27 Mar

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THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

Jleeb remains blighted despite ambitious plans

Turkish court orders lifting of Twitter ban, Erdogan defiant

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Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Martin call it quits

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Serena, Sharapova set for Miami final rematch

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Arab leaders back Syria revolution, but no arms Summit rejects recognizing Israel as ‘Jewish’ state

Max 31º Min 16º High Tide 09:42 &20:33 Low Tide 02:57 & 14:46

By B Izzak and Agencies

Sisi resigns to run for president CAIRO: Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi, the Egyptian military chief who last summer removed the elected Islamist president, announced yesterday that he has resigned from the military and will run for president in elections scheduled for next month. In a nationally televised speech, Sisi appeared in his military uniform, saying that it was the last time he would wear it because he was giving it up “to defend the nation” by running for president. He said he was “responding to a call from the people”.

Egyptian law says only civilians can run for president, so his resignation from the military, as well as his posts of military chief and defense minister, was a required step. Sisi is widely expected to win the vote, after months of nationalist fervor since he removed Mohamed Morsi, who in 2012 became Egypt’s first freely elected and civilian president. The ouster in July came after massive protests demanding Morsi go after only a year in office amid public resentment that his Muslim Brotherhood was monopolizing power.

Since then, the military-backed interim government has waged a fierce crackdown on Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, arresting thousands of members and killing hundreds of protesters in clashes. At the same time, militants have waged a campaign of attacks on police and the military, and Sisi has repeatedly declared a war on terrorism.

In his address yesterday night, Sisi gave a campaign-style speech, promising he intended to build a “modern and democratic Egypt”.

Continued on Page 15

KUWAIT: HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah attends the closing session of the 25th Arab League summit at Bayan Palace yesterday. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat (See Page 3)

MoI denies website hacked Minister asked to deny terror funding claims

By A Saleh KUWAIT: MP Nabeel Al-Fadhl demanded a response from the justice and Islamic affairs minister over a US Department of Treasury report released earlier this month that linked him to terrorism funding. A release quoting the Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen described Nayef Al-Ajmi’s appointment as Minister of Justice and Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs in early January as ‘a step in the wrong direction’, saying that he has a history of promoting jihad in Syria. “In fact, his image has been featured

on fundraising posters for a prominent Nusrah Front financier,” the US report reads.

Fadhl said in a statement yesterday that Ajmi is required to deny those accusations or otherwise ‘submit his resignation’. “These are serious accusations that should not be linked with a minister in the Kuwaiti Cabinet,” Fadhl said. The US report also criticizes Ajmi’s decision as minister of awqaf to allow non-profit organizations and charities to collect donations for the Syrian people in Kuwaiti mosques. “This is a measure we believe can be easily exploited by Kuwait-based terrorist fundraisers,” the report reads.

Nayef Al-Ajmi

KUWAIT: The Interior Ministry denied reports its website was hacked yesterday simultaneously with the release of the Kuwait Declaration on the conclusion of the Arab Summit.

“The Interior Ministry’s website is functioning normally and in full capacity as it was never targeted by any hacking attempts during the day,” the ministry said in a statement carried by the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) yesterday.

Local news websites had reported yesterday afternoon that the Interior Ministry’s website was subjected to a cyber attack by a hacker who replaced the homepage with white and red script on a black background headed by a large flag of the Syrian opposition. Similar reports also spread on social media. A report by Al-Aan contained a screenshot of the defaced webpage and address bar containing the ministry’s official URL (www.moi.gov.kw), which the news website said was the ministry’s homepage before it was restored.

The hacker was not identified in the screenshot - which mentions that the website was hacked in protest against the Arab Summit’s concluding statement. “I would like to send a message to your country and every state that took part in your statement about Syria... that too much talking is of no use,” the script reads. “[Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad] remains in office for nearly 3 years (since the revolution started) and you continue to have talks with no results. We only need cooperation and to become a single hand against injustice,” the ‘hacker’ wrote. “We want action and military movement to end the crisis, not useless blabbering.”

Jury finds Abu Ghaith guilty

NEW YORK: Stanley Cohen, attorney of former Al-Qaeda spokesman Suleiman Abu Ghaith, answers questions from reporters outside Manhattan Federal Court yesterday. — AFP

NEW YORK: A New York jury yesterday found Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law guilty of conspiracy to kill Americans and supporting terrorists over his role as Al-Qaeda spokesman in 2001-2002. Suleiman Abu Ghaith, whose three-week trial has been the most high-profile Al-Qaeda case to reach a US federal court, now faces life behind bars. The 48-year-old preacher from Kuwait stood impassively as the court clerk read out the verdict, declaring him guilty of conspiracy to kill Americans, conspiracy to provide material support and providing material support to terrorists.

Judge Lewis Kaplan said Abu Ghaith, who was brought to the United States only last year after being detained in Jordan, would be sentenced on Sept 8.

Campaigners seized on the trial as proof that terror cases result in swift justice in civilian courts as pressure builds to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.

“There is to be no demonstration by anyone in the court room of any kind,” Kaplan told the packed room after the

12-person jury took just four hours of deliberations to return the unanimous verdict.

Afterward, Abu Ghaith touched his heart in thanks, smiling at his lawyers. Wearing his habitual dark suit, with open-necked white shirt he appeared relaxed despite having pleaded innocent. US attorney Preet Bharara welcomed the verdict against a man he said had exploited his position in Al-Qaeda’s “homicidal hierarchy” to recruit a new generation of terrorists after 9/11. “We hope this verdict brings some small measure of comfort to the families of the victims of Al-Qaeda’s murderous designs,” Bharara said in a statement.

Defense lawyer Stanley Cohen told reporters that he would appeal the verdict, accusing the judge of being “coercive,” and taking issue with instructions to the jury and Kaplan’s decision not to allow presumed 9/11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to testify in court. He said his client was “stoic” and “at ease”.

Continued on Page 15

KUWAIT: Arab leaders yesterday concluded their twoday summit by renewing “total backing” to the Syrian rebels but insisted that the only solution for the Syrian bloody conflict is political. In their Kuwait Declaration, the Arab leaders called on the United Nations to renew efforts to resolve the Syrian conflict through fresh talks after the failure of the second round of Geneva negotiations between the opposition and the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad. The Arab summit also strongly blasted the Syrian regime for the massacres it is committing against unarmed Syrian civilians.

The leaders did not respond to passionate calls by the head of the opposition Syrian National Coalition Ahmad Al-Jarba to supply the rebels with sophisticated weapons to change the balance in the revolution’s favour. “We have no alternative to a political solution,” Kuwait’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Sabah told a press conference following the summit. Arab League Secretary General Nabil Al-Arabi added that “the issue of supplying arms to the opposition is not for the Arab summit to discuss”.

Syria’s vacant seat the Arab league was another major issue as Arabi said that the Syrian National Coalition did not complete certain “legal and technical” requirements for taking the seat, although the Arab summit at Doha last year voted to hand over the seat to the opposition. Arabi said that the summit decided to “invite representatives of the Syrian National Coalition to attend the next Arab ministerial council in September, but on exceptional basis” until the opposition completes the requirements.

Spokesman for the Syrian opposition Louay Al-Safi said the decision “reaffirms the vote at the Doha summit” but added that it could not be implemented at the Kuwait summit because of internal differences at the Arab foreign ministers meeting on Sunday.

Sources said that reservations from Iraq, Lebanon, Algeria and Egypt hindered handing over the seat to the opposition.

Continued on Page 15

Moonshine just a call away in Iran ANKARA: “Have a shot of tequila first, cheer up!”

Shahriyar tells guests gathered at his luxury apartment in Tehran. His girlfriend, Shima, said they party every weekend. “Shahriyar has one rule: Bring your booze! We drink until morning,” she told Reuters on a FaceTime call, as lights flashed to rap music in the background. Despite the ban on alcohol and frequent police raids, drinking in Iran is widespread, especially among the wealthy. Because the Shiite-dominated Muslim state has no discotheques or nightclubs, it all takes place at home, behind closed doors.

Some of the alcohol is smuggled in, but many resourceful Iranians make their own. “My friends and I routinely gather to stamp down on grapes in my bathtub,” said Hesam, a 28-year-old music teacher in Tehran, asking to be identified only by his first name. “It’s fun, a cleansing ritual almost.” Some take considerable pride in their results, to the delight of their acquaintances. “I have a friend who makes wine for his own consumption but gives me around 30 bottles per year as well,” said 36-year-old Mousa, speaking from in the central city of Isfahan.

Only members of religious minorities Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians - are allowed to brew, distill, ferment - and drink - discreetly in the privacy of their homes, and trade in liquor is forbidden. Catholic priests make their own wine for mass.

Yet wine -making has a long histor y in Iran.

Scientists believe Stone Age settlers in what is now Iran drank wine with their olives and bread as early as 5,000 BC. Continued on Page 15

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

LOCAL

Jleeb remains backward despite ‘ambitious plans’ An expatriate enclave

KUWAIT: Kuwait Times photographs of Jleeb yesterday. These photographs are not representative of all of Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh’s conditions.—Photos by Ben Garcia

By Ben Garcia KUWAIT: Kuwait Times yesterday explored Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh, referred to as Hasawi or Abbasiya by many South Asian expats. Jleeb is located in southwest Kuwait and just a fiveto seven-minute drive from Kuwait International Airpor t. It is an expatriate enclave crowded with South Asian and Arab

workers, most of whom are ‘bachelors’ living and working here without their wives or families.

Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh is a notorious vice hub, home to various illegal activities such as prostitution and drug and alcohol dealing, according to police records. Petty crimes happen too including bag and cell phone snatching, carjackings and other street crimes.

In recent years, the Jleeb area has been named by the government to be included in a plan to make this district a modern city. The government wants to erase Jleeb of all vices mentioned above and replace it with a hightech and dynamic city. The plan was circulated in local newspapers a few years ago but has stalled and no reconstruction or redevelopment has been carried out.

Last year, many small baqalas and restaurants were closed for operating illegally without licenses. The Interior Ministry clamped down on several makeshift markets and street vendors illegally operating in Jleeb for years. They were out of sight for a while, but are now slowly coming back. Roads are crowded with both people and vehicles, streets are unattended with poor mainte-

nance, trash is not regularly collected and double parking is rampant.

Many dilapidated residential buildings and even commercial establishments are and poorly maintained. There are new buildings too in Jleeb where decent families have made their home, but the bad impression will stay unless the government takes extra efforts and pays attention to this area.

Nephrology Association organizes walkathon for Kidney Day KUWAIT: Kuwait Nephrology Association (KNA) is organizing a walkathon on Saturday to celebrate the World Kidney Day, according to the Association’s Chairman Dr Ali AlSahu.

Al-Sahu, who is also head of the kidney unit in Jahra hospital, said yesterday that the race will start at 10 am at the Arabian Gulf Street from Al-Corniche Club to the Green Island.

The World Kidney Day mainly focuses on bringing awareness to people about renal failure disease, including ways to prevent it and the current treatments available for the disease, said the Chairman.

Renal failure is a common disease which many people who are vulnerable to, take no measures to prevent it, while others who already have it, either have no knowledge about their case or are not receiving

suitable treatment, he explained.

Diabetes is the number one cause for renal failure which later develops into Acute kidney injury, said Al-Sahu, noting that Kuwait had seen rising numbers of diabetes cases, along with obesity, and high blood pressure, which are all factors leading to the disease.

The Association had started its celebration of the World Kidney Day which occurs on the second Thursday of March of every year, by running an awareness campaign at the Avenues M all on March 13, including organizing tv shows and interviews regarding the issue.— KUNA

CBK maintenance plan KUWAIT: As part of Commercial Bank Kuwait (CBK) Strategy to employ state of the art Information Technology Systems and provide the highest standards of services to its customers, CBK has scheduled a planned shutdown, maintenance and testing of its information technology system capabilities today, according to a press release yesterday.

During this activity CBK customers may experience some disruption of services. The branches will continue to operate within their normal working hours.

CBK would like to apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause.

KUWAIT: The Asian who was arrested with 1.25 kg of pure heroin yesterday.

KUWAIT: Rescue operations in progress after an Egyptian expat fell in a manhole behind Wafra cooperative store yesterday.

Egyptian rescued from manhole

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: An Egyptian expat fell in a manhole behind Wafra cooperative store, prompting Mina Abdallah fire and Mubarak Al-Kabeer hazardous materials centers to rush to his rescue. He was found alive and handed to paramedics for treatment of injuries he sustained.

Meanwhile, technical rescue men rescued two Asians laborers whose scaffolding malfunctioned on the 28th floor of a Soor Street tower. The two were cleaning glass and were lowered by ropes to the 26th floor unharmed. * Kuwait airport customs officers arrested a Bangladeshi for possessing one kilogram of marijuana. The suspect, who works as a driver for a Kuwaiti family, had the illicit drug hidden in date containers. His erratic behavior prompted customs officers to search him. He was sent to the Drugs Control General Department.

Meanwhile, the Drugs Control General Department arrested an Asian with 1.25 kg of pure heroin. Information about the suspect indicated that he placed the drugs in certain places after receiving the money he asked the addicts to place somewhere else. The drugs were found in capsules, which he sold for KD 300 each, according to him.

KRCS firm on its path regardless of challenge KUWAIT: Kuwait Red Crescent Society (KRCS) is firm on its path of aiding those in need and supporting humanitarian initiatives across the world regardless of hardship and challenge, stressed KRCS Chairman Barjas Humoud Al-Barjas in remarks Tuesday night.

Addressing the society’s general assembly convened for discussion of the 2012 budget and projected budget for 2013, Al-Barjas said it is vital to maintain momentum and encourage determined effort to realize the strategies and goals set for the future with the same success level.

He noted the society’s adequate response to pleas made by international aid organizations in response to many catastrophes and its cooperation with Arab aid organizations to best plan and coordinate the Arab aid effort. It also hosted important events topped by a meeting on disaster reduction and the first meeting of Executives of Gulf Cooperation Council red crescent societies.

In other achievements, he recalled the completion of Kuwait Red Crescent Society Hospital project in Lebanon, as well as Al-Mubarakiyah School project in Indonesia.

This was in addition to a series of aid campaigns and efforts in response to disasters and situations requiring humanitarian assistance in Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Sri Lanka, The Philippines, and other countries. There is also the ongoing effort to extend aid to Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon, he remarked.

Al-Barjas renewed the society’s determination to continue to serve those in need and to maintain its proud record in the coming period.

The society chairman also pointed out the society’s white hands in Kuwait, such as the aid it provides for the benefit of those in reform institutions. It also supports volunteer groups who organize visits to hospitals and social care institutions and also organize solidarity campaigns and gestures on different occasions.

“It is thanks to the great devotion and self-sacrifice of our staff and volunteers that we meet our objectives, and we have great pride in them.” — KUNA

KUWAIT: Technical rescue men in action at Soor Street tower yesterday.

GCC Interpol mulled KUWAIT: Gulf Cooperation Council states finished blueprint to establish a GCC Interpol that allows easier pursuit of fugitives, a local daily reported yesterday.

A database containing blacklisted people, fugitives and those mentioned in terrorism lists in the six GCC states have already been prepared for the project, sources told Al-Rai daily.

The United Arab Emirates have expressed willingness to host the headquarters for the GCC Interpol, said the sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The report does not specify whether the measure is related to the Gulf Security Pact or not. The Kuwaiti government has approved the pact in principle, but it cannot become effective until it is ratified by the parliament which has said that the vote will not take place during the current term.

GCC express mail panel meets in Kuwait KUWAIT: The Committee of Express Mail of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries convened its 11th meeting at the Ministry of Communication here yesterday to discuss the development of the express mail project.

During the two-day meeting representatives of the ministries of communication from the GCC member states assessed the progress made in the mail services notably the new Gulf Express (GulfEx) product, acting assistant undersecretary of the Ministry for communication and mail sector Nasser Al-Kandari said.

“The conferees agreed to develop quarterly reports on the progress of the implementation of the GulfEx by their respective departments as well as their cooperation to meet the international standards,” Al-Kandari added.

Meanwhile, Director of the Ministry’s Mail and Gulf-Ex Division Saeed Al-Mezeidi said the meeting reviews the development of an integrated modern mail system encompassing all the GCC countries.

“The conferees also explores the possibilities of cutting down the mail fees in order to market the Gulf-Ex and offer better service to customers,” Al-Mezeidi added. —KUNA

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

LOCAL

Palestine ‘central cause’ of Arab nation Summit calls for common ground to solve disputes KUWAIT: First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah underlined yesterday that His Highness the Amir and Arab leaders realized they should create a common ground to move ahead and address disputes among Arab countries.

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah “was keen to meet with all (Arab) leaders in the summit out of his keenness to invest their attendance” in a bid to create a common ground among all of them,” Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled said at a joint news conference with Arab League Secretary General Nabil Al-Araby.

“All Arab leaders realize they should focus on creating a common ground to move forward for more bigger steps,” he said. He said the fact that Arab leaders were in Kuwait for three days “will contribute to positive results in near future.”

The Arab leaders were focusing during the 25th Arab summit on “stopping the widening of disputes and we should adopt common grounds.”

Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled said Kuwait was the rotating presidency of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the Arab League. “We are responsible as the presidency ... in finding common grounds (among the Arab countries) as is the case in the GCC,” he added.

Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled said the Kuwait presidency of the Arab summit was keen on turning the closed-door session to public so the Arab people would hear concerns of the Arab leaders in a transparent manner.

On the Syrian conflict, Al-Araby said

world, which required an urgent political solution to end the suffering of the Syrian people.

Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled said the Palestinian cause was the “central cause of our Arab nation.” He added Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas briefed the Arab Foreign Ministers two days ago about outcome of his recent visit to the US. He, however, said Kuwait Declaration of the Arab summit was calling for further strengthening of the comomn action in all fields.

KUWAIT: Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah, right, speaks to journalists in a joint press conference with Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby at the end of the closing session of the Arab League Summit at Bayan Palace yesterday.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, in his speech before the Arab summit yesterday, said he sought to reconvene a meeting between the Syrian government and opposition in Geneva, and that there were contacts to bring the two parties together.

Al-Araby was asked if the Syrian opposition would be occupying the Syria seat in the next summit, due in Egypt next year. He only said that the League would be inviting the opposition national coalition for the Arab ministerial meeting next September.

New challenges At the beginning of the news conference, Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled said His Highness the Amir, in his speech at the

VIVA’s IT Director Meshaal Al-Munaikh receiving the award

VIVA presented with Editors Choice Award KUWAIT: VIVA, Kuwait’s fastest-growing and most developed telecom operator, announced that Network World Middle East has awarded the company the most prestigious Editor’s Choice Award. VIVA’s IT Director, Eng. Meshaal Al-Munaikh received the award during a glittering awards ceremony at the Emirates Towers Hotel in Dubai, UAE. In an increasingly competitive industry, network and customer experience are important differentiators for the telecom service providers. VIVA was chosen for the Editor’s Choice award for its massive data center network upgrade project that has resulted in significant improvement in efficiency, analytical capability and their ability to meet growing customer demands. This substantial upgrade also means VIVA now has a high availability network that provides virtualized services, disaster management along with self-healing capabilities.

The annual Network World Middle East Awards honors IT and business professional who demonstrated innovative leadership on all sides of the industry. The awards ceremony is held to celebrate innovative and transformative networking projects in the Middle East and the vendors behind them. The awards honor both users and vendors and recognize innovation on all sides of the IT industry.

VIVA is the fastest-growing telecom operator in Kuwait.

Launched in December 2008, VIVA makes things Possible for its customers by transforming communication, information and entertainment experiences. The company has rapidly established an unrivalled position in the market through its customer centric approach. VIVA’s quest is to be the mobile brand of choice in Kuwait by being transparent, engaging, energetic and fulfilling.

MOE to cancel tests up to grade four KUWAIT: The recent Education Ministry undersecretaries’ council meeting approved the amendments suggested for the primary stage and cancelled the suggested change of secondary school second-session exams to be made two week after the final exams, that is in July instead of in September, said informed educational sources. The sources added that the council reviewed a report that recommended cancelling periodic tests for primary school students up to grade four and to replace them with ongoing assessments.

Concerning secondary stage schools, the council agreed to cancelling a previous decision to have students sit for the second session exams two weeks after the end-of-year final exams, that is in July instead of September. The report recommended keeping the current timing and hold them in September until further studies were conducted in order to either apply the changes in coming years or ditch the whole idea.

In another concern, Mubarak Al-Kabeer educational area’s educational activities manager Essa Borhama announced that classrooms, computer and linguistic labs have been counted in various secondary schools within the area’s jurisdiction pending the installment of interactive smart boards in them.

opening of the Arab summit yesterday, pin pointed the problems and challenges facing the Arab people.

He said all of the Arab leaders were keen on solving disputes among their countries. Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled said Kuwait was hosting the summit amidst “sensitive and critical” circumstances in the Arab countries. He noted that Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Lebanon, Tunisia and Yemen have taken “solid” steps that would boost their democracies.

Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled said the Syrian crisis was entering its fourth year with more people being killed and displaced, with the conflict spelling over beyong the Syrian borders.

He said the Syrian conflict was threatening security and stability in the Arab

Clear picture In response to a question on whether the summit had discussed reconciliation among Arab countries, Sheikh Sabah AlKhaled said that the Arab leaders in their speeches spoke “quite frankly” about the challenges and responsibilities and aspiration of the Arab peoples to find a common ground for Arab causes. He added: “We may deliberately dissimenated these statements eventhough they were said behind closed doors”, saying that what was expressed by the Arab leaders was a clear picture of these vague topics represented in the inter-Arab disputes and what is needed to confront these challenges. He explained that the meetings that took place during the past three days were “intensive”, adding that His Highness the Amir met with all leaders and representatives of the Arab countries participating in the summit.

He revealed that there have been discussions of utmost openness which focused on how to work after diagnosis of these differences and exploit this large presence, stressing that everyone

was keen and aware of the need to focus on creating a ground agreed upon by all leaders in order to use it as a launching base for broader horizons.

In response to a question about the extent of Kuwait’s readiness to provide new mediation to the dispute between Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain on one side and Qatar on the other, Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled said that the disputes can be resolved through the Arab League.

Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled believed that contacts and consultations that took place over the past three days would have positive results in the near future, noting that Kuwait through its presidency of the Council of the League of Arab States and the Gulf Cooperation Council is aware and interested to find common ground for Arab action.

Saudi initiative In response to a question on supporting the Lebanese army and armed forces, Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled said there is no doubt that the issue of Lebanon concerns the Arab countries especially as there will be a meeting in Rome in this respect. He praised the initiative of the Saudi King to allocate $3 billion to help the Lebanese army, besides Arab countries’ support.

Asked to comment on the call made by the summit to the Security Council to take up its responsibilities towards the stalled Syrian-Syrian talks in Geneva, the minister said the file was transfered to the UNSC last January 2012 and the council is now following the Syrian development and there is a joint envoy

from the UN and the Arab League.

He said that the issue of security was a core issue, adding that His Highness the Amir had expressed his deepest sorrow for these disputes.

He noted that His Highness the Amir had called in his speech that the Arab countries must focus on the issue of supporting a fund for supporting small and medium-sized projects, saying that such fund in the past three years had executed numerous projects in the Arab countries. For his part, Arab League Secretary General Nabil Al-Arabi said that the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had met with Arab Foreign Ministers and briefed them on the situation in the Palestinian territories. He said the Arab summit that was hosted by Kuwait was successful by all means, praising the logo of the summit.

He said that among the issues that were discussed was the issue of development of the Arab League charter that was drafted in August 1944 through enhancing its mechanisms.

On the proposal to develop the Arab League, Al-Araby said that a high-ranking committee has been formed consisting of Arab figures headed by Lakhdar Ibrahimi and submitted its report last night. On the Arab Human Rights Court, Al-Araby said that its statute, proposed by the Bahraini King, would be discussed by a higher committee to be then forwarded to the next ministerial council meeting.

On the water issue, Al-Araby urged the disputing parties on water to sit together and discuss this significant matter. —KUNA

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

LOCAL kuwait digest

In my view

Spreading tolerance

Beware of grey zone!

By Dr Sajed Al-Abdali

MPs’ questions

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By Labeed Abdal

local@kuwaittimes.net

nt

nme over

G

Al-Anbaa

hroughout their lives, human relations go through ups and downs because human beings are far from perfect. Nobody is perfect and each of us will someday fall into dereliction and unintentionally offend his nearest and dearest. A wise man would immediately realize this and know for sure that the success of his interrelations with relatives, friends and loved ones requires considerable capability to forgive and transcend mistakes and derelictions any of them might commit against him.

No matter how hard we look, we will never find a perfect human being. Accordingly, the closest level to perfection lies in realizing that there is no perfection and in stopping looking for it and assuming that everybody enjoys it. Therefore, we have to forgive in order to proceed forward considering this as a basic requirement for keeping and continuing those relations, that is, of course, if we care and want to maintain them. Such clemency and forgiveness are actually the price we pay to keep those we like and care about in our lives.

The moment an offence is very serious or frequent that thinking about our dignity, pride and pain comes first before thinking how important a person is to us, we should immediately stop thinking and start asking ourselves frankly how important that person is to us, what exactly does he/she mean at that particular moment and whether he/she was worth making that kind of concession and sacrifice.

It is right for those you like and care about, and sometimes mandatory in cases of parents for instance, to either forgive and concede to keep the relation going. Frankly confront them with your pain and hurt feelings with the aim of reconciliation and bridging gaps rather than fighting as well as avoiding remaining ‘grey zones’ where things remain in ‘status quo’ that degrade the level of the relation or even completely end it.

No taking any of such steps and remaining in the ‘grey zone’ would keep the relation in constant grouchiness where your life remains clouded with moodiness that would keep ‘showering’ repeated hassles and rows.

The worst thing someone would do to himself is keep a record of others’ offences against him and frequently review them earnestly or humorously. This would only increase tensions and keep hurting both sides and would eventually solve nothing.

Man has to master his own mind and feelings instead of being enslaved to them during rages and emotioncontrolled moments. Therefore, he must precisely realize the value and significance of eachand every one around him and to accordingly make decisions and administer his feelings towards them. He should never let himself fall into the grey zone! —Al-Jarida

kuwait digest

It’s not just Adam’s world

By Nasser Al-Eidan

A

t last, the Egyptian president approved to give Egyptian citizenship to Pakistani-born director Mohamed Khan, who is 70 years old. Khan is credited for directing several award-winning films in Egypt’s movie industry, including works like ‘Missing’, ‘Dreams of Hind and Camellia’, ‘Days of Al-Sadat’ and ‘Downtown Girls’. Khan is considered a supporter of women’s rights in the Arab world. He said during an interview that ‘women suffer injustice not only in our societies, but the entire world. Man is the ruler, legislator and law enforcer while the woman must listen and obey’.

The issue of men and women is complicated as it is mostly influenced by customs, traditions and religious ideologies that can often be inaccurate. These unusual ideas took their toll on our efforts to achieve advancement and development. We have given women the social ‘unemployment’ character. What that means is that while men in our societies can work freely, women cannot. The same goes for politics, for example, as if it wasn’t for the fact that women’s political rights were forced here, Kuwaiti women would’ve still been deprived of suffrage.

Women continue to be treated like they are aliens on earth whose main purpose is to serve men! Unfortunately, some women are happy with that role, as they find convenience in the ‘unemployment’ that the man provides to

them on an ignorance platter. However, recent statistics suggest that this state of ‘comfort’ has a price.

Earlier this month, the whole world - excluding Arab countries - celebrated International Women’s Day. UK’s The Independent published scary statistics simultaneously with that occasion, which indicate that 99 percent of women in Egypt could be subject to sexual harassment, and that one of every three women around the world is subjected to rape. When it comes to work, the statistics that were released by the United Nations indicate that only a quarter of executive boards around the world are led by women. Meanwhile, the statistics show that 14 million girls under the age of nine face the risk of forced marriage in 2014.

What is happening in this world?! It is truly Adam’s world. The more ignorance spreads and the more the women’s role in society shrinks, the more these scary statistics increase.

Women’s freedom does not come through ‘taking’ from the society or ‘serving’ men, but comes from ‘serving’ the society as a whole. The more women give and work for their society, the more they guarantee their original role in society, and force their rights on their male counterparts. Because in reality, this world is not exclusive to Adam, but it is their world together. —Al-Rai

I

n an important step that comes at a time in which the Arab world has become very emotionally charged, AlQabas daily put a note for its readers and columnist in last Friday’s issue saying that it will avoid publishing articles promoting ideas that encourage religious, sectarian or political fanaticism. Not only did the paper cite its principles as the reason behind their decision, but they also indicated that the step comes in line with Kuwait’s values of tolerance.

Throughout Kuwait’s history, both the government and people have stood against blind fundamentalism which is being promoted heavily by certain movements in the Arab World. Members of those movements live off of luring young men and women to wear explosive belts, drive car bombs or carry out actions that none of them accept their own children to commit. Basically, they send young people

Throughout Kuwait’s history, both the government and people have stood against blind fundamentalism which is being promoted heavily by certain movements in the Arab World. to their own death without facing deterrent measures.

Meanwhile, Al-Qabas’ notice was published on March 21st, which is celebrated in the Arab World as Mother’s Day and Family Day. I believe that making the announcement simultaneously with those dear occasions sends a message that underline the importance of leaving fanaticism and spreading tolerance.

Achieving that goal requires efforts to improve education and create jobs in the Arab world. This helps save young men and women who could otherwise end up in military training camps in the arid desert, before they join battalions of random killing that target civilians under the false pretext of saving them and are actually based on vengeful sentiments.

On this occasion, we wish that one day we see Arab young men and women achieve the highest degrees of education, making their parents, families and entire nations proud, instead of leaving them heartbroken by committing inhuman actions.

in my view

Arab unity now or never!

By Abdulateef Al-Mulhim

W

ith the formation of the Arab League in 1945, a dream of the Arab masses came true, as they had been longing for economic and social unity.

Ironically, the first official Arab Summit was held in Cairo on Jan 13, 1964. That’s about two decades after the establishment of the body.

Leaders of the Arab countries were supposed to convene a meeting annually. Had this been the case, the Kuwait summit would have been 68th meeting but it is the 25th summit. Looking back at the previous summits, it will dawn on us that they were mainly aimed at crisis management with emotions running high but yielding no concrete results.

An average Arab gained almost nothing from those summits. Masses in the Arab world want better education, health care, social security and jobs. All the previous meetings miserably failed to come up with a strategy to address these issues. Sadly, internal divisions mar the Arab world. Despite the passage of over six decades since the establishment of the Arab League, we see deep divisions among Arab countries. Is the Kuwait summit any different from the previous ones?

This meeting has been convened at a time when the socalled Arab Spring has exposed the fragility of the Arab fabric. Apart from internal divisions many erstwhile influential countries - Libya, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon and to some extent Tunisia and Egypt - are no longer in a position to play any active role.

Times have changed and that too for the worse. As a matter of fact, the worst is not over yet. The Syrian conflict has rendered 9 million people refugees in three years and over 150,000 have been killed.

The country is in complete ruins. And worst of all, the Arab Spring has almost transformed from a quest for democracy and better living standards into a bloody sectarian struggle.

So, what the Arab leaders have to offer at the Kuwait summit to satisfy the need of the masses? The differences and divisions among the leaders had already been surfacing even before the start of the summit.

For the past one decade, the Arab world ranks very low in terms of human development with the current rate of unemployment at an all time high. The Arab leaders should put their differences aside and concentrate on upgrading the standard of living. The Arab masses are demanding reforms. This is why there was an Arab Spring. An uprising that took out many dictators but failed to deliver the many promises that were made by those who took over the helm.

The entire world is waiting with bated breath the outcome of the summit. In the past, most summits revolved around one issue: Liberation of Palestine. Now there are many issues at hand. How can they solve the Palestinian issue, if the borders between many countries are closed?

And how can they ask the world to understand them and open channels of communication with them if the communication among themselves is an uphill task.

There are many other issues that have been unresolved for many decades and the longer we wait the more complex they will become. The Arab League must change its outdated doctrine and put the interests of the masses ahead of any differences between leaders.

It is no longer only the Palestinian issue, the Syrian crisis has become a puzzle. And to add to the worries, citizens of the Gulf countries are seeing cracks in the most reliable Arab union among six powerful and richest states.

Now, the Arab world is at a crossroads. Poverty, unemployment, social inequality and a lack of respect to the masses are factors that might lead to lawlessness and breed extremist tendencies that lead to terrorism. The Arab masses deserve a better living standard and the leaders are obligated to deliver.

kuwait digest

Private sector’s role in housing

By Khalid Al-Qahs

I

n 2003, 39 percent of Kuwaiti families did not own a private house. Ten years later in 2013, the percentage rose to 44 percent.

Meanwhile, the current number of existing homes reached 140,000 while there are at least 108,000 housing applications pending at the relevant state authorities. At this rate, we need to build a new Kuwait in order to be able to meet all pending housing applications. The state pays an average of KD 128,000 to connect every house with electricity and water. This amount is not included in the KD 70,000 housing loan and other infrastructure-related costs.

Kuwait needs KD 102 billion to cover housing demands during the next 20 years, in addition to KD 100 billion for energy subsidization during the same period.

Housing Minister Yasser Abul pointed out that the housing crisis can be resolved, but projects face a financing problem. In this regard, he added in a recent statement that the roadmap discussed during a special parliamentary session last December depends on encouraging the private sector to take part in building new cities.

Kuwait’s public and private sector enjoy financial surpluses, the market is hungry for investment and interest rates are currently

high. All these encourage the private sector to contribute to housing projects by establishing consortiums, which can start by partnership agreements in principle with global companies.

Companies can then hold conferences in order to explain their financial and technical capabilities to carry out mega housing projects in record time.

The foreign investor must become involved in efforts to resolve the housing crisis, otherwise the issue will continue to grow until it gets out of control. We are dealing here with a necessity of life. The main objective from the private sector’s partnership is to break away from governmental bureaucracy.

Meanwhile, planning should start from now to build residential cities for labor forces at the outskirts of the six governorates, in order to provide accommodation for construction workers who currently take shelter in deserted homes that could otherwise be utilized for housing welfare. I also believe that reducing the allocated land area and collecting taxes from homes that are over 200 sq m in size is the backbone of the solution in light of Kuwait’s small area and fluctuation of oil prices. —Al-Qabas

LOCAL THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

KUWAIT: The Secretariat of the National Assembly opened here yesterday an exhibition at the Othman House Museum aimed at giving the public a closer look at how the legislative branch works today and has worked in the past. Through such exhibitions, the secretariat is able to extend to the public valuable information on the inner workings of democracy and the content of the constitution and other aspects of the daily work that is carried out by the nation’s representatives in the halls of the parliament. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

MP gives minister seven-day ultimatum Job opportunities to female prosecutors

By A Saleh KUWAIT: MP Safa Al-Hashem gave Minister of Justice and Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Nayef AlAjmi a seven-day ultimatum to publish an ad offering job opportunities to female prosecutors, otherwise she would file a grilling motion against him. A recent Ministry of Justice newspaper ad seeking only male jobseekers for vacant prosecutor jobs has drawn criticism from several lawmakers, feminist and social groups. “If the ad is not withdrawn within a week, a grilling will be filed against the justice minister for depriving female citizens of work,” Hashem said yesterday.

The justice ministry had last year accepted 16 women as prosecutors for the first time in Kuwait’s history.

The decision came after several

female law school graduates won court orders against the ministry, which until last year had only accepted applications for prosecutors’ jobs from male applicants.

North Zour A parliament committee investigating possible irregularities in the North Zour power plant project is set to submit a request to Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem to increase its term for an additional two months, MP Abdulhameed Dashti said. “The current 60-day period is not enough,” Dashti said in a statement yesterday. He added that an additional two-month period is necessary, “especially that the investigation is ongoing despite governmental stalling”. Minister of Electricity and Water Abdul-Aziz AlIbrahim had stated on Tuesday that the Nor th Zour power plant is

expected to become operational in May 2014.

NCCAL violations In other news, MP Yousuf AlZalzalah demanded action from Minister of Information Sheikh Salman Al-Hmoud Al-Sabah against “violations committed by management of the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters”. “The budgets committee reached the conclusion after reviewing the NCCAL final account that there is lack of audit or monitoring and serious financial violations committed by the bad management,” he said in a statement yesterday. Zazalah accused the NCCAL of failing to protect Kuwait’s National Library, “which is a priceless national wealth”. “Violations mentioned in this regard in the Audit Bureau’s report are considered a crime against Kuwait,” he said.

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

LOCAL

Military man arrested for mugging pedestrians Maid questioned in infant death KUWAIT: A military man faces multiple charges after he confessed to using his military uniform and licensed firearm to mug pedestrians.

Investigations had been ongoing in cases filed by expatriate men at Firdous and Ardiya police stations. The complainants gave matching descriptions of a man in military garb carrying a military badge and a gun. He would identify himself as a police officer and steal people’s belongings at gunpoint before escaping. The man was caught red-handed by patrol police who caught him trying to break open a car in Ardiya Industrial Area. He was taken for questioning during which he admitted responsibility for the thefts. Police found drugs and 20 different civil IDs in the man’s possession. He was taken to the authorities to face charges.

Maid detained A domestic worker was detained pending questioning in murder charges pressed by parents of an eight-month-old baby who died after falling from the third floor of his family ’s Abdullah Al-Mubarak house on Tuesday.

Neighbors made an emergency call after wit-

nessing the child fall from the balcony, and emergency medical technicians were dispatched. The boy was pronounced dead on the scene before an investigation was opened.

Police summoned the baby’s parents who were outside the house when the incident happened and left the kid in their housemaid’s care. The couple accused the Indian domestic worker of killing their child, insisting that the baby could not have climbed the balcony on his own. The maid was detained and remains in police custody pending investigations.

Illegal caught A Yemeni national admitted after he was arrested in Saad Al-Abdullah that he entered Kuwait illegally through Saudi Arabia. Patrol officers arrested the man who tried to run away when he saw their vehicle at a late hour Monday night. The man initially claimed he was bedoon, and told police that he left his ID at home. He was taken to the police station for a fingerprint ID check, which did not reveal any information in the database. He admitted during questioning that he came to Kuwait illegally through the bor-

der with Saudi Arabia. He was taken to the state security for further action.

Fugitive caught A fugitive sentenced to life in prison was arrested in Jahra following investigations in a shooting incident reported last week in Sulaibiya and in which 17 other suspects have so far been detained. The Gulf citizen was ambushed outside his house in the area and arrested after he was forced to stop at a roadblock and resisted arrest. He was referred to the authorities to serve his 99-year prison sentence.

Homicide probe A homicide investigation was opened in the death of a man in a Mahboulah apartment. The Nepalese man’s roommates found him motionless inside before they made an emergency call, according to their statements to police.

Emergency medical technicians pronounced the man dead soon after arriving at the scene with police. A murder investigation was opened based on the criminal investigator’s report that found evidence of foul play at the scene.

Zain sponsors second edition of Villa Uno Expo KUWAIT: Zain, the leading telecommunications company in Kuwait, announced yesterday its main sponsorship of the second edition of the Villa Uno Expo. The exhibition comes under the patronage of Sheikha Fareeha Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, where the event’s opening ceremony took place on March 24 at the 360 Mall. Villa Uno Expo brings together some of the best female designers in the GCC region to present their exquisite designs to female audience in Kuwait.

Zain’s sponsorship of this exhibition highlights its utmost pride in young Kuwaiti ladies and their projects. The expo covers different local and franchised boutiques such as fashion, accessories, catering and much more, and will be open to the public over two segmented periods. The first period started from March 25 and will continue until March 27, while the second period will take place from April 1 to April 3.

Zain takes pride in every young Kuwaiti and their work, and sponsoring this exhibition only helps to reinforce the company’s leading role in the society as a telecommunications company that is committed to youth and all the aspects they are involved in. The company will continue to provide support to similar exhibitions that bring out the best in youth and their capabilities in presenting the wider world with prestigious handcrafts.

The Villa Uno Expo management will be acting as jury to evaluate the pieces presented at the exhibition and to ensure that only items that are up to quality standards are showcased. To find out more about Zain’s ongoing activities and sponsorships, please visit the company’s website on www.kw.zain.com, or visit the company’s social media channels.

KUWAIT: Tunisian president and his accompanying delegation with Waleed Al- Shurian, General Manager of Mabanee Co

Tunisia president visits The Avenues KUWAIT: Moncef Marzouki, president of Tunisia and his accompanying delegates along with Head of Honorary Mission Fahad Al-Awadhi, Ambassador of Kuwait in Tunisia, visited The Avenues yesterday afternoon. The

president along with his accompanying guests toured all different districts of The Avenues and experienced the grandeur of its multiple designs inspired by classical and modern school of architecture.

Kuwaiti MPs eye medical, academic exchanges with Zurich ZURICH: Visiting Kuwaiti parliamentary friendship delegation met here on Tuesday with members of the City Parliament to discuss cooperation possibilities in the academic and medical fields.

The two sides explored ways to allow Kuwaiti patients receive treatment at the city hospitals.

The delegation’s visit to the City Parliament was of high importance as they discussed with the Swiss side possibilities of obtaining treatment opportunities for some incurable medical cases at Zurich hospitals, which are well-known for their highly advanced international competency and superb abilities, MP Dr Hussein Al-Quwaian, head of the delegation, said.

The delegation was also given a scope on the medical system at Zurich, work measures of the medical insurance system, and requirements for accepting Kuwaiti patients, as well as details on possible agreement signing between the two sides, Al-Quwaian added.

He indicated that the discussion addressed possible opportunities for Kuwaiti students to study at the University of Zurich and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, particularly on graduate level, Master’s and Doctorate, in order to benefit from their excellent educational and scientific levels that made the city one of the important European scientific research centers in practical tech fields, including medicine.

Ways of strengthening economic ties with Kuwait and to increase volume of trade exchange between the two sides were also discussed during the meeting, Al-Quwaian said, adding that Zurich enjoys an industrial production of high quality standards in fields of technical precision, heavy mechanization, and energy transferring, as well as rationalizing its consumption.

Kuwaiti parliamentary friendship delegation visit to Zurich started on March 22 and is to end on March 26.

Afterwards, the delegation is to head to Germany to visit the German Parliament. Their German visit is to last until March 30. The delegation includes MPs Kamel AlAwadhi, Askar Al-Anzi, and Madhi Al-Hajri. —KUNA

‘Clusters of Light’ musical postponed SHAJAH: Clusters of Light, a musical spectacle that chronicles the history of Islam, was postponed due to bad weather, the executive committee of the Sharjah Capital of Islamic Culture 2014 celebrations announced.

The celebrations will instead kick off on Sunday with the unveiling of the memorial before the Clusters of Light show takes place at the new Al-Majaz Open Theatre, the organizers said in a statement yesterday.

“Since the Clusters of Light takes place at an amphitheater and requires the use of light and sound effects which need stable weather conditions, we were forced to postpone the opening show for the audience’s safety,” the statement reads.

The organizers expressed gratitude to partners ‘for their understanding’ and cooperation in welcoming guests of Sharjah and give them the opportunity to enjoy sightseeing around the emirate.

KUWAIT: The Kuwait Dive Team resumed cleaning works at the Shamlan dock in Sharq, removing dozens of plastic bags, plastic waste and fishing nets during their most recent campaign.

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

Egyptian doctor on the run after mass death sentences

Venezuela arrests three generals over ‘coup plot’ Page 13

Page 8

Vatican fires ‘bishop of bling’ Scandal ‘deep embarrassment’ for German Church VATICAN CITY: The Vatican removed a German bishop yesterday because he spent 31 million euros ($43 million) of Church funds on an extravagant residence when Pope Francis was preach-

ing austerity. It said the atmosphere in the diocese of Limburg had become such that Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst could no longer carry out a “fruitful exercise” of his ministry there.

Tebartz-van Elst, dubbed the “bishop of bling”, had been ordered to stay out of his diocese temporarily last October while a local Church investigation and audit into cost overruns was made. He offered his resignation at the time. A statement said the Vatican department that oversees bishops had now accepted his resignation after carefully studying the results of the investigation. The German Church was expected to release details of the investigation yesterday. “The Holy Father asks the faithful of the diocese of Limburg to accept the decisions of the Holy See with docility and to commit themselves to rediscovering an atmosphere of charity and reconciliation,” the Vatican statement said.

