22nd Aug

CR IP TI ON BS SU

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

Pressure on US congressman grows after rape remark

150 FILS NO: 15545 40 PAGES

Holograms present celebs with new afterlife issues

Romania court puts president Basescu back in office

Kuwaiti jet skier wins three events in US

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SHAWWAL 4, 1433 AH

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Ethiopian strongman Meles dies in Brussels Deputy takes over as acting prime minister conspiracy theories

The nation deserves an explanation

By Badrya Darwish

badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net

M

P Waleed Tabtabaei dropped a bombshell on Kuwait just a day before Eid. I don’t know if he meant it as an Eid greeting for all of us after a long hot month of Ramadan. Or maybe he meant it as a joke or something else that I am not familiar with. I find it bizarre if he meant it as a joke. If he meant it as a greeting, it lacks the sense of humour. It is a totally different issue altogether if he meant it seriously.

The honorable gentleman Tabtabaei claimed that “am army reserve unit of Shiites is currently buying weapons from Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh and waiting for zero hour”. He claimed that their storage place is in a flat in Hawally. He also said that another store area is in a remote part of Kabd which is usually used for sheep breeding and farming.

The MP said that he provided documents to the secret police of the Ministry of Interior regarding his information. My question is: Why did he speak a day before Eid if he had such dangerous information which harms national security? Why was he waiting for Eid to drop the bomb on us?

To believe him or not is another question. If he seriously had such documents that concern our national security, it was not wise to publicize it widely the way he did it. He should have immediately gone to the authorities and let them handle it. If he claims that the police failed to do anything, how would he know that? Maybe they are looking at the matter in their own way.

On the other hand, let’s leave Tabtabaei and his allegations alone, whether wrong or right. What about the Ministry of Interior? When an MP opens such serious claims, why we did not hear anything from the ministry - either commenting on it, denying it or saying that they are pursuing it. The complete silence from the ministry is unhealthy. A government spokesman could have easily appeared on public media to comment and elaborate on the topic. Another reason could be that the ministry thinks it is a trivial matter or that they take Tabtabaei lightly. Whatever the reason, the nation deserves an explanation. Do not tell me that the Eid holidays stopped you from doing that.

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt: A file picture taken on June 29, 2008 shows Ethiopian Prime Minister and Chairman of NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa’s Development) Meles Zenawi reacting to a question while talking to reporters on the sidelines of the 9th Summit of the African Peer Review Forum (APRF). Meles has died in hospital abroad, the government said yesterday. — AFP

Max 47º Min 30º High Tide 02:37 & 14:56 Low Tide 08:43 & 20:41

ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, a regional strongman in the volatile Horn of Africa who ruled with an iron fist for over two decades, has died in hospital in Brussels after a long illness, officials said yesterday. Meles, a former rebel who came to power in 1991 after toppling the bloody dictatorship of Mengistu Haile Mariam, set Ethiopia on a path of rapid growth and played a key role in mediating regional conflicts, but also drew criticism for cracking down on opponents and curtailing human rights.

The 57-year-old - a key Western ally in a region home to Al-Qaeda-linked groups - had not been seen in public since the G20 summit in Mexico in June. European Commission spokesman Olivier Bailly said Meles had died in Brussels, but the Ethiopian government said only that he had died abroad. “Prime Minister Meles Zenawi passed away yesterday evening at around midnight,” said government spokesman Bereket Simon, adding he had been “struggling to be healthy in the last year”. “He had been recuperating well, but suddenly something happened and he had to be rushed to the ICU (intensive care unit) and they couldn’t keep him alive,” he added.

Deputy Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, 47, who has also been foreign minister since 2010, will take over interim power, Bereket said. Unlike many core members of the ruling party, Hailemariam does not hail from the far north of the country but from the Southern Nation, Nationalities and People’s Region, the most populous of Ethiopia’s nine ethnic regions. World leaders offered high praise for Meles - British Prime Minister David Cameron hailed him as “an inspirational spokesman for Africa” - but rights groups said his death offered a chance to end a brutal crackdown on basic freedoms.

Meles was regularly singled out as one of the continent’s worst human rights predators, and Amnesty Continued on Page 13

Russia warns West after US threats Syria ‘ready to discuss’ Assad exit • 5 killed in Lebanon • Japanese reporter shot dead BEIRUT: Russia warned the West yesterday against unilateral action on Syria, a day after US President Barack Obama threatened “enormous consequences” if his Syrian counterpart used chemical or biological arms or even moved them in a menacing way. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking after meeting China’s top diplomat, said Moscow and Beijing were committed to “the need to strictly adhere to the norms of international law ... and not to allow their violation”. The remarks were a reminder of the divisions hampering efforts to end the 17month old conflict that increasingly sets a mainly Sunni Muslim opposition against President Bashar Al-Assad’s Alawite minority. The United Nations says more than 18,000 people have been killed in a war which is affecting neighbouring states.

In Lebanon, at least five people were killed in sectarian violence linked to the Syria conflict,

Divers recover body of top Philippines minister MANILA: The Philippines was in mourn- statesman widely considered to be incoring yesterday after divers recovered the ruptible, in a country where graft is body of one of its most influential politi- endemic and politicians often distrusted. cians, who died when a plane carrying The dramatic search-and-rescue efforts him and three others crashed into the had gripped the Catholic nation of nearly sea. Interior Secretary Jesse 100 million people, with Robredo’s body was found hundreds joining prayer 55 m under water near the vigils and longtime friend coast of the island of President Benigno Aquino Masbate, where the plane going to Masbate initially went down on Saturday, to help.

Transportation and Aquino returned to the Communications Secretary central island yesterday to Mar Roxas said. Divers batfetch Robredo’s flagtled strong currents to draped casket, which he reach the wreck of the then delivered aboard a twin-engine Piper Seneca, military airplane to the Jesse Robredo which was lying overgrieving family in their turned and broken into pieces on the hometown of Naga in the eastern seabed, about 800 m from the shore. Philippines. “He is a very big loss to the Robredo’s body was brought up yester- cabinet and to the entire nation,” an day morning. emotional presidential spokeswoman, The 54-year-old, a father of three Abigail Valte, told reporters at a church in Continued on Page 13 daughters, was a popular and well-liked

and Turkey, an opponent of Assad, investigated possible Syrian involvement in a car bomb that killed nine people on Monday. Russia and China have opposed military intervention in Syria throughout the revolt. They have vetoed three UN Security Council resolutions backed by Western and Arab states that would have put more pressure on Damascus to end the violence.

After meeting Lavrov in Moscow, Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil said Obama’s talk of action against Syria was media fodder. He said the West was seeking an excuse to intervene, likening the focus on Syria’s chemical weapons with the runup to the 2003 invasion of Iraq by US-led forces and the focus on what proved to be groundless suspicions that Saddam Hussein was concealing weapons of mass destruction. “Direct military intervention in Syria is impossible because whoever thinks about Continued on Page 13

Giving babies antibiotics can lead to obesity CHICAGO: Giving babies antibiotics before the age of six months could cause them to be chubby children, according to a study published yesterday. “We typically consider obesity an epidemic grounded in unhealthy diet and exercise, yet increasingly studies suggest it’s more complicated,” said co-author Leonardo Trasande of the New York University School of Medicine. “Microbes in our intestines may play critical roles in how we absorb calories, and exposure to antibiotics, especially early in life, may kill off healthy bacteria that influence how we absorb nutrients into our bodies, and would otherwise keep us lean.”

The study adds to a growing body of research warning of the potential dangers of antibiotics, especially for children. Preliminary studies have linked changes in the trillions of microbial cells in our bodies to obesity, inflammatory bowel disease, asthma and other conditions. However, direct causal proof has not yet been found.

Continued on Page 13

Members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) shoot at advancing government troops in the Al-Jadeida neighbourhood in the Old City of Aleppo yesterday. (Inset) This May 7, 2004 photo shows slain Japanese journalist Mika Yamamoto in Tokyo. — AFP/AP

Iran unveils new missile, starts air defence site DUBAI: Iran unveiled yesterday what it said was an upgraded short-range missile and said it would build a new air defence site, in what appeared to be an attempt to show its readiness against any Israeli attack. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi attended a ceremony at which officials unveiled the fourth-generation Fateh 110 short-range missile, with a range of about 300 km, and other upgraded hardware. Ahmadinejad said Iran’s military upgrades were purely for defensive purposes and should not be taken as a threat, but said they would dissuade world powers from imposing their will on Iran. “Defensive advances are meant to defend human integrity, and are not meant to be offensive moves toward others,” Ahmadinejad said, according to Mehr news agency. “I have no doubt that our defensive capabilities can stand up to bullying and put a halt to their plans.”

Separately, Iran announced the start of construction on an air defence site, to be built in the south of the country about 210 km from its uranium enrichment facility in Isfahan, officials said. The 200-hectare air defence installation in the Abadeh area would be the largest in that part of the country and will be built

by Khatam al-Anbia, the engineering arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and will eventually employ 6,000 people, Fars reported. “If (the enemy) ever has the intent of attacking this soil, we will make the...Gulf their grave,” Abadeh’s governor, Mohammad Javad Askari, was quoted as saying at a ceremony marking the start of construction at the site.

Israel, believed to be the only atomic power in the Middle East, views Iran’s nuclear programme as an existential threat, citing Iranian threats to destroy the Jewish state.

Continued on Page 13

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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

LOCAL

Opposition groups plan large-scale protests Moves to set up tents at Iradah Square

By A. Saleh KUWAIT: Two opposition groups agreed to expand planned demonstrations into a sit-in at the Iradah Square followed by a march to the parliament building, instead of ending the gathering following the speeches. This was disclosed by sources close to the Majority Bloc; a coalition of oppositionists who dominated the majority of seats in the annulled 2012 parliament. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the sources indicated that the Popular Action Bloc and Development and Reform Bloc (both members of the parent Majority Bloc) plan to carry out high-level protests “to express as much level of objection as possible” to the Cabinet’s decision to refer the electoral law to the constitutional court.

Sources also claimed that the bloc reportedly plans to set up tents at Iradah Square for protestors to sleep in following the demonstration, in violation of Kuwait Municipality regulations. The bloc also intends to stage protests at Safat Square, where police ban gatherings in order to protect the surrounding commercial area.

In other news, the number of citizens who signed the Majority Bloc’s petition against the referral decision reached a mere 7000, a far cry from the estimated 25 thousand announced during Ramadan. According to sources with knowledge about the issue, confusion was created by “repeated names of people who registered both on the petition and on the online petition through different websites”.

The bloc is still expected to stress the importance of the 25 thousand signatures number in the future, said the sources, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Officer accused Controversial figure and member of the annulled 2012 parliament, Mohammad Al-Juwaihel, accused a police officer of stealing his pen and three cigarette packs during his detention. Al-Juwaihel was being held on

charges of insulting the Mutairi tribe on Twitter. Al-Juwaihel, who was released on KD100 bail before the Eid Al-Fitr holiday, further indicated in direct statements to Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Hmoud Al-Sabah that the same office “was previously charged with stealing KD1 million from an expatriate resident in Kuwait”.

Economic recommendations The cabinet is set to meet after the Eid Al-Fitr holiday with members of the state’s economic advisory committee in order to discuss the process of enacting recommendations by the committee for resolving economic problems in Kuwait.

“The meeting aims to shift the focus of attention to the committee’s recommendations and work for their execution, instead of them being shelved”, said knowledge sources. There were also indications that the government “plans to come up with a schedule with timelines to finish executing the recommendations, and work to come up with necessary regulations to fulfill certain recommendations that require new legislation”. The government plans to start with the privatization program, as per recommendations of the committee that was formed by HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah to improve the state’s economy, according to sources.

Central Agency’s confusion The government rejected rumors which hinted that the head of the Central Agency for Illegal Residents, Salah Al-Fadhalah, could soon be ousted or have his powers limited. These rumors are a result of the decision to appoint Sheikh Khalid Mubarak AlAhmad Al-Sabah as secretary general of the agency.

“It appears that some people are not aware of the agency’s administrative formation, and thus believe that appointing Sheikh Khalid as secretary general is a step to limit Al-Fadhalah’s work. On the contrary, it aims to support him and finalize the agency’s work as per the five-year time limit”, said insiders.

The sources explained that while AlFhadalah is the CEO and Deputy Chairman of the board of the agency, the chairmanship belongs to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Ahmad Al-Hmoud Al-Sabah.

Iran’s compromise Gulf Cooperation Council states reportedly rejected a settlement that would see an Iraqi candidate appointed as OPEC’s secretary general, and instead insisted on nominating a Saudi candidate to the vacant post.

A successor for outgoing secretary general Abdullah Al-Badri from Libya was supposed to be selected this month, but was delayed until October after member states failed to reach a unanimous decision from a list of candidates that included Saudi Arabi’s envoy Majid Al-Munaif, former Iraqi oil minister Thamer Al-Ghadhban and former Iranian oil minister Ghulam Hussain Nazri.

According to sources, Iran “completely rejects Al-Munaif’s appointment” but agrees to appoint Al-Ghadhban as a compromise, while the GCC states insist on backing their Saudi candidate.

Sources added that Ecuador, which also proposed a candidate for the post, reportedly suggested that the post be filled through voting, which is considered a ‘last resort’ for the member states, who prefer a unanimous choice for the secretary general’s post.

Iraqi panel The foreign relations committee in the Iraqi Parliament plans to discuss the current state of relations between Iraq and Kuwait, and what has so far been achieved regarding pending issues between the two countries. These issues, as well as many others, will be discussed during a meeting with Iraq’s Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari, according to a recent statement released by the panel .

Iraqi authorities have recently formed the ‘Foreign Policies Committee’, which includes the Foreign, Finance, Defense, Oil, and Planning Ministers. The committee also includes the National Security

Advisor, Intelligence Chief, the Cabinet’s legal advisor, as well as the head of the parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.

The committee is headed by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki and seeks coordination between ministries regarding foreign policy in order to unify the state’s foreign speech.

Um Al-Haiman maintenance The Environmental Public Authority will begin carrying out “environmental maintenance operations” at electrical transformers in the Um Al-Haiman area before the end of the year, said sources, who also indicated that a meeting with specialized companies will be held at the EPA’s building Sunday to explain the goals behind the project.

“The project is part of a study of the environmental effects for the area’s transformers, and is expected to be carried out in November”, said the sources.

KAC health insurance The Kuwait Airways Corporation will launch a new health insurance system for its Kuwaiti employees next January.

The new system will provide better services and addresses various topics earlier brought up by staff.

The KAC has reportedly begun coordinating with the Central Tenders Committee on the project’s tender, with September 3rd being the likely date as the final day for receiving offers.

In other news, the Central Tenders Committee rejected a request from the Ministry of Education, which asked to increase the budget allocated for buying new air conditioning units for schools as part of preparations for the next school year. According to sources with knowledge of the issue, the MOE asked for an additional 600 units, costing at least KD100 thousand, which is an increase of 20% from the current budget. The CTC rejected the request on the grounds that it causes a “waste of public funds”.

Separately, Zakat House put out a tender for a project in which they plan to install large screens on top of its buildings, broadcasting ads about their activities starting in October.

Opposition activist banned from entering Saudi Arabia KUWAIT: Kuwaiti political activist Abbas Al-Shaaby was banned from entering Saudi Arabia where he planned to attend the Umrah pilgrimage, for reasons that are still unknown.

“I love the Kingdom and often speak about the achievements they have made in construction and other fields, while only criticizing the political situation in Kuwait”, said Al-Shaabi, a staunch supporter of the opposition, whose name is often paralleled with the Popular Action Bloc and its leaders, Ahmad Al-Saadoun and spokesman Musallam Al-Barrak.

Al-Shaaby had reportedly passed

through the Western Al-Salmi border checkpoint with a friend before they were stopped at the Al-Rega’ei checkpoint on the Saudi side of the border. It was there that he was told by a Saudi officer that his name is on a list of individuals banned from entering Saudi Arabia, as per orders of the Kingdom’s Ministry of Interior.

Meanwhile, member of the annulled 2012 parliament, Nabeel Al-Fhadel, commented on the topic by questioning whether Al-Barrak will complain to human right organizations regarding his being banned, then suggesting that “maybe heroics stop at Saudi

Arabia’s borders?”

In other news, member of the annulled 2012 parliament, Adel AlDhamkhi, said that the annulment did not occur because of a procedural error, as previously reported, but “it’s clear that there are attempts to change the parliament’s formation and tamper with the electoral constituencies”.

Al-Dhamkhi, member of the Majority Bloc (a coalition of oppositionists who dominated the majority of seats in the annulled 2012 parliament), further described a protest to be held by the oppositionist Nahj group on August 27th. In a statement, he pro-

claimed the protests as “the beginning of the public protest movement that features the majority of political groups and civil society institutions, after it was revealed that the procedural error excuse is only being used as a reason to change the parliament’s formation after the Cabinet did not approve the 2012 parliament’s formation”.

Al-Dhamkhi further indicated that the Majority Bloc plans to coordinate with Nahj regarding the demonstration “with a meeting expected [today or tomorrow] to discuss the gathering’s program”.

News

in brief

Obesity increasing KUWAIT: Latest health statistics indicate an increasing rise in the rate of obesity among Kuwaitis, noting that the treatment of this phenomenon and its accompanying diseases are being paid for out of the monthly incomes of citizens. Unofficial figures indicate that the cost of dealing with obesity reached over 10% of monthly incomes of those who are suffering from it. Both official and unofficial statistics point to concerns about ordinary citizens, with one such statistic indicating that 88% of Kuwaitis have a serious weight problem.

No charity violations KUWAIT: An official source at the Social Affairs Ministry said that there were no violations during the holy month of Ramadan in collecting donations. He said the violations that were recorded were for persons who do not have relations with an NGO, noting they used the names of NGOs without their knowledge and have since been referred to concerned authorities. The source said there were several violations by the charity “Mabarrahs”, as some of them collected donations on behalf of foreign parties without justification. Mabarrahs was also cited for publishing newspaper ads to collect donations without receiving necessary approval. Meanwhile, Secretary General of the Social Reform Society Dr Adballah Al-Aqiqee said society has complied with the Ministry of Social Affairs laws, adding that there were no violations by the public during the holy month of Ramadan in regards to collecting donations.

Retirement incentives KUWAIT: A high ranking police source said “military authorities did not receive any indication in regards to extending the retirement incentives beyond the end of December 2012.”

The source further said that the four party committee may approve financial incentives for high ranking officers, allowing them to continue in service to take advantage of their experience “in a way that does not affect the security situation”. The source said that there is no doubt that the security leadership, which enjoy vast experience, will add a great deal to the security and military abilities of the state, and to do away with such leadership may have negative effects. Meanwhile, the source said that several Interior Ministry officers applied for retirement and their applications were approved.

30 years in service KUWAIT: An official source at the Social Affairs and Labor Ministry said that the Ministry put the issue of those who spent 30 years in service on its priority list, adding that Minister Salem Al-Athaina will consider the issue when he returns from his leave at the beginning of September. At that time, the decision will be made to either send them into retirement or appoint them to become undersecretaries. The source said that the number of those who will be considered from various departments totals 50.

Fire breaks out in Amghara

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: Fire was reported in Amghara yesterday with Amghara Temporary Fire Center and the Jahra Professional Fire Center immediately responding to the call. As firemen arrived they found the fire was in an area of some 4000 square meters, which also contained timber. The speed of the wind caused the fire to spread further, resulting in another 6 fire centers being called for support and fire control.

Fighting operations were led by acting Fire Department Director Brig. Yousuf Al-Ansari, Deputy Director Brig. Khalid Al-Mikrad and Jahra Fire Director Col. Mohammed Al-Shatti. Additionally, the Minister of Electricity and Water Abdul Aziz AlIbrahim was on the scene and offered help in ending the continuous fires breaking out at the Amghara scrap. Further, Minister of Information Sheikh Mohammad Al-Abdulah made several calls with fire department directors to follow up on fire fighting operations. The Fire Department General Director stated that 16 fire centers fought the fire, which was brought under control at 6:30 am.

Medical emergency and national guards, KOC firemen, the Ministry of Interior, Kuwait municipality and the Army were available at all times and coordinated activities with firemen.

Apartment fire Fire broke out in an apartment in Hawally on the 7th floor of a 10-floor building. Knowing that another fire had been put out in the same apartment two days earlier, Hawally firemen, Salmiya firemen and the Technical Rescue Center responded to the report. As firemen arrived, they evacuated the building, while other teams fought the fire, which they brought under control very quickly and without casualties. Investigators are looking into the possible causes of the fire. Major Mohammad Saleh Al Khader emphasized that precautionary measures should be taken, such as installing smoke detectors and fire extinguishers and to not store anything near emergency exits, as they become obstacles for firemen.

Hawally fire Fire broke out Tuesday morning in Hawally, resulting in the destruction of more than 13 vehicles and a number of trees. Fire also spread to neighboring houses. The cause of the fire is still unknown, but investigations are currently underway. The fire was brought under control without any causalities.

KUWAIT: Firefighters in action in Amghara and Hawally.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

LOCAL

Vatican Embassy will stay in Kuwait: Bishop Ballin Bishop House to be transferred to Bahrain

By Ben Garcia KUWAIT: The seat of the Roman Catholic Church Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Arabia will be transferred to Bahrain and not the Vatican Embassy, according to Archbishop Camillo Ballin, answering queries from the Kuwait Times through an email. “It is the local Bishop (myself ) who is going to transfer to Bahrain, not the mission of the Vatican (Embassy), which will remain in Kuwait. I also want to keep my residence in Kuwait, where we have 350,000 Catholics and four parishes, so I will be with you there very often,” he said.

Last week it was reported in many local dailies that the Vatican Embassy to Kuwait would be transferred to Bahrain for a variety of reasons.

“Bahrain is more central among the four countries in the region (Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia) of which I am in charge; so, for geographical reasons, we talked about it and decided to transfer the Bishop House from Kuwait to Bahrain,” he added.

Asked if the decision to transfer was somehow connected to the continuing refusal of the Kuwaiti government to provide additional land and the so-called ‘lack’ of real religious freedom in the country, Ballin said, “This decision has nothing to do with the refusal to receive land for a new Catholic Church, which only happened around three months ago.

This decision had already been made in January 2012 on the occasion of the meeting

of all the priests. The previous Bishop was also consulted and all the priests were of the mindset that the Bishop should be in Bahrain.

This happened a long time before the strange

Archbishop Camillo Ballin stand taken by some parliamentarians in the Kuwaiti Parliament,” he explained.

The transfer of the Vicariate will be completed in a year’s time, according to Ballin.

With regard to the Church of Bahrain and whether the church in Bahrain has existed for a considerable period of time, Ballin noted, “There is already a church in Manama from a long time back. It is the first Catholic Church in the Gulf, built in 1939. But we are in need of another church for the large number of faithful (the ancient church can seat only around 100 people). There are in Bahrain between 100,000 and 140,000 Catholics. With a church for only 100 people , you can understand the need for another church.”

Bishop Ballin also confirmed that there are Bahraini citizens who are Christians and even Jews. “Bahrain is open to give citizenship, under some conditions.” The new church will reportedly be constructed in Awali on a 9,000 square meter plot of land donated in May by His Majesty the King. It will include the transfer of the official residence of the Bishop and the seat of the Vicariate of Northern Arabia.

The Vicariate looks after the spiritual wellbeing of over two million Roman Catholics in the GCC area.

The decision came after careful evaluations and considerations regarding Bahrain as the new center for Catholicism in the GCC. The conclusion was that due to Bahrain’s central locale, fewer visa restrictions, and, most importantly, the Kingdom’s openness and tolerance towards religion, Bahrain would greatly facilitate the work of the church, including its officials.

ULAANBAATAR: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah arrives in Mongolia on a private visit. HH the Amir is accompanied by Deputy Chief of the National Guards Sheikh Mishaal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

MPs damage national unity via Twitter KUWAIT: Authorities are reportedly struggling to take actions “with limited repercussions” regarding two Twitter accounts carrying false names that refer to two members in the annulled 2012 parliament. According to an anonymous source, the accounts in question frequently post messages, “which discuss controversial subjects that damage national unity”.

“The accounts have been operating for two years to instigate sectarian tensions in order to serve electoral agendas, in addition to making blatant insults to sectors and individuals in society, as well as fueling hate within Kuwaiti society”, said a senior security official in an Al-Rai report published yesterday.

The two accounts, each of which have more than ten thousand followers, are reportedly “being fully monitored” by state security authorities, said the source.

Furthermore, the source noted that the two accounts are often operated

from outside Kuwait; from Morocco and Dubai, for example. “The issue will be urgently referred to the Cabinet after the Eid Al-Fitr holiday to take appropriate action... Especially seeing that the two MPs use sectarian tensions to feed support at the expense of social unity”, the source said.

Meanwhile, the source noted that security authorities have “all information regarding the group that the two MPs use for help, in addition to the type of devices and points that coordinate with them”, adding that “all evidence proves that they are involved in the operation”.

“We are waiting for instructions from the Cabinet to start taking steps through which we plan to reveal with evidence the involvement of this group in such regrettable practices”, said the source.

He added that coordination is also ongoing with foreign security authorities “especially because the two MPs often criticize Kuwait’s foreign policy and offend other countries”.

Stiff warning to drivers

KUWAIT: Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to Kuwait, Dr Abdul-Aziz Al-Fayez, hosted a luncheon on the first day of Eid AlFitr, attended by embassy staff and a number of Saudi residents in Kuwait, in addition to Kuwaiti personalities and media representatives. — Photos by Joseph Shagra

Increase in number of travellers KUWAIT: Observers of the travel and tourism sector noted an increase in the number of travelers during the Eid holidays, causing airline earnings to reach KD 16.6 million during the past five days. As of Wednesday, August 15, until the 1st day of Eid, airlines reported their aircraft being fully booked at 100% capacity to all destinations, which also came at a time of increased ticket prices, which jumped gradually from an average of KD 110 to KD 240 before Eid due to the high demand.

Further, Dubai received the largest share of bookings during those high demand days. Observers noted that the number of travelers passing through the airport reached 98,000 passengers, who spent KD 53 million on external tourism during the Eid vacation.

Also, 564 commercial flights were scheduled during the past five days, which included 39 additional flights due to the holiday demand. The average number of aircraft leaving Kuwait Airport was 114 flights daily during this five day period, with the exception of Eid night and the last day of Ramadan, which reached 124 flights.

At the Salmi border, about 13,000 passengers moved through that checkpoint (arrivals and departures) during a 48 hour period. The border checkpoint saw backups on the 1st day of Eid, though all officials were on duty to meet the surge of travelers.

KUWAIT: The Traffic Department continued their campaign on the 2nd day of Eid as the Hawally Traffic Department issued 280 citations. The breakdown of the citations included 100 direct citations, 19 indirect citations, 81 citations at Ras Al-Ard Cafe, 20 citations at Salwa road, 6 citations for neglected vehicles and another 54 various citations.

The Traffic Department urges drivers to abide by traffic regulations for their own safety and the safety of others. They also cautioned against reckless driving due to the damage it can inflict upon public and private property when accidents occur. The Traffic Department car-

ried out several traffic campaigns in the six governorates during the weekend holiday, resulting in 5107 citations and the detention of 136 vehicles. Further, 1098 citations were recorded at the Capital Governate, with 10 vehicles being detained, while 546 citations were recorded at Farwaniya governorate and 3 cars detained.

The Hawally Governorate’s share reached 1361 citations and 45 cars detained, while the Ahmadi governorate netted 614 citations and 3 cars detained.

At Mubarak Al-Kabeer, 253 citations were recorded and 13 cars detained, while AlJahra logged 556 citations.

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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

LOCAL in my view

kuwait’s my business

Snakes and Ladders

When you speak, do people hear you?

By Labeed Abdal

By John P Hayes

labeed@kuwaittimes.net he board game Snakes and Ladders was created in the 16th century, coming from within the Indian culture. It was meant to represent the journey of life through crossing the squares, having good luck with virtues through climbing ladders, and avoiding vices represented by snakes.

The game attempts to show the effects of karma and kama, or desire and destiny. Even today, this ancient and classic game requires persistence and luck when making the journey from the lower squares to the top.

The big changes taking place in the Arab world, in what has been dubbed the Arab Spring, bears no resemblance to a natural spring. On the contrary, our spring produces mass killings, torture and bloodshed.

Many observers have noticed the radical changes happening in this new Arab world order and the many other factors found in the old Syckes - Picot agreement: namely, the transformation and the new influence of a bi-polarity.

There are still, however, many questions about the new leaders and how much they are going to listen to people after they have overthrown their old dictator rulers.

I am sure they expect another good ladder to climb, taking them to hope and change for the better, not another radical or corrupt new house of snakes.

Undoubtedly, the spring should not be stolen from the young protesters who made it for the people.

Yet, at the same time I continue to watch and hear more decisions taking place that only mean more restrictions on liberties, freedoms and the right of expression.

local@kuwaittimes.net

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kuwait digest

The Kuwaiti investigation

By Dr Terki Al-Azmi ASA’s Curiosity Rover registered temperatures over zero degrees celsius at the Gale Crater, as its current mission on Mars continues.

Advanced countries are racing to explore the possibility of life on the red planet after discovering most of the secrets about planet Earth within the political, economic and social fields.

In Kuwait, however, we need our own Kuwaiti probe that can carry out ideological, strategic, social and psychiatric analysis in order to understand the secrets of a country smaller than the American state of New Jersey!

A Kuwaiti probe could help us understand the truth behind Ahmad Al-Saadoun’s tweet about the government, saying that “no matter what the Cabinet’s formation might be, it might become part of a play operated by hidden individuals, or a place to ruin

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kuwait digest

‘Everything beautiful’

By Osama Ghareeb saw an advertisement campaign on TV about a seeks to elevate his social status and take his family financial establishment that offers young men up with him by becoming an engineer or a doctor.

Further, if a girl with a high GPA was courageous loans which will allow them to open their own small business, enabling them to work in the profes- enough to express her love of the nursing profession they like. The ads were nice and produced skill- sion and her wish to become a nurse, for example, the entire world would oppose her and her family fully with good taste.

The ads gave an example of a young man who is would not allow her to do this as they would probaworking in a shop that sells various products, when bly view her request as a defect in her thinking!

The ability of society to kill the dreams of young a man gives him an item for wrapping. We see the man wrapping the bag in a certain way then throw- men to choose a profession is not easy, like saying ing it in the air like pastry makers do, as an indica- that a mechanic cannot marry the daughter from a tion that this young man is not working in his natu- wealthy family. In fact, while doing this, the parents rely on a societal status that was produced by ral place; his natural place being a pastry store.

Another ad showed a security man checking a oppressive states and dictatorships that instilled the person who goes through an electronic gate that idea of class, status, and entitlement to those born sounded its alarm... we see the security man not into the ‘right’ families..

We can notice that policemen in developing being satisfied with searching the man, instead tidying up his clothes in a way that indicates he was a countries can harm and violate the rights of those not in the upper classtailor or dreams of es without much fear working as a clothes or retribution. This designer. The ad The ability of society to kill the dreams makes the average continues by stating worker in these counthat each person can of young men to choose a profession is tries think twice about work in the profesnot easy, like saying that a mechanic canmaking certain decision he likes without not marry the daughter from a wealthy sions out of fear of having to comply being harmed by with market circumfamily. In fact, while doing this, the parthose choices. stances, and without ents rely on a societal status that was The truth is that having to sacrifice produced by oppressive states and dictapeople in democratic their dreams and countries, who respect ambitions for the torships that instilled the idea of class, human beings and sake of making a livstatus, and entitlement to those born care for human rights, ing. I thought about into the ‘right’ families. regardless of their the ad and wongender, religion and dered: Is it possible profession, are more for each person in our society to work in the profession he wants, if the free to choose. In these countries a person can be material obstacles are removed? I found out that to whatever he wants without losing his right to be answer yes would not be the right answer, because respected, make a living, experience love and get there are many societal obstacles in the way of peo- married.

I will not forget one of my Canadian friends who ple trying to fulfill their dreams.

For example, where is the father who agrees to was my neighbor in Montreal. I knew this man as a let his son complete a certain amount of school to postman using a bicycle, and he astonished me be able to work in a carpenter’s shop, as he wishes? when he told me that he was a pilot for Air Canada, If the father was rich and well to do, he would look but left that job, because he likes to ride bicycles at his son as crazy and as wanting to take the family and deliver mail! Democracy is beautiful, forgivedown socially. Likewise, if he was from a poor family, ness is beautiful, life is beautiful- but our rulers are his father would also consider him crazy because he not so! — Al-Watan

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A Kuwaiti probe could help us understand the truth behind Ahmad Al-Saadoun’s tweet about the government, saying that “no matter what the cabinet’s formation might be, it might become part of a play operated by hidden individuals, or a place to ruin political careers of some hard working ministers”. political careers of some hard working ministers”. A Kuwaiti probe could help solve the mystery about the weapons that MP Dr Waleed Al-Tabtabaei mentioned, as well as other mysteries surrounding statements from Khalid Al-Sultan, Abdullah Al-Turaiji, Jamaan AlHarbash and others.

Reading statements of MPs and political activists gives the idea that there are people in Kuwait who want political groups to continue fighting. When some of the topics discussed are unacceptable, it is only natural that we fail to take the next step forward because we lack the wise men who refuse to follow these out of line proclamations.

In order to end the continuous case of political chaos, we need a Kuwaiti probe to discover the reasons behind the deterioration in the social, political, economic, security and services fields.

We don’t, however, need a probe that tells us how much the ‘temperature’ of the political scene has reached, for we have far-surpassed the record-highs discovered on Mars. What we need are rational minds.

The local scene has become a breeding ground for sick minds that aim to eradicate social concepts and complicate the political situation, leaving us struggling with in-fighting and chaos, while becoming increasingly concerned that a day will come in which unwise individuals will be sought for advice.

The search for a Kuwaiti probe must start by examining recent MP’s statements, certain individuals’ orientations, in addition to improving the government’s team of advisors - in order to insure that it consists completely of wise men.—Al-Rai

graduate student who worked in a service business complained during a business communications class that she was having a problem with an employee. “He just doesn’t have any fire in his belly,” she told me. “I want him to sell more products. I have shown him how to sell. I train him every day. Still, no results. He’s a nice man, but I told him that I don’t care now what he does. He’s either stupid or lazy, and if he doesn’t sell more I am going to fire him. . . . What do you suggest?”

I asked the student, “Do you understand why he does what he does?”

“No!” she glared at me. “I tell him what to do, but he doesn’t do it.”

“Have you ever considered changing the way you talk to him?” I asked.

“Why would I do that? I tell him to do what I do. That’s how I make so many sales. Why can’t he do that, too?”

“Maybe because he can’t hear you,” I suggested.

“He’s not deaf,” she said, to the amusement of the class.

“No, he’s not. But he’s tuned you out,” I explained, “because he doesn’t like the way you talk to him. If he had your type of personality he might respond more to your liking. But he has his own personality, and until you honor it, he can’t hear you.”

Since business success depends on successful relationships among people, it’s important to know why people do what they do. Or, in my student’s case, don’t do.

Each of us cultivates and projects a unique personality.

It’s sort of like DNA. We’re born with some elements of our personality and the rest of it is cultivated over time. How we use our personality to interact with other people controls, to a degree, the way people respond to us. If you’re not aware of how your personality impacts other people, you may struggle to cultivate satisfying relationships, whether with employees, family, or friends.

“Talk your employee’s language,” I told my student.

“Your personality is bold and decisive. Based on your description of him, his personality is less aggressive. You cannot train him successfully until he hears you, and he cannot hear you until you speak to him in a way that he accepts and understands. You have to talk his language. If you’re not going to change the way you talk to him, do him a favor and fire him.”

“I don’t know how to talk his language,” she complained.

“Then fire him,” I concluded.

She didn’t like my answer.

“And before you hire someone again,” I continued, “learn about personality styles. The problem you’re encountering isn’t the training, the product, or the employee. The problem is the personality clash.”

Next week I’ll explain more about how personalities impact businesses and relationships, and how to use your personality to your benefit.

Dr. John P. Hayes is a marketing professor at Gulf University for Science & Technology. Contact him at questions@hayesworldwide.com or via Twitter @drjohnhayes.

kuwait digest

The main problem

By Dr Sulaiman Al-Khadhari here has been much said about the terrible state- extremist views. Second is the presence of a legislative ments made by Mr. Khalid Al-Sultan and Mr. and legal environment prohibiting discrimination and Waleed Al-Tabtabaei about Shiites in Kuwait, hate speech, which include serious penalties, including (which Shiite citizens saw as targeting their loyalty to heavy fines and lengthy jail terms; making fundamentalthe country), in addition to statements of Faraj Al- ists think twice before spewing their evil to the public.

It goes without saying that the Kuwaiti context is difKhadhri, Secretary General of the so-called ‘Thawabet Al-Shii’a’ (Principles of the Shiites) group, in which he ferent from that . If we want to be honest with ourselves, mentioned “an army of Kuwaiti Shiites ready to defend we must admit that our society has for a while been leaning towards sectarian and religious fundamentalthe ruling system in Kuwait”. ism. In fact, we are one of the These statements, most extremist-filled and however, do not matIt goes without saying that the fundamentalist countries in ter to me or bother Kuwaiti context is different from that. the region on cultural, social me, in essence. What and religious levels. The is truly important and If we want to be honest with ourselves, problem, as I said before, disturbing is the we must admit that our society has for isn’t in the statements made social, political and a while been leaning towards sectariby the gentlemen mencultural context that tioned above. all this happens in. an and religious fundamentalism. In Rather, it is the environI am not bothered fact, we are one of the most extremistment that embraces and is by these statements filled and fundamentalist countries in thirsty for sectarian instigabecause there is no tions, while at the same time society in the world the region on cultural, social and relilacking regulations that that lacks fundamengious levels. strictly criminalize these talists and extremists practices. I know that I’m who blame people with a different religious belief, race or ethnic back- going to be criticized heavily for this, but I’m going to ground for all of their problems. This is a common fea- say it loud and clear: criticizing extremism from both sides doesn’t mean that I see both sides at the same levture in advanced and underdeveloped countries alike.

The right wing parties in France and Holland are el of fault.

Minorities usually resort to extremism as a result of examples of that. However, what makes Western societies immune to the catastrophic effects of conflicts of the majority’s extreme behavior, which makes them feel this kind are two things: first is the presence of a cultur- threatened. This is common sense in the political and al, social and political context that generally shuns social context. —Al-Rai

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kuwait digest

Wonderful world of politicians

By Thaar Al-Rashidi he world of politics has nothing to do with our daily lives.

Politicians are not concerned about the details of our lives as citizens, except by how much they benefit from that.

For example, the politician does not talk about salary increases or price increases or traffic jams or equal opportunities, except in terms of how much he benefits from these during his election campaigns in order to get as many votes as possible from those who believe his promises and, in that, he guarantees himself a seat in the parliament.

Once he is in the parliament he enters the world of politics and closes the door behind him, leaving us with the hope that he fulfills his promise, though none of the promises have been fulfilled. Neither the problems of loans have been solved, nor the housing queue has been reduced, which currently has passed 100,000 applications awaiting action. Unemployment has not been solved, university education is still not moving forward and there has not been a single hospital built in 30 years. Some of our politicians are in ivory tower and know nothing about us and what worries the people or their needs.

They do not need university education for their children, and they do not need to pay car installments or to lease houses.

They do not know what it means to look for someone who can lend you KD 2,000, and they don’t need to find someone who can advance a hospital appointment for a surgery. As those things are not their worries and not their priorities, you find them discussing the constitutional monarchy in boring details and theories, which we do not understand and we don’t want.

We, the citizens, have totally different priorities from our MPs’ priorities.

They talk about the justice of constituencies and we, the citizens, are looking for the justice of hospital appointments, which takes years, and we look for the justice of distributing housing, which lasts for a decade or two, and they talk bitterly about influencing wars while we want someone to fight price increases. They talk about constitutional amendments, and the use of the determination yard, while our concerns are that our sons find a responsible job in a reasonable time.

Our cares and worries are not the same as our MPs’ worries, neither the 2009 council (the dead and alive council) nor the 2012 council (the live one which was killed last June). Their political concerns have nothing to do with our daily wars, which we fight every day with the high prices, traffic jams, and no application of the law. Either the MPs concern themselves with the public’s concern and be part of them or let them leave forever, as we don’t need them and we do not need a government that does not share our feelings. Let all leave, as there are those who might be much better. The country does not depend upon a number of persons who run the country and whose interests and priorities are not our priorities. — Al-Anba

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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

local

Kuwait employment conditions expected to improve next year Bayt.com and YouGov survey

KUWAIT: The Embassy of Bangladesh hosted a reception over the weekend to celebrate Eid Al-Fitr, attended by members of the Bangladeshi community in Kuwait, in addition to ambassadors and other guests.—Photos by Joseph Shagra

Khairan resort: an ideal destination for families KUWAIT: During public holidays like Eid Al-Fitr, reserving for a few nights at the exciting beach resort of Khairan, located on the south coast of Kuwait, is a daunting task. Built by the state-founded Touristic Enterprises Company in 1987, the resort is known for its 1,900 m-long serene beach and lush open green spaces, making it an ideal family destination in Kuwait’s hot desert climate.

The resort contains a total of 236 villas and lodges, fully equipped with five-star luxury amenities and seaviews.

“In the last 10 years I have had to book six months in advance,” says father of five Sulaiman Al-Ali, “as the resort gets quite busy during the summer holiday period.”

Al-Ali adds that he usually likes to spend a whole week in the resort during any giv-

en holiday period. Khairan was described as the ideal and possibly sole holiday destination for the Al-Enezi family.

Aminah Al-Enezi, a mother of two, said that prices were very reasonable when compared to other private resorts in the country which have even smaller spaces.

Her children take full use of the youth club, hosted by the resort, which includes fun and games, cartoon screenings and an art class. For the slightly older crowd, highschool student Hamid Karam spends most of his time at the indoor arena, which includes games like table tennis, pool, bowling and an arcade. The resort also hosts a dual-pool swimming complex and a deep-sea diving centre and Karam added that he has the opportunity to practice his two best-loved hobbies. — KUNA

400 students participate in NBK Internship Program KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) concluded its 2012 Summer Internship Program for high school and college students. More than 400 students participated in the Summer Internship Program of 2012.

Students participated in field activities including visits to the NBK Hospital and other public and private institutions.

Talal Al-Turki, NBK Public Relations Officer said that NBK views the Summer Internship Program as an extension of NBK’s education outreach services. “This program is a demonstration of NBK’s longstanding social involvement and commitment towards providing Kuwait’s younger generation with appropriate opportunities to experience firsthand the banking profes-

sion.” The five-hour daily sessions featured a mixture of theoretical and practical training dedicated to providing the interns with valuable knowledge on a variety of subjects including team work, creative thinking, means of self expression and modern banking procedures, in addition to providing interns with greater exposure to daily banking practices and norms,” Al-Turki added.

The 2012 Summer Internship Program follows several successful years of NBK Summer Internship Programs. NBK regularly organizes and designs events and packages for the youth of the country to familiarize them with the world of banking and make them responsible citizens.

KUWAIT: The latest Middle East and North Africa Consumer Confidence Index Survey, conducted by Bayt.com and YouGov, a research and consulting organisation, shows that expectations for the year to come are high across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. In Kuwait, respondents forecast a better financial climate and economy, with improved business conditions and more jobs available.

In general across the MENA region, feelings for respondents’ personal situations at the present time are neutral. Only 28percent claim that their financial situation is better than last year, compared to 65percent who state that it has either remained the same or declined.

National economies are considered to be worse than last year,according to 33percent of respondents.

Consumer behaviour (41percent of respondents say that now is a ‘bad time to buy’) is likely impacting business conditions which are neutral to bad, as stated by 65percent.

In terms of employment, almost half of the respondents (49percent) claim that there are ‘very few jobs available’. Six out of ten say that their company has either the same or fewer employees than this time 12 months ago, and two thirds (65percent) believe that their salaries have not kept pace with the cost of living. However, respondents appear to be optimistic for the upcoming year. The majority believe that their personal financial situation (51percent), country’s economy (44percent), business conditions (49percent) and employment conditions (35percent) will improve.

“Retaining a positive outlook for the year to come will be pivotal to the region’s success. Conditions may

not be considered to be entirely favourable at the present time, but there are plenty of signs that the months to come will prove beneficial for all,” said Suhail Masri, Vice President of Sales, Bayt.com.

“Bayt.com gathers vital information from pertinent cross-sections of MENA society, to provide in-depth insights into the feelings, behaviour and trends happening in recruitment and business around the region.”

Satisfaction with career prospects in the region at present is low, according to 39percent of respondents, while 38percent state that it is ‘neutral’. Three quarters of respondents (74percent) also claim that the prospect for career growth in their current organisation is neutral to low.

Job security is seen to be an issue by 67percent, with only one in four (27percent) claiming their job security is ‘high’, and satisfaction with compensation is neutral to low, according to 84percent.

With regards to employment, 24percent of companies expect to increase employees in the coming three months. A further 61percent are either neutral or pessimistic about growth potential vis-a-vis the number of employees in their organization. The sentiment towards keeping up with staffing requirements is neutral, according to four out of ten respondents (37percent), however19percent cite optimism.

The outlook for inflation is negative, with 38percent believing there will be a rise in the cost of living.

Similarly, 36percent believe the cost of real estate is still creating a feeling of negativity across the region. In the next 12 months,of respondents are planning to purchase a vehicle. Of these, 51percent will buy new. Moreover, one in five (21percent) are considering invest-

ing in property, with 65percent of them planning to buy new.

The five most popular consumer purchases in the next six months will be desktop or laptop computers (25percent); furniture (20percent); LCD or plasma television (18percent); air conditioners (16percent) and digital cameras (13percent).

“Consumer habits have remained somewhat stable in the past year, with the same five product categories continually topping the list.

Computers are always a favourite purchase across the board, and technology in general seems to consistently be the best-selling consumer goods category,” said Sundip Chahal, CEO, YouGov. Respondents from Kuwait feel that their current personal financial situation has mostly remained the same (38percent). Feelings towards the country’s economy are mostly neutral (38percent), and it is considered to be a neutral time to buy according to 47percent. In line with this, 67percent of respondents state that business conditions are neutral to bad, and 74percent state that there are ‘not many’ or ‘very few’ jobs available.

While a third (33percent) of Kuwait respondents believe that there are more employees in their company now than there were at this time last year; 31percent claim that there are fewer. The majority (66percent) state that their salary has not kept pace with the cost of living.

For the year to come, expectations are high, as ever. More than half (52percent) believe that their personal financial situation will improve. Also expected to improve are the country’s economy (44percent), business conditions (44percent) and employment conditions, as stated by 32percent. Job satisfac-

tion in Kuwait is considered to be mostly neutral to low, with only 15percent believing that the career prospects in their current job are high, while 31percent state that the opportunities for career growth are low. The majority (70percent) claim neutral to low satisfaction with their job security, and almost half (45percent) are unhappy with their current compensation.

Over 29percent of Kuwait respondents anticipate an increase in the number of employees at their current company in the coming three months, with 36percent being ‘neutral’ with the prospect of keeping up with staffing requirements.

Respondents anticipate a mostly neutral-to-negative impact vis-a-vis the cost of living (according to 51percent); they also believe that accommodation costs will rise (stated by 33percent).

In the next 12 months, 30percent of Kuwait respondents are considering purchasing a vehicle; of these, 44percent will buy new. Within the same timeframe, 26percent will consider buying property, 67percent of whom will purchase a new property.

The three most popular consumer purchases for the next six months will be furniture (24percent); LCD or plasma televisions (23percent) and desktop or laptop (21percent). Data for the quarterly Bayt.com Consumer Confidence Index survey (August 2012) was collected online from July 16 to August 1, 2012, with 7,421 respondents aged over 18 years, covering GCC Arab, North African, Levant, Western Expatriate and Asian nationalities. Countries who participated are UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Pakistan.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

LOCAL

Groom shot dead at wedding celebration Youth found dead in car KUWAIT: A groom on the way to his wedding reception was killed when a stray bullet fired from his friend’s pistol struck his heart. Police received a call reporting that the groom had been shot while heading to a hall to receive well wishers. The killing reportedly took place when a bullet was fired from a gun held by his friend, who was sitting behind him. The friend told police that he was getting ready to celebrate his friend’s arrival at the hall, when a bullet fired accidentally. Investigations are underway.

Drug overdose A 19-year- old citizen was found dead in his car behind a gas station in Maidan Hawally due to a drug overdose. A passerby noticed the driver of the car leaning on the steering wheel, so he contacted the police. Criminal investigators arrived at the scene and the body was turned over to the coroner.

Investigations led to an Egyptian who was with the citizen while taking the drugs that led to the fatal overdose.

Asian stabbed An Asian expat was stabbed in the abdomen and killed in the Nugra area while another was admitted to the ICU with a chest wound, having also been stabbed by the same culprit. The stabbings took place during a gambling dispute. So far, the suspect and 16 others have been arrested. The stabbing took place in a Nugra area flat when a dispute broke out amongst the gamblers, leading one man to pull out a knife and attack two men before escaping. Both victims were brought to a hospital where one died and the other was admitted to the ICU. Hawally detectives, on the orders of Col Abdelrahman Al-Suhail, were able to arrest the suspect, and recover the murder weapon, as well as detain 16 other witnesses.

Jahra arrest A Jahra police patrol noticed a car parked next to a mosque in Taima area, and since Fajr prayers had ended one hour earlier, policemen approached the car to investigate. Inside

the car they saw two men drinking alcohol.

One suspect fled the scene and the other was arrested. The arrested man was sent to concerned authorities while the man who fled is being sought for questioning.

Father assaulted Hawally detectives arrested a young man who severely beat his sisters and father in south Surra, and causing his father to lose consciousness. The father has been admitted to a hospital ICU. The suspect was kept in custody for further investigation as he refused to reveal his motives behind the attack. Police said following the attack the suspect had escaped. A security source, however, said that detectives traced the suspect’s movement through his mobile phone until his arrest in the Salmiya area. The suspect will remain in custody until his father awakes from his coma.

Drunk driver “It is Eid time, let us have some fun!” were the words of a drunk driver recently arrested by police. A security source said the suspect was driving erratically on the Sixth Ring Road, and when a patrol car stopped him police discovered he was drunk with an imported liquor bottle in his car. When police asked him about it he said “It is Eid time, let’s have some fun!” Police also discovered that the suspect is wanted for attempted kidnapping and forgery. He was sent for questioning to the criminal detectives department.

Indecent act A young man committed an indecent act towards a woman in front of her four children before escaping, prompting her to file a complaint at Maidan Hawally police station.

Street fight Police were informed that four men were fighting with knives and sticks after exchanging words. Police raced to the scene and arrested all four suspects before they had the chance to seriously harm each other. One of the men suffered a superficial wound to his shoulder and was taken to Sabah hospital for

treatment, then brought back to the police station for questioning. All four men were charged with attempted murder and will be brought to juvenile detectives.

American dead The body of an American expat in his sixties was brought to the coroner to determine the cause of death. The coroner suspects the death is due to natural causes. A colleague of the deceased American had reported him absent from work, so police went to his residence. His car was under the building and the door was locked from inside, so a warrant was obtained. Police entered to find the American dead inside his Mahboula apartment.

Family disappears A citizen accused his Arab wife of kidnapping his two sons and taking them to her country. The citizen told Abu Halaifa police that he was surprised by the disappearance of his wife and two sons, but then a friend of his working at the airport told him that she left for her home country with the two children.

Rape victim Ahmadi detectives are looking for an unknown person who kidnapped a Filipina expat, raped her, then left her in an uninhabited area. The victim told police that she was late leaving work during the last day of holy Ramadan due to the large number of customers. She stated that she finished her work at 2 am, and while waiting for a taxi under the saloon, a man stopped and offered her a ride, which she refused. The man said he knew her and that he was the husband of a customer, so “I got into the car after waiting more than 15 minutes for the taxi. I was surprised when he took me to an open area where he raped me and left me there.” After reaching the street, a man took the woman to the police station, where police took the testimony of both the man who found her and the woman. The man reported he saw the woman with torn clothes in the Mina Abdullah area.

KUWAIT: The Embassy of Brunei hosted a reception to celebrate the Eid Al-Fitr, attended by members of Brunei community in Kuwait, in addition to ambassadors and other guests. — Photos by Joseph Shagra

Minister expresses optimism about oil market KUWAIT: Oil and Awqaf Minister Hani Abdelaziz Hussein Al-Tarkeet has said the current situation does not require OPEC to take any new steps during its December meeting, adding that current policies will continue under the current prices. He noted that there had been calls for an emergency meeting when prices dropped, but the meeting did not take place. Further, Al-Tarkeet expressed optimism about the oil market and prices due to the positive expectations, especially with the greater than expected improvement of the American economy, in addition to expec-

tations that the European economy will not face the kind of shock the euro has.

He noted that current oil prices are fluctuating, while the encouraging news about the American economic data, and the encouraging initiatives from the German bank to support the euro, caused a rise in prices, adding that the market is well balanced. He said if there was some relief in the Iranian crisis, there would be a surplus, and even if prices were high, it is not necessary for them to continue as such because supply and demand might then affect prices negatively.

Increase in Chinese exports to Kuwait KUWAIT: Gulf Cooperation Council has maintained its strong demand for Chinese goods as Kuwait for example absorbed more of them in June by an increase of 20.5%, said a report by the Kuwait China Investment Co (KCIC).

Chinese exports to the GCC were growing at 30.5% YoY in June, slightly softening from May figures of 32.5% YoY, said the report.

Among the GCC countries, Chinese exports to Qatar decelerated most, from 44.7% YoY in May to 12.7% YoY in June, while Chinese exports to Kuwait have accelerated in June to 20.5% YoY, from 12.9% YoY in the previous month. Thus, China is still benefiting from the strong demand coming from the GCC. In times of global economic distress, asset prices generally fall with economic activity. For instance, in the last financial crisis in 2008, real estate prices in the US

lost substantial value and crude oil Brent prices fell from above $140 to less than $40, said the report.

In such cases, economies that depend on their oil revenues, such as OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) and GCC members, dip as well.

However, oil prices have been steadily high during the current economic backdrop; initially due to the Arab Spring, and more recently due to increasing expectations of a coordinated stimulus from central banks and governments around the world.

The high oil prices have benefited oil exporters, namely Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. And while the Chinese export industry did weaken, increasing investments and infrastructure schemes have required large amounts of oil, maintaining a stable market for GCC oil exports.

Consequently, Kuwait and other GCC

nations continue to enjoy an ongoing buoyant source of income, keeping their economies afloat. This subsequently increases domestic demand, partly through government incentives, which translates into stronger demand for external goods, among them Chinese exports, said the report.

Ties between Kuwait and China have been robust; for instance, 10% of Kuwait’s imports come from China and about 5% of China’s petroleum imports come from Kuwait alone, benefiting both parties despite the current economic slowdown.

On one hand, China gains by exporting goods to Kuwait at a time when other trade partners, such as the US and the euro zone, are witnessing an economic slowdown.

On the other hand, Kuwait enjoys a stable source of demand from China for its oil.

The GCC members have been resilient

against the global economic slowdown, with Kuwait increasing its demand for Chinese products in June.

The country’s main imports are vehicles, machinery and raw materials used for construction; and increasing imports from China suggest Kuwait’s domestic activity picked up. As long as oil prices remain above $80 this year, Kuwait and other Chinese oil-exporting partners will continue to enjoy solid growth. High oil exports and improving domestic demand in Kuwait are expected to maintain a firm level of growth.

Money supply accelerated and credit growth picked up to 5% YoY in June, the highest in more than two years, propelling domestic consumption, said the report.

There are concerns that the issues in developed nations will remain unresolved beyond this year, which would lead to countries such as China and the GCC mem-

bers losing key economic partners in the West, such as the US and the euro zone, in the short term. However, Kuwait and China’s domestic sectors are well positioned for any downturn, as their focus gradually shifts to infrastructure investments. KCIC is an investment company founded by an Amiri Decree with a capital of KD 80 million and a mandate to invest in domestic demand-driven sectors in Asia, namely energy, real estate, healthcare, infrastructure, and financial services.

The publicly-listed company employs a team of Asia specialists and currently manages assets in excess of USD 260 million.

Key shareholders include the Kuwait Investment Authority (Kuwait’s Sovereign Wealth Fund), National Investment Company (one of the leading investment banks in the Middle East), and Al Ghanim Industries (one of the largest conglomerates in the Middle East). — KUNA

KUWAIT: Thousands of visitors celebrated Eid Al-Fitr at the Entertainment City which remained opened between 4 pm and 1:30 am everyday during the holiday, featuring a special program that included competitions for people of all ages. The event also featured the reinstatement of the rollercoaster ride, and the opening of the arcade hall that includes pool, bowling and others.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

Syrian war empowers long-oppressed Kurds

Indian opposition targets PM over ‘coalgate’ Page 11

Page 8

3 religions meet in Paris prayer space Synagogue, mosque, temples lie side by side BUSSY-SAINT-GEORGES: Chief Abbess Manchen Shih gazed through a first-floor window of her vast wood and concrete temple as shaven-headed nuns in mustard robes prepared for midday prayers, cooking rice as an offering to the Buddha. “Look! You can see the mosque and the Laotian temple,” she said, gesturing at two half-finished buildings rising from a weed-ridden site in Bussy-Saint-Georges, 30 km east of Paris.

Like many of the new towns that have sprung up since the 1960s to ease urban overcrowding, more than half of Bussy’s 25,000 residents are immigrants. Local mayor Hugues Rondeau says around 40 percent of the town’s population is Asian. With France - a secular nation with a long Roman Catholic history - battling to come to terms with its increasingly multicultural identity, Rondeau believes Bussy can set an example. Worried by a dearth of prayer space for non-Catholics, he is breaking new ground by placing a synagogue, a mosque and two Buddhist temples side by side in a bid to tear down barriers between the faiths. Bussy already has a Catholic church.

“My concern was that if we don’t provide some better organization for the religions, we could end up with anarchy and people praying in the streets,” Rondeau, a practicing Catholic said. France, a nation of 60 million people, is home to Europe’s largest Muslim and Jewish minorities, estimated at about 5 million and half a million respectively. They rub shoulders with about one million Buddhists, many of them immigrants from France’s former east Asian colonies. That has led to tensions. More than 100 anti-Muslim attacks and as many as 400 anti-Jewish acts are reported each year, ranging from threats and desecration of graveyards to violence.

The shooting of three Jewish children and four adults by 23-year-old Mohamed Merah in March - France’s first domestic Al-Qaeda-inspired killings - has prompted calls for more inter-faith dialogue. While Bussy has no history of violence, Rondeau fears it may not be immune and he recognizes that the project - where the mosque and the synagogue directly face each other - is a gamble. “If tomorrow the rabbi assassinates the imam, or vice-versa, because of tensions in the Middle East, I would certainly be responsible. But I would also be responsible if they decide to hold peaceful talks together,” the centre-right mayor said.

