7th Mar

Capturing the ‘noncitizens of Kuwait’

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Pistorius weeps as shooting scene horror recalled

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Crimea MPs vote to join Russia, US unveils sanctions

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NO: 16097- Friday, March 7, 2014

Qatar defiant SEE PAGE 9

Local FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

Conspiracy Theories

LETTER TO KUWAIT TIMES

Younger or wiser?

Badrya Darwish responds:

Dear Ms Darwish,

I

found your article on the haunting of the Philippine Embassy unusual. I have often been warned about these ghosts. I had also waited for men in black robes and women in white to appear in my office, but so far the ones that visit me are either friends in thaubs or nurses who apply for passports.

Holy men of different faiths have told me not to mind these ghosts. For people of deep faith, spirits are a part of life. I am sure your article will get a good second reading on Halloween. I will certainly recommend it to my teenage daughters, who can add it to their cherished Twilight stories and Vampire Chronicles.

In the meantime, we will continue our work for the Filipino people, who are our treasures. Since the embassy represents our government, the embassy is their home.

Yours faithfully, Raul Dado Consul General Embassy of the Philippines in Kuwait

Dear Mr Dado, Thank you for your entertaining note about a topic that Kuwait Times covered in an article in the last Friday Times. As it was light material, you noticed that we published it in our tabloid issue on Friday. Even my maids, who are from the Philippines of course, found the material amusing. One of them even commented that this subject matter was suitable for teenage kids in high school and many others of different ages.

Nevertheless, many people believe in such stories. The story was done by a Filipino reporter who spoke to many girls in the shelter of your respected embassy. In our paper we carry different views by different people. Some of them might be rather bizarre, but that is life. We respect people’s views. Thank you for reading the article and for taking the time to comment on it. Please stay in touch.

Badrya Darwish

In my view

Only in Kuwait

By Talal Al-Ghannam

local@kuwaittimes.net

T

hese are the things you won’t find in other modern countries or even ones that are poorer, but only in Kuwait.

1. Only in Kuwait people APPEAL to the government to apply the law.

2. Only in Kuwait handicapped parking places are seized by ordinary people.

3. Only in Kuwait many people like to park on the pavement and on green landscapes.

4. Only in Kuwait you could get killed for a parking space.

5. Only in Kuwait you could get beaten if you did not let a maniac driving behind you to pass.

6. Only in Kuwait policemen are beaten by mobs.

7. Only in Kuwait many policemen play with their smart phones rather than monitor the roads.

8 .Only in Kuwait many police stations have only one policeman.

9. Only in Kuwait you need a fancy car on the road to

be respected.

10. Only in Kuwait you need three months to get an appointment in a hospital unless you are really sick.

11. Only in Kuwait the majority of Kuwaitis travel out of town when there is a two-day holiday.

12. Only in Kuwait the majority of employees get sick suddenly when there is a holiday coming up.

13. Only in Kuwait we see people spitting or urinating in the streets.

14. Only in Kuwait we see maniacs driving on the shoulder of the road, throwing up gravel to break your car’s windshield.

15. Only in Kuwait some Kuwaitis say ‘kaifi ana Kuwaiti’, meaning I am a Kuwait, I can do whatever I want.

16. Only in Kuwait you see many Kuwaitis able to deport expatriates.

I will rest my pen for now until the next article.

By Badrya Darwish

badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net

L

ast week, it was my birthday but don’t dare ask me how old I turned. There are two questions I never answer my birthday and my weight. These are taboo. Anyways, I stopped celebrating my birthday years ago because I wanted to forget that I am getting older.

When my youngest son came to wish me Happy Birthday right after midnight the other day, my immediate reaction instead of telling him thank you was to attack him because he reminded me that I am a year older now. My son sympathetically told me: “Don’t despair. I know you are a year older but much wiser.” I told him that I do not care that I was wiser because I prefer to be younger. Who cares about wiser?

Does everybody feel the same way? Is this a woman feeling or do men also go through such kinds of feelings and experiences? I wondered if I was the odd one out so I asked the girls in the office. Most of them said: “Of course, I want to be younger.” My favourite answer was shared by one of the female editors who said: “What shall I do with wiser?”

Our American editor shocked me that she prefers to be wiser. Americans like to be odd, no surprise. I understand the American mentality. She thought: “Why do I have to work all these years all over again to get to where I am now, but if I have a chance to be thinner, I don’t mind.”

Typical American. No hard feelings, guys. I love the American people. This is what the girls felt like.

Our male Kuwaiti editor surprised me by saying that he wanted to be younger so he can correct the mistakes and things he has not done, such as buying a house when the prices were lower. He recalled coming back on holidays from the university and seeing ads about houses sold for KD120,000. Today, he says jokingly, you cannot even build a room with that money.” The guys has a point.

Another male editor from India said he was dying to have a little white hair so that he looks more mature. Of course, he talks like this because he is still young. He also preferred to be wiser.

Give them 10 to 15 years and throw the same question again. Let’s see if they will give me the same answer then. I am positive they would then prefer to be 100 times younger.

What about you, guys? Do you feel the same way? @BadryaD

Child jailed in Kuwait

By Muna Al-Fuzai

muna@kuwaittimes.net

A

li Al-Habib, a 13-year-old bedoon in Kuwait was kept in police custody for participating in the recent bedoon demonstrations. He was set free after several attempts by his lawyers and pressure by the media. The juvenile public prosecution released the boy on KD 200 bail after listening to a statement by officers in charge of the case. He did not deny the charges or being part of this demonstration, but claimed that he was not aware of the purpose of the demonstration. If that is true, I believe him. Welcome to the Arab world!

We are amidst the bloody Arab Spring where chaos, igno-

rance, violence and contradictions abound. It is very normal in the Arab world to see many people at protests and demonstrations without knowing why and who is leading them? I know some think this is craziness and ignorance. But who says we are highly modern and civilized societies when it comes to customs, tradition and leadership?

Stop the illusion and see the reality. Yes, many people go to demonstrations to support their family members or spiritual leaders. They may not be in full agreement with his ideas but they go to these demonstrations even if it means breaking the law. The reason for this is because blood and social ties are stronger than any law or regulation.

When any country disregards the enforcement of laws and fighting corruption, then it is normal that many would find in their family and social roots the secure umbrella to protect and help them. When the law doesn’t give people the protection and security they need, it is normal they look for it somewhere else and in our societies, these are in the family, blood

Local Spotlight

and social relations.

For example, how many people vote for someone in the election just because he is their relative, even if they know that he is not good or suitable to speak on their behalf? We have a mix of tradition, customs, misunderstanding and misperception of ideas and self interests. That is why we have people like Habib go to protests but are not aware of the reason or the consequences.

I was annoyed that Habib was kept in police custody. I’m not sure of the impact of jail and police atmosphere on him and his behavior, thinking and ideas. I’m not in favor of restricting anyone’s freedom because he expressed an opinion. He may not be a Kuwait citizen but respecting his human rights are essential. I’m relieved that he is out now and I hope to see more social and political activists lead awareness campaigns for the families of the bedoons to enlighten them of their rights and duties to avoid being in such situations.

Local FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

Capturing the

‘noncitizens of Kuwait’ one portrait

at a time

By Jamie Etheridge

T

hey stand on street corners or sit on curbs. Their hands are often dirty, their clothes old and careworn. They work as street cleaners and garbage collectors, mechanics and maids, tea boys and construction laborers.

There are literally hundreds of thousands of these low-income laborers working and living in Kuwait. They are seldom discussed in parliament - unless there is a debate about deporting foreigners - and they subsist on salaries middle-income earners spend on a one-way ticket to Dubai. They are, for the most part, invisible.

Seeing what other people miss, however, is what Faisal Al-Fouzan does best. The young street photographer captures the ‘invisibles of Kuwait’ in a series he calls the Noncitizens of Kuwait. Showcasing his work on Instagram and through exhibitions and competitions, Fouzan is known for his scenes of everyday life in Kuwait.

(Whatever by me) - reflects more of a still life perspective, with a picture of a wall or an empty chair. Another series, 9aba7 al khair (Good morning), is from his early morning jaunts. A third series, ‘Ana Ensan (I’m a human), I’m not Yellow’ focuses on street cleaners.

Begun in 2011 as a hobby while out walking, Fouzan’s street photography has become a central aspect of the young Kuwaiti’s creative life. “The camera is an extension of my eye and what I call my third hand,” explains Fouzan. “Even now,

I have now started taking photos with one focal length, the 50mm.

It makes you focus on the frame rather than if you are using a zoom lens.

without my camera, I try to observe things and then come back to it. Most of my photography (photograph excursions) takes place on the weekend; I divide the places I want to visit into zones, and visit and walk through each one at a time while scouting places for photographs.”

Fouzan’s work has evolved and he has several series running at once. Ayshay by me

The invisibles The portraits of the Noncitizens of Kuwait generally capture the people on the streets of Kuwait. “Few Kuwaitis walk in the street; most of those walking the streets are foreigners. I wanted to shoot the ones others don’t see.

They are invisible,” Fouzan said. “But I see them with my camera, I capture what they are experiencing: ‘Look at me, I’m human’ - that’s what I want my photographs to say,” Fouzan explains. “The portraits convey the character of each individual I meet. These add a human touch and help people notice them and acknowledge them.”

An advocate of visual documentation and a news junkie, Fouzan views his work as a way of documenting the lives and experiences of Kuwait’s migrant workers. His photo walks take him around the city including into the industrial areas of Shuwaikh. He has also visited workers’ housing in areas like Bneid Al-Gar, Sharq and Farwaniya with the intent of documenting their living conditions.

“In the single men accommodation or housing, six to ten men may be sharing one room,” he said. “I was surprised to find such diversity and tolerance. Christians and Muslims and Hindus and within these groups, Shiites and Sunnis all living together. It’s kind of symbolic - as it is there’s tension in Kuwait between the two sects. But in these small workers’ accommodations, they are living harmoniously. Everyone wants to live and let live.”

Arts and photography Not everyone is keen on having their portrait taken, however. Fouzan has captured someone digging through piles of garbage and sometimes they accuse him of being from the police or the Baladiya (Municipality).

Alternatively, others ask to have their pictures taken and to have them published in the newspaper. “Sometimes I get their consent

Local FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

light conditions. I have now started taking photos with one focal length, the 50mm. It makes you focus on the frame rather than if you are using a zoom lens. Also, it is good for close-ups because it makes the photo more realistic and intimate.”

Realistic and intimate are techniques of the storyteller and in capturing the ‘Non Citizens of Kuwait’, Fouzan is documenting the story of this invisible community through his lens. “In my work, I am telling a story,” he explains. “I like fiction, so I want people to imagine the story. In literature and films I like open endings. Sometimes I put photos without any captions so that each person can interpret the pictures as they like.”

“

Few Kuwaitis walk in the street; most of those walking the streets are foreigners. I wanted to shoot the ones others don’t see.

They are invisible.

“

through a nod and sometimes I ask for their permission. Sometimes people approach me to take their pictures,” he said. “But I also get many refusals and people who get angry.”

Having studied at the Arab Open University, Fouzan has a strong interest in arts, film and photography. “To me education and learning is a lifelong process. I’m curious and I like to travel and read and learn.”

Fouzan uses a Canon 5D Mark 3 on his photo walks and continues to teach himself about photography. “I’m a self-taught photographer, and have a growing collection of books by masters of photography.

I read into the pictures, analyzing their composition and how they deal with different

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Local FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

Paan

thrives despite ban

Illegal leaves sold under the counter at baqalas, salons

By Nawara Fattahova

‘E

nergy boosting’ and ‘performance enhancing’ leaves that are part of the South Asian culture can be found in Kuwait’s baqalas under the counter. Although illegal, paan - known to have a light stimulating effect when chewed can be found across Kuwait in baqalas, barber shops and even in the desert areas of Nuwaiseeb.

An Asian tailor said that he has been chewing paan for over 20 years as an energy-booster, claiming that it helps him get the energy to continue working into the wee hours of the night. According to him, paan is widely available in several baqalas around Kuwait for the meager price of 200 fils. It is sold, according to the tailor, to customers who are known to shop assistants. “Strangers cannot walk into the baqala and buy paan,” he said.

Banned stimulant Paan, like all narcotic substances, is illegal in Kuwait. It is banned from importation and cannot be sold in the local market. And yet it seems to be widely available, albeit on the black market. “We have found paan in various baqalas on many occasions, but this is not the only place where these leaves can be found,” said Mohammed, an inspector at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the authority that ensures that no illegal goods are sold in shops in Kuwait.

According to him, paan can be found at barber shops too.

“It is kept in drawers and sold to regular customers,” Mohamed noted. “Some Asian expats also sell it in desert areas such as Nuwaiseeb and others,” Mohammed explained, adding that when the team from the ministry makes surprise checks into different shops and find paan or other illegal products, they confiscate it and send a report to the prosecutor, who decides the sanctions against the violator. According to Mohammed, paan is mainly available in Sharq, Mirgab, Qibla and is mostly the drug of choice for South Asian communities.

What is paan?

Paan is a stimulating and psychoactive preparation of betel leaf combined with areca nut and/or cured tobacco. Paan is chewed and finally spat out or swallowed. Paan has many variations. Slaked lime (chunnam) paste is commonly added to bind the leaves. Some South Asian preparations include katha paste or mukhwas to freshen the breath.

Paan is originally from and native to India/Pakistan but it has spread to other countries like Burma and Vietnam. Paan is also

consumed in many other Asian countries and elsewhere in the world by some Asian emigrants, with or without tobacco, in an addictive and euphoria-inducing formulation with adverse health effects.

Paan is similar to qat that is native to East Africa and southern Arabia. Leaves of the qat shrub are typically chewed and held in the cheek, like chewing tobacco, to release their stimulant chemicals. Chewing qat leaves is reported to induce a state of euphoria and elation as well as feelings of increased alertness and arousal. The effects begin to subside after about 90 minutes to three hours, but can last 24 hours.

Homegrown According to Jassem, a police officer working with the customs department at a land border, paan leaves may be planted locally or smuggled with other vegetables as unidentified leaves. “I remember confiscating large quantities of paan from smugglers who were sent to the criminal investigation, but they weren’t jailed because paan is not considered a light drug and is treated as unlicensed medicine,” he said.

“Sometimes we find drugs or hashish in open areas and we don’t know who it belongs to, because some drivers when they know they will be checked just throw it before the checkpoint,” he explained.

Jassem said Kuwait has lately become a destination of newer, more dangerous drugs.

“Zeos (loratadine) is a new kind of light drug that has entered Kuwait and is now widespread,” he said, elaborating that some people order it online and get it at their doorstep. “This is due to the ignorance and lack of information of the customs department officers,” he said, adding that many-atimes he has faced a situation when somebody imported a huge quantity of Zeos and claimed it was not drugs.

“But I have read about this drug online, and I showed the importer the information and he couldn’t say a single word,” Jassem said. “Interestingly, consuming this powder which is burned does not appear in blood tests. So the consumer is released after being arrested and the drug is confiscated,” he said.

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Local FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

KUWAIT: Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah and Secretary General of the International Civil Defence Organisation (ICDO) Dr Vladimir Kuvshinov ‘cut a hose’ to open the 12th Fireman Day Festival at Souq Sharq yesterday. —Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyar

Firefighting festival highlights successes

By Nawara Fattahova KUWAIT: The 12th Fireman Day Festival from March 6-8, 2014 at Souq Sharq includes an exhibition of firefighting vehicles and equipment and products and services of participating institutions.

Documentaries about the fire department and major accidents are also being shown.

Children can enjoy too with cartoon characters, a play and contests with prizes for winners between 6:00 pm and 9:30 pm.

“The KFSD cooperates with the Kuwait army, National Guard and the oil sector to protect human lives and environment from harm caused by nature or humans. The main goal of this event is to increase awareness among the public to protect themselves and help others, as well as help lower the daily fire accidents and rescues,” said Maj Gen Yousef Al-Ansari, Director General of Kuwait Fire Service Directorate (KFSD) during the opening ceremony yesterday.

KFSD held 172 symposiums, 42 fairs and 178 school visits in cooperation with various institutions and companies last year.

“Firefighting is a dangerous profession and through his event we want to show their work. A total of 172 firefighters were injured last year on duty to ensure safety of people, so they deserve to highlight their achievements,” he added. “(In 2013), firefighters dealt with 12,389 accidents and registered a record by arriving within five minutes. They dealt with 99 percent of the accidents within 20 minutes.

They helped decrease fires in 2013 compared to 2012 by 19 percent. They also provided 1,704 high-standard public humanitarian services. In addition, they also printed some publications to serve as reference,”

Ansari concluded. On this occasion, KFSD invited international guests including Dr Vladimir Kuvshinov, Secretary General of the International Civil Defence Organisation (ICDO), who appreciated his first visit to Kuwait and attending the 3rd International Conference and Exhibition that concluded yesterday. “This conference discussed vital subjects such as high-rise buildings and challenging environment, crisis management systems and hazardous materials, managing threats and specialists’ responses. All of these subjects are important and I hope that the outcome of this conference will add great value to firefighting services across the world,” stressed Kuvshinov.

Bridging Experiences One of ICDO’s goals is to bridge experiences and methods from all over the world.

“The ICDO also assists states by developing systems that provide protection and assistance to the population, property and environment from natural and manmade disasters. “It would be highly appreciated if Kuwait organized international training for firefighters from several states,” he added.

He also commemorated the ‘World Civil Defence Day’ and the ‘Firefighters Day’. “We have to pay tribute to those who died on duty, and call upon all countries to recognize them as role models for generations to come. I would also like to wish prompt recovery to firefighting, civil protection, civil defense and emergency services personnel,” stated Kuvshinov.

“Everything I saw here proves that Kuwait’s fire service has reached the highest level. The ICDO admires its modern equipment and technologies, as well as the level of professionalism and preparedness of its

personnel. Today the Kuwait fire service is an example for all countres that really care to protect the population against natural and manmade disasters. I believe that it’s necessary to learn and transfer your experience to ICDO member states,” he explained.

ICDO is one of the oldest organizations

that protects population from disasters.

“Today the ICDO is a big family that includes 53 countries, 17 observer states and 22 affiliate members. We are very pleased to hear that Kuwait is now undertaking procedures to be a member of ICDO’s family,” concluded Kuvshinov.

Local FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

Kuwait won’t recall envoy from Qatar Doha ‘will not alter foreign policy’

In this courtroom sketch, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith (center) is flanked by his legal team on March 3, 2014. — AP

Abu Ghaith was Laden’s right-hand man: Trial NEW YORK: The son-in-law of Osama bin Laden acted as the Al-Qaeda leader’s right-hand man and appeared alongside the terror mastermind in a propaganda video just one day after the carnage of the 9/11 attacks, US prosecutors said yesterday. Launching the most prominent 9/11related terror trial held in New York to date, federal prosecutors said Suleiman Abu Ghaith had been one of bin Laden’s key lieutenants in the days and months after the September 11, 2001 attacks which left 3,000 people dead.

The Manhattan trial is taking place just streets from where the World Trade Center was reduced to burning rubble by two airliners hijacked by AlQaeda suicide attackers. Abu Ghaith is on trial for conspiracy to kill Americans, conspiracy to provide support and providing material support to terrorists. The 48-year-old from Kuwait pleads not guilty to all three charges. He faces life in prison if convicted. He is the most senior alleged Al-Qaeda member to face trial in a US federal court rather than at Guantanamo Bay, which the White House has promised to close.

Wearing a dark suit, he sat impassively as prosecutors played the video in which he sat next to bin Laden and the current leader of AlQaeda, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, in Afghanistan on Sept 12, 2001. He was similarly unmoved as the court watched a clip of him lecturing and gesticulating, dressed in a black turban in Afghanistan.

He spoke only to confirm when asked by Judge Lewis Kaplan that he understood proceedings, and listened to simultaneous translation provided on an ear piece. His salt-and-pepper beard was neatly trimmed and although balding, dark curls tapered into his neck.By the afternoon session he had removed a blue silk tie and unbuttoned the top button of his shirt.

Abu Ghaith is not accused of involvement in the 9/11 attacks, but of recruiting personnel for Al-Qaeda, or what the prosecution called its “very lifeblood”. The prosecution also claims he was complicit in the Dec 2001 shoe-bombing plot to bring down an airliner flying from Paris to Miami.

‘Trusted’ Al-Qaeda Insider US prosecutor Nicholas Lewin described Abu Ghaith as a “trusted” Al-Qaeda insider who quickly met bin Laden after leaving Kuwait for Afghanistan in spring 2001. He spent the sum-

mer of 2001 speaking to hundreds of young AlQaeda recruits at Afghan training camps, preparing them for war and earning his stripes. Then after the 9/11 attacks, his job changed. “Literally hours after the attacks, Osama bin Laden turned to this man,” said Lewin, standing behind the defendant and pointing at him.

The Al-Qaeda terror chief wanted this “important religious scholar” and “inspirational and charismatic speaker” to recruit men globally for jihad, he added. “Osama bin Laden asked that man to deliver Al-Qaeda’s murderous decree to the world,” Lewin told the court. “What did the defendant do? He agreed. You don’t sit outside a cave on September 12, 2001 with the most wanted man on earth unless you’re inside AlQaeda at the very, very top,” added Lewin. Abu Ghaith “sat at the right hand of Osama bin Laden,” Lewin said, quoting liberally from Abu Ghaith’s proclamations threatening a “storm of airplanes”.

Married to bin Laden’s daughter Fatima, US prosecutors say Abu Ghaith worked for Al-Qaeda until 2002, when he fled Afghanistan after the US invasion for Iran. He appeared in follow-up videos in October and November 2001, an AK-47 assault rifle at his feet, threatening further attacks in a “storm of airplanes.”

Shoe Bomb Evidence Key Key will be evidence linking him to the Dec 2001 shoe bomb plot, which the defense says does not exist. Defense attorney Stanley Cohen on Wednesday suggested to the 13-women and five-men jury that the prosecution case was fantasy: “You’ve just been to the movies.” Gently touching his client on the shoulder Cohen said: “This is not Osama bin Laden”. “This is Suleiman Abu Ghaith. He’s a Muslim. He’s an Arab. He’s from Kuwait. He’s a husband and a father. Yes he’s an imam, a talker. An ideologue. At the end of the day there’s really no evidence,” Cohen said.

The first key witness will be 33-year-old Saajid Badat, a convicted co-conspirator in the shoebomb plot who will testify by video from London on Monday. The trial is expected to run for most of March. It is one of a series of terror cases transferred to New York as Obama has promised to close down the military prison at Guantanamo Bay. — AFP

KUWAIT: A high-ranking senior official at Kuwait’s ministry of foreign affairs denied rumors about Kuwait’s intention to recall its ambassador in Qatar. “Our ambassador will remain in Qatar,” he told Al-Jarida daily, noting that Kuwait has always been keen on working on ending GCC or Arab rifts and it would continue mediation efforts to achieve reconciliation and bridge the gaps.

The official also denied any relation between the recent bombing in Bahrain and the three Gulf states’ (Saudi Arabia, UAE and Bahrain) decision to withdraw their ambassadors from Doha .

Yesterday, Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah Al-Sabah emphasized in a press statement Kuwait’s keenness on promoting solidarity and unity among member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council. He underscored Kuwait’s commitment to contain any rift that may befall states of the GCC, noting it has been Kuwait’s position to always contain any such rifts that may pit one or more members of the GCC states against another.

He said that the chief mediator in such situations is HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad AlSabah. “It is not abnormal for contentions to occur among members of one big family,” he said, stressing that the leaders of the GCC were up to the task of ironing out any differences among them.

Meanwhile, Qatar will not bow to demands from three Gulf states to alter its foreign policy, sources close to its government said, suggesting Doha is unlikely to abandon support for Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and Syrian Islamists. In an unprecedented move, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain recalled their ambassadors from Qatar on Wednesday, saying Doha had failed to abide by an accord not to interfere in each others’ internal affairs.

Hours later Qatar’s cabinet voiced “regret and surprise” at the decision by the fellow-members of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), but said Doha would not pull out its own envoys and that it remained committed to GCC security.

Yesterday, a source close to the Qatari government suggested Qatar would not comply. “Qatar will not let go of its foreign policy, no matter what the pressures are. This is a matter of principles which we will stick to, no matter the price,” the source said.

The source also suggested Qatar would not

stop its practice of playing host to members of the Muslim Brotherhood, including Youssef AlQaradawi, an influential Sunni cleric and a vocal critic of authorities in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. “Since the day Qatar was founded we decided to take this approach of always welcoming anyone who seeks refuge in our country, and no amount of pressure will make us kick these people out,” said the source close to the government. A source at the foreign ministry said: “It’s the right of every sovereign state to have its own foreign policy.” The source also suggested that Qatar had no differences with fellow Gulf Arab states on Gulf matters.

Airtime for Preacher The dispute “is more about differences in foreign policy approaches”, the source added, referring to issues in the Middle East such as the crises in Egypt and Syria. Saudi Arabia and the UAE clearly do see Qatar as at odds with them on Gulf issues. They are fuming especially over Qatar’s support for the Brotherhood, an Islamist movement whose political ideology challenges the principle of dynastic rule. They also resent the way Doha has sheltered Qaradawi and given him regular airtime on its pan-Arab satellite television channel Al Jazeera, and on Qatari state television.

The GCC, which normally keeps its disputes under wraps, is a pro-Western alliance of monarchies set up in the 1980s to counter Iranian influence in the Gulf, and includes several of the world’s biggest producers and exporters of oil and gas. Qatar’s new Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, who took over from his father in June last year, said Qatar would not “take direction” in foreign affairs, suggesting he would continue his father’s habit of pursuing policies at odds with those of most other GCC states. He has yet to comment publicly on the latest ruckus.

