20 Apr 2012

Pharmacists playing doctor pose serious risk to public

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NO: 15424- Friday, April 20, 2012

Violence mars Bahrain F1

SEE PAGE 47

Bahraini children hold up pictures of tortured democracy activists as they pose in front of graffiti depicting a scene of anti-government demonstrations in the Shiite village of Barbar on the western outskirts of the capital Manama yesterday. — AFP

Local FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

From the editor’s desk

Conspiracy Theories

A Rolls-Royce in the wrong neighborhood

Puff it out

By Badrya Darwish

By Abd Al-Rahman Al-Alyan Editor-in-Chief

myopinion@kuwaittimes.net

A

ll of a sudden our beloved members of parliament feel like they have a PhD in know-itall. They want to rule the country as they see fit based on what pleases their opinion. They have been on a roll with all their statements about who will get fired from certain posts and who will replace them. They now feel like they are the judge and jury for everything that happens in the world.

As a matter of fact, they also think they are the fire brigade as some of them were seen trying to instruct fire fighters in Rehaiya. These people are running around barking threats and orders like it’s a company they own because it’s their way or the highway.

Recently, the Iranian embassy held a reception to mark Iran’s Army Day in a local hotel. Several MPs opposed holding the celebration outside the embassy and felt that it was a provocation to the feelings of Kuwaitis and Gulf nationals. They also said that it was a clash with the sovereignty of Kuwait. Spare me the monkey business. This is not the first or last Army Day of any country that has a military attache in Kuwait and it is most definitely not the first one to be held in a local hotel. It is clear as daylight that they have singled out the Iranian embassy for criticism because of their own religious bias. If this was any other embassy other than Iran, Syria or Iraq, then it would have been perfectly fine with them and it would be the Shiite MPs who would turn to raise the same issue.

Dear members of parliament, our economic situation is horrible. Kuwait feels like a burger hub rather than a business hub. There is zero development, prices of everything are rocketing despite the fact we don’t have taxes - spare me the argument that materials come from faraway lands because Jordan is next door, has taxes and the only thing we have cheaper than them is petrol - companies are suffering, people in the private sector are losing their jobs and the country has become the worse example of democracy that every dictator on the planet is using as an argument against having a democratic parliament. The nation voted for you to help in the betterment of the country and to voice people’s concerns with regards to that issue and so far you have achieved nothing at all.

Unfortunately, Kuwait feels like a Rolls-Royce that’s parked in a really bad neighborhood and a mob of thieves are dismantling it and stealing every part of it. I wouldn’t be surprised if next time the budgets are announced, someone is going to shout snatch and run m*#*#*#*!!! and that would be that.

badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net

I

t is amazing how time changes things drastically. I was watching an old movie today and something came to my attention.

In the old movies, actors and actresses used to smoke a lot.

They used to light a cigarette in a stylish way. As if it was part of the accessories of the movie and whether it was men or women, an Arabic movie or a Western movie, smoking was something available within the two-hour span of the film.

In modern movies today, I have noticed that you can hardly see the actress or actor taking out a pack of cigarettes or lighting one. Is it because of the health hazard phenomenon that has been brought against smoking in the last decade? Are movies trying to push a no-smoking campaign forward? Or is it now that producers and moviemakers are trying to help in the campaign against smoking? Or is smoking simply out of fashion?

Of course, movies affect generations like nothing else. In the old movies, for instance, when John Wayne or Clint Eastwood took out a cigarette, every youngster would imitate them. The minute the movie finished, every youngster would leave the movie theatre, buy a pack and start imitating his idol. Even if you didn’t like smoking, you would do it to imitate celebrities or your favourite actor or singer. Or you would do it to prove that you are liberal and modern. For youngsters, this was a sign of adulthood. For adults it was a sign of freedom and independence. Smoking made them feel modern. For some women a cigarette meant more freedom. They felt modern. With their

polished nails and long cigarette holders, actresses and female celebrities would smoke at parties. Of course, every young woman aspired to that look and did the same. Then all of a sudden, this trend disappeared. Was smoking a fad in the movie industry?

Even onboard planes smoking was allowed. If you are an old traveler, you remember the times when the minute the no smoking sign went off, nearly every passenger would light a cigarette. I do not know why the no-smoking sign is still on planes when everybody knows that smoking on board is banned. Even at airports, smoking is banned except for the small room which I call “panic room”. It is for those who cannot handle it unless they take a puff.

Smoking was prevalent all over the place. Since the campaign against cigarettes started, Europe and advanced countries are coping well. I noticed that the Third World, Africa and the Middle East is not. People here are still heavy smokers. They smoke everywhere in cafes, restaurants, public buildings and even elevators. I wonder if that has to do with economic poverty or suppression. Or is it a way of life? Or is it because cigarettes do not have a high tariff and are cheap. A packet of cigarettes costs 600 fils while in the US, a pack costs $10 and in Europe 6 euros.

Is it about the money, health awareness or simply a trend and fashion?

In my view

Kid-free flights? Excellent

By Lisa Conrad lisa@kuwaittimes.net

M

alaysia Airline’s announcement that their new A380 service between Kuala Lumpur and London will include a child-free upper deck sparked considerable controversy as the airline took action to provide something many travellers have been yearning for: a quiet, relaxing flight. Despite the undeniable demand for such a move, the decision set off a debate in which some described the decision as ‘discriminatory’ and expressed anger at the idea of excluding children from designated areas.

In my opinion, the move couldn’t have come soon enough. I cannot even begin to recall the number of times I’ve been awoken or disturbed on a flight because of a child kicking the back of my seat or arguing with their parents over the order in which they should eat their neatly compartmented meal. The issue is oftentimes not even the children themselves but, in fact, their parents.

For every flight-ruining memory I have, there was a parent who, already under immense pressure and stress, didn’t tell their child to stop or calm down. As a result, shouting, kicking and running were all on the agenda with little or no consequence.

I once asked a child’s mother to stop her daughter from kicking my seat and she glared at me as if I’d revealed the truth about the Tooth Fairy. How could I, she insinuated, be so selfish as to expect a peaceful flight and, even worse, have the nerve to stress her out with my request. I can imagine that travelling with children is stressful, but I don’t think that should oblige every single passenger onboard into being involuntarily selfless and understanding.

Kudos to those who are; however, for the rest of us, losing sleep on a flight can reap serious consequences. What about business people who have meetings the following day? Or expatriates rushing home to see their families for a brief visit, only to then have to sleep off their exhausting, stressful flight for an entire day?

Admittedly, some adults can be just as disrupting to a flight as an unruly child. However, it’s easy enough to ask your adult neighbour to stop elbowing you or, if they persist, there’s always the option of telling an air steward/stewardess. Tell on a kid, or ask them to stop whatever it is they’re doing that’s disrupting you, and you’re a cruel, selfish villain with no regard for how difficult it

is to be a parent. It’s a lose-lose situation, so why not cut out the entire scenario and separate those wishing to colour with those wanting to sleep? Doesn’t that make things easier on all involved?

Definitely.

Malaysia Airlines’ new move won’t come into action until July and, as of yet, is only available on one route. I’m sure I speak for many when I say that I’d be overjoyed to see other airlines adopt the same tactic in order to ensure passengers enjoy their flights more. I’m not a parent, but I imagine that those who are would also prefer travelling without the fear of their kids waking fellow passengers. I, for one, would greatly appreciate the opportunity to have some silence when travelling. It’s not personal, I promise.

Local FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

Local Spotlight

The Jahra fire catastrophe

Just kiddin’, seriously

Kuwait development = bikini ban

By Sahar Moussa

By Muna Al-Fuzai

sahar@kuwaittimes.net

muna@kuwaittimes.net

H

undreds of Kuwaiti firemen tackled a massive fire that started in a dump where used tyres are discarded on Tuesday in Jahra. A number of MPs described it as an ‘environmental catastrophe’ and vowed to debate on the issue in a special parliamentary session to be held next week. They also demanded an official investigation into the incident.

Whether it was arson or a natural disaster should not be the main concern. A number of fire incidents have ravaged several parts of the country since 2007. Dr Maasouma Al-Mubarak was forced to resign from her post as minister after a fire in Al-Jahra hospital killed two patients.

It is located 32 km away, northwest of Kuwait City with an estimated population of 24,281 as of 2009.

This area is densely populated. While residents always complain against the inferior services provided to them, especially with one old hospital and polluted industrial areas, nothing positive has been created to improve the living standards and people’s health. It was simply left on its own!

The industrial area has been plagued by troubles.

We commonly read news reports that expats conduct their thriving illegal long distance call services from there. Also, Municipality officials often destroy large quantities of rotten fish from restaurants that operate in the area with either expired or no health certificates.

How did this fire start? The reason is still unknown.

Only an investigation can prove what the truth is. In my humble opinion, based on records of how past incidents were handled, it is useless to search for a fingerprint. Most of these investigations only reach a dead end.

This fire that gutted millions of used tyres will pollute the environment. I hope there will be more studies and research conducted on the level of pollution in this area. I wonder what safety measures residents should take when leaving their homes or when children play outdoors. I hope this incident has served as a wake-up call to everyone. I hope such disasters are not repeated here again.

P

roposals to ban swimsuits, introducing the death penalty for blasphemy, imposing women to wear headscarves in public and removing flags from the Shiite cemetery in Sulaibikhat “to protect the sanctity of graves“ are controversial issues that were recently discussed and proposed by Islamist MPs in Kuwait. Okay, I need to understand something. Is Kuwait booming financially and Kuwaitis are living in heaven? Are their businesses flourishing and they have no debts to think of? Are they not facing any environmental crises and is their educational system so astonishing that MPs have absolutely nothing else to think of other than to suggest these laws?

Seriously! I didn’t know that Kuwait is drug free, and children are living in such an extremely healthy environment that actually make the MPs think of these propositions. Now the hard truth. Kuwait is struggling and Kuwaitis are suffering! Struggling from a lack of construction industries, as they completely neglect the urge to build factories, plants or industrial units to introduce commercial growth to the country. New graduates are struggling to work and be able to give and contribute something to their country.

Instead of focusing on whether they should ban swimsuits, when most of the population are expatriates, shouldn’t they focus on strengthening their infrastructure!? I usually do not like to compare countries, because I believe that every country has its own agenda and characteristics, but here I would like to take Saudi Arabia as an example. Considering it is a religious country, and it is true that women can’t drive there yet, but at least the country is starting to have a more open mindset.

They are focusing on their infrastructure and they are progressing.

My point here is that you don’t have to hide behind religion and distract people with holy religious edicts and ignore what your country needs. Sorry to say it, but some MPs are distracting people with their irrelevant ideas and proposals that lead to confuse people and cause friction between sects. Is their mission to kill the dreams of youths and push them to find comfort and education in other countries? Well, mission accomplished!

Strengthen your educational system so students will not have to go abroad to study, and leave their families behind. Clean the environment from the 5 million tyres that polluted the air two days ago, and come up with solutions to keep the tyre yard in uninhabited areas.

Instead of ordering the death penalty for blasphemy, try to fight it with education and peace because Islam is an enlightening, loving and peaceful religion. Do not try to distort it, and here I would like to give notice between brackets (Article 111 of the Penal Code prohibits defamation of religion, currently providing for up to one year of imprisonment and a fine. Under international law, ‘religious’ offences do not fall under the category of ‘most serious crimes’, the minimum threshold prescribed for crimes carrying the death penalty).

Instead of taking the flags from the Shiite cemetery, respect their beliefs and let them weep their dead in their own way. And MPs, every time you think of swimsuits and removing flags from cemeteries try planting a tree or start putting one brick on top of another to build a factory for Kuwait’s sake and its future.

Satire Wire

Of course there was a tyre fire

By Sawsan Kazak

sawsank@kuwaittimes.net

K

uwait made international news yet again this week when a huge fire broke out in the Rehaiya area. A dump housing about five million tyres in Jahra caught fire on Tuesday and sent dark clouds of smoke into the sky. The area, referred to as ‘a graveyard for tyres’, was engulfed in flames and took many hours to extinguish.

So let me get this straight. Tyres have been piling up for years now in one of the hottest places in the world and a fire broke out - what a shock! Who could have predicted that amassing millions of tyres in one location under the

Kuwaiti sun would lead to disaster? I mean, it must have sounded like such a good idea at the time - ‘let us take all the tyres we can get our hands on, assemble them in one location and see what happens.’

It’s like a person who collected papers for many decades and was then surprised that a flammable item piled high actually caught fire. Here’s my question. Why do we have such a large ‘tyre graveyard’? In fact, why do we even have a graveyard for tyres to begin with? Do cars mourn the death of the tyres that transported them, and need closure so they bury them in a cemetery and visit them on the anniversary of their death? Do tyre ‘souls’ really need a final resting place?

Doing a little research on the matter, I found out that ‘tyres are not typically prone to self-ignition’ but in the case of shredded tires that are stored in a depth greater than three meters, spontaneous combustion can occur if the tyres are heated to 400ºC for several minutes prior to

ignition. Thank you Wikipedia for that bit of information. If only there was a way to make it accessible to those involved in the collection of tyres over all these years. If only there was a way we could have foreseen this disaster.

So placing tyres miles high in the desert could actually lead to trouble; who knew?

Apparently some members of parliament called the tire fire ‘an environmental catastrophe’ and insisted that they will be asking for ‘a debate on the issue in a special parliamentary session’. As usual, parliament is right on top of important matters, and busy debating things that cannot be changed. The real issue with Kuwait is that it manages by crises. Decisions are taken only when a tragedy has occurred. Like a good company, the country would benefit from preventative measures that help avoid tragedy.

Local FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

By Nawara Fattahova

A

new card game inspired by Monopoly has launched in Kuwait and promises fun and excitement for both adults and children. Fursan il Manakh is based on the popular ‘Deal’ game and it is all about collecting properties and stealing from your

opponents. The game is designed in Kuwaiti style to suit Kuwaiti players. “One can use the Action Cards to charge rent, swap cards, demand money and lots more.

It is a challenging game where a little bit of luck and a lot of skills give you an upper hand,” Mudhi, the creator of the game told Kuwait Times.

“We’ve added a lot of new action cards that people haven’t seen before and changed the style completely.

We even created all the cards from scratch with new illustrations and designs. We also made sure that the card quality was the best it could be. The paper and packaging are of the best quality too,” she said. The game is available in the market now. “With one card pack, you can play with 2-5 players but if you combine two packs, you can play with 2-10 players. The game is made for 8-year-olds and above. It is definitely not just for young kids. Adults seem to enjoy it even more. It’s a great game for families and friends and a lot of our customers are guys who play the game at the diwaniya,” Mudhi added.

Kuwait was the inspiration of Fursan il Manakh. “We wanted the game to be based on Kuwait - so all the property cards are based on actual cities and towns in Kuwait. We even hired a real estate agent so to help us value each city and to know how to organize them. In terms of the design itself, we wanted to bring back some of the old glory of Kuwait with the old buildings and the Sadu inspired theme, but still keeping the game modern and fun for all ages,” she noted.

She said that feedback from customers is very satisfying. “We just released the product recently, but we’ve been very fortunate to receive nice feedbacks and reviews. Many people who bought the game ended up buying more packs the next day. Within few days of being in the market, we’ve already sold much more than we expected. We will probably start printing more copies for sale soon,” Mudhi said. Fursan il Manakh can be bought online. The game costs KD 8 and delivery is free.

Local FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

Get Kuwait-proof with these apps!

By Sawsan Kazak

W

ith a touch of a finger you can organize your day, translate English into Spanish and track flights from around the world.

Applications, or apps, are all the rage for smartphone users and are getting pretty specific in the services they offer.

There are apps that track your menstrual cycle, apps that tell you your heart rate and even some apps that can tell you your blood sugar level. You can have apps that tell you about local hotspots to eat out or just check out, warn you of traffic jams and even tell you about the weather. Kuwait is a country that is special, the situations and circumstances here are not like any other country. For this reason, I think Kuwait should have its own apps that help people organize their day, stay inthe-know, and warn them of any adversities they may face.

High level of posers Many locations in Kuwait get temporarily invaded by posers (people who think they are cool but in reality are far from it). These people are loud, obnoxious and completely ruin the dining, shopping or cafe experience for all those around them. Wouldn’t it

mall or to walk on the beach and there are ‘stalkers’ in your midst? These guys usually drop everything they are doing to follow girls around and, for lack of a better word, ‘stalk’ them in plain sight.

This would be an interactive app, where girls would log in and warn other girls of the situation at any given

Seeing as you can show up to a location and spend one hour searching for a parking spot, this application would inform you if it was even worth attempting the outing.

You would type in the name of the mall you are planning to go to, for instance, and the app would tell you:

Rotten Meat Q8 app Recently, a large number of restaurants were caught with spoiled meat on their premises and have been shut down. Seeing as there is an influx of rotten meat entering the country on a daily basis, this app would keep track of all the restaurants being condemned for selling rotten meat. Why trouble yourself to get ready and drive all the way down to the restaurant and find out that it has been temporarily closed when you can simply check your Rotten Meat Q8 app and monitor your favorite restaurant?

Grilling Time Grilling season is soon upon us, and I don’t mean the hamburger and hotdog kind. In other countries, this app would probably indicate the weather and when it would be appropriate to fire up the barbeque, but in Kuwait this app would have a different purpose.

Parliament grillings are a frequent occurrence in this country and wouldn’t it be great to have an application on your phone that would give you a notification every time a parliamentary grilling was about to take place. The only downside to this app is that it would go off very often, so it would be wiser to just put it on silent.

Inhaler Time Kwt This app would be to track the many sandstorms that have been hitting Kuwait recently. This app would inform you, bright and early, of the percentage of dust you are likely to inhale during the day. Also, a feature of this application could include a suggestion on what to bring with you to minimize your dust-inhalation. For example: ‘the amount of dust you are going to inhale today is 1 pound, bring with you a surgical mask,’ or ‘ today’s dust is expected to reach record levels, make sure to bring your own oxygen mask.’ This app, like the Grilling Time app, will probably beep non-stop so keeping this one on silent too is also a good idea.

The Poser app would advise you to stay away from high-level poser areas and try again next time; unless you are a self-proclaimed poser, in which case you will be advised to head right over and join your people. be great if you could check your Posers app and see at what poser lever your area is at. You would type in the name of the coffee shop you are heading to and a poser-meter would indicate the level of ‘poserism’.

This app would advise you to stay away from high-level poser areas and try again next time; unless you are a self-proclaimed poser. In which case, you will be advised to head right over and join your people.

Stalker alert This is an app for the girls. Isn’t it so annoying when you show up to the

location. For instance, a girl would check the app and speak directly to other girls and find out the status of the stalking situation. If an area was clear of stalkers, girls could invite each other to come and enjoy the harassment free atmosphere. The only problem here is that eventually guys will get smart to this app, download it themselves and head to all the locations where girls are congregating.

Don’t bother coming This app would track with GPS technology the amount of parking spaces available at your desired destination.

‘just stay home because you are never going to find a spot to park your car.

Better luck next time.’ sawsank@kuwaittimes.net

Local FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

Pharmacists playing doctor pose serious risk to public

Expat sold herpes meds for dehydration

By Lisa Conrad

“P

harmacists are not doctors: they do not have the right to prescribe or decide what patients need unless in simple, straightforward cases,” said a Ministry of Health insider. The source added that the trend of pharmacists overstepping their bounds and failing to refer customers to doctors when necessary is problematic.”There must be more accountability, every drug must be accounted for and there can be no room for error,” he added.

The insider, who asked to remain anonymous, revealed that the prevalence of strict rules and regulations being loosely adopted is leaving room for the system to be abused, “People make an effort to learn about how they can misuse certain drugs, whether prescription or not. If pharmacists do not become more professional and strict in their adherence to regulations, the situation will continue to worsen.” In an effort to prove his point, the insider sent various mystery shoppers to pharmacies in Kuwait to ask for medications that should only be given with a prescription, or after detailed symptoms have been provided to the pharmacist. “In the very worst examples, the pills were handed over without any additional information even being asked for. These are not packets of gum being sold; they’re medications that can be seriously damaging and addictive.”

“I am not saying that all pharmacies in Kuwait are like this; many are extremely professional and vigilant. Others, however, are letting everyone down in an attempt to boost sales, despite the risks associated with such carelessness.” The insider added, “Pharmacists are all too easily coerced into giving what should be exclusive to prescription holders. It should not be a choice on their part, and harsh penalties should be introduced for those who break the rules.” He added, “Addiction to prescription medication is not taken as seriously as addiction to illegal narcotics. This is an extremely dangerous mentality. Addiction to a prescription medication does not ‘legitimize’ it.”

Dr Ahmad Al-Shatti, Consultant of Public Health in the Ministry of Health and lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine at Kuwait University, said, “People tend to try and save time and money by avoiding visiting their doctor and going directly to buy symptomatic medicine over the counter instead.” Given this trend, he noted the importance of monitoring the health sector. “Kuwait is evolving because the medical sector is pri-

vatizing, which gives the opportunity for more drugs to be prescribed and sold. It’s important that this stays monitored for the sake of the consumers.”

He added, “Codes of ethics, conduct and practice should be followed and there should be supervision. There are not enough supervision teams to supervise every case, all the time, which is why the codes should be taught and followed.

The balance between the right of making profit and the right of quality service is a genuine challenge.”

Failure to implement the correct codes can be detrimental, said Dr Al-Shatti. “The risk of malpractice includes serious health side effects, including addiction, the masking of symptoms and the chronic stages of some diseases which, with enough treatment, can lead to germ resistance to usual lines of treatment.” Regarding Kuwait’s regulations, Dr Al-Shatti said, “In Kuwait there are many common medications that require prescriptions, such as valium and sleeping pills, which should only be given on prescription.”

He continued, “It is the responsibility of the pharmacist to make sure that their practice is well within the legal requirements. Otherwise the risk of addiction to medications will rise and unnecessary prescriptions may become common.”

Letting a pharmacist complete diagnoses usually reserved for doctors can be dangerous: “I was given herpes medication for dehydration,” said 31-year-old American expatriate, Kelly.

“I had been suffering from severe dehydration and lethargy as I wasn’t used to the climate. I went to a pharmacy because I didn’t have my residency or medical card yet, so I wasn’t sure how to see a doctor.”

After spending KD 40 on medication, which the pharmacist insisted were necessary to cure her, Kelly became suspicious of one of the items, “I’m not used to the idea of being oversold medication, because I’d used the same family doctor my whole life and he always advised me to use the minimum.

One of the boxes stood out, so I went on Google and looked it up.”

Upon realizing that she’d been sold herpes medication, she rushed back to the pharmacy. “I was outraged. The woman who sold me the medication wasn’t there; but her manager was. He immediately called her, and then told me that she’d given me the pills thinking I may have some sort of infection causing my feelings of lethargy.” She received a full refund, but was still shocked at how such a mistake could happen. “I’m not a doctor, but I’m quite sure that dehydration

and lethargy due to climate change have nothing to do with herpes. It’s seriously dangerous, and insulting, to give people the wrong medication. I finally saw a doctor who prescribed me nothing but rest and water.”

Cases like Kelly’s, if stories are to be believed, are not uncommon and suggest that there are breaches. “I was given antibiotics over the counter because the pharmacist thought my symptoms may be due to some sort of infection, along with three other medications, including the herpes medication. It was completely ridiculous,” said Kelly. “Looking back, I should have seen the warning signs and questioned her from the beginning,” she added. What’s more, according to Dr AlShatti, the dispensing of antibiotics requires a prescription, “The prescribing of antibiotics should be with a prescription, because there can be complications if they are not prescribed under supervision.” He added, however, “Allowances are sometimes made depending on the case.”

Local FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

AYMSTRONG army camp.

Score and reach a goal AYMSTRONG aims to fill in for dearth of sporting facilities

By Ben Garcia

A

YMSTRONG, a fitness and health center, will conduct a “snake cage” football tournament at the end of this month or in early May. Snake cage is a football match played inside a cage, between six players or three versus three. No outs, no corners. It’s a unique game conceptualized by AYMSTRONG founder Yousef Al-Qanai. The match lasts for ten minutes per half.

Speaking with Kuwait Times, Omar Al-Azem, Marketing Manager of AYMSTRONG, expressed hope that many Kuwaiti youth will participate.

“Football is very popular among Kuwaitis. We want our young people to enjoy and be part of the snake cage football tournament,” he said.

The tournament is a goal-oriented game, aimed to score a goal and have some fun. “Our youth needs challenge, and this is a challenging game. We believe in the power of youth.

They can achieve something if they really want it, and they can score and reach a goal,” he added. No specific date of the tournament has been set. However, according to Al-Azem, it will be held by end of April or early May. The snake cage football tournament is just one of the many activities introduced by AYMSTRONG to empower the Kuwaiti youth in terms of sports. “Our mission is really to indoctrinate positive changes through programs, events and activities revolving around healthy and productive lifestyles. Our qualified and professional team work together to ensure the empowerment of people we serve. We work in partnership with our clients to create a culture of overall well-being,” Al-Azem asserted.

“As you know, the rate of obesity in the country is really high. We want to help our country by educating our youth on the facts about obesity. We want to stir the mind of people about obesity, and maybe we could do something to move them in the positive direction; we want to tell our people that eating healthy food is the right way, and engaging in productive activities can really make a change.”

AYMSTRONG aims to fill in for the fact that Kuwait has limited places to conduct sporting activities. “We have places where youth converge for some sort of football training, swimming, volleyball and basketball, but additional alternatives to offer interesting activities are

limited. We at AYMSTRONG are here to fill the missing link,” he added. AYMSTRONG instructors are all certified professional fitness trainers, Al-Azem said. “We evaluate their experience because we entrust our participants with them. We don’t conduct health checkups as we are no doctors. However, we have issued a disclaimer stressing that participants join according to their personal discretion. They must seek a doctor’s advice if they really want to be part of AYMSTRONG activities,” he added.

At the end of May, another challenge will be held, modeled on the hit reality show series ‘Biggest Loser’. “ The ‘weight loss challenge’ will be held for five consecutive months. Instead of clubbing all participants in one camp, they will meet twice. The first meeting will be to weigh in.

They will then meet again on the last date of the program to be held at the end of October,” he said. The cash prize for the ‘Biggest Loser’ challenge will $10,000.

“The program will not be as strict as the Biggest Loser challenge. We will be giving our participants schedules to follow, but again, it’s not compulsory, it’s up to them if they want to follow that or if they have their own regimes.

Our goal here is to see who will achieve the most dramatic weight loss,” he said.

Established in 2008, AYMSTRONG, was created as a substitute to a gymnasium.

There are three regular but also seasonal training programs for participants, divided into three sessions per week, or a total of nine sessions per season. The fifth season will start on April 28. “Our aim is for participants to be fitter and stronger. We will be introducing several unique sessions like the TFC (The Fitness Camp) ARMY session. ARMY session is an army camp style training program where hard labor is introduced like carrying heavy sand bags to some military technique exercises. “The army camp challenge is fun, not so extensive but is tough enough to really call it a challenge,” AlAzem said. The participants are limited to 25 only. The second fitness program is the TFC Beach session. This is conducted along the beach where participants undergo training using only body weights, starting with pushups or any sports that can be played on sand.”We hold this session at the beach side of The Palms Hotel. It’s very famous among our participants,”

AYMSTRONG cardio session.

AYMSTRONG training camp. he said.

The third fitness program is the TFC Cardio Session where sessions are held uphill or at elevated places in Kuwait to strengthen their cardiovascular system. They include walking, running and jogging. “After completing nine sessions, they can either renew or decide to discontinue or pull out from the program, but it is all up to participants. Most participants continue to the next season. Many of our participants from the upcoming season are the products of

our last training program,” he said.

These sessions are unique because there are no other groups offering the same fitness programs. “You get the social aspect of the fitness camp. We don’t just go to a place, we enjoy talking and socializing. It’s fun because we do it with people who share the same ideas/goals, plus we meet new people, interact with them and motivate each other,” Al-Azem concluded.

Participants range from age 15 and above.

AYMSTRONG headquarters is located at Dar Al-

Local FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

Islamists propose morality police

By B Izzak

KUWAIT: HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah sees off Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman yesterday after a four-day visit. — KUNA

Gitmo dads slam US, Kuwait govts

By Nawara Fattahova KUWAIT: The United States which claims to be a democratic country and respect human rights, has imprisoned two Kuwaitis, Fayez Al-Kanderi and Fawzi Al-Odah, for 10 years without a trial although they have not been accused of any crime. After long years of waiting and exerting every effort, the parents of these two detainees are in despair. They decided to do something that may help them to release their sons. For the past few days Khalid Al-Odah, the father of Fawzi Al-Odah, and Mohammed Al-Kanderi, the father of Fayez, have been protesting in front of the American Embassy in Bayan every day from 10:00 am to 12:00 noon.

“We will continue this protest until we reach a solution. Through this act, we aim to deliver our message to both the Kuwaiti and American governments to release our sons. I think that our government is not serious or interested in solving this case. Kuwaiti officials should pressure the US to release them. We want to reactivate this issue to provoke the public to support us, and to convince our parliament and government to be more strict in solving our case,” Khalid Al-Odah told Kuwait Times.

Al-Odah is very disappointed at the inaction of the Kuwaiti government. “Our government has all the opportunities and is expected to press the US to get our demands. Even Bahrain received all their detainees since 2005, and we still have two at Guantanamo. We had many chances to insist on getting our demands. The $500 million donation granted by our government to the US when

the hurricane Katrina hit them was a golden opportunity to negotiate our issue, but the Kuwait government didn’t mention it,” he explained. “I am surprised at the way that the United States has dealt with us. Although we are one of their allies and their strategic partners, even their enemy the Taleban get a chance to negotiate, while we do not even get this chance. I hope that Kuwaiti officials will realize and understand our tragedy and do something,” he added.

There is no reason for the two Kuwaiti detainees to stay in Guantanamo. “We want the detainees back to be judged here. We fulfilled all the conditions and demands set by the US administration. We prepared the rehabilitation center for them to stay in when they return. We also agreed to apply security measures and observation on them, like the travel ban and other conditions, yet we didn’t notice any positive act from the US government,” stressed Al-Odah.

