14 Feb

The new food and fitness fad in Kuwait

FR EE

4

www.kuwaittimes.net

Max 21ยบ Min 04ยบ

NO: 16077- Friday, February 14, 2014

SEE PAGE 2

Local FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

Local Spotlight

Valentine’s Day

Ideas for celebrating Valentine’s Day in Kuwait

By Nawara Fattahova

By Muna Al-Fuzai

muna@kuwaittimes.net

“L

ove is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love.”- Leo Tolstoy.

Every year on Feb 14, many people exchange cards, chocolates or flowers with special words and wishes. This is the day of romance that is known as Valentine’s Day. It is named for a Christian martyr and dates back to the 5th century, but has origins in the Roman holiday Lupercalia. Everything in this day is about love. Poets and writers through centuries tried to be creative and elaborated that this day is about human love only. While this is not wrong, we are allowed to love and appreciate so many things in life beside male-female love on this day .

We need to be in the spirit of love all year long so our life would be better with less pain. I have so many love wishes - for example, I love animals - especially little dogs. I wish to see more compassion towards animals too. I wish animals are loved not less than humans because they suffer a lot on the streets and some die with no respect. I wish to see less hatred and jealousy so we can live in harmony all year long.

I also like the idea of sending cards to those whom you love and appreciate most in your life on this day, just to remind them how much they mean to you. Your housemaids would appreciate the gesture. Old friends and elderly, lonely neighbors would like to see someone think about them and know that they are not forgotten.

In Kuwait, it is expected that some would oppose the idea of celebrating this day or decorating shops with red roses as it is not part of Islamic rituals and haram. I see no harm to have a day to make good wishes to spread the feeling of love to everyone and everything. We are witnessing a lot of violence and destruction with no one condemning it, so why would some oppose the idea of love and joy?

Happy Valentine’s. It’s Valentine Day, so make your wish for the dearest one you have in your heart. May all our wishes come true.

V

alentine’s Day is a controversial holiday in Kuwait and the region thanks to its association with love and other, often intimate, relationships not discussed in public. As its grown in popularity in the region, it has also become a widely celebrated day for friends, family and even children in schools. Love is in the air this weekend with Valentine’s Day falling on Friday. So how will people celebrate it in Kuwait? We’ve surveyed a random selection of couples and here’s what we found: 1. Home is where the heart is. Due to limited funds, limited tolerance for crowds or traffic or simply to catch some alone time, several couples told the Kuwait Times they plan to spend the evening at home, with a lovely dinner and some quiet conversation.

2. Walk on the not-so-wild-side.

Kuwait’s cornice is among the most romantic spots in the country and many plan to take an evening stroll hand-in-hand with their significant other.

3. Dinner and roses. The choice of fine dining has exploded in Kuwait and many are booking tables with candlelight and soft romantic music playing in the background.

4. Rent a yacht. That’s right. When people in Kuwait want to go all out, they do it in style. Renting yachts for a midnight cruise is especially popular among the young professional class.

5. Hotel getaway. Unable to hop a plane, several couples said they plan to sleep over at one of the dozen five star hotels offering the pleasure of a lovely meal and a rose scented room for the weekend. This option was especially popular with parents who want to take a break from the kiddos.

6. Desert stars. The sky from Kuwait’s desert is breathtaking and sitting

around a cozy campfire, roasting chestnuts and laughing at the story of how you first met is a great way to spend this Valentine’s weekend.

7. Old love songs. The Hala February festival is in full swing and there are nightly concerts at the Ice Skating Rink. On Friday night, three will perform: Mitref Al-Mutref, Balqees, and Rabih Saqer.

8. A weekend away. Travel agencies

have special offers on trips to certain destinations suitable for celebrating this day.

9. Enjoy walking at a shopping mall, which is decorated with red hearts and teddy bears is fun as well.

10. Don’t forget the gift. Flower shops, jewelry stores, even mobile phone shops are ready with special promotions and offers for every budget.

KUWAIT: Despite controversial surrounding the romantic holiday, Valentine’s Day is a widely celebrated in Kuwait and many shops, stores, restaurants, hotels and other local businesses offer promotions or special events or activities for it. — Photos by Joseph Shagra

Local FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

Conspiracy Theories

Kuwait’s my business

Is Kuwait prepared to help Millennial entrepreneurs?

Give me a break - 2

By Badrya Darwish

By John P Hayes

badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net

local@kuwaittimes.net

M

embers of Kuwait’s Millennial population - those younger than 35 - prefer to be employers rather than employees, according to a survey released by Bayt.com and YouGovSira, as reported in the Kuwait Times earlier this week. For several reasons that’s good news, but someone has to ask: Is Kuwait prepared to help its Millennial entrepreneurs? Keep in mind that Kuwait’s Millennials include multiple nationalities, not just Kuwaitis, and these young people represent the majority of the country’s population!

Millennials, also known as Generation Y, and sometimes called the Peter Pan generation (because they’re slow to mature), are said to be more liberal than older generations, more skeptical, they tend to live with their parents for longer periods than previous generations, they’re struggling to find jobs, and they’re likely to earn less money for the next decade. Starting a business may be a Millennial’s best chance to earn more money. Conversely, if they don’t earn more money, and they continue to struggle to find good jobs, what should we expect them to do?

Good for Kuwait’s economy More businesses in Kuwait will be good for the economy; more businesses create more jobs (for those who want them) and lessen the government’s payroll burdens. More successful businesses particularly if they’re not in the gas and oil sectors - will broaden Kuwait’s economy and protect the country for a future that’s less dependent on gas and oil. Perhaps most importantly, more businesses in Kuwait will satisfy the Millennials and keep them productively in Kuwait.

Yet, getting started is what matters. Assuming that Kuwait is interested in helping Millennials spawn new businesses, how will Kuwait support its would-be entrepreneurs?

How to support entrepreneurs “Give them money!” Well, of course, that’s a popular answer in Kuwait - and it can be an advantage that attracts more Millennials to Kuwait - but money shortages aren’t usually the problem here.

Instead, here’s what needs to occur: 1. Commit to new business development. Everyone has to buyin to the idea. Whether it’s a government committee, or a group of private citizens, someone needs to start the ball rolling to help Millennials fulfill their aspirations. In the USA, the Small Business Administration and many private organizations commit to the

development of new businesses.

2. Create a pro-business environment. I spoke to a fellow today who spent his day traveling from one office to another to get permission to do this and that related to his business. Frustrated, he spent a day without getting anything done. Red tape discourages entrepreneurs. Get rid of it! Yes, there must be rules and regulations, but be sure they’re streamlined, efficient and effective. Most of all, they must not discourage business development.

3. Contribute to an entrepreneurial mindset. Many young people do not dream about opening a business because they’re not encouraged. While it’s great to be able to help them financially, it’s better to give them reasons to help themselves. Show young people the value of business development. And start showing them these benefits in the early grades. Create programs to award young people who develop business ideas.

4. Provide education and training for entrepreneurs. The Emirates are setting an example. Last Fall in Abu Dhabi I led a twoday franchise training seminar that attracted 250 people. The government sponsored the training for the purpose of creating more franchised businesses in the UAE. Quarterly franchise training will be provided, along with a franchise association to support startups. Education and training is more important than the money.

People with money often fail - people who know what to do are less likely to fail, with or without money!

5. Mentor the Millennials. Now’s the time for successful business owners in Kuwait to reach out and touch an entrepreneur. Show them the ropes. Education, training, money, and a pro-business environment - all are necessary to succeed in business, but even in the best circumstances start-ups fail. Half of all business start-ups in the USA fail! One of the best ways to succeed is to work with a mentor. But that means mentors must be available. Mentors: Step up now and help Kuwait.

There’s more to be done to generate new businesses in Kuwait, but those five steps provide a beginning to a much-desired future.

We tend to think of Millennials as slow starters, but other countries in the Middle East have discovered what happens when you push Millennials to their limits. In Kuwait, give the Millennials what they want - opportunities to start businesses of their own - and watch while they create a better Kuwait.

Dr. John P. Hayes teaches marketing and management at GUST.

KUWAIT: Lights in Rawda to commemorate Kuwait’s National and Liberation Days at the end of the month. Decorations, flags and lights are now visible across the country as people ready to celebrate the holidays. — Photo by Yasser Al—Zayyat

D

uring my most recent trip from Kuwait to Jeddah, I was sitting in the Kuwait Airways lounge due to the usual flight delay of three hours. At last we took off, hamdullilah, and I reached Jeddah safely. However, while sitting in the lounge, I could not help but hear the flight announcements.

Thank God, they were not too many since I was not sitting at Dubai airport. There were a few announcements that made me laugh my head off.

The mother tongue of the announcer, bless her, was Asian. And she was speaking Arabic. No matter how good she was, she could not pronounce some words properly. She did well on the grammar. But to me it sounded hilarious. At the beginning I thought the announcer was an employee of a Saudi airline and was announcing their flight. Then I heard her announcing Jazeera Airways and other flights. This means she is working at the airport.

Couldn’t Kuwait airport employ a native Arabic speaker who can pronounce the words properly? I have nothing against that girl. She did a great job. It was not her fault that she was not a native. If she was at the Mumbai or Karachi airports, I would salute her for welcoming Arab passengers in Arabic. But here at Kuwait International Airport, I find it a bit too much.

A few years ago I faced the same scenario and heard announcements in broken Arabic. It is not the only thing which is not proper at Kuwait International Airport, but this is a trivial matter. All they have to do is appoint a native speaker to announce the flights. Where is the Civil Aviation and people in charge of the airport? Don’t misunderstand me. That girl could be brilliant and do thousands of other jobs at the airport - just not the announcements.

Imagine if you are sitting at Heathrow Airport or at Mumbai and you hear the announcer speaking in broken English or a funny Hindi accent announcing the flights? Wouldn’t you find it bizarre?

So, I say: Give me a break!

Local FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

Kuwait’s food & fit mania Reshmi Revi works out at the gym

Revi’s top fitness advice

By Velina Nacheva

T

he battle against weight gain and staying fit for many in Kuwait has taken a new shape as nutritionists-cum-sports enthusiasts embrace evolving trends, apps and food regimens. Previously it was all about replacing a dish of rice with quinoa and pasta with organic spelt penne as well as an hour of Zumba or sweating it out with squats. Then nutritionists recommended fennel tea as a cleanser and quail eggs as a substitute to regular eggs in addition to a Tae Bo workout.

Nowadays, martial arts have given way to CrossFit with a snack afterwards of chia seeds or kale chips.

What remains constant, however, is the advice for a combination of a healthy meal plan and sufficient time spent in motion.

The local scene When it comes to fitness and nutrition, any blogger-turned Instagrammer or a weight loss success story individual claim they know the secret to weight loss and muscle gain, suggesting a variety of fat burning techniques and advocating a healthier lifestyle through a combination of a strict diet and certain types of exercises.

While some swear by the magic recipe of the detox tea diet that has helped millions of people shed excess fat, others are proponents of metabolism-enhancing drinks and foods like green tea, grapefruit and red peppers. A third group are avid supporters of protein shakes and a kill-yourself-in-the-gym attitude.

Diet and nutrition gurus in Kuwait who share the secret to faster metabolism and faster calorie burn count abound. In this sea of information on weight loss and proper exercise regimens, what seem pivotal are not the techniques on how to combine the foods and stay on the lean side, but how to get a tailor-made program that works for different individuals.

Knowing who to turn to for advice is essential. Two leading Kuwait-based sports and nutrition experts who applied what they had studied in sports and nutrition on themselves, agreed that a custom-tailored program based on the lifestyle of a certain individual is key for achieving the best results in the weight-loss cycle combined with muscle building and keeping fit.

Personal attention “I prepare a nutrition plan for my clients based on his or her needs,” says Lulwa Al-

1. If you want to have a healthier lifestyle you need to invest in training sessions.

2. Get a qualified personal trainer and research his background first.

3. Don’t starve yourself. Eat five to six small meals throughout the day.

4. You need to lift weights.

5. Cut down the processed foods; start preparing or supervising the preparation of your own food.

6. Avoid sugary sodas.

7. Be creative! Push and play for 45 minutes a day.

8. Choose an activity that elevates your heart rate.

9. Get a lot of sleep.

10. Don’t forget the Fun Factor in your training.

11. Set realistic goals.

Bassam, a Kuwaiti biologist who is a certified sports nutritionist. Kuwaiti Fahad Al-Yahya, known online as #TheDietNinja, believes in individual-tailored meal plans system. Having blogged about his fight with extra kilograms since 2008 (on www.tryingtobefahad.com), today Fahad is the go-to consultant for many sports enthusiasts who need a special meal regimen. Fahad has prepared meal plans for women based on their daily schedules and lifestyles and posted them online for inspiration and information. Famous bloggers have turned to him for advice and have illustrated their road to a healthy existence.

Personal stories Lulwa learnt about the importance of proper food intake during her tough weightloss battle when she was diagnosed with anemia following a self-starving diet. With a height of 155 cm and weight of 91 kg, Lulwa invented a diet that helped her lose 35 kg but got her sick. Then she had no strength to practice her beloved sport kendo (the art of Japanese fencing). In order to regain her strength, she decided to take an eight-month online class on sports and nutrition with the International Sports Science Association (ISSA).

Continued on Page 7

Available at The Sultan Centre & Carrefour

Local FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

Continued from Page 4 During her training, she applied the new knowledge on her own body and gradually became fit and regained her strength by eating properly and following a certain regimen. “Most people do not know how to get healthy in the process of losing weight and gaining muscles. It is about fat loss, not weight loss,” she explained, arguing that random diets affect health, muscles and metabolism.

She is a firm believer that “we should not look at scales” because she has worked with people who, for example, are skinny but have a high fat percentage. Working with sports enthusiasts and professional athletes, today Lulwa tries to post on Instagram (#lulwafit) at least two or three times a day.

Her posts range from providing meal and nutrition advice to healthy lifestyle and sports tips. “Some clients think that walking is a sport,” she said with a smile, adding that after getting her ISSA certification, she now knows what to eat and what not to eat.

Fitness mania “In Kuwait, fitness is the new in (thing),” says Reshmi Revi, 32, an assistant general manager with Multi Works, a personal training and fitness education consultancy in Kuwait. Revi provides personalized and one-on-one sports nutrition counsel-

Lulwa Al-Bassam at her office

Weightlifting for weight loss. Reshmi Revi at the gym.

Tricks that keep you motivated

Healthy lifestyle - Dos & Don’ts

1. Set up a daily routine that will motivate you.

2. Reward yourself with a favorite piece of cake or frozen yogurt after a long routine.

3. Establish a buddy system with a coworker or a fellow gym-goer to exercise together.

4. Hang the skinny jeans from three years ago on the closet door and try them on every few days to estimate the progress.

5. Consider exercise as a hobby or a free time activity rather than a chore.

6. Skip the snooze button and give yourself at least 30 minutes a day for sports starting in the morning.

1. Drink enough water every day.

2. Sleep well and skip the late night shows on TV. 3. Avoid evening indulgence.

4. Don’t skip breakfast.

5. Choose a balanced, nutritional and wholesome diet of diverse ingredients.

6. Always portion-control your food.

7. Don’t binge eat.

8. Don’t turn a cheat meal into a cheat-meal day.

9. Don’t eat food on a large plate.

10. Don’t eat straight from the package.

ing to exercisers. Her passion for sports was ignited by her personal weight-loss struggle.

Revi’s success story resembles Lulwa’s. From being overweight and self-conscious about her physique, today Revi is a known fitness instructor with an accreditation in fitness and sports nutrition from a New Zealand-based college. As an employee in the administration of a gym in New Zealand, she started asking questions and doing her own research. She admits to being quickly hooked to classes. “I got addicted to body combat classes and devised my own nutrition plan,” she said. “In eight months I went from 74 kg to 56.”.

Her weight battle and subsequent love for fitness has made her relate to the stories of her clients. “I understand what it’s like to be overweight,” she said, elaborating that she has worked with a client in Kuwait for over three years leading to her shedding 17 kg. “She is a different person today. She is vivacious and has confidence,” explained Revi, who posts as @Q8missfit on Instagram and Twitter.

Revi grew up in Malaysia and moved to Kuwait five years ago. She says that in 2010, the trend was to be a member in a mixed gym. Although fitness awareness has increased since then, Revi says today there is need for fitness education. She defines a common misconception about fitness and health.

“Some women think that being thin is the goal and not being fit and healthy,” she said, explaining that some of her clients eat one meal a day and slow down their metabolism.

All said, the truth for being slimmest and fittest is simple - a balanced food intake, consistency and self-discipline. Online and offline fitness advisors agree that these are the basic tricks to leading a healthy and happy life. Because at the end of the day, everyone has to choose what works best for them.

Local FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

KAC flight suffers technical snag over London When will the planes come?

LONDON: A Kuwait Airways flight was forced to turn back to London shortly following take-off after the aircraft suffered hydraulic failure. According to accident report website Aviation Herald, the Airbus A300-600 performing KU-104 on 11 February was climbing out of the British capital when it encountered technical issues. Within 20 minutes the aircraft was forced to turn back, landing at the city’s Heathrow Airport.

Following a delay of five hours on the ground, the plane took off again, landing at Kuwait City with a total delay of five hours and 45 minutes.

Kuwait Airways is currently in the process of upgrading its fleet, which is one of the oldest in the

Gulf. Earlier this week the airline’s chairwoman Rasha Al-Roumi was quoted as saying that a provisional agreement to buy 25 new aircraft from Airbus in a deal worth $4.4 billion would be completed without delay, despite an ongoing probe from the country’s parliament.

Lawmakers had voted earlier in February to investigate all contracts signed by the state-owned carrier, which is attempting to push through its largest overhaul since the country was invaded by Iraq in 1990.

Seats arrive As social media users exchanged news about the

arrival of new aircraft seats with Kuwait Airways insignia on them, they wondered if the seats of airplanes have already arrived, when will be the planes come.”

Informed sources at KAC said Airbus company sent models of several seats to select from for installation in the aircraft the corporation bought.

The source said the seats are displayed at the engineering department of the KAC building to gather opinions and comments enabling KAC authorities to select the best model for their aircraft. The KAC is still negotiating with Airbus to lease and purchase several aircraft. — Al-Watan

KUWAIT: Fire-fighters battle a blaze as a car goes up in flames. The car reportedly caught fire after it hit a light pole yesterday. The officials rescued three persons who were in the car. Lt Rashed Al-Failakawi, who was off duty at the time of the accident, alerted operations and began rescuing the injured — a citizen and two Arabs — from the burning car. — Hanan Al-Saadoun

Kuwait opens pavilion at Saudi culture fest RIYADH: Minister of Education and of Higher Education Ahmad Al-Mulaifi and the Kuwait’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Sheikh Thamer Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah yesterday inaugurated the Kuwaiti pavilion at the 29th National Heritage and Culture Festival (Al-Janadriyah) here, held under the auspices of Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz.

The two officials toured the pavilion where many items were displayed including artifacts and tools used in Kuwait in the past as well as photographs reflecting the special bonds between the people of the two states, along with traditional handicrafts. They were also treated to a detailed review on organization and the items in the pavilion by its supervisor, Nasser Al-Daihani.

Following the tour, the ambassador said that this festival received good support from the Saudi King and the Crown Prince. The participants are fittingly elite in their fields, be it literature, art, or other cultural arenas from across the world. He also praised the good organization and management of the festival, noting this is an event of great importance as it helps instill the rising generations with a sense of their homeland’s past and origins. The minister and the ambassador also visited the pavilion of the United Arab Emirates, this year’s guest of honor, and were also treated to a tour and review of the articles on display.

Al-Janadriyah is an annual cultural and heritage festival held in Janadriyah near Riyadh, and lasts for two weeks. It is organized by the National Guard, and was first held in 1985.

The activities include a camel race, performance of local music and dancing of the Ardha and the Mizmar. The festival draws more than a million visitors every year. The participants in this cultural event come from different Saudi regions, the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Arab and Islamic countries. —KUNA

No makeup, Kuwait’s policewomen told MoI undersecretary gets extension

By A Saleh KUWAIT: Kuwait policewomen must strictly adhere to the police rules and standards related to general appearance. Those who do not comply with the rules will face disciplinary action and may be even fired if they repeat violation of such rules, according to Interior Ministry Undersecretary Lt General Suleiman Al-Fahad.

He told them to refrain from using make-up, hair dye, nail polish or growing the nails long in a ‘shameful manner’. Al-Fahad said it was noticed lately that some members of the allied force

are not complying with the circulars in regards to general appearance and military discipline. He asked superior officers to follow females in their departments and make sure they comply with the rules. He said the violators will face severe consequences and may be sacked from the force. Meanwhile, Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Sheikh Mohammad Al-Khalid Al-Sabah issued a decree extending the term of Interior Ministry Undersecretary until March 2017. This exempts Al-Fahad from going into retirement in accordance with the rules specifying retirement after 30 years in service.

Asian drug pushers arrested

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: The operations wing at the Drugs Control General Department arrested an Asian with illicit drugs. When arrested, he had 50 grams of heroin, 70 grams of ICE and 100 Amphetamine tablets in his possession. He admitted that he used to work with a partner in selling drugs who was subsequently arrested. 150 grams of heroin, 100 grams of Ice and 200 other narcotic tablets were seized from him.

Both were sent to concerned authorities.

KUWAIT: The Asians with the confiscated drugs.

Local FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

Opposition calls rallies to protest Gulf security pact Appeals court resumes trial of assembly storming case

By B Izzak

KUWAIT: Information Minister and State Minister for Youth Affairs Sheikh Salman Sabah Al-Salem Al-Humoud Al-Sabah visited the pavilion of Kuwait International Law School at the Independence 53 Exhibition being held in Mishref. He was received by Head of Admission Fawziya Al-Shihab and Director of Public Relations Adel Al-Enezi.

Kuwait urges UN Council to resolve Syrian crisis NEW YORK: Kuwait has called on the international community to exert greater efforts to halt violence and immediately seek a political settlement to the Syrian crisis.

Ambassador Mansour Al-Otaibi, the head of the Kuwaiti permanent mission at the United Nations, also urged the United Nations Security Council to undertake its responsibilities and abstain from being tight-lipped regarding the wide-scale, grave and systematic breaches of human rights and international laws in Syria.

The chief Kuwaiti diplomat, addressing a UNSC session, held late on Wednesday, that addressed the issue of civilians’ protection in armed conflicts, also appealed to the council to issue a resolution under Chapter VII “to continuously deal with deterioration of humanitarian conditions” in Syria.

“There has been no improvement whatsoever, regarding these conditions, since the UNSC endorsed a Presidential Statement, on October 2, 2013, and also after holding the two rounds of the Geneva II negotiations. On the contrary, figures show that number of deaths has approximately risen from 100,000 to 136,000, that of the refugees has increased from 2.2 million to 2.5 million, the locally displaced from four million to 6.5 million, in addition to the plight of 250,000 Syrians who have been stranded in besieged regions, “ Ambassador Al-Otaibi said.

Sensing gravity of the humanitarian tragedy suffered by the brotherly Syrian people and its impact on security and stability in Syria and the region, Kuwait had responded to a request by the UN Secretary General, Ban kiMoon, to host the second international conference for donors in January, the Kuwaiti envoy said. The conference grouped representatives of 69 states and secured financial pledges amounted to $2.4 billion, in which Kuwait contributed $500 million in order to alleviate the plight of the Syrian people. — KUNA

Woman arrested for vice acts KUWAIT: The Vice Squad at the criminal detectives arrested a woman who allegedly used to send hot and raunchy sexual clips over social media in the past few days.

The squad monitored the clips that were being sent from different sites in which the girl appears with exciting moves without showing her face. Security men located her apartment, raided her house on Wednesday evening and arrested her. They also confiscated her equipment.

The police discovered that she had erased all the clips before their arrival. They kept her in detention for further action. — Al-Watan

KUWAIT: The opposition has called for two public rallies next week to protest against the Gulf security pact which several MPs and political groups have accused as violation of Kuwait’s constitution and stifling freedoms.

The liberal National Democratic Alliance called for a public on Sunday while Nahaj, an umbrella for opposition movements and individuals, has called for a similar rally the next day at the square opposite the National Assembly building in Kuwait City.

The announcements were made after a meeting of eight liberal and Islamic groups which denounced the agreement for breaching the country’s constitution.

The new move came as the controversy over the agreement heated up with liberal MP Rakan Al-Nasef asking questions about it, opposition MP Riyadh Al-Adasani saying it will turn Kuwait into a police state and pro-government MP Nabeel Al-Fadhl proposing a law to overcome legal objections to the pact.

The government has maintained that the agreement, approved by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit in Bahrain in December 2012, is not in contravention of the constitution or laws and its first article clearly states that national legislation supersedes its provisions.

MP Adasani insisted that the pact contradicts the constitution and the state sovereignty and that article one equates between its provisions and national legislation.

He said that some provisions are ambiguous and elastic.

The lawmaker said the Gulf security pact does not have a well-defined meaning for political crime which makes it very dangerous. The pact also does not have a specific meaning for a catastrophe, which means that internal unrest may be considered a form of catastrophes that requires intervention from other Gulf states, he said.

MP Nasef asked the interior and defense ministers if the agreement has been revised by the government’s legal department and if yes, what was the opinion of the department. He also asked if certain constitutional experts have been asked for opinion over the pact and if any provision of the pact contradicts Kuwait’s constitution.

Draft law To overcome legal hurdles facing the security pact, MP Fadhl yesterday proposed a draft law that states to ban any Gulf security agreement or pact from including provisions that contradict Kuwait’s constitution or laws. The bill also states that articles in Gulf pacts will be considered null and void in case they violate the constitution or local laws. In another development, the court of appeals yesterday set March 12 for the next hearing of the trial of 70 Kuwaitis, including 10 former MPs, accused of storming the National Assembly in November 2011. The defendants were acquitted by the criminal court and the government appealed against the ruling. In the hearing, the public prosecution showed a video for the storming and called for punishing the perpetrators.

EU parliament delegation to visit Kuwait in March State’s key role in guiding EU-GCC ties in focus BRUSSELS: The European Parliament’s Delegation for relations with the Arab Peninsula will send a mission to Kuwait and Qatar in the third week of March, the head of the Delegation, Angelika Niebler, announced here yesterday.

She told a meeting of the delegation that they will meet the parliamentarians in Kuwait and Qatar and also hold meeting with several ministers as well as civil society and students’ organizations.

“It will be a political as well as an economic mission and we hope to strike a good balance,” underlined Niebler, who is from Germany. John O’Rourke, head of division, Arab Peninsula, Qatar and Iraq in the EU foreign service, known as the European External Action Service, briefed the meeting on EU relations with Kuwait and Qatar ahead of the EU Parliament delegation visit.

He noted that the delegation held an extensive discussion on EU ties with Qatar in December so this time he will focus on relations with Kuwait. He said that Kuwait holds the presidency of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council, GCC, this year and hence “has a special role in guiding EU-GCC relations as a whole.” “We look forward to engaging with Kuwait not only bilaterally but as the Presidency of the GCC. We particularly would like to strengthen our relations in regional issues,” he stressed.

O’Rourke said there are lot of opportunities and matters to talk and exchange views on with Kuwait such as, Syria, Iran and Iraq. “Kuwait is a good counterpart on these matters,” he said.

The EU is still keen to revive the talks on a Free Trade Agreement with the GCC which have been suspended for some time. Kuwait has also similar ambitions, he said. The EU-GCC joint cooperation committee meeting will be held in Riyadh in April under the chairmanship of the Kuwait

presidency. Another meeting of regional directors of the two blocs will also be held in Brussels in April, he announced. He suggested that one of the issues that the delegation should raise in the visit to Kuwait is cooperation on development assistance.

Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development is an important donor and a lot can be gained from coordinating with the important Gulf donors on development assistance. Kuwait is particularly active in humanitarian assistance he said, referring to two donors’ conference on Syria hosted by Kuwait.

Crisis management He said that Kuwait is also interested in developing trade relations with the EU and added that GCC intends to establish “a crisis management structure” in Kuwait and this will be another opportunity for the EU to cooperate with the GCC. On regional issues, he said Iraq-Kuwait relations are becoming normal and that the EU has welcomed the support by Kuwait to the interim deal on Iran’s nuclear issue.

“Kuwait has probably the most developed democratic systems in the Gulf. You will have a very lively parliament to interact with,” he told the delegation.