Since the start of the Arab Spring, the tiny Gulf state has used its wealth to back Islamists throughout the Arab Spring revolutions in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Syria. With ambitions to mediate in conflicts in the region, Qatar has been a welcoming host to members of the Brotherhood, other Islamist groups and the Afghan Taleban. Al Jazeera says it is an independent news service giving a voice to everyone in the region. — Agencies

Weight loss surgeries up sevenfold in 10 yrs KUWAIT: The number of weight loss surgeries have increased sevenfold over the last ten years in Kuwait, said Director of Catering and Nutrition Services Department of the Kuwaiti Health Ministry Dr Nawal Al-Hamad. Hamad cautioned that this trend will have serious consequences if no measure is taken to tackle it. She was speaking at a press conference to announce the second nutrition and health conference from March 10-12.

Hamad pointed out the conference will be held in Kuwait under the auspices of the Minister of Health Ali Al-Obaidi and supervision of the catering and nutrition services department. The conference aims to review the latest researches in the field of obesity treatment. She added that medical and nutrition professors and experts from the United Kingdom, Canada and the US will contribute to the conference sessions.

The three-event conference is held as a part of the Ministry’s activities to counter the spread of non-communicable diseases including obesity in implementation of the declaration adopted by the UN in Sept 2011 and relevant WHO resolutions, Hamad said. He noted that the Catering and Nutrition Services Department is interested in conducting research, sharing expertise, transferring and benefiting from the latest medical and technological developments in the field of obesity prevention and treatment.

For her part, feeding specialist and head of the nutrition section Fatima AlKandari said a number of workshops will be held on the sidelines of the conference. She called on doctors in primary care centers to participate in the conference due to their significant role in reducing obesity. — KUNA

FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

Sarkozy, Bruni trying to block secret tapes

Niger hands over fugitive Gaddafi son to Libya

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Pakistani woman on a mission to educate kids

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SEVASTOPOL: A Russian military ship sails in Sevastopol bay yesterday. Ukraine’s premier Arseniy Yatsenyuk yesterday dubbed as ‘illegitimate’ a request by the local parliament in Crimea to become part of Russia. — AFP

Crimea parliament votes to join Russia A dramatic escalation of Ukrainian crisis SIMFEROPOL: Crimea’s parliament voted to join Russia yesterday and its Moscow-backed government set a referendum within 10 days on the decision in a dramatic escalation of the crisis over the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula. The sudden acceleration of moves to bring Crimea, which has an ethnic Russian majority and has effectively been seized by Russian forces, formally under Moscow’s rule came as European Union leaders gathered for an emergency summit to seek ways to pressure Russia to back down and accept mediation. The Crimean parliament voted unanimously “to enter into the Russian Federation with the rights of a subject of the Russian Federation”. The vice premier of Crimea, home to Russia’s Black Sea military base in Sevastopol, said a referendum on the status would take place on March 16.

The announcement, which diplomats said could not have been made without Russian President Vladimir Putin’s approval, raised the stakes in the most serious east-west confrontation since the end of the Cold War. Far from seeking a diplomatic way out, Putin appears to have chosen to create facts on the ground before the West can agree on more than token action against him. EU leaders had been set to warn but not sanction Russia over its military intervention after Moscow rebuffed Western diplomatic efforts to persuade it to pull forces in Crimea, with a population of about 2 million,

back to their bases. It was not immediately clear what impact the Crimean moves would have.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in a Twitter message: “We stand by a united and inclusive #Ukraine.”

French President Francois Hollande told reporters on arrival at the summit: “There will be the strongest possible pressure on Russia to begin lowering the tension and in the pressure there is, of course, eventual recourse to sanctions.” The new Ukrainian government has declared the referendum illegal and opened a criminal investigation against Crimean Prime Minister Sergei Askyonov, who was appointed by the region’s parliament last week. The Ukrainian government does not recognise his authority or that of the parliament.

A Crimean parliament official said voters will be asked two questions: should Crimea be part of the Russian Federation and should Crimea return to an earlier constitution (1992) that gave the region more autonomy? “If there weren’t constant threats from the current illegal Ukrainian authorities, maybe we would have taken a different path,” deputy parliament speaker Sergei Tsekov told reporters outside the parliament building in Crimea’s main city of Simferopol. “I think there was an annexation of Crimea by Ukraine, if we are going to call things by their name. Because of this mood and feeling we took the decision to join Russia. I think we

will feel much more comfortable there.”

Tension high Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov refused to meet his new Ukrainian counterpart or to launch a “contact group” to seek a solution to the crisis at talks in Paris on Wednesday despite arm-twisting by US Secretary of State John Kerry and European colleagues. The two men will meet again in Rome yesterday. Tension was high in Crimea after a senior United Nations envoy was surrounded by a pro-Russian crowd, threatened and forced to get back on his plane and leave the country on Wednesday. The EU summit in Brussels seemed unlikely to adopt more than symbolic measures against Europe’s biggest gas supplier, because neither industrial powerhouse Germany nor financial centre Britain is keen to start down that road.

The United States has said it is ready to impose sanctions such as visa bans, asset freezes on individual Russian officials and restrictions on business ties within days rather than weeks.

Russia’s rouble currency weakened further yesterday despite central bank intervention due to what analysts at VTB Capital called the political risk premium. The short, informal EU summit will mostly be dedicated to displaying support for Ukraine’s new pro-Western government, represented by Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk, who will attend even though Kiev is neither an EU

member nor a recognized candidate for membership.

After meeting European Parliament President Martin Schulz, Yatseniuk appealed to Russia to respond to mediation efforts. The European Commission announced an aid package of up to 11 billion euros ($15 billion) for Ukraine over the next couple of years provided it reaches a deal with the International Monetary Fund, entailing painful reforms like ending gas subsidies. Diplomats said that at most, the 28nation EU would condemn Russia’s so far bloodless seizure of the Black Sea province and suspend talks with Moscow on visa liberalization and economic cooperation, while threatening further measures if Putin does not accept mediation efforts soon. They were expected hold back from tougher steps both in hopes of a diplomatic breakthrough and out of fear of a titfor-tat trade war with Russia, a major economic partner of Europe. France has a deal to sell warships to Russia that it is so far not prepared to cancel, London’s banks have profited from facilitating Russian investment, and German companies have $22 billion invested in Russia. Before the summit, European members of the Group of Eight major economies will meet separately, diplomats said, in an apparent effort to coordinate positions towards Russia, due to host the next G8 summit in Olympic venue Sochi in June.—Reuters

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International FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

Niger hands over fugitive Gaddafi’s playboy to Libya Saadi - Failed footballer son of slain dictator TRIPOLI: Niger has turned over to Tripoli a son of Libya’s late dictator Muammar Gaddafi after he fled across the desert during the 2011 uprising that ended his father’s four-decade rule.

The government said Saadi Gaddafi, who escaped to Niger during the revolt that saw rebels capture and kill his father, was now in Libyan custody. The Tripoli Revolutionaries Brigade, a militia made up of former rebels, released five photographs on Facebook of a disconsolate-looking Saadi wearing a blue jumpsuit getting his head and beard shaved. The 40-year-old was pictured kneeling on the floor as his hair was removed by a man wielding an electic razor.

Libya’s government said he would be held in accordance with “international standards regarding the treatment of prisoners”. A spokesman for the attorney general said Saadi faces several charges, including “crimes to keep his father in power”.

Seddik Al-Sour told AFP the charges include involvement in the 2005 murder of a former coach of Tripoli football club Al Ittihad. He is also accused of “seizing goods by force and intimidation when he headed the Libyan Football Federation”.

Saadi Gaddafi was best known as the head of Libya’s football federation and a player who paid his way into Italy’s top division.

When he was 20, he trained with Italian clubs Juventus and Lazio. He was a shareholder in Juventus, and also tried to buy Lazio in 2002 after the collapse of the Cirio food empire, which owned the club. Despite not playing at the level required for Italian first class football, he was recruited by Perugia in 2003 for marketing reasons. But he had barely kicked a ball when he was suspended after testing positive for nandrolone, an anabolic steroid. The playboy footballer, born in May 1973, had been off the radar since fleeing in a convoy to Niger across Libya’s southern desert in September 2011. After hanging up his football boots, Saadi had forged a military career, heading an elite unit.

Interpol ‘Red Notice’ Despite initial setbacks suffered by his father’s forces in the uprising, Saadi vowed that any territory lost would be regained “sooner or later”. Interpol had issued a “Red Notice” for Saadi, for “allegedly misappropriating properties through force and armed intimidation when he headed the Libyan Football Federation”. Libya had repeatedly called for Saadi’s extradition from Niger, which had granted him asylum on “humanitarian” grounds, saying it had insufficient guarantees Libya’s new rulers would give him a fair trial. Saadi is subject to UN sanctions, including a travel ban and assets freeze.

Three of Gaddafi’s sons were killed in the 2011 uprising, including Mutassim, who was killed by rebels in Sirte on the same day as his father. Their bodies were later put on public display in Misrata, on the coast between Tripoli and Sirte, before being buried at a secret location in the desert. Another son, Seif Al-Arab, was killed in a NATO air raid in April 2011, just months before his brother Khamis died in combat in August at the height of the revolt. Several key members of the Gaddafi clan survived, however, including the dictator’s erstwhile heir apparent Seif Al-Islam, who is wanted by the

TRIPOLI: A photo released by the Libyan Prison Authority, shows one of the sons of the late dictator Muammar Gaddafi, Saadi Gaddafi, having his head shaved following his extradition from Niger to the Libyan capital Tripoli. —AFP International Criminal Court but detained by a militia at Zintan in western Libya.

Former Libyan Olympic Committee chief Muhammad and Hannibal, who made headlines during scandal-packed European holidays, are believed still to be in Algeria, as is the fallen tyrant’s widow Safiya and daughter Aisha. Around 30 senior regime officials are believed to have entered Niger at the same time as Saadi, but the authorities in Niamey have not said how many remain in the country. More than two and a half years after Gaddafi’s downfall, Libya’s transitional authorities have struggled to integrate former rebels into the police force and army. Security forces are regularly attacked, especially in the east, and the presence of rival ex-rebel groups, heavily armed with weapons looted from Gaddafi’s arsenals, could yet push Libya into civil war.— AFP

20 years on, Rwanda’s reconciliation - step by step CYENDAJURU: In the years that followed the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, Immaculee Mukankundiye would hear nothing of the word reconciliation. The 56-year-old lost her husband and three children to Hutu extremists, who happened to be neighbors in her village of Cyendajuru near the southern city of Butare. “I thought it would be impossible to find reconciliation, to forgive my neighbour who killed my children,” she said. But in 2007, she joined the Modeste and Innocent Association (AMI), a Catholic group set up to promote reconciliation between victims and killers.

Mukankundiye says she has now been able to forgive.

On April 6, 1994, a plane carrying Rwanda’s Hutu president Juvenal

Habyarimana was shot down over the capital Kigali, an event that served as the spark for a genocide that had been months in preparation. Over the next 100 days, at least 800,000 people, the overwhelming majority of them members of the ethnic Tutsi minority were murdered-by soldiers, Hutu extremist militia and even ordinary people armed with little more than a machete. The southern province of Butare was home to around a quarter of the small central African nation’s Tutsis, and for the first 15 days of the genocide was largely untouched. When the killers finally descended on the area, around 200,000 people were killed.

Twenty years on, the question of reconciliation is still a central issue in the coun-

try, and one promoted heavily by the government of President Paul Kagame, a Tutsi and former rebel leader whose army ended the killings. The issue is particularly felt on a daily basis in rural areas, were victims and killers who lived side by side in peace for years before the genocide now have to live together again. Genocide survivor Laurent Sarambu, 57, regularly passes relatives of the people who killed his two daughters and who also took part in the killings but have been released from prison after serving their sentence. “I didn’t want to speak to them or see them, and if I had had the chance I would have even taken revenge,” he said. “At first everyone stayed in their corner, but slowly, little by little, some kind of unity has returned.”—AFP

News

in brief

MERS death toll rises to 62 in Saudi Arabia RIYADH: Saudi health authorities said yesterday a man has died from the MERS coronavirus, bringing the death toll from the respiratory disease in the worst-hit country to 62. The 55-year-old national, who died in Riyadh from the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, was suffering from “chronic illness,” the health ministry website said.

The ministry also announced a new case in the province of Riyadh, bringing the total number of cases in Saudi Arabia to 150 people since the virus first appeared in September 2012. Experts are struggling to understand the disease, for which there is no vaccine. A study last month said the virus has been “extraordinarily common” in camels for at least 20 years, and may have been passed directly from the animals to humans. MERS is considered a deadlier but less-transmissible cousin of the SARS virus that erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine percent of whom died. The World Health Organization said at the end of February that it has been told of 184 cases of MERS infection worldwide, including 80 deaths.

Al-Qaeda executes alleged ‘informer’ ADEN: Al-Qaeda militants in Yemen executed one of their own yesterday after accusing him of spying for the United States, a security official said. The man was executed by firing squad and his body was displayed at a football stadium near Shehr in the southeastern Hadramawt province, an Al-Qaeda stronghold, the source said. Yemen is the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden and the home base of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which Washington views as the global jihadist network’s most dangerous franchise. When police arrived at the scene, the man was hanging with the Al-Qaeda black and white flag alongside a banner reading: “A US spy in the Arabian Peninsula,” the official said. A statement was also found in which AQAP threatened to execute “any intruder who infiltrates among Muslims, places chips in their vehicles and their wedding convoys and gets them killed in return for a few dirhams,” according to the source. “These spies are the striking force by which the crusader US enemy reaches us,” it added. The American military flies drones over Yemen in support of Sanaa’s campaign against AlQaeda and has killed dozens of militants in a sharply intensified campaign in the past year. A US drone strike in northern Yemen on Wednesday killed four suspected Al-Qaeda members, including one who had fought in Iraq.

US adds 6 fighters for NATO Baltics patrols VILNIUS: The United States will send six additional F-15 fighter jets to step up NATO’s air patrols over the Baltic states, mission host Lithuania said as West-Russia tensions simmered over Ukraine. “I have had confirmation that the air police missions will be reinforced by six additional F-15 fighters,” Defense Minister Juozas Olekas said. The move is a response to “Russian aggression in Ukraine and additional military activity in the Kaliningrad region,” Russia’s exclave bordering Lithuania and Poland, he said. “We have witnessed increased military activity in Kaliningrad. Today it is lesser than three or four days before,” he added. The jets will land yesterday at 1140 GMT at the Zokniai Air Base, once the home of Red Army troops near the northern Lithuanian town of Siauliai, ministry spokesman Vaidotas Linkus added. Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite told reporters in Brussels that the jets are a sign that “NATO is responding promptly and fast”.

“Europe still is not able to understand what is happening,” she said. “Russia today is dangerous. Russia today is unpredictable.” Since January, four US F-15 fighter jets have been assigned for air patrols over Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania-three ex-Soviet Baltic states which are members of NATO and but which lack sufficient aircraft to patrol their skies.

International FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

Mombasa’s Musa mosque at heart of Kenya war on terror MOMBASA: Branded by Kenyan authorities as an epicenter for the indoctrination and recruitment of Islamic militants, the Musa mosque in Mombasa has become a primary target of the country’s escalating war on terror. But this war is also causing controversy, amid allegations of state-sponsored assassinations, heavy-handed raids and fears that these tactics could be helping and not hindering radical Islam.

In August 2012, the mosque’s radical Imam, Aboud Rogo Mohammed, was gunned down, and in October last year his successor, Sheikh Ibrahim Ismail, met the same fate on a road near the steamy port city, again sparking riots. For their followers, the two men-long accused of supporting Somalia’s Al-Qaedalinked Shebab rebels-were simply murdered

by Kenyan authorities, an opinion that appears to be largely shared by many independent observers, despite government denials.

Last month the mosque was yet again the scene of another deadly incident, when armed police launched a massive raid on the mosque to put an end to what officials said was a “jihadist convention” and Shebab recruitment exercise taking place inside its white and green walls. Well over 100 people were arrested in the raid, with dozens then charged with being members of Shebab, which is fighting Kenyan forces in southern Somalia and which claimed responsibility for last year’s carnage at Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall. Several people were killed in the raid, and at least one of those arrested has since been reported missing.

‘Spate of executions’ “The invasion of Musa mosque was illegal.

Nothing illegal was happening in that

mosque. There was no recruitment,” Abubaker Shariff Ahmed, one of the mosque’s leaders said. Ahmed is known more commonly by his nickname “Makaburi”, or “grave” in Swahili. “The mosque was filled with undercover policemen, anyway nobody will go and recruit people in an open mosque, where anybody can walk in. Nobody will go and teach people how to use guns in an open mosque, it doesn’t make sense,” he insisted. “It was not a jihadi convention. It was a convention dealing with issues concerning jihad, putting things right on issues about jihad, all the issues discussed there about jihad are in the Koran, in the Sunna, and they are not illegal to talk about, in a mosque or anywhere else in Kenya.” Makaburi denies any links with Shebab, although he was placed on a 2012 UN sanctions list naming him as a “leading facilitator and recruiter of young Kenyan Muslims for violent militant activity in Somalia”.

However, he does support “the implementation of Sharia Law anywhere in the world”, does not hide his admiration for Al-Qaeda founder and late leader Osama bin Laden, and accuses Christian-majority Kenya’s “unIslamic” leaders of “extrajudicial killings” that target those who preach “true Islam”. But support for the Musa mosque among Mombasa’s Muslim community is not total, according to Sheikh Ngao M Ngao Juma, the chairman of the Kenya Muslims National Advisory Council, or Kemnac. “These clerics are doing business. It’s business, human trafficking, slavery. They’re trying to brainwash the youths using Koranic verses,” he said.

“The jihad they are teaching is contrary to the meaning of jihad in the Koran. The meaning of jihad is distorted.”—AFP

Pope very popular in US VATICAN CITY: One year after his election, Pope Francis is “immensely popular among American Catholics,” a survey said on Thursday, but there is no sign of a “Francis effect” inspiring more to attend Mass or do volunteer work. The Washington-based Pew Research Center said 85 percent of Catholics in the United States viewed the Argentine-born pontiff favorably, with 51 percent reporting a “very favorable” view of him, while only 4 percent expressed a negative opinion.

Among Catholics, 68 percent thought he represented “a major change for the better,” a view shared by 51 percent of the non-Catholics responding to the poll in telephone interviews of 1,340 Americans from Feb. 14 to 23.

But the poll also found the rock-star status of the pope, whose simple style has attracted record crowds to the Vatican and won Time magazine’s Man of the Year title for 2013, has not clearly translated into greater lay participation in the church since his surprise election on March 13, 2013.

“There has been no measurable rise in the percentage of Americans who identify as Catholic,” the survey said. “Nor has there been a statistically significant change in how often Catholics say they go to Mass.” Forty percent of Catholics said they were now praying more often and 26 percent were “more excited” about their faith, but their frequency of going to confession or volunteering at church has not changed.

Rising expectations “If there has been a ‘Francis effect’, it has been most pronounced among Catholics who already were highly committed to the practice of their faith,” the survey concluded. Francis’s 85 percent favorable rating lags behind the 93 percent the late Pope John Paul scored in 1990 and 1996. Pope Emeritus Benedict’s rating reached 83 percent in 2008, just after his only visit to the United States, but it was mostly in the 70s. The survey said women were slight more favorable to Francis than men and Catholics aged 40 and older were more likely to have a very favorable view than younger believers who came of age under the more dogmatic popes John Paul and Benedict. Pope Francis’s

openness to reforming some Church doctrines seems to have raised US Catholics’ expectations of fundamental changes in coming decades, judging by responses to the poll.

The biggest jump concerned allowing the now celibate clergy to marry. Some 51 percent thought priests would be able to marry by 2050, compared to 39 percent who thought that a year ago. Some 56 percent expect artificial birth control to be allowed by 2050, a slight rise from 53 percent last year, and 42 percent expected to see women priests, up from 37 percent. “Regardless of their expectations about what the Church will do, large majorities of Catholics say the Church should allow Catholics to use birth control (77 percent), allow priests to get married (72 percent) and ordain women as priests (68 percent),” the survey wrote.

“Half of Catholics say the Church should recognize the marriages of gay and lesbian couples,” it added.

Some disappointment These responses were roughly in line with results reported in Germany and several other European countries last month to a Vatican survey on sexual morality being taken for a major synod of world bishops on family policy due in October.

Most national bishops conferences have not published their results for the Vatican survey, but the few reports released in Europe indicated a wide gap between Church teaching on sex and the views that many Catholics actually hold.

Some disappointment rang through in comments on how Francis is doing his job. In his lowest rating, only 54 percent said he was addressing the clerical sexual abuse scandal well. US Catholics rated the abuse scandal the most important issue for the new pope in a Pew survey in March 2013. By contrast, 81 percent thought he was spreading the faith well and standing up for traditional moral values. Some 76 percent credited him with addressing the needs of the poor. The survey said 22 percent of Americans identify as Catholics and 40 percent of them reported they attended Mass weekly or more often. Another 42 percent of self-identified Catholics went to church only occasionally and 18 percent never. — Reuters

International FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

California gold discovery spurs rush of theories LOS ANGELES: Word last week that a Northern California couple found $10 million in gold coins while walking their dog has set off a Gold Rush of theories over who left behind all that loot. One is that Jesse James’ gang deposited it in hopes of someday financing a second Civil War. Another postulates that the gold originally belonged to gentleman robber Black Bart, who wrote poetry when he wasn’t sticking up stagecoaches. But the theory gaining the most traction this week is that the hoard is made up of most of the $30,000 in gold coins that Walter Dimmick stole from the US Mint in San Francisco in 1901. The coins were never recovered.

That theory, from fishing guide and amateur coin historian Jack Trout, set off a flurry of calls to the US Mint after it was reported by the San Francisco Chronicle on Monday. The Northern California couple’s coins are called the Saddle Ridge Hoard after the area of the couple’s land where they were discovered. “We do not have any information linking the Saddle Ridge Hoard coins to any thefts

at any United States Mint facility,” mint officials said in a statement issued Tuesday.

Although Trout acknowledges he can’t prove his theory, he still thinks he’s right. “There is no real direct proof, but I am getting more research in on this,” he told The Associated Press by phone Tuesday from Chile, where he lives part of the year. Dimmick is said to have spirited six sealed bags - each filled with 250 $20 gold pieces - out of the mint, where he was the chief cashier. The Saddle Ridge Hoard contains 1,400 $20 gold pieces, 50 $10 gold pieces and four $5 gold pieces, with a range of dates beginning in 1847 and extending to 1894.

Don Kagin is a rare coin dealer who represents the couple who stumbled upon the coins, which have a face value of about $28,000. He said the San Francisco Mint heist was one of the first possibilities he and his staff checked out.

Even if the mint had coins on hand covering a span of 47 years, which is unlikely, those in the hoard include some so badly worn that they wouldn’t have been there, said

David McCarthy, Kagin’s chief numismatist. Another coin, dated 1876, was in such pristine condition that it wouldn’t have been there either. “It doesn’t have a single marking on it,” McCarthy said. “That coin couldn’t have sat in a bag in the San Francisco Mint and looked like that. It would have had what we call ‘bag marks’ all over it.”

As for some of the other theories: The Jesse James one fails to account for the fact the Missouri outlaw died 12 years before the last coin was struck and was born the year the first one was. Black Bart robbed stages only between 1877 and 1883, when he was caught and sent to prison. The finders, who have chosen to remain anonymous, have their own theory. They’ve done some research, Kagin said, and believe their property in California’s Gold Rush country was occupied at the time by someone in the mining industry. That person must have squirreled away the coins over time. Why the owner never came back for the coins, well, that’s another mystery. — AP

CIA investigates whether officers spied on Senate WASHINGTON: The CIA is investigating whether its officers improperly monitored members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which oversees the intelligence agency, US officials said Wednesday. The CIA inspector general is looking into the circumstances surrounding the committee’s investigation into allegations of CIA abuse in a Bush-era detention and interrogation program, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, DCalif, told reporters. The allegations include whether CIA officers improperly monitored Senate investigators and possibly accessed the computers they were using, two officials familiar with the investigation said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly. The allegations come at a time when the Obama administration is trying to regain public trust after classified details about widespread surveillance of Americans were disclosed by a former National Security Agency systems analyst. The most recent allegations do not involve the NSA spying on Americans. But they do raise questions about the fundamental oversight of US spy agencies by Congress and whether there were efforts to thwart it.

The allegations were first reported by McClatchy Newspapers and The New York Times. At issue is whether the CIA violated an agreement made with the Senate Intelligence Committee about monitoring the committee’s use of CIA computers, according to McClatchy’s account. The CIA provided the computers to congressional staffers in a secure room at its headquarters so that the committee could review millions of pages of top secret documents in the course of its investigation into the CIA’s use of torture during the Bush administration, it said.

The CIA declined to comment. The Justice Department would neither confirm nor deny that the CIA inspector general referred the allegations to the Justice Department for investigation. The topic of the CIA’s compliance with a law used to prosecute computer breakins was recently raised without any context during a January Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. “Does the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act apply to the CIA? Seems to me that’s a yes or no question,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., asked CIA Director John Brennan.Brennan did not have an immediate response. But in a Feb 3 letter to Wyden, Brennan said the agency is indeed bound by that law. Brennan also said that the law does not prohibit hacking in the course of a lawful investigation. It would be extraordinary, however, for the CIA to assert that it was itself conducting a lawful investigation of the Senate Intelligence Committee, since the Justice Department traditionally handles investigations of members of Congress.

Wyden is known for his informed questioning of senior members of the intelligence committee during public hearings. His questions in March of last year about whether the NSA collects data on millions of Americans offered hints that were later confirmed through disclosures made by former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden. Sen Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he was concerned that the CIA may have inappropriately accessed computers used by Senate investigators. “These allegations have serious constitutional implications that go to the heart of the separation of powers,” Leahy said Wednesday.—AP

PARIS: Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy leave a cinema. — AFP

Sarkozy, Bruni trying to block secret tapes Tapes could contain compromising ‘smoking gun’ PARIS: Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni yesterday launched a legal bid to prevent any further publication of tapes secretly recorded during his 2007-12 term as French president. In a move that will inevitably fuel speculation the tapes could contain a seriously compromising “smoking gun”, lawyers for Sarkozy said they would be filing a request with a Paris court for an emergency injunction against further distribution or publication.

