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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

MUHARRAM 24, 1435 AH

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Dubai makes history Gulf city chosen to host 2020 world expo from the editor’s desk

Mabrook Dubai!

By Abd Al-Rahman Al-Alyan

myopinion@kuwaittimes.net

A

s soon as you think that Dubai has run out of tricks they pull another rabbit out of the hat.

However, this time I think they managed to pull an elephant out of the hat. Few days back I was looking at a video of the late Sheikh Zayed AlNehayan driving in the middle of the desert which has now become the home of the World Expo 2020.

This is a historic event and a great achievement that shows the determination of the UAE and Dubai in specific to make the impossible possible ‘Emirati’ style.

With an overwhelming majority yesterday, Dubai won the vote of confidence to host the World’s Fair under the theme: “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future.” Most importantly, becoming the host of a global trade platform will cement the UAE’s status of a world hub. But for the forward-looking visionary leadership of the UAE, the victory to host the greatest exhibition in the world for the first time in the Middle East region is just the beginning of the road to further growth and success.

Their achievements will indeed be, in the words of Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Al-Maktoum, “a gain for the whole region and the world.” I salute the UAE’s leaders and its people for the immense recognition and success which will have significant positive impact on all of us in the region. Having witnessed Dubai’s upward growth and endless possibilities, I cannot wait to see Sheikh Al-Maktoum’s promise for the event to astonish the world, a reality.

DUBAI: Fireworks illuminate the sky around Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower yesterday, after the Emirati city was chosen to host the World Expo 2020. (Inset) Emirati women celebrate after Dubai was selected to host the 2020 World Expo, at the OECD in Paris yesterday. — AFP

US judge rules against Bin Laden’s son-in-law Kuwaiti-born Abu Ghaith faces terror charges NEW YORK: The statements Osama Bin Laden’s son-inlaw made to US authorities when he was brought to the United States earlier this year can be used against him at a terrorism trial next year, a federal judge said.

US District Judge Lewis A Kaplan rejected claims by Sulaiman Abu Ghaith that he was not properly informed of his right to a lawyer and that he was

abused on a 14-hour flight to the US earlier this year.

He also refused to toss out the charges.

Abu Ghaith is scheduled for trial early next year on charges that he conspired to kill Americans in his role as Al-Qaeda’s spokesman after the Sept 11 terrorist attacks. He has pleaded not guilty.

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PARIS: Dubai yesterday beat off opposition from Brazil, Russia and Turkey to win the right to host the 2020 World Expo. The Gulf city beat Russia’s Ekaterinberg in the final round of voting to clinch a prestigious event that is credited with delivering a huge boost to tourism and business in the host city. Dubai, the economic and transport hub of The United Arab Emirates, won 116 votes in the third round, comfortably beating Ekaterinberg with 47.

There was one abstention. The four candidate cities, which also included Brazil’s Sao Paulo and Turkey’s Izmir, had pulled out all the stops during 20 minute presentations before voting by the 168 member states of the International Exhibitions Bureau (BIE), which oversees the organization of the events. The Emirates kicked off the presentations by pitching Dubai as a futuristic, glitzy city.

Emirates minister Reem Al Hashimi told the meeting that Dubai was a city “capable of hosting the world” and promised visitors an “unforgettable experience” if it won the bid. The victory for Dubai-home to the world’s tallest tower, largest man-made island and one of the world’s busiest airports-means the World Expo will be hosted by an Arab country for the first time. According to UAE officials, 40 percent of the estimated 227,000 new jobs expected to be created as a result of Expo will be in the tourism and travel sectors.

The site chosen for the event, is spread over 438 hectares and located between the international airports of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the capital of the Emirates.

Brazil, which is already gearing up to welcome the World Cup next year and the Olympic Games in 2016, had roped in famed Brazilian composer and musician Gilberto Gil to garner votes for its candidate city, Sao Paulo. Gil played his versions of Bob Marley’s reggae hit “No Woman No Cry” and John Lennon’s “Imagine” in a short performance during the presentation. But it was in vain as Sao Paulo failed to get past the first round.

Continued on Page 15

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

LOCAL

Ministry signs deal to protect transformers ‘Organized gangs’ behind thefts

By A Saleh KUWAIT: The Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) received approval from the Central Tenders Committee to sign a KD 3.595 million contract with a security company to hire security guards around power transformers around the country.

The deal allows the MEW to provide protection to its facilities which were subjected to multiple thefts which resulted in blackouts reported around the summer as well as losses estimated in millions of dinars. Earlier talks with the Interior Ministry to secure transformers broke down when the latter explained that they would not be able to provide around 2,500 police officers required for the task.

MEW faces a challenge every summer to cope with the gradually increasing demand on its services, but their efforts this year were hampered by repeated thefts which ministry officials described as the primary reason for blackouts reported around Kuwait.

A State Audit Bureau released last August indicated that 600 main and secondary transformers in addition to 150 water wells were subjected to theft between 2007 and 2013, identifying ‘organized gangs’ as the culprits. It also noted that the MEW loses KD 15 million

each year to repair damage resulted from these thefts.

According to earlier reports, at least 60 cable thefts have been reported this year, resulting in blackouts that changed an otherwise ‘successful campaign’ in which the ministry boosted production capacity to cope with the growing demand in summer.

Kuwait improved the total daily production of electricity to 14,000 megawatts before the beginning of the summer this year. Most electricity generated go to power air conditioning which translates into overload in consumption in parallel with high temperatures that usually break the 50 C degrees point multiple times in July each year.

Annual reinforcement and maintenance operations at power plants, transformers and distribution networks helped the MEW cope with the yearly increase in demand, but senior ministry officials have repeatedly indicated that a new power plant is necessary to avoid shortage crises in the future. There are seven fossil-fuel power plants in Kuwait that produce electricity and desalinated water for a total population of 3.8 million on a daily basis, with plans to fully operate a new power plant in North Zoor by 2015. Energy production costs Kuwait an annual budget of KD 3 to 4 billion.

KUWAIT: The Wafra road accident in which two people were killed yesterday.

KUWAIT: Salmiya Sea Rescue Center rescuing the sinking boat.

Two killed in Wafra road accident

By Hanan Al-Saadoun

Kuwait to offer more financial aid to Egypt KUWAIT: Kuwait is poised to offer a further $2 billion in assistance to Egypt to help the latter’s faltering economy in the wake of the military’s July 3 ouster of president Mohamed Morsi, a highprofile official Kuwaiti source revealed yesterday.

“We will increase our total pledged financial aid [to Egypt] to $6 billion. We have already offered $3 billion and steps are currently underway to send the remaining amount,” the official, who asked to remain anonymous, told Anadolu Agency by phone.

Following Morsi’s ouster this summer, the official said, Kuwait had initially pledged $4 billion in assistance to Egypt. He noted that $2 billion had since been deposited at Egypt’s central bank, while $1 billion worth of petrole-

um products had been shipped to the country.

An additional $1 billion grant to Egypt is still awaiting the approval of Kuwait’s parliament, he added.

As for the latest aid pledges, the official said, details still remained unclear as to what form these would take.

“Most of it will likely be in the form of petroleum products,” the source said.

Since Morsi’s July 3 ouster, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait have pledged a combined total of $15.9 billion worth of aid to Egypt.

In the 2012/13 fiscal year, Egypt coughed up a whopping 128 billion Egyptian pounds (roughly $18.4 billion) - almost one quarter of the entire state budget - to subsidize the local petroleum sector.

KUWAIT: The Farwaniya building in which fire broke out yesterday.

KUWAIT: Two persons were killed, and three others (all Asians) were severely injured during a horrific car accident involving a dumb truck and a car on Wafra road. The deceased were transferred to criminal evidence department and the injured were rushed to hospital.

Worker rescued A worker was rescued from an elevator in a building under-construction in Salmiya area after he got stuck. The victim was pulled out using ropes and was referred to paramedics. Brig Khalid Al-Mikrad, Deputy Director General for

Fighting and Human Resources Development received the Director of Public Services at Kuwait Municipality Ahmad Al-Sharidah. The two discussed issues of mutual concern.

Sinking boat Salmiya Sea Rescue Center rushed to help a sinking boat near Ras Al-Ardh is Salmiya sea area. The engine malfunctioned and water began to leak into the boat which had two people onboard. The boat was tugged safely to the beach.

Fire in Farwaniya A fire broke out in the basement of a

Farwaniya building, prompting Farwaniya and Jleeb centers to respond. The building was evacuated and the fire was brought under control.

The basement which contained wood and used furniture was not licensed and bad storage made it difficult to fight the fire.

Bike robbed A citizen accused four people in two cars of deliberately hitting him in Ferdous area before stealing his motorcycle. A security source said the victim went with an Indian following the accident and discovered the license plates of the bike on the ground, but the bike itself had disappeared.

Iran detains two vessels in Gulf KUWAIT: Two vessels with Saudi Arabian flags were detained by Iran in the Gulf yesterday. The vessels were detained for carrying out “illegal trade”, according to the Iranian side.

Iranian navy commander of Bushehr province, Qulundar Lashkari said that a total of nine people from two vessels have been arrested.

He added that all of the arrested are from dif-

ferent countries, and there will be cases opened for each of them.

“They were sent to prison,” Lashkari said.

Last year a similar detention took place as joint IRGC-Iranian navy naval operation resulted in detention of a Saudi Arabian vessel in the Gulf, on Iranian territory, near Khurkhan settlement near Iranian city of Bushehr.

As a result of the detention, four people got

arrested for crossing Iran’s sea borders. As a result of investigation, it was revealed that the detained vessel was a fishing one, with Indian fishermen on board.

In June Iran detained two two fishing vessels belonging to the United Arab Emirates and arrested its crew consisting of 13 people. The vessels, according to Iranian sources, have violated its territorial waters.

Government survives as ‘grilling marathon’ ends Kuwait democracy on the right track: PM

By B Izzak KUWAIT: The ‘grilling marathon’ ended at dawn yesterday after almost 20 hours of continuous debate and arguments with a decisive victory for Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah and the whole government. The government’s stellar performance was so clear in the debate. MPs Riyadh Al-Adasani and Safa AlHashem strongly criticized the government and the prime minister but at the end of the debate, could not find even a single lawmaker to speak in support of the grilling.

In addition, the grillings of the Prime Minister, State Minister for Housing and Municipality Salem AlOthaina and the second grilling of State Minister for Planning and Development Rula Dashti ended as the grillers failed to find enough support to file a no-confidence motion. The only success the lawmakers had was when they managed to comfortably file a no-confidence motion against Dashti in the

first grilling with sources saying that the motion has a very good chance to succeed when the assembly votes on it on December 24.

At the start of her second grilling which began after midnight and finished at around 3.30 am, Dashti denied rumors that she was disappointed from the lack of support from the government and has decided to resign. She in fact thanked her colleagues and the government for strongly backing her and said that she is continuing in her post. The grillers just need 25 votes to support the motion to forcibly unseat Dashti.

At the start of the grillings session, Health Minister Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah Al-Sabah comfortably survived a no-confidence motion, winning the support of 31 MPs, while 12 lawmakers voted against him and six others abstained. In his arguments against the two grillings, the prime minister insisted that the two grillings breached the constitution as the prime minister is responsible only for the general policies of the gov-

ernment and not for any executive issues or implementation of programs.

He insisted that the grillers should have waited until the National Assembly had debated the development plan and the government program to focus on any shortcomings if any. The two lawmakers had accused the premier and the government of being responsible for the delay in development programs and for the rise in corruption levels. The government denied the charges.

At the end of the grillings, the prime minister stressed that Kuwait’s democracy was on the right track but he declined to answer a question about any plans to reshuffle the government. Assembly Speaker Marzouk Al-Ghanim told reporters that the Kuwaiti democracy has emerged victorious after the grillings. He said that any new grillings will be debated in special sessions in order not to disrupt the functioning of the Assembly’s normal work.

KUWAIT: Jahra municipality continued its inspection campaigns to ensure food safety standards were met and food sold was fit for human consumption. The campaign covered malls, restaurants, barbershops and grocery stores. Director of Food and Markets Mushari Al-Mutairi said it is necessary to tighten supervisory action through field tours. He said students from the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training who are training to be municipality inspectors participated in the tour. —By Hanan Al-Saadoun

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

LOCAL

KUWAIT: Kuwaiti MP Safaa Al-Hashem addresses a parliamentary grilling session during which a complaint she filed against His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Sabah, along with fellow MP Riyadh Al-Adsani, was discussed overnight at the National Assembly. — Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Govt can’t continue its policy amidst lack of transparency KUWAIT: MP Safa Al-Hashem, commenting on His Highness the Prime Minister’s statement, said the State could not “continue this approach amidst lack of transparency which is sought by everyone and deteriorating of services.

“Instead of answering our questions, he (His Highness the Prime Minister) said the interpellation is not constitutional,” said Al-Hashem.

Al-Adsani said “corruption is wide spread, bribes are in all ministries and the last hospital the health ministry built was Al-Adan Hospital,” in addition to declining level of education. Al-Adsani said the Amiri Diwan has started implementing

some projects because of the absence of government, and criticized the Public Invesment Authority for the management of its London Office.

Meanwhile, three MPs who opposed the interpellation against His Highness the Prime Minister said the grilling was violating the constitution.

MP Yusuf Zalzala said the grilling contained “clear constitutional violation.”

Faisal Al-Duwaisan said there was no government in the world that could fully implement its program, and MP Abdullah Al-Turaiji said His Highness the Prime Minister “has enemies who want to nail him.” — KUNA

Grandmother wins custody of ‘neglected’ child KUWAIT: A woman won custody of her grandchild after she argued in court that the eight-year-old boy suffered psychological pressure after he stayed with his father following his parents’ divorce.

In documents forwarded to the court, the grandmother argued that she is more qualified to take care of the child, given her previous career as a teacher and educator. She added that her daughter (the child’s mother) remarried, making her unqualified to take her son because she follows the Jaafari School of Islam under which a mother loses custody of her children automatically when she remarries following her divorce.

The boy has been living with his father since then, but his grandmother explained in court papers that the child suffered “psychological damage” as a result of negligence. She also requested psychological examination to assess the boy’s mental state.

The boy was reportedly forced to stay for long periods of time inside his room and was not allowed to roam around the house or contact others. He also said in front of the judge that he no longer wanted to stay with his father because of mistreatment, complaining that his paternal aunts and grandmother on his father’s side reprimanded him all the time.

KUWAIT: His higness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Sabah attends a parliamentary grilling session filed against him by MPs Safaa and Al-Adsani

Al-Nisf defends plans to purchase used aircraft Accusations baseless

By Nawara Fattahova KUWAIT: After being suspended in a dispute over his plans to buy used aircraft, Sami Al-Nisf, Chairman of the Kuwait Airways Corporation (KAC) held a press conference at the Kuwait Journalists’ Association yesterday to salvage his reputation and explain facts behind the purchase proposal.

The plan to buy five used Airbus A330 from India’s Jet Airways was a part of a previous deal to buy 25 new Airbus jets. “The Minister of Communication Essa AlKanderi announced that this decision to buy was taken individually without the approval of the KAC’s board. I assure you that during our meeting, all members gave their verbal approval and the meeting was recorded and I even have the recording,” said Al-Nisf during the conference. “My responsibility towards my country is do the maximum to save public funds. I also worked hard to protect the interests of KAC. The purchase deal could have saved more than KD 60 million, and we preferred to deal directly with the factory to save money and not through an Indian dealer as stated by the minister. Furthermore, when I started the business plan at KAC, we successfully cut losses that were at KD 100,000 by more than 25 percent. Through this contract, we could have cut more losses,” he added.

Al-Nisf slammed rumors that he was slated to benefit from the deal. “I refuse any accusation without proof that may affect my family’s name. I will sue those who claimed that I traveled to Brazil on KAC’s budget because it’s not true. The same applied to the Chief Executive Officer Captain Ahmad Al-Kreibani, who just resigned from his post after canceling the deal. I visited the factory three times in the past and I refused proposals of different airplanes as I didn’t find them suit-

KUWAIT: The Kuwait House for National Works celebrated opening a pavilion for the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces at their location in Shuwaikh yesterday. — Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

News

in brief Mega govt projects

KUWAIT: Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Thekra Al-Rasheedi stressed that the ministry had never interfered in assessing the labor needed for mega government projects. “This is the responsibility of the government bodies that own those projects, namely MPW”, she underlined. While denying an MP’s accusations that she had been delaying major vital projects, Al-Rasheedi said that the ministry was keen on finishing the transactions of companies taking part in the development plan as per MPW’s list of companies carrying out major projects. She added that all MSAL officials had been instructed to facilitate those companies’ transactions at one office. Further, Al-Rasheedi said that Mubarak Al-Kabeer labor department was specially dedicated to such transactions.

Iranian minister KUWAIT: The Iranian FM Mohammed Jawad Thareef is due to arrive Sunday, heading his country’s delegation to a supreme joint committee meeting, said informed diplomatic sources. The sources explained that the meeting had been postponed earlier due to the Iranian government’s obligations and the parliamentary elections held in Kuwait.

The sources added that the two sides would discuss bilateral relations.

US military official KUWAIT: Army Chief of Staff Lt Gen Abdulrahman Mohammad AlOthman met here yesterday with head of the US military ’s Transportation Command General William Fraser, discussing with him issues of common interest. Al-Othman praised the strong ties between the US and Kuwait and affirmed that both countries were keen on enhancing relations. The meeting was attended by commander of the Kuwait Air Force Air Commodore Sultan Khamis Al-Farhan and Director of Operations and Planning air-force Maj Gen Abdulrazzaq Al-Awadi. -

KUWAIT: Interior Minister Sheikh Mohammad Al-Khaled Al-Sabah (left) and Finance Minister Sheikh Salem Al-Sabah attend the parliamentary grilling session against HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Sabah.

KU to question instructor ‘to determine the truth’ KUWAIT: A decision was taken to question Kuwait University sociology instructor Dr Haifa Al-Kandari for her remarks on the presence of harassment and homosexual students in campus “to determine the truth”. This was stated by KU Rector Dr Abdullatif AlBadr who was approached by Al-Rai Daily on Tuesday to comment on the issue.

Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education Dr Nayef Al-Hajraf announced Monday that Dr Al-Kandari was suspended for making remarks considered offensive to both students and teaching staff. “We need to know details of the subject”, Dr Al-Badr said. “The scientific research might contain exaggerations, not to mention that the right place for such research would be scientific magazines, not newspapers”.

Dr Al-Kandari said in a statement Sunday that her comments were based on a survey carried out to identify female students’ opinions on sexual harassment “in order to learn about the importance of going through similar kinds of research in Kuwait”.

She added that she highlighted the homosexuality issue “to spread awareness about negative phenomena” in society. Her earlier statements which caused the controversy were published by Al-Rai on Sunday in which she indicated that several female students complained about being subjected to harassment at the hands of male students and teachers. She also spoke about homosexuality being a “phenomenon present on campus”. —Al-Rai

KUWAIT: Suspended chairman of the Kuwait Airways during the press conference held yesterday at KJA. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat able,” explained Al-Nisf.

“The five aircraft are modern as they are only fiveyears-old and were sold immediately when another country canceled the deal, owing to its high demand, especially since there are only two international manufacturers. Airbus suited our needs and that’s the reason

behind our proposal to buy it. I always aimed to improve KAC and even if the government decided to privatize, it will be sold at a very high price after it improves its position and becomes profitable. We really need to change the fleet as our aircraft are old and we seek better safety” he pointed out.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

LOCAL kuwait digest

kuwait digest

It’s a matter of dignity

Political rainstorms

By Saad Al-Rushaidi

Al-Anbaa

By Hassan Al-Essa

R

eading about the approval of the ‘rubberstamp’ parliament’s health affairs committee of the health minister’s decision to transfer Dr Kefaya to Infectious Diseases’ Hospital ICU reminded me of an old saying that goes like: Look at a goat, then milk it which means by their yield, you will know them.

Those who thought that such a committee can do Dr Kefaya justice apparently did not have a good look at the goat’s face before thinking that it would be a wise move. The result came as expected from a committee in the government-affiliated parliament that violated all of Dr Kefaya’s citizen rights to dignity and justice. This rubberstamp parliament’s health and social affairs committee unfairly decided that the minister’s decision to transfer the doctor was right and described Sheikh Mohammed as innocent, fair and wise when taking the decision.

Hypocritically, all committee members except Dr Quwaian reported that the decision the minister took matched the Civil Services Commission’s decision and that Dr Kefaya was deputized with all financial privileges.

What about her dignity and her abusive transfer that meant nothing to the committee members?

Those members even turned a blind eye to what happened prior to her transfer like receiving a call from MoH Undersecretary telling her, upon direct orders from the Health Minister Sheikh Mohammed Al-Abdullah to not remove a patient from ICU. They even ignored the poor doctor’s defense in which she stressed that her transfer was an administrative penalty for not following the minister’s orders, that were not made in public interest, as the committee members and the minister claimed.

Those doctors taking part in a sit-in rejected the committee’s decision and conveyed a message that politicians should not interfere in technical and vocational work. Their protest says that the issue is far beyond Dr Kefaya or any other professional group; it is rather a matter of citizens’ dignity, a nation and lack of justice. It is about refusing that the judges are at the same time, the opponents like what the minister and the committee did. To whom will Kefaya and other citizens resort seeking justice, especially since our sheikhs and their followers are Jacks of All Trades and are well-experienced in policy, economy, administration, medicine, engineering, law etc? They are totally perfect and there’s nothing left for anyone else to do. — Al-Jarida

kuwait digest

Housing problem, consequences

By Dr Bader Al-Daihani

A

verage waiting time is 15 years, which means that a nuclear family would have to pay huge amounts before it gets a government-provided house. They should have saved this amount for rainy days. Housing is one of the basic human needs. It is a right related to dignity, privacy and stable psychological and family life.

Unfortunately, despite the oil-provided abundance and the vast areas of land (Kuwaitis live on only 7 percent of Kuwait’s total area) and the redundant talk about development and meeting citizens’ needs, applications to get a government-provided house are increasing on a daily basis. The Public Authority for Housing Welfare has so far received 107,000 applications, which means that, assuming that average families comprise of five people (parent and three kids), more than half a million citizens are waiting for houses.

Knowing that an average rent value is KD 500 and taking into consideration that the majority of citizens work for the government (they form 90 percent of the national work power) getting average monthly salaries of KD 1,100, this means that a considerable portion of those salaries (sometimes more than half ) is paid as rent.

What is left then for other family needs, especially with the increasingly soaring prices, inflation rates and extravagant spending patterns? It is not only that.

On the other hand, social and psychological effects of such a crisis may vary from one family to another. Yet, it still poses considerable social and psychological pressure for some families, especially since families awaiting houses usually have kids in the process of growing up and that requires a stable and suitable environment.

They also have teenagers in need of special care and constant follow-up of their studies.

Undoubtedly, the financial and psychological pressure the housing problem causes and their consequences of desperation and frustration can lead to divorces, family disintegration, dropping out of school, behavioral problems and some psychological diseases such as concern about the future and a nagging feeling of inadequacy. Things may even get worse if a breadwinner loses his/her job unexpectedly, which is very likely these days with so many lay-offs amidst an increasing rate of unemployment. A society can never be politically stable unless the people are socio-economically stable. — Al-Jarida

I

t appears that Kuwait is on a date with winter that came this year in a different way than usual. The country saw heavy rains met by modest abilities in some areas to deal with floods that exceeded their preparations.

There is a close relationship between rainfall and prosperity in the history of the people of the Gulf region. Rain showers are often followed by people leaving their air-conditioned homes to enjoy mild weather by desert camping. Rain drops are often seen as a sign of good fortune for nationals of Gulf states and even foreigners living there.

But it seems that this optimistic perception could change after Gulf states were swept by heavy rains and floods that hindered traffic and people’s general activity. The unstable weather will definitely make people reconsider their beliefs in regards to what is good or bad to them and the level by which they can be assessed.

The heavy rains do not necessarily have to create a general negative perception regarding rainy weather, or an index that something bad is going to happen when rain clouds cover the sky.

Rain will always be welcomed as long as it comes in a balanced way and brings benefit for everyone.

I believe that our MPs and ministers need to realize the moral of the story concerning people’s recent reaction to the rainstorm and how it changed the positive perception that most people always had about rainy weather. When something goes out of control, chaos prevails and creates obstacles in people’s way and the way of their development. This is a situation that no politician wants, whether in an offensive or defensive position.

Western countries do not share a positive perception regarding rain similar to that of people in Gulf states, maybe because their financial bases do not rely on agricultural wealth or they do not need rain to wash away viruses and dust particles from the air.

Practically speaking, everything in Kuwait is different, whether it’s the cause or the result.

Therefore, we need a critical review to understand the situation in Kuwait and the relationship between the government and parliament to help us understand if political rainstorms are a source of prosperity for us or not. — Al-Rai

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

LOCAL

KUWAIT: More than 400 students from different schools participated in a beach cleaning campaign near Kuwait Towers yesterday.

Govt needs to speed up development projects Steps to revive national economy KUWAIT: The government has to increase spending on infrastructure projects and speed up its launch to help revive national economy, a Kuwaiti economist said yesterday. “The government has to speed up the approval of the mega development projects as it will have positive impact on all economic activity in the country,” Tareq Sultan said in an interview on the sideline of the MEED Kuwait Projects 2013 conference.

He went on to say that the government needs to boost spending on infrastructure in particular to bridge the gap between Kuwait and its Gulf neighbors in this regard.

Sultan, also chairman of Kuwaiti giant logistics provider Agility, believes that the proposed package of legal reforms which meant to end bureaucracy and cut paperwork time would have great effects on investors’ sentiments and thus giving an impetus to national economy.

The MEED Kuwait Projects 2013 conference is the definitive event of the year for all those seeking opportunities and solutions to challenges throughout Kuwait’s oil, gas, electricity, water, transport, housing and basic infrastructure sectors. It is designed to address the latest developments and business opportunities associated

with the state’s mega projects as well as transfer global best practice on how Kuwait can successfully deliver its ambitious capital expenditure plans. With regard to the performance and plans of his company, Sultan said Agility is making strides despite difficult time facing national and world economy.

“The profits of Agility in the third quarter of this year rose by 40 percent from the same period last year,” he said. “Agility’s objectives exceed this high growth rate it achieved in this difficult time.” He unveiled that Agility focuses on emerging economies which enjoy high growth rates and invest in specific economic sectors such as oil, petrochemicals, transport and freight.

“This concentration has positive effect on the company’s operational performance,” he said.

He noted that Agility has investments in more than 100 countries, but admitted facing fierce competition in the emerging economies.

Agility is one of the world’s leading providers of integrated logistics. It is a publicly traded company with over $5 billion in revenue and more than 22,000 employees in 500 offices across 100 countries. The company reported a net profit of KD 12.1 million for the third quarter of 2013, and

Earnings per Share (EPS) of 11.62 fils, up 26 percent over the same period last year.

Revenues and EBITDA stand at KD 326.7 million and KD 23.6 million respectively.

For the nine month period ended Sept 30, 2013, the company reported a net profit of KD 33.8 million a 40 percent increase from same period last year. Revenues remained flat compared to the first nine months of 2012, but EBITDA improved by 23 percent standing at KD 68.9 million.

Agility’s core commercial business, Global Integrated Logistics (GIL), provides supply chain solutions to meet traditional and complex customer needs. GIL offers air, ocean and road freight forwarding, warehousing, distribution, and specialized services in project logistics, fairs and events, and chemicals.

Agility’s Infrastructure group of companies manages industrial real estate and offers logistics-related services, including e-government customs optimization and consulting, waste management and recycling, aviation and ground-handling services, support to governments and ministries of defense, remote infrastructure and life support. — KUNA

GCC urges Iran to ‘cooperate fully’ on nuclear deal KUWAIT: Gulf Arab states called on Iran yesterday to fully cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog in implementing a landmark deal with major powers. Foreign ministers of the six Gulf Cooperation Council member states, which include leading supporters of the rebels in Syria, also urged quick action to end the conflict and expressed hope that a peace conference planned for January will help lead to a settlement.

In a joint statement issued after a one-day meeting in Kuwait City, the ministers called on Iran to “fully cooperate” with International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors in implementing the agreement it reached with six major powers on Sunday.

“We express our comfort at this deal, hoping that it will be a prelude for a comprehensive solution to the Iranian nuclear file,” the ministers said, referring to the interim nature of the deal reached at the weekend.

Under the agreement, which lasts for six months while negotiators bid for a lasting settlement, Iran undertook to curb parts of its nuclear program in return for some relief from

Western sanctions. The Sunni-ruled Gulf Arab states have long been concerned about Shiite Iran’s regional ambitions and, while their governments publicly welcomed the nuclear agreement, much of the Gulf press voiced misgivings. The deal was struck between Iran and the P5+1 Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany-but the job of overseeing its implementation falls largely to the IAEA in coordination with the group.

The Gulf ministers called for the Geneva 2 peace conference on Syria, scheduled for January 22, to be “held quickly to help reach a political settlement.” They strongly condemned the continuing “bloodshed” in Syria and the “use of internationally banned weapons against civilians.”

Gulf Arab states, like many Western governments, blame forces loyal to President Bashar Al-Assad for a series of gas attacks in August that prompted a UN agreement to dismantle his regime’s chemical arsenal. The ministers were meeting to prepare the agenda for a GCC summit in Kuwait City next month. — AFP

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

LOCAL

Kim Jong Il, the eternal leader of Korean people KUWAIT: Dec 17 is the second anniversary since Chairman Kim Jong Il passed away so unexpectedly, so regrettably and so early as he worked tirelessly for the prosperity of Kim Il Sung’s Korea and the eternal happiness of the people.

The memory of him has always been kept in the minds of the Koreans and their yearning for him gets intenser as the days go by.

They trust, revere and yearn for the father of the nation as he devoted his all to the country, nation and people.

His whole history-birth, growth and revolutionary activities-flowed in the tempest of the times. Born as the son of guerrillas in Mt. Paektu, the sacred mountain of the revolution, he grew up to be a stalwart in the flames of two revolutionary wars and the hard times of postwar rehabilitation and advanced along the long road of revolution steadily. His life was the noble career of a great leader who dedicated his all to the

implementation of the ideology of President Kim Il Sung, founder of socialist Korea, and the accomplishment of his cause. He set it as his lifelong mission to carry forward the revolutionary cause of Juche started by the President.

He enriched the immortal Juche idea and Songun idea established by the President in an all-round way and made them the guiding ideology in the era of independence. This outstanding ideological and theoretical achievement will remain etched in the sacred history of the Workers’ Party of Korea and revolution.

He made a new history of achieving the cause of perpetuating the memory of the leader for the first time and developed the WPK, the army and the state into those of the President.

The Third WPK Conference on Sept 28, 2010 decided to hold Kim Il Sung as the eternal leader of the Party and people, which was a vivid manifestation of his unshakeable will to translate the President’s ideology and cause into reality to the last. His life was the profile of a great defender and Songun commander who, by dint of arms, safeguarded the dignity and supreme interests of the country and nation staunchly and laid the solid foundation for the prosperity of all generations to come. He keenly realized the preciousness of arms as he grew up hearing the sound of gunfire during the anti-Japanese revolutionary war and followed the long path of the grim Songun revolution, regarding it as his motto to give priority to arms, the mili-

tary affairs.

In the 1990s when the DPRK underwent ordeals he administered original Songun politics on a full scale to foil the persistent sanctions, pressure and war moves of the imperialist allied forces and defend the country’s dignity and national sovereignty.

To protect the destiny of the country, people and socialism he provided field guidance to Panmunjom and Cho Island on the front line and other army units crossing innumerable mountains and rugged passes.

Thanks to his Songun leadership, the Korean people could successfully conclude the “Arduous March” and forced march, reliably guarding the lifeline of the revolution. It is an exploit to go down forever that he trained the Korean People’s Army to be an invincible revolutionary army and turned the DPRK into a nuclear state no enemy dares provoke.

His revolutionary life was the biography of a peerless patriot and the people’s father who led the cause of building a thriving country through the super-intense forced march of on-site guidance with noble outlooks on the people and future.

He did not care about his mental and physical strain, but devoted his all to the people, putting his heart and soul into accelerating the building of a prosperous nation where the people’s ideals and happiness are translated into reality.

In the intense cold of midwinter in January last year he provided field guidance to units related to light industry in succession and specified tasks and ways to be followed in improving the people’s living standards.

Afterwards he inspected light industrial and commercial service bases in Pyongyang and local areas, set higher targets for improving the people’s livelihood and made sure that fresh innovations were made in the light industrial sector.

His on-the-spot guidance tour continued throughout the year from Pyongyang to North Hamgyong Province, from South Hamgyong Province to Jagang Province and from North Phyongan Province to South Hwanghae Province.

He visited more than 14,290 units across the country, covering a total of over 669,844 km throughout his life.

Under his on-site guidance the overall looks of the country underwent a total facelift as befits a thriving nation, structures of lasting value for the well-being of the people were built on a larger scale than ever before and enthusiasm for breaking through the cutting edge flared up in all industrial sectors including the machine-building industry and in nationally- and locally-run industries. Production and construction were carried out on the basis of modern science and technology, different sectors of the national economy were made Juche-based and CNC-based at a higher level and cities and villages turned into socialist fairylands.

He continued the forced march of on-site guidance for the well-being of the people until the last moment of his life and the devotion is the quintessence of love for the country and people that can only be shown by the people’s leader.

The noble life of the Chairman who is great in terms of achievements, leadership ability and moral repute is cherished deep in the minds of the Korean people and he will always live in their hearts.

Escaped prisoner arrested, investigation opened at jail Foul play in senior citizen’s death KUWAIT: The Interior Ministry announced yesterday that they captured a convicted drug trafficker who escaped from the Central Jail on Monday night and disappeared again after police located him in Fahaheel on Tuesday. The suspect, identified in an Interior Ministry statement as Kuwaiti citizen Nashmi Al-Enizy (34), was able to sneak out of the jail facility when the gates were left unguarded. He was housed inside Building 3 of the Central Jail while serving a five-year prison sentence for drug trafficking.

“The arrest happened following extensive investigations as he was busted while attempting to rob a shop using a stolen vehicle”, the statement reads. The ministry also indicated that the suspect showed “strong resistance” and was caught with possession of substances “that are suspected to be drugs” at the time of arrest.

Police found the man 14 hours following his initial escape after locating a sports-utility-vehicle (SUV) which was reported stolen simultaneously with his escape. They found the suspect driving the stolen vehicle, but he managed to escape twice: first when he hit a patrol vehicle on his way and injured a policeman, and second by firing an AK47 against police vehicles that tried to chase him down. No injuries were reported except for the police official who was taken to the hospital with several bruises.

Meanwhile, an investigation was opened at the Central Jail to determine the circumstances behind the prison break.

Foul play An investigation was opened into the death of a senior citizen who was initially thought to have died of natural causes before a medical report determined that he died of suffocation.

The 70-year-old Kuwaiti man was rushed by his son to Farwaniya Hospital in a critical condition and was soon pronounced dead. A medical examination indicated that blocking of air passage led to suffocation which resulted in the man’s death. Local authorities were informed

and the Farwaniya prosecutor ordered for an extensive investigation into the case.

Search for thief A man was hospitalized after he was attacked by a thief he busted at the garden in his house in Ferdous late Monday night. Police and paramedics headed to the scene in response to an emergency call made by neighbors after the victim asked for help. The Kuwaiti man described the man who attacked him with a knife in his garden. Preliminary investigations indicate that the suspect snuck his way into the house to rob the man. The man was taken to Farwaniya Hospital and an attempted murder case was filed at the Ferdous police station.

Forgery case Security officers at the Nuwaiseeb border checkpoint foiled a Saudi man’s attempt to smuggle a bedoon girl out of the country on Tuesday. The man was taken for questioning when he failed to produce papers for the child who was with him. He explained that the girl is stateless and has no identification and that he was able to get her into Kuwait a while ago. The man was referred to the proper authorities to face forgery charges.

Weapon smuggling Border security officers arrested a man for possession of firearms and ammo at the Nuwaiseeb checkpoint. The Kuwaiti man was taken for questioning after customs officers searched his car and found two handguns and 90 bullets. He first denied knowledge of the firearms but eventually admitted that one of them belonged to him and the other to his friend. He was charged for possession and smuggling of unlicensed firearms.

Marital dispute A man approached Salmiya police station officers to report that his wife jumped out of his

KUWAIT: The convicted drug trafficker who escaped from the Central Jail on Monday night. car while they were on Blajat street and then ran away. He added that the two got married only two weeks ago, and explained that the incident happened following an argument during which he threatened to divorce her. The woman arrived at the police station after being summoned for questioning. She admitted that she lost her temper when her husband told her about divorce, and added that she was hoping that her actions would make her husband rethink his statements.

The woman was allowed to leave without charges.

Zain celebrates five years of support for Al-Amal E-Paper KUWAIT: Zain, the leading telecommunications company in Kuwait, yesterday marked the anniversary of a fruitful five-year sponsorship of Al-Amal electronic-paper; which is a voluntary enewspaper covering topics of interest to the disabled community in Kuwait.

Zain is a staunch supporter of all segments of Kuwaiti society and continues to look for worthy projects to become involved in. In keeping with this outlook, Zain has been delighted with its relationship with Al-Amal e-newspaper over the years, given the publication’s focus on topics relevant to people living with special needs.

Al-Amal was founded by a group of young

individuals with the aim of catering to the special needs community. The electronic newspaper has gone on to win several prominent awards such as the Al-Sabah Award, which was recognized by HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah; ‘Best Voluntary Group to serve people with special needs’ Diamond Award from Burgan Bank in 2011; ‘Best Electronic Containment in Kuwait’ Electronic Award from the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS); and the ‘Best Voluntary Group’ Sharjah Award in the United Arab Emirates.

Waleed Al Khashti Zain’s Corporate Communications and Relations Manager said:

“We are very proud to sponsor the newspaper for the fifth consecutive year.

Our sponsorship highlights our support of the special needs community and we will continue to find ways to inspire and motivate people in leading humanitarian initiatives so as to foster a better world for even the most vulnerable members of society.”

Zain’s solid corporate social responsibility strategy primarily focuses on the wellbeing of the entire nation. For this reason, the company has maintained its support of numerous initiatives that spread awareness and help make a difference to people’s everyday circumstances.

KUWAIT: The Kuwait Fire Services Department held a fire exercise at Hawally intermediate girls school yesterday. It took Salmiya fire fighters three minutes to reach the school after getting a phone call. The building was evacuated completely through the emergency exit and it took them six minutes. Such exercises are to increase awareness and how to deal with such incidents to reduce injuries. — Photos

by Hanan Al-Saadoun

Al-Mihmel re-elected vice-president of IDLO ROME: Kuwait has succeeded in retaining an important international position through the re-electiion of its representative, adviser Nawaf Abdullah Al-Mihmel as Vice President of the International Development Law Organization (IDLO).

Al-Mihmel expressed to Kuwait News Agency his pride in this success, which reinforces the status of the State of Kuwait in international organizations and its leading and prominent role in the international community.

He added that Kuwait’s retaining of this important position coincides with the growing role of the organization, which opened a new regional center in The Hague.

He said that the organization provides support to the legal programs and assist the United Nations bodies in the imple-

mentation of development programs in many developing countries and those emerging from conflict.

Al-Mihmel pointed out that the organization has completed several programs in Kuwait to promote human development in cooperation with the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED), which has been providing training opportunities for Kuwaiti legal experts working in government agencies.

He noted that the IDLO, in collaboration with the Fatwa and Legislation Department in Kuwait, have carried out translation work of all Kuwaiti laws into English and classified them in accordance with the western system for the sake of promoting a favorable climate for foreign investment and to enhance the status aspired by Kuwait to become a financial center. — KUNA

KUWAIT: A group photo of the graduates with NBK officials

NBK celebrates graduation of third batch of Al-Shabab training program KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) celebrated the graduation of the third batch of newly hired young Kuwaitis from the new Shabab Training Program. The program is specially designed to develop the skills of newly recruited diploma holders as part of NBK’s strategy to attract and develop young Kuwaitis.

NBK organized a special ceremony for the graduation of the newly hired young Kuwaitis. The ceremony was attended by Mazin AlNahedh, NBK General Manager, Consumer Banking Group and Emad Al Ablani, NBK Deputy General Manager, Human Resources Group along with senior leaders from the bank. Al-Shabab program is the first initiative of its kind in the private sector in Kuwait designed to develop the skills of diploma holders, and is part of NBK’s strategy to attract young

Kuwaitis by offering them a range of career and professional development opportunities.

NBK Shabab Training Program extends over a period of two and a half months and is specially tailored to provide trainees with theoretical and practical skills covering the different aspects of the banking industry.

NBK’s training programs include NBK Academy which aims to train and develop the professional skills of fresh graduates, the Summer Internship Program for high school and college students, in addition to professional training and development programs especially designed and provided by world renowned institutions to enhance the skills of the Bank’s young leadership members.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

String of bombings, shootings kill at least 20 across Iraq Page 8

Italy Senate expels ex-Premier Berlusconi Page 10

Rebel alliance wants Syria as Islamic state Refugee women sexually harassed in Lebanon BEIRUT: A newly formed rebel alliance said it wants to replace Syria’s regime with an “Islamic state,” but insisted it would protect minorities and not create an “oppressive, authoritarian system”.

The covenant of the Islamic Front, Syria’s largest armed opposition grouping with tens of thousands of fighters battling to oust President Bashar al-Assad, spells out its intention to play a role in politics and society as well as on the battlefield.

But the authors of the document did not provide a clear vision of a postAssad Syria, perhaps fearing that delving into details would splinter the alliance of seven key Islamist groups announced on Friday, which hopes to unify the fractured opposition. Syria’s uprising began as a series of peaceful pro-democracy protests in March 2011, but a brutal regime crackdown ignited a full-blown civil war in which hardline Islamist groups have taken on an increasingly prominent role.

Under the subheading “democracies and parliaments,” the Islamic Front says representative government “is based on the notion that the people have the right through institutions to (determine) legislation, whereas in Islam God is the sovereign.” But it adds: “This does not mean that we want an oppressive, authoritarian system,” saying Syria should be ruled through a Shura, or Islamic consultative council. While hardline jihadists such as Al-Qaeda reject democracy outright, moderate Islamists have long argued that democracy and religion are compatible so long as Islamic law is respected.

Extremist groups across the Muslim world have tried to impose an extreme form of Islamic law, including the maiming and killing of those convicted by self-styled Islamic courts, but such interpretations have been rejected by mainstream Muslim authorities. The Islamic Front rejects secularism, which it defines as “dividing religion from life and society, and reducing it exclusively to rituals, customs and traditions. But on the question of minorities, the document says Syria is “home to a varied patchwork of ethnic and religious minorities,” adding that such communities were protected “for hundreds of years” under sharia law.

However, the covenant describes foreign jihadists who have travelled to Syria to fight alongside the rebels-and who often espouse the most radical forms of Islam-as “brothers who came to help us,” saying “we must protect them”. The

Islamic Front, which includes a Kurdish Islamic faction, also says it rejects “any project to partition” Syria. The document adds that “the only way to bring about its objectives, in light of Assad’s force and oppressiveness and the world’s betrayal of the Syrian people’s just cause is through... military rebellion”.

Meanwhile, women refugees who escaped Syria’s conflict to find sanctuary in neighboring Lebanon have been sexually harassed by employers, landlords and an employee of a local aid group, Human Rights Watch said yesterday. The organization said it interviewed a dozen women who described being groped, harassed and pressured to have sex. They did not report the incidents to authorities for fear of reprisal by their abusers or because they might be arrested for not having valid papers, it said.

“Women who have fled death and destruction in Syria should find a safe haven, not sexual abuse, in Lebanon,” said Liesl Gerntholtz, HRW’s women’s rights director. The United Nations says 800,000 refugees have crossed into Lebanon to escape the 2-1/2 year conflict in Syria, though the total number is likely to be more than 1 million as many do not register with the UN refugee agency.

One refugee, 53-year-old Hala from Damascus, told HRW she suffered sexual harassment at nine of the 10 households where she had worked to support herself and her four children. Male employers tried to touch her breasts, coerce her into sex, or procure her 16-year-old daughter for marriage, it said. She has stopped working and now depends on a church for aid. Lebanon’s Ministry of Social Affairs had dealt with one case in the last three months of sexual exploitation and harassment of several women refugees by an employee of a local faith-based aid organization, HRW said.

The aid worker was fired after the case was referred to local Sunni Muslim religious authorities, but the police were not informed. HRW called on Lebanese authorities and the United Nations to improve protection for women refugees and help them report any violations. It also urged donor countries to increase funding for housing food and healthcare for the refugees to reduce their vulnerability to exploitation. “Government and aid agencies need to open their eyes to the sexual harassment and exploitation of these vulnerable refugees and do everything in their power to stop it,” Gerntholtz said. — Agencies

Egypt draft constitution deflates hopes for change CAIRO: Egypt’s new constitution is still in the drafting stage but has already disappointed rights groups and activists who had hoped it would curb the military’s wide-ranging powers and privileges.

They have particularly objected to a provision which would allow military trials for civilians accused of “harming” the armed forces, which they fear could be interpreted expansively to target protesters, journalists and dissidents.

The passing of the revised constitution through a referendum is the first milestone of a road map to elected rule offered by Egypt’s military-installed authorities, who took office after the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi on July 3.

The army toppled Morsi after millions of Egyptians called for his resignation, citing among their chief grievances a 2012 constitutional decree that gave Egypt’s first democratically elected leader extraordinary powers, which he later rescinded.

Under Morsi, a new constitution was hastily drafted by a 100-member panel dominated by Islamists and boycotted by liberals, and was approved in a December 2012 popular referendum by a more than 60 percent margin.

The military-installed authorities quickly suspended the constitution after his overthrow and appointed a 50-member panel to draft a new one. The panel includes just two Islamists and no one from Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood movement, which has been the target of a sweeping crackdown in recent months that has seen hundreds of protesters killed by security forces.

“Where has the revolution gone? It has not (been) transferred into the document,” Joerg Fedtke, professor at Tulane University Law School in the US city of New Orleans, said.

“The paradigm has not changed since

1971”-the year when Egypt adopted an earlier constitution which undergirded decades of autocratic rule by President Anwar Sadat and his successor Hosni Mubarak, who was toppled by a popular uprising in February 2011.

The revised text keeps the military’s budget beyond any civilian scrutiny and also stipulates that members of the military be tried only in military courts, even in cases not related to their service, according to Heba Morayef, the Human Rights Watch representative in Egypt.

“The revised constitution also says that members of general intelligence services should also be tried by military” tribunals, said Morayef, calling it “an extension of the immunity” given to law enforcement agencies in a country with a long history of torture and police brutality.

The end of such proceedings is the most divisive issue among members of the 50-member constitutional panel. On Tuesday, 10 of its members halted work to protest the arrest of demonstrators, including prominent activists, who rallied against this article, forcing the committee to suspend its work until the next morning. The panel only includes two representatives from the security forces, but the committee has heard from members of the armed forces who strongly advocated retaining provisions favouring the military.

Egypt’s military, and particularly its top general Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, has seen its popularity soar in the wake of Morsi’s ouster, and the crackdown on Islamists has been allowed to proceed in part because of a spike in nationalist sentiment. Islamists have meanwhile been driven underground after the arrest of some 2,000 Morsi supporters, including nearly the entire leadership of the Brotherhood, Egypt’s best-organised political movement. — AFP

BEKAA VALLLEY: In this Nov. 5, 2013, file photo, Syrian women carry containers to fill with water at a refugee camp at Delhamiyeh village in the Bekaa valley, eastern Lebanon. Women refugees from Syria are being sexually harassed by employers, landlords and even faith-based aid distributors in Lebanon, adding another layer of suffering to those who have fled their homes in search for safe shelter, Human Rights Watch said in a report yesterday. — AP

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

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

Egypt widens crackdown as two top activists ordered arrested CAIRO: Egypt yesterday ordered the arrest of two prominent activists for defying a new law on demonstrations, as it widened its crackdown on protesters that has so far targeted backers of ousted president Mohamed Morsi. Tuesday’s crackdown on protesters, mainly from secular youth movements, is seen as the opening of a new front by the military-installed authorities which justified the July 3 overthrow of Morsi by saying it was responding to massive demonstrations against his one-year rule. Morsi’s overthrow triggered a massive crackdown against his Islamist supporters which has seen more than 1,000 people killed and thousands arrested.

Yesterday, Egypt’s general prosecutor ordered the arrest of Ahmed Maher, founder of the April 6 movement that spearheaded the 2011 revolt against former president Hosni Mubarak, and Alaa Abdel Fattah, a prominent activist, state news agency MENA said.

The two were to be detained for four days over demonstrations held in Cairo on Tuesday in defiance

of the new law that requires organizers to seek prior permission for protests. “The two are accused of inciting protesters to hold demonstrations that broke the protest law,” the prosecution said, according to MENA. The report added that 24 other protesters who joined Tuesday’s demonstration had been ordered detained for four days. Tuesday’s protests were broken up by police using water cannon and tear gas, in the first use in Cairo of the greater powers given to them under the new law. Judiciary and other sources said about 60 protesters were detained, including prominent activist Mona Seif, founder of a campaign against military trials of civilians. She was held after joining a protest outside the Shura Council, where Egypt’s new constitution is being drafted.

The protest was aimed specifically at the inclusion of an article in the draft law that allows the military to try civilians in certain cases. Seif and a group of 15 other women and 12 men were later released in the middle of the night on a desert road some 10 kilome-

ters south of Cairo. “The ministry of interior alleges that each one of us had been dropped at her house, which means that all of us are living in the desert,” Seif wrote on her Twitter account later.

Maglaa Bedeir, the mother of one of the female protesters, told AFP the women had been badly treated. “They were beaten before they were put in a truck.

The truck then took a long tour meant to scare them before finally dropping them on a desert road,” said Bedeir. Tuesday’s other protest, which was organized

by Maher, demanded the prosecution of those responsible for the deaths of demonstrators in November 2011 when opponents of the then ruling military junta clashed with police in Cairo. Analysts say the interim authorities were wrong to pass the law, especially since the revised constitution would guarantee freedom of expression.

“By passing such a law the government is creating opponents within its own camp,” said Hassan Nafea, political professor at Cairo University. “It is alienating

true young revolutionary groups such as Maher’s April 6 movement and others who led the January 2011 revolution.” Michele Dunne of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said Egyptians were increasingly “objecting to the ascendancy of the military and the re-emergence of the secret police.

“Egyptians won’t be patient for long with a state that failed to deliver services, abused human rights, and monopolized economic benefits.”

Under the law, protesters can be jailed for up to five years if found guilty of offences ranging from covering their faces to carrying weapons at demonstrations. It also says security forces must first verbally warn protesters at prohibited demonstrations to disperse before using water cannon or tear gas, and should only gradually escalate to the firing of birdshot if other means fail. On Tuesday night, 10 members of the 50-member constitution panel that is drafting the new basic law suspended their work to protest the arrests of the demonstrators. — AFP

String of bombings, shootings kill at least 20 across Iraq Suicide bombers target two Ramadi police stations

BENGHAZI: A Libyan child stands in front of a closed shop yesterday in Benghazi, Libya. Shops and schools closed across Benghazi as residents of Libya’s second city responded to calls for civil disobedience to protest deadly clashes between radical Islamists and the army. — AFP

Libyan army and Islamists clash again in Benghazi BENGHAZI: Libya’s army clashed with Islamist militants in the eastern city of Benghazi early yesterday as part of a crackdown on fighters who have controlled parts of the oil-producing country since it overthrew ruler Muammar Gaddafi two years ago.

Western powers, worried about Libya’s growing militia anarchy, have promised more aid to the army to curb former fighters and militants who fought to oust Gaddafi but have since challenged the OPEC country’s government.

Fighting broke out on Monday between army special forces and members of militant group Ansar Al-Sharia in Benghazi, killing at least nine people before the Islamists retreated from their main base.

Fresh gun battles could be heard in three parts of the port city in the early hours of Wednesday, though the clashes appeared to be much smaller than on Monday.

They began when members of Ansar alSharia threw a grenade at a patrol of special forces, a security official said, though he later retracted this and said it was not clear who was behind the attack.

A second security official said one person had been wounded. Islamist militants, including some from Ansar al-Sharia, had been seen massing outside Benghazi,

where the army was rushing reinforcements in a convoy, residents said. But the militants later left the area and calm returned to the city.

Ansar al-Sharia was blamed for an attack on the US consulate in Benghazi in September 2012 when the US ambassador and three other Americans were killed.

The security situation in Libya’s second biggest city has sharply deteriorated in the past few months. Islamists run their own checkpoints, and assassinations and bombings happen daily.

The chaos in Libya is worrying its North African neighbours and the NATO powers that backed the uprising which led to the fall of Gaddafi in one of the Arab Spring revolts. But popular anger is also growing against the militiamen and former fighters, and Prime Minister Ali Zeidan’s fragile government hopes to use that discontent to wrest back control from armed groups.

Hoping to co-opt former fighters, the government hired militia groups to provide security. But they remain loyal to their commanders or tribes, and often clash in disputes over territory or personal feuds.

Oil exports are down to a fraction of capacity due to seizures of oilfields and ports by militias, tribesmen and civil servants demanding more political rights or higher pay. — Reuters

Iraq says no success tracing killers of Iranian dissidents BAGHDAD: Iraq is hunting militants, still unidentified, who led a deadly attack on an Iranian dissident camp near Baghdad and dismisses suggestions its own security forces were behind the violence, a senior government official said.

More than 50 people were killed at the dissident Mujahadin-e-Khalq (MEK) group’s Camp Ashraf in September in an attack the United Nations described as “an atrocious crime” and which drew condemnation from the United States and Britain. Assailants took time to conduct execution-style killings and plant bombs.

MEK, which the US State Department removed from its list of terrorist organisations last year, wants Iran’s clerical leaders overthrown and fought on former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s side during the Iran-Iraq war in 1980s.

The group, which has accused Iraqi security forces of being behind the attack, is no longer welcome in Iraq under the Shi’ite Muslim-led government that came to power after US-led forces toppled Saddam in 2003.

“The main thing that the investigations have revealed so far is that the Iraqi security forces were not involved in that attack and an unknown militant group was behind it,” said Haider al-Akaili, who is part of a government committee overseeing the investigation, which was demanded by the United Nations.

Iraqi authorities have repeatedly denied involvement in the attack, in which camp residents also went missing. MEK says they were taken hostage by Iraqi forces and were flown to Amara province to be extradited to Iran. Akaili, who is an official in Iraq’s Ministry of Human Rights, denied that. “Pictures of the alleged missing persons have been circulated to airports and checkpoints and we have not received any news about any of them,” he told Reuters.

The committee is headed by Iraq’s national security chief and includes representatives from government ministries and the intelligence service as well as the United Nations.

A Paris-based spokesman for MEK said

Akaili’s statement that the Iraqi government was not complicit in the attack was “devoid of any credibility.” “From the onset, the Iranian resistance had announced that the purported investigation by the government of Iraq has been devoid of any legitimacy and nowhere in the world would the culprit and suspect be in charge of investigation,” spokesman Shahin Gobadi said in a statement. He repeated his call for an independent international investigation by the United Nations.

Akaili added that 53 people had been killed, not 52 as originally reported by the United Nations, which said its representatives had seen corpses with gunshot wounds and some with their hands tied.

The additional victim had not been reported until now because his face had been burnt and he had not been previously identifiable as a camp member, Akaili said.

The last residents moved out of the camp to a new base in September. The camp had housed around 100 MEK members at the time of the attack.

Iraqi authorities have issued 148 arrest warrants for MEK members for crimes against Iraqis since 1991, but none have been arrested, according to officials. The group that attacked the camp appeared to have had ample time to execute the victims as well as plant bombs in cars and buildings that it detonated remotely, Akaili said. “The operation was elaborate, complicated and big,” he said, adding that MEK members who had seen the attack had shown a “serious lack” of cooperation with investigating authorities - an assertion the MEK spokesman described as “another part of the litany of lies.”