He said the current president is even worse than the previous one. “In fact, during Bush’s regime most detainees were released, but now only a few were released and they were even sent to a third nation and not their home country. Obama only talks much, but he is not practically helpful,” he charged. “Our lawyer there is still working on the case, but there is no result yet. The American government won’t allow a fair trial for them, and this is illegal and against human rights. We are also dealing and meeting with different NGOs and international organizations to help us in this injustice. We need support from the public, as the Kuwaiti government is not active,” concluded AlOdah.

KUWAIT: Six Islamist MPs yesterday submitted a draft law calling for the establishment of a special committee that exclusively deals with public morality crimes. It also calls for a special police force to handle such crimes.

The bill, submitted by MPs Mohammad Hayef, Jamaan Al-Harbash, Osama AlMunawer, Mohammad Al-Hatlani and Bader Al-Dahoom, proposes setting up a ‘Morality Crime Public Prosecution Department’ under the jurisdiction of an Attorney General to deal with felonies and misdemeanors related to committing public immorality.

It also stipulates the establishment of a special Ministry of Interior (MoI) police department to take legal measures to prevent crimes of public immorality. The department will be headed by a lieutenant-general, who will be assisted by a number of officers and policemen, according to the draft law. The bill will be reviewed by National Assembly committees before being put up for voting.

In the explanatory note, the lawmakers said the bill aims at unifying authorities investigating all public morality crimes. Presently, serious morality crimes and felonies are investigated by the public prosecution department while minor crimes are investigated by the Ministry of Interior investigation department.

Unifying investigations into these crimes under the public prosecution department is in line with modern legislation, which authorize the public prosecution department to investigate all types of violations.

The lawmakers said the draft law also aims at creating a special department in the MoI to be fully devoted to combating public morality crimes. The bill does not define public morality crimes or name them. MP Harbash, head of the National Assembly educational committee, said yesterday it has carried out all necessary amendments to the law calling to establish the Jaber University of Technology. The law for the university was approved by the Assembly about two weeks ago in the first reading, but the second and final vote was postponed until the amendments are carried out. The law stipulates the establishment of the Sheikh Jaber University for Science and Technology to specialize in technology.

Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah said yesterday that all questions about the foreign transfers issue have been answered, and that the parliamentary investigation committee will be provided with all of the necessary documents. Opposition MPs accused former Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah of transferring millions of dinars of public funds into his private overseas bank accounts.

Kuwaiti, Filipino officials meet on labor issues KUWAIT: A delegation from the Kuwait Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor (MSAL), discussed in Manila yesterday a number of issues relating to Filipino labor in Kuwait with several Filipino officials. The delegation, led

by MSAL Undersecretary Mohammad AlKandari, will participate in a three-day conference entitled “Abu Dhabi Dialogue II” for countries of labor origin and destination in Manila. They discussed with Filipino Undersecretary of the Department of Labor and Employment, Danilo P Cruz, the labor relationship between the two countries and the way to strengthen bilateral ties and serve the common interest, Kandari said.

Kandari said the planned conference aims at enhancing relations between Asian countries of labor origin and the GCC, as countries of destination. He said countries participating in the conference have already listened to the report that was presented by experts of the conference’s coordinating office. They will approve the recommendations and refer them to the ministerial meeting, which will be held tomorrow in the presence of Philippines President, Benigno Aquino III, along with participating ministers and heads of departments. —KUNA

MANILA: Undersecretary of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor Mohammed AlKandari with the Philippines labor undersecretary Danilo P Cruz. —KUNA

News

in brief

Blasphemer stabbed KUWAIT: Hamad Al-Naqi, who was detained after publishing tweets blaspheming Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), his wife Aisha and his companions, was stabbed at the Central Jail yesterday after an argument with another inmate. He is not seriously injured.

MoD to inspect phones KUWAIT: The Defense Ministry’s military police will inspect military employees’ personal smart phones and portable storage devices unannounced at various military units, sources said. They added that laptops, tablets, smartphones and USB devices’ contents would be

examined before returning them to owners.

Sources justified the procedure by citing that some military personnel had been photocopying and photographing some documents and facilities. Some material was leaked onto websites or media, and that those involved would be court-martialed. — Al-Rai

Mass grave found KUWAIT: Mass graves containing the remains of Kuwaitis as well as expatriates who were killed and buried in 1990 when Iraq invaded Kuwait have been found in Abdali, in response to reports received from foreign embassies about the existence of several mass graves near Abdali farms.—Al-Watan

FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

China ‘river pig’ deaths raise extinction fears

SHANGHAI: China says 16 endangered finless porpoises have been found dead since the beginning of the year and experts blame water pollution and climate change for pushing the species toward extinction. The freshwater porpoise - popularly known in Chinese as the “river pig” - mainly lives in China’s Yangtze River and two lakes linked to the waterway. Authorities have discovered 10 dead porpoises in Dongting Lake in the central province of Hunan since March, said a statement yesterday by the government of Yueyang city, which is located on the lake’s shore.

Another six dead porpoises have been found in Poyang Lake in the eastern province of

Jiangxi since the beginning of the year, the official Xinhua news agency said late Wednesday.

It quoted experts as warning the species will be extinct within a matter of years. Wang Kexiong, a researcher at China’s Institute of Hydrobiology, said water pollution, shipping, sand dredging and illegal fishing were all possible contributing factors to the recent deaths.

Many waterways in China have become heavily contaminated with toxic waste from factories and farms - pollution blamed on more than three decades of rapid economic growth and lax enforcement of environmental protection laws. The report said climate change also could be to blame as disrupted weather pat-

A file photo taken on Nov 9, 2006 shows a finless porpoise at an aquarium in Wuhan. — AFP

terns have caused water levels to drop and make it more difficult for the porpoises to find food. Tests have shown that some of the porpoises are believed to have died of starvation, it said.

In 2006, China was estimated to have only 1,200 finless porpoises left. That same year, the Baiji - a freshwater dolphin also native to the Yangtze River - was declared extinct. Earlier this year, a survey found just 65 “river pigs” in Dongting Lake and 300-400 in Poyang Lake, the report said. Following the recent deaths, Yueyang city vowed to investigate and increase protection of the remaining porpoises in Dongting Lake. — AFP

FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

India missile test has few critics, unlike North Korea

Romney, Obama battle over economy

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South Korea says new cruise missiles a warning to North

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DAMASCUS: Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Meqdad (R) swaps documents with deputy military adviser in the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations Gen. Abhijit Guha, after signing a preliminary accord yesterday, in Damascus, outlining a protocol for a UN mission to monitor a fragile week-old ceasefire in the strife-torn country. —AFP

Syria, UN sign observer deal on shaky truce Russia: Talks only aimed at isolating regime DAMASCUS: Syria and the United Nations signed a deal yesterday on the framework for observers monitoring a shaky ceasefire, as Arab and Western ministers gathered in Paris to pile pressure on Damascus. The UN Security Council, meanwhile, discussed plans to send an expanded military observer force to monitor the truce.

Syria’s foreign ministry said the agreement “comes within the framework of Syrian efforts aimed at making the Annan plan succeed and to facilitate the UN observer mission while respecting Syria’s sovereignty.”

The spokesman for UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, who drafted the six-point peace plan, confirmed in Geneva that a deal on the framework to deploy monitors had been reached. “This agreement outlines the functions of the observers as they fulfil their mandate in Syria and the tasks and responsibilities of the Syrian government in this regard,” Ahmad Fawzi said. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said the Paris meeting, to be attended by 14 minis-

ters including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, would send a “strong” call to President Bashar al-Assad’s regime to abide by the Annan plan.

But Syrian ally Russia said it was staying away because the talks were only aimed at isolating the regime and would hurt the chances of direct peace talks to find a political settlement between the regime and anti-Assad rebels. UN chief Ban Ki-moon has said he wants 300 unarmed observers sent on a three-month mission. Their job will be to monitor the fragile cessation of hostilities that began on April 12 and the implementation of the Annan plan, to which Syria has committed itself.

In New York, Ban Ki-moon yesterday pressed the Security Council to quickly approve the expanded monitor mission. “This is not a decision without risk. But I believe it can contribute to achieving a just peace and political settlement, reflecting the people’s will in Syria,” he said. Ban also demanded that Syria allow a

“major humanitarian field operation” by UN agencies to help the estimated one million people displaced by the crisis.

The UN secretary general told reporters there was “deeply troubling evidence” that the government was pursuing its deadly crackdown despite agreeing to halt violence. “The past few days, in particular, have brought reports of renewed and escalating violence, including the shelling of civilian areas, grave abuses by government forces and attacks by armed groups,” he said. The observer mission will “require the Syrian government’s full cooperation, particularly in ensuring the full freedom of movement and unfettered access and safety and security of personnel,” Ban said.

Diplomats said a resolution allowing the full observer mission could be ready early next week. Monitors say that more than 11,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad’s regime erupted in March 2011, with 127 dying since the truce came into force. At least

seven people were killed in violence across Syria yesterday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. One civilian died during an assault by government forces in the northeastern oil city of Deir Ezzor and three others from gunfire in the town of Yabrud, north of Damascus, the watchdog said. In central Syria, shelling killed a civilian in Qusayr and another was shot dead in Homs city, both in Homs province, said the Observatory. It reported that a shell was crashing down on Qusayr every five minutes.

Government forces in Daraa province, in the south, shot dead a civilian and wounded five others in the town of Herak following a visit by international observers, the watchdog said.

Although he opted to stay away from the Paris meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow was “honestly fulfilling its part” to end the violence. “I have today called on my colleagues to abandon the rhetoric of self-fulfilling prophecies that Kofi Annan’s plan will certainly fail,” Lavrov said in Brussels.—AFP

International FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

Iran army ready for action on disputed Gulf island TEHRAN: Iran’s ground forces commander warned that should diplomacy fail, the military is ready for action over a disputed Gulf island controlled by Iran but also claimed by the United Arab Emirates, state TV reported yesterday. Gen. Ahmad Reza Pourdastan said Iranian forces are capable of confronting any offender against Iran’s sovereignty over the strategic Abu Musa island in the Persian Gulf. It was the first time an Iranian military commander commented on the issue since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last week visited Abu Musa.

“We do not allow any country to carry out an invasion,” Pourdastan said. “If these disturbances are not solved through diplo-

macy, the military forces are ready to show the power of Iran to the offender. Iran will strongly defend its right.” The island dominates the approach to the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway in the Gulf through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passes. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and U.S. Navy warships patrol the narrow waterway.

Iran took control of tiny Abu Musa and two nearby islands - the Greater and Lesser Tunb - in 1971, after British forces left the region. Tehran maintains that an agreement signed eight years before its 1979 Islamic revolution between the shah and the ruler of one of the UAE’s seven emirates, Sharjah, gives it the right to administer Abu Musa

Egypt’s Brotherhood blasts mufti’s Jerusalem visit CAIRO: Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood yesterday denounced a rare visit to Jerusalem by the nation’s top Islamic theologian that broke with decades of opposition to traveling to areas under Israeli control. Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa replied that his two-hour visit on Wednesday was a show of solidarity with the Palestinians’ claim to Israeli-held east Jerusalem.

The short trip countered a long-standing unofficial view that there should be no contacts with Israel until an ArabIsraeli peace settlement is reached. Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1979, but most Egyptians view the Jewish state as their top enemy. The boycott is not state-sanctioned, but it has been endorsed by a wide range of Muslims, including the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, more radical groups and institutes whose heads are appointed by the state.

The travel ban also has the backing of professional unions, universities and private associations. In the past, some who have defied the ban have been ostracized. Yesterday, Gomaa responded that he went to Jerusalem in a personal capacity.

He said the trip was a “surprise” organized by Jordan. He insisted he did not get an Israeli visa to enter the city, and he did not deal with Israeli authorities. Gomaa said the visit “was to support Jerusalemites and the Palestinian people and the Al-Aqsa Mosque and to learn about the great suffering they go through.” His comments were carried by the Egyptian news agency MENA. Gomaa was summoned yesterday by a body of senior clerics at Cairo’s Al-Azhar, the Sunni Muslim world’s most prestigious learning institute, to explain why he violated the boycott. The clerics repeated their rejection of visits to Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa while under Israel’s control but stopped short of reprimanding the mufti, who prayed at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third-holiest site.

Osama Yassin, a senior official of the Brotherhood’s political arm, said Gomaa must be held to account for his visit to Jerusalem. “What he did cannot be justified and cannot be endorsed,” Yassin said in comments posted on the Brotherhood’s website. He did not elaborate. Israeli officials declined to comment. The Muslim Brotherhood has emerged as the most powerful political group after the fall of Hosni Mubarak’s regime last year, dominating the new parliament.

The Brotherhood hopes to replace the leadership of Al-Azhar and other mainstream religious institutes to oust officials appointed by Mubarak.

The fallout over Gomaa’s visit exposed a debate among Egyptians over the boycott of Israeli-controlled Palestinian areas, particularly Jerusalem, with its significance to Muslims and Christians. The Palestinians have called on Muslims to visit the holy city and reinforce their claim to the eastern part of Jerusalem as the capital of a future state. Muslim clerics counter that such visits would endorse Israel’s control of the city.

The ban, which followed Egypt’s peace deal with Israel in 1979, was supported by the Christian Coptic Church in the past. After the death of Coptic Pope Shenouda III last month, there was a notable spike in the number of Egyptian Christians traveling to Jerusalem for Easter. —AP

and station troops there. There was no agreement on the other two islands, but regardless, the UAE insists they belonged to the emirate of Ras al-Khaimah until Iran captured them by force days before the citystates united and declared independence from Britain, also in 1971.

Ahmadinejad’s trip last week, which made him the first Iranian head of state to go to the island, escalated the dispute. The UAE called the visit a “setback” to efforts at finding at peaceful solution to the dispute and on Tuesday, Gulf Arab states denounced Ahmadinejad’s visit as a “flagrant violation” and warned Iran that they stand united over the case. A statement by the six-nation Gulf

Cooperation Council told Iran that any perceived aggression against the UAE is considered an affront to the entire bloc, which includes Iran’s main regional rival Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, Iran’s official news agency IRNA reported Tuesday on plans to turn Abu Musa into a tourist zone. Tehran claims the Gulf islands have been part of states that flourished on the Iranian mainland from antiquity until the early 20th century. The Emirates has for three decades contested the islands in a low key manner, but last year it turned to tougher diplomacy, protesting in the United Nations after Iran opened two offices on Abu Musa, the largest of the contested islands.—AP

Blasts in Baghdad, Iraqi cities kill 30 Extremists launch 12 attacks in Iraqi capital BAGHDAD: Bombings struck several areas in Baghdad and to the north yesterday, killing at least 30 people in the first major attacks in Iraq in nearly a month. The violence stoked fears that insurgents were trying to undermine confidence in the Shiite-led government amid rising sectarian tensions. In all, officials said extremists launched 12 attacks in the Iraqi capital and in the cities of Kirkuk, Samarra, Baqouba, Dibis and Taji. Mortars were fired into the northern cities of Beiji and Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, but no injuries were reported there.

Nearly 100 people were wounded in the rapid-fire explosions that unfolded over an hour and 15 minutes. Half of the bombs struck at security forces and government officials - two frequent targets for insurgents still seeking to undermine Iraq’s efforts to normalize after years of war and violence. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but Baghdad military command spokesman Col. Dhia al-Wakeel said they resembled those carried out by Al-Qaeda.

“They want to send a message that they can target the stability that has been achieved recently,” al-Wakeel said. “This will not discourage our security forces.”

The strikes marked the first major attacks in Iraq in nearly a month, although ongoing political battles between the Shiite-led government and top Sunni and Kurdish officials have threatened to inflame simmering sectarian disputes.

Iraq’s Sunni Vice President, Tariq alHashemi, is wanted on terror charges that he says are politically motivated, and Kurdish regional leader Massoud Barzani has compared the government in Baghdad to a dictatorship. Aides to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, have dismissed the criticism as baseless. Sunni lawmaker Hamid al-Mutlaq blamed the political wrangling for what he described as Iraq’s deteriorating security.

“We hold responsible all the government security forces and the leaders of the political process for today’s attacks,” said al-Mutlaq, a member of parliament’s defense and security committee. The single deadliest bombing yesterday came in Dibis, located near the northern city of Kirkuk, 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of

Baghdad. Kirkuk Police Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qadir said a parked car exploded in the Sunni Arab village, killing six passers-by and wounding four.

The day of violence began at dawn with a car that exploded in residential area in the Diyala provincial; capital of Baqouba in eastern Iraq, killing one and injuring 13 people. Within two hours, bombs cropped up across Baghdad, killing 12 across the Iraqi capital - mostly in Shiite neighbor-

militia that was created to help US forces fight Al-Qaeda. Five militiamen were killed and eight wounded in the suicide attack, according to local police and health officials. Violence in Samarra, a mostly Sunni city located 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Baghdad, is particularly perilous because it is the site of a Shiite shrine that was bombed in 2006 in an attack that touched off a wave of sectarian clashes around Iraq, claiming thousands of lives

BAGHDAD: Mahmoud Ali inspects his destroyed car during a sandstorm after a car bomb explosion in Haifa Street, Baghdad, Iraq yesterday.—AFP hoods. Baghdad police said roadside bombs and car explosions targeted security patrols and the nation’s top health official, Health Minister Majeed Hamad Amin, as his convoy was driving him to work.

Amin, an Iraqi Kurd, was not hurt in the attack on his convoy in the capital’s west, but two passers-by were killed and six people were wounded.

Police and hospital officials confirmed the Baghdad casualties but spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

In the city of Samarra, police said a suicide bomber blew up the car he was driving at a checkpoint manned by local Sahwa, or Awakening Councils - the Sunni security

and raising worries that Iraq was heading for civil war.

Additionally, two explosions in Kirkuk targeted a police patrol and the head of the provincial investment council, killing three and wounding 21, Qadir said. The investment official, Falah al-Bazaz, was not hurt. And a roadside bomb in the city of Taji, just north of Baghdad, exploded as a security patrol drove by.

One bystander was killed and three policemen were among six people who were wounded in the blast. A half hour later and a few kilometers (miles) away, another roadside bomb killed two soldiers and injured four others as an Iraqi army patrol passed by.—AP

International FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

Ex-judge says Venezuelan officials meddled in cases CARACAS: A former Venezuelan judge who was dismissed from his post for alleged ties to a prominent drug suspect has accused high-ranking officials in President Hugo Chavez’s government and military of seeking to manipulate court cases in the country. Former Supreme Court Magistrate Eladio Aponte said in an interview with the television channel SOiTV shown on Wednesday night that Chavez’s office as well as top military officers had contacted him and asked him to be lenient in the case of a lieutenant who was arrested with a shipment of cocaine.

He said those who contacted him had included thenDefense Minister Raul Baduel and intelligence chiefs Gen. Henry Rangel Silva and Gen. Hugo Carvajal. “That’s the only case that I remember in which I’ve favored a drug trafficker,” Aponte said in the interview. Venezuelan government officials didn’t respond to requests for comment Wednesday night. Aponte was dismissed from his post by Venezuela’s National Assembly on March 20 due to accusations of ties to prominent drug suspect Walid Makled.

Aponte was accused of providing Makled, who is now jailed in Venezuela, with an official identification card.

Aponte said in the interview that he wasn’t sure whether he had provided Makled with such a card, but that he did know him and had signed off on many such cards. He said he had thought Makled was a reputable businessman. The former magistrate left Venezuela and traveled to Costa Rica earlier this month. The date and location of the interview weren’t clear, but the television channel said it was filmed outside Venezuela.

The interview was aired a day after Costa Rican officials said the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration flew Aponte to the United States from the Central American country. Mauricio Boraschi, Costa Rica’s deputy security minister and intelligence director, said that Aponte left on a DEA plane Tuesday. He said the ex-judge entered Costa Rica as a tourist and left after discussions with the DEA, about which he didn’t offer details.

“He left of his own will and after having established contact with U.S. authorities and having obtained a letter of entry to the United States,” Boraschi told a Costa Rican radio station. In Washington, Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney and DEA spokeswoman Dawn Dearden declined to make any comment regarding Aponte. It was unclear what sort of information Aponte might provide to U.S. authorities. As for the interview, he said: “Why am I speaking now? ... I was unjustly betrayed. I was unjustly humiliated.”

The former judge said when asked if he had received any calls from government officials seeking to manipulate court cases: “Sure, from the president on down.” He said that when he worked as a military prosecutor and later as a Supreme Court magistrate, he received calls from officials including Prosecutor General Luisa Ortega and Supreme Court President Luisa Estela Morales seeking to intervene in cases.

Aponte also said Chavez had personally contacted him about one case when he was a military prosecutor, urging him to carry out an investigation that would favor the government’s stance. He said Chavez was interested in a 2004 case in which 118 Colombians were arrested at a ranch outside Caracas and accused of plotting to destabilize the country and assassinate the president.

Aponte said Chavez wanted him “to carry out the investigations showing that was something against the government.” Most of the Colombians were later freed, and in 2007, Chavez pardoned 41 remaining Colombian prisoners who had been charged with military rebellion.

Aponte accused various officials of holding sway over the Venezuelan justice system. He said there is a weekly meeting in which the vice president talks with the Supreme Court president, the chief prosecutor and other officials, and that is “where the guidelines come out regarding what justice is going to be.” Chavez and other officials have previously denied claims by critics of undue government influence over the judiciary.—AP

Romney, Obama battle over economy US prez: Opponent would just make matters worse WASHINGTON: Challenger Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama are hammering each other on the economy, battling over an issue that is foremost in the minds of Americans and the one that will determine how they cast their ballots in the November election. Romney says Obama has botched the recovery from the Great Recession. Obama says his opponent would just make matters worse.

It has only been two weeks since Romney emerged alone from the long and bitter primary fight with fellow Republicans and is trying to unite an increasingly conservative party base behind his candidacy. The prolonged Republican battle reflected the difficulty Romney had in winning conservative backing, given the moderate positions he held a Republican governor in overwhelmingly Democratic Massachusetts.

“Obama is over his head and swimming in the wrong direction,” Romney said Wednesday in a scorching speech delivered across the street from where the president will deliver his Democratic National Convention acceptance speech in September.

Nationally, the unemployment rate has dropped from 9.1 percent last August to 8.2 percent in March, the lowest since about the time Obama took office. But job growth has been weak, millions of people remain unemployed and improvements in hiring haven’t translated into higher salaries for those who are working.

“Even if you like Barack Obama, we can’t afford Barack Obama,” the Romney said in an evident reference to the president’s ability to transcend at least some of the public’s dissatisfaction with the pace of the economic recovery. On Thursday, Liberty University, the evangelical Christian institution founded by the late televangelist Jerry Falwell Sr., announced that Romney would deliver the institution’s commencement address on May 12.

Romney, a Mormon, has never before visited the Lynchburg, Virginia, college. Romney was named commencement speaker just weeks after

MICHIGAN: President Barack Obama salutes as he steps off of Air Force One, Wednesday at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., as he returns from Michigan. —AP

ending the difficult primary battle to win over evangelical Christians who are a key part of the Republican base.

Obama laid out his case for re-election in Ohio, a key battleground state that can vote either Democrat or Republican. Between 2000 and 2008, Republican policies produced “the slowest job growth in half a century ... and we’ve spent the last three and a half years cleaning up after that mess,” Obama said.

He later went on to Michigan, another key industrial state, for some fundraising. Speaking in a museum named for the founder of Ford Motor Co., he got some of his biggest cheers when he highlighted his administration’s efforts to rescue the American auto industry. Obama’s campaign was airing Spanish-language radio ads in Orlando, Florida, Las Vegas and Denver - all in states that the presi-

dent won four years ago and could be fiercely contested in November.

“Right now, we have two competing visions of our future. And the choice could not be clearer,” Obama said. Without mentioning Romney by name, he said, “Instead of moderating their views even slightly, you now have Republicans in Washington, the ones running for president, proposing budgets that shower the wealthiest Americans with even more tax cuts, folks like me who don’t need them, weren’t looking for them.”

Romney argued that Obama has done “virtually nothing” to help people get jobs. Reading from Obama’s campaign pledges from the 2008 Democratic convention, Romney said the president has “failed by the measurements he set. You won’t hear that at this convention, but you’re going to hear it at ours.” — AP

8 native Mexicans shot dead defending forest MORELIA: Eight members of an indigenous group that took on armed gangs and illegal loggers nearly a year ago have been shot dead in a confrontation in western Mexico, officials said. The group of indigenous rangers were on their way to clear an area to prevent forest fires when they heard chainsaws and called for reinforcements to confront suspected illegal log-

gers, Michoacan state secretary Jesus Reyna said late Wednesday.

Eight of the rangers were killed in the subsequent shootout and one of their vehicles was torched, he said.

Last April around 17,000 members of the Purepecha community blocked access to the village of Cheran-near famous sanctuaries for migrating Monarch butterflies-

accusing organized crime groups of shielding illegal logging.

Illegal loggers have deforested about 80 percent of the region’s 30,000 acres (12,000 hectares) of forests in recent years, according to the community. Michoacan is one of several regions hit by rising violence since the launch of a military crackdown on the country’s powerful drug gangs in 2006.— AFP

International FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

Azerbaijan: Terror suspects have Qaeda links BAKU: Members of a suspected terrorist group arrested this month in Azerbaijan had links to AlQaeda and some trained in neighboring Iran, officials said yesterday. Some of the 17 suspects had fought NATO-led troops in Afghanistan and others had undergone a two-month training course in Iran in preparation for waging a jihad, or Islamic holy war, in Azerbaijan, the National Security Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry first announced the bust on April 6, saying the suspects were arrested in the capital, Baku, and several other cities across Azerbaijan, a former Soviet nation on the Caspian Sea. One security officer was shot and killed and three others were wounded in a skirmish during the arrests, and one suspect was also killed, it said. The suspects were accused of planning a

series of terror attacks intended to “disrupt stability and sow panic among the population.”

In the new statement, issued late Wednesday, the ministry said the group was led by Vugar Padarov, a 37year-old Azerbaijani citizen. Some of its members had received religious training in Syria, and some had learned how to handle weapons with the Jihad Islami group in Pakistan and took part in fighting NATO-led troops in Afghanistan, the ministry said. It also said that some of the suspects had spent two months in Iran for weapons training, but gave no further details.

National Security Ministry spokesman Arif Babayev said yesterday that this group was unrelated to alleged Iranian agents arrested in February and March. He said the investigation was ongoing and he could give no further details. The ministry announced the arrests in

March of 22 Azerbaijani citizens it said had been hired

by Iran to stage terror attacks against the US and Israeli embassies as well as Western-linked groups and companies. It said they had been trained in Iran by the Revolutionary Guard.

Earlier this year, they announced the arrest of several other suspected terrorists allegedly working for Iran’s secret services. Azerbaijan, an oil-rich former Soviet nation of 9 million people wedged between Russia and Iran, has nurtured close relations with the United States and played an active role in Western-led counter-terrorist programs. That policy course has placed a strain on its ties with Iran, which hosts a sizable ethnic Azeri community. Authorities in Baku have insisted, however, that they will not permit use of the country for any military action against Iran.— AP

Italian gets 3 years in US jogger hit-and-run case ROME : A court has sentenced an Italian man to more than three years in prison for the hit-and-run death of an American woman, killed last year as she jogged along a Tuscan highway. The body of Allison Owens, a 23-year-old tour guide from Columbus, Ohio, was found in a canal days after she was hit Oct. 2 near San Giovanni Valdarno, between Florence and Arezzo.

Pietro Stefanoni, 53, was convicted Wednesday of manslaughter and leaving the scene of the crime, and given the 38month sentence by the Arezzo court, said attorney Valentino Durante, who is representing Owens’ family in the civil portion of the trial. Stefanoni’s lawyer Francesco Maresca said yesterday the sentence was excessive given that Stefanoni said he didn’t initially know he had hit Owens. He plans to appeal.

Maresca has said Stefanoni fell asleep at the wheel after taking part in a long cycling race earlier in the day and didn’t think he had hit anything other than the guardrail. Stefanoni returned to the scene later to make sure but saw nothing, and only realized he might have been responsible days later after news

was broadcast that Owens’ body had been discovered. He turned himself into police on Oct. 7, after he had his car repaired. Owens’ mother, Cindy Gant Owens, and her brother Kyle had attended the opening hearing.

The mother was in court Wednesday for the verdict, breaking into tears afterward. Stefanoni had requested a fasttrack trial, which can limit sentencing, but in this case Judge Giampiero Borraccia went beyond prosecutors’ requests for a three-year sentence.

Borraccia must provide a written explanation for the sentence within 60 days.

Stefanoni also was ordered to pay a provisional ?300,000 ($392,580) to Owens’ family pending the resolution of the civil portion of the case.

In a statement, Durante said the sentence was unusually stiff for Italy, and that it appeared to take into account his requests for a harsh sentence given Stefanoni’s conduct in the days after Owens was killed. He said the Owens family plans to donate any eventual civil damages from the case to an as-yet undetermined group that works to promote highway safety.— AP

UK abortion provider under threat from hackers LONDON: Britain’s largest abortion provider said yesterday that thousands of attempts have been made to hack its website following a high-profile security breach when personal details of 10,000 women were stolen. Last week a judge jailed a computer hacker for breaking into the website of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service and stealing the data. The service said that in the five weeks since the man’s arrest, it had recorded around 2,500 further attempts to hack its website, though none have succeeded. It said the attacks were low-level and patients’ details remain secure, noting that no medical records are kept on the site. The service said about a third of the IP addresses used in the attempts were in North America, but noted that did not mean the hackers themselves were based there.

“The police have been extremely supportive of BPAS but there has been no need to engage their services in these low level incidents which have caused no disruption nor compromised us or the safety of women’s data,” said Clare Murphy, director of external affairs at the abortion provider. She said there was “no evidence to suggest that this was an anti-abortion attack.” Murphy said thee attempts did not appear to be denial of service attacks, in which hackers deluge a website with traffic to bring it down.

In March, the service’s website was targeted by James Jeffery, who claimed to be a member of hacking collective Anonymous. He said he attacked the provider because he opposed the decisions of two women he knew to have abortions.

Prosecutors said that the 27-year-old defaced the site with an anti-abortion statement and the Anonymous logo, and stole personal information about some 10,000 women who had contacted the service. —AP

KHARKIV: Journalists try to get in a court building in Kharkiv prior to the trial opening of jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko yesterday.—AFP

Tymoshenko stands new trial in Ukraine

KIEV: Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was put on trial on new tax evasion charges yesterday, despite widespread concern about her health as a prison inmate. Tymoshenko, the country’s top opposition leader, is already serving a seven-year prison term after being convicted of abuse of office in a case the West has condemned as politically motivated.

