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Oil workers delay strike until March

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NO: 16070- Friday, February 7, 2014

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Local FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Fatima Al-Musallam, a Kuwaiti artist, creator and owner of Toosh - a newly established Kuwaiti T-shirt brand shows one of her pieces.

Souq Mubarakiya:

Colorful confluence of flavours and aromas launched book of short love stories by a Kuwaiti writer. Souq Mubarakiya is a rainbow of colours and a fusion of aromas where you can haggle for kitchenware, beauty products, clothes, bukhoor, Persian carpets, oud (local perfume), dates and spices among others.

By Velina Nacheva

S

ouq Mubarakiya in downtown Kuwait rekindles its 200-year-old flavour that has helped it preserve Kuwaiti traditions. As the venue for anything ranging from amber prayer beads, coffee, tablecloths and kitchenware to bukhoor (incense), beauty products and clothes, in the past week the oldest souq in Kuwait adopted a new carnival atmosphere.

Usually, on the occasion of Hala February, the month dedicated to the celebration of Kuwait’s National and Liberation Days, Souq Mubarakiya becomes the go-to place for souvenirs and traditional Kuwaiti outfits in the colours of the Kuwait flag. This year, however, the place is buzzing with more visitors than it has ever welcomed. Until Feb 13, Souq Mubarakiya will be the home of the Al-Mubarakiya Festival organized by the Ministry of Information to support Kuwaiti youth activities.

As part of the festival which opened on Sunday, hundreds of kiosks offer visitors colourful, kitschy souvenirs, imported kitchenware from India and Europe, artisan T-shirts, artistic book covers and even a recently-

Shouq Behbehani is showing one of Cocolicious delights.

Meandering through the stalls On Tuesday evening, Souq Mubarakiya became the meeting ground of modernity and tradition as young Kuwaiti entrepreneurs took centre stage to present their business ideas, merchandise and creativity. Asrar Al-Ansari, 25, the writer of a book of short love stories, is sitting behind a stall piled with books. She talks to those who approach her stand and ask for an autograph. “I collected the love stories of different people as they narrated them to me and put them in this book,” she says, opening the pages of her book in Arabic.

Right beside the stall of books, visitors stumble upon another colour-infested stall of T-shirts and paintings. Fatima Al-Musallam, a Kuwaiti artist who studied art in London, is the creator and owner of Toosh - a newly created Kuwaiti T-shirt brand.

— Photos by Joseph Shagra

Local FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Asrar Al-Ansari, is showing her book of short love stories that was published recently.

She said her creative process starts with a painting. “I first paint an idea I have and then turn it into a T-shirt design. My designs are an inspiration of people, music and life. I find inspiration in everything,” she said.

Intissar Al-Odah, a vendor from Papillon Fashion, a designer studio for Kuwait-inspired garments, explains that the festival is well-attended by people of different ages, nationalities and fashion. Holding a golden-rimmed bisht (traditional cloak worn by men), she said that the Kuwaiti designer who launched Papillon Fashion creates, decorates and elaborates styles inspired by the Kuwaiti dara’a (long dress worn by women on special occasions) and the dishdasha in different colours and different fabrics.

Kids’ fun A carriage from The Horse Pilot Carriages was the playground for children who were climbing up to take photos. One of the owners of Horse Pilot Carriages said the business caters to camp-goers and chalet visitors.

Corner of deliciousness Cocolicious is another small Kuwaiti business, the brainchild of Shouq Behbehani. The love for sweets is what inspired her interest in baking, Behbehani explains holding a petite sweet pastry dressed in an elegant wrapping. “We deliver these to people’s homes in a box,” she says.

Purple Sweet is also a home-grown business that, according to its creator, aims to grow and become more visible. Holding a platter with beautifully decorated croissants with Nutella, cinnamon and fruits, the vendor said, “I bake them at home and my daughter helps me sometimes”.

Sponsored by the Ministry of Information, Al-Mubarakiya Festival is held in support of Kuwaiti youth activities. Kuwait vendors and owners of small- and medium-sized businesses taking part in the event can be found at the Mubarakiya Souq until Feb 13.

Local FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

A day in the life of a

reporter

By Nawara Fattahova

L

ife-long learning is the best part of my job.

This learning is different every day. One day like a scientist I am investigating the foul smell in the Souq Sharq area and talking about the chemical composition of the air in Kuwait. The next day I become a detective sniffing around for clues of irregularities in the clockin system at the ministries or at the traffic department. The following day I don my Sunday best clothes and enjoy a late-night fashion show from the latest trendy Kuwaiti designer. This is because I am a reporter and my days are never the same.

One day a reporter can be seen in a fancy hotel surrounded by sumptuous desserts, while the next day he jumps on a chopper over Bahraini territorial waters en route to an international armada that protects oil terminals.

In love with phones The incessant phone calls are the only routine in a reporter’s life. At a traffic light I check news from Twitter; when I park at an event I browse the news websites for updates. When having lunch, one of my hands holds the sandwich and the other browses Instagram pictures.

Sometimes to get the information we need, it takes us more than 20 phone calls for one or two statements. It’s not easy at all, especially when officials refuse to give statements.

Some of the job advantages are meeting new people, networking and doing something new every day. The inability to make a long-term plan due to the constantly changing events is one of the downsides. One day you have to be awake at 8 am for a ministry press conference and another day you have an assignment to cover a midnight ghabqa during Ramadan. One day you sleep in late, on the next day you are up at 7 am to meet a minister arriving in Kuwait and ask about his trip abroad.

The only constant in our job is creativity. It is tied to coming up with a new idea every day.

Staying out of trouble, some argue, is also another point of consideration. Some days I can be looking for an official at the Ministry of Social Affairs and the next day I am talking to a child selling fruits and vegetables outdoors. On other days I am immersed in several subjects ranging from chemistry, botany, history, politics, economics and math.

Less time and much stress Being a reporter means forgetting the concept of time. Battling traffic on Kuwait streets on a daily basis and always running late for meetings because of a no-parking situation could be a daily occurrence. Stress is a normal pal that accompanies me every step of the way. Am I going to get through this official? Am I going to

reach this scientist? Is an analyst going to return my email as he promised?

Some events can get quite boring, while others can entertain you all day long. Sadly a reporter needs to do both. I prefer motorsports events, automobile launches and test drives, fashion related events, inspection raids and legal symposiums. Most medical, scientific and some cultural events are boring, yet we have to learn, hear and inform.

Nawara Fattahova at the sight of a test drive for Lamborghini in Abu Dhabi.

A reporter needs to be able to deal with a noisy environment. Writing in a buzzing cubicle and constantly hearing people answer phones hampers our concentration. As there are many people from different divisions working in the newsroom, the reporter should know how to work under pressure. Now I’m used to the noise and I can concentrate on writing even if 50 people are talking at the same time above my head.

The most rewarding part of the day is when you meet somebody who thanks you for a job well done and when you have completed an informative piece that reached many people.

This is like the Facebook likes but in person!

Local FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Local Spotlight

Parenthood is great

By Muna Al-Fuzai

muna@kuwaittimes.net

I

think that parenthood is the best thing that can ever happen to a person. It is the coolest thing that you can experience and while most of us confront this unique experience at an early age, we tend to be truly appreciated only after many years when our kids become adults and our own white hair begins to multiply.

While becoming a parent is generally easy, however, acting like a responsible father or a mother is certainly not an easy mission and can be a stressful task. There are so many different things that can go wrong when raising a child; problems may crop up in your life or you lose your job and source of income, amongst a myriad of potential difficulties. Parenthood is a lifelong commitment, particularly in the period between your child’s birth until he or she becomes a young man or a young woman. This process lasts years and years and requires patience, understanding and money.

Kids today differ from parents today in many things, as many parents of today grew up in the sixties with fewer material possessions, while children of today expect a lot and give less; I can’t blame them for this, it’s a different technological age.

I think the media and all the advanced technology that’s part of this generation’s era consumes much of their thoughts, efforts and activities as much as it assists their interest in communicating and interacting. Also, life is no longer safe so most parents nowadays don’t give their kids much leeway to play outdoors because they are worried about their safety. At the end, however, this means that kids grow up locked indoors and attached to their iPads and other gadgets rather than anything else. Schools activities are still as boring as ever; and besides gym classes, most provide kids with little to express their intelligence and hidden abilities and talents. Parents are seen as the responsible party when kids get into trouble in bad times, even if they could do little to prevent it when this is not a fair representation of the facts in every case.

Despite everything, however, I believe parenting is great and one of life’s blessings, that you have kids to bring joy to your life and love you unconditionally and be with you all your life.

Truly, parenthood is great and whatever good things you do for your children won’t be forgotten, even when they grow up and you may think they don’t need you anymore. Even then, you will still be travelling on the parenting journey, whose joyous memories nobody can take away from you.

This column has been published previously.

KUWAIT: Blossoming flowers across Kuwait herald spring. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Available at The Sultan Centre & Carrefour

Local FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Who’s carrying your

By Dr John P Hayes

“C

arry your own basket on your own head. Give it to someone else and when he’s gone the basket is gone.” That sage advice was taught to Rohit Mirchandani as a young man, and he passed it along to me recently while we enjoyed pasta from his kitchen at Pizza Inn. Fortunately for Rohit, and for the people who benefit from his numerous enterprises, he accepted that advice without question, and many years later he’s still carrying his own basket.

Born in Kuwait, Rohit grew up in the shadow of a man who gave him plenty of advice. In the 1950s, Govind Mirchandani boarded a boat in India and arrived in Kuwait eight days later.

He came in search of opportunity - for the privilege of sending money home - and he found his bounty in Kuwait’s retail market. “God knocks on everyone’s door,” Govind often said, “but most people are too lazy to get up and answer it.” Govind opened a small shop and nurtured it into one of Kuwait’s bestknown department stores, Raja Stores, selling gifts, toys, perfumes, clothing, tailoring, books, greeting cards - even Kuwait’s first video club. Business was booming at the time of the Iraqi invasion, but then Govind was forced to shutter the store and return to India. His son, Rohit, was studying in the USA, and another son, Mohit, was studying in India.

Rebuilding in Kuwait “My father wasn’t in favor of me going to the United States to study,” explained Rohit. “His fear was that I would never return, but I promised I would.” And he did after earning a bachelor’s degree and an MBA. In fact, Rohit joined his family in India in 1990, and then returned to Kuwait in the summer of 1991 to help his father and brother rebuild the family’s enterprise.

Imagine the horror when Govind returned to Kuwait and found Raja Stores in a shambles. He had welded shut the doors, but still the Iraqis ransacked the place. “Everything was destroyed - the watches and videos were stolen - but they didn’t touch the greeting cards,” recalled Rohit. Apparently the Iraqis had no use for greeting cards, but to Govind and his sons, those cards represented another knock on the door.

basket?

A quick 3,500 KD Raja Stores was not far from the Catholic cathedral in Kuwait, and even following the invasion, the cathedral was one of Kuwait’s busiest landmarks on weekends. “Our greeting card supply included Christmas cards,” Rohit explained, “and so I suggested to my father that we stand outside the cathedral and sell packages of ten cards for one KD each. We had only Christmas cards in Kuwait that year!” That remarkable idea raised 3,500 KD, and Govind used the money to buy inventory for Raja Stores and to begin again. It took the family about eight months to get the store back to normal.

Carrying multiple baskets But working in a department store didn’t satisfy Rohit’s entrepreneurial itch, so he asked his father if he could pursue another profession. His father agreed, but initially, in spite of Rohit’s education, there were no offers. Finally a member of Raja Stores’ video club helped him get a clerk’s position at Petrochemical Industries Company, and later he advanced into the marketing department. For nine years he worked from 7 am to 3 pm, carrying his own basket. When he went home at night, he continued to carry his basket as he searched for business opportunities that he could acquire and operate.

He became a distributor of safety glasses, which he sold to contractors, ministries and oil companies. That single product eventually led him to 35 more products, and to establish Safety Plus, which is a market leader in the Middle East, selling a variety of brands that promote health, safety, environment and security. Through the years, Rohit started or acquired other businesses including a kitchen company, a training company, a contracting company, a hardware company, a rig supplier, an IT solutions company, a coffee supply company, and a cafe.

Bringing Pizza Inn to Kuwait His dream business, however, was a restaurant. Rohit had worked at Chick-fil-A in Texas while attending college, and he liked the food business, so in the mid-1990s he wrote to Little Caesar’s to inquire about opening pizza shops in Kuwait.

However, the investment was greater than he had anticipated,

and in spite of his family’s financial support, he decided to wait until he had enough money to finance the franchise on his own. That opportunity arrived in 2007 when he brought Pizza Inn to Kuwait and became the first Indian to operate an American franchise brand locally. Texas-based Pizza Inn is known for a quality product and a casual dining environment.

Currently, there are three Pizza Inn locations in Kuwait, and Rohit plans to open a half-dozen more.

While the Mirchandani family has been in business in Kuwait for more than 50 years (sadly, Govind was killed in a Kuwait automobile accident), it seems that Rohit is just getting started. He’s developing new product lines, hiring and training employees, and managing an impressive portfolio of businesses that provide products and services to the expanding Kuwait market. He plans to sub-franchise his pizza and cafe businesses, but not until he can find some extra space in his basket!

Dr Hayes teaches marketing and management at GUST.

Rohit

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Local FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Egypt military denies report that Sisi to run Presidential bid ‘misinterpreted’ by Kuwaiti paper

CAIRO: Kuwaiti publication “Alam Al-Maarifa” is honored at the Cairo Book fair yesterday. — KUNA

Kuwaiti publication honored at Cairo fair CAIRO: Kuwait’s participation in Cairo Book Fair has been crowned with honoring the Kuwaiti “Alam AlMaarifa” (the world of knowledge) publication and a series of novels by the eminent writer, Dr Taleb Al-Rifae.

The publication series was honored with two awards, granted by the jurists, to the head of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Information delegation, assistant undersecretary for planning and development affairs Dr Haila AlMekaimi. Egyptian Minister of Culture Dr Mohammed Arab personally handed the award to Mekaimi.

In remarks to KUNA, the Egyptian minister expressed deep gratitude to all authorities and publishing houses that took part in the exhibition. He expressed appreciation to Kuwait, namely HH the Amir, the government and people for participating in the cultural event, as well as Kuwait’s keenness on enriching Arab culture.

Kuwait’s participation in the fair contributed to enriching intellectual and cultural dialogue between the two brotherly countries, he said, underlining the solid ties bonding the two countries at the official and popular levels. Its partaking as a guest of honor in the fair, held in its 45th edition, contributed to the event’s success due to the diverse and distinguished activities that drew applause by Egyptian and Arab visitors to the fairground, the minister said.

For Mekaimi acknowledged that choosing Kuwait as a guest of honor at the Egyptian exhibition was in appreciation for its role in boosting Arab culture. In a statement to KUNA, Mekaimi lauded the great role played by Kuwait and the brotherly nation Egypt for preserving Arab cultural identity. She also congratulated the Egyptian and Arab peoples for the successful cultural event, hoping “Egypt would remain a cultural minaret in the Arab region and the world”.

Mekaimi indicated the successful Kuwaiti participation in the fair was due to guidelines by the Minister of Information, Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Chairman of the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters Sheikh Salman Sabah Al-Salem Al-Hmoud AlSabah and senior officials of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Information. She also expressed deep gratitude to the participating literati, artists and poets, namely the Kuwaiti authorities that took part in the fair.

Dr Ahmad Mujahed, the head of the General Egyptian Book Authority, also expressed gratitude to the participants, noting that culture “is one of the most important realms that leads to the Arab states’ progress”. Mekaimi, at the conclusion of the event, awarded Mujahed a memento and paintings that depict scenes from Kuwait’s history. The award distribution ceremony was attended by a large number of literati, eminent artists and organizers of the participating pavilions. —KUNA

CAIRO: Egypt’s army said yesterday a Kuwaiti newspaper “misinterpreted” comments by its chief, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, that he will run for the presidency, saying he will make an announcement directly to the Egyptian people. Field Marshal Sisi, bolstered by a surge in popularity after he overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July, is widely expected to contest and win an election due by mid-April. He has already received backing from the top military council, and his aides privately say he has made up his mind to stand for office.

The country came close to receiving confirmation when Kuwait’s Al-Seyassah newspaper ran an interview with Sisi early Thursday in which he said he would put himself forward. “Yes, the matter has been decided and I have no choice but to respond to the call of the Egyptian people,” the paper quoted him as saying. “The call (of the people) has been heard everywhere and I will not reject it. I will seek a renewal of confidence of the people through free voting.” The military later said the newspaper had “misinterpreted” his remarks, without elaborating, adding that Sisi would formally make such an announcement directly to the people.

“What was published... is nothing but journalistic interpretations that are not direct declarations from Field Marshal Sisi and included inaccurate rhetoric,” army spokesman Col Ahmed Ali said in a statement. Sisi would need to resign as army chief, defence minister and deputy prime minister before nominating himself.

Government officials say a cabinet reshuffle will take place soon, possibly next week.

The choice of a Kuwaiti newspaper for a much-coveted interview of Sisi enraged some in the Egyptian media. Al-Seyassah had previously interviewed Sisi, who has helped forge close ties with Kuwait and other Gulf countries that provided billions of dollars in aid to Egypt after Morsi’s over-

CAIRO: Egyptians walk past a banner bearing a portrait of Egypt’s army chief Field Marshal Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi entitled ‘The President’ yesterday. — AFP throw. “If you decided to announce (your candidacy), Field Marshal, why didn’t you announce it to us,” asked television host Khairy Ramadan on private Egyptian channel CBC. “You have the Egyptian media; you have the Egyptian state television...

Why a Gulf newspaper?”

Since Morsi’s ouster, Sisi has emerged as a nationalist icon often compared to Gamal Abdel Nasser, the charismatic colonel who ruled Egypt between 1954 and 1970. His portrait is ubiquitous in Cairo and his supporters view him as a tough leader who can restore stability after the chronic unrest that has plagued Egypt since the 2011 popular uprising that toppled strongman Hosni Mubarak, another former military officer. Mubarak had appointed Sisi as his military intelligence chief, making him the youngest officer to hold the post. Morsi, who succeeded Mubarak, promoted him to defence minister after purging command-

ers whose loyalty he doubted.

A victory for him would keep alive a tradition of presidents drawn from the military, and Sisi would face political turmoil and daunting security challenges. Since Morsi’s overthrow, a police crackdown on the Islamist’s supporters has killed more than 1,400 people in street clashes, according to rights group Amnesty international, and thrown thousands in jail. At the same time, Islamist militant attacks have killed scores of soldiers and policemen in north Sinai and mainland Egypt.

The army has poured troops into the mountainous and underdeveloped peninsula, which borders the Palestinian Gaza Strip and Israel, to combat the growing militancy. An Al-Qaeda inspired group, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis or Partisans of Jerusalem, has claimed most of the deadliest attacks, saying they were in revenge for the deadly crackdown on Morsi supporters.—Agencies

Kuwaiti students visit KFAED-financed projects TASHKENT/KANDY: Outstanding Kuwaiti students, on the fifth day of a KFAED-sponsored trip to Uzbekistan, arrived yesterday at the Ohangoron railway station in Tashkent, funded by the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development. The Kuwaiti fund is contributing $20 million to the construction of the key train station. Local officials, namely the head of the project execution unit, Zulkainar Kashaeb, warmly welcomed the students upon arrival at the venture site.

The students on Wednesday visited another of the fund’s projects in Samarkand - designed to rehabilitate 171 emergency medical clinics. They also toured landmark historical mosques and bazaars in the ancient city. During Wednesday’s visits, the delegation was received by Deputy Health Minister of Uzbekistan Shafkat Tillyaef, Head of the ER Center in Samarkand Yousef

Ahmedov and Head of ER center in Joma region Bahtiyar Rahimov. The local officials welcomed the group of Kuwaiti students and lauded KFAED for the generous and continuous help to Uzbekistan.

The center has received $20 million in aid from KFAED, as well medical equipment that have enabled staff to provide advanced services to citizens, Ahmedov said. The ER center, staffed with 1,400 doctors, receives more than 500 patients daily. Ahmedov took the delegation on a tour of the clinic’s different departments and wards, and showed them the equipment funded by KFAED. He thanked Kuwait and the Kuwait Fund in particular for the huge and generous help to 171 emergency centers in Uzbekistan. The Head of Kuwait students’ delegation Amira AlKandari said, “it is our duty to support such vital projects for needy countries,

and we are very proud of the results shown in the center because of KFAED’s huge support.”

Separately, KFAED contributions to the Mahaweli River Development Project are really appreciated, Head of Technical services at Sector C of the project (Engineer) Anghern Banda said yesterday. Banda’s statement to KUNA came during a visit by distinguished Kuwaiti students, currently in Kandy on a KFAED-sponsored trip to Sri Lanka.

Banda affirmed that Sector C of the project provided water for irrigation to some 23,000 families, affirming this would not have happened without KFAED’s contribution. KFAED also helped in funding a town near Sector C where some 5,000 families live, said Banda. A KFAED loan worth KD 1.3 million was given to Sri Lanka in 1994 to fund Sector C of the project. Mahaweli River is the largest river in Sri Lanka. — KUNA

Local FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Oil workers delay strike until March amid disputes

By B Izzak KUWAIT: Kuwait Oil and Petrochemicals Industries Workers Confederation yesterday decided to suspend its threat to stage a strike until next month as a “goodwill sign” and in order not to negatively impact national days celebrations, head of the confederation Abdulaziz Al-Sharthan said.

The announcement came after a brief general assembly meeting for the confederation which witnessed heated arguments after three main trade unions consisting the confederation decided against the strike. The meeting was delayed for two hours for a lack of quorum and when it started, it lasted very quickly amid intense discussions.

Ahead of the meeting, the trade union of the Kuwait Oil Tanker Co. (KOTC) issued a statement saying it has decided not to participate in the strike as a way of better serving national interests. Oil Minister Ali Al-Omair then issued a statement thanking them and called on other trade unions to follow suit.

According to sources, the trade unions of Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), responsible for upstream activities like exploration and production, and Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) responsible for downstream facilities especially the three refineries, expressed strong opposition to the strike during the confederation meeting. The two trade unions are the largest and the most influential because they have the largest number of workers.

But defiant Sharthan told a press conference after the meeting that the delay of

the strike was a “goodwill gesture” to the government and the country which will mark the National Day and Liberation Day on February 25 and 26.

But he insisted that the decision to announce the new date of the strike is still in his hands after the general assembly decision taken last week. “There is no backing down on this decision” to go on strike until all demands of the workers were met.

The workers are upset that Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (KPC) has reduced the amount of achievement bonus paid to

oil workers even without informing them. The oil minister said on Wednesday that the bonus was reduced and not cancelled in order to link it with operational profits. The minister also warned that if the oil workers do not respond to the KPC offer on the new scheme for bonus payment and call off the strike, the ministry will seek assistance of the national guards and other government agencies. He insisted that the strike, if it takes place, it will not be allowed to disrupt Kuwait’s obligations locally and abroad.

News

in brief

CSC cancels decisions issued by former minister KUWAIT: The Civil Service Commission suspended 62 decisions issued by former Minister of Social Affairs and Labour Thekra Al-Rashidi. An informed source said the decisions included appointments and promotions in various ministry departments. Al-Rashidi made the decisions following a meeting with the employees affairs committee at the ministry. The commission wrote to the ministry of social affairs and labour that the committee meeting was not legal because it did not have a quorum and consequently its decisions were considered illegal. The Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Hind AlSubaih asked Assistant Undersecretary for Administrative and Financial Affairs Hassan Al-Duwaihees to prepare a decision to stop the implementation of all those decisions and to cancel them, Al-Qabas reported.

Fingerprint timing for expats announced KUWAIT: Brigadier Adnan Baqer, Acting Director General of Criminal Evidence Department issued a circular stating that expatriates who apply for family visas should be fingerprinted between 3:00 pm to 8:00 pm. A security source said that this decision was taken to reduce the crowding at the department and also make it easier for women and children. — Al-Qabas

KUWAIT: Abdulaziz Al-Sharthan head of the Kuwait Oil and Petrochemicals Industries Workers Confederation yesterday is seen addressing the press following a brief general assembly meeting for the confederation which was held yesterday. — Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

MPs ask for changes to Gulf security pact Panel passes law to naturalize 4,000 bedoons

By B Izzak KUWAIT: The national assembly foreign relations committee yesterday discussed the controversial Gulf Security Pact with the foreign, interior and justice ministers as a number of MPs called for changes to the regional agreement.

Kuwait has officially signed the pact in Saudi Arabia last year but it only becomes effective after the national assembly ratifies it.

Head of the committee MP Ali Al-Rashed said that a voting on the pact by the committee was delayed until March 3 for further study while a number of MPs said discussions in the lengthy meeting focused on extradition of criminals and wanted people.

MP Abdulkareem Al-Kundari said that a number of MPs called for changes to the pact so in order to become in line with the Kuwaiti constitution, but the government said that no changes can be introduced and the pact must be accepted or rejected in full.

Al- Kundari said most of the debate centered on extradition of criminals and a number of provisions thought to violate the Kuwaiti constitution. Opposition MP Riyadh AlAdasani said the pact breaches the Kuwaiti constitution, undermines the sovereignty of the state and interferes in the extradition of criminals”.

He said he is opposed to the pact, adding that the minister of defense should have attended the meeting instead of the interior minister if the pact deals with external dangers as the government says.

Al-Adasani said the pact includes provisions that restrict freedoms, adding that he hoped that it contained rules to encourage economic and trade exchange similar to the European Union. “The Gulf security pact represents and

interference in Kuwait’s internal affairs” Adasani said.

Liberal MP Rakan Al-Nasef said he is opposed to any security agreement whether it is Gulf or Arab especially when it is against citizens and expatriates and in breach of the constitution.

He said that the Gulf security pact is presented as to safeguard Gulf security but in effect it curbs freedoms, adding that its contradiction with the Kuwaiti constitution is very clear. The lawmaker said that differences in the Gulf political systems makes it impossible for Kuwait to ratify the agreement because it imposes restrictions on the freedom of expression.

But assembly speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim, who attended part of the meeting, said that the first article of the pact clearly stipulates that it will not contradict the Kuwaiti constitution or any law. He expressed confidence that there is some understanding between the parliamentary and the government teams about the pact and that a great deal of confusion over the pact will be resolved through discussions.

In another development, the assembly interior and defense committee yesterday approved a draft law calling on the government to naturalize “at least 4,000 stateless people or Bedoons during the current year”.

The government had asked that the law should call for naturalizing a maximum of 4,000 Bedoons. Head of the panel MP Askar Al-Enezi said that only one MP of the five members objected to the draft law which is restricted to naturalizing of Bedoons. Head of the assembly Bedoons Committee MP Abdullah Al-Tameemi meanwhile said Interior Minister Sheikh Mohammad Al-Khaled Al-Sabah gave the committee positive indicators that there is a roadmap to resolve the Bedoons issue.

UNDP signs agreement with Journalism Excellence Award committee KUWAIT: The Sheikh Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah Journalism Excellence Award Higher Committee declared yesterday signing of a long-term cooperation agreement with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). A press release quoted the committee’s Chairman Ayman Al-Ali saying the agreement involves UN experts in the fields of journalism and media training Kuwaiti prize winners to improve their competence and whet their skills and encourage their creativity. AlAli added the program would enroll the winners in special training courses in the fields of gathering of information, writing of reports and features, and editing, in addition to other areas of journalistic work and media coverage. The training program would include field visits and the trainees’ performance would be assessed following completion of their training activities. The trainers would then present their recommendations in view of their assessment. Al-Ali stressed such training courses are encouraged and called for by His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah who always says that it is of utmost priority that young talent be given support and attention to encourage creativity and accomplishment. —KUNA

Ministries accused of negligence

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: A citizen accused the Health and Interior Ministries of negligence. He said his father’s body arrived from Iran with a report stating that the cause of death was a heart attack. This was authenticated by the Kuwait Embassy in Tehran also but he had his doubts regarding the same. He claimed that when he asked doctors at Sabah Hospital to investigate, they refused to tamper with criminal evidence.

Run over An Asian expat was run over by a car which was being chased by police in Jahra and he was rushed to hospital in a critical condition. This was the second accident of this kind within the same week.

