27th Dec 2013

Operation Hope spreads cheer in Kuwait

FR EE

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www.kuwaittimes.net

Egypt rounds up Brothers as bomb hits Cairo bus

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Manchester City dethrone Liverpool 2-1

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NO: 16029- Friday, December 27, 2013

Sandtastic!

PAGES 4 & 5

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Local FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

Local Spotlight

By Muna Al-Fuzai

Merry Christmas

muna@kuwaittimes.net

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his week I took a decision to greet all my friends and whoever calls me ‘Merry Christmas’. A group of my Kuwaiti friends decided to send this greeting to everyone, Kuwaiti or not. Why not? We started this with our mobile profile. We showed our joy and happiness at this season in a simple way. In fact I love this time of the year not only because we celebrate the end of a year of chaos afterwards, but due to the hope and joy this season brings.

Now I know some would argue that saying this while we in the Middle East are in the thick of war and conflict zones makes me look like a dreamer and this joy thing is more like a fantasy. Well as long

as we are alive, these joyous seasons will come in our life and they will not stop because some have chosen to fight among themselves or a country falls into civil war and its people are dying. This is the time to think how much we have lost for nothing. There are no winners in wars.

Still, Christmas reminds us how pure and valuable we are as humans, something we forgot in the midst of greed. Nothing is insignificant at Christmastime.

This is the time when we recall our humanity, pondering how far or near we are from the people we love, and exchange gifts. It’s the biggest shopping event of the year worldwide. For example in the US, the weeks leading up to

In my View

Things to think about before learning Arabic

By Tony Braun

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think it is important for Westerners to learn Arabic because it helps to build bridges between the two cultures. We are very blessed to be in Kuwait because this gives us more opportunities to achieve our goals with regard to learning Arabic. It is very important to learn about the Arabic language before learning how to speak it. I made the mistake of skipping this part, which I regret. Since British English, American English, and Canadian English are almost identical, I made the mistake of assuming that Arabic dialects are almost identical as well. It is true that there are similarities, however spoken dialects can vary a lot.

Almost all spoken Arabic is based on local dialects, and all written Arabic is based on MSA (Modern Standard Arabic).

When considering this fact, learning Arabic seems like double the work. For example, the student should learn the Kuwaiti dialect if they want to speak with Kuwaitis. However, the student must also learn MSA so that they can understand formal speeches, signs, and written text within Kuwait. It is as if the student must learn two languages at the same time.

When learning Arabic, the student has to rely on other people. Even if the student is studying on their own, they must rely on others to assembly resources, such as books, CDs, and computer programs. When I was younger, I asked my friend what the best martial art was. He told me something very wise. He said that it is more important to have a good teacher rather than to choose a specific type of martial art. The same goes for Arabic. You must find teachers and

resources that are good quality. Right now, I am taking classes to learn the Kuwaiti dialect at the TIES Center and the teachers are very good. It is apparent that they have a passion for what they are doing.

Before we learn something, we should learn how to learn. There are many people who have learned more than 5 foreign languages as an adult. This is the case even though these individuals grew up speaking only English. One such person is Steve Kaufmann who says that age doesn’t limit a person’s ability to learn a language. Steve Kaufmann is fluent in more than 10 languages, which took him about 40 years to master. Based on these figures, he was able to become fluent in a language every 2 years on average. These people who speak many languages are called polyglots. We can learn a lot about how to learn a language from them. I would strongly suggest doing an online search for polyglots in order to learn their tips and tricks. Believe me, there are a lot of them, and they are happy to share their success stories.

Time is a huge factor. Some professionals estimate that about 2000 hours of studying is required to become perfectly fluent. That may sound like a lot but it is not as bad as it first appears. A little bit of study everyday will add up quickly. Fast progress during the beginner phase will help keep the student motivated.

NOTE: Courtesy of the TIES Center. The Ties Center is a leading non-political NGO promoting relations between Westerners and Muslims through dialogue, friendship and cultural-knowledge exchange

Christmas are the biggest shopping weeks of the year. Many retailers make up to 70 percent of their annual revenue in the month preceding Christmas.

Exchanging gifts is not about how much money you can spend, but how dear to your heart are those people.

These little moments we give to others, even to strangers, means a lot. Through time, people have added colourful additions to Christmas like the Christmas tree.

The first artificial Christmas trees were made of goose feathers dyed green by the Germans. ‘Jingle Bells’ was originally called ‘One Horse Open Sleigh’. It was first written for Thanksgiving and then became one of the most popular

Christmas songs.

This is the time of the year where you feel everyone has a smile on their faces.

This is not the time to think of who is Christian and who is not or think of those who will object for sharing with our friends their wonderful season. For all those who celebrate or share with their friends this season of joy, I wish Merry Christmas.

Local FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

World’s largest sand sculpture park in Kuwait

By Jamie Etheridge

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Sand sculptures modeled on around 40 different scenes from the 1001 Nights

ward-winning sculptor and stone mason Delayne Corbett has spent the last few months in Kuwait as part of an international team building the world’s largest sand sculpture park for the Remal International Sand and Light Sculpture Festival at P2BK 2014 in Kuwait.

Kuwait Times spoke with Corbett, who is from Canada, to get a behindthe-scenes look at the creation of the massive sculptures, expected to be among the largest ever constructed.

Modeled on around 40 different scenes from the famous book, Elf layla wa Layla (1001 Nights), the sand sculptures take up around 28,000 square meters or around the size of four soccer fields.

The completed project will include a 10,000 ton central sculpture more than 50 feet tall and 2,500 linear feet of 10-foot walls constructed of carved sand. Inside the sand park, there will also be a sand cafe, maze for children

to walk through and a performance amphitheater as well as an array of lights in various designs.

The P2BK sand sculpture park will be open for public viewing from January to April 2014. The brainchild of Dhari al Wazzan, P2BK (Proud to be Kuwaiti) is a popular local exhibition and local businesses trade fair that happens annually. It is located in the Mishref Fairgrounds.

Local FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

Kuwait Times: How big is the sand sculpture project? How much sand did they use?

Corbett: The project is huge,one of the world’s largest sand sculpture projects ever undertaken. The budget also huge. Just in sand alone, we used around 28,000 tons of sand which is about 1,000 dump truck loads.

Fun Facts • 28,000 tons of sand used (about 1,000 truckloads) • 80 sculptors from 25 countries

Kuwait Times: How many people were involved in the sculpting?

Corbett: We had 80 sculptors from 25 different countries sculpting.

Kuwait Times: What kind of sand did you use? Is it sand from Kuwait?

Corbett: It’s a trade secret. Essentially it is sharp sand with a small clay content.

Kuwait Times: What was the total cost of the project?

Corbett: It cost about $2 million to $3 million US dollars or about 1 million Kuwaiti dinars.

• Cost of project: KD 1 million

Kuwait Times: How did you mold the sand?

Corbett: The sand is scooped into a 2 foot tall form made of wood, much like a concrete formwork. The form has no top or bottom and can easily be taken apart.

Sand is added into the box in layers. Each layer is then compacted by hand or by machine, and another layer is then added. We add water when necessary so the sand is damp but not mudpie wet.

Once the form is full, we add another smaller box on top and repeat the process.

Kuwait Times: For the sculpting, what technique did you use?

Corbett: Once the sand is compacted and formed, we then take the top box off and start carving with shovels, trowels, knives and pottery tools. Thus we complete the sculpture from the top down.

Kuwait Times: What was the most challenging aspect of it?

Corbett: We had many challenges.

The pound up on the heat is hard, working so large is challenging, especially climbing up and down.

Kuwait Times: What was your favorite part of the project?

Corbett: I enjoyed working on such a monumental scale. Some of the sculptures are 15 meters tall.

Available at The Sultan Centre & Carrefour

Local FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

Spreading cheer in the land Operation Hope lends a helping hand to alleviate suffering of the needy in Kuwait and beyond

Sheryll Mairza poses in a boutique she runs as part of Operation Hope. — Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

By Ben Garcia

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peration Hope, an NGO established by Sheryll Mairza, is touching people’s lives throughout the world. A grassroots humanitarian outreach that is motivated by compassion to alleviate suffering in Kuwait, Operation Hope serves those in the greatest of need through the support of the local and international community. Since 2005, more than 50,000 bags of winter clothing have been distributed to impoverished workers in Kuwait.

Operation Hope is now slowly reaching out to people around the world through organizations and individuals. After the recent typhoon in the Philippines, Operation Hope contributed relief goods for the affected areas. “For the Philippines, we contributed some of our collected goods when we were approached by organizations and individuals to help them in their relief efforts. We have a lot of gently used clothes ready to be sold, but we gave it to third party organizations that shipped it to typhoon victims in Philippines,” Mairza said.

Another instance where Operation Hope reached out to people of other countries was through a proxy. Mairza said a Gambian woman who wanted to stock her library with books had her wish fulfilled. “We were approached by a woman from Gambia who had started a drive to fill her local library with books so she could help boost the literacy rate of adults there.

We have an abundance of books here, so we helped her and shipped the books to Gambia,” she said.

According to Mairza, Operation Hope has a very limited budget and people to do international relief efforts, but through third party organizations, they can reach people on the other sides of the world. “We cooperate with people in areas where need arises. If people there want to start volunteering work similar to Operation Hope, they can do so. I allow the use of Operation Hope’s plans,” she mentioned. “I don’t personally want to go to different places to set up Operation Hope. If volunteers like to spread it in other countries and set up their own NGOs, they can take my blueprint and apply it there. They can be founders of Operation Hope for example in Malaysia, Indonesia or Philippines. I will be happy to share the formula I used to set up this NGO,” she said.

Creative Ways Mairza admitted Operation Hope was affected by the global financial crisis of 2008, which saw a great decline of support from donors. “When it became evident that support was dwindling, we came up with more creative ways to keep the funds flowing. We started Christmas bazaars and sold used clothes and kitchenware to raised funds. With the support of locals and expats, we opened a boutique inside a compound of my

in-laws’ house to sell gently used household items. The need is great and extended beyond winter, so we organized more frequent bazaars. A vast place in my in-laws’ property in Rumaithiya was utilized to display the products. We received so many donations - from toys to clothes to household things that we didn’t know where to put them; even the embassy shelters had no place to store all of it, so I thought of selling these items,” Mairza said.

“With the help of the British Society of Kuwait, we renovated the facility and opened it on January 12, 2012. We are generating income from it and we distribute it in the form of tickets for the repatriation of runaway maids. We also regularly send toiletries and sanitary products for women in the shelters of the Ethiopia, Nepal, Philippines and Sri Lanka embassies,” she explained. A few months ago, according to Mairza, an Ethiopian woman fell from the third floor of her employer’s house, and her leg was amputated. “Operation Hope provided her with a prosthetic leg, and we helped her rehabilitation,” she noted.

Asked on how he she was able to monitor and control the flow of donations to Operation Hope, she said, “We don’t keep a substantial amount of money in the bank. Whatever we get

we give it right away to the needy. We need donations to flow regularly to carry out the work at Operation Hope. We are also lucky to have the support of a woman from the Behbehani family, who has a heart of gold. She is always ready to contribute; always ready to support us financially and emotionally and with words of encouragement. She is a shining star, and one of the Kuwaitis who have been contributing to our cause.

This woman calls us and asks what else she can contribute. She is very passionate about helping and serving others.”

Charity Work The need for a charity work is great according to Mairza.

Apart from individuals and organizations, she is also thankful for the support given to her by educational institutions in Kuwait. “I get phenomenal support from schools. They are very helpful and volunteer time and effort to collect things,” she added.

Mairza dreams a time will come when Operation Hope is no longer needed. “I know this dream is very idealistic, that the gap between the haves and have-nots will narrow,” she said.

Realistically, her vision is to continue moving forward to raise the younger generation to be aware of realities and look beyond their personal goals and ambitions. “I want them to see the persons to their left and right, because at the end of the day, we are brothers and sisters. We come from different places, but we are all brothers and sisters. We need to continue to strive to support and help one another,” she mentioned.

In May 2013, she was presented with $10,000, an award she received for inspiring women of the GCC, sponsored by Philadelphia cheese. “It was a very amazing award which I used to add to our winter program. It was a huge blessing for us,” she concluded.

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Local FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

Turning trash to art Plamo Q8 Club brings together scale model hobbyists

By Nawara Fattahova KUWAIT: A group of young Kuwaitis with common hobbies have formed a group called Plamo Q8 for those who are interested in various arts including drawing, sculpting and others. These artists make cool stuff - figures, sculptures and drawings mostly inspired by manga (Japanese comic art). Yousef Karam, head of the club, spoke to Kuwait Times.

KUWAIT TIMES: When did you found the club? When was the Plamo Green department established and how did you find each other?

YOUSEF KARAM: The main ‘Plamo Q8 Hobby Club’ was founded in July 2012, and the ‘Plamo Green Department’ was initiated in November of the same year which specialized in using raw and recycled materials.

Plamo Q8 Club gave us the opportunity to meet each other and work together.

KT: How many members are there in the club and in the Plamo Green department? And what do they do for a living?

YK: The club has more than 400 members divided into different departments. The Plamo Green department has about 20 members. Some are employees, some are students and some are both studying and working.

KT: What exactly are your activities?

YK: We mainly organize competitions for scale models and we are responsible for the recycling seminars and workshops conducted by the club.

KT: From where do you get the ideas for the pieces you make? And what materials are usually used?

YK: Some pieces are based on things we see in our daily life such as cars or buildings, some are based on sci-fi characters from movies and some we create from zero using our imagination. In the Plamo Green department, the common materials we use are wood, foam, clay, plastic, metal, paper and even leftover screws and electronics. In some models, we use one material and in some we use a combination.

KT: From where do you get the materials for these models?

YK: We buy some of the materials from local stores that sell raw materials or waste materials that are no longer in use. But most of the time we order from abroad from specialized stores and websites.

KT: How long does it take to finish one piece?

YK: It can take from 2 weeks to 3 months depending on the size and design of the piece.

KT: How many members work on one piece? Or does each person do his work separately?

YK: Usually the work is done individually, however when we have big projects and limited time or when the club conducts the annual ‘Plamo Tag Team Challenge’, we work together as a team.

KT: Do you have a workshop or do you work at home? Does it need special equipment?

YK: We have the Plamo Q8 Club workshop that we use, but we also work at home sometimes, specially on small details. Yes we

use unique equipment made especially for this hobby.

KT: Are the artworks for sale or just for display? If they are for sale, where do you sell them?

YK: We don’t usually sell our artwork, but sometimes people want a specific figure made for them, so we do it. Companies or

individuals may also order specific models, so we make them and charge for it.

KT: Are people in Kuwait interested in this kind of art? And if they would like to learn how to build such pieces themselves, do you conduct any courses?

YK: In the beginning, people were not familiar with this, however after establishing

the club and organizing a number of public expos and displaying our pieces, people got more and more interested. That’s what got Plamo Q8 Club management to establish the first academy in Kuwait specialized in this hobby, the ‘Plamo Q8 Academy’ which teaches all there is to know about this type of art through seminars and workshops.

KT: What benefits can members get from this unique hobby?

YK: Members use their free time in a creative hobby that increases their concentration and attention to details. They also learn how to transform recyclable and leftover materials into unique and impressive artworks.

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Local FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

Cash for motorists with clean records MoI launches campaign with Boubyan Bank KUWAIT: The Ministry of Interior (MoI) will pay to drivers with immaculate driving records KD 300, according to a traffic awareness campaign launched yesterday. The campaign, sponsored jointly by the ministry and Boubyan Bank, aims to urge the public to be wary of traffic rules and regulations in their daily use of the nation’s highways and byways, said acting director of the General Traffic Department Brigadier Saleh AlNajem in a statement at the launch of the campaign at the Avenues mall.

The campaign - which will be promoted in the nation’s major malls and shopping centers, radio and TV stations, the Internet, social networks and newspapers - will grant cash rewards to ten ideal drivers with squeaky-clean driving histories at a ceremony at the end of the month-long campaign, said Adel AlHashash, MoI’s PR and Moral Guidance Director. Participation in the contest has three conditions: a participant should own a vehicle, have always had valid vehicle registration and have not been ticketed in the past three years.

Stressing that problems related to traffic in Kuwait require a partnership between the MoI and the public, Saleh Budustoor, acting assistant to the director of the General Traffic Department, said at the launch ceremony that it was imperative that the private and public sectors work together to come up with concrete solutions for traffic problems that seem to persist indefinitely.

Such a partnership is embodied in the joint efforts of the ministry and

Boubyan Bank to promote the awareness campaign by elevating public knowledge regarding road safety and abidance by all traffic laws, said Waleed Al-Yaqout, administrative manager at

the bank. He added that honoring ideal drivers was meant to be a token of appreciation to their respect for traffic rules and regulations and human lives on the road.

KUWAIT: Ministry of Interior and Boubyan Bank officials launch an traffic awareness campaign at the Avenues mall yesterday. —KUNA

Kuwaiti filmmaker grabs 2 awards at international fest

KUWAIT: (Top) An Arab expat was killed and four others injured in an accident on Maghreb Expressway, said security sources. (Center) Another fire broke out in two vehicles parked at a citizen’s garden, said security sources, noting that an investigation was in progress to determine the cause of the fire. (Above) Three Arab workers were seriously injured when slabs of marble fell on them at a construction site in Ishbeliya, said security sources, noting that two of them sustained leg and various bone fractures while the third was in the ICU with serious skull fractures. —By Hanan Al-Saadoun

NEW YORK: Kuwaiti filmmaker Farah Al-Hashem was announced the winner of the best actress and best screenplay awards for her self-produced short film (7 Hours) which debuted at the Women’s Independent Film Festival. “I am very happy. I have to say that I was also very humbled to win the award for acting,” said an ecstatic Hashem in a statement to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA). The young creative filmmaker is also a news correspondent and advisor at the United Nations, who describes herself as a “challenge-seeking spirit, always aspiring to hone my artistic skills and creative vision”.

On the film, Hashem said “it’s a five-minute long short movie that I simply shot with my iPhone”. “It documented, as the title suggests, the seven-hour flight between Beirut and New York. It features me revealing a potpourri of emotions - homesickness, romance, sadness, yearning and happiness all back-dropped by random shots of and between the two cities that I love.”

The California-based Women’s Independent Film Festival celebrates and gives voice to the many diverse and unique perspectives offered by women in cinema from every part of the world. The festival awards and screens the best independent films made by women filmmakers from around the world. —KUNA

NEW YORK: Kuwaiti filmmaker Farah Al-Hashem poses with her awards at the Women’s Independent Film Festival. —KUNA

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

Fighting rages in South Sudan oil regions

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Another dark Xmas for Iraq’s Christians

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Ukraine journalist attacked

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CAIRO: Egyptian policemen stand guard after an explosion hit a public bus (background) in Cairo’s eastern Nasr City district, Egypt yesterday. —AP

Egypt widens crackdown on Islamists Cairo bomb wounds 5; Brotherhood supporters arrested CAIRO: Egypt escalated its crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood yesterday, detaining at least 16 of the group’s supporters on charges of belonging to a terrorist organization the day after it was declared one by the government. The activists were held in the Nile Delta province of Sharkiya on suspicion of “promoting the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood group, distributing its leaflets, and inciting violence against the army and police,” the state news agency said.

The government declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group on Wednesday in response to a suicide attack a day earlier that killed 16 in the Nile Delta, accusing the group of carrying out the bombing. The Brotherhood condemned the attack. Interior Ministry spokesman Hani Abdel Latif told state TV yesterday that anyone taking part in Brotherhood protests would be jailed for five years. “The sentence could be death for those who lead this organization,” he added.

Earlier in the day a bomb explosion in Cairo wounded five people, and Latif said a

second similar home-made device was found nearby and dismantled. The government did not provide evidence to back up the charge that the Brotherhood had staged the Nile Delta attack in Mansoura, north of Cairo, which was claimed by the Sinai-based radical Islamist group Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis.

Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis has taken responsibility for several other major bombings, including a failed attempt to kill the interior minister in September. The Brotherhood’s Islamist allies responded defiantly to the cabinet decision announced late on Wednesday, vowing to continue the protests it has staged against the army since the overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi. “The putchists are a terrorist organization. The Brotherhood are peaceful patriots,” they said in a statement.

DRIVEN UNDERGROUND Wednesday’s move marked an escalation in the government’s campaign to suppress the Islamist movement that propelled Morsi to the presidency 18 months ago but has

been driven underground since the army toppled him in July after big protests against him. In the weeks after Morsi’s removal, the security forces killed hundreds of his supporters while dispersing their protest camps, and arrested thousands more including most of the Brotherhood’s top leadership. Though the Brotherhood has been outlawed for most of its existence, this is the first time it has been formally listed as a terrorist organisation.

State prosecutors last week ordered Morsi and others to stand trial on charges including terrorism for which they could be executed. A Brotherhood activist, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of arrest, said the new decision seemed aimed at deterring further protests against the government. The cabinet said terrorism charges could be applied to anyone who finances or promotes the group “verbally and in writing”. Publication of the Brotherhood’s newspaper, Freedom and Justice, was halted in response to the decision.

“We will continue with the protests.

Peaceful action is the hope,” said the activist from Alexandria. The National Alliance to Support Legitimacy, the pro-Morsi coalition, called for a “week of anger” and the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the political arm of the Brotherhood, called for protests on Friday after the cabinet’s move. The public prosecutor’s office, which is investigating the Mansoura bombing, said there would be no comment until its investigation was complete.

Bombings and shootings targeting the security forces have become commonplace, with around 350 soldiers and policemen killed. The state has declared itself in “a war on terror”. Most of the attacks have been in the Sinai Peninsula, though the Mansoura attack suggested the violence is spreading to the more heavily populated areas of the Nile Valley and Delta. The government has said violence will not derail its political transition plan. The next step is a mid-January referendum on a new constitution.— Reuters

es, i c a m phar t a e l res b o a l t i s a e v n A d fi n a s p co-o

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International FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

Fighting rages in South Sudan oil regions JUBA: Heavy fighting between government forces and rebels was raging Thursday in South Sudan’s key oil-producing north, officials said, as neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia stepped up efforts to broker an end to the civil war. Army spokesman Philip Aguer said troops loyal to President Salva Kiir were battling forces allied to former vice president Riek Machar inside the town of Malakal, capital of Upper Nile state. He also said troops were preparing an offensive against Bentiu, the main town in oil-rich Unity State, to follow on from their recapture of Bor, another state capital that had fallen into rebel hands during the nearly two weeks of clashes in the world’ youngest nation.

“There is fighting in Malakal. Our forces are in the northern part of Malakal and the rebels are on the southern part. We will flush them out of Malakal,” Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) spokesman Aguer said. “The rebels are still controlling Bentiu but SPLA is planning to retake Bentiu soon,” he added. The violence in South Sudan, a fledgling oil producer which won independence from Sudan just two years ago, has left thousands dead, according to the United Nations.

Ten of thousands of civilians have also

Saudi activist could be executed for ‘apostasy’ JEDDAH: A Saudi judge has recommended that a liberal activist be tried in a higher court for apostasy, a charge that could carry the death penalty, rights campaigners said yesterday. A court in the ultra-conservative kingdom sentenced Raef Badawi in July to seven years in jail and 600 lashes for setting up a “liberal” network and for allegedly insulting Islam. On Wednesday, a judge remanded Badawi to the General Court on charges of apostasy, rights lawyer Waleed Abulkhair said.

After Badawi’s sentence, the appeals court had sent the case back to the court of first instance, where a newly-appointed judge remanded it to the General Court, saying his lower court was not qualified to deal with the case, Abulkhair explained. Human rights activists said, however, that the apostasy charge was only a recommendation from the judge and not a decision. But online news website Sabq.org quoted Badawi’s wife Ensaf Haidar as saying that “the new judge has requested the case be referred to General Court, and demanded the death penalty.”

Badawi, 35, was arrested in June last year in the Red Sea city of Jeddah for unknown reasons. The network that he co-founded with female rights activist Suad Al-Shammari had declared May 7, 2012 a “day of liberalism” in the kingdom, calling for an end to the domination of religion over public life in Saudi Arabia. The strict version of Islamic sharia law applied in Saudi Arabia stipulates death as a punishment for apostasy, but defendants are usually given the chance to repent and escape being beheaded.— AFP

sought protection at UN bases amid a wave of ethnic violence pitting members of Kiir’s Dinka tribe against Machar’s Nuer. The UN Security Council voted Tuesday to send nearly 6,000 extra soldiers and police to South Sudan, nearly doubling the UNMISS force to 12,500 troops and 1,323 civilian police. Amid reports of bodies piled in mass graves and witness testimonies of massacres and summary executions and rapes, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has promised those responsible would be “held accountable”. Crude prices have also edged higher because of the fighting as oil production, which accounts for more than 95 percent of South Sudan’s fledgling economy, dented by the violence and oil workers evacuated. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn flew into Juba on Thursday for talks with President Kiir, the latest in a line of peace brokers who have flown in since the fighting began on December 15.

The leaders, the most senior officials yet to visit the country, posed for photos before going into closed door talks.

ATROCITIES REPORTED The fighting started after Kiir accused

Machar of attempting a coup. Machar denied this, and said the president was exploiting a clash between members of the army as a pretext to carry out a purge. Although Kiir and Machar-a former vice president who was sacked in July have said they are open to peace talks, fighting has spread to half of the country’s 10 states. The battles have also been intense: an AFP correspondent who visited the recaptured town of Bor on Wednesday said bodies littered the streets and stores were looted, with occasional gunshots still ringing out even as civilians poured back into the town.

The UN said aid agencies need $166 million (121 million euros) over the next three months to distribute food, manage camps for the displaced and provide health and sanitation.

“There are at least 90,000 people who have been displaced in the past 10 days. This includes 58,000 people who are sheltering in UN peacekeeping bases,” said the UN humanitarian chief in the country, Toby Lanzer.

“It is crucial that aid agencies have the resources they need to save lives in the coming months,” he said. UN rights chief Navi Pillay said a mass grave had been found in rebel-held Bentiu and cited reports of at least two more in

Juba, the capital. Around 15 bodies were found in one site in Bentiu, and another 20 bodies at a nearby river, she said. In Juba, the UN mission was more cautious, confirming the 15 killed but saying it was still “investigating reports of such atrocities”.

A number of witnesses have recounted a wave of atrocities, including an orchestrated campaign of mass killings and rape. “There are now people who are targeting others because of their tribal affiliation,” Kiir said in a Christmas message to the country, where the population is roughly divided between Christians, Muslims and those with traditional indigenous beliefs.

“It will only lead to one thing, and that is to turn this new nation into chaos.”

In his Christmas message, Pope Francis called for “social harmony” and warned the violence was “threatening peaceful coexistence”.

Nearly 100 US troops are on the ground in South Sudan, and the US military said Tuesday had deployed a “platoon-sized” Marine contingent to neighboring Uganda. Four US troops were wounded on Saturday when their aircraft was shot at during an evacuation operation.

The United States was instrumental in South Sudan’s independence from the north.—AFP

Another dark Xmas for Iraq’s Christians Qaeda-linked militants target Christians Nuri Al-Maliki’s Shiite-led government, such as making Christmas a national holiday for the first time this year, would encourage more Christians to stay. Maliki, whose government has been criticized as sectarian and divisive, may have his own interests in mind as well. Parliamentary elections are coming up next year and with car bombs, shootings and suicide attacks a more or less daily occurrence, security is certain to be on voters’ minds. There is plenty of evidence that authorities are eager to cast themselves as a national force of stability and security after over a decade of war and acrid political divisions.

Christmas Eve overlapped this year not only with the Shiite holy day of Arbain, but also with a major army offensive in desert areas of the Sunnidominated western Anbar province aimed at flushing out Al-Qaeda militants. Throughout the day, images of tanks rolling through the desert alongside heavily-armed troops were interspersed on state television with pictures of Shiite pilgrims dressed in black and others of people in Santa Claus outfits. A silhouetted soldier standing by an Iraqi flag and the words, “Amnana bikum” (You make us safe) flashed in the corner of the screen.