Prosecutors also have charged Tymoshenko with evading tens of millions of hryvna (several million dollars) in taxes while heading an energy company in the mid-1990s. She did not appear at the trial in the eastern city of Kharkiv yesterday due to a severe back problem. Tymoshenko denies all the charges against her and says they are part of a campaign by her longtime foe, President Viktor Yanukovych, to bar her from politics. Yanukovych narrowly defeated her in 2010 presidential elections.

Meanwhile, concerns mounted over

Tymoshenko’s health and treatment. Dr. Karl Max Einhaeupl of Berlin’s Charite clinic, who has examined Tymoshenko, told the Russian state-owned Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper that she was suffering from a herniated disk, was in intense pain and needed urgent treatment at a specialized medical facility. “I can tell you with full confidence: she is ill,” Einhaeupl was quoted as saying in the paper’s yesterday issue. “She practically cannot move and is reduced to lying down most of the time.”

In a bow to Western pressure, Ukraine’s government has offered to treat Tymoshenko at a hospital in Kharkiv, but Tymoshenko said she would only agree to the treatment if the hospital is approved by her German doctors. The Health Ministry yesterday cited a report by Einhaeupl and his colleagues as saying the hospital meets European medical standards. Officials at Charite clinic and Tymoshenko’s office declined to comment yesterday. — AP

International FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

Case of South African white supremacist’s killing ends JOHANNESBURG: Lawyers in South Africa’s heartland quietly wrapped up arguments yesterday in the murder of a white supremacist, a case that has illustrated how far South Africa has moved from apartheid. Scuffles had broken out between black and white protesters outside court during early appearances by the two black farmworkers accused of beating 69-year-old Eugene Terreblanche to death with an iron rod at his farm near Ventersdorp, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of Johannesburg in April, 2010.

No protesters came to court yesterday as lawyers completed their closing arguments. Emotions have calmed. And by the time he died, Terreblanche’s prominence had faded considerably from the days when he could sit down with top politicians and capture international headlines with his doomsday rhet-

oric, vaguely Nazi regalia, and occasional forays into violence.

The trial began last October. The verdict is expected May 22. Police have described Terreblanche’s murder as the climax of an alcohol-fueled dispute over unpaid wages. But during the trial, defense lawyers alleged the farmworkers had been abused by Terreblanche and acted in self defense.

“It is generally acknowledged that the black population of Ventersdorp lived in fear of the deceased,” defense lawyer Norman Arendse said in his closing arguments. Terreblanche had been jailed in 1997, sentenced to six years for the attempted murder of a black security guard and assaulting a black gas station worker. Prosecutors rejected allegations that suspect Chris Mahlangu had been sexually abused by Terreblanche. The defense attorneys say their case was

Video circulates of girl being raped in S Africa JOHANNESBURG: When a 17-year-old girl said to have the mental capacity of a 5-year-old was reported missing four weeks ago in the sprawling South African township of Soweto, police distributed her photo and asked neighborhood residents for help. Then a video emerged of seven men and boys raping the girl. Within a day of media alerting them to the video, police said, they found the girl Wednesday in a house across Soweto from her home. Eight men and boys were arrested on charges of kidnapping and rape.

The women’s league of the governing African National Congress said the video, apparently recorded on a cell phone, was widely circulated on the Internet and via cell phones. The league said it again raises questions about South Africans’ attitudes toward rape and women in a country with horrifyingly high rape statistics. “When does it become acceptable amongst a group of peers to rape a girl and laugh about it? It just makes one sick to the stomach,” the league said in a statement Wednesday.

The league commended a mother who saw the video clip on her child’s mobile phone and ensured it came to the attention of the police, and urged other parents to monitor what their children are doing with new technology and new media. Police spokesman Kay Makhubela said soon after learning of the video Tuesday, police, with help from people in Soweto, arrested seven men who appeared in the video. Some of the suspects identified the girl’s possible location in sprawling Soweto, and police moved through that neighborhood Wednesday, announcing on loudspeakers that they planned to search every home.

The eighth suspect then surrendered and the girl was found in his home, Makhubela said. He described her as quiet and apparently traumatized, and said she was taken first to counselors and then to a hospital.

Makhubela said anyone found to have passed along the video could face criminal charges. According to the most recent police statistics, more than 66,000 rapes and other sexual offenses were reported in South Africa in the year ending in early 2011. Experts say many rapes go unreported because the victims are ashamed or afraid, or because they believe police will not act.

The state news agency BuaNews quoted South Africa’s minister for women’s affairs, Lulu Xingwana, as calling the gang rape “despicable.” Xingwana added that with the wide distribution of the video of the attack, the victim “is now subjected to a second assault on her dignity.”—AP

weakened by poor police work. A substance believed to have been semen that witnesses reported seeing on Terreblanche’s body apparently was not preserved as evidence.

The younger suspect, who turns 18 this week, cannot be named because of his age. His lawyer, Arendse, said during his closing arguments that the case against him was weak. Mthunzi Mhaga, spokesman for the prosecution, acknowledged that “it would be a challenge to get a murder conviction against” the younger suspect.

Terreblanche co-founded the Afrikaner Resistance Movement, known by its Afrikaans initials as the AWB, to seek an all-white republic within South Africa. He was born and died in the farming community of Ventersdorp. Today, Ventersdorp’s white minority lives in comfortable farmhouses or homes in a

town dominated by a Dutch Reformed church built at the end of the 19th century. Most blacks live in Ventersdorp’s crowded, impoverished Tshing township.

The democratic government has struggled to close the economic divide created by apartheid, which for generations denied blacks political rights and educational and economic opportunity.

Arendse said during his closing arguments that both defendants were illiterate. In 1991, Terreblanche led hundreds of khaki-clad militants waving flags with swastika-like symbols in clashes with police after the extremists tried to stop a speech in Ventersdorp by then-President F.W. de Klerk. Terreblanche saw de Klerk as a traitor because he was negotiating with the African National Congress to end apartheid. Three extremists were killed in the Battle of Ventersdorp.—AP

Sudan launches 4 attacks on South Bashir: Recent military maneuvers revive spirit of ‘jihad’ JUBA: South Sudan repulsed four attacks from Sudan over a 24-hour period as fighting on the border showed no signs of slowing, a military official said yesterday.

In a further escalation of rhetoric, Sudan President Omar al-Bashir said South Sudan’s recent military maneuvers have revived the spirit of “jihad” in Sudan.

Despite the threats and hostilities, a government spokesman said South Sudan was only defending its territory and considers Sudan a “friendly nation.”

South Sudan military spokesman Col. Philip Aguer said three of the attacks were on Wednesday and one was yesterday. He did not give a death toll. South Sudan broke away from Sudan last year after a self-determination vote for independence.

That vote was guaranteed in a mediated end to decades of civil war between the two sides. But the sides never fully agreed where their shared border lay, nor did they reach agreement on how to share oil wealth that is pumped from the border region.

Instead, the two countries have seen a sharp increase in violence in recent weeks, especially around the oil-producing town of Heglig. Both sides claim Heglig as their own. It lies in a region where the border was never clearly defined. Aguer said southern troops repulsed one attack by Sudanese troops near Heglig on Wednesday and two attacks in Northern Bahr el Ghazal state. One was repulsed in Western Bahr el Ghazal state early yesterday, he said. South Sudan government spokesman Barnaba Marial Benjamin said South Sudan does not consider itself at war with Sudan, but he said the south is defending territory it believes it owns based on borders outlined in 1956 by British colonialists.

“Up to now we have not crossed even an inch into Sudan,” Benjamin said. He added: “The Republic of South Sudan considers the Republic of Sudan to be a neighbor and a friendly nation.” Benjamin said

HEGLIG: Medical staff collect blood yesterday at a temporary clinic that opened at the Presidential Palace in Khartoum to donate blood to those injured in the latest fighting in the central region of Heglig. —AFP that southern forces would withdraw from Heglig if the African Union guarantees a cessation of hostilities, an agreement on border demarcation, and the withdrawal of Sudanese forces from the nearby border region of Abyei, with Ethiopian troops moving in as peacekeepers.

Sudan President Omar al-Bashir on Wednesday threatened to topple the South Sudan government after accusing the south of trying to take down his Khartoum-based government. Al-Bashir continued his hardline rhetoric yesterday in an address to a “popular defense” brigade headed to the Heglig area. The ceremony was held in al-Obeid, in northern Kordofan. “Sudan will cut off the hand that harms it,” said al-Bashir, a career army officer who fought against the southern army, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, during the 1983-2005 civil war. Al-Bashir seized power in a 1989 military coup.

The capture of Heglig by the South

Sudanese “has revived the spirit of jihad and martyrdom among the Sudanese people,” he told the brigade’s 2,300 men, according to the official Sudan News Agency. In Khartoum, the pro-government Sudanese Media Center said late Wednesday that fighting broke out between the two nations in the Al-Meram area in South Kordofan, with northern troops driving away what it called “remaining elements” of the SPLA. It said northern troops chased away SPLA fighters who fled across the border into South Sudan.

It said the fighting left an unspecified number of dead and wounded among the SPLA forces but gave no precise figures.

Benjamin said that al-Bashir is carrying out “genocide” against Sudanese people in the Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile regions of Sudan. He said al-Bashir’s words Wednesday were a warning that he would like to do the same in South Sudan. — AP

International FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

Afghan prez: photos of US troops ‘odious’ Karzai warns past incidents sparked angry reactions

WHEELER ISLAND: This photograph released by the Indian Ministry of Defense shows India’s AgniV missile, with a range of 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles), being launched from Wheeler Island off India’s east coast yesterday.—AP

India missile test has few critics, unlike N Korea NEW DELHI: India’s successful test of a powerful new missile that can carry nuclear weapons to Beijing caused barely a ripple - even in China - just days after North Korea was globally vilified for its own failed rocket launch. The vastly different responses show the world has grown to accept India as a responsible and stable nuclear power, while shunning North Korea as a pariah.

“It’s not the spear, but who holds the spear that matters,” said Rahul Bedi, a defense analyst in India. “North Korea is a condemned nation. It’s a pariah country. Its record of breaking nuclear agreements is well known. India has emerged in that sense as a fairly responsible country.” The muted response to yesterday morning’s test underscores how far India has come in gaining acceptance for its nuclear program. After India tested its first nuclear bomb in 1974, the US put it under sanctions for a quarter century.

But last decade, the US removed the sanctions and eventually ratified in 2008 a landmark deal to allow civilian nuclear trade that effectively accepted India as a nuclear nation. India hailed its test of the Agni-V missile as a significant step forward in its aspirations to become a regional and world power.

“The nation stands tall today,” Defense Minister A.K. Antony said, according to the Press Trust of India.

The missile, with a range of 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles), still requires a battery of tests and must clear other bureaucratic hurdles before it can be inducted into India’s arsenal in a few years. The differences between the two launches were clear before they even got under way. North Korea insisted its rocket launch on Sunday was merely part of its civilian space program aimed at putting an observation satellite into orbit.

The US and other countries called it a thin excuse to test technology for firing a long-range missile fitted with a nuclear warhead. The launch failed when the rocket broke apart soon after takeoff.

The condemnation of North Korea’s launch was swift. The United States canceled a plan to send food aid and the UN Security Council announced it would impose new sanctions.

India was clear from the start that it was testing a nuclear capable missile that could reach major Chinese cities. The government hailed it as a success, releasing video showing the Agni-V taking off from a small launcher on what appeared to be railroad tracks at 8:07 a.m. from Wheeler Island off India’s east coast. It rose on a pillar of flame, trailing billows of smoke behind, before arcing through the sky.

The missile hit an altitude of more than 600 kilometers (370 miles), its three stages worked properly and its payload was deployed as planned, the head of India’s Defense Research and Development Organization, Vijay Saraswat, told Times Now news channel. “India has emerged from this launch as a major missile power,” he said. India had joined the small club of nations able to develop and build long-range ballistic missiles, he said.—AP

KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai yesterday condemned newly revealed photographs that show US soldiers posing with the bloodied remains of three suicide bombers, calling the pictures “disgusting.” Karzai also warned in a statement that “similar incidents of an odious nature” in the past sparked angry reactions from Afghans, including violent protests that left dozens dead.

“It is such a disgusting act to take photos with body parts and then share it with others,” Karzai said. The photos were published in Wednesday’s Los Angeles Times.

One shows members of the 82nd Airborne Division posing in 2010 with Afghan police holding the severed legs of a suicide bomber. The same platoon a few months later was sent to investigate the remains of three insurgents reported to have accidentally blown themselves up - and soldiers again posed and mugged for a photo with the remains, the newspaper said.

A photo from the second incident appears to show the hand of a dead insurgent resting on a US soldier’s shoulder as the soldier smiles. The White House called the two-year-old photos “reprehensible,” joining US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other top military officials in expressing regret for the latest in a string of embarrassing missteps by the US military in a war that’s built on earning the trust and confidence of ordinary Afghans.

In recent months, American troops have been caught up in controversies over burning Muslim holy books, urinating on Afghan corpses and an alleged massacre of 17 Afghan villagers.

After the burning of the Qurans in February, large-scale demonstrations erupted that killed more left more than 30 Afghan civilians and six Americans dead.

However, there were few protests after a video in January when US Marines were found to have recorded themselves urinating on the bodies of dead Afghans.

Many Afghan lawmakers yesterday played down possibility of the new photos sparking mass protests, saying there was little sympathy among the general population for suicide bombers, especially after

weekend Taleban attacks in Kabul and other provinces at the start of the militants’ spring campaign against Afghan security forces and the US -led coalition.

“It is different from an American soldier going and killing children, or Americans burning holy Qurans. These issues and the suicide bombers are completely different,” said Hafiz Mansour, a member of parliament from the northern province of Panjshir. “I don’t think there will be big

“Otherwise the people of Afghanistan remember the killing of innocent people by suicide bombers and people do not have a good image of these suicide bombers,” Hamidzai said. “The burning of Qurans and the killing of children create emotions in people, but there is no sympathy for suicide bombers who kill innocent people.” Last December, a bomber detonated his explosives-filled vest at the entrance of a mosque in the capital, Kabul,

JALALABAD: Afghan National Police personnel demonstrate their skills during their graduation ceremony in Jalalabad yesterday.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai called for an “accelerated” transition of security responsibilities from NATO forces in the wake of a scandal over US troops abusing Afghan corpses. —AFP protests.”

The photos were mentioned on the evening newscasts of several broadcasters, but not everyone in Afghanistan owns a television and very few have access to the Internet. There are no newspapers published yesterday and today, the Afghan weekend. Mohammad Naim Lalai Hamidzai, a parliamentarian from southern Kandahar, said protests would only erupt if there was an organized attempt to generate them.

killing 80 worshippers during the Shiite Muslim rituals of Ashoura. It was the single deadliest suicide attack since 2008.

Taleban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid condemned the pictures as disrespectful.

In an email, he condemned both the US soldiers who took the pictures and the Afghan police who also featured in them.

“We strongly condemn these occupiers and their puppets who are without culture, who are brutal and inhuman,” Mujahid said.— AP

Haqqani network behind Kabul attack: US Ambassador KABUL: The Pakistani-based Haqqani network was responsible for a series of attacks in Afghanistan this week, the US ambassador to Kabul said yesterday, and Islamabad is being pressed hard to take action against them. The attacks on Sunday, including the biggest assault on the capital in 10 years of war, saw squads of militants fire on government offices, embassies and foreign bases.

“There is no question in our mind that the Haqqanis were responsible for these attacks,” ambassador Ryan Crocker told reporters in Kabul. “We know where their leadership lives and we know where these plans are made.

They’re not made in Afghanistan.

They’re made in Miranshah, which is in North Waziristan, which is in Pakistan,” Crocker said. “We are pressing the Pakistanis very hard on this. They really need to take action.” Islamabad denies any support for Haqqani activities, but former US military chief Admiral Mike Mullen described the network a “veritable arm” of the Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

Closely affiliated with the Taliban, the group was founded by Jalaluddin Haqqani during the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, when it received covert US aid.

Apart from Kabul, the eastern capitals of Paktia, Logar and Nangarhar provinces also came under attack Sunday, with a total of 51 people, including 36 militants, killed. In September last year, US officials accused the network of a similar attack on the US Embassy in Kabul as well as a truck bombing on a NATO outpost in the same month that injured more than 70 US soldiers. Washington and Islamabad are in the process of trying to rebuild their fractious relations, in crisis after last year’s discovery of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan and a US air raid that mistakenly killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.— AFP

International FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

Five rebels killed in Thai south gunfight YALA: Five suspected insurgents were killed during a gunfight in Thailand’s restive deep south, police said yesterday, the latest violence in the Muslim region plagued by eight years of separatist conflict. The gunmen were killed after police surrounded a suspected insurgent hideout in a village in Yala, one of three Malay Muslim-dominated provinces where 5,000 people have been killed in violence since 2004.

The shootout comes amid heightened tensions following three coordinated car bombs in two southern Thai cities 140 km (85 miles) apart, one a major tourism and commercial hub, that killed 13 people on March 31. Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces were part of an ethnic Malay Muslim sultanate before they were annexed by predominantly Buddhist Thailand in 1909.

Separatist tensions have simmered ever since, with resentment running deep among local Muslims about the presence and conduct of the more than 60,000 police, soldiers and paramilitary who are based in the region and have failed to quell the rebellion.— Reuters

Ex-Philippine leader wants to be city mayor MANILA: Former Philippine president Joseph Estrada, deposed by the military 11 years ago halfway into his term, said yesterday he wants to become the city mayor of the capital Manila. After losing by a few million votes to incumbent Filipino leader Benigno Aquino in his second bid for the presidency in the 2010 election, the still hugely popular ex-movie star says lowering his sights may be the way to go.

“I am thinking about it. Right now the odds are 50-50 that I will run,” he told AFP in a telephone interview on his 75th birthday. “I am still healthy and I can still serve, there is nothing wrong with that. I started out as a mayor and so I will likely finish my career as a mayor.” Estrada believes he has what it takes to run the country’s main city. He parlayed his show business fame playing the champion of the downtrodden to enter politics as a town mayor in a Manila suburb in the 1960s.

He was later elected senator and then vice president, before being overwhelmingly elected as the country’s leader in 1998. His presidency however was cut short nearly halfway through his six-year term by a bloodless revolt sparked by allegations of massive corruption.

After a six-year trial during which he was put on house arrest, he was convicted of corruption in 2007 but was quickly pardoned by his successor, Gloria Arroyo.

Throughout his legal troubles and despite his conviction, Estrada retained his massive popularity by playing the role of the underdog that many in this impoverished country sympathised with.

The self-confessed former womaniser and heavy drinker has always maintained that his ouster was a product of a conspiracy between the political elite, the influential Catholic church and the rich who disliked his populist ideas.

He set to prove this by contesting the presidency in 2010, where he surprisingly placed second in a field of nine candidates. Estrada yesterday said he no longer entertained thoughts of running again for a national post, but stressed his strong showing in 2010 indicated the public still wanted him to serve. “Official titles no longer mean anything to me,” Estrada said. “But if I could still help by running our biggest city, why not?”— AFP

South Korea says new cruise missiles a warning to North Announcement follows failed N Korean rocket launch SEOUL: South Korea unveiled new cruise missiles yesterday that it said could hit any target in North Korea, and warned Pyongyang it would immediately retaliate against any provocation. The announcement follows a failed North Korean rocket launch last week that Washington, Seoul and others say was a cover for testing long-range missile technology. Pyongyang, which said the rocket was meant to put a satellite into orbit, on Sunday unveiled a new missile of its own during a military parade.

The rival Koreas’ new missiles, along with increasingly hostile rhetoric from Pyongyang aimed at Seoul, come amid worries that North Korea may conduct a nuclear test - something it did after rocket launches in 2006 and 2009. South Korean intelligence officials have said that recent satellite images show North Korea is digging a new tunnel in what appears to be preparation for a third nuclear test at the site of its two past tests. North Korean space officials, meanwhile, said in a statement yesterday that North Korea has figured out the cause of the rocket failure and will keep pushing forward with its space development program.

They didn’t describe the cause.

Relations between the Koreas have been abysmal since conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office in 2008 with a hard-line policy that ended unconditional aid shipments to the North.

Pyongyang has regularly criticized Lee and his government in its state media in recent days, repeating on Wednesday a threat to wage a “sacred war” against Seoul. “If we are strong, they cannot provoke us,” Lee said yesterday. “North Korea provokes us when we seem weak.” Maj.

Gen. Shin Won-sik, a senior official with South Korea’s Defense Ministry, said the new missiles could accurately hit all North Korean facilities and equipment “as much as we want so that we can achieve our military

goal.” “While maintaining unwavering readiness with this longer-range weaponry, our military will firmly and thoroughly retaliate if North Korea conducts a reckless provocation,” Shin said.— AP

SOUTH KOREA: This undated photo released yesterday by the South Korean Defense Ministry shows debris flying in the air as a new South Korean ballistic missile is launched at an undisclosed location in South Korea. —AP

Ousted Maldives president appeals for early elections NEW DELHI: The ousted president of the Maldives said yesterday that he would ask foreign governments to press for immediate elections in his island nation to restore elected leadership. Former President Mohamed Nasheed resigned in February after weeks of public protests and eroding support from the police and military.

He says he was forced to resign at gunpoint in a coup led by former dictator Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, whose 30-year rule ended in 2008 with Nasheed’s victory in the country’s first multiparty elections.

Mohammed Waheed Hassan, who had been elected as Nasheed’s vice president, took over as president after Nasheed resigned. He has denied

there was a coup and says the earliest elections can constitutionally be held is July 2013. The vote was originally scheduled for late 2013. “We feel that the people of the Maldives must be governed through their elected officials,” Nasheed told reporters in New Delhi. “A government formed by brute force should not be tolerated and should not be allowed as a precedent for others to follow.”

Nasheed said that, by announcing elections for a few months earlier than scheduled in 2013, the coup leaders were “trying to hoodwink the international community so that they can buy time to consolidate themselves.”

He promised to travel and “explain to friendly governments,” including

“anyone that I have a phone number of,” the need for an earlier ballot.

Specifically, he said he’d spoken with officials in India, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, among others.

Nasheed said he was planning to return to the Maldives on Wednesday, though he is “very, very scared” he will be charged, as authorities are investigating his arrest order against a criminal court judge in the days before the coup.

The Maldives is a Muslim nation of 300,000 people known for its luxury island resorts. Nasheed, a former prodemocracy political prisoner, became the country’s first democratically elected president in 2008.—AP

Business FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

Japan posts record deficit in year since disasters

France, Spain clear bond auction hurdle PAGE 20

PAGE 23

HELSINKI: People walk past an advertisement for the new Nokia Lumia mobile phone at a Nokia flagship store in Helsinki yesterday. Finnish mobile telephone maker Nokia said that it suffered a net loss of 929 million euros ($1.2 billion) in the first three months of the year. — AFP

Nokia ditches sales chief Posts $1.2b Q1 loss as smartphones disappoints HELSINKI: Struggling cellphone maker Nokia Corp. said yesterday that tougher-thanexpected competition pushed it to a net loss of euro 929 million ($1.2 billion) in the first quarter as sales plummeted, including for smartphones.

The loss compared with a profit of euro 344 million a year earlier, while revenue fell 30 percent to Euro 7.4 billion from euro 10.4 billion in 2011. Net sales of devices crashed 40 percent to euro 4.2 billion, with smartphone sales dropping by more than half to euro 1.7 billion, and the company gave a dim outlook.

It said operating margins in the second quarter would be “similar to or below the first quarter 2012 level of negative 3 percent,” and that it would speed up a cost cutting goal of euro 1 billion by 2013. The Finnish company said it would share “further details as quickly as possible.” CEO Stephen Elop conceded the

company had faced “greater than expected competitive challenges” and some challenging markets, including Britain.

“We exceeded expectations in markets including the United States but establishing momentum in certain markets has been more challenging,” he said. “We are navigating through a significant company transition in an industry environment that continues to evolve and shift quickly.”

Colin Giles, head of global sales since January 2010, will leave the company as it restructures the sales unit, “reducing a layer of sales management,” a statement from Nokia said. The company has been the leading handset maker since 1998 but after reaching a global goal of 40 percent market share in 2008, its share has continued to shrink. Nokia hopes to remedy the slide with its new Windows Phone 7, which launched in October, eight months after Elop announced

a partnership with Microsoft Corp.

Nokia has adopted the Windows operating system in its new phones, phasing out the MeeGo and Symbian platforms, considered clumsy by many operators. Still, sales of smartphones dropped to 12 million in the first quarter, from 24 million a year earlier, while volume sales of cellphones fell to 83 million from 108 million in 2011.

Elop, who earlier described the first-quarter as disappointing, said Nokia had sold more than 2 million Windows-based Lumia phones in the first quarter and that it had a “clear sense of urgency to move our strategy forward even faster.”

In 2011, Nokia announced more than 10,000 layoffs to lower expenses and has not ruled out more cutbacks. The company has said it would not provide annual targets for 2012 since it was in a “year of transition.”

It said operating margins in the network

operations - called Nokia Siemens Networks would “clearly improve in the second quarter 2012 compared to the first quarter 2012 level of negative 5 percent,” but it gave no figures.

Last year, Nokia was still the world’s top cellphone maker with annual unit sales of some 419 million devices. But in the last quarter of the year it posted a net loss of euro 1.07 billion, a marked reverse from the 745 million profit a year earlier, as sales slumped 21 percent with smartphone sales plunging 23 percent.

Its stock has fallen by half since Elop announced the deal with Microsoft, and it dropped to a 15-year low of euro 2.98 earlier this week after Moody’s ratings agency downgraded its debt grade to near junk status. On Thursday, its share price dipped only 1 percent toeuro 3.00 ($3.93) in Helsinki, as investors had been expecting a downturn after last week’s profit warning. —AP

Business FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

France, Spain clear bond auction hurdle Spain issues 2.5bn euros of bonds

TOKYO: Japan’s camera giant Nikon uinveils the new entry model of digital single-lens-reflex (SLR) camera “D3200” which has a 24. mega-pixel CMOS image sensor on its light weight body in Tokyo yesterday. —AFP

Dubai falls to 6-week low, Gulf markets end lower DUBAI: Dubai’s index slipped to a six-week closing low yesterday and other Gulf bourses also fell as investors cut positions ahead of the weekend amid uncertainty in global markets. Selling pressure in small-cap stocks led Dubai’s benchmark to a fifth straight decline, down 0.3 percent to its lowest finish since March 3. Late buying helped the index recoup some intraday losses.

“The downward pressure came from expectations of a sell-off in international markets on concerns over Spain’s bond auction,” said Marwan Shurrab, vice-president and chief trader at Gulfmena Investments. “But when they saw it went well, some late buyers came in to pick up securities that were sold-off heavily during the day.”

Spain managed to sell 2.5 billion euros ($3.3 billion) of bonds at auction yesterday, as much as it wanted, while global markets were steady. Dubai mortgage lender Tamweel fell 4 percent, extending declines since it posted a 33 percent fall in first quarter net profit.

National Central Cooling (Tabreed) slipped 2.5 percent and Emaar Properties lost 0.3 percent. Abu Dhabi’s index declined 0.5 percent, down for a fifth session in seven. Aldar Properties and Sorouh Real Estate were the main drags, falling 3.5 and 2.7 percent respectively. This pair accounted for half of all shares traded on the index.

In Qatar, Doha Bank dropped 2.7 percent despite posting an estimate-beating first-quarter net profit of 389.9 million riyals ($107 million). “Doha Bank’s stock price rallied sharply in the second half of 2011 on expectations of significantly high growth prospects,” said Sleiman Aboulhosn, assistant fund manager at Al Masah Capital. “The numbers aren’t as strong as they were expected to be in order to sustain such high price levels, so we’re seeing some profit taking.”

Other banks also slipped, with Qatar Islamic Bank and Commercial Bank of Qatar down 0.7 and 1.5 percent respectively.

Qatar Gas Transport (Nakilat) declined 4.5 percent, after going exdividend. The firm is expected to report its earnings yesterday.

EFG-Hermes estimates Nakilat will post a 10.6 percent rise in firstquarter profit.

Doha’s index dipped 0.9 percent to 8,639 points, its lowest since March 21. Aboulhosn said the index has strong support at the 8,600 level, trading in a technical consolidation pattern.

Elsewhere, Oman International Bank (OIB) gave back earlier gains to end flat as investors give a mixed response to the news that Europe’s biggest bank HSBC will merge its Oman business with the lender.

Shares in OIB had risen to a 15-week high in early trade. HSBC will hold a 51 percent stake in the enlarged operation, which will be named HSBC Bank Oman SOAG. “Whenever the news becomes reality, investors will get rid of the stock,” said Adel Nasr, United Securities brokerage manager.

Oman’s benchmark slipped 0.06 percent, easing from Wednesday’s 10-month high. Investors booked gains from a recent rally. Bank Muscat slipped 0.6 percent, Al Anwar Holding dropped 2.6 percent. Oman National Investment Corporation supported the index, rising 5 percent.

“Trading activity is good and people are optimistic about the market. I think this will continue for a while and Q1 results will support,” Nasr added. — Reuters

MADRID/PARIS: France and Spain sold all the bonds they wanted at auction yesterday, though for Spain the cost was rising yields, indicating growing concerns the government will not be able to tame its deficit.

After a brief respite fuelled by a trillion euros of cash the European Central Bank (ECB) lent Europe’s banks in December and February, markets are becoming nervous again about euro zone debt loads, with fears that Spain might follow Greece, Ireland and Portugal in needing a bailout from international lenders.

That has put pressure on bond yields in the region, notably for Spain and Italy. The Spanish treasury said it sold 2.5 billion euros ($3.3 billion) of two bonds, taking its issuance to half its gross target for the year. It received bids for 3.3 times the offer on the shorter of the two bonds, and 2.4 times the longer, both up on previous auctions, suggesting Spanish banks were making the most of the ECB’s bounty.

France shifted 7.97 billion euros of medium and long-term bonds, with investors bidding for nearly three times the amount on offer, despite jitters on the secondary market before a presidential election that polls suggest will be won by Socialist Francois Hollande in the second round on May 6.