LACK OF PRAYER SPACES It is a first in France where a strict 1905 law on the separation of church and state has made public officials reluctant to intervene in religious affairs. Rondeau emphasizes that, while he asked public authorities to reserve a plot of land close to the city centre for the site, construction is entirely funded by religious communities, which have enthusiastically embraced the scheme. Abbess Shih’s box-shaped temple, the European headquarters of the Taiwan-based Fo Guang Shan Buddhist order, opened in July. A Laotian temple and a green-and-beige mosque should be ready by December with the synagogue due to complete the space in 2014. “Our Grand Master asks us to be in harmony with ourselves, with others, with society and with the world so I think it’s good that we’re all neighbors,” says Shih.

Islamic leaders hope the project can foster harmony after tensions flared in September when the previous conservative government banned street prayers. The sight of hundreds of Muslims worshipping in the streets of northern Paris had stirred unease in a country where public displays of faith are frowned up - prompting far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen to brand it an “invasion” - but Muslims complain there are not enough mosques. “This is a great initiative,” Abdallah Zekri, president of the Observatory against Islamophobia within the French Muslim Council. “It could reinforce the spirit of living together and allow moments to be shared. I see that as positive.”

Rondeau says Bussy’s immigrant population makes it the perfect laboratory for promoting interreligious relations but he admits that many local people remain opposed. “It’s not always easy, considering the image of Islam in Europe, and especially in France”, he said. “It’s always hard for people to understand that the cultural and even ethnic landscape of Europe is changing.” According to Mehdi, a 23-year-old delivery man who lives in Bussy, the town was flooded with anonymous tracts opposing the mosque. “Muslims have been labeled for a long time,” he said. “This project won’t change it but at least we’ll pray in better conditions.”

Many French people are openly alarmed by the changing identity of their country. The National Front won 18 percent of the vote in April’s presidential first-round election, drawing on frustration at high unemployment and immigration.

Some Bussy residents voiced fears that supporting minority religions could foster the growth of ghettos in the town. “It’s very democratic but I don’t want people to be ostentatious and start walking around town wearing djellabas”, said David Moreau, a 41-year-old Christian, smoking a cigarette while taking a break from his insurance job. “I don’t walk around with a cross around my neck.”

SYMBOLIC MINARET To defuse concerns, Rondeau asked each community to build contemporary structures that would not look out of place in the new town. The mosque was, for instance, designed with a symbolic minaret discreetly attached to the main building. He hopes the site will eventually feature an Armenian cultural centre, a Chinese evangelical church, classrooms and libraries where people can learn about the different faiths. Every religious building will have its own cultural area. Visitors to the Taiwanese Buddhist temple will be able to learn Mandarin or attend a tea ceremony while the mosque will offer classes in Muslim civilization and Arabic.

One lawmaker for France’s conservative UMP opposition party, which banned the wearing of full-face veils while in office, questioned the scheme’s usefulness. “This project seems laudable but rather utopian,” said Jacques Myard, an outspoken supporter of the veil ban. “Geographical proximity will not create intellectual closeness so it’s largely illusory.”

For Odon Vallet, an historian of religion, there is little chance that putting religions side by side will automatically favor a dialogue that is already in retreat due to the economic crisis and rising unemployment. Some residents were more pessimistic, fearing that proximity could create tensions. “At first, I thought it was fun”, said Claude Tshilombo, a 42-year-old nurse. “But now, I think it’s a time bomb.”—Reuters

MONTPELLIER: Children cool off a fountain in Montpellier, southern France, as the city swelters under a summer heatwave. — AFP

News

in brief

US seizes $150 million NEW YORK: US authorities said that they had seized $150 million from a Lebanese bank suspected of being at the heart of international money-laundering schemes linked to the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah. In February 2011, the US Treasury department designated the Lebanese Canadian Bank as a “primary money-laundering concern.” The privately owned bank was subsequently merged with the Lebanese subsidiary of Societe Generale. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan and the US Drug Enforcement Administration accused bank officials of knowingly participating in a scheme in which money from various individuals and companies in Beirut was sent from Lebanon to purchase used cars in the United States.

Iran, Egypt to restore ties CAIRO: Iran and Egypt are moving towards restoring diplomatic relations which were severed more than three decades ago, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said in an interview published yesterday.

Salehi said in comments reported in Egypt’s staterun Al-Ahram newspaper that Tehran was keen on establishing relations of “friendship and brotherhood” with Cairo. “Egypt is the cornerstone of the region and has a special stature in the Arab and Muslim countries... and we want relations of friendship and brotherhood with it,” Salehi said, adding that Tehran hoped to restore “normal” relations with Cairo. “We will pursue this path and restoration of relations depends only on protocol measures.” Salehi said Egypt’s “revolution opened a new chapter in Egypt’s relations with the outside world,” adding that the Islamic republic welcomes Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi attending a Non-Aligned Movement summit later this month in Tehran.

Largest family reunion KUALA LUMPUR: Nearly 700 descendants of the founder of a village in northern Malaysia gathered in what is believed to be the largest family reunion for the Muslim Eid Al-Fitr celebration in the country.

Family head Syeikh Alauddin Syeikh Abu Bakar said yesterday the gathering brought together about 683 people from 100 families descended from Kampung Paya Pahlawan’s (Warrior’s Swamp Village) founder Tok Nai Din. “We only know that he came from Thailand in 1792 and his tomb is in Paya Pahlawan.

He may have been involved in the 1821 war with Siam,” he said, referring to the Siamese kingdom’s conquest of the state of Kedah. The village no longer exists, having been converted into a cattle farm, and the gathering took place 20 kilometers away in Alor Setar, the state capital of Kedah.

Militants blow up pipeline ADEN: Suspected Al-Qaeda militants yesterday blew up a pipeline pumping liquefied gas to Yemen’s southern Balhaf export terminal, causing a complete halt in operations, security officials said.

The gunmen blew up the gas pipeline “at Station 5, in the village of Zahira, in the Shabwa province,” said provincial security chief brigadier-general Ahmed Omeir. He said the attack took place around 1:00 am yesterday. Another security official accused AlQaeda militants, who remain active in the region, of being behind the attack.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

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

As Syria burns, black humor thrives

TRIPOLI: Black smoke rises from a burned shop that was attacked during clashes that erupted between supporters and opponents of the Syrian regime, in the northern port city of Tripoli, Lebanon yesterday. — AP

BEIRUT: Faced with a bloody conflict that has gripped their country for the past 17 months, many Syrians have opted for humor as a weapon to mock both Bashar Al-Assad’s regime and their own daily struggles. “Dear defectors, the Syrian revolution is taking place in Syria, not in Turkey,” read banners at several protests, mocking defectors who have chosen to keep their distance from the battlefield after fleeing north across the border. And the defection to Paris of the regime’s former golden boy, Manaf Tlass, prompted protesters in Kfar Nabal village in northwest Idlib province-who have become well-known for their witty slogans-to raise a banner reading: “The Charles de Gaulle Brigade led by Brigadier General Manaf Tlass has seized control of the Champs Elysees!” The state of the opposition, destruction caused by the ongoing battle between Assad’s forces and rebels, unemployment, falling incomes, a lack of daily necessities, local peculiarities, defections... all are now fair game for increasingly dark Syrian jokes.

Residents of Homs, often mocked by the rest of the country for their so-called naivety and lack of intellect, won plaudits nationwide for their resolve against regime forces when

their town was hammered by the Syrian army, to the point that their city was nicknamed the “Capital of the Revolution.” But, so the joke goes, their supposed naivety was a problem for authorities because whenever they imposed a curfew, residents would flock onto the streets to check it out.

Or: In Homs city, a resident plays with a rocket. When his friend warns him to be careful because it might go off, he reassures him there’s nothing to worry about because the army will simply fire some more. Other jokes play on Homs’s reputation as a particularly conservative city: A couple from Homs decide to visit Aleppo, Syria’s commercial capital, before it became the site of brutal battles between rebels and the regime. They walk through Aleppo’s streets and after two hours without hearing any explosions or seeing any demonstrations, the husband tells the wife: “You can take off your veil now, there mustn’t be any men here.”

More than anything else, defections have become a firm favorite of rebel humor. One joke goes that Assad has demanded that his Sunni vice-president Faruq Al-Shara, the subject of defection rumors, sleep with him in the same room so he cannot escape, forcing

the president’s wife Asma to move to the couch. Another depicts Assad standing in front of a sign listing all of the security services and ministries he has decided to take charge of, with the president saying: “At least I don’t have to worry now about any ministers defecting.” And one cartoon depicts a new minister being sworn in by Assad, with the official saying: “I pledge not to defect.”

The recent defection to Jordan of Riad Hijab, prime minister at the time, sparked jokes that Jordanian authorities now have the following signs at border crossings: Jordanians, Arabs, Foreigners, Diplomats, and Deserting Syrian Officials.

Increasing deprivation has also been a source of humor. One joke has it that Syrians were convinced they would win a gold medal at the recent 2012 Olympics in London if one of the events had been climbing a staircase with a gas cylinder. Another goes that a man returns home with a live chicken for dinner. But, his wife tells him, the family no longer has a knife to slaughter the bird, nor do they have gas to cook it with.

Upon hearing the news, the chicken begins clucking: “Long live Bashar! Long live Bashar!”— AFP

Syrian war empowers long-oppressed Kurds Kurds emerging as one of the winners BEIRUT: Last month, while the world’s attention was focused on battles raging in Syria’s two largest cities, a quiet transformation was taking place in the country’s oil-rich northeast where about 2 million minority Kurds live. In mid-July, regime forces began pulling back from several towns and villages near the Turkish border. They ceded de facto control to armed Kurdish fighters who have since set up checkpoints, hoisted Kurdish flags, and began exercising a degree of autonomy unheard of before. It is an extraordinary development for a community that has long been oppressed and discriminated against by the Assad regime, one that threatens to upset a decades-long geopolitical balance involving Syria, Turkey and Iraq, and challenge old regional alliances. “The Kurds are emerging as one of the major winners of the crisis in Syria,” said Fawaz A Gerges, director of the Middle East Center at the London School of Economics. “They have begun laying the foundation for an autonomous region like their counterparts in Iraq. It’s a dream-like situation for them.”

Kurds see their chance to win the kind of autonomy that their ethnic brothers enjoy in Iraq. But this raises alarm bells for Turkey, one of the key state backers of the rebels trying to overthrow President Bashar Assad and a country where Kurdish rebels have been fighting a violent struggle for self-rule for the last 28 years. Turkey is increasingly worried that the chaos in Syria will open up a new base for Kurdish rebels to press their struggle for self-rule. The government in Ankara has warned it would “not tolerate” any rebel threats from Syrian territory and has staged a number of military drills across the border to put a fine point on it.

The tensions feed myriad concerns that Syria’s civil war could spill across borders into a wider regional conflagration. Turkey has emerged as one of the most vociferous critics of the Assad regime and serves as a base for generals of the Free Syrian Army rebel group and the Syrian National Council opposition group. In relinquishing border areas to Kurdish fighters, the Syrian regime may have had a dual motive - diverting forces from there to shore up overstretched troops fighting in the northern commercial hub of Aleppo and other parts of the country as well as sending a warning to Turkey.

“With the Syrian government’s control over northern parts of the country diminishing ... Ankara’s primary concern is that the Syrian Kurds may seek to establish an autonomous state in the region,” an August security briefing by British based risk analysis firm Maplecroft said. Already, large parts of northern Syria, including a long stretch of the border with Turkey, have fallen under rebel control. In addition to that, the Assad regime has suffered a series of setbacks over the past month that point to a loosening of its grip on

the country.

The regime forces pulled back from the Kurdish areas along the border last month shortly after rebels struck in the capital Damascus with unprecedented attacks and a bombing that killed four of Assad’s top security aides. There has also been a steady stream of high-level defections by government officials, diplomats and generals, though Assad’s inner circle and military have largely kept their cohesive stance behind him. And the regime has been unable to fully subdue rebel challenges in the two major cities, Damascus and Aleppo.

At the same time, Syria’s civil war has increasingly taken on deeply sectarian undertones, pitting Assad and his Alawite minority -

Early on in the revolt, Assad ceded ground on a major Kurdish demand, granting citizenship to some 200,000 members of the ethnic minority who were registered as aliens before. Mindful of provoking the Kurds, security forces have refrained from using deadly force to put down protests in Kurdish regions.

The opposition has courted the Kurds, staging demonstrations under Kurdish names in hopes of rallying the community against Assad. In June, Abdelbaset Sieda, a Kurd, was elected as head of the Syrian National Council. The Kurds in turn took part in the anti-Assad protests staged every Friday, but carried their own flags and chanted their own slogans. In this way, they distanced themselves from the Turkey-backed, Sunni-domi-

MAREA: A fighter from the Free Syrian Army fires rounds into the air yesterday, during the funeral of 17-year old Ahmed Hamoudi, who allegedly died during a fighter jet attack on the northern Syrian city of Marea. At least 24 people were reported killed nationwide as the regime pressed its onslaught on rebel areas a day after US President Barack Obama warned Damascus over its chemical weapons arsenal.—AFP an offshoot of Shiite Islam - against an opposition dominated by majority Sunni Muslims.

Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria and make up around 10 to 15 percent of the country’s 23 million people. Most of them live in the northeaster Hasakeh province near the border with Turkey. Large neighborhoods of Damascus and Aleppo also are Kurdish-dominated.

Kurds have long complained of neglect and discrimination. Assad’s government for years argued they are not Syrians, but Kurds who fled from Iraq or neighboring Turkey.

With the uprising, both the Syrian government and opposition forces began reaching out to the long-marginalized minority whose support could tip the balance in the conflict.

nated opposition movement, fearing they would not fare much better if the rebels came to power.

Last month, villagers say, Syrian security forces simply abandoned posts in several border towns and villages outside Qamishli including Amouda, Dirbasiyeh, Al-Malkia - as well as Ayn El-Arab and Afrin north of the city of Aleppo. The government forces were quickly replaced by Kurdish fighters from the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD. The group is affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, rebels fighting for autonomy in the Kurdish-dominated southeast region of Turkey. The PKK maintains bases in northern Iraq from where they launch hit-and-run attacks on Turkish targets. “The regime is

sending messages to Turkey through the PYD,” said Mustafa Osso, a Kurdish lawyer and activist in the city of Qamishli. “The main message is that the Syrian regime has the capacity to spread chaos in the region.”

The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union and has long been suspected of having close ties with Assad’s Baathist regime. If Kurds in Syria seek greater autonomy, this in turn could trigger a strong separatist drive from Turkey’s Kurds in the east and south-east of the country, a potential crisis for the government in Ankara. Gerges called the regime pullout a win-win situation for the Syrian regime. “They know they cannot take on the Kurdish community and they realized that they have common interests with the PYD because the common enemy for both of them is Turkey,” Gerges said. PYD officials deny they are affiliated with the PKK or that they coordinate with the Syrian regime. They say they will not allow Syrian authorities to return to the areas they relinquished - but nor will they allow Syrian rebel fighters to enter their areas. It is a unique opportunity for the Kurdish community in Syria, and residents say a politicization process has already started. For the first time, Kurdish flags have replaced Syrian flags in towns and villages near the border areas. Cultural centers have sprung up and some people have begun taking up classes in the Kurdish language, which was forbidden by Assad. Kurdish parties also are beginning to build networks with their Kurdish counterparts in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The president of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, Massoud Barzani, confirmed last month that Syrian Kurds had received training in Iraqi Kurdistan although he said they had not taken part in fighting in Syria.

Also last month, Barzani brokered an agreement between rival Kurdish factions PYD and the Kurdish National Council, the main Kurdish umbrella group, to control the vacated areas together. Osso says the reports of Kurdish empowerment and growing autonomy are exaggerated, adding that Syrian forces may return at any minute. “But what is sure is that there will be no going back to the previous era of subordination and oppression,” Osso said.

Although every Kurd aspires for statehood, Syria’s Kurds say their goal is rather to become more autonomous. They realize they are not even a majority in the areas where they live, where they coexist with ethnic Arab Muslims and Christians. The presence of oil wells in the fertile region may also be a cause of future friction with the Arabs in the region.

“A separate state is every Kurdish person’s dream,” said Siro Issa, a 24-year-old activist and singer, from the town of Amouda. “But we realize the difficulties. “All we want is our rights, nothing more.”— AP

Traders eke out living as Syria fighting rages ALEPPO: A Syrian army fighter jet sweeps low over buildings near Aleppo’s Shaar roundabout, but Ahmed Shamta doesn’t give it a second glance-he’s busy closing a sale on a pair of plastic sandals. “I can’t give them to you for 150 (Syrian pounds), the price has gone up, they’re 250 now,” he tells a customer, who examines the sandals closer, weighing whether to make the purchase.

Around them, residents are looking up into the sky, tracking the progress of the plane as it arcs up and down, distinct thuds emanating from nearby neighborhoods as it fires on the houses below. But under the highway overpass where Shamta and a handful of other merchants ply their trade, the bid to make a sale continues. In the end, the customer agrees the price, and walks off with a shiny chestnut pair of fake leather sandals, stepping off past the crowd of gawking men and children. Across from Shamta, a rebel commander is shouting orders, dispatching fighters to the neighborhoods being targeted by the plane, cheering on men as they head off in a pick-up truck mounted with an anti-aircraft gun.

It might not be a dream sales spot, but there’s still money to be made, even as the fight between Syrian

state troops and rebel fighters engulfs parts of Aleppo.

On one side of the flyover, a cluster of white minibuses wait to pick up residents, and on the street several shops are open, despite the clear danger on the ground and from the skies. Shamta brushes off the risks. “I’ve been selling shoes here my whole life,” says Shamta. “It’s all I know.” “I come here every day, whether or not there’s fighting, I have to provide for my children,” the 48-yearold says, his tanned face creasing into a smile as he presents two of his sons.

Since the fighting started, Shamta has raised his prices, but only, he says, because the wholesaler he goes to every two or three days, has upped his prices too. Now the shoes start at 250 Syrian pounds ($3.81, 3.09 euros) and go up to twice that. If he’s lucky, he earns between 4,000 and 6,000 Syrian pounds a day. At a nearby stall, Mohamed Hamza is waging a furious but futile battle to keep hundreds of flies from crawling over his wares, piles of ripe green grapes. “It’s hard, of course, to work like this, to work in a war, but if we don’t work, we don’t eat,” he says, transferring bunches from their crates to the stall.

“There are still people here, and they need to eat, so they come and they buy, even in the middle of the war,

even when there’s fighting.”

Hamza started working as fruit seller at 13, and has followed the same routine for years, heading to the Souk Al-Hal wholesale area each day and buying whatever fruit is ripe for resale in Aleppo’s Shaar district. Across the road, behind a stall selling keys and locks, 19-year-old Anwar Eskayf sweats as he heaves olives into buckets where they can be scrutinized by customers. There are hard, bright green ones, glistening with oil, and light brown ones that sit next to a tub containing a spicy mix of sliced olives and fiery peppers.

He heaves a red crate from the shop floor and tips it, letting wrinkled black olives tumble out into a white bucket up front, then rakes through them to remove a few stray leaves and coat the olives in oil. “I’m like anyone else in the world, I have to work to live, even though I might die to do it,” he says, scooping a customer’s selection into a bag. “Whoever is going to die is going to die, it’s fate,” he shrugs. While others have fled the city, 19year-old Eskayf has no plans to leave. “Aleppo is where I’m from, I don’t have anywhere else to go. I open the shop every day in the morning, and I close it every day in the evening. I’m not going anywhere.”— AFP

MOGADISHU: Newly elected members of parliament put their hands on the Quran to take oath, during the swearing in ceremony for members of Somalia’s first parliament in twenty years, at Aden Abdulle International Airport in the Somali capital. — AP

Somali MPs sworn in MOGADISHU: Somalia swore in its new parliament in a historic ceremony Monday policed by African Union troops, as the war-torn nation tries once more to end two decades of conflict. The swearing-in, held on the tarmac of the capital’s airport, was the culmination of a UN-backed process in which lawmakers were chosen by a group of 135 traditional elders. It brought an official end to Somalia’s transitional government after eight years of political infighting and rampant corruption. However, the election of a new president was delayed. Lawmakers said the process would begin in a “few days”, with multiple candidates vying in a fierce race to unseat incumbent President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. “The MPs are very happy to be sworn in at home,” said new lawmaker Siyad Shire Mohamoud. Transitional government deputies had previously undergone the ceremony abroad because of the abysmal security situation. “My desire is to change the current messy political landscape to a better one,” Mohamoud said.

In Washington, the White House warned that it would not tolerate any obstruction of war-torn Somalia’s political process, hailing the swearing-in of the new parliament as an “important milestone” for the nation. “All parties must work in a fair and transparent manner and will be held accountable for any failure to do so,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said, pledging US support in efforts “to achieve a better future for the people of Somalia.” “We look forward to parliament expeditiously completing all remaining tasks,” the White House press secretary said.

Somalia has not had a stable central government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, which sparked rounds of bloody civil war and decades of chaos. Lawmakers said the usual parliament building was too dangerous to hold their first symbolic meeting for fear of attack by the country’s Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgents. After the parliament’s interim speaker Musa Hassan Abdallah appealed for a “safe haven”, the session was moved to the heavily fortified airport zone, adjoining the base for the nearly 17,000-strong AU force that has propped up the Western-backed transitional leadership against attacks by the Shebab.

“Somalis have been through over 20 years of chaos ... people are ready for a new day in Somalia,” said Hussein Arab Isse, a lawmaker and defense minister in the previous government. Local media said 211 of 275 lawmakers had so far been named by a “technical selection committee” from a list prepared by clan elders, with others pending due to inter-clan arguments. Others were rejected for failing to meet requirements, including that they be innocent of atrocities committed during the civil war.

Peter de Clercq, deputy head of the UN in Somalia, told AlJazeera the full parliament would be ready in the “next week or so”.

Bitter arguments for top posts-Despite delays, the process of forming a new government was hailed as an “unprecedented opportunity for greater peace and stability” in a joint statement by the UN, AU, United States and European Union issued Sunday. “The conclusion of the transition should mark the beginning of more representative government in Somalia,” added the statement, also signed by Norway, Turkey and East Africa’s main diplomatic body IGAD, among others. However, analysts have taken a far gloomier outlook on the process, suggesting it offers little but a reshuffling of positions. “The current political process has been as undemocratic as the one it seeks to replace, with unprecedented levels of political interference, corruption and intimidation,” the International Crisis Group think tank said Monday.

Bitter arguments have begun between challengers for the top posts-divided along Somalia’s notoriously fractious clan lines-while many are also reported to oppose the selection of women, who are supposed to hold 30 percent of parliament seats. The international statement made clear lawmakers must change their behavior from the actions of the previous parliament. —AFP

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

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

US Army battling racists within its own ranks FAYETTEVILLE: They call it “rahowa” short for racial holy war - and they are preparing for it by joining the ranks of the world’s fiercest fighting machine, the US military. White supremacists, neo-Nazis and skinhead groups encourage followers to enlist in the Army and Marine Corps to acquire the skills to overthrow what some call the ZOG - the Zionist Occupation Government. Get in, get trained and get out to brace for the coming race war. If this scenario seems like fantasy or bluster, civil rights organizations take it as deadly serious, especially given recent events. Former US Army soldier Wade Page opened fire with a 9mm handgun at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin on Aug 5, murdering six people and critically wounding three before killing himself during a shootout with police. The US Defense Department as well has stepped up efforts to purge violent racists from its ranks, earning praise from organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has tracked and exposed hate groups since the 1970s.

Page, who was 40, was well known in the white supremacist music scene.

In the early 2000s he told academic researcher Pete Simi that he became a neo-Nazi after joining the military in 1992. Fred Lucas, who served with him, said Page openly espoused his racist

views until 1998, when he was demoted from sergeant to specialist, discharged and barred from re-enlistment. While at Fort Bragg, in North Carolina, Page told Simi, he made the acquaintance of James Burmeister, a skinhead paratrooper who in 1995 killed a black Fayetteville couple in a racially motivated shooting. Burmeister was sentenced to life in prison and died in 2007.

No one knows how many white supremacists have served since then. A 2008 report commissioned by the Justice Department found half of all right-wing extremists in the United States had military experience. “We don’t really think this is a huge problem, at Bragg, and across the Army,” said Colonel Kevin Arata, a spokesman for Fort Bragg. “In my 26 years in the Army, I’ve never seen it,” the former company commander said. Experts have identified the presence of street gang members as a more widespread problem. Even so, the Pentagon has launched three major pushes in recent decades to crack down on racist extremists. The first directive was issued in 1986, when Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger ordered military personnel to reject supremacist organizations.

That failed to stop former Marine TJ Leyden, with two-inch SS bolts tat-

tooed above his collar, from serving from 1988 to 1991 while openly supporting neo-Nazi causes. A member of the Hammerskin Nation, a skinhead group, he said he hung a swastika from his locker, taking it down only when his commander politely asked him to ahead of inspections by the commanding general. “I went into the Marine Corps for one specific reason: I would learn how shoot,” Leyden said. “I also learned how to use C-4 (explosives), blow things up. I took all my military skills and said I could use these to train other people,” said Leyden, 46, who has since renounced the white power movement and is a consultant for the anti-Nazi Simon Wiesenthal Center.

RATTLED BY OKLAHOMA BLAST In 1995, eight months before the Fort Bragg murders, two former Army soldiers bombed the Oklahoma City federal building, killing 168 people.

With a growing awareness of the spreading militia movement, the Pentagon in 1996 banned military personnel from participating in supremacist causes and authorized commanders to cashier personnel for rallying, recruiting or training racists. “What’s scary about Page is that he served in the 1990s when putatively this was being treated quite seriously by the military. There’s plenty of other Pages

who served during the war on terror, and we don’t know what they’re going to be doing over the next decade or so,” said Matt Kennard, author of the forthcoming book “Irregular Army: How the US Military Recruited Neo-Nazis, Gang Members and Criminals to Fight the War on Terror.” Kennard argues the US military was so desperate for troops while fighting simultaneous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that it allowed extremists, felons and gang members into the armed forces.

The military can grant a “moral waiver” to allow a convicted criminal or otherwise ineligible person into the armed forces, and the percentage of recruits granted such waivers grew from 16.7 percent in 2003 to 19.6 percent in 2006, according to Pentagon data obtained by the Palm Center in a 2007 Freedom of Information Act request.

But the Pentagon says no waiver exists for participation in extremist organizations. “Our standards have not changed; participation in extremist activities has never been tolerated and is punishable under the Uniformed Code of Military Justice,” said Eileen Lainez, a Defense Department spokeswoman.

The Pentagon’s third directive against white supremacists was issued in 2009 after a Department of Homeland Security report expressed

concern that right-wing extremists were recruiting veterans returning from wars overseas. The Pentagon’s 2009 instruction, updated in February 2012, directs commanders to remain alert for signs of racist activity and to intervene when they see it. It bans soldiers from blogging or chatting on racist websites while on duty. “This is the best we’ve ever seen,” said Heidi Beirich, leader of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s intelligence project, referring to the Pentagon’s attitute. “It was really disheartening under the Bush administration how lightly they took it, so this is a major advance.”

THE TATTOO MATRIX The Army showed Reuters a onehour presentation it says was designed to educate soldiers and Army leaders about its extremism policy and how to respond, including to white supremacy groups. Penalties for extremist ideology may include being removed from the military, having security clearances yanked or being demoted. “The standard hateful message has not been replaced, just packaged differently with issues like freedom of speech, anti-gun control themes, tax reform and oppression,” the presentation says, noting that recruitment may be difficult to detect, occurring quietly “in bars and break areas” on bases. — Reuters

Republicans push Akin to quit US Senate race Akin says pregnancy in ‘legitimate rape’ cases rare

SAN FRANCISCO DE YARE: Relatives of an inmate cry while waiting for information outside Yare I prison in San Francisco de Yare, Venezuela. — AP

Venezuela’s prison riot leaves 25 dead CARACAS: Twenty-five people were killed during a prison riot and dozens were wounded when two groups of inmates waged a gunbattle inside the penitentiary while hundreds of relatives were visiting, Venezuelan officials said Monday. The violence erupted at Yare I prison south of Caracas on Sunday, and at least one of those slain was a relative of an inmate, said Iris Varela, the government’s prisons minister.

It was the latest and one of the deadliest in a series of bloody clashes that have flared in Venezuela’s overcrowded prisons and become a major problem for President Hugo Chavez’s government.

Varela told state television Monday afternoon that 17 of the 25 dead had been identified so far. She said some of them had been shot in the head. Forty-three other people were wounded, including 29 inmates and 14 visiting relatives, Varela said. About 980 women who were at the prison to see inmates when the fighting broke out were still inside, she said.

Armed inmates still held control of the prison Monday night, and some of the relatives stayed inside due to fears about

how security forces outside would react, said Humberto Prado, an activist and director of the watchdog group Venezuelan Prisons Observatory. Varela indicated the situation had stabilized Monday and said authorities planned to talk with inmates “to try to impose order there.” Varela said the riot apparently began when a gun went off while armed inmates were talking in a workshop and administrative area. She said those behind the killings “are going to have to answer for this.”

Carlos Nieto, an activist who monitors human rights in Venezuelan prisons, said the gunbattle lasted about four hours and involved groups fighting for control.

Yajaira Morroy, the mother of a 27-yearold inmate at the prison, said her son suffered a gunshot wound in a leg and had been trying to help a relative of another inmate who was wounded and then died. She said her son managed to reach a guard post and was taken to a hospital.

Morroy said during a telephone interview that the situation inside the prison had calmed and that some relatives who had been stranded inside were able to come out. — AP

Arizona and attorneys spar over police stops PHOENIX: A federal judge in Phoenix will begin considering whether Arizona’s tough “show me your papers” immigration law can go into effect, as the state grapples with hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants. At the same time, District Court Judge Susan Bolton’s hearing marks a fresh bid by immigration rights advocates to halt provisions of the Arizona law, already partially upheld by the US Supreme Court, that requires police to check the immigration status of people they stop and suspect are in the country illegally.

Attorneys for the ACLU and several immigration groups have asked Judge Bolton to temporarily block the law until she can consider fresh arguments against it that differ from those presented to the high court. The immigration rights advocates say the law would discriminate against Latinos and, by having police hold people while their immigration status is verified, would violate constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure. “We have a good deal of evidence that the law would have a

disparate impact on Latinos and Mexicans in particular, and that the law was enacted out of a discriminatory intent,” said Linton Joaquin, general counsel for the National Immigration Law Center, one of the groups leading the court challenge.

Arizona Republican Governor Jan Brewer, a major White House foe in the battle over illegal immigration, signed a broad crackdown into law in 2010, complaining that the federal government failed to secure the state’s border with Mexico. An estimated 360,000 illegal immigrants live in Arizona. The Obama administration challenged that law in court, saying the Constitution gives the federal government sole authority over immigration policy.

In a split ruling issued in June, the Supreme Court struck down rules that would have required immigrants to carry immigration papers at all times, banned illegal immigrants from soliciting work in public places, and allowed police to arrest them without warrants if they were suspected of committing crimes warranting deportation. — Reuters

WASHINGTON: Senior Republicans have urged Congressman Todd Akin to quit the US Senate race in Missouri over his inflammatory remarks about rape that distracted from the party’s nomination next week of Mitt Romney for US president. Akin was widely criticized for saying in a television interview Sunday that women have biological defenses to prevent pregnancy in cases of “legitimate rape,” making legal abortion unnecessary.

As pressure built on Akin, Republicans cut off cash for his campaign, which had looked like a relatively easy victory against Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill.

President Barack Obama called Akin’s remarks offensive in a rare appearance in the White House briefing room, compounding the Republicans’ discomfort. The furor pushed the campaign debate squarely onto social issues and away from jobs, which Romney has tried to keep at the center of his bid to win the Nov 6 presidential election.

Akin’s remarks complicated Republican efforts to capture the four Democratic seats they need ensure a majority in the 100-member Senate. US Senator John Cornyn, chairman of the influential committee that raises money for Republican Senate candidates, called Akin’s comments “indefensible.” The committee will withhold $5 million in planned spending on TV advertising in Missouri if Akin does not step aside, a committee official said.

“I recognize that this is a difficult time for him, but over the next 24 hours, congressman Akin should carefully consider what is best for him, his family, the Republican Party, and the values that he cares about and has fought for throughout his career in public service,” Cornyn said.

Reince Priebus, the Republican Party’s national chairman, was asked on CNN whether Akin should drop out of the Senate race. “If it was me, I would step aside and let someone else run for that office,” he said.

Priebus condemned Akin for a “bizarre statement” that is “biologically stupid,” and said he would prefer that Akin not attend the Republican National Convention. Democrats used the Akin remarks as evidence that Republicans are waging a “war on women,” largely over birth control. “Rape is rape,” Obama said. Akin’s comments underscore “why we shouldn’t have a bunch of politicians, a majority of whom are men, making health

care decisions on behalf of women,” he said.

Akin, a Tea Party-backed conservative who opposes abortion, said in the interview that the need for abortions in the case of rape was “a particularly tough ethical question.”

‘LEGITIMATE RAPE’ “It seems to me, from what I understand from doctors, that is really rare,” Akin said of

Congressman Todd Akin pregnancy caused by rape. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,” Akin said. Romney, who polls show trails Obama with women voters, called Akin’s comments “insulting, inexcusable, and, frankly wrong” in an interview with the National Review online. The controversy took the spotlight away from Republican Party preparations for the coronation of Romney as its nominee at the national convention next week in Tampa.

The firestorm over Akin’s remarks erupted as another Republican lawmaker, freshman congressman Kevin Yoder, came under fire for swimming naked in Israel’s Sea of Galilee during an August 2011 trip with other members of Congress. Both events featured prominently on the national television news broadcasts. Akin said Monday he misspoke. He apologized but said he had no plans to drop out of the Senate race. “The good people of Missouri nominated

me and I’m not a quitter. My belief is we’re going to take this one forward, and by the grace of God, we’re going to win this race,” he told The Mike Huckabee Show, a radio program hosted by the former Arkansas governor, a favorite of religious conservatives.

Akin was a no-show on CNN’s “Piers Morgan” prime-time program Monday night. The host said media consultant Rex Elsass accepted an invitation for Akin to appear, then canceled at the last minute. “We had his opponent, Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill, booked earlier, and she canceled,” said Morgan. “And then we booked congressman Akin to tell his story himself... now we have an empty chair.”

“Why he would say yes and then no, we can only speculate,” he added. American Crossroads, a pro-Republican outside funding group linked to strategist Karl Rove, said it was pulling its advertising from the Missouri race.

The group said it has already spent $5.4 million in Missouri. Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the US Senate, also said Akin should consider leaving the race.

Akin has until evening to withdraw without a court order, or until Sept 25 if he produces a court order to take his name off the ballot. If he did step aside, the Missouri Republican committee would nominate a new candidate to run for the Senate.

That candidate would not have to be one of his two primary opponents. Besides distancing itself from Akin, Romney’s campaign said a Romney administration would not oppose abortion in case of rape. That would be a departure from the position of his vice presidential pick, US Representative Paul Ryan, who has proposed legislation that would outlaw abortion with no exception for rape.

Ryan co-sponsored a bill with Akin in the House of Representatives that would have changed the legal definition of rape to “forcible rape” to narrow access to federal funding for abortions. Critics said the measure could exempt victims of statutory rape. McCaskill is one of the most vulnerable Senate Democrats in a state that has shifted to the right since she was elected in 2006.

Recent polls had shown Akin with a 10point lead over her. Akin, a six-term congressman from the St Louis suburbs, won the Republican nomination to oppose McCaskill just two weeks ago after a hard-fought threeway primary race. —Reuters

Nude dip in Holy Sea puts Rep in spotlight TOPEKA: A Kansas congressman’s 10-second naked plunge into the sea where the Bible says Jesus walked on water prompted apologies Monday from him, head-shaking from other Republicans and the kind of international attention that no politician wants. Rep Kevin Yoder is all but certain to keep his seat despite any embarrassment arising from last year’s incident in Israel because Democrats haven’t fielded a candidate against him.

But the freshman Republican acknowledged many of his constituents are wondering what he was thinking when he took his “spontaneous” skinny dip in the Sea of Galilee in August 2011.

Other lawmakers on the trip also went into the water at what’s considered a holy site for many Christians, and Yoder said their actions earned them a rebuke from House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. But Politico reported Sunday that Yoder was the only

one who wore no clothes.

“It’s certainly not an incident that I’m proud of,” Yoder said. “It is something that was obviously a mistake on my part, and I want folks in the district to know that I’m apologetic for it.” The tabloid press in Britain and the US

pounced on the story, with the New York Daily News blaring online, “NUDES FLASH!” and describing Yoder as a “skinny-dipping pol.” Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and his running mate, Wisconsin Rep Paul Ryan, criticized Yoder’s behavior

KANSAS: US Rep Kevin Yoder, R-Kan, apologizes to his constituents on the air during the “Up To Date” radio show on KCURFM in Kansas City, Mo. —AP

during an interview with a New Hampshire television station. “I think it’s reprehensible,” Romney told WMUR-TV. “I think it’s another terrible mistake by individuals.”

Kansas Democratic Party Chairwoman Joan Wagnon called Yoder’s behavior “inexcusable” and said if the incident had occurred in Kansas, he would be forced to resign. She later issued a statement calling for him to step down. “I’m astonished these people think they can go on these junkets like this and no one will know what they do,” Wagnon said. Kansas Republican chairwoman Amanda Adkins, citing the 36-year-old congressman’s repeated apologies, said the incident shouldn’t overshadow his work representing a district centered on the state’s portion of the Kansas City metropolitan area.

Another Kansas Republican, US Sen Jerry Moran said, he believed “something stupid occurred, and I think from time to

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

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

Fed closes slaughterhouse after abuse video FRESNO: Federal regulators shut down a Central California slaughterhouse Monday after receiving undercover video showing dairy cows some unable to walk - being repeatedly shocked and shot before being slaughtered. Officials with the US Department of Agriculture, which inspects meat facilities, suspended operations at Central Valley Meat Co in Hanford, Calif, which slaughters cows when they lose their value as milk producers.

The USDA received hours of videotape Friday from Compassion Over Killing, an animal welfare group, which said its undercover investigator was employed by the slaughterhouse and made the video over a two-week period in June. “USDA considers inhumane treatment of animals at slaughter facilities to be unacceptable and is conducting a thorough investigation into these allegations,” said Justin DeJong, spokesman for the Food Safety

Inspection Service. Four minutes of excerpts the animal welfare group provided to The Associated Press showed cows being prepared for slaughter. One worker appears to be suffocating a cow by standing on its muzzle after a gun that injects a bolt into the animal’s head had failed to render it unconscious.

In another clip, a cow is still conscious and flailing as a conveyor lifts it by one leg for transport to an area where the animals’ throats are slit for blood draining. “The horror caught on camera is sickening,” said Erica Meier, executive director of Compassion Over Killing, based in Washington, DC. “It’s alarming that this is not only a USDAinspected facility but a supplier to the USDA.” Online USDA records show the company has contracted to sell ground beef to USDA food programs.

Within hours of seeing the video, the USDA’s Office of Inspector General sent investigators who found evidence

of “egregious inhumane handling and treatment of livestock.” “FSIS suspended operations at the facility and is prepared to take further action as warranted by the investigation,” DeJong said. The USDA had at least two inspectors stationed at the site, and federal officials, when asked whether there was evidence the inspectors had neglected their duties, said the investigation is ongoing. Central Valley Meat Co, owned by Brian and Lawrence Coelho, declined to comment on the video, saying company officials had not seen it.

“We were extremely disturbed to be informed by the USDA that... our plant could not operate based upon a videotape that was provided to the Department by a third party group that alleged inhumane treatment of animals on our property,” said a company statement.

Brian Coelho added, “Our company seeks not just to meet federal humane

handling regulations, but exceed them.” Meier said pay stubs confirm the undercover operative’s stint working at the slaughterhouse.

The videos show workers pulling downed cows by their tails and kicking them in an apparent attempt to get them to stand and walk to slaughter. Others shoot downed cows in the head over and over as the cows thrash on the ground. In one instance, the video shows workers trying to get cattle to back out of a chute while repeatedly spraying them with water and shocking them.

Veterinarians specializing in humane handling were a part of the USDA’s rapid initial inspection that led to the shutdown at Central Valley Meat Co. The USDA told plant officials Sunday that it was withholding inspection marks and “immediately suspending the assignment of inspectors at the facility.” “It’s a good sign that the USDA is taking this seriously,

but I want to see what comes next,” said Meier, adding the video will be posted on the organization’s website yesterday. “The footage clearly speaks for itself, but this is not an isolated incident. Investigation after investigation of these places is revealing cruelty.” The case is reminiscent of a 2008 undercover operation by the Humane Society of the United States at the Hallmark slaughter plant in Chino, Calif., that led to the largest-ever recall of beef and the conviction of two people found to have treated the cows cruelly. In that case, video showed downed cows being prodded with a folk lift. Earlier this year, USDA tests on a dair y cow carcass at a Hanford rendering plant transfer facility showed it was infected with mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Hanford is in the hear t of the Central Valley dair y region where there are 1.6 million dairy cows. — AP

Meles leaves behind less tolerant, richer Ethiopia Zenawi rose from fighter to towering political figure

BUCHAREST: Romania’s President Traian Basescu laughs during the final electoral rally in Bucharest in this file photo. — AP

Romanian court rules to reinstate president BUCHAREST: Romania’s Constitutional Court struck down yesterday a referendum to impeach President Traian Basescu, thwarting a drive by the country’s leftist government to oust its chief political opponent just months before a parliamentary election. Two decades after the overthrow of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, the battle pitting Basescu against Prime Minister Victor Ponta could now intensify in coming months just as one of the European Union’s poorest states faces tough austerity demands from international lenders.

The court, as expected, ruled that a July 29 referendum called by the government to remove the political veteran Basescu was invalid because turnout fell short of the required 50 percent of the electorate. “We stated that the referendum quorum condition was not met,” Chief judge Augustin Zegrean told reporters, and said the court gave its ruling “with a legal majority of 6-3” - a level which Ponta said previously he would respect. Asked if Basescu could now return to power after a suspension by parliament - which needed to be confirmed in the referendum to take effect Zegrean said “Yes”.

The crisis has stalled policymaking, sent the leu currency to record lows last month and angered the European Union,

which accused Ponta of undermining the rule of law and intimidating judges in the country that has long been criticized for corruption and weak justice. It shed light on weaknesses in Romania’s institutional set-up, a wider problem in former communist EU member states as shown in Hungary earlier this year where Prime Minister Viktor Orban clashed with the EU over constitutional changes.

Basescu should now return to office, pending rubber-stamping of the court decision by parliament. Ponta has said he would respect a 6-3 court ruling, after arguing earlier that updated voting lists should show that the referendum was valid. Although the court ruling avoids the risk of an extra election and a European Union challege to any impeachment, political tensions are likely to prevail ahead of the November parliamentary election, which are likely to be won by Ponta’s USL coalition. Basescu has the power to appoint prime ministers.

“Basescu’s political survival would suggest that tension with Prime Minister Victor Ponta will continue, with the potential for a renewed escalation later on in the year,” said Otilia Simkova, an analyst at Eurasia group. The country needs to focus on austerity policies to keep a 5 billion euro IMF stand-by agreement on track.—Reuters

Assange asylum seen as travesty of justice STOCKHOLM: While WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange battles to stay in Britain, Sweden is incensed he has belittled one of the world’s most respected justice systems and questioned a nation famed for welcoming - not extraditing - political refugees. Assange, hiding from arrest in the Ecuadorean embassy where he has been granted diplomatic asylum, says he fears the United States will try to extradite him if he goes to Sweden for questioning over allegations of rape and sexual molestation.

Assange’s speech from the embassy balcony on Sunday focused on what he saw as his persecution by the United States, but did not mention the rape allegations. Assange’s accusations have infuriated many in Sweden, who say the stories of two women who made the sex crime allegations have played second fiddle to unwarranted theories of a USled conspiracy to extradite him with the help of allies in Europe. “Assange has evolved into a megalomaniac rhetorician, who seems to have very little contact left with reality,” Sweden’s Svenska Dagbladet daily said after his embassy balcony speech.

Another newspaper, Dagens Nyheter, said the legal process had to be followed through and defended Sweden as a nation that upheld the “rule of law”. After Ecuador granted Assange asylum, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt wrote: “Our firm legal and constitutional

system guarantees the rights of each and everyone. We firmly reject any accusations to the contrary.” Along with other Nordic countries, Sweden sees itself as a legal safe haven and it has welcomed thousands of leftist refugees from dictatorships in Latin America in the 1970s to Iraqis fleeing the US-led invasion and war after 2003. The World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index 2011 report ranked Sweden first of 66 nations on fundamental legal rights.

THE RAPE CASE That does not mean the rape accusations have not been criticized. Assange faces questioning over incidents with two women that involved a degree of consensual sex and other acts some critics say would not be called rape in other countries. Evan well-known feminist Naomi Wolf criticized the international judicial hunt for Assange, writing that she personally knew “1.3 million guys” with similar complaints made against them by women.

A first prosecutor opened an investigation in 2010 on allegations of rape after two women with whom Assange had sex reported him to the police, only to drop the rape accusation and pursue less serious allegations. Then a more senior prosecutor reopened the rape case a couple of weeks later - giving fodder to Assange’s supporters who see a conspiracy against him. — Reuters

ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopian strongman Meles Zenawi led one of Africa’s most populous nations for more than two decades, steering it along the path of economic growth while clamping down on dissent. A towering figure in Africa’s political landscape, Prime Minister Meles died late on Monday aged 57 at an overseas hospital where he had been recovering from an undisclosed illness for two months, state-run television said yesterday.

He was born Legesse Zenawi in 1955 in Adwa, the site of Ethiopia’s most celebrated victory against colonial invaders Italy in 1896.

He took the nom-de-guerre Meles as a tribute to Meles Tekle, a young activist killed by the government. But the time Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam, the head of the Communist junta that ruled the country from 1974 to 1987, launched his Red Terror purge in 1977, Meles had ditched his medical studies and was fighting in the bush.

He was a rising figure in the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front ( TPLF) that he helped found as a 20-year-old, which then aligned with other groups to form the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition. The EPRDF entered Addis Ababa in 1991, much to the amazement of the locals. Meles led the country first as transitional president and later, after poorly contested elections in 1995, as prime minister of the renamed Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, winning renewed mandates in 2005 and 2010 in polls that rights groups said were rife with violations.

GROWTH AND CRACKDOWN The West welcomed Africa’s youngest leader enthusiastically, grateful for his overthrow of a communist regime and impressed with his urbane manner. It also came to value him for the central role his country - home to one of Africa’s biggest armies - played in regional and continental security. Former US President Bill Clinton said Meles was part of a “new generation” of African leaders and he was invited to join then British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s crusading Commission for Africa.

At home, the EPRDF set about trying to pull Ethiopia out of poverty, pledging to drive growth and improve the lives of peasant farmers. It introduced a system of ethnic federalism, opening regional parliaments and giving Ethiopia’s main ethnic groups the chance to govern the areas in which they dominate.

Under Meles’ leadership, the Horn of Africa country also embarked on a mass of energy and infrastructure projects, while hospitals and schools throughout the country have surged ten-fold. Officials expect economic growth of 11 percent for the 2011/2012 fiscal year that ended in June, thanks to rising agricultural output, the seventh consecutive fiscal year of growth. However, inflation remains stubbornly high, hitting 20 percent in July.

Meles forged close business ties with India and Turkey as well as Asian powerhouse China, which footed the $200 million bill for the sprawling, new headquarters of the

In 2009 followed an anti-terror law, under which more than one hundred opposition figures have been arrested. The government insists it is tackling rebel groups that have links with al Qaeda and arch-foe Eritrea. More than 10 journalists have also been charged under the law, according to the Committee to Protest Journalists. The group says Ethiopia is close to replacing Eritrea as the African country with the highest number of journalists behind bars. Two Swedish journalists were jailed for 11 years on charges of entering the country illegally and aiding a rebel group.

Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner of

ADDIS ABABA: A file photo shows the then-leader of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), Meles Zenawi, escorted by EPRDF bodyguards upon his arrival in Addis Ababa after his group seized the capital. — AFP African Union. The former rebel has made key contributions to regional security, twice sending troops into Somalia to battle Islamist rebels, while Ethiopian peacekeepers have been deployed in several African hotspots such as Sudan’s Darfur and Abyei regions. But Meles’ record of solid economic growth, poverty reduction and closer ties to the West has been colored by a firm crackdown on dissent. Following the disputed polls of 2005, Ethiopia rounded up almost the entire leadership of an opposition group that won an unprecedented number of seats in parliament and jailed them for life for treason.

Human Rights, has slammed the verdicts, saying journalists, human rights defenders and critics were facing a “climate of intimidation”.

Meles responded with trademark defiance, labelling the duo as “messengers boys of terror groups”.

During the Group of Eight summit in Chicago last May, Meles was interrupted soon after he started to speak: “You are a dictator!

You have committed crimes against humanity!” a member of the audience said. The bald, bespectacled strongman, visibly shocked at first, tried to continue talking before staring down, stony-faced. — Reuters

Assange’s embassy life cramped but connected LONDON: Living on takeaway meals in a small room with a treadmill to burn off frustrated energy and a vitamin D lamp to make up for a lack of sunlight, Julian Assange has the one material thing he values most: a computer with an Internet connection. The WikiLeaks founder took refuge nine weeks ago at Ecuador’s embassy in London to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over alleged rape.

Having feared jail, he now finds himself living like a prisoner. Yet British friend and supporter Vaughan Smith, who hosted Assange at his country mansion for a year during his failed legal battle against extradition, said the Australian was in good spirits and enjoying the virtual freedom of his computer.

“He seemed to be bearing up fine. The key to understanding Assange is that if he’s got a computer he’s normally happy,” Smith told Reuters after he visited the embassy, housed on one floor of a red-brick apartment block in affluent Knightsbridge. “ The thing that concerns him most is the possibility he won’t be able to work properly - and that’s why he seems less keen on prison cells than on embassies.” On Sunday,

the world had its first glimpse of Assange since June 19, when he slipped into the embassy. Last week, Ecuador, led by leftist president Rafael Correa, granted Assange asylum - but Britain still plans to arrest him if he tries to leave.

Appearing on a narrow balcony to berate the United States over what he called its “witch hunt” against his anti-secrecy website, the 41-year-old former computer hacker was in the full glare of the world’s media for 10 minutes. His distinctive whiteblond hair now trimmed short, he wore a neatly pressed shirt and tie and appeared in good health,

if rather tired. His speech delivered, he paused to survey cheering supporters, busy journalists and stern London police on the street below, before retreating to his private world within.

Smith said Assange was sleeping and working in a single small room that looked like someone’s office hastily converted into living quarters. He had started out with an air mattress but that had now been replaced by a real bed. “It’s a small room. It has a window, but I wouldn’t describe it as air y. I didn’t see any kitchen facilities, though I understand he has access to a microwave. He has access to a shower. A supporter

LONDON: Supporters of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange put up posters and placards outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London yesterday. — AP

gave him a running machine,” said Smith. He declined to say what the window overlooked because he did not wish to identify the room to outsiders. Those embassy windows which are visible from the street have had curtains drawn all the time since Assange moved in.

‘HE CAN DO WHAT HE NEEDS’ “It’s pretty tight. He’s divided the room up with a bookcase into a sleeping part and a non-sleeping part,” said Smith. “The key thing is he can work. He can hold meetings, he can invite some people in. He can do what he needs to do.” Ecuador granted him asylum on the grounds that Assange might be sent from Sweden to the United States to face WikiLeaksrelated charges. Britain will not let him go to Ecuador from the embassy because its courts ruled he should be sent to Stockholm.

Assange’s mother Christine, speaking by telephone from Australia, told Reuters she had received personal assurances from Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino that her son would be made as comfortable as possible during his stay. “As far as the embassy staff go, they have been wonderful. —Reuters

11

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

international

Rising Afghan insider attacks imperil US strategy WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama has declared he is sticking to his war strategy of using US troops to advise and mentor Afghan forces, even as a suddenly growing number of Americans are being gunned down by the very Afghans they are training to take on insurgents. In just the past 10 days, Afghan forces have attacked their coalition partners seven times, killing nine Americans. For the year there have been 32 such incidents, killing 40, compared to 21 attacks killing 35 troops in all of 2011.

“We are deeply concerned about this, from top to bottom,” Obama told a White House news conference. But he said the best approach, with the fewest number of deaths in the long run, would be to stick to the plan for shifting security responsibilities to the Afghans. “We are transitioning to Afghan security, and for us to train them effectively we are in much closer contact - our troops are in much closer contact with Afghan troops on an ongoing basis,” Obama said. “Part of what we’ve got to do is to make sure that this model works but it doesn’t make our guys more vulnerable.”

That vulnerability, however, has been exposed in a strikingly deadly way in recent days. US officials offer two main theories for why Afghan security forces are turning their weapons on Western partners: infiltration by the Taleban and a USAfghan culture clash. Both of those root causes suggest that the problem may get worse as American and other coalition forces shift further into an adviser/mentor role. And that, in turn, raises questions about US ability to train and shape the Afghans into a force that can stand up to the Taleban insurgency after foreign forces end their combat role in 2014.

Jacqueline L Hazelton, a visiting assistant professor at the University of Rochester, who has extensively studied

counterinsurgency strategy, sees the attacks stemming from a combination of Afghan resistance and resentment. “As disturbing as the attacks are as a Taleban tactic, the broader popular anger revealed among those the mission is supposed to be most closely allied with and most directly useful to - is even more dangerous for the longer term and reveals a greater rot within,” Hazelton said in an email exchange.

As recently as last week, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called such attacks “sporadic” and a sign of Taleban desperation. But as the assaults continued through the week, he consulted with his top commander in Kabul and then on Saturday called Afghan President Hamid Karzai to express concern. Obama said Monday he would do the same. “We’ve got to make sure we’re on top of this,” Obama said. Obama’s Republican election rival, Mitt Romney, said Monday that the US goal ought to be to “transition from our military to their military as soon as possible,” in a way that prevents Afghanistan from collapsing and reverting to being a launching pad for terrorist attacks on the US. Obama said he discussed the problem Monday with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen Martin Dempsey, who was already in Kabul to talk to American and Afghan officials about how to halt the killings. Dempsey said upon his arrival in Kabul that it was important for Karzai and other top government officials to publicly denounce the insider killings, according a Pentagon account of his remarks. Dempsey also said efforts that began a year ago to improve the vetting of Afghan recruits have yet to solve the problem.

Olga Oliker, an analyst at the Rand Corp who studies Afghan security forces, said the checks are inevitably spotty,

which makes training even more difficult.

“It’s Afghanistan,” she said. “You just don’t have the kinds of records that will give you a strong confidence in a vetting process.”

And as long as the threat persists it will affect the US training mission, she said. “If

to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

Panetta’s spokesman, George Little, described him as “deeply disturbed” by the attacks, including the latest on Sunday in which a US soldier was shot to death when two Afghan police officers suddenly

LASHKAR GAH: Afghans look at a pool of blood at the scene of an explosion at a cemetery in Lashkar Gah southwest of Kabul. A bomb hidden in the cemetery exploded as a police official and his family were visiting the grave of a relative, killing the official and his brother. —AP our training efforts take a step back, if our folks are not comfortable genuinely partnering with the Afghans, we’ll have even less insight into what they can do,” she said Monday. “We’ll have even less awareness of when it’s appropriate to leave, and we’ll be playing even more of a craps game when we withdraw than we are now.”

Most US combat troops are scheduled

opened fire inside a police station in southern Kandahar province. The victim was a member of a US military advisory team that had been working with the Afghan police inside their station in Spin Boldak district.

Those advisory teams are growing in number and importance to the US strategy for getting Afghan soldiers and police prepared to take over the fight against

the insurgency. For months US officials have emphasized that insider attacks are rarely perpetrated by Taleban infiltrators.

Rather, the killings are usually the work of Afghan troops who hold a grudge against their US or allied partner. The intended implication of that analysis is that the problem could be managed by more closely checking the backgrounds and personal circumstances of Afghans who are recruited into the police and army.

Either way, analysts say the willingness of even a small fraction of Afghan forces to turn on their partners is troubling. Asked about the problem in an Associated Press interview a week ago, Panetta cast it as a sign of the Taleban’s desperation, and he said he had been assured by US commanders that the attacks were only “sporadic.” The next day, however, Panetta told a Pentagon news conference that he had conferred with Marine Gen. John Allen, the top US commander in Afghanistan, and discussed with him a variety of measures designed to stem the attacks. These include stepping up counterintelligence efforts to identify potential attackers before they strike.

As of last week US troops in Afghanistan are under orders to carry loaded weapons at all times, even when on their bases, to enable them to respond more quickly if they spot an Afghan soldier preparing to attack them. The issue has drawn little attention in Congress, although Rep Frank Wolf, R-Va, last week challenged Dempsey’s assertion that Afghan security forces are making progress toward fending for themselves. “With all due respect,” Wolf wrote in a letter last week to Panetta, citing Dempsey’s assertion, “how can you state that Afghan security forces are making ‘steady progress’ when they continue to gun down our forces?”—AP

Afghan militants attack US military chief’s plane Rocket strike hit Dempsey’s C-17

NEW DELHI: Greenpeace activists dressed as coal miners lie on the ground during a protest against the coal scam near Parliament in New Delhi yesterday. —AFP

No-bid coal scandal blackens India govt Opposition urges Indian PM to resign NEW DELHI: Angry opposition lawmakers shouted and crowded aisles in India’s parliament yesterday to demand the prime minister resign after an audit found the government lost huge sums of money by selling coal fields without competitive bidding. Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party lawmakers and other opposition leaders targeted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh because he was running the coal ministry during the 2004 sale. The auditor’s report exonerated Singh, but it estimated that private companies got a windfall profit of $34 billion because of the low prices they paid for the coal fields. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal said Singh wasn’t going to resign. The two houses were adjourned for the day after the opposition blocked proceedings.

Singh later said the government was ready for any debate in parliament. “We can give satisfactory answers to all issues being raised,” the Press Trust of India news agency quoted Singh as saying. Singh’s government has been floundering under a crush of scams and corruption accusations over the past year and has been unable to push through crucial economic reforms. A raft of scandals have surfaced, such as corruption charges made against ministers and senior officials over the hosting of the 2010 Commonwealth Games and an earlier audit that found India’s treasury lost billions of dollars through the government’s haphazard sale of cellphone spectrum.

The latest report by the Comptroller and Auditor General said last week the allocations of coal fields were made on the recommendation of state governments and exonerated Prime Minister Singh. Gurudas Dasgupta, a Communist Party of India leader, said the ministry was under Singh’s charge and he should accept responsibility. “I leave the question of Singh’s resignation to his conscience.” Yashwant Sinha, a Bharatiya Janata Party leader, said his party could not overlook such a huge loss to the exchequer. “Nothing short of the prime minister’s resignation will satisfy us.”