Another prelate, Monsignor Manfred Grothe, has been appointed to run the diocese as an administrator on the Vatican’s behalf for the time

LIMBURG: People watch a part of the residence of Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst (inset) in Limburg, Germany. Pope Francis yesterday permanently removed a German bishop from his Limburg diocese after his 31 million-euro ($43-million) new residence complex caused an uproar among the faithful. —AP

3 Secret Service agents benched WASHINGTON: The Secret Service sent three agents home from the Netherlands just before President Barack Obama’s arrival after one agent was found inebriated in an Amsterdam hotel, the Secret Service said Tuesday.

The three agents were benched Sunday for “disciplinary reasons,” said Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan, declining to elaborate. Donovan said the incident was prior to Obama’s arrival Monday in the country and did not compromise the president’s security in any way.

Still, the incident represents a fresh blemish for an elite agency struggling to rehabilitate its reputation following a high-profile prostitution scandal and other allegations of misconduct. An inspector general’s report in December concluded there was no evidence of widespread misconduct, in line with the service’s longstanding assertion that it has no tolerance for inappropriate behavior. The agents sent home from Amsterdam were placed on administrative leave, according to The Washington Post, which first reported the disciplinary action. The newspaper said all three were on the Counter Assault Team, which defends the president if he comes under attack, and that one agent was a “team leader.”

One agent was discovered highly intoxicated by staff at a hotel, who reported it to the US Embassy, said a per-

son familiar with the situation, who wasn’t authorized to discuss the alleged behavior on the record and demanded anonymity. The other two agents were deemed complicit because they didn’t intervene despite being in a position to assist the drunken agent or tamp down his behavior, the person said. “It wasn’t like a big, crazy party,” the person said. Obama arrived in the Netherlands early Monday on the first leg of a weeklong, four-country trip. He departed for Brussels on Tuesday night, and there were no known security issues during his stay in the Netherlands.

Before Obama travels anywhere abroad, a slew of Secret Service and other government officials are dispatched in advance to prepare the intense security operation needed to protect the president in unfamiliar territory. Typically, counter assault teams travel with the president in his motorcade and if he came under fire, the team would be called upon to engage any attackers while the president was hustled to safety. Stricter rules implemented in the wake of the prostitution scandal in Colombia bar agents from drinking alcohol within 10 hours of starting a shift. It’s unclear whether the other two agents were drinking heavily or what time any of them would have been expected to show up for a shift.

The Secret Service’s reputation for rowdy, fraternitylike behavior snowballed in April 2012 in the run-up to another Obama foreign trip, this one in the Caribbean resort city of Cartagena, Colombia, where 13 agents and officers were accused of carousing with female foreign nationals at a hotel where they were staying before Obama’s arrival. After a night of heavy partying in bars and clubs, the employees brought women, including prostitutes, back to their hotel. Six of the employees eventually resigned or retired, while others had their security clearances revoked or were removed from duty.

Seeking to turn a page on that chapter in the service’s famed history, Obama last year named veteran Secret Service agent Julia Pierson as the agency’s first female director and signaled his desire to change the culture at the male-dominated service. Less than a year later, two additional officers were removed from Obama’s detail following allegations of sexually-related misconduct that came to light after an incident at an upscale hotel next to the White House. A 145-page report issued late last year by the Homeland Security Department inspector general determined there was no evidence of widespread misconduct within the Secret Service. Following the South American prostitution scandal, the agency put new procedures in place, including a ban on bringing foreign nationals to hotel rooms where agents and officers are staying. —AP

being and a position will be found for Tebartzvan Elst in due course, the Vatican said. The Limburg affair has been an embarrassment for the Vatican as Pope Francis has been urging Church officials around the world to live simpler lives and to get closer to the poor. Francis has several times told bishops not to live like princes.

He himself has set an example by renouncing the spacious papal apartments in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace for much more modest quarters in a Church guest house.

Irritation Last year, Francis showed his irritation over the whole affair by keeping the bishop waiting for eight days in Rome before receiving him in the Vatican. Tebartz-van Elst has apologized for any “carelessness or misjudgement on my part”, but he denies any wrongdoing. German media, citing official documents, said the residence had been fitted with a free-standing bath that cost 15,000 euros, a conference table that cost 25,000 euros and a private chapel for 2.9 million euros. The affair has also deeply embarrassed a German Catholic Church that had been enjoying an upswing in popularity because of Francis’s wide personal appeal and after years of criticism for covering up sexual abuse cases among the clergy.

Tebartz-van Elst, 54, is still 21 years away from official retirement age in the Church. He will retain the title and rank of bishop but the Vatican will probably want to put him in a lowprofile job somewhere. The scandal has put pressure on German bishops for more financial transparency, forcing them to scrap centuries of secrecy over reporting the value of their private endowments. Germany’s church tax, collected from worshippers by the state and handed over to the churches, raised 5.2 billion euros for the Catholics and 4.6 billion euros for Protestants in 2012. —Reuters

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

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

Egyptian doctor on the run after mass death sentences Shabib sentenced to death along with 528 others CAIRO: Hossam Shabib says he has always been a respectable Egyptian doctor who served his community and stayed out of trouble. Now he is hiding abroad, convicted of taking part in the killing of a police officer. On Monday, an Egyptian court sentenced Shabib and 528 other alleged members of the Muslim Brotherhood to death for murder and other offences, signaling a sharp escalation in a crackdown on Islamists. Only 123 of the defendants were in court on Monday. The rest were either released, out on bail or in hiding.

Shabib says he is innocent, one of thousands of people human rights groups say have been unfairly rounded up since army chief Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi toppled Islamist president Mohamed Mursi of the Brotherhood last July. The military-backed government has declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group responsible for shootings and bombings. The Brotherhood denies the allegations. “I am not a member of the Brotherhood, but I support its Freedom and Justice Party (FJP). I am not a member of the Brotherhood, and the authorities know that,” said Shabib.

The FJP has effectively been banned by the government.

Shabib said he was wrongly accused of killing police Colonel Mustafa Al-Attar in the violence that erupted in the southern province of Minya after security forces crushed a pro-Morsi protest camp in Cairo last August. A senior Interior Ministry official, who asked not to be named, said the police had video and television footage that proved the 529 had taken part in violence. Government spokesman Hani Salah declined to comment on individual cases, but he

said “Egypt confirms the need to protect human rights” and the government “is committed to ensuring freedoms”.

Violence in Minya Seventy people, 17 of them policemen, were killed in Minya, which resembled a war zone on the day in question.

Police stations, churches and other targets were hit. Shabib said he had nothing to do with the bloodshed. “I was accused of breaking the curfew. I was detained for 50 days.

Then I was suddenly connected to the death of Colonel Mustafa Al-Attar,” said Shabib, speaking to Reuters by telephone from a country he declined to name due to security fears.

Shabib said he had received a call from an agitated hospital worker on the day of the killing. He complained there were no doctors at the hospital as bodies started arriving.

Shabib said he rushed to work and spent all day there. “I went downstairs to get a sack of blood, and an intelligence agent named Mohamed Rushdi asked me to ‘come inside (the operating room) and help us; people are killing a police officer’. We tried to stop it. This guy is a witness that I was in hospital,” said Shabib, referring to Attar.

“The people attacked us, too. We had to step away.”

Detentions have been rising since Shabib was arrested on August 28, taking in suspected militants, secular activists and some academics. Human Rights Watch said it was deeply concerned by the more than 16,000 detentions in recent months, adding it was not unusual for charges not connected to initial causes of detention to be added on.

“We are also seeing more cases of abuses committed dur-

ing detentions,” said Human Rights Watch. Shabib, a 45year-old father of four, said he missed his family and country but would not return anytime soon.

“This is not the Egypt we know. It’s not the country where I once felt safe. I don’t want to experience prison again,” he said. He recalled how authorities treated him while he was being moved from between prisons; blindfolded, beaten with rifle butts, slapped, placed in solitary confinement. “I was never electrocuted, but I could hear men screaming while they were being electrocuted,” said Shabib, who said the abuses multiplied after he and other prisoners complained. Government spokesman Salah said Egypt does not tolerate torture in its prisons. “The Ministry of the Interior allows missions of the boards of Human Rights to visit prisons, and most of the reports that came out of these boards point to the absence of torture in prisons,” he said.

Three weeks before the mass death sentences were handed down on only the second day of the trial, Shabib fled Egypt, expecting what he called a political sentence.

Egyptian officials say the judiciary is independent. The trial judge declined to comment. One day after Shabib’s death sentence, the same Minya court and judge began trying the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and 682 others on similar charges. They too could face the death penalty.

Shabib said he had Islamist leanings from an early age but was not politically active, even when hundreds of thousands of Egyptians protested in the streets in 2011 and toppled Hosni Mubarak. “I have never been to a protest in my life,” said Shabib.—Reuters

Turkey court ends Twitter blockage

KONYA: Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is greeted by ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) supporters during a visit to his hometown of in Konya, Beysehir district, central Turkey yesterday. —AFP

ANKARA: A Turkish court upheld an appeal yesterday to end a blockage of Twitter that has provoked public outrage and drawn international condemnation only days ahead of the critical local elections.

But it was not immediately clear if or when the bar would be removed, although Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc urged the Turkey’s telecoms authority, which carried out the ban, to respect the court order.

“We abide by the court rulings, that’s what the constitution orders. We may not like them, but we abide by them. If this decision is genuine ... then what TIB needs to do after this is obvious,” Arinc told reporters in Hatay in televised comments. Turkey’s telecoms authority (TIB) blocked access to Twitter on Friday as Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan battles a corruption scandal, in which a stream of anonymous postings purportedly revealing government wrongdoing have been posted on the platform. Turkey’s Bar Association challenged the blockage, saying it

was without legal grounds and “an arbitrary decision”. An Ankara court yesterday found in favor of the association’s request and ruled that TIB halt its block on the site.

Erdogan on Tuesday accused Twitter of “threatening national security” and has repeatedly defended the ban during rallies in the run up to a municipal election on Sunday that is seen as a test of whether he has been damaged by the allegations. Erdogan has cast the audio postings on Twitter as part of a plot to unseat him, contrived by followers of his former ally, the US based Islamist cleric Fetullah Gulen.

Reuters has not been able to verify the authenticity of the leaked recordings. “Our problem is not Twitter itself but its approach ... The court ruling was conveyed to Twitter. It does not listen to it,” Erdogan said in a TV interview late on Tuesday about the original decision to block access. “You are threatening the national security of my country,” he said in a strained voiced after weeks of campaigning. —Reuters

Pressure on Iraq election law after poll chiefs quit BAGHDAD: Election officials pushed yesterday for reform of Iraq’s election law after polling chiefs suddenly handed in their resignations complaining of parliamentary and judicial interference, throwing next month’s vote into disarray. Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki warned that failure to resolve the crisis could delay the general election and send Iraq into a “tunnel we might not be able to get out of”.

Doubts are already swirling over whether the polls-currently set for April 30 — could even be held nationwide as antigovernment fighters still control a city on Baghdad’s doorstep.

Much is at stake in the election, as Maliki bids for a third term with his security credentials badly damaged by a surge in violence to levels not seen since 2008, while the country looks to rebuild its conflict-battered economy and dramatically boost oil production. Hours after the Independent High Electoral Commission’s nine-member board collectively handed in their resignations on Tuesday, IHEC’s chairman said amending a disputed article in Iraq’s election law could provide a way out. “If there is any problem, they (parliament) have to amend it through legislation,” Sarbat Rashid said, after holding talks with diplomats from the UN mission to Iraq, the US embassy, and the European Union mission, as well as parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi.

IHEC’s board has in particular been frustrated with what critics say is a vague provision in Iraq’s electoral law that requires parliamentary hopefuls to be “of good reputation”.

Based on that article, a judicial panel has barred several prospective lawmakers, including Maliki opponents such as former finance minister Rafa al-Essawi, with no obvious avenue of appeal. Parliament has meanwhile reportedly ruled that IHEC must not bar any candidates unless they have criminal convictions, a decision an IHEC spokesman said was at odds with that of the judicial panel.

A diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that while the resignations had been submitted to parliament, “I do not expect that parliament will accept them, because the timing is critical for elections.” “Most likely, what IHEC would like to have done, they would like the article to be amended.” “IHEC’s problem is that they are squeezed between the judicial panel and the parliament, and they are trying to extract themselves.” The diplomat said because the resignations were unlikely to be accepted by parliament, elections were likely to still go ahead next month.

Maliki urges amendment But the mere prospect of a postponement has sparked concern, with Maliki warning in his weekly televised address that “if IHEC stays this way, that means ... the election will be delayed.” “We will enter a tunnel we might not be able to get out of,” the premier said. “Troubles will come, one after another, against the state.” Maliki called for IHEC to withdraw the resignations, and urged parliament to pass an amendment to the law “as fast as possible”.

The looming vote has been a factor in the rising bloodshed in recent months, analysts and diplomats say. Maliki and other Shiite political leaders have been determined to be seen to take a hard line against militants, rather than reach out to the Sunni Arab minority in a bid to undercut long-term support for militancy. But despite widely trumpeted operations against insurgents, bloodletting has continued, with more than 450 people killed so far this month, and upwards of 2,100 this year, according to an AFP tally.

And anti-government fighters have held control of the Sunni city of Fallujah, which lies just a short drive from Baghdad, for more than two months. —AFP

News

in brief

Bahrain jails 29 Shiites DUBAI: A Bahraini court yesterday jailed 29 Shiites for up to 10 years for an attack on a police centre in April 2012, a judicial source said. Twenty-six of those convicted were handed 10-year prison terms and three others jailed for three years, the source said. The prosecution accused the defendants of attacking a police centre in the village of Sitra, south of Manama, with petrol bombs and iron rods, wounding a policeman. The defendants claimed in court that they were tortured and their confessions obtained under duress, the source said. Bahrain, home to the US Fifth Fleet, remains deeply divided since after a quashed 2011 Shiite-led uprising, with persistent protests sparking clashes with police, scores of Shiites jailed on “terror” charges and reconciliation talks deadlocked. Authorities in the Sunni-ruled Gulf kingdom last year increased the penalties for those convicted of violence, introducing the death penalty or life sentences in certain cases.

Storm batters Maine CHATHAM: A spring storm brought high winds that whipped snow across portions of Massachusetts and eastern Maine yesterday, causing near-whiteout conditions on Cape Cod as it moved up the Atlantic coast. Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard were expected to bear the brunt of the storm as it strikes Massachusetts, perhaps dropping up to 10 inches of snow, forecasters said. Less snow was expected farther to the north and east in Massachusetts, with the Boston area getting just an inch or two. Schools across Cape Cod closed, while ferry and flight service to the islands was canceled. State courts in the region also closed. Winds that could gust up to 70 miles per hour was blowing snow horizontally Wednesday morning, stinging the faces of those few who dared venture outside. On Maine’s eastern tip, Hancock and Washington counties could get 8 to 16 inches of snow. Gov Paul LePage ordered state offices in both counties closed Wednesday morning as flurries started falling. Blizzard warnings were in effect in both states. The National Weather Service also warned of coastal flooding and significant beach erosion along the Massachusetts coast and wind gusts causing scattered power outages in eastern Maine.

‘Serial rapist’ on trial PRIVAS: A man who carried out a series of sexual assaults on girls at holiday campsites in the Ardeche region of central France went on trial yesterday. Sebastien Dutheil, 33, is charged with two counts of rape and nine of attempted or actual sexual assaults on victims aged between six and 17.

His victims included three foreigners: a Belgian, a Dutch girl and a German. The attacks, carried out between June and August 2012, involved a masked Dutheil sneaking into tents under cover of darkness and restraining the girls while he assaulted them. The victims’ parents were usually sleeping in nearby tents or caravans. Dutheil, who worked as a tiler, was arrested after police matched DNA they found on the underwear of an 11-year-old victim with his, which they had on file because of a previous conviction for sexual assault. Police said he had admitted to a series of attacks which brought terror to an area popular with nature lovers at the height of the holiday season. Dutheil also confessed to a number of similar assaults he claimed to have carried out in 2010 and 2011. The trial, which is taking place behind closed doors at the request of one of the victims, is expected to conclude tomorrow.

Australia PM under fire SYDNEY: Monarchist Prime Minister Tony Abbott was accused yesterday of sending Australia into a “time warp” by reintroducing knights and dames to the country’s honors list. The conservative leader announced the move Tuesday with ministers revealing he went straight to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, Australia’s head of state, for approval without consulting his Liberal Party. Opposition Labor lawmakers ridiculed the move, asking why he was not focusing on important issues such as health and unemployment instead. “I’m concerned the Abbott government thinks this is a priority,” Labor leader Bill Shorten said. He later told the National Press Club: “Are we in a time warp?” His colleague Ed Husic said it was proof Abbott was out of date. “As sure as knight follows dame, you know that Tony Abbott’s going to take us back to the good old days,” he told reporters. The Australian Republican Movement was equally dismissive, saying its website nearly crashed yesterday from the flood of new members signing up.

“This is turning the clock back to a colonial frame of mind that we have outgrown as a nation,” said its national director David Morris.

Dog skins found BANGKOK: Hundreds of dog skins have been found dumped in an area of northeastern Thailand notorious for exporting canine parts as a delicacy or for use as a leather substitute-including for golf gloves, police said yesterday. Acting on a tip-off, police made the gruesome discovery in bags left next to a large pile of dog bones in a forest on Tuesday in Sakon Nakhon, which borders Laos.

“The skins would be bleached-some are then sent (by smugglers) to other countries to be made into gloves for playing golf,” Lamai Sakolpitak, from a special police unit to suppress smuggling and the trade in animal parts, told AFP on telephone.

“Experts say that dog skins are also used for instruments such as drums,” Lamai said, adding that it is illegal to kill canines to sell their parts in Thailand or abroad. Lamai said the find was likely linked to a recent raid on two nearby makeshift factories where skins were stripped from dogs. “Some people were afraid that we would find the skins at their houses... so they dumped them,” he added.

Local campaign group, Watchdog Thailand, condemned the killing of dogs for sale, explaining that exporters pay around $10 for every live dog, including pets and strays from the surrounding areas.

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

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

CNN journalists arrested Journalists try to sneak into World Trade Center NEW YORK: Two CNN journalists were arrested for trying to sneak past security at the World Trade Center in New York City on Tuesday in an attempt to report on recent security lapses at the site, police said. Yon Pomrenze, 35, and Connor Fieldman Boals, 26, first tried to talk their way in through the main gate to the center in lower Manhattan, much of which is still a construction site, according to the police account.

One was holding a video camera, the other had a video camera strapped to his head. Foiled, Boals then twice tried to climb over the perimeter fence. That did not work either.

A few minutes later, the men were attempting to force their way through an electronic gate about a block away when police arrested them. The two men, identified as CNN producers, were filming a report on recent security breaches at the World Trade Center, a spokes-

woman for the news network said. The Port Authority has spent millions of dollars on security measures for the World Trade Center, which is due to open later this year on the site of the Twin Towers that were destroyed by Al Qaeda hijackers on Sept 11, 2001.

Four men were arrested on Monday for organizing a late-night parachute jump from the top of One World Trade Center, the tallest structure in the United States, after sneaking through a hole in a fence in September. And a 16-year-boy with a camera was arrested a few days earlier after evading capture by security staff at night and getting to the skyscraper’s 104th floor. On Tuesday afternoon, the two CNN producers had said to the officer at the main gate that if a 16-year-old was able to get in, then so should they, said Joseph Pentangelo, a spokesman for the Por t Authority Police

Department.

“He had enough sense to try it at 4 o’clock in the morning,” he said of the 16-year-old. The CNN producers commenced their less successful attempt shortly after lunchtime on Tuesday.

“This is very wasteful of valuable law-enforcement time and energy,” Pentagelo said.

The men were arrested on charges of criminal trespass, obstruction of governmental administration and disorderly conduct, police said. Barbara Levin, a CNN spokeswoman, said in an email the two producers were on assignment but “were not asked to sneak onto the WTC site.” “They were in the surrounding area to do a story about the recent incidents at the WTC and other sites,” she wrote, “and the notion that daredevils are being drawn to them.” It was not immediately clear if the men had lawyers on Tuesday. — Reuters

Landslide death toll rises to 24 ARLINGTON: Rescuers digging through the debris of a monster US landslide found another 10 bodies Tuesday, officials said, bringing the death toll to 24 with potentially more than 170 still unaccounted for. A day of rain hampered efforts to find survivors in the vast pile of mud and timber which crashed into the tiny town of Oso on Saturday. “Unfortunately, we didn’t find any signs of life,” Snohomish County fire district chief Travis Hots told reporters, three days after the catastrophe in the northwestern US state of Washington. He said two more bodies had been recovered, adding to the 14 corpses already brought out, while eight more were located in the debris. The number of reports of people unaccounted for remains at 176, although that could include double-counting and people who may turn up elsewhere, and so likely does not represent how many more fatalities may be found.

‘We haven’t lost hope’ A total of 49 dwellings in the rural town were hit by the one square mile wall of mud, rocks and trees, which also destroyed part of a highway some 60 miles northeast of Seattle. Hots said the massive emergency operation was still aimed at rescuing survivors as well as recovering bodies, even though the chances of finding people alive diminish with each day. “We haven’t lost

hope that there’s a possibly that we can find someone,” he said. The National Guard joined local and state emergency workers after President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency for Washington state. “I would just ask all Americans to send their thoughts and prayers to Washington state and the community of Oso and the families and friends of (the missing),” said Obama.

Obama: ‘tough situation’ “We hope for the best, but we recognize that this is a tough situation,” he added in the Netherlands, where he was attending a nuclear security summit. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will help “save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in Snohomish County,” said the White House.

Officials insist finding survivors is still possible, even there have been no signs of life since Saturday. “I believe in miracles and I believe people can survive these events,” said emergency management chief John Pennington, adding: “They’ve done it before, they can do it again.”

One volunteer firefighter described the landslide as “quicksand, where you could easily sink up to your armpits.” He described seeing signs of structures peeking through a dense layer of fallen

timber and earth, adding that it had blocked the Stillaguamish river, which had started to flood the Darrington area.

‘Increasingly unstable’ “The rising river and floodwaters are making the slide areas nearest the banks increasingly unstable,” the emergency worker, who did not give his name because he was not authorized to speak to the media said. New help Tuesday included over 60 National Guardsmen, and up to 100 volunteers, officials said. Washington state governor Jay Inslee paid tribute to all the emergency services helping the rescue effort, from local to federal.

‘Small-town, can-do spirit’ “There’s a small town, can-do spirit here at work. It’s good to have the White House as well,” he said. “We know we still have families in tremendous grief and anxiety, and we’re going to do everything we can to relieve that as soon as humanly possible,” he added.

The local fire chief said the rescue and recovery operation would be a long one, but pledged to try to find every last victim. “This is going to be a very long-term event. This will be something that goes into the weeks,” said Hots, adding: “We’re going to do our very best to get everybody out of there.”— AFP

billionaire brothers ‘threat to Democrats’ WASHINGTON: While US Democrats face many hurdles as they prepare for this year’s battle for control of Congress, few are more daunting than the Koch brothers-conservative business moguls with deep pockets. The billionaire industrialists are behind extensive, often opaque efforts to get conservative Republicans elected in November. And President Barack Obama’s Democrats are up against the wall in their bid to maintain control of the Senate, without which he will struggle for even the smallest of legislative victories.

Eight months before polling, Democrats are already targeting the media-shy siblings at the helm of Koch Industries, considered the second largest privately-held company in the United States.

They depict Charles and David Koch as mega-rich schemers fueling fears about Obama’s health care reforms and flooding several races with tens of millions of dollars this year. With Republicans needing just six net victories to win back the Senate, Democrats paint the Kochs as anti-government boogeymen. They are committed to defeating vulnerable Democrat incumbents such as Senator Kay Hagan of North Carolina.

‘Buy our democracy’ Hagan launched a counter-offensive Monday against Republican opponent Thom Tillis, who has raised $8 million already funneled

into his Koch-backed challenge, according to her campaign. “It’s clear they are trying to buy a senator whose strings they can pull in Washington to get their special interest policies passed,” Hagan’s communications director Sadie Weiner alleged.

Leading the counter-charge is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who took to the floor several times this month to attack the “un-American” Kochs for trying to “buy our democracy.”

He accused the brothers of pumping $30 million into advertising in competitive Senate races from North Carolina to Alaska as they push for lower taxes on the rich and smaller government.

“Senate Republicans,” Reid seethed, “are addicted to Koch.” Several attack ads have been released

by Americans For Prosperity, an advocacy group funded by the Kochs and severely critical of

Obama’s health insurance reforms. It argues that Democrats, by targeting the Kochs, seek to distract voters from five years of failed White House policies including so-called “Obamacare.”

Democrats “are going to drive off a cliff” if they talk exclusively about the Kochs, GOP strategist Ryan Williams argued. “Complaining about two brothers, who most people have never heard of before, spending money on TV ads-it’s just not a winning strategy,” he added. “They look small.”

But several vulnerable Democrats are not shying away, vilifying the Kochs as outsiders bigfooting Senate and House races. “Koch Brothers go home,” exhorted one recent ad for incumbent Senate Democrat Mark Begich of Alaska, where Republican fundraising groups have spent heavily on anti-Begich ads. —AFP

Burger King Baby finds birth mom PENNSYLVANIA: A woman who, as a newborn, was abandoned in the bathroom of a Pennsylvania fast-food restaurant said she has found her birth mother just three weeks after launching a search that garnered worldwide attention, and as her mother prepared to look for her. Katheryn Deprill, 27, said Tuesday she felt “pure joy” when she met her biological mother for the first time Monday at an attorney’s office. And, after she learned the sad details of her conception and abandonment, she said she understood why her mom did what she did.

“She is better than anything I could’ve ever imagined. She is so sweet and amazing. I’m so happy,” said Deprill, who has become known as the Burger King Baby. The woman had decided about six months ago to launch her

own search for the daughter she gave up.

Deprill began her quest on March 2 by posting on her Facebook page a photo in which she held up a sign that said, “Looking for my birth mother. ... She abandoned me in the Burger King bathroom only hours old, Allentown PA. Please help me find her by sharing my post.”

The photo was shared more than 30,000 times by Facebook users around the world, and Deprill’s story landed in numerous media outlets. That caught the attention of the woman who abandoned her, and she came forward to attorney John Waldron, who arranged for them to meet. Deprill said she bears a very strong resemblance to the woman, whose name she wouldn’t disclose. —AP

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

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

Catalonia defies Spanish courts, seek independence BARCELONA: Leaders in Catalonia vowed yesterday to press ahead with the region’s drive for independence despite a tough challenge from Spanish judges who overruled its claims of sovereignty.

Spain’s Constitutional Court on Tuesday dealt a blow to those in the indebted region who want to let citizens vote on whether to become a separate state, shortly after Scotland holds its own referendum on independence. “ The political process continues,” Catalonia’s president Artur Mas told the regional parliament, echoing other political leaders in the region. The court ruled that a declaration of sovereignty last year

by Catalan lawmakers was illegal under the 1978 constitution, which also forbids them to unilaterally call a referendum.

“This ruling by the Constitutional Court

was more or less expected,” Mas said.

“Each hurdle we encounter on this road, we will find a way around,” he said, reiterating his desire for a referendum on November 9.

Mas has defied fierce resistance from the national government, which has called for unity as Spain crawls out of its economic crisis. Catalans have drawn a comparison with Scotland, whose leaders are holding a referendum in September on independence from Britain-a move authorized by the British government. Spain’s conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy insisted last month that in Spain such a referendum “can’t take place”. “No one can unilaterally deprive the entire Spanish people of the right to decide on their future,” he told the national parliament, which is

due to debate the referendum issue on April 8.

Rocky road to referendum The Catalan and national press agreed yesterday that the court ruling strengthened the national government’s hand, though it was still unclear how likely it was that a referendum would take place. “The Constitutional Court’s ruling is clear and leaves no room for partisan interpretations,” wrote centreright national daily El Mundo in an editorial. “It leaves no doubt about the illegality of the sovereignty declaration.”

Catalan daily La Vanguardia said the ruling provided legal grounds for the Spanish government to crack down on “any act by the Catalan institutions that make reference to the November 9 refer-

endum.” Analysts said the ruling was ambiguous however on whether Catalonia could legally hold some form of consultation to express a desire for independence, with a view to reforming the constitution. “I think there is narrow scope for holding a consultative referendum legally, but it is complicated,” said Xavier Arbos, an expert in constitutional law at Barcelona University. “If such a consultation gave a very clear result in favor of a yes vote, that could lead to a reform of the constitution.” But he added: “I see little likelihood of a legal solution.”

The referendum is opposed by Spain’s two largest national parties: the ruling conservative Popular Party and the main opposition Socialist Party. Proud of their distinct language and culture, many in Catalonia say they feel short-changed by

the central government which redistributes their taxes.

Catalonia is home to 7.5 million of Spain’s total population of 46 million people. It accounts for more than a fifth of Spain’s economic output and a quarter of its exports. But Spain’s economic crisis has made Catalonia one of the most indebted regions in the country, prompting calls for independence to grow louder in the past two years. On September 11 last year, Catalonia’s national day, hundreds of thousands of Catalans massed in a vast human chain stretching across the region to demand independence. The national day recalls the conquest of Barcelona by Spanish king Philip V’s forces in 1714 - seen by many Catalans as the date they lost their independence.— AFP

Venezuela arrests three generals for ‘coup plot’ CARACAS: Three Venezuelan air force generals accused of plotting a coup against the leftist government of President Nicolas Maduro were arrested Tuesday, amid a widening crackdown on the opposition.

The unidentified generals were in contact with opposition politicians and “were trying to get the Air Force to rise up against the legitimately elected government,” Maduro told a meeting of South American foreign ministers. “This group that was captured has direct links with sectors of the opposition and they were saying that this week was the decisive week,” Maduro said. The stunning disclosure-the first known significant threat from within Maduro’s government-comes amid a growing crackdown on the president’s opponents after more than six weeks of street protests that have left at least 34 dead.

In a further blow to the opposition, the mayor of the town of San Cristobal where the protests started was sentenced to a year in prison. Daniel Ceballos was convicted of failing to prevent violence and the blockading of streets. He was the second mayor convicted and sentenced, and quickly. Enzo Scarano, mayor of San Diego in the north, was arrested, tried and sentenced to 10 months in prison. It all happened in a matter of hours last week. An opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez, has been detained since last month and is awaiting trial. He is accused of instigating violence against the government.

Betrayed by loyalists The generals have been summoned before a cour t mar tial, Maduro said, adding that the plot was uncovered because other officers come forward to say they were being recruited. Asked for details about the generals, a senior source told AFP that the information is “being handled only through Maduro’s office.” It is the first time in 15 years of socialist government that generals have been arrested for alleged coup plotting, said military expert Fernando Falcon, a retired lieutenant colonel. Massive protests in April 2002 resulted in Maduro’s predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez, being briefly oustedbefore he was restored to power for another decade.

Maduro and his government have been the target of near-daily protests fueled by public anger over soaring crime, hyperinflation and shortages of such basic goods as toilet paper. Demonstrators are also angry at oil-rich Venezuela’s close financial and political ties to Cuba, the only Communist one -par ty state in the Americas. Maduro earlier had said he fended off a coup bid aided or supported by the United States and other “fascists.”

Protests have mainly taken place in middle-class opposition strongholds. Maduro still enjoys support among Venezuela’s larger, poor population, allowing him to weather the weeks-long protests.—AFP

Merkel’s sway endures as govt notches up 100 days BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel has steered her power-sharing government through a rocky 100 first days in office with a high-profile resignation and the Crimea crisis but remains at the height of her powers. After the euro-zone turmoil dominated her first two terms, Merkel now faces the worst political stand-off since the end of the Cold War, while at home her left-right government pushes ahead with social reforms opposed by business leaders. However Merkel retains the confidence of Germans as her conservatives and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) chalk up yesterday 100 days of the “grand coalition”, trumpeting progress on a minimum wage, pension reform and a rent increase cap. Polls show the conservative bloc retains a strong lead over the SPD, hovering closely around the 41.5 versus 26 percent they garnered at the ballot box in September. Unlike several of her European peers, Merkel retains her personal popularity.

“Merkel is the determining personality in

German politics and has great respect even among the SPD’s voters,” political analyst Ulrich von Alemann from Duesseldorf University said.

Analysts say her new four-year term has got off to a solid, if unambitious, start, which saw the government get past an early political bump in the road that sowed bad feeling within the cabinet. Sparked by a child porn probe, a scandal erupted in the SPD but claimed a conservative minister’s head over the suspected leaking of confidential information.

SPD Labour Minister Andrea Nahles has moved quickly on two controversial pension reforms-retirement at 63 for those who have paid into the system for 45 years and pension improvements for older mothers-and on an SPD deal-breaker, plans for a national minimum wage that applies to all, except under 18year-olds and trainees. “The two big parties have advocated for their clientele,” Alemann said, adding the coalition’s first 100 days had made a “relatively solid” start.— AFP

SEOUL: Visitors look at replicas of North Korean Scud-B missile (left) and South Korean Nike missiles at the Korean War Memorial in Seoul yesterday. — AFP

Obama brokers Japan and South Korea talks Pyongyang fires missiles THE HAGUE: US President Barack Obama brought together the leaders of Japan and South Korea for their first face-to-face talks as a North Korean ballistic missile launch underscored the need for Washington’s two key Asian allies to repair their strained ties. Washington hopes the three-way summit will improve relations between Seoul and Tokyo, which are clouded by the legacy of Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula and Seoul’s concerns that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants to rewrite Japan’s wartime past with a less apologetic tone. The United States wants to strengthen the allies’ combined response to regional concerns such as North Korea’s banned weapons programs and China’s growing assertiveness in disputed waters.

In what appeared to be a show of defiance, North Korea fired two medium-range Rodong ballistic missiles into the sea at 2:35 a.m. Japan and Korea time (1735 GMT Tuesday), both Tokyo and Seoul said. That was precisely when Abe and South Korean President Park Geun-hye were sitting down with Obama in The Hague for their first meeting since Abe took office in December 2012. North

Korea’s first firing in four years of mid-range Rodong missiles that can hit Japan followed a series of short-range rocket launches over the past two months and could help improve cooperation between Tokyo and Seoul.

In Seoul, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok called the launches “a clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions and a grave provocation against South Korea and the international community”.

Japan and the United States also protested the launches. But Tokyo’s plans to resume high-level talks next week with Pyongyang on Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea decades ago, as well as the North’s missile and nuclear programs, would not be cancelled, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said. Those talks have been suspended since December 2012.

Signal to Pyongyang Park, Abe and Obama, who met on the sidelines of a nuclear security summit in The Hague, emphasized the need to work together on containing the North Korean nuclear threat. “Over the last five

years, close coordination between our three countries succeeded in changing the game with North Korea: our trilateral cooperation has sent a strong signal to Pyongyang that its provocations and threats will be met with a unified response,” said Obama, who will visit Japan and South Korea next month. In an apparent attempt to break the ice with Park, Abe addressed the South Korean leader in Korean at the start of the talks, saying he was “very happy to be able to meet” her.

But the summit left aside thorny disputes over wartime history, such as the issue of women, many Korean, forced to work in Japanese military brothels before and during World War Two. The festering problem of history has kept the US allies from deepening military cooperation despite rising regional tensions. Obama said the three leaders discussed “specific steps to deepen trilateral coordination”, including “military cooperation that includes joint exercises and on missile defense”.

Japanese public broadcaster NHK later quoted a White House official as telling reporters that talks among senior defense officials from the three countries would take place soon.— Reuters

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

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Issues

Digital ventures boost ailing news media

By Rob Lever

O

nline news ventures have added nearly 5,000 US media jobs in the past few years, boosting an industry that is still reeling from technology changes, a study showed yesterday. The Pew Research Center’s “State of the News Media 2014” report said these digital ventures are creating a more varied set of financial models for news, offering some hope to the troubled sector. The Pew report said the largest number of journalists producing original reporting are still at newspapers, whose woes have deepened - with employment down 6.4 percent in 2012 and more losses likely in 2013 when final figures are tallied.

And the news business, which generates some $60 billion in annual revenues, still relies on advertising for nearly 70 percent of its money. But the online segment is gaining traction and pointing to successful new models, the Pew researchers said.

Boosting Reporting Power “New players are boosting reporting power, technological talent and financial resources going into news, creating a level of energy not felt for a long time,” said Amy Mitchell, director of journalism research for Pew. While most newspapers have failed to generate significant revenues from their digital editions, some online news ventures are moving away from the ad-based model, getting support from philanthropists, venture capitalists and other methods such as conferences and events, Pew noted. These ventures “are spurring different ways to think about how to support journalism in the digital age,” said Pew research Mark Jurkowitz.

But Pew cautioned that “this growing investment in digital news does not mean the industry has figured out a consistent formula for monetizing that news”.

According to Pew, 30 of the largest digital-only news organizations account for nearly 3,000 jobs, and one big area of investment is global coverage. Pew noted that Vice Media has 35 overseas bureaus, while the Huffington Post hopes to grow to 15 countries from 11 this year.

Other digital ventures growing overseas coverage include BuzzFeed and Atlantic Media’s Quartz. This comes at a time when international reporters working for US newspapers have declined 24 percent from 2003 to 2010, according to Pew. Pew said the gains at digital ventures have only modestly offset the losses in print, estimated at more than 16,000 newsroom jobs at newspapers and 38,000 in magazines from 2003 to 2012.

But the study said digital is showing strong journalistic efforts in some cases. “Many digital outlets are working to fill reporting gaps created by the strain on resources at traditional outlets - from niche topic areas like education to international coverage to local community news to investigative journalism,” the report said.

Social Media Driving News The researchers said social media and mobile platforms are also transforming the news business. They found 50 percent of social network users share or repost news stories, images or videos, and 46 percent discuss news issues or events on social networks. More than one out ten online news consumers have submitted their own content - videos, photos, articles or opinion pieces - to news websites or blogs, the report found. About a third of US adults watch digital news videos, and news outlets like the Huffington Post have been expanding into video, the report noted.

Traditional television has seen mixed results, Pew said. Its analysis of Nielsen data showed fewer Americans watched cable news in 2013, while more tuned into network or local television news - the first increase for local TV news in five years. Pew found fewer local TV stations in 2013 producing original news compared with 2012, a phenomenon driven by ownership changes and content-sharing deals. The study found a quarter of the 952 US television stations that air newscasts do not produce the programs they air.

For cable, the combined median prime-time viewership of the three major news channels - CNN, Fox News and MSNBC - dropped 11 percent to about three million, the smallest it has been since 2007. The biggest decline came at MSNBC, which lost 24 percent of its prime-time audience. CNN saw a 13 percent drop and Fox’s audience dipped six percent, Pew said. —AFP

All articles appearing on these pages are the personal opinion of the writers. Kuwait Times takes no responsibility for views expressed therein. Kuwait Times invites readers to voice their opinions. Please send submissions via email to: opinion@kuwaittimes.net or via snail mail to PO Box 1301 Safat, Kuwait.

The editor reserves the right to edit any submission as necessary.

Egypt verdicts show pressure on judiciary

By Lee Keath

E

gypt’s judiciary is rife with judges who are sharp opponents of Islamists, and they are operating amid a media frenzy demanding swift and harsh verdicts against the Muslim Brotherhood. The result, judicial experts say, is this week’s stunning verdict sentencing hundreds of suspected Islamists to death after a cursory mass trial, a decision likely to be overturned but clearly intended to send a deterrent message. “The judge is a citizen who lives in a society and can feel the nation’s pulse and knows that people are looking for quick trials,” Rifaat ElSayed, the former head of Cairo’s appeal court, one of the country’s major courts, told AP. “If there is a mistake from a judge, there are means to correct it.”

The rulings Monday by a criminal court in the provincial capital of Minya brought heavy international criticism from the UN, United States and European Union. Amnesty International called the verdicts “grotesque”, and Egyptian rights groups were stunned. The court delivered the sweeping sentences against more than 520 defendants after only one session hearing testimony - without hearing the defense’s case.

But the verdicts were hailed as a triumph for justice by much of Egypt’s media, which have been cheerleaders for the crackdown on the Brotherhood since the military’s July ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. “Let them be 10,000, 20,000 (sentenced to death),” presenter Ahmed Moussa declared on private Sada al-Balad TV. “Those who have killed, we shouldn’t be upset about them. Why are you upset, Mr Rights Activist? Where were you when martyrs were killed? Dragged on the floor? ...

What do you expect from the judiciary?

To give salute to terrorism? Or are you supporting terrorism?”

On Tuesday, the same Minya judge opened a second mass trial of 683 suspected Islamists on similar charges murder and attempted murder in connection to an August attack on a police station. After one day of hearing witnesses - with defense law yers boycotting the proceedings - the judge declared he would rule in the next hearing, on April 28.

The sentences, however, raised a red flag even within the judiciary, where many said they were certain the verdicts will be overturned because of irregularities in the trial. One current judge on a high-level court called it “an individual case” of a judge aiming to show “his political allegiance” and “send a particular message. He k nows it will be annulled.” The judge spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because judiciary rules bar him from discussing another court’s case. “But the manner and the way the session was managed has seriously harmed the reputation of the judiciary,” he said.

Amid the uproar, the Justice Ministry issued a statement underlining that the judiciary is independent. It said the ruling was not a final verdict, saying the court can change it after the country’s top Islamic official, the mufti, issues his opinion on the death sentences, and that the sentences can be appealed before the court of cassation, which can order a retrial. So far, there has not been a clear trend in the few verdicts reached so far in the multiple trials of Morsi supporters. One court sentenced 12 students to 17 years for rioting on university campus. I n another trial of 62

Islamists on charges of violence during a Cairo protest, the court acquitted all the defendants for lack of evidence.

Loyalists Egypt’s judiciary, made up of nearly 15,000 judges and prosecutors, has traditionally been one of the country ’s strongest institutions. During the 29year rule of autocrat Hosni Mubarak, the judiciary was stacked with his loyalists many of whom remain in place and hold the top judicial positions. The government had considerable influence on promotions and advancement in the system, with Mubarak appointing the head of the constitutional court.

Still, the courts did not always follow his lead. During Mubarak’s crackdowns on the Muslim Brotherhood, regular courts often freed defendants or gave them light sentences, so Mubarak turned to military or exceptional securi-

loyal to him, and his backers sought to push opponents in the judiciary into retirement. Morsi issued a decree declaring his decisions immune from judiciary review, prompting thousands of judges to go on strike and widening public protests against his rule.

Now after Morsi’s ouster, any expression of criticism among judges of the mainstream support for the military is at personal peril. Some 75 judges who spoke out against “the removal of a legitimately elected president” and “the attack on constitutional legitimacy ” were suspended from the Judges Club, an influential association of judges, and are under investigation for disciplinary action for engaging in political activity.

Other judges who publicly backed the protests calling for Morsi’s ouster that prompted the military to remove him saw no such reprisals. Some of the reform judges who were part of the judi-

it. Still, the justice minister appoints administrative heads of primary courts, who in turn can determine which judge will hear which cases. That, he says, opens the door to bias by picking judges known for certain beliefs. With new courts assigned terrorism related cases, many fear the speed and verdicts could be even faster.

In the courtroom, judges have considerable power and leeway in determining procedures during their trials and in issuing verdicts, even if they may be overruled later. Judges issue verdicts in all trials, since there are no jury trials in Egypt.

They are also backed up by vague laws against “insulting the judiciary.” One prominent liberal former lawmaker faces trial on charges of insulting the judiciary after he criticized a court ruling as “politicized” on his Twitter account.

Part of what has raised concern recently from critics is that many judges are for-

In this Saturday, Jan 26, 2013 file photo, an Egyptian football fan of Al-Ahly club displays scales to fans celebrating a court verdict that returned 21 death penalties in 2012’s soccer violence, inside the club premises in Cairo. —AP ty courts to get harsher and longer sentences. A number of reformist judges were sharply critical of voting fraud during the 2005 and 2006 elections, starting a movement for greater judicial independence that was one of the various elements that coalesced to trigger the 2011 protests against Mubarak.

During the past three years of turmoil since the 2011 ouster of Mubarak, the judiciary has been dragged repeatedly into political battles. It was only after further large protests that Mubarak was put on trial over killings of protesters during the uprising. H is trial has dragged on for more than three years, and he is currently facing a retrial after the first verdict, a life sentence, was overturned in appeal.