The tapes are thought to contain hundreds of hours of Sarkozy’s private conversations with Bruni and close aides. They were recorded by a political advisor, Patrick Buisson, without the couple’s knowledge. Some extracts-without any really explosive contenthave already been published, by satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaine and news website Atlantico. The revelation of what Buisson was doing whilst working as a close confidante of the centre-right president has sent shockwaves through the French political class. Lawmakers across the political spectrum have denounced what they have described as an unprecedented act of treachery and, in some cases, a potential threat to national security.

In a statement to AFP, Sarkozy’s lawyers said the former president and his supermodel wife had no option but to take legal action. “The protection of private and secret conversations constitutes one of the foundations of a democratic society and they cannot accept comments made in private being recorded and published without their consent,” the lawyers said. The taped conversations which have been made public so far contain some slightly embarrassing material. Bruni is heard joking about Sarkozy being a kept man and teasing him that her status as first lady has prevented her from signing lucrative deals to promote wrinkle-creams, unlike actresses Julianne Moore, Julia Roberts and Sharon Stone.

Sarkozy is also revealed to have been rude about some of his ministers.

Comeback ambitions But that will hardly have come as a surprise to French voters given his reputation for volcanic eruptions. Overall, nothing has emerged so far that is likely to derail his plan to return to frontline politics in time for the 2017 presidential election. The decision to launch legal action will however inevitably fuel speculation that the tapes contain something more serious that could prove fatal for his comeback ambitions. Buisson, 64, is a former historian and journalist and a self-styled royalist with links to the far right. He was blamed by many in Sarkozy’s UMP party for pushing his boss too far to the right, particularly on issues of crime, race and immigration, making the president appear as a divisive rather than a unifying figure. That shift in the latter years of Sarkozy’s term is credited by many analysts as being a key factor in his defeat by the Socialist Party’s Francois Hollande in the 2012 presidential election. Buisson is currently being investigated by an examining magistrate over suspicions that his company was illegally awarded lucrative contracts for carrying out opinion polls by Sarkozy’s office.

The initial legal action over the tapes is restricted to preventing their further diffusion or publication. But criminal proceedings could follow and the offences allegedly committed carry a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a 45,000 euro ($61,000) fine.

Buisson has confirmed that he made the tapes but insists he did so purely to help him in his work. His lawyers say most of the recordings were destroyed and those that survived and have now been made public must have been stolen. —AFP

International FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

Trafficking abuse of Rohingya spreads to Malaysia Some Thai officials collaborating with traffickers BUKIT MERTAJAM: Human traffickers have kept hundreds of Rohingya Muslims captive in houses in northern Malaysia, beating them, depriving them of food, and demanding a ransom from their families, according to detailed accounts by the victims. The accounts given to Reuters suggest that trafficking gangs are shifting their operations into Malaysia as Thai authorities crack down on jungle camps near the border that have become a prison for the Muslim asylum seekers fleeing persecution in Myanmar.

Police in the northern Malaysian states of Penang and Kedah have conducted several raids on the houses in recent months, including an operation in February that discovered four Rohingya men bound together with metal chains in an apartment. But Reuters’ interviews reveal a trafficking network on a far bigger scale than authorities have acknowledged so far, with brokers herding groups of hundreds of Rohingya at night over the border and holding them captive in the Southeast Asian country.

The abuse in Malaysia is the latest oppression against the Rohingya. They are mostly stateless Muslims from western Myanmar, where clashes with majority Buddhists since the middle of 2012 have killed hundreds and forced about 140,000 into squalid camps. Many of the tens of thousands of Rohingya fleeing Myanmar by boat have fallen into the hands of human traffickers at sea who then hold them hostage in remote Thai camps near the border with Malaysia until relatives pay thousands of dollars to release them, according to a Reuters investigation published on Dec 5.

Some were beaten and killed, others held in cages where they suffered malnutrition. The Reuters investigation found Thai authorities were sometimes working with the traffickers in an effort to push the Rohingyas out of Thailand because immigration detention camps were getting overwhelmed with asylum-seekers. In January, Thai police said they rescued hundreds of Rohingya Muslims from a remote camp in southern Thailand, a raid they said was prompted by the Reuters investigation, and had launched a manhunt for the “kingpins” who routinely smuggle humans through southern Thailand to Malaysia with impunity.

The intensified trafficking of Rohingyas into Muslim-majority Malaysia threatens to undermine its anti-human-trafficking record, which is at imminent risk of being downgraded by the United States to a par with North Korea. It also highlights the porous state of Malaysia’s 500 km-long northern border, with thousands of Rohingya entering unhindered at a time when the government has taken a tough public stance against illegal immigration. For the desperate Rohingya, Malaysia is the promised land, where at least 30,000 already live. The country does not give them full refugee rights, but has allowed them to stay and register with the United Nations. Thousands have picked up work at the bottom rungs of the informal economy.

‘Now we don’t have land’ Mohamed Einous, a 19-year-old Rohingya from Buthidaung township, felt relief sweep over him as he scrambled over a border wall in a group of 270 refugees in mid-February, about a month after he left Myanmar. The crossing took place at night using two ladders supplied by his captors. “I believed I could make money here,” Einous said. His hope of freedom was short-lived. Handed to a new gang of brokers on the Malaysia side of the border, the Rohingya were packed into vans and driven to a house with blacked-out windows the traffickers said was in the border town of Padang Besar.

Once there, the brokers beat Einous with long wooden sticks and threatened to kill him if he did not secure a payment of $2,000 from his parents in Myanmar. Distraught at Einous’ cries over the telephone, his parents sold their family home for $1,600 and borrowed the rest from relatives, Einous said. “There are no words to express how sorry I feel,” Einous told Reuters on Feb. 21, just hours after the brokers dumped him near a market in the town of Bukit Mertajam in Penang, ending his eight-day nightmare in the house. “Now we don’t have land. My parents have nowhere to live.” Einous said the brokers in Thailand had told him he could pay a much smaller amount (“whatever I wanted”) to be released once in Malaysia.

He said the refugees only received rice once a day in the house and were packed so tightly into two rooms that they couldn’t lie down.

Abdul Hamid, a 23-year-old motorbike mechanic from Sittwe, in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, recalled similar conditions at the compound where he was imprisoned for a week with more than 200 others in Penang. About 16 guards kept watch over them in two shifts. The traffickers’ boss, a man in his 30s known as “Razak” who wore a suit and steel-rimmed spectacles, regularly kicked, beat and threatened the cowering prisoners, Hamid said. “They said we don’t have money to give you food. You need to get money if you want to be free,” Hamid told Reuters in Kuala Lumpur following his release in mid-February.

Malaysia, a labor-short country with an estimated two million undocumented workers that offers higher wages than its

Border chaos The surge of Rohingya trafficking activity in Malaysia followed a series of raids to harass human smugglers and drive them from illegal camps dotted across remote areas of southern Thailand. In two raids in January, Thai police rescued and detained more than 600 Rohingya and Bangladeshis. Abdul Hamid and several other witnesses described chaotic scenes on the Thai side of the border in recent weeks as their captors moved them from camp to camp and hurried them over the border before they had time to secure payments from their relatives. “The guards said the police would come and drop a bomb on the camp and that we had to move into Malaysia,” Hamid said.

SITTWE: Vendors wait for customers at Sittwe market, Rakhine state western Myanmar. The impoverished state has been left scarred and deeply divided by widespread communal violence between Rakhine Buddhists and Muslims that sparked in 2012 and left 140,000 people displaced, mainly Rohingya Muslims. — AFP

neighbors, has long struggled with a reputation as a haven for human trafficking. Like Thailand, Malaysia is at risk of being downgraded in the US State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons report from the Tier Two watchlist to the lowest rank of Tier Three. The scale of the problem appears to have surged in recent months. “It is definitely increasing,” said Chris Lewa, coordinator of Rohingya advocacy group Arakan Project, who regularly interviews those who make the journey.

“In more and more stories I have heard recently they (Rohingya) have been detained in Malaysia.”

Several of the 10 witnesses cited the brokers as telling them they had bribed Malaysian immigration officials to turn a blind eye when they crossed the border. Reuters found no direct evidence of corruption by Malaysian officials. Five immigration officials were arrested in 2009 for working with a smuggling syndicate to traffic Rohingya into the country. “We didn’t see any officials on the Malaysia side,” said Korimullah, a 17-year-old from Maungdaw township, who spent more than three months in Thai camps and was then held by traffickers in a house in the northern Malaysian city of Alor Star. “The brokers said they had already given money to them.” Officials from Malaysia’s immigration department, the prime minister’s office, and police in Penang and Kedah states did not respond to requests for comment.

Increasingly overcrowded and deadly conditions in the makeshift jungle camps in Thailand could be another reason for the shift of operations into Malaysia. “We couldn’t get enough food or water. People were dying with terrible pains in their body,” said Eisoup, a 20-year-old from Sittwe, who estimates that 45 people died in 15 days at his camp in January. Many of those involved in Rohingya trafficking are Rohingya themselves, according to Reuters’ interviews and the Arakan Project’s Lewa.

Mohamed Aslom’s arms bear cuts and burn marks from where he says cigarettes were stubbed out on him by Rohingya brokers during seven days he spent in captivity in a locked, dark room in Penang with about 20 other victims.

The 21-year-old former shopkeeper said he was then sold to another group of brokers who drove him and three others across Malaysia to the east coast town of Kuantan, where the torture continued for four days in a three-storey house.

Finally, he saw a chance to escape. When one of his captors went to the toilet, he said he rushed the remaining one and bolted into the street. “It feels worse when those from Rakhine (state) hurt us - they are our own people,” said Aslom, speaking in Kuala Lumpur days after his brother picked him up from Kuantan.

— Reuters

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International FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

Malaysia’s Anwar back in court over sodomy PUTRAJAYA: Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim returned to court yesterday for a government appeal against his sodomy acquittal, putting at risk his bid to contest an important state by-election. The 66-year-old veteran politician, who was cleared in 2012 of having sex with a young male former aide, slammed the appeal, saying it was a political ploy to tarnish his image in the conservative Muslimmajority nation.

“There is absolutely no case for them. This is clearly seen to be political,” Anwar told AFP in the packed Court of Appeal in the country’s administrative capital of Putrajaya. A rights group described the government appeal as a “travesty of justice.” Anwar plans to contest a seat in the central state of Selangor surrounding the capital on March 23. He is expected to win and subsequently take over the powerful post of state chief minister, in an attempt to boost his political career and restore unity in his party. But his lawyer Karpal Singh said any Appeals Court conviction before the state election would bar him from running for the seat.

A verdict is however unlikely before March 23. If the court finds Anwar guilty after the byelection, it will not immediately affect his position until the highest court rules on the case. “I hope the judiciary will maintain its independence (to uphold the acquittal),” Anwar told

reporters. Government lawyer Shafee Abdullah said a lower court judge had erred in freeing Anwar. “The appeal has got to be allowed. The respondent must be found guilty,” he told the court. The defense has unsuccessfully sought to disqualify Shafee and maintains that DNA evidence was compromised. In his earlier ruling, a Kuala Lumpur High Court judge said controversial DNA evidence submitted by the prosecution was unreliable. Mohamad Saiful Bukhari Azlan accused Anwar in 2008 of having had sex with him.

Sodomy is illegal in Malaysia and punishable by up to 20 years in jail. Anwar has denied the charges as a political ploy intended to send him to jail and damage his reputation after opposition gains in 2008 elections. It is not the first time the former deputy premier has faced sodomy charges. In 1998 he was sacked from the number two post in the ruling party by thenruling strongman Mahathir Mohamad, and jailed on sodomy and corruption charges. The sodomy charge was later overturned, and he was released from prison in 2004 to take over the opposition, posing the first real challenge to the Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition which has ruled since independence in 1957. In elections in May last year, the opposition lost again. It alleged that fraud in marginal seats swayed the result and cost it an historic victory. — AFP

60 Indian students to face sedition charges Students accused of cheering Pakistan’s victory over India LUCKNOW: Some 60 students from Indianadministered Kashmir may face sedition charges for cheering Pakistan’s victory over India in a recent cricket match, police said yesterday. Police were investigating the students following a complaint from university officials in the northern city of Meerut over celebrations following Pakistan’s win on Sunday in an Asia Cup clash. The students, all enrolled at the Swami Vivekananda Subharti University (SVSU), have been suspended and were escorted from campus following the match due to concerns about violence with other Indian students, university sources said. “The SVSU administration on Wednesday submitted a written complaint against unknown persons for indulging in anti-national activities and creating a ruckus on the university campus,” Meerut police chief Omkar Singh told AFP. “We have registered a case and the probe is on,” Singh explained. “If evidence is established against the accused, there is a set legal procedure to be followed in such cases. The law will take its own course,” he said, adding that any charges would be ones of sedition.

Muslim-majority Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan but each claims it in full.

They have fought two wars since 1947 over the northern Himalayan territory. Since 1989 Indian forces have been fighting militant groups seeking independence or the merger of the territory with Pakistan, with repressive policing and human rights abuses feeding into local anti-India resentment.

Many Kashmiris associate more with Pakistan, a Muslim-majority Islamic republic, than with Hindu-majority India which is officially secular. Indian Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah said any sedition charges would be “unacceptably harsh.” “Sedition charge against Kashmiri students is an unacceptably harsh punishment that will ruin their futures & will further alienate them,” Abdullah said on Twitter. “I believe what the students did was wrong & misguided but they certainly didn’t deserve to have charges of sedition slapped against them.” Pakistan’s foreign office spokesman said sedition charges against the students would be “very unfortunate.” “If the Kashmiri students want to come and pursue their education in Pakistan, our hearts and academic institutions are open to them,” Tasnim Aslam told reporters in Islamabad.— AFP

Pakistani woman on a mission to educate children KARACHI: Humaira Bachal knows firsthand how lack of education hurts her community. She had a cousin that died because his mother couldn’t read the expiration date on a bottle of medicine.

She knows women in her neighborhood who died giving birth at home because their families didn’t know to send them to the hospital. “These things are breaking my heart and every time I am raising the question ‘Why are people doing this?’” said the 26-year-old Bachal. “Maybe when my people are educated these problems would be reduced.”

So at the age of 13, she began teaching other girls what she learned in school.

Those classes at home between friends grew into her life’s work - bringing education to children in the working-class Muwach Goth neighborhood on the outskirts of Pakistan’s port city of Karachi, where families often keep their girls out of school and where even boys struggle to get decent learning. Through hard work and a sweet-but-stubborn attitude, Bachal has gone from a teenager who hid her schoolbooks from her father, who opposed her education, to running a foundation that teaches 1,200 boys and girls at her Dream Model Street School.

Hers is a story about the power of one woman to change not only her own future but the future of people around her - even in a society like Pakistan where entrenched rules restrict women’s ability to affect change.

With help from domestic and international donations - Madonna has given money - the foundation is building a new 18-room home for the school, which has grown to 33 teachers. It will be a massive improvement from their current site, a rented one-level, cinder-block building where curtains divide the classrooms.

Like many in Pakistan’s poor communi-

ties, Bachal’s family didn’t want to educate their daughter. She finished primary school, but her father forbade her to continue, preferring his eldest daughter get married.

With her mother’s help she studied in secret, hiding her school uniform and books at a friend’s house. This went on for nine months until a day of reckoning she remembers as one of the most important of her life. She was preparing to go to school for a test, but her father came home early and questioned where she was going. When he discovered she had been secretly going to school, he was livid and slapped her cheek. A showdown ensued between her parents with her father beating her mother and her mother defiantly telling Bachal to go to school.

“I just ran from the house and went to the school and did my exams. I was worried about my father beating my mother. I didn’t know what was happening in my home,” she said.

Eventually her father agreed to let her continue her education as long as she married whomever he chose. She has yet to marry but she certainly pursued her studies. She graduated from high school, got a bachelor’s degree, is studying for her master’s, and learned English. Her dedication draws comparisons to 16-yearold Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani girls’ education proponent who survived being shot in the head by a Taleban gunman in 2012. Bachal said she hasn’t faced any violence, just stiff resistance from community elders.

She started out at 13, with help from her younger sister Tahira, with a makeshift classroom in her house, teaching about 10 of her girlfriends who were not able to go to school. Within two years, she had moved her now-150 students, Tahira and three other girls who

KARACHI: Pakistani students gather around Humaira Bachal, the founder of a charity school as she teaches them in a classroom in Karachi, Pakistan. —AP had joined as teachers into a rented building. At the same time, she lobbied families in her neighborhood to send their children to school although the reception wasn’t always great. She said local elders asked her family to move, saying they weren’t a good influence.

The owner of the building she was renting tried to lock them out once. So they held classes in the street in front of the building until he relented. “The community is made up of laborers and people who are non-skilled workers. So she’s had to convince them why education is important to begin with,” said Academy Award-winning Pakistani filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, who’s made a film about Bachal’s school. “Here are people who have 8 or 10 children, and they want their children to work.” Many stu-

dents at Bachal’s school and their parents say she personally visited their families to convince them. And many of the mothers are sending their daughters there over the opposition of the men in their families.

“I thought it might be God’s help that she came to the door,” said Salma Haji, a teacher who volunteered to help at the school after Bachal visited her home and who takes teacher training courses with the foundation. One parent, Ashraf Khattoon, said her father and uncle taunt her for getting her daughters an education, insisting instead they should marry.

But Khattoon wants her daughters to be “civilized” and “not like me, I am illiterate.”

Bachal’s sister Tahira, who is studying accounting, is the principal of the Dream Model Street School. —AP

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Karzai’s brother withdraws from Afghan election KABUL: The brother of President Hamid Karzai yesterday dropped out of Afghanistan’s election and endorsed former foreign minister Zalmai Rassoul, an announcement widely seen as signaling the current leader’s preferred successor. The first major move in the election campaign before voting on April 5 came as a US air strike in the east of the country accidentally killed five Afghan soldiers. Relations between the US and Afghanistan have become severely strained as NATO combat troops prepare to withdraw by the end of this year, and the latest “friendly fire” incident is set to worsen ties further ahead of the election.

The new president will face a testing term in office as the final 55,000 NATO troops exit and the Afghan army and police are left to fight the Taleban insurgency alone, 13 years after the Islamists were ousted from power. “I and my team, we consider ourselves as a key part of this new alliance and declare my support for Doctor Zalmai Rassoul,” Qayum Karzai told a press conference. Rassoul, a softly-spoken loyalist of Hamid Karzai, said: “From

now on, both teams will fight for victory... and I’m sure with the blessing of God, and the support of the people, we will win.”

President Karzai, who is constitutionally barred from standing again after serving two terms, has pledged not to publicly endorse any candidate in the elections. But his brother’s support for Rassoul is likely to be taken as a signal that Rassoul is the president’s choice. One senior diplomat told AFP that Rassoul’s campaign was being “propelled” by the palace. Qayum Karzai’s withdrawal leaves 10 candidates in the race, including opposition leader Abdullah Abdullah, who came second in the chaotic and fraud-riddled 2009 election, and former finance minister Ashraf Ghani.

The NATO combat mission in Afghanistan ends in December, though a small number of US troops may stay on for training and counterterrorism operations if a long-delayed security deal is signed with Washington. More than a decade after the fall of the Taleban in 2001, Afghanistan remains in a parlous con-

NATO air strike kills five Afghan soldiers PULI ALAM: A NATO air strike in eastern Afghanistan accidentally killed five Afghan soldiers yesterday, officials said, the latest incident likely to worsen already fraught relations between Kabul and the US-led coalition. NATO offered its condolences over the deaths and promised action to avoid further such mistakes, while President Hamid Karzai’s spokesman said an investigation had been launched into the attack.

Karzai, who is currently on a state visit to Sri Lanka, has often used botched air strikes in the past to launch bitter criticism of the international military effort in Afghanistan.

Civilian casualties have been one of the most sensitive issues of the war and a key reason cited by Karzai for not signing a deal that would allow several thousand US troops to stay in Afghanistan after this year. “At 3:30am this morning, due to a NATO air strike in Charkh district, Logar province, five service members of the Afghan national army were martyred and eight others were wounded,” defence ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi said on his Twitter account. Khalilullah Kamal, the Charkh district governor, told AFP he had visited the site of the attack, which he said was from a US drone. “The post is totally destroyed,” he said. “The Americans used to be in that post but since they left, the ANA (Afghan national army) took over. The post is on a hilltop. The attack was conducted by drones.”

NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) issued a statement confirming that at least five Afghan soldiers had been killed accidentally. “An investigation is being conducted at this time to determine the circumstances that led to this unfortunate incident,” it said. “Our condolences go out to the families of the ANA soldiers who lost their lives and were wounded... we will determine what actions will be taken to ensure incidents like this do not happen again.” Karzai, who is due to stand down after a presidential election on April 5, in an interview this week expressed his “extreme anger” at the United States as it prepares to end its 13-year war in his country. Presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi said that Karzai had spoken to the defence minister about Thursday’s early morning attack. “It was not a joint operation and no air support or no air strike was asked by Afghan security forces,” Faizi told AFP. “NATO has to bring clarity about this incident.”

Accidental casualties stir anger NATO’s vast fleet of fighter jets, attack helicopters, unmanned drones and transport aircraft have supported ground troops in operations against the Taleban. But while air strikes have been an important weapon in the fight against the insurgents, they have also proved hugely controversial since they have led to numerous civilian deaths. In January the president, who has ruled since the fall of the Taleban in 2001, accused the United States of killing seven children and a woman in an air strike in central Afghanistan.

Late last year Karzai made a surprise decision not to promptly sign the bilateral security agreement (BSA) with the United States, leading to the threat of a complete withdrawal of NATO troops by the end of 2014. The BSA would see 8-12,000 US troops remain in Afghanistan to provide training and assistance in the battle against the Taleban after the NATO combat mission ends in December. Signing the agreement is also a precondition for the delivery of billions of dollars in Western aid.

Afghanistan’s army and police have developed rapidly in the past four years, but the country risks slipping into turmoil without foreign assistance if Islamist militias and warlords vie for power.—AFP

KABUL: An Afghan supporter of presidential candidate and former Islamist warlord Abdul Rasul Sayyaf takes a photograph with a smart phone during an election rally in Kabul yesterday. — AFP dition, despite billions of dollars of military and development aid pouring into the country. Afghanistan and United States have engaged in a series

of public disputes, with President Karzai launching regular verbal assaults against Washington as the NATO withdrawal gathers pace.—AFP

US seeks talks, trade to rebuild India ties India key focus of Obama’s ‘rebalancing’ towards Asia NEW DELHI: The United States sought yesterday to rebuild rocky ties with India, while stressing it would tackle differences “head on” in pursuit of its drive to quintuple bilateral trade in a decade. Rows over drug patents, solar panels and software piracy have blighted relations of late, amid heated exchanges over the arrest and strip search in New York last December of an Indian diplomat who was suspected of visa fraud. That spat forced a trip to India by Assistant Secretary of State Nisha Biswal, Washington’s point person for South Asia, to be rescheduled. Visiting New Delhi after a two-month delay, she focused on finding ways to agree.

“Like any trading partners, we do have our differences, but the willingness to talk about them indicates that we are indeed confident, mature partners,” Biswal said in a speech to an invited audience. President Barack Obama wants to bring about a strategic “rebalancing” towards Asia and expand trade with the region of more than 4 billion people that Washington believes could account for half of global economic output by 2050.

Vice President Joseph Biden, on a visit to India last year, called for bilateral trade to grow fivefold over the next 10 years to half

a trillion dollars. That is roughly the size of last year’s US trade deficit. Relations have remained fraught, however, with India’s trade minister accusing Washington of “very high and unacceptable protectionism” on the day that Biswal arrived in the country. The ruling Congress party government does not want to be seen as bowing to US pressure on trade ahead of a general election that starts on April 7 and that, according to opinion polls, it is likely to lose.

Drug drama Biswal, in her speech, said that India’s use of domestic content requirements was hitting inward investment, inhibiting innovation and holding the country back. The issues of tax transparency, regulatory approvals for projects, contract enforcement and the protection of intellectual property needed to be tackled.

“We are addressing these concerns head on, as good partners do,” she said. “The solution here is to talk and to trade.”

India worries that strong enforcement of patent protection on proprietary medicines will deprive its 1.2 billion people, many of them poor, from access to life-saving treatment. US drug companies, meanwhile, are concerned that generic drug makers

operating under licence in India are producing for the home market but also undercutting them with cheap exports whose quality has been called into question.

The Indian government was forced yesterday to issue a rebuttal of what it called “factually incorrect and largely unsubstantiated reports” in the Indian and foreign media that cast into question the quality of its drugs regulator. The Economic Times, an Indian daily, further highlighted differences by reporting that the government wanted the United States to review a whistleblower policy that, it believes, creates an incentive for drug company managers to denounce employers. No comment was immediately available from the government on the report. Last year, Ranbaxy pleaded guilty to US felony charges of shoddy manufacturing practices and data falsification and agreed to pay $500 million in civil and criminal fines, after a former Ranbaxy executive blew the whistle on the company. The former executive, Dinesh Thakur, received $48.6 million as the whistleblower in the case. “There is probably a lot of speculation that doesn’t help the situation,” Biswal said in answer to a question on differences over regulation of the drugs sector.— Reuters

Business FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

S Africa hit by power cuts

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Bitcoin exchange’s CEO found dead in Singapore Page 21

GENEVA: A Mc Laren 650 S is displayed at the British carmaker’s booth during the press day of the Geneva Motor Show.— AFP

Gulf’s rift over Qatar may slow investment Joint economic policies, projects may flounder DUBAI: A diplomatic split between Qatar and its wealthy Gulf neighbors may disrupt billions of dollars of investment in the region and slow efforts to make economies more efficient through trade and transport reforms. Qatar’s vast natural gas wealth means the tiny country, with a population of about 2.1 million, could probably continue operating indefinitely despite the displeasure of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

But its growth may slow if its trade and investment ties with the big Gulf Arab economies are scaled back. All the economies in the region could suffer in the long term if diplomatic tensions stall projects such as construction of a Gulf railway network and development of a free-trade area. That could also deprive foreign companies of billions of dollars worth of construction projects.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain said on Wednesday they were withdrawing their ambassadors from Qatar because Doha had failed to implement an agreement among Gulf Arab countries not to interfere in each others’ internal affairs. John Sfakianakis, chief investment strategist at MASIC, a Riyadh-based investment firm, said the diplomatic dispute would not immediately affect business in the Gulf but there would be an impact in the coming months and years if tensions did not ease.

