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Deputy Secretary General and Chief Economist Pier Carlo Padoan delivers a speech during a press conference yesterday in Paris. — AFP

EU’s contested 2014-2020 budget clears last hurdle STRASBOURG: The EU’s contested 2014-2020 budget cleared a ﬁnal hurdle yesterday when it was approved by the European Parliament after months of bitter debate between EU institutions over planned spending cuts. The ﬁrst-ever trimmed long-term budget was approved by a large majority of 682 MEPs, including the conservatives and the socialists. The Greens and the radical left voted against. Known as the Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF), the European Union budget provides for 908 billion euros in payments against 960 billion euros in funding commitments, 3.7 percent and 3.5 percent less respectively than in the previous 2007-2013 budget. The last step for the seven-year blueprint, which sets out the 28-nation bloc’s spending priorities according to economic and political targets, will be formal approval in the next days by EU states. Yesterday’s vote marked the end of long bickering that saw the budget go back and forth between austerity-minded governments on the one hand, and the EU’s execu-

tive European Commission and MEPs, on the other, who wanted more funds to boost growth and jobs. European Parliament President Martin Schulz, a German Socialist, welcomed the vote, saying it would allow EU funds to flow on time from January 1. “It means much needed EU funds can be invested into programs ranging from combating youth unemployment, support for less-well off regions in the EU via the structural funds, to much-needed funding in research and development and support for agriculture.” But he reiterated that “the amounts available from the MFF are far from perfect” regretting the “higher amounts” touted by the parliament and the commission that “would have boosted a job-rich recovery”. The leader of the parliament’s conservative EPP group, MEP Jean-Luc Dehaene, underlined however that lawmakers had won key improvements to the budget during their long months of battle with tight-fisted EU states. “We have turned the financial framework 2014-2020 into an

investment fund for growth and jobs, by ensuring European money will be used where it is most needed and where our policy priorities lie,” he said. MEPs said they had won the right to a mid-term review of the MFF at the latest in 2016 for the next parliament that will emerge from elections in May. They also secured additional funds for youth unemployment, the Erasmus university exchange programme and small and medium enterprises which will be frontloaded in the ﬁrst two years, as well as an agreement for the parliament to seek to raise its own direct income. Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, told AFP in Vilnius that yesterday’s vote was “crucial to encourage European economic growth and competitiveness”. “The approval will ensure that EU ﬁnancial support will reach member states on time and money will be allocated from the beginning of next year for key areas, notably tackling youth unemployment.” MEPs voted 537 in favour, 126 against and with 19

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

BUSINESS

Islamic MFs regrouping after purge, says study 105 funds closed since 2011

NEW YORK: Traders work in a booth on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Doubts over whether Wall Street can keep on posting record gains weighed on global stock markets yesterday. —AP

DUBAI: Islamic mutual funds are emerging from a shakeout that has seen 105 of them close since 2011, and the departures of small and struggling managers will benefit the funds that remain, according to a study released yesterday. The last few years have been difficult for Islamic funds, with firms pulling out as they were hurt by the global financial crisis and as slumping equity markets reduced investor interest. But this year has seen the highest number of Islamic fund launches in four years, 94, and only 22 liquidations, the lowest number since 2007, the study by Lipper and Thomson Reuters said. The number of Islamic mutual funds globally reached 786 this year, up from 687 in 2012 and double the number in 2007, the study showed. The sector is still dominated by Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Luxembourg, which host a combined 71 percent of all funds, while Indonesia saw the largest number of launches this year at 17.

According to Lipper data, Islamic mutual funds now hold about $46 billion of assets under management, up from $41 billion at the end of 2012, recovering from a low of $36 billion in 2010. Islamic money market funds are now the largest segment, overtaking equity funds for the first time, the study showed. They now hold $20.1 billion in assets after net inflows of $3.2 billion in 2013, while equity funds hold $19.7 billion after net inflows of $1.5 billion this year. Islamic fund managers screen their portfolios according to religious guidelines such as bans on tobacco, alcohol and gambling, in much the same way as socially responsible funds. But unlike their ethical counterparts in Western markets, they still struggle with a lack of scale; 346 of them have less than $10 million in assets under management. Only 80 funds have more than $100 million in assets, and the ten largest Islamic funds represent over 44 percent of

assets. The sector is thus a work in process: a survey of fund managers conducted for the study found that most still considered their product ranges to be in the development, infancy or growth stages. They remain cautious about launching new funds, instead focusing on growing existing ones, with two-thirds of those surveyed not expecting to launch new funds next year. Those that plan new launches will focus their funds on equities and Islamic bonds (sukuk). Most new funds will be domestic in nature, with only 20 percent of managers who plan new launches expecting to register their funds offshore. The study said pensions, fund passports making it easier to attract investors across national boundaries, and appeals to ethical investors were areas of opportunity for Islamic fund managers, although such efforts were in their early stages. — Reuters

Aldar Properties picks banks for sukuk sale Qatar Airways to launch Saudi services in 2014 DUBAI: Qatar Airways will launch domestic operations in Saudi Arabia in the first half of 2014, the chief executive of the airline said yesterday. Akbar Al Baker said the Saudi domestic services carrier will be called Al-Maha Airways and will start with the main cities of the kingdom including Riyadh and Jeddah, and then move to the second-tier cities. “We have chosen the name of the Saudi carrier ... Al-Maha Airways. We hope to start operations in the first half of next year,” Baker told Reuters at the Dubai Airshow. Qatar Airways and Bahrain’s national carrier Gulf Air became the first foreign airlines to obtain carrier licenses in Saudi, following the opening of the country’s aviation market last December. Currently, only national carrier Saudi Arabian Airlines and budget airline National Air Services serve a domestic market of about 27 million people. Foreign carriers can only fly in and out of Saudi Arabia, not within the country. With Saudi Arabia’s price cap on domestic flights, private airlines have struggled with their profit margins. Saudi Airlines, which is undergoing a slow privatization process, receives fuel at subsidized prices unlike private carri-

ABU DHABI: Aldar Properties, Abu Dhabi’s largest property developer, has hired five banks to arrange the sale of a benchmark-sized Islamic bond, or sukuk, to refinance debt, three banking sources aware of the matter said. The proposed bond sale would be Aldar’s first since it completed its Abu Dhabi government-backed merger with Sorouh Real Estate in June to create the second-largest listed property firm in the United Arab Emirates and one of the biggest in the Middle East, with assets of $13 billion. The majority state-owned firm has hired National Bank of Abu Dhabi, First Gulf Bank Dubai Islamic Bank , Standard Chartered and Goldman Sachs Inc , the sources said, requesting anonymity because the information is not yet public. Aldar plans to issue the sukuk before year-end, the sources added. Benchmark-sized typically means that the size of a bond will be at

ers, allowing it to offset the limits of the ticket cost ceiling. “There is huge potential but also many challenges in the Saudi market,” Baker said. “We have an undertaking from the Saudi authorities that they will resolve the two contentious issues of price cap and fuel subsidies,” Baker said. Gulf airlines splashed out around $150 billion on the opening day of the airshow, as they ordered hundreds of passenger jets to expand a common ambition to turn the region into a global aviation hub. Qatar Airways ordered 50 of Boeing’s new 777 in an order worth $19 billion. “We are not overdoing it,” said Baker on the spree of plane order announcements. “We are all growing in this region ... and if we are growing, we must be doing something right.” He said the airline would deploy its fleet on new growth markets and would look to expand further. However, he denied media reports that the carrier was close to taking an equity stake in an Indian airline. “We are talking to Go Air, Indigo, SpiceJet and Air India but we are talking about codeshares,” said Baker. “So we are not getting into bed with somebody. When we want to do it we will say that we are interested.” — Reuters

Egypt’s bank profits to be flat in 2013: Official

CEO of Abu Dhabi investment firm TNI resigns DUBAI: The chief executive of Abu Dhabibased investment firm, The National Investor (TNI), has resigned and a replacement is yet to be named, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters yesterday. Orhan Osmansoy, who joined TNI in 2004, was instrumental in expanding the company into a regional investment firm, operating in private equity, investment advisory and asset management businesses. However the company was hard hit during the global financial crisis. It shed dozens of jobs - more than half of its workforce - last year as, like a number of rival Middle Eastern investment firms, it struggled to boost revenue and remain profitable in depressed capital markets. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Osmansoy resigned last week, but declined to say why he left. A

least $500 million. “Post-merger, Aldar is adopting prudent and strategic measures to refinance and pay its debt, and a sukuk issuance is a logical step with the markets looking good,” one banking source involved in the deal said. A spokesman for Aldar in Abu Dhabi declined to comment. When it was struggling during Abu Dhabi’s property market crash, Aldar received government support worth around $10 billion, to be paid in instalments over time, in exchange for assets including Abu Dhabi’s Formula One track, a Ferrari-themed amusement park and residential property developments. The firm is committed to reducing its debt pile, Chief Financial Officer Greg Fewer had said in a conference call after posting third-quarter results. Aldar’s debt at the end of third quarter was 11.3 billion dirhams ($3.1 billion) maturing

spokesman for the company declined to comment, and Osmansoy could not immediately be reached for comment. Privately-owned TNI’s net profit rose to 3.9 million dirhams ($1.06 million) in the 2011/2012 fiscal year after plummeting to 2.2 million dirhams the year before from 30.8 million dirhams in 2009/2010. Consolidated revenue rose 5 percent to 107.1 million dirhams in 2011/2012. The firm has advised on the initial public offerings of companies such as Aldar Properties and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank. Earlier this year, it advised Saudi Arabia’s Al Zahrawi Holding LLC, a subsidiary of the Al-Muhaidib Group, on the sale of a 49 percent stake in its medical distribution operations in the UAE and Qatar to Jeddah-based healthcare investment firm ReAya Holding. — Reuters

ABU DHABI: Profits at Egypt’s banks are likely to be flat this year because of lower Treasury bill yields and a lack of lending opportunities, the deputy governor of the country’s central bank said yesterday. “Profits will be the same as 2012 - no growth in profitability because yields on Treasury bills are lower,” Gamal Negm told Reuters on the sidelines of an economic conference in Abu Dhabi. Egyptian banks saw their net profits jump 30 percent in 2012, he said. The main driver was banks’ heavy investment in government T-bills and bonds, whose yields jumped because of the state’s worsening financial position in the wake of the February 2011 revolution which ousted President Hosni Mubarak. Yields on T-bills have fallen sharply, reducing banks’ returns from them, since Islamist President Mohammed Morsi was ousted in July this year and three Gulf states began delivering billions of dollars of aid to Egypt. The average yield on 91-day Egyptian T-bills at an auction this week, for example, was 10.799 percent, down from 14.371 percent in late June. Also, while Egyptian banks have plenty of deposits, they are still having difficulty finding lending opportunities given the weakness of the economy and political uncertainty. This has left their loans-to-deposit ratio around 48 to 49 percent, Negm said; in fast-growing economies the ratio is much higher. “We believe that if we have a tight lending process during the good times, it will save your neck during the bad times. The challenge is to find viable project and lending opportunities,” Negm said. Both the government and the private sector should initiate projects for banks to finance, but the key issue is economic stability, he added. However, the banks’ financial health is improving, he said; the ratio of their loans that is non-performing fell to 9.5 percent in the second quarter of 2013 while on average they have set aside provisions to cover 98 percent of the NPLs, he added. — Reuters

over the next 12 months, some of which the company plans to refinance, Fewer had said. It has a $1.25 billion bond maturing in May 2014. Aldar also refinanced two bank facilities totaling 4 billion dirhams, reducing its cost of borrowing significantly. These loans are currently undrawn and will be used for refinancing purposes. The firm made a third-quarter profit of 407.5 million dirhams, nearly double the profit made a year ago. Real estate prices in Abu Dhabi dropped 50 percent from their 2008 peak after a property bubble burst, causing many proposed developments to be stalled or scrapped. While there are still fears of oversupply in the market, prices have begun to recover in recent months, helping Aldar’s shares to nearly double in value year-to-date, according to Thomson Reuters data. The shares fell 0.4 percent in the Abu Dhabi bourse yesterday. —Reuters

Brent slips to near $108 ahead of Iran nuke talks SINGAPORE: Brent slipped towards $108 a barrel yesterday as investors eyed this week’s round of talks between world powers and Iran that could lead to an easing of sanctions on the oil-rich country. Renewed concern about the possible tightening of monetary policy in the United States further undercut prices. January Brent crude fell 15 cents to $108.132 a barrel by 0925 GMT, down for the third straight session. US crude for December edged down 11 cents to $92.92. The six major powers and Iran will meet from today to try to forge an interim deal on Tehran’s nuclear program. US Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday pressed Iran to finalise a deal, but said he has “no specific expectations” for talks in Geneva. Sanctions on Iran have kept around 1 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil from the global market and any deal could allow some of that oil to be sold, depressing a market that is already well supplied. “It seems likely some deal will be signed between the parties over the weekend. It will probably be interim and won’t mean much in terms of relief on oil sanctions but it will give important time frame for the next steps,” said Petromatrix analyst Olivier Jakob. Two blasts targeted the Iranian embassy in Beirut yesterday, leaving at least 18 dead and reviving fears that the 2-1/2-year conflict in Syria could spill over into the neighboring Lebanon. Ongoing supply disrup-

tions in Libya supported Brent futures. Fighting between rival militias and industrial unrest have spread across the country, causing its crude exports to fall by more than 1 million bpd over the past six months. US crude futures posted their biggest daily loss in nearly a week on Monday after top Fed officials pointed to improvements in the US economy that could spur the central bank to start “tapering” its $85 billion-amonth stimulus program. Comments from likely incoming Fed chief Janet Yellen last week had suggested the central bank would continue with its ultra-loose monetary policy for some time. Many in the markets do not expect any change until March. The price gap between West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent may widen to $15 this week if US oil data showed higher inventories, said Yusuke Seta, a commodity sales manager at Newedge Japan. “WTI is leading the crude market downwards because production in the US is increasing steadily and inventories in Cushing are rising,” he said. US crude inventories were forecast to have increased by 100,000 barrels last week, while gasoline supply grew by 200,000 barrels, according to a Reuters poll. Industr y group the American Petroleum Institute will release its weekly data later while the US Energy Information Administration will report its data today.—Reuters

EXCHANGE RATES Al-Muzaini Exchange Co. ASIAN COUNTRIES 2.834 4.539 2.637 2.162 2.821 228.400 36.618 3.645 6.511 9.006 0.271 0.273 GCC COUNTRIES Saudi Riyal 75.737 Qatari Riyal 78.037 Omani Riyal 737.790 Bahraini Dinar 754.350 UAE Dirham 77.346 ARAB COUNTRIES Egyptian Pound - Cash 40.950 Egyptian Pound - Transfer 40.761 Yemen Riyal/for 1000 1.325 Tunisian Dinar 170.820 Jordanian Dinar 401.071 Lebanese Lira/for 1000 1.905 Syrian Lira 3.085 Morocco Dirham 34.749 EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 283.900 Euro 384.680 Sterling Pound 459.350 Canadian dollar 273.420 Turkish lira 140.010 Swiss Franc 311.640 Australian Dollar 268.800 US Dollar Buying 282.700 GOLD 20 Gram 244.000 10 Gram 124.000 5 Gram 64.000 Japanese Yen Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Srilankan Rupees Nepali Rupees Singapore Dollar Hongkong Dollar Bangladesh Taka Philippine Peso Thai Baht Irani Riyal Irani Riyal

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 270.24 275.99 315.01 386.57 283.30 460.99 2.89 3.644 4.498 2.162 2.812 2.642 77.20 754.03 41.12 403.20 736.76 78.23 75.68

SELL CASH 268.000 274.000 313.000 386.000 286.200 461.000 2.900 3.800 4.890 2.600 3.400 2.770 77.600 755.3000 41.200 408.500 743.300 78.600 76.000

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 283.650 274.575 458.005 386.530 311.135 748.980 77.205 78.760 76.510 399.850 41.126 2.162 4.559 2.636 3.644 6.501 696.700 3.830 09.965

Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees Malaysian Ringgit Chinese Yuan Renminbi

Singapore Dollar South African Rand Sri Lankan Rupee Taiwan Thai Baht

3.025 3.805 89.415 46.975

Bahrain Exchange Company CURRENCY Belgian Franc British Pound Czech Korune Danish Krone Euro Norwegian Krone Romanian Leu Slovakia Swedish Krona Swiss Franc Turkish Lira Australian Dollar New Zealand Dollar Canadian Dollar US Dollars US Dollars Mint 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

BUY Europe 0.007383 0.451630 0.006679 0.047322 0.378183 0.042505 0.081948 0.008162 0.038795 0.303787 0.138797 Australasia 0.258019 0.230839 America 0.266881 0.279900 0.280400 Asia 0.003395 0.045249 0.034543 0.004374 0.000021 0.002750 0.003372 0.000257 0.084809 0.003042 0.002518 0.006458 0.000080

SELL 0.008383 0.460630 0.018679 0.052322 0.385663 0.047795 0.81948 0.018162 0.043795 0.313987 0.146797 0.269519 0.240339 0.275381 0.284250 0.284250 0.003995 0.048749 0.037293 0.004775 0.000027 0.002930 0.003372 0.000272 0.090809 0.003212 0.002798 0.006738 0.000075

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 Yemeni Riyal

0.224733 0.022050 0.001901 0.009487 0.008751 Arab 0.746859 0.038445 0.000079 0.000184 0.396351 1.0000000 0.000139 0.022761 0.001203 0.731631 0.077298 0.075097 0.002176 0.166958 0.138797 0.076341 0.001290

0.230733 0.030550 0.002481 0.009667 0.009301 0.754859 0.041545 0.000080 0.000244 0.403851 1.0000000 0.000239 0.046761 0.001838 0.737311 0.078511 0.075797 0.002396 0.174958 0.146797 0.077490 0.001370

Al Mulla Exchange Currency Transfer Rate (Per 1000) US Dollar 283.300 Euro 385.750 Pound Sterling 458.850 Canadian Dollar 273.750 Indian Rupee 4.565 Egyptian Pound 41.112 Sri Lankan Rupee 2.161 Bangladesh Taka 3.643 Philippines Peso 6.505 Pakistan Rupee 2.638 Bahraini Dinar 754.500 UAE Dirham 77.200 Saudi Riyal 75.700 *Rates are subject to change

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

BUSINESS

Etihad announces order for 52 CFM engines Engines to power new A321NEO aircraft DUBAI: Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, has announced an order with CFM International for 52LEAP-1A engines to power 26 new Airbus A321neo aircraft. The order, unveiled at the Dubai Air Show 2013, includes a 15-year Rate Per Flight Hour (RPFH) agreement, under which CFM International will guarantee maintenance costs on a dollar per engine flight hour basis. TheLEAP-1A engines will be fitted onto 26 A321neo aircraft, which form part of a US$ 26.9 billion order with Airbus also announced yesterday by Etihad Airways. Delivery of the aircraft is scheduled to commence from 2020. James Hogan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Etihad Airways, said: “Etihad Airways prides itself on operating modern, state-of-the-art and highly efficient aircraft, with the Airbus A320 family at the heart of our narrowbody fleet. “Through the introduction of brand new Airbus A320neo family aircraft, we will benefit from even lower fuel con-

sumption and environmental impact on short-haul and medium-haul flights. Much of these operational improvements will derive from the advanced LEAP-1A engine, which has been meeting all performance targets.” Rooted in advanced aerodynamics and materials technology development programs, LEAP engines are designed to provide 15 per cent better fuel consumption and an equivalent reduction in CO2 emissions compared to today’s best CFM engine, along with a 50 per cent reduction in oxides of nitrogen emissions and up to 75 per cent less engines noise footprint. CFM International completed ground testing of the first full LEAP engine last month, with a five-week program that involved more than 400 cycles over 310 hours. Engine certification is expected in 2015, followed by first entry into commercial service on the A320neo in 2016. Jean-Paul Ebanga, President and CEO of CFM International, said: “We are happy to welcome Etihad Airways as a CFM customer. In just 10 years, this airline

has built a reputation for excellence in every facet of its business, and we are honored to become part of this team. “We are excited that Etihad Airways

chose to power its new A321 aircraft with the LEAP engine. We think this engine is going to be the best we’ve ever built and Etihad Air ways will

realise the benefits from day one - lower fuel burn, lower noise and emissions, all with CFM’s legendary reliability and low cost of ownership.”