On her part, Niebler noted that the GCC is the fifth trade partner of the EU and the EU is number one partner for GCC. Trade between the two blocs has increased to 145 billion euro by 2012.

“This is a very positive development in economic terms,” she said. Niebler said the first visit of the delegation to Kuwait in 2010 was an “excellent experience” and they are now keenly looking forward to the next visit to the 7th EUKuwait parliamentary meeting in March. — KUNA

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

Bahrain marks third uprising anniversary

12

Massive power cuts in storm battered Britain

15

Storm heads North

17

GANDHINAGAR: In this photo, US Ambassador to India, Nancy Powell (left) receives flowers presented to her by India’s opposition Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi (right) as she visits him at his residence yesterday. —AP

US envoy meets India’s Modi Highest-level meeting signals end of boycott?

GANDHINAGAR: With flowers, smiles and handshakes, the US ambassador to India met the Hindu nationalist leader who could be India’s next prime minister yesterday - a big step towards ending Washington’s shunning of him over sectarian violence in 2002. Ambassador Nancy Powell met Narendra Modi in Gandhinagar, the capital of Gujarat state, where he is chief minister. It was the highest-profile encounter between US officials and Modi since the State Department revoked his visa in 2005 over the bloodshed there three years previously.

Television footage showed her shaking Modi’s hand and smiling, while he gave her a bunch of red and yellow flowers. They then sat in a meeting room at his residence accompanied by officials. In a statement released afterwards, the

embassy said the meeting was part of its “outreach” to senior leaders of India’s major political parties before elections, which are due by May. Powell’s talks with Modi and others in Gujarat focused on the importance of the US-India relationship, regional security, human rights, and US trade and investment in India. “The United States and India are moving forward with a strategic partnership that is broad and deep,” it said. The meeting took place, however, at a delicate time.

The two countries are developing closer commercial and strategic ties and share almost $100 billion worth of annual trade. But an often volatile relationship has come under strain because of a simmering trade dispute and a row over the arrest of an Indian diplomat in New York after she was accused of visa fraud and under-

paying her maid.

It was not immediately known if the question of Modi’s visa status came up at the meeting with Powell. Officials and analysts said that if he was to become prime minister, the United States was unlikely to uphold its ban. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, is considered the favorite to form a government after the general election.

“The guy would prime minister and that’s different from being chief minister. You can’t shut out the prime minister of one of our largest allies and someone who frankly is very pro-American,” a congressional source in Washington told Reuters.

Modi has always denied accusations that he allowed or even encouraged attacks on Muslims in the 2002 riots and a Supreme Court inquiry found no evidence to prosecute him. The

violence erupted after 59 people, mostly Hindu pilgrims, were killed in a fire on a train. Hindu crowds subsequently killed at least 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, across Gujarat.

Visa on merit The US State Department said any application for a visa would be treated on its merits. But the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, a government agency which recommended that visas be denied to Modi in 2005, said it had not changed its position. “Neither the passage of time nor any change in Mr Modi’s position in government absolves him and his government of their alleged involvement, negligence, and complicity in the 2002 violence,” its chairman, Robert George, told Reuters. —Reuters

12

International FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

Bahrain marks third uprising anniversary Protestors clash with police DUBAI: Pro-democracy demonstrators clashed with police in Bahrain yesterday as they marked the third anniversary of an Arab Spring uprising that was crushed with the help of Saudi-led troops. It was the first of three days of protests called by the Shiite-led opposition to mark today’s anniversary as they seek to give new momentum to their

said it feared a violent crackdown on the demonstrations. The opposition, supported by much of the Gulf state’s Shiite majority, has been demanding that the ruling Khalifa family surrender its grip on all key cabinet posts in favor of an elected government. “Down with Hamad,” the protesters chanted, referring to the king. “Only to Allah the Almighty we

BAHRAIN: Bahraini anti-government protesters wait for riot police between clashes in the debris-filled main street of Malkiya, Bahrain, yesterday. —AP campaign for a constitutional monarchy in the Sunni minority-ruled Gulf state. Clouds of tear gas billowed from the streets of several Shiite villages outside the capital Manama as security forces attempted to dismantle roadblocks of burning tyres, witnesses, who asked that their names not be printed for fear of retribution, told AFP. Amnesty International condemned Bahrain’s “relentless repression” of dissent and

kneel.” The protesters defied a heavy security presence to set up makeshift roadblocks of felled trees and burning tires in several villages, where persistent demonstrations have sparked repeated clashes with police. The interior ministry said police “confronted groups of vandals and cleared blocked roads.”

The main Shiite opposition party Al-Wefaq, which has boycotted parliament since the uprising, posted images of protesters being

tear-gassed and police in riot gear patrolling deserted streets. Al-Wefaq said several areas observed a complete shutdown following its call for a strike yesterday-the last day of the working week in Bahrain-ahead of a mass rally planned for Saturday.

The underground February 14 youth coalition has called on its supporters to try today to reach Pearl Square, where demonstrators camped out for a month before being violently dispersed by Saudi-backed troops. Saudiled Gulf troops deployed in Bahrain on the eve of the March 2011 crackdown, manning key positions while its own security forces carried out the crackdown.

The Pearl Square roundabout and its central monument, which were a symbol of the uprising, were later razed and the site remains heavily restricted. At least 89 people have been killed in the three years since the launch of the uprising, according to the International Federation for Human Rights. Amnesty International said yesterday that the human rights situation in Bahrain has “continued to deteriorate.”

“Bahrain has witnessed a continuous downward spiral of repression over the past three years, with the space for freedom of expression and assembly rapidly reducing,” said Amnesty’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, Said Boumedouha. Two rounds of national reconciliation talks have failed to make any headway on a settlement in the tiny but strategic Gulf archipelago, which lies just across the water from Iran and hosts the home base of the US Fifth Fleet. Crown Prince Salman, who has made several overtures to the opposition, called last month for a third round of national talks. But many in the opposition believe his efforts have been undercut by more hawkish members of the royal family, including his great uncle Prince Khalifa, who has been prime minister ever since independence from Britain in 1971. —AFP

US agonizes over Syria but sees no new options WASHINGTON: The United States admits the situation in “crumbling” Syria is an “apocalyptic disaster”-implicitly accepting that its policy toward the wartormented country is not working-but no better one is on the horizon. The Obama administration is sticking to its line that it cannot “impose” outcomes on a chaotic battlefield between President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and a splintered opposition, despite proliferating reports of atrocities, a deepening humanitarian crisis and fears extremist militants will find a haven in the midst of the horror.

Officials largely concur with the position of UN Special Envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi that the current painstaking Geneva talks process has made little or no progress-other than to get warring sides in the same room.

President Barack Obama was asked about his policy during a press conference with French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday and launched into

a prolonged discourse-betraying apparent guilt and concern over the humanitarian and political implications of Syria’s plight-but no clear ideas to mitigate it.

“Nobody is going to deny that there’s enormous frustration here,” Obama said.

The president said that Syria was “crumbling” and posing a great risk to US partners like Jordan and Lebanon, but said that he did not see a military solution to the conflict.

He reiterated his belief that a US military intervention in Syria would not end the civil war, nor improve the dire situation-though did not come up with any fresh policies that might. “We are continuing to explore every possible avenue to solve this problem, because it’s... heartbreaking to see what’s happening to the Syrian people,” Obama said. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper painted an even bleaker picture of Syria, and said Washington worried that reports of widespread torture and atroci-

ties were authentic.

“When you consider the humanitarian disaster in addition to the two-anda-half million refugees, the six-and-ahalf or seven million that are internally displaced, the 134,000-plus people who’ve been killed, it is an apocalyptic disaster,” he told a congressional committee on Tuesday. A day later, Obama’s subordinates were left to parry accusations that the administration had basically assigned a failing grade to its own policies.

State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said Washington had been doing “quite a few things that are meaningful.” She cited US efforts to push a diplomatic and political transition in Syria.

Officials also highlight the deal reached last year with Russia requiring Assad to hand over Syria’s chemical weapons stocks to avoid US air strikes. “I would really take issue with the notion that we’re doing nothing,” she said. —AFP

Couples brave cohabitation taboo in Morocco RABAT: When Moroccan divorcee Soumaya moved in with her new French boyfriend she was hoping to forget the unhappiness of her marriage. Instead, she lost her children. It’s a crime in Muslim Morocco to live together out of wedlock, and unmarried couples not only face police harassment but also the prying eyes of disapproving neighbors. Soumaya, a mother of two, says her jealous ex-husband ratted on her to the police when she started living with her boyfriend in Marrakesh, accusing her of prostitution and finding 12 witnesses to support his story.

“I didn’t want to make the same mistake twice,” she said of her decision not to re-marry. But the boyfriend eventually left her and she lost custody of the kids. Cohabitation may be relatively common in Morocco’s swish urban districts, but conservative religious attitudes can be stifling, especially for young couples living in downscale, traditional neighborhoods. Ibtissam Lachgar, an activist and co-founder of a campaign group to promote individual liberties, says she lives happily with her boyfriend in her apartment in the centre of the capital, Rabat.

“I don’t feel my sexual freedom is restricted, even though we’re not married. The neighbors don’t bother me, probably because I own my apartment,” she says. The problem begins, she says, when they travel to the country’s hinterland and try to stay in a hotel. “It’s impossible; the law forbids it. They ask to see a marriage certificate. So we’re forced to seek alternative arrangements, like staying with friends.”

Last October, social sensibilities were put to the test when activists staged a symbolic “kiss-in” outside parliament. They did that to show their solidarity with three teenagers arrested for posting pictures on Facebook of two of them smooching-a case that sparked an online uproar. Around a dozen couples took part in the event, which was swiftly disrupted by a small group of counter-protesters who accused the couples of “atheism,” shoving them and throwing chairs at them. The court acquitted the teenagers, who had been accused of public indecency, but the offending couple, aged 14 and 15, were reprimanded by the judge. Lachgar’s boyfriend Soufiane Fares, who studies law in Rabat’s twin city of Sale, said “consensual sex between adults is a personal decision which others have no right to interfere with.

“But living together outside of marriage is very difficult in a conservative society.” —AFP

Putin backs Egypt army chief’s run for president MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday wished Egypt’s military chief victory in the nation’s presidential vote as Moscow sought to expand its military and other ties with a key US ally in the Middle East. Putin said at the start of his meeting with Field Marshal Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi that he’s aware of his intention to seek the presidency. “I know that you have made a decision to run for president,” Putin said, according to Russian news reports. “That’s a very responsible decision: to undertake such a mission for the fate of the Egyptian people. On my own part, and on behalf of the Russian people I wish you success.”

El-Sissi, who rose to prominence after the ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi last July, is popular among a large segment of Egyptians and is widely expected to announce a candidacy for presidential elections that are likely due in late April. El-Sissi’s visit to Moscow, his first trip abroad since Morsi’s ouster, comes amid reports of a $2 billion arms deal with Russia to be funded mainly by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which is part of Egypt’s shift to reduce reliance on the United States.

The visit also marks an attempt by Moscow to expand its influence in Egypt at a time when Egyptian-US relations have soured in the aftermath of Morsi’s ouster. The United States has been Cairo’s chief foreign backer and benefactor since the 1970s, when Egyptian President Anwar Sadat broke with Moscow after decades of close political and military ties and expelled Soviet military advisers.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after meeting with his Egyptian counterpart, Nabil Fahmy, that Russia and Egypt agreed to “speed up the preparation of documents that would give an additional impulse to our military and militarytechnical cooperation.” Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who met separately with el-Sissi, said that the need to strengthen military cooperation between Russia and Egypt stems from “common challenges and threats,” but mainly terrorism. —AP

International FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

Nigeria’s drug agency warns on funding, overstretch LAGOS: From heroin stashed in human hair to drugs concealed in tins of sardines, Nigeria’s anti-narcotics agency is used to having to deal with increasingly ingenious attempts at smuggling. But where once the west African nation was only a key staging post for getting drugs such as cocaine and heroin around the world, it is now facing a battle to contain a growing problem at home.

Nigeria is involved in “all levels of the drugs business”, Femi Ajayi, director-general of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), told AFP in an interview.

“Nigeria was a drug transit country in 1990.

But now it is a drug transit, drug warehousing, drug consuming and exporting nation. We

export every drug now.” As such, one senior official suggested current funding of the federal agency was “grossly inadequate” to combat the illegal trade, potentially hampering future expertise. Ajayi for his part warned that if nothing was done, the country’s already fragile internal security could be compromised. “When we underfund or neglect NDLEA, we are indirectly voting for a country of drug dependants and drug addicts,” he said at the agency’s headquarters in Lagos.

“Adequately funding NDLEA is therefore a vote for national security.”

Official agency figures indicated that the organization’s annual budget has been in steady decline in recent years. In 2011, when

it had 3,200 employees, the budget was 633 million naira ($3.9 million, 2.8 million euros) but in 2014, 441 million naira has been allocated, despite staffing going up by 2,000. In its 2013 World Drug Report, the UN Office on Drugs and Crimes, said Africa was becoming increasingly important in the global drugs trade. Cannabis use in Nigeria was above the average for west and central Africa of 12.4 percent, while the country had the highest number of seizures of the drug in the region.

Growing cannabis has expanded from Nigeria’s southwest to the southern oil states of Edo and Delta, central states of Kwara, Kogi and Benue, and Kebbi in the northwest.

Cultivation of the drug is seen as increasingly

attractive, leading to a decline in the cultivation of local cash crops such as cocoa, rubber, kola nuts, cassava, cowpea and yams, said Ajayi. The NDLEA said it destroyed 2,322 hectares (5,738 acres) of cannabis plantations between 2011 and 2012 and seized drugs worth more than estimated 33 billion naira in 2012 alone. Some 360 kilograms of drugs were destroyed between 2011 and 2012.

NDLEA figures indicated that it had a 98 percent success rate in prosecutions between 1990 and 2011 and that the number of suspected drug traffickers had fallen in recent years. Recent arrests at the country’s airports include a 54-year-old grandmother — AFP

International FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

Lawmaker uses pepper spray in Indian Parliament NEW DELHI: India’s parliament erupted in chaos yesterday over a bill to create a new state, as angry MPs came to blows and pulled out a microphone and one peppersprayed the chamber. Holding banners and shouting slogans, lawmakers disrupted the lower house of parliament as the Congress-led government introduced the contentious bill to carve a new state out of the existing Andhra Pradesh. Legislators opposed to the new state of Telangana tried to rip out the speaker’s microphone while one unleashed a can of capsicum spray, prompting a rush for the exit, TV channels reported.

Several lawmakers climbed into ambulances suffering breathing problems before reportedly being taken to hospital. Small fights also flared between MPs opposed to the bill and several trying to stop the chaos and restore order, as the parliament-known for its disruptions-was adjourned, the Press Trust of India (PTI) said. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath slammed the unrest as a “big blot on our parliamentary democracy” and called for the strongest possible action against the offending MPs. “It is the most shameful day in our parliamentary history,” Nath told

reporters outside parliament. Seventeen MPs were suspended from the house over the behavior, which also saw lawmakers rip up official papers and smash a glass. Others wore black blindfolds as a sign of protest, PTI said. In the confusion one MP from Andhra Pradesh, who opposes Telangana, was accused of brandishing a knife in the chamber, a claim he denied. “I pulled the microphone in front of my seat, not a knife. Why apologize? I will not apologize,” Venugopal Reddy shouted at an NDTV reporter.

Pepper spray used in ‘self defense’ L Rajagopal was equally defiant over firing the pepper spray, saying he used the can in self-defense after other MPs “pounced” on him. “They started attacking me. So immediately as a self-defense, I used the pepper spray,” Rajagopal told reporters. Cabinet last week approved the creation of Telangana from the southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh, after a decades-long and sometimes violent campaign. Mainly tribal groups have demanded Telangana be carved out of a northern, impoverished and drought-prone part of Andhra Pradesh, which supporters

say has long been neglected by successive state governments. But wealthier regions of Andhra Pradesh, home to IT giants including Google and Microsoft in its capital Hyderabad, have strongly opposed the split because they say it would create economic upheaval. Security at parliament had been high before the bill’s introduction after one MP threatened to set himself on fire in protest. Observers say the Congress government moved on Telangana in hopes of winning much-needed votes in the region at national elections in coming months. But they have warned the move may backfire amid an intensifying political battle in Andhra Pradesh.

Violent demonstrations have erupted there since Congress announced the move last July, while three federal ministers have resigned in protest. Outside parliament on Thursday, ugly clashes broke out between supporters of the Telangana state and police, an AFP photographer said.

Police dragged away protesters and bundled them into buses. Congress has denied trying to seek any political advantage from splitting Andhra Pradesh, insisting it is trying to fulfill a longstanding pledge. — AFP

Police brutality under spotlight in Ukraine KIEV: An elderly retiree accused of fomenting riots in Ukraine, a disabled man injured by rubber bullets, a father arrested for carrying tyres in his car, disappearances, deaths. Three weeks after clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces in Kiev turned deadly, police are facing increasing pressure over allegations they mistreated and wrongly accused dozens of protesters. “I was near a barricade when they (riot police) fired rubber bullets. I received one in the head and three in the stomach,” says Ivan Kholod, who is being treated in an austere and labyrinthian hospital in the Ukrainian capital.

“Then at one moment they charged. I couldn’t run fast, so they caught me”, he adds, speaking with difficulty-one of the effects of a stroke suffered 10 years ago. The 54-year-old, who stands unsteadily in a six-bed room he shares with others, says he has been charged with organizing mass unrest-a crime punishable by up to 15 years in jail. He is one of over a dozen being treated in this hospital for wounds sustained in the January 19-24 clashes that left several dead-a turning point in a protest movement that has rocked the country since November.

Dumped in woods Rights groups have long denounced police brutality in Ukraine but say the problem has worsened since November, when Ukrainians rose up in anger at their leader’s shift away from the European Union in favor of neighbor Russia. Since then, they have occupied Kiev’s central Independence Square and staged regular protests, winning some concessions from President Viktor Yanukovych but pressing on, keen to see a leader they regard as corrupt step down.

According to Gennady Moskal, a pro-opposition lawmaker and former deputy interior minister, around 1,000 protesters were hurt in the January unrest by Ukraine’s feared Berkut riot police and other security forces, which he accuses of firing rubber bullets at people’s heads, eyes and chests. They were also hurt by “grenades and metal pieces, tear gas and burns from Molotov cocktails thrown by the Berkut”, says the lawmaker, who has demanded an investigation into police brutality.

“It was an illegal act by the authorities to try to punish them so harshly,” he said. Euromaidan SOS, an NGO set up since protests began to monitor human rights abuses, says some 60 people are in detention or under house arrest. “Some legal procedures are staggering-one father driving his van, in which his one- and three-year-olds were too, was arrested because a dozen tyres were discovered in the vehicle,” says Alissa Novitchkova, a member of the NGO. “He’s been in detention for several days and risks 15 years in prison for mass unrest.” Even more worrying are the disappearances. According to Novitchkova, there are five known cases of kidnaps, including one death. Several protesters were beaten up by unknown assailants and dumped in woods outside Kiev. Some survived and got away but Yuriy Verbytsky was not so lucky.

Badly hurt, he was unable to escape and is thought to have died of hypothermia. The issue of disappearances gained international prominence when activist Dmytro Bulatov went missing for over a week after the January clashes, emerging with horrific facial injuries after being tortured by his captors. He is now being treated in Lithuania.—AFP

LONDON: A firefighter wades through chest high water in the flooded village of Datchet, west of London yesterday. — AFP

Massive power cuts in storm-battered Britain Train carrying hundreds stranded LONDON: Hurricane-force winds from an Atlantic storm left tens of thousands of Britons without power Thursday and one man dead, adding to widespread misery after devastating floods caused by the wettest winter in 250 years. Around 80,000 households remain without electricity, with Wales the worst affected by the “Wild Wednesday” storms, although the figure was reduced from some 150,000 overnight as electricity workers battled to reconnect people.

One man died after being electrocuted while attempting to move a fallen tree that had brought down power lines in Wiltshire, southwest England. Gusts approaching 100 miles (160 kilometers) per hour tore at parts of England and Wales, and the River Thames was predicted to rise to its highest level in more than 60 years in places, threatening towns and villages to the west of London. Major General Patrick Sanders, who is co-ordinating the armed forces response that has seen hundreds of troops on the streets, called the conditions an “almost un-paralleled natural crisis”. The conditions brought chaos for commuters, stranding a train carrying hundreds of passengers after overhead lines came down in Yorkshire, northern England. Passenger Carol Machin told BBC radio: “We haven’t moved. It’s a complete accident, there’s nothing you can do. There’s electrical line here, there and everywhere.” The Met Office national weather service issued a red warning-the highest threat level-for “exceptionally strong winds” in western parts of Wales and northwest England.

More than 5,800 properties have flooded since early December, officials said. The flooding started in the southwestern county of Somerset but since January the River Thames near London has been badly affected with more than 1,100 properties deluged there since January 29, authorities said. More soldiers were drafted in to rescue residents and lay sandbags in deluged villages where primary schools have been transformed into makeshift emergency centres. Fourteen severe flood warnings-indicating a danger to life-were in place in Berkshire and Surrey to the west of London, while two remain in Somerset.

More rain forecast Forecasters said 70 millimeters (2.75 inches) of rain would fall

by Friday in southwest England. Emergency efforts were picking up following criticism of a sluggish response, and the military said 1,600 soldiers had been deployed with 2,000 in total available. In Wraysbury, the Thameside village that has been submerged since the weekend, 83-year-old Jennie Francis’s house has flooded and her hallway was filled with water. She has been forced to take refuge at her son’s home, but she said the arrival of the army had made a huge difference to the village’s morale. “The soldiers have been absolutely marvellous, it’s wonderful to have them here.

People were cross before, but now they are relieved to have some help,” she told AFP. The bad weather also hit midweek football fixtures, with Manchester City’s Premier League match with Sunderland and Everton’s game with Crystal Palace both called off. The Twitter sites of the host football clubs said the safety of the fans travelling to and from the grounds could not be guaranteed because of the strong winds.

The embattled Environment Agency-the government body responsible for flood defenses that has faced the brunt of criticism-fought to defend its reputation. Chief Executive, Paul Leinster, said: “We continue to have teams out on the ground 24/7 working to protect lives, homes, businesses, communities and farmland.”

Prime Minister David Cameron chaired the government’s COBRA emergency committee and then told parliament he stood by his pledge that “money is no object in this relief effort”. He warned that a further 800 to 1,000 homes were at risk of flooding as the Thames rose. He also said grants of up to £5,000 (6,100 euros, 8,300 euros) would be available to businesses and homeowners affected by flooding to allow them to better protect their properties in future. Bank of England chief Mark Carney warned that the weather could stifle Britain’s economic recovery. — AFP

International FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

Kerry urges S Korea-Japan ‘put history behind them’ US, S Korea warn N Korea against aggression

HONG KONG: In this picture, man reads a Chinese-language newspaper in Hong Kong. — AFP

Fears for HK press freedom as China flexes its muscle HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s status as a bastion of press freedom is being eroded by creeping self-censorship under pressure from Beijing and media bosses loath to lose business in China, insiders are warning. Compared to the tightly-controlled state press on China’s mainland, Hong Kong’s newsstands and networks offer a noisy jungle of competing outlets from across the political spectrum. But analysts warn that reputation is now under threat as journalists increasingly steer clear of topics that could anger the Communist Party or jeopardize media tycoons’ commercial interests on the mainland.

Two reports this week have highlighted an increasingly restricted media landscape some 17 years after the former British colony was handed back to China, under a deal that supposedly guaranteed media independence and other rights for half a century.The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Wednesday said media freedom in Hong Kong was currently “at a low point”, citing self-censorship among reporters, financial and physical threats against the media and legislative steps that could hinder investigative reporting.

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders also said Hong Kong’s media independence “is now in jeopardy” as the world’s-second largest economy flexes its muscles to stifle critical coverage. “The Chinese Communist Party’s growing subjugation of the Hong Kong executive and its pressure on the Hong Kong media... is increasingly compromising media pluralism there,” it said as it published its annual press freedom index.

Watchdog role in jeopardy Under a deal struck between London and Beijing in the runup to Hong Kong’s 1997 handover, the semi-autonomous city of seven million is guaranteed free of speech, a liberty China’s mainland residents are denied. But a series of recent incidents have raised concern, including the sacking Wednesday of Li Wei-ling, a prominent talk show host known for her biting criticism of Beijing, from her job at Commercial Radio. No reason has been given for her dismissal.

In January, the leading editor of the respected Ming Pao newspaper was replaced by a pro-Beijing editor from Malaysia, prompting protests by staff who feared the move was an attempt to stifle the paper’s strong track record of investigative reporting.

And the same month another liberal paper, AM730, said advertising had been cut from a number of China-affiliated organizations.

The CPJ report said more than half of Hong Kong’s media owners have been given roles in China’s political assemblies, making them reluctant to anger Beijing and lose their elite status and commercial advantage. —AFP

SEOUL: US Secretary of State John Kerry and his South Korean counterpart warned North Korea yesterday against any possible aggression amid mixed signals from the North over returning to denuclearization talks and improved ties with the South. Kerry, meanwhile, urged US allies South Korea and Japan to repair deep divisions between them that threaten to jeopardize coordination in dealing with North Korea. Kerry and South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se each dismissed demands from the North to halt an upcoming joint US-South Korean military exercise. They said the exercise could not be used as an excuse by North Korea to stay away from talks or to delay attempts to improve ties, with steps like reuniting families separated by the Korean War. “We have yet to see evidence that North Korea is prepared to meet its obligations. Let me be clear; the United States will not accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed state. We will not accept talks for the sake of talks, and the DPRK must show that it will live up to its commitments,” Kerry said, referring to the North by the acronym for its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The US is “ready and able to deter North Korean aggression,” he said. “It is time for the North to choose the path of peace and refrain from provocations or using excuses to avoid the responsibility that they bear.” Yun said that both Seoul and Washington “stand fully prepared against any potential situation given the mixed signals from North Korea, even as it continues a charm offensive.”

The pair appeared at a joint news conference in Seoul the day after senior North and South Korean officials held their highest-level talks in years, but as the North continued to complain about the military exercise. North Korea has cited it as a reason to rescind an invitation to a U.S. diplomat to visit the country to discuss the case of jailed American missionary Kenneth Bae and has suggested it may cancel planned upcoming reunions between families separated by the

Korean War. The rival Koreas agreed yesterday to hold another round of talks today.

Kerry planned to travel today to China and said he would press Chinese leaders to do more to bring North Korea back to disarmament talks. “There is more that China can do,” he said. Kerry also expressed concern about a recent downturn in relations between South Korea and Japan, saying the two nations must overcome historical animosity to present a united front in talks with North Korea and to better counter increasing Chinese assertiveness in the region. “It is up to Japan and (South Korea) to put history behind them and move the relationship forward,” Kerry said. “And it is critical at the same time that we maintain robust trilateral cooperation” on North Korea. “We urge our friends in Japan and South Korea, we urge both of them to work with us together to find a way forward to help resolve the deeply felt historic differences that still have meaning today. ... We will continue to encourage both allies to find mutually acceptable approaches to legacy issues from the past.”

South Korea was angry over a recent visit by Japan’s prime minister to a controversial war shrine in Tokyo, which has deepened resentment in both of the neighboring countries over Japan’s colonial past and abuses committed during World War II. Japan says it is willing to hold high-level dialogue to ease tension, but there appears to be little immediate prospect of that happening. Yun said South Korea was ready to resolve the differences but accused Japanese political leaders of distorting the historical record and said rapprochement could not happen while that continued. “We have made a lot of efforts to stabilize the relationship between Korea and Japan, but unfortunately, during the past few months, some Japanese political leaders have made a lot of historically incorrect remarks,” Yun said. “And so these revisionist remarks, as long as they last, it will (make it) difficult to build trust between our countries. —AP

SEOUL: US Secretary of State John Kerry (left) shakes hands with South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se at the end of their press conference at the Foreign Ministry yesterday. — AP

Thailand deports 1,300 Rohingya boat people BANGKOK: Thailand has sent around 1,300 Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar, a top official said yesterday, dismaying rights campaigners who warned the minority Muslims face persecution in the former junta-ruled country. Thousands of Rohingya, described by the United Nations as among the world’s most persecuted minorities, have fled sectarian violence in western Myanmar in rickety boats since 2012, mostly heading for Malaysia. About 2,000 who arrived in Thai waters were locked up in overcrowded immigration prisons or held in shelters for women and children.