“Less investments, less capital transfers, fewer joint ventures, more negativity about Qatar” may be the result if the country becomes isolated from the region, he said.

Politics The Gulf countries’ decision to withdraw their ambassadors was unprecedented in the three-decade history of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and stemmed from deep resentment among Qatar’s neighbors about policies such as Doha’s support of Islamist movement the Muslim Brotherhood.

There was no sign of any economic sanctions being imposed, and some officials and businessmen in the region predicted governments would keep business separate from politics.

“The countries in our region do not involve politics and business,” Akbar Al-Baker, chief executive of state-owned Qatar Airways, told reporters in Berlin. Economics does tend to be shaped by politics in the Middle East, however, partly because many top companies are statecontrolled and Gulf governments have become used to using their oil wealth as a diplomatic tool.

Egypt has experienced this in the last few years; it was shunned by Saudi and UAE businesses under Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, but those states have given billions of dollars of aid to Cairo since Morsi was deposed last year, causing investment to resume. As the world’s top exporter of liquefied natural gas, Qatar is so rich that it does not need trade and investment from the rest of the Gulf for its economic wellbeing, as long as it can continue selling its gas to international markets.

The government’s budget surplus was $27.3 billion, or a huge 14.2 percent of gross

domestic product, in the fiscal year to last March. That means it can import the food, technology and labor it needs from south Asia, Europe and elsewhere. Because Gulf countries are focused on energy exports, they have relatively few economic links between them, noted Farouk Soussa, chief economist for the region at Citigroup. He said non-energy trade between Qatar and the three other countries was only about 1 percent of total Qatari trade.

But there would be some financial consequences from a prolonged period of diplomatic tensions. Citizens of the Gulf Arab countries are active investors in each other’s stock markets; these fund flows could start to pull back.

Analysts estimate non-Qatari GCC nationals may own 5 to 10 percent of Qatar’s stock market, which has a capitalization of about $175 billion. The main Qatar stock index fell 2.1 percent on Wednesday as news of the diplomatic dispute emerged.

Nasser Saidi, president of Dubai consulting firm Nasser Saidi & Associates, noted that Qatar was a large investor in the UAE’s booming real estate market, which could lose that source of funds if the dispute were prolonged.

Some big Qatari firms such as Qatar National Bank are keen to expand in the Gulf, escaping the limitations of their small home market, and they could find that more difficult in future. Qatar Airways is set to start flying domestic routes in Saudi Arabia in the third quarter of this year, after being one of just two foreign carriers awarded rights to service the

Saudi market of about 30 million people.

Vulnerable If tensions eventually escalate into economic sanctions, the single biggest point of vulnerability for the Gulf would probably be the Dolphin Energy pipeline carrying about 2 billion cubic feet of gas per day from Qatar to the UAE and Oman. Soussa at Citigroup said he did not expect the gas supply to be used as an economic weapon, but it was a potentially major one. Analysts estimate the gas flow represents about 5 percent of total Qatari exports and some 30 percent of the UAE’s gas needs.

“If anything were to happen to the pipeline, it would be a difficult situation to manage on both sides but mainly on the UAE side,” Soussa said. Qatar also has energy ties to the rest of the Gulf through OPEC, where it has traditionally supported Saudi Arabia’s policies as the dominant producer in the oil cartel.

Self-interest may well prevent energy policy from becoming embroiled in the diplomatic dispute. “All gas projects and OPEC oil-related relations with the GCC will not be affected,” a source at state energy giant Qatar Petroleum said. Other joint initiatives between Qatar and its Gulf neighbors - some of them important for the countries’ efforts to create more private sector jobs and diversify their economies beyond oil - could stall, however. This could deprive foreign firms of billions of dollars worth of construction contracts.— Reuters

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Qatar rebounds after govt commits to GCC security Weak Global Telecom Q4 pulls down Egypt DUBAI: Qatar’s stock market bounced back yesterday, leading gains in a mostly upbeat Gulf region after the Qatari government appeared conciliatory in its diplomatic dispute with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Those three countries decided to withdraw their ambassadors from Doha on Wednesday, saying Qatar had failed to honor a Gulf Cooperation Council agreement not to back “anyone threat-

ening the security and stability of the GCC” - an apparent reference to Qatar’s support of Islamist figures.

But Doha responded by pledging its commitment to regional security policies and saying it would not withdraw its own ambassadors, fuelling hopes that the dispute could be resolved. Qatar’s stock market, which fell 2.1 percent on Wednesday because of the dispute, rebounded 2.3 percent

yesterday in its biggest one-day gain for six months.

“It’s too early to tell what the medium to long-term impact will be, but today is a reversal of the knee-jerk reaction to yesterday’s news,” said Amer Khan, senior executive officer at Shuaa Asset Management. “Historically, disagreements like these did not get publicized and this was a departure from that.”

Many analysts believe an escalation to the point where the GCC’s integrity is threatened, or where economic sanctions are imposed, is unlikely. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s bourse rose 1.0 percent to a near six-year high as banking and retail sector shares climbed. Trading volume on Wednesday was the highest since May 2012, and it remained high yesterday.

Dubai’s measure also rebounded, rising 1.3 percent after slipping 0.5 percent in the previous session. However, it stayed in the range of the last three weeks and appears to have entered a consolidation phase after spectacular gains since the end of 2012. Volume this week was the lowest since early November, another sign of waning upward momentum.

In Abu Dhabi, First Gulf Bank fell 4.2 percent as it went ex-dividend; the wider market slipped 0.8 percent.

Egypt In Egypt, weak earnings triggered profit-taking, taking the benchmark index down 0.9 percent to 7,950 points. The index has struggled to break decisively above psychological resistance at 8,000 points since rising above it on Feb. 23 for the first time in more than five years. Global Telecom, the Egyptbased group formerly called Orascom Telecom, fell 2.9 percent after its fourth-quarter net loss widened 59 percent. The firm took a multi-million dollar impairment charge on its Canadian business following the latter’s withdrawal from a 4G spectrum auction. “Global weighed on the market and it triggered profit-taking across the board, and the market couldn’t sustain above the 8,000 level,” said Mohamed Radwan, director of international sales at Pharos Securities. — Reuters

S Africa hit by power cuts JOHANNESBURG: South Africa imposed rolling power cuts for the first time since 2008 yesterday as it struggled to cope with coal shortages and technical problems caused by recent heavy rains. State-owned electricity firm Eskom said incessant downpours over the past week had flooded mines and left stockpiles too wet to use in its coal-fired power plants.

The company, which supplies around 95 percent of the country’s electricity, called on major industrial customers to reduce usage by at least 10 percent, and domestic users to turn off swimming pool pumps, water heaters and other nonessential items. It said power interruptions will be limited to two hours at a time. “The whole country will be affected by load-shedding, but not every city or suburb will be affected by load-shedding simultaneously,” spokesman Tony Stott told AFP. Large companies and major hospitals resorted to generators and emergency power supplies yesterday as the first cuts kicked in. Flights at Johannesburg’s main international OR Tambo airport were delayed and high-speed train services were partially suspended. “We did experience a power outage. Our back-up power came on immediately and assisted us in terms of essential services but there were services that had to be operated manually and that resulted in some delays,” airport authority spokeswoman Unathi Batyashe-Fillis told AFP. South Africa last suffered widespread blackouts six years ago, causing factories and mines to close and costing the economy billions of dollars. The crisis contributed to a credit rating downgrade, a sell-off in the rand and an outflow of investment. The latest outages add to the country’s woes at a time when it is lagging behind some of its African peers, with the central bank cutting its growth forecast to a four-year low of 2.8 percent for this year.

The cuts also come just two months before crucial general elections in which the ruling African National Congress faces a stiff fight to retain power. Eskom has struggled to keep the lights on in Africa’s largest economy while racing to construct new plants to meet rising demand. This is the fourth energy emergency declared in as many months and “the worst one so far,” according to an Eskom official who asked not to be named.—AFP

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Bitcoin exchange CEO found dead in Singapore Police probe ‘unnatural’ death SINGAPORE: The 28-year-old American boss of a Bitcoin exchange has been found dead at the base of a Singapore apartment block, police and reports said today, in the latest misfortune linked with the troubled virtual currency.

Singapore police said they were investigating the “unnatural” death of Autumn Radtke, chief executive of Singapore-based First Meta, on February 26, but that no foul play was suspected. A local technology website first reported she may have committed suicide, but later updated its report to say it was “unclear” how she died.

Broadcaster Channel NewsAsia said on its website today that Radtke “was found dead at the bottom of an apartment block”. Her death comes as the virtual currency community is in turmoil after the collapse of Tokyo-based MtGox, one of the longest-established Bitcoin exchanges, due to a suspected theft worth nearly half a billion dollars.

The Singapore Police Force said they received a call early on February 26 requesting assistance at a public housing block on the fringe of the central business district. “A woman in her 20s was found lying motionless,” they said in a statement. “She was pronounced dead at scene by paramedics.

Police are investigating the unnatural death,” it added.

“Preliminary investigations show that no foul play is suspected.”

The term “unnatural death” is used to refer to suspected suicides and other deaths not due to natural causes like an illness. The cause of death is subsequently determined by a coroner. A US embassy official confirmed that Radtke is an American citizen and that it has provided assistance to her family. News of Radtke’s death first surfaced in the technology startup community, which has a thriving presence in Singapore. First Meta confirmed her death in a statement on its website but did not give a cause. “Our deepest condolences go out to her family, friends and loved ones. Autumn was an inspiration to all of us and she will be sorely missed,” it said in a statement.

Bitcoin controversy grows Zennon Kapron, the Shanghai-based managing director of Kapronasia, a financial consulting firm which deals with Bitcoin firms, described First Meta as one of the pioneers of virtual currency exchanges. “What happened to her is very unfortunate. I had the opportunity to meet her last year. She was somebody always very happy, outgoing, and had a way of bringing people together both within the virtual currency community and outside as well,” he told AFP. “Until we know what happened around (Radtke’s death), it is wrong to speculate on whether there is a relationship between that and the situation with Bitcoin as a whole.” He said Singapore’s openness to new payment methods, talent pool as well as its status as a financial hub made it a “natural place for Bitcoin firms to get a start”, along with Hong Kong.

According to her profile on business networking site LinkedIn, Radtke began her career in enterprise cloud computing and in 2007 worked with Apple to supply the Aqua Connect server product to major companies. It said she “passed on an opportunity to work at Apple to stay in the fastpaced world of technology startups”. She moved to Singapore in 2012 to head First Meta, a web-based exchange for users to buy, sell and trade virtual currencies for real money. Sixteen days before her death, Radtke posted on her Facebook page a link to an article in Inc. magazine entitled “The Psychological Price of Entrepreneurship” which talked about the inner struggles experienced by entrepreneurs before they achieve success.

SINGAPORE: A Bitcoin dispensing machine is seen at a shopping mall yesterday. —AFP

Above it was her comment: “Everything has its price.”

Radtke’s death comes as controversy surrounding the Bitcoin sector grows. After the MtGox exchange filed for bankruptcy protection last month, Canada-based Flexcoin was also forced to shut down, saying that someone attacked its systems and stole nearly $600,000 worth of Bitcoins.

First Meta last year secured funding of Sg$588,000

($464,000) from Silicon Valley-based technology firm Plug and Play Tech Center. Singapore is Southeast Asia’s main hub for technology startups as well as global computer and software companies and financial institutions. Its central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), has cautioned that virtual currencies are not legal tender and those who deal in them should be aware of the risks. —AFP

22

Business FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

Winter storms hold back US economy WASHINGTON: A Federal Reserve survey shows severe weather held back economic growth in much of the US from January through early February. Even so, conditions strengthened in most regions, thanks to slight gains in areas such as employment and commercial real estate. Eight of the Fed’s 12 regions reported improved activity, according to the Beige Book survey released Wednesday. The improvement was depicted as “modest to moderate.” New York and Philadelphia, two regions hard hit by winter storms and freezing cold, reported a dip in activity attributed to the weather. Retail sales, including auto purchases, were depressed. So was manufacturing. Factories reported power outages and delayed deliveries of supplies.

The Beige Book is based on anecdotal reports from businesses and will be considered with other data when the Fed meets March 18-19. The summary and the individual reports from each of the 12 regions were sprinkled with references to the harsh weather much of the country has endured this winter. The report said retail sales had weakened in many districts because of winter storms. Nine districts - Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Richmond, Atlanta, Chicago, St Louis and Dallas reported that the severe weather had hurt factory production and manufacturing sales.

The report said the weather had caused power outages, disrupted supply chains and curtailed factory production schedules. Travel and tourism were reported to be strong across most of the districts, with the heavy snowfalls benefiting ski resorts in some parts of the country. When the Fed meets later this month to consider the Beige Book, among other economic evidence, it will be the first meeting under the new Fed chair, Janet Yellen. Last month, Yellen succeeded Ben Bernanke, who stepped down after eight years as chairman.

The widespread expectation is that the Fed will continue paring the monthly bond purchases it has been making to try to keep long-term loan rates low to support the economy. In an appearance last week to deliver the Fed’s twice-a-year economic report to Congress, Yellen said recent data have pointed to some weaker-than-expected gains in consumer spending and job growth. She said the Fed will be watching to see whether the slowdown proves only a temporary blip caused by severe weather. Yellen said she was open to adjusting the pace of the Fed’s reductions if the economy should weaken.

A key piece of data likely to influence the March meeting will be released today of the unemployment report for February. Two months of tepid job growth have raised concerns about whether the economy might be losing momentum. In January, employers added 113,000 jobs after an even smaller gain of 75,000 in December.

Both months were far below last year’s average monthly gain of 194,000 jobs. Last week, the government estimated that the economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, slowed to an annual growth rate of 2.4 percent in the OctoberDecember quarter. That was below the initial estimate of 3.2 percent and the 4.1 percent annual growth rate in the JulySeptember quarter. —AP

Cash-rich African private equity on a learning curve Investors pile in for better returns NAIROBI: Kenyan entrepreneur Ayisi Makatiani scrapped his first effort to launch a private equity fund 10 years ago because his pitch to invest in Africa couldn’t raise enough cash to make it work. Fast forward a decade and he is now managing partner of Fanisi Capital, a $50 million fund that has investments across east Africa in agri-business, healthcare, retail and education. A second $100 million fund is on the way.

“The returns in Europe and the rest of the world have been low so the only place where you get good risk-adjusted returns is Africa,” US-educated Makatiani, 47, said from a swanky office block on Nairobi’s upmarket Riverside Drive, where other new financial ventures have set up a regional base.

Their expansion marks a turnaround in attitudes to Africa, but masks many of the emerging challenges for both new and more experienced private equity firms on the continent. Private equity is still a relatively new financial vehicle on Africa’s landscape and challenges include offering enough added value to encourage family firms to open up to external financing, finding local managers with the skills to see a project from investment to exit and winning over African pension funds and other local funding sources to create a more indigenous industry. “If it is only the money you need, there are other places you can get that,” said Michael Turner, Kenya managing director for emerging markets specialist Actis Capital. “Private equity is about value added.”

The numbers suggest raising cash is no longer the biggest challenge in SubSaharan Africa - a region with economic growth rates that are rivalled only by Asia. Sub-Saharan Africa drew $1.6 billion of private equity investment in 2013, with east Africa - on the brink of an oil and gas bonanza - seeing the biggest rise in deal activity, data from the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association shows. A bigger objective is how to invest that cash successfully.

That is where global firms like London-

based emerging markets private equity firm Actis, with $6 billion under management, may have an edge over local, smaller rivals. They can draw on a broader pool of experience to identify attractive sectors and steer a target through a turnaround or expansion.

Inviting in a stranger Describing his most recent investment in AutoXpress in Kenya, Turner points out that it was his South African colleagues who prompted him to scout for a tire firm because they saw growth in that sector in their market. And it was an Actis specialist from Brazil with experience running a tire firm who helped “seal the deal” by explaining the potential to the family owners. AutoXpress had spurned other private equity approaches but Actis secured a 36 percent stake. Turner now sits on the board, but said such a move was a big leap for any family firm. “It is like opening up your house to a stranger,” he said.

Many firms that have surfed Africa’s fast growth began as a family trade.

They range from retailers that have expanded from corner stores to supermarket chains, such as Kenya’s Naivas or Nakumatt, to manufacturers that have grown out of workshops such as Interconsumer Products, which was snapped up by cosmetics giant L’Oreal last year. Private equity can bring a fresh perspective to help the family expand or find an exit. But it doesn’t always work out.

Kamal Budhabati, who heads Kenyan software developer Craft Silicon, sought financing to expand. He secured $3 million from a local private equity firm.

Within three years of that deal, he had bought back the investor’s stake as their views collided. “For us the visions were not matching. They had a short-term goal, we had a long-term goal,” Budhabati said, speaking at his Nairobi office complex, which with its green lawns and a basketball court would look at home in Silicon Valley. “The venture capitalists who want to put money into

software businesses, they must understand that these are long-term businesses,” he said.

Accelerated learning The lack of experience among local private equity firms means foreign firms continue to dominate the industry in Africa. “One of the challenges that many (local private equity) fund managers face is the short supply of management talent,” said Kevin Njiraini, investment officer for private equity at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private sector arm.

A typical cycle in private equity runs over 10 years. The first three to four years are spent seeking out investments and the next three to four are spent growing them. The final period involves finding an exit, such as a strategic buyer.

In fast-growing Africa the kind of experience required over the cycle can be lacking. The IFC is using its funding to give new private equity managers an early leg up and accelerate the learning process.

Its private equity investments include backing Nairobi-based and Mauritiuslisted Catalyst Principal Partners.

Development institutions, such as the IFC, accounted for about 70 percent of funds raised for Principal Partners’ first $125 million fund launched in 2012. The rest came from individuals, insurance firms and other sources. The fund is being invested across east Africa. The longer-term objective for African private equity managers is to draw in more local sources of funding, such as from pension funds, who might also prefer locally registered companies operating in the local currency. For now, such funds are cautious about private equity, partly because they are unfamiliar with the concept. “There are challenges of understanding how private equity works and the risks involved, so that has tended to keep would-be investors away,” said Kenneth Muchina, director of fundraising at Nairobi-based Fusion Investment Management.— Reuters

Latest video games target Japan’s silver generation YOKOHAMA: At a nursing home in suburban Tokyo, 88-year-old Saburo Sakamoto darts his fingers energetically to catch characters that appear on a touch screen in front of him. Peals of laughter erupt from the other side of the room full of octogenarians as they wallop plastic alligators that appear from little holes or wield foam hammers to crush frogs as they pop up. “The ladies here are very agile, so it’s almost impossible for me to beat them,” says Sakamoto as he catches his breath and watches several women easily outscore him on the game he is playing.

The nursing home is run by an offshoot of Namco Bandai, the company behind 1980s arcade phenomenon PacMan, whose pill-popping escapades helped bring video games to a mass youth market.

Now the firm is part of a small, but growing band of groups developing video games and home computer entertainment for the so-called “silver generation”-Japan’s burgeoning army of elderly people, who are living longer and healthier lives than ever before.

Japan’s population has been declining since 2007 and the country is graying, with one of the

world’s lowest birth rates and highest life expectancies. “We offer entertainment so that elderly people spend the whole day playing, having fun, and getting really exhausted before returning to their home,” said Yoshiaki Kawamura, President of Kaikaya Ltd, the wholly-owned unit of Namco Bandai Holdings. Day visitors, whose average age is 85, have a choice of activities at this government approved centre, including assisted bathing, physiotherapy, lunch and a series of arcade and video games. “The video games are very much extra-curricular, voluntary activities... but clients look very animated when they are playing,” Kawamura said.

‘Faces light up’ Facility staff try to motivate the elderly, tapping into their competitive spirits by posting leader boards on the walls and running competitions to see who is the “most vigorous” every few months.

Among the titles on offer is “Dokidoki Hebi Taiji II” (Thrilling Snakebuster II), a game developed by Namco Bandai in cooperation with Kyushu University Hospital in western Japan. —AFP

YOKOHAMA: This picture shows 88-year-old Saburo Sakamot playing a game at Kaikaya Ltd, a nursing home for the elderly. — AFP

Tr a v e l FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

Cruising

Alaska?

People using the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail downtown.

Alternatives to pricey excursions

I

t’s cruise season in Alaska, with more than 1 million cruise passengers expected between April and September in port towns from Ketchikan to Seward.

Cruise passengers who sign up for shore excursions can spend hundreds of dollars, if not more in the case of families, in each port they visit. Taking a helicopter to see Juneau-area ice fields can easily run $1,000 for a family of four for a one-hour trip. A nature tour near the tiny town of Ketchikan can run $89 for adults and $50 for kids.

But there are many low-cost and even free things to do in Alaska port towns, from hiking to exploring glaciers to learning about Alaska and Native culture. Here are some ideas from some of Alaska’s most visited ports.

Just remember: Your ship won’t wait for you if you run late from an outing you’ve organized on your own, so allow plenty of time to get back to port for your ship departure.

Ketchikan This southeast Alaska town is now known more for tourism than for its once-thriving timber industry. But timber workers’ skills can still be admired at the Great Alaskan

Boats in the harbor of the tiny community of Whittier, Alaska.

Lumberjack Show, $35 (kids 3-12, $17.50) plus tax. Historic Creek Street, once a red-light district, now houses shops, galleries, restaurants and Dolly’s House Museum, former home of madam Dolly Arthur, where visitors can learn about Ketchikan’s bawdy past for a $5 admission. Off Creek Street along Married Man’s Trail, you can catch the salmon running in the creek from mid-July into September. Free downtown shuttle buses stop near the docks.

Sitka A must-see in this stunning town is the Sitka National Historical Park. A national monument, it commemorates the 1804 Battle of Sitka between the Tlingit Indians and Russians. Totems - many of them replicas - are scattered along the park’s two-mile (3.2-kilometer) wooded trail.

There’s also a visitor center, where you can see Native artists working, and the Russian Bishop’s House, which the park service says is one of the last surviving examples of Russian colonial architecture in North America. The house tour is $4 (free for kids under 16).

Juneau Alaska’s capital has a walkable downtown with museums, shops, easy access to trails and the state Capitol, which offers free tours. The popular three-mile (4.8-kilometer) Perseverance Trail is within walking distance from the port, though it requires a jaunt up steep streets. The trail, which forms a spine for a network of trails, features scattered exhibits on the region’s mining history, along with stunning views of rushing water, waterfalls and mountains.

You’ll likely see birds - possibly a bald eagle - and maybe even a mountain goat, black bear or porcupine. The trail is steep and narrow in sections and can be hot in the sun, so bring water. Hikers also can try the Mount Roberts Trail, though it’s an uphill trudge, muddy and mucky in spots.

You can take the Mount Roberts Tram down for $10, or $31 round-trip (kids 6-12, $15.50).

Another popular destination is Mendenhall Glacier, reachable by bus. The $16 round-trip rides, offered by MGT Blue Glacier Express, run every half-hour, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. most days during the summer season. Hikes near the glacier include an easy stroll to Nugget Falls.

Seward Seward is a final stop for some Alaska cruises, and many disembarking passengers head straight to Anchorage, 110 miles (177 kilometers) away, by bus or train. But there are plenty of reasons to spend a day or more here. A free shuttle runs every day in summer, taking people along a circuit from the cruise ship terminal to the chamber of commerce office to downtown. If you have time, rent a car or hire a taxi to take you a few miles (kilometers) outside town to Exit Glacier, located within Kenai Fjords National Park, for spectacular up-close views of the glacier.

The downtown historic area offers shops, cafes, the Seward Community Library and Museum in a new building, and the Alaska SeaLife Center, which is Alaska’s only aquarium ($20; $15 for ages 12-17, $15; $10 for 4-11).

Chamber officials don’t recommend hiking the city’s

Photo shows hot dog vendors, or in this case reindeer dog vendors.

famed Mount Marathon, site of an annual July 4 mad scramble up and down the 3,022-foot mountain. A runner disappeared during last year’s race and several were injured. Instead, if you want to hike, try Jeep Trail. Locals say it’s not too strenuous, and offers a view of the Anchorage Bowl.

Whittier Chances are you won’t spend much time in Whittier.

Chamber officials say 90 percent of cruise passengers leaving their ships immediately head to Anchorage, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) north. But passengers beginning their Alaska cruises here arrive about 1 pm. and have a few hours to spend in town before departure. Also this year, one company is making a port call here every other Monday, giving passengers a chance to look around town.

It’s probably unlike any other they’ve seen. Whittier is the gateway to the fjords of Prince William Sound, but the U.S. Army saw another purpose. The Army saw Whittier’s almost constant cloud cover as a perfect way to hide an almost ice-free port. The Army left in 1960, and most of the town’s 180 year-round residents live in one of two former garrisons converted to condos. There are a couple of souvenir shops, a few restaurants and cafes, a hot dog stand when lots of people are in town and a museum. Several fantastic hikes can be done in two or three hours. The Horsetail Falls hike doesn’t disappoint, and offers views of waterfalls above the tree line. The Portage Pass hike affords views of Portage Glacier.