The audit revealed that 142 coal fields were sold after July 2004 to private and state-run companies. Some of the coalfields bought by private companies in 2004 did not begin production till 2011, while some companies later made enormous profits by selling the mines. The report criticized the sales procedure and said the allocation of coal fields “lacked transparency and objectivity.” Last week, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal defended the government’s strategy of handing out coalfields to companies without resorting to an auction process by saying the policies were suited to the time when they were adopted. He also disagreed with the CAG’s estimate of losses, saying these were unexplored coalfields.

OPPOSITION TARGETS PM India’s opposition yesterday targeted Singh over a report by the state auditor which highlighted massive losses caused by his government giving away coal blocks. Protests by members of the main opposition Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), who again pushed their long-standing demand for Singh to step down, forced an adjournment of proceedings in the national parliament. “The PM is culpable for the delay in introducing transparent auctions,” said Ravi Shankar Prasad, the deputy leader of the BJP in the Rajya Sabha or the upper house.

The report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on Friday said private companies had made windfall gains of about $33.4 billion since 2004 after being given mining rights via a process that “lacked transparency and objectivity ”. The government had known of the huge profits for private operators, but had failed to introduce an open bidding process that would have brought in revenue for the national exchequer, the CAG said.

Singh, whose reputation has been sullied by a string of scandals in his administration, was in charge of the coal ministry from 2004 to 2009 and has been personally implicated in the mismanagement. —Agencies

KABUL: Insurgents fired rockets into an American base in Afghanistan and damaged the parked plane of the visiting chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, the US-led military coalition said yesterday. The general was safe in his quarters at the time but had to take another aircraft out of the country. The rocket strike that hit the C-17 military transport plane of US Army Gen Martin Dempsey was yet another propaganda coup for the Taleban after they claimed to have shot down a US helicopter last week.

It also followed a string of disturbing killings of US military trainers by their Afghan partners or militants dressed in Afghan uniform.

Such attacks killed 10 Americans in the last two weeks alone. Taleban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack, which took place late Monday night at the Bagram Air Field outside Kabul, saying Dempsey’s plane was targeted by insurgents “using exact information” about where it would be. Two maintenance workers were slightly injured by shrapnel from the two rockets fired into, coalition spokesman Jamie Graybeal said.

Dempsey “was nowhere near” the plane when the rockets hit near where the aircraft was parked, the spokesman added. Dempsey finished his mission in Afghanistan and had left on a different plane, said Graybeal. A helicopter on the base was also damaged in the attack, according to NATO. “Because there was some damage to the exterior of the aircraft, Gen Dempsey left Afghanistan on a different C-17,” Pentagon spokeswoman Maj Cathy Wilkinson.

Graybeal cast doubt on the idea that Dempsey’s plane may have been hit by any precision attack. He said that insurgent rocket and mortar attacks are “not infrequent” at Bagram and that such fire most often comes from so far away that

it’s virtually impossible to hit specific targets. Wilkinson also said it was unlikely the attack was aimed specifically at Dempsey’s plane.

“Indirect fire at Bagram is not unusual, so we don’t believe his aircraft was targeted.”

Bagram is a sprawling complex

Allen in Kabul and also with a number of senior Afghan and coalition leaders.

Among the topics was the escalating number of “insider attacks” in which Afghan police or soldiers or militants dressed in Afghan uniform turn their guns on coalition

that crashed during a firefight with insurgents in a remote area of southern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing seven Americans and four Afghans on board in one of the deadliest air disasters of the war.

US officials, however, said initial reports were that enemy fire was

KABUL: Gen Martin E Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (left) prepares to board a CH-47 at Kabul International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. —AP about an hour’s drive north of Kabul that usually serves as the first point of entrance for US officials visiting the country. It is the hub for military operations in the east of the country and the largest US base in Afghanistan. Dempsey was in Afghanistan to discuss the state of the war after a particularly deadly few weeks for Americans in the more than 10-year-old war as international forces begin drawing down. He and the chief of US Central Command, Marine Gen James R Mattis, met with NATO and US Afghan commander Gen John

military trainers. Once an anomaly, such attacks have been climbing in recent months. There have been 32 such attacks so far this year, up from 21 for all of 2011, according to NATO. Taleban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar last week said the insider killings were the result of an insurgent campaign of infiltration, though NATO has said it’s too early to tell if the attacks were related to the insurgency of caused by personal disputes turned deadly. The Taleban also claimed to have shot down a US military helicopter

not involved in the crash.

Yesterday’s insurgent attack was the second this year to come uncomfortably close to a high-level US official visiting Afghanistan. In March, an attacker tried to ram a car into a delegation waiting to greet US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta at Bastion Air Field in southern Afghanistan as his C-17 taxied toward the landing ramp. US defense officials said Panetta was never in any danger, but if the attacker had waited just a few more minutes, Panetta’s plane would have been at the ramp.—AP

India cracks down on Internet amid exodus NEW DELHI: India has demanded social networking websites take down provocative messages and blocked some online content after anonymous threats sparked an exodus of migrants from southern cities. Tens of thousands of workers and students from the remote northeast region returned home last week from Bangalore, Mumbai and other cities fearing attacks from Muslims in reprisal for recent ethnic clashes in the state of Assam.

The Indian government has said many of the Internet posts, fake video clips and phone messages spreading rumors of plans to target migrants were sent from arch-rival Pakistan. The Ministry of Communications said late Monday that an order had been issued on August 17 but that “such inflammatory and harmful content continued to appear on the social networking sites”. It

added the government was meeting with representatives of the sites to curb the content, and it stressed that “a lot more and quicker action is expected from them to address such a sensitive issue”.

Google issued a statement on Tuesday saying any content intended to incite violence was already prohibited on its products, including YouTube videos. “We understand the gravity of the situation... and continue to work closely with relevant authorities,” it said in response to the government’s demands. Officials declined to name which other sites were affected, while Twitter and Facebook were not immediately available for comment. The government also said 245 web pages had been blocked, declining to give further details.

Asked whether social networking sites were being

used to whip up ethnic tension, Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde told reporters: “We have got sufficient evidence. The whole process is in investigation mode.”

Local media reports estimated that over 35,000 people fled cities including Bangalore and Mumbai over the last week, packing special trains arranged to carry panicked students and workers back to the northeast. Weeks of clashes in Assam between members of the Bodo tribal community and Muslims have claimed at least 80 lives and displaced more than 400,000 people. The government says it is willing to share proof that much of the inflammatory Internet activity originated from Muslim-majority Pakistan. Bulk text messages have been temporarily banned in India to halt the spread of threats and rumors of reprisals. —AFP

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

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

China’s leftists dig in for fight over Bo Xilai BEIJING: Leftist supporters of China’s toppled politician Bo Xilai are digging in for an unusually defiant defense of their hero, arguing that he and his wife are victims of a plot that has opened a dangerous schism between them and the Communist Party. A Chinese court handed Bo’s wife, Gu Kailai, a suspended death sentence on Monday after finding her guilty of murdering a British businessman, Neil Heywood. But no amount of propaganda about Gu’s misdeeds appears likely to persuade Bo’s supporters that the case was anything but a conspiracy to derail him and discredit his mix of populist economic pledges and Mao Zedong-inspired socialist revivalism.

The party’s far-leftists have openly accused top leaders of plotting to oust Bo, and even circulated by email and online an extraordinary petition calling for the impeachment of Premier Wen Jiabao. Its reported signatories included two retired senior officials, although this could not be independently confirmed.

“At least for now, I believe there are too many doubtful points about the case,” said Han Deqiang, an academic in Beijing, who has been one of ardent defenders of Bo’s policies in Chongqing, the southwestern city that Bo made into a display case of populist policies and traditional socialist culture.

“I believe that this whole incident was intended to eradicate Bo Xilai’s Chongqing model,” said Han, who teaches at the Beihang University School of business management. “ They have destroyed a ray of hope for the Chinese

Communist Party.” Bo has been held at an unknown location away from the public since he was ousted in March, accused of unspecified violations of party discipline, possibly including corruption and abuse of power. There has been no official word on how the party leadership will handle those accusations and whether he will face trial. But Bo’s political career, at least, seems over.

The uproar over Bo shows that, as the Communist Party weaves between market reforms and state controls, it faces dissent not only from liberals, but also from fervent leftists who see the party as enslaved by capitalist interests. Often seen as the party’s attack dogs against dissidents and Western critics, these farleftists threaten to open a new front of troublesome opposition, wielding the banner of Bo against the establishment.

If Beijing deals harshly with Bo, it risks deepening the divisions; if it treats him leniently, it risks being seen to vindicate Bo and his left-leaning agenda.

“Originally, the leftists were to some extent ideologically accommodated by the political centre, and seen as a political tool to counter right-wing forces,” said Xiao Gongqin, a historian at Shanghai Normal University who writes about politics. “But now they feel disenchanted in the system. “They think their chances to realise their leftist egalitarian ideals inside the system through someone like Bo have faltered, even been lost, and so they’re becoming a force outside the system,” he said in a telephone interview. If China’s economy deteriorates and social strife deepens, far-left pop-

ulists appealing to nostalgia for Mao’s era could win a wider audience among disenchanted citizens, Xiao says in his new book, “Beyond Left and Right Radicalism”. Conspiracy theories circulating around China about Gu’s trial include allegations that the heavy-set, puffyfaced woman who stood in the dock was

foes, especially Premier Wen and President Hu Jintao, has exposed the extent to which this scandal differs from past oustings of contentious leaders, which drew scant dissent. This time the opposition is open and ideological, despite widespread Internet censorship.

“Hu and Wen had to expend all their

HEFEI: Gu Kailai (center in front) the wife of disgraced politician Bo Xilai, listens to the verdict during her trial at Hefei Intermediate People’s Court in the eastern Chinese city of Hefei. — AP not her, but a submissive stand-in. Less extreme critics say the prosecution’s case against Gu was implausible and riddled with contradictions.

The campaign of online articles and petitions to defend Bo and attack his

political credibility to push through this case against Gu,” said one comment yesterday on www.redchinacn.net, a far-left website that has issued a torrent of commentary over the case. “But once this credit is used, it’s gone. Going forward,

China won’t be able to avoid chaos.”

Such opposition is a symptom of the difficulties the Communist Party will have in enforcing conformity as it navigates a once-in-a-decade power transfer and faces contentious choices about the direction of the economy. “In Chinese politics today, leaders have to look not just at their superiors, but also at the ordinary people,” said Sima Nan, a wellknown defender of Bo’s policies who makes a living appearing on television entertainment shows. “Bo Xilai can’t be shut away like Yang Baibing was, because now is the era of the Internet, and so controlling opinion is so much more difficult,” said Sima, referring to an ambitious Chinese general ousted in 1993.

Leftist supporters say the effort to bury Bo in disgrace has instead created a charismatic figurehead for them, a defender of Mao-inspired vir tues threatened by economic liberalization and Western-inspired ideological heresies. “Before we were just scholars, but now we have a political leader recognized by people both inside and outside the system,” said Han, the Beijing academic. A former minister of commerce who favored sharp business suits and expensive-looking ties, Bo, 63, appears to be an unusual pin-up for followers of old-time socialist virtues. But after being moved in 2007 to run the southwestern municipality of Chongqing, Bo turned it into a heavily publicized showcase for policies that his backers said served as a model of growth that spread wealth to all.—Reuters

Ryan’s economic thinking is more Reagan than Tea Party Supporters cite ability to compromise

BISHKEK: A Kyrgyz Muslim boy lies before a prayer during Eid Al-Fitr celebration at a square in central Bishkek. — AFP

Kyrgyz forces kill fugitive border guard after attack BISHKEK: Security forces in Kyrgyzstan yesterday killed a fugitive border guard suspected of murdering five people in a shooting spree at a remote frontier post, the Central Asian country’s border guard service said. Border guards and police cornered the lone gunman in a mountain gorge near the border with Kazakhstan, a day after he fled the scene of the attack in a stolen vehicle. He was shot after putting up armed resistance, the service said.

President Almazbek Atambayev ordered an investigation into the attack in which the gunman, named as Balbai Kulbarak uulu, is suspected of shooting the border post commander, three other servicemen and the wife of a serviceman. “It’s evident the leadership of the border guard service has not taken serious measures to improve the atmosphere among its servicemen,” Atambayev said during a meeting of security staff.

The former Soviet republic’s border guard ser vice, a division of the State

Committee for National Security, successor to the KGB, has not said why the accused guard might have embarked upon such a killing spree. It said an investigation was under way. Three guards managed to escape after hearing shots. Military analyst and retired army Colonel Toktogul Kachkeyev said hazing, the humiliating bullying of younger servicemen, was a possible trigger for the attack.

Widespread in the Soviet military, it has survived despite reforms in post-Soviet forces. “The means have not been created to educate ser vicemen. The army has turned into a farce,” Kachkeyev said. In neighboring Kazakhstan, prosecutors identified hazing as the possible cause of a massacre in late May at a post near its frontier with China. Fourteen border guards and a herder were shot dead and the border post set on fire. The single surviving border guard admitted to the killings, though later withdrew his confession. He remains in custody.—Reuters

NASA Curiosity rover to measure ‘Marsquakes’ WASHINGTON: Just 10 days after NASA’s Curiosity rover sent back its first color photos of the Martian landscape, the US space agency said Monday it wants in 2016 to take a better look at what’s happening beneath the Red Planet’s surface. “Does Mars have fault lines like the Earth does? How extensive are those? What kinds of ‘marsquakes’ are there?” These, NASA official Lindley Johnson told reporters on a conference call, are some of the important questions the project hopes to answer.

The InSight mission, which aims to launch in March 2016, will send a device to Earth’s next-door neighbor to measure seismic activity and a subsurface heat probe to measure the flow of heat from the interior. “Seismology is the standard method by which we’ve learned to understand the interior of the Earth,” explained John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. “And we have no such knowledge for Mars.”

InSight was selected from a pool of three finalists to be sponsored by the low-budget Discovery series. The other two-one to explore a comet and another to take a closer look at Saturn moon Titan-were equally compelling, Grunsfeld said. “All of these missions had top science,” he said, adding that the proposals also all seemed equally realistic, in terms of their ability to actually get answers.

But InSight won out because it seemed the most likely to come in on schedule and on budget, under the $425 million cap set for the projects. That cap does not include the cost of the launch vehicle. Insight saved money by adopting a seismic monitor developed by the French space agency and a heat-flow probe

developed by the German aerospace center.

The project also incorporated into its design “proven systems” from NASA’s highly successful Phoenix lander mission, which helped convince the selection committee it was a low-risk endeavor. James Green, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division, said they anticipate it will take six months for InSight to reach Mars, and then a full Martian yearabout 680 Earth days-to gather the data it is looking for. Grunsfeld added that because the device is intended to land in the relatively benign equatorial region of the planet, the device may continue to provide data beyond that first year. Unlike an earlier NASA attempt to measure seismic activity that placed the device on the legs of the lander, leading to interference from wind, the agency said InSight plans to use a robotic arm to pull the seismometer package from the platform and place it on the ground. The final budget for the project, the 12th to get sponsorship under Discovery, will be set after a confirmation review next year.

The Discovery series is separate from other Mars-specific programming at NASA, and the agency said this project was chosen on its own merits and with no relation to the ongoing Curiosity mission. As for Curiosity, NASA announced Monday that the Mars rover flexed its robotic arm for the first time since before its launch in November. “We have had to sit tight for the first two weeks since landing, while other parts of the rover were checked out, so to see the arm extended ... is a huge moment for us,” NASA engineer Matt Robinson said in a statement. Curiosity has also fired its laser to zap a martian rock called Coronation, NASA said Sunday.— AFP

OXFORD: When Cesar Conda was a Republican staff director on the US Senate’s small business committee in 1991, he often was badgered with questions on economic theory by Paul Ryan, then a 21-year-old intern.

Ryan, now the Republican candidate for vice president, “worked in the mail room and would constantly pop his head into my office to ask questions about supply-side economics,” Conda said. “I had a lot of work to do, so I gave him a couple of books to keep him busy.”

Conda, now chief of staff for conservative Florida Senator Marco Rubio, lent Ryan Jude Wanniski’s “The Way the World Works” (1978), which Conda called “the Bible” for the 1981 Kemp-Roth tax cut that lowered the top US income tax rate to 50 percent from 70 percent. Conda also lent Ryan George Gilder’s “Wealth and Poverty” (1981), which Conda says was a guide for President Ronald Reagan’s supply-side economic policies of lowering taxes, slowing government growth and reducing regulation.

Ryan soon returned the Wanniski book, but Conda did not retrieve “Wealth and Poverty” until 2008, when he saw it in Ryan’s Capitol Hill office. By then, Ryan was a five-term congressman from Wisconsin and the top Republican on the US House budget committee. “The margins were full of notes,” added Conda, an economic adviser to the 2008 presidential campaign of Republican Mitt Romney, whom Conda introduced to Ryan in 2007.

Those who have known Ryan since the early 1990s describe a young man with a clear idea of his own political and economic philosophy. Ryan spent his formative years strengthening his grasp of supply-side economic theory. Democratic opponents say that Ryan’s austere budget plan- which would carve into social programs that protect the poor such as food stamps and Medicaid health insurance-is uncompromisingly cruel and based on an ideology of tax cuts and reduced regulation that, under former President George W Bush, caused America’s current economic woes.

Ryan and other Republicans reject that portrayal of the budget and its author. Those in what Kansas Governor Sam Brownback calls Ryan’s “band of brothers” - like-minded Republican politicians and strategists from Reagan’s tenure in the 1980s and Ryan’s formative years in Washington in the 1990s-say that while Ryan is committed to supply-side economics, he is capable of compromise on economic issues. That would make Ryan more like Reagan than today’s Republican hard-liners,

who view Reagan as a conservative icon but typically reject the former president’s penchant for compromising with Democrats.

Some recall conversations with Ryan in 2008 before Congress’ votes to create the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the controversial bank bailout that cost taxpayers more than $400 billion.

Ryan looked beyond his opposition to TARP because he realized the alternative was to subject America to an economic depression, these Ryan fans and supply-siders said. “Paul is an eager, happy warrior on the battlefield of ideas,” said Vin Weber, a former Minnesota congressman who was a codirector of the now-defunct conservative think tank Empower America, where Ryan worked in the 1990s. “He has strong beliefs, but he’s driven by data. Paul knew without TARP in 2008 we would descend into another Great Depression, and I still think he did the right thing by voting for it.”

‘VISION QUEST’ During a 2009 commencement speech he gave at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where he graduated in 1992, Ryan referred to having had a “difficult” time in high school after his father’s death. He also mentioned an economics professor, Rich Hart.

“He provided me with much more than just an education in economics,” Ryan said. “He provided a vision quest in my mind to improve the economy of our nation.” Hart, whose “intellectual hero” is economist Milton Friedman, had long conversations with Ryan and gave him a copy of Friedman’s “Capitalism and Freedom.”

Hart said he often has given students Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged,” a novel about a rebellion by citizens against high taxes and government regulation that Ryan has said had a great influence on him. Hart said Ryan already had read the book by the time Hart taught him. “When Paul Ryan arrived at Miami he already had an economic and political philosophy,” Hart said. “He spent his time here refining and strengthening it.” When Ryan went to Oxford in 2009, Hart says he tried to persuade his former student to run for president. He recalls Ryan saying no, that he did not want to leave his three young children to campaign for two years.

‘MATURE BEYOND HIS YEARS’ While at Miami, Ryan interned for Republican US Senator Bob Kasten of Wisconsin and for the Senate small business committee. Kasten said he offered Ryan a job after he graduated in 1992 and that Ryan “was always mature beyond his years.”

But Kasten recalled a moment of youthful longing

by Ryan. When Ryan got the job offer, he said he wanted to take a year off to be a ski instructor in Colorado. Ryan’s mother, Elizabeth, insisted he seize the chance to work in Washington.

After Kasten lost to Democrat Russ Feingold in the 1992 election, Ryan joined Empower America, where he helped former congressman Jack Kemp, the co-author of the 1981 tax cut and Empower America’s co-director for economic policy. Founded after Democrat Bill Clinton won the 1992 presidential election, Empower America was intended to compete with Democrats “on the battlefield of ideas,” Weber said. The think tank featured economists such as Arthur Laffer, one of Reagan’s economic advisers. Empower America later merged with Citizens for a Sound Economy, which later split into FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity, the latter of which has backing from oil and gas billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.

Ryan was very close to Kemp, who briefly sought the 1988 Republican presidential nomination and was Bob Dole’s vice presidential running mate in 1996. Weber said that Kemp, who died in 2009, “was the great hope for many of us after Reagan because for conservatives of my ilk he best embodied Reagan’s policies. “After Kemp, Paul Ryan emerged as our next great hope,” he added. Some have portrayed Kemp as a second father to Ryan, but Kasten says that is not quite accurate. Kasten said Ryan has had several brother-type relationships with like-minded conservatives such as Kasten, “based on mutual respect and love.”

‘HE’S VERY SHARP’ Conda introduced Ryan to Romney in Ryan’s office January 2007. What was supposed to be a courtesy meeting quickly became something more. “Before long they were talking about entitlement reform and marginal income taxes,” he said.

“Afterwards, Romney said to me, ‘I like him; he’s very sharp.’ “Apart from sharing an apparent affinity for tax and economic theory, some who know Ryan say he and Romney are both compromisers. “There are some people who can be a committed conservative and agree with all the ideas, but still be an individual,” said Linda Killian, a journalist who chatted with Ryan several times in the mid-1990s for her book “The Freshmen: What Happened to the Republican Revolution?”-an account of the two years after Republicans took control of Congress for the first time in four decades in 1994. —Reuters

Romney, Obama battl for cash

MARYLAND: A supporter of the GOP presidential ticket of former Massachusetts Gov Mitt Romney holds a sign in Potomac, Maryland. — AFP

WASHINGTON: The Republican Party and presidential candidate Mitt Romney have almost $60 million more in the bank than President Barack Obama and his Democratic Party but campaign finance experts say it is too soon to assume that means a political advantage in November. The Obama and Romney campaigns are vying to become the most successful fundraising operations in US history, with help from their national parties.

In July, Romney raised $101 million for his campaign and the party, outpacing Obama for the third month in a row. Obama and the Democrats hauled in $75 million.

Romney, the Republican National Committee and the Victory Fund they use jointly said they had $186 million left in cash on hand at the end of July. Disclosures filed on Monday showed Obama, the Democratic National Committee and their own joint funds having a total of $127 million left in cash on hand. That money is an important gauge of firepower saved up for future advertising or investments in hiring, offices and events. It has prompted a flurry of fundraising emails from Obama whose campaign spends at a faster clip than Romney to maintain its vast network of staff and field offices - urging donors to give because they expect Romney

to far out-raise the president.

But those grand totals may be too broad of a measure to foretell a candidate’s future financial advantage, experts say. “Romney is ahead when you combine it all together but some of his money is going to be less efficient,” said Michael Malbin, who runs the nonpartisan Campaign Finance Institute. “Obama is way ahead in the most flexible pile.” The most flexible cash belongs to campaigns, analysts said, because it allows for spur-ofthe-moment investments, for example, to instantly rebut the opponent’s latest attack.

Parties, while vowing to spend every dime on their presidential candidate, do provide key support when it comes to mobilizing voters and grass-roots outreach but this year they have a $21.7 million cap on how much they can coordinate with campaigns. That limits, most importantly, their capacity for advertising, Malbin said, a crucial way to reach voters. The RNC has been out-raising the DNC. It brought in $37.7 million in July, compared to the DNC’s $8.8 million, according to their Monday filings with the Federal Election Commission. At the end of the month, the RNC had $88.8 million left in cash on hand and the DNC had $15.4 million, FEC filings showed.—Reuters

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

NEWS

GAZA CITY: Palestinians enjoy a ride in an amusement park on the third day of Eid al-Fitr marking the end of the fasting holy month of Ramadan yesterday. — AFP

Divers recover body of top Philippines...

Continued from Page 1 Manila where a mass for Robredo was held.

Jose Fabian Cadiz, a vice mayor of a suburban Manila district and a close Robredo friend, said people in Naga were feeling a deep sense of loss. “He was a very good man and an even greater public servant. He will be very missed,” Cadiz told AFP by phone from Robredo’s home, where he was comforting the politician’s wife and daughters - aged 12, 18 and 24. Flags in all government offices flew at half mast, while the Australian, British and US governments extended sympathies to the Philippines.

Aquino’s office said it planned a state funeral.

Robredo was flying to Naga from the central Philippines, where he was on an official trip, when the plane developed engine trouble, fell short of the runway

and plunged into the sea. Robredo’s aide, one of the four people on board, survived the crash with non-life threatening injuries after hauling himself out of the plane as it was about to sink. Fishermen plucked him out of the water. But the two pilots - Filipino Jessup Bahinting and Nepalese Kshitiz Chand -died and divers had not yet been able to recover their bodies from the sunken fuselage.

Roxas said a volunteer British diver led the rescue team to the wreckage. The diver described the plane as broken into “three big chunks” with the three bodies intact inside the fuselage, according to Roxas. As interior secretary, Robredo was in control of the country’s 143,000-strong police force. Robredo was in charge of efforts to tackle police corruption, part of a much-publicised anti-graft program Aquino has been implementing across all sectors of society since coming to power in 2010. — AFP

Iran unveils new missile, starts air defence...

Continued from Page 1 There has been an upsurge in rhetoric from Israeli politicians this month suggesting Israel might attack Iran’s nuclear facilities ahead of the US presidential election in November. Iran, which denies trying to develop a nuclear bomb, says it could hit Israel and U.S. bases in the region if it comes under attack. It has also threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, the neck of the Gulf through which 40 percent of the world’s sea-borne oil exports pass. Such a move would probably invite a military response from the United States.

Paul Beaver, a London-based defence analyst, said yesterday’s moves appear to be geared at showing the world Iran is prepared for an attack on its nuclear facilities, and said Iran had been able to upgrade air defence systems dating from before the 1979 Islamic revolution with Russian and perhaps Chinese equipment. “We have seen 20 years of development of the Iranian air defence system,” Beaver told Reuters. “I believe that Iran is a very hard nut to crack.”

Iran is also locked in a years-long dispute with Russia over the high-precision S-300 air defence system, which Moscow has refused to deliver to Tehran in order to comply with expanded UN sanctions passed in 2010. Iran said earlier this month that it had successfully test-fired the new Fateh-110 model and that it was equipped with a more accurate guidance system. “This missile is one of the most precise and

advanced land-to-land ballistic missiles using solid fuel,” Vahidi was quoted as saying by Fars.

In July, Iran said it had successfully test-fired mediumrange missiles capable of hitting Israel, and tested dozens of missiles aimed at simulated air bases. It also presented a more powerful, 5,000-horsepower sea-borne engine, the Bonyan-4, Fars quoted Vahidi as saying. A previous version had 1,000 horsepower, the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) said.

Military experts have cast doubt on Iran’s claims of weapons advances, especially its assertions about its missile program, saying Tehran often exaggerates its capabilities.

“The Fateh-110 has a crude guidance and control system that operates during the missile’s ascent” rather than during final descent, said Michael Elleman, senior fellow for missile defence at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

“The Fateh-110 appears to lack the subsystems needed to effect terminal steering,” he said in an email.

Iran yesterday also presented Armita, an “airborne laboratory” to help test aircraft launch systems and oxygen generation and train fighter pilots, Fars reported. Vahidi said it was named after the daughter of Dariush Rezaeinejad, an Iranian scientist who was shot dead last year. Iran believes agents working with foreign intelligence services including the American CIA and Israel’s Mossad are behind the assassinations of several of its nuclear scientists. — Reuters

Giving babies antibiotics can lead to obesity Continued from Page 1 This was the first study analyzing the relationship between antibiotic use and body mass starting in infancy. The researchers evaluated the use of antibiotics among 11,532 children born in Britain’s Avon region in 1991 and 1992 who are participating in a long-term study on their health and development.

They found that children treated with antibiotics in the first five months of their life weighed more for their height than those who were not exposed. The difference was small between the ages of 10 to 20 months, but by 38 months of age, children exposed to antibiotics had a 22 percent greater likelihood of being overweight. Timing appeared to matter - children who

received antibiotics from the ages of six to 14 months did not have a significantly higher body mass later in childhood, the study revealed. And although children exposed to antibiotics at 15 to 23 months had slightly higher body mass indices by age seven, there was no significant increase in their likelihood of being overweight or obese.

“For many years now, farmers have known that antibiotics are great at producing heavier cows for market,” co-author Jan Blustein, also of NYU, said in a press release. “While we need more research to confirm our findings, this carefully conducted study suggests that antibiotics influence weight gain in humans, and especially children too.” The study was published in the International Journal of Obesity. — AFP

Ethiopian strongman Meles dies in Brussels Continued from Page 1 International called on new leaders to end his government’s “everincreasing repression”. Human Rights Watch called for the next administration to repeal a much-criticised 2009 anti-terrorism law, under which multiple opposition figures and journalists, including two Swedes, have been jailed for lengthy terms.

Ethiopia has declared a state of national mourning, but has not fixed a date for a funeral, said Bereket, adding that “everything is stable” in the country.

Diplomats and analysts in Addis Ababa say it has not been clear how the government has been run since Meles was reported to have been hospitalised in June. Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga told the BBC that Meles had been “a great leader” but said he also “fears for the stability of Ethiopia upon his death”. “The

Ethiopian state is very fragile,” he said.

“I don’t know if they have sufficiently prepared for his succession.”

Ethiopia faces several internal threats, including the rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front, fighting for greater autonomy in the south-eastern ethnic Somali region. They said they hoped Meles’s death “may usher (in) a new era of stability and peace”.

Meles was credited with Ethiopia’s economic boom in the past decade, with economic growth shooting from 3.8 percent in the 1990s to 10 percent in 2010. On paper, his government fostered a policy of ethnic federalism, devolving significant powers to regional, ethnically based authorities, but central control remains firmly in the hands of the ruling party. His death also leaves a major power gap in the Horn of Africa, with Ethiopia playing a key role in the fortunes of many of its neighbours.

Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia

for a second time last year - after a US-backed invasion in 2006 - and Ethiopia is supporting the fight against Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab. The Shebab said they were celebrating the “uplifting news” yesterday. Meles’s death could also potentially see changes in the relationship with arch-foe Eritrea, which split from Ethiopia in 1993 before the two spiralled into a bitter 1998-2000 border war in which tens of thousands died. A peace deal led to a tense standoff, with Meles refusing to pull troops from the border town of Badme, even after an international court ruled the town belonged to Eritrea. The town has been the source of festering discontent between the two nations ever since. Asmara has so far made no comment on his death.

Meles also played a key role in brokering peace efforts between newly independent South Sudan and its former civil war foe Sudan.

Russia warns West after US threats Continued from Page 1 it ... is heading towards a confrontation wider than Syria’s borders,” he told a news conference.

Jamil held out the prospect that embattled Assad could leave power as part of a negotiated settlement to the increasingly ferocious conflict. “As far as his resignation goes making the resignation itself a condition for holding dialogue means that you will never be able to reach this dialogue,” he said after talks in Moscow. But he added: “Any problems can be discussed during negotiations. We are even ready to discuss this issue.” According to political sources in Damascus, Jamil was sent to Moscow to discuss a possible plan for presidential elections in Syria in which all candidates would be allowed to stand, including Assad. The exiled opposition umbrella group the Syrian National Council said it was studying the formation of a transitional government, but did not elaborate on whether it could include regime figures.

In one of the latest battle zones, troops and tanks overran the Damascus suburb of Mouadamiya yesterday, the second day of an offensive to regain control of the area. Activists said Assad’s forces had killed at least 70 people in Mouadamiya since Monday. They included some two dozen men who had been executed and 16 people killed in a helicopter gunship attack on a funeral for victims of Monday’s violence. “The mourners set off with 19 bodies and came back with 35,” Hayat, one of the activists said from the suburb.

Another resident, speaking to Reuters by telephone, said he had counted the bodies of some two dozen men who had been executed. “They were not killed by bombardment, their hands were tied and they were burnt and killed by knives,” he said. Bodies were found in basements and looted premises, activists said. State-imposed curbs on media made it impossible to verify the repor ts of the violence, which followed another bloody day on Monday, when about 200 people were killed across the country, according to the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

An opposition group said Syria’s air force had redeployed 30 Sukhoi fighter-bomber jets closer to cities where the army is battling to crush rebels in the north and east of the country. The Soviet-era Sukhoi Su22 planes, which can drop 400 kg bombs, flew from the Dumair and Sim air bases north and east of Damascus on Monday to bases in the city of Hama Tabaqa and Deir al-Zor, a senior official in the Higher Leadership Council for the Syrian Revolution said. “ This type of Sukhoi is more geared to bombing missions than aerial combat. They are now within a more manageable range to hit the cities of Aleppo, Homs and Deir al-Zor and areas in Idlib province,” Mohammad Mroueh told Reuters from Amman.

The United States and its allies have shown little appetite for intervention to halt the bloodshed along the lines of last year’s NATO campaign that helped topple Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi. But Obama used some of his strongest language yet on Monday to warn Assad not to use unconventional weapons. “We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a

red line for us is (if ) we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilised,” he said. “ That would change my calculus.”

Syria last month acknowledged for the first time that it had chemical or biological weapons and said it could use them if foreign countries attacked it. “We cannot have a situation where chemical or biological weapons are falling into the hands of the wrong people,” Obama said, perhaps referring to Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah group, an Iranianbacked ally of Assad, or to Islamist militants. The US-based Global Security website says there are four suspected chemical weapons sites in Syria producing the nerve agents VX, sarin and tabun. It does not cite its sources. Israel, still formally at war with Syria, has also debated whether to attack the unconventional arms sites which it views as the gravest peril from the conflict next door.

Obama has been reluctant to embroil the United States in another war in the Middle East and refuses to arm Syrian rebels, partly for fear that some of those fighting the Iranian-backed president are Islamist radicals equally hostile to the West. Rebels have seized swathes of territory in northern Syria near Turkey, which now hosts 70,000 Syrian refugees and which has suggested that the United Nations might need to create a “safe zone” in Syria if that total topped 10,000. But setting up a safe haven would require imposing a no-fly zone, an idea which U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said last week was not a “front-burner” issue for Washington.

The Alawite-Sunni sectarian fault line flared in neighbouring Lebanon, where at least five people were killed, including a child, and 43 wounded in clashes between pro- and anti-Damascus regime supporters, security and army officials said. Two people were killed in Bab el-Tebbaneh, the mainly Sunni district of the nor thern por t of Tripoli, and three died in the largely Alawite area of Jabal Mohsen in the city, a security official said, updating an earlier toll. Ten soldiers were wounded as well as 33 civilians, both Sunni and Alawite, officials said, while a 13-year-old boy was among those killed. “The clashes are continuing,” an army spokesman said in the early evening, while the military said in a statement that soldiers were “chasing gunmen and have seized a quantity of guns, bombs and ammunition.”

The fighting erupted late on Monday in Tripoli, home to a Sunni community hostile to the regime of Assad, and a community of Alawites. The clashes come days after a wave of kidnappings targeting Syrians in Lebanon, which lived under three decades of Syrian hegemony and remains deeply divided between supporters and opponents of Damascus.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati warned against the “absurd battle” rocking his hometown, Lebanon’s second largest city. “ We have repeatedly warned against being drawn into this blaze that has spread around Lebanon,” he said of the violence in Syria. “But it is clear that several parties wanted to push Lebanon into the conflict.” The violence was centred around the aptly named Syria Street, the symbolic “dividing line” between the rival

Tripoli districts of Bab el-Tebbaneh and Jabal Mohsen. Fires blazed in several buildings of the rival areas, where civilians evacuated their homes, an AFP correspondent said.

Meanwhile, a veteran Japanese war reporter died after she was shot in the neck when coming under fire from up to 15 apparently pro-government troops in Syria’s second city, a colleague said yesterday. Mika Yamamoto was covering the anti-regime movement in Aleppo, her long-time colleague Kazutaka Sato told Japanese broadcasters. The death of the 45-yearold takes to four the number of foreign journalists who have lost their lives in the country since the uprising began against the regime of Assad in March 2011. Yamamoto is the first of them to die in Aleppo, with the other three - two French men and an American woman killed in Homs. Her death was confirmed by Japan’s foreign ministry.

Sato, a colleague from the small but respected Japan Press, said he and Yamamoto had been with antiregime forces when they were shot at on Monday by what appeared to be government soldiers. “We saw a group of 10 to 15 troops ahead on the right, who were walking in double file,” he told national broadcaster NHK. “When they started shooting, I dashed towards my left, where I saw a Free Syrian Army soldier.”

Sato, who also worked with Yamamoto in Iraq, told NTV: “The one at the front (of the group of troops) was wearing a helmet and I immediately thought they were government troops. “I think I told her to run. At that moment, they started shooting. We all ran and scattered. After that, I couldn’t see Yamamoto and was told to go to hospital. I found Yamamoto’s body there.” Sato was told by a hospital official that Yamamoto was already dead when she arrived, NHK said.

The TBS network cited Sato as saying she had been shot in the neck.

Yamamoto was a known face on Japanese television, who came to prominence after surviving a US tank shelling on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad in 2003 in which two journalists, one from Reuters and one from a Spanish broadcaster, were k illed. The dead woman’s father, retired journalist Koji Yamamoto, said repor ts of her death were “too much to bear ”.

“She was always talking about tragic people who were caught in conflicts, human lives and world peace.

She was more than I was... she is a wonderful reporter and daughter,” he told Jiji Press.

Abu Rashid, commander of the Liwa Asifat Al-Shamal, one of the groups that make up the opposition Free Syrian Army, told an AFP repor ter near Aleppo the dead journalist had been “targeted by regime forces”. He said his men had transported the body to nearby Turkey through the Bab al-Salam crossing. “If the international community doesn’t move to help the Syrian people, they have to react to the spilling of their citizens’ blood on Syrian territory,” he said. “We want a sincere position from the international community, a real position, not just words.” Three other journalists were also reportedly missing, two of them from a USfunded Arabic language broadcaster. It was not clear if their disappearance was linked to Yamamoto’s death. — Agencies

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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

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Issues

Island disputes show malaise

By Jacques Lhuillery okyo’s seeming fixation with squabbles over the outposts of its former empire are symptomatic of a foreign policy drift as Japan struggles to find its place in the 21st century, analysts say. In a little over a month, three long-running territorial disputes have flared up. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev inflicted the first wound in early July with a visit to the Kurils, off the coast of Hokkaido, seized by the Soviet Union in the last days of World War II. “I do not care,” Medvedev told reporters when asked what he thought about Tokyo’s “extreme regret” over his trip to what Japan calls the Northern Territories.

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak sent relations plunging when he flew to Dokdo, islets in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) that Tokyo calls Takeshima. And last week Tokyo deported 14 pro-Beijing activists who had sailed to a chain of islands known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, the most bitter of its territorial scraps. Japanese nationalists hit back with their own landing on Sunday. Each incident was deeply felt in Tokyo, where a directionless government, destabilised by domestic rows over nuclear power and consumption tax, is stumbling towards a seemingly inevitable election in the autumn.

All the disputed islands harbour valuable resources petrochemical, mineral or fishery - but they are also strategically valuable in a part of the world keenly aware of the rising power of China. “Senkaku is a window on the continent,” said Hideshi Takesada, a Japanese professor of Asian Studies at Yonsei University in South Korea. “If Japan lost Senkaku, it would lose a significant portion of its frontline defence. “Moreover, a weak-kneed response will lead to similar results in other fields. China, for instance, may gain the upper hand in patent fights and other bilateral and regional disputes.” Issues linked to Japan’s early 20th century expansionism, when it conquered large swathes of east Asia, often brutally, arouse particularly strong feelings in the region, said Takashi Terada of Doshisha University in Kyoto.

“Europe has more or less sorted out the legacy of the Cold War, but it is still visible in Asia. A lot of territorial disputes have remained unresolved,” he said. Indeed, Japan has never signed a peace treaty with Russia to formally end World War II because of the disagreement over the Kurils. But Japan’s inability to head off these fights or to put an end to them when they surface is, says Terada, a function of its listless domestic politics, which has left the country exposed on the global stage. He says the inexperience of the Democratic Party of Japan, which came to power in 2009 after five decades of almost unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party, is a problem, with key figures enjoying few of the personal cross-border links their predecessors developed over long periods in office.

The frequent changes at the top of government Yoshihiko Noda is Japan’s sixth premier in as many yearsare destabilising, and give the impression Japan cannot hit back, he said. China’s economic rise and Japan’s stagnation have also altered the regional balance. “Neighbouring countries used to need Japan’s financial and technological cooperation,” he said. “In exchange for that, they would tone down their diplomatic stance.” The deterioration of Japan’s relationship with the United States, with recent Tokyo administrations appearing lukewarm on ties with the country’s most important security ally, have also given neighbours a way in.

“While Japan was firmly protected under its security alliance with the United States, it did not have to be so serious about territorial issues. “But Japan’s recent unfavourable relations with the United States are allowing China and South Korea to gain the upper hand.” But Tetsuro Kato of Tokyo’s Hitotsubashi University warned Tokyo cannot simply go scurrying back to Washington. This is partly because the US has no interest in getting its hands dirty in territorial battles where whatever it does risks damaging its own interests, he said, but also because the balance of world power has shifted. “With the growth of China, Japan can no longer depend only on the United States,” he said.

And with demands at home for something to be done, politicians could find themselves increasingly bounced into making the kind of statements Noda made last month when he said Japan could send in the military to defend the Senkakus. Thomas Berger, associate professor of International Relations at Boston University, said in the short term there would be no actual military conflict.

“However, the growing embitterment of public sentiment in the region over territorial disputes is a source of real concern,” he said. “The possibility of a clash cannot be ruled out, and a regional arms race is already well under way.”— AFP

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Clashes expose India’s communal divide

By Nita Bhalla he anonymous text message on Bhumidhar Das’ mobile phone was chilling: “Muslims will attack and kill our people after Ramadan. Return home.” Within hours, Das, a Hindu working at a car factory in the city of Pune, joined tens of thousands of fellow migrant workers returning to hometowns in the remote northeast after getting or hearing of similar messages. Nearly 80 people have been killed and 400,000 displaced in fighting between Muslims and mostly Hindu Bodo tribesmen in northeastern Assam state in recent weeks. The mass flight was sparked by rumours that Muslims, a big minority in predominantly Hindu India, were seeking revenge for the Assam violence.

Normally, there is little fallout in the rest of India from bouts of violence in Assam, which borders Bangladesh and is one of seven states connected to the main bulk of the country by a ‘chicken neck’ of land.

This time, however, the grisly scenes unfolding in the far-flung northeast may fan communal politics in a country where simmering tensions between Hindus and Muslims have often been exploited for electoral gain.

As India heads for national elections in 2014 amid a sharp slowdown in growth, religious politics, along with a loss of jobs and wealth, could be a key issue. “The conflict in Assam is getting communalised,” said Zoya Hasan, a political scientist at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University and former member of the National Commission for Minorities. “Rightwing nationalist parties are cashing in on this by calling Assam’s Muslims ‘foreigners’ and ‘illegal Bangladeshi migrants’ who threaten the fabric of Indian society. They are not going to let this go so easily, especially with elections coming up and will try to make this a Hindu-Muslim issue.”

The state and other parts of the northeast are home to hundreds of tribes and ethnic groups. Violence usually stems from tribal rivalries, anger against Muslim settlers from Bangladesh or from insurgencies.

While religion-driven politics has taken a backseat in the last decade of India’s economic boom, there are signs Muslim discontent over the violence is spreading. While parties across the political spectrum have condemned the recent bloodshed in Assam, divisive rhetoric has come from all sides.

In India’s financial capital, Mumbai, massive protests by Muslims against events in Assam turned violent earlier this month, killing two people and wounding dozens. In Pune, the city where Das was working, students from the northeast were beaten. Unrest has also been reported in Lucknow and Allahabad in the north. Rumours of Muslim retaliation at the end of the holy month of Ramadan this week have swirled, with threats of attacks on northeast Indians carried on social media and phone text messages.

As a result, more than 30,000 migrants from the northeast working in cities such as Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad rushed in terror back to their homes. How safe they will be there is open to question - two of those fleeing were killed and nine were injured on Sunday after they were pushed from a moving train. The

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Interior Ministry said on Saturday most of the text messages and website images originated in Pakistan, an Islamic state and India’s archrival. Islamabad rejected the suggestion as “baseless and unfounded”.

Massacres In Assam, conflict between Bodo tribes and Muslims is not new.

Decades of feuding over land rights and political power has often erupted into blood-letting, the worst of which was in 1983 when nearly 3,000 people were massacred. Bodos say Muslims are illegal settlers from neighbouring Bangladesh who take their land, reducing them to a minority. They point to a surge in the Muslim population, which is now better organised politically under influential leaders such as Badruddin Ajmal, whose party is the main opposition in the state of tea plantations and oilfields.

Muslims say they are not illegal immigrants and that they are being marginalised by Bodos, who are economically and politically stronger. Over time, India’s two main political parties - the secular Congress, which rules the state as well as in New Delhi, and the main opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - have sought to benefit from conflict. The BJP has often been accused of fomenting Hindu-Muslim violence. It supports the Bodos’ claims and accuses Congress of allowing illegal immigration for electoral gains.

“The Congress Party... does not have to import illegal immigrants to increase its vote bank,” Arun Jaitley, a senior BJP leader told parliament. “The government must stop this illegal immigration, the entire border must be fenced, the detection and deportation (of illegal migrants) must begin forthwith.” Congress says most Muslims in Assam are Indian citizens.

In Assam’s squalid displacement camps, hundreds of thousands of Bodos and Muslims languish, too fearful to return home after seeing their villages razed, possessions looted or neighbours shot or hacked to death. Weeks after clashes broke out, convoys of paramilitary trucks still drive through the main roads in this lush rice-growing region. A night curfew remains in place.

Identity Politics Fathoming what happened in Assam is critical for India, whose history is scarred with episodes of slaughter by citizens divided by ethnicity and religion. Centuries of rule by medieval Muslim invaders drove a wedge between Hindus and Muslims, a suspicion that has only grown since the bloody birth of Pakistan, which was carved from Muslim-majority areas of India in 1947. Up to one million people were killed in Hindu-Muslim violence when Pakistan was created, which many Indians still refer to as “Partition”.

About 170 million Muslims live in India. Many are disenchanted, their alienation partly fueled by the demolition of the 16th-century Babri mosque by Hindu zealots in 1992 and communal riots in Gujarat state in 2002, when around 2,500 people, mostly Muslims, were hacked and burnt to death. The BJP rose to prominence in the early 1990s on the back of a Hindu revivalist movement. Its leaders led the demolition of the Babri Mosque. “The BJP is known to play up

the communal issue on a much larger scale than Congress. They have an upper caste Hindu agenda,” said Asghar Ali Engineer, chairman of the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism.

This has not automatically translated into Muslim support for Congress, which had enjoyed the Muslim vote in the years after independence from Britain. Congress has often been accused of failing to protect Muslims, and a substantial portion of that vote has waned, going to new regional parties instead. The Gujarat riots, however, saw the tide turn again in favour of Congress in the 2004 elections, as Muslims saw the party as the only one capable of stopping the BJP and its “Hindutva” or Hindu nationalist agenda.

Making up about 14 percent of India’s 1.2 billion people, Muslims are the biggest minority group. Their vote is critical in key swing states such as Assam, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in the north, West Bengal in the east and Kerala in the south. With a large chunk of middle class moderate Hindus put off by the Gujarat riots, the BJP has tried to reinvent itself - balancing the need for a softer Hindutva plank with a broader agenda of development and good governance.

Its leaders such as Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat, under whose watch the 2002 riots took place, have in recent years adopted a softer line as they jostle to become the party’s prime ministerial candidate in the 2014 elections.

Assam Impact Just how the Assam violence is dealt with could be a deciding factor in votes in certain states. “Incidents such as what we have witnessed in Assam are read very keenly by the Indian voter. He watches how things are managed or, in this case, mismanaged and exploited,” said M J Akbar, editorial director of India Today magazine. There is likely to be a return to anti-Muslim rhetoric and issues such as illegal migration as right-wing parties struggle to form vote-winning policies with an electorate fed up with an opposition that is seen as keener to bash the government than work with it as the economy slows sharply. For Congress, the issue will be much more complicated, analysts said. The party will have to consolidate Muslim votes won in the last elections in 2009, while at the same time reassure moderate Hindus who have been angered by the handling of the Assam violence. “The way this violence took place, the killings and the massive displacement as well as the exodus of northeast people, is likely to lead to more polarisation between Hindu and Muslims,” said Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury, political scientist at Kolkata’s Rabindra Bharati University.

On Friday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told migrants from the northeast they were safe, while adding that India’s “communal harmony” was at stake. Many from the northeast say they need more than just words of reassurance. Two trains from Bangalore packed with around 4,000 people arrived in Guwahati, Assam’s main city, over the weekend. “I have left due to fear. My job is important, but my life and that of my family is more precious,” said security guard Binod Boro, 30, who got down from a train onto an overcrowded platform, followed by his wife and their two-year-old daughter. —Reuters

Afghan peace hopes may rest on Taleban captive

By Matthew Green

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n the cloistered circles of the Taleban high command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar had no equal. As military chief of the hardline Islamic movement that once ruled Afghanistan and was ousted by a US-led alliance, he oversaw the campaign of ambushes and roadside bombings that proved his fighters could threaten the most advanced armies. When the talismanic leader was caught in the Pakistani city of Karachi in 2010, some Afghan officials hoped the magnetism he forged in war would persuade his former comrades to start talking peace. Indeed, news that Islamabad had allowed Afghan officials to visit Baradar two months ago sparked speculation in both countries of the prospects for a settlement.

Instead, Pakistan’s refusal to hand him over to Afghanistan symbolises one of the biggest obstacles to negotiations: a legacy of bone-deep suspicion dividing the neighbours. Afghanistan fears that Pakistan is only pretending to support dialogue while its intelligence agencies harbour Taleban leaders to project influence across their shared frontier. Any move to repatriate Baradar would raise Afghan hopes that Pakistan is willing to play a genuinely constructive role and open the door to other prominent insurgents.

“Releasing Mullah Baradar would encourage other Taleban leaders to embrace reconciliation,” Ismail Qasemyar, an adviser to Afghanistan’s High Peace Council, told Reuters. “It would be a huge symbolic step.” Members of the council, who are charged with reaching out to insurgents, aim to visit Islamabad in the next few weeks to make a fresh plea for Pakistan to allow Baradar to return to Kabul as a guest of the Afghan government.

With the United States and its allies due to withdraw the bulk of their combat forces by the end of 2014, pressure is mounting on President Hamid Karzai to start meaningful negotiations with the Taleban and prevent violence spiralling. But there is no guarantee Pakistan will agree to release Baradar, or that he retains enough influence to play a deci-

sive role. “We are fully cooperating with Afghanistan in whatever they are asking for the peace process,” Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik said in a recent interview. “For developing peace in Afghanistan, we are giving every kind of help. We have given access.” He did not comment further on the subject.

The Afghan government believes Baradar is more amenable to dialogue than many of his comrades. In the months before his arrest, Baradar authorised contacts with United Nations representatives to explore the possibility of dialogue, according to former UN and Taleban officials.

Afghan officials believe Pakistan detained him as part of a broader strategy to retain a veto over any eventual settlement in Afghanistan. More cautious voices argue that negotiations will only work if Karzai broadens his strategy of lobbying prominent insurgents to defect into a wider process to address the roots of Afghanistan’s conflict. Pakistan, for its part, will have to radically rethink the terms of its long-standing relationship with the Taleban before it can consider meeting Afghan demands.

mediators. Baradar was captured in early 2010 in the Pakistani port city of Karachi in a joint operation between Pakistani intelligence officers and the CIA. Some argue that more than two years in detention have eroded his sway over an evolving insurgency. The Haqqani network, which has used havens in Pakistan to launch attacks on Kabul, is showing signs of growing independence from the Taleban hierarchy. And a blistering campaign of US night raids on Taleban commanders has weakened Mullah Omar’s chain of command. What does seem certain is that Baradar’s return would give Karzai’s outreach more credibility among Pashtuns, the community that dominates southern and eastern Afghanistan, where the insurgency is strongest. The captive’s mystique is burnished by his status as the highest-ranking Taleban commander to hail from the Popalzai, the same Pashtun sub-group as Karzai. “If Mullah Baradar joins the government, 80 percent of the problem with the Taleban will be solved,” said Haji Obaidullah Barakzai, a lawmaker from Uruzgan, the southern province where Baradar was born.

Hard Work Taleban folklore has it that Baradar was present on the day in 1994 when Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taleban’s leader, launched his campaign to cleanse Afghanistan of rapacious warlords by hanging one particularly loathsome militia chief from the barrel of a tank. Their friendship bolstered Baradar’s stature during the Taleban’s march on Kabul and its 1996-2001 reign. The Taleban government collapsed after the United States and its allies attacked Afghanistan for harbouring Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the architect of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.

Baradar would later emerge as Mullah Omar’s second-in-command, translating spiritual guidance into orders as the Taleban insurgency gathered strength. Mullah Omar bestowed him with the nom de guerre “Baradar”, which means “brother”.

Although a ruthless fighter, Baradar had a knack for forging compromise, another trait that appeals to

Kabul’s Suspicions Baradar’s capture after he authorised his followers to contact UN officials has sharpened Kabul’s suspicions that Pakistan’s military is intent on using its leverage over the insurgents to shape any future settlement. Pakistan’s security establishment backed the Taleban’s rise in the mid-1990s as part of its policy of sponsoring Islamist militants as proxies in a struggle with nuclear rival India. Pakistan joined the US war on terror in 2001 and backed the attack on its former allies in power in Kabul, but, at the same time, maintained unofficial links with the Taleban. Many of its fighters are based in the border regions, where Pakistan’s own Pashtun community lives. Some Western diplomats in Islamabad believe Pakistan’s generals are reviewing their relationship with their increasingly troublesome assets. Many of their home-grown militant groups have turned on their former masters. An embarrassing raid on an airbase outside Islamabad on Thursday was only

the latest display of the threat they pose. For now, Pakistan has chosen to hedge. The military has made some moves to facilitate dialogue while avoiding irreversible steps that might diminish its sway over the insurgents. For example, Pakistani intelligence allowed Taleban envoys to travel to Qatar for talks with US officials late last year. Hopes that the discussions would lead to a confidencebuilding prisoner exchange have, however, yet to materialise.

Some Afghans detected a further shift in February, interpreting a Pakistani pledge to support dialogue as the country’s first admission that it had sheltered the Taleban. That was followed by the decision to allow Afghan officials to meet Baradar in detention. Repatriating Baradar would require a much bigger leap of faith. Although Pakistan’s relations with the Taleban are poisoned by mistrust, the army will be loathe to sacrifice control as long as Afghanistan’s future remains uncertain. “The question is what the Afghan groups who are currently enjoying the patronage of NATO will do after the withdrawal,” said a Pakistani official with experience in Afghanistan. “Are the current crop of Afghan leaders simply going to melt away?”

Strategy Under Fire While Afghan officials portray Pakistan as a recalcitrant partner, Karzai’s lack of a coherent strategy may be an even bigger problem. The Afghan government has focused on luring individual Taleban leaders to abandon the insurgency, rather than laying the groundwork for a more comprehensive peace process that might satisfy the country’s many constituencies. “It’s not enough just to bring former Taleban commanders to Kabul,” said Haji Mangal Hussain, a former adviser to Karzai.

“The most important factor for bringing peace is to improve the quality of the Afghan government.”

With Karzai due to step down at elections due by 2014, and his administration steeped in allegations of nepotism, warlordism and corruption, many fear he lacks the legitimacy to serve as guarantor for a viable power-sharing deal. — Reuters

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

sp orts Song ready to battle for his Barcelona slot

All-female crew to contest next Volvo Ocean Race

No place for Pietersen in limited-overs squad

BARCELONA: Alex Song knows he must fight for his place in Barcelona’s team after joining in a big-money transfer from Arsenal, the Cameroon midfielder said yesterday.

The 24-year-old signed a five-year deal at the weekend after moving for a fee of 19 million euros ($23.45 million). “I am coming to the best team in the world and I am delighted to be a Barcelona player,” Song told a news conference. “I know I have joined a team of stars and I will have to fight for my place.

“It is a great challenge and I know I have a lot to learn. When the coach (Tito Vilanova) thinks I am ready that’s when I’ll play.

“It is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I thank Arsenal and (coach) Arsene Wenger for allowing me to be here.” Barcelona sports director Andoni Zubizarreta said the club were attracted to Song by his versatility. “We decided to sign a midfielder that could play as a centre back after the exit of Seydou Keita,” he said.

“Song was the first name on the list.

“He is a player who is good in the air, is physically powerful and tactically astute.”

Song said he was willing to play anywhere for a Barca team that has won 14 titles including three La Liga and two Champions League trophies in the last four seasons. —Reuters

STOCKHOLM: An all-women’s crew will contest offshore sailing’s Volvo Ocean Race in 2014-15, the new team’s Swedish backers announced yesterday. They will be the first team of women to take on the 39,000-nautical mile race since 2001-02.

The 10-strong, international lineup will be chosen over the next year and are backed by SCA, a Sweden-based multinational maker of hygiene products.

The first all-female team to enter the race was Maiden, skippered

by Tracy Edwards in 1989-90. The last was Amer Sports Too. “It’s been too long,” Volvo Ocean Race chief executive Knut Frostad said. “There’s 50 percent of the population there we haven’t been representing so this is a great day for the race.”

The team are the first to enter the 12th edition of the race which is run every three years and began life as the Whitbread Round the World Race in 1973. The most recent edition was completed in July with victory for French team Groupama.

The 2014-15 race will be contested in new one-design, 65-foot boats which organisers said in June was a way of bringing down costs to enter and putting less of an emphasis on physical strength, effectively reopening the race to women sailors. —Reuters

LONDON: Kevin Pietersen’s rapid fall from grace in international cricket was completed yesterday when the controversial batsman was left out of the England squads for the Twenty20 World Cup and a one-day series against South Africa. Last week, the 32-year-old Pietersen was dropped for the third and final test against South Africa at Lord’s after admitting to sending “provocative” text messages to opposing players.

England slipped to a 51-run defeat in the match to lose the series 2-0 and concede the number one test ranking to their opponents in the process.

National selector Geoff Miller explained Pietersen’s international future “was still being determined” so it was always unlikely the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) were going to select him for the upcoming limited overs events.

“Kevin Pietersen’s future involvement is still being determined and he was therefore not considered for selection in either squad,” Miller said as the squads were announced.