ATV stolen In Adan, a Kuwaiti man said that an unknown man illegally entered his compound, jumped over the fence, broke a security chain and drove away with his brand new ATV. Indian robbed An Indian expat told Jahra police that two people who posed as detectives, searched his car and escaped with his wallet with KD 120, a gold necklace, and a mobile phone.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Alarm bells over ‘Big Brother’ Turkish Internet curbs

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Texas executes woman in a rare execution

Spanish princess faces court in royal scandal

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BAGHDAD: People and security forces inspect the site of a car bomb attack in Baghdad’s Karrada neighborhood yesterday. — AP

Seven bombs hit Baghdad, 13 die US lawmakers blast Iraqi PM BAGHDAD: Seven bombs ripped through Baghdad killing at least 13 people yesterday, hours after American lawmakers criticized the slow pace of political reconciliation in Iraq which they said was stoking the worsening violence. The blasts, which mostly targeted Shiitemajority neighborhoods of the capital, come amid the country’s deadliest protracted period of unrest since 2008 as security forces grapple with near-daily attacks and battle militants in Anbar province.

Diplomats have called for the Shiite-led government to do more to reach out to the disaffected Sunni Arab minority, but with a general election looming in April, Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki has taken a hard line. There has been no let-up in the bloodshed, with seven bombs going off across Baghdad from around noon (0900 GMT), while militants also mounted a massive, though ultimately abortive, assault on a jail in northern Iraq.

The blasts in the capital killed at least 13 people and wounded more than 40, security and medical officials said. Four of the neighborhoods hit are populated mostly by Iraq’s Shiite majority. The other three bombs went off in commercial districts in the centre of Baghdad. The blasts came a day after 33 people were killed in the capital, 25 of them in a series of bombings near the heavily fortified Green Zone, which is home to parliament, the

prime minister’s office and the US and British embassies.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the latest attacks, but Sunni militant groups, including the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), have claimed previous bombing campaigns targeting Shiites in the capital.

In Nineveh province in the north, militants mounted a massive assault on Badush prison late on Wednesday, reminiscent of twin attacks on jails near Baghdad last July that succeeded in freeing dozens of inmates. The attempted prison break left one guard dead and 14 wounded, and involved mortar fire as a riot broke out inside the jail, but was ultimately repulsed, the justice ministry said.

Maliki ‘may not be up to it’ US House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Ed Royce said on Wednesday that Maliki’s failure to do more to address Sunni grievances had allowed ISIL to exploit the minority community’s “alienation” to sharply step up its attacks. “As head of state, while he may not be up to it, Maliki must take steps to lead Iraq to a post-sectarian era,” Royce said. “Al-Qaeda has become very skilled at exploiting this sectarian rift, and Maliki’s power grab has given them much ammunition.” US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq and Iran Brett McGurk insisted Maliki had made changes

since he visited Washington in November and “got a very direct message” from President Barack Obama on “enlisting the Sunnis into the fight”. ISIL has also been fighting security forces in Anbar, a mostly Sunni desert region bordering Syria where militants have held parts of Ramadi and all of Fallujah for weeks. Security forces and

tribal auxiliaries have made slow progress in Ramadi but recaptured several neighborhoods late Tuesday, an AFP journalist reported. In Fallujah, however, security forces have largely stayed out of the city for fear that major incursions could spark high civilian casualties and heavy damage to property.—Agencies

246 dead in five days of barrel bombing in Syria BEIRUT: At least 246 people, including 73 children, have been killed in five days of Syrian army barrel bombing of rebel-held held areas of second city Aleppo, an NGO said yesterday.

Hundreds more have been wounded in the raids using the controversial unguided munitions, condemned by rights groups as indiscriminate, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The heavy casualty toll has sparked a mass exodus from the worst-hit neighborhoods in the east of the city, the Britain-based monitoring group added.

The latest series of barrel bomb attacks began on Saturday, with at least 85 people killed in a single day of raids in the eastern part of the city. Once the country’s economic hub,

Aleppo has been divided between government control in the west and rebel control in the east since a rebel offensive in mid-2012. The latest raids have accompanied a government ground assault on the eastern outskirts of the city, aimed at building on the army’s recent recapture of areas outside Aleppo city. The gains allowed the reopening the Aleppo international airport, after its closure for more than a year.

And security sources have told Syrian media that troops plan to take three neighborhoods in east Aleppo and three more in the north in a bid to retake the rebel-held sector of the city in a pincer movement. The attacks have prompted thousands of civilians to flee, some across the border to Turkey. — AFP

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International FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Turkey tightens Internet controls Alarm bells over ‘Big Brother’ Turkish Internet curbs ISTANBUL: Turkey was under fire yesterday over new Internet curbs that critics say constitute a distressing slide towards authoritarianism in the aspiring EU member state. Parliament passed the measures late Wednesday, the latest controversial moves in Turkey as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan seeks to bring the judiciary and police to heel to contain a snowballing and deeply embarrassing corruption probe sullying the upper echelons of power.

In Brussels, European Commission spokesman Peter Stano said the restrictions, including the blocking of webpages without a court order, raised “serious concerns” and need “to be revised in line with

European standards”. Under the new measures, Turkey’s Telecommunications Communications Presidency (TIB) can demand that providers block pages deemed insulting or as invading privacyand without the need for a judge. The body will also be able to request users’ online communications and traffic information from hosting providers, which will have to retain up to two years’ worth of data.

Lawmaker Faruk Logoglu from the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) said the measures were “nothing but a way to intimidate the people, to tell them ‘Big Brother is watching you’.”

Logoglu said it was a “way of suffocating

and rendering forgotten” the corruption probe which Erdogan has blamed on allies of a friend-turned-foe Islamic preacher living in self-imposed exile in the United States. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has warned that the curbs could “significantly impact free expression, investigative journalism, the protection of journalists’ sources, political discourse and access to information over the Internet”.

Reporters Without Borders said the aim was “to reinforce cyber-censorship, government control of the Internet and surveillance”. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called it a “slide into Internet authoritarianism” in country that it says is the leading jailer of journalists worldwide. Yaman Akdeniz, law professor at Bilgi University in Istanbul, said the curbs would have a “chilling effect” in a country where Facebook and Twitter are platforms for political discussion rather than just socializing. “I would call it an Orwellian nightmare,” he told AFP. “Turkey has become a step closer to countries like Iran, Syria and China, rather than moving towards the European Union.”

All eyes on Gul The Islamic-rooted government rejects the criticism, with Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc saying there is “no such thing as Internet censorship. We are freer compared to many other countries and have freedom of press.” Erdogan, Turkey’s allpowerful leader for 11 years, is openly suspicious of the Internet, branding Twitter a “menace” for helping organise mass nationwide protests in June in which six people died and thousands injured.

But President Abdullah Gul, who on Tuesday met none other than Apple chief Tim Cook, in the past has portrayed himself as an Internet fan, tweeting for example in 2011: “Anyone who wants it should be able to roam freely on the Internet”.

Human rights think-tank Freedom House urged Gul to issue a veto, saying the curbs give “the government license to censor the Internet whatever it doesn’t like and whatever it doesn’t want the public to know.”

But such a veto is far from certain, however, since Gul is a close ally of Erdoganopenly at least-and their Justice and Development Party (AKP) is facing important local elections on March 30.

“President Gul... has avoided using his authority in the past even in the most controversial issues,” Ozgur Korkmaz said in an editorial in the Hurriyet newspaper. “An exception for the Internet censorship law is highly unlikely.” CHP lawmaker Emrehan Halici said he hoped Gul would return the amendments to parliament, “but until now the head of state has in general approved all the mistaken laws adopted by the AKP”. Gul has yet to comment on the measures.—AFP

News

in brief

7 migrants drown RABAT: At least seven migrants, including a woman, drowned on Thursday as they tried to swim to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from a beach in neighboring Morocco, Moroccan authorities said. The victims belonged to a group of around “200 illegal migrants” who made the attempt, municipal authorities in the Moroccan town of Fnideq said, without giving the nationalities of the migrants.

They said 13 of those who headed out to sea had been rescued and taken to hospital and that a search operation was continuing. Spanish authorities in Ceuta said “around 400 sub-Saharans” had attempted the crossing at around 0600 GMT, and that Moroccan police had recovered five bodies from the beach. A local representative of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights said eight people had died. “This drama shows once again the risks taken by illegal migrants, who put their lives in danger,” the authorities in Fnideq said.

Insurance against bullying SEOUL: One of South Korea’s largest insurance companies is to begin offering a policy for victims of school bullies, as part of a government campaign to stamp out the problem. The policy from Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance will likely debut in March, a company spokesman said yesterday. “The priority isn’t really on making money with this product, but more on providing a public service that helps build up social security networks,” he said. As well as bullying, other policies will be introduced offering protection to victims of sexual assault, domestic violence and food adulterationor what President Park Geun-Hye has collectively condemned as the “four social evils” afflicting the country. According to the state regulatory Financial Services Commission (FSC), the bullying policy will help cover costs for physical injuries as well as counseling fees for those traumatized by school violence. Monthly premiums would be a maximum of 20,000 won ($18), but the FSC said it would raise joint funds with municipalities to pay premiums for those unable to afford them.

Eight perish in SA JOHANNESBURG: Eight workers have been found dead in a deep underground South African (SA) gold mine after a blaze and rockfall, their employer said yesterday, but the search was on for another man still unaccounted for. The government said it was launching an investigation into the accident at Harmony Gold’s Doornkop mine, the worst such incident in South Africa since 2009. Rescue teams on Wednesday brought eight miners to the surface unharmed after the blaze trapped 17 workers at Doornkop, leaving nine still missing. But yesterday the company announced that rescue workers had located the bodies of eight more men. “The search continues for the ninth employee,” Harmony Gold said in a statement. The bodies were discovered during rescue work late Wednesday at the mine west of Johannesburg, National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) spokesman Livhuwani Mammburu said. An earth tremor is blamed for the accident some 1.7 kilometers below ground when a rockfall damaged electric cables and started the fire, the mine owners and the NUM said.

International FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

New dispute brews in unrest-riddled Libya Transitional govt plans to extend congress mandate TRIPOLI: A new dispute is brewing in unrestriddled Libya over a decision by its highest, but transitional, political authority to extend its mandate beyond February 7, with demonstrations called for this week. Leading a transition that has proved chaotic since the 2011 toppling of the country’s longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi, the General National Congress was elected in July 2012 for a term of 18 months.

Its mission was to prepare for polling to form a commission tasked with drawing up a new constitution and to organize a general election. But the GNC on Monday ratified a decision to extend its mandate to December 2014, despite the opposition of a large segment of the population critical of its inability to halt Libya’s slide into lawlessness and chaos. The congress has adopted a new roadmap and timetable, which allow for two scenarios.

A general election is to be held at the end of the year if the constitutional body adopts a new charter within four months of its own election set for February 20. But if the commission deems itself with 60 days incapable of completing the job, a Plan B allows for it to call for immediate presidential and legislative polls for a fresh period of 18 months. The extension of the GNC mandate has raised the hackles of civil society organizations and political groups, and protests have already been held in several towns to demand the congress

be dissolved.

A “No Extension” campaign has been launched in the troubled eastern city of Benghazi, and more demonstrations are called for Friday, on the date the GNC’s mandate was to have expired. Fears have risen of clashes between rival armed groups. The Operations Cell of Revolutionaries, an Islamist militia of ex-rebels said to be close to the army, has lined up behind the GNC, and the powerful armed groups of Misrata have warned that the “Congress is a red line.” But rival former rebel fighters in Zintan, an influential force in post-Kadhafi Libya, have vowed to protect any popular movement against the GNC. ‘Security vacuum’ The political class is also divided, between Islamist supporters of the Congress and the liberal National Forces Alliance, which has slammed the extension as undemocratic even though its deputies voted in favor. GNC spokesman Omar Hmeidan said the population had the right to express its opposition but stressed that the country would have been left in a “security vacuum” if the Congress were scrapped without an alternative body taking its place.

The political bickering comes at a time of uncertainty over the fate of Prime Minister Ali Zeidan, although he defeated a confidence vote against his government. “The GNC’s deci-

BENGHAZI: Libyan youths gather around blood stains at the scene of a blast that rocked a primary school in Libya’s restive second city Benghazi during playtime on February 5, 2014, wounding six children. — AFP sion is a farce intended to indirectly prolong way out of the crisis, and it paid no attention.” its mandate,” said political activist Abu Bakar In July 2012, after more than 40 years under Al-Badri. “About 40 initiatives were presented the rule of dictator Gaddafi, Libya chose the to the Congress these past few days to find a GNC in its first-ever elections. — AFP

International FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Immigration vote tests Swiss ties with EU GENEVA: Switzerland’s ties with the European Union face a crunch test Sunday as voters decide whether to revive immigration quotas on EU citizens, in a referendum piloted by rightwing populists. The result could be close, with the latest poll indicating 43 percent back the “Stop Mass Immigration” proposal and 50 percent oppose it. Fiercely independent Switzerland is not in the EU but is ringed by members of the 28-nation bloc and exports most of its goods to it. If passed, the proposal would bind the government to renegotiate within three years a deal which gives the EU’s 500 million residents equal footing on the job market in this nation of eight million people.

Opponents of the plan-the government, most political parties and the business sector-warn that ripping up free labor market rules for EU nationals in force since 2007 would unravel related economic deals. “I urge the Swiss to vote with their heads and not from their guts,” said Economy Minister Johann Schneider-Amman. The EU is already battling internal dissent over its own borderless labor market policy, which is often criticized in western Europe, and has ruled out any change in its deal with Switzerland. “Switzerland can’t just pick and choose,” Viviane Reding, vice president of the EU’s executive branch, told Swiss media. She insisted free movement was part of a binding package of seven accords benefitting Switzerland and the EU alike-some 430,000 Swiss live in EU countries,

for example. University of Geneva political scientist Pascal Sciarini said it was tough to forecast the vote result. “If the Yes camp wins, there’ll be total chaos and a huge period of uncertainty in relations with the EU,” he said.

The Yes coalition is unbowed, arguing that national sovereignty is at stake. The referendum was the brainchild of the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), the largest single force in parliament and known for campaigns taking aim at foreigners. “Our initiative has only one goal: Switzerland has to be able to control the quantity and the quality of immigration again. Uncontrollable immigration is always, and everywhere, a disadvantage for a wealthy country,” SVP lawmaker Luzi Stamm said.

‘Playing with fire’ Referenda are the core of Switzerland’s direct democracy, and the SVP mustered more than 135,000 signatures to force a vote. Immigration and national identity have long been headline issues in a country with one of Europe’s toughest laws on obtaining citizenship and a long tradition of drawing foreign workers into a wealthy economy with virtually full employment. But over recent years, the proportion of foreigners has risen from around one-fifth of the population to roughly a quarter.

The highest numbers of recent immigrants hailed from neighboring Germany, Italy and France, as well as Portugal.

The proposal’s supporters say the arrival of 80,000 new residents per year has been an economic and social disaster.

The campaigners allege that locals-both Swiss and longresident citizens of other countries-have been undercut as EU nationals settle for jobs below their qualification level because it still means making a higher salary than at home.

Their hard-hitting billboards even blame foreigners’ demand for housing for concreting over the landscape.

They also blame overpopulation for driving up rents and land prices, overburdening the health and education systems, and turning rail and road commuting into a nightmare of jampacked trains and traffic lines. They decline to say what they consider an acceptable level of immigration, but underline that around 40,000 immigrants entered the country each year before the financial crisis erupted in 2007. Switzerland’s business, industry, farm and hospital lobbies warn the plan would hit a swathe of key sectors relying on foreign labor and trade. “This is playing with fire,” Swiss Employers’ Federation chief Valentin Vogt said.

“If you have a headache, you don’t operate on an artery.

And that’s basically what it is, because nobody knows what would come out of this.” Opponents also balk at reviving bureaucratic hurdles that previously applied before they could recruit a non-resident. Vogt said Switzerland needs a steady stream of migrants to replace retiring workers in its ageing population. — AFP

US Northeast struggles; snowy winter drags on BOSTON: The latest in a series of winter storms hit the United States yesterday, dropping wet, heavy snow in the Northeast states that disrupted travel and threatened supplies of salt needed to keep roads clear. Officials in New York and New Jersey warned they were starting to run short of the rock salt used by road crews to keep ice from building up on highways and local roads, the result of the season’s repeated storms. “We have a salt shortage for some parts of the state, primarily New York City and the Long Island area, because there have been so many storms this season already,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told reporters on a conference call. “The state does have a significant amount of salt on hand, we’ll be shipping that salt around the state.”

Cuomo declared a state of emergency for New York. Neighboring New Jersey reported a similar salt shortage. “We’ve had so many storms, one after another, that it definitely has put a very significant demand on salt,” said Joe Dee, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation. “Our supplies are dwindling,” Dee added. “We have plenty for this storm. We’re looking at some weekend storms and we have enough for that, but we’re going to start to get low. We need some good weather and a chance to replenish our supplies.”

As of Jan. 26, New Jersey spent $60 million on snow removal, putting it on pace to break the record of $62.5 million spent last year, Dee said. New York City has spread some 346,000 tons of rock salt on its roads so far this year, almost the total for last winter, said Belinda Mager, a spokeswoman for the city Department of Sanitation. The city has spent $57.3 million on snow removal so far this winter, putting it on track to top last year’s spending. Most US states and major cities do not try to set an upper limit on spending for snow removal but authorize agencies to spend what is necessary and count on legislatures to cover the cost. “Before I became governor, I never saw winter in budgetary terms, but now I do,” Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick told local WBZ radio, adding that he was counting on lawmakers to fund the state’s rising snow-removal and salt tab.

Some commercial suppliers have run out of rock salt. “We’re just continuing to get crushed by these storms. With major rock salt shortages, it’s starting to get scary out there,” said Anthony Scorzetti, a hardware and paint manager for Braen Supply in Wanaque, New Jersey. “I have people calling from all parts of the East Coast looking for it, and we just have nothing.” In Connecticut, the Department of Transportation budgeted about $30 million for winter storms, said spokesman Judd Everhart. “We are bumping up against that number right now because of the number of storms and the overtime and materials required to deal with them,” he said. “This is the 11th storm of this season for us.” But Everhart said if the department runs over budget it can move money from other accounts so “there is never a situation where we would ‘run out.’” Bruce Small, 58, an aircraft mechanic from Milford, Connecticut, called the local road conditions “horrible.” “Everyone was skidding all over the place,” he said, calling the wet, heavy snow storm “miserable, brutal.”—Reuters

SOMERSET: Flood water is pumped from fields into the River Parrett at Northmoor Green in Somerset, southwest England yesterday. — AFP

Rain, flood wreak havoc in Britain Britons rescued; Cameron grapples with crisis LONDON: Britain was lashed by more heavy rain yesterday as firefighters rescued people from flooded homes and Prime Minister David Cameron scrambled to deal with the crisis. The deluge continued a day after storms washed away a key coastal railway line, breached sea defenses and sparked new flood warnings.

Forecasters warned that a “conveyor belt of storms” was due to sweep in from the Atlantic, adding to a winter of weather chaos that has seen the wettest January for a century in parts of England.

Firefighters in the stricken southwestern counties of Somerset and Devon rescued 14 people from homes and stranded vehicles late Wednesday and yesterday.

Rescuers in inflatable boats rescued four adults and three children from one house after a river burst its banks in Stoke St Gregory, a village that heir to the throne Prince Charles visited on Tuesday, a fire brigade spokesman said. British authorities issued two severe flood warnings signifying a danger to life for the Somerset Levels, the worst-hit area, where one village has been cut off from the world for a month. The government’s emergency Cobra committee was due to meet again while communities minister Eric Pickles was due to address parliament on the issue.

Cameron personally took charge of the government’s response on Wednesday after facing a growing tide of criticism for being too slow to aid stricken communities. He announced an additional £100 million ($163 million, 120 million euros) for flood repairs and maintenance over the coming year. Prince Charles himself said on his trip to the region that the “tragedy is that nothing happened for so long”. But the damage has kept coming, with the main train service connecting Devon and the county of Cornwall with the rest of Britain being suspended after part of the sea wall under the coastal railway line collapsed. Pete Fox from the Environment Agency told the BBC that Britain faces a “conveyor belt of storms” that makes it difficult to get in to repair what has already been damaged. In a further sign of chaos, Environment Secretary Owen Paterson, the minister supposed to be dealing with the crisis, had to take several days off to have an operation for a detached retina. Paterson was widely mocked for forgetting to bring his Wellington boots with him when he toured sodden Somerset last week, turning up instead in shiny black shoes. Britain has been lashed by storms and heavy rain throughout the winter with parts of southern England seeing the wettest January since records began in 1910. — AFP

International FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Well before Pacific quest, castaway drank turtle blood CHOCOHUITAL: Well before his incredible tale of survival in a 13-month Pacific odyssey, Jose Salvador Alvarenga consumed raw fish and turtle blood in his Mexican fishing village-the very things that saved him at sea. Fellow fishermen in Chocohuital, a village nestled on a lagoon in the southern state of Chiapas, remember Alvarenga as a good man with a quirky diet that they say gives credence to his amazing story.

The burly man they knew as “La Chancha,” the Spanish word for a sow, would gobble up anything, including dog food.

“He wasn’t picky. He ate everything. When he grabbed sardines, which we use as bait, we would tell him ‘no Chancha!’

But he would say with his husky voice: ‘Yes, you have to try everything,” his boss Bellardino Rodriguez said in an interview.

“We think that saved him,” Rodriguez said as fishermen rested on hammocks under huts on the shore of the lagoon lined with small, single-engine vessels.

Alvarenga, a 37-year-old native of El Salvador, has claimed that he survived more than a year lost in the Pacific after leaving Chocohuital on a fishing expedition aboard a seven-meter fiberglass boat in late 2012. Alvarenga says he endured the 12,500-kilometer journey-which ended in the Marshall Islands last Thursday-by eating raw birds and fish as well as drinking turtle blood, his own urine and rainwater. But Alvarenga has told AFP that a teenager named Ezequiel who had been with him for what was supposed to have been a one-day fishing trip couldn’t stomach the raw diet and starved to death. After the pair disappeared 13 months ago, fishermen in Chocohuital say they searched for them for four days with the help of a government helicopter to no avail. Rodriguez said Alvarenga had found his young assistant minutes before setting out to sea.

But once out, they were caught by powerful northern winds.

Then their engine, their GPS system and their radio broke down. In a final radio call, Rodriguez recalled, Alvarenga said: “The swells are more than four meters high. They’re godawful!”

Eating dog food Officials in the Marshall Islands said Alvarenga would depart the tiny Pacific nation on Friday for Hawaii, before travelling on to El Salvador or Mexico. This past week, the fishermen were awestruck when they saw images of Alvarenga on their small television with a bushy beard and walking slowly. He looked stocky despite his struggle to find food in the middle of the ocean, but Rodriguez said Alvarenga was a muscular man before his disappearance. To Rodriguez, his friend looked “weak, with a puffy face. He was strong, muscular.” Experts say it is theoretically possible to survive such a journey, though many have a hard time believing his story. But not his friends in Chocohuital. Rodriguez said the boat seen in news footage belongs to the community. “It’s from here. It has the license number and the name of our cooperative,” he said, noting that the vessel was also covered in small seashells that latch on at sea and that fishermen usually remove. Fisherman Erick Manuel Velazquez said most in the village have contingency plans in case they get lost at sea, but that Alvarenga had the most unusual preparation. “This man ate everything. He would even eat dog food,” Velazquez said. “He would tell us: One day, I’ll have to stay at sea.”—AFP

Spanish royal scandal Princess mired in fraud allegations MADRID: A judge will quiz Spanish King Juan Carlos’s youngest daughter Cristina tomorrow over fraud allegations in a corruption scandal-a historic first for the troubled royal family. Long thought untouchable as a royal, Cristina, 48, now faces public scrutiny over accusations of tax fraud and money-laundering that have fuelled doubts over the future of the monarchy. The judge on the island of Majorca will question Cristina, seventh in line to the throne, as a suspect in a judicial probe-one step towards a possible trial.

It is the first time in Spain’s modern history that a direct member of the royal family has been summoned to court accused of wrongdoing. The case is linked to the business affairs of Cristina’s husband, former Olympic handball player Inaki Urdangarin, 46. He is under investigation for alleged embezzlement of public funds.

Neither he nor Cristina have yet been formally charged with any crime and both deny wrongdoing. But the investigating judge Jose Castro wrote in his summons: “The fiscal crimes that Urdangarin is accused of could hardly have been committed without at least the knowledge and acquiescence of his wife.”

Castro has spent more than two years investigating allegations that Urdangarin and a former business partner embezzled six million euros ($8 million) in public funds via the Noos Institute, a charitable foundation he chaired. Cristina was a member of the board of Noos and with her husband jointly owned another company, Aizoon. Investigators suspect that Aizoon served as a front for laundering embezzled funds. Cristina, known as the Infanta, last year narrowly escaped an earlier summons, which was cancelled

on appeal. The latest summons “deals an even bigger blow to the monarchy, because it highlights that what happened last year was unjust”, said Ana Romero, a journalist who covers the royal palace for El Mundo newspaper. Urdangarin provided a rare public spectacle when he went before Castro for questioning in February 2012, choosing to brave the yells of protestors and walk to the entrance of the court on the Mediterranean island. For security reasons the judge has given Cristina, like her husband, permission to drive right up to the door of the court on Saturday, which would save her a humiliating walk in front of the world media’s lenses.

Shifting views of monarchy State prosecutors say there is no case to answer against Cristina but the judge has admitted a suit brought by Manos Limpias, a litigious far-right pressure group. In a summons of more than 200 pages, Castro detailed suspect spending in Aizoon’s accounts, such as 437,000 euros spent renovating the couple’s luxury villa in Barcelona. He also cited spending on salsa and merengue dance classes, tableware and a cocktail party. The courts impounded the couple’s villa last year to cover a bond for Urdangarin’s liability in the case. They have moved with their four children to Geneva, where Cristina was posted by her employer, a charitable foundation run by La Caixa bank.Saturday’s hearing follows more than two years of mounting anger against the elite in a Spain battered by recession.—AFP

BARCELONA: In this file photo, Spanish Infanta Princess Cristina and her father King Juan Carlos turn back to wave to cheering crowds outside the Barcelona cathedral prior to Cristina’s wedding ceremonies on October 4, 1997. — AFP

Ranchers pray for rain in drought-hit California DELANO: Californian rancher Nathan Carver squints as he surveys the parched fields where his family has raised cattle for five generations. Normally, they would be covered in lush green grass. But the western US state’s worst drought in decades has reduced the land to a moonscape, leaving the 55-year-old father-of-four praying for rain. “My grandparents tell of the Dust Bowl years in the late 30s when it was very bad and dry with dust storms blowing. But this is as bad as we have ever seen it in my lifetime,” he said. Governor Jerry Brown last month declared a state of emergency due to what could be the worst drought in a century for California including its ultra-fertile Central Valley. With no significant rain since November, state authorities identified 17 communities it warned could run out of water within 60-120 days, if the drought continues.

Only last Friday, California’s State Water Project announced for the first time in its 54-year history that it cannot deliver anything beyond the bare minimum to maintain public health and safety. For small family herdsman like Carver, the drought means no grass for their cattle to graze on. The only options are buying hay at inflated

prices - 20 to 30 percent above usual because of demand-or selling their cows. “If the drought continues, we’ll have to take desperate measures,” Carver warned.

Drought means cattle sell-off “Many of the ranchers are selling out. Because at some point, if you don’t have the grass, you can’t afford to buy the hay to feed the cows any more,” he said at his ranch near Bakersfield. Indeed, business appeared brisk at the weekly cattle auction in nearby Famoso, where buyers looked on from tiered benches as animals were led in for sale, the auctioneer shouting out fast-changing bids. Justin Mebane, owner-manager of the Western Stockman’s Market, said more cattle are being put up for sale, but things could get even busier. “This is just the tip of the iceberg,” he told the local Bakersfield Californian newspaper. “If we don’t get some rain ... ranchers will need to liquidate their herds.”

Jack Lavers, who is on the executive committee of California Cattlemen’s Association (CCA), said that cattle markets like the one

in Famoso would typically be handling 200 to 300 cattle a day.

“They’re getting over 1,000 head a day right now. That’s every sale yard up and down the state,” said Lavers, who has already cut his 400-head herd by a third, and plans to sell another 10 to 20 percent in the next couple of months. “It’s phenomenal. Guys are just selling cattle as fast as they can, trying to save what feed they have or ... completely selling out. ..It’s been bad for the last couple of years, but this year has really been the worst.”