Airbus considers A320 production increase Supply chain deciding factor: Leahy

MUMBAI: An all-female bank staff are pictured at their terminals during the inauguration of the first branch of the Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB), India’s first state owned women’s bank in Mumbai yesterday. The Bharatiya Mahila Bank, an Indian financial services banking company, began its operations yesterday to coincide with the birth anniversary of former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi, the country’s first female premier. — AFP

India opens first bank for women MUMBAI: India’s prime minister yesterday inaugurated the country’s first state-owned bank for women, aimed at strengthening their financial security and empowering them after a string of sex crimes highlighted gender inequality. Premier Manmohan Singh opened the Bharatiya Mahila Bank (Indian Women’s Bank) in south Mumbai, home to one of seven branches that are now operational. The bank was announced in February, when India was still reeling from the fatal gang-rape of a student in the capital. It focuses on lending to women and aims to employ mostly women, although men will also be able to open accounts. Currently only 26 percent of women in India have formal bank accounts. “The sad reality is that women in India face discrimination and hardship at home, at school, at their place of work and in public places. Their social, economic and political empowerment remains a distant goal,” said Singh at the launch. “The setting up of the Bharatiya Mahila Bank is a small step towards the economic empowerment of women,” he added. While this is the first such state initiative, there are existing co-operative banks run for and by women, such as the Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank in the western state of Maharashtra. According to its website, the

Mann Deshi bank was set up in 1997 and is now the state’s largest microfinance bank with over 185,000 clients. The new Bharatiya Mahila Bank, headquartered in New Delhi, is due to have 25 branches by next March and is chaired by Usha Ananthasubramanian, a former executive director of the Punjab National Bank. Over a seven-year period, it plans to open 771 branches. The board of directors is made up of eight women, said Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who set aside 10 billion rupees ($161 million) to capitalize the new bank in his 2013/14 budget. “It will create more job opportunities for women and it will pay special attention to the weaker and more neglected sections of women,” he told reporters at the new Mumbai branch. The bank presently has 86 employees across the country and more than 55 percent are women, a senior official told AFP on Monday at the swanky Delhi office, on the ninth floor of a sky-blue glass high-rise in the city’s commercial centre. “This bank was planned for a good cause and because of that we saw scores of eager applicants willing to work here,” said the official on condition of anonymity. The Delhi bank branch and corporate office are expected to open after state elections in December. — AFP

Qantas urges campaign to halt foreign takeover of skies SYDNEY: Qantas launched an online campaign yesterday to lobby the Australian government against the “foreign takeover” of the nation’s skies caused by increased overseas investment in rival Virgin Australia. Chief executive Alan Joyce has demanded Canberra halt a capital raising by Virgin Australia, which is already 63 percent owned by Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand and Abu Dhabi-based Etihad. He claims it will destabilize Qantas, charging that the Aus$350 million ($328 million) raised by its main domestic rival could boost foreign ownership in Virgin Australia to up to 80 percent. “No other country on Earth would passively allow such a foreign takeover to happen,” Joyce wrote in a memo to staff cited by The Sydney Daily Telegraph. “If you feel as strongly as I do, I encourage you to make your voice heard as well. Write a letter to your local federal representative. Make a phone call. Speak up on social media.” The memo was followed by an online petition-fairgo4qantas-which has so far attracted more than 5,000 signatures to support its campaign. “As Qantas staff

and supporters of Qantas, we are proud of our airline and we know that in any fair fight we will come out on top,” it reads. “However the unfair playing field in Australian aviation is a risk to the future of Qantas and all our jobs. “We must not let three foreign government backed airlines take control of Virgin and ruin the Australian aviation industry for which we have fought so hard.” Virgin Australia has argued that it has worked hard to build its business, saying the landscape of Australian aviation had changed forever and was no longer a monopoly. But Joyce said Virgin had been losing money for months, driven by a strategy of setting uncompetitively low prices to win customers from Qantas. “With the benefit of unlimited sovereign funds-including the recent injection of a further $300 million-Virgin can set prices below a competitive level simply because, unlike us, they don’t need to make a profit,” he said. Under the Qantas Sale Act, enacted when the airline was privatized in 1995, foreign ownership in the national carrier is limited to 49 percent. — AFP

DUBAI: Airbus is considering an increase in production of its A320 medium-haul aircraft, taking output above 42 planes per month, sales chief John Leahy told Reuters yesterday. The comments, in an interview at the Dubai Airshow, mark the planemaker’s first response to an increase in production of the competing 737 announced by Boeing three weeks ago. Together, the industry’s most-sold jets generate much of the cash used by leading planemakers to fund developments such as the Airbus A350 and revamped Boeing 777X launched this week. “We are studying an increase in production,” Leahy told Reuters in an interview at the Dubai Airshow. He declined to say when Airbus, a unit of European aerospace group EADS, would

make a decision, but said market forces alone would support production matching Boeing’s. “Once again (the issue) is the supply chain. There is demand out there for more A320ceo and neo aircraft,” Leahy said. “There are two different problems: one would be increasing current production of the A320ceo and the other is ramping up production of the A320neo. But if we had more ceos right now we could sell them, and we certainly could sell more A320neos.” Airbus produces 42 of the current version of the A320 - known in the industry as A320ceo and plans a new version called A320neo to be delivered starting from 2015. Boeing said on Oct. 31 it would increase production of its 737 aircraft to 47 planes per

month by 2017 from 38 now, leapfrogging its previous target of 42 a month. It plans to deliver a competitor to the A320neo, the 737 MAX, from 2016. Airbus has repeatedly claimed 60 percent of sales for these fuel-saving versions of mediumhaul planes. “We are pretty content with that, so that means our production rate would have to at least have to be equal to or greater than theirs (Boeing’s),” Leahy said. He also reiterated that Airbus continued to sell more wide-body jets than its rival, despite the launch of a new version of the 777 with $100 billion of orders on Sunday. Boeing denies that Airbus has weakened its traditional hold on such sales. —Reuters

Shale boom, EM growth to put refining on back foot CHICAGO: Commodity traders have a lot to look forward to from the new age of oil abundance; refiners, though, not so much. Booming production of crude oil from shale rock is reducing North America’s reliance on imports. Add steady growth in demand for oil in countries like China and India, and the International Energy Agency sees big changes ahead for global trade flows. For decades, the black gold has mainly moved westwards. Oil-rich Middle Eastern countries pumped way more crude than they could consume, selling it to Americans, Europeans and other rich foreigners whose domestic production couldn’t keep up with demand. The IEA’s latest projections suggest the pattern should reverse as Asian demand grows and the United States becomes the world’s biggest crude producer. By the mid2030s, the agency expects Asian imports to more than double to above 25 million barrels of oil per day. Imports by the OECD countries are expected to fall by about half to 10 million bar-

rels per day. If that’s right, it’s good news for oil traders. Shifting trade patterns will inevitably create bottlenecks and price gaps for middlemen to exploit. Refiners face a tougher time. Historically, big importing countries have preferred to buy crude and build refineries close to home instead of relying wholly on foreign distillates. That implies a big buildup in Asian refining capacity, led by India and China. But global refining is already oversupplied to the tune of about 5 percent of today’s 92.8 million barrels per day of potential production. By 2035, the IEA reckons excess capacity could double. Either some refineries will have to shut or margins will take a hit, with much of the pain likely to hit in the West. Demand for oil products in OECD countries is flat or shrinking. Natural gas-derived transport fuels are eating into traditional refining demand. So US and European refiners will have to rely on exports to keep their facilities running full steam. Access to cheap shale oil should allow

American refiners to compete, but European rivals may struggle. On an average five-times forward enterprise value, shares of independent refiners such as Phillips 66, Neste Oil and PKN Orlen trade in line with their historical trend. If the IEA’s outlook holds true, a discount looks warranted. Oil trade flows are poised to change dramatically over the next two decades as the United States becomes less dependent on foreign crude and countries in Asia and the Middle East account for a growing share of oil imports, according to the International Energy Agency. The international oil watchdog’s annual World Energy Outlook, published on Nov. 12, estimates that emerging Asian economies could be importing more than 25 million barrels of oil per day by 2035, up from about 12 million barrels per day last year. Imports into the OECD club of rich countries - traditionally the world’s largest consumers of foreign oil - are expected to fall to about 10 million barrels per day from 20 million barrels per day over the same period. — Reuters

Qatar Exchange cancels day’s trades after technical snag DUBAI: Qatar Exchange, the wealthy Gulf state’s securities market, cancelled all transactions executed yesterday after an unspecified technical problem disrupted its trading platform. The highly unusual decision is a blow to Qatar just as the exchange, one of the Gulf’s top stock markets whose listed companies have a combined market value of about $130 billion, is reforming its trading practices in an effort to attract more foreign money. “After consultation with QFMA (Qatar Financial Markets Authority), it was agreed to cancel all transactions that took place today and any orders that had not been executed,” the exchange said in an emailed statement. “This was decided because the incident had affected the flow of information and the brokers’ ability to execute their clients’ orders in a sound and correct manner.” The exchange said it hoped to resume trading as usual today morning. It gave no details of the technical problem, which had initially brought trading to a halt during the morning, before it resumed for a short time, then halted again for the rest of the day. Senior exchange officials could not be contacted to comment further on the incident. Investors had traded 7.37 million shares in the Qatar market’s 20-stock main index when trading halted, according to exchange data. On Monday, a normal trading day, the entire market traded a total of 19.7 million shares worth a total of 641 million riyals ($176 million). The index on Monday set its highest closing level for five years, up 24 percent year-to-date. The exchange’s chief executive Rashid Bin Ali Al-Mansoori told Reuters last month that among other steps, Qatar Exchange had submitted proposals to the government for higher limits on foreign ownership of stocks, which could encourage more firms to make initial public offers of their shares.

The market received a boost in June when international equity index compiler MSCI decided to upgrade Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to “emerging market” from “frontier market” status. Inflows of foreign funds are expected to increase next May when the upgrade takes effect.

As part of a drive to internationalize Qatar’s market, NYSE Euronext bought a 20 percent stake in Qatar Exchange for $200 million in 2009. Last month Qatar Holding, the investment arm of the country’s sovereign wealth fund, bought out NYSE Euronext and ownership of the exchange is now entirely local. —Reuters

NEW DELHI: An Indian couple (L) bargains for a better deal with a Chinese exhibitor during the 33rd India International Trade Fair (IITF) in New Delhi yesterday. Forty-four countries and 27 Indian states are participating in the 14-day multi-product show focusing on the themes of tourism, industry and promoting exports of small and medium sized companies. — AFP

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

BUSINESS

Turkey keeps interest rates on hold ISTANBUL: Turkey’s central bank kept interest rates on hold yesterday but said it would maintain tight monetary policy as a weak lira puts upward pressure on inflation. The bank kept its main policy rate, the one-week repo rate, at 4.50 percent, its borrowing rate at 3.50 percent and its overnight lending rate at 7.75 percent, it said in a statement after its monthly monetary policy committee meeting. All 12 economists in a Reuters poll had expected key rates would be left unchanged. Emerging market currencies includ-

ing the lira have gained some ground since the US Federal Reserve opted not to begin trimming its bond buying program in September. But the lira remains near historic lows as Turkey’s huge current account deficit leaves it vulnerable to the withdrawal of capital from the developed world any reining in of Fed stimulus would be expected to generate. The Turkish lira was trading close to two-week highs yesterday ahead of a monetar y policy meeting which investors have speculated could flag tighter policy to support the weak currency and fight inflation. The bank can-

celled a one week repo auction yesterday in line with a policy of periodically tightening market liquidity which, along with dollar sales, has been used to support the lira instead of interest rate hikes. The lira was broadly flat at 2.0210 to the dollar by 0845 GMT from 2.0211 late on Monday. With no trades yet recorded yesterday, the yield on Turkey’s 10-year benchmark bond was flat at 9.05 percent. Istanbul’s main stock index fell 0.65 percent to 75,103 points, underperforming the broader emerging market index , which rose 0.32 percent.

Emerging markets have been moving in line with the to and for of expectations on how much longer the US Federal Reserve will maintain a bondbuying program of $85 billion monthly that has sent a flood of currency into the developing world. Turkey’s needs substantial inflows of foreign capital to finance its large current account deficit and the lira fell as much as 17 percent between January and September on expectations the Fed would rein in its program of stimulus. Hopes that the Fed will continue unabated into next year have given

some support to the lira and eased pressure on the Turkish central bank since. But the currency remains just 3 percent off its September lows. “It was getting dangerously close to a situation where the CBRT (Turkey’s central bank) would have to hike the rate corridor, irrespective of the contrary guidance it has recently given,” a note from Commerzbank said. “If world interest rates were to resume climbing, pressure on the lira would be back, and CBRT would soon have to re-align Turkish rates in order to keep the current account deficit financed.” —Reuters

Small Zambia cash grants pay big dividends to poor Targeting the poorest in rural areas

NEW DELHI: Indian visitors browse decorative lights at a Turkish stall during the 33rd India International Trade Fair (IITF) in New Delhi yesterday. Forty-four countries and 27 Indian states are participating in the 14-day multi-product show focusing on the themes of tourism, industry and promoting exports of small and medium sized companies. — AFP

Nigerian president delays budget on spending row ABUJA: Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan will not present the 2014 budget to the national assembly as planned yesterday because of a disagreement between his team and lawmakers over plans to curb spending, a senior government source told Reuters. Lawmakers indicated last month that they wanted to increase spending in the budget for next year, ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections in 2015. No new date has been fixed for the presentation, the source said. Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala proposed curbing spending in a 2014 budget framework paper after the government spent almost $6 billion of oil savings this year to cover budget revenue shortfalls. Economists however had said she would struggle to get the budget passed in parliament. A separate source in the national assembly said yesterday that lawmakers were unhappy with low capital expenditure, which they wanted to see increased to boost Africa’s second-largest economy. In addition, the House of Representatives and the Senate have both said they want a higher benchmark oil price assumption in the budget to free up more money for

spending. There were no state house security officials at the national assembly oyesterday morning and a red carpet laid out for the president outside the house of representatives had been removed, a Reuters witness said. In the budget framework, Ngozi allocated outgoings of 4.5 trillion naira ($28.27 billion) for 2014, against 5 trillion in 2013, but lawmakers usually increase spending and ask the executive arm of government to cover costs with improved revenue collection. Budget disagreements often centre around the oil benchmark price, over which Africa’s biggest crude exporter saves revenues from oil sales into the excess crude account (ECA). In the 2014 budget plan document, the finance ministry set the oil benchmark price $74 a barrel. The House of Representatives and the Senate last week each proposed amendments that would inflate the benchmark to $79 and $76.5 a barrel, respectively. Both moves, by increasing the price, would boost budget spending but reduce savings meant to shield the economy from oil price and production shocks. The ECA only holds around $3.3 billion, compared with $9 billion in December last year. — Reuters

Myanmar turns to Thailand, Japan to kick-start Dawei YANGON: Myanmar is set to wrest control of its Dawei industrial complex from Thai company Italian Thai Development over its failure to attract investors to a strategically located, multi-billion dollar project tipped as a gamechanger for regional trade. According to two sources involved in the Dawei Special Economic Zone (SEZ), plans have been overhauled to inject foreign capital and expertise to revive what is arguably Southeast Asia’s most ambitious industrial zone - a 250 sq km (100 sq mile) deep-sea port, petrochemical and heavy industry hub on the slim peninsular separating the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The project’s leader, ITD, and firms it had agreed contracts with, have been told to cease activities at Dawei to undergo due diligence by international auditors to create “better modality”, said a senior Myanmar government official. The review of a project that was for years stuck in a quagmire could be a significant boost to swelling Japanese industrial interests in the region, which include numerous deals with Myanmar’s pro-business, quasi-civilian government and long established automobile and high-tech manufacturing plants in neighboring Thailand, led by firms like Honda, Toyota , Canon Inc and Toshiba. The planned complex, which will include a steel mill, refinery and power plant, will be linked by highway to Bangkok and Thailand’s eastern seaboard industrial zone. That will mean Dawei could serve as an industry and trade gateway to Southeast Asia’s markets, bypassing the Malacca Straits, the world’s busiest shipping lane. Myanmar would ask for Japanese and Thai government support to appoint companies to carry out a revised plan for the first stage of Dawei, including a small port and access roads, setting up a water supply system and small gas-fired power plant “as quickly as possible”, the government source said, adding it had yet to be agreed which firms would be involved. The second stage would involve international tenders for the bigger projects, including the deep-sea port, and the building of a bigger power plant, which could be coal-

fired. It had also yet to be determined what role ITD, Thailand’s biggest construction company, would play in a project for which it was granted a 75-year concession under a deal struck in the 1990s with Myanmar’s then military government, which ceded power in 2011. “We’re trying to figure out a different model where ITD is going to be involved as well as other investors. We’re talking about billions of dollars, how can one company be able to develop all these projects?”, the source said. A Myanmar delegation was due to meet Thai and Japanese government officials in Bangkok from Wednesday. Thailand’s commerce minister said the gathering would see ITD relieved of its lead role and reimbursed for costs incurred. “The meeting’s agenda also includes termination of ITD’s contract in terms of the company’s role as Dawei project manager,” the minister, Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan, told reporters. “Myanmar wants to open up this project to other parties and involve international companies and governments in the other phases of Dawei’s construction and wants to ensure the project’s transparency.” Myanmar’s move on Dawei comes amid a series of liberal economic reforms to attract jobs and investment to one of Asia’s poorest states. A year ago, it asked for Thai support for the project and the government pledged financing from Thai banks, including Bangkok Bank and Siam Commercial Bank. Investors have expressed reluctance to commit to Dawei because of reservations over the leadership of ITD, which was dealt a blow last year when Max Myanmar, owned by local construction and banking tycoon Zaw Zaw, announced it would divest its 20 percent stake. Myanmar’s government has until now had a hands-off approach to Dawei and ITD has struggled to find private investors. Despite being hailed by ITD as “the new global gateway of Indochina”, with an estimated $50 billion value within the next decade, the project has been fraught with difficulties from the outset, including finding a power source amid concern about pollution from a proposed 4,000 megawatt coal-fired plant that Myanmar’s government rejected.—Reuters