The judiciary clashed fiercely with Morsi, who in 2012 became Egypt’s first freely elected president and whose presidency saw political domination by the Brotherhood.

Morsi and the Brotherhood frequently accused the judiciary of being Mubarak holdovers opposed to their rule, while judges accused him of trying to dominate the judiciar y. He locked horns with the judges by naming a prosecutor general

cial independence movement under Mubarak are now depicted by rivals as Islamists - which some were, but not all.

United Sayed, the former judge, depicted the disciplinary measures as unifying the judiciary and removing political influence.

“Since Jan 25, 2011, the judicial family has been united, become one fabric and partisan and divisions are finished,” he said.

“We managed to protect the independence of the judiciary and anyone who violated those lofty principles has been sent to disciplinary committees.” The current judge said there is little direct interference from the government in specific decisions of judges - but that the hand of the executive still has control over much of the profession.

The new constitution passed after Morsi’s ouster more deeply enshrines professional independence for the judicial system, giving judges greater say over their own affairs - in part a reaction to Morsi’s rule. Judges now choose the prosecutor general and members of the Supreme Constitutional Court and the judiciary must approve all legislation over the profession before parliament can pass

mer police officers. Also, all judges are trained as prosecutors first. Moreover, the current judge said, Egypt’s court system is overwhelmed with cases amid a crackdown that has arrested some 16,000 people. Lawyers say they are hard pressed to keep up with procedures and defendants.

In one day, there could be as many as two mass trials in the same courtroom.

Amid the rush, prosecutors have come under criticism for putting together shoddy cases for trial. For example, there has been heavy public pressure to prosecute Mubarak-era officials, particularly police over the killing of protesters during the anti-Mubarak uprising and later protests.

However, cases against police have largely been thrown out for lack of evidence.

The judge said that was because prosecution cases were weak. In other cases, judges may be willing to base rulings solely on the prosecutors’ cases, the judge said. “Before the revolution, a murder case would be vetted in details, with evidence and review,” he said. “The trial would take time, and the public would be watching closely. Now the number of deaths is huge. They are meant to investigate all the circumstances. How do they? And who would?” —AP

NEWS

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

CAIRO: An Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood student and supporter of ousted president Mohamed Morsi runs through smoke during clashes with riot police following a demonstration outside Cairo University yesterday. (Inset) An image grab taken from Egyptian state television Al-Masriya yesterday shows Egypt’s Defence Minister and armed forces chief General AbdelFattah Al-Sisi announcing his resignation from his military position to stand in the upcoming Egyptian presidential elections during a televised address. — AF

Sisi resigns to run for president Continued from Page 1 He spoke of the challenges facing the country, including millions of unemployed and a “weak economy”. In an apparent goodwill gesture despite the crackdown, he promised “no exclusion. ... I extend my hand to all at home and abroad - all those who have not been convicted”. “There will be no personal scoresettling,” he said.

However, on the ground there have been no signs of any move toward reconciliation with Morsi’s supporters and the Brotherhood, once the country’s

strongest political force. Authorities yesterday announced the latest in a series of mass trials of suspected Islamists, including the top leader of the Brotherhood Mohammed Badie, on murder and other charges in connection to violence the past months.

Morsi suppor ters have continued near daily protests against Sisi and the interim government.

Yesterday, students in several universities, most of them Islamists, held protests that turned into clashes with security forces. An 18-year-old student was killed in the violence at Cairo University, the Health Ministry said. — AP

Jury finds Abu Ghaith guilty Continued from Page 1 “He has confidence that this is not the end but the beginning. We think there are a number of compelling issues for an appeal,” Cohen said.

US prosecutors alleged that Abu Ghaith was bin Laden’s right-hand man as the group’s main messenger after the 9/11 attacks. Abu Ghaith is most famous for sitting next to bin Laden in a video on September 12, 2001 as he claimed the attacks on US targets that killed nearly 3,000 people the day before. In follow-up videos, he threatened a “storm of airplanes,” proof the government said that he was implicated in the December 2001 plot to blow up a transatlantic flight from Paris with a shoe bomb. Video clips, his confession to an FBI agent en route to the United States last year and his testimony on the stand all proved his guilt, prosecutors said.

Assistant US attorney John Cronan said the first thing bin Laden did as the Twin Towers lay smouldering was to

ask Abu Ghaith to take Al-Qaeda propaganda global. “In the most important period of time in Al-Qaeda’s savage history Suleiman Abu Ghaith was Osama bin Laden’s principle messenger,” he said. “Al-Qaeda is about murdering Americans and regardless of role, participating in that conspiracy in any way whatsoever is a crime. Did that man knowingly participate in that conspiracy? Of course he did.”

Cohen argued there was no evidence linking Abu Ghaith to any specific conspiracy, presenting him as a pious imam who “had no problem” with the Americans who liberated his country after the 1990 Iraqi invasion.

Kaplan told the jury that should Abu Ghaith be deemed a conspirator, under US law he would be responsible for any acts that happened before he joined. Abu Ghaith fled Afghanistan for Iran in 2002. He was arrested in Turkey in 2013 and sent to Jordan, where he was transferred to US custody. Abu Ghaith married bin Laden’s daughter Fatima years after the Sept 11 attacks, a fact that was kept from the jury. — Agencies

Planes, ships chase new leads in search for jet PERTH/KUALA LUMPUR: New satellite images have revealed more than 100 objects in the southern Indian Ocean that could be debris from a Malaysian jetliner missing for 18 days, while planes scouring the frigid seas yesterday also reported seeing potential wreckage. The latest sightings came as searchers stepped up efforts to find some trace of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, thought to have crashed on March 8 with the loss of all 239 people aboard after flying thousands of miles off course.

“We have now had four separate satellite leads, from Australia, China and France, showing possible debris,” Malaysian Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told a news conference. “It is now imperative that we link the debris to MH370.” The latest images were captured by France-based Airbus Defence & Space on Monday and showed 122 potential objects in a 400sq-km area of ocean, Hishammuddin said. The objects varied in size from one metre to 23 m in length, he said.

Flight MH370 vanished from civilian radar screens less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing, and investigators believe someone on the flight may have shut off the plane’s communications systems. Partial military radar tracking showed it turning west and recrossing the Malay Peninsula,

apparently under the control of a skilled pilot. Malaysia’s air force has released few details of its radar tracking beyond saying the plane was last detected off the northwest coast heading towards India.

But the country’s deputy defence minister, Abdul Rahim Bakri, told parliament that no action was taken when the unidentified plane was spotted because it was assumed it had been ordered to turn back, local media said. “It was detected by our radar, but the turn back was by a non-hostile plane and we thought maybe it was at the directive of the control tower,” he was quoted as saying. Asked at the news conference whether air force radar operators thought the plane had been told to turn back by air traffic controllers, Hishammuddin, who is also defence minister, said he could not confirm it.

A dozen aircraft from Australia, the United States, New Zealand, China, Japan and South Korea were once more scouring the seas some 2,500 km southwest of Perth in the hunt for wreckage on Wednesday, after bad weather the previous day forced the suspension of the search. “The crash zone is as close to nowhere as it’s possible to be but it’s closer to Australia than anywhere else,” Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said, before leading the country’s parliament in a moment’s silence. “A consider-

able amount of debris has been sighted in the area where the flight was last recorded. Bad weather and inaccessibility have so far prevented any of it from being recovered. But we are confident that it will be.”

Yesterday’s good weather was unlikely to last, in an area renowned among mariners for high winds and big waves.

“This is only going to be a narrow window of opportunity by the looks of things, because another weather system is moving in for Thursday, which looks like that will bring an increase in winds again and also lead to a reduction in visibility through the rain associated with the cold front,” Neil Bennett, a spokesman for Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology, said.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak this week confirmed Flight MH370 had crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.

Citing satellite-data analysis by British company Inmarsat, he said there was no doubt the Boeing 777 came down in one of the most remote places on Earth.

Recovery of wreckage could unlock clues about why and how the plane had diverted so far off course in one of aviation’s most puzzling mysteries. Theories range from a hijacking to sabotage or a possible suicide by one of the pilots, but investigators have not ruled out technical problems. — Reuters

Arab leaders back Syria revolution...

Continued from Page 1 But Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari, whose country has seen Syria’s Sunni-led rebellion feed a Sunni anti-government insurgency on its own side of the border, made clear Iraq did not approve of the SNC being accorded such status. “Where is their sovereignty? Where is their authority?” Zebari told Reuters. “They are not a state, they don’t have a government even.”

On the Palestinian issue, Arab leaders declared their total backing for the Palestinian Authority and totally rejected the idea of recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, a prerequisite by Israel for the success of the peace negotiations. The summit also condemned Israeli actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and Israeli plans to divide the mosque between Muslims and Jews. The summit also called on member states to fulfill financial aid pledges to the Palestinian Authority.

They condemned terrorism and called on member states to fight and combat terror. The leaders also approved an Egyptian request to host next year’s summit.

Syria sharply criticized the summit declaration and stressed that nothing would change “the clear decision by the Syrian state to protect its people against terrorism and to face up to it forcefully and firmly”.

State news agency SANA said the summit’s expression of support for the opposition was made “in order to satisfy the rich Gulf states that impose their will on the Arab League”. Saudi Arabia and Qatar are key backers of Syria’s revolt.

Little Progress But the Arab leaders offered little evidence of progress after the summit. Gulf opposition to Qatar’s financial backing for Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and radical Islamist rebels in Syria burst into the open last month when Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador from Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain

followed suit. In a declaration read out at the end of the summit, Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry undersecretary Khaled Al-Jarallah said only that the 22 members of the Arab League would “pledge to work decisively to put a final end to divisions”. It was not initially clear whether this even had the status of the communiques customarily issued after Arab League summits.

“The summit is not in agreement, even though Kuwait really tried,” one Western diplomat told Reuters.

“The Saudis did not want it; they wanted to be very firm with Qatar. There are problems about the Brotherhood, the future of Egypt, Syria. Kuwait did all it could to have a consensus. But the Saudis are very firm.” “It seems they didn’t agree on anything except the Palestinian issue. Maybe the message was ‘We don’t want to rock the boat - let’s leave it at that’,” said Emirati political scientist Abdulkhaleq Abdullah. “I think they agreed to disagree.”

Saudi commentator Jamal Khashoggi told Reuters that Arab nations had never been as divided. He compared the use by some states of satellite TV stations to broadcast conflicting views to the Arab world with the past, when leaders such as of Egypt and Syria used radio propaganda to win regional influence. “We’re back to ‘my radio is more powerful than your radio’.

War across the airwaves. This country slanders the other. It’s very upsetting,” said Khashoggi.

“Bashar Al-Assad and Iran are benefiting from this division between the Gulf countries,” said Ebtisam AlQitbi, a professor of political science at the Emirates University in the United Arab Emirates. She criticized a lack of consensus on supporting Assad’s political opponents. “There are no real steps to solve the Syrian crisis. The opposition felt they were alone at this summit,” she said. “Differences in approach to some of the thorniest issues in the reordering of the post-Arab Spring landscape are simply too great to paper over, at least for the moment,” said Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a Gulf expert at the Baker Institute in the United States.

Moonshine just a call away in Iran Continued from Page 1 The renowned Shiraz variety of grape, named after the city in the south of the country, is said to have been brought back to Europe by the Crusaders. Persian poets Hafez and Omar Khayyam extolled the virtues of the grape. “What drunkenness is this that brings me hope? Who was the cupbearer and whence the wine?” Hafez wrote in the 14th century.

In modern Iran, the Armenian community is the main source of home-brewed spirits, notably arak, a generic variety of vodka extracted from sundried grapes. Amin, a 35year-old sports trainer, has turned his 50-sq-m yard into a vineyard and rigged up a crude apparatus in his dingy basement to make the spirit, which costs as little as 50 cents a litre. Which all means if you aren’t inclined to make your own, wine, beer and moonshine are just a phone call away.

“You don’t even need to leave the house,” said Reza, a computer engineer in Tehran. “Nasser, the brewer, will deliver it at your door, VIP service.”

Western Plot The availability of alcohol has caused alarm among the country’s clerical leaders, many of whom accuse the West of plotting to lure Iranians away from pious religious observance. The number of police raids has declined since the pragmatic President Hassan Rouhani took office in August, but the ban on alcohol and severe punishments for producing and consuming it remain intact, for health as well as religious reasons. And in fact alcohol abuse and alcohol poisoning are becoming real problems.

There are as many as 200,000 alcoholics in Iran, according to Iranian media reports, and some believe the number is higher. Last September, a permit was quietly issued for the country’s first alcohol rehabilitation centre in Tehran. “The centre was set up in Tehran to help our citizens. You cannot resolve the problem by ignoring it,” a health ministry official told Reuters, but would not give any details about the number of people under treatment or even the centre’s location.

Home-brewed drinks can cause blindness and even death. Iranian media often carry reports of deaths caused by alcohol, or “mashroob”. Last year Iranian health officials warned the government over the increasing number of “victims of home-made alcohol”, calling on the government to take action. Industrial alcohol is available in supermarkets, purportedly for use in manufacturing but widely consumed.

“Ettehadiye Industrial alcohol (at 140 proof ) is available in supermarkets for only 80,000 Iranian rials ($3.23) with orange, pineapple and apple flavours,” said Hojjat, 25, a student in Tehran.

The other big business around alcohol is smuggling. The Iranian judiciary has accused border officials of complicity in the contraband trade. The elite Revolutionary Guards formed in the wake of the 1979 Islamic revolution, who are in charge of controlling the borders, are widely believed to have a monopoly on the activity, securing a profit of around $12 billion annually, according to opposition websites. “The Guards is like an investment company with a complex of business empires and trading companies ... They are involved,” said Mohsen Sazegara, a former deputy prime minister of Iran and founder of the Guard Corps who is now an activist based in the United States. The corps declined to comment on the accusation.

Brand names smuggled in from neighbouring Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan sell for as much as $70 a bottle. A can of beer is just under $8 a can and bottles of tequila and French brandy are easy to find on the black market for $100. Russian and Georgian vodka finds its way into the Islamic Republic through the rugged Caucasus, across Central Asia’s deserts and the Caspian Sea. Police seizures cause temporary price hikes on the street, but prices and supplies soon recover.

Back in Tehran, at the apartment owned by his wealthy businessman father, Shahriyar says his alcohol-fuelled parties allow his circle to get around the social restrictions imposed by the Islamic establishment. “By drinking we forget about our problems,” he said. “Otherwise we will go crazy with all the limitations on young people in Iran.” — Reuters

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

S P ORTS

Lambert rallies Saints LONDON: Southampton’s England striker Rickie Lambert wants the Saints to wipe some smirks off faces this weekend and reignite the Premier League club’s stuttering season with a win over Newcastle. “We aimed for fourth this season, and people laughed at us, but they didn’t laugh at us straightaway when we were second, they waited until we dropped off a bit,” Lambert told the club’s website. “Our desire is to get into the top four and that’s the way the club has been run in the past four years and that’s the vision the players have and it’s the one that the club has, so for me it’s what the players still want going forward and it’s what we’re expecting to be honest.”

A win would see ninth-placed Southampton overtake eighth-placed Newcastle, but their remaining ambitions this season need to be in context - their 45 points see Southampton trail fourth-placed Arsenal by 18, with only 21 more to play for this season.

“We definitely believe that we can finish above teams like Newcastle,” Lambert added. “I think we adapted to the Premier League last year so we stopped thinking about things in terms of what clubs are bigger than us.

“We’re Southampton, we get on with our own stuff, and really you’re only as big a club as you want to be in your own head, so if you want to think you won’t be bigger than Newcastle then you never will be, but it’s up to us to push on.” —Reuters

R&A asks members to allow women to join ST. ANDREWS: The Royal & Ancient Golf Club will vote in September on whether to have women as members for the first time in its 260-year history. A statement from the club yesterday said all committees are “strongly in favor of the rule change and are asking members to support it.” The Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews has about 2,400 members from around the world and dates to 1754. The clubhouse is among the most famous buildings in golf, overlooking the Old Course at St. Andrews.

Pressure has been building in recent years on the R&A to change its men-only policy, especially after Augusta National Golf Club announced in August 2012 that it was inviting two women to join former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Carolina financier Darla Moore. The British Open last year was held at Muirfield, one of three links courses on the Open rotation that does not allow female members.

“This is welcome news from the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, and I urge its members to follow their committees’ recommendations and vote ‘yes’ for women members,” British sports minister Helen Grant said in a statement.—AP

Allen signs with Bears NEW YORK: Free agent pass rusher Jared Allen has found a new home in the NFC North as the five-time Pro Bowl defensive end has agreed to a four-year deal with the Chicago Bears, the National Football League team said yesterday.

Allen, formerly of the Minnesota Vikings, was named a first team All-Pro four times in his 10-year NFL career and ranks 12th on the league’s all-time sack list with 128.5, second only to John Abraham (133.5) among active players.

The deal is worth a total of $32 million, with $15.5 million in guaranteed money going to Allen over the first two seasons, NFL.com reported.

Allen, who turns 32 next month, had 11.5 sacks last season, down from his league-leading peak of 22 in 2011. Chicago had released their own veteran defensive end, 34-yearold Julius Peppers, who signed a three-year, $30 million free agent contract to join NFC North rival Green Bay Packers earlier this month including $8.5 million for the first year.

The Bears, who allowed their most points and yards ever in a season and tied for last in sacks in 2013, made Allen the fourth defensive end they have signed since the free agency period began on March 11, including Lamarr Houston of the Raiders.—Reuters

Blues drop Leafs as Coyotes roll TORONTO: David Backes completed a hat trick with an empty-net goal to lead the St. Louis Blues to a 5-3 victory Tuesday that sent the Toronto Maple Leafs to their sixth straight loss. TJ Oshie and former Leafs forward Alex Steen also scored for St. Louis, which passed Boston for the most points in the NHL with 105.

Ryan Miller made 21 saves to improve to 32-15-3 in his career against Toronto.

The Blues have won 10 of 13 games since acquiring Miller and forward Steve Ott from Buffalo before the trade deadline.

Joffrey Lupul, Carl Gunnarsson and James van Riemsdyk scored for Toronto, which dropped out of a playoff spot for the first time since Jan. 14, coupled with Washington’s shootout loss to Los Angeles.

The loss ruined the return of Toronto goalie Jonathan Bernier, who made 44 saves in his first game since reinjuring his groin on March 13.

COYOTES 3, PENGUINS 2 Thomas Greiss stopped 23 shots including all 15 he faced over the final two periods - as the Phoenix Coyotes edged the sloppy Pittsburgh Penguins. David Moss, Antoine Vermette and Mikkel Boedker scored for the Coyotes, who never trailed while picking up two vital points in the chase for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Greiss was sharp and received plenty of help from his defense as Phoenix rebounded a night after losing starting goaltender Mike Smith indefinitely with a right leg injury in a loss to the New York Rangers on Monday night.

Jussi Jokinen and Taylor Pyatt scored for Pittsburgh. Marc-Andre Fleury made 26

saves, but the Penguins looked lifeless at times without center Evgeni Malkin, who is out 2-3 weeks with a foot injury.

KINGS 5, CAPITALS 4 Anze Kopitar and Jeff Carter scored in the shootout as the Los Angeles Kings

goal. After trailing 2-0 only 71/2 minutes in, then 3-1 entering the third period, the Kings wound up winning their seventh consecutive road game. They also have seven victories in a row over Washington.

Mike Richards, Dwight King, Marian Gaborik and Dustin Brown scored for the

duced four goals in a span of 7:15. The Islanders led 4-0 in the wild matchup of the bottom two teams in the Metropolitan Division. A combined 20 players had a point. Andrei Loktionov had a goal and an assist, Jeff Skinner and Alexander Semin each scored power-play goals, and Nathan Gerbe added a goal for Carolina.

CANADIENS 2, SABRES 0 Carey Price made 24 saves and Max Pacioretty and Daniel Briere scored thirdperiod goals as the Montreal Canadiens earned a victory against the Buffalo Sabres. Pacioretty’s goal was the 100th of his career as Montreal extended its winning streak to three and won for the sixth time in seven games. The Sabres have one win in their past 10 games. They played their fourth game of a five-game road trip that ends Thursday in Nashville.

TORONTO: Jonathan Bernier No. 45 of the Toronto Maple Leafs makes a save against the St. Louis Blues during an NHL game at the Air Canada Centre. —AFP came back after allowing Alex Ovechkin’s two early power-play goals to beat the Washington Capitals.

The shootout score was 2-0, because Kings goalie Jonathan Quick caught Eric Fehr’s attempt, after rookie forward Evgeny Kuznetsov whiffed on his opening shot for Washington.

Kuznetsov had tied the game with 41.5 seconds left in regulation with his first NHL

Kings in regulation.

ISLANDERS 5, HURRICANES 4 Colin McDonald had two goals and an assist, and Matt Martin also scored twice for the New York Islanders, who held on to beat the Carolina Hurricanes. McDonald scored both of his goals in New York’s fourgoal first period. Cal Clutterbuck and Martin also scored in the burst that pro-

PANTHERS 3, SENATORS 2 Vincent Trocheck and Brandon Pirri scored in a shootout to lift the Florida Panthers past the Ottawa Senators.

Trocheck also scored in regulation and Sean Bergenheim scored a goal for the Panthers. Roberto Luongo made 37 saves.

Clarke MacArthur and Mark Stone scored for the Senators and Robin Lehner stopped 39 shots. Kyle Turris scored in the shootout for Ottawa, but Luongo turned aside attempts by Jason Spezza and Milan Michalek. The Panthers snapped a threegame losing streak. The Senators have lost nine of 10.

PANTHERS 3, SENATORS 2 Vincent Trocheck and Brandon Pirri

scored in a shootout to lift the Florida Panthers past the Ottawa Senators.

Trocheck also scored in regulation and Sean Bergenheim scored a goal for the Panthers. Roberto Luongo made 37 saves.

Clarke MacArthur and Mark Stone scored for the Senators and Robin Lehner stopped 39 shots. Kyle Turris scored in the shootout for Ottawa, but Luongo turned aside attempts by Jason Spezza and Milan Michalek. The Panthers snapped a threegame losing streak. The Senators have lost nine of 10.

BLUE JACKETS 4, RED WINGS 2 Cam Atkinson scored a goal confirmed by video replay in the third period, and Ryan Johansen added an empty-netter for his second of the game to lead the Columbus Blue Jackets over the Detroit Red Wings. The Blue Jackets pulled even with the Red Wings with 80 points in the tight Eastern Conference playoff race.

Brandon Dubinsky and Johansen also had power-play goals, and Curtis McElhinney stopped 22 of 23 shots in relief of Sergei Bobrovsky for the Blue Jackets, who had lost three of four. Gustav Nyquist, last week’s No. 1 star in the NHL, maintained his hot hand with two goals for the Red Wings, who were 3-0-1 in their previous four. He has 20 goals in his last 24 games.

BLACKHAWKS 4, STARS 2 Andrew Shaw and Duncan Keith each had a goal and an assist, as the Chicago Blackhawks held on for a win over the Dallas Stars. Kris Versteeg and Marian Hossa also scored for Chicago, which

needs just one more point to clinch a playoff berth for the sixth straight season.

Patrick Sharp added two assists to help Chicago finish 4-1 against Dallas in the Central Division rivals’ regular-season series. Ryan Garbutt scored twice for the Stars, who fell three points behind Phoenix for the final Western Conference playoff berth. Tyler Seguin set up Garbutt’s goal in the second period to extend his point streak to 10 games. He has seven goals and 10 assists during the run. Blackhawks top prospect Teuvo Teravainen didn’t record a point in his NHL debut.

AVALANCHE 5, PREDATORS 4 Gabriel Landeskog scored two goals in regulation and then netted the winner in the shootout to lead the Colorado Avalanche over the Nashville Predators.

Cody McLeod and Nick Holden also for Colorado, which ended a three-game losing streak. With the shootout tied 1-1, Landeskog beat Pekka Rinne with a wrist shot from the right side. Roman Josi and Matt Cullen each had two goals for Nashville, which had a two-game winning streak snapped.

SHARKS 5, OILERS 2 Joe Pavelski scored three goals and set up another as the San Jose Sharks snapped a two-game losing streak with a victory over the struggling Edmonton Oilers. Patrick Marleau and Marty Havlat also scored for the Sharks (47-18-9) who moved four points up on idle Anaheim for the Pacific Division lead and remained two points behind St. Louis for first in the Western Conference.—AP

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

S P ORTS

Ryder Cup-style event to debut in Malaysia KUALA LUMPUR: Top European and Asian players will face off this week in a new Ryder Cup-style team tournament which has incensed organisers of a rival event and highlighted deep divisions in Asian golf.

The run-up to the inaugural EurAsia Cup has been overshadowed by a public row between the European Tour and organisers of the Royal Trophy, a similar Europe v Asia competition launched in 2006. Team captains Miguel Angel Jimenez of Spain and Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee will lead their regions’ representatives in the three-day event at the Glenmarie Golf and Country Club outside Kuala Lumpur from today.

Organisers of the Royal Trophy, which was spearheaded by late Spanish great Seve Ballesteros, have repeatedly cried foul over the new event and sparred with the European Tour, a joint backer along with the Asian Tour. And Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell, who is on the European team, admitted he has “mixed feelings” about the clash between the two competing tournaments.

“I’ve got mixed feelings for sure about the two events, and I’m just keen for one of these two events to establish itself in a non-Ryder Cup year as a team-building event for the European Tour,” he said. “For Europeans it is important we have a great team event out here in the Asia region.

“Seve is obviously an iconic figure when it comes to European golf and he would want to see the two events to remain strong, so hopefully we can put this event this week on the map a little bit and talk about where we go from here.”

Thongchai’s squad includes his countryman and rising star Kiradech Aphibarnrat, along with Gaganjeet Bhullar and Anirban Lahiri of India, and Japan’s Koumei Oda. Jimenez, meanwhile, will have former Major winner McDowell, Scotland’s Stephen Gallacher, and France’s Victor Dubuisson among his 10-man squad.

“It’s obvious there can only be one tour-

nament going forward and with everyone reading from the same page,” said McDowell. “We need the two sides to work it out. Sadly, it’s unlikely to happen any time soon.” The tournament has become the latest skirmish in the battle for control of Asian golf between the Asian Tour and OneAsia, which supports the Royal Trophy and has been holding tournaments in the region since 2009.

Another element of the controversy is the fact that Jose Maria Olazabal, who was close to Ballesteros, openly supports the Royal Trophy while fellow Spaniard Jimenez is deeply involved with the EurAsia Cup. Jimenez said he hoped to see the EurAsia Cup grow to become an event with similar stature to the long-standing Ryder Cup, which pits Europe against the United States.

“The Ryder Cup started in 1927 and probably now is the event in golf and everyone wants to play and I think is the important thing,” he said.

“Now we start the EurAsia Cup in 2014 and hopefully with the support of the players and the effort of these two big tours, the EurAsia Cup will become a big event along with the Ryder Cup.” The format will see five four-ball matches played on the first day, five foursomes on day two, and 10 singles matches in Saturday’s final round.

Team Europe: Miguel Angel Jimenez (captain, ESP), Thomas Bjorn (DEN), Jamie Donaldson (WAL), Victor Dubuisson (FRA), Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (SPA), Stephen Gallacher (SCO), Pablo Larrazabal (ESP), Joost Luiten (NED), Graeme McDowell (NIR) Thorbjorn Olesen (DEN) Team Asia: Thongchai Jaidee (captain, THA), Kiradech Aphibarnrat ( THA), Gaganjeet Bhullar (IND), Nicholas Fung (MAS), Kim Hyung-Sung (KOR) Anirban Lahiri (IND), Prayad Marksaeng ( THA), Koumei Oda (JPN), Siddikur Rahman (BAN), Hideto Tanihara (JPN). —AFP

Registration commences for ‘Best Corporate Tournament’ DUBAI: The region’s most popular, award winning corporate tournament and the largest corporate networking event on the greens, the Xerox Corporate Golf Challenge, has announced the opening of player registration for the 2014 edition.

Avid Executive golfers are invited to form a company 2-ball team and register online through the tournament’s brand new website, www.xeroxcgc.com, and details of all qualifying rounds (including format) will also be available on the site.

Now in its 16th year, the event will have qualifying rounds in leading golf courses across the Middle East and South Africa, with a 2-day grand final on two iconic golf courses, Tower Links Golf Club and Al Hamra Golf Club, and overnight stay in the magnificent Waldorf Astoria, in the region’s emerging golf destination, Ras Al Khaimah, UAE. Andrew Horne, General Manager Xerox Emirates, said: “The 2014 edition of the Xerox Corporate Golf Challenge builds on our strong golf experience over the last 16 years, and this year brings many exciting new experiences for all participants with our 2014 vision of bringing ‘Corporate back into Corporate Golf ’. We also aim to raise funds for a leading charity with outstanding global reach and impact, the Noor Dubai Foundation, to hopefully support running a mobile eye camp in a developing part of the world.”

The 2014 Xerox Corporate Golf Challenge is supporting the Noor Dubai Foundation, an organization that works towards a vision of a world free of avoidable blindness, primarily in developing countries. The Challenge aims to raise a sum of US$60,000 during the 2014 edition, which is the cost of one mobile Eye Camp that can deliver 4,000 treatments and up to 500 surgeries for the needy.

Craig McConnon, Managing Director, Prestige Wealth Solutions - one of the Challenge’s new sponsors - believes the vision of this year’s series will bring twofold benefits to those supporting and playing. “We’re proud to be associated with the Noor Dubai Foundation and fully support their pioneering efforts to

cure preventable blindness and improve the lives of those affected. Our offices are located strategically and spread across the Middle East and Africa, and we’re very pleased to be sponsoring the 2014 Xerox Corporate Golf Challenge” he said.

The first qualifying round of the 2014 Challenge will be held on Thursday, April 3, 2014, at the Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club, Dubai, UAE, and the second qualifier will be on Thursday, April 24, 2014, at the Emirates Golf Club, Dubai, UAE. After this, qualifiers will be held in Doha, Abu Dhabi, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa, with dates to be announced.

Cheryl Gleeson, Marketing Manager Middle East and Africa at Skandia International commented, “ We are proud to co-sponsor the 2014 Xerox Corporate Golf Challenge. Building strong brand recognition across the markets we operate in is important to help us achieve our aim of being recognised as a leading investment business.

Our sponsorship of the Xerox Corporate Golf Challenge provides a great opportunity to increase awareness among our target markets. We look forward to working with Xerox to build on the success of the Corporate Golf Challenge, and continuing to deliver a highly respected, enjoyable tournament.”

2014’s Challenge brings with it an exciting field of sponsors, including Prestige Wealth Solutions (PWS - the Dubai-based firm of financial advisers), Skandia International (par t of Old Mutual Wealth) and long-time supporter Ecco. Event partners are Crystal Gallery, ProGolf International, Dubai Golf, and OnSide Sports, and with Golf Digest, Sport 360, Arabian Golf TV, and UAE Golf Online as media partners for this year.

The Xerox Corporate Golf Challenge is proud to partner with Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) Tourism Authority, the Waldorf Astoria, Tower Links Golf Club and Al Hamra Golf Club, all in RAK, as series destination partners, who will host the Grand Final event in December in a promising unmatched 2-day weekend experience.

Photo of the day

Jake Marshall poses for an underwater portrait on the North Shore of Oahu, HI, USA.— www.redbull.com

Machida upstages Hanyu SAITAMA: Tatsuki Machida of Japan upstaged compatriot and Olympic gold medalist Yuzuru Hanyu yesterday to finish first in the short program at the World Figure Skating Championships.

Machida, who was fifth at last month’s Sochi Games, hit all his jumps and scored a career-high 98.21 points to finish ahead of Javier Fernandez of Spain, who had 96.42 points.

Skating to music from the movie “East of Eden,” Machida electrified the capacity crowd of 18,000 at Saitama Super Arena with a near-flawless routine that opened with a quad toeloop, triple toeloop combination. The 24-year-old Machida also included a triple axel and a triple lutz in his routine.

“I got motivated when I saw Hanyu win the gold in Sochi,” Machida said. “I think this is the best chance I’ll have to get a medal and will do my best in the free skate. I was able to get a lot of positive energy from the crowd tonight.”

Hanyu, who is looking to add a world title to the gold he won in Sochi, fell on the opening quad toeloop and finished with 91.24 points for third place.

“Needless to say the toeloop wasn’t good,” Hanyu said. “But how I jumped wasn’t that bad so I am going to adjust for the free program.”

Fernandez, who was fourth in Sochi, impressed the judges with a dynamic routine and got high marks for a triple lutz, triple toeloop combination.

“One skater did better than me but I am still happy with my performance,” Fernandez said.

“Sometimes it’s hard to get motivated right after the Olympics by my coaches told me to work hard and I can see that hard works pays off.”

Tomas Verner of the Czech Republic was fourth, followed by Han Yan of China. Jeremy Abbott and Max Aaron of the United States finished eighth and ninth, respectively.

Three-time world champion Patrick Chan of

TOKYO: Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan performs during a men’s short program of the World Figure Skating Championships in Saitama. —AP Canada is skipping the championships. The men’s event concludes with the free skate on Friday.

In the pairs event, four-time world champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany were first after the short program.

Skating to music from the movie “Pink Panther,” the Germans were solid in all their elements, although all the top couples did not make any major mistakes.

Two-time Olympic bronze medalists Savchenko and Szolkowy received 79.02 points to finish ahead of world bronze medalists Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford of Canada, who had 77.01 points.

Olympic silver medalists Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov of Russia were third with 76.15 points. The pairs event concludes today with the free skate. The women’s short program is also scheduled for today. —AP

Vettel, Franklin winners at emotional Laureus awards KUALA LUMPUR: Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel and swim star Missy Franklin were named Laureus sportsman and woman of the year yesterday in a ceremony in Malaysia that was tinged with tragedy over the MH370 plane disaster. Germany’s treble-winners Bayern Munich beat out rugby’s All Blacks for team of 2013 and Rafael Nadal won comeback of the year at the glamorous awards show in downtown Kuala Lumpur.

The ceremony, packed with some of the greats of world sport, was preceded by a moment’s silence for the 239 people killed when flight MH370 crashed in the Indian Ocean in still unexplained circumstances. Malaysian Prime

Minister Najib Razak, who just two days earlier announced the fate of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane and passengers, said “our thoughts and our prayers” were with the victims.

“At this difficult time we draw strength from individual stories of perseverance, of generosity, of endurance. The nominees here tonight display those values,” Najib told the audience in the Malaysian capital.

Vettel, F1’s youngest four-time world champion and in Kuala Lumpur for this week’s Malaysian Grand Prix, won sportsman of 2013 ahead of Usain Bolt, LeBron James, Nadal, Cristiano Ronaldo and Mo Farah. “If I’ve learned anything tonight, surely it’s the fact that sport

KUALA LUMPUR: Spain’s MotoGP rider Marc Marquez kisses his Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year trophy as he poses for photos during the Laureus World Sports Awards. —AP

can be a very, very big inspiration,” an emotional Vettel said. “I’ve come here and seen many heroes of mine... this (award) is very inspirational, very special.”

Franklin, 18, beat tennis great Serena Williams and Russian pole vault queen Yelena Isinbayeva, among others, to the women’s award and afterwards she offered her condolences for the plane crash. “It’s a horrific tragedy. My thoughts and prayers are with you along with the thoughts and prayers of billions of people around the world,” said Franklin, who won a record six golds at last year’s world championships.

Spain’s Nadal won comeback of the year for his amazing recovery from a career-threatening knee injury when he won the French Open and US Open and returned to world number one.

“Everyone knew how tough last year was with my injury. I thought I would never have the chance to come back,” said Nadal, who picked up the third Laureus award of his career.

Afghanistan’s cricket team were honored with a spirit of sport award for their feat in rising from refugee camps and long-running conflict to qualify for the 2015 World Cup. Spanish MotoGP rider Marc Marquez won breakthrough of the year for becoming his sport’s youngest ever world champion at the age of 20 years and 266 days.

Skier Marie Bochet of France, who was born without a left forearm, was named best sportsperson with a disability and British BMX rider Jamie Bestwick won the action sports award.

The winners were chosen by secret ballot by a 46-strong panel of sporting greats. Bobby Charlton, Steve Waugh, Johan Cruyff, Sebastian Coe, Mark Spitz and Nadia Comaneci were just some of the big names at the show.

Organisers had earlier scaled back press events and dedicated a football match featuring legends of the game to the victims of the plane crash after it was confirmed on Monday.

The widely televised show was moved from Rio de Janeiro after authorities in Brazil, which has seen protests over its hosting of the World Cup, became concerned over the reaction to spending public money on the event.—AFP

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

S P ORTS

Mavericks defeat Thunder

MELBOURNE: Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo of Australia racing in a file picture taken on March 15, 2014. —AFP

F1 party arrives in mourning Malaysia KUALA LUMPUR: The world of Formula One descends on Kuala Lumpur for the often dramatic Malaysian Grand Prix with excitement around the Sepang circuit unusually muted as the country mourns the disappearance of flight MH370.

The Sepang circuit is a stone’s throw from Kuala Lumpur International Airport where the Malaysian Airlines flight carrying 239 passengers and crew departed 18 days ago and has since become the home for many associated with the story.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said earlier this week that the Beijingbound flight had crashed into the southern Indian Ocean with a search for debris ongoing some 2,500 km (1,550 miles) southwest of Perth in Western Australia.

While the Laureus Sports Awards in Kuala Lumpur yesterday opted to scale down their week of events in response to Najib’s announcement, the Formula One party has continued as normal for the 16th staging of Malaysia’s premier sporting event. That meant Chinese relatives of the missing MH370 passengers were forced to change hotels to make way for those involved in the glamour sport, which started its new season in Australia two weeks ago. The drivers have been quick to offer their support and Lewis Hamilton also has a “#PrayForMH370” message on the side of his Mercedes car this week and he will be hoping it is on display for the entire 56 laps of Sunday’s race after only managing a brief three-lap run in Melbourne.

The season opening race was won by the Briton’s team mate Nico Rosberg after the German overtook pole sitter Hamilton before the first turn and eased to the chequered flag.

Mercedes appear to have been quickest in adapting to the new V6 turbocharged hybrid engines that have levelled the playing field after years of Red Bull dominance but they remain wary of being labelled championship favorites.

“While we were pleased to come away from Melbourne with a win, we were also left with plenty to think about,” Mercedes executive director Paddy Lowe said. “As is

to be expected with such new technology, we are learning more about the car with every lap. This inevitably brings more problems to the surface, all of which require careful management. “Our priority has therefore been to arrive in Malaysia in better shape mechanically than we left Australia.”

ENCOURAGING PACE One driver in greater need of major progress is four-times defending world champion Sebastian Vettel, who failed to finish in Melbourne after reliability issues dashed his hopes of a 10th race win in a row after only a few laps at Albert Park.

Vettel’s pre-season had been struck by big question marks over the Red Bull’s Renault-powered unit but the German saw a few shoots of optimism ahead of the Malaysian race which he won in controversial style last year after defying team orders.

“We still have a lot of work to do with the car but it was encouraging to see that our pace was better than expected in Australia,” said Vettel, who won 13 of last season’s 19 races. “Hopefully we can build on that and start collecting some strong points in the next two races.”

His new team mate Daniel Ricciardo thought he had sealed a brilliant second place finish on his Red Bull debut at his home grand prix but the podium place was taken away from him by the FIA after the Australian was deemed to have broken fuel rules.

Red Bull have appealed the decision with a verdict due after next week’s Bahrain race in the Manama desert. McLaren’s Danish rookie Kevin Magnussen was promoted up to second in Melbourne following Ricciardo’s disqualification with team mate Jenson Button joining him on the podium in a bright start to the season for the team that had a 2013 to forget.

However, the Briton said the car lacked race pace to challenge for victory on the notoriously quick Sepang circuit where afternoon thunderstorms are again predicted, which could play havoc on the undulating track. —Reuters

HAVANA: In this March 23, 2014 photo, a rodeo clown (right) works to distract a bull as a rider slips off during rodeo competition at the 17th Boyeros Cattlemen’s International Fair in Havana, Cuba. —AP

Remarkable feats of daredevilry in Cuba HAVANA: Mustached and goateed men with broad-brimmed hats and leather chaps mingle in the dust, and talking on cellphones. A woman tenderly straightens the red necktie of a nervous teen as he prepares to mount a bucking bronco. A man on horseback abruptly bolts through the arena and launches himself onto a young cow, headlocking it into the mud horns-first. Cuba’s eight-day international rodeo festival is half party and half a cowboy-skill showcase that would seem right at home in Nevada, Wyoming or anywhere else in the American West.

“You know that Cuba’s national sport is baseball. In second place, then, are the rodeo stadiums,” said Teresa Gonzalez, the Cuban rodeo’s national statistics keeper. “Whenever there’s a rodeo, across the whole country, the stadiums fill up.”

Popular around the Americas, rodeo has its roots in the skills required of cattle herders in Spain and the New World. The word itself comes from the Spanish term for “roundup.”

The roughly 60 participants competing in the event, part of the Boyeros Cattlemen’s International Fair, came mostly from Cuba but also Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and Panama.

There’s still a strong cultural influence in

Cuba from its one-time Spanish colonizers, and the rodeo featured all the standby traditional events: bull riding, calf roping, barrel racing, lasso demonstrations - and remarkable feats of daredevilry.

Between competitions two stunt riders raced around the arena on a horse, one standing upright atop the saddle as his partner dangled precariously to the side, a single hand clutching the pommel. The quirkiest moment came in an event that could be dubbed “Dancing With the Equestrians.”

Riders took turns coaxing their mounts to cut a rug to amplified music, with the winner eliciting laughter and cheers for a dance to reggaeton - the tropical music notorious for its steamy lyrics. Against the thumping beat, the horse gyrated its hindquarters in imitation of the suggestive, twerk-like dance steps associated with the genre.

Entire families turned out to watch, legs dangling over the side of the bleacher railing, beneath a black mesh screen that kept at bay the worst effects of the Caribbean sun.

“An event like this one is very important because it’s the annual fair where the best (competitors) take part,” Gonzalez said. “You couldn’t even walk in the streets because there were so many people.”—AP

DALLAS: Dirk Nowitzki scored seven of his 32 points in overtime, leading the Dallas Mavericks to a 128-119 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday night.

Nowitzki also had 10 rebounds and six assists.

In Dallas’ loss to Brooklyn on Sunday, he was 2 for 12 from the field in his worst shooting performance of the season.

Kevin Durant led Oklahoma City with 43 points. He has scored at least 25 in 36 consecutive games in the longest such streak since Michael Jordan’s 40-game run during the 198687 season. Dallas had seven players score in double figures. Jose Calderon went 6 for 8 from 3point range and finished with 22 points.

Russell Westbrook scored 23 for Oklahoma City. All of his points came in regulation, when he played 31:50. He added another minute in overtime. Westbrook is limited to 30 to 32 minutes per game because of his oft-injured right knee. The Mavericks scored the first five points of the extra period on two free throws by Nowitzki and a 3-pointer by Calderon. They never trailed again.

CAVALIERS 102, RAPTORS 100 Dion Waiters scored 24 points and Luol Deng added 19 as Cleveland prevented Toronto from getting closer to a playoff spot.

Dion Waiters scored 24 points and Luol Deng added 19 as the Cleveland Cavaliers prevented Toronto from getting closer to a playoff spot with a 102-100 win over the Raptors on Tuesday night. The Cavs blew a 21-point lead, but made just enough plays down the stretch to snap a five-game losing streak at home. They did it without All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving, who missed his fifth straight game with a strained biceps tendon.

Kyle Lowry scored 22 for the Raptors, who had a chance to tie it in the final seconds but guard Greivis Vasquez lost his footing and committed a turnover with 1.9 seconds left.

Toronto led 95-94 with 6:45 remaining, but went just 1 of 9 from the floor and scored five points the rest of the way. Tristan Thompson added 15 points and 13 rebounds for Cleveland.

MAGIC 95, TRAIL BLAZERS 85 Tobias Harris had 25 points and 11 rebounds as Orlando stopped a nine-game losing streak.

Nik Vucevic added 22 points and 10 boards for the Magic, who led by just eight at the half but used scoring spurts in the third and fourth quarters to put the game away. Victor Oladipo had 13 points and six assists. Robin Lopez led Portland with 20 points and 13 rebounds.