BAGHDAD: It’s Christmas in Baghdad, and once again Iraq’s Christians are celebrating behind blast walls and barbed wire. At least 34 people died in bomb attacks in Christian areas on Wednesday, some by a car bomb near a church after a Christmas service. A church attack in 2010 killed dozens. As prayers are offered and gifts handed out, many are wondering what a surge in violence to its worst levels in half a decade and politicking ahead of April elections means for a community whittled down by years of carnage and migration.

On Christmas Eve, the Mar Yousif Syriac Catholic church in western Baghdad looked like a walled fortress. Soldiers and police ran bomb detectors across cars, searched trunks and bags and patted down visitors before the evening ceremony. Inside, the red confetti-strewn Christmas tree, bright blue-and-white tile mosaic, and strings of Santa Claus-themed bunting contrasted with drab streets strewn with concrete blocks and barbed wire outside.

But pews which would have overflowed with worshippers a few years ago were barely twothirds full - a reflection of the fact that the Christian community has fallen from about 1.5 million before the U.S.-led invasion to about half that. “The future is very critical because of immigration,” said human rights activist William Warda before Tuesday night’s service, estimating 10 to 20 Christians were still leaving the country each day. “Many Christians ... are fleeing from the country because of this issue, because there is no sign of a bright future.”

TANKS, PILGRIMS, SANTA CLAUS While the situation is far from secure Warda pointed to some signs of at least cautious improvements in confidence at the Mar Yousif mass. Organizers felt secure enough, for instance, to move mass to 8:00 p.m. (5:00 GMT) after holding it earlier in the day in previous years. Warda said he hoped recent gestures by Prime Minister

BAGHDAD: Iraqi Christians attend a Christmas service at the Virgin Mary Chaldean church (Church of Our Lady of Sacred Heart) in the Karrada neighborhood of the capital Baghdad on December 25, 2013. —AFP

THEY TARGET YOU Christian leaders across the Arab world, alarmed by the rise of hardline Islamists in the wake of “Arab Spring” uprisings, have tried to emphasize their long histories in the region and have urged their communities not to leave.

“Immigration is not the solution,” said Monsignor Pios Cacha, a priest at Mar Yousif. “Leaving the country means wiping out our identity, it means the end of our presence here. And our presence as Christians is a symbol of peace.” In Iraq, the Christian minority shares some ground with majority Shiites in that both groups see themselves as victims of militants linked to Al-Qaeda who have stepped up attacks against Maliki’s government and its supporters this year.— Reuters

International FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

China celebrates Mao’s birthday BEIJING: China celebrated the 120th birthday of Mao Zedong, the founder of modern China, yesterday, but with scaled-back festivities as President Xi Jinping embarks on broad economic reforms which have unsettled leftists. Mao has become a potent symbol for leftists within the ruling Communist Party who feel that three decades of market-based reform have gone too far, creating social inequalities like a yawning rich-poor gap and pervasive corruption.

In venerating Mao, they sometimes seek to put pressure on the current leadership and its market-oriented policies while managing to avoid expressing open dissent. While all seven members of the party’s elite inner core, the Politburo Standing Committee, vis-

ited Mao’s mausoleum on Tiananmen Square, other activities nationwide were toned down.

The state-run Xinhua news agency said that the leaders, including Xi, bowed three times in front of a statue of Mao and payed their respects to his embalmed body, “recalling Comrade Mao Zedong’s great achievements”. Xi said Mao was a great person who stuck to his beliefs and won the love and respect of the people but who also made “serious mistakes” like the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, Xinhua reported. Still, Xi said Mao’s errors should not negate his achievements, echoing previous comments Xi has made in seeking to assuage leftist concern about his agenda and beliefs.

“Comrade Mao Zedong’s mistakes in his later years have their subjective factors ... but because of complicated social and historical reasons both at home and abroad they should be viewed and analyzed comprehensively (and) historically,” Xi said. A source with ties to the leadership said that a high profile activity to mark the occasion was necessary even as the party moved to scale back the number of events. “The attendance of Standing Committee members is to placate leftists after reforms at the third plenum,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid repercussions for talking to a foreign reporter without permission. — Reuters

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International FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

Ukrainian opposition journalist badly beaten Reporter documented opulence of political elite KIEV: Protesters demanded Ukraine’s interior minister resign yesterday after an opposition journalist known for documenting the extravagance of the country’s political elite was chased down in her car and savagely beaten in a midnight attack. Clutching pictures of Tetyana Chornovil’s badly bruised face, hundreds marched on the Interior Ministry in the capital, Kiev.

The attack on the 34-year-old restored passion to protests which have been losing steam more than a month after the government spurned a pact on closer ties with the European Union, turning instead to former Soviet master Moscow. Pro-EU demonstrators have been occupying central Kiev but their numbers have been falling since Russia offered Ukraine a $15 billion bailout this month.

Interior Minister Vitaly Zakharchenko had already become a target of opposition anger following a violent crackdown on protesters by police late last month that helped swell the demonstrations. The attack on Chornovil, shortly after midnight on Wednesday, came hours after she posted pictures online of what she said was Zakharchenko’s home, part of a campaign to expose the opulence of the political elite under President Viktor Yanukovich.

“Our police no longer protect their people, but fight them instead, hurt and oppress them,” said protester Valentina Gorilova, a 47-year-old housewife. Some protesters, their hands chained, kneeled before a row of police in mock supplication.

With Ukraine winding down for the Orthodox Christian holiday season, the opposition movement has shown signs of

waning. A hard core of hundreds continue to camp out around braziers on Kiev’s Independence Square, swelled by weekly mass rallies of around 100,000 or more.

BILLIONS IN RUSSIAN AID Chornovil, who has played an active role

er senior officials. Zakharchenko was her target on Tuesday. “Here lives the executioner,” the journalist wrote in her blog, above pictures of a handsome country property. Hours later, Chornovil was chased on a road outside the capital, a dashboard camera capturing how a black Porsche

KIEV: A protester holds photos of Tetyana Chornovil, popular Ukrainian journalist and opposition activist, during the rally at the Internal Affairs Ministry in Kiev yesterday.—AFP in the protests, shot to prominence last year when she infiltrated the grounds of Yanukovich’s opulent residence in a park near the Dnieper River. She has since posted photographs online of the homes of oth-

Russia: Arafat died of ‘natural causes’ MOSCOW: Russia said yesterday former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died of natural causes, not radiation poisoning, but a Palestinian official called the finding “politicized” and said an investigation would continue. Samples were taken from Arafat’s body last year by Swiss, French and Russian forensics experts after an Al Jazeera documentary said his clothes showed high amounts of deadly polonium 210.

The Swiss said last month their tests were consistent with polonium poisoning but not absolute proof of the cause of death. The Russian finding was in line with that of French scientists who said earlier this month that Arafat had not been killed with polonium. “Yasser Arafat died not from the effects of radiation but of natural causes,” Vladimir Uiba, head of Russia’s state forensics body, the Federal Medico-Biological Agency, was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

Arafat, who signed the 1993 Oslo interim peace accords with Israel but then led an uprising in 2000, died at 75 at the Percy hospital in Paris in 2004, four weeks after falling ill in his Ramallah compound, which was surrounded by Israeli tanks.

“Like the French report on his death, this is a politicized finding.

The truth lies at the Percy hospital,” Wasel Abu Yousef, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation said. The official cause of death was a stroke, but French doctors said at the time they were unable to determine the origin of Arafat’s illness. No autopsy was carried out.

His widow, Suha Arafat, has argued the death was a political assassination by someone close to her husband. Many Palestinians believe Israel killed him - a charge Israel denies.

The Palestinian ambassador to Moscow, Faed Mustafa, said the Russian findings would not halt efforts to investigate the cause of death, state-run Russian news agency RIA reported. “I can only say that there is already a decision to continue (investigating),” RIA quoted him as saying. “We respect their position and we highly value their work, but there is a decision to continue work.”— Reuters

Cayenne veered and rammed into her car before at least two men jumped out.

Photographs and video released later showed a beaten and bloodied Chornovil on a hospital bed. Her lips were swollen and

split, one eye blackened and closed by bruising.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the United States embassy in Kiev condemned the attack. The embassy noted “a strikingly similar series of events over the last few weeks, targeting individuals, property, and political activity, apparently aimed at intimidating or punishing those linked to the ... protests.”

“We condemn the attack and call for an immediate investigation, which unlike previous such incidents must result in those responsible being held fully accountable under the law,” it said in a statement. Media reports said another opposition activist was stabbed in the eastern city of Kharkiv on Tuesday. Yanukovich on Wednesday called on police to find those responsible for the attack on Chornovil. Two men were later detained and police said they had identified a third.

The president’s pivot away from Europe last month has thrown the country of 46 million people into turmoil, exposing a deep rift among Ukrainians over whether their future lies with the EU or Russia.

Rejecting the EU trade deal, Yanukovich turned instead to Russia for an aid package worth $15 billion to help ease a worsening financial crisis.

It received a first $3 billion tranche this week. Yesterday, ratings agency Standard and Poor’s revised the outlook on Ukraine’s long-term sovereign ‘B-’ rating to stable from negative, saying the bailout would cover the country’s financing needs over the next year. — Reuters

Oppn sees ‘deep state’ in Turkey crisis cabinet Turkish PM’s son next target of graft probe ISTANBUL: Turkey’s opposition accused scandal-hit Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan yesterday of trying to rule via a secretive “deep state” after a cabinet reshuffle that would tighten controls on police already beleaguered by government-ordered purges. Among 10 new loyalist ministers Erdogan named late on Wednesday was Efkan Ala, a former governor of the restive Diyarbakir province who will now wield the powerful Interior portfolio and oversee Turkish domestic security.

Ala replaces Muammer Guler, one of three cabinet members who resigned after their sons were detained in a graft probe that erupted on Dec 17. Guler, who like Erdogan had called the case baseless and a plot, sacked or reassigned dozens of police officers involved including the chief of the force in Istanbul. “He (Erdogan) is trying to put together a cabinet that will not show any opposition to him. In this context, Efkan Ala has a key role,” Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the head of the biggest opposition party CHP, said in remarks carried by Turkish media. “Erdogan has a deep state, (his) AK Party has a deep state and Efkan Ala is one of the elements of that deep state,” added Kilicdaroglu, using a term that for Turks denotes a shadowy

power structure unhindered by democratic checks and balances.

The son of Turkey’s prime minister will likely be the next target of a widening graft probe that led to a major cabinet reshuffle after three ministers resigned, Turkish media said yesterday. Several newspapers said a bitter struggle between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his one-time ally turned opponent Fethullah Gulen was set to become more venomous as the corruption scandal inches closer to the premier’s inner circle. The opposition Cumhuriyet daily predicted an “earthquake” as investigators turn their attention to an NGO connected to the premier’s son Bilal. The paper said prosecutors were pressuring police to investigate construction tenders granted to the NGO by an Istanbul municipality, whose mayor has been implicated the corruption scandal. During his three terms in office, the Islamist-rooted Erdogan has transformed Turkey, cutting back its once-dominant secularist military and overseeing rapid economic expansion. He weathered unprecedented anti-government protests that swept major cities in mid-2013.

But his response to the corruption case drew an EU call for the independence of

Turkey’s judiciary to be safeguarded. It has rattled stocks and the lira, with the currency falling to a historic low of 2.1035 against the dollar yesterday before recovering a little. “The dismissal of half an entire cabinet is worrying enough. The corruption probe is escalating by the day, causing a further deterioration in market sentiment towards Turkey,” said Nicholas Spiro, head of Spiro Sovereign Strategy.

GETTING PERSONAL At an Interior Ministry handover ceremony, Ala said Turkey might have been targeted by neighbors jealous of its successes. “When these developments are sustainable, attacks from various centers on the political stability of the country is not unexpected,” he said, without elaborating. For Erdogan, the scandal is potent and personal. It lays bare his rivalry with Fethullah Gulen, a US-based Turkish cleric whose Hizmet (Service) movement claims at least a million faithful including senior police officers and judges. Another of the three cabinet members who quit on Wednesday over their sons’ detention, Environment Minister Erdogan Bayraktar, broke ranks by urging the premier to follow suit.—Agencies

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International FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

Struggle for resources at the root of CAR religious violence Violence raises fears of inter-religious war BANGUI: Mariam watched in horror as militiamen burst through the gate of her home in Central African Republic’s capital Bangui and demanded her husband say whether he was Muslim. When he said yes, they shot him dead. “They killed him just like that in front of our child,” said Mariam, who fled through the back door. “Then they hacked and clubbed our neighbors, a husband and wife, to death.”

The two-day frenzy of violence in Bangui this month fed fears that Central African Republic was about to descend into religious warfare on a scale comparable to Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. More than 1,000 people were killed, according to Amnesty International, as mostly Muslim fighters from the Seleka rebel group that seized power in March retaliated against Christians. The slaughter prompted France to immediately deploy 1,600 troops under a UN mandate to protect civilians.

Religious leaders had sounded the alarm over abuses by the Seleka after they burned churches, looted and killed during their southward march on the capital early this year. The violence has displaced some 700,000 people so far. Many in the country insist that the origins of the bloodshed have little to do with religion, in a nation where Muslims and Christians have long lived in peace. Instead, they blame a political battle for control over resources in one of Africa’s weakest-governed states, split along ethnic faultlines and worsened by foreign meddling.

“We carried out these attacks because we have been invaded by foreigners by Chad and Sudan,” said Hercule Bokoe, a member of the militia, known as “anti-machete” and set up for self defense before the Seleka rebels arrived. He said his group’s aim was purely political: it would fight on until Seleka leader Michel Djotodia, installed as interim president, left power. “We said to ourselves that the country cannot continue to be held hostage by foreigners,” Bokoe told Reuters.

POLITICAL CONFLICT Rich in diamonds, timber, gold, uranium and even oil, Central African Republic has been racked by five coups and numerous rebellions since independence from France in 1960 as different groups fought for control of state resources. That - and spillover from conflicts in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Chad - have destroyed the rule of law, leaving a phantom state with an ill-disciplined army, corrupt administration and a lawless interior. Djotodia and other Seleka leaders launched their uprising to gain access for northern peoples to resource wealth - particularly oil being exploited in their northern homeland by the China National Petroleum Corporation.

Djotodia says his northern Gula tribespeople - Muslim pastoralists neglected both under French colonial rule and post-independence governments - were betrayed by former President Francis Bozize, who sought their aid for a 2003 coup but surrounded himself with his Gbaya tribe once in power.

With support from battle-hardened Chadian and Sudanese fighters, many of them also Gulas, Seleka swept southward, overrunning not only Bozize’s poorly equipped troops but also a South African peacekeeping force in March.

Once in Bangui, unable to speak French or the local Sango language, Seleka fighters

BANGUI: Burundi soldiers from the African-led International Support Mission to the Central African Republic (MISCA) patrol in Fouh neighborhood, northern of Bangui as a body lies in the middle of the road.—AFP sought out Arabic-speaking Muslims and stayed with them, often hoarding looted goods in their homes. Non-Muslims equated this with complicity, said Archbishop of Bangui Diedonne Nzapalainga, with the devastating effects seen in the early December violence. “To non-Muslim locals, Muslim now equals Seleka and Seleka equals Muslim,” said Nzapalainga, who for months has worked with Muslim clerics to try to calm rising religious tensions. “We came out early and declared that this conflict was not a religious conflict but a political one.”

CHAD IS THE MASTER Djotodia, 64, waged an unsuccessful uprising against Bozize in the late 2000s using a network of Sudanese and Chadian support he had established during his time as consul in Nyala in Sudan’s southern Darfur region earlier that decade. But a rift between Bozize and his main military backer, Chadian President Idriss Deby, shifted the balance of power in Djotodia’s favor. Deby, who had helped install Bozize as president in the 2003 coup, withdrew his Chadian presidential guard last year. Witnesses said Chadian peacekeepers simply stood aside when Seleka troops - led by a former member of Deby’s own presidential bodyguard marched on Bangui. As Bozize’s replacement in the presidential palace, it is now Djotodia who enjoys the protection of Chadian bodyguards. Many in the capital say ethnic ties between the Seleka and Chadian soldiers participating in a 3,700-strong African Union peacekeeping mission (MISCA) are complicating efforts to resolve the crisis. Residents in Bangui have accused Chadian troops of sup-

plying Seleka fighters, turning a blind eye to their activities, and even attacking Christians themselves. Olivier Domanga, a resident of northern Bangui, said Chadian troops distributed dozens of weapons to Muslim inhabitants of his neighborhood.

“Chad is the master of Seleka and Seleka is its attack dog,” said Philomon Dounia, another Bangui resident. Chad says its peacekeepers are neutral and denies supporting Seleka or distributing weapons to Muslims. After opposition politicians and civil society activists demanded the Chadians’ withdrawal, MISCA’s commanding officer, Cameroon’s Martin Tumenta Chomu, said on Tuesday they would be moved outside the capital to northern Central African Republic.

WORST EVER LOOTING Even in a country inured to rebellions, Seleka’s atrocities have proved shocking. It has been exacerbated the lack of a command structure in the loose coalition, whose name means ‘alliance’ in Sango. Warlords carved up territory where they had the power of life and death as they sought to extort money, particularly from non-Muslims. Acknowledging he was powerless to control the fighters in a country the area of France, Djotodia announced the official dissolution and disarmament of Seleka following outcry from the international community, but this had little effect. As Seleka torched villages and massacred entire populations, the “anti-machete”, or “anti-balaka” - initially local militias paid to defend crops and cattle against robbers and highwaymen due to the absence of state security - began seeking revenge. According to local animist beliefs, members of the mili-

tia have magical powers that protect them, and amulets they wear make them invincible.

“The anti-balaka have nothing to do with the church or Christianity. Calling them a Christian militia is wrong,” said Nzapalainga, who said the ranks of the militia were swollen by people who had lost belongings or loved ones to Seleka.

“To them, it is revenge. I have heard people say this is the ‘return match’,” he said.

Louisa Lombard, an anthropologist specializing in Central Africa Republic, said tensions between Muslims and Christians had increased over the past decade but this was due largely to the success of Muslim traders with contacts in Chad and Sudan, rather than a rise of religious extremism. “It is more an issue of the Muslims being considered foreigners by the Christians,” she said. Despite these tensions, many Central Africans are proud of their tolerance and tradition of cohabitation and inter-marriage.

Imam Oumar Kobine Layama, leader of the country’s Muslims, was offered refuge at St. Paul’s church in Bangui by Nzapalainga after his family was threatened. In the capital’s northern PK5 neighborhood, Muslim youths guarded the St. Mathias Catholic church and protected Christians. Helen Tofio, one of 40,000 people who fled to Bangui airport to seek safety near a French camp, voiced concern that ongoing tit-for-tat violence would sow the seeds of religious strife.

“We used to live in harmony with Muslims before the arrival of the Seleka,” she said.

“But their abuses, and the attitude of some Muslims who seem to be supporting them, have given rise increasingly to religious conflict.”— Reuters

International FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

American abducted in Pakistan calls for help ISLAMABAD: A 72-year-old American development worker who was kidnapped in Pakistan by al-Qaida more than two years ago appealed to President Obama in a video released yesterday to negotiate his release, saying he feels “totally abandoned and forgotten.”

The video of Warren Weinstein was the first since two videos released in September 2012. Weinstein, the country director in Pakistan for J.E. Austin Associates, a US-based firm that advises a range of Pakistani business and government sectors, was abducted from his

house in the eastern city of Lahore in August 2011.

In the video sent Thursday to reporters in Pakistan including The Associated Press, Weinstein called on the US government to negotiate his release.

“Nine years ago I came to Pakistan to help my government, and I did so at a time when most Americans would not come here, and now when I need my government it seems that I have been totally abandoned and forgotten,” Weinstein said during the 13-minute video. “And so I again appeal to you to

instruct your appropriate officials to negotiate my release.”

The video and an accompanying letter purported to be from Weinstein was emailed anonymously to reporters in Pakistan. The video was labelled “AsSahab,” which is al-Qaida’s media wing, but its authenticity could not be independently verified. The letter was dated Oct. 3, 2013 and in the video Weinstein said he had been in captivity for two years.

In the video, Weinstein wore a grey track suit jacket and what appeared to be

a black knit hat on his head. His face was partially covered with a beard.

Al-Qaeda has said Weinstein would be released if the US halted airstrikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen and also demanded the release of all Al-Qaeda and Taleban suspects around the world. The White House has called for Weinstein’s immediate release but has said it won’t negotiate with AlQaeda. The videos last year showed Weinstein appealing for help from the Jewish community and Israel’s prime minister. — AP

US drone strike kills 3 Pakistan militants Khan supporters block NATO supply truck

DHAKA: Bangladeshi police stand guard in front of the house of main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Khaleda Zia in Dhaka yesterday. — AFP

Bangladesh oppn leader under ‘house arrest’ DHAKA: Bangladesh’s opposition accused authorities of placing their leader under virtual house arrest yesterday, as tens of thousands of troops were deployed across the country ahead of general elections next month.

As two more people were killed in the build-up to the January 5 poll, the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) said police were barring anyone from visiting their leader Khaleda Zia at her home in Dhaka. The move comes after Zia, a two-time former premier and arch rival of current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, called for supporters to stage a mass march on the capital this Sunday aimed at scuppering the polls.

The BNP is one of 21 opposition parties which are boycotting the elections over Hasina’s refusal to stand aside and allow a neutral caretaker government to organize the contest. The country’s largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, has also been banned from taking part. “Since yesterday she has been under virtual house arrest,” BNP vice-president Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury said.

“Police are not allowing anyone, including party leaders and activists, to meet her. It is part of a government move to foil the December 29 march for democracy.” Deputy commissioner of Dhaka police Lutful Kabir confirmed that extra officers had been deployed outside Zia’s home in the upmarket Gulshan neighborhood but said the move was designed to “enhance her security”.

Police confirmed two senior BNP members, including a current lawmaker, were detained outside Zia’s home on Wednesday night but denied the arrests were made because they wanted to meet her. Another BNP lawmaker was arrested separately in the capital on Thursday, police spokesman Masudur Rahman told AFP. With Hasina and her Awami League party determined the election goes ahead, troops are being sent to nearly every corner of the country at the end of what has been an unprecedented year for political violence. A total of 271 people have been killed since January, either in protests at the elections or by Islamists who have seen several of their leaders sentenced to death from crimes dating back to the 1971 independence war. A ruling party activist was hacked to death in the western district of Rajshahi yesterday, deputy police chief of the region Mostafa Kamal said.

Local media said he was attacked for printing election posters.

A driver also succumbed to his injuries in Dhaka after his truck came under a petrol-bomb attack earlier this week, police said.

The authorities are expecting Sunday’s rally to further inflame tensions with Zia having made clear its purpose is to force a lastminute cancellation of the polls. “This march is to say ‘no’ to these farcical elections and to say ‘yes’ to democracy,” she said in a speech on Tuesday. — AFP

ISLAMABAD: A suspected American drone fired two missiles at a home in a northwestern tribal region of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, killing at least three foreign militants, Pakistani intelligence officials said yesterday. The US authorities often target Taleban, Al-Qaeda and their Pakistani supporters in the country’s tribal regions. The latest strike took place just before midnight Wednesday in the village of Qutab Khel in North Waziristan and initial reports gathered from their agents in the field suggested the slain men were Arabs, the two intelligence officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

The American drone program is extremely unpopular in Pakistan because it is perceived as killing innocent civilians, which the US denies. Many in Pakistan also consider it an affront to their sovereignty but the US has shown no indication it is willing to halt the program. Angered over the strikes, supporters from cricket star-turned politician Imran Khan’s Tehreek e-Insaf party in the northwest have been protesting along a main road used to truck NATO troop supplies in and out of Afghanistan for the past month causing the US to stop shipments out of Afghanistan. Khan has urged the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to force the US to end drone attacks and block NATO supplies across the country. Yesterday, about 150 supporters from Khan’s party on the outskirts of the southwestern city of Quetta briefly blocked trucks carrying supplies for NATO forces heading toward Afghanistan, said a senior police official Abdul Rauf. But he said police ordered them to allow the trucks to proceed. Trucks carrying NATO supplies pass through Quetta, the capital of southwestern

MULTAN: Activists from the Muttahida Shehri Mahaz shout slogans as they protest against a US drone attack in Multan yesterday. A US drone strike targeting a militant compound killed at least three suspected insurgents in a restive Pakistani tribal region near the Afghan border late Wednesday, officials said. — AFP Baluchistan province, before going through the Chaman border crossing - one of two routes used for the supplies. The other route is further north.

“We briefly stopped some of the NATO trucks this morning, but now we are just holding a peaceful rally against the drone attacks,” said Abdul Wali Shakir, a spokesman for the Jamaat-e-Islami party, which also attended the rally, demanding an end to the drone strikes.

Drone strikes have been a growing source of tension between Islamabad and Washington. Islamabad and the country’s political parties regularly denounce the

attacks as a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty, although the country’s government is known to have supported some of the strikes in the past. The tension has further complicated a relationship that Washington views as vital to fight al-Qaida and the Taliban, as well as negotiate peace in Afghanistan. The land routes through Pakistan from the southern port city of Karachi have been key to getting supplies to NATO troops in Afghanistan. They now increasingly are being used to ship equipment out of Afghanistan as the US seeks to withdraw most of its troops from the country by the end of 2014. — AP

Indian court rejects Modi prosecution AHMADABAD: An Indian court has rejected a petition seeking the prosecution of a Hindu nationalist party’s prime ministerial candidate in the killing of a former lawmaker and other Muslims during riots in the western state of Gujarat in 2002. Magistrate B J Ganatara’s ruling yesterday comes as a boost to Narendra Modi, the state’s top elected official and the Bharatiya Janata party’s prime ministerial candidate in

national elections to be held before May. Former Congress party lawmaker Ehsan Jafri was allegedly killed by Hindu rioters in a neighborhood where dozens of Muslim families lived in Ahmadabad, Gujarat’s largest city.

Dozens of other Muslims also died in the attack. In her petition to the court, Jafri’s widow, Zakia Jafri, accused Modi of not doing enough to prevent the killings. — AP

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International FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

Philippine cops arrest 3 linked to Mexico drug cartel MANILA: Philippine anti-drug police said yesterday they had arrested three people connected to Mexico’s feared Sinaloa drug cartel while they were storing narcotics.

The two Filipinos and one FilipinoChinese were arrested in a raid on Wednesday on a cock-fighting farm in Lipa City, 75 kilometres (47 miles) south of Manila, after weeks of intelligence operations by local and US anti-narcotics personnel. Seized in the raid were 84 kilograms (185 pounds) of methamphetamine hydrochloride, popularly known as “ice” or “shabu”, as well as two firearms, said police officials.

However the actual members of the Mexican cartel were not there during

the raid, said Senior Superintendent Bartolome Tobias, head of a drugs task force. “We have previously had reports that the Mexicans are here and... this is the first time we have confirmed that indeed, the Mexicans are already here,” he told reporters. Tobias did not say how they knew the Sinaloa cartel was involved He said a Filipino-American named Gary Torres and two Mexicans known as “Jaime” and “Joey” were being sought in connection with the seized drugs.

President Benigno Aquino’s spokesman Herminio Coloma said the government would act promptly against the cartel.

“Of course, the government will seek to arrest these lawbreakers, stop their

crimes, and protect the citizenry,” he told reporters. It was not clear why the Mexican cartel would have entered the Philippines. The national police chief, Director-General Alan Purisima, said the country’s strategic location and the difficulty of guarding the archipelago’s maritime borders made it easy to infiltrate.

“It is part of our investigation how the cartel was able to penetrate our country.

We are still in the process of determining what is the history behind the arrest of these people,” Purisima said.