Akaili raised the possibility there had been a dispute within the camp and some of the attackers had come from inside it.

Another scenario was that the seven missing people were behind the assault, he said.

MEK numbered 4,174 members in Iraq up to 2003. The United Nations has resettled some 1,000, while 1,600 have declined to meet with officials, Akaili said. The rest are being resettled. — Reuters

BAGHDAD: At least 20 people were killed and 35 wounded in bombings and shootings in Iraq yesterday, police and medical sources said, the latest in a string of attacks that threaten to tilt the country back into all-out sectarian warfare.

Four suicide bombers targeted a police station in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, killing four policemen and wounding 15. Another attacked a police station just north of Ramadi, killing four officers and wounding seven, the sources said.

A roadside bomb targeted an Iraqi army patrol in the western city of Qaim on the IraqiSyrian border. One soldier was killed and another wounded, police said. Iraq is suffering from its worst surge in violence in at least five years, with insurgents stepping up bombing campaigns against security forces and civilians.

In the mainly Shi’ite district of Hurriya, northwest of Baghdad, gunmen opened fire on a Sunni Muslim family of five, killing all of them. In Bayaa, another mainly Shi’ite district south of the capital, gunmen using weapons equipped with silencers opened fire at a bus terminal, killing one person and wounding three.

A roadside bomb went off in the mainly Sunni district of Doura, south of Baghdad, killing two people and wounding four. A similar device killed one person and wounded another in the mainly Shi’ite Talbiya district, north of the capital. A mortar round killed two people and wounded four in the mainly Sunni area of Arab Jubbor, south of Baghdad, police and medics said. No groups immediately claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s attacks. The government has blamed rising violence on Sunni Islamist militant groups, including al Qaeda, which have stepped up attacks this year and regained ground and

BAGHDAD: Iraqi interior ministry security forces man a checkpoint in central Baghdad yesterday, as violence in the Iraqi capital left 19 people dead, including a family of five — three men and two women — who were shot dead in their home in the Hurriyah neighbourhood in a predawn attack, according to security and medical officials, in scenes eerily reminiscent of the country’s gruesome 2006-2007 sectarian massacres. —AFP influence in western Iraq. Nearly 1,000 people since 2006-2007, when tens of thousands of peowere killed across the country in October, accord- ple died. The United Nations has called on Iraq’s ing to United Nations figures. The violence, partly feuding political leaders to cooperate to end the fuelled by the increasingly sectarian conflict in bloodshed, which has escalated since US troops neighboring Syria, has reached levels not seen withdrew in December 2011. — Reuters

Iranian hard-liners criticize Geneva deal TEHRAN: Hard-line Iranian politicians publicly criticized the deal reached in Geneva last week over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, an agreement that has largely been welcomed by Iranians.

Hard-line lawmaker Ruhollah Hosseinian said the deal was so vague and conditional that it may finally lead to a shutting down of Iran’s uranium enrichment program. Hamid Rasaei, another hard-line legislator, has called it “a poison chalice.” Most lawmakers supported the deal, saying it eases sanctions that world powers have placed on Iran and prevents them from imposing new ones. Discussions about it were broadcast live on state radio as Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif briefed lawmakers on it.

“We should tell the people what we have lost and what we have gained and why,” Hosseinian told the house. “It practically tramples on Iran’s enrichment rights... Uranium enrichment restrictions in the final stage and constraints in the first stage mean that enrichment in Iran is headed toward self shut-down.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters, has publicly supported the country ’s nuclear negotiators. Yet, it has not stopped hardliners from criticizing the agreement.

“A chalice of poison has been given to the people but (the government) is trying to show it as a sweet drink through media manipulation,” Rasaei said. Zarif has argued that the deal has caused serious cracks in the sanctions regime and prevents the UN Security Council and world powers from imposing new ones. The deal, he said, also provides sanctions relief in return for Iran scaling down its enrichment program but allows it to continue enriching under 5 percent.

Government supporters have hailed Zarif as “ambassador of peace,” calling negotiations a diplomatic victory for Iran. Others say Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s angry reaction shows it was a triumph.

Netanyahu called the deal last week a “historic mistake” that makes the world a “much more dangerous place.” He added that Israel is not bound by it. Israel believes Iran is trying to develop a nuclear bomb, and Netanyahu has voiced skepticism at recent moderate gestures

by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, whom he has called “a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

Hossein Shariatmadari, a representative of Khamenei and editor of hard-line newspaper Kayhan, said Iran has given too many concessions in return for too little. “ This slippery achievement is not consistent with the huge volume of propaganda that is being pumped into society over its significance,” he said. “It leads to the assumption that government is not honest in its reports to the people.” — AP

TEHRAN: Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, left, speaks at joint press conference with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif, in Tehran, Iran, yesterday. — AP

Kerry returning to Israel next week amid Iran row WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State John Kerry will visit Israel next week for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeking to calm tensions with the Jewish state over the Iran nuclear deal.

Kerry will also travel to Ramallah for talks with the Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas as he tries to keep delicate Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations on track, a US official said yesterday.

The Middle East leg of the December 3-6 trip will come after the globetrotting top US diplomat first attends a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels next Tuesday, and then travels to Moldova as well.

“In Chisinau, Secretary Kerry will meet with senior Moldovan officials. He will discuss bilateral issues, as well as Moldova’s path toward European integration,” State Department spokes-

woman Jen Psaki said.

But the toughest leg will be his return to Israel and the West Bank-his eighth overnight visit since he became secretary of state in February.

Netanyahu has angrily denounced the weekend deal struck in Geneva with Iran to rein in its nuclear program as “an historic mistake.” He insists that any deal with Tehran must have the sole purpose of dismantling Iran’s military nuclear capability.

And he is sending his security advisor, Yossi Cohen, to Washington for talks on the details of the six-month interim accord under which Iran will freeze parts of its suspect nuclear program in return for limited sanctions relief.

Israel, the Middle East’s sole if undeclared nuclear-armed state, has refused to rule out military action to halt Iran’s nuclear drive. “Secretary

Kerry will meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu to discuss a range of issues including Iran and the negotiations with the Palestinians,” Psaki said.

The talks, relaunched earlier this year, have faltered amid Israeli plans for new settlement building. The moves have angered the Palestinian negotiation team, which in November presented its resignation to Abbas. But the Palestinian leader has yet to accept them in a move which some say is designed to avoid responsibility if the talks collapse.

Kerry last visited Israel and the West Bank in early November, when he held marathon talks with Netanyahu on the peace process. After spending a day in Jordan he then flew back to Tel Aviv for two more hours of talks with the Israeli leader, before heading to Geneva talks on Iran. — AFP

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

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

Supreme Court to take up birth control religion case WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court said Tuesday it will address the question of whether a firm can use religious grounds to limit the availability of birth control on its health plan.

The court’s nine justices announced they would hear arguments, probably in March or April, in two cases between the US government and firms that object to purchasing health coverage covering certain contraceptive methods.

In the first case, President Barack Obama’s administration is challenging the refusal of Hobby Lobby Stores to underwrite coverage for certain contraceptive methods. “The President believes that no one, including the government or for-profit corporations, should be able to dictate those decisions to women,” the White House said in a statement shortly after the Supreme Court decision. The Oklahoma-based Hobby Lobby chain says it manages its business “in a manner consistent with biblical principles.” Joined by the religious bookstore Mardel, Hobby Lobby has refused to abide by the new health care law’s requirement that it provide

health insurance coverage for four methods of contraception (two abortive pills and two types of IUDs), or pay a fine.

The chain has not challenged other methods agreed to by the federal government-contraceptive pills, diaphragms and other barrier methods-but it objects to the four specific methods on grounds they are in its view comparable to abortion. In a brief filed with the court, the company argued that “by providing insurance coverage for contraceptives that could prevent a human embryo from implanting in the uterus, they themselves would be morally complicit in ‘the death of [an] embryo.’” A federal appeals court agreed, ruling that the legal requirement was counter to the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). The Obama health care law exempted churches and other religious organizations from having to provide coverage for birth control.

But the government argued that “no court has ever found a for-profit company to be a religious organization for purposes of federal law.”

The second case to be taken up by the court involves Pennsylvania company Conestoga Wood Specialists, which has appealed to the Supreme Court after losing a case in a lower court.

The firm, which is owned by a Mennonite family, is arguing that it should be considered a religious organization and included with other groups that have been made exempt from the law.

The White House said it already acted to ensure that “no church or similar religious institution will be forced to provide contraception coverage and has made a commonsense accommodation for nonprofit religious organizations that object to contraception on religious grounds.”

“These steps protect both women’s health and religious beliefs and seek to ensure that women and families-not their bosses or corporate CEOs-can make personal health decisions based on their needs and their budgets,” the White House said.

Elizabeth Wydra, chief counsel for the Constitutional Accountability Center, said there was no historic precedent of applying freedom of reli-

gion protections to for-profit entities. “In the entire history of US constitutional law, secular for-profit corporations have never been understood to be protected by the first amendment right to free exercise of religion,” Wydra told AFP. Legal analysts said the Supreme Court would examine whether corporations should be granted free religious expression. If they are, it “would permit employers to impose their moral views on their employees, setting a dangerous precedent that would be discriminatory towards women and do great harm to women’s health and religious freedom in this country,” said Donna Barry, head of the Centre for American Progress (CAP).

Anti-abortion and pro-life organizations meanwhile applauded the Supreme Court decision to address the case, which dealt with “fundamental freedom of religion and conscience” issues.

“We hope that once and for all the Supreme Court clearly say that religious freedom in this country must be protected for family businesses,” said Kyle Duncan, counsel for Hobby Lobby. — AFP

Mexico releases US born teenage hitman ‘Teenager will check into support center in US’

TUCSON: Tucson Police Department investigators and evidence technicians investigate the scene at a home where two people were arrested Tuesday, after three girls told authorities that they have been imprisoned for possibly the past two years, in Tucson, Ariz. Tucson police said the girls are siblings - ages 12, 13 and 17 - and their mother and stepfather have been arrested in a case that’s being investigated as alleged child abuse and imprisonment. — AP

Thirty Haitians dead after ship capsizes in Bahamas WASHINGTON: About 30 Haitian migrants died after an overloaded freighter capsized in the Bahamas and 110 others were rescued in rough seas, the US Coast Guard said Tuesday.

“Approximately 30 Haitian migrants are reported dead,” said a statement from the Coast Guard, which cited information from Bahamian defense forces.

The estimated death toll from Monday’s accident rose as the Coast Guard released harrowing images of a throng of passengers perched precariously on the overturned hull of the ship.

“The migrants were clinging to the hull of the grounded 40-foot (12-meter) sail freighter when rescue crews arrived,” the Coast Guard said. All those on the hull were safely rescued but it was unclear how many passengers were still stranded in the water, spokesman Petty Officer Mark Barney told AFP. “We are continuing to search,” he said.

Rescuers faced stormy weather on Tuesday, with winds of about 30 miles (48 kilometers) an hour, he added. The vessel ran aground and then capsized off the coast of Staniel Clay in the central Bahamas on Monday evening, it said. A Coast Guard MH-60 helicopter hoisted 13 people to safety and delivered a rescue raft. An HC-144 spotter plane and a C-130 transport dropped food, supplies and eight additional life rafts.

The Bahamian defense force, which first alerted the Coast Guard of the accident, also sent a patrol boat to help with rescue efforts.

Stern Lolo, director of Haiti’s National Migration Office, said Haitians who brave the dangerous voyage to the Bahamas or the United States come mainly from the poor northwest of the country.

Haiti was already the poorest country in the western hemisphere before a 2010 earthquake, which left 250,000 dead and set the island nation’s limping economy back still further.

“We often receive refugees rescued on the high sea and returned to us by the US Coast Guard,” Lolo told AFP, estimating the number of Haitian migrants found at sea and returned at between 100 and 150 per month.

Lolo said Haiti tries to discourage migrants from taking to the seas through a public information campaign and radio spots, but does not have the means to patrol its own shores. In addition to receiving returnees plucked from the water by US authorities, Haiti also sees hundreds more migrants expelled every month by the neighboring Dominican Republic.

The Dominican Republic has recently tightened its immigration rules as applied to Haitians, taking the controversial step of expelling those of Haitian descent even if they were born on Dominican soil.

More than 170,000 Haitians are still living in tents and makeshift housing as the fourth anniversary of the January 2010 quake approaches, at risk of disease and the hurricanes that often batter the island. — AFP

Tutu warns of ‘assault’ on S African democracy CAPE TOWN: Archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu and more than 80 other prominent South Africans have signed a declaration warning of an “assault on democracy” in the country. In a statement, dated 26 November, Tutu and a host of public figures warned that a spate of sometimes violent protests, particularly in the Western Cape, constitute “a growing assault on democracy country wide.”

The signatories-who include religious and secular public figures-accused “politicians and activists” in the Western Cape of stoking anger over the lack of basic services in slums for political gain.

The Western Cape province is governed by the opposition Democratic Alliance and will be a key battle ground in next year’s general elections, with the ANC seeking to regain control. “In the Western Cape there have been blatant attempts to make the province ‘ungovernable’ simply because certain elements disagree with the democratic choice of the majority in that province,” the statement said. “This attack on democracy is a denial of everything the freedom struggle was about, and is being carried out in a dangerous spirit of hate.”

The comments come ahead of a rally planned for Friday in Cape Town, which the authorities have said is unlawful and will be dispersed. In October thousands of angry demonstrators ran amok in the centre of the city looting shops and assaulting foreign migrants. A group of around 2,000-3,000 people blocked several streets before amassing in front of the provincial legislature to protest against poor public services.

“The recent examples on display in the Western Cape may be a disturbing trend that demonstrates a growing assault on democracy country wide,” the statement said.

The Democratic Alliance has accused the ruling ANC and its allies of stoking the fire. “It is understandable that poor people are feeling frustrated and angry,” the signatories said.

“However constructive engagement on the best way forward is possible and desirable, without resort to violence, and without fomenting hate or disrespect.”

They called on those in power to step in. “The lack of serious leadership and authority in disciplining this form of anti-democratic behaviour carries serious risks and encourages a spirit of hate which, once unleashed, may take many years to overcome with drastic consequences for our economy.”— AFP

MEXICO CITY: Mexican authorities Tuesday released a US-born teenager who was convicted at age 14 for working as a hitman in a case that highlighted the recruitment of children by drug cartels.

Now 17, the boy known as “El Ponchis” served three years in a juvenile detention center in the central state of Morelos for slitting the throats of four people and hanging them from a bridge.

Edgar was released before dawn and later took a flight to San Antonio, Texas, where his mother lives, officials said. The case brought attention to the use of children by drug gangs to commit crimes in Mexico-from working as lookouts to dealing drugs and in some cases committing murder.

A 2011 study by the non-profit Children’s Rights Network of Mexico found that drug cartels recruited around 30,000 teenagers. Edgar was arrested by soldiers in December 2010 at the airport in the central city of Cuernavaca as he tried to board a flight to the United States. The soldiers later put him in front of television cameras, and he admitted to killing four people. The boy said he had been kidnapped, drugged and threatened into committing crimes for a reputed leader of the South Pacific drug cartel, Julio de Jesus Radilla, alias “El Negro,” who was detained in 2011.

Edgar was sentenced to the maximum three years in juvenile detention under Morelos state law. “Leaving him in Morelos would have been too risky for his life,” Governor Graco Ramirez told Milenio television. “He knew it would be hard for him to survive due to everything he knew and did.”

The Children’s Rights Network called on the authorities to take measures to protect Edgar’s life . The network said it has asked the Mexican authorities in the past to create a program allowing children who were victims of “narco-exploitation” to change their identities. Morelos state government secretary Jorge Messeguer said the teenager will check into a support center in the United States. “He was detained at age 14, but he started earlier as a child, in a broken family situation,” Messeguer told Milenio.

“The phenomenon we saw with this boy shows us there are things happening that, as a state, we must correct in terms of social policy,” he said. The government of President Enrique Pena Nieto launched a crime prevention program this year aimed at steering young Mexicans away from a life of crime.

Juan Martin Perez, director of the Children’s Rights Network, said cartels recruit children because they are vulnerable and nobody is held accountable when they are arrested or killed. “It is not a new issue which has unfortunately increased in recent years as confrontations between security forces and criminal groups increased,” Martin Perez told AFP. “This has created the need for more teenagers to become involved,” he said.

The US embassy, meanwhile, said it was closely coordinating with Mexican officials and authorities in the United States regarding the teenager’s release. —AFP

CUERNAVACA: Picture taken on December 2, 2010 of a Mexican soldier escorting US-born Edgar Jimenez Lugo aka “El Ponchis” (R), then 14 years old, alleged member of the South Pacific drug cartel, in Cuernavaca, Morelos State, Mexico, on December 2, 2010. Jimenez Lugo, convicted at age 14 after working as a hitman for a Mexican drug gang, was released on Tuesday, and will return to the United States. — AFP

MEXICO CITY: Riot policemen arrest a teacher during a protest against the education reform in Mexico City on Tuesday. President Enrique Pena Nieto pushed through Congress changes to the constitution in order to require teachers to undergo mandatory performance appraisals. — AFP

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

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

Five years after war, Georgia defies Russia over Europe TBILISI: Five years after it fought a war with Russia, Georgia is preparing to defy its former Soviet masters again by initialling an accord on strengthening ties with Europe. New Prime Minister Irakly Garibashvili is toughing it out just a week after another former Soviet republic, Ukraine, bowed to pressure from Moscow and suspended plans to strike a similar deal with the European Union.

The South Caucasus country’s economy is much smaller than Ukraine’s but it is important to the EU because it hosts pipelines that carry Caspian gas and oil to Europe.

“Ukraine’s decision is very unfortunate, but Ukraine and Georgia are different stories as we are much less dependent on Russia than Ukraine is,” Garibashvili told Reuters in an interview in the Georgian capital Tbilisi.

“Russia may use political and economic leverage to put pressure on Georgia, but I believe that it cannot be serious.” Like Ukraine, Georgia is trying to strike a balance between East and West but finding it hard to strengthen ties with Europe without upsetting Russia. Moscow is anxious to maintain its influence over states it dominated during Soviet times, especially those with energy pipelines and

significant ethnic Russian communities. Despite Russia’s concerns, Tbilisi will initial the accord on deepening trade and other cooperation with the EU on Friday at a summit in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius. It expects to sign the final agreement next year and hopes Moscow will adopt a warmer policy towards it as it tries in the long term to join NATO and the EU. “I think that in the long run it’s in Russia’s interests to resolve political disputes between our countries,” he said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry stepped up pressure on former Soviet republics hoping to move closer to Europe on Tuesday by warning that they would face “years of economic turmoil”, including higher unemployment and lower living standards.

Moldova, another former Soviet republic, is also defying the warnings and will initial an agreement on closer ties with the EU in Vilnius. Ukraine had been expected to sign an association agreement in Vilnius, allowing it to join a free trade area with the bloc. But after months of Russian warnings over gas supply cuts and trade restrictions, Kiev changed its mind last week and said it would rebuild economic ties with Moscow instead.

Garibashvili, who became prime minister last

week, said his country of 4.5 million should not be seen in the same light as Ukraine, whose population is 10 times bigger.

Georgia is further from Moscow’s orbit than Ukraine and underlined its independence in 2008 by withdrawing from the Moscow-led Commonwealth of Independent States, the political bloc created as the Soviet Union fell apart.

In a sign that ties could finally be improving, Russia this year lifted bans on imports of Georgian wine, mineral water and fruit that were imposed in 2006. Even so, tensions remain high after the August 2008 war over two Moscow-backed breakaway regions. Diplomatic relations, severed after the war, have not been restored and Russia still controls the two separatist-minded regions.

But Garibashvili made clear he was not about to be cowed by Russia, saying: “Twenty percent of our territory is occupied, and Russia has already recognised the independence of Abkhazia and so-called South Ossetia. What else they can do?”

Garibashvili is a close ally of Bidzina Ivanishvili, who quit this month as prime minister, saying his job was done now that his rival Mikheil Saakashvili was no longer president.

Georgia will be represented in Vilnius by President Georgy Margvelashvili, who was elected last month, but the prime minister’s post is the most powerful in the country.

Garibashvili, a former interior minister, not only faces a tough task soothing Russian concerns but also addressing the EU’s worries about Georgia’s credentials. The EU is alarmed by the arrest of several former ministers and other officials, including former prime minister Vano Merabishvili, since Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream coalition ousted Saakashvili’s party at the polls in 2012.

The EU has urged Georgian leaders to avoid the “politics of revenge” - a remark that echoes its concerns about “selective justice” in Ukraine, which has refused to release jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

“Vano Merabishvili and Yulia Tymoshenko are totally different stories,” Garibashvili said. “Some of our European partners may have questions, but we’ll make sure that this trial (against Merabishvili) is absolutely transparent.”

Merabishvili, a Saakashvili ally, is being tried for alleged vote-buying before last year’s parliamentary election and other crimes. — Reuters

Italy Senate expels ex-PM Berlusconi ‘It is the day they have been waiting for’

BERLIN: (LtoR) Head of Social Democratic Party (SPD) Sigmar Gabriel, German Chancellor and head of Christian Democratic Party (CDU) Angela Merkel and leader of CDU Bavarian allies Christian Social Union (CSU) Horst Seehofer give a press conference after signing their agreement to form a coalition government yesterday in Berlin. German Chancellor Merkel agreed to form a coalition government with campaign rivals the Social Democrats, two months after her conservatives won elections but fell short of a full majority. — AFP

German Chancellor, SPD clinch coalition deal BERLIN: Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) clinched a coalition deal yesterday that puts Germany on track to have a new government in place by Christmas. The agreement was struck roughly two months after Merkel was the clear winner in national elections but fell short of a parliamentary majority, forcing her into talks with the arch-rival SPD, with whom she ruled in an awkward “grand coalition” during her first term as Chancellor from 2005-2009.

The deal, spelled out in a detailed 185page policy document, will not be final until approved over the coming weeks by a postal ballot of the 474,000 card-carrying SPD members, many of them skeptical about partnering with Merkel again. But the agreement will be greeted with a sigh of relief in other European capitals. The lengthy talks have delayed movement on major European reforms, including the creation of a “banking union”, an ambitious project designed to prevent a recurrence of the euro zone’s crippling debt crisis.

“The result is good for our country and has a conservative imprint,” said Hermann Groehe, secretary general of Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU). “No new taxes and no new debts.” Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament and a senior SPD negotiator, called it an “excellent result” for his party. Merkel and other party leaders will present details of the deal at a news conference at 12 p.m. (1100 GMT) yesterday. The allocation of cabinet posts is expected to be announced later.

To clinch the deal, Merkel agreed to SPD demands for a minimum wage of 8.50 euros per hour, which some economists have warned could push up unemployment, particularly in eastern Germany. In order to prevent that, the wage will be phased in over a period of years, with sector-specific exceptions allowed until 2017, when the wage formally kicks in nationwide.

CONTINUITY IN EUROPE On European policy, Merkel’s insistence on painful economic reform in struggling euro

states will continue, despite SPD promises during the election campaign to take a more pro-growth approach in a single currency bloc ravaged by high unemployment. A closely watched compromise on banking union between the parties makes clear that the 17 member states have primary responsibility for dealing with their own stricken banks, and can only turn to a common taxpayer-financed European fund for help when all other avenues have been exhausted.

Carsten Nickel, a political analyst at Teneo Intelligence, said the SPD had realized, after flirting with the idea of common euro-zone bonds, “that the domestic political consensus does not reward any large-scale deviation form Merkel’s path”. Although the cabinet posts have not yet been announced, Wolfgang Schaeuble, Merkel’s trusted 71-yearold finance minister, is widely expected to keep his job.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier of the SPD may return as foreign minister after holding the post in the last “grand coalition” government.

SPD chairman Sigmar Gabriel, who was also a member of that cabinet, could get a beefedup economy ministry. The SPD remains traumatized by its partnership with Merkel. Leftwingers in the party, already bitter about labor reforms launched by the last SPD chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, abandoned the party in droves. In 2009, after four years of “grand coalition”, the SPD scored its worst election result of the post-war era, winning just 23 percent.

Some of those reforms are now being watered down, but the SPD referendum on the coalition deal is still risky, with Alex White, an analyst at JP Morgan, estimating the chances of a “no” vote at up to 20 percent.

Were the party to reject the agreement, Merkel could seek a coalition with the environmentalist Greens. A new election is another possibility. With the talks ending on the Nov 27 deadline set by Merkel, SPD leaders must now persuade members at over 30 rallies that a minimum wage is a victory for the working class. “We will convince members,” Steinmeier told reporters. —Reuters

French court upholds dismissal over headscarf PARIS: A Paris appeal court yesterday upheld the right of a nursery to fire a female employee who insisted on wearing an Islamic headscarf at work. In the latest round of a long-running legal battle, the court overturned a controversial March 2013 ruling that the “Baby-Wolf” kindergarten in the Paris suburbs had been guilty of religious discrimination when it dismissed Fatima Afif in 2008.

Afif was sacked after telling her employer that, on her return to work following five years of maternity leave, she wished to wear a headscarf at all times.

The head of the day nursery refused, citing the establishment’s rules that employees had to be neutral in terms of philosophy, politics and faith. That led to a stand-off and Afif being made redundant.

Yesterday’s verdict supporting the nursery’s action was hailed as a landmark decision by supporters of secular education. But, in reality, it is unlikely to be the

end of the case. Lawyers for Afif said it was “very probable” that they would launch another appeal and she herself has said she is prepared to take her case all the way to the European Court of Human Rights.

Two earlier rulings, by a works tribunal and a lower level appeal court in Versailles, had both upheld the nursery’s case that they were entitled to insist on the children being looked after/educated in an environment free from religious influence.

Those decisions were overturned in March by the Court of Cassation in a ruling which was widely denounced by politicians across the political spectrum as undermining secular education and led to calls for the law to be clarified.

Any overt religious symbols-headscarves, Jewish skullcaps or Sikh turbans for example-are banned from French state schools, which operate on strictly secular lines. —AFP

ROME: The Italian Senate yesterday expelled three-time ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi from Parliament over his tax fraud conviction, ending, for now, his two-decade legislative run but not his political career.

Berlusconi has warned that the unprecedented move would embarrass Italy internationally.

He maintained his defiance as the Senate voted, declaring Wednesday a “day of mourning for democracy” before thousands of cheering, flagwaving supporters outside his Roman palazzo.

Even though Berlusconi won’t hold a seat in Parliament, he is expected to remain influential in Italian politics. He has relaunched his Forza Italia party and he still commands millions of loyal supporters. While his lawyers chart possible legal challenges and his allies move into Italy’s opposition, Berlusconi’s fans massed in front of his Roman palazzo for a rally that analysts said was essentially the start of Italy’s next electoral campaign.

“Today they are toasting because they can take an adversary, they say a friend, in front of the executioner’s squad,” Berlusconi said. “It is the day they have been waiting for for 20 years.”

He pledged to continue his role as a political leader, citing other figures not in Parliament, namely the founder of the Five Star Movement, Beppe Grillo, and Matteo Renzi of the Democratic Party, tipped by many as a future premier candidate.

“Also, from outside the Parliament, we can continue to fight for our liberty,” he said.

Supporters were treated to a video montage of Berlusconi’s greatest political hits from a career that began in 1994 when he first came into power with a political party named for a soccer chant “Go Italy.” He said that even if he’s no longer a senator, he will continue to be a force to reckon with. “For us he will always be there,” said Marilda Antonello as she held a banner reading “The law is not equal for everyone. Sick justice.” “He is our only leader. He is the only man who can take Italy forward,” she said.

The Senate vote on whether to remove Berlusconi from the chamber stems from a 2012 law that bans anyone sentenced to more than two years in prison from holding or running for public office for six years. His lawyers claim the law is unconstitutional and have questioned why the rush to expel him while legal challenges are still pending.

Italy ’s high court on Aug. 1 upheld Berlusconi’s tax fraud conviction and four-year prison term stemming from his Mediaset empire’s purchase of television rights to US films.

The prison term was reduced automatically to one year under a general amnesty; he will serve his time either under house arrest or through public service.

Berlusconi claims he didn’t receive a fair trial and that the judges were biased and out to “eliminate” him from public office. His lawyers have also charged that the 2012 law is unconsti-

ROME: People show posters reading “Plutonium decays into 24.000 years, Uranium in 4 million years, Berlusconi decays today !!!” in front of the Italian Senate yesterday in Rome. Italy’s parliament prepared to expel Silvio Berlusconi today over his tax fraud conviction in a momentous move that raises the risk of his arrest but is unlikely to end his tumultuous career. — AFP tutional and can’t be applied retroactively to crimes allegedly committed before it was passed.

They have taken their challenge to the European Court of Human Rights - even though it turns out Berlusconi didn’t make much of his Senate role to begin with: Private TV La7 reported this week that Berlusconi attended just one Senate session since April’s elections. And that was when he did an about-face and backed the government in a confidence vote after threatening to bring it down.

Nevertheless, Berlusconi made a last-ditch bid to save his seat this week, sending a letter to opposition senators warning them that kicking a three-time premier out of public office would tarnish Italy’s image abroad and weigh on their consciences, “a responsibility that in the future will shame you in front of your children, your electors and all Italians.”

Berlusconi remains head of his relaunched Forza Italia party, which on Tuesday officially withdrew its support of the government of Premier Enrico Letta and is now in the opposition. Despite the switch, Letta’s government comfortably survived a confidence vote early yesterday and passed the annual budget. He survived because Berlusconi’s one-time political heir, Angelino Alfano, split from his mentor earlier this month and formed his own new centerright party that remains loyal to Letta.

Analysts said they expected Letta’s government - a hybrid of his Democratic Party and

Alfano’s New Center-Right - would continue in the short term.

The opposition, however, now includes two strong leaders: Berlusconi and Grillo, whose populist Five Star Movement encapsulates the discontent many Italians feel with the country’s byzantine politics.

“Berlusconi by himself doesn’t have the strength to bring down Letta’s government, but he’s going to make it more difficult for the Democratic Party to stay in the majority,” said Giovanni Orsina, deputy director of the school of government at Rome’s LUISS University. “I think Silvio Berlusconi can do some damage to this government.”

James Walston, a professor of international relations at the American University of Rome, said the vote and rally essentially mark the start to a new electoral campaign in which Berlusconi won’t be running for office but will be very much a protagonist as the head of a party.

“Berlusconi over the last few days has been conducting a very strident campaign,” Walston said, referring to his letter to the opposition senators. “This is Berlusconi laying down part of his program for what he hopes is going to be elections very shortly.” Meanwhile, Berlusconi still faces other legal problems, including a sevenyear prison term and lifetime ban from holding public office for his conviction of paying an underage prostitute for sex at his infamous “bunga bunga” parties and trying to cover it up.

He has professed his innocence and plans to appeal. — AP

Cameron curbs welfare benefits for EU migrants LONDON: Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday promised to make it harder for migrants from the European Union to access Britain’s welfare system and pledged to try to restrict the freedom of movement of people from poorer EU states in time.

His plan, an attempt to address public fears about an influx of Romanians and Bulgarians when EU restrictions on those two countries expire next year, drew a rebuke from the European Commission which said his intervention was “an unfortunate over-reaction”.

But Cameron, whose Conservative party risks seeing its vote split at European elections next year and at a national election in 2015 by the anti-immigration UK Independence Party, is under pressure to act at a time when he is trailing in the polls.

He has said he will try to renegotiate Britain’s membership of the EU to give it more of a say over its own affairs and has promised to hold an in/out referendum if re-elected in 2015 amid public scepticism about the benefits of belonging to the bloc.

“The EU of today is very different from the EU of 30 years ago,” Cameron said in an article in the Financial Times. “We need to face the fact that free movement has become a trigger for vast population movements caused by huge disparities in income. That is extracting talent out of countries that need to retain their best people and placing pressure on communities.”

Cameron said he planned to change British law so that new EU migrants would have to wait three months before they could access unemployment

benefits, saying he shared deep public concerns about a possible influx of new migrants.

Newcomers would not be eligible for housing benefits and would lose the right to unemployment benefits after six months unless they could prove they had a realistic chance of finding a job.

He said he also planned to try to renegotiate the way EU freedom of movement rules are applied

to make it harder for people from poorer countries in the 28-nation bloc to relocate to richer countries in time.

That, he said, could involve capping the annual number of EU migrants or withholding full freedom of movement rights until a country achieved a certain gross domestic product per head. —Reuters

LONDON: British Prime Minister David Cameron, second left, walks from 10 Downing Street in London, to attend Prime Minister’s Questions at the Houses of Parliament, yesterday. — AP

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

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

Thailand’s Suthep: Dissent crusher turns protest leader BANGKOK: The last time Thailand was gripped by large-scale anti-government protests, Suthep Thaugsuban, then deputy prime minister, was the man wielding the sword.

The Democrat Party politician authorised a crackdown by security forces that left downtown Bangkok burning and killed scores of red-shirt supporters of his arch-rival, Thaksin Shinawatra, a populist former prime minister who was overthrown in a 2006 coup.

Now, just three-and-a-half-years later, Thai politics has flipped. Thaksin’s sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, is the prime minister. This time, Suthep is on the outside, leading protests aimed at bringing down Yingluck’s government.

And this time, he thinks, Yingluck could not use force to stop him, even if she tried.

“I believe Yingluck doesn’t have the authority to order the police or military to do anything,” Suthep told Reuters at Bangkok’s Finance Ministry, which has been occupied by protesters since Monday.

“They’ve realised she’s a prime minister that doesn’t obey the rule of law.”

The emergence of Suthep as a protest leader betrays how just a few personalities - and their grudges - drive Thailand’s political soap opera, with its cycle of violent protests and interventions by the judiciary, military and palace.

Since resigning from parliament this month along with eight other members, the wily, silver-haired politician from Thailand’s south has emerged as the firebrand voice of anti-Thaksin forces, a motley collection aligned with Bangkok’s royalist civilian and

military elite.

He projects himself as champion of the dispossessed rubber farmers from his home region and of Bangkok’s middle classes in speeches that have energised protesters flooding Bangkok’s streets by the tens of thousands, in an echo of “yellow shirt” protests that helped to bring Thaksin down.

A warrant has been issued for his arrest after thousands of his supporters swarmed the Finance Ministry. Along with former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, he faces murder charges over the 2010 crackdown.

He has characterised the protests as a movement to eradicate the network of the now self-exiled Thaksin from Thailand’s political system. How that will happen and whether it entails intercession by the judiciary or the coup-prone military is unclear.

He dismissed suggestions of an alliance with the military, a major force in politics since Thailand became a democracy in 1932. The military has staged 18 coups - some successful, some not - and made several discreet interventions in forming coalition governments, almost all with the tacit backing of the royalist establishment that now reviles Thaksin.

“We hope this will be a movement of the people to temporarily seize hold of the governance of Thailand,” he said.

Suthep says parliament, now controlled by Yingluck’s Puea Thai Party, should be suspended and replaced by a “people’s parliament” directly elected by the public and free of politicians - except for him-

self and his fellow recently resigned MPs. He wants to make provincial governors directly elected, and institute reforms of the corruptionplagued police and bureaucracy. Although Thaksin or his allies have won every election of the past decade, he says that reflects rampant vote-buying, which he says his “temporary administration” would end.

Such revolutionary language jars with Suthep’s long political pedigree. Until just a few weeks ago, the 64-year-old former shrimp-farm and palm-oil magnate had held a seat in parliament since 1979.

He served in cabinet as Communications Minister and twice as Deputy Agriculture Minister.

In 1995, a scandal involving his land reform programme caused then-Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai to dissolve the House rather than face a no-confidence vote. Suthep was criticised for allegedly giving land rights to the wealthy under a reform scheme intended for the poor. He denied the charge but resigned.

Ironically, the ensuing political storm swept Thaksin into politics. Over the years, Suthep developed an image as a consummate politician. A leaked US diplomatic cable from 2008 described him as his party’s “backroom dealmaker”.

“He maintains contacts in all camps, including the military,” the cable said. “He has reportedly had direct contact with Thaksin after Thaksin was deposed as prime minister,” the cable said. He has denied such contacts with Thaksin.

Suthep’s followers are galvanized by the alleged

excesses of Yingluck, her brother and their policies, including a runaway multibillion dollar rice-subsidy scheme seen as an attempt to lock in the support of farmers.

Even more galling, he said, was an attempt to put forward a broad-ranging amnesty bill aimed at securing the return of Thaksin, who was sentenced to two years in prison in absentia for corruption. The opposition Democrats have bitterly opposed the bill, despite a sweetener that would have seen the charges against Suthep and Abhisit dropped.

The Democrats for their part have played a delicate game, attempting to ride in the slipstream of anti-government sentiment while at times distancing themselves from the rallies.

“I have no idea what Suthep means by a ‘people’s parliament’,” said Korn Chatikavanij, a senior Democrat member and former finance minister. “We think the best way to find a solution to all of this is for the government to resign and dissolve parliament.”

But he said the Democrats and the protesters “share a common belief that Thaksin is toxic for Thailand.” At the protest, participants appear to be similarly wary of connecting their movement to the opposition party.

“Before, (Suthep) was like any other politician. We wouldn’t say he’s very good,” said Kochamakorn Homglee, who has joined with a group of stay-athome mothers from Bangkok’s posh Harrow International School, where Yingluck also sends her son. “But now he’s a hero.” — Reuters

US, Japan defy China Bombers, planes fly through new air zone

JELEBU: Hasnah Abdul Wahab holds an old portrait of her younger sister, Siti Aishah Abdul Wahab (C), during an interview with Agence France-Presse at her house in Jelebu, a district of Negeri Sembilan, outside Kuala Lumpur yesterday. Police in Kuala Lumpur said yesterday one of three women allegedly held as slaves in London for 30 years was a Malaysian who went missing in the 1960s, prompting a joyous reaction from the long-lost woman’s sister. — AFP

Family rejoices as Malaysian police identify ‘slave’ victim JELEBU: Police in Kuala Lumpur said yesterday one of three women allegedly held as slaves in London for 30 years was a Malaysian who went missing in the 1960s, prompting a joyous reaction from the longlost woman’s sister. Malaysia’s top police official Khalid Abu Bakar, citing information provided by British police, confirmed the woman was Siti Aishah Abdul Wahab, The Star newspaper said in a brief report on its website.

Siti Aishah, who would now be 69, had left to study in Britain around 1968 but her family lost track of her soon after that, relatives told AFP. “I will hug her and cry if she comes back home,” Siti Aishah’s eldest sister, Hasnah Abdul Wahab, 88, said when told of the police announcement.

“I thank Allah he has realised my prayers to meet Siti Aishah before I die,” she told AFP in the family’s hometown of Jelebu in southern Malaysia, as she held a photo of Siti Aishah as a young woman.

“I will hold a feast to thank Allah. We have been looking for her for a long, long time.” Police have arrested two people identified by British media as radical Maoists for holding the three women in a case that has shocked Britain. The three “slaves”, who also included a 57-year-old Irish woman and a 30-year-old Briton believed to have spent her life in servitude, were freed on October 25 after one of them secretly contacted a charity.

The couple, who have been released on bail, have been named by British newspa-

pers as Indian-born Aravindan Balakrishnan and his Tanzanian wife Chanda. British police have kept a lid on the facts of the case during investigations.

But Siti Aishah’s brother-in-law Mohamad Noh Mohamad Dom said his wife Kamar Mahtum had flown to London on Wednesday to identify her sister after a British media outlet earlier told the family the woman may be her.

“We have mixed feelings,” he told AFP. “Happy, because we believe we have found a lost family member, and sad, because we hear that she is sick and has been held captive for more than 30 years.”

Kamar, 69, in an interview with Britain’s Daily Telegraph published on Tuesday, described a bright and optimistic young woman. Decades-old photos published in Malaysian media pictured a smiling and fresh-faced student.

After studying at one of Malaysia’s elite schools, she obtained a scholarship to study quantity surveying in England but is believed to have fallen under the spell of the Maoist couple. Prominent Malaysian activist Hishamuddin Rais has been quoted by local media as saying Siti Aishah had joined several other Malaysian students in a leftist group in Britain called the “New Malayan Youth” in the 1970s. “When my wife found out that Siti Aishah is alive and has been saved from being held as captive, she cried,” Mohamad Noh said. The Star reported Wednesday that the country’s High Commission in London was pressing Britain for consular access to the woman. — AFP

TOKYO: Two unarmed US B-52 bombers flew over disputed islands on a training mission in the East China Sea without informing Beijing while Japan’s main airlines ignored Chinese authorities when their planes passed through a new airspace defense zone yesterday. The defiance from Japan and its ally the United States over China’s new identification rules raises the stakes in a territorial standoff between Beijing and Tokyo over the islands and challenges China to make the next move.

China published coordinates for an East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone over the weekend and warned it would take “defensive emergency measures” against aircraft that failed to identify themselves properly. The zone is about two thirds the size of Britain. “If the United States conducts two or three more flights like this, China will be forced to respond. If China can only respond verbally it would be humiliating,” said Sun Zhe, a professor at the Center for USChina Relations at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

“The concept of the paper tiger is very important. All sides face it.” China’s Defense Ministry said it had monitored the entire progress of the US bombers through the zone on Tuesday Asian time. A Pentagon spokesman said the planes had neither been observed nor contacted by Chinese aircraft. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang, when asked how China would respond to future infractions of the zone, said the country would “make an appropriate response” that depended on the “situation and degree of threat”.

Qin added that China had informed “relevant countries” before setting up the zone. He would not elaborate. Following a request from the Japanese government, Japan Airlines and ANA Holdings said they stopped giving flight plans and other information to Chinese authorities yesterday. Neither airline had experienced any problems when passing through the zone, they added. Japan’s aviation industry association said it had concluded there was no threat to passenger safety by ignoring the Chinese demands, JAL said. Both JAL and ANA posted notices on their websites informing its passengers of their decision. The flight by the B-52 bombers was part of a long-planned exercise, a US military official said.

Some experts have said the Chinese move was aimed at chipping away at Tokyo’s claim to administrative control over the area, including the tiny uninhabited islands known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. The action might have backfired, said Brad Glosserman, executive director of the Honolulubased Pacific Forum CSIS. “This is confirming the darker view of China in Asia,” Glosserman said.

“The Chinese once again are proving to be their own worst enemy ... driving the US closer to Japan and (South) Korea closer to the position of Tokyo as well.”

US Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy, in her first speech since assuming her post earlier

EAST CHINA SEA: In this file photo, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s P-3C Orion surveillance plane flies over the disputed islands in the East China Sea called the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. — AP this month, criticized China’s “unilateral action” as report flight plans to China, maintain radio conundermining regional security. Kennedy also said tact and reply promptly to identification inquiries Japan had shown “great restraint this past year” and bear clear markings of their nationality and and urged Tokyo to continue to do so. “We registration.

On Monday, civil aviation officials from Hong encourage Japan to increase communication with its neighbors and continue to respond to Kong and Taiwan said their carriers entering the zone must file flight plans. A transport ministry regional challenges in a measured way.”

The Chinese action was also likely to bolster official in Seoul said South Korean planes would support in Japan for hawkish Prime Minister do the same. Qantas Airways Ltd said yesterday Shinzo Abe’s agenda to strengthen the military its pilots would keep China informed of their and loosen the limits of the post-war, pacifist flights through the area. The United States and constitution on its armed forces. While Japan have sharply criticized China’s airspace Washington does not take a position on sover- declaration, prompting Beijing to lodge counter eignty over the islands, it recognizes that Tokyo protests and warn Washington to stay out of the has administrative control over them and it is dispute.

An outspoken retired Chinese military figure, therefore bound by treaty to defend Japan in the former Major General Luo Yuan, wrote on event of an armed conflict.

The B-52s, part of the Air Force fleet for more Tuesday that China should use force in the zone than half a century, are relatively slow compared if needed, adding the United States especially with today’s fighter jets and far easier to spot had to comply or face the consequences. Some than stealth aircraft. “We have conducted opera- experts, however, questioned whether China tions in the area of the Senkakus. We have con- had the military assets to fully implement the tinued to follow our normal procedures, which new measures. While the zone is outside China’s include not filing flight plans, not radioing ahead territorial airspace, the Chinese Defense and not registering our frequencies,” Pentagon Ministry has said its establishment had a sound legal basis and accorded with common internaspokesman Colonel Steve Warren said.

The dispute comes before a planned trip to tional practices.

Other countries including the United States, the region by US Vice-President Joe Biden, who is scheduled to travel to Japan next week and also Japan and South Korea have similar zones but has stops in China and South Korea. Annual US- only require aircraft to file flight plans and identiJapan naval exercises are also taking place in fy themselves if those planes intend to pass waters off the Japanese islands of Okinawa and through national airspace. In addition, China sent Kyushu, to the east of China’s new zone. The its sole aircraft carrier on a training mission for drills, which involve the USS George Washington the first time into the oil- and gas-rich South aircraft carrier, recently taking part in the China Sea on Tuesday, upsetting the Philippines.

Philippine typhoon relief effort, were planned China claims almost the entire South China Sea, conflicting with claims from Taiwan, Malaysia, before China’s announcement of the zone.

The new Chinese rules mean aircraft have to Brunei, the Philippines and Vietnam. — Reuters

Philippines’ typhoon rebuilding may cost more

TACLOBAN: A man reconstructs his house near a ship that washed ashore crashing into homes in the bay of Tacloban, Leyte province yesterday. The swift US humanitarian response to the devastation of Super Typhoon Haiyan highlights the need to expand America’s military presence in the Philippines, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said on November 25. — AFP

MANILA: The Philippines’ post-typhoon reconstruction could take as long as 10 years, with the leadership of President Benigno Aquino put to a test amid complex problems such as property rights, missing title deeds and land zoning, experts said yesterday.

The task will likely take longer and cost more than the rebuilding of Indonesia’s Aceh province after the 2004 tsunami, they said.

Super typhoon Haiyan wiped out or damaged practically everything in its path as it swept ashore on Nov. 8, with seven-metre storm surges destroying around 90 percent of the city of Tacloban in Leyte province alone. Haiyan killed at least 5,500 people, left more than 1,700 missing, displaced as many as four million and destroyed around $563 million worth of crops and infrastructure.

“The enormity of this disaster is unprecedented at least in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of the geography,” said Sanny Jegillos, coordinator for crisis prevention and recovery at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). “It’s much, much larger than the tsunami in Aceh. “ The rehabilitation cost will be more

expensive for Haiyan, because a unit of a school will be more expensive than a school built in Aceh because of the design parameters.”

The government’s initial estimates point to a reconstruction cost of as much as 250 billion pesos ($5.7 billion). Aceh’s rebuilding over eight years required nearly $7 billion, funded by the Indonesian government and international donors.

Manila has said new structures in the typhoon-prone areas must be able to withstand winds of 300 kph (186 mph), close to Haiyan’s maximum winds when it slammed into Eastern Samar province before crossing the central Philippines.

Sonny Rosal, head of the United Architects of the Philippines which is helping the National Housing Authority (NHA) design stronger houses, said there were challenges related to government buy-outs of landowners in risky areas, reestablishing title and revising the national building code which now specifies that public structures must withstand winds of only up to 250 kph.

“What is being discussed now in the NHA

is that it may take us 10 years to be able to rebuild. It’s not that easy. A lot is involved here,” Rosal said. “It’s like building a new country.” Yesterday, a government task force assigned to draw up a recovery and rehabilitation plan submitted its immediate, medium-term and long-term goals to Aquino, who demanded more specific details before giving final approval. The task force will report back to Aquino on Friday with more refinements.

That plan will likely identify only immediate needs and plans of action, since a longerterm rebuilding strategy will take weeks if not months to complete, officials said. In Japan’s case, it completed its long-term reconstruction plan six months after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

“This case (Haiyan) is much more complex than the Japanese experience. The Japanese experienced only a tsunami,” said Kimio Takeya, an engineer and expert for reconstruc tion planning at the Japan International Cooperation Agency. “In this area, there was a storm surge and strong wind combination.” — Reuters

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

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

Bangladesh polls could be delayed amid new violence DHAKA: Bangladesh’s January 5 election could be postponed, organisers said, after more deadly violence yesterday between security forces and supporters of opposition parties which are threatening to boycott the polls.

Less than two days after the election commission fixed the date for the polls, senior officials indicated they could be pushed back to accommodate demands by opposition parties who want Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to make way for a neutral caretaker government.

The announcement came on the second day of a 48-hour general strike which has been organised by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and forced the widespread closure of offices and businesses as well as a halt to public transport.

In one of the latest episodes of unrest, dozens of people were injured when a train was derailed near the capital Dhaka. Ten people have now died in clashes in a series of street battles between the opposition and the security forces since Monday, with three more people dying on Wednesday. More than a hundred have been injured in clashes that broke out in almost all major cities and towns. Aware that the legitimacy of any polls that is shunned by the opposition will be fatally compromised, election commissioners said they were prepared to push back the date.

“If there is consensus among the parties, the election date can be delayed to another date to make sure that all parties can participate in the polls,” Md. Shahnawaz, one of the commissioners, told AFP. The chief commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad, who announced the polling date in a televised address on Monday night, also gave a strong hint that the election could be postponed.

“There is scope for everything, if an understanding is reached,” he told reporters late Tuesday.

Shahnawaz pointed out that elections had been rescheduled on multiple occasions in the past to bring everyone on board, including last time round in December 2008.

“In the last polls, the election schedule was changed at least three times,” he said.

Hasina has rejected calls for a caretaker administration and instead formed a multi-party interim cabinet last week which is composed of her allies. She asked the BNP to join the cabinet but it refused.

While previous elections have been held under non-partisan interim governments, Hasina scrapped the arrangement in 2011.

Neighbouring India is among those who have looked on with some alarm at the growing incidence of political violence in Bangladesh.

At least 39 people are known to have died since late October when a coalition of 18 opposition parties launched its latest wave of demonstrations to force Hasina to stand down.

Widespread violence over the death sentences handed down to opposition leaders by a controversial war crimes court earlier this year left more than 150 people dead, making 2013 the most violent since the country gained its independence from Pakistan in 1971.

The latest victims were a woman who succumbed to her injuries suffered when a crude explosive device went off in the capital Dhaka and two protesters who died in separate clashes with officers, police said Jahangir Hossain, the police chief for the southern Satkhira region, told AFP that officers had used live fire during clashes with hundreds of supporters of Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist ally of the BNP which has been banned from contesting the election.

Protesters also attacked and set fire to a train in the western town of Chuadanga and removed parts

of the rail-track near the town of Joypurhat, which lies close to the border with India.

“We have suspended at least 10 train services because of uprooting of rail-tracks at several places,” director of state-run Bangladesh Railway Saidur Rahman told AFP. Rahman said a passenger train had come off the

rails early yesterday at the town of Gajipur, to the north of Dhaka, after several sleepers had been removed by protesters. No one was killed when the train tilted over but dozens suffered injuries, most of them minor. On Tuesday authorities reported at least 60 attacks on the rail network, with coaches set alight and track uprooted. — AFP

DHAKA: Bangladeshi policemen disperse protestors of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) during a 48-hour nationwide strike in Dhaka, Bangladesh, yesterday. Bangladesh’s opposition blocked roads, railways and waterways on Tuesday to protest government plans to hold a general election on Jan. 5, the latest turn in a violent political crisis that has paralyzed the country. — AP

Bomb blast near India nuclear plant kills six GOPALPUR: Indian fishermen return to shore after a cyclone alert in the coastal area of Gopalpur, in the eastern Indian state of Orissa, yesterday. Orissa state has asked its coastal and southern districts to remain alert and fishermen who are out at sea to return to safer places as cyclone Lehar is expected to intensify into a severe cyclonic storm, according to news reports. — AP

India’s east coast braces as severe cyclone advances BHUBANESWAR: Indian authorities evacuated thousands of villagers living in low-lying areas, suspended fishing operations and put disaster response teams on standby yesterday as a severe cyclone hurtled towards its eastern coast. Cyclone Lehar - the third powerful storm to hit Andhra Pradesh in seven weeks - is moving in from the Bay of Bengal and forecast to make landfall near the city of Machilipatnam on Thursday afternoon with wind speeds of up to 170 kmph (105 mph).

India’s weather office predicts Lehar will also bring storm surges and heavy rains and will damage mud-and-thatch homes, disrupt power and communication networks and inundate farmland along the state’s northern coast. An alert has been issued in the districts of East and West Godavari, Guntur and Krishna, said local officials, warning people to remain indoors. “Some 15,000 people have been evacuated from East Godavari,” said C. Parthasarathy, commissioner of state disaster management department.

He said weather conditions had been normal in the area during the day and many

coastal inhabitants were reluctant to move to cyclone shelters on higher ground, but he expected more people to be evacuated by the evening. Farmers have been told to harvest any standing rice crops, fisherman warned to suspend operations, and the army, navy and disaster response teams are on standby.

Helicopters have been positioned in key locations for rescue and relief operations.

Neighbouring Odisha state said it was also preparing and had deployed disaster rapid action forces, predicting flooding as a result of heavy rains. India’s cyclone season generally lasts from April to December with severe storms often causing dozens of deaths, mass evacuations and widespread crop and property damage. Officials were widely praised for a mass evacuation that saved thousands of lives last month when Cyclone Phailin struck, even though at least 60 people were killed and 12 million people lost their homes or livelihoods.

A similar monster storm had killed 10,000 in 1999. Last week, a less severe cyclone called Helen also hit Machilipatnam, killing three people. — Reuters

Pakistan chooses moderate to take over as army chief ISLAMABAD: Pakistan named a career infantry officer considered a moderate as army chief yesterday as the country fights a Taliban insurgency and seeks accord with the United States on how to stabilise neighbouring Afghanistan. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced that Lieutenant-General Raheel Sharif, brother of a war hero, would take charge of the world’s sixth-largest army, with a formal handover from General Ashfaq Kayani on Friday. The new army chief is not related to the prime minister. The announcement comes

This undated handout photograph released by Pakistan’s Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) yesterday shows a portrait of newly-appointed Pakistani army chief General Raheel Sharif. Pakistan yesterday named a new army chief, a job seen as the most powerful position in the troubled nuclear-armed nation which has seen three periods of military rule. — AFP

as tension with arch-rival India over disputed Kashmir is rising and as the United States seeks Pakistan’s help in bringing peace to Afghanistan ahead of the withdrawal of most Western forces there next year.

The army chief is arguably the most powerful person in Pakistan, with the military having ruled the country for more than half its 66-year history since independence from Britain.

Nawaz Sharif has declared he wanted to disentangle the military from politics but the military is unlikely to relinquish its hold at such a sensitive time.

“Nawaz should know that whether it is Raheel Sharif or someone else as army chief, he won’t do the PM’s bidding - he will be driven by the institution first and last,” said security analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi.

The prime minister also named water and power minister Khawja Muhammad Asif as defence minister. The prime minister had held the portfolio since being elected in May. Raheel Sharif considers the militant threat inside Pakistan as important as the strategic tussle with India, a retired senior army officer who Sharif has served under told Reuters.

“Sharif has played a big role in convincing the army that the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and assorted militants inside Pakistan are as big a threat (as India),” the officer said.

The TTP, or Pakistani Taliban, is a group of Islamist militants based in the country’s lawless Pashtun tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan. Sharif, 57, received his military commission in 1976 and studied military leadership in Germany, Canada and Britain. He commanded several infantry units, including the Sixth Frontier Force Regiment along the disputed Line Of Control in Kashmir.—Reuters

NEW DELHI: A bomb blast near India’s biggest nuclear power plant killed six people, police said yesterday, sparking a probe into whether the explosion was linked to protests against the facility.

The home-made bomb accidentally exploded overnight in a village near Kudankulam power plant in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, destroying three homes and causing injuries, the district police chief told AFP.“The bomb exploded accidently inside a house. Six people died and three more are seriously injured,” police superintendant Vijayendra Bidari said.

“Some anti-nuclear activists were living in this village. This house was being used as a bomb-making facility. We are investigating from all angles,” he said. The coastal village is some four kilometres (2.4 miles) from the Russian-built plant which opened in October after delays and

often violent protests by locals fearing a radiation leak.