LUSAKA: In rural Africa, where money is scarce and subsistence farming the norm, even small injections of cash can go far and help grow a local economy in surprising ways. These are among the findings of a study by the Washington-based American Institutes for Research (AIR), which over a two-year period analyzed Zambia’s monthly child grants to extremely poor households in three rural districts. It comes against the backdrop of a wider debate about the role of aid in Africa, especially handouts, which critics say stifle economic activity by creating a culture of dependency and removing incentives to work. But supporters of aid have long argued that direct cash transfers can give those at the very bottom of the income ladder a leg up, and this seems to be one of these cases. Aside from greater food security - and it would be expected that such poor family units would spend additional cash on calories - the study found recipients boosted their crop production and also diversified their household income base by setting up small businesses. “It has impacts across the board. People can take this money and grow it so it is helping to grow the economy. These households are starting short-term micro-businesses such as small shops,” David Seidenfeld, a senior researcher with AIR who directed the study, told Reuters in a telephone interview. “We know they have more money than they did before, which has enabled them to do all of these things,” he said. A simulation model used by the researchers found that each Zambian kwacha ($0.18) transferred to poor households

raised, through multiplier effects, the income in the local economy by 1.79 kwachas. This suggests that such transfers not only alleviate poverty but also stimulate economic activity - though of course on a small scale and from a very low base. Zambia’s modest program of child grants, involving three remote districts targeted because they had the country’s highest rates of extreme poverty and mortality among children under the age of five, was started in 2010. The criteria was simple: all families with at least one child beneath the age five were eligible, but all households received the same amount - 60 Zambian kwacha or around $11 a month at current exchange rates - regardless of their size. No conditions were attached to how the money could be spent and the researchers interviewed the heads of over 2,500 of the households in the communities, about half of whom were recipients, so they could contrast their fortunes with those who did not receive it. The study found that 76 percent of the increased spending by those given the transfers went to food, with the percentage of households eating two or more meals a day rising by 8 percentage points to 97 percent. In a promising sign, virtually none of the extra money was spent on alcohol or tobacco. So fathers were not grabbing the cash and heading down to the local informal bar for a bender. The study also showed that the value of agricultural produce harvested rose by 50 percent and the number of households selling harvested crops rose by twelve percentage points. This was because they had extra cash to hire

labor from within their communities and also to spend on inputs and tools. There was a 21 percentage increase in the number of livestock owned and recipient households sold twice as many livestock as those not receiving the cash. Significantly, there was a 17 percentage point increase in the number of small businesses set up by the households receiving the extra $11 a month. Zambia plans to build on what it sees as the success of the program by increasing it to 150 million kwacha a year in 2014 from around 17.5 million now and also expanding the criteria, so it may go to more than just families with children under five. President Michael Sata inherited the program when he took office in 2011 and widening it is in keeping with his populist initiatives on behalf of the poor and working class. Cash transfers or grants to the poor and indigent in Africa are few and far between but are starting to take root. South Africa has by far the largest program on the continent, with around 16.1 million people or close to a third of its population receiving some kind of social grant, according to a recent report by investment bank Goldman Sachs. The Transfer Project, a research initiative that looks at grant programs in Africa, says Namibia and Lesotho also have social pensions while cash transfers of various kinds have been rolled out in Malawi, Mozambique and Kenya. If the Zambia case is anything to go by, such programs should at least aim for the very poorest households and those with young children, which could reap big dividends from even small grants of cash. — Reuters

European stocks retreat on top investor warning LONDON: European stocks fell yesterday after a late sell-off on Wall Street that was triggered by investment titan Carl Icahn’s warning that equities were heading for a big drop, analysts said. Share prices largely turned lower also as the OECD said that while growth in advanced economies would pick up speed this year and next, it would do so mostly at a slower pace than forecast as new risks loom, especially from emerging economies. Yesterday in London midday trade, the FTSE 100 benchmark index slipped 0.48 percent to stand at 6,691.11 points. Frankfurt’s DAX 30 lost 0.35 percent to 9,193.41 points and in Paris the CAC 40 shed 0.95 percent to 4,279.44 compared with Monday’s closing levels. “European indices are down across the board on Tuesday... following comments from Carl Icahn yesterday that prompted a little more caution from investors,” said Craig Erlam, market analyst at Alpari traders. “Icahn, a billionaire investor whose opinion is well respected in the industry, claimed that he has become more cautious on the stock market and believes it could be facing a big drop.” In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed Monday up 0.09 percent at 15,976.02 points, another all-time high for a fourth successive session. However, it suffered a late sell-off after breaking the 16,000 barrier for the first time, with traders spooked after Icahn’s comments. The OECD meanwhile, a 34-nation policy forum for developed democracies, has revised its forecasts for global growth of gross domestic product down by nearly half a percentage point both this year, to 2.7 percent, and next, to 3.6 percent. Japan and the euro-zone will do slightly better than expected in both years as austerity policies retreat, monetary stimulus is maintained and financial conditions improve, the OECD said. But the US economy will grow less quickly than forecast, with the OECD pointing to political dysfunction in Washington and the eventual tapering of monetary stimulus as factors that could hamper recovery. On an upbeat note, investment sentiment in Germany rose in November to its highest level in four years, suggesting that the euro-zone’s economic recovery is on track, a new survey found.

SHANGHAI: An investor looks at the stock price monitor at a private securities company yesterday in Shanghai. World stocks were muted yesterday as a string of record highs on Wall Street instilled caution about a possible bubble in stock markets fueled by easy monetary policy. —AP The widely watched investor confidence index calculated by the ZEW economic institute gained 1.8 points to 54.6 points in November, its highest level since October 2009. “For months now, economic expectations in Germany have been at a high level. The slight improvement in the euro-zone economy will have contributed to this,” said ZEW president Clemens Fuest. In foreign exchange yesterday, the European single currency fell to $1.3498 from $1.3507 late in New York on Monday. The euro edged up to 83.87 pence against the British pound, which was lower at $1.6097. The dollar fell to 99.83 yen from 100 yen on Monday. On the London Bullion Market, the price of gold dropped to $1,274.70 an ounce from $1,283.50 on Monday. Easyjet managed to fly above the dark clouds, with its share price surging 6.45 percent to 1,337 pence on news of soaring profits. The British no-frills airline announced a leap in annual earnings as increased demand for its flights across Europe offset higher costs. Net profit jumped 56 percent to £398 million ($641

million, 474 million euros) in the year to September 30 compared with the group’s performance in 2011/12, Easyjet said in a results statement. It added that £308 million would be returned to shareholders via dividend payments. Asian stock markets mostly closed lower Tuesday on profit-taking, with investors shrugging off another record close for the Dow on Wall Street, while Tokyo softened as the yen strengthened against the dollar, traders said. US stock exchange operator ICE, which just concluded its acquisition of NYSE-Euronext, meanwhile said yesterday it will buy the Singapore Mercantile Exchange in an all-cash transaction. The price of the deal, the second big step by ICE within a week, was not disclosed. SMX runs futures markets in Singapore in metals, currencies, energy and farm commodities. ICE, which stands for Intercontinental Exchange Group, has just completed a huge deal to buy the New York Stock Exchange and the European Euronext market in what it presented as a game-changing move to create a global markets giant. — AFP

Myanmar looks to private firms to improve air safety YANGON: Myanmar aims to lure private companies to upgrade and run nearly half its airports in a bid to spruce up its poor record on air safety and support a fast-growing tourism industry, officials said yesterday. Myanmar has an air accident rate nine times the world average, aviation authorities say, and there are fears the figure could rise as the government aggressively expands the industry and private airlines add flights in a growing economy. The government plans to invite local private firms to upgrade and run 32 of the 69 airports across Myanmar “with intent to improve the service as well as the image of the airports”, said a senior official of the Directorate of Civil Aviation, who

sought anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media. Myanmar’s main international airport in Yangon has been modernized, but many domestic terminals are poorly run, lack basic technology and safety equipment and in some cases, are in urgent need of repair. The Japanese International Cooperation Agency has provided a grant to install safety equipment at some airports, with Japan’s Sumitomo Corp picked as the prime contractor, said Akihito Sanjo, a Yangon-based representative of the agency. “Most airports (in Myanmar) are small and in terms of safety and security, they’re dangerous,” Sanjo said. Four of the country’s tiny fleet of

domestic commercial aircraft were involved in serious accidents in 2012, one of them deadly. The number of seats booked in and out of Myanmar during the peak tourist season from November 2012 to February 2013 jumped to 80,000 from 50,000 a year earlier. That figure is expected to surpass 100,000 for the corresponding 2013/2014 period, according to the CAPA Centre for Aviation, which advises airlines, and flight industry database Innovata. Sanjo met the DCA on Tuesday to launch the program to install safety equipment at airports, including international terminals in the two biggest cities of Yangon and Mandalay. — Reuters

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

BUSINESS

Volkswagen Kuwait GM attains ‘VW Audi Certified Dealer Principal’ Ali becomes first graduate from VW Audi Management Academy KUWAIT: Volkswagen Kuwait, represented by Behbehani Motors Company, announced that its first graduate from the VW Audi Management Academy Abdullah Ali, General Manager at Volkswagen Kuwait has achieved all levels of the management assessment and attained the VW Audi Certified Dealer Principal with a score of 97 percent which is considered the highest grade ever achieved. Abdullah was the first to be enrolled in the Academy in 2010 and has earned the certification and title of “Fellow” of the Audi Management Academy after he passed successfully all three stages of Dealer Principal Program in 2013. Abdullah Ali joined Volkswagen Kuwait at a time where the business needed to grow and expand. He has more than fifteen years experience in the automotive industry and with his extensive background and expert leadership skills have steered Volkswagen Kuwait to the leading position it enjoys today. His overall vision has helped in guiding the company into a path of growth and achievements. Such achievements include ranking as the number one Volkswagen distributer in the M iddle East 2009/2011, being awarded the ISO 9001:2008 certification, the “Most Improved Dealership” award in Kuwait by RPM, the Golden pin and attaining the “Superbrand Status” three years in a row (2010/2011/2012). Abdullah stated:” I am pleased to have earned such a prestigious certification. The opportunity to enhance my depth & knowledge in all the functional

Abdullah Ali, General Manager at Volkswagen Kuwait, shows ‘VW Audi Certified Dealer Principal’ recognition. areas of the business is quite an experience”. Introduced to the Middle East in April 2009, the VW Audi Management Academy aims at increasing the level of professionalism at VW Audi dealerships and to foster customer satisfaction in the sales and after sales divisions as well as overall staff retention. Candidates can enter the program on several levels starting with Audi Certified Sales or Service Manager and can reach the level of Certified Dealer Principal after a minimum of three years training and the associated evaluations. In addition to training on business analysis, five-year forecast and business planning for the company, process management and leadership

Yellen lifts gold, Brent and gasoline best performers

training, participants exchange best practice examples on a regional as well as international level. Implementation and improvements at the dealership are monitored by VW Audi Middle East on an ongoing basis. Trevor Hill, Managing Director at Audi Middle East, presented the certification to Abdullah Ali at the Volkswagen Audi Middle East in Dubai. Guy Edmunds VW Dealer Development Director stated “It’s an honor to provide Abdullah Ali with this certification on behalf of Volkswagen Middle East and we wish him all the best in the future. The program is an extension of the already existing Audi M iddle East

Training Center and provides structured development programs from levels of “Cer tified Sales or Ser vice Managers” up to a five year program for “Recognized Dealer Principals” with modules such as psychology of leadership, strategic planning and resource management. The program aims to improve overall business performance as well as staff retention and motivation through the creation of defined career paths, training of new and existing management, the specific development of nationals as well as qualification rewards tailored to the business needs of Audi dealerships in the region. To ensure effective implementation, the program starts off with a detailed

audit of existing processes and management skills at the dealership and includes comprehensive follow ups, performance reviews as well as one-onone coaching. With dealerships being the main inter face to customers and large amounts invested into staff development, Volkswagen Behbehani is glad to be part of this structured program that impacts positively not only on staff itself but ultimately on business performance. Abdullah concluded by saying: “I’d like to express my deep thanks for Behbehani family which supported and provided me with all the power needed to achieve this perfect success.”

OECD urges ECB to buy euro-zone, bonds, assets

Weekly commodity update

EU should buy bonds to counter deflation risk

By Ole Hansen, Head of Commodity Strategy, Saxo Bank

t has been a mixed week for commodities with major divergence between the different sectors. Growth-dependent commodities like energy and industrial metals went their separate ways while in precious metals, gold received a boost from the Fed’s Janet Yellen, leaving silver trailing. The agriculture sector saw gains for grains led by soybeans but losses for softs with sugar and cotton leading the way lower. Janet Yellen, who is expected to take over the chair at the US Federal Reserve in the new year, came out with a staunch defence of the central bank’s asset purchase program and saw no signs yet in the economic data justifying scaling it back. This lifted the price of gold, bonds and equity markets with the S&P 500 index rising for a sixth consecutive week resulting in a year-to-date positive performance of 28 percent.

Energy outperforms The five best performing commodities all belonged to the energy sector with gasoline taking the lead with US inventories shrinking for a fifth week at a time of tight supplies on the East Coast. Brent Crude’s premium over WTI widened to the highest since March as rising stockpiles in the US put WTI Crude under pressure, while continued supply disruptions in Libya and Nigeria together with the absence of a deal with Iran supported Brent Crude. Industrial metals came under pressure following a meeting in the Chinese Communist Party which failed to disclose new initiatives that could lead to a pick-up in demand for the sectors products. Copper saw some additional selling after breaking out of its established trading range on concern that supply could outstrip demand over the coming period. The negative performance in industrial metals spread to silver and palladium with silver trading at its cheapest relative level to gold in three months. Precious metals Palladium ran into selling after key resistance in the $765 to 770/oz area failed to be breached and the speculative net-long position rose to the equivalent

of four days of total traded volume. This combination triggered rounds of long liquidation by hedge funds worried that their bullish positions had become too extended and the price has dropped to a one-month low while still looking for support. A similar situation with positions becoming overextended was seen in sugar with a month ago when it reached $20/lb on technical and fundamental support. Since then, fundamental support has been reduced as a large global supply surplus for the 2013/14 season leaves the upside limited. The speculative net long position held by hedge funds reached a five-year high on October 31 and the subsequent deteriorating technical outlook has triggered selling in 14 out of the past 15 days. Gold found support from the soothing words of Janet Yellen that the current rate of stimulus was not coming off the table unless the economic situation could justify such an action. Prior to that announcement, gold had been looking for support and found it ahead of the October low at $1,252/oz. The weaker dollar and lower bond yields that followed has however so far not been enough to push the price back above resistance at $1,300/oz with many traders not yet convinced that a low has been confirmed. The World Gold Council, an industry lobby group, added to the gloom by announcing that gold demand in the third quarter fell to a four-year low primarily due a collapse in demand from India together with a continued fall in holdings in Exchange Traded Products.

JOHANNESBURG: South African Mineral Resources Minister, Susan Shabangu, addresses the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) Plenary in Johannesburg yesterday. Diamond producers, exporters, importers and civil society groups begin four days of annual talks taking stock of the UN-mandated global certification trade, the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS). —AFP

BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT: A leading international think-tank urged the European Central Bank yesterday to loosen the purse strings further and buy euro zone government and corporate bonds to accelerate a weak recovery. One of the bank’ hawks, Joerg Asmussen, said separately that more action was possible, but only if deemed necessary. The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) called on the ECB to emulate US-style quantitative easing (QE) to help the single currency area avoid a Japanese-style deflationary spiral. “Risks of deflation may be slowly increasing,” OECD chief economist Pier Carlo Padoan told Reuters. “The ECB must be very careful and be prepared to use even non-conventional measures to beat any risk of deflation becoming permanent.” Inflation in the 17-nation euro-zone fell to its lowest in nearly four years at just 0.7 percent in October, prompting the ECB to cut its key interest rate to a record low 0.25 percent this month. The euro zone economy is struggling to recover from its longest ever recession which ended in mid-year. In an Austrian radio interview, ECB executive board member Joerg Asmussen, a German, said the bank could move again if necessary to keep inflation in the euro-zone in line with its target of below but close to 2 percent. “If the situation in inflation requires it, we can act again and one of the possible measures would be to use the socalled negative deposit rate,” he told public broadcaster ORF. The deposit rate is now at zero. Cutting it fur-

ther would mean banks would have to start paying to park their funds at the ECB overnight. He said he would be “very, very careful” to deploy negative deposit rates, but he also did not want to rule it out completely. For now, he said the risks to price stability were balanced and there was no risk of deflation in the eurozone. The ECB’s economics chief, Peter Praet, who put the possibility of QE on the agenda last week, also said on Tuesday that there was no risk of deflation visible in the euro area, and inflation expectations were firmly anchored. “”We had several episodes where we measured in market prices the fear of deflation, which we don’t see today,” Praet said at a Euro Finance Week conference in Frankfurt. Asmussen reiterated the ECB’s stance that it is still to early to exit from the ECB’s loose monetary policy. “Our monetary policy will remain expansionary for as long as needed,” Asmussen said. Praet raised the possibility of QE in a Wall Street Journal interview last week, saying the central bank could use its balance sheet to prevent inflation under-shooting. “This includes outright purchases that any central bank can do,” he said, without drawing any public contradiction from ECB hawks. German Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann led a minority of about a quarter of the ECB governing council members who opposed the November rate cut, a source familiar with the decision said. Another ECB source said the dissenters would have been willing to back a rate cut in December that might have included further monetary eas-