He said Chinese drug syndicates may be colluding with the Mexicans. A spokesman for the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, Derrick Carreon, said the entry of the Mexican cartel was

based on “intelligence reports” but did not elaborate. The Mexican embassy declined to comment.

The Sinaloa cartel is reputed to be the largest source of illegal drugs to the United States.

Its main leader, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, escaped from a Mexican prison in 2001. He is now America’s most wanted drug trafficker, as well as being considered by Forbes as the most powerful criminal on the planet. More than 77,000 people have been killed in Mexico in connection with organized crime since then-president Felipe Calderon launched a nationwide war against the cartels after taking office in 2006. —AFP

Abe visit to Yasukuni war shrine infuriates China Beijing issues severe reprimand

BANGKOK: Thai anti-government protesters sit on the ground after being detained by riot policemen during a clash at a sport stadium in Bangkok yesterday. —AP

Thai elections in doubt after political violence BANGKOK: Thailand’s election commission urged the government yesterday to postpone February polls after a policeman was shot dead and dozens of people wounded in clashes between security forces and opposition protesters in Bangkok. The violence deepened the crisis facing Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, whose government has been shaken by weeks of mass street rallies seeking to curb her family’s political dominance.

The political conflict broadly pits a Bangkok-based middle class and elite against rural and working-class voters loyal to Yingluck’s older brother Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted as premier in a military coup in 2006. The protesters-who want to overthrow Yingluck’s government and install an unelected “people’s council” in its placeaccuse the billionaire tycoon-turned-politician of corruption and say he controls his sister’s government from his base in Dubai.

Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets Thursday after demonstrators tried to force their way into a sports stadium in the capital where representatives of about 30 political parties were gathered for the registration process for the February 2 election. Nearly 100 people from both sides were injured, according to the emergency services.

Twenty-five police officers were hospitalised, with 10 in serious condition, according to a police spokesman. One police officer died of a gunshot wound. “He was shot in his chest and brought to hospital by helicopter,” said Jongjet Aoajenpong, director of the Police General Hospital. “A team of doctors tried to resuscitate him for more than half an hour.”

As the violence escalated, the Election Commission held a news conference to recommend the February polls be delayed indefinitely.

“We cannot organise free and fair elections under the constitution in the current circumstances,” said commission member Prawit Rattanapien, who along with other vote officials had to be evacuated from the stadium by helicopter.

The main opposition Democrat Party-which has not won an elected majority in about two decades-has vowed to boycott the February election.

There was no immediate response from the government. Under the constitution, an election should normally be held no more than 60 days after the dissolution of parliament, which happened in early December. Thailand has seen several bouts of political turmoil since Thaksin’s overthrow. —AP

TOKYO: Nationalist Prime Minister Shinzo Abe paid an inflammatory visit to the Yasukuni war shrine yesterday, angering China which accused Japan of whitewashing a history of warmongering and said it must “bear the consequences”.

South Korea also blasted the “anachronistic” move and Tokyo’s chief ally the United States declared itself disappointed with an act that it said would worsen tensions with Japan’s neighbors. Abe described his visit, which came days after he gave Japan’s military its second consecutive annual budget bump, as a pledge against war and said it was not aimed at hurting feelings in China or South Korea.

Yasukuni Shrine is believed to be the repository of around 2.5 million souls of Japan’s war dead, most of them common soldiers, but also including several highlevel officials executed for war crimes after World War II. South Korea and China see it as a symbol of Tokyo’s lack of repentance for the horrors of last century and say it downplays the country’s brutal past.

“Some people criticize the visit to Yasukuni as paying homage to war criminals, but the purpose of my visit today... is... to renew the pledge that Japan must never wage a war again,” Abe said in a statement. “It is not my intention at all to hurt the feelings of the Chinese and Korean people. It is my wish to respect each other’s character, protect freedom and democracy, and build friendship with China and Korea with respect.”

Abe’s visit came exactly 12 months after he took power, a period in which he has formally met neither China’s President Xi Jinping nor Korea’s President Park Geun-Hye. Ties with Beijing were bad before Abe took office, with the two countries crossing diplomatic swords over the ownership of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea. The dispute has ratcheted up this year, with the involvement of military aircraft and ships, leaving some observers warning of the danger of armed conflict.

Beijing wasted no time in slamming Abe’s move, which came on the day Xi and other senior Chinese leaders visited the mausoleum of late leader Mao Zedong to

mark his 120th birth anniversary.

China summoned Tokyo’s ambassador and delivered a “strong protest and severe reprimand”, the foreign ministry said. Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the shrine visit was “a flagrant provocation against international justice and treads arbitrarily on humanity’s conscience”, according to a ministry statement. “The essence of Japanese leaders’ visits to the Yasukuni shrine is to beautify Japan’s history of militaristic aggression and colonial

in Tokyo said it wanted to stress Abe “visited Yasukuni Shrine in a purely personal capacity (and)... not... to pay homage to war criminals”.

But China and South Korea, both victims of Japan’s 20th century aggression, say no such distinction exists. “We can’t help deploring and expressing anger at the prime minister’s visit to the Yasukuni shrine... despite concerns and warnings by neighboring countries,” Seoul’s Culture Minister Yoo Jin-Ryong told

TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (second from left) follows a Shinto priest to pay respect for the war dead at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo yesterday. —AP rule,” foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said earlier.

Foreign ministry official Luo Zhaohui called the visit “absolutely unacceptable to the Chinese people” and cautioned Japan “must bear the consequences arising from this”. The last incumbent Japanese prime minister to visit the shrine was Junichiro Koizumi in 2006. His repeated pilgrimages badly soured relations with China despite their important economic and trade ties. The foreign ministry

reporters.

“The visit... is anachronistic behavior that fundamentally damages not only relations between the South and Japan but also stability and cooperation in Northeast Asia.”

Washington must tread a careful line between supporting its chief regional ally in the face of China’s rise, and emboldening a prime minister many observers see as a hot-headed troublemaker. It offered qualified criticism. —AFP

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International FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

Americans hopeful for a better year in 2014 WASHINGTON: Ready to ring in the new year, Americans look ahead with optimism, according to a new AP-Times Square New Year’s Eve poll. Their ratings of the year gone by? Less than glowing.

What the public thought of 2013: GOOD YEAR OR GOOD RIDDANCE? On the whole, Americans rate their own experience in 2013 more positively than negatively, but when asked to assess the year for the United States or the world at large, things turn sour.

All told, 32 percent say 2013 was a better year for them than 2012, while 20 percent say it was worse and 46 percent say the two years were really about the same. Young people were more apt to see improvement: 40 percent of people under age 30 called 2013 a better year than 2012, compared with 25 percent of people age 65 or older.

The public splits evenly on how the year turned out for the country, 25 percent saying it was better than 2012, 25 percent saying it was worse. As with most questions about the state of affairs in the US these days, there’s a

sharp partisan divide. Democrats are more apt to say the US turned out better in 2013 than 2012 (37 percent) than are Republicans (17 percent).

Thinking about the world at large, 30 percent say 2013 was worse than 2012, while just 20 percent say it was better. But the outlook for the new year is positive: 49 percent think their own fortunes will improve in 2014, 14 percent are anticipating the new year to be a downgrade from the old. Thirtyfour percent say they don’t expect much to change.

WHERE’S THE PARTY? Most Americans - 54 percent - say they’ll be ringing in the new year at home, while 1 in 5 are heading to a friend’s or family member’s house. Only 8 percent say they’ll go to a bar, restaurant or other organized event.

Younger Americans are least apt to spend the holiday at home: 39 percent of those under age 30 will celebrate at home, 33 percent at someone else’s home, 13 percent at a bar or other venue.

Regardless of their own time zone, nearly

6 in 10 say they’ll watch at least some of the celebration from New York City’s Times Square.

COUNTDOWN COMPANIONS Wherever they’re spending the holiday, most Americans prefer the company of family. Asked with whom they want to be when the clock strikes midnight, 83 percent name a family member. On a holiday often sealed with a kiss, nearly 4 in 10 say they most want to be next to their spouse, and 13 percent cite a significant other or romantic interest as a preferred companion. Parents like to be with their children, more than the children like to be with their parents.

Less conventional choices: 2 percent cite their pets, 3 percent God, Jesus or their religious congregation, and less than 1 percent said they wanted to ring it in with their coworkers. Of course, some opt out altogether: 18 percent say they’re not planning to celebrate on New Year’s Eve, and 9 percent say there’s no one with whom they’d like to party, preferring instead their pillow, TiVo or their own thoughts.

WHAT MATTERED IN NEWS The implementation of the health care law topped the list of the most important news stories of 2013, with 26 percent citing it. In an Associated Press survey of news directors and editors, 45 of 144 journalists surveyed called the health care rollout their top story. In the AP-Times Square poll, the death of Nelson Mandela occurred as the poll was underway. It rose quickly, with 8 percent naming it as the most important news of the year, matching the share citing the federal government’s budget difficulties or shutdown. The budget fight, which led to a partial shutdown of the federal government in October, was rated extremely or very important by 60 percent of Americans, and prompted rare bipartisan agreement. About two-thirds in each major party, 65 percent of Republicans and 63 percent of Democrats, rated it highly important.

A majority said the Boston Marathon bombings were extremely or very important, and 47 percent considered the national debate over gun laws that important.— AP

In Christmas tradition, Obama honors military President steps away from holiday seclusion

Jill Ghantous (center) kisses her daughter, Briana Ghantous, 6, at the Wingate Hotel, on Wednesday in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan. The Ghantous family lost power on Sunday at their home in Swartz Creek due to ice storms that have left about 40,000 people in Genesee County without power. —AP

Storm leaves many without power in US, Canada AUGUSTA, Maine: Utility crews from Maine to Michigan and into Canada worked to restore power to more than half a million homes that were left in the dark by last weekend’s ice storm, which has been linked to 27 deaths. In the United States, the death toll from the storm reached at least 17 on Christmas day, from traffic accidents and carbon monoxide fatalities.

In Canada, 10 people were reported dead, including five who were reported dead from apparent carbon monoxide poisoning. Police said two people in Ontario died after using a gas generator to heat their blacked-out home northeast of Toronto. Police in Quebec said carbon monoxide poisoning was believed to be the cause of three deaths in a chalet on the province’s North Shore. Earlier, five people were killed in eastern Canada in highway crashes blamed on severe weather conditions.

The ice storm last weekend was one of the worst to hit during a Christmas week, and repair crews were working around the clock to restore service. As temperatures plunged into the low single digits (below minus 7 Celsius) in Toronto, authorities reported a dramatic jump in calls for suspected carbon monoxide poisoning, responding to 110 calls in a 24-hour period. Officials said they typically see 20 such calls a day.

“I understand they want to keep warm, but you cannot do this. This is deadly,” Toronto Mayor Rob Ford said Tuesday as the city issued an extreme cold weather alert.—AP

KANEOHE BAY: President Barack Obama stepped away from the seclusion of his quiet Hawaii vacation for what’s become a Christmas tradition: paying tribute to US troops and the sacrifices their families make during the holidays and throughout the year. After a morning of presents and carols with their two daughters, the president and first lady Michelle Obama took a short drive to Marine Corps Base Hawaii, where nearly 600 troops and their families gathered in a mess hall, half-eaten pieces of cake still on the table from Christmas dinner.

“Michelle and I know that we would not enjoy the freedoms we do if it weren’t for the incredible dedication and professionalism and work that you do,” Obama said. “The least we can do is just let you all know we’re grateful to you.” Obama, dressed informally in dark pants and a blue shirt, called out the names of some of the military units stationed here, prompting loud whoops from the troops. He recalled speaking by phone on Christmas Eve with 10 service members stationed in places like Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

“It was just a sampling of the incredible sacrifice that you and your families make every single day,” Obama said. The Hawaiian-born president wished the troops a “mele kalikimaka” - a local phrase for “Merry Christmas” - before he and Mrs. Obama spent about two hours posing for photos.

The visit to this wind-swept base on a peninsula on Oahu has become almost a ritual for Obama, who seeks refuge from the stresses of Washington during his annual vacation in Hawaii. He frequently visits the base’s golf course and gym.

It’s also one of the few moments when Obama appears in a public setting during his trip. Aside from a basketball game and dinner at a Honolulu restau-

President Barack Obama talks to members of the military and their families as first lady Michelle Obama looks on in Anderson Hall at Marine Corps Base Hawaii on Wednesday, in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. — AP rant, the Obamas have remained largely out of sight since arriving here over the weekend. Obama has played a round of golf nearly every day and the first family has spent much of the time at a vacation rental in an upscale neighborhood in Oahu.

This year’s vacation comes at the end of a particularly vexing year in which a gun control push failed, an immigration overhaul stalled and the rollout of Obama’s signature health care law crashed and burned. Reflecting on the year as he prepared to depart for Honolulu, Obama said he’d have better ideas for approaching next year “after a couple days of sleep and sun.” Among the troops Obama called Tuesday were those wounded over the weekend during a mission to evacuate Americans from South Sudan. Four troops were injured in that effort, but the White

House has said they are in stable condition. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel also offered his holiday wishes to troops by phone, calling military members stationed in Afghanistan on Wednesday, the Pentagon said. And Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, paid a visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, where they visited patients and families. The hospital treats many military members wounded in war.

Mrs. Obama did not speak publicly during the stop at the Marine base, but in a Christmas video message released Wednesday, she said now that more troops are home from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the nation must find new ways to give back.

“It’s our turn to step up and show our gratitude for the military families who have given us so much,” she said. — AP

Business FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

Kuwait inflation rises 2.6%

US jobless claims drop 42K to 338K PAGE 20

Page 22

MANILA: A worker arrangs watermelons at a market in Manila yesterday. Filipinos believe that displaying 12 different round-shaped fruits - one representing each month of the year - at home before New Year’s Day welcomes prosperity. — AFP

Remittances throw lifeline to Haiyan survivors Philippine growth may slow between 4.1 and 5.9% in Q4 PALO, Philippines: A sister living on the other side of the world gave Roberto Retanal what he needed most to piece his humble home back together after the devastating typhoon that tore through his village in the central Philippines last month. She sent him 40,000 pesos ($900) to replace the roof ripped off his house by the strongest winds ever recorded in a country where typhoons are all too common. Retanal’s sister live and works in Britain. There are some 10 million Filipinos living and working abroad, sending regular remittances to help their families get by.

Between January and October, they had sent back around $18.5 billion, six percent more than last year and running at a rate equivalent to around 10 percent of the gross domestic product.

When disaster struck on Nov 8 the telegraphic transfers went into overdrive.

“Filipinos dug even deeper,” said Pia de Lima, spokeswoman for Western Union in AsiaPacific, which cancelled transaction fees for three weeks after the typhoon for money coming in from 43 countries.

The typhoon Haiyan killed nearly 6,100

people, with around 1,800 still listed missing.

But more than 16 million people have been affected by the calamity. Aside from the ruined infrastructure and housing, the coconut groves that provided livelihoods for families in rural areas were uprooted. The worst-hit eastern and central Visayas region accounts for around 9 percent of the Philippines’ GDP. Economic growth is expected to be 7 percent this year, slightly slower than China. As a result of the typhoon, analysts expect growth to slow to between 4.1 and 5.9 percent in the fourth quarter, but officials are sticking with a 6.5-7.5 percent growth target for next year.

Whatever the rate, the survivors in the central Philippines will struggle, but they can at least count on support from relatives abroad, as 1.7 million of the Filipino Diaspora hail from the stricken region.

Retanal is jobless and, with a wife in a lowincome government job and two grown up children both earning pittances in far-off Manila, he is lucky to have a sister working as an accountant in Britain.

“If not for my sister and her mother-in-law

in London, who also donated cash, it would take me another 10 years to complete this roof,” the 59-year-old told Reuters in living room that a few weeks ago was left completely submerged after the storm surge inundated his one-storey concrete house.

The windows have still to be replaced, and aside from a silvery “Merry Christmas” sign hung from a pole, there was little else in the room other than a broken television set and four plastic chairs. All the other houses in this tiny, lower-middle class community were covered by temporary roofing, either blue tarpaulin or metal sheets twisted by the storm and salvaged after the flood waters receded.

Making a difference The Philippines, along with Mexico, is the world’s third largest recipient of remittances, with India in top spot followed by China, according to the World Bank. The country’s central bank governor expected the higher level of remittances seen post-Haiyan to stretch into the early months of next year, based on what he saw in 2009 when two typhoons inundated large parts of the main

island of Luzon. “Understanding Filipino values, it would not be unreasonable to expect an increase in monies that overseas Filipinos would send their families for rebuilding,” Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando Tetangco told Reuters.

“We might even see that trend continue to the first quarter of 2014.” Analysts do not expect the extra inflows to have a big effect on the peso currency, as it will be offset by the need to import more goods for the post-disaster reconstruction. Only few families are as fortunate as the Dacatimbangs of Tacloban City. A daughter works as a nurse in Indiana and has sent around $1,000 twice a month since the typhoon struck to help her parents repair their home and replace essential items.

For the less well paid, like maids and laborers, the margins to help are far slimmer. “How much more can they send back over and above what they are sending now?” said Jun Trinidad, economist at Citigroup in Manila.

“These are mostly fixed-income wage earners in the Middle East, Singapore, I don’t think they have that tremendous flexibility to augment their remittances.”—Reuters

20

Business FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

The youth empowerment symposium honors Zain KUWAIT: Zain, the leading telecommunications company in Kuwait, announced yesterday that its efforts in supporting the ‘Youth Empowerment Symposium’ was recognized by the organizing committee of the National Academic Project during a honoring ceremony that was held at the Sheraton Hotel. The ceremony recognized the efforts and endless support of all main sponsors of the symposium in making the event a success. The well-organized conference saw a range of activities, seminars, and lectures conducted and hosted by a number of international and local academics who were determined to infuse the creativity aspect within the souls of young people, instilling and providing them with a closer view of how economic and financial sectors grow successfully. This was splendidly illustrated when key international speakers who participated in the symposium like Steve Wozniak, Co-Founder of Apple and Zev Siegl Co-Founder of Starbucks spoke about their experiences and passion in founding each of their businesses.

The conference witnessed a huge turnout of youth and their anticipation to know more of how to startup their businesses.

Zain’s sponsorship of this conference sprung from its core belief that the younger generation are in utmost need of support, to eventually grow and prosper their skills and capabilities within a community that holds unlimited potential. The company will continue to support similar programs that ensure the implementation of its various social commitments and at the same time ensures strengthens its relationship with several institutions and agencies which organize national initiatives that carry important messages.

By participating in key national and international initiatives, this sponsorship along with many others reinforces Zain’s position as a leading Kuwaiti company that is an integral part of the community. To find out more about Zain’s community programs please visit the company’s website on www.kw.zain.com , or visit the company’s social media pages.

Dow, S&P 500 coming off record closing highs NEW YORK: US stock index futures edged higher yesterday, suggesting the market’s upward movement will continue, although trading was expected to be light following the Christmas holiday. Thursday is the first full day of trading since Monday, following an early close on Tuesday and Wednesday’s Christmas holiday. Volume has been anemic, with many traders away, and the light action could amplify market volatility.

Nevertheless, markets showed an upward bias, with the Dow pointing to a sixth straight day of gains, its longest winning streak since March.

“There’s nothing to drive markets decisively higher other than continued momentum, but I don’t see that stopping. It has been a long time since we’ve had such an absence of headwinds,” said Pete Benson, partner of Beacon Capital Management in Frankville, Tennessee.

The government will release weekly jobless claims at 8:30 am (1330 GMT). Claims are seen falling to 345,000 from 379,000 the previous last week. Both the Dow and S&P 500 closed at record highs on Tuesday. However, further upside may be limited at these levels, especially in the absence of major trading catalysts.

Stock movers may include United Parcel Service a day after the shipping company said poor weather and a high volume of holiday packages delayed the arrival of Christmas presents around the world. Also, Amazon.com Inc offered compensation to affected customers with shipping refunds and $20 gift cards.

“There will be a lot more active trading on this space today, and it will be interesting to see how the negative talk on social media influences the stock,” said Benson.

“However, if this does turn out to be a big negative for shipping companies today, I think that will just be a blip.”

In the latest black eye for the retail industry, the hackers who attacked Target Corp and compromised up to 40 million credit cards and debit cards also managed to steal encrypted personal identification numbers, a senior payments executive told Reuters. S&P 500 futures rose 1.6 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures added 62 points and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 6.25 points.

The S&P 500 has soared 28.5 percent this year, largely due to stimulus measures from the US Federal Reserve. The index is on track for its best year since 1997. The Dow is up 24.8 percent in 2013 while the Nasdaq has jumped 37.6 percent for the year. Japan’s SoftBank Corp was in talks to acquire US wireless carrier T-Mobile US Inc and was discussing funding for a deal with financial institutions, sources close to the matter told Reuters. Shares of T-Mobile rose 3.4 percent to $33.30 in premarket trading. —Reuters

Kuwait inflation rises 2.6% in Nov KUWAIT: The Central Statistical Bureau has issued the monthly report on statistical analysis of the indices of consumer prices for the month of November 2013 with indicators of the rates of change for the commodity groups influencing the spending of living of the families and on the ability of consumer spending of a new year base 2007.

The index figure during the month of November 2013 recorded a rise estimated at 0.08 percent comparing, compared October 2013 as a result of the rise in prices of some major groups with influential figures in the movement and low standard of some groups. The annu-

al record of the general index of consumer prices in the month of November 2013 rose by 2.6 percent compared to November 2012.

Prices of food and beverages dropped 0.28 percent as compared to last October. Tobacco and narcoticsí prices increased 0.22 percent, clothing and footwear 0.71 percent, housing services stood at 0.0 percent, furnishing equipment and household maintenance climbed 0.45 percent, health services settled at 0.0 percent, transport rose 0.25 percent, communications 0.10 percent, recreation and culture settled at 0.0 percent. Likewise were education,

restaurants and hotels, but miscellaneous goods and services rose 0.47 percent. As to price variation per annum; food and beverages climbed 2.36 percent, tobacco and narcotics 4.29 percent, clothing and footwear 1.42 percent, housing services 4.73 percent, furnishing equipment and household maintenance 4.58 percent, health services 0.47 percent, transports 0.66 percent, communication fell 0.39 percent, Recreation and culture rose 2.78 percent, education 1.87 percent, restaurants and hotels: 0.87 percent but miscellaneous goods and services fell 1.7 percent. —KUNA

Asian markets mixed, dollar rises to new high HONG KONG: Asian shares were mixed yesterday with Tokyo extending its gains following a record close on Wall Street in preholiday trade, while the dollar rose to a fiveyear high against the yen.

The greenback rose to 104.85 yen in early

trade-its highest since October 2008 — before settling at 104.71 yen, compared with 104.39 yen Wednesday in Tokyo. Tokyo closed up 1.03 percent, or 164.45 points, at 16,174.44, the best finish since November 2007. Seoul slid 0.11 percent, or 2.29 points,

TOKYO: An employee of the Tokyo Stock Exchange looks at an electronic board during morning trading in Tokyo yesterday. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 gained 1 percent to 16,155.51 as Asian markets were mixed yesterday as trading resumed in some countries following the Christmas break. —AP

to 1,999.30. Financial markets in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand were closed for a public holiday. Chinese shares ended down more than one percent on Thursday as the absence of a further liquidity injection by the central bank hurt sentiment, dealers said. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dropped 1.58 percent, or 33.25 points, to 2,073.10 on turnover of 66.8 billion yuan ($11.0 billion). Worries over a liquidity shortage resurfaced as the People’s Bank of China did not conduct its regular open-market operations on Thursday to inject funds into the interbank market, analysts said. “Fundamentally, it highlights investor pessimism about the stock market.

They want to sell stocks before liquidity conditions worsen again,” Everbright Securities analyst Zeng Xianzhao told Dow Jones Newswires. Coal miners were lower on reports that China may levy a coal resource tax on producers from early January. Shanxi Lu’an Environmental Energy Development dropped 4.93 percent to 10.22 yuan while Yangquan Coal Industry Group fell 4.47 percent to 7.05 yuan. —AFP

21

Business FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

Ukraine outlook brightens after Russia bailout: S&P No further downgrade in pipeline KIEV: Ratings agency Standard and Poor’s yesterday raised its outlook for Ukraine to stable from negative, saying a multi-billion dollar bailout deal from Russia should mean Kiev meets its external financing needs over the next year. The outlook change means that Standard and Poor’s is now less likely to further downgrade its ‘B- /B’ assessment of Ukraine’s creditworthiness on its sovereign debt, which remains deep into junk status.

Russian President Vladimir Putin last week agreed after talks with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to buy $15

billion of Ukrainian government debt and also slash the price Ukraine pays for Russian gas by one third. Standard and Poor’s said the cash injection of $15 billion-about 8 percent of Ukraine’s predicted 2014 GDP-”should cover the government’s external financing needs over the next 12 months.”

It added that “based on our expectations of Russia’s support” Standard and Poor’s no longer expected a devaluation of the Ukrainian hryvnia. But the agency also warned that the Russian support appeared subject to good diplomatic relations between the two

ex-Soviet states being maintained.

The Kremlin offered Kiev the package after it rejected a pact for closer ties with the European Union which was strongly opposed by Moscow. The rejection sparked mass protests in Kiev.

“We understand that Russia could revise this financial aid on a quarterly basis,” Standard and Poor’s said.

“Ukraine’s financial dependence on Russia will increase if market conditions do not afford the government the opportunity to issue debt to international capital market participants other than Russia, or if other sources of

financing are not found.” It also said that the package from Russia means that Ukraine was not expected to commit to broad economic reforms, as demanded by the International Monetary Fund and the European Union. Such reforms would include creating a more market-oriented domestic gas market, resolving nonperforming loans, increasing exchange-rate flexibility and fiscal consolidation. It said it could raise ratings if Ukraine “were to embark on a reform program likely to lower external and fiscal deficits.” — AFP

Sale of luxury food gift boxes in China drops

MONTEVIDEO: Uruguay’s new Economy Minister Mario Bergara (R) speaks with President Jose Mujica after assuming yesterday in Montevideo. Former economy minister Fernando Lorenzo resigned last week as he faces a probe over the 2012 collapse of national airline Pluna — a scandal that has tainted President Jose Mujica’s administration. — AFP

Gold steady, but set for biggest annual loss in 3 decades SINGAPORE: Gold was little changed yesterday in thin year-end trade, but looked set to post its biggest annual loss in more than three decades as rallying equities and optimism about a global economic recovery dented its safe-haven appeal.

Worries this year that the US Federal Reserve will begin unwinding its stimulus and then the recent decision to do so has also hurt bullion that is seen as a hedge against inflation. Gold is headed for a near 30 percent slump in 2013 — ending a 12-year rally prompted by rock bottom interest rates and measures taken by global central banks to prop up the economy. Spot gold was flat at $1,204.49 an ounce by 0349 GMT. The decline this year is set to be gold’s biggest loss since 1981, while the current price is 37 percent below an all-time high of $1,920.30 hit in 2011.

Analysts and traders expect prices to drop further next year, but not to the same extent. “Early next year we could test the $1,000 level but I don’t expect prices to decline as much as this year. From midyear onwards, depending on economic data, there could be some recovery,” said one Hong Kong-based precious metals trader. This year, a combination of a recovering global economy, rallying stock markets and stubborn low inflation in the United States have erased gold’s appeal as a safe-haven and as a hedge against rising prices.

US stocks are on track to become the top investment in 2013, with the S&P 500 index on course to mark its best year since 1997. Japanese stocks are a close second. “Gold is going to struggle again next year unless the stock markets see a correction,” said another trader. Several brokerages such as Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas and Societe General expect gold prices to drop below $1,050 in 2014.

“I doubt we’ll see prices going below $1,000 as miners would start shutting mines then and supply issues would boost prices again,” said the second trader.— Reuters

BEIJING: The sale of luxury food gift boxes in China fell dramatically in 2013, Chinese state media said, in another sign of the impact the ruling Communist Party’s anti-corruption drive has had on consumer behavior.