A senior official at the Department of Atomic Energy said the plant was safe and functioning normally, the Press Trust of India said. Television footage showed at least three homes collapsed from the force of the blast in Idinagarai Tsunami colony, part of Idinthakarai village, from where most of the protests in recent years have stemmed.

The People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy, which has been spearheading protests against the plant, denied its supporters were involved in the explosion, local media reports said.

Some residents were stockpiling small, crude bombs because they were embroiled in a feud with others in the village, according to the Times of India. The bomb exploded while the villagers

were assembling it.

Opponents of the plant, located on the coast devastated by the 2004 Asian tsunami, say it is built in a seismically sensitive area and are concerned about a Fukushima-style disaster.

The plant-the plans for which were first drawn up in 1988 — is designed to help meet a surging demand for electricity in Asia’s thirdlargest economy where power blackouts are frequent.

It is one of many that India hopes to build as part of its aim of generating 63,000 megawatts of nuclear power by 2030 — part of a planned near 15-fold rise from current levels, according to the Nuclear Power Corp.

The project attained “criticality”-the point when a nuclear chain reaction becomes self-sustaining-in July and started pumping electricity months later. — AFP

Israel struggling to win friends, influence people Netanyahu criticized at home for raucous tone JERUSALEM: Criticized for settling occupied land and stung by its failure to shape the new world power deal with Iran, Israel must rethink its strategy if it wants to avoid severe diplomatic setbacks in the coming months. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s fury about the Iranian nuclear accord has exposed Israel’s limited reach on the international stage and has coincided with growing frustration abroad over its flailing peace talks with the Palestinians.

Traditionally the closest of friends, Israel and the United States now stare at each other with barely concealed mistrust. Some of Netanyahu’s allies suggest it is time for Israel to build up relations in other regions, such as Asia, to make sure that all its diplomatic eggs are not in one, American, basket.

That might prove a valid long-term plan, but it will not help Israel win its short-term goal of getting Western partners to wring many more concessions from Iran in the next, decisive round of negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

And it will not help Israel dodge blame, if, as expected peace talks with the Palestinians collapse in early 2014. As an initial step to improve the mood music, megaphone diplomacy and public sniping at US President Barak Obama’s administration needs to stop, some Israeli analysts argue.

“If we do not change the tone of our discourse, build up the scope of our activities and confine discussion to behind closed doors, then I hate to say it, but we will become diplomatic pariahs,” said Uzi Rabi, head of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Tel Aviv University. And while Netanyahu might lecture the U.N. General Assembly last month that Iran’s new, moderate-sounding president was a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”, Israelis could learn something, Rabi said, from how Tehran used diplomatic tact to its benefit.

SOFT POWER Barely had the ink dried on the Nov. 24 accord with Iran, which offered the Islamic Republic limited sanctions relief in return for curbs on its nuclear activities, than an angry Netanyahu denounced what he termed a “historic mistake”. His criticism put him at odds with the United States as well as France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia; all approved the deal in the face of heavy lobbying from Israel, which fears Iran will develop an arsenal of nuclear weapons.

“We are the ones directly threatened by this,

so we have to be the ones doing the warning,” Ronen Hoffman, an academic expert on diplomacy, said of Iran’s nuclear program. Elected to parliament this year for the centrist Yesh Atid party, which is in Netanyahu’s coalition, Hoffman said, however, that Israel’s reaction may have been ill-judged. “Maybe we should have been more understanding about the needs of the world to promote soft power rather than jump immediately to military confrontation,” he said.

Israel has repeatedly hinted that it would strike Iran if diplomacy and sanctions fail to stop its nuclear progress. It was always a tough prospect to hit distant Iran, but to do so now in defiance of the world’s top powers, looks impossible. Netanyahu and his inner circle feel particularly betrayed by Obama, who they believe has repeatedly misread the Middle East. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has suggested that Israel’s historic ties with the United States are weakening.

Dore Gold, a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations and also once an adviser to Netanyahu, said he did not see the special relationship with Washington breaking, but did think it was time to broaden Israel’s circle of influence. “There are civilization ties that run very deep,” he said of the United States. “But it is important for Israel to develop diversified diplomatic relationships with many countries around the world, including in the Asia Pacific.”

Netanyahu visited China earlier this year, but needed to bow to tough demands just to get the invitation, according to Israeli media, indicating the difficulties that lie ahead if Israel is serious about widening its reach. Despite unanimous backing for the Iran deal by all five permanent members of the UN Security Council, Gold rejected suggestions Israel was isolated over the issue, pointing to deep discontent amongst Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia.

Indeed, Israel’s strategic position in the Middle East has improved this year. Civil war in Syria has hobbled one old foe, while the downfall of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt has bolstered its southern flank. But any chance of a public alliance forming between Israel and Sunni Muslim leaders to counter Shi’ite Muslim Iran is rendered impossible by the unresolved Palestinian conflict, which remains a deeply emotive issue across the Arab world.

GUILTY PARTY US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians resumed in July after a three-

year hiatus and were meant to lead to a deal within nine months. Although both sides have acknowledged a lack of meaningful progress, neither wants to walk away for fear of being blamed for the mess. However, in a rare reprimand, US Secretary of State John Kerry condemned this month a wave of announcements of Jewish settlement-building on occupied land, indicating Israel may be deemed the guilty party in Washington in the event of failure.

“I mean, does Israel want a third Intifada?”

Kerry said in an interview, referring to the danger of a new Palestinian uprising to follow those that erupted in 1987 and 2000. The confluence of the Palestinian and Iranian issues is a source of constant frustration for Israel, which sees the two questions in a very different light - the first representing a threat to its very essence as a Jewish state on biblical lands, the second a grave problem but one it can continue to manage.

Yet when Israel seeks international support for its complaints that Iran is not being made to fulfill obligations to the UN Security Council to halt uranium enrichment, its critics hit back that Israel itself is ignoring UN resolutions, notably those condemning Jewish settlements. “I am worried that we risk being stigmatized by the settlement issue,” said coalition lawmaker Hoffman, adding that the only solution was to forge on with peace talks.

Tel Aviv University’s Rabi suggested that Israel needed to send out an “army of skilled diplomats” to explain to the world the changing dynamics of a Middle East transformed by revolutions in Syria, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen.

Israel’s problems in fielding top diplomats has been highlighted this week in a dispute with the European Union over new EU guidelines that bar financial assistance to any Israeli organization that operates on occupied territory.

Negotiations might normally be expected to be handled by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman or his deputy. However, both are West Bank settlers, making them ill-placed to compromise and also illustrating how the domestic priorities of coalition politics can limit the prime minister’s room for maneuver. In the end, Netanyahu dispatched centrist Justice Minister Tzipi Livni to talk to the EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. An agreement was reached within hours. “Iran has proved that if you have skilled diplomats, you can achieve almost everything,” Rabi said. “Israel needs to understand that, or else we will be left behind.”— Reuters

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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

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Is Iran borrowing the North Korea nuke playbook?

By Giles Hewitt ritics of the deal to cap Iran’s nuclear program say it repeats mistakes made with North Korea, but analysts say there is little to suggest Tehran will follow Pyongyang’s path of broken promises to a nuclear bomb. Under the agreement sealed in Geneva on Sunday, Iran undertook to brake its nuclear drive for the next six months in exchange for limited sanctions relief. Republican dissenters in the US Congress warned that Tehran was borrowing from Pyongyang’s wellworn playbook, buying time and financial largesse with false promises that ultimately led to North Korea’s first nuclear test in 2006. On the surface there are similarities that go beyond Iran and North Korea’s joint billing with Iraq in former US president George W. Bush’s “axis of evil”.

Albeit to varying degrees, both are autocratic, diplomatically isolated, sanctions-laden nations with a shared history of long-term enmity with the United States and a desire for nuclear leverage. In North Korea’s case, a series of aid-for-denuclearisation agreements over the past 20 years have fallen apart, and Pyongyang is openly developing weapons on all fronts following its third and largest nuclear test in February this year.

But many analysts believe suggestions that Iran will inevitably follow the same path ignore key social, structural and geopolitical differences. The core difference for Stephan Haggard, a North Korea expert at the University of California, is the “observable shift” in Iran’s government with the election in June of Hassan Rouhani as president. Rouhani’s reputation as a moderate, and his desire to move from confrontation to engagement, made the negotiated deal with Tehran worth risking, said Haggard.

“Nothing similar is visible in North Korea” he added.

Since the young Kim Jong-Un came to power in December 2011 - the third generation of the Kim dynasty that has ruled the country with an iron fist since the 1950s-North Korea has enshrined its nuclear statehood in its constitution and vowed it will never negotiate its atomic weapons away. Iran’s economic stake is also far greater than any taken by North Korea in its nuclear agreements-a fact that experts say should help bind Tehran to the terms of the Geneva deal.

Sanctions have ravaged an Iranian economy that was previously relatively well-integrated with the international trading system, in a country that has a welleducated middle class and memories of far better times in the recent past. The North Korean economy has been isolated and moribund for decades and the Kim regime has shown it can maintain its grip on power while imposing enormous economic hardship on its harshly controlled people.

“The cost and benefit decision presented to Tehran was and is very clear,” said Paul Carroll, program director at the Ploughshares Fund, a US-based global security foundation. “The North Korea security calculus is tilted the other way-it’s worth the pain to get a weapon,” Carroll said. “And also Iran lacks the kind of support the North has traditionally got from China, that allowed Pyongyang to feel ‘this hurts, but Beijing has our back’,” he added.

Critics of the Geneva deal point to the 1994 “Agreed Framework” that Bill Clinton’s US administration signed with North Korea. At that time, the similarities with Iran were more striking. North Korea, like Iran now, had yet to conduct a nuclear test and was still a member of the non-proliferation treaty (NPT). The 1994 agreement eventually broke down amid mutual accusations of non-compliance, but non-proliferation experts say the Geneva accord-even as an interim deal-is stronger for its tough inspection regime.

Iran agreed to daily site inspections by experts from the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA, which will also monitor implementation of the agreement. “In the case of North Korea, the IAEA had limited access to just one facility,” said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association. “Iran, by contrast, has committed to very intrusive inspections at a wider range of facilities across its entire nuclear landscape,” Kimball said.

If there is no reason for Iran to follow North Korea’s nuclear path, most experts also believe it is unlikely that the Geneva deal might trigger a similar agreement with Pyongyang. Unlike Iran, North Korea has a nuclear bomb, and the Kim regime sees a nuclear deterrent as the guarantor of its survival. “North Korea is well aware of the difference between its own case and the Iranian case and will not give up its nuclear program,” said Paik Hak-Soon of the Sejong Institute think tank in Seoul. — AFP

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Enforcing rules in air zone will stretch China troops

By Greg Torode and Adam Rose hina’s military could struggle to cope with the demands for intensified surveillance and interception if it tries to enforce the rules in its new air defense zone over islands at the heart of a territorial dispute with Japan. Regional military analysts and diplomats said China’s network of air defense radars, surveillance planes and fighter jets would be stretched by extensive patrols across its Air Defense Identification Zone, roughly twothirds the size of Britain.

But some noted that even limited action could still spark alarm across a nervous region - and serve China’s desire to pressure Japan. China published the coordinates of its zone in the East China Sea over the weekend and warned it would take “defensive emergency measures” against aircraft that failed to identify themselves properly in the airspace.

Two unarmed US B-52 bombers on a training mission flew over the disputed islands on Monday without informing Beijing while Japan’s main commercial airlines ignored the rules when their planes passed through the airspace yesterday. China’s Defense Ministry said it had monitored the entire progress of the US bombers. The Pentagon said the planes had neither been observed nor contacted by Chinese aircraft. A Japanese government source said China’s military, while growing rapidly after many years of double-digit budget increases, still did not have the radars or fighters to cover a zone of such size across international airspace.

“China will not implement (the zone) fully because they do not have enough assets ... but they will try to scare smaller nations,” said the source, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media on the topic. While China could field an extensive array of surveillance capabilities, including ship-borne radar, there will still be gaps, added Christian Le Miere, an East Asia military specialist at the independent International Institute of Strategic Studies in London. “It is just not yet clear how they are going to enforce it,” he said. “It may be more a rhetorical position to serve a political end.”

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NOT A NO-FLY ZONE China’s creation of the zone triggered a storm of criticism from Washington and Tokyo, with both countries

accusing Beijing of trying to change the status quo in the region. Some experts have said the move was aimed at chipping away at Tokyo’s claim to administrative control over the area, including the tiny uninhabited islands known as the Senkakus in Japan and the Diaoyu in China.

Japan and the United States have their own air defense zones but only require aircraft to file flight plans and identify themselves if those planes intend to pass through national airspace.

Gary Li, a Beijing-based senior analyst with the consulting group IHS Aerospace, Defense and Maritime, said he did not believe China would try to replicate in the air what it had done at sea by keeping a rotating presence of coastguard ships on standby near the islands. “I think it will be more a case of China flying enough to make a point - it is quite a strain on any force to maintain some kind of 24hour presence in the air,” he said.

“It must be remembered that this is not a no-fly zone China doesn’t have to operate extensive patrols to make its presence felt.” Patrol ships from China and Japan have been shadowing each other near the islets on and off for months, raising fears that a confrontation could develop into a clash. There have also been several incidents involving military aircraft flying close to each other. In October, Chinese military aircraft flew near Japan three days in a row, and Japan scrambled fighter jets each time in response.

While China had significantly improved the quality and number of surveillance aircraft operated by its navy and air force over the last decade, Li said he believed coastal air defense radars would be used for routine coverage of the new zone. Planes - whether surveillance or fighter jets would be used generally for more specific tasks, he said.

Indeed, attention is likely to focus on airfields and coastal radar stations around Shanghai - strategically placed near the top of the zone.

Independent academic and commercial analysis of China’s air force and naval aviation deployments shows a concentration of surveillance aircraft, together with expanding fleets of indigenous J-10 and Russian-acquired Su-30 jet fighters. An estimated 45 surveillance planes are also within range of the zone, along with as many as 160 fighters around Shanghai - including some ageing locally produced J-7 aircraft. Most of the surveillance planes are variants of the long-range, locally manufactured Y-8,

equipped for separate tasks, such as early-warning patrols, electronic intelligence gathering as well as ship and submarine surveillance.

Particular regional attention is focused on four larger KJ2000 Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft, converted Russian Il-76 planes, based out of Jiangsu province, neighboring Shanghai, and within reach of Japan and Taiwan. “We don’t think China’s AWACS planes and their abilities are up to the standard of the US and its allies,” one Asian military attache in Hong Kong said. “But we can be sure they are getting there - and any extensive enforcement operation could bring them into full play - so we are watching them closely.”

NO ‘HOT DOGGING’ The potential behavior of Chinese pilots during any intensified campaign is also drawing scrutiny - with US officials particularly worried about the risk of miscalculations or accidents. The days of Chinese fighter pilots buzzing US surveillance planes largely ended when one died in a collision with a US aircraft in 2001. US military pilots say their Chinese counterparts have generally stopped any fast and loose manoeuvres during routine intercepts after the fatal collision above the South China Sea sparked a crisis in Sino-US ties. “You just don’t see the hot-dogging you used to see up there,” one pilot said. “As China’s got a lot more assets, its pilots have gotten a lot more professional.”

While insisting the zone would be here to stay, Chinese officials and military officers have insisted that Beijing fully intended to comply with international law. Senior naval advisor, Rear Admiral Yin Zhou, told state broadcaster CCTV that it was illegal to shoot down planes in international airspace. “Once you enter our territorial airspace we can shoot you down,” he said. “But beforehand I would have warned you: if you don’t report and enter our territorial airspace, we would take drastic measures.”

A Defense Ministry spokesman would not confirm to Reuters whether China’s interception aircraft would be armed as they patrolled the zone, however. “For unidentified or threatening flying objects in the (zone), the Chinese side will, according to different situations, take timely identification, surveillance ... and control measures to deal with it,” the spokesman said. “We hope that relevant parties give proactive co-operation to jointly maintain flying safety.” — Reuters

German new grand coalition won’t derail upturn the grand coalition will likely remain stable for the full four years of its term.

“The agreed policies are unlikely to derail Germany’s economic upturn. In fact, more investment and slightly looser fiscal policy may even boost domestic demand and strengthen growth,” he said. “But the rollback of labour market reforms and the spending increases may come back to haunt Germany in the next downturn, which may be more than four years away and thus be a problem for the next government. Ironically, it could fall to a leftwing government again to impose austerity and serious structural reforms in the future.”

By Simon Morgan he compromises that Germany’s conservative and Social Democrat parties agreed to form a “grand coalition” government are unlikely to derail the burgeoning upturn in Europe’s biggest economy, analysts said yesterday. Nevertheless, plans to reverse a number of key labor market reforms-credited with steeling Germany against the worst of Europe’s crisis-could boomerang on the government in the future, observers warned. After 17 hours of talks into the early hours, Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed to form a left-right government with her campaign rivals the Social Democrats (SPD), two months after her conservative CDU-CSU alliance won elections but fell short of a full majority.

In the tense final round of talks that capped five weeks of political wrangling, the SPD scored key concessions, including a national minimum wage from 2015, while Merkel stuck to her own lines in the sand, blocking higher taxes for the rich and opposing new debt from next fiscal year.

The chancellor hopes to be sworn in for a third term on December 17, but the SPD’s membership must still approve the proposed “grand coalition” in a ballot next month.

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THREAT TO JOBS MIRACLE? Berenberg Bank economist Christian Schulz said that “on key policies, the agreement contains good news”. It will spell continuity on Germany’s successful euro-zone policies, he said. And the new government was likely to be more pragmatic in its han-

BERLIN: German Chancellor and chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Angela Merkel (center) signs a coalition agreement in Berlin yesterday. —AP dling of the country’s transition from conventional to renewable energy, he added. “In terms of fiscal policies, the coalition will not raise taxes and the agreed new spending and investment are unlikely to prevent Germany from fulfilling national and European fiscal stability rules in the coming years,” Schulz said.

But the bad news was that the government would roll back key labor market reforms, he said. “The introduction of a minimum wage and new restrictions for temporary jobs contracts could threaten Germany’s jobs miracle,” Schulz said. The SPD insisted on the introduction of a nationwide minimum

wage of 8.50 euros ($11.40) per hour to help Germany’s growing army of working poor.

Germany’s jobless rate is just 6.9 percent.

But, according to the DIW economic institute, 5.6 million Germans, or 17 percent of the workforce, now earn less than 8.50 euros an hour, especially low-skilled and part-time workers. By contrast, Merkel favoured separate pay deals for each industrial sector and region, arguing that a national minimum wage would harm many small- and mediumsized businesses and could force them to lay off workers. But she conceded that a minimum wage was inevitable if the coalition talks were to succeed. Schulz suggested that

SPD REGRET It was an SPD-led administration under then-chancellor Gerhard Schroeder that a decade ago implemented the so-called Agenda 2010 reforms-sweeping social and economic reforms that have helped buttress Europe’s biggest economy against the worst of the euro-zone crisis. Nevertheless, Schroeder’s drastic policies also alienated much of the SPD’s traditional grassroots base and the party has never managed to win back many disenchanted leftwing voters.

The SPD was therefore adamant that some of those reforms be rescinded as a pre-condition for becoming Merkel’s coalition partner this time round. ING DiBa economist Carsten Brzeski said “it looks as if the new government’s focus is on redistributing the harvest of earlier economic reforms, rather than using the economic good times for new structural reforms.” He said his concern was that “this coalition deal could eventually end as a missed opportunity.” — AFP

NEWS

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

DUBAI: Dubai’s Burj Khalifa (center), the world’s tallest tower, is pictured yesterday, after the Emirati city was chosen to host the World Expo 2020. The Gulf city state beat Russia’s Ekaterinberg in the final round of voting to clinch a prestigious event credited with delivering a huge boost to tourism and business for its host city. — AFP

Syrian democrats learn to fear Qaeda Bloggers, journalists held, killed, missing BEIRUT: When he was agitating for revolution, urging fellow Syrians to rise up against President Bashar Al-Assad, Abdullah dreaded the midnight knock at the door from the secret police. Now that the uprising has succeeded in his home town near Aleppo, pro-democracy activists are living in fear again - and this time those who brand them “traitor” don’t bother to knock.

Two years ago, after Abdullah broke off his studies to run social media campaigns against Assad, he was held and tortured by security men. This summer, it happened again - only now it was Islamist gunmen loyal to al Qaeda who smashed into his family’s house, broke everything in their way and took him off to a cell where, once more, he was blindfolded and beaten.

“The sad thing is that those who were doing this were not Assad’s police,” Abdullah told Reuters from Turkey, where he managed to flee after his latest ordeal.

“They were fighters who were supposed to be fighting for freedom, our freedom.

“Back then they called me ‘traitor’ for demanding freedom. These armed men also tortured me for calling for freedom.”

His story is increasingly familiar across northern Syria, where Assad’s government has ceded territory to a bewildering array of rival militias. The rising power is militant Islam and men who see democracy as the work of the devil, or the West, a system contrary to their hopes for a state ruled by religion. Abdullah’s experience also highlights the fragmentation of Syria’s opposition, which greatly complicates new international efforts to end a civil war that has killed over 100,000.

Reuters spoke to 19 Syrians who describe themselves as activists for democracy. All gave similar accounts of violence and intimidation by militant Islamists in northern areas no longer controlled by Assad’s “mukhabarat” security services. Most were students when Syria’s Arab Spring protests began in March 2011.

All got involved in publicizing demonstrations - and documenting Assad’s crackdown on them - using social media. They went on, as self-taught journalists, to provide images and reports for Syrians and international media as the war spread.

Some, like Abdullah, have now had to flee for their lives. They, and those still inside Syria, say Islamist militants have begun a campaign to silence them and free speech in general. Last month, two media activists were shot dead in broad daylight in Aleppo, Syria’s biggest city.

Some have been seized and are being held. Others have simply disappeared.

In particular, those who spoke recounted the fear spread by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The Al-Qaedalinked group, dominated by foreigners blooded in other wars, from Libya to Iraq and Afghanistan, does not tolerate critics.

“It is impossible for me to go to Syria now. I am wanted by the regime and by AlQaeda,” said Rami Jarrah, who ran a radio station in the city of Raqqa until early October, when ISIL gunmen shut it down and took away one of his colleagues.

Now living in Turkey, from where Radio ANA continues to broadcast into Syria, Jarrah won early fame among “media activists” in 2011, employing the English of his British education to forge an international reputation blogging from Damascus, where foreign news organizations had little access. When a pen-name “Alexander Page” - failed to shield his identity, he fled the country but returned later to “liberated” northern Syria, where he helped set up broadcasting in Raqqa.

The station’s mistake, he said, was to open its airwaves to phone-in callers venting grievances against the Islamists: “People were calling in and saying ISIL did this and did that. ‘They closed my shop’ or ‘attacked my wife and forced the hijab on her’,” Jarrah said. The militants, online themselves, accused him of “atheism” and put a price on his head.

Journalists have long faced suspicion and harassment from rebels, gunmen forcing them to stop filming, sometimes seizing equipment or raiding apartments and cafes where they have set up “media centers” to share and distribute videos and reports.

But in recent months, events have taken a more sinister turn. Several of those working in Aleppo have gone missing. In some cases, their bodies have been found - tortured, shot and left on the street. Friends and relatives of others have been told by militants that the activists have been arrested. Hazem Dakel, from Idlib, described what that could mean. Now also living in Turkey, his ordeal began when two men on a motorbike forced his car to a halt after he had been filming in an area run by ISIL. Held in a house, they accused him of “opposing Islam”.

He was lucky, and escaped through a window. If he had any doubt what would have happened had he stayed, a call from one of his captors to an acquaintance still in Syria has since removed it: “They were planning to execute me on the night I escaped,” Dakel said. “They were going to take me to a notorious

ALEPPO: Opposition fighters open fire during fighting in the Salaheddin district of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. — AFP

abandoned factory where they execute people.”

UNDER SURVEILLANCE The militant Islamists have won respect among Syrians in the north, partly by their fighting mettle, party by imposing order where feuding among rival rebel warlords had broken out, partly by ensuring supplies of food and medicines. But for democratic activists, that does not excuse other failings. “Our problem with them is ideological,” said Jarrah. “They want to force their ideology without asking our opinion.

“The regime deprived us of freedom of expression and they are doing the same,” he added. “Anyone liberal - or not Islamic enough according to their standards - is getting arrested. They want all local radios to broadcast from a centre they control.”

Jarrah said he knows of at least 60 activists who have been detained by al Qaeda gunmen or have simply gone missing. One man still living in rebel-controlled territory near the central city of Hama described the fear that still forces him to conceal his identity - as he did when Assad held the area. “I live in a liberated country area near Hama and I walk around looking over my shoulder all the time,” he said. “It is like we are back to the old days when we were running from the mukhabarat. But now we are running from our Islamist brothers.”

Though he himself favors an Islamic state, the activist said that his online condemnations of sectarian killings of civilians who belonged to Assad’s Alawite minority prompted warnings from Islamist militants that he should keep quiet. Like the government’s security service, Islamist groups keep a close eye on what activists are saying on the Web. “They know everything,” an activist from Deir Al-Zor said. “One word can get you killed or make you disappear ... They look for our names, what we said to this newspaper or to that magazine. They watch us like hawks. And then they act.”

Rami Jarrah and others were publicly condemned in an online post under the headline: “Western agents in Raqqa, or democracy activists? In religious terms, is there much difference?” In the middle of a civil war that shows little sign of abating despite international plans for a peace conference in January, Syrians have limited means to oppose the armed groups.

Jarrah said those who campaigned for free speech must bear some blame for their predicament: “We used to say ‘It’s OK, they believe in God and fight on the frontlines’,” he said. Abdullah, the activist who fled Aleppo province, argued that the experience of standing up to the Assad family after four decades of submission would mean Syrians may more quickly break the new “barrier of fear” to speak up against AlQaeda. There have been signs of antiIslamist demonstrations. Some people filmed themselves marching this month outside a building in Aleppo where they believed ISIL was holding fellow activists. A video on YouTube shows about 30 of them chanting: “Shame! Shame! Kidnapped in free, rebel territory!”

But, just as Assad accuses his opponents of playing stooges to foreign powers, militant Islamists in Syria say they will not heed complaints from activists they also view as traitors. One Syrian blogger who is close to another Al-Qaeda-linked group, Al-Nusra Front, dismissed accounts of oppression and intimidation from democratic activists as exaggerated and intended to “please the West” by slandering Islamists. “Those who accuse Islamists of violations,” he said, “Are following a Western agenda.” — Reuters

Dubai makes history Continued from Page 1 The World Expo, a modern-day successor to the Great Exhibitions of the 19th and early 20th centuries, showcases technology, architecture and culture. Shanghai was the last host city and Milan is next in line in 2015.

The Chinese city set a record by attracting a record 73 million victors to the event. Izmir, a city on Turkey’s western coast, was eliminated in the second round of voting.

It had already bid for a chance to host the 2015 Expo but lost out to Milan.

In yesterday’s bid, Turkey showcased Izmir’s long association with medicine and healthcare, highlighting that it housed the first psychiatric hospital in ancient times. Turkish Health Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu described Izmir, known as Smyrna for much of its history,

as “the cradle of modern medicine”. Izmir emerged as a flourishing international trading post as a crossroads between Europe and Asia. The city of about four million is a major tourist attraction with a palm-lined renovated waterfront, archaeological treasures and ancient ruins and nearby golden beaches.

Ekaterinberg’s pitch included a video appeal by Prime Minister Dimitry Medvedev to “give Russia a chance”.

Russia was trying to promote the industrial city as part of a bid to develop the Ural region into a hub for technology and innovation, and attract more tourists to this lesser-visited part of the country. With a population of 1.4 million, Ekaterinburg is Russia’s fourth largest city and had hoped to capitalize on its recent endorsement

by Forbes magazine as Russia’s best place to do business. — AFP

Iran seizes Saudi vessels DUBAI: The Iranian coast guard has seized two Saudi fishing vessels after they entered Iran’s territorial waters, a local coast guard official was quoted as saying yesterday. “Yesterday, the coast guard deployed in the country’s southern waters came to spot two vessels in Iran’s protected waters,” Qalandar Lashkari, commander of the Bushehr province coast guard, told the Fars news agency. He said the two vessels were fishing illegally in Iranian waters under Saudi flags. The nine sailors of various nationalities on board were arrested, he said.

Relations are tense between Shiite Muslim power Iran and Sunni Muslim-led Saudi Arabia, and seizures of vessels accused of straying into one another’s waters occur a few times a year.

“Sometimes we catch fishermen crossing the Saudi maritime borders and vice versa; it’s only a matter of fishermen,” a senior coast guard official from the Saudi side of the Gulf said, adding that he had not heard of any

arrests recently. Saudi Arabia has accused Iran of fomenting unrest among Shiites in its oil-rich Eastern Province, and Riyadh fears Tehran’s nuclear work is a cover for an atomic weapons program. Iran denies both charges. Despite its mistrust of Iran, Saudi Arabia gave a qualified welcome on Monday to Tehran’s interim deal with world powers over its disputed nuclear program.

Fars did not give a location for the latest incident. The province of Bushehr stretches down Iran’s northern Gulf coast and is the site of the only nuclear power station in the region. In a similar incident in early January, Iran’s coast guard detained 10 Indian nationals aboard two Saudi-flagged fishing vessels. Those arrests came just days after Saudi Arabia detained 21 Iranian nationals who were aboard two boats near al-Harqus island, 42 miles off the Saudi coast. — Reuters

Dubai ruler approves health insurance law Employers responsible for workers’ coverage DUBAI: Dubai’s ruler has approved a law requiring all employers in the emirate to purchase health insurance for their expatriate staff, a move expected to boost healthcare spending by its 2.2 million residents considerably.

The law - the full text of which has not been published will be rolled out within three years and will make employers responsible for providing at least an “essential benefits package” for every worker.

It will be rolled out in several phases by 2016, the Dubai Health Authority said in a statement yesterday. The government will remain responsible for the coverage of local citizens, who are estimated to make up less than a fifth of the population. Insurance companies will need to secure a special permit from the Health Authority in order to issue policies.

According to official estimates, only 40-50 percent of Dubai’s residents are covered by government and private

health insurance schemes today. Although it is unclear how much the required insurance policy will cost, Dubaibased Arqaam Capital estimates patient claims in Dubai will more than triple by 2016 to 4.8 billion dirhams ($1.3 billion) from 1.3 billion dirhams a year today. “We see a medium-term positive for NMC Health, Al Noor Hospitals, and to a lesser degree insurance underwriters in Dubai,” Arqaam Capital said.

It said, however, that it was not changing its ratings for the companies’ shares, which are “buy” for NMC Health and “hold” for Al Noor Hospitals. Dubai’s neighbor Abu Dhabi introduced mandatory health insurance in 2007, with patient claims quadrupling as a result. Arqaam Capital said the move could also spur growth in hospital bed capacity. The United Arab Emirates has 1.9 beds per 1,000 residents while the global average is 3.0 beds and that for developed countries is 5.5 beds, it said. — Reuters

US judge rules against Bin Laden’s son-in-law Continued from Page 1 Kaplan ruled after conducting a lengthy hearing. Abu Ghaith’s interview with FBI agents resulted in a 22-page statement after his Feb 28 arrest in Jordan.

Kaplan said government agents who testified about the questioning of Abu Ghaith produced “consistent and credible testimony” while Abu Ghaith chose to rely on an affidavit rather than testify. The Kuwaiti-born Abu Ghaith has said he was detained for more than a decade in Iran, where he went after leaving Afghanistan in 2002. Abu Ghaith said he was released from Iranian custody on Jan 11, when he entered Turkey, where he was detained and interrogated before he was released on Feb 28.

He said he was heading home to Kuwait to see family when his flight landed instead in Amman, Jordan, where he was handcuffed and turned over to American author-

ities. He said he was interrogated with few breaks on a cold plane, given only a small bottle of water and one orange to eat. Kaplan said the “evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that Abu Ghaith was treated humanely while aboard the airplane.” A month after 9/11, Abu Ghaith called on every Muslim to join the fight against the United States, declaring that “jihad is a duty.”

“The Americans must know that the storm of airplanes will not stop, God willing, and there are thousands of young people who are as keen about death as Americans are about life,” he said in the Oct 9, 2001, speech. Two days before that, he sat with Bin Laden and current Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahri against a rocky backdrop and spoke for nearly five minutes in one of the terror group’s most widely watched propaganda videos. Abu Ghaith’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a message for comment. — AP

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

S P ORTS

French favorites return to Tour Down Under SYDNEY: French outfit Ag2r La Mondiale yesterday confirmed a return to the Tour Down Under with a strong team, led by explosive climber Maxime Bouet, aiming for stage wins.

Ag2r is the only team to have competed every year since the race began, and they are bringing a seven-man roster led by Bouet for the January event, with compatriots Maxime Daniel and Sebastien Turgot focused on pushing to the front in sprint finishes. Tour Down Under race director Mike Turtur said Ag2r was popular with fans and consistently delivered strong results. “Maxime Bouet is an allrounder and he’s particularly good on rolling terrain with short, sharp climbs,” Turtur said. “The varied terrain across the 2014 Santos Tour Down Under route will appeal to Bouet and the Ag2r lineup and I’m sure we’ll see dynamic performances from this experienced group of riders.” The season-opening race, in Adelaide from January 19-26, was won this year by Dutchman Tom-Jelte Slagter from Blanco Pro Cycling. — AFP

NFL and NHL concussion cases ‘are not the same’ NEW YORK: Three months after the NFL agreed on a $765 million settlement with thousands of ex-players for concussion-related health problems, a group of their NHL peers is going to court, too. Hockey has proven to be an equally dangerous sport as football, but that doesn’t mean the link between collisions on the ice and post-career trouble will lead to a similar outcome. The legal and cultural surroundings of the NFL and NHL concussion lawsuits are more distinct than alike.

Former NFL players haven’t just taken the league to task for their concussion-related concerns; they’ve sued over all kinds of alleged misconduct, including their rights to memorabilia and highlight film revenue. In the NHL, there’s more blatant loyalty expressed by the players who used to don the uniforms. Hockey players have a penchant for closing ranks when controversy arises, and this is no different. Two prominent former players, Ken Daneyko and Keith Primeau, expressed disinterest in pursuing concussion claims against the league when interviewed prior to the introduction of the lawsuit despite their lingering physical side effects from years of playing the game.

Jeremy Roenick, in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, was even more outspoken about his disregard for the lawsuit that was filed Monday in federal court in Washington. “I’m not going to tell people what to do and say they’re all trying to cap on the system right now. That’s their prerogative,” said Roenick, a 20-year veteran of five NHL teams. “They can put themselves in public. They can go after the league that they craved to be in since they were little kids and paid their salary. ... I’ve always lived in the fact that I played the game of hockey knowing there was a lot of risk to be taken.

I went on the ice knowing that my health and my life could be altered in a split second, and I did it because I loved the game.” Roenick said he had 13 concussions during his career. “I can tell you that the teams I was with handled it very well and professionally throughout the whole ordeal,” Roenick said. Ten former players, including All-Star forward Gary Leeman, are named as plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit. It alleges the NHL hasn’t done enough to protect players from concussions and seeks courtapproved, NHL-sponsored medical monitoring for the players’ injuries as well as monetary damages.

Attorney Steve Silverman said a total of about 200 former players have signed up to be included in the action. “What the NFL concussion lawsuit did, not in the minds of the lawyers but in the minds of the former players, was give them confidence and hope that, yes, David can slay Goliath,” Silverman said on Tuesday.

Among the allegations: The NHL knew or should have known about scientific evidence that players who sustain repeated head injuries are at greater risk for illnesses and disabilities both during their hockey careers and later in life. Even after the NHL created a concussion program to study brain injuries affecting NHL players in 1997, the league took no action to reduce the number and severity of concussions during a study period from 1997 to 2004.

The league didn’t do anything to protect players from unnecessary harm until 2010, when it made it a penalty to target a player’s head. NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said on Monday the league is “completely satisfied with the responsible manner in which the league and the players’ association have managed player safety over time” and that it intends to defend the case “vigorously.”

Leeman, who played for the Toronto, Calgary, Montreal, Vancouver and St Louis from 1983-1996, suffered multiple concussions and sub-concussive impacts during his career, according to the lawsuit.

Since his retirement, he’s suffered from post-traumatic head syndrome, headaches, memory loss and dizziness. Michael McCann, a sports law professor at the University of New Hampshire, expected this lawsuit to come like most observers of the NHL and the sports world in general.

But he questioned whether the case is as strong as that of the former NFL players. “I don’t know if I saw in this complaint as much as we saw in the complaint against the NFL, in terms of allegations of misconduct. Much of this complaint focused on how the NHL could’ve made the game safer at various points of time and how the league knew of information and didn’t allegedly share it,” McCann said.

“In the NFL, there was the allegation that the league went out of its way to cloud the science. I didn’t see any of that in this complaint. I saw the NHL could’ve done more and was interested in making money. Maybe there are ethical issues, but I don’t see how that’s necessarily a strong legal argument.”

The complaint accused the NHL of being aware of studies dating to the 1920s of the danger the sport can cause to the head. “Those studies are publicly available. So it’s hard to call that any kind of fraud,” McCann said. “It seems as if players and their own union could’ve availed themselves of that information.”— AP

Manchester United plane aborts landing in Germany LONDON: Manchester United’s plane had to abort its landing seconds from touchdown as the squad flew to Germany for yesterday’s Champions League match with Bayer Leverkusen, British media reported. The chartered 185-seater Monarch Airlines Airbus 321 jet circled before landing safely at the second attempt, 10 minutes late at Cologne’s Konrad Adenauer Airport on Tuesday. “The aircraft, carrying the squad and back room staff, was 400 meters from the Cologne runway when the pilot was alerted to another plane on the ground and had to quickly abandon the descent and rise sharply,” the Manchester Evening News reported on its website (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk).

United central defender Rio Ferdinand tweeted: “Landed in Germany .... just .... I’ve only just recovered after that choppy landing!” United, who declined to comment on the incident, will reach the last 16 with a win in the Group A clash at the Bay Arena. — Reuters

Proud Klopp heralds Dortmund resolve BERLIN: Borussia Dortmund put their European campaign firmly back on track with a 3-1 win over Napoli on Tuesday, shrugging off talk of a crisis after three straight defeats with a performance reminiscent of last season’s superb run to the final. Coach Juergen Klopp had nothing but praise for his team’s ability to recover from its worst run of form since 2010, while missing an entire first-choice defense through injury.

“We want to continue living our Champions League dream despite all the prophecies of doom,” Klopp told reporters. “It all looks better now but we still need to win in Marseille.” The victory was positive news for Dortmund in many ways, lifting the side up to second place in Group F ahead of Napoli with a better head-to-head record against the Italians going into the final matchday. Last season’s runners-up will now secure a spot in the knockout stage for the second year in a row if they beat Olympique Marseille next month. —Reuters

Baker leads No 12 Wichita St past BYU KANSAS CITY: Ron Baker scored 23 points, making six straight free throws down the stretch, and No 12 Wichita State held off BYU for a 75-62 victory Tuesday night in the title game of the CBE Classic. Fred VanVleet and Cleanthony Early added 12 points each for the Shockers (7-0), who trailed by two at halftime but used hustle and physical play inside to wear down the Cougars. Wichita State was clinging to a 68-62 lead when Baker was popped by BYU’s Nate Austin, who was given a flagrent-2 foul and ejected from the game. Baker made both free throws with 45.3 seconds left, and then two more when he was fouled with just more than 30 seconds remaining. The Cougars (5-2) were then hit with a technical foul on their bench for protesting a series of calls, and Baker tacked on two more free throws to put the game out of reach.

It was just the second in-season tournament that the Shockers have won since the 1963-64 season. They captured the Cancun Challenge before their Final Four run last season. Matt Carlino had 21 points and Tyler Haws scored 17 for the Cougars, who missed a series of 3-pointers in the closing minutes that could have changed the outcome of the game. BYU finished 5 of 21 from beyond the arc. As evenly matched as the teams were much of the night, both had long stretches of dominance in the first half before BYU emerged with a 36-34 lead at the break.

No 8 Syracuse top California 92-81 LAHAINA: Syracuse is used to winning at the Maui Invitational. One more victory for the Orange and it will be three titles in three trips. Tyler Ennis scored 28 points and led two key second-half runs that carried No 8 Syracuse past California 92-81 on Tuesday night in the tournament semifinals. The Orange will play for the championship Wednesday against No 18 Baylor, which edged Dayton 67-66. Syracuse won the Maui Invitational in 1990 and 1998. “These two games out here have been great games, great for our team,” Coach Jim Boeheim said. Syracuse scored 51 points in the second half, shooting 55 percent and making five of seven 3point attempts. Ennis had 17 points and Trevor Cooney scored 20 of his 23 after the break. “Our guards were unbelievable today and I didn’t even know that until I looked at the stat sheet,” Boeheim said. “I knew they were pretty good, but they were better.” Jerami Grant finished with 19 points while CJ Fair had 14 points and seven rebounds. Cooney said it’s different to shoot in a small gym. “We play in a dome, it’s open, different backdrop and this is totally different for us,” Cooney said. “The gym is warm, the legs get going and you can get into a rhythm here and that’s what we have been doing.” Ennis hit a layup during a nine-point run started by Grant’s putback dunk. The spurt lasted more than 2 minutes and gave Syracuse (6-0) its first double-digit lead with less than 8 minutes left.

No 21 Michigan survive against Temple 74-70 PHILADELPHIA: Tori Jankoska scored 19 points and pulled down 11 rebounds as No 21 Michigan State survived to beat Temple 74-70 Tuesday night. Temple’s Feyonda Fitzgerald scored 13 first-half points as the Owls (3-1) powered to a 32-28 lead at the break. The lead would get as high as seven before MSU (5-1) would reel them. The teams traded buckets most of the second half, but MSU was able to take a three-point lead with 3:17 left. Temple’s Tyonna Williams cut the lead to 67-66 after a pair of free throws. Jankoska answered with a jumper, pushing the lead back to three. Temple never got closer, and MSU closed out the game at the line. Annalise Pickrel added 18 points for MSU while Becca Mills scored 13 points to go with her nine rebounds. Kiana Johnson added six assists.

Fitzgerald paced Temple with 24 points, and Williams added 14.

KANSAS CITY: Cleveland Melvin #12 of the DePaul Blue Demons looks to pass as Connor Lammert #21 and Cameron Ridley #55 of the Texas Longhorns defend during the CBE Hall Of Fame Classic consolation game on November 26, 2013. — AFP

West Virginia roll past Old Dominion 78-60 CANCUN: Eron Harris scored 19 points Tuesday night as West Virginia rolled past Old Dominion 78-60 to advance to the championship game of the Cancun Challenge. Harris shot 7 of 10 from the field and led three other Mountaineers in double digits. Terry Henderson scored 14, Juwan Staten had 13 points, nine assists and Devin Williams had a double-double with 12 and 10. “Juanny (Staten) was really good again tonight,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. In his six games, Staten has 47 assists and five turnovers. West Virginia (5-1) shot 56 percent from the field, including 8 of 19 from 3point range and led by as many as 25 points in the second half in snapping Old Dominion’s four-game winning streak. The Mountaineers were up by 12 at halftime and extended their lead thanks to 15-of-24 shooting in the second half. They were 5 of 9 from behind the arc in the second half and had their biggest lead with 6:33 left. Old Dominion won the battle on the glass, 35-28, with 16 rebounds coming on the offensive end. “Just think what we could do if we could get a defensive rebound,” Huggins said. “We keep giving up a dozen or more and we’re not going to be able to keep doing that. We can do that and make some shots and win, but we can’t keep doing that against good people. That’s what we continue to harp on them.”

No 5 Notre Dame stun No 25 DePaul 92-76 SOUTH BEND: Natalie Achonwa scored 17 points and Kayla McBride had 16 to help No 5 Notre Dame beat No 25 DePaul 92-76 on Tuesday night for its second victory over a ranked opponent this season. Taya Reimer had 15 points and 14 rebounds off the bench for the Fighting Irish (5-0), who won their 28th consecutive regular-season game and 15th straight at home. DePaul (3-1) was led by 18 points from reserve Megan Rogowski in the Blue Demons’ first game in eight days. Notre Dame outrebounded DePaul 58-33 and held the Blue Demons to 30 percent shooting in a dominant second half.

No 13 UConn beat Loyola (Md) 76-66 HARTFORD: DeAndre Daniels had 21 points and eight rebounds to help keep No. 13 Connecticut remained undefeated with a 76-66 win over Loyola, Md, on Tuesday night.

Ryan Boatright added 13 points and eight boards for the Huskies (7-0) and Lasan Kromah, a transfer from George Washington, chipped in with a season-high 12 points. Dylon Cormier had 23 points for Loyola (4-1). The senior guard had been averaging just under 30 points per game. A 3-pointer by Cormier early in the second half cut what had been a 15-point UConn lead to 38-35. Kromah gave The Huskies some breathing room, hitting a 3-pointer, then stealing the ball and going in for a layup that put the Huskies up 61-50. A 3-pointer by Daniels closed the 10-2 run and gave UConn a 14-point lead.

The Greyhounds cut the lead to nine late, but couldn’t get closer.

No 18 Baylor rally past Dayton 67-66 in Maui LAHAINA: Baylor led Dayton for a little more than 16 seconds in the second half Tuesday night. They were the right 16 seconds. Cory Jefferson had a go-ahead putback in the waning moments and the 18th-ranked Bears rallied for a 67-66 victory in the semifinals of the Maui Invitational. “We led 1-zip and we finished leading by one,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said.

“Everything else was chasing Dayton.” The Bears will play No 8 Syracuse for the tournament championship Wednesday night.

After trailing nearly the entire game, Baylor (6-0) whittled away a 10-point deficit over the final 7 minutes. The Bears were down by one when Kenny Chery missed a jumper off the front of the rim, but Jefferson was all alone for the rebound and his layup gave Baylor a 67-66 lead with 16 seconds to go.

Vee Sanford missed a contested shot in close for Dayton with 2 seconds left, Devin Oliver’s tip-in attempt bounced off the rim and Baylor grabbed the rebound as the final buzzer sounded. “I don’t know how I missed it,” Oliver said. Royce O’Neale and Chery had 13 points each for the Bears. Jefferson, Gary Franklin and Isaiah Austin added 10 apiece. “We just wanted to be tough. Our mental toughness was in question as a team, so we just wanted to stay together, be tough and try to pull one out and that’s what we did,” Chery said.

Rally falls short in 63-57 loss to No 10 Wisconsin CANCUN: Dwayne Evans got into foul trouble early, but came off the bench to help recharge a struggling Saint Louis offense that was trailing No 10 Wisconsin by 15 points. Driving into the paint and drawing fouls, Evans scored four free throws and a layup in a little over a minute to help make it a 5point game with 1:10 to play. But fouls proved the Billikens’ undoing, and the Badgers scored five free throws in the final minute to blunt the surge and win 63-57 to advance to face West Virginia in Wednesday’s finals of the Cancun Challenge.

Rob Loe led the reigning Atlantic 10 Conference champion Billikens (5-1) with 15 points, Austin McBroom scored 14 and Evans, who is averaging 13.6 points per game this season, finished with 12. Saint Louis beat Oral Roberts 72-55 on Thursday and Bowling Green 74-47 on Saturday to advance to the semifinals against Wisconsin (7-0). Evans scored 14 points against Bowling Green as the Billikens led wire-to-wire. Wisconsin’s Traevon Jackson led all scorers with 16 points Tuesday and Frank Kaminsky added 12 for the undefeated Badgers.

Kaminsky grabbed eight rebounds and had four blocks that helped Wisconsin to a 20-15 halftime lead. Jackson stepped up to help squash the Billikens’ second-half run. With the win, Wisconsin is off to its best start of the Bo Ryan era. The Badgers have not opened the season with seven consecutive wins since starting 11-0 in 1993-94.

Walter Thurmond

Seahawks CB Thurmond suspended RENTON: Back from their bye week, with the best record in the NFL and heading into a Monday night showdown with the Saints, Pete Carroll and the Seattle Seahawks spent Tuesday dealing with the kinds of distractions they believed were over.

Instead, the Seahawks are adding to the list of player suspensions they’ve faced since Carroll took over in 2010. “We’re still trying to work through it. I’ll say it again, I’ve always found myself looking for guys that maybe other people don’t see something special in and we take a chance on a guy here or there that needs some extra consideration and care,” Carroll said. “And sometimes guys they have issues and things pop up but I’ve always been kind of hopeful and make guys find the best in them and bring it out.

Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t. We’ll certainly hang with our guys and take care of them.” Starting cornerback Walter Thurmond was officially suspended Tuesday by the NFL for the team’s next four games for violating the league’s substance abuse policy, leaving the Seahawks short handed going into Monday’s matchup against New Orleans.

Thurmond will be eligible to return to the active roster on Monday, Dec 23, before the final game of the regular season, but his absence leaves a hole in a secondary that was previously missing starting cornerback Brandon Browner because of a groin injury. Thurmond’s suspension was first reported by NFL.com over the weekend. Thurmond took to Twitter and apologized on Sunday, writing, “Yes I made a mistake and I have to live with the consequences. I’m disappointed in myself for letting my teammates and family down.”

Thurmond’s is the sixth Seattle player officially suspended for substance-abuse or performance-enhancing drugs violations by the league since 2011. That doesn’t include Richard Sherman, whose suspension was overturned on appeal late last season. “I don’t know that we can expect to be perfect. We would like to be, but that isn’t the case,” Carroll said. “It’s a big challenge for these guys to do right and we want them to do it and carry through and be there when we need them and count on them. It doesn’t always work that way. It presents opportunities for other guys.

We’ve always championed that and our guys have always come through and they’ll do that again in this instance.”

Thurmond has started three games this season for Seattle, including the team’s last game against Minnesota when he had his first interception of the season and returned it 29 yards for a touchdown. Even when he wasn’t starting, Thurmond was a critical member of one of the NFL’s best secondary units as the fifth defensive back in passing situations.

Thurmond beat out veteran Antoine Winfield, whom Seattle signed in the offseason, for the nickel cornerback spot during training camp. He had struggled with injuries throughout his career but was finally healthy and playing well ahead of an offseason where he will be a free agent. Seattle moved quickly to fill Thurmond’s roster spot, signing veteran Perrish Cox, who worked out for the team recently after being released by San Francisco on Nov 12. Cox played in 25 games over two seasons with the 49ers in a reserve role after starting nine games for Denver in 2010.

Seattle had also worked out former cornerback Marcus Trufant, who has not played this season, before deciding on signing Cox. The Seahawks are likely to lean on young backups Byron Maxwell and Jeremy Lane. Maxwell had been seeing more playing time, especially on passing downs when Thurmond would move inside to cover slot receivers. Lane started three games late last season when Browner was serving a four-game suspension for using performance enhancing drugs and Thurmond was injured.

Carroll also indicated that DeShawn Shead will be promoted from the practice squad to the active roster, but that move was not made official on Tuesday. Presumably, Shead’s promotion will coincide with a roster move involving Browner, who is also reportedly facing a suspension for a substance-abuse violation.

Shead can play both cornerback and safety. It’s his second season with the Seahawks, most of that spent on the practice squad. He was added to the 53-man roster late last season but was inactive for each game. He’s been getting paid this season at the same rate as a second-year player on the 53-man roster according to the NFLPA database. Carroll said despite the continued problems he doesn’t believe his message or approach needs to change. “We’ll always look to do it better. We’re on it. I think this team is very strong about where we’re going and what we’re doing. Because somebody slips, that doesn’t mean we’re not on track,” Carroll said. “I believe we’re on a tremendous track right now. —AP

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

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McIlroy ‘mentally drained’ after tough season SYDNEY: World number six Rory McIlroy admitted yesterday he is mentally drained from a frustrating season where he is yet to win a tournament, with just two more events to go. The Northern Irishman has only this week’s Australian Open in Sydney followed by the Tiger Woods-hosted World Challenge at Thousand Oaks in Los Angeles next week to break the jinx.

His best finishes this year were runner-up spots in the Valero Texas Open and the recent Korean Open, with the former world number one feeling the pace. “I’m looking forward to a break after playing Tiger’s event next week as it’s been a long year mentally for me rather than physically,” said McIlroy. “Physically, golf doesn’t take that much out of you but mentally it is quite draining. “And especially for me this year not just being frustrated with my game but having to answer all the questions and come up with reasons why I am not playing well and all that stuff,” added the former world number one.

“But then it’s great to be going into the off-season

feeling comfortable with my game and knowing that I am on the right track and knowing that I can start the new season strongly. “So I am excited about that aspect and besides I still have two tournaments left this year and I would love to get a win, whether it is here or in Tiger’s event in LA.” McIlroy last played in Sydney at the 2006 Australian Open as an amateur but failed to break 70 on any of the four days to finish well down the field.

“I can remember most of the golf course but then I can’t remember much of how I played that week,” he said of Royal Sydney, where he will play the opening two rounds with fellow US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy and PGA Tour member Matt Jones. “But it was just nice to get back out there today for the pro-am as it’s great shape and hopefully after all the rain I hear they’ve had in Sydney it will dry out and play the way Royal Sydney should play.” McIlroy wound up his preparations by hosting a clinic for some 250 children, delighting them with an array of shots.

After the enormous scrutiny he faced at the start of

the season following his multi-million dollar switch to Nike there was one question he answered without hesitation. “Are you happy with your decision to switch to Nike?” said the young fan. McIlroy responded: “It’s been a great learning process this year with Nike, and while it did take me a couple of months to get use to the new equipment, it’s been great and I could not be happier.”

Present on the first tee yesrterday was the famed Claret Jug awarded each year to the winner of golf’s oldest Major-the Open Championship.

The Australian Open marks the first of a number of tournaments, including the Irish, French and Scottish Opens, where the top three players among the leading 10, who are not otherwise exempt, will earn a place in the Open Championship. The initiative by the St Andrews-based Royal and Ancient Golf Club will do away with international qualifying. The Australian Open also marks the end of the 2013 Australasian Tour with the leading money winner-currently Adam Scott-also gaining exemption to the British Open. — AFP

SYDNEY: Northern Ireland golfer Rory McIlroy speaks during a press conference ahead of the Australian Open golf tournament in Sydney yesterday. — AFP

Stars score 3 in 53 seconds

DALLAS: Anaheim Ducks defenseman Cam Fowler (4) passes the puck as Dallas Stars right wing Valeri Nichushkin (43) tries to block during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Dallas on Tuesday, Nov 26, 2013. — AP

Afflalo, Magic end road skid ATLANTA: Arron Afflalo scored 26 points, Victor Oladipo and Andrew Nicholson added 18 apiece as the Orlando Magic snapped a 17game road losing streak with a 109-92 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday. Al Horford and Jeff Teague each finished with 15 points for the Hawks, who lost consecutive games for the first time this season. The Magic began the night having lost four straight overall and five in a row on the road. They won away from Orlando for the first time since last March 4 at New Orleans. Nikola Vucevic grabbed 15 rebounds, Jameer Nelson had 10 assists, and the Magic got a combined 30 points from Nicholson and E’Twaun Moore off the bench. The Hawks never led after Afflalo’s 3-pointer put the Magic ahead 67-65 with 5:09 left in the third.

WIZARDS 116, LAKERS 111 John Wall stayed hot with 31 points and nine assists, Nene had a career high 30 as Washington broke Los Angeles’ three-game winning streak. Wall scored more than 30 points for the third straight game for the first time in his career, with his 13 fourth-quarter points coming in the final 4:40 to help Washington hold off Los Angeles. Wall was 10 for 18 from the field and made 11 of 12 free throws. Nene surpassed his previous career best by two points on 13-for-22 shooting from the field. Martell Webster added 20 points with four 3-pointers. Jordan Farmar led the Lakers with 22 and Pau Gasol had 17.