California’s drought-the third winter in a row with well below average rainfall-has also extended the annual wildfire season through into the winter, including one just outside Los Angeles that forced thousands of residents to evacuate. The western state’s rivers and reservoirs have hit record lows, with only 20 percent of the normal average supplies of water from melting snowpack, which flows down from the Sierra Nevada. Back on his ranch, Carver can see the foothills of the Sierra away to the east. Every spring he drives his 250-strong herd up onto more fertile higher pastures, before bringing them down to warmer temperatures in the winter. —AFP

International FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Suspect admits Chinese student murders in US LOS ANGELES: A man accused of murdering two Chinese students in Los Angeles in 2012 pleaded guilty Wednesday and was immediately jailed for life, as the victims’ parents spoke of their desolation. Bryan Barnes, 21, admitted two charges of first degree murder over the shooting deaths of Ying Wu and Ming Qu, killed as they sat in a car in April 2012 near the University of Southern California campus. LA Superior Court Judge Stephen Marcus told the victims’ parents he was “deeply sorry” and hoped the court proceedings would provide “some measure of justice.” A co-defendant, Javier Bolden, is still awaiting trial.

The victims, both 23 years old, were studying electrical engineering at USC and had planned to marry.

Xiyong Wu said his daughter had come to America with a dream, and planned to return to China after graduat-

ing. “Every life deserves respect, and he has no right to take away my daughter’s life,” he said through an interpreter. “My daughter is gone, so is my hope. “Our tears have not dried, and the only reason that gives us courage to live is waiting to see today... My family and I want to see the murderer receive his due punishment,” he said. Wanzhi Qu said his son “came with beautiful dreams but died tragically.”

“After my son passed away, my wife and I always wake up crying at night. In our dreams, our beloved son is covered in blood, crying out to us, ‘Dad, I am so cold. I suffered a horrible death for absolutely no reason! You must help me get justice!’ Qu added. “Son, I am here today to help you get justice.” Qu said he had been excited that his son had fallen in love with Ying Wu, whom he was looking forward to meeting. “But, in only

North threatens to renege on reunions with S Korea SEOUL: North Korea threatened yesterday to renege on an agreement to hold a reunion for families divided by the Korean War unless South Korea scraps planned military drills with the United States. The threat came barely a day after the two sides set dates for the reunion.

It drew a sharp rebuke from Seoul, which warned Pyongyang against dashing the hopes of separated family members in the North and South.

In a statement broadcast on state television, the North’s top military body, the National Defense Commission (NDC), said it was “outrageous” for South Korea to push ahead with the joint military exercises when cross-border efforts were being made for reconciliation.

“Dialogue and exercises of war of aggression... cannot go hand in hand,” the NDC said. The annual South-US joint drills are scheduled to begin late February, despite the North’s repeated demands for their cancellation.

The dates agreed Wednesday for the family reunions were February 20-25, which would likely see them overlap with the start of the military exercises. It would be the first reunion event in more than three years, and the accord was hailed as a possible harbinger of warmer ties between the arch rivals. But yesterday’s NDC statement appeared to back up those who had warned that Pyongyang would use the reunion agreement as a bargaining chip to extract concessions from Seoul. The South Korean government issued a statement condemning the North’s stance, and stressing there could be no linkage between the reunion and the drills.

“North Korea should not repeat its behavior of hurting the elderly separated families who have waited for the reunions for more than 60 years,” the statement said. “We make it clear that it is imperative for North Korea to fulfill the agreement on family reunions this time,” it added. A reunion planned for September last year was cancelled by the North at the last minute. “It’s

our position that an agreement must be honored under any circumstances,” the South’s Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-Jae told reporters. The NDC voiced particular outrage over what it said were US B-52 bombers “carrying out nuclear strike drills” off the Korean peninsula on Wednesday as the talks on the reunions were being held.

The US Pacific Command responded by saying it had maintained a “rotational strategic bomber presence” in the region for more than a decade. Seoul and Washington have both made it clear that there is no question of the upcoming joint military drills being called off, no matter what pressure North Korea chooses to exert. As well as the joint drills, the NDC also condemned “slanderous” attacks in the South Korean media, with special reference to reports of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un’s recent visit to an orphanage.

A picture of Kim wearing shoes while interacting with the orphans in their dormitory was pilloried in the South. The leading conservative South Korean daily, the Chosun Ilbo, said it displayed an “unimaginable” lack of manners. Koreans never wear outdoor shoes inside the home - especially not in living areas. “We cannot but reconsider the implementation of an agreement that was already reached as long as there is a continued move to hurt the dignity of our supreme leadership and slander our system,” said the NDC statement.

The South Korean government stressed that it had done nothing to slander the North, and dismissed the complaint as an unworkable demand to muzzle the domestic press. The annual South-US drills, which Pyongyang routinely condemns as rehearsals for invasion, are always a diplomatic flashpoint on the Korean peninsula. Last year’s exercises resulted in an unusually sharp and extended surge in military tensions that saw North Korea issue apocalyptic threats of nuclear war. — AFP

nine days, our joy had turned to mourning because you killed them in cold blood,” he said, addressing Barnes directly. “Our children left us and you took our heart and soul away. “You devastated our lives. You deserve the death penalty.”

Barnes and Bolden were arrested in May 2012 after being traced by the dead couple’s stolen cell phones.

They have been held in custody without bail since then.

“This was a horrific tragedy,” the judge said after giving Barnes two life prison terms without parole for the double murder, which detectives said appeared to be a carjacking gone wrong. Barnes avoided a possible execution by pleading guilty. Bolden, 21, is due back in court March 12 for a pretrial hearing. Prosecutors have not yet decided whether they will seek the death penalty against him.— AFP

Texas performs rare execution 14th US woman to die since 1976 WASHINGTON: Texas performed a rare execution of a woman Wednesday, putting to death a prisoner convicted of the brutal murder of a mentally disabled man 15 years ago. Suzanne Basso, 59, was only the 14th woman to be put to death in the United States in more than three decades, after losing a last-ditch appeal to the US Supreme Court.

She was pronounced dead at 6:26 pm at Huntsville Prison, 11 minutes after lethal drugs flowed into her veins, a prison spokeswoman said. Prior to that, Basso made no final statement, said Jason Clark, spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

The wheelchair-bound killer, who weighed 350 pounds at the time of her arrest in September 1999, was sentenced to die for the horrific slaying of Louis “Buddy” Musso in 1998, whom she murdered in an attempt to benefit from his life insurance.

TEXAS: This handout image provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows capital murder defendant Suzanne Basso. — AP

Musso was burned with cigarettes and beaten with belts, baseball bats and hobnailed boots by Basso and five accomplices. His body, bloodied and battered beyond recognition, was found dumped in a roadside ditch near Houston in August 1998, according to court documents. Despite a series of appeals that led all the way to the US Supreme Court, Basso’s death sentence had been reconfirmed several times.

Basso’s health questioned Anti-death penalty advocates had condemned Basso’s looming execution on the grounds that her physical and psychological state-she had shown signs of suffering from mental illness-meant she posed no threat to society. In a Supreme Court brief, Basso’s lawyer Winston Cochran pointed to her “long history of delusional thinking and mental disorders,” adding that prison doctors had diagnosed her with clinical depression. “She had a horrible childhood. She’s been delusional since way back then. She was molested, she grew up in poverty; all school records show she had mental health problems,” Cochran said in an interview.

He said his client’s death sentence should have been reversed years ago due to only “sporadic” evidence, suggesting they had been singled out for her physical appearance and her attitude. “She was grossly obese, a sour personality, unattractive.

Right from the beginning, they said we’re gonna go with the theory that she’s the ring leader,” the attorney added. And of the six defendants, Basso was the only one who got the death penalty despite lack of proof over how Musso was killed.

Women rarely executed As of January 1, 2013, the 60 female prisoners on death row accounted for just two percent of the total inmate population awaiting execution in the United State. “The numbers are very small because generally women do not often commit the kind of aggravated murder for which the death penalty is sought,” said Richard Dieter, who heads the Death Penalty Information Center. There have been 571 recorded executions of women since the first in 1632. That represents just under three percent of the total executions carried out since 1608. Women accounted for 10 percent of murder arrests but barely more than two percent of death sentences for first-degree murder. — AFP

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Saudi inmate in Gitmo charged over bombing WASHINGTON: A Saudi man jailed in Guantanamo has been charged over a bombing attack against a French oil tanker ship in 2002 in Yemen, the Pentagon said yesterday. Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Haza Al Darbi, 39, was sent before a military tribunal at the US prison in Cuba for terror suspects for, among other alleged offenses, planning, abetting and supporting the commission of the attack against the ship MV Limburg in the port of Aden.

The attack killed a Bulgarian crew member and wounded another 12 people, the Pentagon said. The Saudi man was captured in June 2002 and transferred to Guantanamo, months before the attack against the Limburg on October 6, 2002 according to military documents published by WikiLeaks. The indictment says the suspect is also charged with offenses including attacking civilians, conspiracy and carrying out terrorism and endangering a sea vessel.

The suspect is scheduled to appear before a judge at Guantanamo to be formally charged within 30 days, the Pentagon said in a statement. At that time he can plead guilty in an attempt to be eligible for a reduced sentence. He does not risk the death penalty, unlike the accused mastermind of the attack, his fellow Saudi Abd Al-Rahim Al-Nashiri. The trial of the latter is scheduled to begin in September 2014 in connection with the attack on the French oil tanker but also another attack against the American navy ship USS Cole in Yemen, which left 17 dead in 2000.

The administration of President Barack Obama will thus open its fourth set of legal proceedings at Guantanamo, after those of Nashiri in November 2011, and those against five suspects in the September 11 bombings, who first went to court in May 2012 and face the death penalty. Another man, Majid Khan of Pakistan, pleaded guilty in February 2012 to charges of conspiracy, murder and attempted murder. He pledged to cooperate with US authorities. Only seven men held at Guantanamo, including Khan, have so far been convicted since the prison opened in 2002. A total of 779 men have been held there at one time or another. — AFP

Shiite rebels battle loyalist tribes near Yemeni capital SANAA: Shiite rebels battled pro-government tribes and Sunni Islamists close to the Yemeni capital through the night before a fragile truce was restored yesterday, tribal sources said. The rebels have been pushing out from their stronghold in the mountains of the far north to other Zaidi Shiite majority areas nearer the capital in a bid to expand their hoped-for autonomous unit in a promised federal Yemen.

But they have met resistance from Zaidi tribes loyal to the historic leading family of the huge Hashid confederation and their Sunni Islamist allies in the Islah party. The fighting erupted late Wednesday in the Arhab district-just 35 kilometers north of the capital and close to Sanaa international airportshattering a fledgling truce, a tribal chief said.

The tribal chief accused the rebels of starting the fighting, breaking the truce agreed after they made major advances, overrunning the home base of the Al-Ahmar clan, the Hashid’s increasingly contested leading family, at the weekend. But the rebels, known as Huthis from the name of their leading family, or Ansarullah (Partisans of God), accused Islah party militia of breaking the agreement. “The truce that was agreed on Saturday between the Huthis and the tribes of Arhab has collapsed due to a broad offensive by the Huthis,” the tribal chief said, asking not to be identified.

But in a statement on their website, the rebels accused Islah party militia of “breaching the agreement and rejecting all forms of mediation” by launching an attack on the Zu Sulaiman area north of Sanaa “with all kinds of weapons.” The rebels also accused Islah gunmen of attacking a convoy of mediators sent to the area by President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi last week and of killing a number of their guards. The mediators managed to broker a halt to the fighting early on Thursday and were working on cementing the truce, tribal sources said.—AFP

BEIRUT: Lebanese extinguish a minibus in fire at the site of an explosion in Choueifat, south of the capital Beirut. — AFP

Syria conflict spurs growing jihadist threat in Lebanon Hezbollah involvement in Syria triggers wave of terror BEIRUT: A string of recent bombings in Lebanon, many of them suicide attacks, has raised fears of a homegrown jihadist threat driven by the Syrian civil war across the border. Since July, a series of ten bomb blasts have hit Lebanon, six of them involving suicide bombers. The attacks have been claimed by various jihadist groups, some of them linked to organizations fighting across the border in Syria, including Al-Nusra Front in Lebanon, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

The groups say they are targeting Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah movement for fighting in Syria alongside the regime. A Lebanese military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the growth of jihadist groups was an inevitable result of the Syrian conflict. “We were expecting it would spread here. If your neighbor’s house is on fire, it’s no surprise if your house catches on fire too,” he said.

“Terrorism has begun, regardless of the reasons and causes,” he said. The source said the different names of the groups meant little on the ground.

“Their ideology is the ideology of AlQaeda, and Al-Qaeda’s ideology is known for not accepting the other. All of these groups... feed on this ideology,” he said. Lebanon is no stranger to violence, with a 1975-1990 civil war that included a spate of bomb attacks against Western embassies and military targets, some carried out by suicide bombers from the Shiite Hezbollah movement.

Now the tactic has returned to haunt the group, as it has been adopted by Sunni militants bitterly opposed to

Hezbollah’s decision to fight alongside Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad against a Sunni-led rebellion. “For the Al-Qaeda jihadists, Lebanon provided their logistical needs for Syria. Once they became more powerful and had a supportive environment, they turned the country into a land of jihad,” the military source said. Neighborhoods considered Hezbollah strongholds have been bombed multiple times, with scores of civilians killed, and in August 2013 a double attack hit the Sunni town of Tripoli.

In an echo of the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, an anti-Syrian political figure was killed in a bombing in downtown Beirut in December. “Lebanon has witnessed an alarming increase in jihadi activities in recent months,” said Rafael Lefevre, a visiting fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Centre. “The turning point came last April when Hezbollah recognized (publicly) that it was sending fighters to help the Syrian regime crush the rebels.”

He said Lebanon was not yet a major jihadist base, in part because its unique religious diversity “makes the overwhelming majority of its population wary of extremism.” But the country is attractive to jihadists “because the state security apparatus is relatively weak, which enables groups to carry out a range of underground activities.” And he said there was potential recruiting ground in Lebanon because of the “growing number of people disaffected with the Lebanese state, especially in the poverty belts of major urban areas.”

The assessment is born out by reports that jihadist groups are particularly active in the impoverished parts of

northern Tripoli as well as the Ain AlHelweh Palestinian refugee camp. On January 25, a previously unknown figure by the name of Abu Sayyaf Al-Ansari announced the formation of the Lebanese branch of ISIL, which is fighting in Syria. He said the announcement was made from Tripoli, which is already the scene of regular clashes between Sunni residents of the Bab Al-Tebbaneh district and Alawite residents of neighboring Jabal Mohsen, who share the same Shiite offshoot faith of Assad.

Local sources say Abu Sayyaf is unknown to security services, religious figures or Salafist groups in Tripoli, but the military source acknowledged a growing jihadist presence there. “There are reports of Al-Qaeda supporters and recently of the formation of ISIL in the city involving Lebanese, Syrians and some Palestinians from the camps, but so far these groups have no bases or organizational structures,” he said. Ties between Lebanese citizens and groups fighting the Syrian regime already exist, with a unknown number of Sunni Lebanese crossing the border to fight alongside rebel groups. The military source said AlNusra Front, Al-Qaeda’s official branch in Syria, had been present in Lebanon since the beginning of the conflict. And he confirmed that the so-called Al-Nusra Front in Lebanon was linked to its Syrian counterpart. Lefevre warned that “sporadic jihadi attacks in Lebanon will continue until a settlement between regime and opposition is found in Syria which will facilitate Hezbollah’s withdrawal.” But the military source warned that even an end to the conflict in Syria would be unlikely to halt jihadism in Lebanon, calling it “an issue that will take years.”— AFP

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India warns US of consequences on visa reform WASHINGTON: India has warned the United States of consequences for its companies if lawmakers tighten visa rules on high-tech firms as part of an immigration overhaul. Ambassador Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said that India would see a decision to restrict certain temporary visas for skilled workers as a sign that the US economy is becoming less open for business. “We think this is actually going to be harmful to us. It would be harmful to the American economy and, frankly, it would be harmful to the relationship” between the two countries, Jaishankar told AFP in an interview.

“Once I feel I’m not getting a fair deal, I am less responsive to the concerns of the other party. Then tomorrow if an American company comes and says, ‘You know, we’ve got this set of problems,’ the temptation for me is to say, ‘I’m out for lunch,’” he said. The Republican leadership of the House of Representatives recently laid out general principles for an overhaul of immigration-whose main goal would be to give

legal status to the estimated 11 million undocumented foreigners in the United States.

A version passed last year by the Senate, which is led by President Barack Obama’s Democratic Party, offers automatic immigrant visas for foreigners who earn advanced science degrees at US universities. But it changes rules on so-called H-1B visas, which are issued to skilled workers who come temporarily to the United States. The Senate bill, while increasing the overall number of H-1B visas available, would hike fees and restrict additional H-1B visas for companies considered dependent on such foreign workers. The move came after complaints by US companies and labor groups that Indian tech firms bring in their own, lower-paid employees rather than hiring Americans.

Jaishankar charged that the changes attacked the business model of India’s showcase IT industry, which he said was making the US economy more competitive

India eases visa rules to boost tourist numbers NEW DELHI: Tourists travelling to India from 180 countries will no longer have to queue at their local consulates to obtain visas after New Delhi announced a “very significant” overhaul of its border controls. Most foreigners currently have to wait several weeks before learning whether they will be allowed to enter India after submitting their applications at visa processing centers, a major deterrent for potential visitors.

Under the new scheme, set to come into force later this year, tourists will be able to apply online and then receive the green light within five days, before getting their visa at an airport on arrival. “It is a very, very significant step that we are taking forward,” Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid told reporters in the capital on Thursday.

“We want to welcome more people to come to India and to make it more convenient for tourists to come to India,” he said. Planning Minister Rajiv Shukla announced the “historic” changes late on Wednesday, after a meeting of top foreign ministry, tourism and other government officials agreed on the overhaul. India’s intelligence agencies also recently approved the changes, which were first mooted last October, although only for 40 countries.

Citizens from eight countries-Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Sudan-have not been included in the changes for security reasons.

Khurshid said the list of countries excluded from visas on arrival would be reviewed “periodically”. The government hopes to have the necessary infrastructure in place, including at the country’s airports, by October in time for the start of the peak tourist season, officials said.

“Of course it requires a lot of logistics because people coming, arriving at airports will need to be processed very quickly,” Khurshid said. “I’m sure that those arrangements are being made.”

India currently issues visas on arrival to visitors from 11 foreign nations, including Japan, Finland and Indonesia. Despite its cultural attractions, beaches and mountains, India attracts relatively few foreign holidaymakers - 6.58 million in 2012, which was about a quarter of Thailand or Malaysia. India tightened entry restrictions in 2009 in the wake of revelations that David Headley, a foreign militant who helped plot the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, regularly stayed in India on longterm tourist visas. — AFP

by helping companies operate round-theclock. The ambassador said he raised his concerns in meetings with more than 25 members of Congress, including House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, since he arrived in Washington in December.

‘Scare-mongering’ Another prominent lawmaker, Senator Orrin Hatch, recently called India “the biggest battlefield” for intellectual property rights and accused the country of “rampant piracy and counterfeiting” to benefit its own industries. Hatch made his remarks at the US Chamber of Commerce, which released a report that ranked India at the bottom of 25 countries in protection of intellectual property. Jaishankar said he was “very surprised” by Hatch’s remarks and charged that the pharmaceutical industry was driving criticism of India, with few complaints about intellectual property rights in other sectors.

India has a major generic drug industry that produces cheaper copycat versions of life-saving branded medicines. But Jaishankar said it was incorrect to suggest that a “huge number of patents” was under threat. “I would very honestly describe it as scare-mongering tactics and, frankly, I don’t think it’s helpful,” he said. “If there is an expectation that by doing this, we are setting ourselves up for a serious conversation, I think someone’s got something wrong.” “Affordable health care is the number one issue in the United States.

There is almost a presumption here that what is a legitimate concern for Americans should not be a legitimate concern for Indians,” he said. Jaishankar arrived in Washington amid one of the worst crises in years between the world’s two largest democracies after authorities in New York arrested an Indian diplomat, Devyani Khobragade, on charges of underpaying her domestic servant and lying on her visa application.— AFP

Security forces abusing Iraqi women prisoners Thousands illegally detained, many tortured: HRW BAGHDAD: Iraqi authorities are detaining thousands of women illegally and subjecting many to torture and ill-treatment, including the threat of sexual abuse, Human Rights Watch said in a report published yesterday. Many women were detained for months or even years without charge before seeing a judge, HRW said, and security forces often questioned them about their male relatives’ activities rather than crimes in which they themselves were implicated.

In custody, women described being kicked, slapped, hung upside-down and beaten on the soles of their feet, given electric shocks, threatened with sexual assault by security forces during interrogation, and even raped in front of their relatives and children. “The abuses of women we documented are in many ways at the heart of the current crisis in Iraq,” said HRW’s deputy Middle East and North Africa director Joe Stork in a statement accompanying the report, titled: “‘No One Is Safe’: Abuses of Women in Iraq’s Criminal Justice System.” “These abuses have caused a deep-seated anger and lack of trust between Iraq’s diverse communities and security forces, and all Iraqis are paying the price.”

A spokesman for Iraq’s Human Rights Ministry said the testimonies in the HRW report were “over-exaggerated”, but acknowledged that “we have some limited illegal behaviors which were practiced by security forces against women prisoners”, which it said had been identified by the ministry’s own teams. These teams had referred their reports to the relevant authorities, “asking them to bring those who are responsible for mistreating female detainees to justice”, the spokesman said. “Iraq is still working to put an end to prison abuse and, with more time, understanding of law and patience, such illegal practices will become a history,” he said.

The 105-page report is based on interviews with imprisoned Sunni and

BAGHDAD: A billboard depicting a member of the Iraqi security forces aiming his weapon against militants is seen in Baghdad. —AFP Shiite women and girls, although Sunnis make up the vast majority of the more than 4,200 women detained in Interior and Defense Ministry facilities, HRW said. The release of women detainees was a main demand of Sunnis who began demonstrating late in 2012 against the Shiite-led government, which they accuse of marginalizing their community. Security forces cleared one of two Sunni protest camps in Anbar province in December 2013. In the ensuing backlash, militants seized the city of Falluja and parts of Ramadi.

Since then, more than 1,000 people have been killed across Iraq, according to Iraq Body Count, and the army is preparing for a possible ground assault to retake Falluja. One woman who entered her meeting with HRW at a death row facility in Baghdad on crutches said she had been permanently dis-

abled by abuse, displaying injuries consistent with the mistreatment she alleged. Seven months later, she was executed despite lower court rulings that dismissed charges against her following a medical report that supported her accusations of torture.

HRW described Iraq’s judiciary as weak and plagued by corruption, with convictions frequently based on coerced confessions, and trial proceedings that fall far short of international standards. If women are released unharmed, they are frequently stigmatized by their family or community, who perceive them to have been dishonored, HRW said. “Both men and women suffer from the severe flaws of the criminal justice system. But women suffer a double burden due to their secondclass status in Iraqi society,” HRW said.— Reuters

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TOKYO: A boy sits in front of a Sony’s 4K flat-panel television at an electronics retail store yesterday. — AP

Sony cuts 5,000 jobs, exits PC market Expects $1.08bn net loss this year TOKYO: Sony warned yesterday it would book a $1.08 billion annual loss as it cuts 5,000 jobs and exits the stagnant PC market this year, as the once-mighty electronics giant struggles to reinvent itself in the digital age. The shock news comes a week after Moody’s downgraded its credit rating on Sony to junk, saying the maker of Bravia televisions and PlayStation game consoles had more work to do in repairing its battered balance sheet. Japan’s embattled electronics sector, including Sharp and Panasonic, has faced serious challenges from foreign rivals such as US giant Apple and South Korea’s Samsung as they were outplayed in the smartphone and low-margin television business.

Sony said yesterday the job cuts would save about $1.0 billion a year starting from early 2015, and announced the sale of its Vaio-brand PC division to a Japanese investment fund. The deal with Japan Industrial Partners was reportedly worth between 40 billion yen ($400 million) and 50 billion yen.

No financial details were disclosed. Citing

“drastic changes” in the computer market, Sony said it would concentrate on its lineup of smartphones and tablets and “cease planning, design and development of PC products”. The firm is a small player in the global PC business.

Sony chief Kazuo Hirai said the moves were aimed at “accelerating the revitalization and growth of our electronics business”. “But the environment surrounding electronics will get more severe and it will be hard for us to achieve the goal we set for our PC and TV businesses,” he told reporters in Tokyo. Sony said the TV business would not be profitable in the current fiscal year to March, in which it expects to lose 110 billion yen. The bulk of those losses are tied to restructuring costs.

Sony has pinpointed digital imaging, video games and mobile as the units which it hopes will lead a turnaround in its core electronics business. Unlike Panasonic, which has abandoned consumer smartphones, Sony has seen buoyant sales of its Xperia offering and record sales for its new PlayStation 4 console. Its entertainment arm, which

includes a Hollywood studio, and a littleknown insurance business also make money.

But Hirai, who has led a sweeping restructuring including asset sales that saw the $1.0 billion sale of Sony’s Manhattan headquarters, has shrugged off pleas to abandon the ailing television unit. Yesterday, he said Sony would strengthen its focus on the high-end TV business.

Searching for direction The firm also turned down a call from US hedge fund boss Daniel Loeb to spin off 20 percent of its entertainment arm to boost profits. Sony booked a small profit in the year to March 2013, after four years in the red, but that was largely due to asset sales and a decline in the yen which boosts exporters’ profitability. The unit has tumbled by about one-quarter against the dollar over the past year. The firm invented the iconic Walkman but has struggled in recent years as the sector faced plunging TV sales while foreign rivals surged past them in the lucrative smartphone market. Japanese digital camera

makers have also suffered as consumers increasingly rely on smartphones to snap pictures.

“It seems like Sony is still searching for direction-things are going to be tough for a while,” Mitsushige Akino, analyst at Ichiyoshi Investment Management, told AFP before the announcement. “Japanese electronics firms have to carry out these restructurings quickly, including launching more competitive products, while the weak yen gives them breathing room.”

This week, Panasonic and Sharp said earnings improved thanks to an overhaul of their businesses and the yen’s decline, but weak sales of consumer gadgets held back the recovery. The job losses at Sony’s TV and computer units-about 3.5 percent of its global workforce-would see several hundred Vaio employees likely rehired by its new owner.

Sony added it will “explore opportunities” to transfer some employees to jobs within the company, which has about 145,800 employees, and offer others an “early retirement support program”. — AFP

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QNB aims to be largest lender in MENA by 2017 DOHA: Qatar National Bank (QNB) is aiming to become the largest lender in the Middle East and Africa by 2017, its finance head said yesterday, as the bank continues to look beyond its home market for growth opportunities.

Currently the biggest bank in the Gulf region, it is looking for acquisition targets in Turkey, Morocco and subSaharan Africa, Chief Financial Officer Ramzi Mari told Reuters in an interview at the bank’s Doha headquarters.

However, the lender, which bought Societe Generale’s Egyptian business last year, is not currently working on any acquisitions, he said. The bank is targeting a net profit increase of between 7 and 9 percent and loan growth of between 12 and 14 percent in 2014, with international markets becoming increasingly important in fuelling higher lending, said Mari. QNB’s net interest margin in 2014 was expected to be in the region of 2.8 to 2.9 percent, he added. —Reuters

Baghdad, Arbil close to a deal over oil dispute ISTANBUL: Iraqi Kurdistan and the central government in Baghdad are close to resolving a long-standing dispute over the sharing of oil revenues, said the president of Genel Energy, which operates in the region. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Turkey signed in November a package of energy deals providing for exports of the semi-autonomous regions’ rich hydrocarbon reserves abroad without having to get clearance from the central government.

An infuriated Baghdad, concerned about what it saw as a move towards the region’s independence, threatened to sue the companies that lift Kurdish oil via the KRG pipeline. While fiery statements between Arbil and Baghdad escalated, the talks between the two sides have also continued. Mehmet Sepil, the president of Anglo-Turkish firm Genel Energy who has knowledge of the talks, said he saw a deal approaching.