Thai authorities began deporting the Rohingya in September through a border checkpoint in the province of Ranong, national immigration chief Lieutenant General Pharnu Kerdlarpphon told AFP. “The whole deportation process was completed in early November,” he added. It was the first official news of the deportation. It is unclear what happened to them after they left. Rights activists criticized the move to return them to Myanmar, where they face travel restrictions, forced labor and limited access to healthcare and education. “The deportation of Rohingya is a blatant violation of international laws that prohibit sending back refugees and asylumseekers to a place where they can face danger and persecution,”

said Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher with New York-based Human Rights Watch. Rights groups say the Rohingya often fall into the hands of people-traffickers, sometimes after they are deported by Thailand. Sunai urged the Thai authorities to explain what had happened to the 1,300 Rohingya, saying the foreign ministry did not appear to have been involved in the deportation. There was no immediate comment from the ministry.But National Security Council chief Paradorn Pattanatabut said the majority of the Rohingya had wanted to leave Thailand.

“Most of them volunteered to go back because Thailand was not their destination anyway,” he said. “We facilitated their return and I am sure that in Myanmar they have their place.” Thailand said last year it was investigating allegations that some army officials in the kingdom were involved in the trafficking of Rohingya.

Rights groups have also raised concerns about alleged cases of boats being pushed back out to sea after entering Thai waters.

Hundreds are believed to have died making the perilous sea voyage from Myanmar. Roughly 500 Rohingya are believed to remain in detention in Thailand following a raid on a suspected people-trafficking camp last month.—AFP

17

International FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

New Orleans ex-mayor: From reformer to convict NEW ORLEANS: Twelve years after he burst on the New Orleans political scene as a charming, reform-minded businessman vowing to clean up city government, former Mayor Ray Nagin walked out of a federal courthouse as the glum embodiment of how far a politician can fall. Nagin was convicted Wednesday on 20 criminal counts stemming from his two terms as New Orleans mayor from 2002 to 2010, including the recovery that followed Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He is scheduled for sentencing June 11 - his 58th birthday. Nagin was a cable company executive and political newcomer when he succeeded Marc Morial in 2002. Soon after taking office, he announced a crackdown on municipal corruption, starting with the city’s vehicle safety inspection stations and issuing permits to non-eligible taxi drivers.

But federal prosecutors say his own corrupt acts began during his first term, continued through the Katrina catastrophe and flourished in his second term. “We, in my family, thought of him as the ‘cleanup man,’” said Rainelle Smith, 64, a New Orleans resident who said she had voted for Nagin.

“Instead he gets in office and he soiled it more.” “The heat got hot during the storm. He couldn’t handle that, so he said, ‘Forget the people; I’m going to line my own pockets.’ It’s a disgrace,” said Jason Roland, 32, a former New Jersey resident who moved to New Orleans a few years after Katrina for a teaching job.

“It was a just verdict, fair trial, so no excuses there,” he said.

Nagin is perhaps best remembered for his impassioned pleas for help after the levees broke during Hurricane Katrina, and his city descended into chaos He was convicted of accepting bribes in exchange for helping businessmen secure millions of dollars in city work. The federal jury found Nagin guilty of 20 of 21 counts. He sat quietly at the defense table after the verdict was read. His wife, Seletha, cried quietly as she sat behind him on the front row of spectators.

WASHINGTON: New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin testifies before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Hurricane Katrina in this file photo. —AFP

Which California freeway has the most gridlock?

LOS ANGELES: Those who like to argue - or brag - about the worst commute in this traffic-tangled state have a new measure of their misery. Which is the most congested stretch of California freeway? It has more reconstructive surgery than a Hollywood has-been and, if you make it through the madness, you can head to the border (Mexico or Canada). The dubious honor goes to... Interstate 5 in Los Angeles County. In 2012 alone, vehicles spent a cumulative 6.6 million extra hours on that road due to heavy traffic. And those 753 years only count the hours when the traffic was going less than 35 mph.

The numbers come from data analyzed by the California Department of Transportation, which calculates time wasted in “heavy congestion” using sensors under the pavement that track vehicle speed. Caltrans did the math and then ranked freeways on a county level. The agency collects the data to identify which freeways most need traffic relief.

It was the second year in a row that “the 5,” as locals call it, topped Caltrans’ most-congested-freeways list. The reigning champion had been the stretch of Interstate 405 that cuts across the western part of Los Angeles County. Indeed, Los Angeles County owned six of the Top 10 slots. The first outside LA County, coming in fifth, was Interstate 5 - in Orange County, just to the south. Rounding out the list were another freeway in Orange and two in Alameda counties. —AP

RALEIGH: Nine still frames from the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) traffic cameras show the difficulties drivers from the town of Raleigh, North Carolina, face February 12, 2014 during a snow storm that hit the US East Coast. —AFP

Storm heads North Deaths, power outages in South ATLANTA: Small armies of utility workers labored to turn the lights - and the heat - back on for hundreds of thousands of Southerners as a winter storm that left them without power threatened major cities further up the East Coast. The Deep South remained a world of ice-laden trees and driveways early Thursday after several unusual days of sleet and snow brought by a powerful system that could bring more than a foot of snow to such metropolises as Philadelphia, Washington and Boston.

At least 12 deaths across the South have been blamed on the stormy weather and nearly 3,300 flights nationwide were canceled with another day of complicated air and road travel ahead Thursday, particularly in the Northeast.

Drivers in and around Raleigh, NC, became snarled Wednesday in huge traffic jams and abandoned cars in scenes reminiscent of motorist woes in Atlanta during a storm two weeks earlier. In Atlanta, many streets were eerily quiet this storm, with drivers heeding dire warnings to stay off the roads. State troopers say they worked more than 200 crashes in Georgia.

For some on slick, snow-covered interstates in North Carolina, commutes that should take minutes lasted hours after many got on the highways just as soon as snow and sleet began at midday. And in South Carolina, more accustomed to occasional hurricanes, some could only relate the damage from ice-snapped tree limbs to that of bygone Hurricane Hugo. Even normally balmy Myrtle Beach, where millions of visitors cavort each summer, cars were coated in thick ice that also frosted palm trees and kiddie rides by the shore.

Electricity knocked out “I hate driving on this,” grumbled South Carolina resident Mindy Taylor, 43, on her way for rock salt, kitty litter or anything else to melt the ice. “Hopefully it’ll warm up by the weekend and it will all melt. I’m ready for Spring.” In Alabama, forecasters gleefully spoke of weekend temperatures reaching the 60s after inches of snow or sleet in its northern parts. The snow, sleet and freezing rain that iced Southern highways also knocked out electricity to more than

half a million homes and business as it advanced Thursday up the Interstate 95 corridor to the winter-weary Mid-Atlantic states.

Some Southerners who two weeks ago reveled in the so-called “snow jam” sounded tired this time of sleet and ice encasing highways, trees and even the tombstones of a cemetery replete with Confederate graves. Bethany Lanier, 32, was walking in a mostly empty square in the Atlanta suburb of Decatur with Lindsay Futterman, a 30-year-old charter school teacher as they debated whether to get a drink at a pub.

If classes are canceled today, the charter school students will have missed nine days of school. To make up days, administrators have canceled a three-day break. “Now, we’re out because we have cabin fever,” Lanier said as Futterman added: “It’s kind of annoying now.”

Many Southerners took to makeshift sleds on the ice and snow, with at least seven people hospitalized in sledding accidents just in Georgia. Four people were hurt sledding in a kayak that crashed into a pole, said Fire Chief Ricky Pruit in Cleveland, Ga. One victim suffered leg injuries, another was knocked unconscious and lost several teeth and the other two refused treatment, he said.

Obama declares disaster Ice combined with wind gusts up to 30 mph snapped tree limbs and power lines. More than 200,000 homes and businesses lost electricity in Georgia, South Carolina had about 245,000 outages, and North Carolina around 100,000. Some people could be in the dark for days. As he did for parts of Georgia, President Barack Obama declared a disaster in South Carolina, opening the way for federal aid.

For the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast, the heavy weather was the latest in an unending drumbeat of storms that have depleted cities’ salt supplies and caused school systems to run out of snow days. Washington, DC, could see around 8 inches of snow, as could Boston.

New York City could receive 6 inches. The Philadelphia area could get a foot or more, and Portland, Maine, may see 8 or 9 inches.

In Atlanta, which was caught badly unpre-

pared by the last storm, area schools announced even before the first drop of sleet fell that they would be closed on Tuesday and Wednesday. Schools were also closed for Thursday. Many businesses in the corporate capital of the South shut down, too. The scene was markedly different from the one Jan. 28, when thousands of children were stranded all night in schools by less than 3 inches of snow and countless drivers abandoned their cars after getting stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic for hours and hours.

“I think some folks would even say they were a little trigger-happy to go ahead and cancel schools (Tuesday), as well as do all the preparation they did,” said Matt Altmix, who was out walking his dog in Atlanta on Wednesday. “But it’s justified.” North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory urged people to charge their cellphones and find batteries for radios and flashlights because the storm could bring nearly a foot of snow in places such as Charlotte.

Catastrophic ice “Stay smart. Don’t put your stupid hat on at this point in time. Protect yourself. Protect your family. Protect your neighbors,” McCrory said. In a warning issued early Wednesday, the National Weather Service called the storm across the South “catastrophic... crippling... paralyzing... choose your adjective.”

Meteorologist Eli Jacks noted that threequarters of an inch of ice would be catastrophic anywhere. However, the South is particularly vulnerable: Many trees are allowed to hang over power lines for the simple reason that people don’t normally have to worry about ice and snow snapping off limbs. Three people were killed when an ambulance careened off an icy West Texas road and caught fire. On Tuesday, four people died in weather-related traffic accidents in North Texas, including a Dallas firefighter who was knocked from an I20 ramp and fell 50 feet. In Mississippi, two traffic deaths were reported as well as in North Carolina. Also, a Georgia man apparently died of hypothermia after spending hours outside during the storm, a coroner said. —AP

18

International FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

Three die in growing Venezuela protests No chance of coup after Venezuela demos: Maduro CARACAS: Protests against the Venezuelan government left at least three people dead and dozens injured, prompting President Nicolas Maduro to declare he would not fall as he ordered a clamp-down in cities across the country. Thousands of students accompanied by opposition leaders marched through the capital Caracas and other cities Wednesday, demonstrating over poor security, inflation and a lack of basic commodities, in a further escalation of university protests that took place two weeks ago. At least 80 people were detained as rival protests exploded into violence.”There will be no coup d’etat in Venezuela; you can rest assured. Democracy will continue, and the revolution will continue,” Maduro, facing the biggest test since taking over from the late Hugo Chavez last year, declared on national television.

“I have given clear instructions to state security agencies to secure the country’s main cities,” said Maduro, who ordered the arrest of an opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez. “Anyone who goes out to try to carry out violence will be arrested.” A pro-government demonstrator and two student protesters were killed as rallies both for and against Venezuela’s government escalated over several hours.

Unidentified assailants earlier fired into a rally outside the attorney general’s office in Caracas. Venezuela-with an institutionally socialist government dependent on oil revenues in a state-led system-sits atop the world’s largest proven reserves of crude. Yet its economy has been battered by inflation of more than 50 percent a year. Venezuela has had economic problems go from bad to worse amid shortages of hard currency, while dwindling supplies of consumer goods have frustrated even some government supporters. The government blames “bourgeois” local business interests for trying to profit from its largely low- and middleincome political base. It has engaged in privatizations and unpopular currency controls.

‘We will not be cowed’ Thousands of students, accompanied by several opposition politicians, had converged in downtown Caracas to denounce Maduro and his economic policies. “We came out for a peaceful protest and they have killed two stu-

dents? How can this be?” asked Catholic University student Vanessa Eisi. A day earlier, five youths were shot when motorcycle-riding gunmen opened fire on protests in the Andean city of Merida, local media and student groups said. Another 10 students participating in the protests were arrested.

“We students are sick and tired of living in fear because of violent crime. We are sick of having to leave the country because when we graduate, there is nothing here,” said Biaggo Alvarado, a 20-year-old who declined to name his university. Protesters demanded the release of students detained in Merida and elsewhere

Elsewhere in Caracas and in other cities waves of protesters clad in red-the color of “Chavismo”-gathered in support of Maduro.

They chanted slogans backing his “economic war” against speculators and private economic interests that he blames for the skyrocketing inflation and shortages.

State television showed images of the progovernment protests, which Maduro was scheduled to attend, while private channels showed intermittent images of the opposition demonstrations. Reporters and media were targeted in the unrest. Journalists union chief Marco Ruiz said that a photographer and a

CARACAS: A demonstrator lies on the ground while National Guard prepare to shoot during an opposition demonstration against the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. —AFP during recent demonstrations. “We will not be cowed,” cried David Smolansky, a former student leader now mayor of the Caracas municipality of El Hatillo, challenging the government to “see who is stronger.”

“They have taken our students prisoner. We want them released!” he shouted, as the flagwaving crowd chanted: “It is going to fall, it is going to fall, this government is going to fall.”

reporter were arrested while covering the protests, and Colombian news channel NTN24, which had been featuring the protests in depth, was abruptly pulled off air. Outside AFP’s office in Caracas, riot police used tear gas to break up about 100 student protesters.

Then equipment, including a video camera belonging to AFP, was stolen as authorities looked on. —AFP

Chicago groups tussle over Obama library bid CHICAGO: Barack Obama’s journey from community organizer to lawmaker to president was also a journey through several different Chicagos, from the city’s isolated and neglected Far South Side to its elite centers of political and social power.

So it’s perhaps no surprise that the contest to host his presidential library has set off some classic Chicago infighting between activists in depressed neighborhoods and wealthy universities.

The library is “such a prize that nobody is going to yield power to anybody else,” veteran Chicago political analyst Don Rose said. The squabble also puts Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s former chief of staff, in the difficult position of trying to

present a single, unified bid, lest the feuding weaken the city’s odds against rival campaigns to put the library in New York or Hawaii.

No fewer than six potential Chicago bids have emerged, each backed by different interests. The main point of tension is between the University of Chicago, where Obama spent 12 years as a constitutional law professor until his 2004 election to the US Senate, and a group advocating for Bronzeville, the city’s historic center of black culture, business and politics. “They think that they can get whatever they want,” Bronzeville organizer Harold Lucas said of the university. “If you compare the cranes in the sky and that

opulent growth of this university to the surrounding, predominantly AfricanAmerican community, it’s a travesty. It’s a clear tale of two cities.”

Lucas and other critics of the university’s bid say the school has been secretly working its White House connections at the expense of a plan that would benefit more of the city and honor the black community’s role in electing the nation’s first black president. For its part, the university says it wants to work with neighbors on a plan to build the library off campus in a part of the South Side where it can spur development. A university spokesman declined to comment beyond the school’s previous statements. —AP

Iranian satellite case in NY takes complex turn HOPEWELL: Federal agents intercepted the wealthy Iranian entrepreneur at a US airport, questioned him about his business and charged him with illegal export of American-made satellite equipment to his native country.

Seyed Amin Ghorashi Sarvestani pleaded guilty soon afterward, but changed circumstances now have encouraged him to challenge his 30-month prison sentence.

Since his plea, the federal government has approved for export to Iran the very products he was convicted of helping ship, his lawyers say. Then federal prosecutors in New York told a judge after the sentencing hearing that they had mistakenly exaggerated the equipment’s capabilities. The judge hasn’t moved to change the sentence, though lawyers for both sides are continuing to press their arguments.

Whatever happens, the case illustrates the complexity of laws in which actions banned one year may become legal the next and where one government priority, controlling exports in the name of national security, can brush up against another - in this case, promoting Internet freedom for Iranian citizens. “I am neither an activist nor politically motivated,” Sarvestani, 47, wrote from prison in an email to The Associated Press explaining his business of providing satellite-based Internet communications to Iran.

“I am simply a citizen of the Earth who believe the Internet is a true miracle in mankind history.”

The Justice Department has stepped up enforcement of export restrictions in recent years, winning convictions in the illegal export of microwave amplifiers to China, defense missile batteries to Iran and military aircraft engines to Venezuela, among others. While the U.S. imposes stringent restrictions on doing business in Iran, the “devil is in the details” in this area of law because both regulations and US foreign-policy interests can change, said Chicago attorney Daniel Collins, an export controls expert and former federal prosecutor.

No dispute “Knowing what you can and can’t do is not as straightforward as you might think,” he said. In Sarvestani’s case, there’s no dispute that he broke the law, though he contended in an interview at prison that his crimes were more the result of negligence than intent. Prosecutors say the millionaire entrepreneur, with an electronics background and diverse business holdings that over the years have included edible oils, marine equipment, pizza shops and food distribution, understood the law and intentionally subverted it through his dealings with interrelated companies in the United Arab Emirates. They say he conspired over the course of several years to ship the technology through other nations to conceal that it was destined for Iran and urged employees to be careful to avoid getting caught. He’s been in custody since his 2012 arrest at Washington’s Dulles International Airport.

On May 30 of last year, three weeks after his guilty plea, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control legalized for export to Iran smartphones, satellite phones, anti-viral software and other technology related to Internet communication. The policy change was billed as part of an effort to connect the Iranian public to the world through communications. President Barack Obama, in a March 2012 statement, warned that Iran’s “electronic curtain” was cutting off the country’s citizens from the rest of the world, blamed the government for jamming satellite signals to shut down television broadcasts and said the “freedom to connect with one another” was a basic right.

Critical error?

Collins said that while the administration pursues that goal, there’s a competing concern that communications equipment with multiple uses “can be used for a purpose that might be beneficial, but it also can be misused for a purpose that is detrimental to the United States and, quite frankly, the world’s interest.” The Justice Department typically focuses on cases involving large quantities of illegal exports and prioritizes nuclear technology, munitions and materials related to weapons of mass destruction, said federal prosecutor Ryan Fayhee, who previously served as the department’s national export control coordinator. —AP

Business FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

Independent Scotland would have to leave pound: Osborne

Australian unemployment worst in a decade

PAGE 21

PAGE 21

SINGAPORE: KT-1B Woong Bee planes of the Indonesian Air Force’s aerobatics team, The Jupiters, perform a maneuver in the aerial display on the third day of the Singapore Air Show yesterday. — AP

Small is big thing in Asia aviation Emerging Asian carriers make presence felt SINGAPORE: Emerging Asian carriers made their presence felt at a major airshow yesterday with multibillion-dollar deals that underscored the region’s importance as the growth driver of global aviation. Four relatively small Asian carriers already had a combined order book of more than $11 billion halfway into the six-day Singapore Airshow, with smaller planes as their preference. Airline executives said many smaller cities in Asia remain underserved despite the explosive growth in budget air travel, and they will use the new planes to connect such destinations to metropolitan centers.

Asia’s expanding middle class is driving demand, said Song Seng Wun, regional economist with Malaysian bank CIMB. “It’s really a function of regional economies experiencing spending power of the rising middle class which benefited from so many years of steady growth,” Song told AFP. In the latest deal, Indian carrier Air Costa yesterday ordered 50 EJets E2 aircraft, which can seat 70-130 passengers, from Brazilian manufacturer Embraer worth $2.94 billion.

The deal with Air Costa, which began opera-

tions only four months ago, also includes purchase rights for 50 more of the aircraft, both companies announced at the show. With the orders, Air Costa will become the first customer of the E-Jet E2 in the Indian market when it takes delivery of the first plane in 2018. Thai budget carrier Nok Air also yesterday firmed up orders for two Q400 86-seater planes from Canada’s Bombardier worth $63 million.

Nok Air indicated it may buy six more depending on its needs. The Singapore Airshow began Tuesday with an order by Vietnamese budget carrier VietJetAir for 63 Airbus A320 jets worth $6.4 billion. The deal also covered rights to acquire or lease 38 more A320s, potentially boosting VietJetAir’s current fleet of 11 A320s tenfold.

The Vietnamese airline, founded only in 2011, plies domestic routes as well as services to Bangkok, Seoul and Kunming in China with its current fleet of leased planes. In another deal, US aicraft maker Boeing on Wednesday announced that Nok Air had committed to buy 15 B737s worth $1.45 billion.

Bangkok Airways, which brands itself as a

“boutique carrier” that flies to selected tourist destinations, on Wednesday also signed up to buy six 72-600s from European plane-maker ATR in a deal worth $150 million. Air Costa executives said they would use the E-Jets E2 aircraft from Embraer to serve smaller Indian cities.

“Our focus has been the tier-two and tierthree cities in India,” Air Costa chief financial officer Vivek Choudhary told a media briefing yesterday. “Our philosophy is that we believe that 70 percent of the population, of the huge 1.2 billion population in India, still reside in these non-metros,” he added.

“Basically we are linking the metros to the smaller cities.” Choudhary said the carrier expects the air transport sector in India to grow dramatically in the next 15 to 20 years. “The huge size of the middle class in India and the profitability levels that are going up adds to the demand in air travel,” he added.

Nok Air chief executive Patee Sarasin said his airline was looking to expand into Myanmar following the opening up of the formerly armyruled state. “I think Myanmar has really

stepped up,” Patee told reporters after firming up the two jet orders with Bombardier. “We think it’s a beautiful country and we see a high potential that Myanmar will grow very fast,” he said. “I am sure within the next few years we are going to see Myanmar growing as fast as Vietnam.”

Economist Song said such new markets were an “added bonus” as even without them demand for travel in Asia was robust.

“Frontier markets are an added bonus,” he said. “Even without the likes of Myanmar, demand continues to grow.” Airbus, Boeing and Embraer-in their 20-year forecasts for the industry all said the Asia Pacific is the key market to enter because of the burgeoning middle class. Embraer’s president and chief executive Paulo Cesar Silva said passenger traffic in the region “is mostly composed by secondary markets with low and medium demand densities of up to 300 passengers daily each way”. “Some 60 percent of those markets are not served nonstop, and around half of all markets served do not allow for same day return travel,” he said. — AFP

Business FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

Oman may sell assets, borrow abroad DUBAI: Oman may have to start selling foreign assets or borrow on international markets in coming years if government spending rises during a period of lower oil prices and economic growth, a report in a magazine published by its central bank said. “The sultanate has to tolerate one of the options in the coming years if there is any prediction of decrease in GDP (gross domestic product) growth rates with an increase in spending,” said the article in Al-Markazi, a banking and economic publication. “The first option is to begin to liquidate assets abroad to support domestic spending. The second would be to start a programme of external borrowing next year at the earliest.”

The author of the article was not named, and a note attached to the magazine said the opinions expressed in it were not necessarily those of the central bank. But an official in the central bank’s media department, contacted by Reuters, said the article was in line with the bank’s thinking.

Oman, which relies on oil and gas for 87 percent of its budget revenue, faces increasing pressure on its finances because of rises in state spending on social welfare and infrastructure investment. The finance minister said last year that the country might resume borrowing in international markets for the first time since 1997. In October, the International Monetary Fund predicted that Oman would slip into a fiscal deficit of 0.2 percent of GDP in 2015, widening to as much as 7.1 percent in 2018.

That was before the government revealed plans for additional spending on public wages, which could raise the oil price which Oman needs to balance its budget to $112 per barrel from an estimated $105 this year. Brent crude oil is currently at $108; a Reuters poll last month showed the market thinks the price will ease to $104.90 this year and $100 in 2015. “(The) break-even price reaching up to $112 will make building financial reserves difficult if not a downright impossible task,” the magazine article said, quoting the finance minister. It also noted that oil prices could fall substantially if Iran reaches a comprehensive agreement with world powers on its nuclear program this year, allowing economic sanctions to be lifted and full supplies of its oil to global markets to resume.

“Any decline to about $90 probably because of the return of Iranian supplies to the international market - in case Tehran entered into a definitive agreement with world powers on its nuclear program - would affect the expectations and the odds set by the sultanate,” the magazine said.

Oman has started to rein in state spending growth, but this may not be enough to avoid budget deficits in future.

State spending this year is projected at 13.5 billion rials ($35.1 billion), up just 5 percent from the original plan in the 2013 budget, which envisaged a 29 percent leap from 2012. The country has a relatively modest store of oil earnings compared to neighbors such as Saudi Arabia. The magazine said the size of one of Oman’s sovereign wealth funds was $8.2 billion, but did not name it or give other details.

Analysts have estimated the country’s two most prominent sovereign wealth funds hold a total of about $16 billion worth of assets. The central bank’s foreign reserves stood at $15.8 billion in December. — Reuters

YOKOHAMA: A model shows off a FujiFilm instax SHARE Smartphone Printer SP-1 at the FujiFilm booth during the “CP+2014,” camera and photo imaging show in Yokohama yesterday. The 4-day imaging exhibition started yesterday with more than 80 companies participating. — AFP

Asia shares plunge HONG KONG: Asian shares fell on profittaking yesterday following four strong sessions as a rally on Wall Street fizzled out, but Sydney pared earlier losses caused by data showing Australian unemployment at a 10-year high. With few catalysts to drive trade, investors took a breather before the release of fresh data from the United States and China.

Tokyo fell 1.79 percent, or 265.32 points, to end at 14,534.74 as a stronger yen hit exporters, while Sydney was flat, dipping 2.0 points to 5,308.1. Seoul gave up 0.46 percent, or 8.88 points, to end at 1,926.96. Hong Kong fell 0.54 percent, or 120.26 points, to 22,165.53 and Shanghai was down 0.55 percent, or 11.56 points, at 2,098.40. Global markets have so far enjoyed a positive week after a tumultuous time caused by the US Federal Reserve’s decision to reduce its stimulus program for a second time in two months.

The gains came despite last Friday’s

below-forecast US jobs data. Buying was given extra support Wednesday by a report showing a huge surge in Chinese exports last month. The China figures were welcomed after a string of disappointing news, including contracting manufacturing activity, that have indicated a slowdown in the world’s numbertwo economy.

Market players will be looking to the release in Beijing today of inflation data.

Sydney shares were hit after the Australian Bureau of Statistics said the jobless rate rose to 6.0 percent in Januaryits worst level since July 2003 from 5.8 percent in December. The rise comes as the government struggles to manage a bumpy economic transition from a decade-long Asia-led mining investment boom.

It also follows the news earlier in the week that Japanese auto giant Toyota, the last carmaker in the country, will close its Melbourne plant in four years, sound-

ing the death knell for the Australian car industry.

Dollar sinks against yen On Wall Street a four-day winning streak came to an end for the Dow and S&P Wednesday, as investors took their cash off the table ahead of retail sales figures and unemployment benefit claims.

The Dow lost 0.19 percent and the S&P 500 dipped 0.03 percent but the Nasdaq rose 0.24 percent.

In currency trade the dollar was at 102.09 yen against 102.50 yen in New York Wednesday afternoon. The euro bought $1.3626 and 139.11 yen compared with $1.3593 and 139.33 yen in US trade. On oil markets West Texas Intermediate for March delivery eased 61 cents to $99.76, while Brent for March delivery was down 24 cents at $108.55.

Gold fetched $1,290.45 an ounce at 1050 GMT compared with $1,287.42 late Wednesday. — AFP

‘Smart’ dog collar to be sold in Japan

TOKYO: A dog wears a “Petfit tag” equipped with 3G and Bluetooth from Japan’s largest mobile phone carrier NTT Docomo during a press briefing yesterday. — AFP

TOKYO: A high-tech collar attachment that will allow pet owners to monitor their dogs at a distance, checking how much they sleep and how many calories they are burning, was unveiled yesterday in Japan. NTT Docomo, the country’s largest mobile phone operator, said the new gadget would give smartphone users peace of mind about the animal’s health and whereabouts at all times.

The “Petfit” tag, complete with a satellite positioning system, sends information to a designated mobile phone on whether a dog is sleeping, walking or running. It also

monitors how many steps a hound has taken, what the ambient temperature is and whether or not he’s getting enough shuteye.

“The number of dog owners (in Japan) is estimated at 11 million and it is regarded as a sizable market,” a company spokesman said. “In addition, dogs’ presence is quite important to their families,” the spokesman said. “This is part of our proposal for a smart life with mobile phones.” The Petfit goes on sale in March priced at 25,900 yen ($253), including data transmission fees for the first year. — AFP

Business FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

Independent Scotland would have to leave pound: Osborne ‘No legal reason’ for UK to share pound EDINBURGH: British finance minister George Osborne warned yesterday that Scotland would have to leave the pound if it voted to become independent.