French PM vows reform of tax system amid anger PARIS: French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, facing a growing tide of anger over tax rises, vowed yesterday to overhaul the tax system. Ayrault, who heads a left-wing government under strong pressure on several fronts, promised widespread consultations on how the tax system should be reformed. The move was welcomed by unions but business groups were wary and the centreright opposition called the plan “surreal”. “The French tax system has become very complex, almost unreadable, and the French too often are not convinced that what they are paying is fair,” Ayrault told business newspaper Les Echos in an interview published yesterday. “The time has come for an overhaul, in all transparency,” he said, promising a “profound dialogue” with “social partners”, such as unions and business groups. Ayrault provided few details, but said the reform would not lead to further tax increases. He suggested that one of the levies used to fund social and welfare spending, the CSG, could be combined with general income taxes, and said the government would not back away from an increase in value-added sales tax due to take effect on January 1. That increase-from 19.6 percent to 20 percent for the normal rate and from seven to 10 percent for the reduced rate-has drawn criticism from small businesses who fear it will cut consumption. The government has come under concerted fire for plans for wide-ranging tax

rises that along with major spending cuts are aimed at reducing France’s budget deficit. The Socialists have backed away from a number of proposed tax increases amid demonstrations, including a series of violent protests in Brittany against a new levy on heavy vehicles. With France’s economy stagnating and unemployment hitting record highs, President Francois Hollande’s approval rating has dropped to the lowest level of any modern French leader. The opposition lashed out at Ayrault’s latest plan, with former budget minister Valerie Pecresse of the centre-right UMP calling it “surreal”. The leader of the UMP opposition, Jean-Francois Cope, sai: d”The priority is not to know if we are going to rearrange taxes in one way or another, but how to lower them. We need to give people money.” Unions broadly welcomed the move, with Jean-Claude Mailly of FO union calling it “a good initiative” that was worth discussing. But the head of France’s MEDEF employers’ group, Pierre Gattaz, said business leaders were concerned that consultations would delay much-needed reforms. Business groups have said France’s high labour costs and complicated tax system are stifling investment. “We will go the first time (to talks) but we will not stay if it’s just to play (confidence game) Find The Lady on taxes,” Gattaz said. — AFP

ing by ending a policy of “sterilizing” past ECB purchases of euro zone government bonds under the now defunct securities market program. That could potentially free up another 200 billion euros of liquidity which the bank currently withdraws each week to compensate for purchases of Greek, Portuguese, Irish, Spanish and Italian bonds in 2010-11. Praet acknowledged yesterday that growth was fragile, inflation low and credit subdued. “Things are improving, but it is still a fragile environment,” he said. The U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan have all resorted to QE to revive economic growth since the global financial crisis struck in 2008 but such measures are extremely divisive among the 23 members of the ECB’s Governing Council. An economist at Germany’s ZEW economic research institute said the ECB’s Nov. 7 interest rate cut was seen as a signal of problems in the economy and led to a worsening of the ZEW current situation indicator. Michael Schroeder said expectations improved slightly after the ECB cut rates to a record low but expectations for the banking sector deteriorated significantly after the move. But a bank economist said a shift to a QE policy would be a game-changer for the euro-zone. “Should the ECB really go down the route of buying government bonds, it would be transformative,” said Greg Fuzesi at JP Morgan in London. “It would change perceptions of where the euro area is heading and could have a huge effect on the outlook.” — Reuters

Gazprom Neft delays Iraq oilfield launch MOSCOW: Russia’s Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of state-controlled Gazprom, has postponed initial production at its Badra oilfield in Iraq until 2014 due to safety concerns and logistical problems, the company said yesterday. Iraq, OPEC’s second-biggest oil producer, expects a robust return to growth next year as foreign companies at work in its southern oilfields push output toward the highest level ever. Still, safety is one of the main concerns, highlighted last week when dozens of Shi’ite Muslim workers and tribesmen stormed the Schlumberger Ltd camp in North Rumaila after accusing a foreign security adviser of insulting their religion. Gazprom Neft said in a Eurobond prospectus it had postponed a December launch due to “the failure on the part of certain contractors to fulfill their contractual obligations and certain issues related to the safety and security of employees and property.” It also cited delays by Iraqi authorities over tender approvals, holdups to customs clearance for import cargo and a shortage of local contractors. Gaining foreign business is key for Gazprom Neft to reach its production target of 100 million tonnes per year (2 million barrels per day) by 2020, double current levels. It said in April that by 2017 as much as 170,000 bpd of crude oil could be produced for seven years at Badra. Iraqi officials have said calm is being restored and that the situation at the BP-operated Rumaila oilfield - core to the country’s oil expansion plans - is now safe for Schlumberger to get back to work. Apart from Gazprom Neft, Russia’s No.2 oil producer Lukoil is preparing to launch its West Qurna-2 oilfield in Iraq later this year or early in 2014. It declined to comment on whether recent violence had affected its operations. —Reuters

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

BUSINESS

NBK launches unrivaled privilege banking services First of its kind in Kuwait KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) launches the first-of-its kind, unrivaled Privilege Banking Services that are especially designed to provide personalized, preferential banking services for its Privilege customers. NBK Privilege Banking services are designed to meet all banking and financial needs of high-income customers. The new services offer a variety of features, exclusive benefits, priority service and special privileges through dedicated relationship managers. “At NBK, we want to ensure that our customers always receive an unsurpassed level of service”, said Mazin Saad Al-Nahedh, NBK General Manager, Consumer Banking Group. “The new NBK Privilege Banking Services reflect NBK’s commitment to continuously develop its services and to maintain its leading position as the bank of choice for customers.” “NBK is renowned for its unique and unrivaled banking solutions. NBK Privilege Banking customers enjoy preferential services with a range of financial products designed exclusively to meet their personal banking needs and guarantee a high degree of satisfaction,” added Al-Nahedh.

Privilege Banking customers will enjoy being prioritized on all their banking requests. Privilege Banking services offer a wide range of products including the NBK Visa Signature Credit Card that aims at offering absolute convenience including complimentary access to over 35 of the most prominent airport lounges, local and global concierge services, free travel insurance coverage up to USD 500,000, free valet parking, luxury lifestyle offers and instant discounts locally and globally that cover travel, dining, shopping and entertainment. Recently, NBK launched a dedicated Premium Banking Branch in Al-Hamra Tower. NBK Premium Service Lounges are also located in 25 local NBK Branches. NBK’s premium services banking lounge is designed to provide personalized banking services to its customers. It is equipped with the latest communication gadgets coupled with luxurious and comfortable seating area to carry out all the banking activities for premium banking customers. Dedicated Premium Banking Teller services are also available at this premium lounge.

KSA to be 3rd largest exporter of petrochemicals by 2015

EQUATE Petrochemical Company President & CEO Mohammad Husain

Gulf produced 129m tons of petrochemicals in 2012 EQUATE sponsors 8th GPCA Annual Forum KUWAIT: EQUATE Petrochemical Company President & CEO Mohammad Husain said that the Gulf’s total production capacity of petrochemicals and chemicals will exceed 150 million metric tons. On the occasion of EQUATE’s sponsorship of the 8th Annual Gulf Petrochemicals & Chemicals Association (GPCA) Forum, Husain said, “During 2012, the Gulf’s production capacity of petrochemicals and chemicals, excluding pharmaceuticals, exceeded 129 million tons.” Husaid added, “The total value of the global chemical and petrochemical production during 2012 was over $3.8 trillion with 2.5 percent of it belonging to Gulf countries.” Husain noted, “With the Gulf representing over 10 percent of the global petrochemical production, Kuwait is currently the fourth biggest petrochemical producer in the Gulf, following Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman.” Husain noted, “The main challenges facing the Gulf ’s petrochemical industry is relevant to feedstock shortage, port congestions, inadequate infrastructure and instability of market conditions, as well

as scarcity in human resources with the required technical skills.” Husain said that EQUATE’s total production capacities, from plants owned and operated by it, exceed 5 million metric tons of products, including ethylene, polyethylene, polypropylene, ethylene glycol, heavy aromatics, benzene styrene monomer and paraxylene. With the attendance of over 1700 industrial leaders, experts and enthusiasts from around the world, the 8th Annual GPCA Forum will be held in Dubai, the UAE, during November 19-21. Established in 1995, EQUATE is an international joint venture between Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC), The Dow Chemical Company (Dow), Boubyan Petrochemical Company (BPC) and Qurain Petrochemical Industries Company (QPIC). Commencing production in 1997, EQUATE is the single operator of a fully integrated world-scale manufacturing facility producing over 5 million tons annually of high-quality petrochemical products which are marketed throughout the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe.

Gold treads water after sharp losses LONDON: Gold inched down yesterday, struggling to stabilize after sharp losses seen in the previous session, as investors gauged Federal Reserve officials’ comments about the outlook for easy monetary policy and the strength of the US economy. Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley said he was “more hopeful” about the US economy but also that he expected “very accommodative” monetary policy to be in place “for a considerable period of time”. Spot gold was down 0.3 percent at $1,270.51 an ounce at 1126 GMT, after dropping 1.2 percent on Monday on lacklustre physical buying and gains in the stock markets, which diverted investment interest from bullion. Technical support was pegged at the recent low of $1,261, while a breach of the mid-October low of $1,251 would see the metal dropping further to June nearthree-year lows of $1,180, ScotiaMocatta said in a note. US gold futures for December delivery fell 0.2 percent to $1,270.30 an ounce. “The latest comments from Fed officials raised again concerns that the FOMC might not taper in December but this uncertainty is likely to remain in the market until the decision is finally made,” Quantitative Commodity Research owner Peter Fertig said. The dollar fell against a basket of currencies, while US Treasury yields were steady at 2.69 percent. Gold had been boosted last week by comments from Janet Yellen, the Federal Reserve’s chief in

waiting, indicating she would continue the US central bank’s ultra-easy monetary policy. The Fed’s $85 billion in monthly bond purchases has been have been a major support for gold prices in recent years as a hedge against inflation. Investors were looking ahead to the release today of minutes from the Fed’s October meeting. “I don’t expect the minutes to bring any new information which would alter the picture but you never know how the market reacts,” Fertig said. Investor sentiment continued to remain bearish amid stronger stock markets. SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings fell 1.2 tons to 864.51 tons on Monday - the fund’s lowest since February 2009. Physical demand, which usually tends to provide a floor for prices at lower levels, failed to emerge in a robust manner even after Monday’s price drop. Demand has lately failed to pick up even below the $1,300 level as consumers had bought a lot of bullion when prices fell earlier in the year. “We do not expect any serious upside without meaningful physical flows and given little investor interest at the moment,” VTB Capital said in a note. “A stronger dollar could still add pressure to prices and we do not exclude more losses later in the week should the dollar rebound strongly,” it added. Silver declined for a second session, down 0.4 percent at $20.29 an ounce. Spot platinum was up 0.1 percent at $1,408.99 an ounce. Spot palladium was unchanged at $714.15 an ounce. — Reuters

RIYADH: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is expected to become the world’s third largest exporter of petrochemical products with its market share poised to reach 10 per cent by 2015. Saudi plastics and petrochemical exports grew from less than $500 million in 1985 to $22 billion in 2011. Moreover, the outlook for domestic plastics and petrochemicals is highly favorable as the country shifts its focus beyond increasing oil production capacity towards expanding its natural gas, refining, and petrochemicals industries. Saudi Plastics & Petrochem 2014 - the 11th International Plastics and Petrochemicals Trade Exhibition will boost growth prospects even further. Organized by Riyadh Exhibitions Company and held at the Riyadh International Convention and Exhibition Center from February 17 to 20, 2014, the coming edition of the largest industrial event in the region will gather local and international industrialists and professionals, in addition to a number of governmental industrial commissions from the Gulf States. The event will showcase the latest technologies in machinery, equipment and processes, in addition to raw materials, semi-finished products, spare parts and services in the plastics and petrochemical fields. Zeyad Al-Rukban, Deputy General Manager, Riyadh Exhibitions Company, said: “Saudi industrial sectors are witnessing unmatched growth, as multi-billion dollar investments are being made in developing the Kingdom’s infrastructure. Saudi Plastics & Petrochem 2014 will reflect the pulse of Saudi Arabia’s plastics and petro-

chemicals industry, which is witnessing profound growth as well. Designed as an ideal business-to-business networking platform, the event will offer innovative products and technologies that businesses can leverage to stay competitive.” Saudi Plastics & Petrochem 2014 will be held concurrently with Saudi Print & Pack 2014 - The 11th International Printing and Packaging Technologies Exhibition. The upcoming premier

event is expected to cover more than 20,000 sqm of exhibition space and host exhibitors from over 26 countries. It will also feature 10 national pavilions to emphasize the potential of the Saudi market. Premier local companies such as the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) and The National Industrialization Company (TASNEE) will support the event as Diamond Sponsors, while Saudi Polymers has a tie-up as the official Platinum Sponsor.

Passavant-Roediger consortium wins major wastewater plant deal in Egypt DUBAI: A consortium of Passavant-Roediger GmbH - a wholly-owned German subsidiary of Drake & Scull International (DSI) PJSC, Acciona Spain’s leading private developer and manager of infrastructure, renewable energy, water and services, and Hassan Allam Sons - Egypt’s largest construction and property group, has won an AED 545 million contract to expand the Gabal Al-Asfar Waste Water Treatment Plant (GAAWWTP) on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. The new deal affirms Passavant’s growing presence in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and will sustain its momentum in the area. The new contract was signed at the Arab Contractors Club in Cairo, in the presence of Ibrahim Mahlab, Minister of Housing, Utilities and Urban Development; Zeinab Mounir, Managing Director, Construction Authority for Potable Water and Waste Water (CAPW); Hassan Allam, CEO, Hassan Allam Sons; Jose Diaz, Director, Acciona and Dr Mazen Bachir, Managing Director, Passavant-Roediger. Under the terms of the agreement awarded by the Construction Authority for Potable Water and Waste Water (CAPW), (the body responsible for water and wastewater investment in Great Cairo and Alexandria), the Hassan Allam led consortium will build a primary and secondary wastewater plant with the volume of 500,000 cubic meter of wastewater per day to raise the total daily treatment capacity at the site up to 2.5 million cubic meters. Passavant’s contract value for the construction and set up of the Stage 2 of Phase 2 of GAAWWTP development is AED 179 million. The project is expected to be completed in four years, and the consortium will oversee the operation and maintenance of the plant two years post completion. The GAAWWTP project is one of the most prestigious wastewater treatment plants in the world with a catchment area covering the

Dr Mazen Bachir, Managing Director, Passavant-Roediger middle and lower parts of the Eastern Cairo, which currently houses about 8 million people, with 785,000 people located in close proximity downstream of the plant. Dr Mazen Bachir, Managing Director, Passavant-Roediger, said: “Passavant’s core vision is inspired by the desire to provide modern, high quality public infrastructure services to people, which is also cost effective at the same time. The Stage 2, Phase 2 of GAWWTP project is part of an on-going program aimed at addressing the national issue of reuse of wastewater. Our consortium was awarded the bid based on the strength of our wastewater treatment technology, including anaerobic sludge digestion, which give us clear framework and

strong resources to undertake a project of this stature. We constantly strive to develop tailored concepts to cater to the growing international water and waste water industries. Our ever-growing reputation as the world leader in anaerobic sludge digestion results in optimal energy and consumables consumptions during operation, whilst upholding the requirements for the highest quality of product water for re-use. The new GAAWWTP will benefit 8 million people living in the region, improve the quality of drainage water, and reduce pollution. Egypt is an important market for our expansion plans in the MENA region and we hope to leverage DSI’s reputation and our own global experience to deliver high quality water treatment solutions to the people of Egypt as well as the MENA region. We will be looking to also bring our specialised Turbo-LME process to the water treatment sector in Egypt, after our continued success with this technology worldwide, including our latest project in Thu Duc, Vietnam, catering to an excess of a million people, by providing 300,000 m3 per day of highly purified river water to drinking water quality” DSI acquired Passavant-Roediger in 2009 to enhance its capabilities in the region’s water and wastewater sector. Passavant-Roediger is a leading global developer of wastewater, water and sludge treatment technologies, with operations across Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The company delivers comprehensive in-house solutions for the design, supply, build, operations and maintenance, wastewater and water treatment facilities and is one of the leading Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC), Wastewater and Water Treatment (WWT) and Re-Use Design and Build Contractors Worldwide.