“We have never been this close to a deal,” he told Reuters in an interview. “The issues that caused an impasse have been identified. There’s been quite a bit of progress made.” The central government insists it has the sole right to export Iraqi resources, including those from the northern Kurdish region, which gained de facto autonomy after US-led forces defeated Saddam Hussein in 1991.

The KRG says its right to exploit and export reserves under its soil is enshrined in Iraq’s federal constitution, which was drawn up following the US-led invasion in 2003. The region has passed its own hydrocarbons legislation. Failure to reach an agreement could deter international oil companies from lifting Kurdish crude. Genel, one of the first companies to export oil from Kurdistan, stands to benefit from a resolution of the dispute.

Hussain Al-Shahristani, Iraq’s deputy prime minister for energy often known by his feisty statements, said on Feb 1 that ‘some progress’ had been made in talks and that a solution could be found soon. One official from the central government said, however, that the Kurds were still insisting on handling exports through its own marketing company and that Baghdad strongly objected. He did not see that a breakthrough in the talks was imminent.

Revenues to US bank Sepil said that according to the latest update he has on the talks, the hurdles have been narrowed down. “There are three issues now that need to be tackled.” He said those sticking points were whether the oil sales will be carried out by Baghdad’s oil market company or Arbil’s; the choice of bank account in which the revenues will be deposited; and the oil payments owed to companies operating in Kurdistan. Baghdad has agreed to pay 17 percent of total revenues to the Kurds, Sepil said, based on the Iraqi constitution. Each side will then pay their own contractors, which would eliminate the discussion on the legality of the Kurdish contracts. Previously, Baghdad paid contractors for its southern fields first from the common revenues and then allocated the Kurds’ share.— Reuters

MADRID: People wait to be hired for a job at the Plaza Eliptica. About 40 men pace a busy Madrid square to keep warm as they wait to be hired to moonlight for the day at building sites across the Spanish capital. — AFP

Euro-zone rates unchanged ECB holds key rate steady at 0.25% FRANKFURT: The European Central Bank held its key interest rates steady as largely expected yesterday. The ECB left its central “refi” or refinancing rate unchanged at 0.25 percent at its monthly policy meeting, it said in a statement. The central bank also held its other two key rates-the marginal lending rate and the deposit rateunchanged at 0.75 percent and zero percent respectively.

There had been speculation that the central bank could ease monetary conditions in the 18 countries that share the euro after area-wide inflation came in lower than expected last month. The ECB already surprised the markets with a quarter-point rate cut in November.

ECB President Mario Draghi was scheduled to explain the reasoning behind the latest decision at a news conference. Natixis economist Cedric Thellier suggested that Draghi could still reveal so-called “non-standard” measures at the conference. Those are measures not related to interest rates, but still aimed at easing monetary conditions to get credit flowing again in the euro area,

one of the most important factors in any economic recovery.

In addition to changing interest rates, the ECB could pump more liquidity into the financial system via so-called LTROs, or Long Term Refinancing Operations, to get credit flowing again between banks and businesses, crucial if any economic upturn is to be sustained. The ECB already pumped more than 1.0 trillion euros ($1.3 trillion) into the banking system at the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012 to avert a potentially disastrous credit crunch.

“We expect Draghi to announce further non-standard measures, likely partial sterilisation of the SMP” bond-buying program, said Thellier at Natixis. The so-called Securities Markets Program (SMP) is a bond-purchase program via which the ECB purchased more than 200 billion euros of euro-zone government bonds when debt markets were under stress.

In order not to allow this liquidity to trigger inflation, the ECB has always “sterilized” it by taking deposits from banks. But there has recently been

speculation that it could partially stop sterilizing it in order to boost the amount of so-called excess liquiditymoney banks have beyond what they need for their day-to-day operations-in the financial system.

However, Annalisa Piazza at Newedge Strategy said she did not think such a move-which would be tantamount to the so-called quantitative easing or QE practiced by other central banks-was on the cards. “There has been increasing speculation that the ECB might decide to stop the sterilization of its SMP, working in the direction of pure QE,” Piazza said.

“We would be really surprised to see the ECB making such a move as it would go against the ECB treaty,” she said. The ECB argues that quantitative easing is not allowed in its statutes because it would effectively be a way of financing government deficits. “In our view, a rate cut cannot be ruled out in the future but another step at today’s meeting could have been interpreted as a ‘panic’ reaction to the drop in inflation,” Piazza said. —AFP

FAA to examine airport towers WASHINGTON: A lightning strike that injured an air traffic controller at Baltimore’s main airport has exposed a potential vulnerability at airport towers during storms and is prompting Federal Aviation Administration officials to inspect hundreds of towers nationwide, The Associated Press has learned. The FAA will look for problems with the lightning protection systems for airport towers, where air traffic controllers do the vital job of choreographing the landings and takeoffs of tens of thousands of flights each day.

The FAA told The AP about the planned assessments of the towers’ lightning protection systems after responding to a Freedom of Information Act request about the Sept 12, 2013, lightning strike at the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.

The FAA said in a statement that the accident was “the first of its kind in FAA history,” and the agency plans on “assessing the condition” of lightning protection systems at the 440 air traffic control towers it is responsible for across the country. In

particular, the agency said it will examine lightning protection at more than 200 towers that were built prior to 1978, when the FAA first issued standards for the protection systems.

Because of their height, airport towers have a greater chance of being struck by lightning, and tower designers plan for the bolts. Towers are built with lightning rods and wiring to direct the electrical current from a strike harmlessly into the ground. That protects the tower and equipment from damage and protects the air traffic controllers working inside.

But the system in place at BWI’s airport tower failed last Sept. 12 during an afternoon thunderstorm. As lightning flashed and a wall of rain moved in, air traffic controller Edward Boyd, who was working in the tower, saw sparks and heard an electrical snap coming from a piece of equipment that controls runway lighting.

A few minutes later, he turned on a generator to ensure the airport’s runway lighting stayed on, part of a standard procedure during a storm. Boyd had his right hand on the generator switch when he

saw lightning flash outside and felt a shock on his ring finger. “It basically felt like somebody had whacked me on the tip of the finger with a tool of some kind,” he said during a recent interview, describing a stinging sensation.

Boyd, an air traffic controller for more than 30 years, dropped to one knee and told colleagues: “I got hit.”Boyd was taken to the hospital and wasn’t allowed to return to work for about two months. He says lingering nerve problems in his hand will require surgery, and he called the incident a “fluke.” John Dunkerly, president of BWI’s chapter of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said he had never heard of a similar incident in his more than 30 years in air traffic control.

Air traffic controllers ultimately stopped all arrivals and departures at the airport, one of the nation’s 30 busiest, for more than two hours because of concerns about the tower’s safety. More than 100 flights were canceled and about 75 delayed that afternoon and evening, according to the flight tracking service FlightAware.—AP

Business FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

It’s no game: Xbox-sensor guards Korean border SEOUL: Microsoft’s movement-recognition Kinect software has morphed from virtual shooter gaming to the real-life challenge of guarding the world’s last Cold War border. The sensor allowing handsfree play on the Xbox is the basis for a security device now deployed along the demilitarised zone (DMZ) that separates North and South Korea, after being adapted by a South Korean programmer.

Four kilometers (2.5 miles) wide and 248 kilometers (155 miles) long, the DMZ is a depopulated noman’s land of heavily fortified fences that bristles with the landmines and listening posts of two nations that technically remain at war. As a military buffer zone, it remains an area of profound Cold War hostility, but its man-made isolation has also created an accidental wildlife park recognized as one of the best-preserved habitats on Earth.

The Kinect-based software developed by Ko Jae-Kwan, founder-president of Saewan Co, has been taken up by the military because of its ability to differentiate between human and animal movement. Ko, 39, told AFP yesterday that his device

could detect the sound, movement and direction of anybody attempting to cross the DMZ and immediately alert South Korean border guards.

“Existing sensors, which had been in place along the border, were highly efficient but could not tell the difference between humans and animals, sending wrong signals frequently,” Ko said. The new sensors have been in place along certain sections of the DMZ since August last year, he added. “Such devices are established as part of our project to strengthen surveillance with scientific equipment, but we cannot provide details for security reasons,” a defence ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

Despite all the security measures in place along the DMZ, there have been highly publicized incidents of undetected crossings. Five South Korean generals and nine mid-level officers were removed from their posts or disciplined in 2012 after a defecting North Korean soldier simply walked undetected across the border and knocked on the door of a guard post.—AFP

TOKYO: A woman introduces Microsoft’s new gesture-sensing system for the Xbox 360 videogame console ‘Kinect’ during a press preview. — AFP

Italy business lobby attacks Letta’s inaction on economy Accuses Squinzi of being a ‘doom-monger’

NEW DELHI: A visitor walks past billboards at the Original SWAT tactical footwear booth during the Defense Expo 2014 yesterday. Some 624 companies from 30 countries, including some 37 Russian and 24 French defense companies, are participating in the exhibition which runs February 6-9. — AFP

Pilots land Indian Dreamliner manually after computer glitch NEW DELHI: Pilots of a Dreamliner which was forced to divert midflight to Kuala Lumpur had to land the plane manually after suffering computer problems, an Air India spokesman said yesterday. The Air India plane was en route from Melbourne to New Delhi on Wednesday when it suffered what an official had said were “software glitches” and had to make an emergency landingthe latest in a series of mishaps to hit the Boeing aircraft.

Air India spokesman Praveen Bhatnagar said yesterday that “the commanders lost their confidence in the software system”. “The alternate method available to them was manual landing,” Bhatnagar told AFP in New Delhi. He said the problem was “not serious” and denied local media reports that all three of the plane’s navigation computers, which allow the plane to fly long distances on auto pilot, had failed.

More than 200 passengers and crew were stranded overnight in the Malaysian capital after the plane landed safely. Boeing engineers, who rushed in from Hong Kong, have now fixed the problem and the plane was expected to land in Delhi at 8pm (1430 GMT) yester-

day, the airline said. Some passengers who needed to fly to Delhi urgently have been put onto other flights.

Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner has suffered a series of problems since coming into service two years ago, including a global grounding of its fleet last year over battery system problems. Air India’s Dreamliner fleet has also encountered technical hitches, including an incident where the fuselage panel of a jet fell off while landing in the southern Indian city of Bangalore last October.

The following month, a plane’s windshield cracked while landing in Australia, and last month an Air India Dreamliner returned to London after a transponder failure. In the latest incident, Indian media said the plane’s three computers failed simultaneously, forcing the pilots to take the aircraft off autopilot.

“The cockpit software system went blank. The flight landed without any navigation aid,” the CNN-IBN news network said, quoting airline sources. The Dreamliner’s troubles have added to the woes of cash-strapped Air India, which itself has been hit by safety scandals, including over some pilots flying with false qualifications in 2001. —AFP

ROME: The head of Italy’s main business lobby yesterday accused Enrico Letta’s government of failing to help the economy and threatened to appeal directly to the head of state unless Letta sets out specific reforms this month. The economy, the euro zone’s third largest, is struggling to emerge from its longest post-war recession. Confindustria has called, largely in vain, for Letta’s fragile left-right coalition to cut public spending and ease taxation and labour rules. Relations have soured steadily since the 2014 budget presented last autumn fell far short of Confindustria’s requests for a decisive cut in labor taxes. This week Letta accused Confindustria president Giorgio Squinzi of being a “doom-monger” after Confindustria said the government was too upbeat in its forecasts for a firm and sustained economic recovery this year.

“Rather than being a doom-monger, I would say I am a realist,” Squinzi said in a radio interview yesterday with state broadcaster RAI. The government forecasts economic growth of 1.1 percent this year, while Confindustria expects just 0.6-0.7 percent, much closer to the projections of virtually all independent economists.

Squinzi, who met Letta on Wednesday to try to ease tensions, said he had set out the employers’ priorities, requiring “very rapid action”, and he hoped Letta would meet them when he attends a Confindustria assembly on Feb. 19. If he failed to do so, “we will have no option but to appeal to (President Giorgio) Napolitano”, said Squinzi. He did not spell out what he would ask Napolitano to do, but the president is the only figure who could dissolve parliament and call fresh elections. Squinzi said Letta’s “inertia” was not entirely his own fault, but “is also the product of a very confused political and institutional situation”.

With parliament preparing to debate proposals to change electoral rules blamed for chronic political instability, furious rows between the parties, sometimes bordering on physical fights, have poisoned the political atmosphere.

Letta has appeared isolated in the face of criticism from Confindustria, from the centre-right opposition and also from Matteo Renzi, the leader of Letta’s own Democratic Party, which is the mainstay of the ruling coalition.

An editorial on Wednesday in the Confindustria-owned business daily Il Sole 24 Ore attacked the government for doing virtually nothing to revive domestic demand, create jobs or encourage stagnant investments. The government has accused Confindustria of ingratitude for its efforts to pay off some 40 billion euros ($54 billion) of arrears in bills owed by the public sector to businesses, but the European Union this week said Italy was still failing to pay new bills in an acceptable time frame of 30 to 60 days. Italian media have run unsourced reports that Letta is considering resigning and seeking a fresh mandate from Napolitano at

the head of a re-shuffled cabinet team. Some reports have speculated early elections could be held in May or that Letta could even be replaced by Renzi as prime minister in a coalition deal without returning to the polls. — Reuters

Philippine bank keeps rates on hold MANILA: The Philippine central bank left its benchmark interest rate steady yesterday, as expected, contending inflation was manageable but analysts say chances of a hike are rising due to pressures on food and utility prices and a weak peso. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) kept the overnight borrowing rate at a record low of 3.5 percent, for a 10th straight meeting. On Wednesday, BSP Governor Amando Tetangco said the scope for keeping interest rates on hold had narrowed with inflation expected to accelerate in the coming months.

Emerging market sentiment has stabilised but central banks of developing economies are facing greater pressure to raise interest rates to support their currencies and fight inflation caused by weaker exchange rates. Last week, the central banks of India, South Africa and Turkey hiked rates. “While inflation has risen slightly due mainly to the recent increase in food prices on account of adverse weather conditions, latest baseline forecasts continue to indicate that the future inflation path is likely to stay within the target ranges,” Tetangco told reporters.

The central bank lowered its inflation estimate for this year to 4.3 percent from a previous estimate of 4.5 percent, following a delay in a planned rate hike of the Philippines’ largest power distributor Manila Electric Co. The Supreme Court had stopped the imposition of the price increase due to protests from consumers. Diwa Guinigundo, deputy central bank governor, said the power rate hike when implemented would result in a 15-basis-point increase in this year’s inflation estimate.February’s inflation figures will likely determine when the central bank will raise rates, analysts said.—Reuters

Business FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Fears of slowdown put focus on US jobs WASHINGTON: Fears of an economic slowdown are heightening anticipation of what today’s US jobs report for January might reveal. Stock markets have sunk after signs of weaker growth in the United States, Europe and China. Turmoil in developing countries has further spooked investors. The upheaval has renewed doubts about the Federal Reserve’s next steps. Evidence of healthy US job growth would help soothe those jitters.

It would suggest that the world’s biggest economy is still expanding solidly enough to support global growth.

“The best antidote right now for all these problems is a robust US economy,” said Carl Riccadonna, an economist at Deutsche Bank. “The whole world is watching, even more so than usual.” Yet anyone looking to today’s report for a clear picture of the US economy’s

PNG to retain Oil Search stake MELBOURNE: Papua New Guinea has decided to raise A$1.68 billion ($1.48 billion) to pay off a bond it issued to Abu Dhabi in 2009 instead of giving up a strategic stake in oil and gas producer Oil Search, a source familiar with the decision told Reuters yesterday. The move could be the first step towards bringing Oil Search into play, with potential suitors now needing to court only the PNG government to gain a foothold in the A$11-billion company. Global oil giants Royal Dutch Shell and Total SA , and Australia’s Woodside Petroleum are said to be among companies eyeing Oil Search. Oil Search is considered a juicy target as it owns a 29 percent stake in the $19 billion PNG liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, which is on track to start shipping the super-cooled gas in the second half of 2014.

The five-year bond, issued to Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC) at the height of the global financial crisis, was exchangeable for PNG’s stake in Oil Search in March 2014 at a strike price of A$8.55 a share. Oil Search shares last traded at A$8.09. The PNG government has appointed UBS to help the state raise A$1.68 billion to refinance the IPIC bond, the source familiar with the decision said. PNG needed the A$1.68 billion in 2009 to foot its share of the development costs on the PNG LNG project, which is operated by ExxonMobil Corp. The government already owns a 16.8 percent direct stake in the $19 billion PNG LNG project, and may be a willing seller of its interest in Oil Search at the right price. Anyone looking to buy the government’s stake in Oil Search would have to pay a sizeable premium, possibly valuing the company at about A$14 billion, as the government has a view the share price could reach A$20 by 2020, analysts said.

“Narrow window” That view is driven by the fact that by then the PNG LNG project will be producing and may have expanded its output capacity and Oil Search could also be producing oil in Iraq’s Kurdistan region. “If there’s going to be a corporate play on Oil Search, there’s a very narrow window to do it,” Andrew Williams, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said in January. “There’s a lot of potential drivers in there that could send the stock significantly higher.” Analysts are forecasting Oil Search’s annual profit to more than quadruple to A$791 million over the next two years alone, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. France’s Total is seen as a potential suitor or partner with Oil Search after buying a stake in December in PNG firm InterOil’s license holding the Elk and Antelope gas fields in a deal worth up to $3.6 billion. Those fields could form the foundation for a new LNG project in the country or feed gas into a potential expansion of ExxonMobil’s PNG LNG project. Shell has been looking to get into PNG, UBS analyst Nik Burns said in January, and Woodside Petroleum could be interested in Oil Search as it needs to fill a gap in its growth outlook.—Reuters

health might be disappointed. Unseasonably cold winter weather could distort January’s hiring figures.

Revised estimates of job growth last year and the size of the US population might further skew the data.

Another complication: A cutoff of extended unemployment benefits in December might have caused an artificial drop in January’s unemployment rate and perhaps a misleading snapshot of the job market’s health. “Just when we need it most, the employment report may fall short,” Riccadonna said. All the anxiety marks a reversal from a few weeks ago, when most analysts were feeling hopeful about the global economy. US growth came in at a sturdy 3.7 percent annual pace in the second half of last year. The Dow Jones industrial average finished 2013 at a record high.

Europe’s economy was slowly emerging from a long

recession. Japan was finally perking up after two decades of stagnation. Yet in just the past few weeks has come a barrage of dispiriting economic news. US hiring slowed sharply in December. Employers added just 74,000 jobs, barely a third of the average gain in the previous four months. On Monday, an industry survey found that manufacturing grew much more slowly in January than in December. A measure of new orders in the report plummeted to the lowest level in a year. That report contributed to a dizzying 326-point plunge in the Dow Jones industrial average. Also Monday, automakers said sales slipped 3 percent in January. And last week, the government said orders to US factories fell in December. So did signed contracts to buy homes, according to the National Association of Realtors.—Reuters

Twitter takes a hit Sputtering user growth unnerves investors SAN FRANCISCO: Twitter got a reality check Wednesday as the high-flying messaging company reported modest user growth during a quarter in which it lost $511 million. Even more disconcerting, in the eyes of some industry watchers, was that the typical amount of time people spent checking out timelines actually dropped. “If you don’t have an engaged user base, you don’t have a business,” Forrester analyst Nate Elliott told AFP. “They have got to do better on users, that is the entire story.”Twitter makes money from ads in the form of “promoted tweets” in timelines, and it needs strong growth to keep its momentum. Twitter shares skidded more than 17 percent to $54.16 in after-hours trades that followed its first quarterly earnings release since its stock market debut last year. Twitter problems include going from being seen as an online venue for quick fame to being viewed as a global platform for infamy, according to analyst Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group in Silicon Valley.

Attention has been shined on people losing jobs or facing ridicule for Twitter posts. In a recent example, a television star came under heavy online fire for a joke he tweeted playing off the death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. “When people started getting destroyed by what they posted, people started looking at using the service as stupid,” Enderle said. “And stupid is not status.”

The results showed revenues in the quarter that ended December 31 doubled from a year ago to a better-than-expected $242.6 million. The number of worldwide users was up just nine million from the figure of 232 million when Twitter went public in November, suggesting only modest growth at a time when investors were looking for a surge. In its first earnings report as a public company, Twitter said the loss for the year widened to $645 million from $79 million in 2012, even as revenues more than doubled to $664 million for the full year.

The San Francisco-based firm said advertising brought in $220 million in the quarter, an increase of 121 percent year-over-year, with mobile accounting for more than 75 percent of total. Twitter shares soared from the offering price last November of $26, and analysts say that to sustain that momentum Twitter must prove it can grow and move toward profitability. “Twitter finished a great

year with our strongest financial quarter to date,” chief executive Dick Costolo said in the earnings release. “We are the only platform that is public, real-time, conversational and widely distributed and I’m excited by the number of initiatives we have underway to further build upon the Twitter experience.”

Investors still not sold Twitter has fast become ingrained in popular culture but must still convince investors of its business model. It is expected to be able to reach profitability over time by delivering ads in the form of promoted tweets, and from its data analytics.

However, “the problem is that there are some serious caveats for growth ahead,” Jon Ogg of website 24/7 Wall Street wrote in a post about the earnings.

“Twitter’s stock is so far getting a reality check.” Costolo spent much of an earnings call assuring analysts that Twitter is working on features and improvements intended to ramp up the number of users, along with how much they engage with the global one-to-many messaging platform. “It will be a combination of changes introduced over the course of the year that will change the slope of the growth curve,” Costolo said.

“We want to reach every person on the planet.” Twitter will be particularly focused on making it easy for anyone to grasp the service within moments of a first visit and on improving the experience on smartphones and tablets, according to the chief executive. Twitter, which has its roots in 140-character text messages, also planned to get more visually engaging with pictures and video.

The service’s format of sharing in realtime with short text messages doesn’t lend itself easily to traditional ad formats, so the company needs to get creative with marketing messages, according to analyst Enderle.

During the earnings call, Costolo told analysts that Twitter didn’t need to change anything, it simply needed to make “Twitter a better Twitter.”

Forrester analyst Elliott criticized Twitter for essentially remaining a one-trick pony since the San Francisco-based service launched in 2006. Leading social network Facebook, in contrast, has relentlessly added features or capabilities and its ranks of users now tops 1.2 billion people. “It’s a bit vexing,” Elliott said. “Facebook is constantly adding to the site, while Twitter has been sitting on this single feature for their entire existence.” — AFP

SAN FRANCISCO: A sign is posted on the exterior of the Twitter headquarters. —AFP

Tr a v e l FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Traveling on a

shoestring budget Why is Asia the most preferred destination for a new experience?

2 GOA, INDIA

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1 HANOI, VIETNAM

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ietnam’s ancient capital city has a compact and easy-to-visit center that is a great mix of Colonial and Asian architecture. While the motorbike traffic can feel

overwhelming for those who are new to Asia, it’s actually quite fun to learn how to safely cross the street in daredevil fashion. The food is notoriously good here, with arguably the best street-side Pho soup in the country. If you join the locals on the tiny plastic chairs on 4 POKHARA, NEPAL

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he main highlight of Nepal for most people is its gorgeous scenery and the trekking that goes along with it. Visitors usually fly first into the capital of Kathmandu, but Pokhara is really the tourism hub, and the starting point for most treks, including the famous Annapurna Circuit. Even though most trav-

the sidewalks you can eat well for almost nothing here, but even in the tourist restaurants things tend to be cheap and delicious.

The attractions, including Ho Chi Minh’s Tomb and the “Hanoi Hilton” prison, are also free or extremely cheap.

he western Indian state of Goa is not a place to go for temples and culture, but it’s a fantastic and cheap group of beach towns that are perfect for relaxing in the sun when you’re all templed out. And in spite of its heady reputation, there are virtually no chain hotels or restaurants to be found, so everything feels local and authentic, even though most of the visitors are Europeans. Goa is a cheapskate drinker’s paradise. The hotels at the low end can be extremely basic, but better quality is available for those on higher budgets.

elers tend to be busy hiking around most of the time, it would be hard to find a more pleasant backpacker town than Pokhara. Its Lakeside neighborhood is low-key and lined with cheap guesthouses and restaurants, plus countless shops selling souvenirs and name-brand trekking gear. The only problem is that it will be chilly or rainy or hazy for at least six months out of the year, so pick your dates carefully.

3 HOI AN, VIETNAM

5 CHIANG MAI, THAILAND

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here are a few people who aren’t charmed by Vietnam’s most touristy city by the beach, but for most the visit to Hoi An is the highlight of the country. The Old Town is a small and protected Chinesestyle fishing village that is a UNESCO Heritage Site, and even the more-modern city that surrounds it has a pleasant feel plus some very cheap hotels. Hoi An can have a bit of a Disneyland feel to it, but it’s also beautiful and very unique. The best part for many of us is the food scene, which is one of the finest in Asia. A few special local dishes are only found here, but almost anything you order will not only be a farmfresh treat, it will also be extremely inexpensive. This is also the best spot to enjoy Bia Hoi, which is the world’s cheapest beer or the best bahn mi sandwich anywhere.

etween Bangkok and the Thai islands, most visitors to Thailand bounce back and forth from an enormous shopping city and touristy beach areas, but way up north in Chiang Mai you’ll get something different. Noted for an abundance of beautiful temples, Chiang Mai is far more low-key and also much cheaper than those others, so it’s a good place to relax and enjoy the cooler evenings and the Night Market. This is also a big hub for trekking in the area, plus visits to small and less touristy towns, so it’s a great base for those on longer trips. The food in Chiang Mai is yet another highlight, with slight variations on most of the famous dishes found in Bangkok and elsewhere, at lower prices as well.

Tr a v e l FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

7 KUTA, BALI, INDONESIA

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uta is the main budget beach resort town, often filled with Australian surfers and backpackers, but this recommendation actually goes for the whole island. The tourism scene all over Bali has been expanding at a frenetic pace for more than a decade, especially in the midrange and high-end parts of the spectrum, but the cheap and simple options are still available as well. Vehicle traffic is now a major problem, so touring all the temples and artist towns in a day is nearly impossible. It’s better to stay at least a few days at the huge strip of places in or near Kuta, or in Sanur Beach not far away, and then spend a few more days in Ubud or elsewhere inland to get that more authentic Balinese feeling of paradise.

6 LUANG PRABANG, LAOS

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he main tourist city in the oftenforgotten country of Laos is one of the nicest cities that so few have ever even heard of. More charming and scenic than the capital of Vientiane,

Luang Prabang is suddenly on more and more itineraries, and prices are beginning to move up, but it’s still cheap and a great bargain for those exploring the region. The old colonial city center is filled with excellent restaurants and surprisingly nice guesthouses, plus a tem-

8 BANGKOK, THAILAND

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s a major hub for air traffic, flights to Bangkok are usually the cheapest for Southeast Asia, which is perfect because it’s also the best place to start a trip to the region. This is a sprawling and enormous city that could feel intimidating if not for the fact that most important sights are walking distance from the Kho San Road backpacker district. Bangkok is also known for food, especially the cheap and abundant street food that is available around the clock. But this is also one of the world’s shopping hotspots, with a central district that is literally one indoor mall after another after another. From high fashion at reasonable prices to cheap brand-name electronics, there are thousands of shops to compare and choose from.

ple on a hill that has the best views in the area. Many arrive by a 2-day slow boat ride from the Thai border on the Mekong River, but if you are able it’s far nicer and less crowded if you can leave that way instead, heading to Chiang Mai or Chiang Rai next.

9 SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA

10 BEIJING, CHINA

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s a city alone Siem Reap would be well up this list in the cheaper zone, but the total price we used includes admission to the mind-blowing Angkor Wat temple complex just north of town. The temples are on par with the Great Pyramids of Giza or the lost city of Machu Picchu, so many people choose to spend 3 days or even a week exploring the massive attraction. With Angkor Wat at the edge of town, you might expect Siem Reap itself to be a cheesy tourist dive, but fortunately the city is one of the nicest and most pleasant in all of Southeast Asia. There are other things to see, plus interesting local crafts, and even mellow bike paths between them. You’ve also got loads of great restaurants that serve cheap local dishes and happyhour glasses of Angkor draft beer for $0.50 each.

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11 KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

12 HONG KONG, CHINA

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long with the rest of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur tends to be forgotten and underappreciated.