A member of the China National Food Industry Association told official news agency Xinhua late on Wednesday that the sales volume of gift food products is estimated to have fallen roughly 40 percent in 2013. The sale of traditional glutinous rice cakes was particularly hard hit, said Weng Yangyang, a senior official from the rice cake industry association. Xinhua said a gift box of rice cakes, which are wrapped in reed leaves and eaten during the annual Dragon Boat Festival in the spring, could sell for as much as 2,888 yuan ($480).

“For those food companies that rely on selling gifts, and seek high profits, the market share has fallen even more, and times are hard,” Weng said. Luxury gift boxes containing foods such as premium alcohol, nuts, or traditional mooncakes have been a requisite part of doing business in China, and can be used as a form of soft bribery. However, since taking over the reins of the Communist Party in November 2012 and the government in March, President Xi Jinping has vowed to crack down on corruption. A year ago, the government launched a campaign against extravagance and waste, meant to curtail gift giving and lavish banquets.

SHANGHAI: An investor gestures in front of the stock price monitor at a private securities company yesterday in Shanghai. Asian markets were mixed yesterday as trading resumed in some countries following the Christmas break. —AP Demand for gold-encrusted mooncakes stuffed with shark’s fin and other lavish pastries waned during the MidAutumn Festival this year in favor of less conspicuous gifts.

Meanwhile, a Chinese state news agency says the Cabinet has estimated this year’s economic growth edged down to 7.6 percent and warned it faces pressure to decline further.

The Xinhua News Agency yesterday cited a Cabinet report to China’s legislature that said growth declined from 7.7

percent in 2012. That was above the ruling Communist Party’s target of 7 percent growth in its latest five-year development plan. The report said growth faces potential challenges including an uncertain global environment and excess production capacity in some industries.

The minister in charge of the Cabinet’s planning agency, Xu Shaoshi, is quoted as saying that the government cannot deny a downward pressure on economic growth. —Agencies

Yakuza-linked Mizuho bank ordered to stop loan business TOKYO: Japan’s financial watchdog yesterday ordered Mizuho, one of the country’s biggest banks, to suspend part of its loan business as additional punishment for its links to organized crime.

The bank’s parent company, Mizuho Financial Group, said its chairman Takashi Tsukamoto would step down from his post on March 31 to take responsibility for the scandal. The Financial Services Agency (FSA) said it issued the order to stop Mizuho Bank from extending new loans through its affiliated credit company for one month

from January 20. The agency also ordered Mizuho Financial Group to improve its management of the bank.

The group has been under fire since September, when its credit affiliate was found to have processed about 230 loans worth about $2 million for the country’s notorious crime syndicates.

The Yakuza syndicates are involved in activities ranging from prostitution and drugs to extortion and white-collar crime.

In a statement, the group offered “sincere apologies” for causing trouble

to its customers and other people concerned and vowed to take the punitive action “with utmost seriousness.”

Mizuho Bank said its president Yasuhiro Sato was to take a self-imposed salary cut for one year. “The group wishes to make uninterrupted efforts by mobilizing all resources to sever ties with antisocial forces,” Sato told a news conference. “We want to establish a forwardlooking, advanced management structure and help Mizuho grow through its contributions to our customers, the economy and society.”—AFP

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Business FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

Yemen cabinet approves 4% spending rise in budget SANAA: Yemen’s cabinet approved a draft budget for 2014 that would raise state spending about 4 percent to 2.88 trillion rials ($13.4 billion) from the original 2013 budget plan, state news agency SABA reported. The impoverished Arabian Peninsula nation came close to economic collapse after a popular uprising in 2011 forced former president Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down.

Estimated revenue for 2014 is around 2.20 trillion rials, up about 6 percent from the 2013 budget plan, SABA reported late on Wednesday without giving details of revenue sources. Finance minister Sakhr AlWajeeh told the agency that next year the government would work harder to generate revenue from the non-oil sector, taxes and customs duties. The 2014 draft budget,

which still needs approval by parliament, projects a deficit of around 679 billion rials, SABA said. That compares with a deficit of 682 billion rials envisaged in the original 2013 budget.

Yemen’s finances are still being strained by frequent attacks on oil pipelines by disgruntled tribesmen. Crude exports provide up to 70 percent of government budget

income. Economic recovery in Yemen, the second-poorest Arab state after Mauritania where 40 percent of the population lives on less than $2 a day, has accelerated this year.

The International Monetary Fund forecasts growth of 6.0 percent in 2013 against 2.4 percent last year; in 2011, when unrest gripped the country, the economy shrank 12.7 percent. —Reuters

Turkish lira hits record low after cabinet reshuffle

KABUL: Passengers of a commercial airliner walk towards the main building of Kabul’s Khwaja Rawash International airport in Kabul yesterday after their disembarkation from an aircraft. The airport initially built in the 1960’s has been upgraded in the last decade and it is surrounded by national and foreign military bases. —AFP

US jobless claims drop 42K to 338K

ISTANBUL: The Turkish lira hit a fresh record low yesterday following a cabinet reshuffle by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan amid a huge graft scandal. The lira fell to 2.1035 against the dollar on Thursday, after starting the day at 2.0914.

On Wednesday three top ministers whose sons have been caught up in police anti-corruption raids announced their resignations, with one calling on Erdogan to also step down in the first such challenge to the prime minister from within his own ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

In response to the escalating crisis, Erdogan announced a long-expected cabinet reshuffle and named 10 new ministersalmost half of the cabinet. The renewed political crisis ended a brief reprieve for the lira. It had strengthened to 2.0650 following an announcement by the central bank on Tuesday that it would ramp up its support for the unit by selling at least $6 billion in foreign currency by the end of January. The lira has also been under heavy pressure this year in expectation of the US Federal Reserve’s decision to reduce its stimulus measures.

As a leading emerging economy, Turkey has been one of the main beneficiaries of the Fed’s stimulus as US investors sought higher returns abroad. The Istanbul stock market also dropped by 1.8 percent to 64,904 points yesterday. —AFP

Figures warped by seasonal volatility: Economists WASHINGTON: The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits dropped by 42,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 338,000, the biggest drop since November 2012. But economists say the figures from late November and December are warped by seasonal volatility around the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s holidays. The Labor Department reported yesterday that the less-volatile four-week average rose 4,250 to 348,000.

Claims had jumped 75,000 over the two weeks that ended Dec 14 before plunging last week. The Labor Department struggles to account for seasonal hiring by retailers

and other businesses and for temporary layoffs of cafeteria workers and other employees at schools that close for the holidays.

Unemployment claims are a proxy for layoffs and the recent declines are consistent with a solid job market. The economy has shown signs of improvement recently, so much so that the Federal Reserve announced Dec. 18 that it would reduce its stimulus spending on bonds by $10 billion - to $75 billion a month. The economy expanded at a 4.1 percent annual pace from July through September, the fastest rate since late 2011 and much greater than previously thought.

Hiring has been healthy the past four

months. The economy added an average of 204,000 jobs every month from August through November, an improvement from earlier this year.

The unemployment rate fell in November to a five-year low of 7 percent. Still, that remains above the 5 percent to 6 percent rate that would signal a normal job market.

And long-term unemployment remains a big blot on the economy’s performance: Nearly 4.1 million Americans have been unemployed for six months or more. Before 2008, the number of long-term unemployed had never surpassed 3 million people, according to records dating back to 1948. —AP

ANKARA: Turkey’s outgoing Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan (third right) talks during a handover ceremony next to the newly named Economy minister Nihat Zeybekci (second left) and former European Affairs Minister Egemen Bagis (second right) in Ankara yesterday. —AFP

Egypt pound falls at central bank auction CAIRO: The Egyptian pound weakened at a forex auction yesterday, sliding for the fifth time in a row at the central bank’s regular sale of dollars. But it strengthened on the black market, indicating the gap between the two markets is narrowing.

The central bank sold $38.6 million to banks at yesterday’s auction, with a cutoff price of 6.9282 pounds to the dollar, allowing it to weaken from 6.9179 at the previous sale on Wednesday. It had offered up to $40 million.

On the black market, a participant said the dollar was offered for 7.32 on Thursday. Wednesday’s rate was 7.40. The central bank introduced dollar currency sales a year ago to help counter a run on the pound. It has burned through at least $20 billion - or roughly half its reserves supporting the currency since Egypt’s 2011 revolution, which cut into tourism revenues and foreign investment.

Security concerns remain a key issue for financial markets. A bomb blast hit a

bus in Cairo’s Nasr City district yesterday, injuring four people, a spokesman for Egypt’s interior ministry said, two days after a car bomb killed 16 in the Nile Delta.

Last week the pound weakened against the dollar at auction for the first time since the army’s removal of Islamist President Mohammad Morsi in July after mass protests against his rule.

The central bank has limited Egyptians from transferring more than a cumulative $100,000 out of the country since the

2011 uprising unless they can demonstrate a pressing need for the funds. In January, this limit will be raised by another $100,000, Central Bank governor Hisham Ramez said this month.

Depositors at banks can only withdraw a maximum of $10,000 in foreign currency per day under central bank rules, but in practice many banks restrict such withdrawals to much less and demand documents to show why the client needs the funds. —Reuters

Pe t s FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

Pride of the Arab world Horse care basics all horse owners should know How to properly work around horses

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any activities take place around horses and some clearly come across as dangerous such as riding fast without a saddle and jumping obstacles. However, did you know that both of these options are actually safer for a horse owner than activities such as grooming with a brush which take place on the ground near one of the horses.

Statistics have shown that more injuries occur when an individual is on the ground rather than mounting on the horse, speed and height are not the only things that can cause injury around a horse.

When you are near horses you should always wear a helmet to stay safe and when you are feeding, leading or grooming a horse it is very important to remain alert. Keep the shortest distance possible between you and the horse when you are on the ground. Keep the horse on a short rein and stay right up by their head so they won’t be able to turn and bite you. Horses have a lot of room between their shoulder and head which makes it easy for them to turn quickly and bite you.

While this may sound odd since you may think being father away from a horse is safer, however the full effect of a horses kick will be felt if you are farther away. Rather when you are close you won’t feel much of the impact. For the best safety you should follow all of the following tips when working with a horse on the ground.

It is important that the horse knows where you are at, at all times and is aware of when you are approaching them. Start at the front and work towards the back when you are grooming a horse. Know the horse’s tick-

lish areas and keep a hand in constant contact with the horse such as the flank area. If you tickle the horse they are more likely to kick you. Keep the fence in between the horse and yourself during feeding. Never place a horse between you and the exit when you are doing any work in the barn.

Soothingly talk to the horse while doing any work.

Start early with a horse and don’t begin any bad habits. This means no feeding out of your hand or foods such as sugar when they are young. Start having the horse around people when it is young and it is better to start them out early with exposure to distractions of different types such as flags flying and loud music playing nearby.

It is important to be firm but you should never mistreat an animal. Treat the horse with respect and remember that it is in their nature to try and be free.

Never wrap a lead around your wrist when you are leading a horse. To detect a horse’s mood you should watch their eyes and ears. If you notice signs that they are going to have problems such as the ears going back, the horse starts chomping at the bit or prancing around then try and calm the horse down by talking to it and reassuring it. When working with a horse never make any sudden movements and if they like, touch or rub them on their neck. Remain calm yourself and make sure the horse knows it’s not alone since it can pick up quickly and easily on your moods.

However, you should always make sure you show the horse that you are in control by being firm, just not too firm.

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wning a horse is a great responsibility. Horses are, by nature, companionable animals designed to graze in open spaces with their herd.

While they will learn to adapt to stable life, it is vital to exercise your horse to satisfy its physical needs.

Also, a horse will become bored and discontented if it does not have the regular company of humans and other horses. While there is no exact acreage requirement for horses, it is generally considered that one acre of pasture per horse is sufficient. Before pasturing your horse, check the pasture for trash, holes in the fencing, and other hazards.

You must check for poisonous plants in your pasture weekly, at the very least. The most harmful plants are yew, deadly nightshade, ragwort, foxglove, buttercups, oak leaves and acorns, bracken, laurel, privet, meadow saffron, castor bean, locoweed, horsetail, star thistle, and sorghum.

Your pasture must be fenced, of course, to prevent your horse from escaping or being injured. White rail fences look great, but are costly to install and maintain. Plain wire fencing is fine if it is well-secured to strong wooden posts. Barbed wire is not recommended for horse fencing.

Your horse will require shelter to

protect it from wind, rain, and the sun. A natural grove of trees provides good shade, but for shelter from the elements, a three-sided enclosure works the best. Make sure your shelter is large enough to enable all your horses to fit inside together, and build it so the back wall faces the prevailing wind.

Horses require a constant supply of fresh, clean water. If you plan to use a watering bucket, you must refill it at least twice daily and whenever it is empty. Putting the bucket inside a tire will keep it from being easily tipped over. A watering trough, supplied by a pipe, is better, but must be checked during winter weather to ensure the pipe and water surface have not frozen.

Proper bedding is vital for horses kept in a barn or stable. Horses should not stand all day on a hard floor, and they will lie down to sleep or rest.

Straw is a popular bedding choice because it is inexpensive, warm, and comfortable. However, straw occasionally contains fungal spores, and the horse will occasionally eat straw bedding.

Dust-free wood shavings are clean and hygienic. You can also use rubber matting for a soft resting and standing surface, but you should put straw or wood shavings on top of it to pro-

Pe t s FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

Proper horse handling techniques

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vide warmth. Also, hemp has become a popular bedding choice recently.

The stable must be cleaned (‘mucked out’) daily. If your horse is stabled all day, it should be cleaned three times daily. To muck out the stable, you will remove any droppings with a shovel and wheelbarrow, and level the horse’s bedding.

After you have removed the droppings, separate the soiled bedding from the still-clean bedding material.

Sweep, and then clean the floor with a stable disinfectant.

After the floor is dry, return the clean bedding to its place, then add fresh bedding material to make up for the removed soiled amount.

If your horse is stabled most or all of the day, it will require grooming daily to keep its coat healthy. However, don’t over groom a horse that spends most or all of its time in the pasture. The natural oils in its coat help to keep your horse warm and dry.

— www.horses-and-horse-information.com

very horse owner has experienced the feeling of walking into a pasture to capture a horse and suddenly being surrounded by many curious equines. Suddenly a single 120 pound you is surrounded by a dozen or more “thems” that weigh at least 1,200 pounds.

One reassuring fact is that they aren’t carnivores, but still what should you do?

The best thing to do is just to ignore them. As you walk past them to get your horse they will realize that there are no treats for them and then they will usually leave you alone. Shove away any persistent horses since it will give them the message that you are not interested in them and then they will generally retreat.

You can also let the horses know you don’t want to be fooled with by walking through the pasture with an aggressive, confident posture towards those you don’t want to catch.

Of course when catching a horse you should never walk in with a bucket of grain since this is an invitation to being mobbed. Keep any treats hidden in your pocket if you want to give them to your horse.

Then when you catch your horse you can give them the treat or you can wait to give the reward once you are outside the gate. It is best to teach your horse to understand that they are rewarded only once they are caught and taken through the gate.

If a horse is causing problems in the pasture such as kicking and biting while you are trying to lead away your horse then it will need to be removed. If an aggressive horse threatens people then it needs to be kept out of a pasture situation where there are people. The owner can be liable if there is a horse that is known to be aggressive and it attacks someone that is leading a horse. Legal problems can occur if a horse has a history of being aggressive and then hurts someone in the pasture.

Prevention is the key with most problems. Knowing each of the horses that are in the pasture is the best thing. You likely won’t have to worry about going to get your horse if the situation is usual and safe for you.

Allow your horse to be happy when they are caught and then this way you won’t have to chase them around the pasture. After catching a horse don’t always ride them hard, rather on occasion catch them and take them inside where you give them a treat and groom them before putting them back out.

When releasing the horse back into the pasture it is important to do so calmly. Shut the gate after walking the horse in and then give them a pat after slowly taking off the halter. Without the halter on make the horse stand beside you until you walk away from them. When turning out a horse you should never chase them since this can lead to problems where they will want to race away the moment you loosen the halter.

Grab some mane and start scratching a horse’s ears if they want to run off as soon as you loosen the halter. This can help slow them down before they decide to run. A real hazard is a horse that wants to turn around and kick whoever just released them and this should be treated as a major behavioral problem. A harmonious pasture comes from having compatible mates.

Your pasture should have enough room to allow you to place you hay in several piles so that horses who are lower in the pecking order won’t be driven away from the food by others. For example there should be seven piles of hay for six horses. You should give enough food so that your horses won’t fight over the food.

The pecking order is always going to have a horse on the bottom and this is fine as long as that horse isn’t getting injured. You may have to rearrange your horses if the lowest horse is getting injured. A gelding that thinks they are a stud is one pasture problem. You shouldn’t place this type of a horse in with any mares. This doesn’t mean that all mares and geldings should be separate; rather the geldings that exhibit sexual behavior towards the mares should be kept separate.

A gelding should be kept separate from the mares if they put their head down and try to hear the mares or you. The sexually aggressive behavior can be reduced with medications if you have no other place to put these horses. You should slowly introduce any new horses to the pasture. It is a good idea to hand introduce a horse over the fence provided you have the facilities and safe fencing. Placing the new arrival in with a soon-to-be-pasture mate in a paddock is one idea to try. For example is you have horses A, B and C out to pasture and you want to add D then you can first place D and C together before adding B and A. This way D won’t be treated so badly.

If you must place a new horse in pasture with others because of your facilities then you should at least have a pasture that is big enough to allow the horse to get away if needed. You should also make sure you have safe fences; this is the most important factor that can’t be stressed enough. In order for you to keep an eye on the pasture during the day you should try introducing new horses early in the day so that you can monitor them during the daylight hours in case something goes wrong.

Although most of the time horses will get along when they are first introduced.

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Opinion FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

Two Egyptian women, supporters of deposed president Mohamed Morsi, sit in front of police standing behind barbed wire fencing that blocks the access to the headquarters of the Republican Guard in Cairo in this July 8, 2013 file photo. — AFP

Egypt conflict worsens Prospects of political accommodation with Brotherhood fade

By Tom Perry

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f there was any hope left that the generals who overthrew Egypt’s elected president six months ago might ease the state’s crackdown on dissent, a suicide bomb that ripped through a police station on Tuesday may have destroyed it. The most populous Arab country enters the new year with deeper divisions in its society and more bloodshed on its streets than at any point in its modern history. The prospects for democracy appear bleaker with every bomb blast and arrest. The army-backed government says it will shepherd Egypt back to democracy and points out that the state defeated Islamist militants when they last launched waves of attacks in the 1990s. But this time around there are more weapons and harder ideologies, and a bitter example of a failed democratic experiment to toughen positions on all sides.

Like much of the recent violence, the bombing that killed 16 people on Tuesday was bloodier than all but the very worst attacks of the 1990s. The tactic of using suicide bombers to hit security forces is more familiar to Iraq or Syria than to Egypt, which for all its history of militancy is one of the few big Arab states that has never experienced a modern civil war. The blast was claimed by a Sinai Peninsula-based Islamist militant group, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, which has stepped up attacks on government targets in recent months and narrowly failed to assassinate the interior minister in September.

The blast set off mob attacks on the shops, homes and vehicles of people believed to be supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood. “After the funerals of the martyrs, angry people smashed my pharmacy and my brother’s shop,” said Mohamed Heikal, a Brotherhood activist in the city of Mansoura, scene of Tuesday’s bombing. “We had nothing to do with what

happened,” he said, condemning the bombing as a terrorist attack. With much of the public feverishly backing the government’s calls to uproot the Brotherhood, talk of political accommodation is non-existent. Analysts see little or no chances of a political deal to stabilise a nation in turmoil since Hosni Mubarak’s downfall in 2011.

Signs of escalation abound. Morsi and other top Brotherhood leaders have been ordered to stand trial on charges that could lead to their execution. They are charged with conspiring with foreigners to carry out a terrorist plot against Egypt. The government of Prime Minister Hazem El-Beblawi on Wednesday formally designated the Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation, accusing it of carrying out the attack. Meanwhile, the frequency of attacks suggests militants are taking centre stage within the Islamist movement, further diminishing hopes of the state reaching an accommodation with moderates and strengthening the hawks in government.

One consequence could be to increase the chances of General Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi becoming Egypt’s next president. The army chief who deposed Morsi after mass protests against Brotherhood rule has yet to decide whether to run, an army source said. Though Sisi would almost certainly win were he to run, the source said he is hesitant partly due to the mountain of problems awaiting Egypt’s next head of state. But analysts say the increase in violence makes it less likely Sisi and those around him would trust anyone else with the reins of power. “The more dire the situation becomes, the less a second tier civilian candidate will be seen able to take charge of the situation,” said Michael Wahid Hanna, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, a New York-based think-tank.

“This type of deterioration will increase pressure on Sisi to run.”

Most Soldiers Killed Since ‘73 War Crowds that gathered outside the compound hit in Tuesday’s attack to show support for the security forces brandished Sisi’s portrait. Egypt has experienced violence for decades including the assassination of President Anwar Sadat by an Islamist gunman in 1981, and attacks on tourist sites in the 1990s that hurt the economy. But civil bloodshed has now reached an unprecedented level. A conservative estimate puts the overall death toll since Morsi’s fall at well over 1,500.

Most of those killed were Morsi supporters, including hundreds gunned down when the security forces cleared a protest vigil outside a Cairo mosque.

At least 350 members of the security forces have also been killed in bombings and shootings since Morsi’s downfall. The state has declared them martyrs of a war on terror. The army has suffered its greatest casualties since the 1973 Middle East war, most of them in the Sinai Peninsula, where the most heavily armed Islamists are based. The blood spilt since Morsi’s downfall has evoked comparisons with Algeria - a country pitched into a decade of civil war in 1991 when its army aborted an experiment with democracy because Islamists looked set to win power.

Some dismiss that comparison, arguing the past failures of militants in Egypt should dissuade Islamists from following that path. But as the attacks spread beyond the Sinai Peninsula, the risks are compounded by the large quantities of weapons smuggled in from neighbouring Libya since the downfall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, in a war that saw his arsenals looted by rebels. “This particular incident shows that the group operating in Mansoura is very organised, well equipped and capable,” said Mustapha Kamel Al-Sayid, a professor of political science at Cairo University, referring to the Nile Valley town where Tuesday’s attack took place. “This points to the difficulty of any

kind of compromise between the government and Islamist groups.”

Freedoms in Danger The Brotherhood, most of whose leadership are in jail, continues to reiterate its mantra of peaceful resistance and denies turning to violence. It is pressing a campaign of protests on university campuses where its followers routinely clash with the police. But as that strategy fails to make much of an impact, there is a risk of radical logic winning over its supporters, posing a threat to the Brotherhood itself. Analysts believe the security establishment now has a firm grip over the course of government, reasserting political influence that diminished after the 2011 uprising. Activists say the freedoms won in that uprising are in danger.

The state has widened a crackdown on dissent, on Dec 22 jailing three leading secular activists to three years in prison for breaking a law that severely curbs the right to protest - a major blow against those behind the Jan. 25, 2011 revolution. “What we see now is a security apparatus that really seems to be out of control, going after individuals and groups it has grudges against,” said Nathan Brown, a professor of political science at George Washington University. “You do sometimes hear murmurs that people in the leadership worry that an overly harsh set of actions will make the political divisions in Egypt worse, and there has to be some kind of lessening of the security crackdown. “This bombing puts off that date.” Khaled Dawoud, a liberal politician, said the wave of Islamist attacks will make calls for reconciliation even less popular. He has continued to call for a political accommodation even after being stabbed by Morsi supporters in October. “In any country where terrorism takes place, public freedoms and hopes for democracy suffer a retreat. That is the law of gravity,” he said. — Reuters

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013 www.kuwaittimes.net

This undated architectural rendering provided by Cuningham Group Architecture Inc. shows a proposal streetscape for a new sports arena in Las Vegas.

Former NBA player Jackie Robinson, a Las Vegas businessman, is proposing a $1.3 billion arena and hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. The 22,000-seat stadium would be the second major arena on the tourist corridor. MGM Resorts International is building a similarly-sized project on the opposite side of the Strip. But it’s Las Vegas, where more is more. The city is already set to get two new urban zip lines next year, as well as two oversized Ferris wheels. — AP

Beauty FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

What have you got to hide?

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(we like Laura Mercier Secret Camouflage) directly on top of the blemish; then dip a small puff or another brush in translucent powder and pat it over the spot to set the concealer and leave a smooth finish. (Benefit Bluff Dust, a yellow-tinged sheer powder, comes with a velour puff.)

s your skin luminous and even-toned, clarified by monthly facials and a multipart skincare regimen? Do you head to the salon every six weeks to cover your gray with the perfect honey highlights? Yes? That’s great, really great. You can move on; we’ll see you later. This story is for those who don’t always have the time or the money to keep up a maintenance program; who are looking for quick fixes to camouflage problems (from breakouts to spider veins); who know that there’s probably a laser or acid or suction machine out there that offers a solution but aren’t ready or willing (or flush) enough to try it. For you, we canvassed beauty experts to come up with the best advice for concealing imperfections (or, as we prefer to think of them, annoyances.

Because, really, you’re fine as you are; this is just a little surface polishing).

Age spots The Tool Kit: Concealer (a touch lighter than your skin tone, with peach or gold tones to brighten darkness); brush; powder and/or cream foundation (that matches your skin).

The Technique: For isolated dark spots, just dot the concealer on top with a thin brush and pat with your finger to blend the edges.

Then use a large brush to apply a fine layer of powder foundation over the whole face. This will help set the concealed patches and even out your complexion. (The very dry skinned should choose a liquid or cream foundation instead.) If you have more significant sun damage and need to cover larger patches, Boehmer recommends starting with a sheer liquid foundation all over the face, and then blending a heavier cream foundation over darker areas.

Sparse Brows The Tool Kit: Pencil (one shade lighter than your brows); powder (that matches your brows); small angled brush.

The Technique: Overzealous plucking (or age) can leave brows patchy. Even after you’ve put away your tweezers, it can take anywhere from three months to a couple of years for brows to grow back, says brow expert Sania Vucetaj. In the meantime, fill in only bare spots (“never, ever, ever the whole brow”) with a pencil. If the pencil is too waxy, it will leave a heavy line, so look for one with a drier texture (like Paul & Joe Eyebrow Pencil) and always use short, feathery strokes. Once the holes are filled, take a brow powder (like Becca Brow Powder) to fill in the length of the arch (again, with short strokes). The powder will adhere more to the penciled-in areas and help bulk them up a bit, while blending in with the rest of the brow.

Dark undereye circles The Tool Kit: Eye cream; creamy concealer (one shade lighter than your skin tone) with a slight golden (or, for darker skin, apricot) cast; translucent loose powder; small, slightly tapered brush with synthetic bristles (animal hair absorbs too much moisture, drying out concealer).

The Technique: When you lighten dark circles, suddenly every crease under your eyes is brought into high definition. So use a very creamy concealer, says makeup artist Susan Giordano. Always start with an eye moisturizer (Vital Radiance HydraSmooth Under Eye Concealer includes one in half of its dual-ended wand). Let it absorb for five minutes, then begin applying the concealer with a brush at the inner corner of the eye. Work your way out, but “use it only on dark areas,” says makeup artist Laura Mercier. Gently pat in the concealer (use your ring finger so you don’t tug at the delicate skin), then dab on the slightest hint of translucent powder with a tiny velvet puff or eyeshadow brush. (We like Clinique CX Soothing Concealer Duo SPF 15 and Mally Beauty Cancellation Concealer System, which both include creamy concealer, sheer powder, and a dual-ended brush.)

Puffy eyes The Tool Kit: Eye gel; highlighting pen.

The Technique: When it comes to concealing, makeup artists preach moderation-especially

Cold sores The Tool Kit: Soothing ointment; Q-tips; concealer; sheer lip gloss.

with puffiness. Concealer accentuates bags, so use it only on the inner corners of the eyes.