The squad to face South Africa for the five one-day internationals also sees Twenty20 captain Stuart Broad rested ahead the Twenty20 World Cup in Sri Lanka in September and October. —Reuters

Nationals edge Braves

CHICAGO: White Sox’s Alexei Ramirez hits a two-run home run off New York Yankees relief pitcher Boone Logan during the seventh inning. —AP

White Sox defeat Yankees CHICAGO: Chicago’s Alexei Ramirez hit a tiebreaking two-run homer in the seventh inning as the White Sox beat the New York Yankees 9-6 in Monday’s opening game of a three-game series between American League divisional leaders.

Ramirez connected with two outs in the seventh off Boone Logan (4-2), and Adam Dunn added his major leagueleading 36th homer of the season in the eighth as the White Sox ended a run of three straight defeats. Brett Myers (2-1) got the win by pitching two-thirds of an inning.

New York’s Derek Jeter homered and had four hits, tying Eddie Murray for 11th place on the career list (3,255). He also took over 13th place on the runs scored list (1,845), passing Craig Biggio.

Rangers 5, Orioles 1 In Arlington, Texas, Ryan Dempster pitched eight innings, his longest outing in more than two months and his best since being traded to Texas, as the AL West-leading Rangers beat Baltimore.

Dempster (7-6) retired the last 11 batters he faced. He allowed one run.

David Murphy had two RBI singles for the Rangers, who opened a 10-game homestand. All nine Texas starters had a hit.

Orioles starter Miguel Gonzalez (5-3), who had won his previous three decisions, gave up four runs in five innings.

Rays 5, Royals 1 In St. Petersburg, Jeremy Hellickson pitched seven innings for his first home win in three months as Tampa Bay

downed Kansas City.

Hellickson (8-8) allowed one run in ending a stretch of seven consecutive home winless starts. The Rays went ahead 4-1 in the fourth on Jose Labaton’s RBI single and a run-scoring double from Desmond Jennings off Will Smith (4-5).

Twins 7, Athletics 2 In Oakland, Josh Willingham drove in two runs against his former team and Joe Mauer hit a two-run single as Minnesota snapped Oakland’s fivegame home winning streak.

Brian Duensing (3-8) struck out seven and walked one in six innings to help the Twins bounce back from a three-game weekend sweep at Seattle that began a 10-game road trip.

A’s starter Brandon McCarthy (6-5) surrendered three straight hits in the first, including Willingham’s RBI double.

McCarthy was knocked out after 3 1-3 innings, having allowed a season-high six runs.

Mariners 5, Indians 3 In Seattle, Michael Saunders hit two two-run home runs to help Seattle to its sixth straight victory, defeating Cleveland. The Mariners have won 13 of their past 14 games at Safeco Field. It’s the best home stretch over 14 games in club history. Seattle’s Charlie Furbush (52) earned the victory in relief of starter Kevin Millwood. The Indians loaded the bases in the ninth but Jason Kipnis ground into a double play to end it. Joe Smith (7-4) took the loss in relief as Cleveland suffered a sixth straight defeat. —AP

MLB results/standings Washington 5, Atlanta 4 (13 innings); Philadelphia 12, Cincinnati 5; Tampa Bay 5, Kansas City 1; Colorado 3, NY Mets 1; Texas 5, Baltimore 1; Milwaukee 9, Chicago Cubs 5; Chicago White Sox 9, NY Yankees 6; Miami 12, Arizona 3; Minnesota 7, Oakland 2; San Diego 3, Pittsburgh 1; Seattle 5, Cleveland 3; San Francisco 2, LA Dodgers 1.

National League American League Eastern Division Eastern Division Washington 76 46 .623 W L PCT GB Atlanta 70 52 .574 6 NY Yankees 72 50 .590 Philadelphia 57 65 .467 19 Tampa Bay 68 54 .557 4 NY Mets 57 65 .467 19 Baltimore 66 56 .541 6 Miami 56 67 .455 20.5 Boston 59 63 .484 13 Toronto 56 65 .463 15.5 Central Division Cincinnati 74 49 .602 Central Division Pittsburgh 67 55 .549 6.5 Chicago White Sox 66 55 .545 St. Louis 65 56 .537 8 Detroit 64 57 .529 2 Milwaukee 55 66 .455 18 Kansas City 54 67 .446 12 Chicago Cubs 47 74 .388 26 Cleveland 54 68 .443 12.5 Houston 39 83 .320 34.5 Minnesota 51 70 .421 15 Western Division Western Division San Francisco 67 55 .549 Texas 71 50 .587 LA Dodgers 67 56 .545 0.5 Oakland 65 56 .537 6 Arizona 62 60 .508 5 San Diego 54 70 .435 14 LA Angels 62 60 .508 9.5 Colorado 47 73 .392 19 Seattle 59 64 .480 13

WASHINGTON: Washington’s Chad Tracy hit a game-ending single in the 13th inning to give the Nationals a 5-4 win over Atlanta on Monday, extending their lead over the Braves in the National League East division to six games.

Ian Desmond led off the 13th with an infield single off Cristhian Martinez (5-3) before Danny Espinosa’s attempted bunt led to a forceout. Kurt Suzuki then hit a slow roller for an infield hit, allowing Espinosa to take third.

With the infield in, Tracy hit the ball to Braves second baseman Dan Uggla, who had to choose between trying to get Espinosa at the plate or attempting to turn a double play, but instead fumbled, and Espinosa dashed home. Craig Stammen (61) pitched two hitless innings for the win.

Giants 2, Dodgers 1 In Los Angeles, Madison Bumgarner pitched eight scoreless innings as San Francisco edged Los Angeles to reclaim the NL West lead by half a game.

Bumgarner pitched his second scoreless outing of the season for the Giants, who leapfrogged the Dodgers in a division race that has seen the rivals frequently swap leads.

Bumgarner (14-7) struck out 10 and walked none. Javier Lopez got the final out to claim the save. Pablo Sandoval drove in both San Francisco runs. Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw (11-7) gave up six hits in eight innings.

Phillies 12, Reds 5 In Philadelphia, John Mayberry Jr. hit a two-run homer and Ryan Howard and Erik Kratz had solo shots to power Philadelphia past Cincinnati. Domonic Brown hit a go-ahead two-run double off Mike Leake (5-8) in the Phillies’ four-run fifth inning.

Phildelphia starter Roy

Halladay (7-7) wasn’t sharp, allowing five runs in seven innings, but the offense bailed him out and he recorded the win.

The Phillies have won 12 of 13 against the Reds, dating to 2010.

This was their first meeting this season.

Padres 3, Pirates 1 In San Diego, Edinson Volquez struck out 10 to steer San Diego past Pittsburgh. Volquez (8-9),

In Phoenix, Giancarlo Stanton homered twice, including the first of back-to-back long shots during Miami’s nine-run fourth inning, which set up the win over Arizona.

Miami’s 10 hits in the fourth matched a franchise record set last year, and the 12 runs and 20 hits were season highs. Marlins starter Mark Buehrle (11-11) took the win, allowing two runs over seven innings. Arizona’s Joe

a sharp grounder with the bases loaded, and his toss to first base just beat the batter to the bag. The Mets were unhappy with the call, with manager Terry Collins having a prolonged argument with the first base umpire. Rex Brothers (7-2) got the win, and Josh Edgin (1-1) was charged with the loss.

Brewers 9, Cubs 5 In Milwaukee, Jonathan Lucroy hit two home runs and the Brewers

WASHINGTON: Nationals’ Chad Tracy hits an RBI to score the winning run during the 13th inning of a baseball game with the Atlanta Braves. —AP who had a dismal 13,83 ERA over his previous four starts, turned his form around and allowed just one run.

San Diego has won 16 of its past 19 against the Pirates, but Pittsburgh remained half a game ahead of the Dodgers for the final wild-card berth.

Marlins 12, D’backs 3

Saunders (6-10) gave up nine runs in just 3 2-3 innings.

Rockies 3, Mets 1 In New York, Tyler Colvin hit a tying homer in the fifth inning, then made a diving play in the eighth to help Colorado beat New York.

Colvin notched his first home run in 105 at-bats, then in the eighth he made a lunging stop on

scored eight runs in the fifth inning to rally past Chicago. The Brewers sent 11 batters to the plate and recorded seven hits in their biggest inning for two years. Milwaukee’s Mark Rogers (1-1) claimed his first major league victory in seven career starts, including five this season. He allowed three five hits in five innings. Justin Germano (2-3) yielded seven runs in 4 2-3 innings

Curacao advances at LLWS SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT: Christopher Koeiman drove in two runs with a tying sacrifice fly, and Mychellon Jansen hit a tiebreaking solo homer as Willemstad, Curacao beat Vancouver, British Columbia 4-3 on Monday to advance at the Little League World Series.

Trailing 3-1 entering the fifth, Curacao had runners on second and third when Koeiman hit a fly ball to left with one out. Carter KadaWong fell backward to make the catch, but both runners had enough time to score.

Jansen then homered to give Curacao the lead for good.

Cole Dalla-Zanna was the hard-luck loser for eliminated Canada, striking out nine.

Canada took a 3-1 lead in the fourth when Noah Hanson-Stafford came off the bench to hit a two-run homer.

Mexico 4, Taiwan 3 Nuevo Laredo, Mexico scored three runs in the third inning to take the lead and went on to a victory over Taoyuan, Taiwan.

Mexico loaded the bases after tying it at 22on an error. In the next at-bat, Taiwan’s catcher tried to run back a runner who had strayed off first, but the ball slipped from his hand on a fake throw and dribbled into right field. Two runs scored to give Mexico a 4-2 lead. Chen Chun-hsiao hit an RBI single in the fourth, but Mexico center fielder Fernando Benavides cut down the potential tying run at the plate. Taiwan’s Lee Cheng-feng Lee struck out 10 in a complete-game loss Nebraska 17, Germany 1 Kearney, Nebraska earned the state’s firstever win at the Little League World Series and set a tournament record with a 15-run second inning in a win over beat Germany’s Ramstein Air Base.

Thirteen-year-old Jared Wegner went 3 for 4 with a homer and five RBIs in the game

delayed by rain and played under sometimes sloppy conditions.

Both teams had fun in the dugouts during the delay, where Nebraska second baseman Matt Masker, 13, showed off his dance moves to the hip-hop song “Teach Me How to Dougie”

by Cali Swag District. “They also wanted to go out on the tarp and do some sliding,” manager Brad Wegner said. “All fun all the time.”

California in a rematch on Tuesday night.

Connecticut lost the first matchup 6-4 last week.

California 5, New Jersey 4 Danny Marzo hit a game-winning homer in the eighth inning as Petaluma, California beat Parsippany, New Jersey. The 12-yearold Marzo drove an 0-1 pitch to the grassy

PASEDENA: Kearney, Nebraska’s Matt Masker (left) is tagged out attempting to steal home on a wild pitch by Ramstein, Germany pitcher Justin Wilson (24) in the first inning. —AP Connecticut 4, Indiana 0 Will Lucas threw a no-hitter to lead Fairfield, Connecticut past New Castle, Indiana. The 12-year-old right-hander struck out 13 and also had a two-run single in the fifth. When it was over, he fell to the ground as his teammates piled on top of him near the mound. Matt Kubel homered for Connecticut, which will play

hill beyond the right-field wall, setting off a wild celebration after California blew a two-run lead.

Marzo was mobbed by giddy teammates who charged out to the plate as soon he hit the ball. New Jersey pushed across two runs in the sixth to tie it at 4.

Emil Matti homered and David Ton had an RBI single. —AP

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

sp orts

British now on clock in men-only debate ATLANTA: Let’s all welcome Augusta National to the 21st century. And don’t stop there. Hey, British Open, you’re on the clock now.

The home of the Masters is opening its doors to women members, a move so momentous they actually acknowledged it happened. You see, the gentlemen in green - and I guess we’ll have to start saying the ladies in green, too - normally spend about as much time talking about the inner workings of their club as they do about the zillions of dollars they rake in every year on golf’s first major championship. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Carolina financier Darla Moore were invited to join what was once the nation’s most exclusive fraternity. While no keg party was planned, club chairman Billy Payne did release a statement Monday calling it a “joyous occasion,” which of course raised the question: What took ‘em so long?

“It’s about (expletive) time,” said Alison Piepmeier, director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at the College of Charleston in South Carolina. “We have come so far in terms of just basic equality. To still have a

major sports institution that thought it was appropriate and acceptable to exclude women was just anachronistic. It was ridiculous. I’m glad they finally decided that was the case.” There’s more work to be done.

On the other side of the Atlantic, where this quirky little game actually started and the sport’s oldest major championship is held every summer, they’ve got their own gender issues.

The next British Open will be at Muirfield, which is men only. The resistance to women is epitomized by a tale passed down through the years - who knows if it’s actually true or not - that there was once a break-in at the clubhouse, but they wouldn’t let the police inside because a female officer showed up to investigate. Chuckle, chuckle. Only one problem. This is no laughing matter.

Not anymore.

It’s been a decade since Martha Burk first brought up the issue of male-only membership at Augusta National (though, admittedly, her efforts were received largely with a collective yawn and a pithy quote from former chairman Hootie Johnson). But at least the club took this landmark step before we

marked an entire century of women having the right to vote in this country.

Now, finally, women also have the right to wear one of the world’s most hideous fashion statements. More important, they’ve gained a tee time as full-fledged members at perhaps the most prominent old boy’s club in the world.

“It’s a milestone for women in business,” a giddy Burk said Monday. “This is, after all, the Fortune 500. It is the titans of business that are members of the club. The example they give affects what people accept as normal, and it affects what people accept as right.”

For some reason, the fight for gender equality in golf has never been viewed with the same urgency as the quest for racial equity. Augusta National quietly added African-American members way back in 1990, shortly after someone noticed the PGA Championship was being held at a club (Shoal Creek in Alabama) that didn’t allow blacks, setting off a justifiable firestorm of protests.

Having never paid much attention to the racial issue before, the powers-thatbe suddenly reacted with what might be described as self-serving outrage.

Sincere or not, it was decreed that no club with discriminatory membership policies could host a tournament.

Shoal Creek didn’t get another nationally recognized event - the 2008 U.S. Junior Amateur - until it let in blacks and other minorities as members.

But when Burk pointed out that hallowed venues such as Augusta National didn’t have any female members, there was no rush to judgment from the PGA Tour or the U.S. Golf Association. There were a handful of vocal critics in the media, but the male-dominated industry largely stayed quiet, as though it was hoping the whole thing would just go away. When Burk held a rally during the 2003 Masters, only about 30 supporters showed up.

No one, it seemed, gave a hoot about a man named Hootie saying his club might admit women someday, “but not at the point of a bayonet.”

A personal aside is in order: For some reason, the ire I felt over Shoal Creek never rose to the same level with Burk’s cause. I remember asking myself why, and couldn’t really provide an answer.

Maybe I had just become so conditioned to looking at the world through male-

colored glasses that I couldn’t see the harm it was doing.

“I don’t think there’s an easy answer,” Piepmeier said. “Is it something about gender separation that feels less threatening, that feels less hostile than racial separation? I don’t know.” Well, no more.

Muirfield is less than 11 months away, and there should be a loud and clear demand that the club open its doors to women if it’s going to host the Open.

Ditto for two others in the British rotation - Troon and Royal St. George’s - that hang a men-only sign outside the clubhouse.

We don’t want to hear any talk about a private club having the right to decide who becomes a member and who doesn’t. Of course, they have that right. But when they use it to exclude a specific group, they also should forfeit the right to host a major championship. Heck, even a minor tournament.

None of this will change the world, of course. There are still far too many women who are denied basic rights, far too many who get paid less for doing the same job as men, far too many who are denied their rightful place in the boardroom. —AP

Garcia wins at rainy Wyndham

ATLANTA: Andy Roddick returns a shot during the final match against Gilles Muller at the Atlanta Open tennis tournament.—AP

Roddick tops Blake WINSTON-SALEM: Andy Roddick ground out a straight-set victory over James Blake on Monday night in the second round of the Winston-Salem Open.

Roddick, the tournament’s fifth seed, overcame a shaky start to beat Blake 7-6 (86), 7-6 (8-6) in the final hard-court tournament before the U.S. Open.

In other second-round matches, Belgium’s David Goffin upset 10th-seeded Viktor Troicki of Serbia 3-6, 6-4, 7-5, while the match between seventh-seeded Sam Querrey and Colombia’s Santiago Giraldo was suspended by rain. It will be resumed Tuesday, with Querrey having won the first set 6-3. “I’ve rarely been unhappy walking off the court with any win,” said Roddick, a former world No. 1 and U.S. Open champion who has battled injuries the past two years.

“I was fortunate to get through the first set, because (Blake) came out of the gates pretty hot. The second set I played well. I’ve been lucky a lot in my career. I’m good at winning those type of matches where it doesn’t look that great all the time.”

Roddick had 11 aces, but had to overcome an early break to force a tiebreaker in the first set. He then got a break in the second set to force another tiebreaker and

improve to 9-3 against Blake.

In first-round matches, Lukasz Kubot of Poland defeated Spain’s Tommy Robredo 61, 2-6, 6-2; Michael McClure downed Columbia’s Alejandro Falla 6-1, 6-4; Germany’s Benjamin Becker beat Japan’s Tatsuma Ito 6-3, 4-6, 6-2; Sergiy Stakhovsky of the Ukraine downed Gilles Muller of Luxembourg 7-6 (7-1), 6-4.

Also, Ernests Gulbis of Latvia beat Argentina’s Carlos Berlocq 6-4, 7-5; Robin Haase of The Netherlands defeated Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko 6-2, 6-3; Donald Young downed Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer 4-6, 63, 6-2; Slovakia’s Martin Klizan beat France’s Benoit Paire; Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun downed Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko 6-3, 7-6 (7-3); and Brazil’s Thomaz Bellucci advanced when Cyprus’ Marcos Baghdatis withdrew in the second set because of an injury.

Roddick, Querrey and Troicki were the only top seeds in action Monday, with the rest opening play late yesterday. Among them will be third-seeded John Isner, the tournament’s defending champion; topseeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, No. 2 seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic and fourth-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov of the Ukraine.—AP

TUNIS: A Tunisian soldier shakes hands with Olympic champion, swimmer Oussama Mellouli (right) in Tunis. Oussama Mellouli won the men’s 10km swimming marathon during the London 2012 Olympic Games and became the first man in Olympic history to win gold medals in both pool and open water races. Mellouli also came third in the 1500m freestyle.—AFP

GREENSBORO: Donald Ross - or, more specifically, his course at Sedgefield - got the better of Sergio Garcia down the stretch once before. Not this time.

Garcia held on to claim a twostroke win Monday in the waterlogged Wyndham Championship for his first PGA Tour victory in four years. He finished with a 66 to wind up at 18-under 262, claim $936,000 in prize money and, perhaps, vindicate himself for his meltdown here 2009.

Back then, his three-shot lead midway through his final round slipped away, and he missed out on a playoff when his bunker shot stopped within an inch of the cup. Yet he insists he didn’t come back to Sedgefield Country Club thinking the course owed him one.

“That year, I was pretty much in control and I lost it myself,” Garcia said. “The course didn’t do anything wrong to me.”

Tim Clark was at 16 under following his 67 in the final tour event before the playoffs, and Bud Cauley finished 15 under after his 68.

Garcia led both after the third round and when the fourth round was held up overnight due to a persistent downpour.

He had three straight lateround birdies after a bogey briefly dropped him into a tie for the lead, and cruised to his eighth career PGA victory and first since the 2008 Players Championship.

He began the decisive surge on the par-4 No. 13, plopping his chip roughly a foot from the flagstick and tapping it in for birdie.

He added another birdie on No. 15 - a pretty chip from a greenside bunker left him with a 5-foot putt - and followed that with another birdie on the par-3 16th after his tee shot stopped within 2 feet of the stick. He added a birdie on No. 17 to move to 19 under, leaving his bogey on the final hole inconsequential.

His strong finish can only help his Ryder Cup candidacy. The 10

GREENSBORO: Sergio Garcia, of Spain, kisses the Sam Snead Cup after winning the rain delayed Wyndham Championship golf tournament.—AP

automatic qualifiers will be set following the Johnny Walker Invitational with European captain Jose Maria Olazabal then making two picks. “ We’ll see when the team comes out, but I think my chances are a little better now,” Garcia said.

Nicolas Colsaerts - whose 66 left him at 13 under - wants a spot, too. “When you play rounds like these and you commit to tournaments and you get yourself in position like this and make the most of it, it just shows how much you want it,” Colsaerts said.

In addition to the quests by players on both sides for Ryder Cup selections, much of the focus - as it always is at the tour’s annual late -season stop in central North Carolina - was on the chase to make the FedEx Cup playoffs, which begin in a few days at The Barclays.

But everything wound up tak-

ing a back seat to the weather, as heavy rains dumped more than 2 inches of water on the course Sunday.

The final round was halted at roughly 3 p.m. with 38 players still on the course and seven players within three shots of Garcia.

The decision came 21/2 hours later to hold off until Monday morning - the first Monday finish in Greensboro since 1983.

Clark, a South African and local favorite who played at North Carolina State, matched Garcia at 15 under with a birdie on his third hole of the day, the par-4 No. 8.

Garcia moved to 16 under with a birdie on the par-4 No. 11, but he gave that stroke back with a bogey on the next hole after missing a 10-foot putt for par.

Moments later, Chad Campbell joined them atop the leaderboard after his third consecutive birdie came on the 17th. Then

Garcia made his big move.

“It was going to be tough to catch (Garcia), the way he finished,” said Clark, who moved to 54th on the points list after not even being in the playoff picture a few weeks ago. This was his fourth top-15 finish since late June.

Among the playoff hopefuls, Heath Slocum was the only one to start outside the top 125 and play his way into The Barclays. His final-round 71 left him at 7 under for the tournament and pushed him to No. 124. “Every little point helps, every little dollar helps,” Slocum said.

Jason Dufner could have taken over the top spot on the points list with a win, but he finished five strokes back and wound up leapfrogging Rory McIlroy for No. 2 behind Tiger Woods. He came in at No. 3, the highest-ranked player in the field.—AP

Sanchez and James triumph in Austria LINZ: Olympic champion Felix Sanchez of the Dominican Republic won the 400-meter hurdles at the Gugl Games on Monday, three days after he was beaten at the Diamond League meeting in Stockholm.

Kirani James of Grenada won the 400 meters in his first race since winning at the London Games two weeks ago. Sanchez led the field from the start and finished in 48.13 to defeat Leford Green of Jamaica, who timed 48.89 in second place. Michael Tinsley of the United States, who beat Sanchez on Friday, took third in 49.49.

“Before Stockholm, I had too much traveling and too much parties,” Sanchez said. “I took some rest the last two days and felt pretty well again today.”

Sanchez grabbed a national flag and ran a lap of honor - just as he did in London. “There is more about athletics than just start and finish,” Sanchez said. “You have to give the fans what they want.”

Jonathan Borlee of Belgium led the 400meter race before Jones overtook him in the final 100 meters to finish in 44.46 seconds and beat Borlee by 0.64. Calvin Smith of the United States was 0.88 back in third.

“If you come back from an emotional roller coaster like in London, you have to find your consistency again,” James said. Double amputee runner Oscar Pistorius of South Africa was sixth in 46.91 seconds.

“I was a bit tired coming here,” said Pistorius, who is preparing for his return to London for the Paralympics. “I didn’t feel super but the atmosphere was great.”

Nickel Ashmeade led a Jamaican sweep of the 100 after pre-race favorite Justin Gatlin

pulled out hours before the start. The American bronze medalist from the London Games suffered from a food poisoning.

Ashmeade clocked 10.03 seconds to beat Michael Frater by 0.10 and Jason Young by 0.12.

Fellow Jamaican Samantha HenryRobinson, who won silver at the 4x100 relay in London, won the women’s 100 in 11.15. She

edged second-place Gloria Asumnu of Nigeria by 0.04, and Laverne Jones-Ferrette of the US Virgin Islands came third in 11.24.

American athletes dominated the 100 hurdles, taking the first four places. Ginnie Crawford won in 12.68 seconds, ahead of Queen Harrison in 12.77 and Olympic bronze medalist Kellie Wells in 12.83. Loreal Smith was fourth in 12.94.—AP Felix Sanchez

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

sp orts

Judge dismisses Armstrong’s case against USADA NEW YORK: A federal judge in Austin, Texas, threw out Lance Armstrong’s lawsuit against the US Anti-Doping Agency on Monday, a decision that allows the agency’s drug case against the seven-time Tour de France winner to move ahead.

Armstrong, who repeatedly has denied doping, claimed in his lawsuit that USADA lacked jurisdiction and its arbitration process violates his constitutional rights. US District Judge Sam Sparks dismissed the lawsuit as speculative.

“With respect to Armstrong’s due process challenges, the court agrees they are without merit,” Sparks wrote in a 30-page order. “Alternatively, even if the court has jurisdiction over Armstrong’s remaining claims, the court finds they are best resolved through the well-established system of international arbitration, by those with expertise in the field, rather than by the unilateral edict of a single nation’s courts.” Armstrong can try to overturn Sparks’ decision by going to the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. He also can agree to proceed with USADA’s arbitration or accept its sanctions.

In a governing body turf war, the International Cycling Union (UCI) says it has jurisdiction in the Armstrong

matter, not USADA. USADA could be challenged before the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland.

Armstrong was still considering his options.

“On balance, the court finds the USADA arbitration rules, which largely follow those of the American Arbitration Association, are sufficiently robust to satisfy the requirements of due process,” Sparks wrote. “This court declines to assume either the pool of potential arbitrators, or the ultimate arbitral panel itself, will be unwilling or unable to render a conscientious decision based on the evidence before it.

Further, Armstrong has ample appellate avenues open to him.”

He cited a 2001 decision by the 7th Circuit in Slaney vs. the International Amateur Athletic Association, an attempt by runner Mary Decker Slaney to overturn an arbitration panel’s decision that she committed a doping offense.

“Federal courts should not interfere with an amateur sports organization’s disciplinary procedures unless the organization shows wanton disregard for its rules,” Sparks said. “To hold otherwise would be to turn federal judges into referees for a game in which they have no place, and about which they know little.” Sparks also cautioned that

“the deficiency of USADA’s charging document is of serious constitutional concern.”

“Indeed, but for two facts, the court might be inclined to find USADA’s charging letter was a violation of due process and to enjoin USADA from proceeding thereunder,” he said. “First, it would likely be of no practical effect: USADA could easily issue a more detailed charging letter, at which point Armstrong would presumably once again file suit, and the parties would be back in this exact position some time later, only poorer for their legal fees. Second, and more important, USADA’s counsel represented to the court that Armstrong will, in fact, receive detailed disclosures regarding USADA’s claims against him at a time reasonably before arbitration.”

Almost predicting there will be more legal battles in different venues, Sparks found “there are troubling aspects of this case, not least of which is USADA’ s apparent single-minded determination to force Armstrong to arbitrate the charges against him, in direct conflict with UCI’s equally evident desire not to proceed against him.” “Unfortunately, the appearance of conflict on the part of both organizations creates doubt the charges against Armstrong would receive fair

consideration in either forum,” Sparks said. “The issue is further complicated

by USA Cycling’s late-breaking show of support for UCI, and apparent opposition to USADA’s proceeding - a wrinkle which does not change the court’s legal analysis, but only confirms that these matters should be resolved internally, by the parties

most affected, rather than by edict of this court.”

Sparks had no desire to intervene in the fight between cycling and drugtesting authorities in a case that cites offenses going back 14 years.

“As mystifying as USADA’s election to proceed at this date and in this manner may be, it is equally perplexing that these three national and

international bodies are apparently unable to work together to accomplish their shared goal - the regulation and promotion of cycling,” Sparks said.

“However, if these bodies wish to damage the image of their sport through bitter infighting, they will have to do so without the involvement of the United States courts.”

USADA says Armstrong took steroids and blood boosters to win the Tour de France every year from 1999 to 2005. Penalties could include a lifetime ban from cycling and loss of his titles. USADA has said former teammates of Armstrong will testify that his teams had a long-running doping program.

“The rules in place have protected the rights of athletes for over a decade in every case USADA has adjudicated,” USADA CEO Travis Tygart said in a statement, “and we look forward to a timely, public arbitration hearing in this case, should Mr. Armstrong choose, where the evidence can be presented, witness testimony will be given under oath and subject to cross examination, and an independent panel of arbitrators will determine the outcome of the case.” Tim Herman, a lawyer for Armstrong, was pleased Sparks was concerned about USADA’s motives. —AP

South Africa dethrone England

SPAIN: Simon Clarke from Australia, celebrates after winning the fourth stage of the Spanish Vuelta cycling race that finish in Valdezcaray Ski Station, northern Spain. —AP

Australia’s Clarke clinches Tour of Spain fourth stage SPAIN: Australia’s Simon Clarke won the mountainous fourth stage of the Tour of Spain yesterday but Spain’s Joaquin Rodriguez took the overall leader’s red jersey.

Rodriguez took the lead from Spain’s Alejandro Valverde, who was caught up in a crash involving several cyclists about two hours from the finish line that caused him to drop out of the top ten.

Clarke edged ahead of Germany’s Tony Martin in a sprint finish at the end of the 160.6-kilometre (99-mile) course between Barakaldo and the Estacion de Valdezcaray ski resort, which ended in the second summit finish of the race. Kazakhstan’s Assan Bazayev finished in third place.

The 21-stage race finishes on September 9 in Madrid.

The Vuelta is one of cycling’s three ‘major tours’ along with the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia.

On Monday, Spaniard Alejandro Valverde narrowly won the mountainous third stage of the Tour of Spain and took the overall leader’s red jersey in a tough battle in the Basque country. Movistar’s Valverde, 32, crossed the finishing line in Eibar just centimetres ahead of fellow Spaniard Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) after a 155kilometre ride from the vineyards of Faustino V in Oyon.

In the race’s first real work-out for the climbers, Briton Christopher Froome, runner-up in the Tour de France, took third place just ahead of Spaniard Alberto Contador, back from a hotly contested doping ban.

Saxobank’s Contador, racing before his home crowd, needs a victory to turn the page on a two-year backdated doping ban imposed on February 6 after he tested positive for traces of the banned substance clenbuterol. Contador has not swayed from his defence that his positive test was caused by a contaminated steak he ate on the eve of the test.

But the 29-year-old two-time Tour de France winner, who was stripped of the third win in 2010, along with his Tour of Italy title of 2011, faces severe competition here, not only from Froome but also from Dutchman Bauke Mollema, with Rabobank, and the new leader, Valverde. Valverde praised runner-up ‘Purito’ Rodriguez, saying he could easily have won the stage. “Purito deserved to win as much as I did,” he said. “He gave me a bit of a scare but at the end he got a bit confident and I passed him.” The third stage, which presented riders with four ascents including a category 1 climb to Arrate just ahead of the finish, began with a breakway group that quickly grew to eight riders.

The early leaders, including Belgian Philippe Gilbert (BMC), managed to put more than four minutes between themselves and the peloton at one point, with the temperature hitting 38 degrees Celsius (100 Fahrenheit) in the mid-afternoon.

But their lead was whittled down to just seconds some 10 km from the finish, and then the fight began in earnest with the four top finishers battling it out for the lead and crossing the line in the same second after three hours, 49 minutes and 37 seconds.

Contador made repeated attacks on the lead in the final kilometres but failed to squeeze out Valverde, who snatched the red jersey from compatriot and Movistar team-mate Jonathan Castroviejo. Valverde said he and Castroviejo were satisfied with their performance so far.

“We are happy. We have kept the leadership-the person has changed but we have kept it in the team,” he said, before warning that there was a long way to go.

“Anything can happen on the first day in the mountains,” he said. “These days of heat can take it out of you.

Arriving in Madrid with the red jersey is very difficult becasue your rivals are very strong.” Dutchman Pim Ligthart of Team Vacansoleil-DCM won the ‘King of the Mountains’ polka dot jersey as best climber of the stage.—AFP

LONDON: South Africa has dethroned England as the world’s top-ranked test side after winning the third test by 51 runs Monday on an electrifying final day at Lord’s.

Man-of-the-match Vernon Philander took 5-30 as the Proteas dismissed England for 294 on day five to secure a 20 series win and with it the mace the ICC awards the world’s top-ranked team - but only after an exhilarating fight from England’s lower order.

Needing 346 to win, the hosts made a disastrous start, but defiant innings from Jonathan Trott (63) and Jonny Bairstow (54) kept England’s hopes alive.

Matt Prior and Graeme Swann then put on 74 from 66 balls before Swann was run out for 41. Prior was caught off a no ball before he fell to Philander for 73 and Philander removed Steven Finn with his next ball to complete a thrilling win.

“For us to beat England at home is one of the greatest achievements of my career and I’m proud of each one of my guys,” South Africa captain Graeme Smith said. His England counterpart Andrew Smith credited the tourists’ play.

“They’ve definitely played the better cricket over the three tests,” Strauss said.

“It was a fantastic effort from our players but South Africa were just too good and they deserve a lot of credit. They’ve outplayed us over the series.” England looked like losing meekly when Ian Bell and James Taylor both went in the first hour. Bell fell to a juggled catch by Smith at second slip when he tried to drive Philander and when Taylor was run out for 4 it seemed to sound a death knell for England. Trott flicked Steyn toward the mid-on boundary, and the batsmen had both turned for a fourth run when Trott stopped in his tracks.

With Taylor already committed, Steyn gathered Hashim Amla’s return throw and calmly threw the ball for wicketkeeper AB de Villiers to run Taylor out by several feet.

England continued to live dangerously. Trott was nearly caught by a diving Jacques Rudolph and Bairstow survived a referral for lbw from Morne Morkel.

Yet Bairstow made the most of the reprieve to bat with style and aggression, reaching his 50 in the 42nd over when he flicked Philander to the fine leg boundary. When Bairstow was bowled by Imran Tahir in the next over, the bowler was so ecstatic he sprinted toward the South Africa balcony and celebrated by pumping his fist wildly. Trott then departed in

the 47th to a spectacular diving catch by Jacques Kallis after edging Steyn’s first ball after lunch, but England refused to capitulate.

Broad smashed Steyn for six over midwicket, but his risky innings ended when he was caught by Amla at fine leg, although he was reluctant to leave the crease and only did so after a video review confirmed Steyn hadn’t bowled a no-ball. At the start of the evening session the Proteas were still strong favorites, but the partnership between Prior and Swann ignited the crowd.

Swann hit Tahir over deep midwicket for six to reduce the target to exactly 100 and in an over that went for 15 runs Prior reverse swept successive Tahir deliveries to bring up his 50. When Swann swept Kallis for six in the next over it brought up the 50 partnership, before Prior drove Morkel inches past Steyn’s hand at mid off. The target was down to 64 when Swann was run out for 41 chasing a single, Tahir smartly whipping Rudolph’s throw on to the stumps.

With the new ball imminent in the 79th over, Prior, then on 67, was caught

by Duminy and nearly back in the pavilion when the video replay confirmed Morkel had bowled a no ball, to a raucous cheer from the usually staid Lord’s crowd. Instead of taking the new ball Smith persisted with Tahir and the third ball of the 80th over saw Prior again reprieved by the third umpire, surviving a stumping chance by the smallest possible margin. Prior’s luck finally ran out in the 83rd over when he edged Philander to Smith at first slip and South Africa concluded an unexpectedly fraught victory when Philander had Finn caught in the slips by Kallis for a golden duck.

“It almost hurts more to have got that close,” Prior said. “At that stage I thought maybe it was just my day, but it wasn’t to be.” Smith admitted he was worried. “ They came in and played some incredible shots,” he said. “Out of the rough, reverse sweeps, slogs over long on. I’ve never seen Graeme Swann play so many great cricket shots and I have to give credit to Matt Prior, but we just needed to say to ourselves to keep doing the right things and get ourselves to that new ball.”

The words “We Miss U Bouch” were scrawled on Smith’s shirt and he confirmed this was a tribute to wicketkeeper Mark Boucher, who was forced to retire from test cricket after suffering an eye injury during a warm-up game.

“I t was a tribute from the team,” Smith said. “It was meant to be his 150th test. He’s been an integral part of

the Proteas family for so long and it was something as a team we felt we wanted to do.” —AP

LONDON: South Africa’s Graeme Smith poses with the International Cricket Council Mace at Lord’s cricket ground. —AP

SCOREBOARD LONDON: Final scoreboard on the fifth day of the third Test between England and South Africa at Lord’s yesterday: South Africa 1st Innings 309 (JP Duminy 61, V Philander 61; S Finn 4-75, J Anderson 3-76) England 1st Innings 315 (J Bairstow 95, I Bell 58; M Morkel 4-80, D Steyn 4-94) South Africa 2nd Innings 351 (H Amla 121; S Finn 4-74) England 2nd Innings (overnight: 16-2) A. Strauss lbw b Philander 1 A. Cook lbw b Philander 3 J. Trott c Kallis b Steyn 63 I. Bell c Smith b Philander 4 J. Taylor run out (Amla/Steyn/de Villiers) 4 J. Bairstow b Imran Tahir 54 M. Prior c Smith b Philander 73 S. Broad c Amla b Kallis 37 G. Swann run out (Rudolph/Imran Tahir) 41 J. Anderson not out 4 S. Finn c Kallis b Philander 0 Extras (b7, w2, nb1) 10

Total (all out, 82.5 overs,) 294 Fall of wickets: 1-5 (Cook), 2-6 (Strauss), 334 (Bell), 4-45 (Taylor), 5-134 (Bairstow), 6146 (Trott), 7-208 (Broad), 8-282 (Swann), 9-294 (Prior), 10-294 (Finn) Bowling: Morkel 17-3-58-0 (1nb, 2w); Philander 14.5-4-30-5; Steyn 16-4-61-1; Kallis 11-2-50-1; Tahir 24-3-88-1.

South Africa: Graeme Smith (capt), Alviro Petersen, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers (wkt), Jacques Rudolph, JP Duminy, Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Imran Tahir.

Result: South Africa won by 51 runs Series: South Africa win three-match series 2-0 Man-of-the-match: Vernon Philander (RSA) England man-of-the-series: Matt Prior South Africa man-of-the-series: Hashim Amla

Preview

India to test new batting order against N Zealand MUMBAI: India finally confront the tricky transition problem that has been on the horizon for quite some time when they launch the two-Test series against New Zealand this week.

The Indians lost eight consecutive away tests in England and Australia last year to relinquish the world number one status and will be without two batting stalwarts in Hyderabad on the opening day tomorrow.

The 4-0 drubbing they received in both series prompted the experienced Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman to hang up their boots and pave the way for the next generation. Sachin Tendulkar, 39, is the only sur viving member of the famed batting trio and it will now be up to the young players to make an impression. “You cannot really replace Rahul or Laxman,” New Zealand captain Ross Taylor told reporters. “They are two greats of Indian cricket.”Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane are the most likely candidates to fill the void

although Subramaniam Badrinath is waiting in the wings as well.

India, ranked fifth in the world, also

need to find two dependable slip fielders in the absence of Dravid and Laxman. Eighth-ranked New Zealand

HYDERABAD: Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (left) and New Zealand captain Ross Taylor (right) unveil the trophy for their Test and T20 cricket series. At center is Bharati Airtel CEO Sharlin Thayil. —AP

are still smarting from a 2-0 test defeat in West Indies.

The Black Caps have never won a series in India and their problems have been compounded by the absence of Daniel Vettori, their most capped test cricketer. The all-rounder has been ruled out by injury and New Zealand will miss the spinner’s experience on the low and slow surfaces of India.

“We certainly would like to put some good plans in place and be positive about the way we look to play,” Taylor said. “India is a familiar place for a lot of us. We have played well here and are looking forward to the contest.”

Despite their poor overseas form, India have a formidable record at home.

“India are always tough in their home conditions. Whether they play north or down south they play very well,” Taylor said. “We should be careful about the reverse swing and the spinners. We have to learn quickly through the series.” —Reuters

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

S P ORT S

Soros reveals stake in Manchester United NEW YORK: Billionaire money manager George Soros reported a nearly 2 percent stake in Manchester United Plc on Monday, in one of the first revelations of investors in the British soccer club’s controversial initial public offering earlier this month.

The veteran investor’s eponymous hedge fund, Soros Fund Management LLC, owns 7.85 percent of Manchester United’s Class A shares, or about 1.9 percent of the entire club, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Manchester United, which went public on Aug. 9, priced below its expected range amid broad skepticism about the valuation the club’s owners wanted. It also made the identity of the eventual shareholders a matter of particular interest for other institutional investors.

The club is owned by the Glazer family, which has interests ranging from shopping malls to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers football team.

Soros is one of the closely watched investors in the $2 trillion hedge fund industry, and oversees about $25 billion in assets, even after returning money to outside investors and converting his fund into a family office last summer. The firm now mainly manages money for Soros, his family and his foundation. This is not the first time that the 82-year-old money manager has taken interest in a soccer club. In 2008, the billionaire eyed a takeover of Italian club AS Roma as the team struggled with debt issues but later decided against it.

Soros was likely drawn to Manchester United because of the team’s lucrative media rights deals, said Philip Hall, a partner at New York-based investment bank Inner Circle Sports which has advised on high-profile English Premier League takeovers including Fenway Sports Group’s acquisition of Liverpool. “This could be a play by Soros on the strength of Manchester United’s brand and the English

Premier League’s growing media rights,” Hall said. “The domestic rights are set to increase 70 percent for the ‘13/’14 season and the international media rights, set to be announced in late October or early November, are also expected to come in at a very robust uplift.”

Soros Fund Management did not immediately return a request for comment.

Soros’ filing came after Manchester United lost its Premier League season opener on Monday against Everton. But the team said last week it had signed star striker Robin Van Persie from Arsenal.

Shares of Manchester United closed down 2.7 percent at $13.06 on Monday, after hitting a new low of $12.91 earlier in the day. They priced at $14 per share in the IPO. Manchester’s offering on the New York Stock Exchange raised just over $233 million. Only the Class A shares were offered in the IPO. Soros Fund Management

bought 3,114,588 Class A shares in the team, according to the regulatory filing.

The Class A shares carry one vote each, compared with 10 votes for every Class B share.

The Glazers, who purchased Manchester United for 790 million pounds ($1.2 billion) in 2005 in a highly levered deal, have kept control of the club after the IPO. Manchester United fans have criticized the Glazers for over-levering the once debt-free team. The club’s debt load stood at over 437 million pounds ($682 million) as of June 30.

“This seems like a vanity purchase. The stock was pitched to a lot of high net worth accounts and a lot of those people were interested in the stock for the same reason,” said Sam Hamadeh, CEO of research firm PrivCo. “We don’t believe Manchester United’s shares are worth any more than mid-single digits and there doesn’t seem to be any justification for

what could eventually drive shares up.”

Manchester United is not the only company struggling to boost its share price after a public offering, which has caught Soros’s attention. A recent quarterly regulatory filing revealed that he had bet on social networking giant Facebook Inc in the second quarter, which on Monday hit a new low of $18.75, more than 50 percent below the price they were issued at in May. However, the stock did end the day 2.3 percent higher at $19.48. Besides investing in headline-grabbing corporate stocks, it has been a busy summer for Soros, who recently announced his engagement to girlfriend Tamiko Bolton in Southampton.

It will be Soros’ third marriage and the second for his 40-year-old fiance. The veteran investor rose to fame and fortune two decades ago on a now-historic trade, in which he successfully bet on the devaluation of the British pound and made $1 billion in the process.—Reuters

Top clubs lick wounds as Bundesliga looms BERLIN: With the Bundesliga set to celebrate its 50th year when the new season starts Friday, six of Germany’s top teams go into the new campaign licking their wounds following first-round German Cup defeats. The Bundesliga celebrates its halfcentury on Friday when defending champions Borussia Dortmund host Werder Bremen.

But when the first round of German Cup fixtures took place over the weekend and Monday, Hamburg, Werder Bremen, Hoffenheim, Nuremberg as well as newly promoted Greuther Fuerth and Eintracht Frankfurt suffered shock defeats.

The biggest upset came in the capital where Hoffenheim were routed 4-0 by fourth-division Berliner AK 07 on Saturday, the same day third-division Kickers Offenbach beat Fuerth 2-0.

The Bundesliga’s weekend of red faces continued Sunday as third-division Preussen Muenster saw off Werder Bremen 4-2 after extra-time while second division Erzgebirge Aue enjoyed a 3-0 hammering of Eintracht Frankfurt.

The upsets kept coming as Hamburg crashed 4-2 at third-division Karlsruhe, while Nuremberg lost 3-2 after extra-time at fourth-division TSV Havelse near Hanover.

There were no such problems for defending champions Borussia Dortmund who won 3-0 at Bremen-based FC Oberneuland on Saturday, while Bayern Munich, who lost May’s final to Dortmund in Berlin, enjoyed a 4-0 win at second-division Jahn Regensburg on Monday night. A first-round exit is not only embarrassing, it has financial implications in lost revenue.

“Financially, we now have a completely new situation, because we expected to get into the second round,” admitted Bremen’s director of sport Klaus Allofs. “The funds are no longer available so we have to look at what is realistic.”

Bremen are reported to have cooled their interest in FC Brugge’s Nigeria striker striker Joseph Akpala because of the financial implications of their defeat.

Having fallen short in their projected target of reaching the third round, Hamburg expect to lose out on 1.4 million euros ($1.74 million) in revenue following their defeat at Karlsruhe.

An early exit can also rob a team of precious confidence before the league begins.

“What makes me very concerned is the body language of some of my players. I didn’t like that,” said Nuremberg coach Dieter Hecking, after his team’s dismal defeat at Havelse.—AFP

SPAIN: UC Sampdoria pose with the Joan Gamper Trophy after defeating FC Barcelona at the Camp Nou.—AP

Vilanova and Mourinho go eye-to-eye in Super Cup

ROME: Italian Federal Prosecutor Stefano Palazzi (center right) is escorted by a police officer as he arrives at the disciplinary commission of the Italian Football League at the Federal Court of Justice in central Rome.

Conte was on August 10 banned for 10 months by a disciplinary commission investigating the “Calcioscommesse” match-fixing scandal.—AFP

Malta player banned for 10 years for Euro 2008 fix GENEVA: UEFA acknowledged Monday that its showpiece international competition had been corrupted, as it confirmed a 10-year ban of Malta player Kevin Sammut for helping to fix a 2008 European Championship qualifying match.

Sammut was found guilty of “breaching UEFA’s principles of integrity and sportsmanship” relating to manipulating results, the governing body of European football said in a statement.

UEFA did not specify exactly how Sammut was involved in fixing Malta’s 4-0 loss away to Norway in June 2007. Sammut, who has played 37 matches for Malta since making his debut in 2005, has denied any involvement in fixing matches. He is currently under contract with club side Valletta, which represented Malta in the qualifying rounds of UEFA’s Champions League last month.

The 31-year-old midfielder and two other players were charged by UEFA using evidence gathered by the Malta Football Association. It investigated an allegation made last year by a Croatian crime syndicate member during a match-fixing criminal trial in Bochum, Germany.

UEFA cleared Sammut’s teammates, Kenneth Scicluna and Stephen Wellman, because “the findings of the disciplinary inspector are insufficient to take any disciplinary action against them.” At a news conference Monday, Malta FA President Norman Darmanin Demajo said there was “overwhelming evidence” of a fix involving players and an organized crime gang.

“Match-fixing is a clandestine activity organized by criminals - a reality we must also face in Malta,” Darmanin Demajo was quoted as saying by the Malta Today website. However, the Malta football chief said his organization would not publish details from its dossier on the case.

Sammut’s ban prohibits him from “any footballrelated activity.” UEFA will ask football’s world governing body FIFA to extend the punishment globally. Sammut can challenge the sanction at UEFA’s appeals panel, and then the Court of Arbitration for Sport - though without the support of his national federation.

“He will decide, it is his case,” MFA general secretary Joe Gauci told The Associated Press by telephone. The Malta case was based on allegations made by Marijo Cvrtak, a leading member of a Croatian gang headed by convicted matchfixer Ante Sapina.

Cvrtak claimed in the Bochum court that he met three Malta players in their Oslo hotel before the Euro 2008 qualifier who would arrange the fix.

UEFA declined to comment on reports in Malta that Cvrtak attended Sammut’s disciplinary hearing held last Friday in Nyon, Switzerland. In the match, Sammut was substituted at halftime when Malta trailed 1-0. Norway scored three late goals, boosting payouts on potential wagers placed on how many goals would be scored and the margin of Malta’s defeat. The MFA also identified Scicluna and Wellman, who both played the full 90 minutes in Oslo, as being involved in the case.

Malta finished last in its Euro 2008 qualifying group. Norway placed third and failed to advance to the tournament, which was played in Switzerland and Austria.

In court, Sapina and Cvrtak were said to have made millions in profit by bribing referees, players and officials to help manipulate matches and results. Most wagers were placed in Asian betting markets.

The gang claimed to have manipulated a 2010 World Cup qualifier between Liechtenstein and Finland in September 2009. A Bosnian referee was paid Ä40,000 ($52,000) to ensure two goals would be scored in the second half.

The match was scoreless at half time and ended 1-1, with one goal scored from a penalty awarded by the referee, who has since been suspended from football for life. Sapina was convicted on 22 counts of fraud and attempted fraud, while Cvrtak was found guilty on 26 counts of fraud and attempted fraud. Both were sentenced to 5 1/2 years in jail, though their prison terms were reduced because of time served in custody awaiting trial.—AP

MADRID: Tito Vilanova was still Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona assistant when he hit the headlines last August after Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho jabbed him in the eye during a touchline scuffle in the Spanish Super Cup. Twelve months on he has replaced his good friend in the Barca hot seat and returns to face his tormentor this time as coach in the first leg of the 2012 edition at the Nou Camp tomorrow (2030 GMT). Holders Barca arrive as King’s Cup winners and it is a first chance to measure up Vilanova’s side against the league champions, with tensions between the Spanish giants eased since last year ’s low point. A mass brawl between players at the end of the 2011 second leg resulted in three red cards while television images of Mourinho’s attack on Vilanova led to harsh recriminations.

Mourinho was eventually given a two-match Super Cup ban, and Vilanova one game for his retaliatory gesture, but both punishments have since been lifted by federation president Angel Maria Villar. Mourinho, who had refused to apologise to anyone but Madrid fans for his actions, calmed the waters earlier this month by saying he was wrong.

Vilanova has also sought to put the incident behind him as he takes up the baton from Guardiola who swept up 14 trophies in his four years at the helm.

Barca made a flying start to their league campaign with a 5-1 mauling of Real Sociedad on Sunday, gaining an immediate advantage over arch-rivals Real Madrid who drew 1-1 at home against Valencia.

Vilanova’s league debut as coach was made all the sweeter by striker David Villa’s return from an eight-month injury layoff due to a broken leg to score the fifth goal of the night as a substitute. Spain’s all-time leading scorer is still short of match fitness and is unlikely to start tomorrow, a similar scenario facing new signing Alex Song. One man who will start, though, is the irrepressible Lionel Messi who netted twice and had numerous chances to complete a hat-trick.

The World Player of the Year, who scored an incredible 73 goals in all competitions last season, has a knack of finding the back of the net against Real and looked particularly sharp as Barca produced a high-tempo performance full of attacking menace.

“The team still has the same philosophy and

style as with Guardiola,” Messi told Barca TV. “The dressing room are still hungry for titles. I want to win everything we play for, like Tito. It’s tough but we will try.”

Messi’s and Barca’s snappy display contrasted with that of Real’s and their leading scorer Cristiano Ronaldo at the Bernabeu.

Albeit against stronger opposition, Real were slow to get into their stride while a quiet Ronaldo failed to fire a single shot on target.

“I am not yet 100 percent but I hope to get back to top form soon,” said Ronaldo. His Portuguese international team mate Pepe is a doubt after suffering a hefty blow to his head in a collision with Iker Casillas and having spent Sunday evening in hospital as a precaution having momentarily lost consciousness.

Mourinho’s men won on their last visit to the Nou Camp when Ronaldo struck the decider for a 2-1 La Liga triumph that effectively wrapped up the title in April.

Although Barca held the edge in the ‘clasicos’ under Guardiola, Real have only lost once under Mourinho in their last four visits to Catalunya across all competitions. The return leg is at the Bernabeu on Aug 29.—Reuters

Mourinho still keen on Premier League return LONDON: Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho admits he remains keen to return to the English Premier League-as long as clubs interested in hiring him roll out the red carpet.

Mourinho has signed a new contract keeping him at Real until 2016 after masterminding the club’s Spanish title triumph last season.

But the self-styled “Special One”, who remains a cult hero in England after his three-year reign at Chelsea, never misses a chance to remind the football world of his worth.

Whenever a managerial vacancy comes up at a big Premier League club, Mourinho is linked with the job and he remains the favorite to succeed Alex Ferguson at Manchester United or Roberto Mancini at Manchester City.

A return to Chelsea is less likely given the manner of his sacking in 2007 and owner Roman Abramovich’s continued interest in former Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola.

But Mourinho says he would consider any offer-if the club in question show him enough love and respect. Asked if a return to Stamford Bridge was possible, Mourinho told BBC radio on Monday: “I will go where people really want me and, when that moment arrives, they show me they really want me.

“But I have to repeat always this: I am at Real Madrid. I like very much to be. I want one day to be back in English foot-

ball, yes. I always said that.”

Mourinho has enjoyed tremendous success wherever he has managed, winning the Champions League and UEFA Cup with underdogs Porto before moving to Chelsea, where he won the Premier League title in his first two seasons.

More Champions League success followed when Mourinho took over at Inter Milan and he became just the fourth manager to win the title in four major European leagues when his Real side ended Barcelona’s reign as kings of Spanish football.

The Portuguese coach, whose Real team were held to a 1-1 draw by Valencia in their La Liga opener on Sunday, believes the secret of his success lies in his ability to immerse himself in a club in the same manner as a supporter. “When I go to a club, I wear the shirt, I feel the shirt like it’s my first one or my last one,” he said.

“I feel the fans as part of myself. I create eternal links with fans. “I go to play against Chelsea and I feel (it), I go to Italy and I feel (it). I work for the clubs, I work for the people that trust me and of course the owners and the directors but the clubs are the fans. “For me, it’s one of my qualities. I become immediately one of them and I feel that I am one of them with a privileged position to fight for the club and to try to bring to all of them happiness.”—AFP

Jose Mourinho

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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

SPORTS

Deportivo beat Osasuna at home

Mo Farah

Farah leads heavyweight lineup in Birmingham LONDON: Britain’s double gold medallist Mo Farah will lead a glittering cast of 42 London Olympic medal winners, including 16 champions, when he races over two miles at a Diamond League meeting in Birmingham on Sunday.

Farah, who won the 5,000 and 10,000 metres at the 2012 Games, broke the British indoor record for two miles this year and could this time threaten Steve Ovett’s outdoor mark of 8:13.51 set in 1978.

Another British gold medallist, Greg Rutherford, faces Olympic triple jump champion Christian Taylor of the US in

the long jump. Australia’s Mitchell Watt and American Will Claye, who were second and third in the long jump, also compete.

All three medallists from the 110 metres hurdles - champion Aries Merritt, runner-up Jason Richardson and Hansle Parchment — will be in action in Birmingham.

Perennial rivals and Olympic gold and silver medallists Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica and US sprinter Carmelita Jeter go head-to-head again in what should be another keenly contested women’s 100 metres.—Reuters

Cheating incident casts shadow over Scrabble tourney RALEIGH, North Caolina: An Apex, North Carolina, teenager’s ejection for cheating from the National Scrabble Championship has sparked international media coverage and buzz throughout the Internet. Tournament officials said the 13-year-old forfeited his all-ages matches last week after being caught taking a pair of blank tiles before a game.

John D Williams Jr, executive director of the National Scrabble Association, declined to name the player because of his age, but tournament records for the Apex player and other contestants confirmed his identity. A family friend speaking for the 13-year-old’s family said Monday they would have no comment.

The News & Observer has chosen not to name the player because of his age.

News that youthful cheating had hit the family board game turned into obsessive sport created a stream of reports on Twitter and multiple websites, as well as newspaper and television pieces. They included an article in Thursday’s New York Times sports section and mentions on ABC’s “Good Afternoon America”, CBS News, the Associated Press’ the Wire roundup, the online news magazine Slate, and MSNBC’s “Rock Center”. “It’s unfortunate,” Williams said. “It overshadowed an amazing tournament.”

The Wake County teen was a rising young player in the world of competitive Scrabble, beating far older opponents. In a prior national championship, he won his all-ages division. But his strong previous performance raised suspicions. The phenom found himself under greater scrutiny from some of the 350 players at last week’s national championship tour-

nament in Orlando, Florida. He was competing in division three, the third-highest of the tournament’s four divisions. It’s a marathon tournament consisting of 31 matches over five days. After each match, the 100 Scrabble pieces are placed in the tile bag.

Before the start of the 24th match last Tuesday, the teen’s adult opponent called over the tournament director, who discovered that the two blank tiles were not in the bag. Tournament officials say the 13-year-old was questioned and admitted to taking the tiles. The blank tiles are valuable because players can use them as wild card letters to help form words.

Williams said this was the first time a player has been caught cheating at a national championship. There can be an incentive to cheat with $10,000 going to the winner of the top division. If the Apex teen had won again, he would have received a $2,000 prize. In addition to ejecting the teen from the tournament, Williams said the association will take further sanctions against him. “It was embarrassing to me that someone from North Carolina Scrabble has dishonored us,” said Bruce Shuman, 71, of Wilmington, North Carolina, who participated in the national tournament. “But I’m prepared to cut him some slack. He’s 13.” Shuman described the teen as a “nice kid” who should have relied on his already high natural intelligence. At last week’s award ceremony, Arthur Moore, the Florida player who caught the teenager, received a standing ovation.

“He’s a complete hero,” Shuman said of Moore. “Someone had to expose the child before he did it again.” —MCT

MADRID: Riki and Nelson Oliveira helped Deportivo Coruna celebrate their return to La Liga in style with a 2-0 home win over Osasuna in their opening game of the new season on Monday.

Another promoted club, Real Valladolid, also started with a victory, winning 1-0 at Real Zaragoza, while Rayo Vallecano beat Granada by the same scoreline thanks to a dramatic 95th-minute freekick from Roberto Trashorras.

Depor’s Riki cut in off the right flank and beat Osasuna goalkeeper Andres Fernandez at his near post in the 53rd minute, making up for a penalty miss just before the break when he fired against the post. Jose Luis Oltra’s side, who had made most of the running at a festive Estadio Riazor after a year in the second division, were penned back in their penalty area in time added on before Portugal forward Oliveira broke away to lob the ball over Fernandez for their second.

Along with Valencia, Depor are one of only two teams to have denied Real Madrid and Barcelona the Spanish league title in the last 16 years, and were regulars in European competition before sliding to relegation in 2011.