This is another ideal city for its cheap long-distance flights, plus an exotic-feeling culture that is very easy to deal with for new arrivals. Similar to Singapore, which is not far south of KL, this is a large and very modern city that seems to have more than its fair share of shopping centers, but it’s also weirdly cheap considering the cosmopolitan feel. The influences of both China and India tend to be easy to spot in the food and the culture, but the mixture of the two provides another interesting counterpoint that you don’t find in many other places. There are excellent international restaurants in every neighborhood and this place is a worthwhile party.

ith all the international chatter about how “overvalued” the Chinese currency is, it might be surprising to find that Beijing is one of the more expensive cities in Asia and on this list. Still, compared to the West, this is a fantastic bargain, and Beijing is definitely one of the world’s great cities.

With the Forbidden City at its heart, and the most popular section of the Great Wall just a short bus ride away, Beijing is the only place to really begin to understand China’s ancient past alongside its surging future. The quality of even the cheaper hotels here tends to be surprisingly good, and some excellent local food is never more than a block or two away.

ecades ago, Hong Kong was known as one of the cheapest tourist cities in the world, but things have been changing and many of the bargains are gone. Still, even though it’s relatively expensive for Asia, this is such a striking and dynamic city that it’s worth paying a bit more during a visit. The skyline of Hong Kong Island itself is one of the most scenic in the world, and the views from the Peak are unforgettable any time of the day. The bustling harbor and the cheap and famous Star Ferries are attractions unto themselves, plus the food culture and party scene here are absolutely world-class, though not necessarily cheap at the same time. www.budgettraveler.com

Opinion FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Rouhani freer to speak but hands tied

By Cyril Julien

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ran’s outreach to the West signifies a new pragmatic approach to foreign policy after eight years of isolation but does not mark a radical shift in its ideologies and principles, analysts say. President Hassan Rouhani has made some headway in wooing world leaders by presenting a more moderate Iranian profile than did his hardline predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the experts say. But, they caution, the extent of Rouhani’s relative freedom in foreign policy is confined to nuclear negotiations with major world powers.

In an address at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, Rouhani touted Tehran’s openness to normalising relations with the West. His pledges came in the wake of a landmark nuclear deal between Iran and world powers in November, under which Tehran agreed to curb parts of its atomic drive for six months in exchange for modest relief from international sanctions.

And that, say experts, is about as far as Rouhani can go in his moulding of a more userfriendly face for the Islamic republic. “The foundations of the Iranian foreign policy will not change,” said Mehdi Fazeli, an analyst close to Iran’s conservatives.

Change of methods and approaches “The government can merely change the methods and approaches as Rouhani did to win the trust of the West,” he said.

Rouhani’s government has very limited margin in its diplomacy, said a Tehran-based Western diplomat. “It is in charge of nuclear talks, but it does not decide on the key issues of nuclear policy,” said the diplomat.

As it stands now, Rouhani enjoys the support of all-powerful Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the nuclear issue, so he could give a cold shoulder to the regime’s hardliners and lawmakers who are critical of the nuclear agreement.

But according to Afshon Ostovar from the CNA Centre for Strategic Studies, Rouhani’s shift “has so far been more tonal than absolute”. The views of Iran’s leaders have not drastically changed, he said, despite there now being more of an appetite for cooperation across Iran’s political spectrum. A historic phone call between Rouhani and his US counterpart

Barack Obama in September paved the way for a marginal thaw in relations after diplomatic ties were severed in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The two countries’ foreign ministers, Mohammad Javad Zarif and John Kerry, have also met several times, most recently at last week’s Munich International Security Conference. Zarif has gone so far as to tell Russian television that Washington could one day reopen its embassy in Tehran. On Sunday, Zarif made a friendly gesture to the world’s Jewish community, describing the Holocaust as a “cruel tragedy which should never happen again”.

Rouhani, whose predecessor had denied the Holocaust had ever happened, had led the way by sending a message of congratulations to the country’s estimated 8,000 Jews on the occasion of their new year.

“Rouhani and Zarif have different ideas on political and ideological matters compared to their predecessors,” said Alireza Nader, an analyst at the Rand Corporation think tank.

“But it is not clear that Rouhani will be able to make fundamental changes in some foreign policy issues that concern the United States the most,” he said, pointing to the fact that Iran supports the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah and refuses to recognise Israel as a state. In the past few months, the conservative-dominated parliament has frequently summoned Zarif and other ministers on a variety of issues, including the meetings between Zarif and Kerry.

Two audiences “Rouhani’s government has two audiences: one foreign and one domestic,” said analyst Ostovar. When Zarif “rejects holocaust denial, he does so with foreign governments and publics in mind. However, when he reiterates criticism for the state of Israel and Zionism more broadly, he does so to placate hardliners in Iran”. The Western diplomat pointed out that Rouhani’s government is not responsible for making decisions regarding Syria, where Tehran supports President Bashar al-Assad as he fights a rebellion that has morphed into a fullscale civil war.

Zarif also insisted he had never engaged in discussions with Kerry on the Syrian crisis. As for relations with Washington, “Iran wants a modus vivendi (temporary agreement) rather than standardisation of ties,” said the diplomat. Tehran and Washington have a number of common interests which could be tackled under such an arrangement, including the situation in Afghanistan and mutual support for Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri AlMaliki in his battle against AlQaeda linked militants in Anbar province. — AFP

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

www.kuwaittimes.net

Actress Hilary Duff smiles during the second half of an NBA basketball game between the New York Knicks and the Portland Trail Blazers, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2014, in New York. The Trail Blazers won the game 94-90. —AP

CAREERS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

How to write a successful CV The passport to your dream job

P

robably the first CV was written by Leonardo Da Vinci 500 years ago. Since then things have moved slightly on, and now it’s essential to have a well presented professional CV, but still many graduates get this wrong.

photograph makes it easier to reject a candidate on grounds of ethnicity, sex or age. If you do include a photograph it should be a head and shoulders shot, you should be dressed suitably and smiling: it’s not for a passport!

What is a CV? Curriculum Vitae: an outline of a person’s educational and professional history, usually prepared for job applications (L, lit.: the course of one’s life).

Another name for a CV is a résumé. A CV is the most flexible and convenient way to make applications. It conveys your personal details in the way that presents you in the best possible light. A CV is a marketing document in which you are marketing something: yourself! You need to “sell” your skills, abilities, qualifications and experience to employers. It can be used to make multiple applications to employers in a specific career area. For this reason, many large graduate recruiters will not accept CVs and instead use their own application form.

An application form is designed to bring out the essential information and personal qualities that the employer requires and does not allow you to gloss over your weaker points as a CV does. In addition, the time needed to fill out these forms is seen as a reflection of your commitment to the career. There is no “one best way” to construct a CV; it is your document and can be structured as you wish within the basic framework below. It can be on paper or on-line or even on a T-shirt (a gimmicky approach that might work for “creative” jobs but not generally advised!)

Education and qualifications Your degree subject and university, plus A levels and GCSEs or equivalents. Mention grades unless poor! Use action words such as developed, planned and organized. Even work in a shop, bar or restaurant will involve working in a team, providing a quality service to customers, and dealing tactfully with complaints. Don’t mention the routine, non-people tasks (cleaning the tables) unless you are applying for a casual summer job in a restaurant or similar. Try to relate the skills to the job. A finance job will involve numeracy, analytical and problem solving skills so focus on these whereas for a marketing role you would place a bit more emphasis on persuading and negotiating skills.

Personal details Normally these would be your name, address, date of birth (although with age discrimination laws now in force this isn’t essential), telephone number and email.

British CVs don’t usually include a photograph unless you are an actor. In European countries such as France, Belgium and Germany it’s common for CVs to include a passport-sized photograph in the top right-hand corner whereas in the UK and the USA photographs are frowned upon as this may contravene equal opportunity legislation - a

Interests and achievements Keep this section short and to the point. As you grow older, your employment record will take precedence and interests will typically diminish greatly in length and importance. Bullets can be used to separate interests into different types: sporting, creative etc. Don’t use the old boring cliches here: “socializing with friends”.

Don’t put many passive, solitary hobbies(reading, watching TV, stamp collecting) or you may be perceived as lacking people skills. If you do put these, then say what you read or watch: “I particularly enjoy Dickens, for the vivid insights you get into life in Victorian times”. Show a range of interests to avoid coming across as narrow : if everything centers around sport they may wonder if you could hold a conversation with a client who wasn’t interested in sport.

Hobbies that are a little out of the ordinary can help you to stand out from the crowd: skydiving or mountaineering can show a sense of wanting to stretch yourself and an ability to rely on yourself in demanding situations.

Any interests relevant to the job are worth mentioning: current affairs if you wish to be a journalist; a fantasy share portfolio such as Bullbearings if you want to work in finance. Any evidence of leadership is important to mention: captain or coach of a sports team, course representative, chair of a student society, scout leader: “As captain of the school cricket team, I had to set a positive example, motivate and coach players and think on my feet when making bowling and field position changes, often in tense situations.”

Anything showing evidence of employability skills such as team working, organizing, planning, persuading, negotiating etc.

Skills The usual ones to mention are languages (good conversational French, basic Spanish), computing (e.g. “good working knowledge of MS Access and Excel, plus basic web page design skills” and driving (“full current clean driving license”). If you are a mature candidate or have lots of relevant skills to offer, a skills-based CV may work for you.

References Many employers don’t check references at the application stage so unless the vacancy specifically requests referees it’s fine to omit this section completely if you are running short of space or to say “References are available on request.”

Normally two referees are sufficient: one academic (perhaps your tutor or a project supervisor) and one from an employer (perhaps your last parttime or summer job). The order and the emphasis will depend on what you are applying for and what you have to offer. For example, the example media CV lists the candidate’s relevant work experience first.

If you are applying for more than one type of work, you should have a different CV tailored to each career area, highlighting different aspects of your skills and experience. A personal profile at the start of the CV can work for jobs in competitive industries such as the media or advertising, to help you to stand out from the crowd. If used, it needs

to be original and well written. Don’t just use the usual hackneyed expressions: “I am an excellent communicator who works well in a team...... “ What makes a good CV? There is no single “correct” way to write and present a CV but the following general rules apply: It is targeted on the specific job or career area for which you are applying and brings out the relevant skills you have to offer It is carefully and clearly laid out: logically ordered, easy to read and not cramped It is informative but concise It is accurate in content, spelling and grammar.

If you mention attention to detail as a skill, make sure your spelling and grammar is perfect!

If your CV is written backwards on pink polka dot paper and it gets you regular interviews, it’s a good CV! The bottom line is that if it’s producing results don’t change it too much but if it’s not, keep changing it until it does.

If it’s not working, ask people to look at it and suggest changes. Having said this, if you use the example CVs in these pages as a starting point, you are unlikely to go far wrong.

How long should a CV be?

There are no absolute rules but, in general, a new graduate’s CV should cover no more than two sides of A4 paper. In a survey of American employers 35% preferred a one page CV and 19% a two page CV with the others saying it depends upon the position. CVs in the US tend to be shorter than in the UK where the 2 page CV still dominates for graduates but I do see a trend now towards one page CVs: as employers are getting more and more CVs they tend not to have the time to read long documents!

If you can summarize your career history comfortably on a single side, this is fine and has advantages when you are making speculative applications and need to put yourself across concisely.

However, you should not leave out important items, or crowd your text too closely together in order to fit it onto that single side. www.kent.ac.uk

Food FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Nutrition in an

eggshell

Eggs are a fantastically versatile ingredient and the mainstay of many cuisines. They combine well with many ingredients to create a huge variety of food - from simple omelets, quiches, tarts and flans to lemon curd or delicious sauces. Egg proteins also combine during heating (a process called coagulation), which is useful for binding ingredients together, for coating and for glazing.

EGG SALAD SANDWICH

SPINACH, FETA AND SUN-DRIED TOMATO OMELET

SPAGHETTI WITH HERBS, CHILIES AND EGGS

Ingredients * 2 large eggs * Kosher salt and black pepper * 1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter * 1/2 cup spinach, chopped * 2 tablespoons oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, chopped * 2 tablespoons crumbled Feta * Country bread, for serving Directions 1. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with a pinch each of salt and pepper.

2. Melt the butter in a medium nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the eggs and cook, stirring and tilting the pan, until just set, 2 to 3 minutes. Sprinkle with the spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, and Feta; fold the eggs over the filling. Transfer to a plate and serve with the bread.

Ingredients * 8 large eggs * 1/3 cup mayonnaise * 1 teaspoon curry powder * 1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives * Kosher salt and black pepper * 4 slices pumpernickel bread * 4 large leaves Bibb lettuce * Potato chips, for serving

Ingredients * 12 ounces spaghetti (3/4 box) * 4 tablespoons olive oil * 2 garlic cloves, sliced * 1 red chili pepper, sliced * 1/2 cup chopped fresh herbs * 4 large eggs * 1/4 cup shaved Parmesan Directions 1. Cook the spaghetti according to the package directions; drain and return it to the pot.

2. In a small saucepan, warm 3 tablespoons of the olive oil with the garlic and red chili pepper, until the garlic begins to sizzle, 2 to 3 minutes. Add to the pasta in the pot, along with the herbs, and toss to combine.

3. Meanwhile, heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the eggs and cook until the whites are set, 2 to 3 minutes. Serve the eggs on the spaghetti. Top with the Parmesan.

Directions 1. Place the eggs in a saucepan and add enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, cover, remove from heat, and let sit for 12 minutes. Rinse the eggs under cold water, peel, and coarsely chop.

2. In a medium bowl, combine the mayonnaise and curry powder. Fold in the eggs and chives; season with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Dividing evenly, top each slice of bread with lettuce, then the egg salad. Serve with the chips.

FRENCH TOAST

SPANISH OMELET

Ingredients 170g light brown sugar 4 tbsp butter, melted 1 loaf of brioche or challah, sliced into 3cmthick slices 240ml milk 8 eggs, lightly beaten 1 tbsp vanilla extract A pinch of salt 1 tsp cinnamon 1/4 tsp ground ginger 50g pecans, chopped Maple syrup and icing sugar, to finish (optional)

Ingredients * 4 eggs * 60ml milk * salt and pepper to taste * 60ml water * 1 tablespoon olive oil * 2 cloves garlic, chopped * 2 medium potatoes, sliced thinly * 1 vegetable stock cube * 1 medium courgette, sliced * 1 cob of sweetcorn, kernels removed * 1 green pepper, seeded and sliced * 125g Cheddar cheese, grated

Directions 1 In a small bowl combine the brown sugar and melted butter and pour on to the bottom of a large ovenproof dish.

2 Arrange the slices of bread in the dish, overlapping if necessary.

3 Combine the milk, eggs, vanilla, salt, cinnamon and ginger in a bowl and pour evenly over the bread slices. Sprinkle the pecans on top then wrap in clingfilm and

chill for 4-12 hours.

4 In the morning, take the dish out of the fridge and preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 5.

5 Bake for 30-35 minutes. If the top starts browning too quickly, cover loosely with foil for the last 10 minutes or so. You want it to cook long enough to make sure the bottom part is cooked, but don’t dry it out completely.

6 Remove from oven and let it cool slightly before serving. Dust with icing sugar and a drizzle with maple syrup.

Directions 1. Beat the eggs, milk, salt and pepper in a bowl and set aside.

2. Heat the olive oil in a medium sized heavy frying pan over medium heat and fry the garlic and potato slices till coated, about 2 mins.

Add the water and the stock cube and cook, uncovered, for 10 minutes so that most of the water should have evaporated but there will still be a little water in the pan.

3. Pour in the egg mixture and arrange the courgette slices, pepper slices and sweetcorn

kernels on top of the egg. Sprinkle the grated cheese on top. Turn the heat down to medium-low, cover and cook for 10-15 minutes.

Check occasionally and if large bubbles have appeared in the tortilla break them up with a knife. Also run a blunt knife around the edges and move the frying pan around on the heat to make sure the cooking is even.

4. Once there are no more runny bits of the tortilla on the top, place the pan under a preheated grill for a few minutes to finish off the cooking. When the top has browned removed from the grill, let sit for a couple of minutes then serve in slices. — www.allrecipes.co.uk

Health FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Strong arm your way to health Find the best moves to make your guns go ‘pop’

T

hey may not be the biggest or the strongest group on your body, but your biceps are arguably the best “show” muscles. Upon hearing the clarion cry, “sun’s out, guns out,” you don’t want to flee into the shadows like a vampire with flabby arms. Functionally, the biceps are pretty straightforward-they just flex the elbow-yet humankind has come a long way since the days of hoisting a club. Today, there is a dizzying array of movements to bring out every vein, bulge, and peak.

INCLINE HAMMER CURLS The incline bench position increases the stretch on the long head of the biceps, while the neutral grip increases emphasis on the brachioradialis and brachialis. But the “hammer” takes some of the tension away from the long head, negating the benefit you gain from sitting at an incline. Test this yourself by simply placing your right hand on your left biceps. Move your left hand from palm up to palm sideways and you can feel the tension change in your biceps.

INCLINE INNER-BICEPS CURL The biceps brachii actually consists of two portions or “heads,” with differing attachment points. The “long” head actually attaches above the shoulder joint, which means that the position of the upper arm relative to the body can determine how much each head of the biceps helps during

a curl. This exercise gets your humerus behind your body, stretching the long head to the max. The more horizontal the bench, the more the long head will be stretched.

STANDING CONCENTRATION CURL In contrast, concentration curls place the arm in front of the body with a rotation in the shoulder. While this decreases recruitment of the long head, it potentially increases biceps thickness and peak by better short head and brachialis recruitment. Place your free hand on your off leg to support your body weight. When you hit failure using a supinated grip, switch over to a hammer grip and burn out a few extra reps.

EZ BAR CURL Many find the EZ bar significantly more comfortable than a straight bar. It shifts a little bit of the load from the biceps brachii to your other elbow flexors, so an argument could be made that the EZ bar curl is the best all-around biceps builder.

WIDE-GRIP STANDING BARBELL CURL Taking a wider-than-normal grip will cause you to externally rotate at the shoulder, so your humerus changes its position.

This prompts more involvement from the short head of the biceps. For this and all barbell curls, avoid cheating reps by leaning back. If you want to overload the top, use bands, chains, or a partner for forced reps.

ZOTTMAN CURL Are you having trouble deciding which biceps exercise to do? Choose the Zottman.

In this movement you have a palms-up (supinated) grip on the way up and a palms-down grip (pronated) as you lower the weight. All of your elbow flexors get hit in one swoop. The brachioradialis and the brachialis take heat on the negative, and during the curling motion itself, the biceps brachii bears the load. The recommendation would be to rotate the wrist as you come up instead of just doing it at the bottom before the rep starts. Some of your elbow flexors act as supinators as well, and rotating the wrist during the curl instead of at the bottom will load up that function.

Health FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014 BARBELL CURL The classic! If you did only this movement for biceps, you would still come out ahead.

Since the amount of wrist rotation helps determine how much work our biceps brachii work, it makes sense to maximize supination in a movement where we can load fairly heavy.

Play around with your grip width. It may reduce discomfort that some experience with a barbell, as well as emphasize a different part of the biceps. A narrower grip will emphasize the long head; a wider grip, the short head.

DUMBBELL BICEPS CURL A dumbbell curl is a basic movement that seems to be the icon of fitness. Don’t believe me? Most people will adopt at least a little bit of wrist rotation as they curl-just try to keep as much supination as is comfortable.

HAMMER CURL The “hammer” or neutral wrist position will typically be our strongest curl. This is because all of our elbow flexors are actively involved; the brachialis is worked the hardest. Do this movement like a concentration curl or on a preacher bench. This should minimize cheating and maximize recruitment.

overload those biceps with a heavy eight.

Most trainees are slightly stronger when lifting a barbell versus a set of dumbbells, so this is a great one for maximum strength development. When doing the exercise the primary thing to focus on is that you’re not cutting the movement pattern short at all and that you’re not allowing momentum to cause you to lean backwards as you hoist the weight upwards.

This is one of the most common mistakes with this exercise - momentum performs more of the work than your muscles actually do. If you perform it in a slow and controlled manner, that should reduce the chances of this happening significantly and allow you to place a higher intensity deep within the muscle fibers.

INCLINE DUMBBELL CURLS The second exercise to add is incline dumbbell curls. This exercise is one of the best to help prevent that momentum issue from happening as we just discussed since it essentially

OVERHEAD CABLE CURL This movement is a great way to practice your front double biceps pose as you train.

With our arms in this position, brachialis recruitment is maximized. The higher your elbow, the more isolated the brachialis is from the biceps brachii. A good variation is to do one arm at a time, getting the arm straight up (against the head), curling behind your head.

BARBELL BICEPS CURLS The first biceps exercise to perform is barbell biceps curls, which will also allow you to

restricts the movement of the back. When doing this exercise you will feel maximum tension on the biceps muscle belly, so don’t be surprised if the weight is slightly lower. As long as you’re pushing yourself hard, using the lower weight but maintaining proper form will be the way to go for results.

Dumbbell exercises allow complicit muscles to grow in strength together and prevent muscle groups from developing independently and out of sync.

CABLE CURLS If you’re looking to target the deep tissue muscle fibers, cable curls are a good bet. Since the pattern of movement is less stable with this movement, due to the constant tension provided by the cable, you will call all the stabilization muscles surrounding the biceps into play as you execute the exercise. You can use a variety of different attachments to perform the cable curls including a rope, a straight bar, or rotating cable handles that allow you to work a single arm at a time.

REVERSE GRIP ROWS After you’ve included regular straight rows within the program, you may also want to consider adding reverse grip rows as well.

These are going to place a slightly greater stress on the biceps muscles as opposed to straight rows so they will be a better exercise for strictly targeting the biceps. Depending on what muscle group you think of contracting as you bring the weights up to the body (the biceps or the back), that too will impact the nature of the muscle stimulus.

CONCENTRATION CURLS Finally, the last of the exercises to consider to blast your biceps into growth are concentration curls. When done while sitting, these will also limit the degree momentum plays in the execution of the exercise and place all the emphasis right on the biceps muscle. There will be no helper muscles called into play when doing concentration curls (when done properly), so this is a good one to add in at the very end of your workout when you’re really looking to finish off the biceps and fully exhaust them.

SAMPLE WORKOUT It wouldn’t be recommended to include all of these exercises in each and every workout you do, but by interchanging them from workout to workout you will keep the stimulus high while never allowing your muscles to get too adapted. This constant change in program is what prevents a plateau and helps push your strength levels to new extremes, so do make sure you are making use of a good variety.

— www.bodybuilding.com

Books FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Are you a Cassandra

or a Gorgon?

What Greek myths can teach us about life, death and shopping

By James Davidson

M

ythical figures such as Medusa hold up a mirror to our own mortality. Perhaps you have had a difficult day at work. A lot of energy has been spent on a big project. When you get home your partner asks how it went. Which adjective do you reach for to mythologize your labors? Were they: a) Herculean? You were called on to make heroic efforts to surmount seemingly insurmountable obstacles, but eventually succeeded; b) Sisyphean? Your boss ordered you to take on a long-term and ultimately hopeless task; or c) Augean? It was your turn to clean everything up. You are having trouble getting through a newspaper book review. What is the problem? Is it because the argument is of labyrinthine complexity? Or is it because the author’s Procrustean tendency to shoehorn classical metaphors and similes into every sentence is becoming irksome?

You are interviewing candidates for a senior position in your company. This one seems to have the Midas touch.

But his Achilles heel is that he was doing so well in his previous job that he will be suspected of being a Trojan horse, bringing the company into chaos in readiness for a cheap takeover. You don’t want to be a Cassandra, but the appointment would be like opening a Pandora’s box.

Yet your boss was adamant and she can be a bit of a Gorgon.

It is not just in English that these allusions to ancient Greek myths survive, though they are used in different languages in subtly different ways. The chimaera was a mythical fire-breathing monster - part lion, part snake, part goat and when Ratna Lachman in a recent Guardian blog referred to “The chimaera of an Asian woman influencing the levers of Tory power” (the reference was to Baroness Warsi), she was drawing on the word’s connotations of monstrous and implausible incongruity. But the French chimere and Spanish quimera have a gentler and more sympathetic meaning, referring to idle fantasies or pipe dreams. The Spanish use the wonderful termanfitrion, after Amphitryon, Heracles’s foster father, to refer to a (good) host, while the French use the name of his slave Sosia to refer to a double - sosie, an allusion that will mystify the British readers of Luc Ferry’s The Wisdom of the Myths, as it briefly mystified me.

ing the tales at length; at other times he feels the need to move a little more quickly. On the voyage of Odysseus: “The episodes that follow are so well known, and so often told that there is no need to do more than summarize them here.” Generally he is sure-footed and reliable, and confident enough to cite different versions of myths in the work of different authors. For this he acknowledges the assistance of Timothy Gantz’s essential collection Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources.

But some of the most famous of Ferry’s “Greek myths” barely feature in Gantz because they are not really Greek.

Pygmalion is a Phoenician name and the story of his love for a statue comes from Phoenician Cyprus. Midas is from Phrygia in central Turkey, as is the Gordian knot, the cutting through of which is not a “myth” in any traditional sense, but one of the more memorable deeds of Alexander the Great. And the excesses of the sybarites may have been exaggerated into mythic proportions, but the city of Sybaris belongs to history. As for the magnificent host Amphitryon and his slave Sosia, they are not so much timeless figures of age-old stories with deep roots in Greek cultural memory as characters in a popular play by MoliËre, ultimately based on a mythological comic burlesque of the fourth century BCE, in other words the products of singular

REVIEW Doom and gloom Ferry lists several other examples of Greek mythology in everyday speech in his prologue, but he is worried that we make these references without any longer knowing the stories from which they derive. We tend to use the term Cassandra, for instance, to refer to someone forever predicting doom and gloom rather than someone whose warnings are always ignored and always proved right. Most of his book is devoted to correcting this general ignorance by recounting the Greek myths at length, starting with the cosmogony outlined in Hesiod’s Theogony: in the beginning was Chaos, then out of Chaos popped the goddess earth, Gaia, then the nearly bottomless depths of Tartarus, then Love, then Heaven... He finishes 300 pages later with the suicide of Oedipus’s daughter Antigone and the destruction of her city by the sons of the Seven Against Thebes.

Sometimes he lingers over particular episodes, recount-

satirical imaginations.

He also acknowledges the influence of Jean-Pierre Vernant, one of the greatest scholars of the ancient world who towards the end of his life published The Universe, the Gods and Men, a retelling of Greek myths in the manner in which he had told them to his grandchildren. Ferry’s book, too, emerges from the practice of telling Greek myths to his children, and some French critics and readers of the book objected to what they thought was a condescending

tone - in other words the tutoiement used in addressing inferiors - of which English readers will be mostly oblivious.

Yet this is very much a “Greek Myths for Grownups”, and although there is room for amusement and wry exclamation marks - “Cronus must be given something to swallow instead of a baby!” - the general mood is a serious one. The chapter that includes the myths of Sisyphus and Orpheus and the rape of Persephone has the forbidding title: “Hubris: The Cosmos Menaced By a Return to Chaos - Or, How the Absence of Wisdom Spoils the Existence of Mortals”, and the author is not afraid to sprinkle the text with references to Nietzsche and Spinoza.

Always be ready for Medusa If his first ambition is to reconnect us with myths and reawaken the metaphors that are sleeping in everyday language, his next goal is to mine the myths for things to teach us, lessons that are still applicable today. At first sight this would seem to be a more difficult selling point. What are the lessons of Greek myth? Always carry a mirror in case you bump into Medusa? If a shower of gold appears suddenly in your prison cell avoid the temptation to gather it into your lap? If you have to award an apple labeled “To the Fairest” to one of three goddesses, always give it to Hera or slice it in three?

What, for instance, is the life lesson in the story of Achilles’ heel? When you are trying to immortalize your babies by burning off their mortality in a fire, make sure you lock the door to stop your husband interrupting? And what is the lesson of the story of poor unwitting Oedipus?

Don’t murder anyone old enough to be your father and don’t marry anyone old enough to be your mother?

Nothing so trivial. Instead Ferry draws out deeper meanings of myths about how the world works and of the place of mortals in it. Mortality is indeed one of the great themes of Greek myth. Stories about Orpheus, the crime and punishment of Sisyphus and the fate of Achilles reflect on the great gulf that separates us from the immortal gods in a way that is quite foreign to salvationist religions, which emphasise immortality and afterlife, our similarity to the divine and the closeness of the divine to us - thus dodging, Ferry would suggest, the facts of death.