Anchorage No cruise ships are scheduled to sail to Anchorage this

Tr a v e l FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

A man running in a tunnel along the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail downtown.

A bicyclist heading into a tunnel along the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail in downtown, Anchorage, Alaska.

year, but many passengers wind up here by bus or train, if for nothing else to fly home. With nearly 300,000 residents, Anchorage offers attractions found in many big cities, as well as some that aren’t. Think wildlife. Moose and bear coexist throughout the municipality, and moose are a common sight around town.

Downtown, you can rent bikes and enjoy a leisurely spin on the city’s 135-mile (217-kilometer) plus trail system.

That includes the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail, good for a bike ride, hike or run. It’s accessible from many points downtown, but parts will be closed for renovation this summer. If that sounds like too much work, you can rent a Segway. And if you prefer to see wildlife in a more secured setting, a free shuttle at Fourth and E streets downtown goes to the Alaska Zoo ($12; $6 for kids 3-17). The shuttle will also stops at the Alaska Native Heritage Center, a cultural center and museum ($25; $17 for kids 7-16).

The Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center downtown features art, history and science ($15; $7 for kids 312). A timeline exhibit of Alaska history includes a crosssection of the trans-Alaska pipeline and a twisted beam from the 1964 earthquake. The magnitude-9.2 quake was the biggest ever recorded in North America. If you want to go fishing, there’s no need for a charter. Heck, you don’t even have to leave town. A downtown bait shop at Ship Creek will rent you all the equipment you need to land a fish. There are also plenty of restaurants, cafes, coffee shops. And here’s your chance to eat Rudolph: Several vendors offer reindeer dogs. — AP Tourists walking to Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park.

The tiny community of Whittier, Alaska, where most of the 180-year-round residents live in the tall condo in the back, a former Army garrison.

Tourists walking to Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park just outside Seward.

26

Opinion FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

A

Amid carnage of war, Syria readies for Assad re-election

fter three years of grinding conflict, the destruction of whole city districts and an exodus of refugees all triggered by an uprising against his rule, Bashar Al-Assad is quietly preparing to be re-elected. The Syrian president has not yet announced whether he will stand for a third term, in defiance of protesters, rebel fighters and Western foes who have demanded he go; but in state-controlled parts of Damascus preparations for his candidacy are unmistakable. Public gatherings have become platforms to urge the president to nominate himself, despite a continuing civil war that has killed more than 140,000 people, fractured the country and destroyed any chance of a credible vote being held.

Authorities are once again organising demonstrations in support of Assad, accused by opponents of massacres of civilians.

Shopkeepers are encouraged to show their support by painting national colours on their storefronts. Some express their loyalty in general displays of patriotism, while others explicitly call on the 48-year-old president to announce he will stand in the vote, which is due to be held by July. Just 18 months ago, Assad’s grip over his capital seemed to be slipping as rebels gained ground around Damascus. Since then his forces have consolidated control in central Syria. Rebels still insist his departure is precondition for any peace deal, but having lost military momentum they are unable to dictate terms.

At a gathering in southern Damascus last month to honour victims of Syria’s conflict, local officials and clerics turned the solemn memorial into a political rally. After handing out awards to widows and grieving mothers in Sayida Zeinab, a suburb of the capital which has been at the heart of Assad’s counter-attack against rebels, they made their case for a third term of Assad rule. “The president said: ‘If there is a popular demand for me to be nominated, I will run. I will not abandon my national duty’,” said Shiite cleric Al Sayyed Fadi Burhan.

“So I ask you to take advantage of this large gathering ... and make it an opportunity to ask President Bashar Al-Assad to nominate himself for another electoral term.” The crowd, mainly loyalists, cheered.

Street Demonstrations The scene is repeated across government-controlled districts of the capital, such as the garrison suburbs where military families live, many of them from Assad’s minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiism. Demonstrators waving portraits of Assad and flags

adorned with his face are once again on the streets, albeit in smaller numbers than the many thousands who rallied in 2011 when authorities were trying to counter the mass anti-Assad protests sweeping the country.

Schoolchildren are bused in to take part in marches, much to the alarm of parents who say they are

given no prior notice that their children are being taken to demonstrate while Syria’s civil war rages on. “Even though it can be very dangerous, they just put them on a bus and take them to a march during their last period of the day

without informing us or anything,” the mother of an 11-year-old boy said. “If they inform us, they know that most parents would not send their kids to school that day.”

The mobilisation appears aimed at reinforcing the government’s long-standing assertion that Syrian citizens want Assad to stand. “It is his personal decision ... but I assure

you that the Syrian street will pressure President Bashar Al-Assad to nominate himself for the presidency of the republic,” Information Minister Omran Zoabi said in January. Amendments to Syria’s constitution agreed in a referen-

dum two years ago mean that, for the first time, rival candidates would be able to stand against Assad - but only if they win the support of 35 members of Syria’s pro-Assad parliament.

That would at least in theory mark a change from four decades of presidential votes when the only options Syrians had were to support or oppose parliament’s nomination of Assad and, before him, his father Hafez Al-Assad. Monzer Akbik, chief of staff to opposition National Coalition leader Ahmad Jarba, said Syria had not held a real election since Assad’s Baath Party seized power in 1963 and any vote held in current circumstances “would be a joke”. “If he does want an election, he will make it a theatre - with an orchestrated opposition,” Akbik told Reuters in Turkey.

“Any serious opposition candidate would be immediately killed if they were to go inside Syria. Who dares run against Assad?”

Jarba’s coalition has held two rounds of unsuccessful talks in Geneva with government negotiators, aimed at resolving the civil war. The opposition and international mediator say the talks must address a transitional government a phrase Assad’s opponents understand to mean that he must go. But Syrian officials have categorically ruled out that he might surrender any power.

Election Impossible?

In response to the pro-Assad mobilisation, an online campaign to nominate popular opposition figure Moaz Alkhatib to run against him was launched last week and quickly snowballed into tens of thousands of supporters. Syrians inside besieged rebel areas as well as exiled supporters from as far away as Australia and Ukraine have posted photos of themselves with cards backing the former preacher at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. Alkhatib, currently based in Qatar, welcomed the Internet campaign but echoed Akbik’s objection to holding the vote amid the turmoil of civil war and under the supervision of Assad’s authorities.

“We will not give legitimacy or cover to any elections carried out by the regime, which aims only to preserve its fast-waning existence,” he said in a post on his Facebook page. Holding an election appears impossible while 2.4 million Syrians are refugees in neighbouring countries, many millions more are displaced within Syria and Assad has lost control of northern and eastern Syria.

Even in Damascus, few believe the vote will go ahead. “I heard that elections were going to be postponed another year or two because

of the situation,” said Samir, a middle-aged man during a casual lunch with his in-laws as the conversation turned into political chitchat. “The new constitution limits the number of terms to two, which he’s already had, so how can he run again?” said a hairdresser, as she worked on a client during a home visit.

In one of the rebel-held areas, Mouadamiya, an Assad opponent voiced a frequently heard sentiment. “Assad plans to announce his nomination on the eve of elections, and then of course he’ll win because only people in loyalist areas will be able to vote, and then he’ll say: ‘Oh look, the people want me’,” he said.

Patriot Colours In government-held areas of Damascus, many people are starting to feel pressure to show support. Members of Popular Committees - civilians recruited and armed by the government have been making their rounds on motorbikes, demanding shopkeepers paint the Syrian flag on their shutters. Since the start of Syria’s uprising, the flag has become synonymous with government loyalty.

Rebels use a different flag that predates the current one.

“They told me and other shops on my street to paint the colours of the flag right away,” said one shop owner in the middle class neighbourhood of Rukn al-Din. He was warned that the first offence would cost him a fine of 5,000 SP ($30). A second offence would mean imprisonment. “I painted it the same day.

I don’t want trouble,” he said.

In more upscale neighbourhoods like Shaalan, where authorities are less inclined to issue direct orders to privately owned businesses, peer pressure is just as effective.

“Two weeks ago I came to work and found my neighbours had painted the flag overnight,” said one shop owner. “So I went ahead and painted mine. No one dares be the odd one out.”

Some of the more bizarre manifestations of support for Assad include two Hummers, painted with the colours of the flag, that drive around town sometimes at odd hours blaring loyalist music and followed by several honking cars. Young men and women have also embraced a new fashion for military fatigues and boots, part of the militaristic fervour whipped up

by Assad’s supporters. One woman even dressed up her pet dog, a small Chihuahua, in military camouflage, much to the distress of people around her who thought the authorities might take offence.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ve already taken him through several checkpoints, and they loved him, she said. — Reuters

FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014 www.kuwaittimes.net

WESTWOOD: Actress Ariel Winter attends the premiere of Twentieth Century Fox and DreamWorks Animation's "Mr. Peabody & Sherman" at Regency Village Theatre on March 5, 2014 in Westwood, California. —AFP

C a re e r s FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

Get dressed for success What is power dressing all about?

H

ow you dress for a job interview will reveal a whole lot of things about you possibly even much more than you intend. In fact, your appearance will play a large part in whether you get the job or not.

While clothing styles have changed considerably in society, they definitely remain largely unchanged in the business world. Being dressed right for an interview is something that will certainly be expected of you and should not be taken lightly - at least if you are serious about getting the job.

Dressing right is all about image Creating the right image from the very first impression you give to your interviewer is one way to show that you are top quality - even before you utter a word. Kim Zoller at Image Dynamics says that as much as 55 percent of what another person thinks of you is based on your appearance.

John Molloy recognized this concept years ago when he wrote his famous book that started the concept, “Dress for Success.” Often called “power dressing” now, most businesses today realize that people can dress their way to success.

Power dressing is especially important in a business field where everyone is expected to look sharp because there is regular contact with the public. An interviewer will definitely be looking you over from top to bottom during the process, and will see anything that is not quite right. Even something like how well polished your shoes are will be noted, and a lack of shine could prevent you from getting the job. Many interviewers consider wellshined shoes an indication that an individual pays close attention to detail - and you can be

sure that they will be looking for this quality in the interview. Some may even make their decision to hire (or ignore) you based only on your shoes.

Going improperly dressed for an interview is one way to make an image that will be hard to erase later - even if you do get hired. The best way to be prepared is to make sure you follow the guidelines that the company expects of its employees at the level you are applying for - and then dress at least one level higher (two may be better) for the interview.

You can check out clothing standards simply by visiting the company you’re going to be interviewing with in the morning when people are coming in to work and see how they are dressed. You can do this on any day but Friday, when companies may be more lax in their standards.

Sharp dressers show they understand business Companies - the same as at any time in history - are looking for sharp individuals who realize that their purpose at work is to help build and promote the company and its image. Going to an interview dressed sharply conveys the idea that you are serious about working for them. Some companies have implemented written dress codes today because they feel that, unfortunately, some professionals have never been taught how to dress for success in business. Dressing sharply will tell the employers that you are interviewing with that you understand the needs and demands of business, and that you are ready to work for them. Taking the time to dress sharply will also help you to be more confident during the interview process. This strong

level of confidence will be seen by the interviewer and perceived as a strong point in your favor. They will know that you take pride in yourself and in your work.

Clothing tips to ensure you present your best image Dressing for success is a necessary key to winning the job - at least in jobs requiring business attire. Here are some tips to enable you to be prepared to give a winning impression during your interview.

For men and women Business colors are standard - solid navy blue, gray, or black. Conservative business suits need to be worn. To be absolutely clear, we are not talking about suits you buy at the Gap or American Eagle, and definitely not high fashion sweat suits. Instead, the goal is to get business suits like those sold at business clothing stores or at the large and better department stores. White shirts or blouses are considered best, but blue is also acceptable. Clothes should be clean and well pressed. Jewelry and scents need to be limited. Shoes should be moderate, black or brown. Hair should look professional and neat. Tattoos should be completely covered.

Watches should look professional.

For women Skirts are much more likely to be accepted than pantsuits, or dresses. Nails should be manicured, with clear or no polish. Make-up should be kept to a minimum. Briefcases are allowable and preferred to purses. Hosiery should be tan or light colored. Ties are optional. One earring per ear is OK, along with one

ring per hand. Avoid faux jewelry, and high heels.

For men Shirts should be long sleeve. Make sure your shirt fits around the neck - not too tight and not to loose either. The fit of your shirt dramatically effects how comfortable you look and feel. Select your tie with a conservative pattern - no outrageous patterns, colors, sports logo’s or hobby ties. . The Four-in-Hand knot is the all time classic of tie knots. Your tie should end in front of your belt buckle.

Socks should be dark. Limited jewelry, no earrings, or body jewelry; one ring per hand, and your watchband should not be fabric.

Nails need to be trimmed neatly, and clean. A close shave gives a sharper appearance. A briefcase or portfolio may be carried.

For everyone Besides your appearance, remember that everything about you is telling others about you. This includes your body language, too.

Be sure to stand straight, greet your interviewer with a firm handshake and look them in the eye as you talk. How well you listen, sit, and respond to questions is all part of the interview process, too. Being on time is very important, no smoking right before or during the interviews, and don’t forget to remove the gum. Taking a little extra time to ensure you are dressed sharp for your job interview will also help the interviewer to want to talk to you, too. If they like what they see - it may not take much more to persuade them that you are the right person for the job. www.ropella.com

Food FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

Why you should

go green!

Making one simple change to your diet - adding a salad almost every day — can pay off with plenty of health benefits.

H

ave you had your salad today? Eating salad almost every day may be one of the most healthy eating habits you can adopt and one of the simplest, experts say.

Eating salads is a super-convenient way to work in a couple of servings of vegetables and/or fruit. Green salads are on the menu of almost every restaurant. You can even buy a side salad (with Romaine lettuce, carrots and tomatoes, available with fat-free or reducedcalorie salad dressing) for a buck at many fast food chains these days. And you can make a green salad at home in five minutes, armed with a bag of pre-washed salad greens, a few carrots or other veggies, and a bottle of light salad dressing. Not only that, but salads are cool, crunchy, and fun to eat (lots of textures, colors, and flavors). Most people enjoy eating salads - even kids! You can customize them to include the fruits and vegetables that appeal to you the most, and whichever ones you have on hand. Here are four health reasons to reach for a salad today: 1. Eat salads for the fiber Itís hard to believe that something we canít even digest can be so good for us!

Eating a high-fiber diet can help lower cholesterol levels and prevent constipation. Not only that, says Barbara Rolls, PhD, author of The Volumetrics Eating Plan,eating more fiber can help you feel fuller, eat less, and ultimately lose weight.

2. Eat salads for the health benefits of fruits and vegetables Many experts agree that Americans need

to eat more fruits and vegetables (especially dark green and orange vegetables) and legumes - all popular salad ingredients. David Jacobs, PhD, professor of Public Health at the University of Minnesota, says in an email interview that there is plenty of evidence that nutrient-rich plant foods contribute to overall health.

If you frequently eat green salads, youíll likely have higher blood levels of a host of powerful antioxidants (vitamin C and E, folic acid, lycopene, and alpha- and betacarotene,) especially if your salad includes some raw vegetables. Antioxidants are substances that help protect the body from damage caused by harmful molecules called free radicals.

For years, researchers have noted a link between eating lots of fruits and vegetables and lower risks of many diseases, particularly cancer. A recent study from the National Cancer Institute suggests that people whose diets are rich in fruits and vegetables may have a lower risk of developing cancers of the head and neck - even those who smoke and drink heavily. Foods found to be particularly protective include beans and peas, string beans, peppers, tomatoes, carrots, apples, nectarines, peaches, plums, pears, and strawberries.

3.Eat salads to cut calories and increase satisfaction If losing weight is your goal, you may want to start your meals with a green salad.

Studies have shown that eating a low-calorie first course, like a green salad of 150 calories

or less, enhances satiety (feelings of fullness) and reduces the total number of calories eaten during the meal. Rolls, lead researcher of the study, suggests that ‘bigger is better’ as long as the salad is bigger in volume, not in calories - which means more veggies and less dressing and other fatty add-ons. ‘We saw reductions in consumed calories when people ate salads that were 1 1/2 cups and 3 cups in volume but around 100 total calories,’ she says. The 3-cup, 100-calorie salad reduced the total calories consumed at the meal by about 55.

4. Eat salads to get smart fats Eating a little good fat (like the monounsaturated fat found in olive oil, avocado and nuts) with your vegetables appears to help your body absorb protective phytochemicals,

like lycopene from tomatoes and lutein from dark green vegetables. A recent study from Ohio State University measured how well phytochemicals were absorbed by the body after people ate a salad of lettuce, carrot, and spinach, with or without 2 1/2 tablespoons of avocado.

The avocado-eaters absorbed eight times more alpha-carotene and more than 13 times more beta-carotene (both of which are thought to help protect against cancer and heart disease) than the group eating salads without avocado. If you dress your salad with a little olive oil, there may even be some additional years in it for you. Italian research on people aged 60 and older has suggested that a diet that includes plenty of olive oil and raw vegetables is linked to reduced mortality.

— www.webmd.com

How to make Fattoush 1 head romaine lettuce 1/2 red onion 4 tomatoes 1 cucumber 1 cup mint leaves (optional) 1/2 cup cilantro leaves (optional) 1/2 to 1 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves (optional) 3 to 4 Tbsp. Lemon Garlic Vinaigrette or similar salad dressing 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese (optional) 12 to 24 Kalamata or similar black olives (optional) Tahini (sesame paste) for drizzling (optional)

F

attoush salad is a great mix of fresh vegetables, a bright dressing, and pieces of crisp pita bread. Add feta cheese, olives, pepperoncini, and other flavorful items at will. Easy, light, yet filling - it’s a great addition to grilled dinners or as a light dinner all on its own. Fattoush salad is endlessly flexible. Use the formula below (with its many options) as a starting point.

Tweak, add, and subtract ingredients

depending on that magical combination of your taste and what’s in your kitchen.

Prep Time: 20 minutes Total Time: 20 minutes Yield: 4 to 6 servings Ingredients: 2 to 4 pita breads 1 tsp cumin seeds (optional)

Garlic Yogurt Dressing for drizzling (optional) Preparation: 1. Toast pita breads, cool, and break into bite-size pieces. Set aside.

2. If using cumin, heat a small frying pan over medium-high heat and toast cumin seeds until fragrant, about 1 minute. Let

seeds cool and crush lightly in a mortar and pestle or with the bottom of a small frying pan. Set aside.

3. Tear or chop lettuce into bite-size pieces, wash and dry lettuce, put leaves in a very large bowl.

4. Thinly slice red onion and add to lettuce.

5. Chop tomatoes and add to lettuce.

6. Peel cucumber, if you like. Cut in half lengthwise. Spoon out seeds, if you like, cut into thin half-moons, and add to lettuce.

7. Cut mint into ribbons, chop cilantro and parsley, and add to lettuce.

8. Add pita pieces to lettuce. Drizzle salad mixture with Lemon Garlic Vinaigrette and toss thoroughly.

9. Divide salad between serving plates to arrange on a large platter. Top with crumbled feta cheese and olives, if you like.

Drizzle with tahini and/or Garlic Yogurt Dressing, if you like. Sprinkle with reserved toasted, ground cumin seeds, if you like.

Health FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

Upgrade your wheels with this multifaceted lower-body onslaught

T

here’s a fine line between overtraining your legs and not training them hard enough. And not surprisingly, most of us fall into one of the two camps. First you have the guy who spends 45 minutes doing squats at the power rack before moving on to the rest of his hard-hitting, 90-minute quad workout. Then you have someone who thinks a sufficient lower-body routine consists of a machine-only session in which he hardly breaks a sweat.

“Most guys don’t realize that their leg training should probably be more middle of the road,” says Hollywood-based trainer Gunnar Peterson, CSCS. “They either try to do a pro bodybuilder workout once a week and end up hobbled like James Caan in Misery or do a leg extension/curl combo every three days and think they’ve trained legs. But you really should find a middle ground between the two so you train your legs with decent intensity twice a week.

Multi-joint moves are key Following a split that has you train legs one day a week would cripple you with 20 sets at maximum weight and keep you from progressing the way you could.” Peterson has nothing against extensions and curls, but a solid leg routine needs to be centered around multi-joint moves such as lunges, squats or step-ups. These exercises not only hit the quads and hamstrings but also the glutes, a body part seldom discussed among men unless it concerns those of the opposite sex. “The glutes are one of the biggest muscle groups in the body and to not train them is irresponsible,” Peterson says. “Read a women’s magazine - that’s the other team’s playbook. Women look at your glutes long before they notice your guns. Plus, training the glutes revs up your metabolism by stimulating such large muscles.”

Hitting all the angles All body parts should be trained from a variety of angles to maximize muscle fiber recruitment. This advice becomes even more important with legs since your quads are composed of four different muscles, the hamstrings are made up of three and a slew of fibers “come in from the north, south, east and west” to form your glutes, Peterson says. “It’s not just about squatting and driving up,” he explains. “You can tweak your stance, and you can change where the load is by doing front squats, back squats and one-leg movements. A lot of people just do it by rote or don’t do it at all.”

Engaging your core The routine Peterson designed hits all the major leg musculature via traditional squatting moves performed in novel fashion. A good dose of core work is involved, too, and the reason is simple: You can’t build strong legs with intense workouts without a sturdy core, and many guys are weak in this area.

“You’ve got to shore up the weakness,” Peterson says. “I know it doesn’t sound fun, but it’s crucial to maximizing the effectiveness of your workouts, regardless of what muscles you’re training.

Day 1, Exercise 1 Dumbbell Overhead Bulgarian Split Squat

The ultimate

leg-training workout Sets: 4-5, Reps: 8-12 each side START: Grasp a light dumbbell in one hand, stand erect and place the top or toes of the same-side foot on a box or bench behind you, knee bent. Press the weight overhead so your arm is directly over your shoulder.

EXECUTION: Keeping your arm extended, bend your front knee and hips to descend straight toward the floor. When your front quad comes parallel to the floor, press back up through your front heel to return to the start. Repeat for reps, then switch sides.

GUNNAR’S TIP: “Stand tall throughout the movement.

There’s a tendency to tip forward as you descend, but you need to work on staying tall.”

Day 1, Exercise 2 Kettlebell Swing With Flip to Squat Sets: 2-4, Reps: 8-15 START: Grasp the handle of a kettlebell with both hands and stand erect with your arms hanging straight toward the floor, feet roughly shoulder-width apart.

EXECUTION: Bend your knees to dip down while lowering the weight between your legs. Keeping your arms extended, explosively swing the kettlebell up by extending your knees and hips, and lifting your arms. As the weight passes shoulder level, quickly bend your elbows and knees to drop underneath it (letting it flip over in your hands) and catch it in front of you in a full squat position. Stand up while pressing the kettlebell overhead, then drop back down to the start.

GUNNAR’S TIP: “Stay focused on every part of the movement: exploding, the catch, lowering and driving up. You can’t phone this one in.”

Day 1, Exercise 3 One-Leg Extension With Angled Crunch (+ burnout) Sets: 4-5, Reps: 10-20 (Do 8-12 reps each of front and back squats.)

START: Sit in a leg extension machine and adjust the roller so it rests across the front of your ankles.

EXECUTION: Perform a one-leg extension with your right leg while simultaneously crunching and twisting your torso to bring your left pec over your right knee. Reverse the motion, then repeat to the opposite side - extension with your left leg while crunching your right pec over your left knee. That’s one rep. After you complete all reps, finish the set with double-leg extensions to failure.

GUNNAR’S TIP: “Don’t bounce the weight. On the extension, really think about reaching that toe out and making that leg as long as possible. Don’t just snap it up.”

Day 2, Exercise 1 Smith Machine Front Squat to Back Squat Sets: 4-5, Reps: 8-12 (Do 8-12 reps each of front and back squats.)

START: Stand erect in a Smith machine with your feet shoulder-width apart, head up and the bar resting across your front delts, hands grasping the bar.

EXECUTION: Descend into a squat, keeping your back flat and chest out, until your quads are parallel to the floor. Drive back up to standing and repeat for reps. Then rerack the bar, position yourself for back squats and complete the prescribed number of reps.

GUNNAR’S TIP: “Try to focus on driving through your heels on the back squat so you get the most out of your hams and glutes.”

Day 2, Exercise 2 Lying Leg Curl to Hyperextension Sets: 4-5, Reps: 8-15 START: If it’s available, choose a leg-curl machine with an angled (not flat) bench. Lie facedown, position the backs of your ankles against the pad with your legs extended and make sure your knees are off the edge of the bench.

EXECUTION: Contract your hamstrings to bend your knees and pull your heels toward your glutes. At the top of the rep, contract your lower back muscles to perform a hyperextension (the range of motion will be very small). Lower your torso to the pad, then return to the start.

GUNNAR’S TIP: “Rise slowly on the hyperextension and go for the contraction. This is one you really want to feel; you don’t want to just knock them out.”

— www.muscleandfitness.com

Health FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

Put your best leg forward These leg exercises will strengthen, tighten, and tone your glutes, hamstrings and calves

Trim your inner thighs Strengthen your thigh muscles in just minutes with this toning workout.

The Routine Summer’s staples (shorts, swimsuits, and slim-cut pants) put the inner thighs on display. To target these tricky-to-hit muscles (and the surrounding ones), use this routine by Matthew Hurst, owner of Training Zone, a gym in Atlanta.

Beginners should do each of the standing exercises 15 to 20 times; the intermediate and advanced can repeat them 25 to 30 times.

By Alissa Carpio

I

n today’s world, you’d be hard pressed to find a body part more challenging for a woman to develop and shape than the legs. Women are constantly seeking advice on how to build the muscles, downsize the legs, shape the glutes, etc. The truth is, the legs are not that challenging to build if you’re educated and motivated.