NETS 102, RAPTORS 100 Andray Blatche scored 24 points, Joe

Johnson had 21 as Brooklyn snapped a fivegame losing streak by beating Toronto. Paul Pierce scored 16 points and Kevin Garnett had 12 as the Nets won for the first time since beating Phoenix on Nov 15. Brooklyn won for just the third time in its past nine games in Canada, getting the victory despite playing without guard Deron Williams and center Brook Lopez, both of whom are sidelined with left ankle injuries. DeMar DeRozan scored 27 points and Kyle Lowry had 21 for the Raptors, who lost a two-game winning streak. Toronto’s Amir Johnson missed a potential go-ahead 3-pointer from the corner in the final seconds.

WARRIORS 102, PELICANS 101 Klay Thompson scored 22 points and tied a career high with eight assists as Golden State snapped a three-game skid by defeating New Orleans. Eric Gordon had a chance to win it for New Orleans with an open 3-pointer from the left corner in the final seconds, but the shot rimmed out and Anthony Davis couldn’t quite reach the rebound. Jermaine O’Neal returned from right knee and groin injuries that had sidelined him for four games and did not look at all rusty, sinking his first seven shots en route to 18 points - including a clutch baseline hook with 2:06 left. David Lee added 19 points. Ryan Anderson had 21 points and 12 rebounds for New Orleans. Davis finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds. The Warriors’ Stephen Curry struggled to find his usual accuracy, missing 13 of 20 shots, but scored seven of his 16 points in a tight fourth quarter. Harrison Barnes added 14 points. —AP

NBA results/standings Brooklyn 102, Toronto 100; Washington 116, LA Lakers 111; Orlando 109, Atlanta 92; Golden State 102, New Orleans 101.

Eastern Conference Atlantic Division W L PCT Toronto 6 8 .429 Philadelphia 6 9 .400 Boston 6 10 .375 Brooklyn 4 10 .286 NY Knicks 3 10 .231 Central Division Indiana 13 1 .929 Chicago 6 7 .462 Detroit 6 8 .429 Cleveland 4 10 .286 Milwaukee 2 11 .154 Southeast Division Miami 11 3 .786 Atlanta 8 7 .533 Charlotte 7 8 .467 Washington 6 8 .429 Orlando 5 9 .357

GB 0.5 1 2 2.5 6.5 7 9 10.5 3.5 4.5 5 6

Western Conference Northwest Division Portland 13 2 .867 9 3 .750 Oklahoma City Denver 7 6 .538 Minnesota 8 8 .500 Utah 2 14 .125 Pacific Division LA Clippers 10 5 .667 9 6 .600 Golden State Phoenix 7 7 .500 LA Lakers 7 8 .467 Sacramento 4 9 .308 Southwest Division San Antonio 13 1 .929 10 5 .667 Houston Dallas 9 6 .600 Memphis 7 7 .500 New Orleans 6 8 .429

2.5 5 5.5 11.5 1 2.5 3 5 3.5 4.5 6 7

DALLAS: Talk about a quick 1-2-3 for the Dallas Stars. Cody Eakin, Stephane Robidas and Ryan Garbutt produced a three-goal flurry in a 53-second span of the third period, and the Stars beat the Pacific Division-leading Anaheim Ducks 6-3 on Tuesday night for their first home win in more than month. “We were just still talking on the bench about, ‘OK, it’s a tie game. Let’s get this thing (under control), stay the course, do that,’ and next it’s 3-2,” Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. “It just went boom, boom. They got the goal, and the crowd got into it, and then the rest is history.”

After giving up a goal to Nick Bonino in the final seconds of the second period that put the Ducks ahead 2-1, Dallas wiped out that deficit with the fastest three-goal stretch in the NHL since January 2012. “You’re thinking that we fought hard to tie it up and want to go into the third period and try to play a 20-minute period of the win, and now we’re going to chase the game again as soon as we come out,” Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. “But we were able to turn it, I can tell you a nice story now. Otherwise, we might have blamed the game on that late goal.”

Eakin’s sixth goal of the season tied it 2-2 with 14:35 left. Only 25 seconds later, Robidas was between the circles when he scored his fourth of the season. Garbutt then gathered a loose puck and scored with a backhanded swipe with 13:42 left to make it 4-2. He didn’t realize how quickly the trio of goals had come. “But it was pretty cool,” said Garbutt, who also had two assists. Fans in the building were suddenly in a frenzy as Boudreau finally called timeout.

“We might have had to have a little bottle of NoDoz after the first period, but we woke them up in the third,” Ruff said. Roussel was in the crease when he netted his second goal with just under 8 minutes left. Hiller quickly

argued with the referee to no avail, trying to get an interference call. Dan Ellis stopped 28 shots, winning for only the second time in seven games. Dallas had been 0-2-2 at home since a 5-1 victory over Calgary on Oct 24.

Emerson Etem, Nick Bonino and Dustin Penner scored for the Ducks, who are 10-4-3 in their last 17 games. Penner’s tally was a power-play goal with 61/2 minutes left. “It does happen quickly,” Ducks center Andrew Cogliano said. “When momentum turns and it starts going the other way, it’s really hard to stop it.”

The Stars played the first of three straight home games. Next is Friday night against the Central Division-leading Chicago Blackhawks, who have an NHL-best 38 points - one more than Anaheim and St Louis. This was the second of three meetings this season for the former Pacific Division rivals who used to play six times a season. It was the only trip to Dallas for the Ducks, who won 6-3 at home on Oct 20 and will host the Stars again on Feb 1.

Hiller, who faced 32 shots, gave up three goals on 12 shots against the Stars in the previous matchup before he was pulled from the game.

Bonino’s seventh of the season came with 36 seconds left in the second period. He took a pass from Cogliano, and the puck went off his skate before he used his stick to score from the right side of the net for a 2-1 lead. Etem scored from in front 6:06 into the game to give the Ducks a 1-0 lead. Roussel tied it when the puck caromed in off his skate with 6:47 left in the second period.

Officials reviewed the goal before ruling that it wasn’t kicked into the net to the left of Hiller after a pass from Vernon Fiddler. “That was a team win,” Roussel said. “We’re very excited about that win because everybody was involved.” — AP

NHL results/standings Dallas 6, Anaheim 3.

Western Conference Pacific Division W L OTL GF Anaheim 17 7 3 83 San Jose 15 3 5 79 Los Angeles 16 6 3 67 Phoenix 14 6 4 80 Vancouver 12 9 5 67 Calgary 8 11 4 64 Edmonton 7 16 2 65 Central Division Chicago 17 4 4 92 17 3 3 82 St. Louis Colorado 17 5 0 69 Minnesota 15 6 4 64 Dallas 12 9 2 67 Nashville 12 10 2 56 Winnipeg 11 11 4 69

Boston Tampa Bay Toronto Detroit Montreal Ottawa Florida Buffalo Pittsburgh Washington NY Rangers New Jersey Carolina Philadelphia Columbus NY Islanders

Eastern Conference Atlantic Division 16 6 2 68 15 8 1 72 14 9 1 66 11 7 7 63 13 9 2 64 9 11 4 68 7 13 5 56 5 19 1 44 Metropolitan Division 15 9 1 72 12 10 2 72 12 12 0 48 9 10 5 50 9 10 5 49 10 11 2 50 9 12 3 62 8 13 3 68

GA PTS 71 37 52 35 53 35 78 32 68 29 84 20 89 16 71 50 45 58 68 69 76

38 37 34 34 26 26 26

46 61 60 70 51 77 81 79

34 31 29 29 28 22 19 11

58 68 59 58 67 56 71 82

31 26 24 23 23 22 21 19

Note: Overtime losses (OTL) are worth one point in the standings and are not included in the loss column (L).

Russia sends mixed message on gays MOSCOW: Anyone who switched on Russian TV recently might have been forgiven for thinking the Kremlin was relaxing its hard line on gays: Images of rainbow flags and a happy same-sex couple looking adoringly at their child flashed across the screen.

But the show, with its horror film music and juddering camera work, was another swipe at the gay community - not a gust of tolerance. The force behind it is one of Russia’s top propagandists, whose programs have helped to bring criminal charges against others on President Vladimir Putin’s unofficial black list. The primetime broadcast on state television points to the double-game the Kremlin is playing on gay rights.

To the West, Russia has sought to extend reassurances as it prepares to host the Winter Olympics that a law passed this summer banning homosexual “propaganda” does not discriminate against gays.

To its domestic audience, the government has ramped up the anti-LGBT rhetoric, unifying its fraying electoral base with a popular refrain of traditional values. The TV show by Arkady Mamontov - who made his name by taking a hatchet to punk rock group Pussy Riot and other opposition activists - is the latest example of Russia’s unwillingness to back down from its legislative crackdown on gays.

Champions of the law melted away when Western outrage reached a peak over the summer - but they are now back in force on national airwaves.

Mamontov told a live studio audience that the scenes he filmed should be a warning “that we have to save the family, traditions, traditional love, or otherwise we’ll be hit by something bigger than the Chelyabinsk meteorite” that fell on Russia in February. The LGBT activists filmed for the show were carefully edited to make them seem alternately corrupt, subversive, demonic or laughably inept.

One shot created an awkward juxtaposition of a gay activist with a poster of Che Guevara, a none-toosubtle attempt to portray the activist as a troublemaker. Mamontov uses their stories to drive home a sinister message: Gay organizations, funded almost exclusively by money from abroad, are Trojan hors-

MOSCOW: Nataliya Usacheva swims with an Olympic torch in the Tatyshev Channel of the Yenisei River in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, some 3,500 km east of Moscow. — AFP es that will give the West control over Russia from within. One scene shows behind-doors recordings of Igor Kochetkov, chairman of the Russian LGBT Network, in which he thanks Western sponsors for their support in what is supposedly a closed meeting for groups supported by the Open Society, a foundation established by the US philanthropist, George Soros.

Mamontov’s crew spins the bland speech as evidence that the LGBT movement is funneling vast funds from the West, with very little indication of how the money is being spent. The thesis is simple: Much in the same way Jews in Soviet times were portrayed as pawns of foreign capitalist culture, gays are being presented as spreading homosexual-

UAE Exchange inter cricket tournament KUWAIT: UAE Exchange, Kuwait conducted an Inter Cricket Tournament for employees on Saturday, 23 November, 2013 at Murghab. Four teams from different areas participated in the tournament. Salmiya Tiger’s won the title beating Abbasia Smashers by eight wickets. Salim of Salmiya Tiger’s was selected as the Man of the Final and Man of the Tournament with an unbeaten 120 and 61 runs in both the matches, along with two wickets. Trophies, cash prizes, sponsored by Xpress Money, as well as medals and certificates were presented by Pancily Varkey, UAE Exchange Country Head, and Vivek Nair, Operation Head. The event was supported by Xpress Money, Classic Plaza Restaurant- Hawally and Al-Jazzaf Royal Advertising.

ity - in what Mamontov dubs the “LGBT-zation” of Russia - in a drive to push a foreign agenda.

“I believe that an influential (gay) minority is holding the governments of Germany, France, England and Holland by the throat and telling them: Do this, do that,” he said at the program’s opening. But Mamontov isn’t just an ordinary pundit: The material dug up for his shows has in the past landed people in jail. A member of a leftist opposition group was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison, while two other group members each face up to 10 years behind bars, after a 2012 program showed what it claimed to be footage of the three men accepting money from a foreign government official. LGBT groups could come under similar legal fire. A 2012 law requires any NGO receiving foreign funding and engaging in political activity to register as “foreign agents,” in a country where that term means spy. Any organization failing to do so can be subject to heavy fines and jail time for its leaders. The law places gay NGOs on perilous ground, in particular because many have contacts with fellow groups abroad because of limited funding within Russia.

LGBT rights activists requested permission to hold a protest over the program outside Moscow’s television tower, a symbol of state television. The request was rejected by the mayor’s office, who said the application violated the gay propaganda law.

Pavel Astakhov, Russia’s ombudsman for children’s rights, said last week that anyone promoting the rights of single-sex families should be “made outcasts, damned for centuries as destroyers of the family and of human kind.”

Statements like these play an outsized role in public perceptions about gays in Russia, where polls show that the vast majority of the population says they don’t have a single LGBT acquaintance. “In order to make people interested in the government, it chose what it thinks are topics close to the people, like this one (the gay issue),” said Anton Krasovsky, a journalist who was fired after he came out as gay on air at a Kremlin-controlled TV station. —AP

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

S P ORT S

Asia, Oceania bid to merge WCup slots KUALA LUMPUR: Asia and Oceania are in talks to share their World Cup qualifying slots to give teams more chance of reaching football’s biggest stage, Asia’s soccer chief said. Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), said a proposal would be drawn up and submitted to world body FIFA for approval. The news comes after Jordan and New Zealand lost intercontinental World Cup play-offs against Uruguay and Mexico respectively, with both teams shipping five goals in the first leg.

After the loss to Mexico, outgoing All Whites coach Ricki Herbert said New Zealand should follow Australia

by quitting Oceania to join the AFC. But speaking after the AFC awards dinner in Kuala Lumpur, Shaikh Salman said it would be better to combine Asia and Oceania’s World Cup quotas. “We had the Australians in but I think we should look at how can we combine our slot together,” Shaikh Salman said late on Tuesday.

“This is something that we’re discussing with Oceania and hopefully we come to an agreement on how those legs are to be played, because I think geographically we’re much closer and on a technical basis we’re level or on the same par.” Asia has four automatic World Cup places plus a “half-slot”-a spot in an intercontinental play-off-while only one Oceania team is

capable of reaching the tournament, also via a play-off.

Growing market Asia has the world’s biggest confederation with 46 members, while Oceania groups 11 island teams spread across a wide swathe of the Pacific.

Asian teams have a poor record in the World Cup play-offs, while the lure of automatic qualifying spots were a key reason behind Australia’s switch to the AFC in 2006. “This is a decision that should be by FIFA as well, (combining) the half-slot,” Shaikh Salman said.

“We still have time but this is something we need to look at in the future.” He added: “I think we have to look at the continent as a whole, not just inviting each

team that wants to come. Because what’s going to be left of Oceania?”

Australia have reached both the 2010 and 2014 World Cups through Asian qualifying, elbowing out competitors such as Saudi Arabia who reached four straight editions up to 2006. New Zealand’s appearance in 2010 - where they bowed out unbeaten after draws with Italy, Paraguay and Slovakia-was their first in 28 years. No other Oceania team has reached the World Cup. Shaikh Salman said the AFC’s competitions committee would discuss World Cup qualifying in January, with proposals due to come before the executive committee by April. — AFP

Gunners urged to finish the job

AMSTERDAM: Ajax Amsterdam’s goalkeeper Jasper Cillissen (right) vies with Barcelona’s Pedro during an UEFA Champions League group H football match between Ajax Amsterdam and FC Barcelona at the Amsterdam Arena in Amsterdam on November 26, 2013. — AFP

Jolted Barca want more intensity from players MADRID: Barcelona coach Gerardo Martino and captain Carles Puyol have demanded more intensity from the players after Tuesday’s 2-1 Champions League defeat at Ajax Amsterdam. The Group H reverse was Barca’s first loss this season in all competitions - and their first under Martino - which cost them a chance to seal the top spot, having already secured their place in the last 16. A fired-up Ajax, roared on by their vocal fans, took the game to an injury-hit Barca in the first half, harrying and hassling them before taking a deserved 2-0 lead with goals from Thulani Serero and Danny Hoesen.

Although the Spanish champions dominated after Ajax were reduced to 10 men shortly after halftime and pulled a goal back through Xavi’s penalty, they struggled against a home defense well drilled by coach and former Barca player Frank de Boer. “Ajax began with more intensity than us and we paid the price,” Martino, who took over from the ailing Tito Vilanova in the close season, said at a news conference. “The second half was a different story and we played in a way more in tune with what Barca represents,” the Argentine added.

“The problems in the first half came more when we had the ball than when we didn’t. “We lacked mobility and precision. In a Champions League match against a rival who is fighting to qualify for the next round you need intensity for the full 90 minutes.” Barca have another chance to seal the top spot in the group when they host Celtic on Dec 11. The Scottish champions lost 3-0 at home to AC Milan on Tuesday and are bottom of the group on three points from five games. Barca have 10, Milan

are second on eight and Ajax, whose final game is against the Italians at the San Siro, seven.

LETHARGIC START Puyol said the team would have no chance of adding to their four European crowns if they started every match so lethargically. “The idea is to have possession of the ball but when you are up against a team that also knows how to play and is full of fight this is what happens,” he told reporters.

“If you do not have enough intensity they will roll right over you. “You have to gain experience from all your matches and if we want to win titles we have to improve.” Puyol’s defensive partner Gerard Pique said it was Barca’s worst first-half performance of the season. “We played very badly and we were lacking in commitment,” added the Spain international. “In the second half, although we improved, we did not create enough chances to get the second goal.

“They can score a goal or dominate during certain periods but what happened in the first half cannot be allowed to happen. That is not the image of FC Barcelona.” Barca’s next match is at La Liga rivals Athletic Bilbao on Sunday, when they will be seeking a 14th win in 15 matches but will again be without World Player of the Year Lionel Messi and goalkeeper Victor Valdes, who are both injured. The Spanish champions, unbeaten in La Liga, have a three-point lead over second-placed Atletico Madrid. The only points they have dropped were in a 0-0 draw at Osasuna last month. — Reuters

Inter will not splash cash, president says MILAN: Inter Milan President Erick Thohir said his priority will be putting the club back on a sound financial footing and not splashing the cash on top drawer players, according to reports yesterday. Thohir, who recently acquired a 70 percent majority stake in the Nerazzurri from former owner Massimo Moratti, was elected president of the Serie A giants two weeks ago.

Fans are hoping his investment will lead to a move away from the San Siro ground Inter share with city rivals AC Milan to a new, purpose-built arena. Having finished ninth in the league last season under former coach Andrea Stramaccioni, there are also hopes Thohir will attract big name players to the club. However the 43-year-old Indonesian businessman, who has already invested in Major League Soccer club DC United and the Philadelphia 76ers NBA basketball team, indicated that fans may have to be patient.

“If you ask me if I’m going to buy new players, my answer is always the same,” Thohir told La Gazzetta dello Sport yesterday. “Our decisions will be taken together, but with one eye on the budget. There would be no unilateral decision on my part, that’s what’s different from the past. “We will buy players, but we’re going to be careful with our spending. Our objective is financial restructuring, creating a club which is in sound financial health, as agreed with Moratti.”

One player reportedly on Thohir’s radar is Radja Nainggolan, a Belgian international of Indonesian heritage who currently plays at Serie A strugglers Cagliari.

The eventual purchase of Nainggolan could theoretically boost Thohir’s wish to open up new markets and fan bases in Asia, where Inter already have thousands of followers. Thohir admitted Nainggolan had caught his eye: “It’s true... but only if there’s agreement between myself, the managers and the technical staff.”

But a new stadium could be further in the future.

“One day we will have our own new stadium, but at this point we can’t say if we’re going to build one,” added Thohir. However the Inter chief, who says he has no wish to follow AC Milan owner Sivio Berlusconi into the political arena, insists he is taking the “big responsibility” of leading the Serie A giants seriously. “I have a big responsibility because I’m the first foreign president of the club. And I’m not just representing myself, what I do reflects on all of Indonesia,” he added.—AFP

LONDON: Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger urged his players to “finish the job” after they moved to within sight of the Champions League knockout phase with a 2-0 win over Marseille. Jack Wilshere scored both goals at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday to leave Wenger’s side with 12 points from five games in Group F, but they are not yet assured of a berth in the last 16.

They need to avoid defeat at Napoli in their final group game to be sure of going through, although the qualifying permutations mean that they could still progress even if they lose at Stadio San Paolo on December 11. “It’s unbelievable (not to have qualified with 12 points), but it’s the reality and we have to finish the job,” Wenger said. “It is not an easy situation. It’s a tricky situation because you could think, ‘OK, (the objective is) just not to lose big (to Napoli),’ but I think that would be a mistake from ourselves.

“It is to put in our head to go there, play in a positive way and try to win the game, because everything else would be a dangerous gamble.” Wilshere opened the scoring after only 27 secondsthe fastest goal in the Champions League this season-and completed his brace in the 65th minute when he converted a low cross from Mesut Ozil. The England midfielder had previously scored only twice this season, and he said he was keen to add more goals to his repertoire.

Asked what his goals target for the campaign was, Wilshere told ITV: “At the start of the season I said 10 goals. I’ve never scored four in a season (before), so we’ll see. I’m feeling good at the moment.” Wenger praised the coolness of Wilshere’s opening goal, which saw him cut inside a defender before curling a shot home, and suggested he should

take inspiration from team-mate Aaron Ramsey, who has already found the net 11 times for the Premier League leaders this term.

“I like his first goal, because before he rushed a little bit,” Wenger said. “He’s starting to think, ‘What Ramsey can do, I can do as well.’ He’s calm in front of goal; especially the first goal shows that.” Wenger was, however, critical of Ozil, who saw a 37thminute penalty saved by Marseille goalkeeper Steve Mandanda following a truncated run-up.

“Everybody can miss a penalty, but I think his run on to the ball was a bit short. But it’s the way he takes them,” the Frenchman said.

He also expressed annoyance with midfielder Mathieu Flamini for cutting the sleeves on his shirt. It is an Arsenal tradition that players take to the field wearing shirts with sleeves of the same length, and with Flamini’s teammates having all-sported longsleeve shirts, Wenger pledged to speak to the French midfielder about the matter. “I don’t like that and he will not do that again,” he said. “I was surprised and we don’t want that.” With Marseille having already been eliminated, coach Elie Baup used the opportunity to give some of his younger players a taste of the Champions League.

Midfielders Mario Lemina, 20, and 21-year-old Giannelli Imbula both started the game and Baup said he hoped that they would learn from the experience. “What I take from it is that for our squad, tonight (Tuesday) there were lots of young players who dipped their toes in this competition for the first or second time,” he said.

“We have to analyze all of that and show them how to progress from matches like tonight. “There were lots of young players of 19 or 20 who have great talent, but who need to understand the demands of the high level in the Champions League.”— AFP

Mourinho admits mistakes BASEL: Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho accepted that he got his team selection badly wrong after his side were beaten 1-0

by Basel at the St Jakob-Park on Tuesday. Mohamed Salah’s solitary strike with three minutes remaining gave the Swiss champions their second win over the London club in this season’s Champions League, although Chelsea still clinched their place in the last 16 thanks to Schalke’s goalless draw with Steaua Bucharest in Romania.

That meant it was job done for Chelsea, who came to Switzerland with the aim of ensuring qualification with a game to spare in Group E, but Mourinho was unable to muster a smile after watching a substandard performance. “We don’t go through because we got a result, we go through because Schalke did not get a result, and for me it’s not the same,” said the Portuguese.

“In the end, we qualified, which is our first objective, and now we have the last match at home to get the result to finish first,” he added, with Chelsea knowing that a win at home against Steaua on December 11 will guarantee them top spot and secure, in theory, an easier draw in the next round.

Chelsea’s Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho

Mourinho was quick to praise Murat Yakin’s Basel side for their display - which followed a 2-1 victory in London in September - but he acknowledged that his decision to make just one change to the team after Saturday’s 3-0 win at West Ham was wrong.

“I want to praise Basel. They won because we were sleeping in the last minute. But they won also because they were the best team and deserved to win,” said the former Real Madrid boss, who dropped Eden Hazard for Willian. “I think from the first minute I was getting signs that my team was tired. My team paid the price today of the international week, where I was afraid of the reaction in the game against West Ham. “Maybe because that game was so important for us, the whole team focused a lot, and everybody made a good individual and collective performance.

“Tonight we made a big mistake in the first second of the game, immediately. After that, we made mistakes defensively, we made mistakes with the ball, we lost easy passes, we lost every second ball, late decisions, people thinking late, and we finished with a ridiculous goal. “It is not the kind of game where we are upset with the players, because I think I understood, and I maybe should have made more changes.” Chelsea begin a run of nine games in December with a home clash against Southampton in the Premier League on Sunday, and new faces will come into the side for that game.

CONCERN FOR ETO’O One man who looks certain to miss that encounter is Samuel Eto’o, who was stretchered off just before half-time following a clash with Basel midfielder Serey Die, with fitagain Fernando Torres taking his place. “Samuel has a muscular injury. I don’t know the dimension - we will have to wait to do scans - but it is a muscular injury,” Mourinho said.

“This situation maybe helps me to make decisions when you have consecutive matches. I got signs that some players struggled to play two matches in three days so that will push me, for sure, to make different decisions. That is obvious.”

Basel’s recent record against English sides at the St Jakob-Park is impressive, with this latest win against Chelsea following victories over Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur in Europe in the last two years.

Tuesday’s success also means they are now in a position to qualify for the last 16 for the second time in three seasons, with a draw against Schalke in Germany next month all they now require. “Everyone knew it would be historic for us if we could beat Chelsea twice, and I think we wouldn’t have deserved just a draw,” said Yakin. “It will be a nice final match against Schalke. That is what we worked for and we will try to qualify for the knockout stages.” Even if Basel lose in Gelsenkirchen, they are guaranteed the consolation of dropping into the Europa League in the New Year. — AFP

Arsenal’s French manager Arsene Wenger

Swans looking for spring season in Europa League PARIS: Valencia travel to Wales today with their place in the Europa League knockout phase assured and a matter of pride to play for against a Swansea side looking to lay down new landmarks in their European history. With two matches remaining in the 12 group, round-robin format, Tottenham, Salzburg, Esbjerg, Ludogorets Razgrad, Fiorentina and Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk are also certain to be in the hat for the round of 32, as the long journey to the May 14 final in Turin continues.

Swansea are on the brink of playing in the spring phase of a European competition for the first time in club history, a far cry from their last continental appearance when they were hammered 10-1 on aggregate in the 1991-92 Cup Winners’ Cup, by Monaco. A Swansea win at the Liberty stadium will seal their status in the next round although should FC Kuban Krasnodar and Swiss club Saint Gallen draw, the Welsh club advance regardless of their result against Valencia.

Michael Laudrup brought the club their first English major trophy last season when they defeated Bradford City 5-0 to win the League Cup and the former Danish captain is working his magic again this season with the club solid in tenth place in the Premier League. The 49year-old, who scored 37 goals in 104 international matches, also has fond memories of his counterpart Miroslav Djukic when the Serbian memorably missed a penalty for Deportivo La Coruna in the last minute of the 1994 season against Valencia, handing Laudrup’s Barcelona side one of his four Liga crowns.

Djikic served the club he now coaches as a sweeper between 1997 to 2003, but the 2002 Spanish title won during a golden spell for the club is overshadowed by Champions League final defeats in 2000 and 2001 against Real Madrid and Bayern Munich respectively.

He will hoping his side improve on their first leg performance when Swansea played the Spaniards off the park at their own Mestalla stadium to the point, the home fans applauded their opponents off the pitch after a 3-0 defeat.

Swansea winger Roland Lamah expects a tough match against a team he is familiar with following his time playing in Spain with Osasuna. “I know Valencia very well from my time in La Liga. They are a very strong side and they will want to confirm their qualification today. “There are a lot of similarities between Valencia and ourselves and I think it will be a great game because both teams love to pass the ball and retention is a big part too. “I know we won 3-0 out there, but that result is in the past. That has no bearing today night, and we will have to be at our best if we want to get a good result.

“To qualify for the next stage today would be great for us, but it will be a very tough night as they are a class outfit.” “There’s a good feeling in this camp - the players are all together, and I think you can see that out on the pitch in our performances.” Seven-time French champions Lyon can also advance after a stuttering start to their season under Remi Garde, and the embarrassment of failing to reach the knockout phase will only compound their misery of falling in the final Champions League qualifying round at the hands of Real Sociedad.

They host Group I leaders Real Betis at the Gerland stadium, trailing by two points with Vitoria de Guimaraes a further two back and on the road at Croatia’s winless outsiders Rijeka Alexandre Lacazette has been Lyon’s main source of goals in domestic action with six, but their inability to kill off matches came back to haunt them again at the weekend when they were pegged back to 1-1 at home to third from bottom Valenciennes. English FA Cup winners Wigan will keep their adventure going if they can defeat Zulte Waregem and already qualified Rubin Kazan avoid defeat at home to Slovenia’s NK Maribor in Russia. — AFP

S P ORT S

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

Champions League standings PARIS: Champions League standings after yesterday’s matches (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points): Group A Manchester United Shakhtar Donetsk Bayer Leverkusen Real Sociedad

5 5 5 5

3 2 2 0

2 2 1 1

0 1 2 4

11 3 7 5 8 10 1 9

11 8 7 1

Group B Real Madrid Juventus Galatasaray FC Copenhagen

5 5 5 5

4 1 1 1

1 3 1 1

0 1 3 3

18 5 9 8 7 14 4 11

13 6 4 4

Group C PSG Olympiakos Benfica Anderlecht

5 5 5 5

4 2 2 0

1 1 1 1

0 2 2 4

15 3 7 7 6 7 3 14

13 7 7 1

Group D Bayern Munich Manchester City CSKA Moscow Viktoria Plzen

5 5 5 5

5 4 1 0

0 0 0 0

0 1 4 5

15 2 15 8 7 15 4 16

15 12 3 0

Group E Chelsea Basel Schalke 04 Steaua Bucharest

5 5 5 5

3 2 2 0

0 2 1 3

2 1 2 2

11 5 4 2

Group F Arsenal Dortmund Napoli Marseille

3 4 6 9

9 8 7 3

MANCHESTER: FC Viktoria Plzen’s Czech forward Stanislav Tecl (right) scores his team’s second goal during the UEFA Champions League group D football match between Manchester City and Viktoria Plzen at The Etihad stadium in Manchester yesterday. — AFP 5 5 5 5

4 3 3 0

0 0 0 0

1 2 2 5

8 3 9 5 8 9 4 12

12 9 9 0

Group G Atletico Madrid Zenit St. Petersburg FC Porto Austria Vienna

5 5 5 5

4 1 1 0

1 3 2 2

0 1 2 3

13 4 4 1

3 5 5 9

13 6 5 2

Group H Barcelona AC Milan Ajax Celtic

5 5 5 5

3 2 2 1

1 2 1 0

1 1 2 4

10 8 5 2

4 5 8 8

10 8 7 3

Juventus oust Copenhagen TURIN: Arturo Vidal scored a hat-trick, including two from the penalty spot, as Juventus relaunched their hopes of qualifying for the last 16 of the Champions League with a rousing 3-1 win over Copenhagen yesterday. With Real Madrid securing first place in Group B after a 4-1 win at home to Galatasaray, Juventus replaced the Turks in second place on six points and now hold a two-point lead on both Galatasaray and Copenhagen.

Sitting bottom of the group with no wins from four games, Juventus’s backs were firmly against the wall.

Antonio Conte’s side ideally required a win against the Danes to relaunch what has been an uninspiring campaign, and after being frustrated on their way to a 1-1 draw in Copenhagen the Italian champions did not disappoint.

Juventus dominated Stale Solbakken’s men from the outset, pinning Copenhagen back in their own half for most of the opening period.

And after half-chances by Paul Pogba and Carlos Tevez went begging, Juve’s nerves were settled when Swedish referee Jonas Eriksoon pointed to the spot for a blatant handball by Copenhagen captain Lars Jacobsen just before the half hour as Pogba looked to collect Pirlo’s flighted cross. Vidal made no mistake from the spot, beating Johan Wiland to the keeper’s right hand side. Juve looked dangerous for the remainder of the half but Pirlo failed to threaten with two free kicks from distance and when Kwadwo Asamoah collected deep on the left and laid off for Pogba, the Frenchman could only hit the side-netting.

Juve were in panic two minutes after the restart when a loose ball ricocheted close to goal before being cleared.

Copenhagen had evidently emerged with more purpose and were soon level but before then the Asamoah-LlorenteTevez trident threatened again before the Argentinian fired over. An Asamoah shot from the left was then tipped on by Llorente into path of Vidal, but the Chilean could not get purchase and his effort crawled over the bar.

A minute later, Copenhagen caught the Italian champions unawares after a throw-in from the right, Olaf Mellbergformerly of Aston Villa and Juventus slammed a loose ball past Gianluigi Buffon after Giorgio Chiellini and Llorente had blundered while rising for the ball. Fears of an upset were allayed barely five minutes later when Llorente won a penalty, holding up the ball and being fouled by Mellberg.

Vidal stepped up to beat Wiland for the second time to restore Juve’s advantage. Juventus virtually ended all hopes of a fightback by the Danes only two minutes later when Vidal timed his jump perfectly to meet Pogba’s floated cross from the left to head past Wiland at the keeper’s far post.

Minutes later, however, Youssef Toutouh forced Buffon down low to block at his near post with an angled strike and then another penalty box mix-up caused panic among Juve’s defence before second-half substitute Claudio Marchisio cleared. Juventus, however, dominated the remainder of the game with Pogba spurning a chance at the death to get his name on the scoresheet after skewing Pirlo’s delivery wide from 20 metres. — AFP

Rodrigo lifts Benfica 3-2 BRUSSELS: Substitute Rodrigo scored a 90th-minute winner yesterday as Benfica beat Anderlecht 3-2 in a Champions League thriller. Anderlecht defender Chancel Mbemba scored a goal and an own goal as the Belgian champion’s European campaign ended. The result meant Anderlecht remained anchored to the bottom of Group C and Benfica went level on points with Olympiakos which lost 2-1 at Paris Saint-Germain.

Mbemba opened the scoring and then deflected a shot

by Nicolas Gaitan into his own goal in the 52nd minute to give Benfica the lead after Nemjana Matic had equalized in the 34th. Massimo Bruno leveled again in the 77th minute when he turned and fired in a low shot that beat Artur at his near post. Rodrigo sealed the points for Benfica on a late break. — AP

Negredo keeps City in hunt for top spot MANCHESTER: Alvaro Negredo came off the bench to spare Manchester City’s blushes as the Spanish striker’s late goal inspired a 4-2 win over Viktoria Plzen in the Champions League yesterday. Manuel Pellegrini’s team were in danger of blowing their slender chance of finishing top of Group D after twice surrendering the lead against the Czech minnows at Eastlands. Sergio Aguero had put City ahead with a first-half penalty, but Tomas Horava equalised before half-time. Samir Nasri restored the hosts’ advantage, only for Plzen to hit back again through Stanislav Tecl.

Substitute Negredo finally tipped the balance in City’s favor with 12 minutes left and Edin Dzeko sealed the points in the final moments. City’s victory means they remain three points behind group leaders Bayern Munich and could finish top if they beat the holders at least 3-0 in the Allianz Arena on December 10. With star midfielder Yaya Toure now suspended for the trip to Germany, that outcome is unlikely, so the more significant aspect of this match for City’s long-term prospects will be the return of England goalkeeper Joe Hart from his spell in exile.

Hart had been dropped by Pellegrini after a series of error-prone performances hit a new low with an embar-

rassing blunder which sent City crashing to defeat at Chelsea. The 26-year-old languished on the bench for the next five matches as Costel Pantilimon performed well in his place, with only a solitary appearance for England in their friendly defeat against Germany to sustain him. On his return here, Hart made two fine saves to keep City in the game and couldn’t be faulted for either of Plzen’s goals.

City had hit 18 goals in their last three matches on home turf, with Tottenham the latest victims in a 6-0 demolition on Sunday.

But this was far less convincing stuff from Pellegrini’s team, who were alarmingly careless at the back. With City already through to the knock-out stages, Pellegrini made seven changes, but still sent out a strong side featuring the likes of Aguero and Nasri, as well as the returning Hart.

Nasri almost opened the scoring when he exchanged passes with Fernandinho before slamming a fierce 25-yard shot against the crossbar. Plzen were already out of the race for a last 16 place, but they caused City plenty of problems and should have taken the lead when Frantisek Rajtoral surged into the penalty area, only to miscue his cross-shot.

Moments later Michal Duris dragged a low effort wide from 12 yards as City’s defence was carved open with

alarming ease. City finally took the lead in the 33rd minute when Rajtoral raised his arm to block a cross from Aguero.

Turkish referee Firat Aydinus pointed to the spot and Aguero stepped up to stroke home the penalty for his 16th goal of the season. But Pellegrini, perhaps vexed by City’s sloppy defending, still looked less than happy on the bench. Pellegrini’s fears were confirmed in the 43rd minute as City’s back four crumbled, this time backing off en masse before Horava drove a superb strike from the edge of the area past Hart. Aguero came off at half-time, but Toure was sent on in the second half and the Ivorian midfielder was instrumental when City regained the lead in the 65th minute.

Jesus Navas took Toure’s pass and whipped over a pinpoint cross which was volleyed home by Nasri. Hart then made a brilliant one-handed save from Daniel Kolar’s powerful strike. He was beaten again in the 69th minute when more soft City defending allowed Kolar to feed Tecl for a clinical finish. But, with City’s hopes of top spot fading, Negredo came to the rescue with a tap-in from Navas’s perfect cross in the 78th minute. Even then City still rode their luck and it took a good save from Hart to deny Rajtoral and preserve the win. — AFP

PSG sink Olympiakos

adidas and FIFA extend partnership until 2030 KUWAIT: One of the longest and most successful partnerships in modern sports marketing history will continue. Yesterday, FIFA and adidas formally announced an extension of their long-term partnership agreement granting adidas the Official Partner, Supplier and Licensee rights for the FIFA World Cup(tm) and all FIFA events until 2030. The announcement was made during a ceremony in Moscow/Russia - host of the 2018 FIFA World Cup - by Thierry Weil, FIFA Marketing Director, and Herbert Hainer, adidas Group CEO. FIFA and adidas have been partners since 1970. This strategic commitment to the FIFA World Cup ensures extensive adidas presence at the world’s most watched sports event until 2030. The contract offers adidas broad licensing and event rights around the FIFA World Cup. adidas will continue to supply the Official Match Ball of the FIFA World Cup and provide unique uniforms for thousands of volunteers. In addition, a wide range of adidas/FIFA World Cup licensed products will be on sale worldwide. adidas also secured similar rights to all other FIFA tournaments during this time period, including the FIFA Women’s World Cup and the FIFA U-20 World Cup. Another key component of the partnership includes the close collaboration on a wide variety of development programs and grassroots events around the world, such as FIFA Goal and the FIFA Football for Hope adidas Exchange Program. Through FIFA Goal, adidas and FIFA have made more than 150,000 FIFA Goal balls available to football federations since 2008, striving to develop football in their countries.

Both partners will continue to provide FIFA Goal balls for this program as part of the extended partnership. At the same time, adidas will continue to support FIFA in its Football for Hope adidas Exchange Program by organizing workshops and coaching seminars specifically targeted to the needs of selected community-based organizations. Both programs are key initiatives within FIFA’s social responsibility strategy, which aims to promote the use of football as a tool for social development.

“Over the last 40 years, adidas and FIFA have worked closely together to develop football worldwide.

Therefore, it was a natural step for us to extend one of the most successful partnerships in the history of sports marketing,” said Herbert Hainer, CEO of the adidas Group. “We are happy and proud that our close relationship with FIFA will continue. This unique partnership and our extensive presence at all FIFA World Cups will help us to expand adidas’ position as the leading football brand worldwide.”

“Without the support of long-term partners such as adidas, it would simply not be possible for FIFA to host global spectacles such as the FIFA World Cup and to continue our work to develop football worldwide,” said FIFA Marketing Director Thierry Weil. “adidas is an integral part of the FIFA World Cup story, quite literally featuring at the heart of the action at every tournament since the 1970 FIFA World Cup. We are delighted that this long-term strategic partnership will continue until at least 2030 and we are looking forward to writing new chapters of football history together.”

Shakhtar hammer Sociedad DONETSK: Shakhtar Donetsk boosted their chances of qualifying for the Champions League knockout stage as their Brazilian flare helped them outclass an eliminated Real Sociedad 4-0 in Group A yesterday. The hosts moved up to second spot with eight points from five games, one point clear of Bayer Leverkusen heading into the final group game at leaders Manchester United, who qualified by battering the Germans 5-0 away.

Brazilian striker Luiz Adriano latched onto an incisive pass from compatriot Douglas Costa and flicked the ball into the net from a very sharp angle via the near post after 37 minutes. Inigo Martinez squandered a clear

chance for an equaliser by firing narrowly over the bar two minutes from halftime and things got even worse for the Sociedad midfielder after the break.

Shakhtar doubled their lead three minutes after the restart following a blunder by Martinez, whose clumsy clearance set up Alex Teixeira to rifle straight into the top corner. Douglas Costa rifled a spectacular shot into the top corner from the edge of the area to make it 3-0 and ended the rout with a header three minutes from time. The Ukrainian champions will top the group if they win at United on Dec 10. Spain’s Sociedad, with one point, are now out of Europe altogether. — Reuters

PARIS: Paris Saint-Germain qualified for the last 16 of the Champions League as winners of Group C after beating Olympiakos 2-1 at the Parc des Princes yesterday. PSG only needed a draw to secure top spot in the section and Zlatan Ibrahimovic gave them a dream start, opening the scoring inside seven minutes. The sending-off of Marco Verratti early in the second half left the hosts down to 10 men, and Olympiakos profited from their man advantage to draw level through Kostas Manolas with nine minutes remaining.

However, Edinson Cavani’s 90th-minute strike handed PSG the win as they progress while Olympiakos are left to fight it out with Benfica for the second qualifying berth in the last round of games next month after the Portuguese outfit won 3-2 away to Anderlecht. This was a meeting of two in-form teams, with PSG defending a record of 34 games unbeaten stretching back nearly nine months and Olympiakos having lost only once this season. However, that defeat was a 4-1 reverse at the hands of PSG when the clubs last met in Piraeus in September, so the Greek champions knew the size of the task before them at the Parc des Princes.

The encounter also brought together several of the most exciting talents in the European game just now, from Ibrahimovic and Cavani in the home ranks to Greek hotshot Kostas Mitroglou, scorer of 23 goals in 22 games this season. But in an encounter in which both sides were in a position to seal qualification, it was Ibrahimovic and PSG who struck first just seven minutes in.

It was a textbook PSG goal, with Gregory Van der Wiel surging forward down the right and crossing low for Ibrahimovic to score his 18th goal in his last 12 games for club and country from close range. The combination of Van der Wiel and Ibrahimovic has been one of PSG’s most potent sources of goals this season, and Olympiakos coach Michel had actually started with two left-backs on the field in an attempt to stop the danger coming from the Dutchman.

Forced to open up after the concession of that goal, Olympiakos were rather enterprising, and Mitroglou nearly equalized within five minutes, Salvatore Sirigu turning his first-time shot from Joel Campbell’s cross around the post.

Mitroglou tested Sirigu on two more occasions in the first half, but Cavani gave a glimpse of his menace too with a strike that required Roberto in the Olympiakos goal to make a firm-handed save. The Ligue 1 leaders were in control at the interval, but they were dealt a serious blow less than 30 seconds after the restart.

Many spectators had not yet retaken their seats when Scottish referee Craig Thomson sent off Verratti, the young Italian - who had been cautioned for handball in the first half - picking up a second yellow for pulling back David Fuster on the halfway line. PSG coach Laurent Blanc reacted to that by taking off a forward in Ezequiel Lavezzi and reinforcing his midfield with Adrien Rabiot, and the substitute’s first involvement was to win a free-kick which Ibrahimovic struck fiercely from 35 yards, forcing Roberto into action again.

The Spanish goalkeeper then denied Rabiot himself, tipping a crisp left-footed drive from the teenager around the post, and Olympiakos went on to equalize in controversial fashion. Manolas turned the ball in after Sirigu had denied substitute Alejandro Dominguez at a corner, but Dominguez was in an offside position when he connected with the initial knockdown by Manolas, and PSG will feel justice was done after Cavani burst through to make it 2-1 at the death. — AFP

Afflalo and Magic end road skid

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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

PSG sink Olympiakos to progress

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Mourinho admits mistakes in Chelsea defeat

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LEVERKUSEN: Leverkusen goalkeeper Bernd Leno (right) collides with Manchester United’s Shinji Kagawa during the Champions League group A soccer match between Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester United yesterday. — AP

United brush off Bayer, reach last 16 LEVERKUSEN: Manchester United confirmed their place in the Champions League’s knock-out phase with an emphatic 5-0 win at an overwhelmed Bayer Leverkusen yesterday. A volley from right-back Antonio Valencia and an own goal from Leverkusen centre-back Emir Spahic gave United a commanding early lead before defender Jonny Evans added a third with an hour gone.

England defender Chris Smalling added their fourth on 77 minutes after he met Wayne Rooney’s chip at the back post.

Nani then latched on to a Ryan Giggs long ball for a fine solo goal for the fifth on 88 minutes with the Leverkusen defense in tatters. England’s Rooney proved he can create as well as finish as he had a hand in the first four goals in an outstanding performance. It was his cross which Valencia converted

and his free-kick which Spahic headed into his own net.

His shot led to Evans’ goal and his deft chip beat Leverkusen’s goalkeeper Bernd Leno and found Smalling unmarked for the fourth. The result keeps David Moyes’ United top of Group A and three points ahead of secondplaced Shakhtar Donetsk, who United host at Old Trafford in a fortnight. Donetsk’s 4-0 win at home to Real Sociedad means Leverkusen drop to third in the group and a point behind the Ukrainians. Having offered little resistance against United, Leverkusen now need to win at Real Sociedad in their final game, and hope United beat Donetsk, to reach the last 16.

Leverkusen deservedly suffered their first home defeat in 14 games since losing 2-1 to Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga back in March. Now unbeaten in 11 matches since

September, United got their wish to be able to focus on improving their sixth place in the Premier League with their place in the knock-out stages confirmed. Despite all their prematch talk about not being intimidated, as they were for their 4-2 defeat at Old Trafford in September, Leverkusen allowed United to run riot throughout. United’s opener came when Kagawa won the ball in midfield, squared to Giggs, who found Rooney on the left wing.

The England striker floated his pass over two Leverkusen defenders and Kagawa, but found Valencia at the back post on 22 minutes. The Premier League side doubled their tally when Rooney’s free-kick was headed into his own net by Spahic, under pressure from United right-back Chris Smalling on 30 minutes. Leverkusen had their best passage of pressure

just before the hour mark when they laid siege to the United goal as they hit the post and forced goalkeeper David de Gea into a point-blank save.At the other end, Rooney slipped his marker, but pushed his shot wide as United threatened a third goal.

It came moments later from a corner when Rooney forced Bayer goalkeeper Bernd Leno into a save and centre-back Evans collected the rebound, rounded the stranded Leno and tapped home on 66 minutes. The fourth came 13 minutes from time when Kagawa slid his pass through the Leverkusen defense for Rooney to chip over Leno and give Smalling the simplest of tap-ins. With the defense all at sea, Nani met a deft long ball from Giggs, rounded Leno and fired home for a fine individual goal which summed up United’s night. — AFP

Bayern rack up 10th straight CL victory Guardiola’s side seal 3-1 away victory MOSCOW: Bayern Munich eased past CSKA Moscow 3-1 yesterday to set a Champions League (CL) record with their 10th straight victory and underline their ambitions to become the first team to successfully defend the title. The Bavarians, who had already qualified for the knockout stage, struck against the run of play in snowy Moscow with Arjen Robben’s superb left-footed strike in the 17th minute. Mario Goetze added another after a fine run before Keisuke Honda cut the deficit with a penalty just after the hour.

Thomas Mueller responded with a penalty of his own to restore their two-goal lead in the 65th and give Bayern their best ever start with five wins from five group games.

“Playing on this pitch today was adventurous,” Bayern coach Pep Guardiola told reporters when asked about the snow. “It was

difficult because the players had no grip. But over 90 minutes we were better than our opponents. Getting 10 wins in a row is very hard and I am proud of my players, the club and everyone involved.”

Barcelona set the previous record of nine wins in 2002-3. The Germans, the only team in the competition with a perfect record this season, have not yet secured top spot in Group D and will await the result between Manchester City and Viktoria Plzen later. “It is a fantastic achievement to win 10 consecutive games in Europe especially if you consider we also played Barcelona and then Borussia Dortmund on the way to the final (last season),” scorer Robben told reporters.

“We have said we don’t play for records, we play to win titles. But we have a great team and I am proud to be part of it.”

Bayern, who were missing several key

MOSCOW: Bayern’s midfielder Mario Gotze (right) vies with CSKA’s midfielder Georgi Milanov during an UEFA Champions League group D football match between CSKA Moscow and Bayern Munich yesterday. — AFP

players including Franck Ribery, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Mario Mandzukic, are top on 15 points from five games, with also qualified City on nine from four matches. The Russians are third on three. On a freezing Moscow evening and amid heavy snowfall, it was the hosts who got off to a stronger start with Sergei Ignashevich’s header cleared off the line by Dante in the fifth minute.

But Bayern, who also set a club record with their sixth straight Champions League away win, stunned the home crowd with their first chance as Robben finished well after Toni Kroos’ pinpoint through-ball and Thomas Mueller’s cutback for the Dutchman. Kroos delivered another perfect cross minutes later with Robben narrowly failing to connect in the box. CSKA, already out of contention for a top two finish and desperate to salvage a Europa League spot, had several good chances either side of the break. Ahmed Musa, who broke clear, managed only a weak shot under pressure on the stroke of halftime.

Bayern keeper Manuel Neuer then snatched the ball from under Honda’s legs after the Japanese waited too long to shoot. Honda then missed another golden opportunity when he failed to connect with a simple tapin before Bayern, on the backfoot again, struck back through Goetze.

The midfielder, who was also on target in Saturday’s 3-0 league win over his former side Borussia Dortmund, netted with a fine solo effort. The hosts cut the deficit with a 62nd minute penalty by Honda after a handball by Dante but their joy was short-lived with Bayern restoring the two-goal cushion thanks to Thomas Mueller’s spot kick. CSKA battled on and hit the bar through Zoran Tosic in the 79th but could not avoid their fourth defeat in the group. — Reuters

MADRID: Galatasaray’s Ivorian forward Didier Drogba (left) vies with Real Madrid’s midfielder Asier Illarramendi during the UEFA Champions League football match Real Madrid CF vs Galatasaray SK at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium yesterday. — AFP

Madrid trash Galatasaray MADRID: Gareth Bale scored a marvelous free-kick as 10man Real Madrid eased into the last 16 of the Champions League with a 4-1 win over Galatasaray yesterday. Madrid had to play just under three quarters of the game with a man less after Sergio Ramos was shown a red card for dragging back Umut Bulut as he broke clear on goal. Bale then opened the scoring with his fifth goal in six games, but Bulut equalized for the Turkish champions just a minute later. Alvaro Arbeloa restored Real’s lead just after the break and the full-back then teed up Angel di Maria to make the points safe 12 minutes later. And Isco rounded off the scoring with a wonderful piece of skill as he left Selcuk Inan on the floor before side-footing the ball home. Victory seals Madrid’s place in the last 16 as group winners, whilst Galatasaray will have to beat Juventus at home on matchday six if they are to qualify after the Italian champions beat FC Copenhagen 3-1 in the night’s other match in Group B. In the absence of the injured Cristiano Ronaldo, Bale was expected to carry more of the responsibility in attack, but he passed up a huge chance inside three minutes when he slotted wide with just Eray Iscan to beat. The hosts

were then reduced to 10 men after just 26 minutes when Ramos pulled back Bulut as he raced onto a ball over the top and Scottish referee Willie Collum had no hesitation of brandishing the 17th red card of Ramos’ Madrid career.

Madrid coped admirably despite the sending-off and were in front on 37 minutes when Bale sending a dipping free-kick from fully 35 yards into the top corner. The lead lasted barely 60 seconds, though, as a wonderful through ball from Didier Drogba played in Bulut to level. Bale should have restored Madrid’s lead when he fired an effort just over from inside the area. But Los Blancos did make it 2-1 just six minutes after the interval through an unlikely source as Arbeloa bundled home Di Maria’s cross.

Arbeloa then saw another effort fly just wide before venturing forward once more to square for Di Maria to make it 3-1. Galatasaray boss Roberto Mancini introduced former Real favorite Wesley Sneijder in a bid to turn the game around. And Iker Casillas had to make a stunning save to prevent Drogba’s looping header from setting up a grandstand finish. But Isco rounded off a fine night for the hosts when he danced through the Galatasaray defense before slotting low into the net. — AFP

Business

For poor, America is ‘land of less’ this Thanksgiving Page 23

First ever mega Indian realty show in Kuwait

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

Page 22 Tunisian factories close, jobs go as political crisis drags on Page 23 Page 22

Wataniya Telecom celebrates renewed network

BEIJING: A general view shows the skyline of a central business district. Foreign investment into China rose 5.77 percent on year in the first 10 months of 2013, the government said. — AFP

Foreign flows to N Africa evaporate on shocks W Africa outperforms N Africa in drawing FDI LONDON: Investment in North African markets by international funds has evaporated as shocks in and outside the region have prevented hoped-for economic progress since “Arab Spring” uprisings swept many of the countries nearly three years ago. Morocco, which has avoided the worst of its neighbours’ turmoil, became the latest casualty yesterday when it was relegated in the leading MSCI indices from the league of established emerging markets to the “frontier” division of economies with less developed capital markets.

Along with its North African peers Egypt and Tunisia, Morocco suffers from a gaping trade deficit and relies largely on outside aid from international financial institutions or richer Gulf states, while domestic politics remain unstable.

Portfolio managers are largely steering clear of all three, apart possibly from a small number of strong companies. Instead, regional and international investors are choosing markets such as Dubai, which has already regained a safe haven status only a few years after its property bubble burst.

“The whole (North African) region has struggled in the last year or so,” said Andrew Brudenell, frontier fund manager at HSBC Asset Management. “Foreign investors are mostly not there, apart from a few names in Egypt and 1-2 names in Morocco.” International investors have directed more than $1 billion of net equity flows to Egypt since 2008, according to

fund tracker EPFR. But only a third of this - around $350 million - has arrived since Egyptians overthrew autocrat Hosni Mubarak at the start of 2011. Net investment in Moroccan and Tunisian equities, the bulk of which is normally in companies listed on local stock markets, has stayed close to zero.

This falls short of a number of sub-Saharan African countries such as Nigeria, which has drawn $100 million in net investment over the past three years, according to EPFR. However, investors remain enthusiastic about individual stocks or interest rate markets. One favourite is Commercial International Bank, Egypt’s most profitable and strongest private bank which lends into some of the most lucrative sectors of the economy such as oil services. Moroccan picks include Maroc Telecom and property developer Addoha.

A far cry from 2010 But this is a far cry from the end of 2010 on the eve of the uprisings, when many international investors had Egypt near the top of their buy lists and were awaiting the first European listing of a state-owned Tunisian company, with more expected to follow. At that time Morocco had just launched a well-received euro bond following a three-year borrowing hiatus. When Tunisians overthrew president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011, quickly followed by Mubarak in Egypt, investors thought new governments would follow

UAE rises in last-minute bets on Dubai Expo 2020 MIDEAST STOCKS DUBAI: United Arab Emirates stock markets rose yesterday on last-minute bets that Dubai would win the right to host the 2020 World Expo. Most other Gulf bourses also climbed, while Egypt extended losses to a nearly four-week low. Dubai’s main index advanced 0.5 percent to its highest finish since Nov. 10, although it gave back almost half of its intra-day gains. The measure is 1.8 percent below the multi-year high hit in October.

“Trading in the last month has been more cautious but people are pricing in the Expo win until right before the results,” said Sanyalaksna Manibhandu, senior analyst at NBAD Securities.

“Whatever the result, you will see profit-taking.”

The winning Expo bid is to be announced later yesterday. Many analysts are predicting a shortterm rally followed by a sell-off to take profits if Dubai wins, and a steeper sell-off in case of a disappointment.

But buyers may then return before the yearend to re-position for annual dividends and fourth-quarter earnings. “You will see better results for the full year, particularly from the banking sector, because impairments have come down,” Manibhandu added. Trading was heaviest in stocks which retail investors believe would benefit most if Dubai hosts the Expo. Dubai Investments, which owns land around the proposed expo site, rose 3.1 percent. Emaar Properties climbed 1.3 percent and Union Properties added 2.7 percent.