Balance between kosmos and chaos Indeed The Wisdom of the Myths is part of a grand enterprise to revive practical wisdom and secular humanism. In certain respects, Ferry is a more philosophical and more French version of Richard Dawkins. In another part of his astonishing curriculum vitae, he was a minister for education, responsible for implementing the law on secularity in schools limiting the wearing of conspicuous religious symbols - otherwise known as the French headscarf ban.

In fact this element of his commentaries on Greek myth is subtle and full of wisdom. In particular his chapter on Oedipus and those who suffer terrible misfortunes through no fault of their own is full of pathos and humanity. For that reason alone this book is worth reading, and those who need one will also get a refresher course in Greek mythology as part of the bargain.

What is more difficult to grasp is Ferry’s notion that through the wisdom contained in Greek mythology, through its understanding of the essential balance between kosmos (order) and chaos, we can rise above the vacuity of modern consumer society. Can Greek mythology throw light on the mortal condition and our place in the world? Yes. I think so. Can it inoculate us against excessive shopping and channel-hopping? Probably not.

— www.theguardian.com

Lifestyle FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Berlin film fest to open with Wes Anderson world premiere T An undated image grab of a video uploaded on YouTube by the Tashweesh (Arabic for “interference”) production company in the Gaza Strip, shows Palestinian actor Mahmud Zouaiter, 28, standing astride two family cars being pushed down a road in the coastal Palestinian territory where empty fuel tanks are commonplace because of chronic fuel shortages. — AFP

Gazans endure power blackouts with dark humor

H

emmed in by Israeli and Egyptian blockades, Gaza is plagued by long and frequent power blackouts, prompting some residents to try to lighten the mood with dark humor. Gaza ensemble Tashweesh-Arabic for “interference”-has posted on YouTube a parody of a truck ad in which Belgian action film star JeanClaude Van Damme does the splits between two moving lorries.

In the Gaza spoof, actor Mahmud Zouaiter, 28, repeats the feat, this time astride two family cars being pushed down a road in the coastal Palestinian territory, where empty fuel tanks are commonplace because of chronic fuel shortages. “Van Damme is not necessarily better than me, but unfortunately there is no petrol in town,” Zouaiter says in the clip’s narration. “Electricity is cut off for 12 hours a day and the water stops flowing when there is no current (to pump it),” he adds. “I’d really like to have a shower.” Okn has so far attracted more than half a million hits.

Zouaiter, from Gaza’s Deir el-Balah refugee camp, told AFP he chose to model his spoof on Van Damme, “who is known throughout the world, to send a message, because the world is responsible for the crisis in Gaza”. Gaza has been under an Israeli blockade since 2006, when militants kidnapped a soldier in a cross-border raid. The closures were tightened after Hamas took over a year later, with crippling restrictions imposed on movement as well as the import and export of goods.

Supplies smuggled in from neighboring Egypt initially eased the situation, but much of the smuggling tunnels were destroyed following the military’s July 2013 overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, seen as a Hamas ally. Formed last May, Tashweesh’s six volunteer members have been creating scripts, sketches and video clips for official Palestine TV with a camera imported from Egypt for 6,000 shekels ($1,700), Zouaiter said.

Blending satire, social commentary and agitprop, the group has so far been tolerated by the territory’s Islamist Hamas rulers, and through social media it is creating a buzz beyond the strip’s narrow confines. “We weep and we joke at the same time,” said Zouaiter, a trained nurse and graduate in Arabic and communications. “The Gaza crisis pushes us to be creative. We don’t have material things but we have our brains and we don’t need money to come up with good ideas,” he said. “We speak for all Palestinians, especially the young.

Comedy is a way of expressing their frustration, to make peace,” he added.

‘A new color’ Zouaiter is not the only one in Gaza using black humor, which he likens to a “new color” in the tragic Palestinian canvas, to rally his people and attract outside attention. There is no shortage of subject matter. Besides the blockades and the conflict with Israel, there are issues such as corruption, child labour, the plight of the handicapped, child marriages and exorbitant wedding costs.

“Here it’s best to be single to live well, and if you want to be rich, buy yourself a municipality!” quips Islam Ayub, a jovial Gaza comic, wedding singer and father of six. In one of his songs, he makes fun of the shortage of cement in the territory, asking “What are we going to build our tombs with?” “But there’s hope, we’re still here,” he says.

“For the first time in Gaza we can overcome all obstacles, all the checkpoints, and break the blockade thanks to new technology,” said Nabil Al-Khatib, a scriptwriter and director of a TV production company who is close to Hamas. “We don’t want to talk politics, even if we can’t completely ignore the politicians,” he said in an interview by candlelight during one of the strip’s regular power cuts. —AFP

he world premiere of Wes Anderson’s keenly awaited caper “The Grand Budapest Hotel” will open the 64th Berlin film festival Thursday as it joins the race for the Golden Bear top prize. The high-profile opening movie with an all-star cast led by British actor Ralph Fiennes marks a coup for the Berlinale, Europe’s first major cinema showcase of the year. The 11-day festival will screen more than 400 productions from around the world before a jury led by US producer James Schamus (“Brokeback Mountain”) hands out the main awards among 20 contenders.

“The Grand Budapest Hotel” is Anderson’s eighth feature and follows his bittersweet first-love story “Moonrise Kingdom”, which launched the Cannes film festival in 2012 to become a critical and box office hit. It will be the third time in the Berlinale competition for Anderson, who has striven to maintain quirky indie sensibilities while filming with ever growing budgets, following “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou” and “The Royal Tenenbaums”.

Anderson has lined up another stellar ensemble cast including Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Bill Murray, Harvey Keitel, Lea Seydoux, Jeff Goldblum, Tilda Swinton along with Edward Norton, Mathieu Amalric and Owen Wilson to light up Berlin’s red carpet. Online buzz from industry types given a sneak preview of “Grand Budapest” indicated that the picture is one of the strongest by Anderson, a three-time Oscar nominee.

The Texas-born director, 44, said he took inspiration from film classics by Ernst Lubitsch and Billy Wilder while tracking the escapades of an early 20th-century concierge of the old school, Gustave H, against the backdrop of a continent in turmoil. “When the adventures of the main character begin, I decided to take some orientation from German and Austrian directors who emigrated to Hollywood in the ‘30s,” he told Berlin magazine Tip ahead of the festival.

A lost world The story revolves around the theft of a priceless Renaissance painting and the

A Nepalese man sits beside intricately carved windows and doors at the Bhaktapur Durbar Square area in Bhaktapur, some 12 kilometers southeast of Kathmandu yesterday.

Bhaktapur, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is famous for fine architecture and pottery making, and was once the capital of Nepal during the great Malla Kingdom until the second half of the 15th century. — AFP

Jury members pose for photographers at the end of the press conference at the International Film Festival Berlinale in Berlin yesterday. — AP battle for an enormous family fortune left by dowager countess Madame D, played

by Swinton who in a film trailer is seen aged with makeup beyond recognition.

Fiennes, who reportedly took the lead role when Johnny Depp bowed out, appears as Gustave, who is accused of Madame D’s murder by her scheming son (Brody).

Murray, who has appeared in all of Anderson’s feature films apart from his debut, plays a member of a secret order of concierges which comes to Gustave’s rescue. Although set in an imaginary Central European country called Zubrowka, the action in “Grand Budapest” traces a familiarly tragic historical arc from the Belle Epoque to fascism and then communist dictatorship. Festival director Dieter Kosslick told reporters last week that apart from being a major new work from a popular director, the movie was the right choice in a year in which Europe marks the 100th anniversary of World War I as well as 25 years since the Berlin Wall fell.

“There is a lot of German history in this movie, and that goes for many of the films to be shown here, regardless of where they are from,” he said. Murray also stars in George Clooney’s “The Monuments Men” about an elite unit of Allied soldiers fighting to rescue precious artworks from the Nazis, which will screen Saturday out of

competition at the Berlinale.

Both pictures were shot in Germany with themes that resonate deeply in the country, Kosslick noted, pointing to the recent discovery of hundreds of priceless artworks stashed in a Munich flat, many of them believed to have been looted by the Germans during World War II. Schamus, joined on the jury by twotime Oscar-winning Austrian actor Christoph Waltz and “James Bond” co-producer Barbara Broccoli among others, said that despite the panel’s divergent backgrounds, movies pulled it together like a family. “A family is a space where you get to really profoundly, at the molecular level, disagree with everybody you’re having food with and wake up the next morning and still be in love,” he told the opening news conference.

“And I do think that’s the joy of festival juries when they work. And even when they don’t work that well, just like families, you still have those bonds.” Following the sudden death of Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, organizers said the festival would screen “Capote”, in which the 46-year-old starred, as a tribute.

“He’ll be here,” Schamus said. “It’s places like Berlin that you have the opportunity in a sense to remember and to mourn and to celebrate.” — AFP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Mystery surrounds theft of Stradivarius violin

V

People attend an art event gathering young and established poets and artists in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. — AFP

‘Japan’s Beethoven’ not even deaf T

he musical brains behind a supposedly deaf composer dubbed “Japan’s Beethoven” claimed yesterday that the mock maestro was a scheming manipulator who could hear normally-but couldn’t even write sheet music. The startling allegations come a day after Mamoru Samuragochi confessed to hiring another man to write his best-known works, including a smash hit that had been adopted by classical music-lovers as an anthem to Japan’s tsunami-hit communities. In a press conference that lasted for more than an hour and was broadcast live on television, part-time music school teacher Takashi Niigaki said for the last 18 years he had been penning the tunes.

“I am an accomplice of Samuragochi because I continued composing just as he demanded, although I knew he was

This picture shows composer Mamoru Samuragochi dubbed “Japan’s Beethoven” reacting to the audience after his symphony No.1 was performed at a concert hall in Hiroshima, western Japan. — AFP

deceiving people,” he said. Niigaki told reporters he had been paid just 7 million yen ($70,000) over the nearly two decades of their collaboration, during which he had composed more than 20 pieces. “I told him a few times that we should stop doing this, but he never gave in. Also he said he would commit suicide if I stopped composing for him.”

The 43-year-old said he had called time on the deception after learning that Winter Olympics medal hopeful, figure skater Daisuke Takahashi had chosen to dance to a piece that would be credited to Samuragochi. “I was afraid that even Takahashi, who will perform in the Olympics for Japan, would be used to enforce the lies made by Samuragochi and me,” he said. The piece is a sonatina supposedly composed in tribute to a teenage violinist with a prosthetic right arm who had been supported by the well-known musician. The girl’s father said in a statement that the family never suspected Samuragochi was anything other than he claimed to be when became her patron.

“But in the past year, he demanded our absolute obedience to the point where we could no longer take it,” he said. “We told him we could not obey any more in November last year, which provoked his anger. Our relationship has been severed since then.” Samuragochi, 50, came to public attention in the mid-1990s with classical compositions that provided the soundtrack to video games including Resident Evil, despite reputedly having a degenerative illness that left him profoundly deaf by the age of 35.

‘Gift from God’ Over the following two decades his fame grew, as did his reputation as a tormented artist held hostage by his ungovernable passion for music that he could no longer hear.

But Samuragochi, who once described his deafness as a “gift from God”, was far from the tortured genius of his public persona, Niigaki said Thursday, and the hearing loss was little more than an act.

“I’ve never felt he was deaf ever since we met,” he said. “We carry on normal conversations. I don’t think he is (handicapped). “At first he acted to me also as if he had suffered hearing loss, but he stopped doing so eventually. “He told me, after the music for the video games was unveiled, that he would continue to play the role (of a deaf person).”He also added Samuragochi would listen to recordings of his music and offer critiques.

Samuragochi has not responded publicly to the fresh allegations. The scandal, which has gripped Japan, surfaced on Wednesday when Samuragochi came clean through his lawyer as the Shukan Bunshun weekly magazine readied to print a tell-all interview with Niigaki in its Thursday edition.

The Tokyo-based music teacher claimed he thought initially he was being hired as a composer’s assistant. —AFP

iolin virtuoso Frank Almond was walking to his car after an evening performance at the Wisconsin Lutheran College when someone jumped out of a van, shocked him with a stun gun and seized the rare and extremely valuable Stradivarius on loan to him. The robber got back into the waiting vehicle, which sped off. Almond, who had been knocked to the ground, wasn’t seriously hurt.

But he was devastated by the loss of the violin, which was crafted in 1715 and has been appraised for insurance purposes at $5 million.

The brazen Jan. 27 crime set off a frantic search and raised questions about why someone would steal an item that would be nearly impossible to sell. Would-be buyers in the tiny market for rare violins would certainly know it was stolen, and keeping it in hiding would mean never getting to show it off. The case in which Almond kept the instrument was found, and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra announced someone was offering $100,000 for the instrument’s safe return. But there weren’t any breaks in the robbery until this week, when prosecutors confirmed Wednesday that three people had been arrested in connection with the theft. However, Police Chief Ed Flynn said at an afternoon news conference that authorities haven’t recovered the violin, and he hoped the reward would induce the public to come forward with tips. “It’s a reasonable supposition that it’s still in our jurisdiction,” Flynn said. He declined to go into detail.

Flynn said the suspects were two men, ages 41 and 36, and a 32-year-old woman. He wouldn’t say how police

In this undated photo provided by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Frank Almond plays a 300-year-old Stradivarius violin that was on loan to him during a concert in Milwaukee. — AP tracked them down, but he said there was physical evidence linking them to the crime. Flynn also wouldn’t speculate on a motive, although he said the suspects seemed to be working for themselves, not on behalf of a larger art-theft ring. He also said one had a previous association with art crime. The violin is known in musical circles as the “Lipinski” Stradivarius. Its previous owners include virtuoso Giuseppe Tartini, who was known for his “Devil’s Trill” Sonata, and Polish violinist Karol Lipinski.

It was passed down through generations, eventually landing with the heirs of Estonian violinist Evi Liivak, according to Stefan Hersh a Chicago-based violin curator who helped restore it to playing condition after it was removed from storage in a bank vault in 2008. The current owner’s name has not been revealed publicly.

Hersh, a friend of Almond’s, said he used to watch how carefully Almond would care for the violin. While some musicians see their instruments as objects or tools, Almond understood the historical significance of the Lipinski, Hersh said. “He had a special case made for it, he kept it highly protected in his car, he never let it out of his sight,” Hersh said.

“As a performer nothing shakes him, but after the theft he was highly shaken. I’ve never known him like that.”

A message left for Almond through the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra wasn’t immediately returned Wednesday. Police have asked that he not speak to the media while the investigation was going on. Hersh said Almond had scars on his wrist and chest from the stun gun but otherwise wasn’t seriously hurt. —AP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Madonna (left) introduces Maria Alyokhina (center) and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova of Russian protest group Punk Riot as they speak onstage at the Amnesty International Concert presented by the CBGB Festival at Barclays Center on February 5, 2014 in New York City. (Right) Joe King (left) and Isaac Slade (right) of The Fray perform. — AP

Madonna, Punk Riot speak at human rights concert

I

nstead of singing, Madonna and Punk Riot spoke with passion about human rights issues at a concert for Amnesty International. Madonna told the crowd of thousands Wednesday night that she received death threats for standing up for Punk Riot, a Russian protest punk band, when two of its members were arrested for hooliganism after staging a protest in a Russian church in 2012.

“The right to be free, to speak our minds, to have an opinion, to love who we want to love, to be who we are - do we have to fight for that?” the pop icon said, answering her own question with an expletive.

“I’ve always considered myself a freedom fighter since the early ‘80s when I realized I

had a voice and I could sing more than songs about being a material girl or feeling like a virgin. And I have definitely paid for and have been punished for speaking my mind and for sticking my neck out for this kind of discrimination. But that’s OK.” At the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Madonna introduced Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, who were released from prison in December and made their first public appearance in the US on Tuesday.

They spoke through a translator at the “Bringing Human Rights Home” concert, telling the audience they were grateful to be free, but have to continue to fight to save others who are imprisoned.

Alekhina and Tolokonnikova, who wore T-

shirts featuring cross designs Wednesday, thanked supporters for sending letters while they were in jail and Amnesty International for its mission to protect human rights.

“Thank you to all of those who are bold enough and who care enough to speak out against injustice and speak the truth,” Alekhina said.

The Moscow-based group, which features nearly a dozen female musicians, has been critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin and political conditions in their homeland.

“Russia will be free!” they yelled along with the crowd before they exited the stage.

While Madonna and Punk Riot didn’t perform, the Flaming Lips and Yoko Ono closed the more than four-hour event, while

Imagine Dragons were crowd favorites with their Grammy-winning hit, “Radioactive.”

Lauryn Hill and Blondie earned cheers as they entered the stage. Hill kicked off her set - each act roughly performed three songs - with “Ready or Not” from her Fugees days, while Debbie Harry was a firecracker when she sang “One Way or Another” and “Call Me.” Amnesty International’s “Bringing Human Rights Home” also included performances from Cake, the Fray, Bob Geldof, Tegan and Sara, Colbie Caillat and Cold War Kids. It is the organization’s first concert since the “Human Rights Concerts” were held from 1986 to 1998, and included U2, Bruce Springsteen, Sting and Peter Gabriel. — AP

Cruise lawyer dismisses ‘bizarre’ $1bn lawsuit

A

lawyer for Tom Cruise poured scorn on a $1 billion lawsuit alleging that filmmakers stole a screenwriter’s work to create a blockbuster “Mission: Impossible” film, calling the legal action “bizarre.” Timothy Patrick McLanahan claims the 2011 film “Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol” was based on a script he wrote in 1998 called “Head On,” which he tried unsuccessfully to get made in Hollywood. He pitched it initially to the William Morris Agency, but “I was told that they could not use the script as a movie,” McLanahan wrote in the lawsuit, filed in December and published this week by celebrity news website Radar Online.

He alleges agents there then passed the screenplay, without his permission, to Creative Artists Agency (CAA), which represents Cruise, leading to a project he claims became the 2011 “Mission: Impossible” movie. When McLanahan watched the film, “I immediately realized that the scripts for this movie had been illegally written and produced from Head On’s 1998 copywright,” he wrote in the lawsuit, which names Cruise among 13 defendants.

But Cruise’s lawyer Bert Fields dismissed the lawsuit.

“Tom Cruise has never stolen anything from anyone,” he told AFP Wednesday. “This bizarre lawsuit against 13 people... will be quickly dismissed by the court.” In his legal filing, McLanahan specified why he is seeking $1 billion. He noted that “Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol” made over $690 million at the box office, some $145 million in DVD and Blu-ray sales, and millions of dollars in film rentals.”Because the Ghost Protocol film generated close to $1 billion, I am asking for this amount in damages,” he wrote in the lawsuit, filed in California on December 17. —AFP

A Harley Davidson Dyna Super Glide offered to the Pope Francis on the occasion of 110th anniversary of the brand in June 2013, is displayed at the Grand Palais in Paris. — AFP

Pope’s Harley sells to mystery buyer for 241,500 euros

A

Harley-Davidson motorbike that briefly belonged to Pope Francis was sold for 241,500 euros ($326,000), 16 times its highest original valuation, at an auction in Paris yesterday. The US motorbike maker gave the 1,585cc Dyna Super Glide to the pope in June to mark the brand’s 110th anniversary, and while the 77-year-old never rode it, he signed it before donating it to Roman Catholic charity Caritas Roma.

“It’s a record for a post-vintage motorbike, from the 21st century,” said Bonhams France, the auction house, adding the bike was purchased by an unidentified European buyer.

The funds from the sale will go towards the restoration of

the charity’s hostel and soup kitchen based at Rome’s Termini railway station. A jacket that was also given to the pope by Harley-Davidson was snapped up for 57,500 euros.

The bike is on show at the Grand Palais in Paris-where the auction took place-among hundreds of other iconic vehicles such as Rolls-Royces and Cadillacs. According to Bonhams, Pope Francis has another Harley-Davidson, although the famously humble pontiff is more of a fan of buses. He opted to ride on the day after his election last year instead of taking a limousine, and regularly used them in his homeland Argentina instead of taxis. — AFP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Save & Empower

The Girl Child

Lara Dutta Indian Bollywood actress Preity Zinta displays a creation by designer Manish Malhotra during a fashion show for ‘Save & Empower The Girl Child’ in Mumbai late February 5, 2014. — AFP photos

Evelyn Sharma Mandira Bedi

French fashion brand

Carven aims to triple sales in 4 years F

rench fashion brand Carven aims to triple its sales within four years, helped by ambitious store-opening plans and solid demand for its chic schoolgirl style, its chief executive and controlling shareholder said on Tuesday. The label, known for its colorful 200euro ($270) miniskirts and short 400-euro dresses, captured fashion editors’ attention when it made a comeback three years ago.

A couture label that lost its luster in the 1980s, Carven is one several brands enjoying a revival under the stewardship of new designers and owners such as Kering’s Balenciaga and privately owned Lanvin. Businessman Henri Sebaoun bought Carven in 2008 together with French private equity firm Turenne Capital, and hired designer Guillaume Henry, formerly at Paule Ka and Givenchy, who presented his first collection at Paris Fashion Week in 2011.

To finance the brand’s development, Sebaoun sold Carven’s perfume business to perfume maker Jacques Bogart which has

retained Henry as a consultant. In 2011, Sebaoun said Carven’s sales stood at about 20 million euros, and they are now estimated at 45 million. “I hope to triple sales within four years, it is my ambition,” Sebaoun told Reuter in an interview at the company’s headquarters in Paris’ Latin Quarter, declining to give a precise figure for revenues.

No hurry for a deal Sebaoun said Carven was financing the opening of new shops in countries outside the United States and France with the backing of local partners and the company was in talks with potential new investors regarding its share capital. “We are currently studying various possibilities regarding potential new partners for the years to come,” he said.

Sebaoun, whose family owns 63 percent of Carven, said he was in no hurry to strike a deal as the business was profitable last year and he expected it to remain so in 2014, a change of

heart since 2011 when he said he might float the business. An initial public offering (IPO) was not on the agenda, he said, “Today, I am no longer thinking about an IPO. It is too early for us in terms of sales.”

“I am not a seller and I want to remain the majority shareholder,” he said. However, new share capital would allow Turenne to cash in, he said, and, once a deal is done, the company would also seek to raise debt to help fund projects such as the opening of a permanent office in New York. Sebaoun said in 2014, Carven planned to open 12 shops in cities including Los Angeles, Miami, Dubai and Jakarta after having opened 15 boutiques last year, including its first in New York and in London. Today, the brand owns fully, or through a joint-venture, some 23 boutiques around the world and 15 department store franchises. It also sells to multi-brand stores and derives, overall, 85 percent of its revenue from wholesale buyers. The target was to

bring that level to 60 percent and make 40 percent of sales from its own retail network, Sebaoun said. Industry experts say Carven needs to manage its expansion carefully as it could risk spending significant amounts in countries, such as China, where demand can be fickle.

Looking forward, Sebaoun said he wants to develop accessories - now 15 percent of sales but longer-term, his strategy was not to create big collections of bags and shoes, as many luxury brands do, but to remain focused on clothing. “I think the era of the hit-bag (top-selling bag) is over,” Sebaoun said. “There are too many actors in that market.” He said his target was for accessories to represent about 30 percent of total revenue. Known as Madame Carven, Carven de Tommaso created the label in 1945, making dresses for princesses and film stars, and is now 104, making her the oldest renowned French designer alive. Hubert de Givenchy is 86. — Reuters

Lifestyle FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Models pose for the Ann Yee Presentation Fall 2014 during Mercedes Benz Fashion Week at Sun West Studios on February 5, 2014 in New York City.

— AFP photos

New York kicks off 2014 fashion week season

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ew York Fashion Week exploded onto a snowy Manhattan yesterday, kicking off the fall/winter 2014 season with a new look and 300 catwalk presentations before the industry shows head to Europe. The week-long fest of glamour, style and celebrity endorsement will see frenzied fashionistas high-tail it across the city, squeezing in back-to-back shows from morning until night.

Dominated by big US designers led by Marc Jacobs and Alexander Wang, emerging talent from Europe, Asia and for the first time, Australia, will snip at the sidelines hoping for their big break. Despite concerns about the weather, tens of thousands of visitors are

expected to descend on New York for what is the first fashion week of the year, hotly followed by London, Paris and Milan. A blast of snow and freezing rain forced the cancellation of around 1,300 flights in New York on Wednesday and forecasters warn that another winter storm could strike at the weekend.

The opening show was Nicholas K, followed

by BCBG Max Azria and Tadashi Shoji on the first day, before a long weekend unfolds with stars like Wang, Jason Wu and Diane von Furstenberg. The main venue, tents at the Lincoln Center on the Upper West Side have been redesigned and a special space set up for young designers, but many of the big names

Models walk the runway for Wildfox at Pier 59.

will exhibit all across town.

Wang has made waves by sending the high priestesses of Manhattan kicking and screaming in becoming the first big name to decamp his collection across the East River to Brooklyn.

The creative director of Balenciaga will unveil his hotly anticipated collection at the Duggal Greenhouse-also host to Lady Gaga’s recent album launch-at the Brooklyn Naval Yard.

The most coveted event is Marc Jacobs, unveiling his first collection since leaving Louis Vuitton to concentrate on floating his own brand, tipped by some for the billion-dollar leagues. The much loved New York designer with a flair for showmanship provides the grand finale to the Week with an evening show at the New York State Armory on February 13.

Fashion Week also offers celebrations for Furstenberg, marking 40 years of her wrap dress, copies of which have become a style staple for millions of women, and Donna Karan’s 30-year brand. “New York City is the epicenter of fashion,” Furstenberg said in a statement, promising “something special” to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the wrap dress.

For many, secrecy is the name of the game.

But US designer Tommy Hilfiger offered a little insight into his Fall 2014 collection that he says will fuse all-American prep with British heritage.” “Iconic tweeds and tartans mix with sporty downs and nylons. The look is youthful and cool... the hiker girl is the new biker girl,” he wrote in a blog on the Huffington Post. This year will see more shows than ever lived streamed online to reach a wider audience than last year’s estimated 3.7 million viewers scattered across 173 countries.