Osborne said there was “no legal reason” why the rest of the United Kingdom would have to share the pound with Scotland if its people opt to break away in a referendum on September 18. The Scottish government wants Scotland to retain the pound in the event of independence.

But Osborne told an audience in the Scottish capital Edinburgh that such a currency union would “not work” and was “not going to happen”. “If Scotland walks away from the UK, it walks away from the UK pound,” he said. Backing up Osborne’s speech, Britain’s three main political parties were to join forces to say that they would not let an independent Scotland retain the pound.

Scotland’s Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon dismissed the warnings as the “Westminster establishment” trying to bully Scotland. In the British government’s strongest intervention in the independence debate so far, Osborne said the pound was “one of the oldest and most successful currencies in the world”. He noted that the Scottish economy was growing faster than those of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. “These hard-fought gains could be easily lost,” Osborne said. “And nothing could be more damaging to economic security here in Scotland than dividing our United Kingdom. “I want Scotland to keep the pound and the economic security that it brings,” he added.

‘Angry party to a messy divorce’ First Minister Alex Salmond’s Scottish National Party (SNP) has claimed an independent Scotland would have the right to retain the pound. But Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said: “There’s no legal reason why the rest of the UK would need to share its currency with Scotland.” Osborne said the SNP had offered “nothing more than confusion, wild assertion and empty threats”.

He dismissed Salmond’s warning that an independent Scotland would refuse to accept its fair share of national debt if the United Kingdom refuses to share the pound. “That’s like saying: because my neighbor won’t agree to my unreasonable demands, I’m going to burn my own house down in protest,” Osborne said. He said: “They are like the angry party to a messy divorce. But the pound isn’t an asset to be divided up between two countries after a breakup as if it were a CD collection.” Osborne repeatedly cited Bank of England Governor Mark Carney’s comments last month that an independent Scotland would have to cede some sovereignty if it wanted currency union, or risk the problems shown by the euro-zone. Osborne later tweeted: “I couldn’t recommend a currency union with a separate Scotland; I don’t think any other Chancellor could either.” He said he was taking the “exceptional” step of publishing legal advice to the government from the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury, the most senior civil servant in the finance ministry, on the possibility of Scotland retaining the pound. The advice says: “I would advise you against entering into a currency union with an independent Scotland.

“There is no evidence that adequate proposals or policy changes to enable

Australian unemployment worst in a decade SYDNEY: Australia’s unemployment rate in January jumped to 6.0 percentits worst in a decade-with the economy shedding 3,700 jobs amid a turbulent transition away from mining, data showed yesterday. The Australian Bureau of Statistics said the jobless rate increased from 5.8 percent in December, with some 7,100 full-time positions lost, which were only partially offset by 3,400 extra part-time roles. The Australian dollar dived on the data, which was above analyst predictions. It was at 89.52 US cents from 90.11 cents immediately prior to the announcement.

It is the highest unemployment has been since the global financial crisis, when it peaked at 5.8 percent, and its worst since July 2003. It also matches the government’s forecast jobless peak for the year to June 30. Australia is undergoing a bumpy economic transition with its decade-long Asia-led mining investment boom reaching its peak, and the ailing manufacturing sector in dire straits with the announced exit this week of Toyota, its last remaining automaker. The Reserve Bank of Australia forecast unemployment to continue edging higher in its quarterly monetary policy update last week as spending in the mining sector unwinds. A further 1,300 jobs were lost yesterday with the collapse of engineering firm Forge Group, whose clients include Rio Tinto and BHP-both of whom are tightening their belts as commodity prices soften due to a spike of new supply coming online and slowing demand from China. Reflecting this, Australia’s mining and manufacturing states fared worst, led by resources-rich Western Australia where there was a 0.5 percentage point increase in the jobless rate to 5.1 percent.—AFP

the formation of a currency union could be devised, agreed and implemented by both governments in the foreseeable future.”

Prime Minister David Cameron took a softer tone in a speech last

week, urging all parts of the United Kingdom to persuade their Scottish friends and family to vote against independence in the September 18 referendum. — AFP

Business FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

Congress approves debt limit hike after drama WASHINGTON: Lawmakers approved a 13-month extension of US borrowing authority with no strings attached Wednesday, shelving a fractious political debate over the nation’s debt ceiling until after November’s mid-term elections. With last-minute help from Republican leaders to overcome a blocking effort, the Senate passed the legislation 55-43, marking a dramatic victory for President Barack Obama, who had demanded a debt ceiling hike with no political riders or other legislation attached. The measure, which cleared the House of Representatives Tuesday, now goes to the White House for Obama’s signature.

The president hailed the vote, saying he was pleased that Republicans and Democrats agreed to remove the threat of default. “The full faith and credit of the United States is too important to use as leverage or a tool for extortion,” Obama said in a statement, calling for a renewed push to create jobs and bolster the economy. An uncomplicated extension of borrowing authority without other conditions would mark a shift away from recent confrontations that brought the world’s largest economy to the brink of default, culminating in the US government being shuttered for 16 days in October.

It could also avoid the turmoil that rocked US and international markets during the previous debt limit fights. But the bill was nearly torpedoed in a tense procedural vote minutes earlier, when the Senate’s

Republican leaders struggled to help muster the 60 votes necessary to overcome a blocking tactic known as a filibuster from fiscal conservatives within their ranks. By the end of an unusually long vote that lasted a full hour, 12 Republicans joined all Democrats to advance the bill. But no Republicans backed its final passage, which required a simple majority in the 100seat chamber.

“What needed to get done, got done,” said Senator Bob Corker, one of the dozen Republicans who helped move the bill forward. “At the end of the day there was no stated outcome by any way other than a clean debt ceiling.” US debt stands at $17.3 trillion, and the Treasury estimates it would exhaust borrowing capacity on February 27 without new authority.

With Congress fleeing Washington early to avoid a looming snow storm and a recess scheduled for next week, lawmakers had precious few legislative days to reach a solution before the deadline. Corker said he and other Republicans had to swallow the bitter pill of allowing a debt ceiling bill to move ahead without any federal spending cuts attached. In recent years, Republicans led by House Speaker John Boehner have sought to link debt ceiling hikes to measures that slashed spending.

But with House conservatives recoiling from various sweeteners floated by Boehner in recent weeks, and party leadership loath to be blamed for another fiscal

crisis, the speaker capitulated Tuesday and moved to raise the debt ceiling with no spending cuts attached.

Several Senate Republicans knew they would need to allow the bill’s passage or risk potential fiscal chaos.

“We can put the country through two weeks of turmoil, or we can get this vote behind us,” Corker said.

Focus back on Obamacare Some Republicans, mindful of the bruising their party received when a majority of Americans blamed them for the government shutdown and other recent fiscal crises, said suspending the debt ceiling allows them to focus on a more politically viable talking point during this year’s congressional campaigns: the disastrous rollout of the president’s health care reform law. “We think Obamacare is a very important issue,” Senator John McCain told reporters. Republicans stand united in their effort to repeal or defund the legislation that has become the president’s landmark domestic initiative.

“We have an alternative, we want to push that alternative, and that’s what we want the conversation to be about. That was primarily the driving factor,” McCain added. That may have influenced Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his number two, Senator John Cornyn-two lawmakers vehemently opposed to a “clean” debt ceiling hike with no federal spending cutsin their decision to rally fellow Republicans to prevent the measure’s collapse. — AFP

Lloyds Bank set for share sale after return to profit CEO gets 1.7 million pound bonus

ROBINSON, Pa: In this photo, shoppers check out the sale at an ALDO store in the Mall at Robinson, in Robinson Township, Pa. The US Commerce Department reported on spending at retail businesses and restaurants yesterday. — AP

BNP Paribas reports profit plunge PARIS: French bank BNP Paribas reported yesterday a drop of net earnings by more than a quarter, mostly due to exceptional items, and announced a strategy to raise profitability. Net profit fell by 26.4 percent to 4.83 billion euros ($6.6 billion), below the 5.72 billion euros expected by analysts according to FactSet. Exceptional items pushed down profits by 1.21 billion euros, following a positive contribution of 184 billion euros in 2012.

Among these was a 798-million-euro provision tied to a US investigation for handling dollar payments for parties covered by US sanctions. This compares to the $650 million settlement reached by Britain’s Standard Chartered bank in a similar case. That charge contributed to a fall of fourth-quarter net profit of 75 percent to 127 million euros.

Net banking income, which measures

the difference between what the bank pays for deposits and earns from lending, dipped 0.6 percent to 38.82 billion euros, but still beat analyst expectations of 38.49 billion. Chief executive Jean-Laurent Bonnafe said “BNP Paribas showed good operating resilience in a lacklustre economic environment in Europe in 2013” thanks to its containing of expenses and revenues holding up.

But BNP Paribas shares led the losers on the Paris stock exchange, dropping 4.0 percent to 58.45 euros, while the CAC-40 index was down 0.26 percent. France’s largest commercial bank announced new elements of a strategic plan for the coming years. Top among them is to boost profitability as expressed by return on equity to at least 10 percent in 2016, from 6.1 percent in 2013 (7.7 percent excluding exceptional items). —AFP

LONDON: State-backed Lloyds Banking Group said it was ready to return to private ownership after reporting a pretax profit for the first time in three years.

Lloyds’ Chief Executive Antonio Horta-Osorio has turned around the bank’s fortunes since taking the helm in March 2011, slimming it down to focus on lending to UK households and businesses and meet tougher regulatory requirements on capital.

But the bank risked a political backlash by paying out 395 million pounds in bonuses last year, up 8 percent on the previous year, including a 1.7 million award to Horta-Osorio. His bonus will be paid in shares and is deferred for five years. The bosses of Barclays and state-backed Royal Bank of Scotland have both waived their 2013 bonuses. Barclays angered politicians and unions this week by increasing bonuses for its investment bankers by 13 percent.

Lloyds, 33 percent owned by the government, said yesterday it made a statutory pretax profit of 415 million pounds ($688 million) for 2013, up from a loss of 606 million in 2012, and increased lending in Britain by 3 percent.

Horta-Osorio told reporters that the bank was now ready to return to full private ownership whenever Britain’s finance ministry and UK Financial Investments, which manages the government’s shares, decide it is right to do so. “We absolutely consider ourselves back to normal. It’s absolutely up to UKFI and the Treasury to decide how and when to dispose of those shares,” he said.

Lloyds needed a 20 billion pound bailout in the financial crisis which left taxpayers with a 39 percent stake. Finance Minister George Osborne wants to sell the shares before the next election in 2015 and UKFI and the Treasury are assessing options for future sales. The government kicked off the process with the sale of a 6 percent stake last September.

Banking and political sources expect a second sale of Lloyds’ shares to institutions such as pension funds and insurers in March or April followed by a larger offer including retail investors later in the year. Shares

in Lloyds, which have more than doubled over the past two years, were down 4 percent at 0945 GMT as analysts anticipated a possible stock overhang with the government share sale approaching. Any offer to retail investors would need to be made at a discount to the market price. “(The) investment case is unaltered. However, (Lloyds) shares may flat-line ahead of any government placing,” Numis analyst Mike Trippitt said. The Unite union yesterday criticized a 2 percent pay rise for staff at branches and call centers this year at Lloyds, which has cut more than 35,000 jobs since its bailout.

Assessing options “The CEO’s 1.7 million bonus, on top of shares worth millions awarded at the end of October are a kick in the teeth to the taxpayer, and to hard-working staff who don’t know if they will be next in line for the chop from one day to the next,” Unite national officer Rob Macgregor said. Lloyds, which owns Bank of Scotland and is registered in Edinburgh, would be affected if Scotland voted for independence in September. Horta-Osorio said the bank would have time to assess its options.

“If the vote is a ‘yes’, there will be 18 months until separation is implemented so therefore we believe we have more than enough time to assess the consequences or actions we would need to take.”Lloyds and part-nationalised rival Royal Bank of Scotland are drawing up contingency plans in the event of a “yes” vote, Reuters reported last week.

Lloyds said it expected to apply to the regulator in the second half of this year to restart dividends, which would boost the prospect of further stake sales. It last paid a dividend in 2008. Horta-Osorio said he expects to pay out at least half of Lloyds’ earnings in dividends over the medium term. The bank took 3.5 billion pounds more in provisions last year to compensate customers for past mis-selling. The bank said its core capital - a measure of financial strength - increased to 10.3 percent. — Reuters

Tr a v e l FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

Northern lights: Hunting the aurora borealis

By Becki Nation

C

hasing the light show... the addictive quality of the aurora borealis has sparked the Nation family’s epic adventure. Our philosophy can be summed up as, “Keep looking up!” We are a family of six who live for the aurora borealis, nature’s most sensational light show, and we are about to set off on our most illuminating adventure yet: a five-month northern lights pilgrimage across Lapland.

With the biggest increase in solar activity in 11 years, we want to make the most of this opportunity. We’ll be doing so with the help of our seven-berth motorhome, which has been adapted for winter conditions with a diesel heater and thermal insulation - ready for our boldest adventure yet.

We will sail to Denmark with studded winter tires strapped to the roof and we’ll be living under the aurora in Lapland for five months, in temperatures that will dip to -30C. Travelling to Arctic locations with four young children in a motorhome is one step beyond the norm but our mobile home is equipped with toilet, shower, kitchen and full-sized beds, as well as resources so our daughters can be home-schooled. Time spent among Sami tribes on a day-to-day basis will no doubt be an education for us all.

How did we get so hooked on the bright lights? It all started in 2009 when we encountered our first aurora in Iceland. After many nights being frustrated watching green-tinged cloud, we all became mesmerized as the cloud finally cleared and a magical luminosity filled the sky. We witnessed an incredible energy and bright green light unfold above us and, from that moment, the allure of the aurora overtook us. We knew we needed to see more of this magical phenomenon.

Our next trip took us 200 miles into the Arctic Circle, to Tromso in Norway, to more skies radiating emerald and ruby above snow-clad mountains. Sometimes we would drive hundreds of miles in search of cloud-free skies: the long quests looking for the lights always added to the thrill.

Life doesn’t get more special than the five-hour light show we witnessed in Norway this year. Seeing our family jump up and down with excitement as the sky came alive with light shooting in every direction was a priceless experience. The more humankind leaves its

mark in the form of light pollution, the less vivid and vibrant the lights appear. That makes them a precious natural phenomenon to see.

But it’s not only the northern lights that appeal. During the five holidays we’ve taken under the auroral band, we’ve never been short of entertainment while waiting for the “Tricky Lady” to appear.

From last year’s Norwegian Christmas in a lavvu (traditional Sami tent) to bathing in volcanic hot tubs, herding reindeer, eating hardboiled eggs cooked on volcanic steam vents, natural hot-mud

poles, encountering atoms of oxygen and nitrogen. The energy from the particles bump up the energy levels of the oxygen and nitrogen atoms. The reds and greens you see are the energy coming from those atoms as they relax.

Why red and green?

All the colors of the rainbow have different energies and frequencies. Particular energies relate to specific colors - blue and purple belong to nitrogen interactions. Greens and reds for oxygen.

Chasing the northern lights is more than a holiday excursion for the Nation family - it’s a five-month adventure in Lapland lagoons, Icelandic horse riding and fishing for our dinner in a fjord, we’ve embraced the outdoor life. These, combined with the simple delights of sledging, snow-topped hot chocolate, cooking sausages on a campfire, watching shooting stars and waiting for eclipses, makes for a winter paradise.

As well as being a perfect travelling and living environment, our motorhome will also act as a workspace: we have jobs as a web developer and a music teacher. With mobile Wi-Fi for monitoring aurora activity, solar winds and weather, we will also broadcast realtime aurora chases for our 4,500 Facebook followers and allow the children to keep in touch with what’s happening back home.

In May, as the Arctic’s period of midnight sun (24-hour daylight) approaches, we will say goodbye to our beloved green skies, pack our snow gear away, and drive south through Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary (helping with a fruit-farm harvest), the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia and Italy for a further four months of adventure. But that is an entirely different story.

The Earth is constantly bombarded with electrons and protons emitted from the sun - the solar wind. Some of those charge particles stream down along magnetic field lines at the north and south

Is there any way of knowing what’s going to happen and when?

Generally, you’ll see blues from nitrogen lower down and greens and reds from oxygen higher up in the atmosphere. Scientists can make forecasts from looking at aurora ovals (the extent and distribution of auroras) to see how far down the Earth the particle interactions are taking place. It’s also possible to monitor solar storms, which can vary in density and sometimes bombard the Earth with more charged particles than usual. As they dent the Earth’s magnetosphere, the energy interactions can take place at lower latitudes.

During a powerful solar storm in 1859, known as the Carrington Event, people saw the northern lights as far south as Mexico and Italy. Obviously, there was less light pollution back then, but we also haven’t experienced such strong solar activity since.

Why are experts predicting good viewings for this year?

We are currently experiencing the high point of an 11-year cycle in solar activity. However, the levels have actually been quite low we’ve seen an increase, but not a particularly big one. It’s hard to make predictions because we have been monitoring the sun for such a small window of its lifetime and it can always throw in curveballs, but we expect the activity to fall off over the next few years, and then build up to another maximum in 11 years’ time. So this year is the peak until the top of the next solar cycle.

What conditions are optimum for aurora spotting, and what are my best chances of a viewing?

As with all astronomy, it’s important to get away from manmade light as much as possible. And you need to be facing north. The best website to use is spaceweather.com, which aggregates a number of different solar observatories, and then predicts the best chance of a solar storm. Another good suggestion is to use Flickr.com/map.

Because it has a geotagging feature, you are able to search for “aurora borealis” and then instantly see the locations where photographs of them have been taken. I think people have seen them (faintly) as far south as Whitby, North Yorkshire. And about 12 years ago I spotted them from my back garden in Ireland.

— www.theguardian.com

Tr a v e l FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

What are the northern lights?

E

ach appearance of the northern lights is unique. Often you see three green bands across the night sky. Or the lights come as flickering curtains or rolling smoke. The color is a luminous green, often with a hint of pink along the edge, and occasionally with a deep violet centre. The color palette seems to come from the 1980s.If there is a lot of activity up there, the northern lights explode for a minute or two in a corona. The next minute it is all over, and you ask yourself whether this was real or just an Arctic fata morgana.

The science behind the northern lights But what exactly are the northern lights? It is the sun that lies behind the formation of the auroras. During large solar explosions and flares, huge quantities of particles are thrown out of the sun and into deep space. When the particles meet the Earth’s magnetic shield, they are led towards a circle around the magnetic North Pole, where they interact with the upper layers of the atmosphere. The energy which is then released is the northern lights. All this happens approximately 100 kilometers above our heads.

Living legend Perhaps not so surprisingly, the northern lights’ spectacle has given rise to as many legends as there have been people watching. Symbols linked to the northern lights are found on the Sami shamanistic drum. The phenomenon has several different names in Sami. It is, for instance, known as Guovssahas, which means “the light which can be heard”. The northern lights were traditionally associated with sound by the Sami, the indigenous people of Norway. And during the Viking Age, the northern lights were said to be the armor of the Valkyrie warrior virgins, shedding a strange flickering light.

Be patient When dreaming about seeing the northern lights, you must remember that you are at the complete mercy of nature. The northern lights love to play hide and seek. Observing the aurora borealis is often a tug of war between your patience and the aurora itself. Stay in the northern lights area at least a week, preferably two, and you will be rewarded - unless local weather suddenly decides to obstruct your view with clouds.

When and where to find the northern lights For the best chances to see the northern lights, or aurora borealis, head to Northern Norway between late autumn and early spring.

When to see the northern lights Seeing the northern lights, or the aurora borealis, as they are also known, is a jaw-dropping and mystical moment.

The lights are at their most frequent in late autumn and winter/early spring. Between the autumn equinox and spring equinox (21 September - 21 March), it is dark between 6 pm and 1 am, and you have maximum chances of spotting the lights. However, the weather is also of importance, and September, October and November tend to be wet and snowless in the north.

From December the weather dries up, and there is normally plenty of snow. If you come in December or January, you experience the polar nights with atmospheric evenings and very short

The aurora borealis has been fascinating travelers to Norway and locals alike for generations, but what is the science behind the northern lights? days. In February and March the days are longer and you see more of the snow-clad landscapes during daytime, and the evenings still offer maximum chances to spot the northern lights.

No guarantee can be given, though. Some weeks, you are treated to fantastic displays, repeated several times during the evening. Other times, the snow falls densely, or the northern lights simply stay away. Naturally, the longer you stay and the more time you set aside, the better the odds.

Where to see the northern lights Theoretically, you can see the northern lights all over Norway.

However, the best places are above the Arctic Circle in Northern Norway.

The northern lights belt hits Northern Norway in the Lofoten Islands, and follows the coast all the way up to the North Cape.

This means that no other place on earth offers better chances of spotting the lights, and one location in this area might be as good as another. In fact, one often observes the same northern lights in the Lofoten as in Troms?, just from a different angle. The driest weather, giving clear skies, is found inland, statistically providing the best chances, but with strong eastern winds, the coast can be clearer than inland areas.

In order to get full value from the show you should avoid the full moon and places with a lot of light as they make the experience considerably paler. Also remember to wrap up warmly.

— www.visitnorway.com

Opinion FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses members of parliament of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) during a meeting at the Turkish parliament in Ankara on Feb 11, 2014. — AFP

Erdogan’s position weakens as economy and freedoms suffer Once untouchable, prime minister under attack on multiple fronts

By Jane Heyyman

I

n recent years visitors to Turkey could be forgiven for thinking they were visiting the ‘Europe of the Middle East’. Political stability and a secular society are complimented by long paved streets and Istanbul’s bustling nightlife. But the facade of a modern and progressive nation is beginning to erode as Turkey’s ruler becomes more authoritarian and digs in to ride out the impending elections. The declining economic situation looks set to ensure that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan won’t be forgetting his troubles any time soon.

Last summer’s protests in Gezi Park were only the first sign that something was amiss in Erdogan’s Turkey. Images of full scale riots were broadcast across the world, and while the crescendo of violence and civil unrest has peaked, hardly a week goes by without some form of clashes between protestors and the herds of riot police who maintain a heavy presence in the iconic Taksim Square and Istiklal Street, both of which are popular with tourists and protesters alike.

In response to the Gezi protests, Erdogan was quick to implement a series of policies limiting the Internet and press freedoms, with the intention of stifling dissent and quelling the public unrest. The emergence of a very public investigation into Erdogan government corruption added to concerns and sent investor confidence in the country plummeting and the local currency, the Turkish lira, into a downward spiral.

Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has held power since 2002, will see next month’s local and August’s presidential elections posing new choices and challenges to the once untouchable party and its leader. The heaviest threat to Erdogan’s leadership to date emerged last December when a corruption investigation culminated in the arrest of 47 officials with ties to the gov-

ernment. Further arrests followed; millions of dollars were confiscated; and charges of bribery and corruption were levelled at those involved. Erdogan was quick to react by firing 350 police officers early this year along with investigators and a prosecutor.

In January, ongoing allegations of Turkish government ties to Al-Qaeda and jihadist groups saw offices and safe houses across the country raided and numerous arrests made. The large Turkish charity IHH, with ties to the ruling AKP party, was implicated when their offices in Kilis were raided. Again, Erdogan responded by sacking those involved in the investigations.

Shadowy Movement The influence of the Gulen movement, a shadowy religious movement who wield influence within the Turkish judiciary, is striking. The movement, who share Erdogan and AKP’s religious lean, are currently in stark conflict with the ruling party, who they formerly supported. Gareth H Jenkins, a Senior Fellow of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Joint Centre at Johns Hopkins University said: “On December 20, 2013, shortly after Erdogan had initiated his first purge of the police, Gulen himself issued a video statement publicly cursing those he accused of blocking the corruption investigations and calling on God to “burn down their houses”.

This perceived threat to Erdogan from the media since Gezi Park has been compounded in the wake of the corruption scandal. The government has responded with even more restrictive practices toward media in Turkey. Last week, prominent Azerbaijani journalist Mahir Zeynalov was deported from the country on the grounds that his “residence in Turkey is considered detrimental to public security and political and administrative requirements”. The justification for this was a series of tweets seen as critical to the government. His deportation was considered to be a warning to foreign journalists against

reporting against the government.

Local journalists have long been afraid of detention for unpopular reporting and the Committee to Protect Journalists reported that in 2013, Turkey jailed more journalists - 40 - than any other country.

Increased Internet surveillance and restrictions have been allowed by the Turkish Telecommunication Presidency (TIB), which has blocked more than 30,000 websites, according to independent groups who monitor Internet restrictions in Turkey.

Opponents of these increased restrictions have been labelled the ‘porn lobby’ in pro-government press in an attempt to discredit their dissatisfaction as resulting from a desire to access pornographic websites rather than allowing them to be seen as fighting for freedoms of Internet and expression.

The impact of this political unrest and detour from the perceived open government of recent years has contributed to a decline in investor confidence in Turkey. Since the beginning of the corruption scandal the lira has lost significant value: “On a fundamental level, Turkey has a large amount of external financing needs with a current account deficit but also a large amount of short-term external debt. “These are important, should investors lose confidence,” Altaz Dagha, a fixed-income strategist with Westpac Bank told The Media Line. “The weakening currency then causes more funds to be withdrawn from the country adding more pressure.”

The lira has been on a downward trajectory against the dollar since December, a trend which rapidly accelerated in January. “When a currency comes under pressure, central banks in emerging markets tend to intervene in the currency markets to try and stem the decline,” says Dagha. And this was exactly what happened in Turkey with a Central Bank interest rate hike in late January, which has halted the fall in value of the currency but has not seen the rates rise again to pre-scandal levels.

Tourism is big business in Turkey and the falling

lira may have positive impacts in that sector.

According to the World Travel & Tourism Council, in 2012 travel and tourism accounted for nearly 11 percent of Turkey’s GDP. Sarah Giles, a tourist from the United Kingdom who has spent the last week in Istanbul’s Sultanahmet suburb, told The Media Line that the weak lira was appealing. “We have been in the Grand Bazaar today,” she said. “We have bought a whole new wardrobe and jewellery because the rates make it all so cheap.”

Pivotal Role Certainly, Turkey plays a pivotal role in the Syrian crisis from the perspective of the international community. NATO affiliated, the country has faced enormous pressure due to the influx in Syrians and the strain on resources. The knock-on effect stems further than the allegations of ties to jihadist groups.

Nowhere will the influence of the Syrian crisis on the upcoming local elections be felt more than in Hatay Province. Erdogan will be hard-pressed to do well with Hatay’s large population of Alawites loyal to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, and a strong opposing force from the Republican People’s Party (CHP). That, combined with the influx of Syrians in towns like Reyhanli - where the population has doubled in the last three years and one in two residents are now Syrian - stacks the deck against Erdogan.

Indeed, a source in the region told The Media Line on the condition of anonymity that the CHP had sent an undercover mole, posing as a journalist, into the plethora of NGOs in the area toward the end of 2013. Turkey is unwelcoming to foreign influences, including that of international NGOs and registration is difficult, forcing many to work unregistered in the country. The mole said he had “taken pictures and talked to beneficiaries” before submitting the evidence that forced a court ruling to close down operations of many unregistered NGOs in the area, including many medical facilities. — Media Line

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014 www.kuwaittimes.net

Johnny Depp, left, and Amber Heard arrive at the US premiere of "3 Days to Kill" at ArcLight Cinemas Hollywood on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2014, in Los Angeles.— AP

28

C a re e r FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

How to prepare for that important job interview

I

n the lead up to a big game, professional athletes visualize success, double-check their equipment or listen to a favorite song on their headphones - all before heading into competition. The minutes before you leave your house for that big job interview might not contain the same level of intensity, but mental preparation can still mean the difference between victory (getting the job) and defeat (back to the classifieds).

Experts recommend that job hunters visualize in their minds how the interview will go.

A little edginess before an interview can be helpful if it makes you alert and energized, but too much anxiety can be disastrous.

Practicing deep breathing or repeating a tranquil word like “calm” are popular methods people use to get themselves ready for a tense situation. And, again, mental preparation well in advance of an interview is key.

10. First, get the interview Before you can ace your interview, you have to actually get the interview. That means making an awesome resumé and making sure it gets through. Check out our top 10 ways to rock your resumé, and make sure to avoid the items that can kill your chances at getting the job (like a long history of unemployment). Once you’re done, don’t just send it in with the rest. Use your connections and a bit of ingenuity to beat that computerized system and get your resumé into the right hands. If you don’t get the interview, find out why and use that to help you the next time around.