The optimism spread to neighbouring Abu Dhabi, with the index there also rising 0.5 percent.

Abu Dhabi National Building Materials jumped 8.9 percent; the stock is now up 116 percent this year, following five years of losses. Qatar’s benchmark meanwhile rose 0.8 percent to 10,353 points, a one-week high and near the year’s peak of 10,445 points.

Investors are positioning themselves for annual dividends, which will be announced with fourthquarter earnings in early 2014. Qatar National Bank and Industries Qatar climbed 1.8 and 1.5 percent. In Egypt, the benchmark index declined 0.6 percent to its lowest close since Nov. 3. The market dropped for a fifth consecutive session from a 34month high.

Profit-taking was exacerbated by the government’s apparent difficulty in the transition back to civilian rule. Arrests of activists after new regulations on protests have shaken support in some quarters for the military-led interim government.

“The market plunged on noise about the pace of political progress...Prices should hold at these levels as the profit-taking phase is over,” said Mohamed Radwan, director of international sales at Pharos Securities. Egypt will hold a referendum on an amended constitution in December, the group drafting it said on Tuesday. That contradicted a statement on Sunday by the prime minister, who said it would be held in late January. — Reuters

more open economic policies that would benefit them.

Instead the revolts started a long period of political conflict and - in the case of Egypt - bloodshed after the army removed Mubarak’s Islamist successor, president Mohamed Morsi, last July after only a year in office. Morocco had no revolution but has had to raise state spending in an attempt to contain social discontent.

Foreign direct investment into North Africa has fallen, according to the United Nations development agency UNCTAD. It records FDI flows of $11.5 billion into the region last year, up from $8.5 billion in 2011 but well below 2010 levels of $15.8 billion. Western Africa, in contrast, has attracted record FDI levels in the past two years.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which now invests in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia as well as Jordan, also sees weak portfolio and FDI flows into the region. Tunisia - where Islamists and the secular opposition are arguing over forming a caretaker government to lead the country to elections next year - and Egypt are particularly suffering, said Hanan Morsi, the EBRD’s senior economist for the region.

This is due to the prolonged instability alongside weak economic growth in the developed world, such as the eurozone which is normally a major market for their exports.

“The Arab Spring put pressure on public spending and wages at a time when there was a weak external environment and (domestic) political turmoil - it’s a combination of shocks.”

While many frontier markets have rallied this year, Tunisia has fallen 8 percent in dollar terms. Morocco, which until yesterday was classified as a small emerging market, and Egypt are also flat in dollar terms. The currencies of all three countries which have big trade and payments deficits are at risk of depreciation.

Cairo-based private equity firm Citadel Capital has kept most of its North African holdings to Egypt, apart from a stake in an Algerian cement company. “When you look at North Africa, the story has been the Arab Spring and upheavals,” said Hisham El-Khazindar, managing director of Citadel.

Citadel was also avoiding Libya, Khazindar said, following the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi two years ago, due to its political and security problems. Stock-picking investors often point to firms in emerging and frontier markets which have survived coups or wars with their businesses intact. But they say many in Morocco or Tunisia are not cheap enough, as measured by their stock prices as a multiple of their earnings per share, to take the risk. — Reuters

Economic problems go beyond sanctions: Iran DUBAI: President Hassan Rouhani said Iran’s economic problems went beyond sanctions, blaming “unparalleled stagflation” on the profligacy and mismanagement of his predecessor, hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In office from 2005 until August, Ahmadinejad presided over a period of unprecedented revenue growth due to high oil prices but, analysts say, squandered much of it on subsidies that pumped money into the economy and drove up inflation.

He also antagonised the United States and the West by threatening to wipe Israel off “the page of time”, repeated denials of the Holocaust and an uncompromising stance on Iran’s disputed nuclear programme. “The stagflation in 1391 was unparalleled,” Rouhani said, referring to the Iranian year that ended in March. During that year, the economy contracted by 6 percent, while inflation rose above 40 percent, he said.

The International Monetary Fund expects Iran’s economy will shrink 1.5 percent this year in inflation-adjusted terms, after an estimated 1.9 percent contraction last year which was the biggest since 1988, when Iran’s eight-year war with Iraq ended.

Despite receiving 600 billion dollars in oil revenue over the past eight years, Rouhani said the legacy of Ahmadinejad’s two terms

was around $67 billion dollars of debt. Iran’s nominal GDP was $549 billion in 2012 and will shrink to $389 billion in 2013, according to the IMF’s October outlook.

“These facts show the conditions we inherited from the previous government and in what conditions we must grapple with the problems,” Rouhani said in a speech late on Tuesday to mark his first 100 days in office. Rouhani secured a landslide election victory in June promising a policy of “constructive engagement” with the outside world would help ease international sanctions on the Islamic Republic imposed over its nuclear programme. Iran denies seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capability.

An interim deal with six world powers clinched in Geneva on Sunday promises to bring some $7 billion-worth of relief from those sanctions, but most of the measures remain in place and Rouhani said it would take time for the economy to improve.

Nouriel Roubini, chairman of Roubini Global Economics and an economics professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business said that at this stage, the sanctions lifted would not make a big difference. “It will still be an economy severely constrained by the fact that most of the most important sanctions are still there and, rightly, the US and great powers are

cautious,” he said on the sidelines of a financial conference in Dubai. “They want to see that Iran is not bluffing.”

Subsidies US and EU sanctions on Iran’s oil, shipping and banking sectors halved Iranian crude exports, helped fuel inflation and unemployment and drive down the value of the rial, which gained about 3 percent following Sunday’s deal. “I don’t want to say that all the economic problems are related to the sanctions. A major part of the problem is related to mismanagement,” he said.

Rouhani said reducing inflation was a priority. Inflation had fallen to 36 percent by the end of October and the government aimed to bring it below 25 percent by the end of the following Iranian year March 2015 in the Western calendar. The government would also reform the banking system but reforms of Ahmadinejad’s expensive subsidy programme, under which most Iranian families receive state handouts, would have to wait until a second phase. Rouhani also said his government aimed to promote agriculture in order to reduce Iran’s dependence on imports: “When you are in a struggle against the world, you have to rely on yourself. You can’t confront the world with slogans”. — Reuters

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

BUSINESS

First ever mega Indian realty show in Kuwait Most reputed Indian brands under one roof KUWAIT: Around 150 attractive real estate projects, in five cities - a first ever and exclusive mega brand Indian property exhibition called, “Destination Home” is being organized on Friday and Saturday; November 29 and 30, 2013, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Kuwait.

This mega brand property show aims to bring under the same roof, the big and the most reputed real estate companies, and property experts from India. On display will be the latest real estate opportunities from West and South of India in the currently booming Indian property market, as well as expert advice on the current real estate trends and, how, what and where to buy.

Some of the prominent companies participating in this property show are : L&T Realty, Kalpa-Taru, Lodha, Rustomjee - Mumbai; Kalpa-Taru, Lodha Pune; Brigade Group, Puravankara, Ozonegroup Bangalore; Puravankara, Ozonegroup - Chennai; and Tirtvam by TATA Realty - Cochin.

This exhibition is being organized by Moashk Securities & Investment Co-Div of Ashkanani International in with association with HDFC-Kuwait.

MOASHK Securities & Investments - a division of Ashkanani International General Trading & Contracting Co WLL - is a leading financial solutions provider in Kuwait, established in 2006 in Kuwait.

MOASHK possesses a mature portfolio of financial products, and their experience and expertise in the field of real estate ensures sound advice to the

approximately 9000 clients which they are catering to, currently.

Their core, 15-member team constitutes of dynamic and skilled MBA’s, financial analysts, planners, investments and insurance experts who have brought about various achievements, namely: Launched the first ever company in Kuwait to offer all Indian financial products at the doorstep of NRIs in Kuwait. Introduced all the major asset management companies like Reliance, HDFC, Birla, TATA, SBI etc to our clients in Kuwait.

Conducted more than 50 big Investors meet along with various gigantic asset management companies of India, in various 5-star hotels. Introduced Reliance Money, the biggest Online Trading Platform, in Kuwait. Introduced the most advanced software to manage investment portfolios of Indian Investors to track and update their Investments in India. Tied up with the most prestigious housing finance company of India namely, HDFC LTD as their local sponsor and sole channel partner, with representation of their employees in Kuwait to bring housing loan at the doorstep of NRIs in Kuwait.

Made the dream of buying a home easy for NRIs by launching the most complicated Indian Real Estate Division in Kuwait. Today Moashk is the pioneer and market leader in bringing the biggest developers from various regions of India to Kuwait, for easy selection of properties right here in Kuwait.

Currently Moashk is associated with more than 150

Hong Kong may unveil govt sukuk bill in 2014 government to issue sukuk under its existing government bond programme, which has so far issued HK$107.5 billion ($13.9 billion), of which HK$90 billion was outstanding as of Nov 15. The paper calls for legislative amendments to allow the use of special purpose vehicles; such vehicles are often required for sukuk, which are investment certificates that follow religious guidelines such as bans on interest and gambling.

In July, Hong Kong regulators passed a bill to facilitate issuance of sukuk in the local market, helping clarify their tax status. Sukuk can face heavy taxation because they involve multiple transfers of the assets backing them. The idea of a Hong Kong sukuk was raised as far back as 2008, when the territory’s airport authority considered selling a sukuk of up to $1 billion, but no sale has taken place so far. — Reuters

DUBAI: Hong Kong may present a bill to lawmakers in the first quarter of next year to allow the government to raise funds via Islamic bonds, according to a discussion paper from the territory’s Legislative Council. The plans come at a time of increasing competition among financial centres for a slice of Islamic finance business, which is centred in southeast Asia and the Middle East.

Hong Kong’s schedule could see it leap-frog Britain in issuing a debut sukuk; Prime Minister David Cameron said last month that the first British sovereign sukuk was expected “as early as next year ”. The discussion paper will be reviewed by the Legislative Council next Monday, a Hong Kong Treasury spokeswoman said, without giving details of the potential size or timing of a government sukuk.

The bill would allow the AAA-rated

StanChart begins Iraq banking as petrodollars boost economy BAGHDAD: British lender Standard Chartered launched banking operations in Iraq yesterday, saying it hoped to benefit from large infrastructure projects in a country trying to rebuild after years of conflict. Standard Chartered is one of a small number of foreign banks with operations in Iraq, which is seeing rapid economic growth fuelled by oil production but also its worst upsurge in sectarian violence in at least five years.

The security concerns and a complex regulatory and political environment have put some international firms off doing business there.

HSBC is trying to exit Iraq by selling its stake in Dar Es Salaam Investment Bank. But Standard Chartered said it was upbeat about the economy, which it expects to grow by 9 percent next year, up from 6.7 percent in 2013. It opened its country head office and first branch yesterday in Baghdad’s banking district on a street lined with blast walls and patrolled by guards with Kalashnikov rifles. “The Iraqi government is planning large scale infrastructure projects and these will require international financing solutions,” said Gavin Wishart, chief executive of the bank’s Iraq operations.

The bank, which said it was the first interna-

tional lender to have full-fledged banking operations in the country, plans to open another branch in Arbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, in December and a third in the oil hub of Basra in the first half of 2014. Its aim is to “meet the increasing banking needs of its global network clients in Iraq, notably in the power, oil, telecoms and infrastructure sectors,” it said in a statement.

Standard Chartered has been in Iraq since 2006 with a representative office in Arbil in the more stable northern region.

There is a relatively small pool of foreign lenders operating in the country, where the banking sector is dominated by two stateowned institutions, Rafidain and Rashid, making it tough for other lenders to compete. Since last year, Gulf lenders such as Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank and Qatar National Bank have opened offices in Iraq. Lebanon’s Bank Audi plans to launch in the country and Citigroup Inc said in June it would open a representative office in Baghdad. Standard Chartered said large oil reserves in easy-to-access oilfields made for strong growth prospects, and the country could also become a major gas producer. It said the government may return to the bond market to finance new infrastructure. — Reuters

developers across India and the list is growing day by day. Introduced the facility of getting PAN Card for NRIs right here in Kuwait. Introduced the facility of filing Income Tax Returns for NRIs right here in Kuwait. Conducted the first ever Indian Wealth Management Exhibition in 2008. The event was named “India Invest 2008” and was a major success.

More than 1000 investors visited this event to take expert advice from the biggest fund houses of India, like SBI, Reliance, UTI, TATA, Birla etc.

Soon launching the State of Art India Real Estate Portal displaying and providing all the information of the major properties of India.

Why is this real estate event required in Kuwait?

Moashk, being the pioneer in promoting Indian real estate in Kuwait, understands the need of the Indian population in Kuwait. Being the face of the biggest and oldest housing finance company in Kuwait the, Company’s understanding of the requirements of Indians here is unmatchable. In order to provide the best possible and safe options Moashk only promotes companies approved by HDFC. Moashk not only assist people in buying properties but also guides them in taking well informed decisions, based on proper due diligence of all the developers they promote. Currently, all the companies participating in this event are well renowned and backed by either an explicit track record or corporate backing.

Why West and South of India?

Moashk understands that majority of the Indian population in Kuwait hails from the above two regions. This fact is further authenticated by historical data of HDFC, Kuwait. In order to serve the Indian population belonging to these regions and to show their firm commitment to serve them, Moashk has done its best to bring the biggest brands from these regions.

All these brands portray trust, commitment and stability. All the visitors in this event can be rest assured that all the participating companies are big, very well reputed, and all their projects are dependable.

Why should you visit this event?

Two, very important factors were considered while organizing this event : Firstly, this event will offer a wide range of projects with property starting from Rs. 25lac to Rs. 10cr. Secondly, various projects are geographically spread out in respective cities.

These two factors will give the visitors a wide variety of projects to choose from as per your budget and location.

“Destination Home” - this first ever mega brand Indian Property Show is being held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Farwaniya, on Friday, November 29 and Saturday, November 31, 2013 from 10 am to 8 pm.

Hope to see meet you there!

For more inquiries, please contact the following numbers : 67701831, 60419426, 66341325, or visit the website: www.moashkinvest.com.

Tunisian factories close, jobs go as political crisis drags on Talks to name new government stalled for now BIZERTE: Tunisia’s “Arab Spring” revolution, born out of economic despair, is failing to deliver the jobs and opportunities of a better life that its people long for, and had once expected. While Tunisia has largely avoided the bloodshed afflicting much of the region, a prolonged political crisis is hurting the economy badly and Mohammad Abd El Momen is one of the victims. “We started the revolution and the politicians got the jobs. We got the tragedy,” said El Momen, who until July worked at a factory making safety boots for construction workers in Europe.

Then his Italian employers - like many foreign investors - gave up and closed the plant in Bizerte, a coastal city 65 km (40 miles) north of Tunis. Now the shopfloor is deserted, the factory gates are locked and 4,500 more Tunisians are unemployed.”I cannot find even the cash for milk for my children,” El Momen said outside the plant in Bizerte, where former factory families now survive on meagre state handouts.

Their prospects remain bleak while ruling Islamists and the secular opposition argue over forming a caretaker cabinet, creating an atmosphere of uncertainty and polarisation that is worrying investors and international lenders alike.

Tunisia’s uprising - and the Arab Spring - began with a cry as much for opportunity as for freedom when unemployed university graduate Mohammed Bouazizi, who scraped a living selling vegetables, set himself on fire in December 2010.

Even before he died from his injuries, outraged Tunisians took to the streets and the following month autocratic leader President Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali fled the country.

This raised hopes among Tunisians of a better life, and encouraged fellow Arabs to rise up against their rulers around the region.

Balancing austerity with discontent The government forecasts Tunisia’s economy will grow 3 percent this year and next, down from 3.6 percent in 2012 and nothing like enough to create jobs for an expanding population. Growth slowed in the third quarter to 2.4 percent year-onyear. Unemployment, which hit 15.7 percent of the workforce in July-September, tops the list of Tunisians’ complaints along the high cost of living.

Inflation reached 6.5 percent in March, the highest annual rate in at least five years, and has eased only

TUNIS: Tunisians shout slogans against the country’s ruling Islamist Ennahda party yesterday. — AFP plus the need to recapitalise leading banks. The rival a little since then.

Analysts say there is no sense that public frus- Fitch agency lowered Tunisia’s rating by two notches trations are close to boiling over again. However, last month for similar reasons. Tunisia still has credits the longer the political crisis drags on, the harder it due from international lenders and, unlike Egypt, it will be for the next government to balance austeri- has reached a deal with the International Monetary ty designed to tackle a rapidly growing budget Fund. But Finance Minister Elyess Fakhfakh recently deficit with discontent over living costs and jobs. said the African Development Bank, a regional mulFor months, Tunisia’s ruling Islamist party Ennahda ti-lateral lender, had cancelled a $300 million loan and the secular opposition have struggled to end a due to the turmoil. standoff over handing power to the transitional Closing doors cabinet which is meant to govern until elections Freed of the heavy state control of the Ben Ali early next year. Ennahda agreed to step down later era, Tunisians have staged a series of political this month, but negotiations have stalled.

The parties are trying to settle their differences protests, sit-ins and demands for wage increases. at the negotiating table, in contrast to Syria, Egypt However, a local business chamber says the resultand Libya. Nevertheless, Islamist militants have ing instability has forced more than 150 foreign assassinated two opposition leaders and last investors to close their companies. Mohammed month Tunisia suffered a suicide attack at a beach Frikha, owner of local Syphax airline and one of the resort, the first in a decade, in a blow to tourism country’s most prominent business leaders, said protests and strikes worry investors and needed to which accounts for around 8 percent of GDP. All this has shaken economic confidence. This be addressed to attract investment again.

Exports, which along with remittances from week Moody’s agency cut Tunisia’s sovereign credit rating by one notch to Ba3. It blamed the political Tunisians working abroad and tourism traditionally uncertainty and polarisation, security risks, prob- bring in foreign currency, have been hit and the lems in borrowing abroad and from international trade deficit reached $5.3 billion in the first nine donors, as well as the budget and external deficits months of this year. —Reuters

EXCHANGE RATES Al-Muzaini Exchange Co. ASIAN COUNTRIES Japanese Yen Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Srilankan Rupees Nepali Rupees Singapore Dollar Hongkong Dollar Bangladesh Taka Philippine Peso Thai Baht Irani Riyal Irani Riyal

2.792 4.551 2.621 2.157 2.848 227.110 36.578 3.640 6.448 8.868 0.271 0.273 GCC COUNTRIES

Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham

75.664 77.941 736.880 753.420 77.251

ARAB COUNTRIES Egyptian Pound - Cash Egyptian Pound - Transfer Yemen Riyal/for 1000 Tunisian Dinar Jordanian Dinar Lebanese Lira/for 1000 Syrian Lira Morocco Dirham

40.650 40.715 1.323 171.020 400.580 1.903 3.082 34.877

EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 283.550 Euro 386.760 Sterling Pound 461.340 Canadian dollar 270.310 Turkish lira 141.410 Swiss Franc 314.710 Australian Dollar 259.870 US Dollar Buying 282.350 GOLD 20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

244.000 124.000 64.000

UAE Exchange Centre WLL COUNTRY Australian Dollar Canadian Dollar Swiss Franc Euro US Dollar Sterling Pound Japanese Yen Bangladesh Taka Indian Rupee Sri Lankan Rupee Nepali Rupee Pakistani Rupee UAE Dirhams Bahraini Dinar Egyptian Pound Jordanian Dinar Omani Riyal Qatari Riyal Saudi Riyal

SELL DRAFT 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 283.300 271.625 460.410 386.110 313.210 748.050 77.110 78.660 76.415 399.355 41.076 2.158 4.543 2.616 3.639 6.476 695.840 3.785 09.815

Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees Malaysian Ringgit Chinese Yuan Renminbi

3.025 3.805 88.720 46.910

Singapore Dollar South African Rand Sri Lankan Rupee Taiwan Thai Baht

0.223280 0.022088 0.001897 0.009472 0.008637

0.229280 0.030588 0.002477 0.009652 0.009187

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

Arab 0.745666 0.038380 0.000078 0.000186 0.395714 1.0000000 0.000139 0.022706 0.001201 0.730462 0.077174 0.074977 0.002173 0.166424 0.138572 0.076218 0.001288

0.753666 0.041480 0.000080 0.000246 0.403214 1.0000000 0.000239 0.046706 0.001836 0.736142 0.078387 0.075677 0.002393 0.174424 0.145572 0.077367 0.001368

Bahrain Exchange Company COUNTRY SELL CASH Belgian Franc British Pound Czech Korune Danish Krone Euro Norwegian Krone Romanian Leu Slovakia Swedish Krona Swiss Franc Turkish Lira

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

SELLDRAFT Europe 0.007371 0.453122 0.006655 0.047615 0.379817 0.042598 0.081818 0.008131 0.039117 0.306887 0.138572

0.008371 0.462122 0.018655 0.052615 0.387317 0.047798 0.81818 0.018131 0.044117 0.317087 0.145572

Australasia 0.250808 0.226220

0.262308 0.235720

America 0.263613 0.279450 0.279950

0.272113 0.283800 0.283800

Asia 0.003276 0.045175 0.034485 0.004325 0.000020 0.002705 0.003350 0.000257 0.084253 0.002981 0.002514 0.006419 0.000069

0.003876 0.048675 0.037235 0.004726 0.000026 0.002889 0.003350 0.000272 0.090253 0.003151 0.002794 0.006699 0.000075

Al Mulla Exchange CurrencyTransfer US Dollar Euro Pound Sterling Canadian Dollar Indian Rupee Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupee Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso Pakistan Rupee Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham Saudi Riyal *Rates are subject to change

Rate (Per 1000) 282.900 387.100 460.900 270.450 4.549 41.062 2.157 3.640 6.475 2.615 753.500 77.100 75.600

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

BUSINESS

Charles Lee

Abdulaziz Fakhroo

Routger Reman

Wataniya Telecom celebrates renewed network Wataniya set to launch 4G/LTE advanced service KUWAIT: Wataniya Telecom celebrated completing a $400 million project to improve its network in an event attended by employees, partners, clients, as well as media representatives and other dignitaries. “We are proud to announce the conclusion of the network renovation project in record time”, General Manager and CEO Abdulaziz Fakhroo said in a speech at the inauguration of the event. He also took the opportunity to “celebrate productive cooperation” with Ericsson and Huawei.

According to Fakhroo, Wataniya’s event held last week in the presence of Google representatives was “to determine the launch point for finalizing our network improvement project”. “Wataniya Telecom, the first private telecommunication services provider in Kuwait’s history, met with representatives from Google, the world’s number one search engine, to discuss the latest innovations and strategic technologies”, he said.

Fakhroo further indicated that the relationship with Ericsson and Huawei is a part of efforts to provide “the newest and top quality technology for our clients”. “A modern and advanced network is key to any

telecommunication company’s chances to achieve great success and maintain strong position among competitors”, he said.

The network improvement allows Wataniya to utilize the U900 technology in order to provide better coverage indoors.

Furthermore Fakhroo announced that Wataniya Telecom is prepared to release the 4G/LTE advanced service “as soon as the necessary licenses are obtained”.

Meanwhile, Vice President of Ericsson Region Middle East, Rutger Reman, expressed “honor for standing side-by-side with Wataniya Telecom as partners in success”. He also said that the network improvement project allows the company to “perform future changes and updates easily whenever necessary”. Huawei Vice President for Middle East Charles Lee said in the meantime that his company “is committed to providing the most innovative technologies” to clients in Kuwait through their relationship with Wataniya that started at the beginning of this year. Staff members from Wataniya, Ericsson and Huawei who worked on the project were awarded during the ceremony.

KUWAIT: Wataniya senior officials and guests. — Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

UK’s Osborne set to give half-yearly budget update Energy tax breaks likely to tackle rising living costs LONDON: For the first time since taking office in 2010, finance minister George Osborne will be able to present a more upbeat message about Britain’s finances in a budget update next week.

An unexpectedly strong rebound in economic growth since his budget in March will also give Osborne some scope to address rising living costs, the key challenge to his Conservative-led government’s re-election in May 2015.

Growth is set to be three times faster than predicted as recently as March, and economists expect official borrowing forecasts for this year and next to be lowered by just over 10 billion pounds ($16.2 billion) when Osborne presents his half-yearly update on Dec 5.

However, even if borrowing this financial year does fall to the range of 105-110 billion pounds that economists expect, it will still amount to nearly 7 percent of annual economic output down from 11 percent at the last election but more than in almost all other big economies.

Moreover, economists do not think the government’s Office for Budget Responsibility will judge the improvement in growth to be durable enough for it to bring forward the date when it expects Britain to reach a key budget goal.

Osborne aimed in 2010 to bring the budget into surplus - excluding investment spending, and taking into account where the economy is in the business cycle - by 2014/15, but this is currently pencilled in for 2016/17. “The drop in the deficit is really all the side-effect of stronger economic growth,” said Michael Saunders, chief UK economist at Citi, adding that it was too early to for the OBR to judge Britain’s long-run prospects had improved.

The fall in borrowing is less marked than the upgrade to growth might suggest, in part because of the time-lag between improvements in growth and the public finances. The opposition Labour Party and some economists argue Britain would have achieved strong growth far sooner if Osborne had cut spending by less in 2010 and 2011, putting it in a better position to reduce borrowing now. Nonetheless, the better borrowing numbers so far this year mean Osborne does not have to fear a repeat of the ratings agency downgrades in February and April, which cost Britain the triple-A rating he had pledged to defend.

Living cost crunch It also means Osborne will have some spare cash to funnel towards British households, whose incomes have risen by less than inflation every year since the financial crisis and are now at their lowest in real terms in a decade. Osborne is under pressure to remove levies to fund environmental measures from household energy bills - the rising cost of which has become a political flashpoint - and instead pay for them through general government spending.

“These energy surcharges raise peanuts but they are fantastically unpopular and also a highly regressive form of taxation,” said Citi’s Saunders, adding that removing them would cost 1-2 billion pounds a year.

Britain’s finance ministry has remained tightlipped about any new budget measures but the

government has already committed to providing free school meals for more children and tax breaks for some married couples, which will cost a combined 1.3 billion pounds, and also aims to freeze tax on motor fuel. New taxes are likely for foreign property owners who have been blamed

for pushing up housing costs, especially in London. But economists still expect Osborne to bank the bulk of Britain’s borrowing undershoot, possibly to allow him more largesse nearer to the 2015 election. Osborne has also firmly stressed the need to lower the deficit. — Reuters

Germany’s new grand coalition won’t derail upturn: Analysts FRANKFURT: The compromises that Germany ’s conservative and Social Democrat parties agreed to form a “grand coalition” government are unlikely to derail the burgeoning upturn in Europe’s biggest economy, analysts said yesterday.

Nevertheless, plans to reverse a number of key labour market reforms-credited with steeling Germany against the worst of Europe’s crisis-could boomerang on the government in the future, observers warned. After 17 hours of talks into the early hours, Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed to form a left-right government with her campaign rivals the Social Democrats (SPD), two months after her conservative CDU-CSU alliance won elections but fell short of a full majority.

In the tense final round of talks that capped five weeks of political wrangling, the SPD scored key concessions, including a national minimum wage from 2015, while Merkel stuck to her own lines in the sand, blocking higher taxes for the rich and opposing new debt from next fiscal year.

The chancellor hopes to be sworn in for a third term on December 17, but the SPD’s membership must still approve the proposed “grand coalition” in a ballot next month.

Threat to German jobs miracle?

Berenberg Bank economist Christian Schulz said that “on key policies, the agreement contains good news”. It will spell continuity on Germany’s successful eurozone policies, he said. And the new government was likely to be more pragmatic in its handling of the country’s transition from conventional to renewable energy, he added.

“In terms of fiscal policies, the coalition will not raise taxes and the agreed new spending and investment are unlikely to prevent Germany from fulfilling national and European fiscal stability rules in the coming years,” Schulz said. But the bad news was that the government would roll back key labour market reforms, he said.

“The introduction of a minimum wage and new restrictions for temporary jobs contracts could threaten Germany’s jobs miracle,” Schulz said. The SPD insisted on the introduction of a nationwide minimum wage of 8.50 euros ($11.40) per hour to help Germany’s growing army of working poor.

Germany’s jobless rate is just 6.9 percent.

But, according to the DIW economic institute, 5.6 million Germans, or 17 percent of the workforce, now earn less than 8.50 euros an hour, especially low-skilled and part-time workers.

By contrast, Merkel favoured separate pay deals for each industrial sector and region, arguing that a national minimum wage would harm many small- and medium-sized businesses and could force them to lay off workers. But she conceded that a minimum wage was inevitable if the coalition talks were to succeed.

Schulz suggested that the grand coalition will likely remain stable for the full four years of its term. “The agreed policies are unlikely to derail Germany’s economic upturn. In fact, more investment and slightly looser fiscal policy may even boost domestic demand and strengthen growth,” he said.

“But the roll-back of labour market reforms and the spending increases may come back to haunt Germany in the next downturn, which may be more than four years away and thus be a problem for the next government. Ironically, it could fall to a leftwing government again to impose austerity and serious structural reforms in the future.”

SPD regret over past reforms It was an SPD-led administration under then-chancellor Gerhard Schroeder that a decade ago implemented the so-called Agenda 2010 reforms-sweeping social and economic reforms that have helped buttress Europe’s biggest economy against the worst of the euro-zone crisis. Nevertheless, Schroeder’s drastic policies also alienated much of the SPD’s traditional grassroots base and the party has never managed to win back many disenchanted leftwing voters.

The SPD was therefore adamant that some of those reforms be rescinded as a pre-condition for becoming Merkel’s coalition partner this time round. ING DiBa economist Carsten Brzeski said “it looks as if the new government’s focus is on redistributing the harvest of earlier economic reforms, rather than using the economic good times for new structural reforms.” He said his concern was that “this coalition deal could eventually end as a missed opportunity.” — AFP

For poor, America is ‘land of less’ this Thanksgiving WASHINGTON: The United States celebrates its “land of plenty” Thanksgiving Day this week, but for the poor and most vulnerable, there is less food on the table after Congress cut aid. As Americans stock up on turkeys for Thursday’s traditional Thanksgiving feast, food pantries and charities are bracing for higher demand after lawmakers slashed $5 billion from the nation’s largest hunger safety net. And lawmakers aimed at trimming the US budget deficit are contemplating more cuts to food stamps for the poor-formally the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-an initiative that helps feed almost 48 million, or one in seven Americans.

Under the SNAP cuts, a four-person household, for example, loses $36 a month, or about 21 meals, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

“Talk about ‘Les Miserables’ in America,” Leonard Edwards, an unemployed food stamps recipient, told AFP. Edwards-a volunteer at Bread for the City, a nonprofit pantry in Washington-said he receives $20 less a month in benefits. Even before the cuts, he struggled to afford food.

“I can stretch it to about those last three days” of the month, said Edwards, a military veteran who also takes home food from the pantry. Determined to reduce the government’s huge debt and chronic deficits, Democrats and Republicans in Congress are now haggling over more cuts to food stamp benefits, ranging from $5 billion to $40 billion over 10 years.

1 in 3 children hungry in US capital Meanwhile, in the US capital, one in three children struggles with hunger the second-worst rate after New Mexico, according to Feeding America. The nationwide network of 200 food banks says the number of low-income people it feeds annually grew 46 percent from 2006 to now, from 25 million people to 37 million.

In Washington, the hub of one of the nation’s wealthiest regions, legions of the homeless line up daily in front of charityrun food trucks.

Soup kitchens and food pantries are racing to meet demand from the growing

numbers of those suffering from “food insecurity ”-the term used by the US Department of Agriculture that runs the SNAP program. Bread for the City has seen an increase of about 10 to 15 percent in the number of individuals and families served by its two food pantries in Washington since the 2008 economic crisis, said its chief executive, George Jones.

“For the people at the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum, the recession’s not over,” he said. Food stamp cuts affect people already struggling to pay rent, medical bills and transportation costs, he noted.

“It exacerbates the entire economic constraints that these folks live with every day.”

The volumes of food distributed by the huge Capital Area Food Bank highlight the sheer scope of the need in the Washington area. In 2012, the CAFB distributed 45 million pounds (20 million kilos) of food, or 37.5 million meals, helping nearly 500,000 people. It moved last year into a new 123,000-square-foot (11,400-square-meter) warehouse after being forced to turn away millions of pounds of donated food because its former warehouse, half as big, lacked the capacity.

The CAFB director of public policy, Brian Banks, said that they normally get in more supplies for the holidays. But with the SNAP cuts they have increased supplies even more, because “we wanted to prepare for the worst.” “With the cuts happening, we have seen an increase in people that some wouldn’t expect to use the program.

“Now they have to turn to this program because they just don’t know where to get food from,” Banks said. It is not strictly a matter of joblessness, Banks underscored. The majority of people looking for help, both in the capital and nationwide, are working full-time, but just do not make enough money to live on, he said. Bread for the City’s Jones said that makes it hard for anyone to argue that people seeking food aid “don’t deserve a greater measure of justice, don’t deserve the support that the food stamp program really represents.” “We always have more people here than we can serve,” he said. — AFP

WASHINGTON: People prepare Thanksgiving meals for those in need on November 26, 2013, two days before Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. — AFP

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

BUSINESS

French govt tells Peugeot to review CEO pension award Varin to receive 310,000 euros net annually PARIS: The French government told PSA Peugeot Citroen yesterday to review an “inappropriate” pension award to outgoing chief executive Philippe Varin for which it has set aside 21 million euros ($28.5 million) in provisions. Peugeot announced this week that Varin would be replaced next year by former Renault No. 2 Carlos Tavares in a move that may help it secure new funding from Chinese partner Dongfeng.

But ministers and trade unions bristled at the fact that Varin, who will be stepping down three years before the end of his current contract, will receive an annual 310,000 euro ($420,000) pension net of tax and social charges. “Given PSA’s difficulties and given that the state has already guaranteed (finance arm) Banque PSA Finance for 7 billion euros, we have asked for some very thorough explanations from PSA on the financial arrangements of his retirement,” Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg said. “Things must be reconsidered,” Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici told reporters, standing by Montebourg’s side as the two ministers left a cabinet meeting. The French carmaker is cutting more than 10,000 jobs as it struggles to recover from a six-year European market slump. Peugeot and Dongfeng are in talks to build on their existing Chinese joint venture with cooperation in other markets and a multi-billion-euro share issue that could see Dongfeng and France’s government acquire stakes in the French carmaker, sources familiar with the matter have said.

In keeping with company practice, Varin will receive no severance pay-

ment when he leaves the group, unlike most of his counterparts at other major French companies. Speaking on French radio, Varin confirmed he would receive a net annual amount of 310,000 euros but said that did not mean he would end up receiving the total 21 million for which PSA has provisioned “now or any time later”.

Under fire Earlier, politicians joined criticism of Varin’s pension, led by the CGT union that drew attention to it. Jean-Louis Borloo, a former minister who served in France’s last right-wing government and now heads the centrist UDI grouping, said the pension plan was an example of “excessive” compensation packages. “It has been known for executives to give them up,” Borloo said. “The important thing is to save PSA.” Francois de Rugy, joint parliamentary chairman of the minority governing EELV party, condemned what he called “double standards” between the treatment of Peugeot executives and workers who recently made concessions on pay and conditions. “This is too much,” he said. “There’s a whiff of indecency about it.” Varin has received no bonus since 2011, a company spokesman said, and his pension arrangements are more modest than those at other French corporations. In last year’s accounts, Peugeot set aside just under 21 million euros to cover its pension obligations to Varin as of Dec 31, 2012. The provision is designed to cover payouts of 310,000 annually over 25 years, the spokesman said. —- Reuters

NEW YORK: This file photo shows a shopper carries Macy’s bags while crossing an intersection outside Macy’s. — AP

For US stores, it is ugly out there CHATHAM: The 2013 holiday shopping season may end up being remembered for its ugly sweaters and, for many retailers, even uglier discounts. With growing online competition, no fashion musthaves and weak consumer confidence, most US retailers will have to offer both big discounts and stellar service to get consumers to spend freely, according to retail analysts who joined Reuters reporters on visits to stores in New York, New Jersey, California and Illinois ahead of the holiday season.

“People are being a lot more selective in where they spend their money,” said Wedbush analyst Gabriella Santaniello while touring the Westfield Topanga mall in Canoga Park, California. To be sure, with online sales increasing, store visits provide only part of the picture. Still, a trip to the mall with a trained expert provides vital clues ahead of the holiday season, which usually accounts for almost half of retailers’ profits.

The battle for the consumer dollar is particularly intense in a year when taxes have risen, unemployment has remained stubbornly high, and confidence has taken a hit from the recent government shutdown and uncertainty over the introduction of President Barack Obama’s healthcare reforms. Offsetting those negatives has been the wealth impact of a rise in home prices and a rallying stock market, though that is more likely to help the luxury end of retailing. Most industry estimates see sales growing modestly overall, with online retailers taking a bigger slice of the pie, and electronics stealing share from apparel.

Season of sweaters and xboxes?

In a sign of intense competition, there has already been unprecedented pricecutting from the giant discount chain Wal-Mart Stores Inc, earlier-than-usual deals from online goliath Amazon.com Inc, and price-match promises from Best Buy Co Inc, Target Corp and others, even before the season’s unofficial kickoff on Thanksgiving Day. Wedbush’s Santaniello is betting on Urban Outfitters Inc , American Eagle Outfitters Inc, and other purveyors of trendy sweaters featuring cutesy animals, phrases such as “totes amaze” (slang for totally amazing) in curly cursive, and “fair isle” patterns.

“This is going to be a Christmas of ugly sweaters. That’s the hip thing now, bad sweaters are so cool,” among 20- and 30-year olds, she said, eyeing an Urban Outfitters tan sweater with a pair of foxes knitted into the pattern of the garment, a technique known as intarsia. New musthave gadgets such as Sony Corp’s PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Corp’s Xbox One gaming consoles and Apple Inc’s latest iPhones and iPads could take a bite out of other holiday gift purchases and hurt some apparel chains, according to analysts. “There’s a limited wallet, and there’s going to be a lot of competition from outside the apparel space, which

means teens are going to be spending much less money on clothes,” said Bridget Weishaar, a retail analyst with Morningstar.

A visit to a Best Buy store in Chatham, New Jersey, gave analyst Scot Ciccarelli a reason to recommend the retailer’s stock to investors this holiday. At least four sales associates offered to help Ciccarelli within 20 minutes of entering the store, a huge improvement from last year, the analyst with RBC Capital Markets said.

“The simple fact that people are asking you, ‘Can I help?’ and are nice and friendly,’ is the big difference,” Ciccarelli said, showering praise on Best Buy’s new management team for investing more in training its sales associates. Best Buy’s share price has more than tripled since last holiday season as results have improved. Wendy Liebmann, CEO of WSL Strategic Retail, expects teen apparel chains to offer bigger discounts closer to Christmas because fashions are “banal” this year and interchangeable, and teens have been trained to wait for the best deals.

Tale of two department stores Craig Johnson, president of consulting firm Customer Growth Partners, praised Nordstrom’s selection of jeans and shoes, and said he expects the department store chain to have an “okay” season, though not a blockbuster one because even wealthy shoppers are holding back and looking for sales.

During a visit to its store in Westchester Mall, in White Plains, New York, he said he was impressed by its new in-store signs that can be seen from afar and clearly tell shoppers where they can find “power” brands like “Theory,” “Vince” and “Burberry Brit,” which are especially popular with upscale shoppers.

Macy’s hasn’t raised its annual sales forecast, but Liebmann expects it to have a solid holiday season because of a good selection of products and because it is well ahead of some rivals in integrating stores and e-commerce, which includes filling online orders from stores. Liebmann found the level of discounting at Macy’s flagship Manhattan store muted, which he said would give it room later in the season to cut prices without going down to alarming levels.

“This is just the beginning, but they’re not giving it away yet,” said Liebmann, pointing to deals such as 25 percent off on Calvin Klein men’s shirts. At troubled department store chain JC Penney Co Inc , analysts had mixed views about overstuffed racks of clothing, with some seeing it as a sign of weakness and others that the company was trying to prove to shoppers that it had overcome recent troubles - which included under-stocking of some store brands. “What one may misconstrue as clutter is merely a strategic effort to meet high customer demand,” said Penney spokeswoman Daphne Avila. — Reuters

EU to ban fish imports from states linked to illegal trade BRUSSELS: The European Commission proposed on Tuesday an EU-wide ban on fisheries imports from Cambodia, Belize and Guinea, saying they had not done enough to stamp out illegal fishing. The European Union’s executive branch also warned South Korea and Ghana that they faced similar bans unless they took concrete steps to address the problem.

The European Union is the world’s top importer of fresh and frozen fish and seafood. It has been criticised for not doing enough to prevent fish caught illegally in other parts of the world from ending up on European dining tables. “These decisions show our steadfast commitment to tackling illegal fishing,” EU fisheries commissioner Maria Damanaki said in a statement. “We continue to put pressure on the countries which are fuelling the supply chain of illegal fishing.”

Earlier this year, EU governments banned imports of herring and mackerel from the Faroe Islands, accusing the selfgoverning Danish territory of setting unsustainable catch quotas for the fisheries it shares with the EU, Norway, Russia

and Iceland. Once approved by fisheries ministers from the 28 member states in the coming months, the proposed Asian and African restrictions would also prohibit EU vessels from fishing in the affected countries’ waters.

Up to 26 million tonnes of fish are caught illegally each year worldwide, with an estimated value of 10 billion euros ($13.5 billion), the Commission said. The European Union imported more than 50 million tonnes of fisheries products in 2011 worth 18.5 billion euros, according to EU statistics office Eurostat.

Last year, a study by a British environmental group found that nine out of 10 vessels believed to be responsible for the bulk of illegal fishing off Sierra Leone were licensed to export their catches to Europe.

“The Commission has acted for the first time to curb the effect that European fish imports have on the long term viability of global fish stocks and the fight against illegal fishing,” said Saskia Richartz from environmental campaign group Greenpeace. — Reuters

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

BUSINESS

Brazil top court to review landmark case for economy BRASILIA/SAO PAULO: Brazil’s Supreme Court yesterday begins reviewing a two-decade old case on savings accounts that could cost banks almost onethird of their market value and throw a wrench into Latin America’s largest economy. Government officials have warned of potential litigation losses for state-run and private-sector banks stemming from lawsuits filed by savings account holders in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Plaintiffs allege banks failed to pay fair remuneration on deposits during those years, when hyperinflation led the government to peg savings rates to a number of different indexes.

The case highlights the legal uncertainties that haunt the economy in Brazil, where tax disputes frequently force companies into years of costly litigation. A ruling in favor of depositors could cost banks up to 150 billion reais ($65.16 billion), according to government estimates, though some legal experts and political analysts doubt the court would award such a large settlement. Some have even speculated that the court might not rule on the case for months, perhaps even longer.

If the court does rule quickly, a decision in favor of depositors would be bad news for President Dilma Rousseff and her attempts to jump-start Brazil’s slowmoving economy ahead of next year’s presidential race, in which she is expected to run for a second four-year term. Since much of the impact would be on state-run lenders, the ruling could fan govern-

ment spending and increase the possibility of a sovereign rating downgrade, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said.

A ruling against banks “will cause huge damage to growth, throw the financial system into chaos and bring about enormous systemic risks,” Antonio Delfim Netto, a former finance minister and an advisor to Rousseff, told Reuters. Over the last few weeks, Rousseff has dispatched some of her cabinet ministers to lobby supreme court justices to drop or delay the case, a source told Reuters. And although most analysts expect the court to rule in favor of banks or delay a decision until 2014, the risk of a decision against them is not negligible.

The landmark case has raised fears among investors that a decision to compensate depositors would not only hamper banks’ capital position, but also hurt the real economy by slashing the supply of credit. Banks could reduce lending by 1 trillion reais in the worst-case scenario, the central bank estimates. In a rare sign of political unity, a group of former central bankers and finance ministers led by former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso wrote a letter to the Supreme Court warning of the impact ruling against banks could have on the country’s financial and economic stability.

Uncertainty Shares of Brazil’s four-largest listed banks have

shed 4 percent since local media last week rang alarm bells over the potential impact of the ruling.

Some research groups calculate total losses ranging from 18 billion reais to 600 billion reais, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Febraban, the industry group representing commercial banks, said lenders should not be penalized because they followed the law. Officials at Febraban declined to provide estimates for potential losses. The claims for potential damages differ, with justices unlikely to stick to one line of reasoning because of the inherent differences in each policy plan. Government pressure on the court to protect banks could muddy the process, analysts said. “Given the numerous uncertainties, the impact of a Supreme Court decision on individual banks is difficult to measure,” said Carlos Macedo, Goldman Sachs’ senior banking analyst in S„o Paulo.

More than two-thirds of potential losses relate to the impact of so-called policy plans I and II implemented during the 1990-1992 presidency of Fernando Collor de Mello, with the remaining stemming from the so-called Bresser and Ver„o plans during JosÈ Sarney’s 1985-1989 administration. At the time, Brazil’s economy was besieged by runaway inflation. The successive economic plans under Sarney and Collor sought to tame inflation but ultimately failed, pushing Brazil further into a tailspin until the creation of the real currency in 1994 finally brought stability. According to Daniel Sasson, an ana-

lyst with Credit Suisse Securities, the court has hinted it may rule against depositors in the Collor I and II plans, in line with prior lower court rulings. For the Bresser and Ver„o plans, odds are against the banks, he noted, meaning that their total exposure could be closer to 45 billion reais.

Government finances State-run Caixa Economica Federal, the largest recipient of savings in Brazil, could be the most exposed to a negative ruling, according to HSBC Securities. Banco do Brasil SA, also controlled by the federal government and the nation’s biggest lender by assets, would suffer as well. The private-sector banks facing significant losses include Itau Unibanco Holding SA, Banco Bradesco SA , Banco Santander Brasil SA and the local unit of HSBC Holdings Plc. A victory for depositors could heavily impact federal government finances at a time when public accounts are under scrutiny from investors, said Carlos Thadeu de Freitas, a former central bank director between 1986 and 1990. The National Treasury might have to award emergency loans to state banks, while the central bank might have to figure out ways for private-sector lenders to remain well capitalized, the analysts added. “A negative decision could have a systemic impact in the banking system that would exponentially raise the cost of credit,” Freitas said. — Reuters

IRS pushes to rein in tax-exempt groups Rule changes to impact next US elections?

BANGKOK: An anti-government protester wearing an Anonymous mask joins others outside the Industry Ministry yesterday. — AP

Thailand cuts interest rate amid political strife BANGKOK: Thailand’s central bank unexpectedly lowered the cost of credit yesterday as escalating protests to topple the government add to pressure on the economy. The Bank of Thailand said it lowered its policy interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 2.25 percent, hoping to stimulate lending and investment.

Flag-waving protesters vowing to topple Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra took to the streets of Bangkok for a fourth straight day yesterday. They are threatening to occupy every government ministry after invading the Ministry of Finance and turning it into an adhoc protest headquarters.

The central bank said in a statement that the “ongoing political situation” could compound existing weaknesses in Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy. Business confidence is fragile and government plans for $69.5 billion of spending on high speed rail and other transport infrastructure have been delayed by legal challenges. Thailand’s third quarter economic growth was weaker than expected and a recovery in exports has not gained traction, the bank said. Known mainly for its southern resort islands and high quality rice, Thailand is also a manufacturing base for electronics manufacturers and several global automakers,

including General Motors Co and Toyota Motor Corp. A Thai tourism official said the protests have deterred 300,000 tourists so far at a cost of half a billion US dollars. Thailand’s visitor arrivals totaled 22.3 million last year.

Protest leaders say they want to replace the government with a non-elected council to eliminate the political machine of Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted as premier in a 2006 coup following months of street protests against corruption and patronage politics.

Thailand’s current prime minister is Thaksin’s younger sister, who led her party to a landslide victory in 2011 elections.

In cutting interest rates, the central bank was taking out insurance to buffer the economy from possible greater fallout, said Sin Beng Ong, head of Southeast Asian economic research at JP Morgan. If the protests turn violent, it would lead to greater uncertainty about the longevity of the government and further hurt growth, Ong said. Earlier this month, Thailand’s economic planning agency cut its growth forecast for this year to 3 percent from 3.8-4.3 percent predicted in August.

The Thai stock market was boosted by the interest rate cut, with the SET index closing up 1.1 percent. — AP

Ecobank in row over strange email, hacking allegations ACCRA: Pan-African lender Ecobank has sued a top executive who left the company this month, naming him in a civil complaint in Togo as the author of an anonymous email accusing Chief Executive Thierry Tanoh of mismanagement. The executive, David Lawson, denied to Ecobank that he wrote the email and said he had been unfairly dismissed. He accused Ecobank executives including Tanoh of hacking his phone and email account in a fruitless search for evidence against him. The company denies wrongdoing.

The row comes as Ecobank tries to shore up confidence in its governance after a Nigerian industry watchdog began investigating the way it reported financial results.

The bank’s chairman quit last month, saying it wasn’t appropriate for him to stay given the company’s ongoing reviews of governance. Ecobank has been viewed by investors as an African success story for its strong growth and expansion beyond its Togo base into 33 African countries. It made record profits last year.

One member of Ecobank’s board told his colleagues in an email seen by Reuters that Lawson’s hacking allegations were a cause for concern and could get the bank into trouble. Lawson, who left as head of strategy on Nov 8, was a member of the Group Executive Committee that runs Ecobank and reports to its board.

A spokesman for Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), as the bank is officially known, declined to discuss the circumstances of Lawson’s departure. Lawson told Reuters on Monday: “In the panel’s attempt to implicate me in this affair ...(it) resorted to the illegal acts of phone tapping, email hacking, stalking and invasion of privacy”.

He said that at a disciplinary hearing about the email, fellow executives pressed him repeatedly to name board members who they suspected of being his accom-

plices in the matter. He called the hearing an “illegal kangaroo court”. Lawson said he had emailed Ecobank’s executive committee and board on Nov. 11, stating that he had a recording of the disciplinary hearing that showed the committee discussing details about him and his communications that it could only have obtained by hacking his email and bugging his phone.

Lawsuit says email traced to Ghana cyber-cafe The bank’s suit says Lawson wrote the anonymous email to senior executives on Aug 31 accusing Tanoh of paying himself an inflated bonus for work done in the months before he took office at the start of this year. CEO Tanoh, a former vice president of the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, said in September he was forgoing any bonus as part of efforts to restore confidence given the Nigerian investigation. The Aug 31 email, which is entitled “Major corporate governance issues at Ecobank” and has been seen by Reuters, said Ecobank was “at risk” because of poor leadership.

It was sent from a cybercafe in Ghana and police there have identified Lawson from a security video at the cafe at the time the email was sent, Ecobank said in its lawsuit. The First Class Tribunal of First Instance in Togo’s capital, Lome, has adjourned the case until Feb 14. A South African member of Ecobank’s board, Sipho Mseleku, contacted other board members on Nov 11 to express concern over Lawson’s hacking allegations against the company. “Such invasion of privacy is not only illegal but also criminal. This reminds me of Apartheid days in South Africa,” Mseleku said in an email seen by Reuters. “This is likely to put the institution in further trouble. The institution cannot solve problems through illegal means,” Mseleku said. —Reuters

WASHINGTON: The Obama administration is trying to rein in the use of tax-exempt groups for political campaigning. The effort launched Tuesday is an attempt to reduce the role of loosely regulated big-money political outfits like GOP political guru Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS and the pro-Obama Priorities USA. The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department said they want to prohibit such groups from using “candidate-related political activity” like running ads, registering voters or distributing campaign literature as activities that qualify them to be tax-exempt “social welfare” organizations.

The agencies say there will be a lengthy comment period before any regulations will be finalized. That means groups like Crossroads and Priorities USA will be able to collect millions of dollars from anonymous donors ahead of next year’s campaign. “This proposed guidance is a first critical step toward creating clear-cut definitions of political activity by tax-exempt social welfare organizations,” said Mark Mazur, treasury assistant secretary for tax policy. “We are committed to getting this right before issuing final guidance that may affect a broad group of organizations. It will take time to work through the regulatory process and carefully consider all public feedback as we strive to ensure that the standards for tax-exemption are clear and can be applied consistently.”

Organized under section 501(c)(4) of the tax code, such groups are able to raise millions of dollars to influence elections. But they can also be small-scale tea party groups, many of which say they were harassed by the IRS after seeking tax exempt status. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., was skeptical of the administration’s move.

“There continues to be an ongoing investigation, with many documents yet to be uncovered, into how the IRS systematically targeted and abused conservative-leaning groups,” he said.

“This smacks of the administration trying to shut down potential critics.” The 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision lifted the limits on donations by labor unions and companies to 501(c)(4) groups, allowing Crossroads, the largest of them, to raise large sums outside the limits that apply to candidates’ campaigns and traditional party committees.

“Enormous abuses have taken place under

WASHINGTON: In this file photo, the exterior of the Internal Revenue Service building in Washington, is shown. — AP the current rules, which have allowed groups largely devoted to campaign activities to operate as nonprofit groups in order to keep secret the donors funding their campaign activities,” said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, which advocates limits on money in politics.

Under current rules, social welfare organizations may conduct some political work as long as it’s not their main activity. The proposed new rules would block such things as running ads that “expressly advocate for a clearly identified political candidate or candidates of a political party” as fulfilling their tax-exempt mission. And ads that simply mention a politician to, for instance, urge him or her to vote a certain way couldn’t be run 60 days before a general election of 30 days before a primary.

The rules also would limit voter drives and voter registration efforts and distribution of literature. The idea behind the new regulations is to simplify the rules of the road going forward, proponents say. The current rules are confusing and prone to abuse, critics say. Treasury and the IRS don’t have a proposal yet about what proportion

of a 501(c)(4) group’s activities must promote social welfare and are soliciting input. In other words, they don’t have a recommendation as to what percentage of a group’s time and money can be spent on politics.

Some of the outside groups that could be affected by the proposal, including Crossroads GPS and Priorities USA, did not have any initial reaction to the announcement.

The groups are expected to weigh in on the rulemaking as it proceeds. Any changes to the regulations likely would not affect the 2014 elections because of legal challenges but the rule changes could shape the next presidential election, said Kenneth Gross, a campaign finance attorney and former head of enforcement for the Federal Election Commission.

“Brightening what are now blurred lines - what is political activity - is not only useful but necessary to have some kind of clarity to a vehicle that has been used to the tune of millions and millions of dollars,” he said. But Gross cautioned that “this is a long and winding road before anything is in ink.” — AP

Madame Nouy ready to take on Europe’s banks FRANKFURT: The woman set to police Europe’s banks has spent much of her 40-year career rising through the ranks of French financial supervision, once a bastion of male domination. Daniele Nouy will become the most powerful woman in European banking when she takes the helm at the industry’s new watchdog, the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), due to come into force next November. She will oversee the euro zone’s 6,000-odd lenders and will have the power to order a bank closed, if necessary.

“We need a comprehensive integration of financial supervision, in other words more Europe,” Nouy said at a conference in May, long before she was put forward for the job. On Wednesday, she appears before the European parliament to answer questions about how she would approach the post.

A unified system for policing banks across the currency bloc is a key part of Europe’s move towards banking union, the most significant attempt at closer European integration since the launch of the euro more than ten years ago. The aim is to win back the investor confidence needed for a return to prosperity.

Nouy has barely a year to build up the new institution under the roof of the European Central Bank (ECB), doing so virtually from scratch. She will have to hire 1,000 staff, develop a manual defining supervisory procedure, and put the largest banks through an indepth check on their balance sheets to shine light on their risk exposures and capital strength. She will work with national supervisors, the European Banking Authority (EBA), which writes the rules Nouy and her team will enforce, the EU Commission and the EU Parliament, building bridges to overcome cultural and political differences.

Nouy, 63, will join a growing number of women at the top of the international financial system. In the United States Janet Yellen is set to succeed Ben Bernanke as chairwoman of the Federal Reserve. In Russia, Elvira Nabiullina became the country’s central bank governor in June. Christine Lagarde has been head of the International Monetary Fund since 2011.