JPMorgan, govt settle all issues WASHINGTON: The Justice Department and JPMorgan Chase & Co have settled all issues and could sign a $13 billion agreement as early as today that would be the largest settlement ever reached between the government and a corporation, a person familiar with the negotiations says. The deal is the latest chapter in the bursting of the housing bubble in 2007, when JPMorgan and others among the nation’s largest banks sold low-quality, mortgage-backed securities that collapsed in value. Investors were left with billions of dollars in losses. In blunt criticism of those banks, the Justice Department’s No 2 official said Monday that too many financial institutions had failed in their duty to ensure that their businesses were run cleanly. Recounting the conduct that JPMorgan and other banks engaged in, Deputy Attorney General James Cole told the American Bankers Association that too many supervisors incentivized excessive risk taking, knowing that risky products “could be unloaded down the road, ...

leaving someone else to deal with the consequences.” According to the person familiar with the talks between JPMorgan and the Justice Department, the final issue in the settlement revolved around the $4 billion to compensate consumers. Some $1.5 billion will be a writedown to reduce the principal of homeowner loans; $300 million will enable homeowners to pay less now on their mortgages; and the remainder of the $4 billion will go toward reducing mortgage interest rates, originating new loans and helping revive blighted properties in some of the hardest hit areas of the housing crisis, such as Detroit. An independent monitor will be appointed to oversee the assistance to homeowners. The person familiar with the negotiations spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal had not been finalized. When it is signed, it will eclipse the record $4 billion levied on oil giant BP in January over the worst offshore oil spill in US history. Another person familiar with the talks, also speaking only on condition of anonymity, said

the two sides were “very close” to a final agreement. Still to come is a decision on whether the Justice Department will file criminal charges against JPMorgan. An investigation is under way by the US Attorney’s office in Sacramento, Calif. The nation’s biggest bank will pay more than $6 billion to compensate investors, pay $4 billion to help struggling homeowners and pay the remainder as a fine. JPMorgan has said most of its mortgagebacked securities came from Bear Stearns Cos and Washington Mutual Inc, troubled companies that JPMorgan acquired in 2008. As part of the $6 billion to investors, $4 billion will resolve government claims that JPMorgan misled mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac about risky mortgage securities the bank sold them before the housing market crashed. That part of the deal was announced Oct 25. Fannie and Freddie were bailed out by the government during the crisis and are under federal control. —AP

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20 , 2013

technology

Google to pay $17m to settle Safari privacy case SAN FRANCISCO: Google is paying $17 million to 37 states and the District of Columbia to make amends for the Internet search leader’s snooping on millions of people using Safari Web browsers in 2011 and 2012. The settlement announced Monday stems from a technological loophole that enabled Google’s DoubleClick advertising network to shadow unwitting Safari users, even though the browser’s maker, Apple Inc., prohibited the tracking without obtaining a person’s permission. By following what Safari users were doing online, DoubleClick could gain more insights about what types of ads were most likely to appeal to different Safari users. This is the second time that authorities in the US have cracked down on Google for its secret shadowing of Safari users from June 2011 through mid-February of last year. The Federal Trade Commission fined Google $22.5 million last year. It represented the largest penalty that the FTC had ever collected for a civil violation. Google Inc. has maintained the Safari intrusion was an inadvertent side effect of an attempt to make it easier for people to recommend ads. The Mountain View, Calif. company disabled the surveillance coding, known as “cookies,” in February 2012 after the violation of Safari’s

privacy policies was initially reported. Until the problem was uncovered by a graduate student at Stanford University, Google had assured Safari users that they wouldn’t be monitored, as long as they didn’t change the browser settings to permit the tracking. “Misrepresenting that tracking will not occur, when that is not the case, is unacceptable, as this settlement emphasizes,” Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said. Google isn’t acknowledging any wrongdoing in the settlement. That’s the same position that Google took when it paid the FTC ﬁne last year. “We work hard to get privacy right at Google and have taken steps to remove the ad cookies, which collected no personal information, from Apple’s browsers,” the company said in a Monday statement. “We’re pleased to have worked with the state attorneys general to reach this agreement.” The settlement will be divided among the participating states and the District of Columbia. Besides Wisconsin, the other states involved are: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota,

Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington. The rebuke from the states is primarily a public relations blow to Google, whose privacy controls have suﬀered other lapses in recent years. In perhaps the most glaring privacy breach, a Google engineer installed a program that enabled company cars taking pictures of street scenes to scoop up personal data being transmitted over unprotected Wi-Fi networks. The company also exposed the contact lists of Gmail users in 2010 when it launched a now-defunct social networking service called Buzz. The settlement won’t put much of a dent in Google’s ﬁnances. After stripping out the company’s advertising commissions, Google’s revenue this year is expected to be about $47 billion, according to analysts surveyed by FactSet. According to that estimate, it would take Google slightly more than three hours to generate $17 million in revenue on an average day. Besides paying the fine, Google also is agreeing to maintain a special page devoted to cookies for the next five years and refrain making any misleading statements about its online tracking practices. — AP

Facebook warms hearts in chilly Swedish city

HELSINKI: Shareholders attend the Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) of Nokia Corporation yesterday at Helsinki Ice Hall in Helsinki, Finland. Nokia’s shareholders were set to vote on a historic decision to sell the Finnish company’s mobile business to Microsoft, as the once-proud Nordic brand struggled to regain its edge. — AFP

Nokia shareholders approve mobile phone sale to Microsoft HELSINKI: Finnish telecom company Nokia announced yesterday that its shareholders have approved the 5.44 billion euro ($7.35 billion) sale of its mobile phone division to US multinational Microsoft. According to Nokia-which will now become a telecom equipment and services company-the deal was almost unanimously approved (99.7 percent) by shareholders who voted ahead of an extraordinary meeting in Helsinki. The transfer of the handset business should take place in early 2014. Once the world leader in mobile phones, Nokia lost its top place to South Korea’s Samsung in 2012. Although still number two in the overall mobile phone market, ahead of US giant Apple, the company now ranks eighth on the rapidly growing smartphone (internet enabled) market, according to telecom consultancy Gartner. Nokia has been posting losses — 3.1 billion euros in 2012 and 590 million euros in the first nine months of 2013 — and the sale is an attempt to relaunch into more profitable business areas. The decision by shareholders to shed the brand’s last link to its once great phone empire was largely expected and the company’s share price has doubled since the plan was announced in early September. “To the shareholders of Nokia, it’s a good price because the company was suffering losses on the mobile activities, and Nokia had become too small in this area to have any hope of ever bouncing back,” said Eric Beaudet, a Paris-based analyst at Natixis bank. The markets agree, and the share price of Nokia has risen 102 percent, to 5.97 euros ($8.07), since the September announcement of the sale. Pierre Ferragu, an analyst a New York brokerage firm Sanford Bernstein, estimated Nokia’s mobile unit could be valued at minus five billion dollars, meaning it would actually make sense to pay someone for agreeing

to take it over. “It’s an excellent deal. It’s hard to imagine a better price for a division experiencing structural losses,” he said. The sale of the assets, which include the Lumia smartphone trademark and technology, must take place in early 2014. Nokia, the world leader in mobile phones before ceding this spot to South Korea’s Samsung in 2012, will become a telecom equipment maker without a consumer product arm. This will mark the disappearance of a brand that has experienced a dramatic decline since the advent of Apple’s iPhone in 2007. “Nokia has good products, but it’s not enough. Their problem is the fixed costs are too high,” said Beaudet. “You need 10 percent of the global smartphone market to be profitable. They have less than half.” Nokia is now number eight on the smartphone market, according to telecom consultancy Gartner. In the more general market for mobile phones, it is number two with a 13.8 percent global market share in the third quarter, far behind Samsung with 25.7 percent but ahead of Apple with 6.7 percent. Yesterday was the last opportunity for shareholders to discuss the string of failures that brought the Finnish group to its knees. It’s a long story, as detailed in former CEO Jorma Ollila’s autobiography, which was published in October. According to Olilla, Nokia was positioned well on the smartphone market at the time of the technology’s infancy in 2004 and 2005, but when it took off in 2007-2008, the company’s products were not up to par. In 2011, a general manager headhunted from Microsoft, Stephen Elop, chose to partner with the American group, embracing its Windows operating system. The move did not pay off. Nokia’s profits fell precipitously under Elop, who resigned on the same day in September that the sale to Microsoft was announced. — AFP

LULEAA: Few people have heard about the town of Luleaa, but if they are Facebook users, chances are their pictures, status updates and “likes” have passed through this Swedish port near the Arctic Circle. When the Internet phenomenon picked this chilly spot 725 kilometers (450 miles) north of Stockholm for its first data centre outside the United States, it was wooed by the climate-literally and figuratively. “The already positive business climate was a big reason when we decided to get established in Luleaa,” said Joel Kjellgren, the data centre’s 32-year-old manager, as he paced the facility, a concrete building the size of five soccer fields. The Baltic port lies in a region already dubbed the “Node Pole” for its high company growth, notably in IT and telecoms. But Luleaa’s own record of no major power cut since the late 1970s pleased Facebook, as did its secure access to green energy in the form of hydropower. A government pledge of 103 million kronor ($15.5 million, 11.5 million euro) in regional investment aid also helped. And then there was the weather. Located just 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of the Arctic Circle, Luleaa’s average temperature never exceeds 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit), except during the three summer months. This means Facebook can cool down the vast server halls with chill air from just outside, driving the energy cost down and the sustainability factor up. What other power it needs, it gets from hydropower stations along mountain rivers nearby. “The halls might seem gigantic, and it requires a lot of energy to run them, but imagine if all those people would try to communicate by other means, calling each other, sending e-mails and pictures,” said Kjellgren. In fact, he said, the energy consumption of an average Facebook user is similar to the calories contained in three bananas or one caffe latte - per year. Luleaa has yet to see the full impact of the Facebook presence. Two server halls were opened this summer, and the remaining two will be operational in the middle of 2014. And that’s just the beginning. There is room for two more giant buildings next to the existing one, for a total of 12 server halls if need be. But five months after the grand opening, the jury is still out on the actual economic benefits for Luleaa’s 46,000 residents, whose livelihood historically relied on steel production. The business community is all for the project, as are the local politicians, delighted to see their small town on the world map. But critics point out that only a few jobs have been

LULEAA: Joel Kjellgren, Data Center Manager opens a server in one of server rooms at the new Facebook Data Center, its first outside the US on November 7, 2013 in Luleaa, in Swedish Lapland. The company began construction on the facility in October 2011 and went live on June 12, 2013 and are 100% run on hydro power. — AFP created so far, most of them for low-skilled workers. One of the staunchest supporters is Matz Engman, CEO of the Luleaa Business Agency, who traveled to Facebook’s Palo Alto headquarters in 2009 in a successful charm oﬀensive to win over the board. Two years later, work began on the ﬁrst building. “It has created 750 construction worker jobs since the start in 2011 and it still goes on. At the moment around 200 people work on installation jobs in the halls,” he said. Although no more than 50 to 100 people are eventually expected to work in the Facebook date centre itself, Engman forcasts that it will generate up to 300 other new jobs in catering, cleaning, garbage collection, security and childcare. “It has created an incredibly positive attitude towards the Luleaa business community,” said Engman. The town’s science park, which mainly caters to the IT and telecom industry, grew 25 percent in 2012. The park’s 100 companies employ 1,100 people - almost as many as the town’s largest private employer, steel manufacturer

SSAB. A recent survey by Swedish business daily Dagens Industri showed that the Norrbotten region, where Luleaa is located, has more growth companies even than the Stockholm area. Engman, for one, expects this “Node Pole” region to attract 200 billion kronor ($30 billion, 22 billion euros) in the next 10 years. “All curves are pointing in the right direction,” he said. But others, like Haakan Ylinenpaeae, a business professor at the Luleaa University of Technology, have a harder time seeing potential spin-off, such as a boom in new high-tech jobs. “We haven’t seen any major effects yet. The direct effect of the first building is around 100 jobs in total, and those are not very skilled,” he said. Ironically, environmental watchdog Greenpeace, not normally a fan of big corporations, has waded into the debate with its own endorsement. “One of the key reasons to choose Luleaa was the access to renewable energy,” said Martina Krueger from Greenpeace Sweden. “That one of the world’s largest IT companies made such choice sends a positive signal.” — AFP

DubaiSat-2 set to be launched into space in three days DUBAI: The Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST) has announced that the Russian Dnepr rocket is fuelled and lowered into the silo and DubaiSat-2 has been installed in the head of the rocket, with its propulsion system fueled and ready for launch on November 21, 2013 at approximately 11.10 am Dubai time from the Yasny Cosmodrome. DubaiSat-2 will be injected into an orbital height of 600 km using the Russian Dnepr rocket launcher in cooperation with Russian International Space Company (Kosmotras). The satellite will be placed in a circular polar orbit around earth, which will circle the poles from North to South, passing over Dubai and the region four times a day. DubaiSat-2 is the primary satellite on this launch, which is joined by more than 20 smaller satellites from over 10 nations, including South Korea, Japan, the USA and others. All these satellite will be injected one by one into their speciﬁc orbits; DubaiSat-2 will be the second to be injected into its 600 km orbit. Yousuf Al Shaibani, Director General, EIAST, said: “All pre-launch tests and procedures have been successfully completed while our launch partners are carrying out their ﬁnal checks prior to the launch. We wish for a successful launch and are optimistic that DubaiSat-2 will perform as designed and produceimages that can be used for urban planning,

disaster management and scientific research.” Speaking from the launch base, Salem Al Marri, Assistant Director General - Scientific and Technical Affairs, EIAST, said: “Our team has been here for the past month working closely with our Russian partners to ensure that the satellite is ready for launch. We are now just three days away to launch DubaiSat-2 into space and are very excited to see the culmination of five years of our hard work.” EIAST has also displayed the logo of the Expo 2020 on the launcher rocket, to extend their support for Dubai’s bid for World Expo 2020 into space. The satellite was recently transported from South Korea to Russia under the supervision of EIAST engineers in preparation for its launch after series of successful tests. A team of 16 Emirati engineers worked in collaboration with South Korean satellite manufacturer Satrec Initiative to build the satellite. EIAST was established by the Dubai Government in 2006 with the goal of promoting a culture of advanced scientific research and technology innovation in Dubai and the UAE, and enhancing technology innovation and scientific skills among UAE Nationals. It is mainly involved in outer space research and development; satellite manufacturing and systems development; space imaging; and ground station services and support for other satellites.

Hyundai to sell hydrogen powered SUV in 2014

KUALA LUMPUR: In this Sunday, Nov 16, 2013, file photo, a model poses next to a Hyundai Tucson facelift on display at the Kuala Lumpur International Motor Show in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In 2014, Hyundai says it will start selling Tucson SUV powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. It will be the first mass-market vehicle of its type to be sold or leased in the US. —AP

DETROIT: For years, the joke in the auto industry was that a mass-produced car that runs on hydrogen was always a decade away. That will change next year when Hyundai starts selling a Tucson SUV powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. It will be the ﬁrst mass-market vehicle of its type to be sold or leased in the US. “These things are now ready for prime time,” John Krafcik, Hyundai’s North American CEO, said last week. His company plans to announce details of the new Tucson on Wednesday at the Los Angeles Auto Show. Even as the industry focused on battery-powered and hybrid cars, automakers such as Hyundai, Honda and Toyota kept up research on fuel cells. Now they appear to have conquered

obstacles such as high costs, safety concerns and a lack of filling stations. These vehicles could help the companies meet stricter future fuel-economy standards. Automakers have been dabbling in hydrogenpowered cars since the 1960s. General Motors announced a test fleet of hydrogen-powered Chevy Equinoxes in the mid-2000s, and Honda leased about two-dozen FCX Clarity models for $600 per month starting in 2005. President George W. Bush allocated $1.2 billion for hydrogen research and said in his 2003 State of the Union address: “The first car driven by a child born today could be powered by hydrogen and pollution free.” But the program was largely scrapped by the Obama administration, which

focused more on battery-powered vehicles. Hyundai now is making Bush’s forecast come true, beating other auto companies to the mass market with Tucsons that have electric motors powered by a stack of hydrogen fuel cells. Hyundai plans to start selling the vehicles in Southern California and eventually spread to other areas as ﬁlling stations are built. Hyundai says it has overcome safety and storage issues with a rear-mounted tank that has passed numerous crash tests without incident. As for ﬁlling stations, the California Air Resources Board says there currently are nine open to the public in the state. Legislators recently allocated about $200 million per year for 100 more, to be built by 2023. — AP

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

H E A LT H & S C I E N C E

Obamacare website improves as Republicans pounce WASHINGTON: The race intensified on Monday between Republicans trying to discredit President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law and officials trying to repair the flawed website crucial to the success of his policy reform. While Obama administration officials said they had made significant improvements to HealthCare.gov, Republicans began appealing to the public on Monday for personal accounts of negative experiences with the Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obamacare. The government has promised the site will be operating smoothly for the vast majority of users by Nov. 30, so that potentially millions of people can enroll by a Dec. 15 deadline for coverage that would begin on Jan. 1. “Eventually it’s going to be the easiest place to shop for healthcare,” Obama

told a call on Monday put together by Organizing for Action, the group that grew out of his 2012 re-election campaign. Obama said the site was getting better every week, but urged supporters to help get people signed up for care by mail, phone, and in person as well. Congressional aides say the strategy by Republicans in the House of Representatives is aimed at putting a more human aspect to opposition arguments that have been largely abstract up to now. “Facing hardships as a result of Obamacare? We want to hear your story,” said a message posted to the website of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, a panel led by Republican Representative Fred Upton, whose bill to allow insurers to renew canceled insurance policies won approval on Friday

from House lawmakers, including 39 Democrats. A similar bill, sponsored by six Democrats in the Democratic-controlled US Senate, appeared to be on hold for the time being, thanks partly to Obama’s decision last week to let people keep old health insurance policies for the time being. That left Senate Republicans searching for other vehicles to put Senate Democrats on the spot over Obamacare, particularly members facing competitive re-election races in November 2014. Among the options being considered, according to a Senate Republican leadership aide, is attaching an Obamacare repeal measure to some other bill, ideally something Democrats support, such as a proposal to raise the minimum wage.

The problem-plagued rollout that began on Oct. 1 has hurt the popularity of the healthcare initiative, but the decline has been fairly modest, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed on Monday. Forty-one percent of Americans expressed support for the healthcare law in a survey conducted from Thursday to Monday. That was down 3 percentage points from a Reuters/Ipsos survey taken from Sept. 27 to Oct. 1. Opposition to the law stood at 59 percent in the latest poll, versus 56 percent in the previous survey. “There has been some shift ... but the shift has been small,” said Ipsos pollster Chris Jackson. While Obama administration officials, including website project manager Henry Chao, said they were making steady progress in improving the website, the repairs cited by officials do not

resolve some of the thorniest problems, including fixes needed to allow insurers, Web brokers and insurance agents to help meet the enrollment challenge. Outside technical experts still believe the website is unlikely to function well under high volumes. White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters the government was also moving forward to develop “additional channels” for signing up, including “direct enrollment” through insurance companies. “We reconfigured various system components to improve site responsiveness. This has increased performance across the site,” Chao, deputy chief information officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said in written testimony submitted to a House of Representatives oversight subcommittee. —Reuters

Indonesia’s illegal dentists bite back after govt ban

JAKARTA: This photo taken on October 18, 2013, shows a woman cleanning an informal dentist shop in Jakarta. Despite the gnashing of teeth from the informal sector, the government insists that numerous tales of dental disaster at the hands of unlicensed practitioners vindicate their attempts to impose a ban. — AFP

Heart guidelines authors defend method of calculating risk DALLAS: Top cardiologists who devised new US guidelines for reducing risk of heart disease strenuously defended their risk-calculation tool from criticism that it greatly overestimates health risks and the need to be treated with cholesterol lowering statin drugs. Two Harvard professors, Dr. Paul Ridker and Dr. Nancy Cook, sparked the controversy by saying the risk calculator was flawed in its assessment for some populations and could lead to unnecessary therapy for millions of Americans, according to a report in Monday’s New York Times. The report said their criticisms would appear on Tuesday in the British medical journal The Lancet. Their concerns spurred prominent cardiologist Dr. Steven Nissen of the Cleveland Clinic to call for a delay in putting the new guidelines into practice, the report said. Nissen could not immediately be reached by Reuters. A half dozen cardiologists who helped formulate the guidelines over a four-year period criticized Ridker’s own methodology at a hastily called news conference during the annual scientific sessions of the American Heart Association (AHA) in Dallas. “We intend to move forward with the implementation of these guidelines,” said Dr. Sidney Smith of the University of North Carolina, a past president of the AHA who was executive chairman of the guidelines committee. “If we think there is something that will make them better, you can count on that we’ll do it,” Smith said. The guidelines were created by panels of experts from the AHA and the American College of Cardiology and include a formula for calculating the risk of developing heart disease over 10 years. They only used data from studies undertaken through 2011 and said they would begin updating the guidelines next year to include more recent findings. The guidelines no longer focus on reducing the level of “bad” LDL cholesterol to specific targets, but instead assess each patient’s personal risk factors of developing heart disease. Previous guidelines provided specific LDL targets, such as 100 for most people and 70 for patients at risk of a second heart attack, as the basis for determining who should be taking cholesterol medicines and the appropriate dose to reach targets. “One out of three Americans will die of heart attack and stroke. These (new) guidelines recommend treating about one third of adults between 40 and 75 with statins for primary prevention, so that sounds about right,” said Dr. David Goff, dean of the Colorado School of Public Health and co-chair of the riskassessment guidelines. “These guidelines have been vetted by multiple experts many, many times,” AHA President Dr. Mariell Jessup said. The guidelines authors said if more aggressive prevention measures are not undertaken, the cost of cardiac care in the United States could triple to $819 billion by 2030. Under the new guidelines, people 40 to 75 years old found to have a 7.5 percent or higher risk of developing heart disease within the next 10 years, as assessed by factors plugged into the online calculator, such as being obese or having diabetes, are encouraged to be treated with potent statins, such as Pfizer Inc’s Lipitor (atorvastatin), or