9. Prepare ahead of time So you’ve got the interview, but you still

have a lot of work to do before you walk into that building. Writer Alan Skorkin says the main reason most people suck at interviews is a lack of preparation. So, find out as much as you can about the company, research the job, and formulate a strategy to stand out in that interview among all the other candidates. Getting a cheat sheet together and studying it can help you out, too.

8. Make a good first impression Your job interview starts the second you walk in the door, so be ready. Practice walking into a room if you have to. But more than anything, learn how first impressions work and do everything you can to make a good one: be on time, dress and groom yourself well, and be aware of your body language.

Remember, just giving a damn will go a long way in your first impression-if you don’t want to be there, they’ll know. When heading into a job interview you might think that you need to start your performance with the person interviewing you.

7. Tackle the tough questions Once you’re inside, it’s time for the hard part: answering the interview questions.

Know the questions you’ll be expected to answer backwards and forwards, and do some extra research onanswering the really tough ones, like “what is your biggest weakness,” “have you ever been fired,” “tell me about a challenge you faced with a coworker,” or even just the ever-vague “tell me about yourself.” Most of your answers will probably follow a specific pattern, so when in doubt, fall back on the STAR technique.

But most of all: learn why they’re asking you

each question and tailor your responses to their hidden motives. Don’t be afraid to dance around questions you’d rather not answer, too.

6. Ask some questions Your interviewer shouldn’t be the only one asking questions. This is your chance to not only make a good impression, but learn a bit more about the job you’re applying for.

Ask a few questions that will make you look good, as well as some questions that’ll show you whether this is the right job for you.

With the right questions prepared, you’ll be one step ahead of the competition. Photo by bpsusf.

5. Emphasize your good qualities You’ll probably feel the need to be humble, but don’t. Shameless self-promotion is a good thing in job interviews. In fact, it’s the only thing you can really do to showcase your good qualities. If you don’t have experience to tout, remember that potential is actually more valuable than experience: if you can show why you’re a promising hire, you’re in.

4. Avoid the common pitfalls So you’ve learned what to do, but it’s also important to know what to avoid. Even something as simple as negative body language can sabotage your chances, so make sure you aren’t hurting yourself without knowing it. Research the subjects you should avoid and make sure you don’t overshare, particularly when it comes to your personal life. As long as you don’t raise any red flags, you should be good to go.

3. Recover when things go south Hopefully, with the right preparation, your interview will go smoothly. But, if you end up answering a question terribly or hit a common brick wall (like claims of “overqualification”), learn how to turn the tide quickly so you can get back on good footing. If you leave the interview thinking the whole thing was a disaster, you can always request a second interview explaining the problems you had, too.

2. Follow up afterwards Don’t let your interview be the last they hear from you. If you follow up afterwards, you’ll help them remember who you are, and make sure your resume doesn’t fall into the abyss of the forgotten. Send a thank you note after your interview, and a short email later on to check in if you haven’t heard back. Take into account how you’ve been communicating with them so far, though, as different modes of communication may be more beneficial. If you have a follow up interview, be sure to nail that too.

1. If you don’t get hired, find out why Not every interview will be a winner, sadly, even if you do everything right. If you don’t get hired, the best thing you can do is find out why and apply that knowledge to your next round of interviews. Look back on your interview and think about what you could have done better, whether it’s avoiding the “overqualification” trap or just simply using better grammar. There are any number of reasons someone might not hire you, and all you can do is use this round as practice for your next interview. www.lifehacker.com

Food FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

C

offee, a hot drink made from ground coffee beans, is one of the world’s favorite brews. It can be made from either caffeinated or decaffeinated beans (the caffeine is removed using either a chemical solvent or via filtration). There are many ways to serve coffee.

Some of the most popular include: Espresso - a strong, potent and highly-roasted brew made by forcing steam through finely ground coffee at very high pressure. It is served in tiny espresso cups. Cappuccino - frothy steamed milk is added to espresso to make a milky drink that’s served for breakfast in Italy. It’s usually dusted with powdered chocolate. Caffe latte - a mixture of espresso and hot milk. In France, this is called

Get your caffeine fix here cafe au lait. Macchiato - espresso with a dash of hot or cold milk. Americano - espresso that has been thinned by hot water. Ristretto - a particularly dense espresso made by switching off the machine sooner than needed when making a regular espresso. Mocha - one-third espresso, one-third hot chocolate and one-third steamed milk.

When making coffee, always use fresh water, just off the boil, in order to extract the oils and subsequent aromas from the beans. Use the right amount of coffee per person (about one to two tablespoons of ground coffee per cup, or according to taste). Always make sure the coffee pot is clean and free of oily coffee residue, and

warm your cup or mug before you pour in the coffee.

To make coffee in a jug, pour boiling water into a jug to heat it while you grind the coffee.

Boil some fresh water, then empty the jug, spoon in the coffee and slowly pour on the boiled water. Stir and brew for a few minutes, then strain into cups or pots. To make coffee in a cafetiere of French press, use medium-ground coffee, and let it brew for several minutes before you push the plunger down.

To make filter coffee, place a filter paper in the special holder that fits over the heatproof jug and spoon in fine or medium ground coffee.

Pour on just enough freshly boiled water to moisten the coffee. When this water has dripped through the filter, pour over the rest of the water.

Espresso pots and machines are also available and range from modestly priced stovetop pots to highly complex and expensive pieces of kit. Coffee can also be made in a percolator, ibrik (a small, long-handled copper pan, used to make Turkish or Greek coffee), French drip pots and Neapolitan pots.

Whichever method you use to make your coffee, give the mixture long enough to brew.

Note that while you can make strong coffee by increasing the ratio of coffee to water, you should not make weak coffee by increasing the ratio of water to coffee or it will bring out bitter, unpleasant oils. It is better to make it at normal strength and then dilute.

Ingredients 1/4 cup Hot Espresso, dissolve instant espresso granules in hot milk 1/2 cup Steamed skim milk 1/4 cup Caramel sundae topping, at room temperature Foamed milk, whipped cream or whipped topping Garnish: Shaved chocolate or chocolate covered candy coffee beans Directions Stir together hot espresso, steamed milk and caramel topping in a large mug or cup. Top with foamed milk, whipped cream or whipped topping. Garnish with shaved chocolate or chocolate covered candy coffee beans, if desired. Serve immediately.

Bean brain

Coffee Granita Ingredients 600ml/1 pint strong, hot espresso coffee 120g/4oz caster sugar To serve 300ml/10fl oz double cream 1 vanilla pod, split lengthway, seeds scraped out 1 tbsp icing sugar Directions Put a shallow baking dish (about 1litre/13/4 pints capacity) into the freezer.

Stir and dissolve the sugar into the coffee over a low heat. Set aside to cool.

Pour the coffee mixture into the dish and freeze for 40 minutes. Check to see if there are any ice crystals forming around the edge. If there is, gently bring them into the liquid centre using a fork. Place the granita back into the freezer Have another look again in about 20 minutes and repeat the same process as step 3. Keep doing this until the entire mixture is a mass

of coffee crystals with no remaining liquid parts. Once this has been achieved, tip the granita into a plastic, lidded box and store in the freezer until needed.

Place the cream, vanilla and icing sugar in a large bowl. Add a handful of crushed ice and whip the mixture until a dropping consistency.

Serve the granita in pre-chilled glasses with the whipped cream mixture.

30

Health FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

Trick out some killer triceps W

e can’t stress enough the importance of great triceps in your quest for overall arm development.

Making up an enormous percentage of your upper arms, thick triceps separate the men from the boys. More times than not, when we marvel at someone’s arms it’s 75 percent because of how dedicated he has been to his tri’s. Have you balanced your triceps and biceps training? If not, let’s turn that trend around. Here’s a workout that’s certain to get your triceps rocking!

TRICEPS PRESSDOWN Target: Triceps (Emphasis on lateral head) An excellent move to begin your triceps workout, the pressdown begins filling your arms with a good pump to warm up the joints and prepare the triceps for battle. Even though this is the first exercise, by your last set, select a weight that allows for failure at the designated rep range. On your last two sets, flip your grip to involve more of the triceps’ medial head. For variety, try different grips or use a rope attachment; don’t get stuck in a rut using the same attachment every time.

Start: Stand in front of a high-pulley cable and grasp a straight bar with an overhand (pronated) grip. With your knees slightly bent, lean forward at the waist and position your elbows close to your sides, holding your forearms parallel to the floor. Look forward, keeping your back flat and your abs tight.

Action: Flex your triceps and press the bar toward the floor until your arms are fully extended. Squeeze your tri’s and hold for a brief count before returning to the start position.

WEIGHTED BENCH DIP Target: Triceps This is a great move, but typically you need a partner to place weight across your lap. If

If you really want to fill out your shirtsleeves, you’ll need to do more than just barbell curls

you don’t have a partner, sit on one bench and set the weight across your lap, then put your hands in position. Next, place one foot at a time on the opposite bench before you press upward onto your hands and move your glutes off the bench. At the end of the set, sit back up on the bench and remove one foot at a time from the opposite bench.

Start: Position two benches a few feet apart and parallel to each other. Sit on the middle edge of one bench facing the other.

Place your hands just outside your hips on the bench, cupping it with your fingers. Place your heels on the opposite bench and press yourself upward so your body forms an “L” in the top position.

Action: After a partner places a weight plate across your lap, slowly lower your glutes toward the floor until your arms form 90degree angles. Pause, then forcefully press yourself back up to the start position.

out the set.

Start: Lie faceup on a flat bench placed inside a Smith machine with your feet flat on the floor. Grasp the bar with a narrow (about shoulder-width) overhand grip. Rotate and press the bar up slightly to unrack it, then hold it above your chest with your arms extended.

Action: Lower the bar to your lower chest, keeping your elbows close to your body. Don’t bounce the bar off your chest; rather, when it approaches an inch or so away from your chest, pause and press it back up to the start position. Squeeze your triceps and chest at the top.

your shoulder and then to your knee.

Start: Sit erect on a low-back bench, feet flat on the floor or on the footpads. Grasp the inner plate of a dumbbell with both hands and hold it overhead at full arm extension, keeping your elbows alongside your ears.

Wrap your thumbs around the bar. Keep your head straight and your lower back pressed into the backpad.

Action: Bending only at your elbows, lower the weight behind your head until your arms form 90-degree angles. Hold for a brief count, then press back up to full arm extension and squeeze your triceps hard at the top.

SMITH MACHINE CLOSE-GRIP BENCH PRESS Target: Triceps In another compound move for the triceps, the shoulder-width grip allows for more stress to be placed on the tri’s than during a standard bench press. Be careful not to go too narrow with your grip to avoid undue stress on the wrists without putting any additional force on the triceps. The key is to keep your elbows in close without allowing them to flare out. The beauty of the Smith machine is that it provides a defined path of motion, so once you find the plane that hits your triceps best, you can stick to that path through-

OVERHEAD DUMBBELL EXTENSION Target: Triceps (Emphasis on long head) The overhead extension is awesome for building size and thickness in your triceps. By raising your arms overhead, you stretch the triceps’ long head, meaning it can contract more strongly than when your arms are fixed by your sides. While you can do this movement one arm at a time, here you use both hands and go heavier with only one dumbbell. Start with the weight on one knee, then kick it up to your shoulder before pressing it overhead to begin the set. At the end of the set, reverse the sequence, coming down to

DUMBBELL KICKBACK Target: Triceps Now, let’s add some detail to those arms and provide a great finishing pump to boot.

Don’t worry about going heavy during this move; trying to do so could put undue stress on your shoulder joints. Instead, select a weight that you can easily manage as well as hold and squeeze at the top of each rep. For variety, also try the cable kickback.

Start: Grasp a light dumbbell with one hand and place your other hand on a stable surface. Lean forward until your torso is almost parallel to the floor and stagger your feet. Raise your upper arm to parallel to your torso and keep it pressed into your side. Keep your back flat.

Action: Holding your upper arm in place, raise your forearm straight back to full extension. Don’t allow your elbow to drop as you return to the start position. www.muscleandstrength.com

31

Health FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

Femme fatale:

The best triceps exercises for women J

ust when you thought you were safely in sweater season, it’s time for holiday parties-and cocktail dresses.

Arm yourself to bare those jiggly bits on the flip sides of your biceps (wave hello and you’ll see them). Strengthening these areas will help you look great in sleeveless styles and may also give a small boost to overall metabolism, says David Goldman, a personal trainer and the owner of Wicker Park Fitness, in Chicago, who created this routine. Do the moves, some of which require fiveto eight-pound weights and an exercise ball, three times a week. Soon you’ll be waving arm wobble good-bye.

Move 1: One-Arm Press (A) Lie on your left side with legs stacked, knees slightly bent. Place your left arm on your right shoulder. (B) Press your right palm into the floor to lift your torso, extending your right arm until it’s straight. Do 12 repetitions, then switch sides.

Move 2: Stability-Ball Push-Up (A) Come into a plank position, with your toes resting on a stability ball. Place your hands a little closer than shoulderwidth apart. (B) Bend your arms slowly until your elbows reach a 90-degree angle, then press back up to straighten.

Do 12 repetitions.

Move 3: Dumbbell Skull Crusher Lie on a stability ball or a bench and extend both arms overhead, a weight in each hand. (A) Bend your elbows so your forearms are parallel to the floor. (B) Slowly straighten your arms, then lower them to the starting position. Repeat 12 times.

Move 4: Overhead Extension Stand with knees soft, arms straight up with elbows next to ears, holding a dumbbell in your hands. (A) Bend your elbows to a 90-degree angle. (B) Squeeze your triceps to straighten your arms, pressing the dumbbell up. Slowly lower to the start position. Complete 12 reps.

Move 5: One-Arm Kickback Place your left palm and knee on a bench. Hold a weight in your right hand and lift your right arm parallel to your torso. (A) Bend your right elbow to a 90degree angle. (B) Slowly straighten your arm, pause, then return to the start position. Do 12, then switch sides.

Move 6: Close-Grip Push-Up (A) Get on the floor in a push-up position, with your hands directly under your shoulders. (B) Keeping your elbows close to your sides, lower your body.

Make sure to contract your abdomen and gluteals. Return to the start position. Do 12 reps.

Books FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

Review

Branson: Behind the Mask unmasks the rockstar What are the dark secrets that lurk behind the public image of the fun-loving entrepreneur?

T

om Bower really doesn’t like Richard Branson and Richard Branson really doesn’t like Tom Bower. This is the second Branson biography Bower has written.

The first, published in 2000, was described by Branson as a “foul, foul piece of work”, which is what I was hoping this would be. The first book was republished in 2008 with added extras: even more business failures, as if to pre-empt Branson’s authorized biography Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun and Made a Fortune. On the cover of that book Branson’s hair is artfully tousled: that bible of overblown aspiration GQ magazine tells us that “probably no one is nearly as much fun to be around”. He’s a swashbuckler!

He is sexy and smart and all he wants is for other people to have fun too!

Bower does not think he is fun at all, and has produced another 300 pages charting the last few years - his miserable failures, his silly boasting, his fake altruism and er ...

Virgin Galactic. Much of the world sees Branson as an entrepreneur who has been phenomenally successful at branding. We tend to forget the condoms and the cola and remember the things that did work, as well his daft adventures in hot air balloons and all the cunning stunts with near naked blondes.

He now appears something of a throwback, but then much of the business world still inhabits the last century.

Bower particularly resents Branson’s image as the people’s champion, always on the side of the consumer. David versus Goliath. I wonder if Branson, the rebel without a necktie, really does represent this anymore. For my generation he was always the dealer who never got stoned himself, ripped you off and made a clumsy pass. So Bower’s barely concealed rage that Branson lies, cheats and does anything to make a deal is extreme. Is it such a huge revelation? Perhaps it is in a culture that encourages us to see businessmen as heroic. Yet the reality is nauseating - the charmless, sexist dinosaurs: Sugar, Trump, the grumps on Dragons’ Den. Sir Richard to the rescue In the era of Bill Gates there are other models of business and what it can do, yet Branson, for all his waffle about the environment and the extreme responsibility that comes with extreme wealth, does little that is not for himself. He gives inspirational quotes, says Steve Jobs was wrong, talks of his philosophy of business as being about doing only what you are proud of, and not about just making money. He advocates ethical transparency and claims consumers associate honesty with his brand. He hangs out with Gore, Clinton and the Blairs. Everyone holidays on Necker, his Caribbean island. Everyone pays Richard back in kind. Cherie sidles up to him at a do saying Tony must do a little something for him and it’s arise Sir Richard.

As Sir Richard campaigns for a fairer world, flying his private jet into climate change summits, it’s worth being reminded - and Bower reminds us here - that Virgin Atlantic Airways is run through 11 companies ending up with Virgin Group Holdings Ltd. This is then owned by a trust whose chief beneficiaries are Branson and his family. “But to prevent any tax charge ever arising against the Bransons, the legal documents make it

absolutely clear that trustees and not the Branson family actually control Virgin Group Holdings.” The identities of these trustees is never disclosed. Thus the business is run from Necker, now considerably easier in the days of Skype, while Branson lectures others on transparency and accountability.

Bower starts this account with Branson’s attempt at space travel: the four-minute flights for the super wealthy that have yet to get off the ground. And on and on he goes.

Everything Branson touches is financed by other people’s money, ill-thought-out, dodgy - and yet no one blames Branson himself.

Bower claims the brand is stagnating, but in

the end his monotone of hostility actually makes you side with Branson, or almost. To the point one feels that if Branson funded a cure for cancer, Bower would deem it yet another overhyped fiasco.

Bower’s forays into the business world may be exhaustively researched, but there is nothing here of Branson the man or any attempt to understand his drive. For this I went back to Mick Brown’s authorized biography, so desperate was I to get out of the boardroom. I wanted some childhood, some salacious detail. Bower, for instance, mentions Branson is a philanderer but says no more.

But even in the authorized biography, Branson emerges as a socially awkward but inwardly confident boy who cheats at exams, egged on by a mother who tells him he can do anything. His first sexual experience is with a prostitute paid for by his father. Such is the public school way. He actually seems to have been a rather lonely child. He had no interest in books. And, it seems, no real relationship to music. Later in life he would declare.

People’s champion Though early on he presented himself as some kind of countercultural figure, getting himself snapped with Tariq Ali, he did not share the ideals of the time. He became known for stunts and pranks - but everything was “99.5 percent business”. He enjoyed onenight-stands and cross-dressing. There are various accounts of him dropping his trousers to reveal lacy stockings and suspenders.

None of this is in Bower’s book, which may

be more high-minded but lacks a centre, a purpose, a personality. Once you grasp that Branson is an expert deal maker who persuades people to do his bidding and then drops them in it, all you get is a list of scenarios in which he has done this. When he does appear to have actual beliefs - such as in the decriminalization of cannabis - Bower dismisses them as a search for new business opportunities.

Though Branson may fashion himself as the people’s champion, do we actually believe that wealth confers moral legitimacy?

Do we see the man or the mask? Once when he propositioned and was turned down by the journalist, she described him as “a vacuum”. Despite the “Carry On Blondes” and the derring do this seems fitting. He is a stumbling public speaker (the stunts disguise this); his passions are for deals and not wearing ties. There is nothing he will not sell, from an Isa to space travel. The public image is one of jet-setting eternal fun but Bower is probably right to say that Virgin leaves no legacy - that Branson has ultimately done nothing for the British economy or British society.

Why do we expect him to? He is a salesman who breaks rules not out of any radical impulse but because he has always got away with it. To some he is the “iconic model of a super wealth-creator”. But John Lydon was more succinct when he said “never trust a hippy”. Even as Bower picks apart the brand’s financial performance - gesturing to Branson’s vulgarity and cowardice; the duplicity of the man - the mask stays on. The mask surely is the brand. Which is why he wears it so well. www.theguardian.com

Lifestyle FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

This Feb 14, 2012 file photo shows a pedestrian walking past valentines posted on a storefront in Montpelier, Vt. — AP photos

U

This Feb 14, 2012 file photo shows a flower delivery driver loading his car with Valentine’s Day deliveries in Pittsburgh.

Valentine’s bliss

nsure what to get your sweetheart this Valentine’s Day? Nothing is the wrong answer. An Associated Press-WE tv survey found only 17 percent of adults in committed relationships say they don’t want a gift this Friday or are skipping the holiday.

Flowers and candy top the list of preferred gifts. But there are those who want something pricey like a car, jewelry or a vacation, and others who’d be fine with a teddy bear. About a third say they’d most like to have intangibles such as time together, health or happiness.

Overall, the survey found that Cupid’s arrow hits the target for most Americans.

Two-thirds of paired-off adults feel their relationships are perfect or nearly so. A scant 3 percent think their partnerships have serious problems. All told, 68 percent of Americans are in committed relationships of some kind, and 11 percent aren’t currently coupled but would like to be. Seventeen percent say they aren’t seeking a relationship. In this love-struck society, Valentine’s Day holds strong appeal. About 6 in 10 say they’re excited about Feb 14, while a third say they feel more dread about the approaching onslaught of candy, flowers and dimly lit restaurants. Apprehension isn’t limited

to the lonely: Even 11 percent of those who say they are in a great relationship dread Valentine’s Day. Contrary to stereotypes, men are just as excited as women about Valentine’s Day. Women are more apt to wish for flowers (19 percent vs 1 percent among men). The survey found no significant gender differences on jewelry, chocolate or teddy bears. A notable generational divide emerged on the gift front: Americans age 65 or older are more likely to say they’d like a card or note this Valentine’s Day (17 percent of seniors want a card; just 1 percent under age 30 say that’s their gift of choice). Perhaps there’s a lesson for the young: Seniors are also most apt to say their relationships are perfect and to see time spent with their partner as a key benefit of their relationship.

The poll, conducted by GfK Public Affairs and Corporate Communications, also explored how Americans find partners and how they prioritize pairing off vs other life goals. For the 11 percent of Americans currently trying to find a committed relationship, there are all kinds of tools available to help. But traditional methods - asking out someone you know or having friends set you up

outweighs dread on a date - outpace technological ones. Forty-one percent have used an online dating service, while 19 percent have tried an app that connects them to people nearby. Overall, about half of adults say getting married or finding a romantic partner are important life goals, while more than two-thirds consider saving for retirement, owning a home or success in a career their most important or a very important goal. For those who’ve found love and feel their relationship could use a little work, 75 percent are willing to make a great deal of effort or more to fix those problems. Three percent say they’re unwilling to work on their issues. Most of those, 72 percent, who see any kind of problem in their relationship attribute it to both partners equally. One in 6 says blame lies mostly with his or her partner. The bigger the problem, the more apt one is to blame a partner. Among those who say their relationships have only minor problems, 9 percent blame their partner, compared with 26 percent who report bigger issues. One in 8 accepts the blame for any relationship problems. That peaks among married men, 21 percent of whom say their relationship flaws are their own fault, compared

Thai and foreign couples hug during a competition for the “World’s Longest Hugging Marathon” ahead of Valentine’s Day in Pattaya.

Thirty-one couples took part in the hugging marathon in the hope of breaking the Guinness world record, and in the process to receive prizes totaling more than 9,400 USD (300,000 Thai baht) and a diamond ring. —AFP

with just 5 percent among married women who see trouble in their relationships.

And what vexes Americans’ relationships most?

More than 4 in 10 of those who say there are problems in their current relationship cite issues with their sex lives, communication, romance or finances. Those in unmarried couples were generally more apt to see problems than married people, except for two areas: sex life and romance. The poll was conducted in conjunction with WE tv ahead of the launch of the show “Marriage Boot Camp,” from Jan 17-21 using KnowledgePanel, GfK’s probability-based online panel designed to be representative of the US population. It involved online interviews with 1,060 adults and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points for the full sample.

Respondents were first selected randomly using phone or mail survey methods and were later interviewed online. People selected for KnowledgePanel who didn’t otherwise have access to the Internet were provided with the ability to access the Internet at no cost to them.-AP

A girl kisses her stuffed toy in front of a partition wall full of Valentine’s Day messages at the Darling Harbor in Sydney. Red roses and chocolates are the most popular gifts during Valentine’s Day.—AFP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

Review

‘About Last Night’ redo tempers melodrama T

here can never be too many tales about a one-night stand turned longterm love affair. Perhaps the allure comes from the hope that anyone can fall hard, despite the lack of a courtship. The latest take on this scenario, a reimagined version of the 1986 hit “About Last Night...,”

This image released by Sony Pictures shows Kevin Hart, left, and Regina Hall in a scene from ‘About Last Night.’ — AP

offers a modern spin on the challenges of connecting with strange bedfellows; a reboot that is as satisfying as breakfast in bed the morning after an unexpected rendezvous. Based on David Mamet’s 1974 play, “Sexual Perversity in Chicago,” the 1980s film adaptation, which starred Demi Moore and Rob Lowe, centered on 20something yuppies in Chicago.

The Leslye Headland (“Bachelorette”) penned “About Last Night” focuses on African-American singles in their 30s navigating the dating world in contemporary downtown Los Angeles. Most of the original plot points remain the same: Danny (Michael Ealy) and Debbie (Joy Bryant) play a pair attempting to avoid dating because they have been hurt in the past. But after they meet at a bar - and sleep together that same night - they begin a relationship, shack up, break up and reunite. Kevin Hart and Regina Hall portray dysfunctional couple Bernie, Danny’s crude best bud, and Joan, Debbie’s pessimistic roommate.

Bernie and Joan also jump into bed the first night they meet.

Similar to the way Vince Vaughn and Isla Fisher stole the show with their unforget-

tably bizarre romance in “Wedding Crashers” as a dysfunctional, lusty pair, Hart and Hall are the best part of this film. They play the couple you know all too well: fiery, able to press one another’s buttons and always caught in the makeup to breakup game. Hall offers one of her most impressive performances. Her sharp comedic timing is on par with rising funnyman Hart’s.

Whether attempting a drunken quickie in a bathroom stall or trading hateful quips, their scenes together are always playful, absurd and clever.

This is partly due to screenwriter Headland’s ability to make the humor swell.

What made ‘80s love stories so great were the long daytime TV-like pauses and sweeping Casio keyboard-backed ballads. These elements created heavy melodrama, a facet that’s been dropped in the new version, allowing for more comedy and a lighter feel overall. But did we really need a montage dedicated to texting selfies? Luckily the film’s vulgar humor helps make up for the shortcomings, cementing “About Last Night” as solid fodder for anyone looking to crack up over questionable dating rituals.

Bernie and Joan’s kinky scenes get pret-

South Africa delivers Mandela commemorative stamp

S

outh Africa issued a black-andwhite commemorative stamp on Tuesday to celebrate the life and legacy of anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela who died last year. The souvenir stamp, which captures a greying and smiling Mandela, was launched on the 24th anniversary of his release from nearly three decades in apartheid prisons.

The portrait of the father of South African democracy was taken a few years before his death on December 5 and the stamp commemorates his “life and legacy”, according to the South African Post Office. “It’s just a picture of Mr Mandela and it shows him in advanced years... but it shows him as a wise person, which he

was,” said Johan van Wyk, a manager with the post office. Five million stamps have been produced by a printing company in the Netherlands.

They can be ordered online or bought over the counter from all post offices in South Africa for 50 rand each ($4.50, 3.30 euros). Of the purchase price, two rand (18 cents) will be donated to his foundation, the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory. Mandela was an ardent letter-writer during his incarceration, despite the prospect of the letters being censored. He walked free from prison on February 11, 1990 after 27 years behind bars before becoming South Africa’s first black president in 1994. — AFP

Oscar winning star Natalie Portman acts in a scene of a new film she is directing herself on in Jerusalem. —AFP

U2 to play Mandela song at Oscars

I The South African Post Office newly released Nelson Mandela commemorative stamp is presented at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg. — AFP

Portman’s directorial debut protested in Jerusalem

N

ty lewd (at one point Joan wears a chicken mask). But Hart and Hall can pull them off.

Ealy and Bryant, on the other hand, lack heat. This is especially disappointing because we’ve seen them connect well with on-screen love interests in the past. Ealy’s romance with Halle Berry in the TV movie “Their Eyes Were Watching God” appeared far more pure, as did Bryant and Derek Luke’s sweet love in “Antwone Fisher.” But together, Ealy and Bryant’s interactions feel forced, which makes it hard to root for them.