How tough will Nouy be? Reuters has spoken to people who have worked and are still working with her to find out what makes her tick and how she will tackle the challenge.

Rise to the top When the vice president of Germany’s Bundesbank, Sabine Lautenschlaeger, was asked in November which qualifications the ideal candidate for the single supervisory chair should have, she set out a demanding list. Long experience in bank supervision.

Understanding of international financial regulation.

Practice in international negotiations, at the Basel Committee or the EBA. A strong network among supervisory authorities in Europe, the United States and Asia. And, said Lautenschlaeger, the candidate needs to have stamina, be a team player and be highly intelligent. It sounded like Nouy’s curriculum vitae.

Born in Rennes, Brittany, she began her career by joining the Bank of France in 1974, armed with degrees from two of Paris’s elite schools. There were hardly any women working in banking or finance at the time.

She started by supervising foreign banks in France, spent a year at the New York branch and eventually worked directly under the head of the French supervisor and his deputy. The next step was to become the deputy when a vacancy arose. Instead, the French treasury pushed through its own candidate, Pierre Duquesne, claiming influence following a bailout of debt-ridden lender CrÈdit Lyonnais in the mid 1990s.

“It was terrible for her. It was the breaking point in her professional life,” said a former Bank of France coworker. “In reality it wasn’t really fair that she didn’t get chosen for this post. She was a natural candidate.”

Disappointed at home, Nouy turned to the international stage, moving to Basel to join the Bank for International Settlements, known as the central bank of central banks.

In 1998, she became the secretary general of the Basel Committee, which develops international standards for banking regulation, including minimum cap-

ital benchmarks. In Basel, Nouy fine-tuned her political and diplomatic talent, sharpened her negotiating skills and perfected her expert knowledge by helping to develop the kind of banking regulation that she will have to apply with the SSM. What impressed those who worked with her most was how quickly she is able to take well-informed decisions. “She works very hard,” said another former colleague. She would be one of the first to arrive in the office and always stayed well beyond nine o’clock and would never demand things of her staff that she was not prepared to do. “If there was a problem in the morning, she would have sorted it out by the evening.” To some who have dealt with her, Nouy comes across as tough and direct, even callous. The temperature drops by two degrees when she enters the room, one person who has seen her in meetings said. Others say she is assertive without offending people and knows when to switch on her French charm to get her way.

On top of a heavy workload in Basel, she used to travel to Paris at the weekends to see her husband, Jean-Yves, a director general of a French insurance company at the time, and their two daughters, one a teenager and the other in her early twenties then.

After seven years, in 2003, she returned to Paris to become the head of the French banking supervisor.

Her former rival, Pierre Duquesne, had left some time before to become a senior advisor to the prime minister on economic and financial affairs.

As well as her job at the Bank of France, between 2006 and 2008 she chaired the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS), an independent body in charge of advising and coordinating on banking regulation in the EU, which was later replaced by the EBA. Early on, Nouy recognised the importance of supervising cross-border banks. “These are the areas in which I will expect CEBS to deliver results from now on,” she said when she was elected to the CEBS chair in 2006. But the results left room for improvement. —AP

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

BUSINESS

India’s Tata Group withdraws application for bank licence MUMBAI: India’s giant Tata group has withdrawn its application for a banking licence, the central bank said yesterday. The group, which filed an application on July 1, was one of 26 seeking a licence as the central bank tries to set up more private banks to expand services to the villages. “The company has indicated that its current financial services operating model best supports the needs of the Tata Group’s domestic and overseas strategy and provides adequate operating flexibility to its companies...” the Reserve Bank of India said in a statement on its website.

In September Value Industries, a unit of India’s diversified Videocon group, also withdrew its application. The central bank is opening up the sector more widely to private firms, to increase what it calls “financial inclusion” and push banking services into the countryside. About 480 million of India’s 1.2 billion people, mostly living in the country’s 630,000 villages, currently have no banking access.

The sector is still dominated by state-run lenders and in the last 20 years only 12 private banks have been allowed to open. The country has 26 public-sector, 22

private and 40 foreign banks. Large industrial groups such as the Anil Ambani Reliance Group, engineering giant Larsen and Toubro and the Aditya Birla group are among those who have applied for a banking licence.

The new lenders must have at least a quarter of their branches outside of cities. They must have minimum capital of five billion rupees ($85 million), and will have to favour the “priority” sectors of housing, agriculture and education. The RBI’s new governor Raghuram Rajan has said the new banking licences will be issued by next January. But only 4-8 licences are

likely to be issued, analysts said. Analysts say the Tata group’s exit indicates how tough conditions will be for new banks. “Business conditions are challenging, with project viability a real concern. New banks may find it takes longer to raise deposits, break even and earn decent returns,” said Vijay Nara, banking analyst with Fortune Equity Brokers. “Probably the Tatas want to continue to focus on their current operations.” The group is one of India’s largest conglomerates with business interests ranging from vehicles to steel and salt to aviation.— AFP

India eyes more Iranian oil this year and next Indian refiners expect renewal of US sanctions waivers

Developments and overview of N Kuwait Jurassic Gas Project KUWAIT: Ahmad Atallah, Shell Kuwait’s Managing Director and Country Chair, outlined the added value to Kuwait through the achievements of the Enhance Technical Service Agreement (ETSA) between Shell and Kuwait Oil Company (KOC). Atallah was speaking yesterday at the MEED Kuwait Projects 2013 with the theme ‘Exploring the latest development in Kuwait’s mega project sectors’ which is taking place from November 24-26 at the Regency Hotel, Kuwait.

The ETSA between KOC and Shell enables Shell to provide effective support to KOC within the constraints of Kuwait’s legislation while adapting Shell’s working model to enable the required support.

Shell’s role is not that of a traditional oil field service provider, nor is it an operator role. KOC is the controlling owner/operator, with Shell acting as supporter through an integrated technical approach on a performance-based reward basis.

Atallah said, “The ETSA scope splits into a number of key “Value Elements” which all contribute to the North Kuwait Jurassic Gas development; the support ranges from Sub-Surface and reservoir studies, to Well design and drilling, to Phase II and III design of Surface Facilities, to improvement in Operations efficiency in the existing Phase I facility. All these value elements have a common element of HSE in terms of

developing its overall HSE preparedness for building and operating new gas facilities”.

He also highlight the significant focus on technology transfer across all aspects of the project, “Overlying all other value elements is the requirement for Shell to transfer its knowledge with similar complex, sour gas developments to KOC - by way of training, secondment, coaching and crossfertilisation programs. ‘’Ultimately’’, Atallah concluded, ‘’the value Shell has brought will yield increased recovery in the order of hundreds of millions of “oil equivalent” barrels to the State of Kuwait”.

In his remarks Ahmad Atallah described the 65-years partnership between Shell and Kuwait which stretches across the whole energy value chain, from exploration and production to refining, LNG, marketing and retail, both locally and globally. This is complemented with a multitude of knowledge sharing workshops in technical and non-technical disciplines covering the oil and gas business. The MEED Kuwait Projects 2013 conference is a platform for Kuwait’s key energy and infrastructure stakeholders to outline the state’s infrastructure masterplans, projects and energy strategies as well as discuss the project delivery and financing challenges in Kuwait $116bn projects sector. It is the complete guide to what will emerge in the Kuwait market for 2014 and beyond.

Gulf Bank has special offers for Infinite VISA Credit Cardholders KUWAIT: Gulf Bank announced yesterday an exclusive partnership with Royale Hayat Hospital offering a 15 percent discount to the Bank’s VISA Infinite cardholders when they use their cards to settle medical bills for radiology treatments or spa therapies. This promotion is part of the Bank’s Gulf Rewards program which provides customers with regularly updated promotions and exclusive special offers.

In addition to treatment discounts, Gulf Bank’s VISA Infinite cardholders can also open a new medical file at the hospital’s new Family Clinic free of charge by using their Gulf Bank Visa Infinite Card. This latest offer from Gulf Bank runs until December 31, 2013.

Rewarding customers through discounts and promotions is part of Gulf Bank’s customercentric strategy to provide additional benefits and exclusive services to its customers.

NEW DELHI: India could buy more crude from Iran in the next four months and intends to increase purchases further in the next fiscal year, its top oil bureaucrat said, after a deal last weekend eased some sanctions on the OPEC member. India is the first of Tehran’s four main buyers to say it is looking to buy more oil from Iran after the agreement in Geneva. The deal with six world powers eased some sanctions on the Middle Eastern nation in exchange for curbs to its nuclear programme.

Although the agreement doesn’t allow Iran to boost its oil sales for six months, India has room to increase its imports after they tumbled around 40 percent this year to below even what was permitted by sanctions. India intends to buy up to an average 220,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil from Iran in the year ending March 31, Oil Secretary Vivek Rae said yesterday.

That’s consistent with a goal of cutting India’s Iran oil shipments 15 percent this year to win waivers on US sanctions. But India’s AprilOctober imports are running at less than 80 percent of that level, at about 170,000 bpd, meaning India could raise its imports between

December and March and still hit the target.

One Indian state-run refiner, Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd. , has already said it is ready to look at buying more Iranian oil now that some of the constraints on refinery insurance have been lifted. Sanction measures dealing with insurance coverage of ships carrying Iranian oil and refineries processing it were among the most effective in cutting Tehran’s crude exports.

India would also then be looking to increase imports in the 2014/15 financial year, depending on any further easing of the sanctions, Rae said.

“Iran is a great source of oil ... and once the problems that have been faced by Iran are resolved then we will have more oil available in the market,” Rae said.

Western sanctions that pressured Iran towards the deal on Sunday have slashed its exports by more than half to about 1 million bpd and cost it as much as $80 billion in lost revenue since the start of 2012. India’s crude imports from Iran plunged by nearly half in October from a year ago to 194,000 bpd, tanker arrival data compiled by Reuters from trade

Joyalukkas announces gold exchange offer KUWAIT: The world’s favorite jeweler has announced the popular ‘Exchange old gold jewelry for new gold jewelry ’ celebration from November 28 to December 7, 2013. The celebration period will offer breathtaking gold jewelry collections crafted specifically for the season. To make it convenient for gold jewelry lovers to pick a new gold jewelry piece, Joyalukkas is also offering consumers the chance to exchange their old gold jewelry for a new one without any loss in weight and rate under the ‘No loss in weight or rate’ offer.

“The beautiful combination of gold jewelry is every woman’s dream and I am sure this special celebration we have planned will make every woman happy. Jewelry lovers can also exchange their old gold jewelry for new gold jewelry collections without any loss in rate or weight on their old gold jewelry,” said John Paul Joy Alukkas, Executive Director, Joyalukkas. The new designs have been chosen from the latest trends in India and have been inspired by some of the foremost designers of gold jewelry there. Joyalukkas has also ensured the best prices and created the choice to suite all budgets to make the celebration accessible for all shoppers.

“We have created a dream collection of gold jewelry to make our customers shopping experience more exciting and enjoyable. We have also kept budget constraints in mind and tailored our ‘No loss on weight and rate’ on old gold jewelry offer to make all shoppers happy,” added John Paul Joy Alukkas.

Spain, France reverse roles as economic fortunes diverge MADRID/PARIS: One year ago, when Spain’s Mariano Rajoy travelled to Paris to meet France’s Francois Hollande for their annual bilateral summit, only one question was on the agenda: if and when Spain would seek a European bailout for its crippled public finances. As the Spanish prime minister and the French president prepare to meet again in Madrid on Wednesday at 1450 local (1350 GMT), many believe their countries have reversed roles.

Of course, there is no question of France requesting any international bailout, and Spain has not shaken off all its woes, but the mood and the economic momentum have shifted across the Pyrenees. Thanks to resolute action to pass harsh economic remedies

and tough spending cuts, and steps by central banks in Europe, the United States and Japan to head off the crisis, Spain has managed to kick-start its economy at a time when French economic activity and reforms are stalling.

French business activity shrank in November after eking out growth for two months and exports are languishing as high unit labour costs eat away its competitiveness and key reforms are delayed. But some analysts point out that France has stronger economic fundamentals in the long term.

Spain emerged from its two-year recession in the third quarter and is on track to grow again, albeit at a slow pace, in the last three months of the year. It has

BARCELONA: A woman wears a banner during a protest against government’s austerity measures in this photo. — AP

regained part of the competitiveness lost during a decade-long property boom fuelled by cheap credit and which ended in a 41-billion-euro rescue of Spanish banks last year.

As a result, exports and foreign investment are on the rise and the Spanish government is on track to register a net lending position against the rest of the world for the first time in decades. Spain, which recently overtook its northern neighbour as Europe’s second-biggest carmaker, moved from having a trade deficit with France of more than 6 billion euros in 2007 to a first surplus of about 1.5 billion euros in 2012.

Rajoy, who has spent most of 2013 fighting corruption allegations at his People’s Party and trying to extinguish growing calls for secession in Catalonia, is now pushing hard the line that the worst of the crisis is over and Spain will soon surprise on the upside.

Promoting Spain, Rajoy had achieved a degree of success.

The Madrid government revised up its 2014 growth forecast to 0.7 percent from 0.5 percent previously and Rajoy’s PP was up in a November official opinion poll, breaking with two years of continuous falling support but still way down from its level in the November 2011 elections.

Spain flourishes, France struggling?

Spain’s upbeat message widely contrasts with France’s depressed mood and many analysts now say Spain might become the euro-zone’s success story with France turning into a growing worry for its European partners. In another sign of a diverging trend between the two countries, Standard & Poor’s cut France’s credit rating earlier this month by one notch to AA from AA+, giving a thumbs-down to its economic policies, while Fitch revised the outlook on Spain’s BBB rating to stable from negative. —Reuters

sources showed. India’s imports from Iran fell to about 170,000 bpd in April-October, a decline of about 40 percent from a year ago, the data shows, as two refiners halted purchases at the beginning of their fiscal year because of the insurance problems. Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd, drawn by government assurance of local insurance coverage and discounts offered by Iran, resumed purchases in August.

HPCL, which also stopped purchases, remained cautious after its Vizag refinery was hit by fire twice since April, keeping it focused on the problems with insurance coverage. With the latest deal easing insurance-related sanctions, HPCL is considering resuming Iranian oil purchases, its head of refineries B. K. Namdeo said on Monday. Washington could announce an extension of waivers to the US sanctions for China, India and South Korea this week, one of the sources in India said. Indian refinery and government officials said the grant of the sixmonth waiver is just a formality this time around after Sunday’s deal between the world powers and Iran. — Reuters

VIVA inaugurates five new branches KUWAIT: VIVA, Kuwait’s fastest-growing and most developed telecom operator, announced yesterday that it has added five new branches to its network amounting to 48 branches across Kuwait. VIVA’s new branches are located in Saad Abdullah Airport, AlManqaf, Jahra City Center, Ardhiyah - 5th ring road, Shuwaikh - Canada Dry street, reinforcing its presence and growing closer to its customers.

The new branch openings come in line with the company’s expansion strategy to serve a wider audience across Kuwait by offering convenience in location, to continue providing excellence in customer service and unique and exclusive packages for its customers.

Expanding its network with an additional five new branches is an achievement VIVA is proud to announce as it affirms its commitment to always be close to its customers.

VIVA will continue to move forward in the same direction, and enhance its service by moving closer to its customers ensuring that they receive the best service available, and are served swiftly and efficiently. VIVA’s motivation to provide excellence in its services is driven by its passion to serve its customers and be closer to them wherever they are.

ASAR provides insight on key learnings to accelerate future PPP projects in Kuwait KUWAIT: ASAR - Al Ruwayeh & Partners (ASAR), one of the region’s top tier firms and Kuwait’s leading corporate law firm, recently participated in the Kuwait Projects 2013 Conference organized by MEED. The Conference focused on, among other things, exploring the latest business opportunities associated with Kuwait’s mega projects in the various business sectors including, oil, gas, electricity, water, transport, housing and basic infrastructure.

The Conference brought together major players in Kuwait’s mega projects including representatives from, the Partnership Technical Bureau (PTB), the Kuwait Direct Investment Promotion Authority, the Central Tenders Committee, the Ministry of Electricity and Water, the Ministry of Public Works, the Ministry of Health, etc. The Conference addressed among other things the latest developments and progress in the ongoing Public Private Partnership projects, as well as issues pertaining to the lessons learnt to date from projects that have been launched and the improvements that could be made to the project delivery processes to ensure successful delivery of the mega projects forming part of Kuwait’s development plan.

ASAR shared with the participants their key learnings derived from their ongoing experience as legal advisors to the Partnership Technical Bureau with respect to the Az Zour North IWPP (Phase 1) Project, which is currently the most advanced mega project being managed by the Partnership Technical Bureau. This has focused mainly on the changes to the legislation that have occurred recently and how this has impacted on the Az Zour North Project.

Ibrahim Sattout

Ibrahim Sattout, the Partner at ASAR overseeing ASAR’s involvement in the projects noted: “We are proud to have participated in this MEED Conference. ASAR continues to provide sound legal advice to a number of prominent organizations and on numerous projects that are part of the country’s development plan.”

“The legal terrain in Kuwait continues to develop positively with the aim of aligning Kuwait with international best practices. With Kuwait having currently planned $16 billion worth of contracts for 2014, it is hoped that the new foreign direct investment law will set up a defined legal framework which will attract more international players to the Kuwait market,” added Sattout. With dedicated offices in Kuwait and Bahrain coupled with its associated offices and relationships, ASAR provides clients across an extensive range of industry sectors with comprehensive legal advice and support for their business activities in Kuwait, across the GCC and beyond. The firm has been consistently rated as the leading corporate and commercial law firm in Kuwait by reputable legal guides such as the Chambers Global Guide, International Financial Law Review and the Legal 500. In their annual law firm Global Guide for 2013, Chambers & Partners have exclusively ranked ASAR as Kuwait’s only tier 1 law firm for business law. In 2013, ASAR was awarded National Law firm of the Year’ by the International Financial Law Review (IFLR), the market-leading guide for financial law firms worldwide. The firm also won the “Restructuring deal of the year award” award by IFLR this year.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28 , 2013

technology

Snapchat finds its niche with disappearing messages SAN FRANCISCO: For 13-year-old Coral Fairchild, Snapchat trumps old-style text messaging as the way to socialize with friends in the mobile Internet age. The northern California girl adds mustaches to faces in pictures or speech bubbles using touch-screen features that allow people to draw on Snapchat images being sent.

“You can take a regular selfie and customize it into a princess or a unicorn or whatever you want,” she explained. “It’s just a more fun way to communicate.”

But if the message turns out to be too embarrassing, no problem. It will disappear in seconds.

The Southern California-based service has gained notoriety for the app that lets people send smartphone photos or video snippets timed to self-destruct 10 seconds or less after being opened.

Snapchat has rocketed to popularity since the initial app was released in September of 2011. Its growth initially sparked fears that, in a world of selfies, it would provide a false sense of security for teenagers thinking of sexting risque photos.

That concern appears unfounded, according to Matthew Johnson, director of education at Canadian not-for-profit digital literacy organization MediaSmarts.

“There is no evidence that Snapchat is being used any more recklessly than any other message service,” Johnson said.

“Young people expect their friends and peers to do the right thing and rely on social pressure when it goes wrong,” he continued, citing research done by MediaSmarts.

“In general, their instincts are very good, and they have in many ways a better handle on the social and emotional aspects of these technologies than we tend to think.”

Conversations based on ephemeral images also reduce the potential for misunderstanding by providing expressions and other visual cues absent in email or basic text messages, according to Johnson.

“Many adults can relate to reading an email

and not knowing whether the person who sent it was being angry or sarcastic,” he said.

“Move that to text messaging where there is a limit to the number of characters you can use and the back-and-forth is faster, and there is always the possibility of something exploding because someone misunderstands something.”

Along with providing pictures, typically selfies showing expressions, the mere fact someone is using Snapchat usually sends a signal that they are being playful and not serious, according to Johnson. “Snapchat is essentially one big Smiley,” he said, referring to a well-known happy-face emoticon.

The startup made news when the Wall Street Journal reported it rejected a $3 billion offer from Facebook, presumably because its founders believed it would be worth more than that. And other reports said Snapchat delivers some 400 million photos or videos daily from users, although the number is believed to count each time a recipient opens a file, possibly counting some messages more than once.

Snapchat skews young due to the fact it is aimed at people who prefer messaging from mobile gadgets.

Snapchat chief Evan Spiegel was recently quoted by the Wall Street Journal as saying that 70 percent of Snapchat users are women.

The company’s in-house sociology researcher, Nathan Jurgenson, sees the service as a natural place for pictures that won’t return to haunt people. “It’s easy to underestimate the significance of injecting more ephemerality into social media,” Jurgenson said in a blog post. “Part of the Snapchat appeal is that it serves as a social cue that something shouldn’t be saved, not that it can’t,” he said.

“Young people say they will use it for something silly or a little embarrassing that they still want to share just with friends.” Jurgenson said the fact that the messages are timed to destruct means people will give them more attention: “When you look fast, you look hard.” Snapchat

UN advances Internet privacy resolution UNITED NATIONS: The UN General Assembly’s human rights committee yesterday unanimously adopted a resolution sponsored by Brazil and Germany to protect the right to privacy against unlawful surveillance, following months of reports about US eavesdropping abroad.

The symbolic resolution, which seeks to extend personal privacy rights to all people, followed a series of disclosures of U.S. eavesdropping on foreign leaders, including Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, that surprised and angered allies.

Brazil’s Ambassador Antonio de Aguiar Patriota said the resolution “establishes for the first time that human rights should prevail irrespective of the medium, and therefore need to be protected online and offline.” The resolution expresses deep concern at “the negative impact” that such surveillance, “in particular when carried out on a mass scale, may have on the exercise and enjoyment of human rights.”

German Ambassador Peter Wittig asked, “Is the human right to privacy still protected in our digital world? And should everything that is technologically feasible, be allowed?”

The consensus adoption of the resolution means will it also unanimously pass the whole 193 member General Assembly in December. General Assembly resolutions aren’t legally binding but reflect world opinion and carry political weight.

The United States did not fight the measure after it engaged in lobbying last week with Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, which comprise the “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing group, to dilute some of the draft resolution’s language. The key compromise dropped the contention that the domestic and international interception and collection of communications and personal data, “in particular massive surveillance,” may constitute a human rights violation.

U.S. delegate Elizabeth Cousens told the committee that the United States

welcomed Brazil and Germany’s sponsorship of the resolution and was pleased to support “privacy rights and the right to freedom of expression.”

The draft resolution directs the U.N. human rights chief to report to the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly on the protection and promotion of privacy “in the context of domestic and extraterritorial surveillance ... including on a mass scale.”

Last week, five major human rights and privacy groups - Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Access and Privacy International - said this will guarantee that the privacy issue stays on the front burner at the United Nations.

Human Rights Watch’s general counsel, Dina PoKempner, said Tuesday that though the resolution was “watered down” it is still a “vital first step toward stigmatizing indiscriminate global surveillance as a wide-scale violation of human rights.” The director of the human rights program at the American Civil Liberties Union, Jamil Dakwar, said, “Yet again, the U.S. is paying lip service to human rights when it comes to holding intelligence services accountable overseas. It is regrettable that the U.S. is investing time to circumvent the universal human right to privacy rather than setting a new course by ending dragnet surveillance.”

The U.S. has been trying to calm tensions with Brazil and Germany over the reported spying. Rousseff canceled a state visit to Washington after classified documents leaked by former National Security Agency analyst Edward Snowden showed that the NSA hacked the computer network of Brazil’s staterun oil company Petrobras and scooped up data on emails and telephone calls flowing through the country.

Merkel and other European leaders expressed anger after reports that the NSA allegedly monitored Merkel’s cellphone and swept up millions of French telephone records. —- AP

MOSCOW: An operator demonstrates SAR-401 advanced anthropomorphic robot at the Gagarin Cosmonauts’ Training Centre in Star City centre outside Moscow yesterday. Russia is working on its own version of NASA’s Robonaut with a machine called SAR-400 that’s due to reach the International Space Station by 2014. —- AFP

VENICE: This Nov 14, 2013 file photo shows the logo of Snapchat at the front entrance to the new headquarters of Snapchat in Venice, California. The Southern California-based service has gained notoriety for the app that lets people send smartphone photos or video snippets timed to selfdestruct 10 seconds or less after being opened. Snapchat has rocketed to popularity since the initial app was released in September of 2011. — AFP

recently added a “Stories” feature that strings together a series of “snaps” to create a narrative that is available for repeated viewing by recipients for 24 hours.

But even with though the messages disappear, it is quite easy to copy Snapchat messages or pictures before they vanish, and research shows that young people are aware of that, according to Johnson. Johnson expected the

merging of pictures and text to become the new standard in messaging, while Coral Fairchild portrayed Snapchat as the “great next step” in mobile communications. “I don’t Snapchat anyone I don’t know; that would be weird,” Coral Fairchild said, noting she would make an exception for Harry Styles of mega-popular boy band One Direction. “He wouldn’t get my ugly faces, unless we were best friends.” —- AFP

Is Bitcoin about to change the world?

Better than hard cash LONDON: The past weeks have seen a surprising meeting of minds between chairman of the US Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke, the Bank of England, the Olympic-rowing and Zuckerberg-bothering Winklevoss twins, and the US Department of Homeland Security. The connection? All have decided it’s time to take Bitcoin seriously.

Until now, what pundits called in a rolling-eye fashion “the new peer-to-peer cryptocurrency” had been seen just as a digital form of gold, with all the associated speculation, stake-claiming and even “mining”; perfect for the digital wild west of the internet, but no use for real transactions.

Bitcoins are mined by computers solving fiendishly hard mathematical problems. The “coin” doesn’t exist physically: it is a virtual currency that exists only as a computer file. No one computer controls the currency. A network keeps track of all transactions made using Bitcoins but it doesn’t know what they were used for - just the ID of the computer “wallet” they move from and to. Right now the currency is tricky to use, both in terms of the technological nous required to actually acquire Bitcoins, and finding somewhere to spend them. To get them, you have to first set up a wallet, probably online at a site such as The First Bitcoin ATM in Canada.

Blockchain.info, and then pay someone hard currency time you will be able to sell it at a profit. to get them to transfer the coins into that wallet.

This is remarkable because there’s no fundamental A Bitcoin payment address is a short string of ran- reason why Bitcoin should have any value at all. The dom characters, and if used carefully, it’s possible to only reason people are willing to pay money for the make transactions anonymously. That’s what made it currency is because other people are willing to as the currency of choice for sites such as the Silk Road well. (Try not to think about it too hard.) Now, though, and Black Market Reloaded, which let users buy drugs sensible economists are saying that Bitcoin might anonymously over the internet. It also makes it very become part of our future economy. That’s quite a hard to tax transactions, despite the best efforts of shift from October last year, when the European countries such as Germany, which in August declared Central Bank said that Bitcoin was “characteristic of a that Bitcoin was “private money” in which transac- Ponzi [pyramid] scheme”. This month, the Chicago tions should be taxed as normal.

Federal Reserve commented that the currency was “a It doesn’t have all the advantages of cash, though remarkable conceptual and technical achievement, the fact you can’t forge it is a definite plus: Bitcoin is which may well be used by existing financial institu“peer-to-peer” and every coin “spent” is authenticated tions (which could issue their own bitcoins) or even with the network. Thus you can’t spend the same coin by governments themselves”. in two different places. (But nor can you spend it withIt might not sound thrilling. But for a central out an internet connection.) You don’t have to spend banker, that’s like yelling “BITCOIIINNNN!” from the whole Bitcoins: each one can be split into 100m rooftops. And Bernanke, in a carefully dull letter to the pieces (each known as a satoshi), and spent separate- US Senate committee on Homeland Security, said ly. Although most people have now vaguely heard of that when it came to virtual currencies (read: Bitcoin), Bitcoin, you’re unlikely to find someone outside the the US Federal Reserve had “ongoing initiatives” to tech community who really understands it in detail, “identify additional areas of ... concern that require let alone accepts it as payment. Nobody knows who heightened attention by the banking organisations invented it; its pseudonymous creator, Satoshi we supervise”. In other words, Bernanke is ready to Nakamoto, hasn’t come forward. He or she may not make Bitcoin part of US currency regulation - the key even be Japanese but certainly knows a lot about step towards legitimacy. cryptography, economics and computing.

Most reporting about Bitcoin until now has been It was first presented in November 2008 in an aca- of its extraordinary price ramp - from a low of $1 in demic paper shared with a cryptography mailing list. 2011 to more than $900 earlier this month. That masIt caught the attention of that community but took sive increase has sparked a classic speculative rush, years to take off as a niche transaction tool. The first with more and more people hoping to get a piece of Bitcoin boom and bust came in 2011, and signalled the pie by buying and then selling Bitcoins. Others that it had caught the attention of enough people for are investing thousands of pounds in custom “mining real money to get involved - but also posed the ques- rigs”, computers specially built to solve the mathetion of whether it could ever be more than a novelty. matical problems necessary to confirm a Bitcoin The algorithm for mining Bitcoins means the num- transaction. ber in circulation will never exceed 21m and this limit But bubbles can burst: in 2011 it went from $33 to will be reached in around 2140. Already 57% of all $1. The day after hitting that $900 high, Bitcoin’s value Bitcoins have been created; by 2017, 75% will have halved on MtGox, the biggest exchange. Then it rose been. If you tried to create a Bitcoin in 2141, every again. Speculative bubbles happen everywhere, other computer on the network would reject it as though, from stock markets to Beanie Babies. All fake because it would not have been made according that’s needed is enough people who think that they to the rules of currency. are the smart money, and that everyone else is suffiThe number of companies taking Bitcoin pay- ciently stupid to buy from them. But the Bitcoin bubments is increasing from a small base, and a few pay- bles tell us as much about the usefulness of the curment processors such as Atlanta-based Bitpay are rency itself as the tulip mania of 17th century Holland making real money from the currency. But it’s difficult did about flower-arranging. to get accurate numbers on conventional transacHistory does provide some lessons. While the tions, and it still seems that the most popular uses of Dutch were selling single tulip bulbs for 10 times a Bitcoins are buying drugs in the shadier parts of the craftsman’s annual income, the British were panicking internet, as people did on the Silk Road website, and about their own economic crisis. The silver coinage buying the currency in the hope that in a few weeks’ that had been the basis of the national economy for

centuries was rapidly becoming unfit for purpose: it was constrained in supply and too easy to forge. The economy was taking on the features of a modern capitalist state, and the currency simply couldn’t catch up.

Describing the problem Britain faced then, David Birch, a consultant specialising in electronic transactions, says: “We had a problem in matching the nature of the economy to the nature of the money we used.”

Birch has been talking about electronic money for over two decades and is convinced that we find ourselves on the edge of the same shift that occurred 400 years ago.

The cause of that shift is the internet, because even though you might want to, you can’t use cash untraceable, no-fee-charged cash - online. Existing payment systems such as PayPal and credit cards demand a cut. So for individuals looking for a digital equivalent of cash - no middleman, quick, easy Bitcoin looks pretty good.

In 1613, as people looked for a replacement for silver, Birch says, “we might have been saying ‘the idea of tulip bulbs as an asset class looks pretty good, but this central bank nonsense will never catch on.’ We knew we needed a change, but we couldn’t tell which made sense.” Back then, the currency crisis was solved with the introduction first of Isaac Newton’s Royal Mint (“official” silver and gold) and later with the creation of the Bank of England (“official” paper money that could in theory be swapped for official silver or gold).

And now? Bitcoin offers unprecedented flexibility compared with what has gone before. “Some people in the mid-90s asked: ‘Why do we need the web when we have AOL and CompuServe?’” says Mike Hearn, who works on the programs that underpin Bitcoin.

“And so now people ask the same of Bitcoin. The web came to dominate because it was flexible and open, so anyone could take part, innovate and build interesting applications like YouTube, Facebook or Wikipedia, none of which would have ever happened on the AOL platform. I think the same will be true of Bitcoin.”

For a small (but vocal) group in the US, Bitcoin represents the next best alternative to the gold standard, the 19th-century conception that money ought to be backed by precious metals rather than government printing presses and promises. This love of “hard money” is baked into Bitcoin itself, and is the reason why the owners who set computers to do the maths required to make the currency work are known as “miners”, and is why the total supply of Bitcoin is capped.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

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

Study links high sodium ‘fizzy’ medicines to raised heart risks Researchers say some medicines exceed daily guidelines LONDON: Millions of patients worldwide taking effervescent, dispersible and soluble medicines have an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes because of the high salt content of such drugs, scientists said yesterday. Researchers from Britain’s University of Dundee and University College London found that with some “fizzy” versions of painkillers, vitamin supplements or other common medicines, taking the maximum daily dose would on its own exceed daily recommended limits for sodium, the main component of salt.

High salt intake has been linked to high blood pressure, or hypertension, which is a key risk factor for strokes, heart attacks and other cardiovascular diseases. In a study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), they found that patients taking dispersible forms of drugs had a 16 percent increased

risk of a heart attack, stroke or vascular death compared with patients taking the non-high-sodium versions of the same medications.

Jacob George, an honorary consultant in clinical pharmacology at Dundee who led the study, said patients, and consumers of over-the-counter medicines - such as soluble aspirin, effervescent vitamin C, or Bayer’s Alka Seltzer for example - “should be warned about the potential dangers” of high sodium intake in medicines. Doctors, he added, should be aware of the potential dangers and prescribe fizzy or soluble forms of drugs “with caution, only if the perceived benefits outweigh the risks”.

“There are a lot of patients who need to use these formulations - those who have difficulty swallowing large tablets, for example,” George told Reuters in a telephone interview. “But what we

want is for patients to be able to make an informed decision with the help of their doctor.” Although there is some debate on the issue, many health experts believe that eating too much salt is bad for health and numerous studies have linked excess salt intake to high blood pressure, which can lead to strokes and heart attacks.

The World Health Organisation recommends a daily upper limit of sodium intake of less than 2 grams - equivalent to around 5 grams, or one teaspoon, of salt. For this latest study, George’s team tracked more than 1.2 million patients, comparing those taking sodium-containing effervescent, dispersible and soluble medicines with those taking non-sodium versions of the same drugs.

The study ran between 1987 and 2010 and patients were tracked for an average of just over

seven years. During this time, over 61,000 new so-called cardiovascular events - including heart attacks and strokes - occurred in the patients being studied. Factors likely to affect the results, such as body mass index, smok ing, alcohol intake, history of various chronic illnesses and use of other medicines, were taken into account.

Beside the 16 percent higher risk of a heart problem or stroke, the team also found patients taking sodium-containing drugs were seven times more likely to develop high blood pressure, and their overall death rate was 28 percent higher. The researchers acknowledged that there is still some controversy about the link between dietary sodium and heart risks, but say their findings were anyway “potentially of public health importance”. — Reuters

Belgium close to agreeing euthanasia for children BRUSSELS: Eleven years after making euthanasia legal for adults, Belgium came a step closer to extending mercy-killing to terminally-ill children yesterday after an intense public debate on the ethical issues at stake. A proposed draft bill to extend the practice to minors is expected to be put to the vote in the two houses of parliament in the coming months after its approval by the Senate’s justice and social affairs committee. The draft bill was approved by a majority of political parties both in office and in the opposition, with the exception of the centrist Christian Democrats.

A vote in favor would see Belgium follow in the footsteps of neighbor. The Netherlands, the first country to legalize mercy killings for people suffering from incurable illnesses, but which allows euthanasia for children over 12. If adopted, the legislation is expected to concern no more than 10 to 15 cases a year based on statements from doctors and nurses that the practice already exists outside the law for terminally-ill youngsters in physical distress. “The existence of a law is the best means of guarding against possible malpractice,” said the daily Le Soir newspaper, adding that it was “urgent and indispensable” to extend Belgium’s 2002 euthanasia bill.

Earlier this month, 16 paediatricians also urged lawmakers to approve the legislation. “Why deprive minors of this last possibility,” they said in an open letter carried in the press, arguing that under-18s were able to make an informed and mature decision when facing death. “Experience shows us that in cases of serious illness and imminent death, minors develop very quickly a great maturity, to the point where they are often better able to reflect and express themselves on life than healthy people.”

The proposed legislation would allow the euthanasia of terminally-ill minors so long as they are judged capable of deciding for themselves and are in pain that is “unbearable and cannot be alleviated”. They would be advised by a medical team and their parents’ approval would be required. A recent poll shows three quarters of Belgians approving the move. But a group of Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders have opposed the legal change. “We express our deep concern at the risk that such a grave subject will be increasingly trivialized,” said the group.

“The euthanasia of fragile people, be they children or incapable, is totally inconsistent with their condition as human beings.” Christian-Democrat Senator Francis Delperee agreed. Asking a minor to take such a decision when facing death “is a considerable psychological, human and family burden at a time when the person should be allowed to be calm,” he said. After The Netherlands and Belgium, Luxembourg in 2009 also approved euthanasia, but for adults only.

In Switzerland, doctors can assist a patient seeking to die but euthanasia itself is illegal. Belgium logged a record 1,432 cases of euthanasia in 2012, up 25 percent. Earlier this year, Vermont became the third US state after Oregon and Washington to legalize physician-assisted suicide for people facing terminal illness. It was the first US state however to adopt physician-assisted suicide by legislative process rather than through a voter-initiated referendum. A Pew Research Center poll found that 84 percent of Americans support allowing a terminally ill adult patient to decide if they want to be kept alive. — AFP

In this photo provided by NASA, Comet ISON shows off its tail in this three-minute exposure taken on Nov 19, 2013 at 6:10 am EST, using a 14-inch telescope located at the Marshall Space Flight Center. (Inset) In this photo provided by NASA, a contrast-enhanced image produced from the Hubble images of comet ISON taken April 23, 2013 reveals the subtle structure in the inner coma of the comet. — AP

Will icy comet survive close encounter with sun?

CAPE CANAVERAL: For months, all eyes in the sky have pointed at the comet that’s zooming toward a blisteringly close encounter with the sun. The moment of truth comes Thursday - Thanksgiving Day. The sun-grazing Comet ISON, now thought to be less than a mile wide, will either fry and shatter, victim of the sun’s incredible power, or endure and quite possibly put on one fabulous celestial show. Talk about an astronomical cliffhanger. Even the smartest scientists are reluctant to lay odds.

Should it survive, ISON, pronounced EYE’sahn, would be visible with the naked eye through December, at least from the Northern Hemisphere. Discernible at times in November with ordinary binoculars and occasionally even just the naked eye, it already has dazzled observers and is considered the most scrutinized comet ever by NASA. But the best is, potentially, yet to come. Detected just over a year ago, the comet is passing through the inner solar system for the first time.

Still fresh, this comet is thought to bear the pristine matter of the beginning of our solar system. It’s believed to be straight from the Oort cloud on the fringes of the solar system, home to countless icy bodies, most notably the frozen balls of dust and gas in orbit around the sun known as comets. For whatever reason, ISON was propelled out of this cloud and drawn toward the heart of the solar system by the sun’s intense gravitational pull. The closer the comet gets to the

sun, the faster it gets.

In January, it was clocked at 40,000 mph.

By last Thursday, with just a week to go, it had accelerated to 150,000 mph. Right around the time many Americans will be feasting on turkey, the comet will zip within 730,000 miles of the sun, less than the actual solar diameter. In other words, another sun wouldn’t fit in the missed distance. By the time ISON slingshots around the sun, it will be moving at a mind-boggling 828,000 mph. Whether it survives or is torn apart, earthlings have nothing to fear.

The comet will venture no closer to us than about 40 million miles, less than half the distance between Earth and the sun.

That closest approach to Earth will occur Dec 26. Then it will head away in the opposite direction forever, given its anticipated trajectory once it flies by the sun. ISON is named after the International Scientific Optical Network, used by a pair of Russian astronomers to detect the comet in September last year. But it officially is known as C/2012 S1, a designation indicating when it was discovered.

Take heart: The “C” means it is not expected here again. NASA wasted no time jumping on ISON. The space agency’s Deep Impact spacecraft observed ISON back in January from a distance of about 500 million miles. Since then, the observations have stacked up. Among NASA’s space telescopes taking a look: Swift, Hubble, Spitzer, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Solar and

Heliospheric Observatory or SOHO, Chandra, Mercury-orbiting Messenger, and the Stereo twin spacecraft.

“Every spacecraft that has a camera, we’re turning on it,” said John Grunsfeld, NASA’s science mission director. The newly launched Maven spacecraft en route to Mars will gaze at ISON the second week of December, once its ultraviolet instrument is up and running.

“That’s well after closest approach to the sun,” the University of Colorado’s Nick Schneider, who’s in charge of the instrument, said in an email. So it’s not known “whether we’ll see a comet, comet bits or the last wisps of comet vapor.” “Whatever happens, it’s bound to be interesting. The quip from my colleagues is, ‘Comets are like cats: They have tails and do whatever they want.’”

Besides ISON, NASA is spying on Comet Siding Spring, another Oort cloud comet discovered in January by the Australian observatory of the same name. Siding Spring will pass within tens of thousands of miles of Mars next October, so close that scientists believe the coma of the comet its thin but expansive atmosphere - will envelop the red planet. “It will be blanketed in water and dust and meteorites. It moves like 50 kilometers per second, blazing through the environment,” said Jim Green, director of NASA’s planetary science division.

That’s more than 110,000 mph, so the comet will be gone from Mars “pretty quick.”

Siding Spring-type events have happened before, Green noted. “We’re just lucky in our lifetime” to have the right spacecraft in the right place to observe the spectacle. The same applies to ISON. Add small sounding rockets to the list of paparazzi chasing the comet; NASA fired up one from New Mexico on Wednesday with an ultraviolet telescope that reached 172 miles high before descending by parachute. Consider all the ground observatories peering at the comet, as well as countless amateur astronomers and astrophotographers, and ISON has become the belle of the cosmic ball.

“Comets evolve from the time they start brightening until they go all the way around the sun, and go back out,” Green said. “By having and leveraging these assets, it really gives us that view - that unique view - that we couldn’t get otherwise.” Some sky gazers speculated early on that ISON might become the comet of the century because of its brightness, although expectations have dimmed over the past year.

Scientists expect to know ISON’s fate fairly quickly. At least three spacecraft will be aiming that way in real time. If ISON survives, “it’s going to fly right over the Northern Hemisphere,” Green said with clear excitement in his voice. It should be visible with the naked eye for 30 days. “So it’s really a holiday comet. You ought to be able to see it well past Christmas,” Green said. “But it’s got to survive it, that’s the only thing about that.” — AP

Care and Aware medical camp 2013 conducted by MES-Kuwait ‘Change for Life, eat well, move more, live longer’ KUWAIT: Hundreds of less privileged people attended the free medical screening camp organized by Muslim Educational Society (MES) in association with Indian Doctor’s Forum (IDF), Indian Dentists’ Alliance, Kuwait Heart Foundation, Kuwait Medical Association and supported by AlRahma Committee for Medical Services (Al-Najat Charity Society) on Friday 22nd November 2013 at Central School in Abbasiya. Malabar Gold & Diamonds was the Main Sponsor of the event. The camp was inaugurated by Deputy Chief of Mission and Charge D’ Affaires of Indian Embassy Subashish Goldar.

The theme of this year’s medical camp was “Healthy Lifestyle Can Change Your Life” and a booklet based on the topic was released by Dr Saleh Malallah and the first copy received by Afsal Khan, Zonal Head, Malabar Gold & Diamonds - Kuwait.

Experts from various medical specialties including Orthopaedics, ENT, Gynaecology, Ophthalmology, Diabetes, Cardiology, General Medicine, Paediatrics, Dermatology and Dental examined the patients. In addition, many patients utilized the services of ECG, Mammography and Scanning.

The dedication and hard work put in by the MES volunteers helped the participants to avail camp facilities easily.

Large quantity of medicines Sponsored by Al-Rahma Committee for Medical Services & Saudi Pharmaceutical Company was distributed under the supervision of Medical wing convenor Nasaruddeen and hundreds of patients from different walks of life benefited from this noble event.

This is the 13th camp organized by MES for the community. IDF arranged around 40 doctors, which is the largest con-

tingent till date for such a camp, covering almost all specialties. Around 40 skilled para-medical staff assisted the doctors for the preliminary check-ups.

Blood sugar, hepatitis tests were also arranged for the public in addition to the blood cholesterol test done by Kuwait Heart Foundation.

The brief inaugural ceremony started with recitation of versus from Holy Quran by Rayees Saleh Batha. MES President Sadiq Ali welcomed the audience and the key note speech done by Dr Ameer Ahamed - President IDF. Medical wing convenor Nazaruddeen extended vote of thanks. The felicitation address were given by Mukthar Mahroof - President FIMA. The inaugural event was coordinated by Khaaleel Adoor - Vice President MES. MES Gen Secretary Arshad, Muhammad Rafi, Siddeeque Valiyakath was at the dais. Token of appreciation Memento to Shanta Mariya James was given by Subashish Goldar while Token of appreciation to Dr Saleh Malallah was given by Dr Rajesh Alaxander, President, IDAK, Kuwait. MES also honoured Dr Mohammed Sakeeja, who served the camp last 13 consecutive years, memento to him given by Reevan Dizouza, Chief Editor, Times news magazine. The Gift for paramedical staff is given by Afsal Khan, Zonal Head, Malabar Gold & Diamonds - Kuwait.

Ashraf Ayyoor, Dr Musthafa Keyi, Noushad Muhammad, Saleh Batha, Eng Ummer Kutty, Ibrahim, Arshad, Ashraf PT, Shaheer M.M, O.J. Usman, Advt Gafoor, Mujeeb, Noufal AV, Ramees Saleh, Mujeeb, Firoz kulangara, Jazeen Abdul Jabbar, Shanu Basheer, Shamsudden Calicut, MES Ladies Wing Leader Jeseema Rafi and 10 volunteers from Malabar Gold & Diamonds actively coordinated this unique program.

Health Guide release by Subashish Goldar, DCM.

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

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

Travelling with Crohns can be made easier!

KUWAIT: “Establishing a normal life routine as a Crohn’s patient usually takes time and alterations to one’s old lifestyle, which makes the idea of travelling when suffering from this disease very daunting. With the ongoing holiday season, it is imperative to be prepared if a Crohn’s sufferer hopes to enjoy their vacation” says Dr Waleed Al-Azmi, Associate Professor- Faculty of Medicine Kuwait university.

Crohn’s disease is a serious chronic, inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and most commonly affects the end of the small intestine (the ileum) and the beginning of the large intestine (the colon).

Crohn’s patients suffer mainly from frequent diarrhea and general intestinal discomfort. However, a few preparations can enable the patient to control the disease rather than allowing the disease to jeopardize plans. To feel safe, travelling patients need the following: proper medication, doctor’s contact in the destination country, travel mode seating plan, and Crohn’s survival kit.

First item of order is ensuring there is enough medication to cover

the trip duration, or at least access to renew supplies. Next step is to identify gastroenterologists at the travel destination in case of emergencies. On whatever selected mode of travel, plan the seating so that there is quick and easy access to the toilet. Finally, it is critical to have the survival kit handy, and that usually contains medication, phone

numbers, bottled water, and whichever item a patient would find as the perfect distraction for the long travel hours such as a good book or music. Some people also prefer to include their personal necessities needed for frequent toilet visits such as toilet paper, and wet wipes.

At the destination, patients must continue practicing the normal dietar y precautions and more importantly, is to drink only bottled water and avoid having ice in ones drinks as it is made of local tap water. Other items to avoid include noncarbonated beverages, ice cream, raw vegetables and salads, uncooked meat, and fish, food from vendors’ carts. For dairy products, it is advisable to avoid them unless they have been definitely pasteurized and prepared under sterile conditions.

“In the case that a flare up does occur while travelling, patients should not hesitate to contact the closest gastroenterologist in the area in the hopes it would eventually stop.

Immediate treatment can ensure a better continuation of the journey.“ concluded Waleed Al-Azmi.

Dar Al-Shifa Hospital and Second Cup offer healthy menu options KUWAIT: In an effort to develop wholesome eating habits in the community, Dar Al-Shifa Hospital recently announced its collaboration with Second Cup Coffee chain to provide healthier nutritional recipes and beverages in their café, under the consultation of Dar Al-Shifa hospital’s Dietary Department.

“We are pleased to collaborate with one of the leading coffee shops in Kuwait and we do hope that through this mutually beneficial partnership, we can follow our mission to providing evidence-based nutritional care practice to the community as a whole and to encourage a healthier lifestyle for everyone,” said Nadeen AlJawhary, Head of Dietary Department at Dar Al-Shifa hospital.

She added, “According to a recent study, the obesity prevalence rate in Kuwait exceeds 75%, and is gradually increasing. Hence, we as diet care practitioners should

raise awareness on rising issues and improve general eating habits and lifestyles of our community all at once.”

Through Dar Al-Shifa Hospital’s Dietary department’s guidance and consultation, three healthy low-calorie sandwiches are now available at all branches of the cafe, along to an initial assessment that was undergone for a few beverages where the low-calorie beverages were selected from them, with a label mentioning that. In addition to that, healthy, low-calorie desserts will also be launched soon at the cafe to complement the sandwiches and beverages.

Moreover, Al-Jawhary added: “Through managing the hospital’s dietetic program for the past 7 years, I am proud to be part of a passionate team that is now contributing to serving a wider audience that will inspire future generations towards a healthier tomorrow and not only amongst the patients.”

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

W H AT ’ S O N

BSK celebrates International Day

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s the flags fluttered on the BSK campus the British School of Kuwait celebrated International Day, an annual event highlighting the different nationalities represented at the school - over 75 in all.

On International Day BSK aims to provide students with oppor tunities to better understand and appreciate other cultures.

The school was decorated with flags from around the world, and students were invited to wear formal national dress, or another costume associated with their countr y.

Many students brought to school a souvenir from their country of origin to act as a discussion point with their friends and teachers. In addition, Lysiane Gilles organized a

French cafe for Junior Department students, and Middle Department students took part in an international quiz organized by Deborah Kremer.

We are delighted that International Day proved to be a day of discovery and awareness of the rich multicultural community of which BSK is so proud.

LuLu Exchange lends helping hand to Philippines disaster relief fund

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hat’s more fun than clicking a beautiful picture? Sharing it with others! Let other people see the way you see Kuwait - through your lens. Friday Times will feature snapshots of Kuwait through Instagram feeds. If you want to share your Instagram photos, email us at instagram@kuwaittimes.net

Announcement Nandhanam Kuwait Arangetram 2013 andhanam Kuwait, a socio-cultural organization to promote India’s rich culture and values in Kuwait, is conducting its second ‘Arangetram’, a student’s debut on stage dance performance, at the American International School, Maidan Hawalli-Kuwait on tomorrow.

Kavya Madhavan, a well-known film actress and a dancer (Kerala state film award for best actress twice), would be the special guest for this event. The ‘arangetram’ will be conducted in its traditional form by experienced professional artists from India including Bijeesh Krishna (vocal), Venugopal Kallamparambil (mridangam), Suresh Krishnannambudiri (violin) and Cherthala Sreenath (edakka). Nandhanam Kuwait commenced its classical dance programs from April 2010, with the traditions of Kerala Kalamandalam and with trained faculties from the very same Kerala Kalamandalam. The entry will be regulated through guest passes.

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Write to us Send to What’s On upcoming events, birthdays or celebrations by email: local@kuwaittimes.net Fax: 24835619 / 20

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uLu Exchange Company, the leading remittance company in Kuwait, has come forward to extend aid to Central Philippines, which was battered by super typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan). The company mobilized financial and material aid to be sent over to survivors of the natural disaster.

LuLu Exchange Company in conjunction with LuLu Exchange Group has donated supplies, including canned food and fresh water, medicine and warm clothes to the affected, through BDO Foundation, the Philippines based NGO. Adeeb Ahamed, CEO of LuLu Exchange Company, symbolically handed over the first consignment of relief goods to a representative of Banco de Oro on Tuesday.

“My heart goes out to those family members who were left by their loved ones. Recognizing the seriousness of the catastrophe, LuLu Exchange Group is providing financial, food and material assistance to those affected by the

typhoon. First weeks after the disaster is the most critical when it comes to providing supplies and ground support.

Humanitarian support is a key layer of our organizational foundation and we urge all those who can help to donate to the relief fund,” Ahamed said.

“In addition, we make a difference by providing many customers the opportunity to send funds to the Philippines that can be then used to help those impacted by the unfortunate natural disaster. The outpouring of support for the Philippines by LuLu colleagues throughout our operations is truly heartwarming and makes me proud to be a LuLuite,” Adeeb added.

The staffs of the remittance and foreign exchange major have been organizing fund raising activities and received generous voluntary donations to help support the ongoing relief efforts in the Philippines. The entire amount collected through the donation would go to charities and res-

cue operations in Philippines.

LuLu Exchange Company has often been able to respond swiftly to disasters anywhere in Asia, providing physical and mental relief as well as material aid. The company had earlier initiated similar CSR and charity drives to rehabilitate the victims natural calamities such as the 2013 North Indian floods and Philippines floods of 2012. LuLu Exchange Company has associated with Western Union Worldwide Remittance Services’ decision to waive off the sending fees to Philippines starting from 15th November to 30th November, 2013.

BDO Foundation itself has sent relief aid to a total of 35,000 families in various devastated areas and has targeted to reach as many as 60,000 families. The foundation has also charted a rehabilitation program for the survivors in its second phase.

Family friendly brunch launched at Jumeirah Messilah Beach Hotel & Spa

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umeirah Messilah Beach Hotel and Spa, Kuwait’s idyllic resort, launched a new Friday family brunch at the hotel’s Garden CafÈ.

Available from the 22 of November ‘The Amazing Friday’ Brunch will be served from 1 to 4.30pm with spectacular views of the hotel’s lush gardens and Arabian Gulf.

Delicious mixed grills, Italian dishes, Ouzi and other Arabic specialties will be available alongside live cooking stations; chefs will be on hand to prepare seafood. Youngsters will be well catered for with a special children’s buffet, a selection of treats including cotton candy, popcorn, cupcakes and special entertainment.

Mark Griffiths, General Manager, said: “We invite everyone to share our passion for culinary perfection as well as experience our unrivalled luxury service. The Friday brunch will make the day even more special.”

W H AT ’ S O N

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

Embassy Information

GUST organizes first Gulf International Conference on applied mathematics

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. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF CANADA The Embassy of Canada in Kuwait does not have a visa or immigration department. All processing of visa and immigration matters including enquiries is conducted by the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Individuals who are interested in working, studying, visiting or immigrating to Canada should contact the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, website: www.UAE.gc.ca or www.goingtocanada.gc.ca, E-mail: abdbiim-enquiry@international.gc.ca. The Embassy of Canada is located at Villa 24, Al-Mutawakei St, Block 4 in Da’aiyah.

Please visit our website at www.Kuwait.gc.ca. The Embassy of Canada is open from 07:30 to 15:30 Sunday through Thursday. The reception is open from 07:30 to 12:30. Consular services for Canadian citizens are provided from 09:00 until 12:00, Sunday through Wednesday. nnnnnnn

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he Department of Mathematics & Natural Sciences in the Gulf University for Science & Technology (GUST) hosted its first conference in the area of applied mathematics.

The conference referred to as the Gulf International Conference on Applied Mathematics 2013 (GICAM’13) was based on three major themes of interest, these included Mathematical Biology, Computational Science and Applications of mathematics.

The area of Mathematical Biology a relatively new field in applied mathematics has become a very active field in aiding the science of biological processes. To promote research in the Gulf region this theme was specifically chosen. The keynote speaker for this theme was Professor Philip Maini, the Director of the Wolfson Centre for Mathematical Biology at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, UK. Professor Maini talked about some of his work in cell biology and its relationship with cancer. The Wolfson Centre has managed to create an ideal

environment for doing research in mathematical biology, where scientists working in all areas related to biology work closely with mathematicians to solve some of the world’s most urgent and critical problems related to life systems. The marriage of experimentalists and theoreticians at the centre is one of its key successes, where the two validate each other’s results without wasting any time, thus making the search for answers as efficient and effective as possible.

Another one of the themes was computational science, one of the best known areas in mathematical research.