Fashion houses are also exploiting social media, Marc Jacobs for example looking to drive up online traffic by inviting people to buy his “Daisy” perfume from a pop-up shop by sending tweets. Other designers to look out for are Lacoste, Michael Kors, Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Prabal Gurung, Anna Sui, Zac Posen, Victoria Beckham, Carolina Herrera, Altuzarra and Helmut Lang. It is also the first fashion week since New York tightened the law protecting child models in an industry that has courted controversy for eating disorders, racism and sexual harassment. — AFP

Models walk the runway for Hyein Seo.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Kuwait

KNCC PROGRAMME FROM THURSDAY TO WEDNESDAY (06/02/2014 TO 12/02/2014)

SHARQIA-1 LONE SURVIVOR (DIG) GRAND PIANO (DIG) THE LEGEND OF HERCULES (DIG) LONE SURVIVOR (DIG) GRAND PIANO (DIG) GRAND PIANO (DIG) LONE SURVIVOR (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

12:30 PM 2:45 PM 4:45 PM 6:45 PM 9:00 PM 11:00 PM 1:00 AM

MARINA-3 KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) THE LEGEND OF HERCULES (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) GRAND PIANO (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) GRAND PIANO (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

SHARQIA-2 ROBOCOP (DIG) THE LEGO MOVIE (DIG-3D) THE LEGO MOVIE (DIG-3D) ROBOCOP (DIG) ROBOCOP (DIG) ROBOCOP (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:00 PM 3:30 PM 5:45 PM 7:45 PM 10:15 PM 12:45 AM

AVENUES-1 FROZEN (DIG) FROZEN (DIG) RIDE ALONG (DIG) NO THU+FRI+SAT ONE DIRECTION: THIS IS US (DIG) THU+FRI+SAT RIDE ALONG (DIG) RIDE ALONG (DIG) RIDE ALONG (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

SHARQIA-3 THE NUT JOB (DIG) THE NUT JOB (DIG) RIDE ALONG (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) RIDE ALONG (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED MUHALAB-1 GRAND PIANO (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) GRAND PIANO (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) MUHALAB-2 RIDE ALONG (DIG) FRI LONE SURVIVOR (DIG) NO FRI THE LEGEND OF HERCULES (DIG) LONE SURVIVOR (DIG) RIDE ALONG (DIG) LONE SURVIVOR (DIG) MUHALAB-3 ROBOCOP (DIG) THE LEGO MOVIE (DIG) THE LEGO MOVIE (DIG) ROBOCOP (DIG) ROBOCOP (DIG) FANAR-1 GRAND PIANO (DIG) THE LEGEND OF HERCULES (DIG) GRAND PIANO (DIG) THE LEGEND OF HERCULES (DIG) GRAND PIANO (DIG) GRAND PIANO (DIG) THE LEGEND OF HERCULES (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

12:30 PM 2:30 PM 4:30 PM 6:30 PM 8:30 PM 10:30 PM 12:30 AM

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

FANAR-2 THE NUT JOB (DIG) THE NUT JOB (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:45 PM 3:45 PM 5:45 PM 7:45 PM 9:45 PM 11:45 PM

FANAR-3 SAVING Mr. BANKS (DIG) RIDE ALONG (DIG) SAVING Mr. BANKS (DIG) RIDE ALONG (DIG) SAVING Mr. BANKS (DIG) SAVING Mr. BANKS (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

12:30 PM 3:00 PM 5:00 PM 7:30 PM 9:30 PM 12:15 AM

MARINA-1 THE LEGO MOVIE (DIG) THE LEGO MOVIE (DIG) THE LEGO MOVIE (DIG) LONE SURVIVOR (DIG) LONE SURVIVOR (DIG) LONE SURVIVOR (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:30 PM 3:30 PM 5:30 PM 7:30 PM 9:45 PM 12:05 AM

MARINA-2 RIDE ALONG (DIG) ROBOCOP (DIG) RIDE ALONG (DIG) ROBOCOP (DIG) ROBOCOP (DIG) ROBOCOP (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

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AVENUES-2 THE LEGEND OF HERCULES (DIG) THE LEGEND OF HERCULES (DIG) THE LEGEND OF HERCULES (DIG) THE LEGEND OF HERCULES (DIG) THE LEGEND OF HERCULES (DIG) THE LEGEND OF HERCULES (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

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AVENUES-3 KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

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AVENUES-4 KHOUTAT GIMI I?E ???? (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI I?E ???? (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI I?E ???? (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI I?E ???? (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI I?E ???? (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI I?E ???? (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

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1:00 PM 3:30 PM 6:00 PM 6:00 PM 8:30 PM 11:00 PM 12:30 PM 3:00 PM 5:15 PM 8:00 PM 10:30 PM 1:00 AM

FOR SALE Expats leaving bargain prices king size queen beds, wardrobes bedside tables chest of drawers. TV 42” couch lounge chairs carpet, coffee tables desk, office chair, dining table, chairs, plates, pota pans curtains, washing & tumblodryer machines cooker microwave fridge. 94400865.

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112 1:00 PM 3:30 PM 6:00 PM 8:30 PM 11:00 PM 2:30 PM 4:45 PM 7:00 PM 9:30 PM 11:45 PM

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Te c h n o l o g y FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Picture perfect!

Photoshop tips and tricks for beginners

P

hotoshop is a heck of an amazing software that can really help your creativity express itself through a variety of useful tools. It’s also excellent if all you want to do is retouch a photo a bit before you post it on your site or anywhere else. If you are a Photoshop beginner, only recently exposed to the wonders of this advanced design machine, read on. We have gathered a few tips and tricks that could really make a difference as you move forward with your next few images. Note: The shortcuts are phrased for PC users. Mac people - you know what to do with them.

Transform When you want to change the size of an image, rotate, flip or distort it, you can always do so by clicking Edit, then click Transform and select the action you desire.

To make life easier, there’s a shortcut you can use. Simply press Ctrl + T on your keyboard and a bounding box will then appear around the image, indicating transformation. This means you can now resize your image. The best way to do so is by placing the cursor on one of the rectangle corners and then dragging the corner while holding the Shift key. When you’re finished just press Enter and you’re done.

To flip your image vertically or horizontally press Ctrl + T and then right click your mouse. A popup window will appear with a few options for rotating and flipping the image. Select the action you want and when you are done press Enter. Similarly, to distort or skew the image press Ctrl + T and then place the cursor on one of the corners you want to distort. Press Ctrl while holding your mouse down on the corner and dragging it down to wherever you want, then press Enter to activate.

Change the unit of measurement A short and quick way to switch between units of measurements is to place the cursor on one of the rulers (press Ctrl + R to show or hide the rulers), and right click, then choose a new unit from the context menu.

You have a wide variety of units there, from

centimeters to pixels, millimeters, points and even percents.

Magnetic Lasso Tool This is an easy selection tool that helps you trace and outline a part of an image, and to separate it from the rest of the image in order to perform certain actions. For example, you can select and separate a product from its background. The magnetic lasso tool detects the edges of an object, so it works best when you have a bold contrast between an object and its background with well defined edges. You can find this tool in the tools panel. To access the Magnetic Lasso, click and hold your mouse button down on the Lasso Tool until a fly-out menu appears . The magnetic lasso is the last one with a small magnet on its icon. Select it and then go to your image and place your mouse on the edge of the part you want to select. Click your mouse once, release and just go over the edges of the object you want to select (just like you do with scissors when you cut something out).

Magic Wand Tool The Magic Wand is another selection tool, ideal for when you are working with a background that is very monotone and consistent. If you have a clearly defined color that you want to choose in an image, this is the tool for you. For example, the Magic Wand is great when you want to select a white background or a clear blue sky. Choose the magic wand tool from the tools panel and click on the part of the image you want to select.

Make sure that you toggled the “add to selection” option on the top bar (icon of two squares) so you can keep on adding colors and tones to your selection.

Custom Shape Tool The Tool Panel offers all the basic shapes you need like square, line, circle, ellipse etc.

However, if you’d like to have extended options check out the custom shape tool.

Represented by icon that kind of resembles a roadkill (but it’s far from it!) the custom shape tool is easy to find on the Options Bar.

After you select it, a world of shape options will reveal itself to you. A shape preview thumbnail will appear to the right of the Custom Shape Tool icon. The selection is great and you can access even more shapes by clicking again on the small arrow on the right side of the panel. If you are looking for banners, speech bubbles or arrows of all kinds, this is just the tool for you.

Adjustment Layers As you use Photoshop for whatever purpose, like change colors of an image, make it sharper or improve the contrast, remember to always use the adjustment layers. The big advantage of the adjustment layer is that you don’t make the changes on the image itself but on a separate layer, so you can always change the settings to see which adjustment works best for you. You will find adjustment layers in the bottom of the the Layers Panel (a black and white circle icon).

Layer Styles This is a simple & easy way to add some pizazz to your image. Layer styles are special effects that can be quickly applied to individual layers. All you have to do is double click on a layer and then choose the effect you like. You can select from a whole variety of features, add a stroke or a glow, drop a shadow, and much more with just a click of the mouse. Be careful you don’t overdo it.

These effects have a tendency to look cheap and sleazy when there’s too much of them.

Easily add a stroke or drop a shadow on any

object or text.

Spot Healing Brush Yes - it’s exactly like it sounds, this tool will make everything look prettier! If you have a spot, blemish, or a mole this tool will remove it instantly. It can also be used as a pimple remover. Just place the brush over the area you want to “fix”, make sure the brush is a bit bigger than the blemish and click. Photoshop automatically samples from around the retouched area so you really don’t need to do anything else. One simple click and the spot is gone!

Dodge Tool The Dodge Tool lightens pixels where you use it. This is a great solution for red “tired eyes”. Set the Dodge Tool to a soft brush, go to Range setting in the menu-bar’s pull-down and choose highlights, set Exposure on around 20 percent. Then carefully brush over the eye area. Remember not to overdo it, or your model will start to look like an alien. A few simple strokes should do the job.

Blur Tool A simple and delicate way to remove small wrinkles is to blur them a bit. Use the Blur Tool to smooth-out small imperfections like the wrinkles around the eye or mouth area and simply blur them into the background. Again, be gentle and remember not to overdo it or instead of improving your image you’ll end up spoiling it. The Blur Tool can be used for repair as well as more artistic purposes so it’s important to become friendly with it.— www.wix.com

Stars

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Aries (March 21-April 19)

Serious thinking and communication will be enhanced today, Aries. These are strong qualities for you anyway, and with this added boost, you'll need to have a place to express yourself. If you’ve started a journal, this can prove to be an excellent outlet.

Talking with other people is another. If there are issues or worries that have been bothering you, consider getting together with those involved and airing what's on your mind. It's a perfect day to get things resolved.

Taurus (April 20-May 20)

You might feel cornered into doing something you just don't want to do today, Taurus. Perhaps you made a promise to handle a project, or someone close to you has decided that it's the day to tackle something specific. Either way, if you're uncomfortable following through, communicate that to this person. Your ability to express yourself and be understood is enhanced with this day's energy. Rescheduling might be far better than any potential resentment.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

You might discover that someone close to you, a family member perhaps, could use a hand today, Gemini. Chances are good, too, that he or she won't ask for help out of pride. Don't let that stop you, though. If you recognize a situation where you can be of assistance, go for it. Don't wait for an invitation or request. Simply take hold of the circumstances and do what you can. Your efforts will be appreciated and you'll leave feeling terrific that you could make a difference.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

When was the last time you used a pen and paper, Cancer? In this age of computers, the keyboard has all but replaced these wonderful tools. In the same way that walking provides much more than fresh air, the kinesthetic value of the rhythmic motion of writing with a pen is far more soothing and even healing than most realize. Moving your hand across the page can feel good and unlock places within you that aren't accessed by typing. Try it today.

Leo (July 23-August 22)

Today may bring a keen sense of empathy and understanding, Leo. With this, verbal communication is also more likely to be effective. Consider seizing this energy by making a point of talking through any problems or issues you have with those in your life. If they don't live with you, see about driving over to visit them or calling them up to work things out. If there isn't anything pressing, see about expressing your affection for those closest to you by telling them straight out what they mean to you.

Virgo (August 23-September 22)

Don't be surprised if you find your mind going a thousand miles a minute today, Virgo. Slowing down will likely elude you and you’ll have to find one means or another to express what's racing around in your head. The aspects today lend much to communication. Perhaps talking over your writing or ideas with someone whose insight you value will do the trick. Even doodling can give you a place to put your thoughts. Explore these activities today.

Libra (September 23-October 22)

Welcome to another great day, Libra. The energy from the day's aspects is positive and encouraging when it comes to communication and interaction with others. Why not take advantage of this? Get together to visit with friends and family and enjoy yourself. Consider inviting people over for a game or dinner.

Even a potluck can be a lot of fun. You work hard all the time, so play hard today!

Scorpio (October 23-November 21)

You might find yourself really interested in getting out and doing something today, Scorpio. And why not? It can’t be too difficult to phone a few friends and arrange to get together in the evening. Or perhaps you can look in the events page in your local newspaper and see whether a meeting or lecture is taking place that you'd like to attend. Is there a place you've been curious about and wanted to visit? If so, go there today and check it out. Make the best of your time!

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21)

Consider channeling your philosophical inspirations into some creative writing, Sagittarius. You’ll certainly enjoy this type of activity. Even if you haven't explored this before, there's no better day than today to give it a whirl. Why not start a journal if you haven't done so already? This will give your ideas a place to incubate, and it can become a starting point for further reflection. Or you could try your hand at poetry and fiction instead.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)

You might feel the need for some time to yourself today, Capricorn. And why not take it? Chances are you’re surrounded by others most of the time, and when you don't take time to be alone with your thoughts and feelings, it can prove unhealthy for you. Taking care of your emotional well-being is critical, as you have a deeply sensitive nature. With continuous activity around you, there's no time to connect with this part of you.

Make time today.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18)

Today you may want to go your own way regardless of what someone else wants, Aquarius. Your independence is very important to you. However, compromise might be necessary in order to avoid serious conflict. Consider splitting your day to allow for the wishes of those close to you and time for yourself.

If you can't make others understand why you want to be alone, this might be the best solution.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

Today may well find you in the mood to head out on a venture or visit someone, Pisces. When was the last time you took a day for something like this? Chances are it's been too long. Not only will you enjoy it but others will be thrilled to have some time with you as well. Whether you pack up the whole family or head out on your own, seize the opportunity to visit a new place or connect with people you haven't seen in a while.

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

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

L e i s u re

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Word Search

Yesterdayʼs Solution

C R O S S W O R D 4 5 2

ACROSS 1. Petty quarrel.

5. Very small northern fish.

12. System of measurement based on centimeters and grams and seconds.

15. A material effigy that is worshipped as a god.

16. An island republic on the island of Iceland.

17. Resinlike substance secreted by certain lac insects.

18. Argentine soldier who became president of Argentina (1895-1974).

19. A city in southern Turkey on the Seyhan River.

20. One of the most common of the five major classes of immunoglobulins.

21. A person who makes use of a thing.

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

26. Being one more than fifty.

27. Free from obscurity and easy to understand.

29. In bed.

31. Small shrubby African tree having compound leaves and racemes of small fragrant green flowers.

32. (of complexion) Blemished by imperfections of the skin.

36. (neurology) Of or relating to the vagus nerve.

38. A unit of information equal to one million (1,048,576) bytes.

40. A city in northern India.

41. A public promotion of some product or service.

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

48. Apparent power to perceive things that are not present to the senses.

49. Largest known toad species.

51. Italian film actress (born in 1934).

54. Loose gown of the 17th and 18th centuries.

56. Informal terms for a mother.

57. (Akkadian) God of wisdom.

58. An artificial language for international use that rejects rejects all existing words and is based instead on an abstract analysis of ideas.

59. United States educator who introduced reforms that significantly altered the system of public education (1796-1859).

60. Perversely irritable.

64. The basic monetary unit in many countries.

66. A gonadotropic hormone that is secreted by the anterior pituitary.

67. Especially fine or decorative clothing.

70. Any alcoholic beverage of inferior quality.

72. (used of persons or the military) Characterized by having or bearing arms.

74. The cry made by sheep.

75. Goddess of criminal rashness and its punishment.

76. Genus of perennial wildflowers of North American plains and prairies.

78. North American republic containing 50 states - 48 conterminous states in North America plus Alaska in northwest North America and the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

79. A number of sheets of paper fastened together along one edge.

80. Subdivision not used in some classifications.

81. United States liquid unit equal to 4 quarts or 3.785 liters.

Daily SuDoku

DOWN 1. Semi-evergreen South American tree with odd-pinnate leaves and golden yellow flowers cultivated as an ornamental.

2. In the Roman calendar.

3. The front limb of a quadruped.

4. A state in southeastern United States between the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico.

5. Being one more than one hundred.

6. A mite of the genus Acarus.

7. A tricycle (usually propelled by pedalling).

8. Oil palms.

9. A local computer network for communication between computers.

10. (Irish) Mother of the ancient Irish gods.

11. A yellow trivalent metallic element of the rare earth group.

12. A user interface in which you type commands instead of choosing them from a menu or selecting an icon.

13. Mentally or physically infirm with age.

14. Someone who works (or provides workers) during a strike.

22. Any of various trees of the genus Ulmus.

23. The 7th letter of the Greek alphabet.

24. Any tropical gymnosperm of the order Cycadales.

28. Smother or suppress.

30. A member of an agricultural people of southern India.

33. 100 ngwee equal 1 kwacha.

34. An implement used to erase something.

35. A nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (trade name Daypro).

37. 30 to 300 kilohertz.

39. (in Scotland or Ireland) A mountain or tall hill.

42. The corporate executive responsible for the operations of the firm.

43. (physics) A deformation of an object in which parallel planes remain parallel but are shifted in a direction parallel to themselves.

45. 100 satangs equal 1 baht.

46. A series of steps to be carried out or goals to be accomplished.

47. Remote from actual involvement.

50. Not mated sexually.

52. All the New World monkeys except marmosets and tamarins.

53. A complex red organic pigment containing iron and other atoms to which oxygen binds.

55. Move out of a curled position.

61. German hero.

62. English monk and scholar (672-735).

63. Locate and correct errors in a computer program code.

65. (Roman Catholic Church) The supreme ecclesiastical tribunal for cases appealed to the Holy See from diocesan courts.

68. An independent agency of the United States government responsible for aviation and spaceflight.

69. An official language of the Republic of South Africa.

71. The 19th letter of the Greek alphabet.

73. A run that is the result of the batter's performance.

77. (astronomy) A measure of time defined by Earth's orbital motion.

Yesterdayʼs Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

Sports FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Lakers snap losing streak CLEVELAND: The depleted Los Angeles Lakers had to keep Robert Sacre on the court after he fouled out in the fourth quarter of their 119-108 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night. Rookie Ryan Kelly scored a career-high 26 points, and Steve Blake had his first career tripledouble with 11 points, 15 assists and 10 rebounds to help Los Angeles snap a seven-game losing streak. The Lakers went 18 for 37 from 3-point range, but Los Angeles’ first win in two weeks was overshadowed by a bizarre ending. The Lakers had eight available players coming into the game.

Then Nick Young twisted his left knee in the first half and Chris Kaman fouled out early in the fourth quarter. When Jordan Farmar left with an injury in the final period that left Los Angeles with five players. Sacre committed his sixth foul with 3:32 remaining, but stayed in the game because coach Mike D’Antoni was out of healthy bodies. The Lakers were assessed a technical foul. Farmar scored 21 points, and Wesley Johnson added 20 for the Lakers. CJ Miles led Cleveland with 27 points. All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving was taken out with 7:32 remaining in the third quarter and finished with 11 points as the Cavaliers lost their sixth consecutive game.

HEAT 116, CLIPPERS 112 LeBron James had 31 points, 12 assists and eight rebounds, Ray Allen hit a clinching 3-pointer in the final minute, and Miami snapped a fivegame road losing streak against Los Angeles.

Allen had 15 points off the bench for the twotime defending NBA champions, who began a sixgame road trip that will be interrupted four games in by the All-Star break. Dwyane Wade, one of seven Miami players scoring in double figures, had 14 points and eight assists in his 700th regular-season game. The Heat had lost 10 of their previous 12 road games against the Clippers, and hadn’t beaten them at Staples Center since Dec. 9, 2007. Los Angeles got a season-high 43 points and 13 rebounds from Blake Griffin and 31 points from Jamal Crawford.

THUNDER 106, TIMBERWOLVES 97 Kevin Durant had 26 points, nine rebounds and seven assists and Oklahoma City won for the 12th time in 13 games, beating a Minnesota team without Kevin Love and two other starters. Reggie Jackson added 20 points and nine assists to help Oklahoma City become the first team this season to reach 40 wins. The Thunder have won eight straight home games and are 15-1 this season against Western Conference foes at Chesapeake

Energy Arena. Ricky Rubio had 19 points, eight rebounds and five assists for Minnesota.

SPURS 125, WIZARDS 118 Tim Duncan scored a season-high 31 points before fouling out in the second overtime, and San Antonio beat Washington Wizards for an NBA-high 16th time in a row. Patty Mills scored 11 of his 23 points in the two overtimes for the Spurs, who haven’t lost to the Wizards since Nov. 12, 2005. The Spurs moved ahead of Miami’s 15-game domination of Charlotte for the longest current team-vs.team streak. Duncan also had 11 rebounds, and Danny Green added 22 points for San Antonio, but Tony Parker left at halftime with tightness in his lower back and did not return.

ROCKETS 122, SUNS 108 Dwight Howard had 34 points and 14 rebounds, James Harden added 23 points and Houston beat Phoenix for its fourth straight victory. Chandler Parsons and Terrence Jones had 19 points each for Houston. Goran Dragic had 23 points and eight assists for Phoenix. The Suns have dropped two in a row after winning five straight.

TRAIL BLAZERS 94, KNICKS 90 Nicolas Batum had 20 points and 10 rebounds, Wesley Matthews scored 18 points, and Portland overcame poor-shooting nights by its two All-Stars to beat New York. LaMarcus Aldridge finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds while shooting 5 of 17 from the floor, and Damian Lillard shot 4 of 12 for his 12 points. Carmelo Anthony scored 26 points on 11-of-28 shooting for New York.

KINGS 109, RAPTORS 101 DeMarcus Cousins had 25 points and 10 rebounds, Rudy Gay added 24 points and 10 rebounds, and Sacramento held off Toronto to earn its fourth win in five games. The Kings led by 20 points going into the final quarter, when Toronto got going offensively and cut the lead to five points with under a minute to play. But the Kings converted six free throws in the final minute to seal their second straight victory after losing seven straight. Kyle Lowry had 21 points, eight assists and seven rebounds for the Raptors. Demar DeRozan scored 18 points, Patrick Patterson 14 and Steve Novak 12, all in the fourth quarter. The game was the first meeting since the two teams made a seven-player trade on Dec. 9 that brought Gay, Quincy Acy and Aaron Gray to Sacramento in exchange for Patterson, John Salmons, Greivis Vasquez and Chuck Hayes.

CLEVELAND: Cavaliersí Dion Waiters (right) tries to slap the ball away from Los Angeles Lakers’ Kendall Marshall in the fourth quarter of an NBA basketball game. — AP PELICANS 105, HAWKS 100 Anthony Davis had 27 points and 10 rebounds in New Orleans’ victory over Atlanta. Brian Roberts scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half, including an off-balance driving floater with 20.5 seconds left that gave New Orleans a fivepoint lead. Eric Gordon added 18 points for New Orleans. The Pelicans have won six of their last nine games. Paul Millsap scored 26 points for Atlanta.

CELTICS 114, 76ERS 108 Jeff Green scored 17 of his 36 points in the third quarter to lead Boston. Jared Sullinger had 19 points and 10 rebounds for Boston. The Celtics improved to 17-33, winning their second straight game after losing 19 of 22. Rajon Rondo added eight points, 11 assists and nine rebounds to help Boston improve to 2-6 since he returned from a serious knee injury. Thaddeus Young had 20 points for Philadelphia.

MAVERICKS 110, GRIZZLIES 96 Dirk Nowitzki scored 26 points, Brandan Wright added 17 and Dallas used a second-half surge to

beat Memphis. Nowitzki was 10 of 14 from the field, including 3 of 4 from beyond the arc, to help the Mavericks win their third straight. Samuel Dalembert and Monta Ellis had 14 points apiece and Dalembert added 10 rebounds. Vince Carter had 13 points and seven assists. Zack Randolph scored 25 points for Memphis.

NUGGETS 110, BUCKS 100 Wilson Chandler scored seven of his 24 points in the final 1:52 and Denver held on to beat Milwaukee. Ty Lawson had 18 points and 13 assists, and Randy Foye scored 20 points for the Nuggets.

Larry Sanders had 25 points and 15 rebounds for short-handed Milwaukee, and Khris Middleton also scored 25 points. The Bucks had nine available players and then lost guard Luke Ridnour to back tightness in the second quarter.

MAGIC 112, PISTONS 98 Rookie Victor Oladipo came off the bench to score 20 points, and Glen Davis had 18 to help Orlando beat Detroit. Josh Smith scored 25 points for Detroit. — AP

Seahawks’ Super Bowl victory parade draws 700,000 fans

SEATTLE: Seahawks’ Marshawn Lynch (left) douses Russell Sherman and the Vince Lombardi Trophy at a rally following a parade for the NFL football Super Bowl champions. — AP

SEATTLE: An estimated 700,000 Seattle Seahawks fans braved sub-freezing temperatures to celebrate the football team’s first Super Bowl title at a parade that wound through the city’s downtown yesterday. The Seahawks trounced the usually high-scoring Denver Broncos, 43-8, on Sunday to win their first National Football League championship in franchise history..

It was a particularly sweet triumph for a city whose previous major professional men’s sports team championship came a generation ago, when the SuperSonics captured the National Basketball Association’s crown in 1979. That team left for Oklahoma City in 2008. Kicking off before noon and running for about two hours, the parade was slowed by the larger-than-anticipated crowd - with some fans perched in trees and atop pillars that transformed downtown Seattle into a sea of blue and green, the team’s colors. Police estimated the crowd at 700,000 strong.

“I’ve never seen a community come together like this,” said Tyler Olsen, 29, a Seattle-area high school math teacher who took the day off to watch the procession. “It’s an overwhelming sense of joy.” Shortly after the parade commenced, the crowd burst into an ear-splitting roar as part of a statewide “moment of LOUD-

NESS” proclaimed a day earlier by Governor Jay Inslee. In a nod to the team’s fans, collectively known as the “12th Man” for their opponent-rattling rumbling during home games, the organized screaming occurred at 12:12 p.m. As fans cheered them along the route, players and coaches danced and waved from slow-moving amphibious World War Two-era Duck vehicles normally used by tourists, with star running back Marshawn Lynch throwing his preferred candy, Skittles, into the crowd.

The procession culminated at CenturyLink Field - the Seahawks’ home stadium - where the team has lost only once during the past two years, and where season-ticket holders were treated to a post-parade victory celebration. With traffic snarled and public transportation backed up by those heading into the city, not everyone planning to attend the parade made it. Patti Tinsley, 43, brought her two children, ages 5 and 7, to the light-rail train station in the Seattle suburb of SeaTac. But after waiting over an hour in a line that snaked around the block, she decided to return home — though her spirits remained high. “This is historic,” said Tinsley, decked out in Seahawks regalia. “It’s something my kids will always remember.”—Reuters

43

Sports FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Dearth of top players hit Fed Cup teams PARIS: Defending champions Italy will field a weakened side against the United States in Cleveland in the first round of the 2014 Fed Cup this weekend.

Deprived of top singles players Sara Errani and Flavia Pennetta, the Italians, Fed Cup winners three times in the last five years, will instead look to 40th world ranked Karin Knapp and 84th ranked Camilia Giorgi. The Americans too, however, are without their top players in world number one Serena Williams and Sloane Stephens, with youngsters Madison Keys, Alison Riske, Christina McHale and Lauren Davis being selected.

The dearth of top players in Cleveland is symptomatic of the problems facing the Fed Cup, held in close proximity to the Australian Open, with only one player ranked in the world top 10 Germany’s Angelique Kerber - in action

for her country. Opening the way timewise will be the tie between Australia and Russia in Hobart, Tasmania, but again the Russians, losing finalists last year, have been shorn of their big names.

Maria Sharapova, currently in Sochi for the Winter Olympics, has opted out and instead the Russians, who last won the Fed Cup in 2008, have gone with four almost unknown players, the highest ranked of whom is 18-year-old Victoria Kan, the world number 158.

The Australians, at least are able to call on top player Samantha Stosur, backed by Casey Dellacqua and Ashleigh Barty. “We haven’t had a home tie for a while so it’s nice to be able to play in Australia,” said Dellacqua. “We have got some experience of playing down in Hobart so looking forward to that tie.

“I really like the pace (of the court) there. Hobart is a great city. It’s really nice and the people are lovely so i think it’s a great spot for us to play Russia.

The strongest team lineup looks to be for Slovakia who have Australian Open runner-up Dominika Cibulkova and the veteran Daniela Hantuchova in harness for the tie against Germany in Bratislava.

The Slovakians will be out to go at least one better than last year when they held a 2-0 lead over Russia in the semifinals before losing 3-2.

World number nine Kerber heads the German challenge and she has strong backing from Andrea Petkovic and Julia Goerges as they target a first Fed Cup title win since 1992.

“I think we are a very good team right now, we have a lot of good German players and I’m really looking forward to

play Fed Cup and also with this good team,” Kerber said.

The final tie in Seville sees Spain go up against a Czech Republic side who will be with the injured world number six Petra Kvitova.

Instead Lucie Safarova and Klara Zakopalova will likely play singles with Spain headed up by Clara Suarez Navarro and Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor.

“For sure it’s going to be a tough tie but I think that our team is very strong.

As we have shown in the past we like to play Fed Cup and we are a good team so I think we have a good chance,” Safarova said Fed Cup first round ties to be be played Saturday and Sunday: United States v Italy in Cleveland; Spain v Czech Republic in Seville; Slovakia v Germany in Bratislava; Australia v Russia in Hobart.—AFP

Korda and Burnett lead Ladies Australian Masters GOLD COAST: American Jessica Korda sustained her strong early-season form to share the lead with compatriot Katie Burnett after yesterday’s first round of the Ladies Australian Masters.

After winning the season-opening LPGA event in the Bahamas last week, the 20-year-old Korda carded eight birdies and three bogeys in a 5-under 68.

Korda won the 2012 Australian Open and again showed her liking for Australian conditions, holding the outright lead until Burnett closed with birdies on her last two holes.