If a nice pair of gams isn’t the ultimate sign of a fitness fanatic, I’m not sure what is! A tight pair of glutes, a sweeping set of thighs, and firm, full hamstrings are the ultimate display of feminine strength and beauty. The legs are one of the largest and most complicated parts of the whole body. They can best be broken down into two major groups - the quadriceps and the hamstrings. While not considered a part of the legs, no leg article would be complete without covering the glutes!

Training at home If you want to train at home, get yourself a squat rack!

Seriously, without an Olympic bar and rack, there isn’t much you can do with heavy poundage at home. You can lunge and squat your heart out with little to no resistance, and likewise you’ll see little to no results.

OK, I’m not really giving many options here. There are some things you can do at home for legs, but you at least need heavy dumbbells and lifting straps if you have a weak grip. With those items you can do heavy lunges, dead lifts, and plie squats.

Exercise variety Keeping your leg workouts varied is not difficult at all. There are so many compound movements and different variations for isolation movements. Keep the order and choice of your compound movements different for every workout. This ensures you are adequately hitting the muscles from all angles with different amounts of stress at different times.

Symmetry Good leg symmetry is vital in physique competition, and is still quite important to the non-competitor. You should have firm, round glutes, a nice wide sweep of the quad tapering out and back in at the knee, with the calves tapering slightly out and back in at the ankles. From the side, your quad and hamstring develop-

Move 1: Wide-Stance Squat (A) Stand with feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and toes pointed out to 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock.

(B) Slowly lower for two counts into a squat position.

Hold the squat for one count, then straighten your legs for two counts to go back to the starting position. ment should be equal and both should be full and round.

In relation to the upper body, the shoulders should be much wider than the hips, and the flare of the lats should be repeated in the flare of the quads. For overall leg development, choose a shoulder-width stance with toes slightly turned out. To emphasize the outer quads, place feet close together with toes pointing forward. Finally, to hit the inner thighs, opt for a wider stance with toes turned out at a wide angle.

Isolation If you wish to isolate one leg muscle over the other, you can do so with certain foot and weight placements. For overall quad development, you want to stick with a close-stance foot placement with toes pointing slightly outward. Concentrate on feeling the quads doing the work throughout the movement, and really squeeze them at the top of the movement. You can even place a weight plate under your heels when doing these exercises to better stress the quads.

Just be sure to keep strict form and make sure your knees don’t travel past your toes as this puts undue strain on the knee joints. To place more emphasis on the hamstrings during compound movements, concentrate on driving the weight up through the heels. Visualize the hams doing the work and give them a big squeeze at peak contraction.

You can also affect how much stress is put on the desired muscle during isolation movements. To stimulate the quads during leg extensions, be sure to fully extend your knees at the height of the movement. You can even hold the peak contraction for as long as you can. This is a great isolation movement that gives you an unbelievable burn! For overall development, be sure to keep the toes pointing forward with the tops of the feet facing the ceiling. To emphasize the inner thighs, turn the toes and tops of the feet slightly outward.

To stress the hams during leg curls, keep strict form and prevent the hips from rising off the bench to assist in the lift.

Standing leg curls are great because they force you to keep your hips in place, putting more emphasis on the hams.

Prioritization If legs are a weak body part for you, train them on day one of your training split so that you can hit them with renewed motivation and a higher level of energy. Focus on making every rep count - perfect form, challenging poundage, feeling the movement, squeezing the muscles, and training with killer intensity - to guarantee you’ll be getting the most out of your training sessions.

I highly recommend alternating your workouts every other week between the power building exercises (squats, dead lifts) in the low rep range, and traditional compound and isolation movements in a higher rep range. This gives you the best of both worlds - stimulation for ultimate power and strength from one workout, and high-intensity movements for size and shape in another. www.bodybuilding.com

Move 2: First-Position Plie Squat Begin with heels touching and toes slightly turned out. (A) Keeping heels together, rise up onto your toes. (Hold on to a wall if you feel wobbly, but maintain posture.)

(B) Bend your knees into a half squat for two counts, then come back up in two counts, keeping heels together.

Move 3: Squat With Ball (A) Position your feet shoulder-width apart with toes pointed straight ahead. Place a medium rubber ball (or a knotted beach towel) between your legs just above the knees.

(B) Squeezing your inner thighs to keep the ball steady, lower into a squat for two counts. Hold for one, then return to standing for two counts.

Move 4: Wide-Stance Arm Swing (A) Place your feet just wider than shoulder-width apart and point toes to 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock. Grasp a dumbbell (three to five pounds for beginners, 8 to 12 for more advanced) vertically in front of your stomach.

(B) With arms straight, lift the weight to shoulder height as you lower into a squat for two counts. Hold for one count, then slowly lower the weight and return to standing for two counts.

Move 5: Inner-Thigh Press With Rubber Ball Lying on your back on a mat, bend your knees so that the soles of your feet are flat on the floor. Place a medium rubber ball (or a knotted beach towel) between your knees. Contract your inner thighs to squeeze the ball for 30 seconds. Relax for 10 seconds, then repeat the cycle four more times.

— www.realsimple.com

Books FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

Stitched Up: The anti-capitalist book of fashion S

etting up the terms of her polemic against the fashion industry, Tansy Hoskins defines fashion in utilitarian terms as “changing styles of dress and appearance adopted by groups of people”, and the industry as one in which there is “a shrinking distinction between high fashion and high street fashion”. She does acknowledge that the whole business is both “glorious and enthralling, as well as exasperating and terrible”, though she doesn’t come close to conveying its appeal as well as Diana Vreeland once did: “Fashion must be the most intoxicating release from the banality of the world.”

As fashion editor of Harper’s Bazaar and then as editor of Vogue, Vreeland was once the ultimate fashion insider.

Hoskins is an interested outsider, determined to change minds. So even though her intention is to show us what Karl Lagerfeld has to do with Karl Marx, she never represents fashion as the sigh of the soul in a soulless world. Stitched Up

‘Ethical fashion’ She goes for the high end. So while her book reminds us that Stefan Persson, the owner of H&M, bought a whole village in Hampshire in 2009, it dwells on the luxury conglomerates, the richest and most ruthless of which is LVMH (Louis Vuitton/Moet Hennessy), an intricate nest of companies that includes among its brands Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton and Celine. In the course of her convincing denial of the possibility of “ethical fashion”, Hoskins tells the story of Edun, the clothing line started by Ali Hewson and her husband Bono. It began with the intention of manufacturing in sub-Saharan Africa, but after a poor initial reception, LVMH bought a 49 percent stake in the company in 2010 and immediately moved 85 percent of its manufacturing out of Africa - mainly to China.

At the other end of the scale, LVMH lost patience with Christian Lacroix, selling the house in 2005. The couturier filed for bankruptcy in 2009 and (like a select club of designers,

Tansy E Hoskins’s book suggests the entire fashion industry is a dangerous trick, and needs to be overturned instead disapproves of the idea of fashion itself. And for good reasons: it focuses on the social consequences of the industry, from the conditions of workers to its disastrous environmental costs, collecting a number of useful, at times horrifying, facts in one place.

It is nearly a year since 1,133 garment workers died and 2,500 were injured in Bangladesh, when a poorly constructed factory collapsed just north-west of the capital, Dhaka. The discovery of the labels of western manufacturers in the rubble highlighted long supply chains and the practice of subcontracting at every stage. Amid the shocked reactions, some of the retailers could plausibly claim that they had no idea their clothes were made at Rana Plaza, or about the state of a building they didn’t know existed. What happened in Bangladesh is a perfect starting point for Hoskins’s attack, but she hasn’t set out only to condemn the consumers of cheap fashion; she wants to show how the entire system is a trick to divert attention from how clothes are made, who actually wears them, and who makes all the money.

such as Martin Margiela and Jil Sander) no longer has the rights to his own name. As Hoskins says a little gleefully he “now designs interiors and uniforms for train companies and collaborates with high-street chains”.

In 2012, Johann Rupert, the CEO of the much smaller Richemont (owner of Chloe and Dunhill) said: “I feel like I’m having a black-tie dinner on top of a volcano.” Western luxury brands are very worried about China, in particular what will happen when a Chinese label becomes as prestigious as, say, Givenchy. Ever-resourceful LVMH has been buying Indian brands, and in 2012 bought a stake in the Trendy International Group, a Chinese company specializing in casual wear. So for the time being at least, there is no immediate threat to the dominance of the brands who show in New York, Milan, London and Paris - especially given the way they are structured: 55 percent of Chanel’s profits, for example, come from perfume and cosmetics. But change will inevitably come.

Hoskins is quite clear that high-end fashion is guilty of covering up a system of imitation and exploitation under the

guise of novelty - so that a catwalk collection is immediately ripped off and copied by a mass-market retailer, and made up in a factory in Dhaka in appalling conditions. She is good on the question of “size zero”, on advertising and on racism, too.

Is Fashion Racist? asks one chapter heading. Of course it is.

Hoskins reminds us of the Navajo nation suing Urban Outfitters, in a case that is still to be settled, for using its name on a range of products in 2012. Urban Outfitters’ response was to argue that the tribe’s federal trademark registration should be cancelled. She could also have reminded us of Dolce and Gabbana’s “blackamoor” earrings for its spring 2013 collection, a surprising revival of an art deco jewellery fad. And Vogue India’s “Slum Dwellers” shoot in 2008.

Fantasy world Stitched Up explores and analyses the existing industry, but also has another aim. The final three chapters - Resisting Fashion, Reforming Fashion and Revolutionizing Fashion take on a strangely programmatic tone, which can best be conveyed by the final chapter, in which Hoskins “imagines a post-capitalist society where capitalism has been overthrown and the world is in a state of permanent revolution”. This reads rather like a pamphlet written by Central Committee.

Perhaps it is enough to say that the garment industry vs vividly how the capitalist system works, and that labor is anything but immaterial in parts of the world where “our” clothes are made.

The great value of Stitched Up as polemic lies in its reminder that while very few of us can take the blame for the deaths of the three crocodiles needed to make an exclusive handbag (if you’re tempted, there’s a grim description), it is harder to absolve ourselves from other crimes of the global industry - from, for instance, the squandering of water to irrigate cotton crops that has led to the disappearance of the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan. The fashion industry is sizeist, it’s racist, it’s exploitative. Yet will it ever be overthrown? Do people want it to be? Even when its veils are stripped away, as they are in this book, we still so easily succumb to fashion’s glamour and its fantasies of self-transformation. As Vreeland said: “I think fantasists are the only realists in the world. The world is a fantasy.

Nothing’s remarkably real.”

— www.theguardian.com

Lifestyle FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

Stephen King returns with sequel to ‘The Shining’ D

on’t ask horror writer Stephen King where he gets his ideas from. He doesn’t know. But the American author who has written over 50 novels and sold 350 million copies worldwide does remember how he came up with the plot for his 1977 book “The Shining”. King and his wife, who were living in Colorado at the time, had gone to the mountains for a weekend at the end of the holiday season and were the only guests in their hotel. “We were very much fish against the current because everyone else was checking out and we were checking in,” he said.

“It was creepy because the wind was howling outside... and all the chairs were up on the tables,” he said. After dinner, King’s wife went up to their room at the Stanley Hotel leaving the writer in the deserted dining hall where he “soaked up the atmosphere”. “Then (as) I went back to the room I passed one of those canvas fire hoses on the wall and I thought ‘gee, what if that turned into a snake and came after you’.”

“By the time that I got back to the room I had the whole story in my head,” he said. “The Shining” tells the story of Jack Torrance who takes a job as an out-of-season caretaker at a remote hotel and eventually attempts to murder his wife and son. The book was made into the 1980 film of the same name directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Jack Nicholson.

Now, over 35 years after the book was first published, King has written a sequel.

In “Doctor Sleep”, King picks up the character of the son, Danny Torrance, the child with psychic powers in the original book, as a middle-aged alcoholic drifter. Haunted by his dead father’s “legacy of despair, alcoholism

and violence”, he works in a hospice where he draws on his paranormal powers to help people achieve a peaceful death. But his past is reawakened when he encounters a telepathic child, Abra. King, 66, said he did not usually

write sequels. “When I get to the end of a story, I’m done with these people, not because I don’t like them any more, but because I don’t know what happens next,” he told journalists in Paris on Tuesday.

Haunted characters In Danny’s case, however, King said that

Ban ‘Noah’ movie, says Egypt’s top Islamic body

the character “never really left my mind”. “I got curious and that doesn’t happen to me very often,” he said, adding that little by little what happened next to Danny “started to form in my head”. “I felt that because addiction is something that tends to run in families, I thought I would go ahead and let him be an alcoholic and see if he could do a better job than his dad.” A recovering alcoholic himself, who was drinking heavily at the time he wrote “The Shining”, King said that when he started writing he was wary of producing a “tract on alcoholism”.

Another challenge, he said, was how to write something capable of terrifying readers who were now older and facing the really frightening things in life such as cancer and death. “A lot of people think of “The Shining” as one of the most scary books that they’ve

read in their lives,” he said. “And I’ll say ‘well yes, you were 14 years old, you were away at summer camp and you were reading with a flashlight under the covers. Of course I scared you, you were easy!’ “Now they are all grown up and you know no matter what you write there will be a contingent who say ‘well that wasn’t very scary’”.

Although he is at a loss to explain the genesis of his ideas, King says how to scare people is easier to define. “The key to it is to create characters that people care about. If you care about them and they are in jeopardy then you are afraid for them,” he said. As for what scares the author himself, King-like his readers-no longer has to look to he paranormal for that. “I’m afraid of Alzheimer’s,” he said. “Declining mental ability, that scares the heck out of me.” — AFP

Mardi Gras parade

E

gypt’s top Islamic body said yesterday the big budget Hollywood biblical epic “Noah” starring Russell Crowe was irreligious and should not be screened in the country. AlAzhar institute, one of the region’s main Sunni Muslim authorities, said the movie, slated to open in Egypt on March 26, violated Islam by portraying a prophet.

The film has already angered some Christian institutions in the United States, with Crowe’s reportedly unconventional portrayal of Noah.

Al-Azhar can play an advisory role on censoring movies and books in Egypt, but does not have the final say. Portraying a prophet “contradicts the stature of prophets and messengers... and antagonizes the faithful,” the institution said in a statement. Egypt’s censorship board must approve any movie before it is shown, but it was not immediately clear whether it has approved “Noah” yet.

The Paramount Pictures website said the film would be released on March 26 in Egypt, and a day later in other Middle Eastern countries. Egypt has censored other movies in the past, including the blockbuster “The Da Vinci Code” after protests from the Orthodox Coptic Church. But it did allow the screening of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of Christ”, which depicts Jesus being crucified. Muslims believe Jesus was a prophet and was not crucified. — AFP

The King’s Jester float makes its way toward the Canal Street turn on during a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans.

— AP photos

Members of the Krewe of Zulu march during Mardi Gras day.

Jack Laborde, king of Carnival, greets his subjects on Mardi Gras during the Rex parade.

Lifestyle FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

‘Game of Thrones’ hip-hop mix tape seeks ‘multicultural’ audience

“W

atch the Throne,” meet “Game of Thrones”: HBO has commissioned rappers including Wale, Common and Outkast’s Big Boi for a mix tape devoted to its hit fantasy series. On one “Catch the Throne” track, Wale raps about bringing “that Khaleesi heat” and decapitating other MCs. The unlikely seeming enterprise is all part of an effort to reach the “muticultural” audience of “Game of Thrones,” HBO told The Wall Street Journal.

“Our multicultural audiences are a very important part of our subscribers, and we don’t want to take them for granted,” Lucinda Martinez, HBO’s senior vice president for multicultural marketing, told the paper. Actually, the Journal found, the audience for “Game of Thrones” is a little less multicultural than that

of HBO overall. Last year, the audience for its third season was 13.2 percent African-American, 9.2 percent Hispanic and 76.6 white, according to Nielsen figures. Overall, HBO’s overall audience last year was 16.8 percent black, 12.3 percent Hispanic and 72.9 white. Maybe it’s because the cast is so overwhelmingly white?

HBO notes that African-Americans and Latinos are overrepresented in its subscriber count relative to their numbers in the population at large, and says Nielsen’s numbers don’t account for platforms like HBO Go. HBO declined to say how much the campaign cost or how much it paid the artists who took part in the 10-song mix tape, which will be released Friday.

It was created by a team of producers at New York’s Launch Point Records, who sampled music from the show’s score and snippets of dialogue. Other rappers involved include reggaeton star Daddy Yankee and rapper Bodega Bamz. Unfortunately absent are Kanye West and Jay-Z, the pair behind “Watch the Throne.”

The “Game of Thrones” foray into hip-hop isn’t the show’s first collaboration with popular musicians: Both “The Hold Steady” and Gary Lightbody, lead singer of Snow Patrol, have sung the song “The Bear and the Maiden Fair” for the show. The song is said to be one of the most popular in Westeros. — Reuters

A Broadway musical reaches a bloody milestone

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Singer Akon arrives for the Breaking The Silence, Beating The Drum concert event at United Nations Headquarters. — AP

Akon looks to bring electricity to homes in Africa

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rammy-nominated singer Akon has a goal of bringing solar-powered electricity to 1 million homes in Africa by the end of the year, and the singer is using millions of his own dollars for the cause.

Akon started an initiative called “Akon Lighting Africa” this month. The singer, who was born in the US of Senegalese parents and was reared in both countries, said he was “pained” after seeing people in the continent without electricity. “How could you build any infrastructure with no lights?” he said in a recent interview.

“Without electricity, you can’t even operate the machines to build roads or bridges. ...That’s what created the initiative.”

Akon’s project aims to install solar equipment in households to improve energy sufficiency. He’s partnered with Give1 Project, ADS Global Corporation SA and public-private solar energy companies. The SenegaleseAmerican also met with government leaders about the project in Senegal, Gambia, the Ivory Coast and other countries. “After certain hours, it’s completely pitchblack,” he said. “Even for myself, as a child growing up in Africa, it wasn’t that bad, but I know how life could be so much easier if they had those necessities.”

So, far, Akon said his initiative has financed 10 light posts and power for 100 homes in Mali and Guinea Conakry. The economic and trade company China Jiangsu International will pre-finance all of the light posts, the singer said. “I saw what simple lights did to those people there,” he said. “It was like a huge festival when that light switch was hit. Now, kids can study during the afterhours. It’s a luxury. It touched me.” Akon has had more than a dozen Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, including “Smack That,” “I Wanna Love You” and “Locked Up.” He recently released a new single “So Blue,” and said he is working on new music. He also wants to hold a concert at the end of the year in Africa to celebrate the initiative. — AP

ying onstage has been remarkably easy for Broadway’s “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder.” The musical comedy reached a bloody milestone at Wednesday’s matinee when star Jefferson Mays was knocked off for the 1,000th time since the show opened, believed to be a record for the fastest a leading actor has reached that number of deaths.

The show is about an impoverished man, played by Bryce Pinkham, who discovers he’s ninth in line to inherit a fortune, so he decides to eliminate the eight heirs of the D’Ysquith family standing in his way. Mays plays all eight victims - two women and six men. Since the show opened Nov 17, Mays has been murdered eight times in each show or 64 times each week at the Walter Kerr Theatre. At a press conference after the matinee, Pinkham presented Mays with an honorary “death certificate” on behalf of the entire cast. It listed Mays’ marital status and age as “various” and listed his cause of death as Bryce Pinkham.

“I’ve had the pleasure of working with some wonderful actors over the years, but there is no one I’d rather murder over and over and over than this man,” said Pinkham. “Even Sir Laurence Olivier and Richard Burton never had to die more than once an evening.” Mays, who won a Tony for “I Am My Own Wife,” was gracious in return: “Thanks so much for this. At the risk of sounding gleefully genocidal, here’s to the next thousand D’Ysquith deaths.” “A Gentleman’s Guide” features a book by Robert L. Freedman, rousing music by Steven Lutvak, and wry, wonderful lyrics by Freedman and Lutvak. — AP

Kevin Costner to receive ‘CinemaCon Icon Award’

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evin Costner, whose career is showing new signs of life, will receive the “2014 Cinema Icon Award” at CinemaCon this month. The annual show-and-tell finds studios hawking their upcoming slates to theater owners and unfolds in Las Vegas. Costner won an Oscar for directing “Dances with Wolves” and was one of the biggest stars in the world thanks to such hits as “The Untouchables” and “Bull Durham.”

His career went into decline following box office disappointments such as “Waterworld” and “The Postman.”

However, he recently scored a small screen hit and won an Emmy for History Channel’s record-setting mini-series “The Hatfields and McCoys: An American Vendetta” and had a memorable supporting role in “Man of Steel.” This winter, Costner appeared in “3 Days to Kill” and “Jack Ryan.” He next stars in the sports comedy “Draft Day.” He will be presented with this special honor at at an awards ceremony on March 27, in The Colosseum at Caesars Palace. — Reuters

Kevin Costner

Lifestyle FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

The abs strike back in ‘300’ sequel T

he glistening abs are back in “300: Rise of an Empire,” and they’ve been doing crunches. Like its forerunner, the 2007 hit “300,” “Rise of an Empire” again plunges us into bloody, hyper-stylized Greek history: mythology with muscles. The computer-generated warfare franchise is now a third of the way to a six-pack. Made clearly to capitalize on the popularity of “300,” “Rise of an Empire” is something like collected behind-the-scenes from the Persian invasion featured in “300.” Whereas the first film chronicled, ab by ab, the Spartans’ heroic stand in the Battle of Thermopylae against Xerxes’s Persian invasion, “Rise of an Empire” is about the concurrent naval fight, the Battle of Artemisium.

This may be war by sea, but the ingredients of “300” are largely unaltered. An outnumbered band of Greeks staves off a tyrannical Persian army below roiling skies of red and gray. Manly honor is fetishized to a comical degree. Blood spills like soup. These two films, very much intertwined, provoke a number of questions: Did everyone forget their shirts? Is this a workout video? Or is this just the most absurdly ridiculous thing ever?

Yes and no. In “Rise of an Empire,” Zack Snyder moves from the director’s chair to producer (and co-screenwriter with Kurt Johnstad), leaving Noam Murro to helm the film. But Snyder’s imprint is unmistakable, with his visual style carried over, mimicking the extremes of Frank Miller’s comic book illustrations (the inspiration of both movies). These are easy films to make fun of.

It’s why perhaps the best thing to come out of “300” was the viral video “It’s Raining Men,” a clip of the movie’s Mediterranean men in various states of brotherly togetherness, set to the disco tune.

But they’re also precisely the movies they seek to be: Some kind of grandly warped, excessively heightened dream of mythical battle. It’s as if Douglas Sirk made a combat video game. At least it’s the women who reign in “Rise of an Empire,” though one wouldn’t expect that given its seconds into the film when naked breasts make their first gratuitous appearance. The male actors here - Sullivan Stapleton as the Greek hero Themistokles, Santoro,

This image released by Warner Bros Pictures shows Eva Green in “300: Rise of an Empire.”— AP back as the bronzed Xerxes are easily outdone by the females.

There is Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey of “Game of Thrones”) lordly presiding over Sparta. But as Persian commander Artemisia, Eva Green rules ferociously over the film. She drives the Persians with a warrior’s desperate thirst for revenge and a stare that makes the men of her army cower. It’s like a reckoning of the macho multitudes of “300.” She single-handedly spoils the landscape of manly torsos.

“300: Rise of an Empire,” a Warner Bros Pictures release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for “strong sustained sequences of stylized bloody violence throughout, a sex scene, nudity and some language.” Running time: 102 minutes. One and a half stars out of four. — AP

‘Mr Peabody and Sherman’ Review: Amusing cartoon might delight adults more than kids

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he Rocky and Bullwinkle Show,” Mr Peabody and Sherman’s first home, was a cartoon for adults, and the new big-screen adaptation of their adventures is too. Solidly assembled if fundamentally soulless, “Mr Peabody and Sherman” is a gift to parents: a shiny, never-dull chunk of edutainment for “Baby Einstein” grads that’ll keep the kids amused with pratfalls and butt jokes while reassuring their moms and dads that not even a Nobel Prize-winning, Olympic medal-collecting time-machine inventor can get something as hard as parenting right.

In the 1959-1964 TV series, Mr Peabody was aloof and professorial so much that his fur should’ve turned to tweed - who adopted the terminally dorky Sherman as a pet. Director Rob Minkoff and screenwriter Craig Wright sand down this edge for the film, realigning Mr Peabody and Sherman as father and son. That was probably a necessary choice, and one that neatly lends itself to the movie’s subtle argument for the validity of nontraditional families.

Significantly nicer but still a proud know-it-all, this new incarnation of Mr Peabody (voiced by Ty Burrell) is an adoptive father who has taught his son too well. Sherman’s (Max Charles) smarts make him instant bully-bait on his first day at school; when Sherman literally bites back at his tormentor Penny (Ariel Winter), Mr Peabody is called into the principal’s office to justify his adoption and custody of his son.

So far, so grown-up. But the fun starts soon enough when Mr Peabody invites Penny and her parents (Leslie Mann and Stephen Colbert) to his lavishly mod penthouse (which would score a zero on any baby-proofing test) for a charm attack. He makes “Einstein on the Beach” cocktails while encouraging Sherman to make nice with Penny, a plan that somehow leads to the kids taking the Way-Back Machine to ancient Egypt, where Penny becomes King Tut’s fiancee.

Convincing her to break off the engagement is easy enough: Mr Peabody plainly informs her that when the boy-king dies in a few years, she’ll be vivisected and her skin and bones mummified. But getting back to the present isn’t so easy, which means detours to Leonardo Da Vinci (Stanley Tucci) in Renaissance Italy and to the Greek soldiers (led by Patrick Warburton as Agamemnon) at the final battle of the Trojan War. (Disappointingly, no one in the present or the past is ever the least bit freaked out by the existence of a talking dog.)

Mr Peabody’s rat-a-tat narration of historical details is more faithful to the past than on the TV series - rest assured, the kids are learning something - and the balance between exciting chase scenes and play-

ful twists on real-life personages is faultlessly calibrated to make both adults and children happy.