Minimize swelling with a firming eye gel (like Christine Chin Hydra-Lift Eye Gel; store it in the fridge for a little extra tightening power, the beauty equivalent of icing a sprain), and then run a highlighting pen (it delivers a sheer, slightly shimmery cream through a firm brush; we like Elizabeth Arden Sheer Lights) along the indentation below the puffiness.

The light reflectors will make that area appear less depressed.

Ruddiness/Rosacea The Tool Kit: Creamy, full-coverage foundation; tinted redness neutralizers.

The Technique: To downplay overly rosy cheeks, often a result of broken capillaries or rosacea, use a foundation with gold or yellow undertones, which help counteract the pink.

Blush-prone skin tends to be dry, so look for a very emollient formula (ignore anything labeled matte, says Nars senior makeup stylist James Boehmer) and moisturize before smoothing it on with a sponge. The sun aggravates redness, especially if it’s caused by rosacea, so always wear sunscreen (or choose a foundation that includes it). “Titanium dioxide and zinc oxide are the least irritating UV blockers, and when they’re finely ground in a sunscreen or foundation, they can help camouflage redness as well,” says Mary Lupo, MD, clinical professor of dermatology at Tulane University School of Medicine. Products with green tints (like Murad Correcting Moisturizer SPF 15 or Avar Green, which is prescription only) help hide more serious redness (while also soothing irritation), but always apply a

foundation on top to ensure a natural finish.

Choose warm lipcolors; anything bright or blue-based will bring out pink tones in the skin.

Large pores The Tool Kit: Makeup primer; powder foundation.

The Technique: No product can tighten pores, but makeup primers that contain silicone (like Clarins Instant Smooth Perfecting Touch) make them appear smaller by laying down a thin film on the skin. When you apply foundation, it sticks to that smooth surface, rather than settling into (and accentuating) pores.

Boehmer prefers to use powder foundations (try Max Factor Powdered Foundation or Cover FX Mineral Powder Foundation) on skin with more noticeable pores, which tends to be oily. (We also like Per-fÈkt Skin Perfection Gel, a silky primer with oil absorbers and a slight tint that can double as a sheer foundation.) Avoid light-reflecting foundations, which can draw attention to pore size.

Breakouts The Tool Kit: Thick concealer (the kind in a pot or compact) that matches your skin and has yellow undertones to counteract redness; sheer loose powder; small brush with a straight, firm tip (slightly larger than an eyeliner brush).

The Technique: Before you begin, accept your limits: You can only camouflage the redness of a pimple; try to disguise the bump itself, and you’ll end up with a mound of noticeable concealer. Use a brush to dot the concealer

The Technique: Before you cover the sore, dab on an ointment like Aquaphor to protect it. No topical treatment has been shown to significantly shorten the life span of a cold sore (only a prescription oral medication, like Valtrex, can do that, if you pop a pill at the first tingle), but it’s important to keep it moist while it heals. Next, dab on a concealer that matches the skin around your lips. To avoid contaminating your makeup, use a Q-tip (makeup artist Mally Roncal coats it with a little Vaseline first so it glides more easily over the inflamed area)-and don’t double-dip. And you know how if you don’t want people staring at your butt, you wouldn’t put a big bow on it? Skip the bright lipstick and go for a sheer rosy gloss (again, using a clean Q-tip).

Have fun with color on your eyes insteadwhich can draw attention away from that sore spot.

Thin lips The Tool Kit: Light lip liner; lipstick; sheer gloss.

The Technique: First, how not to plump up your lips: by drawing on new ones. It’s okay to trace slightly above the lip line, says makeup artist Paula Dorf, but only with a very light pencil. (She uses her own peachy pink Enhancer Baby Eyes to define the lip line, or try Cargo The Reverse Lipliner.) Stick to pale lipstick colors as well. Anything too dark makes the mouth look smaller. A dab of glimmery gloss on the center of the lips (both top and bottom) will also have a mild poutenhancing effect. And a note on lip plumpers: Most use irritating agents like cinnamon to increase blood flow to the lips. If you can bear the “tingling” (we prefer the more accurate term: “burning”), slick them on before you apply any color. The results are temporary, though, and far from bee-stung.

— www.oprah.com

Food FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

Lean and green:

Rustle up tasty salad for dinner ITALIAN LEAFY GREEN SALAD

SPINACH POMEGRANATE SALAD

CAESAR SALAD SUPREME

Ingredients 1 (10 ounce) bag baby spinach leaves, rinsed and drained 1/4 red onion, sliced very thin 1/2 cup walnut pieces 1/2 cup crumbled feta 1/4 cup alfalfa sprouts(optional) 1 pomegranate, peeled and seeds separated 4 tablespoons balsamic vinaigrette Directions Place spinach in a salad bowl. Top with red onion, walnuts, feta, and sprouts. Sprinkle pomegranate seeds over the top, and drizzle with vinaigrette.

Ingredients 6 cloves garlic, peeled; 3/4 cup mayonnaise 5 anchovy fillets, minced; 6 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese, divided; 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard; 1 tablespoon lemon juice Salt to taste; ground black pepper to taste 1/4 cup olive oil; 4 cups day-old bread, cubed 1 head romaine lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces

Ingredients 2 cups romaine lettuce - torn, washed and dried 1 cup torn escarole 1 cup torn radicchio 1 cup torn red leaf lettuce 1/4 cup chopped green onions 1/2 red bell pepper, sliced into rings 1/2 green bell pepper, sliced in rings 12 cherry tomatoes 1/4 cup grapeseed oil 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar 2 tablespoons lemon juice salt and pepper to taste

Directions Mince 3 cloves of garlic, and combine in a small bowl with mayonnaise, anchovies, 2 tablespoons of the Parmesan cheese, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and lemon juice.

Season to taste with salt and black pepper. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cut the remaining 3 cloves of garlic into quarters, and add to hot oil. Cook and stir until brown, and then remove garlic from pan. Add bread cubes to the hot oil. Cook, turning frequently, until lightly browned. Remove bread cubes from oil, and season with salt and pepper.

Place lettuce in a large bowl. Toss with dressing, remaining Parmesan cheese, and seasoned bread cubes.

Directions In a large bowl, combine the romaine, escarole, radicchio, red-leaf, scallions, red pepper, green pepper and cherry tomatoes.

Whisk together the grapeseed oil, basil, vinegar, lemon juice and salt and pepper. Pour over salad, toss and serve immediately.

MEXICAN BEAN SALAD Ingredients 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained 1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, drained 1 (15 ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed 1 green bell pepper, chopped 1 red bell pepper, chopped 1 (10 ounce) package frozen corn kernels 1 red onion, chopped 1/2 cup olive oil 1/2 cup red wine vinegar 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice 1 tablespoon lemon juice 2 tablespoons white sugar 1 tablespoon salt 1 clove crushed garlic 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro 1/2 tablespoon ground cumin 1/2 tablespoon ground black pepper 1 dash hot pepper sauce 1/2 teaspoon chili powder

BROCCOLI SALAD Ingredients

Directions In a large bowl, combine beans, bell peppers, frozen corn, and red onion.

In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, red wine vinegar, lime juice, lemon juice, sugar, salt, garlic, cilantro, cumin, and black pepper. Season to taste with hot sauce and chili powder.

Pour olive oil dressing over vegetables; mix well. Chill thoroughly, and serve cold.

1/2 cup olive oil 1/2 cup red wine vinegar 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano 3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 3/4 teaspoon white sugar 2 1/2 cups cooked elbow macaroni 3 cups fresh sliced mushrooms 15 cherry tomatoes, halved 1 cup sliced red bell peppers 3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese 1/2 cup chopped green onions 1 (4 ounce) can whole black olives 3/4 cup sliced pepperoni sausage, cut into strips Directions In a large bowl, whisk together olive oil, vinegar, garlic powder, basil, oregano, black pepper, and sugar. Add cooked pasta,

mushrooms, tomatoes, red peppers, feta cheese, green onions, olives, and pepperoni. Toss until evenly coated. Cover, and chill 2 hours or overnight. — www.allrecipes.com

Health FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

A nose like Cleopatra’s FAQ on rhinoplasty - the most popular cosmetic surgery What gives the nose its shape?

The shape of the nose on the outside is due to the shape of bone and cartilage and the overlying skin. The top of the nose is made of bone shaped like a roof, which is hard. The middle and tip of the nose are made of cartilage which is softer. The skin varies in thickness from person to person, and also affects the shape.

Reasons for surgery Improving the features of the nose and face by cosmetic surgery can also involve improving its function and help with breathing. There is a great deal of variety in human appearance. Nasal shape depends on the bony contours, dimensions of the face, skin colour, thickness and race. Most

people have reconciled themselves with their appearance but some are unhappy with it and seek surgery.

The most common features people are concerned with are deviations of the nose to one side, a nasal hump, a nasal depression, too wide or too a narrow nose, over or under projection of the soft nasal tip. There is no perfect shape to the nose and any

alteration has to fit and suit the rest of the face.? It is important that expectations about the effects of surgery are not unrealistic. People who believe that their lives will change if they have cosmetic surgery are often disappointed.

What is rhinoplasty?

Rhinoplasty is an operation to change the shape of the nose. The type of rhinoplasty depends on which particular area of the nose needs correction. The nose can be straightened, made smaller or bigger and bumps may be removed. The shape of the tip of the nose can be changed. Pieces of cartilage or bone may be removed from or added to the nose to change its shape.

Sometimes the wall that separates the nose into right and left (nasal septum) is twisted.

We may need to correct it at the same time.

The combined operation is called septorhinoplasty.

Techniques Rhinoplasty surgery employs reduction, augmentation or refinement of the patient’s nose to give a balanced and proportioned nose. Reduction rhinoplasty commonly involves the removal of a nasal hump along with re-breaking the nose to reduce the width.

The tip of the nose may be asymmetrical, depressed or the nose itself may need building up. Augmentation with can be achieved using tissue moved from another part of the patient’s body such as skin or cartilage from the ear or rib. Alternatively synthetic material can be used (gortex, silastic) but there is a greater risk of rejection or infection. Approaches for the surgery can be either through the nostrils (intranasal) or by the use of a small incision

Health FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

on the underside of the nose (external).

How successful is the operation?

Everybody’s nose and face is different, so it may not be possible to make your nose look exactly like your perfect nose.

The thickness of the skin is important in how much better the nose will look after rhinoplasty and in what can be done. If the skin is thin, it makes bumps or hollows in the nose difficult to hide. If it is thick not all changes that can be made on the inside will show up on the outside. Your surgeon will aim to produce a nose that looks natural. However, your surgeon may not be able to say exactly how your nose will look after your operation. It is important that you discuss your expectations with your surgeon.

90-95 percent of patients are happy with the results of their operation but some people request more surgery. You may change your mind about the operation at any time, and signing a consent form does not mean that you have to have the operation. If you would like to have a second opinion about the treatment, you can ask your specialist.

He or she will not mind arranging this for you. You may wish to ask your own GP to arrange a second opinion with another specialist.

How is the operation done?

Photographs will be taken to allow a record to be kept in your notes of how your nose looked before surgery, and to allow the surgeon to plan your operation.

Rhinoplasty and septorhinoplasty are usually performed with you asleep. Cuts are made inside your nose. Occasionally a small cut on the skin between the nostrils or at the base of the nostrils may be necessary.

The skin of your nose is gently lifted off the bone and cartilage underneath. A hairline fracture may be made in the nasal bones to allow the surgeon to change the shape of the nose. Pieces of bone and cartilage can be removed from or added to the nose to smooth out any bumps or dips.

Packs and splints We may need to put a dressing in each side of your nose to keep things in place and prevent bleeding. The dressings are called ‘packs’, and they will block your nose up so that you have to breathe through your mouth. We may take them out the morning after your operation. You may get a little bit of bleeding when the packs come out - this will settle quickly. Sometimes we put small pieces of plastic in your nose to prevent scar tissue from forming. These are called ‘splints’ and we will take them out after a week. You will have a temporary splint on the outside of the nose for a week.

This should be kept dry.

After the operation The front of your nose can be a bit tender for a few weeks. Do not blow your nose for about a week, or it might start bleeding.

If you are going to sneeze, sneeze with your mouth open to protect your nose. You may get some blood-colored watery fluid from your nose for the first two weeks or so - this is normal. Your nose will be blocked both sides like a heavy cold for 10-14 days after the operation. You may be given some drops or spray to help this.

It may take up to three months for your nose to settle down and for your breathing to be clear again. Try to stay away from dusty or smoky places. There will be some stitches inside your nose - these will dis-

solve and fall out by themselves. You may have some bruising and swelling around your nose and eyes for one to two weeks.

Sleeping upright with extra pillows for a few days helps.

Most of the swelling has subsided after two weeks but it may be longer before the skin and soft tissues over the bone and cartilage settle. Fine swelling may take up to a

year to settle at which time the final results of surgery may be judged. Following rhinoplasty or septorhinoplasty, the skin of the nose is very sensitive to the sun. It is important to wear strong sunscreen and a hat for at least six months. The nose may feel a little stiff and numb for up to three months, particularly around the tip.

How long will I be off work?

You can expect to go home the day after your operation. Sometimes it is possible to go home the same day. You should rest at home for at least a week. Most people need one to two weeks off work, especially if their work involves heavy lifting or strenuous activity. You should not play sports where there is a risk of your nose being knocked for six weeks. Ask your nurse if you need a sick note for your time in hospital.

What can go wrong?

Sometimes your nose can bleed after the operation, and we may have to put packs into your nose to stop it. This can happen within the first 6 - 8 hours after surgery or up to 5 - 10 days after surgery. Very occasionally patients need to have another general anesthetic and return to the operating theatre to stop the bleeding.

Infection in your nose is rare after this operation but if it happens it can be serious, so you should see a doctor if your nose is getting more and more blocked and sore.

The operation may rarely leave you with a hole in your septum inside the nose going from one side of your nose to the other.

This can cause a whistling noise when you breathe, crusting with blockage or nosebleeds. Most of the time it causes not problems at all and needs no treatment. Further surgery can be carried out if necessary to repair a hole in the septum.

Very rarely, you can have some numbness of your teeth, which usually settles with time. Up to 10 percent of people may have some reservations about the end results and about 5-10 percent of patients need further operations in the future to further adjust the shape of the nose. www.entukorg.org

Tr a v e l FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

How to do Ibiza on a budget Experience all the best bits of this stylish Balearic island without parting with wads of cash

By Maya Claughton

A

rriving at the airport, head straight for the bus stop outside taxis are pricey and you can queue for an hour in peak season. Bus No 10 makes the 10 km route every 15 minutes in summer (ibizabus.com for winter schedules) and drops you right in the port (don’t get off at the bus station, as it’s quite far from the centre).

Ibiza Town offers plenty of budget accommodation, but there are a few absolute standouts. Hostal Parque occupies a prime position in a leafy square right below the Old Town walls. Rooms are modern, with air conditioning and Wi-Fi and three rooftop aticos have private decked terraces. The pavement cafe below is hugely popular with locals. Across the square is the quirky Casa HuÈspedes Vara de Rey, a sprawling guesthouse with a boho vibe. Ask for a room with a view.

Start with a walk up into topsy-turvy Dalt Vila (literally “high town”) - the Unesco world heritage site is a maze of cobbles and whitewashed walls. Free audio tours (in six languages) are available from the tourist office on Vara de Rey. Keep an eye out for the secret escape tunnel behind the Catholic shrine on Calle de San Ciriaco.

The sensory-overload Medieval festival in May is free and one of the most dramatic ways to experience Dalt Vila, with performances, strolling musicians, singing and dancing. Likewise Easter week (Semana Santa), when torchlit processions from the stunning cathedral provide gloriously gothic eye candy for not a penny.

For more recent history, walk through mysterious Sa Penya and discover the clifftop home of the late architect Erwin Broner (free entrance, seeeivissa.es for opening hours) - a modernist triumph.

For lunch, head to Mercado Viejo (the old market) and seek out Nico at the BioLunch stall for a slice of homemade organic tarta de puerros. It comes on a paper plate, so you can wander through boutique-lined backstreets nibbling before picking a sidewalk cafe for a glass of vino rosado If you’re after a healthier fix, head to Es Tap Nou, a fruit and vegetable market with a cafe-bar attached. Choose your fresh produce and they’ll make it into a delicious salad with baked goat’s cheese, tuna or smoked salmon.

If you’re still culture-hungry, the brilliant Centro Cultura S’Alamera (Vara de Rey) offers free interactive Ibiza-centric photography/art exhibitions. Currently showing is an exhibition of Adlib fashion of the 1960s.

The port comes to life at about 8pm - have drinks just off the waterfront to save about 50% - then grab a pavement table at the pizza mecca, El Pirata and watch the nightly show unfold - club processions, street artists and drag queens all perform here, and if you spend long enough sipping that mojito it will be worth it in entertainment value alone.

For a hearty local supper, head to nearby Comidas San Juan, Bon Profit or Los Pasajeros. These all offer superb home-cooked food (grilled meats, tapas, pasta) at rock-bottom prices.

Sushi is hugely popular in Ibiza, and also astronomically expensive. One exception to the rule is the brand new Sushiya Aoyama.

Many bars offer nightly live music, and the legendary Teatro Pereyra is the most famous of these. If you’re after the real deal, however, you’ll need to go to Pacha- the world’s most famous disco. Door charges are extreme but here’s a trick: book dinner at the Pacha restaurant and you get free access to the club (there is a minimum restaurant spend, depending on night). It’s still an expensive night but you’re getting the world-class experience and good food too.

Alternatively, head out of town to Underground, a low-key yet brilliant late-night club with great DJs, a local vibe, cheap drinks and a negotiable door charge.

The south This island is famous for its beaches, and you will need to see them. Some of them can be reached by bus, but it’s probably best to hire a car. Go to doyouspain.com for the absolute best deals. (Tip: beware the deals that require you to pay for a full tank of petrol in advance - their “in-house” fuel prices can be 50% more than filling station prices.)

Salinas is a great beach to start at - it’s justly famous for its milelong swathe of white sand. Take a towel. The beachfront restaurants are great, but for a fraction of the cost, stop off at the roadside supermercado (on the right just before you cross the salt flats) and order a tasty ham and cheesebocadillo (baguette sandwich) to take away. If you plan to stay at the beach itself, Hostal Mar Y Sal has clean, basic rooms, a decent restaurant and a vibey late-night bar terrace just 20 steps from the sand.

Just down the road, Boutique Hostal Salinas offers free daily apres-beach DJ sessions in a gorgeous garden, plus weekly free flamenco shows throughout summer.

Further round the coast, Cala Jondal is home to famed beachlife hotspots like the Blue Marlin. Away from the crowds, there are a couple of more chilled options - Tropicana has a laid-back Caribbean vibe and an inexpensive beach menu. There is free live music on Sunday evenings - mainly salsa and tropical. Beware the hidden lounger/umbrella/cotton bed cover charges, though. Next door’s Alegria (no phone) is cheaper still, has a lovely elevated aspect and a cocktail happy hour. Even better, stop at roadside supermarket Rincon d’Es Codolar en route and stock up on divine homemade empanadas (savoury Argentinian pasties).

History buffs will love the nearby cove of Sa Caleta. It has a great fish restaurant (no phone; and don’t be fooled by the shabby-chic exterior - it’s expensive) but is also home to the earliest ruins in Ibiza - a Phoenician settlement dating from 654BC. It’s free to look around

the seminal We Love... party at Space (voted world’s best club several times) on Sundays is a must-do - the world’s greatest DJs, a huge, festival-like atmosphere and Space’s legendary terrace. It starts early, and if you get there pre-9 pm it’s half-price.

Ibiza’s other party central, Sant Antoni, has a bad reputation, but the legendary sunset strip is beloved by all. Rock up at Cafe Mambo any night of the week for Pacha’s infamous pre-parties - see DJs such as Erick Morillo and David Guetta perform for free, and avoid the astronomical club costs. For the same sunset with none of the drama, drive out of town towards Cala Gracioneta (signposted) and find the beautiful Hostal La Torre, a traditional cliff-top hotel, whose terrace serves inexpensive food and drinks and offers a panoramic view of the sunset over the sea - it drops in front of your eyes (book in advance for a sunset table).

If you plan to stay in the area, Casa Datscha offers quirkily chic rooms in a glorious out-of-town setting (pool, art, vistas to die for). It even has an honesty bar.

and there is ample multi-language information provided.

If beaches aren’t your bag, head inland for some exploration and adventure. For hot-air balloon views, minus the cost, head to the whitewashed village of Sant Josep de sa Talaia. Following the painted arrows just behind Bar Bernat Vinya, weave your way up out of the village and towards the top of Ibiza’s highest hill, Sa Talaia. The walk is strenuous and hot - take a hat and water - but the views from the top are out of this world, and on a clear day you can see both Mallorca and the mainland. Head down the other side and walk back to the village (about three hours in total), stopping at Pizzeria Can Verge on the way home for huge, cheap pizzas and icy draught lager. Bliss.

Another unmissable view is of the mystical rock Es Vedra, rising from the water. Take the road from Es Cubells to Cala D’Hort and look out for the left-hand turn to Sa Pedrera. Park at the end of the lane and walk a short way to view the island from the clifftops.

Shopping in the south is all about the vast San Jordi flea market.

On Saturday mornings the racetrack is filled with stalls selling clothes, furniture and bric-a-brac. There’s a lot of tat but some serious treasure too.

If you want to party, there are plenty of good options. Generally, Playa d’En Bossa has about as much finesse as a chip pan fire, but

The north Ibiza’s north is all about wellness and relaxation, and there’s no better place to relax than luxury rural spa hotel AtzarÛ. You can join in completely free yoga sessions on the beach at Benirras, where Sunday sunset drumming sessions provide soulful entertainment. A great supper option for families is the ever-chic Aura, which offers free kids’ meals to families seated before 8.15pm, any night except Friday. Aura also offers some of Ibiza’s best music for absolutely nada: Tuesday’s Nightmares On Wax parties and Friday’s DJ Antz parties offer more free fun than you can shake a stick at.

For inexpensive accommodation there are two great campsites in the area - Camping Es Cana takes two-person tents or stay in a cute two-person cabana. Beachfront Camping La Playa Cala Martina has a boho beach vibe plus a very cool waterside bar for similar prices.

There is another flea market at nearby Cala Llenya with a local bar serving very reasonable food and drinks.

— www.theguardian.com

Lifestyle FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

Parsis confront threat to existence at

Mumbai gathering T

he world’s tiny but hugely successful Zoroastrian community will confront a demographic crisis which threatens its very existence when it gathers en masse in its spiritual home of Mumbai this week. The four-day World Zoroastrian Congress, beginning today, brings together followers of one of the world’s oldest religions, many of whom are descended from Persians who fled to India to escape persecution more than 1,000 years ago. Known as the Parsis, this group went on to become one of India’s wealthiest communities, closely linked to the rise of financial capital Mumbai. Famed members have included the industrialist Tata family and the late Queen singer Freddie Mercury, the son of Parsi migrants to Zanzibar.

But the population of Parsis is quickly diminishing, with members divided over how best to preserve their religion and culture.”Demographically there’s nothing you can do. It’s going down and down and it’s eventually going to disappear,” said Jehangir Patel, editor of Parsiana, a Mumbai-based magazine for the community. Zoroastrians believe in one god, Ahura Mazda, and follow the teachings of the ancient Prophet Zoroaster. They worship in fire temples, believing fire to be a symbol of god’s purity.

Scattered across countries including Iran, the United States and Britain, their estimated numbers have dropped by more than 10 percent between 2004 to 2012 to fewer than 112,000 people.

Marrying late In India, where most Zoroastrians live, the numbers have halved since 1940 to about 61,000. Every year, Mumbai sees about 850 Parsi deaths and roughly 200 births, with the largely well-educated and well-off group tending to marry late-or not at all-and opting for smaller families, said Patel. Alarmed

forming religious initiations for the children of women who married out, and ceremonies for Zoroastrians who chose to be cremated.

A high court quashed the decision and the matter is with India’s Supreme Court.

In this photograph taken on August 19, 2010, an Indian Parsi woman walks by relief figures of knights at a fire temple after offering prayers on the Parsi New Year ‘Navroze’ in Mumbai. — AFP by the figures, and despite worries about a boom in the wider population, India’s government is about to launch an IVF scheme for the Parsis, who have earned a reputation for good business sense and honesty.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” said gynaecologist Anahita Pandole, who has worked on a similar fertility scheme for Parsis in Mumbai for nearly a decade, and said they often waited until their mid-to-late 30s to have children. But some believe more drastic action is needed to boost the traditionally closed community-being a Parsi-Zoroastrian is currently inherited only through the male line. If a Parsi woman marries a nonZoroastrian, her children are barred from entering Mumbai’s fire temples or the Towers of Silence, where Parsi bodies are laid after death to be consumed by vultures.

“It’s basically politics of apartheid. It’s discrimination on the basis of race and sex,” said Patel. Traditionalists, however, say the rules are essential to preserve their identity, which combines religion and ethnicity. The Bombay Parsi Punchayet, the leading Parsi organisation, is one of Mumbai’s largest landlords with 5,500 apartments offered at subsidized rates exclusively for ParsiZoroastrians, discouraging intermarriage.

“We want to increase the number of Parsis and if our community members marry out, in four generations the ethnicity of the community is going to disappear,” said Khojeste Mistree, a Punchayet trustee.

“These are the rules of the religious club and you have to follow them. You have every right to opt out of the club and leave.” The Punchayet has banned two priests for per-

Disenchantment Held every four years, this is the first congress to be held in Mumbai since 1990.

Around 1,000 delegates are expected to attend the event at the National Sports Club of India. The event however was nearly cancelled at one stage due to in-fighting in the Punchayet over funds which are alleged to have gone missing, reflecting the tensions within the community. “I think people are very disenchanted, very upset with the functioning of the Punchayet,” said Patel.

The theme of the congress is “Nurturing Growth and Affirming Identity” while the agenda includes panel discussions entitled “Demography and Way Forward: Issues of Fertility and Solutions” and “The Zoroastrian World-a Demographic Picture.” Benafsha Shroff, a US-born Zoroastrian who moved to Mumbai two years ago, said the younger generation were increasingly indifferent to controversies facing the community, and preferred to use Parsi gatherings for socializing.

The 26-year-old said many were turned off by the “hype” over the falling population”it makes them feel they’re just another number”, she said. Schemes to encourage young Zoroastrian couples have included Parsi pin-up calendars, speed-dating nights and other social events “to bring our boys and girls together”, said Mistree. Shroff, a proud and practicing Zoroastrian, said she would like to marry within the fold, but explained that it was hard for women to find a partner when Parsi men could marry out and remain part of the community. “Women see it as a sacrifice, while men feel they can be accommodated,” she said. — AFP

Boxing Day shoppers up 8 percent as Britain begins annual bargain hunt

B

ritons were out in force for the Boxing Day sales with 8 percent more shoppers than last year, despite heavy rainfall that left parts of the country under water and without power, figures from retail data company

Springboard showed yesterday.

Shopping centres saw a 22 percent rise in the number of bargain-hunters coming through their doors, while high street stores saw 3.4 percent more shoppers as of 10am, the data showed.

Some stores opened as early as 6am in London’s main shopping district in the West End and Oxford Street, where over a million people are expected to turn out according to retailers.

Many shops started Britain’s traditional “January sales” online on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day as British shoppers increasingly demand earlier and deeper discounting.

Britain’s economy has been growing robustly and unemployment has fallen steadily but many Britons still face a squeeze in living standards due to stagnating wages and rising utility bills.

Department store John Lewis reported record sales for the week before Christmas yesterday and said that for the first time it expected the majority of British shoppers to use smartphones rather than desktop computers to make online purchases.