AstraZeneca’s Crestor. But Dr. Neil Stone, lead author of the cholesterol management guidelines, said the risk percentage number was merely a jumping off point for discussions between physicians and patients about appropriate individual therapy. “The goal is not to get more people on statins, the goal is to get patients to get older without having a heart attack or stroke,” he said. Authors of the new guidelines on Monday said Ridker based his conclusions of overstated risk on three large population studies that involved subjects who are far healthier than the general population. The new guidelines were based on more representative populations, the authors said, and consider for the first time the risk of stroke and factor in African-Americans, a group with a disproportionately high risk of heart attacks and stroke. “We think we came up with a good risk assessment instrument,” Smith said. The guidelines authors said Ridker notified them on Friday of his criticisms for the first time, and that they would appear in the Lancet. Moreover, several members of the guidelines committee, in interviews, said Ridker reviewed the proposed guidelines in 2012 and did not cite any such concerns. “We got his review and he did not say anything about these three population studies at that time,” Goff said. Ridker receives royalties as co-holder of patents on a diagnostic test for C Reactive Protein (CRP), a marker for inflammation that could be tied to increased risk for heart disease. Goff said Ridker, in reviewing the proposed guidelines last year, suggested that CRP testing be included in the risk assessment calculations. But his suggestion was rejected, Goff said. Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones, professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University, said Ridker had not yet provided the guidelines committee with the specific data he used to arrive at his concerns. “We used what we thought were the best available data” to determine the new guidelines, Lloyd-Jones said. “We’d all like to see Dr. Ridker’s data instead of seeing this played out in the media.” Neither Ridker nor Cook could immediately be reached for a comment. However, Ridker, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, put a statement on the hospital website that was quite positive about the intentions of the new guidelines. It said that he “strongly supports the key messages of the new guidelines and believes that questions raised about the risk calculator should be relatively easy to address. Dr. Ridker is an advocate of expanded statin use in primary prevention, a major advance of the new ACC/AHA guidelines.” Cook is a biostatistician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and is a professor at Harvard. Dr Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, a cardiologist with the Mayo Clinic who was not involved in the guidelines, said he hopes Ridker will provide the guidelines committee his data soon and that AHA and ACC will provide their joint response without delay. “The main concern is the credibility of the guidelines, regardless if the claims are valid or not,” Lopez-Jiminez said. — Reuters

JAKARTA: For more than 30 years, Indonesian dentist Edi Herman has been fixing the teeth of Jakartans in the rusty chair of his tiny shop, advertising his services with a huge poster of sparkling pearly whites on blood-red gums. He is one of thousands of low-cost, unlicensed dentists, whose small stores with their lurid signs can be found nestling in grimy alleys and wedged between red-tiled houses across the capital. But after years of horror stories about people suffering terrible damage at the hands of unscrupulous practitioners with neither clean tools nor training, the government moved to ban them from all dental work in 2011. The unlicensed dentists are fighting back, however. They have managed to get the ban overturned after challenging it in the constitutional court-and are now demanding the right to practice. “We demand to be granted a licence so we can operate legally. We will never give up our fight,” said Dwi Waris Supriyono, chairman of the Informal Dentists’ Association. For Herman, 56, a ban would have destroyed his livelihood and stopped him from practising a trade passed down to him and his brothers by their father. “The government wants to put us out of business,” said Herman, dressed in a faded T-shirt and sarong, as he puffed on a clove cigarette waiting for his next patient at his central Jakarta shop. “But I’ve been doing this since 1980, and I don’t want to lose my job.” Wanting to protect their livelihoods, the informal dentists-who can be found all across Indonesia-argue that they are the only realistic option for many in a country where millions live in abject poverty. Herman charges only 50,000 rupiah (around $4.50) for a simple scaling job, and 1,500,000 rupiah (around $140) to fit a brace-four to five times lower than prices at professional, licensed

dentists. It is also much easier to find an informal dentist. The health ministry estimates there are 75,000 of them in Indonesia, compared to 35,000 licensed practitioners. The government insists that numerous tales of dental disaster at the hands of unlicensed practitioners vindicates its drive to impose a ban. One such case is that of cleaner Fitri Hayati, whose attempts to get her teeth straightened at two illegal dentists in Jakarta were far from successful. The 24-year-old was fitted with braces but one tooth has been pushed down so it now looks longer than the others, and she said she suffers from “unbearable pain”. “I can’t eat or sleep as my whole mouth is in pain since I started wearing these braces,” she told AFP. Senior health ministry official Untung Suseno Sutarjo accused unlicensed dentists of “putting our people at risk for their own gain. “These practitioners have no qualifications. They use tools which have not been cleaned or sterilised properly.” Informal dentists, known as “Tukang Gigi” in Indonesian-which translates as “Tooth Workers”have been plying their trade for generations. In the late 1980s, authorities sought to crack down on them by ordering that they limit their work to making only dentures. But the new law was largely ignored and they continued to perform many other procedures regardless. So in 2011 the government sought to ban them from doing all dental work, a move the informal dentists countered by seeking a judicial review of the new legislation. Earlier this year the constitutional court sided with them and declared the law against the constitution, which states that every Indonesian has the right to work. Supriyono, of the Informal Dentists’

Association, argues that despite a lack of formal training, unlicensed practitioners often have years of experience and skills passed down from generation to generation. “Informal dentists have been around a lot longer than the professionals,” he said. “Earlier generations learnt their skills from the Chinese in the 1800s,” he said, referring to Chinese dentists who travelled to Indonesia in the company of merchants. The first dentist school, where licensed practitioners are trained, only opened in 1928, he added. The association now wants unlicensed dentists to be given the right to officially perform procedures such as fitting crowns or putting in fillings, things many are already doing anyway. And there is a hope that at least some of them may achieve this. In its ruling, the constitutional court ordered the health ministry to grant informal dentists a licence if they successfully pass a training course. But ministry official Sutarjo predicted only a small number in the unlicensed sector would be able to take the course. “Some are illiterate and many have not even graduated from high school,” he said. He added that only those who meet certain educational criteria would be allowed to attend courses and that the selection process “would eventually make them disappear”. He said that a plan to ensure all Indonesians have access to health care, which will start being rolled out next year, would help cover the cost of professional dentists for those on low incomes. However that plan will not fully come in to effect for some years, meaning the cheap dental practices are likely to remain a common sight on Jakarta’s colourful streets for years to come. —AFP

News

in brief

Asthma drug Relvar approved LONDON: GlaxoSmithKline and Theravance’s new inhaled lung drug Relvar has been approved in Europe to treat both asthma and chronic obstruc tive pulmonar y disease (COPD), confirming an endorsement from regulators in September. The medicine, which is inhaled through a palm-sized device called Ellipta, consists of a corticosteroid to reduce inflammation and a novel long-acting betaagonist (LABA), which is designed to open the airways.

WARSAW: Phillipine delegate Yeb Sano, second left, surrounded by supporters, speaks to the press about his global petition to delegates at the UN Climate Conference in Warsaw, Poland, yesterday. Sano’s petition was backed by more than 600,000 people around the world calling for urgent action to prevent more super Typhoons like Haiyan. — AP

Divisive UN climate talks head into final stretch WARSAW: Government ministers start arriving in Warsaw yesterday for the final stretch of UN climate talks seeking to pave the way to a global deal in 2015 on curbing global warming. With only four days left in the annual round of notoriously fractious negotiations, delegates and observers say little progress has been made on key agenda points-with finance for poor countries proving the most divisive issue. “The finance issue is creating a lot of anger here,” Alden Meyer, strategy director of US environmental group, the Union of Concerned Scientists, told AFP. “Hopefully the ministers can come in now and start working on some on the political elements... and finally come up with compromises and defuse some of the tensions.” Developing countries want rich nations to show how they intend keeping a promise made in 2009 to ramp up finance to $100 billion a year by 2020. The money is meant to help them prepare for and cope with the fallout from climate change. But developed nations dealing with the effects of the global economic crisis, are hesitant to put any figures on the table for the 2020 target, for shorter-term funding, or commit to a “loss and damage” mechanism they fear will make them liable for climate damage compensation. “Developing countries need to feel confident that the commitment to that 100 billion is still on the table despite current

financial circumstances,” UN climate chief Christiana Figueres told journalists on Monday. “There needs to be more clarity on how that funding is going to be mobilised. Ministers will meet for talks on finance on Wednesday. The roadmap to a new, global climate deal due to be signed by the 2015 UN conference in Paris, is also proving a tough nut for negotiators to crack. The deal must bind all the world’s nations to climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions cuts in a bid to meet the UN target of limiting average global warming to 2.0 degrees Celsius (3.6 deg Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels. But they do not agree on the deadline for final country emissions pledges with some nations saying this could happen only after Paris. US negotiator Todd Stern said Monday there was “considerable convergence” around the idea that countries should be allowed to make their own emissions curb “commitments”, which would be opened to scrutiny and which the country could then revise. Some, however, want more than mere peer pressure on countries to make sure their pledges are adequate to halt the march of global warming. Deep disagreement also remains on whether rich nations with a long history of emissions should bear a bigger emissionscutting burden. — AFP

70 ill after chemical plant leak About 70 people were taken ill after a sulphuric acid leak at a chemical company in California late on Monday, Los Angeles County Fire Department officials said. People in the Carson area complained of throat and nose irritation and vomiting after being exposed to an “apparent sulphuric acid release in the air from a neighboring business,” Los Angeles County Fire Department spokesman Robert Diaz said. US Senate votes anti-AIDS program The US Senate passed legislation on Monday to extend for another five years a successful and popular program to combat AIDS worldwide started 10 years ago by former President George W. Bush. The 100-member Senate approved the measure by unanimous voice vote. It is expected to be considered - and passed - by the House of Representatives as soon as Tuesday before going to President Barack Obama for his signature. Chemicals in plastics, cosmetics Chemicals called phthalates, found in plastics and cosmetics, may be linked to a raised risk of babies being born early, suggests a new study. Researchers found that women who delivered babies before 37 weeks gestation had higher levels of phthalates in their urine, compared to women who delivered their children at full term, which is 39 weeks. Weight loss help steady irregular heartbeat People with an irregular heart rhythm could see an improvement in symptoms if they lose weight in addition to managing their other heart risks, says a new study. Researchers found that people who lost more than 30 pounds and kept their other health conditions in check saw greater improvements in atrial fibrillation symptoms than those who just managed their other health conditions without trying to lose weight. — Reuters

H E A LT H & S C I E N C E

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

Dar Al Shifa Hospital’s neurosurgical team performs coma recovery procedure KUWAIT: Dar Al Shifa Hospital’s Neurosurgical team has successfully performed a coma recovery procedure on a 15 year old Saudi national following a state of complete coma that lasted for three consecutive months. The patient’s state was a result of a severe hit towards his lower brain causing chronic bleeding due to a major traffic accident that almost caused him his life. The success of the procedure is attributed to the hospital’s team’s continuous healthcare practice provided during the overall process. The patient’s family proceeded with a transfer request from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to Dar Al Shifa Hospital in Kuwait, after discussing his condition with the neurosurgical team and approving the transfer process and arriving to Kuwait through an ambulance. Dar Al Shifa Hospital’s emergency unit received the case, and was put under constant supervision using the latest medical equipment, along with the neurosurgical team of consultants and specialists. The continuous care and medical consultations directly resulted in the patient waking up from his coma which lasted for three months. After the patient’s vitals have been stabilized, he was then transferred to the physiotherapy department, which provided a comprehensive rehabilitation process through a specialized unit that deals with cases related direct head injuries as well as to the spinal cord. The recovery process, which took around one and a half months, helped the patient regain his overall fitness, and was eventually discharged from the hospital after being fully recovered in just four months. Dr. Hassan Khajah, Dar Al Shifa Hospital’s Consultant Neurosurgeon, said: “The quick and efficient intervention

‘Too fat to fly’ Frenchman lands in UK

after the accident took place; along with the patient’s family’s overall awareness on health issues helped him regain his health in a constructive manner.” “The success that was realized from this case is a clear indication that Dar Al Shifa Hospital continues to position its prominent role across local as well as regional communities through providing optimum healthcare services and a highly qualified team of specialist medical advisors.” Dar Al Shifa Hospital’s neurosurgery department includes an award winning, and highly qualified team of consultants and specialists that operate on a wide range of cases related to patients’ brain and nerves. This includes peripheral nerve disorders, tumors, pain management, as well as different forms of spine surgery.

LONDON: A young Frenchman who was stranded in the United States because he was deemed too heavy to fly finally took a plane to Britain on Monday, one step closer to going home. Kevin Chenais, who has a hormone imbalance and weighs 230 kilograms (500 pounds), arrived at London’s Heathrow airport with his parents early Monday after Virgin agreed to fly him back from New York. Chenais, 22, had been in the United States since May 2012 for treatment. He tried to fly home with British Airways last month but the airline said he was too heavy. The family subsequently tried to sail across the Atlantic, but the Queen Mary cruise ship also refused to have him onboard. Arriving at Heathrow, Chenais described the flight as “terrible, terrible, terrible”. “The flight was really hard,” he told AFP in French as he sat on a mobility scooter at the airport, wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with a large US flag. “I didn’t stop crying for the whole flight.” But he praised Virgin for flying him out from New York’s JFK airport and paying for the economyclass flight. “That was very kind of them,” he said. The family were met at Heathrow by French consular staff who are trying to arrange the final leg to France by Eurostar or Air France. Chenais, who requires regular oxygen and round-the-clock care, expressed his anger at British Airways and the Queen Mary for refusing to take him home. “We were all set to take the boat, then they turned us back without even seeing me, without even trying,” he said. “So I’m really angry-

LONDON: French Kevin Chenais, who was deemed too fat to fly, exits Heathrow Airport upon arrival on a plane from New York to London yesterday. Chenais — who has a hormone imbalance and went to the United States for treatment, was refused a British Airways flight back to Europe last month after the airline determined the 22-year-old, who weighs 230 kilograms (500 pounds), was too heavy to have on board. — AFP doubly angry because British Airways refused to take me.” He told AFP he would like to stay in Britain for a while before heading home. Kevin’s father Rene said his son had been left feeling “empty” when British Air ways refused to let him onboard. The same airline had flown him to the

US in the first place, he pointed out. “They took him out there, but they wouldn’t take him back,” he said. “This is a case of discrimination.” The journey was tiring for Kevin and the Virgin plane was not specially adapted for his needs, his father added. “Kevin has always been kind of alone in life,” he told —AFP

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

W H AT ’ S O N

Alice’s adventures in Wonderland

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he Middle school recently brought in the theatre season in Kuwait with a colourful and thoroughly entertaining version of “Alice in Wonderland”. During Alice’s adventures in the “colourful 60’s inspired retro” wonderland she meets a madhatter, a variety of odd creatures, a rugby team, a team of cooks, a King and a Queen that wants her head! Based upon Lewis Carroll’s book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland written in 1865, the story has been taken forward to the 60’s where Alice enters a psy-

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

chedelic world where she grows, shrinks, shrinks and grows (carried out with some amazing special effects!)and enjoys the company of a bubble-blowing caterpillar. When the Queen fails to receive the jam tarts for her rugby team the madness of court life in Wonderland is revealed The Upper School Drama Department will on Wednesday 27th November present their winter production of the classic “The Wind in the Willows”. Tickets are now available at the ESF reception.

Announcements Youth Chorus song competition outh Chorus, Kuwait is organizing the 8th Christian Group Song Competition on Friday, 22nd November 2013 at 6.30pm at the United Indian School Auditorium, Abbasiya. More than 10 teams are competing on the same stage. Winners will be awarded with prestigious ever-rolling trophies Mrs. Aleyamma John Pazhayidathu memorial for the first prize, and Mrs. Omana Jose memorial for the second prize and Youth Chorus Trophy for the third prize. Besides this, the winners will be awarded with individual trophies and certificates. All the participants will be awarded with Youth Chorus mementos. A committee with Thomas Chandy M. L. A as Patron, Santhosh Eayo as Gen. Convener, Tony Mathew as Jt. Convenor, John Abraham, Somu Mathew, Adv. John Thomas as conveners are giving leadership to the program.

ALMASS-Kuwait anniversary irst Anniversary & Annual General Meeting of 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.

Enjoy the taste of true Espresso at Vergnano Cafe at Olympia Complex

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.

GUST hosts UMSL representatives

he Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST) welcomed affiliate university, University of Missouri - St Louis (UMSL), representatives, Professor Joel Glassman, Associate Provost and Director of International Studies and Programs, and Ms Jacquelyn Elliott, Coordinator of the GUST Liaison Office. The discussions during the 4 days long visit focused on opportunities for collaboration and joint activities. Professor Ghassan Aouad, Vice President for Academic Affairs at GUST spearheaded the visit, noting that the university is looking for the final approval of the Private Universities Council (PUC), on implementing the new Engineering and Architecture programs at GUST. In a press conference held, Prof. Aouad highlighted this news and noted: “This approval will represent the newest addition to the university and the education landscape in Kuwait. It will also help achieve the aspirations of so many young students looking for an international level education in those fields.” Prof. Aouad thanked UMSL for its continuous support of GUST, and in helping GUST grow to attain higher levels of education at the national and regional levels. The final approval from the PUC for the Engineering and Architecture programs is due in the very near future. Professor Joel Glassman expressed his delight to return to GUST and follow up of the evolution of the campus, “There is a constant evolution here at the level of educational services and student involvement and is a testament to careful management and care of the university.” He mentioned their meeting at the PUC of the Ministry of Higher Education regarding the proposal put towards for

the engineering disciplines, where the PUC confirmed their initial approval. “GUST has interesting times ahead with its progress in introducing new programs and with its new leadership including Professor Donald Bates, new President, and Professor Aouad as new VP Academic Affairs, two distinguished academics that UMSL is proud to work with on opportunities for cooperation between the two universities.”