Basically, when problems become too difficult to solve using pen and paper we need to resort to computers, sometimes it is not just the complexity of the problems but their scale. In any case computers are designed to compute and their computational power is put to the test when solving extremely challenging problems like weather prediction, ocean dynamics, scheduling problems, fluid mechanics and the list is endless. The

keynote speaker for this theme was Professor Grigorii Shishkin the inventor of the Shishkin mesh. Professor Shishkin’s work on a certain class of mathematical problems lead to the development and creation of his mesh, which has aided in solving literally hundreds of unsolved problems in the areas of fluid mechanics, mathematics of finance and general modeling problems in various fields. The third theme was more general applications of mathematics and this included talks in statistics, engineering, finance, scheduling, inventory control and many other areas.

The keynote for this theme was Professor Ali Nayfeh, an Engineer, scientist and mathematician well known in the mathematics community for his famous book on perturbation methods; Professor Nayfeh presented his latest sensor device that he is developing for measuring the amount of bacteria in the human body at a particular location. The talk reflected how mathematical modelling can lead to the actual development of an electronic

sensor to detect biological phenomenon.

The conference attractedover 130 abstract submissions and close to 50 participants from various parts of the world including the Middle East, the Gulf, USA, UK, Poland, Italy, South Africa, New Zealand, Russia, Turkey and Malaysia.

The conference was an attempt to encourage research in applied mathematics in the region and to build links with many researchers and labs from all over the world in order to exchange ideas and to collaborate in projects. The conference was organized in cooperation with the Society for Industrial & Applied Mathematics (SIAM), based in the USA. The conference was financially supported byKuwait Foundation for Advancement of sciences (KFAS), GUST, Growmore, Naseej, Springer and INCA. Without their support this conference would not have been possible. Therefore many thanks to our sponsors and also to the Department of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at GUST and finally, the conference organizing committee.

Brussels hosts Al-Babtain Poetry Award Ceremony

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pon an invitation from Abdul Aziz Soud Al-Babtain, the pastor of the Egyptian Church in Kuwait and Bishop Bishoy to the 13th Abdul Aziz Soud Al-Babtain Poetry Award Ceremony recently held at the European Parliament, Brussels under the title of ì21st Century Arab-European Dialogue with a Joint Perspectiveî.

The ceremony that was held under the auspices of the European Parliament Speaker was also attended by Abdul Aziz Al-Babtain, Kuwaitís speaker of the house, Marzouq Al-Ghanim, the former Foreign Minister, Sheikh Mohammed Sabah Al-Salem and over 300 international intellectuals and thinkers from 52 countries.

EMBASSY OF GREECE The Embassy of Greece in Kuwait has the pleasure to announce that visa applications must be submitted to Schengen Visa Application Centre (VFS office) located at 12th floor, Al-Naser Tower, Fahad Al-Salem Street, Al-Qibla area, Kuwait City, (Parking at Souk Watia). For information please call 22281046 from 08:30 to 17:00 (Sunday to Thursday).

Working hours: Submission from 08:30 to 15:30. Passport collection from 16:00 to 17:00. For visa applications please visit the following website www.mfa.gr/kuwait. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF US The US Embassy in Kuwait has new procedures for obtaining appointments and picking up passports after visa issuance. Beginning August 9, 2013, we now provide an online visa appointment system, live call center, and in-person pick-up facilities in Kuwait.

Please monitor our website and social media for additional information. This new system offers more flexibility for travelers to the US and to meet the increase in demand for visa appointments.

The general application steps on the new visa appointment system are: 1. Go to www.ustraveldocs.com/kw (if this is the first time on ustraveldocs.com, you will need to create a profile to login).

2. Please complete your DS-160 Online Visa Application which is available at ceac.state.gov/genNIV. 3. Please print and take your deposit slip to any Burgan Bank location to pay your visa application fee.

4. Schedule an appointment for your visa interview online at www.ustraveldocs.com/kw or by phone through the Call Center (at +965-2227-1673).

5. If you need to change or cancel your appointment, please do so 24 hours beforehand, as a courtesy to other applicants. For more information, please visit the US Embassy website - kuwait.usembassy.gov - as it is the best source of information regarding these changes. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF VATICAN The Apostolic Nunciature Embassy of the Holy See, Vatican in Kuwait has moved to a new location in Kuwait City. Please find below the new address: Yarmouk, Block 1, Street 2, Villa No: 1. P.O.Box 29724, Safat 13158, Kuwait.

Tel: 965 25337767, Fax: 965 25342066. Email: nuntiuskuwait@gmail.com.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

TV PROGRAMS

03:25 Cheetah Kingdom 03:50 Cheetah Kingdom 04:15 Bondi Vet 05:05 ER Vets 05:30 ER Vets 05:55 Animal Cops Phoenix 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 Cheetah Kingdom 11:35 Cheetah Kingdom 12:00 Animal Cops Houston 12:55 Monkey Life 13:20 Call Of The Wildman 13:50 Meet The Sloths 14:15 Meet The Sloths 14:45 Biggest And Baddest 15:40 Cheetah Kingdom 16:05 Cheetah Kingdom 16:30 My Cat From Hell 17:30 The Most Extreme 18:25 Baby Planet 19:20 Panda Adventures With Nigel Marven 20:15 Bondi Vet 21:10 ER Vets 21:40 ER Vets 22:05 Cheetah Kingdom 22:35 Cheetah Kingdom 23:00 Outback Rangers 23:25 Outback Rangers 23:55 North America 00:50 Animal Cops Phoenix 01:45 Human Prey 02:35 Untamed & Uncut

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

Luther Absolutely Fabulous One Foot In The Grave Nina And The Neurons Poetry Pie The Green Balloon Club Bobinogs Tweenies Nina And The Neurons Poetry Pie The Green Balloon Club Bobinogs Tweenies One Foot In The Grave Come Fly With Me Doctor Who Eastenders Doctors Drop Zone The Weakest Link One Foot In The Grave Doctor Who Come Fly With Me Eastenders Doctors The Weakest Link Drop Zone Doctor Who Eastenders Doctors The Weakest Link Keeping Up Appearances The Office Luther Gavin & Stacey The Cafe Hebburn Daddy Daycare Keeping Up Appearances The Office Gavin & Stacey Luther Eastenders Doctors Daddy Daycare

03:15 Fantasy Homes Down Under 04:00 The Boss Is Coming To Dinner 04:25 Cash In The Attic

05:10 The Hairy Bikers’ Cookbook 05:40 Bargain Hunt 06:25 Celebrity Fantasy Homes 07:10 Chef At Home 07:35 The Boss Is Coming To Dinner 08:00 Bargain Hunt 08:45 DIY SOS: The Big Build 09:40 The Hairy Bikers’ Cookbook 10:05 Nigel Slater’s Simple Cooking 10:30 Baking Mad With Eric Lanlard 10:55 Baking Mad With Eric Lanlard 11:20 Come Dine With Me 12:10 Masterchef: The Professionals 12:55 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Specials 14:15 Antiques Roadshow 15:10 Holmes On Homes 16:00 Holmes On Homes 16:45 Bargain Hunt 17:30 Cash In The Attic 18:20 Antiques Roadshow 19:15 Homes Under The Hammer 20:10 The Restaurant Inspector 21:00 Planet Cake 21:30 Come Dine With Me 22:20 Antiques Roadshow 23:15 Bargain Hunt 00:00 Cash In The Attic 00:50 Homes Under The Hammer 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 Finding Bigfoot 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 You Have Been Warned 12:25 Dynamo: Magician Impossible 13:15 Mythbusters 14:05 Border Security 14:30 Storage Hunters 14:55 Dirty Money 15:20 World’s Top 5 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 Sons Of Guns 22:50 Amish Mafia 23:40 Inside The Gangsters’ Code 00:30 Sons Of Guns 01:20 Amish Mafia 02:10 Inside The Gangsters’ Code

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

Disappeared Deadly Sins Killer Kids Dr G: Medical Examiner Ghost Lab Nightmare Next Door Deadly Sins 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 Sins Nightmare Next Door On The Case With Paula Zahn I Was Murdered Stalked: Someone’s Watching Couples Who Kill Extreme Forensics

18:50 19:40 20:30 21:20 22:10 23:00 23:50 00:40 01:30 02:20

Dr G: Medical Examiner On The Case With Paula Zahn On The Case With Paula Zahn I Almost Got Away With It Deadly Sins True CSI Deadly Women Killer Kids Couples Who Kill Ghost Lab

03:45 Stephen Hawking’s Grand Design 04:35 Unchained Reaction 05:25 Space Pioneer 06:15 The Gadget Show 06:40 Tech Toys 360 07:05 X-Machines 08:00 Junkyard Wars 08:50 Rocket City Rednecks 09:15 Rocket City Rednecks 09:40 The Gadget Show 10:05 Tech Toys 360 10:30 Invisible Worlds 11:25 X-Machines 12:20 Unchained Reaction 13:10 Space Pioneer 14:00 Stephen Hawking’s Grand Design 14:50 Weird Connections 15:20 The Gadget Show 15:45 Tech Toys 360 16:10 Prophets Of Science Fiction 17:00 Invisible Worlds 17:55 X-Machines 18:45 Unchained Reaction 19:35 Space Pioneer 20:30 Weird Or What?

21:20 Prank Science 21:45 Prank Science 22:10 The Gadget Show 22:35 Tech Toys 360 23:00 Weird Or What?

23:50 Prank Science 00:15 Prank Science 00:40 Colony 01:30 Weird Connections 02:00 The Gadget Show 02:25 Tech Toys 360 02:50 Weird Or What?

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

03:00 03:20 03:45 04:05 04:30 04:50 05:15 05:35 06:00

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

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

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 18:10 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 02:15 02:35

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 Gravity Falls Shake It Up Good Luck Charlie A.N.T. Farm 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 Wizards Of Waverly Place Wizards Of Waverly Place

07:00 Max Steel 07:25 Phineas And Ferb 07:50 Phineas And Ferb 08:15 Crash & Bernstein 08:40 Kickin It 09:05 Ultimate Spider-Man 09:30 Phineas And Ferb 09:40 Phineas And Ferb 09:55 Phineas And Ferb 10:05 Phineas And Ferb 10:20 Lab Rats 10:45 Lab Rats 11:10 Pokemon Bw: Adventures In Unova 11:35 Max Steel 12:00 Zeke & Luther 12:25 Zeke & Luther 12:50 Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja 13:15 Scaredy Squirrel 13:40 Pair Of Kings 14:05 Pair Of Kings 14:30 Phineas And Ferb 14:40 Phineas And Ferb 14:55 Phineas And Ferb 15:20 Pokemon Bw: Adventures In Unova 15:45 Lab Rats 16:10 Lab Rats 16:35 Crash & Bernstein 17:00 Lab Rats 17:30 Kickin It 18:00 Dude, That’s My Ghost 18:25 Camp Lakebottom 18:50 Supa Strikas 19:15 Lab Rats 19:40 Monsters University: Behind The Screams 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 21:55 Phineas And Ferb 22:10 Phineas And Ferb 22:20 Phineas And Ferb 22:35 Lab Rats 23:00 Kickin It 23:30 Scaredy Squirrel 00:00 Programmes Start At 7:00am KSA

03:15 Style Star 03:40 Extreme Close-Up 04:10 THS 05:05 THS 06:00 THS 07:50 Style Star 08:20 E! News 09:15 Opening Act 10:15 Married To Jonas 10:40 Chasing The Saturdays 11:10 Eric And Jessie: Game On 11:35 Eric And Jessie: Game On 12:05 E! News 13:05 Extreme Close-Up 13:35 THS 14:30 Style Star 15:00 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 16:00 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 17:00 What Would Ryan Lochte Do? 17:30 The Soup Investigates 18:00 E! News 19:00 E!ES 20:00 The Wanted Life 21:00 Hello Ross 21:30 Fashion Police 22:30 E! News 23:30 Chelsea Lately 00:00 Chelsea Lately 00:30 The Dance Scene 00:55 The Dance Scene 01:25 THS 02:20 E! Investigates

BATTLESHIP ON OSN MOVIES ACTION

03:10 03:35 04:00 04:25 04:50 05:15 05:40 06:30 07:10 08:00

Charly’s Cake Angels Unique Sweets Unique Sweets Food Wars Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives United Tastes Of America Chopped Iron Chef America Food Network Challenge Unwrapped

04:30 Jelly T 06:00 Arthur 3: And The War Of Two Worlds 08:00 Marco Macaco 10:00 Three Investigators And The Secret Of Terror...

11:45 Santa’s Magic Crystal 13:15 Jelly T 14:45 Luke And Lucy: The Texas Rangers 16:15 Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups 18:00 Three Investigators And The Secret Of Terror...

20:00 Jumanji 22:00 Luke And Lucy: The Texas Rangers 23:30 Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups 01:00 Marco Macaco 02:30 Luke And Lucy: The Texas Rangers

04:00 Paranorman 06:00 Mandie And The Secret Tunnel 08:00 Super Buddies 09:45 Mission: Impossible III 12:00 People Like Us 14:00 Burden Of Evil 16:00 Super Buddies 17:45 Think Like A Man 20:00 Snow White And The Huntsman 22:15 Butter 00:00 Burden Of Evil 02:00 Think Like A Man

JURASSIC PARK ON OSN MOVIES HD ACTION 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 14:40 Basics 15:05 15:30 15:55 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 23:50 00:15 00:40 01:05 01:30 01:55 02:20 02:45

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 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Siba’s Table Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 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 Amazing Wedding Cakes Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Heat Seekers Meat & Potatoes Outrageous Food Amazing Wedding Cakes

03:00 Market Values 03:30 Eat Street 03:55 Street Food Around The World 04:25 Extreme Tourist Afghanistan 05:20 Banged Up Abroad 06:15 The Witch Doctor Will See You Now 07:10 Market Values 07:35 My Sri Lanka With Peter Kuruvita 08:05 Street Food Around The World 08:30 Don’t Tell My Mother 09:00 Travel Madness 09:25 Delinquent Gourmet 09:55 Eat Street 10:20 Market Values 10:50 Eat Street 11:15 Street Food Around The World 11:45 Extreme Tourist Afghanistan 12:40 Banged Up Abroad 13:35 The Witch Doctor Will See You Now 14:30 Market Values 14:55 My Sri Lanka With Peter Kuruvita 15:25 Street Food Around The World 15:50 Don’t Tell My Mother 16:20 Travel Madness 16:45 Delinquent Gourmet 17:15 Eat Street 17:40 Market Values 18:10 Eat Street 18:35 Street Food Around The World 19:05 Somewhere In China 20:00 Banged Up Abroad 21:00 Eat Street 21:30 Market Values 22:00 Scam City 22:55 Warrior Road Trip 23:50 Ultimate Traveller 00:45 Don’t Tell My Mother 01:10 Deadliest Journeys 01:40 Banged Up Abroad 02:35 Don’t Tell My Mother

03:00 Britain’s Greatest Machines 04:00 The Known Universe

05:00 World’s Deadliest Animals 06:00 Britain’s Greatest Machines 07:00 Megacities 08:00 Ultimate Airport Dubai 09:00 Pirate Patrol 10:00 Machines Of War 11:00 Britain’s Greatest Machines 12:00 The Known Universe 13:00 World’s Deadliest Animals 14:00 Ultimate Survival Alaska 15:00 Megacities 16:00 Mega Breakdown 17:00 Pirate Patrol 18:00 Machines Of War 19:00 Alaska Wing Men 20:00 A Traveler’s Guide To The Planets 21:00 Nordic Wild 22:00 Alaska Wing Men 23:00 World’s Toughest Fixes 00:00 Mad Scientists 00:30 Mad Scientists 01:00 Salvage Code Red 02:00 Wild Russia

03:00 How I Met Your Mother 03:30 Last Man Standing 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 Family Tools 10:00 Happy Endings 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 Last Man Standing 14:30 Family Tools 15:00 Happy Endings 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 22:00 23:00 00:00

The Client List Perception Warehouse 13 Psych Necessary Roughness White Collar Perception Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Warehouse 13 Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show White Collar Psych Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show White Collar The Carrie Diaries The X Factor U.S. Downton Abbey The Client List Psych

01:00 The Carrie Diaries 02:00 Downton Abbey

04:30 Broken Path 06:15 The Rescue 08:00 Metal Tornado 09:45 Battleship 12:00 Swamp Shark 13:45 The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift 15:45 Battleship 18:00 Jurassic Park 20:15 The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift 22:15 Bait 00:15 Scream Of The Banshee 02:00 Elfie Hopkins

04:15 The Rescue 06:00 Metal Tornado 07:45 Battleship 10:00 Swamp Shark 11:45 The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift 13:45 Battleship 16:00 Jurassic Park 18:15 The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift 20:15 Bait 22:15 Scream Of The Banshee 00:00 Elfie Hopkins 01:45 Bait

04:00 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 Mom 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00 00:00 02:00

Blame It On The Bellboy 3 Holiday Tails A Kiss For Jed Wood Tower Heist Blame It On The Bellboy The Year Dolly Parton Was My Tower Heist Who Framed Roger Rabbit A Few Best Men The Sitter Stakeout A Few Best Men

03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 12:45 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00 01:00

Shadow Dancer I’ve Loved You So Long Look Again Beneath Hill 60 Shadow Dancer The Terminal Would Be Kings The Wishing Well In Time This Must Be The Place Rabbit Hole The Wishing Well

03:45 05:15 07:30 09:30 11:15 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:15 01:15

The Entitled Across The Universe Dog Day Afternoon Teenage Paparazzo Golden Christmas 3 Kathmandu Lullaby Jakob The Liar The Woman In The Fifth Yelling To The Sky Flesh And Bone Out Of Sight The Crucible

03:15 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00 01:00

Mary & Martha Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax The Three Stooges The Lucky One A View From Here One Life Arrietty The Lucky One The Girl Mama Violet & Daisy Blue Lagoon: The Awakening

03:00 03:30 04:00 05:00 07:00 11:00 16:00 16:30 17:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 21:30 22:00 01:00

European Tour Weekly Inside The PGA Tour LPGA Tour Highlights Rugby League World Cup Darts Grand Slam Live PGA European Tour Inside The PGA Tour Total Rugby Rugby League World Cup Trans World Sport LPGA Tour Highlights European Tour Weekly Inside The PGA Tour Live PGA Tour PGA European Tour

03:00 UFC Fight For The Troops 06:00 UFC - The Ultimate Fighter Season 18 07:00 International Rugby Union 09:00 Total Rugby 11:30 Rugby League World Cup 13:30 Total Rugby 14:00 Darts Grand Slam 18:00 Futbol Mundial 18:30 NFL Gameday 19:00 WWE NXT 20:00 UFC - Primetime 20:30 UFC - Primetime 21:00 UFC - The Ultimate Fighter Season 18 22:00 Live Darts Grand Slam 02:00 WWE NXT

03:30 ICC Cricket 360 04:00 World Pool Masters 05:00 Live World Cup Of Golf 07:00 Snooker Champion Champions 11:00 Golfing World 12:00 World Pool Masters 20:00 Total Rugby 20:30 Futbol Mundial 21:00 Inside The PGA Tour 21:30 European Tour Weekly 22:00 PGA European Tour 02:30 Trans World Sport

Of

04:00 Mass Participation U.K 04:30 Ping Pong World Championship 05:30 U.S Bass Fishing 06:30 Porsche GT 3 Cup Challenge Middle East 07:00 WWE Smackdown 09:00 Ping Pong World Championship 10:00 U.S Bass Fishing 13:00 WWE Vintage Collection 14:00 WWE Bottom Line 15:00 This Week In WWE 19:30 Prizefighter 23:00 UFC Prelims 01:00 UFC - Belfort vs. Henderson

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 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 Armed & Ready Armed & Ready Man vs World 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 Hotel Impossible Soul Seeker The Food Truck The Food Truck Bizarre Foods America International House Hunters International House Hunters Luxury Uncovered Luxury Uncovered Monumental Mysteries Airport 24/7: Miami Airport 24/7: Miami World’s Greatest Motorcycle Xtreme Waterparks Xtreme Waterparks

Classifieds THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

Kuwait SHARQIA-1 CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CARRIE (DIG) CARRIE (DIG) CARRIE (DIG) CARRIE (DIG) CARRIE (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

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

SHARQIA-2 THE HUNGER GAMES:CATCHING FIRE (DIG) THE FROZEN GROUND (DIG) THE HUNGER GAMES:CATCHING FIRE (DIG) THE HUNGER GAMES:CATCHING FIRE (DIG) THE FROZEN GROUND (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:45 PM 4:45 PM 6:45 PM 9:30 PM 12:15 AM

SHARQIA-3 DELIVERY MAN (DIG) DELIVERY MAN (DIG) PARKLAND (DIG) DELIVERY MAN (DIG) PARKLAND (DIG) DELIVERY MAN (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:00 PM 3:30 PM 5:45 PM 7:45 PM 10:00 PM 12:05 AM

MUHALAB-1 DELIVERY MAN (DIG) DELIVERY MAN (DIG) THOR: THE DARK WORLD (DIG) DELIVERY MAN (DIG) DELIVERY MAN (DIG)

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

MUHALAB-2 CARRIE (DIG) CARRIE (DIG) PARKLAND (DIG) CARRIE (DIG) PARKLAND (DIG) CARRIE (DIG)

1:00 PM 3:00 PM 5:00 PM 7:00 PM 9:00 PM 11:00 PM

MUHALAB-3 THE HUNGER GAMES:CATCHING FIRE (DIG) BULLETT RAJA (DIG) THE HUNGER GAMES:CATCHING FIRE (DIG) THE HUNGER GAMES:CATCHING FIRE (DIG)

2:00 PM 4:45 PM 7:30 PM 10:15 PM

FANAR-1 PARKLAND (DIG) DELIVERY MAN (DIG) DELIVERY MAN (DIG) PARKLAND (DIG) DELIVERY MAN (DIG) PARKLAND (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED FANAR-2 CARRIE (DIG) CARRIE (DIG) THOR: THE DARK WORLD (DIG) CARRIE (DIG) CARRIE (DIG) CARRIE (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

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

2:00 PM 4:00 PM 6:00 PM 8:15 PM 10:15 PM 12:15 AM

FANAR-3 THE FROZEN GROUND (DIG) THE FROZEN GROUND (DIG) THE FROZEN GROUND (DIG) BULLETT RAJA (DIG) BULLETT RAJA (DIG) THE FROZEN GROUND (DIG)

12:30 PM 2:30 PM 4:30 PM 6:30 PM 9:30 PM 12:30 AM

FANAR-4 THE HUNGER GAMES:CATCHING FIRE (DIG)

12:45 PM

SITUATION VACANT

KNCC PROGRAMME FROM THURSDAY TO WEDNESDAY (28/11/2013 TO 04/12/2013) THE HUNGER GAMES:CATCHING FIRE (DIG) THE HUNGER GAMES:CATCHING FIRE (DIG) THE HUNGER GAMES:CATCHING FIRE (DIG) THE HUNGER GAMES:CATCHING FIRE (DIG)

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

FANAR-5 CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG)

2:00 PM 5:00 PM 8:00 PM 11:00 PM

MARINA-1 DELIVERY MAN (DIG) DELIVERY MAN (DIG) PARKLAND (DIG) DELIVERY MAN (DIG) PARKLAND (DIG) DELIVERY MAN (DIG)

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

MARINA-2 CARRIE (DIG) CARRIE (DIG) THOR: THE DARK WORLD (DIG) CARRIE (DIG) CARRIE (DIG) CARRIE (DIG) CARRIE (DIG)

12:30 PM 2:30 PM 4:30 PM 6:45 PM 8:45 PM 11:00 PM 1:00 AM

MARINA-3 THE HUNGER GAMES:CATCHING FIRE (DIG) THE FROZEN GROUND (DIG) THE HUNGER GAMES:CATCHING FIRE (DIG) THE HUNGER GAMES:CATCHING FIRE (DIG) THE FROZEN GROUND (DIG)

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

AVENUES-1 THOR: THE DARK WORLD (DIG) THOR: THE DARK WORLD (DIG) THOR: THE DARK WORLD (DIG) THOR: THE DARK WORLD (DIG) THOR: THE DARK WORLD (DIG)

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

AVENUES-2 BULLETT RAJA (DIG) BULLETT RAJA (DIG) BULLETT RAJA (DIG) BULLETT RAJA (DIG) LAST VEGAS (DIG)

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

AVENUES-3 THE FROZEN GROUND (DIG) THE FROZEN GROUND (DIG) THE FROZEN GROUND (DIG) THE FROZEN GROUND (DIG) THE FROZEN GROUND (DIG)

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

AVENUES-4 THE HUNGER GAMES:CATCHING FIRE (DIG) THE HUNGER GAMES:CATCHING FIRE (DIG) THE HUNGER GAMES:CATCHING FIRE (DIG) THE HUNGER GAMES:CATCHING FIRE (DIG)

2:30 PM 5:30 PM 8:30 PM 11:30 PM

AVENUES-5 DELIVERY MAN (DIG) 1:30 PM DELIVERY MAN (DIG) 3:45 PM NO FRI DELIVERY MAN (DIG) 6:00 PM NO FRI Special Show “THE HUNGER GAMES:CATCHING FIRE (DIG)” 4:00 PM FRI-29.11.2013 DELIVERY MAN (DIG) 8:15 PM CARRIE (DIG) 10:30 PM CARRIE (DIG) 12:30 AM

360º- 1 CARRIE (DIG) CARRIE (DIG) CARRIE (DIG) CARRIE (DIG) CARRIE (DIG) CARRIE (DIG)

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

360º- 2 CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG)

2:45 PM 5:45 PM 8:45 PM 11:45 PM

360º- 3 PARKLAND (DIG) PARKLAND (DIG) PARKLAND (DIG) PARKLAND (DIG) PARKLAND (DIG) PARKLAND (DIG)

12:45 PM 3:00 PM 5:15 PM 7:30 PM 9:45 PM 12:05 AM

AL-KOUT.1 THE HUNGER GAMES:CATCHING FIRE (DIG) THE HUNGER GAMES:CATCHING FIRE (DIG) THE HUNGER GAMES:CATCHING FIRE (DIG) THE HUNGER GAMES:CATCHING FIRE (DIG) THE HUNGER GAMES:CATCHING FIRE (DIG)

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

AL-KOUT.2 DELIVERY MAN (DIG) DELIVERY MAN (DIG) THOR: THE DARK WORLD (DIG) DELIVERY MAN (DIG) DELIVERY MAN (DIG) THOR: THE DARK WORLD (DIG)

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

AL-KOUT.3 THE FROZEN GROUND (DIG) PARKLAND (DIG) THE FROZEN GROUND (DIG) PARKLAND (DIG) THE FROZEN GROUND (DIG) PARKLAND (DIG) THE FROZEN GROUND (DIG)

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

AL-KOUT.4 CARRIE (DIG) CARRIE (DIG) CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DIG) CARRIE (DIG) CARRIE (DIG) CARRIE (DIG)

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

BAIRAQ-1 THE HUNGER GAMES:CATCHING FIRE (DIG) THE HUNGER GAMES:CATCHING FIRE (DIG) THE HUNGER GAMES:CATCHING FIRE (DIG) THE HUNGER GAMES:CATCHING FIRE (DIG) THE HUNGER GAMES:CATCHING FIRE (DIG)

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

BAIRAQ-2 CARRIE (DIG) CARRIE (DIG) PARKLAND (DIG) CARRIE (DIG) PARKLAND (DIG) CARRIE (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:45 PM 3:45 PM 5:45 PM 7:45 PM 9:45 PM 12:05 AM

BAIRAQ-3 DELIVERY MAN (DIG) THE FROZEN GROUND (DIG) DELIVERY MAN (DIG) THE FROZEN GROUND (DIG)

1:30 PM 4:00 PM 6:00 PM 8:15 PM

A Kuwaiti family is looking to hire a driver with a valid driver’s license.

Contact: 99401126.

(C 4581) 25-11-2014 Professional cook for house, good knowledge of all kind of food, specially Arabic and Indian food, good salary, part time. Call: 23901053, 66519719, 67079253.

(C 4577) 23-11-2014

CHANGE OF NAME I, Mohammed Zakir, holder of Indian Passport No. H4591862 issued in Kuwait on 24/08/2009, address: 86-10-2, Chegunta Ramanpet, Medak, AP, hereby change my name to Zakir Alfouddin Shaikh.

(C 4583) 26-11-2014

ACCOMMODATION Single room, central A/C available. Very near to AlSalam International Hospital, Benaid Al-Gar, rent KD 90. Please contact: 66612378, 97879611.

(C 4582) FOR SALE Sharing accommodation for couple Filipino only near Indian school Jabriya.

Available November 25, 2013. Contact: 99537639.

(C 4581) 25-11-2014

MATRIMONIAL Inviting proposals for God fearing Marthomite boy 27/174/BE, working as an Engineer in Kuwait. Please contact email: oommenanoop@gmail.com or ansa.nick@gmail.com (C 4585) 27-11-2013

2005 model Mitsubishi Nativa, 4x4, 6 cylinder, silver color, price KD 1,900. Tel: 66104141. (C 4586) 27-11-2013 Honda Accord 2008, company maintained, excellent condition. Tel: 99787716 or 99673239.

(C 4584) 26-11-2013 Nissan Pathfinder 2003 model, in good condition, white. Serious buyer may contact 97277135 25-11-2013

112 Prayer timings

Fajr:

04:58

Shorook

06:22

Duhr:

11:36

Asr:

14:30

Maghrib:

16:49

Isha:

18:11

Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)

Airlines BBC JAI JZR JZR KLM THY QTR SAI ETH GFA THY UAE ETD MSR QTR MSC FDB THY DHX QTR QTR JZR FDB BAW JZR KAC KAC KAC KAC IRA FDB KAC KAC KAC KAC UAE ABY QTR ETD IRA FDB IZG GFA MSC MSC MEA JZR JZR JZR SYR TBZ UAE MSR MSR KNE FDB QTR SVA KNE

Arrival Flights on Thursday 28/11/2013 Flt Route 43 DHAKA 574 MUMBAI 539 CAIRO 267 BEIRUT 411 AMSTERDAM 772 ISTANBUL 1084 DOHA 441 LAHORE 620 ADDIS ABABA 211 BAHRAIN 764 SABIHA 853 DUBAI 305 ABU DHABI-INTL 612 CAIRO 1076 DOHA 401 ALEXANDRIA 67 DUBAI 770 ISTANBUL 170 BAHRAIN 8524 DOHA 8650 DOHA 503 LUXOR 69 DUBAI 157 LONDON 529 ASYUT 412 MANILA 206 ISLAMABAD 302 MUMBAI 382 DELHI 617 AHWAZ 53 DUBAI 284 DHAKA 332 TRIVANDRUM 352 COCHIN 362 COLOMBO 855 DUBAI 125 SHARJAH 1070 DOHA 301 ABU DHABI-INTL 605 ISFAHAN 55 DUBAI 4161 MASHAD 213 BAHRAIN 403 ASYUT 405 SOHAG 404 BEIRUT 165 DUBAI 241 AMMAN-QUEEN ALIA 561 SOHAG 341 DAMASCUS 5483 MASHAD 871 DUBAI 610 CAIRO 579 SOHAG 480 TAIF 57 DUBAI 1078 DOHA 500 JEDDAH 472 JEDDAH

Time 00:05 00:10 00:40 00:40 00:30 00:45 00:55 01:30 01:45 02:10 02:15 02:35 02:45 03:10 03:45 03:45 04:20 05:35 05:40 05:45 05:45 05:50 05:50 06:40 06:20 06:45 07:40 07:55 07:55 07:50 07:50 08:50 08:15 08:10 08:45 08:40 09:00 09:10 09:20 09:30 09:40 10:35 10:40 11:15 11:20 11:55 11:30 12:45 12:55 12:30 12:35 12:50 13:00 13:05 13:15 13:50 13:55 14:30 14:35

KAC KAC JZR KAC KNE GFA NIA OMA JZR KAC KAC UAE QTR ETD RJA JZR JZR SVA ABY GFA KAC JZR KAC JZR UAL QTR FDB KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KNE KAC GFA OMA TAR FDB MSR JAI AXB JZR ABY DLH ALK RAB JZR MEA ETD UAE GFA QTR KLM JAI JZR AIC FDB UAL PIA JZR

672 546 257 562 470 221 252 645 535 788 118 857 1072 303 640 777 787 510 127 215 542 135 786 177 982 1080 63 502 176 104 674 618 614 474 774 217 647 328 61 618 572 393 189 129 634 229 300 181 402 307 859 219 1074 417 576 239 981 59 981 205 185

DUBAI ALEXANDRIA BEIRUT AMMAN-QUEEN ALIA JEDDAH BAHRAIN ALEXANDRIA MUSCAT CAIRO JEDDAH NEW YORK DUBAI DOHA ABU DHABI-INTL AMMAN-QUEEN ALIA JEDDAH RIYADH RIYADH SHARJAH BAHRAIN CAIRO BAHRAIN JEDDAH DUBAI WASHINGTON DC DULLES DOHA DUBAI BEIRUT GENEVA LONDON DUBAI DOHA BAHRAIN JEDDAH RIYADH BAHRAIN MUSCAT DUBAI DUBAI ALEXANDRIA MUMBAI KOZHIKODE DUBAI SHARJAH FRANKFURT COLOMBO SHARJAH AL MAKTOUM INTERNATI BEIRUT ABU DHABI-INTL DUBAI BAHRAIN DOHA AMSTERDAM COCHIN AMMAN-QUEEN ALIA CHENNAI DUBAI BAHRAIN LAHORE DUBAI

14:00 14:05 14:45 14:50 15:05 15:00 15:50 15:55 15:50 15:10 16:35 16:40 16:40 16:50 16:55 17:55 17:00 17:15 17:25 17:30 18:05 18:00 18:45 18:20 18:00 18:40 18:45 18:50 19:15 19:35 19:25 19:00 19:35 19:40 19:30 19:30 19:55 20:00 20:05 20:05 20:10 20:15 20:15 20:20 20:55 21:10 21:30 21:30 21:20 21:35 21:40 21:45 22:00 22:05 22:15 22:20 22:30 22:30 23:10 23:15 23:20

Airlines AIC AXB JAI KLM BBC DLH SAI ETH THY UAE ETD MSR QTR MSC FDB QTR JZR FDB THY QTR QTR KAC GFA THY FDB BAW IRA JZR JZR KAC KAC KAC ABY KAC UAE ETD QTR IRA FDB KAC GFA KAC IZG KAC MSC MSC JZR MEA KAC SYR JZR JZR TBZ MSR MSR KNE UAE FDB

Departure Flights on Thursday 28/11/2013 Flt Route Time 976 GOA 00:05 490 MANGALORE 00:15 573 MUMBAI 01:10 411 AMSTERDAM 01:45 44 DHAKA 01:45 635 FRANKFURT 02:10 441 LAHORE 02:30 621 ADDIS ABABA 02:45 773 ISTANBUL-ATATURK 02:55 854 DUBAI 03:50 306 ABU DHABI 04:00 613 CAIRO 04:10 1085 DOHA 04:15 406 SOHAG 04:45 68 DUBAI 05:00 1077 DOHA 05:15 560 SOHAG 06:20 70 DUBAI 06:30 765 ISTANBUL-SABIHA 07:05 8525 DOHA 07:15 8650 DHAKA 07:15 545 ALEXANDRIA 07:15 212 BAHRAIN 07:15 771 ISTANBUL-ATATURK 07:30 54 DUBAI 08:30 156 LONDON 08:45 616 AHWAZ 08:50 256 BEIRUT 08:55 534 CAIRO 09:00 787 JEDDAH 09:25 561 AMMAN 09:25 671 DUBAI 09:30 126 SHARJAH 09:40 101 LONDON 09:50 856 DUBAI 09:55 302 ABU DHABI 10:05 1071 DOHA 10:10 606 MASHHAD 10:20 56 DUBAI 10:20 501 BEIRUT 11:10 214 BAHRAIN 11:25 541 CAIRO 11:30 4162 MASHHAD 11:35 165 ROME 11:50 404 ASYUT 12:15 402 ALEXANDRIA 12:20 776 JEDDAH 12:25 405 BEIRUT 12:55 785 JEDDAH 13:00 342 DAMASCUS 13:30 786 RIYADH 13:35 176 DUBAI 13:45 5484 MASHHAD 13:50 580 SOHAG 13:50 611 CAIRO 14:00 481 TAIF 14:10 872 DUBAI 14:15 58 DUBAI 14:30

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION

QTR JZR KAC KAC KNE JZR GFA KNE SVA KAC KAC NIA OMA JZR JZR ETD QTR UAE JZR RJA ABY SVA GFA YYY JZR JZR UAL FDB QTR GFA KAC KNE FDB TAR OMA KAC ABY MSR JAI KAC AXB KAC KAC DHX ALK MEA ETD GFA KAC UAE KAC JZR KLM FDB QTR JAI JZR KAC KAC

1079 134 673 617 473 188 222 471 505 773 613 251 646 238 180 304 1073 858 538 641 128 511 216 3133 184 266 982 64 1081 218 283 475 62 328 648 331 120 619 571 351 394 343 543 171 230 403 308 220 301 860 205 554 417 60 1075 575 528 415 411

DOHA BAHRAIN DUBAI DOHA JEDDAH DUBAI BAHRAIN JEDDAH JEDDAH RIYADH BAHRAIN ALEXANDRIA MUSCAT AMMAN AL MAKTOUM INTERNATIONAL ABU DHABI DOHA DUBAI CAIRO AMMAN SHARJAH RIYADH BAHRAIN ADDIS ABABA DUBAI BEIRUT BAHRAIN DUBAI DOHA BAHRAIN DHAKA JEDDAH DUBAI TUNIS MUSCAT TRIVANDRUM SHARJAH ALEXANDRIA MUMBAI KOCHI KOZHIKODE CHENNAI CAIRO BAHRAIN COLOMBO BEIRUT ABU DHABI BAHRAIN MUMBAI DUBAI ISLAMABAD ALEXANDRIA DAMMAM DUBAI DOHA ABU DHABI ASYUT KUALA LUMPUR BANGKOK

14:55 15:00 15:05 15:30 15:30 15:40 15:45 15:55 16:00 16:05 16:35 16:50 16:55 16:55 16:55 17:35 17:40 17:50 17:50 17:55 18:05 18:15 18:20 18:30 18:40 18:50 19:15 19:25 19:40 20:15 20:30 20:30 20:45 20:50 20:55 20:55 21:00 21:05 21:10 21:10 21:15 21:30 21:40 21:50 22:10 22:20 22:20 22:30 22:35 22:50 22:55 23:00 23:05 23:10 23:10 23:15 23:25 23:55 23:55

34

s ta rs CROSSWORD 382

STAR TRACK Aries (March 21-April 19) ARIES This is a great time to be with others and to work in a group. You may be sought after as just the person to put in the lead. You are in a serious frame of mind and find yourself dealing with matters of much concern and responsibility. You and your teammates will complete assigned projects in speedy time. Later today you will find what you are searching for—this may even include that loan you have been wanting. You may be sought after regarding very personal and emotional issues, especially from an elderly person. You will be able to be understanding and handle this very volatile material. You look forward to some special celebrations this evening, a time to enjoy friends and catch up on the lives of those you love.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) Extra money comes your way at work this morning. You could receive money from a football pool or some other similar type of activity. Your professional ambition is intensified—you aim to make a difference in this world—to accomplish. This would be a good time to thin out your responsibilities and balance some of your activities. Some unfinished projects or some desired ability that you would like to try. You may find yourself looking through a few continuing education classes in hopes of learning more about something new you may want to accomplish. This could be piano, voice, computer expertise or perhaps art. You may be very pleased to discover how peaceful you become while in the process of creating.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

ACROSS 1. Alternative names for the body of a human being.

4. United States chemist noted for his theories of molecular structure (born in 1919).

12. Take something away by force or without the consent of the owner.

15. Any of various primates with short tails or no tail at all.

16. Of or relating to an oracle.

17. A period marked by distinctive character or reckoned from a fixed point or event.

18. The cry made by sheep.

19. Ancient Persian god of light and truth.

20. The fur of an otter.

22. In the open air.

24. Flesh of young Atlantic cod weighing up to 2 pounds.

25. A person who invites guests to a social event (such as a party in his or her own home) and who is responsible for them while they are there.

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

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

32. A kind of literary or artistic work.

33. The capital and largest city of Bangladesh.

36. Toweling consisting of coarse absorbent cotton or linen fabric.

37. A young woman making her debut into society.

39. Title for a civil or military leader (especially in Turkey).

42. Fully developed or matured and ready to be eaten or used.

44. A chronic inflammatory collagen disease affecting connective tissue (skin or joints).

45. A tricycle (usually propelled by pedalling).

47. Of or relating to or characteristic of the Jews or their culture or religion.

50. United States painter noted for brilliant colors and bold brushwork (1859-1935).

51. Sweet pulpy tropical fruit with thick scaly rind and shiny black seeds.

52. Step on it.

53. Half the width of an em.

54. (archaic) Of persons.

57. (Russian) Fermented beverage resembling beer but made from rye or barley.

60. A state in midwestern United States.

61. A series of things depending on each other as if linked together.

63. (Greek mythology) 7 daughters of Atlas and half-sisters of the Hyades.

66. A river that rises in northern Colombia and flows generally eastward to the Orinoco in central Venezuela.

69. Shattered or torn up or torn apart violently as by e.g. wind or lightning or explosive.

70. In or of the present month.

72. Used by southerners for an inhabitant of a northern state in the United States (especially a Union soldier).

73. (used of count nouns) Every one considered individually.

74. Badly injured, perhaps with amputation.

76. Panel forming the lower part of an interior wall when it is finished differently from the rest.

77. (cosmology) The original matter that (according to the big bang theory) existed before the formation of the chemical elements.

78. Being one more than ten.

79. The front part of the human leg between the knee and the ankle.

DOWN 1. A small cake leavened with yeast.

2. A translucent mineral consisting of hydrated silica of variable color.

3. Lacking or deprive of the sense of hearing wholly or in part.

4. Capital and largest city of Togo.

5. Plants with sword-shaped leaves and erect stalks bearing bright-colored flowers composed of three petals and three drooping sepals.

6. Mended usually clumsily by covering a hole with a patch.

7. A large beer glass.

8. Of inferior or mixed breed.

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

10. Informal terms for a mother.

11. Thick heavy expensive material with a raised pattern.

12. To go back over again, as of a route or steps.

13. Chocolate cookie with white cream filling.

14. A lyric poet.

21. Herbs of temperate regions.

23. A distinctive odor that is offensively unpleasant.

26. A historical region in central and northern Yugoslavia.

27. A brittle silver-white metalloid element that is related to selenium and sulfur.

30. Extremely dirty and corrupt.

31. A large number or amount.

34. A town in northern France on the Strait of Dover that serves as a ferry port to England.

35. Spider monkeys.

38. Make anew.

40. Any of various spiny trees or shrubs of the genus Acacia.

41. Fabric dyed with splotches of green and brown and black and tan.

43. Of or relating to or characteristic of ancient Carthage or its people or their language.

46. A line drawn on a map connecting points having the same numerical value of some variable.

48. The capital of Turkey.

49. (Judaism) An eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem.

55. Of or relating to the spleen.

56. Any of several small ungulate mammals of Africa and Asia with rodent-like incisors and feet with hooflike toes.

58. A stock or supply of foods.

59. A barrier that serves to enclose an area.

62. Austrian composer who influenced the classical form of the symphony (1732-1809).

64. (archaic or Scottish) Faithful and true.

65. Costing 10 dollars.

67. The basic unit of money in Ghana.

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

71. The widely studied plant virus that causes tobacco mosaic.

75. The branch of engineering science that studies the uses of electricity and the equipment for power generation and distribution and the control of machines and communication.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

You may find yourself working on budgeting for your place of business as well as a personal budget for the coming holidays. Budgeting is where your attention is most of this day. Perhaps you own a company or you help someone that owns a company. You are on the right path with the format you are taking, no matter where you are working. A practical awareness of the nature of time is the keynote of your deepest feelings now. There is a tendency to be too strict with yourself and to insist that whatever does not contribute to security and other long-term goals is trivial. Your desire to achieve is intensified and you could be looking for a part-time job or trying to talk a family member into working part-time. If you work with facts, you will be successful.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) Work, achievement and ambition mean a lot to you and it is a good time to take care of some business you have postponed or disregarded up to now. Obligations come to your attention. This afternoon you may find yourself hurrying to some group meeting. Being on the go and keeping a finger to the winds of change make you feel in touch; learning and communicating scratch an instinctive itch. Your burning zeal for the ideal world and your need to be part of a group of likeminded souls are major factors in your makeup. You learn and grow through your efforts to help others and you are happy to accept some work that will help get the homeless off the streets. Before the day is over, you may have talked several other people into joining you in this work.

Leo (July 23-August 22) A drive to find the answers to your questions may find you examining and working through some problems that have lingered far too long on your desk. Push too hard and you could put yourself into some stress—however, you might find a co-worker willing to help you work a trade. When this co-worker needs help you have the opportunity to return the favor. This afternoon you enjoy shopping for a family member—you make a conscious effort to compare prices and quality. Having and appreciating things of beauty and value plays a bigger role in your life now. Provided you do not spend it all on the fancy things that catch your eye, this can be a financially favorable period. A birthday or anniversary is celebrated tonight. Romance is on the horizon.

Virgo (August 23-September 22) You are at your mental best with sharp ideas and clear thoughts. Today is an excellent time to make decisions and take care of your employer’s business. It might even be possible to take care of some of your own personal business as well. Work, health, diet and the other things that take care of us if we take care of them will be big topics of discussion among co-workers today. Self-achievement and competition concerning these subjects will help encourage successful results. The accomplishment of a professional or self-improvement project can also lead to success. You can demonstrate a great deal of understanding and sensitivity to family or friends this evening and you are in a good position to listen or guide, if need be the case.

Word Search

Libra (September 23-October 22) If you are working today you will find it easy to pour a lot of energy into those around you. You may be called upon to smooth over the frustrations of a disgruntled customer this morning. It does not take much to restore your positive attitude. You work throughout the day to make life a little easier for everyone around you. A financial problem that had escaped your notice this last weekend may have you a bit worried. You could find that after you get the whole story from a family member, someone has already paid the bill in person. This evening you decide to cook some low-fat treats to take to work tomorrow—they are fun to make and will be accepted greedily. Copy the recipe and add it for others to take and your will make friends forever.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) You may find yourself in an unrealistic and dreamy mood this morning. It may take extra effort through your or someone else’s actions to hold your attention just now—careful. You may find yourself feeling blocked and unable to express yourself, particularly in a group situation. This will pass and the plan is to move through the day as productively as possible. It’s up to you to stay on top of the latest developments; failure to do so makes things difficult to navigate later—higher-ups are pleased with your progress.

This evening you may find yourself shopping for food or decorations that will enhance a special dinner—enjoy. Harmonious ties to others, as well as refinement and elegance, are what you seek. You find what you need while shopping tonight.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) You might like to ignore responsibilities and do some socializing later today but the demands of the workplace seem to be a bit more intense than usual. Considering that a day or so of vacation could be something you could enjoy soon. You are, however, quick to solve and end as many projects as possible. This day is scheduled for work responsibilities but by the afternoon, you may look to your friends for a change of environment. Your opinions in a group situation are relevant and taken under consideration. A type of time-share situation may develop and you have enough responsible friends to successfully enjoy this option. The only things left to decide are the dates and the clothes. This is the kind of talk that encourages you to be creative.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19) Some of the healthiest love relationships grow from friendships. This is the best time of the year to enjoy the art of bringing a relationship close. Some of the most beautiful flowers and vegetables grow this time of year. If you find yourself in a place of business, your desk will be adorned with the beauty of a garden and enough color to lift any spirit that needs a boost. Harmonious ties to others are what you yearn for; refinement and elegance are what you seek. The ideal partnership, the perfect balance, the highest standards of truth and beauty are some of the things that quicken your pulse.

A co-worker may be much more agreeable this week than in the past. You and a friend may work together in a volunteer organization this evening.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) Do not decline an assigned task because of a lack of training or experience.

You can learn as you go. Practice makes perfect. You could find a teacher or guide, a new approach to your career, etc. You may find ways that can save the company some extra expenses this year. Your mind is on cutting through the nonessentials and penetrating to the core—you want to know who or what pulls the strings. Learning and knowing a little about a lot of things, as well as staying in touch and on top of the latest developments, satisfies a need for mental stimulation. An open mind may be the key to success. Let optimism carry you through a difficult dilemma. At home, you will really get into the holiday season. Young people figure more prominently in your life this fall.

Pisces (February 19-March 20) Because of the time element, life in the work world could be a bit stressful.

Products to be delivered before the holiday may have caused some real backlog of problems, even if you are not actively concerned with that part of the business. You may feel restricted in some of your activities today. It may be hard to organize or persevere at this time. Be patient and let the chaos dissipate. Perhaps this is not the time to try to solve any serious problems. This afternoon is a good time for personal communications. A love relationship appears almost magical in the way you communicate now. You could be most persuasive and the situation is a natural for self-expression. Home is the happiest place to be this evening.

Yesterday’s Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

Daily SuDoku

Yesterday’s Solution

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

i n f o r m at i o n For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128 GOVERNORATE Sabah Hospital

24812000

Amiri Hospital

22450005

Maternity Hospital

24843100

Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital

25312700

Chest Hospital

24849400

Farwaniya Hospital

24892010

Adan Hospital

23940620

Ibn Sina Hospital

24840300

Al-Razi Hospital

24846000

Physiotherapy Hospital

24874330/9

PHARMACY

ADDRESS

PHONE

Ahmadi

Sama Safwan Abu Halaifa Danat Al-Sultan

Fahaeel Makka St Abu Halaifa-Coastal Rd Mahboula Block 1, Coastal Rd

23915883 23715414 23726558

Jahra

Modern Jahra Madina Munawara

Jahra-Block 3 Lot 1 Jahra-Block 92

24575518 24566622

Capital

Ahlam Khaldiya Coop

Fahad Al-Salem St Khaldiya Coop

22436184 24833967

Farwaniya

New Shifa Ferdous Coop Modern Safwan

Farwaniya Block 40 Ferdous Coop Old Kheitan Block 11

24734000 24881201 24726638

Tariq Hana Ikhlas Hawally & Rawdha Ghadeer Kindy Ibn Al-Nafis Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Salmiya-Amman St Hawally-Beirut St Hawally & Rawdha Coop Jabriya-Block 1A Jabriya-Block 3B Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

25726265 25647075 22625999 22564549 25340559 25326554 25721264 25380581 25628241

Hawally

Al-Madeena

22418714

Al-Shuhada

22545171

Al-Shuwaikh

24810598

Al-Nuzha

22545171

Sabhan

24742838

Al-Helaly

22434853

Al-Faiha

22545051

Al-Farwaniya

24711433

Al-Sulaibikhat

24316983

Al-Fahaheel

23927002

Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh

24316983

Ahmadi

23980088

Al-Mangaf

23711183

Al-Shuaiba

23262845

Kaizen center

25716707

Rawda

22517733

Adaliya

22517144

Al-Jahra

25610011

Khaldiya

24848075

Al-Salmiya

25616368

Kaifan

24849807

Shamiya

24848913

Shuwaikh

24814507

Abdullah Salem

22549134

Nuzha

22526804

Industrial Shuwaikh

24814764

Qadsiya

22515088

Dasmah

22532265

Bneid Al-Gar

22531908

Shaab

22518752

Qibla

22459381

Ayoun Al-Qibla

22451082

Mirqab

22456536

Sharq

22465401

Salmiya

25746401

Jabriya

25316254

Maidan Hawally

25623444

Bayan

25388462

Mishref

25381200

W Hawally

22630786

Sabah

24810221

Jahra

24770319

New Jahra

24575755

West Jahra

24772608

South Jahra

24775066

North Jahra

24775992

North Jleeb

24311795

Ardhiya

24884079

Firdous

24892674

Omariya

24719048

N Khaitan

24710044

Fintas

23900322

INTERNATIONAL CALLS

PRIVATE CLINICS Ophthalmologists Dr. Abidallah Al-Mansoor 25622444 Dr. Samy Al-Rabeea 25752222 Dr. Masoma Habeeb 25321171 Dr. Mubarak Al-Ajmy 25739999 Dr. Mohsen Abel 25757700 Dr Adnan Hasan Alwayl 25732223 Dr. Abdallah Al-Baghly 25732223 Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) Dr. Ahmed Fouad Mouner 24555050 Ext 510 Dr. Abdallah Al-Ali 25644660 Dr. Abd Al-Hameed Al-Taweel 25646478 Dr. Sanad Al-Fathalah 25311996 Dr. Mohammad Al-Daaory 25731988 Dr. Ismail Al-Fodary 22620166 Dr. Mahmoud Al-Booz 25651426 General Practitioners Dr. Mohamme Y Majidi 24555050 Ext 123 Dr. Yousef Al-Omar 24719312 Dr. Tarek Al-Mikhazeem 23926920 Dr. Kathem Maarafi 25730465 Dr. Abdallah Ahmad Eyadah 25655528 Dr. Nabeel Al-Ayoobi 24577781 Dr. Dina Abidallah Al-Refae 25333501 Urologists Dr. Ali Naser Al-Serfy 22641534 Dr. Fawzi Taher Abul 22639955 Dr. Khaleel Abidallah Al-Awadi 22616660 Dr. Adel Al-Hunayan FRCS (C) 25313120 Dr. Leons Joseph 66703427 Psychologists /Psychotherapists

Paediatricians

Plastic Surgeons Dr. Mohammad Al-Khalaf

22547272

Dr. Khaled Hamadi

Dr. Abdal-Redha Lari

22617700

Dr. Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rashed

Dr. Abdel Quttainah

25625030/60

Family Doctor Dr Divya Damodar

23729596/23729581

Psychiatrists Dr. Esam Al-Ansari

22635047

Dr Eisa M. Al-Balhan

22613623/0

Gynaecologists & Obstetricians DrAdrian arbe

23729596/23729581

Dr. Verginia s.Marin

2572-6666 ext 8321

Endocrinologist

25665898 25340300

Dr. Zahra Qabazard

25710444

Dr. Sohail Qamar

22621099

Dr. Snaa Maaroof

25713514

Dr. Pradip Gujare

23713100

Dr. Zacharias Mathew

24334282

(1) Ear, Nose and Throat (2) Plastic Surgeon Dr. Abdul Mohsin Jafar, FRCS (Canada)

25655535

Dentists

Dr. Fozeya Ali Al-Qatan

22655539

Dr. Majeda Khalefa Aliytami

25343406

Dr. Shamah Al-Matar

22641071/2

Dr. Ahmad Al-Khooly

25739272

Dr. Anesah Al-Rasheed

22562226

22618787

Dr. Abidallah Al-Amer

22561444

Dr. Faysal Al-Fozan

22619557

Dr. Abdallateef Al-Katrash

22525888

Dr. Abidallah Al-Duweisan

25653755

Dr. Bader Al-Ansari

25620111

General Surgeons Dr. Amer Zawaz Al-Amer

22610044

Dr. Mohammad Yousef Basher

25327148

Internists, Chest & Heart Dr. Adnan Ebil Dr. Latefa Al-Duweisan

22666300 25728004

Dr. Nadem Al-Ghabra

25355515

Dr. Mobarak Aldoub

24726446

Dr Nasser Behbehani

25654300/3

Soor Center Tel: 2290-1677 Fax: 2290 1688

Neurologists

22639939

Dr. Mousa Khadada

info@soorcenter.com www.soorcenter.com

3729596/3729581

Dr. Sohal Najem Al-Shemeri

25633324

Dr. Jasem Mola Hassan

25345875

Gastrologists Dr. Sami Aman

22636464

Dr. Mohammad Al-Shamaly

25322030

Dr. Foad Abidallah Al-Ali

22633135

Kaizen center 25716707

25339330

Dr. Ahmad Al-Ansari 25658888 Dr. Kamal Al-Shomr 25329924 Physiotherapists & VD Dr. Deyaa Shehab

25722291

Dr. Musaed Faraj Khamees

22666288

Rheumatologists: Dr. Adel Al-Awadi

Dr Anil Thomas

Dr. Salem soso

Dr. Abd Al-Naser Al-Othman

25330060

Dr. Khaled Al-Jarallah

25722290

Internist, Chest & Heart DR.Mohammes Akkad

24555050 Ext 210

Dr. Mohammad Zubaid MB, ChB, FRCPC, PACC Assistant Professor Of Medicine Head, Division of Cardiology Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital Consultant Cardiologist Dr. Farida Al-Habib MD, PH.D, FACC Inaya German Medical Center Te: 2575077 Fax: 25723123

2611555-2622555

William Schuilenberg, RPC 2290-1677 Zaina Al Zabin, M.Sc. 2290-1677

Afghanistan 0093 Albania 00355 Algeria 00213 Andorra 00376 Angola 00244 Anguilla 001264 Antiga 001268 Argentina 0054 Armenia 00374 Australia 0061 Austria 0043 Bahamas 001242 Bahrain 00973 Bangladesh 00880 Barbados 001246 Belarus 00375 Belgium 0032 Belize 00501 Benin 00229 Bermuda 001441 Bhutan 00975 Bolivia 00591 Bosnia 00387 Botswana 00267 Brazil 0055 Brunei 00673 Bulgaria 00359 Burkina 00226 Burundi 00257 Cambodia 00855 Cameroon 00237 Canada 001 Cape Verde 00238 Cayman Islands 001345 Central African 00236 Chad 00235 Chile 0056 China 0086 Colombia 0057 Comoros 00269 Congo 00242 Cook Islands 00682 Costa Rica 00506 Croatia 00385 Cuba 0053 Cyprus 00357 Cyprus (Northern) 0090392 Czech Republic 00420 Denmark 0045 Diego Garcia 00246 Djibouti 00253 Dominica 001767 Dominican Republic 001809 Ecuador 00593 Egypt 0020 El Salvador 00503 England (UK) 0044 Equatorial Guinea 00240 Eritrea 00291 Estonia 00372 Ethiopia 00251 Falkland Islands 00500 Faroe Islands 00298 Fiji 00679 Finland 00358 France 0033 French Guiana 00594 French Polynesia 00689 Gabon 00241 Gambia 00220 Georgia 00995 Germany 0049 Ghana 00233 Gibraltar 00350 Greece 0030 Greenland 00299 Grenada 001473 Guadeloupe 00590 Guam 001671 Guatemala 00502 Guinea 00224 Guyana 00592 Haiti 00509 Holland (Netherlands) 0031 Honduras 00504 Hong Kong 00852 Hungary 0036 Ibiza (Spain) 0034 Iceland 00354 India 0091 Indian Ocean 00873 Indonesia 0062

Iran 0098 Iraq 00964 Ireland 00353 Italy 0039 Ivory Coast 00225 Jamaica 001876 Japan 0081 Jordan 00962 Kazakhstan 007 Kenya 00254 Kiribati 00686 Kuwait 00965 Kyrgyzstan 00996 Laos 00856 Latvia 00371 Lebanon 00961 Liberia 00231 Libya 00218 Lithuania 00370 Luxembourg 00352 Macau 00853 Macedonia 00389 Madagascar 00261 Majorca 0034 Malawi 00265 Malaysia 0060 Maldives 00960 Mali 00223 Malta 00356 Marshall Islands 00692 Martinique 00596 Mauritania 00222 Mauritius 00230 Mayotte 00269 Mexico 0052 Micronesia 00691 Moldova 00373 Monaco 00377 Mongolia 00976 Montserrat 001664 Morocco 00212 Mozambique 00258 Myanmar (Burma) 0095 Namibia 00264 Nepal 00977 Netherlands (Holland) 0031 Netherlands Antilles 00599 New Caledonia 00687 New Zealand 0064 Nicaragua 00505 Nigar 00227 Nigeria 00234 Niue 00683 Norfolk Island 00672 Northern Ireland (UK) 0044 North Korea 00850 Norway 0047 Oman 00968 Pakistan 0092 Palau 00680 Panama 00507 Papua New Guinea 00675 Paraguay 00595 Peru 0051 Philippines 0063 Poland 0048 Portugal 00351 Puerto Rico 001787 Qatar 00974 Romania 0040 Russian Federation 007 Rwanda 00250 Saint Helena 00290 Saint Kitts 001869 Saint Lucia 001758 Saint Pierre 00508 Saint Vincent 001784 Samoa US 00684 Samoa West 00685 San Marino 00378 Sao Tone 00239 Saudi Arabia 00966 Scotland (UK) 0044 Senegal 00221 Seychelles 00284 Sierra Leone 00232 Singapore 0065 Slovakia 00421 Slovenia 00386 Solomon Islands 00677

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

lifestyle G O S S I P

Hewitt welcomes baby girl after quiet wedding

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ctress Jennifer Love Hewitt and her “The Client List” costar Brian Hallisay are the proud parents of a baby girl.