It said its sales in the week to Dec 21

Shoppers look for bargains in Selfridges department store in central London during the first hour of business, yesterday, in the post Christmas Boxing Day sales. — AFP photos were up 4.2 percent on last year at 164.4 million pounds ($270 million), surpassing the 160 million-pound mark for the first time. The department store will release its five-week trading update on Jan 2. The retailer also said that on Christmas day, three in four shoppers used their smartphones or tablets

rather than traditional desktops to shop on their site, marking a shift from previous years.

“The tipping point has now passed and we expect mobile to be the way the majority of people shop online from now on,” said Mark Lewis, online director at John Lewis. — Reuters

Lifestyle FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

Pitbull, Drescher among stars enlisted to promote Obamacare

E

nroll America and Covered California said yesterday it is enlisting celebrities such as Pitbull and Fran Drescher as part of an array of web videos and events that will cap off with an eight-hour live streamed internet affair Jan 16 to bolster young people’s enrollment in Obamacare. Both groups said that the star-powered events are part of a major effort dubbed the “Tell a Friend, Get Covered” initiative. The program will launch immediately with household-name driven tweets and other social-media campaigns aimed at encouraging signups for health coverage using the hashtag #GetCovered.

“Through the ‘Tell a Friend, Get Covered’ campaign, we are using entertainment as a way to break the ice on what is often considered a challenging and sensitive issue,” Peter V Lee, executive director of Covered California, told TheWrap.

“From musical performances, comedy routines, to ‘slice of life’ videos - we want to get people to react and more importantly, take action.” In a separate statement, Lee said the hope was to tap into California’s “richest national resources-the creative entertainment sector and social media - to support health care coverage.” He said his and groups from other states are turning to celebrities to get friends to educate friends about the availability of new health coverage choices. The groups would like to

reach 100 million contacts.

In addition to Pitbull and Drescher, other celebrity participants include Tatyana Ali and Iman “AlphaCat” Crosson, but organizers said more could join in. Videos and the January event connected to the effort are being produced by Maker Studios.

Videos will appear both on YouTube and the campaign site www.tellafriendgetcovered.com weekly.

January’s live stream will include comedic and educational segments.

While some will be about healthy eating and the financial risks of being uninsured, others will be entertain-

Fran Drescher Pitbull ment oriented. The entertainment segments are still being planned, a spokesman said.

The White House has been pushing hard to get healthier youth to sign up for Obamacare to balance out the number of older adults with preexisting health conditions that are expected to sign up. At a meeting earlier this year, the White House

urged celebrities to participate in its efforts. Anne Filipic, president of Enroll America, said she was hopeful the campaign would help kick start conversations that eventually lead to enrollment. The groups included a comment from Drescher in announcing the campaign. “Like we say at Cancer Schmancer, ‘Take control of your body.’ That’s why I support Obamacare,” Drescher said. “Sign up and tell all your friends to sign up, too.” — Reuters

Isabella Rossellini cheers diversity in new show

I

sabella Rossellini is very popular these days with her show that sounds like it should be dull. After all, it’s a scientific theater piece about animals. “It’s also about sex,” says Rossellini, laughing.

“That’s what makes it popular. If it was about the digestive system, I don’t think anyone would enjoy it as much.” Rossellini, 61, has transformed her 40-odd “Green Porno” short films into an hour-long stage show, giving the actress a chance to go more in depth with some of the animal kingdom’s weirdest inhabitants. Her two-minute films were a Web sensation, offering morsels about the reproductive habits of insects and ocean life and a clever dose of low-budget filmmaking, including paper costumes.

It was a kick watching the daughter of Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini talk about the lusty behavior of bugs, shrimp and starfish in her sexy, European accent. “I don’t think I’m badlooking as a worm or as an anchovy,” she says, and she’s right. The stage show is structured like a lecture that goes a bit looney - Rossellini’s podium will house various puppets and tricks she makes three costume changes and some of her short films will be broadcast on a screen. It’s all grounded in hard science - Rossellini is earning a master’s in animal behavior and conservation at Hunter College.

Rossellini, who was born with scoliosis, began thinking about the show while recovering last year from an operation to unfuse vertebrae. She had time to kill and a monologue made sense. She’s gotten help on the script by French screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere. The show is at the Brooklyn Academy of Music from Jan. 16-25 after stops in France, central Italy, Switzerland, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle. (She has memorized it in French, Italian and English). She takes it to Australia in March.

One thing the one-woman show offers is a chance for Rossellini to delve into richer areas, as she does when she notes that recent studies find that hundreds of species display homosexual behavior. “That seems to be indicating that homosexuality is not against nature. It exists in nature,” Rossellini says. “So maybe our definition of sexuality was too tight.” The Associated Press got a chance to sit down with the actress, model and “environmental artist” - “if I want to give myself a boring name,” she says - to ask about Darwin, dogs and vegetables.

AP: Why have animals captivated you?

Rossellini: I was born with it. It’s like being born with brown hair you don’t know why you have it. But since I was a little girl I’ve been fascinated. In the streets, I see little babies in strollers and they see a dog and you can see them bending over to look with wide eyes.

They’re just 6 months old. I must have done the same.

AP: You’re not frightened to explore weirdness and strange adaptations. Why? Rossellini: The secret to success is not perfection. It’s diversity.

We always assumed it was perfection. But if it’s perfection and the environment changes, you’re not perfect any more. Bang! You’re dead.”

AP: What about survival of the fittest?

Rossellini: Survival of the fittest gives you a sense you have to be fit. But you don’t have to be fit! For example, dogs are a variation of wolves genetically. But dogs aren’t the fittest. Because they’re not nasty, we can take them into our home and live with them. The dog has more success. It’s the fittest given whatever the environment is.

AP: You’re a conservationist, but you don’t beat us over the head.

Rossellini: Sometimes when I see my friends who are more militant, they say, ‘Your message should be more on conservation.’ I always say that message is out there pretty clear. I don’t think people want to hear any more that this is the end of the world. I find that message bores me and makes me cringe. I think humor wins people over. I focus on biodiversity so people might say: ‘Hey, this is a fascinating thing. We should preserve it.’

A boy plays the accordion during a musical homage to singer and composer Diomedes Diaz at the main square of Valledupar, in Colombia’s northern state of Cesar, Wednesday. Diomedes Diaz, one of the greatest performers of Colombia’s accordion vallenato music, died Sunday, Dec 22, 2013, at age 56. — AP

AP: Do you have any new fascinations?

Rossellini: Now we’ve included vegetables because, of course, it’s all the same. We create these categories, as we created male and female. That’s why we don’t have a name for it when it’s in-between.

We have created the category of animal and plants, but it’s the same laws of evolution. So, all of a sudden, I’m interested in plants. — AP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

Chilean miracle

miners back in spotlight-on film A

t the bottom of a dank salt mine in Colombia, a 200-strong film crew featuring Spanish actor Antonio Banderas is reconstructing the incredible tale of 33 miners buried alive for 69 days in Chile in 2010. Actors from multiple countries work in suffocating heat on “The 33,” which traces the unlikely survival of the men trapped deep underground after a collapse at the San Jose copper mine in the Atacama desert. “It’s not just about the physical ordeal these 33 men went through-it’s about the emotional one, of wondering if they would live or die, or if they would go crazy waiting to find out,” Gregg Brilliant, a spokesman for the American film production, told AFP. To depict the incredible story that unfolded more than 600 meters (1,970 feet) underground, the production team chose to film at two sites outside the Colombian capital Bogota. Behind a security cordon, curious onlookers try to catch a glimpse of a star, but their Hollywood hopes are repeatedly dashed. In the salt mines of Nemocon, the humid and musty environment combine with the thin mountain air to recreate the oppressive atmosphere at San Jose, located 800 kilometers (500 miles) north of Chile’s capital Santiago.

The film recounts the story of the mine accident and how all 33 men — 32 Chileans and a Bolivian-eventually escaped in a spectacular rescue operation watched around the world.

Banderas, 53, will play Mario Sepulveda, the charismatic de facto leader of the group. French actress Juliette Binoche, who replaced Jennifer Lopez in the cast, and Americans Martin Sheen and James

Second Gulf Musical Arts Festival kicks off in Doha

T

he Second Gulf Musical Arts Festival kicked off at the Qatar National Theatre in Doha with the participation of 12 singers from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states. “This festival is part of a series of varied cultural events which were held in Doha recently to highlight the importance of the arts in our lives, such as theater, music and singing,” Qatari Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage Hamad Abdul Aziz Al-Kuwari said at the inaugural speech. He went on to say that “The interest in this art is closely linked to confirm the Arab cultural identity we cherish and cultural heritage which we are proud of.”

He pointed out that Qatar had hosted a conference earlier this month, the twenty-second Arab Academy of Music and it ended up with “significant findings and recommendations to promote Arabic music”. “The Gulf Musical Arts Festival today comes to reinforce the same direction and expresses the cohesion and integration among the GCC countries, which confirms the common desire to preserve the Arab and Gulf musical heritage.” AlKuwari noted that the interest in music, singing and the rest of the other arts are part of the full cultural system which finds great interest from the Qatar National Vision 2030 and the National Strategy 2011/2016. — KUNA

Brolin also star in the film.

Under the guidance of Mexican-born American director Patricia Riggen, the actors sweat profusely, keeping makeup artists hard at work before each take.

“The ambiance is real. You don¥t have to act so much,” said Lou Diamond Phillips, who plays Luis Urzua, the mining team’s shift leader nicknamed “Don Lucho” who organized the men’s food supply during their ordeal.

Hard to show weight loss on screen Producers relied heavily on a vast trove of data about the incident, including the miners’ medical reports, to make

View of a large gallery with pools of salt water at a salt mine in Nemocon, Cundinamarca, Colombia. —AFP

Actor Antonio Banderas attends the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute 2013 Gold Medal Gala at The Waldorf Astoria in New York City. — AFP the film as authentic as possible.

Depicting the weight loss of the miners, who survived on tins of tuna and small sips of milk, proved a major obstacle.

Head of makeup Ana Lozano said that

recreating the miners’ emaciated look was her most complicated task. Despite dieting, none of the actors were able to lose as much weight as the men they portrayed. The film crew played with light and shadow effects to mark the outline of the miners’ ribs and experimented with small prosthetic devices to accentuate their eyes.

Latex was used to simulate the redness and peeling of their skin. After filming wraps in Colombia, the team will head in early 2014 to the Atacama desert, Brilliant said. Binoche will make her debut on set in the desert as Dario Segovia’s sister, who organized a

makeshift village near the mine where family and media gathered to await news of the miners. “The film isn’t just about the event itself-it’s about the people, both above and below ground, who held onto their love and their hope to pull them through what seemed like an impossible rescue,” said Brilliant. The movie however will not recount the story’s real-life ending, which is less joyous.

The men’s fame neither lasted nor brought them the fortune for which they had once hoped. “We are like a big family-but with each going his own way,” Urzua, the real “Don Lucho”, told AFP from Chile. — AFP

Japan’s Ozawa vows to weave musical spell as long as health holds

S

eiji Ozawa, one of the world’s most famous music conductors, said yesterday he intended to keep going for years to come, despite frustration that recent ill-health has prevented him from being as active as he used to be. Ozawa, 78, was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in January 2010, which was followed by lower back surgery in January 2011, and has since concentrated his activities in Japan. “I will continue doing everything I have always done - teaching and conducting orchestra until I die,” Ozawa, former director of the Vienna State Opera, told Reuters.

His most recent major appearance was in September, when he conducted the Ravel opera, “The Child and the Spells” at the Saito Kinen Festival in the central Japanese city of Matsumoto. Ozawa, who plans to go skiing later this month near his house in the mountains, will conduct Mozart’s opera, “The Marriage of Figaro”, in four cities in Japan in March.

“Of Mozart’s three biggest operas, the music in “The Marriage of Figaro” is the easiest to understand, and that’s why we chose it,” said Ozawa, with his trademark flowing grey hair and wearing a black jacket and Boston Red Sox tie. A former conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Ozawa participated in a video in October featuring that group and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra before the first game of the World Series between the Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals.

Ozawa happened to be in Boston at the time and watched all the baseball games at Fenway Park, home field for the Red Sox, who won their third World Series since 2004. He said his team had

not won during the nearly three decades he lived in Boston. The “Figaro” production, for the Seiji Ozawa Music Academy Opera Project, will be directed by long-time Ozawa collaborator David Kneuss, and partly conducted by conductor and pianist Ted Taylor. — Reuters

Seiji Ozawa

Lifestyle FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

A tree-sculpting expert winds the rope on branches of trees. — AFP photos A tree-sculpting expert washes to remove soil from roots of ‘macro bonsai’ plants for exports to China and Europe at his farm in Sosa, home to many trees in gardens of the Tokyo metropolis.

‘Tree Town’

Japan’s sculptors make living art W

ith a deft clip here and a gentle tug there, Makoto Ishibashi sculpts trees with the skill of an artisan whose work is far more than just a job. The heir to a centuries-old family business, he creates masterpieces that can turn a pine tree into a work of art that could fetch $40,000. “This tree is a woman-the leaves are soft,” the arborist says of the pine into a triangle at his farm in the city of Sosa. “Trees are my family-they don’t say what they want but they are sending messages about how they want to be shaped.

“The feeling may be one-sided, but I believe that we share something with trees, just like living creatures.” Sosa, a small city about 100 kilometers (60 miles)

Tree-sculpting experts prune pine trees.

east of the Japanese capital, has long been known for supplying many of Tokyo’s expertly manicured gardens and temple grounds with trees that seem like they were shaped by the wind or the weight of snow. That dramatic effect involves chiseling branches to twist and pull them into shape, while keeping the tree alive, a delicate technique called “nomiire”. “Oh, it hurts? Sorry, I’ll do it slowly,” Tadayoshi Udono, an expert in the style, says to one tree as its branch squeaks under the pressure.

Like many traditional crafts, the art of shaping so-called “macro bonsai” treescousins to the smaller and potted bonsaihas been facing tough times. Few among

Tree-sculpting experts prune pine trees. the younger generation are taking up the painstaking profession these days, and some who abandoned the trade as the economy turned sour in recent years.

Yoichiro Sato, 38, has seen colleagues quit and jokes that he was “brainwashed” by relatives to work in a business that has been in his family for four generations.

Sato sees challenges ahead, not least of which the fact that Japanese homeowners are increasingly turning to easy-to-care-for trees instead of those that require expert care. “So, I’m really grateful that people abroad are looking to Japanese garden trees,” he says. Koichi Ebato, chairman of gardening firm Koshuen, agreed times are tough in the densely-populated country of 128 million.

“In Japan, there is no space, and houses are not suited for Japanese gardens anymore. And the economy is bad. Nowadays most of my clients are Chinese,” he says.

Producers are banking on overseas demand. Japan exported about 8.17 billion

yen ($82 million) worth of trees, plants and miniature bonsai last year, up 22 percent from 2011. But it’s a tricky kind of export.

Trees and plants must meet importing countries’ strict quarantine requirements.

And they will spend weeks in refrigerated shipping containers without sunlight or water before reaching markets including China, Taiwan, Singapore, Germany, France, and Britain. Buyers must have deep pockets, and patience. It can take a decade to complete a relatively small tree, while others are a century or more in the making. The 55-year-old Ishibashi, who started when he was 18, recalls his father scolding him for wearing gloves as a beginner.

Gloves, he was told, make the hand less able to complete delicate snipping and trimming worthy of a surgeon. While Ishibashi has come a long way since then, the veteran still thinks he has only scratched the surface. “This job is profound-I won’t learn everything before the end of my life.” — AFP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

People dressed as Santa Claus stand in front of the parliament building in Tbilisi, late on December 25, 2013. Orthodox Christians in Georgia celebrate Christmas on January 7. — AFP

Santa’s sleigh delayed after snags at UPS, FedEx

S

anta’s sleigh didn’t make it in time for Christmas for some this year due to shipping problems at UPS and FedEx. The delays were blamed on poor weather earlier this week in parts of the country as well as overloaded systems. The holiday shopping period this year was shorter than usual, more buying was done online and Americans’ tendency to wait until the last possible second to shop probably didn’t help either.

Neither company said how many packages were delayed but noted it was a small share of overall holiday shipments. While the bulk of consumers’ holiday spending remains at physical stores, shopping online is increasingly popular and outstripping spending growth in stores at the mall. The problems appear to have affected many parts of the country. The Associated Press spoke to people in Alabama, California, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia who didn’t receive presents in time for Christmas.

Many were left with little or no time to make alternative plans. Jeff Cormier and his Dallas family were

among those who ordered gifts that didn’t arrive. He had three separate UPS packages - including two for which he paid extra for expedited shipping - delayed. “I’ve had to apologize to three different people when I thought I had everything wrapped up and good to go way before,” Cormier said. He and his wife are celebrating their baby daughter’s first Christmas and flew in his grandmother from Ohio to join them. Her gift, a customized iPhone cover with a photo of her new great-granddaughter, didn’t come in time for Christmas.

“My wife and I had our presents to open. Our daughter had her presents to open. And my grandma, she didn’t have anything to open,” Cormier said. “We apologize that our customers did not receive their packages on Christmas,” said Natalie Godwin, a spokeswoman for United Parcel Service Inc. Godwin said snow and ice in the Midwest last week and an ice storm that hit Dallas two-anda-half weeks ago were partially to blame. She also said the volume of packages shipped exceeded the capacity of UPS but would not share the number of packages shipped or what the company’s maximum

capacity is.

UPS did not make pickups or deliveries Wednesday. Extra workers were being brought in Wednesday night to the company’s hub in Louisville, Ky, to sort packages for Thursday and Friday delivery, according to Godwin. Godwin said “UPS will honor its peak shipments commitments” to customers who used its air delivery service. Those shipping by ground have no guarantee past Dec. 11. Godwin said she

didn’t know if customers would receive refunds.

However, some FedEx customers are able to pick up packages Christmas Day at their local FedEx Express centers. “We’re sorry that there could be delays and we’re contacting affected customers who have shipments available for pickup,” said Scott Fiedler, a spokesman for FedEx Corp. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, FedEx handled 275 million shipments,

File photo shows package handler Chris Addison arranges packages before loading a delivery truck at a FedEx sorting facility in Kansas City, Mo. — AP

according to Fiedler. Those that were not delivered in time, he said, “would be very few.”

Three people told The Associated Press that when they tracked their packages online, FedEx said deliveries to their homes were attempted but failed because “the business was closed.” During follow-up calls with customer service, they said they learned that the local depot was overwhelmed and didn’t attempt delivery. On Sunday, Eric Swanson ordered a doll for his daughter and a sweater for his wife through Amazon.com and one of its affiliated sites. As an Amazon Prime customer, there was a promise of two day delivery, getting the gifts to his Carmichael, Calif. home just in time for Christmas. One was shipped via UPS, the other FedEx. “I thought it would happen,” Swanson said. Online tracking tools said the packages would arrive by 8 pm Tuesday. Neither did. “My wife understands but my 5-year-old daughter ... I think we’re going to let it be a surprise when it comes,” Swanson said. “Next time, if I need to get a gift and cut it that close, I will just have to enter the fray and go to the mall.” — AP

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

Kuwait

SHARQIA-1 THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY (DIG) JUSTIN BIEBER’S BELIEVE (DIG) GRUDGE MATCH (DIG) JUSTIN BIEBER’S BELIEVE (DIG) GRUDGE MATCH (DIG) GRUDGE MATCH (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

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MUHALAB-1 MANDELA: Long Walk to Freedom (DIG) HOURS (DIG) MANDELA: Long Walk to Freedom (DIG) MANDELA: Long Walk to Freedom (DIG) MUHALAB-2 WALKING WITH DINOSAURS (DIG) GRUDGE MATCH (DIG) WALKING WITH DINOSAURS (DIG) GRUDGE MATCH (DIG) GRUDGE MATCH (DIG) MUHALAB-3 FROZEN (DIG-3D) FROZEN (DIG-3D) 47 RONIN (DIG) 47 RONIN (DIG)

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KNCC PROGRAMME FROM THURSDAY TO WEDNESDAY (26/12/2013 TO 01/01/2014) MANDELA: Long Walk to Freedom (DIG) MANDELA: Long Walk to Freedom (DIG) HAUNTER (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

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MARINA-1 MANDELA: Long Walk to Freedom (DIG) 1:15 PM THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG (DIG) 4:00 PM THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY (DIG) 7:00 PM MANDELA: Long Walk to Freedom (DIG) 9:15 PM MANDELA: Long Walk to Freedom (DIG) 12:05 AM NO SUN+TUE+WED MARINA-2 JUSTIN BIEBER’S BELIEVE (DIG) GRUDGE MATCH (DIG) HOURS (DIG) JUSTIN BIEBER’S BELIEVE (DIG) GRUDGE MATCH (DIG) GRUDGE MATCH (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

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360º- 3 FROZEN (DIG-3D) FROZEN (DIG-3D) FROZEN (DIG-3D) FROZEN (DIG-3D) HATOULY RAGEL ?CE??? ?C?? (DIG) HATOULY RAGEL ?CE??? ?C?? (DIG) AL-KOUT.1 WALKING WITH DINOSAURS (DIG) WALKING WITH DINOSAURS (DIG) WALKING WITH DINOSAURS (DIG) 47 RONIN (DIG) 47 RONIN (DIG) 47 RONIN (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

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AL-KOUT.3 FROZEN (DIG) THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY (DIG) FROZEN (DIG) JUSTIN BIEBER’S BELIEVE (DIG) JUSTIN BIEBER’S BELIEVE (DIG) THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

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BAIRAQ-2 GRUDGE MATCH (DIG) 47 RONIN (DIG) FROZEN (DIG) GRUDGE MATCH (DIG) THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY (DIG) GRUDGE MATCH (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

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BAIRAQ-3 MANDELA: Long Walk to Freedom (DIG) JUSTIN BIEBER’S BELIEVE (DIG) MANDELA: Long Walk to Freedom (DIG) JUSTIN BIEBER’S BELIEVE (DIG) MANDELA: Long Walk to Freedom (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

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PLAZA WALKING WITH DINOSAURS (DIG) SILENCE (DIG) (Malayalam) 47 RONIN (DIG)

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LAILA JUSTIN BIEBER’S BELIEVE (DIG) MANDELA: Long Walk to Freedom (DIG) GRUDGE MATCH (DIG)

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AJIAL.1 DHOOM 3 (DIG) (HINDI) DHOOM 3 (DIG) (HINDI)

6:30 PM 9:45 PM

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AJIAL.3 FROZEN (DIG) WALKING WITH DINOSAURS (DIG) 47 RONIN (DIG)

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METRO-2 SILENCE (DIG) (Malayalam) DHOOM 3 (DIG) (HINDI)

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Te c h n o l o g y FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

Upcoming tech trends that may change the world

By Alvaris Falcon e have seen great leaps in digital technology in the past five years.

Smartphones, cloud computing, multi-touch tablets, these are all innovations that revolutionized the way we live and work. However, believe it or not, we are just getting started. Technology will get even better. In the future, we could live like how people in science fiction movies did.

Today’s post is about 10 upcoming, reallife products that is set to revolutionize the world as we know it. Get ready to control the desktop and slice Ninja fruits with your eyes. Get ready to print your own creative physical product. Get ready to dive into the virtual world, and interact with them. Come unfold the future with us.

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1. Google Glass Augmented reality has already gotten into our life in the forms of simulated experiment and education app, but Google is taking it several steps higher with Google Glass. Theoretically, with Google Glass, you are able to view social media feeds, text, Google Maps, as well as navigate with GPS and take photos. You will also get the latest updates while you are on the ground.

It’s truly what we called vision, and it’s absolutely possible given the fact that the Google’s co-founder, Sergey Brin has demo’ed the glass with skydivers and creatives. Currently the device is only available to some developers with the price tag of $1500, but expect other tech companies trying it out and building an affordable consumer version.

2. Form 1 Just as the term suggests, 3D printing is the technology that could forge your digital design into a solid real-life product. It’s nothing new for the advanced mechanical industry, but a personal 3D printer is definitely a revolutionary idea.

Everybody can create their own physical product based on their custom design, and no approval needed from any giant manufacturer! Even the James Bond’s Aston Martin which was crashed in the movie was a 3D printed product!

Form 1 is one such personal 3D printer which can be yours at just $2,799. It may sound like a high price but to have the luxury of getting producing your own prototypes, that’s a reasonable price. Imagine a future where every individual professional has the capability to mass produce their own creative physical products without limitation. This is the future where personal productivity and creativity are maximized.

3. Oculus Rift Virtual Reality gaming is here in the form of Oculus Rift. This history-defining 3D headset lets you mentally feel that you are actually inside a video game. In the Rift’s virtual world, you could turn your head around with ultra-low latency to view the world in high resolution display.

There are premium products in the market that can do the same, but Rift wants you to enjoy the experience at only $300, and the package even comes as a development

kit. This is the beginning of the revolution for next-generation gaming.

The timing is perfect as the world is currently bombarded with the virtual reality topic that could also be attributed to Sword Art Online, the anime series featuring the characters playing games in an entirely virtual world. While we’re getting there, it could take a few more years to reach that level of realism. Oculus Rift is our first step.

4. Leap Motion Multi-touch desktop is a (miserably) failed product due to the fact that hands could get very tired with prolonged use, but Leap Motion wants to challenge this dark area again with a more advanced idea.

It lets you control the desktop with fingers, but without touching the screen.

It’s not your typical motion sensor, as Leap Motion allows you to scroll the web page, zoom in the map and photos, sign documentss and even play a first person

done in LeWeb this year and we may actually be able to see it in in action in mobile devices in 2013.

Currently the company is still seeking partnership to bring this sci-fi tech into the consumer market but you and I know that this product is simply too awesome to fail.

Android-compatible phones, and the impression so far, is great. You can use the OS to do essential tasks you do on iOS or Android: calling friends, browsing web, taking photos, playing games, they are all possible on Firefox OS, set to rock the smartphone market.

6. SmartThings The current problem that most devices have is that they function as a standalone being, and it require effort for tech competitors to actually partner with each other and build products that can truly connect with each other. SmartThings is here to make your every device, digital or non-digital, connect together and benefit you.

With SmartThings you can get your smoke alarms, humidity, pressure and vibration sensors to detect changes in your house and alert you through your smartphone! Imagine the possibilities with this.

You could track who’s been inside your

8. Project Fiona Meet the first generation of the gaming tablet. Razer’s Project Fiona is a serious gaming tablet built for hardcore gaming.

Once it’s out, it will be the frontier for the future tablets, as tech companies might want to build their own tablets, dedicated towards gaming, but for now Fiona is the only possible one that will debut in 2013.

This beast features next generation Intel(r) Core i7 processor geared to render all your favorite PC games, all at the palm of your hands. Crowned as the best gaming accessories manufacturer, Razer clearly knows how to build user experience straight into the tablet, and that means 3axis gyro, magnetometer, accelerometer and full-screen user interface supporting multi-touch. My body and soul are ready.

9. Parallella Parallella is going to change the way that computers are made, and Adapteva offers you chance to join in on this revolution.

Simply put, it’s a supercomputer for everyone. Basically, an energy-efficient computer built for processing complex software simultaneously and effectively. Real-time object tracking, holographic heads-up display, speech recognition will become even stronger and smarter with Parallella.

The project has been successfully funded so far, with an estimated delivery date of February 2013. For a mini supercomputer, the price seems really promising since it’s magically $99! It’s not recommended for the non-programmer and non-Linux user, but the kit is loaded with development software to create your personal projects. I never thought the future of computing could be kick-started with just $99, which is made possible using crowdfunding platforms.

shooter game with only hand and finger movements. The smooth reaction is the most crucial key point here. More importantly, you can own this future with just $70, a price of a premium PS3 game title!

If this device could completely work with Oculus Rift to simulate a real-time gaming experience, gaming is going to get a major make-over.

5. Eye Tribe Eye tracking has been actively discussed by technology enthusiasts throughout these years, but it’s really challenging to implement. But Eye Tribe actually did this.