Directed by Steve Pink (“Hot Tub Time Machine”) and produced by Will Packer (“Think Like a Man”), the film notably avoids becoming a story only for an AfricanAmerican audience, proving narratives featuring characters of color can be just as universal as any other. Overall, this modern take is an honest look at how couples can develop, sabotage and salvage relationships in 2014. “About Last Night,” a Sony Pictures release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for “sexual content, language and brief drug use.”

Running time: 100 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four. — AP

atalie Portman found herself in the center of a firestorm in Jerusalem Tuesday as ultraOrthodox protesters denounced her presence as she was filming her directorial debut “A Tale of Love and Darkness,” an adaptation of Amos Oz’s autobiographical novel.

While the film shoot has the support of Jerusalem Film Fund and the city municipality, locals were incensed, reportedly scrawling graffiti nearby the shooting that said “foreign invasion.” Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Rachel Azaria also told Israel’s Channel 10 that he had received a scathing letter

lashing out at Portman and the film crew. “The film shooting is set to take place on several sensitive streets close to synagogues and yeshivas, and the scenes being filmed should have been examined first to make sure they don’t offend anybody’s sensitivities,” the angry residents seethed.

While it may seem curious for residents to have their pitchforks out for Portman, who was born in Jerusalem and speaks fluent Hebrew, Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community is hostile to most film productions and put extreme emphasis on modesty. — Reuters

rish rock veterans U2 will play their Oscar-nominated song “Ordinary Love” from the movie “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” at this year’s Academy Awards, organizers announced Wednesday. The March 2 performance at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood will be the first time U2 has played the song live, said Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, producers of the 86th Academy Awards.

The tune is among four nominees for best original song along with “Happy” from “Despicable Me 2,” “Let It Go” from Disney’s animated “Frozen” and “The Moon Song” from futuristic love story “Her.” The Academy had already announced that Tony-winning singer and actress Idina Menzel will sing “Let It Go” from “Frozen”the frontrunner for best animated featureat next month’s awards ceremony.

A fifth song was originally nominated.

But “Alone Not Yet Alone” from a low-budget film of the same name, was pulled because its author, an Academy member, had emailed voters about his tune, breaching the prestigious body’s strict rules. Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres will host this year’s Oscars show, which is a week later than usual, after the Winter Olympics. The Golden Globes were moved two weeks forward, to January 12, to avoid clashing with the Sochi games on television.

The Oscars, the climax of Tinseltown’s annual awards season, are televised live in more than 225 countries and territories around the world. The theme of this year’s show is movie heroes, whether real-life ones like Gandhi, super heroes like Superman and Batman, or heroic stories such as animated film “The Incredibles” and literary tales like “To Kill a Mockingbird.” — AFP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

Cupid flaps wings in France as Internet dating soars

T A Palestinian vendor decorates his shop with gifts for Valentine’s Day in the West Bank city of Jenin, yesterday. — AP

S Korean lovers say it with matching socks I

n a country where public displays of affection are still frowned on, young South Korean couples often advertise their relationship by wearing matching outfits, whether socks, shirts, jackets or, more privately, underwear. It’s especially popular with newlyweds, making South Koreans honeymooning on the beaches of Southeast Asia easy to spot in their twinned T-shirts or shorts, complete with “couple flip-flops.” The fashion can also be seen among young people in China and Japan, but South Koreans have taken it to a different level.

The trend has spawned a small cottage industry, with specialist online stores offering “couple swimwear” for the summer holidays, “couple snowboarding suits” for the winter and “couple track suits” for those who like jogging together. Newspapers and magazines, meanwhile, churn out stories on how best to pull off the “couple look” with each season’s latest outfits. “When I was in college, I bought ‘couple hoodies’ with my ex. It felt cool and sweet that we hung out together wearing the same hoodies,” Eric Kim, a 28-year-old Seoul office worker, told AFP. “Also we can show off that we are a couple, not one of those lonely singles,” he said. Older now and mixing with friends who find donning head-to-toe identical outfits as “tacky and embarrassing,” Kim says he and his current girlfriend make do with wearing matching shoes. There is no marketing data on how many South Korean couples go in for matching fashion, but business certainly seems to be booming.

A quick search of Keo-Peul-Look (“couple look”) on major Korean Internet portals yields a seemingly endless list of online store selling couples’ outfits. Matching underwear and pyjamas are also popular, typically in pink for women and blue or black for men-but also in sizzling leopard-skin design for both. Baek Eun-Joo is a diehard fan of the “couple look” and her dating history is a voluminous back catalogue of matching or identical his and her patterns.

“My husband and I have been wearing couple clothes for the past eight years. We just can’t get enough of it,” Baek told AFP. Rather than ridicule, Baek said she was normally bom-

barded with complements from friends and questions over where they could find the same outfits. Convinced there was substantial market, she and her husband opened their own online store called Ggumddakji-a slang term for an inseparable couple. “It feels weird and sweet at the same time ... and is a great

way to reaffirm your love with your partner,” Baek said of the trend. “Plus, South Koreans tend to want to show off things they are proud of-including their relationships,” she added. The shop doesn’t provide advice on what couples should do with their outfits if the relationship breaks up. — AFP

A combination of nine pictures taken on February 9, 2014 shows couples wearing matching clothes and posing for a photo at a popular shopping area in Seoul. —AFP

he Internet is powering Cupid’s wings in France, with use of online dating sites soaring, according to matchmakers preparing to help singletons maximize their seduction opportunities this Valentine’s Day. Of the 18 million single people in France “one in two uses Internet dating” said Jessica Delpirou, director in France of the Meetic dating website, which was launched in 2001 and recently taken over by the US website Match.com. The run-up to St Valentine’s Daybefore New Year resolutions are forgotten-is a particularly busy time.

On February 14 last year, Meetic, which has around 840,000 paying subscribers in Europe, registered a 38 percent increase in people signing up compared with other Thursdays in the month, said Delpirou. Keen to woo Paris’s singletons with a bit of pampering, Meetic, the biggest advertiser in the sector, this year organized what it calls “Operation Boudoir”, a vintage 1950s-style lorry which serves as a mobile massage and manicure salon on the streets of Paris. Since last year, the site has also been offering members a range of different ways of finding love, including soirees, dinners, and other activities such as cooking or photography workshops. This Valentine’s week alone the firm, which usually puts on around 100 events every month, has organized 35 evenings in France.

Photo is ‘what counts’ Another firm, Lovoo, says it has seen recent monthly increases in users of around 30 to 40 percent. The company, which started in Germany and now has seven million users worldwide, is largely aimed at the under-30s with 70 percent of subscribers aged between 18 and 30. To mark Valentine’s Day this year it is inviting women to photoshoots to update and improve their profile photograph “because that’s what counts”. Men, meanwhile, can benefit from an old fashioned shave in a barber’s chair and some all important Internet dating advice.

Stephane Boulissiere of Lovoo said he was not surprised by the increasing numbers turning to online dating, citing increased use of smartphones and tablets. But France’s economic woes were also seen as an incentive for single people to find a mate. Faced with financial insecurity, people see a relationship as “a safe haven to cope with daily life”, said Celine Petre of dating site Parship. A study published in January by the eDarling website found 63 percent of single people believed recession was not a hindrance in their quest for love.

In fact, “the general mood gives people strong motivation” to look for a partner, the study said. Nearly eight out of ten consider themselves “in a stronger position to confront the gloom of daily life” as a couple and 75 per cent say that the economic crisis does not change their search criteria. “They know that the notion of getting established in life is being lost, that nothing is gained at the professional level, and that therefore it is better to base relationships on the human qualities of their partner, rather than on his or her financial stability,” said Sabrina Philippe, a psychologist and consultant at eDarling.

“Obviously in times of crisis, living as a couple with two incomes can only improve daily life, provided that the income is not the main criteria of members when they use our services,” added Alexandre Lubot, general manager of Meetic. — AFP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

A suburban love hotel ‘The Rock Kowloon Walled City’ in Iruma, suburban Tokyo.

A jungle style room of a love hotel called ‘The Rock Kowloon Walled City’.

Japan’s Love Hotels see business booming

F

rom rooms kitted out like medical clinics where couples can play “doctors and nurses” to grottos where it is permanently Christmas, Japan’s “Love Hotels” cater to almost every taste, offering a few hours of reasonably-priced privacy in a crowded country. And with the kind of occupancy rates that most hotels can only dream of, even during economic hard times, they are an almost recession-proof business, and a sector that is sure to see a bump over Valentine’s Day. One weekday lunchtime at Two-Way, one of many Love Hotels in the lively Tokyo district of Shibuya, only two of the 34 rooms are vacant.

The concept of a Love Hotel is simple; rooms can be taken for the night, or for two hours-euphemistically termed “a rest”, although few couples taking this option intend to sleep. “Ideally, you would have a room occupied four times in 24 hours,” says Tsunoda. “Once in the morning, once in the afternoon, again in the evening and then for the night.”

Even the most basic room comes with an ensuite bath, and with a starting price of around 7,000 yen ($70) for the night, it represents good value for money in a country where accommodation can be expensive. A little bit of couple time during the day can be bought for as low as 2,000 yen. At the higher end, a room will have luxury sheets, the latest flat screen television-complete with a limitless supply of adult entertainment-a game console, perhaps a mirrored ceiling and a deep bubble bath

A room of a love hotel called ‘The Rock Kowloon Walled City’. with room enough for two. “They’re not only places for people who are unmarried or live separately, but they are places where you can spice up your relationship,” one occasional user told AFP. A chance for privacy Anonymity is assured and discretion-never in short supply in Japan-is absolute. A couple can often check in and out without once seeing an employee. Their room choice can be made from a display in the lobby, paid for at a machine with keys dispensed through a small window. Staff, when they do appear, are polite, but neutral, doing their best to blend into anonymity and instantly forget the faces they see. Academic Ikkyon Kim, who has

This picture shows a love hotel consultant Masakatsu Tsunoda speaking to an AFP reporter in a room of the Two-Way hotel in Tokyo. — AFP photos

written on the subject, said Love Hotels came about during Japan’s feudal era, which lasted until the mid-19th century. “Of course, they weren’t called that at the time, but there have long been rooms that a couple could rent for a few hours,” he said.

“Before World War II, there were a number of ryokan (traditional Japanese style inns with tatami mat flooring) which operated along these lines.” But it was in the boom years of the 1950s and 60s where the modern form was firmly established. “They came about to fill a need,” said Kim. “People were living in these tiny apartments where the whole family would sleep in the same room at night. There was no chance for any privacy.” As Japan got richer

A bathroom of the Two-Way hotel in Tokyo. “hotels became these large concrete buildings with many rooms, each with its own bath, a big bed, a color television and all the kind of things people wanted to have at home.”

In the 1970s, owners started experimenting with more exotic forms-castles, fantastical rooms, and rotating beds-and others followed. Bound by strict rules on tasteful advertising, but unhampered by the kind of planning regulations that are intended to maintain architectural harmony in European cities, extravagant designs with pink turrets or gaudily-painted Cadillacs improbably balanced on roofs loudly announced their presence to passersby, without ever mentioning sex. —AP

A selection panel of the hotel rooms customers can choose at a love hotel called ‘The Rock Kowloon Walled City’.

Lifestyle FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

Group wedding

Humor trumps good looks in Philippines

U

ceremony

Groom Teerachai Sittiphol, 33, and bride Pasanan Thetyukunnthon, 36, ride on a decorated swing as they shoot an arrow to a heart-shaped target during their wedding ceremony on the eve of St Valentine’s Day in Prachinburi province, eastern Thailand. — AP photos

Thai bride Suriya Utai, 23, and groom Praewpan Srichamnan, 22, ride on a swing during their wedding ceremony.

Thai bride Pasanan Thetyukunthon and groom Theerachai Sittiphol, left, are chased by mock pirates during a pirate hunt part of their wedding ceremony.

Brides and grooms duck on the ground to avoid hitting by a swinging giant ball decorated with flowers during a group wedding ceremony.

gly people with a sense of humor appear to trump their good-looking but dull peers in the Philippines’ dating game, according to a pre-Valentine’s Day poll published yesterday. Given a choice, nine in 10 adult Filipinos told survey group Social Weather Stations they would pick “a man/woman who has a sense of humor”.

Ten percent preferred “a man/woman who is good-looking but has no sense of humor.”

“It’s more interesting to be with someone who has a good personality because good looks will fade over time,” said Josefina Natividad, director for the University of the Philippines Population Institute.

While the Philippines have produced many winners in international beauty pageants, Natividad said physical beauty was not that important in Filipino culture.

“As a culture we’re not that obsessed with beauty, but we are bombarded with advertising trying to convince us that good looks matter,” she told AFP. The Manila-based pollster said 94 percent of women chose sense of humor over looks, even if that person was physically unattractive.

This compared to 86 percent of men who prefer humor over looks. Social Weather Stations polled 1,550 adults across the largely Roman Catholic nation between December 11 and 16. —AFP

Japan women splash cash on Valentine chocs for friends

J

apanese women flocked to department stores yesterday to buy Valentine’s Day chocolates for all the men in their lives, but more of them this year are dispensing with tradition and treating themselves or their friends. In much of the West, February 14 is a day when men can sink or swim on their ability to make impressive dinner plans or buy a suitable bunch of flowers.

But in Japan it is the women who make the running, buying “honmei” (true love) chocolates for the husband or lover, and “giri” (obligation) treats for colleagues and bosses. The custom stretches back to the late 1950s when a firm called Mary Chocolate began advertising Valentine’s Day as “the only day of the year a woman professes her love through presenting chocolate”. Sayaka Aizawa, a 29-year-old housewife shopping for sweets at the Matsuzakaya department store in Tokyo, was unaware other countries celebrated the day differently.

“I have never thought of it. I thought women were supposed to give chocolate. I wish I were receiving them, but it’s not happening in Japan,” she said. While chocolate-buying boyfriends and husbands remained few and far between yesterday, not all the confectionary was intended for men. “There are many women customers buying chocolate for themselves or for their female friends this year,” said store employee Chiyuki Daido, adding purchases were ranging from 3,000 yen to 15,000 yen ($30-$150).

These increasingly popular “tomo” (friend) chocolates are the industry’s attempt to squeeze more cash out of a shrinking population. And while there is no campaign advocating splashing out on a box for personal consumption, some

women said they would be giving into temptation. “I want to buy one for myself if I can find a good one,” said Emi Kosaka, a 37-year-old corporate executive. “There are quite a lot of varieties around.” An assortment of chocolates-milk, dark, white and even green tea variety lined the impressive glass displays.

Belgian chocolatier Wittamer was proudly showing off a life-size chocolate squirrel eating a nut in its window, with a

price tag of 10,500 yen ($102). Elsewhere chocolates in the shape of miniature teddy bears, cakes and butterflies were being delicately gift-wrapped by shopkeepers. Japan’s $4 billion-a-year chocolate business is driven by special days like

Female customers buy boxes of chocolates as gifts before Valentine’s Day at Tokyo’s Matsuzakaya department store. — AFP photos Valentine’s, which set the cash tills ringing. The country is Asia’s largest market for chocolate and accounts for a hefty slice of the world’s pie, which consultancy KPMG says was worth about $100 billion in 2012.

But lest any male think he’s got away with it too easily, Friday marks the beginning of the countdown to White DayMarch 14th-when men have to buy gifts for all the women in their lives. “I know this is unique to Japan,” said corporate executive Kosaka. “But it’s okay with me. This is a chance to buy a lot of chocolate.”— AFP

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

SITUATION WANTED Young Indian male looking for any office assistant or computer data entry operator, or clerk or any suitable job. Computer knowledge and eager to learn.

Transferable visa number 18.

Contact: 99794561.

(C 4639) 11-2-2014

CHANGE OF NAME Old name: Mustufa Yacubali Motagaonwala to new name Mustufa Yacubali Udaipurwala. My address in India: 34 Taheri Bldg, Amakine Mohammediya Khabhalpada Dombivli (E) Thane, Maharashtra.

(C 4640) 11-2-2014

Prayer timings Fajr: Shorook Duhr: Asr: Maghrib: Isha:

THE PUBLIC AUTHORITY FOR CIVIL INFORMATION

05:10 06:30 12:02 15:11 17:35 18:53

Automated enquiry aboutthe Civil ID card is

1889988 Kuwait

SHARQIA-1 WINTER’S TALE (DIG) WINTER’S TALE (DIG) AMERICAN HUSTLE (DIG) WINTER’S TALE (DIG) AMERICAN HUSTLE (DIG) WINTER’S TALE (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED SHARQIA-2 THE LEGO MOVIE (DIG-3D) THE LEGO MOVIE (DIG-3D) THE LEGO MOVIE (DIG-3D) ROBOCOP (DIG) ROBOCOP (DIG) ROBOCOP (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED SHARQIA-3 CODE RED (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) CODE RED (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) CODE RED (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) CODE RED (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

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

1:00 PM 3:15 PM 5:15 PM 7:15 PM 9:45 PM 12:15 AM

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

MUHALAB-1 KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) GUNDAY (DIG) (HINDI) KHOUTAT GIMI I?E ???? (DIG)

1:00 PM 3:00 PM 5:00 PM 7:00 PM 10:00 PM

MUHALAB-2 WINTER’S TALE (DIG) CODE RED (DIG) WINTER’S TALE (DIG) CODE RED (DIG) WINTER’S TALE (DIG)

1:15 PM 3:30 PM 5:30 PM 7:45 PM 9:45 PM

MUHALAB-3 THE LEGO MOVIE (DIG) FROZEN (DIG) THE LEGO MOVIE (DIG) ROBOCOP (DIG) ROBOCOP (DIG) FANAR-1 WINTER’S TALE (DIG) WINTER’S TALE (DIG) WINTER’S TALE (DIG) WINTER’S TALE (DIG) WINTER’S TALE (DIG) WINTER’S TALE (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

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

FANAR-2 LEGENDARY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON (DIG) 12:45 PM KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) 3:00 PM KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) 5:00 PM LEGENDARY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON (DIG) 7:00 PM

KNCC PROGRAMME FROM THURSDAY TO WEDNESDAY (13/02/2014 TO 19/02/2014) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) 9:00 PM KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) 11:00 PM LEGENDARY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON (DIG) 1:00 AM NO SUN+TUE+WED FANAR-3 AMERICAN HUSTLE (DIG) AMERICAN HUSTLE (DIG) GUNDAY (DIG) (HINDI) AMERICAN HUSTLE (DIG) AMERICAN HUSTLE (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:30 PM 4:00 PM 6:30 PM 9:30 PM 12:05 AM

FANAR-4 THE LEGO MOVIE (DIG-3D) ROBOCOP (DIG) THE LEGO MOVIE (DIG-3D) ROBOCOP (DIG) ROBOCOP (DIG) ROBOCOP (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

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

FANAR-5 LONE SURVIVOR (DIG) CODE RED (DIG) LONE SURVIVOR (DIG) CODE RED (DIG) CODE RED (DIG) CODE RED (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:15 PM 3:30 PM 5:30 PM 7:45 PM 9:45 PM 11:45 PM

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

1:45 PM 4:00 PM 6:00 PM 8:00 PM 10:00 PM 12:15 AM

MARINA-2 ROBOCOP (DIG) AMERICAN HUSTLE (DIG) ROBOCOP (DIG) AMERICAN HUSTLE (DIG) ROBOCOP (DIG) AMERICAN HUSTLE (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

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

MARINA-3 WINTER’S TALE (DIG) WINTER’S TALE (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI I?E ???? (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI I?E ???? (DIG) WINTER’S TALE (DIG) WINTER’S TALE (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

2:00 PM 4:15 PM 6:30 PM 8:30 PM 10:30 PM 12:45 AM

AVENUES-1 FROZEN (DIG) GUNDAY (DIG) (HINDI) GUNDAY (DIG) (HINDI) GUNDAY (DIG) (HINDI) RIDE ALONG (DIG)

1:15 PM 3:30 PM 6:30 PM 9:30 PM 12:30 AM

AVENUES-2 AMERICAN HUSTLE (DIG) AMERICAN HUSTLE (DIG) AMERICAN HUSTLE (DIG) AMERICAN HUSTLE (DIG) AMERICAN HUSTLE (DIG)

2:15 PM 4:45 PM 7:15 PM 9:45 PM 12:15 AM

AVENUES-3 KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG)

12:30 PM 2:45 PM 5:00 PM 7:15 PM 9:30 PM 11:45 PM

AVENUES-4 WINTER’S TALE (DIG) WINTER’S TALE (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) WINTER’S TALE (DIG) WINTER’S TALE (DIG) WINTER’S TALE (DIG)

1:45 PM 4:00 PM 6:15 PM 8:30 PM 10:45 PM 1:00 AM

AVENUES-5 ROBOCOP (DIG) AMERICAN HUSTLE (DIG) ROBOCOP (DIG) NO SUN (16.02.2014) Special Show “RIDE ALONG (DIG)” SUN (16.02.2014) AMERICAN HUSTLE (DIG) ROBOCOP (DIG) ROBOCOP (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

12:30 PM 2:45 PM 5:15 PM 5:15 PM 8:00 PM 10:30 PM 1:00 AM

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

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

360º- 2 AMERICAN HUSTLE (DIG) AMERICAN HUSTLE (DIG) AMERICAN HUSTLE (DIG) AMERICAN HUSTLE (DIG) AMERICAN HUSTLE (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:15 PM 3:45 PM 6:15 PM 8:45 PM 11:15 PM

360º- 3 FROZEN (DIG-3D) FROZEN (DIG) SAVING Mr. BANKS (DIG) SAVING Mr. BANKS (DIG) SAVING Mr. BANKS (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

2:30 PM 4:45 PM 7:00 PM 9:30 PM 12:05 AM

AL-KOUT.1 WINTER’S TALE (DIG) WINTER’S TALE (DIG) WINTER’S TALE (DIG)

12:45 PM 3:00 PM 5:15 PM

WINTER’S TALE (DIG) WINTER’S TALE (DIG) WINTER’S TALE (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

7:30 PM 9:45 PM 12:15 AM

AL-KOUT.2 LONE SURVIVOR (DIG) LONE SURVIVOR (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) KHOUTAT GIMI (DIG) LONE SURVIVOR (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:00 PM 3:30 PM 6:00 PM 8:00 PM 10:00 PM 12:05 AM

AL-KOUT.3 ROBOCOP (DIG) THE LEGO MOVIE (DIG) THE LEGO MOVIE (DIG) ROBOCOP (DIG) ROBOCOP (DIG) ROBOCOP (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

12:30 PM 2:45 PM 4:45 PM 6:45 PM 9:15 PM 11:45 PM

AL-KOUT.4 CODE RED (DIG) CODE RED (DIG) CODE RED (DIG) CODE RED (DIG) CODE RED (DIG) CODE RED (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

2:00 PM 4:15 PM 6:15 PM 8:15 PM 10:15 PM 12:45 AM

BAIRAQ-1 WINTER’S TALE (DIG) THE LEGO MOVIE (DIG-3D) THE LEGO MOVIE (DIG-3D) WINTER’S TALE (DIG) WINTER’S TALE (DIG) WINTER’S TALE (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:15 PM 3:30 PM 5:45 PM 8:00 PM 10:15 PM 12:30 AM

BAIRAQ-2 AMERICAN HUSTLE (DIG) CODE RED (DIG) CODE RED (DIG) AMERICAN HUSTLE (DIG) CODE RED (DIG) AMERICAN HUSTLE (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

12:30 PM 3:00 PM 5:00 PM 7:00 PM 9:30 PM 11:30 PM

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

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

PLAZA GUNDAY (DIG) (HINDI) GUNDAY (DIG) (HINDI)

6:00 PM 9:00 PM

LAILA ROBOCOP (DIG) WINTER’S TALE (DIG)

5:45 PM 8:15 PM

39

Te c h n o l o g y FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

The Xbox One versus the PlayStation 4

REVIEW

Two game consoles battle for a dubious prize

By Molly Wood

A

philosophical war is being waged in the world of video game consoles.

One view is represented by Microsoft’s Xbox One: the console as home media hub, combining television, movie watching, video streaming, games and computer-like features such as Skype into a single device that’s as much set-top box as gaming rig. A second view comes from Sony, whose PlayStation 4 is for playing video games first, for streaming video and watching DVDs second, and for little else. As often happens with philosophical debates, right and wrong are subjective determinations, but as also often happens in life, simpler tends to be better. Both the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 were released in November, and since then, the question has been rampant: Xbox or PS4? The release of a new game console is rare; the Xbox debuted in 2001, and the second version, the 360, came out in 2005. The PlayStation has been around since 1994, and its third iteration came out in 2006. Buying a new box can be a long and expensive commitment.

I spent a week comparing the Xbox One and the PS4, and in my opinion, the PlayStation is the one to buy - if you’re going to buy a console at all. More on that later. First, the reviews. The Xbox One is wildly capable. It’s also larger, heavier and uglier than the Xbox 360 - testament, one assumes, to its raw power. The Xbox’s primary selling point is that it combines video games, downloadable apps, streaming Internet video, DVD playback and live TV into a single home screen. You plug it into your cable or set-top box and route live TV through it, and you can even use the Xbox channel guide, OneGuide, instead of your cable provider’s.

This is an impressive feat, but it’s not free.

To access streaming media, apps or even the channel guide, you must pay for a $60per-year Xbox Live Gold account, on top of your Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime or any other service subscription fee. Once you’re connected, you navigate through menus and the guide using the Xbox controller or the console’s other big innovation: voice and gestures in the form of Kinect, the voice and motion-sensing camera that was available as an add-on to the 360. The Xbox One’s inclusion of Kinect is one reason it costs $500, compared with $400 for the PS4.

In Xbox One, Kinect has a wider viewing angle, higher-quality image and facial recognition for identifying individual users.

It says, “Hi, Molly” when I sit down on the couch, and then loads my personalized dashboard and recent activities. It’s cool and futuristic, but works inconsistently.

The Xbox has Kinect-enabled voice controls built in throughout; commands like, “Xbox, go home” or “Xbox, go to TV” start specific functions, or you can say things like, “watch FX” to control television playback.

You can also use hand gestures for naviga-

tion and selection, but as with most gesture controls, the motions required are hilariously impractical for regular use.

‘Xbox, go home’ Unfortunately, despite the gee-whiz appeal of the voice features, the verbal commands aren’t practical either. They don’t always work, and it’s inefficient to say “page down” repeatedly in the TV guide, compared with quietly pressing a button. I found myself using basic commands like “Xbox, go home,” and then navigating the rest using the controller or my TiVo remote.

And I found it annoying to have to go through the Xbox to get to TV every time.

My 6-year-old son loved shouting commands at the console; unfortunately it rarely recognized his voice, and his attraction soon faded.

All this description illustrates the overall fatal flaw of the Xbox One: It’s too much work. I spent hours setting up the Xbox One. It was in my home for two full days before I enjoyed even a second of game play; there were technical issues with its TV integration (solved by swapping out an HDMI cable after 90 minutes of troubleshooting), and there were endless updates to download.

Both consoles are notorious for requiring frequent updates, but even the three game discs Microsoft sent me demanded updates before I could play. And the Xbox and its games are astonishingly bandwidth-hungry.

One game disc, once inserted, asked for a 13-gigabyte download before I could even play.

Speaking of game downloads, those are also huge. I bought the popular NBA 2K14 game, which clocked in at a staggering

44GB in size. (For context, the Grand Theft Auto 5 game for the Xbox 360 was 16GB.) The game took almost eight hours to download and install, and then wouldn’t work with my controller unless I logged out and logged in every time I wanted to play - a known bug.

For anyone with slow Internet access or a bandwidth cap that usually maxes out at 250 or 300GB, the Xbox One could potentially cost you a lot in overage fees. Plus, it’s hard drive is just 500GB, and you cannot upgrade it or add an external drive. Xbox, go home, indeed.

Speed is everywhere By comparison, the PlayStation 4 was a delight to set up and enjoy. I plugged it in, downloaded a relatively tiny 300MB update, spent about 10 minutes setting up my PlayStation Network profile and was playing games 10 minutes after that. Speed is everywhere. The menu and navigation screens on the PS4 are startlingly fast and responsive.

Games load noticeably quickly - much faster than the Xbox games, even after updates.

Despite the PS4’s gaming-first focus, it offers plenty of media features, like Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon Instant Video, plus access to Sony’s music and movie streaming services. And unlike the Xbox, access to streaming services is free. You do need a $50-per-year PlayStation Plus account if you want to play online with other gamers.