Spain, which has seen debt costs jump since early March, when Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy abandoned the deficit target previously agreed with its European partners, sold 1.1 billion euros of a bond maturing Oct. 31, 2014, at an average yield of 3.463 percent.

It also tested market appetite for a longer-term benchmark bond, due Jan. 31, 2022, selling 1.4 billion euros at a yield of 5.743 percent, up from 5.403 percent at the last primary auction in January.

Yields on the 10-year bond also rose after the auction, suggesting investors remain concerned about the country’s long-term fiscal sustainability. “A reasonable set of results, which will go some way

to allaying fears the domestic bid for Spanish bonds has dried up. That said, as evidenced by the accepted yield on the 10-year, this support does come at a price,” rate strategist at Rabobank Richard McGuire said.

The yield on 10-year Spanish bonds rose briefly above 6 percent on the secondary market on Monday for the first time since the end of November, sparking concern it could soon become impossible for the government to affordably refinance itself.

France auctioned for the first time a 0.75 percent medium-term note, known as a BTAN, due in September 2014, at a yield of 0.85 percent. The yield on its 3.50 percent long-term OAT bond, which matures in April 2015, was 1.06 percent. No recent

yield comparison is available for that bond.

Its 1.75 percent BTAN due in February 2017 sold at an average yield of 1.83 percent, slightly up from a yield of 1.78 percent when it was last auctioned on March 15. “It went smoothly, decent demand, they’ve reached their target,” said RIA Capital Markets strategist Nick Stamenkovic in Edinburgh. “We’ve seen a bit of a concession in the past few weeks as investors fret about a shift in policy under the helm of Hollande if he gets into power.” France lost its triple-A rating status earlier this year. With half its annual target raised so far this year, Spain now has some leeway to issue debt at a slower pace later in the year if borrowing costs remain high.—Reuters

MADRID: View taken yesterday of Madrid stock exchange’s main IBEX-35 index curve. The IBEX-35 index fell below 7,000 points for the first time in three years after the country had to pay higher rates in a 10-year bond auction.— AFP

Qatar builds yield curve with T-bill issues DUBAI: Qatar’s decision to expand its issues of Treasury bills is succeeding in draining excess liquidity from the banking system, but it also appears to have another, long-term policy purpose: building a complete Qatari riyal yield curve.

That could have several benefits for the emirate, helping it fund big infrastructure projects as it prepares to host the 2022 soccer World Cup; increasing its attractiveness as a portfolio investment destination; and even giving the Qatar central bank (QCB) a more sophisticated monetary policy.

“The regular monthly issuance of Tbills since last May has been clearly undertaken to develop the shorter end of the yield curve, a benchmark that was previously non-existent,” said Saugata Sarkar, head of research at QNB Financial Services. “Longer-term, the QCB is clearly aiming to establish a liquid local debt market, in preparation for the expected

increase in lending for infrastructure projects over this decade in the run-up to the 2022 FIFA World Cup.” Traditionally, Qatar’s money market has concentrated on overnight and oneweek interbank lending rates, where activity is greatest and quotes are easily available. The central bank’s description of its monetary policy says “the current QCB interest rates framework focuses on the average overnight interbank rate.”

The central bank’s regular T-bill issues, which began last May, could help to change that. The bank began by issuing three-month T-bills, and has gradually introduced six- and nine-month maturities.

In past years, the QCB has issued bonds on behalf of the finance ministry to local commercial banks with tenors of three to seven years, effectively setting benchmarks in that area, market sources said. Early last year, 50 billion riyals of

government bonds were sold to local banks. There is still a gap in the yield curve between one and three years, but market participants think the central bank may eventually fill that by widening its debt issues further. Volumes of T-bill issuance have grown. Central bank governor Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud al-Thani said last October that the QCB was selling 2 billion riyals every month; this week he said monthly issuance was 4 billion riyals and that the QCB would continue that volume, declining to comment further on monetary policy. Signs are that the issues are helping to prevent Qatar’s rapid economic growth, which hit 14 percent last year, from boosting inflationary pressure. M2 money supply growth slowed to a 29-month low of 8.5 percent yearon-year in February from 10.8 percent a month earlier, while March inflation was 1.2 percent, down from last year’s rate of 1.9 percent.— Reuters

Business FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

Ford plans $760m assembly plant in east China SHANGHAI: Ford Motor Co. plans to build a $760 million auto assembly plant in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, doubling its capacity in the world’s biggest vehicle market as it strives to catch up with rivals.

The investment in the factory with joint-venture partner Changan Ford Mazda Automobile Limited will add annual capacity of 250,000 vehicles when it begins operations in early 2015, the company said yesterday. Along with a recently announced new plant in Ford’s main production base in Chongqing, in central China, Ford will double its current annual capacity to 1.2 million vehicles.

The new factory brings Ford’s total investment in China to $4.9 billion. Growth in China’s car sales has dived from torrid levels over the past year but automakers

such as Ford expect to continuing benefiting from preferences for foreign brands.

They also expect the market to get much bigger in the years ahead. Even with 30 million cars on the road, China still has just 28 vehicles for every 1,000 people, far below the US level of 800. Some 80 percent of purchases are by first-time buyers.

Unlike most foreign automakers that initially concentrated their investments in China’s relatively affluent eastern coastal areas, Ford has built up its manufacturing in the less developed central-western region.

Now it is looking east, said Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s president for the Asia-Pacific region, who is leading an Asian expansion that includes building seven plants and tripling the number of models available in China to 15 by mid-decade. “This is the next big

phase of our capacity expansion, tied to all the new products we have coming in 2014 and 2015,” Hinrichs said in a phone interview. “We wanted to balance out some of our geographic locations in China so we went looking for something along the eastern seaboard, where a lot of the volume is and also where a lot of suppliers are,” he said. Ford, based in Dearborn, Michigan, expects its expansion to help it realize a 50 percent increase in global sales from 2010, to about 8 million vehicles by 2015. It aims to have global sales of 30 million vehicles by 2020.

Two weeks ago, Ford announced it would spend $600 million to expand its biggest factory complex, in Chongqing, to meet growing demand. The company plans to launch four new global vehicles at the Beijing Auto Show next week. It has

also said it plans to offer a version of the 2013 Escape, called the Kuga, in China at some point in the future.

“All this new manufacturing capacity is going in to support those new products,” Hinrichs said. Ford is trying to catch up with rivals who have been in China longer and command a bigger share of sales. It opened a new vehicle assembly plant in Chongqing in February, one of four new factories due to begin operations by the end of next year. The company already has two assembly plants and an engine plant in operation there.

Like many other automakers, it is banking on the potential for growth in sales in China’s vast hinterland, where most families have yet to buy their first cars and demand is expected to soar with rising incomes. —AP

BofA tops expectations on better credit quality Accounting charges hurt results NEW YORK: This Feb 10, 2011, file photo, shows a Verizon Wireless logo at one of its stores in New York. Verizon Communications Inc. reported yesterday, a net income of $1.69 billion, or 59 cents per share, in the first three months of 2012, beating the average forecast of analysts by a penny per share. — AP

iPhone bills boost Verizon Q1 revenue NEW YORK: Holiday sales of the iPhone 4S started to boost revenue at Verizon Communications Inc. in the latest quarter, as subscribers settled in to paying their new monthly bills. That meant that wireless service revenues grew at their fastest pace in three years at Verizon Wireless. The country’s largest cellphone company started selling the iPhone 4 a bit more than a year ago, but sales got a big boost when the 4S model was released in October. iPhone sales don’t boost the results of a cellphone company immediately, because the companies subsidize them by hundreds of dollars to be able to sell the phone for $99 or $199. They then count on making the money back in service fees over a twoyear contract.

At Verizon Wireless, the iPhone effect was clear in yesterday’s first-quarter report: the average monthly bill for subscribers on contract-based plans was $55.43, up 3.6 percent from a year ago.

A few years ago, monthly fees were stagnant at Verizon.

However, the high price of the iPhone means phone companies are struggling to make it pay most of the profit from the iPhone is flowing to Apple Inc., not the phone companies.

Verizon Wireless recently introduced a $30 “upgrade fee” for existing customers trading up to a new phone.

Verizon Wireless gained 501,000 new subscribers under contract-based plans in the quarter, slightly above analyst expectations. It’s a closely watched figure because contract-based plans are the most lucrative. Verizon is expected to lead the industry this quarter, attracting twice as many new customers as chief rival AT&T Inc., which reports on Tuesday.

Verizon’s overall net income was $1.69 billion, or 59 cents per share, in the first three months of 2012, beating the average forecast of analysts by a penny per share. It was up from $1.44 billion, or 51 cents per share, a year ago.

Revenue rose 4.6 percent to $28.2 billion from $27 billion a year ago, matching expectations. Verizon shares rose 56 cents to $38.22 in premarket trading. That is near the upper end of their 52-week range of $32.28 to $40.48 per share. New York-based Verizon Communications owns 55 percent of Verizon Wireless, and the corresponding share of the wireless earnings flow to Verizon’s bottom line. The rest goes to joint venture partner Vodafone Group PLC, a British phone company. —AP

NEW YORK: Bank of America Corp posted a better-than-expected firstquarter profit yesterday, as the second-largest US bank saw credit quality improve and capital markets activity rebound after slowing at the end of 2011. The bank joined rivals such as JPMorgan Chase & Co and Citigroup Inc that have all benefited from signs of strength in the US economy and more activity in the capital markets as fears about the European debt crisis eased.

Bank of America said its provision for credit losses declined to the lowest level since the third quarter of 2007 and sales and trading revenue, excluding an accounting charge, was the highest since the 2008 acquisition of Merrill Lynch.

“In general it shows nice improvement across the board,” said Joe Terril, president of Terril & Co. “I think the thing I am most pleased with just at first glance is continued improvement in the loan portfolio.” Bank of America’s shares rose 1.8 percent to $9.10 in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

The shares are up 60 percent this year after falling 58 percent in 2011. The bank passed the Federal Reserve’s latest stress test in March, shifting investor concerns from its capital needs to its ability to increase earnings in a time of low interest rates and increased regulation.

Separately yesterday, Morgan Stanley also reported better-thanexpected results helped by strong trading revenue. Bank of America’s first-quarter net income was $653 million, or 3 cents a share, down from $2.05 billion, or 17 cents per share, a year earlier.

NEW YORK: This April 20, 2006, file photo, shows a Bank of America branch in a Charlotte, N.C. Bank of America said yesterday, that it set aside less money to cover bad loans in the first three months of the year than it has since before the 2008 financial crisis. — AP

Revenue declined to $22.3 billion from $26.9 billion. The bank reported charges of $4.8 billion related to changes in the value of its debt, partially offset by gains of $3.4 billion from equity investments and debt-related transactions. Excluding debt valuation adjustments, it earned 31 cents a share.

Analysts’ average earnings estimate was 12 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Bank of America said analysts typically do not include debt valuation adjustments in their estimates.

The Charlotte, North Carolinabased bank took a loan-loss provision of $2.4 billion, compared with $3.8 billion a year ago.

In its capital markets operations, Bank of America reported sales and trading revenue of $3.8 billion, up from $1.5 billion in the fourth quarter, but down from $4.6 billion a year ago. The bank’s Tier 1 common equity ratio-comparing its core equity capital to its risk-weighted assets-rose to 10.78 percent from 9.68 percent in the 2011 fourth quarter as it issued shares to employees, shed assets and accumulated earnings. — Reuters

Business FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

Australia PM links surplus to lower interest rates CANBERRA: Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard yesterday defended her government’s plan to return its budget to surplus next year, arguing that balancing the nation’s books would give the central bank scope to cut interest rates.

The center-left Labor Party government is determined to become the world’s first major advanced economy to deliver a budget surplus after the global financial crisis. The government has foreshadowed big spending cuts to achieve a narrow surplus in the fiscal year starting July 1. The budget blueprint will be unveiled to Parliament on May 8 - a week after the Reserve Bank of Australia holds its next monthly meeting to decide whether to shift the key cash interest rate from its current 4.25 percent.

Many economists and business groups have argued that the government should postpone a budget surplus until the economy is stronger. Running a surplus can be a headwind for economic growth as the government is taking more money out of the economy than it is putting in. But it can also mean the central bank has more scope to stimulate growth with lower interest rates than would be the case if the government was

adding fuel to the economy by running a budget deficit. Many economists and businesses thought the Reserve Bank should have chosen to stimulate the slowing economy by cutting interest rates at its last board meeting on April 3. Gillard told a business forum in a speech on Thursday that a budget surplus would be a factor in the Reserve Bank’s thinking on interest rates.

“We can give the Reserve Bank room to move on monetary policy if it chooses to, knowing that an interest rate reduction is good for families and business” by delivering a surplus, she said. “There is plenty of room for the RBA to move further if need be and to all of those calling for rate cuts, you should also be calling for a surplus, not opposing one,” she said.

Newspapers have described the speech, the text of which was given to some media in advance, as Gillard pressuring the central bank to reduce interest rates. But Gillard said Thursday the Reserve Bank was “completely independent” of government. Government ministers as a rule do not comment on interest rate movements to avoid being perceived as interfering with the central bank’s independence.

Since Labor was elected to government in 2007, it has delivered record annual deficits by spending billions of dollars on stimulus packages. With elections due late next year, a surplus budget would provide a boost to the government’s credentials as economic managers.

But the task of balancing the books has become more difficult with slower than expected economic growth in the last quarter of 2011. The economy grew by 0.4 percent in the three months through December and 2.3 percent over the year.

The Australian economy scraped through the global crisis with only a single quarter of economic contraction thanks to Chinese demand for Australian raw materials such as iron ore and coal which has fueled a resource boom. But tax revenues from soaring real estate and share prices that helped the previous conservative government deliver successive budget surpluses from 2002 have not bounced back since the economic crisis. Many economists expect the Reserve Bank will reduce the cash rate to 4 percent at its next meeting. The rate last moved down a quarter of a percentage point in November last year. — AP

US jobless data suggests slowdown in job creation Four-week average of claims rises 5,500

CHICAGO: In this Feb. 9, 2012 file photo, a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 waits to take off at Chicago’s Midway Airport as another lands. Southwest Airlines says it made $98 million in the first quarter of 2012, helped by onetime gains on fuel-hedging contracts. — AP

Southwest posts Q 1 profit on special items DALLAS: Southwest Airlines Co. earned $98 million in the first quarter, helped by deals designed to blunt the pain of higher jet fuel prices. That amounted to net income of 13 cents per share, compared with $5 million, or a penny per share, a year earlier, for the nation’s fourth-biggest airline company.

Excluding the fuel-hedging gains, which are like insurance against spikes in fuel prices, Southwest said yesterday that it would have lost $18 million - less than analysts had expected. Quarterly revenue rose 29 percent to $3.99 billion, reflecting the company’s bigger size since it bought AirTran Airways last year.

Fuel was Southwest’s biggest expense, at $1.5 billion - an increase of $472 million, or 45.5 percent from a year ago. That was partly due to the bigger fleet now that it owns AirTran, but also to higher jet fuel prices.

With fuel costs rising, airlines have been boosting fares for more than a year. At the same time, however, Southwest and others run frequent sales to fill seats. The result: The average one-way fare on Southwest and AirTran rose to $146.44 during the first quarter, up 5 percent in a year. That helped Southwest increase revenue for every mile flown by passengers, a closely watched statistic in the airline busi-

ness. Southwest said that April passenger traffic and ticket bookings were solid. Investors had worried after Southwest reported a slump in bookings in late February, and its planes were slightly less full during the quarter than they were at the same time last year.

In an interview yesterday with The Associated Press, CEO Gary Kelly said that the 1-percentage-point decline in average occupancy was not alarming but, “It does suggest that there is some resistance by some consumers to higher fares.” He said fuel prices were “putting pressure on us to raise fares more than we think is wise.”

This week, Southwest has so far declined to match fare increases imposed by Delta, United and American. Analysts think that’s a sign of Southwest’s concern that more increases could kill demand.

Kelly declined to discuss specific pricing decisions, but he noted that fuel prices - the reasons airlines give for recent fare hikes - have fallen from their highs earlier this year. If that continues, he said, “We have a much better outlook profitability-wise for the second quarter, and if fuel prices continue to stay at current levels, then I think the outlook for the rest of the year is improved as well.”—Reuters

WASHINGTON: The number of Americans claiming unemployment benefits for the first time fell only slightly last week, dampening hopes of a pick-up in job creation in April after March’s slowdown. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits slipped 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 386,000, the Labor Department said yesterday.

The prior week’s data was revised to show 8,000 more applications received than previously reported.

The four-week moving average for new claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends, rose 5,500 to 374,750. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims falling to 370,000 last week. “The number suggests that improvement is slowing down,” said Subodh Kumar, chief investment strategist at Subodh Kumar & Associates in Toronto.

US stock index futures pared gains on the report, while Treasury debt prices rose and the dollar pared gains against the yen. The claims data covered the week for April’s nonfarm payrolls survey. The four-week average of new applications rose marginally between the March and April survey periods, suggesting not much change in labor market conditions.

Employers added 120,000 new jobs to their payrolls in March, the least since October, after averaging 246,000 jobs per month over the prior three months. Most economists have viewed the pull-back in job growth as payback after the weather-induced gains in the previous months.

“Some of the improvement in labor market earlier this year was probably due to the unseasonably mild weather,” said Jeremy Lawson, a senior economist at BNP Paribas in New York. “This data is consistent with the softer payrolls number in March.”

A Labor Department official said there was nothing unusual in the state-level data. The number of people still receiving benefits under regular state programs after an initial week of aid rose 26,000 to 3.30 million in the week ended April 7. The number of Americans on emergency unemployment benefits fell 19,419 to 2.78 million in the week ended March 31, the latest week for which data is available.

A total of 6.77 million people were claiming unemployment benefits during that period under all programs, down 187,807 from the prior week. — Reuters

ISTANBUL: Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen (L) and Turkish Minister of Environment and Forests Veysel Eroglu attend a business meeting in Istanbul yesterday. — AFP

Business FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

China to ease policy as economy slows SHANGHAI: China will ease monetary policy and boost liquidity in the financial system with a series of measures, state media cited a central bank official as saying, in a bid to avoid a sharp economic slowdown.

The official Xinhua news agency quoted an unnamed official at the People’s Bank of China as saying it planned to “steadily” introduce the measures, including cutting the amount of cash lenders must keep in reserve.

The report, published late Wednesday, comes as the world’s number two economy eases, with data last week showing it grew at its slowest pace for almost three years in the January-March quarter, while manufacturing stutters.

As well as easing reserve requirements, the central bank will also boost liquidity through its open market operations-referring to its sale or purchase of securities,

which influences the volume of money and credit in the economy.

“The central bank will continue to implement a prudent monetary policy... and maintain a reasonable level of interbank liquidity to facilitate a stable and relatively rapid development of the national economy,” the official said. China will “finetune” its monetary policy to allow more growth in bank lending, the official added in the report, reiterating remarks by other officials about the need to adjust money policy.

A spokesman for the central bank declined to comment on the report. The bank has already cut bank reserve requirements twice since December last year, as policymakers look to get money through to the small businesses and the agricultural sector that play a crucial role in the economy. Chinese banks have already

Asian markets mixed after soft Wall St lead HONG KONG: Asian markets were mixed yesterday following a soft lead from Wall Street while a report in China said the country’s central bank would boost liquidity to help kick start the economy. The euro rose following a successful debt sale by Spain that eased concerns of a fresh crisis in the troubled eurozone. Tokyo slipped 0.82 percent, or 78.88 points, to 9,588.38, Seoul fell 0.23 percent, or 4.67 points, to 1,999.86 and Sydney closed 0.32 percent, or 14.0 points, higher at 4,362.7. Hong Kong rose 1.03 percent, or 214.28 points, to 20,995.01 and Shanghai ended flat, dipping 2.22 points to 2,378.63.

With the eurozone debt crisis back in focus, investors were looking to a sale of Spain’s benchmark 10-year government bonds for an indication of market confidence in the country where unemployment is soaring and output diving.

Asia had rallied on Wednesday after Madrid successfully sold 12- and 18-month debt, albeit at a higher rate. Yesterday it said it had sold slightly more than its target of benchmark 10year government bonds and although its borrowing rate rose slightly it was in line with expectations as well as below the critical six percent level.

The euro rose to $1.3132 and 107.02 yen in early European trade, against $1.3120 and 106.59 yen late Wednesday in New York. The dollar firmed to 81.50 yen from 81.23 yen. Investors are also looking ahead to a G20 meeting tomorrow that will discuss boosting the International Monetary Fund’s debt-crisis war chest to $500 billion.

“Amid growing concerns over Spanish (debt) financing, the meeting failing to agree on enough expansion of the safety net would put selling pressure on the euro,” said Masafumi Yamamoto, currency strategist at Barclays Capital.

Japan Wednesday pledged $60.0 billion to the fund, saying it was a critical part of the organisation’s bid to boost a global firewall against Europe’s debt crisis. Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Poland are among the nations that have since pledged billions of dollars to the effort, but it was unclear what figure would be settled on at the meeting.

Before Tokyo’s market opened, Japan posted a record 4.410 trillion yen ($54.2 billion) trade deficit for the 12 months to March as car and electronics exports slumped while energy imports soared after the Fukushima nuclear crisis.

The country’s overseas shipments took a hammering last year as the March 11 quake-tsunami as well as floods in Thailand-where many Japanese firms have plants-slammed production, while the European debt crisis cut into demand.

However, figures also showed a deficit of just 82.6 billion yen in March, well below economists’ expectations for a deficit of 223 billion yen. Wall Street’s main indexes ended in the red as earnings reports, although better than expected, left dealers unimpressed.

The Dow shed 0.63 percent, the broader S&P 500 lost 0.41 percent and the Nasdaq dropped 0.37 percent. China’s official Xinhua news agency late Wednesday quoted a central bank official as saying it would increase bank liquidity, including through cuts in reserve requirements. — AFP

ramped up lending, issuing 1.01 trillion yuan ($160.3 billion) in new loans in March, higher than the 710.7 billion yuan recorded in February, figures showed last week.

Investors have been waiting for Beijing to announce measures to ease monetary policy for several weeks as figures show manufacturing activity almost dormant, while in February the country posted its biggest trade deficit in more than a decade.

Official data on Friday showed the economy grew just 8.1 percent in the first three months of the year-well below the 8.9 percent recorded in the last quarter of 2011 — marking the fifth consecutive quarterly slowdown.

“The current situation has provided the conditions to lower reserve requirements, chiefly lower-than-expected economic growth,” Liao Qun, chief China economist

for Citic Bank International in Hong Kong, told AFP. Analysts widely expect China to move again to trim reserve requirements for commercial banks, with some predicting the government might even cut interest rates to kick-start the economy.

“The impact of lowering rates would be a bit bigger, so they will consider it in the second half,” Liao said. British banking giant HSBC expects reserve requirement cuts of one percentage point and more capital injection through open market operations in the April-June period, it said in a research report last week.

Analysts also say lower inflation has given the government more room to ease monetary policy. China’s inflation rate hit 3.6 percent in March from 3.2 percent in February, but was still down from a peak of 6.5 percent seen in July. —AFP

Japan posts record deficit in year since disasters Energy costs likely continue to take toll TOKYO: Japan yesterday posted a record trade deficit for fiscal 2011 as the quaketsunami disaster and ensuing nuclear crisis sent car and electronics exports tumbling and energy imports soaring. The country’s trade shortfall hit 4.410 trillion yen ($54.2 billion) in the 12 months to March, the finance ministry said, amid continuing worries about the recovery in the world’s third-largest economy.

For decades, Japan enjoyed huge trade surpluses owing to its competitive cars, electronics and other exports. But demand for fossil fuels has surged in the resourcepoor nation after last year’s natural disasters sparked the worst nuclear accident in a generation, leading the government to take most atomic reactors offline.

At the same time demand from Europe suffered as the eurozone’s debt crisis rippled across the continent, one of Japan’s biggest export markets. Over the year Japanese exports fell 3.7 percent to 65.282 trillion yen while imports soared 11.6 percent to 69.692 trillion yen, as worries mount that the country will face energy shortages this summer.

All but one of its nuclear reactors were shuttered after the Fukushima reactor disaster. Driving the decline, electronic component exports fell 14.7 percent, followed by a 5.4 percent drop in vehicle shipments, with manufacturers’ supply chains severely disrupted by the quake-tsunami as well as floods in Thailand, where several Japanese firms have plants.

In the same period, crude oil imports rose 21.9 percent while liquefied natural gas orders shot up 52.2 percent as the country turned to thermal energy. The latest figures represent Japan’s first fiscalyear deficit since a shortfall of nearly 765.0 billion yen in 2008 as the global financial crisis kicked in amid the collapse of Wall Street giant Lehman Brothers.

“At the time of the Lehman shock, foreign demand was just gone, dealing a blow to exports,” said Satoshi Osanai, economist at Daiwa Institute of Research.

“This time around, however, the deficit

largely stemmed from higher import costs of natural resources,” he added. Energy costs will likely continue to take a toll on the trade picture, but “deficits are expected to shrink as exports recover gradually,” Osanai said.

Trade with China and other emerging economies was likely to pick up, while solid demand from the United States also providing support as the world’s biggest economy mounts a recovery, he said. The European market, however, remained a

released yesterday showing a smallerthan-expected trade deficit of 82.6 billion yen in March. But analysts expressed little optimism over that figure, which came after an unexpected surplus in February.

The data “have yet to show confidence in a trend that (Japan’s exports) are clearly emerging from sluggishness,” SMBC Nikko Securities chief market economist Mari Iwashita told Dow Jones Newswires.

In a report, Credit Suisse said the deficit comes at a time when the global economy

TOKYO: Containers are loaded into an international freighter at a Tokyo port yesterday. Japan posted a record trade deficit for the fiscal year with car and electronics exports tumbling from a year earlier, but it also recorded a smaller-than-expected shortfall in March. — AFP concern with shipments down 3.6 percent in fiscal 2011 — reversing a 9.5 percent rise in the previous year-with exports of passenger cars, chemicals and steel products all falling.

“The European debt crisis has calmed down but their economy is still sluggish.

We should keep a cautious view toward Europe,” Osanai said. The ministry also

was mounting a recovery, which “indicates that the deterioration in Japanese trade conditions is not a temporary but a structural problem”. High prices for liquefied natural gas and rising imports in a country beset by a rapidly ageing population and shrinking manufacturing sector would likely generate trade deficits through this year, it added. —AFP

THEY ARE THE 99!

99 Mystical Noor Stones carry all that is left of the wisdom and knowledge of the lost civilization of Baghdad. But the Noor Stones lie scattered across the globe - now little more than a legend. One man has made it his life’s mission to seek out what was lost. His name is Dr. Ramzi Razem and he has searched fruitlessly for the Noor Stones all his life. Now, his luck is about to change - the first of the stones have been rediscovered and with them a special type of human who can unlock the gem’s mystical power. Ramzi brings these gem - bearers together to form a new force for good in the world. A force known as ... the 99!

THE STORY SO FAR : Newcomer RAHEEMA THE MERCIFUL is assigned to work with WASSI THE VAST and SAMDA THE INVULNERABLE on a science project…

The 99 ® and all related characters ® and © 2012, Teshkeel Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

www.the99.org

Opinion FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

Sarko’s last hopes to get off the ropes

Bahrain unrest intensifies ahead of Grand Prix

By Lara Sukhtian

A

s Bahrain prepares to host the Grand Prix Formula One race, demands by protesters for democratic change are intensifying and the government position is hardening, setting the Gulf kingdom on a path to confrontation, analysts say. Shiite-led street demonstrations have turned increasingly violent, as the ruling Sunni Khalifa dynasty continues its crackdown on dissent in a desperate effort to portray that all is well in the island kingdom ahead of Sunday’s race. Regional allies, mainly Saudi Arabia, are lending the Khalifas a helping hand, while the United States has mostly turned a blind eye to the unrest, two key factors, analysts say, that have contributed to the current unrest.

The crisis is set against the backdrop of escalating tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran, both of which see the success, or failure, of Bahrain’s protests as a key piece of the puzzle in regional hegemony. There is a “pretty clear escalation,” said Joost Hiltermann of the International Crisis Group, which this week released a conflict risk alert on Bahrain.

Several factors are feeding fears of escalating unrest, he argued. “The (political) stalemate is continuing,” and a steady pace of protests are ending in clashes, as protesters use fire bombs and security forces use tear gas and pellet guns, Hiltermann added.

According to Amnesty International, at least 60 people have been killed since the explosion of Bahrain’s Arab Spring-style uprising in Feb 2011. Bahrain’s majority Shiites claim discrimination and marginalisation by the Sunni monarchy, and recent promises of reform by King Hamad have not been implemented, while attempts at a national dialogue with the opposition have amounted to nothing.

And as Formula One teams arrive in the kingdom, the opposition and the increasingly radical youth are calling for mass protests, using the world famous sporting event to shed light on their struggle. For its part, the government is beefing up security and arresting activists, hoping to contain the unrest during the race.

Meanwhile, the deteriorating health of a prominent Shiite activist, Abdulhadi Khawaja, on hunger strike since early February, is yet another ticking time bomb. It all makes “for a heavy brew,” said Hiltermann, warning that although the uprising is very much a local issue, it is especially dangerous because it has wider regional ramifications. “A key factor here is the US. It doesn’t want to rock the boat because Bahrain is a critical link in its Gulf security architecture,” he said, adding that the Saudis too “are major power brokers...and have (Bahrain) by the throat economically.”

Bahrain’s crisis has unleashed long-standing fears among Sunni Gulf monarchies that a Shiite revolution in the kingdom would give Iran a foothold in the heart of the Arab Gulf.

“Today... Bahrain is seen as a battleground between (Iran and Saudi Arabia),” said Elham Fakhro, a Bahraini research analyst at the Institute for International and Strategic Studies. Saudi Arabia, a majority Sunni nation, has suppressed its own Shiite protests in the oil-rich Eastern province, which is connected through a causeway to Bahrain.

Along with other Gulf countries, the Saudis sent troops to the island last March to secure major government assets and to free up Bahraini security forces to crush the rebellion.