The win put them third in the standings, behind leaders Barca, who thrashed Real Sociedad 5-1 at home on Sunday, and Real Betis, who overcome Athletic Bilbao 5-3 in an eight-goal thriller at San Mames.

“We aren’t going to get carried away with ourselves. The objective remains the same,” Oltra told a news conference in reference to their stated aim of securing their top-flight future. “The important thing is we have achieved a good result and started well. It is going to be a long and difficult year.”

Valladolid were the brighter side at the

Nelson Oliveira

Romareda and Oscar stabbed them in front from close range after helping set up the move just before the break.

Zaragoza goalkeeper Roberto kept the hosts in the game tipping a Victor Perez penalty on to the post in the 67th minute and joined his side in attack in the frantic finale, but to no avail.

It was a case of deja vu in Vallecas as Rayo

Winless PSG still awaiting take-off PARIS: Held by modest Lorient and Ajaccio in their first two matches, Paris SaintGermain have started the season in a way that scarcely reflects the huge close-season investment that made them favorites for the Ligue 1 title.

After a 2-2 draw at home to Lorient on the opening day, PSG drew 0-0 at Ajaccio on Sunday and questions are already starting to be asked about their capacity to cope with the huge level of expectation that their spending has generated.

With Ezequiel Lavezzi sent off for a dangerous foul on Ajaccio’s Andre and coach Carlo Ancelotti sent from the dug-out for kicking a water bottle onto the pitch, PSG appeared to lose their cool in Corsica on Sunday night.

Their status means they will face extremely motivated opponents at every turn and with victory expected in every match due to the strength of their squad, the club are already experiencing the downside of being the team that everyone wants to beat.

“It won’t be easy,” said midfielder Blaise Matuidi. “Everyone sees us as champions but the truth is on the pitch. They’ll be waiting for us everywhere and every team will

give 100 or 120 percent against us.”

Ancelotti lamented what he saw as “complacency” from his team against Ajaccio and with PSG’s Qatari owners expecting to win the Ligue 1 title this season, the club’s players cannot afford to take their feet off the gas.

PSG may have been without Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva, Thiago Motta and Mohamed Sissoko on Sunday but it is an excuse that only stretches so far.

Nursing a foot injury, Ibrahimovic may not be ready in time for Sunday’s visit of Bordeaux but it is already clear that PSG are a very different team when the Swede is named in the starting line-up.

The return to a striker-less 4-3-3 system against Ajaccio was not a triumph and either Lavezzi, Nene or Jeremy Menez will probably have to make room when Ibrahimovic returns. Nene has made a solid start to the season despite uncertainty over his future at the club but Lavezzi has failed to impress since arriving from Napoli and could now miss more than one game due to suspension.

PSG are particularly blessed with talent in midfield but Javier Pastore’s performance in a withdrawn role against Ajaccio was not

ising terms on a second game in Britain next year, will announce the date and opponent for the Jaguars’ 2013 game in the coming months.

The Jaguars have struggled to fill their roughly 67,000-seat home stadium at times and are one of the NFL’s weaker franchises, having not posted a winning season since the 2007 campaign.

While regular season NFL games have been played at Wembley Stadium every year since 2007, the Jaguars are the only team committed to playing ‘home’ matches at the 90,000-seat venue on an annual basis. The decision fills a void in the NFL’s London schedule left by the St. Louis Rams, who last week withdrew their commitment to play games at Wembley Stadium in 2013 and 2014, citing a need to focus on their lease negotiations and ease fan discontent. — Reuters

Three men linked to Jordan’s Paralympic squad arrested LONDON: Three men linked to Jordan’s Paralympic team were arrested in Northern Ireland following allegations of indecent assault, British media reported yesterday. It was not clear if the men were athletes or supporting members of Jordan’s team.

Jordan’s squad is one of several national teams training in a sports center in Antrim, northwest of Belfast, ahead of the Paralympic Games that start Aug. 29 and end Sept. 9.

When asked about the BBC and Sky News reports of the arrests of the three Jordanians, Northern Irish police said three men were arrested for questioning in the Antrim area on Monday “in relation to allegations of indecent assault.” They did not identify the men by name or further

explain the circumstances.

Police said yesterday that the men were aged 23, 35 and 36. The men were being held but none have been charged.

A Jordanian sports official confirmed that three team members have been arrested, but declined to provide any details. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment while Northern Irish police were still investigating.

Jordan sent a 19-strong delegation to the Paralympics. Its National Paralympic Committee was not immediately available to comment. The organizing committee of the London Games declined to comment because the case was under police investigation.—AP

convincing. Ancelotti believes that Motta’s return from a thigh problem with help to improve “the quality of the team”, while 19year-old Italian Marco Verratti has impressed each time he has played and looks ready for a starting role already.

Thiago Silva is still to make his debut, having only recently returned from Olympic duty with Brazil but his integration into the starting XI will push either Alex or Mamadou Sakho onto the bench.

Whilst there is no need to panic after only two games, victory over Bordeaux on Sunday would help to dissipate some of the doubts at a time when PSG’s schedule is set to get heavier.

However, Bordeaux have a good record at Parc des Princes, having picked up at least a point there in four of their last six visits and PSG’s following assignment is a trip to Lille, who look destined to be their biggest rivals for the title. After a home game with Toulouse, it will already be time for PSG to start thinking about the Champions League.

They would prefer to embark on their European campaign in a better position than 12th place, which is where they reluctantly find themselves at present.—AFP

Spurs sign Adebayor

Jaguars reach deal to play four games at Wembley NEW YORK: The Jacksonville Jaguars have reached a deal to play an annual regular season game at London’s Wembley Stadium over a four-year period starting next year, the National Football League (NFL) said yesterday. In an effort to grow the team globally, Jaguars owner Shad Khan said his team will play a total of four games in London, one each year between 2013 and 2016, as part of the NFL’s International Series.

“We want to create an identity, a bold ambitious franchise that is aggressive, forward thinking on the field and away from the field,” Khan, who bought the Jaguars late last year, said at a news conference alongside NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

“And we want to be the kind of franchise that players want to belong to, sponsors want to be a part of, Jacksonville is proud of and fans all over really want to embrace.”

The NFL, which also said it is close to final-

Vallecano snatched all the points against Granada when Trashorras struck a superb freekick into the top corner in added time.

Rayo won by the same 1-0 scoreline in front of their own fans on the final day of last season against Granada, when Raul Tamudo also netted in time added on to save them from relegation and send Villarreal down instead.—Reuters

Kuwaiti jet skier wins three events in US KUWAIT: Kuwaiti Yamaha jet-skier Abdullah Al-Fadhel took first place in Moto one of the Pro-AM Runabout Limited in the US UWP-IJSBA Watercross National Tour yesterday, to add to another two classes he earlier won during the event. Al-Fadhel clinched the result amid participation in round eight of the event held in Charleston, West Virginia yesterday. The achievement comes after much

hard work, good preparation on the part of the jet skier, his brother, his assistant Al-Fadhel Mohammed told KUNA over the phone.

The result has caused much delight and the duo congratulated the Kuwaiti leadership and people on the occasion.

Government sponsorship of the team, namely from Kuwait Airways, was also hailed by the Kuwaitis. —KUNA

LONDON: Tottenham Hotspur have signed striker Emmanuel Adebayor from Premier League champions Manchester City on a permanent deal, the London club said yesterday.

The Togo international scored 18 goals in 37 appearances for Spurs last season on loan at White Hart Lane. The clubs were reported by British media to have agreed a deal last month for the 28-year-old, who had been earning about 170,000 pounds ($268,300) a week at City.

No financial details of the transfer fee were available but media reports put its value at five million pounds. Adebayor joined Tottenham’s north London rivals Arsenal from Monaco in early 2006 and moved to City in 2009 in the first wave of big-money signings by the Manchester club’s Qatari owners.

But he fell out of favour when Roberto Mancini replaced Mark Hughes as City manager. He had a loan spell at Real Madrid in early 2011 before joining Tottenham for the 2011-12 campaign.

“I am pleased to be signing for Spurs on a permanent basis after finally agreeing my departure with Manchester City,” Adebayor told the club website (www.tottenhamhotspur.com): “It may have taken longer than expected but I am delighted to be back at Tottenham. I really enjoyed my time here last season and I am hoping we can achieve great things together again.”—Reuters

Match on TV (Local Timings)

English Premier League Chelsea v Reading Abu Dhabi Sports HD3 Abu Dhabi Sports HD 5

21:45

South Africa dethrone England

Roddick tops Blake

17

16

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

Malta player banned for 10 years for Euro 2008 fix

Page 18

LONDON: Manchester United’s English forward Wayne Rooney (right) fires wide past Everton’s French defender Sylvain Distin during the English Premier League football match.—AFP

Everton stun United in league opener Man United 0

Everton 1 LONDON: Everton stunned Manchester United 1-0 thanks to a bullet header in the second half by Marouane Fellaini after both teams got their Premier League campaigns underway on Monday. The Belgian international, who hit the post in the first half with a close range shot and tormented United’s defence throughout with his height, nodded in from a corner on 57

minutes.

The home side had enjoyed the better of the opening exchanges and, as the game developed, created the majority of chances in front of a noisy Goodison Park crowd. United goalkeeper David De Gea had done well in the first half to keep the home side at bay by producing a string of first rate saves, most notably to deny Steven Pienaar’s curling right-foot shot on the half-hour mark. Wayne Rooney had a decent chance at the other end, only to direct his shot straight at Tim Howard.

However, with Fellaini working hard in the midfield, making his presence felt and linking up well with the Everton strikers, the home side always looked the more likely to break the deadlock.

The Belgian rose above Michael Carrick to get on the end of Leighton Baines’ corner and power in his header into the corner of De Gea’s goal.

Tom Cleverley’s shot on 67 minutes was cleared off the line and the visitors then introduced new signing and league player of the 2011/12 season Robin van Persie, bought from rivals Arsenal last week. However, his debut did not affect the result.

With Phil Jagielka in fine form, clearing Cleverley’s 67th-minute shot off the line, the Everton defence held firm, frustrating Manchester United and taking a deserved three points.

Jagielka told Sky Sports he was delighted with the result and hoped it

could serve as a platform for the team to build on.

“We always knew it was going to be hard,” the England defender said. “We scored a great goal and that gave us something to hang on to. “It’s fantastic to start a season with a win rather than the doom and gloom we usually start with.

“If we can build on this, get another point or three away at (Aston) Villa, then it will be a fantastic start for us.”“Manchester United are a great club, everybody was motivated,” Fellaini said. “I tried to score and I think it’s good for me” Everton travel to Villa on Saturday afternoon, with Manchester United hosting Fulham.

Meanwhile, new Everton signing Kevin Mirallas revealed yesterday that he turned

down the chance to move to Arsenal after Gunners’ manager Arsene Wenger failed to guarantee him enough time on the pitch.

The Belgian international striker, who was signed from Greek champions Olympiakos for £6 million ($9.5m) last week, added that he took advice from national team colleague Marouane Fellaini before opting to sign on at Goodison Park.

“Discussions were at quite an advanced stage with Arsenal but it was always clear it would be totally down to me to make the decision,” said the 24year-old. “I was convinced that what was important for me at this stage of my career, embarking on a new league, is to

Eagles soar over Patriots FOXBOROUGH: Eagles coach Andy Reid figures Michael Vick will be ready for the regular season even if he misses Philadelphia’s two remaining exhibition games. At least he wouldn’t get hurt again. For his second consecutive game, Philadelphia’s star quarterback lasted just six plays then went for Xrays, this time on his ribs. They were negative, just as they were on his left thumb 11 days earlier.

“I’d probably like to see him play a little bit more, but he’s got enough experience,” Reid said after the Eagles beat the New England Patriots 27-17 on Monday night. “We’re not talking about a rookie, so I think he’d be OK.” Vick doesn’t have much time to get over his soreness. Philadelphia plays Friday night at the Cleveland Browns.

“I’m not that concerned, other than he’s hurt,” Reid said. “I want to make sure he heals up and get him back in there.

Hopefully, he doesn’t get hurt again.”

Vick was knocked down by linebacker Jermaine Cunningham after heaving a long pass in the first quarter.

In a 24-23 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Aug. 9, he smacked his thumb on the helmet of center Jason Kelce. In both games, rookie Nick Foles came off the bench to throw two touchdown passes. Last year’s No. 2 quarterback, Mike Kafka, missed Monday night’s game with a hand injury. Trent Edwards also played against the Patriots.

Foles, a third-round draft pick from Arizona, finished 18 for 28 for 217 yards and touchdown passes to Clay Harbor

of 1 and 3 yards. “He did a great job,” running back LeSean McCoy said. “In the huddle he demanded respect. He put everybody in the right places at the right times.”

Tom Brady sat out the game for the Patriots (No. 2 in the AP Pro32). The New England quarterback figures to play Friday night in the team’s third preseason game, at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Other healthy starters, including wide receivers Wes Welker and Brandon Lloyd, tight ends Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez, defensive lineman Vince Wilfork and linebacker Jerod Mayo, were held out of the game. That gave players trying to make the team more time on the field. “We got to look at a lot of players,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said, “evaluate them against a good football team.”

One of them was Cunningham, a disappointment since being drafted in the second round in 2010. But he made an early impact when he hit Vick with about nine minutes gone in the game.

“That is just football,” Cunningham said, “going out there and getting the person with the ball.”

Vick went 1 for 3 for 5 yards with one run for another 5 yards. After Cunningham drove his helmet into Vick’s left side, the quarterback went down, got up slowly then knelt on one knee. He was checked by medical personnel before going to the sideline under his own power.

“Mike’s tough,” McCoy said. “I kind of figured it would be all right, even though he took kind of a big blow.” The

get plenty of time on the field. “I had a possibility of playing more games and longer periods with Everton.” On Fellaini’s influence he said: “Marouane being here was also decisive in making my decision also.

“We had a couple of phone conversations and it definitely influenced my decision. “He convinced me the club was an ideal fit for me and hopefully it is a place where I can exploit my talents and grow as a player and perform well.”

Mirallas, who signed a four-year deal on Sunday, was presented to the Goodison Park crowd before Monday night’s 1-0 victory over Manchester United in which Fellaini netted the winning goal.—AFP

Preview

Chelsea recruit Hazard promises more to come

FOXBOROUGH: New England Patriots linebacker Jermaine Cunningham (96) drops Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick (7) to the field on a hard hit during the first quarter of an NFL preseason football game.—AP Eagles (No. 8) also have just three days between games. Vick had been expected to play at least a half on Monday night. McCoy scored on a 1yard run and Alex Henery kicked a 42yard field goal to give the Eagles a 2417 lead with 33 seconds left in the third quarter, and a 21-yarder that capped the scoring with 2:00 remaining. For the Patriots (1-1), third-stringer Ryan Mallett completed 10 of 20 passes for 105 yards, including a 7-yard scoring pass to Alex Silvestro. Brian Hoyer was just 5 for 17 for 55 yards.

“Ryan’s a very confident player, both him and Brian,” wide receiver Deion Branch said, “but it’s hard for them because they have to play behind Tom

Brady.” Stephen Gostkowski kicked field goals of 51, 35 and 55 yards for the Patriots, who have scored just two preseason touchdowns. Vick’s departure didn’t change much for the Patriots despite his scrambling ability, defensive end Chandler Jones said. “It’s the same offensive scheme they’re running,” he said. Vick wasn’t the only first-stringer knocked out of the game.

Philadelphia cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and New England safety Patrick Chung went out in the first half with shoulder injuries. The Patriots led 11-0 after Silvestro’s touchdown 1:16 into the second quarter and a two-point conversion run by Shane Vereen. —AP

LONDON: Eden Hazard insists there is more to come after his sparkling Premier League debut - but is adamant he has no concerns about handling the physical nature of English football.

The Chelsea playmaker, 21, wasted no time making his mark following his £32 million summer move from Lille, setting up two goals inside seven minutes of his side’s league opener at Wigan.

Hazard’s contribution ensured Roberto Di Matteo’s side got off to a winning start and they will attempt to build on that success when Reading visit Stamford Bridge today.

His eye-catching efforts also made him the target for some heavy challenges, but the Belgium international was quick to dismiss the attention he received. He said: “I already had a taste of these kind of tackles in the Community Shield.

“I was kicked quite a bit in the first half against Wigan but, in France, it was already like that for me. “I wasn’t aware I was the most fouled player in the match, I wasn’t counting them.” Hazard, Juan Mata and Oscar are expected to contest the positions in support of the main striker Fernando Torres and the Belgian believes it will take time to properly bed in.

He added: “There are still a lot of things I can do better. I lost a lot of balls in the second half, but I contributed what was asked of me. I was asked to be decisive and I was, with the penalty and an assist.” “I started as the number 10 and then afterwards with Mata, we tried to interchange positions rather than

stay in the same place and I think we worked rather well.

“Oscar has just arrived and we haven’t had the time to work together. We have only had one training session so far but, little by little, we should get things to where they should be.” Drawing the best from his new players is one of the challenges confronting Di Matteo but defender Branislav Ivanovic is convinced the arrival of the new players can boost the club’s title challenge.

The Serbia international said: “Do the new players excite everyone? Yes, of course.

“You have to have a big and good enough squad and that is what we have. “The new players are great. During the pre-season, they have shown they have fantastic quality and we have changed a lot as a team because all of them are so creative.

“They have given us the pace we needed.

They are great players and every team needs this kind of quality.” Oscar could make his full debut following his substitute appearance at Wigan while fellow Brazilian Ramires comes back into contention after illness.

Chelsea will be expected to maintain their 100 percent start against newly promoted Reading who started the campaign with a home draw against Stoke City on the opening day.

Brian McDermott’s side emerged as the surprise winners of the Championship last season and, after finding their feet against Stoke, keeper Adam Federici insists they won’t be overawed by the prospect of facing the Champions League winners.—AFP

UAE banks profit from Europeans’ retreat Page 22

Best Buy Q2 profit drops 90%, misses estimates Page 23

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

Maruti restarts riot-hit car plant

Iran looks to Armenia to skirt bank sanctions Page 24

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NEW YORK: The Apple share price is shown on a stock ticker at the Nasdaq MarketSite, yesterday in New York. Major stock indexes inched above four-year closing highs in early trading yesterday. On Monday, Apple’s surging stock propelled the company’s value to $624 billion, the world’s highest, ever. — AP

ECB optimism lifts shares, euro Wall Street hits 4-year high NEW YORK: Global stocks rose to 3-1/2 month highs yesterday and the euro jumped to a seven-week peak against the US dollar on hopes the European Central Bank will soon start buying Spanish and Italian bonds to contain the debt crisis.

Spanish borrowing costs fell and Portuguese government bond yields declined to levels seen before Lisbon agreed to a bailout deal in May, 2011, with traders citing media reports that the ECB was drawing up detailed plans about bondbuying.

The perception of declining risks from the euro crisis has been a major factor behind recent equities gains. Wall Street stocks earlier climbed to four-year highs before surrendering gains to trade little changed on the day.

Uncertainty remained high and investors were concerned the ECB’s condition that troubled countries ask for help from the euro zone’s rescue funds before turning to the central bank may mean that the Spanish

crisis could get worse before it gets better.

Still, optimism over eventual ECB action boosted sentiment.

“The market has moved to the belief that (the ECB) is going to do whatever it takes,” said William Larkin, fixed income portfolio manager at Cabot Money Management in Salem, Massachusetts.

Britain’s The Daily Telegraph yesterday supported a weekend German report that the ECB planned to put a hard cap on Spanish and Italian bond yields.

An ECB spokeswoman, asked about the Telegraph story, referred to the ECB’s statement on Monday, when it said it was misleading to report on policy decisions that had not been taken.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 0.70 point, or 0.01 percent, at 13,270.94. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was up 1.94 points, or 0.14 percent, at 1,420.07. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 1.78 points, or 0.06 percent, at 3,077.99.

The S&P 500 has risen more than 3 percent so far in August. Volume has been light as investors wait for central banks’ meetings next month, where policymakers are expected to take action to ease Europe’s debt crisis and boost the economy.

“I am looking for new highs in the major indexes,” said Wayne Kaufman, chief market analyst at John Thomas Financial in New York. “Overall there is no one major negative that’s out there right now that people are scared of.”

The MSCI global share index rose 0.6 percent to 327.31 after hitting its highest level since early May. European shares were up 0.4 percent.

Yields at a Spanish short-term debt auction dived yesterday, while Europe’s VSTOXX volatility index hit a one-month low, signaling a steady rise in investors’ appetite for risk.

Spanish 10-year bond yields fell 11 basis points to 6.22 percent, with shorter-dated yields down as much 16 bps. Italian bond

yields also dropped.

Portuguese 10-year yields were last 21 basis points lower on the day at 9.48 percent, the lowest level since April 20.

Portugal’s original request for a bailout was on April 6, 2011 and the deal was announced on May 3 of last year.

Financial markets have been on a red-hot run on hopes that the new urgency in Europe to overcome the 2-1/2-year debt crisis may allow Greece to remain in the euro zone and keep the 17-member bloc from unravel ling.

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Eurogroup chief Jean-Claude Juncker in the coming days to try to secure more help from the European Union, International Monetary Fund and ECB, even though Greece has fallen behind on its debt-cut targets. Samaras is expected to lobby for a two-year extension of austerity measures to soften their impact, though he is unlikely to

win major concessions.

The euro rallied 1 percent to $1.2468, while the dollar was little changed at 79.41 yen.

US Treasury debt prices fell. Benchmark yields have generally been rising since hitting a record low of 1.38 percent in late July.

Ten-year notes were last trading 11/32 lower in price to yield 1.847 percent, up from 1.81 percent late Monday.

Brent crude oil rose $1.10 to $114.80 a barrel and has jumped from below $90 at the end of June, propelled by maintenance in the North Sea and increased fear of military conflict between Iran and Israel.

US crude added $1.11 to $97.08 per barrel. Gold rallied to a 3-1/2 month high as the US dollar weakened, while platinum hovered just below a two-month peak hit in the previous session as concerns over supply from top producer South Africa festered. Spot gold hit a high of $1,641.20 an ounce and was last at $1,637.56 an ounce. — Reuters

S&P 500 touches highest level since May 2008 NEW YORK: The Standard & Poor’s 500 index touched its highest point in more than four years yesterday, but an early rally faded on Wall Street, and stocks were flat by early afternoon.

The S&P was up two points at 1,420 just after noon EDT (1600 GMT), with financial stocks rising the most. Earlier in the day, the S&P rose as high as 1,426, its highest level since May 19, 2008.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down five points at 13,266, and the Nasdaq composite index was unchanged at 3,076. Sean Clark, chief investment officer at Clark Capital Management Group, an investment advisory firm, said there was not a lot of news driving the market. Trading volume has been light with much of Wall Street

on vacation.

Clark said that part of the explanation for the stock market’s steady climb this month is that some money managers are afraid of missing a good thing. “A lot of fund managers have underperformed this year, and I think they’re feeling pressure,” he said. “ There may have been some panic buying over the last couple of weeks.”

Facebook’s stock sank 3 percent after one of its earliest backers, venture capitalist Peter Thiel, sold the bulk of his stake in the social network. Last week was the first time some insiders could sell their shares.

Yesterday, Facebook stock lost 51 cents to $19.50. Facebook went public in May at almost twice that price, $38. Best Buy fell 3 percent,

the biggest loss in the S&P 500. The country’s largest consumer electronics retailer reported a 90 percent drop in net income during the second quarter, dragged down by restructuring charges and weak sales.

The chain is waging a public fight with its former chairman and co-founder Richard Schulze, who wants to take the company private.

Best Buy’s stock dropped 43 cents to $17.71 and has lost 13 percent this week.

Major European markets edged up amid hints of progress in calming the region’s debt crisis. Spain managed to raise $5.4 billion from bond investors at sharply lower interest rates than at the last such auction.

Markets have been relatively

calm this month, and volumes have thinned with fewer people on trading desks. Monday was one of the quietest days of the year, with 2.7 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange. In contrast, daily volume averaged 3.8 billion three months ago, and that was considered light.

Among other stocks making moves: Urban Outfitters jumped 17 percent. The clothing retailer reported earnings late Monday that beat analysts’ forecasts, thanks to stronger sales. The stock surged $5.43 to $36.71.

Barnes & Noble posted a smaller quarterly loss, helped by sales and e-books and surging sales of the “Fifty Shades of Grey” book. The largest traditional bookstore chain rose 4 cents to $12.37. — AP

BUENOS AIRES: A Cartier store (R) on a corner of Alvear avenue at Recoleta, one of the wealthiest neigborhoods in Buenos Aires, on August 9, 2012. Cartier announced that on October 31 will close its store in Buenos Aires, because as other international brands, is having problems to import merchandises due to the strict money exchange control enforced by the government of President Cristina Kirchner. — AFP

22

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

BUSINESS

UAE banks profit from Europeans’ retreat Local banks’ loan growth far outpaces market DUBAI: Banks in the United Arab Emirates are filling the gap left by European institutions pulling back from the country’s loan market - a trend that benefits local lenders even as margins face pressure and regulation weighs on growth.

Lending in the UAE, the second biggest Arab economy, grew just 1.8 percent in June from the end of December, according to central bank data. But most local banks reported loan growth that exceeded the market rate. Six of the eight largest local banks by stock market capitalisation did so, led by First Gulf Bank with a 6 percent rise and Mashreq, up 5.1 percent.

Even smaller local banks appear to be profiting from the pullback by European banks, which are becoming more conservative globally because of financial pressures at home. “With the global crisis in the euro zone, some banks are focused on their home markets and we have been able to move under the radar and take market share,” Paul Trowbridge, chief executive of United Arab Bank, the 12th largest local bank, told a news conference in July. International banks do not reveal how much they lend into the UAE and some non-European lenders, most notably Citi, HSBC and Standard Chartered, continue to play significant roles in the country’s loan market.

European banks have not completely withdrawn either, especially if they can lend in euros, as shown by

BNP Paribas’ role in an $850 million facility for Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company.

“The attitude we’ve taken is, for the clients who we have strong, longstanding relationships with, we will continue to support them and that continues to be the case,” said a banker at one French lender, adding that targeting resources at certain borrowers was a fact of life for all banks in the current uncertain global environment.

However, the composition of bank groups on loans to UAE entities shows a trend of greater local participation. Just two or three years ago, large deals such as July’s $1.75 billion loan for Dubai Duty Free would have been led by global names. But of the six banks at the top of that deal, four were local.

Local banks have also been at the forefront in refinancing bond maturities for UAE entities, in particular obligations that were early this year seen as potentially difficult, such as those for DIFC Investments and Jebel Ali Free Zone. And on loans linked to projects, traditionally dominated by European names, it is local banks which are now stumping up cash.

The 4 billion dirham ($1.1 billion) financing package for the construction of Abu Dhabi airport’s new terminal is backed by four UAE banks and one from Jordan. The rise in lending by local banks suggests that so far at least, fears that a pullback by European banks would create a shortage of funding and hurt the

UAE economy are overblown.

According to a March report by Moody’s Investors Service, quoting Bank for International Settlements data, a funding gap could emerge because European bank lending extended to the UAE as of September 2011 was worth 25 percent of the country’s total 2011 GDP of $358 billion.

In addition to cutting back new lending commitments, European banks have been selling off parts of their regional loan books to raise money and reduce their risk-weighted assets. So some of the local banks’ lending growth is due to purchases of loans in the secondary market rather than new facilities for local borrowers. However, a significant amount of the growth appears to be organic.

“We’re not going to meet targets by going out and buying loans from retreating banks because there is no relationship traction to that,” Michael Tomalin, chief executive of National Bank of Abu Dhabi, which posted loan growth of 2.1 percent in the first half, told a July analysts call.

Investors have responded positively to local banks’ performance.

FGB’s share price was up 17.5 percent in the month to Aug. 15, with Union National Bank gaining 14.8 percent and Emirates NBD up 14.1 percent. All indicators of the health of the local banking sector have improved, said Julian Bruce, director of institutional equity sales at EFGHermes. — Reuters

YANGON: This picture taken on August 20, 2012 shows Myanmar people walking near a display of shoes on sale on the side of a road in Yangon. Strong economic growth could lift Myanmar to the rank of middle income nation by 2030 if the formerly army-ruled country overcomes a host of reform challenges, the Asian Development Bank said yesterday. — AFP

Platinum spikes on strike massacre By –

crude is currently overbought and should, if no additional geo-political worries emerge, run into he markets are generally quiet this time of some profit-taking from holders of long positions year, even more so this August, as investors well ahead of resistance at 116.5. Support can be await key events over the coming weeks which found at the 200-day moving average at 111.30, can set the agenda and direction for the remainder which coincides with trend line support from the of the year. The annual economic policy symposium June low. at Jackson Hole at the end of August is one such The white metal has been underperforming event. This two-day meeting has been used in the gold for more than a month and has during that past by the US Fed chairman to announce impor- time been struggling to stay above key support at tant decisions, such as QE2 back in August 2010. In 1,380 USD/ounce. That was until Thursday, when a September we have an ECB meeting, six-day strike at a Lonmin’s Marikana the German Constitutional Court makmine in South Africa - which had ing its ruling on the legality of the already led to several deaths - escalated Eurozone’s permanent bailout fund into a massacre after police killed 35 and the Dutch election. striking workers. Lonmin Plc, the world’s The S&P 500 almost reached a multithird biggest platinum producer, operyear high, while multi-month highs ates the mining complex, and it quickly were seen elsewhere as worries about closed down production. This has raised the Eurozone debt crisis and the global speculation that the expected produceconomic slowdown receded. Markets tion surplus could be reduced should are clearly pinning their hopes on supother major operations in South Africa portive news coming from the abovebe infected. South Africa accounts for Ole S Hansen mentioned events. The US economy,in more than 60 percent of all global platparticular, has stood out from the rest, with some inum production. early signs that the economy is beginning to recovThe platinum price has rallied four percent over er from its mid-cycle slowdown, just like we saw in the last week and is set for its first weekly gain since 2011.

June, while the multiyear high discount level to Commodity markets had a quiet week, trading a gold has shrunk by more than four percent in a bit softer following weakness in agriculture, in par- matter of days. The move in platinum seems to ticular coffee, along with industrial metals, especial- have lifted the whole sector, with both silver and ly aluminium which reached a three-year low. gold recovering after reduced hopes for QE3 earlier Platinum rallied as production by the third largest in the week saw some selling of both metals. Gold platinum producer in South Africa was halted, after is back above 1600 and once again has its sights on a strike among mine workers turned into a mas- critical resistance at 1625 followed by 1640. A break sacre. of the latter is required in order to establish The price of Brent crude continued to rally, reach- momentum and attract speculative investors, such ing the highest level in more than three months as hedge funds, back into gold following months of with worries about an Israeli airstrike on Iran adding reduced involvement from these important drivers support at a time when supplies from the North Sea of gold. are well below production levels from previous Both Arabica and Robusta coffee fell sharply this years and Iranian sanctions arefurther reducin- week, with the high quality variety falling nine days gavailability. The tightness in the spot market from in a row in its longest slump since 2010. Dry and lower levels of supply was witnessed this week dur- favourable weather conditions in Brazil, the world’s ing the monthly roll-over in the Brent crude futures largest producer, has seen its harvest gathering market. The premium of the expiring September pace following a difficult start in June when rain contract over the new front month of October reduced the pace and quality. Since then pickings moved above 2 dollars per barrel, the highest level have been gathering pace,thereby increasing availbetween the two front futures contracts since the able supplies to the market. Further price weakness Libyan war in Q1 2011 left refineries scrambling for also came from a US report which showed that supplies. stocks of Green Coffeehad risen to the highest As a result of this rise, consumers in Europe and since September 2009. other regions, with relative weak currencies versus The speculative community had closed their net the dollar, have seen the price of oil move up close long positions before the most recent onslaught. to the record highs seen in March. Speculators have This should provide some support, especially as we begun to increase the number of long positions fol- approach the June lows at 154 cents per pound on lowing the April to June blowout that left many suf- ICE Arabica coffee. Following the US government fering heavy losses. Many have increasingly been report recently confirming the dramatic impact on questioning the validity of such a strong recovery US grain production following the worst US in oil prices, given the lack of recovery in the global drought in decades, the price on the three key economic activity. It also raises the question of crops have lost their upside momentum but stabiwhether Brent crude can hold onto its newly-found lized near the highs. Attention has now turned status as a global benchmark, considering that only towards the upcoming harvest and for any signs of a small percentage of global oil actually originates reduced demand following the strong rally into from the North Sea. August. Wheat in both Paris and Chicago is being There is no doubt that much of the rally from the supported on speculation that much reduced June lows has been triggered by the embargo on exports from Russia will increase export demand Iranian oil exports. This will worry politicians in the from other regions. Soybeans yield and production countries that introduced these sanctions and levels may still manage to improve, as rain has been which are now left with near-record high oil prices forecast for the US Midwest next week. Any at a time of weak economic activity. A move to improvement in weather will be too late for corn, as release oil from strategic reserves in order to calm the harvest is approaching fast. Talks about reducthe markets may now be considered once again ing the ethanol mandate could reduce the amount and would involve the US and potentially other of corn going towards fuel and help lower prices, members of the International Energy Agency (IEA) but for now prices are being supported, despite such as UK, France and Germany. Having recovered reduced momentum, by the continued expectamore than 65 percent of the Q2 sell-off, Brent tions for tight global supplies.

T

EXCHANGE RATES Commercial Bank of Kuwait US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian Dollar Australian DLR Indian rupees Sri Lanka Rupee UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi riyals Omani riyals Egyptian pounds

.2740000 .4390000 .3450000 .2870000 .2820000 .2940000 .0040000 .0020000 .0763950 .7442710 .3860000 .0720000 .7296250 .0430000

CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES US Dollar/KD .2812500 GB Pound/KD .4415060 Euro .3474840 Swiss francs .2893520 Canadian dollars .2835180 Danish Kroner .0466900 Swedish Kroner .0421540 Australian dlr .2960020 Hong Kong dlr .0362590 Singapore dlr .2258310 Japanese yen .0035800 Indian Rs/KD .0000000 Sri Lanka rupee .0000000 Pakistan rupee .0000000 Bangladesh taka .0000000 UAE dirhams .0766040 Bahraini dinars .7463180 Jordanian dinar .0000000 Saudi Riyal/KD .0750200 Omani riyals .7308040 Philippine Peso .0000000

Al-Muzaini Exchange Co. ASIAN COUNTRIES

Japanese Yen Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Srilankan Rupees Nepali Rupees Singapore Dollar Hongkong Dollar Bangladesh Taka Philippine Peso Thai Baht Malaysian Ringgit

3.553 5.072 3.053 2.141 3.173 220.090 36.173 3.425 6.439 8.876 89.338

.2855000 .4340000 .3620000 .2960000 .2920000 .3030000 .0065000 .00350000 .0771600 .7517510 .4060000 .0780000 .7369580 .0510000 .2833500 .4448030 .3500790 .2915120 .2856350 .0470390 .0424690 .2982120 .0365290 .2275170 .0036070 .0051170 .0021330 .0030110 .0034900 .0771750 .7518910 .4007780 .0755800 .7362610 .0068040

Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham

GCC COUNTRIES 74.883 77.158 729.380 745.850 76.464

ARAB COUNTRIES Egyptian Pound - Cash 48.250 Egyptian Pound - Transfer 46.466 Yemen Riyal/for 1000 1.309 Tunisian Dinar 176.65 Jordanian Dinar 396.190 Lebanese Lira/for 1000 1.884 Syrian Lier 4.899 Morocco Dirham 32.64 EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 280.700 Euro 354.52 Sterling Pound 441.820 Canadian dollar 274.79 Turkish lire 152.400 Swiss Franc 295.01 US Dollar Buying 279.500 GOLD 293.000 148.000 75.250

20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

Australian dollar Bahraini dinar Bangladeshi taka Canadian dollar Cyprus pound Czek koruna Danish krone Deutsche Mark Egyptian pound Euro Cash Hongkong dollar Indian rupees Indonesia Iranian tuman Iraqi dinar Japanese yen Jordanian dinar Lebanese pound Malaysian ringgit Morocco dirham Nepalese Rupees New Zealand dollar Nigeria

SELL CASH

300.800 751.680 3.720 287.900 555.100 46.000 47.900 167.800 46.870 353.500 37.140 5.320 0.032 0.161 0.237 3.710 400.540 0.191 93.290 44.600 4.340 232.400 1.831

48.900 734.190 3.080 6.980 78.180 75.470 228.450 36.490 2.692 447.600 43.300 294.000 4.400 9.280 198.263 77.060 283.000 1.380

10 Tola

GOLD 1,698.560

Sterling Pound US Dollar

734.010 2.993 6.740 77.750 75.470 228.450 36.490 2.137 445.600 292.500 4.400 9.180 76.960 282.600

COUNTRY

TRAVELLER’S CHEQUE 445.600 282.600

SELL DRAFT

299.300 751.680 3.451 286.400

228.500 46.552 352.000 36.990 5.070 0.031

SELL DRAFT

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

SELL CASH

301.61 291.50 297.09 354.54 282.65 449.32 3.64 3.468 5.093 2.142 3.191 3.000 77.02 752.60 46.57 402.68 735.62 78.05 75.58

311.000 290.000 298.000 355.000 285.000 450.000 3.630 3.500 5.300 2.350 3.650 3.150 77.450 750.000 47.700 399.000 736.000 78.000 75.800

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd 400.510 0.190 93.290 3.200 230.900

Rate for Transfer

US Dollar Canadian Dollar Sterling Pound Euro

Swiss Frank Bahrain Dinar UAE Dirhams Qatari Riyals Saudi Riyals Jordanian Dinar Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupees Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Pesso Cyprus pound Japanese Yen Thai Bhat Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees Malaysian Ringgit

290.575 748.180 76.920 77.570 75.325 398.365 46.498 2.138 5.081 3.002 3.454 6.702 693.220 4.580 9.060 4.385 3.285 90.285

Kuwait Bahrain Intl Exchange Co.

UAE Exchange Centre WLL

Bahrain Exchange Company COUNTRY

Norwegian krone Omani Riyal Pakistani rupees Philippine peso Qatari riyal Saudi riyal Singapore dollar South Africa Sri Lankan rupees Sterling pound Swedish krona Swiss franc Syrian pound Thai bhat Tunisian dollar UAE dirham U.S. dollars Yemeni Riyal

Selling Rate

282.600 288.830 443.975 348.970

Currency

Rate per 1000 (Tran)

US Dollar Pak Rupees Indian Rupees Sri Lankan Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso UAE Dirhams Saudi Riyals Bahraini Dinars Egyptian Pounds Pound Sterling Indonesian Rupiah Yemeni Riyal Euro Canadian Dollars Nepali rupee

282.600 2.994 5.098 2.145 3.464 6.750 77.045 75.515 751.300 46.565 448.900 2.990 1.550 355.200 290.600 3.200

Al Mulla Exchange Currency

Transfer Rate (Per 1000)

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

283.000 353.500 447.500 288.300 3.590 5.098 46.575 2.140 3.460 6.686 2.995 752.750 77.030 75.560

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

BUSINESS

Europe’s leaders face post-holiday blues BERLIN: After their holidays spent soaking up the August sun, Europe’s political leaders are bracing themselves for storm clouds this fall.

The latest economic figures show that Europe is edging closer to recession, dragged down by the crippling debt problems of the 17 countries that use the euro.

These debt troubles have tormented the eurozone for close to three years and so far have defied leaders’ efforts to fix them. And the longer they take to resolve, the bigger they get. Leaders from France, Germany and Greece all meet later on this week in the latest round of shuttle diplomacy to attempt to put a lid on the eurozone’s debt crisis.

Six eurozone countries - Greece, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Portugal and Malta - are already in recession and others look feeble. Europe’s stumbling economy is hurting recovery in other parts of the world. The European Union recorded a gross domestic product last year of $15.5 trillion slightly more than the U.S.’s output. It is also a major source of sales for the world’s leading companies. Any further economic problems would be felt in order books back in the U.S. and China. Forty percent of McDonald’s global revenue comes from Europe more than it generates in the U.S. The company reported a 0.6 percent slump in meals served in Europe last month. Ford Motor Co. warned last week that auto industry sales in the region through July were the lowest in 17 years.

The eurozone has already provided billion in loans and financial aid to

keep Greece, Ireland and Portugal from defaulting on their debts. And now markets are worried that recession-hit Spain and Italy could soon be asking for assistance. Meanwhile, public anger over austerity measures and unemployment is spreading, and a key court ruling on the eurozone’s crucial new bailout fund is due in Germany.

“September is going to be extremely busy,” said Antonio Barroso, an analyst with the Eurasia Group political risk consultancy. “The potential for negative news is definitely there.”

Here are some of the key events anticipated in the coming months that could alter the temperature and the tempo of Europe’s financial crisis: Greece is in its fifth year of recession. The economy is likely to contract another 7 percent this year, and unemployment is nearing 24 percent.

Debt inspectors from the organizations that oversee Greece’s bailout program - the “troika” of the International Monetar y Fund, European Union and European Central Bank - are set to return to Athens in early September to finalize yet another round of austerity measures.

Greece has been kept afloat by bailouts from its European partners and the IMF since May 2010, after it found it impossible to pay off its debts on its own. The rescue loans came in exchange for harsh austerity measures and reforms to its public sector. The country’s debt stands at more than euro300 billion ($369 billion), and the economy is struggling through a fifth year of recession with unemployment at above 23 percent.

But the cash lifeline has been dis-

rupted by months of political instability- that were resolved, for now, after two national elections - during which the austerity and reform process lagged severely.

As a result, the next ?31 billion installment, if approved by bailout creditors following a review of the country’s finances, has been delayed until next month at the earliest.To qualify for that payment, Greece’s eight-week-old coalition government must identify by the end of the month a new round of budget cuts worth euro11.5 billion for 2013 and 2014.

Officials have said this is likely to include additional cuts in pensions and the initial sums paid out on retirement. Greece has also promised to reduce its 750,000-strong workforce in the civil service and the broader public sector by 150,000 by the end of 2015. Many in the country are worried that the continuing decline in living standards could result in a repeat of violent streets protests witnessed in recent years.

If the troika finds Greece is not sticking to the terms of the bailout agreement, it could hold off vital funding, forcing the country into a chaotic default on its debt. This could push the country out of the eurozone, further destabilizing the region.

Europe’s finance ministers meet Sept. 14 and 15 in Cyprus to discuss Greece and its prospects.

The first batches of a loan worth up to euro100 billion for Spain’s debtstressed banks are due to be sent to Madrid from the other 16 eurozone countries in the coming weeks, bringing some short-term relief for a coun-

try battling to avoid a full-blown bailout. Spanish banks are sitting on an estimated euro200 billion in toxic assets following the collapse of the country’s real estate boom. The government is set to approve Aug. 24 a new law creating a “bad bank” which will pool the toxic assets. The results of a comprehensive audit of the Spanish banking sector are expected next month.

While those steps may help alleviate the financial sector’s immediate problems, Spain - whose economy is five times larger than Greece’s - is broadly expected in the coming months to become the fifth eurozone member to need a bailout.

On top of the problems with the banks, some of Spain’s regional governments have overspent and are turning to the federal authorities for help. Some estimates put the regions’ combined debt at euro140 billion. The country is in a double-dip recession and unemployment is at nearly 25 percent. There have also been public protests at the government’s euro65 billion package of tax hikes and spending cuts.The country is finding fewer and fewer buyers for its debt, with investors charging the country increasingly higher rates so that it can borrow the money it needs to keep the economy and public services working. Earlier this month, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said the ECB was ready to unleash its financial might and buy government bonds to help drive down borrowing costs in debt-ridden countries such as Spain - on the condition that governments approach the eurozone’s emer-

gency bailout funds for assistance first.

Mariano Rajoy’s government has so far tried hard to avoid the political indignity of asking for financial help, which usually implies surrendering some degree of sovereignty over a country’s financial affairs. However, two weeks ago Rajoy edged closer to asking for a bailout when he told reporters that he would consider asking for aid for his country only once the ECB has fleshed out its crisis-fighting plans for buying government bonds.

Draghi has said the ECB’s plans for helping out governments would be announced in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is to visit Madrid on Sept. 6. Mario Monti is in a race against the clock. Italy’s unelected premier and his technocratic government, appointed by Parliament last November to put the eurozone’s thirdlargest economy back on a path to fiscal health, have until next spring to conclude their task. Elections are scheduled for the first half of the year most likely, April - after which Monti’s team hands over power to the new government. After a short period of calm at the beginning of the year when Monti took over and the ECB flooded the market with euro1 trillion in cheap loans that banks used to buy government debt - Italian borrowing rates have been climbing amid market uncertainty about the wider eurozone and Italy’s high debt load. The ECB and Draghi also had Italy in mind when they were drawing up plans to help bring down countries’ borrowing costs.

Best Buy 2Q profit drops 90%, misses estimates To halt stock buybacks for fiscal 2013

Non-oil growth in UAE at 3-4% NBK GCC Brief KUWAIT: Non-oil growth is likely to continue at a below-trend pace of 3-4% for the next couple of years. Data for 1Q 2012 ñ including on credit, real estate transactions and the PMI survey of private sector firms ñ were positive. But these may overstate the underlying pace of improvement. Activity is typically stronger early in the year before easing back in the summer. Although gradually recovering, the economy will be held back by concerns over the restructuring and refinancing of Dubai Inc. debt, and ongoing fiscal consolidation. With its strong trade and transport links, the UAE is also more heavily exposed than its neighbors to any global economic turmoil.

IMF estimates suggest that UAE government-related entities (GREs) still have some $185 billion (51% of GDP) of debt outstanding, with repayments and redemptions of $25-30 billion (7-8% of GDP) due in each of the next 3 years. This heavy financing schedule leaves GREs reliant upon favorable capital market conditions and decent economic growth to shore-up cash flows and asset values.

Given the uncertain global outlook, these are not guaranteed. Even if the world economy avoids a big downturn, continued consolidation and deleveraging at GREs is likely to remain a drag on UAE growth for the foreseeable future.

Under our base case, hydrocarbon sector output is forecast to rise 3% in 2012 and level-off in 2013, as oil prices remain close to $100 per barrel and Gulf OPEC members seek to guard against potential supply disruptions elsewhere.

This will leave crude oil output close to its maximum potential of 2.7 million barrels per day (bpd), though capacity is scheduled to rise to 3.5 million bpd over the next few years. Overall real GDP growth is seen at 3.3% this year, down from 4.9% in 2011.

Inflation will likely remain amongst the lowest in the region. Consumer price inflation has been below 1% since mid2011, and averaged 0.7% in the first 4 months of 2012. Excluding food, inflation would have been negative, at -0.6%, for the same period in 2012. The rate of decline in housing rents has recently shown signs of bottoming out, but with the oversupply in residential property expected to persist, a rebound in rents looks unlikely. Moderate economic growth, weak credit conditions growth and softer global food prices should see inflation average 2.0% or below this year and next.

Government spending is estimated to have increased 19% in 2011 thanks partly to higher loans and equity outlays ñ likely linked to the Abu Dhabi governmentís assistance to local corporates.

Nevertheless, with oil prices and production high, the budget balance improved, registering its first surplus for 3 years at 3% of GDP. Slightly larger surpluses are seen this year and next, as bailout expenses decline and the authorities seek to rationalize current and project spending where possible. Meanwhile, the slight dip in oil prices combined with rising imports could see the current account surplus shrink from 7% of GDP this year to 2% of GDP in 2013.

NEW YORK: Best Buy Co., the largest US consumer electronics chain, is reporting a 90 percent drop in net income during the second quarter, dragged down by restructuring charges and weak sales.

The poor report was announced a day after Best Buy name Hubert Joly, former CEO of the Carlson travel company as its new CEO and president. The chain is also waging a public fight with its former chairman and co-founder Richard Schulze, who wants to take the company private.

The company also said it is halting stock buybacks for fiscal 2013 during the CEO transition. Shares of Best Buy fell almost 10 percent, or $1.76 to $16.40 on the news, following a 10 percent decline the day before on disappointment over Best Buy’s CEO choice.

The electronics chain said yesterday that it earned $12 million, or 4 cents per share, in the quarter ended Aug. 4. That compares with $128 million, or 34 cents per share. Revenue declined nearly 3 percent to $10.55 billion.

Adjusted earnings were 20 cents per share.

Analysts had expected 31 cents per share on revenue of $10.65 billion. Revenue at stores open at least 14 months fell 3.2 percent for the entire business, including a 1.6 percent drop in its domestic business and an 8.2 percent decline in its international division. The measure is a key indicator of a retailer’s health. Analysts had expected a 2.6 percent decline for the total business.

Best Buy said that US sales growth in tablets, mobile phones, appliances and ereaders helped offset declines in gaming, digital imaging, televisions and notebook computers. The company said the international business was dragged down by lower revenue in China, Canada and increased competition in Europe.

Best Buy is hoping that Joly can turn around the company and bring stability that has been badly lacking. Joly, who is French and is expected to take over as CEO in early September when his visa is secured, succeeds Mike Mikan, a board member who has served as interim CEO since former CEO Brian Dunn resigned. Dunn left in April amid a company investigation into an “improper relationship” with a 29-year-old female employee.

Schulze resigned as chairman a month later after the probe found that he knew about the relationship and failed to alert the board or human resources. Best Buy has struggled with weak sales since the middle of the recession as its big-box stores have become out-

dated. It’s also contending with changing buyer habits. The stores, which shoppers once flocked to for low-priced music, movies and electronics, are becoming unprofitable as customers increasingly use them to browse for

phones. But analysts - and investors - have been impatient. Analysts say some of these changes are too late. They also say that Best Buy needs to close more of its big-box stores, which no longer are necessary since people

DANVERS: In this Thursday, June 21, 2012, file photo, customers walk in and out of Best Buy in Danvers, Mass. Best Buy Co. is reporting Monday, a 90 percent drop in net income during the second quarter, dragged down by restructuring charges and weak sales. The company also withdrew its earnings guidance for the year. — AP electronics, but then buy them cheaper else- have shifted from buying big computers and TVs to snapping up smaller items like tablets where.

Best Buy has seen annual declines in rev- and mobile phones.

Wall Street has been equally unforgiving of enue at stores open at least a year for two of the last three years. It posted a 1.8 percent Best Buy’s timing. Best Buy shares have lost drop in the latest fiscal year that ended March nearly 70 percent of their value since their 3, a modest 0.6 percent gain in fiscal 2011 and pre-recession peak of $56.66 in May 2006.

One of the most vocal critics of the company a 1.3 percent decline in fiscal 2010.

Before the scandal with Dunn, the compa- in recent months has been the company’s cony begun to address its problems. In March, it founder. Earlier this month, Schulze, who has announced a major restructuring that a 20 percent stake in the company, made a includes closing 50 stores, cutting 400 corpo- takeover offer for the chain, offering $24 to $26 per share. rate jobs and trimming $800 million in costs.

Best Buy had said it was considering the Since then, interim CEO Mikan has been making strong statements about how he offer, which values the company at $8.84 bilplans to restructure the company, focusing on lion. Schulze said Thursday that he was comservices and revamping stores. In early July, mitted to his offer for the electronics retailer Best Buy said it would lay off 600 staffers in its and has heard from a number of private equiGeek Squad technical support division and ty firms prepared to make “significant com1,800 other store workers. The company also mitments.” But Best Buy and Schulze went has been shrinking store size and focusing on back and forth in public announcements over its more-profitable products such as mobile the weekend. — AP

Portugal’s unemployed seek support from each other

LISBON: A picture taken on August 9, 2012 shows Beatriz Mota, a 30 year old, unemployed woman passing clothes on offer by a non-governmental organisation (NGO) called Dress for Success in Lisbon. With unemployment at a record 15 percent and rising, more and more Portuguese are turning to support groups to help them navigate their frightening — and indefinite — period of joblessness. — AFP

LISBON: With unemployment at a record 15 percent and rising, more and more Portuguese are turning to support groups to help them navigate their frighteningand indefinite-period of joblessness. “Here, I can share my sorrows without feeling judged,” Ana Sofia, a young teacher who has been out of work for almost a year, said at recent support group meeting hosted by a Jesuit group in the capital Lisbon.

Like other European Union nations including Greece, Spain and Italy, Portugal is struggling against a double-whammy of government spending cuts and

mass layoffs as it tries to tame its debt crisis.

“My family and friends are still working, so I don’t feel comfortable talking with them about my problems,” added Ana Sofia who, like several members of her group, asked her full name not be used because of the sensitive nature of the topic.

The Catholic organisation first created a job-seeker support group in April, with the aim of getting another 15 or 20 off the ground by the end of the year.

After just a few months, 18 are up and running. The stated goal is to create “trusting relationships to

cross the desert together” and the dozen or so group members are encouraged to share experiences. “It’s mostly about mental support to counter isolation and depression,” said meeting leader Cristina Cortes, who quit her job in financial world to focus on psychology and life -coaching.

Unemployment in Portugal, which is carrying out austerity policies under a 78-billion-euro European Union-International Monetary Fund bailout, rose to a record 15 percent in the second quarter, meaning 830,000 people are now looking for work, compared to 440,000 at the end of

2008. The Portuguese government has removed job protection rules. This could result in unemployment rising higher still, but the measure is aimed at eventually improving competitiveness.

Young people have been hit especially hard, with unemployment at 35.5 percent for those aged 15 to 24. “ Very difficult times”-In the rundown Setubal neighbourhood, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Lisbon, a group organised by the Agir Hoje (Act Today) foundation meets weekly to offer tips on updating professional resumes and setting out realistic objectives. — AFP

24

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

business

Low demand, high cost: Platinum industry in for tough times JOHANNESBURG: South Africa’s deadly platinum mine strike exposed deeprooted labour troubles in an industry already buckling under soaring production costs and depressed demand for the metal. The illegal strike that started on August 10 left 10 dead in battles between members of different unions at Lonmin’s Marikana mine outside Johannesburg. Police were called in, and gunned down 34 protesters Thursday.

The killings horrified the country and brought back memories of apartheid brutality, but analysts said the Lonmin mine incident was a culmination of troubles in the platinum mines, the largest employer in the mining sector.

South Africa sits on more than 80 percent of the world’s platinum deposits and is responsible for three-quarters of global production of the metal, mostly used in catalytic converters to cut auto

pollution and in jewelry. “The platinum industry has struggled since the beginning of the economic crisis in 2008,” said Alex Benkenstein, senior researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs.

“Even before the events at Marikana we saw signs of an industry in trouble, with earlier strikes at Impala Platinum and Aquarius Platinum, and Royal Bafokeng Platinum announcing a 60 percent drop in first-half earnings for 2012.”

At least three people died in the Aquarius violence, also linked to the same union feud earlier this year. About a month ago, Anglo American Platinum was hit with a weeklong work stoppage.

All of the strikes have been staged by rock drill operators-the men who go hundreds of metres (yards) underground to break up the ore-bearing rocks in

N Koreans talk shop with foreigners at trade fair RASON: Fleets of shiny minivans, Chinesemade bulldozers and dump trucks festooned with red ribbons fill the plaza while toys, clothes and even probiotics digestive capsules are displayed inside an exhibition hall.

Walking past the booths and examining the goods are Chinese, North Koreans and even some Europeans, who are exchanging business cards and sharing lively conversations - North Korea is once again hosting an international trade fair, which opened Monday in Rason in the far northeast, a city seeking to sell itself as friendly to foreigners and a potential hub for international transportation, trade and tourism.

It’s a scene not common in the rest of North Korea, where most business is state-run and interaction between foreigners and locals is strictly monitored. The trade fair is an indication of how keen the insular nation is to attract foreign investment needed to spur its listless economy. Pyongyang has not publicly released detailed economic data for decades, but has made building the economy a focus of government policy since 2009. Rason, however, is one of North Korea’s newly revamped special economic zones, governed by a separate set of laws and rules giving local officials more autonomy, and easier to access from the Chinese city of Yanji than from the North Korea capital of Pyongyang.

With its economy languishing in sharp contrast to the booming market economies of its neighbors in Northeast Asia, Pyongyang has turned in recent years to China to provide trade, investment and knowhow in exchange for access to its minerals and labor.

Last week, Jang Song Thaek, uncle of North Korea’s new leader, forged deals with China on accelerating joint development of North Korea’s special economic zones, including Rason and Hwanggumphyong Island, according to China’s Ministry of Commerce.

Details were not available. “The timing (of Jang’s visit) has got to be to try to make Chinese investors who are coming or thinking of coming (to Rason) feel more comfortable about the agreements they are about to or are considering signing,” said Andray Abrahamian, executive director of Choson Exchange, a Singapore -based nonprofit group that has provided business and legal training for North Korean government officials.

Doing business in North Korea, even as Pyongyang seeks to draw in foreign investment, remains a challenge. Travel to North Korea is carefully regulated, with foreigners requiring invitation letters from North Korean agencies or joining sanctioned tour groups.

All interaction with locals is monitored. Use of personal cell phones, Internet access and transportation - basics for conducting business anywhere else in the world - require authorization. Even with their own cell phones, foreigners often cannot phone their local staff due to restrictions governing communication between North Koreans and outsiders.

Rules in Rason were loosened to make it easier for foreign businesses to set up shop, particularly regarding visas and entry. Yong Nam, vice-director of the economic cooperation department of the Rason City People’s Committee, said laws also were amended in December to protect foreign investors’ property. Still, though changes were made to the legal code and transport from China has improved, Rason officials must ensure steady electricity, broadband Internet, an international banking system and cellphone service for

foreigners, Abrahamian said.

Earlier this month, a Chinese firm, the Xiyang Group, warned other companies against investing in North Korea, calling its four-year experience trying to tap into North Korea’s mining industry “a nightmare.”

Xiyang said it invested $37.1 million to set up a joint venture to build a mining facility, and sent 100 workers to North Korea last year.

However, North Korean officials demanded changes after the contract was signed, and when Xiyang refused, they cut off utilities to the plant and deported the workers, it said in a blog post.

A project manager who asked to be identified only by his surname, Wu, confirmed the post yesterday.

On the other hand, the Yatai Group, a conglomerate based in China’s Jilin Province, announced last week that it signed a 50-year contract with Rason officials to build a sprawling complex around Unsang Harbor to produce cement, concrete, mortar.

Rason, which encompasses the cities of Rajin and Sonbong, sits in the far northeastern tip of North Korea, with Russia on one side and China on the other. It was earmarked in 1991 as a special economic zone, with officials seeing promise in building factories for manufacturing and expanding the Rajin port for shipping. However, little was done to develop Rason until North Korean authorities amended laws in 2010 to give the region some autonomy from Pyongyang, drafted new laws last year to make it easier for foreigners to conduct business and signed a pact with China to jointly develop the zone.

Abrahamian said Rason officials told him last year that 80 percent of decisions are made locally, 20 percent in Pyongyang, with North Korean firms given the latitude to negotiate and conclude deals with foreign partners on their own before seeking final approval from the government.

A joint economic zone was set up in 2004 in the city of Kaesong near the Demilitarized Zone to do business with South Korean firms.