The Blazers, who entered the night in fifth place in the West, have lost three straight. They were without forward LaMarcus Aldridge, who missed his seventh consecutive game with a lower back contusion. The Magic closed the third quarter on an 11-2 run and increased their lead to 19 in the opening minutes of the fourth.

LAKERS 127, KNICKS 96 Xavier Henry scored 22 points and Nick

DALLAS: Oklahoma City Thunder center Steven Adams (12) goes down with the ball against Dallas Mavericks guard Jose Calderon, of Spain, during the first half of an NBA basketball game. —AP Young hit five 3-pointers while scoring 20 points after an eight-game winning streak.

Knicks President Phil Jackson watched his as the Los Angeles Lakers dropped a franchiserecord 51 points in the third quarter of their vic- new team and his former club from a luxury tory over the New York Knicks. Kent Bazemore suite high above the court. Carmelo Anthony scored 18 points as the Lakers won consecutive scored 29 points for the Knicks, who couldn’t games for the first time in more than three stop the Lakers’ patchwork roster from hitting 18 weeks with a phenomenal offensive effort 3-pointers in the opener of New York’s five-game against the Knicks, who have lost two straight West Coast road trip.—AP

NBA results/standings Cleveland 102, Toronto 100; Orlando 95, Portland 85; Dallas 128, Oklahoma City 119 (OT); LA Lakers 127, NY Knicks 96.

Eastern Conference Western Conference Atlantic Division Northwest Division W L PCT GB Oklahoma City52 19 .732 Toronto 39 31 .557 Portland 45 27 .625 7.5 Brooklyn 37 32 .536 1.5 Minnesota 34 35 .493 17 NY Knicks 29 42 .408 10.5 Denver 32 39 .451 20 Boston 23 47 .329 16 Utah 23 48 .324 29 Philadelphia 15 56 .211 24.5 Pacific Division Central Division LA Clippers 50 21 .704 Indiana 51 20 .718 Golden State 44 27 .620 6 Chicago 40 31 .563 11 Phoenix 42 29 .592 8 Cleveland 28 44 .389 23.5 Sacramento 25 45 .357 24.5 Detroit 26 44 .371 24.5 LA Lakers 24 46 .343 25.5 Milwaukee 13 58 .183 38 Southwest Division Southeast Division San Antonio 54 16 .771 Miami 48 21 .696 Houston 48 22 .686 6 Washington 36 34 .514 12.5 Memphis 42 28 .600 12 Charlotte 34 37 .479 15 Atlanta 31 38 .449 17 Dallas 43 29 .597 12 Orlando 20 52 .278 29.5 New Orleans 30 40 .429 24

KFH lifts Kuwait Banks Club trophy Burgan Bank wins Plate Final KUWAIT: In a keenly contested final for the prestigious Kuwait Banks Club league 2014 trophy, Kuwait Finance House rode their luck considerably to bag the coveted KBC trophy for the second consecutive year by prevailing over the fancied Boubyan Bank in the final played at Sulaibiya ground.

In a rain affected match, having scored a mammoth total of 179, Boubyan were quite unlucky to have been placed Runners Up as the D/L method proved to be the villain when the match was called off in the 15th over when KFH were slightly ahead in the run rate.

Aamer the dashing Boubyan opener batting impressively gave Boubyan a bright start and did not waste the perfect condition to hammer an aggressive 64 runs and with Saber (19 runs) added 58 for the first wicket. Nothing could stop Aamer as he clouted 4 huge hits over the ropes and struck 5 fours and with Rifkas Ibrahim, the duo added another 37 runs.

Rifkas played a ver y useful & elegant innings of 40 runs and with Hisham as his partner, the pair added 67 runs to the fourth wicket to post a handsome total of 179 runs in 20 overs. Hisham contributed a quick fire 33 runs containing 4 boundaries and a six. KFH captain Faraz tried as many as 6 bowlers in which Irfan Bhatti & Nisar bowled extremely well to share 2 wickets each.

Needing to score almost 9 runs an over, KFH lost their flamboyant opener Abdulla too soon and it was left for Zahid & Faraz to build a 54 runs partnership for the 2nd wicket. Zahid’s sweetly timed knock of 43 runs had 2 sixes & 6 well connected hits to the fence.

Sensing the possibility of a heavy shower, both the teams were updating themselves to the calculation as Boubyan bowlers maintained a consistent line and length and did not let the free scoring KFH batsmen take much liberty whereas KFH batsmen were going for great guns to match their opponents. Irfan Bhatti with his trademark lofted shots then rose to the occasion and gave KFH a much needed impetus to hit a lightening 35 runs and as the 13th over was in progress the game was halted due to downpour. KFH were declared winners due to their having better run rate at stoppage of play. Irfan Bhatti was declared player of the match for his all-round cricketing skills.

In a tensed and nail-biting match, Burgan Bank had to take all their weapons out to narrowly prevail over Kuwait International Bank & win the KBC -Plate final in the morning session. Both the teams equally balanced, battled neck to neck in the stipulated 15 overs match which was reduced due to heavy overnight rains and it ended in a tie which saw both the teams going for the bowl out, a very rare scenario witnessed in the tournament.

Cup Finalists KFH and Boubyan teams pose after the finals.

Plate trophy winners- Burgan Bank Team

Burgan won the toss and invited KIB to bat first and the decision paid well for Burgan as they got rid of Ali M, the prolific scorer of KIB very cheaply. Emphasizing on staying at the wicket, rather than trying expansive shots, Nadeem and Shiraz sticking to the basics posted 76 runs in 11 overs.

The heavy outfield was one great obstacle but gradually started drying up as the sun started shining. Nadeem’s knock of 43 runs was worth a ton of gold as KIB posted a much decent total of 102 runs in 15 overs. Shiraz contributed a well- timed 17 runs too. Amit, Ashraf, Sharma & Ejaz shared a wicket each.

Burgan openers Waheed & Kunal laid another useful partnership of 22 runs before KIB allrounder Ali M fought back with a 3 wicket haul with his wobbling medium-pace. Waheed

scored 12 runs and Kunal batting beautifully top scored with a fluent 33 runs.

Burgan in 15 overs ended up with the same total of KIB. In the five attempts given to both the teams, Burgan hit the timber twice as KIB failed to do so and Burgan Bank captured their first trophy of the season. Kunal Singh of Burgan was declared Player of the match for his splendid batting display.

The presentation ceremony was graced by the presence of Mahmoud Bastaki, Vice Chairman, Kuwait Banks Club who presented the trophies to the Winning and Runner up teams along with Asad Baig, Director General, Kuwait Cricket. Individual prizes were handed over to players by Kuwait Cricket Council members Riaz Choudhary, Mehaboob Khan, Iqbal Rajpurkar, Amanullah Palekar and Taher Khan.

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

S P ORTS

Guardiola betters Bayern’s record in debut season BERLIN: Pep Guardiola won his first Bundesliga title on Tuesday as recordbreaking Bayern Munich were confirmed German champions with seven games to spare, bettering predecessor Jupp Heynckes’ record of six.

Having won 14 out of 19 titles in four years with Barcelona, Guardiola collects his third title in his nine months since taking charge of Bayern. But he pins the success firmly on his players. “A coach is always only good because he’s at a big club with great players,” said Guardiola before the Hertha Berlin win.

“I have won many titles, because I have had great players, they deserve the praise, they are unbelievable.” Guardiola’s modesty hides the fact he moulded the likes of Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi into footballing superstars and seems intent on doing the same at Bayern.

The Bavarian giants sent records tumbling under Heynckes, but Guardiola has

taken the European champions to a new level. Guardiola has added a “new dimension” with his “positive fanaticism” to his work, according to chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.

“He has a clear plan and I have never seen such diligence in any other coach,” Rummenigge told German daily Die Welt.

Director of sport Matthias Sammer heaped praise on the Spaniard after the final whistle in Berlin. “We build the foundations under Heynckes and now we have developed them further,” said Sammer.

“We have selectively improved the team and Pep Guardiola is not only a specialist, but also an exceptional person.”

There is no stone left unturned in Guardiola’s relentless pursuit of perfection.

He was disgruntled in a press conference last December because his players had been subdued during the first 15 minutes of a training session. They had trounced Werder Bremen 7-0 away just 48 hours

before.

But Guardiola’s concerns proved justified as Bayern suffered their only defeat this season when they lost the following day at home to Manchester City.

Guardiola showed a ruthless streak when Mario Mandzukic was briefly dropped at the start of 2014 for poor performances in training.

It was a bold decision to drop the team’s top-scorer and the Croatia striker netted in all six league games before last Saturday’s 2-0 win at Mainz 05.

While Bayern dropped only 11 league points least season, Guardiola’s side have dropped just four so far. Guardiola recently referred to the Bundesliga as “pizza and burgers” and likened the Champions League to a “nice restaurant”.

While the Spaniard drew criticism for his comments, Bayern’s rivals have failed to serve up a decent challenge. Guardiola tackled his first Bayern press conference

last June in German and insisted he would neither poach any Barcelona players, nor make major changes.

He soon did both as Spain’s Under-21 captain Thiago Alcantara was signed from Barca and a new 4-1-4-1 system was introduced, briefly abandoning the 4-2-3-1 formation which won the treble.

Captain Philipp Lahm was switched from right-back, where he is one of the world’s best, to the midfield. Guardiola got off to a losing start as Bayern were beaten 4-2 at Borussia Dortmund last July in the German Super Cup final, but have not looked back since.

He got one over old Spanish league rival Jose Mourinho in Prague when Chelsea were beaten on penalties in the UEFA Super Cup final.

Bayern then picked off their Bundesliga rivals one by one. Schalke were humbled 4-0 in Gelsenkirchen in September, while Dortmund they went down 3-0 at home in

November. Bayer Leverkusen put up a fight when Bayern came away from the BayArena with a 1-1 draw in October.

Bayern claimed a record tenth consecutive Champions League victory when they beat CSKA Moscow away in December before lifting the Club World Cup in Morocco.

The only defeat came in the final Champions League group stage when Bayern threw away a two-goal lead to lose 3-2 at home to Manchester City.

They still managed to finish as group winners. The closest Bayern have come to a Bundesliga defeat was at VfB Stuttgart in January. They were 14 minutes away from losing before Claudio Pizarro headed them level, then Thiago hit a stunning 93rdminute winner.

Bayern’s last league defeat-at home to Leverkusen in October 21012 — came with Heynckes in charge as the Bavarian giants currently enjoy a record 52-match unbeaten run.—AFP

Hosts Australia draw S Korea in Asian Cup

Manchester United’s Scottish manager David Moyes.

After brief respite, dark clouds loom over Moyes LONDON: After a brief ray of sunshine in a stormy season, the dark clouds were hovering over Old Trafford again yesterday in the wake of another humiliation for the champions.

A 3-0 home defeat by local rivals Manchester City, their third in a row against them at Old Trafford, drained away any optimism born out of victories against Olympiakos and West Ham United the previous week and illustrated once again just how far United have fallen in such a short space of time.

United manager David Moyes wore a glazed look as City’s gloating fans mocked him with chants of “five more years” while thousands of the home faithful voted with their feet, heading for the exits long before Yaya Toure put a realistic gloss to the scoreline with City’s 90th minute third.

“I am the one who picks the team,” Moyes, portrayed on one Old Trafford banner as the “Chosen One”, said after the latest in a series of debilitating setbacks.

“I take responsibility and always will do. It is disappointing. I thought it would be a tough year but I hoped it would be more competitive.”

Club stewards had to step in when some fans tried to haul down the “Chosen One” banner as their frustration boiled over at another home humiliation days after Liverpool thumped them 3-0 there.

This season they have lost six times at their former fortress in the league and on home form alone they would be 12th in the table, rather than the seventh spot they currently inhabit with seven games left. While league defeats against the likes of West Bromwich Albion and Newcastle United, not to mention an FA Cup exit against Swansea, were hurtful, it is the way they have been outclassed by Liverpool and Manchester City in consecutive home league fixtures that have been most ego-damaging. United’s record

against the current top four is equally dire with one win, two draws and five defeats the sum total of their efforts against Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City and Arsenal.

Moyes had a similarly poor record against the top-four when he was Everton manager but things were supposed to be different once he was given the controls at United.

SQUAD DECLINE The reality is, however, that he has inherited a squad in decline, with too many players who would struggle to get a place on the bench at the Etihad, Stamford Bridge or Anfield.

England squad player Tom Cleverley, who has become the whipping boy of the fans, was hauled off at halftime on Tuesday but to single him for United’s malaise would be unfair.

Moyes’ two big signings since taking the job, Marouane Fellaini and Juan Mata, were outclassed by City’s midfield slickers while Michael Carrick laboured in United’s misfiring engine room.

While there is some sympathy for Moyes and continued support from Ferguson, who watched from the stands on Tuesday, and former players, patience is beginning to wear thin.

United look cumbersome in defence, short of guile and pace in midfield and totally reliant up front on Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie, who missed Tuesday’s match because of a knee injury that will keep him out of next week’s daunting Champions League quarter-final against a rampant Bayern Munich side.

With no Champions League football, barring something extraordinary in the next month or so, next season Moyes faces a big challenge attracting the very best to Old Trafford in what will be a crucial summer of rebuilding.—Reuters

SYDNEY: Hosts Australia were handed a tricky opening round at the 2015 Asian Cup finals when they were grouped with twice former champions South Korea, Oman and Kuwait in the draw at Sydney Opera House yesterday.

The Socceroos open the tournament against Kuwait in Melbourne on Jan. 9 and will hope to be still in the reckoning when the final takes place 23 days later at Sydney’s Olympic Stadium.

Although two teams will qualify from Group A for the quarter-finals, the hosts could have hoped for easier first round opposition than South Korea, who they will play in their final group match in Brisbane on Jan. 17.

“You want to avoid them but are you going to avoid them the whole tournament? At some point you have to play a team,” Australia coach Ange Postecoglou told reporters.

“That first game against Kuwait in Melbourne becomes a real critical one. We need to get off to a really strong start and if we can get those three points that will put pressure on the other teams.”

Champions Japan were drawn in Group D with Jordan, who they lost against for the first time in World Cup qualifying last year, 2007 Asian Cup winners Iraq and the champions of this year’s Asian Challenge Cup, which will be decided in May. “We played against both teams in the World Cup qualifiers and both matches were tough, so I can expect it is going to be tough again,” Japan Football Association general secretary Hara Hiromi said.

“We will do our best to play Australia in the final.” Iran, the top ranked Asian team in the FIFA rankings, will play a United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain in Group C with the talented young Emirati side looking likely to be their biggest rivals.

“Group C is quite balanced with three Arabic countries, neighbours, the rivals, a lot of tension and emotion,” said Iran coach Carlos Queiroz, whose contract ends after this year’s World Cup. “It will tough but I think Iran will have a good chance. We must play the World Cup intensively as an Asian Cup preparation. And if that happens, I think whoever comes after me has a good chance to compete for a medal.”

OPEN GROUP Uzbekistan face Saudi Arabia, China and North Korea in Group B and the French coach of the Chinese team, Alain Perrin, said he thought all four teams would fancy their chances of progressing.

“I know Uzbekistan very well and they are a strong team to play but I think in this group, everyone can lose points against anyone, so it’s

SYDNEY: AFC General Secretary Alex Soosay displays Saudi Arabia’s draw in Group B during the draw of the AFC Asian Cup Australia 2015 in Sydney yesterday. Hosts Australia will play Kuwait in the opening game of the 2015 Asian Cup in the draw. —AFP open,” he said.

“It’s important to have a good start and to create a good spirit because the quality of the teams are very close and maybe the spirit of the team can make the difference.”

Australia progressing is the key to the success of the tournament and Oman coach Paul Le Guen, whose team embarrassed the Socceroos in a 2-2 draw in Sydney in World Cup qualifying last year, said he thought the hosts were favourites.

“They will host the competition, the crowd will be behind them, so we will be outsiders and they will be favorites but we will try to bother them like we did a few months ago,” he said.

“I think it is the toughest group of the competition, it will be very difficult for us. We are a little bit unlucky but I keep smiling.”

South Korea, like Japan, Australia and Iran, will be playing at the World Cup before the Asian Cup and Brazil was still the focus for their coach Hong Myung-bo.

“It’s not an easy group, we’ve been grouped with the home team and as Australia have home advantage, it’s going to be a very difficult match,” he said. “First we have to play the World Cup in Brazil and then we can think about playing in Australia.”—Reuters

Draw for the 2015 Asian Cup SYDNEY: Draw for the group stage of 2015 Asian Cup finals, which will take place in Australia from Jan. 9-31 next year:

GROUP A Australia South Korea Oman Kuwait

GROUP B Uzbekistan Saudi Arabia China North Korea

GROUP C Iran United Arab Emirates Qatar Bahrain

GROUP D Japan Jordan Iraq 2014 Asian Challenge Cup winners

A modern Colosseum: Roma reveals new stadium plan

TORREON: Javier Toledo (right) of Uruguay’s Penarol celebrates his goal next to Mexico’s Santos Laguna player Jonathan Lacerda during their Copa Libertadores football match. —AFP

Laguna heap misery on Penarol TORREON: Five-time champions Penarol’s dismal Libertadores Cup campaign continued when they were thumped 4-1 by rampant Mexicans Santos Laguna, leaving the Uruguayans on the brink of group stage elimination. Colombian forward Darwin Quintero scored twice as Group Eight leaders Santos made sure of a place in the knockout stage with a match to spare while their opponents remain stuck on four points, two behind Arsenal of Argentina, who also have a game in hand.

Penarol got off to a perfect start at the Corona stadium in the desert city of Torreon when Javier Toledo headed in from close range in the first minute after a mixup in the home defence, who also had a player on the ground injured.

Quintero replied in the ninth minute when he got in front of the Penarol defence and cleverly volleyed home a long ball into the area. Santos, with 13 points from five

games, ran riot in the second half as they repeatedly exposed Penarol’s flat back four.

Quintero floated a pass over the Penarol defence to set Javier Orozco clear and he sidefooted past Juan Castillo in the 59th minute. Quintero added a third in the 78th minute after running onto a another ball over the top of the defence and fellow Colombian Andres Renteria completed the scoring one minute later after he also got away. Third-placed Penarol were left to face a 20-hour trip home with stops in Mexico City and Lima. Venezuelans Zamora kept up their hopes of qualifying from Group Four with a 2-0 win over Paraguay ’s Nacional in Tuesday’s other game.

Juan Falcon broke clear to put Zamora ahead from a narrow angle in the 58th minute and John Jairo Murillo added another eight minutes later, leaving the hosts second with seven points and Nacional third with five.—Reuters

ROME: Three-time Serie A champion Roma plans to build a new privately financed stadium inspired by the Colosseum on the outskirts of the Italian capital.

Labeled “Stadio della Roma” for now - until naming rights are awarded - the facility will seat 52,500 spectators and be able to expand to 60,000 for major matches.

Building costs for the stadium itself are estimated at 300 million euros ($414 million) but the overall price, including surrounding infrastructure and transport, will run far higher.

The new stadium will be in the Tor di Valle area in the city’s southwest, about halfway between downtown and Fiumicino airport.

Slated to open for the 2016-17 season, the stadium has been a big goal since Roma was purchased by a four-man group of Boston executives, who in 2011 became the first foreign majority owners of a Serie A club. For years, Roma has shared the Stadio Olimpico with city rival Lazio but that stadium features a running track and poor sightlines for football.

“The Stadio Olimpico has been a great place for us to play but it has clearly had its time,” Roma president James Pallotta said on Wednesday. “(The new stadium) is clearly going to give us a competitive advantage.”

Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino sat next to Pallotta at the City Hall presentation and supported the project, although he warned the stadium would not open until the necessary surrounding infrastructure was in place.

“Hopefully we will have an expedited process and a two-year construction plan,” Pallotta said.

“I want to see Francesco (Totti, Roma’s 37-yearold captain) be the first person to run out on that pitch.”

The stadium is being designed by American architect Dan Meis, who has drawn up the plans

for numerous stadiums and arenas in the United States, plus the Saitama Super Arena in Japan.

“It’s impossible designing a building here without considering the architectural history in Rome,” Meis said. “The stadium will have an outer wall that will be a new vision of the Colosseum.”

It will be purpose-built for football, the fans seated as close as possible to the pitch and a three -tiered seating design with a sharp inclined.

Keeping fans in mind, there will be a 14,000seat detached section behind one of the goals for the hard-core “ultra” supporters, replacing the Curva Sud from the Stadio Olimpico.

There will also be luxury boxes, plus commer-

cial areas and training grounds outside the stadium. Financing will come from naming rights, sponsors and priority seating proceeds, while bank loans and equity will finance construction.

If the project becomes reality, Roma will become only the second major Italian club to own its own stadium. Juventus, which is closing in on its third successive title, opened Juventus Stadium in 2011.

“It will be our new home and what I like about this home is the garden in the center, on which we’ll need to continue adding pages to Roma’s history,” Roma coach Rudi Garcia said, a day after the Giallorossi beat Torino 2-1 to stay second and keep its faint title hopes alive.—AP

ITALY: This artist rendering provided by Italian Serie A soccer club Roma shows the new stadium to be built on the outskirts of Rome. Three-time Serie A champion Roma plans to build a new privately financed stadium inspired by the Colosseum on the outskirts of the Italian capital. —AP

Vettel, Franklin winners at emotional Laureus awards

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

Mavericks defeat Thunder

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KEY BISCAYNE: Maria Sharapova, of Russia, returns to Petra Kvitova, of the Czech Republic, at the Sony Open Tennis tournament. Sharapova defeated Kvitoka 7-5, 6-1. — AP

Serena, Sharapova in semi showdown Sony Open locked down by bomb scare MIAMI: Defending champion Serena Williams closed in on a seventh Sony Open title with a 6-2 6-2 quarter-final demolition of German Angelique Kerber on Tuesday, a win that came as the Crandon Park tennis facility was locked down due to a bomb scare.

Williams’ win sets up a semi-final rematch of last year’s final against Maria Sharapova, a five-time runner-up on the Miami hardcourts, who advanced with an equally impressive 7-5 6-1 win over eighth-seeded Czech Petra Kvitova.

While Williams was shutting down fifth seed Kerber, Miami Dade police were locking down the sprawling tennis complex after a suspicious package was found at the main entrance. Four lane traffic was halted in both directions in front of the complex while spectators were pre-

vented from entering or leaving the facility.

“Yeah, there was a bomb threat and a lockdown but that’s all I know about it. Scary,” said Williams. Sharapova and Williams, who have both achieved a career grand slam and held the number one ranking, were expected to develop into one of the great rivalries in women’s tennis.

But it has not quite worked out that way with Williams dominating the series, winning 15-of-17 career meetings including the last 14.

The pair have clashed three times in Miami, Williams winning all three. “It’s no secret that she’s been a big challenge of mine, an opponent that obviously I would love to beat,” said Sharapova, who has not beaten Williams in almost a decade. “There are certainly ways that I need to

step up in certain situations that I haven’t been able to do in the past against her. “But it’s great that I have come to that stage and have the opportunity to play her again.”

Certainly Sharapova will have to be at her best as Williams’ title defence has picked up steam with each match.

The world number one needed just 62 minutes to dispose of Kerber and has dropped one set on route to the final four. “When you’re playing champions, you have to play your best,” said Williams, looking ahead to her meeting with Sharapova. “She always plays her best and her heart out against me.

“We just have to bring the best because we both are really good players. We just both do the best we can when we try to play each other.

Nadal cruises through MIAMI: Unruffled by a bomb scare that locked down the Sony Open late on Tuesday, world number one Rafa Nadal brushed past Italy’s Fabio Fognini 6-2 6-2 to join Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray in the last eight.

Officials announced a suspicious package had been left near the main entrance to the sprawling tennis facility which was quickly locked down, keeping thousands of spectators from entering or leaving while Miami Dade police investigated.

The all clear was given just before Nadal stepped onto the Crandon Park centre court to face Fognini in the final match of the night.

The Spaniard showed no signs of being alarmed by the bomb scare as he completed the win in 62 minutes. “Every day I have to try to find my rhythm, try to think about myself, what I have to do well, so I just try to be focused on what I really need to do to play well,” said Nadal.

“Then the opponent is free to do whatever.

Tonight was not an easy match for him, for the conditions that I told you before. So it was a little bit strange, but in general, I think I was very focused and solid with my serve.” Nadal’s next opponent is Canadian Milos Raonic, who beat Benjamin Becker 63 6-4. “He’s a very dangerous opponent,” added the Spaniard.

“His serve is huge, one of the best without any doubt, and he’s able to play very aggressive on the return because he doesn’t feel a lot of pressure on his return because he knows that he’s very safe with his serve.” Nadal’s great rival Federer was also in cruise control, needing just 49 minutes to dismiss ninth seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet 6-1 6-2.

“Look, things went well out on the court today,” said the Swiss 17-times grand slam winner. “You just take what you get and you run with it.

“I think I played well. I served well. I made my returns I had to and stayed aggressive, so I didn’t let him just make errors. “I forced him to do stuff. It was

a good match for me.” Defending champion Murray, playing his first event since splitting with coach Ivan Lendl last week, has looked increasingly comfortable and confident on his own.

He disposed of 11th-seeded Frenchman JoWilfried Tsonga 6-4 6-1 without facing a single break point. Djokovic, a three-time winner on the Miami hardcourts, had only two break points the entire match but that was all the second seeded Serb needed, converting both chances on his way to a 6-3 7-5 win over Spaniard Tommy Robredo.

Not everything at Crandon Park tennis center went according to script, however, as Japan’s Kei Nishikori and Ukraine’s Alexandr Dolgopolov pulled off a pair of fourth-round upsets.

Dolgopolov battled to a 6-4 3-6 6-1 win over Swiss third seed and Australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka, while Nishikori shocked fourth seeded Spaniard David Ferrer 7-6(7) 2-6 7-6(9).

GLOOMY START In other fourth-round action, big-hitting Canadian Raonic blasted German lucky loser Becker 6-3 6-4, while another big-hitter, towering American John Isner, was beaten 6-3 7-5 by Czech seventh seed Tomas Berdych.

While the day got off to a gloomy start with early morning showers delaying play by 30 minutes, tennis fans were treated to a lineup of sparkling action with nine of the world’s top 10 men battling for spots in the quarters.

Djokovic, riding the momentum from his Masters Series win in Indian Wells nine days ago, was first through to the last eight and was soon followed by Murray, setting up rematch of last year’s Wimbledon final won by the Briton. It was just the second match of the tournament for Djokovic, who received an opening-round bye and advanced to the last 16 on a KEY BISCAYNE: Rafael Nadal of Spain returns a shot to Fabio walkover when Florian Mayer withdrew with a groin Fognini of Italy during their match on Day 9 of the Sony Open at Carndon Park Tennis Center. — AFP injury. — Reuters

“I love playing her. I really do.” Sharapova, who has come up short in the Miami final each of the last three years, dropped her opening serve to Kvitova but that would be the only time in the entire match.

The fourth-seeded Russian took control with a break to get back on level terms at 4-4 and then again to close out the first set. Sharapova then dominated the second set, storming through the first five games before a reeling Kvitova held her serve.

“I didn’t have a good first few games, so I was happy that I was steady, that I kept trying to do the right thing, kept trying to be aggressive,” said Sharapova. “I think that paid off as the match went on because I made a few too many unforced errors in the beginning.” — Reuters

Spin vital to India for World T20 success MIRPUR: India has surprised at the World Twenty20 not only by its success but in that its being led by its spinners. India came to Bangladesh with little recent success in one-day internationals and having played only one T20 since December 2012.

Yet, only it and Sri Lanka are unbeaten after winning their first two games, and India’s spinners rather one of its robust batsmen have been match-winners.

Legspinner Amit Mishra grabbed 2-22 against Pakistan and 2-18 against the West Indies to take both man-of-the-match awards.

The track at Sher-e-Bangla Stadium has helped spin, and since the venue will host all the knockout matches, captains have a lot of strategizing to do in the coming days.

“As far as the bowling is concerned, I am really happy to see how our spinners are bowling,” India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said after his team’s second win. “Yes, there is a bit of help for them but at the same time, you have to execute your plans well, especially in this format.”

Mishra, who has three hat tricks in the Indian Premier League but has not enjoyed a long run in international cricket, justified Dhoni’s decision to play an extra spinner.

“My captain has been really supportive and been telling me that I will only do better as the tournament progresses,” Mishra said. “He has given me the freedom to attack, to toss the bowl up as I like to do.” India’s spinners have so far bagged 12 wickets and the pacemen five, turning around its perceived weak bowling attack which has restricted the opposition to 129 and 130 in its first two games. The tournament has also seen a host of spinners open the bowling including West Indian leg-spinner Samuel Badree and Pakistan left-armer Zulfiqar Babar.

Badree grabbed 4-15 against Bangladesh on Tuesday while Babar took 226 with the new ball in Pakistan’s 16-run win over Australia on Sunday.

Australia opener Aaron Finch said ahead of Friday’s match against the West Indies that playing spin was a challenge, especially the prospect of facing someone like Badree early on.

“Badree has opened the bowling for them for a few games now,” Finch said. “He is an interesting bowler. He bowls a great length. He is someone who is hard to hit down the ground and it is a bit of a risk if you go across the line.” —AP

Business

China loses trade dispute over rare earth exports Page 22

Obama, EU counterparts to tackle Russia, trade, energy

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

Page 23 Al-Tamimi & Co, PwC host family business seminar

India markets on election roll but doubts linger

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ATHENS: Riot police restrain a protesting cleaning staff worker at the side entrance of the Finance Ministry, in Athens yesterday. Police forcibly expelled the protesters, who have lost their jobs in austerity staff cuts, from the ministry building after a request was denied for protest representatives to meet ministry officials. —AP

WB sees Russia capital flight as crisis deepens High-risk scenario puts capital flight at $150 billion MOSCOW: The Russian economy may contract markedly this year and the country could see record capital outflow of $150 billion if the crisis over Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea deepens, the World Bank warned yesterday. In the first estimate by a leading international institution of the likely economic damage from the Kremlin’s standoff with the West over Ukraine, the bank said Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) might shrink by 1.8 percent in 2014.

“We assume that political risks will be prominent in the short-term,” the bank said in a report on the Russian economy. “If the Russia-Ukraine conflict escalates, uncertainty could rise around sanctions from the West and Russia’s response to them.” The United States and European Union have called the takeover of Crimea illegal, and imposed asset freezes and visa bans on selected Russian and Crimean officials. These moves, and the threat of harsher sanctions if Moscow goes further by intervening in eastern Uk raine, have shaken Russian financial markets.

The forecast 1.8 percent contraction represents the World Bank ’s high-risk scenario, but still assumes the international community will refrain from trade sanctions. In an alternative low-risk scenario, assum-

ing only a short-lived impact from the Crimean crisis, the bank sees GDP growth of 1.1 percent this year, compared with the 2.2 percent it predicted in its last report in December. “No matter how the Crimean crisis plays out, there is the risk that the Russian government will be put back into a crisis mode to uphold macroeconomic stability,” the bank said. “It is likely that policy choices will be about managing short-term issues, and the medium-term agenda of structural reforms will continue to take a back seat.”

Crisis of confidence Russian assets have rebounded this week, calmed for now by signs that the crisis may ease. But the situation remains fragile. “An intensification of political tension could lead to heightened uncertainties around economic sanctions and would further depress confidence and investment activities,” the World Bank said in its report.

“Recent events around the Crimea have compounded the lingering confidence problem into a crisis of confidence,” said Birgit Hansl, the bank’s chief economist for Russia. The issue is “the decisive factor affecting Russia’s economic outlook,” she told a press briefing. Deteriorating confi-

dence has already led investors to transfer massive sums outside Russia.

The Economy Ministry estimates net capital outflow at up to $70 billion in the first quarter alone, compared with $63 billion in the whole of last year. In the bleaker of its scenarios, the World Bank envisages capital outflow at $150 billion this year and $80 billion in 2015. This year’s forecast exceeds the $120 billion in capital flight that Russia saw in 2008 during the global financial crisis.

The outflow of money will put further pressure on the ruble, which despite its recent firming is still 7 percent down against the dollar this year, according to Reuters calculations. “We assume the roble depreciates both in 2014 and 2015 and we see a high volatility in its exchange rate,” Hansl said. The weakening of the currency is likely to put upward pressure on inflation, which the World Bank sees at 5.5 percent in 2014, higher than the upper end of the central bank’s targeted range of 4.0-5.0 percent. Meeting the target would require fur ther monetar y tightening, the Washington-based bank said.

Low-risk scenario The Economy Ministry has yet to revise its early 2014 growth fore-

MOSCOW: Russia’s President Vladimir Putin (right) meets Siemens AG CEO, Joe Kaeser (left), in the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow yesterday. — AFP cast of 2.5 percent for the year, but a deputy minister said on Monday that it was anticipating GDP growth of “around zero” for the first quarter. In its low-risk scenario, the World Bank expects Russia’s eco-

Property, bank stocks lift UAE, Dubai bourses MIDEAST STOCK MARKETS DUBAI: Banks and property stocks lifted Dubai and Abu Dhabi’s markets yesterday, while other regional bourses were little moved. Dubai’s bourse added 0.9 percent as Emaar Properties and contractor Arabtec Holding rose 0.8 and 2.8 percent respectively. Investment bank Shuaa Capital was the top gainer, surging 14.7 percent on bets it may benefit from an expected increase in initial public offerings in the United Arab Emirates. Shuua’s trading volume was its largest of 2014.

The UAE government has indicated it will soon approve a long-awaited companies law that analysts hope will cut the minimum free float in IPOs to 30 percent from 55 percent at present. Many family-owned businesses have been unwilling to lose majority control so

reducing the minimum free float should encourage more firms to list. The current rules have led some companies to instead look to list abroad.

“There are rumors about more and more IPOs coming back to the market and for Shuaa it’s their core business,” says Sebastien Henin, portfolio manager at The National Investor.

Some market participants said those buying Shuaa yesterday were betting it would win a mandate to run the $2.5 billion listing of Emaar’s shopping mall unit. Shares in Shuaa Capital have lagged the wider market’s recovery and at 1.25 dirhams after Wednesday’s rally are still trading at less than an eighth of their 2008 high. Abu Dhabi’s index rose 0.8 percent.

National Bank of Abu Dhabi and developer

Aldar Peoperties climbed 2.2 and 5.3 percent respectively. Abu Dhabi National Energy Co (TAQA) fell 4 percent, declining for a second day since the company reported a 2013 net loss and proposed no dividend payout.

In Doha, Qatar Islamic Bank was one of the top gainers, up 0.8 percent after saying it was in talks to buy a “strategic stake” in Turkey’s Bank Asya. State-run Bahrain Telecommunications (Batelco) gained 3.1 percent after announcing plans to buy back a third of outstanding bonds due in 2020, using excess liquidity from a scrapped acquisition to lower its debt servicing costs.

Oman’s bourse suffered from a technical glitch for a second day but managed to resolve it before the end of the session. Its index fell 0.2 percent. — Reuters

nomic growth to inch up to 1.3 percent next year. The high-risk scen a r i o e nv i s a g e s 2 . 1 p e rc e n t growth, largely due to a low base this year. “If there is an orderly resolution to the Crimean crisis, the

economy would recover in 2015,” the Bank said. “Nevertheless, there would remain some tail risk of cont i n u e d t e n s i o n s, w h i c h wo u l d a d ve r s e l y a f fe c t g ro w t h o ve r a longer period.” — Reuters

KCCI and CMA meet on corporate governance KUWAIT: Meetings of the Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry and representatives from the private sector and the Capital Market Authority regarding the corporate governance law have been fruitful, said Chamber president Ali Al-Ghanim, in press statements on the sideline of the Chamber’s General Assembly meeting yesterday.

He said there was some disagreement on a number of aspects of the corporate governance law especially between the Chamber and the Market Authority but he hoped that differences would soon be worked out. In his address to the General Assembly yesterday, Al-Ghanim reviewed the Chamber’s achievements over the past period, noting-among a large number of statistics-that Kuwait’s GDP in 2013 reached KD 51.7 billion, causing the per capita income to hover around $48,000 the same level as it was in 2012. On external trade, he mentioned that Kuwait’s imports in

2012 topped KD7.6 billion whereas exports were set at KD32.1 billion, out of which oil took the lion’s share at KD30.3 billion.

He further said that the combined budgets of all local banks exceeded KD51 billion in 2013 and that the number of Kuwaiti nationals working in the private sector jumped from 83,000 in 2012 to 86,000 in 2013, a slight jump no doubt but indicative of a spurning of jobs in the private sector which, he said, did not bode well for the future. To achieve economic reforms through the passing of successful legislations, he said two aspects had to be taken into account: a commitment to a crystal clear government reform program and an adherence to applying correct economic and technical standards to such a program. Augmenting that, he noted, there had to be a hand-in-glove approach to the cooperation of both the private and public sectors. — KUNA

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

BUSINESS

News

in brief

Abu Dhabi’s Hilal Bank posts 42% rise in profit ABU DHABI: Abu Dhabi government-owned Al Hilal Bank said its 2013 net profit jumped 42 percent on the back of strong asset growth. The Islamic lender, owned by Abu Dhabi Investment Council, made a net profit of 441.4 million dirhams ($120.16) in 2013 compared to 310.3 million dirhams in the prior year, a statement from the bank said yesterday. “The significant net profit upsurge for the full year of 2013 is largely attributed to growth in assets along with improvement in asset quality and liability mix,” the statement said. Deposits increased 13 percent to 28.2 billion dirhams while financing advanced 18.3 percent to 27.1 billion dirhams. Total assets grew 20 percent to touch 38.71 billion dirhams in 2013. The five year-old bank plans to open two new branches in the United Arab Emirates this year taking the total to 24 branches that include three overseas branches in Kazakhstan.

Oil-rich Abu Dhabi is the capital of the UAE.

Third of Oman power units set for stock market PARIS: French energy group GDF Suez said yesterday it planned to float a one-third share in a company owning two gas-driven power stations in Oman on a local stock market in May. The power plants, Barka 3 and Sohar 2, each capable of generating 744 megawatts, began operating in April 2013 and were opened officially this week. GDF Suez headed a consortium which won the contract for the two projects in 2010 and owns 46 percent of them. The French group said that the members of the consortium which built and is responsible for running the plants had undertaken to place 35 percent of the two facilities on the market within four years. Consequently 35 percent of the two operations would be offered for sale in May, GDF Suez said in a statement. A company spokesman said that the shares would be offered by means of a flotation on a local market, implying that this would be the Muscat Securities Market since this is the only such market in Oman. Other partners in the consortium are the Oman firm Suhail Bahwan Group with an 22-percent stake, the Oman public social insurance body PASI with 10.0 percent, and Japanese companies Sojitz Corporation and Shikoku Electric Power Co, each with 11.0 percent. The investment in the two power stations totalled $1.7 billion (1.23 billion euros).

OPEC basket price up 26 cents to $103.39pb VIENNA: OPEC daily basket price rose by 26 cents to $103.39 per barrel on Tuesday compared with $103.31 the previous day, the cartel said here yesterday. The annual rate of the OPEC basket price hit $105.85 last year, the statement added. The new OPEC Reference Basket of Crudes (ORB) is made up of the following: Saharan Blend (Algeria), Girassol (Angola), Oriente (Ecuador), Iran Heavy (Islamic Republic of Iran), Basra Light (Iraq), Kuwait Export (Kuwait), Es Sider (Libya), Bonny Light (Nigeria), Qatar Marine (Qatar), Arab Light (Saudi Arabia), Murban (UAE) and Merey (Venez).

Oman sets up panel to ensure fiscal stability MUSCAT: Oman’s government and regulators have set up a “financial stability committee” to monitor and manage risks in the banking and capital markets, the Gulf nation’s finance ministry said yesterday.

The creation of the committee follows a suggestion by the International Monetary Fund last year that Oman’s authorities “should articulate a formal mandate over financial stability”. The Supreme Committee for Financial Stability includes the chief executive of the Capital Market Authority, representatives from the finance ministry and the ministry of commerce and industry, and the head of the central bank’s financial stability unit.

The committee will study risks and develop solutions. It will also coordinate authorities’ fiscal and monetary policy and prudential supervision, as well as the actions of regulators and supervisors, the finance ministry said. Oman’s central bank acts as banking sector regulator while the Capital Market Authority is responsible for managing risks in the securities and insurance markets.

The country is spending heavily on huge industrial projects to diversify its economy beyond oil and gas. Rising pressure on state finances may prompt Oman to return to the international debt markets in coming years for the first time since 1997. — Reuters

China loses trade dispute over rare earth exports WTO acts on US, EU and Japan petitions GENEVA/WASHINGTON: China has lost a dispute at the World Trade Organization over restrictions on its exports of rare earth metals, tungsten and molybdenum, the US Trade Representative’s office said yesterday. The complaint about the restrictions on the highly prized commodities was made by the United States, European Union and Japan two years ago.

“This victory shows that we stand prepared to take action whenever necessary to protect the high-quality middle class American jobs that trade supports,” US Trade Representative Michael Froman said in an emailed statement. The WTO is expected to publish its ruling in the case later on Wednesday. Any of the parties in the case can appeal within 60 days.

China produces more than 90 percent of the world’s rare earth elements, which are used in a wide range of applications in sectors like renewable energy, telecommunications and defense. The United States, Europe and Japan complained export restrictions, including duties and quotas, gave Chinese companies in key high-tech sectors an unfair competitive edge.

“China’s decision to promote its own industry and discriminate against US companies has caused US manufacturers to pay as much as three times more than what their Chinese competitors pay for the exact same rare earths,” Froman said. “WTO rules prohibit this kind of discriminatory export restraint.” For its part, China has said rampant overmining has caused ecological damage and that it no longer wants to pay the environmental costs of supplying the vast bulk of the world’s rare earths. In 2013, it capped rare earth production at 93,800 tons. Chinese officials were not immediately available for comment. — Reuters

Workers use machinery to dig at a rare earth mine in Baiyunebo mining district of Baotou in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. — AP

Egypt mulls free trade zone with Russia’s customs union MOSCOW: Egypt has resumed talks about the creation of a free trade zone with the customs union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, Egyptian and Russian officials said yesterday. Russia is increasing efforts to strengthen relations with large importers of its products as the United States and European Union threaten steeper sanctions over Moscow’s intervention in the crisis in Ukraine.

In the biggest East-West confrontation since the Cold War, the US and EU have imposed visa bans and asset freezes on some of President Vladimir Putin’s closest political and business allies after Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimea. “There were talks about this (creation of the free trade zone with Egypt) before 2011.. Now we have agreed to resume these negotiations and to discuss sectors of cooperation,” Russian Agriculture Minister Nikolai Fydorov said. “The final decision will be made after the (presidential) election campaign in Egypt, official documents will be appearing after it,” he told reporters in Moscow after the meeting of the Russian-Egyptian commission for trade development. Egypt has yet to announce the official date of presidential elections that army chief Field Marshal Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi is expected to win.

Egyptian industry and investment minister Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour said that the agreement on free trade with the customs union could contribute to expanding cooperation between two countries.

He said the officials have also discussed a number of joint projects, including supplies of Russian liquefied natural gas and other commodities. Russian state nuclear firm Rosatom is considering taking part in the construction of a nuclear power plant in Egypt, according to officials.

They have also agreed to revive Russia’s participation in modernization of assets dating back to the Soviet era, Fyodorov said. He mentioned an aluminium plant, a hydro power plant and projects related to the light metro in Cairo and grain storage. He did not specify what form Russia’s involvement could take.

Wheat supplies Egypt is already the largest importer of Russian wheat, buying one fifth of the country’s exports of this commodity so far in 2013/14. It bought 2.6 million tons of Russian wheat between July 1 and the end of February. “You

(Russia) have expressed your wish to expand exports, primarily of wheat... and we want to develop exports of vegetables and fruit. It would help widen our cooperation,” Abdel Nour told the meeting.

Officials did not provide any other details on how Russian wheat exports could be increased. It is unlikely that the countries will reach a major long-term wheat supply deal - a possibility the market has repeatedly speculated on, although there might be other ways of a deeper cooperation, a trader said.