Professor Glassman also praised the summer scholarship student exchange program between GUST and UMSL, where there are a growing number of Kuwaiti students interested in experiencing college life in the U.S. and with UMSL’s growing international student population, will provide a great cultural experience for students and faculty alike. GUST is always keen on providing high quality, international level educa-

tion to its students and continues to develop with the growing needs of its prospective students. It also aims to improve the standards and levels of research from its faculty members by growing its worldwide university collaborations. GUST is looking forward to these coming years of change, development and growth.

Mavelikara Association celebrates Children’s Day

avelikara Association Kuwait celebrated Childrenís Day and organized Raja Ravi Varma Trophy pencil drawing competition on Al-Abeer Nursery School Auditorium, Abbasiya on November 14. Children participated in Junior, Sub Junior and Senior categories. The competition was based on ‘Kerala’s natural beauty’ for Senior, ‘Apple’ for Sub junior and as per the choice of participant for junior. Celebration was inaugurated by P S Ullas Kumar (Patron Mavelikara Association), A I Kurian (President Mavelikara Association) presided the function. Sunny Pathichira, also shared his valuable thoughts of children’s day. Madhu Vettiyar, Francis Lawrence, Ninan John, Thomas Mathew and Binoy Chandran distributed the prizes. John Varghese and Prasanth Nair evaluated the drawings. The welcome speech was rendered by Philip C V Thomas (former President and Convenor of the association). Sabu Mavelikara (Secretary Mavelikara Association) delivered the vote of thanks.

PGA Everton Girls 7-a-side soccer

.G.A. Everton Girls, sponsored by Porsche Centre Kuwait, Behbehani Motors Company, played against Saracens Girls this week in a 7 a side fixture at Bayan. The match was played in

great spirit with some excellent football skills and determination displayed by both teams. Coaches Carly and Sam from Everton and Coach James from Saracens praised all the players for putting into

practice the skills and techniques they have been developing in the regular weekly coaching program. Match balls for the game were sponsored by Sports Direct and further girls fixtures are

planned for the near future. The P.G.A. Everton Girls coaching sessions are held each Sunday 5-6:30 pm at Bayan and all interested girls aged 8 to 16 years are welcome to attend.

W H AT ’ S O N

Marina Hotel Kuwait trains LoYAC interns

arina Hotel Kuwait announced yesterday that it has collaborated once again with the Lothan Youth Achievement Center (LOYAC), in an effort to host a range of students for an extensive training program. The initiative reflects the hotel’s proactive contribution to the development of the youth. During the training period, the interns understood the fundamentals of working within a hotel and the hotel’s Food and Beverage as well as Front Office departments. The internship program aims at empowering the interns and to provide them with better opportunities upon entering the job market by offering theoretical and practical components as along with a number of team building and recreational activities. Nabil Hammoud, General Manager of Marina hotel said: “We are very pleased to cooperate with LOYAC, givenits long history in creating career opportunities for youth at national levels. The interns’ experience of being part of a team will help them develop their character, build more confidence and prepare them in the future for whatever decision they make. We are lucky to have the opportunity to host such talented and ambitious students and wish them all success in their careers.” “LoYAC’s mission aims to develop the community and help it cope with the challenges of the future. This falls perfectly under Marina Hotel Kuwait’s values, to support the Kuwaiti community to progress and build local talent” further concluded Mr. Hammoud The interns were allotted tasks and provided with

hands on experience of a professional ambience with its daily functionalities. They gained invaluable insight into work-life and environment, while benefitting from a professional service orientation. At the end of their internship period, the interns were assessed and given

feedback on their performance by their direct mentor. This collaboration is an annual internship program which offers college, university and high school students the opportunity to acquire first-hand experience in the hospitality industry.

released by the chief guest and the first copy was handed over to souvenir committee conveners Siju Sadsivan and Vinaya Babu. Mementos and cash prizes for academic excellence in Standard X and XII for students of Saradhi members were also awarded during the function. Treasurer Satheesen proposed a vote of thanks. The cultural program started with excellent exposition of Kerala’s art forms by the children of Saradhi members followed by the wonderful performance by young music talents, Vivekanand, Preethy Warrier, Sudheesh and Praseetha Chalakudi. A large crowd assembled for the program and the musical events were of an exhilarating experience to all. The entire program was compered by M P Jithesh and Ruchitra Dinesh.

Ad, feature films are complementary for School of Drama product VKP

K Prakash has made 700 commercials over 20 years and he is still making them. Cut to his feature film milieu, we have 16 films since his national award win-

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.

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the story teller on the weekend performances scheduled at Sangeetha Auditorium at 7pm on Thursday and the 2 shows at 4.30pm and 7.30pm on Friday. Ajayakumar also has the history of running a theater troup, Thiruvananthapuram Kerala Thetares which he handed over after 10 years of performing of plays penned by him and others. “Art forms like kathaprasangam, drama are on the twilight today”, said Ajayakumar who appreciated Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademy’s Rs 10,000 subsidy for kathaprasangam professionals per story. His new story for 2014 is a murder mystery thriller titled Neethipeedam (The throne of justice), based on a Bengali story by Thara Sankar Banerji.

ning Punaradhivasam (Rehabilitation) based on a story by Manasi. The P Balachandranscripted movie released in 2000 is south India’s first Dolby digital film that trumpeted a techno-savvy balanced director. His ready to be released Mammootty crime thriller ‘Silence’ speaks of a judge’s self-discovery. VK Prakash was in Kuwait last weekend as part of Palakkad expats association (PALPAK) program. I met the 52-year old actor-director after his film workshop for the students of Upasana Dance School, Kuwait. A man currently under 2 new directional projects, one acting mission and a couple of ad assignments was easy despite his mobile phone showed repeated messages of roaming mobile internet payment shooting up to Rs 100,000 (KD 490). “I find it comfortable to make ad films and feature films”, said VKP who has a number of innovative credits from the first satellite film to the first movie in Hinglish (a mix of English and Hindi which he used in Freaky

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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.

‘Artechnology’ the way of filmmaker VK Prakash By Sunil Cherian

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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Kappil Ajyakumar to perform kathaprasangam this weekend enowned story teller Kappil Ajayakumar is presenting his latest kathaprasangam (story telling performance) Julia, based on a Tolstoy story, this Thursday and Friday at Sangeetha Auditorium, Mangaf. “The story is based on Tolstoy’s famous story Winter Night where the audience get a glimpse of the cruel Czar time and the relevance of characters like Julia in our own time”, said Kappil Ajayakumar who is on a short visit in Kuwait. Kappil Ajayakumar is in the field of kathaprasangam since 1970s. he has told his 40 stories over 5,000 stages. Last year his Purana story Karnan was set in the contemporary setting. “I usually take stories from classics, and other popular literary works”, said Jayakumar. Local artists Chndramohan (chenda), Anwar (harmonium, keyboard) and Sajeev (tabla) will accompany

Embassy Information

Saradhi Kuwait celebrates 14th anniversary

aradhi Kuwait celebrated its 14th anniversary and Onam on Nov 15 at Marina Hall, Abbassiya. The event started off with the playing of national anthems of Kuwait and India, followed by traditional prayer song. Preethymon Valath, General Convener of the Program Committee welcomed the audience and T S Rajan, President of Saradhi Kuwait presided over the meeting. The program was inaugurated with lighting of the ‘bhadradeepam’ by the Chief Guest J S Dangi, Second Secretary, Embassy of India in Kuwait. Saradhi’s General Secretary Vinish Viswambaran, Patron .Suresh Kochath, Advisory Board Member Kochappally Vijayabhanu, Trust Chairman Adv Sasidhara Panicker and Vanithavedi Chairperson Nimmi Muralidharan delivered felicitation speeches. A colorful souvenir was

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

Chakra, a film he wrote and directed). “I can apply the ad technology to feature films and the story tactics of feature films can be applied to ad films”. VKP films, Beautiful, Natholi Oru Cheriya Meenalla to name a few, are known for their artistic variety and technical brilliance. He began using 2 cameras while filming - a trend now - some years ago to “capture the spontaneous reaction of the actors and to avoid the mechanical feature” in reshooting response/reaction scenes. “The production cost is less in using 2 cameras as so much time is saved. I usually take about 30 days to shoot a movie”. The actors enjoy avoiding mechanically responding to a situation, said VKP. “In my film Mazhaneerthullikal - in one motherdying scene - actress Maithily didn’t stop crying to Ouseppachan’s music after I said cut”. VKP who does not permit prompting while filming does not bother the number of cameras as long as he is getting such natural responses from intense actors. The new

bunch of artistes and technicians are all for a change, said the director who has introduced faces across cultures: Chaya Singh (Mullavalliyum Thenmavum) and Indrajith in his Telugu movie. VKP also has Hindi (Fir Kabhi), Telugu (Kavya’s Diary) and Kannada (Poppins, based on a play by Jayaprakash Kuloor which also had its Malayalam make) films in a 14-year career span. His new films are akupu complex and Dude n’ Django. The first is a social satire where debutant scripters Prasanth and Ampadi explore the complex human (Malayalee?) nature of jealousy, envy and contempt. Dude n’ Django is the story of a duo played by Joy Mathew and P Balachandran, VKP’s School of Drama mates. Another project titled Vidooshakan (The Clown), a biopic of satirist Sanjayan (died 1943) directed by newcomer Santhosh will have VKP in the lead role. “I’ll have to lose my moustache to have a periodic look”, VKP said.

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.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

TV PROGRAMS

03:25 Shamwari: A Wild Life 04:15 Bondi Vet 05:05 ER Vets 05:55 Animal Cops Houston 06:45 Gator Boys 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 Shamwari: A Wild Life 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 Ned Bruha: Skunk Whisperer 15:40 Shamwari: A Wild Life 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 22:05 Shamwari: A Wild Life 23:00 Outback Rangers 23:55 North America 00:50 Animal Cops Houston 01:45 Human Prey 02:35 Untamed & Uncut

03:05 Paradox 03:55 Absolutely Fabulous 04:30 Last Of The Summer Wine 05:00 Me Too! 05:20 The Green Balloon Club 05:45 Bobinogs 05:55 Tweenies 06:15 Me Too! 06:35 The Green Balloon Club 07:00 Bobinogs 07:10 Tweenies 07:30 Last Of The Summer Wine 08:00 Absolutely Fabulous 08:30 Doctor Who 09:15 Eastenders 09:45 Doctors 10:15 Full Circle With Michael Palin 11:05 The Weakest Link 11:50 Going For Gold - The ‘48 Games 13:20 Absolutely Fabulous 13:50 Eastenders 14:20 Doctors 14:50 The Weakest Link 15:35 Full Circle With Michael Palin 16:25 Doctor Who 17:10 Eastenders 17:40 Doctors 18:10 The Weakest Link 19:00 One Foot In The Grave 19:30 Absolutely Fabulous 20:00 Paradox 20:50 Come Fly With Me 21:20 Alan Carr: Chatty Man 22:05 The Office 22:35 Luther 23:30 The Weakest Link 00:15 One Foot In The Grave 00:45 Absolutely Fabulous 01:15 Eastenders 01:45 Doctors 02:15 Alan Carr: Chatty Man

03:15 04:00 04:25 05:10 05:40 06:25 07:10 07:35 08:00 08:45 09:40 10:05 10:30 11:20 12:10 12:55

Fantasy Homes Down Under The Boss Is Coming To Dinner Cash In The Attic The Hairy Bikers’ Cookbook Bargain Hunt Fantasy Homes Down Under Chef At Home The Boss Is Coming To Dinner Bargain Hunt Homes Under The Hammer The Hairy Bikers’ Cookbook The Little Paris Kitchen A Taste Of Greenland Come Dine With Me Masterchef: The Professionals Extreme Makeover: Home

Edition Specials 14:15 Antiques Roadshow 15:10 Homes Under The Hammer 16:00 Homes Under The Hammer 16:50 Bargain Hunt 17:35 Cash In The Attic 18:20 Antiques Roadshow 19:15 DIY SOS: The Big Build 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 DIY SOS: The Big Build 01:40 Come Dine With Me 02:30 Masterchef: The Professionals

03:00 Mythbusters 03:50 Border Security 04:15 Storage Hunters 04:40 Dirty Money 05:05 How Do They Do It? 05:30 How It’s Made 06:00 American Guns 07:00 Mythbusters 07:50 Alaska: The Last Frontier 08:40 Overhaulin’ 2012 09:30 Border Security 09:55 Storage Hunters 10:20 Dirty Money 10:45 How Do They Do It? 11:10 How It’s Made 11:35 Get Out Alive With Bear Grylls 12:25 Dual Survival (Brazil) 13:15 Car vs Wild 14:05 Border Security 14:30 Storage Hunters 14:55 Dirty Money 15:20 Finding Bigfoot 16:10 Overhaulin’ 2012 17:00 Ultimate Survival 17:50 Dirty Jobs 18:40 Mythbusters 19:30 American Guns 20:20 Storage Hunters 20:45 Dirty Money 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

03:15 Rocket City Rednecks 03:45 Stuck With Hackett 04:10 Stuck With Hackett 04:35 Unchained Reaction 05:25 Moon Machines 06:15 The Gadget Show 06:40 Tech Toys 360 07:05 X-Machines 08:00 Mighty Planes 08:50 Mighty Ships 09:40 The Gadget Show 10:05 Tech Toys 360 10:30 Invisible Worlds 11:25 X-Machines 12:20 Unchained Reaction 13:10 Moon Machines 14:00 Junkyard Wars 14:50 Weird Connections 15:20 The Gadget Show 15:45 Tech Toys 360 16:10 Rocket City Rednecks 16:35 Rocket City Rednecks 17:00 Invisible Worlds 17:55 X-Machines 18:45 Unchained Reaction 19:35 Space Pioneer 20:30 Prophets Of Science Fiction 21:20 Stephen Hawking’s Grand Design 22:10 The Gadget Show 22:35 Tech Toys 360 23:00 Prophets Of Science Fiction 23:50 Stephen Hawking’s Grand Design 00:40 Colony 01:30 Weird Connections 02:00 The Gadget Show 02:25 Tech Toys 360 02:50 Prophets Of Science Fiction

03:30 04:25 Stroud 05:20 06:15 07:05 08:00 Stroud 08:50 09:45 10:35 11:30 12:20 13:10 14:05 14:55 15:50 16:45 17:40 18:35 Stroud 19:25 20:20 21:10 22:05 23:00 23:55 00:50 01:45 02:35

Zero Hour Beyond Survival With Les Victory By Design Aircrash Confidential Timewatch Beyond Survival With Les Victory By Design Extreme Engineering On The Brink: Doomsday Marley Africa Road Trip Timewatch Victory By Design Extreme Engineering Aircrash Confidential In Search Of The King’s Head Marley Africa Road Trip Timewatch Beyond Survival With Les Commander In Chief Extreme Engineering Victory By Design Marley Africa Road Trip Commander In Chief Zero Hour Crimes That Shook The World Marley Africa Road Trip Commander In Chief

03:00 03:20 03:45 04:05 04:30 04:50 05:15 05:35 06:00 06:25 06:45 07:10 07:35 07:55 08:20 08:45 09:05 09:30 09:55 10:15 10:40 11:05 11:25 11:50 12:15 12:35 13:00 13:25 13:45 14:10 14:35 15:00 15:25 15:50 16:10 17:00 17:20 17:45 18:30 18:55 19:20 20:05 20:30 20:50 21:15 21:40 22:00 22:25 22:50 23:10 23:35 00:00 00:20 00:45 01:05 01:30 01:50

The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody Sonny With A Chance Sonny With A Chance Suite Life On Deck Suite Life On Deck Wizards Of Waverly Place Wizards Of Waverly Place Austin And Ally Austin And Ally A.N.T. Farm A.N.T. Farm Jessie Good Luck Charlie Sofia The First Doc McStuffins Mickey Mouse Clubhouse A.N.T. Farm A.N.T. Farm Jessie Jessie Suite Life On Deck Suite Life On Deck Shake It Up Shake It Up Austin And Ally A.N.T. Farm That’s So Raven Dog With A Blog Good Luck Charlie My Babysitter’s A Vampire That’s So Raven Gravity Falls Jessie Violetta Dog With A Blog Austin And Ally Dear Dracula Good Luck Charlie Shake It Up Violetta Jessie My Babysitter’s A Vampire Good Luck Charlie Gravity Falls Shake It Up Austin And Ally A.N.T. Farm Good Luck Charlie Wizards Of Waverly Place Wizards Of Waverly Place The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody Sonny With A Chance Sonny With A Chance Suite Life On Deck Suite Life On Deck

03:00 03:25 03:40 03:50

Little Einsteins Special Agent Oso Special Agent Oso Imagination Movers

ROCK OF AGES ON OSN MOVIES HD

04:20 Handy Manny 04:35 Winnie The Pooh: Tales Of Friendship 04:40 Special Agent Oso 04:50 Special Agent Oso 05:00 Timmy Time 05:10 Imagination Movers 05:35 Little Einsteins 06:00 Jungle Junction 06:15 Jungle Junction 06:30 Little Einsteins 06:50 Special Agent Oso 07:00 Special Agent Oso 07:15 Jungle Junction 07:30 Jungle Junction 07:45 Handy Manny 08:00 Special Agent Oso 08:15 Jungle Junction 08:30 Higglytown Heroes 08:45 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 09:10 New Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh 09:35 Jake And The Neverland Pirates 09:50 Doc McStuffins 10:05 Doc McStuffins 10:20 Zou 10:35 Henry Hugglemonster 10:50 Henry Hugglemonster 11:00 Sofia The First 11:25 Jake And The Neverland Pirates 11:40 Jake And The Neverland Pirates 11:55 New Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh 12:20 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 12:45 Mouk 13:00 Winnie The Pooh: Tales Of Friendship 13:05 Higglytown Heroes 13:20 The Hive 13:30 Doc McStuffins 13:45 Doc McStuffins 14:00 Zou 14:15 Jake And The Neverland Pirates 14:30 Henry Hugglemonster 14:45 Henry Hugglemonster 14:55 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 15:20 New Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh 15:45 Higglytown Heroes 15:55 The Hive 16:05 Doc McStuffins 16:20 Zou 16:35 Jake And The Neverland Pirates 16:50 Jake And The Neverland Pirates 17:05 Art Attack 17:30 Goof Troop 17:55 Tarzan 18:20 Quack Pack 18:45 Lilo And Stitch 19:10 Henry Hugglemonster 19:25 Henry Hugglemonster 19:35 Sofia The First 20:00 Winnie The Pooh: Tales Of Friendship 20:05 Pajanimals 20:25 Doc McStuffins 20:40 Winnie The Pooh: Tales Of Friendship 20:45 Zou 21:00 Jake And The Neverland Pirates 21:15 Jake And The Neverland Pirates 21:30 Goof Troop 21:55 Tarzan 22:20 Quack Pack 22:45 Lilo And Stitch 23:10 Sofia The First 23:35 Doc McStuffins 23:50 Pajanimals 00:05 Winnie The Pooh: Tales Of Friendship 00:10 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 00:35 Jake And The Neverland Pirates 00:50 Zou 01:10 Doc McStuffins 01:25 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 01:50 Jungle Junction 02:10 Handy Manny 02:25 Winnie The Pooh: Tales Of Friendship