Seoul was a main trading partner for North Korea until the South Korean government forbade nearly all exchanges in 2010 following the deadly sinking of a ship that Seoul blames on Pyongyang. About 120 South Korean firms still operate in Kaesong.

There are signs of progress in construction in Rason, including a paved road from the Chinese city of Yanji. Railway lines linking Rason to Russia and power substations are under construction, while piers are being rebuilt and expanded.

A model of the future Rason International Commercial Trade Center showed rows of modern buildings, sparkling with lights, cars parked under street lamps along tree-lined streets. But Rason has a long way to go, including providing such basics as international banking, Internet and even a reliable power supply.

“I’d like to see some concrete evidence of the deals to provide electricity from the Chinese side of the border,” said Abrahamian, who spoke from Yanji on Sunday before heading to Rason. “They still apparently have power outages with some regularity. Getting a secure and steady supply of electricity is obviously huge.”

Some 110 companies from 11 countries have booths at the four-day event, Rason’s second international trade fair, organizers told The Associated Press. Chinese companies dominate the exhibition hall. —AP

search of the nuggets of the white mineral.

“Theirs is the most dangerous job in the mining industry. They go down carrying 25 kilogrammes of drilling equipment,” said John Cope, director of Bench Marks Foundation, a church-based group that studies working and living conditions of the mainly migrant miners.

He said of the workers’ living conditions and wages: “We find them to be atrocious. We had warned there would be uprisings and violent protests.” The striking workers at the Marikana mine were demanding a tripling of their wages from the current 4,000 rand (400 euros, $486) a month.

The dip in the global economy has not helped the platinum sector whose largest clients, automakers, are battling reduced demand. New vehicle registrations in the EU are down about one

quarter compared to June 2010, according to statistics from BNP Paribas.

The depressed demand has seen prices come down from a high of nearly $2,000 an ounce about a year ago to around $1,400. A surge in production costs, energy top among them, mean wage demands take a second priority.

Electricity costs in South Africa have nearly doubled since 2010, as the national utility Eskom seeks to finance a huge expansion of the power supply.

“Companies are squeezed between rising production costs and lowered demand, particularly the slump in the automotive industry which accounts for almost half of the platinum market,” said Benkenstein.

While rivalry between the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the upstart Associated Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) appears to

have led to the escalation of the unrest at Marikana, deep-seated frustrations have fed into the workers disillusionment.

“Marikana has provided a shocking image of the stakes involved in managing conflict within the mining sector,” said Benkenstein. In the platinum industry “social tensions seem to be spiralling out of control. The social situation will also make it more difficult for companies to make production cuts in the coming months,” said BNP Paribas Corporate and Investment Banking’s Anne -Laure Tremblay. Lonmin said it has lost 15,000 ounces of production due to the strike, meaning it won’t meet its annual target of 750,000 ounces. The unrest at Marikana has given a temporary boost the price of the metal which gained six percent since the police shootings on August 16. — AFP

Global markets get boost by comments from Merkel NBK WEEKLY MONEY MARKET REPORT

KUWAIT: The dollar started the week with a mixed performance against most of its counterparts.

However, the greenback gained momentum as news from the euro-zone debt crisis drove investors to dump risky assets. The dollar lost that momentum as US economic data disappointed the market and spurred expectations of QE3.

Additionally, German Chancellor Merkel showed support for the ECB plan to buy sovereign debt to ease borrowing costs on troubled countries such as Spain and Italy fuelling confidence in the markets and pushing investors to buy riskier assets.

The euro started the week with a strong footing, as Italy successfully sold 8 billion euro’s of 1-year bills. The euro then continued to gain against the greenback to reach a high of 1.2385 amid a number of better-than-expected economic data from the region. The single currency then dropped to 1.2254 amid news that Greek Prime Minister Samaras is set to meet with Luxemburg Prime Minister Juncker, German chancellor Merkel and French president Hollande to persuade euro-zone leaders to extend the time of austerity from two years to four years to 2016. However, the euro surged amid comments from Merkel which stated that last month’s declaration by the European Central Bank President Mario Draghi that he would do whatever it takes to preserve the Euro were “completely in line” with the approach taken by european leaders. The currency reached a high of 1.2381 amid the news. The Euro closed the week at 1.2335 The Sterling pound started the week at the 1.5670 level. The currency hen range traded against the dollar between 1.5650 and 1.5700. On Thursday, the pound broke major levels and reached a high of 1.5744 amid a better than expected retail sales figure. Cable closed the week at 1.5688. The Yen lost momentum across the board as the market shifted to riskier trades. Last week the Euro hit a six-week high against the yen amid comments from German Chancellor Angela Merkel that strengthened expectations of more actions to stem Europe’s debt crisis. Additionally, the greenback rose to a five-week high against the yen, supported by a recent rise in US government bond yields. The USDJPY opened the week at 78.20, reached a high of 79.57 on Friday, and finally closed the week at 79.54.

Jobless claims stabilizing The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits has slightly changed last week, bringing the average over the past month to the lowest level since late March, a sign that the labor market has stabilized after employment picked up in July. Jobless claims climbed by 2,000 to 366,000.

Employers may be limiting firings as the pace of

sales demands keeping current staff levels, which will probably strengthen consumer spending. A pickup in demand and an agreement to avert the fiscal cliff of tax increases and government spending cuts following the presidential election will probably be needed to induce an increase in hiring.

Retail sales increase Retail Sales in the US rose more than expected in July, reflecting broad-based gains that ease concerns that elevated unemployment will cause consumers to cut back. Sales rose by 0.8percent, the biggest since February and first gain in four months, followed a 0.7percent decrease in June.

Economists expected a rise of 0.3percent.

Improved sales at merchants indicate American households are looking beyond the global economic slowdown as hiring improves. At the same time, the elevated unemployment level is keeping consumer spending from surging, consistent with the Federal Reserve’s view that economic growth will “remain moderate over coming quarters.”

Inflation US consumer prices were unchanged in July, as lower energy prices offset gains in food and other items. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) dropped from 0.2percent to 0.0percent. Meanwhile, the core consumer price index, which excludes the volatile categories of food and energy, rose 0.1percent.

Housing in the US Housing Starts in the US fell in July, while the number of building permits jumped to the highest level in four years, indicating that the industry will keep improving in the second half of the year. Starts fell 1.1percent to a 746,000 annual rate from June’s 754,000 pace. Building permits, a measure for future construction, rose to an 812,000 pace, the most since August 2008. A drop in prices combined with record low mortgage rates is helping support the housing market.

Manufacturing continuing to disappoint Factory activity in the US mid-Atlantic region shrank in August for the fourth month in a row, while the pace of contraction eased as new orders improved moderately. The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank said its business activity index rose to -7.1 from -12.9 in July, shy of economists’ expectations for -5. Any reading below zero indicates contraction in the region’s manufacturing. The survey covers factories in eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware.

German ZEW Index Drops Unexpectedly German analyst and investor sentiment

dropped for a fourth straight month in August, undercutting even the lowest market expectation.

The ZEW economic monthly poll of economic sentiment slid to -25.5 from -19.6 in July. The forecasts in the poll had ranged from -10.0 to -25.0. The report also stated that the “decline in August signals that financial market experts still expect the German economy to cool down throughout the next six months. Especially export-oriented sectors may be affected.”

German growth misses expectations German economic growth slowed less than expected in the second quarter as exports and household spending helped to fend off the sovereign debt crisis. Gross domestic product rose 0.3percent from the first quarter, when it gained 0.5percent, meanwhile economists predicted a 0.2percent increase.

Higher Consumer Prices UK inflation unexpectedly accelerated in July for the first time in four months. Airfares increased and there was some unwinding of early summer discounting by clothing stores.

Consumer prices rose 2.6percent from a year earlier, compared with 2.4percent in June.

BoE policy makers show interest in additional QE Some Bank of England policymakers were tempted to step up the central bank’s monetary stimulus program this month, just a month after agreeing to a 50 billion pound increase in asset purchases, as minutes of their August 1 meeting showed. All nine members of the MPC voted to maintain the BoE’s asset purchase target at the 375 billion pound level agreed in July, but for some policymakers this decision was “finely balanced” and there was a good case for more. This view contrasts with the message from BoE Governor Meryvn King last week, who said there was no urgent need to print more money beyond what it had already announced.

However, the minutes show that the majority of the MPC appeared to share King’s view.

Japanese Growth Disappoints Japan’s economic growth slowed more than expected in the second quarter as exports and consumer spending weakened, undermining the nation’s recovery since last year’s earthquake. Gross domestic product rose an annualized 1.4percent in the three months through June, compared with a revised 5.5percent expansion in the first quarter.

Iran looks to Armenia to skirt bank sanctions

RASON: In this Monday, Aug 20, 2012 photo, piers No. 1 and 2 of Rajin port are under construction in Rason, North Korea. The port of Rajin and the neighboring city of Sonbong together comprise the Rason special economic zone being developed with help from foreign investment, particularly from China. Rason was host this week to the zone’s second international trade fair. — AP

UNITED NATIONS: With international sanctions squeezing Iran, the Islamic Republic is seeking to expand its banking foothold in the Caucasus nation of Armenia to make up for difficulties in countries it used to rely on to do business, according to diplomats and documents.

Iran’s growing interest in its neighbor Armenia, a mountainous, landlocked country of about 3.3 million people, comes at a time of rising international isolation for Tehran and increasing scrutiny by Western governments and intelligence agencies of Iranian banking ties worldwide as they attempt to stifle the country’s nuclear program.

The most recent example is British bank Standard Chartered , which has been in the spotlight due to US charges that it hid from US regulators and shareholders some $250 billion of transactions tied to Iran.

An expanded local-currency foothold in a neighbor like Armenia,

a former Soviet republic which has close trade ties to Iran and is working hard to forge closer links to the European Union, could make it easier for Tehran to obfuscate payments to and from foreign clients and deceive Western intelligence agencies trying to prevent it from expanding its nuclear and missile programs.

Armenian officials denied illicit banking links to Iran. While the four rounds of UN sanctions remain limited, with only two Iran banks blacklisted by the Security Council, the United States and European Union have implemented much tougher restrictions, sanctioning dozens of banks and other firms and making it increasingly difficult for Tehran to conduct business in US dollars and euros. A UN panel of experts that monitors compliance with the sanctions against Tehran recently submitted a report to the UN Security Council’s Iran sanctions committee that concluded Iran was constantly

searching for ways to skirt restrictions on its banking sector.

“One state bordering Iran informed the Panel of requests from Iran to open new financial institutions,” the report said. “The requests were not pursued apparently because of that country’s burdensome legislation.”

Several UN diplomats familiar with the panel’s work confirmed that the unnamed state was Armenia, where Iran already has banking ties.

Despite Armenia’s denials of illegal banking arrangements, Iran has not given up trying to expand in the country, the diplomats said, and US officials have repeatedly cautioned Armenian colleagues to tighten financial controls.

Iran’s trade with Armenia, including an oil pipeline that Armenian news reports say should be finished in 2014, requires some form of crossborder banking. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that

Iran’s annual trade with Armenia is around $1 billion, according to Iranian news reports.

Engaging in transactions with Iranian banks is not a violation of international sanctions as long as it is not linked to Iran’s nuclear or missile programs or companies or individuals under US, EU or UN sanctions.

Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful and refuses to shut it down.

It says the sanctions are illegal. But Washington has made clear to governments around the world that trading with Iranian firms that are sanctioned by the United States could lead to a US blacklisting. A Western intelligence report shown to Reuters, and dated May 2012, said that Iran was searching for “convenient” locations to develop alternative banking relationships away from spy agencies and other international monitoring bodies. It said an expanded presence in Armenia was one of Iran’s goals.— Reuters

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

BUSINESS

Japan’s Sharp may sell China, Mexico plants TOKYO: Japan’s embattled Sharp is considering selling television assembly plants in China and Mexico and shedding 3,000 jobs, boosting the number of planned payroll cuts to 8,000, reports said yesterday.

Sharp is mulling the sale of the two factories as part of talks with Taiwanese partner Hon Hai Precision Industry, Dow Jones Newswires and the Yomiuri newspaper reported. Sharp could sell the factories to Hon Hai, or to Sharp Display Products, the Japanese company’s joint venture with Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou, Dow Jones quoted a source as saying.

The Chinese factory has about 1,500 workers, while the Mexican plant has another 1,500, according to Sharp. Both factories assemble large-screen TV sets.

Sharp would not confirm the report, only saying it was cooperating with Hon Hai on the business of large liquid crystal displays (LCDs).

“Regarding production of LCD TVs we are exploring what to do for the best in the overall cooperation,” the Japanese company said in a statement. The jobs Sharp could shed would bring the number of payroll cuts at the group to 8,000, or about 15 percent of its

global workforce, including 5,000 workers the company has earlier said should go.

Sharp said this month it would cut 5,000 jobs by March as it reported a April-June loss and said it would remain in the red for the rest of the year amid losses at its struggling TV business. The company, which has seen its mainstay television, LCD and solar panel products struggle, said the job reductions were part of a bid to cut fixed costs by 100 billion yen to help its dented balance sheet. Earlier this year Sharp announced a tie-up with Hon Hai Precision in a bid to

turn around its business, aiming for improved efficiency. The Taiwanese firm, better known as Foxconn, which assembles Apple products in China, including the iPad and iPhone, agreed to take a 10 percent stake in Sharp for about $800 million.

With Sharp shares diving to a near 40-year low this month, the Taiwanese giant was aiming for a bigger equity stake now, according to recent media reports.

Shares in Sharp were down 0.57 percent at 173 yen in yesterday’s afternoon trade, against a 38-year low of 164 yen hit on August on 15. — AFP

Hong Kong shares inch lower, consumer names lift China CNOOC slips, posts 19% fall in H1 net profit

HANOI: This picture taken on February 16, 2012 shows Nguyen Duc Kien speaking at a soccer event in Hanoi. Vietnam police have arrested Kien, a top banking tycoon on suspicion of illegal business activities, the government said yesterday, sending ripples through financial markets in the communist state. — AFP

Vietnam bank mogul’s arrest spooks investors HANOI: Vietnam said yesterday it had arrested a top banking tycoon for illegal business activities, sending ripples through financial markets as the central bank urged the public not to panic.

Nguyen Duc Kien, 48, a shareholder in some of Vietnam’s largest financial institutions, was taken into custody late Monday after police raided his Hanoi home and seized documents. “Kien was arrested for illegal business activities,” according to an announcement posted on the government’s official website.

Multi-millionaire Kien is a founder of Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), one of the largest banks in Vietnam, which counts global banking giant Standard Chartered as one of its “strategic partners”. His arrest sent “shockwaves across the country”, according to the state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper. It also triggered fears of a bank run which could hurt a banking sector struggling with toxic debts, falling profitability and liquidity problems owing to credit tightening by the authorities aimed at taming inflation.

The governor of the State Bank of Vietnam, Nguyen Van Binh, said Tuesday that he was aware of the risk of a fallout from Kien’s arrest and that the central bank stood ready to intervene. “To ensure the safety of the whole system, the State Bank of Vietnam has measures available to ensure liquidity for ACB and other banks if there is a mass withdrawal (of money from banks)”, he said in a televised speech.

Binh said the arrest was not related to the ACB, but concerned accusations of wrongdoing at three smaller financial companies where Kien is chairman. Several ACB branches in the capital Hanoi visited

by AFP yesterday appeared normal with no signs of mass withdrawals by panicked customers.

ACB issued a statement yesterday saying Kien’s arrest would not impact its performance, even as its share price slumped on the Hanoi Stock Exchange. Bank spokesman Nguyen Thanh Toai described the

arrest as “a personal issue”.

“The detention of Kien is the decision of the authorities so it does not affect the normal operation of the bank,” Toai said, adding that Kien held less than five percent of shares in the group.

ACB’s share price plunged almost seven percent to 24,100 Vietnam dong ($1) by the close yesterday on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, dragging down the wider market. The benchmark HNX index ended down 3.7 points or 5.24 percent. Kien is said to hold shares in ACB, Sacombank, Eximbank, VietBank and others and was reportedly involved in drafting the country’s new bank reforms.

Eximbank and Sacombank were quick to stress that Kien was not a major shareholder in their institutions, according to media reports.

The banker rose to public prominence as a vocal critic of corruption in Vietnamese football, using his role as chairman of Hanoi Football Club to sound off against Vietnam’s Football Federation.

His arrest comes as the communist party broadens an anti-corruption drive launched last month, said Vietnam expert Carl Thayer, emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia. The ruling party wants to demonstrate that it is tackling high-level corruption, he told AFP, adding “the atmosphere for some reason is just right for going after big fish”.

Kien’s arrest may also signal deep political infighting among the country’s elite-a sign of a “subterranean battle” between rival factions aligned to the prime minister and the president, he said.

Some of the elite may be concerned that Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has amassed too much power “and needs to be pulled back in a peg,” he said. If so, this could explain the attack on Kien - who is seen as being aligned with Prime Minister Dung and is the subject of speculation on blogs over his business dealings with Dung’s daughter, Thayer added. — AFP

HONG KONG: Hong Kong shares dipped yesterday as uncertainty about the euro-zone weighed on benchmark heavyweight HSBC Holdings, but food firms and retailers gained on encouraging earnings results and reports of possible steps to boost consumer spending.

The reports of further consumer sentiment steps as well as other media reports of more planned fiscal stimulus by regional governments helped put mainland Chinese markets on track for their best showing in more than a week in improved volumes. Chinese food and beverage giant Tingyi Holdings was among those finding favour, extending gains after its firsthalf gross margin rose, helping trigger broker upgrades yesterday.

“Companies like Tingyi are the ones that have seen high growth rates in the past, but like China, are slowing down. Investors will have to get used to their slower rates of growth, but they still offer some defensive cover,” said Edward Huang, an equity analyst with Haitong International Securities.

The Hang Seng Index was down 0.1 percent at 20,078.3 by midday-above the 20,000 level it has managed to keep for all but one day since Aug 6.

Shares of HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe’s largest bank, shed 0.9 percent amid uncertainty whether European Central Bank will intervene after it moved to squash speculation about the shape its planned bond-buying programme will take.

The China Enterprises Index of the top Chinese listings in Hong Kong rose 0.4 percent. The CSI300 Index of the top Shanghai and Shenzhen listings was up 0.9 percent, while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.6 percent.

Tingyi jumped 5.5 percent to HK$22 after earlier testing a 4-1/2 month high. Before Monday, Tingyi was down more than 18 percent on the year but is now down 6.8 percent, compared to the 8.9 percent gain on the Hang Seng Index.

Deutsche Bank analysts upgraded the stock from “hold” to “buy” while increasing their target price by 16 percent from HK$20.60 to HK$23.90. “(Tingyi’s earnings) turnaround was driven by low input costs and, more importantly, market share gains,” they said in a report dated Aug 21, while adding this is the first time Tingyi has held the biggest market share in noodles, tea, water and juice sectors.

Shenzhen-listed alcohol producer Wuliangye rose 2.1 percent, on track for a second-straight day of gains after posting a 50 percent increase in first half net profit late on Sunday, largely in line with expectations.

Wuliangye’s results lifted larger sector rival, Shanghai-listed Kweichow Moutai. It rose 2.3 percent and was the top boost to both onshore Chinese benchmark indices. Both stocks have outperformed this year although the sector was hit after Moutai posted underwhelming first half earnings this month.

Moutai is up 23 percent this year, while Wuliangye is up 8.5 percent, compared to a 1 percent loss for the CSI300 Index.

Belle International inched down 0.4 percent ahead of its first-half earnings later in the day. It is up 9.9 percent this year and is currently trading at 19 times forward 12-month earnings, a 15 percent discount to its historical median, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine.

Three out of 32 analysts have revised their full year earnings-per-share estimates for the company by an average of 13.8 percent in the last 30 days, according to StarMine. The Economic Information Daily newspaper reported China’s commerce and industry ministries, among others, may issue new policies to bolster domestic consumption later this year.

Chinese oil giant CNOOC Ltd lost 0.6 percent ahead of its first-half earnings. During the midday trading break, China’s top offshore oil producer posted a 19 percent fall in first half net profit.

It is up 13.8 percent this year and is currently trading at 8.4 times forward 12-month earnings, a 20 percent discount to its historical median, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine. Ten out of 33 analysts downgraded their earnings-per-share estimates for the company by an average of 6.1 percent in the last 30 days, according to StarMine. China Coal Energy Co Ltd, another company expected to post earnings later in the day, shed 1.5 percent. It is now down 14 percent this year. — Reuters

HONG KONG: Chairman of CNOOC Ltd Wang Yilin, speaks at the company’s interim result announcement in Hong Kong, yesterday. CNOOC Ltd.— AP

Maruti restarts riot-hit car plant NEW DELHI: A factory owned by India’s largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki, reopened yesterday, more than a month after a riot by workers killed a company manager and injured dozens. Around 500 police and security personnel stood guard as workers lined up to enter Maruti’s plant in Manesar, a southwestern suburb of New Delhi.

The plant will produce 150 cars a day - less than 10 percent of its capacity, S Y Siddique, a senior Maruti official, told reporters. The July 18 riot was sparked by a labor dispute that ended with workers attacking managers and setting part of the plant on fire. The company fired 500 workers accused of spearheading the violence.

Analysts say the shutdown was costing the company 1 billion rupees ($18 million) a day and eroding its market share. Maruti Suzuki, a subsidiary of Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp, has two car assembly plants in India.

Officials say production will be gradually stepped up at the plant, which has an annual capacity of 550,000 cars. The conflict between the workers and management stems from the wide gap in the salaries of contract workers, who reportedly earn 6,000 rupees ($107) a month, and permanent workers, who take home three times as much.

Last week, top company officials announced that it would scrap the practice of hiring contract workers and that the workers currently on temporary contracts would be made permanent. It would begin the process of hiring new workers on a permanent basis on Sept 2.

The violence at the factory - along with slowing economic growth, lagging reforms and a power failure last month that cut electricity to half the country - have damaged India’s efforts to attract major foreign investment. — AP

MANESAR: Indian policemen stand guard at the main gate of the Maruti Suzuki Production Facility in Manesar, about 56 kms from New Delhi yesterday. — AFP

Inspection finds flaws in audits of 23 brokerages WASHINGTON: A watchdog agency for the accounting industry says it’s found numerous flaws in how some firms audited securities brokerages. The five-month inspection by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board covered a sample of 23 audits of brokerages done by 10 accounting firms. The inspection found deficiencies in all 23 audits, the board said in a report Monday.

The report covered the board’s first such inspection.

The auditing firms’ lapses included a failure to adequately verify how much financial cushion the brokerages held against potential losses and the accuracy of revenue figures the brokerages provided. The report didn’t name the auditing firms or the brokerages whose audits were reviewed. But the brokerages whose audits were inspected are a small slice of the 4,400 or so brokerage firms registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission that serve individual and institutional investors.

The board said its inspection results show that some auditors weren’t properly fulfilling their duty to provide an independent check on the brokerages. “Even with

this small group of audits inspected thus far, the results are disturbing,” board member Jeanette Franzel, a former managing director of the Government Accountability Office, the auditing agency for the federal government, said in a statement.

The other members of the five-member accounting board are a former SEC general counsel, a former accounting firm executive, a lawyer and a former Senate aide. Lynn Turner, a former SEC chief accountant, called the frequency of deficiencies discovered by the inspection “mind boggling.” He said it was especially striking coming after Bernard Madoff ’s massive investment fraud, which raised pointed questions about the role of brokerage firms’ auditors.

“Hopefully other audit firms learn quickly from this inspection report and learn how to, and do in fact, perform audits as they should be performed,” Turner said in an emailed message. Congress created the oversight board in 2002 to replace the accounting industry’s own regulators in response to the wave of business scandals that began with Enron Corp. The board has subpoena

power and authority to discipline accountants. Its operations are funded by fees on public companies, which pay according to their size.

The board has been inspecting accounting firms’ audits of public companies since it started operations in 2003. In February, it fined a major accounting firm, Ernst & Young, $2 million for alleged lapses in three audits of Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp. It was the largest fine the board has levied.

The financial regulatory law enacted in 2010 expanded the board’s authority to include inspecting audits of securities brokerage firms. Some of the flaws the board revealed Monday relate to brokerages’ protection of customer money. For example, some securities brokerages are required to maintain a reserve account for customers’ funds. In all 14 audits of brokerages that claimed an exemption from that requirement, the accounting firms didn’t properly verify that the brokerages were entitled to the exemption, the inspection found.

And in two of the nine audits involving brokerages that were required to maintain such accounts, the audit-

ing firms failed to verify that the accounts were designated for customer use only.

The board says the flaws it found don’t necessarily mean that the brokerages hadn’t properly safeguarded customers’ money. But the results show that the auditors weren’t following standards for monitoring brokerages’ compliance with federal rules, it said.

The inspection found that one accounting firm failed in two audits to maintain its independence from the brokerage firm it audited, in violation of SEC rules. The firm breached its independence by helping the brokerage prepare the financial statements it audited, the report said.

The accounting board’s inspectors discussed the deficiencies they found with the accounting firms but took no disciplinary actions. If the board determines in future inspections that a firm failed to take appropriate action, it may be grounds for a disciplinary sanction, board spokeswoman Colleen Brennan said. She said the board may report to the SEC and other regulators information on possible violations of law by brokerage firms. —AP

26

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

BUSINESS

Crowne Plaza Doha - The Business Park was inaugurated by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Hamad Bin Abdullah Al Thani.

First Crowne Plaza Hotel in Qatar opens its doors to guests DOHA: Trans Orient Establishment and IHG celebrated the opening of Crowne Plaza Doha - The Business Park yesterday by welcoming its first guest, and hotel owner, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Hamad Bin Abdullah Al Thani. Sheikh Mohammed checked into the hotel after being welcomed at a ceremony attended by the hotel’s employees and representatives from the owning company and construction sub-contractor.

The hotel, the first in the region to launch under the new Crowne Plaza branding, is located in the heart of Doha’s banking district.

Just two kilometres from Doha International Airport, it is part of the new Business Park area in Doha and features 378-rooms, including 288 hotel rooms and suites and 90 one to two bedroom resident suites. Commenting on the opening Sheikh Mohammed Bin Hamad Bin Abdullah Al Thani said “I’m delighted to be the first guest here at Crowne Plaza Doha - The Business Park. Our vision was to develop a hotel that would offer unparalleled meeting and conference facilities and exciting new restaurants for the booming Doha market.

This hotel does exactly that and under IHG’s

management we’re certain it will be a success.” Crowne Plaza - The Business Park is set to appeal to international visitors and Qatari residents alike. With eight meeting rooms, and an executive boardroom all equipped with the latest in technologies allowing you to be video conferencing your meeting to the event centre and a variety of well-equipped facili-

ties and ergonomically-designed beds promising a great night’s rest, the hotel is designed to meet both business and leisure travellers’ every need.

The hotel offers six food and beverage outlets: Rodizio, Brazilian Churrascaria ; Misturado, the Brazilian lounge; Aramede, a Mediterranean all-day dining restaurant;

Savor, an elegant lounge; Liquidity, the lively pool-side lounge; as well as the refined Crowne Plaza Club Lounge. Guests can also enjoy a rooftop swimming pool, fitness centre and spa. The hotel’s iconic glass-domed meeting venue, The Event Centre, is situated in the middle of the park complex and contains two state-of-the-art ballrooms. Ideal for

large-scale conferences, the versatile and stylish ballrooms are set to become a top venue for weddings. Owned by the Trans Orient Establishment, Crowne Plaza - The Business Park was signed in 2008 and began construction in mid-2009. The hotel team are led by General Manager Savino Leone.

“We congratulate Trans Orient Establishment on the opening of Crowne Plaza Doha - The Business Park. We’re very proud to manage this unique hotel, which is a fantastic example of the Crowne Plaza brand.

The team here have work around the clock to ensure we are ready to welcome His Excellency as our first guest and we now look forward to welcoming many more guests to their new home in Doha,” said Pascal Gauvin, Chief Operating Officer, India, Middle East and Africa, IHG IHG has 390 Crowne Plaza hotels across the globe with 22 in the Middle East and Africa specifically. The company has another 130 Crowne Plaza hotels in the development pipeline due to open over the next three to five years, seven of which will open in the region.

More than 70,000 followed NBK on social media during Ramadan KUWAIT: More than 70,000 fans followed the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) on social media during the holy month of Ramadan.

“NBK has launched a special social media program for Ramadan as a way of rewarding our fans and encouraging the spirit of the holy month of Ramadan,” said NBK Public Relations Officer Badria Al Reshaid.

Al Reshaid noted that NBK has seen a jump in the number of fans since the start of Ramadan. More than

70,000 fans are now following NBK on our various social media channels including Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and Instagram.

“NBK greatly values the role social media channels play in Kuwait and utilizes them as an important mean of keeping in touch with NBK customers and their concerns. We answer their questions on Facebook and Twitter and post the latest news, promotions and services. In other words, we listen to what people are saying online,” Al

Reshaid explained.

NBK is keen to support customers through all channels and views social media networks as important aspects for supporting the lifestyle and banking habits of NBK clients. For more information regarding banking transactions, events and competitions check out National Bank of Kuwait official facebook page NBK - Official Page or follow NBK on Twitter @NBKPage, and on Instagram @NBKPage

Badria Al Reshaid NBK Public Relations Officer

250 Mercedes-Benz Actros trucks to Iraq Joyalukkas jewellery opens latest showroom in Shimoga he world’s favorite jeweler, Joyalukkas, opened the largest jewelry showroom in Shimoga, the cultural capital of Karnataka, on 18th August, 2012. Joyalukkas Group is a multi-billion dollar global conglomerate and its rapidly expanding jewelry retail chain is one of the world’s largest, with presence across nine countries that include Singapore, UK, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and India. The Joyalukkas showroom in Shimoga, located on Balaraj Urs Road, was inaugurated by Sri BY Raghavendra, Hon. Member of Parliament, Shimoga. Renowned actress Ramya graced the occasion by her presence as the celebrity guest. The grand inaugural function was attended by many local VIP’s and dignitaries of Shimoga.

“Opening our jewelry showroom in Shimoga, the cultural capital of Karnataka means a lot to us. We have opened the largest jewelry showroom in Shimoga and through this showroom we also plan to serve Bhadravathi, which is considered as the twin city of Shimoga.

Our large format showroom, like all Joyalukkas showrooms, offers the best mix of choice, value, convenience and service to residents here. This showroom has been designed in the signature Joyalukkas style to give an international standard of jewelry shopping to this great city. We promise the residents here a delightful and refreshing experience in jewelry shopping, said Joy Alukkas, Chairman & MD of Joyalukkas Group.

Joyalukkas showroom offers ample parking space and a massive 20,000 sq. foot of shopping area.

The showroom features the widest range of collections in gold, diamond, precious stone, platinum, pearl and sliver. The mix of jewelry offered are the largest choice of traditional and contemporary jewelry designs to meet all the needs of jewelry lovers.

Celebrity and renowned actress Ramya said “It’s an honor to get the opportunity to be part of the inauguration of the Joyalukkas showroom in Shimoga.

Joyalukkas is world’s favourite jeweler and I feel privileged to be part of this grand occasion. I love the great choice and designs that Joyalukkas offers and am sure every jewelery lover will find shopping at Joyalukkas a great experience.”

T

Joyalukkas is committed to offering the best prices on the over one million choices of jewelry designs it offers at its showrooms. The global jewelery retail chain has also recently announced for the first time in the world, the unique concept called ‘Clear Price Tag’ (CPT) to ensure 100 percent transparency on its pricing of jewelry. The Joyalukkas CPT ensures the best value on jewelery and is the most reliable gold price indicator to ensure customers enjoy the best price at all times.

“We have recently introduced the concept of ‘Clear Price Tags’ (CPT) to ensure our customers always get the best price possible on jewelry purchased at Joyalukkas. We are committed 100 percent to our customers and we understand transparency in pricing is one of the key factors to satisfying them. My vision for our jewelry business is to ‘ornament the world’ and we plan to relentlessly pursue this by offering the best mix of Price, Choice, Convenience and Service,” added Mr. Joy Alukkas. The Joyalukkas Shimoga jewelry showroom has a grand design with convenient interiors and the best mix of jewelry collections from around the world.

Joyalukkas is the first and only ISO 14001: 2004 & ISO 9001: 2008 certified jewelry retail chain, which also ensures and adheres to quality standards like the BIS Hallmark for gold jewelry, IGI certification for Diamond jewelry and PGI certification for Platinum jewelry to ensure the customers trust, assurance and total peace of mind. Other unique features of Joyalukkas jewelry include consumer friendly value added schemes like ‘Easy Gold schemes, Joyalukkas Golden Rewards Card and 100 percent buy back guarantee and more.

Joyalukkas is a global jewelry retail chain, which has also been recognised with many awards and accolades for its exceptional standards in jewelry retailing.

Its popular Chennai showroom has been recognised by the Limca Book of records for being the largest jewelry showroom in the world. Joyalukkas Bengaluru showroom was also recently awarded the ‘Best Single Store of the Year’ by the ‘All India Gem and Jewellery Trade Federation’.

Joyalukkas has also received the prestigious ‘Superbrand’ status, 3 years in a row in the UAE.

STUT TGART: I n yet another major order for Mercedes-Benz Trucks, Iraq’s State Company for Automotive I ndustr y (SCAI) recently purchased 250 trucks to assist in reconstruc tion efforts in the country. The last of the ordered vehicles were delivered to SCAI just a few days ago.

“We’re very pleased to help with the reconstruction of Iraq by supplying 250 MercedesBenz Actros trucks to SCAI,” says Huber tus Trosk a, Head of M ercedes-Benz Trucks. “Our vehicles are perfect for use in rough terrain, where they clearly demonstrate their quality and reliability.”

This was the first time that Mercedes-Benz Trucks has sup-

plied vehicles to SCAI. The contract between Daimler and SCAI, which covers the deliver y of

Mercedes-Benz trucks to Iraq, represented a clear commitment to the countr y ’s recon-

struction efforts when it was signed in Baghdad in February 2010. The delivery of the 250 Actros trucks marks a further important step toward this goal.

The 250 Actros were manufactured at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Worth and delivered to Iraq as complete vehicles. SCAI is equipping the trucks onsite with equipment for various construction applications. The order can be broken down as follows: 100 Actros 3331K dump truck chassis and 150 Actros 3340S tractors for carrying water and fuel tanks or similar semitrailers.

All of the vehicles are equipped with powerful Euro II V6 engines and a heav y- dut y 16-speed transmission.

Wishes come true for children at Latifa Hospital, Dubai Hospital DUBAI: Xerox Emirates with the support of Avis Al Otaiba Bus Transportation Service and Corporate Connection, all of whom are member of the Mohamed Hareb Al Otaiba Group Companies, alongside with The Make-A-Wish Foundation(r) UAE, granted the wishes of 11 children with the “Make a Difference” campaign which ran throughout the holy month of Ramadan.

The heart-giving days included donations from Xerox Emirates, the company and its employees, which were presented at the

Thalassemia Centre in Latifa Hospital, the Leukemia Centre at Dubai Hospital as well as The Make-A-Wish Foundation Office in Abu Dhabi on the 12th, 13th and 14th of August.

A total of 7 children with life threatening medical conditions had their dreams come true as they received the gifts they had wished for, for as long as they could remember. The other 4 children will receive their gifts within the upcoming months as they were unable to attend the heart-giving days.

The children enjoyed face painting and

balloon twisting while they anxiously waited for their surprise....

Excitement built up as the children tore off the gift wrappers and realized their wishes are now a reality, each child had received the gift they had asked for. A total of, 4 iPads, 2 iPhones, a pink laptop, a purple laptop, Ferrari world tickets and a one night stay in Yas Viceroy Abu Dhabi as well as 2 shopping spree vouchers from Toys R Us, in addition to extra goodie bags from The Toy Store were handed out to the delighted children.

27

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

TECHNOLOGY

Tough times ahead for Facebook WASHINGTON: If you bought Facebook shares in the May IPO and held onto them, by Monday morning you would have lost more than half your investment-and not see any encouraging signs of making your money back.

Three months after the largest tech share issue ever on US markets, Facebook fell to a new low below $19 a share, compared to the $38 underwriters charged for the 421 million shares they sold. Although the stock bounced back to close at $20.01, IPO investors were still holding huge losses with, analysts said, not much hope of a quick reversal. Some key investors were still cashing out-on Thursday and Friday, billionaire Peter Thiel, who invested in Facebook first in 2004, sold off nearly 80 percent of his huge holding, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Monday.

Thiel’s average price for 20.6 million shares was $19.73 — still a handsome profit for such an early backer of the website, but not a demonstration of confidence in the company’s potential to rebound.

Facebook raised $16 billion when it went public on May 18, giving it a nominal market value of a stunning $104 billion and raising hopes of a new dotcom boom on US markets.

The company’s business promise was huge: marketing access to the 900 million users of the world’s leading social network and data about them that marketers prize.

But analysts said that the large number of shares sold, the high IPO price, and the overall skittishness of investors in a soft overall economy, have undermined market support for the company. “They just put way too many stocks out at once... before the market was

ready to absorb so many shares,” said Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities.

The price struggled around the $30 range in the weeks after the issue, with the underwriters undergoing a beating and lawsuits for allegedly having privately lowered their earnings forecasts for the company days before the IPO. The shares then fell to the low-$20s range at the end of July when Facebook issued an uninspiring quarterly earnings report. And last Thursday the price plummeted when a ban on pre-IPO investors such as Thiel selling their shares was lifted-many apparently sold. That lockup applied only to 270 million shares. Another 1.2 billion shares, those controlled by Facebook employees, will be freed from lockup on November 14.

While undoubtedly Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and other top figures will hold on to most of their

shares, anything added to market liquidity is, at this point, downward pressure on the price.

Analysts are debating whether the stock is now a bargain based on Facebook’s earnings potential.

“Over the long term, the trade is about the fundamentals of the business, and the fundamentals remain very positive,” Pachter told AFP. He called the problem of a share oversupply “just noise”.

Social media expert Lou Kerner also downplayed the selling pressure.

“We remain very positive,” he said.

“Facebook will figure how to monetize mobile, the dollars will find their way.”

New York University finance professsor Aswath Damodaran was more skeptical. After Facebook’s quarterly earnings report, he cut his original $27 a share “intrinsic value” estimate to below $24. “The earnings report was a

disappointment to markets, revealing less revenue growth than anticipated and an operating loss.”

But at $19, he still is not sure of the investment’s merit, given the potential overhang of sellers.

“Facebook remains a company with vast potential (their user base has not shrunk), no clear business plan (is it going to be advertising, product sales or something else) and poor corporate governance,” he wrote on his blog Musings on Markets. “Eventually, the ‘intrinsic’ truths will emerge, but it may be a long time coming.”

Another longtime bear on the stock, Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research, retains deep doubts even at $19 a share. “Facebook doesn’t have the technology to monetize social ac tions,” he said. “ With what we know right now, the price should be in the low teens.” —AFP

Epic patent trial over iPhone technology wraps up in US Apple, Samsung lock horns

MILWAUKEE: This photo combo shows, (from left) entertainer Justin Bieber, an iPhone, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. This year’s Beloit College Mindset List, a nonscientific compilation, is meant to remind teachers that college freshmen, born mostly in 1994, see the world in a much different way. —AP

Listen to radios? Watch TVs? Not for Class of ‘16 MILWAUKEE: Remember when suitcases had to be carried instead of rolled? Or when an airline ticket was a booklet of pages separated by carbon paper? Maybe you remember when Lou Gehrig held the Major League record for consecutive baseball games played.

This year’s college freshmen don’t.

They never lived in a world where Kurt Cobain was alive or an NFL team played its home games in Los Angeles. The Class of 2016 has no need for radios, watches television everywhere except on actual TV sets and is addicted to “electronic narcotics.”

These are among the 75 references on this year’s Beloit College Mindset List, a nonscientific compilation is meant to remind teachers that col-

MILWAUKEE: In this Oct. 22, 2010 file photo, student textbooks for rent sit on the shelves at the City College Bookstore in New York. —AP lege freshmen, born mostly in 1994, see the world in a much different way.

The students are also accustomed to seeing women in position of leadership. They were born at a time when Madeline Albright was serving as the first female US secretary of state, and women have held the position for most of their lives.

And the old Hollywood stereotype of ditzy blonde women has given way to one of “dumb and dumber males,” according to the list.

“In general, there was always the complaint that it was too slow for women to get to positions of responsibility,” said Ron Nief, one of the two Beloit College officials who compiles the list. “Now the question is, ‘What took so long?’”

The compilation, released Tuesday, has been assembled every year since 1998 by Nief and Tom McBride, officials at the private school in southeastern Wisconsin. Over the years it has evolved into a national phenomenon, a cultural touchstone that entertains even as it makes people wonder where the years have gone.

The lists have begun attracting attention from government agencies, athletic organizations and other groups that want to know how the younger generation thinks. Nief and McBride will be sharing their insights with employees of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., in October.

The new generation gets a lot of its news from Jon Stewar t ’s “ The Daily Show.” But if they miss an episode, they can always get instant news from YouTube (No. 5 on the list).

Here are some other items to make you feel old: These teens weren’t born when “Pulp Fiction” came out. Instead of asking who shot JR, they wanted to know who shot Montgomery Burns. And to them, “Twilight Zone” is about vampires, not Rod Serling.

But Thorin Blitz, 18, disagreed with that item. He said it’s 13-year-old girls who watch “Twilight.” “I’ve seen quite a few ‘Twilight Zone’ episodes,” said the incoming freshman from Charleston, Ill. “Most of us know what that is.”

Similar list items have drawn criticism in previous years. Some teens were insulted by the insinuation that they had no knowledge of events that happened before they were born, as if they had never studied history. So Nief and McBride have softened the tone, replacing “They don’t know about...” with “They never experienced...”

The theme of last year’s list was how wired the incoming class was.

This year’s class includes students who might be bitter at the previous generation, Nief said. While their elders went to college in good times and had jobs waiting for them, these students grew up watching their parents worry about unemployment and foreclosures.

That sentiment was captured in item No. 16, which notes unemployment has risen 2 percent in their lifetimes.

But they also live in an era of potential. Gene therapy has always been available, and they don’t waste time with outdated technologies like radios and point-and-shoot cameras.

They’re also less likely to identify with a specific religion. McBride noted that many church denominations have been losing members, while membership is up at nondenominational churches. “ When I teach Shakespeare or Milton there are a lot of biblical allusions, and I have to explain them all,” said McBride, an English professor. —AP

SAN FRANCISCO: After three weeks of listening to technology experts, patent professionals and company executives debate the complicated legal claims of Apple Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co., a jury of nine men and women are set to decide one of the biggest technology disputes in history. Apple is demanding Samsung pay it $2.5 billion and pull its most popular smartphones and computer tablets from the US market after accusing the South Korean company of “ripping off” its iPhone and iPad technology. Samsung, in turn, is demanding Apple pay it $399 million for allegedly using Samsung’s technology without proper payments in making the iconic iPhone and iPad. Apple’s damage demands, if awarded, would represent the largest patent verdict in the US An appeals court last year overturned the largest award to date, a $1.8 billion judgment against pharmaceutical company Abbott Laboratories.

Apple and Samsung are the top-selling smartphone makers and combined account for more than half of global smartphone sales.

Barring a last-minute settlement, jurors are scheduled to hear the dueling companies’ lawyers deliver closing arguments Tuesday in the San Jose federal courtroom of Judge Lucy Koh and they could begin deliberating late that afternoon, or more likely, Wednesday morning.

From the beginning, legal experts and Wall Street analysts have viewed Samsung as the underdog. To begin with, Apple’s headquar-

ters is a mere 10 miles from the courthouse and the jurors were picked from the heart of Silicon Valley where the company ’s late founder Steve Jobs is a revered technological pioneer.

And while the legal and technological issues may be complex, patent expert Alexander I Poltorak says the case will likely boil down to whether jurors believe Samsung’s products at issue look and feel almost identical to Apple’s iPhone and iPad. “Most jurors will probably say they look alike,” said Poltorak, who is chief executive of General Patent Corp. The judge appears to agree.

The judge in June called Samsung’s Galaxy 10.1 tablet computer “virtually indistinguishable” from Apple’s iPad and banned its sale in the United States until the resolution of the case. “There was some evidence that Samsung altered its design to make its product look more like Apple’s,” the judge found two months before the trial started.

To overcome that hurdle, Samsung’s battalion of lawyers has been arguing that many of Apple’s claims of innovation are either obvious ideas or were actually stolen ideas from Sony Corp. and others. Experts called that line of argument a high-risk strategy because of Apple’s reputation as an innovator.

“Saying Apple is a copyist is going be a hard sell,” said Ellen Brickman, a New Yorkbased jury and trial consultant. “Apple changed the world when it came to computers. Apple changed the world when it came to

phones. The fact that the iPhone and iPad are so popular shows people believe the products must be innovative. When you think of tech, you just don’t think of Samsung.”

Finally, Brickman and others argue that a foreign rival accused of stealing from a popular US company like Apple during the tough economic climate faces an uphill battle with a “hometown” jury.

General Patent’s Poltorak said a verdict in Apple’s favor would cost Samsung “a lot of money,” but wouldn’t dramatically disrupt the smartphone markets. He predicted that Samsung engineers would quickly redesign the company’s smartphone and computer tablets to compete with Apple if the Cupertino-based company won its lawsuit.

Apple lawyers argue there is almost no difference between Samsung’s products and Apple’s and presented Samsung’s internal documents they say show it copied Apple’s designs. Samsung lawyers countered that several other companies and inventors had previously developed much of the Apple technology at issue.

The US trial is just the latest skirmish between the two over product designs. The two companies have been fighting in courts in Australia, the United Kingdom and Germany.

The case is one of some 50 lawsuits among myriad telecommunications companies jockeying for position in the burgeoning $219 billion market for smartphones and computer tablets. —AP

Yap.TV tunes Internet Age viewing for the world SAN FRANCISCO: San Francisco startup Yap.TV yesterday went international with a hit service that helps people mine gems from junk in the growing mountain of shows, films and videos.

Versions of Yap.TV software released in the United States early last year for Apple iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch devices have been customized for 19 more countries and in four languages other than English.

Applications for smartphones or tablets powered

by Android software were in the works and expected to be ready in a matter of months.

Yap.TV lets show watchers engage in real time on Twitter, Facebook or the firm’s own social network, essentially tapping into friends or others with similar interests to find programs or films likely to please.

Yap.TV blended input from friends and show fans with programming data to enable users to not only have conversations around shows they like but to be directed to new options by viewers with similar interests.

“It starts with discovery, which is why a guide became such a big part of this,” Yap.TV co-founder Shawn Patrick said. “No one has ever created a worldwide social television guide,” he continued. “We are the new front-end to TV.” Yap.TV mated the television program guide with the Twitter stream, Facebook and other social networks to let people see what shows people are talking about and join in the conversation along with the viewing.

Yap.TV backers include Javelin Venture Partners and Blumberg Capital, and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is an advisor to the startup. Patrick, 44, spoke of being enthralled by the Kwai Chang Caine character in the US television series “Kung Fu” as a young boy and imagining as a child that he would grow up to become “Batman.”

“Media content is escapism; these stories are powerful talismans,” Patrick said. “We bring people together around the content they love.” “We want people to get shows they want without having to dumbly navigate through 900 channels,” he continued. “It is a nightmare menu with no way to k now what is garbage without insight-that is where social media comes in.”

More than 600,000 people have taken to using Yap.TV since it launched early last year and the website has gotten visits from every country except two in Africa. “Nearly everybody on this rock invests time consumer television content,” Patrick said. “This creates a better way.” The list of countries where free Yap.T V applications are available includes Brazil, Britain, Canada, France, Germany and Italy. —AFP

LONDON: A reader uses her Nook e-book.

Barnes & Noble takes Nook e-reader to Britain NEW YORK: Barnes & Noble yesterday announced it will release Nook tablets in Britain in the first move by the world’s largest book seller to sell the e-readers outside the United States.

Nook tablets and digital content will become available in October at a new online shop at nook.co.uk.

“We are proud to be able to offer our top-rated line of Nook reading devices and our award-winning digital bookstore to the discerning and highly educated consumers in the UK,” said Barnes & Noble chief executive William Lynch.

“We’re confident our award-winning technology, combined with our expansive content - including books, children’s books, magazines, apps, movies and

more - will bring UK customers the option they’ve been waiting for.”

Barnes & Noble said that it would start by focusing on e-reader offerings including digital books, magazines and newspapers. Pricing details were not disclosed. The company last week cut prices in the US to $179 and $199 for a Nook Tablet with 16 gigabytes or 32 gigabyte of memory, respectively. The price of a Nook Color was trimmed to $149.

The moves came as people snapped up recently-launched Google Nexus 7 tablets and rumors heightened that Apple next month will release a “mini” iPad with a seven-inch screen that would go head-to-head with Nook, Kindle and Nexus 7. —AFP

OnLive game streaming company says it will live on NEW YORK: OnLive, the video game streaming startup that was full of promise when it was unveiled three years ago, has reorganized its business and cut roughly half of its staff amid financial difficulties. But it says it will continue to operate under the same name and customers should not see a change in their service.

Analysts said OnLive was spending too much money and didn’t have

enough paying users.

Late last week, OnLive went through a complex bankruptcy alternative. The process, called “assignment for the benefit of creditors,” allows it to continue operating its service. But employee stock options and investments from outsiders became worthless. HTC Corp., the Taiwanese mobile phone maker, said it expects to book a loss of about $40 million for its investment in OnLive. —AP

H E A LT H & S C I E NC E

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

After Ramadan fast, Indonesians ‘eat with a vengeance’

JAKARTA: In this picture taken on August 14, 2012, Indonesian Muslims buy sweets and food for breaking fast at a roadside food stall.

Early heart death raises disease risk for family MILWAUKEE: Paul Ryan works out and watches his diet, but a new study shows that clean living can only go so far to help people like the vice presidential candidate overcome a strong family history of heart disease. The study of 4 million people - the largest ever on heart risks that run in families found that having a close relative die young of cardiovascular disease doubles a person’s odds of developing it by age 50. This risk was independent of other factors like high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes, and was even higher if more than one close family member had died young.

Ryan has said his father, grandfather and great-grandfather all died of heart attacks in their 50s, and the 42-yearold Wisconsin congressman has cited that as the reason for his devotion to exercise. “I’d sure like to see him in my clinic,” said Dr Patrick McBride, a preventive cardiology specialist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Heart attacks can result from genetic factors, an abnormal heart rhythm or a heart muscle problem - not just clogged arteries from poor health habits, said McBride, who had no role in this study but has published other work on the topic.

“What’s important for anybody with that kind of story is that they sit down with their physician and get a very thorough, detailed family history and try to identify what factors may be present in the family - not just on their own think they can fix their problem,” McBride said. “Exercise alone won’t obviate this risk.” It’s not known if Ryan has had such an evaluation, although McBride noted that as a congressman, Ryan has excellent insurance and access to care. A Mitt Romney campaign spokesman said Ryan was not available for an interview on his health, and did not answer questions about whether Ryan is taking medicines for heart risk factors such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure. In an email message, the spokesman, Brendan Buck, said Ryan has never smoked, “works out five times a week, eats healthy, gets regular checkups, avoids sweets and limits alcohol consumption.” The Wisconsin congressman joked “my veins run with cheese” when he was named Romney ’s running mate, but it is clear that he takes the health of his arteries seriously. NBC News correspondent Luke Russert recently described a January 2010 conversation when Ryan asked about Russert’s father, “Meet the Press” moderator Tim Russert, who died of heart disease at age 58 in 2008.

Ryan urged Luke Russert to increase the cardiovascular level of his workouts and commiserated about the bad aftertaste of fish oil supplements,

which some people take to try to ward off heart disease, the younger Russert wrote on an NBC blog. Ryan’s family history of heart disease “is dramatic,” and his efforts to modify whatever risks he can control is “very wise,” said the leader of the new study, Dr Mattis Ranthe, a scientist at the Danish Ministry of Health. The study involved 4 million people from Denmark, which has detailed medical registries on families dating to 1949 because of universal health care. Researchers zeroed in on people who had developed cardiovascular disease, such as clogged arteries, heart failure, a rhythm problem or trouble with a valve, by age 50.

The chance of this was roughly doubled if someone had a close relative - a parent, sibling or child - who died of cardiovascular disease before age 60.

Losing two or more close relatives to cardiovascular disease by age 60 more than tripled the odds that someone would develop it before age 50. Having a less-immediate family member, such as a grandparent, die young of cardiovascular disease also modestly increased a person’s risk of early-onset heart disease - by 19 percent. As the number of early deaths in a family rose and the age at which they died fell, a person’s risk of early heart disease rose up to 10-fold, researchers found.

The Danish Heart Foundation paid for the study, which was published Monday in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Dr Svati Shah, medical director of Duke University’s adult cardiovascular genetics clinic, noted that researchers saw a strong risk from family history even after taking into account traditional heart hazards such as high cholesterol and high blood pressure. “It’s very important to modify those,” she said, but “for certain individuals, there may be a genetic predisposition independent of those risk factors.”

One big weakness of the study: It had no information on smoking habits.

McBride said smoking a pack a day leads to about the same risk as having two family members die early of heart disease. Doctors and the American Heart Association offer these tips to anyone with a family history of heart disease: Learn all you can about the circumstances around a close family member’s death, such as the age when they developed cardiovascular disease and any risk factors such as smoking or obesity. Be aware of symptoms of heart disease or stroke, and see a doctor if you have any. Make sure other family members and your doctors are aware of your family history. Live right: Get active, control cholesterol, eat better, manage blood pressure, lose weight, reduce blood sugar and stop smoking.— AP

Nearly half of US doctors struggle with burnout NEW YORK: Job burnout strikes doctors more often than it does other employed people in the United States, according to a national survey that included more than 7,000 doctors.

More than four in 10 US physicians said they were emotionally exhausted or felt a high degree of cynicism, or “depersonalization,” toward their patients, said researchers whose findings appeared in the Archives of Internal Medicine. “The high rate of burnout has consequences not only for the individual physicians, but also for the patients they are caring for,” said Tait Shanafelt of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, who led the research.

Previous studies have shown that burned-out doctors are more prone to thinking about suicide and to making medical errors than their peers, Shanafelt added.

The survey included nearly 7,300 doctors who filled in questionnaires about their worklife balance in 2011. Thirty-eight percent had high emotional exhaustion scores, which is akin to losing enthusiasm for their job, according to Shanafelt. Thirty percent had high depersonalization scores, which translates into viewing patients more like objects than human beings, and 46 percent had at least one of the two symptoms. Burnout was most common among doctors at the “frontline of care,” such as those working in emergency rooms or in family medicine.

Dermatologists and preventive care special-

ists were less affected.

The researchers compared physicians with a random sample of 3,400 employed people who were not doctors. Based on a modified version of the original questionnaire, 38 percent of the doctors had burnout symptoms against 28 percent of the rest. “The study advances our knowledge by, for the first time, comparing to the general population and showing that physicians are at higher risk of burnout,” said James Wright, chief surgeon at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. “It’s very clear that when physicians are becoming burned-out it begins to affect their relationships with other healthcare workers and with patient families.”

The new results come with some uncertainty, because only about a quarter of the doctors who received an invitation to participate completed the survey. It’s not clear why burnout strikes so many doctors, Shanafelt said, noting that excessive workloads are only part of the equation. Other possible reasons include too much paperwork, loss of professional autonomy and a higher patient load to make up for declining reimbursement rates.

“There is a sense that the volume of patients that need to be seen is increasing and it’s taking away some of the time needed to build a relationship and give the best care possible,” Shanafelt said. “That starts to build cynicism, I think.”—Reuters

JAKARTA: As Indonesia shifts from a month of fasting during Ramadan to a week-long eating binge for the Eid Al-Fitr Muslim holiday, doctors are braced for an annual spike in complaints of rapid weight gain. Millions in the world’s most populous Muslim nation typically mark the end of the Ramadan fasting month visiting families and relatives, in reunions where traditional foods rich in sugars and fats take centre stage.

While there is no conclusive study linking festive bingeing with weight gain, doctors say many more patients knock on their doors after non-stop gorging on delicacies such as beef rendang (spic y stew) and chicken opor (coconut curry). Muslims around the world fast from dawn to dusk during Ramadan to fulfil one of the five pillars of their faith. The body’s metabolism slows down to conserve energy during fasting and continues to do so even after the period is over, doctors say. “People tend to eat with a vengeance during Eid,” said nutritionist Mar talena Purba, head of the Indonesia Dietetic Association.

“After a month depriving themselves of food, they consume all fatty dishes in unusually huge portions to the point that their blood sugar levels go haywire, their cholesterol level rises and they put on weight,” she told AFP,

adding that she usually has a 40 percent rise in clients after the holidays. Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s largest economy, with a population of 240 million, and with increased affluence it is facing a growing obesity problem, especially in urban areas such as Jakar ta.

According to health ministry figures, 21.7 percent of over-18s had a body mass index (BMI) greater than 27 in 2010, making them overweight at least.

Obesity among children below five years old stood at 14 percent in 2010, up from 12.2 percent in 2007, the statistics show. ‘The weight gain is worth it’-During the Eid Al-Fitr holiday, which began Sunday in Indonesia, Jakartans look forward to enjoying the hearty spread with their loved ones. Housewife Ali Hayar, 50, said she planned to buy five kilograms of beef and three kilograms of tripe to make rendang for her family and visitors, a shift from the usual tofu and tempe soya bean cakes. “We usually visit the homes of four to five relatives a day, where we eat rice dumplings, curries, cookies, sugary drinks as we chat and joke with one another,” she said.

“By the end of the week, my weight usually goes up two kilograms. My clothes feel tighter, especially around the waist. It’s hard to resist

temptation when the food is all laid out in front of you,” she said. Weight control specialist Grace Judio-Kahl said she sees around 1,200 patients seeking weight-loss treatments after the Eid festivities, some 200 more than in other months, she said. “If people overeat they are more likely to gain weight,” she said. “It ’s because the body expects to be starved again.”

In a country where herbal healing is part of everyday culture, some Indonesians are turning to traditional medicine, supposedly slimming teas and appetite-suppressant pills to keep their weight in check.

Anwar Suhadi, a vendor of acai berry supplements, said he has sold 30 packs of what he claimed to be “natural appetite-suppressant” before the Eid holidays, about 50 percent more than in previous months. “Sales always go up during Ramadan. Buyers tell me they tend to overeat and become fat during the Eid celebrations, so they hope the pills will give them a helping hand,” he added. But this Eid, many Indonesians are content to throw their waistlines to the wind. “Eid is not Eid without beef rendang and chicken opor,” said 40-year-old teacher Suparmin. “The weight gain is worth it.