Bahrain is also home to the US Fifth fleet, a crucial asset in the event of a war with Iran. The sectarian dimension to Bahrain’s crisis has set it apart from revolts that toppled regimes in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Yemen. “First and foremost, the fear is sectarian,” said director of the Brookings Doha Centre, Salman Sheikh. The Khalifas and Saudis are focused “too much on threats and dangers that would come from profound change.”

Bahrain researcher and lecturer at Paris’s Science Po, Michael Schmidmayr described the Saudis as a “huge obstacle” to what some believe were sincere efforts by Bahrain’s King Hamad to reconcile with the opposition. For a brief moment last November, even members of the opposition felt change might come. Their optimism was triggered by the remarkable sight of King Hamad sitting in front of the local and international press as a world renowned human rights lawyer read out a litany of abuses committed by his security forces against his own unarmed people. — AFP

By Paul Taylor and Emmanuel Jarry

B

ehind on points, conservative French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s last best hopes of re-election are landing a knockout punch in the sole television debate or an eleventh-hour alliance with a popular centrist. No president in French history has come back to win after trailing as far behind his opponent in the opinion polls as Sarkozy does now to Socialist challenger Francois Hollande, political scientist Dominique Reynie said.

But veteran analysts are not writing him off just yet. “It’s hard to see what could reverse the trend, but there are a few elements,” said Pascal Perrineau, director of the Centre for the Study of French Political Life (CEVIPOF) at the Sciences-Po school in Paris, citing lingering doubts among voters about whether Hollande has the stature and the national security credentials to be president.

Surveys show the conservative head of state is battling deep personal unpopularity on top of the handicaps of incumbency in an economic crisis that has seen off the leaders of 14 of the European Union’s 27 countries in the last three years. “This is at least as much a referendum on Nicolas Sarkozy as a vote in confidence in Francois Hollande,” said Reynie, director of the Foundation for Political Innovation. Yet Sarkozy is a formidable debater, and he is convinced that once he and Hollande are alone in the ring, he will be able to expose his rival’s lack of government experience and fiscal credibility in a live clash a few days before the May 6 runoff. “I’m so excited about the surprise you’re going to get.

You can’t imagine,” Sarkozy taunted reporters on a visit to Britanny on Tuesday when asked if he still believed he could win.

Among possible surprises he could spring in the final days are diplomatic initiatives on the Middle East, Africa or Europe, a move to cut petrol prices, a big order for a French industrial champion, or saving more factories from closure. France was hosting an international foreign ministers’ conference on the conflict in Syria yesterday, featuring US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He got the day off to an early start with calls for the establishment of humanitarian corridors to protect the Syrian opposition.

A fuel initiative seems possible after ministers confirmed that France has held talks with the United States and Britain on a possible coordinated release of strategic oil reserves to counter speculation due to tensions over Iran. But prices have already begun to fall, making that less likely. A major contract for Airbus aircraft, made by French-based EADS, or for Dassault Aviation’s Rafale fighters would be a timely feather in Sarkozy’s cap, but it is not clear that it would sway many voters. India and the United Arab Emirates are both negotiating on the possible purchase of the Rafale, which France has never managed to export, despite years of intense diplomatic efforts.

A reignition of the euro zone debt crisis, already smouldering in Spain, could help Sarkozy convince voters to stick with an experienced leader rather than risking the untried Hollande. It might also give

rise to a last-minute summit with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, his closest European partner, who has kept her distance since throwing her support behind Sarkozy just before he launched his campaign in mid-February. But it could also undermine the president’s assurances that the worst of the crisis is over and that he and Merkel have “saved the euro”. And officials in Sarkozy’s UMP party say Merkel is no guaranteed vote-winner in France.

In politics, events can always intervene, as they did when an Islamist gunman shot dead seven people in the Toulouse region last month. That put Sarkozy in the limelight as a hands-on leader in charge of the hunt for the killer, and a consoling head of state embodying national unity at memorial ceremonies. But attempts to build on the resulting uplift in opinion polls by staging highly publicised dawn raids on

ing on fears of Islam and immigrants, but he had misunderstood the public’s main concerns. Other voices inside Sarkozy’s campaign team and outside are urging him to keep to the right because Le Pen will get more votes than Bayrou, almost half of whose supporters are leaning towards Hollande, according to opinion surveys.

“If he wants to win, the big battalions are with Le Pen, so he’ll have to go after them, even though he’ll need Bayrou as well,” said Jean-Thomas Lesueur, head of the right-leaning Paris-based Institut Thomas More think-tank. “What could make him bounce back, if he’s still able to bounce back, is if he manages to show that he has a right-wing dynamic behind him,” Lesueur said. To that end, Sarkozy has been milking public resentment of Europe by calling for the European Central

France’s President and candidate for re-election in 2012, Nicolas Sarkozy, gestures as he delivers a speech during a campaign meeting in Saint Maurice, outside Paris Thursday. — AP suspected Islamist militants and banning radical preachers from travelling to France failed to boost his score. The opinion poll curves have crossed again, with most showing Hollande in front in the first round and widening his lead for the runoff.

The president’s key political headache is that to clinch victory, he would need to win over first-round voters for both the far-right, Eurosceptical anti-immigration crusader Marine Le Pen and pro-European centrist Francois Bayrou. That means doing the ideological splits. Sarkozy has vowed to halve new immigration and battle Europe over border controls in a bid for the National Front leader’s voters. Sarkozy and Le Pen have both ruled out any deal, but he is now trying hard to woo Bayrou.

Some allies are urging him to offer the centrist the premiership and campaign together with him on a platform of fiscal responsibility.

“A ticket with Bayrou is his last chance, but it may be too late,” said one lawmaker in the ruling UMP party, who asked not to be named. Another disaffected former UMP politician who has drifted away from the president said Sarkozy had gambled on striking a rightwing posture and play-

Bank to do more to boost growth and picking fights with the European Commission on immigration control and trade barriers.

Polling data shows the combined left and far left vote on the first round may total up to 46-47 percent, meaning Hollande may need only a third of Bayrou’s vote and a small number of Le Pen voters to put him over the top. But the president is banking on the race starting almost from scratch in the second round, especially if he can come out even marginally ahead of Hollande on the first ballot.

Sarkozy believes he can then mobilise a “silent majority” including abstentionists, the young, women, the “white working class” and retirees in the runoff. “There is a slight uncertainty because on the night of the first round, it will no longer be a 10person campaign but a two-man race for the Elysee Palace,” Perrineau said. “That doesn’t transform the game, but there will be a slight change, and Sarkozy’s image is not as catastrophic as people say.” The only TV debate considered to have swung a tight French election was in 1974, when centre-right Valery Giscard d’Estaing bested Socialist Francois Mitterrand, only to be beaten by him seven years later.— Reuters

FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012 www.kuwaittimes.net

Kim Kardashian, recipient of "The Total Pro" style award, poses at the Us Weekly Hot Hollywood Style issue event, Wednesday, April 17, 2012, in West Hollywood, Calif. — AP

Tr a v e l FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

Floating homes along the limestone islands in Halong Bay, Vietnam.

— Photos by Sawsan Kazak

through the crowded streets, locals and travelers mingle in the many restaurants, shops and parks across the city.

By Sawsan Kazak

T

he capital of Vietnam, Hanoi has seen its share of drama. Vietnam gained independence from Imperial China, was colonized by the French, occupied by the Japanese and engaged in a lengthy war; just to name a few of its milestones. Each chapter of Vietnam’s history has added to its personality and charm.

Hanoi is an Asian city that has managed to find a comfortable balance between modernity and tradition. Wi-Fi cafes and trendy shops sit side-by-side with traditional Vietnamese eateries and supermarkets. Hanoi is actionpacked but still has a laidback island feel to it. Walking

Food With no franchises in sight, food in Vietnam is as authentic as it gets. Vietnamese food is likely to be the next big thing in the culinary world. With its use of simple ingredients, fresh seafood and intricate cooking techniques, Vietnamese food is delicious. Being so close to the water, seafood is big in Vietnam and is prepared in various ways. Pho is a Vietnamese noodle soup and is the national dish. The soup includes, noodles, fresh herbs, garnishes, some kind of meat and a very flavorful broth.

The Vietnamese food is full of theatrics, which adds to the whole eating experience. The soup is presented at the table separately, the noodles are then placed in a bowl, along with the fresh herbs, the meat is then placed and the whole mixture is topped with broth. Street food is always a perfect and cheap way to experience a culture, and Hanoi does not disappoint. From fresh fruit, to sugar coated donuts, street food is delicious.

Museums Hanoi is filled with museums chronicling the country’s history. The Army Museum is quite popular with actual war planes and artillery on display. You can even climb into some of the displays and take some amazing pictures. Museums worth seeing also include The History Museum, The Museum of the Vietnamese Revolution, The Museum of Vietnamese Women, The Ho Chi Minh Museum, and The Fine Arts Museum.

Most of the museums can be visited in a couple of days and are very educational.

eum my mus t the Ar a r e w o ag t e a n d fl W a r p la n Vietnam.

i, in H a n o

Shopping Hanoi is filled with street after street of small boutiques, funky little shops and little outdoor markets. Vietnamese people like to shop and there is no shortage in Hanoi of venues to spend your money. A fashionista (or fashionisto) can find trendy and original clothes at a very good price (just make sure you bargain everything down).

Renowned for their silk, Hanoi shops offer silk shawls, ties

Colorfully lit limestone cave formations in the heart of Halong Bay.

and even clothes.

Along with great clothes, one needs great decorations, and Vietnam has an abundance of those too. The city if filled with galleries offering original paintings from local artists as well as handmade statues and handicrafts.

Vietnam embraces every part of their history, and many shops still offer copies of old propaganda posters used to rally the people during the war. This not only makes a great souvenir, it actually gives a glimpse into the country’s history and the morals and values they believe in.

Also on sale, the iconic pointy triangle bamboo hats; you can pick up one for yourself and start looking like a local (who, by the way, still actually wears them).

Halong Bay A UNESCO world heritage site, Halong Bay is a majestic and magical destination. Meaning ‘descending drag-

Tr a v e l FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

Each chapter of Vietnam’s history has added to its personality and charm.

Hanoi is an Asian city that has managed to find a comfortable balance between modernity and tradition.

on’ the bay is filled with about 2,000 limestone islets. The trip from Hanoi is a full day event, as it begins with a four-hour drive into in Quang Ninh province, so it’s better to opt for spending the night on a boat and exploring Halong Bay’s beauty the next day. The fully functioning boat has bedrooms, a dining hall and ‘rooftop’ terrace for lounging and sightseeing. Parked between the many limestone islands in the still waters of Halong Bay, it is time to relax. Miles away from the hustle of Hanoi, the bay is like taking a boat ride back in time. After having sufficiently relaxed, the next day offers activities like morning yoga, kayaking, and cave exploration.

People It is estimated that Vietnam has 90.5 million inhabitants.

The country was opened up to tourism in the early 1990’s, therefore the locals are used to seeing lost tourists wandering their streets with maps. The locals are very helpful and accommodating and tourist information and travel offices can be found almost everywhere in the city.

Vietnamese couple enjoys the view at Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi.

sawsank@kuwaittimes.net

• •

•

•

Missile displayed at the Army museum in Hanoi.

It’s probably smarter to get your visit visa ahead of time at the embassy. This way you can ensure less wait in line and any uncertainty upon arrival.

Their money can be a little confusing as everyone is a millionaire in Vietnam. The best way to exchange money is to pull out from the ATM; their banks are reliable and safe.

As for transportation, taxis are in abundance in Hanoi and even though the driver might not be fluent in English, he will always know the touristic sights. The taxis themselves are equipped with meters and are reasonably cheap.

Crossing the road is quite the adventure and can seem like a very daunting task with sometimes hundreds of scooters whizzing by every minute. The trick here is to do as the locals do and only cross when they cross. It seems to be a talent they have developed and

View of Halong Bay from the cruise boat.

• •

•

there is some sort of unspoken understanding that takes place between a pedestrian and a motorist.

Hotels are in abundance in the city; they offer great deals.

Wi-Fi is available everywhere in the city; so you will always be able to update your Facebook status or email your office that you will be extending your Vietnam trip to a few more days.

Ho Chi Minh City, formerly named Saigon was the capital during the French colonization. It is the largest city in Vietnam and is certainly worth seeing if you have a few extra days in the country. Located in the south of Vietnam, travelers can hop on a short flight and spend a few days in the old city or can make their way down the country by bus; making stops along the way.

Locals enjoy a snack and drink at a Vietnamese restaurant.

Arts FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

Analysing Louise Bourgeois: Art, therapy and Freud

By Christopher Turner

I

n an essay on “Freud’s Toys” (1990), as Bourgeois dismissed the ancient artefacts that swarm over his desk and shelves (including numerous phallic amulets), she described Freud’s cluttered office, with its “half-dead hysterics”, as “a pitiful place”. She also referred to Freud’s patients as “maggots”,

than 30 years. In 1951, suffering from depression after her father’s death, she entered therapy with Dr Leonard Cammer. The following year she switched to Dr Henry Lowenfeld, a second-generation Freudian who had emigrated to New York in 1938, the same year she did. Lowenfeld had been trained by the Marxist analyst Otto Fenichel in Berlin, where he was

Reich in an attempt to erase that history.

In 2007, just before Bourgeois’s retrospective at Tate Modern, two boxes of discarded writings that refer to her analysis, which she

exhibited in the Freud museum alongside two dozen of her bulging and sinister patchwork sculptures and installations. These jottings, on random pads, letterheads, even playing cards, offer a

Louise Bourgeois was in therapy for more than 30 years and wrote an essay on ‘Freud’s Toys’. The Freud museum in London has a display of her work and recently unearthed writings about her analysis which gives additional resonance to the placing of her suspended larval form. Analysis was, in her view, a form of metamorphosis, promising the transformation of seething misery into what Freud described as “common unhappiness”. “A maggot,” Bourgeois wrote, “is actually a symbol of resurrection.”

Though she doesn’t acknowledge it in her essay, Bourgeois had been in analysis herself for more

also a part of Wilhelm Reich’s radical group, Sex-Pol. However, in New York, keen to assimilate to American culture and disenchanted with communism, Lowenfeld became part of the psychoanalytic mainstream and hid his radical past. At the height of the cold war he stole the incriminating Rundbriefe - letters written by Fenichel in the 1930s and circulated among their group of dissident analysts - from his colleague Annie

Louise Bourgeois: Farewell to the Spiderwoman

Louise Bourgeois in 1990, behind her marble sculpture Eye to Eye. underwent four times a week, were found in her Chelsea home; after her death in 2010 (aged 98), her assistant unearthed two more.

Selections of these have been

glimpse into Bourgeois’s psychological states. According to these notes, Lowenfeld considered the artist’s inability to accept her aggression as the central problem to be worked through in analysis.

“Aggression is used by guilt and turned against myself instead of being sublimated into useful channels,” she wrote.

To art historians her free associations and doodles not only suggest clues as to the personal relationships and conflicts that inform all her work, but seem to offer direct links to her creative process In an aborted letter to “Mon cher Papa”, Bourgeois wrote: “In the 20th century the best work has been produced by those people whose exclusive concern was themselves.” Her father was a tyrannical philanderer who had a 10-year affair with a live-in English governess, the discovery of which was the central trauma to which Bourgeois endlessly returned in her confessional work.

Bourgeois considered art as her parallel “form of psychoanalysis”, offering privileged and unique access to the unconscious, as well as a form of psychological release.

On a piece of pink paper she scratched the slogan, “Art is a guarantee of sanity.” Her artwork was reparative, a form of mental mending. Bourgeois’s mother had been a

tapestry restorer and Bourgeois often compared her to a spider spinning a fragile web; Maman (1999), Bourgeois’s massive arachnid guarding an egg, is on display in the garden of the Freud museum (where Anna Freud’s sizeable loom sits upstairs).

Bourgeois identified herself as a hysteric and made sculptures, like Arch of Hysteria (1993), that made reference to the “whirlpool of histeria” (sic) in which she often found herself consumed. In the Freud museum exhibition, the engraving that usually hangs above the famous couch - depicting Freud’s mentor, Jean-Martin Charcot, the “Napoleon of the neurosis”, demonstrating hypnosis on a swooning hysterical patient - has been moved to an adjacent room, where it serves to introduce works

by Bourgeois. In that context, the accompanying vitrines contain what looks like outsider art by an inmate of the SalpÍtriËre Hospital: magical objects with multiple faces; patchwork dolls with amputated limbs over which knives hover threateningly.

But, ultimately, Bourgeois felt that analysis had little to offer the artist. “The truth is that Freud did nothing for artists, or for the artist’s problem, the artist’s torment,” Bourgeois wrote in “Freud’s Toys”, as if in frustration with the process to which she submitted for so many years, “to be an artist involves some suffering. That’s why artists repeat themselves - because they have no access to a cure.”

Lowenfeld had died four years earlier, ending her analysis but evidently not her pain, which continued to fuel her work. In his essay “Dostoevesky and Parricide” (1926), Freud himself admitted: “Before the problem of the creative artist, psychoanalysis must lay down its arms.”—Guardian

BOOKS FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

Pakistan on the Brink

B

ack in the spring of 2002 everything seemed possible. You could drive from Lahore, Pakistan’s eastern city close to its border with India, across to Peshawar on the border with Afghanistan, and then on through the mountains and gorges to Kabul without any great concern for your own security. After years of neglect, Kabul itself was full of bustling aid workers, consultants, soldiers and journalists. The “international community” had arrived.

Now, of course, the border regions of Pakistan are unstable and violent, home to the remnants of al-Qaida and a series of other newer militant groups. Unable either to defeat a tenacious insurgency or to fashion a stable semi-democracy out of Afghanistan despite vast expenditure, the “international community” is now vacating Kabul almost as rapidly as it arrived.

Over the past 15 years Ahmed Rashid has established a well-earned reputation as a meticulous, reliable and authoritative chronicler of events in south-west and central Asia.

This latest work is effectively an update of his lengthy and important Descent into Chaos (2008). Despite its title, it actually covers Afghanistan in as much detail as Pakistan.

Rashid touchingly talks of his own occasional

“exhilaration and hope” and says he is still “constantly looking for that open window and hoping that it will stay open long enough for peace to emerge”. But Pakistan on the Brink is not a cheering read.

currently the opposite - heavily militarised with a weak civilian government. It also has an elite whose members are, crucially, considerably more secular, westernised and moderate than most of their countrymen. It is this elite

This authoritative study of Pakistan and its neighbours reveals bleak but undeniable truths about a region hanging in the balance It is all here. In Afghanistan, Rashid revisits the early hubris of the west, the diversion of resources during the war in Iraq and in particular the strategic flip-flops of the Obama administration, the infighting between the Pentagon and other parts of the US government and the continued, increasingly frantic search for the silver bullet.

Nato, Rashid baldly states, has achieved none of its strategic aims. In Pakistan he takes us through the plunging relationship between the Pakistani security establishment and their American interlocutors, the violence in the “tribal agencies” of the frontier zone, the corruption of the political elite, the arrogance of the generals and the sufferings of the common man.

Many have covered this ground but few have the same access or depth of knowledge.

Rashid mentions in passing having dinner with three presidents - Pakistan’s Asif Ali Zardari, Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai and Barack Obama - and innumerable conversations with other key players. The detail doesn’t always make for an easy read, and it would have been rewarding to have heard more about the characters he has viewed at such close quarters. The occasional brief reference - to Karzai ruminating on whether to abandon the flawed elections of 2010, for example - leaves the reader hungry for more.

Unlike many journalists, however, Rashid does have the courage to outline how he believes the catastrophic situation in both his homeland (Pakistan) and its neighbour can be improved. For Afghanistan, he sensibly talks of the importance of a regional solution which would give countries including Russia, China, India as well as the various central Asian “Stans” a genuine stake in the stabilisation of the shattered country. Pakistan, he says bluntly, “must act as a normal state, not a paranoid, [intelligence service]-driven entity whose operational norms are to use extremists and diplomatic blackmail”. He suggests that Turkey might be “an example of what success might look like in such a volatile region”.

Many analysts have been looking at Turkey with interest in recent months, inspired by its successful mixture of economic growth, diplomatic sophistication and political stability in a time of rapid and radical change. Rashid describes Turkey as “a heavily Islamicised civilian power”. This is interesting stuff. Pakistan is

that the US and western politicians like dealing with, in their own language, and when they have sought to support at every opportunity. But recent decades in Turkey have seen a fierce cultural and political battle between old secular elites based in the bureaucracy and military and a new elite, with its constituency of middle-class businessmen and small country towns. The latter have largely won the battle. The lesson is that no true stability will come to Pakistan (or to Afghanistan) while the elite there is not authentically representative of the culture of the country more generally. And that culture is increasingly pious and socially conservative, influenced heavily by the values and perceptions of populations in countries to Pakistan’s west, rather than to its east. Rashid does not push his argument to this conclusion, but the depressing truth may be that the only stable Pakistan may be one that shares less with the west, not more.—Guardian

Health FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

Vegan diet plan for a healthier you A

good vegan diet plan offers you a healthier way of meeting your nutritional needs with a sufficient number of calories, as well as a wide range of food items. When planning your healthy vegan diet, be sure to include an adequate amount of nutrients that are typically found in animal products such as iron, protein, calcium, omega-3s and vitamin B12. Read on to find out more about how to plan out a nutritious vegan diet.

products contain.

Iron While red meats are the best sources of iron, vegans will be pleased to learn that some plant foods also contain iron. Good sources of vegan iron include: * Dried beans * Enriched grains * Lentils * Dark green leafy vegetables * Whole grains

Protein For a healthy vegan diet plan, the Food and Drug Administration - FDA, recommends a daily protein consumption of approximately 0.36 g protein in every pound for an average adult. Good sources of vegan proteins, as well as essential and non-essential amino acids include protein from plants such as:

Calcium Typically found in dairy products, calcium is crucial for the maintenance of healthy teeth and bones. Vegan sources of calcium include dark green vegetables such as broccoli and kale, tofu, as well as calcium-fortified or enriched food items.

* Legumes * Whole grains * Nuts * Seeds * Beans * Vegetables Other good sources of protein are soy products which offer soy protein that is significantly similar to proteins that animal

Vitamin B12 Typically sourced from animal products, vitamin B12 is necessary for preventing anemia and the red blood cells production.

Because many plant-based foods are not reliable sources of B12, it’s common for the average adult vegan to develop a deficiency to vitamin B12. It is therefore important for vegans to consider including fortified soy

products, enriched cereals, vitamin supplements and nutritional yeast to ensure that their diet has a sufficient quantity of vitamin B12.

Omega-3s Omega-3 fatty acids are crucial for enabling individuals to enjoy good cardiovascular health, develop the brain and eyes, and produce EPA and DHA fatty acids. Some vegan-friendly sources of omega-3s include canola oil, flax seeds, walnuts and soy products. It is important for you as a vegan to consider supplementing your diet with food items that fortified with omega-3s. (www.fatburningfoodsforbelly.com)

C h i l d re n FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

alfa-search

number-search

Can you find the hidden words? They may be horizontal or vertical.

APPLE, APRICOT, ASPARAGUS, BANANA, BEAN, BEETROOT, BROCCOLI, CABBAGE, CARROT, CAULIFLOWER, CELERY, CHERRY, CUCUMBER, DATE, GRAPE, GRAPEFRUIT, LEEK, LEMON, LIME, MELON, MUSHROOM,

OLIVE, ONION, ORANGE, PARSNIP, PEA, PEACH, PEAR, PINEAPPLE, POTATO, PRUNE, PUMPKIN, RHUBARB, SPINACH, SPROUT, SQUASH, STRAWBERRY, TOMATO, TURNIP, YAM.

Can you find the hidden numbers? They may be horizontal or vertical.

02937, 16982, 19832, 22139, 23442, 33987, 42734, 47382, 47732, 56893, 63847, 78916, 78923, 84842, 92928, 93252.

alfa-cross

mystery-word Can you enter the words correctly into the grid? The letters in the shaded boxes will spell out the name of the mystery word.

4 letters CROW DOVE HAWK SWAN 5 letters EAGLE HERON RAVEN STORK 6 letters CANARY CUCKOO 7 letters BUZZARD OSTRICH PELICAN PENGUIN VULTURE 8 letters FLAMINGO 9 letters ALBATROSS

The first letter of each answer appears next to its clue in alphabetical order. All the first letters have been entered into the grid. Can you complete the puzzle?

A. Largest state in the USA (6) A. Colony insects (4) E. Go in (5) G. Precious stones (4) I. Spears of frozen water (7) I. Cake topping (5) I. Writing fluid (3) K. Bird of prey (7)

L. Young sheep (4) L. Pieces of sawn wood (4) M. Award (5) O. Vegetable (5) S. Unhappy (3) S. Large fish (6) S. Snow runner (3) T. Beverage (3)

Lifestyle FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

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This handout picture released by the Cannes film festival shows the official poster of the 65th International Cannes film, made of a photo of Marilyn Monroe taken from her movie ‘Some Like It Hot’. — AFP

Quick facts

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Originally conceived in 1939 as an alternative to the Fascistinfluenced Venice film festival, Cannes has been held annually since 1946, apart from 1948 and 1950 when lack of funds led to its cancellation.

In 1949, the stars arrived: Tyrone Power, Orson Welles, Norma Shearer, Errol Flynn and Edward G. Robinson all appeared that year. Brigitte Bardot made her first appearance in 1953.

A year later, starlet Simone Silva dropped her bikini top beside Robert Mitchum in front of the photographers, resulting in the kind of racy coverage that secured the festival’s reputation.

In 1960, the first Cannes Market opened its doors to some 10 participants and one screen-a canvas hung from the roof of the old Palais Croisette. It quickly became a major meeting point for buyers and sellers from all over the world.

In 1968, film director Louis Malle, who was on that year’s jury with Roman Polanski among others, was one of a group of film-makers who forced the festival to close in the midst of the student and worker uprisings across France. After an allnight debate marked by raging tempers and occasional fistfights, the organisers called it off.

Jane Campion became the first female director to win the Palme d’Or in 1993 for her film “The Piano”.

In 1997, a “Palme des Palmes”-a super-version of the Palme d’Or best film prize-was awarded to Ingmar Bergman for the 50th festival. The Swedish director did not appear.

In 2004, an actors’ masterclass (Lecon d’acteur) was created and inaugurated by Max Von Sydow.

A scandal • Terrence Malick won the Palme d’Or for “The Tree of Life”, but the 2011 festival will be remembered above all for the shock expulsion of Danish director Lars Von Trier for his Hitler jokes.

• The notoriously provocative Von Trier, presenting his movie “Melancholia”, launched into a monologue at a press conference during which he joked he was a Nazi, sympathised with Hitler and declared Israel a “pain in the ass.” Von Trier apologised, but it was too little too late. Cannes did, however, allow Melancholia to remain in competition.

• Best actor went to Jean Dujardin for “The Artist”, and Denmark’s Nicolas Winding Refn won best director for his high-octane thriller “Drive”. Kirsten Dunst picked up the best actress award for her role in “Melancholia”.-Reuters

avid Cronenberg, Ken Loach and Michael Haneke are among the top filmmakers set to compete at next month’s Cannes film festival, organisers said yesterday in a line-up studded with stars from Nicole Kidman to Brad Pitt. Canada’s Cronenberg was tipped for “Cosmopolis”, starring Robert Pattinson as a billionaire asset manager, while Britain’s Loach will return to Cannes for the 17th time with “The Angel’s Share”, a bittersweet comedy about former offenders who try their hand at whisky-making. Austrian director Michael Haneke-whose “The White Ribbon” won the 2009 Palme d’Or-will show his new film “Amour” (Love), starring Isabelle Huppert as a woman hit by a stroke.

Organisers named a total of 54 films awarded a slot at the May 16-27 event at a press conference in Paris, 22 of them in the official race for the Palme d’Or and half in the parallel new talent section, Un Certain Regard. Cannes’ general delegate Thierry Fremaux selected the line-up from among 1,779 submissions-often favouring smaller directors over big-name Hollywood rivals, but with a string of A-listers in starring roles.

“Its a journey through cinema and a journey around the world,” Cannes general delegate Thierry Fremaux told journalists of the line-up. This year’s jury is headed up by Italian director Nanni Moretti, who scooped a Palme d’Or for “La stanza del figlio” (“The Son’s Room”) in 2001 and who told AFP he would be “looking for films that are still able to surprise me.”

Pattinson will be reunited in the Riviera city with his onscreen lover from the “Twilight” films, Kristen Stewart, who stars in “On the Road”, the Brazilian Walter Salles’ adaptation of the Jack Kerouac novel. A-list Australian actress Nicole Kidman stars in the 1960s-set “The Paperboy” by US director Lee Daniels, while Pitt teams up with Australian director Andre Dominik in the gangster flick “Killing Them Softly”.

Kidman also makes an appearance out-of-competition in US director Philip Kaufman’s “Hemingway and Gellhorn”, starring opposite Clive Owen as the writer’s third wife.

Jessica Chastain, co-star of last year’s Palme d’Or winner “Tree of Life”, returns in “Lawless,” a film about bootlegging

by John Hilloat, who is also from Australia. Marion Cotillard will add to the red-carpet glamour in “Of Rust and Bone” by

Jacques Audiard, one of three French directors in the line-up with New Wave veteran Alain Resnais, who is 89, and the edgy director Leos Carax. Wes Anderson’s 1960s teen love story “Moonrise Kingdom”, which had been announced as the opening film, will also run in the official selection.

The 71-year-old Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, who won the Palme for “Taste of Cherry” in 1997, returns with “Like Someone in Love”, a Japan-set story about a student who works as a prostitute And the Italian director behind the mafia saga “Gomorrah”, Matteo Garrone, will take on the world of reality TV with “Reality”. Berenice Bejo, co-star of the hit French silent movie “The Artist”, is to host the festival’s opening and closing ceremonies. Claude Miller’s “Therese Desqueyroux” will close the festival, in a tribute to the French filmmaker who had barely finished editing the movie when he died this month aged 70.—AFP

The president of the Cannes Film Festival Gilles Jacob and the general delegate of the Cannes Festival, Thierry Fremaux, give a press conference during the presentation of the films competing in the next 2012 Cannes Film Festival yesterday.