“Egypt has often talked about these long term wheat deals before but no one believes anything practical will come out of it as it doesn’t make sense, why would you lock yourself into a deal with certain prices and what if market prices go down after that, you are stuck paying the higher price?” the trader said. “What is more realistic is that they discuss together whether or not the Russian government can perhaps encourage Russian firms to participate more directly in GASC (Egyptian state wheat buyer) tenders to increase the amount of Russian offers.” — Reuters

Tiny British energy suppliers take on goliaths as bills bite LONDON: Riding a wave of public anger at soaring utility bills, a group of tiny British suppliers have prised away hundreds of thousands of customers from the energy giants which dominate the gas and power market, a Reuters analysis of company data showed. In a modest but potentially significant challenge to the dominance of the “Big Six” energy suppliers, half a million customers or two percent of British households - have opened accounts with smaller suppliers since November, the data showed.

The Big Six - SSE, Scottish Power, Centrica, RWE npower, E.ON and EDF Energy are under intense political scrutiny before a parliamentary election next year. These suppliers raised gas and electricity tariffs by up to 11 percent in the past winter before passing on tax savings, and could soon face an anti-trust investigation into their pricing.

Blaming a jump in wholesale costs plus the taxes and social charges, they deny accusations by the opposition Labor party that they are gouging customers and say they have been unfairly cast as the villains in a debate over how rising prices for everything from gas to water have eroded living standards. Many customers remain with their energy company through inertia but growing numbers now want a better deal. “I have stayed with the

same supplier all my married life, for 56 years. But I just had a huge gas bill and for the first time I am thinking I ought to look into switching supplier,” said Margaret Nelson, a 74-year-old pensioner.

Overall account numbers are rising due to a growing population - about 140,000 new British homes were completed in the government’s 2012-13 financial year.

However, the young suppliers are expanding largely through switching. The main winners are companies such as First Utility, Ovo Energy and Utility Warehouse, which is owned by Telecom Plus . These independents, which buy energy on the same wholesale markets as their big rivals, have also raised their tariffs. However, they are attracting business by promising to keep prices down through more efficient administration and by offering better customer service.

The big companies still dominate the market and millions more customers would need to switch to undermine their position. Nevertheless, their market share has dropped from 98 percent at the end of 2012 to below 95 percent for the first time since the British energy market was liberalized 15 years ago. “These customer switching numbers are just a drop in the ocean but it’s a step in the right direction,” said Audrey Gallacher, director of energy at UK consumer lobby group Consumer Futures. —Reuters

EXCHANGE RATES Al-Muzaini Exchange Co. ASIAN COUNTRIES Japanese Yen Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Srilankan Rupees Nepali Rupees Singapore Dollar Hongkong Dollar Bangladesh Taka Philippine Peso Thai Baht Irani Riyal transfer Irani Riyal cash

2.757 4.653 2.888 2.158 2.915 222.710 36.396 3.631 6.250 8.712 0.271 0.273 GCC COUNTRIES

Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham

75.337 77.625 733.890 750.370 76.938

UAE Exchange Centre WLL COUNTRY Australian Dollar Canadian Dollar Swiss Franc Euro US Dollar Sterling Pound Japanese Yen Bangladesh Taka Indian Rupee Sri Lankan Rupee Nepali Rupee Pakistani Rupee UAE Dirhams Bahraini Dinar Egyptian Pound Jordanian Dinar Omani Riyal Qatari Riyal Saudi Riyal

SELL DRAFT 259.98 258.85 327.41 395.49 281.25 471.17 2.83 3.620 4.608 2.155 2.888 2.758 76.64 748.57 40.40 400.29 731.43 77.67 75.13

SELL CASH 256.98 258.85 325.41 396.49 284.25 474.17 2.85 3.890 4.908 2.590 3.423 2.790 77.11 750.64 41.00 405.94 738.73 78.22 75.53

ARAB COUNTRIES Egyptian Pound - Cash Egyptian Pound - Transfer Yemen Riyal/for 1000 Tunisian Dinar Jordanian Dinar Lebanese Lira/for 1000 Syrian Lira Morocco Dirham

39.695 40.134 1.318 179.640 398.950 1.895 2.014 35.522

EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 282.400 Euro 390.980 Sterling Pound 466.950 Canadian dollar 252.370 Turkish lira 126.690 Swiss Franc 321.270 Australian Dollar 257.550 US Dollar Buying 281.200 GOLD 20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

240.000 121.000 62.500

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd Rate for Transfer US Dollar Canadian Dollar Sterling Pound Euro Swiss Frank Bahrain Dinar UAE Dirhams Qatari Riyals Saudi Riyals Jordanian Dinar Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupees Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Pesso Cyprus pound Japanese Yen Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees

Selling Rate 282.150 254.055 465.725 390.885 319.900 745.010 76.795 78.345 76.110 397.630 40.480 2.158 4.651 2.883 3.627 6.247 693.015 3.750 2.950 3.900

Malaysian Ringgit Chinese Yuan Renminbi Thai Bhat Turkish Lira

86.305 45.785 9.700 126.505

Bahrain Exchange Company COUNTRY Belgian Franc British Pound Czech Korune Danish Krone Euro Norwegian Krone Romanian Leu Slovakia Swedish Krona Swiss Franc Turkish Lira

SELL CASH Europe 0.007335 0.458220 0.006187 0.048161 0.384384 0.042742 0.086957 0.008071 0.039972 0.313616 0.124324

SELLDRAFT 0.008335 0.467220 0.018167 0.053161 0.392384 0.047942 0.86957 0.018071 0.044972 0.323816 0.131324

Australasia 0.249196 0.234725

0.260696 0.244225

Canadian Dollar US Dollars US Dollars Mint

America 0.246361 0.278150 0.278650

0.254861 0.282500 0.282500

Bangladesh Taka Chinese Yuan Hong Kong Dollar Indian Rupee Indonesian Rupiah Japanese Yen Kenyan Shilling Korean Won Malaysian Ringgit Nepalese Rupee Pakistan Rupee Philippine Peso Sierra Leone Singapore Dollar

Asia 0.003245 0.044355 0.034295 0.004374 0.000020 0.002672 0.003251 0.000251 0.081708 0.002939 0.002628 0.006360 0.000069 0.218903

0.003845 0.047855 0.037045 0.004775 0.000026 0.002852 0.003251 0.000266 0.087708 0.003109 0.002908 0.006640 0.000075 0.224903

Australian Dollar New Zealand Dollar

South African Rand Sri Lankan Rupee Taiwan Thai Baht

0.019990 0.001866 0.009116 0.008358

0.028490 0.002446 0.009296 0.008906

Bahraini Dinar Egyptian Pound Iranian Riyal Iraqi Dinar Jordanian Dinar Kuwaiti Dinar Lebanese Pound Moroccan Dirhams Nigerian Naira Omani Riyal Qatar Riyal Saudi Riyal Syrian Pound Tunisian Dinar Turkish Lira UAE Dirhams Yemeni Riyal

Arab 0.742218 0.036785 0.000078 0.000181 0.393872 1.0000000 0.000137 0.023408 0.001192 0.727084 0.076817 0.074630 0.001750 0.175192 0.124324 0.075864 0.001282

0.750218 0.039885 0.000079 0.000241 0.401372 1.0000000 0.000237 0.047408 0.001827 0.732764 0.078030 0.075330 0.001970 0.183192 0.131324 0.077013 0.001362

Al Mulla Exchange CurrencyTransfer US Dollar Euro Pound Sterling Canadian Dollar Indian Rupee Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupee Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso Pakistan Rupee Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham Saudi Riyal *Rates are subject to change

Rate (Per 1000) 281.700 391.200 466.100 253.100 4.660 40.105 2.155 3.622 6.250 2.880 750.100 76.700 75.200

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

BUSINESS

BoE may broaden Islamic liquidity tools LONDON: The Bank of England is studying ways to increase the number of sharia-compliant assets that Islamic financial institutions can use in their liquidity buffers, a step towards reducing concentration risks in the sector. The move comes as part of a broader push to promote London as a top centre for Islamic finance, in the face of growing competition from other centres such as Dubai and Kuala Lumpur. Currently, sukuk (Islamic bonds) issued by the AAA-rated Islamic Development Bank are the only assets that meet the central bank’s criteria for use in the liquidity buffers of the 22 Islamic financial institutions operating in Britain.

These include six full-fledged Islamic banks such as the European Islamic Investment Bank, Bank of London and the Middle East and Gatehouse Bank. In addition to reducing risks, expanding the eligible list could improve growth prospects for the industry and remove a potential entry barrier to the sector, a consultation paper released by the central bank said.

“Recognizing only one asset also potentially limits the growth of existing sharia-compliant firms and creates barriers to entry for new sharia-compliant firms due to the difficulties that can be experienced obtaining the asset.” Islamic finance follows religious princi-

ples such as bans on interest and pure monetary speculation; this limits the types of financial tools that banks can use to manage their short-term funding needs. The Bank of England’s proposal is in line with the approach of Basel III global banking regulations, which allow sukuk issued by high-rated sovereigns to be included in the liquid assets buffer without a haircut. This would allow Britain’s proposed 200 million pound ($330 million) sovereign sukuk issue to be used, as well as other high-investment grade instruments such as sukuk issued by the Malaysia-based International Islamic Liquidity Management Corp.

Sukuk issued by sovereigns with lower credit ratings and other non-financial issuers could also be eligible, subject to haircuts and caps, the consultation paper said. The consultation will end on April 15 but no date was given for the proposed reform. Britain first announced plans for a sovereign sukuk issue six years ago but that issue never materialized as the country’s Debt Management Office decided the structure was too expensive. The new proposal is less than a fifth of the size of the original, and is designed to boost London’s status rather than to diversify Britain’s investor base to a significant degree. — Reuters

Obama, EU counterparts to tackle Russia, trade, energy Both sides seek to integrate economies in TTIP pact

PARIS: French president Francois Hollande (left) welcomes Chinese President Xi Jinping, at the Elysee palace yesterday in Paris as part of a three days state visit in France. — AFP

China-France to tie up deals on Xi visit LYON: China and France are expected to sign scores of business deals on the first full day of President Xi Jinping’s state visit after he was wined and dined in the gastronomic capital of Lyon.

France lags behind some European neighbors, most markedly Germany, in trade and investment links with China but has worked hard to catch up and accords in the aviation, nuclear, space, agriculture and urban development sectors are expected to be unveiled. Details have been closely guarded by both sides. The only deal certain to be signed is one that will see Chinese firm Dongfeng take a stake in troubled French auto giant Peugeot.

An agreement on the joint construction of civilian helicopters between Airbus Helicopters and China is also expected.

When French President Francois Hollande visited China in April last year, Xi welcomed him with a pledge to buy 60 Airbus planes and there could be more to come. “My visit to France... will allow me to work with President Francois Hollande... to sum up 50 years of Sino-French relations and to plan the future together,” Xi said Tuesday at a dinner in the centre-west city of Lyon, his first stop. “Investments are welcome in France and we are mobilized to facilitate them,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told Xi. Hollande will welcome Xi and his glamorous wife Peng Liyuan to the presidential palace, where the two countries will sign the Dongfeng-Peugeot deal.

The couple’s three-day visit will culminate in a concert at the Versailles palace, as the two countries celebrate 50 years of full diplomatic ties. Ahead of his trip, Xi penned a column in French daily Le Figaro in which he paid tribute to French leader Charles de Gaulle’s 1964 decision to break ranks with the United States and recognise communist China, paving the way for Beijing’s global acceptance.

Areva wants nuclear deals Luc Oursel, head of French nuclear giant Areva, last week said he was hoping that several agreements would be signed, as negotiations continue on the construction in China of a nuclear waste reprocessing plant.

France’s finance ministry is also organizing an economic forum today that will gather together about 400 businesses. “Our economic and trade relationship with China is marked by a strong imbalance,” the French foreign ministry said, pointing to a trade deficit of 25.8 billion euros ($35.7 billion) last year between the two countries.

At the end of 2012, France’s total investments in China came to 16.7 billion euros, four times more than China’s in France. The trip is also due to touch on political matters as the crisis in Ukraine dominates the international agenda.

Tibet protest planned The trip also carries a symbolic note, with Xi scheduled to make a major speech in Paris highlighting historical bonds such as the experiences of Communist Party luminaries Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping, who both studied in France. Xi’s wife Peng, a famous singer and China’s first prominent First Lady, is also a Francophile.

And while she no longer has a French counterpart after Hollande split from his partner Valerie Trierweiler, Peng has her own itinerary planned that will see her named special UNESCO envoy for the promotion of women’s education. The question of human rights in China will impact on the visit amid an ongoing, government-backed crackdown on dissent, with Tibetan exiles planning a big rally in Paris today. Since 2009 about 120 Tibetans have set themselves on fire in China in protests against the authorities, denouncing what they say is an erosion of their religious freedoms and culture and discrimination by the country’s Han majority.— AFP

Child miners pay the price in Burkina Faso’s gold rush NOBSIN, Burkina Faso: Perched on the edge of a mine shaft, Joel Sawadogo, 13, readies the fragile plastic lamp strapped to his forehead with an elastic band as he prepares to lower himself into the darkness.

He is one of hundreds of children and young people working at the Nobsin mines, about an hour’s drive from Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou, who every day risk their lives in the search for gold in the impoverished west African nation.

Child mining has become a growing problem in Burkina Faso, where 60 percent of the population is under 25. A mining boom in recent years has made the country Africa’s fourth-largest gold producer, where exports of the yellow metal account for almost a fifth of economic output.

Joel, who started working at the mines two years ago, makes a meagre income from the backbreaking work. Sometimes it’s 5,000 CFA francs (7.6 euros, $10.5), on a good day twice that, but often nothing at all. “Down there, it’s really damp,” he said, scratching a filthy arm. He hopes one day to find “less painful work” but “mostly, I think about what I could earn”.

Burkina Faso’s government estimates a ton of gold was brought out of the ground by small-scale miners last year-official estimates say it could be double that-compared to the 32 tons mined legally. Part of that was dug by children. The UN Children’s Fund estimates that between half a million and 700,000 adolescents and youngsters are caught up in the mining sector in the nation of some 17 million people.

‘Sometimes it’s scary’ At the illegal mine, even breathing is hard in the windy, arid landscape.

Children, many barefoot, scramble into

small rectangular holes between 20 to 30 metres (65 to 100 feet) deep to pound away at the rock face. Thuds and muffled voices drift up to the surface, where fellow workers take turns to haul up broken stones in plastic cans. Other teams further pounded the stones, sifting and hoping to find gold. At 15, Hamidou is a short stripling of a lad, wincing and weary as he wrenches a splinter out of his foot. But he says that mining is still better than working in the nearby village where he lives.

There “they cultivate the land, but they don’t earn anything,” he says, adding that he is “not afraid” of working in the mines.

Some youngsters invoke spirits to help them in their search for gold. “If you don’t go to see the sorcerers, you won’t find anything,” said 19-year-old Issiaka, who has been sifting for three years.

Children at the mines dream of a local El Dorado, but mining is dangerous. Five people were injured at Nobsin the day before AFP visited, according to a 50-yearold “elder” at the site Ouinin Ouedraogo, while a landslide killed 14 and injured another 14 at a different dig in Western Burkina Faso last year.

Younger children, who are small enough to get to the bottom of the mine shafts, are often the first accident victims.

David Kerespars, whose children’s charity Terre des Hommes works at a dozen illicit sites in Burkina Faso, says up to a quarter of youngsters are hurt working at the mines. “Here the ground is solid, but sometimes the earth is very fragile. You can feel it when you probe. Cracks appear in the hole and that’s scary,” said Frederic Tindiebeogo, 23, whose T-shirt bears the slogan: “It’s only funny when someone gets hurt”. —AFP

BRUSSELS: The European Union will press US President Barack Obama to help reduce Europe’s reliance on Russian energy by exporting US natural gas, at a time of chill in relations with Moscow over its intervention in Ukraine. After a visit to a World War One battlefield, Obama will have just 75 minutes over lunch with the EU’s top officials to tackle issues ranging from energy to climate change, in a meeting that will be dominated by the Ukraine crisis.

Yet if there were any doubts about the EU-US relationship after last year’s revelations that Washington spied on its allies, Obama plans to assuage them later in the day in a speech to some 2,000 guests, before leaving for Rome.

“Recent developments just underscore the importance of the transatlantic relationship,” Obama’s top trade envoy, Michael Froman, said during a visit to Brussels before the summit.

“Right now, as we look around the world, there is a powerful reason for Europe and the United States to come together to demonstrate that they can take their relationship to a new level,” said Froman, who is the US Trade Representative.

Obama will seek to send that message in his tour of Flanders Field in northern Belgium where US soldiers fought a century ago, a visit steeped in historical significance that has been accentuated by the tensions with Russia over Crimea.

Earlier this week, both sides sought unity in The Hague, where Obama and Germany, France, Britain and Italy, along with Japan and Canada, warned Russia it faced damaging economic sanctions if Moscow took further action to destabilize Ukraine following its seizure and annexation of Crimea.

Ukraine will be foremost in discussions on Wednesday in light of the EU’s efforts to scale back its imports of Russian energy. Russia provides around one third of the EU’s oil and gas and some 40 percent of the gas is shipped through Ukraine. EU leaders dedicated part of a summit to the issue last week and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she supported asking Obama to relax restrictions on exports of US gas.

21ST century trade pact One way to do that is through the proposed free-trade agreement between the United States and the European Union, which would be the world’s biggest accord of its kind, dubbed the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP. “We should have an ambitious chapter on energy in the TTIP,” EU Trade Commissioner

Karel De Gucht, who will attend the summit, said at the weekend, referring to EU demands for a clear framework setting out US commitments on gas exports. The issue will also be discussed next week at a special EU-US Energy Council, officials said. In the wake of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, EU governments and the Obama administration see a deep and broad free-trade deal as the best way to create jobs, removing burdens and customs duties on businesses. They say a “21st century” trade pact encompassing almost half the world’s economy could generate $100 billion in additional economic output a year on both sides of the Atlantic and set the standards for global business before China does.

The European Union and the United States already trade almost $3 billion in goods and services each day, and by thickening economic ties, the pact could create a market of 800 million people where business could be done freely.

But eight months into talks, public hostility is growing at the idea of unfettered transatlantic commerce, while negotiators remain far apart on many issues. Reports of US National Security

Agency spying in Europe have combined with concerns about the damage to food safety and the environment under a free-trade pact. In both the United States and Europe, unions also worry about lost jobs or lower working standards and say that a trade pact will serve only the interests of multinational companies.

Inside the negotiating rooms, other difficult issues include how to open up to each other’s markets, removing customs duties that cost companies billions of dollars each year, particularly automakers such as Ford and Volkswagen.

Washington and Brussels are at odds over an initial exchange of offers to open up markets and cut tariffs, with each saying the other has not been ambitious enough. In an effort to overcome that, Obama, along with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy will promise to remove all tariffs on bilateral trade, according to a draft of the summit’s joint declaration seen by Reuters. “We reaffirm the objectives we agreed,” the summit draft declaration said.

“Those goals include eliminating all duties on bilateral goods trade.” — Reuters

BRUSSELS: US President Barack Obama (center) attends a roundtable meeting during the EUUS Summit at the European Headquarters in Brussels yesterday. Obama paid his first visit ever to the EU headquarters, cementing US-EU opposition to the takeover of Crimea after hitting out at Russian expansionism as a “sign of weakness”. —AFP

Dagong chief: Credit ratings need ‘Chinese wisdom’ BEIJING: The man behind Beijing-based credit ratings agency Dagong says “Chinese wisdom” will help it take on mighty Western names that failed by not predicting the global financial crisis. “I think if you look at the entire picture of the international credit ratings sector, a lot of credit rating agencies have been influenced by the way of thinking of the Western ratings agencies,” said the firm’s chairman Guan Jianzhong.

“So this is something that we need to change,” he told AFP after making a presentation to Chinese and foreign media outlining the firm’s “Guiding Principles of Credit Rating”, in which he said Dagong wants to offer the world “Chinese wisdom” on ratings. However, while Guan is quick to promote his agency’s superiority, he has had to bat away accusations it is anti-Western while pandering to Beijing and overlooking serious problems in China’s economy. Dagong-founded 20 years ago-remains far less prominent than its longestablished Western competitors, though it has begun making a splash in international media. It hit the headlines in August 2011 when it cut its main rating for US sovereign debt from A+ to A, with a negative outlook, after a standoff over Washington’s debt ceiling that led to fears of a potentially globally destabilizing US default.

Standard & Poor’s of the US also slapped Washington with a credit downgrade that month, reducing it one notch to AA+ and denying it a coveted AAA rating for the first time. Dagong-which can be translated as akin to “great fairness”-struck again in October, whittling the US sovereign credit rating to Aafter another debt deadlock saw a two-week government shutdown.

Dagong’s downgrades have come under suspicion as reflecting official concerns of China’s government, the largest foreign holder of US Treasury debt that makes up part of the world’s biggest foreign exchange reserves. But it has sought to take advantage of global anger with the so-called big three agenciesS&P, Moody’s and Fitch-which were widely criticized for having given their highest ratings to the debt instruments whose failure helped

spark the global financial crisis in 2008. Guan presses the theme. “The Western rating system is a failure,” he said in his presentation. “If we follow this Western way” on credit ratings “we will end up nowhere”.

Western agencies only focused on the possibility of default, he said. “The core theory of the Western ratings system is wrong. It cannot explain reality. In its methodology it’s chaos.

BEIJING: President Guan Jianzhong of Dagong Global Credit Rating delivering a speech at a press conference in Beijing. —AFP

“For our principle we take the probability of wealth creation as the basis for credit ratings.

We take into consideration the maximum debt of a debtor and we also consider the outstanding debts of the debtor.”

Extension of the government?

Nonetheless the reliability of Chinese economic statistics and the true situation of private and state-owned enterprises have been a source of concern for analysts for years.

Investors have questioned Chinese auditing standards, and scandals have erupted over the accounts of some foreign-listed Chinese companies. Dagong also has to fight suspicions that it has a political agenda.

It has maintained China’s foreign currency rating at AAA-its highest grade-and local cur-

rency at AA+, with a stable outlook, even as a debt audit by Beijing found local government liabilities had ballooned to almost $3 trillion by last June. Guan acknowledges that he has been a member of China’s ruling Communist Party since the age of 18, but said he has no links with the country’s top officials.

“I can tell you for sure and with responsibility that personally I have no connection with the government and even the senior leadership of the Chinese Communist Party,” he told AFP. But his “Guiding Principles of Credit Rating” were put out in a booklet by the publishing company of the People’s Daily newspaper, the party mouthpiece, using the red print and typeface typical of official publications.

Guan added that Dagong was “wholly privateowned” and that its goal of becoming a globally influential ratings agency means that it must be independent, impartial and objective.

“This is very important for a credit rating agency to earn its credibility,” he said.

Christopher Balding, who teaches economics at Peking University’s HSBC Business School in Shenzhen, describes Dagong’s ratings methodology as being on “very safe ground”, although the occasional use of terminology such as “dialectical materialism” can appear “off the rails”.

The real perception challenge, he said, was if Dagong was seen as too aggressively antiWestern and anti-Washington, despite the very real problems it and others have pointed out regarding the state of US government finances. “If they continue to play up this antiWestern, anti-US, pounding this into the ground, they’re going to essentially, from a marketing standpoint, be aligning themselves much closer at being seen as an extension of the government, whether they want to or not,” Balding said. But Guan suggested that China’s economic rise and growing influence meant it should have a commensurate voice in ratings.

“China is a big country sending out lots of capital,” he said. “We should depend on our own credit rating institutions that are capable to do the work. We cannot simply think that Western credit rating institutions are always the best.” — AFP

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

BUSINESS

India markets on election roll but doubts linger Rupee trades at 8-month peak

MADRID: Riot police officers in civilian clothes protest outside a police station in Madrid yesterday. The riot police are complaining about a riot control operation that they say went wrong after several police officers were attacked and injured by demonstrators at a weekend protest over corruption, government cuts and unemployment. — AP

Spanish economy to grow 1.2% in 2014, says CB MADRID: Spain’s economy will grow by 1.2 percent in 2014 after shaking off a long, job-destroying downturn, the nation’s central bank predicted yesterday. The bank’s outlook for Spain, which boasts the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy, paints a picture of gradual, modest recovery with stubbornly high rates of unemployment.

“After the start of the recovery observed in the second half of 2013, we predict that the Spanish economy will continue to progress through this year,” the Bank of Spain said in its monthly bulletin.

Following a 1.2-percent economic contraction in 2013, the central bank said it was tipping gross domestic product growth of 1.2 percent this year and 1.7 percent in 2015.

If correct, that would mean Spain is set for the fastest economic growth since 2007, just before a property crash plunged the nation into five years of stop-start recession, wiping out millions of jobs and plung-

ing the nation’s banks, companies and consumers deep into debt.

Growth would not be strong enough, however, to make a big difference to the unemployment rate, which topped 26 percent at the end of 2013. The Bank of Spain predicts the unemployment rate will ease to 25.0 percent this year and 23.8 percent in 2015.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s conservative government has issued slightly less optimistic economic forecasts, predicting growth of 1.0 percent in 2014 and 1.5 percent in 2015. Spain’s government is predicting economic growth in the first quarter of this year will be at least as fast as the 0.2percent pace recorded in the final three months of 2013. The central bank, too, said the recovery appeared to be on track early this year. “Economic indicators for the first quarter of 2014 point in general to a continuation of the gradual improvement in activity,” the Bank of Spain said. — AFP

NEW DELHI: Indian shares extended their roll yesterday, hitting another lifetime high while the rupee traded at a new eight-month peak, as investors bet a more business friendly government will come to power in elections. But some analysts warn that expectations the opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), tipped to win national elections starting next month, can turn around India’s ailing economy may be a mirage.

Much of investor optimism over a BJP win rests on belief that Narendra Modi, the conservative chief minister of prosperous Gujarat state, will strongly advocate pro-growth reforms to open up India’s still largely closed economy.

But “current (market) optimism in our view is going too far,” Capital Economics analyst Miguel Chanco said, noting unwieldy coalition politics that hamstrung the current Congress government could constrain the next administration too.

Still, opinion polls suggesting the BJP will oust the scandal-tainted Congress has pushed business optimism to its highest since 2011, according to business information provider Dun and Bradstreet. The Bombay Stock Exchange’s benchmark index rose nearly a fifth of a percent to a new peak of 22,095.30 point yesterday while the rupee traded at 61.25 to the dollar, its highest since last August when it crashed on a gloomy Indian financial outlook.

Foreigners, shunning some other emerging markets, have pumped in $2.5 billion into Indian shares in March alone. “If the BJP comes to power, it will be taken as a signal for stability in the economy and stock markets will take it very positively,” said Vivek Gupta, research director at CapitalVia Global Research Investment. Modi, 63, is riding a wave of popularity amid wide disenchantment with Congress under which growth has slumped to 4.7 percent, half the level it reached during India’s boom years.

Modi’s chances of leading India were widely written off over charges he turned a blind eye to riots in 2002 that left at least 1,000 people, main-

ly Muslims-allegations he has always denied. But Gujarat’s reputation as one of India’s fastest growing states-it expanded by nearly 10 percent annually over the last five years-and its easy investment policies have won him national favor.

Investors hope Modi, who has a reputation for quick decisions and clean governance, will be able to replicate his policies nationally and boost growth. But some analysts question the

ALLAHABAD: An Indian laborer transports pumpkins on a boat at Fafamau village near Allahabad yesterday. — AFP

BJP’s pro-market credentials as well as the ability of Modi, who has an abrasive reputation, to forge a consensus for change in the faction-ridden populist political scene.

The BJP vociferously opposed moves to open up India’s still largely closed economy while in opposition, fighting such measures as legislation to allow foreign supermarkets into the country.

Women struggling to crack glass ceiling in top UK firms: Report LONDON: More women are sitting on the boards of Britain’s biggest companies but the glass ceiling is yet to crack, with most top jobs still held by men and companies needing to do more for gender balance, a report showed yesterday.

The latest of three British government reports on gender in boardrooms found women now hold a fifth, or 20.7 percent, of board positions in FTSE 100 companies, up from 17.3 percent in April 2013 and 12.5 percent in 2011, but short of a 2015 target. The figures showed women accounted for 6.9 percent of executive directorships in the FTSE 100 while making up 25.5 percent of non- executive directorships and their representation on FTSE 250 company boards fell to 15.6 percent.

The report by former trade minister Mervyn Davies comes during a debate in many countries and the European Union about the pros and cons of mandatory quotas to boost women numbers at the top. Critics argue that quotas lead to “trophy directors”. Davies, who left his role as Standard Chartered chief executive in 2009 to enter government, oversaw a review into the lack of women board members in 2011 and set a target to have women in one quarter of British boardroom seats by 2015.

“The rate of change that we have seen at the heart of our biggest companies over the last three years has been impressive,” said Davies.

“However, the eyes of the world are on us as we enter the home straight.

They are judging us as to whether the voluntary approach, rather than regulation, will work - we need to now prove we can do this on our own.”

Quotes voluntary?

While countries such as Norway, the Netherlands, and France have introduced mandatory quotas, Britain and Germany have resisted such moves.

Davies, who returned to the City after the 2010 national election and sits on several boards himself, stopped short of mandatory quotas and recommended FTSE 350 companies set their own targets instead which was welcomed in the corporate world. Several British banks released targets on gender balance in their annual results for the first time this year.

HSBC is aiming to have women in 25 percent of senior roles by 2014/15, up from 22.7 percent; Lloyds has a target of 40 percent by 2020 compared to 28 percent now; and Barclays is eyeing 26 percent by 2018, up 5 points from now.

Despite the voluntary drive, Britain still lags some countries on female presence with only four FTSE 100 companies having female chief executive.

Two FTSE 100 firms, Glencore Xstrata and Antofagasta, have no women in the boardroom - although both told Reuters they were looking for suitable women board members and there are 48 all-male boards among FTSE 250 companies.

Audrey Williams, partner at global law firm Eversheds, said more could be done to drive up women numbers at top levels without using quotas such as sponsoring and mentoring women.

“There is a fear that quotas lead to tokenism and women are not appointed on merit but the Davies reports have acted as a kind of catalyst and given organizations more strength of voice to push forward the agenda,” she told Reuters. — Reuters

Analysts add that it is unlikely a BJP government could kick-start investments and revive the stalled investment cycle. Just a fourth of investment projects are stuck with the central government, and two-thirds of these are in power and steel which are both reeling from massive overcapacity. “Even elsewhere-roads, railways, etcetera-solutions will take years,” said Credit Suisse economist Neelkanth Mishra, calling the elections “much ado about nothing”. And there

are worries about Modi’s hardline Hindu politics, and the fear he could upset the secular landscape in India where Muslims make up around 13 percent of the population.

The BJP, and Modi in particular, have cultivated an image of macho nationalism that has the potential to exacerbate bilateral tensions and “roil markets”, noted Anjalika Bardalai, analyst at Eurasia Group. — AFP

Analysts concerned after Brazil rating downgrade BRASILIA: Brazil must convince markets that it can grow its economy while also slash spending and curtail inflation, analysts said after the country’s credit rating sunk to near junk status. The Central Bank said Brazil would respond “robustly” to global economic challenges after Standard & Poor’s lowered its credit rating to BBB-, the lowest level for investment grade debt.

S&P however described Brazil’s overall outlook as stable.

The downgrade was “inconsistent” with economic conditions and “does not reflect Brazil’s solid performance and fundamentals,” the finance ministry said in a statement late Monday.

TAIPEI: Student protesters sit under a poster reading “no worries Ma and Dad” outside Parliament during an anti-China demonstration in Taipei yesterday. Taiwan’s president Ma offered to talk with protesters in a concession to student demonstrators who have occupied parliament for the past week in a bid to stop the government from ratifying a contentious trade agreement with China. — AFP

IMF ups Philippine growth forecast MANILA: The International Monetary Fund yesterday raised its 2014 economic growth forecast for the Philippines to 6.5 percent, up from its January projection of 6.3 percent, with typhoon reconstruction expected to boost the economy. It forecasts 2015 growth at 6.5 percent, slightly lower than its 6.6 percent estimate in January. The economy grew 7.2 percent last year despite a string of calamities including Typhoon Haiyan in November, and government has targeted growth of 6.5 to 7.5 percent this year and 7 to 8 percent next year.

An IMF statement at the conclusion of regular consultation with economic managers also said the need for easy monetary policies in the Philippines has waned because of a stronger global outlook.

Monetary authorities have kept inter-

est rates at record lows to spur credit and spending. IMF called last year’s performance impressive, adding that “the economy is well positioned to absorb a gradual tightening of US financial conditions and to implement timely, measured action on the domestic front.” But it cited the need for a reduction in bottlenecks to investment and formal sector employment to encourage broader-based business activities and to allow the Philippine to realize its full potential for rapid, sustained and inclusive growth.

It said 2014 inflation was expected to moderate to 4 percent, a lower figure from the 4.4 percent it forecast in January. Last year’s inflation rate was 3 percent and the government targets a 3 to 5 percent rate this year. — AP

China’s role in growth Analysts warn that they see hard times ahead for the World Cup and Olympic hosts, with one indicating that strong 20042010 growth had been on the coattails of strong demand from China“Having enjoyed years of ‘easy growth’ in 2004-10, driven by Chinese demand, absorption of surplus labor and credit growth, the government and congress have not pursued structural reforms to sustain growth,” said Robert Wood, Brazil analyst with Economist Intelligence Unit. Without policy adjustments in 2015, “the outlook will deteriorate further,” Wood said. Sao Paulo University’s Manuel Enriquez Garcia said that the years of strong growth fueled hopes that Brazil could become a major economic force. Now this hope “has been lost due to poor management of public accounts and a falloff in growth,” he said.

Austin Rating’s chief economist Alex Agostini added: “There is no confidence that Brazil will control public spending and manage to bring down inflation in an election year.”

Slow growth forecast Growth in Brazil has fallen off after peaking at 7.5 percent in 2010. In this World Cup year the government is forecasting growth of 2.5 percent, though markets are less optimistic.

Brazil is also stuttering of late on trade, with a 2013 trade surplus of just $2.56 billion, its lowest in 13 years. The Central Bank said that, in response, it would combine macroeconomic austerity, exchange rate flexibility and use of liquid reserves to keep share price volatility in check.

In announcing the downgrade, S&P cited the government’s unclear policy signals as it faces a weaker fiscal situation and slower growth. The agency said the rating cut reflects “slippage” in the government’s fiscal balance, and the prospects that slow growth over the coming years will leave the government less able to strengthen the balance. It said both cyclical and structural factors were behind the growth outlook, pointing to low investment, which was only 18 percent of GDP last year. — AFP

UK to sign yuan clearing deal with China next week LONDON: Britain and China will sign an agreement next week to set up the first clearing service for renminbi trading outside Asia, putting London in a prime position to offer yuan trade business in Europe. China has been a key focus of finance minister George Osborne’s efforts to boost exports of financial services from Britain, which was the first Group of Seven country to agree a renminbi swap line with the People’s Bank of China last year.

Britain’s finance ministr y said on Wednesday that the Bank of England and PBOC would sign an agreement on renminbi clearing and settlement next Monday, setting out how the two central banks will cooperate on setting up a clearing bank. “Connecting Britain to the fastest growing parts of the world is central to our economic plan,” said Osborne in a statement. “Other Western coun-

tries will follow, but London now has the critical mass of infrastructure, helping to put Britain at the front of the global race.”

A finance ministr y source said an announcement on the appointment of clearing banks was not expected next Monday. A Bank of England spokesman said he had nothing further to add at present.

Prime Minister David Cameron and President Xi Jinping discussed cooperation between the two central banks at a meeting on the margins of a nuclear security summit in the Netherlands on Tuesday, Wednesday’s statement said.

Osborne said last month that the British and Chinese governments were in discussions about the appointment of a yuan clearing bank in London.

A clearing bank is considered a politically sensitive subject in China, and is usually a

domestic entity, with Bank of China and ICBC seen as the leading contenders for this role, according to trade sources last month.

London is the world’s largest trade centre for foreign exchange, but it mainly relies on Hong Kong’s offshore yuan infrastructure to obtain yuan liquidity and clearing services.

In December, Standard Chartered Bank tied up with Agricultural Bank of China to provide yuan clearing services there. The finance ministry said 62 per cent of yuan payments outside of China take place in London, citing data from the SWIFT global financial transactions network. Average daily turnover of yuan-denominated foreign exchange products - including spots, forwards, swaps and options - in London climbed to $15.6 billion in the first half of 2013, more twice as much as a year earlier, according to the local authority for the City of London. — Reuters

BRUSSELS: BNP Paribas Fortis CEO Max Jadot gives a press conference to present the group’s results for 2013, yesterday in Brussels. — AFP

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

BUSINESS

Al-Tamimi & Co, PwC host family business seminar Keynote address given by Omar K Alghanim KUWAIT: Al-Tamimi & Company, the largest law firm in the Middle East, along with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), recently hosted a seminar in Kuwait focused on family businesses and how to create proper structures to ensure sustainability.

Omar K Alghanim, CEO of Alghanim Industries, Chairman of Gulf Bank and a Board Member of the Family Business Network, presented as the keynote speaker. Alghanim delivered a powerful speech to a capacity crowd, emphasizing the importance of creating the proper structures in family businesses to ensure longevity and to foster, reward and retain the best talent. “Within 3 generations less than 10% of family owned companies are still owned by the same family; those that do survive, tend to outperform their corporate peers,” noted Alghanim.

Upon conclusion of Alghanim’s address, Essam Al-Tamimi, the founder and senior partner of Al-Tamimi & Co echoed the same views. “From a succession point of view, Sharia is a perfect system in protecting the rights of family members with respect to inheritance issues. However, legal structures need to be put into place to sustain the continuity and prosperity of the businesses that the founders of the same have created.

Without implementing a proper succession plan, the individual’s estate, which would include his business, would suffer

from fragmentation of ownership”, said Al-Tamimi.

In addition, Mr. Alex Saleh, Partner and Head of the Kuwait office of Al-Tamimi & Co, presented along with Gary Watts, Regional Head of Corporate Commercial of Al-Tamimi & Co. Finally, Amin Nasser, and Daryoush Pour presented on behalf of PWC. Saleh and Watts then discussed the mechanics of implementing a legal structure that would accomplish the various goals and objectives. Saleh focused on Kuwait companies and how the new company’s law allows for greater flexibility in structuring a succession plan, while Mr. Watts focused on the family arrangements, including the establishment of family trusts off-shore.

Saleh, who first arrived to Kuwait in 1994, remarked that “as a legal professional who has advised many of the Kuwaiti merchant families for decades now, I am passionate about encouraging these families to structure their companies in a way that allows for continued progress and growth”.

After the seminar, the crowd engaged the presenters in an open floor session of questions and answers, and ended with a networking session. Yaqoub Al-Munayae, the Al-Tamimi & Company Kuwait Joint Venture Partner noted, “We are pleased to discuss this very important topic; the feedback from the attendees was overwhelmingly positive.”

KUWAIT: (Left - right): Alex Saleh - Partner and Head of Kuwait Office, Al-Tamimi & Company, Omar K Alghanim - CEO of Alghanim Industries, Chairman of Gulf Bank and a Board Member of the Family Business Network and Essam AlTamimi -Senior Partner, Al-Tamimi & Company.

Dewan ranked one of top 2 architectural firms in ME

All-new 2014 Silverado named Saudi Auto’s 4x4 of the year RIYADH: New from hood to hitch, the 2014 Silverado Light Duty has continued its award-winning streak - having now garnered Saudi Auto’s 4x4 of the Year award. The vehicle recently swept the 2014 North American Truck of the Year award, Four Wheeler’s 2014 Pickup Truck of the Year honor and the Best 4x4 of the Year title from leading regional automotive magazine Car and Driver Middle East.In effect, since its launch, the 2014 Silverado Light Duty has amassed worldwide industry recognition thanks to the pioneering model’s hundreds of improvements - large and small.

Silverado’s innovative technology is tailored to the way customers use full-size pickups, providing the power, efficiency, refinement and dependability they expect from their trucks.

The 2014 Silverado’s remarkable roster of new features includes a trio of all-new EcoTec3 engines, a V-6 and two V8s; a stronger, quieter and more comfortable cab; a refined new interior with an excellent connectivity through MyLink infotainment system; revised steering, suspension and brakes for improved ride and handling; and, smart solutions for cargo management such as CornerStep

bumperandhandholds built into the box rail protectors.

“We are immensely proud that the all-new 2014 Silverado has received Saudi Auto’s coveted 4x4 of the Year title - especially considering we were up against such steep competition,” said Markus Leithe, Regional Marketing Director of GM Middle East Operations. “This award is an excellent validation of the vehicle’s immaculate design which blends strong Chevrolet truck heritage with a modern aesthetic. Straddling functionality and refinement, the 2014 Silverado will continue its leadership in the full-size pickup segment.”

“The Chevrolet Silverado has deservedly won Saudi Auto’s 4x4 of the Year Award 2014 by virtue of its merits,” added BakurAzher, Editor-in-Chief of Saudi Auto. “The most notable clincher for this prestigious title was the big leap forward from the previous model in terms of increased cabin space, improved on and off-road capabilities, advancements in technology, a powerful and highly efficient engine, low fuel consumption and excellent insulation from noise. To top it all off, there is the reasonable

price, making the Chevrolet Silverado a clear winner.”

The 2014 Silverado’s available 6.2L V-8 engine providesthe mostpower and torque (420Hp, 624 Nm)of any light duty truck engine without the cost and complexity of turbocharging. It also offers class-leading maximum available towing capability of 5,443kg. The 5.3L V-8 delivers fuel economy of up to 10.2 L/100km highway, the best of any V-8 pickup, and the 4.3L V-6 offers available towing ratings of up to 3,447 kg and payload up to 956 kg, the highest for any base V-6 in the segment.

Chevrolet care All customers who purchase the All New 2014 Chevrolet Silverado will receive the benefits of the Chevrolet Care program. Chevrolet Care is a high level customer service experience based on four pillars: To provide customers with the best in service pricing and cost transparency; booking service with same day delivery; quality service by certified technicians as well as a regional 3 year/100,000 km warranty and 24x7 regional roadside assistance.

DUBAI: The UAE’s construction industry is in the midst of resurgence. Dubai’s real estate prices surged more than 30 percent last year- with further growth expected to come according to a recent report by global real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL). The global financial services group Citi assesses the property boom in the country to be much more sustainable and less susceptible to external financial shocks, unlike 2008.

The UAE’s GDP is projected to increase by up to 5 percent in 2014, while growth will be buoyed in coming years by events such as the World Expo 2020 in Dubai -it is little surprise that Building Design Magazine, the industry-leading UK publication, emphasizes “Dubai’s re-emergence into the global spotlight” this year. That builds upon an almost 4 percent rise in GDP across the country last year.

Dewan Architects and Engineers has been recognized for the fifth consecutive year as one of the world’s top architectural firms in Building Design’s 2014 World Architecture 100 rankings - an annual barometer of excellence in the industry.

Notably, as “the UAE’s burgeoning construction industry is targeted by firms around the globe,” as BD puts it, Dewan is in prime position to take advantage. It was the only company based in the UAE to be recognized in the rankings, described as “the definitive survey in its field”. Dewan attained the second highest ranking of any firm based in the Middle East, as well as coming in at joint No 50 globally.

Building Design also highlighted Dewan’s successes in Iraq since the firm returned to the country in 2010 - in particular the award of two substantial contracts last year: the US$60 million Basra Cultural Centre, and a master planning contract for Madinat Al-Nakhla, a14,500hanew city in Basra which will accommodate up to a million people on completion.

Worldwide, Dewan has offices in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Qatar, the Philippines, and India. This year, as it celebrates the 30th anniversary since its foundation, it will also open an office in Doha. The firm employs 230 architects, working on a portfolio of world-class developments that extends across 10 countries.

Mushrif Trading raises KD10.7m in first tranche of capital increase KUWAIT: Mushrif Trading & Contracting Co, KSCP, yesterday announced that it has successfully increased its capital by KD 10.7 million. Following this placement, the company’s total paid up capital will reach KD 30.7 million. On December 12, 2013, the company received approvals from The Ministry of Commerce and Industry for the capital increase, and on July 16, 2013, it received approval from the CMA to increase its authorized capital from KD 20 million to KD 40 million. The increase in capital was recommended by the Board of Directors to the General Assembly of Shareholders, who approved the increase.

The new funds will be utilized to reduce balance sheet debt, improve working capital ratios and support the creation of strategic partnerships where

KUWAIT: The winner receiving the prize from Mohammed Al-Othman, NBK’s Executive Manager, Consumer Banking Group.