They successfully created the technology to allow you to control your tablet, play flight simulator, and even slice fruits in Fruit Ninja only with your eye movements.

It’s basically taking the common eyetracking technology and combining it with a front-facing camera plus some serious computer-vision algorithm, and voila, fruit slicing done with the eyes! A live demo was

house, turn on the lights while you’re entering a room, shut windows and doors when you leave the house, all with the help of something that only costs $500! Feel like a tech lord in your castle with this marvel.

7. Firefox OS iOS and Android are great, but they each have their own rules and policies that certainly inhibit the creative efforts of developers. Mozilla has since decided to build a new mobile operating system from scratch, one that will focus on true openness, freedom and user choice. It’s Firefox OS. Firefox OS is built on Gonk, Gecko and Gaia software layers - for the rest of us, it means it is built on open source, and it carries web technologies such as HTML5 and CSS3.

Developers can create and debut web apps without the blockade of requirements set by app stores, and users could even customize the OS based on their needs.

Currently the OS has made its debut on

10. Google Driverless Car I could still remember the day I watch the iRobot as a teen, and being skeptical about my brother’s statement that one day, the driverless car will become reality. And it’s now a reality, made possible by... a search engine company, Google. While the data source is still a secret recipe, the Google driverless car is powered by artificial intelligence that utilizes the input from the video cameras inside the car, a sensor on the vehicle’s top, and some radar and position sensors attached to different positions of the car. Sounds like a lot of effort to mimic the human intelligence in a car, but so far the system has successfully driven 1,609 kilometres without human commands!

“You can count on one hand the number of years it will take before ordinary people can experience this.” Google co-founder, Sergey Brin said. However, innovation is an achievement, consumerization is the headache, as Google currently face the challenge to forge the system into an affordable gem that every worker with an average salary could benefit from. www.hongkiat.com

Stars

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

Aries (March 21-April 19)

You can be a little stubborn, and it seems that you're in the process of giving a wonderful demonstration of this. You can be a little slow when you need to move, but once you get started, it's very hard to get you to stop! Still, there's nothing terribly difficult about making the necessary adjustments. You need to give yourself time.

Taurus (April 20-May 20)

You may feel like you can no longer explore your inner feelings, but you must persevere. You have a tremendous capacity to bury problems deeply, and you can go through life obliviously surfing on top of them. It's true that this strategy allows you to remain in a good mood. But you may never be in such a good mood that you're profoundly happy. Wouldn't you agree?

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

You're in the process of changing directions in your professional life. This can't be done in a day. It's sometimes painful. Things will be going slowly and require you to think and confront yourself honestly. Don't run away even if you're tempted to do so. Trust that you aren't far from your goal.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

You'll have to demonstrate your endurance today. Much is required of you, and you have no choice but to make the contribution expected of you. There's no way around it. You're a key player in the events swirling around you. Surely you've noticed. Much as you'd like to take off for a vacation, you can't do it now.

Leo (July 23-August 22)

You may have some very good ideas relating to your professional field, but do you have complete mastery of them? If not, accept the fact that you can still learn from courses or experts in your field. It won't kill you to be guided a bit. Stop doubting or criticizing what others propose to you.

Virgo (August 23-September 22)

There may be some worries nagging at you. Perhaps you have a financial concern or minor health complaint. Don't let it get you down. You have the inner resources to overcome it.

Although the current state of affairs has you feeling gloomy, your optimism will return soon. Until then, put your trust in other values, such as love, friendship, and faith.

COUNTRY CODES Libra (September 23-October 22)

You may feel somewhat grumpy and sluggish, like you have an energy deficit. But the oppressive mood of today will also lend objectivity and reality to any examination you make of what's happening in your life. For example, any matter that fails to elicit your enthusiasm is probably due for some changes.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21)

The mood is somewhat oppressive today. If you could, you'd send away anyone who tries to put obstacles in your path. Or maybe you'd prefer to go away yourself! The day ahead is good for a realistic test of the waters. How far do you think you can go with your individual potential, emotionally and professionally?

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21)

You've decided to blow the whistle on yourself! All of a sudden it's obvious that you're not performing as well as you should be. It's time to put your self-discipline to work. You may change your work methods, budget your money more carefully, or diversify your activities. Perhaps you'll reorganize your work team. All sorts of solutions are available to you.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)

Career or family? Social recognition or personal gratification?

You may feel torn between two poles and spend the better part of the day searching for answers to such questions. Now you're trying to keep all the bases covered, but the weariness you feel on days like this is a hint that you need to make some wise, realistic changes for the future.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18)

You'll have to deal with some internal and external conflict.

Often you're so happy to be lost in your dreams that you don't really focus on what's going on in the real world. But today alarm bells relating either to work or finances rudely awaken you. It's useless to panic. You've learned that running away only worsens the situation.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

Your legendary impatience is playing tricks on you. You're in too much of a hurry. You may have changed things on the outside but you haven't changed who you really are. Resist the temptation to sweep everything away to start all over again. If you did, in a few months you'd just be back where you started.

Think about a better approach.

Afghanistan 0093 Albania 00355 Algeria 00213 Andorra 00376 Angola 00244 Anguilla 001264 Antiga 001268 Argentina 0054 Armenia 00374 Australia 0061 Austria 0043 Bahamas 001242 Bahrain 00973 Bangladesh 00880 Barbados 001246 Belarus 00375 Belgium 0032 Belize 00501 Benin 00229 Bermuda 001441 Bhutan 00975 Bolivia 00591 Bosnia 00387 Botswana 00267 Brazil 0055 Brunei 00673 Bulgaria 00359 Burkina 00226 Burundi 00257 Cambodia 00855 Cameroon 00237 Canada 001 Cape Verde 00238 Cayman Islands 001345 Central African Republic 00236 Chad 00235 Chile 0056 China 0086 Colombia 0057 Comoros 00269 Congo 00242 Cook Islands 00682 Costa Rica 00506 Croatia 00385 Cuba 0053 Cyprus 00357 Cyprus (Northern) 0090392 Czech Republic 00420 Denmark 0045 Diego Garcia 00246 Djibouti 00253 Dominica 001767 Dominican Republic 001809 Ecuador 00593 Egypt 0020 El Salvador 00503 England (UK) 0044 Equatorial Guinea 00240 Eritrea 00291 Estonia 00372 Ethiopia 00251 Falkland Islands 00500 Faroe Islands 00298 Fiji 00679 Finland 00358 France 0033 French Guiana 00594 French Polynesia 00689 Gabon 00241 Gambia 00220 Georgia 00995 Germany 0049 Ghana 00233 Gibraltar 00350 Greece 0030 Greenland 00299 Grenada 001473 Guadeloupe 00590 Guam 001671 Guatemala 00502 Guinea 00224 Guyana 00592 Haiti 00509 Holland (Netherlands)0031 Honduras 00504 Hong Kong 00852 Hungary 0036 Ibiza (Spain) 0034 Iceland 00354 India 0091 Indian Ocean 00873 Indonesia 0062 Iran 0098 Iraq 00964 Ireland 00353 Italy 0039 Ivory Coast 00225 Jamaica 001876 Japan 0081 Jordan 00962 Kazakhstan 007 Kenya 00254 Kiribati 00686

Kuwait 00965 Kyrgyzstan 00996 Laos 00856 Latvia 00371 Lebanon 00961 Liberia 00231 Libya 00218 Lithuania 00370 Luxembourg 00352 Macau 00853 Macedonia 00389 Madagascar 00261 Majorca 0034 Malawi 00265 Malaysia 0060 Maldives 00960 Mali 00223 Malta 00356 Marshall Islands 00692 Martinique 00596 Mauritania 00222 Mauritius 00230 Mayotte 00269 Mexico 0052 Micronesia 00691 Moldova 00373 Monaco 00377 Mongolia 00976 Montserrat 001664 Morocco 00212 Mozambique 00258 Myanmar (Burma) 0095 Namibia 00264 Nepal 00977 Netherlands (Holland)0031 Netherlands Antilles 00599 New Caledonia 00687 New Zealand 0064 Nicaragua 00505 Nigar 00227 Nigeria 00234 Niue 00683 Norfolk Island 00672 Northern Ireland (UK)0044 North Korea 00850 Norway 0047 Oman 00968 Pakistan 0092 Palau 00680 Panama 00507 Papua New Guinea 00675 Paraguay 00595 Peru 0051 Philippines 0063 Poland 0048 Portugal 00351 Puerto Rico 001787 Qatar 00974 Romania 0040 Russian Federation 007 Rwanda 00250 Saint Helena 00290 Saint Kitts 001869 Saint Lucia 001758 Saint Pierre 00508 Saint Vincent 001784 Samoa US 00684 Samoa West 00685 San Marino 00378 Sao Tone 00239 Saudi Arabia 00966 Scotland (UK) 0044 Senegal 00221 Seychelles 00284 Sierra Leone 00232 Singapore 0065 Slovakia 00421 Slovenia 00386 Solomon Islands 00677 Somalia 00252 South Africa 0027 South Korea 0082 Spain 0034 Sri Lanka 0094 Sudan 00249 Suriname 00597 Swaziland 00268 Sweden 0046 Switzerland 0041 Syria 00963 Taiwan 00886 Tanzania 00255 Thailand 0066 Toga 00228 Tonga 00676 Tokelau 00690 Trinidad 001868 Tunisia 00216 Turkey 0090 Tuvalu 00688 Uganda 00256 Ukraine 00380 United Arab Emirates00976

L e i s u re

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

Word Search

Yesterdayʼs Solution

C R O S S W O R D 4 1 1

ACROSS 1. Thickening of tissue in the motor tracts of the lateral columns and anterior horns of the spinal cord.

4. Siberian peasant monk who was religious advisor in the court of Nicholas II. 12. A byproduct of inflammation.

15. (British) A waterproof raincoat made of rubberized fabric.

16. A complex mental state involving beliefs and feelings and values and dispositions to act in certain ways.

17. Of or relating to a member of the Buddhist people inhabiting the Mekong river in Laos and Thailand.

18. An undergarment worn by women to support their breasts.

19. Someone who cuts or beautifies hair.

20. A major European river carrying more traffic than any other river in the world.

22. A state in south central United States.

24. Not clearly understood or expressed.

25. A Mid-Atlantic state.

26. Someone skilled in the use of a rifle.

28. The 17th letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

30. Any character from an ancient Germanic alphabet used in Scandinavia from the 3rd century to the Middle Ages.

32. An intensely radioactive metallic element that occurs in minute amounts in uranium ores.

33. Made agreeably cold (especially by ice).

37. Have an ambitious plan or a lofty goal.

42. United States musician (born in Japan) who married John Lennon and collaborated with him on recordings (born in 1933).

43. Characterized by speed.

44. Indicated by necessary connotation though not expressed directly.

45. A port in southern Lebanon on the Mediterranean Sea. 46. An independent agency of the United States government responsible for collecting and coordinating intelligence and counterintelligence activities abroad in the national interest.

47. The longer of the two telegraphic signals used in Morse code.

48. A great waterfall on the border between Brazil and Paraguay.

50. An obsolete firearm with a long barrel.

54. Covered with an awning.

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

57. Fish-eating bird of warm inland waters having a long flexible neck and slender sharp-pointed bill.

59. Cancel, annul, or reverse an action or its effect.

61. A circumscribed inflammatory and often suppurating lesion on the skin or an internal mucous surface resulting in necrosis of tissue.

63. Be going to.

66. Title for a civil or military leader (especially in Turkey).

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

71. The highest level or degree attainable.

74. Of or relating to Iran or its people or language or culture.

76. Large northern deer with enormous flattened antlers in the male.

77. A cut of pork ribs with much of the meat trimmed off.

79. A nucleic acid that transmits genetic information from DNA to the cytoplasm.

80. A beverage made by steeping tea leaves in water.

81. A river in northeastern Brazil that flows generally northward to the Atlantic Ocean.

82. A doctor's degree in dental surgery.

Daily SuDoku

DOWN 1. A platform raised above the surrounding level to give prominence to the person on it.

2. North American yellow-breasted songbirds.

3. A burn cause by hot liquid or steam.

4. Imprudently incurring risk.

5. A professional person authorized to practice law.

6. A situation in golf where an opponent's ball blocks the line between your ball and the hole.

7. Rice cooked in well-seasoned broth with onions or celery and usually poultry or game or shellfish and sometimes tomatoes.

8. A member of the Shoshonean people of Utah and Colorado and New Mexico.

9. Widely cultivated tropical plant of India having yellow flowers and a large aromatic deep yellow rhizome.

10. A state in the Rocky Mountains.

11. Emperor of Rome who introduced a degree of freedom after the repressive reign of Domitian.

12. Large swift fly the female of which sucks blood of various animals.

13. Radioactive iodine test that measures the amount of radioactive iodine taken up by the thyroid gland.

14. Cornbread often made without milk or eggs and baked or fried (Southern).

21. A Loloish language.

23. The lofty nest of a bird of prey (such as a hawk or eagle).

27. Evil or harmful in nature or influence.

29. The act of detecting something.

31. Goddess of fate.

34. Sign jointly.

35. Made tough by habitual exposure.

36. A constellation in the southern hemisphere near Reticulum and Pictor.

38. Small beads made from polished shells and formerly used as money by native Americans.

39. The 7th letter of the Greek alphabet.

40. Shrubby tree widely distributed along tropical shores.

41. Small ornamental ladies' bag for small articles.

49. (zoology) Relating to frogs and toads.

51. Any of numerous local fertility and nature deities worshipped by ancient Semitic peoples.

52. Release from a clasp.

53. Psychoactive substance present in marijuana.

55. A language of Australian aborigines.

58. A state in midwestern United States.

60. A coffee cake flavored with orange rind and raisins and almonds.

62. A member of an American Indian peoples of NE South America and the Lesser Antilles.

64. Exhibiting or restored to vigorous good health.

65. The capital of Switzerland.

67. Prepare for a military confrontation.

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

69. Type genus of the Anatidae.

72. An accountant certified by the state.

73. The month following February and preceding April.

75. A loose sleeveless outer garment made from aba cloth.

78. (Akkadian) God of wisdom.

Yesterdayʼs Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

Sports FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

King James reigns as Heat enjoy Xmas Warriors overpower Clippers 105-103 LOS ANGELES: Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade scored 23 points each as the Miami Heat beat the Los Angeles Lakers 101-95 on Wednesday for their sixth straight win. Bosh also had 11 rebounds in the Heat’s fifth consecutive victory against the Lakers in a Christmas Day game.

LeBron James added 19 points and Ray Allen had 12. Miami shot 51 percent (41 for 80) from the field while improving to 7-0 against the Western Conference this season. It was its 19th straight win overall against West opponents. Nick Young scored 20 points for the Lakers, who were tied four times in the fourth quarter. Los Angeles shot 42 percent (33 for 79) in its third straight loss. Kobe Bryant was relegated to the sideline with his fractured left knee, leaving him unable to extend his NBArecord Christmas Day appearances to 16.

Jodie Meeks had 17 points for Los Angeles, Xavier Henry added 14, and Pau Gasol had 13 points and 13 rebounds. Jordan Farmar returned from a left hamstring tear after missing 10 games, giving the Lakers a true point guard to run the offense. But he was ineffective, with three points and two assists in 32 minutes.

WARRIORS 105, CLIPPERS 103 The coaches can downplay a rivalry all they want. The signs of dislike and fiery competition are right there on the court, with the players involved. An all-California Christmas nightcap got heated in a hurry. Flailing arms, swinging elbows, even tussling that spilled into the postgame exit with Stephen Jackson mouthing off in the middle of it all. Golden State’s Draymond Green was ejected for a flagrant 2 foul after the third quarter of the Warriors’ 105-103 win Wednesday night for throwing an elbow on a play that drew a technical on Blake Griffin, then Griffin followed him to the locker room with 10:43 remaining when he drew his second technical.

The thing is: The Clippers questioned whether Golden State did all it could to ignite Griffin and get him thrown out. If this isn’t a rivalry, it’s darn close. “I still believe this isn’t a rivalry because neither one of us have done anything,” Golden State coach Mark Jackson said. “It was two teams playing with an edge competing against each other.” That’s not quite how Griffin and Clippers coach Doc Rivers saw it. “If you look at it, I didn’t do anything and I got thrown out of the game. It all boils down to they (referees) fell for it,” Griffin said. “To me, it’s cowardly basketball. I don’t know their intentions, but it worked. ... If I knew the answer I’d probably be in a different position. Tonight I got two technicals for nothing.”

With Griffin gone, the Clippers missed several key chances in the waning moments. Klay Thompson blocked a shot by Chris Paul with 1 second left then contested Jamal Crawford’s 3-pointer that fell short at the final buzzer as the Warriors rallied in the second half. Griffin was ejected for his second technical after scuffling with Andrew Bogut, following Green to the showers. Paul’s lay-in with 11.9 seconds left went around the rim and out, but Andre Iguodala missed a pair of free throws with 9.3 seconds remaining. That gave the Clippers the ball back with 8.3 seconds to go. Stephen Curry overcame a slow start to score seven of his 15 points over the final 3:01 to go with 11 assists as Golden State snapped the Pacific Division-leading Clippers’ season-best fivegame winning streak. Thompson finished with 23 points and David Lee had 23 points and 13 rebounds. When the game ended, players tan-

LOS ANGELES: Miami Heat center Chris Bosh (top) blocks a shot by Los Angeles Lakers forward Xavier Henry during the second half of an NBA basketball game in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Dec 25, 2013. — AP gled near the tunnel to the Clippers’ locker room and security personnel stepped in - and former Warriors swingman Jackson could be seen screaming in the fray. Whether the Warriors intended to ignite Griffin, Rivers can only guess. “I don’t know if they were but it sure looked like it. I can’t accuse them of that but it looked like it. I’m not sure but that’s what it looked like,” Rivers said. “It’s whatever you have to do to win, I guess.”

This one sure was feisty and festive from the opening tipoff at sold-out Oracle Arena, where fans wore “Christmas Whiteout” snowflake Warriors T-shirts for the holiday occasion. Paul had 26 points and 11 assists as he and Curry put on a late-game show between two of the Western Conference’s top point guards. Griffin added 20 points, 14 rebounds and five assists before his early exit.

Bogut added 10 points and 14 rebounds. Both Rivers and Jackson said before the game this can’t truly be a rivalry until both teams are consistent contenders year after year.

It’s certainly getting testy enough to be close to such status. And they see each other twice more. The Clippers come back Jan 30.

“We like them. Merry Christmas,” Jackson said jokingly. “It’s just physical basketball, so we don’t get caught up in that. ... It’s good, oldfashioned basketball between two teams that

are playing for something.” Griffin was held back by teammates at the end of the third quarter while jawing with Green. Following a review, Griffin received a technical and Green was ejected for a flagrant foul 2 after throwing an elbow. “You have some key matchups in the game where guys want to go at each other,” Green said. “Any time you have that, you’re going to have a tough, hard-nosed game.” Then, officials went to review once more to look at a tussle between Griffin and Bogut. Griffin left the game while Bogut was hit with a flagrant 1 and a technical.

THUNDER 123, KNICKS 94 Kevin Durant scored 29 points and Russell Westbrook had a triple-double by the middle of the third quarter as Oklahoma rolled past New York, which played without Carmelo Anthony. The Durant-Anthony showdown between the NBA’s top two scorers was canceled because of Anthony’s sprained left ankle, so the Thunder had the Christmas spotlight to themselves while winning for the 10th time in 11 games. The 29-point victory was the largest for a road team on Christmas.

Westbrook finished with 14 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists in his first triple-double of the season and seventh of his career.

Serge Ibaka added 24 points on 10-of-14

shooting. Amare Stoudemire scored a seasonhigh 22 points, and Tim Hardaway Jr. had 21 for the Knicks, who also were missing point guard Raymond Felton. J.R. Smith scored 20 points, but shot 8 for 22 and was booed when he left the court for good.

ROCKETS 111, SPURS 98 James Harden scored 28 points and Dwight Howard had 15 points and 20 rebounds, leading balanced Houston past San Antonio. Each of Houston’s starters scored in double figures to help the Rockets improve to 2-0 against the Spurs this season. Chandler Parsons and Terrence Jones each scored 21 points, and Jeremy Lin had 13 points, eight assists and only one turnover. Manu Ginobili led San Antonio with 22 points.

BULLS 95, NETS 78 Taj Gibson scored 20 points and Jimmy Butler added 15 to help Chicago rout Brooklyn. Butler keyed a 21-5 run that gave Chicago control in the third quarter.

Returning from a right ankle injury that sidelined him a game, Butler started the burst with a 3-pointer and had a three-point play that made it 57-52. Deron Williams scored 18 points for Brooklyn. The Nets have lost four straight. — Agencies

Sports FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

Pietersen curbs instincts in England crawl MELBOURNE: Kevin Pietersen played a cautious out-of-character innings and lived a charmed life as English wickets clattered around him on an attritional opening day of the dead-rubber fourth Ashes Test against Australia yesterday.

Pietersen, under fire for his unproductive batting in England’s troubled series, curbed his natural attacking instincts to keep the pressing Australians at bay before a crowd of 91,092, the highest single-day attendance for any Test match.

Pietersen went to stumps unbeaten on a fighting 67 off 152 balls, with Tim Bresnan on one in England’s 226 for six. In doing so Pietersen passed Geoff Boycott as the fourth all-time England run-getter.

“I think he’s outstanding. He does play an aggressive game and sometimes, like at the WACA (Perth Test), he gets caught at long on, it doesn’t look particularly great,” teammate Ian Bell said. “But the number of games he’s won us in the past, there’s not many cricketers like him in world cricket.

“Tomorrow morning if you wanted one guy to go out there in the middle to try to get us up to a competitive score, it would be KP.” The subdued Pietersen had some luck along the way and denied the impressive Ryan Harris both times, as England were pinned down by a disciplined Australian bowling attack on a slow scoring day at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Pietersen, who took 12 balls to get off the mark, had some good fortune on six when he was caught by fielding

substitute Nathan Coulter-Nile at deep backward square leg off Harris.

But Coulter-Nile was unable to stay within the field of play in taking the catch, staggering over the boundary marker, and Pietersen was awarded a six instead.

He had a second “life” on 41 when George Bailey had two goes in a fumbling attempt at a catch off Harris at mid-wicket. Harris, who was superb leading the Australian attack, ended a threatening 67run partnership when he got Bell to nick an outswinger to Brad Haddin for 27 off 98 balls in the 73rd over.

During his innings Bell joined Michael Clarke in passing 1,000 runs for the calen-

dar year. Perth Test centurion Ben Stokes fell late in the day when he edged to Shane Watson at slip off Mitchell Johnson for 14. He he was followed by Jonny Bairstow, replacing Matt Prior but bowled by a Johnson snorter for 10. “We know if we bowl like we did today we’re going to have days like that, where they’re not going to score many runs because we’re putting so much pressure on them and they’re not scoring,” Harris said.

The Australians’ tight bowling line restricted the English scoring and extracted the wickets of opener Michael Carberry and Joe Root in the middle session. Carberry shouldered arms and lost

Scoreboard MELBOURNE: Scoreboard at the close on the first day of the fourth Ashes Test between Australia and England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground yesterday: England 1st innings: Alastair Cook c Clarke b Siddle 27 Michael Carberryb Watson 38 Joe Root c Haddin b Harris 24 Kevin Pietersennot out 67 Ian BellC Haddin b Harris 27 Ben Stokes c Watson b Johnson 14 Jonny Bairstow b Johnson 10 Tim Bresnan not out 1 Extras (b10, lb6, w1, 1nb) 18 Total (6 wkts; 89 overs) 226 Fall of wickets: 1-48 (Cook), 2-96 (Carberry), 3-106 (Root), 4-173 (Bell),

5-202 (Stokes), 6-216 (Bairstow) Bowling: Harris 20-8-32-2, Johnson 20-2-59-2 (1w), Siddle 22-7-48-1 (1nb), Lyon 20.2-3-60-0, Watson 6.42-11-1 To bat: Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Monty Panesar.

Toss: Australia Crowd: 91,092 Umpires: Aleem Dar (PAK), Kumar Dharmasena (SRI) TV umpire: Billy Bowden (NZL) Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (SRI)

his off-stump to Watson for 38 to waste another good start. Carberry, who was dropped in the slips on two, had done all the hard work but was beaten by terrific movement off the pitch from Watson in the 34th over of the innings. In nine Test innings he has been out six times between 30 and 43. Harris removed Root with an outswinger, enticing an edge to Haddin for 24 off 82 balls in the 43rd over.

Watson’s well-catalogued injury jinx struck again when he was unable to complete his seventh over late in the middle session and left the ground for treatment for a right groin problem. He returned to the field late in the day to take the catch to dismiss Stokes. Australian captain Michael Clarke-with an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series and the Ashes already recovered-won the toss and sent the troubled tourists in to bat under overcast skies.

England got to first-hour drinks without losing a wicket but lost skipper Alastair Cook three overs later when he nibbled at Peter Siddle and was caught by Clarke at second slip for 27. In the 19 tosses Clarke has had as Australia skipper it was only the fourth time he has put the opposing team into bat. England dropped vice-captain Prior and named Bairstow as wicketkeeper, while Monty Panesar was chosen as the specialist spinner following the shock mid-series retirement of Graeme Swann. In contrast Australia named an unchanged side for the fourth consecutive Test. — AFP

King Kallis - The quiet conqueror steps down DURBAN: Jacques Kallis was never one for displays of emotion or grand speeches. Instead, he preferred to move quietly, even serenely, through an 18-year test career that established him as arguably the greatest allrounder of cricket’s modern era. His expressions were mostly concealed by his helmet while batting or by his sunglasses and trademark wide-brimmed sun hat when South Africa was fielding.

On the occasions when he scored one of his 44 test centuries or took one of his nearly-300 wickets before announcing his retirement earlier this week, he would flash his toothy grin in acknowledgement or raise an arm up in celebration.

In interviews, the broad-shouldered allrounder who could dominate bowlers with seemingly effortless cover drives and bounce out the best batsmen with fierce, heavy short balls was surprisingly soft-spoken.

For much of his career, Kallis was strangely never adored in South Africa the way Sachin Tendulkar was in India or Don Bradman was in Australia. And yet his worth to his country’s test team over his career has been just as valuable, perhaps more. South Africa will miss him now. It was Kallis’ introspective approach that probably didn’t always win over the supporters, but his teammates and opponents rated his value as a player and a person as priceless. And his achievements spoke volumes.

He scored match-winning hundreds and took partnership-breaking wickets in abundance, and buckets of test catches as one of the most dependable slip fielders in the game. Only Tendulkar has made more test centuries. And when it came to batting allrounders, no one could touch Kallis for his additional contribution with the ball. His batting average is better than the “Little Master” Tendulkar and his bowling average on a par with front-line quicks such as England’s James Anderson and India’s Zaheer Khan.

Kallis will retire from test cricket after South Africa’s second test against India, which started yesterday at Durban, and his country will soon doubtless realize how rare a cricketer he was. “Although we all knew the retirement of a great player like Jacques Kallis was going to happen, his decision

still comes as a blow when the reality dawns,” Cricket South Africa chief executive Haroon Lorgat said.

South Africa coach Russell Domingo paid tribute, more than anything, to Kallis’ influence in the dressing room, revealing a lesser-known side to a player who was sometimes criticized, unfairly, for playing slowly and selfishly. “Jacques’ calmness, maturity and presence in the change room will sorely be missed and hopefully he will still be able to play a role in this team’s success in the near future,” Domingo said.

For a player who rarely was animated on the field, Kallis’ influence on those around him was immense, and he seemingly didn’t need many words to exercise it. When he did speak, it was often in a manner that was understated, incisive and, crucially, valuable. Former South Africa captain Shaun Pollock recently told a story about a Kallis comment in the dressing room after South Africa had conceded a then world-record 434 runs to Australia in a limited-overs international at Johannesburg’s famously high-scoring Wanderers ground. As the South Africans trudged into the dressing room desperately downcast, Kallis said: “Right, the bowlers have done their job, they’re 10 runs short,” Pollock recalled. The mood was instantly lightened, Pollock said, and South Africa won the game by scoring a new-record 438 in what is widely considered the best ODI game ever. Kallis’ teammates paid glowing tribute on social media following his retirement announcement, praising him as the best cricketer ever, South Africa’s best sportsman and a “legend” of the game.