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he Lucky One” is yet another adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel, so you know exactly what you’re getting walking into this thing. It’s predictable and schmaltzy and sappy and smothered with voiceover that explains the film’s already none-too-subtle themes of destiny and fate and second chances. And yet ... and yet. In the hands of “Shine” director Scott Hicks, it does what it needs to do to please its target audience with a certain tasteful artfulness and the comforting familiarity of a 1950s melodrama. It’s utterly forgettable and offers zero surprises but it’s also harmless date-night fare made more appealing by the cast of Zac Efron, Taylor Schilling and especially Blythe Danner.

To put it on the spectrum of films that have sprung from the Sparks canon of weepy romance novels, it’s not as good as “The Notebook” but not as bad as “Nights in Rodanthe.”

And it does represent the first truly grown-up performance yet from Efron, who continues to establish his post-”High School Musical” career with eclectic if not necessarily commercially successful choices. Here he plays US Marine Sgt Logan Thibault, who’s just returned from his third tour in Iraq with an item he credits with saving his life: a photograph he picked up off the ground of a beautiful blonde sitting in front of a lighthouse. Shaken from his service, he doesn’t know whose it was or who she is but he insists on finding her to thank her.

Turns out she’s Beth (Taylor Schilling), a single mom who runs a sprawling dog kennel in an idyllic small town in the Louisiana swamps. Naturally, Logan doesn’t tell her why he’s there for a long time, which (naturally) will serve as the obligatory misunderstanding after they’ve (naturally) fallen for each other. Their love scenes, like every other element of Hicks’ film, are lighted in a way that gives everything an impossibly warm, romantic glow. You can roll your eyes, or you can give in.

Same goes for Efron’s character, who takes a job helping out at the kennel just to be near Beth and her family, which includes her bright, shy young son Ben (Riley Thomas Stewart, who manages to avoid kid-actor precociousness).

Efron has bulked up here to add a more masculine facet to his blue-eyed, pretty looks, and he’s actually rather believable as the traditional strong, silent type. Logan is good with kids and animals. He plays chess and the piano. He studied philosophy. He can haul heavy bags of dog food and fix a tractor.

He’s unfailingly polite to everyone he meets. Oh, and he happens to look like Zac Efron.—AP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

Robert De Niro walks the red carpet for the showing of ‘The Five-Year Engagement’ which opens the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival in New York yesterday. — AFP photos

Jason Segel walks the red carpet.

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Choosing films for Tribeca required an open mind, he said. “A program it’s like a menu, it’s an adventure. We want the audience, like us, to be moved, to be educated by films,” he said at the opening press conference. “We don’t choose a film because it’s African, we chose the film because it’s good,” he said. Boyer said he’s a fan of art house films but he’s also “very pop culture. I love rock, and blockbusters when they’re good.” That flexibility invited an avalanche of candidates for the 2012 program: 3,090 fulllength films and documentaries and 2,860 short films, beating the then record total of 5,624 offers last year.

Among contestants for the six prizes in the official contest are “All In” by Argentina’s Daniel Burman, “Unit 7” from Spain’s Alberto Rodriguez, and the US-Mexican “The Girl” by David Riker.

Documentary subjects include Kenyan fishermen, Coptic Christians in Egypt, handicapped lovers in South Korea and

ew York’s Tribeca Film Festival, created a decade ago after the 9/11 attacks, opened yesterday with a touch of sparkle from Cannes thanks to new artistic director Frederic Boyer.

Boyer joined festival founders Robert De Niro and producer Jane Rosenthal for an opening presentation Wednesday in lower Manhattan where movies will be shown until April 29.

The 89 films, including 50 world premiers, and 60 short films were selected from 46 countries for Tribeca. Boyer, who was recently in charge of the Directors’ Fortnight at the much bigger Cannes festival, said he sees room for Tribeca to expand. “In Cannes there’s a lot of pressure, because it’s the biggest festival in the world and it’s also a market. Most people don’t want to miss Cannes for strategic and financial reasons,” he told AFP. “Now, people ask themselves, ‘Why not do Tribeca?’ You can do a premiere here, there’s huge media and the US public.”

Leelee Sobieski walks the red carpet .

Chinese youths rebelling against Internet censorship. Outside the official competition are films including “As Luck Would Have It” from Spain’s Alex de la Iglesia, and “Xingu,” from Brazilian Cao Hamburger, which tells the story of three brothers taking part in the settling of the Mato Grosso wilderness.

Tribeca was founded in 2002 in a bid to help the neighbourhood around the destroyed World Trade Center to recover.

Although it isn’t an A-list festival, it has established a following.

“We founded Tribeca in response to 9/11. We’re entering our second decade and we are really excited about what Tribeca is today.

We continue with our core principles: community, innovation, discovery and industry,” Rosenthal said. — AFP

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File photo shows members of ‘Men at Work,’ from left, Greg Ham, Ron Strykert, Colin Hay, Jerry Speiser and John Rees, pose with their Grammy for best new artist at the awards show in Los Angeles. — AP

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reg Ham, a musician with the iconic Australian band Men at Work, was found dead in his Melbourne home yesterday, Australian reports said. Victoria state police confirmed that the deceased was the 58-year-old resident of the house but did not identify him by name, in keeping with local practice. Ham was 58 and neighbours said he was the lone occupant of the house. Two concerned friends who had not heard from Ham in some time found the body after going to check on him, police said, declining to release any details on how Ham died or if the circumstances were suspicious.

“There are a number of unexplained aspects to it which has caused our attendance here today, and we’re assisting the local detectives to determine what has occurred,” Detective Senior Sergeant Shane O’Connell told reporters. Newspapers including The Australian and The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Ham had died. Men at Work frontman Colin Hay issued a state-

ment expressing a deep love for his long-time friend, whom he met in 1972 when they were seniors in high school. Hay recalled decades of shared experiences with Ham - from appearing on “Saturday Night Live,” to flying through dust storms over the Grand Canyon, to getting lost in the rural Australian countryside.

“We played in a band and conquered the world together,” Hay said. “I love him very much. He’s a beautiful man. The saxophone solo on ‘Who Can It Be Now’ was the rehearsal take. We kept it, that was the one. He’s here forever.” Ham was perhaps best known for playing the famous flute riff in the band’s smash 1980s hit “Down Under.” But the beloved tune came under intense scrutiny in recent years after the band was accused of stealing the catchy riff from the children’s campfire song “Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree.” —AP

he trial of a television station director accused of insulting sacred values for having screened the FrancoIranian film “Persepolis” resumed yesterday in Tunisia under tight security. Supporters of Nessma television chief Nabil Karoui and Islamists held rival protests outside the Tunis court, which was heavily guarded by police screening anyone trying to get into the chamber of the trial. “It’s a decisive day for freedom of speech and of the press,” Karoui told AFP. “The verdict will be historic and will have an effect on the region,” he added.

Karoui’s station broadcast the award-winning animated film “Persepolis”, which recounts the Iranian revolution and its aftermath through the eyes of a young girl, on October 7 last year. But it sparked outrage because of a scene depicting God, whose representation is banned in Islam. Within two days of the broadcast, Islamic militants attacked the television station’s offices and Karoui’s own home during violent demonstrations in Tunis. Yesterday, dozens of young hardline Salafist Muslims set up a loudspeaker outside the courthouse, waving the black Salafist flag and shouting “Get lost!

Shameful media get lost!” On the other side of the courthouse, Nessma supporters sang the national anthem and chanted “Free media in Tunisia!”. Karoui’s trial opened on November 16 and has twice been adjourned. Although Karoui has apologised for causing any offence, the case has become a cause celebre, a battleground between Islamist militants and secular, liberal elements protesting what they say is the rise of religious extremism. —AFP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

Celebrities react to the death of Dick Clark • “Michelle and I are saddened to hear about the passing of Dick Clark. With ‘American Bandstand,’ he introduced decades’ worth of viewers to the music of our times. He reshaped the television landscape forever as a creative and innovative producer. And, of course, for 40 years, we welcomed him into our homes to ring in the New Year. But more important than his groundbreaking achievements was the way he made us feel - as young and vibrant and optimistic as he was.

As we say a final ‘so long’ to Dick Clark, America’s oldest teenager, our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends - which number far more than he knew.” - President Barack Obama.

• “I am deeply saddened by the loss of my dear friend Dick Clark. He has truly been one of the greatest influences in my life. I idolized him from the start, and I was graced early on in my career with his generous advice and counsel. When I joined his show in 2006, it was a dream come true to work with him every New Year’s Eve for the last 6 years. He was smart, charming, funny and always a true gentleman. I learned a great deal from him, and I’ll always be indebted to him for his faith and support of me. He was a remarkable host and businessman and left a rich legacy to television audiences around the world. We will all miss him.” - Ryan Seacrest.

• “Dick Clark changed the face of musical television.

He was wonderful to many artists including our family.

We will miss him. God bless.” - Janet Jackson tweeted.

“I’m one of the lucky people who can say that I knew Dick Clark personally. Dick produced almost every awards show I was on during the 80s, and he constantly encouraged me toward success. He will be missed by everyone - especially by those who knew him well.”

- Kenny Rogers. “Only God is responsible for making more stars than Dick Clark ... I just want the world to know how much I loved him, how much I cared about him. He’s been a part of everybody’s life.” - Tony Orlando.

• “Rest in Peace my good friend Dick Clark. A pioneer who’s mark on American culture will be felt forever.” Quincy Jones tweeted.

• “You’ll continue to be an inspiration to us all Dick Clark. Thanks for the amazing rockin years you were with us. You’ll truly be missed.” - The Jonas Brothers tweeted. “Dick Clark will be truly missed. We will carry on his legacy every New Year’s Eve.” - Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas, who also tweeted a photo of her and Clark.”Dick Clark was a great friend, true legend, & a master journalist. Nobody did what he did better. It was a pleasure to be in his company.” - Larry King tweeted.

• “Just heard the news of Dick Clark. It was truly an honor to have worked with him, learn from him and to be able to call him a friend. He was a great man and an even better friend. The word legend is thrown around a lot, but it’s never more appropriate than when used in describing Mr. Clark. He was a real inspiration & influence in my life. I will dearly miss my friend. Rest well DC..”- Mario Lopez said in a series of tweets.

• “REST IN PEACE to the DICK CLARK!! U were pioneer n a good man!! Thank u sir.” - Snoop Dogg tweeted.

“Not 2 many people actually deserve the term “legend”, Dick Clark embodied it & never lost his humility or humanity. We will miss him!” - Gloria Estefan tweeted.—AP

Dick Clark, right, and Ryan Seacrest pose on the set of “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2012”.—AP

Legendary US TV host Dick Clark dies at 82

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egendary US television presenter and producer Dick Clark, known for introducing rock and roll music to millions of Americans, died of a heart attack Wednesday at age 82, his family said. President Barack Obama led the tributes to the entertainer, hailing his “groundbreaking achievements” which “reshaped (America’s) television landscape forever.” Clark, famous for shows including “American Bandstand” and “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” suffered a cardiac arrest after being admitted to hospital in Santa Monica, California, on Tuesday.

“Entertainment icon Dick Clark passed away this morning at the age of 82 following a massive heart attack,” said the family statement, released by his publicist Paul Shefrin. Clark “entered St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica last night for an outpatient procedure.

Attempts to resuscitate were unsuccessful,” it added. The entertainer, whose Dick Clark Productions remains a key force in the industry, was known to generations of US television viewers as “America’s oldest teenager.”

Clark suffered a stroke in 2004 which forced him into retirement, although he continued to appear on the New Year’s Eve special alongside celebrity host Ryan Seacrest. Seacrest, the host of “American Idol,” was among the first to pay tribute to Clark. “I am deeply saddened by the loss of my dear friend Dick Clark. He has truly been one of the greatest influences in my life,” he said on his Twitter account. In Washington, the White House issued a statement from Obama, saying that with “American Bandstand,” Clark “introduced decades’ worth of viewers to the music of our times.

“He reshaped the television landscape forever as a creative and innovative producer. And, of course, for 40 years, we welcomed him into our homes to ring in the New Year. “But more important than his groundbreaking achievements was the way he made us feel-as young and vibrant and optimistic as he was.” In Los Angeles, a wreath was placed on Clark’s sidewalk star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Verdine White, bassist for the band Earth, Wind and Fire who played on “American Bandstand,” said: “He was a wonderful guy to work for... he gave you everything you needed so you could be the

A teenage Linda Deutsch poses with Dick Clark on the set of American Bandstand in January, 1959 in Philadelphia. She presented a petition for an allElvis show.—AP

Dick Clark is joined by his wife Kari Clark, during the 40th Anniversary of “Dick Clark New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.—AP best you could be.

“Dick was like another member of the band,” he told CNN, adding that Clark was among the first to put African American musicians on national US television. “His legacy to rock and roll is unparalleled,” he said. Clark’s physical youthfulness was also astonishing. “He was ageless. He looked the same for 50 years,” said White. A New York native, Clark began his career at 17 and worked his way up to television and radio anchor both there and in Philadelphiawhere he became host of its “Bandstand” show in 1956.

He created Dick Clark Productions a year later, taking the show nationwide as “American Bandstand.” The company

still produces shows including the Golden Globes, the American Music Awards and the Academy of Country Music Awards. Clark reflected on his career in 2006, when he was honoured at the Emmy Awards show in Los Angeles. “Before I had my stroke, I was thinking about all of the things I have become involved in over my life-music, comedy, drama, game and talk shows, even reality TV,” he told the audience.

“I now realize that I have accomplished my job and dream, to be in show business. Everybody should be so lucky to have their dreams come true,” he added. Clark is survived by his wife, Kari Wigton, and has three children from previous marriages.—AFP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

An employee poses next to new waxwork statues of Britain’s Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge as they are unveiled at Madame Tussauds in Blackpool, north-west England yesterday. The Duchess is dressed in an exact copy of the stunning Jenny Packham dress she wore for the ARK charity dinner, the first time she and Prince William appeared as a married couple.—AFP

Janet Jackson Berlin Biennale showcases contemporary political art

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undreds of birch trees from the biggest Nazi death camp, at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland, are dotted around Berlin as a living memorial of this dark chapter in Germany’s past. The trees, called Birke in German, lent their name to the Birkenau camp where as many as 1.5 million people, mostly Jews, perished between 1940 and 1945. The installation “Berlin-Birkenau” by Polish artist Lukasz Surowiec, 26, is part of the Berlin Biennale, a contemporary arts festival devoted this year to political art.

“This is an attempt to create a new kind of monument - a living monument,” said Surowiec, who has had commemorative plaques erected in front of the trees. “With the help of nature, I try to continue a generational mission of deepening the memory of the victims of the Holocaust. “My project is effectively based on giving back the ‘inheritance’ [of the camps] to its owners.” Biennale director Artur Zmijewski, also Polish, says it seems paradoxical to his compatriots that a place where Germans committed one of the worst crimes against humanity is not in Germany, but in Poland.

This installation, one of many at the Biennale which is not confined to a gallery or museum, is therefore partly about the “politics of history”, he said. The Holocaust and the Palestinian territories are strong themes at the Biennale this year, which is run by the contemporary art centre KW in former East Berlin but sprawls throughout the entire city. The Berlin Biennale was founded in 1998, inspired by the Venice Biennale, and aims to showcase little established young artists and provide a forum for experimentation. The seventh edition officially opens on April 27 and runs through until July 1, but many projects such as Surowiec’s are already taking place. Zmijewski, 45, has said he wants “the exhibition to become a political space that resembles a parliament more than a museum”.

Israeli, Palestinian art Israeli artist Yael Bartana, 41, will hold the “First International Congress of The Jewish Renaissance Movement”, a symbolic project c a lling for the return of Jews to Poland that she created through video artwork. “We call for the return of 3.3 million Jews to Poland to symbolize the possibility of our collective imagination - to right

the wrongs history has imposed,” Bartana says. From May 11-13, she hosts a “parliamentary debate” on the questions: “How should the EU change in order to welcome the Other? How should Poland change within a re-imagined EU? How should Israel change to become part of the Middle East?”

Palestinian Khaled Jarrar, used the Biennale to develop his artistactivist project staking out Palestinians’ right to a sovereign state.

Jarrar, 36, shot to international prominence last year by offering unofficial passport stamps of his own design to foreigners arriving in the occupied territories. For the Biennale, he created a postage stamp for the “State of Palestine” with a drawing of the Palestine Sun Bird flying near delicate flowers.

The stamp was issued by Deutsche Post and can be used in the regular mail. More than 20,000 stamps have been sold so far. “After I printed official post stamps in Germany and Netherlands, people started using these stamps to send letters all over the world,” he wrote in an email. “We are not allowed in the Palestinian post office to print postage stamps with the words ‘State of Palestine’.” Jarrar said he felt artists should be politically engaged and not just leave it up to politicians to act. “We should think and work hard to speak out against injustice,” he said. “We should make art that will make a difference.”

‘Art is politics’ Curator Zmijewski, who focuses on moral and political issues in his own video artwork, told Reuters he wanted to create an atmosphere “in which people start to fantasize about political issues and try to redefine politics”. He believes recent shocks like the financial and debt crises had made civil society more politically engaged, demonstrated by the eruption of protest movements like “Occupy”.

This trend towards greater political engagement was reflected in art too, yet he still felt that artists today all too often offered only theoretical questions in their work rather than practical solutions to problems. During his research for the Biennale, Zmijewski compiled a 400-page thick book on political engagement in culture today the different strategies deployed and results achieved.—Reuters

breast case appealed to top US court

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case involving a fine over a “wardrobe malfunction” which exposed pop superstar Janet Jackson’s breast during the 2004 Super Bowl broadcast was appealed to the US Supreme Court Wednesday. Court documents showed the Federal Communications asked the top US court to reimpose the fine on CBS television network in the long-running legal battle over indecency broadcast standards.

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) levied the $550,000 fine against CBS in 2006 for breaking indecency rules during a halftime performance by Jackson at the 2004 Super Bowl, the championship game of the National Football League. CBS appealed the fine and the case has wound its way through the courts since then. In its ruling in November, the appeals court ruled in favor of CBS, saying the FCC had acted “arbitrarily” in penalizing the TV network CBS and that the indecency standard should not be applied to “fleeting images.”

But the FCC says in its request to the Supreme Court that “no such exemption has ever existed” for nudity, although there may be an exemption for isolated uses of expletives. It said other cases involving Fox and ABC television also support the FCC decision. Jackson, the youngest sister of the late Michael Jackson, was performing live at the Super Bowl when fellow pop star Justin Timberlake tore off her bustier, exposing her breast for a fraction of a second to some 90 million viewers. CBS apologized for the incident but in 2004 it was ordered to pay the fine, the stiffest penalty the agency could levy against the network.—AFP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

Japanese youths feed cats at a ‘cat cafe’ in Tokyo.

— AFP photos

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or the young women wiling away their evenings with a cappuccino in hand and a cat on their lap, Tokyo’s “neko cafes” are the ideal place to unwind and soothe their stresses.

“After a long day at work, I just want to stroke cats and relax,” said saleswoman Akiko Harada. “I love cats, but I can’t have one at home because I live in a small apartment. I started coming here because I really missed having fun with cats and touching them.”

For Harada and others like her, the “neko cafes” of the Japanese capital are a harmless institution where customers pay a premium for their coffee in exchange for the chance to pet the cats that stroll among them.

But for animal rights activists, these cafes are exploitative places where animals are subjected to unnatural stress. They welcome a new ordinance, coming into force later this year, that will ban the display of animals after 8:00 pm. The rules were drawn up by the environment ministry after it received more than 155,000 requests for action from the public-an unusually high number in politically ambivalent Japan. The law is primarily aimed at the pet shops in Tokyo’s entertainment districts that regularly raise the eyebrows of Western visitors with their brightly-lit windows displaying dogs and cats in cramped glass tanks late into the night.

But cat cafe manager Shinji Yoshida says he will also be snared by the law and will have to close in the evenings-his busiest time. Yoshida’s cat cafe in Ikebukuro, a busy commercial and commuter hub in Tokyo, keeps 13 cats in a carpeted room where they have the freedom to jump around and climb all over the large fake tree. “It is a huge blow to us cat cafes, and it’s nothing to do with protecting cats’ health,” said Yoshida, 32. “As you see, cats can walk and play freely. I ask customers not to touch them if they are sleeping. At night, we dim the room light,” he said. “And cats can rest during daylight.” He says about 80 percent of his customers are salaried workers who drop in for a welcome change from the daily grind of work and long commutes.

‘I want to focus on the cats’“If I close this cafe at 8:00 pm, I’ll see red ink,” he said.

Yoshida’s customers definitely want the cafe to be allowed to stay open. Office worker Ayako Kanzaki, 22, began visiting cat cafes three years ago because she loves cats but her apartment is too small to keep one. “I like to do things at my own pace, and I must say I am not a very social person. So I come here alone, because I want to focus on the cats,” she said. “During the day, cats are mostly sleeping, and if they are awake, they often don’t pay attention to the people. In the evening they are very lively, it’s more enjoyable.” Saleswoman Harada agrees. “If cat cafes are shut down at night, I won’t have many opportunities to come any more,” she said.

Animal welfare campaigner Chizuko Yamaguchi says the sheer number of customers in cat cafes can make life difficult for the animals. “From morning to night these cats are being stroked by people they do not know. For the animals, that is a real source of stress,” she said. Fusako Nogami, head of animal rights group ALIVE, said the rule change banning the display of animals in the evening was a good thing, but acknowledges the cat cafes are not the target.

Nogami said the commodification of animals in Japan was a real problem, with many people looking at them purely as fashion accessories, and not as lives in their own right. “What deserves more public attention is the way pets are sold in Japan,” she said.

“We need to ban the trade of newborn kittens and puppies just because they are pretty and sell well.” — AFP

Beauty FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

Homemade facials for oily skin

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n order to combat the unpleasant look of dewy complexion make sure you consider thee homemade facials for oily skin. In order to succeed in your skin rejuvenation and revitalizing project make sure you use skin-friendly ingredients as the ones included in the recipes below. Learn how to keep your skin spotless and resistant to the external and harmful factors.

A super-shiny complexion might not do a favor to our appearance. Therefore in order to give back the natural radiance as well as healthy condition of the skin, it is a must to take some preventive measures. Keeping the function of the sebaceous gland on the perfect level can be indeed difficult.

However instead of appealing to drastic methods that might affect our organism, it’s time to act on the level of the skin.

Using these homemade facials for oily skin is one of the most efficient tricks to remove the excessive sebum from the surface of the pores and keep our complexion flawless and bright at the same time.

Strawberry Butter Facial tiny fruit is perfect to handle the most severe skin problems thanks to the tremendous amount of anti-oxidants it contains. Use this recipe to create a soothing and mild facial.

Grab a medium-sized bowl and mix the mashed strawberry with 1 tbs unsalted butter. Prepare the fine paste then apply it to your previously cleansed complexion. Leave the mask on for at least 10-15 minutes then rinse it off with tepid water. lThis

Oatmeal and Apple Facial lThis healthy combo of two extremely healthy ingredients will help you control the amount of the sebum that might pile up on the surface of your skin. lIn order to get the finest paste mix 1 tbs honey, 1/2 mashed and cooked apple as well as the necessary amount of oatmeal to achieve the desired thickness. Clean your face from chemicals and grime and apply the mask. Leave it on for at least 10 minutes then wash it off with lukewarm water.

Almond Facial lIn order to use the best recipe to fight the unpleasant

shine of the skin, make sure you try your hand at this soothing and natural almond facial. All you have to do is soak the almonds in water then make a paste of it adding a few tsp of honey. When the paste is ready to be applied make sure you’re complexion is clean and finally leave the mask on for 20 minutes to exercise its beneficial effect. Rinse the facial off with tepid water. Your skin will become soft and silky as well as it will regain its natural shine.

most prepare a fine puree of 1-2 tomatoes. The next step is to grab a medium-sized bowl and mix the puree with 2 tbs of flour. The paste will be just perfect to be applied to your complexion. Leave it on for at least 10-15 minutes then wash it off with lukewarm water. Include this facial in your weekly skin care routine for the desired success. (www.skin-care.becomegorgeous.com)

Tomato and Flour Facial this recipe to get rid of the sebum excess that can clog your pores and lead to acne and blackheads. First and forelUse

Cheap and natural facial toner recipes

I

f you have constant problems with your dry and lifeless complexion, experiment with the following cheap and natural facial toner recipes.

The regular use of chemical-free skin care treatments rules out the chance of any allergic reactions and damages. Therefore, it is highly recommended to try your hand at the following cheap and natural facial toner recipes. Pamper your pores with deep-cleansing formulas which also contain vitamins and antioxidants. Mix organic ingredients to prepare reinvigorating lotions and tone your complexion with these DIY skin care products on a daily basis.

1. Aloe Vera and Lemon Juice Toner Are you lusting after a naturally radiant complexion? Mix 2 tbs of organic aloe vera gel with 1 tbs of fresh lemon juice. Use a cotton pad to apply the formula on your face and neck. Leave the mixture on without rinsing it off. Repeat this beauty ritual at least once a day for dazzling results. If you want to prepare a large amount of this facial toner, store the product in your fridge.

2. Witch Hazel and Peppermint Toner Rejuvenate your complexion with this cheap and ultra-efficient toner recipe. The first step is to let 1 peppermint tea bag in 1 cup of hot water for 10 minutes.

Then eliminate the tea bag and mix the liquid with 1 tbs of organic lemon juice and 1/4 cup of witch hazel. Store the toner in a glass jar and apply it on your face and neck with a cotton ball.

3. Watermelon Toner Prepare a fruity facial toner for your complexion and wave goodbye to lifeless skin.

Start the preparation of this natural skin care product by straining 5-6 tiny chunks of watermelon through a paper towel.

Then mix 2 tbs of the fresh watermelon juice with 2 tbs of pure water an 1 tbs of Vodka. Use a tiny amount of alcohol in this recipe to shrink your pores. Use a cotton ball to apply the formula on your neck and face.

Leave it on for 10 minutes then rinse it off with tepid water. (www.skin-care.becomegorgeous.com)

Comics

C R O S S W O R D

6 5 3

FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

To Yester

Word Sleuth Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

ACROSS

1. The sign language used in the United States.

4. A motley assortment of things.

10. An ester of adenosine that is converted to ATP for energy storage.

13. The 17th letter of the Greek alphabet.

14. An isogram connecting points having equal barometric pressure at a given time.

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

16. A distinguished female operatic singer.

18. A metallic element having four allotropic forms.

19. A wired or starched collar of intricate lace.

21. A genus of Scolopacidae.

23. Submerged aquatic plant having narrow leaves and small flowers.

24. (informal) Exceptionally good.

25. A master's degree in business.

27. A nucleic acid consisting of large molecules shaped like a double helix.

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

30. A white metallic element that burns with a brilliant light.

31. A soft white precious univalent metallic element having the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of any metal.

34. Read anew.

38. Either of two folds of skin that can be moved to cover or open the eye.

40. A radioactive element of the actinide series.

41. Someone who engages in arbitrage (who purchases securities in one market for immediate resale in another in the hope of profiting from the price differential).

42. Having undesirable or negative qualities.

45. King of Saudi Arabia from 1964 to 1975 (1906-1975).

47. Relating to the Andes and their inhabitants.

48. Functioning correctly and ready for action.

49. A colorless and odorless inert gas.

50. Eurasian perennial bulbous herbs.

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

61. Aircraft landing in bad weather in which the pilot is talked down by ground control using precision approach radar.

62. An advanced law degree.

63. A high-crowned black cap (usually made of felt or sheepskin) worn by men in Turkey and Iran and the Caucasus.

65. (informal) Roused to anger.

66. An independent agency of the United States government responsible for collecting and coordinating intelligence and counterintelligence activities abroad in the national interest.

67. One of 7 to 12 sons of Aditi.

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

DOWN 1. A unit of dry measure used in Egypt.

2. Bake (eggs) in their shells until they are set.

3. Genus of African timber trees.

4. A state in New England.

5. State in northeastern India.

6. A man who serves as a sailor.

7. A small pellet fired from an air rifle or BB gun.

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

9. The father of your father or mother.

10. A genus of Platalea.

11. A collection of facts from which conclusions may be drawn.

12. A verbalization that encourages you to attempt something.

17. Primitive chlorophyll-containing mainly aquatic eukaryotic organisms lacking true stems and roots and leaves.

20. A vigorous blow.

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

26. Date used in reckoning dates before the supposed year Christ was born.

29. A small cake leavened with yeast.

32. A member of the Siouan people formerly living in the Missouri river valley in NE Nebraska.

33. The act of scanning.

35. A period marked by distinctive character or reckoned from a fixed point or event.

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

37. Indigo bush.

39. The United Nations agency concerned with civil aviation.

43. (Old Testament) In Judeo-Christian mythology.

44. Preaching the gospel of Christ in the manner of the early church.

45. A collection of facts from which conclusions may be drawn.

46. A thin wedge of material (wood or metal or stone) for driving into crevices.

51. Large sweet juicy hybrid between tangerine and grapefruit having a thick wrinkled skin.

52. A Tibetan or Mongolian priest of Lamaism.

53. Large burrowing rodent of South and Central America.

54. Type genus of the Alcidae comprising solely the razorbill.

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

56. An informal term for a father.

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

59. (usually followed by `to') Naturally disposed toward.

60. Concerning those not members of the clergy.

61. An informal term for a father.

64. A public promotion of some product or service.

Yesterday’s Solution

W h a t ’s O n FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

KNES conducts career oriented workshop

A

t Kuwait National English School we believe that a successful career pathway involves a sequence of articulated academic and career courses beginning at the secondary school and continuing through to a degree and beyond. The development and maintenance of a successful career requires partnerships between secondary and post-secondary educators and employers.

Developing career pathways increase aspirations among students, improve transitions to workforce and post-secondary education and increase efficiency of students progressing through post-secondary education.

Kuwait National English School is continuously finding ways to help our students in choosing the most appropriate career choice.

Our students visit some universities during the year; they join our effective Job Shadow program and have regular advice from profes-

sionals on career choice. In this connection, recently Kuwait National English School invited Professor Wayne Brodland, from the University of Waterloo to give a workshop to our graduation students. The University of Waterloo is ranked among the top in the world and is a leader in Engineering, Sciences and research. He is a famous professor and has his own labs where research is carried out in the field of Cloning, Engineering and Sciences. His workshop was of three parts: At the beginning, he handed out a questionnaire to each student. He was trying to find out about the childhood, interest, potential career choice and the favorite subjects in school of our students. He preceded by an open debate in which they were discussing about ways they feel they could help to make the world a better place. He encouraged our students to pursue their dream by studying and work hard. The most interesting part was a hands on

experiment on mechanics. He used the help of one of our students (Shaima Al Bahrani, Year 11 student from Kuwait National English School) and converted heat energy (from a cup of hot water) to kinetic energy. The energy was later used to move a wheel. It was a lively and vivid experiment. He also showed slides of the steps in the development of the fetus to a child.