Mutlaq Al-Tamimi wins KD 250,000 in NBK’s Al-Jawhara quarterly draw KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) announced Mutlaq Hadi Oubayd Al-Tamimi the winner of KD 250,000, NBK’s Al-Jawhara quarterly prize.

The winner expressed his happiness in winning NBK’s Al-Jawhara quarterly prize.

“Winning KD 250,000 came as a complete surprise. I truly thank NBK for its great services and offers and for always being number one in the market,” he said. NBK has relaunched Al-Jawhara account by offering customers more chances to win bigger prizes; NBK customers have chances to win KD 5,000 weekly, KD 125,000 monthly and a grand prize of KD 250,000 quarterly.

Al-Jawhara account offers numerous benefits to NBK customers. Not only is it an

interest-free account with regular deposit and withdrawal privileges, but also entitles account holders to enter the weekly, monthly and quarterly Al-Jawhara draws.

Each KD 50 in an Al-Jawhara account entitles the customer to one chance in any of the draws.

All prizes are automatically credited to the winners’ accounts the day after the draw. The more money held in your AlJawhara account, the greater your chances of winning. Al-Jawhara accounts are available to both Kuwaitis and expats and can be opened at any one of NBK’s branches around Kuwait. For further information kindly visit www.nbk.com, or call Hala Watani at 1801801.

appropriate. With a stronger balance sheet, it is the management’s belief that the company will be able to compete for higher value work in its core market and hence grow its backlog substantially.

Commenting on the capital increase, Faisal Juma Khalfan Belhoul, chairman, said: “We are very pleased with the successful capital increase and the positive implications this has for our business and its strategy. The new funds will enable Mushrif to reduce its non-project related debt and hence strengthen its balance sheet considerably. This will enable Mushrif to continue focusing on its core market of Kuwait and seek other growth markets within the GCC. By optimizing our balance sheet structure through the increase in capital, we have placed the business in a strong position to create further shareholder value”.

Wataniya Telecom announces winners of 4th weekly draw KUWAIT: Wataniya Telecom, a member of Ooredoo Group, announced the winners of the fourth weekly draw. The weekly draws are part of the exciting new draw campaign that gives every customer a chance to win a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and a chance to win the final draw on the Audi R8 V10, model of 2015. This new draw campaign conveys Wataniya’s efforts to reward its customers and grant them additional value; thus becoming closer to them.

Wataniya expressed its gratitude to all the subscribers and congratulated the winners.

Wataniya is looking forward to carrying this weekly draw to keep rewarding its loyal customers with prizes because they do deserve it.

Besides the weekly draw, customers will also get a chance to enter the grand draw on an Audi R8 V10, model of 2015.

If customers weren’t winners in last week’s draw they will surely get a chance in the next draws. Wataniya draw campaign promises

everybody a chance to be a winner by simply using their Wataniya line, through recharging and paying bills. Every KD1 is equal to 1 chance of winning. New customers will get 5 chances upon activating their new lines. For more information about the draw, customers can visit the website: www.wataniya.com/draw Wataniya continues to give all its customers several chances to become winners!

Week 4 winners are: Abdel Aziz Saoud Al-Naki, Youssef Yaacoub Al-Ahmad, Khalid Al-Bachir, Jamini Atokor AlAji, Nwayer Safar Al-Hajri, Taleb Hadris Aswad, Hidayathkodala Kuzhiyil, Bassam Salam, Kalid Bjad Al-Atibi, Abdalla Adel Abdeen, Dala Saad Abu Labqa, Karam Ali Abdel Jawad, Amino AlDin Najem Al-Din, Assaad Al-Badri Abdel Rahman, Salah Maatouk Al-Khashman, Kholoud Abdulhadi Abu Rizaq, Sanggo Lee, Teel Ouli, Noor Ahmed Bokho, Sharaf Al Din Balkin Bothyabora, Abdel Rahman Aziz Maid

Al-Matiri, Jahanjir Rahman, Mohammad Ahmad Mohammd Houmam, Thanjafil Jayasilan, Setta Ram Brajabat, Shijithazhi Bellathotarhil, Latifah Mohammad Hasan Bodastour, Jasim Mohammad Al Matrouk, Khalid Talal Mohammad Jamran, Sheikha Youssef Abdallah Al-Roumi, Mansour Mohammad Jaafar Al-Awadi, Sayed Soroush Daravrin, Sab kamar Al-Dawlah, Youssef Mola Mola, Adel Abdel Halim Sayed Al-Zaabalawi, Muhammad Atif Tufail, Moubarak Rached AlNasafi, Al-Sayed Ebrahim Mahmoud, Sami Ali Saleh, Shiranji Lal Mahichanand, Afsala Langat Mohammad, Sarah Hussein Abbas Blouchi, Fajer Abdel Rahim Mohammad Al-Chamaa, Mohamed Sayed Abdulrazaq, Omar Waleed AlEasa, Shajahan Nanjarat Youssef, Bdour Daydan Salbi Al-Matiri, Fahed Moussaed Shabib Al Rachidi, Bader Abdallah Al-Awadi, Eid Hadi Mohammad Al-Azmi, Moubarak Ali Moubarak Al-Rachidi, Ibrahim Al-Enezi, Fahed Eid Abass Sultan and Mahdi Baddah Al-Hamli.

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

TECHNOLOGY

Technical glitch delays US-Russia crew’s docking MOSCOW: A US-Russian three man crew yesterday faced an unprecedented two-day delay in their docking with the International Space Station (ISS) after their Russian Soyuz spacecraft suffered a technical glitch on its approach in orbit. The two Russian cosmonauts and American astronaut were to have docked with the ISS just six hours after launch from Kazakhstan but the problem means that the docking is now only planned tomorrow.

This means that the trio will now orbit the Earth 34 times before their rendezvous with the international space laboratory, instead of the fast track route of four orbits originally envisaged.

Russians Alexander Skvor tsov and Oleg Artemyev along with Steve Swanson of NASA had earlier taken off from Russia’s Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in the spectacular night-time launch that initially went without problem. The issue appeared to arise once their Soyuz capsule was in orbit and a thruster failed to fire to assist its approach for docking with the ISS. The US space agency NASA said in a statement on its website that the Soyuz spacecraft “was unable to complete its third thruster burn to finetune its approach” to the orbiting space station.

The trio were using a fast-track approach to the ISS that Russia has been employing since 2013. After the problem, they are now using the traditional two-day longer approach that was employed up to 2012. “Rendezvous experts are reviewing the plan, and may update it later as necessary,” the US space agency said, adding that the trio on board were “in good spirits”.

‘Mathematical problem?’

NASA said Russian flight controllers were

reviewing data to work out why the third thruster burn did not occur as planned. “Initial information indicates the problem may have been the spacecraft was not in the proper attitude, or orientation, for the burn,” NASA said. The head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos Oleg Ostapenko said the problem appeared to have been triggered by a hitch with the orientation system.

“The crew have taken off their space suits and

are continuing their flight normally,” he said. The head of the Russian rocket state firm Energia that supplies the Soyuz rocket that propels the craft into space however said that the origin of the problem was not yet clear. “It could be mathematics, it could be a transmitter problem or that the engine choked. But most likely it was a mathematical problem,” said Vitaly Lopota, quoted by the Interfax news agency. This would imply that ground scien-

BAIKONUR: Russian Soyuz-FG rocket with the Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft and a crew of US astronaut and Russian cosmonauts aboard, blasts off from a launch pad yesterday. — AFP

tists failed to work out the correct altitude in orbit for the thruster to fire to take the Soyuz to the ISS. Roscosmos said that the docking was now provisionally expected at 3:58 am Moscow time tomorrow (2358 today).

Space cooperation despite Ukraine After the retirement of the US shuttle, NASA is for now wholly reliant on Russia for delivering astronauts to the space station on its tried-andtrusted Soyuz launch and capsule system. USRussia space cooperation has continued undimmed despite the diplomatic standoff over Ukraine and the joint work is seen as one of the few true success stories in post Cold War bilateral ties.

At the pre-flight news conference at Russia’s Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, senior astronauts Skvortsov and Swanson said that they had decided to have dinners together on board the ISS “as an opportunity to come together as friends in the kitchen and look each other in the eye”.

Swanson also paid homage to Yuri Gagarin, the Soviet cosmonaut who became the first man in space in 1961 with his flight from Baikonur.

“Yuri is a symbol for the whole world. I am proud to be part of history here,” he said. Skvortsov is making his second space flight and Swanson, a veteran of two past shuttle missions, his third. Artemyev meanwhile is making his first voyage to space. He took part in a 2009 experiment where volunteers were shut up in a capsule at a Moscow laboratory for 105 days to simulate the effects of a possible voyage to Mars. After docking, the trio will bring the ISS crew up to six by joining on board incumbent crew Koichi Wakata of Japan, American Rick Mastracchio and Russian Mikhail Tyurin. — AFP

Facebook takes $2 billion dive into virtual reality Does Facebook have Google envy?

ROME: This file photo shows a man playing the Candy Crush Saga on his iPhone. — AFP

King Digital raises $500m in IPO NEW YORK: King Digital Entertainment, the creator of the wildly popular video game Candy Crush, priced its initial public offering at $22.50 per share Tuesday, raising $500 million in its Wall Street debut. The British game developer sold 22.2 million shares in an offering priced at the midpoint of the $21-$24 range previously targeted. King will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday under the ticker “KING” with a market valuation of $7.1 billion.

The money raised in the issue could reach $574 million depending on market demand for an additional 3.33 million that could be issued underwriters, the company said.

Established in 2002, King’s business has soared in the last two years thanks to the spectacular popularity of Candy Crush Saga , which boasts some 97 million players worldwide. The Tetris-like format requires players to line up sweets and bon bons through 500 increasingly difficult levels. But the addictive qualities of Candy Crush, and the company’s ability to monetize that by users on computers, tablets and cellphones paying extra to help them advance through its 500 levels,

underpin the sky-high valuation. The company says its games, which also include Farm Heroes and Pet Rescue, are installed on 600 million mobile devices, and played over 1.4 billion times a day-more than one billion alone for Candy Crush.

Profits in the fourth quarter reached $159 million. However, analysts have cautioned that King’s long-term earnings viability remains questionable owing to its business heavily reliant on a single product. Research firm PrivCo notes that King itself estimates the average lifespan of a paying player on a particular game at two to nine months.

Given that much of the growth in Candy Crush subscribers ended in the first quarter of 2013, “many of the paying players on Candy Crush will soon reach the end of their estimated playing period,” PrivCo said. “As a result, King’s other games will need to grow at much faster rates if King is to maintain its current growth rates.” Analysts have noted that Zynga, creator of the once-mighty “FarmVille” game lost 40 percent of its value after entering the market in December 2011 with a valuation of $7 billion. — AFP

Disney’s purchase of Maker a real boon for LA startups LOS ANGELES: Disney’s $500 million purchase of YouTube video producer Maker Studios is a sign that the entertainment industry’s content and technology startups are coming of age and proving to be as valuable to Hollywood as app makers are to the giants of Silicon Valley. The deal announced Monday also signals Hollywood’s new openness to technological innovation, an acknowledgement that media giants don’t have all the answers. The acquisition comes a month after The Walt Disney Co launched a technology startup incubator called Disney Accelerator, which promises to seed 10 companies with $120,000 each to develop ideas that’ll have a big impact on entertainment and technology.

Disney’s purchase price - which could hit $950 million if Maker hits performance targets - also validates the increasing value of so-called “multichannel networks.” Those are the mini media empires that provide funding and support to video creators while taking a cut of ad revenue generated from views on YouTube. When people subscribe to these channels, they’re notified when new videos are available. That helps networks generate regular views on multiple devices, and enables them to deliver video ads on a massive scale.

Only a handful of such networks have reached the size of Maker, which went from startup status in 2009 to a network with 55,000 channels that generate 5.5 billion views a month, the vast majority from people aged 13-34. Other big network players include Machinima, Big Frame and Fullscreen, all based in the Los Angeles area

because of its ready supply of actors, directors, camera people and editors who are otherwise struggling to make it onto a big-budget Hollywood movie or TV show.

“I think the big media companies just have a hard time being nimble on their own,” says Gerry Laybourne, chairman of Defy Media, operator of YouTube channels including Smosh and Shut Up! Cartoons. “They can’t take the time to find a Smosh. It’s too hard. They can’t take the risk of trying to figure out all the angles. They have to rely on the garages for innovation,” she says. Dana Loberg, cofounder of San Francisco-based digital marketing company MovieLaLa, says the Maker deal provides encouragement to entrepreneurs like herself who are looking to the studios for business and investment.

“To have a buyer in Los Angeles like a studio that can make these big purchases is really big and good for the ecosystem of LA,” she says.

“I’m super happy to see studios are acquiring and paying attention to the digital space.” The purchase price sets a high benchmark for an L.A.-area startup, but it’s not the highest. Facebook Inc. announced its $2 billion purchase of Irvine-based virtual reality headset maker Oculus on Tuesday. Yahoo Inc. bought Burbank-based search marketing firm Overture in 2003 for $1.6 billion. News Corp. bought Beverly Hills-based social network Myspace in 2005 for $580 million.

Electronic Arts Inc paid $680 million for Los Angeles-based mobile game maker Jamdat in 2005 and Sony Corp. bought Aliso Viejobased streaming game company Gaikai for $380 million in 2012. —AP

SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook on Tuesday announced a $2-billion deal to buy a startup behind virtual reality headgear that promises to let people truly dive into their friends’ lives.

Facebook co-founder and chief Mark Zuckerberg said that the acquisition of Oculus was a longterm bet that making the social network’s offerings more immersive would pay off. “People will build a model of a place far away and you will just go see it; it is just like teleporting,” Zuckerberg said.

“I do think gaming is a start,” he said in a conference call, referring to the Oculus headset’s original design focus. Zuckerberg billed the acquisition as part of a drive to build the “next major computing platform that will come after mobile.” For now, Facebook will use its resources to make Oculus headgear affordable and ubiquitous, according to Zuckerberg. The Californiabased social network does not intend to become a hardware company, but Zuckerberg said it is open to people using virtual reality devices for immersive shopping experiences at Facebook.

Facebook plans to build on Oculus technology for areas such as communications, education, and entertainment. Oculus shareholders will receive $400 million in cash and 23.1 million Facebook shares in the deal. Facebook called Oculus, launched in 2012, the leader in immersive virtual reality technology with a strong following among developers. The company has already garnered more than 75,000 orders for the $350 Oculus Rift headset development kits.

Beyond games “While the applications for virtual reality technology beyond gaming are in their nascent stages, several industries are already experimenting with the technology,” Facebook said.

“Oculus has the chance to create the most social platform ever, and change the way we work, play and communicate.” Oculus’s headset earned raves from reviewers at the annual global technology fair CES in Las Vegas in January.

Buying it puts Facebook, the social networking leader, in competition with Oculus rival Sony for development of advanced virtual reality headsets. Japanese consumer electronic titan Sony last week unveiled “Project Morpheus,” development of a virtual reality headgear system for its new-generation PlayStation 4 video game consoles. Facebook said Oculus will maintain its headquarters in Irvine, California, and continue developing the Rift platform. Word of

LAS VEGAS: In this file photo, show attendees play a video game wearing Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets at the Intel booth at the International Consumer Electronics Show. — AP the deal stymied some analysts, who noted that the people hot to get hands on Oculus headsets have been hardcore video game players.

Google envy “It’s a cool technology,” said Silicon Valley analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group. “I just don’t know why Facebook wants it, unless they are having incredible Google envy. It has nothing to do with social networking.” It appeared to Forrester media analyst James McQuivey that Facebook made the big-ticket buy out of fear the social network might miss out on the next big thing in Internet lifestyles.

He saw no good fit between Facebook and virtual reality, saying the technology does not promise to be an irresistible addition to social networking. “Facebook is putting itself in a position to offer an experience we are not going to need that much, especially if it means strapping something to your head,” McQuivey told AFP. “If this is Facebook’s way of getting into a Google Glass type experience, that makes a little more sense but they could do that from scratch.”

Google on Monday said it is joining forces with the frame giant behind Ray-Ban, Oakley and oth-

er high-end brands to create and sell Glass Internet-linked eyewear in the United States. The California-based technology titan billed the partnership with Luxottica as its “biggest step yet into the emerging smart eyewear market.”

The first smart glasses by Luxottica for Google Glass will go on sale in 2015, the head of the Italian eyewear group said Tuesday. Google’s Internet-connected eyewear is currently in a test phase with a small number of so-called “explorers.” Glass connects to the Internet using Wi-Fi hot spots or, more typically, by being wirelessly tethered to mobile phones. Pictures or video are may be shared through the Google Plus social network.

The Oculus acquisition comes just weeks after Facebook made a deal to buy mobile messaging service WhatsApp for more than $19 billion in cash and stock, expanding its global footprint. WhatsApp is a mobile software program which allows users to exchange messages without having to pay telecom charges. The WhatsApp buy is Facebook’s biggest acquisition and comes less than two years after Zuckerberg’s firm raised $16 billion in the richest tech sector public stock offering. — AFP

Japan robot suit firm rockets in 1st market debut TOKYO: Exoskeleton robot-maker Cyberdyne burst onto the Japanese stock market yesterday, with the issue more than doubling on its first day of trade. The Japanese robot venture provided 10.85 million shares, which did not trade in the early session because buy orders overwhelmed sell orders after it was priced at 3,700 yen.

But things took off in the afternoon, with the price rocketing at one point as high as 10,010 yen, before settling on 9,600 yen at the close, around 160 percent up.

That was despite the release of Cyberdyne’s earnings reports for the nine-month period to December, which showed it booked a net loss of 450 million yen ($4.4 million) on sales of 269 million yen, and forecasting a full-year net loss of 659 million yen on sales of 469 million yen.

“Today we listed onto the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Mothers’ market... We appreciate your additional guidance and encouragement,” the firm said in a statement, using an expression common to formal greetings in Japan. The Mothers market is a forum aimed at providing venture companies with access to funds at an early stage of their development.

Cyberdyne, based in Tsukuba, northeast of Tokyo, has developed a robot suit that can help the elderly or disabled get around.

Its Hybrid Assistive Limb, or HAL, is a power-assisted pair of legs. The company has also produced a brainwave-controlled robot suit that allows wearers to don heavy radiation protection without feeling the weight, possibly offering utility to workers at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.

A huge tsunami in March 2011 smashed into the power plant, sparking meltdowns that forced the evacuation of a huge area of northeastern Japan. The decommissioning of the crippled plant is expected to take several decades.

Cyberdyne is unrelated to the fictional firm responsible for the Terminator in the 1984 film of the same name, and HAL’s naming is said to be unconnected to the sentient computer in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The firm was established in 2004 to disseminate the research results of Tsukuba University professor Yoshiyuki Sankai. Industrial robots have long been used in Japan, and robo-suits are gradually making inroads into hospitals and retirement homes. — AFP

TOKYO: Employees of Japanese robot venture Cyberdyne, display the robot suit Hybrid Assistive Limb (HAL), which is designed to learn the user’s motion and assist their movement. — AFP

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

H E A LT H & S C I E N C E

Comet-probing robot to wake from hibernation PARIS: A fridge-sized robot lab hurtling through the Solar System aboard a European probe is about to wake from hibernation and prepare for the firstever landing by a spacecraft on a comet. The delicate operation, starting tomorrow, marks the next phase in the European Space Agency’s billion-dollar mission to explore one of these ancient wanderers of our star system. Sent to sleep in 2011 to save energy, the lander will start a weeks-long process of progressively waking up, checking and updating its systems ahead of its historic rendezvous with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Dubbed Philae, the 100-kilo (220-pound) lander carried by the Rosetta spacecraft is the scientific

star in a mission that has already taken 10 years and a seven-billion-kilometer (4.3-billion-miles) trek around the inner Solar System. Comets follow elliptical orbits around the Sun, spewing spectacular tails of gas and dust as close brushes with the hot star cause surface ice to evaporate.

They are sometimes called “dirty snowballs”-but cosmologists say comets’ primeval mix of ice and dust are time capsules, offering insights into how the Solar System formed 4.5 billion years ago. Some scientists believe comets may have brought much of the water in today’s oceans and possibly complex molecules that kickstarted life on Earth. This is where Philae comes in: it is stuffed with 10 instru-

ments designed to probe and analyze the comet’s surface, teasing out the secrets of its composition and organic chemistry.

Philippe Gaudon of France’s CNES space agency said Philae’s 33-month slumber was almost exactly “like an animal in hibernation,” for only its temperature was monitored during this time to check it remained alive in the chill of deep space. The wakeup, he added: “will be like switching on a computer that’s been off for three years.”

Harpooning a comet “By the beginning of July, Rosetta will be about 50,000 km (31,000 miles) from the comet, by the

beginning of August no more than 150 km,” said Gaudon. In August, the satellite will be inserted into an orbit 25 kilometers above Comet “C-G”, which travels at speeds up to 135,000 kilometers per hour, to start scanning the surface for a suitable landing site for Philae.

On November 11, Rosetta will inch to within two to three kilometers of the comet surface to put down its precious load in a “delicate, difficult” operation, said Gaudon. The box-shaped lander will touch down on its three legs, fire two harpoons into the surface to provide anchorage, and then further secure itself with ice screws before starting its work.

Abalone threatened with extinction in South Africa Illicit shipments disguised as duvets, sardines

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan elephants take part in a demonstration yesterday. — AFP

Lanka monk demands capture of wild elephants for temples COLOMBO: A Sri Lankan Buddhist monk led a procession of elephants yesterday, demanding authorities capture wild pachyderms from the jungle to boost the dwindling number of the animals in temples. Patron of the Tamed Elephant Owners’ Association, monk Maagalkanday Sudaththa said temples faced a severe shortage of animals for their annual pageants where caparisoned elephants are paraded.

“There are only 130 tamed elephants in the country and only about half them are actually available for temple parades,” said the monk, who led some two dozen elephants from parliament to the wildlife office a short distance away. “We want the authorities to capture wild elephants and tame them for our cultural purposes,” the monk told AFP. There was no immediate comment available from the wildlife department where the monk staged his elephant protest. But environmentalists said the authorities for decades have not allowed the capture of elephants from the wild.

Environmental lawyer Jagath Gunawardena said they had no objections if the state released animals from the country’s main elephant orphanage at Pinnawala, 90 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of the capital Colombo, for the temples. “Animals in the wild are already threatened with the habitat shrinking,” Gunawardena told AFP. “If you allow the capture from the wild,

things will get worse for the animals. What we say is give elephants from Pinnawala if you want, but don’t allow the capture of wild elephants.” The elephant orphanage established in 1975 shelters more than 85 elephants, most of whom were abandoned or separated from their herds when they were babies. Many have also been born at the orphanage.

Asian elephant expert Jayantha Jayewardene noted many Sri Lankans wanted to own elephants as a symbol of wealth. “It is prestige. It is a way of showing your wealth” Jayewardene said. “I fear the calls to allow the capture of wild elephants (for temple ceremonies) is just a ruse for people to freely own elephants.”

Sri Lanka considers elephants sacred animals because of their association with Buddhist temple festivities. Pinnawala elephants have been presented as gifts to Buddhist temples as well as to other countries as symbols of friendship.

Elephants are also protected by law and there were fears that their numbers were falling, but a survey in 2011 found that Sri Lanka’s elephant population remained healthy with 7,379 in the wild. The survey’s results had been a welcome outcome for authorities who had believed the wild elephant population totaled just 5,350. The country boasted 12,000 elephants in 1900 but their numbers have been depleted by shrinking of habitat as farmers kill animals who stray onto their land. — AFP

SEOUL: A pedestrian walks past an advertisement for plastic surgery clinic at a subway station yesterday. — AFP

Seoul set to limit plastic surgery ads SEOUL: The South Korean capital Seoul is to restrict the use of plastic surgery adverts on public transport, officials said yesterday, after complaints that they were fuelling an unhealthy obsession with body image.

South Korea, and particularly Seoul, has an international reputation for plastic surgery, and adverts featuring famous surgeons and giant before-and-after photos are omnipresent-on street billboards, subway trains, bus stops and the backs of bus seats.

In the Apgujeong subway station at the heart of the upscale Gangnam districthome to hundreds of cosmetic surgery clinics-around half of all advertising prints and hoardings are promoting nose jobs, facelifts and other nips and tucks. Under the new regulations, no more than 20 percent of advertising at any subway station can be connected with the plastic surgery industry.

“We have received a growing number of

complaints from citizens who say these ads further promote an obsession with looks and are disturbing to look at,” a municipal official told AFP. “Overly sensational” before-and-after shots and slogans will be banned, he added. The adverts will also be prohibited in areas close to elementary, middle and high schools, said city council official Lee Chang-Min. “Many people complained these ads make people, including youngsters, believe that plastic surgery can be done so easily,” Lee said. Both officials said complaints surged after several fatal incidents involving botched plastic surgery. Earlier this month a 34-year-old woman died of asphyxiation while having surgery on her nose and a man in his 30s died three days after undergoing a procedure on his jawbone. Last December, a high school girl fell into a coma while having a nose surgery. — AFP

HOUT BAY: In broad daylight, groups of poachers hidden among the rocks of a South African marine conservation area wade slowly into the icy, shark-infested waters of the Atlantic Ocean in search of ‘white gold’. Foot soldiers of a global criminal network stretching from the southernmost tip of Africa to the other side of the globe, they are scouring the rocks for abalone to meet insatiable demand from Asia for the gourmet mollusk. The hunt is driving the species to the edge of extinction, but fears of being caught either by coastguards or great white sharks - are relegated to the back of poachers’ minds by the glittering prizes on offer. “We didn’t get much now but we will go out again tonight with the boat,” said veteran poacher Stephan, emerging warily from the water as fisheries’ inspectors in speed boats could be seen whizzing about looking for boats further out to sea.

Destined for trendy restaurants in Hong Kong and China, abalone - dubbed “white gold” after its pearly flesh - can fetch up to 4,500 rand ($420) a kg on the South African black market, and nearly three times that in Asia, experts say.

Also found in abundance in cold waters off New Zealand, Australia, Japan and the west coast of the United States, abalone from South Africa is considered to be among the best.

The divers may only get 300 rand per kg but in impoverished coastal villages such as Hout Bay, blighted by sky-high unemployment, that is still good money. Caught on both sides of South Africa’s coastline, abalone, or “perlemoen” as it is called locally, is sold for cash or exchanged for methamphetamines, helping fuel South Africa’s already serious drug problem.

“Tonight we expect a good haul of between 50 and 60 kg, maybe 100 if we’re lucky,” Stephan said, shivering after two hours underwater in a battered wetsuit. Like others interviewed for this story, he asked to be identified only by his first name. Moving from their iron and wood shacks on the steep slopes of Hout Bay’s Hangberg, 20 km (13 miles) east of Cape Town, the poachers trek over a snake-infested ridge, carrying heavy scuba-diving gear before reaching their destina-

tion at Seal Island.

With mobile phones sealed in condoms to keep out the water, they scan the ocean for patrol vessels and sharks before sliding into the deep. Only a limited number of fisheries are licensed to harvest a highly circumscribed amount of abalone in South Africa, and the penalties for breaking the law are harsh.

Under no illusion about the dangers of jail or how depleted stocks could hurt fishing villages, another poacher, Leon, echoes the line from almost all the fishermen: it is simply a question of survival. “We are just ordinary fishermen struggling to survive, to put food in the pot, to pay school fees, to make a living,” he said, sitting among piles of empty abalone shells strewn across the beach.

“Fast and furious” On land the silky abalone are “shucked” from their shells before being dried in sheds or suburban garages. They can also be frozen prior to being smuggled out of the country in shipping containers. Customs officers have intercepted consignments concealed as duvet covers, plastic pellets or sardines. Some shipments are organized by notorious Chinese ‘Triad’ gangsters.

“Triads do play a role, but in our experience it is mainly wealthy Asian businessmen who hide illegal activities behind legitimate businesses,” said Lise Potgieter, a member of the South African police’s elite Hawks detective unit. One of the alleged kingpins, a Chinese national named Ran Wei, had a successful South African crayfish-exporting business before skipping the country in 2010 when associates - including a lawyer and police officers - were nabbed.

An Interpol arrest warrant is out for Wei, the principal suspect in a case being described as the biggest of its kind in South Africa’s history.

Better crime intelligence and a dollop of luck, such as finding a discarded pie receipt in a Porsche Cayenne, has helped authorities close in on previously untouchable syndicate bosses.

In the case of the pie receipt, officers were able to identify a bakery in Hermanus - a poach-

ing hot-spot - whose video footage helped identify a top get-away driver, nicknamed “Fast and Furious” because of his ability to evade capture.

Police estimate that one syndicate will have up to 30 members, from divers to carriers and buyers. More than 100 suspects have been arrested over the past three years.

Those held face charges of racketeering, money laundering and poaching, offences that carry jail terms of up to 25 years. For the first time, foreign assets such as companies are also being targeted, investigators say. “We are cutting off the head of the snake, but there are many snakes in this dirty business,” Potgieter told Reuters. The scale of the plunder is mindboggling. In one case, a syndicate poached 55 tons in five months, storing the abalone at a disused chicken battery along South Africa’s west coast. The premises were raided after a tip-off to police who caught three suspects. Another group slipped through 10 shipping containers of contraband before authorities intercepted two more en route to Hong Kong. The contents of one of the seized containers were estimated at $3.5 million, police said.

Extinction threat Abalone is mainly fished commercially in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Oman and South Africa, where 300 commercial license holders can take no more than 150 tons a year between them. However, wildlife trade monitoring group TRAFFIC estimates the illegal 2012 harvest at 1,700 tons - way more than the local population of the mollusk, which takes nearly a decade to reach maturity, can support.

Government officials say the situation is so desperate they may have to impose a blanket ban on all abalone fishing - both recreational and commercial - to stave off looming extinction.

“We have reached commercial collapse already and if we continue on this path the abalone could become extinct in the wild soon,” said Bernard Liedemann, a senior fisheries official involved in the fight against poaching since the 1990s. — Reuters

Birth control rule seems to divide Supreme Court WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court struggled Tuesday with the question of whether companies have religious rights, a case challenging President Barack Obama’s health overhaul and its guarantee of birth control in employees’ preventive care plans.

The case is one of myriad legal challenges to the health care law, which is now being fully implemented and has emerged as a major issue in this year’s national election in which control of Congress will be at stake.

The justices upheld the overall health care law two years ago in a 5-4 ruling in which Chief Justice John Roberts cast the deciding vote in favor of Obama’s signature domestic legislation. The latest case focuses on a sliver of the law dealing with preventive services, including contraception, that must be offered in a company’s plan at no extra charge. Peppering attorneys with questions in a 90-minute argument, the justices weighed the rights of for-profit companies against the rights of female employees. The discussion ranged to abortion, too, and even whether a female worker could be forced to wear an allcovering burka.

The outcome could turn on the views of Justice Anthony Kennedy, often the decisive vote, as his eight colleagues appeared otherwise to divide along liberal and conservative lines. As the court heard the challenge brought by the Hobby Lobby chain of stores and others, demonstrators on both sides of the issue chanted outside in an early spring snow. The familyowned companies that are challenging the provision provide health insurance to their employees but object to covering certain methods of birth control that they say can work after conception, in violation of their religious beliefs.

Obama to meet Pope Francis The justices have never declared that for-profit corporations, as opposed to individuals, can hold religious beliefs. The companies in this case, and their backers, argue that a 1993 federal law on religious freedom extends to businesses. Among the groups opposing the administration is the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. As it happens, Obama is to meet this week with Pope Francis. The Obama administration says it’s not just about birth control, that a Supreme Court ruling in favor of the businesses also could undermine laws governing immunizations, pension taxes and minimum wages.

Kennedy voiced concerns about the rights of both female employees and the business owners. He wondered what would happen if an employer ordered a woman who works for him to wear a burka, a full-length robe and head covering commonly worn by conservative Islamic women. He asked: Does the employer’s religious belief “just trump?” One key issue before the justices is whether profit-making corporations may assert religious beliefs under the 1993 religious freedom law or the First Amendment provision guaranteeing Americans the right to believe and worship as they choose. The court could skirt that issue by finding that the individuals who own the businesses have the right to object. But the justices still would have to decide whether the birth control requirement impinges on religious freedom, and if so, whether the government makes a persuasive case that the policy is important and has been put in place in the least objectionable way possible. —AP

PHOENIX: Photo provided by Flor Medrano shows Kevin Vicente in Phoenix, Ariz. — AP

Phoenix judge spares life of dog that mauled child PHOENIX: A Phoenix judge on Tuesday spared the life of a pit bull that mauled a 4-year-old boy last month and touched off a polarizing Internet debate on mercy, blame and animal violence.

Municipal Court Judge Deborah Griffin ruled that the dog named Mickey must be neutered, defanged and microchipped. She declared the dog vicious earlier in the day and could have ordered euthanasia.

“There would be absolutely no possibility of the animal ever doing this to someone again,” Griffin said, saying the dog must remain in a facility for the rest of its life and can’t be adopted. An animal rights group is the trustee for the dog and has 30 days to find a rehabilitation center or shelter to take Mickey. An animal advocate in court started to cry when hearing the dog would live.

The Feb 20 attack left Kevin Vicente with a broken eye socket and jaw, and the boy has months, if not years, of reconstructive surgery ahead of him. The question of whether the pit bull should live or die attracted a team of top death penalty lawyers, led to candlelight vigils and riled up thousands of animal lovers on social media who placed blame with the dog’s owners and child’s baby sitter.

Meanwhile, donations and gifts from around the world have flowed in for Kevin since the dog bit the boy in the face. Floridalma Vicente, the boy’s mother, said she is grateful for the outpouring of public support, but can’t understand the support that emerged for the dog. “It disturbed me at first that they placed more value on an animal than on a child, and that made me feel very bad,” Vicente told The Arizona Republic

through a Spanish interpreter. “If they don’t care about (Kevin), well, I do.”

Neither Vicente nor the man who owned the dog attended the court hearing. Guadalupe Villa, whose boyfriend’s mother was baby-sitting Kevin the day of the attack, filed the vicious-dog court petition that started the case.

In her petition, she describes Mickey as a dog that has a history of acting without provocation and that killed one of her dogs. Animal advocates hit back, saying both the dog and boy are victims and the baby sitter watching the child was negligent in letting him play near the animal. They also argued the owner was fostering aggression by keeping the dog chained up.

On Tuesday, Griffin said several adults shared some responsibility for the attack. The judge pointed out that there was a “Beware of Dog” sign on the property’s fence but the gate was left open and children were allowed to play near the dog. “This whole case has been very, very distressing to me,” Griffin said, adding that Kevin will pay the price for the rest of his life.

A half dozen animal rights advocates attended the hearing in T-shirts that bore a paw mark and a slogan, “Save Mickey.” One of them, Veronica Lee, said the hearing showed that the baby sitter wasn’t watching closely and that Mickey was kept chained. “We were not here to put a dog above Kevin,” Lee said. “We were just here to make sure justice was served.” Luis Acosta, who said he’s not related to anyone involved in the case, disagreed with the judge’s decision and questioned whether the government would really ensure the dog was never adopted.—AP

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

H E A LT H & S C I E N C E

Terror grips Ebola-hit west Africa Death toll in Guinea Ebola outbreak reaches 63 CONAKRY: Guinea battled yesterday to contain an Ebola epidemic threatening neighboring countries as fear and confusion gripped communities under siege from one of the deadliest viruses known to mankind.

Aid organizations have sent dozens of workers to help the poverty-hit country combat a haemorrhagic fever outbreak which has claimed at least 63 victims, many of whom have been confirmed to have been infected by Ebola.

“On Monday, two more deaths were reported in our area. People are really frightened,” Joseph Gbaka Sandounou, a unit manager for Plan International, was quoted as saying in a statement released by the organization. “They have seen people die in a matter of just two or three days. They are constantly worried who is going to be the next fatality.”

The British-based charity said people of Guinea’s southern forests-the epicenter of the outbreak which began in February-had been terrified by seeing neighbors bleeding severely as they were struck down by the virus. “People have never experienced anything like this before. Rumors are rife among communities who are trying to come up with their own explanations,” said Sandounou.

Ebola had never spread among humans in west Africa before February but five deaths being investigated in Liberia, one in Sierra Leone and others still being tested could bring the total in the epidemic to above 70. “We are not at the end of this epidemic, we

continue every day to record a number of new cases or fatalities,” said Guinea’s chief disease prevention officer Sakoba Keita, confirming the two new deaths.

“But the daily incidence is lessening. We believe the peak has passed.” The tropical virus-described in some health publications as a “molecular shark”-causes severe fever and muscle pain, weakness, vomiting and diarrhea, organs to shut down and unstoppable bleeding in severe cases. Scientists have examined 45 samples from victims of the epidemic, with 19 testing positive for Ebola, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said in a statement.

Other highly-contagious tropical bugs, including Marburg and Lassa, can lead to similar symptoms but the authorities have not announced which pathogens were been picked up in samples where Ebola was not detected.

Danger of panic spreading “When the epidemic broke out a number of health workers had no clue what they were handling nor did they have the protective gear,” said Sandounou. “As a result, a number of Ebola victims have been health workers. We heard reports that health workers turned patients away due to fear in some cases before the health administration swung into action.” Sierra Leone warned on Tuesday that a 14-year-old buried recently may have been infected in Guinea, while the deaths of four women and a boy

in Liberia are being tested for the killer virus.

Guinea has banned inhabitants of the south from eating bats, a common feature of the local diet, as the creatures are considered to be the natural host of the virus. Transmission of Ebola to humans can come from wild animals, direct contact from another human’s blood, faces or sweat, as well as sexual contact or the unprotected handling of contaminated corpses. Doctors Without Borders, which is known by its French initials “MSF”, said the spread of the disease was being exacerbated by people travelling to funerals in which mourners touch the dead person’s body.

No treatment or vaccine is available, and the Zaire strain detected in Guinea-first observed in the Democratic Republic of Congo 38 years ago-has a 90 percent death rate. Guinea is one of the world’s poorest nations despite vast untapped mineral wealth, with a stagnating economy, youth unemployment at 60 percent and a rank of 178th out of 187 countries on the UN’s Human Development Index.

Plan, MSF and other aid organizations are providing treatment and sanitation facilities and relaying public health information, especially to schools, via the media and text messages. “We want to avoid the danger of the population panicking and it is important to transmit all the information necessary to understand the disease and how people can protect themselves,” MSF emergency coordinator MarieChristine Ferir said. — AFP

KAMPUNGU: In this file photo, a 43-year-old Congolese patient (center) who has been confirmed to have Ebola hemorrhagic fever, following laboratory tests, is comforted by Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) in Kampungu, Kasai Occidental province, Congo. — AP

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

W H AT ’ S O N

Greetings

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ongratulations to Ahmed Sharkis who was awarded the ‘Ideal Employee’ title at Lulu Center in best food service front office sales. I wish you further success in all your endeavors.

Best wishes from Sherif Ismail.

Jumeirah Messilah Beach Hotel & Spa unveils Italian chef, new menu in Olio

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s his grandmother was to head back home to Jordan, Saleh began to walk on his own at Buffalo, NY airport, as if her departure was so hard for him that he was attempting to prevent her from doing it. Father Walid, mother Hibatullah and grandmother were thrilled to see him take his first steps on his own outside their home. You made your grandfather very proud, Saleh.

J

H

appy birthday to Bushra Mahboob Ali Shaikh. Best wishes from Chachu Aslam and family.

umeirah Messilah Beach Hotel & Spa, Kuwait’s idyllic resort, has appointed a new Italian chef Francesco Picaro. Born in Naples, the capital of the Italian region of Campania, Francesco Picaro received his diploma from Instituto Alberghiero G Salvemini and his Masters Certificate in Gourmet from the A Tavola Con Lo Chef in Rome. He has over 13 years’ experience in the culinary world gained from luxury hotels in Egypt, Libya, the United States and in his home country Italy.

Francesco Picaro recently introduced a new menu including a selection of aperitivi or drinks, antipasti, soups, an assortment of risottos and pasta dishes and a wider variety of main courses, pizzas and desserts. Gourmet coffee choices are also offered. Among the selection of aperitivi, is

Venezia, a refreshing drink made from fresh grapes, passion fruit, lemon juice and rosemary.

For antipasti, Insalata di Mare includes a mix of octopus, shrimps, calamari, mussels, celeries and carrot with a lemon dressing. The soup options now include Zuppa di Pesce alla Mediterranea or Mediterranean seafood soup.

For risotto and pasta options, traditional Italian Lasagna is offered and for a hearty main course the sumptuous Costolette d’Agnello, made from lamb chop with pistachio, sauté vegetables, mashed potato and rosemary sauce is a popular choice. Authentic Italian pizzas made in a wood burning oven include the Frutti di Mare made from tomato, mozzarella, prawns, mussels and calamari.

Italian Chef Francesco Picaro

Sable celebrates Mother’s Day in a distinguished way

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ommitted to always sharing remarkable occasions with the Kuwaiti population, Sable the leading sweets company, dedicated a special collection of cakes tailormade to be the perfect gifts on Mother’s Day. Sable has provided six different designs of cakes in celebration of this occasion, diversified in flavor, size and decoration as well which has given customers a wide range of choices as per their different tastes. This in addition to a unique collection of tasty chocolates which

was inspired by the occasion.

For Mothers’ Day, Sable has gone further and given away complementary cakes for mothers visiting its branch in Salmiya on Wednesday, March 19. The celebration was covered live on Al-Qayla radio program with Mike Mobtaleh presenting.

Actor Hiba Al-Durri and her husband actor Nawaf Al-Ali were the hosts of the program as per their desire to share the celebratory atmosphere with Sable customers.

Commenting on the occasion and Sable’s celebration, Khaled

Salameh, Acting Operations Manager at Sable said: “We wanted to share this joyful occasion with Kuwaiti mothers and expats and offer them the best wishes for the day”. He added: “We consider ourselves as strictly committed to playing a key role in sharing society’s occasions - in particular Mother’s Day - by providing our state-of-theart sweets and cakes inspired by the joy of the occasion as a rewarding gesture to mothers who don’t hesitate to sacrifice for the good of their children”.

Al-Seif New Grand Ballroom is ideal venue at Safir Hotel & Residences Kuwait

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l-Seif new Grand ballroom is the ideal venue at Safir Hotel & Residences Kuwait, adjacent to the Al-Seif Ballroom. The new Grand Ballroom is the newest addition to Safir Fintas’ banqueting facilities. Its contemporary and functional design provides a variety of flexible venue settings suited for weddings functions, corporate and special events.

Plan your wedding at Safir Fintas and discover a brand new standard of elegance in wedding celebrations. The new Grand Ballroom has been designed to accommodate large wedding celebrations with an elegant atmosphere adapted specifically for your occasion. With a maximum capacity of 400 persons for Mudjarat style, the Grand Ballroom and AlSeif Ballroom can be combined together to extend the capacity to up to 700 persons for a reception style.

On top of its luxurious setting, both ballrooms are equipped with the latest technology, including state-of-theart audio visual equipment. Together with our highly trained professionals who are committed to deliver the best service possible in every aspect of your wedding arrangements from table settings to music, our rich selection of international and oriental cuisines, Safir Fintas we will make your wedding celebration an occasion of a lifetime.

IOC Arts Festival

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ndian Overseas Congress (IOC) will conduct Arts Festival 2014 on April 10, 11, 2014 at the United Indian School, Abbassiya. Preparations are on to host this mega event among the Indian expatriates in Kuwait.

Entry forms are also available on request through email.

Entry forms can be sent to fax no. 24331461. Filled entry forms can be emailed to: iocfest2014@gmail.com. Also, the final registration date has been extended till Saturday, 5 April 2014. All Indian children are invited to participate in the various competitions to be held on April 10, 11, 2014 at the United Indian School, Abbassiya.

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

W H AT ’ S O N

Abdulghani Behbehani is seen with Pirelli delegates. —Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Tony Trantic is seen with Pirelli delegates.

Behbehani Tire Center launches largest Pirelli center in ME P

irelli, the leader in the premium tire segment, has brought its wheels to a store near you. The new Pirelli Kuwait Flagship store opened its doors to the public on March 23. This is by far the biggest tire center in its segment in the region. This new state-of-the-art facility has been brought in Kuwait by “Behbehani Tire Center”, the sole distributor for Pirelli in Kuwait and a subsidiary of Mohammed Saleh and Reza Yousuf Behbehani Company.