They were a stroke ahead of Valentine Derrey of France finished with an eagle on 18 to card a 4-under 69, matched by American Cheyenne Woods, South Africans Stacey Lee Bregman and Lee-Anne Pace and Canadian Lorie Kane.

Defending champion and eight-time tournament-winner Karrie Webb of Australia shot a first round 74; six shots off the pace.

“It was a tricky day,” Webb said. “Not a disaster though.

“That’s my first round (for 2014) under the belt and we’ll see how the rest of the tournament goes.” —AP

Jessica Korda

SEPANG: MotoGP rider Marc Marquez of Spain steers his Honda during a pre-season test at Sepang International Circuit. —AP

Marquez dominates in Sepang SEPANG: World champion Marc Marquez remained dominant when a three-day pre-season MotoGP test session ended yesterday, signalling that the young Spaniard plans a spirited defence of his crown this year. The Honda rider ended the final day of testing with a blistering new pace-setting lap at Malaysia’s Sepang circuit.

The 20-year-old was the fastest out of 26 riders for the third straight day with a best lap of 1 minute, 59.533 secondsbeating the unofficial track record set in 2012 by former world champ Casey Stoner. Marquez last year became the youngest rider ever to win the world title, and the first rookie to win in 35 years. Taking advantage of hot and dry conditions that lent themselves to fast times, Marquez showed off his fearless

riding skills as he pushed his more fuelefficient new Honda around the notoriously tricky circuit. “For the new season we will try to win the title again and to be competitive,” he told reporters.

“Of course I would feel more pressure than last year but then under pressure I work quite good,” he added. Since 2009 no premier-class rider has won the MotoGP title back-to-back.

Hot on Marquez’s heels at Sepang was rival Yamaha’s nine-time Italian world champion Valentino Rossi, who managed to resolve braking woes with his bike. Jorge Lorenzo-a two-time MotoGP champion-came third.

Rossi was 0.194 seconds behind Marquez while Lorenzo was another 0.333 seconds back. Dani Pedrosa, who is seeking to capture an elusive first

MotoGP world title, was sixth — 0.690 seconds behind teammate Marquez.

Lorenzo, who also had braking problems, described Marquez as a “very strong” rider. “I have to train harder to regain my physical strength. We also have to improve the machine’s braking and acceleration,” he said.

Top riders come to Sepang early each year for a pair of test sessions-the next one starts on February 26 - putting bikes and equipment through their paces on the tight-turning circuit in preparation for the coming season.

They will have a further session at Phillip Island in Australia and at the Losail circuit in Qatar, before the new season kicks off at Losail on March 23.

Malaysia will host the championship in October. —AFP

San Diego port officials to discuss America’s Cup SAN DIEGO: The San Diego Unified Port District commissioners are scheduled to discuss a proposal by a local group to host the America’s Cup in 2017.

The agenda for Tuesday’s meeting includes an item listed as “Resolution Proclaiming Support for America’s Cup 35 Event in 2017 and direction to staff.” Port officials didn’t respond to a request for comment

Wednesday. Tuesday’s meeting would be a preliminary step. If the commissioners decide to proceed, it’s expected they would direct the port staff to begin discussions with America’s Cup officials.

SEA San Diego has proposed that the 35th America’s Cup be sailed on San Diego Bay in August 2017. The group organized an America’s Cup World Series regatta in

November 2011 and a regatta in the RC44 class in March 2011, both contested on the bay. The RC44 class was started by Russell Coutts, the five-time America’s Cup winner who is CEO of two-time America’s Cup champion Oracle Team USA. Coutts recently told The Associated Press that America’s Cup officials are talking with other venues about hosting the 35th America’s

Cup in August 2017 because San Francisco officials haven’t offered the same terms as they did for last summer’s regatta, which ended with the American syndicate staging one of the greatest comebacks in sports.

Coutts said he’s not prepared to rule out San Francisco. But he said San Diego, Hawaii and other venues are possibilities for hosting the next America’s Cup.—AP

44

Sports FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Russia seeks to soothe security jitters SOCHI: Russia said yesterday its Sochi Olympics were as safe as any place in the West from militant attacks after Washington warned airports and some airlines that toothpaste tubes could be used to smuggle bombmaking materials onto a Russia-bound plane.

Russian forces are on high alert over threats by Islamist militant groups based in the nearby north Caucasus to attack the Winter games, which begin on Friday. Twin suicide bombings killed at least 34 people in December in Volgograd, some 400 miles (700 km) northeast of Sochi.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, speaking on the eve of the opening ceremony, told journalists in Sochi that Russian security services were working with colleagues from Europe and North America. “There is no reason to believe that the level of danger in Sochi is greater than at any other point on the planet, be it Boston, London, New York or Washington.

“We can guarantee the safety of people as well as any other government hosting any mass event,” he said, speaking through a translator.

President Vladimir Putin, who launched a war to crush a rebellion in nearby Chechnya in 1999, has staked his reputation on the Games, which at around $50 billion will be the most expensive in Olympic history. Islamist guerrillas seeking an independent Islamic state in Chechnya and neighbouring regions of southern Russia, have aimed threats at the games, which they argue take place on land seized from Caucasus tribes in the 19th century. Despite a “ring of steel” around venues and some 37,000 security personnel on alert, Russian forces fear a woman suspected of planning a suicide bombing may have slipped through. However, security officials believe the risk of an attack is far greater elsewhere in Russia than in Sochi or the Caucasus mountain cluster nearby.

President Barack Obama has said he believed Sochi was safe, but behind the scenes there has been tension between Russian and US officials, including over concerns that the host nation might react with excessive force in the case of an attack and endanger civilian lives.

A senior US security official said on Wednesday Washington had issued a warning to airports and some airlines flying to Russia for the Olympics to watch for toothpaste tubes that could hold ingredients to make a bomb on a plane.

The official did not say why such a specific warning was being issued now. Airlines and airports have been aware for several years of the dangers of bombs being concocted on aircraft from liquids smuggled aboard and have strictly limited the carriage of all liquids and pastes by passengers.

LAW ON HOMOSEXUALITY Putin, accused in the West of abusing the rights of minorities and of critics, faces other hazards at the games. His legacy could be tarnished by rows over anti-gay propaganda laws, which athletes, rights groups and political leaders have condemned, allegations of corruption, cost overruns and concerns over security. Organisers have also been scrambling to deal with teething problems, including complaints about accommodation and an outcry over the fate of stray dogs being rounded up in Sochi.

Russia’s contentious “gay propaganda” law was again in the spotlight on Thursday, when United Nations Secretary-General Ban Kimoon condemned discrimination and attacks on people based on their sexual orientation.

“Hatred of any kind must have no place in the 21st century,” he said, addressing an International Olympic Committee (IOC) session in Sochi.

Russia, hosting a Winter Games for the first

SOCHI: A member of a Russian honor guard salutes during a welcoming ceremony at the 2014 Winter Olympics. —AP time, has come under mounting criticism since the government passed legislation last year which critics say curtails rights of homosexuals and discriminates against them.

“We must oppose the arrests, imprisonments and discriminatory restrictions they face,” Ban said. Putin has defended the law as protecting minors and said homosexuals will not face discriminated at the Sochi Olympics.

SPORTING ACTION The president will hope the world’s media now turns their lenses on sporting exploits on the snow and ice, and there was early qualification action in slopestyle, where medals are up for grabs for the first time. In Alpine skiing, US veteran Bode Miller, at his fifth Winter Games aged 36, set the fastest time in train-

ing. “My confidence is never really my issue,” he grinned afterwards. “Unfortunately they don’t give any medals for training because if they did I’d be psyched today.

“But it certainly doesn’t hurt. To come out here and ski hard, ski well, first run is great,” added the five times Olympic medallist, who aims to become the oldest man to win an Alpine gold.

The women’s downhill training was cut short due to concerns over a jump close to the finish, a day after Shaun White’s decision to pull out of the slopestyle event for safety reasons. “I felt like, ‘You’re welcome, I’ll be your test dummy’”, said 25-year-old American Laurenne Ross, one of only three of the 56 racers to descend the 2,713 metre long course. “I was definitely intimidated.” —Reuters

Parrot perched on top after slopestyle heats ROSA KHUTOR: Canada’s Maxence Parrot scorched the competition in the second heat of the men’s snowboard slopestyle yesterday to book his place in the Olympic final.

Parrot’s score of 97.50 was the best of the day as the competition burst into life in the second heat. Roope Tonteri of Finland snared second with 95.75, which would also have been good enough to win the first heat.

The laconic Finn was impressed with the standard in the second heat, but told Reuters that it didn’t affect him as he prepared for his second run.

“I don’t really think about the level, I just want to stomp that run, I just want to do my own stuff, and it’s turned out pretty well.”

Sweden’s Sven Thorgren led after the first run and held on for third place in the second heat, with Norwegian Gjermund Braaten in fourth as the two Scandinavians grabbed the final two automatic places for Saturday’s final.

“The riding in this heat is just beyond,” Braaten told Reuters as he waited to see if his run would be enough for a final place.

Braaten’s final spot came at the expense of Belgium’s Seppe Smits, who was just 0.25 of a point further back in fifth.

“I’m a little bummed. I was hoping that this run would be enough to make it straight to the finals but apparently everyone was ready to throw down, everyone went all-in. It was an

insane level in the second heat,” he told Reuters.

First heat winner Staale Sandbech’s 94.50 would only have been good enough for third spot in the second heat as the competitors upped the ante in the bright Sochi sunshine.

Those who missed out on automatic qualifying still have the chance to grab one of four remaining berths when they compete in a semi-final on Saturday.

Earlier, Sandbech put in a blazing second run to win the opening heat on Thursday, the first day of competition at the Sochi Olympics.

Sandbech’s first run scored a modest 45.25 but the Norwegian notched 94.50 on his second. Finland’s Peetu Piroinen took second place, with Sebastien Toutant of Canada coming in third.

America’s Charles Guldemond missed out on the fourth spot by just 0.75 of a point after Britain’s Jamie Nicholls used his final run to sneak past and snatch the berth in the final.

“I definitely had a good time this morning until I just got bumped out on that last run, which was very disappointing, but I’ve got to stay positive and move on to semi-day,” Guldemond told Reuters.

“Obviously I wanted to make that top-four cut and it didn’t work out, I just need to clean things up a little bit. But nothing ever came easy to me, but when it happened I thought,

KRASNAYA POLYANA: Canada’s Maxence Parrot takes a jump during the men’s snowboard slopestyle qualifying at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park. —AP ‘OK, I’ve seen this before!’” Australian Scotty James recovered from a heavy fall to make his second run but failed to qualify automatically for the final.

Seen clutching his ribs as he left the slope after the first run, James revealed that his

injury was actually in a much more tender place.

“I was really embarrassed, I actually hurt my ‘man parts’ real bad and I was in a lot of pain, and I didn’t really know where to put my hands,” he said.—Reuters

Sports FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

N Zealand eye big total McCullum, Williamson slam tons AUCKLAND: Captain Brendon McCullum and Kane Williamson scored centuries to resurrect New Zealand’s innings after they lost three early wickets to put them in a strong position on 329 for four at the end of the first day of the first Test at Eden Park yesterday. McCullum was 143 not out at the close of play, his eighth test century, while Williamson was dismissed after tea for 113, his fifth test hundred. Williamson’s century was his sixth score over 50 in succession against the tourists, having scored a half century in each of the five one day internationals that preceded the two-match test series.

The pair combined for a 221-run partnership after the hosts had been reduced to 30 for three early in the first session when India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni had won his sixth successive toss on tour and put New Zealand into bat. All-rounder Corey Anderson (42) was with McCullum at the close of play with Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan taking two wickets each. “It was pretty tricky early on for the openers so to get through that period and kick on in partnership with Brendon was fantastic,” Williamson told RadioSport.

“It’s nice to put the score on the board ... but the most pleasing thing was getting the innings back on track. “It’s a very good batting track so we need to keep batting ... and make sure that we have a really good innings to bowl at.”

in his field placings, pushing fielders deeper and wider, which allowed New Zealand to keep the scoreboard ticking over with easy singles.

EARLY BREAKTHROUGHS Dhoni’s three-pronged pace attack of Mohammed Shami, Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma exploited the green drop-in pitch and cool, overcast conditions to knock the top off New Zealand’s batting and expose their middle order before the break.

Sharma had Hamish Rutherford well caught by a diving Ajinkya Rahane in the gully for six then Zaheer trapped Peter Fulton in front for 13 before Sharma had Ross Taylor caught by Ravindra Jadeja for three. Taylor’s dismissal put the hosts in a spot of bother before Williamson and McCullum consolidated, adding another 24 runs before lunch.

India’s bowlers were unable to sustain their disciplined line and length after lunch and were punished for bowling too short or too full, while their fielding, especially catching, was sub-standard. The New Zealand pair seized on the inconsistency and while the 23-year-old Williamson was dropped on 32 by Murali Vijay at first slip off Shami shortly after lunch, their counter-attacking style wore down the threadbare Indian attack.

The pair scored 125 runs in 27 overs in the middle session as Dhoni became more defensive

Scoreboard

CHITTAGONG: Bangladesh’s Shamsur Rahman celebrates after scoring a century on the third day of the second Test cricket match against Sri Lanka. — AP

AUCKLAND: Scoreboard at the close of play on the first day of the first test between New Zealand and India at Eden Park in Auckland yesterday.

India won the toss and chose to bowl

Rahman and Kayes lead B’desh revival with tons

PERSONAL RACE They appeared to be in a personal race after tea to reach their century first with virtually identical strike rates before McCullum pulled away in the 90s and belted the first six of his innings to bring up the milestone off 135 balls.

Williamson accumulated through the 90s before he punched Ravindra Jadeja through extra cover for two runs to bring up his century and continue a golden run of form. The right-hander has scored 817 runs at an average of 54.46 in the 10 test matches in the past 12 months with two centuries and seven half centuries.

He was eventually dismissed when he glanced an innocuous Zaheer delivery to Dhoni down the leg side before McCullum and Anderson put on an unbroken 78-run partnership with the hosts looking well set to push on to a first innings total in excess of 400 today. “It’s an outstanding position, we just have to make sure that we push on,” McCullum told Sky Television. “Kane was brilliant today, he’s such a mature guy for someone so young. He was outstanding to bat with and took a lot of pressure off me.” — Reuters

New Zealand first innings P. Fulton lbw b Zaheer 13 H. Rutherford c Rahane b Sharma 6 K. Williamson c Dhoni b Zaheer 113 R. Taylor c Jadeja b Sharma 3 B. McCullum not out 143 C. Anderson not out 42 Extras: (w-3, lb-5, b-1) 9 Total (for four wickets, 90 overs) 329 Fall of wickets: 1-19 2-23 3-30 4-251 Still to bat: BJ Watling, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner, Trent Boult.

Bowling (to date): Shami 22-6-66-0, Zaheer 23-2-98-2 (w-1), I. Sharma 21-4-62-2 (w-2), Jadeja 20-1-81-0, Kholi 1-0-4-0, R. Sharma 30-12-0

AUCKLAND: New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum bats in front of India’s wicketkeeper MS Dhoni on the first day of the first cricket Test at Eden Park. — AP

CHITTAGONG: Shamsur Rahman and Imrul Kayes hit maiden centuries as Bangladesh found batting form to avoid the follow-on in the second and final Test against Sri Lanka in Chittagong yesterday. The hosts, facing a monumental Sri Lankan first innings total of 587, fought splendidly to reach 409-8 by stumps on the third day at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury stadium. It was a remarkable comeback by the bottom-placed Test side, who had been thrashed by an innings and 248 runs in the first Test in Dhaka last week-suffering their 14th defeat in 15 matches against Sri Lanka with one draw. But the loss of four batsmen in the final session after being 319-4 at one stage, meant Bangladesh still trail by 178 runs with just two wickets in hand. Rahman and Kayes, who came together when Tamim Iqbal was dismissed without a run on the board on Wednesday afternoon, put on Bangladesh’s highest second-wicket stand of 232.

Rahman scored 106 in only his second Test and left-handed Kayes celebrated his return to the Test side after two years with 115 to lift Bangladesh to 232-1 soon after lunch.

The duo surpassed their side’s previous best partnership for the second wicket of 200 by Tamim Iqbal and Junaid Siddiqui against India in Dhaka in 2010, but they gave away their wickets with rash strokes. Unorthodox spinner Ajantha Mendis bowled both batsmen and Kayes had to be taken off the field on a stretcher after pulling a hamstring as he stepped out to loft the ball.

Sri Lanka sliced through the middle order before Shakib Al Hasan retrieved the situation with a half-century and Nasir Hossain chipped in with 42. Mendis dismissed Nasir and Sohag Gazi off successive deliveries, but Al-Amin Hossain prevented a hat-trick by defending the next ball.

At the close, Mohammad Mahmudullah was unbeaten on 30 and Al-Amin was on three.

Seamer Nuwan Pradeep conceded 13 no-balls in figures of 0-96 from just 15 overs. Mendis took 484 and off-spinner Dilruwan Perera claimed 3119. Bangladesh, perhaps inspired by Kumar Sangakkara’s triple-century on the second day,

dug in on the sluggish pitch where the ball tended to keep low at times. Rahman and Kayes batted through the morning session to take the overnight score of 86-1 to 201 without further loss by lunch. Rahman reached his hundred soon after lunch by driving Sri Lankan captain Angelo Mathews through the covers for a boundary.

Kayes was lucky to reach the three-figure mark after surviving two chances in one over from Mendis when on 95. The first time he was dropped by Kithuruwan Vithanage at point, but when the same fielder took a catch three balls later, the umpire declared a no-ball. — AFP

Scoreboard CHITTAGONG: Scoreboard at the close of play on the third day of the second and final Test between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka yesterday.

Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to bat Sri Lanka first innings

587

Bangladesh first innings (overnight 86-1) Tamim Iqbal b Lakmal 0 Shamsur Rahman b Mendis 106 Imrul Kayes b Mendis 115 Mominul Haque lbw b Perera 13 Shakib Al Hasan c Karunaratne b Perera 50 Mushfiqur Rahim c Silva b Perera 20 Nasir Hossain c Chandimal b Mendis 42 Mahmudullah not out 30 Sohag Gazi lbw b Mendis 0 Al-Amin Hossain not out 3 Extras (b-8, lb-1, nb-21) 30 Total (eight wickets; 115 overs) 409 Still to bat: Abdur Razzak Fall of wickets: 1-0 2-232 3-252 4-259 5-319 6350 7-396 8-396 Bowling (to date): Lakmal 23-5-68-1, Pradeep 15-2-96-0 (nb-13), Mendis 27-2-84-4 (nb-8), Perera 39-4-119-3, Mathews 11-1-33-0.

Sports FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Sports digest

Why are Managers Sacked?

By Ahmad Al Othman

N

otice the trend? 7 and counting... We’re still in February and yet 7 managers were sacked, by far the most in the history of the Premier League. The latest victim was Swansea’s Michael Laudrup, who guided them to Capital One Cup glory less than a year ago and stuck with the Swan’s tradition of attacking football style. Six of the seven sackings have not yet paid dividends, and looking at the league standings, all of them bar Tottenham find themselves in the bottom half of the table.

Firing your manager doesn’t always prove fruitful, as QPR and Reading can tell you after suffering relegation last season, while Wolherhampton Wanderers went through the same scenario 2 years ago and now play in the 3rd tier of English football. But, on many occasions, it could. Back in 1986, Ron Atkinson was sacked as manager of Manchester United after a run of poor results, a replacement was found, an appointment many now consider as the most influential decision made in the history of football, Sir Alex Ferguson. The rest was history.

The retired Scotsman constantly criticized the modern day mentality of firing fellow managers and labeled the habit as “small-time”. Most owners feel they have run out of patience with their managers and a makeshift is required.

It’s usually a series of dreadful score lines or a misunderstanding with the top hierarchy that causes such axes. In some cases, a team with high expectations suffers a trophyless season and fans start to wonder if they have the right

man in the job and doubt his abilities, they have no option but to dismiss him.

Many top clubs in today’s world are owned by foreign investors, geographically ranging from East Asia to the Western side of the hemisphere. The ones who demand instant success tend to pump their club manager with finance and a decent amount of transfer resources. It is the ones that don’t satisfy those aspirations who find themselves unemployed the next day and looking out for other vacancies and try building their own legacy.

The pattern isn’t expected to end here, with one or two other managers under pressure to grind out a result here and there, otherwise their days may be numbered and a substitute will be found. Fulham’s coach Rene Meulensteen is on the brink of being dismissed due to the team’s position at the rock bottom of the league table. Sam Allardyce of West Ham was also getting lot of stick for his poor run of form lately but the owners gave him the vote of confidence and expect him to turn it around soon. One way or another, changing management will always be a double-edged weapon, and it’s a decision which must be taken thoughtfully and most importantly, prudently.

Did You Know?

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger currently stands alone as the Premier League’s longest serving manager with 17 years and 6 months.

Roma down Napoli in thriller ROME: Two goals from in-form Gervinho, including the winner two minutes from time, gave AS Roma a thrilling 32 victory in their Italian Cup semi-final first leg against Napoli at the Stadio Olimpico on Wednesday. The Ivorian’s goals helped Roma to their sixth straight win and handed Rudi Garcia’s side a slender lead to take into next week’s second leg after visiting Napoli had rallied to level from 2-0 down.

A comical Morgan De Sanctis own goal just after the break and a smart Dries Mertens strike saw Rafael Benitez’s gritty side fight back after Gervinho and a rocket shot by Kevin Strootman had put the home team on top at halftime. “Starting the second half in such a farcical fashion didn’t do us any good mentally, but we responded really well and won a really difficult match,” said Roma midfielder Daniele De Rossi.

Roma are finally living up to their promise after years of fallouts and mishaps on the pitch and behind the scenes, and could yet win their 10th Italian Cup this year.

“The last two years we’ve had really good sides with brilliant players but we were lacking mental toughness, and that’s what all of us players here have tried to help create and develop.” Gervinho gave the hosts the lead when he latched on to a phenomenal Francesco Totti through-ball and delicately lifted the ball over Pepe Reina before rolling

home into an empty net.

Strootman then drove home Roma’s advantage with an unstoppable strike, only for De Sanctis to hand Napoli a lifeline when he let Gonzalo Higuain’s deflected cross slip through his fingers and creep over the line. Belgium international Mertens then levelled the match and, with two away goals, put his side into a commanding position in the tie when he burst past the Roma defence and emphatically shot over a prone De Sanctis with 20 minutes remaining.

However Gervinho sparked wild celebrations among the home support with his dramatic second, which he slotted home at Reina’s near post after a sweeping passing move, giving his side a slight advantage going into a potentially explosive second leg. “He can still get better,” said Garcia after the former Arsenal striker took his tally of goals to four since the turn of the year. “He needs the faith of his manager and above all his team mates because when he gets the ball he’s always looking to cause problems to the opposition. “At the moment everything’s going well for him and when things go well for him they go well for the team.” A superb long-range strike by Luis Muriel eight minutes from time gave Udinese a 2-1 win over Fiorentina in the rain-soaked first leg of their semi-final on Tuesday with Francesco Guidolin’s side looking for their first major trophy. — Reuters

SPAIN: Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, from Argentina (right) duels for the ball against Real Sociedad’s Carlos Martinez during a Copa del Rey soccer match. — AP

Real and Barcelona close in on Cup final MADRID: Real Madrid took a huge step towards reaching the Copa del Rey final as they beat local rivals and holders Atletico Madrid 3-0 thanks to two own goals in their semi-final, first leg on Wednesday. Barcelona look set to meet their historical rivals in the final as they took a 2-0 first leg advantage over Real Sociedad in the other semi-final at the Camp Nou. Atletico had beaten Real at the Santiago Bernabeu in last year’s final, but the hosts quickly set about making amends for that defeat as Emiliano Insua deflected Pepe’s effort into his own net after just 17 minutes. Jese Rodriguez, who was only starting because of Gareth Bale’s late withdrawal from the squad due to a calf injury, doubled Real’s advantage with a low finish from Angel di Maria’s pass just before the hour mark.

Di Maria was involved again as Real all but secured their place in the final when his deflected strike 17 minutes from time was credited as another own goal by Atletico defender Miranda.

Defeat ends a 24-game unbeaten run for Atletico and they will need a remarkable fightback to retain their title in the second leg at the Vicente Calderon on Tuesday.

Real boss Carlo Ancelotti hailed his side’s performance as the best since he took over last summer. “I think it was (the best performance). Above all because the team we were facing is a very difficult team to play against. They are very strong and aggressive, so I thought we played very well,” he said.

“I am completely satisfied. We did everything well, we moved the ball with pace and were very aggressive without it. I wish the team could always play like they did tonight.” Atletico coach Diego Simeone, meanwhile, was left to rue his side’s luck. “I think Real Madrid played very well, but they scored twice with shots that hit our players on the body and went in. “It is a very favourable result for the opponent, but apart from that there is nothing I can draw from the game at the moment. “We still have 90 minutes to play and anything can happen in football.”

In a typically intense encounter it was Real who were posing a more consistent threat early on and they went in front when Pepe wandered forward to meet Xabi Alonso’s pass and his shot deflected off Insua and past the helpless Thibaut Courtois.

Miranda nearly restored parity moments later from Koke’s free-kick as Iker Casillas came to Real’s rescue and Atletico also came close to an equaliser just after half-time Diego Godin headed over from point-blank range.

However, Real dealt the visitors a sucker punch of a blow just before the hour mark as Di Maria found Jese with a lovely through ball and the Spanish under-21 international’s effort squeezed under Courtois. A brilliant goal line clearance from Modric prevented Godin from halving the deficit 18 minutes from time. And within 60 seconds, Real had added to their advantage when Di Maria’s long-range effort cannoned off Miranda to once again wrong-foot Courtois.—AFP

Sports FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Gaelic Football - Sporty and trendy

By Chidi Emmanuel KUWAIT: Braving the cold weather at the AIS (American International School) sporting complex in Maidan Hawally, Harmony Ritchie from the USA kicked the ball into the net as she played with her teammates during the training session on Wednesday. This is not basketball, soccer, rugby, hockey or any of the popular game being played in Kuwait. This is Gaelic Football - one of the evolving sports in Kuwait.

Gaelic Football is a field sport with Irish heritage.

According to the club chairman Neil Bergin, “Gaelic football is one of the oldest games played across the globe. It’s basically a mixture of rugby, volleyball and basketball - a combination of all the skills. In the Middle East, teams are made up of 12 players - 9 players on the pitch with 3 continual subs. With only 7-minute halves on a full sized rugby pitch, it is a high intensity sport.”

Since its inception in 1997, the newly reestablished Kuwait Harps have transformed into a formidable sporting team in the region, representing Kuwait in various tournaments. Club membership is at an all-time high, with five teams, three men and two ladies. Membership is open to everyone; local and expatriate. “The club relies heavily on the support of players from the international expatriate community but we are delighted with the increased interest from the local community, Neil explained.

There are currently over 60 players in the club, with over 12 countries represented with players from Kuwait, Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales, Spain, France, Germany, Canada, USA, Australia, Brazil, Sudan and Somalia. “The wide diversity of player nationalities demonstrates the global appeal of this game,” he added.

“The club has proudly represented Kuwait in many tournaments across the GCC and Asia,” said Talal Al-Doub, one of the Kuwaiti players in

the club. “We have played in the Asian Gaelic Games in Malaysia, the Bahrain Irish Festival, the Dubai Duty Free Gaelic Games among others.

With each tournament the club has shown its

growth and unity both on and off the pitch.”

“Our focus is on providing superb training and skills in the field of Gaelic football. In addition to this, the Kuwait Harps provide a social outlet for

Kuwait Harps GAA team pictured during a training session.

fun activities, events, tournaments and training sessions. New players are always welcome and immediately feel at home within the club. Come down and check it out!” Neil urged. The Kuwait Harps GAA club holds weekly training sessions for both men and women on Wednesdays and Fridays at the American International School in Maidan Hawally. For more information check out their website www.kuwaitharps.com

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

www.kuwaittimes.net

BARCELONA: FC Barcelonaís Sergio Busquets (left) duels for the ball against Real Sociedadís Gorka Elustondo during a Copa del Rey soccer match at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, Spain on Wednesday, Feb 5, 2014. — AP

Barca, Real Madrid close in on Cup final Page 46