Mr Peabody’s near-perfection is a surprising delight; there’s a particular pleasure in watching people (or a beagle, in this case) exercise their talents, whether it’s fencing with Robespierre or escaping an elaborate death trap in a pyramid through geometry.

Sherman, on the other hand, isn’t any more interesting than his TV counterpart. That’s because the seven-year-old is presented as any child would be from his parents’ perspective: he’s a doofus-in-distress who’s too young to get the simplest of jokes, yet he occasionally displays the emotional maturity and tactical genius of a chess master.

It’s easy enough to see why Mr Peabody would think Sherman’s an everyboy, a dummy, and the smartest kid in the room, but the script’s strained efforts to juggle these different facets inevitably result in an inconsistent character who’s hard to track from scene to scene.

Sherman’s contradictions ultimately rob specificity, and thus poignancy, from the father-son tension coursing through the plot.

Once the universe’s least likely time travelers return to the present day, the gentle satire in the historical adventures gives way to a squishy standoff against Ms Grunion (Allison Janney), the bigoted, antidog social worker trying to take Sherman away. That leads to an intricate climax whose whole is considerably less than the sum of its parts: there’s just too many of the jokes we’ve already seen and heard before.

“Mr Peabody and Sherman” could have touched its audience’s hearts, but it settles for a tickle. — Reuters

ScHoolboy Q knocks ‘Frozen’ from top spot on Billboard 200

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ip hop artist ScHoolboy Q knocked Disney’s juggernaut soundtrack “Frozen” from the top spot of the Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday. “Oxymoron,” the third studio album from ScHoolboy Q and the first to be released through a major label, Universal Music Group’s Interscope Records, sold 139,000 copies in its first week, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan. The “Frozen” soundtrack, which features the hit Oscar-winning song “Let It Go” and previously topped the Billboard chart for five non-consecutive weeks, dropped to No. 2 this week with 91,000 copies.

The Walt Disney Co film still performs strongly at the global box office, recently crossing the $1 billion mark in ticket sales worldwide. ScHoolboy Q led six new entries in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart this week. Los Angeles alt-rocker Beck landed at No. 3 with his latest studio album “Morning Phase.” Rapper Kid Cudi notched No. 4 after the release of “Kid Cudi Presents Satellite FL” last week. Latin music star Romeo Santos came in at No. 5 with “Formula Vol. 2.”

Country music star Dierks Bentley’s “Riser” debuted at No. 6, while pop-rock group The Fray rounded out the new entries with “Helios” at No. 8. Overall album sales for the week ending March 2 totaled 5.1 million, down 12 percent from the comparable week in 2013, Billboard said. — Reuters

Lifestyle FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

‘Must-see’ Louis Vuitton show wraps up Paris fashion

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icolas Ghesquiere’s “must-see” debut for Louis Vuitton on Wednesday wrapped up Paris fashion in a grand finale that opened a new chapter for the luxury brand after the departure of Marc Jacobs.

Chinese actress Fan Bingbing, one of Asia’s biggest stars, Catherine Deneuve, Princess Charlene of Monaco and one-time mentor Jean Paul Gaultier were among the VIPs on the front row to see the prodigiously talented former Balenciaga designer’s first collection.

“Don’t try talking to anyone in fashion for the next half hour at least,” tweeted one woman just before the show, which started with a letter to guests from Ghesquiere left on every seat. “Words cannot express exactly how I am feeling at this moment. Above all, immense joy at being here in the knowledge that my stylistic expression is at one with the Louis Vuitton philosophy,” said the designer who parted company with the fabled Balenciaga fashion house in November 2012.

Models present creations for Louis Vuitton during the 2014/2015 autumn/winter ready-to-wear collection fashion show, on March 5, 2014 in Paris. — AFP photos

On the catwalk for autumn/winter 2014/15, Ghesquiere rang the changes with a collection of logo-free clothes with a retro feel. And in contrast to showman Jacobsfamed for turning his shows into spectaclesthere wasn’t a carousel or mini-train in sight.

Leather featured not just in the bags but also in pieces worked into the clothes in a wintry palette of black, beiges, browns and splashes of Ghesquiere’s favourite “sporty” red.

The new casualness Ghesquiere’s skirts were short, gently flared and cinched at the waist. Trousers were tight-fitting. Everything was high-waisted and teamed with strappy or patent ankle boots.

Outlining his vision backstage after the show, Ghesquiere said he had in mind a woman who was at home mixing pieces in a way that was both modern and effortless.

“I didn’t want to do a theme or a story or be very dramatic. I think I have this vision of Vuitton as multiple propositions.... it is a woman who is talented at mixing clothes, more than having a (single) look,” he said. “It’s that modernity that I love with Vuitton. It’s this easiness that you have comfortable functional pieces, embellished pieces, it’s the way you mix it together, this new casualness that I am interested in,” he added.

Lifestyle FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

Jacobs was given a standing ovation at Paris fashion week in October when he bowed out after 16 years at the helm to concentrate on a stock exchange flotation of his own brand. The US designer-under whose stewardship “Vuitton mania” saw queues around department stores-is credited with taking Vuitton from “stodgy luggage house” to one of the most sought-after brands in the world, particularly in the lucrative Asian market.

‘Get the look, get the bag’ After years of rapid global expansion, Ghesquiere is expected to steer the brand towards a more upmarket, exclusive image. The company, which marks its 140th anniversary in 2014, turned in sales estimated at 7.3 billion euros ($10 billion) in 2012 with leather goods estimated to account for 90 percent of sales. Vuitton is parent company LVMH’s most profitable brand, accounting for more than 70 percent of annual sales of its fashion and leather goods division which also includes the brands of Celine, Givenchy, Fendi and Kenzo.

Ghesquiere said he would be working to integrate the bags into clothes in one harmonious look. “Sometimes people have a tendency only to see Louis

Vuitton as a leather goods company, because the bags are so strong and beautiful and fashion can be a little timid compared to that,” he said. “(For me) it has to be a look. It has to be that when you get the bag you have to get the look, and when you get the look you have to get the bag. It has to be an entire silhouette.” And he said he was thrilled to be back designing after his post-Balenciaga break from the industry. “It was necessary to think and take a little distance and when you take distance you are so happy... (but now) it’s super exciting. We are playing the game, we go for it and that’s the best,” he said. — AFP

FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

Kuwait

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

A Mobile World of technology Mobile World Congress in Barcelona showcases the future now 2014 is still young but the largest show for mobile devices and technology - the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona - has just shut its doors which makes this a good point in time to look back at the most interesting new products on show.

In 2013 mobile imaging technology made a massive leap forward. We saw the introduction of bigger imaging sensors on volume models such as the Nokia Lumia 1020 or the Sony Xperia Z1. Optical Image Stabilization became a standard feature on Nokia’s Lumia line and some Android high-end devices, such as the HTC One or LG G2. On high-end models 5-inch 1080p Full-HD screens became the standard, making image framing, viewing and editing more pleasant tasks, and we saw a slew of new camera app features introduced, including Nokia’s Refocus and Google’s Photosphere.

All those new features and technologies mean that smartphone cameras can not only compete with, but in some areas even surpass dedicated compact cameras. With mobile imaging innovation going full speed ahead in 2013, here at Dpreview Connect we were hoping for the pace to be kept up in the new year. Let’s look at some MWC highlights!

High-end devices Let’s get started with the blockbusters. To most observers, Sony Xperia Z2 was the stand-out device of the show. The Sony Xperia Z1 and Z2 come with a 1/2.3-inch sensor, the Nokia Lumia 1020 even with a much bigger 1/1.5-inch variant.

The Sony Xperia Z2 is another top-end device from a large manufacturer that was announced at the show. Its predecessor, the Z1, was only announced in September last year, so it makes sense that the new model is a solid update but not brand new in every respect. The Z2’s full-HD display now measures 5.2 inches and offers better viewing angles than the Z1’s 5-inch equivalent. A new SoC (Snapdragon 801) and 3GB of RAM offer plenty of processing power but the camera specification is as good as identical to the Z1’s. Images are captured by a 20.7 MP 1/2.3inch CMOS sensor and the lens has a fast F2.0 aperture. There is no optical image stabilization on the Xperia Z2.

Most of the Z2’s new camera features are more interesting to videographers than still photographers. The device is now capable of recording 4K video and the STM10 external stereo-microphone promises sound-quality

way beyond what we’re used to from mobile devices, making the Z2 an interesting option for serious video-shooters. New software features includes Timeshift Video which captures footage at 120 frames and allows you to slow down portions of your footage for dramatic effect and Background Defocus which simulates a shallow depth of field by capturing two photos at different focus settings and blending them.

The third manufacturer to announce a heavyweight device is LG. The Korean manufacturer launched the LG G Pro II just before the show. There’s bad news though: HTC One Max challenger will only be available in Asian markets. The G Pro II is a 5.9-inch phablet with a top-end specification and a promising-looking camera module that features a 13MP CMOS sensor and an improved version of the optical image stabilization that we’ve already seen on the LG G2.

Mid-end devices While MWC 2014 was a comparatively quiet show in terms of high-end devices we were bombarded with launches in the mid- to lowend segment. Devices in this bracket of the market might not be announced with the same glitz and glamour as their top-of-theline counterparts but nevertheless some of them come with impressive spec sheets and can represent very good value for money for mobile photographers on a budget. Virtually all manufacturers, including HTC, Ascend, Acer, Huawei, Lenovo, Sony and Alcatel had new models to show. We’ve picked the ones we found most interesting and had a closer look.

With its 6-inch screen the ZTE Grand Memo II falls firmly into the phablet category and while its Snapdragon 400 SoC and 720p resolution screen are not quite on par with highend models its camera module looks like it might be worth a closer look. The ZTE comes equipped with a 13MP Sony BSI CMOS sensor and a fast F2.2 lens. Boasting 5MP the front camera sports an unusually high pixel count and features the same aperture as its counterpart on the back which makes the Grand Memo II an ideal looking device for video callers and selfie-shooters.

LG’s G2 Mini looks like an interesting device for those who have not yet gotten used to the large dimensions of today’s highend phones. That said, the LG G2 Mini is not only smaller than the original G2 but also

comes with a slightly downgraded specification. The Snapdragon 400 SoC should provide plenty of power for most apps but the 960 x 540 pixels resolution is a little lower than we would prefer.

That said, at least the Latin American LTE version of the G2 Mini will come with the same 13MP camera module that we’ve seen on the original G2, making the new device an interesting alternative for budget-conscious mobile photographers. Users in other regions will have to make do with an 8MP module though.

The Nokia XL will retail at only Ä109 but was still one of the most talked about devices of the show. The reason for that is simple. It’s not the 5MP camera or 5-inch screen but the fact that the XL is the first Nokia phone which to run Google’s Android OS, albeit a “forked” version of it that makes use of Microsoft and Nokia services instead of the Google ones and comes with its own App Store, similar to what Amazon offers with its Kindle Fire tablets. First reports of Google Play running on the X-series devices have surfaced on the web and according to Nokia any Android-app can be side-loaded, so Nokia XL users will be able to enjoy the same selection of apps as the users of regular Android devices.

When first rumors about a Nokia phone with an Android OS started floating around the web many mobile photographers, including readers of our site, were hoping for an Android powered version of Nokia’s high-end models, such as the Lumia 1020 or 1520.

However, it appears the Finnish manufacturer’s intention was to replace the aging software platform of its low-range Asha phones with the open source Android OS. So for now there won’t be any editing of Lumia 1020 PureView images with Snapseed or VSCOCam but we’ll have to wait and see if Nokia will expand the use of Android to its premium devices at some point in the future.

Tablets There wasn’t too much movement in the tablet space at MWC 2014, arguably because quite a few models had already been launched at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas in January. Nevertheless there were a handful of interesting new models at the show that are worth another look.

Sony’s Xperia Z2 Tablet is water resistant and comes with an 8MP camera.

The Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet was arguably the most high-profile tablet launch at MWC

and makes an ideal companion to Sony’s new Xperia Z2 smartphone. It comes with the same Snapdragon 801 SoC, Android 4.4 OS and water-resistant housing as its smaller sister model and is only 6.4mm thin. If you like taking pictures with your tablet you’ll be happy to hear the Z2 Tablet features an 8MP rear camera that offers many of the functions we are use to from the Xperia smartphones, such as HDR for both photos and video, Burst Mode, Scene Recognition, Sweep Panorama, Smile Detection, Face Detection and Touch Focus.

If you like the Sony’s 8MP shooter you’ll be enthused by the 13MP Sony BSI CMOS sensor that can be found in the Huawei MediaPad X1. This 7-inch device comes with a 1200 x 1920 LTPS display and all around high-end specs which makes it a serious alternative to Google’s Nexus 7, the Kindle Fire HD or even the iPad Mini. Not only does the Huawei offer full voice-calling capability, it also has by far the best camera specs in the 7-inch segment.

So if you want your screens big and don’t mind carrying a 7-inch device you could even consider replacing your phone with the MediaPad. The Huawei MediaPad X1 is an attractive looking device that takes on the Google’s Nexus 7, the Kindle Fire HD and iPad Mini in the 7-inch segment.

A quick glance at the spec sheet makes the Yoga Tablet 10HD+ look like a fairly common mid-range tablet but visually the Lenovo 10.1inch tablet stands out from the crowd. The cylindrically-shaped battery allows for a firm grip when holding the tablet or a slight tilt when placed on a surface. There is also a built-in kickstand that extends from the tablet’s battery and lets you adjust it in an upright position, without using any additional stands or cases. The unusual shape also allows for the use of a very large battery and according to Lenovo with its 9000 mAh battery the the Yoga can be used up to 18 hours before a recharge is due.

The Yoga Tablet’s unusual shape allows for the installation of a large battery adjustment of the screen at various angles.

Like the other new devices the Yoga Tablet 10HD+ comes with a, for tablet standards, well equipped camera. The rear module has an 8MP sensor and the SNAPit Camera app offers panorama, burst and low-light modes, filters and editing functions, including removal of unwanted objects and animated GIF creation. www.connect.dpreview.com

Stars

FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

Aries (March 21-April 19)

You might find yourself in a difficult situation when faced with a person who doesn't necessarily approve of how you're handling yourself, Aries. It could be that someone misinterpreted one of your offhand remarks, and now is violently overreacting. Be careful of shooting back caustic remarks that could only aggravate the situation and elevate it to a damaging level. Your words will be taken more seriously than you think.

Taurus (April 20-May 20)

Your interest in certain off-the-wall topics may be encouraged when you're engaged in a conversation with someone who shares similar thoughts, Taurus. Perhaps you exchange ideas about UFOs and life on other planets. Suddenly you're looking at your life as if you were a character in a sciencefiction novel. Exchange books and other literature with those of a similar mindset. You may not be the only one who thinks there is a conspiracy against them.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

Take your leadership abilities to a new level, Gemini. Gather some friends and plan a trip that you've long been considering but were reluctant to act on. People will naturally look to you for leadership and guidance, as you always seem to know how to keep things fun and positive. When it comes to your workplace, this might be a good time to ask for more responsibility and a raise.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

There may be a stalemate when you're unwilling to express your feelings, Cancer. You might automatically assume that things will go smoothly if you leave the decisions up to someone else. Unfortunately, that plan will likely backfire if the decision is made by someone who doesn't necessarily have your best interests at heart. You may try to go back and reverse what has been done, thus fouling up the plan that has been set in motion.

Leo (July 23-August 22)

Decisions don't have to be as hard as you make them, Leo. You may feel as if a strong force is pulling you in a clear direction, so don't resist it. You'll only drive yourself crazy trying to list all the reasons why you should or shouldn't go the way you're destined to go. Make things easier on yourself by going with the flow instead of letting your mind interfere with constant chatter and resistance.

Virgo (August 23-September 22)

Look at things from a more philosophical perspective, Virgo, instead of seeing everything from such an intensely emotional one. You may have a constant fear that everyone is out to get you. More than likely, you're blowing small instances out of proportion in your mind. Use your friends as a sounding board for your thoughts. More than likely, you'll understand the situation better by introducing this fresh perspective.

COUNTRY CODES Libra (September 23-October 22)

This is your day, Libra, so don't waste it. Being the helpful, friendly person you are, you may find yourself catering to other people's needs and desires. Some could see you as the good Samaritan who can offer advice with a friendly attitude. Be careful of draining away all your energy on others. This day might be better spent by catering to you. Even though this seems selfish, you'll love yourself for it.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21)

Reward yourself for all the great things you've done for you and other people, Scorpio. You deserve to be treated like royalty, so make sure that you do. There are many times when you get so critical of the things you do that you end up punishing yourself unnecessarily. Give yourself a treat for being good instead of chastising yourself for being bad. At all times, however, you must remember that you're perfect just the way you are.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21)

If a friend or colleague seems to be in trouble, you may not want to interfere for fear of being too intimate. But this isn't a time to hold back, Sagittarius. It's likely that this person really does need your help. Your intervention will be much appreciated and possibly even rewarded. Be sure to get some rest tonight. You're emotionally and physically drained.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19) Enjoying the good times may be fun, but it may also get you into trouble down the road, Capricorn. Be careful of spending all your resources on pleasure without setting something aside for leaner times. The company you keep could encourage your self-destructive behaviors. Since they know you'll always be in for a good time, you could get swept away by the energy of the crowd. Better to stick close to those who support healthier habits.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18)

The surge of power within you is going to let others know that you mean business, Aquarius. Make good use of this fantastic boost of energy by conquering your own goals and demons instead of using it to wage war on anyone else. Other people should know to get out of your way when you have your mind set on doing something. If they don't, politely ask them to move instead of steamrolling over them.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

Be more adventurous than usual, Pisces. Feel free to take a trip somewhere without bringing a map or having any specific destination in mind. The sheer excitement of the unknown should thrill and enthuse you, not frighten and confuse. Your enjoyment of the situation has to do with your attitude toward it. You may not be able to control the hand you're dealt, but you can certainly control how you play it.

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, MARCH 7, 2014

Word Search

Challenge Maze

C R O S S W O R D 4 7 9

ACROSS 1. A state of southwestern India.

4. A view of the sea.

12. The most common computer memory which can be used by programs to perform necessary tasks while the computer is on.

15. A drug combination found in some over-the-counter headache remedies (Aspirin and Phenacetin and Caffeine).

16. A place where the wicked are punished after death.

17. A dark-skinned member of a race of people living in Australia when Europeans arrived.

18. A unit of astronomical length based on the distance from Earth at which stellar parallax is 1 second of arc.

20. Lower in esteem.

21. A vessel (usually cylindrical) with a wide mouth and without handles.

22. A chock or bar wedged under a wheel or between the spokes to prevent a vehicle from rolling down an incline.

25. A period of time containing 365 (or 366) days.

28. (religion) Of or pertaining to or characteristic of the branch of Protestantism adhering to the views of Wesley.

31. Common house and field crickets.

35. A flat wing-shaped process or winglike part of an organism.

36. (Greek mythology) The Muse of history.

40. A republic in West Africa on the Gulf of Guinea.

43. Noisy talk.

44. (Judaism) An eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem.

46. Goddess of criminal rashness and its punishment.

48. A prominent rock or pile of rocks on a hill.

49. A condition (mostly in boys) characterized by behavioral and learning disorders.

50. An officer who acts as military assistant to a more senior officer.

51. (Greek mythology) Goddess of wisdom and useful arts and prudent warfare.

54. Belonging to some prior time.

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

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

61. An organization of countries formed in 1961 to agree on a common policy for the sale of petroleum.

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

68. A member of a nomadic Berber people of the Sahara.

71. A tricycle (usually propelled by pedalling).

73. A primeval personification of air and breath.

74. United States mathematician who contributed to the development of atom bombs and of stored-program digital computers (1903-1957).

77. Preserve of crushed fruit.

78. Water chestnut whose spiny fruit has two rather than 4 prongs.

79. Difficult or labored respiration.

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

5. The sense organ for hearing and equilibrium.

6. A colorless and odorless inert gas.

7. A way of access consisting of a set of steps.

8. An esoteric or occult matter that is traditionally secret.

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

10. Obscene terms for female genitals.

11. The compass point midway between east and southeast.

12. The seventh month of the Moslem calendar.

13. Having the wind against the forward side of the sails.

14. The Fate who cuts the thread of life.

19. Characteristic of someone who has risen economically or socially but lacks the social skills appropriate for this new position.

23. A unit of force equal to the force exerted by gravity.

24. Not plain.

26. A group of African language in the Niger-Congo group spoken from the Ivory Coast east to Nigeria.

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

29. English essayist (1775-1834).

30. A resort city in southern Ukraine on the Black Sea. 32. Of or relating to or characteristic of the Republic of Chad or its people or language.

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

34. Flightless New Zealand birds similar to gallinules.

37. Coming at a subsequent time or stage.

38. (computer science) A graphic symbol (usually a simple picture) that denotes a program or a command or a data file or a concept in a graphical user interface.

39. Long green edible beaked pods of the okra plant.

41. Panel forming the lower part of an interior wall when it is finished differently from the rest.

42. Any of a class of weakly acidic organic compounds.

45. (Sumerian) Goddess personifying earth.

47. The 7th letter of the Greek alphabet.

52. Relating to the deepest parts of the ocean (below 6000 meters).

53. A protective covering that protects an inside surface.

55. An accountant certified by the state.

56. The branch of engineering science that studies the uses of electricity and the equipment for power generation and distribution and the control of machines and communication.

59. Fragrant resin obtain from trees of the family Burseraceae and used as incense.

60. A radioactive gaseous element formed by the disintegration of radium.

62. Comb-plate or locomotor organ consisting of a row of strong cilia whose bases are fused.

63. Cubes of meat marinated and cooked on a skewer usually with vegetables.

64. Small terrestrial lizard of warm regions of the Old World.

66. An unofficial association of people or groups.

67. Be obedient to.

69. The inner and longer of the two bones of the human forearm.

70. A Hindu prince or king in India.

72. The first month of the year.

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

76. A member of the military police who polices soldiers and guards prisoners.

Yesterdayʼs Solution

DOWN 1. Resembling gass.

2. Large African forest tree yielding a strong hard yellow to golden brown lumber.

3. The capital and largest city of Ghana with a deep-water port.

4. Male red deer.

Daily SuDoku

Yesterday’s Solution

Sports FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

India not giving up hope of Formula One return MUMBAI: India’s motor sports federation is optimistic the tax problems that have jeopardised the country’s Formula One race will be resolved and the home Grand Prix will be back in 2016.

Formula One commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone told Reuters on Wednesday that the Buddh International Circuit near New Delhi will not be hosting a race next year after being dropped from the 2014 championship.

Problems over taxation, with Formula One classified as entertainment rather than a sport in India, as well as the considerable bureaucracy governing the import of equipment have been seen as obstacles.

The Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (FMSCI) is waiting for a final clearance from the sports ministry for recognition as a national sports federation and hopes that will pave the way for the race’s return.

“It’s unfortunate but once the government gives the recognition I am very hopeful that Mr Ecclestone’s

concerns will be satisfied,” Akbar Ebrahim, the chairman of racing at FMSCI, told Reuters yesterday. “The good thing is that the International Olympic Committee has recognised the International Automobile Federation (FIA) and made it a full member. “So once we have the recognition the drivers are no longer going to be considered as entertainers but as athletes.” Crediting race promoters Jaypee Sports International for building a stellar circuit in India, Ebrahim was hopeful that the FMSCI would be recognised after the country’s general elections are over in May. “The required paperwork that was asked for by the government of India has been already submitted a month back,” Ebrahim added. “It’s a priority.

“This recognition is not just for F1 but it is beneficial for the grass root level of Indian motorsports, too.” Ecclestone said in November that a deal had been done for the Indian Grand Prix to return in 2015 and for six years beyond that if tax problems could be

overcome. A Jaypee spokesman declined to comment when contacted by Reuters, but a source at the promoter said the problems should be resolved and Formula One would return to India.

India first hosted a Grand Prix in 2011 to positive reviews and have staged three races to date. Former Formula One driver Karun Chandhok rued India’s loss of a glamorous sporting event.

“I’m not surprised, unfortunately. The situation hasn’t changed from the government’s viewpoint despite the Jaypee group’s best efforts,” Chandhok told Reuters from London. “It’s a sad but predictable outcome. “With the IOC recognising FIA, the recognition for the sport body in India should be pretty automatic. “The teams and the drivers really enjoyed coming to India. But unfortunately the Indian government did not embrace Formula One or really understand its penetration and reach worldwide. “It’s an opportunity lost.” — Reuters

Lee cruises at All England LONDON: It was a near perfect day for Malaysia’s world number one Lee Chong Wei at the All England badminton championships on Wednesday as he cruised through the first round while his main rivals struggled. Lee, a silver medallist at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games, played within himself to dispose of Thailand’s Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk 21-15 21-17 and book his place in the second round.

While Lee was in cruise control, world number three Tommy Sugiarto was dumped out of the tournament by China’s Gao Huan.

Gao took the first game 21-13 but Sugiarto smashed through the second 21-10. While many expected the Indonesian to go on to seal the win, it was Gao who took the decider 21-18.

Another of Lee’s main rivals, Chen Long, also looked in danger of an early exit when he lost his first game 21-10 to Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen. Chen, who defeated Lee in last year’s final, found himself trailing in the second game but fought back to win 21-15, then completed the victory 2112 in the deciding game.

Chen said he was not surprised there had been spectacular early upsets. “The All England championships is a tournament that has a lot of character and it is not a surprise to see a big upset caused by a lower ranked player to a high ranked player,” he said. “It’s a really special tournament and it is unique and everyone wants to win it. “It was almost a bad result for me but I can handle losing, what I cannot handle is playing badly.” Chen next plays Japan’s Takuma Ueda while Malaysian Lee plays compatriot Chong Wei Feng. — Reuters

Lee Chong Wei smashes in this file photo.