Hewitt’s publicist Sarah Fuller said in an email statement the couple is “thrilled” over Tuesday’s birth of Autumn James Hallisay. The couple is also celebrating being newlyweds. Fuller says they were recently married but did not provide further details. “The Client List” was recently canceled by Lifetime after its second season. Hewitt and Hallisay played husband and wife. Us Weekly first reported the news.

Jolie to spend Thanksgiving in Australia

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ngelina Jolie will be celebrating Thanksgiving in Australia. The 38-year-old star is currently in Sydney with her six children, Maddox, 12, Pax, nine, Shiloh, seven, Zahara, eight, and five-yearold twins Knox and Vivienne - who she raises with fiancÈ Brad Pitt - while she shoots new film ‘Unbroken’. The family will be spending the popular holiday - which falls on November 28 this year Down Under. Angelina’s father Jon Voight is disappointed he won’t be able to spend the holiday with them but says they are all having a great time in Australia. According to the New York Daily News

Confidenti@l column, Jon told reporters at the Chelsea Piers’ Children of Chernobyl benefit: “My grandchildren are just terrific. Angie’s working on her film and directing her film in Australia, so I won’t be able to see them this holiday.” The 74-year-old actor also revealed he was bursting with pride when his daughter won the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Governors Awards in Los Angeles earlier this month. It highlighted her work as the cofounder of the Prevent Sexual Violence Initiative and her involvement as a special envoy in the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He said:

Bullock named EW’s

Brown refused to

Entertainer of the Year

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hanks to a pair of box office hits, Sandra Bullock has been christened Entertainment Weekly’s “Entertainer of the Year.” The Oscar-winner dazzled the entertainment publication by expertly mixing in a broad comic performance as a straight-laced cop in “The Heat” with a heartbreaking portrayal of a grieving astronaut in “Gravity.” She is back in the awards hunt for her performance in the space thriller, while also proving that at age 49, her commercial clout is undiminished. “The Heat” earned $229.7 million worldwide and “Gravity” has racked up $576.9 million globally. “Bullock’s tremendous talent and range - to say nothing of the woman’s trademark grace and good humor in good times and bad - is what earned her the top spot on our annual list of the most exciting

performers in 2013,” the magazine wrote. It’s Bullock’s second time atop the entertainment publication’s list of top entertainers. She was previously named “Entertainer of the Year” in 2009, which marked the release of her hit romantic comedy “The Proposal” and Oscar-winning work in “The Blind Side.” Ben Affleck was last year’s Entertainer of the Year for his work directing “Argo,” while past winners include Daniel Radcliffe, Tom Hanks, Nicole Kidman and Robert Downey Jr. Other entertainers who were heralded by Entertainment Weekly this year include “The Breaking Bad” creative team, viral feline Grumpy Cat, “House of Cards” backer Netflix, “Dallas Buyers Club” star Matthew McConaughey and current “It Girl” Jennifer Lawrence.

hand over marijuana in rehab

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Newton admits

during her Christian Bale’s rage regrets filming pregnancy is ‘mayhem’ C T hristian Bale deeply regrets his infamous foul-mouthed rant on a film set in 2008. The 39-year-old actor flew into a rage on the set of ‘Terminator Salvation’ when director of photography Shane Halburt accidentally walked into a scene and Bale - who had been arrested for verbal assault charges filed by his mother in July 2008 - admits he is remorseful about his tempestuous behavior.

He said: “It was not the way to behave. It was wrong, end of story. I desire not to be that person who would behave in that fashion.” The controversial episode hit the headlines after an audio recording leaked online, but ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ star claims he was not concerned about how he would be perceived by the public. Rather, Bale feared his personal life would overshadow his acclaimed film work. He explained to Variety: “It was less about embarrassing myself, because I actually have a strange kind of enjoyment of humiliation. It was more about recognizing that I never want to know anything about the actors I watch. The more you’re out there and known for things like that, the less audiences can enjoy your performance.” Despite taking his work seriously, Christian often finds himself bewildered by his chosen profession. The ‘American Hustle’ star, who says he finds “nearly every scene I do really funny”, added: “I find what I do for a living really funny. I mean, acting is kind of a hilarious thing for a grown man to call a job.”

“It’s a very high honor. I’m very proud of her.”

Angelina has been keen to immerse her kids in local culture while in Australia and made sure her brood had the chance to taste traditional foods including kangaroo and witchetty grubs - an Aussie term for white moth larvae, a staple food of Aboriginal women and children.

A source previously said: “Whenever they are in new countries the kids have a rule about trying local food. “The tour guide took them to a specialist Aussie restaurant and they had a mix of kangaroo and emu on a pizza.”

handie Newton has admitted filming her TV show ‘Rogue’ whilst pregnant has been “mayhem”. The 41year-old ‘Crash’ star - now six months pregnant refused to quit her role as undercover cop Grace Travis in the action packed American drama series and has continued filming well into her third trimester. Thandie - who already has two daughters Ripley, 13 and Nico, 8. with her writer husband Ol Parker - underestimated the difficulties of carrying a child on set. In her latest column for Stylist magazine, she revealed: “Basically, I had two options; to withdraw from the show which would have meant the show collapsing, or to commit regardless. “I’d seem actresses takes on meaty un-pregnant roles while carrying babies - Jodie Foster in The Panic Room. My agent also reassured me that both Claire Danes and Anna Paquin into their first pregnancies. So - it was all going to work out just fine wasn’t it?” She added: “We’re on episode nine, and are near enough to finishing for me to be able to chuckle at my naivety in thinking this was going to be anything other than mayhem, with a waddling lead actress at the centre.”

In spite of her on set struggle with nausea, fatigue, mood swings and cravings, including “the sudden desire to eat our focus puller’s meaty thigh”, Thandie has found the experience all the more rewarding. She said: “Even though this experience has been more challenging than any other job, there have been surprising insights that’ll stay in my armoury long after this little bundle is making his/her own hit TV shows. “I’m more alive to the present, more in tune.

‘I’m growing a baby- beat that!’ That’s the underlying attitude that’s rescued me from the grind of a sometime 13 hour day schedule.”

hris Brown refused to give up his marijuana while in rehab for anger management. The R&B singer, who was sentenced to 90 days in the treatment facility earlier this month, surrendered his phone and accepted he could have no internet access but argued with staff about handing over the illegal drug. A source told TMZ he asked if he could take the cannabis with him, claiming it had been prescribed by a doctor to help him cope with depression. TMZ reported: “The staff rejected his request. We’re told Chris kicked up a stink, claiming pot makes him calm, but the staff was unbending. The 24-yearold narrowly avoided prison during a probation status hearing stemming from his 2009 assault on then-girlfriend, pop star Rihanna. The singer, who is dating Karrueche Tran, checked himself into rehab last month but left after just two weeks. He reportedly went into a violent rage and threw a rock through his mother’s car window during a joint counselling session at the centre. His mother Joyce Hawkins, known to his millions of fans as ‘mom breezy’ broke her silence on Twitter and wrote: “MY ANGEL WITH BROKEN WINGS GOD LOVE YOU SO MUCH AND I DO AS WELL.”

Williams secretly retired R

obbie Williams “retired” but didn’t tell anyone. The 39-year-old singer left three years between albums ‘Rudebox’ and ‘Reality Killed the Video Star’ and he has revealed it was because he had decided to leave his career as he was “scared of the world” and no longer knew where he belonged. Discussing his 2009 comeback, he told Q magazine: “Actually what happened was I’d retired. I didn’t say anything but I’d retired. “I’d lost all my confidence and I was really scared of the world and scared of my place in it and scared of the industry.

You know when Superman loses all his powers in ‘Superman II’? I felt as though I’d given up my powers and couldn’t do the thing that had commanded 135,000 people at Knebworth. All of a sudden, I didn’t know how to do it. I’d got an album together but I was terrified to promote it.” The following year, Robbie rejoined Take That and says it was the perfect “camouflage” to regain his confidence and return to the spotlight. Their album as a five-piece, ‘Progress’, was a huge hit and their went on a sold-out stadium tour and Robbie was able to get over his stage fright. He said: “I needed to come back whilst being camouflaged. So Take That was the perfect vehicle to do it. “You know, people were talking about me doing it because my career was in the dumps.

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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

LIFESTYLE F E A T U R E S

A giant Louis Vuitton trunk rises on Red Square in Moscow yesterday. — AFP photos

Giant Louis Vuitton trunk ordered off Red Square rench luxury brand Louis Vuitton has been ordered to remove a giant trunk put up on Moscow’s iconic Red Square, organizers said yesterday, after it triggered outrage among some Russians. The boxy brown suitcase covered with the brand’s signature “LV” stenciling was put up 10 days ago just outside GUM, a 19th century department store that faces the square. But Russia’s Communist Party was outraged by its proximity to Lenin’s tomb, while tourists and ordinary

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Russians complained it was so big it blocked views of most landmark sites.

Yesterday, the store said it had asked Louis Vuitton to take down the pavilion, as a Kremlin source told Russian news agencies the gigantic structure was “not agreed with the presidential administration”. “Considering the view of some of the public, and the fact that the pavilion’s size has surpassed the agreed parameters, we told Louis Vuitton about the need to immedi-

ry advertisements on the symbolic square without asking Muscovites. Moscow City Hall officials also told Interfax that organizers were preparing to dismantle the installation, calling it a “mistake.” The Kremlin’s Office of Presidential Affairs, which oversees Red Square, said it had nothing to do with the trunk.”The GUM (store) dealt with the permission issues. We had nothing to do with it,” spokesman Viktor Khrekov told AFP by telephone. — AFP

Men and women take home different regrets after sex

‘Hunger Games’ designer finds high-fashion muse in Katniss Everdeen

ately dismantle the pavilion,” GUM said on its website. The formal street address of both the Lenin Mausoleum and the Christ the Saviour Cathedral, the Red Square is by far the most heavily policed spot in Russia and officially under the Kremlin’s jurisdiction.The two-storey trunk was designed to house an exhibit about travelers who used the brand’s luggage in the past. Some media, however, viewed it as a symbol of modern Russia where corruption made anything possible-even putting up giant luxu-

en most often regret not having sex with more people while women frequently regret having sex with the wrong partner, according to a recently released study. The study from researchers at the University of Texas and University of California-Los Angeles aimed to show that the feeling of regret is part of the evolutionary process when it comes to reproduction, the University of Texas said on Monday.

“For men throughout evolutionary history, every missed

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opportunity to have sex with a new partner is potentially a missed reproduce opportunity - a costly loss from an evolutionary perspective,” said Martie Haselton, a UCLA social psychology professor who worked on the study. The three main regrets for men: being too timid to approach a possible partner, not being more sexually adventurous when young and not being more sexually adventurous in their single days. The main regrets for women include losing their virginity to the wrong partner, cheating on a present or past

partner and moving too fast sexually. “The consequences of casual sex were so much higher for women than for men, and this is likely to have shaped emotional reactions to sexual liaisons even today,” Haselton said in a statement. More women than men included “having sex with a physically unattractive partner” as a top regret. The report was based on three studies with a total of about 25,000 people and the findings were published in the current issue of the Archives of Sexual Behavior, an academic journal. — Reuters

Paris celebrates Arab excellence

or the fourth consecutive year, TAKREEM continues to identify Arabs who have excelled in their fields and that can inspire others in their quest for cultural, educational, scientific, environmental, humanitarian, social and economic developments. After Beirut, Doha and Manama, TAKREEM ceremony was held at the Arab World Institute, Paris.

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atniss Everdeen not only wields the bow and arrow of hope in “Catching Fire,” the second installment of “The Hunger Games” film franchise, she is also the muse of a new high-fashion line that carries the film’s fictional world of the Capitol beyond the screen. “Catching Fire” costume designer Trish Summerville’s 16-piece collection was launched on Monday for luxury online retailer Net-A-Porter, aptly labeled Capitol Couture.

The collection of clothes and accessories are drawn from Summerville’s designs for Katniss, the stoic heroine played by Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence. The designer also hopes Capitol Couture will attract the website’s high-fashion clientele to the series of young adult films. “For a Net-A-Porter client that is interested in our line, it piques their interest if they don’t know the film, they’ll go then see the film,” the designer said.

“Catching Fire,” out in theaters last week, sees Katniss become a symbol of revolution against the oppressive Capitol government ruling the fictional world of Panem, and has already stormed the box office with more than $307 million worldwide. Hollywood films have often partnered with big brands to promote new releases. “Catching Fire” distributor Lions Gate spent roughly $55 million on marketing for the film, including deals with Subway fast-food restaurants and Procter & Gamble Co’s CoverGirl cosmetics.

But films such as “Hunger Games” that are aimed at a teen and young adult audience are not the likeliest showcases for high fashion, which generally draws an older female clientele with the additional income to spend. Summerville hopes her collection, priced between $75 for T-shirts to $995 for a lasercut patent leather dress inspired by Katniss’ chariot outfit, will accommodate all budgets.

“It was important for me to have things that the fans could relate to and also that appealed to the Net-A-Porter clientele,” Summerville said. “This isn’t particularly for the ‘Catching Fire’ fan base, it’s just a venture we went out upon to try and exhibit some of the fashion in the film,” she added.

Fans attune to high fashion High fashion and film have enjoyed a long relationship, taken to a new level in the 1990s by HBO television series “Sex and the City,” which showcased latest collections by designers on the characters. Patricia Field, the stylist of the show and its subsequent films, also designed a “Sex and the City” inspired collection for UK retailer Marks & Spencer.

Earlier this year, Baz Luhrmann’s big screen adaptation of “The Great Gatsby” saw its leading actress, Carey Mulligan, channeling Daisy Buchanan in striking Prada designs created for the film by costume designer Catherine Martin, who drew straight from the Prada archives. Summerville, who also created actress Rooney Mara’s edgy transformation in 2011’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” said she turned to “Hunger Games” fan sites when designing the aesthetic of the second film, and found high-fashion looks suggested for both Katniss and Effie Trinket, the film’s outrageously dressed Capitol spokeswoman.

Lions Gate also created a Capitol Couture website, an online magazine set in the fictional world of Panem, that showcased the styles explored in the film, from the Districts to the Capitol. Actress Elizabeth Banks, who plays Effie, said her character’s high-fashion looks represented a bigger picture of the film’s theme of revolution.

“We don’t wear the clothes because they’re cool-looking, we wear the clothes because they represent the excess and the power of the Capitol. It’s always meant to be a juxtaposition of what’s going on in the districts,” Banks said. One look that Summerville said she was proud of curating for Effie was a fitted dress adorned with hundreds of feathers painted to look like Monarch butterflies, taken straight from the Alexander McQueen spring/summer runway. Banks wore the dress with high heels and a butterfly hair piece.

“Everything is uncomfortable, everything is constricted, and that’s also a really strong reminder of the society they live in. Their only freedoms come in the form of personal adornment, they don’t have true freedom yet,” Banks said. — Reuters

The following Achievers were honored for their outstanding accomplishments: Nadwa Qaragholi - Iraq for the Humanitarian and Civic Services Award Amin Kassis - Syria for the Scientific and Technological Achievement Award Jihad Shoja’eyeh - Palestine for Innovation in Education Award George Tarabichi- Syria for Cultural Excellence Award Sameh Seif Ghali - Egypt for the Environmental Development and Sustainability Award Hanaa Edwar - Iraq for the Arab Woman of the Year Award Khaled Al Sabawi - Palestine for the Young Entrepreneur Award George Altirs - Lebanon for the Outstanding Corporate Leadership Award Education for Employment - USA for the Exceptional Contribution to Arab Society Award The Lifetime Achievement Award was given posthumously in memory of the late Alia El-Solh, also known as “ the Daughter of

Independence “, who struggled and fought for the freedom in the Arab world. In his opening remarks, Ricardo Karam, Founder of TAKREEM, stated: “ Within this atmosphere of turmoil and pain, we are gathering to celebrate. How can that be? We are here to embrace the successes among Arabs and in the Arab world that can be summed in the word renaissance. Our aim is to ensure that people, when they focus on the Arab world, see examples of excellence in virtually every arena of human endeavor. And thus Takreem was born “.

The evening attended by 400 guests, was hosted by Al Jazeera anchor woman

Laila Al-Shaikhli.

A press conference took place the following day, at the Four Seasons Hotel George V. TAKREEM 2013 Jury Board included Sheikha Mai Al-Khalifa, Shaikha Paula AlSabah, Dr Hanan Ashrawi, Dr Nouha AlHegelan, Mr AndrÈ Azoulay, Dr Lakhdar Brahimi, Prof Alain Carpentier, Dr Mohamed Mansour, Carlos Ghosn, Marc Levy, Dr Leila Sharaf, and Mr Raja Sidawi.

TAKREEM was given valuable support by the following strategic partners : Salam International, Renault-Nissan Alliance, Amec, CCC, Chopard, Total and Projacs.

Gap launches the Holiday Collection for 2013 ap is excited to announce the launch of its Holiday Collection for 2013.

Both the men and women’s collections draw from the rich color palettes of country woods, Alpine chalets and spectacular jeweled tones, while continuing to incorporate its signature heritage trademark of 1969 denim. Encapsulating Gap’s heritage, the ‘1969’ collection continues to be a key focus with Straight, Skinny, Slim and Standard cuts in a variety of colors including Smoke, Riviera and Southside cementing Gap’s presence in the market.

The ‘Super Glow’ style story consists of incredible rich textures and tones, with waffle knits, wool moto Jackets and neutral-toned Academy Blazers, a key highlight in the women’s collection, while the men’s collection sees cotton and cashmere crewneck jumpers, puffer vests and slim fit Bedford Cords stylishly leading the way.

The Holiday collection sees an increase in the amount of treatment methods used on the denim, ensuring a fresh, on-trend take on these classic tailored fits. The ‘Uniform Blues’ style story in the women’s collection includes rich, new denim textures punctuated with shiny metallic. Key pieces highlights include foiled Legging Jeans in gold and metallic blues, ombre jeggings and denim jackets, Cable Step Hem Boyfriend Sweaters and fashion ombre sweatshirts.

Another style story in the women’s collections is ‘Wood and Ceramic’ which is deeply rooted in grey denim and accentuated with touches of animal print. The collection’s key pieces include printed crew

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necks, novelty sweatshirts, and Always Skinny silver and broken-in straight denim jeans.

The ‘Evergreen’ style story has inspired both the men’s and women’s collections with great prints and bold pastel colors.

The women’s collection is punctuated by work wear incorporating a variety of tailored shirts and cropped trousers. The men’s collection is very tailored and classic adding a casual edge to the working wardrobe. Classic Straight and tailored Slim khaki trousers, V-neck and textured sweaters complete this collection.

Drawing inspiration from the vibrant color palette of rich ‘Winter Vegetables’, plaid Boyfriend and stripe Rugby shirts, Fair Isle sweaters and Raglan long-sleeve triblend tees pay homage to the crisp coziness of the cooler season.

The ‘Town and Country’ style story adds a hint of metallic and shine to the women’s Holiday collection with two curated stores around black and gray, as well as navy and shine. Key pieces include shine-embellished knits, dip dye shine denim, and convertible sweaters.

‘Alpine Chalet’ has inspired both the men’s and women’s collections this season.

Key pieces include lived-in Straight and Slim denim, Skinny khaki, and plaid shirts.

The women’s collection encompasses red, white, and blue athletic-inspired pieces including luxe striped tees, varsity-style graphics, and ultra Skinny denim with piping.

The ‘Rip and Repair’ collection includes lighter blue washes in denim with feminine

pastel, featured in the Always Skinny, Sexy Boyfriend and Real Straight cuts. The collection is tied together beautifully with chambray shirting, floral bomber jackets and Breton stripe knits in a variety of wistfully feminine pastels.

The ‘Hyper Pastel’ style story for women incorporates the legging jean in indigo and pastel washes with easy striped sweaters and great layering knits.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

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‘12 Years a Slave’ leads Spirit Awards nominations

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This image released by Fox Searchlight shows Benedict Cumberbatch, left, and Chiwetel Ejiofor in a scene from ‘12 Years A Slave.’ — AP

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Q: How did you escape from the synthfever we had a few years ago?

Turner: Oh, synth-epidemic. I didn’t know it was going on actually. We just keep taking the tablets, I suppose, drink plenty of water... It seems like when a guitar band get the synths, it’s like it’s not enough. That’s not something that was ever on our agenda. But I’m not going to rule it out, I’ve got nothing against.

Q: You seem to have struck a balance between musical independence and commercial success. Does it have something to do with being on a mid-sized label?

Turner: Perhaps it has something to do with that. Laurence Bell, from Domino, who owns the company, was who came to sign us in the first place. He allowed us to try different things and ... I think working with him help us to achieve that balance you are talking about.

Q: But you feel absolutely free?

Turner: I suppose creatively, yes. I mean, I will ask for his opinion, it’s welcome. It’s not a situation like you hear about with a label guy in the studio saying, “I was looking for this or that.”

Q: You seem to have a lot of respect for your old songs. How do you feel today when you’re playing “Teddy Picker” or “Dancing Shoes”?

Turner: Some are more enjoyable that others. Sometimes it’s tough to get through one of the old ones ... You know, you don’t feel like that anymore. When you tell the same joke 600 times, you won’t hear what it is anymore, but then sometimes like the 601st time you might see something in it you didn’t before.

Q: Do you think playing in America is the gateway to international success?

Turner: I don’t know because I think we’re kind of relatively successful internationally, you know, tonight we’re playing in this huge place and the same tomorrow. Q: You went to record some of your albums in the States?

Turner: Originally it was just getting us far away from this kind of comfortable environment or whatever it was, some version of ‘home’. The first we did over there was the third album and at that point we really wanted to tear up the rulebook and work with new people. So we went to (Queens of the Stone Age frontman) Josh Homme’s studio in the desert and made that “Humbug” record and that was a massive turning point for the group. I think we needed to go there and freshen up our ideas. It was like if this band is going to continue you need to move forward.

Q: How many new guitar pedals and stuff did Joshua show you? Helders: A lot of machines, a lot of pedals. From what I saw there was a lot of bad things.

Turner: On the record we used a lot from his collection. He has got some tricks, yeah. I think we found a lot of the hand moves ourselves. He’s got his sound but it’s about trying to create your own. That was a turning point in the whole picture. Joshua helped us to plant a seed for a fruit tree which is yielding juicy plums these days.

Q: Would you say you were in the Beatles camp or the Stones?

Both: Beatles

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nswer: It’s the TV show that’s spreading the word about Broadway.

Question: What is “Jeopardy!”

The hit syndicated game show hosted by Alex Trebek has always sprinkled in theater clues since its debut in 1984 but lately has been upping the ante. For the 10th anniversary of “Wicked” late last month, the TV show took the unprecedented step of having an entire category dedicated to the musical, and producers are doing it again on Tuesday for “Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella.” “Certain shows lend themselves better for us to do this,” says Rocky Schmidt, the supervising producer of the game show. “The real trick to this is making it accessible to the millions of ‘Jeopardy!’ viewers. If you haven’t seen the show, is it still interesting to you?”

The TV show taped the clues with Cinderella herself - star Laura Osnes did a video clue in her ball gown costume - on June 14 at the show’s home at the Broadway Theatre. The actual contest was taped in September. “I think it’s great exposure for the show,” says Osnes, a Tony Award-nominated actress who grew up watching “Jeopardy!” in Minnesota but admits to being a bigger fan of “The Price Is Right.” “I’m not very good at it, I think that’s why. I don’t know a lot of that type of trivia,” Osnes says. “I enjoy doing things I’m good at and I knew I wasn’t very good at ‘Jeopardy!” This time, though, Osnes knew she wouldn’t be stumped: “I definitely knew the answers,” she says.

“Jeopardy!” has long given Broadway a boost, offering such categories as “Broadway Musicals” and “Pop Singers on Broadway.” That’s priceless publicity for stage shows since “Jeopardy!” is seen by 10 million people a night. Last year, attendance on Broadway reached just 11.6 million. The Clue Crew, the show’s telegenic correspondents who

travel the country taping clues in site-specific locations, have visited more than a dozen Broadway sets, including “Avenue Q,” “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Les Miserables,” “The Producers,” “Hairspray,” and “The Lion King.”

Actors from Broadway shows have also present-

ed clues, including from “Mamma Mia!” “Jersey Boys” and “The Color Purple.” Playwright Edward Albee and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber even had their own five-question categories. But, until now, an entire category hasn’t been devoted to a single show. For it to happen, the show has to be able to spark questions beyond the stage.

Questions for “Wicked” naturally led to ones for “The Wizard of Oz” movie and book, while “Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella” has a rich history to draw questions.

“It has to be part of Americana and part of the culture,” says Schmidt, who, along with executive producer Harry Friedman, is a huge theater fan.

“We just didn’t want to disenfranchise people and have them say, ‘OK, I’ve never seen that. I don’t care about this whole category’ and turn away.” Kelly Miyahara, one of the Clue Crew, was on hand at the empty Broadway theater in June to help tape several clues herself - all while trying to remain cool.

“I think it is every little girl’s dream to be on the stage at Cinderella,” says Miyahara, who sat in Cinderella’s carriage and even wore her tiara. “It took me back to being 10 years old again sitting on that stage.” Jimmy McGuire, another of the Clue Crew, was also there and was dazzled. A theater fan as well, he went to high school with Tony winner Billy Porter in Pittsburgh and played Conrad Birdie in a production of “Bye Bye Birdie” in eighth grade.

“To me, just being on the stage gave me the biggest thrill,” says McGuire. “I was pretending it was a packed house.” — AP

This June 9, 2013 file photo shows actress Laura Osnes of ‘Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella’ performing at the 67th Annual Tony Awards in New York. — AP

Strong ratings for American Music Awards

Q: Arcade Fire, The Strokes, Vampire Weekend or Radiohead?

Both: Strokes Q: Wes Anderson or Francis Ford Coppola?

Helders: That’s a good one.

Turner: Maybe Wes Anderson but I don’t know.. that Godfather film... How about that (to Helders)?

Helders: Well you can say Godfather is the best film ever made so... — Reuters

Accompanying Delpy in the best screenplay category is Woody Allen for “Blue Jasmine,” Nicole Holofcener for “Enough Said” and Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber for “The Spectacular Now.” For his performance in the romantic comedy “Enough Said,” James Gandolfini earned a posthumous nomination for best supporting male.

Though the Spirit Awards were begun to honor lower-budget films outside of Hollywood’s mainstream, there is often overlap, and particularly so this year. Many of the 2013 Spirit nominees are expected to be strong Oscar contenders. Higher-budget studio releases like “Gravity” and “Captain Phillips” don’t compete in the Spirit Awards, which are limited to films with a budget less than $20 million. Last year, David O. Russell’s “Silver Lining Playbook” swept the Spirit Awards, winning best feature, best director, best screenplay and best actress for Jennifer Lawrence.

Presented by the cinema group Film Independent, the Spirit Awards will be handed out the day before the Oscars at an afternoon ceremony along the beach in Santa Monica, Calif, on Mar 1. The Spirit Awards will air that night on IFC. Nominees were chosen by panels of film professionals. Members of Film Independent, including filmmakers and movie fans, are eligible to vote on the winners. — AP

Game show ‘Jeopardy!’ gives Broadway a boost

The Arctic Monkeys, on America, old songs and synths hey have recorded in America and frontman Alex Turner lives in Los Angeles and affects an Elvis look in their latest stage show, but the Arctic Monkeys remain a British rock-and-roll phenomenon. None of the four members - all from Sheffield in northern England is even 30, but they already have five albums under their belts after surfing an Internet-built fan base to stardom - one of the first rock groups to do so. On stage on their current tour to promote new album “AM”, Turner sports an Elvis Presley-style pompadour and swivels his hips. Famed for vocals inflected with a Yorkshire accent, his spoken voice is these days overlaid by a California drawl.

While other rock groups of their generation have morphed into more electronic or synthesized sound - following the dance-floor trends of the day - the Arctic Monkeys have gone the other way, with more distorted guitar, powerful bass lines and Matt Helders’s signature percussion. They have consolidated their formula on their latest album - which ranges from ballads to psychedelic themes and returned to the top of the British charts.

Turner and Helders spoke with Reuters in Madrid before a show at the Palacio de los Deportes arena near the beginning of a world tour that will last until the middle of next year.

he race to Oscar has officially begun, as the slavery exploration “12 Years a Slave” was nominated Tuesday for a leading seven Spirit Awards, which honor independent film. The Steve McQueen-directed drama is up for best feature, best director, best actor (Chiwetel Ejiofer), best supporting actress (Lupita Nyong’o), best supporting actor (Michael Fassbender), best screenplay (John Ridley) and best cinematography (Sean Bobbitt). With six nominations, Alexander Payne’s black-and-white comedy “Nebraska” is also in the running for best feature, best director, best actor for Bruce Dern, best supporting actress for June Squibb, best supporting actor for Will Forte and best first screenplay for Bob Nelson.

Other best-picture contenders include J.C. Chandor’s near-wordless shipwreck drama “All is Lost,” Noah Baumbach’s New York tale “Frances Ha” and the Coen brothers’ folk music story “Inside Llewyn Davis.”

“All is Lost” also earned a best director slot for Chandor. Also up for best director are Jeff Nichols for the coming-of-age drama “Mud” and Shane Carruth for the sci-fi “Upstream Color.” Along with Ejiofor and Dern, the best male lead category includes Oscar Isaac for “Inside Llewyn Davis,” Matthew McConaughey for “Dallas Buyers Club,” Robert Redford for “All is Lost” and Michael B. Jordan for “Fruitvale Station.”

Julie Delpy received two nominations, for best female lead and best screenplay for “Before Midnight,” the third installment in the romantic drama series that kicked off with “Before Sunrise” in 1995. Delpy shares the best screenplay nomination with Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater, who co-wrote the script. Among other best actress nominees are Cate Blanchett for “Blue Jasmine,” Gaby Hoffmann for “Crystal Fairy,” Brie Larson for “Short Term 12” and Shailene Woodley for “The Spectacular Now.”

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here’s nothing like a lip-synching kitty to juice ratings. ABC’s telecast of the “American Music Awards” reached more than 13 million viewers on Sunday night, up 38 percent over last year’s telecast. It was second only to the 2009 broadcast as the mostwatched “American Music Awards” in 11 years, the Nielsen company said. The broadcast’s climax featured the ever-newsworthy Miley Cyrus singing her hit “Wrecking Ball” with a giant machine-created cat mouthing the words along with her. She won the dueling diva contest for attention over Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and the big trophy-winner, Taylor Swift.

Among viewers ages 12 to 17, it was the week’s most popular program with viewership up 86 percent over 2012, Nielsen said. There seemed little television overlap with the Sunday Night football matchup between Denver and New England, which was the most-watched program for the week with 26.5 million viewers. CBS won the week in prime time, averaging 9.8 million viewers. ABC had 8.5 million viewers, NBC had 8.4 million, Fox had 5.9 million, Univision had 3.6 million, The CW had 1.5 million, Telemundo had 1.4 million and ION Television had 1.2 million.

ESPN was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 3 million viewers in prime time. The Disney Channel had 2.3 million, Hallmark had 2.1 million, USA had 1.92 million and Fox News Channel had 1.88 million. NBC’s “Nightly News” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 9.3 million viewers. ABC’s “World News” was second with 8.3 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 7.6 million viewers.

For the week of Nov. 18-24, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: NFL Football: Denver at New England, NBC, 26.48 million; “NCIS,” CBS, 19.66 million; “Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick,” NBC, 19.61 million; “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 18.94 million; “The OT,” Fox, 16.02 million; NFL Football: New England at Carolina, ESPN, 15.77 million; “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 14.99 million; “Dancing With the Stars,” ABC, 13.8 million; “Football Night in America,” NBC, 13.71 million; “American Music Awards, ABC, 13.14 million. — AP

Jennifer Lopez performs at the American Music Awards at the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on Sunday, Nov. 24, 2013, in Los Angeles. — AP

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

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Arab Idol Assaf appeal for UN Palestinian agency

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rab Idol winner Mohammed Assaf on Tuesday joined appeals to raise money for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) says it may not be able to pay staff wages in December because of a $36 million budget deficit. Assaf, who is from Gaza and was catapulted into the international spotlight by winning the Arab Idol talent series this year, said the agency was crucial for the survival of Palestinians. “I call upon all to help fund and support UNRWA because that is the only way the people can survive and have a bit of hope at the end of the tunnel,” Assaf, who is on a US concert tour, said through a translator.

M o v i e s Mohammed Assaf

The singer, who is a goodwill ambassador for the agency, said he misses his family in Gaza and he was not sure when he would be able to return to the blockaded territory. “I will never forget my roots,” said Assaf, 24, who was born in Libya but spent most of his life in the Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza. “I want to go back there soon to see my parents, but I am not going to give a date,” he said. “I miss my family, they cannot be here because of the blockade.”— AFP

‘Mandela’ marks Elba’s cinematic maturity

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Singer Katy Perry performs onstage during the 2013 American Music Awards at Nokia Theatre LA Live in Los Angeles, California. — AFP

Perry’s geisha getup follows in Beatles tradition

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aty Perry’s geisha-themed opening performance at this year’s American Music Awards has been targeted as possibly racist by some, but at least one Asian American group is giving Perry’s show a thumbs up. In fact, the group’s president says, Perry was following in the footsteps of another respected music act: The Beatles. In a statement to TheWrap on Tuesday, Aki Aleong, president of Media Action for Asian Americans - which earlier this year protested the Fox comedy “Dads” as racially offensive said that Perry’s performance “could renew appreciation” for Japanese culture - much like the Fab Four brought attention to Indian culture by visiting the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

“We did not find Katy Perry’s performance at Sunday night’s American Music Awards to be offensive. It’s not racist for a non-Asian person to wear Asian clothes,” Aleong said. “If it was so, the Beatles would’ve been criticized for wearing Nehru jackets back in the ‘60s. By going to India, learning meditation, dressing in Indian clothes, and George Harrison taking a fondness to the sitar, the Beatles brought attention to Indian culture and enabled it to be considered and enjoyed by millions across the world.

“Likewise, we know from past interviews that Miss Perry loves Japan and its culture, so her performance could’ve been paying tribute to an aspect of that culture and could renew appreciation for it,” Aleong continued.

While Perry’s choice of the song “Unconditionally” in combination with the geisha theme of the performance likewise raised eyebrows, Aleong says the song is ultimately about female empowerment.

So, sorry, outrage junkies ... no controversy here. “Some have asserted that because her song ‘Unconditionally’ is about a woman giving total devotion to a man that performing it as a geisha reinforced stereotypes about Asian women being submissive,” Aleong said.

“In fact, if you look at the lyrics of the song, it’s the total opposite. In it, she’s singing to a man who’s insecure about showing his true self to her. She reassures him that it’s OK because she’ll love him no matter what. In other words, she’s the strong one in the relationship.”— Reuters

hen portraying South African revolutionary Nelson Mandela in the biopic, “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom,” Idris Elba embraced the harsh realities of Mandela’s life and was determined to stay in character even when the cameras stopped rolling. But the British actor knew his latest movie wouldn’t be believable unless his fellow actors could deliver a performance as raw as his own - so he pushed them to embrace uncomfortable realties, too.

Elba recounted one such instance when he was shooting scenes that focused on Mandela’s 27 years in jail under white minority rule. During the filming, he sensed that a couple of white actors were struggling to portray the brutality in which Mandela was treated. “They felt bad. ... I could see it in their eyes. I spoke to director (Justin Chadwick) and I said, ‘I need these guys to go back to their core. If there is any sense of racism in them I need them to bring it up. If there is a black person that they don’t like let me hear it and feel it,’” said Elba intently, leaning in during a recent interview in a dim Hollywood bar.

“That was important because it would come through in the performance and suddenly it becomes the biopic that’s safe.” Safe would not be the word to describe Mandela the man, or the movie. While it shows him as the genial peacemaker that the world embraced when he was freed from prison and became South Africa’s first black president, it also shows him as a fiery and flawed revolutionary who sought to abolish apartheid through any means necessary as leader as the African National Congress.

Chadwick called Idris brave and lauded his portrayal of Mandela. “There are not many people who would step into the shoes of Mandela, particularly the way I was making the movie,” he said.

“There was no room for any untruth. When you are standing in front of thousands of people portraying their leader that they know so well you’d better be on it, and Idris was on it.”

Elba did not have a chance to speak to the 95-

year-old icon because of his failing health. But he drew on the mannerisms of his late father to help him with his interpretation of Mandela. He also spoke to a few of Mandela’s daughters and his second wife, Winnie, who was also a powerful figure in the anti-apartheid movement. “Winnie said it’s all good to see a guy who is waving and smiling,” said Elba. “But she needed to see the complex man.” Based on Mandela’s autobiography, the film, which opens Friday, has been in the works for years.

Denzel Washington was the original choice for the role. “But at some point the DNA changed and it didn’t work for him to do the film, so my name was thrown in that mix,” said Elba. “In actuality it was really easy to get the job, but I didn’t believe that I had gotten it.” Once reality set in, so did Elba’s nerves. “I was like, ‘Damn, do I have this performance in me?’” the 41-year-old actor said.

“Everyone knows what Mandela looks like and sounds like and I’m not like any of that. It was a massive challenge, but it was time to grow up and really put my acting chops out there.”

Amidst the stormy relationship between Mandela and his first wife, Evelyn Mase, Elba was determined to depict the man beyond the saint. “I was surprised he was such a playboy,” Elba added.

“But he was one of the first black lawyers in Soweto (South Africa). This was sexy. We wanted be honest about that.” Bringing sexy to the role was likely the easiest part for Elba - considered not only a brilliant actor, but a sex symbol as well.

Even President Barack Obama joked about his lure with the ladies when the White House hosted a special screening of the film earlier this month, Elba recently recounted.

“He is hugely charismatic,” said “Mandela” costar Naomie Harris, who plays Winnie in the film.

“He is one of those guys who comes in and lights up a room. He’s very charming and makes everyone feel special.” Elba’s magnetism is one reason why he’s been so popular in recent years. Besides starring in the BBC series “Luther,” he’s played key

This image released by The Weinstein Company shows, Idris Elba as Nelson Mandela, left, and Naomie Harris as Winnie Mandela, in “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.”— AP photos

Review: Spike Lee riffs on ‘Oldboy’ in remake

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obody ever accused Spike Lee of an overabundance of subtlety. He’s an unapologetically bold filmmaker, one who hasn’t shied away from using a tattered American flag or a “Dead End” sign as hard-to-miss metaphors. But this also works to his benefit: Lee’s films rarely fail to leave an impression. So that Lee would take on a remake - or “reinterpretation,” as he calls it - of Park Chan-wook’s grotesque revenge melodrama “Oldboy” is perhaps fitting. He’s one of few filmmakers who would take the original’s famous, lengthy tracking shot of a hammer-wielding beat-down of a hallway of bad guys,

and triple it. (The shot has, against Lee’s wishes, been trimmed slightly.)

The 2003 Korean original, part of Park’s “vengeance trilogy,” already enjoys a fervent cult following in the US, so the usefulness of an English-language redo 10 years later is questionable. Particularly when the original is such a sadistic slice of perversity, one in which an octopus was infamously swallowed alive. Lee, to his credit, has not done much to smooth over the tentacles of the original. He’s transplanted the film to New York’s Chinatown, where Joe Doucett (Josh Brolin) is a low-rent, alcoholic advertising exec-

This image released by FilmDistrict Pictures shows Samuel L Jackson in a scene from “Oldboy.” —AP

utive and absentee father. In the opening scenes set in 1993, he skulks the streets guzzling vodka and urinating in plain daylight.

After he blows a big deal (Lance Reddick of “The Wire” makes a welcome cameo), Doucett is soon thereafter knocked out and abducted. He awakes in a window-less hotel room that will be his prison for the next 20 years, a sentence handed out without explanation and by an unseen judge. He’s fed dumplings daily and watches history pass on television. A tabloid TV show regularly informs Doucett that, since he was locked away, his ex-wife has been murdered and he’s the prime suspect. When he’s finally let out, dropped in a suitcase in the middle of a field, he makes a beeline for revenge, tracking his captor through his choice of take-out, sampling Chinatown’s dumplings but, alas, not its octopus.

Once Doucett finds his cell (part of a for-hire network overseen by a fro-hawked Samuel Jackson), Lee does his version of the hallway hammer scene with much more elaborate fight choreography. It’s a telling difference: Park’s violence feels so gruesome because of its crudeness, its fleshiness. In his pursuit of both revenge and redemption, Doucett is aided by a bartender friend (Michael Imperioli, whose great talent has been underserved since “The Sopranos”) and a good-hearted social worker (the alluring Elizabeth Olsen, adding tremendous warmth to the film despite a part lacking complexity). —AP

roles in blockbusters like “Prometheus” and the “Thor” superhero series, as well as films such as “American Gangster.”

“He’s incredibly versatile,” said “Thor: The Dark World” director Alan Taylor. “He brings an incredible weight to everything he does. There is so much behind his eyes.” Elba’s breakthrough role was as Stringer Bell in the critically acclaimed “The Wire,” playing the role of the ruthless Baltimore drug dealer so authentically that some found it hard to believe he is British. Yet when Elba arrived in New York from London in his mid-20s, he struggled to find work with his British accent. He began hanging out in Brooklyn barbershops and at barbeques in the Bronx to pick up the dialect.

“I’d talk about basketball and be right in the mix,” he said. “I peeled back American culture and tried to understand it. Every moment was about rehearsing.” Elba said he reached a turning point in his career when he was 29, and he found out he had a daughter on the way. “Then it was sink or swim,” Elba said about the birth of 11-year-old Isan, whom he calls his “foundation.” “That was the hardest time,” he said. “There are all kinds of things that happen to you at that age as a man. You feel like you should be somewhere and you’re not.”

Luckily, things began to look up when he landed the gig on “The Wire.” There’s no question he has arrived. Next up for Elba is “The Gunman,” opposite Javier Bardem and Sean Penn, who recently presented Elba with a Britannia humanitarian award. “There are moments in an actor’s life where you feel like ‘Wow I’ve made it,’” said Elba.

“Sean Penn introducing me ... that was one of those moments.’”— AP

This photo released by The Weinstein Company shows, standing from left, Idris Elba, as Nelson Mandela, Tony Kgorge as Walter Sisulu, Riaad Moosa, as Ahmed Kathrada, and Thapelo Mokena as Elias Motsoaledi, in a scene from the film, “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.”

‘It’s not relief work in Sudan’: Streep on acting

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eryl Streep is brilliant as a domineering, drug-addicted, cancer-suffering grandmother in her latest film “August: Osage County” but she won’t pretend to have the worst job in the world. Star of the film and given a standing ovation at a pre-release screening in New York, the American actress was asked repeatedly how difficult she found her role. Violet Weston is a bitter matriarch who bullies, ridicules and insults her dysfunctional relatives as they descend on the family home in Oklahoma for a funeral. One of the most difficult scenes, Streep admitted, was riding in the back of a car knowing that she had to throw up but she said the character was precisely the challenge that actors love.

“You can bring that back if you’ve been pregnant. It wasn’t relief work in the Sudan... it was extremely satisfying.” “You’re dragged kicking and screaming into the house of pain. But you just really love being there,” she said. Her remarks came weeks after movie star Tom Cruise was quoted in the US media as comparing his job to fighting in Afghanistan. The film, distributed by Weinstein and to be released on Christmas Day, also stars Julia Roberts, Julianne Nicholson and Juliette Lewis as Streep’s three on-screen daughters.

Playwright Tracy Letts, who won a Pulitzer for the original play and wrote the screenplay, said Violet was based on his own grandmother who took on “monstrous proportions” in his eyes. He said his mother’s first comment after reading the play had been

“you’ve been very kind to my mother”. One of the most heartbreaking scenes, Letts told the audience to shocked oohs and aahs, had been based on a true story. Streep, widely considered one of the world’s greatest film actresses, has already been tipped for another Academy Award for her latest mesmerising performance.

She last won an Oscar for her portrayal of controversial British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in 2011 movie “The Iron Lady.” “I have tended towards some bossy characters recently. I notice a pattern. Maybe that’s what comes with age,” she said. “I did think that this is a very theatrical person, it’s a person who has no lid on the instinct to say what she thinks.” Chris Cooper, who portrays the father of a dim son played by Benedict Cumberbatch, said he had drawn from personal experience through the death of his son in 2005.

“I thought it was time. Enough time had passed that I could really use that in my work,” he told the audience. The cast lived together in adjoining townhouses during shooting and rehearsed the key dinner table scene-which took 3.5 days to film-at a potluck dinner party at Streep’s house. The dinner scene is marred by insults, culminating in Roberts’s character wrestling Streep’s to the floor. —AFP

Arab Idol Assaf appeals for UN Palestinian agency

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

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Members of the ‘Elephant’s bikers club’ gather in San-Pedro. — AFP photos

Riding proud in Ivory Coast with the

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ecked out in leather gear, their powerful HarleyDavidsons girded in sleek chrome, the Elephant’s Bikers make an almost surreal sight in the poor and sometimes barren Ivory Coast villages they visit. As the west African country’s “Easy Rider” team roars into communities where residents are lucky to own a rundown moped, ecstatic crowds typically form to greet them on their journey from the economic capital Abidjan to the industrial port of San Pedro almost 400 kilometers (250 miles) to the west. Wherever the club makes a pit-stop for supplies, men, women and children flock around the 30 or so bikes and their owners. Young drink-sellers use ageing cellphones to snap pictures of the Harleys and grinning villagers chat to the bikers. “We’re sharing a pleasure, a dream. People identify with that. They see that it’s accessible, it’s not just on television,” says one of the bikers, Landry Ouegnin. “Just because we live in an underdeveloped country doesn’t mean we can’t share this kind of thing,” adds the 34-year-old business

manager, who helps run the club of inveterate riders. The Elephant’s Bikers, created 10 years ago to mark the centenary of legendary American motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson, has about 50 members-mostly native Ivorians, but also expatriates, some of whom have become citizens Ivory Coast.

The whole gang displays the distinctive signs of a pack like the Hells Angels-bandanas, omnipresent skulls and crossbones, leather jackets with the Harley logo or that of their club, an elephant wearing cowboy boots. For Jackie Thelen, who leads the club and came from France to take on Ivorian nationality, the regalia is “a disguise” that unites members with “a spirit of brotherhood” like in other such groups scattered around the world.

You’ll often see a big boss show up with ripped jeans, a flashy belt and skulls even though he’s in charge of a highly rated company. That’s the paradox among Harley-Davidson lovers,” says Thelen, 52, who runs a business himself and sports a ring in his left ear.

Elephant’s Bikers

Benevolent bikers In Ivory Coast, the bikers are anything but bad boys, in contrast to the reputation of notorious counterparts like the Hells Angels. And their rides are expensive. Including the cost of transport and import duty, the cheapest bike in the club cost four million CFA francs (6,000 euros, $8,200), while the most pricey cost 25 million (38,000 euros, $52,000). Such sums are way above the means of most villagers along the bikers’ route, but they sometimes help the people they meet by making donations to schools, medical dispensaries or entire villages.

While some members of the club are not wealthy and assembled their own bikes, most are well off and a few are very rich.

A son of late president Henri Konan Bedie is a member, together with an advisor to a cabinet minister. To protect such prominent figures, paramilitary police follow the pack in a fourby-four truck and occasionally direct traffic. Once they reach San Pedro, after a trek that began in the rain and has been

strewn with potholes, the bikers are all smiles. “That was wonderful!” shouts Gerard Lokossou, 41, at the end of his first outing with the club.

A marketing director of 41 who has ridden with a biker group in the US state of New Jersey, Lokossou says he experienced the same joy being part of the Ivorian horde. “It gave me a chance to discover a part of the country that I had never seen from that point of view,” he says, as wide-eyed staff from the hotel where the Elephant’s Bikers are staying film the group’s arrival.— AFP

World’s most expensive printed book sells for $14.2m

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he first book written in what is today the United States of America fetched $14.2 million in New York on Tuesday, becoming the world’s most expensive printed book sold at auction. The translation of Biblical psalms “The Bay Psalm Book” was printed by Puritan settlers in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1640 and sold at a one-lot auction in just minutes by Sotheby’s. Bidding opened at $6 million and closed swiftly at a hammer price of $12.5 million, rising to $14.165 million once the buyer’s premium was incorporated.

The book, with its browning pages and gilt edges, was displayed in a glass case behind the auctioneer to a relatively small crowd which attended the less than five-minute auction in person. The settlers, who came to America to seek religious freedom, had set about making their own preferred translation from the Hebrew original of the Old Testament book after arriving from Europe. Sotheby’s named the buyer as The translation of the Biblical psalms, ‘The Bay Psalm Book’, is seen.

David Rubenstein, the billionaire American financier and philanthropist. He was in Australia and his bid was conducted by telephone.

Sotheby’s had valued the book at $15-30 million, but denied any disappointment in the sale price reached Tuesday. The world’s most expensive manuscript, the handwritten Codex Leicester, 72 pages of largely scientific writings by Leonardo da Vinci, was bought by Bill Gates in 1994 for $30.8 million.

Sotheby’s said it was delighted to have set a new world record for any printed book at auction with the $14.165 million price tag. The previous record was $11.5 million, reached when a copy of John James Audubon’s “Birds of America” sold at Sotheby’s in December 2010.

“We’re very, very pleased about this purchase,” said David Redden, auctioneer and head of Sotheby’s books. Rubenstein plans to share the psalm book with the American public by loaning it to a number

of libraries around the country and placing it on long-time loan to one of them, Redden said. “If you recall David Rubenstein also brought the Magna Carta from us back in 2007 for the same reason, to make sure Americans would understand the significance of their heritage,” he added. The Magna Carta sold for $21.3 million in New York. It was one of only 17 existing copies of the 800-year-old English royal manuscript setting out the rights of man.

Redden said “The Bay Psalm Book” was a “great rarity” and that only two of 11 surviving copies had come to sale in 100 years. He described the price as “very strong and hefty.” “It’s very important because of its story. It’s the first book printed in America and the first book written in America,” Redden told reporters. Before the sale, Redden said the volume had even greater significance as a precursor to Lexington and Concord, and, ultimately, to US political independence. “With it, New England declared its independence from the Church of England,” he said.

There were 1,700 copies of the original 1640 edition. The eleven that have survived are in collections such as The Library of Congress and Harvard College Library. No copy had previously been auctioned since 1947, when a different copy fetched $151,000 — a record at the time for any book, including the Gutenberg Bible or Shakespeare’s First Folio. The book was sold by the Old South Church in Boston to benefit its work in the historic city. The same church possesses another copy of the “Bay Psalm Book.”

Selby Kiffer, from Sotheby’s special projects department, called it “not simply one of the great icons of book history, it is one of the greatest artifacts of American history.” — AFP

This April 12, 2013 file photo shows a Sotheby’s employee handling a copy of the ‘Bay Psalm Book’, the first book printed in what is now the US in 1640, considered the world’s most valuable book, during a preview at Sotheby’s in New York. — AFP photos

Auctioneer David Redden is pictured during the sale of the translation of Biblical psalms, ‘The Bay Psalm Book’, at Sotheby’s in New York.