I will just run and cycle more the following month to burn my fats away.”— AFP

JAKARTA: Indonesian Muslims buy sweets and food for breaking fast.—AFP photos

Psoriasis treatments tied to fewer heart attacks Patients who used ointments had more heart attacks NEW YORK: People with psoriasis who take powerful biologic drugs such as Amgen’s Enbrel and Abbott Laboratories’ Humira were less likely to have a heart attack than those who were only treated with topical ointments, US researchers said on Monday. Those medications work by blocking the activity of tumor necrosis factor or TNF, which causes inflammation, and taking the drugs may lower inflammation throughout the body, reducing heart risks as well as psoriasis symptoms, the team wrote in the Archives of Dermatology. TNF blockers are known as biologic drugs because they mimic the effects of substances made naturally by the immune system. Although psoriasis patients in the study who took TNF blockers had the fewest heart attacks, other common psoriasis treatments, such as cyclosporine, methotrexate and light therapy, were also linked with a lower risk of heart disease compared to those who do nothing or simply used ointments, the team found.

The itchy, painful skin plaques of psoriasis are thought to be caused by an inflammatory response initiated by the body’s immune system. “It does suggest that the chronic inflammatory state of psoriasis likely plays a role in heart disease,” said Dr Robert Kirsner, head of dermatology at the University of Miami Hospital in

Florida, who was not involved in the research.

The National Institutes of Health estimate that more than three percent of US adults have psoriasis. Previous studies have shown that patients with psoriasis have a higher risk of heart attack or stroke. For the new study, Dr Jashin Wu of Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center and colleagues analyzed data on the treatment and diagnoses of nearly 9,000 psoriasis patients in their health system between 2004 and 2010.

That included about 1,700 patients treated with a TNF blocker for at least a couple of months, 2,100 who were prescribed other psoriasis drugs or had light therapy and another 5,100 who only got topical treatments like ointments.

Over an average of four years, people who got either group of treatments were about half as likely to have a heart attack as the ointmentonly group. Overall, three out of 1,000 patients on a TNF blocker had a heart attack each year of the study, compared to four out of 1,000 on other drugs or light therapy and close to seven out of 1,000 who were treated with topical ointments. Wu and his colleagues said aggressive treatment of inflammation likely leads to a reduction in inflammation-related heart risks, and thus fewer patients suffering heart attacks.

“We can’t say definitely (psoriasis drugs) will

cause a reduction in heart attacks, but certainly it’s a clue,” Wu said, who has received research grants from companies that make TNF blockers, although those companies were not involved in the current study. The team said the study was limited in that it lacked information on the severity of the patients’ psoriasis and on whether the patients were taking other heartrelated medications. One consideration that may hold some patients back from certain psoriasis treatments is the price: brand-name TNF inhibitors can cost $15,000 per year or more, while drugs like methotrexate run closer to $1,000 per year. TNF inhibitors can have side effects like an increased risk of infection, and other psoriasis drugs may affect the liver or kidneys. Kirsner said the new findings suggest that getting treatment for psoriasis in general is more impor tant than what specific drugs patients are prescribed.

Still, “there is a cost of not treating psoriasis,” Kirsner said. “That cost is likely a higher risk of vascular disease.” Wu said people with psoriasis should discuss their heart risk with their primary care doctor. “If they’re kind of wavering whether they want systemic treatment versus topical treatment, maybe this will help tip them toward ... more intensive treatment,” he said.— Reuters

Rape trauma as barrier to pregnancy has no ‘basis’ Raped victims may be more likely to get pregnant WASHINGTON: The long-discredited notion that rape victims cannot become pregnant - a claim that pushed Republicans to repudiate one of their own US Senate candidates on Monday - dates back centuries to when human reproduction was hardly understood. But the medieval theory has surfaced in 21st century political discourse as a result of the US abortion wars.

Writers from the Middle Ages and modern politicians alike have based their arguments on the idea that a trauma of the magnitude of rape can shut down the body’s reproductive system.

The combination of misunderstanding and cherry-picked science even led some to conclude that a woman who says she was raped yet becomes pregnant must have been lying about the attack.

Modern proponents of the claim repeat it despite empirical research showing that rape victims are at least as likely to become pregnant as women who have consensual sex, and possibly more likely. Representative Todd Akin, the Republican candidate for the US Senate in Missouri, spurred new outrage on the subject when he told a St Louis television station he does not support abortion for rape victims because “if it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” Akin, a member of the House science committee, apologized on Monday for his statement, calling it “ill conceived” and “wrong.”

Senior Republicans scrambled to distance themselves from the comments a week before the party holds its presidential nominating convention in Florida.

The claim that rape is unlikely to lead to a pregnancy has “no biological plausibility,” said Dr Barbara Levy, vice president for health policy at the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The claim is “not grounded in any physiology or scientifically valid data.” Akin is not alone in his view about rape and pregnancy, however. It dates at least to medieval times, when a

13th century English legal tome called Fleta asserted that pregnancy was prima facie evidence against a charge of rape, “for without a woman’s consent she could not conceive.”

A 19th century book, “Elements of Medical Jurisprudence” by Samuel Farr, said that conception is unlikely “without an excitation of lust, or the enjoyment of pleasure in the venereal act.”

That reflected the common notion that pregnancy requires a woman, like a man, to reach orgasm during intercourse. Both early references were noted by The Guardian newspaper in a blog post on Monday. In fact, “human... female orgasm is not necessary for conception,” explained a 1995 paper in the journal Animal Behavior, one of many studies reaching the same conclusion.

THE STRESS FACTOR In more modern times, the rape-pregnancy claim seems to have been linked to the fact that stress can decrease fertility. “Mental stress can temporarily alter the functioning of your hypothalamus - an area of your brain that controls the hormones that regulate your menstrual cycle,” explains the Mayo Clinic in a publication about infertility. “Ovulation and menstruation may stop as a result.” But the stress that reduces fertility is the chronic kind that occurs over months or years, not the acute trauma of a rape.

“A woman who is raped at a vulnerable time in her menstrual cycle is as likely to conceive and retain a pregnancy as a woman who was voluntarily attempting pregnancy,” said ACOG’s Levy.

“There’s absolutely no validity to any sort of theory that the trauma related to rape - or to any thing else for that matter - would shut down ovulation that has already begun.” Physicians and researchers had long thought that conception occurs when sperm encounter an already-waiting egg. Recent research has shown that in fact sperm do the waiting, remaining in the woman’s uterus

or fallopian tubes until an egg is released from the ovaries.

Although the trauma of rape might impair a woman’s fertility months or years later, said Levy, “you’re not going to interrupt something (like the release of an egg) that ’s already star ted.”

Numerous studies support that. In a 1996 study in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, researchers surveyed 4,008 American women for three years. Among women in their prime reproductive years, 12 to 45, 5 percent of rapes resulted in pregnancy, mostly among adolescents. Onethird “did not discover they were pregnant until they had already entered the second trimester,” the researchers found, concluding that “raperelated pregnancy occurs with significant frequency.” It may occur with greater frequency than after consensual sex. Indeed, evolutionary psychologists - who seek to explain human behavior by imagining what actions might have helped our ancient ancestors survive and reproduce - say the reason rape has been so endemic throughout history is precisely because it often leads to pregnancy: men who commit that crime, goes the argument, were more likely to have progeny, passing along their “rape genes” to the next generation. While the explanation for rape has been discredited, the fact that rape often leads to pregnancy has not been. In a 2003 study in the journal Human Nature, researchers found that 6.4 percent of rapes in the hundreds of women they surveyed caused pregnancy; that compares to a rate roughly half that with consensual intercourse. In Mexico, rape crisis centers have reported that some 15 percent of rapes cause pregnancy. The rate may be high because rape victims are less likely to be using contraception at the time of the crime than are women in a relationship, who can also choose to forego sex during fertile periods in their reproductive cycle if they do not want to conceive.— Reuters

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

H E A LT H & S C I E NC E

Korean coffee craze may be hit by curbs SEOUL: These days, a stroll on the streets of southern Seoul is just as likely to bring the fragrance of fresh-brewed coffee as that of kimchi or more traditional Korean foods. Nearly one in every two buildings boasts a coffee shop, from Starbucks to local brands such as Caffe Bene and Angel-in-us Coffee.

Despite the existence of shops a mere 70 meters apart, it can still be hard to find a seat on some evenings even though a cup can cost more than a meal.

In short, South Korea, home to the world’s third largest number of Starbucks stores after the United States and Japan, has become a major battleground for coffee chains - so much so that government restrictions may lie ahead. “There are few places where I can meet my friends comfortably.

So I go to coffee shops,” said Ko Sunbee, a high school teacher in Seoul.

Though coffee was once a luxury drink, the market in South Korea has grown at a dizzying rate. The number of coffee shops jumped nearly ten-fold to 12,381 during the five years from 2006 to 2011.

South Korean adults consumed an average 338 cups of coffee last year, and coffee imports jumped 44 percent to 130,000 tons over the past four years, said the Korea Customs service. The value of the market overall has climbed 17 times to 2.48 trillion Korean won ($2.19 billion) during the same time, according to a think tank affiliated with KB Financial Group. The spark was lit by Starbucks, which entered the market in 1999, analysts said. “Without Starbucks, there would be no coffee boom here,” said Lee Taek-gwang, a culture commentator and professor at Kyung-hee University in Seoul. “Starbucks is the symbol of US culture and gained widespread popularity among young Koreans who admire it.” The number of Starbucks stores more than doubled to 367 over the past five years. The compa-

ny said last year that it plans to raise that number to 700 by 2016.

Espressos, lattes in demand The market for espressos and lattes turned out to be big enough to help boost the fortunes of other coffee chains and individual shops. “I am very grateful to Starbucks,” said Yeo Seon-koo, who runs Yeondoo, a coffee shop known to aficionados for the quality of its brew and its beans. “Koreans were previously used to spending 300 won for a cup of coffee, but Starbucks has made them willing to pay nearly 5,000 won, whether they like it or not.”

Asia’s fourth-biggest economy, in fact, now has so many coffee shops that regulators are considering whether or not to impose a “distance” between new franchises to protect them from cut-throat competition. “A franchise operator allows one store to open very close to another under the same brand, which reduces sales at the existing store significantly. This puts a lot of damage on the existing store,” said an official at the antitrust watchdog Fair Trade Commission. The FTC will start talks with coffee franchise operators on whether to impose distance and other rules, with the aim of announcing guidelines by September. It took a similar step in April with bakeries, mandating that there can be no more than one franchise shop every 500 meters when opening a new store. The move came amid criticism of bakeries linked to large industrial conglomerates, which critics said were hurting smaller-scale outlets. But whatever the result, the coffee fever is unlikely to cool any time soon. Yeo, of Yeondoo, said that while the metropolitan Seoul market for coffee franchises is currently saturated, coffee consumption remains low compared to the national income level, meaning further growth is still possible.

“The market is still at an early mature stage here,” he said. — Reuters

515 rhinos could perish this year, TRAFFIC warns JOHANNESBURG: Global wildlife monitoring net work TRAFFIC warned yesterday that 515 rhinos could perish by the end of the year if no action is taken to stem the illicit trade in rhino horns. In its latest report, the agency said that with a total of 281 animals killed as of July, there was a “predicted loss of 515 by year end if current poaching rates continue”.

South Africa, home to about three quarters of Africa’s 20,000 or so white rhinos and 4,800 critically endangered black rhinos, has in recent years witnessed an unprecedented spike in sophisticated, violent and organized rhino-related criminal activities. Last year 448 rhinos were killed compared to 13 animals in 2007.

South Africa has lately scaled up its fight against illegal poaching and trade in rhinos horns, arresting 176 suspects so far this year, more than the 165 arrested in the 12 months of 2010. “I t seems this year that efforts are beginning to pay off. We have seen a great increase in arrests.

We are also beginning to see some significant sentencing,” said Jo Shaw, co-author of the report.

But she warned that even with the successful stories of high-value arrests the criminal syndicates appeared generally to be a step ahead-better equipped, well funded. “As anti-poaching security levels are stepped up, the poaching gangs become more aggressive and increasingly sophisticated,” she said.

The report named Vietnam as the worst offender fuelling the trade in the black market for rhino horns. “The bottom line is that we are not close to ending this crisis yet, we are probably going to get record numbers this year,” warned

the repor t ’s co -author Tom Milliken, who is also an expert on rhinos at TRAFFIC. The grounded horn, which is believed by some to cure cancers, has taken on a new use and is now being pushed as a recreational drug mixed with drinks at elite “rhino wine associations” parties in the belief that it cures hangover. The report says the only way to end illegal rhino hunting is to cut off the demand, by pushing Vietnam to boldly show commitment and decisively enforce laws that prohibit trade in the horns.

It was revealed at the launch of the report that South Africa and Vietnam are set to sign a land-

mark deal to help stem rhino poaching and the illicit trade in rhino horns. “I think the heat is clearly on Vietnam. I think we are going to see some changes. The good news today is that the MOU with South Africa is about to be signed,” said Milliken. The network did not give details of the memorandum of understanding, but it is believed to centre on law enforcement. Vietnam’s deputy foreign affairs minister Le Loung M inh was last week in S outh Africa where he held talks over illegal wildlife hunting, trade and trafficking with his counterpart Ebrahim Ebrahim.

There were some “serious

shortcomings” and not so great coordination in South Africa’s response to rhino crime, “but the will to do right is with us”, said Mavuso Msimang, an expert on rhinos in South Africa’s department of environmental affairs.

Rhino crimes are receiving heavier sentences and there is now a dedicated prosecutor to handle such crimes. The report, titled The S outh African-Vietnam R hino Trade Nexus, also pointed at a worr ying development where game ranch operators and custodians of rhinos have been roped into the crime syndicates to become “rhino horn dealers of some description”.— AFP

GERMANY: A rhinoceros has a cloverleaf in its mouth at the “Zoologischer Garten” zoo in Berlin.—AFP

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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

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WHAT’S ON

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

Embassy Information EMBASSY OF AUSTRALIA The Australian Embassy Kuwait does not have a visa or immigration department. All processing of visas and immigration matters in conducted by The Australian ConsulateGeneral in Dubai. Email: info.ausdxb@vfshelpline.com (VFS) immigration.dubai@dfat.gov.au (Visa Office); Tel: +971 4 355 1958 (VFS) - +971 4 508 7200 (Visa Office); Fax: +971 4 355 0708 (Visa Office). In Kuwait applications can be lodged at the Australian Visa Application Centre 4B 1st Floor, AlBanwan Building Al-Qibla Area, Ali Al-Salem Street, opposite the Central Bank of Kuwait, Kuwait City, Kuwait. Working hours and days: 09:30 - 17:30; Sunday - Thursday. Or visit their website www.vfs-au-gcc-com for more information. Kuwait citizens can apply for tourist visas online at www.immi.gov.au/e visa/e676.htm ■■■■■■■

EMBASSY OF ARGENTINE

The Embassy of Argentina requests all Argentinean citizens in Kuwait to proceed to our official email ekuwa@mrecic.gov.ar in order to register or update contact information.

The embassy encourages all citizens to do so, including the ones who have already registered in person at the embassy. The registration process helps the Argentinean Government to contact and assist Argentineans living abroad in case of any emergency.

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EMBASSY OF BRITAIN Consular section at the British Embassy will be starting an online appointment booking system for our consular customers from Sunday, 01 July 2012. All information including how to make an appointment is now available on the embassy website. In addition, there is also a “Consular Appointment System” option under Quick links on the right hand side on the homepage, which should take you to the “Consular online booking appointment system” main page.

Please be aware that from 01 July 2012, we will no longer accept walk-in customers for legalisation, notarial services and certificates (birth, death and marriages). If you have problems accessing the system or need to make an appointment for non-notarial consular issues or have a consular emergency, please call 2259 4355/7/8 or email us on consularenquirieskuwait@fco.gov.uk. If you require consular assistance out of office hours (working hours: 0730-l430 hrs), please contact the Embassy on 2259 4320.

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EMBASSY OF CANADA The Embassy of Canada is located at Villa 24, Al-Mutawakel St., Block 4 in Da’aiyah. Please visit our website at www.Kuwait.gc.ca. The Embassy of Canada is open from 07:30 to 15:30 Sunday through Thursday. The reception is closed from 12:30 to 01:00 pm for lunch break.

Consular Services for Canadian Citizens are provided from 09:00 until 12:00 on Sunday through Wednesday. The Canadian Embassy will be closed on Sunday and Monday 19 and 20 August 2012 on the occasion of Aid Al Fitr. The Embassy will resume its duties on Tuesday 21 August 2012. The Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi provides visa and immigration ser vices to residents of Kuwait.

Individuals who are interested in visiting, working or immigrating to Canada are invited to visit the website of the Canadian Embassy to the UAE at www.UAE.gc.ca.

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KUWAIT: Al-Liwan Mall in Al-Agailah celebrated Eid Al-Fitr with a ceremony featuring various activities enjoyed by visitors of all ages.

—Photos by Fouad Al-Shaikh

EMBASSY OF KENYA The Embassy of the Republic of Kenya wishes to inform Kenyan residents throughout Kuwait and the general public that with effect from June 1, 2012 the Embassy has moved from its current location to a new location in Surra Block 1, Street 8, Villa 303.

Please note that the new telephone and fax numbers will be communicated as soon as possible. For enquiries you can contact Consular Section on mobile 90935162 or 97527306.

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EMBASSY OF MEXICO The Embassy of Mexico is pleased to inform that it is located in CLIFFS Complex, Villa 6, Salmiya, block 9, Baghdad street, Jadda Lane 7. The working hours for consular issues are from 9:00 to 12:00 Sunday through Thursday. The reception is closed from 14:00 to 15:00 hours for lunch break. The Embassy of Mexico kindly requests all Mexicans citizens in Kuwait to proceed to the e-mail: embkuwait@sre.gob.mx in order to register or update contact information. Other consultations or/and appointments could be done by telephone or fax: (+965) 2573 1952 ■■■■■■■

EMBASSY OF MYANMAR Embassy of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar would like to inform the general public that the Embassy has moved its office to new location at Villa 35, Road 203, Block 2, AlSalaam Area in South Surra. The Embassy wishes to advice Myanmar citizens and travellers to Myanmar to contact Myanmar Embassy at its new location. Tel. 25240736, 25240290, Fax: 25240749, e-mail:myankuwait11@gmai1.com ■■■■■■■

EMBASSY OF NIGERIA The Nigerian embassy has its new office in Mishref. Block 3, Street 7, House 4. For enquires please call 25379541. Fax- 25387719.

Email- nigeriakuwait@yahoo.com or nigeriankuwait@yahoo.co.uk ■■■■■■■

EMBASSY OF UKRAINE We’d like to inform you that in response to the increasing number of our citizens who work in the state and the need for 24-hour operational telephone in case of emergency the Embassy of Ukraine in the State of Kuwait has opened “hotline telephone number” - (+ 965) 972-79-206.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

TV PROGRAMS

00:45 I’m Alive 01:40 Untamed & Uncut 02:35 Animal Airport 03:00 Animal Airport 03:30 Wildlife SOS 04:25 Wildest Africa 05:20 Monkey Life 05:45 Snake Crusader With Bruce George 06:10 Wild Animal Orphans 06:35 Wild Animal Orphans 07:00 Karina: Wild On Safari 07:25 Corwin’s Quest 08:15 Dick ‘n’ Dom Go Wild 08:40 Breed All About It 09:10 Growing Up...

10:05 Wildest Africa 11:00 Wildlife SOS 11:25 Orangutan Island 11:55 Animal Cops Houston 12:50 RSPCA: Have You Got What It Takes?

13:15 RSPCA: Have You Got What It Takes?

13:45 Animal Precinct 14:40 Wildest Africa 15:30 Karina: Wild On Safari 16:00 Dick ‘n’ Dom Go Wild 16:30 The Really Wild Show 16:55 The Really Wild Show 17:25 Your Very First Puppy 18:20 Dogs 101 19:15 Wildlife SOS 19:40 Orangutan Island 20:10 Monkey Life 20:35 Snake Crusader With Bruce George 21:05 Wildest Africa 22:00 Wildest Latin America 22:55 Galapagos 23:50 Animal Cops Houston

00:20 Come Dine With Me 01:10 Holmes On Homes 01:55 Holmes On Homes 02:45 Saturday Kitchen 03:10 Saturday Kitchen 03:35 Saturday Kitchen 04:05 MasterChef 04:30 Living In The Sun 05:15 Living In The Sun 06:00 MasterChef 06:30 Saturday Kitchen 07:00 Saturday Kitchen 07:25 MasterChef Australia 08:10 MasterChef Australia 08:35 10 Years Younger 09:25 Bargain Hunt 10:10 Antiques Roadshow 11:05 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 12:25 10 Years Younger 13:15 What Not To Wear 14:05 What Not To Wear 14:55 Antiques Roadshow 15:50 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 17:10 Come Dine With Me 18:00 Raymond Blanc’s Kitchen Secrets 18:25 The Hairy Bikers Ride Again 18:50 Rick Stein’s French Odyssey 19:15 Come Dine With Me 20:05 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 21:25 Antiques Roadshow 22:15 Bargain Hunt 23:00 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 23:40 Holmes On Homes

00:00 00:30 01:00 01:30 01:45 02:00 02:30 02:45 03:00 03:30

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

03:45 Sport Today 04:00 BBC World News 04:30 Asia Business Report 04:45 Sport Today 05:00 BBC World News 05:30 Asia Business Report 05:45 Sport Today 06:00 BBC World News 06:30 Hardtalk 07:00 BBC World News 07:30 World Business Report 07:45 BBC World News 08:00 BBC World News 08:30 World Business Report 08:45 BBC World News 09:00 BBC World News 09:30 World Business Report 09:45 BBC World News 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 World Business Report 10:45 BBC World News 11:00 BBC World News 11:30 Hardtalk 12:00 BBC World News 12:30 World Business Report 12:45 BBC World News 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 With Mishal Husain 16:30 Impact With Mishal Husain 17:00 Impact With Mishal Husain 17:30 World Business Report 17:45 Sport Today 18:00 BBC World News 18:30 Hardtalk 19:00 The Hub With Nik Gowing 19:30 The Hub With Nik Gowing 20:00 The Hub With Nik Gowing 20:30 BBC Focus On Africa 21:00 World News Today With Zeinab Badawi 21:30 World News Today With Zeinab Badawi 22:00 World News Today With Zeinab Badawi 22:30 World Business Report 22:45 Sport Today 23:00 Business Edition With Tanya Beckett 23:30 Hardtalk

00:10 00:35 01:00 01:25 01:50 02:15 02:40 03:00 03:25 03:50 04:15 04:40 05:00 05:25 05:50 06:00 06:15 06:30 06:55 07:20 07:45 08:00 08:25 08:50 09:15 09:40 10:05 10:30 Doo 10:55 11:15 11:40 12:00 12:15 12:40 12:55 13:20 13:35 14:00 14:50 15:15 Doo

Puppy In My Pocket Tom & Jerry Kids Scooby Doo Where Are You! The Flintstones Pink Panther And Pals Looney Tunes Popeye Classics Dexter’s Laboratory Tom & Jerry Looney Tunes The Scooby Doo Show Johnny Bravo The Flintstones The Jetsons Wacky Races The Garfield Show Tom & Jerry Kids Bananas In Pyjamas Baby Looney Tunes Gerald McBoing Boing Ha Ha Hairies A Pup Named Scooby-Doo The Garfield Show Johnny Bravo Dexter’s Laboratory Pink Panther And Pals The Scooby Doo Show Scooby-Doo And ScrappyDastardly And Muttley The Flintstones Wacky Races Jelly Jamm Baby Looney Tunes Ha Ha Hairies Gerald McBoing Boing Bananas In Pyjamas Puppy In My Pocket Looney Tunes Scooby Doo Where Are You! Scooby-Doo And Scrappy-

15:40 16:00 16:15 16:40 17:05 17:30 17:55 18:10 18:35 19:00 19:15 19:40 19:55 20:20 20:35 21:00 21:25 21:50 22:15 22:40 23:05 23:20 23:45

Dastardly And Muttley Tom & Jerry Tom & Jerry Pink Panther And Pals Pink Panther And Pals The Garfield Show The Garfield Show Johnny Bravo Dexter’s Laboratory Jelly Jamm Baby Looney Tunes Ha Ha Hairies Gerald McBoing Boing Bananas In Pyjamas Dexter’s Laboratory Johnny Bravo Pink Panther And Pals Tom & Jerry The Garfield Show A Pup Named Scooby-Doo Popeye The Jetsons Duck Dodgers

00:30 Bakugan: New Vestroia 00:55 Bakugan: New Vestroia 01:20 Powerpuff Girls 02:10 Courage The Cowardly Dog 03:00 The Amazing World Of Gumball 03:25 Ben 10 03:50 Adventure Time 04:15 Powerpuff Girls 04:40 Generator Rex 05:05 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 05:30 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 05:55 Angelo Rules 06:00 The Marvelous Misadventures...

06:25 Casper’s Scare School 07:00 The Amazing World Of Gumball 07:15 Adventure Time 07:40 Johnny Test 08:05 Grim Adventures Of...

08:55 Courage The Cowardly Dog 09:45 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 10:10 Redakai: Conquer The Kairu 10:35 Powerpuff Girls 11:25 Chowder 12:15 Ed, Edd n Eddy 13:05 Ben 10 13:30 Sym-Bionic Titan 13:55 Foster’s Home For...

14:20 Foster’s Home For...

14:45 Angelo Rules 15:35 Powerpuff Girls 16:25 The Amazing World Of Gumball 16:40 Johnny Test 17:00 Level Up 17:30 Regular Show 17:55 Green Lantern: The Animated Series 18:20 Batman: The Brave And The Bold 18:45 Young Justice 19:10 Bakugan: Mechtanium Surge 19:35 Adventure Time 20:00 Ben 10 20:25 Ben 10 20:50 Ben 10 21:15 Grim Adventures Of...

22:00 Codename: Kids Next Door 22:50 Ben 10 23:15 Ben 10 23:40 Chowder

00:00 00:30 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 07:30 08:00 09:00 10:00 10:30 11:00 12:00 12:30

Amanpour World Sport Piers Morgan Tonight World Report Anderson Cooper 360 Piers Morgan Tonight Quest Means Business The Situation Room World Sport News Special World Report World Report World Sport Inside Africa World Business Today Amanpour Leading Women

12:45 Future Cities 13:00 World One 14:00 Piers Morgan Tonight 15:00 News Stream 16:00 World Business Today 17:00 International Desk 18:00 Global Exchange 19:00 World Sport 19:30 Leading Women 19:45 Future Cities 20:00 International Desk 21:00 Quest Means Business 22:00 Amanpour 22:30 CNN Newscenter 23:00 Connect The World With Becky Anderson

00:15 The World’s Strangest UFO Stories 01:10 I Escaped: Real Prison Breaks 01:35 Daredevils 02:30 Finding Bigfoot 03:25 Moonshiners 04:20 The World’s Strangest UFO Stories 05:15 How Do They Do It? 05:40 How It’s Made 06:05 American Loggers 07:00 American Chopper 07:50 Mythbusters 08:45 Ultimate Survival 09:40 Border Security 10:05 Dirty Money 10:30 How Do They Do It? 10:55 How It’s Made 11:25 Stan Lee’s Superhumans 12:20 Mythbusters 13:15 Mythbusters 14:10 Border Security 14:35 Dirty Money 15:05 Ultimate Survival 16:00 American Chopper 16:55 Fifth Gear 17:20 American Loggers 18:15 Mythbusters 19:10 How Do They Do It? 19:40 How It’s Made 20:05 Border Security 20:35 Dirty Money 21:00 The Gadget Show 21:30 Stan Lee’s Superhumans 22:25 Mythbusters 23:20 Mythbusters

00:35 Kings Of Construction 01:25 Perfect Disaster 02:15 Stuck With Hackett 02:40 Stuck With Hackett 03:05 The Gadget Show 03:35 Scrapheap Challenge 04:25 Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman 05:15 Kings Of Construction 06:05 Perfect Disaster 07:00 Catch It Keep It 07:50 Head Rush 07:53 Weird Connections 08:20 Sci-Fi Science 08:50 Sport Science 09:40 Scrapheap Challenge 10:30 Prophets Of Science Fiction 11:20 Prophets Of Science Fiction 12:10 Prophets Of Science Fiction 13:00 Prophets Of Science Fiction 13:50 Prophets Of Science Fiction 14:45 Prophets Of Science Fiction 15:35 The Gadget Show 16:00 Head Rush 16:03 Weird Connections 16:30 Sci-Fi Science 17:00 What’s That About?

17:50 Sport Science 18:40 Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman 19:30 Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman 20:20 Meteorite Men 21:10 The Gadget Show 21:35 The Gadget Show 22:00 Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman 22:50 Meteorite Men 23:40 Sport Science

00:55 Style Star 01:25 Beauty Queens Gone Wrong 03:15 Behind The Scenes 03:40 Extreme Close-Up 04:10 Sexiest 05:05 THS 06:00 THS 07:50 Behind The Scenes 08:20 E! News 09:15 Giuliana & Bill 10:15 THS 12:05 E! News 13:05 Khloe And Lamar 13:35 Khloe And Lamar 14:05 Kourtney & Kim Take New York 14:30 Kourtney & Kim Take New York 15:00 Style Star 15:30 THS 16:25 Behind The Scenes 16:55 Mrs. Eastwood And Company 17:25 Mrs. Eastwood And Company 17:55 E! News 18:55 E!es 19:55 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 20:55 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 21:55 Mrs. Eastwood And Company 22:25 E! News 23:25 Chelsea Lately 23:55 Keeping Up With The Kardashians

LEGENDARY ON OSN ACTION HD

00:30 01:20 02:05 02:55 03:45 04:30 05:20 06:10 07:00 07:50 08:40 09:30 09:55 10:20 11:10 12:00 12:25 12:50 13:40 14:30 14:55 15:20

The Haunted Crime Scene Psychics Fatal Encounters Killer Kids Extreme Forensics The Haunted Crime Scene Psychics Disappeared Forensic Detectives Undercover Mystery ER Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry?

On The Case With Paula Zahn Disappeared Street Patrol Street Patrol Undercover Mystery ER Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry?

On The Case With Paula Zahn

16:10 17:00 17:50 18:40 19:05 19:55 20:20 21:10 22:00 22:50 23:40

Disappeared Forensic Detectives Undercover Real Emergency Calls Mystery ER Who On Earth Did I Marry?

On The Case With Paula Zahn Disappeared Australian Families Of Crime American Greed Dr G: Medical Examiner

00:00 Nomads 01:00 Travel Madness 01:30 Travel Madness 02:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 02:30 One Man & His Campervan 03:00 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 1 03:30 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 1 04:00 Extreme Tourist Afghanistan 05:00 Deadliest Journeys 2 05:30 The Best Job In The World 06:00 Nomads 07:00 Travel Madness 07:30 Travel Madness 08:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 08:30 One Man & His Campervan 09:00 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 1 09:30 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 1 10:00 Extreme Tourist Afghanistan 11:00 Deadliest Journeys 2 11:30 The Best Job In The World 12:00 Nomads 13:00 Travel Madness 13:30 Travel Madness 14:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 14:30 One Man & His Campervan 15:00 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 1 15:30 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 1 16:00 Extreme Tourist Afghanistan 17:00 Deadliest Journeys 2 17:30 The Best Job In The World 18:00 Nomads 19:00 Danger Beach 19:30 Danger Beach 20:00 Kimchi Chronicles 20:30 Kimchi Chronicles 21:00 One Man & His Campervan 21:30 One Man & His Campervan 22:00 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 23:00 Bondi Rescue 23:30 Bondi Rescue

00:00 Nomads 01:00 Travel Madness 01:30 Travel Madness 02:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 02:30 One Man & His Campervan 03:00 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 1 03:30 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 1 04:00 Extreme Tourist Afghanistan 05:00 Deadliest Journeys 2 05:30 The Best Job In The World 06:00 Nomads 07:00 Travel Madness 07:30 Travel Madness 08:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 08:30 One Man & His Campervan 09:00 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 1 09:30 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 1 10:00 Extreme Tourist Afghanistan 11:00 Deadliest Journeys 2 11:30 The Best Job In The World 12:00 Nomads 13:00 Travel Madness 13:30 Travel Madness 14:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 14:30 One Man & His Campervan 15:00 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 1 15:30 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 1 16:00 Extreme Tourist Afghanistan 17:00 Deadliest Journeys 2 17:30 The Best Job In The World 18:00 Nomads 19:00 Danger Beach 19:30 Danger Beach 20:00 Kimchi Chronicles 20:30 Kimchi Chronicles 21:00 One Man & His Campervan 21:30 One Man & His Campervan 22:00 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 23:00 Bondi Rescue 23:30 Bondi Rescue

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

World’s Toughest Fixes The Known Universe Mega Factories Megacities Blowdown Lions Behaving Badly Adventure Wanted Naked Science World’s Toughest Fixes The Known Universe Mega Factories World’s Toughest Fixes Blowdown Insect Wars Adventure Wanted Naked Science World’s Toughest Fixes The Known Universe Mega Factories Megacities Monster Moves Prehistoric Predators Untamed Americas Naked Science

00:00 01:00 01:55 02:50 03:45 04:40 05:35 06:30 07:25 08:20 09:15 10:10 Back 11:05 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 Code 17:00

Hunter Hunted Monster Fish Kingdom Of The Forest Caught In The Act Amazonia’s Giant Jaws Great Migrations Built For The Kill Kingdom Of The Forest Caught In The Act Amazonia’s Giant Jaws World’s Weirdest American Buffalo: Battling The Invaders Monster Fish Underwater Oasis Caught In The Act Crocodile King Humpbacks: Cracking The Hunt for the Giant Squid

DUE DATE ON OSN CINEMA 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00 Back

The Invaders Kingdom Of The Forest Caught In The Act Amazonia’s Giant Jaws World’s Weirdest American Buffalo: Battling

00:00 Child’s Play 2-18 02:00 Dangerous Flowers-PG15 04:00 Ronin-18 06:00 Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within-PG 07:45 Legendary-PG15 09:45 Spartacus-PG15 13:00 Hackers-PG15 14:45 Legendary-PG15 16:45 Last Breath-PG15 18:15 Hackers-PG15 20:00 Sanctum-18 22:00 Reykjavik: Whale Watching Massacre-18

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

West Is West-PG15 Super 8-PG15 Glorious 39-PG15 16 To Life-PG15 West Is West-PG15 Super 8-PG15 Yogi Bear-FAM The Borrowers-PG Africa United-PG15 Due Date-PG15 The Last Exorcism-PG15 Shrink-18

00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 Friends 02:00 Friends 02:30 Seinfeld 03:00 Bent 03:30 Perfect Couples 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 Weird Science 06:00 Friends 06:30 Samantha Who? 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:30 Bent 09:00 Weird Science 09:30 The Cleveland Show 10:00 The Office 10:30 Samantha Who? 11:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:00 Friends 12:30 Friends 13:00 Weird Science 13:30 Samantha Who? 14:00 Perfect Couples 14:30 The Office 15:00 The Cleveland Show 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 16:30 Friends 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 Bent 18:30 Community 19:00 Parks And Recreation 19:30 Parks And Recreation 20:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:30 Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne 23:00 Seinfeld 23:30 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 07:00 08:00 08:30 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 16:00

Royal Pains House Perception White Collar Desperate Housewives Good Morning America The Practice Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show Desperate Housewives The View Royal Pains White Collar Live Good Morning America The Practice

17:00 18:00 18:30 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

The Ellen DeGeneres Show Emmerdale Coronation Street Bunheads Grimm Alphas Supernatural Desperate Housewives

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

Once Upon A Time Perception Grey’s Anatomy White Collar Royal Pains Grey’s Anatomy Once Upon A Time Emmerdale Coronation Street Once Upon A Time The Ellen DeGeneres Show White Collar House Emmerdale Coronation Street Once Upon A Time Once Upon A Time Once Upon A Time Once Upon A Time Once Upon A Time Once Upon A Time Once Upon A Time Once Upon A Time Bunheads Grimm Alphas Supernatural Grey’s Anatomy

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

RoboCop-PG15 Ronin-18 Men In Black-PG15 True Justice: Street Wars-PG15 Hurricane Season-PG15 Men In Black-PG15 Rocky III-PG15 Hurricane Season-PG15 So Close-PG15 RoboCop 2-PG15 From Within-PG15 Wake Wood-PG15

00:00 Cemetery Junction-PG15 02:00 Flubber-PG 04:00 Kuffs-PG 06:00 Fat Albert-PG 08:00 Flubber-PG 10:00 Mean Girls 2-PG15 12:00 For Richer Or Poorer-PG 14:00 I’ll Be Home For Christmas-PG 16:00 Mean Girls 2-PG15 18:00 The Joneses-PG15 20:00 Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story-PG15 22:00 American Virgin-18

01:00 Divorces!-PG15 03:00 Country Strong-PG15 05:00 Best Laid Plans-PG15 07:00 Chasing 3000-PG15 09:00 A Family Thanksgiving-PG15 10:30 The Girl In The Park-PG15 12:30 Waiting For Superman-PG15 14:30 A Family Thanksgiving-PG15 16:00 Les Miserables 25th Anniversary-PG15 19:00 Return To Paradise-PG15 21:00 Indecent Proposal-18 23:00 Of Gods And Men-18

01:00 Pieces Of April-PG15 03:00 The Horse Whisperer-PG15 05:45 Adventures Of A Teenage Dragonslayer-PG 07:15 The Chaperone-PG15 09:00 Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps-PG15 11:15 Captain America: The First Avenger-PG15 13:30 The Dragon Chronicles: Fire & Ice-PG15 15:00 Just Wright-PG15 16:45 Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps-PG15 19:00 Every Jack Has A Jill-PG15 21:00 The Last Exorcism-PG15 23:00 Love And Other Drugs-R

00:00 Toyz Goin’ Wild-PG 02:00 Ramses Of Egypt-PG 04:15 Legend Of Sleeping BeautyPG 06:00 The Smurfs-PG 08:00 Pocahontas & The Spider Woman-PG 10:00 Alex & Alexis-FAM 12:00 Legend Of Sleeping BeautyPG 14:00 Snow Dogs-PG 16:00 The Fantastic Adventure Of The Ugly Duckling-FAM 18:00 Alex & Alexis-FAM 20:00 Cars 2-FAM 22:00 Snow Dogs-PG

00:00 Premier League Snooker 03:30 Futbol Mundial 04:00 Olympic Men’s Boxing 07:00 Olympic Highlights 08:00 Olympic Highlights 09:00 Senior European Tour Highlights 10:00 The Rugby Championship 12:00 Trans World Sport 13:00 Olympic Highlights 14:00 Olympic Highlights 15:00 Futbol Mundial 15:30 AFL Premiership 18:00 Super Rugby Highlights 19:00 Olympic Women’s Football 21:00 Olympic Highlights 22:00 Olympic Highlights 23:00 Trans World Sport

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:30 10:30 12:30 14:30 15:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 22:00 23:00

WWE Experience Super Rugby Highlights UFC The Ultimate Fighter NRL Premiership Super League AFL Premiership Trans World Sport Super League The Rugby Championship This Week in WWE NRL Premiership Trans World Sport UFC The Ultimate Fighter WWE Vintage Collection WWE SmackDown Trans World Sport AFL Premiership

01:00 NRL Full Time 01:30 AFL Highlights 02:30 City Centre Races 04:30 City Centre Races 05:00 NRL Full Time 05:30 Futbol Mundial 06:00 World Match Racing Tour Highlights 07:00 Golfing World 08:00 NRL Premiership 10:00 Adventure Sports 12:00 Adventure Sports 12:30 Futbol Mundial 13:00 Golfing World 14:00 NRL Full Time 14:30 AFL Highlights 15:30 World Match Racing Tour Highlights 16:30 Volvo Ocean Race Highlights 18:00 Premier League Snooker 21:30 European Tour Weekly 22:00 Golfing World 23:00 NRL Full Time 23:30 City Centre Races

01:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 11:00 12:00 12:30 13:00 15:00 16:00 16:30 18:30 19:00 20:00 22:00 23:00

Prizefighter UFC The Ultimate Fighter UFC Unleashed UFC Unleashed WWE Vintage Collection WWE NXT NHL V8 Supercars Mobil 1 The Grid This Week in WWE WWE SmackDown WWE Vintage Collection Mobil 1 The Grid V8 Supercars V8 Supercars UFC The Ultimate Fighter UFC V8 Supercars NHL

Classifieds WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION

Airlines JZR QTR JZR ETH RJA GFA UAE ETD THY FDB MSR QTR ALK KAC THY JZR DHX JZR KAC BAW JZR KAC KAC KAC QTR FDB KAC KAC KAC KAC UAE ABY IRC QTR FDB IRA ETD GFA UAE MEA JZR MSR IRM BAB JZR KNE MSR KAC RJA GFA FDB JZR KAC QTR SVA FDB KAC JZR KAC KAC QTR JZR IRC KAC ETD IYE UAE UAL GFA SVA JZR JZR ABY KAC QTR KAC KAC BAB KNE FDB MSR RBG JZR KAC KAC KAC JAI KAC AXB FDB OMA MEA QTR GFA KAC JZR ALK KLM JZR UAE ETD BBC ABY QTR JZR AIC FDB GFA UAL FDB JZR DLH MSR THY

Arrival Flights on Wednesday 22/8/2012 Flt Route 185 DUBAI 148 DOHA 267 BEIRUT 620 ADDIS ABABA 642 AMMAN 211 BAHRAIN 853 DUBAI 305 ABU DHABI 768 ISTANBUL 67 DUBAI 612 CAIRO 138 DOHA 549 COLOMBO 544 CAIRO 770 ISTANBUL 1541 CAIRO 170 BAHRAIN 555 ALEXANDRIA 412 MANILA 157 LONDON 529 ASSIUT 206 ISLAMABAD 382 DELHI 284 DHAKA 6130 DOHA 53 DUBAI 302 MUMBAI 352 COCHIN 344 CHENNAI 362 COLOMBO 855 DUBAI 125 SHARJAH 6793 MASHAD 132 DOHA 55 DUBAI 603 SHIRAZ 301 ABU DHABI 213 BAHRAIN 871 DUBAI 404 BEIRUT 165 DUBAI 606 LUXOR 5066 MASHAD 436 BAHRAIN 561 SOHAG 472 JEDDAH 610 CAIRO 672 DUBAI 640 AMMAN 219 BAHRAIN 57 DUBAI 535 CAIRO 790 MEDINAH 140 DOHA 500 JEDDAH 8055 DUBAI 788 JEDDAH 257 BEIRUT 546 ALEXANDRIA 502 BEIRUT 134 DOHA 173 DUBAI 6791 MASHAD 538 SHARM EL SHEIKH 303 ABU DHABI 824 SANAA 857 DUBAI 982 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 215 BAHRAIN 510 RIYADH 177 DUBAI 777 JEDDAH 127 SHARJAH 542 CAIRO 144 DOHA 786 JEDDAH 166 PARIS 438 BAHRAIN 460 MEDINAH 63 DUBAI 620 ASSIUT 3553 ALEXANDRIA 787 RIYADH 618 DOHA 674 DUBAI 102 NEW YORK 572 MUMBAI 774 RIYADH 393 KOZHIKODE 61 DUBAI 647 MUSCAT 402 BEIRUT 146 DOHA 221 BAHRAIN 514 TEHRAN 481 SABIHA 229 COLOMBO 417 AMSTERDAM 135 BAHRAIN 859 DUBAI 307 ABU DHABI 43 DHAKA 129 SHARJAH 136 DOHA 539 CAIRO 975 CHENNAI 59 DUBAI 217 BAHRAIN 981 BAHRAIN 8053 DUBAI 239 AMMAN 636 FRANKFURT 614 CAIRO 772 ISTANBUL

Time 0:15 0:20 0:50 1:45 2:10 2:20 2:25 2:30 2:50 3:10 3:20 3:25 4:05 4:10 4:35 4:55 5:00 6:00 6:15 6:30 6:40 7:15 7:30 7:45 7:45 7:45 7:50 8:05 8:20 8:20 8:25 8:30 8:50 9:00 9:20 9:25 9:30 10:00 10:45 10:55 11:05 11:10 11:55 12:05 12:25 13:20 13:30 13:40 13:40 13:40 13:45 14:20 14:25 14:25 14:30 14:40 15:00 15:00 15:05 15:10 15:15 15:30 15:35 16:10 16:35 16:35 16:55 17:10 17:20 17:20 17:30 17:40 17:45 18:15 18:20 18:40 18:40 18:40 18:45 18:45 18:55 19:05 19:10 19:20 19:25 19:35 19:35 19:40 19:55 20:00 20:10 20:15 20:25 20:35 20:55 20:55 20:55 21:05 21:15 21:15 21:25 21:25 21:30 21:35 22:10 22:25 22:30 22:35 22:40 22:45 22:55 23:10 23:35 23:40

Airlines AIC ALK UAL DLH MSR PIA THY ETH THY UAE FDB ETD MSR QTR ALK QTR JZR RJA JZR GFA THY JZR KAC KAC BAW FDB KAC JZR ABY KAC KAC QTR KAC KAC UAE KAC QTR FDB IRC ETD IRA GFA JZR KAC MEA MSR JZR UAE KAC BAB KAC JZR JZR IRM KNE GFA FDB MSR RJA KAC JZR FDB KAC SVA JZR QTR KAC KAC IRC ETD JZR IYE QTR UAE GFA JZR ABY UAL SVA JZR QTR FDB BAB KNE RBG MSR JZR KAC KAC KAC JAI FDB KAC KAC OMA MEA KAC GFA JZR DHX ALK KLM JZR ABY ETD KAC UAE QTR KAC KAC JZR BBC AXB QTR FDB FDB GFA KAC JZR

Depature Flights on Wednesday 22/8/2012 Flt Route 982 AHMEDABAD 506 COLOMBO 981 WASHINGTON DC 637 FRANKFURT 615 CAIRO 206 LAHORE 773 ISTANBUL 621 ADDIS ABABA 769 ISTANBUL 854 DUBAI 68 DUBAI 306 ABU DHABI 613 CAIRO 139 DOHA 550 COLOMBO 149 DOHA 560 SOHAG 643 AMMAN 164 DUBAI 212 BAHRAIN 771 ISTANBUL 534 CAIRO 545 ALEXANDRIA 537 SHARM EL SHEIKH 156 LONDON 54 DUBAI 175 FRANKFURT 256 BEIRUT 126 SHARJAH 117 NEW YORK 501 BEIRUT 6131 DOHA 671 DUBAI 787 JEDDAH 856 DUBAI 789 MADINAH 133 DOHA 56 DUBAI 6794 MASHHAD 302 ABU DHABI 602 SHIRAZ 214 BAHRAIN 172 DUBAI 541 CAIRO 405 BEIRUT 619 ASSIUT 776 JEDDAH 872 DUBAI 103 LONDON 437 BAHRAIN 785 JEDDAH 480 ISTANBUL 176 DUBAI 5065 MASHHAD 461 MADINAH 220 BAHRAIN 58 DUBAI 611 CAIRO 641 AMMAN 673 DUBAI 538 CAIRO 8056 DUBAI 617 DOHA 503 MADINAH 786 RIYADH 135 DOHA 773 RIYADH 513 IMAM KHOMEINI 6792 MASHHAD 304 ABU DHABI 238 AMMAN 824 SANAA 141 DOHA 858 DUBAI 216 BAHRAIN 134 BAHRAIN 128 SHARJAH 982 BAHRAIN 511 RIYADH 266 BEIRUT 145 DOHA 64 DUBAI 439 BAHRAIN 477 JEDDAH 3554 ALEXANDRIA 621 ALEXANDRIA 184 DUBAI 283 DHAKA 361 COLOMBO 153 ISTANBUL 571 MUMBAI 62 DUBAI 331 TRIVANDRUM 351 KOCHI 648 MUSCAT 403 BEIRUT 543 CAIRO 222 BAHRAIN 502 LUXOR 171 BAHRAIN 230 COLOMBO 417 DAMMAM 1540 CAIRO 120 SHARJAH 308 ABU DHABI 381 DELHI 860 DUBAI 137 DOHA 301 MUMBAI 205 ISLAMABAD 554 ALEXANDRIA 44 DHAKA 394 KOCHI 147 DOHA 60 DUBAI 8054 DUBAI 218 BAHRAIN 415 KUALA LUMPUR 528 ASSIUT

Time 0:05 0:15 0:25 0:30 0:35 1:25 2:15 2:45 3:40 3:45 3:50 4:05 4:20 4:50 4:50 5:40 6:00 6:50 6:55 7:05 7:10 7:30 8:10 8:20 8:25 8:25 8:55 9:00 9:05 9:05 9:15 9:15 9:20 9:35 9:40 9:45 10:00 10:05 10:10 10:15 10:25 10:45 11:20 11:30 11:55 12:10 12:15 12:20 12:30 12:55 13:10 13:15 13:20 13:25 14:10 14:25 14:25 14:30 14:35 15:05 15:10 15:20 15:45 15:45 15:50 16:15 16:25 16:25 16:35 17:20 17:30 17:35 17:45 18:05 18:20 18:20 18:25 18:30 18:35 18:50 19:20 19:25 19:30 19:35 19:45 19:55 20:05 20:15 20:20 20:30 20:35 20:40 20:50 21:05 21:10 21:15 21:30 21:35 21:45 21:50 21:55 22:05 22:05 22:10 22:20 22:20 22:25 22:35 22:40 22:45 23:00 23:05 23:10 23:10 23:15 23:25 23:30 23:50 23:50

Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)

112 Ministry of Interior website: www.moi.gov.kw

ACCOMMODATION Sharing accommodation available for non-smoking Keralites in Mahboula.

Contact: 66725394. (C4107) 22-8-2012 Sharing accommodation available for non-smoking Keralites in Mahboula.

Contact: 66725394.

(C4107) 18-8-2012 Sharing accommodation available for decent bachelor non smoking, one big room, Amman street, opposite to Al Rashid hospital.

Contact: 66232356.

(C 4106) 15-8-2012

SITUATION VACANT A Kuwaiti family looks to hire a driver with a Kuwaiti license, transferable visa and good knowledge of Kuwait areas. Contact: 99401126. (C 4103) 16-8-2012

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

03:56 11:51 15:26 18:23 19:43

No: 15545

Sharing accommodation available for a bachelor, with an Indian family at Salmiya near Edee store.

Contact: 97947562.

(C 4104) One room available for sharing separate bath and sharing kitchen available at Abbassiya near Indian Learners School from Sept 1, preferably ladies with a Keralite family. Mob: 99821508. (C 4105) 14-8-2012

GOVERNMENT WEB SITES Kuwait Parliament www.majlesalommah.net

The Public Institution for Social Security www.pifss.gov.kw

Ministry of Interior www.moi.gov.kw

Public Authority of Industry www.pai.gov.kw

Public Authority for Civil Information www.paci.gov.kw

Prisoners of War Committee www.pows.org.kw

Kuwait News Agency www.kuna.net.kw

Ministry of Foreign Affairs www.mofa.gov.kw

Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affair www.islam.gov.kw Ministry of Energy (Oil) www.moo.gov.kw

Kuwait Municipality www.municipality.gov.kw Kuwait Electronic Government www.e.gov.kw

Ministry of Energy (Electricity and Water) www.energy.govt.kw

Ministry of Finance www.mof.gov.kw

Public Authority for Housing Welfare www.housing.gov.kw

Ministry of Commerce and Industry www.moci.gov.kw

Ministry of Justice www.moj.gov.kw

Ministry of Education www.moe.edu.kw

Ministry of Communications www.moc.kw

Ministry of Information www.moinfo.gov.kw

Supreme Council for Planning and Development www.scpd.gov.kw

Kuwait Awqaf Public Foundation www.awqaf.org

34

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

stars CROSSWORD 773

STAR TRACK

CALVIN & HOBBES

Aries (March 21-April 19) You may have been hard at work lately. You are wise to develop new skills, opening opportunities for yourself to advance into a competitive position. Good for you—this is a successful day in this regard. Partners and friends give you added support. You may wish to express more self-confidence during this time. This may take the form of training or leading others, short trips and visits—or intellectual competition. This could be an interesting day so keep that sense of humor of yours and do not take things people say during a rush time too seriously.

Continue to develop your power of positive thinking and speech—you will teach others this skill as well. Laughter this evening is a must and most contagious! Young people are an inspiration.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) This can be a strange, chaotic morning—another day when you may be tempted to avoid your responsibilities. Some of the feelings now are just that . . . feelings and not reality. Rise above the challenge and think about the here and now. Tomorrow will be a turning point for the better, but today will take much concentration and determination; you will move forward with your work. You tend to form close relationships to dynamic authoritative individuals every year. You may have more dealings with a romantic or business partner, or you may deal with others closely as a team. As you move into a more outgoing attitude— you will find time for public relations, marketing and sales. Relax this evening—your day has been successful.

POOCH CAFE ACROSS 1. The syllable naming the sixth (submediant) note of a major or minor scale in solmization.

4. Australian physiologist noted for his research on the conduction of impulses by nerve cells (1903-1997).

10. A health resort near a spring or at the seaside.

13. Gone by.

14. A person's partner in marriage.

15. A former agency (from 1946 to 1974) that was responsible for research into atomic energy and its peacetime uses in the United States.

16. The sound made by a cat (or any sound resembling this).

17. Ancient city is southeastern Italy where Hannibal defeated the Romans in 216 BC. 18. (in golf) The standard number of strokes set for each hole on a golf course, or for the entire course.

19. Any of several large deciduous trees with rounded spreading crowns and smooth gray bark and small sweet edible triangular nuts enclosed in burs.

21. A favorable omen.

23. (South African) A camp defended by a circular formation of wagons.

26. Yellow-fever mosquitos.

27. A heavy gray-white metallic element.

29. A state in northwestern United States on the Pacific.

30. A domed or vaulted recess or projection on a building especially the east end of a church.

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

37. A Mid-Atlantic state.

38. The sacred writings of the Christian religion.

40. An associate degree in applied science.

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

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

46. Committee formed by a special-interest group to raise money for their favorite political candidates.

48. A narcotic that is considered a hard drug.

50. A Dravidian language spoken in southern India.

54. God of wealth and love.

58. Any of various primates with short tails or no tail at all.

59. English theoretical physicist who applied relativity theory to quantum mechanics and predicted the existence of antimatter and the positron (1902-1984).

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

63. Being one more than two.

64. A garment (coat or sweater) that has raglan sleeves.

66. One of the five major classes of immunoglobulins.

67. Resinlike substance secreted by certain lac insects.

68. Naked freshwater or marine or parasitic protozoa that form temporary pseudopods for feeding and locomotion.

69. An informal term for a father.

DOWN 1. Young sheep.

2. American novelist (1909-1955).

3. United States writer and editor (1837-1920).

4. A dry scab formed on the skin following a burn or cauterization of the skin.

5. An accountant certified by the state.

6. An argument opposed to a proposal.

7. Of or relating to or associated with the moon.

8. (Old Testament) The eldest son of Isaac who would have inherited the Covenant that God made with Abraham and that Abraham passed on to Isaac.

9. A plaything that is ridden up and down by children at either end.

10. Full of flavor.

11. The state prevailing during the absence of war.

12. Extensive landed property (especially in the country) retained by the owner for his own use.

20. A small restaurant where drinks and snacks are sold.

22. Small beads made from polished shells and formerly used as money by native Americans.

24. Type genus of the Gavidae.

25. The square of a body of any size of type.

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

31. By bad luck.

32. A ductile gray metallic element of the lanthanide series.

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

35. The cry made by sheep.

36. Inquire about.

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

42. Of or relating to apnea.

43. A decree that prohibits something.

45. Title for a civil or military leader (especially in Turkey).

47. A genus of Pyralidae.

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

51. The capital of Western Samoa.

52. The length of a straight line passing through the center of a circle and connecting two points on the circumference.

53. Formerly a large constellation in the southern hemisphere between Canis Major and the Southern Cross.

54. A colorless and odorless inert gas.

55. Lacking sufficient water or rainfall.

56. Mentally or physically infirm with age.

57. In bed.

60. Fermented alcoholic beverage similar to but heavier than beer.

61. A compartment in front of a motor vehicle where driver sits.

65. A silvery soft waxy metallic element of the alkali metal group.

Gemini (May 21-June 20) Creative experiments can be successful today. If you work in advertising, ideas can be productive. You still must put forth effort to sway others to your viewpoint, but you are successful. There are plenty of distractions at this time but you get through each one with polite consideration. There are many conversations centered on the similarities of some new movie, the state of the world or unusual sites, etc. You would make an excellent teacher of philosophy or religion and can enchant all who come to know you.

You would also make a good director, for you like working with mental images.

This afternoon you may find your current appreciation for just about everything leads you to overspend—careful.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) There is a lot of communication between co-workers today.

Working with others is a positive—although there may be some feeling that there is something missing when it comes to the completion of a special project. Define terms, perceive potential and follow through on any hint of there being delays or cancellations. Your enthusiasm is strong and circumstances this afternoon can help you to tie up loose ends. You may take a more personal interest in technological fields, humanitarian fields or in enterprising business ventures today. Travel and shipments of goods are subject to delay at this time. If you are looking to buy an expensive car, inspect it carefully first. With patience, you may find just what you want regarding a vehicle.

NON SEQUITUR

Leo (July 23-August 22) You may have intuitive insight into business or professional affairs at this time. You may want to organize or restructure some new work methods. You may be aware of political and professional power struggles just now. There could be some drastic and irrevocable changes in your professional environment. However, this is a most beneficial time for you to secure, concentrate, change or otherwise find ways in which to make a good, steady income. Be watchful of the temptation to eat excessively while waiting for someone or because of boredom. You could gain weight during this time. Place yourself in a position that will give you opportunities for expression. Relax this evening in fun activities; enjoy puzzles, card games, dancing, etc.

ZITS

Virgo (August 23-September 22) The time is favorable for any research or for revealing hidden factors and inhibitions. It is easy to find what doesn’t work—now you must find what will work. If there are secret manipulations, or conspiracies, they can surface where you can gain control. Older people and those in positions of power tend to give you their approval and trust. This is a great time to be with others and to work together. Your management and directional abilities are in high focus. You may feel like being different and trying something new and unusual. You have increased concentration and perception into the motives of others during this time. Remember, advice, unless it is personally requested, is not always appreciated—listening is a valuable activity, particularly at home.

Libra (September 23-October 22)

MOTHER GOOSE AND GRIMM

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) Now is a favorable time for business relating to technology or entertainment industries or for scientific experiments or intuitive studies. Your thinking is clear and ideas are easy to find. Writing stories, songs, poems or working through a business project can be successfully accomplished. There is insight into all that is new, different and out of the ordinary. Electronics, computers, communications and telecommunications, etc., could be a big part of your life now.

You are an expert at working with communication technology. This afternoon can be an enjoyable time of expanding freedom, meeting new friends, travel, learning and unexpected financial benefits. Changes can emerge this evening, offering you more freedom and stability.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) Stocks, legal or business papers that have been shoved aside until a timelier or upbeat time may get your attention this morning.