The PlayStation is highly social. You can share game screenshots on Facebook or Twitter, and you can even record and share short video clips, with basic editing built in.

The killer feature is the ability to broadcast your gameplay live to Ustream.tv or to Twitch.tv, a hugely popular game-stream-

ing website where people spend hours watching other people play video games.

The Xbox One promises to support Twitch streaming in the future, but it wasn’t available when I tested it. In addition, Microsoft has already promised an Xbox update this spring to fix a social experience the company admits is “hidden or harder to use than it was on the Xbox 360.”

Gaming on the go I would argue that most things on the Xbox One are hidden or harder to use than they need to be. In my time with the PlayStation 4, I found it straightforward and, most important, fun. That ought to be the highest pursuit of a device invented for playing games, so for my money, the keepit-simple philosophy of the PlayStation 4, plus the $100 price break, make it the winner.

The real question, though, is whether the idea of a console itself is out of date. Mobile gaming on tablets and phones can be as immersive and fun, and obviously more portable. A console for streaming video is redundant when most new televisions have Internet streaming and apps built in, not to mention Internet-connected Blu-ray players, streaming devices like Roku and Apple TV, or even Google’s $35 Chromecast.

And spending $60 for games - no matter how graphically intensive - is hard to stomach in a world of low-priced apps. The game costs are especially painful since neither the Xbox nor the PlayStation can play games from the previous generation consoles. So, the PlayStation is the better game console of the two, but in the end, it may be a victory of one dinosaur over another. www.nytimes.com

Stars

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

Aries (March 21-April 19)

Today is a good day to be receptive to other people's energies, Aries. You’ll find that a sensitive attitude toward the people around you, combined with a bit of hard work and willingness to fulfill your responsibilities, will make for an unstoppable winning combination. Use this day to collect data and plan your goals.

Take responsibility for your actions and don't be afraid to admit your mistakes.

Taurus (April 20-May 20)

You’ll find that your mind is sharp and penetrating today, Taurus. Make sure you stay focused and organized. You have the power of discipline behind you that will help you manifest quite a bit on a day like today. Keep in mind that your openness to others and your incredible sensitivity are some of your greatest gifts. Use your power to create prosperity for yourself, but do it without hurting or manipulating others.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

There is a rough stubbornness to the day that you may find hinders your progress, Gemini. There may be undercurrents of opposition that are slowly wearing away at your psyche. Make sure that you don't fall into the trap of feeling guilt or regret.

These are useless emotions that you simply can do without. If people are being negative or unreasonable, simply walk away from the situation and find a better one.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

There are forces working in your favor that you should be sure to latch onto and take advantage of, Cancer. You’ll find that your sense of duty and ability to plan are paying off in a very positive way. You’ll find that you’re able to check quite a few things off your list today. Think before you act and take a timeout to rest and regroup if you need to.

Leo (July 23-August 22)

Missed connections and unfortunate misunderstandings will happen less frequently if you slow down and focus. Remember that you can do things yourself, Leo. Don't feel like you absolutely need approval from others before tackling the projects that you wish to complete. Your mind is urging you to take the initiative today, so feel free to do so. Just make sure you aren't too hasty in your actions. You’ll be more productive if you think before you act.

Virgo (August 23-September 22)

Things that require restriction and discipline on your part may be causing tension and opposition in your world today, Virgo.

The good news is that your mind is clear and you should feel in tune with the people around you. Know your allies and take care of them. Remind others of how much they mean to you.

The most important aspects of your life are your friends and family, so treat them with unconditional love.

COUNTRY CODES Libra (September 23-October 22)

Your internal fire may be feeling a bit smothered by a fierce reality check today, Libra. Give people the benefit of the doubt.

They are more perceptive than you may think. In fact, it may behoove you to get some honest feedback today from some people you trust. It could be difficult for you to sort out the truth in your present situation, since you’re the one caught in the middle of the maelstrom. Consider the perspective of another.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21)

Legal documents that concern your business may need to be executed today, Scorpio. There might be a lot of paper to wade through, not to mention jargon that appears indecipherable.

Don't get too impatient, however, as this is important. Instead, find someone more familiar with this sort of thing and get him or her to explain it all to you. Then, assuming it's agreeable, take care of it and move on. The results should be well worth it!

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21)

A little foreign culture could be the thing you need right now to spice things up a bit, Sagittarius. It could be that you aren't feeling a very strong connection with the environment around you. You could be anxious to spread your wings and explore your freedom. Start small but think big. Get out of your rut and do more exploring on your own. There’s a sobering, disciplined feeling to the day that could help you think realistically about your situation and where you want to go with it.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19) Some days it may be hard for you to get motivated, Capricorn, but if ever there were a day in which it was easier than others, this would be the day. You’ll find that your mind is quite attuned to the situation around you and that your sense of grounding is helping you manifest that which you wish to bring to life. There’s a sense of time restriction and limitation to the day that is prodding you to act now.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18)

You may feel a bit of restriction working to hold you back from your current plans today, Aquarius. It could be that your mind is feeling restless and that you’re anxious to go, but there’s a feeling of discipline and caution nagging you and urging you to slow down. This might not be a bad idea. Discipline and willpower may be exactly the things you need in order to get where you’re going.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

You’ll find that a sensitive mind that’s open to everything and every possibility is exactly the thing you need at this time in order to be successful in reaching all the goals you’re working toward, Pisces. You’ll find that your sense of duty and need for plans and solid goals are key elements for getting to where you need to be.

Gather information and create a plan of attack that is well thought out.

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 14, 2014

Word Search

Chalenge Puzzle

C R O S S W O R D 4 5 9

ACROSS 1. An impudent or insolent rejoinder.

5. A percussion instrument consisting of a pair of hollow pieces of wood or bone (usually held between the thumb and fingers) that are made to click together (as

by Spanish dancers) in rhythm with the dance.

11. Highly excited.

15. A collection of objects laid on top of each other.

16. A deficiency of red blood cells.

17. Plant with an elongated head of broad stalked leaves resembling celery.

18. A Buddhist who has attained nirvana.

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

20. A motley assortment of things.

22. A person who has lied or who lies repeatedly.

23. American professional baseball player who hit more home runs than Babe Ruth (born in 1934).

26. Capital and largest city of the Czech Republic.

27. Rambling talkativeness (especially in the aged).

29. God of fire.

30. A constellation in the southern hemisphere near Telescopium and Norma.

32. Either of two large African antelopes of the genus Taurotragus having short spirally twisted horns in both sexes.

36. Used especially in treating bruises.

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

42. French field marshal who commanded the Allied armies in France during World War II (1852-1931).

44. A sudden loss of consciousness resulting when the rupture or occlusion of a blood vessel leads to oxygen lack in the brain.

45. Small cubes with 1 to 6 spots on the faces.

48. Free from favoritism or self-interest or bias or deception.

50. The 7th letter of the Greek alphabet.

51. A colorless and odorless inert gas.

52. A colorless odorless gas used as a fuel.

54. A soft silvery metallic element of the alkali earth group.

57. Relatively small fast-moving sloth.

58. A public promotion of some product or service.

60. A benevolent aspect of Devi.

62. Attractive especially by means of smallness or prettiness or quaintness.

64. An old Scottish coin of little value.

67. Capable of being treated by surgical operation.

71. An Arabic speaking person who lives in Arabia or North Africa.

72. The dried meat of the coconut from which oil is extracted.

75. An arm off of a larger body of water (often between rocky headlands).

76. The basic unit of money in Ethiopia.

77. Of or relating to or characteristic of the republic of Haiti or its people.

79. A United Nations agency that invest directly in companies and guarantees loans to private investors.

80. A port in western Israel on the Mediterranean.

81. A lever that is operated with the foot.

82. A hormone produced by the anterior pituitary gland.

Daily SuDoku

DOWN 1. Be going to.

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

3. A Nilo-Saharan language spoken in parts of Chad.

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

5. New Zealand conifer.

6. An associate degree in nursing.

7. Located in or toward the back or rear.

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

9. Being one more than one hundred.

10. A river in north central Switzerland that runs northeast into the Rhine.

11. With anger.

12. An amino acid that is found in the central nervous system.

13. Large elliptical brightly colored deep-sea fish of Atlantic and Pacific and Mediterranean.

14. Mentally or physically infirm with age.

21. Transient cessation of respiration.

24. The residue that remains when something is burned.

25. Tag the base runner to get him out.

28. An enclosed space.

31. A soft porous rock consisting of calcium carbonate deposited from springs rich in lime.

33. Genus of erect herbs of the Middle East having showy flowers.

34. (Roman Catholic Church) A devotion consisting of prayers on nine consecutive days.

35. Covered with or as if with clothes or a wrap or cloak.

37. An Indian side dish of yogurt and chopped cucumbers and spices.

38. Slightly open.

39. Establish or strengthen as with new evidence or facts.

40. Dramatist of ancient Rome (born in Greece) whose comedies were based on works by Menander (190?-159 BC).

43. Tall New Zealand timber tree.

46. (Akkadian) God of wisdom.

47. A telegram sent abroad.

49. A landlocked principality in the Himalayas northeast of India.

53. Of or relating to or resembling a bull n.

55. One of a family of granular intrusive rocks.

56. A ductile malleable reddish-brown corrosion-resistant diamagnetic metallic element.

59. Atypically small.

61. The large trunk artery that carries blood from the left ventricle of the heart to branch arteries.

63. The principal evil jinni in Islamic mythology.

65. An elaborate song for solo voice.

66. Not fake or counterfeit.

68. Marked by the reception of pay.

69. Being or located on or directed toward the side of the body to the west when facing north.

70. Make an etching of.

73. An implement used to propel or steer a boat.

74. Dish baked in pastry-lined pan often with a pastry top.

Yesterday’s Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

42

Sports FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

Mavericks hand Pacers 3rd home loss INDIANAPOLIS: Monta Ellis had 23 points and nine rebounds, and Dirk Nowitzki added 18 points as the Dallas Mavericks handed the Indiana Pacers their third home loss of the season, 81-73 on Wednesday night. The Mavericks (32-22), who have won six of seven, finished a three-game road trip heading into the NBA All-Star break. Dallas’ five-game winning streak was snapped at Charlotte on Tuesday. George Hill had 14 points, and Lance Stephenson and Danny Granger both scored 13 for the Pacers (40-12), who have lost two of three.

The Mavericks scored the first six points of the fourth quarter and took a 66-62 lead when Ellis made a free throw with 6:55 remaining.

ROCKETS 113, WIZARDS 112 James Harden scored 35 points as his layup with 0.7 seconds remaining lifted Houston over Washington. The victory sends the Rockets into the All-Star break with a season-best seven-game winning streak. John Wall gave Washington the lead with a pair of free throws with 4 seconds left. Trevor Ariza fouled out when he pushed Harden to the ground on the ensuing inbounds pass. It was ruled a foul away from the play, giving Houston one free throw and possession. Harden, who was 16 for 16 at the line, made the free throw before grabbing a pass from Chandler Parsons and driving into the lane for the winning shot. The Wizards had a chance to win at the end, but Kevin Seraphin’s shot clanged off the rim. Ariza had a seasonhigh 32 points with a career-high 10 3pointers.

SPURS 104, CELTICS 92 Tim Duncan scored 23 of his 25 points in the second half, powering injury-depleted San Antonio to a win over Boston. Marco Belinelli added 16 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists for the Spurs, who played without guards Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili and forward Tiago Splitter - all sidelined with injuries. Boris Diaw added 18 points and Duncan grabbed nine rebounds to lead the Spurs to their fifth win in seven games. Rajon Rondo led Boston with 16 points and Kris Humphries and rookie Kelly Olynyk had 15 apiece. The Celtics fell to 4-18 against Western Conference teams. Boston was minus guard Avery Bradley, who was sidelined with a sprained right ankle.

TIMBERWOLVES 117, NUGGETS 90 Kevin Love started practicing early for All-Star weekend, making six of 11 shots from 3-point range and totaling 32 points and 11 rebounds to lead Minnesota over Denver. Love, chosen as a first-time starter for the Western Conference team, will also take part in the 3-point shooting contest this weekend in New Orleans. Denver (2427) has dropped nine of 13 and four in a row to fall behind Minnesota (25-28) and into 11th place in the West. The Wolves trail eighth-place Phoenix by six games.

Jordan Hamilton led the Nuggets with 16 points and seven assists, and JJ Hickson added 14 points and 13 rebounds. Corey Brewer added 22 points, JJ Barea pitched in 18 points on 8-for-8 shooting, and Ricky Rubio had 11 points and 12 assists for the Wolves, who had coach Rick Adelman back on the sideline. He missed the previous

INDIANAPOLIS: Indiana Pacers forward Paul George (left) defends Dallas Mavericks guard Monta Ellis during the second half of an NBA basketball game in Indianapolis on Wednesday, Feb 12, 2014. —AP game on Monday, an absence he said was related to his wife’s health.

CAVALIERS 93, PISTONS 89 Kyrie Irving’s 3-pointer as the shot clock expired with 27.2 seconds remaining keyed Cleveland’s victory over Detroit. Tristan Thompson scored 14 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter for Cleveland, overpowering Detroit’s vaunted front line as the Cavaliers rallied from a 10-point deficit in the final period. Cleveland won its fourth straight and snapped the Pistons’ three-game winning streak. Andre Drummond had 16 points and 17 rebounds for the Pistons, but he didn’t do much in the fourth quarter, when Thompson took control inside.

Cleveland led by one in the final minute when Irving stepped back and made his big 3 to put the Cavs ahead 89-85. Cleveland beat the Pistons for the first time in eight meetings. Detroit was playing its second game under interim coach John Loyer after Maurice Cheeks was fired Sunday.

RAPTORS 104, HAWKS 83 DeMar DeRozan scored 31 points, Kyle Lowry had 16 points and 13 assists as Toronto snapped a five-game home losing streak to Atlanta. Patrick Patterson scored 14 and Terrence Ross 13 as the Raptors beat the Hawks in Toronto for the first time since March 17, 2010, when Chris Bosh hit a jumper in the closing seconds of a 106-105 victory. Greivis Vasquez scored 12 points and Jonas Valanciunas had 14 rebounds as Toronto won for the 10th time in 12 home games and maintained a three-game edge over Brooklyn atop the Atlantic Division.

The Raptors had lost seven of their past eight home meetings with the Hawks.

Gustavo Ayon had 18 points and 10 rebounds and Paul Millsap scored 17 for the Hawks, who have lost five straight.

Atlanta lost for the fourth time in five road games.

GRIZZLIES 86, MAGIC 81 Zach Randolph had 20 points, Courtney Lee added 17 as Memphis held off Orlando.

Memphis beat the Magic for the sixth straight time and enters the All-Star break having won eight of its last 11. The Grizzlies led by as many as 13 points in the second half before having to fight off several Magic runs down the stretch. Memphis also lost center Marc Gasol in the third quarter after he aggravated a left knee injury. Nik Vucevic had 13 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Magic.

NETS 105, BOBCATS 89 Paul Pierce scored 25 points to lead Brooklyn over Charlotte. Deron Williams added 13 points and seven assists, and Andray Blatche scored 13 off the bench to help the Nets win their final home game before the All-Star break. Brooklyn went on a 15-3 run to open the third quarter, extending its lead to 17, and never looked back. Kemba Walker led the Bobcats with 16 points. Al Jefferson, who scored at least 26 in each of his previous three games, was limited to 12 on 5-for-13 shooting.

KINGS 106, KNICKS 101, OT Rudy Gay made the tying basket in regulation and a 3-pointer in overtime that

gave Sacramento the lead for good, and Jimmer Fredette scored a career-high 24 points to help the Kings beat New York.

Gay finished with 20 points for the Kings, who shook off a 13-point deficit and the loss of DeMarcus Cousins late in regulation to salvage the finale of a fourgame road trip. Cousins had 19 points and 14 rebounds before limping off with about 31/2 minutes left. C armelo Anthony had 36 points and 11 rebounds for the Knicks but flopped at the finish, missing a potential winning shot in regulation before blowing a layup on the first possession of overtime. He was scoreless in the extra session. New York finished a disappointing and turbulent first half at 20-32. The reigning Atlantic Division champions have already lost more games than all of last season and continue to battle injuries and speculation that coach Mike Woodson’s job is in jeopardy.

PELICANS 102, BUCKS 98 Eric Gordon scored 21 points, center Alexis Ajinca added 16 as New Orleans headed home for All-Star weekend with a victory over Milwaukee. The Pelicans had seven players in double figures and stayed in the game despite foul trouble all night for big man Anthony Davis.

Davis ended up playing the fourth quarter with four fouls, providing enough of a presence on both ends of the floor to allow his teammates to go strong to the hoop. Brandon Knight had 22 points and nine assists to lead the Bucks, limited to nine players because of a litany of injuries. —AP

43

Sports FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

Italian League Preview

Struggling Inter aiming to save season at Fiorentina ROME: Troubled Inter Milan will seek to kick-start their stuttering season in a bid to avoid missing out on European football for a second year when they travel to in-form Fiorentina tomorrow. The Italian giants lie fifth in Serie A but have started 2014 poorly, winning one game since the turn of the year, last week’s scrappy 1-0 victory over lowly Sassuolo. Walter Mazzarri’s side have struggled on the road, losing all four away matches in 2014 which includes a 1-0 defeat by Udinese that knocked them out of the Italian Cup at the quarter-final stage.

“Up to now this year hasn’t been particularly good compared to how Inter have done historically,” admitted Mazzarri on Wednesday. Their poor results have led to criticism of new president Erick Thohir, who bought a 70 percent stake in the club in November but who spends little time in the city. January’s aborted deal which would have seen midfielder Fredy Guarin head to Juventus in a swap with forward Mirko Vucinic was called off after fan protests, further souring relations with their bitter rival.

“I would say that he (Thohir) needs to be here more often and have people here who he can trust 100 percent, because that’s the only way he can gain the faith of everyone,” said former president Massimo Moratti on Monday. Inter could be without major January signing Hernanes for the trip to Florence, with the Brazilian struggling with a thigh muscle injury. By contrast, Fiorentina have lost only once in the league since a narrow 2-1 defeat at AS Roma in early December, and have won five of their subsequent eight league fixtures.

European battle They have also booked their place in the Italian Cup final with Napoli in May, with whom they are also in a battle for Italy’s third Champions League spot. Napoli hold a three point advantage. Fiorentina are boosted by the return of Mario Gomez, who has been out of action since suffering knee ligament damage in September. The Germany striker was on the bench for Tuesday’s 2-0 Cup semi-final second leg win over Udinese and may feature against Inter, who could find themselves without European football for a second consecutive season if they don’t start winning matches.

They are tied on 36 points with surprisepackage Hellas Verona, who host flamboyant Torino on Monday, themselves level with Parma three points back. With Cup finalists Fiorentina and Napoli almost certain to take a Champions League place, there should be a Europa League spot for whoever finishes sixth.

Ninth-placed Lazio, who are four points behind Inter, face bottom side Catania on Sunday. Clarence Seedorf’s Milan, 11th with 29 points, will be hoping to bounce back from last week’s crushing 3-1 loss at Napoli when they host struggling Bologna today.

They will hope to have Mario Balotelli fully focused, after the forward was pictured crying on the bench after being substituted. “I think he might be going through a difficult time because of his daughter, who is in Napoli, and I think he wanted to score for her,” said new team mate Adel Taarabt. “I think we need to stay close to him and give him love because he’s a super player and we really need him.” —Reuters

German League Preview

Dutt has mystery ‘plan’ to get Werder out of trouble BERLIN: Werder Bremen coach Robin Dutt has a “plan” that will get his side out of their current predicament and put them back where they belong, among the Bundesliga elite.

Bremen, until recently one of the dominant forces in the Bundesliga, find themselves fighting relegation for the second season in a row and have not won a game since the winter break.

Lying 13th in the league with 20 points from 20 games, and only four clear of Hamburg SV in the danger zone, Bremen host Borussia Moenchengladbach tomorrow badly needing a win to reverse their fortunes.

Dutt left his post as the German football federation’s sporting director to take over at Bremen last May, where he replaced Thomas Schaaf who had been in charge for 14 years and won one Bundesliga and numerous German Cup titles. The 49-year-old said from the outset that it was not going to be easy although even he would not have expected December’s 7-0 home defeat by Bayern Munich, nor Saturday’s 5-1 home defeat to Borussia Dortmund.

Dutt, who made a name for himself after guiding Freiburg into the Bundesliga in 2009, reassured fans that he had seen it all before and could get the team out of their mess. “(General manager) Thomas Eichin and myself have a plan for this club which we will follow whatever it takes,” he told Bremen’s website (www.werder.de) “I believe, if we have the support of everyone, this plan will be successful in the long run. This plan is not just for the good moments but also for the bad times as well,” he added.

Mysterious plan Dutt, who has baffled supporters by constantly tinkering with the line-up, did not elabo-

rate on his mysterious plan but insisted he was the right man for the job, as long as the club remained united. “Werder hired me because they needed a strong coach, one who knows what he is doing, and that’s me,” he said, adding that he understood that fans were not satisfied.

“The criticism in Bremen over this difficult situation is entirely appropriate. It has been quite clear, but has not been insulting or gone below the belt. A lot of water will have to flow down the Weser before I get frustrated.” They are not the only big club in trouble in the Bundesliga.

VfB Stuttgart, champions in 2007, are one point and one place below Bremen and visit erratic Hoffenheim tomorrow.

Crisis-torn Hamburg SV, the Bundesliga’s only ever-present club in its 51-year history, are even worse off after losing their last six league games, leaving them just one point off the bottom. A predictable 5-0 mauling at home to Bayern Munich in the German Cup on Wednesday added to the tension as they prepare to visit bottom-of-the-table Eintracht Braunschweig in a key relegation battle. Against a turbulent political backdrop at the club, it was still not clear on Thursday whether Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk would still be in charge of Hamburg, or whether he would be replaced by Felix Magath.

At the top, everything points to a 13th successive league win for runaway leaders Bayern Munich who host 16th-placed Freiburg, especially as the title holders have won all their home league games this season. Their nearest challengers Bayer Leverkusen, who are 13 points behind, host Schalke 04 in a meeting of the second and fourth-placed teams while third-placed Borussia Dortmund are at home to Eintracht Frankfurt. —Reuters

Spanish League Preview

Neymar back to bolster Barca frontline attack against Rayo

Salwa Cup Kuwait Open kicks off KUWAIT: Under the auspices of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah the Ninth Salwa Cup Kuwait Open table tennis championship kicked off on Wednesday. Minister of Information and Minister of State for Youth Affairs Sheikh Salman Sabah Al-Salem AlSabah attended and addressed the opening ceremony on behalf of His Highness the

Amir. He lauded the constant improvement being made by the championship since its inception, noting that the competition is named after “a person who is dear to all of us (Sheikha Salwa Sabah Al-Ahmad AlSabah).” Sheikh Salman appreciated the efforts made by the organizing committee and expressed hope for the success of this international event. —KUNA

BARCELONA: Barcelona may have been well short of their best since Christmas but they remain alive in all competitions and can look forward to welcoming back Brazilian forward Neymar to reinforce their frontline against Rayo Vallecano in La Liga this weekend. It has been a good week for the Catalan club, who returned to the top of the table with a victory over Sevilla before setting up a mouthwatering Kings Cup final against bitter rivals Real Madrid after overcoming Real Sociedad on Wednesday.

The back-to-back wins are good news for a Barca side that have stumbled over the last month and a half, where they have only won three out of six matches in the league and crashed 3-2 at home to Valencia in their last fixture. The signs are more positive now, however, with Lionel Messi returning to form with a double against Sevilla followed by another against Sociedad and they can now call on Neymar, who has not played since twisting his ankle in mid-January. “There are three objectives for the season and one of those was to reach the (cup) final and then to try and win it,” Barca coach Gerardo Martino told a news conference.

“This is another objective completed. The team are used to getting to finals and this is a reward for their effort and I accompany them in trying to achieve their aims,” he added. “I don’t want to talk

about the final as it is so far off. It is a Clasico and that says it all. The objective was to get to the final and with Madrid already there, we couldn’t fail. We could not afford to miss out. “It is difficult to say what state we will be in with so many matches to play in between. Who knows how we will be with injuries and form with two months to go? “We need now to concentrate on the games we have ahead starting with this weekend.”

MANCHESTER CITY After the Rayo game, Barca then play the first leg of an enticing Champions League last 16 tie against Manchester City next week and Sergio Busquets was in a positive mood ahead of the upcoming encounters. “The team never tires of winning. We are playing well and looking strong in all competitions. We are in a good position,” he told reporters.

There is an intriguing three-way battle at the top of La Liga with Real having clicked into gear, winning six out of the last seven league games with the only points dropped coming away to Athletic Bilbao at the start of the month. Real also overcame Atletico Madrid with a clear 5-0 aggregate victory in the King’s Cup. The two defeats in the cup and another away to Almeria in between is the first time that Atletico under Diego Simeone have lost three consecutive games. —Reuters

Sports FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

Moyes looks to past for Man United inspiration LONDON: Manchester United manager David Moyes wants his players to draw inspiration from the club’s history as they attempt to resurrect their imperilled bid for a Champions League place. United were held to a 0-0 draw at Arsenal on Tuesday and their disappointment was compounded by the news that Champions League qualification rivals Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur had both won.

Steven Gerrard’s stoppage-time penalty gave fourth-place Liverpool a 3-2 success at Fulham that took them 11 points above United, while Spurs are eight points clear of the champions after a 4-0 win at Newcastle United. United have only 12 games in which to reverse the situation if they are to avoid missing out on a place in Europe’s premier club tournament for the first time since 1995, but Moyes refuses to give up the fight. “All I can do-I keep saying it-but I’ll try and win the next game and see if we can pick it up,” he told journalists at the Emirates Stadium. “If there’s one club in history who’ve been great at winning games in the second half of the season and putting pressure on the teams above, it’s been Manchester United. “We’ll continue to try and do that and see if we can make it work.”

Sports Digest

Now Liverpool are in for it!

Asked if United’s multiple trophy-winners still had the requisite hunger, he replied: “I believe so. “I see them, I think they’re great lads, they’re fantastic with their attitude, their training. Their commitment is first-class. “You saw tonight (Wednesday), how good Vida (Nemanja Vidic) was, how good Rio (Ferdinand) was when he came on. “They’re a great group of players, a very experienced group of players, and you have to say they’ve been winners, all of them.

“They’ve all got medals, and when you’ve won, you want to win more. They’re all still hungry and determined to be succesful.”

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger voiced support for Moyes and said that United’s performance proved that they remain one of the country’s leading sides. “Man United is a good team who can play against anybody in our league,” he said. “At the moment they’re not where they can be, but you cannot say with the players they have on the pitch that they are not quality.” When pushed on United’s chances of finishing in the top four, however, Wenger would only say that it was “not mathematically impossible”.—AFP

By Ahmad Al Othman

Liverpool Captain Steven Gerrard celebrating in his own way after scoring late penalty at Craven Cottage

A SAN SEBASTIAN: Barcelona’s Argentinean forward Lionel Messi (center) vies with Real Sociedad’s defender Jon Gaztanaga (right) and Real Sociedad’s defender Mikel Gonzalez (left) during the Spanish Copa del Rey (King’s Cup) football match Real Sociedad vs FC Barcelona on February 12, 2014. — AFP

Messi on target; Barca set up final with Real MADRID: Barcelona will face Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey final on April 19 after they drew 1-1 away to Real Sociedad on Wednesday to progress 3-1 on aggregate.

Lionel Messi continued his return to goalscoring form after netting twice against Sevilla on Sunday, with a fine solo run and finish to put Barca in front midway through the firsthalf. The hosts were then thankful to a number of saves from Enaut Zubikarai to prevent Barcelona extending their lead on the night, but the Basques got some recompense for their efforts three minutes from time when Antoine Griezmann thumped Chory Castro’s low cross past Jose Manuel Pinto. Barca boss Gerardo Martino was happy to have reached his first major final since taking charge at the start of the season, but said it was far too early to judge who will be favorites to lift the trophy come April. “There were three objectives this year and we have managed to make the final in one of them. Now we have to try and win it, but we have complied with the demands until now,” he said. “It is a long way away, it is a Clasico so it always has special importance. Madrid winning last night made it even more important for us not to miss this special date.