He concluded by stating that most of today’s inventions (iPods, mobile, unusual building architectures) first originated in somebody’s imagination. Through research, the dream is realized.

On behalf of Kuwait National English School, Madame Chantal Al Gharabally, School Director, would like to take this opportunity to thank Professor Wayne Brodland and hope that this collaboration will be the start of a lasting relationship with this famous tertiary institution.

IIS hosts 13th CBSE Kuwait Cluster Inter School Lawn Tennis tournament

I

G

Bhavan’s launches ‘CBSE’ international curriculum

enius is not the sole domain of a rare breed of person. Every child is entitled to that label provided the educational institutions strive hard to meet the challenges of the 21st century learner. The present generation is witnessing changes at a fast, unprecedented pace difficult to comprehend. There comes a time in an individual’s, or institution’s life when a juxtaposition of what is going on in our own life coincides with significant changes in the outside world. This often prompts a slight change in direction, and then a sudden growth spurt. The year 2011- 2012 has been witnessing a great break through in Bhavans Kuwait. With the digital campus and the Learning management system as a powerful tool to cater to the need of this change, our honorable chairman Ramachandra Menon has taken this strong initiative to start the CBSE -international curriculum for classes 1,2 and 3 to begin with. A curriculum which makes every child uses his innate talent to blossom and develop as fine personalities to meet the future challenges.

Twenty-first century skills include the ability to use a range of electronic technologies to access, synthesize and apply information, the ability to think critically and creatively and evaluate the products of one’s thinking and last but not the least the ability to communicate effectively and collaborate with others, particularly in diverse and multicultural settings. The training of teachers and preparation for

this transdisciplinary curriculum started way ahead before the school launched the CBSE international curriculum on the 31st of March 2012. On the same day an exhaustive orientation programme was conducted to familiarize the parents what the curriculum has in the offing. The basic philosophy of this curriculum, how it all started

by CBSE under the aegis of the HRD Minister Kapil Sibal and the chairman of CBSE Mr. Vineet Joshi, the subjects offered, the syllabus and a glimpse of how the class room setting would be, was explicitly presented to the anxious parents.

The school reopened for the children on 9th of April...excitement and enthusiasm was writ on their faces. The classrooms are bustling with activities where teachers have their lessons so creatively planned based on the philosophy of howard gardner’s multiple intelligences, Benjamin Bloom’s taxonamy and constructivism based on collaborative learning.

We are sure the school will emerge as a powerful learning centre where personalities with strength of character, sound academic standards and strong interpersonal skills with great values imbibed will be created in the years to come..........we, the family of Bhavans love to tread upon the unexplored path where vision and our mission will lead every child who has entered the portals of education reach great heights.

ndia International School in collaboration with Indian Learner’s Own Academy organized 13th CBSE Kuwait Cluster Inter School Lawn Tennis Tournament 2012-13 for boys and girls (U-19 & U-14 category) for the CBSE affiliated schools in Kuwait on 9, 10 and 11th April at Learner’s Own Academy.

This tournament was inaugurated by the chapter convener Mrs Anju Dheman, Principal FAIPS, Kuwait and the meet was ‘declared open’ by Mrs Asha Sharma, Principal, Indian Learner’s Own Academy. F.M. Basheer Ahmed, Principal, India International School thanked the principals and the officials D.K.Dileep, Jagat Joshi, Prajeesh Balan, Tulsi Das, Murugan and the PET teachers of the participating schools for their wonderful co-operation and commitment. He also extended his thanks to Mrs Asha Sharma for providing the venue and other facilities for conducting the meet.

This stands as a testimony to the remarkable development as far as sports are concerned. IIS aims at providing a platform for the overall development of the students by instilling in the minds of budding personalities the spirit of sportsmanship and providing the students best opportunities to their cherished goals with indomitable spirit and energy. This was evident when students from about eight schools participated with indomitable spirit and enthusiasm.

The participating schools were Indian Educational School, Carmel School, Fahaheel Al-watanieh Indian Private School (DPS), Indian English Academy School, Indian Central School, Al-Amal School, Indian Learner’s Own Academy, India International School.

The winners of U-19 category boys and U-14 category boys will represent their school at National level.

TV Listings FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

00:45 01:40 02:35 03:00 03:30 03:55 04:25 05:20 05:45 06:10 07:00 07:25 08:15 08:40 09:10 09:35 10:05 11:00 11:55 12:50 13:15 13:45 14:10 14:40 15:30 16:00 16:30 17:25 18:20 19:15 19:40 20:10 20:35 21:05 22:00 22:55 23:50

Untamed & Uncut I Was Bitten Wild Britain With Ray Mears Wild Britain With Ray Mears The Snake Buster The Snake Buster Fur Seals: The Dark Side Going Ape Wildlife SOS Last Chance Highway Orangutan Island Baby Planet The Really Wild Show Project Puppy Cats Of Claw Hill Cats Of Claw Hill Fur Seals: The Dark Side Animal Precinct Animal Cops Phoenix Vet On The Loose Vet On The Loose RSPCA: On The Frontline Wildlife SOS Fur Seals: The Dark Side Animal Battlegrounds The Really Wild Show Penguin Safari Dogs 101 World’s Ugliest Dog Competition Wildlife SOS Going Ape Orangutan Island Animal Battlegrounds Ocean Odyssey Seven Deadly Strikes Human Prey K9 Cops

00:00 A Taste Of My Life 00:30 The Hairy Bikers’ Cookbook 01:00 Indian Food Made Easy 01:30 Saturday Kitchen 2007/08 01:55 Living In The Sun 02:50 Bargain Hunt 03:35 A Taste Of My Life 04:05 The Hairy Bikers’ Cookbook 04:30 Antiques Roadshow 05:20 Living In The Sun 06:15 Bargain Hunt 07:00 Antiques Roadshow 07:50 MasterChef Australia 08:35 MasterChef Australia 09:25 Bargain Hunt 10:10 Antiques Roadshow 11:00 Come Dine With Me 11:50 10 Years Younger 12:40 Celebrity Fantasy Homes 13:25 Celebrity Fantasy Homes 14:15 Fantasy Homes Down Under 15:05 House Swap 15:50 Bargain Hunt 16:35 Antiques Roadshow 17:30 Indian Food Made Easy 18:00 A Taste Of Greenland 18:50 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 19:15 Indian Food Made Easy 19:40 James Martin’s Favourite Feasts 20:05 10 Years Younger 20:55 Gok’s Fashion Fix 21:45 Gok’s Fashion Fix 22:35 Bargain Hunt 23:20 Antiques Roadshow

00:00 00:30 00:45 01:00 01:30 01:45 02:00 02:30 02:45 03:00 03:30 03:45 04:00 04:30 04:45 05:00 05:30 05:45 06:00 06:30 07:00 07:30 07:45 08:00 08:30 08:45 09:00 09:30

BBC World News World Business Report Sport Today BBC World News America Asia Business Report Sport Today BBC World News Asia Business Report Sport Today Newsday Asia Business Report Sport Today Newsday Asia Business Report Sport Today Newsday Asia Business Report Sport Today Newsday Extra Time BBC World News World Business Report BBC World News BBC World News World Business Report BBC World News BBC World News World Business Report

09:45 Sport Today 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 World Business Report 10:45 Sport Today 11:00 BBC World News 11:30 Extra Time 12:00 BBC World News 12:30 World Business Report 12:45 Sport Today 13:00 BBC World News 13:30 BBC World News 14:00 GMT With George Alagiah 14:30 GMT With George Alagiah 15:00 BBC World News 15:30 World Business Report 15:45 Sport Today 16:00 Impact 16:30 Our World 17:00 Impact 17:30 World Business Report 17:45 Sport Today 18:00 World Have Your Say 18:30 World Have Your Say 19:00 The Hub With Nik Gowing 19:30 The Hub With Nik Gowing 19:40 Weekend World 20:00 The Hub With Nik Gowing 20:30 World Business Report 20:45 Sport Today 21:00 World News Today With Zeinab Badawi 21:30 World Have Your Say Extra 21:40 Weekend World 22:00 BBC World News 22:30 Middle East Business Report 23:00 BBC World News America 23:30 World Football Focus

00:00 02:15 04:15 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:15

Bram Stoker’s Dracula-18 I Am Number Four-PG15 Legend Of The Guardians-PG Legendary-PG15 Tremors-PG15 True Justice: Brotherhood-PG15 Fighting-PG15 Tremors-PG15 In The Line Of Fire-PG15 Fighting-PG15

20:00 Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call - New Orleans-18 22:00 A Perfect Getaway-18

00:45 03:00 PG15 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 PG15 15:00 17:00 19:00 20:45 23:00

00:30 01:00 01:30 03:00 03:30 04:00 04:30 05:30 06:00 07:00 08:00 08:30 09:00 09:30 10:00 11:00 12:00 12:30 13:00 14:00 14:30 15:00 16:30 17:00 18:00 18:30

Of Gods And Men-18 Tomorrow, When The War BeganSounds Like Teen Spirit-PG15 Coyote County Loser-PG15 Certified Copy-PG15 Africa United-PG15 Tomorrow, When The War BeganCertified Copy-PG15 Africa United-PG15 Jonah Hex-PG15 The A-Team-PG15 Middle Men-18

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart The Colbert Report The Big C Melissa And Joey 10 Items Or Less The Simpsons The Tonight Show With Jay Leno Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne Weird Science Late Night With Jimmy Fallon The Simpsons Melissa And Joey Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne Cougar Town How I Met Your Mother The Tonight Show With Jay Leno Weird Science The Simpsons Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne 10 Items Or Less How I Met Your Mother Cougar Town Weird Science Late Night With Jimmy Fallon New Girl Happy Endings

19:00 19:30 20:00 21:00 21:30 23:00 23:30

30 Rock Modern Family The Tonight Show With Jay Leno The Daily Show With Jon Stewart The Colbert Report It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

00:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

American Idol Necessary Roughness Psych True Blood Live Good Morning America The Protector Emmerdale The Ellen DeGeneres Show The Martha Stewart Show The View American Idol Live Good Morning America The Protector The Ellen DeGeneres Show Castle Glee American Idol Smash Survivor: One World True Blood

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00

Parenthood Necessary Roughness Combat Hospital American Idol Psych Parenthood Emmerdale The Nine Lives Of Chloe King Psych American Idol The Chicago Code The Ellen DeGeneres Show The Nine Lives Of Chloe King Parenthood The Chicago Code

17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

The Ellen DeGeneres Show Castle Glee American Idol Smash Survivor: One World Combat Hospital

01:00 03:00 04:45 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 PG15 19:00 21:15 23:00

I Am Number Four-PG15 Legend Of The Guardians-PG Bram Stoker’s Dracula-18 Dick Tracy-PG15 Phone Booth-PG15 Law Abiding Citizen-18 Smoke Screen-PG15 Phone Booth-PG15 Bodyguard: A New Beginning-

00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 08:00 PG 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00

Flubber-PG Blue Streak-PG15 Cats & Dogs-PG Miami Rhapsody-PG15 Nanny McPhee And The Big Bang-

01:00 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 14:45 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:15

Cape Fear-PG15 The Dry Land-18 Le Syndrome Du Titanic-PG15 Catch That Kid-PG The Eclipse-PG15 Don’t Fade Away-PG15 Return To Rajapur-PG15 Funny Bones-PG15 Eight Below-PG The Greatest-PG15 Legends Of The Fall-18 Asylum-18

01:00 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

Blue Valentine-18 The Client List-PG15 My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend-PG15 The Girl In The Park-PG15 The Spy Next Door-PG How To Train Your Dragon-PG Prom-PG15 Too Big To Fail-PG15 The Spy Next Door-PG Salt-PG15 Never Let Me Go-PG15 The Other Guys-PG15

The Hurt Locker-18 Street Kings 2: Motor City-18 The Killing Room-PG15

Babe-FAM Babe: Pig In The City-FAM Ball & Chain-PG15 Flubber-PG The Allnighter-PG15 Death At A Funeral-PG15 Idle Hands-18

00:00 Quest For Zhu-PG 02:00 The Thief Of Baghdad-PG 03:45 Rango-FAM 06:00 Tangled-FAM 08:00 Moomins And The Comet ChaseFAM 10:00 Scooby-Doo! Curse Of The Lake Monster-PG 12:00 Jetsons: The Movie-FAM 14:00 Rango-FAM 16:00 I’ll Be Home For Christmas-PG 18:00 Scooby-Doo! Curse Of The Lake Monster-PG 20:00 North-PG 22:00 Jetsons: The Movie-FAM

TREMORS ON OSN ACTION HD

00:00 MSNBC Hardball W/ Chris Matthews 01:00 MSNBC Politicsnation 02:00 Live NBC Nightly News 02:30 ABC World News W/ Diane Sawyer 03:00 MSNBC The Ed Show 04:00 MSNBC The Rachel Maddow Show 05:00 MSNBC The Last Word W/ Lawrence O’Donnell 06:00 NBC Nightly News 06:35 ABC Nightline 07:00 ABC World News W/ Diane Sawyer 07:30 Live NBC Nightly News 08:00 Live PBS Newshour 09:00 MSNBC The Rachel Maddow Show 10:00 ABC World News Now 10:30 Live ABC World News Now

11:00 NBC Early Today 11:30 ABC America This Morning 12:00 ABC America This Morning 12:30 Live ABC America This Morning 13:00 Live ABC America This Morning 13:30 MSNBC First Look 14:00 Live NBC Today Show 17:57 Live MSNBC Hardball W/ Chris Matthews 18:38 Live MSNBC The Ed Show 19:19 Live MSNBC The Rachel Maddow Show 20:00 MSNBC Andrea Mitchell Reports 21:00 Live PBS Newshour 22:00 MSNBC Martin Bashir 23:00 MSNBC The Dylan Ratigan Show

00:15 01:45 04:15 06:15 08:00 09:30 11:30 13:30 15:30 17:30 20:00 22:00

Essential Killing-18 Inception-PG15 Morning Glory-PG15 Uncorked-PG15 Winnie The Pooh-FAM Soul Surfer-PG15 Morning Glory-PG15 5 Dollars A Day-PG15 Soul Surfer-PG15 The Karate Kid-PG Never Let Me Go-PG15 The Resident-18

00:30 01:30 06:00 07:00 10:30 12:30 14:30 15:30 19:00 20:00 22:00

Volvo Ocean Race Highlights European PGA Tour WWE NXT Premier League Darts Live Super Rugby Live Super Rugby WWE NXT Premier League Darts WWE NXT WWE SmackDown Live Super League

00:30 01:00 02:00 02:30 06:00 06:30 07:00 08:00 11:00 11:30 13:30 14:30 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 21:30 22:00

Total Rugby Super Rugby Highlights Futbol Mundial Premier League Darts Futbol Mundial SPL Highlights AFL Winners Live AFL Premiership NRL Full Time Live NRL Premiership Golfing World Total Rugby Super Rugby Super Rugby NRL Premiership Futbol Mundial Total Rugby Live Pro 12 Celtic League

00:00 00:30 01:00 01:30 06:00 07:00 08:00 08:30 09:00 13:00 14:00 16:30 18:30 19:00 19:30 20:30 21:00 21:30 23:30

Mobil 1 The Grid NRL Full Time Scottish Premier League Highlights European PGA Tour Ping Pong World Championship Golfing World European Tour Weekly Asian Tour Golf Show Live European PGA Tour Trans World Sport AFL Premiership NRL Premiership Futbol Mundial Scottish Premier League Highlights Trans World Sport Total Rugby Top 14 Highlights Live Top 14 Trans World Sport

00:00 01:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 08:30 12:30 14:30 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 18:30 19:00 19:30 20:00 22:00 23:00

WWE NXT Prizefighter UFC The Ultimate Fighter UFC Unleashed UFC Unleashed WWE NXT WWE This Week Live Asian Tour Golf Live NRL Premiership Mobil 1 The Grid V8 Supercars Highlights V8 Supercars Highlights UFC The Ultimate Fighter UFC 145 Primetime UFC 145 Primetime UFC 145 Primetime UFC 145 Countdown WWE SmackDown WWE Bottom Line UFC The Ultimate Fighter

Classifieds FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

CHANGE OF NAME

112 For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128 Prayer timings Fajr: Duhr: Asr: Maghrib: Isha:

03:54 11:47 15:22 18:18 19:38

I, Ajruddin holder of Indian passport No. F5493179 issued in Jaipur on 22-11-2005. I have changed my name to Azharuddin Saiyed, s/o Saiyed Mohiuddin. (C 3958) 18-4-2012 I, Purushothaman, son of Nagarajan, holder of Indian passport No. G1674605 have converted to Islam on 21st October 2009 and do now here after be known by my new name Abu Bakkar. (C 3956) 17-4-2012 Marali Surya Pujari holder of Indian Passport No: F1052862 has converted to Christianity with name of SURESH

JOSEPH ARANHA, and shall be known here forth.

(C 3951) ACCOMMODATION Sharing accommodation or studio apartment wanted in Salmiya or Hawally (preferably near Hawally Al Shaya, Hassan Abul or Sana) for a decent South Indian bachelor. Please contact: 60316101.

(C 3959) Immediate sharing accommodation available in Farwaniya behind Crowne Plaza separate room - fully furnished with telephone. For decent Indian Christian couple or decent working ladies.

Contact: 66099611/ 66027044. (C 3962) 19-4-2012

SITUATION WANTED Engineer need any work in any field, but I need good salary and I have experience in Secretary, Customer Service and Call Center.

Contact: 66606789.

(C 3961)

CHANGE OF DOB I, Afzalur Rahman, son of Fazlur Rahman, holder of Bangladeshi passport No. E0982724 hereby change my date of birth from 03-01-1968 to 03-01-1967.

(C 3960) 19-4-2012

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION Airlines PIA JZR QTR JZR JZR ETH RJA GFA UAE ETD DHX FDB MSR QTR KAC THY JZR BAW KAC JZR KAC FDB KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC UAE ABY QTR FDB IRA ETD GFA MEA JZR MSR IYE JZR RKM MSR GFA RJA KAC FDB OMA KAC QTR KAC JZR KAC QTR ETD JZR UAE GFA SVA UAL JZR ABY ALK KAC

Flt 205 185 148 539 267 620 642 211 853 305 370 67 612 138 544 770 555 157 416 529 206 53 302 332 676 352 284 344 855 125 132 55 619 301 213 404 165 606 825 561 310 610 219 640 672 57 645 538 140 788 257 546 134 303 215 857 215 510 982 177 127 227 542

Arrival Flights on Friday 20/4/2012 Route LAHORE DUBAI DOHA CAIRO BEIRUT ADDIS ABABA AMMAN BAHRAIN DUBAI ABU DHABI BAHRAIN DUBAI CAIRO DOHA CAIRO ISTANBUL ALEXANDRIA LONDON JAKARTA ASSIUT ISLAMABAD DUBAI MUMBAI TRIVANDRUM DUBAI COCHIN DHAKA CHENNAI DUBAI SHARJAH DOHA DUBAI LAR ABU DHABI BAHRAIN BEIRUT DUBAI LUXOR SANAA SOHAG RAS ALKHAIMAH CAIRO BAHRAIN AMMAN DUBAI DUBAI MUSCAT SOHAG DOHA JEDDAH BEIRUT ALEXANDRIA DOHA ABU DHABI DEIREZZOR DUBAI BAHRAIN RIYADH WASHINGTON DC DULLES DUBAI SHARJAH COLOMBO CAIRO

Time 0:15 0:15 0:20 0:30 0:50 1:45 2:10 2:20 2:25 2:30 2:55 3:10 3:20 3:25 4:10 4:35 6:00 6:30 6:35 6:40 7:15 7:45 7:50 7:55 8:05 8:05 8:15 8:20 8:25 8:30 9:00 9:20 9:20 9:30 10:00 10:55 11:05 11:10 12:05 12:25 13:10 13:30 13:35 13:40 13:40 13:45 14:00 14:20 14:25 15:00 15:00 15:05 15:15 16:35 16:40 16:55 17:15 17:20 17:25 17:30 17:45 18:00 18:15

KAC FDB MSR KNE JZR KAC KAC KAC JAI KAC KAC KAC FDB ETH MEA QTR SVA GFA KAC JZR JZR FCX ABY QTR UAE DHX AIC GFA UAL JZR DLH THY KLM

166 63 624 472 787 618 674 742 572 102 774 562 61 3718 402 146 506 221 786 481 135 304 129 136 859 372 975 217 981 239 636 772 413

Airlines AIC UAL DLH KLM PIA THY ETH UAE FDB DHX ETD MSR QTR QTR JZR RJA JZR GFA THY KAC KAC BAW FDB KAC JZR ABY KAC KAC UAE

Flt 982 981 637 411 206 773 621 854 68 371 306 613 139 149 560 643 164 212 771 537 545 156 54 175 256 126 671 787 856

PARIS DUBAI SOHAG JEDDAH RIYADH DOHA DUBAI DAMMAM MUMBAI NEW YORK RIYADH AMMAN DUBAI LIEGE BEIRUT DOHA JEDDAH BAHRAIN JEDDAH SABIHA BAHRAIN RIYADH SHARJAH DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN CHENNAI BAHRAIN BAHRAIN AMMAN FRANKFURT ISTANBUL AMSTERDAM Departure Flights on Friday 20/4/2012 Route AHMEDABAD WASHINGTON DC DULLES FRANKFURT AMSTERDAM LAHORE ISTANBUL ADDIS ABABA DUBAI DUBAI BAHRAIN ABU DHABI CAIRO DOHA DOHA SOHAG AMMAN DUBAI BAHRAIN ISTANBUL SOHAG ALEXANDRIA LONDON DUBAI FRANKFURT BEIRUT SHARJAH DUBAI JEDDAH DUBAI

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JZR QTR KAC FDB ETD IRA GFA KAC MEA MSR KAC IYE JZR JZR RKM GFA FDB MSR RJA KAC OMA KAC KAC KAC JZR QTR KAC KAC ETD JZR JZR QTR UAE GFA JZR ABY SVA UAL ALK FDB MSR KNE JZR KAC KAC JAI FDB KAC KAC MEA GFA JZR SVA ETH ABY KAC QTR KAC KAC DHX FCX JZR QTR UAE GFA KAC JZR

214 133 117 56 302 618 214 541 405 623 103 825 480 176 311 220 58 611 641 561 646 673 785 617 786 135 773 741 304 238 538 141 858 216 134 128 511 982 228 64 621 473 184 283 361 571 62 343 351 403 222 502 507 3718 120 381 137 301 205 373 102 554 147 860 218 411 528

DEIREZZOR DOHA NEW YORK DUBAI ABU DHABI LAR BAHRAIN CAIRO BEIRUT SOHAG LONDON DOHA ISTANBUL DUBAI RAS ALKHAIMAH BAHRAIN DUBAI CAIRO AMMAN AMMAN MUSCAT DUBAI JEDDAH DOHA RIYADH DOHA RIYADH DAMMAM ABU DHABI AMMAN CAIRO DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN BAHRAIN SHARJAH RIYADH BAHRAIN DUBAI DUBAI ALEXANDRIA JEDDAH DUBAI DHAKA COLOMBO MUMBAI DUBAI CHENNAI KOCHI BEIRUT BAHRAIN LUXOR JEDDAH HONG KONG SHARJAH DELHI DOHA MUMBAI ISLAMABAD BAHRAIN DUBAI ALEXANDRIA DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN BANGKOK ASSIUT

Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)

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Sports FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

Rangers extend hot streak

MILWAUKEE: Brewers’ Nyjer Morgan (bottom) celebrates with Aramis Ramirez (16) after scoring from third on a sacrifice fly by Ryan Braun during the 10th inning of a baseball game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. —AP

Braves triumph over Mets ATLANTA: Atlanta’s Dan Uggla ended his struggles against New York pitcher RA Dickey by hitting a two-run homer that contributed to the Braves 14-6 win over the Mets on Tuesday. Uggla had been 0 for 24 against the knuckleballer before his home run capped a four-run third and gave Atlanta a 6-3 lead. Juan Francisco homered in the second and Freddie Freeman hit a two-run drive in the fifth that ended the game for Dickey (2-1), who allowed eight runs in 4 1-3 innings in his worst outing in four years. Atlanta has won seven of eight since opening the season with four losses, including three straight in New York. David Wright had three RBIs, tying Darryl Strawberry for the Mets’ career record at 733. Atlanta’s Cristhian Martinez (1-0) gave up one run in two innings to win in relief.

Nationals 3, Astros 2 In Washington, the hosts rallied in the eighth inning to overtake Houston and notch a third straight win. Jayson Werth drew a bases-loaded walk and Wilson Ramos hit a sacrifice fly to put the Nationals ahead. Washignton drew three walks in the inning and scored twice. Houston lost its fourth in a row.

Cardinals 11, Reds 1 In St. Louis, Jaime Garcia pitched seven effective innings and hit a two-run triple as St. Louis cruised past Cincinnati.

Garcia (2-0) allowed only one run and was aided by four double plays. He also helped himself, hitting a triple off the wall in center field in the sixth inning to make it 7-1 and end the night for opposing pitcher Mat Latos (0-2). St. Louis’ Carlos Beltran hit a two-run homer, his fifth of the season and second of the series.

Pirates 2, D’backs 1 In Phoenix, Neil Walker’s two-out bloop single in the eighth inning fell between three fielders in shallow center field, driving in Clint Barmes for the goahead run that gave Pittsburgh victory over Arizona. The Pirates got back-toback two-out singles from Barmes and Andrew McCutchen in the eighth off Diamondbacks starter Daniel Hudson (1-

1) before Walker’s lucky hit off reliever David Hernandez. Pittsburgh closer Juan Cruz allowed a leadoff single in the ninth but did secure the save.

Giants 1, Phillies 0 In San Francisco, Melky Cabrera hit an RBI single in the 11th inning to give San Francisco victory over Philadelphia in a classic pitchers’ duel that looked like it might go all night. Cliff Lee threw 10 scoreless innings for the Phillies and Matt Cain pitched nine for the Giants.

Cabrera came through with the winning hit off Antonio Bastardo (0-1), who had allowed Brandon Belt’s one-out single up the middle. Belt then advanced when the third baseman fumbled Angel Pagan’s grounder.

The game lasted just 2 hours, 27 minutes. And it left luckless Lee still searching for his first win of the season after three starts.

Marlins 9, Cubs 1 In Miami, Hanley Ramirez homered for the third game in a row as Miami beat slumping Chicago. Ramirez put the Marlins up 4-0 with a two-run homer in the fifth inning. He started the season slowly, but in the past four games has gone 9 for 16 with nine RBIs to hike his average from .133 to .283. Miami starter Mark Buehrle (1-2) pitched eight innings for his first victory with his new team, allowing only one run.

Rockies 8, Padres 4 In Denver, Juan Nicasio threw 6 1-3 solid innings for his first win since returning from a broken neck, lifting Colorado over San Diego. Nicasio (1-0) gave up seven hits as he made his second start at Coors Field since last August, when he was hit in the temple by a line drive and suffered a fractured skull along with the neck injury. He earned a spot in the rotation with a strong spring - a remarkable recovery considering doctors feared he might not walk again. Nicasio also singled home a run, the first RBI of his career.

That hit finished the night for Padres starter Clayton Richard (1-1), who didn’t have his best command as he surrendered eight runs in 5 1-3 innings.—AP

BOSTON: Texas’ Mike Napoli hit a two-run homer and drove in four runs to power the Rangers to a 63 win over the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday for their sixth-straight win.

It was Napoli’s fourth home run in three games to go along with a two-run double. Texas starter Derek Holland (2-0) pitched seven solid innings, allowing four hits and striking out seven. The Red Sox dropped their third consecutive game, and Josh Beckett (1-2) took the loss despite holding the Rangers down a night after they hit six homers in an 18-3 win.

and Ichiro Suzuki homered for the Mariners.

White Sox 8, Orioles 1 In Chicago, slugger Adam Dunn broke out of his slump by hitting a three-run double as Chicago beat Baltimore and ended a three-game skid. Dunn had been 0 for 15 against left-handers this season before the oppositefield hit.

AJ Pierzynski homered for the White Sox while Jake Peavy (2-0) pitched seven sparkling innings with eight strikeouts and no walks.

Orioles starter Tommy Hunter (1-1) matched a career high with eight strikeouts, but was charged with eight runs in 5 2-3 innings.

Athletics 6, Angels 0 In Anaheim, Bartolo Colon

Rays 12, Blue Jays 2 In Toronto, Luke Scott hit a grand slam and Ben Zobrist added a two-run homer to lead Tampa Bay over Toronto. Scott hit his third career grand slam as the Rays broke the game open with a six-run ninth. Tampa Bay starter David Price (2-1) allowed two runs in 5 2-3 innings. He is 4-0 in five starts at Rogers Centre.

Blue Jays starter Brandon Morrow (0-1) allowed six runs in six innings and matched a career worst by giving up three homers.

Tigers 4, Royals 3 In Kansas City, Prince Fielder drove in two runs as Detroit inflicted Kansas City’s seventh straight loss. The Royals skid includes losing their first six home games,” the most in their history to start a new season.

Detroit starter Max Scherzer (11) got his first win of the season, giving up seven hits and only one walk in six-plus innings. The Tigers scored two in the seventh off relievers Kelvin Herrera and Jose Mijares (0-1).

Mariners 4, Indians 1 In Seattle, the hosts beat Cleveland in front of the smallest crowd in Safeco Field’s 14-year history. Jason Vargas threw seven innings and the top of the order provided the pop for the Mariners, who played in front of just 11,343. Indians starter Derek Lowe (2-1) pitched 4 1-3 innings, allowing two homers, four earned runs and six walkes‚” one short of his career worst. Chone Figgins

Twins 6, Yankees 5 In New York, Justin Morneau hit two mammoth homers to power Minnesota to a narrow win over New York. The Twins scored four times in the first inning against Hiroki Kuroda (1-2). The Japanese gave up 10 hits in 4-1/3 innings.