The launch event was attended by senior management of Behbehani Tire Center, senior delegates from Pirelli, esteemed customers and representatives of the media.

The Pirelli store in Kuwait is regarded as its flagship store in the Middle East. This is the second Pirelli store in Kuwait and its opening was a strategic move in order to cater to the growing demand for Pirelli tires amongst the local population. The newly launched store is located in Shuwaikh on the Fourth Ring Road beside Ali Abdulwahab. Apart from the showroom, the new store includes a modernized service center for tire installation in addition to a special area where highly skilled and trained professionals are designated for installing truck tires. The center is managed by experts from Pirelli who work in a high-tech, modernized setting that is committed to not just deliver expert service but provide an overall enhanced customer experience.

Pirelli tires are available at various specifications and measurements that suit a range of vehicles including American, Japanese, European and Korean cars as well as sports and luxury cars that require specific qualities. Pirelli tires is officially certified by the world’s most popular vehicle brands such as Mercedes, Porsche, Jaguar, Audi and Land Rover as well as

motorcycle brands who enjoy the largest range of motorcycle tires that are also available here in Kuwait. Pirelli tires are distinguished by their exceptional performance, strength, stability, ability to withstand harsh weather conditions, high temperatures and fast speeds, making the tires the ideal choice for vehicles in the Middle East and especially Kuwait. Pirelli tires are avail-

able at affordable prices, thus making them accessible to a variety of individuals with different budgets all of whom would highly benefit from the damage and corrosion resistant tires that would serve them for an extended period of time. Pirelli store in Kuwait is only the beginning. The company hopes to see 30 new Pirelli shops by the end of the year. “We are proud to

extend our help and support to the pioneer and look forward to delivering quality services to our clients. Our mission is to deliver the highest level of customer satisfaction. Hence, we invested in excellent infrastructure in our Pirelli showrooms and service centers as well as in highly trained professional staff who will not only meet, but exceed our customer’s expecta-

tion. This collaboration is in line with these goals and we look forward to our customers’ feedback,” says Abdulghani Behbehani Director of Behbehani Tire Center.

The attendees of the event participated in a tour of the new store, observing and praising the new high-tech facilities in the center. The tour included a visit to the customers’ lounge that comprises of various customer-friendly features including screens that allowed customers to observe their vehicles undergoing maintenance as well as they may enjoy hot and cold refreshments while their cars are being equipped with brand new Pirelli tires.

Founded in 1872, Pirelli is the world’s fifth largest tire manufacturer based on revenues.

With a presence in over 160 countries, the company now has 22 tire manufacturing facilities on five continents and employs over 37,000 people. Pirelli is one of the leading manufacturers of high-end and performance tires, and is striving to become the world leader in this segment by 2015. The company has always had a keen focus on research and development, investing around 3 percent of revenues each year in this area: one of the highest levels of research investment in the tire industry. The goal is to constantly improve the quality of Pirelli products in terms of performance, safety and environmental impact, all in line with the company’s ‘green performance’ strategy. In pursuing these objectives, Pirelli always aims to unite financial profitability with social responsibility.

Having been involved in motor racing since 1907, Pirelli is currently the single tire manufacturer for Formula 1 and for the World Superbike Championship. This is an important challenge in terms of technological innovation and is a key means of promoting the Pirelli brand.

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

TV PROGRAMS

00:20 00:50 01:40 02:10 02:40 03:25 04:15 05:00 05:20 05:40 05:50 06:10 06:30 06:50 07:05 07:25 07:50 08:20 08:50 09:20 09:45 10:30 11:00 11:55 12:45 13:15 13:45 14:15 14:45 15:35 16:25 17:10 17:40 18:10 19:00 19:30 20:00 20:55 21:45 22:15 23:00 23:45

Doctors New Tricks My Family Walk On The Wild Side Being Erica Spooks The Weakest Link Mr Bloom’s Nursery Balamory Nina And The Neurons Me Too! Mr Bloom’s Nursery Balamory Nina And The Neurons Me Too! My Family The Vicar Of Dibley Little Britain Eastenders Doctors The Weakest Link The Vicar Of Dibley Call The Midwife New Tricks My Family Little Britain Eastenders Doctors Call The Midwife New Tricks The Weakest Link Eastenders Doctors Being Erica Last Of The Summer Wine The Vicar Of Dibley Upstairs Downstairs Mistresses The Omid Djalili Show Stella The Weakest Link Eastenders

00:00 The Planners 00:50 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 01:35 Come Dine With Me 02:25 MasterChef 03:20 Chef At Home 03:45 Chef At Home 04:10 Fantasy Homes By The Sea 04:55 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 05:40 Bargain Hunt 06:25 Come Dine With Me 07:15 Fantasy Homes By The Sea 08:00 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 08:45 The Planners 09:35 Bargain Hunt 10:20 Antiques Roadshow 11:15 Rachel Khoo’s Kitchen Notebook: London 11:40 Come Dine With Me 12:30 Gok’s Clothes Roadshow 13:20 Fantasy Homes By The Sea 14:05 Antiques Roadshow 15:05 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 15:50 MasterChef 16:45 Bargain Hunt 17:30 Chef At Home 17:55 Chef At Home 18:20 Antiques Roadshow 19:15 Homes Under The Hammer 20:10 Rachel Khoo’s Kitchen Notebook: London 20:35 Bill’s Kitchen: Notting Hill 21:00 Food & Drink 21:30 Come Dine With Me 22:20 Antiques Roadshow 23:15 Bargain Hunt

00:30 01:20 02:10 03:00 03:50 04:15

Gold Rush Alaska Gold Diggers Gold Divers: Under The Ice You Have Been Warned Border Security Auction Kings

04:40 05:05 05:30 06:00 07:00 07:50 08:40 09:30 09:55 10:20 10:45 11:10 11:35 12:25 13:15 14:05 14:30 14:55 15:20 16:10 17:00 17:50 18:40 19:30 20:20 20:45 21:10 21:35 22:00 22:50 23:40

Container Wars How Do They Do It? How It’s Made Sons Of Guns You Have Been Warned Flying Wild Alaska Fast N’ Loud Border Security Auction Kings Container Wars How Do They Do It? How It’s Made Gold Rush Alaska Gold Diggers Gold Divers: Under The Ice Border Security Auction Kings Container Wars North America Fast N’ Loud Ultimate Survival Wheeler Dealers You Have Been Warned Sons Of Guns How Do They Do It? How It’s Made Auction Kings Container Wars Dual Survival Survive That!

Yukon Men

00:40 The Colony 01:30 Bang Goes The Theory 02:00 Food Factory 02:25 How Tech Works 02:50 Mega Builders 03:45 Kings Of Construction 04:35 Thunder Races 05:25 How The Universe Works 06:15 Food Factory 06:40 How Tech Works 07:05 X-Machines 08:00 Building The Future 08:50 Eco-Tech 09:40 Food Factory 10:05 How Tech Works 10:30 James May’s Man Lab 11:25 X-Machines 12:20 Thunder Races 13:10 How The Universe Works 14:00 Kings Of Construction 14:50 Bang Goes The Theory 15:20 Food Factory 15:45 How Tech Works 16:10 Mega Builders 17:00 How The Universe Works 17:55 Thunder Races 18:45 X-Machines 19:35 James May’s Man Lab 20:30 Junkyard Wars 21:20 Large Dangerous Rocket Ships 2011 22:10 Food Factory 22:35 How Tech Works 23:00 Stuck With Hackett 23:25 Stuck With Hackett 23:50 Large Dangerous Rocket Ships 2011

00:00 00:20 00:45 01:05 01:30 01:50 02:15 02:35 03:00 03:20 03:45 04:05 04:30 04:50 05:15 05:35 06:00 06:25 06:45 07:10

The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody Sonny With A Chance Sonny With A Chance Suite Life On Deck Suite Life On Deck Wizards Of Waverly Place Wizards Of Waverly Place The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody Sonny With A Chance Sonny With A Chance Suite Life On Deck Suite Life On Deck Wizards Of Waverly Place Wizards Of Waverly Place Austin & Ally Dog With A Blog Suite Life On Deck A.N.T. Farm

07:35 07:55 08:20 08:45 09:05 09:30 09:55 10:15 10:40 11:05 11:25 11:50 12:15 12:35 13:00 13:25 13:45 14:10 14:35 15:00 15:25 15:50 16:10 17:00 17:20 17:40 18:10 18:30 18:55 19:20 20:05 20:30 20:50 21:15 21:40 22:00 22:25 22:50 23:10 23:35

Wolfblood Gravity Falls That’s So Raven Jessie Good Luck Charlie Shake It Up Austin & Ally A.N.T. Farm Dog With A Blog Suite Life On Deck Jessie That’s So Raven Hannah Montana Hannah Montana Good Luck Charlie Austin & Ally A.N.T. Farm Jessie Dog With A Blog Good Luck Charlie Gravity Falls Austin & Ally Violetta Liv And Maddie Liv And Maddie Mako Mermaids Good Luck Charlie Jessie Dog With A Blog Violetta Jessie Good Luck Charlie Dog With A Blog Gravity Falls Shake It Up Austin & Ally A.N.T. Farm Good Luck Charlie Wizards Of Waverly Place Wizards Of Waverly Place

00:00 Chelsea Lately 00:30 The Spin Crowd 00:55 The Spin Crowd 01:25 Style Star 01:50 Style Star 02:20 E!ES 03:15 Extreme Close-Up 03:40 Extreme Close-Up 04:10 E!ES 05:05 E!ES 06:00 THS 07:50 Fashion Police 09:15 Opening Act 10:15 Married To Jonas 10:40 Chasing The Saturdays 11:10 The Drama Queen 12:05 Fashion Police 13:35 E!ES 14:30 Style Star 15:00 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 16:00 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 17:00 The Wanted Life 17:30 Hello Ross 18:00 E! News 19:00 Fashion Police 20:30 E!ES 21:00 The Drama Queen 22:00 Eric And Jessie: Game On 22:30 E! News 23:30 Chelsea Lately

00:35 01:30 02:25 02:55 03:25 05:15 06:10 07:05 07:30 09:20 10:15 11:10 12:00 12:30 13:25 14:20 15:10 15:35

House Gift Emmerdale Coronation Street Holiday: Heaven On Earth Agatha Christie’s Marple Ade In Britain House Gift Holiday: Heaven On Earth Agatha Christie’s Marple Ade In Britain May The Best House Win Emmerdale Coronation Street House Gift Ade In Britain May The Best House Win Holiday: Heaven On Earth Trevor Mcdonalds Queen &

EXCESS BAGGAGE ON OSN MOVIES HD ACTION

How ‘Cheap Thrills’ social media, viral marketing spawned a surprise box-office hit

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hile “Divergent” stole most of the box office spotlight this past weekend, E.L. Katz’s disturbing genre movie “Cheap Thrills” made waves of its own, with a per-screen average that bested Disney’s “Muppets Most Wanted”. “Cheap Thrills” follows two working-class, down-on-their-luck guys (Pat Healy, Ethan Embry) who are invited by a wealthy couple (David Koechner, Sara Paxton) to participate in a series of progressively bizarre dares that could win them $250,000.

After “Cheap Thrills” opened in Los Angeles and Austin and averaged $9,550 per screen, Drafthouse Films CEO Tim League and producer Gabe Cowan (pictured below) of New Artists Alliance chalked up the film’s success to the power of social media and the movie’s innovative viral marketing campaign. The filmmakers relied on social media support from celebrities to help spread the word. Cour teney Cox, David Arquette, Elijah Wood, Patton Oswalt, Edgar Wright, Morgan Spurlock, Eliza Dushku, Kate Walsh, Gareth Evans, Rob Riggle, Kunal Nayyar and genre luminaries such as Eli Roth and Ti West were among those who championed the film online. Arquette and “Girls” star Alex Karpovsky even attended the 10 pm screening at Cinefamily on Saturday.

SIGHTSEERS ON OSN MOVIES COMEDY HD Country 16:30 Endeavour 18:20 May The Best House Win 19:10 Coronation Street 19:35 Trevor Mcdonalds Queen & Country 20:30 Endeavour 22:20 Coronation Street 22:50 Emmerdale 23:45 May The Best House Win

00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 The Big C 02:00 South Park 02:30 Out There 03:30 Raising Hope 04:00 Seinfeld 04:30 The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon 05:30 Seinfeld 06:00 Two And A Half Men 06:30 Arrested Development 07:00 Late Night With Seth Meyers 08:00 Seinfeld 08:30 Seinfeld 09:30 The Crazy Ones 10:00 Trophy Wife 10:30 Arrested Development 11:00 The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon 12:00 Two And A Half Men 12:30 Seinfeld 13:00 Seinfeld 13:30 Arrested Development 14:00 Raising Hope 14:30 The Crazy Ones 15:00 Trophy Wife 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 16:30 Two And A Half Men 17:00 Late Night With Seth Meyers 18:00 The Simpsons 19:00 The Mindy Project 19:30 Modern Family 20:00 The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 Veep 22:30 South Park 23:00 Out There 23:30 Late Night With Seth Meyers

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 12:30 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 16:30 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 Coven 23:00

Warehouse 13 Mistresses The Killing World Without End Grey’s Anatomy The Fosters Warehouse 13 Drop Dead Diva Switched At Birth The Killing The Fosters Grey’s Anatomy Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show Switched At Birth Warehouse 13 Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show Switched At Birth Twisted Scandal House Of Cards American Horror Story:

00:00 01:00 03:00 04:00

Made In Jersey Good Morning America Nip/Tuck Rescue Me

World Without End

05:00 07:00 07:30 08:00 09:00 10:00 10:30 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

Good Morning America Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show 24 Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show Castle Made In Jersey Live Good Morning America 24 Castle Made In Jersey 24 Castle Made In Jersey Rescue Me Nip/Tuck

00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00

The Corruptor-18 Sudden Death-PG15 Lords Of Dogtown-PG15 Sins Expiation-PG15 Special Ops-PG15 Broken Path-PG15 Excess Baggage-PG15 Special Ops-PG15 The Last Stand-PG15 Excess Baggage-PG15 Mafia-18 The Last Stand-PG15

00:00 Tin Men-PG15 02:15 Sightseers-18 04:00 Damsels In Distress-PG15 06:00 The Little Rascals-PG 08:00 Open Season-FAM 10:00 Smooch-PG15 12:00 Damsels In Distress-PG15 14:00 Home Alone: The Holiday Heist-PG 16:00 Smooch-PG15 18:00 Today’s Special-PG15 20:00 Look Who’s Talking-PG15 22:00 Tin Men-PG15

01:45 The Trial-PG15 03:30 Oh Christmas Tree-PG 05:00 The Chateau Meroux-PG15 07:00 Resistance-PG15 09:00 The Trial-PG15 11:00 The Good Doctor-PG15 13:00 You Got Served: Beat The World-PG15 15:00 The Key Man-PG15 17:00 The Iron Lady-PG15 18:45 Silver Linings Playbook-PG15 21:00 Passion-18 23:00 This Must Be The Place-18

01:00 The Samaritan-18 03:00 Seeking Justice-PG15 05:00 Nobody Walks-PG15 07:00 Planet Of The Apes (1968)PG15 09:00 Last Dance-PG15 11:00 The Music Never StoppedPG15 13:00 Katy Perry The Movie: Part Of Me-PG 14:45 The Lady-PG15 17:00 The Music Never StoppedPG15 19:00 The Grey-18 21:00 London-18 23:00 We Need To Talk About Kevin-18

01:15 Drift-PG15 03:30 Olympus Has Fallen-PG15

05:30 Now Is Good-PG15 07:15 Girl In Progress-PG15 09:00 Midnight In Paris-PG15 11:00 Olympus Has Fallen-PG15 13:00 Magic Journey To AfricaPG15 15:00 The Odd Life Of Timothy Green-PG 17:00 Midnight In Paris-PG15 19:00 Red Dawn-PG15 21:00 The Bling Ring-18 23:00 The Campaign-18

01:00 The Missing Lynx 02:45 The Legend Of Sarila 04:30 Free Birds 06:00 Olentzero Christmas Tale 08:00 Emperor’s Secret 09:45 Sky Force 11:15 Mrs. Doubtfire 13:30 The Legend Of Sarila 15:00 The Fantastic Adventure Of The Ugly Duckling 16:30 The Elf Who Stole Christmas 18:00 Sky Force 20:00 The Water Horse: Legend Of The Deep 22:00 The Fantastic Adventure Of The Ugly Duckling 23:30 The Elf Who Stole Christmas

00:00 Knuckle-PG15 02:00 Gambit-PG15 04:00 Snowflake , The White Gorilla-PG 06:00 Dating Coach-PG15 08:00 The Greatest Movie Ever Sold-PG15 10:00 Charlotte’s Web-PG 12:00 Gambit-PG15 14:00 Barnyard-PG 16:00 The Greatest Movie Ever Sold-PG15 17:45 Iron Man 3-PG15 20:00 Killing Them Softly-18 22:00 The Possession-PG15

01:00 NRL Premiership 03:00 NRL Premiership 05:00 NRL Full Time 05:30 Futbol Mundial 06:00 Trans World Sport 07:00 Trans World Sport 08:00 LV Cup 10:00 Golfing World 11:00 World Golf Championship Highlights 12:00 Super Rugby 14:00 Super Rugby 16:00 NRL Premiership 18:00 World Golf Championship Highlights 19:00 Golfing World 20:00 PGA European Tour Weekly 20:30 Inside The PGA Tour 21:00 Trans World Sport 22:00 LV Cup

00:00 Golfing World 01:00 Premier League Darts 04:00 LV Cup 06:30 NRL Full Time 07:00 NRL Premiership 09:00 NRL Full Time 09:30 Dubai World Cup Carnival 13:00 Trans World Sport 14:00 Golfing World 15:00 World Golf Championships Highlights 16:00 Snooker 19:00 NHL 21:00 HSBC Sevens World Series 23:00 HSBC Sevens World Series Highlights 23:30 PGA European Tour Weekly

‘Share to Dare’ campaign “‘Cheap Thrills’ is an epic film where they cross so many lines that you should probably do some lines before you see it just to follow along,” joked Arquette.

“In all honesty, it is on the list of my favorite films I have seen in recent memory. The writing, direction and acting was flawless,” Arquette wrote in an email to TheWrap. “These people have big followings and they ’ve been engaging their fans,” League told TheWrap. “ This is a really meaty role for David Koechner that shows he’s much more than Champ Kind from ‘Anchorman.’ He has a lot of ties to the comedy world and they’ve been supporting him online.

Likewise, Pat has been a working actor for 15 years, but this is a commanding leading man performance from him.”

Critics have noticed, as the film boasts a 94% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is extremely rare for a violent genre movie - even one that won the Audience Award at SXSW in 2013. The “Cheap Thrills” team returned to Austin for this year’s festival, where they piggybacked on publicity for producer Travis Stevens’ new horror movie “Starry Eyes,” which co-stars Healy.

The twisted dares depicted in the movie led the “Cheap Thrills” team to launch the “Share to Dare” program, which played a large role in the film’s digital campaign strategy. Cowan credited League with the idea for “Share to Dare,” explaining that there was an email chain with all kinds of extreme suggestions.

“Basically, Tim wrote to all his friends and said ‘I believe in the film so much that if you go to the movie and don’t like it, I will pay you back and you can slap me in the face.’ “”One of the main things we stressed was the ‘Share to Dare’ campaign, which has led to us embarrassing ourselves in public,” echoed League.

Healy, Embry, League and Stevens performed several humorous dares, the highlights of which saw Healy recreating Burt Reynolds’ centerfold photo on a bearskin rug, Embry doing an impression of himself from “Empire Records”.

In an effort to appeal to hardcore genre fans, Drafthouse also cut a new trailer last week that emphasized a particularly gruesome scene in which one of the characters is dared to chop off his own pinky.

Low Budget The small team at Drafthouse Films leveraged its larger Alamo Drafthouse team - including the marketing side and website Badass Digest - to help turn “Cheap Thrills” into an event-like release. The Alamo Drafthouse in Austin even served “Cheap Thrills” finger sandwiches to hungry genre audiences. “Cheap Thrills” finished the weekend as one of the Top 10 independent films on iTunes, where it outpaced the star-studded “Nymphomaniac,” a film that received much more press leading up to its release.

“Our marketing budget was very low but people really seem to be talking about it. We relied on word of mouth to get people to support indie cinema and feel like they’re part of a community. I think it’s the only thing that makes you stand out,” Cowan said. Cowan continued: “Last week, more than 40 films were released on iTunes and VOD. People have a lot of choices. How are you going to be the one that they decide to see? Social media and viral marketing help you stand out. Otherwise, you need huge celebrities and lots of money behind you. Besting ‘Nymphomaniac’ in per screen average and on iTunes is really meaningful because that movie has Shia LaBeouf and Uma Thurman. It was released on 25 screens and had a lot of money behind it. It really made us feel that people were really behind our movie and championing it. It’s becoming a cause.”

To encourage theatrical attendance, Drafthouse has been “flying out cast members to various locations for live introductions, which reinforces our message to share and help support this film that deserves it,” said League. “We’ve also held live dare competitions with prizes in Austin, so the screenings have a party atmosphere.” When Cowan saw that “Cheap Thrills” had leaked on BitTorrent sites, the producer consulted Drafthouse Films, and the team decided to be proactive rather than shrug their shoulders. To discourage piracy, a 40-minute behind-the-scenes documentary was made available and it seems to have done the trick, with Cowan telling TheWrap that the documentary received more downloads than the actual movie. “ The VOD returns have been really good and we received pretty decent placement on Time Warner, Comcast and Cox. Our theatrical release and our VOD release have both been working together really well,” said League, who cautioned that social media means little if you don’t have a good movie to back it up.

“You can have great social media but if the reviews roll in and don’t live up to the hype, it doesn’t matter,” said League. “Five years from now when we’re all talking about Evan Katz, people will remember this directorial debut.” “Social media is what made it a success this weekend,” added Cowan. “It was about supportive friends reaching out to friends who reached out to their friends and helped turn ‘Cheap Thrills’ into this little movie that could. I mean, we beat ‘The Muppets!’ I can cross that off my bucket list now and basically retire.” After the success of “Cheap Thrills,” I double dare him to. “Cheap Thrills” expands to New York and Chicago this weekend, before opening in 26 additional cities on April 4. — Reuters

Classifieds THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

SITUATION VACANT

Kuwait

Lady Indian physiotherapist B.PT, M.Sc (UK) 4 years experience, transferable visa, ready to join. Please call 99651572. (C 4677) 27-3-2014

KNCC PROGRAMME FROM THURSDAY TO WEDNESDAY (27/03/2014 TO 02/04/2014) SHARQIA-1 SABOTAGE (DIG) SABOTAGE (DIG) DIVERGENT (DIG) SABOTAGE (DIG) DIVERGENT (DIG) SABOTAGE (DIG) SHARQIA-2 MINUSCULE: VALLEY OF THE LOST ANTS (DIG) NEED FOR SPEED (DIG-3D) 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE (DIG-3D) NEED FOR SPEED (DIG-3D) NEED FOR SPEED (DIG-3D) CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (DIG-3D) NEED FOR SPEED (DIG-3D) SHARQIA-3 NON-STOP (DIG) BLOOD TIES (DIG) NON-STOP (DIG) BLOOD TIES (DIG) BLOOD TIES (DIG) NON-STOP (DIG) MUHALAB-1 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE (DIG) NON-STOP (DIG) BLOOD TIES (DIG) NON-STOP (DIG) BLOOD TIES (DIG) CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (DIG) MUHALAB-2 NEED FOR SPEED (DIG) NEED FOR SPEED (DIG) LEGEND (DIG) (Telugu) LAMO AKHZA (DIG) (Arabic) NEED FOR SPEED (DIG)

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

12:30 PM 2:30 PM 5:00 PM 7:00 PM 9:30 PM 9:45 PM 12:05 AM 1:30 PM 3:45 PM 6:00 PM 8:15 PM 10:30 PM 12:45 AM 12:30 PM 2:30 PM 4:45 PM 7:00 PM 9:30 PM 9:30 PM 2:00 PM 4:30 PM 4:30 PM 7:45 PM 9:45 PM

MUHALAB-3 SABOTAGE (DIG) DIVERGENT (DIG) SABOTAGE (DIG) DIVERGENT (DIG) SABOTAGE (DIG)

12:30 PM 2:30 PM 5:15 PM 7:15 PM 10:00 PM

FANAR-1 NON-STOP (DIG) MR. PEABODY & SHERMAN (DIG) NON-STOP (DIG) FACTORY GIRL (DIG) (Arabic) FACTORY GIRL (DIG) (Arabic) NON-STOP (DIG)

1:30 PM 4:00 PM 6:00 PM 8:15 PM 10:15 PM 12:15 AM

FANAR-3 SABOTAGE (DIG) SABOTAGE (DIG) DIVERGENT (DIG) SABOTAGE (DIG) DIVERGENT (DIG) SABOTAGE (DIG)

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

FANAR-4 NEED FOR SPEED (DIG) 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE (DIG)

2:15 PM 4:45 PM

NEED FOR SPEED (DIG) 6:45 PM NEED FOR SPEED (DIG) 9:15 PM CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (DIG-3D) 9:15 PM NEED FOR SPEED (DIG) 11:45 PM FANAR-5 BLOOD TIES (DIG) HAUNT (DIG) THE DOUBLE (DIG) BLOOD TIES (DIG) NO WED BLOOD TIES (DIG) NO WED BLOOD TIES (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (DIG) CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (DIG)

1:45 PM 4:00 PM 6:00 PM 8:00 PM 10:30 PM 12:45 AM

MATRIMONIAL Marriage proposal for Marathomite girl 26 years B/B in Kuwait (Ms) well placed in Kuwait. Proposals from Marthomite boys qualified and well placed in Kuwait or GCC countries.

Email: jennitthomas@yahoo.co.in (C 4678) 27-3-2014

8:00 PM

ACCOMMODATION

10:45 PM

MARINA-1 NON-STOP (DIG) BLOOD TIES (DIG) NON-STOP (DIG) BLOOD TIES (DIG) NON-STOP (DIG) BLOOD TIES (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

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

MARINA-2 SABOTAGE (DIG) DIVERGENT (DIG) SABOTAGE (DIG) DIVERGENT (DIG) SABOTAGE (DIG) CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (DIG) DIVERGENT (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

12:45 PM 2:45 PM 5:45 PM 7:45 PM 10:30 PM

Abraq-Khaitan bed space/sharing room available for decent Goan/Indian bachelor in two bedroom flat, beside the main road and bus stop.

Near police station roundabout, from 1st May with kitchen and internet facility.

Contact: 97523316 / 24745162. (C 4676) 27-3-2014 CHANGE OF NAME

10:30 PM 12:30 AM

MARINA-3 NEED FOR SPEED (DIG-3D) NEED FOR SPEED (DIG-3D) FACTORY GIRL (DIG) (Arabic) NEED FOR SPEED (DIG-3D) NEED FOR SPEED (DIG-3D) CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (DIG-3D) NEED FOR SPEED (DIG-3D)

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

AVENUES-1 MINUSCULE: VALLEY OF THE LOST ANTS (DIG) 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE (DIG) LEGEND (DIG) (Telugu) 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE (DIG) LEGEND (DIG) (Telugu) LEGEND (DIG) (Telugu) 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE (DIG)

2:00 PM 4:00 PM 4:00 PM 7:00 PM 7:00 PM 10:00 PM 1:00 AM

AVENUES-2 FACTORY GIRL (DIG) (Arabic) FACTORY GIRL (DIG) (Arabic) FACTORY GIRL (DIG) (Arabic) FACTORY GIRL (DIG) (Arabic) FACTORY GIRL (DIG) (Arabic) FACTORY GIRL (DIG) (Arabic) NO SUN+TUE+WED

2:15 PM 4:30 PM 6:45 PM 9:00 PM 11:15 PM 1:15 AM

I have changed my name Abbas holding Indian Passport No. Z1922769 issued at Kuwait to Abbas Mashrak for all purposes. 158, Kharol Colony, Fatehpura, Udaipur (Raj.) (C 4675) 25-4-2013 I, Saud Ali Vettukattu Kuniyil holder of Indian Passport No. L1164641, hereby change my name to Saud Ali Koya.

Address: Mishkath, Thuvvakkode, Cheman Chery, Kozhikode Dt, Kerala, India. (C 4674) 24-3-2014 I, Dahodwala Husain Joharbhai holder of Passport No. K3652369, hereby change my surname to Bhabhrawala Husain Joharbhai. (C 4671)

Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)

Airlines JAI KLM JZR THY QTR PGT SAI GFA THY JZR UAE ETD JAI MSR MSC QTR FDB THY DHX QTR JZR FDB JZR BAW KAC KAC QTR IRA FDB KAC KAC KAC SVA KAC UAE KAC KAC ABY ETD IRA QTR FDB GFA MSC MSC JZR MEA FDB SYR TBZ JZR UAE JZR MSR MSR

Arrival Flights on Thursday 27/3/2014 Flt Route 574 Mumbai 411 Amsterdam/Dammam 539 Cairo 772 Istanbul 1084 Doha 858 Istanbul 441 Lahore 211 Bahrain 764 Istanbul 267 Beirut 853 Dubai 305 Abu Dhabi 576 Kochi/Abu Dhabi 612 Cairo 401 Alexandria 1076 Doha 067 Dubai 770 Istanbul 170 Bahrain 8650 Doha 503 Luxor 069 Dubai 555 Alexandria 157 London 412 Manila/Bangkok 206 Islamabad 1086 Doha 617 Ahwaz 053 Dubai 302 Mumbai 382 Delhi 352 Kochi 512 Riyadh 332 Trivandrum 855 Dubai 362 Colombo 284 Dhaka 125 Sharjah 301 Abu Dhabi 605 Esfahan 1070 Doha 055 Dubai 213 Bahrain 403 Asyut 405 Sohag 165 Dubai 404 Beirut 8053 Dubai 341 Damascus 5483 Mashhad 241 Amman 871 Dubai 561 Sohag 610 Cairo 579 Sohag

Time 00:10 00:30 00:40 00:45 00:55 01:30 01:30 02:10 02:15 02:30 02:35 02:45 02:50 03:10 03:45 03:45 04:20 05:35 05:40 05:45 05:50 05:50 06:10 06:40 06:45 07:40 07:50 07:50 07:50 07:55 07:55 08:10 08:15 08:15 08:40 08:45 08:50 09:00 09:20 09:30 09:55 10:15 10:40 11:15 11:20 11:30 11:55 12:15 12:30 12:35 12:45 12:50 12:55 13:00 13:05

FDB QTR KAC KAC SVA KNE KAC GFA KNE KAC KNE NIA JZR OMA JZR FDB JZR KAC UAE QTR ETD RJA UAL SVA ABY GFA JZR KAC JZR QTR KAC FDB KAC KAC KAC AXB KAC KAC GFA KAC KAC OMA TAR MSR FDB JAI JZR ABY KNE DLH ALK FDB MEA JZR ETD UAE GFA

057 1078 672 546 500 472 562 221 460 788 470 251 535 645 779 8051 135 118 857 1072 303 640 982 510 127 215 777 542 177 1080 786 063 502 618 176 393 674 774 217 614 104 647 328 618 061 572 189 129 480 634 229 071 402 181 307 859 219

Dubai Doha Dubai Alexandria Jeddah Jeddah Amman Bahrain Riyadh Jeddah Jeddah Alexandria Cairo Muscat Jeddah Dubai Bahrain New York Dubai Doha Abu Dhabi Amman IAD Riyadh Sharjah Bahrain Jeddah Cairo Dubai Doha Jeddah Dubai Beirut Doha Geneva/Frankfurt Kozhikode Dubai Riyadh Bahrain Bahrain London Muscat Tunis/Dubai Alexandria Dubai Mumbai Dubai Sharjah Taif Frankfurt Colombo Dubai Beirut Dubai Abu Dhabi Dubai Bahrain

13:50 13:55 14:00 14:05 14:30 14:35 14:50 15:00 15:05 15:10 15:35 15:50 15:50 15:55 16:05 16:10 16:30 16:35 16:40 16:40 16:50 16:55 17:05 17:15 17:25 17:30 17:55 18:05 18:20 18:40 18:45 18:45 18:50 19:00 19:15 19:15 19:25 19:30 19:30 19:35 19:35 19:55 20:00 20:05 20:05 20:10 20:15 20:20 20:50 20:55 21:10 21:15 21:20 21:30 21:35 21:40 21:45

QTR KLM UAL JZR FDB AIC PIA JZR ETH

1074 417 981 239 059 981 205 185 3718

Doha Amsterdam Bahrain Amman Dubai Chennai/Hyderabad/Ahmedabad Lahore Dubai LGG

22:00 22:05 22:10 22:20 22:30 22:30 23:15 23:20 23:30

Airlines JZR FDB JAI JZR THY KAC GFA QTR JZR THY FDB BAW IRA QTR JZR SVA KAC KAC KAC ABY KAC UAE ETD IRA JZR QTR FDB KAC GFA KAC KAC MSC MSC JZR MEA FDB KAC SYR JZR JZR TBZ MSR MSR UAE FDB QTR

Departure Flights on Thursday 27/3/2014 Flt Route 560 Sohag 070 Dubai 575 Abu Dhabi/Kochi 164 Dubai 765 Istanbul 545 Alexandria 212 Bahrain 8650 Dhaka 240 Amman 771 Istanbul 054 Dubai 156 London 616 Ahwaz 1087 Doha 534 Cairo 513 Riyadh 787 Jeddah 561 Amman 671 Dubai 126 Sharjah 101 London/New York 856 Dubai 302 Abu Dhabi 606 Mashhad 778 Jeddah 1071 Doha 056 Dubai 501 Beirut 214 Bahrain 541 Cairo 165 Rome/Paris 404 Asyut 402 Alexandria 776 Jeddah 405 Beirut 8054 Dubai 785 Jeddah 342 Damascus 134 Bahrain 176 Dubai 5484 Mashhad 580 Sohag 611 Cairo 872 Dubai 058 Dubai 1079 Doha

Time 06:20 06:30 06:45 06:55 07:05 07:15 07:15 07:15 07:20 07:30 08:30 08:45 08:50 08:50 09:00 09:15 09:25 09:25 09:30 09:40 09:50 09:55 10:05 10:20 10:35 10:55 10:55 11:10 11:25 11:30 11:50 12:15 12:20 12:25 12:55 13:00 13:00 13:30 13:35 13:45 13:50 13:50 14:00 14:15 14:30 14:55

DIAL161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION

KAC KAC KNE JZR GFA KNE SVA KAC KNE KAC NIA OMA JZR JZR FDB ETD QTR UAE JZR RJA ABY SVA UAL GFA JZR JZR FDB QTR AXB GFA KAC FDB TAR OMA KAC ABY MSR JAI KAC KAC KNE KAC DHX FDB ALK MEA ETD GFA KAC UAE KAC JZR KLM QTR FDB JZR KAC KAC

673 617 473 188 222 481 505 773 471 613 252 646 180 238 8052 304 1073 858 538 641 128 511 982 216 184 266 064 1081 394 218 283 062 328 648 331 120 619 571 351 343 461 543 171 072 230 403 308 220 301 860 205 552 417 1075 060 528 411 415

Dubai Doha Jeddah Dubai Bahrain Taif Jeddah Riyadh Jeddah Bahrain Alexandria Muscat Dubai Amman Dubai Abu Dhabi Doha Dubai Cairo Amman Sharjah Riyadh Bahrain Bahrain Dubai Beirut Dubai Doha Kozhikode Bahrain Dhaka Dubai Tunis Muscat Trivandrum Sharjah Alexandria Mumbai Kochi Chennai Riyadh Cairo Bahrain Dubai Colombo Beirut Abu Dhabi Bahrain Mumbai Dubai Islamabad Alexandria Dammam/Amsterdam Doha Dubai Asyut Bangkok/Manila Kuala Lumpur/Jakarta

15:05 15:30 15:30 15:40 15:45 15:50 16:00 16:05 16:30 16:35 16:50 16:55 16:55 16:55 17:00 17:35 17:40 17:50 17:50 17:55 18:05 18:15 18:20 18:20 18:40 19:10 19:25 19:40 20:15 20:15 20:30 20:45 20:50 20:55 20:55 21:00 21:05 21:10 21:10 21:30 21:35 21:40 21:50 21:55 22:10 22:20 22:20 22:30 22:35 22:50 22:55 23:00 23:05 23:10 23:10 23:25 23:55 23:55

34

s ta rs CROSSWORD 499

STAR TRACK Aries (March 21-April 19) The last thing you probably want today is to stay inside and tend to paperwork. However, if you complete some unfinished business, you will be able to get out among the public and do a little networking, particularly if you are trying to sell a product or gain the attention of a new prospect for your business. Unusual places for a vacation may occupy your mind later this afternoon and it would be fun to create some fantastic plans for the near future. You may have such fun ideas for a vacation that other people will want to do what you do. Now; considering your enjoyment of the out-ofdoors, there may be some outdoor sports competition or just a challenge to experience the things in your life that you have never done, one by one. Happy birthday!

Taurus (April 20-May 20) Problems and obstacles that have previously been confounding should find easy explanations under your keen examination. This is a good time to present yourself to others in business propositions or in requesting a raise in income. You may also be asserting a greater need for independence in a relationship now. Do not let your dreams run wild-run a reality check once in a while. A repair problem on the home front, car or home, may need some tender loving care-repair work. You might save some money by investing some time in a class or in doing some apprentice work with a carpenter, plumber or mechanic. Your romantic life will improve quickly as you lend a listening ear and positive feedback to that special someone you love.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

ACROSS 1. The part of the nervous system of vertebrates that controls involuntary actions of the smooth muscles and heart and glands.

4. Be of different opinions.

12. Lacking self-confidence.

15. Resinlike substance secreted by certain lac insects.

16. The property of being cohesive and sticky.

17. Towards the side away from the wind.

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

19. A collection of excerpts from a literary work.

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

21. A bar of sand.

23. A light strong gray lustrous corrosion-resistant metallic element used in strong lightweight alloys (as for airplane parts).

24. Attractiveness to the opposite sex.

26. The emotion of hate.

27. become turned or set on end.

29. The capital and largest city of Yemen.

32. A trivalent metallic element of the rare earth group.

33. Relating to or belonging to the Middle Ages.

37. An anti-TNF compound (trade name Arava) that is given orally.

39. Being nine more than ninety.

40. The territory of Athens in ancient Greece.

41. Large antelope with lightly spiraled horns of desert regions of North Africa.

44. Flower arrangement consisting of a circular band of foliage or flowers for ornamental purposes.

45. A white soft metallic element that tarnishes readily.

48. Goddess of criminal rashness and its punishment.

49. Gained or acquired.

51. Made agreeably cold (especially by ice).

54. Noisy talk.

56. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

58. A polyvalent metallic element that resembles chromium and tungsten in its properties.

59. A device in which something (usually an animal) can be caught and penned.

62. A less than average tide occurring at the first and third quarters of the moon.

64. Fallow deer.

66. Of or pertaining to Sabah or its people.

68. A plant hormone promoting elongation of stems and roots.

70. Severe diabetes mellitus with an early onset.

73. Any of various coarse shrubby plants of the genus Iva with small greenish flowers.

74. Punish with an arbitrary penalty.

77. Remaining after all deductions.

78. A foghorn that makes a signal consisting of two tones.

80. A belief (or system of beliefs) accepted as authoritative by some group or school.

81. The compass point midway between northeast and east.

82. Shrubs and woody climbers mostly of tropical and temperate Old World.

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

DOWN 1. By bad luck.

2. Kamarupan languages spoken in northeastern India and western Burma.

3. The act of scanning.

4. Any of numerous low-growing cushion-forming plants of the genus Draba having rosetteforming leaves and terminal racemes of small flowers with scapose or leafy stems.

5. Add ions to.

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

7. Aromatic bulb used as seasoning.

8. Small tropical tree with tiered branches and divaricate branchlets having broad glossy dark green leaves.

9. Directions for making something.

10. Standard time in the 5th time zone west of Greenwich, reckoned at the 75th meridian.

11. A garnet ranging in color from yellow to brown.

12. Winning all or all but one of the tricks in bridge.

13. The activity of contributing to the fulfillment of a need or furtherance of an effort or purpose.

14. Not only so, but.

22. An Indian tree of the family Combretaceae that is a source of timber and gum.

25. United States playwright (1906-1963).

28. Mild yellow Dutch cheese made in balls.

30. Type genus of the Ardeidae.

31. An extreme state of adversity.

34. Urgently needed.

35. A dilute solution of acetic acid that is used as a solvent (e.g. for a drug).

36. A city in southern Texas on the Rio Grande.

38. A shaft on which a wheel rotates.

42. An enclosed space.

43. Having an eye or eyes or eyelike feature especially as specified.

46. Lack of strength or vigor esp from illness.

47. African tree with edible yellow fruit resembling mangos.

50. Type genus of the Nepidae.

52. An informal term for a father.

53. (folklore) A corpse that rises at night to drink the blood of the living.

55. A mythical Greek warrior who was a leader on the Trojan side of the Trojan War. 57. A soft silvery metallic element of the alkali earth group.

60. Large black bird with a straight bill and long wedge-shaped tail.

61. Make less active or intense.

63. Peruvian shrub with small pink to lavender tubular flowers.

65. A nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicine (trade names Advil and Motrin and Nuprin) used to relieve the pain of arthritis and as an analgesic and antipyretic.

67. A pilgrimage to Mecca.

69. (in Gnosticism) A divine power or nature emanating from the Supreme Being and playing various roles in the operation of the universe.

71. Any orchid of the genus Disa.

72. Black honeycreepers with yellow feathers around the tail.

75. Rate of revolution of a motor.

76. A crystalline rock that can be cut and polished for jewelry.

79. The 13th letter of the Greek alphabet.

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

While the working energies may seem a bit slow-your own energies are high. Whether you are a man or a woman, you are in the mood to change your style or looks. Perhaps this means a splash of color in your wardrobe or a different haircut. You may feel like breaking away from the usual routine. One of your life lessons is the appreciation of self, with the ability to appraise yourself honestly. Where you once had a hunger for reassurance, you will now feel centered and at peace. When frustrations do occur, you can go back to this time and remember this feeling of peace. You may begin to create some new goals for yourself and make plans and decisions with regard to your own life situation. There is a sense of satisfaction and completeness now.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) Personal affairs, paperwork, income records or insurance records may grab your attention today. You have a loved one that has been extremely quiet recently and may continue to be this way a few more days. Never fear, your loved one is appreciative of you and will express this truth. Your love of home and family may conflict with your job or with authorities. You may tend to discount career opportunities just at the moment. You are more likely to conform your ways just now. You will find yourself more cautious, moderate in disposition and better organized than ever before. You make new purchases today that have perhaps, been preplanned. Even though you may not be able to completely pay for these items now, you will pay for them soon.

Leo (July 23-August 22) Wherever you extend your energies now, you will find success. Assert yourself today as new ventures will likely prove successful. There could be a depressing influence in your surroundings; however, by maintaining your optimistic mood you will sustain yourself and encourage others. You may have strained relations with a womanregardless of your gender. Shrug off guilt and pessimism-they are unhealthy. Dealings with the opposite sex may not be easy just now, though you should emphasize the positive aspects of any relationship at this time. You influence many people with your attitudekeep moving with the flow. A young person depends on your advice this evening. You can act as a mentor to this young person.

Virgo (August 23-September 22) You may enjoy probing into your inner self as well as some good solid gossip. You value your darker, more secretive areas and do not mind working through some sensitive problems. You could be susceptible to jealousy. However, you are good at keeping your emotions in check. Maintaining your objectivity is the best course of action at this time. Remember, fear and love are the only true feelings; anything else is a symptom of one or the other. This is good day to think through your decisions. You will find a way around almost any obstacle and are in control and able to guide yourself with ease. Your sense of inner direction is good and should lead to a few positive opportunities.

This evening you may enjoy a romantic book or movie.

Libra (September 23-October 22) Easy does it today! You may find yourself having different opinions from a co-worker regarding matters already discussed in a meeting. Once away from the meeting place, the things discussed stay in your mind, not on your lips. If you did not care for the outcome, there will be a new opportunity to change things soon. You must have patience.