“But it is hard to make a judgment because the final is still two months away. There are loads of important games between now and then for both teams and we don’t know how both sides will get there in terms of form, confidence or injuries.” Martino showed he wasn’t prepared to rest on last week’s 2-0 win in the first leg at the Camp Nou as he named

a strong side and the visitors managed to take the sting out of the game early on by dominating possession without overly threatening the Sociedad goal.

Zubikarai made amends However, after Zubikarai had parried a long-range effort from Dani Alves, the ‘keeper would have been disappointed to see Messi’s low strike squeeze under his outstretched arm and trundle into the net. Zubikarai quickly made amends, though, as he denied Pedro Rodriguez from close range. At the other end Carlos Vela had Sociedad’s best chance of the first half, but, after knocking the ball past Pinto, Dani Alves was on hand to clear off the line. Barcelona continued to look the more likely to score after the break as Andres Iniesta fired just wide from the edge of the area before Zubikarai made a brilliant double save to deny Messi and Cesc Fabregas.

Sociedad did though have clearer sights of goal themselves in the second period and Vela was unlucky to see his sensational curling effort come back off the underside of the bar. Zubikarai came to Sociedad’s rescue again 15 minutes from time when he blocked Alves’s shot after the Brazilian had been played clean through on goal. And the ‘keeper’s heroics were rewarded with at least a draw on the night for his side when Griezmann finished off a fine team move involving Sergio Canales and Castro to register his 17th goal of the season. — AFP

re we finally witnessing the resurgent of the almighty Liverpool Football Club? The club considered by many as the most successful team in British football with 5 European Cups. Throughout the season, it was all about Arsenal spearheading the other 19 sides, 2 weeks ago it was Manchester City and only a few days ago it was Chelsea, now by the looks of it, Liverpool are well in the fight for the prestigious Barclays English Premier League winners medal. They are 4 points behind leaders Chelsea and 1 behind Man City who themselves have a game in hand. Funnily enough, the Scousers could yet still finish in 5th place as they’re ahead of Tottenham by 3 points only with the two sides set to meet in March.

Under Brendan Rodgers, Liverpool has been performing at the highest level sweetened by some fantastic football. The Anfield hierarchy have put a lot of faith on the Northern Irishman and counted on him as successor of all time favorite Kenny Dalglish. He has won 44 games from a possible 84 with more than a 50 % win rate, a very good statistic when compared to previous regimes under Dalglish and Benitez. With some shrewd and wise buys, he remodeled the Reds and transformed them to a side everybody is beginning to fear and cause of concern to their opposite rivals.

Thanks to him, Liverpool now has the deadliest partnership in European football. The so called “SAS” have both combined and scored 39 goals from a possible 66 and currently lead the top scorers chart by 1st and 2nd respectively.

Suarez has been enjoying his football since he served the 10 match suspension and had he been available, Liverpool would’ve been at an even better position.

Sturridge, who’s always enjoyable to watch, has kick started his career which has halted since his free move from Man City to Chelsea, until Liverpool decided to spend £16 million on him . He hasn’t featured regularly at Stamford Bridge and when he wasn’t fancied by Roberto Di Matteo or Villas Boas, it was Rodgers who pounced and found maximum use for him.

Besides to their attacking line, Liverpool owe a lot to talisman and captain Steven Gerrard. The English legend is currently having one of his best seasons in a long time and his exquisite pass to Sturridge against Fulham speaks for itself. Philippe Coutinho and Raheem Sterling have also been a bright spark, and Rodgers needs his young wide men at their best to sustain this top form.

Despite thrashing Arsenal 5-1 and sending a clear message to title contenders, their final five fixtures of the calendar include clashes with City, Chelsea and Newcastle.

Jordan Henderson was another who stepped up his game and is showing why he’s worth the £20 million Liverpool coughed up for him. However, summer arrivals such as Kolo Toure, Iago Aspas and Luis Alberto have proved to be misfigured buys and Rodgers is demanded to correct them either by finding replacements or selling them. Skrtel and Mignolet were top class throughout the campaign and they’re another reason why Liverpool looked tough at the back. As far as their fans are concerned, the trophy is in a touching distance and they genuinely believe their side has what it takes to finally win the league, an honor they have been waiting for a nearly a quarter century.

Did You Know?

When Liverpool last won the league back in 1990, Daniel Sturridge was 8 months old and Raheem Sterling wasn’t born yet.

Sports FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

SOCHI WINTER OLYMPICS Finland thump Austria 8-4 in Olympic hockey SOCHI: Finland had more than enough offensive talent to overcome its slow start against Austria, even with Teemu Selanne back in the dressing room. Jarkko Immonen and Mikael Granlund scored two goals apiece as Finland opened preliminary-round Olympic play with an 8-4 victory over Austria yesterday. Jussi Jokinen and Petri Kontiola each had a goal and an assist for the Finns, who put 52 shots on beleaguered Austria goalie Bernhard Starkbaum despite playing the final two periods without Selanne, their captain and the leading scorer in Olympic history. The 43-yearold ‘Finnish Flash’ had an assist in the first period of his record-equaling sixth Olympics before sitting out with an upper-body injury.

Selanne should be fine for the Finns’ next game, team spokesman Janne Lahti said.

“He’s an old man, so he needs some rest, more than the other guys,” Kontiola said. Sami Lepisto and Olli Maatta also scored for Finland,

which has never lost to Austria at the Olympics.

Granlund had a three-point game and defenseman Sami Vatanen had three assists in their Olympic debuts. Selanne got just eight shifts before apparently having problems with his neck or shoulders. Finland’s trainers massaged Selanne on the bench late in the first period, and he didn’t return from the first break.

“Maybe he got the bad pillow!” said Sami Vatanen, Selanne’s teammate with the Anaheim Ducks. Even with Selanne ailing, Finland took control with two goals in 8 seconds during the final minute of the first before taking a four-goal lead in the second. “It’s tough to see him get injured, but he’ll be OK,” Olli Jokinen said of Selanne. “He’s a big part of this team, and he’s our leader. It’s never easy when you lose a guy like him.” The Finns also survived a shaky Olympic debut from Tuukka Rask, the vaunted Boston Bruins goalie who yielded four goals on just 20 shots.

“The first goal, everybody was caught sleeping there,” Rask said. “After that second goal, everybody kind of woke up and got back to playing again.” Michael Grabner had three goals in his Olympic debut for Austria. The New York Islanders forward scored 36 seconds into the first period, and Austria had two early leads before Finland took control. “In case we didn’t know what we were up against, we got a reality check,” Austrian forward Thomas Vanek said.

“You’ve got to play a certain way, and I think we didn’t do it. Our goalie needs to be our best player, and we need to help him more.”

Finland is the most consistently successful Olympic nation of the NHL era while winning medals in four of the last five Olympics overall.

The Finns have a solid shot at medals again despite placement in Canada’s preliminaryround group, and an eight-goal performance in their opener will help their cause. Austria, which qualified for its first Olympics since 2002,

Ice hockey - US vs Russia far from David and Goliath tale SOCHI: This week’s Russia v United States ice hockey clash will be a totally different affair from the David and Goliath tale that ended with a US team of unknowns stunning the Soviet Union at the Winter Olympics 34 years ago. That group of amateur and college athletes captured the hearts of the sporting world at the 1980 Lake Placid Games when they stunned a talented Soviet team that had won nearly every world championship and Olympic tournament since 1964.

The medal-round game, widely known as the “Miracle on Ice,” was not even shown live on US television but tomorrow’s preliminary-round match between the two nations is a must-see clash that will draw massive ratings. “I’m always nervous, but everybody will be nervous,” said Vladislav Tretyak, president of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation and the goalie who started in the 1980 game.

“We’re all nervous because everybody wants to win, especially against us. All the teams want to face us in the final.”

With a team comprised entirely of top National Hockey League players and looking to build on the silver medal won at the 2010 Vancouver Games, the US will not be able to fly under the radar in Sochi. The Russian team will not be taken lightly either because it includes a mix of NHL stars, most notably high-scoring forward Alex Ovechkin, and talent from the Kontinental Hockey League, Russia’s top league.

Russian mission Unlike the 1980 Soviet team that was expected to blow by the United States, this year’s Russian squad will enter the game on a mission to restore pride to a hockey nation stinging from a sixth-place finish at the 2010 Vancouver Games.

Russia’s squad in Sochi will carry the weight of an entire nation on their collective shoulders and nothing short of a gold medal will suffice in the hockey-mad country. Russia President Vladimir Putin has said the ice hockey gold was the one medal he wanted his nation to win.

“Yeah, this Olympics there is much more pressure,” Russian captain Pavel Datsyuk

SOCHI: USA forward Paul Stastny (26) shoots past Slovakia goaltender Jaroslav Halak (41) for a goal as Slovakia defenseman Rene Vydareny (23) looks on during the 2014 Winter Olympics men’s ice hockey game at Shayba Arena yesterday in Sochi, Russia. — AP told reporters. “Usually, there’s lots of pressure but this is much more, playing at home, in front of our fans.” Russia boasts one of the more explosive and talented forward lineups in the 12-team tournament, led by Ovechkin, Datsyuk, Evgeni Malkin and Ilya Kovalchuk. The main area of concern for the team, which also has plenty of talent in goal, is a young defense that will have their hands full and nerves tested in a pressure-packed Olympic environment.

In 2010, the United States were again

labelled as underdogs but played far better than expected and with admirable spirit en route to an overtime loss to Canada in the gold-medal game. They arrive in Sochi with much loftier ambitions than the national teams who preceded them and with hopes of securing their own place in the history books. “I think the Miracle obviously is a great accomplishment for the US, but it was 34 years ago and we’re still living on something that happened 34 years ago,” US forward David Backes told reporters. —Reuters

surprised the Finns in the opening minute when Grabner converted a cross-ice pass from Michael Raffl. Granlund got Finland’s first goal on a play set up by Selanne, who took Vatanen’s outlet pass and fed Granlund while screening Starkbaum.

Austria went back ahead when Thomas Hundertpfund’s shot from behind the net went off Maatta’s skate in front and beat Rask, but Lepisto equalized 2:04 later. Maatta put the Finns ahead with a vicious slap shot from the blue line with 35 seconds left in the first period - and Immonen scored 8 seconds later. Six Austrians are back from their Salt Lake City team along with the Olympic debuts of Grabner and Vanek, his Islanders teammate.

Grabner added two goals in the third period for his hat trick. “I like the big ice, and I just tried to get into open space for my teammates,” Grabner said. “Against a good team like Finland, it’s tough to come back.”— AP

Temperatures rise as men hockey giants hit the ice SOCHI: Medals will be decided elsewhere, but the men’s hockey competition is the big draw at the Winter Olympics yesterday as heavyweights Canada and the United States, and host Russia, all play their opening round games. With the weight of a nation on its shoulders, the home squad takes on Slovenia at the gleaming new Bolshoy Ice Dome in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, while Canada meets Norway and the United States play Slovakia. The final of the tournament is not until hours before the closing ceremony on Feb. 23, but the men’s hockey is the one gold that many Russians would dearly love to win above all.

Of the six medal events to be decided yesterday, the first gold went to Joss Christensen of the United States in the inaugural men’s freestyle skiing slopestyle. Gus Kenworthy took silver and Nick Goepper the bronze in a US podium sweep. That may help relieve the pressure on American athletes, amid early grumblings from US media about the team’s performance at the Games so far. Writing before yesterday’s action got underway, Los Angeles Times sports columnist Bill Plaschke wrote: “After six days of competition, despite being allegedly ready for this, the US team is getting the hind parts of its snow pants kicked.”

He listed a string of notable failures, among them speed skater Shani Davis, whose bid to win the Olympic men’s 1,000 meter crown for the third Games in a row ended with an eighth place finish at the Adler Arena on Wednesday.

At the same venue yesterday, the absence of injured four-times Olympic champion Wang Meng opens up the race for the women’s 500m short track title. Also going for gold on the sixth day of full competition at the sundrenched Olympic park in Sochi are Americans Heather Richardson and Brittany Bowe, favorites for the women’s 1,000 meters speed skating title.

In Sochi, balmy spring temperatures of 15 degrees Celsius and the sight of people bathing in the sea are not a problem for indoor venues. Up in the Caucasus mountains, where the skiing events are taking place and the hills below them are bare, it is an issue. Yesterday, several competitors in the women’s cross country started the race in sleeveless tops, an unusual sight.

Organizers played down concerns about snow conditions that several athletes have described as slushy and difficult, and may explain some of the crashes in disciplines ranging from freestyle skiing slopestyle to cross country. “It is a constant battle for winter sports,” said Mark Adams, International Olympic Committee spokesman. —Reuters

Sports FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

SOCHI WINTER OLYMPICS Britain hopes for ‘coming of age’ in Sochi LONDON: Eighteen months on from the nationwide euphoria of the 2012 London Olympics, Britain harbors high hopes of breaking new ground at the Winter Games in Sochi. Britain’s temperate climate makes it ill-suited to winter sports, which tend to be considered something of a novelty in the country. While Jane Torvill and Christopher Dean rose to national prominence after winning gold in the ice dancing at the 1984 Winter Olympics, almost as fondly remembered is hapless ski jumper Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards. So longsighted that he had to wear glasses while competing, even though they fogged so much that he could not see, Edwards finished last in both his events at the 1988 Games in Calgary, but his ineptitude made him a household name.

However, buoyed by the success of the London Games, when the hosts finished third in the medals table, the British team has been set a target of collecting between three and seven medals in Sochi. Britain has not won three medals at a Winter Olympics since the 1936 event in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, but a record £14 million ($22.8 million, 16.9 million euros) investment in winter sports has raised expectations.”This squad will be better supported

than any other winter campaign,” says Liz Nicholl, the chief executive of funding body UK Sport.

“We want at least three medals and that would be our best Olympic performance since 1936. This is the first coming of age of the Winter Olympic and Paralympic teams.” Jenny Jones has already made history, having become the first Briton to win an Olympic medal in a snow event when she took bronze in the snowboard slopestyle. The novelty of the discipline was not quite to everyone’s taste in Britain, however, with broadcaster the BBC receiving more than 300 complaints over its television coverage of the event.

Fellow British snowboarder Aimee Fuller was invited to provide co-commentary on the slopestyle final, but she contravened usual BBC decorum by cheering exuberantly when one of Jones’s rivals fell. Jones’s triumph was nonetheless splashed across newspaper front pages and belief in a record medal haul is strong, with Lizzy Yarnold leading the charge as one of the favorites in the skeleton. Yarnold is bidding to succeed countrywoman Amy Williams, who retired after triumphing at the 2010 Games in Vancouver, while team-mate Shelley Rudman, a silver-medalist in 2006, is another contender.

With the heady sporting summer of 2012 still fresh in the national memory, those competing in Sochi have noticed a spike in public support. “I love that everyone’s supporting me-it’s really flattering,” slopestyle skier James Wood told the Daily Telegraph.

“It’s a testament to Great Britain that people are genuinely interested in Team GB. It makes me so proud to be British. London 2012 was amazing. I went and it was great to be a part of it.” Hoping that Britons are ready to rekindle their Olympic love affair, the BBC promised “the most complete digital coverage of a Winter Games to date”.

The organization will broadcast 1,200 hours of live and catch-up video coverage of the event over its various platforms and has sent 95 staff to Sochi 21 more than made the trip to Vancouver four years ago.

Britain has, however, led protests over Russia’s controversial law banning the dissemination of “gay propaganda” to minors, with prominent gay comedian and writer Stephen Fry calling for a boycott of the Games.

The BBC’s coverage of the event is fronted by a gay woman, Clare Balding, who said: “I think the best way of enlightening societies that are not as open-minded as our own is not to be cowed into submission.” —AFP

Fun - centre stage for funky snowboarders ROSA KHUTOR: There may be Olympic titles, gold medals and perhaps even mega sponsorship deals at stake in Sochi but for snowboarders it remains all about the fun. Snowboarding is the rebellious younger cousin among winter sports where athletes not only dress differently, in baggy clothes, and often wear their hair long and bedraggled but even have their own language, meaning

dethroned her, American Kaitlyn Farrington. “Every day I get to snowboard is a wonderful day and to be able to-four years later-be loving snowboarding like I was four years ago, and be back on the podium with an incredible group of girls is a wonderful feeling,” said Bright.

For American bronze medalist Kelly Clark, the winner in Salt Lake City 12

KRASNAYA POLYANA: Australia’s Russell Henshaw crashes on his second run in the men’s ski slopestyle final at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park, at the 2014 Winter Olympics yesterday. —AP they’re “stoked” when they win after performing a “sick” run.

And it seems when it comes to competition, they’re not all that bothered about who wins or loses, as long as they get to have a “blast”. Australia’s Torah Bright missed out on retaining her women’s halfpipe title by the narrowest possible margin on Wednesday, yet she seemed as delighted as the woman who

years ago, what makes snowboarding stand apart is the ability of athletes to be competitors and friends at the same time. “This is real friendship. It goes beyond performing and competing against each other and I think that’s what makes this sport unique, because not only can we be competitive but we can be genuine friends as well. It’s an amazing sport,” she said.

It’s not just the women getting all emotional and gushy about snowboarding the men were at it too following Saturday’s slopestyle final. US winner Sage Kotsenburg, 20, said his fellow medalists, Norway’s Staale Sandbech and Mark McMorris of Canada, were among his best friends. “All of us were having a blast in there and you could see us high-fiving at the bottom,” he said. “It’s not like we’re bummed out when other people come down and land a ride, we’re equally as stoked for the next person to land a ride.” Even controversies over the scoring have not served to dampen the feel-good factor.

When asked whether she had any qualms about the scoring having come so close to a second successive gold, Bright seemed unflustered. “You know these judged sports, it’s just so hard. To be honest I think (Wednesday) was one of hardest events I’ve been in for a long time,” she said. “It’s about the sport of snowboarding and putting on a great show, and we did that. “Win, lose or draw, it doesn’t matter the color of the medal, we’re united as shredding babes.”

Not everyone was quite so gracious.

Hannah Teter, the champion in Turin in 2006, missed out on a medal by just 0.25 points-the narrowest possible gap and she could not hide her disappointment.

“I’m not super stoked on the judging. I thought I should have a higher score.

What are you going to do about FIS (International Ski Federation) judging?

Nobody ever agrees with it.” “I’m a little bummed to say the least,” she added.

But even then, Teter was not overly critical and did graciously congratulate the medalists. “I’m stoked for my friends,” she added. “We all had a really good time.” —AFP

Love in air for soulmates on Olympic slopes SOCHI: Love is in the air at the Winter Olympics, where the balmy weather at the sub-tropical showpiece is not the only thing that’s getting hotter. On the eve of Valentine’s Day, wedding plans are being made and hints of love affairs denied. There’s even a phone app available to help track down your soulmate on the slopes. Chinese veteran figure skaters Pang Qing and Tong Jian, silver medalists at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, were fourth in the pairs competition on Wednesday and immediately turned their thoughts to marriage. Pang and Tong, both 34, who started skating together as six-year-olds, are a couple off the ice, having become engaged when Tong proposed during an ice show in China.

“We haven’t planned our ceremony yet, as we’ve been focused on our training. Now it’s time for us to think about it,” said Tong after the pair’s performance to “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables. They are following in the footsteps of 2010 Olympic pairs champion Zhao Hongbo, who is back in Sochi as a coach with the Chinese team. He and former pairs partner Shen Xue are married and had a baby in September. Elsewhere at the Iceberg Palace arena, skaters are losing themselves in tender embraces to rousing soundtracks from “Phantom of the Opera”, “Jesus Christ Superstar” and, appropriately enough, “Romeo and Juliet”.

Not that brooding entanglement on the ice means a romantic flourish off it. Canada’s Kirsten Moore-Towers and Dylan Moscovitch delighted with their bubbly performance in the pairs final where every loop and twist was accompanied by warm smiles. The pair tightly grasped each other’s hand as they came off the ice. “It’s an interesting relationship because there’s never been anything off the ice for Dylan and I but I think what we have is so special, in a sense better than that,” said Moore-Towers.

Great working relationship“We have a great working relationship and we enjoy what we do and we’re able to leave it at the rink at the end of the day.” However, Valentine’s Day in Sochi could be an icy one for curling couple Xu Xiaoming of China and his South Korean wife Kim Ji-Sun with the women’s teams from the two countries set to clash. “Through curling we have a lot of interaction with the Chinese female team, so I would be very happy if they won,” said 29-yearold Xu, who plays on the men’s team. The South Korean men’s team did not qualify for Sochi so, unlike her husband, Kim, 26, has no loyalty issues.

“Of course I would cheer for the Korean team, because those are my countrymen,” she said. “But I would at the same time be cheering for China because that is my husband. In the end, I would hope for my husband that he would win.” Organizers are understood to have distributed 100,000 condoms for competitors-and there are only around 3,000 athletes. Athletes can hook up by using dating app Tinder. “Tinder in the Olympic Village is next level,” gold medal snowboarder Jamie Anderson told Us Weekly magazine. “It’s all athletes! In the mountain village it’s all athletes. It’s hilarious.

There are some cuties on there.” —AFP

Sports FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

SOCHI WINTER OLYMPICS

Finns win 1st stage of Tour de Sochi SOCHI: Finland took a Tour de Sochi approach to open the Olympic men’s ice hockey competition, riding bikes to the Boshoy Ice Dome yesterday before cruising to an 8-4 win over Austria. Although it was just the first stage of the 12-day tournament, the Finns got off to a flying start with the help of two goals each from Mikael Granlund and Jarkko Immonen.

On a brilliant sunny day at the Black Sea resort, the Finland players opted to make a leisurely 10-minute ride to the arena on blue bikes rather than take the bus. “Everybody did, we all rode bikes from the village,” Finland netminder Tuukka Rask told reporters. “I ride

bikes all the time so no problem, I’m use to it.

“It was probably the fastest way to get here.”

Austria, back in the Olympic ice hockey competition for the first time since the 2002 Salt Lake Games, announced their return in stunning style with Michael Grabner scoring the first of his three goals just 36 seconds after the opening faceoff. But the Finns, who have reached the podium in four of the last five Games, were soon back in control with Olli Maatta and Immonen scoring eight seconds apart to put their team 4-2 ahead at the end of the opening period.

“Well the start wasn’t good for us,” said

Rask. “We weren’t ready to play and they came at us hard. “The first goal, everybody got caught sleeping and then it’s in the back of the net, and we battled back. So it definitely looked like after that first goal we woke up and didn’t let that bother us. “Kind of a disaster to (allow) those goals. We battled back right away, and got the lead, and kept it.” Sami Lepisto, Jussi Jokinen and Petri Kontiola rounded out the Finland scoring. Grabner added a pair of third-period tallies to complete a hat-trick for Austria and Thomas Hundertpfund got the other goal.

The win could prove a costly one for the

Finns with captain Teemu Selanne leaving the game after the first period with what was described by coach Erkka Westerlund as a “small upper body injury”. The 43-year-old Selanne, competing in this sixth Olympics, set up Finland’s first goal but was later spotted on the bench getting treatment around his neck and shoulder area. Westerlund said the injury did not appear serious and Selanne could be ready to return for Finland’s second preliminary round game on Friday against Norway. “I don’t think it’s anything serious, probably just a precaution,” said Rask. “He’ll be back.” — Reuters

Sister act makes winter Games a family affair SOCHI: The Winter Olympics may be a multi-billion dollar enterprise reaching every corner of the globe-but for many the Sochi Games are a strictly family affair. There are Dutch speed skating twins, three Canadian freestyle skiing sisters, another three Swiss siblings in the biathlon and a father-and-son combination in ice hockey among many other family groups.

Not content with reaching the moguls final all together, the Dufour-Lapointe sisters made off with gold and silver at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park. It was 19-year-old Justine, the youngest of the three, who triumphed - and she admitted she had been inspired by her siblings. “I saw my sisters in the World Cup and I watched Chloe (who won silver in Sochi) in Vancouver. I decided I wanted to train hard. I have always been a competitive tiger. I take after my dad. It’s how I grew up so it’s normal.”

Proud father Yves said the success was partly down to strong “family values” and mum Johane said sisterhood has always come first. “At times, one sister would be happy for her high result, but we would try not to make them feel better than the others. We consulted a psychologist,” she said. “We wanted to treat all the girls equally.

They are first and foremost sisters. Sometimes they fall out, but now they are mature enough to handle themselves.” And the sisters are not the only family threesome at the Games. South Korea’s shorttrack skater Park Se-Yeong is in Sochi alongside big sisters Park Seung-Hi, also a short-track skater, and speed skater Park Seung-Ju. And the Swiss Gasparin sisters-Selina, Elisa and Aita-are among seven sibling combinations competing in biathlon. Elsewhere, the Dutch Mulder twins, Michel and Ronald, took gold and bronze in the men’s 500m speed skating event. “Of course the perfect scenario would be for me to win gold and my brother after me,” said Ronald. “But I’m really happy I made it to the podium.”

Sibling rivalry US Nordic combined brothers Bryan and Taylor Fletcher admit there is an edge when they compete but say they also look out for one another. “There’s definitely sibling rivalry, but we have each other’s back and work together to try to get the best result for both instead of one-up on each other,” said Bryan, the older by four years.

“I will try to give him tips but he doesn’t need too many,” Taylor said of Bryan. “Like how to race the rhythm of the course and stick behind someone on the downhill so you can slingshot past them.”

US-born ice dancers Cathy Reed and brother Chris are competing for Japan in Sochi. Born in Michigan, the brother-sister duo began their ice dance career competing for the United States but later switched to representing the country of their mother’s birth. “The Japanese fans have been so supportive of us,” Chris Reed said. “We want to honor that support with our skating. We want to give the support they have given us back to them.”

At the 2010 Vancouver Games there were three Reed siblings competing-with younger sister Allison Reed representing Georgia.

She has since switched both partners and countries to Israel but is not competing in Russia. Veteran Russian luger Albert Demchenko, who won silver on Sunday in his seventh Winter Games, had hoped to compete alongside his daughter, Viktoria, but those hopes were dashed when the 18-year-old failed to qualify for the national team.

But Slovenian ice hockey head coach Matjaz Kopitar is at the Olympics alongside his son Anze-the only player from the country in the National Hockey League. —AFP

KRASNAYA POLYANA: A drone camera follows Norway’s Aleksander Aurdal during the men’s ski slopestyle final at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park, at the 2014 Winter Olympics yesterday. — AP

Christensen leads US sweep ROSA KHUTOR: Joss Christensen led a United States podium sweep in spectacular fashion to win the first Olympic gold medal in men’s slopestyle skiing at the Sochi Games yesterday. Another bumper crowd at Extreme Park were treated to a thrilling display of acrobatics as the freestyle skiers pushed their routines to the limits against a backdrop of snow-capped mountains and blue skies.

Christensen led the pack after qualifying and his 95.80 on his opening run of the final, which he capped with a stunning switch triple-corked 1440 on the final jump, assured him of the title even before his second attempt.

Reflecting the have-a-go spirit of the sport, though, the 22year-old nailed another spectacular flurry of flips, spins and tricks for a score of 93.80, which would have been enough for gold in itself. “I can’t really believe it right now, this is pretty crazy. It has been just an amazing day,” said Christensen. “I am shocked. I am stoked to be up here with my friends.

Gus Kenworthy took silver with a score of 93.60 on his second run after falling in his first, while teenager Nick Goepper, the pre-competition favorite, settled for bronze with 92.40. Despite being encumbered by all their gear, the

beaming minor medalists managed to lift Christensen into the air on an improvised chair. “I am so stoked about an American one-two-three,” said Kenworthy. “Nick is always the guy to kind of beat in a contest, he is so consistent and so incredible and Joss is really killing it right now. He is one of my best friends and I am stoked.” The United States swept both slopestyle skiing golds after Jamie Anderson’s victory in the women’s event, which was also making its debut at the Sochi Games.

While Christensen learned his tricks on the best facilities in the world in his home town of Park City, Utah, James Woods had to make do with a dry slope in the unglamorous British industrial city of Sheffield. Woods made it through to the final in third place but, hampered by a hip injury he sustained in a crash last week, was unable to deliver Britain their second Olympic medal on the snow and finished fifth behind Norway’s Andreas Haatveit. Goepper, who won the last two X-Games titles in slopestyle, reflected a general consensus that the skiers had taken the sport to a whole new level in Sochi. “I feel amazing,” said the 19-year-old. “It think today was the best display of skiing we have ever seen in our sport, so I am so happy.”— Reuters