07:00 Max Steel 07:25 Phineas And Ferb 07:50 Supa Strikas 08:15 Monsters University: Behind The Screams 08:40 Kickin It 09:05 Ultimate Spider-Man 09:30 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 12:50 Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja 13:15 Scaredy Squirrel 13:40 Pair Of Kings 14:30 Phineas And Ferb 15:20 Pokemon Bw: Adventures In Unova 15:45 Lab Rats 16:35 Crash & Bernstein 17:00 Lab Rats 17:30 Kickin It 18:25 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 22:35 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 07:50 Style Star 08:20 Fashion Police 09:15 Opening Act 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 THS 14:30 Style Star 15:00 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 17:00 The Wanted Life 18:00 E! News 19:00 Fashion Police 20:00 THS

04:00 Perfect Plan 06:00 American Girl: McKenna Shoots For The Stars 08:00 Paranorman 10:00 Mandie And The Secret Tunnel 12:00 The Big Year 14:00 Fastest 16:00 Paranorman 18:00 People Like Us 20:00 50/50 22:00 The Awakening 00:00 Fastest 02:00 People Like Us

03:00 Trans World Sport 04:00 World Pool Masters 05:00 World Pool Masters 06:00 Golfing World 07:00 Golfing World 08:00 Futbol Mundial 08:30 World Pool Masters 09:30 World Pool Masters 10:30 Trans World Sport 11:30 Snooker Champion Of Champions 15:30 International Rugby Union 17:30 World Pool Masters 18:30 World Pool Masters 19:30 Golfing World 20:30 Rugby League World Cup 22:30 European Tour Weekly 23:00 Inside The PGA Tour 23:30 International Rugby Union 01:30 Rugby League World Cup

SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS ON OSN MOVIES ACTION HD 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 THS

03:10 03:35 04:25 04:50 05:15 05:40 06:30 07:10 08:00 08:25 08:50 09:15 09:40 10:05 10:30 11:45 12:10 12:35 13:00 13:50 14:15 Basics 15:05 15:30 16:20 16:45 17:35 Basics 18:00 Basics 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

Reza, Spice Prince Of India Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Food Wars Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives United Tastes Of America Chopped Iron Chef America Food Network Challenge Unwrapped Unwrapped Food Crafters United Tastes Of America Extra Virgin Barefoot Contessa The Next Food Network Star Aarti Party Unwrapped Unique Sweets Food Network Challenge Tyler’s Ultimate Barefoot Contessa - Back To Siba’s Table Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Symon’s Suppers Chopped Barefoot Contessa - Back To Barefoot Contessa - Back To Tastiest Places To Chowdown Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Guy’s Big Bite Reza, Spice Prince Of India 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 Kung Fu Quest 04:25 Extreme Tourist Afghanistan 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 Kung Fu Quest 11:45 Extreme Tourist Afghanistan 12:40 Banged Up Abroad 13:35 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 14:30 Bondi Rescue 14:55 Bondi Rescue 15:25 Market Values 15:50 Eat Street 16:20 Banged Up Abroad 18:10 Kung Fu Quest 19:05 Somewhere In China 20:00 Banged Up Abroad 22:55 The Witch Doctor Will See You Now 23:50 Market Values 00:15 My Sri Lanka With Peter Kuruvita 00:45 Street Food Around The World 01:10 Don’t Tell My Mother 01:40 Travel Madness 02:05 Delinquent Gourmet 02:35 Eat Street

03:00 How I Met Your Mother 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 How I Met Your Mother 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 How I Met Your Mother 18:30 Last Man Standing 19:00 Family Tools 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 Weeds 22:30 It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia 23:00 The League 23:30 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 Weeds 02:00 It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia 02:30 The League

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

The Client List Grey’s Anatomy Once Upon A Time Psych Necessary Roughness White Collar Grey’s Anatomy Once Upon A Time Homeland Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show White Collar Psych Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show White Collar Warehouse 13 Perception Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Hannibal The Client List Psych Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Hannibal

04:00 Shadow 06:00 Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome 08:00 Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life 10:00 Go Fast 11:45 Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows 14:00 The Tourist 15:45 Go Fast 17:30 The Avengers 20:00 The Tourist 22:00 How I Spent My Summer Vacation 00:00 7 Below

04:00 Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome 06:00 Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life 08:00 Go Fast 09:45 Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows 12:00 The Tourist 13:45 Go Fast 15:30 The Avengers 18:00 The Tourist 20:00 How I Spent My Summer Vacation 22:00 7 Below 00:00 Nowhere To Run 02:00 How I Spent My Summer Vacation

04:00 I Don’t Know How She Does It 06:00 Shark Tale 08:00 New Year’s Eve 10:00 Falling Star 12:00 I Don’t Know How She Does It 14:00 Police Academy 6: City Under Siege 16:00 Falling Star 18:00 This Means War 20:00 What’s Your Number? 22:00 Caddyshack 00:00 Girl Walks Into A Bar 02:00 What’s Your Number?

03:30 05:30 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00 01:00

Arbitrage Gandhi Class Arbitrage I’ve Loved You So Long Look Again Beneath Hill 60 Shadow Dancer The Whistleblower The Raven Beneath Hill 60

04:45 07:30 09:30 11:00 13:15 15:30 17:15 18:45 21:00 22:45 01:45

Neverland Night Falls On Manhattan Virtual Lies Dreamgirls Dog Day Afternoon Teenage Paparazzo Virtual Lies Across The Universe The Entitled John Rabe What’s Love Got To Do With It

03:15 Klitschko 05:15 Gnomeo & Juliet 07:00 Prosecuting Casey Anthony 09:00 Mary & Martha 10:45 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey 13:30 Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax 15:00 The Three Stooges 17:00 Mary & Martha 18:45 Rock Of Ages 21:00 Bachelorette 23:00 Lawless 01:00 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

04:30 Alpha And Omega 06:00 Marco Antonio 08:00 Olentzero And The Magic Log 10:00 Arthur 3: And The War Of Two Worlds 11:45 Eleanor’s Secret 13:15 Cinderella 14:45 The Lucky Dragon 16:30 Santa’s Magic Crystal 18:00 Arthur 3: And The War Of Two Worlds 20:00 Jelly T 21:45 The Lucky Dragon 23:30 Santa’s Magic Crystal 01:00 Olentzero And The Magic Log 02:45 The Lucky Dragon

03:00 U.S Bass Fishing 04:00 This Week In WWE 04:30 F1 H2O World Championship 06:00 F1 H2O World Championship 07:00 WWE Vintage Collection 08:00 WWE NXT 09:00 Ping Pong World Championship 10:00 U.S Bass Fishing 11:00 F1 H2O World Championship 12:30 F1 H2O World Championship 13:30 UIM Class 1 Powerboat 16:00 European Le Mans Series Highlights 17:00 European Le Mans Series Highlights 18:00 Motor Sports 19:00 Porsche GT 3 Cup Challenge Middle East 19:30 Porsche GT 3 Cup Challenge Middle East 20:00 This Week In WWE 20:30 Prizefighter 01:30 Porsche GT 3 Cup Challenge Middle East

03:00 04:00 04:30 05:00 06:00 06:30 07:00 Rides 08:00 09:00 10:00 10:30 11:00 Rides 12:00 12:30 13:00 13:30 14:00 15:00 15:30 16:00 16:30 17:00 18:00 19:00 19:30 20:00 21:00 21:30 22:00 22:30 23:00 00:00 00:30 01:00 Rides 02:00 02:30

Off Limits The Food Truck The Food Truck Bizarre Foods America Airport 24/7: Miami Airport 24/7: Miami World’s Greatest Motorcycle Globe Trekker Descending Airport 24/7: Miami Airport 24/7: Miami World’s Greatest Motorcycle Bert The Conqueror Trip Flip The Food Truck The Food Truck Bizarre Foods America International House Hunters International House Hunters International House Hunters International House Hunters Hotel Impossible Soul Seeker The Food Truck The Food Truck Bizarre Foods America International House Hunters International House Hunters Armed & Ready Armed & Ready Man vs World Airport 24/7: Miami Airport 24/7: Miami World’s Greatest Motorcycle Xtreme Waterparks Xtreme Waterparks

03:00 03:55 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

Banged Up Abroad Blowdown Prehistoric Predators Banged Up Abroad Situation Critical Megastructures The Border Breakout Banged Up Abroad Blowdown Animal Impact Banged Up Abroad Situation Critical Megastructures The Border Breakout Britain’s Greatest Machines The Known Universe World’s Deadliest Animals Britain’s Greatest Machines Megacities Ultimate Airport Dubai Pirate Patrol Machines Of War

03:10 04:00 04:45 05:30 06:20 06:45 07:10 08:00 08:50 09:40 10:05 10:30 11:20 12:10 13:00 13:50 14:40

True CSI Deadly Women Most Evil Dr G: Medical Examiner Dead Tenants Dead Tenants Nightmare Next Door Deadly Affairs Nightmare Next Door I Was Murdered Stalked: Someone’s Watching On The Case With Paula Zahn Extreme Forensics Dr G: Medical Examiner I Almost Got Away With It Deadly Affairs Nightmare Next Door

Classifieds WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

Kuwait SHARQIA-1 ROMEO AND JULIET (DIG) ROMEO AND JULIET (DIG) ROMEO AND JULIET (DIG) ROMEO AND JULIET (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) SHARQIA-2 CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) THOR: THE DARK WORLD (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) THOR: THE DARK WORLD (DIG-3D) THOR: THE DARK WORLD (DIG-3D) THOR: THE DARK WORLD (DIG)

12:30 PM 2:45 PM 5:00 PM 7:15 PM 9:30 PM 12:15 AM 12:30 PM 3:15 PM 5:15 PM 8:00 PM 10:15 PM 12:30 AM

SHARQIA-3 FREE BIRDS (DIG) 12:30 PM FREE BIRDS (DIG) 2:30 PM FREE BIRDS (DIG) 4:30 PM ARENA OF THE STREET FIGHTER (DIG) 6:30 PM KALBY DALILI (DIG) 8:30 PM ARENA OF THE STREET FIGHTER (DIG) 10:45 PM ARENA OF THE STREET FIGHTER (DIG) 12:45 AM MUHALAB-1 ROMEO AND JULIET (DIG) RAM LEELA (DIG) (HINDI) MASALA (DIG) (TELUGU) ROMEO AND JULIET (DIG) ROMEO AND JULIET (DIG) MUHALAB-2 Seats-210 FREE BIRDS (DIG) ARENA OF THE STREET FIGHTER (DIG) KALBY DALILI (DIG) ARENA OF THE STREET FIGHTER (DIG) MUHALAB-3 CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) THOR: THE DARK WORLD (DIG-3D) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) THOR: THE DARK WORLD (DIG-3D)

1:45 PM 4:00 PM 4:00 PM 7:15 PM 9:30 PM 1:30 PM 3:45 PM 6:00 PM 8:00 PM 10:00 PM 2:00 PM 4:45 PM 7:00 PM 9:45 PM

FANAR-1 ARENA OF THE STREET FIGHTER (DIG) 12:45 PM ARENA OF THE STREET FIGHTER (DIG) 2:45 PM KALBY DALILI (DIG) 4:45 PM ARENA OF THE STREET FIGHTER (DIG) 6:45 PM ARENA OF THE STREET FIGHTER (DIG) 8:45 PM KALBY DALILI (DIG) 10:45 PM ARENA OF THE STREET FIGHTER (DIG) 12:45 AM FANAR-2 ROMEO AND JULIET (DIG) ROMEO AND JULIET (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) ROMEO AND JULIET (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG)

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

FANAR-3 DJINN (DIG) ALL IS LOST (DIG) RAM LEELA (DIG) (HINDI) RAM LEELA (DIG) (HINDI) ALL IS LOST (DIG) ALL IS LOST (DIG)

12:30 PM 2:30 PM 4:45 PM 7:45 PM 10:45 PM 1:00 AM

FANAR-4 THOR: THE DARK WORLD (DIG)

1:00 PM

FOR SALE

KNCC PROGRAMME FROM THURSDAY TO WEDNESDAY (14/11/2013 TO 20/11/2013) FREE BIRDS (DIG-3D) FREE BIRDS (DIG-3D) THOR: THE DARK WORLD (DIG-3D) THOR: THE DARK WORLD (DIG) THOR: THE DARK WORLD (DIG-3D) FANAR-5 GRAVITY GRAVITY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 GRAVITY GRAVITY GRAVITY

3:30 PM 5:30 PM 7:30 PM 10:00 PM 12:15 AM 2:00 PM 4:00 PM

360º- 2 ALL IS LOST (DIG) ALL IS LOST (DIG) ALL IS LOST (DIG) ALL IS LOST (DIG) ALL IS LOST (DIG) ALL IS LOST (DIG)

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

360º- 3 FREE BIRDS (DIG-3D) FREE BIRDS (DIG) FREE BIRDS (DIG-3D) FREE BIRDS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG)

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

MARINA-1 ARENA OF THE STREET FIGHTER (DIG) 1:45 PM KALBY DALILI (DIG) 3:45 PM ARENA OF THE STREET FIGHTER (DIG) 5:45 PM KALBY DALILI (DIG) 8:00 PM ARENA OF THE STREET FIGHTER (DIG) 10:00 PM ARENA OF THE STREET FIGHTER (DIG) 12:05 AM

AL-KOUT.1 THOR: THE DARK WORLD (DIG) FREE BIRDS (DIG) FREE BIRDS (DIG) THOR: THE DARK WORLD (DIG-3D) THOR: THE DARK WORLD (DIG) THOR: THE DARK WORLD (DIG-3D)

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

MARINA-2 THOR: THE DARK WORLD (DIG) FREE BIRDS (DIG) ROMEO AND JULIET (DIG) ROMEO AND JULIET (DIG) ROMEO AND JULIET (DIG) THOR: THE DARK WORLD (DIG)

AL-KOUT.2 ROMEO AND JULIET (DIG) ALL IS LOST (DIG) ROMEO AND JULIET (DIG) ALL IS LOST (DIG) ROMEO AND JULIET (DIG) ALL IS LOST (DIG)

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

6:00 PM 8:00 PM 10:15 PM 12:15 AM

MARINA-3 FREE BIRDS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) THOR: THE DARK WORLD (DIG-3D) THOR: THE DARK WORLD (DIG-3D) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) AVENUES-1 RAM LEELA (DIG) (HINDI) RAM LEELA (DIG) (HINDI) RAM LEELA (DIG) (HINDI) RAM LEELA (DIG) (HINDI) RAM LEELA (DIG) (HINDI)

1:30 PM 4:00 PM 6:00 PM 8:15 PM 10:30 PM 12:45 AM 12:30 PM 2:30 PM 5:15 PM 7:30 PM 9:45 PM 12:30 AM 12:30 PM 3:30 PM 6:30 PM 9:30 PM 12:30 AM

AL-KOUT.3 CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG)

Nissan Pathﬁnder 2003 model, white. Serious buyer may contact 97277135. Mitsubishi Galant 2013, silver color, excellent condition, km 11,000, KD 2,950. Tel: 66729295. (C 4574) 17-11-2013 SUV Trailblazer, 2005 model, white color, price KD 1,300. Tel: 66728911. (C 4571) 14-11-2013

AL-KOUT.4 ARENA OF THE STREET FIGHTER (DIG) KALBY DALILI (DIG) ARENA OF THE STREET FIGHTER (DIG) ARENA OF THE STREET FIGHTER (DIG) KALBY DALILI (DIG) ARENA OF THE STREET FIGHTER (DIG)

1:45 PM 3:45 PM 5:45 PM 7:45 PM 9:45 PM 11:45 PM 12:30 PM 2:30 PM 4:30 PM 6:30 PM 9:00 PM 11:30 PM

AVENUES-2 ALL IS LOST (DIG) ALL IS LOST (DIG) ALL IS LOST (DIG) ALL IS LOST (DIG) ALL IS LOST (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

2:30 PM 4:45 PM 7:00 PM 9:15 PM 11:30 PM

BAIRAQ-1 FREE BIRDS (DIG) FREE BIRDS (DIG) FREE BIRDS (DIG) THOR: THE DARK WORLD (DIG-3D) THOR: THE DARK WORLD (DIG-3D) THOR: THE DARK WORLD (DIG)

AVENUES-3 ROMEO AND JULIET (DIG) ROMEO AND JULIET (DIG) ROMEO AND JULIET (DIG) ROMEO AND JULIET (DIG) ROMEO AND JULIET (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:30 PM 4:00 PM 6:30 PM 9:00 PM 11:30 PM

BAIRAQ-2 ARENA OF THE STREET FIGHTER (DIG) 1:45 PM ROMEO AND JULIET (DIG) 3:45 PM ARENA OF THE STREET FIGHTER (DIG) 6:15 PM ARENA OF THE STREET FIGHTER (DIG) 8:15 PM KALBY DALILI (DIG) 10:15 PM ARENA OF THE STREET FIGHTER (DIG) 12:30 AM

360º- 1 CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

12:45 PM 3:30 PM 6:15 PM 9:00 PM 11:45 PM

BAIRAQ-3 CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) ROMEO AND JULIET (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) ROMEO AND JULIET (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

2:15 PM 5:00 PM 7:15 PM 10:00 PM 12:15 AM

CHANGE OF NAME My wife name in passport Sameera. Sameera is my daughter name. My wife name is Sainaba Mohammed Kunih, P.P.No. F8710673, issued in Kuwait on 16.11.2006, address: Sameera Manzil Poolappe, PO Elambach, Kosaragode Dt, Kerala. (C 4576) 17-11-2013

MATRIMONIAL Orthodox girl 27/160 cm, MDS (Endodontics) working in Health Ministry Kuwait, from PG dentists/ doctors/ engineers or CA. Email: gthomastitty@gmail.com (C 4572) 16-11-2013

Prayer timings

112

Fajr: ACCOMMODATION

12:45 PM 3:30 PM 6:30 PM 9:15 PM 12:05 AM

65008377. (C 4573) 16-11-2013

In Abbassiya, sharing accommodation available for a small family or working ladies, in a C-A/C building with separate bathroom, in Sreeragam furniture building (opposite to “Spencerice bakery) from 1st December. Contact: 99750711, 97168646 or 24348730. (C 4575) 17-11-2013

THE PUBLIC AUTHORITY FOR CIVIL INFORMATION Automated enquiry about the Civil ID card is

1889988