These difficult-to-understand pieces of paper may turn out to be less difficult than you thought. You will quickly remove these papers from your corner of the world by tending to them very quickly. You can concentrate on overcoming these self-destructive habits, such as procrastination, by allowing a more natural expression of your feelings and responses. You can reconcile differences with family members. Your family relationships stabilize during this relative time of happiness and contentment. A specific individual can be a powerful influence. It is a favorable time to move and improve your domestic environment.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)

To

Yesterday’s Solution

You may find that early this morning, new plans for the upcoming weekend may come from an unlikely source. You attach more importance to friendships and taking part in group activities that are productive.

Making things work and creating harmonious surroundings will be the goals you will work hard to achieve. This is a good day, filled with some renewed appreciation for all that is beautiful and fine. Your working environment seems more productive when you are present. Of course, it could be that because you are present, you notice how the work is progressing. Today your place of business needs your full attention—this afternoon you will want to plan some special event to show appreciation for the people that mean a lot to you.

Business moves along quite nicely today. You are just plain witty this morning—ideas quickly roll off your tongue. This is a real time for communication—by phone, by letter or in person. Your mind is clear.

Today you have an opportunity to enjoy a period of great mental activity and passion. You may feel a strong need to communicate and gather ideas, especially when you are in meetings or conferences. Keep a focus on the subject matter that is the main interest for today. You could be interested in moving on to other subjects but a co-worker or some other person needs to understand the main issue better. Tonight you will enjoy some social activity with friends. Everything works together to reveal you at your most elegant.

Yesterday’s Solution Yester

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) You are making some real progress in the financial part of your life just now. New ideas and firm budgeting plans make for some positive results for future plans. You can demonstrate great understanding and sensitivity to the needs of others just now and are in a good position to communicate concerning groups and society in general. You may find yourself in a political position— one of teaching or guiding others. The artful skill of verbal restraint and diplomacy may be tested. Later today, you could be on the receiving end of instructions. You will know just what to do and will act without haste or emotion. Time out this evening may mean a candlelight dinner with your loved one or a good book or a movie to view at home.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

Word Sleuth Solution

Your love of job and practical skills makes you a fine manager and businessperson. You bring a great deal of love to your work, especially today when it seems that everyone is asking for your input. Your career is very important to you and you have superb management abilities. You are expert at guiding a situation to the benefit of all concerned. There is improvement today of some long-term situation that others left unfinished. This could mean an important project that took a difficult turn or a person that needed convincing. There are insights into the status quo as well as insight into ways for you to serve others in the future. If you are not married, you could begin a relationship in a few days with someone you have already met. Do not push too much for now.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

i n f o r m at i o n For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128 GOVERNORATE Sabah Hospital

24812000

Amiri Hospital

22450005

Maternity Hospital

24843100

Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital

25312700

Chest Hospital

24849400

Farwaniya Hospital

24892010

Adan Hospital

23940620

Ibn Sina Hospital

24840300

Al-Razi Hospital

24846000

Physiotherapy Hospital

24874330/9

Kaizen center

25716707

Roudha

22517733

Adhaliya

22517144

Khaldiya

24848075

Keifan

24849807

Shamiya

24848913

Shuwaikh

24814507

Abdullah Salim

22549134

Al-Nuzha

22526804

Industrial Shuwaikh

24814764

Al-Khadissiya

22515088

Dasmah

22532265

Bneid Al-Ghar

22531908

Al-Shaab

22518752

Al-Kibla

PHARMACY

ADDRESS

PHONE

Ahmadi

Sama Safwan Abu Halaifa Danat Al-Sultan

Fahaeel Makka St Abu Halaifa-Coastal Rd Mahboula Block 1, Coastal Rd

23915883 23715414 23726558

Jahra

Modern Jahra Madina Munawara

Jahra-Block 3 Lot 1 Jahra-Block 92

24575518 24566622

Capital

Ahlam Khaldiya Coop

Fahad Al-Salem St Khaldiya Coop

22436184 24833967

Farwaniya

New Shifa Ferdous Coop Modern Safwan

Farwaniya Block 40 Ferdous Coop Old Kheitan Block 11

24734000 24881201 24726638

Tariq Hana Ikhlas Hawally & Rawdha Ghadeer Kindy Ibn Al-Nafis Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Salmiya-Amman St Hawally-Beirut St Hawally & Rawdha Coop Jabriya-Block 1A Jabriya-Block 3B Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

25726265 25647075 22625999 22564549 25340559 25326554 25721264 25380581 25628241

Hawally

ST TAT TE OF K KUW WAIT A

el.: 161 Te

DIRECTORA ATE T GENERAL GENE OF CIVIL AV VIA AT TION METEOROLOGICAL DEP PARTMENT A

2627 - 2630 Ext.: 262

WWW.MET.GOV V.KW .

Very e hot h with light to moderate freshening gradually at times north westerly wind, with speed of 20 - 45 km/h causing raising dust over open areas

BY Y NIGHT:

Relatively hot with moderate freshening at times north westerly wind, with speed of 15 - 40 km/h causing raising dust over open areas No Current Warnings arnin a

WARNING A

22459381

45 °C

34 °C

Ayoun Al-Kibla

22451082

KUW WA AIT AIRPOR RT

47 °C

35 °C

Al-Mirqab

22456536

NUW WA AISEEB

48 °C

31 °C

WA AFRA

ST TAT TION

47 °C

33 °C

SALMI

45 °C

29 °C

ABDAL LY

48 °C

31 °C

Sharq

22465401

Salmiya

25746401

Jabriya

25316254

JAL ALIY YAH A

47 °C

30 °C

Maidan Hawally

25623444

FA AILAKA

46 °C

32 °C

Bayan

25388462

AHMADI POR RT

44 °C

37 °C

Mishref

25381200

UMM AL-MARADEM

41 °C

35 °C

W.Hawally

22630786

WA ARBA A - BUBY YAN A

47 °C

28 °C

Sabah

24810221

Jahra

24770319

SFC. CHART

21/08/2012 0000 UTC

4 DA AY YS FORECAST Temperatures DA AY

DA ATE T

WEA ATHER T

MAX.

MIN.

Wind Direction

Wind Speed

New Jahra

24575755 Weednesday

22/08

very hot + raising dust

47 °C

29 °C

NW

20 - 45 km/h

West Jahra

24772608

Thursday

23/08

very hot + raising dust

46 °C

28 °C

NW

20 - 45 km/h

South Jahra

24775066

Friday

24/08

very hot

48 °C

26 °C

NW

15 - 38 km/h

North Jahra

24775992

Saturday

25/08

very hot

48 °C

27 °C

NW

15 - 35 km/h

North Jleeb

24311795

24892674

Al-Omariya

24719048

N.Kheitan

24710044

Fintas

RECORDED YESTERDA AY AT KUW WAIT A AIRPORT

PRA RA AY YER TIMES Fajr

03:56

MAX. Temp.

47 °C

Sunrise

05:20

MIN. Temp.

28 °C

Zuhr

11:51

MAX. RH

14 %

Asr

15:26

MIN. RH

Sunset

18:23

MAX. Wind i

Isha

19:43

TOT TAL AL RAIINF FALL A L IN 24 HR.

04 % NW 75 km/h .09 mm

All times are local time unless otherwise stated.

23900322

PRIVATE CLINICS Ophthalmologists Dr. Abidallah Al-Mansoor 25622444 Dr. Samy Al-Rabeea 25752222 Dr. Masoma Habeeb 25321171 Dr. Mubarak Al-Ajmy 25739999 Dr. Mohsen Abel 25757700 Dr Adnan Hasan Alwayl 25732223 Dr. Abdallah Al-Baghly 25732223 Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) Dr. Ahmed Fouad Mouner 24555050 Ext 510 Dr. Abdallah Al-Ali 25644660 Dr. Abd Al-Hameed Al-Taweel 25646478 Dr. Sanad Al-Fathalah 25311996 Dr. Mohammad Al-Daaory 25731988 Dr. Ismail Al-Fodary 22620166 Dr. Mahmoud Al-Booz 25651426 General Practitioners Dr. Mohamme Y Majidi 24555050 Ext 123 Dr. Yousef Al-Omar 24719312 Dr. Tarek Al-Mikhazeem 23926920 Dr. Kathem Maarafi 25730465 Dr. Abdallah Ahmad Eyadah 25655528 Dr. Nabeel Al-Ayoobi 24577781 Dr. Dina Abidallah Al-Refae 25333501 Urologists Dr. Ali Naser Al-Serfy 22641534 Dr. Fawzi Taher Abul 22639955 Dr. Khaleel Abidallah Al-Awadi 22616660 Dr. Adel Al-Hunayan FRCS (C) 25313120 Dr. Leons Joseph 66703427 Psychologists /Psychotherapists

Paediatricians

Plastic Surgeons Dr. Mohammad Al-Khalaf

22547272

Dr. Khaled Hamadi

Dr. Abdal-Redha Lari

22617700

Dr. Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rashed

Dr. Abdel Quttainah

25625030/60

Family Doctor Dr Divya Damodar

23729596/23729581

Psychiatrists Dr. Esam Al-Ansari

22635047

Dr Eisa M. Al-Balhan

22613623/0

Gynaecologists & Obstetricians DrAdrian arbe

23729596/23729581

Dr. Verginia s.Marin

2572-6666 ext 8321

Endocrinologist

25665898 25340300

Dr. Zahra Qabazard

25710444

Dr. Sohail Qamar

22621099

Dr. Snaa Maaroof

25713514

Dr. Pradip Gujare

23713100

Dr. Zacharias Mathew

24334282

(1) Ear, Nose and Throat (2) Plastic Surgeon Dr. Abdul Mohsin Jafar, FRCS (Canada)

25655535

Dentists

Dr. Fozeya Ali Al-Qatan

22655539

Dr. Majeda Khalefa Aliytami

25343406

Dr. Shamah Al-Matar

22641071/2

Dr. Ahmad Al-Khooly

25739272

Dr. Anesah Al-Rasheed

22562226

22618787

Dr. Abidallah Al-Amer

22561444

Dr. Faysal Al-Fozan

22619557

Dr. Abdallateef Al-Katrash

22525888

Dr. Abidallah Al-Duweisan

25653755

Dr. Bader Al-Ansari

25620111

Dr. Salem soso General Surgeons Dr. Amer Zawaz Al-Amer

22610044

Dr. Mohammad Yousef Basher

25327148

Internists, Chest & Heart Dr. Adnan Ebil Dr. Mousa Khadada Dr. Latefa Al-Duweisan

22666300 25728004

Dr. Nadem Al-Ghabra

25355515

Dr. Mobarak Aldoub

24726446

Dr Nasser Behbehani

25654300/3

info@soorcenter.com www.soorcenter.com

3729596/3729581

Neurologists

22639939

Dr. Abd Al-Naser Al-Othman

Dr. Sohal Najem Al-Shemeri

25633324

Dr. Jasem Mola Hassan

25345875

Gastrologists Dr. Sami Aman

22636464

Dr. Mohammad Al-Shamaly

25322030

Dr. Foad Abidallah Al-Ali

22633135

Kaizen center 25716707

25339330

Dr. Ahmad Al-Ansari 25658888 Dr. Kamal Al-Shomr 25329924 Physiotherapists & VD Dr. Deyaa Shehab

25722291

Dr. Musaed Faraj Khamees

22666288

Rheumatologists: Dr. Adel Al-Awadi

Dr Anil Thomas

Soor Center Tel: 2290-1677 Fax: 2290 1688

22545171

Al-Shuwaikh

24810598

Al-Nuzha

22545171

Sabhan

24742838

Al-Helaly

22434853

Al-Fayhaa

22545051

Al-Farwaniya

24711433

Al-Sulaibikhat

24316983

Al-Fahaheel

23927002

Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh

24316983

Ahmadi

23980088

Al-Mangaf

23711183

Al-Shuaiba

23262845

Al-Jahra

25610011

Al-Salmiya

25616368

INTERNATIONAL CALLS

BY Y DA AY:

KUW WA AIT CITY

Firdous

Al-Shohada’a

Expected Weather e for the Next 24 Hours

MIN. REC.

24884079

22418714

Fax: 24348714

MAX. EXP P.

Al-Ardhiya

Al-Madena

25330060

Dr. Khaled Al-Jarallah

25722290

Internist, Chest & Heart DR.Mohammes Akkad

24555050 Ext 210

Dr. Mohammad Zubaid MB, ChB, FRCPC, PACC Assistant Professor Of Medicine Head, Division of Cardiology Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital Consultant Cardiologist Dr. Farida Al-Habib MD, PH.D, FACC Inaya German Medical Center Te: 2575077 Fax: 25723123

2611555-2622555

William Schuilenberg, RPC 2290-1677 Zaina Al Zabin, M.Sc. 2290-1677

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

Iran 0098 Iraq 00964 Ireland 00353 Italy 0039 Ivory Coast 00225 Jamaica 001876 Japan 0081 Jordan 00962 Kazakhstan 007 Kenya 00254 Kiribati 00686 Kuwait 00965 Kyrgyzstan 00996 Laos 00856 Latvia 00371 Lebanon 00961 Liberia 00231 Libya 00218 Lithuania 00370 Luxembourg 00352 Macau 00853 Macedonia 00389 Madagascar 00261 Majorca 0034 Malawi 00265 Malaysia 0060 Maldives 00960 Mali 00223 Malta 00356 Marshall Islands 00692 Martinique 00596 Mauritania 00222 Mauritius 00230 Mayotte 00269 Mexico 0052 Micronesia 00691 Moldova 00373 Monaco 00377 Mongolia 00976 Montserrat 001664 Morocco 00212 Mozambique 00258 Myanmar (Burma) 0095 Namibia 00264 Nepal 00977 Netherlands (Holland) 0031 Netherlands Antilles 00599 New Caledonia 00687 New Zealand 0064 Nicaragua 00505 Nigar 00227 Nigeria 00234 Niue 00683 Norfolk Island 00672 Northern Ireland (UK) 0044 North Korea 00850 Norway 0047 Oman 00968 Pakistan 0092 Palau 00680 Panama 00507 Papua New Guinea 00675 Paraguay 00595 Peru 0051 Philippines 0063 Poland 0048 Portugal 00351 Puerto Rico 001787 Qatar 00974 Romania 0040 Russian Federation 007 Rwanda 00250 Saint Helena 00290 Saint Kitts 001869 Saint Lucia 001758 Saint Pierre 00508 Saint Vincent 001784 Samoa US 00684 Samoa West 00685 San Marino 00378 Sao Tone 00239 Saudi Arabia 00966 Scotland (UK) 0044 Senegal 00221 Seychelles 00284 Sierra Leone 00232 Singapore 0065 Slovakia 00421 Slovenia 00386 Solomon Islands 00677

36

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

LIFESTYLE G o s s i p

Swift to perform at VMAs, US gymnasts to present ix-time Grammy winner Taylor Swift will perform at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards next month.

But she won’t be the only gold winner in the room. The US Women’s Gymnastics team - better known as the Fierce Five - will present at the Sept 6 show. Gabby Douglas, McKayla Maroney, Alexandra Raisman, Kyla Ross and Jordyn Wieber won the women’s team gold medal this month. Douglas, Maroney and Raisman also won individual medals. Miley Cyrus, Wiz Khalifa and Mac Miller will also present awards. Drake and Rihanna lead with five nominations each. They’ll battle Katy Perry, M.I.A. and Gotye for video of the year. Comedian Kevin Hart will host the VMAs live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Performers include Green Day, Alicia Keys, Pink and One Direction.

S

John fears son will face homophobia lton John believes his son Zachary’s childhood is going to be “very difficult”, battling homophobia and the impact of his father’s fame, the pop icon said in an interview published yesterday. The 65-year-old British star and his Canadian civil partner David Furnish, 49, became parents on December 25, 2010 to a child conceived using a donor egg and born via a surrogate mother. But the singersongwriter said he was preparing himself for what would be a tough time growing up for his son, who is now 19 months, he told the weekly British magazine Radio Times. “At school other children will say, ‘You don’t have a mummy’,” John said. “We’ve come a long way, but there’s still homophobia and will be until a new generation of parents don’t instill it in their children.” He added on his son’s upbringing: “It’s natural for him. He calls me ‘Daddy’ and David ‘Papa’.”

John, whose 1997 remake of his 1973 hit “Candle in The Wind” sold 33 million copies, said the toddler did not yet have an understanding of his father’s fame. “When he finds out, he’ll look at me as if I’m bonkers,” he said. “Being the child of someone famous is a huge ball and chain around your ankles. It’s going to be very difficult.” John explained how he was trying to give his son a musical upbringing. “I want music to be a huge part of his life. I sit him on my lap and he doesn’t bang the piano,” he said. “He tries to copy me but he’s not formed enough yet to know what I do, thank God.” John said that he introduced Zachary to classical composers Chopin, Mozart and Beethoven-as well as the children’s song “Nellie The Elephant”-at a very young age, but that his son was more interested in football and cooking.”I won’t push Zachary into anything.

E J Fox to star in TV comedy as dad with Parkinson’s ctor Michael J Fox, who stepped back from full-time acting in 2000 to focus on fighting Parkinson’s disease, will star in a new TV comedy loosely based on his own life suffering from the illness. NBC television said on Monday it had ordered a full 22 episodes of an untitled comedy series starring the “Spin City” and “Back to the Future” actor for the fall of 2013. The show will feature Fox as a husband and father of three from New York City dealing with family, career, and challenges including the degenerative nervous system disorder, Parkinson’s disease. “He (Fox) is utterly relatable, optimistic, and in a class by himself, and I have no doubt that the character he will create - and the vivid family characters surrounding him

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- will be both instantly recognizable and hilarious,” NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt said in a statement. Fox, 51, made his name in the 1980s TV comedy “Family Ties” and as teen adventurer Marty McFly in the “Back to the Future” movie franchise. He later starred in TV political comedy “Spin City,” winning multiple acting awards, but semi-retired from acting in 2000 as his symptoms of Parkinson’s worsened and he focused his efforts on research for a cure. In recent years, the Canadian actor has done voice-over work for movies like “Stuart Little” and has guest starred in TV shows like the comedy “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and legal drama “The Good Wife.” Filming for the new sitcom will begin this year, with casting for other roles to be announced later, NBC said.

So far, he just loves kicking a ball and watching people cook,” he said. John also praised Madonna-despite recently reigniting his spat with the US singer in an Australian television interview when he said she looked like a “fairground stripper” whose career was over. ”Madonna took the

industry by the scruff of the neck, made opportunities for other women, like (Lady) Gaga and Katy Perry,” he told the Radio Times. He said of his own singing career: “I would (give up) if I felt the voice had gone, but at 65 it’s getting better and I’m in the prime of life.” John has sold more than 250 million records in a career spanning four decades and he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

Brown, Drake sued again over NYC club brawl

O’Donnell suffers heart

model who was injured during a bottle-throwing nightclub brawl between Chris Brown and Drake sued both singers and the owners of the New York City nightclub on Monday.

Romain Julien, who was sitting at a nearby table during the brawl, suffered a severed tendon in his right hand during the June 14 melee, according to a lawsuit filed in New York Supreme Court. Julien also alleged that he endured lacerations from broken glass, cosmetic deformity and mental distress as a result of the fight. The complaint accused Brown of having a “hot temper” and inciting the altercation with Drake. The operators of the club Greenhouse and its basement lounge, W.i.P., are also named in the suit. Julien claimed the operators created a public nuisance by failing to provide adequate security in the club and serving liquor to intoxicated patrons. Julien, a model with Re: Quest Model Management is seeking actual and punitive damages. Representatives for Brown and Drake had no immediate comment. A representative for Greenhouse and W.i.P. said they will “respond appropriately” after evaluating the lawsuit. Last week, a company with ties to the club sought to hold Drake and Brown responsible for the melee in a $16 million lawsuit. The suit filed by Entertainment Enterprises Ltd faulted the artists for - at a minimum - doing nothing to stop the June 14 melee and said it sullied the chic Manhattan nightspot’s name.

The company owns the trademark for Greenhouse. No criminal charges have been filed in the fight, which left Brown, NBA star Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs and others injured. Police say the fracas started after members of Drake’s entourage confronted Brown on the dance floor as he was leaving W.i.P. Drake’s representatives have said he was on his way out and didn’t injure anyone. Both lawsuits point to news accounts of bad blood between Brown and Drake, both of whom have dated singer Rihanna.

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attack, gets stent osie O’Donnell says she suffered a heart attack last week and is “lucky to be here.” The 50-year-old comedian detailed the experience on her blog Monday, saying sudden nausea, aches and other symptoms pushed her to do an online search for “women’s heart attack symptoms.” She took a few aspirin and went to a cardiologist the next day. She says an artery was 99 percent blocked and a stent was inserted.

O’Donnell writes in a kind of verse on her blog. She says: “Know the symptoms ladies/ listen to the voice inside/ the one we all so easily ignore.”

The comedian recently hosted “The Rosie Show” on the Oprah Winfrey Network. It was canceled in March.

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Judd’s husband loses leg after SD crash Obama praises ‘wonderful guy’ Clooney eorge Clooney is still a fan of President Obama, and the feeling is mutual. The president called Clooney “a wonderful guy” and applauded his politics and character in a joint interview with First Lady Michelle Obama for Monday’s edition of “Entertainment Tonight.”

“He is a terrific advocate on behalf of the people of Darfur and the people of Sudan who’ve been brutalized for a long time,” President Obama told “ET” co-anchor Nancy O’Dell. Their working relationship on Sudan - and their friendship - started when Obama was a junior senator and Clooney, “who had traveled there, done documentaries there and was very well-informed, came to testify in Congress, and so we got to know each other,” the president said.

As for whether Clooney has POTUS on speed-dial, Obama demurred, saying the activist actor is conservative when it comes to his using his line into the White House. “And he’s also sensitive to the fact that, you know, that if he’s around a lot than somehow it’ll be tagged as ‘Obama hanging out with Hollywood stars’ and that’s not who he is,” Obama added. For her part, the First Lady took a more aesthetic tack on her husband’s A-list friend, pronouncing him “cute” twice during the sitdown discussion with O’Dell. Michelle Obama said she’s suspicious of a “conspiracy” afoot in the Oval Office, as each time Clooney comes by for a presidential tete-a-tete, the First Lady’s schedule happens to be booked. “I’m gonna explore that a little more,” she said. Clooney opened his home in Studio City, Calif. for a wildly successful Obama fund-raiser on May 10 and will stump for the president again at two events for American expats in Geneva, Switzerland on Aug 27. —Agencies

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ynonna Judd’s husband has lost his leg after a motorcycle crash in South Dakota. Michael Scott “Cactus” Moser was riding a motorcycle on US Highway 16 in the Black Hills on Saturday when he crossed the center line and hit a car. He was airlifted to a hospital. A representative for Judd said Monday that Moser’s leg was “severed at the scene of the accident” and that doctors have amputated his leg above his knee. Moser has also had surgery on his hand. Judd is postponing scheduled concerts in Canada as a result.

Moser is a resident of Nashville, Tenn., and the drummer in the country singer’s band. The statement says the couple appreciates the “well-wishes from family, friends and fans.”

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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

lifestyle M u s i c

This file photo taken on October 26, 2010 shows British director Tony Scott arriving with his family on the red carpet for the premiere of the film “Unstoppable” at the Regency Village Theater in Los Angeles.

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irector Tony Scott loved fast cars, riding fast motorcycles and creating some of the most memorable action sequences of the past quarter century. He was even planning a sequel to his hit “Top Gun.” Yet on Sunday, police removed the director’s body from Los Angeles Harbor hours after they say he stopped his car on the towering Vincent Thomas Bridge and jumped. His death stunned friends and fans and left Hollywood buzzing about what could have prompted one of the industry’s more successful filmmakers to take an 18-story leap to his death. An autopsy and notes he left for loved ones will offer investigators clues, but any answers that authorities obtain will not be released for several weeks.

The bridge is a favorite filming location for action directors, although the 68-year-old Scott apparently never used it for one of his films. The avid rock climber directed more than 15 movies that included such unforgettable sequences as the dog fights of “Top Gun” and the raw power of a runaway train in “Unstoppable.” As a director and producer, Scott worked with Hollywood’s top actors, including Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington, Will Smith and Robert Redford, and helped influence a generation of action buffs. Cruise, who starred in “Top Gun” and confirmed he was working with Scott on a sequel earlier this year, said he’d lost a dear friend.

“He was a creative visionary whose mark on film is immeasurable,” Cruise wrote in a statement. “My deepest sorrow and thoughts are with his family at this time.” Notes to loved ones were found in his Scott’s and at another location, Coroner’s Chief of Operations Craig Harvey said. The death was being treated as a probable suicide, but a formal determination could take a month or more as toxicology and tis-

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m o v i e s

This file photo taken on July 20, 2009 shows British film director Tony Scott posing in Paris during a photocall to present his movie “The Taking of Pelham 123”, a remake of the 1974 version.

sue tests are completed. In the meantime, investigators will look into Scott’s health and whether any other factors contributed to his death. “The family asks that their privacy is respected at this time,” said Simon Halls, a spokesman for Scott and his older brother, Oscar-winning director, Ridley Scott. The bridge where Scott jumped has appeared in “The Fast and the Furious,” “Gone in 60 Seconds,” “Charlie’s Angels” and “To Live and Die in LA.” It has been used in filming 13 times since 2011, according to the California Film Commission.

Motorist David Silva told the Los Angeles Times that Scott appeared to hesitate before climbing a fence along the bridge, and again before leaping. He said fellow motorists at first thought the director was performing an extreme sports stunt, but quickly realized he didn’t have a parachute or other safety equipment. The brothers frequently collaborated on movies, and their company also produced the successful TV series “Numb3rs” and “The Good Wife.” CBS, which aired both shows, said “one of the brightest lights in the industry has gone out.” Scott, who was born in Great Britain and lived in Beverly Hills, is survived by his wife, actress Donna Scott, who appeared in several of her husband’s films, and twin sons. He had been planning a sequel to “Top Gun,” the movie that helped propel him to other big-budget films. Scott often said he got his greatest thrills from filmmaking.

“The biggest edge I live on is directing. That’s the most scary, dangerous thing you can do in your life,” Scott said in an interview about his 1995 naval adventure “Crimson Tide.”

“The scariest thing in my life is the first morning of production on all my movies. It’s the fear of failing, the loss of face and a sense of guilt that everybody puts their faith in you and

omedienne Phyllis Diller, the former housewife whose raucous cackle and jokes about her own looks made her one of America’s first female stand-up comedy stars, died in her sleep on Monday at age 95, her longtime manager said. Diller was found in

File photo shows Prince Frederic von Anhalt and comedian Phyllis Diller celebrating the 25th wedding anniversary of Zsa Zsa Gabor and Prince Frederic von An halt at their home in Los Angeles, California. — AFP

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not coming through.” He was the first of the Scott brothers to enjoy blockbuster success with “Top Gun,” the top-grossing film of 1986 at $176 million. Scott teamed with Cruise again four years later on the hit “Days of Thunder.”

Ridley Scott later surpassed his younger brother’s career in terms of hits and accolades, earning an Oscar for “Gladiator” and three best director nominations. Tony Scott never was in the running for an Oscar, and critics often slammed his movies for emphasizing style over substance. He said he gained perspective by mixing things up between film, TV and commercials. “I like changing the pace of my life, changing my discipline. It gives me ideas for how to see the world differently,” Scott said in a 2007 interview. His work impacted a generation of actors and filmmakers, who praised him after learning of death. “Shocking and devastating news,” Christian Slater, who was directed by Scott in the 1993 film “True Romance,” wrote on Twitter. “He was the best and will be greatly missed.”

Gene Hackman, who worked with Scott on “Crimson Tide” and “Enemy of the State,” said the director “was always sensitive to the needs of an actor. We’ve lost a wonderful, creative talent.” Filmmaker Robert Rodriguez wrote on Twitter, “Thanks for the inspiration, advice, encouragement, and the decades of great entertainment.” Justin Timberlake wrote on the site, “His movies made growing up more fun for me.” — AP

From housewife to comic “If I showed you my opening night photo, I looked like the woman next door,” Diller once said. “And it took me a while to realize that people don’t pay to see the woman next door. They can look at her for nothing.” A

This June 5, 2010 file photo shows US actress Phyllis Diller attending the 9th Annual Butterfly Ball. — AP

her bed at her home in the affluent Brentwood section of Los Angeles by her son, Perry, who had come to visit her, manager Milt Suchin said. “She had a smile on her face, as you’d expect,” Suchin told Reuters.

Her publicist, Fred Wostbrock, called her “a true pioneer” and “the first lady of stand-up comedy.” A friend and fellow comic, Joan Rivers, said on Monday that Diller cleared a path for a younger generation of female stand-up artists to trade on their jokes alone. “Phyllis Diller was the last from an era that insisted a woman had to look funny in order to be funny,” Rivers said in a message posted through Twitter. Diller created an indelible persona with her distinctive braying laugh, a cigarette holder, teased hair, outlandish costumes and a fictional lout of a husband she called Fang.

Her act consisted of rapid-fire jokes and one-liners that often spoofed social pretenses by poking fun at herself (“I went bathing nude on the beach the other day; it took me 20 minutes to get arrested”) as well as a world of invented characters.

In addition to husband Fang - “What would you call a man with one tooth that was 2 inches long?” - there was her mother-in-law Moby Dick, her skinny sister-inlaw Captain Bligh and her neighbor Mrs Clean. Diller prided herself on keeping her jokes tightly written and boasted that she held a world record for getting 12 laughs a minute. A late-bloomer by show business standards, Diller got her start at age 37, making her debut at San Francisco’s Purple Onion in 1955 as she broke into the male-dominated comedy circuit. Her first national exposure came as a contestant on Groucho Marx’s TV quiz show “You Bet Your Life.”

At that time Diller was a housewife who had raised five children, as well as a newspaper columnist, publicist and radio writer. She discovered a flair for stand-up jokes at school parent-teacher meetings and similar gatherings and decided to make comedy a career at the urging of her then-husband, Sherwood Diller. The couple divorced in 1965 and a second marriage to singer Warde Donovan ended 10 years later. Diller gradually adopted the props, zany wardrobe and stage persona that would become her trademark.

In this Sunday photo, Los Angeles Port Police pull the body of Tony Scott from the water beneath the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro, Calif. — AP/AFP photos

Traffic rolls over the Vincent Thomas Bridge in the San Pedro section of Los Angeles yesterday.

three movies. She was a frequent guest on his television shows and accompanied him on a Christmas visit to US troops in Vietnam.

Another contemporary of Diller, stand-up veteran Don Rickles, saluted her as a “great comedienne” whose “memorable teaming with Bob Hope brought female comics to the forefront.” Ellen DeGeneres tweeted that Diller was “the queen of the one-liners” and Whoopi Goldberg called her a “true original.”

Diller, who was an accomplished pianist, built a career around lampooning her looks but she also spent a fortune perfecting them. By her count, she had more than 20 plastic surgeries. Diller, who titled her 2005 autobiography “Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse,” counted her ability to laugh at herself as one of her greatest comic assets. In a 2004 interview with Reuters she said she regarded her audiences as her greatest teacher.

“I let them laugh with me, at me, which makes the audience very comfortable,” she said. “I’ve learned everything from them. You’re a comic and you’re not a success until you hear laughter.” In later years, she suffered from heart problems and fractured her pelvis in a fall but continued to work in clubs and on television well into her 80s. She provided the voice of an insect in the 1998 animated movie “A Bug’s Life, appeared in the 2005 comedy documentary “The Aristocrats” and supplied the voice of Peter’s mother in 2006-2007 episodes of the cartoon TV series “Family Guy.” Suchin said she made a guest appearance last year on the daytime drama “The Bold and the Beautiful.” Diller and her first husband had five children. — Reuters

series of TV appearances followed and Diller soon became an instantly recognized star. She made her movie debut in 1961 with a small part in Elia Kazan’s “Splendor in the Grass” and played the title role in a 1970 Broadway production of “Hello Dolly!”

Diller also developed a close friendship with the late comedy great Bob Hope and co-starred with him in

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hyllis Diller, who died on Monday at age 95, went from housewife to comedienne in the1950s, eventually becoming a star and trailblazer for other female comics. Following are some reactions to her death.

Don Rickles, in a statement - “Phyllis Diller was not only a great comedienne but her memorable teaming with Bob Hope brought female comics to the forefront. Her life was filled with goodness and she deserved the respect she received. She will be missed.”

Barbra Streisand, in a statement - “I adored her.

She was a wondrous spirit who was great to me.”

Joan Rivers, on Twitter - “I’m beyond saddened by the death of Phyllis Diller. We were friends Melissa and I had a wonderful time with her at lunch just a month ago. The only tragedy is that Phyllis Diller was the last from an era that insisted a woman had to look funny in order to be funny.”

Henry Winkler, on Twitter - “PHYLLIS DILLER: a painter on canvas and in humor of the human condition MAY REST IN PEACE making GOD laugh.”

Ellen Degeneres, on Twitter - “We lost a comedy legend today. Phyllis Diller was the queen of the oneliners. She was a pioneer.”

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cott McKenzie, whose 1967 recording of “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)” came to encapsulate the hippie movement, has died in Los Angeles at the age of 73. A message on his official website said McKenzie had been ill with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a disease affecting the nervous system, and died at home on Saturday.

“San Francisco,” written by the late John Phillips of California band The Mamas and The Papas, became a worldwide hit in 1967 and is credited with bringing thousands of young people to the city in search of flower power and free love. McKenzie said on the website that the song “was not so much about the city itself, but about an idea. It was more about the Monterey Pop Festival.”

The singer followed tens of thousands of young people by dropping out of mainstream society in the late 1960s and moving to Virginia for 10 years following his hit song. In the 1980s and 1990s he joined The Mamas and the Papas and toured with them until the group disbanded.

“Scott was in and out of hospital since 2010 after falling ill with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a disease affecting the nervous system,” his website said. “It is thought he may have had a heart attack in early August 2012. Staff did not want him to leave the hospital, but he wanted to be at home and passed away on 18th August 2012.” — Reuters

Larry King, on Twitter - “I adored Phyllis Diller she was a great guest, a terrific lady & certainly one of the funniest people ever.”

Cher, on Twitter - “Oh! God that makes me sad!

What a shame We loved her in this house! She was More amazing than i say.”

Marie Osmond, on Twitter - “What a voice. What a presence. She was an all-out comedian. We will miss Phyllis Diller.”

Andy Richter, on Twitter - “Lucky enough to work with Phyllis Diller a few times. Loved her. Sad to hear she died. A hero of mine.”

Dane Cook, on Twitter - “Phyllis Diller passed away - age 95. Legend. Inspiration. A funny human being that brought tons of laughs to this world.”Reuters

Scott McKenzie

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

lifestyle T r a v e l

On the first day of the Sparks Antiques and Collectibles Flea Market, shoppers start the hunt for bargains, antiques and one-of-a-kind items.

Bonnie Jacobson, of Teeter Totter Antiques of Willis, Kansas, made sale tags for the antiques she brought with her to sell at the Sparks Antiques and Collectibles Flea Market.

By Stacy Downs

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he Sparks Antiques and Collectibles Flea Market, in a town with a population of seven, intrigued me. Each of its twice-a-year, fourday events turns this blip on the map into a hustling, bustling center of 500 dealers and more than 75,000 customers. You can’t help but appreciate those uplifting big numbers in such a small place during these downtrodden times. Kansas City-area employees from Hallmark and scrapbook supply company K & Company talked up the heaps of rusty, crusty stuff as inspirational. Interior designers, too, sang Sparks’ praises, saying it’s a primo source for the interesting and unexpected.

“It’s definitely worth the day trip,” says decorator Sara Noble of Noble Designs in Olathe, who searches for treasures for clients and her own home.

Among Noble’s best finds was a wooden bed frame with a headboard and footboard for $50.

Five times over the past decade, Noble has journeyed to Sparks, 24 miles north of Atchison, Kan, and 23 miles west of St Joseph, Mo. The drive is a pastoral one of green and brown fields and valleys

Antique pieces of Croesus glassware for sale. that even during achingly dry, hot days feels like an ocean of possibilities.

So this year the pirate in my soul decided it was high time to set sail in a sport-utility vehicle. Would Sparks mark the spot for buried treasure? I was willing to dig. Brothers Gary and Tom Winters created the flea market in Sparks 30 years ago because the town was on the route to other antiques shows during the spring and on Labor Day weekend. Its 11 miles south of White Cloud, Kan., where native “Wolf River Bob” Breeze, who acted in Hollywood Westerns, helped found a flea market.

The Winterses borrowed the idea of street performers from Silver Dollar City, the Branson amusement park, to turn the Sparks flea market into an attraction. Slowly, word got out. Sparks grew into the dominant flea market in the area because it lasts longer and is on the beaten path.

Clowning and other street performances have gone away, but bits of Branson flavor linger, including folksy “no parkin” signs and hand-painted vacant houses converted into vendor storefronts, most noticeably the “Sparks Hotel. Full Up.” Photographer Tammy Ljungblad and I went there in May, arriving on a Thursday, a day that would be less crowded than weekends. Most important, good stuff just might still be around.

Unique and vintage finds at the Sparks Antiques and Collectibles Flea Market last May include a mounted bear head, pink pottery and a wooden decoy.

Letters from an old Scrabble game.

Prepping for “picking”-the act of searching through shelves, boxes, rows and mountains of stuff to find gems-is crucial. Besides toting a bottle of water and a large market bag or cart, one should wear comfy shoes, sunscreen, sunglasses and a hat.

And, of course, carry cash. Hand sanitizer is also a good idea.

“You’re gonna get dirty,” says Fancy Smith, owner of Cactus Creek home decor store in Weston and a Sparks shopping veteran. Smith also is co-host of the radio show “Junk in My Trunk” and was recently a contestant on the History Channel’s new reality show “Picked Off.” One of Smith’s favorite Sparks/ White Cloud finds-one of only a handful of things she won’t sell-is a heart-shaped piece of wood decorated with daisies and three steer horns.

Smith likes to take her three sons picking with her, including trips to Sparks. They have fun. Her 9year-old, Wyatt, collects vintage license plates. “Not only is it a cheap, enjoyable family activity, kids can be awesome help,” Smith says. Wyatt found a cowhide purse when he was 3. His mom loved it.

“Being low to the ground has its definite benefits,” she says. Smith also sells her picks at Restoration Emporium in Kansas City’s West Bottoms. Owner Chrysalyn Huff describes the vibe of the Sparks flea market as “vintage heaven-y.” She takes a trailer up to Sparks because it’s one of the three largest shopping trips of the year for her store. She likes the upcoming Labor Day weekend market best because vendors have had all summer to round up stuff from attics, basements and barns.

“Keep in mind Sparks is a true old-school flea market,” Huff says. “This is where prices are much lower than other shows and where you find a lot of pre-project items that can be repurposed with paint and some imagination.” Translation: junk. And right now, junk is the hot thing.

Junk is a symbol of hope. For the sellers of unwanted figurines and charmingly chipped picture frames, there’s the golden opportunity of profit. They’re usually able to sell an object for at least three times more than they paid for it at a garage or estate sale.

And buyers might find not just bargains, but an item that makes their homes different from anyone else’s. It’s a chance to shine a little. Good junk is getting harder to find. The Internet and popular shows like “American Pickers” on the History Channel have made people savvier about just what they’re sitting on. Because of this challenge and the current state of the economy, sellers are a little less willing to negotiate prices unless it’s a largeticket item or you’re buying lots of junk.

Here’s the current mantramaking the rounds on social media: I Hunt It / I Buy It / I Load It / I Haul It / I Unload It / I Wash It / I Scrub It / I Paint It / I Fix It / I Price It / I Display It / I Pay Taxes / I Pay Rent / Now ¶ How can you ask me to take any less?

It was raining that early morning in May when I got my first taste of Sparks. Much of the merchandise was protected under tarps and hidden under blankets. Still, the wet weather didn’t keep away shoppers, who were carrying bags and pulling little red wagons.

Ljungblad already knew the lay of the land.

She’d made the trip last year with her sister, who sells antiques in Colorado. Her sister made the trip back west with a full truck. Ljungblad and I didn’t divide and conquer the market much because cellphone reception is spotty at best in Sparks.

Together we walked through a pole barn packed with dozens of vendors selling hurricane lamps, old paperbacks and tableware, the ubiquitous stuff of many antique malls. My treasure wasn’t there. We explored the Sparks Hotel, where I picked up but put back a vintage typewriter. I already have a few of models of the hot hipster collectible.

The junk jackpot was across the street, an old house packed floor to ceiling with architectural remnants such as gates, fence posts and even a kitchen sink. Maybe my treasure was hidden among the rubble? No. We took an early lunch break. If you’re looking for fresh gourmet salad greens, vegetables and fruit, you need to pack at home. On the menu is typical fair fare, including freshly squeezed lemonade, Italian sausages, kettle corn and funnel cakes.

We were lured by the aroma of cast-iron-cooked fruit cobblers. Near much of the food is a tall, treehouse-type tower that flea market officials can climb to make announcements using a PA system.

The seven Sparks residents either help with the flea market or make themselves scarce.

“It’s really quiet and nice the rest of the year,” says Debbie Davis, who has lived 30 years in Sparks with her husband, Roy, who was born here. He rents space to vendors. “All there is to the town is just a handful of houses. During the flea market, cars are lined up and down the highway.” The rain and gearing up for the larger weekend crowds meant a busy time for main organizer Ray Tackett, who lives in Troy, Kan., close to Sparks.

“Year-round I hear from someone about the flea

market every day through calls and emails,” he says. “Closer to the flea market, they ask what the weather is going to be like. They ask what we’re going to have for sale. I never know what we’re going to have. That’s up to the vendors.”

In May, outdoor vendors sold red, yellow, green and blue painted wooden footstools from China.

New and old typography-letters and numbers from board games and store signs-filled bins and buckets; large pieces leaned against buildings.

“Mantiques” were frequently seen: antlers, a bear’s head and wooden tackle boxes with chic, wellworn patina.

Vendors selling a variety of items, including vintage cameras, line the main street for the White Cloud Flea market in White Cloud, Kansas. — MCT photos

And along a sideline of crowded booths, I unearthed my treasure. A Greenwood, Mo, craftsman fashions farmhouse tables out of salvaged wood. Long ones with custom features. For between $400 and $500. But it wasn’t a piece I could cram into Ljungblad’s SUV. So I made the hour-and-a half-long trek home empty-handed except for the contact information for the farmhouse table craftsman. I think of it as a treasure map of hope.—MCT

If you go Sparks Antiques and Collectibles Flea Market When: Aug 30-31 and Sept 1-2. Booths open between 7 and 8 am and close by 6 pm Where: North Kansas 7 and 240th Road in Sparks, Kan. Admission: Free Parking: Free on the 4-acre parking lot controlled by the flea market.

Don’t miss: White Cloud, 11 miles north of Sparks. It contains a flea market with finer antiques and a lookout point for the Midwest’s “Four Corners”: Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa.-MCT

Longtime vendor Betty Oestmann, of Tecumseh, Nebraska, sets up shop in the ‘Sparks Hotel’ at the Sparks Antiques and Collectibles Flea Market last May.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

lifestyle F a s h i o n

Temi Famodu says, “I don’t usually wear hats, because I’m scared that they won’t look good with my curly hair, but I was surprised that this one looked OK.”

Alix Hennen dons a hat from a far more accessible collection featuring Swanepoel’s signature flair available in Target stores, priced at $ 20.

Sarah Edwards dons a hat from a far more accessible collection featuring Swanepoel’s signature flair available in Target stores, priced at $ 20.

Nikki Goergen dons a hat from a far more accessible collection featuring Swanepoel’s signature flair available in Target stores, priced at $20.—MCT photos

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applying things to it, to make it more individual. It’s one of my trademarks.

A: For me personally, it’s a law of contrasts. Say you have a rounder face; I feel you’re better off with a squarish shape. If you have an upturned nose, you should wear a downward brim. The hat should cancel out your features.

You should wear a hat with carelessness in a way. You should wear it in the house and wear it to the deli. Then, if you feel more comfortable, wear it out. Hats are so great because you hide behind them, but they’re also a conversation piece.

his time of year, hats are a practical affair, but that doesn’t mean they can’t also be stylish. The Albertus Swanepoel for Target collection will keep your head warm and chic. The critically acclaimed milliner started his career as a fashion designer in his native South Africa. After coming to the United States, he worked as a glove designer and attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Now his custom collaborations are showing up on the runways of Carolina Herrera, Marc Jacobs, Proenza Schouler and Tommy Hilfiger.

A far more accessible collection featuring Swanepoel’s signature flair is in Target stores, priced at $20. “They’re just so visually appealing and wearable,” said Trish Adams, Target’s senior vice president of apparel and accessories, citing the faux furs and colors. “It’s an opportunity to buy an accessory that makes an outfit current.” Swanepoel spoke to us from his studio in New York.

Q: What was the inspiration behind this collection?

A: Being from South Africa, I try to keep some of my heritage alive with some leopard-print hats, oversized flowers and feathers. There’s a hat for every girl to wear, so there’s a broad spectrum: fedoras, cloches and floppys.

Abby VanVleet says, ‘This hat reminds me of one that my grandmother brought me from Russia. The style reminds me of my heritage. As a student living in Chicago, it is necessary I find a hat that is practical for the brutal winter, yet in vogue.’

Q: I loved to see the attention to detail, like the linings.

A: When you turn the hat over, you have this fun sort of thing inside. I like the unexpectedness of a hat. I like over-

Q: What’s your style?

A: For me, it’s really important that hats are recognizable in shape. When you look at a hat, it has to remind you of something your father or mother wore. What I did for Target was take shapes people can relate to, update them and make them more modern. People must be stricken by a hat.

It’s personal because it’s so close to your face. It’s like a perfume, a little bit-you really have to bond with your hat.

Q: What are current trends?

A: I think there’s definitely a trend toward a slightly wider brim. There’s a ‘70s feel. In the Target collection, there are a few hats with slightly wider brims, so there’s more to cover up; it keeps you warm. I feel that there’s a thing coming next year with the (Elsa) Schiaparelli exhibit (at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute) with surrealistic hats, influenced by Salvador Dali.

Q: Any tips on matching them to outerwear?

A: For me, these hats go with everything. I say this all the time: Christian LaCroix is one of my favorite designers, and he said, “A hat is a dot on an I.” It’s an exclamation mark that finishes off an outfit. — MCT

Q: Have you been to Minnesota?

A: Yes! I went to Minneapolis a few times during my collaboration with Target. I didn’t see major snow, but because I’m from South Africa and even though I’ve been here 22 years, I get super excited about snow.

Q: What are your tips for finding the perfect hat?

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arine Roitfeld says Karl Lagerfeld is like “a rock star”. The former French vogue editor - who was at the helm of the respected fashion publication for over 10 years - is astonished by the level of fame the esteemed designer has achieved and thinks he gets recognized as much as A-list actors and musicians. Carine - who has styled the last two seasons’ Chanel campaigns for Karl - said: “Lagerfeld always calls me Mme Roitfeld, never Carine.

“It’s funny; he’s like a rock star now. You go on the street with him and it’s like being with J-Lo.” Despite her own “rock and roll” appearance, Carine insists her behavior is far from glamorous and she will always put her family first. She added in an interview with the Daily Telegraph newspaper: “I look a bit rock and roll because of my black eyes, my black clothes and because I am quite skinny. “But I have always been more of a mummy than an editor. I speak to my children every day - we are a very compact family. For me, they are the most important and they know that.”— Bang Showbiz

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Carine Roitfeld

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small South Korean bar has been ordered to pay damages to France-based fashion house Chanel for using its name, a court spokesman said yesterday. The Seoul Central District Court ordered the Chanel Business Club located in the southern suburbs of Seoul to pay 10 million won ($8,800) in compensation, he said. The French firm claimed the bar’s years-long use of “Chanel” in signs and leaflets for its business had damaged “the distinctiveness and fame” of its registered trademarks.

It said the bar had damaged Chanel’s image by using its trademarks for services seen as negative. The judgment was made after the bar owner failed to reply within a legal deadline of 30 days following official notification of the lawsuit. In a similar case, the Daejeon High Court in 2010 ruled that a karaoke bar’s use of the name Burberry violated the rights of the British luxury brand, Yonhap news agency reported.—AFP

entrepoint the popular shopping destination in Kuwait would like to greet all its patrons on the festive occasion of Eid Al-Fitr. An exciting new collection is now available in stores for you to check out and promises to completely bowl you over with a wide variety of styles to choose from.

At “Juniors”, your little ones can too sparkle and shine with the new Eid collection at Centrepoint. An entirely new range of shimmering festive wear that adds a touch of opulence is surely set to mesmerize your senses.

Juniors have created a colorful selection of dresses for girls with bold stripes and dots, as well as floral designs and eye-catching motifs to suit the latest fashion trends. For boys, a fresh range of hip t-shirts and checked shorts are in store.

Perfect for the summer and designed for comfort, the clothes are in cool cottons. The girls have an added treat with an eclectic range of accessories including hoop earrings, pearl bracelets, metallic bangles, and cute key chains to adorn their bags. Juniors are delighted to be a beacon of happiness, with its season-perfect collection of clothes and accessories for children. From petite occasion wear to smart casuals, the entire range showcases an endless variety of the latest offering for your little one.

Splash the high street fashion power house brand at Centrepoint is all set to woo its cus-

tomer with an exclusive dazzling and crystal embellished collection for this Eid; keeping in mind that one would always like to add a touch of gleam to their wardrobe staples. The compilation of 27 different styles are available under one of the most popular brands 2Xtream, Ladies Youth and special collection Eid scarf’s under ladies accessories .

Available in variety of bold colors’ golden, red, hot pink and silver the collection also features embellished tops and quirky designs.

These embellished pieces will be up for grasp; to add in your wardrobe staple, so make a dash to your nearest store and enjoy the fun and festivities of this wonderful season.

Shoe Mart has introduced a unique collection this season. The collection comes with great shoes coupled with matching clutches and accessories. Stilettos and sandals enclosed in elegant red and pretty pink with statement brooches and stones to leopard print peep toes rings out style and sensuality for this festive season.

To compliment the festive season, one should look out for the new must-have fashion accessories, hand bag collections of gorgeous styles and colors. Completely new to Lifestyle, the NYX Nail polish collection in 43 delicious shades comes in almost every imaginable color is a must- have.

Also enjoy the scent of your favorite fragrance oil without worrying about burning

candles with lifestyle new electric aroma diffuser (IRIS) with its special features like smoothing and healthy air with aromatic mist, environmental friendly and auto shut off function. So ride on to any Centrepoint stores and adorn yourself for Eid.

Pioneering comedienne Phyllis Diller dies at age 95

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

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Palestinian children enjoy a ride in a park on the second day of Eid Al-Fitr, marking the end of Islam’s fasting holy month of Ramadan, in Gaza City on August 20, 2012. — AFP

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In this photo taken Tuesday, June 12, 2012, Dylan Brown, (left), founder of The Yard Entertainment, and Philip Atwell, owner of Geronimo Films, pose with models of the Tupac Shakur hologram at the Subtractive Studio in Santa Monica, Calif. — AP photo

A video image of the Tupac Shakur hologram is displayed on a computer monitor.

Video images of the Tupac Shakur hologram are displayed on a computer monitor.

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ll-star action romp “The Expendables 2” opened at the top of the North American box office, easily dethroning another sequel, “The Bourne Legacy,” industry figures showed Monday. “Expendables 2”, which stars Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jet Li as mercenaries, raked in $28.6 million since its debut on Friday, according to movie tracker Exhibitor Relations. “ The Bourne Legacy ”-starring Jeremy Renner as a secret agent threatened by his employers in the latest installment of the popular series that had starred Matt Damon as Jason Bourne-took in $17.1 million for second place. That kept it ahead of another new

hen Tupac Shakur rose from the stage in the California desert earlier this year, it was not only a jaw-dropping resurrection, but also the beginning of a new form of live entertainment.

“Come with me,” the digital Shakur called out, not just to tens of thousands of screaming fans but seemingly to other artists. Follow, they will. Elvis Presley’s estate announced it has authorized holograms of the King of Rock, Marilyn Monroe’s estate has expressed interest and there’s no shortage of other beloved stars whose fans would die to see them perform again.

Advances in digital artistry make it all possible, presenting celebrity estates with new commercial and creative opportunities, but also some ethical quandaries. “I think we’ve scratched the surface with Tupac,” said Dylan Brown, a filmmaker who along with director Philip Atwell and effects studio Digital Domain helped bring the Shakur hologram to life. “If it’s done tastefully, like Tupac was done tastefully, I think it could be a wonderful form of entertainment.”

Brown, owner of The Yard Entertainment, and Atwell, owner of Geronimo Films, had each toyed with the idea of using holograms in concerts for a decade, but the technology wasn’t there. Brown, who works closely with Snoop Dogg and Atwell, who collaborates with Dr Dre, knew that once they chose Shakur for the holographic debut, it had to be more than just a technological marvel.

“We wanted to be really respectful of the family foremost,” said Atwell. “We just wanted to do something that wasn’t in bad taste.” Reaction to the Shakur hologram was huge, with the performance garnering 15 million YouTube hits within 48 hours and winning a top award at the creative marketing gathering Cannes Lions. “You start to open up a whole new universe of legal questions,” said Ed Ulbrich, Chief Creative Officer of Digital Domain, which is also working on the Presley holograms. “As such, we have no intentions of doing anything other than being utterly respectful of these legends and icons.”

Because it’s two-dimensional, the Shakur performer isn’t a true hologram, which, by definition, is a 3-D image (Ulbrich notes the technology isn’t quite there for that). But it’s a vivid digital creation that audiences are far more accustomed to seeing in movies - except there is no screen. Brown and Atwell say part of its challenge was integrating Shakur’s performance into the larger show featuring Snoop Dogg, Dr Dre and others.

release, “ParaNorman,” an animated movie about a boy who can speak with the dead, which raked in $14.1 million in ticket sales.

Political spoof “The Campaign,” starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis, fell to fourth place, with box office receipts of $13.1 million.

“Sparkle”-a Motown-style musical set in the 1960s, featuring the late Whitney Houston in her final film appearance-opened in fifth place, with $11.6 million.

“The Dark Knight Rises,” the latest Batman film, slipped to sixth place, earning $11 million. The final installment in the trilogy directed by Christopher Nolan has so far raked in a total of $410 million. Quirky fantasy-comedy “The Odd Life of Timothy Green” debuted in

he Recording Academy is moving its annual live Grammy Awards nominations concert special to Music City. The show will air Dec 5 live on CBS from Bridgestone Arena. This is the fifth time The Recording Academy has held “The Grammy Nominations Concert Live,” but the first outside Los Angeles. “There’s probably no city more renowned as a music center in America and probably the world than Nashville, Tennessee.” said Neil Portnow, president/CEO of The Recording Academy. “We have had a great experience with the city of Nashville as an organization.”

Portnow said he likes his staff to examine how the Grammys are presented from time to time. That’s what led to The Recording Academy’s nominations out of a hotel ballroom and onto the concert stage, and taking a year in Nashville seemed like a logical next step. “It made sense to me that we also review the location and the venues and just the whole flavor of it,” he said. The Recording Academy will reveal nominees in several categories for the 55th annual Grammy Awards, to be held Feb 10 in Los Angeles, during the hour-long special that will feature a handful of performances by former Grammy winners and nominees.

Shakur’s entry and exit had to be carefully planned to fit into the show, with the creators opting to have his image burst apart into a cloud of gold specks. Brown and Atwell said the dissolve seemed most appropriate. “He has a mystique and that aura that kind of transcends death even,” Brown said.

Stars wield extensive control over how their names, voices and images are used after they die through likeness, trademark and copyright protections, and now holograms offer them yet another consideration. Before digital filmmaking, attorney Laura Zwicker said the question for her clients boiled down to “Could you use my photograph?” Now, they have to consider whether they’ll be returned to the big screen, inserted in commercials or put back on stage, said Zwicker a strategic wealth planner in the Los Angeles office of the firm Greenberg Glusker.

Celebrity likeness rights vary around the country, with stars’ estates in California enjoying 70 years of protection. Indiana offers 100 years and 16 other states have laws protecting celebrities’ likenesses, said Jeremiah Reynolds, an attorney with the firm Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump and Aldisert. The firm handles numerous intellectual property issues, including those related to Michael Jackson’s estate.

While holograms are likely covered by existing laws, potential legal challenges will likely focus on whether the performance is protected by the First Amendment. “You get into very subjective areas about what is artistic,” Reynolds said.

Marilyn Monroe’s estate threatened legal action earlier this year against a company claiming it was working on a digital show using the model-actress’ likeness. The technology for holograms or other digital performances are intriguing, the estate’s handlers at Authentic Brands say, but they would only partner with people who could make a top-notch product.

Brown and Atwell said they felt enormous pressure to make sure the Shakur performance was worthy of being an introduction to a new form of live entertainment. “I also hope that the people who do follow us do it with the same care and the same sense of dedication because I would hate to see a bad version of Marilyn Monroe, a bad version of Elvis up there,” Brown said.

Brown and Atwell are proud that Shakur is leading the hologram revolution. “We’re part of the hip hop generation,” Brown said. “It shows the growth of that culture, of that business and it says a lot about what

seventh place at $10.8 million. Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones’s romantic comedy “Hope Springs,” about a married couple trying to get back their spark, was in eighth place at $9.1 million. Rounding out the top 10 were teen comedy “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days” ($3.8 million) and science-fiction action remake “Total Recall” ($3.5 million). — AFP

Nashville Mayor Karl Dean called the event “a perfect fit” in a Tuesday news release, and Portnow acknowledged Nashville’s vigorous efforts to lure such a marquee event to the city helped land the show. Nashville has a long history with the Grammys. It is home to one of The Recording Academy’s oldest and most successful chapters. Grammy winners of all stripes - from Taylor Swift and Lady Antebellum to The Black Keys and Kings of Leon among scores more - call the city home.

And although the event has likely been forgotten by most, the Grammys were once held in Nashville. Andy Williams hosted the 1973 awards from the Tennessee Theatre. In the 21st century, city leaders are building a new convention center next to the arena and would like another shot at the big event. Portnow said he’s open to the idea of moving the show from Los Angeles where it has been held since a 2003 trip to Madison Square Garden in New York City.—AP

we’ve dedicated part of our lives to.” “There was a time, 15 years ago, 20 years ago, when people were waiting for hip hop to disappear,” he said. “Now not only is hip hop here to stay, even if you die we’ll bring you back.” — AP

A video image of the Tupac Shakur hologram is displayed on a computer monitor at the Subtractive Studio.

Indian Bollywood film actress Dia Mirza showcases jewellery designer Vijay Golecha’s creations as she walks the ramp during the second day of India International Jewellery Week 2012 (IIJW) in Mumbai on August 20, 2012. — AFP