CALGARY: Max Reinhart No. 59 of the Calgary Flames chases Cody Ceci No. 5 of the Ottawa Senators during an NHL game at Scotiabank Saddledome. — AFP

Canadiens drown Ducks ANAHEIM: Andrei Markov scored in the sixth round of the shootout as the Montreal Canadiens beat the NHL-leading Anaheim Ducks 4-3 Wednesday for their sixth victory in eight games.

Brendan Gallagher had a goal and an assist for the Canadiens, tying it late in the second period. Max Pacioretty got his 30th goal and captain Brian Gionta also scored in an impressive victory before the arrival of new acquisition Thomas Vanek.

Tim Jackman, Francois Beauchemin and Daniel Winnik scored early goals for the Ducks, who had won three straight. Jonas Hiller made 27 saves in Anaheim’s first loss since the Olympic break.

Dustin Tokarski stopped 39 shots in his debut for the Canadiens, making several sharp saves in his eighth NHL appearance.

MAPLE LEAFS 3, RANGERS 2 Tyler Bozak scored from a penalty shot and then got the winning goal 1:51 into overtime to lift the Toronto Maple Leafs over the Rangers, spoiling the New York debut of Martin St. Louis.

Bozak got to a loose puck in front that bounced past Rangers defensemen Dan Girardi and Ryan McDonagh and slammed a shot past Henrik Lundqvist to snap the Maple Leafs’ three-game losing streak (0-1-2) and stretch New York’s skid to three (0-2-1).

Toronto built a 2-0 lead on Bozak’s second-period goal and Nazem Kadri’s tally in the third. The Rangers tied it on short-handed goals by McDonagh and Dominic Moore 1:19 apart.

Lundqvist bounced back from two straight losses in which he gave up 10 goals, finishing with 26 saves. Toronto’s Jonathan Bernier had dropped two straight after regulation while allowing nine goals. He stopped 35 shots.

FLYERS 6, CAPITALS 4 Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek each had two goals, and Michael Raffl and Steve Downie also scored to lead Philadelphia.

Andrew McDonald had an assist in his first game since he was acquired from the New York Islanders. The Flyers won for the seventh time in eight games.

The Flyers chased Washington goalie Braden Holtby after taking a 4-0 lead early in the second period. Holtby was replaced by Philipp Grubauer for the rest of the game - and could face some competition the rest of the season. The Capitals acquired Jaroslav Halak from Buffalo for backup goalie Michal Neuvirth and defenseman Rostislav Klesla at the NHL trade deadline earlier in the day.

Alex Ovechkin, Joel Ward and Troy Brouwer nearly rallied the Capitals with three straight goals in the third. Brooks Laich also scored.

FLAMES 4, SENATORS 1 Markus Granlund scored his first NHL goal as fellow Finnish rookie Joni Ortio picked up his first career victory to lead Calgary.

Paul Byron, Joe Colborne and Mike Cammalleri also scored for the Flames, and rookie Sean Monahan had two assists. Ortio, making his second start, finished with 30 saves to help Calgary win for the sixth time in its last seven home games. Kyle Turris scored his 20th goal of the season for Ottawa, which has lost four of its last five.

Granlund scored 2:04 into the first period and Byron doubled the lead at 9:12 of the second. Colborne made it 3-0 about 8 minutes later. Turris spoiled Ortio’s shutout bid just past midway through the third period. — AP

Sports FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

Blazers and Bobcats advance and Joakim Noah had a triple-double as the Chicago Bulls beat the Detroit Pistons.

Noah finished with 10 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists for his sixth career triple-double, including two in the last three games and three in the last month. Taj Gibson added 22 points off the bench, while Jimmy Butler had 18 points and 12 rebounds in Chicago’s fifth win in six games. Greg Monroe led Detroit with 27 points, but the Pistons got only 12 points from their reserves on 5-of-20 shooting.

PORTLAND: Nicolas Batum had 14 points and a career-high 18 rebounds as the Portland Trail Blazers downed Atlanta 102-78, a loss that marked the end of Hawks guard Kyle Korver’s NBA-record streak of 127 games with a 3-pointer. Korver had surpassed Dana Barros’ record of 89 straight, set from 1994-96, earlier this season.

He was 0 for 5 from 3-point range against the Blazers. Mo Williams added 15 points off the bench for Portland, which had six players in double figures. Portland, which led by as many as 29 points, has won six of its last seven games while keeping pace as one of the teams battling for the top four seeds in the West.

Cartier Martin had 16 points off the bench for the Hawks, who have lost four straight and 12 of their last 13 as they fight to stay in the Eastern Conference playoff picture.

BOBCATS 109, PACERS 87 Al Jefferson scored 34 points in Charlotte’s victory over the Indiana Pacers that gave the Bobcats their fifth straight home win.

Jefferson was 16 of 25 from the field and had eight rebounds for the Bobcats (28-33), who equaled their combined win total from the previous two seasons.

Jefferson, whose 38-point, 19-rebound effort Monday night was overshadowed by LeBron James’ career-high 61-point outing, has scored at least 20 points in 21 of his last 24 games.

Charlotte became the first team since the 200910 Knicks to play the NBA’s top four teams in consecutive games. They previously lost to San Antonio, Oklahoma City and Miami on the road.

Evan Turner had 22 points for the Pacers (46-15), who lost back-to-back games for only the second time this season.

ROCKETS 101, MAGIC 89 James Harden scored 31 points, including 25 in the second half, as the Houston Rockets dug out of a double-digit, first-half hole to beat the Orlando Magic.

The Rockets dominated inside, outscoring the Magic 58-26 in the paint. Dwight Howard added 19 points and 14 rebounds in his second trip to Orlando to face his former team.

Houston trailed in the second quarter by as many as 14 points, but battled back to win for the 13th time in 15 outings. Arron Afflalo led the Magic with 18 points. The Magic dropped to 0-2 this season against the Rockets. Orlando played without Jameer Nelson and Victor Oladipo.

Nelson was out sick and Oladipo missed his first game of the season with soreness in his left ankle.

WARRIORS 108, CELTICS 88 Klay Thompson and David Lee scored 18

KNICKS 118, TIMBERWOLVES 106 Carmelo Anthony scored 33 points to help the New York Knicks snap a seven-game losing streak with a victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Tyson Chandler had 15 points and 14 rebounds and Amare Stoudemire added 18 points and eight boards for the Knicks, who had not won since beating New Orleans on Feb. 19.

Kevin Love had 19 points and eight rebounds, but scored just one point in the second half as the Timberwolves returned from a successful West Coast road trip with a thud.

Kevin Martin had 12 points on 3-for-10 shooting and the Wolves were 7 for 26 from 3-point range.

PORTLAND: Atlanta Hawks forward Mike Scott (right) plays tight defense on Portland Trail Blazers forward LaMarcus Aldridge during the first half of an NBA basketball game. — AP points each as the Golden State Warriors went a who teamed up for a run that padded the lead season-high 14 games over .500 with a romp in the first half.

Alec Burks scored 19 points, and Trey Burke over the Boston Celtics.

The Warriors scored the first six points, led added 14 to lead the Jazz, who have dropped 12-2 with just over five minutes gone and stayed the first four games of their six-game road trip. ahead by at least 20 points throughout the sec- Their 7-24 road record is the worst in the ond half. Golden State had an easy time against Western Conference. one of the NBA’s worst teams one night after NETS 103, GRIZZLIES 94 beating one of the best. Thompson’s 12-foot Joe Johnson scored 21 points, Marcus turnaround with six-tenths of a second left had given the Warriors a 98-96 win at the Indiana Thornton came off the bench for 20 as the Brooklyn Nets powered their way above .500 for Pacers, the league’s top team at home.

Former Celtic Jordan Crawford had 15 points the first time this season by beating the and Stephen Curry added 14 for the Warriors Memphis Grizzlies.

Deron Williams added 16 points and Paul (38-24), who won for the seventh time in nine games. Kelly Olynyk scored 19 points for Boston Pierce 14 for the Nets (30-29), who have won (20-41), which dropped its seventh game in its four in a row overall and six straight at home in turning around a turbulent start. Jason Collins past eight. played 17 scoreless minutes on the day he signed his second 10-day contract. The matchup WIZARDS 104, JAZZ 91 Trevor Ariza scored 26 points and Bradley between two of the NBA’s best teams in 2014 Beal added 22 as the Washington Wizards took was a mismatch until the fourth quarter, when an early lead and never lost it, shooting 54 per- the Nets had already led by 30. Memphis fell to 21-9 since Jan. 1, while the Nets’ 20-8 record is cent in a win over the Utah Jazz.

John Wall had 14 points and 10 assists, and tops among East teams. Jon Leuer scored 19 and Marcin Gortat had 16 points and nine rebounds Marc Gasol 18 for the Grizzlies, who were without Zach Randolph because of the flu. for the Wizards, who have won seven of eight.

This one was noteworthy if only for substanBULLS 105, PISTONS 94 tial contributions from recent additions Drew DJ Augustin scored 26 points off the bench Gooden and Andre Miller, two thirty-somethings

KINGS 116, BUCKS 102 Isaiah Thomas scored 25 points and had six assists to lead the Sacramento Kings past the Milwaukee Bucks. Rudy Gay added 22 points, eight rebounds and five assists, and DeMarcus Cousins had 21 points, 10 rebounds and five assists for the Kings, who won their ninth road game after finishing with an 8-33 record away from home last season. Sacramento opened its season-high seven-game, 12-day road trip by shooting 52 percent (43-for-82) from the field.

Brandon Knight finished with a team-high 25 points and six assists for Milwaukee, which was trying to win consecutive games for the first time since last March.

NUGGETS 115, MAVERICKS 110 Wilson Chandler scored 21 points and Ty Lawson had 20 as the Denver Nuggets snapped a six-game losing streak by beating the Dallas Mavericks.

Kenneth Faried, Randy Foye and JJ Hickson added 16 points apiece for the Nuggets, who have won all three meetings this season against Dallas. Hickson scored 12 of his points in the fourth quarter to help hold off the Mavericks, who play the Nuggets a final time this season in two weeks in Dallas. Dirk Nowitzki had 27 points to lead the Mavericks, who lost their third in a row. It’s their first three-game losing streak of the season. — AP

In-form Pearson eyes title defence SOPOT: Sally Pearson has bounced back from injury, changed her coach and hit some timely form as she bids to defend her world indoor 60m hurdles title with one eye on the Commonwealth Games.

Pearson has been one of the most enduring stars of track and field in recent years, claiming the world outdoor 100m hurdles title in 2011 in Daegu and going on to win Olympic gold in London a year later. The 27-year-old Australian had a relative blip last year, however, with an injury-plagued season during which she still managed to bag world silver in Moscow.

“The thing that was the hardest last year was trying to get over two hamstring tears in the space of eight weeks to get ready for the world championships,” the Gold Coast resident said. “It was such a huge emotional rollercoaster for me, and I was just about ready to give up. But I kept going because I still felt I had a lot left in me training wise to get back in form

for the world championships. “I knew I could make the podium, hurdles is all about who’s the best on the day.

“I gave it everything I could in Moscow and thankfully came away with a medal.” Pearson stormed to the world 60m indoor title two years ago in Istanbul, and said she was confident in Sopot given her recent good form, something she said was due to core body strengthening.

“I changed coaches at the end of last year. Our goal was to strengthen up my hamstrings, glutes and everything around that area, which has also helped my back,” she said ahead of the world indoors which kick-off on Friday.

“We wanted to make sure everything was stronger before we started heading back into hurdles and speed work.” She added: “It’s been going really well this year. A couple of weeks ago I ran 12.59sec in the 100m hurdles in Perth and then 7.79sec in the heat in Berlin.”

That latter time, in her first indoor competition since her

2012 gold medal-winning run in Istanbul, was this season’s fastest over the 60m hurdles, a feat she wanted to build on with one eye on the July 23-August 3 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. “I don’t want another 2013! I want to stay healthy and strong for this season, because for Australia and Commonwealth countries, it’s a big year with the Commonwealth Games,” she said.

“I’m here, I want to win and I’m in good shape to do it.

“But the hurdles is very unpredictable, it’s all about who’s best on the day-the Americans are the strongest rivals that I have to race against.” US champion Nia Ali and long-jumperturned-hurdler Janay DeLoach Soukup will indeed offer stiff opposition for Pearson, having recently clocked lifetime bests of 7.80 and 7.82 at the US Indoor Championships.

Germany’s Nadine Hildebrand and Great Britain’s Tiffany Porter, both of whom have run 7.91 this season, will also likely be medal contenders. — AFP

Sports FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh, gear up for Asia Cup final

PRETORIA: Oscar Pistorius, puts his hand to his face while listening to evidence from a witness speaking about the morning of the shooting in court on the fourth day of his trial at the high court in South Africa yesterday. — AP

Pistorius weeps as witness recalls shooting scene horror PRETORIA: A weeping Oscar Pistorius shielded his ears as a witness in his murder trial yesterday gave harrowing evidence about desperate attempts to save Reeva Steenkamp’s life after she was shot.

Rocking back and forth in the dock, Pistorius put his hands over his ears as neighbor and radiologist Johan Stipp recounted how he entered his house to find the distraught Paralympian bent over, attempting to resuscitate his girlfriend. Stipp noticed a wound on Steenkamp’s right thigh, right upper arm, and “blood, hair and what looked like brain tissue intermingled with that” on top of the skull.

Amid the scene of horror, Stipp said he quickly realised the 29-year-old model’s injuries were too severe to be survivable.

“She had no pulse in her neck, she had no peripheral pulse, she had no breathing movements that she made. She was clenching down on Oscar’s fingers as he was trying to open her airway.”

“I opened her right eyelid, the pupil was fixed dilated and the cornea was milky, in other words it was already drying out, so to me it was obvious that she was mortally wounded.”

During the testimony sobbing could be heard around the courtroom as Steenkamp’s family and friends sat arm in arm, disconsolate. Stipp continued: “While I was trying to ascertain if she’s revivable, Oscar was crying all the time, he prayed to God to please let her live, she must not die.”

“He said at one stage, while he was praying, that he will dedicate his life and her life to God if she would just only live and not die that night.” “I couldn’t do anything for her, she was way too seriously injured for that.”

Stipp also said he wanted to locate Pistorius, fearing the sprinter may have been a danger to himself. “Oscar was emotionally very, very upset and I didn’t know the situation in the house so I thought maybe he was going to hurt himself.”

SCREAMS AND GUNSHOTS Stipp’s evidence is the first eye-witness account of what happened inside Pistorius’s home that evening since the trial began on Monday. Pistorius stands accused of murdering Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model and law graduate. He claims to have shot her through a locked toilet door after mistaking her for an intruder.

Stipp also testified to being woken by gunshots and screams coming from Pistorius’s home on the night of February 14, 2013, and then rushing over to see if he could help. But the sequence of events appeared not to tally exactly with the evidence from three other neighbours who heard screams then shots.

Pistorius’s defence lawyer earlier accused one of those witnesses of tailoring his evidence to fit his wife’s account in order to “incriminate” the athlete.

“There is a design on your side to incriminate,” advocate Barry Roux said, claiming Charl Johnson’s evidence was made in collusion with that of his wife and fellow key witness, Michelle Burger.

“You desperately want her version not to form part of this document,” said Roux, pointing at the witness. “You want to extricate any suggestion that this version was also your wife’s version.” —AFP

DHAKA: Sri Lanka fought hard to beat hosts Bangladesh by three wickets in the last league match of the Asia Cup in Dhaka yesterday, gearing up for the final with an all-win record.

Sri Lanka, who will meet defending champions Pakistan in the final on Saturday, kept Bangladesh down to 204-9 before overcoming early jitters to chase down the target in 49 overs.

The four-time champions won all their four matches, this time with some tight bowling and resilient batting led by skipper Angelo Mathews who hit an unbeaten 74. It was Mathews and Chaturanga de Silva (44) who lifted Sri Lanka from a struggling 75-5 through their sixth wicket stand of 82 runs.

Mathews was in command throughout his 103-ball knock, hitting seven boundaries and a six, while de Silva ably supported him during his 52-ball knock, smashing five fours.

Despite two late wickets, Mathews kept his cool, hitting the winning boundary towards mid-wicket.

Paceman Al-Amin Hossain finished with 2-42. Bangladesh, whose dreams of reaching the final were shattered after Tuesday’s three wicket defeat against Pakistan, had a sniff of a victory after AlAmin removed Kusal Perera (nought) and in-form Kumar Sangakkara (two) in his first two overs.

Mahela Jayawardene (nought), Lahiru Thirimanne (33) and Ashan Priyanjan (24) were also removed before Mathews took over the responsibility of steering the team to winning shores.

Bangladesh, who won the toss and opted to bat, were left stranded after a good start. Spinners Priyanjan (2-11) and Ajantha Mendis (2-55) put the brakes on before Thisara Perera (2-29) and Suranga Lakmal (2-32) wrapped up the middle and lower order.

Opener Anamul Haque, who scored a brilliant hundred in Bangladesh’s highest one-day score of 326-3 against Pakistan on Tuesday, was once again the mainstay of the batting with an 86ball 49.

Anamul and Shamsur Rahman (39) gave the home team a solid 74-run start before Mendis struck twice, dismissing Shamsur and Mominul Haque (one) in the 18th over.

Anamul hit two boundaries and a six during his 86-ball knock while Shamsur’s 57-ball innings included six hits to the fence.Nasir Hossain (30) and Mohammad Mahmudullah (30) shared an innings-repairing sixth wicket stand of 55 to give the total some respectability. Shakib Al Hasan made 20.

Five-time champions India crashed out of the event on Wednesday after losing two of their four matches against Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Bangladesh, who were runners-up to Pakistan in the last Asia Cup in 2012, finished the event with four defeats in as many matches.

Afghanistan was the fifth team who upset Bangladesh in their maiden appearance in the Asia Cup but lost their remaining three matches.—AFP

SCOREBOARD DHAKA: Complete scoreboard of the Asia Cup match between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka played at Sher-e-Bangla stadium on Thursday.

Bangladesh: A Haque c Thirimanne b Priyanjan 49 Shamsur Rahman lbw b Mendis 39 Mominul Haque b Mendis 1 Mushfiqur Rahim lbw b de Silva 4 S Al Hasan c Mathews b Priyanjan 20 Nasir Hossain c Jayawardene b Lakmal30 Mohammad Mahmudullah b Lakmal 30 Ziaur Rahman b Thisara 12 Arafat Sunny not out 2 Rubel Hossain b Thisara 0 Al-Amin Hossain not out 0

Extras: (b4, lb3, w10) 17 Total: (for nine wkts; 50 overs) 204 Fall of wickets: 1-74 (Shamsur), 2-76 (Haque), 3-87 (Rahim), 4-106 (Anamul), 5-119 (Shakib), 6-174 (Mahmudullah), 7-183 (Nasir), 8-203 (Rahman), 9-203 (Hossain) Bowling: Lakmal 10-0-32-2 (1w), Thisara 8-0-29-2 (1w), Senanayake 101-37-0 (2w), de Silva 10-0-33-1, Mendis 9-0-55-2 (6w), Priyanjan 3-0-11-2

Sri Lanka: K. Perera c Anamul b Al-Amin L. Thirimanne c Hossain b Sunny K. Sangakkara c Nasir b Al-Amin M. Jayawardene run out A. Priyanjan c Anamul b Rahman A. Mathews not out C. de Silva c Anamul b Mahmudullah T. Perera run out S. Senanayake not out

0 33 2 0 24 74 44 15 7

Extras: (b4, w5) 9 Total: (For seven wkts; 49 overs) 208 Fall of wickets: 1-0 (Perera), 2-6 (Sangakkara), 3-8 (Jayawardene), 4-47 (Priyanjan), 5-75 (Thirimanne), 6-157 (de Silva), 7-193 (Thisara) Bowling: Al-Amin 10-2-42-2 (1w), Hossain 6-0-25-0, Shakib 10-0-27-0 (2w), Rahman 10-0-34-1, Sunny 7-046-1 (1w), Mahmudullah 6-1-30-1 (1w) Result: Sri Lanka won by three wickets

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s wicketkeeper Anamul Haque (right) unsuccessfully appeals for an LBW dismissal of Sri Lanka’s Chaturanga de Silva during the Asia Cup one-day international cricket tournament yesterday. — AP

Sports FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

A shooter in training.

UAE shooter bin Futais

Kuwait takes aim at shooting success

By Abdellatif Sharaa KUWAIT: President of the Kuwait and Arab Shooting Federations Eng. Duaij Al-Otaibi received several heads of delegations who are participating in HH the Amir Third International Shooting Grand Prix which will start tomorrow, as well as several sports officials who are visiting Kuwait.

Al-Otaibi also received Director General of Public Authority for Youth and Sports Esam Jaafar, who along with Al-Otaibi and Secretary General of Kuwait and Arab Shooting Federations Obaid Al-Osaimi toured the facilities of Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Olympic Shooting Complex, where he inspected the latest preparations and expressed his satisfaction at the shooting club.

Jaafar appreciated the great efforts being exerted by the higher organizing committee to ensure that HH the Amir Grand Prix achieves tremendous success that reflects the remarkable development of the sport of shooting in Kuwait. He said that PAYS is keen on keeping contacts with the organizing committee to keep in touch all organizational work related to the precious Grand Prix and the Asian Shooting Championship. He emphasized that the authority is ready to remove all hindrances the work of the organi-

Duaij Al-Otaibi, Esam Jaafar and Obaid Al-Osaimi. zation committee faces.

Meanwhile the arrival of delegations participating in the Grand Prix will be complete today as delegations from 48 countries from all continents with 780 shooters competing.

The Higher Organizing Committee selected Kuwaiti referees in addition to others from

Arab countries based on the ISSF qualifications. Head of the shotgun referees committee Hamad Al-Ruwaisan said Kuwaiti referees reported to the club on March 2 to review the rules and regulations as well as the amendments to the law. He said referees went through a course that was held from Feb 12

to Feb16 organized by the ISSF, and those officials are highly experienced through their many participations in domestic and foreign events. Al-Ruwaisan wished the referees the best of luck in this international event that attracts the shooting fans and officials alike from around the world.

Japanese Coach Eto said the Japanese delegation is very happy to be in Kuwait to participate in this highly important event, where competition is strong and qualifies for the Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China this year.

Eto said Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Olympic Shooting Complex is one of the best around the world and expressed appreciation for the reception, hospitality and organization, adding that his shooters are looking forward to make a good impression during the event.

United Arab Emirates shooter Saif bin Futais said it is very difficult to predict who will win medals in HH the Amir Grand Prix because of the strong competition and high quality of shooters participating including Olympic and world champions. He said UAE’s team is keen on participating in the championship every year to gain experience which helps to further develop their shooting skills.

Bin Futais lauded the preparations made

by Kuwait Shooting Sport Club at one of the best shooting facilities in the world.

Preview

FA Cup holders Wigan look to shock City again LONDON: An immediate return to the Premier League remains Wigan Athletic’s priority but the FA Cup holders are determined to repeat last year’s shock final win over Manchester City when they meet in Sunday’s last-eight clash.

Wigan stunned hot favorites City 1-0 at Wembley with Ben Watson’s late header sealing the club their first major trophy. Celebrations proved short-lived, however, when defeat by Arsenal three days later ensured Wigan became the first club to win the FA Cup and suffer relegation from England’s top flight in the same season.

After a poor start this season that cost manager Owen Coyle his job six months after replacing Roberto Martinez, Wigan have revived under former Manchester City striker Uwe Rosler and sit sixth in the Championship.

They travel to a City side who have lost one league match in 12 at the Etihad Stadium this season, having scored 43 goals in the process, and thrashed Wigan 5-0 earlier in the League Cup, a competition they won last Sunday against Sunderland.

“We are going to go there with intentions of trying to stay in the FA Cup - obviously we will try to

retain it - but Manchester City will be looking for their revenge,” Wigan chairman Dave Whelan told Sky Sports. “That said, our number one ambition this season is promotion back to the Premier League. The FA Cup is special, but the main priority for us is the league, the finest league in the world.

“We have a great team spirit at the moment, our boys are full of confidence and hopefully we can get into the playoffs to give us a chance to return there.”

Spaniard Martinez, who left Wigan to join Everton in June, is looking to become the first manager to win the competition in consecutive seasons with different clubs.

His side face a tough away quarter-final at Arsenal tomorrow and Belgium midfielder Kevin Mirallas said the match was the biggest of their season. “Hopefully whatever the manager said to Wigan last year, he can do it again with us at Arsenal - he’s very lucky with this competition,” he told the Liverpool Echo.

Martinez will make a late decision on captain Phil Jagielka, who missed last weekend’s win over West Ham and England’s midweek friendly with Denmark with a hamstring injury.

Arsenal are boosted by the news Per Mertesacker and Tomas Rosicky had both signed new contracts, while British media reported Welsh midfielder Aaron Ramsey would soon be committing his future to the club.

A lower league club is guaranteed a place in the last four on Sunday with Championship strugglers Charlton Athletic travelling to play third-tier Sheffield United, who have beaten Premier League sides Aston Villa and Fulham in this Cup campaign.

United are the lowest-ranked side to reach the quarter-finals since 1990. The fourth quarter-final pits Steve Bruce’s Hull City side against his old club Sunderland, whose strong cup form belies their battle to avoid relegation.

On-loan Sunderland striker Fabio Borini, who scored the opener in the League Cup final, said he was determined to return to Wembley as well as ensure the club’s top-flight survival.

“I want to go back there, to be at Wembley,” he told the Sunderland Echo. “Scoring at Wembley is always special, especially for a foreign player. “If we can win against Hull, we’ll be going back again, which will be good. But the main thing is to get points and start pushing up the league.” — Reuters

FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

www.kuwaittimes.net

Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh, gear up for Asia Cup final PAGE 44

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s Rubel Hossain jumps as he celebrates the wicket of Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene during the Asia Cup one-day international cricket tournament. — AP