Minnesota starter Jason Marquis threw 87 pitches in five innings and left with a 6-4 lead, earning his first win with his new team.

threw 38 consecutive strikes at one point and pitched eight scoreless innings to help Oakland beat cellar-dwelling Los Angeles.

Colon (3-1) struck out five and walked none, helping drop his former team six games off the leaders in the AL West‚” just 12 games into the season.

STATS LLC’s pitch-by-pitch data goes back to 1988‚” since then, the most consecutive strikes a pitcher has thrown is 30, by Tim Wakefield for Boston in 1998 against Cleveland.

Colon has walked only two batters in his first 27 1-3 innings this season. Angels starter Ervin Santana (0-3) gave up four runs over seven innings.—AP

BOSTON: Texas Rangers’ Mike Napoli (right) is congratulated at the plate by David Murphy after his two-run home run against the Boston Red Sox. —AP

MLB results/standings Atlanta 14, NY Mets 6; Pittsburgh 2, Arizona 1; Minnesota 6, NY Yankees 5; Washington 3, Houston 2; Tampa Bay 12, Toronto 2; Texas 6, Boston 3; Miami 9, Chicago Cubs 1; Milwaukee 3, LA Dodgers 2 (10 innings); Detroit 4, Kansas City 3; Chicago White Sox 8, Baltimore 1; St. Louis 11, Cincinnati 1; Colorado 8, San Diego 4; Oakland 6, LA Angels 0; San Francisco 1, Philadelphia 0 (11 innings); Seattle 4, Cleveland 1.

American League Eastern Division W L PCT Baltimore 7 5 .583 Toronto 6 5 .545 NY Yankees 6 6 .500 Tampa Bay 6 6 .500 Boston 4 8 .333 Central Division Detroit 9 3 .750 Chicago W Sox6 5 .545 Cleveland 5 5 .500 Minnesota 4 8 .333 Kansas City 3 9 .250 Western Division Texas 10 2 .833 Seattle 7 6 .538 Oakland 6 7 .462 LA Angels 4 8 .333

GB .5 1 1 3 2.5 3 5 6 3.5 4.5 6

National League Eastern Division Washington 10 3 .769 Atlanta 7 5 .583 NY Mets 7 5 .583 Miami 6 6 .500 Philadelphia 5 7 .417 Central Division St. Louis 9 3 .750 Milwaukee 6 6 .500 Pittsburgh 5 7 .417 Cincinnati 4 8 .333 Houston 4 8 .333 Chicago Cubs 3 9 .250 Western Division LA Dodgers 9 3 .750 Arizona 7 5 .583 San Francisco 6 6 .500 Colorado 6 6 .500 San Diego 3 10 .231

2.5 2.5 3.5 4.5 3 4 5 5 6 2 3 3 6.5

Sports FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

Thunder dent Suns hopes NBA results/standings Chicago 100, Charlotte 68; Philadelphia 103, Cleveland 87; Washington 121, Milwaukee 112; Atlanta 116, Detroit 84; NY Knicks 104, New Jersey 95; Miami 96, Toronto 72; Boston 102, Orlando 98; Memphis 103, New Orleans 91; Dallas 117, Houston 110; LA Clippers 104, Denver 98; Oklahoma City 109, Phoenix 97; Utah 112, Portland 91; San Antonio 127, Sacramento 102; LA Lakers 99, Golden State 87.

Boston NY Knicks Philadelphia New Jersey Toronto Chicago Indiana Milwaukee Detroit Cleveland Miami Atlanta Orlando Washington Charlotte Oklahoma City Denver Utah Portland Minnesota Pacific Division LA Lakers LA Clippers Phoenix Golden State Sacramento San Antonio Memphis Dallas Houston New Orleans

Eastern Conference Atlantic Division W L PCT 37 26 .587 33 29 .532 32 30 .516 22 41 .349 22 41 .349 Central Division 47 15 .758 40 22 .645 29 32 .475 23 39 .371 20 41 .328 Southeast Division 44 17 .721 37 25 .597 36 26 .581 16 46 .258 7 54 .115 Western Conference Northwest Division 45 17 .726 34 28 .548 33 30 .524 28 35 .444 25 38 .397 40 23 .635 39 23 .629 32 30 .516 22 39 .361 20 42 .323 Southwest Division 45 16 .738 37 25 .597 35 28 .556 32 30 .516 19 43 .306

GB 3.5 4.5 15 15 7 17.5 24 26.5 7.5 8.5 28.5 37 11 12.5 17.5 20.5 .5 7.5 17 19.5 8.5 11 13.5 26.5

Penguins score 10 to stay alive

PHILADELPHIA: On the brink of elimination from the NHL playoffs, the Pittsburgh Penguins responded with a 10-3 thrashing of the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday, becoming the first team to reach double figures in a postseason game for 22 years. Jordan Staal had a hat trick, Evgeni Malkin scored his first two goals of the series, and Sidney Crosby added one to help the Penguins cut the Flyers’ lead in the Eastern Conference first-round series to 3-1. Game 5 is Friday in Pittsburgh.

Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury settled down after a shaky first period and had his best game of the series, easily outplaying counterpart Ilya Bryzgalov. Matt Niskanen, Kris Letang, Steve Sullivan and Pascal Dupuis also scored for Pittsburgh. After the Flyers took a 3-2 lead, the Penguins scored eight straight goals to become the first team to reach double figures in a playoff game since Los Angeles netted 12 against Calgary in 1990. Claude Giroux, Kimmo Timonen and Jakub Voracek scored for the Flyers. Bryzgalov was replaced by Sergei Bobrovsky after allowing Pittsburgh’s fifth goal.

Senators 3, Rangers 2 In Ottawa, Kyle Turris scored at 2:42 of overtime to lift Ottawa past New York, tying the Eastern Conference series 2-2. Milan Michalek and Sergei Gonchar scored in the second period for the Senators to erase a 2-0 deficit, and Craig Anderson stopped 31 shots.

Anton Stralman and Ryan Callahan had power-plays goals early in the first period for the Rangers. Henrik Lundqvist made 28 saves.

Game 5 is tomorrow in New York.

Canucks 3, Kings 1 In Los Angeles, Vancouver goalie Cory Schneider made 43 saves and stopped a penalty shot in his first career playoff victory, helping the Canucks beat Los Angeles and stay alive in the playoffs.—AP

PHOENIX: Oklahoma City’s James Harden scored a career-high 40 points, including making 5 of 8 3-pointers, to lead the Thunder to a 109-97 win over Phoenix on Wednesday that dealt a blow to the Suns’ playoff hopes. Kevin Durant added 29 points for the Thunder, who stayed half a game behind San Antonio in the fight for the top playoff seed in the Western Conference.

Phoenix’s loss, coupled with Utah’s’ victory over Portland, moved the Jazz half a game above of the Suns for the West’s eighth and final playoff spot. Jared Dudley scored 21 points for Phoenix.

Celtics 102, Magic 98 In Boston, Paul Pierce had 29 points and a career-high 14 assists as Boston held off Orlando and clinched at least a tie for the NBA Atlantic Division title.

Boston has a 3-1/2-game lead over New York. The Celtics have three games left, and the Knicks have four. Division winners are guaranteed to be seeded no worse than fourth in the conference and would avoid Chicago or Miami in the first round of playoffs. The Magic cut a 91-78 lead to 91-90 with 3:04 left. But they came no closer.

Clippers 104, Nuggets 98 In Denver, Kenyon Martin helped beat his old team with a tip-in and blocked shot in the final half-minute, leading Los Angeles psat Denver. Martin tipped in Chris Paul’s missed jumper with 27 seconds left and the game tied, then blocked at the other end with 20 seconds remaining. After a timeout, Paul made two free throws to make it a four-point game. The Nuggets got back within two with 16 seconds remaining, but Mo Williams replied with two free throws and Paul, who led the Clippers with 21 points, capped the game with an uncontested dunk.

Mavericks 117, Rockets 110 In Dallas, Dirk Nowitzki scored 21 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter, steering Dallas to a win over Houston, whose playoff ambitions took another hit. Nowitzki sank two 3-pointers to trigger a 20-6 run that took the game away from the visitors.

The Rockets lost their fifth straight game, matching their longest losing skid of the season.

Heat 96, Raptors 72 In Maiami, LeBron James scored 28 points before taking the fourth quarter off as a below-strenth Miami warmed up for the playoffs with an easy win over Toronto. James made 12 of his 15 shots for Miami, which also got 13 points from Mike Miller. The Heat played without Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, both given the night off, yet still pulled away in the second half.

James Johnson scored 18 points for the Raptors, who tied franchise-record low by scoring only 23 points in the second half.

Miami hosts Chicago on Thursday. The Bulls hold a 2-1/2-game lead over the Heat in the Eastern Conference standings.

Spurs 127, Kings 102 In Sacramento, San Antonio made it five straight wins with victory at Sacramento. Tiago Splitter and Gary Neal scored 17 points each for the Spurs, who used their reserves extensively all game, won in Sacramento for an eighth straight

DENVER: Chris Paul No. 3 of the Los Angeles Clippers takes a shot over Ty Lawson No. 3 of the Denver Nuggets at Pepsi Center. The Clippers defeated the Nuggets 104-98. —AFP time and remained just ahead of Oklahoma City for top seed in the West.

Isaiah Thomas had 21 points and eight assists for the Kings, who have dropped eight of nine.

Lakers 99, Warriors 87 In Oakland, Los Angeles bounced back from its heaviest loss of the season and beat Golden State. A night after a 21-point defeat by San Antonio, the Lakers quickly got on top of the Warriors, taking a 17point lead in the second quarter. Andrew Bynum had 31 points and nine rebounds, and Pau Gasol recorded a triple-double of 22 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists for Los Angeles. Klay Thompson scored 17 points for Golden State.

Jazz 112, Trail Blazers 91 In Portland, Devin Harris had 27 points, including a career-high six 3-pointers, as Utah continued to jockey for a playoff spot with a victory over Portland. The Jazz, with just three games to play, are locked in a battle for the remaining playoff spots in the Western Conference with Houston, Phoenix, Dallas and Denver. Gordon Hayward added 23 points for the Jazz, who led by as many as 31 points. Wesley Matthews had 21 points for the Blazers.

Hawks 116, Pistons 84 In Atlanta, Tracy McGrady led six players in double figures as playoff-bound Atlanta built a 37-point lead in the first half on the way to a rout of Detroit. With their highest-scoring half of the season, the Hawks were up 72-42 at the break in the first of five straight home games to close the regular season. Atlanta is battling with Boston and Orlando to be the final Eastern Conference team with homecourt advantage.

Grizzlies 103, Hornets 91 In Memphis, the hosts clinched a playoff berth with a win over New Orleans.

Rudy Gay scored 26 points and Mike Conley added 20 for the Grizzlies, who shot 51 percent. Rookie Jerome Dyson led the Hornets with a career-high 24 points but could not prevent the team losing for the first time in five games.

Knicks 104, Nets 95 In Newark, Carmelo Anthony scored 21 of his 33 points in the first quarter, setting

up New York’s win over New Jersey.

Continuing his impressive form run that has compensated for the absence of Amare Stoudemire and Jeremy Lin, Anthony hit his first six shots in the Knicks’ last visit to its neighboring state. The Nets are relocating to Brooklyn next season.

Anthony surpassed 30 points for the third straight game. He shot 11 of 21, going 5 of 7 on 3-pointers.

Bulls 100, Bobcats 68 In Charlotte, Chicago moved a step closer to securing the top seed in the East playoffs by thrashing woeful Charlotte.

Richard Hamilton scored 22 points in just 24 minutes for the Bulls, making his first seven shots, including four 3-pointers.

Despite playing without leading scorers Derrick Rose and Luol Deng, the Bulls shot 48 percent from the floor and connected on 9 of 19 shots from 3-point range.

Kemba Walker scored 16 points for the Bobcats, who’ve lost a franchise-record 18 straight games. If they lose their final five games they will finish with the worst winning percentage in NBA history.

76ers 103, Cavaliers 87 In Cleveland, Jrue Holiday made five 3pointers and scored 19 of his 24 points in the third quarter as Philadelphia beat Cleveland and tightened its grip on a playoff spot. Holiday made four of his 3s during a stunning 24-2 run when the Sixers blew open a tight game. Andre Iguodala added 19 points as Philadelphia snapped a three-game losing streak, and increased their lead over Milwaukee in the standings. However the Sixers play their final four on the road, including a game against the Bucks next week. Cavaliers rookie Kyrie Irving scored 9 points in his first game back after missing nine straight with a sprained shoulder.

Wizards 121, Bucks 112 In Washington, Jordan Crawford equaled a season-high with 32 points as Washington inflicted a damaging defeat on Milwaukee. Despite being freshened by three days off, the Bucks lost and fell 2-1/2 games behind Philadelphia in the fight for the last playoff spot in the East. John Wall had 14 points and 10 assists for the Wizards. Monta Ellis had 31 points for Milwaukee.—AP

Sports FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

Sports Snippets Mutai to ignore rivals

LONDON: Champion Emmanuel Mutai does not expect a tactical race at this year’s London Marathon even though he is among six Kenyans hoping to impress the national selectors ahead of the Olympics. Mutai heads a topclass field for Sunday’s race which includes his compatriots world champion Abel Kirui, three-times London winner Martin Lel and world record holder Patrick Makau. London is the final chance to win a place on the Kenyan Olympic marathon team with the selectors announcing their final three at the end of the month.

“You cannot say we’ll be watching each other. You have to run your own race because you use your own knowledge to say ‘how am I going to do the race’, Mutai told Reuters on Wednesday. Mutai, who set a course record of two hours four minutes and 40 seconds for victory last year and has never finished lower than fourth in London, believes his previous experience of the race could be a help.

Blow to Pakistan’s hopes

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s proposed tour of Pakistan is unlikely to go ahead after a court ordered the plans be suspended for a month due to security concerns, dealing a blow to hopes of reviving international cricket in the troubled nation. A twomember high court judging panel gave the order yesterday to the Bangladesh government and the cricket board in response to the intervention of a petitioner concerned about the team’s security. Pakistan hasn’t hosted a test-playing team since gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team bus in Lahore in March 2009, killing six police officials and wounding several members of the team. Bangladesh had been scheduled to play a one-day international on April 29 followed by a Twenty20 match the next day.

Baldwin leads China Open

TIANJIN: Matthew Baldwin of England took advantage of calm early conditions to shoot a 7-under 65 yesterday and lead by one stroke after the first round of the China Open.

Baldwin, who graduated from Europe’s second-tier Challenge Tour last year, said he was also helped by the tee and flag placements. “The conditions were a lot calmer when I played then when we played a practice round early in the week,” he said. “Then, I thought shooting four 72s around this course would be very good. But they did move some of the tees forward and some of the pins were very generous which helped the score.” Joost Luiten of the Netherlands, Gary Boyd of England, Scott Strange of Australia, Jean Baptiste Gonnet of France, Fredrik Andersson Hed of Sweden and Jbe Kruger of South Africa are next. j

Button: Mercedes major threat

MANAMA: Briton Jenson Button yesterday conceded that his McLaren team will face a tough battle with Mercedes in this year’s world championship after the Germans proved their potential with Nico Rosberg’s win in China last Sunday.

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s controversial Bahrain Grand Prix at Sakhir, the 2009 drivers world champion confirmed that Rosberg’s commanding lights-to-flag triumph, following the FIA’s rejection of all protests about their car, signalled that they are likely to be among the main contenders. The victory was the first secured

by Mercedes since they re-entered the sport three years ago, buying out the Brawn outfit that had just carried Button to the title. Many of the team remain at their Brackley base and Button, who knows them well, has no doubt that they are capable of turning their performances into a championship bid. “I spent a lot of years with that team - most of my career was with that team - so I am very happy for them they’ve achieved a grand prix victory this year,” he told reporters.—AFP

Murray in Monte Carlo q-finals

MONACO: Andy Murray reached the quarterfinals of the Monte Carlo Masters yesterday after Julien Benneteau injured his ankle and retired near the end of a hard-fought first set with the score 6-5.

Benneteau, a former French Open quarterfinalist, caused the third-seeded Murray problems throughout a set in which both players were aggressive.

The Frenchman dictated many of the rallies, troubling Murray with some big forehands and driving him back with some stinging backhands.

But Benneteau, scampering to retrieve a shot from the baseline, slipped and rolled his right ankle. He also hurt his right wrist as he tried to break his fall.

After lengthy treatment, Benneteau briefly continued before retiring. Murray next pays sixth-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, who recovered from a shaky first set to beat No. 12 Kei Nishikori of Japan 2-6, 6-2, 6-4.

Nishikori only lost two points on his serve in the first set and broke Berdych twice. Murray, meanwhile, struggled to hold his opening service game and then broke Benneteau. But the Frenchman broke straight back when Murray, who had saved four break points, hit a forehand wide on the fifth.

On the same center court days ago, Argentine player Juan Monaco also turned his ankle in an almost identical way to Benneteau, and had to pull out

MONACO: Andy Murray of Britain plays a return shot to Julien Benneteau of France during their match in the Monte Carlo Tennis Masters tournament.—AP of his match against Dutchman Robin Haase.

Benneteau had lengthy treatment on his ankle, with Murray even jogging over to bring him some ice to place on it.

He got back up to finish the last two points of the 11th game, but Benneteau had to switch to his left hand, and feebly returned Murray’s serve wide on one point.

At the changeover, Benneteau took another, shorter, medical time-out on

his wrist as Murray jogged on the spot to keep his body warm.

To loud applause, Benneteau rose out of his chair, and prepared to serve.

But he realized he would be unable to and shook his head.

Later Thursday, seven-time defending champion Rafael Nadal was playing qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan, while top-ranked Novak Djokovic was to play No. 16 Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine.—AP

Draw looms as rain halts 2nd Test PORT OF SPAIN: Heavy rain ruined the prospects of a decisive result in the second test between West Indies and Australia in Trinidad on Wednesday with Australia ending on 73-3 in their second innings, a lead of 127.

Less than 31 overs were completed on the fourth day when a second torrential storm drenched Queen’s Park Oval, forcing the teams to scurry from the field before tea.

The storms eventually passed and the puddles on the outfield drained away but too late for play to resume. With just one day to go and more rain forecast for Thursday, a draw loomed large.

Ricky Ponting was unbeaten on 32 and Michael Clarke not out three after West Indies fast bowler Kemar Roach captured all three wickets to put the brakes on Australia’s push for a series-clinching victory.

Roach, who bagged five wickets in Australia’s first innings, took two wickets in his first over before lunch and collected a third in the shortened second session.

Australia polished off the West Indian innings in the first over of the day when left arm spinner Michael Beer trapped Carlton Baugh lbw for 21.

Baugh cut the third ball of the day to the rope for four to move on from his overnight score of 17 but fell to the next ball when he mistimed an attempted sweep and was struck on the pads. Australia, who won last week’s first test in Barbados and only need to draw one of the last two tests to retain the Frank Worrell Trophy, made a bright start to their second innings despite batting on a pitch that has proved hard to score freely on. They put on 26 runs in the first 10 overs after West Indies opened the bowling with Fidel Edwards and spinner Shane Shillingford.

Ed Cowan was given a life before he had got off the mark when West Indies captain Darren Sammy dropped a regulation catch at first slip off Edwards but the introduction of Roach into the attack quickly turned things around.

In his first over, Roach angled the ball in and found the outside edge of David Warner’s bat and Darren Bravo safely held a low catch at second slip to send the left-hander on his way for 17.

Three balls later, Roach knocked out Shane Watson’s off stump for a duck with a good length ball that kept low, forcing the Australians to adopt a more cautious approach.

Roach got rid of Cowan for 20 after lunch when he trapped him lbw plumb in front but was unable to make any more inroads before the foul weather settled in.—Reuters

SCOREBOARD Scoreboard at the close of play on the fourth day of the rain-affected second test between West Indies and Australia at Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad on Wednesday.

Australia 1st innings 311 West Indies 1st innings (overnight 252-9) A.Barath lbw b Beer 7 K.Brathwaite lbw b Hilfenhaus 0 K.Powell lbw b Pattinson 19 D.Bravo lbw b Hussey 38 S.Chanderpaul lbw b Lyon 94 N.Deonarine st Wade b Lyon 55 C.Baugh lbw b Beer 21 D.Sammy c Hussey b Lyon 1 S.Shillingford c Cowan b Lyon 4 K.Roach c Wade b Lyon 0 F.Edwards not out 0 Extras (b-1 lb-8 w-1 nb-8) 18 Total (all out, 104.4 overs) 257 Fall of wickets: 1-0 2-26 3-38 4-100 5-230 6-231 7-237 8241 9-249 Bowling: Beer 25.4-9-56-2, Hilfenhaus 16-4-39-1, Lyon 299-68-5, Pattinson 11-2-40-1 (nb-4), Hussey 6-1-19-1 (w-1), Watson 12-5-14-0, Warner 3-1-9-0, Clarke 2-0-3-0 Australia 2nd innings E.Cowan lbw b Roach 20 D.Warner c Bravo b Roach 17 S.Watson b Roach 0 R.Ponting not out 32 M.Clarke not out 3 Extras (nb-1) 1 Total (for three wickets, 30 overs 73 Fall of wickets: 1-26 2-26 3-57 Still to bat: M.Hussey, M.Wade, M.Beer, B.Hilfenhaus, N.Lyon, J.Pattinson Bowling: Edwards 5-2-13-0 (nb-1), Shillingford 15-3-33-0, Roach 10-1-27-3.

Sports FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

Sports Snippets Raul to quit Schalke BERLIN: Spanish veteran striker Raul is to quit German side Schalke 04 at the end of the season after two years with the club which he joined after more than a decade of trophyladen years at Real Madrid, Schalke said on their website.

“It is an important decision not just for the club but also for the whole Bundesliga: Raul is to quit Schalke 04,” a statement read. Raul himself was later due to give a press conference. The 34-year-old arrived in German in the summer of 2010 after averaging close on a goal every two games in 741 appearances with Real, with whom he won three European Cups. With Schalke he has netted 27 times in 63 league appearances and 33 times in all - including five in the Champions League. Earlier this season he scored his 400th career goal in a 4-0 home romp over Wolfsburg.

Ricco handed 12-year ban ROME: Italian cyclist Riccardo Ricco was given a 12-year doping ban by the National Anti-doping Tribunal yesterday.

The Tribunal accepted the Italian Olympic Committee’s antidoping prosecutor’s request after Ricco was accused of giving himself a blood transfusion. Ricco maintains he is innocent and merely injected himself with an iron solution but a doctor who operated on him claimed Ricco had tried to give himself a blood transfusion. In February last year Ricco ended up in hospital with kidney problems after the apparent transfusion attempt. Close to death, he allegedly told the doctor he had given himself a transfusion with blood kept in his fridge. Experts have dismissed his claims of injecting himself with an iron solution, saying it would not have produced the symptoms from which he was suffering. An investigation concluded in September revealed through bacteriological analysis of Ricco’s blood that his infection was caused by a failed blood transfusion.

Delhi win IPL match NEW DELHI: Kevin Pietersen blasted a whirlwind 103 not out to help Delhi Daredevils score a superb five-wicket victory over Deccan Chargers yesterday and take the top spot in the points table of the Indian Premier League. The England batsman smashed nine sixes and six fours off 64 balls in his maiden Twenty20 century as Delhi scored 162-5 in 19.1 overs after restricting Deccan to 157-8 at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground. Deccan had earlier looked set for a huge total before Shahbaz Nadeem (3-16) and Morne Morkel (3-23) pegged them back with timely strikes. Parthiv Patel (45) and Shikhar Dhawan (44) were the main scorers for Deccan. Delhi now has four wins from five games while the Kumar Sangakkara-led Deccan has lost all four of its games.

Dalglish: Fans ‘taken for granted’ LIVERPOOL: Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish has criticised officials for taking supporters for “granted” ahead of next month’s FA Cup final against Chelsea. Rail maintenance work, coupled with a lack of trains following a match that kicks-off at 5.15pm local time (1615GMT) at Wembley in north London on May 5, have left many Reds fans with awkward journeys from and back to the north-west. That is, if they can get hold of a ticket, with Liverpool’s allocation of 25,000 out of a Wembley capacity of 90,000 some 7,000 fewer than they received for their semi-final against Merseyside rivals Everton. “Sometimes that is the problem when fans are taken for granted-not just our fans but those at all football clubs,” said Dalglish. “That is the decision which has been made and it’s been made outside of our control,” the Liverpool great added. “It could have been made a bit easier for them but they are fantastic fans and they will get there.”

Violence mars Bahrain Grand Prix DUBAI: Violence marred Bahrain’s controversial Grand Prix race as a firebomb exploded near Force India team members and protesters clashed with police in the lead-up to the Formula One practice runs set to begin today.

The incident prompted F1 officials to reassure participants that despite the violence, Bahrain was safe. Speaking to reporters at the Sakhir circuit, chairman of the Formula One Grand Prix Drivers Association, Pedro de la Rosa, said safety is “not a concern,” adding that he had full faith in the decision by the International Motoring Federation to hold the event despite mounting tensions in the kingdom.

Four members of the Force India team were stuck in traffic when a firebomb exploded as they returned from the Sakhir circuit to their hotel late on Wednesday, Bahrain International Circuit chairman Zayed R Alzayani told Autosport magazine.

Nobody was injured, but one member of the team, based at Silverstone in England, decided afterwards to leave Bahrain and return home.

The four mechanics apparently got caught up in a clash between protesters and police on the main motorway from the capital Manama to Sakhir. Alzayani played down the matter, and said he would not request any tighter security as a result.

“It was an isolated incident... The protestors were not targeting the cars, they just happened to be there,” he said.

Force India driver German Nico Hulkenberg said it was “not right” that members of his team had been close to an exploding firebomb, but added that he still felt safe.

Bahrain’s main opposition group, Al-Wefaq, has called for a week of daily protests to coincide with the Grand Prix, using the sports event to focus media attention on their long-standing demands for greater equality and representation in the Sunniruled kingdom. “There is a desire to take advantage of the presence of (international) press, normally barred from entering the country,” said Bahraini rights activist Nabil Rajab.

“The Formula One... is a symbol of the regime, it represents its repression,” said Rajab, noting that the Bahrain race is a personal project of the Crown Prince. The government yesterday barred AlWefaq from holding a protest in central Manama, an interior ministry statement said. The announcement came in the wake of several demonstrations in Bahrain’s Shiite villages late on Wednesday, in which police and protesters clashed.

Witnesses said police used tear gas and buckshot to disperse the crowds, wounding a number of people, with protesters hurling petrol bombs in response.

The violent clashes followed calls by the February 14 Youth

BAHRAIN: Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel of Germany (right) walks with team technicians at the Formula One Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir. —AP Movement on social networking sites for “three days of rage” to coincide with the kingdom’s controversial hosting of motor racing’s premier event.

Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr meanwhile called for a boycott of the race over the kingdom’s continued crackdown on dissidents. “I call on all honest sportsmen not to participate in that race ... and to support the Bahraini people in their rejection of holding this race,” the cleric, who heads the powerful Sadr movement, said in a statement released by his office in the Shiite holy city of Najaf. “Holding the race in that country supports killing, oppression and the violation of the Bahrain people’s freedom,” the anti-American cleric, said. Security has been beefed up in Bahrain ahead of Sunday’s race, criticised by human rights groups. Earlier this week, hundreds of protesters marched carrying banners calling for a boycott and a demonstration was held near Bahrain’s international airport as the teams began arriving, despite the arrest of about 80 leading democracy activists.

The Bahrain Grand Prix was cancelled last year in the wake of the Shiite-led uprising and the brutal government crackdown that followed in which 35 people were killed, according to an independent commission of inquiry.

In mid-February 2011, thousands of Shiite-led pro-democracy activists, inspired by the revolutions of the Arab Spring in Egypt and Tunisia, poured onto the streets of Manama, demanding democratic change.—AFP

Japan leads at World Team Trophy TOKYO: Daisuke Takahashi earned a world-record score of 94.00 points in the short program yesterday and Akiko Suzuki was second in the women’s event as Japan took the lead after the opening day of the World Team Trophy.

Takahashi, a silver medalist at the world championships, took a massive lead over world champion Patrick Chan of Canada, who had 89.81 points. Jeremy Abbott of the United States was third with 86.98 points.

“I was surprised to see the score, which was much higher than I expected,” Takahashi said. “I did well on my jumps but was a little off balance on my step sequence.”

Chan set the previous world record of 93.02 points in Moscow at last year’s world championships. Takahashi earned a score of 96.05 at the Japanese national championships in December, but the International Skating Union does not recognize results at domestic events.

Takahashi opened his routine with a quadruple jump and landed all his remaining jumps cleanly.

“The quad wasn’t that good in today’s practice so I was relieved to pull it off without problems,” Takahashi said. “I got a huge boost from the fans today.”

Japan and the United States are tied with 45 points but the host nation placed first by virtue of its higher finishes in the individual disciplines. Chan also opened his routine with a quad but fell on his second element, the triple axel.

“I was very happy with the quad, it was the best all season,” Chan said. “There is always one event where I have trouble with the triple axel and it was today.”

Suzuki, a bronze medalist at the worlds, had 67.51 points to finish behind world champion Carolina Kostner of Italy, who won the short program with 69.48 points. Japan’s Kanako Murakami was third with 63.78 points.

“I was very pleased with my skate,” Suzuki said. “I got a huge boost from the fans. I was just trying to enjoy this as this in the last event of the season.”

World silver medalists Meryl Davis and Charlie White of the

TOKYO: Ashley Wagner of US performs during the ladies short program event of the World Team Trophy 2012 figure skating competition.

—AFP

United States finished first in the ice dancing short dance with 72.81 points, ahead of world champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada, who had 69.93 points. Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat of France were third with 66.57 points.

“We try to use every competition as a stepping stone to improve,” White said. “We felt we skated well at the worlds but obviously second wasn’t the result we wanted so it’s nice to have another chance to come out and prove ourselves.”—AP

FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

Murray in Monte Carlo q-finals Page 46

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Japan leads at World Team Trophy Page 47

TOKYO: Akiko Suzuki of Japan performs during the ladies short program event of the World Team Trophy 2012 figure skating competition. —AFP