This is a very good day for job-related events. You may shine in your particular job or find that promotion or practical insights come without too much of a wait. You could represent your company or communicate about your skills. Lovers, children and other people you love are emphasized now. You enjoy the out-of-doors this evening. Try something a little different for the evening meal tonight.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) Good practical job-related thoughts and ideas are available to you today.

You work hard all day to accomplish twice as much as the average workaholic. You communicate with feeling and strength. You may gather some extreme insights today. Later today, you can step back and reflect on the past and contemplate your next move. You have a heightened sensitivity to others and you may find your own physical attractiveness has improved as well. Investments are ripe for the taking over the next few days.

Becoming involved in community activities this evening improves your popularity. There may be an opportunity to become involved with a foster care program, or an animal rights program. This is a rewarding day.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) This is a time where you could see your family expanding, either through marriage, or the birth of a new relative. Likely you will find yourself involved in intellectual pursuits at home, to the point of beginning a home-based business. You could also find benefits in the skills of a family member. Compromise is paramount in your life today. You can successfully undertake original projects at this time. Your energies are high and you have plenty of energy and the right attitude to complete most any job you begin. Close relationships take on more emotional depth, power and importance. You may worry excessively, about home life and domestic security at this time. Make some simple changes now that will make you feel more secure.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19) Conditions in the workplace continue to improve. You keep your workplace environmentally friendly and this may be hard for some of your co-workers to understand. Eventually, some of the things you do mysteriously become accepted practice. Smile, you are finally getting a very important message across to others on being environmentally friendly. People look to you for the best information on products to purchase for the office. Everything conspires to reveal you at your most elegant, particularly in social situations this evening. Speaking of social situations, you will want to be prepared to jump from work to a social gathering this evening. Whatever the case, there are some enjoyable times ahead. Look for ways to share your talents.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) Professional advice regarding finances will encourage you in the direction you want to take. There could be a desire to secure your own feelings about yourself through another person. You may not realize when someone confides in you that they really do not want your answer. This person may only want a listening ear-give it. You may try to increase your power of attraction during this time-consciously or subconsciously.

You may be inclined to pay attention to a young person today, especially his or her energy.

Be wise in your actions; someone is watching. A stalemate may occur in a business proposition today, but you must decide your position and firmly maintain it. At home you are quick-witted, which also calls for patience.

Pisces (February 19-March 20) You have the qualities that reflect grace, charm and refinement. You possess an inner radiance that brings a sense of harmony and beauty wherever you go. The act of simply walking into a room with your smile brings joy to others. You may think you need recognition at work today but most of all, you just need confirmation that you are on the right track. If no one is complaining, you are on the right track! The balance of give-andtake is important for you. You need to speak up when you feel manipulated. Only in silence will people take advantage of you. Work, achievement and ambition are the things that mean a lot to you. If there is shopping to be done, put it off today or let someone else do the purchasing from your list.

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THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

i n f o r m at i o n For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128 GOVERNORATE Sabah Hospital

24812000

Amiri Hospital

22450005

Maternity Hospital

24843100

Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital

25312700

Chest Hospital

24849400

Farwaniya Hospital

24892010

Adan Hospital

23940620

Ibn Sina Hospital

24840300

Al-Razi Hospital

24846000

Physiotherapy Hospital

24874330/9

PHARMACY

ADDRESS

PHONE

Ahmadi

Sama Safwan Abu Halaifa Danat Al-Sultan

Fahaeel Makka St Abu Halaifa-Coastal Rd Mahboula Block 1, Coastal Rd

23915883 23715414 23726558

Jahra

Modern Jahra Madina Munawara

Jahra-Block 3 Lot 1 Jahra-Block 92

24575518 24566622

Capital

Ahlam Khaldiya Coop

Fahad Al-Salem St Khaldiya Coop

22436184 24833967

Farwaniya

New Shifa Ferdous Coop Modern Safwan

Farwaniya Block 40 Ferdous Coop Old Kheitan Block 11

24734000 24881201 24726638

Tariq Hana Ikhlas Hawally & Rawdha Ghadeer Kindy Ibn Al-Nafis Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Salmiya-Amman St Hawally-Beirut St Hawally & Rawdha Coop Jabriya-Block 1A Jabriya-Block 3B Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

25726265 25647075 22625999 22564549 25340559 25326554 25721264 25380581 25628241

Hawally

Al-Madeena

22418714

Al-Shuhada

22545171

Al-Shuwaikh

24810598

Al-Nuzha

22545171

Sabhan

24742838

Al-Helaly

22434853

Al-Faiha

22545051

Al-Farwaniya

24711433

Al-Sulaibikhat

24316983

Al-Fahaheel

23927002

Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh

24316983

Ahmadi

23980088

Al-Mangaf

23711183

Al-Shuaiba

23262845

Kaizen center

25716707

Rawda

22517733

Adaliya

22517144

Al-Jahra

25610011

Khaldiya

24848075

Al-Salmiya

25616368

Kaifan

24849807

Shamiya

24848913

Shuwaikh

24814507

Abdullah Salem

22549134

Nuzha

22526804

Industrial Shuwaikh

24814764

Qadsiya

22515088

Dasmah

22532265

Bneid Al-Gar

22531908

Shaab

22518752

Qibla

22459381

Ayoun Al-Qibla

22451082

Mirqab

22456536

Sharq

22465401

Salmiya

25746401

Jabriya

25316254

Maidan Hawally

25623444

Bayan

25388462

Mishref

25381200

W Hawally

22630786

Sabah

24810221

Jahra

24770319

New Jahra

24575755

West Jahra

24772608

South Jahra

24775066

North Jahra

24775992

North Jleeb

24311795

Ardhiya

24884079

Firdous

24892674

Omariya

24719048

N Khaitan

24710044

Fintas

23900322

INTERNATIONAL CALLS

PRIVATE CLINICS Ophthalmologists Dr. Abidallah Al-Mansoor 25622444 Dr. Samy Al-Rabeea 25752222 Dr. Masoma Habeeb 25321171 Dr. Mubarak Al-Ajmy 25739999 Dr. Mohsen Abel 25757700 Dr Adnan Hasan Alwayl 25732223 Dr. Abdallah Al-Baghly 25732223 Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) Dr. Ahmed Fouad Mouner 24555050 Ext 510 Dr. Abdallah Al-Ali 25644660 Dr. Abd Al-Hameed Al-Taweel 25646478 Dr. Sanad Al-Fathalah 25311996 Dr. Mohammad Al-Daaory 25731988 Dr. Ismail Al-Fodary 22620166 Dr. Mahmoud Al-Booz 25651426 General Practitioners Dr. Mohamme Y Majidi 24555050 Ext 123 Dr. Yousef Al-Omar 24719312 Dr. Tarek Al-Mikhazeem 23926920 Dr. Kathem Maarafi 25730465 Dr. Abdallah Ahmad Eyadah 25655528 Dr. Nabeel Al-Ayoobi 24577781 Dr. Dina Abidallah Al-Refae 25333501 Urologists Dr. Ali Naser Al-Serfy 22641534 Dr. Fawzi Taher Abul 22639955 Dr. Khaleel Abidallah Al-Awadi 22616660 Dr. Adel Al-Hunayan FRCS (C) 25313120 Dr. Leons Joseph 66703427 Psychologists /Psychotherapists

Paediatricians

Plastic Surgeons Dr. Mohammad Al-Khalaf

22547272

Dr. Khaled Hamadi

Dr. Abdal-Redha Lari

22617700

Dr. Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rashed

Dr. Abdel Quttainah

25625030/60

Family Doctor Dr Divya Damodar

23729596/23729581

Psychiatrists Dr. Esam Al-Ansari

22635047

Dr Eisa M. Al-Balhan

22613623/0

Gynaecologists & Obstetricians DrAdrian arbe

23729596/23729581

Dr. Verginia s.Marin

2572-6666 ext 8321

Endocrinologist

25665898 25340300

Dr. Zahra Qabazard

25710444

Dr. Sohail Qamar

22621099

Dr. Snaa Maaroof

25713514

Dr. Pradip Gujare

23713100

Dr. Zacharias Mathew

24334282

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lifestyle M U S I C

This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Emma Watson in a scene from ‘Noah.’ — AP

A Minute With:

Emma Watson on how Hogwarts prepped her for ‘Noah’

A

fter spending a decade at the Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the “Harry Potter” film franchise, actress Emma Watson put her magical training to good use for her first big budget post-Potter role, in biblical action blockbuster “Noah.” In director Darren Aronofsky’s movie, out in US and Canadian theaters on Friday, Watson plays Ila, the wife of Noah’s eldest son, Shem, who is played by Douglas Booth.

The film distributed by Viacom Inc’s Paramount Pictures stars Russell Crowe as the ark-building Noah and Jennifer Connelly as his wife, Naameh, in a dark, psychological reimagining of the Old Testament flood story. Three Arab countries have banned the Hollywood film on religious grounds even before its worldwide premiere and several others are expected to follow suit.

Oxfordshire, England-native Watson, 23, spoke to Reuters about how the “Harry Potter” films prepared her for the physically punishing role, the challenge of realistically portraying childbirth on screen and working with a cast of veteran actors.

Q: “Noah” marks your return to largescale spectacle films, do you approach your role any differently than you did while making the “Harry Potter” series?

A: I remember being on set and Darren was saying, “Okay, the water is going to be cold, we’re probably going to be here for a full day, try and conserve your energy between takes, like keep warm and make sure you eat properly.

This is going to be physically very demanding.”

For a minute I felt very intimidated and then there’s something about having done those “Harry Potter” films and they were very physical.

We did a lot of stuff in Scotland. It was freezing cold, filming at four in the morning, working crazy hours.

It’s kind of comforting in a way to know that in some senses, nothing will be as hard as that again, and I’m pretty prepared for most things people can throw at me, whether it be animals, water, stunts, CGI (computer-generated imagery), whatever it is. It was a very good school in a way and set me up very well for this kind of environment and this kind of pressure.

Q: Did you do any reading on your character of Ila outside of the script?

A: I actually didn’t do a lot of reading, but I did a lot a research because I become a mother in the story, and obviously have never given birth myself. That required quite a lot of careful thinking. Darren and I had this conversation where we both agreed that in so many films, women give birth and it looks like they’re barely breaking a sweat. We wanted it to feel very raw, very real and so I took it pretty seriously.

Q: Did you talk to anybody about what it’s like to give birth?

A: Any pregnant woman anywhere, I’d be like, “Can I talk to you? Can I talk to you about your experience?” I spoke to my own mother a lot, obviously, and then I watched a lot of YouTube videos of natural births, lots of documentaries, spoke to midwives, just any information I could get my hands on, really.

Q: Ila is unable to conceive initially, but then is made fertile by a miracle. Was there anything in particular you tried to emphasize of her psyche?

A: I guess just her self-doubt. ... Ila is barren, she can’t have children, and she doesn’t want to deprive her future husband of being able to have kids and to have a family. There’s this real wrestling match within her. She’s so in love with him and she kind of sacrifices her own happiness for his, and that struggle and self-doubt felt very relatable to me.

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M O V I E S

Star says ‘Walking Dead’ changed her temperament S pending your days killing zombies apparently takes its toll. Actress Lauren Cohan said being on AMC’s “The Walking Dead” for three seasons has had an effect on her. “My temperament has changed since I’ve been on the show because of being immersed in this dark material all the time,” Cohan said in a recent interview.

Cohan plays Maggie Greene on the post-apocalyptic zombie drama. So far this season Maggie has seen her father beheaded, was separated from her husband and doesn’t know whether her sister Beth is alive, dead or undead.

Cohan said that while she loves the show, it’s sometimes difficult to separate herself from her character and that she’s become more “subdued.” “You come out of doing the show when you’re like, ‘OK, remember how to relax and remember

picking up hobbies or whatever,’ but remembering how to have frivolity as well has been difficult,” the 32year-old actress said. Cohan said that in some ways, she feels that she’s changed for the better because she doesn’t have as many highs and lows as she used to, but adds that she now has a “serious feeling in my heart” that she sometimes wishes wasn’t there. Maggie and her husband were reunited in the show’s penultimate episode.

Now the couple and a host of other characters are headed for Terminus, which promises “sanctuary for all.

Those who arrive survive.” Is that a good thing? Cohan isn’t giving away any spoilers for the season finale, which airs Sunday (9 pm EDT). “It sounds too good to be true,” Cohan said, adding that like everything else on the show, “It This undated image released by AMC shows Lauren Cohan as Maggie probably is.” — AP Greene, left, in a scene from ‘The Walking Dead. — AP

‘Captain America: Winter Soldier’ storms Europe - is ‘Avengers’ effect still in play?

‘C

aptain America: The Winter Soldier” storms the box office starting today, when Disney rolls out its third post”Avengers” Marvel superhero sequel across much of Europe. If the first two post-”Avengers” films (“Iron Man 3” and “Thor: The Dark World”) are an indicator, the follow up to “Captain America: The First Avenger” should out-gross the original by plenty. Especially if it receives a boost from the 2012 blockbuster “Marvel’s The Avengers.” Disney is betting that it will, open-

Q: What attracted you to the role in the first place?

A: I was a huge fan of Darren’s films. I loved “Requiem for a Dream.” “The Fountain” is one of my favorite movies of all-time, “The Wrestler,” “Black Swan.” So, you know, even before you read the script, you’re intrigued because his work speaks for itself, really. And then having read the script, I loved my role. She’s got such a huge heart. She’s very wise, very relatable, and then you hear about the cast, it’s like Russell Crowe and Sir Anthony Hopkins and Jennifer Connelly and Ray Winstone. And you realize that it’s the opportunity to work with people who really are at the top of their game. — Reuters

Actress Scarlett Johansson, center, stands with Samuel L Jackson, left, and Chris Evans during a publicity event ahead of the April release of the movie ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ in Beijing, China, Monday, March 24, 2014. — AP

ing “The Winter Soldier” overseas a week ahead of its April 4 debut in North America. It’s tracking for an $80 million-plus opening, which would be the year’s biggest domestic debut.

“Audiences have had a lot of great exposure with the introduction of Captain America in the 2011 film and an integral role in ‘Marvel’s The Avengers,’ which is the third biggest film of all time,” Disney distribution chief Dave Hollis told TheWrap Tuesday. “The Marvel films are like interlocking puzzle pieces, so we expect to see increased interest.” The original 2011 film was a hit. “Captain America,” distributed by Paramount and produced for $140 million, opened to an impressive $65 million in North America. It went on to take in $176 million domestically and another $194 million from overseas.

That was pre-”Avengers,” though - and that 2012 film’s $1.5 billion global haul greatly changed the game for all subsequent films in Marvel’s cinematic universe. “Iron Man 3” and “Dark World” played more like follow-ups to Joss Whedon’s team-up film than their originals. “Iron Man 3,” the first Marvel movie after “The Avengers,” nearly doubled the $623 million worldwide haul of “Iron Man 2” with $1.21 billion. And last November, the Thor sequel brought in $644 globally, compared to the $449 million that Kenneth Brannagh’s original film took in.

Chris Evans returns as the red-white-andblue crusader Steve Rogers in “Winter Soldier,” which carries a $170 million production budget. Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Anthony Mackie and Robert Redford co-star.

The screenwriters are Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (“Thor: The Dark World”), working from a story by comic book writer Ed Brubaker, and the directors are Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, taking over for Joe Johnston.

Embracing the modern world The plot features Rogers struggling to embrace his role in the modern world, while battling the Soviet agent known as the Winter

Soldier. Given that story line, it will be interesting to see how it plays in Russia, where it opens on April 3 - particularly given the recent tension between the US and Russia over Crimea.

The film is quickly making headlines around the globe, as its stars build buzz attending redcarpet premieres last week in London and Paris - all ahead of a stop in China.

Reviews are also in “Winter Soldier’s” boxoffice favor; they’ve have been especially strong for a superhero movie. And there is still room to grow. But both Disney and the industry are keeping an eye on how the film plays in European markets. “Captain America: The First Avenger” did just OK in Europe. The leading market was the UK, where it brought in $14.7 million, followed by France ($10.2 million), Italy ($8.6 million) and Spain ($7.7 million).

“The first film was pretty soft in Europe,” said Bruce Nash, founder of box office tracking service The Numbers. “I think it will do much better than that this time around, thanks to ‘The Avengers,’ but my benchmark would be for an opening around $10 million in the UK” “First Avenger’s” biggest foreign markets proved to be in Latin America. It brought in $20.6 million from Brazil and $20.2 million from Mexico. The bulk of the rollouts for those markets will come on April 4, the same weekend that “The Winter Soldier” opens in China and Russia.

Another aspect of the “Avengers” effect?

The Marvel blockbuster seems to be offsetting any worries that foreign exhibitors’ might have about an anti-American backlash. When the original came out, Paramount gave overseas distributors the option of calling it “The First Avenger,” rather than “Captain America: The First Avenger.” Only three countries Russia, Ukraine and South Korea - opted to go with the shorter handle. Disney’s Hollis said he didn’t have any concerns about that. “Our regional teams know their markets best, so we defer to their expertise when it comes to titling our films for international territories,” he said. — Reuters

MTV Movie Awards:

‘Fault in Stars’ Woodley and Elgort to present T

This April 15, 2012 file photo shows Eminem performing at the 2012 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. — AP photos

Eminem, Outkast top 2014 Lollapalooza lineup

E

minem and Outkast will headline a diverse lineup of more than 130 acts at this year’s three-day Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago, Jane’s Addiction lead singer and Lollapalooza founder Perry Farrell announced yesterday. The lineup also includes recent Grammy darling Lorde, rockers Kings of Leon and Arctic Monkeys and electronic dance music stars Calvin Harris and Skrillex. “Every year you’re shooting to have just an incredible bill that peo-

This Aug 11, 2006 file photo shows musicians Andre Benjamin, right, and Big Boi, of the musical group Outkast in Los Angeles. ple will look at and say, ‘I’m there,’” Farrell said in an interview. “The music is going to entertain them and do wonders for their heart and so is the city.”

This year marks the festival’s 10-year anniversary in Chicago’s lakefront Grant Park. This year acts will perform on eight stages from Aug 1-3.

The full lineup is available on Lollapalooza’s website. Last year’s lineup included The Cure, Mumford & Sons, The Killers and Nine Inch Nails.

Eminem last played Lollapalooza in 2011. “He’s on top of his game and he’s doing a great show,” Farrell said. “His live show is incorporating really well-made video and guest appearances.”

Outkast announced earlier this year that they were coming off hiatus and performing more than 40 festival dates in 2014.

Pop fans will be excited for Lorde, whose hit “Royals” won song of the year and best pop solo performance at this year’s Grammy Awards.

“She’s got a love affair going with her audience,” Farrell said. “They scream and howl for her.”

Farrell works each year to curate a lineup. This year he said it wasn’t that difficult because so many acts want to play Lollapalooza. “It has become the gig to get,” he said. “Getting all that excitement built around your band. People are throwing themselves at us.”

This year’s lineup continues the festival’s efforts at attracting international acts. Artists from Australia, Chile, Ireland and South Africa will perform. Last year’s festival sold out at 100,000 visitors a day, or 300,000 over the three-day event. Three-day passes sold out on Tuesday. One -day passes go on sale Wednesday morning. Elton John, Kanye West and Jack White will headline this summer’s Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. OutKast will also headline the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April along with Arcade Fire and Muse at the festival that plays over two weekends in Indio, Calif. — AP

he MTV Movie Awards has added “Fault in Stars” co-stars Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort to its growing list of presenters for the award show airing live on Sunday, April 13 at 9:00 pm from LA’s Nokia Theatre. Additionally, the network will air a new preview from the movie ahead of the telecast. Watch a new teaser above.

The actors join previously announced presenters “The Other Woman” stars Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann and Kate Upton. Also, “Entourage” stars Adrian Grenier, Kevin Connolly, Jerry Ferrara and Kevin Dillon will present the MTV Generation Award to Mark Wahlberg, a producer on both the HBO series and its upcoming movie. Conan O’Brien will host the awards, which will be awarded by fan vote at www.MovieAwards.MTV.com

through Saturday, April 12.

This will be the second year in which MTV will hold the awards in April. Last year’s awards attracted 3.8 million viewers and averaged 4.8 million viewers, airing across Viacom’s family of networks (MTV, VH1, MTV2 and Logo). Last year’s show also saw an increase of 20 percent over the previous year in MTV’s target demographic of viewers ages 12-34.

Den of Thieves’ Jesse Ignjatovic, who just joined “American Idol” as an executive producer, will return to serve as executive producer of this year’s show.

He’s joined by executive producers Garrett English, also the executive in charge for MTV, Lee Lodge and Jen Jones. — Reuters

Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort

Streep to star in Demme movie written by Cody H

Meryl Streep

ollywood is salivating over a red-hot package making the rounds that has Jonathan Demme attached to direct a Diablo Cody script, with none other than Meryl Streep attached to star, an individual familiar with the project told TheWrap. Representatives for Demme and Cody did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In “Ricky and the Flash,” Streep would play a woman who abandoned her family when she was younger to find fame and fortune as a rock star.

Decades later, she decides to be a mother again to her estranged children, one of whom is going through a rough divorce. Marc Platt, who worked with Demme on “Rachel Getting Married,” will produce, while Cody’s manager, Mason Novick, is also expected to be involved in a producing capacity. Novick produced the Cody-scripted films “Juno” and “Young Adult,” as well as Marc Webb’s directorial debut “(500) Days of Summer.”

The prestige package is being shopped to studios and high-level production companies with access to financing. Universal and Fox 2000 are among the studios that have expressed interest in the project, according to one insider. Demme and Cody won Oscars for “The Silence of the Lambs” and “Juno,” respectively, while Streep has three Academy Awards on her mantle. Demme previously worked with the acclaimed actress on the “Manchurian Candidate” remake. CAA reps Streep, while WME reps Demme and Cody, who are respectively managed by LBI Entertainment and MXN. — Reuters

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THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

LIFESTYLE M U S I C

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M O V I E S

Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Martin call it quits

scar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin announced their separation on Tuesday, signaling the end of the A-list couple’s 11-year marriage. In a statement entitled “Conscious Uncoupling” posted on Paltrow’s lifestyle website Goop.com, the stars said they had decided to “remain separate” after battling unsuccessfully to save their marriage over the past year. “It is with hearts full of sadness that we have decided to separate,” said the couple, who moved back to Los Angeles recently after spending several years in London.

“We have been working hard for well over a year, some of it together, some of it separated, to see what might have been possible between us, and we have come to the conclusion that, while we love each other very much, we will remain separate.”

Paltrow, 41, and Martin, 37, have two young children, Apple, nine, and Moses, seven, and appealed for privacy as they navigated their break-up.

“We are, however, and always will be a family,” the couple said. “We are parents first and foremost, to two incredibly wonderful children and we ask for their and our space and privacy to be respected at this difficult time.” The statement-signed “Love, Gwyneth & Chris”-was accompanied by an old photo of the couple, smiling as they lounged on grass. Soon after the statement went online, Goop.com crashed for several hours after being overwhelmed with visitors. Paltrow, who co-stars in the billion-dollar blockbuster “Iron Man” movies, won a Best Actress Oscar in 1999 for her role in “Shakespeare in Love.”

O

Show of affection As recently as January, the couple had been seen cuddling affectionately together at the Golden Globes Awards in Beverly Hills. However their marriage has been the subject of tabloid speculation for years, with reports as recently as February indicating that Martin was unhappy at the couple’s move to Los Angeles late last year.

And in a wide-ranging interview with Harpers Bazaar last April, Paltrow admitted her marriage to Martin was sometimes challenging. “We are growing into very similar people,” she said. “It’s cool, it’s good. It’s not always easy though!”

In a separate June interview, however, Paltrow hinted at strains. “It’s hard being married,” Paltrow said. “You go through great times, you go through terrible times.

We’re the same as any couple. “I asked my Dad once, ‘How did you and (Mom) stay married for 33 years?’ And he said, ‘Well, we never wanted to get divorced at the same time.’ And I think that’s what happens.

“When two people throw in the towel at the same time, then you break up, but if one person’s saying, ‘Come on, we can do this,’ you carry on.”

‘Ups and downs’ In another interview Paltrow, whose previous boyfriends included Brad Pitt and Ben Affleck, suggested that managing two artistic temperaments in one household was the couple’s biggest challenge. “Artists are sensitive; there are ups and downs, mood-wise.

Musicians need a certain gravitas and focus in order to write,” she said. The break-up comes after a challenging year for Paltrow, who reacted furiously upon learning that Vanity Fair magazine was planning a story rumored to be an “epic takedown” of the actress. Vanity Fair later spiked the article.

Paltrow and Martin reportedly met backstage at a Coldplay concert in late 2002, after the singer asked an assistant to arrange a meeting with the actress. The following year, the couple tied the knot in a secret ceremony in California soon after announcing they were expecting their first child together. British singer Martin founded Coldplay with a university friend in 1996 and the band enjoyed huge critical acclaim with their first two albums “Parachutes” and “A Rush of Blood to the Head.” Since then the band have sold tens of millions of albums. The group’s sixth album, “Ghost Stories” is due for release in May. — AFP

File photo shows rap singer Suboi performing at an event in Ho Chi Minh city. — AFP photos

Breaking bad:

Vietnam’s female rap stars n a land of simpering karaoke stars, Vietnam’s first female rappers are foul-mouthed queens of the lyrical underground-battling government censorship and rampant piracy to spit flow and make dough. Hip-hop is a new import to the communist country of some 90 million, where society is still dominated by conservative values.

Young women producing profanity-laced rap about partying and getting high raises eyebrows.

But having shot to fame at 14 as Vietnam’s first mainstream rap act, Kimmese SpaceSpeakers-who discovered the genre through a single Bone Thugs-n-Harmony song on a karaoke VCD-is nonchalant about her notoriety. “I do what I want,” said the singer, 23, who has given up on Vietnamese record labels and is releasing her second studio album independently. “None of them can produce me now... they don’t understand my music,” she said. Kimmese took a four-year career break at 17, a hiatus she says was spent mostly drunk and partying, and then re-emerged as a powerful R&B vocalist straddling Vietnam’s musical underground and mainstream.

She cuts an unusual figure in her native Hanoi, Vietnam’s conservative communist capital: strikingly beautiful, she is covered in tatoos with waist-length green hair. It is an image that chimes with her broader message, she said. “In Vietnam, if men have tattoos, it’s cool. But if a woman has tattoos they call you a bad girl. It’s fine to be a bad girl! Man-good girls are boring,” she told AFP. She’s “not interested” in politics and so doesn’t rap about it, but her profanity-strewn lyrics are groundbreaking in the authoritarian country where standard mainstream pop fare is about patriotism, love and being a good girl.

I

Swag and sisterhood Traditional social attitudes still dominate in Vietnam and women fall under considerable pressure to marry, have children and then cook for their husbands. Kimmese gives short shrift to those expectations. “I wanna be equal! And I want to tell them (Vietnamese women) that if I can do it, then you all can do it,” said the singer, who makes little money from her songs due to rampant piracy but has lucrative advertising

deals with Pepsi and KFC. “Women! You can do it, get out of the shadow of men and do whatever you want to do...

Nobody has the right to judge you,” Kimmese said, in her near-flawless American-accented English, learned from rap songs. She has recently come out, and thrown her support behind the campaign to legalize gay marriage in Vietnam.

Seeing Kimmese perform was what inspired Ho Chi Minh City-based Suboi to start rapping.

She joined a school friend’s rock band which performed Linkin Park covers, learning her pro-

File photo shows rap singer Suboi speaking during an interview with AFP. fanity-laced English along the way. Her style and lyrics have evolved: she started out wearing baggy clothes and scored her first hit re-writing a popular children’s song in English. Now, she dresses more elegantly. “I don’t want to be stereotyped like ‘you’re a rapper you’ve gotta look like this’ but if you wanna battle me I can freestyle,” she said. As one of the few female rap-

pers in a male-dominated industry she is always trying to prove herself-but she also has little time for the ego-driven competitiveness of the underground scene. “Other rappers, they’re more underground, they think they’re like superstars... But I’m sorry, I can talk about the truth without swearing. I can go another way.

Sending a message “I want to show that women can be strong, like it’s not just guys can do rap,” she said. After a bad experience with a possessive, violent boyfriend, she also wants to send a message to young Vietnamese women-in a country where domestic violence is widespread and remains taboo-that they do not have to accept it. Read between the lines Suboi’s lyrics are often coded.

“We cannot say something super straight. You have to read between the lines,” she said. “You can’t talk about drugs, you can’t talk about sex... people don’t want to hear it, actually, because government don’t want to hear it,” she said, adding that she has no desire to take on the system for now. “I have a lot of rage in me about the country (but) if I say something about government I might be in a bad way.” Both Kimmese and Suboi have a massive social media presence with hundreds of thousands of followers on Facebook. They regularly perform overseas but say it is hard to get concerts in Vietnam.

Most major concerts in Vietnam feature statesanctioned stars singing bland, patriotic balladsnot rap divas talking swag and sisterhood. “I can smile, but rap is rap,” Suboi said. For Ho Hoai Anh, a music producer and song writer who has worked with both Kimmese and Suboi-who are friends and have featured each other in their songs-the two female artists represent a new wave of Vietnamese musical talent. “In Vietnamese culture, even in the arts, women try and appear very understated, very feminine and gentle,” he said, adding the pair defied this norm.

“They have strong personalities. They express a desire common to many Vietnamese women: to have a more fulfilling professional life, to be less passive in general, not to be junior to men,” he said. “Their music speaks to the aspirations and the realities of modern life for Vietnamese women.” — AFP

Jolie surprises CinemaCon to tout ‘Unbroken’ ngelina Jolie took to the stage at CinemaCon, the annual convention of theater exhibitors, on Tuesday to reveal footage from the upcoming survival saga “Unbroken,” which she directed and produced. “I wanted to make this film because its message is one that we all need now more than ever,” said Jolie in front of the crowd of theater owners at the Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Shot in Sydney last year, the film tells the true story of Lou Zamperini, a World War II hero and track star who ran in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Zamperini, who is played by Jack O’Connell, spent a harrowing 47 days afloat in the Pacific Ocean following the 1943 crash of his US military plane. He spent the following two years as a prisoner of war after washing up behind Japanese enemy lines.

Developed originally by Universal Pictures in 1957, the biopic was supposed to star Tony Curtis, said Universal chairwoman Donna Langley before introducing Jolie. But after many false starts, the project never took shape. It wasn’t until Zamperini’s story caught the attention of Jolie, that the film really began to evolve. “She fought for

A Mick Jagger, center, Ronnie Wood, left, and Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones perform during their concert at Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014. — AP

Jagger mourns girlfriend

Scott at private LA funeral grieving Mick Jagger bid farewell Tuesday to his fashion designer girlfriend L’Wren Scott, in a private funeral with family and celebrity friends a week after she killed herself. Nicole Kidman, her husband musician Keith Urban and rocker Bryan Adams were among guests for the cremation service at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, media reports said. Former Eurythmics star Dave Stewart played guitar for a rendition of gospel hymn “Will the Circle be Unbroken,” sung by veteran Rolling Stones backing singer Bernard Fowler, said the Rolling Stones frontman’s spokesman.

Jagger, 70, who flew to Los Angeles to be close to his daughters last week after postponing a Stones tour of Australia and New Zealand, arrived in a blacked-out SUV at the cemetery, closed for the day. “A small private gathering of family and close friends attended a funeral service for L’Wren Scott today” at the Hollywood Forever Funeral Home, which is in the cemetery grounds, Jagger’s spokesman said. Scott, who committed suicide in New York last Monday, was cremated, spokesman Bernard Doherty told AFP after the ceremony.

The roughly hour-long service with blessings and prayers included “memories and words of tribute” from Jagger and Scott’s brother Randy Bambrough, he said in a statement.

Also there were talent agent Justinian Kfoury, costume designer Ira M Hammons-Glass and Adam Glassman, creative director of Oprah Winfrey’s magazine O, the Oprah Magazine.

Poems were read by Jagger’s daughter Karis, as well as actress Ellen Barkin. Another daughter,

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Jade, read Psalm 139, and the rocker’s grandchildren, Mazie and Zak, read Psalm 23 — “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.”

Karis lives in Los Angeles, while Jagger’s other daughters Elizabeth and Georgia May have also been staying in town to comfort him, according to media reports. The service was held amid tight security at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, the final resting place to generations of celebrities including Jayne Mansfield, Cecil B DeMille, Rudolph Valentino and Douglas Fairbanks. Jagger had been with Scott for 13 years. The model-turned-fashion designer was 49. Last Wednesday a coroner confirmed that Scott had hanged herself.

The 70-year-old singer has not been seen in public since hearing the tragic news, but in a blog post on his website a day after Scott was found dead he described her as not only his lover but his best friend. “I am still struggling to understand how my lover and best friend could end her life in this tragic way,” he wrote under a post entitled “L’Wren”, featuring a black and white photo of Scott. “I will never forget her.” Last week a spokesman for the late fashion designer hit back at suggestions that her business was in financial trouble before her suicide.

Scott’s label LS Fashion Ltd reported losses of $5.9 million as of December 31, 2012 according to accounts lodged with Britain’s Companies House in October obtained by AFP. But a spokesman for Scott insisted the company’s prospects were good, saying: “Although some areas of the business had not yet reached their potential, other parts of her business were proving successful.” — AFP

it and earned the right to direct it,” said Langley, who called Jolie “a true filmmaker.”

“Unbroken,” to be released in December, is based on Laura Hillenbrand’s book “Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption,” which chronicles Zamperini’s life.

“Lou Zamperini is the toughest man I have ever met,” said Jolie. “He’s a fighter and true hero. He is also a man of faith, full of love and humility. He sounds perfect. But he wasn’t always. Smoking, stealing and drinking by the time he was 9, he was convinced he was worth nothing and full of darkness.”

The footage teased revealed affecting scenes of Zamperini’s struggles, from his efforts to escape from his military plane after it crashed into the ocean, to the beatings her underwent as a prisoner. Jolie added that Zamperini’s journey can remind us of what we’re capable of. “Gain strength from our family, identify our fears and our pain, come face to face with darkness and never give up,” she said. “Unbroken” is the second time Jolie has directed a feature. The 2011 war drama “In the Land of Blood and Honey” was her first. — AP

Angelina Jolie, director of the upcoming film ‘Unbroken,’ makes a surprise appearance onstage to introduce a trailer for the film during a Universal Pictures studio presentation at CinemaCon 2014 on Tuesday in Las Vegas. — AP

Paul Walker

ʻUnsafe speedʼ caused car crash that killed Paul Walker - sheriff he fiery car accident last year that killed “Fast & Furious” actor Paul Walker was caused by excessive speed and not a mechanical failure, the Los Angeles County Sheriff said on Tuesday, concluding its almost four-month investigation. The red Porsche Carrera GT sports car driven by Walker’s friend Roger Rodas, 38, was traveling at speeds of 80 to 93 miles per hour (129 to 150 kilometers per hour) before Rodas lost control of the car and crashed into trees and a utility pole in Santa Clarita, California, northwest of Los Angeles.

“Investigators determined the cause of the fatal solo-vehicle collision was unsafe speed for the roadway conditions,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Commander Mike Parker said in a statement. Walker, 40, died from traumatic injuries and burns while Rodas died of multiple traumatic injuries in the one-car crash on Nov. 30, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office determined in January.

Walker was in the process of filming “Fast & Furious 7” at the time and production was halted a few days later. No drugs or alcohol were found in the bodies of Walker and Rodas. The investigation determined that both were wearing seatbelts, and driver and passenger airbags had deployed. Universal Pictures said in December that the release of the seventh installment in the highly lucrative franchise would be pushed back by nine months to April 2015. Walker will appear in the film. — Reuters

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THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

lifestyle F a s h i o n

Campbell not impressed by Kardashian and West’s VOGUE cover

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aomi Campbell has hinted she isn’t impressed by Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s VOGUE cover. The supermodel, who has appeared on the front of the US magazine numerous times during her 28-year career, spoke about the controversial cover featuring the reality star and her rapper husband on Australia’s ‘The Morning Show’ yesterday (25.03.14). When host Kylie Gillies asked the 43-year-old beauty what she thought about the cover, she started laughing and replied: “I’m a fashion model ... I do not want to comment.” She then added: “Because I’m a fashion model and I’ve been working for 28 years and when you get a VOGUE cover

it’s a build in your career, it’s a stepping stone to achieve that.

“And you know I’m a fashion model so what more can I say.”

Kylie then asked her: “So you think Kim and Kanye haven’t earned the right to be on the cover?” Naomi thought carefully about her reply and insisted it was down to VOGUE editor Anna Wintour to know what’s right for the magazine. She said: “Those are your words, I’m being politically correct.

That’s Anna Wintour’s choice to put them on the cover of her magazine, who’s to question it?” The cover features Kim in a wedding dress as the couple prepare for their upcoming wedding in May and further images inside the magazine

Green’s new shoe collection inspired by her travels

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hloe Green’s new shoe collection was inspired by her travels. The Topshop heiress has revealed her Spring/Summer 2014 footwear line was influenced by her globe-trotting lifestyle, with the 24-year-old designer naming each pair of covetable green-soled heels after a place she visited across the Atlantic, from Upper East to Rio de Janeiro. She told the MailOnline: “I have been travelling a lot to get inspiration for my range. I’ve spent time in the States and South America to get an idea of the markets out there.”

Chloe - whose father is billionaire Sir Philip Green - made sure to stay true to her own aesthetic and personal tastes as well as taking inspiration from what’s hot on the catwalk for her latest Chloe Jade Green range. She explained: “I am following the trend for lower heels this season but I didn’t take much inspiration from the catwalks because I always want to base my designs on what I’d wear myself. I don’t want to lose what’s me.”

Despite having a wardrobe brimming with designer pieces, Chloe insists she is a high street girl at heart. She added: “I would say I’m edgy chic but effortlessly put together. I love Givenchy and YSL and high street wise, I usually shop in Topshop and I love Zara at the moment.” Chloe’s shoe line is now available from CJG.com, Selfridges.com and Topshop.com. — Bang Showbiz

show the pair cuddling up to their nine-month-old baby North. Meanwhile, Naomi also recently slammed Nicole Trunfio, her fellow mentor on modeling show ‘The Face Australia’. She said: “‘Nicole was disrespectful, in a sense where instead of trying to get to know me she said I wasn’t a model of now. “And at the time when she said it I was on four magazine covers around the world, two of them being VOGUE.” — Bang Showbiz

Ashley Roberts is a big fan of Lupita Nyong’o’s style

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he former Pussycat Dolls singer has been girl crushing on the Oscar-winning ‘12 Years a Slave’ actress’ standout looks on the red carpet since she burst onto the scene earlier this year. Speaking at the launch of KEY Fashion’s Spring Summer 2014 collection yesterday, Ashley exclusively told BANG Showbiz: “Lupita’s just gorgeous! She has an inner glow about her as well, she shines bright from the inside. She’s not afraid to wear fun, bright colors, like that really beautiful blue she wore at the Oscars. That’s what’s cool about KEY Fashion too. There’s a lot of beautiful, flowing dresses in the new collection.” Ashley has been impressed by British fashion since moving over to the UK full-time after falling in love with London living.

Listing her new style icons, she enthused: “Kate Moss, obviously, she’s fabulous. Rita Ora can go real out there with her fashion, but then there’s some stuff that she does that just love, I think it’s so cool and funky. And Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, I’m a little obsessed with her.” The 32year-old star fronts KEY Fashion’s new collection of pastel prom and party dresses as well as full-length gowns perfect for every occasion, and says the best thing about the

new range is its universal appeal. Ashley explained: “I think there’s just a little bit of everything in the collection - occasions, prom, bridesmaids dresses, date night dresses, going on a holiday. There’s a little bit of something in there for every girl, every shape, every size.” The blonde bombshell will also be incorporating some of catwalk’s key spring trends into her wardrobe in the warmer months. She said: “I definitely think I’ll be adding in pastel colors, and bold prints are happening right now. Adding in the acid blue wash of the jean that’s ripped, I feel that would be really fun.” The KEY Collection is available from www.keyfashion.co.uk from March 25, 2014, with prices starting from £80.00. — Bang Showbiz

Bi-annual China Fashion Week

Models parade creations of ‘Fur Fashion Collection A/W 2014/2015’ during the bi-annual China Fashion Week in Beijing yesterday. The biannual China Fashion Week is being held in Beijing from March 25 to 31. — AP/AFP photos

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

lifestyle F a s h i o n

Models parading creations of “SEC QiGang Collection” designed

by Qi Gang.

Richie

Tom Ford has

launches

launched an e-commerce site

first House of Harlow 1960 clothing line

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icole Richie has launched her first clothing line for House of Harlow 1960. The reality star has finally unveiled her brand’s first ready-to-wear line after years of fans clamoring for the accessories designer and style icon to branch out into clothing. She said in a statement: “It’s been so gratifying to see the fan base that has grown for our accessories over the years, so I’m thrilled to provide our loyal customers with fashion to complete their look. It’s exciting that House of Harlow 1960 is now one step closer to being a complete lifestyle brand.” Nicole’s new clothing collection is perfectly in keeping with her bohemian style, and features laidback dresses, printed camisoles and loose trousers.

Prices are in the $60 to $300 bracket and the range is available at HouseofHarlow1960.com. The star previously revealed that her husband, Good Charlotte rocker Joel Madden, isn’t a fan of her experimenting with her look and prefers her to keep it simple when it comes to clothes. She said: “I have found that men don’t like too many bells and whistles. They’re not into hats or red lipstick. They’re more drawn to simplicity... and a short skirt. Shocker.”— Bang Showbiz

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he designer’s website tomford.com is offering a selection of items including handbags, leather goods, footwear, jewelry, eyewear and the Tom Ford Beauty cosmetics and fragrance ranges from today onwards. He commented: “I have waited patiently to introduce e-commerce until I felt the foundation of the brand was well established offline. We now have 98 retail locations worldwide and the online store is an extension of them: it is a beautiful online space that carries exceptionally crafted, hand made products and offers superlative service.” While the current online range is focused on accessories, the designer’s ready-to-wear collections will be available in the future.

The move has been a long time coming for Tom, who has been vocal about the negative impact of the web on the fashion industry in the past. He commented four years ago: “The way the system works now, you see the clothes, within an hour or so they’re online, the world sees them. They don’t get to a store for six months. “The next week, young celebrity girls are wearing them on red carpets. They’re in every magazine.

The customer is bored with those clothes by the time they get to the store.”— Bang Showbiz

Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Martin call it quits

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THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014

A homeless man sleeps next to work by 30-year-old Greek street artist Sonke in central Athens.

File photo shows the work ‘Sleep’ by Greek street artist SMTS is seen surrounded by graffiti tags in the Exarchia area of central Athens. — AP photos

A motorcyclist passes street art in central Athens.

A woman runs past the work ‘System of a Fraud’ by Greek street artist iNO, in central Athens.

Pedestrians walk past work by Greek street artist iNO, at an exhibition space created out of an old gasworks on central Pireos Street in Athens.

Greek graffiti artists spray thoughts

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The work ‘Moment’ by Greek street artist SMTS is seen surrounded by graffiti tags in the Exarchia are of central Athens.

ncient Greeks chiseled their messages, often rude or boastful, into marble.

They would probably be amazed how the illicit art form has evolved in the country’s capital centuries later. Graffiti covers entire buildings, trains, and is disrespectfully scrawled on the statues of respected ancestors. The vandals are often graduates of Greece’s fine arts schools, who have sometimes spun their street art into commissions.

Loudly expressing opinions is a national pastime that has only grown more raucous during the social upheaval caused by

Greece’s deep financial crisis.

Vacant storefronts, acres of shutters reinforced against rioters are the canvases that have helped attract artists from Greece and abroad to spray their thoughts in Athens.

Mindless tagging this is not: Violent confrontations with police, stateless children of immigrants, and the rise of a political party whose leaders were inspired by Nazi Germany are among the issues turned into art. — AP

An anti-austerity work of street art featuring the Dalton Brothers from the Belgian comic ‘Lucky Luke’ is seen in the Exarchia area of central Athens.

A motorcyclist passes the work ‘Access Control’ by Greek street artist iNO, on central Pireos Street.

Graffiti is seen in a shuttered shopping arcade in central Athens.

A woman walks past the work ‘capture’ by Indonesian-born street artist WD.

A building front is decorated by the work of London-based street artist Alex Martinez, is seen in central Athens.

A building front is decorated by the work of London-based street artist Alex Martinez, is seen in central Athens.