Batsman Faf du Plessis wrote: “What an honor sharing a changeroom with the greatest cricketer of all time.” Captain Graeme Smith even expressed his brotherly “love” for Kallis.

In typical fashion, Kallis didn’t immediately post any messages about his retirement, happy instead to let his wondrous achievements - and others - do most of the talking.

There was one comment from Kallis in the statement announcing his upcoming retirement after his 166th test that stood out, though: “I feel that I have made my contribution in this format.” In his own way, that summed it up perfectly. — AP

DURBAN: South Africa’s Jacques Kallis waves to the crowd in his last match before retirement during Day 1 of the second Cricket Test Match between India and South Africa at the SAHARA Stadium, Kingsmead in Durban yesterday. — AFP

44

Sports FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

Qatar determined to take heat out of hosting DOHA: The debate may be raging over whether the 2022 World Cup finals in Qatar should be switched to the winter, but one party content to stick with the original summer dates are the local organizers themselves. FIFA president Sepp Blatter has launched a consultation process over whether the football showpiece should be moved so as not to endanger players’ and fans’ health in the unbearable summer heat that can reach 50 degrees celsius.

Organizers, though, are adamant they can come through with their plans to keep the stadia cool. “We have always said that we can organize the World Cup in summer,” said Hassan Al Thawadi, secretary-general of the organizing committee, at the recent Doha Goals forum. “But if the world of football or FIFA wants to hold it in winter, we will be delighted and ready to. But if they want it in summer, we are also ready.”

With work due to get underway on the first stadium Al Wakrah, 20 kilometers from Doha, in a few weeks, air conditioning will be one of the primary features of the building. The organizers are aiming for temperatures of 2526 degrees celsius with the aid of the air conditioning. “Air conditioning will be in both the

stadia and on the training grounds,” a source close to the organizing committee said. “To make it air conditioned is not that difficult. The real challenge, is to consume the least amount of energy possible. “We are reflecting on the questions over shade and sunlight, the time of the kick-offs, etc,” he added. However, not all are convinced that top class athletes would suffer playing in such hot temperatures.

Sebastien Racinais, a French physiologist living in Qatar, told AFP that there are many examples of athletes defying high temperatures and even posting performances that are better than those under more clement conditions. “There are many examples which show that it is possible to play sport in extreme weather conditions,” he said.

HEAT AND HUMIDITY “We spoke a lot about the heat and humidity of Beijing ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games. “It was written that it would be impossible to run the men’s marathon in under three hours. “The race was won in 2hr 06min (2hr 06min 32sec by the now deceased Kenyan Kenneth Wanjiru), breaking the Olympic record by three minutes.” Racinais said if the teams prepared correctly there

Newcastle show no mercy to 9-man Stoke NEWCASTLE: Newcastle’s outstanding form continued yesterday as they racked up Newcastle 5 their seventh win in nine games by beating nine-man Stoke 5-1 at St James Park for what was their 200th home Stoke 1 win in the Premier League.

Stoke, who came into the game unbeaten in four, had led early on only for the match to be turned on its head as Glen Whelan and Marc Wilson were sent off within minutes of each other in the first-half while manager Mark Hughes also was sent to the stands by referee Martin Atkinson.

Newcastle’s victory-all their goals scored by non English players leaving it a year to the day since an Englishman James Perch scored for them against Manchester United-leaves them in sixth but just a point off Everton, who lost 1-0 to Sunderland yesterday. Stoke took the lead in the 29th minute through a superb individual effort by Oussama Assaidi. Assaidi, on loan from Liverpool, came in off the left wing, beat one man with a cheeky feint, and lashed a fierce shot into the top far hand corner leaving Tim Krul well beaten. However, that was as good as it got for Stoke as they did their best to hand Newcastle the three points. First Ireland international midfielder Whelan was sent off for a second bookable offence, a dreadful foul on Yohan Cabaye in the 39th minute. Hughes also received his marching orders from Atkinson for his reaction to the decision. Three minutes later Wilson joined Whelan in the dressing room when he pulled back Cabaye’s French compatriot Loic Remy and as the last defender Atkinson had no option but to send him off and award a penalty.

However, Remy failed to slot home the penalty, his soft effort was easily saved by Danish ‘keeper Thomas Sorensen.

Remy, though, redeemed himself almost immediately as another of Newcastle’s French imports Hatem Ben Arfa found him unmarked in the penalty area and the former Marseille striker slotted the ball home. If Stoke hoped Newcastle would be in a Christmas mood after the break they were soon to be disabused.

Ben Arfa took possession, although some thought the ball went out, got to the byline and his cross eventually fell to Yoan Gouffran, who fired home for his sixth Premier League goal of the season. Ben Arfa was totally justifying his recall to the starting side-he came on as a substitute in the win over Crystal Palace last weekend and scored from the penalty spot-and went close to a deserved goal for himself but his long range shot came back off the post. —AFP

would be little difference in the effects of heat for the players. “The players are going to have to adapt to the heat by training in a hot environment,” he said. “Some of them will adapt very quickly, other more slowly. “The average time for adapting will be between 10 days and two weeks. If you compare matches played in a temperate environment and a hot one, the findings are that the level of tiredness at the end of the match and the recovery period is the same .. 24 to 48 hours.

“Thus the teams are going to have to adapt their recuperation routines but will be able to play games at the same rate as usual. “They won’t be able to cover as much ground as usual in matches but they will be able to sprint at their normal speed, in some cases faster. “Also in a hot environment, passing is more accurate. If the teams run less, the pressure from the opponent is logically less.”

Another thorny issue over moving the dates is the effect on the 2022 Winter Olympics with Blatter himself preferring November-December rather than JanuaryFebruary which would impinge on the likely Games dates. There could also be trouble with American broadcasters such as Fox and NBC, who in the months of November and

December are tied into broadcasting the NFL although according to several sources BeIn Sport America, subsidiary of Qatari TV broadcaster Al Jazeera, would be more than willing to step into the breach.

Whether by staying loyal to the original summer dates improves the chances of the national side not being embarrassed is debatable but what is not is that they are investing millions in young talent. Qatar have hired Ivan Bravo, formerly director of strategy at Real Madrid, who is head of the “Aspire Academy” where he will focus on developing footballers between the age of 14 to 18 and who he hopes will form the backbone of the future national side.

Some recent results have been encouraging-the Under-16 side beat the youth team of German side Borussia Moenchengladbach 7-1 while the Qatari Under-19 team beat the Brazilian Under-20 team. Bravo, though, is realistic. “We are going to approach this humbly. These results don’t mean we are as good as Brazil,” he said. “Think of what makes up a national side. You have to have a coach, and players reaching maturity at the right time. “These good results though are a sign that we can compete against any side.”— AFP

Man United storm back to beat Hull 3-2 United 3

Hull City 2

LONDON: Manchester United doggedly overturned a two-goal deficit to win 3-2 against Hull City at the KC Stadium yesterday. Early goals from James Chester and David Meyler gave Hull a 2-0 lead in the first of the traditional Boxing Day fixtures, only for Chris Smalling and Wayne Rooney to bring United level. Rooney’s goal, a sumptuous volley, was his 150th for the club in the top flight and he contributed to the winner in the 66th minute by pressuring Chester, a one-time United youth player, to put through his own goal.

Victory, United’s fifth in a row in all competitions, provisionally lifted David Moyes’s side up in the table, five points behind leaders Liverpool. “To be two down and come back to win is a great result,” United manager Moyes told the BBC. “There’s a long way to go in the league and we have to keep picking up points. I believe we can be in the mix and challenge whoever is near the top.”

Darren Fletcher made his first United start since December last year following nearly 12 months on the sidelines with a chronic bowel condition, but inattentive defending saw the champions fall 2-0 down inside 13 minutes. Two former United trainees combined to put Hull ahead in the fourth minute, with Alex Bruce heading down a right-wing corner for Chester to vol-

HULL: Hull City’s Ivorian striker Yannick Sagbo (left) tackles Manchester United’s Senegalese-born French defender Patrice Evra during the English Premier League football match between Hull City and Manchester United yesterday. —AFP ley home his first ever Premier League goal. Meyler added a second with a mishit shot that United defender Jonny Evans inadvertently deflected past goalkeeper David de Gea after the leaden-footed visitors squandered several opportunities to clear.

United then lost Rafael da Silva to an apparent groin injury, but his replacement, Adnan Januzaj, won the free-kick from which Rooney crossed for Smalling to reduce the arrears with a 19th-minute header. Rooney tied the scores seven minutes later with a fine goal, cushioning the ball on his thigh and unleashing a crisp volley from 22 yards that swerved into the top-left

corner. Hull lost goalkeeper Allan McGregor to injury at the interval, while Fletcher made way for Javier Hernandez after 61 minutes.

Bruce threatened to restore Hull’s lead with a header from a Tom Huddlestone corner that hit the crossbar, but moments later United completed their comeback when Chester headed into his own net under pressure from Rooney. It was only Hull’s second home defeat of the season, but United’s sense of achievement was tempered in the last minute when Antonio Valencia was sent off after being shown a second yellow card for dissent. —AFP

45

Sports FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

Arsenal get back on track West Ham 1

Arsenal 3

LONDON: Theo Walcott scored twice as Arsenal got their Premier League challenge back on track by coming from behind to win 3-1 at West Ham United yesterday. Carlton Cole gave West Ham a surprise lead early in the second half before Walcott scored a fortuitous equalizer and then headed Arsenal in front. Substitute Lukas Podolski, who created Walcott’s second goal, then scored the third on his comeback from injury, as Arsenal ended a run of five games without victory in all competitions.

Walcott’s first benefited from an uncertain dive by West Ham goalkeeper Adrian, but the England winger has now scored in his last four league appearances against West Ham. It was Arsenal’s seventh consecutive victory over their London rivals and sent Sam Allardyce’s side into the bottom three. Arsenal made one change to the team that had drawn 0-0 with Chelsea on Monday, with Santi Cazorla replacing Tomas Rosicky in midfield. West Ham made four changes to the team beaten 3-1

by Manchester United, including the return from a three-match suspension of captain Kevin Nolan.

Carlton Cole, a scoring substitute at Old Trafford, started this time, as did Joe Cole and Joey O’Brien. James Tomkins, meanwhile, was available for the Hammers despite being charged with assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest and being drunk and disorderly at an Essex nightclub on Sunday. West Ham tried to feed Matt Jarvis on the left when possible in the early stages, but one cross that Wojciech Szczesny punched away was their only threatening moment in the first 10 minutes.

After that Arsenal began to dominate, and Adrian made a flying save from a

header by Cazorla. West Ham’s response had been limited: a swerving free-kick by Mark Noble that forced Szczesny to palm the ball away and a shot from Mohamed Diame that Szczesny only caught at the second attempt. After 26 minutes, Walcott escaped George McCartney to run onto Aaron Ramsey’s floated pass, but, unchallenged, he volleyed past the post with only Adrian to beat.

Now it seemed to be the Arsenal attack against the West Ham defense. Giroud reacted too late as Mezut Ozil pulled the ball back across goal, Mikel Arteta

Nolan, who was allowed to shoot unchallenged from 20 yards. Szczesny could not hold the ball and Cole smacked home the rebound. Szczesny made up for that by blocking Jarvis’s shot on the turn, but he was nowhere as Joey O’Brien stole in unmarked to glance a header just wide.

Soon, however, Arsenal were camped in the West Ham half. Adrian parried from Cazorla, then somehow got in the way of Mezut Ozil’s follow-up effort.

In the 68th minute, the pressure finally told. Walcott cut in from the right and tried a left-foot shot that found its way in

LONDON: West Ham United’s Irish defender Joey O’Brien (right) heads the ball towards the Arsenal goal during the English Premier League football match between West Ham United and Arsenal yesterday. —AFP volleyed just wide, and Olivier Giroud failed to connect with a low cross from Kieran Gibbs. But West Ham also made a good opening when Mark Noble lifted a quick free-kick over the Arsenal wall, only for Nolan to fail to make decent contact. It was a warning to Arsenal to take their chances, but they did not heed it and in the first minute of the second half, West Ham took the lead.

Arteta’s clearance fell into the path of

past two defenders and through the hands of the unsighted Adrian. Three minutes later, Podolski’s cross from the left took a slight deflection off the forehead of Tomkins at the near post and Walcott reacted more quickly than the defenders to head firmly home. Eleven minutes from time, Giroud nudged Walcott’s right-wing cross back into the path of Podolski, who smashed the ball past Adrian from 18 yards. —AFP

Parker lifts Fulham Norwich 1

Fulham 2

NORWICH: Fulham’s battle to stave off relegation received a Boxing Day boost with a battling come from behind 2-1 win at Norwich yesterday. Gary Hooper put Norwich into the early lead before Pajtim Kasami levelled with former Tottenham central midfielder Scott Parker grabbing a stylish late winner.

The result, only Fulham’s second win in the last 10 matches, moved Fulham up a place to third from bottom, on 16 points, with Norwich hovering above the drop zone on 19 points.

In a bid to boost their prospects of

staying in the top-flight the relegationthreatened Fulham appointed former Charlton and West Ham manager Alan Curbishley as technical director on Tuesday, to work alongside new coach Rene Meulensteen. And on the pitch former player Clint Dempsey signed a midweek two month loan deal from MLS side the Seattle Sounders. Fulham made five changes to the side that went down 4-2 to Manchester City, including David Stockdale replacing injured Maarten Stekelenburg in goal. Dimitar Berbatov-who has been linked with a move away during the transfer window in January-was again an absentee as he recovers from a groin strain.

Norwich manager Chris Hughton fielded the same XI that drew 0-0 with Sunderland. Norwich raced into an early lead, Hooper securing his fourth consecutive goal in a home match, his shot deflecting off Aaron Hughes to glide

over Fulham keeper David Stockdale.

This was the ninth goal in the last three matches that Fulham had conceded.

Kasami went close to leveling for Fulham with a low shot and on 34 minutes the Switzerland midfielder hit the target with a 20 yard freekick, the ball going under the jumping wall and bumping its way into the Norwich goal.

Just before Kasami’s goal Fulham thought they’d got a second but Parker’s effort was disallowed after the ball hit his hands. After the restart Norwich went close when Leroy Fer was presented with a clear header but Sascha Riether is in place to head the ball off the line. Fulham, producing a lively attacking performance, bagged the points when Parker broke the deadlock with three minutes left on the clock with a forceful right footed drive past John Ruddy into the top left corner. —AFP

Tottenham 1

West Brom 1

Sherwood’s Spurs held by West Brom LONDON: Tim Sherwood suffered a frustrating start to his reign as Tottenham’s new manager after a 1-1 draw against West Bromwich Albion at White Hart Lane yesterday. It was not what Sherwood, who was handed a surprise 18-month contract following a short caretaker spell, would have envisaged. But he could have no complaints as Jonas Olsson cancelled out Christian Eriksen’s free-kick opener to drop Tottenham down to eighth in the Premier League.

After being named as permanent boss on Monday, Sherwood, a former Spurs and Blackburn midfielder, vowed he would go on the attack and he was true to his word. He maintained faith in his twopronged attack, which had already served him well in his caretaker reign, and there was no sign of any holding midfielder that had been a trademark during his predecessor Andre Villas-Boas’ tenure. The fact that Sherwood could be so cavalier might have had something to do with West Brom’s set-up.

West Brom, who themselves are on the lookout for a new manager following Steve Clarke’s exit, had hardly thrown caution to the wind as they packed their defense and looked to hit the home side on the counter-attack. Yet that tactic from caretaker boss Keith Downing, taking charge for his second game, nearly bore fruit on two occasions inside the opening 20 minutes. A quick exchange between Matej Vydra and Zolta Gera saw the Czech Republic striker denied via a combination of Michael Dawson and goalkeeper Hugo Lloris in the 14th minute.

If that was a half-chance then Vydra was handed a golden opportunity to open the scoring six minutes later. Another clever pass from Gera found the on-loan striker, who bore down on goal before Lloris was out quick to smother his attempt. For all their attacking players and their gung-ho approach, Tottenham were struggling to muster anything meaningful in the final third. In fact, it took a controversial 36th minute opening goal from Eriksen to break the deadlock. West Brom were furious to see James Morrison penalized for hauling down Kyle Walker, but the Danish winger was in no mood to be charitable as he curled home off the underside off the crossbar.

It was Eriksen’s first Premier League goal but within two minutes his side’s celebrations had been cut short. Eriksen was booked for pulling down Morrison and Morgan Amalfitano’s free-kick was swept home by Olsson, via a helping hand from Emmanuel Adebayor. Togo striker Adebayor has been back in favor under Sherwood, but his poor clearance which led to the Swedish defender’s leveler was a major blot on his copybook. Few inside could argue that West Brom did not deserve their equalizer and the scares continued for Spurs in the second-half.

Steven Reid’s 53rd minute free-kick was palmed out by Lloris before the Frenchman was fortunate to see Gera fail to get any strong connection to a Amalfitano cross. Tottenham were lacking any kind of fluency and were restricted to long-range potshots in their bid to regain the lead. Lewis Holtby dragged his 20-yard drive wide on the hour mark before visiting goalkeeper Ben Foster had to be alert to beat out Walker’s thunderous hit moments later.

But West Brom were standing firm and Gylfi Sigurdsson headed into side-netting before Roberto Soldado flicked his header wide late on. —AFP

Sports FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

MANCHESTER: Manchester City’s Ivorian midfielder Yaya Toure shoots towards goal during the English Premier League football match between Manchester City and Liverpool yesterday. — AFP

Man City dethrone Liverpool Man City 2

Liverpool 1

LONDON: Alvaro Negredo kept up his sparkling home scoring record, grabbing the winner as Manchester City came from behind to beat title rivals Liverpool 2-1 in a rip-roaring Premier League showdown yesterday. City moved up to second in the table, one point behind

Arsenal, after rallying from a goal down thanks to a header from Vincent Kompany and a first-half stoppage-time strike from Negredo.

Liverpool keeper Simon Mignolet was at fault for Negredo’s goal as he palmed his 18-metre effort up and into his own net. It was the ninth consecutive home game in all competitions in which the Spaniard has scored. Third-placed Liverpool, who gave as good as they got in a pulsating game, went ahead after 24 minutes when Raheem Sterling rounded keeper Joe Hart and Philippe Coutinho slotted the ball into an empty net. — Reuters

BIMINGHAM: Aston Villa’s Antonio Luna (bottom) tackles Crystal Palace’s Yannick Bolasie during their English Premier League soccer match yesterday. — AP

Super-sub Gayle strikes late to lift Crystal Palace English Premier League table Villa 0

Palace 1

BIRMINGHAM: Crystal Palace striker Dwight Gayle came off the bench to clinch a dramatic 1-0 win over Aston Villa that lifted his side out of the relegation zone yesterday.

Gayle produced a superb individual effort two minutes into stoppage-time at Villa Park and in the process gave a massive boost to Palace’s bid to avoid relegation from the Premier League. Tony Pulis’s team climbed to 17th place, above the bottom three on goal difference, while Villa were booed off by their fans after a fourth successive defeat. Palace were without suspended top scorer Marouane Chamakh so Yannick Bolasie came into the starting line-up.

A dismal first half saw both teams struggle to find any attacking momentum. The only real chance saw Libor Kozak’s header destined for the top corner until Palace defender Adrian Mariappa got his head in the way. The tempo increased at the start of the second half and it was Palace who should have taken the lead in the 48th minute. Bolasie raced down the right wing and pulled the ball back for Jason Puncheon, who was in space on the edge of the box, but the forward got the ball stuck under his feet and could only poke a shot that was beaten away

by Brad Guzan.

Villa responded and in the 54th minute a spell of pressure ended with Fabian Delph picking out Andreas Weimann with an excellent ball, but the Austrian chose to shoot first time and it was straight at Speroni. Palace broke straight down the other end and Puncheon picked out Barry Bannan just inside the box. The Scot turned and

LONDON: English Premier League table after yesterdayís matches (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points): Arsenal Man City Chelsea Liverpool Everton Newcastle Man Utd Tottenham Southampton Stoke Swansea Hull Aston Villa Norwich West Brom Cardiff Crystal Palace Fulham West Ham Sunderland

18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18

12 12 11 11 9 10 9 9 7 5 5 5 5 5 3 4 5 5 3 3

3 2 4 3 7 3 4 4 6 6 5 5 4 4 8 5 1 1 5 4

3 4 3 4 2 5 5 5 5 7 8 8 9 9 7 9 12 12 10 11

36 53 33 43 29 29 31 19 25 18 23 16 17 16 19 13 12 19 15 13

18 21 18 21 17 23 22 24 18 26 24 23 24 31 24 28 27 35 25 30

39 38 37 36 34 33 31 31 27 21 20 20 19 19 17 17 16 16 14 13

struck a shot towards the bottom corner that was superbly pushed onto a post by Guzan.

Bolasie was a real dangerman for Palace and in the 64th minute he got to the byline before pulling the ball back across the box for Puncheon, who was again denied

by Guzan. That was the forward’s last action as he was replaced by Jonathan Williams, with Pulis also sending on record signing Gayle for Cameron Jerome. Villa substitute Jordan Bowery had an 89th-minute header tipped over by Speroni and Palace took advantage of that escape in stoppage-time. Gayle picked up the ball wide on the left, dribbled past Delph and curled a shot into the top corner.— AFP

47

Sports FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

Cardiff 0

Southampton 3

Southampton crush Cardiff CARDIFF: Cardiff manager Malky Mackay was back on the hot seat after his side was thumped by Southampton 3-0 in the English Premier League yesterday. A pair by Jay Rodriguez and another by Rickie Lambert, all in the first half hour, helped Southampton cruise to its first victory in seven games. Fans of the visitors chanted to Mackay, “You’re getting sacked in the morning,” and he couldn’t defend himself in the face of a woeful display. Cardiff owner Vincent Tan wanted Mackay out last week, but after Mackay vowed to stay and was backed by team fans, club chairman Mehmet Dalman said on Sunday that Mackay was “in charge for the forseeable future.”

However, Cardiff supporters were booing Mackay and the team by fulltime yesterday, not that Tan might have heard. He left his seat five minutes before time. —AP

Everton 0

Sunderland 1

LONDON: Chelsea’s captain John Terry (centre) jumps for the ball during an English Premier League soccer match against Swansea City at the Stamford Bridge ground yesterday. —AP

Chelsea edge Swansea Chelsea 1

Swansea 0

LONDON: Chelsea remain within two points of top spot in the Premier League after Eden Hazard’s first-half goal secured a 1-0 victory over Swansea City at Stamford Bridge yesterday. Hazard’s effort proved the difference between the teams, but Chelsea’s failure to build on the Belgium international’s ninth goal of the season meant it continued the run of recent underwhelming displays by the Blues. Chelsea’s performance in grinding out a scoreless draw at Arsenal three days previously was described as a return to an approach that had been familiar during manager Jose Mourinho’s first spell in charge.

Mourinho dismissed suggestions that the performance had been negative, but having consolidated their position within striking distance of the leaders, they needed victory over a stuttering Swansea to build on that hard-earned point. With the visit of Liverpool looming in three days, Mourinho took the opportunity to make five changes to his starting line-up, including the return of Ashley Cole for his first league start since the defeat at Newcastle United on November 2.

Up front, Samuel Eto’o replaced Fernando Torres in the role of main striker, although the Cameroon international showed few signs of ending Chelsea’s misfortunes in front of goal.

Torres, Eto’o and Demba Ba have scored just five league goals between them so far this season and the Blues were once again forced to rely on their goal threat elsewhere in the team as they struggled to turn their dominance into goals.

Swansea arrived at Stamford Bridge having won just one of their last seven games and rarely looked like ending that frustrating run. With Michu, their main striker, out for around six weeks after undergoing surgery on an ankle problem, Michael Laudrup’s side offered little going forward. Instead they were forced onto the back foot for long periods and had to rely on a combination of Chelsea’s poor finishing and increasingly desperate defending to maintain a foothold in the game.

Ashley Williams, the Swansea centreback, in particular was outstanding, making a succession of timely clearances. And while goalkeeper Gerhard Tremmel might have done better for Hazard’s goal, he made an eye-catching save to deny Eto’o twice either side of the interval. The breakthrough came after Chelsea had already applied sustained pressure on Tremmel’s goal.

Branislav Ivanovic saw a shot deflected over the crossbar and Williams’s hooked clearance denied John Mikel Obi the chance to score from close range after

John Terry had headed down Juan Mata’s deep cross.

A goal appeared imminent, although Laudrup will be unhappy with the way his side conceded. Cole sent Hazard clear on the left wing, from where he cut inside, gliding easily past Jordi Amat, before hitting a low right-foot shot from the edge of the area that appeared to go under Tremmel’s arms. A minute later the goalkeeper was again at fault and fortunate to escape after being hurried into a mistimed clearance under pressure from Eto’o. Swansea offered little by way of response, although Alvaro Vasquez should have done much better when he found himself unmarked after being picked out by Jonjo Shelvey’s header.

As dominant as Chelsea had been, they needed a second goal to eliminate the chance of Swansea nicking a point from a rare foray forward. Eto’o was twice offered the chance to double the lead, but was denied by Tremmel on both occasions. The first time, three minutes before the interval, the goalkeeper saved after Eto’o had been sent clear by Mata. And Mata was again the provider 12 seconds after the restart when he whipped in a right-wing cross towards his team-mate, whose closerange volley was tipped away by Tremmel. Chelsea’s nerves began to show as Swansea went in search of an equalizer late on, but they were not forced to pay for their earlier missed chances. —AFP

Sunderland stun Everton LIVERPOOL: Ki Sung-Yeungís first-half penalty gave last-place Sunderland a surprise 1-0 win at 10-man Everton yesterday after goalkeeper Tim Howard was sent off for bringing down the South Korea midfielder. Ki, who is on loan from Swansea, darted into the box midway through the first half and was tackled by Howard, who was given a straight red card. The midfielder then converted the 25th-minute spot kick to give Sunderland its first away win of the season and a much-needed boost in its fight to escape the relegation zone. Gus Poyetís team remains bottom, three points from safety. Everton is fifth after only its second loss of the season, five points off the league lead. —AP

Celtic go 11 points clear GLASGOW: Celtic increased their lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership to 11 points with a 1-0 win over St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park yesterday. Dutch defender Virgil van Dijk got the only goal of the game in the fifth minute with a superb finish following a mazy run which started just inside his own half. Anthony Stokes also had an effort chopped off for offside as Celtic dominated the first half with the home side failing to muster a shot on target.

St Johnstone were vastly improved after the break but Celtic’s unbeaten start to the season never really looked to be in danger of coming to an end as the Hoops kept a clean sheet for the fourth consecutive league match. Celtic now have an 11-point lead at the top of the table over Motherwell, who moved second thanks to a 10 win over Aberdeen and Dundee United’s surprise 4-1 loss to St Mirren.

St Johnstone had threatened to strike first as Stevie May chased down a long ball out of defence but van Dijk raced back to nick the ball off the striker’s foot and put it out for a corner.The Dutch defender then showed off his skills at the other end of the park as he put Celtic ahead with a superb solo goal. Van Dijk picked up the ball just inside his own half and after a mazy run past a couple of defenders he arrowed a low shot past ‘keeper Alan Mannus. —AFP

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013

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Walcott double sends Arsenal back to the top Page 45

LONDON: Arsenal’s French forward Olivier Giroud (center) vies with West Ham United’s Northern Irish defender George McCartney (left) during the English Premier League football match between West Ham United and Arsenal yesterday. — AFP